Chapter 159 Romance Contagion (22) (1st + 2nd) [VIP]

"There's... there's another one?"

Before Lu Changfeng could recover from the previous explosive information, he heard new explosive information.

Was there another Gu breeding farm like this before?

The remaining low-end team members also looked as if they had heard something extraordinary.

It would be fine if there were information like this that there are other institutions besides the Foundation, but the space they are currently in is actually a Gu breeding farm of another institution, the purpose of which is to annex each other and create the Gu King.

This is a terrifying core that is totally incompatible with Mary Sue's cheerful appearance.

"Ah?" Yun Tian looked shocked.

Although everyone knew that the space they had explored would be used by the Foundation according to its functionality after all the rules were summarized, before this time, they had never seen the space put into use after the exploration was completed.

Investors in front of the screen were also shocked:

【ah? 】

【ah? ? ? 】

[Do I have to keep saying “huh?”? ]

[I really like the phrase from romantic contagion investors: “Huh?”]

[How could Xu Zichen have come into contact with other institutions' Gu farms twice in a row? Could it be that the Foundation has mistakenly entered other institutions' Gu farms more than once? ]

[Xu Zichen...what kind of job did you do before...]

【First, rule out the air conditioner repairman. 】

【First eliminate the King of Assassins. 】

【？ 】

[There are always answers in the barrage that make my eyes go dark. 】

[I came here because of your reputation. How exactly do you want this space to explode? ]

[We don’t know what this project will become. Its label in my mind has changed from “real estate development” to “entering the cultural and creative industry” to “more like King of Assassins than □□” to “foundation second-hand space”. Now the latest version is “breeding poison farm”. ]

[You call this an E-class space? This feature is worthy of a high-end space, right? ]

…

Obviously, not only the investors on the bullet screen felt this way, but Guan Hongyan also checked the background in the unknown space: "Strange."

"What's wrong?" Lu Changfeng turned around and asked.

"If this is a poison field, why was its initial rating only as low as E?" Guan Hongyan frowned slightly.

A Gu field that can split space and merge space, just based on such a rough guess, its rating must be above S.

The original E was a joke.

If the initial rating had not been only E, they would not have failed to think about the Gu field after entering.

"Could the foundation's rating be wrong?" Zhang Ying guessed.

"Yes, but this happens very rarely and only after certain strict restrictions are met," said Guan Hongyan, who is very familiar with the relevant content. "The rating of spaces has a fixed value. This standard is universal and all institutions use this classification."

The low-end players don't understand this situation as deeply as the high-end players.

As soon as Zhang Ying asked the question, Guan Hongyan gave a very confident answer.

"You haven't participated in many projects, so you probably don't know. Ratings are like this. Unless there are walking energy aggregates like divine life forms in unknown space, otherwise, under normal circumstances, the initial rating will not be wrong," Guan Hongyan added, "Besides, the Foundation's judgment standard has always been to prefer higher to lower. If there is a possibility of upgrading, then the final judgment result will definitely be biased towards the higher one."

There are also investors speculating on related issues in the barrage:

[Is this a big leak? S-level space was judged as E? ]

[Dear, this is a major accident. ]

[Damn, indeed, the project that should have been placed in the high-end space is now placed in the low-end space. ]

[Is there any precedent for this in the Foundation? ]

[No, what is the concept of E and S? They are so different that they cannot be confused. Many investors and exploration team members will never see S in their lifetime, so how could this be wrong?]

[So the Foundation couldn't have made a mistake? Can anyone tell me if this is what Sister Yaner said? ]

[That's right.]

[The Foundation has always preferred high ratings to low ones. Wasn't there a project last year that was upgraded from E to B, which resulted in all spaces with divine life forms being upgraded? A large number of spaces that were stuck at the ceiling of the mid-range were promoted to high-end spaces. Has anyone forgotten so quickly? ]

[No, I still remember, but that time it was E to B, and there was also a bonus rule like time stop. Everyone knew from the beginning that it would definitely upgrade, but they didn't expect it to be so high. ]

[So why was this space initially determined to be E? ]

…

"Unless..." Bai Jinshu's voice sounded on the screen, "Unless, the initial rating was indeed E."

The Foundation did not make an error in judgment.

