After Bai Liu finished speaking about his three guesses, he put down the pen. The pen rolled twice on the table and rolled to the hand of Mu Sicheng, who had an expressionless face.
Bai Liu's attitude remained calm, as if he didn't think he had said anything extraordinary. Finally, Bai Liu looked at Mu Sicheng, whose face was numb, and added sincerely, "Of course, this is just my personal opinion. It may not be true."
The narrow rental house fell into a long silence. Only the wind occasionally brushed across Bai Liu's fingertips, blowing the piece of paper where he had written the truth of the world.
It is midsummer now, and the sun is shining brightly through the window behind Bai Liu. It is already noon, and one can hear the noisy chirping of cicadas and the noisy honking of cars outside the window.
But these visual and auditory experiences that seemed to give the world a sense of fireworks suddenly turned black and white in Mu Sicheng's world, just like Bai Liu who was sitting in front of the desk, looking at him quietly and intently against the light, and kept retreating in the curling digitized multi-dimensional lines, disappearing in the gap between his closed eyes.
The moment Bai Liu put down his pen, Mu Sicheng felt tinnitus in his ears for a few seconds, and it seemed as if even his breathing was fake for a moment.
Reality is a game?
The promised land, a place away from his base desires, that he had fought so hard to preserve, turned out to be nothing more than a game.
Mu Sicheng then leaned back in his chair, with the back of one hand resting on his eyes and the other hand hanging down. He remained in this position for a long time without saying a word.
Bai Liu didn't bother him.
After an unknown amount of time, Mu Sicheng finally sneered and said, "Bai Liu, I was wondering if you made up such a horrible story to trick me into joining you in the league? This is fake, right? It can't be true, right?"
"Most of the real things in this world are horrific, otherwise where would we get the materials for making games?" Bai Liu stood up, folded the paper with these words on it and put it into a book, then turned to look at Mu Sicheng again.
Mu Sicheng looked at Bai Liu dimly.
Bai Liu shrugged: "But it seems that you are not willing to accept it, so emotionally I feel that I should give you a buffer space to escape and accept. That's why I said that this matter may not be like this. After all, it is indeed possible that the first and second situations are possible."
Mu Sicheng: "..."
Damn it, but what's the difference between that and just telling me it's the third case!
Mu Sicheng sat paralyzed in the chair for a long time before he looked at Bai Liu blankly and asked, "Bai Liu, if the reality we are in is just a game, then where is the real reality? Does the real reality exist? What is truly meaningful to us? Why aren't you afraid of this game-like reality?"
Bai Liu was not confused by Mu Sicheng's rapid-fire questions. He thought for a moment.
"I started asking myself what reality is and what is most meaningful to me when I was a teenager," Bai Liu said, "but except for one of my best friends, most of my peers couldn't understand me. I later realized that they might never think about this question in their entire lives and could live well in this false reality."
"Whether reality is a game or real, believe me, for most people, it actually has no effect on them. To interpret it from an objective idealist point of view, people's objective cognition of the entity and the world constitutes a logical chain of human values. As long as [I] am real and what [I] pursue is real, then the world is real to [me]."
Bai Liu said calmly: "To me, this world is a game or something else, it doesn't matter."
"As long as human currency exists, my desire for money will not be extinguished. This is my truth and meaning."
"If you can't find your own meaning for the time being, why don't you try using mine?" Bai Liu picked up the key hanging behind the door and looked back at the stunned Mu Sicheng. "Why don't you try to find some visible currency, such as the 500 million points of the game competition champion?"
"Then maybe you can use money to buy the reality you want." Bai Liu pushed open the door. "With 500 million points, I think you can buy an entire Earth to create the kind of [real world] you want."
Mu Sicheng was silent for a while with a distorted expression.
"Bai Liu, your eloquence really comes from working in MLM, right?"
Once again, he was convinced by this psychopath's bizarre logic!
"So what is your answer?" Bai Liu raised an eyebrow and asked, "Participate in the league?"
Mu Sicheng gritted his teeth and said, "I'll join!" Then he quickly asked, "But you need to gather at least five players, right? Otherwise, how can we join?"
"Don't worry about that. I will take care of it. Just wait for my notification." Bai Liu turned to Mu Sicheng and asked, "I'm going out to have hotpot with my friends. Do you want to join me?"
