Chapter 147

The three of them stood on the top of the mountain in the morning. The cold wind was howling and their hands were soon frozen.

But they didn't dare to wander around randomly. It would be very dangerous to wander around randomly without knowing anything.

"What's in that package?"

Ping Chu walked over and looked at the frozen stiff cloth.

"Don't lift it up yet." Shen Yunzhe came over, squatted down and looked at the cloth. "It should be a dead child."

Ping Chu's hand froze and he quickly withdrew it.

Shen Yunzhe was not quite sure what he had experienced in his current identity, but according to the big man's words, the woman should have lost her child, a girl, who fell into the water and died. The woman might be very sad and miserable, but was locked in the house.

But he is this woman now, the mother of his child. Shen Yunzhe is not sure what will happen if he takes on this identity and behaves inappropriately.

[Good question.] The system suddenly spoke.

Not all abilities are unlimited, and Codename Thousand Faces is even more so. The only ability that can be called invincible is Codename Hope. Even Codename Corrosion affects ordinary people.

[So, if you do something that's out of context, the strange creature will immediately recognize you. You should know exactly what will happen after it recognizes you.]

Hiss, he knew it wasn't that simple.

From the perspective of a grieving mother who has lost her child, with her child's body in front of her, wouldn't she really want to see her child again?

Shen Yunzhe has no mother and doesn't quite understand what motherly love is like. He can only speculate what his mother would do based on the contents of books. Shen Yunzhe kneels on one knee on the ground with his hand on the cold cloth. He slowly uncovers the frozen cloth and sees the child lying underneath.

The child was probably only three or four years old, very thin, and his face was distorted as if he was suffocating.

Ping Chu didn't expect him to open the cloth and was also shocked. He Yufeng nodded to him, indicating that he would listen to Shen Yunzhe for the time being.

They are official personnel, but they have no experience in dealing with mountain villages. Shen Yunzhe knows even less than them, but he is Shen Wei's son and is sensitive to the playground. Maybe he is even stronger than them.

They are not the kind of people who are arrogant and look down on others. They are willing to do anything as long as they can survive.

Shen Yunzhe looked at the girl's death, then reached out and turned over the girl's body, and saw strangulation marks on the back of the girl's neck.

"What is this?" Ping Chu asked.

"Someone was holding her down from behind," Shen Yunzhe said. "They used a lot of force, and children's skin is more delicate than adults', so finger marks were left behind."

He Yufeng was silent for a few seconds. He pulled out a topographical map of the mountain village from his sketchbook. "This is a mountain village, deep in the mountains. There's no stream that could drown a child. There's only one mountain spring for drinking water, and no other water source."

"Doesn't this mean..." Ping Chu's face looked grim.

Twenty years ago, there were many cases of favoring boys over girls. In addition, there were no perfect laws at that time, which led to the rampant abandonment of girls in some rural areas deep in the mountains.

"The old society needed labor, especially in rural areas, where men were the main laborers. This is why these problems occurred," Ping Chu said, looking at the little girl's body. "When we investigated these villages, we found that most of them had this bad habit. We also thought it might be related to the background of the playground."

But they are not quite sure how much connection there is.

"Be careful, I don't think this will end like this." Shen Yunzhe turned the little girl over and covered her with the cloth again. "The mountain village swallowed so many people, and no one escaped alive. Even your powerful officials couldn't make it out. It can't be so harmless."

Yes, until now Ping Chu and He Yufeng have not been seen, the big man just pulled Shen Yunzhe out, this is because Shen Yunzhe used his ability to replace the woman.

It is completely unclear why Ping Chu and He Yufeng couldn't see it.

It's like the surface of this playground.

It is just an ordinary mountain village, with an ordinary appearance and no strange things. There is even no movement for three months every year, but it is the site of the most terrifying strange erosion events.

It is milder than a train, but scarier than a train.

"Normal role-playing games are also very dangerous, because plot kills are difficult to avoid," He Yufeng analyzed quietly. "For example, in some teacher-student role-plays, the rules imposed on the players are that as students, they cannot resist the teacher. If they do, they will violate the rules and die."

"I'm very worried that this time will be the same setting. After all, there are people involved, and more than one person, and people can maintain their own personality settings."

He Yufeng is responsible for the description and analysis tasks. He has a huge amount of knowledge and speaks very clearly.

Ping Chu nodded, "And Shen Yunzhe has obviously been assigned a role. We estimate that it will be the same in the future."

Shen Yunzhe thought: Actually not, he was forced into the role.

Shen Yunzhe had never encountered this kind of game field, because to be honest, he was just an ordinary player who had played five or six games. The game field they were talking about was very late and had a difficulty level of more than ten. The only advantage of Code Thousand Faces was probably that the object of substitution could be changed.

