Chapter 27 48h (10)
"Bait."
Gu Qiufeng knew that this dungeon game would never be so kind. Its core mechanisms had been destroyed and disrupted, but it still shared clues with him and waited indifferently for Gu Qiufeng to complete the game.
He quickly got up, pushed open the bathroom door, and found shattered glass lenses on the floor.
Shao Qiu Shui has disappeared without a trace, as if she had evaporated from the face of the earth. Only the running faucet next to her proves that she once existed.
Gu Qiufeng walked over, turned off the faucet, and began to look at the mirror that was completely destroyed.
"The inner and outer worlds..." Gu Qiufeng said, "If the world we are in is the outer world, then the world we are in every time the loop node is restarted due to fire and NPC death should be the inner world. The inner and outer worlds should correspond to each other in some aspects. For example, Shao Qiu Shui and the dancing mummies, Shao Qiu Shui's missing and deformed family and the three mummies fighting each other in the inner world, as well as the fire conditions in the inner world and the Yucheng University fire half a year ago in the outer world that we need to meet to start the loop."
"Then, the game actively allows things from the inner world to interfere with the outer world. This can only mean one thing."
"It was the first to abandon the so-called game mechanics, and just wanted to quickly resolve this NPC and us that caused the cycle to fail."
When Gu Qiufeng said this, his expression looked strange.
He vaguely felt that he must have missed some clues. Why could the monsters in the other world take the initiative to contact Shao Qiu Shui, the NPC?
"Someone is knocking on the door." Feng He said.
He ran to the living room and opened the door for Yu Chiang who was outside.
"What happened?" Yu Chi'ang asked.
Feng He glanced at him and said nothing.
Gu Qiufeng also heard the noise and came out wrapped in a tissue, holding a lens.
When he saw the thick stack of archive papers in Yu Chi'ang's hand, he was surprised and asked, "Why did you bring the archives out? Is this allowed?"
In fact, Gu Qiufeng had also had this idea. When he was in the archives room, he had to pay attention to the movements around him to prevent any crisis from happening. One of his oversights violated several rules set by the dormitory manager. At the same time, there was also a dormitory manager who was making trouble for him. In the end, he did not pay enough attention to the archival materials themselves.
If we can bring it out and study it carefully, we will definitely find more clues.
Unfortunately, the dormitory manager obviously thought of this and came up with the ambiguous rule of "no messing up the archives room".
"No." Yu Chi'ang waved the file in his hand, handed him the information on Shao Qiu Shui, which was on the top, and explained, "This is not the original. I printed it out with the printer I bought from the mall."
Gu Qiufeng: “.”
Damn that rich player, he has a narrow mindset.
Through the experience of two copies, Gu Qiufeng discovered that the prices of things in the mall are actually not consistent with the real prices, and they fluctuate at any time.
Items that are valuable to human players will be expensive, such as basic necessities for food, clothing, housing, transportation, and daily necessities. Even a can of candy that costs less than ten yuan in reality will be marked with a sky-high price in the mall, so Gu Qiufeng decisively gave up the gloves and chose bandages.
He changes his gloves every day. No matter how rich he is, he cannot afford such waste. Compared with gloves, because there are players with healing skills in the game, the demand for bandaging wounds is actually very small. Bandages are a rare and cheap basic necessity for humans.
Printers, which are already very expensive in real life, are even more expensive. Gu Qiufeng would never have thought that Yu Chi'ang would decisively buy a printer to make copies just because he might need the information.
What a rich guy! He is indeed a player who often visits taverns.
In addition, there are some high-priced items whose prices are still within Gu Qiufeng's acceptable range. For example, the ghost-exorcising talisman is an item that has absolute lethality to dungeon NPCs. It has a great demand among players and has a significant impact on the dungeon, so the price is naturally higher.
Gu Qiufeng said quietly: "It's great to have points."
Unlike him, not only is he poor, but he also has to spend a certain amount of points regularly to maintain his skills.
Yu Chiang glanced at him and said, "If you want, I can..."
"No need." Gu Qiufeng said, "We are not related at all."
