Chapter 111 Paper Town

At the edge of the copy, a large group of paper beasts the size of a truck gathered nearby. They greedily licked the solution on the grass stems, and their huge bodies pressed against each other. Although there was friction and dissatisfaction, they did not really fight.

This gave Qiao Song and others who were hiding in the bushes the illusion that they were observing ferocious animals in the wild.

It is really unscientific that a group of hungry and irritable guys not only did not conflict with each other, but instead quickly divided up the food in the territory.

This usually only happens among animals of the same group, or a group dominated by a leader.

Qiao Song silently observed the beasts' buffet. As his thoughts raced, he felt his sleeve being gently pulled. The crispy college student had a pale face and pointed behind the paper beasts as if he had seen a ghost.

Xiao Wang's mouth shape and expression were very exaggerated, and he made a circle with his fingers: a big guy is coming.

Qiao Song became more alert. The junction was a few hundred meters away, and soon an oppressive figure appeared - it was indeed of an astonishing size.

He has a bull's head, a human body, blue-gray skin, only whites in his eyes, and is more than ten meters tall. He holds a peculiarly shaped axe in his hand. He is a real giant.

When it appeared, all the paper beasts retreated.

The Bull-Headed Giant blew out a breath of hot air from his nose, and all the paper beasts stopped eating in an instant, sniffing the smell nearby reluctantly, while the Bull-Headed Giant took an axe and started weeding, swallowing the part that was splashed with nutrient solution in big gulps.

Qiao Song suddenly felt that something was not good. This guy looked difficult to deal with. No wonder the low-level paper beasts were so united. It turned out that there were other threats. They knew that fighting would waste too much time, so they raced against time and ate as much as they could. Now, when the minotaur monster came, no one could eat.

Qiao Song thought for a moment, but before he could give any instructions, he felt two shivering skeletons squeezed behind him.

Brother Fish Killer was in front, and the fragile college student was behind. Jiang Yi had already carried Xiao Wang on his back. This was the signal they had agreed upon before. When encountering extremely serious danger, safety should be the top priority and they should retreat directly.

Xiao Wang made a hushing gesture. His eyelids were twitching violently and he was using his skills to determine which road was suitable to run, when he saw Qiao Song patting his hands.

Qiao Song: Don’t worry, I can handle it.

Qiao Song gestured, pointing at himself first: I'll go and take a look, and then continue according to the plan.

Then he pointed two fingers at the two of them and made a gesture for quick running: You run first.

Seeing that the two men were a little slow but nodded to show that they understood what she meant, Qiao Song then took out a new tube of nutrient solution.

Since this thing worked, she tested it more at once.

As Jiang Yi and Xiao Wang looked at the warrior, she took a big step forward, crawled out of the half-person-deep grass, and rushed out directly to pick up her sledgehammer.

"It's time for dinner, everyone - let's go -" The hammer hit two small bottles filled with solution one after another. The delicious solution instantly fell into the herd like flowers scattered from the sky.

When many paper beasts were still in a daze, a strong fragrance spread to their companions next to them. Their companions were already being scolded by the giant minotaur and were trying to squeeze out. At this time, everyone smelled fragrant, until someone bit the butt of an unlucky guy first, and he swung the porcupine quills on his back and let out an angry roar.

The beast herd instantly became panicked. During the friction, some paper beasts kept attacking and biting their companions. At a certain moment, the chaos intensified, and the beast nature that had been suppressed suddenly erupted, and they all fought each other.

By this time, Qiao Song had already hidden himself in the bushes, and even his shadow could no longer be seen.

At this time, who cares about such tiny humans? The monsters all pointed their teeth at the paper beasts next to them.

But this is only for those guys who have no brains.

The Minotaur, who was holding an axe in his hand and much taller than the other paper beasts, seemed to see through everything. A puff of white air instantly came out of his nose, and the sharp axe was thrown out almost instantly, heading straight for the culprit.

But Qiao Song was as agile as a monkey. He leaped towards the edge of the meadow as if he had eyes on his back. After a few rolls, he instantly disappeared into the grove.

When he left, he did not forget to throw another tube of nutrient solution behind him, making the water more and more turbid.

Most of this was thrown on the minotaur.

The latter was obviously enraged. He let out a long roar towards the sky and pulled out the axe that was stuck in the ground.

