Chapter 82: Garbage Street (IV)
"Dungeon game?!" The boy raised his voice so loud that it echoed throughout the hotel lobby.
The next second he covered his mouth.
Fortunately, the male waiter NPC at the front desk did not react at all and continued to work diligently.
His girlfriend's expression turned ugly: "There will be monsters? What kind of monsters?! Will they eat people?"
While paying attention to this side, Curly had already read through the rules printed on the billboard.
1. From now on, don’t let people around you notice your abnormality.
2. Please select the admission letter of your favorite university.
3. Please find the monster generator as soon as possible and destroy it.
4. If you cannot complete the task within one hour, please be mentally prepared... to face death.
He pursed his lips and cast his eyes towards the four college acceptance letters that had been lying quietly on the coffee table since they woke up.
The four university admission letters came from: Xinlian University of Science and Technology, Xinlian University, Xinlian Communication University, and Xinlian Institute of Culinary Technology.
Beside him, Yan Shaowen told him what he needed to know, and then he was not interested in answering any more questions. He just said, "According to the rules, choose the admission letter first. I'm from Lian University, what about you guys?"
The young couple looked at each other in silence: "...We are both in the media."
Yan Shaowen was stunned.
Aren’t these four admission letters matched one by one to their colleges?
He turned his head and looked at the little curly-haired boy, as if thinking about something.
What about this one?
Curly-haired boy stretched out his hand and pointed at the admission letter from the University of Science and Technology - he was a student of the University of Science and Technology.
Yan Shaowen suddenly asked: "You can't speak?"
The little curly-haired boy didn't react at first. After a second, he seemed to realize that he had just said something and looked at him in confusion.
Yan Shaowen raised his eyebrows and asked, "Can't you hear it?"
Suddenly a nerve in his brain started throbbing - things were becoming more and more troublesome.
"Why didn't you say anything just now if you couldn't hear me?" He exhaled and rubbed his eyes. "Then you didn't hear anything I said before?"
Curly couldn't hear his tone, but could see his reaction. Feeling a little unhappy, he lowered his head and quickly typed a line in the memo on his phone, then raised his phone to show him.
"I can read lips. I'm very good at it. I saw everything you said just now!"
Yan Shaowen paused and chuckled: "If the monster wants to kill you from behind, does it have to go around to the front of you and say hello to you so that you can see it before killing it? Do you understand this sentence?"
The little curly-haired boy was stunned.
Yan Shaowen curled the corners of his lips.
Curly typed angrily: "You spoke so fast on purpose, even they couldn't hear you clearly!!"
He pointed at the couple.
The couple was really confused. The boy asked awkwardly, "What did you just say? You were talking too fast and I didn't hear clearly."
Yan Shaowen was speechless again. They are all hard of hearing, right?
Curly held the phone in front of him again, this time switching to WeChat, probably to use emojis to express his dissatisfaction. There was a series of densely packed words on the screen.
"You just said that if a monster wants to kill me from behind, it would not deliberately come in front of me to inform me, right? If a monster wants to kill you from behind, would it have to walk slowly towards you so that you can hear its footsteps before killing you?"
"It will also say hello behind your back, I am going to kill you before it does anything, right? [speechless][speechless][speechless]"
"You talk fast and you're good, you should just stick your upper and lower lips together [rolling eyes]"
Yan Shaowen was speechless again and again.
This guy is quite talkative.
He reached out and pressed the phone of the curly-haired boy: "Okay, I know you are amazing. Let's get back to the point. Can we choose the admission letter first?"
The boy in the couple asked in confusion: "Why is there a notification letter from a culinary school?"
Among the four college acceptance letters in front of them, three of them can match their real schools.
At first glance, it seemed that the copy had deliberately made this "setting" based on their actual situation, but this inexplicable admission letter to the culinary academy made it clear that the logic behind it was not what they had imagined.
Yan Shaowen picked up the admission letter from Lian University and glanced at it, then said casually, "Who knows, maybe there are more than just four of us players in this instance."
The other three were all stunned when they heard (saw) this sentence.
"I've taken the notice. Do you have any objections?" Yan Shaowen said.
The young couple quickly said: "...No!"
Curly placed his hand on the notice from the Polytechnic Institute and looked at the couple with a questioning look.
The boy immediately said, "It's okay, you can take it."
In this way, the remaining admission letters from the Media College and the Culinary College seemed to have to be divided between him and his girlfriend - after all, they both went to the same school.
