Chapter 262 Happy Cemetery

"So, I really have to die once before I go home?"

In the ice cream shop in Zootopia, Qiao Song, who had a good sleep, yawned and drank yam and pork ribs soup while answering Gao Chengcheng's question:

"Yes, we have tried it before. We can't get out by boat. The River of Life and Death has no end. The boat drifting in the river has the same nature as the land where the Infinite Highway is located. It's just that the melting speed is different."

Gao Chengcheng squinted at the sunlight outside and leaned lazily on the chair: "Is that so? So the Happy Cemetery is a place for players to die 'safely'?"

"It should be. It is said that the rules are very simple. You will find out when you get there."

Qiao Song was also basking in the warm artificial sun. This thing was more comfortable than white light. It was said to have been developed by Li Yuan and Cyber ​​System back then. Later, the day and night of many copy spaces were adjusted by this thing.

After Qiao Song’s inheritance was divided, the white light disappeared first, and then soon after she woke up and went ashore, the River of Life and Death also disappeared, leaving only endless fog on the road.

Come to think of it, the resurrection experiment of the paper-zha town is to test whether paper-zha can withstand the weakened version of river water?

It seems that Fan Xi's experiment was successful, and the car replica experiment was about the car materials.

Humans are still very creative. I just don’t know whether Dr. Ye has integrated it with AI in recent years.

Qiao Song finished a bowl of soup that tasted very similar to the one his mother Shu Ruyue made, then asked, "Where are the others? Why is the store empty?"

She thought she could say hello to familiar faces after waking up, and tease the crow to see if she could coax it into changing into a bird form. But the store was empty except for Gao Chengcheng, who was watching over it.

Next to the French window on the street, Gao Chengcheng held her face with both hands and smiled: "I won't tell you~ You will know later~"

Outside the window, many animals with different appearances appeared on the bustling streets of Zootopia.

Because the new city lord opened the escape gate before the flood ended, most of the players and NPCs in Infinite Highway are now in the Mirror Zootopia.

A group of vagrants, like bumpkins entering the city, broke into this dreamlike animal city with human heads on their heads.

When Qiao Song was sleeping, the old employees under her were already discussing how to deal with the increasing number of players.

Fortunately, these 12 cities were originally designed to accommodate other players, and many areas were reserved, so they are large enough.

Under the city announcements of senior NPCs such as Li Yuan, local residents also began to cooperate in welcoming outsiders, turning the city into a popular tourist city with hospitable locals.

Besides, there are too many dogs in the Dog City!

Qiao Song has heard more than once outside the French window that some players sighed with regret: "It's so cute, it's a paradise for Furui fans, I really want to go up and touch its ears."

The companion's eyes were clear and hesitant: "That's too offensive. People are also intelligent creatures. If you just pull someone on the street and ask if you can pat their head, they will think you are a pervert."

"Yeah, what a shame. If this were a copy, I hope we could turn into animals so we can touch each other's heads."

"What the hell... Why are we here? We haven't even finished the beginner game yet, and we were kicked here from the convenience store. The NPCs are running for their lives. Is it because there's a flood in the game?"

"I don't know. Maybe the system host needs repairs because it's afraid of water intrusion?"

What a conversation between newcomers, it reminded Qiao Song of his simple rookie period when he first entered the dungeon.

Looking back now, she seemed to have hidden the convenience store key at the innermost part of the box before going into the water, thinking that if the people on Qi Fan's side couldn't find it, she could still open a store for fun after coming out as a human.

Which little girl didn’t have a dream of opening a convenience store when she was a child?

But it's pretty cool to get it for free. She just needs to throw the seeds out and harvest vines that will produce fruit continuously.

Let's put out that color display screen another day. For this villain model worker who loves convenience stores so much, it would be a waste if we don't give him some labor reform and let him work for nothing for hundreds of years.

When Qiao Song saw that the two little girls finally noticed the store and wanted to come in, she cleared her throat, prepared to greet them and ask about what happened when the flood occurred.

As a result, Gao Chengcheng didn't know whether he wanted to do business or not, but he ran out from the counter like a rabbit.

Qiao Song had a lot of question marks in her mind. She looked at Gao Chengcheng strangely and whispered with the two female players for a while. The latter suddenly realized and looked in Qiao Song's direction, then bent down and smiled politely, waved to Qiao Song slightly, and then left and went to other stores.

Qiao Song:?

Why does he seem to know her, yet seem not to know her? Hasn’t she recovered all her memories?

Gao Chengcheng still smiled: "Oh, our store is not accepting customers for the time being. Anyway, everyone else will be back soon, so just wait a little longer."