Mu Sicheng: "..."
What time is it? Why are you still in the mood to eat hot pot? !
Perhaps Mu Sicheng's overly sly expression revealed his questioning, Bai Liu took out two discount coupons from his pocket and shook them, and briefly explained: "Because I have two discount coupons for a hot pot restaurant, they will expire if I don't eat today."
Mu Sicheng: "..."
Mu Sicheng could not compare with Bai Liu, a man with a mental condition so strong that it was abnormal. This college student whose worldview was impacted by Bai Liu was obviously still a little dazed. After rejecting Bai Liu's invitation to eat hot pot together, Mu Sicheng exchanged contact information and school addresses with Bai Liu, and returned to the dormitory alone to think about life.
Bai Liu went out with two hot pot discount coupons in his pocket. He looked happy. He didn't look like someone who had just come out of a life-and-death escape game, nor did he look like someone who had just revealed the truth about the magical world in front of Mu Sicheng.
Mu Sicheng sighed in disbelief and speechlessness: "You seem to be in a good mood?"
"Yes." Bai Liu nodded in acknowledgment. He smiled and squinted his eyes. "Now it's my off-get off work time. Of course I'm in a good mood."
Mu Sicheng: "..."
He thought again of Bai Liu's horror game talk at work.
Fuck!! This guy really thinks he is off duty!!
Such a tough mentality - what kind of environment could have produced such a monster?!
But after saying goodbye to the dazed Mu Sicheng, Bai Liu went to look for Lu Station.
Because when Bai Liu woke up, he found that Lu Yizhang had called him twice, but he didn't answer either of the calls because he was in the game. Bai Liu sent a text message to Lu Yizhang asking him what was wrong, and Lu Yizhang said they could talk in person.
Speaking of face-to-face chats, Bai Liu thought that he would most likely lose contact with him for the next two months. If he just disappeared without a word, Lu Yizhang, the policeman, would definitely report the case if he couldn't find him. Bai Liu felt that he needed to report to Lu Yizhang in person, so he sent a text message to Lu Yizhang to meet at a hot pot restaurant, ready to have a face-to-face chat with Lu Yizhang.
Bai Liu arrived at the hot pot restaurant quite early and there were not many people in the restaurant. He ordered a hot pot base and some dishes, and after confirming with the boss that the coupon was still valid, he waited patiently.
Before going downstairs, the boss turned on the TV in the store for Bai Liu. A news program was being broadcast on TV at noon. When Bai Liu looked at it, he saw a photo of Li Gou with his eyes blurred on the TV screen.
The TV host in a suit and leather shoes crossed his hands in front of the table and reported in a very orthodox broadcasting tone:
"Welcome to the "Midday News" column. Recently, the key evidence of Li, a major suspect in the high school girl's dismemberment case, was finally found... If Li's crime is true, he could be sentenced to death. But before the verdict was made, Li was suddenly hacked into pieces by Wang, a cellmate who was also guilty of murder, yesterday..."
The male host lowered his head and flipped through the script on the table, then raised his head to continue broadcasting:
"Recently, a small-scale food poisoning incident broke out in a privately-funded orphanage in our city. A large number of children were admitted to the orphanage in an emergency. After the police intervened to investigate, they found that the orphanage was on the verge of bankruptcy due to poor management, so they purchased a lot of cheap ingredients. Many of these ingredients were rotten and spoiled, causing the children to suffer from severe diarrhea and vomiting after eating them. In cases, they suffered from dehydration and shock... In response, we call on caring people from all walks of life to donate money to the orphanage..."
Bai Liu was watching with great interest when Lu Yizhan arrived, looking tired and dusty.
As soon as Bai Liu saw his typical office worker face, he knew that this person had been staying up late a lot recently.
Lu Yizhan sat down and gulped down two gulps of tea. He looked at Bai Liu and started to complain bitterly: "Damn it! You don't know how busy I am recently! I'm almost dying of busyness! I didn't even have time to drink a cup of tea in the whole morning!"
"It's only been a few days since I had dinner with you last time, right?" Bai Liu raised her eyebrows. "Is it so scary to prepare for marriage?"
Lu Yizhan waved his hands tiredly. He looked up and saw the news on TV. His face changed. He called the waiter and lowered his voice: "It's not just about the wedding. Waiter, can you change to another private room for us?"
