Chapter 88: Xinlian Hotel (Ten)
The other three were stunned.
What kind of operation is this? Why are there words appearing on Lu Chongnian’s arm?
Jiang Shuyue was startled, and his eyes changed: "So that's how it is... So that's how it is!"
"What? What's going on?" Hong Yang still didn't understand.
"Are we going to communicate with the other two groups in this way...?" Miao Xiang pointed at Lu Zhongnian's arm blankly.
"It's not 'mutual communication'. The transmission of this information can only be one-way!" Jiang Shuyue turned his head excitedly to look at Lu Zhongnian, "...Is that what you mean?!"
Lu Chongnian nodded.
Jiang Shuyue immediately explained to Hong Yang and Miao Xiang.
"Why are the four of us aging? And the aging is so slow. This instance only lasts for an hour. With our current aging rate, we won't die of old age even if we wait until the instance is over. At most, we will just become very, very old. It's obvious that the instance didn't set this up to kill us, so what's its purpose?"
Miao Xiang and Hong Yang's expressions changed slightly as they thought about it.
"—it's obviously just to tell us that we're the 'older' group!"
"Mu Yu said that we reversed their deaths, which means that when we were in danger of death, they also appeared! To be precise, it should be that they affected us. If they died, the corresponding people in our group would also die!"
"Why? Why are our lives and deaths connected like this? Also, why are our three groups connected to each other through the element of 'school'?"
Jiang Shuyue's eyes sparkled: "It's probably because the people corresponding to each other in our three groups actually represent the 'same person'!"
Miao Xiang and Hong Yang were stunned again.
"Because it's the 'same people,' the schools are consistent."
"Because it's the 'same person', there will be times when you get older, and of course there will be times when you are younger."
"Because it's the 'same person', if he gets hurt when he's young, the scars will follow him all the way into his old age."
"Because they are the 'same person', if he died when he was young, then he naturally cannot exist when he is old."
"——Our three groups are probably like this, representing different stages of a person's life!"
Miao Xiang and Hong Yang were completely dumbfounded.
What the hell?
Is this copy crazy?!
At this time, Lu Zhongnian turned and walked towards his stall.
They hurriedly followed.
The handmade bags on the table at the stall had been messed up again at some point. Lu Zhongnian quickly cleaned up the table, and the line of words on his arm disappeared.
Miao Xiang was still dazed: "So, we tidy up the table... can we reverse the time of the other two groups?"
"Yes, that should be it!" Jiang Shuyue said excitedly, "It is because the time of the other two groups was reversed that their death crisis and the scars left by the words carved on their arms were all reversed, and the impact on our group will disappear as well!"
Soon, a new line of text appeared at the same position on Lu Zhongnian's arm.
[We are in Garbage Street. I am Lian Da, Zhu is cooking, the science and engineering is Zhang Huawei, and the media is Shen Leng. ]
The words kept appearing at a very fast speed.
[Our group's mission is to heal the eyes by taking in food. The first teleportation will occur about two minutes after Zhu finishes drinking the milk tea. If you are sensing it normally at that time, teleport me after 3 seconds; if there is a dangerous situation on your side, teleport me after 5 seconds.]
Mu Yu was obviously asking about the reason why they teleported them.
"They just drank a cup of milk tea?" Hong Yang was puzzled, but he quickly remembered something and his pupils suddenly contracted. "At that time, our bodies made very strange sounds!"
They looked at each other.
Rustling, rustling. Now that I think about it, isn't that the sound made by sucking up milk tea with a straw?
Also, their bodies were shrinking inwards, and the shrinking appearance seemed to simulate the situation when the cup is squeezed and deformed before the drink is almost finished!
So that's how it is, so that's how it is, when Mu Yu and his group consume food, they will die in the same appearance and state as when the food is about to be completely eaten!
Lu Zhongnian was counting the stopwatch on his phone.
In just five seconds, another NPC stopped in front of the stall, talking and laughing in front of them, disrupting the neatly arranged handmade bags.
——Obviously, the copy will continue to return their desktop to a state of chaos.
When the time came, Lu Zhongnian tidied the desk again, and the words on his arm disappeared again.
[There have been 8 teleportations so far: 1. The first 4 occurred after we each drank a cup of milk tea; 2. After Shen drank milk tea alone again; 3. When Wei was almost cooked by the monster; 4. The remaining two occurred when the four of us were discussing things. ]
They watched attentively and recalled their previous operations.
