Chapter 102 Nightmare Community

Walk from Building 167 to the central pool.

In just a few minutes, Xu Zhiyan crushed more than a dozen hearts.

He kept calculating the number of missing hearts in his mind, estimating that the remaining half of the hearts should be enough for Bai Jin to overturn the copy, but not to be completely free.

“…This is really difficult.”

He sighed and prayed silently in his heart that there would not be such a clever slice in the future.

There is no harm without comparison.

I used to think that the snake god and the little blind man had low IQs and were not as easy to use as the perverted painter. I didn't expect that this one with a brain would be the most difficult to deal with.

After the interference from the power on his body weakened, Xu Zhiyan's live broadcast room instantly returned to normal, but the signal was a little bad.

【Finally fixed! 】

[Hmm? Why doesn't Xiao Baiwan seem to have received a new round of special missions? ]

【？ ？ ？】

[It seems so! I just visited a few live broadcast rooms, and even Xie Lingyi received the task. ]

[Ah, can I still watch the Borrower's live broadcast? I think she can no longer see the task panel...]

[That's not right. Look at Xiao Baiwan's direction. He should have received the mission.]

[Yes, if he hadn't received the mission, why would he go to the central pool? He must be doing something else.]

[I guess Xiao Baiwan should have received the task earlier than Boss Gan and Xinan, but the live broadcast room was not open just now so the information was disconnected. ]

But in fact, Xu Zhiyan had no idea that all the players except him had received new tasks.

When he arrived at the central pool, he saw two familiar faces.

Gan Mi was wearing a security guard's uniform, sitting on the stone slab at the edge of the pool, his expression filled with melancholy and hopelessness.

Xinan put away his weapon and squatted beside Gan Mi.

When the two saw Xu Zhiyan, a look of understanding appeared in their eyes.

"Tsk, it really is a public task." Gan Mi sighed and said impatiently.

Xinan said nothing, but stood up and looked at the person who came.

When Xu Zhiyan saw these two people, his heart skipped a beat and he sensed something was wrong.

What public tasks?

Did Gan Mi and Xinan receive any additional task prompts?

However, although he was obviously extremely confused, he did not show it on his face and still looked frank.

"Good afternoon, would you like some candy?"

Xu Zhiyan walked over, grabbed a few pieces of candy from his pocket, spread them on his palm, and spoke in a familiar tone, as if he had a very good relationship with the two people in front of him.

Gan Mi pouted, raised her eyebrows, took a look, and after finding that the packaging was of poor quality, she shook her head and refused.

“It doesn’t look very tasty.”

"Thanks."

Xinan wasn't picky, he quickly reached out and grabbed a piece of hard candy and put it in his pocket.

Xu Zhiyan smiled and sighed like Gan Mi: "It looks like you guys have also received a public mission? What are yours? I don't know if everyone else's is the same."

He needed to know what new tasks Gan Mi and Xinan had received, and he had to ask before Gan Mi asked.

Being proactive is always the best way to attack.

Gan Mi gets angry when this is mentioned.

“It should be different.”

He pointed at Xinan who suddenly stood up straight, rolled his eyes and said, "His task is to not allow anyone to get close to the sculpture, and mine is to patrol the central pool 24 hours a day to ensure the safety of the sculpture. What an idiotic task..."

Perhaps because the task was too ordinary and boring, Gan Mi did not doubt Xu Zhiyan's motives and just thought that the other party had also received a strange task.

He even took the initiative to share some other information.

"The person who borrowed her life probably can't get out. I went to test her last night and she almost forgot her identity as a player. But it's strange..."

Gan Mi thought of Xie Lingyi's appearance last night, and there was a hint of sympathy and confusion in her tone.

"A system protection coating actually appeared in a certain range around her. How strange! I thought only some NPCs in the community had it."

It turned out that when hunting the wrong beast a few days ago, Gan Mi also encountered a special NPC.

These NPCs have special coatings on their bodies, and players cannot attack them. It is as if the main system has put a protective shell on these specially favored NPCs.

