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Chapter 351: Inhuman (159) (1st + 2nd) [VIP]
The moment the surrounding space stabilized, everyone's eyes went dark, and when they opened their eyes again, they were all lying on the floor.
The ceiling above their heads was still the familiar church ceiling. They were still in the church, but there were only a few of them left.
The children and ambulances that had been queuing up for bandages under the church were all gone. For a moment, the entire church was shockingly quiet, with only the voices of the teammates who were waking up from the ground one after another.
"Hiss...what happened?" Xiao Tang rubbed his head and climbed up, "Why did you faint? Are we going to be kicked out?"
"No," Xu Zichen said, "We didn't change back."
Bai Jinshu looked around and found that, indeed, although everyone fainted for unknown reasons, they were still in the church after waking up, and they still looked like children of a few years old.
The only difference between now and before is that the group of children and nurses downstairs are gone. It looks like all the irrelevant n.pc in the ghost story have been cleared out.
Since everyone fainted for a moment before waking up, Yuan Shanming and Zhou Ju, who had been restrained by several newcomers, all broke free from their restraints. But for some reason, Zhou Ju, who had been struggling before, did not quickly stand up and call Lao Guan after seeing the situation around him clearly. Instead, he sat there with a shocked expression.
"What do you mean?" Xiao Tang blinked, "Has Lao Guan given up on driving us away?"
Guan Hongyan recalled what happened before and said doubtfully, "It seems like... what did Ersi yell just now?"
"He was talking about that ungrateful kid from Purple Street," Xiao Tang scratched his head and looked at Zhou Ju, "Old Guan didn't even bother to chase us away. So, tell me, what does this have to do with that ungrateful kid?"
How could this place have anything to do with Joe?
"You ask me...how should I know?" Zhou Ju was obviously confused. She looked around and said in disbelief, "The church didn't chase you away? Who are you, little ungrateful bastard?"
She seemed to really not know Qiao Bie.
The two of them stared at each other for a long time before they remembered that there was someone here who first called out this name, and they all looked at Bai Jinshu.
"Ersi, what do you mean by that?" Xu Zichen was also curious.
It was obvious that Lao Guan wanted to drive them away at first, but Cen Bingqi suddenly shouted something, and he changed his mind temporarily and kept them in this strange story.
And it seems that it is not simply left in the ghost story.
Although they are both churches, everyone can vaguely feel that the church they are in now and the previous church seem to be two different things.
They seemed to have entered deeper into this strange story.
Zhou Ju's expression was shocked. Before Xiao Tang asked her questions, she even forgot to struggle, which was enough to prove that she had never expected Lao Guan to let people like them in here.
From this we can see that what Cen Bingqi said the second before Lao Guan changed his mind must have been the key.
"Qiao Bie?" Bai Jinshu paused for a few seconds, sorting out his speculations in his mind, and said as he thought, "Brother Yuan and Captain Shi Pang are hiding something from us. They both said that they didn't know it was good for us, and Zhou Ju said the same thing. So if they are talking about the same thing, then it means that the secret that Zhou Ju concealed from Lao Guanmu and the secret that Brother Yuan and Shi Pang learned are the same thing."
He smiled apologetically at Yuan Shanming, who had a complicated expression. "This matter is related to the clue "entering a strange space" left by Shi Pang's team. Before we entered [Mirage] and met Shi Pang, the leader of the team, Yuan Ge didn't know this secret, otherwise he wouldn't have taken us to Port N. Shi Pang told him about this matter, and Shi Pang must not have known what was going on when he left the message, otherwise he wouldn't have left a letter for us to come, which means that he learned about it after returning to Port N, and this secret must be related to his team's previous experience."
"So this matter must be related to Shi Pang's team, right?" Xiao Tang anxiously asked, "Isn't this nonsense? Then what? Because Shi Pang's team has entered the Nameless Mist, and that ungrateful little wolf from Purple Street has also been there, so you suspect that this is related?"
"That's about it," Bai Jinshu nodded. "Shi Pang's team once entered the nameless fog, and the kid from Purple Street in the nightmare also entered it once. The outside of this church is also wrapped in a similar fog, so I suspect the fog is a key carrier related to this secret. As for Qiao Bie... I shouted out in a hurry."
He shrugged. "The time was too short. I didn't have time to string all these things together into a clear thread and summarize them in the shortest possible sentence. So in a hurry, I could only choose the things that he cared about the most."
Qiao Bie from Purple Street.
The reason why Lao Guan and Hang Yiqing left Purple Street and the City of Violence was that Qiao Bie destroyed all traces of the past in order to inherit the Qiao family, and burned down the gang on Purple Street while they were away.