When they first entered here, the level of "Romance Contagion" was indeed E.

An ordinary space without any special rules. The only special thing is that it has an original book that can reflect the events that happened in the world, and an extremely realistic Mary Sue world.

"Thinking back to the process of discovering the rules, we got "Romantic Contagion", and then Wei Sheng Pei Ya's imagination led to "Romantic Contagion 2", so we think that 2 was actually merged into 1 in our hands, and the two original books were merged," Bai Jin said slowly, "but what if it's not the case?"

He looked at everyone and said, "We have been thinking in a misunderstanding. We got an original work, so we always thought that what was integrated in was also another original work."

In the bewildered eyes of the low-end team members and investors, Guan Hongyan blurted out as if she had suddenly realized something: "You mean..."

Who said that the one that was integrated was an original work?

In such a Gu field, the Gu breeder holding the original work keeps merging the world and swallowing up the protagonist. So who can guarantee that there is really only one original work of "Romantic Contagion 2" that made them discover the fusion of the world in the first place?

"The three killer sisters should be the Gu raised by the killer island owner..." Xu Zichen whispered, "Numbers can't represent everything. It is very likely that Romantic Contagion 2 has merged with countless worlds before it came into contact with Romantic Contagion 1 in our hands."

The three little Gu Kings that merged into them had gone through countless rounds of splitting and fusion.

"So the three killer sisters who we think traveled to ancient times after death are actually..." Bo Yuan's voice suddenly became stagnant.

Bai Jinshu finished the rest of her words for her: "In fact, he is dead."

The Gu breeder thought that they had met his requirements, so after the world fusion, he chose to kill his three Gu Kings and transformed them into exploration team members in the organization.

He was the one who killed the people, so naturally he would make preparations in advance as if he had anticipated the deaths of the three sisters.

These three sisters should not have gone to some so-called ancient times, but have become part of the exploration team of this organization.

"Including Gu Tiancai," Xu Zichen said calmly, "If we don't look at it from the perspective of Mary Sue novels, a three-and-a-half-year-old genius hacker is too unreasonable. He should also be the Gu King, the Gu King raised by Senior Qiu."

Judging from the narration of the [runaway heroine] Gu Niannian, Gu Tiancai had been targeted since the moment she gave birth successfully.

While most Gu Kings are adults, Gu Tiancai, who was already a bug-level hacker and had devoured countless protagonists at the age of three and a half, may be the strongest Gu King that this Gu farm can produce when he grows up in a dozen years.

"This is so inhumane..." Lu Changfeng couldn't help but said angrily.

They only had an idea about the Gu breeding farm before, but had no real sense of the Gu breeders and the Gu Kings therein.

But as long as the illusory "King of Gu" is attached to a specific person, the horror of this place will be experienced by everyone firsthand.

Among all the protagonists, except for the [White Flower] heroine Weisheng Peiya, the one that everyone has the most contact with is Gu Tiancai.

Although this kid is a bit cocky most of the time, his personality is far from bad. The only tricky thing about him is his unusual love for ice cream.

In addition, most of the exploration team members almost forgot Gu Tiancai's real age during their time together.

Investors on the barrage also have similar feelings.

【Ah... this. 】

【When you say this, I feel like the world is not good anymore. 】

[So the reason why this world has become Mary Sue... isn't it because the existence of the Gu King has greatly increased the protagonist's ability limit? ]

【How do you say it? 】

[For example, under normal circumstances, the only outstanding personal abilities of a three-and-a-half-year-old protagonist may be his personality, intelligence within the range of a three-year-old child, and a more outstanding appearance compared to his peers. However, the Gu King, who has devoured countless protagonists, can iterate on bug-level hacker abilities, abilities beyond the normal range. Those assassin kings who entered the industry at the age of three, became famous at the age of five, and retired at the age of nine are entirely possible under such circumstances.]

[So the Gu breeders usually appear around the protagonist, most likely not to make money around the protagonist through the original work, but more likely they are preparing for the future, building a good relationship with the Gu King in advance, so that they can control the other party to the greatest extent after the Gu King joins the organization. ]

[…I feel like all the hahahaha I said in the past few days was wasted.]