"If everyone has a new mission, then she probably has one too, but she didn't come. In the future, she might not even remember her identity as a player and become a complete NPC."

Although it was a somewhat scary topic, Gan Mi smiled as if she was telling a joke.

Seeing that Xu Zhiyan was slow to speak, he couldn't help but ask.

"What your mission is should be different from ours."

Without having time to think about Xie Lingyi's matter, Xu Zhiyan secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but his expression was full of disgust.

"Mine is similar. This broken system makes me repair sculptures."

It seems that the main system has realized that the sculpture at this location cannot be replaced, so it temporarily added tasks for the players.

However, I'm afraid it's impossible to judge Bai Jin's current condition, so the new task is not too complicated.

"Repairing the sculpture?"

After hearing this, Gan Mi frowned.

"right."

Xu Zhiyan pinched his nose and looked unhappy.

"It's so cold and you have to wade through cold water. I don't know what's wrong with this sculpture. It looks like there's a hole in it. How can I fix it?"

He suddenly turned his head and looked at Xinan, as if he had just thought of something.

"But my mission seems to conflict with Xinan's. Does his mission mention whether sculpture maintenance personnel can get close?"

"No."

Xinan shook his head to deny it.

"What should I do?" Xu Zhiyan put on a helpless look, as if he had really received such a task.

"It would be bad if it affects Xinan's mission." He looked distressed.

"It doesn't matter, it's just some correct time." Xinan didn't care about it at all and directly expressed his disdain for the new task.

In the face of absolutely repressive force, the beasts of error are like fish on a chopping board. At worst, you can give up the mission reward and kill some beasts of error to make up for the loss.

Gan Mi felt that something seemed to be wrong.

But when he turned around and saw Xinan, who seemed to be indifferent to the mission, he was afraid that he would be meddling in other people's business.

After being badly cheated while cleaning the kindergarten, Gan Mi felt that Xu Zhiyan and Xinan were his weak links, so he planned to stay away from them after completing this copy.

"Then I'll go and try to fix it?"

Although he asked, Xu Zhiyan had already rolled up his sleeves and was ready to do the repairs.

Gan Mi didn't say anything. His job was to patrol and ensure the sculpture was intact. As long as Xu Zhiyan didn't smash the sculpture, it would not affect his job.

Xinan saw Xu Zhiyan preparing to wade over, and he didn't seem to have any repair equipment in his hands. He even offered to go with him, thinking that he might be able to help.

Xu Zhiyan waved his hands repeatedly.

"No, no, I don't have any tools, and I've never repaired this thing before. Let me check it out first."

In fact, he was extremely anxious.

The fifteen minutes he could use to hide his aura were almost up. If he were discovered by the main system and given a task to kill the two people in front of him, that would be really difficult.

Without waiting for Xinan to answer, Xu Zhiyan stepped into the pool again.

It didn't feel good to step into the water, but thinking that Xinan and Gan Mi were still watching, Xu Zhiyan could only pretend that he didn't feel anything.

He walked quickly and soon arrived at the center of the pool.

Seeing Xinan lowering his head to check the panel, Xu Zhiyan knew that the moment he touched the sculpture, Xinan's mission would fail.

But it was too late.

Xu Zhiyan placed his hand on the red sphere, feeling the blood vessels behind him that were invisible to the naked eye carrying his heart toward the sculpture.

When the sticky feeling disappeared from the back of my hand, the red spherical sculpture in front of me changed.

"Squeak--Gah--"

“Plop!”

It sounded like it was crushed by something, making a strange, teeth-grinding sound.

Xu Zhiyan watched helplessly as the red electric wire ball, which had just been round and plump, suddenly turned into a small ball and was thrown into the water.

The noise came from the center of the pool.

"What the hell! Why did my mission fail as well!" Gan Mi looked at the panel with crazy pop-ups, a little confused.

But when he turned to look at the sculpture, he found that the place had changed in appearance at some point.

Huge blood vessels connected to countless hearts replaced the original red spherical sculpture, which looked very oppressive.

