Chapter 56 Turn Negative into Zero
How is that possible?
How come his cousin and former college roommate appeared in the game live broadcast?
Qi Huan's mind was in a mess for a moment. He had always thought that this era had nothing to do with the era he was originally in, but could Zhang Chi and Song Ci have also traveled through time?
Wait, maybe they just look alike? Qi Huan looked at the display screen carefully.
The camera showed a huge and empty hall, with dark walls and bright ceiling, which was too bright to be comfortable. In the middle were four doors lying on the ground, which looked strange and weird.
There were about ten players in the hall. Zhang Chi and Song Ci were in the middle, farthest from the camera. One of them was wearing a light grey sweatshirt suit, and the other was wearing Pikachu slippers and a red baseball cap, both styles that Qi Huan was familiar with.
How unlikely is it that there are two people who look exactly the same and wear the same clothes?
"What are you daydreaming about?" Rondo nudged him with his elbow.
"Oh, nothing, I just felt that the two players in the middle looked familiar." Qi Huan was shocked and answered half a second later.
"Which one?"
Qi Huan stretched out his hand and pointed, "The one wearing Pikachu and a gray sweatshirt."
"What Qiu?" Rondo didn't understand.
"Do you know what their names are?" Qi Huan touched his nose and abruptly changed the subject.
"I know." Rondo was mostly focused on the live broadcast and didn't dwell on it any more. "The one on the left is Zhang Chi, and the one wearing the hat is Song Ci, who is very smart."
The appearance, clothes, and name, it was impossible for them to all overlap. Were they really the two? Or were they cloned or borrowed from their images? Qi Huan's head was buzzing, and he took two deep breaths in succession to barely suppress his heartbeat. He comforted himself not to rush, to see what was going on first, and then wait for Rondo to leave, so he would have plenty of time to check what happened to the players in this live broadcast.
"Let me tell you something," Rondo didn't notice his abnormality, and pointed at the people on the screen with great interest, "Among these ten players, there is a hidden demon killer who will kill people when the screen is black. Guess who it is?"
"Aren't there nine people?" Qi Huan forced himself not to think about anything else for the time being. He looked around and found that there were only nine people.
Rondo slapped his forehead and said, "Oh, I forgot. I just eliminated one. Now there are nine left."
Qi Huan: ...
Ten players, demon killers, black screen to kill. Qi Huan tilted his head slightly. Why does this rule sound so much like Werewolf? Zhang Chi gets excited when he gets cards with functions like God Card and Werewolf Card. Song Ci can't tell from his expression when he gets Werewolf Card, but his body tenses unconsciously. He is very familiar with these two people and has played Werewolf with them. He knows their general state when they get wolves. He just took a glance and directly eliminated the two. This state is not like that.
Of the remaining seven people, the one on the far left was a girl with short hair that reached her chin. Judging from her clothes, she should be a student. She looked innocent, but he intuitively knew that she was not. Then there was a young man and woman wearing couple shirts with their arms hooked together. It was hard to tell whether they were good or bad at first, but the two of them were so close that they were stuck together. It would be difficult to take action without telling the other person at this distance, so the bad guy should be among the four people on the right of Song Ci.
At this moment, the man in a windbreaker with broad shoulders, long legs and straight posture on Song Ci's right happened to turn his head, and Qi Huan was immediately struck by his handsomeness!
Wow, sharp eyebrows, bright eyes, body and face are all super cool. The man's aura is particularly strong, with an extremely sharp sense of oppression. It's not quite right to say that he is domineering, because the feeling he has is not arrogant, but a sense of righteousness. Maybe it should be called righteousness?
If appearance can be divided into colors, Jiufang Yu's handsomeness is that of ice-blue, aloof and distant, with ice-like jade bones, snow-like spirit and frosty soul, which makes people afraid to approach at first sight. This guy's handsomeness is that of thick ink-rich red, dominating and passionate, sharp and compelling, which makes people want to bow down to him.
But his aura was so positive that Qi Huan couldn't even imagine him harming people in the dark, so he silently ruled him out.
The last three people left were a somewhat wimpy greasy-haired guy with thick hair wax, a wary guy with a middle-parted hair, and a handsome guy with blond hair and glasses and pigtails.
In the classic three-choice mode, Qi Huan couldn't choose one, so he just pointed at the one with a middle-parted hair in the middle of the three and said, "I guess it's him."
