Chapter 221 Snake's Treasure Game

The old man finally recovered enough to communicate with others after basking in the sun on the beach for half an hour.

The former principal's eyes looked brighter now that he was back to normal.

He was still kind and polite, but he was much more careful when talking to Qiao Song: "Excuse me, little girl. Was I sick again just now? My mind gets confused easily when I get older. I hope I didn't cause any trouble to you guys?"

The old man sat on a recliner and did not completely leave the sunlight. Flowered Pants was afraid that he would have another attack and offend Qiao Song, whom he could not defeat.

Qiao Song was not angry, but she did look a little scary. Compared with the other players with breathing bubbles on their heads, she looked more like a native humanoid marine creature, ferocious yet beautiful.

"Old man, have we met before?"

Qiao Song's words made the old man, who had just recovered a lot, ponder for a moment:

"Maybe, but I've met so many people in my life that unless they are someone I'm particularly familiar with, everyone looks familiar to me. My memory isn't very good right now, so I rely on Xiaofan's skills to wake me up occasionally."

The Xiaofan he mentioned is Hua Lifan, the real name of Hua Kuacha.

The latter smiled awkwardly: "We are helping each other."

The old principal's control skills are very strong, but his mental state is quite dangerous on the Infinite Highway. Hua Lifan, Ge Jia and the old principal Ni Chunlai met by chance because of a chaos near the coral reef.

The old principal has good skills, but his mind is not very clear.

Ge Jia can remotely judge the player's professional control, but his attack power is not very strong.

Flower Pants has strong attack power, but he also has the old problem of players in the strategy group, he likes to rush forward without any hesitation.

"My previous guildmate has died. He's probably already gone to the resurrection game, so I teamed up with Ge Jia and the others..."

Qiao Song smiled and said, "You want to form a team and then put your ideas on me, and ask me to produce jars for you?"

Hua Lifan, who was soaking in the water, had a little sweat on his forehead: "It's been a long time since I last met a player who can enter the second round. Suddenly, I met one, and the three of us were just preparing to hone our skills. I was wrong, I was wrong. Boss, please spare my life. From now on, I will work hard for you with the seagulls."

It doesn't matter who you work for, and this guy seems to be much easier to talk to than the others.

Hua Lifan tried to describe his actions as tactfully as possible to prevent Qiao Song from having murderous intentions again.

Qiao Song could also tell that Hua Lifan was not lying.

Qiao Song glanced again at the old man who was sitting on the recliner, occasionally looking at her in a daze, and then smiling.

Former Principal Ni Chunlai is one of the oldest players Qiao Song has ever seen in the game. He looks much older than Aunt Huo and is said to be almost eighty years old.

The old man has gray hair on his temples, and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes overlap when he smiles. He looks like a kind and talkative old man, but occasionally he looks a little confused, as if he has forgotten that he is still in the game.

Qiao Song finally turned his head away and didn't ask any more questions. Instead, he started talking about the coral reefs with the other two.

Hua Lifan smiled bitterly: "That place is quite dangerous. The treasure game of Sishe has no good intentions, so the players who enter the second round are those who have accumulated enough wealth in the first round and have tasted the sweetness. In this round, you also know how to get the jar, right?"

Every time a player uses a personal skill, an unopened jar will automatically appear on his body.

This setting is quite subtle.

When Qiao Song first heard that the first 10 jars would be free and that the rest would start to be charged, he thought the conditions would require players to kill each other, but he didn't expect it to be like this.

"Not only that, although players can only open the jars they come across, there are also many wild jars in the waters here, and most of the jars opened by players are skill cards, that is, jars related to their own skills. If you want to continue to get the soul coins promised by the Snake, or even special rewards, you still have to open wild ones."

However, once a skill is used, the jar on the body has a chance to open a card corresponding to the skill, which will result in each player's endurance being extended indefinitely.

The firepower has doubled, and the tension between players has become even stronger.

"Later, some players discovered that if they put the jar that appeared on their body on a coral reef and hung it there for a while, the color of the jar would change."

Qiao Song frowned: "What's the color of the jar?"

Ge Jia nodded. "Yes, the jars born from the players themselves are slightly darker in color. After being placed on the coral reef, for some reason, the color of the jars becomes lighter. Most of the original wild jars there are also very light in color, and they look almost the same as ordinary shells."

By actively hanging the jar on the coral reef, you can make the jar that only you can open become lighter in color and turn it into a wild jar that everyone can open.

