Chapter 124 Paper Town
Qiao Song had controlled paper beasts herself, and she knew the behavioral habits of humans when controlling such large monsters, just like wearing a piece of ill-fitting clothing.
Even if a dog wears human skin, he will still walk like a dog. Even if a person wears dog clothes, he will still walk like a person.
This guy is extremely familiar with his own skin, and is extremely skilled whether walking upright or lying down.
Seeing that the butcher's knife could not do anything to Qiao Song, the butcher crawled on the ground, arched his back, and immediately swung out a tail behind him.
It was a lizard with a long tail that was completely different from that of a fish, and there was a row of spines on its back, making it more like a crocodile.
The spikes on the tail came alive and hit Qiao Song directly in the face. The buzzing chainsaw blocked the tail in time, but the huge force caused Qiao Song to be knocked back more than ten meters.
[The butcher's hunting counter is generated, and the closed space is being determined...]
The moment Qiao Song stepped out, he noticed something wrong with the air. The originally free wind stopped flowing. Recalling the battle scene between the player and the butcher that he had monitored before, the enlarged Oxman seemed to be blocked by something.
A transparent box?
Even though nothing appeared in front of him, Qiao Song immediately swung out a hammer.
There was a slight dinging sound in the air, as if a corner of a glass product was quietly broken.
Qiao Song felt the resistance and knew that he had guessed right. He couldn’t let this transparent counter take shape!
Several hammers were thrown out, and there were constant clanging sounds in the air. Soon the whole area collapsed and the air began to flow again.
The butcher had already turned around and was about to continue chasing Xiao Ni and the player, but suddenly his back stiffened.
[The transparent display case is damaged, the prey's level is determined... the skill cannot suppress it, please treat it with caution]
The butcher didn't seem to understand why his cabinet was broken. He rarely encountered such a situation. The prey was just meat on the chopping board and was naturally suppressed by the butcher. How could it break the glass of the display cabinet?
Any living thing could be judged as the butcher's prey, but the woman in front of him did not seem to have any negative emotion such as fear.
The glass cabinet, the butcher knife, and emotional control are the three abilities that the butcher is most proud of, and they complement each other.
In the previous impact, Xiao Ni slipped to the left, and the human player was on the right.
If the butcher encounters an obstacle that cannot be solved in a short period of time, he needs to make a decision.
He could take only one thing.
Yes, a mission. He came here with a mission, and having a full meal was just a by-product. Ghosts are not tasty, but they can barely fill his stomach. People are tasty, but you can’t eat them. If you eat them, you can’t go back.
He needs this opportunity, he still has a lot of things to do.
He cannot eat humans, so when he is hungry he can only fill his stomach with ghosts. His job is to get by with unqualified humans.
During this gap, the butcher's brain suddenly became a little more active, and his rusty head seemed to be regaining human thinking bit by bit.
"Ghosts are not important...bones are important."
He muttered a few words and swung the crocodile's tail behind him again to drive away this somewhat difficult human player.
Qiao Song could tell that this guy was mentally ill, so he hit him on the tail a few times with a hammer. The butcher felt pain and his eyes turned red again in anger. He was like an angry bull, panting heavily.
"Priority... Bones."
He exhaled a breath, took heavy steps, and chopped with great force. He didn't expect to cause much damage to the human, but simply wanted to make it impossible for Qiao Song to free his hands.
Qiao Song was slightly inferior to the butcher who had been using a boning knife and a machete for years in terms of strength. After blocking a few blows, his palms were numb from the shock.
Taking this opportunity, the butcher ignored the little Ni who was closer to him and was about to stuff into his mouth, and instead went to grab the player on the right whose head he had crushed.
It was unknown whether that player was dead or alive. After all, almost every player in Zhazhi Village, except for those like Qiao Song who had restored their original form, was in a skeleton state.
Even if the skull is shattered, perhaps only the soul is seriously injured.
Qiao Song also seized the opportunity, rushed to the left, picked up Xiao Ni who was not in good condition at the moment, and tore off the fishman's coat.
The reason why Xiao Ni was unable to resist when he was captured before, in addition to the butcher's emotion judgment skills, was that he was wearing a special paper suit for underwater activities.
Being judged as a fish means becoming meat on the chopping board. In front of the butcher, the fear will only grow deeper and deeper. Apart from trembling, most of the targeted objects are almost unable to resist.
It was not until the outer clothes were torn off and Xiao Ni regained his human form that he finally recovered from the suffocating fear.
He took a few deep breaths, like a drowning fish, but it was not the air that saved him, but the inexplicable fear that was dispelled after he got close to Qiao Song.
