Virtual and Real
"I'm here. Let me take care of something." Jiang Yuran turned over and sat up, calming down from his frustration. He clicked on the homepage of the fan site and skillfully forwarded secondary creations related to Director Shang's works.
Director Shang is no longer in the Exile Galaxy, but the Jiang brothers and sisters still closely follow her every latest development.
Jiang Yubai is about to graduate and has been busy with his internship recently. He has spent less time using the administrator account, and now almost all matters, big and small, have been handed over to Jiang Yuran.
Jiang Yuran’s fan job was also “promoted” from managing a small fan group to being a senior administrator of the fan site’s homepage.
The mainstream galaxy has also formed fan groups of all sizes, but the fan homepage "Panic Personal Station" managed by her is still the oldest and most followed one among all fan stations.
It is not an easy task to manage such a large fan site and deal with problems among fans, especially when the only driving force behind it is "generating electricity for love".
Jiang Yuran found that she had gained a lot of pleasure from management over such a long time.
Originally, she had a lazy attitude towards her life and was not interested in her major. But recently, she thought that when looking for a job in the future, she could not stick to her original major and consider management-related positions.
These are all wonderful changes brought about by Director Shang, and even his parents feel gratified.
Director Shang has been active in the main galaxy recently, so Jiang Yuran and Jiang Yubai can't help feeling lost - although, even in the exile galaxy, they can't see Director Shang whenever they want.
If you really count, fans can actually "see" Director Shang more often now - because students from Lianmeng University can often take photos of her. But in the past, she was almost invisible, and we could only know her from the updates she posted.
In the minds of fans, the image of "Shang Jingyan" has become more and more concrete.
In the photos and videos, she is graceful and humorous when teaching students, and she exudes the aura of being in control. This maturity combined with her youth forms a fascinating charm.
When Jiang Yuran put down his laptop, the theme song of "Oil Painting Woman" had just finished playing on the screen.
In the second oil painting "Afternoon Tea with Ladies", Lan Qing and others witnessed the process of the ladies killing a new trial-taker and turning him into their servant. The most tense thing was that they seemed to have discovered the hiding place of Lan Qing and Dr. Liang in the flowers, and they were talking about "three" people.
At the beginning of the next episode, the audience found out who the other person was—it happened to be General Hua!
Before Lan Qing and Dr. Liang could react, General Hua suddenly jumped up and fired his hand cannon at the ladies.
In an instant, the garden was filled with smoke and the beautiful flowers were burned by the high temperature and flames.
The ladies did not dodge or evade, and when the light faded, their appearance became even more terrifying.
The places burned by the flames did not cause any bleeding or injuries, but instead, like burnt cardboard, the contents underneath were revealed - their entire bodies were actually made up of layers of paper, and the deeper they went, the older they became.
To be precise, they are not paper, but paintings. They are monsters made of oil paintings!
One of the ladies had half of her head missing. When she smiled towards the camera, the half-wrinkled old face under her skin also smiled, bringing the weirdness and curiosity to the extreme.
[Ahhh, what on earth did Director Shang come up with such an impactful monster! ]
[I am an art student. From now on, I will have psychological trauma when looking at my own painting materials 555]
[I declare that the most classic scene in this unit has appeared QAQ]
However, since it can be destroyed, it means that the noble lady monsters may be killed.
Next, a battle took place in the magnificent garden.
Lan Qing and Dr. Liang soon joined the battle, and the three of them worked together seamlessly.
The core of the noble lady monsters was finally revealed, a series of childish scribbles that looked like children's drawings.
In the process of removing their layers of outer shells, everyone discovered that the deeper they went, the smaller the canvas became, and the more immature the brushwork became.
On some of the scraps of paper, people found the artist's signature, the elegant English cursive word Marinfia.
Malefia, the person the system asked them to find, might be the big boss of this copy.
The remaining three newcomers were rescued. They came to the trial field inexplicably and had never seen such a nightmarish scene before. They almost lost control of their emotions.
Lan Qing and the other two exchanged information and learned that General Hua also came from a painting in a room. There was also a newcomer in the same room with her. Because he did not find the next painting within the specified time, he solidified into a paper character in the painting.
“Is there a set time?”
Lan Qing and the others only then knew what was going on. General Hua said that there was a huge hourglass in the painting she came from.
They then walked out of the garden and entered the building where they also saw a huge clock. It seems that the expression of time limits in each painting is also different.
Lan Qing deduced and found the location of the next painting within the specified time, and tried his best to find clues.
This painting of ladies having afternoon tea is most likely a picture of Malephia's own life. From the checklist and other items in the mansion, it can be seen that she often held tea parties and invited ladies to appreciate her paintings.
The moment they came to this conclusion, they heard a female chuckle coming from the corridor outside the door. They hurried out, but only saw a corner of a gorgeous skirt.
"It must be that Malefia!" Dr. Liang ran out first.
They chased the ghostly figure and saw it flash into the next painting. Just as the time was about to end, everyone decided to follow it in.
But one of the newlyweds refused to leave, deceiving himself that this was all a dream.
Good words could not persuade the damned ghost, and he eventually turned into a painting.
The next painting was even more sinister, a nautical map. Everyone could sense that something was wrong when they saw the content of the painting before entering. Malefia's painting showed a ship in a storm being attacked by a sea monster with tentacles.
As soon as they landed, they arrived on the ship. The tentacles had gouged a hole in the hull, and the entire ship was tilted.
What's worse is that the world in the painting not only has that giant octopus-like tentacle monster, but also small monsters washed up by the waves.
Malefia is nowhere to be found, and the original crew members and the captain have their faces hugged by some kind of gelatinous parasitic monster. The monster's tentacles drill into its mouth and parasitize their brains, turning them into zombies without independent consciousness, and also causing trouble for the protagonist group.
