“Beep, beep, beep!”
The electric bike drove out of the traffic light and rushed towards the center of the road, the horn honking shrilly.
Shi Yu stood in the middle of the road, the reflection of the car body magnified inch by inch in his eyes.
He was brought back to his senses by the sound of the whistle, and he rolled over to avoid the front of the car before it hit him. The headlights almost brushed past his hair.
The car braked a few meters in front of where he was standing. The driver walked down angrily, his brows twisted so tightly that they could pinch a fly to death: "You don't have any fucking eyes? Can't you see that the light ahead is red?! On this street..."
As he spoke, his eyes moved upwards and suddenly stopped.
When Shi Yu suddenly appeared on the cruise ship, apart from the initial panic, no guest remembered that someone had performed a magic trick in the banquet hall that day.
Obviously, this is also a kind of privilege given to players by the system. Players do not need to waste their energy on proving to the indigenous NPCs that they are not ghosts.
Shi Yu didn't argue: "Sorry."
The driver stared at him in a daze for a long while. When he came to his senses, he said "Forget it" a little uncomfortably, turned around and went back like a sleepwalker.
Shi Yu was about to leave the intersection when a voice suddenly rang out from behind her: "Idol!"
Ji Congyang hopped in front of him and stood on the sidewalk: "Idol, you were sent here too?"
Shi Yu looked at him and asked, "Weren't you electrocuted?"
"Hey, it's just an electric prod. How can it be a big deal?" Speaking of this, Ji Congyang couldn't hold back any more. "Didn't Old Qiao take me out of the cab before? He didn't even want to carry me on his back. Not only did he bump me into the door frame, but he also dragged my feet up two floors on the emergency passage stairs. How could I sleep? I was woken up on the spot."
“…”
Shi Yu looked down and asked: "Can you still walk?"
Is this considered concern from an idol?
Ji Congyang's heart was moved for a second, and his voice became cheerful: "I have thick skin and strong flesh."
Then he finally remembered the important matter: "We just came here suddenly from the cruise ship. Was it you who did it?"
Shi Yu listened and said, "Probably."
Ji Congyang's eyes lit up: "You are so awesome!"
“…”
Qiao Yan grabbed him by the back of his collar and dragged him behind him expressionlessly, changing the subject: "We don't know how big this space is yet. Are you planning to find a place to stay first, or go straight to the center exit?"
Shi Yu looked up at the clock on the shopping mall across the street: "It's almost one o'clock."
Qiao Yan miraculously realized what he hadn't said: "Want to go have lunch?"
"Um."
"But we have no money."
“…”
"So I suggest you come with us."
Shi Yu looked at him puzzledly.
Qiao Yan turned his head and said, "It's time for him to take action."
Ji Congyang stuck his head out and smiled like a fool: "Idol, I'll take you there."
※
Ten minutes later.
Ji Congyang clasped his hands together in front of him, closed his eyes, and pointed at the paper sign box on the small wooden table.
He stood in front of the stall like a lunatic for half a minute, until the stall owner couldn't help but speak, and finally reached out and pulled out a lottery ticket from the box: "This is it."
Qiao Yan was too lazy to watch him pose, so he directly took out the paper and scraped it, revealing the words under the ink layer: "Special Prize."
The stall owner's eyes widened and his face instantly turned the color of liver.
Their mysterious behavior attracted many passers-by. When they saw him win the prize, they couldn't help but talk: "Fuck, I scratched dozens of tickets and only won a dime. Why did he win the special prize with just one scratch?"
"Is this the legendary European Emperor? Damn, shouldn't we take a deep breath of European energy right now?!"
"Sometimes you really can't envy people's luck."
"But this is too much of a coincidence, and he looked like he knew from the beginning that he would win the prize. Could he be a setup?"
"Ah? You didn't really smoke it?"
"Nonsense, what era is this marketing trick from? Do you really think that you can fool others into buying it like this?"
“…”
Qiao Yan listened to the discussions around him with an expressionless face: "Boss, tell me, don't we need to give bonuses to others? Isn't it because you run the stall with integrity that there is a real big prize that we can draw it?"
In the end, the boss gritted his teeth and gave them the bonus.
Three hundred yuan, minus the one yuan for the paper sign, that’s two hundred and ninety-nine.
Shi Yu watched the whole process and thought of the unopened treasure chest in his backpack and the pile of E-level products.
...Oh, and there's an F-rank.
He was silent for a long while, until Ji Congyang, who came back happily, pulled his sleeve and walked into the building, and then he asked, "Can I ask a question?"
"My luck, right?" This was obviously not the first time Ji Congyang was asked this question. "I've had good luck since I was a kid. I can drink ten bottles of iced black tea and squeeze out five of them. Didn't the system say that the natal weapon is given based on the player's personal characteristics? Maybe it's because I'm more prominent in this aspect. After the first game, the weapon the system assigned to me was a string of copper coins. It has no attack power, and the only effect is to randomly increase my luck."
