Chapter 548 [(*^▽^*)]
After careful consideration, Xue Rui thought, "This is indeed strange. Is there a time limit, or is it deliberately designed to remind the villagers..."
Lin Leyou said, "We need to be careful from now on. It seems that getting 900,000 points won't be so easy."
Xue Rui: "A-level difficulty dungeons are not only for players, but also for us."
It seems that while being an NPC has certain advantages, it's not as simple as imagined. All sorts of problems will arise, especially since each dungeon offers players more than one way to complete it.
If they can't kill the BOSS and leave Haitang Village on their own, then there must be another way. It just depends on whether they can find it. As it stands, it seems they can.
Lin Leyou thought, "I feel something's off. Could it be... that the two ghost bosses are so difficult that doubling the number of players isn't enough, and they also need to create something in the ancestral hall to help players clear the level?"
Xue Rui: "I don't think so."
Lin Leyou hesitated for a moment before saying, "Could the things in this ancestral hall be indiscriminate attacks?"
Xue Rui: "Possibly."
Lin Leyou's lips curled into a smile. "If that's the case, why can the ancestral hall provide shelter for the villagers?"
Xue Rui, "Could it be to attract villagers to go there?"
Lin Leyou said with a smile, "Since that's the case, let's wait and see. I don't believe... that the thing in this ancestral hall can be our opponent."
Xue Rui: "Okay."
Anyway, there's nothing they can do about the ancestral hall right now. They can only wait and see. As for the players, they'll leave it for now. The conflict between the villagers and the players will definitely escalate. They'll just have to wait and see.
Lin Leyou looked at the desolate and silent Begonia Village, a faint smile still on his lips. This dungeon was getting more and more interesting. He originally thought it was just about slaughtering villagers and players, but he didn't expect that things would develop to this point and some uncontrollable variables would appear.
Time passed slowly, and there was no unusual activity from the villagers for the time being. However, the players began to search for some supplies, which was only natural, since players are human too, and they are not fasting in the dungeon.
Instead of searching around, Rong Yuwen and his group simply carried back the villagers' belongings that had been scattered along the road, which was both simple and time-saving.
When Lin Leyou saw this, he couldn't help but burst out laughing. "Haha... what do you think?"
Xue Rui said, "Very good. When the villagers discover that these things are missing, they will be the first to think of them."
Lin Leyou: "So tell me, will the villagers continue to scavenge for supplies throughout the village, or will they go looking for the players?"
Xue Rui: "Let's split it in half."
Lin Leyou, "At first it might have been a 50/50 split, but as supplies dwindled..."
Xue Rui could roughly imagine what would happen then: "The players have taken a bit too many supplies."
Lin Leyou: "Yes, the supplies scattered along the road could probably feed 150 villagers for a month, but they took all the food."
Xue Rui is "somewhat greedy."
Rong Yuwen saw it too, of course, but he supported doing so. Who knew how long they would stay in the village, or when the BOSS would attack them?
Moreover... he didn't know what was going on at the ancestral hall. Why did the village chief's family lock themselves in after entering the ancestral hall? Was there any food inside?
Without it, how would they survive? Why can't all the villagers, including the player, enter except for the village chief's family?
The villagers near the ancestral hall were not attacked by ghosts; they were only attacked when they were in the village.
Rong Yuwen walked back thoughtfully, feeling increasingly puzzled. There had been quite a few ghosts appearing today, but he hadn't found any new corpses!
The villagers were in a panic, many were frightened by the ghost, but very few actually saw it. It seemed... it seemed that the ghost wasn't meant to kill anyone, but simply to scare people.
"How could this be? Has the BOSS stopped killing people and started scaring them instead?"
That's absolutely impossible. The system says the BOSS is going to kill everyone in the village, and this plot will never change. So the BOSS must have his own reasons for doing this.
The initial plan was to lure the player out of the hut in order to destroy it, but thankfully only half of it remained. The subsequent plan was to scare the villagers who were gathering supplies, all for…
Rong Yuwen's gaze fell on the food in his hand, hoping to make the villagers drop their supplies and flee quickly. In this way, even if they stayed near the ancestral hall, they would still risk leaving because of hunger and thirst.
This way, the BOSS can lie in wait and kill the villagers one by one.
"It is indeed a good plan, but in doing so, it also exposes the fact that the BOSS... or rather, that ghosts are indeed unable to get close to the shrine."
"In other words... as long as the players stay in the hut and the villagers stay in the shrine, the BOSS can't do anything to them."
This is indeed good news, but it's not all good news.
The player's main quest is to leave Haitang Village. They cannot leave without killing the BOSS, and to kill the BOSS, they must actively seek out the BOSS.
