Chapter 8: Village in the Rain (8)
Su Yue: "..."
Su Yue avoided the question and tried to analyze the performance of the illusion, which managed to fool Zhao Shuo and the others.
Apart from the matter of Supervisor Z, the clues within the game are now clearer.
It doesn’t matter if the little guy doesn’t want to participate, the others continue the discussion.
The place was filled with paper figures: paper dolls, paper drivers, even the illusions. Zhou Hu felt that this meant the key to the game was some kind of sorcery involving paper cutting.
"There's another possibility," Briefcase said hesitantly. "Since supernatural phenomena exist in this world, perhaps the illusions we see are, in some sense, hints at real scenes."
He swallowed hard and said, "Maybe some of the people in the village are actually... paper figures."
As soon as these words came out, the room fell silent.
Paper jars and paper gold bars, which are supposed to be used for worship, frequently appear in residents' homes.
The villagers in the square were mechanically repeating their actions, just like robots.
If it's a paper figure, it doesn't seem unreasonable.
But those villagers clearly look like real people, and if the village is really a paper doll village, then what are these tourists like now?
Such an imagination is horrifying.
Because it was creepy, I subconsciously refused to believe it.
Zhou Hu smiled, trying to lighten the mood. "Dude, according to your logic, what I saw was a bunch of little paper figures lining the road, waving at me. What does that mean? Should I join them? Should I turn into a paper figure too?"
He had said this half-jokingly to refute the briefcase's theory, but after he had said it he suddenly fell silent.
What if that's what it really means?
.
No one was able to speak for a moment, and everyone was silent.
The first one to react was Su Yue. He took out his paper doll from his pocket.
It’s the doll that Yima gave to everyone this morning, one for each of them.
As soon as Su Yue moved, the others immediately took out their paper dolls.
Zhao Shuo took one look and his face turned pale.
The little guy originally looked like he was saying, "I won't participate, I won't cooperate, I'm not interested in whatever plane you guys are making," but after seeing Zhao Shuo's reaction, he couldn't help but take out his paper doll.
Then his expression changed noticeably.
Everyone remembers clearly that the paper doll originally had a blank expression.
But at this moment, a faint smile appeared at the corner of the doll's mouth.
.
On the table, a row of paper dolls were placed together. Except for the little one who refused to put his doll on, everyone's doll was placed neatly.
Each doll raised the corner of its mouth a little more than in the morning, staring straight at the tourists.
Among the people, Su Yue had the least smile on her face, and the most smile was from the little girl who saw the "paper-cutting woman" in the illusion.
The doll looked very strange when it smiled, because there was no smile in its eyes, and it was obvious that the doll's smile was not a good thing. The little girl immediately broke down, covering her face and crying softly.
The girl who lived in the same room with her hurried back to comfort her, and Zhao Shuo, Zhou Hu and others also went over to comfort her.
"Girl, don't cry. The depth of your smile really doesn't make much difference." Zhou Hu racked his brains to comfort her. "Anyway, if this problem isn't resolved, everyone will die. It doesn't matter if they die sooner or later."
After he finished speaking, Zhou Hu looked up and found that everyone was looking at him as if he was a fool.
Zhou Hu: “…”
But his words were blunt but his point was true. If the problem couldn't be solved, everyone would die. That was obvious.
I've been saying "die, die, die" so many times that I've gotten used to it.
Soon everyone was no longer affected and started brainstorming to analyze the situation.
"Actually, there's really no need to worry too much. It's useless to worry," Zhao Shuo said. "If you think of this as a game, it's like each of us has a status bar saying 'Paper Humanization xx%'. We need to use that status to decrypt the code. As long as we haven't reached 100% paper humanization before decrypting the code, we'll survive."
Su Yue nodded. Encouraged by the boss, Zhao Shuo's morale soared and he continued his analysis.
"But we can't completely relax either. We just watched a performance and our state isn't right. If the 'paper figurine' gets worse later on, we might lose more and more time to stay awake, and solving the puzzle will become more difficult. So the most urgent thing now is..."
Zhao Shuo was confused for a moment.
Su Yue took over his words: "It is to figure out how we will die."
"Right!" Zhao Shuo clapped his hands. "Understand the specific process of 'paper figurine transformation'—of course, it doesn't necessarily mean that our ending will be turning into a paper figurine, this is just speculation, but we will all die anyway."
"Understanding how we will die will allow us to take appropriate precautions."
"Can we throw away the doll?" the girl's roommate asked anxiously. "The guide said we should carry the doll with us. Does that mean it won't smile anymore if we don't carry it with us?"
"It's not that simple," Briefcase said. "Paper dolls are probably a form of witchcraft, very similar to the ancient sorcery in legends, the 'Nightmare' technique."
.
Briefcase explained, "Nightmare spells use certain methods, such as placing the recipient's hair or blood on an evil object, to create a connection between the evil object and the recipient. Once this connection is established, the evil object, in other words, this paper doll, can influence us. If the doll smiles, it means the spell has been completed. If you unilaterally discard the doll, it won't have much effect and may even backfire."
"But they don't have our hair or our blood." The girl's voice trembled a little. "How did they... perform this suppression technique you mentioned?"