The girl asked anxiously: "What are these admission letters used for?"
...What will happen if the admission letter does not match their actual school?
The boy glanced at Yan Shaowen, who had already stood up to check the four crystal coffins and obviously had no intention of answering this question.
——Maybe he was too lazy to answer, or maybe even for him, there was no answer to this question right now.
The boy gritted his teeth and made a decision.
He gave the admission letter from the School of Media to his girlfriend and took the one from the Culinary School for himself.
The next second, the four of them were all dizzy for a moment.
The girl quickly held onto the armrest of the sofa and covered her forehead in shock: "What happened? I felt so dizzy just now!"
The boy asked nervously: "Baby, are you okay?"
"I'm fine, how about you?"
"I'm fine too..."
Curly was examining his body seriously, while Yan Shaowen had just finished reading the instructions for the "hotbed".
He rubbed his forehead and assessed his current physical condition.
Everything was normal, there was nothing unusual about my body.
So, why the dizziness?
He glanced at the four crystal coffins in front of him again - and, who on earth were these things called "hotbeds" for? Would there really be players who would use them?
Tsk, this copy seems to be much more complicated than the one in Yinghu Park.
He let out a long sigh, walked back to the coffee table, picked up one of the letters from home, opened it, and unfolded the letter inside.
“Dear baby,
Mom and Dad are sick and miss you very much. When can you come home to visit us? Home is always your harbor. We are waiting for you to come back.
When you are living outside, if you don’t know what choice is right, you can enter the hotbed, which will help you choose, protect you, and lead you on the right path.”
After quickly reading it, Yan Shaowen's eyes swept over the four room cards.
When the four room cards first appeared in front of them, they were stacked together, which seemed to mean that there was no question of which player must and can only choose which room, and they can choose any room.
All four rooms are on the second floor of the hotel, and their numbers are 201, 202, 203, and 204.
When the boy in the couple went to the front desk, he took the room card for room 201.
Now that they have chosen their respective admission letters and experienced a strange dizziness, is everything still the same as before?
Yan Shaowen picked up the room card for room 202 and walked to the front desk.
The other three quickly stood up and followed him.
Yan Shaowen put the room card on the front desk and asked, "Can't I check out now?"
The receptionist picked up the room card and, like last time, dialed a landline number. After chatting for a few words, he hung up the phone and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, there are still some things in this room that have not been taken away. Sir, please take all your things away before checking out."
What was different from the last time was that this time, the NPC took out a piece of paper and handed it to them.
Yan Shaowen took the paper, turned around, and the other three immediately gathered around to look at it together.
Xinlian Hotel Rules of Use:
1. Each room can accommodate up to two people. If you find a third person, please hide and wait for them to leave the room before contacting the front desk.
2. The hotel has been built for a long time and is in disrepair. It is located in a place with strong winds all year round, and the building will shake. If you feel dizzy, please take a dizziness pill to relieve it.
3. Each guest staying in the hotel is requested to pack up all personal belongings and make sure nothing is left behind before checking out.
Yan Shaowen narrowed his eyes.
Was the dizziness they just felt the same as mentioned in the second rule?
The boy said with a grim face, "So we have to go to those rooms? The monsters must be in those rooms!"
The girl asked anxiously, "The letter mentioned going home, and the final destination of the train ticket is also 'home'. If we choose to take the train home, can we leave here directly?"
Little Curly raised his phone at this time——
"The question is, do you know where 'home' is and what kind of place it will be?"
The girl opened her mouth and fell silent.
The hotbed and train tickets are obviously shortcuts in this game. However, whether in the dungeon or in reality, shortcuts often mean pitfalls and crises.
After all, there is no free lunch in this world.
Yan Shaowen took the lead and walked towards the elevator: "Let's go upstairs and take a look first."
*
Likewise, five minutes ago, Night Market Street.
Hong Yang and Jiang Shuyue woke up from the darkness and found that they were transferred to the center of the night market street, and beside them appeared Lu Chongnian and a girl with two pigtails.
The girl was wearing a floral apron. She blinked and jumped up in shock: "Why am I here?! I almost ran to the hotel. What's wrong with me?!"
After Lu Chongnian regained consciousness, his first reaction was to look around.
The four of them were standing in the middle of the road, each holding a strange train ticket in their hands, and behind each of them stood a strange, sparkling crystal coffin. Apart from that, all he could see were the people coming and going around them.