There weren't many people here at the moment, so the waiter readily changed Bai Liu and Lu Yizhan to a small private room.
As Lu Yizhan entered the private room, his face looked solemn. He took out a cigarette and smoked it.
Bai Liu hasn't seen Lu Yizhang smoking for a long time. After he got a girlfriend, he was controlled like a filial boyfriend. He gave up all bad habits like smoking, playing games and cards. He even went out to drink a bottle of Coke secretly because of his girlfriend, no, now I should say his fiancée.
Lu Yizhang's fiancée firmly believed that cola was harmful to sperm and health, and strictly forbade Lu Yizhang to drink any carbonated drinks.
In response to this, Bai Liu said that it was fortunate that Lu Yizhan's fiancée did not know that beer was also a type of carbonated beverage, otherwise Lu Yizhan's only joy in life, drinking and eating barbecue, would have been deprived.
Bai Liu calmly asked Lu Yizhan, who looked bitter and resentful from smoking, "Should I be asking worriedly now, what happened, Lu Yizhan? Why are you smoking? Didn't you swear that you would never touch a soft drug like cigarettes again unless your world collapsed? How come your world collapsed within just a few days of my leaving?"
"Ahem!" Lu Yizhan choked on his cigarette after being teased by Bai Liu. He couldn't help laughing. Lu Yizhan had the standard square and generous appearance that the elderly liked. He looked a bit silly and handsome when he laughed. "Bai Liu, just ask questions if you want! Why do you have to mention my history as a middle school student?"
"Go ahead." Bai Liu poured a cup of tea for Lu Yizhan and pushed it over. "I'm off work now, so I can waste some of my precious time listening to the life troubles that make your world collapse."
"There are indeed many troubles in getting married." Lu Yizhan took the teacup from Bai Liudun and was silent for a few seconds. "But what bothers me most is not getting married. Did you see the news about the orphanage on TV just now?"
Bai Liu nodded: "I saw it, what's wrong?"
"A colleague of mine is handling this matter. He said it doesn't look like a common food poisoning. Many children are now in emergency treatment, and the specific results have not been found yet." Lu Yizhan frowned, "But mushroom poisoning, you and I have both been to welfare homes, and Jingcheng is not a mushroom production area. The price of mushrooms is relatively high. The welfare homes here rarely buy mushrooms, which are relatively expensive and prone to accidents. And this is a privately donated welfare home that is on the verge of bankruptcy..."
"All in all, I think this is not right, but the current solution is to keep this orphanage. Before the situation is fully investigated, the safety of the children staying in the orphanage cannot be well guaranteed..."
"It sounds complicated." Bai Liu asked calmly, "But what does this have to do with you, Lu Yizhan? Although you are a policeman, this is not your job, right?"
Lu Yizhan was silent for a while, then said, "I took the initiative to join the investigation team."
Bai Liu glanced at Lu Yizhan and said nothing.
"You also know that I'm getting married soon. Sister Dian (Lu Yizhang's fiancée) is not in good health... The doctor said that she might not be able to get pregnant. We discussed whether to adopt a child before we got pregnant..." Lu Yizhang's fingers clasped the cup tightly, and he smiled bitterly, "Bai Liu, I know you will think I'm too impulsive. My current financial situation is not very good..."
Lu Yizhan took a breath and said, "But after discussing with Sister Dian, I decided to go to this orphanage to adopt a child. After all, it's better to have one less child in such an unstable situation. After all, I came from an orphanage as well, so I think it's a way to give back to society."
"So you told me something that you knew I probably wouldn't agree with. What's your purpose?" Bai Liu asked calmly, "What do you want me to do for you?"
Lu Yizhan lowered his head and fiddled with the cigarette on his fingertips without saying anything.
The waiter brought a hot pot of hot red food, which was bubbling between the two silent people.
Then Lu Yizhan began to talk to himself: "Bai Liu, I really don't want to involve you in this matter, but your brain is really useful in this matter."
"If the criminal interests involved in a matter are huge, you can almost immediately guess the other party's next move. You are a genius in this area."
Bai Liu drank a sip of tea expressionlessly: "I'll take it as a compliment. This isn't the first time you've come to me to meddle in other people's business. Just say it if you have something to say."
"Can you help me look at this matter?" Lu Yizhang looked up at Bai Liu, "My colleague's investigative ideas are stuck. I came to you for this matter before and the ideas you gave me were all correct, so..."