…It turns out that Jiang Shuyue almost became an “acquaintance” because his counterpart Zhang Huawei was almost cooked by the monster…
"Something is not right. During the sixth transmission, Zhang Huawei was only 'almost cooked' and did not eat the food, right?" Hong Yang pointed out, "Isn't it a little different from the previous five times?"
"Yes, there are probably two situations," Jiang Shuyue analyzed intently. "One is that they take in the food, and the people in our group will die in the final form of the food. The other is that they are dying, and we will die with them."
The latter situation is actually easier to understand, but the meaning of the former is unclear.
Also, what about the last two transmissions?
Of those two times, one should be the operation performed when Jiang Shuyue was about to be swallowed by sadness, and the other time was when Lu Zhongnian's arm bone suddenly broke and his chest was stabbing. Since these two times had nothing to do with Mu Yu and his group, could it be that -
Mu Yu and they have a tacit understanding.
[If the last two transmissions were due to something that happened in the youth group, please ask the corresponding Lian Da player to continue carving the words I said, and after he finishes carving the words, teleport me again. ]
"Youth group..." Miao Xiang murmured.
Jiang Shuyue continued to explain: "Since there is our elderly group, there is probably a young group, and the remaining group is probably the youth group or the middle-aged group. Mu Yu must have thought so too, and their group must be the young group!"
Because the bodies of the young or middle-aged groups are likely to remain unchanged, they have no relevant clues to support their speculation.
Only the old group and the young group, one group can get older and the other group can get younger, can they think of this!
Jiang Shuyue pondered, "We are at the night market, Mu Yu and the others are at Garbage Street, so the remaining group of players is probably at..."
——Xinlian Hotel!
The four of them came to the answer together in their hearts.
In terms of location, the entire street is arranged in the order of Garbage Street - Xinlian Hotel - Night Market Street!
Soon, a new line of text appeared next to the pile of words left by Mu Yu, this time in different handwriting.
These new handwritings appear more casual than Mu Yu's neat ones.
[High school graduation group, in Xinlian Hotel. Can see text. There were no special circumstances when being teleported in the first six rounds, and the seventh and eighth rounds occurred when the corresponding player was about to die. ]
——It was just as they guessed!
[Our task is to crack four rooms. The four rooms correspond to happiness, anger, sorrow and joy, and different illusions will appear. Wake up in the illusion and find a heart-shaped crystal to leave the hotel. Currently, only the player Wang Hao corresponding to the media has successfully cracked a room, and it is suspected that he has recovered some of our lost memories. ]
Lu Zhongnian's arm was almost filled with words formed by these scars. Jiang Shuyue swallowed and asked, "...Does it hurt?"
Lu Zhongnian shook his head: "I just bear these scars."
The ones who were really in pain should be the two people who carved the words on their arms.
especially……
Thinking of a certain figure at the other end of Garbage Street, Lu Zhongnian's eyes darkened slightly.
Miao Xiang asked again: "Then can't the players in the young group see the words of the young group?"
Hong Yang: "Of course. As the starting point of the entire lifeline, their group should only be able to transmit text messages, not receive them."
The text conversation between the youth group continued: [If the elderly group also obtains that memory at the same time, it will be transmitted in five seconds. Yan Shaowen.]
Hong Yang and Jiang Shuyue said in unison: "It's him indeed!!"
Lu Zhongnian cleaned the desk at the right time, and suddenly, all the dense scars and words on his arms disappeared.
[Is the person being teleported Lu Chongnian? If so, teleport in three seconds. Mu Yu. ]
Just as Lu Zhongnian curled up the corners of his lips, a flowing word appeared below the line of words——
【Heh.】
Lu Zhongnian: “…”
Miao Xiang: “?”
Jiang Shuyue and Hong Yang: "..."
...Young Master Yan is also quite free.
Lu Zhongnian tidied up his desktop, and all the text disappeared.
Yan Shaowen's words appeared quickly and slowly.
[Our group will try to enter another room. If we still can't break through, Wang Hao will come out to find you. If you have any objections, you will be teleported in three seconds. If you have no objections, you will be teleported in five seconds.]
"Are they coming to find us?" Miao Xiang asked, "Can they successfully pass through the fog and enter the night market street?"
Lu Zhongnian chose to tidy up the desktop after three seconds.
Yan Shaowen asked again: [Can you see the scenery outside the night market from your side? Three seconds is fine, but not five seconds.]
Lu Zhongnian tidied up the desk after five seconds.
[We can see the scenery outside the Xinlian Hotel from here, and it is basically certain that the three groups of players will finally gather outside. Do you still have any objections to Wang Hao leaving the Xinlian Hotel? There are three seconds, not five seconds.]