[Don't tell me, don't tell me, I feel like all the happiness I had in the past few days has turned into something terrifying when I think about it.]

Everyone inside and outside the screen was lost in thought.

At this moment, a flashlight suddenly shone over: "Who's there!"

"Shit," Guan Hongyan reacted immediately, "The tomb guard is here!"

"Lu Changfeng, you were too loud just now!"

The cemetery was not very big, and it was late at night, so any conversation could be heard far away.

Just now everyone was in shock that Gu Tiancai was also one of the Gu Kings, and for a moment no one noticed that Lu Changfeng's voice was too loud.

Although the guard would not monitor the path on the back mountain, if someone appeared in the cemetery at eleven or twelve o'clock in the evening, who knows if he was here to do something bad, so naturally I had to come and take a look.

The guard was holding a flashlight and it seemed that he had rushed over after hearing the sound.

It was obvious that there was a problem at first glance. Late at night, a group of more than ten members of the exploration team stood in a circle in front of a tombstone and whispered to each other. They didn't look like good people at first glance.

"What are you guys doing in a cemetery so late at night?" The guard was a skinny old man who looked elderly. His voice was full of rage. The exploration team members who were still sighing did not have time to continue sighing and quickly ran away.

The skinny old man guarding the cemetery could not catch up with the exploration team members whose physical fitness far exceeded that of ordinary people. He could only watch the group of people running away with a flashlight in his hand.

"What are you doing here so late at night..." The skinny old man was panting, and he took a long time to catch his breath among the tombstone before he recovered.

The wind in the cemetery was chilly at midnight. He shivered, looked at the tombstones around him, and hurried back to the guard room without even raising his head.

In the distance, the exploration team members who ran out of the cemetery along the path looked at each other in embarrassment. Guan Hongyan let out a long sigh: "This is the first time I've been chased in a cemetery in the middle of the night..."

I've been in the foundation for so long that I can encounter all kinds of things.

But thanks to this interruption, the previously very serious atmosphere suddenly relaxed.

Lu Changfeng turned on his phone and saw the message that popped up a few minutes ago when a group of people were hiding from the guards: "Gu Tiancai found out."

Gu Tiancai's efficiency was as usual. When Bai Jin had told him that he wanted to check the death records of Weisheng Peiya's parents, the cremation records at the crematorium, and the car accident records, Lu Changfeng had sent the information over. Within an hour, Gu Tiancai had found the information.

"Brother Qi, look," Lu Changfeng didn't care to sigh that Gu Tiancai was actually the Gu King, and sent all the information to the temporary group chat, "This information does show fifteen years ago..."

Whether it is the time of death in the public security system, the cremation records left in the crematorium, or the news, the time is extremely consistent. They are all fifteen years ago, exactly the same as the time engraved on the tombstone.

"Can you find the news at that time?" Bai Jinshu looked through the materials as he walked. "There should have been more paper media at that time. Can Gu Tiancai find detailed news reports?"

"Let me ask." Lu Changfeng opened the chat box.

A few minutes later, new information appeared in the temporary group chat.

"That's all," Lu Changfeng said. "Gu Tiancai said that there were too few news reports that could leave traces on the Internet at that time, and it was difficult to find detailed reports. In addition, the car accident was only well-known locally, and it was completely unavailable in some national media. So now we can only find this one related report."

"That's enough," Bai Jinshu opened the picture, enlarged it, and read the words on it one by one.

"Guan Hongyan," he suddenly called out, "You heard Weisheng Peiya talk about that childhood friend before. Did she say that this friend and her parents were in a car accident together?"

"Yes," Guan Hongyan replied, "What's wrong?"

"The news report," Bai Jin said briefly, "the news report said that her parents were the only two people in the car."

All the exploration team members stopped in their tracks.

So where did this friend come from...

"Could it be that this is the friend that Weisheng Peiya imagined when she was a child?" Ming Jingxuan asked tentatively.

It is normal for children to fantasize about having friends when they are young, let alone someone like Weisheng Peiya whose parents died early.

Guan Hongyan: "...I still think there is something wrong here."

This friend appeared after Weisheng Peiya devoured the heroine 18. Why didn't she feel like this childhood friend before, but only felt like her after merging with the heroine 18?

