Chapter 260 Crimson Mirror
It's almost eleven o'clock now.
Xu Zhiyan hesitated again and again and temporarily gave up the plan of looking for a small ATM tonight.
[Guild Mission: Covert Operation]
[Progress: 1/9]
He did not forget the main mission of entering the copy this time.
It is now known that the guild mission props will light up in the hotel, but if they are taken out for a long time, they will easily attract other monsters, so you have to pay attention to the time when placing the props next time.
After saying goodbye to Yu Xiu, Xu Zhiyan pushed the door and left this safe temporary resting place.
There is still one hour until midnight.
I’m not sure what’s going on with the young master, so it would be better to explore other parts of the hotel first.
He planned to push the task forward. According to the symmetrical distribution of buildings in the scarlet mirror, there should be 4-5 places inside the hotel where props can be placed.
The corridor on the third floor was dimly lit.
Xu Zhiyan was walking on a soft, thick carpet, making almost no sound.
He tried to use props to open the doors of the other guest rooms, but as expected, they could not be opened. In the copy, players could not enter any rooms except the rooms assigned to them and the rooms they paid extra for.
After the test, Xu Zhiyan didn't worry too much and focused on some functional areas.
The theme hotel has eight floors.
The buffet restaurant is located on the fourth floor, in the middle level of the hotel.
According to the information passed back by Jiang Huaique and Jinsheng, except for the restaurant on the fourth floor and the rooftop stargazing area, most of the 1st to 6th floors are guest room areas.
Areas such as coffee shops, conference rooms, and movie theaters are all located on the seventh floor.
This layout doesn't make sense.
As it is a retro building, this hotel does not have an elevator but only stairs. If it really wants tourists to spend money, then the public area should be placed on the lower floor of the hotel to facilitate the guests.
No one knows whether the hotel's contrary behavior was designed this way from the beginning, or whether the layout was modified after it was transformed into a copy.
But no matter what, the seventh floor is suspicious.
[Xu Zhiyan: Have you checked the seventh floor? ]
[Jiang Huai Que: I was originally planning to explore from the top floor... I won't say anymore. I'll lead the NPC next to the astrologer away first.]
Jiang Huai Que is still busy.
But he still has time to reply to messages, so it shouldn't be a big problem.
Xu Zhiyan turned his attention to Jin Sheng's news.
[Jin Sheng: Brother Jiang and I acted separately. I am now in the lobby bar on the first floor. There are so many people here that I haven't found a chance to check the props yet.]
[Jin Sheng: But the people in the bar are a little strange. I'm not sure if they are human. Do you want to take another look? ]
【Xu Zhiyan: Observe it.】
Turning the corner from the side of the first floor of the hotel is the lobby bar.
Jin Sheng originally planned to start the investigation from the first floor.
I didn’t expect that the bar, which was very quiet before I approached, would have so many people!
The woman wearing black sunglasses was chatting and laughing with her friends as they entered the bar together. Some people who were eating snacks were talking about where to go next. A tipsy man asked the bartender why there was no singer performing today...
When there are too many people, the noise becomes chaotic.
"Where are we going to play tomorrow?"
“Our next stop is Emerald Beach!”
"Please God, please don't delay tomorrow's flight..."
"Miss Bell isn't coming to sing today?"
"Yes sir."
"Damn it, I stayed here for an extra day just for Miss Bell..."
“…”
Listening to the noisy conversation, Jin Sheng felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't figure out what was wrong for a while.
He held Xiaoyi in his arms, pretending nothing had happened, and found a seat by the window. Due to the direction, what he was facing was not the square with the sculptures, but a dark darkness, and he could not see anything.
Looking around carefully, Jin Sheng tried to find some clues about the hotel or the Mirror Museum.
Like other places in the hotel, mirrors are the most common decoration in the lobby bar, but unlike the guest rooms upstairs, all the mirrors are hung on the walls.
The mirror decorations here are all three-dimensional.
The angular mirror slices are glued into cubes one after another with the help of super glue.