Lu Zhongnian pondered.
Jiang Shuyue whispered, "We still have too many problems to solve. It is impossible to guarantee that everyone can leave their respective maps and meet outside at the same time. There will always be someone who goes out first and someone who goes out later."
Lu Zhongnian lowered his eyes, and after five seconds he reached out his hand to tidy up the desk.
After that, Yan Shaowen and Mu Yu took turns communicating the remaining information with them in this way.
Generally speaking, Garbage Street is shrouded in fog just like Night Market Street, but after the young players have eaten food and restored their eyesight, they will be able to see the outside through the fog.
This is very confusing. Why doesn't the dungeon have a setting to allow older players to also take a look outside?
Are you still practicing differential treatment?
The only thing left is the old question just now -
Why do the corresponding players in the older group die after the younger players eat the food?
Mu Yu just provided a very crucial piece of information. The people in their group found that teleportation seemed unable to bring their feeling of near-death back to the starting point.
This means that if their sense of near-death has reached 10 points before they eat the next piece of food, then after they are teleported back to the origin, the sense of near-death that returns to them will continue to increase from 10, and will not start from 0.
They cannot estimate exactly when the feeling of near-death will reach its maximum value, but no matter how slowly it rises, it will definitely be before the copy time limit is reached.
——That is to say, before this copy ends, they will definitely be killed by the feeling of dying.
This is the real reason why everyone in their group must eat the food.
But after they eat the food, the four people on the night market street have to send them back to the starting point...
Moreover, the children in the younger group couldn’t just walk out of the fog to look for the Devil’s Moon without eating.
It is true that they may find it only if they go out and look for it, but who can guarantee that they will be able to find it before the feeling of near-death reaches its peak?
What if they can’t find them? What if they can’t go back to Garbage Street and get food? And those of them in the Night Market can’t send them back to their original point in Garbage Street?
Wouldn't that mean all the players on the entire lifeline would be gg?
There are too many distractions and too many problems.
Therefore, before everyone has a clear direction, young players simply cannot leave Garbage Street.
Miao Xiang asked: "By the way, the fastest time you cleared a dungeon before was a few minutes early?"
Jiang Shuyue and Hong Yang looked at each other.
Jiang Shuyue said uncertainly: "It doesn't seem to have been long. It was basically solved when the dungeon time limit was about to expire..."
The Miao people were a little unhappy.
Lu Zhongnian opened his mouth and said, "The time limit given by the dungeon is basically the shortest time required for the players to do their best to crack the dungeon. This dungeon is unlikely to be an exception. We will most likely reach the stage where the players in Garbage Street feel the limit of near-death."
At that time, their only choice is to let the Garbage Street players eat the food.
According to Mu Yu, after they ate the food, it should have been a few minutes before they showed signs of death in the night market.
The baton of time will be handed over to their group, and all they can do then is to seize the last few minutes to reach the location of the Devil's Moon.
"...Then, we will only have the last two minutes?" Miao Xiang hesitated.
After the young group drank the milk tea, it took two minutes for them to show any problems, right?
Regarding this, Lu Chongnian shook his head.
"Whether we can only keep all the food from the young group for two minutes is still uncertain. Perhaps this time is uncertain and is related to the difficulty of obtaining food," Lu Chongnian said in a steady and affirmative tone, "Mu Yu and the others will definitely test this next."
"...Yes, that's possible!" Jiang Shuyue thought for a moment and said, "It's obviously more difficult for them to get the clay pot fish head. Maybe the clay pot fish head can give us more time to survive!"
"As for how much time we can buy at most," Lu Zhongnian seemed to be thinking, "I think that the maximum time that the food from the young players can provide us, plus the maximum time that their group feels near death, is likely to be exactly one hour."
Everyone was stunned.
Jiang Shuyue and Hong Yang thought about it again and frowned.
...It is very likely like this. The copy has always liked to do this kind of disgusting operations!
Their group and the Garbage Street group correspond to each other in pairs, and a total of four pairs of "old and young" players can be formed.
If the two people with the longest total time can only last until the end of the dungeon, then the total time of the remaining three groups of people must be less than the dungeon time limit!
And according to their understanding of the dungeon... the time lost by these three groups of people will definitely not be too much...
Those tiny time differences are likely to be controlled to a level that is just enough for people to see the dawn of victory, but also enough to make people lose all hope...
When Miao Xiang heard this, he was overwhelmed again.
"As for the meaning of this setting..." Lu Zhongnian turned his head and looked towards the end of the night market street.