The blood vessels were wriggling, as if absorbing more strength, and the hearts half-suspended in the air were slowly recovering their beating rhythm after a brief pause.

Gan Mi did not act rashly.

He looked at Xu Zhiyan who was running in another direction and couldn't help but shout, "What just happened?"

Although he did not stop Xu Zhiyan from touching the sculpture just now, he was also careful and kept an eye on the movements in the center of the pool.

Gan Mi was certain that he only saw Xu Zhiyan touch the sculpture ball.

Without using any props, he didn't think Xu Zhiyan could crush the sculpture ball, and the young man's expression at the time was also very shocked.

"Something just flashed by!"

Xu Zhiyan turned over and got out of the pool, looking at Gan Mixinan from a distance, and answered.

"You two stay here and I'll go take a look!"

After saying this, he ran away without a trace.

Gan Mi and the confused Xinan looked at each other, not yet realizing the seriousness of the problem.

The clear sky was covered by dark clouds.

The thunder is hidden in the dark clouds, ready to strike.

“Plop——”

“Plop——”

"puff……"

The strange sound of a heartbeat, accompanied by the sound of blood flowing, rang in everyone's ears.

A suffocating feeling of oppression emanated from the heart suspended above the central pool, and became heavier as more and more hearts began to beat.

Xinan took a half step back, a double-headed knife appeared in his hand, and he was ready to attack.

Gan Mi swallowed and almost lost his signature smile.

He glanced at Xinan who had already entered the attack mode, and couldn't help but complain: "Is this Xu Zhiyan poisonous? Why do I always have bad luck every time I meet him?"

I never expected that I could mess up even a patrol mission.

In Gan Mi's live broadcast room, the audience had never seen Gan Mi suffer losses before, so they burst into laughter after hearing her live broadcast.

【Hahahahahahahahahaha Lao Gan has really met his match. 】

[Indeed, it seems that every time he encounters Xiao Baiwan, Boss Gan's luck becomes extremely bad. ]

[I have a new question, so between Xiao Baiwan and the person who borrowed his life, who has worse luck, hahaha]

[I think it's Xiao Baiwan, hahaha. The bad luck of the life borrower is added passively to neutralize her overly strong characteristic skills. ]

[I am dying of laughter, hahahahaha, Xiao Baiwan’s luck is natural, right? 】

[Fuck, have you watched Xiao Baiwan's live broadcast room? ]

[What happened? Didn't he go chasing something? I guess we'll see them in the same frame soon. ]

[Shit! He didn’t have a mission at all! He got drunk while saving the river!!!]

【？ ？ ？ ？】

[Damn, I'm not surprised? After all, He Zui promised the props, and Lao Gan is very stingy. ]

[Hey, don't any of you want to know what happened to the statue? ]

Just as the audience began to chatter, Gan Mi's live broadcast room began to shake unsteadily.

A few minutes later, there was a 'pop' sound.

The screen in Gan Mi’s live broadcast room went black.

[The copy connection is detected to be disconnected and is being repaired urgently! ]

【？ ？ ？ ？ 】

[I've never seen this before! Can a copy be disconnected? 】

[What the hell? Disconnected?]

[Save... Can the players inside come out? ? ]

[I went to other live broadcast rooms to check! They were all disconnected! ]

[I saw the latest pop-up window on the life-borrower. It's fucking amazing! The system allows players to save themselves? ]

【？ ？ ？】

When all the hearts on the new sculptures began to beat, Gan Mi and Xinan also received a pop-up window indicating a system failure.

[A copy failure has been detected and the connection will be completely disconnected in thirty minutes. ]

【Players please prepare to save yourself. 】

[Players please... (&——&*167&%*——P14*(&02+&%]

"What?"

Gan Mi was stunned by the series of pop-up windows.

“The system allows us to save ourselves.”

Xinan thought for a moment and repeated the above content in a deep voice.

Gan Mi was choked and couldn't help but say.

"…I'm not blind, of course I saw this! Why do you have to think about it when you repeat the content!"

After playing the game for many years, this was the first time he encountered such a situation and he didn't know what to do for a moment.