But the direction that Qiao Song fled was already inside the town. The Minotaur subconsciously glanced in the direction of the boundary marker, and seemed to be still hesitating whether to chase him. Suddenly, a blind guy bit its heel.

These low-level paper beasts that had eaten the nutrient solution could easily get angry. The minotaur noticed that its deterrent power had decreased, and immediately became furious. He didn't care that it was not dark yet, and grabbed an axe to chase Qiao Song.

Boom, boom, boom——

The sound of the giant running was very obvious. Qiao Song did not dare to look back while running in the grove. Jiang Yi and Xiao Wang had already run in this direction, but they walked close to the bamboo forest.

"Get ready! Here we come!"

Qiao Song shouted loudly.

In the distance, the fish killer who was carrying the college student on his back to escape immediately chopped off a bamboo trap that was tied with ropes in advance.

The tall bamboos were tied together with a large amount of wood mixed with other props, bent at the waist and held tight by ropes, sticking to the ground. This was what they had prepared in advance when they decided to explore the edge area.

Qiao Song went to change the nutrient solution, while Jiang Yi and the other man set up a trap.

Now that the rope was cut, he was ejected instantly.

Before making the trap, the large paper beast they had imagined was the same one they had encountered last night, but the minotaur in front of them was obviously a little too tall, and the bamboos bounced up instantly and only hit its chin.

The sharp axe, with an extremely angry roar, directly split the bamboo trap on the face.

Qiao Song looked back and saw only a large number of scattered bamboo fragments.

This guy is not easy to deal with.

Fortunately, they are not here to fight head-on today. They mainly want to test the waters. What can be seen now is that there are levels among paper beasts, and those in higher positions have a certain degree of suppression on those in lower positions.

And those in higher positions are obviously wiser.

When Qiao Song looked back again, he found that the monster holding the axe had learned to observe in the bamboo forest in advance, and it would actively avoid places where traps were hidden.

Wow, it’s so hard to fool you.

This bamboo forest is no different from the bamboo in reality, and is only about ten to twenty meters tall. However, the edge of the forest is where the jade-bone bamboo is produced, where they collect raw materials every day.

For some reason, those jade bamboos that were about the same height as sugarcanes aroused great interest in this bull-headed monster. It kept looking over there. Seeing that the monster's interest in chasing him was gradually decreasing, Qiao Song simply took out a cut bamboo from his net bag and quickly sprinkled a whole bottle of nutrient solution on it.

"Hey! Look over here!"

She ran and swung the hammer, hitting the Minotaur directly. The latter was obviously annoyed and tried to chase her with an axe. The advantage of her large size was immediately reflected. For every two steps the Minotaur took, Qiao Song had to run more than ten.

The bamboo forest at the back had been cut down in large areas, and the fragrance in the air caused other movements nearby. It seemed that there were other paper beasts, and after dividing up the solution on the spot, they boldly followed in.

This is the effect Qiao Song wanted, but in the original plan, they didn’t expect to attract such a big monster.

"The cows are coming! The water is coming!!!"

As soon as Qiao Song's voice was heard, a light rain began to fall from the sky.

To be precise, it was not rain, but the splash of water from the water pipe.

【Fish Killing Set 2: Flushing the Water Pipe】

[Every time you kill a fish, there will be blood, internal organs and fish scales everywhere. At this time, you need a strong water pipe to help you wash the scene. What, you said you didn’t kill a fish? That’s not impossible. ]

Jiang Yi had already placed one end of the water pipe to the lake that Qiao Song had told him about. Although he was wondering why a sign saying "Water ghosts are rampant, please do not enter the water" was put up next to it overnight, he listened to Qiao Song very much. After getting the signal, he used his skills in minutes to cool down the group of paper beasts.

When Qiao Song first heard the description of this skill, she thought it was used to clean up crime scenes, but looking at the amount of water, it was just as she expected, it could be used directly to create an artificial water curtain.

The giant valve pipe in Jiang Yi's hand in the distance is so huge that people would believe it is a fire-fighting equipment, let alone a water pipe. It is said that this is the result of his multiple skill upgrades.

The effect was indeed gratifying. At this time, in the bamboo forest that was soaked by water, the howling of paper beasts could be heard one after another.