Then, the skill cards opened in the jar can become props that everyone can use.

Qiao Song thought it sounded familiar.

This effect is very similar to the player's skill derivatives.

However, not all players' skill derivatives can be used by others. For example, if Grandpa Chai's chicken coop is in Qiao Song's hand, she can use it, but Qiao Song's hammer is almost impossible for players other than himself to lift it. This is not a question of strength, but a question of whether the prop is recognized.

In the entire infinite flow world, the only universal skill cards and props are those produced by the system mall, and a very small number of them are self-made by players.

This also limits the flow of props between players to some extent. As far as Qiao Song knows, there are not many people who can make prop cards by themselves.

Including herself, there is also Gao Chengcheng, and the Crow wearing the plague doctor's vest.

That guy Crow even inexplicably set up a guild called Eye of Wisdom, which might be a channel specifically designed to bypass the system to create item cards.

Qiao Song collected his thoughts and said, "Because of this transformation effect, the fight over at the coral reef was so fierce?"

If there is such a trading system in that area, then every time everyone uses a skill, they will keep a backup and put it in a jar, and can also exchange it with others.

Hua Lifan nodded, then shook his head: "Putting the cans that fell off your body on the coral reef will not 100% change the color. Some of them will be eaten directly by the coral reef."

"Eat it?"

Qiao Song suddenly noticed something important: "What is the loss rate?"

This hit the nail on the head for Huakucha, an illiterate man: "I really don't know the loss rate..."

Ge Jia next to him immediately responded: "I roughly calculated that the loss rate is quite high, at least about 65%. In the end, only 35% may be left."

HR Ge Jia, who revealed a lot of information when he was nearly drowned by Qiao Song before, now has signed the shrine contract and become a player under her command, so he is even more willing to tell her everything he knows.

Ge Jia's attitude towards Qiao Song now is three parts fear and seven parts respect. In her eyes, Qiao Song is already an existence between an NPC and a player.

"Many players over there are actually no longer interested in the treasure of the Snake. Most of them are using the ability of the coral reef to stock up on skill cards."

Every time a skill is used, a jar will be added to the body. It seems that players will stockpile jars very quickly. Even if a battle occurs, dozens of jars will be added after a fight. Even if they are replaced with coral reefs, they will be reduced by 65%. This speed is much faster than buying items in the system mall with soul coins earned through hard work in the outside world.

And, if all else fails, you can go find some wild jars and give it another try, and you can earn a lot of soul coins.

Qiao Song thought for a moment and said, "One last question. Have you ever seen anyone opening a can and getting a snake out of it? Or have you ever seen a player in the Snake Field?"

Flower Pants instantly perked up: "Of course! I was just about to say that in the first round of treasure hunting, most of the jars were filled with rewards such as soul coins and gold coins, and a small number were empty jars. But in the second round, after some players with good luck and good returns were transferred to the same space, snakes kept appearing here!"

"Not long after being bitten by a snake, the player's brain mutated and they immediately joined the group of bastards of the snake."

The jars dropped by the players themselves are not counted. The probability of snakes appearing in wild jars is very high. This has led to many players running to the coral reef to replace their skills to avoid opening wild jars.

But if this continues, the number of Snake players will quietly increase underwater.

The purpose of the Snake game is to expand the number of their players.

Qiao Song did some calculations and still felt something was not right. It seemed like Sishe was doing a losing business because the players were making too much money.

In a game, if the players' profits are too great, it would seem that the dealer is very brainless.

She already has several new copies crying out for food under her command, and they are all managed by the three spiders, a boy and a girl, and others. Qiao Song knows how much it costs.

It’s better to go and take a look.

"Shall we go now? I'm fine with that, but will Sister Qiao and the old principal go with us?"

Seeing Qiao Song frown, Hua Lifan immediately said that he could look after the old man: "The principal's skills are very useful. Why don't you sign a contract with him? I can always ensure his mental state. Anyway, I will never cause any trouble. Moreover, his exam room skill can prevent players in a certain area from using props."

Qiao Song glanced at him a few times.

"Do I look that disrespectful?"

Hua Lifan seemed to want to say something but stopped himself.

Boss, you don't know your reputation in our strategy group. Many people in our guild have been beaten by you.

However, Hua Lifan also knew that most of the people in their guild were mean, and he only cooperated with others because his partner got himself killed. The old principal, Ni Chunlai, happened to be the principal of the school he attended when he was a child.