Qiao Song patted his back and looked in the direction where the butcher fled.
The man, who was over two meters tall, wearing a greasy waterproof jacket and holding a knife, had disappeared.
When Qiao Song thought back at this time, he suddenly realized that the guy was almost the same as himself, in complete human form, which was very different from other players who were still made up of flesh and bones. Was he an NPC or a player?
Xiao Ni finally recovered and grabbed Qiao Song's sleeve: "Sister Qiao Song, the player, the butcher, is the one from Nancun, cough, the player, cough cough."
"The player who was hit on the head has been taken away. Slow down, what happened to the butcher?"
There were many black spots on the exposed bones of the player, and Qiao Song didn't have the extra energy to save a guy who might not be a good person.
"No, I mean the butcher, ahem."
Xiao Ni struggled to get rid of the wet paper clothes and coughed up the water intermittently. Only then did Qiao Song understand what Xiao Ni said was -
"The remaining player in South Village is the butcher. He is here to catch people."
"They are hunting down the Black Bone players."
The paper puppet Xiao Ni was using happened to be a fish, so he was accidentally injured. The monster's real target was the player whose bone had a black spot on it.
At that time, Xiao Ni, who was in the state of Paper Fish, had just entered the water not long ago. While helping Qiao Song to keep watch, he saw other players who had entered the water.
Qiao Song was still in the shrine, and Xiao Ni was afraid that other players would approach. As a result, before he could do anything, he met with an unexpected disaster. He was caught in the net by the butcher who was following him.
Originally, with the blessing of the Murloc Paper Clothes and the mirror ability, Xiao Ni would not be afraid of any player, but the player he met was the Butcher.
"When he went into the water, he was also made of bones. The shapes were very strange, like human bones grafted with bones of various other animals. He attacked me as soon as he saw me."
Perhaps the butcher thought Xiao Ni was in cahoots with the Black Bone he hunted, or perhaps he just wanted to grab some snacks to fill his stomach today, so he subdued Xiao Ni at first sight.
In a head-on encounter with the butcher, most creatures that were judged as prey would be unable to offer any resistance, but Qiao Song was an exception.
"After I touched the fishing net, I felt very scared, as if I had really turned into a fish. As long as he took the knife, I couldn't move, but I remember he kept talking to himself."
He looks like he is not in a good mental state, very crazy and very strong.
Xiao Ni coughed up the remaining water and spoke word by word, "He said that he wanted to clean up the remaining unqualified souls in South Village and make the bonfire burn more fiercely."
Qiao Song repeated the clue Xiao Ni had grasped: "The soul is unqualified?"
Are you referring to the guy with black bones?
Although I haven't met many other villagers in Zhazhi Village yet, it is said that players with ugly bone colors are indeed not that welcome.
Everyone has basically learned a common sense from NPCs: if the bones are black and smelly, it only means that the person was rotten to the core.
The skin can change in many ways, but here, the color of bones cannot be hidden. Even if you arm yourself as quickly as possible, you will be exposed in front of people in the same village more than once.
After collecting his thoughts, Qiao Song once again looked in the direction where the butcher had fled, but there was nothing there.
Qiao Song helped the injured person up.
"Okay, I understand. I'll take you back to rest first..."
Xiao Ni recovered quickly and completely got rid of the psychological shadow brought by the butcher. He was even a little annoyed. He didn't expect that he would be knocked down in one encounter.
"I can also go to help at the bonfire party." Xiao Ni looked much better, but his tone was weak, as if he was afraid that Qiao Song would not take him with him. "I didn't expect his ability to be so strange. It really restrains me."
Qiao Song suspected that it was not only possible to restrain Xiao Ni, but all paper beasts.
Butcher?
Just this title makes people wonder whether he will have a strong suppressive effect on paper beasts.
If the butcher is also a player, then why does he seem to receive tasks similar to those issued by the system to NPCs? Or is it that cleaning up such players is purely his personal behavior?
It's unlikely. It needs to be confirmed with other situations. Then ask a few people in other villages if they have encountered similar people.
Qiao Song quickly sent the details of the attack to the group, waiting for a reply, and also reminding everyone to be careful.
But if these are the identities of the remaining four players in the four villages, it seems to make sense.
Is this the system's white glove among the player community?
Qiao Song has been investigating the conditions of each player in the village these past two days, and also learned about the issue of bone color.
There are indeed many players who are avoiding their enemies, or those who are just bad people. Their true nature is exposed in this copy. Even disguise is useless. After all, every person you have killed and every life you have harmed will leave a black shadow on your bones, and this color cannot be washed away.
