Chapter 59: Yinghu Park (XII)
First round of gathering, 00:12.
Because Mu Yu and Lu Chongnian pretended to bump into the two monsters, the two monsters were ultimately unable to follow Yan Shaowen and Su Mingyun.
When everyone gathered together, they kept glancing at Yan Shaowen and Su Mingyun. Yan Shaowen waved his hands innocently, indicating that he had gained nothing.
They really got nothing.
Retreating to the edge of the corner, Yan Shaowen whispered, "The owner of the wooden house must have patrolled there. All the candles around that place are lit, and it is impossible to tell which two were thrown by the monster."
Mu Yu and Lu Zhongnian listened quietly. Yan Shaowen asked, "Why not just blow them all out?"
Su Mingyun widened his eyes and lowered his voice: "Didn't they say that the cabin owner can't blow the fire?"
"If we didn't blow the trumpet, Ye Sui and Hong Yang would have been resurrected by now." Yan Shaowen said.
Su Mingyun was speechless.
Mu Yu and Lu Zhongnian remained silent.
This is indeed a problem.
The rule that "candles lit by the gaming group cannot be blown out" is still a confusion for them.
The logic behind the monsters' behavior is also incomprehensible - whether it is "Ye Sui" or "Hong Yang", it seems that they are intentionally or unintentionally guiding them to blow out the candles in the woods.
So, blowing out candles should indeed be a mistake.
But if not blowing out the candles is the right way, then just as Yan Shaowen said - why haven't Ye Sui and Hong Yang reappeared yet?
Why are they still in the form of candles, mixed in with a bunch of candles, making it impossible to find them?
Mu Yu whispered, "The pile of red foam around Jiang He's body is probably an enlarged version of candle wax. When he was first punished by the copy, he was probably not in that form, but a candle."
So, after the cabin owner set him on fire...what happened to cause his corpse to reveal its true form?
Was it because the monster blew him off?
But in this case, the problem is back to the old path - if the candles that the players turn into cannot be blown out, and if blown out they will reveal their true form and die, then do they have to keep burning as candles?
But when it burns to the end and the candle burns out, can the player be resurrected?
No matter how I think about it, it seems impossible that this could be the case.
Lu Zhongnian turned his head and said to Yan Shaowen, "Don't blow out those candles for now until all the problems are sorted out. The two candles that 'Hong Yang' replaced should be very similar in shape to the two real candles. The length of the candles and the solidified shape of the wax can be used to find them among the candles."
After hearing this, Yan Shaowen couldn't help but complain: "Do you think I have such a good memory as you?"
After saying this, he paused.
Mu Yu asked him, "When you saw them before, were the two real candles already partially burnt?"
"...Yes, I feel like I'm about to burn to the bottom."
Mu Yu: "Is the candle wick also burnt?"
Yan Shaowen glanced at him and said, "All the unlit candles that have appeared so far have had their wicks burned."
This is obviously the unified shape standard of unburned candles in this copy.
These candles have never been lit, or have they been lit and then extinguished - if the player has not witnessed the latter scene with his own eyes, then the player has no way of knowing whether the unlit candle in front of them belongs to the former or the latter.
Mu Yu thought for a while and said, "This time, please go to that place and look for it again. Bring back all the suspected candles and hide them in the game base station. Lu Zhongnian and I will go and hold back the two monsters."
Yan Shaowen said lightly: "Don't kill them?"
"Not until we find out."
Not to mention whether they can kill the two monsters without suffering backlash, they cannot touch the two monsters until they find the answer to the problem.
Because sometimes, the behavior of monsters may also provide guidance to players.
They still need to observe them further.
*
During the second round of search, Mu Yu and Lu Chongnian simply asked "Ye Sui" if he still remembered where he found Qin Jiang, and asked it to take them there.
The two monsters had no choice but to take them to the northeast of the grove.
But of course there was no way the monster would just hand the answer to them.
They observed and even blew out several candles in the tree holes along the way, but those candles were all ordinary candles.
In the end, both "Ye Sui" and "Hong Yang" showed some anxiety.
From time to time, they glanced toward the north of the forest. Ye Sui said to Mu Yu and Lu Chongnian, "I really don't remember. I forgot to mark the tree hole."
"Let's look for it again," Mu Yu said calmly, "We still have time."
At 00:18, they all gathered again.
Yan Shaowen and Su Mingyun winked at them.
Su Mingyun said in a low voice: "We really couldn't tell which two candles were real, so we could only bring back all the suspicious ones. Now they are all placed in the changing room of the game base station."
Mu Yu asked: "How many did you bring back in total?"
Su Mingyun made a one and then a six.
Sixteen?!
Lu Zhongnian looked at the two anxious monsters wandering not far away and asked softly, "Are there any candles in there that you find particularly strange?"
He turned his eyes and glanced at Yan Shaowen beside him: "Don't worry about whether it looks like the two original candles you saw at the beginning. Now, are there any two candles whose shapes make you feel particularly strange?"
"Yes," Yan Shaowen answered quickly, "There are two very long candles, but when I searched there last time, I don't remember there being two candles that long."
All four of them were deep in thought.
Mu Yu said, "This round, Xu Dong and Wang Jia will stay here to hold the cards. I'll go tell them to keep an eye on the candles."
Before leaving, he said to Su Mingyun and Yan Shaowen: "Also, about Li Mingke's matter——"
*
At 00:18, the remaining three groups of people merged into the woods again.
The time limit of the copy was approaching them step by step, and all the problems were entangled together, like a ball of thread, getting tighter and tighter.
