Chapter 47: The lovey-dovey couple at Platinum Supermarket was too much to bear...
Shi Yu and his two companions returned to the city at 10:30 a.m.
The world of the instance has been restored to order. The paralyzed roads have resumed traffic, all the corpses and bloodstains on the streets have disappeared, and the surviving NPCs are living their lives as if nothing had happened, as if the bloodshed of last night was just a dream.
However, the number of players remaining in the instance shows that this is not a dream.
The development of this world is not as rapid as that of the real world. There are newsstands by the roadside. Shi Yu picked up today's newspaper and looked at it. It reported that Zhang San's cat was stolen, Li Si's child got his head stuck in the fence because he was naughty, and Wang Mazi and his wife went to process their divorce for the thirtieth time. After the staff mediated, the couple hugged and cried and went home together... But there was no report on the murders that happened in the streets and alleys last night.
This means that the NPCs in the instance do not have memories of the previous night.
Before entering the supermarket, they went to Lu Boyue's office backstage, but did not see Lu Boyue or his bodyguards.
Lu Boyue has disappeared.
This further proves that "Lu Boyue may be a player".
"Are you looking for the Lu family?" Jiang Yan asked. She added, "I know the school Lu Shang attends; perhaps I can go find her."
"No." Shi Yu waved her hand. "I'm just confirming. Our main focus today is observing the supermarket."
Jiang Yan nodded and said nothing more.
The supermarket was still bustling during the day, with customers pushing shopping carts and moving between the shelves in an orderly manner. There was no recurrence of the crowding incident from the previous night, and the supermarket appeared to be in perfect order.
The three mingled in the crowd, with Shen Su pushing a shopping cart and Shi Yu and Jiang Yan walking behind him.
While others were selecting items, they were observing people.
After walking around for a while, Shi Yu asked, "Did you find anything?"
Shi Yu asked the question to two people, but Shen Su answered it before she could.
“Other people come to the supermarket either as couples, or with their best friends, or as a family of three. Our combination of two men and one woman seems a bit strange…” Shi Yu raised his elbow to nudge Shen Su to watch his words, in case Jiang Yan was upset by what he said. However, Shen Su’s next words did make some sense. “However, none of these NPCs gave us a second glance.”
Shen Su continued, “They’re immersing themselves in the supermarket experience: they go in, push their shopping carts, pick out items, fill the carts, pay, and leave… Everyone goes through the same process.”
“Yes, I noticed that too.” Jiang Yan didn’t pay attention to the details in Shen Su’s words and agreed with Shen Su’s analysis. “I also noticed that every customer’s shopping cart was almost full when they checked out. They bought things very randomly, as if they were just trying to fill their carts. This makes it seem like they came with a mission? And the mission is to buy and buy like crazy, so that the supermarket will not go bankrupt.”
"So who exactly is pulling the strings behind the scenes?" Jiang Yan pondered. "We've ruled out all the Lu family members and the finance manager who were suspects, so who else could it be?"
"It may not be controlled by NPCs in the game," Shi Yu said.
"You mean...?" Jiang Yan looked at Shi Yu uncertainly, "Players?"
Before Shi Yu could speak, Jiang Yan shook her head and denied it again: "The player's mission in the game is to bankrupt Platinum Joy Supermarket. If the player is controlling NPCs to go on a shopping spree, wouldn't that be a contradiction? Besides, the player shouldn't have that authority."
“Ordinary players don’t have this privilege.” Shen Su rested one arm on the shopping cart handle, turned to the side and slowly interjected, “I’m not talking about ordinary players like us. This person’s apparent identity may not even be that of a ‘player.’ In the few days since we entered the game, haven’t you noticed anyone behaving strangely?”
"His apparent identity isn't that of a player? His behavior is strange..." Jiang Yan uttered these words, lowered her eyes and pondered for a moment, then suddenly raised her head and uttered a name, "Lu Boyue!"
Once you open your mind, some details that you had previously overlooked become clear.
“We ruled out all the Lu family members who were suspected, except for Lu Boyue, just because Lu Boyue was our employer, so we naturally ignored him.” Jiang Yan spoke quickly and clearly. “Now that I think about it, since we entered the game, Lu Boyue has never stayed in one place for long. He always appears briefly and then disappears. His behavior is indeed suspicious.”
"The information he gave us was extremely detailed and very private, even including his family genealogy. It seemed like he wanted us to come up with a plan quickly, but it also seemed like he was deliberately guiding us to investigate the Lu family, which was the wrong direction!"
"Therefore, Lu Boyue might be a player."
Jiang Yan finally came to this conclusion.
She wasn't entirely sure if this conclusion was correct.
However, upon hearing this, Shi Yu and Shen Su exchanged a look that only they could understand, and after meeting his gaze, the usually aloof Shi Yu's lips curved slightly upwards.
Jiang Yan has confirmed it.
She also realized that the two of them had already come to this conclusion and were just testing her.
However, Jiang Yan did not feel angry.
She really should keep herself busy, both physically and mentally, so she won't have time to overthink.
"Let's divide the work. I'll go to the second floor."
After saying that, Jiang Yan turned and left.
The live stream room at this moment:
[Hahaha, this couple is so lovey-dovey, even Miss Jiang Yan can't stand it!]
[Jiang Yan's inner thoughts: I can't bear to watch, I'm going to act alone!]
[That eye contact was serious! Even as a guy, I felt like the air around us was filled with pink bubbles. Jiang Yan, a young girl, definitely couldn't handle it.]