He also has to control his points to stay in City D to avoid being hunted down.
In one copy, he can meet several players who have accepted the bounty order. You can imagine the attitude of the players in City C towards him now.
"Take a look at this first." Gu Qiufeng said, handing the fragment in his hand to Yu Chiang, "Shao Qiushui must have been sucked into the other world. This is the mirror fragment left in the bathroom after she disappeared."
Yu Chiang's pupils shrank slightly: "Is this... a two-sided mirror?"
"Yes." Gu Qiufeng said, "In order to avoid someone being left alone due to accidentally entering the other world, we chose Shao Qiushui's room as the save location."
When traveling alone and staying in a hotel, travelers with basic life experience will check every corner of the bathroom and bedroom to prevent the presence of peeping toms.
In the bathroom, in addition to checking whether there are cameras installed in necessary places, the most important place is the mirror.
Some mirrors are double-sided, and it is easy for someone with ulterior motives to peek into what is going on in the bathroom.
It’s creepy to think about it.
When you are washing your face in the bathroom, there are actually a pair of eyes on the other side of the mirror quietly looking at you.
"These apartment rooms were specially arranged by the school for us 'exchange students'. Shao Qiushui said that her previous dormitory was not here." Gu Qiufeng said, "She may not have lived in this room for a few days. So she didn't notice the existence of the two-way mirror."
Yu Chi'ang's expression was serious: "She probably didn't expect that she could be spied on in school."
Gu Qiufeng flipped open the thick stack of information on Shao Qiu Shui and quickly jumped to the photo section.
Then he chuckled. "That's disgusting. I know what these pictures mean."
There was a peeping Tom who followed closely and put his hand on the girl's neck.
He waited, unchangingly and patiently, until the moment when his prey was at its most vulnerable, and then he grabbed the prey's throat and killed it with one blow.
"Why did this person choose Shao Qiu Shui?" Yu Chi'ang asked.
Gu Qiufeng said: "The reason for his choice is not important. Shao Qiushui has been targeted for many years anyway, and it depends on the outcome..."
He had guessed the ending of this NPC girl from the very beginning.
Selfishly speaking, he hopes that Shao Qiu Shui's TE ending is the so-called HE.
But obviously, Shao Qiu Shui was killed by a psychopath who had been targeting her for many years.
The pair of dark hands initially led Gu Qiufeng into a wrong way of thinking, making him think of the dancing mummies in the fire.
Thinking about it now, these photos record not only Shao Qiu Shui's life, but also her fear of the eyes that follow her like a shadow.
Shao Qiu Shui imagined the potential crises around her to be like the mummies in her childhood nightmares.
She must have noticed something, but her father was dead and her mother was a mental patient, so no one could help her get rid of it. In the absence of any evidence, Shao Qiu Shui's nonsense would be maliciously combined with her family by others to speculate that Shao Qiu Shui was just a crazy girl suffering from paranoia.
The deformed family made her cowardly and timid.
Shao Qiu Shui was like a rabbit, helplessly feeling the dangerous hand slowly approaching her throat.
"So, in the other world, Feng He and I saw three mummies. These three mummies were the counterparts of her and her parents." Gu Qiufeng said, "I was wondering why the monsters in the other world could threaten her, but now it's clear."
The mummy dancing in the fire was mistaken by Gu Qiufeng for Shao Qiu Shui because of his movements.
But that was just a shadowy imitator who had been spying on Shao Qiu Shui for years.
Shao Qiu Shui's death was never caused by a fire, just like the uniformed girl in the archive room who helped him and Yu Chi'ang, she died in a bad joke of her companions. Shao Qiu Shui died at the hands of peepers who had been around for years.
The voyeur spying on her, imitating her, and finally killing her and replacing her.
In the other world, when the peeper discovers Shao Qiu Shui's existence, he will desperately want to kill her.
"Now think about it, without Shao Qiu Shui, how are you going to enter the other world?" Yu Chi'ang asked.
Gu Qiufeng stroked his chin, "I was thinking that too. Judging from Shao Qiushui, the only way to enter the other world is definitely not to save the game in a loop. There must be other ways."