Before they separated, Mu Yu said to Su Mingyun and Yan Shaowen:
"Li Mingke was killed in the world after midnight most likely not because of the feeling of near-death, but because of 'people'."
"We, the players, cannot see him traveling from another timeline. The only ones who could possibly see him and kill him are probably monsters."
"So, this time, the four of us had better all follow those two monsters closely."
"We'll let them go to the north side of the woods. They won't know yet that we've brought the candles back. We can see what they're going to do, and then decide whether or not to blow out the two candles, and how to do it."
"If they behave strangely during the journey, it is very likely that they have encountered Li Mingke. We must be ready to rescue him from the monster at any time."
Mu Yu whispered, "Everyone adapt to the situation."
…
The two monsters ran at full speed towards the north of the woods.
The four men followed behind them, not missing a single move they made.
They found that only the tall red candles along the road attracted the monsters' attention; they didn't even look at the short candles.
A vague idea was forming in Mu Yu's mind, but it seemed that it was still a little short of it... still a little short of it...
The "Hong Yang" in front suddenly ran to the left side of the woods.
Mu Yu and Lu Zhongnian paused.
Yan Shaowen followed suit and stopped, saying in a low voice, "Su Mingyun and I will stay here, you guys go around."
——The two monsters suddenly sandwiched a ball of air from the front and back. Mu Yu and Lu Chongnian appeared and pulled "Hong Yang" away from the ball of air!
That ball of air was obviously Li Mingke.
In the world after midnight, only monsters can see and touch him!
After being rescued, Li Mingke took the initiative to approach "Hong Yang" and used its hand to convey a message to them, but the monster took the opportunity to attack him.
Lu Zhongnian whispered to remind Li Mingke not to resist, but human instincts are sometimes out of control - Li Mingke was still punished by the copy and turned into a candle.
The initial state is a candle that has been burned to the bottom.
At this moment, Mu Yu and the others finally got the answer, but their hearts sank to the bottom.
They held the candle transformed by Li Mingke and turned around and ran back to the game base station.
*
00:23, at this moment.
They broke into the gaming base station.
Wang Jia and Xu Dong were standing in front of the wooden table, on which the two special candles had been placed.
They burned quietly, tall and long, like brand new candles.
Xu Dong quickly raised his phone, which read: "I don't know if it's an illusion, but we always feel that these two candles seem to have grown longer!"
"It's not an illusion!" Mu Yu walked around and said breathlessly, "These two candles are burning in opposite directions!"
Wang Jia and Xu Dong were stunned.
What is a reverse burning candle?
Mu Yu has figured out all the problems, and Li Mingke gave them very clear hints.
"Whether it's Ye Sui, Hong Yang, or Jiang He, the candles they turned into were all in a state of being burned to the bottom. After being lit, they did not burn shorter and shorter like ordinary candles, but burned in the opposite direction, getting longer and longer--"
"——So, these candles can't be blown out casually!"
Mu Yu's throat was dry. "Only when these candles burn in reverse to their full length can we get them in their entirety. Once they are blown out halfway, they will become like rivers."
"Their true form revealed will only be half of their body!"
At that moment, they were truly dead.
The reason why the monsters are waiting beside these candles for the cabin owner to come over is probably because they want to blow out these candles the next second after they are lit - they want to ensure that these players will die as expected.
Wang Jia and Xu Dong were stunned.
The truth is actually like this?!
Lu Chongnian found the owner of the wooden house, lit the candle that Li Mingke had turned into, and placed it on the wooden table.
Yan Shaowen and Su Mingyun also came back.
At this moment, three candles were placed together, and everyone's heart was beating wildly.
The burning of a candle is like the rising and setting of the sun and the moon. When you stare at it, it is difficult to see the changes. However, if you close your eyes for a while and then open them again, you will find that the changes have taken place silently.
Time passes by every second.
The three candles grew slowly and tremblingly upwards.
The two taller ones have gradually burned into complete shapes.
The wax that had originally accumulated around the candle and had then melted and solidified all returned to where they should be, and the word "囍" on the candle flickered in the candlelight.
At a certain moment, Yan Shaowen said, "Stop."
The two candles that Ye Sui and Hong Yang transformed into stopped growing in the opposite direction.
The candle flame floated quietly on the wick, and everything was still.
He looked at Mu Yu and Lu Zhongnian: "Blow?"
Lu Zhongnian also looked at Mu Yu.
Mu Yu stared at the two candles and looked down at the time.
00:24
He pursed his lips, moved forward quickly, and blew out the two candles forcefully.
The flame went out and blue smoke rose.
The two red candles disappeared, and Ye Sui and Hong Yang appeared on the wooden table!
The two of them fell backwards due to inertia. Ye Sui quickly supported himself on the table and embraced Hong Yang. He then adjusted his glasses and asked hesitantly, "We...are still alive?"
Mu Yu punched him mercilessly, and said with red eyes: "Stop talking nonsense, go ask the boss for the card!"
The two of them quickly jumped off the wooden table, found the owner of the wooden house, and asked for the card belonging to their group.
When the four cards were put together, I got a complete Devil's Moon that could be peeled off!
They can finally leave this copy!
However--
Everyone looked at the remaining red candle on the table and fell silent.
The red candle burned slowly.
The time had reached 00:24:35, but it had only just begun to burn in the reverse direction, leaving only a small section of the candle body.
It obviously doesn't have enough time to burn to its normal length...
There was dead silence in the wooden house.
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