This incident was almost a turning point in Lao Guan's life. It was the moment when he went from being an ordinary person on Purple Street to a ghost story in No Man's Land. Time was too urgent. If there was anything that could hit the mark and make Lao Guan change his mind instantly, it would only be the child on Purple Street.
It seems he guessed right.
Xiao Tang scratched his head and said, "So you don't know either. I thought you knew what was going on."
Bai Jinshu shook his head and glanced at Yuan Shanming: "It's just a guess. I need more time and thought to sort out the remaining details."
Lao Guan’s reaction is a key clue. This matter is really related to the children on Purple Street.
Yuan Shanming's expression was complicated, but he did not stop him from speaking. Bai Jinshu guessed that his current mentality was probably "It has come to this point. If this secret does not come out of my mouth and you speculate it in your minds, it will be regarded as if I did not say it myself."
It was obvious with the naked eye that the qualifications of this group of team members were much higher than those of ordinary people. Yuan Shanming could see that they would definitely become senior team members in the future. Now this group of elite team members were all obsessed and had to find out the reason. It would be of no benefit for him to offend these future senior team members, so he simply played nice with them and did not stop them from continuing to speculate, allowing them to research on their own.
It’s better to say nothing than to keep stonewalling.
Bai Jinshu held his chin and began to search for information related to the Nameless Mist and Qiao Bie in his memory, trying to string everything together into a clue.
"Well, take your time to think about it," Xiao Tang had no interest in this kind of mental exercise, so he immediately waved his hand and gave up asking questions. He turned around and looked around, then casually put his hand on Zhou Ju's shoulder, "Hey, sister, what's going on here?"
I won’t call you sister now.
Zhou Ju had his shoulders pressed down by her, but he did not struggle. Instead, he suddenly came to his senses and raised his head, looking Xiao Tang and the others up and down carefully.
Everyone could see that her behavior was strange. She seemed to be wondering why they were able to get in here. What exactly was this place?
"This is..." Zhou Ju was silent for several minutes before he let out a long breath and said, "This is what this place originally looked like."
"You were dragged here from the ghost story. I think the church asked me to take you to find him." She scratched her head and sighed, "Hey, what is going on?"
"Lao Guan is looking for us?" Xiao Tang blinked, and went up to Zhou Ju and put his arm around her, and said affectionately, "Let's go, then? Sister, where exactly is this place?"
Now she is my sister again.
This girl was really thick-skinned. Zhou Ju stared at her for a few seconds, and was defeated by her genuine and expectant eyes. He twitched his lips and replied, "This... is actually not much different from the ghost stories. This place is just a small shelter..."
"Is there someone here in the middle of the night?" Xiao Tang was shocked.
"Ah... not really," Zhou Ju twitched his lips, "I mean this is where the church adopts children."
"Oh, by the way, have you heard of the ghosts in No Man's Land?" She suddenly remembered that this group of people was not a local team in No Man's Land.
"I've heard of it, I've heard of it," Xiao Tang nodded his head, "We even met here. If those two guys hadn't tricked us, we wouldn't have been dragged in. Sister, please continue, and tell me more."
The remaining few people also followed. Although Yuan Shanming seemed to know what the so-called "secret" was, he was not sure what the ghosts in the no-man's land had to do with this place, so he looked over with some curiosity.
Zhou Ju was surrounded by a group of people. Xiao Tang, who had covered her mouth and pinned her to the ground like a humanoid weapon a few minutes ago, was now calling her sister, which made her panic. She could only continue to speak quickly: "The ghost in the no-man's land is the child adopted by the church."
"The church is a ghost story that randomly wanders in the uninhabited area. Many abandoned children or those who have lost their loved ones for some reason will be adopted by it once they wander to the edge of the city," Zhou Ju pointed to the floor under everyone's feet. "Before Captain Yin told me that this ghost story was a person, I always thought that the church was the real body of the church. Um... I thought it was a ghost that was only friendly to minors."
"He only adopts homeless minors and lets them live in this church. When they grow up, all their memories are erased and they are driven out. That's how the ghosts of No Man's Land come from," Zhou Ju pointed outside. "The church will follow these children to ensure they leave the No Man's Land, and then it will just leave them alone."
"Brother Yin seemed to have said," Xu Zichen suddenly interrupted, "that the teams that encountered ghosts in the No Man's Land were eventually wiped out or had many people killed, so these aborigines who lost their memories were called ghosts."
"So it was because they saw the ghost of the no-man's land that they approached this strange story and entered this place that the team was wiped out?"