The most common shapes are cubes and rectangular prisms, and of course there are many pyramidal prisms and even irregular shapes. Generally speaking, they look much more advanced than the mirror decorations hanging in the lobby.
After listening in silence for a while, Jin Sheng found that the guests were talking about a variety of things and no one talked about the museum.
When he tried to strike up a conversation with people around him, something unexpected happened.
Jin Sheng chose a family of three with a child as his target for conversation. In his impression, people in this type of family would be more gentle and willing to share conversations.
He smiled and asked the man who was feeding fruit to his child at the next table: "Hello, are you also here for tourism?"
The man being questioned seemed to be unable to see him and completely ignored him. He just continued to feed the child gently and asked for a glass of juice for his wife.
"Sir? Hello sir, do you have time now?"
After Jin Sheng raised his voice a little and waved his hands in front of the other party, he was finally able to make sure that the guests here could not see him.
He frowned and changed a few guests.
The results are the same.
While moving, he accidentally bumped into a customer, who just exclaimed and asked the waiter to deal with the broken glass.
[Jin Sheng: Xiaoyi has smelled it. These people are all alive. I am sure I can touch them, but even if they are hit and their drinks are spilled, they will just think they were careless.]
【Jin Sheng: I feel like I have become a transparent person.】
【Jinsheng: I plan to try the bar. 】
After replying the message, Jin Sheng turned off the panel and stood up without waiting for his teammates to respond. He walked to the bar and sat down. After a while, the bartender came to ask him what he would like to drink.
"A glass of water, thank you."
Seeing the bartender really turn around and pour a glass of water, Jin Sheng's strange feeling in his heart was finally suppressed a little.
He truthfully passed on these anomalies to his teammates.
[Xu Zhiyan: Lobby bar? I didn't seem to notice it when I came. Aside from not being able to see you, were there any other things wrong with the other guests?]
[Xu Zhiyan: It's a bit weird. If you can't find out anything, just leave. Safety first.]
The concern of his teammates calmed Jin Sheng down a lot.
He sipped his water and looked around.
After a long while, he replied.
[Jin Sheng: There is nothing unusual. There are still a lot of people, but the bartender can talk to me...]
Halfway through the message, Jin Sheng suddenly felt a shock all over his body.
A hand was placed on his shoulder.
He turned around and saw a young man in a floral shirt, rubbing the lighter in his hand with an annoyed look on his face. When he saw Jin Sheng looking at him, the young man asked in a gangster tone.
"Hey man, got a fire?"
Judging from the boy's attire, he should be a guest staying at the hotel.
Jin Sheng hadn't yet realized that the guests could see him, and his expression was a little dazed.
"have."
He pulled a lighter from his pocket and handed it over.
Xu Zhiyan had found a lot of these fragmentary but practical little things in the dungeon and stuffed a lot of them in the guild warehouse for his teammates to use at will.
"Thanks buddy! I'll buy yours!"
The boy took the lighter, took out ten dollars from his pocket and handed it over.
As if he was worried that the person in front of him would not sell, he stuffed the money into Jinsheng's pocket and quickly ran to the door.
Jin Sheng held the money in his hand, staring at the other person's back which disappeared in an instant, his expression gradually becoming solemn.
Disappeared.
The young man who came to him to buy a lighter disappeared as if he had evaporated the moment he left the lobby bar!
Jin Sheng realized that something was wrong.
It has now been about twenty minutes since he entered the lobby bar.
After telling Xu Zhiyan what had just happened, Jin Sheng walked towards the entrance of the lobby bar without stopping.
【Xu Zhiyan: Run.】
The already tense atmosphere became even more tense with Xu Zhiyan's reply.
Soon, Jinsheng walked to the door of the lobby bar.
Just as he felt relieved and strode out, he still heard the noisy sound in his ears - he was unable to leave the bar.
He looked around with a dazed expression.
Cold sweat instantly soaked the clothes on his back.
"Where are we going to play tomorrow?"
“Our next stop is Emerald Beach!”