There was thick fog there, where the Xinlian Hotel originally existed and where the garbage street began.
The night wind blew gently, adding a few more strands of silver to his hair.
He said calmly: "I don't want to understand it, but if I have to interpret it, then I think it may point to the 'choice' of life."
"...a choice in life?" Hong Yang felt it was absurd. "Ha, a meal? Can a meal determine a person's future life or death?"
Jiang Shuyue frowned: "...I think I understand. No wonder this problem didn't affect the youth group..."
"I was just thinking that our three groups are distributed on different timelines. From the perspective of being affected, whatever the young group did should have the most direct impact on the young group who are closer to them in time, right?"
"For example, if a child in the early childhood group has a cut on his hand, the cut may be a little obvious in the young adult group, but in our elderly group it may just be an ordinary scar."
"But when it comes to the setting that food causes death, why is the degree of impact reversed? Why is there no impact on the young group, but the consequences are so severe for our elderly group?"
"So why is that?" Miao Xiang asked puzzledly.
"Try to think about this question from the perspective of the entire dungeon setting - because this dungeon is obviously trying to hint at something, or refer to something, right? I was just thinking, is there anything in life that has no apparent impact when you are young, but the older you get, the more obvious the consequences become?"
"I just figured it out now," Jiang Shuyue frowned, "This setting should actually refer to something like 'the choices made in the early stages of life that can have a great impact on the future', right?"
Miao Xiang was confused: "...What is this, is it the one-year-old celebration?"
"Maybe," Jiang Shuyue scratched his head, "but it's ridiculous. In ancient times, people didn't grab something during the Zhou ceremony, which meant that the person could only do this thing in the future. His life was determined! It's just for good luck, not metaphysics! How could a person's life be determined in childhood?"
"Even in reality, the choices many people make when they are young do affect their later lives, but they are not 100% unchangeable, right? The copy simply and crudely applies this logic to us?"
Lu Zhongnian remained silent.
Miao Xiang opened his mouth and whispered: "And it's full of malice..."
There are good and bad choices in life, but this is not the case in the dungeon. In the dungeon, it seems that they only face bad choices.
The copy gave them a chance to start over in life, allowing them to make new choices. However, no matter what they chose, their final outcome seemed to be death, the only difference was sooner or later.
What is this?
Are you trying to say that no matter how hard they struggle, the choices they make are wrong?
Even if humans really have the opportunity to reshuffle their lives, they can only live like this, live in a mess, and live such a failure?
But what is the “right choice”?
A train ticket that can take them directly back "home", back to the arms of their parents?
Not really. No matter what kind of place that "home" is, isn't going home still the player's own choice?
He who can create copies obviously despises all human choices.
Could it be——
At this moment, they all turned sideways and looked behind them.
Four crystal coffins stood quietly behind everyone. They stood tall in the night, sparkling, gorgeous, exquisite and holy.
They claim to be able to make the right life choices for players and call themselves the "breeding ground" of humanity.
They seemed to exude magic, silently tempting them to enter at any time. They were also like four beautiful and cold tombstones, spying on the opportunity to bury them.
A sudden chill came over me.
Miao Xiang rubbed his arm vigorously.
Arrogant and conceited copy maker, does He think that He is the only one who can make the right choice?
Does He think that humans can only obey Him and must beg Him if they want to survive? !
What a joke.
It's so disgusting.
Lu Chongnian turned his head and looked calmly at the empty table belonging to Lao Yang, which was hidden in the shadows not far ahead.
...No matter what, the most important thing is to solve the core puzzle of this copy as soon as possible.
Only by solving the puzzle and having a clear answer to where the Demon Moon is can they cooperate with the other two groups of players and ensure that everyone can leave the dungeon alive within the limited time.
What does Lao Yang’s table represent in this copy?
Why a table?
Lu Zhongnian crossed his arms with one hand, bent his index finger, pressed it against his lower lip, and fell into deep thought.
Hong Yang and the others were still discussing in low voices, but his world fell into silence and his mind was working at high speed.
It is impossible for Him to set a problem that has no solution.
Even if none of the four of them knew enough about Lao Yang, they should be able to find the answer based on the clues they already had - clues in the night market and clues in their brains' knowledge base.
What will the answer be?
Lu Zhongnian was silent for a long time.
After a moment, he suddenly moved, his eyelashes trembled, and he raised his eyes.
Jiang Shuyue noticed his change and came over to ask, "Have you thought of anything?"
Lu Zhongnian said slowly: "I suddenly remembered a poem——"
"Half of my life is spent clearing a table."
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