Just then, a few people came over in the night, and a white edge gradually appeared in the sky. The people who came were three or four middle-aged men, not dressed very cleanly. Among them was the big man who pulled Shen Yunzhe out.

Seeing Shen Yunzhe next to the corpse, the big man looked disgusted.

"I told you to wash your face, why haven't you gone yet?" He yelled at Shen Yunzhe, "Hurry up!"

"Then bury this bitch!"

Shen Yunzhe looked at him and raised his eyebrows slightly. Ping Chu and He Yufeng hurriedly comforted him from behind.

They all knew that Shen Yunzhe's mental condition was unstable. Who knew if he would have a fit on the spot? It was not like Shen Yunzhe had never done such a thing as cursing ghosts!

Shen Yunzhe didn't curse. He stood up and washed his face next to the basin. Washing his face with ice water in this kind of weather was really a unique enjoyment. His hands were already extremely cold, and after washing, his whole body felt like it was frozen, and his fingers were so cold that they hurt.

The big man was satisfied.

At this time, an old man came out. He looked quite respected. The old man walked up to Shen Yunzhe and started talking.

"Xiaoqing, I know you're sad too. As the child's mother, you must be the saddest one. But the child is in trouble. Even if you keep trying to save her, Yaya won't come back to life. Our mission now is to bury Yaya. Look at her, she's still out here in the middle of the night. How pitiful."

Shen Yunzhe noticed that although the old man spoke pitifully, there was no pity in his eyes.

He looked at the old man quietly without saying anything. He wanted to say a word or two, but a feeling stopped him.

He felt that not a single word should be uttered now.

After staring at the old man for a few seconds, the old man sighed and walked back. The big man glared at him fiercely, then picked up the child's body from the ground.

The old man watched the corpse being picked up, then looked to the side. This time, Shen Yunzhe was obviously sure that the old man was looking at Ping Chu and He Yufeng. The two of them reacted quickly and immediately realized that they were being seen, and hurriedly hid the things they should hide in their clothes.

"You two are the new men joining the village, right?" the old man said. He looked them up and down, looking very satisfied. "Very good. From today on, you are our villagers."

"Remember to go to the village chief's house before eight o'clock to read our village rules."

After saying this, the old man turned and left, and the big man followed behind him holding the corpse.

Shen Yunzhe thought about it, and then gestured to Ping Chu and He Yufeng, indicating that he wanted to follow and take a look.

The two of them made an OK gesture, ready to go and see what the so-called village rules were, and told Shen Yunzhe that this was the gathering point later.

After nodding, Shen Yunzhe followed the person in front. He wanted to follow because his current role was the child's mother. Of course, the child would not stay where he was if he wanted to bury his mother. No matter what, she would follow and watch.

Shen Yunzhe followed behind, and the men in front talked as they walked.

"That woman still doesn't speak. Is she really mute? Erniu, where did you hit her? Did you make her mute?"

"Who knows? She was crying and screaming before, but I think she was just pretending."

"She seems to be catching up."

"Even though she's just a girl, she's still her daughter after all. Just follow her. Can she run away?"

Shen Yunzhe followed all the way to the grove behind the village. The sky gradually brightened and he saw many small mounds in the grove. Each small mound should be a grave, because Shen Yunzhe saw the men stop next to a small mound where a pit had already been dug.

They put the child's body into a small mound of earth and began to bury it.

Shen Yunzhe watched quietly from the side, and as he watched, he found himself becoming unusually cold. Although he was now acting as a mother, he did not have much sympathy for the child.

Rather than sympathy, he wanted to understand what was going on here.

However, this is also the general idea of the players, which only shows that Codename Thousand Faces is a very rational person who can distinguish between virtuality and reality.

After burying the child, those people left. Shen Yunzhe and the others all left and came to this small mound.

But he didn't know what to do now. Although he had replaced the mother's identity, he had no idea about the plot. He didn't know the girl and didn't know who the mother was or what her personality was. Thinking of this, Shen Yunzhe frowned slightly. It should be said that he shouldn't have chosen the mother from the beginning. It would have been better for him to become a villager like Ping Chu and He Yufeng to determine the background plot.

【You can change your identity now.】

"How can it be changed?"

[Limited to changing people you have met, such as the villagers or the village chief.]

Shen Yunzhe was silent for a moment. He sat on the ground, which was extremely cold. He fell into deep thought, "I always feel that being a villager has its pitfalls."

"Although it seems to be the best choice, and even Ping Chu and He Yufeng are villagers, this identity is very convenient for collecting information, but I always feel that it won't be that simple, just like the playground of the mountain village is not that simple."