"Please God, please don't delay tomorrow's flight..."
Familiar conversation.
It was exactly the same thing as what I heard when I walked in.
The entire clean and bright lobby bar was exactly the same as before, the only difference was that there was no bartender wiping the glasses at the bar.
Jin Sheng reached into his pocket and took out ten dollars.
Right at this moment.
A special prompt appeared in his live broadcast room, and the audience started to refresh the screen, which was rare.
[Tip: The live broadcast room signal is unstable, the system is trying to repair it, please don't worry. ]
[??? What the hell? ? I was watching something exciting, why the hell did you shut down the live broadcast? I’m complaining!]
[My heart is beating in my throat, so has the dog master entered some kind of alternate dimension of folding time? ]
[Mirror! When I just came in, I noticed that the mirror decorations here are all three-dimensional. Is that why? ]
[Hey, hey, hey, the question now is not whether to fold or not! ]
[Yes! They are clearly in the dungeon. I just jumped to Xiao Baiwan's side and saw that Gouzi seemed to be able to send messages.]
[What? I can send messages, so why is the signal unstable? 】
【@Main system, do you need us to help you with crowdfunding points maintenance? 】
However, no matter how the audience discussed, Jinsheng's live broadcast room turned completely black.
On the other side, Xu Zhiyan noticed something was wrong.
In the guild dialogue column, Jin Sheng's message was a bit confusing, as if some information was missing.
【Jin Sheng: Brother Xu, I tried other methods. 】
【Jin Sheng: No, no, no... none of this works...】
[Xu Zhiyan: What solution? Have you come out?]
However, after Xu Zhiyan left the message, he did not receive any other information from Jinsheng for a long time.
He looked at the corridor in front of him, and without hesitation, he stopped going upstairs and turned to walk downstairs.
There is a high probability that there will be problems on the seventh floor, but the safety of teammates is more important.
The third floor was not far from the lobby, so he went down to the first floor in one breath.
The hotel lobby remains the same as before.
The hanging decorative mirror looks a bit strange in the sunset, but it reflects bright light at night, which is very dazzling.
Ignoring this design that could not be thought of without a 10-year cerebral thrombosis, Xu Zhiyan followed Jin Sheng's instructions and rushed to the right side of the lobby, trying to find the bar that Jin Sheng mentioned.
But when he entered the corner corridor, there was no bar in sight!
Outside the clean floor-to-ceiling windows, it was pitch black.
Xu Zhiyan felt a little flustered for no reason. He rushed to the hotel front desk, suppressed his panic, and asked with a smile.
"I'm a little thirsty, I was wondering if you have a bar here?"
The receptionist on duty was a round-faced lady.
She glanced at the customer and a sweet smile appeared on her face.
“Of course, we have two bars in the hotel.”
"One is on the fourth floor, right at the back of the restaurant. It serves coffee and wine. If you can't find the way, you can ask the restaurant staff."
"The other one is on the seventh floor. That bar is bigger and only sells alcohol."
After listening to this, Xu Zhiyan frowned slightly.
"It's far, and we have to go upstairs. Is there any place selling drinks near the lobby?"
After saying that, he glanced back at the lobby as if he was being picky and complained, "When I stay in other hotels, they always arrange some restaurants, bars and restaurants in the lobby."
The receptionist seemed stumped by his question and answered somewhat awkwardly.
"We actually had one here before, but it was removed during the renovation three years ago. Our boss said that the lobby should be grand and bigger."
"…Three years ago, okay."
After getting the answer, Xu Zhiyan nodded helplessly.
He didn't show it on his face, but his fingers couldn't help but stroke the ring on his left hand. It was obvious that he was thinking about something.
After walking around the lobby twice more, Xu Zhiyan didn't see any other guests except the service staff, so he could only leave in disappointment.
Time is a bit tight.
There is less than half an hour left until midnight.
If Jinsheng had stumbled into the wrong time and mistakenly entered the bar from three years ago, then the lobby should be the place closest to Jinsheng.