He rolled down his sleeves, and the string of copper coins tied with a red string in his hand clattered: "This is all I can show you. But fortunately, it can still be of some use to you."
Shi Yu listened, looked at Qiao Yan who was leading the way, then looked at him again, and suddenly remembered something he had always ignored: "Do you two know each other?"
“Yes.”
"Meet in the game?"
"In reality, we entered the divine realm together five months ago."
"Did you all meet the requirements to enter the group game at the same time?"
"Yes," Ji Congyang knew everything, but he was a little confused, "Idol, what do you want to ask?"
Shi Yu: "Is this your first time playing the same game?"
"No." Ji Congyang said casually, "We played fourteen games together the whole time."
"..." Shi Yu was silent for several seconds, "I remember that players in the Lower Nine Heavens do not have the authority to form a team."
"You're talking about this," Ji Congyang blinked, "but aren't the players in each game randomly assigned? Isn't it essentially a lottery? Isn't it just luck that determines who you get drawn with?"
Shi Yu realized what his next words were.
Sure enough, the next second, the other party continued, "I'm lucky. Before each game starts, I hold my money and make a wish, hoping to play games with someone I know, that is, Old Joe. Hehe, now I get all the cards with him."
Shi Yu: “…”
Ji Congyang was still chattering: "Although there are many people in the God's Domain, most of them are just ordinary people. As for those who dare to chop people with knives, those who are good at playing both sides and stabbing in the back, those who are arrogant, and even idols like you, they are only a small minority. If you can meet one of them, either your ancestors' graves will smoke or you will have to drink cold water to fill your teeth. Maybe it's because everyone's luck is generally around the average level, and the people they meet are all ordinary people. I am a general among dwarfs, so as long as I make a wish, everything will come true?"
Players who hacked people with knives, stabbed people in the back, and looked down on others all encountered Shi Yu: "..."
"When I watched your last live broadcast, I was still wondering if I would meet you in this game." Ji Congyang smiled, "You see, my luck is so good."
Qiao Yan took the lead and came to a snack bar. He asked for two menus and handed over a pen.
Ji Congyang took the thing and said, "I'm missing a pen."
"Who said it was for you?" Qiao Yan said with a blank face, "I asked him to order it."
Ji Congyang just stuffed the menu to Shi Yu, who was shocked when he heard this: "Old Qiao, are we still brothers? Then what should I eat later?"
Qiao Yan was too lazy to pay attention to him and lowered his head to select the dishes: "I don't have money, so you can just eat the leftovers."
Ji Congyang: "Let's break it off! Now!"
Qiao Yan threw an "oh".
Regardless of the process, food still needs to be eaten.
While waiting for the food, Qiao Yan got a city map from somewhere and spread it out on the table: "I'm afraid it will be difficult to find the center of the space this time."
According to the method of estimating distance by time that we used on the cruise ship before, that was for the case where the speed of human movement in the snowfield and the cruise ship could not change much.
Now that we are out of the cruise ship, it should be a good thing that the theory has more evidence. But now that we are in the city, assuming that the system intentionally sends the player to a place where the time required to reach the center of this space is within two hours, then how far does this two hours represent?
If you walk, it would be eight to ten kilometers; if you ride a bicycle, it would be twenty to thirty kilometers; what if these two hours require driving a car, taking a maglev, or even a high-speed train or airplane?
Can't judge.
"I can tell." Shi Yu watched him write down seven or eight modes of transportation one by one. "The place where we left the cruise ship was not an airport, so air routes are ruled out; asphalt motorway, train-like track vehicles and bicycles are ruled out; the traffic light on the sidewalk was red at the time, so we would be in the middle of the intersection, so walking is also ruled out."
“All that’s left is the sedan.”
Qiao Yan was drawing on the paper while listening to him. Finally, he looked at the black crosses in his eyes and said, "But if it refers to a sedan, the range of speed variation is too large."
Shi Yu: "The speed limit on that road just now is 40 kilometers. Conservatively speaking, the center of this space should be within 80 kilometers of this building."
Ji Congyang listened silently for a while and sighed with mixed feelings. He felt that solving puzzles was not an area he was capable of tackling. He decided to devote his youth to the barbecue pot rack and filled the entire pot with the pork belly on the plate.
Before leaving the restaurant, Qiao Yan went to the cashier first.
Shi Yu sat in his original position, and suddenly a voice came from behind him: "I'm sure it was him."
...This voice came from the driver on the electric bike who almost hit someone before.
The driver held the phone and said, "How can I be sure? What nonsense are you talking about? I confirmed it with my eyes. With that face of his, how could you not recognize him? Not only did I encounter him, I almost killed him and completed the mission."
Shi Yu turned around and saw someone outside the frosted glass partition holding the restaurant's landline phone, not knowing who he was talking to.
"How is it? It's just so-so. To put it bluntly, the Lower Nine Heavens is just a trial field. How difficult can it be to pass it? Does he really think that he is a genius just because those fans brag about him? Even if he has some skills, so what? Now he is in a group game with more than 300 people competing together. After the game is over, he will naturally know his own weight. You want me to go find him? I'm too lazy to go... Tsk, I really don't know why that person cares about him so much and even specially issued a call..."