[Ugh, my wife's laughter at me completely blew me away!]
[I'm new here and don't know much, I just want to ask if these two guys are a real couple or just doing this for publicity?]
[Mind your own business when it comes to young couples!]
[Mind your own business when it comes to young couples!]
[Mind your own business when it comes to young couples!]
...
Since the dungeon merged last night, Lin Fengbai has remained in the inventory without appearing. Shi Yu assumed Lin Fengbai was sleeping, so he didn't actively summon him.
But when it comes to sleeping, isn't this sleeping time a bit too long?
It's already lunchtime.
Speaking of lunch, Lu Boyue used to provide them with three meals a day, but now that Lu Boyue's meal ticket is gone, and they don't have the currency of this world, how will they solve the problem of lunch?
"By the way, where's Lin Fengbai?" For some reason, Shen Su also thought of Lin Fengbai. Shen Su said to Shi Yu, "Summon Lin Fengbai. I need to talk to him."
Shi Yu didn't ask Shen Su what he wanted to see Lin Fengbai for. He figured Lin Fengbai must have had enough sleep by now, so he found a corner hidden by the shelves and summoned him out.
Lin Fengbai, dressed in a shirt and trousers, appeared before the two of them, looking radiant with wide-open eyes. He glanced at Shi Yu and then at Chen Su, not appearing to have been woken up from his sleep.
Shi Yu wasn't worried about waking Lin Fengbai.
He was very curious about what Shen Su wanted to do with Lin Fengbai.
"It is said that you can put items from this world into your inventory."
That sounded somewhat reasonable at first, but then...
"Could you get some of this world's currency to put in your inventory?"
Shi Yu: "..."
Chen Su said, "We're hungry and want to get something to eat. You must be hungry too, right?"
Shen Su continued, "There's a nice restaurant nearby, but it's a bit pricey, so we should make as much as we can!"
Shi Yu: "…………"
Lin Fengbai was speechless for a while before saying, "Other gadgets are fine, but I can't get the money, that's against the rules! But you can exchange them with game currency. You should have settled the game currency in the last round of the game, right?"
The settlement has indeed been completed.
Shi Yu and Shen Su earned 125 and 117 game coins respectively in the last game. At a ratio of 1:100, these were enough to buy several meals in the real world.
However, in this instance world, the exchange rate between in-game currency and instance currency is 1:1, so the two of them combined have less than three hundred yuan...
They are not short of money in the real world, but here they are so poor that they can't afford to eat out.
Recently, the four of them ate a bowl of rice at a fast food restaurant.
Dinner was also eaten at a fast food restaurant.
To save them money, Lin Fengbai didn't order any food for dinner, as he was in spirit pet form and didn't need to eat.
After dinner, the four of them gathered together. Perhaps because Lin Fengbai was also there, Jiang Yan didn't suggest going to the second floor alone, so the four of them went together.
Jiang Yan didn't ask any further questions about why Lin Fengbai suddenly disappeared and then reappeared.
There are more customers in the supermarket at night than during the day. Actually, the design of the customer NPCs is quite reasonable despite its illogical basis. There are more middle-aged and elderly people during the day, and more young people at night.
As more and more customers poured in, the supermarket became crowded, and the four people were squeezed to the side of the snack shelf.
This supermarket is truly unmanned. With customers packed in like this, there are no supermarket staff or security personnel coming to evacuate them. Aren't they afraid of a stampede?
Of course, a stampede did not occur, but a minor accident did happen.
The crowded people in front suddenly parted to both sides, and some curious customers couldn't help but go over to see what was happening. Some people around were screaming, some were sighing, and some were making phone calls.
"What happened? What's wrong with her?"
"I don't know, I suddenly fainted! Move aside! Everyone move aside!"
"Call 120! Call 120 now!"
The four of them squeezed over to see what was happening ahead, and Shi Yu was stunned.
A little girl collapsed on the snow-white floor. She was wearing a pale yellow dress and had long, flowing hair. She fell and hit the back of her head. She was unconscious, and dark red blood was still gushing from her mouth and nose.
About ten minutes later, the ambulance arrived, and the nurses carried the person away on a stretcher.
Where the little girl had lain, a pool of dark red blood had accumulated on the snow-white floor, and a pearl earring lay nearby.
The little girl who fainted, the time it took for the ambulance to arrive, the pearl earring left on the ground... everything was exactly the same as what happened last night.
Shi Yu looked around at the NPCs and found that some of them looked familiar. These people had come to the supermarket to shop last night, and even the man who dialed 120 was the same man who dialed 120 last night.
“I’ve seen this girl before.” Shen Su spoke first, his expression more serious than usual. “She fainted once last night around this time, in this very place, and was then taken away by an ambulance.”
Jiang Yan and Lin Fengbai exchanged a glance, both seeing shock in each other's eyes.
At the same time, there was joy, because they were one step closer to the truth.
“So…” Shi Yu murmured, “It’s not that people are manipulating customers’ shopping, but that the supermarket is cycling through a certain day, and its turnover always stays at a certain number, so the supermarket will never go bankrupt.”
Shen Su continued, "In other words, if the cycle is broken, the supermarket will go bankrupt."
At that moment, Qin Ke, who was enjoying the air conditioning, eating potato chips, drinking soda, and watching TV in the safe house, froze.
The potato chips in my hand suddenly didn't taste so good anymore.
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