The largest minotaur also took a few steps back in disgust. It held an axe above its head with one hand to block the rain, but its entire body was made of paper, even the axe and arms were no exception, and this lake water was particularly special.

This was the inspiration Qiao Song got last night when he was almost dragged ashore by a paper beast under the water.

Sure enough, the two idiots in the strategy group tried it before entering the dungeon. Although fire didn't work, water was surprisingly useful.

Compared to the paper beasts howling in the bamboo forest, Qiao Song found that the guy with bull horns did not chase her. Instead, he looked at her deeply, and finally shook his wet arms and axe with some disgust, and then walked out of the village.

"Leaving now?"

Qiao Song was ready to fight for a while, but Xiao Wang's voice came from the communication channel: "Sister Song, we caught one in the trap over here, and it's trying to escape!"

After the minotaur went back home, the guys that followed it out of the bamboo forest also fled out of the village. However, Qiao Song and the others had set up many traps in the bamboo forest. Although the minotaur could use an axe to chop the oncoming bamboo, the other monsters could not.

The water on Jiang Yi's side would not stop for a while, so he had to ensure that the monsters in the bamboo forest were slowly expelled. When Qiao Song went over with a chainsaw, he swept the scene before finding the fragile college student on a tree.

Xiao Wang was hugging a tree. Fortunately, they were almost out of the bamboo forest and connected with the woods. Otherwise, with his skills, he might not be able to climb up the bamboo.

"It's in the back, Sister Song, be careful. This seems to be the pig that attacked us on the first day."

There was a wolf skeleton on the porcupine's back, which looked like it was left over from a previous battle.

The porcupine was lying at the bottom of the pit. It had been pierced by bamboo and splashed with lake water. It looked completely lifeless.

When Qiao Song came over, although the pig looked half-dead, she did not hesitate to chop its head with the electric saw. The porcupine struggled instantly with great strength, and quickly opened its bloody mouth and attacked backwards, not like a dying pig at all.

Qiao Song was well prepared and dodged quickly, but he showed no mercy and pressed the chainsaw down hard, determined to cut off the huge pig's head.

Xiao Wang also exclaimed on the top of the tree and directly asked Brother Jiang to sprinkle more water over there.

"Brother Jiang, help me! This is the guy who broke your ribs last time!"

The hatred of broken bones cannot be forgotten! The rain comes before the people arrive.

The rain here suddenly became much heavier.

With the help of rain, Qiao Song finally cut off the pig's head completely. Only then did she realize that the upright spikes on the pig's back were almost turning into a snake's head, but were gradually weakened by the rain.

After the paper beast died completely, the thorns softened, ending the process of transformation into a snake.

She remembered that the three-headed dog she fought in the studio yesterday was just a dog with three heads, while the intermediate paper beast controlled by the boy and girl at the back had already taken the form of a composite animal.

It's like putting the characteristics of several different animals on the same paper beast.

It's weird.

Today's harvest was gratifying, but unlike yesterday, this pig was too big. After Jiang Yi rushed over from the lake, he finally decided to give the pig back to Qiao Song.

"My storage items can't hold all the space anyway, so why don't you just compensate us with some soul coins?"

Jiang Yi knew very well that even if he had the skills of using a water pipe and a fish-killing knife, it would be difficult for him and the fragile college student to take down the porcupine, not to mention the bull-headed monster that unexpectedly appeared today.

And Qiao Song said that he would catch another one for them if he had the chance.

In the end, the wolf on the porcupine's back belonged to Jiang Yi and the others, and their storage items could hold it.

Qiao Song thought for a moment and said, "The size of a porcupine may be close to that of an intermediate paper beast. I can't estimate its price at the moment. I'll ask the owner when I get back to where I'm staying and I'll transfer the money to you."

Jiang Yi and the other person said OK.

This time, Qiao Song did not immediately open the net bag to catch the porcupine. Instead, he asked curiously, "Jiang Yi, can your knife cut through this layer of pig skin?"

She was curious about the internal structure of the paper beast.

A chainsaw is too destructive and not as precise, while a knife is easier to control.

"Okay, I'll try."

Jiang Yi first walked around the pig. Because of his knife skills, he always thought about cutting something similar to fish.