The driver changed the subject. I don’t know what the other party said, but his voice suddenly rose: “The center of this city? Have you figured out the shape of the city’s perimeter?”
Players’ cell phones cannot be brought into God’s Domain, so the driver used the public wired phone at the cash register of the restaurant. He only listened for two seconds, said “I’ll be there right away, meet up at the center” and hung up.
Ji Cong only pricked up his ears to hear a few words when the word "center" was mentioned, and turned around and asked like a thief: "Idol, that person just now was also a player, right?"
Shi Yu finally understood why the driver's attitude suddenly changed when he saw him on the road before, and he nodded lightly.
Because of the time difference caused by the distance on the cruise ship, Ji Congyang didn't know that there was such an episode between Shi Yu and the driver before they came. He muttered: "It's a pity that he didn't say where the center of this city is just now, otherwise there would be no need to guess."
The regret of not being able to take a shortcut lasted only a second. Just then, Qiao Yan came back with the bill. Ji Congyang instantly turned back into the careless idiot he was and hopped out of the restaurant.
The weather outside was probably late autumn, and as long as it wasn't raining or windy it could actually be described as cool and refreshing. The attire they brought from the cruise ship was even quite eye-catching on the entire street.
Shi Yu looked at the city map in his hand, suddenly folded it up in the middle, and then tore off a piece of paper from the upper right corner.
The two didn't understand what was going on and didn't dare to disturb them, so they stopped.
The piece of paper he tore off had the map scale marked on it.
Shi Yu took the piece of paper and folded it several times along the map, then spread it out. Clear creases appeared on the map, one after another, forming a rough circle.
"The scale of the map is 1:10 kilometers. Assuming that the theory that it takes less than two hours to reach the center of the circle from the landing point is true, then the center of this closed space should be within this range." Shi Yu turned the map to face them and pointed his finger at the area framed by the fold. "The center of the space should be a well-known building or scenic spot within this range."
Qiao Yan: "Why is it a well-known place?"
Shi Yu: "The phone call just now."
Ji Congyang was stunned for a second, and quickly explained to his companions, then asked: "But he clearly didn't say where it was."
"That's not important." Shi Yu folded the paper in half. "The point is that after he asked the word 'center', his companion only spoke for two seconds, and he knew where it was, and hung up the phone directly."
"The players were temporarily teleported into this closed space by the system. It has been less than 24 hours since the start of the game, so he used a shared bike and the restaurant's landline to answer the phone. The city is not like a cruise ship. It is too large to have a deep understanding of it in just a dozen hours. Besides, the players probably don't have the mood to study the specific layout of the city like they would a tourist."
"The street names and even house numbers of a certain place in a city are written down in more than ten or twenty characters. Let's not talk about whether it can be explained clearly in two seconds. Even if it can be explained, the other party may not be able to find it and remember it, let alone find the specific location. So, why didn't his companion come and tell him in person? Why did he rush over without even asking when he heard his companion talking about it?"
Shi Yu said, "Unless the center of the circle is a well-known place in reality, the name is short and easy to remember. For example, the city government is the only one in the city; the provincial museum is the only one in the province; ordinary colleges and universities, as long as they are approved and have a school code, are unique in the entire country. There is no way you can find the wrong place."
"With the intersection on this street as the center of the radiation, there are seven similar landmarks extending eighty kilometers in the surrounding area. Excluding the falling ceiling, which a complete stranger like Beiling Qiaonan would have difficulty determining what it refers to, there are still five places left."
Qiao Yan looked at him and asked, "Anything else?"
"What follows is all speculation, no testimony."
Shi Yu rolled up the paper into a small stick and pointed at the intersection on the map that represented their location. "The exit from the cruise ship to this city is here. I arrived a few seconds earlier than you and met the driver. He rode an electric bike from north to south. There are more than 300 players. If there is no special situation like you, it is unlikely that people who know each other will be assigned to the same space at the beginning. Assuming that he and his companions just met in this game and are temporarily cooperating, they will most likely split up after they find the boundary of this space."
"Using a point on the border as the starting point, one goes from north to south, and the other goes from south to north. They rely on themselves to touch the border again and again to cause the space cycle scene to change to determine the boundary of the closed space. It has been more than ten hours since the start of the game. In addition, the player was able to determine the center of the circle when he was talking on the phone just now, which proves that they have collected enough data. In this way, when I met that player, the exploration work had already come to an end. He was riding from north to south to meet up with his companions in the center of the closed space."
Qiao Yan stared at the map closely, his eyes following his hand as it moved across the paper inch by inch.
"Going south is towards the center, so the area north of the intersection is temporarily excluded, and there is only one landmark left to the south." The hand stopped at the edge of the crease mark and then moved slightly upwards.
Shi Yu said, "Provincial Botanical Garden."
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