Chapter 108: Sharing information and pooling resources...

The bus had already left. Xiang Tianyi reacted and started running, but he obviously couldn't catch up with the speed of the bus. He could only watch the bus getting farther and farther away.

After she stopped, she subconsciously patted her head and thought, damn, why am I chasing it? I should have taken a picture of it as soon as possible so that I can bring it back to Sister Xiao Liu and Mo Fei to identify it.

Now there is no definite evidence.

But Xiang Tianyi still wrote down the bus route, which is No. 414.

Judging from the conversation I overheard just now, Zhang Wei and the others should also come here to take pictures of the tombstones on this street.

Xiang Tianyi immediately thought of the time when he was in Yinhuai Village and went to the tombstone in the locust tree forest on the back mountain.

Are they all custom-made here?

Xiang Tian turned her head and looked at the street of photo studios, then shook her head.

It would probably be difficult to find Zhang Wei's information from the photo studios here. After all, it involves personal privacy. If I go there without any reason and ask every one of them, I will definitely be suspected.

She held the canvas in her arms and walked quickly.

Let’s go home first. We must discuss this matter with Sister Xiao Liu and Mo Fei!

Xiang Tianyi took the subway back to Ping'an Home. While on the subway, she had already sent a message to Mo Fei and Liu Yanran, saying that there was an important matter to discuss, and that the three of them would find a quiet place to meet after Liu Yanran got off work.

This quiet secret location was finally decided in the house Murphy had just rented.

Xiang Tianyi's rented house was too small, and there was no other furniture to sit on except a coffin and a table.

Liu Yanran's office is considered a semi-official one, and there are other official players there, so it's not convenient.

And Murphy's place is the most convenient, as it is right in Building No. 9, downstairs from Liu Yanran's house. Once the door is closed, there is no need to worry about being overheard by anyone.

At six o'clock in the afternoon, Liu Yanran and Mo Fei sat on the sofa.

Xiang Tianyi took out his coffin board, sat on it cross-legged, and looked at the two of them.

Her face was very serious, and even when she was sitting on the coffin, she revealed a sense of tension.

"Guess who I saw when I went to take photos today?"

Mo Fei and Liu Yanran looked at each other, but quickly gave an answer.

"From Yinhuai Village?"

"Which native of the village?"

The connection between the three of them was simple. They had played in the same dungeon before, and they were in the tour group led by Luo Qing, so Mo Fei and Liu Yanran thought of it naturally.

Xiang Tianyi shook his head heavily and stopped keeping the secret.

"It's Zhang Wei."

Her tone was firm, and her eyes met the two men's with determination.

"What?"

"Ah? Is this true?"

"I came out after taking photos today..."

She recounted the process of how she discovered it was Zhang Wei, and watched Mo Fei and Liu Yanran's expressions change from surprise to contemplation.

"I am absolutely sure that I am not mistaken. Apart from anything else, Zhang Wei's personal characteristics are still very obvious. He is thin and dark." Xiang Tianyi emphasized.

"You mean, he's not dead?" Murphy asked.

"Or, will the players who died in the dungeon have their memories erased and become natives?" Liu Yanran also asked.

Xiang Tianyi shook his head. "I don't know either. I've been thinking about the two possibilities you mentioned all the way back. Isn't it better for the three of us to figure it out together?"

"I suggest that the three of us review the [Yinhuai Village] dungeon."

"Okay." Liu Yanran said decisively.

"No problem." Murphy said.

"There were seven of us who entered the dungeon, plus the driver and tour guide Luo Qing. We stayed there for three days and two nights. Overall, the driver had basically no direct relationship with the dungeon or us." Xiang Tianyi said.

"On our first day of exploration, Zhang Wei went to the grocery store. On the way, he returned to the farmhouse to help the store owner deliver goods. Tian Tian and I ran into him when we returned from the village entrance."