Qiao Song was bored, so he had to continue looking at the streets outside the window and enjoying the rare peaceful time.

While she was sleeping, everyone was busy helping the sleeping city lord run the twelve cities.

This was originally the new empire built by Lao Long Qi Fan and his teammates, but Shui Lingling just became a backup escape world.

Qiao Song didn't believe that the conservative group of twelve members headed by Li Yuan hadn't noticed Qi Fan's little tricks over the years. They might even have deliberately indulged Lao Long.

As soon as Qiao Song arrived, he took over such a big piece of cake and smashed other people's food bowls. Now, with the Mirror Zootopia as the center, a second infinite highway has radiated out.

But there is no fog or strange dungeon games here, and you can't even use your skills. There are only the animals' original abilities, and under the intentional control of the NPCs, it becomes extremely safe.

Qiao Song took three scoops of ice cream, sat at the window and watched for a while, as if he had figured out something.

It is afternoon now, and only two or three hours until dark.

She saw that some players had teamed up with the animal residents and were coming from a distance, hanging lanterns with streamers, banners, and some small animal decorations.

The entire Zootopia was decorated with lights and colors, as if some celebration was going to be held.

celebration?

Qiao Song just raised his guard when he saw the words on the banner: "Warmly celebrate the establishment of the Lord God City. After the establishment of the new district, free immigration qualifications, land leasing, etc. will be opened..."

Hiss, Qiao Song realized the problem. There were more and more residents in the Animal World, and sooner or later there would not be enough space, so he had to open the city gates to let people out, so that he could use the vacant land backed up in other areas.

Is this what Li Yuan and the others have been busy with these days?

Qiao Song felt that it was quite comfortable to be a hands-off boss. As soon as a problem arose, someone helped her solve it.

Gao Chengcheng was a little nervous about others suddenly hanging a banner near the ice cream shop, but when he saw the words on it, he felt relieved.

From Sister Qiao Song's relaxed attitude, it was clear that she hadn't thought about the real purpose of the celebration.

When the lights came on, Zootopia was as lively as a real city on New Year's Eve. When Qiao Song had already finished his second bowl of lotus root and pork ribs soup, people finally started to return to the store one after another.

She raised her eyebrows: "Hey, busy man, are you off work now?"

Li Yuan was exhausted and had been working non-stop for several days. The feathers on his face had just begun to fade when he saw Qiao Song staring at him from the floor-to-ceiling window.

He moved his lips for a long time, completely unsure of what to say.

Faced with Qiao Song, whose memory had been fully restored, Li Yuan's final choice was to take off his hat and directly turned into a shiny black crow and jumped onto the table.

Qiao Song was surprised: "Why are you so self-conscious?"

She was not polite at all. She caught the crow before it started reporting and happily counted its feathers, just like when she was a child, spreading its wings and rubbing them with her hands.

"Not bad, the bones and muscles are well developed. I really miss this familiar touch. If I had known, I would have rubbed it a few more times when I met it in the Hell Community."

Li Yuan was thankful that he was now wearing a black coat, so his skin could not be seen to be red. "Almost done. I changed into my original form because I have something to give you."

The black bird's body gradually became transparent, and a black card could be seen floating in his chest.

"Hell is a special place. It has a certain degree of suppression on most areas of the entire map. When it was designed, it was designed with flood suppression in mind. Now it has become a closed sphere. You don't have to worry about water ingress like other maps. Your Hell Gate can still be used."

Hellbringer Raven, ruby ​​eyes, staring at his death:

"That place can be used as a prison. Just like you said before, the underworld should also have its own laws. Players who should not be released back to the human world can be thrown into hell first to hone themselves for a period of time."

"There are too many players in Zootopia. The problem of opening the city gate must be solved. The final decision is still up to you. You can consider whether to listen to other people's suggestions, and..."

Qiao Song pinched his mouth and said, "Stop, you said too much in one breath."

She gently scratched the crow's chin like petting a cat, and smiled deliberately: "Why are you in such a hurry to return Hell to me? I just woke up, and you want me to do so much work at once? How about our Death God's pet help to continue to take care of it first?"

"The place is too big, I can't handle it alone."

The bird's beak was released and the chin was gently lifted again.

Even though he turned into a crow, Li Yuan gradually couldn't stand the way Qiao Song was stroking the crow's feathers.

Compared to when he was a child and always liked to pull open his wings and look at the color of the feathers in the sun, Qiao Song now seems to have learned bad things. His movements are a mixture of light and slow, and occasionally he gently pinches the crow's chest. Li Yuan feels that his heart is about to jump out of his chest before the card is returned.

"...You can take half of it back first, otherwise it will be inconvenient to open and close the door."