The old man was a good man and he didn't want to leave.

Hua Lifan also took the initiative to explain that his skills can dispel negative effects to a certain extent.

"Sister Qiao, don't be fooled by the fact that this looks like a beach. It's actually like a mirage. After the effect ends, it will turn into a ball of light fog covering the water and will dissipate after a while."

The previous flock of seagulls had the same effect. Even after death, they left behind a large ball of light that looked like water. In fact, it had the same effect on land. It was just a luminous object.

Qiao Song: "Not treatment, but dispelling negative effects?"

Hua Lifan touched his head and said, "If it also has a healing effect, then wouldn't my ability be invincible?"

What Qiao Song was thinking was, does Alzheimer's disease only have negative effects?

Or maybe the old principal is not sick now.

Qiao Song took out the contract and gave a copy to the old man, not to prevent the old man from backstabbing him, but to locate his position more accurately.

Qiao Song can feel the location of every soul that has signed a contract with her. Although it is still vague now, she has a hunch that if the territory she occupies in the entire Zootopia becomes larger and larger, the positioning effect should become gradually more accurate.

The old man didn't even read the content. He took the contract and signed his name carefully.

Ni Chunlai.

According to Hua Lifan, the principal of Chunlai Primary School, this school was funded and established by the old man when he was young. Later, the school grew bigger and bigger. The old man never married and dedicated his whole life to the school.

Who would have thought that I would actually meet the children I taught on the Infinite Highway.

"I think if Principal Ni really thinks you look familiar, maybe you went to elementary school there."

Hua Lifan didn't know if it was because he often chatted with tourists on the beach, but he was really talkative. Even though Qiao Song didn't look easy to deal with now and he couldn't get the boss's home address, he was still very enthusiastic to tell him the address of his school, hoping that Qiao Song could recall and see if it was the city where he lived as a child.

After hearing the name of the city and the address of the school, Qiao Song was silent for a few seconds.

Finally, she just said, "Let's go and have a look at the coral reef."

Hua Lifan was originally planning to call out two seagulls to lead the principal forward, but Qiao Song just moved his fingers a few times, and soon a few kelp-like things quietly emerged.

No, kelp is green, these are white and look incredibly thin.

Is this, paper?

Then Hua Lifan and Ge Jia witnessed an extremely fast underwater origami activity.

A paper dolphin with a unique shape and lifelike appearance quickly started to move, swimming forward nimbly with the old man on its back.

For some reason, Hua Lifan suddenly glanced at Ge Jia next to him.

How many professional skills does this sister have?

Ge Jia shook his head. Not only did he not use his skills, he didn't even bother to take out his tablet.

She is now also Qiao Song's employee, and her boss's family background is not something she can explore.

Hua Lifan went over the information he had heard in his mind and suddenly realized that this might not be the thing that tourists in the paper-folding town learned. Could someone really learn the paper-folding technique to this level in just a few days?

This is just like having an extra professional skill for no reason.

Qiao Song also discovered that she had clearly used the paper-folding skills she had learned for free in the paper-folding town, but ended up with an extra small jar on her body.

Including those used after her previous encounter with Ge Jia and Hua Lifan, she had at least ten jars hanging on her body, some large and some small.

The same situation applies to Hua Lifan and the others.

The size of these jars on the players are very small, about the same size as a sixty-shell shell. They are now in the stage of rushing on the road, and from time to time they can see a few large jars located in the pile of coral watercolors.

But Qiao Song swam over without changing his expression, obviously having no intention of opening the wild jar.

Hua Lifan, wearing a pair of colorful beach pants, led the way: "These small corals are not good for washing. Only the one in front can be used, but there are always fights there. We are almost there. Let's sneak over from the corner and take a look first."

When going in this direction, you can actually spot the occasional player appearing. Most of them look alert and are far apart from each other.

The minimum number of people in a group is three.

Hua Lifan said: "Those with too few people or who are alone are easily kept in captivity by certain teams and used to produce cans."

He smiled apologetically: "We were blind to the truth before..."

Qiao Song didn't give him much look, and Ge Jia didn't even dare to breathe, for fear that her current boss would remember the stupid things she had done before.

"Ge Jia, if the players from the Black Iron Guild meet you here, will they chase you down?"