[It is said that Shang Dao’s hometown V059 is rich in seafood... Shang Dao, is this how you treat seafood? ]
[I have to say it is very realistic. If you check out the crab slaves parasitizing crabs, it is even more terrifying than this. ]
[I remember Director Shang also said that he loved eating blue crabs. Help, what a scary woman! ]
The only good news was that from their location they could see an island not far away on the sea.
The protagonists took great pains to reach the shore before the ship sank, and finally stumbled onto the island.
There is a villa on the island, which has been uninhabited for a long time and occupied by various sea monsters. After another fight, Lan Qing and others finally found the timer in the painting. During this time, the figure of the woman seemed to be playing hide-and-seek with them, always hanging around them from a distance.
The timer is a pocket watch that is placed in the drawing room.
But then everyone was in trouble, because there were many paintings hanging in the studio, some were completed, some were half-finished, some were only drafts, and some were covered and smeared after completion.
Which one is the next passage?
They didn't dare to choose randomly, because they didn't know if the wrong choice would lead to death. Moreover, the ghost's behavior made them uneasy, as if it was deliberately pointing the way, but would the way it pointed be the right one?
At the island villa, they further pieced together Malefia's identity information.
She seemed to be a single mother who inherited a large inheritance from her father - she was adopted by that father rather than related by blood, and this island villa was where she specifically used to find inspiration for her paintings.
Moreover, there are many paintings in the island villa showing a little girl who looks like her. She is the daughter of Malefia and lives here with her, but Lan Qing and others did not find the girl's name.
After searching for so long, they felt very tired. In the world of the painting, they could not feel hunger or the passage of time. This kind of fatigue was psychological.
How long will they travel through the painting?
The seemingly endless shuttling made people feel desperate. One newcomer couldn't stand it anymore and committed suicide by jumping off a cliff on the island one night.
Lan Qing and others discovered their companion's death the next morning. Her swollen and wet body was brought back to the villa by an unknown force and placed in the studio.
The ghost dipped his hand in her blood and left a handprint on a painting, like a signpost.
Seeing that time was running out, Lan Qing made the decision to choose the painting where he would leave his handprints.
Anyway, there is no better choice, so I have to step into it even if it is a trap.
The style of that painting is out of tune with other realistic oil paintings. It is composed of many abstract horizontal and vertical lines, forming a series of rectangular frames.
The content of the previous episode stopped here. Jiang Yubai’s statement that it was a “climax plot” was actually an exaggeration. The real unit climax obviously hasn’t arrived yet, and the boss hasn’t even appeared yet.
However, it’s not far away. Important clues about “Malefiia” will definitely be unlocked next, and the protagonists may have to meet her head-on.
“I don’t know what the world in this painting will look like.” Jiang Yuran clenched his fists nervously.
On the forum, the latest hot topics are predictions. What will the world look like in abstract paintings?
Soon, she saw it.
It’s actually a mirror world!
Lan Qing and others were standing in a long corridor with mirrors on all sides, which was so long that it seemed to have no end.
The only light source was the props they brought with them. The mirrors refracted and reflected each other, forming an infinite corridor. When Lan Qing looked up, countless Lan Qings in the mirror also looked at her, which gave Jiang Yu goose bumps all over his body: "Oh my god!"
[The guy who doesn’t like candy guessed it right again! It really is a mirror…]
[It really looks like what is depicted in an abstract painting, full of rules and regulations.]
[I was scared by the mirror once in "Rouge Comb". Ahhhh, I have to hold on. I will definitely not be scared again this time! ]
After being screened for such a long time, the audience has also realized that the core of the copy of the third unit is "truth and falsehood, reality and fiction".
"Painting" and "mirror" are, in a sense, illusory symbols. For this reason, the protagonists and the audience are skeptical about the connection between Malefia and the ghost, and it is likely that there will be a layer of reasoning about "authenticity" embedded in this.
Jiang Yubai rubbed his arms and hugged the pillow tightly. In the picture, Lan Qing and his group walked cautiously along the corridor, and the heels of their shoes tapping on the mirror made infinite echoes.
Suddenly, a corner of a skirt flashed by not far away, and after countless reflections, it looked like a kaleidoscope.
Chasing the hem of the skirt, everyone ran wildly in the corridor, only to see the mirror door at the end open into a room, which was still covered with mirrors.
The ghost disappeared.
Could it be hiding in the mirror?
Lan Qing began to feel around on the mirror, trying to find the mechanism.
"Why not just smash these mirrors?" General Hua frowned. She was straightforward and made the simplest and most brutal suggestion.
But when she turned around, she saw Dr. Liang making faces and exaggerated gestures in front of the mirror.
Jiang Yubai became even more nervous: "Oh my god, is it Dr. Liang's turn to be possessed in this copy?"
General Hua and Lan Qing thought the same thing. General Hua flexed his wrist and was about to punch Dr. Liang to knock him unconscious, but the latter quickly jumped away:
"Hey my, what are you doing? I'm not possessed, don't hit me!"
"You're not possessed, so what are you talking about in front of the mirror?" General Hua retorted.
"I say, don't be afraid." Dr. Liang said seriously, "From the beginning, I have been paying attention to the reflection in the mirror... and then I found that something seemed wrong."
She tapped the mirror, and the farther away the reflection was, the darker it was, making it hard to see clearly. When she raised her hand, countless of her reflections also raised their hands.
"The shadow in the deepest part, isn't its movement different from ours?"
As she finished her words, everyone looked at the "Dr. Liang" at the farthest point.
Being too far away, people couldn't see "her" expression. Her entire face was shrouded in shadow, dark and unclear.
Then, in full view of everyone, it actually put down its hand and took a step towards the next mirror!
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