"All right."

Qiao Song laughed when he heard the tone of his voice and let go of the crow, otherwise this guy would be too hot to touch.

When Li Yuan turned back into a human, there were voices coming from outside the door. They were his comrades from the large group.

"Jojo!"

A mouse jumped down from Aunt Huo's shoulder, and in the blink of an eye it turned back into a familiar girl and pounced directly over.

Annie hugged Qiao Song and rubbed him, calling him Qiao Qiao and Xiao Shitou at different times. It was like she was in the Rat world and she looked like she wanted to bomb Qi Fan's home with just a raise of her hand.

Qiao Song also saw many of his friends, including familiar faces on the boat from the last river crossing activity, as well as those he got to know again this time.

The whole family sat together. While Qiao Song was sleeping, everyone seemed to have become familiar with each other through the air. Even the crow didn't seem as "unwelcome" as before.

The ice cream shop was as lively as if it were Chinese New Year.

Qiao Song also heard the reports from other administrators headed by Aunt Huo. Their general suggestion was to treat the backup Infinite City as the main god world.

Qiao Song thought this plan was good and nodded:

"This part of Zootopia can be set up as the central city, and other areas can be set up as safe zones for players to live in. If the game is flooded, it can be rebuilt. This place is the best contribution made by that old man."

Annie: "That's right. Don't you see how many times we have secretly fanned the flames for him over the years, just waiting for him to take on the hardest work?"

Qiao Song: She just knew...

"Moreover, the inspiration came from the fantasy city you built in your dream. When you woke up from your dream, that world disappeared. Later, Li Yuan suggested that if our death plan of a last-ditch battle could not succeed, we should at least make some other backup plans."

Make one formal plan and three, four, five or six as backup plans. This is indeed Li Yuan's style.

Qiao Song smiled and said, "Okay, I've almost recovered. If everything goes well, you guys have some kind of celebration tonight, right? Then we can announce the plan to open the city gates."

As soon as Qiao Song finished speaking, the expressions of everyone in the room suddenly froze. Some of the guys who couldn't hide their expressions even looked at each other suspiciously, to see if anyone had leaked any information.

Seeing that Qiao Song was also staring at them strangely, they finally felt relieved and continued to make noisy jokes with each other, discuss new topics, and pretend that nothing had happened.

Qiao Song:?

Good man, he is hiding something from her.

Qiao Song had a hunch that if she took the initiative to observe the outside world, she might be able to discover some clues. However, facing a room full of people who seemed to be preparing some surprises for her, Qiao Song felt that sometimes it was okay to not be so smart.

She sat on a chair at the bar and even took the time to check on the academic performance of her top student.

Tang Xiaoxiao didn't know what she had experienced in the Rat Realm. Qiao Song only took a look at some math problems she was doing to relax her brain, and found that he couldn't even understand the questions.

Putting the question back expressionlessly, Qiao Song turned his attention to Xiao Ni who was scratching her head. Fortunately, at least she could understand the question here.

Anne smiled harmlessly and explained to Qiao Song: "Xiaoxiao has developed her brain well in our Rat Region. There are many top students in our region, and they are all high-end talents. We basically deal with system-based information content. When you use your brain to think, you know, the flow of time will become very fast. Young brains learn quickly and evolve in a short period of time."

Qiao Song, who was brought up with a happy upbringing, suddenly had an idea: "So, passing the dungeon is equivalent to attending a cram school at your place?"

Tang Xiaoxiao, who was doing the questions seriously, also came to his senses and hissed, "It seems to be true."

After finishing a math problem with great difficulty, Xiao Ni raised his head and said, "So, this time, Miss Xiao will be able to pass the provincial exam right after waking up from a nap..."

Annie: "...Xiao Ni, you even know about the provincial top scholar?" Isn't this kid in junior high school?

Xiao Ni, who has always been close to the red, said: "I was thinking that if I could go home, I could give my mother a surprise, so I pestered Xiao Xiaojie and asked her a lot of questions about the exam."

Qiao Song was silent for a while: "You remember everything?"

Xiao Ni hummed and looked quite optimistic: "Brother Li Yuan and his team have released a lot of information about the operation of the game in the past few days. I almost remember that I was also a player before, but I died and didn't come back to life."

Humans who fail in the resurrection game will become NPCs just like the souls fished out of the river.

However, this type of player will be given more responsibilities, such as going to a convenience store and playing the role of a thief in the rules.

At this point, Qiao Song was a little confused: "Is your Water Ghost Boss also assigned to you by the system? How did you get your early stealing skills?"