Lu Zhan spoke with some embarrassment: "I know I am meddling in other people's business, but now that I know about it, I can't just sit there and watch. They are just kids..."
Bai Liu raised his hand and unpacked a pair of disposable chopsticks with a "pop" sound, interrupting Lu Yizhan's unfinished words: "I can help you take a look, but I won't do it for free. As usual - this meal is on you."
Lu Yizhan nodded, he was already familiar with Bai Liu's request for reward.
"And I only have one day to help you mind your own business." Bai Liu said, "I have to go on a business trip tomorrow and won't be back for two months."
Lu Yizhan was shocked: "Two months? So long? What exactly is your job? If it's the kind of performance-based job you mentioned last time, it shouldn't take two months, right?"
Bai Liu paused for a moment, and considering the blocking mechanism of the game, he changed his words: "This time I will team up with a monkey, a young master and some other people to play the game on the stage and perform for the audience. The performance will last for two months."
"..." Lu Yizhan's expression was very complicated, "Is your job really legal?"
Bai Liu said: "It is legal."
"They are monkeys and young masters, and they play games for the public. It's legal, and they're performing for two months..." Lu Yizhan thought for a while, then slapped his thigh in sudden realization. He looked at Bai Liu and made a decisive judgment, "You are a circus performance team, right? You're going to go on tour in two months, right?"
"..." Bai Liu was silent for a few seconds, "Yes."
——————
After returning home, Bai Liu looked at some relevant data and information about this private welfare home that Lu Yizhang had given him.
Most of the orphanages in the world where they live are public orphanages run by the government. Bai Liu and Lu Yizhan are both from such public orphanages.
Lu Yizhan was educated to become a kind-hearted and grateful modern five-good youth. He aspired to become a policeman and serve the society since he was a child.
As for Bai Liu, this freak, he has been obsessed with money and has never been able to get out of it. If Lu Yizhang had not been vigilant and tightly holding Bai Liu to the path of abiding by the rules and laws, it is hard to say what this lunatic Bai Liu would do for money.
However, the orphanage where the incident occurred this time was not a public one, but a private one established ten years ago with donations from a large number of corporate philanthropists.
Many of the entrepreneurs here were said to have terminal illnesses. According to the traditional practice of "a dying man should do good deeds", these people donated a large sum of money to build this private welfare home, saying that they wanted to do some good deeds and accumulate virtue before they died. They won a lot of praise at the time, and Lu Yizhan has always praised this behavior.
Coincidentally, not long after the construction of this children's welfare home was completed, the illnesses of these entrepreneurs improved, as if "good deeds will be rewarded."
However, "when a man is about to die, he tends to do good deeds". When a man is not about to die, he naturally does not want to spend a lot of money to do good deeds and seek good rewards. After that, these entrepreneurs gradually paid less attention to this orphanage, and thus this private orphanage slowly declined within ten years.
After reading the information provided by Lu Yizhang, Bai Liu understood why he felt something was wrong.
This poorly run private orphanage had been the scene of numerous incidents, most of them mushroom poisonings, but this was the biggest of all.
Lu Yizhan said that these food poisoning accidents piled together did not seem like accidents at first glance, but after investigation, no clues of foul play were found. It was either deliberate poisoning or simple accidental food poisoning, just like this incident.
It was as if some higher-level existence had erased all clues other than "accidental food poisoning."
Lu Yizhan even suspected that there might be a problem among their own people and that some traces of the crime had been deliberately erased.
Bai Liu looked at it from the perspective of an inhumane game designer. This was simply a natural and good material for designing a horror game - an endangered children's orphanage, a strange accident of food poisoning, and a child who died tragically from the poisoning.
Compared to Lu Yizhan's suspicion that someone inside had erased the traces of the crime, Bai Liu suspected that it was not a person who erased the traces. If his previous guess was correct -
——He felt that this children's welfare home was most likely a [horror game copy] that was being released into the [real world].
——————
The next morning, Bai Liu was awakened by a series of life-threatening calls from Lu Yizhang. As soon as he answered the phone, Lu Yizhang's tone was unprecedentedly serious: "Bai Liu, please come to the First People's Hospital of Jingcheng. The child who was sent to the hospital last night--"
"A lot of people died, right?" Bai Liu said calmly.