Lu Zhongnian frowned and asked Hong Yang and Jiang Shuyue, "Mu Yu is not here?"
These two people: “…………”
Hong Yang blurted out, "... Damn it, they didn't even let me finish eating a corn!"
Who could understand the feeling of running wildly while chewing corn and then suddenly passing out? The corn kernels he ate almost got choked into his trachea!
Jiang Shuyue was embarrassed and comforted: "... It's okay, we can continue after the copy is over, the money is not wasted..."
Then he said to Lu Zhongnian, "Mu Yu is over there in Garbage Street, not here. It's so strange. We thought the copy would be generated over there, and we wanted to rush over there."
Hong Yang complained: "That's good now, all the letters are with him..."
The girl with pigtails raised her hand weakly: "Well...what is going on now? Can someone explain it to me?"
"Let me tell you something," Jiang Shuyue walked towards the girls and said to Hong Yang and Lu Zhongnian, "Go search first."
It is 6:30 now, it is already dark, and the entire night market street is flashing with brilliant lights.
This street is lined with shops on both sides, the same layout as the Garbage Street. At this moment, there is thick fog about one meter behind those shops.
Lu Zhongnian and Hong Yang walked a few steps in the crowd before they saw a sign in the middle of the road that read:
1. From now on, don’t let people around you notice your abnormality.
2. Please choose a store, become the store owner, and run it seriously.
3. Please find the monster generator as soon as possible and destroy it.
4. If you cannot complete the task within one hour, please be mentally prepared... to face death.
"Choose a store and become a store owner?" Hong Yang asked suspiciously, "Where is the store for us to choose?"
Lu Zhongnian glanced ahead again and said, "There's a store over there with no one in it."
Hong Yang followed his gaze and found that more than ten meters away across the street, there was a shop with a full display of goods, but there was no owner.
The two walked over and saw that the store sold notebooks, pens, ink and other items. There was a piece of paper pasted on the inside of the cabinet with a line of words on it -
“All stall owners please keep their goods neatly displayed.”
Hong Yang took a picture of the paper and frowned, "Is this a rule? This shouldn't be the general rule, right? Where is the general rule for this copy?"
"I don't know," Lu Zhongnian seemed to be thinking about something, "Let's go ahead and take a look."
About three minutes later, the two of them returned to the center of the night market and met Jiang Shuyue and the girl named Miao Xiang.
At that time, everyone in the Miao village was a little confused.
She was a student at the Culinary Academy. Today, she went to set up a stall in Garbage Street with her senior. After working hard for the whole afternoon, she finally had some time to rest. She walked around and was about to go back, but she ended up entering a dungeon game...
...This luck is too "good"! !
Hong Yang handed his cell phone to Jiang Shuyue and Miao Xiang and showed them the photos he had taken along the way.
"The copy required us to choose a store to run. Lu Zhongnian and I ran around the entire street and found that there were a total of five stores without owners. Four of them had goods, and the remaining one didn't even have any goods."
"What do you mean?" Jiang Shuyue didn't understand. "Why is there a store out of stock?"
Miao Xiang was looking at the photo and suddenly asked, "Is this store near the entrance of Xinlian Hotel?"
"Yes," Hong Yang looked at her, "I remember that position seemed to be Lao Yang's!"
Miao Xiang nodded quickly: "Yes, that was his original stall!"
Jiang Shuyue was even more confused: "Who is Lao Yang?"
"If you don't come here often, you may not know," Miao Xiang explained, "Old Yang is very famous on this street. He is an old grandfather, 70 years old, an old alumnus of Lianhua University, and is very familiar with the current president of Lianhua University, He. President He often comes to him for tea."
"He had been selling things here for many years and knew many students. He fell ill and passed away some time ago. The night market hasn't dealt with his stall yet, so it may take some time before it moves out."
Jiang Shuyue: "Oh, so that's how it is..."
Lu Chongnian remained silent. He was almost as ignorant about this matter as Jiang Shuyue.
If it weren't for the copies, he might not have come here more than a few times in his four years of study.
...Well, unless Mu Yu calls him.
"So," Jiang Shuyue concluded, "Lao Yang's stall was originally empty, so it should have nothing to do with this instance. Our focus should be on the other four stores, right?"
Hong Yang said, "That should be the case. Anyway, each of the other four stores has a rule sheet posted on it, which states that we must always keep the goods neatly arranged. Lu Zhongnian and I searched around but couldn't find any other rules. It seems that this copy has no general rules."