Ge Jia was stunned for a moment: "Not necessarily, but the guild's attitude towards traitors is to kill them first without hesitation when there is a conflict of interest, or bring them back alive to gain some merit. My personal value is not that high, and I don't know too many secrets of the guild, so no one will take the initiative to catch me, but if I meet someone from the previous guild, I may be targeted."

She felt a little embarrassed to say this, after all, she was afraid of being killed by Qiao Song, so she claimed that she knew a lot of secrets of the Black Iron Guild.

But the main reason why Qiao Song kept her was that she had participated in the resurrection game.

"Those ones over there might be Black Iron. Be careful later and pay attention to the movements over there."

The direction Qiao Song pointed to was at least one kilometer away from them. Ge Jia looked at the small black dot with a surprised expression, but still nodded to indicate that he understood.

This is the good thing about becoming a mermaid. The speed and temperature of the water flow, the sounds in the water, and the state of the creatures in the water will all be fed back to Qiao Song through the scales and flippers.

But this is not a panacea. There is a countdown on the white box, showing the time limit for Qiao Song to use the makeup box to turn himself into a mermaid.

Three more hours.

After that, you can consider eating transformation mushrooms again to maintain the state in stages.

But the encounter with Ge Jia, Hua Lifan and others also made Qiao Song realize how vulnerable these underwater players are.

Most of the players here rely on props to maintain their activities in the water.

If the old principal was not in a bad mental state and the skills he used had a certain range limitation, he alone would be able to kill most of the players in this area in seconds.

This kind of environment is a natural advantage for some people.

For players who are born in the Year of the Snake, their heads will turn into the shape of a snake the moment they switch camps.

"Most snakes can swim, and can even move quite fast in the water. Some species can only breathe through their skin underwater, and can stay submerged for hours without taking a breath."

"So we must pay special attention to the movements of Snake players."

"If there is a countdown for the item effect, there is a risk of skill failure. Except for some people who can do deep diving in the real world, in this sea area, the mere risk of drowning will kill most players."

Qiao Song and Hua Lifan told the two of them these precautions in advance, and they were stunned when they heard them. It was obvious that they had never thought about this issue before.

After thinking about it, Qiao Song put another piece of paper on the collar of each of them.

Qiao Song: "If you are completely drowning, these papers will instantly turn into marine life and drag you to the surface of the sea to breathe."

Hua Lifan nodded with a touched look on his face, thinking that Qiao Song was so kind to them.

Soon he saw the old principal who was being taken care of by dolphins and didn't even have to paddle in the water.

Ni Chunlai had been placed by Qiao Song in a relatively safe location not too far away. It seemed that he planned to use his skills when the time was right, or let the Paper Dolphin carry him and escape first.

Looking at the small piece of paper fish the size of a fingernail on his collar, Hua Lifan: ...

It’s okay, this only shows that the new leader respects the elderly!

Qiao Song and his friends have now arrived at a corner not far from the coral reef. Right in front of them is a coral mountain range that is connected in pieces and has brilliant colors, like the fourth wonder of the seabed.

These shiny antler-like objects look like the luminous corals that appear in animations or science fiction movies.

On each one, like inlaid diamonds, there are some gray-white jars hanging, which refract the light like an alternative kind of shells.

That is the special jar that Hua Lifan mentioned before.

There is a small team standing next to almost every piece of coral. Some people are trying their best to hang the cans on their bodies to make them fade, and then open the cans one by one to take out the things that fall out.

Qiao Song watched for a while. As an aquatic creature, she was more sensitive to all life in the water.

She observed the way the players opened the cans and had a very strange feeling.

Players use coral stones to transform the contents of jars into skill cards and then exchange them.

But from Qiao Song's perspective, the huge corals were constantly devouring the jars sent by players from afar, and 65% of the contents went into their stomachs, which was like an advance payment for the corals' work.

The glittering jars contain not only treasures but also rations.

Rather than helping players create ownerless skill cards, these coral colonies are more like food. They eat up the players' skill products, and players will fight to the death for the trades here, leaving their corpses and wealth here in the end.

Qiao Song looked in the distance and vaguely heard someone fighting. Floating in the water were faded cans that had just been opened, as well as fallen skill cards, which were shining brightly, like scales that had fallen off after a fight between fish.

There was a faint smell of blood in the water.

The sunlight shines through the water surface to the seabed, and the corals that are full of wealth like crystals are still beyond words.

But in Qiao Song's eyes, they were like a series of gorgeous tombstones.

Waiting for a steady stream of players to use it as a trading market and charge unknown management fees.