"That's about right..." Zhou Ju thought for a moment, "I'm actually not sure what the church is thinking. I told you, I initially thought he was a ghost that was only friendly to minors. When they grow up, he'll throw these humans out as bait to trick the team in the no-man's land into following these humans who inexplicably appear here into his trigger area, and then lure them into the ghost story."
"What happened next?" Xiao Tang asked.
"Later... because of some things, I realized that the church itself did not release adult children in order to let people into ghost stories," Zhou Ju touched the tip of his nose, "He... simply hates adults."
"I understand," Guan Hongyan twitched her lips, "If I had gone through what happened in Purple Street, I would also be disgusted with adults."
Who could have thought that the child that they raised would turn around and burn down the entire family.
"But you didn't come here because you encountered ghosts from the no-man's land," Zhou Ju thought for a moment and added, "You came here purely because this period is the church's hunting season."
"Hunting season?" Yuan Shanming was surprised.
"The church is a strange story that can't be completed." Perhaps because Lao Guan took the initiative to let them enter the real "church", Zhou Ju answered all the questions. "Everyone who enters this strange story, even if they successfully leave, will not be rated as having completed the strange story, and most of them will even have their memories erased. Therefore, most leaders of the No Man's Land will not know of its existence, let alone how to trigger it."
"Most of the time, the ghost will stay deep in the no-man's land, or pick up children at the edge of the no-man's land. If you don't actively look for it during this period, you can't get in," Zhou Ju rubbed the tip of his nose, "Only very rarely will he wander around in the no-man's land, and in the process of wandering, he will indiscriminately capture team members and let them in. You just happened to run into him."
"What a coincidence?" Guan Hongyan and Xu Zichen looked at each other, obviously a little bit unbelieving.
The reason why Yuan Shanming brought them to the no-man's land was because of what Shi Pang told him. If what Bai Jinshu shouted out in a hurry before was correct information, it would mean that the nameless fog that Shi Pang's team had entered and the secret he held were closely related to what Lao Guan had done.
They have been following the direction given by Shi Pang. Maybe this is the strange story he was talking about?
But this brings up a problem...
The story that Shi Pang told Yuan Shanming was an S-type story, but the church was shown as a B-type story in Brother Yin’s live broadcast room.
"Er..." Guan Hongyan frowned and turned around to talk to Cen Bingqi. After turning around, she found that he and Huai Jiamu were walking at the end of the team, and they seemed to be uninterested in everything Zhou Ju said.
Cen Bingqi walked very slowly, stopping from time to time for a few seconds, waiting until his frown relaxed a little, probably because he had figured out some problem, before continuing to walk forward.
He walked intermittently, and Huai Jiamu beside him walked with him, stopping and starting from time to time, pulling him or helping him avoid obstacles when he was lost in thought and not paying attention to his surroundings.
Guan Hongyan twitched his lips, and suddenly felt that the person who called his name was so redundant.
Cen Bingqi obviously didn't hear what she said, but Huai Jiamu looked up at her with questioning eyes.
"Nothing..." Guan Hongyan waved her hand, "You two keep thinking, keep thinking..."
It is better to leave professional matters to professionals. Xiao Tang is right. She chose to give up while she still had a brain.
"Xu...Shiyuan," she almost called out Xu Zichen's name, "Think about it quickly, think hard."
Whether or not they can create a bigger obstacle for the investment bank depends on these two people. She doesn't think that Lao Guan called them over out of kindness to give them answers.
At this moment, the more information you have, the more bargaining chips you will have in the subsequent negotiations.
Zhou Ju, who was walking in front, said more under Xiao Tang's questioning, and was tricked into saying a lot. She said that she and the church's ghost story had established this kind of strange cooperative relationship for more than a year, and the people who died in the church were indeed special, but she didn't know how to tell who was special among these people. She was only responsible for bringing people here.
As the leader of the Novice Village, she was supported by the church in continuously bringing people to the church for identification. The cause of the Fearless Team's death was also the church. Before each team leader ended, the church would give her an item. This item had no effect in the Novice Village, just like the eyeball of [Mirage]. However, after leaving the Novice Village, the Investment Guild would recycle this item, and a large number of points would be awarded after recycling rare items.
This stable points income is much more than what she would get from leading a team normally. Even if all the team members died, it would not affect her points income, so she is not afraid of the death of her team members.
"What props?" Xiao Tang was a little curious.
"It's a small can of liquid of unknown substance," Zhou Ju replied. "It's pink in color in most cases. I opened it out of curiosity and it's not corrosive, but it doesn't have any smell either."
Apart from this, Zhou Ju refused to reveal any other information.
She is like Brother Yuan in terms of more clues. She knows very well that a lot of the information held by these newcomers is key clues, but this information cannot come out of her mouth.