"What do we do now?"

Gan Mi Shitu talked to people around him to find a solution.

But Xinan is obviously not a good communication partner.

"Wait here for him to come back."

The silver-haired young man holding two swords answered quickly, not thinking there was anything wrong with the answer.

Gan Mi was speechless for a moment after hearing this unreliable answer. He could no longer hold it in and cursed a few times in a low voice.

"Fuck you! I'll be a fool if I hang out with you two again! I'm speechless. How can you two who have nothing in common have the same train of thought?"

He looked at Xinan who was standing there with no intention of leaving, but finally hesitated for a while and did not leave.

Forget it, let’s just wait here for Xu Zhiyan to come back.

After all, if this copy is closed, he can't escape.

At the same time, Xu Zhiyan had already run into the abandoned container warehouse.

As time was running out, he did not go to the shop owner to borrow pliers. Instead, he took out a bunch of universal keys and easily opened the large container containing Hezui.

It was still the same inside, with dim lights flickering.

"Bang!"

A puff of pink smoke drifted by.

Seeing Xu Zhiyan coming, He Zui immediately turned back into human form, clinging to the cage and shouting.

"Brother, you're here! What happened outside? Did you see the new pop-up window just now? The instance seems to be disconnected..."

He Zui used his duck voice to quack.

When Xu Zhiyan heard this, he quickly called up his own panel.

After a quick glance, he didn't have time to explain more, and said, "I trapped Gan Mi and Xinan, you know what I mean."

As he spoke, he shook the master key in his hand.

He Zui paused for a moment, feeling mixed emotions.

He was afraid that Xu Zhiyan would not agree, so he promised the magic hat, but now that the copy has encountered a big change, he is a little reluctant...

However, seeing that Xu Zhiyan turned around and was about to leave without waiting for the transaction item, He Zui still reluctantly took out the magic hat.

The new props were put into storage, and Xu Zhiyan opened the iron cage readily.

Seeing He Zui looking confused and not knowing what to do next, he kindly pointed out a way out for him.

"Go to the property management office right now, find Xie Lingyi, and then take her outside the community."

"You must remember to stay very close to her and not leave her side. This can save your life."

There are passages outside the community leading to other copies. Xie Lingyi has a main system protection coating, so she should have obtained the [Stable] attribute, so it should not be a problem for her to pass through these passages and enter the new copy.

If he is lucky, He Zui can use the help of the life-borrower to successfully leave the punishment copy.

After the two of them enter the next dungeon together, with the help of He Zui, Xie Lingyi might be able to regain her player status.

He Zui did not hesitate this time. He realized that this copy was collapsing and leaving was the best option.

Before He Zui left, Xu Zhiyan suddenly spoke and called the other person.

"Do you have any anesthetic? Or any other props that can induce anesthesia?"

"Anesthetic? Oh, oh, there are tools!"

He Zui had no idea what Xu Zhiyan wanted to do with the anesthetic, but he still handed over the props obediently.

[Name: Anesthetic injection gun]

[Level: D]

[Type: Auxiliary]

[Introduction: Low-level medical auxiliary props, with a high probability of dropping in hospital-related scenes. ]

【Notes: After use, a local anesthetic effect is obtained. 】

After getting the things, Xu Zhiyan looked at He Zui's stumbling away and boasted a few words shamelessly.

"I'm such a nice person. There aren't many people like me who care about other players."

When we arrived at the commercial street, everyone was working as usual, as if they didn't notice the sky was about to fall.

Xu Zhiyan came to the stall selling roasted sweet potatoes and asked the owner for two sweet potatoes.

While weighing the sweet potatoes, the boss glanced at the sky from time to time.

"What's wrong, boss? Is there something wrong this day?" Xu Zhiyan asked knowingly.

When the boss heard this, he immediately smiled and shook his head.

"No, there's nothing wrong. It's all good."

He knew very well that he shouldn't talk about the weather today, so even though he found a problem, he didn't say anything more.

“Boom——”

There was a sudden roar of thunder.