How do you choose?

Shen Yunzhe looked at the small mound. After a moment, he whispered a name, "Ya Ya?"

"Didn't you say...even strange things are fine."

As soon as he finished speaking, Shen Yunzhe suddenly found that his perspective was different. He was still standing in the same place, but there was a woman in front of him.

The woman's hair was messy and stuck to her head. Even after washing her face, there were still spots of mud. Her hands and face were frozen and looked red and swollen. Shen Yunzhe frowned slightly as he looked at the wound. If this kind of injury was not treated, it would turn into habitual frostbite, and if it was more serious, she might even have to undergo amputation.

Just as he was observing the woman's wound, the woman seemed to suddenly discover something. She turned her head suddenly, and the moment she saw Shen Yunzhe, her eyes were filled with surprise and joy.

"Ya Ya?" she cried, and then burst into mad sobs, "Ya Ya, Ya Ya!"

"Ya Ya, alive! Ya Ya! Ah!!"

She cried and tried to hug Shen Yunzhe.

But at this moment, a big man named Erniu suddenly appeared and kicked the woman hard from behind.

"Are you crazy? There's no place for your little girl here. She's dead!" Erniu pulled her out by her hair. "You're really playing dumb. How dare you lie to me!"

The woman struggled to walk towards Shen Yunzhe. Shen Yunzhe was stunned for a moment. He followed her and tried to grab the woman's hand, but found that his hand passed through the woman's outstretched arm. The woman looked at Shen Yunzhe, and the figure of a little girl was reflected in her eyes, but Erniu did not see him just now.

Shen Yunzhe realized that he was now in the shoes of Yaya, but a Yaya that only the woman Xiaoqing could see.

In other words: the Yaya he is now is a shadow created by a woman's delusion.

Tsk.

But the fact that he can directly substitute himself into Yaya only means that this Yaya is likely to become a strange creature.

Shen Yunzhe followed them back to the village. Erniu locked the woman in the house again. This time he clearly heard the woman's crying. She no longer called Yaya's name, but just kept howling. Shen Yunzhe stood at the door of the small dark house. People in the village began to come and go, but no one saw Shen Yunzhe.

It seems that this woman is the only one who can see Yaya.

Just then, Ping Chu and He Yufeng came over. When they saw Shen Yunzhe, they waved. Shen Yunzhe gestured to them. They quickly realized that something might have happened, so they immediately pretended nothing had happened.

"You keep walking, I'll follow you." Shen Yunzhe walked over, "Don't worry, they can't see me."

The two men were a little confused, but before they could finish their confusion, they heard a woman crying from the small dark room, and Ping Chu's hands trembled.

"I changed roles." Shen Yunzhe said succinctly, "Just like you guys at the beginning, I was in a state where I had no roles assigned."

The two men understood, and they continued walking forward, talking in low voices as they walked, talking about the village rules they had seen.

"The village rules of this village are at the door of the village chief's house, and the content is very strange." He Yufeng took out a pen and paper, made a rough sketch of the village chief's house, and then wrote a few lines of words next to it. These were the contents of the village rules he had written down.

Ping Chu said, "There are many typos and some local slang. It seems the cultural level is not very high. It is quite normal for a mountain village twenty years ago."

They gave the paper to Shen Yunzhe, and what Shen Yunzhe saw were the words modified by He Yufeng.

Village rules:

1. Every man in the village will be allocated his own land, room and grave.

2. Ignore any noises made in the punishment room.

3. No one is allowed to help Erniu’s woman.

4. Villagers cannot leave the village.

"The punishment room is where we were staying before," He Yufeng said. "It seems to be used to detain women. Some disobedient women and children would be locked up there for the entire day without food or water. Erniu's woman, the character you played before, might have been trafficked here."

Shen Yunzhe sighed, "I can guess it. After all, the name Xiaoqing doesn't seem like something that can be chosen here."

Ping Chu also spoke up, "This distribution thing is also very strange. Forget about the land and houses, but why do we have to divide the grave mounds?"

"We need to continue investigating."

Shen Yunzhe nodded, "Then you go and find out. I'll go back and see Xiaoqing. She's the one we saw when we came in. She's probably a very important character. While the villagers can't see me now, I'll take a closer look."

"Okay, we'll come find you here when we get any new clues."

Shen Yunzhe returned to the punishment room and stood at the door of the room. The woman had stopped crying and no sound could be heard from inside.

The houses in the mountain village were not tight enough, and there was always a gap in the wooden doors. Shen Yunzhe looked inside through the gap, but in an instant he saw an eye looking out.

The woman stared at him through the gap, with a gentle warmth in her eyes.

"Yaya." She shouted, "Yaya, my Yaya."