There are not many people like this, but each of them is not a good person. Either they are very capable and have armed themselves early, or they are like the pretty boy in East Village and have found a special backer.
Qiao Song always felt that there was one thing that didn't make sense. The butcher was very capable, and his skills in this dungeon almost had an all-round crushing effect, but why did he seem to be mentally unstable?
It's not just ordinary stupidity, but more like his rationality has been abnormally weakened.
If that guy hadn't been so eager to take the player with black bones away, Qiao Song couldn't guarantee that he could defeat the opponent head-on.
The reply in the group came very quickly. Coincidentally, not only in Qiao Song's place, but also in several other villages, three guys appeared at the same time at the junction. They could be identified as butchers at a glance.
They are characterized by wearing greasy waterproof jackets and holding a boning knife or a bone-chopping knife. They will actively attack players whose bones are the wrong color, and capture some paper beasts and chew them up and eat them.
The attacks come very quickly, and almost every butcher can take away the target player in a split-second encounter after appearing.
Lin Xuan reports the latest news in their village to the group at any time.
[I'm telling you, it's absolutely amazing. The butcher was originally going for that pretty boy, after all, that guy's face looked like a bad guy. Who knew that the rich woman that the pretty boy had been with was too powerful, throwing props out like they were free. In the end, the butcher was able to turn around and took away the other player in our village who was hiding in the corner and whose bones were the wrong color.]
After taking away a target, it never appears again.
But the deterrent effect left by the butcher left a deep impression on all the players.
The butcher's constant mumbling of "burn the firewood higher" has also become information that players are frantically spreading to each other.
"The firewood for the bonfire festival..."
The butcher, who had been keeping a low profile before and suddenly became active on the last day, might have been preparing for the last day.
While Qiao Song was thinking, he brought Xiao Ni back to the Fan family's small building. Not long after, he saw Fan Heng with a serious expression appearing outside the gate, as if he was waiting for Qiao Song.
"The time is almost up, let's make final preparations."
So-called preparation was just a simple meal. Since he couldn't give too many instructions about the game content, Fan Heng could only give instructions to his two children.
"You can do or not do the NPC missions that the system will send you. I will make up the fine with your uncle, but remember, follow these two players closely, okay?"
The boy and girl seemed to have realized something these past two days. They were silent and depressed. When they were doing their homework and practicing paper-folding techniques, they were no longer like before, always complaining and trying to escape and be clever.
After finishing another bowl of nourishing soup, Tong Yao finally put down the bowl and stood up, her mouth pouting and her eyes red: "Second uncle, are you and eldest uncle going to send us away?"
Tong Nan, who was still trying to finish the last mouthful of soup, was also startled and exclaimed blankly: "Is there really going to be a new kid coming in?"
After saying that, he glanced at Xiao Ni, who had finished his meal obediently and was folding paper next to Qiao Song.
Xiao Ni, who was inexplicably shot, approached Qiao Song cautiously: "I will not be adopted by your family. I am with Qiao Song's sister and the others."
Tong Yao sighed, and the emotions that she had been working so hard to build up were half washed away. She knocked Tong Nan on the head and said, "If you are not smart, don't interrupt me. What I meant is that Uncle and Second Uncle are planning to give it a try and upgrade the dungeon, so they want us to follow the players through other passages to leave the dungeon."
Although the boys and girls are not the actual controllers of the dungeons, they know most of the unspoken rules of the game. Even if they are NPCs, they can only drive a hearse to and from different dungeons. Moreover, there are very few dungeons they can go to, and they need to contact the dungeon owner in advance, otherwise they will be eaten directly as wandering souls, or even absorbed into the dungeon as ordinary laborers.
It would be embarrassing if you accidentally turned an important character in your neighbor's copy into a passerby in your own copy, so the bosses between copies will communicate with each other.
For young boys and girls, the eldest uncle and the second uncle would always say hello in advance every time they go out. The level of trouble is even more than that of the players, but only by doing so can they avoid becoming food for other big ghosts unlucky enough.
But it’s different for the players.
Players are absolutely free and can go to any copy as long as they have a map.
Tong Yao even knows that some players with special professions can even bring NPCs with them and raise them like small pets.
"Why are you giving us away? I don't want to follow this woman around like a little pet!"
She pointed at Qiao Song angrily.
The latter raised his eyebrows and calmly took a sip of a cup of tea.
Fan Heng showed a rare bit of anger on his face: "Normally when you two act like scoundrels, I can turn a blind eye, but this time is different."
Qiao Song glanced at Xiao Ni and said, "It's still early, let's go to the elevator and wait."