"Lu Changfeng," Bai Jinshu suddenly said, "I'll send you a person. Ask Gu Tiancai to check this person's childhood experience."

"Okay, Brother Qi, you send it." Lu Changfeng nodded.

A few seconds later, he cried out in surprise: "Shi...Shi Linling? Brother Qi, are you checking Shi Linling?"

*

If Bai Jinshu hadn't mentioned Shi Linling, everyone would have almost forgotten the original owner of "Romantic Contagion 1".

Now that Bai Jinshu suddenly mentioned it, everyone realized that after cracking the essence of the world, Shi Linling's existence became confusing.

If she was a Gu breeder, then why did she act like she knew nothing about the fact that the "original work" was a "ticket"? She didn't even show any abnormal behavior after losing the book, and was assimilated into this world without knowing anything.

But if she wasn't raising a Gu...

"Brother Qi, I found it," Lu Changfeng whispered, patting Bai Jinshu who was sitting in front of him, "Last night Gu Tiancai said it was too late and he was going to sleep, so he sent it to me just now."

"I sent it to the group." Lu Changfeng sent a bunch of information in the temporary group chat.

Bai Jinshu looked up at the teacher on the podium who didn't care whether these rich second-generations listened to the class or not, and clicked on the backstage to browse the information.

Compared to the limited relevant information yesterday, which was not enough to be understood at a glance, Shi Linling had a lot of information.

As expected of a child from a wealthy family, in an era when the Internet was not well developed, the traces she could leave behind were much more than those of Weisheng Peiya's parents.

Bai Jinshu read quickly and finally saw what he was looking for when Shi Linling was about five years old.

When she was five years old, Shi Linling, the only daughter of the Shi family, was kidnapped. She escaped alone when the kidnappers were not paying attention, and returned home alone before her parents were ready to pay the ransom. Because this was a kidnapping case with a very high price, it was easily discovered by Gu Tiancai.

"Do you know something?" Guan Hongyan saw new information in the group and turned to look in the direction of Cen Bingqi.

"Do you think Shi Linling is a Gu keeper?" Bai Jinshu turned around and asked.

"Not like that." Guan Hongyan answered with extraordinary firmness.

Whether from Shi Linling's behavior or the importance she attached to "tickets", it is hard to tell that she is a Gu keeper.

"The first original book owner we came into contact with was Shi Linling, and our understanding of the original book owners all started from Shi Linling," Bai Jin spoke slowly, organizing his words as he spoke, "So we initially thought that the original book owners in this world needed to explore the role of the original book on their own, because Shi Linling acted as if he didn't know that the original book owners would be assimilated after leaving."

Guan Hongyan nodded.

"But the current development is that this world is a Gu breeding farm, and the Gu breeders in the Gu breeding farm actually know the specific conditions of the tickets and tickets, so Shi Linling's existence becomes very special."

Shi Linling is special.

"I remember that on the first day after we confirmed that Shi Linling was the owner of the original novel, we discovered a move she made. Two years ago, she suddenly helped Wei Sheng Pei Ya get back the compensation that the perpetrator of the car accident had been owing her," Bai Jinshu tapped the table with his finger. "We believe that was a confirmation measure taken by Shi Linling after she got the original novel in order to confirm whether the protagonist really existed in this world."

"But putting aside all personal ethics..." His voice became softer and softer, "If it was just to confirm whether Weisheng Peiya really existed, then she only needed to confirm that there was such a person. There was no need for her to help her. This action was very inexplicable."

Guan Hongyan understood what he meant and continued, "But if she helped Wei Sheng Pei Ya because she knew that she would be enrolled in Olds Business School in two years, and wanted to establish a good relationship with the protagonist in advance, then why did Shi Linling stay away from her after Wei Sheng Pei Ya enrolled?"

So why did Shi Linling suddenly help Weisheng Peiya?

"Before yesterday, I always thought that this might be just a momentary outburst of her kindness, but after yesterday, I suddenly had an idea..." Bai Jinshu raised his eyebrows and looked at Guan Hongyan, "Do you think you look like Shi Linling?"

Guan Hongyan: "Ah? Me?"

"Do you suspect that Weisheng Peiya mistook me for Shi Linling?"