Lu Yizhan on the other side held his breath for a moment, then exhaled slowly. He asked, "Did you find out anything?"
"Not yet." Bai Liu said frankly, "But from the information you gave me, if someone deliberately poisoned the mushrooms, they did it so many times, and their purpose must be to kill people. And the situation this time is so serious, so I think the mushrooms consumed by these children sent to the hospital must be a lethal dose."
"...Yes, many of them died despite failed rescue efforts." Lu Yizhan's voice was harsh and hoarse, "but there is one child who is still alive."
"There is still a living child?" Bai Liu obviously noticed something was wrong.
If this children's welfare home is a horror game copy that the system is projecting into the real world, the group of children that serve as the background of the game would most likely be wiped out, just like the passengers in the carriage in "The Last Train".
Bai Liu asked softly, "Can I come over?"
Lu Yizhan: "Sure, come over."
When Bai Liu put on her clothes and walked over, the entrance hospital was crowded with reporters from various news media.
Bai Liu was picked up by Lu Yizhang from the operating room elevator. When he passed by the operating room, he could see small corpses with their heads covered with white cloths placed in the corridor. Because there were too many corpses, some of them had not been transported away in time, and were piled up in a crooked manner in the corridor of the operating room, turning the operating room into a small morgue.
From time to time, nurses with numb faces would come up and push the dead children's bodies down. Occasionally, they would hit the wall, and a purple little hand covered with various corpse spots would emerge from under the white cloth.
These corpse spots and some blood swellings appeared on the surface of the child's body, like mushroom patterns covering the back of the corpse's hands, as if a mushroom would break out of the corpse's skin in the next second.
A disgusting smell of fermented mushrooms filled the entire operating room, as if the mushrooms that were accidentally eaten by the children had been fermented overnight using the fresh corpses as a culture medium. It was a strong smell that was both rotten and full of the vitality of the fungi.
Bai Liu calmly withdrew his gaze, turned his head to look at Lu Yizhan, and waited until he passed the operating room before asking softly: "Are you sure these children died last night? The degree of decay of these bodies is not right."
"Yes." Lu Yizhan rubbed his forehead. "The time when the corpse spots appeared in large numbers was too early, and the time of rigor mortis was also wrong."
Bai Liu squinted at Lu Yizhan and asked, "Why is it wrong?"
Lu Yizhan stopped when he heard Bai Liu's words. He leaned against the wall, lit a cigarette, and took several long puffs. The whole corner of the stairs was filled with smoke, which showed that Lu Yizhan was in a very bad mood.
"The corpse spots all emerged from the child's body within a few minutes after the death was confirmed. They appeared and spread very quickly. This usually happens more than 24 hours after death." Lu Yizhan used the thumb of the hand that lit the cigarette to touch his forehead, trying to open up his wrinkled brows, but it seemed to have no effect. "Zombie... that's right. After death, the body hardens quickly. It had already entered the softening and decaying stage in the early this morning morning. This usually happens more than 24 hours after death."
"It's almost as if..." Lu Yizhan paused and said, "These poisoned children died before they entered the hospital."
They were talking as they walked and had already reached the stairs of the children's emergency ward on the first floor. Through the half-open door of the emergency exit, they could see the bodies of children with their heads covered on the beds in the hospital ward corridor, and the nurses who were putting the bodies into body bags.
The faces of those children's corpses were not the bluish-white color of dead people, but were covered with colorful protruding spots.
Bai Liu knew that some mushroom poisoning could cause dermatophytes similar to allergies, but the spots on these children's faces were so dense that they looked like a color blindness test. They were also raised on the skin surface. Even though Bai Liu was not trypophobic, she still felt a little uncomfortable just looking at them.
It feels like there are mushrooms growing under the face that haven't sprouted yet.
The author has something to say:
Note: According to the information I found in my country, you have to be married for many years and one of you cannot have children before you can adopt a child. Dianjie and Lu Yizhan have made some changes here. The welfare home system here is also different from the reality, because we do not allow private individuals to fully run a children's welfare home. The government must participate in the hosting in order to supervise the safety of the children. This is really good.
Almost all systems have been changed in this game world. All the settings here are for game loading services. Please don't bring them into the real world. This is an imaginary game world with very outrageous settings. Thank you thank you (covering face
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