Next it was time for Fan Heng to educate them. Fan Xi did not show up again this time, but when the boy and girl finally arrived at the elevator door, their eyes were slightly red and swollen, and they were still quietly wiping tears.
When she saw Qiao Song, Tong Yao's red and swollen eyes widened instantly, and her lips trembled. In the end, she could only wipe away her tears with grievance, as if she thought that she would have to live with this female devil in the future, and that she and Tong Nan were as pitiful as the cabbages in the field.
Fan Heng's tone was much better than before. He patted the two little guys' heads gently and combed their hair carefully.
"I don't care how you play the game, but this time, when the game is over, you are not allowed to go out through the elevator with the other players. Remember that."
The boy and girl hummed.
"No matter what happens, don't look back. Uncle and uncle will pick you up later. Be good and behave yourself outside. Got it?"
"Um."
"When you live with others in the future, don't make trouble easily, and don't always compare yourself with other children. You two will always be the most precious children in the hearts of your uncle and uncle. Do you understand?"
This time the boy and girl stopped talking. Tong Nan choked up and said, "Uncle, you're not really going to send us to someone else's house, are you? Why are you getting more and more..."
"Shut up."
The girl wiped away her tears, stiffened her neck and began to organize the tools on her body. They were all small paper-made objects she had made in class. She looked like she was showing off her equipment.
"Anyway, I will definitely be more powerful than this guy called Xiao Ni in the future. Uncle, just wait and see my brother and I come back."
Xiao Ni, who was innocently used as a reference, rolled his eyes.
Tong Nan also spoke silently: "I said they are brother and sister, not sister and brother."
"If I say we are brother and sister, then we are brother and sister. Wait until you beat me first before you tell me."
Fan Heng looked at them quietly, rubbed their heads and stopped talking, then looked to the side.
Qiao Song understood what he meant.
"I will take good care of them as agreed, and I wish you all the best."
The elevator door opened with a ding, and Qiao Song heard the system prompt.
[Ding~ The Bonfire Festival begins. You are about to enter the top floor area. Players who have passed this round will be teleported directly, and losers will return to the parking lot. Please do not enter the elevator again. Repeat. Regardless of the result of passing the round, people other than NPCs are not allowed to stay in the elevator, otherwise the consequences will be at your own risk.]
[Please tidy up your appearance. It will be safer if you dress up nicely at the bonfire party.]
[The grassland solar term module has been replaced, welcome to Tianhuo Square! 】
[In the Skyfire Grassland, the weather is changeable, with wind, rain, and meteorites. Warm reminder, players are requested to protect their own campfires. The final settlement will be made by village. Only one player can obtain the ultimate reward of this instance, the man-made shrine.]
[Map loading, skyfire descending——]
The environment on the top floor was similar to the map they had visited before.
Unlike the previous green grassland with drizzle, as soon as the new map was opened, countless fire lines appeared in the sky. They were not beautiful sparks, but meteorites with long tails.
Those dark green meadows then began to flow like living things, instantly gathering together, and countless bird's nest-like objects appeared on the grassland.
Players who took elevators from various corners of the map to this space were just wondering where the bonfire of the Bonfire Festival was, but then they saw those bird's nest-like stacked objects, like spontaneously grown trees, directly forming a frame pointing to the sky.
Bang, bang, bang, the meteorites gradually fell to the ground, and these spontaneously formed bird's nest-shaped piles of grass and wood were like spoons that caught the sparks, burning fiercely.
"Fuck, a meteorite falling from the sky to start a fire, is that so hardcore..."
Some players saw this scene at the elevator entrance and couldn't help but sigh.
Some people also began to quickly record the locations of the grass nests that appeared on the grassland and the corresponding meteorite routes in the sky.
"That's not right. It seems that only one out of ten can fall into the grass nest."
A female player holding a whip pushed her glasses and said, "The most urgent thing now is to find the haystack in our village. Didn't the system prompt say that we need to light enough bonfires to win?"
After the player entered this space and watched how the bonfire was lit, he finally heard the winning prompt.
At that moment, 100 grass balls had formed in this space. These were the bases for the burning bonfires and could only be ignited by heavenly fire.
Each player has paper-making tools and paper beasts, and needs to move these grass balls to catch the fire falling from the sky.
"At the moment the countdown ends, the village with the most fireballs, measured by the members of each village, will be the winner."
The girl repeated the victory conditions she had just heard, her expression solemn: "If we settle the accounts only when the countdown ends, we will have to be on guard in the middle of the process, otherwise the fire that has been lit will be extinguished."