"Why?" Rondo asked interestedly.
"I don't know, I just made a blind guess based on my intuition. Is it wrong?" In order to relieve the tension in his heart, Qi Huan started to wipe his hair again.
"We don't know who it is yet," Rondo shook his head and pointed at the boy in the couple, "I think it's him."
As the two were talking, the floor beneath Zhang Chi's feet was the first to light up.
The electronic voice announced the question in a dull voice: [Multiple choice question, time limit is ten seconds, which of the following is not a unit of quantity?
A, incredible B, indescribable C, immeasurable]
Rondo scratched his head, turned around and asked Qi Huan uncertainly, "Are these three units of quantity?"
"I didn't understand it either." Isn't it Werewolf? Why are you answering questions again? Qi Huan shrugged his shoulders and couldn't help but glance at the Song Dynasty porcelain in the middle of the display. For such a strange knowledge point, a humanoid encyclopedia like Cici should know the answer.
As the end approached, Zhang Chi randomly chose C.
Rondo rubbed his hands nervously, "It's over, I feel like Zhang Chi didn't understand either, it looks like he's going to fall."
What? Falling? Qi Huan then noticed the white mist under everyone's feet.
In the unevenly thick fog, the city buildings below are looming, which means that this place should be high in the sky!
Before Qi Huan could fully understand the answer, the system had already announced it was correct.
"It's actually right!" Rondo was surprised.
Qi Huan breathed a sigh of relief and shook his head, "Maybe it was just pure luck."
I almost forgot that his cousin is the luckiest of all the lucky ones. He can even get a lucky hand when playing mahjong during the Chinese New Year.
The next music question made Rondo even more confused. Qi Huan knew the answer, but it was useless because the players could not see the barrage they sent and had no way to remind the player who was supposed to answer the question.
At this moment, the girl in the couple was eliminated from the game because she interrupted and violated the rules. The boy grabbed her hand and they both fell down.
"Wrong guess again." Rondo shook his head regretfully.
Qi Huan nervously grabbed Rondo's shoulders as the two players screamed, "What will happen to them?"
"What else can I do? I'll lose points and be eliminated from this round of the secret room." Rondo called up the player interface and clicked on the boy's information. Sure enough, there was a prompt saying 'This player has failed this round and has returned to the rest room to wait for the next round of the game.'
The boy only had a pitiful two points left in his stats.
Qi Huan gently raised his hand and tapped his forehead twice. He was too concerned and worried. What was he worrying about? This was a game, and it was definitely not a real death.
"What if all the points are deducted?" he asked again.
"If you deduct all the points, you will be completely eliminated from this game and cannot enter any secret rooms anymore."
Qi Huan frowned, feeling that something seemed to be wrong. Shouldn't a normal game allow one to go back to the beginning and start over or recharge and start over?
Rondo was about to close the page, but Qi Huan held his hand and glanced at the scores of Song Ci and Zhang Chi. Seeing that they were far ahead of the others, he felt relieved. The data showed that the handsome guy in the windbreaker was called Tang Si, and he was marked as Ci Ci's partner. This guy looked very powerful, and Qi Huan felt more relieved after reading it.
"Then I'll change my guess to this guy." Rondo switched the page back. It was the turn of the greasy-haired uncle to answer the question, so he chose him as the new 'suspect'.
As a result, within five seconds, the uncle answered the question incorrectly and was also "thrown away" by the system.
Qi Huan clicked his tongue and couldn't help but tease him, "You are the demon killer, right? Whoever you choose will go."
Rondo: ...
"This time I choose Xia Tianwu." Rondo pointed at the man with glasses on the screen with a wicked smile, "From the sound of his name, I can tell that he doesn't look like a good person!"
"Xia Tian Wu is a traditional Chinese medicine," Qi Huan reluctantly explained to Lunduo, "because it blooms early and stops blooming after the beginning of summer, it is called 'Xia Tian Wu'."
He doesn't know what kind of person he is, but this name is too straightforward and plain, okay?
When researching dietary supplements for Song Ci, he also looked for many recipes for medicinal foods. In summer, stewing soup with crucian carp can promote blood circulation, remove blood stasis, lower blood pressure and relieve pain. Stewing soup with pigeons can clear away heat, detoxify, and nourish the body.