"Nightmare Suppression." Briefcase actually had the energy to repeat the name of the technique again, then smiled bitterly. "Actually, thinking back, the connection was established from the very beginning. We didn't even use accessories like hair and blood, but directly used our own thoughts."
"Feelings?" Zhao Shuo was confused.
"You mean signing in?" Su Yue's eyes narrowed slightly.
Briefcase nodded. "When our names were called when we signed in on the bus, we nodded in confirmation, and the spell was completed. This was a sign that we personally agreed to become the recipients of Nightmare Town."
When the little guy heard this, he stared at Su Yue with resentment.
The briefcase seemed to understand what the little man was thinking and added, "But according to the situation at the time, if you don't sign in, you will die, so signing in is inevitable. You can't blame others."
Zhao Shuo understood at this point: "Only when you're under the Nightmare Suppression Technique can you comply with the game's settings. If you don't follow the game's settings, you won't be able to play. But this survival game can only be survived if you complete it. If the game can't be played, we'll all be gone."
Briefcase nodded again. "Back to Nightmare Town. This is one of the oldest sorcerous arts. The concubines we often see in palace dramas cursing people with dolls are actually the most common Nightmare Town technique. Objectively speaking, it shouldn't be effective, but this is a game world with supernatural phenomena, so the magic should be more sinister."
"Once the Nightmare Suppression Technique is formed, unilaterally breaking the contract will have no effect unless the spell is broken. This doll is just a carrier. If you lose this doll, there will be others. They can't escape."
"And he's still angry because he lost the guide." Briefcase said, glancing towards the door.
Just now, when he was discussing theory, he had the air of a master who could talk freely. But when he was brought back to reality, he immediately became timid again. "It's not a good idea to make her angry. After all, we don't have the ability of the boss."
Su Yue: "..."
No, why did you start calling me boss too?
Briefcase was speaking with great confidence at this moment, and everyone had been brought into his rhythm without realizing it.
"Teacher." Zhao Shuo subconsciously raised his hand, "Then how do we break this spell?"
"I only have theories, I've never put them into practice..." Briefcase scratched his head in annoyance, then pointed at the little girl. "As for the illusion, the key should be the woman she saw in it. Didn't we also see a woman in the performance? The woman on the stage baptized the others with an embrace, and the woman you saw in the illusion was cutting paper figures. The two images should be consistent."
What the little girl saw in her vision was a woman wearing a mask and cut out of paper.
"If the core of this game world is the 'paper figurine,' then the paper-cut woman wearing a mask undoubtedly demonstrates a kind of dominance. She is superior to all other paper figurines in status and has the power of life and death."
"Based on the characters that have appeared so far, the masked woman is likely the High Priestess. This also aligns with the proper status of the shaman in this village that retains its ancient charm. Therefore, we must meet the High Priestess no matter what, in order to make further progress in our exploration."
Just as Su Yue speculated, the woman was a high priestess and had to enter the ancestral hall.
However, Su Yue is pushed from the perspective of the main storyline, while the briefcase's pushing method looks quite high-end.
Zhou Hu looked at the briefcase in surprise: "Dude, you are so knowledgeable."
"Ah, I didn't tell you." The briefcase man smiled shyly. "I'm a university professor. My research area is local religions, which falls right into my comfort zone."
.
If both routes lead to the same answer, then it is almost certain that this answer is the correct answer.
The problem now is that the path to the correct answer is blocked.
When they went to the High Priest's ancestral hall, Yima said they could not enter because "the High Priest was angry" and that they had to bring "knowledge, wisdom or luck" to see the High Priest.
Later, when passing by the study, Yima said again, "Knowledge is hidden in the study."
Players who have experience in text-based games should understand that when comparing the two sides, it means that you have to go into the study to find something specific that represents "knowledge". After getting it, you can hand it over to the High Priest to continue advancing the plot.
This is actually a pretty straightforward mainline progression.
However, according to Yima, the study was burned down because the beams spontaneously combusted due to the dry weather.
I don't know where the fire came from.
All the "knowledge" is gone.
All the clues are gone.
Su Yue: "..."
How to do this?
I don’t know if there will be any clues about “wisdom” and “luck” tomorrow. Su Yue also plans to go out and take a look before curfew. The three rules do not prohibit them from leaving the inn. Maybe there will be some new discoveries.
But he is not optimistic about this.
As I was thinking, the hourly bell rang, and the sound of the bell passed through the mountains and villages, and the time came to four o'clock in the afternoon.
The sound of footsteps could be heard on the stairs. As agreed, Yima came to deliver dinner to the tourists.
.
Behind Yima was a strong young man carrying a shoulder pole with a large wooden box at each end, which contained food boxes. This was a very traditional way of delivering food with local characteristics.
The young man put the shoulder pole on the ground and took out the food boxes one by one from the wooden box. The aroma of the food soon filled the whole room.
Zhou Hu, Zhao Shuo and the others were now preoccupied with the paper figurine, so they stared at the bulging muscles on the young man's arms, trying to figure out whether he was real or fake.
The young man put the lunch box away, and when he looked up, he saw Zhou Hu and Zhao Shuo's ferocious gazes. He was stunned and stepped back in fear.
Zhou Hu: “…”
Zhao Shuo: “…”
That's not what I meant! Hey!
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