Yu Chi'ang said, "You don't seem to be in a hurry."
"Really?" Gu Qiufeng was stunned for a moment, then he smiled and said, "Maybe I believe that the little girl should be able to protect herself at least temporarily."
*
When Shao Qiu Shui was dragged into the mirror, she felt like her breathing was about to stop.
Mr. Gu and the others are still outside!
But fortunately, Shao Qiu Shui found that the dried corpse beside him had disappeared.
This at least proves that her life is not threatened for the time being.
Shao Qiu Shui looked around, opened the bathroom and walked out tentatively.
Or the bedroom of the apartment.
It was quiet all around, and the smell of rotting corpses and cooking smoke in my memory disappeared.
Shao Qiu Shui was filled with doubt and didn't think she could let her guard down.
Mr. Gu and Feng He are not here, so she has to be even more alert.
According to Mr. Gu, his life and death are closely related to her.
Shao Qiu Shui bit her lip and felt cold sweat seeping out of her palms.
No matter how scared she is now, she cannot lose her composure.
Because of a negligence, her death would be a small matter, and it would also implicate Mr. Gu.
"Qiu Shui, come out to eat!"
Suddenly, a familiar woman's voice came from the door.
When she was not sick, her mother was gentle and always stood at the door to call Shao Qiu Shui to eat.
Shao Qiu Shui still remembers his mother's stunned expression when he lost his composure and ran out of the dance studio that morning.
She was so confused at the time that she was afraid that she would say something hurtful insincerely.
But now Shao Qiu Shui even feels a little regretful.
She never said a proper word to her mother, not even a goodbye.
The woman outside the door seemed to have waited too long for Shao Qiu Shui to respond, so she asked again softly: "Qiu Shui, is there something wrong?"
Shao Qiu Shui opened his mouth.
Obviously, it is unlikely that her mother exists in the other world.
This is the school's apartment, and it is very wrong for my mother's voice to appear here.
The woman's gentle tone is like poison mixed with honey, tempting people while unscrupulously announcing danger.
Shao Qiu Shui wanted to sink, but fortunately she still remembered why she came to the other world, so she pinched herself to keep her sanity. No matter how the voice outside called her, Shao Qiu Shui did not move.
Suddenly, there was a sound of the iron door closing.
Shao Qiushui suddenly heard his own voice coming from outside: "Ah, Mom, why are you standing at my door? Did you forget? I went out to buy salt."
Like a thunderclap, Shao Qiu Shui shuddered violently.
She is right here, who is outside?
Even though the woman in the other world was not her real mother, Shao Qiu Shui still didn't want her, who had the same gentle personality, to get hurt. Her heart was pounding and she almost couldn't help but open the door.
When his fingertips touched the cold door handle, Shao Qiu Shui felt as if a bucket of cold water was pouring down from head to toe.
No, what if these monsters are taking advantage of her love for her mother and trying to provoke her to go out?
Calm down, Shao Qiu Shui!
She had to be cautious, for herself and for Mr. Gu.
Even though he felt so anxious that it seemed as if there was a fire burning in his chest, Shao Qiu Shui still quietly put his ear to the door, listening quietly to the noise outside.
She would seize every opportunity to create her own escape route.
"I'm sorry, the medicine I took recently has damaged my short-term memory." Mother said softly, "Now that you're back, let's go eat. Lunch is ready."
"It's nothing. It just means that mom is taking the treatment seriously. Don't worry about the money. The national scholarship has been deposited into my card, and my teacher also recommended a job in a dance cram school for me. That's enough." There was a sound of a chair being dragged on the ground outside. "Shao Qiushui" exclaimed, "Wow, mom's cooking skills have improved again. After graduation, it would be nice for us to open a small restaurant back home."
"How can that be possible? You are a very good dancer, and you won't be able to show your value if you go back. You have to work hard. If the cram school is too tiring, you can put it aside. We are not short of money, and mom has a job. You have to focus on your major, work hard, and get admitted into our city's theater after graduation." said the mother.