"How did you know?" Rondo looked surprised.
Qi Huan coughed lightly, and his fingers moved frantically between his lips and nose bridge, finally landing on the tip of his nose. "I've been researching medicinal diet recently, and I accidentally found this on Starnet."
While the two were chatting, it was Song Ci's turn to answer the questions. His questions were not multiple choice questions, but execution questions. He only had to do three push-ups, and he didn't even have to use his brain.
"It's so simple! I guess this is the only question I can answer." Rondo couldn't help but feel relieved.
Qi Huan frowned in worry. No, if it was really Song porcelain, this question would be fatal to him. This guy had a car accident when he was a child, which damaged his body. His absorption and immunity were very poor. He would have a low fever for three days just by walking to the cafeteria to get food and sweating and blowing the wind. Therefore, he could not do any exercise. He always applied for exemption from physical education class with medical records.
Sure enough, none of the Song Dynasty porcelains were produced.
Rondo almost dropped his jaw in shock, "You can't even do something so simple? You're too weak!"
Qi Huan couldn't bear to hear his 'disdain' for Song Ci, and immediately defended him, "Everyone has weaknesses or areas they are not good at, just like killing stone beasts, it's easy for a sentinel, can we go up there?"
Rondo choked and shook his head, "That's definitely not possible."
"For example, riding an airship is a piece of cake for most people. Do you think it's easy to ride an airship for half an hour?"
"It was so easy," Londo said with a smile, "I even felt happy about it."
"You also know Wan Laoer, the younger brother of Boss Wan, right? He is very sick of airships. He feels dizzy and dizzy after three minutes on board and even vomits bile after five minutes. Do you think it is easy for him to sit for ten minutes?" Qi Huan said righteously.
Rondo: ...
"So, what we think is simple may happen to be the weakness of some individual groups. There is no need to ridicule them."
Rondo scratched his head thoughtfully, and after a moment of silence, he suddenly hugged his shoulders and said, "Ah Huan, when you were little and couldn't learn to cook, did I hurt you when I told you it was easy? I apologize to you."
"No, of course not." Qi Huan was stunned and subconsciously denied it. How did the topic jump to this point? He didn't have that memory at all.
That subtle pause made Rondo think that he had guessed correctly. Guiltily, he hugged Qi Huan's shoulders again and patted him, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I really didn't mean that at that time."
Qi Huan was about to explain again, but suddenly thought of a question. What was the original owner's mood at the time? When she liked cooking but seemed to have no talent and couldn't learn it no matter how hard she tried, and there was a smart child next to her for comparison, would she be very shocked?
No, Qi Huan thought of the diary he had read, in which many things were recorded in bits and pieces, such as quarrels with Rondo and others, anger at being teased by customers, and anxiety when seeing problems with the business in the store. But he never complained about his talent. He just worked hard silently and persisted for his love, and even bravely took over the store after his adoptive father fell ill. He was a hard-working, active and positive person.
After figuring this out, Qi Huan also put his arm around Rondo's shoulders and gave him a bright and sunny smile, "It's really okay. I was just a little envious of you at that time."
"I envy you now too," Rondo smiled, his expression mixed with bitterness, "When I was a child, my master always said that you would achieve greater success in cooking than him in the future. I thought he was just comforting you, but I didn't expect it to be true. How does the saying go, 'slow accumulation leads to sudden success, and stunning success'?"
"Stop, to be higher than uncle, you have to be at least a three-star chef. I haven't even passed the one-star chef exam, so don't hold me up so high." Noticing Rondo's gloomy look, Qi Huan half-jokingly hugged him and shook him by the shoulders.
Rondo opened his mouth, with some confusion in his eyes, but in the end he didn't say anything.
After the two finished their emotional exchange, they turned their attention back to the live broadcast of the game, and saw Xia Tianwu, Zhang Chi, and Tang Si jumping one after another onto the platform with four doors "lying" in the middle of the room.
Xia Tianwu and Zhang Chi were fine, after all, they were not too far from the platform. Tang Si was the most exaggerated. He didn't even answer a single question and jumped directly from the starting point to the end point.
Rondo was shocked and said with certainty, "This man must be a sentinel! Ordinary people can't jump so far!"
Qi Huan's attention was on Song Ci, because the floor under his feet lit up, which meant it was his turn to answer the questions.