Speaking of this, Xiao Ni blushed a little: "I didn't mean to steal, it was the system that gave me the stealing skill directly..."

"However, I did remember one thing. Regarding my memory of death, the last thing I could remember was that when I woke up, someone just happened to stuff a card into my chest. It should be a player."

Xiao Ni touched the position of his heart: "The thief's card was placed here, and then I have the mission."

Later, after staying with Qiao Song and the others, the convenience store was destroyed and the rules were broken. Xiao Ni's abilities began to change little by little. He became like a living person and could awaken new abilities according to his own personal will.

Qiao Song felt that in this game, all deaths seemed a bit abnormal unless they were directly drowned by the river.

What kind of weird experiments are those people behind Qi Fan doing?

However, Qiao Song is not in a hurry, as the answer should be hidden in the Happy Cemetery.

Now all the maps outside that can be moved around have been cleared by her. Those guys have no choice, and the only place they can go is the Happy Cemetery.

When you can't find the enemy, the best way is to let the enemy come to you.

All doors in and out of Zootopia are monitored by the city lord, and those guys won’t be able to sneak in even if they want to.

"Hey, everyone, it's almost time."

Gao Chengcheng propped himself up from the counter and raised his hand. The other people in the store who were still pretending to chat suddenly became alert. As if they were preparing for some festival, they pulled Qiao Song out of the ice cream shop and walked towards somewhere.

Qiao Song did not resist and let Annie and Chengcheng hug him on both sides. Aunt Huo, the kittens and others led the way in front.

Passing through the streets filled with small lights, they gradually walked into a bustling area filled with flowers and balloons, as well as various tourists wearing masks on their heads, or residents who were originally in animal form.

【Warmly celebrate the first night party in Zootopia! 】

[Starting at 12:00 tonight, the outer city area of ​​Zootopia will be open. Everyone is welcome to expand the territory, purchase land, and build your own safe zone! 】

Safe zone, what a luxurious and tempting term it is for players adventuring in infinite games.

Qiao Song looked at the banners with great satisfaction. It seemed that everyone had done a good job, the solutions had been prepared, and someone was maintaining order.

She'll sign it later, and we can open the door at about the right time...

It was not until she was gently pushed to a podium that looked like a party that Qiao Song finally realized that the so-called celebration seemed to be prepared for her.

In front of me is a small birthday card stand with "Congratulations on the new life" written next to it.

Qiao Song looked behind her and saw that all the people who had been talking to her just now were wearing masks.

As she looked around, she saw that in the starry sky and sea of ​​flowers with twinkling lights, there was not a single player's face, but only the heads of countless animals, some funny, some cute, some realistic, and even some that were actually animals.

Li Yuan almost merged into the night, his head turned back into a crow, only his gem-like eyes always reflected Qiao Song.

He added what others wanted to say this time:

"The script is ready. You can improvise if you want. Let them meet their city lords and let the players see who opened the escape door and who will open the city gate to establish a safe zone."

Qiao Song may not need to tell them that he is the god of death who wants to send them home, but Li Yuan and all the other partners hope that in this city full of animals, most of whom are stranger players——

Tonight, they hope that countless souls will recognize and remember the only human face without a mask.

She is the city lord, the god of death, and Qiao Song.

If returning home had all the necessary conditions, then they would create endless anchors for her.

Faith and love can both be created artificially.

Just like what Qiao Song did before sinking to the bottom of the water.

Qiao Song, who was holding the manuscript, actually understood what was going on the moment the light hit his face.

She smiled as if she was as happy as when she first brought the medal home to show her mother, and as soon as she raised her hand, her mother hugged her in her arms.

That's the feeling of being recognized and loved.

Qiao Song turned sideways and saw countless masked faces. Among them were many of her friends. Some of them had already seen her before and were players who knew her real name for the first time.

Curiosity, admiration, or perhaps admiration and respect, this face and her name will soon appear in the hearts of many people.

She received a much-anticipated blessing and the gift of love.

It was the ripples and echo caused by a stone falling into the water.

Among the large-scale celebratory statements celebrating the establishment of the Lord God’s City, there are birthday wishes written by many companions. They don’t know Xiao Shitou’s birthday, nor the birth date of the soul named Qiao Song, but every today is worth “congratulating the new life”.

Human emotions overwhelmed her and lifted her up.

Qiao Song had never felt so clearly the warm and powerful heartbeat coming from his chest.

"Welcome everyone to Zootopia. Tonight is the first night of the main city's construction. For many players, it is also a completely new starting point."

"Tomorrow we will set sail for our destination. Every game level has a final level, and every journey will end one day."

"The end will not be a lie. I wish all the lost souls all the best and hope they can return home soon."