This is good news for the villagers, but for the players, no matter what, the BOSS is something they have to face whether they choose to do it or not.
The only advantage is that... players now have two safe points, one in their hut and one in the village shrine. Not bad, right?
"Captain Rong, what are you muttering about over there?"
Rong Yuwen snapped out of his daze and shook his head. "It's nothing. Let's go. Let's hurry and take the stuff back so we don't run into the BOSS alone."
"Alright!" The player who was originally going to ask about something immediately lost interest and quickly followed the others to carry everything back to the player's house.
Soon, the road, which was originally scattered with all sorts of items, was left with only things that the players didn't need. It looked rather pitiful, and one wonders if the villagers, who had risked being killed by ghosts, would be furious when they returned and saw this scene.
Night fell, and Lin Leyou and his companions were no longer in a hurry. They sat on the roof of the tallest house in the village, observing the surrounding situation. The main areas of the village were now being monitored by the players.
Although they couldn't photograph ghosts, detection devices were installed near the cabin. Now, as soon as they got close, the detection devices would sound an alarm. Lin Leyou even saw a stick stuck in the ground in front of the cabin, with a string of wind chimes hanging from the top of the stick.
The wind chimes look very familiar. Aren't they the same wind chimes that used to hang on the village chief's front door?
Xue Rui suggested, "Why don't we go back and rest, and you leave your men here to keep an eye on things?"
Lin Leyou nodded and casually arranged two of his underlings here, while the other two were placed near the ancestral hall so that he could know immediately if anything unusual happened.
"Let's go back."
There shouldn't be anything happening tonight, probably... they don't want to stay here and keep watching.
Guo Xia and Guo Chengzheng were resting in the small house. Now the small house was almost half full of people, making it a bit crowded. The only good thing was that there were no villagers outside.
All the villagers spent the night outside the ancestral hall.
Guo Xia chose this small house. Guo Chengzheng just came along. He thought Guo Xia had just picked it randomly, but he didn't expect that Guo Xia actually wanted to stay here because Zhou Nanyue was here.
Guo Xia didn't keep staring at Zhou Nanyue. He just leaned against the wall to rest, and every now and then he would glance at Zhou Nanyue out of the corner of his eye to check on her.
If he could, he would want to kill Zhou Nanyue right now, but... reality wouldn't allow it.
Several hours later, Guo Xia glanced at Zhou Nanyue out of the corner of her eye again and found that the other woman was still leaning against the wall in the same position, motionless.
Guo Xia shifted slightly and changed his posture. Maintaining one position for a long time is very uncomfortable, let alone him. Many people around him would move around every now and then.
This Zhou Nanyue is quite something, she can actually maintain one posture until now... Hmm?!
Guo Xia suddenly opened her eyes and looked at Zhou Nanyue. Something was wrong!
No one else noticed, but Guo Cheng did. He didn't say anything, just looked at Guo Xia. The small house was very quiet now. Even a deep breath could be heard clearly, let alone a voice. The two exchanged a glance, and Guo Xia pointed at Zhou Nanyue.
Guo Chengzheng looked at Zhou Nanyue, stared at her for a while, and found it strange that this person seemed to be nothing special.
Guo Xia slowly got up and walked towards Zhou Nanyue. Most of the people in the small house were asleep, and a few only opened their eyes to glance at him but didn't pay any attention to him, since no one would do anything to them anyway.
And so, Guo Xia came to Zhou Nanyue's side, but Zhou Nanyue still didn't react. He reached out and grabbed Zhou Nanyue and shook her, and then... Zhou Nanyue's body turned into a puppet with a bang.
Upon hearing the soft thud, everyone opened their eyes and looked over.
"This is... a puppet? What happened?"
Guo Xia: "This person has disappeared, leaving behind a disguised puppet here."
After a moment of silence, everyone came over to examine the doll. Then someone said, "Let's ask Rong Yuwen to take a look. This matter could be big or small."
Perhaps Zhou Nanyue just wanted to go out and look for clues on her own, but it's also possible that she had other ideas. No one objected to this suggestion.
Rong Yuwen arrived quickly. He took the puppet from Guo Xia, glanced at it, and said directly, "He knows he's been discovered."
Guo Xia, "Will he come back?"
Rong Yuwen shook his head, "I don't know either. Did you have any prior knowledge of this?"
The players in the room all shook their heads, and even Guo Xia and Guo Chengzheng didn't notice anything.
Rong Yuwen looked at Guo Xia, "Then you..."
Guo Xia said, "I just think this person is really amazing. He can stay in one position for several hours without moving. If it were me, I would change positions to rest or sleep in that position, no matter what, because it's not very comfortable."
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