The system voice said in a serious tone, [Currently, there are three players. The second round of the game is now starting. Player No. 6, congratulations on choosing the most difficult question in this quiz...]
"The most difficult question?" Rondo took a breath, "Why am I so unlucky? I already lost points in the last round. If I get it wrong again this time, it will be dangerous."
Qi Huan raised the corners of his lips slightly. As long as it wasn't sports, he still had confidence in Song Ci. It seemed like Song Ci's brain complemented his body. His super weak body carried a super strong brain. He even suspected before that this guy had used all his nutrition to "nourish" his brain, which was why his body was so bad.
[Time limit is 120 seconds, multiple choice question 1. What is the answer to this question?
AA B. B C. C D. D】
[Single-choice question 2: What is the answer to the third question?
A. C B. D C B D A]
[Single-choice question 3: Which question has the same answer as this one?
A. Question 1, B. Question 5, C. Question 4, D. Question 2]…
When he heard the first question, Rondo was stunned. When he heard the third question, he finally broke down and scratched his head. "What the hell is this question? Who can answer it?"
Qi Huan was also confused at first, but seeing Song Ci's focused expression, as if she understood, he was no longer so worried. When it came to using the brain, he had never seen Qi Qing and Song Ci lose.
The entire game room was also silent. Apparently, the players on the screen were also shocked by the question, and for a moment they were afraid of making any noise that would disturb Song Ci's thinking.
The display screen went dark without warning. Rondo bumped Qi Huan's shoulder and said, "Here it comes, the demon killer is going to kill again."
Qi Huan couldn't be as relaxed as him. When he saw the silver light of the metal weapon sliding across the display screen, his heart tightened. He could only hope that Zhang Chi and Song Ci would not be attacked.
He endured the black screen time in trepidation, and finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Zhang Chi and Song Ci were not injured.
What is even more surprising is that Xia Tianwu and Tang Si also directly locked onto the true identity of the demon killer based on this round of attacks─the man with a middle-parted hair.
"Ah, I guessed wrong again." Rondo covered his face.
Qi Huan patted his shoulder comfortingly, "It's okay, this is just a random guess anyway, you won't lose money if you're wrong, isn't there someone else who guesses whether the player will win or lose? It's OK as long as that one wins."
"The one I bet on fell down half an hour ago." Rondo said with a sad face.
Qi Huan: ...
At this moment, the display screen emitted a system electronic sound, judging that Song Ci's answer was correct, [Player No. 6 adds 120 points, and the cumulative score is 130 points. ]
"Oh my God, how can this guy answer such questions correctly? What kind of brain does he have?" Rondo was dumbfounded.
"Why don't you bet on Song Ci or Zhang Chi next time you watch the live broadcast?" Qi Huan recommended sincerely. At least one of them has brains and the other has incredible luck, so their winning rate will be higher.
Rondo: ...
The two stayed up until late at night to watch the live broadcast. Rondo also became a fan of Song Ci and Tang Si. Before going to bed, he sighed, "I wish I could be half as smart or as skilled as them."
Qi Huan hugged the quilt and smiled, "Half of Tang Si's brain is fine, but what if it's half of Song Ci's skills?"
"Then why do you want me to bet on him from now on?" Rondo threw the pillow over and hit Qi Huan's leg.
"I will bet on him in the future. Even if he is not good at fighting, I believe he will win." Qi Huan patted the pillow and threw it back to Rondo. After observing for several hours, he was almost certain that the people in the game were Zhang Chi and Song Ci, and the emotional points must be maxed out.
During the day on Wednesday, Qi Huan rotated between the canteen, the unloading yard and the Renjian Restaurant. But after calculating the income and looking at the steadily rising food rating of the Renjian Restaurant, he felt that all the busyness was worth it.
After the guards' group scoring, the food rating of the Human Restaurant jumped four levels in the past two days and became gem level zero.
In order to celebrate the turn of the negative score to zero, Qi Huan specially roasted a bunch of animal jerky and small twisted dough sticks, made them into bite-sized snacks and gave one to each of the guards as a thank you gift.
After arriving at the courtyard next door at night, Qi Huan went to Jiufang Yu to borrow the black dumpling as usual. While playing with the dumpling, he logged into the game platform of the Library of Death and searched for the detailed player data of Song Ci and Zhang Chi. From the personal information provided on the platform, it was completely Song Ci and Zhang Chi themselves. Qi Huan became more and more confused after reading it. What was going on? How did Song Ci and Zhang Chi end up in the Empire?
