11

Tao Sai was stunned for a long moment, trying to make sure she hadn't misread the words in the quotation marks. She clicked on the input method's small keyboard, but she still couldn't figure out what to reply, or whether to reply at all.

The private message was sent two hours ago, almost exactly when the video was uploaded.

The fact that he asked this question proves that he is most likely a player.

Does that mean she's not the only player?

But why couldn't she find any information about this game after searching almost the entire internet?

Perhaps this netizen named [Ronaldo] knew something. Tao Sai replied to him with reservation: "What do you mean?"

A few seconds later the other party replied.

"About ten days ago, did you download a game called 'Insect Tide'?"

Tao Sai hesitated for a moment, and the other party continued to send private messages.

"Don't worry, I'm not a bad person, and I don't have any bad intentions. I just hope we can share information. How about this, I'll first introduce our situation to you as a show of sincerity."

Tao Sai paid special attention to the word "they".

[Ronaldo]: "I'm not actually a gamer; my roommate is. He downloaded 'Insurgence' from the game store. I came home from evening study that day and saw him playing it. I thought it was fun, but as soon as I turned on my computer, I had something urgent to deal with. After midnight, when I went to the store, I couldn't find 'Insurgence'. I was busy reviewing for the next few days until my roommate told me he had a dream where he was bitten to death by a bug in the game, and then he seemed to be reborn."

Tao Sai had consumed too much physical strength and energy today and was already exhausted, but when she saw this, she instantly became much more energetic.

It was almost exactly the same situation as hers at the time.

[Ronaldo]: "He said the game's setting took place in the real world, and that a swarm of insects was about to strike. I didn't believe it at first, thinking he'd lost his mind and gone crazy from playing games. But when I went to the game store again, I found the game had been taken down. I couldn't find it anywhere, not even Baidu. Then, during that time, earthquakes of varying sizes occurred in different parts of the world, and they were almost identical to what my roommate had said. I had no choice but to believe it."

[Ronaldo]: "It's basically confirmed that the game was only available in the store for 24 hours. My roommate found the game in the store in the early morning and downloaded it. When I tried to download the game at 8 pm, I saw that the number of people who had downloaded it was 1,127. This means there are at least 1,127 players like you."

He described the situation in great detail, not as if he had made it up on the spur of the moment. This lowered Tao Sai's guard a little, and he replied, "My situation is roughly the same as your roommate's."

[Ronaldo]: "Wow! You really are a gamer, great!"

Tao Sai thought back to that day and typed, "I downloaded the game around 11pm. I also noticed the number of people who had downloaded it, which was over 2,000."

[Ronaldo]: "Oh my god, there are twice as many players as I thought. Your information is very helpful! I hope we can continue to exchange information in the future. My roommate is rushing me, so I'll stop talking for now. We're busy with the main quest right now and time is tight. Please feel free to contact me if there is anything else."

Tao Sai: “Okay.”

She scrolled back through the chat history. Half a minute later, the other party sent another message: "I have another recent discovery that I think I need to tell you. When I saw the video you posted, I immediately forwarded it to my roommate, but he couldn't open the link. I told him your nickname and asked him to search for the user, but he couldn't find it either. None of your information would show up on his phone or computer. In the end, I had no choice but to show him my phone. I suspect this is because this is a single-player game, where players play independently in independent worlds, so players are separated by some unknown, invisible force. Since I'm not a player, I only stumbled upon your video."

After turning off the phone screen, Tao Sai looked at the upper bunk bed and fell into deep thought.

The currently known information is that there are more than 2,000 players, which means there are more than 2,000 shelter ship systems. This way, more survivors will be rescued, which is good news.

However, it is difficult for players to communicate with each other as there is an invisible wall between them, and they need to go through an intermediary to get in touch.

This also seems to explain why she posted several blog posts on Weibo in recent days and bought promotions, but as a result, apart from the contempt and sarcasm of netizens, she did not attract the attention of other players.

As for the netizen [Ronaldo], the fact that they had the facilities to play games in their dorm room basically indicates that he and his roommates were either undergraduates or graduate students. They were likely graduate students, as he never mentioned any other roommates. They lived in a double room, which is rare for undergraduates in China.

Tao Sai quickly switched to the [Deep Sleep] skill on the system interface and closed her eyes. She really needed deep sleep to restore her strength.

When Tao Sai woke up the next day, he was fully refreshed and had another day full of energy.

After breakfast, she called Zhou Ning and said, "Come with me to the Insect Academy this morning. We're going to kill monsters and level up."

“Ah, this…”

Zhou Ning suddenly recalled the video of the insects she saw on Taotao's mobile phone last night, and she felt creepy all over.