"Plaid Shirt and I were together at first, but then we went our separate ways. I met a student who was coming back from the village for the holidays. He had broken his leg when he went up the back mountain," said Murphy.

"I first went to Luo Qing to get her business card and chatted with her, then I went to explore the stage and teahouse on my own. We had talked about these before." Liu Yanran explained briefly.

This dungeon happened just last month, and for the three of them, it was still fresh in their memory.

"Let's focus on the key points first and then recall the details. I remember that after the tour guide called us out of the coffins, the coffins of Zhang Wei and the man in the plaid shirt were gone." Xiang Tianyi said.

"That night, we didn't hear the man in the plaid shirt make any noise. But Zhang Wei clearly shouted it out. So we subconsciously assumed they were dead."

"After all, it's a consensus among all of us that the dungeon will be cleaned up and refreshed to remove dead players."

"On my way back, I couldn't help but wonder, are those missing players dead? Or, like Zhang Wei I saw, perhaps they've become indigenous people?"

She stopped here, and the other two did not speak.

"So, the plaid shirt may also be in the ghost city." Murphy murmured.

"He's a programmer. I've spoken with him before. He's very modest, but he did express his admiration for the humanitarian compensation the company gave him after he was selected for the dungeon, which was enough for an ordinary person to live comfortably for a lifetime. He also originally had options. A programmer of this caliber would be considered a talent even in Ghost City."

"Anxi Technology, maybe he is at Anxi Technology!" He stood up from the sofa.

"By the way, last time at Happy Amusement Park, we lost a player. We don't know what rules she broke, and we didn't clearly see her death, but she disappeared after the carousel ride ended." Murphy was walking back and forth at this moment.

"So, the dead players might not be dead. Yes, the weird world is so big, and they're short of people, so it's entirely possible that they were assigned to other places."

"Yes." Xiang Tian nodded in agreement.

"We entered Yinhuai Village on May 15th and left on May 17th. Today is June 17th, so if you calculate the time, it's exactly one month different from then. This also matches the internship period he mentioned."

After thinking for a moment, Liu Yanran spoke up, "Now it seems that the Weird World, as a modern society, has a somewhat strange background in Yinhuai Village. The decoration style of that farmhouse is clearly from many years ago."

"The opera stages and teahouses in the village are more like things to attract tourists."

"That's right!" Xiang Tianyi nodded suddenly.

"We also discussed the villagers' lack of cell phones. Now it seems more like a background story created specifically for us by the dungeon."

"Copy planner." Murphy spoke at this moment.

"What?" Xiang Tianyi and Liu Yanran both looked at him.

"I registered for Anxi Technology's talent recruitment account and saw the recruitment interface for [Dungeon Planner] and [Dungeon Operations] in the initial link. But when I logged in again, it was gone. There were only ordinary operations product positions."

Xiang Tianyi jumped up from her coffin at this moment: "Why didn't you tell me such a big thing earlier!"

Murphy sighed helplessly, "I don't have any evidence."

Xiang Tian was speechless: "I don't have any evidence, but I guarantee it's true."

Because the [Rugui] forum is anonymous, there have always been cases of players posting false information.

Especially the players' experiences in the dungeon and their personal discoveries, many of which cannot be verified or falsified.

"So, if the copy has planning and operation, then many things can be understood." Liu Yanran said slowly.

"The dungeon is designed and manipulated by humans. In fact, players have proposed this in the forum a long time ago, but it has never been confirmed. Now thinking back to Yinhuai Village, from this perspective, many places are carefully designed." Murphy looked at the two of them.

"The entire village background, furnishings, and the sealed-off mountain village, everything takes us into an ancient village deep in the remote mountains. The design of the dungeon quest requires us to take the initiative to go out and explore, come into contact with the villagers who play the NPCs of the ancient village, and learn about the legend of Yinhuai Village from them through various means." Liu Yanran said, pinching her chin.