As Xiao Wang said before, the thorns on the pig's back almost turned into a snake. Who knows, this pig may also have fish species characteristics?

Qiao Song nodded. This guy is quite good at making use of his strengths.

Xiao Wang was sharp-eyed. After coming down from the tree, he pointed out a certain spot on the pig's back.

Soon, Jiang Yi said in surprise: "Hey, it really exists!"

If you don't look carefully, you might think it's injured and whitened pig skin. Only when you look closely can you realize that it looks like fish scales.

"After sprinkling water, I looked at it from the tree and saw reflections. They turned out to be real fish scales." Xiao Wang touched his head and was a little surprised.

Jiang Yi was already using a fish-killing knife, starting from the direction of the fish scales.

He had just tried it in a few other locations, and the pig skin was very thick, and the cut on the neck that Song Qiao cut with an electric saw was very smooth, but the cross-section was strange.

Except for a dot in the middle which can be guessed to be a bone, the rest of the area is all red meat.

It looks like the standard cross-section of a ham drawn in cartoons, with a bone surrounded by a circle of meat.

These large paper beasts do look like man-made paper monsters. Not only are they intimidating on the outside, but the design inside is not sophisticated at all.

Qiao Song had previously asked Fan Xi if she could visit the kitchen, and the latter told her that players were not allowed to enter any other parts of the building except the living area and classroom.

Since there was no way to see the owner of the house deal with the paper beast, I had to try it myself.

"Hiss, what the hell is this?"

Jiang Yi used a knife to cut an arm-wide T-shaped incision on the pig skin, reached in and dug around for a long time, and finally pulled out something that looked like a fish blister.

Qiao Song and Xiao Wang took a closer look. After a few seconds, the college student stepped back, holding his nose. Finally, he bent over and held his legs to retch: "What's that smell?"

Jiang Yi looked at Qiao Song who had no reaction and silently gave him a thumbs up.

"I've worked at many fresh food stalls, and I can't stand the smell either. It feels like something that has been dead for many days, but you have a good endurance."

Qiao Song reached in and fished around without changing his expression: "Maybe I was in the same business with you before?"

Jiang Yi was immediately confused by her and asked, "Have you ever worked at a fish stall during the summer vacation?"

After all, Xiao Wang had been interviewed before, but was rejected because of his clumsy hands and feet.

Qiao Song seemed to be much more skillful. She imitated Jiang Yi's technique and also searched inside the porcupine's belly.

In fact, the feeling was not like that of an animal, but more like a bunch of rotten paper scraps mixed together. She quickly pulled out a large white callus, similar to the one on Jiang Yi's hand.

The one in Jiang Yi's hand can be cut directly with a fish knife, but Qiao Song's cannot.

He poured out the contents of the small bag that looked like fish bubbles. Strangely, it was not digested food, but a bunch of personal belongings.

A book, a pair of shoes, even a few pieces of chocolate, a bright fish head sticker, and a map that is no longer legible.

The map was completely useless, as all the paper on it was shredded, but the other things were still intact.

Qiao Song opened the book and took a look. It turned out to be a shopping mall navigation manual.

"Ah, this is a manual for the blind box mall."

Jiang Yi put down the shoes in his hand, and Xiao Wang, who was checking the production date of the chocolate next to him, also turned his head and said, "It's true, Sister Song, if you flip back, you should be able to see the blind box catalog. Every player who has been to the mall has such a unique book, which will show the ones he has collected..."

Gradually, his tone became lower and his speech slowed down, as if he had figured something out.

Wait, isn't this...

The three of them looked at each other. Xiao Wang looked at the chocolate in his hand and said cautiously, "So this paper beast ate a person directly?"

Qiao Song looked at Jiang Yi, who understood what she meant and immediately used a knife to cut the white bag she handed over.

This bag was obviously much more difficult to cut open, so in the end Qiao Song had to cut it carefully with an electric saw, leaving Jiang Yi to continue taking out the white bag from the porcupine's belly, while Xiao Wang was responsible for sorting out what was cut out of each bag.

"There are seven in total. There should be no more inside."

Finally, Jiang Yi put on the last set of his combined skills, the Fish Killer Waterproof Raincoat, and got directly into the porcupine's stomach. According to him, there was actually nothing in the pig's stomach.