Tao Sai noticed her resistance and comforted her, "It's okay. You'll get used to it after killing so many people."

Zhou Ning: “…”

She felt that she might never get used to killing more.

Zhou Ning finally followed Tao Sai to the insect acupoint. Tao Tao said that soon the whole place would be overrun with these insects. She had to be brave! She had to learn to overcome them! She could do it!

Tao Sai looked around and saw that no insects were crawling out. She walked to the edge of the crack and looked down.

The sun was shining brightly today, but no light came in from the deep crack in the ground. Tao Sai turned on the flashlight, and under the strong beam of light, she could see that the width of the crack ten meters below the ground was gradually shrinking. The stone she threw down to seal the opening last night had been slowly pushed open, and the rock was loose, revealing the tentacles of the insects ready to move.

The bugs would soon crawl out, so Tao Sai quickly made preparations, equipped Zhou Ning, and distributed weapons.

Let’s do a great job!

When she first started playing the game "Insect Tide", Tao Sai couldn't find any game guides and could only try again and again by feeling her way across the river. So in the previous few games, she either died at the beginning or died in the middle stage after struggling.

Later she figured out the trick on her own. It is important to stockpile resources at the beginning, but it is equally important to level up before the insect swarm comes.

So she would look for low-level insect blood after the game started, and when there were not too many insects, she would kill monsters and level up while ensuring safety.

After improving your own level, your self-protection ability will be enhanced accordingly. You can also use experience to upgrade the ship, expand the hull space, open up new functions, and accommodate more refugees, so that the refuge ship can operate smoothly.

Her only regret now was that there were too few characters, only two including her. The more characters she had, the more kills she would get, and the corresponding experience coins would also increase.

But there is no way around it. After all, people in real life are not NPCs in games. It is not so easy to gain their trust and recruit them. It is not easy to have a teammate like Zhou Ning who is willing to trust her.

The sun was high in the sky. Tao Sai and Zhou Ning were squatting on one side, wearing long-sleeved clothes and plastic gloves, staring intently at the edge of the crack in the ground.

Zhou Ning wrapped himself more tightly, put on a mask and goggles, and tied up his long hair and stuffed it into a swimming cap.

Through her goggles, she saw a living worm crawling up. It was about ten centimeters long and secreted a disgusting liquid from its mouthparts. It looked quite hideous and terrifying.

The insect began to crawl toward her. Zhou Ning gripped the spring knife in her right hand tightly, gritted her teeth, and, enduring the physical discomfort, aimed and stabbed the insect's head. The stab missed, and the insect struggled violently, emitting a shrill chirping sound. As she panicked and didn't know what to do, Tao Sai quickly helped her with a second stab, piercing the insect's head. Brown liquid splattered, and the insect quickly lost its life. She then expertly used her other knife to pick open the insect's corpse.

Another insect crawled up. Zhou Ning took a deep breath to adjust himself. His eyes became firmer and he raised the knife to stab it again.

The knife still missed the target because the insect was about 15 cm long and moved much faster, and she didn't make enough preparations in advance.

But this time she was much calmer. She used the spring knife in her other hand to make another move, and then used both knives to pick off the insect corpse, looking for the next target.

Zhou Ning kept mentally preparing himself. It was a bit nauseating, but he had taken a lot of protective measures, so he was fine.

The stone barrier under the crack was completely pushed open by the insects, and they crawled out in increasing numbers.

Tao Sai quickly got into the swing of things, killing insects like crazy. The bright daylight meant she didn't need to bite the flashlight, and her efficiency was even higher than the previous night.

Occasionally, mature insects would flap their wings at the edge of the crack in the ground, trying to take off. Tao Sai would always hear the vibration and rush over, then quickly chop the flying insects into pieces.

Killing the bugs was incredibly exhausting. After just two hours, Zhou Ning collapsed back, ripping off his swimming cap. His face was drenched in sweat, his hair soaked, and he felt completely exhausted. "Taotao, I can't do this anymore."

"Rest first and drink some water."

Tao Sai was killing with all her might, using both her hands and feet. She stepped hard on the young insects, which were only a few centimeters long, and crushed them to pieces.

Zhou Ning took a deep breath and began to drink water in big gulps. The sweat pouring down made her a little dehydrated.

An hour later, Tao Sai finally stopped. She cleaned up the bugs on the ground, picked up a few large rocks and threw them down to block the hole in the bugs' blood. She walked over to Zhou Ning and said, "Let's go back and eat something and get some sleep. We'll come back this afternoon."

"Come again?" Zhou Ning's face turned pale.

Tao Sai nodded and said silently in her heart: Sister, I am doing this for your own good. How can you become strong without killing monsters and leveling up?