"The legend made us suspect that we became human sacrifices in the Moon-Worshiping Sophora japonica ceremony. The mountain climbing, coffins, wreaths, and shrouds in the experience program only increased this suspicion. Add to that what Plaid Shirt shared about the cemetery in the back mountain by mistake, and it really made us miss the forest for the trees. We all felt like we were going to die." Murphy smiled bitterly.

"Teacher He and Sister Xiao Liu, do you still remember the play you watched on the stage? It was the one related to the legend of Yinhuai Village." Xiang Tianyi said.

"Remember." Liu Yanran said.

"Didn't Murphy post the strategy guide at that time? We all replied below. I remember I saw a reply from the poster saying that our version is actually very easy to pass because the answer is on the riddle itself. 'Live towards death' is something we deduced after we survived. And in the legend of Yinhuai Village, the version that you saw on the stage, Sister Xiaoliu, the old people in the village went to death calmly and faced death head-on. They and the entire village survived." Xiang Tianyi said.

"Putting the most crucial core in a legend that is easily confused, and there are multiple versions of this legend, must be a careful design by the planner of the Yinhuai Village dungeon."

"I also thought of something." Murphy supported his chin.

"Comrade Liu, I saw this news on the forum. I forgot which post it was, but someone mentioned it and I remembered it. The poster said that in the past one or two years, or two or three years, the survival rate of strange copies has greatly increased, and the death rate has greatly decreased. The official should have accurate data, right? Is it true that the survival rate has increased?" He looked at Liu Yanran.

"From my personal experience, from the time I first entered the dungeon until now, the number of people surviving in each dungeon has indeed increased. Players on the forum also report their survival rates when sharing their dungeon experiences."

Liu Yanran was stunned by this question. She thought for a moment and then said:

"From my experience, the survival rate has improved. This is partly due to the fact that the official platform has been continuously developed. The public now has the awareness that players should contact the official team immediately to receive training and improve their survival skills. Compared to earlier players, the quality of players in the early stages of the dungeon has improved significantly."

"On the other hand, five years ago, in the early stages of the dungeon's emergence, a large number of players remained anonymous. At that time, many players engaged in unethical and illegal behavior in dungeons, which is different from the active mutual assistance that is constantly advocated today."

"There are many possibilities for how players' survival rates could be affected, unless there's a super special existence like Sister Luo Qing who can directly affect the survival rate of a single instance. The rest still need to be considered from multiple perspectives."

Liu Yanran's words sobered Mo Fei up, and he continued, "Yes, there are other reasons. What I'm saying is that since player survival rates are affected by so many factors, is there a possibility that the dead players were transformed into local natives, and that they helped us clear the dungeon?"

"This involves the fundamental issue we talked about at the beginning," said Xiang Tianyi.

"Do the players we consider to have failed the dungeon and died still retain their past memories, or have their memories been directly deleted?"

Xiang Tianyi said bitterly: "I was too slow to react at the time. If I had caught up with the bus, or shouted Zhang Wei, called his name, to see if he could recognize me."

Why would the three of us have to guess like this now?

The three of them sighed. The more they discovered, the more suspicious groups they found.

"I've made up my mind!" Xiang Tianyi suddenly slammed the coffin lid.

"I'm going back to Yinhuai Village."

The other two looked at her, and Xiang Tianyi continued, "He said at the time that he would go back to the village to deliver the photos and tombstone. I'm going to wait in Yinhuai Village!"

Liu Yanran shook her head: "I don't think it's feasible. You can't do it yourself."

"Think about it, everyone. The dungeon has been around for five years. Have you seen anyone post on the Rugui forum about seeing dead players? No! Ghost City, this strange world, has only been open to us in the last month or so. No one discovered it before, which means the dungeon's big data is using a process of elimination, isolating players who died and became native residents of the dungeon from those who have seen them before!"

After hearing what she said, Xiang Tianyi immediately wilted.

"So what should we do? Should we find someone reliable to stake out Zhang Wei? But we don't know when he'll be back. It's not easy to confront him with someone we don't know."