"It was like a cloud of fog with a few bags suspended in it."

The mist felt like shredded paper when you grabbed it, and there was a whole bone in the middle that looked like a branch, with several white bags hanging underneath.

Qiao Song remembered what Fan Xi said, that paper-making requires learning to draw three things: bones, skin, and soul.

So these are the souls of paper beasts?

By this time, Xiao Wang had finished sorting out all the things that had been cut out of the bags.

"There were seven people in total. The contents of each person's bag were slightly different, but basically they contained a set of daily necessities, a set of clothing, a set of food, a destroyed map and an animal sticker."

Among them, the animal stickers oxidized quickly after coming into contact with the air. As soon as Xiao Wang discovered this, he called Qiao Song.

"There are seven animals, including pigs, rats, fish, cats, cows, snakes, and birds. The sticker with the porcupine is the largest and oxidizes the slowest.

If the seven bags in the paper beast represent seven souls, then the largest bag containing the porcupine is like the one that controls the porcupine itself in the end.

The next best thing is the snake."

Qiao Song's fingers ran over each item one by one, and Jiang Yi and Xiao Wang beside him looked increasingly pale.

These just match the appearance characteristics of the paper beast. The pig characteristics are the most obvious, followed by the thorns on the pig's back that are almost turning into a snake, and then there are the fish scales that appear on the skin.

This discovery was a bit chilling, especially for Jiang Yi and the others, who initially thought that this copy was a very special and safe copy.

After all, this is the first time I've heard of a copy that can heal the soul. The longer you stay in the copy, the better it will be for your soul. As long as you are eliminated, you will be forced to pass the level.

But now, what are these things in the paper beast’s belly?

The people who were eaten were combined together to form a new paper beast? And multiple souls had to fight for control?

"Don't panic like that. If you go to the studio today, you can try to capture the paper beasts and then cut open their stomachs to see if you can."

Fan Xi once rejected Qiao Song's idea of ​​using the paper beasts he hunted at night as payment for his wages, and it was also at that time that he revealed the matter of the three types of paper beasts.

"These outsiders may not have eaten the people in the copy." Qiao Song was still holding the collector's album that was said to have come out of the blind box mall.

"What we can confirm now is that the paper beasts that appeared in the studio are fully controllable by the dungeon NPCs. The ones that attacked the house at night are semi-controlled. The guys outside the village who want to come in should have nothing to do with the NPCs."

The first one is that boys and girls can intervene directly, so the system will determine that they need to compensate Qiao Song with soul coins after increasing the difficulty of the game.

The second possibility is that under special circumstances last night, an NPC with higher authority must have rushed to the lake to pull her out of the water in order to stop her from touching the shrine. It was also at that time that she discovered the effect of the lake water on the paper beasts.

But this kind of control should not be absolute, otherwise who would have nothing to do and wait for these guys to attack their residence every day? NPCs are not meant to be suckers.

The difference of the third type of paper beast is the most obvious. If the NPC has control over them, they will not issue daily tasks to players to hunt these things. This type of paper beast is also the most obviously hostile.

Jiang Yi was still digesting the information he had dug out himself, and soon he heard Qiao Song's words: "It's time, go back first, remember what I said, tonight, whether you are learning to draw bones or skins, try your best to cut open the bellies of those paper beasts and see."

See whether those things have people or ghosts in their stomachs.

"Oh and, once you're done in the studio, if you're going for a night swim tonight, don't get too close to the water if you're timid."

Players with some skills can choose to sneak out of the room on the first floor at night and continue exploring the dungeon after finishing a day's activities in the dungeon.

The threats these players face are paper beasts that invade the town at night and other players who roam around at night.

In other words, players can actually face three different types of paper beasts in one day.

But this is not what Qiao Song wants to talk about.

She thought for a moment and said, "I should go and be a water ghost tonight to harass other villages. If you don't want to be affected by the battle, you can stay away from there."

"I also put up a sign during the day, and you just saw it, Jiang Yi."

[Water ghosts are rampant, keep out of the way] Such big words must have been seen by many players.

She didn't want to hurt her own people by mistake, and it would be difficult to explain if something happened at night.

The duo is still digesting the remains dug out from the paper beast: ???

What is a water ghost? Who is a water ghost?

What does the water ghost want to do?