At one o'clock in the evening, the blazing sun sets in the west behind the mountain tops.
Qu Liannian had been quietly keeping an eye on the steward for half an hour.
At this time, someone ran over and whispered something to the steward. The steward put his feet down from the table and followed the person away from the area.
This mine is not far from the river. Just like the people who were trafficked here this morning, they all came by boat. At this time every day, the mine will collect a batch of new ore mined today and send it out for sale by the fleet.
The person who just came over was to inform the manager that today's ship was ready and about to depart.
Qu Liannian had just put down his shovel and taken two steps when the supervisor not far away shouted, "What are you doing? You dare to be lazy without working?!"
He smiled and said, "Brother, I'm just thirsty, go drink some water."
The supervisor was about to scold him when the other party approached and stuffed a brocade bag into his hand.
Qu Liannian lowered his voice and said, "My family prepared this for me before I came here today. It's just a little token of my appreciation. Please give me some favors."
The supervisor looked at him in surprise, probably because he didn't expect that someone would carry private money in such a slum-like place. However, after hearing the other party's explanation that it was prepared by his family, and thinking that the other party was abducted and sent here today, he dispelled that suspicion.
He weighed the treasure bag, took back the stick in his hand, and threw the wooden sign representing the rest privilege to him: "If anyone tries to stop you, show him this. Go quickly and come back soon!"
Qu Liannian lowered his head, sneered at the supervisor's stupidity, and ran away. When he was out of the supervisor's sight, he did not go to the cave as he said, but turned around and caught up with the manager in front of him.
Where did the silver come from? He just secretly stuffed some gravel from the mine into the brocade bag, and he actually got away with it.
Drink water?
What a joke.
Such a rare opportunity, of course, should be used to escape.
Ever since he learned through the eavesdropping device that ships would leave the mine every night to deliver goods, he knew exactly what to do to escape from this fantasy world.
"This is where the resentment of the lower class people who live an inhuman life under the rule of the emperor is formed. As the upper class player, the Shameless Ghost exchanges his identity with the lower class. He has to endure the same fate as them in the past, suffering from a lifetime of exhaustion, overwork, and finally dying in a foreign land."
Shi Yu said: "Although the Face-Skinned Ghost is a collection of multiple resentful ghosts, no matter how powerful it is, it is impossible to directly move so many people to a place thousands of miles away. Therefore, this mine is most likely just a microcosm, an illusion of the place where one of its resentful ghosts lived before. To escape from this illusion is essentially to escape the fate of being whipped, ordered around, and enslaved, to escape from this blood-sweat mine."
Wuer thought for a moment and asked, "So should we just go on strike and run away? But where should we run to? Outside the mine?"
Shi Yu stood against the wall, without commenting on her wrong guess, and replied in a flat tone: "Outside the mine is a mountain, and outside of that there may be a village or town, but since the mine has been here for so many years, it is unlikely to escape fate by going to the town, not to mention that humans' own running speed cannot support movement. Apart from this, the only way to go somewhere else is to take the boat when you came here."
Wu Er smiled faintly: "We came here by boat, so we are leaving by boat?"
They came from Chonglian Mountain, so naturally they would go back to where they came from.
Qu Liannian recalled the inferences that Shi Yu and Wu Er had told him. The more he thought about it, the more frightened he became. The more frightened he became, the more fortunate he was that he did not kill the other party for the sake of momentary pleasure, but instead chose to leave a bug on the other party.
However, he touched the metal microphone hidden behind his ear and sighed with some regret.
The small black disc used for eavesdropping was a reward from the system treasure chest when he first entered the God Realm Lower Nine Heavens Ranking List, so it was naturally not an ordinary item. After sticking it on a person, unless the person is sure that there is a bug on the place where it is stuck, it is absolutely impossible to tear it off, even if there is a little bit of temptation and uncertainty.
He was sure that he was extremely careful when he opened the cell lock, and the other party was indeed unconscious due to the serious injuries caused by lynching, so it was impossible for him to discover the existence of the bug.
Unfortunately, the eavesdropping device has a limited time to be used after it is fully charged. Now, almost two days have passed since then, and the energy has run out and it can no longer be used.