"We can put Zhang Wei aside for now, no matter where he is." Murphy said.

"You met him in the Ghost City. As more and more players become temporary residents and everyone explores, they're bound to run into deceased players somewhere and bump into old acquaintances."

Xiang Tianyi couldn't help but complain when he heard what he said, "Mo Fei, what you said, if the players who had a feud in the dungeon met each other, it would be fun. The player who harmed others meets the player who was killed by him and resurrected... I can't imagine the scene."

After she said this, Liu Yanran naturally thought of others.

After renting a house in Yinhuai Village, she never entered the dungeon as a player again. As for the one that entered with Luo Qing, the Renhe Art Museum can be temporarily ignored. No player died in this dungeon.

But the story of the Wonderful Museum was different. Only three of the ten people survived.

Liu Yanran lowered her eyes. Most of the players had won in the first exhibition hall. Aunt Tian Fang, Zhao Jiayi, Tu Nan, and Ning Ruyi came out first, and Cai Xia was the last to come out.

Because she was standing at the exit of the first exhibition hall with Luo Qing, she actually didn't know what the other players experienced in the exhibition hall. She only saw Cai Xia who came out last.

Cai Xia said several people tried to grab her stamp book. Anyway, in the end, no one else was seen leaving the first exhibition hall.

Afterwards, at noon, Liu Yanran and Luo Qing had lunch together in the museum cafeteria. Tu Nan disappeared, and when they left the museum in the afternoon, Ning Ruyi, whose stamp was not up to standard and was considered a fake, was dragged away by security.

Is Ning Ruyi still alive? What about the other players who disappeared? Have they all been transformed into the natives of Ghost City?

Just as the three of them were lost in thought, Liu Yanran's phone rang. She looked at the message and was stunned.

Then, she called the two of them, "Xiao Xiang, pack up the coffin. Murphy, let's go upstairs."

"A temporary resident who went to Qingshan Hospital today has returned with important news. Let's go upstairs together. It's time for dinner."

They went up one floor to Room 503 where Liu Yanran lived. When there were many people around, everyone was used to sitting on the floor.

When Li Ying and Cheng Lixue came over, the food was being served in room 503.

"Have you eaten?" Liu Yanran asked.

"We've eaten." Cheng Lixue replied.

Li Ying returned to Ping'an Home from Qingshan Hospital. He did not forget the promise he made to Cheng Lixue when he left. On the way, he saw a stall selling fried chicken, mixed vegetables, duck necks, and also happened to catch some steamed buns that had just come out of the pot, so he bought them all.

Today's schedule was too tight, and coupled with the information obtained at Qingshan Hospital, Li Ying's mind was almost constantly racing, and she had no time to buy groceries or cook.

When he got home, Cheng Lixue cheered and took out a lot of food from her backpack. They were all snacks from teahouses that she had ordered in advance in Yangcheng.

Therefore, the two of them had a very mixed dinner and were very full.

"How about some more food? We always make a lot here."

"No, no, I'm really full. This isn't the first time we've eaten for free. I won't be polite." Cheng Lixue waved her hand.

Li Ying looked at them and thought for a while: "Let's go downstairs and take a walk first, and come back up after you finish eating. Otherwise, I'm afraid that after I finish talking, you won't have the appetite to eat anymore."

"It's okay, just say it, we all have big hearts." Ji Feishuang said.

"Yes, we've experienced the blockade of the dungeon before. We can accept any information you give us."

Li Ying looked at them and said, "Then don't eat yet. I'm afraid you might choke."

He sat cross-legged on the ground and spoke solemnly, "I went to Qingshan Hospital for a physical examination today. A large number of the natives of Ghost City were getting free physical examinations. From their conversations, I learned that the natives with strange features were worried about worsening mutations..."

He didn't go into detail, just covering the key points.

Li Ying thought that everyone would be shocked, but she found that only a few people had shocked faces, while the expressions of Liu Yanran and others did not seem to have any obvious fluctuations.