He stood at the edge of the corridor at the corner of the lobby and tried to send a message to Jin Sheng, hoping that the same coordinates would bring them closer.
【Xu Zhiyan: Jinsheng, can you receive my message? 】
After waiting for a few minutes, no response.
Jin Sheng seemed to have completely fallen into that unknown realm.
But considering that his teammates might not be able to see it and might just not be able to send the message back, he still typed out all the information he knew.
[Xu Zhiyan: There is no lobby bar in the hotel. When the hotel was renovated three years ago, the lobby bar was cancelled. You should be trapped in a past tense time and space now...]
[Xu Zhiyan: I will continue to think of ways, don't worry.]
[Xu Zhiyan: This time it's my fault. I should have asked you to leave immediately when you realized something was wrong.]
Because all the information he had previously obtained was relayed by Jin Sheng, he didn't even know what the bar looked like, and couldn't give any particularly precise escape clues for the time being.
Walking back while sending messages.
Not sure whether Jin Sheng could receive it, he couldn't help but copy it several times.
When he reached the fifth floor, Xu Zhiyan ran into Jiang Huaique who was talking to a girl.
The temperature in this copy is just right, about 20 degrees Celsius. I don't know whether it is spring or autumn. The girl in front of me wears a long-sleeved coat because the weather turns cooler after nightfall - she is the astrologer's companion.
"Who are you? What do you want to say to me?" The girl crossed her arms and was already a little angry.
Jiang Huai was so anxious that sweat was coming down his forehead.
It's fine to ask him to kill monsters, but it's a bit too difficult for him to fool NPCs.
Glancing at Xu Zhiyan standing beside him, Jiang Huaique felt as if he had been granted amnesty, and immediately pointed at him: "Actually, he wanted to find you, I was just helping to pass on the message."
After a moment's thought, Xu Zhiyan understood the situation.
Players must maintain their character in front of the service NPCs in the hotel, but they don't have to do so in front of other players' companions. It seems that Jiang Huaique used the lowest level of means and said that he wanted to talk to the NPC in front of him alone, so he called the person out from beside the astrologer.
Thinking of the clown's two hundred thousand, Xu Zhiyan immediately entered performance mode. He looked at his teammates who called the person out with shock on his face, grabbing his hair with an embarrassed look on his face.
"Ah... why did you really call her here? Didn't I say I wasn't sure?"
He walked over with an apologetic look on his face, scratched his hair and looked very shy.
Jiang Huai Que breathed a sigh of relief.
As he passed his teammates, he spoke in a low voice.
"If you delay until twelve o'clock, the clown will pay the other half."
Because he got more information than other players, Jiang Huaique set a time limit when talking to the clown. As long as he didn't put the NPC in front of him back before twelve o'clock, the other party would pay the other half of the 100,000 points.
Xu Zhiyan nodded slightly, indicating that he understood.
The slightly angry girl crossed her arms, and when she saw that the person who was looking for her had changed, she wanted to lose her temper, but when she caught a glimpse of the young man's superior appearance, her expression softened a little.
"What do you want from me?"
"Well, ah... It's a little hard to say, but I seem to have found the wrong person. I'm really sorry." Xu Zhiyan came up and made a gesture and apologized as soon as he opened his mouth.
"It's like this. Alves and I were in the same group of travelers who came to the hotel. On the way, we heard her talking about you, and then I remembered a friend I hadn't contacted for many years. She is my neighbor, and she loves astronomy and the starry sky just like you..."
He just made up something casually, thinking that the other person's impression would not affect his own personality anyway.
In less than ten minutes, he created a fresh character of affectionate childhood sweethearts, and he even added a role for Jiang Huaique.
"I also bought a lot of astronomy books for her. I really want to be closer to her."
"Xiao Jiang heard my story, so when he found out that you might be my neighbor, he went to find you without permission. I'm really sorry. I was also shocked when he sent me a message just now..."
He smiled shyly.
With the support of excellent beauty and the bonus of a loving childhood friend.
This time the characterization is impeccable.