He went on to do a detailed search of the history of the Empire and found out that the people of the Empire were actually descendants of the people of Earth. They "escaped" from Earth after an environmental crisis occurred on Earth more than 500 years ago. In order to distinguish them from the humans of the Earth era, they were also called "post-humans."
It took him a long time to figure out the timeline. He encountered the explosion first, and then the Earth suffered an environmental crisis. But what puzzled him was that according to the time, it has been five hundred years since their time. Not to mention the people on Earth, even the post-humans in the Empire do not have a lifespan of five hundred years.
Could it be that the two of them came through completely?
He couldn't wait to add Song Ci and Zhang Chi's contact information, but found that he couldn't find it at all. The forum only had heated discussions among game fans about various escape rooms, but no players, not even any messages or the oldest email address.
Finally, Qi Huan had no choice but to consult the official customer service of the game and expressed his desire to contact the two players. The customer service replied that because the game of Library of Death is quite special, in order to prevent outsiders from passing on relevant clues about the secret room, all external contacts will be blocked during the game. Only when they completely leave the game can they contact people outside the game again.
According to Qi Huan's understanding, this was pretty much the same situation as in a closed training camp that was isolated from the rest of the world.
[How long does it take for players to leave the game? ] He continued to ask.
【Varies from 3 days to 461 days.】
Isn't this time span a bit too big? Qi Huan was speechless, [Why is the gap so big? ]
[Players usually leave the game when they are eliminated, finish the game, or quit due to special circumstances. The shortest time a player has stayed in the game is three days, and the longest is over fifteen months.]
[What is the average clearance time? ]
【169 days.】
Qi Huan made a "tsk" sound and scratched his hair. The average period was five or six months. With Song Ci's brain, he could get through it at least twice as fast, which meant he would have to wait about two or three months.
The black ball tilted his head to look at his display screen, also with a puzzled look on his face. Why was he concerned about what was happening in the empire?
It wouldn't work from the official side. Qi Huan pondered for a while and suddenly thought of Diwu Yuan. Something was wrong. Last time, Diwu Yuan clearly said that he was a player of the Library of Death. Then why wasn't he locked up in the 'closed training camp'?
Is it because he is not within the empire, or does the exception he mentioned last time really mean some special treatment?
Qi Huan flipped through the conversation window with Ji Tian Mo Di from the communication. The other party's avatar was gray and he was not online.
Qi Huan hesitated for a moment, but couldn't help but send a message to the young master, saying that he wanted to ask him about something and asked him to contact him when it was convenient.
But, that's fine. After calming down, Qi Huan thought again that these few months could be used to pay off his debts, redeem himself, get a free identity, and save some money.
At present, it seems that the fastest way to make money is still live streaming, but now he is still a newcomer, and he is subject to severe restrictions in all aspects. He does not have enough fans, so he needs to save up. When the live streaming is on track next month, the number of products on the shelves can be increased to 5,000. According to the calculation of 15 live broadcasts per month, the price is 199 silver coins. If the sales volume can reach 1,000 each time, it will be about 1.64 million per month. If it can reach 2,000, it will be 3.28 million. If we develop some higher-priced dishes like Qiankun Eggs and increase the average price to 399, it will be more than 6 million per month, which is just enough to pay off the huge debt owed to the base within two or three months!
If I save a little more money at Tianfeng Pavilion and Renjian Restaurant, I will have some extra money on hand, which can help Zhang Chi and Song Ci if they have any difficulties. As for other things that I can't figure out, I can ask Song Ci when the time comes, he will definitely figure it out.
Therefore, starting next month, the goal is to develop high-priced dishes and work hard to attract fans.
After doing the math, Qi Huan suddenly felt that his goal was clear, light was just around the corner, and he was full of hope for the next few months.
He happily scooped up the black ball next to him and gave it a big kiss. Not yet satisfied, he rubbed his cheek against its soft belly twice. "Baby, when I have money, I'll take you on a trip to the empire, okay?"
Jiufang Yu, who was talking to his secretary in the next room, froze in place, his neck and cheeks rapidly turning red as if they were on fire.
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