But what I heard was enough.
and……
"Once we're on the boat, I'm afraid we'll have to wait for the others."
"Other players?"
Shi Yu lightly said, "If this is really an illusion created by the Shameless Ghost, the support for its existence may be the Shameless Ghost itself, or the player. I guess if the support is gone, the illusion may disappear directly."
Wu Er didn't understand what he said for a moment: "The illusion disappeared? So what? If it disappears, can't we just leave?"
The cellar was too dark to see each other's expressions. Shi Yu lowered his eyelashes and looked at the other side of the metal fence: "If you have a dream, and I enter your dream through some method, and then you suddenly wake up and the dream disappears, then what will happen to my consciousness in your dream?"
The air was quiet for a while.
Wu Er said softly: "Follow me back to reality, or will we never be able to go back?"
“I tend not to go back.”
"But the pillar of this illusion may also be the Face-Skinned Ghost. As long as the Face-Skinned Ghost exists, the illusion exists."
"So it's just speculation." Shi Yu said, "If we don't want any casualties, all players have to leave together."
※
The manager walked all the way to the dock, took the book handed over by his subordinates, and began to count the amount of mineral resources.
Qu Liannian hid behind a huge exposed ore, pulled down his dirty robe and put it on inside out, and while everyone else was gathered there awaiting their fate, he walked all the way to the rear of the fleet and climbed onto the last ship.
The fleet was very long and the river was winding. Standing at the shore where the last ship was docked, one could not even see the manager at the bow because of the obstruction of the ship in front.
He stood at the oar, grasped the oar handle, and started rowing.
The wind blew in the evening, the tide rose and fell on the river bank, and the waves stirred up waves of water, making the sound of the oars paddling in the water seem inconspicuous.
The small boat left the shore, and the mine behind it began to move farther away, shrinking and shrinking.
Leave together?
It would be better if they all died. In this way, he would be the only survivor of the game. Would he still have to worry about the final rating?
If the pillar of this illusion is the Shameless Ghost, then the remaining people, including Shi Yu, will escape sooner or later.
If the pillars of this illusion are really the players, then if he leaves but the others remain, the illusion will dissipate, and everyone except him will die in that sweatshop.
He didn't kill them on purpose. There was still a 50% chance that they could survive, right?
If they died, it was just their bad luck that they happened to run into their other half. He just had an innate advantage and left one step ahead of everyone else. What was his fault?
He didn't do anything, did he?
Qu Liannian looked back at the mine that was getting farther and farther away, and finally grinned.
But at this moment, the freight ship that had been left behind suddenly chased in his direction.
※
Twenty minutes ago, in the mountain mine.
The supervisor put away the treasure bag, thinking about the extra money he had made today, and happily fantasized about buying two more bottles of wine. He looked up and saw a miner in the direction of the ore pile in the west, looking directly at the collar of his shirt where he hid the treasure bag. When he met his gaze, he was stunned for a moment, then lowered his head again.
He frowned, clenched the stick and walked in. When the miner was obviously absent-minded, he hit the ore next to him hard: "What are you looking at? Are you still working?!"
The miner looked up, glanced at him with his beautiful eyes, then looked at his collar, and then lowered his head again.
Although accepting bribes to gain favor is a well-known fact in all jobs, the reason why the unspoken rules are called unspoken rules is because they cannot be brought to the surface.
The supervisor put his hand on the miner's shoulder and applied force little by little until the miner frowned in pain. Then he spoke with a threatening tone: "Don't say things that you shouldn't say, otherwise watch your mouth."
The miner seemed at a loss for a few seconds, then asked in a puzzled tone: "What shouldn't be said?"
"What did you just see?"
"A bag of rocks?"
The supervisor's eyelids jumped: "What stone?"
"The man who just left," the miner said, "picked up a lot of broken stones from the ore this afternoon and said he would take them back to show his family to prove that he was not lying and really came out to make a lot of money."
The supervisor's eyes widened suddenly, and without caring whether there was anyone around, he turned around, took out the brocade bag from his bag and tore it open.
The gravel fell down with a crackling sound, hit the ground, and bounced back onto the back of his feet.