Alves' companions did not make any more trouble, but nodded with understanding.
"I understand. This kind of secret love in youth is really sweet and painful."
She patted Xu Zhiyan on the shoulder and encouraged him, "People who like the starry sky are not too unlucky. If she likes it too, then you should go to more observatories in the future and you will definitely meet her. By the way, do you want to come to the rooftop together..."
The new character comes into play.
It is easy to chat with people who have the same hobbies.
In the remaining ten minutes, Xu Zhiyan listened to his companions talking about some astronomy-related news.
It was not until two minutes before twelve o'clock that he said goodbye to the other party and agreed to talk again another day.
This is the fifth floor.
If we let him leave now, he will never be able to reach the rooftop in two minutes.
The task of getting rid of the NPC is completed.
Xu Zhiyan and Jiang Huaique returned to room 3045 while checking their watches.
"Bang--"
As soon as the door was closed, without waiting for Xu Zhiyan to speak, Jiang Huaique reached out and rubbed his hair fiercely.
"Fuck! I know we have a deep father-son bond and you miss your dad after not seeing him for an hour, but you can't just do it!" Xu Zhiyan was stunned for a moment and then ran away immediately.
"Xu Baopi, what are you so nervous about?"
Jiang Huaique withdrew his hand and raised his eyebrow.
Just now when Xu Zhiyan was talking to Alves' companion, he saw the conversation in the guild chat box and got a rough idea of Jinsheng's current situation.
"I'm not nervous!"
Xu Zhiyan couldn't help but retort.
"If you're not nervous, why are you sending so many messages?"
"...I should have let him leave earlier, or reminded him to pay attention to anything unusual." Xu Zhiyan answered and turned his head away.
He was indeed very nervous when Jinsheng lost contact.
After the guild system was activated, Xu Zhiyan could contact teammates at will to get information, which made his action instructions bolder.
"I shouldn't have rashly issued such an order before the guild dialogue function was fully tested."
His teammates trust him wholeheartedly.
So in Xu Zhiyan's eyes, he should not let down this trust and should make the right decisions to lead everyone to victory.
On the side, Yu Xiu was shocked by the sudden strange atmosphere before he could come up and say anything. He stood there holding the scepter, timid and afraid to speak.
Jiang Huaique was so angry that he almost laughed after hearing this.
"Can you please stop thinking that everyone is so weak? It's just an overlap of time. He can't die."
This is actually a terrifying infinite game copy.
How many people died here.
Although they encountered difficulties from time to time before, Xu Zhiyan was able to find solutions quickly every time, so that everyone almost never encountered any life-and-death situations.
"If you can't get in touch with me, then you can't get in touch with me."
"Why are you blaming yourself? You've done well enough. Who knows if it was caused by that idiot Jin Sheng eating in the bar."
Reaching out and pinching Xu Zhiyan's face, Jiang Huaique summoned two daggers and handed one to him.
"It's midnight. Let's go out and see if we can get any other clues."
Xu Zhiyan touched the weapon in his hand and suddenly lowered his head and smiled.
"You're right. I shouldn't have thought Jinsheng was so weak... and I shouldn't have trusted the update system of this crappy game so much."
…
On the seventh floor, in a narrow room with iron bars.
The blood transformed into the appearance of the young boy Bai Jin, sitting cross-legged on the table with a frown and an anxious look on his face.
"Why haven't you come yet..."
Suddenly, it seemed to sense something and glanced at a mirror that appeared in the corner.
The mirror shows the lobby bar.
The player holding the golden retriever puppy in his arms is facing some troubles.
"Oh? Someone went in?"
It became slightly interested, and its expression eased a lot from its anxiety, looking down at the contents.
After a while, it laughed.
"Sure enough, after the space was completely chopped and reorganized, the annoying pulling feeling disappeared."
But the news did not make it happy for long.
Wave your hand to make the mirror disappear.
It stared at the closed gate again.
"Why don't you come to see me..."
You know, in order to allow the other party to see it at a glance, it even replaced the original door!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