Bai Jinshu nodded: "In fact, I suspect that Weisheng Peiya knew Shi Linling when she was a child."

It is impossible for a Gu keeper to have no knowledge of "tickets", and Shi Linling is definitely not a Gu keeper.

When they took the original work away from those campus Gu breeders a few days ago, they discovered a very interesting rule about the "original work".

"Once the ownership of the original work is transferred and the distance from the original owner reaches a certain level, the owner will lose the memory of the original work and be assimilated by this world." Bai Jinshu raised his eyebrows, "Have you ever thought about why a normal Gu field, which has the ability to create and merge spaces, is rated E in our world? The Foundation relies on energy concentration when evaluating the rating, so once this space has merged or split spaces over a period of time, it will definitely be detected and judged as S."

Therefore, the reason why this space has not been determined is probably because it has neither split nor merged space for a long period of time.

"So for a long time... the 'ticket' was in Shi Linling's hands." Guan Hongyan took a breath.

Shi Linling is not the one who raises Gu, so who is the original one?

"In this world, things recorded in writing will become true," Bai Jin said, "which means that we cannot actually be sure of all the past recorded in writing by Wei Sheng Pei Ya, because the original work that would make all the written records the truth would be deceiving."

"It will change the memories of all those who have experienced it, but this change will bypass the owner of the original work," Bai Jin said, "This shows that the function of the original work includes keeping its owner awake. So is there a possibility that the reason why the Gu Kings raised by Gu Breeders can maintain their relationship with the Gu Breeders in the constantly changing, updated and integrated original work is because their memories will not be affected after they become Gu Kings."

"Hiss..." Guan Hongyan took a breath, "Cen Bingqi, I know what you are going to say."

The original work will make the text real, modifying the memories of all eyewitnesses and traces of events, just like Yun Tian's coat that inexplicably returned.

Only the holder and the Gu King can escape the distortion of words.

Therefore, the childhood playmate that Weisheng Peiya suddenly remembered must be the person whose image was distorted by the words.

Her parents did not necessarily die fifteen years ago. Weisheng Peiya's parents should have died much earlier than that, at least after she met Shi Linling.

The time when Shi Linling obtained the original work should have been long before this, and the first contact between the two people should have been when both were five or six years old.

"Shi Linling accidentally got the book around the time of the kidnapping case when she was five years old," Guan Hongyan said. "She went to contact the protagonist of the book, Wei Sheng Pei Ya, and ended up mistakenly entering the scene of her parents' death. Or maybe she saw the words on the title page that her parents died in a car accident, so she wanted to stop it."

However, unexpectedly, the story did not unfold from Weisheng Peiya’s childhood, so she, a friend who did not enter the text and became a "supporting role", had no power to change the plot at all.

The car accident still happened, and in order to avoid this "extra-plot supporting character" who suddenly appeared in the important car accident, the text moved the time of the car accident forward a few years and modified everyone's memory.

But Shi Linling still remembered.

Bai Jin said: "The story of "Romance Contagion 1" begins with the heroine's parents getting into a car accident, and then the heroine, who is both good in character and academics, receives an admission letter from Olds Business School."

"So..." Guan Hongyan suddenly realized, "Shi Linling held the original book, waiting for the text to reappear, and waited for Weisheng Peiya for more than ten years?"

Then she discovered that Weisheng Peiya's memory had been modified in the original novel, and the car accident was also changed to have happened fifteen years ago.

"So she chose not to disturb her...but just helped her get the compensation back..." Guan Hongyan murmured.

"In this Gu breeding farm, book holders are divided into two camps," Bai Jinshu finally discovered the core and special ecology of this Gu breeding farm, "Gu refiners who are familiar with the rules and hold the 'ticket' to breed Gu, and the natives who have obtained the 'original book' through various other means to explore the rules."

"So there was something wrong with the direction we speculated at the beginning..." Guan Hongyan suddenly raised her head, "It's because the information we got was confusing. Part of the information we got came from the Gu breeder, and part of it came from the free man!"

The author has something to say:

Yes, Shi Linling is a foreshadowing, otherwise why is she the only one with a name among the four book holders, while the killer island owner, senior Qiu, and the Gu King all have no names (x)