"Shao Qiushui" hummed: "Okay."
Listening to the conversation outside, Shao Qiu Shui felt a chill creeping up his spine.
For her, this conversation was impossible.
At least not peacefully.
Ever since she witnessed her father's death at the age of seventeen, Shao Qiu Shui's attitude towards her mother inevitably cooled.
She knew this was wrong.
But she couldn't help herself.
From that year on, the relationship between mother and daughter took a sharp turn for the worse and reached freezing point.
Throughout the year, they had so few conversations that they were like two strangers, and the few interactions they had were quarrels.
Shao Qiu Shui never had a peaceful family.
Outside the door, she and her mother seemed to be in another world, as beautiful as the broken bubbles spit out by a mermaid.
Monsters seem to be very good at playing with people's hearts.
Shao Qiushui felt that the most vulnerable line of defense in his heart was being gradually disintegrated by the joyful laughter of the mother and daughter outside...
Until the bowl suddenly fell to the ground, and the breaking sound woke her up from her sweet dream.
“Mom, I’m sorry!”
"Shao Qiu Shui" a crying voice came from outside the house.
"It's okay." The mother said, "You didn't hurt yourself, did you? I noticed that you've been distracted lately. Are you under a lot of academic pressure, or are you worried about something?"
"Shao Qiu Shui" seemed to hesitate for a moment.
After a while, she finally said, "Mom, I don't know... should I go see a psychiatrist?"
As a mother with a mental illness, I am very sensitive to this word.
Sure enough, after "Shao Qiu Shui" opened his mouth, she immediately rebuked: "Don't think like that! You don't have any psychological problems!"
“Shao Qiushui”: “I…”
The mother interrupted her confession and continued: "Don't be influenced by me and your father. You have to believe that you are a normal child."
Shao Qiu Shui tightened his grip on the door handle when he heard this.
She felt as if countless hands around her suddenly stole the air, making Shao Qiu Shui feel tense and suffocated for no reason.
"No, Mom, please listen to me first." "Shao Qiu Shui" said, "Please face my needs. I am asking for help from you."
Shao Qiu Shui couldn't help but open his mouth.
This must be fake.
The real her is not so rational, decisive and frank.
Shao Qiu Shui seemed to have guessed what Shao Qiu Shui was going to say next.
"I... have always felt like someone is spying on me." "Shao Qiu Shui" said, "From childhood to adulthood, there has been a gaze following me like a shadow, and recently the feeling has become more and more obvious. I don't know how to tell you, Mom, because I don't have any evidence, and if I tell others, they will definitely think I'm crazy."
"Mom, don't you want to prove that I don't have a mental illness? Then help me find the so-called peeper."
Shao Qiu Shui felt like someone was spying on her life.
But she didn't tell anyone.
The deformity of her original family made it difficult for her to find anyone to turn to, and her withdrawn and cowardly character meant that Shao Qiu Shui didn't even have any close friends for all these years.
And this "Shao Qiu Shui" actually told her mother so directly.
Shao Qiu Shui just felt very envious.
She envied the "Shao Qiu Shui" outside the door who possessed excellent qualities that she did not have.
“That gaze seemed to be everywhere.”
Shao Qiu Shui suddenly took a few steps back and began to look left and right, trying to find a place to hide.
Because the sound of two "people" talking outside was getting closer and closer.
They might come to the bedroom!
"For example, when I'm in the bedroom, I always feel like someone is watching me."
The voice of "Shao Qiu Shui" gradually became filled with a strange excitement.
The door was pushed open from the outside.
The bright sunlight outside the window cast a halo of light on the bed. The room was empty, tidy and bright.
Shao Qiushui's tone turned disappointed: "I thought we could catch him this time."
"Ah, I have to be a tutor this afternoon. I'm going to be late!" "Shao Qiushui" said, "Mom, I have to go out!"
As the footsteps of the two people left one after another, Shao Qiu Shui, who was hiding in the bathroom, breathed a sigh of relief.
When I raised my eyes, my gaze met the dark mummy in the mirror.
She instantly felt cold sweat all over her body.
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