Jiang Shuyue was puzzled: "Why is there no general rule?"
This copy is so weird. There are only four players among them, and there are only a few rules. It is different from the previous ones.
Lu Zhongnian then said, "The four shops that have goods sell: notebooks, mobile phone cases, two-dimensional peripherals, and handmade bags."
"When Hong Yang and I were checking, we found a sketchbook in the corner of the notebook shop. The sketchbook contained colored pencil drawings of the Xinlian Theater of the Polytechnic Institute."
"Because it felt like this thing didn't appear there by chance, we paid more attention later and found that elements of different schools appeared in every store."
Jiang Shuyue and Miao Xiang were stunned, and immediately lowered their heads to look at the photos of the four stores again.
Lu Zhongnian spoke slowly and calmly.
"In a shop selling handmade bags, there is a bag with the school emblem of Lianzhou University sewn on it."
The school emblem of Lianhua University is a blooming lotus, which is designed with great artistic beauty and does not look out of place when placed on a handmade bag.
If the player is not careful enough, he may just glance over it and not notice anything wrong.
"In the store that sells ACG peripherals, there are two professional books on directing and acting on a stool at the back of the store."
Hong Yang interrupted, "This is the textbook used in our school. I will never make a mistake!"
"And in the store that sells phone cases, some of the phone cases have the following patterns on them—"
Miao Xiang leaned closer to Hong Yang's phone and recognized a familiar face in the photo of the store.
“——Isn’t this our principal’s expression?!”
In the photo, among the dazzling piles of mobile phone cases, the patterns printed on several of them are exactly the long-circulated emoticons of the principal of their culinary academy!
Wearing a chef's hat and chef's uniform, this man in his fifties held an iron pot in his left hand and a spatula in his right hand, showing his white teeth and smiling brightly.
At this moment, Jiang Shuyue murmured, "So, the four stores have elements of Polytechnic, Lotus University, Culinary College, and Media College... Is the copy set up like this on purpose? He wants us to choose stores according to the schools we belong to in reality?"
"But... Lu Chongnian and I both grew up together!"
There is one more student from Lianhua University and one less student from science and engineering among them. What’s going on?
Lu Zhongnian turned his head and looked at the four crystal coffins standing quietly beside them, then lowered his head to look at the train ticket in his hand.
They had just read the instruction manual of the "hotbed".
The "home" at the train terminal is of great concern.
A vague idea emerged in his mind.
He raised his head and said to the other three, "I'm wondering, are there really only four of us players in this instance?"
Jiang Shuyue and the others were all stunned.
"The hotbed, the shop, and the train ticket. These three things seem to have nothing to do with each other at the moment, but since they appear in the same instance, they must be connected to each other."
The night wind blew Lu Zhongnian's black hair gently, and he said slowly:
"The hotbed can provide players with the most correct life choices, but does our 'life choice' refer to the 'life choice' on this night market street?"
"The train ticket can take us home, but is 'home' also on this night market street where we can go back and forth in three minutes? Then why didn't Hong Yang and I see it just now?"
As he spoke, the other three people thought about it and their expressions gradually changed.
"——So I wonder if this dungeon map will include more than just this night market street."
Lu Zhongnian glanced sideways at the rolling fog outside the store.
"Although the fog is very close, could the scope of the map be larger than what we see now? There may be other spaces superimposed on the space we are in now, just like the bathhouse copy. It is also possible... the fog we see now is not fog at all."
"Anyway, if it is really what I guessed," Lu Chongnian said slowly, "then is there other information hidden in this copy? Now most of the elements of these four schools can match ours, which means that the copy is not randomly generated. Then the elements of science and engineering must have a source for appearing here."
Miao Xiang was stunned, but Jiang Shuyue and Hong Yang quickly calmed down after being shocked.
...It's possible! If you think about it carefully, their current number is very strange!
Moreover, they did not find the general rules. No matter how they thought about it, they felt that this copy was too strange, as if something was missing.
If it was what Lu Chongnian guessed, then it would be more consistent with their understanding of the copy!
The elements of science and engineering appear here now. Could it be because there are not only four of them in the dungeon this time, but other players have entered the dungeon from other places in the dungeon map, and among them, there are students of science and engineering?
For example, Mu Yu.
Miao Xiang asked stupidly: "Then, what about the other players...can we find them?"
Jiang Shuyue thought quickly and said, "It's hard to say. If there are other players, they are somewhere else now. Maybe we can find a way to meet each other. Maybe we won't be able to get together until the end of the game. It's hard to say now."