The supervisor's face suddenly turned as black as the bottom of a pot.
No wonder, how could people who were kidnapped here and believed lies without knowing the truth and dreamed of getting rich still have extra money? !
It turns out that they were playing tricks on him from the very beginning!
The miner asked again: "He gave you the things because he wanted you to take them home for him?"
The supervisor's steps towards the cave suddenly stopped. A flash of inspiration flashed through his mind at these words. He didn't even have time to care about the other party and suddenly ran towards the river bank.
Since the liar dared to lie to him, it was impossible that he did not expect to take revenge on him after he found out the truth. This means that before he lied to him, he had already made sure that he would never see him again.
Considering that the miner mentioned "going home" twice, what else could he not understand?
That liar simply wants to borrow the boat and escape now!
He cheated him and he still wants to run away, what are you dreaming about?!
The next thing happened naturally. The overseer came all the way to the river bank and saw that the boat at the stern had already sailed out. He did not hesitate to find the steward and explain the situation.
This was the first time that the steward had been provoked by his slaves. He was so angry that he lost his mind. He angrily called the remaining supervisors and chased after them without hesitation.
How could the strength of one person possibly surpass the speed of a boat driven by a dozen people rowing together?
The two sides were getting closer and closer, and the steward stood at the bow and threatened and intimidated him to leave and stop.
Qu Liannian did not dare to stop for a moment and paddled desperately, but he still could not escape the fate of being caught up. Until the oars slipped and the boat under him stopped moving, the boat behind him showed no intention of slowing down at all.
Finally, his face collapsed, and he ran to the stern in horror: "Stop! We're going to collide!"
But when he looked up, he saw the steward of the ship chasing him who was also terrified.
The two ships collided on the water, and the bow and stern suddenly sank into caves. Water rushed in frantically from the huge crack, quickly and silently swallowing up the shattered hull.
Along with the loss of life, there were also dozens of people on the two ships.
※
Mountain mine.
Supervisors and managers left one after another, and there was no one supervising this area.
Shi Yu raised his hand and touched the back of his neck, then withdrew it after a moment, with a small black disc sandwiched between his index and middle fingers.
The disc was flashing red, indicating that it was no longer usable.
He passed the pile of rocks and let go.
The eavesdropping device drew a parabola in the air and fell into a bottomless crevice.
※
Wuer was still huddled in the corner of the cellar, catching two mice that had come in from nowhere and fighting them by the tails.
Suddenly she heard the sound of a metal lock being opened. She looked up and saw a figure approaching with a backlight. She smiled with curved lips: "Brother."
Shi Yu took the iron lock and said, "Come out."
Wu Er walked out of the iron cage and followed him to the cellar door. He heard him say, "Close your eyes."
She was stunned for a moment, then closed her eyes after she reacted. The fiery red sunset with the heat of midsummer fell on her eyelids, making the corners of her eyes wet.
The manager and the supervisor left together. Without anyone to watch over them, they continued to work. The dusty people had no time to whisper to each other, but at this moment, a loud noise was heard in the distance, which seemed to shake the heavy mine.
Wuer's eyes adjusted to the light and he squinted at the distant water: "Why did they collide?"
"The difference in mass and volume between the two is too great, so the gliding distances during emergency stops are different." Shi Yu said, "It is also possible that the shameless ghost who created this illusion mirror also hoped for this outcome, so he added a handle."
It even spared no expense on high-ranking officials whom it hated.
Wuer moved forward carefully, and just as he got a little closer, the other party threw a bunch of keys at him.
"You helped me apply medicine once, and now I save you once, we are even. Stay away from me from now on." Shi Yu said this and left the cellar.
Wuer looked down at the cellar key in her arms, the corners of her eyes slightly raised, and she thought, once when she was fourteen, and once again now, so in total she owed him twice.
Now that I have saved his two lives, it seems like I have another reason to chase him.
The last piece of wreckage was swallowed up by the water, and the setting sun that was weighing down the mine finally fell into the horizon. The ferocious man holding a stick and a long whip died in the water, while the man who was toiling and covered in dust was still standing on the shore, with the moon shining and the wind clear above his head.
The next moment, the world suddenly collapsed.
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