Guan Hongyan and Xu Zichen looked at each other, and Xu Zichen whispered, "Could it be that these team leaders have been restricted by the investment bank and cannot take the initiative to inform people other than their colleagues of this news?"
Otherwise, now that it has come to this, why don’t they say it out loud?
"I don't know..." Guan Hongyan didn't finish her words before a child running over from the side made her stumble, "What the hell?"
Where did this child come from?
She raised her head and looked around. Everyone was following Zhou Ju and walking forward. They had no idea where they were going.
This seems to be a piece of grass, with many children running in groups of three or four. Unlike the children in ghost stories, the children here are obviously more lively.
The person who just bumped into her was a child of about five or six years old. After realizing that he had bumped into someone, the child stopped and said sorry. Before he could finish his words, his attention was attracted by his friends and he continued to play around.
"Is this the child adopted by Lao Guan?" Xiao Tang looked around.
This is what a normal child looks like.
"Oh, yes," Zhou Ju looked up and replied, "Just walk a little further and you'll be there."
"The church doesn't want to see adults." Out of habit, she still called the ghost story the church, instead of following Bai Jinshu's words and calling it Lao Guan, "so every time we come, we are crushed into children, and our original bodies are stored outside."
"Zhou Ju! You haven't been here for a long time!" Before he could finish his words, a little girl suddenly appeared next to him and hugged Zhou Ju's other arm. "Who is this? Is she the new sister?"
She was asking about Xiao Tang.
"This is my colleague," Zhou Ju paused and explained, "He's not a newcomer."
"Oh..." the child said, looking away nonchalantly, "Will you still play with us today?"
"I have something else to do..." Before Zhou Ju could finish his words, several children surrounded him and dragged him away, talking to each other.
"Hey...hey, then just follow this path inside! The church is inside that way," she said while being dragged away, raising her voice to point the way ahead to everyone, "I'll be with them in a bit and will be right there!"
Everyone looked at each other, and Guan Hongyan shrugged: "It seems that she is indeed very soft-hearted."
She originally thought that it was too easy for Zhou Ju to believe them so easily before, but now it seems that Zhou Ju will never refuse others. When a few children came around and acted coquettishly, she couldn't stand it anymore.
Since the other party has pointed out the way, just keep going down.
Everyone looked at each other and continued walking forward.
Zhou Ju was pointing to a small garden in front of the lawn. The further they walked in that direction, the fewer children there were around. In the end, there were no children left.
After walking around the last wall covered with vines, everyone saw a person sitting on a wicker chair at the end of the wall, dozing with his head tilted.
Not Lao Guan.
Xiao Tang suddenly stopped and mouthed to everyone behind him: [Hang Yiqing? ]
Isn’t it said that the church is Laoguan?
Guan Hongyan's expression was also full of surprise and doubt.
Hang Yiqing... Isn't it the S-level ghost story in No Man's Land? How could it be a B-level church?
Even if there is a problem with the rating displayed in the live broadcast room of the church, he is a ghost story that came from No Man's Land to the City of Violence. Even if he returned to No Man's Land, it should be a characteristic ghost story of No Man's Land. How could it be the appearance of the City of Violence?
Do ghost stories also change?
Everyone was full of questions, and Zhou Ju, who had brought them here, was not there, and Yuan Shanming was not in a position to speak. They could only exchange frantic glances with each other, most of whom did not know what the eyes meant, and then stood there, not daring to move forward.
Compared to the tall and thin man in the nightmare, Hang Yiqing in front of them seemed to be thinner. However, when everyone actually saw him appear in front of them, the last moment of the nightmare flashed through their minds uncontrollably. He said to the gang that had become a ruin and the instigator Qiao Bie, word by word, "If you don't leave now, I'm not sure I can let you go."
"Huh? You're here?" Just as they were still exchanging glances, Hang Yiqing suddenly opened his eyes and looked at everyone standing at the edge of the wall.
"Nice to meet you," he rubbed his temples with one hand, his tone calm, "This is the first time I meet you, but I heard that this is not the first time you meet me?"
"Uh... I've heard of your name for a long time..." Xiao Tang laughed awkwardly.
"Well, I can't say I've heard of you for a long time, but there's someone very interesting among you," Hang Yiqing responded casually. He suddenly sat up straight, his eyes passed from Xiao Tang to the yellow-haired man behind him, and raised his eyebrows. "You're quite brave to come to me with these people. Why don't you give me a reason not to kill you?"
The author has something to say:
No prizes on the last day of guessing Huang Mao's identity (x)
First 20 + Random 20~