The girl who had already started drawing a map was stunned: "So are we going to the bonfire now? I see that the other people in our village have already set out, or should we continue to look for trouble with that bastard first?"
There are a lot of players in their East Village, and there are also one or two old players who appear and disappear frequently. If you count by total number, they will definitely lose to other villages in the team competition, but the problem is that there are other bad apples in the village.
That bastard A Yue, the girl he newly controlled with his skills was too strong. If they let him win, they would rather let the players from other villages win this victory.
"Chu Wen, what do you say?"
Chu Wen, whose hands were wrapped in elastic bandages, had already put on a nurse's uniform with a pen in her pocket.
"Let's go after Yue Feng first. The rules say that the prettier you dress, the safer you are. I think the prettiness here refers to the appearance of your bones. I don't know how many people that guy named Yue has harmed. His bones are now black, and the amount of flesh and blood he has grown is not much, so it hasn't completely covered up the black color in his bones. Let's follow him and look for an opportunity."
So many people followed, of course not to protect the scumbag, but to find a way to resolve the grudge between them once and for all.
"We can't let that girl be deceived by him again. Xinxin, how are your preparations going?"
The girl holding a whip tied her hair into a high ponytail and made a confident gesture: "Just get on the horse and set off at any time."
She raised the whip high and whipped it hard in the air a few times. In a moment, several big chestnut horses jumped out of the air.
[Horse Wrangler·Horse Call·2/5]
[Current horse condition: excellent, can be used for 10 minutes, timer in progress]
"Chu Wen, you and Ah Xiang will be in a group. She can ride a horse, I'll have one, and Xiao Xia will fly over by herself. Let's chase in this direction first. I just saw that they have already passed the first landing point. I think they have already got a bonfire base."
As he spoke, the big chestnut horse raised its front legs high, neighed, and immediately ran in the space that was already burning.
Sparks kept falling from the sky, making rumbling noises on the ground. Some players had already started to scramble for the bases of the lit campfires, while others had already tried to pick up grass balls to chase the meteorites in the sky.
"This base is so small, no wonder some people have started collecting it."
The girl named Xia Min turned into a big white bird. Her job was a bird observation expert. She could transform into the birds in the bird atlas she had collected within a certain period of time.
"Xiao Xia, why did you turn into a egret? It's so hot here and there's not even any water. Isn't that a waste?"
The horses ran forward, and the egret flew high and low. Hearing this, he felt a little tired: "Didn't Chu Wen tell you? My ability is random. I just drew this card, and I can't do anything about it."
[Bird Expert Illustrated Guide: Randomly changing, current form: egret]
[The remaining action time is 20 minutes. The current status is not good. It is recommended to replace the bird card as soon as possible.]
Xiao Xia also thought about whether she should use the paper elephant she made. It was the most successful product she had made in the past two days. However, the heavenly fire this time had a certain restraint on paper beasts. Before understanding the current situation, no one used paper beasts.
After all, if their guess is correct, the number of campfire bases that each player can hold is limited. After all, the size of that thing is not small, but players can control paper beasts. In other words, the more paper beasts they can control, the more bases they will have in their hands when the time is up.
But there is still a problem. They have been busy looking for trouble with the scumbag these days, and they are not so serious about the task, and their talent is not very strong, so the paper beasts they made are not as good as A Yue's guardian, the stubborn werewolf girl.
"Hey, I think I saw a wolf in front. That guy actually used the paper beast so early..."
The werewolf girl named Xiao Jue seems to have a special liking for wolves. She always pierces the same kind of animal and is quite good at making them. Her flexibility is comparable to that of a real living wolf.
"Xiao Xia, you go and spy. We will directly..."
Yu Xin, who was controlling the horse, suddenly felt a shudder coming from his old friend under him, as if he had encountered a terrifying natural enemy, and he instantly wanted to retreat.
She yanked at the reins, trying to control the remaining horses, and found that the horse next to her had the same reaction.
"Hey, hey, hey, stop running around, keep steady and don't fall!"
The first half of the sentence was said to the horse, and the second half was said to her companions. Then, in panic, they discovered that something even bigger had happened to the werewolf they were about to chase.
A burly man wearing greasy overalls and holding a giant bone-chopping knife in his hand appeared in the field. He ignored the surrounding heavenly fires and did not chase the so-called campfire base. He stared straight at the wolf in front of him.
To be precise, it was the man on her back who had grown half his flesh and was trembling cowardly.
"Clean up, non-conformists, fill in, bonfire."
The butcher repeated it intermittently, raised his knife and rushed towards the already stiff werewolf.
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