Hong Yang agreed, and said, "We still need to study our current mission first."
"It's better to choose these four stores according to the schools we attend, right? Miaoxiang can choose the phone case store, I'll choose the 2D peripheral store, and as for the notebook store and the handmade bag store——"
Jiang Shuyue and Lu Chongnian looked at each other.
Jiang Shuyue asked quietly: "Do you want to buy the account book store?"
The notebook store represents science and engineering. Although they currently don’t know what the classification of these schools means, and whether there are really other players playing the game together... but maybe by choosing this store they can establish some connection with Mu Yu who is currently at an unknown place?
Jiang Shuyue is a person who is very slow in love, but the sour smell emitted by Mu Yu and Lu Zhongnian is so strong that even a rhinitis patient can smell it from ten miles away...
Lu Zhongnian thought about it seriously, but asked him: "Can I choose a handmade shop?"
Jiang Shuyue was surprised: "Why?"
"Because if Mu Yu and the others also need to make the same choice, then he will definitely know that I will guess that he will choose elements related to Lian Da, so I only need to choose Lian Da."
Jiang Shuyue: “…………”
I am really impressed by the tongue twisters you young lovers can come up with.
He wiped his face and said, "Then I'll go to the notebook store, and you go to the handmade bag store."
Lu Zhongnian said to him seriously: "Thank you."
Jiang Shuyue: “No thanks, no thanks…” and then walked away.
How this copy is played next depends on what happens after they take their positions.
The four people started moving immediately, and this time, the four crystal coffins also moved together - they rolled around, one coffin following one person, like mechanical ghosts, making one's hair stand on end.
The night market street is L-shaped, with the top of the L being the exit, connecting the Xinlian Hotel and Garbage Street.
Lao Yang’s empty shop was right at the head of the L, and their four shops happened to be all located on that vertical line.
The two-dimensional peripheral store chosen by Hong Yang is at the corner of L, and diagonally opposite him is the mobile phone case store chosen by Miao Xiang.
A little further up is the notebook store chosen by Jiang Shuyue, and diagonally opposite him is the handmade bag store chosen by Lu Zhongnian.
Lu Zhongnian's shop happened to be very close to Lao Yang's empty shop.
The four of them took their positions, and the crystal coffins that followed them slid into their shops.
At this moment, they all felt dizzy.
Miao Xiang shook his head, looking confused and worried.
Hong Yang and Jiang Shuyue were very alert.
Lu Chongnian frowned and felt his physical condition. After confirming that there was nothing abnormal, he temporarily put aside his doubts and looked at the table full of handmade bags in front of him.
...What will happen next?
【All stall owners please keep the goods neatly arranged. 】
What happens if the goods are messed up?
He raised his eyelashes.
Pedestrians came and went in front of the stalls, and all they saw were NPCs, with no monsters in sight.
Soon, two NPCs stopped in front of his stall.
Lu Zhongnian observed them calmly.
The two NPCs were chatting among themselves, laughing as they picked up two or three handmade bags, looked at them twice, put them down casually, and left.
The handmade bag was not put back in its place.
The desktop is a mess.
However, Lu Chongnian waited there for two or three seconds, but nothing happened.
He looked diagonally across and saw Jiang Shuyue, who was also seeing off a group of guests with a confused look on his face. The two exchanged glances from a distance.
After that, three more waves of NPCs came, and the same situation occurred every time.
Lu Zhongnian thought about it, and simply walked out of the store, stopped, and waited for a while - still nothing happened.
It seems that they don't need to stay in the store all the time.
So, what exactly does this copy require them to do?
Do they really have to sell the goods?
Lu Zhongnian was looking down in deep thought, when suddenly, Hong Yang's surprised shout came from not far away -
“Miao Township!”
Inside the mobile phone case stall, Miao Xiang suddenly covered his chest with his hands with a pale face.
——Her chest inexplicably sank, as if her sternum was broken, and her entire chest cavity was deflated.
Her eyes widened, and she took two stiff breaths. Her chest bounced back to normal, and then a horrible, deformed dent appeared in her stomach again.
She bent down and staggered out to hold on to the table.
The moment Lu Chongnian, Jiang Shuyue and Hong Yang all rushed to her side, they clearly heard a strange sound coming from Miao Xiang's body.
"Swish" "Swish"——
It was like something was sucking her insides.
Miao Xiang trembled and fell backwards.
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