Immediately afterwards, a flash of lightning split the dark clouds in the sky and illuminated the entire community.

The boss was startled and took a few steps back, knocking over things on the table and dropping change all over the floor.

He bent down hurriedly to pick it up, and the anxiety on his face almost overflowed.

Xu Zhiyan, however, acted as if nothing had happened. He broke open a roasted sweet potato and took a bite, letting the soft, glutinous and sweet taste explode on his tongue.

After eating two bites, he looked down at the boss who was still picking up coins, lowered his voice and asked: "Is this kind of life day after day really what you want?"

The boss's hand shook as he picked up the coin, and the coin he had just picked up fell to the ground again.

He simply gave up picking it up and lowered his head, not daring to look outside.

"But what can we do?"

There was unspeakable confusion and pain in the sweet potato shop owner's voice. He didn't seem to understand what else he could do besides living this kind of life day after day.

Xu Zhiyan did not continue to ask, but pointed at the knife holder and said, "Boss, lend me that."

"What do you want a knife for?"

While asking this, the boss pulled out a knife and handed it to the young man standing in front of the window.

After thanking him, Xu Zhiyan took out the props he had just borrowed from He Zui and shot himself in the back of his right hand.

"If I had known, I would have given him my left hand..."

Taking a deep breath, he cursed while taking the knife in his left hand and stabbing the tip of his right index finger.

As a person with clumsy hands and little physical strength, Xu Zhiyan's hands-on ability was not strong, so it took him more than twenty minutes, almost digging out the fingers of his right hand, before he found what Bai Jin had put in.

A small section of wriggling black blood vessel was picked out by the tip of the knife and thrown on the ground.

Looking at the horrific wound and the shop owner who was yelling at him to bandage it, Xu Zhiyan dropped the knife and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Sure enough, when you point a knife at yourself, even if it doesn’t hurt, you can’t help but feel nervous.

Taking the gauze handed over by the boss, Xu Zhiyan hastily wrapped his finger that was dug into pieces twice and prepared to leave the commercial street.

“Buzz——”

The phone vibrated.

He opened his phone and saw a text message from Bai Jin.

【Bai Jin: When will you come back? 】

[Bai Jin: Do you need me to pick you up? ]

No anger, no anxiety.

Looking at these two simple messages, Xu Zhiyan sneered and could almost guess the cold expression on Bai Jin's face after he was extremely angry.

What follows is the system’s final pop-up message.

【The copy has been disconnected.】

【The copy is trying to connect. 】

【The copy connection failed. 】

[The copy has been disconnected...]

Countless messages kept appearing on the screen as if it was stuck.

【Xu Zhiyan: Right away, I went home.】

After replying the message with one hand, Xu Zhiyan said goodbye to his boss.

He needs to reclaim this slice, it's his job, of course he has to go back.

Bai Jin has already closed the entire copy, and being trapped is only a temporary state.

Before leaving, Xu Zhiyan glanced at the black blood vessels still wriggling on the ground. He felt nervous for no reason and couldn't help but follow them with his toes.

Up to now, every step has been within his plan.

But this plan is precarious. He is like walking on a tightrope. If he takes a wrong step and loses the bet, he might be trapped in this world forever by the perverted painter.

Although placing one's hopes on others is not stable, Xu Zhiyan has no other choice at the moment.

Before the copy was closed, his live broadcast was able to be broadcast, and the safe house must have known what happened here.

He could only place all his hopes on ghosts and gods.

"Brother, it's time to test our tacit understanding."

After saying that, Xu Zhiyan shook his still numb right hand, patted his chest to calm his pounding heart, and walked towards Building 167.

The higher the risk, the greater the reward.

Now that Bai Jin has merged with the power of the entire dungeon, if he is recovered, the safe house should be able to upgrade two levels...

1402, Bai Jin stood in front of the window.

It was a little surprised when it received the news.

It thought Xu Zhiyan would just run away and enter the next copy through the passage here.

But the fact is that Xu Zhiyan is back.

The young man appeared downstairs with a leisurely pace.