Murphy, in particular, felt almost no surprise at all.

"You all know everything?" Li Ying couldn't help but ask.

"Well, now we know, but we also got some more shocking news." Liu Yanran said.

As the two sides shared their information, Li Ying was stunned. Liu Yanran and Mo Fei both confirmed the possibility of "Disease X" he had proposed. They both received this answer from Luo Qing.

The four of them performed better, but the other official players in the room were all brainstorming about this new information.

It is said that three cobblers are better than Zhuge Liang, let alone so many old players gathered together.

Everyone thought about it again and again, and everything gradually became clear.

"The further specific analysis still needs to be left to the think tank expert group, but we can already make many strong guesses from the current intelligence." Liu Yanran said.

"Let's continue to call it Disease X for now. It's highly contagious and pathogenic, and it has caused mutations in a large number of the indigenous people of Ghost City. After removing the adverse effects caused by Disease X, the mutated organs in the body cannot be healed. Moreover, people who have suffered from this disease are in a state close to death, or the living dead, zombies, and have no heartbeat." Li Ying said.

"Players who disappear or die in the dungeon are likely to be transformed into natives of this strange world, but it is not certain whether they retain reality and memories of being players." Murphy said.

"The dungeon itself has operations, planning, and other positions."

"There must be a close and special connection between these three. The mastermind behind the copy, the designer, the X disease, the dead player..." Xiang Tianyi held his head, feeling that there was only a thin layer of window paper left to break through!

But, but there is a lack of a bridge connecting the two. The window paper is still thickly pasted here, making people unable to see the flowers in the fog.

"And if you look at it this way, the purpose of the copy isn't necessarily to screen the labor force, right?" Cheng Lixue spoke weakly at this time.

"If all the dead players become natives, then they themselves are also a labor force. Continuing with the selection, does that mean the dungeon is still screening for high-end talent?"

"Yes, if you die and become a native, it seems that you don't have to come here to rent a house. Will Guicheng directly allocate it to you?" Ji Feishuang asked.

"Let's think about the purpose of the dungeon again. If it desperately needed labor, they could have just killed us all. There's no need for elaborate dungeon planning. If we died, wouldn't we all become the natives of Ghost City and become its labor force?"

Li Ying rubbed his hands habitually. "So, the true purpose of the dungeon must be related to us. It requires players to enter the dungeon, but gives them a certain possibility of survival."

"So the copy has nothing to do with disease X, right?" Xiang Tianyi asked.

"From the fact that we sent the players out of the Ghost City before the dungeon, it's clear that we players might not be able to resist Disease X, and it's even more impossible for Disease X to exist in the dungeon."

"No." Li Ying said.

"Look on your phone for a talent recruitment option. I think the dungeon itself might have more than one purpose: screening for talent, converting those who fail the screening into indigenous labor, and perhaps there's something else we haven't figured out."

Murphy didn't speak at this moment. He remained silent, seemingly in a state of thinking, but in fact he was thinking about "bad" and his "fortune dice".

According to Li Ying, Aboriginal people who have undergone poor excision are worried that they will mutate due to disease X.

If his "fortune dice" was really the bad stuff that had merged into his body, then that would explain why Luo Qing gave him sunglasses. He was afraid that the "bad stuff" in him would continue to worsen and mutate, or perhaps people who had been infected with disease X were more likely to be infected again.

However, there are also some points that don’t make sense.

Murphy's fortune dice is like the golden finger in the novel, the existence of superpowers, and the "bad guy" that Xiang Tianyi met seemed to be just an "ordinary version".

Does this mean that "bad" also has specific categories, with different distinctions and differences, like the standard version and the premium version? Ordinary Aboriginal people, when cut off, become like an appendix, while special ones become something like fortune dice?

Players' understanding of "bad" comes from Luo Qing's answer, but Murphy feels that Luo Qing's answer is not completely true.

After all, half the truth is still the truth!