Chapter 18
A few slices of dry bread were not enough to fill his stomach. Shen Yunzhe walked while listening to his stomach growling all the way.
Even though he was almost at the gate of the complex, the thought of having to cook for himself after returning home made him extremely depressed. He had finally escaped from such a dangerous place, and he actually had to spend time cooking for himself! What if something unexpected happened in the next game?
It's so sad that people have lost their money but haven't spent it all.
So he carried the doll into the beef noodle restaurant next to the community.
The boss was an acquaintance, and he immediately smiled when he saw Shen Yunzhe. "Is it Xiao Shen? Is it the same as always?"
"Same as usual, but with an extra portion of beef." Shen Yunzhe found a seat to sit down, then put the doll on the seat inside.
The boss quickly ordered the people in the kitchen to go down, and then looked curiously at the exquisite and beautiful doll next to Shen Yunzhe, which looked very expensive. "Is this a gift for a relative's child? This doll is not cheap, right?"
"No." Shen Yunzhe answered with a smile, and because of loneliness he was more sincere than before...he thought.
"For myself. I like dolls."
The boss was choked. He looked at the doll and then at Shen Yunzhe, as if it was hard for him to understand why an adult like Shen Yunzhe would like this kind of doll.
So the result of Shen Yunzhe's sincerity was that the person he had finally talked to left. Shen Yunzhe breathed a sigh of relief and chose to do something else to pass the time. So before coming out, he kept arranging the doll's clothes, and he was very devoted to his actions, even humming a song.
Codename hoped to look at the doll through his eyes, but the doll's transparent eyeballs looked back at him empty-headedly.
Because he hadn't heard any sound for so long, he took in all the sounds carefully, including those unclear whispers.
"It's the young man who rented the apartment in the neighborhood ahead."
"Uncle, don't you think he's a little weird?"
"He always likes to make eye contact when he talks, which puts a lot of pressure on people. Just now I felt like he and the doll were staring at me together, which was really creepy."
"What are you talking about? He's a guest, so don't go out and talk nonsense."
"Of course I know. There was a strange thing that happened recently. An old man who was picking up trash in the garbage can in the neighborhood next door found a doll. He tried to get some cotton out, but ended up pulling out the body of a kitten. The blood had seeped into the cotton. That's when I started to have all sorts of wild thoughts."
The noodles were cooked and the boss quickly brought them out. Shen Yunzhe stopped tidying up the doll's clothes and started eating the noodles.
I haven't eaten properly all day.
Codename Hope stared at the steaming soup noodles in front of him. He leaned his head out slightly and tried to sniff, but all he could smell was the smell of rotten dust in the air. He could not smell anything else.
Want to know what it tastes like, want to take a bite, what does it feel like to have hot air blown on your face?
These things that he should have remembered but had forgotten due to time had a great attraction to him.
Shen Yunzhe, who was getting hungrier and hungrier, put down his chopsticks. He felt so miserable. He was so full...
If he stayed any longer, he might want another bowl of noodles, so Shen Yunzhe quickly stood up to pay, not giving himself the chance to have another bowl.
After paying, Shen Yunzhe carried the doll back to the complex. Just as he reached the gate, he heard a noise coming from the trash can. His first thought was a stray cat—how could a stray cat survive in such cold weather? His second thought was a scavenger. Almost every day, an elderly scavenger would come through the trash can looking for something to sell.
Shen Yunzhe walked to the trash can, but unexpectedly found that it was neither a wild cat nor a scavenger.
The little girl holding a doll was shaking the trash can. She was wearing a flowery cotton jacket, and the doll in her arms was very dirty, as if it had just been taken out of the trash can.
"Little sister?" Shen Yunzhe hurried over. "The trash can is very dirty, don't dig through it."
When the little girl heard his voice, she turned her head to look at Shen Yunzhe. When Shen Yunzhe thought the naughty child was disobedient, she opened her mouth and meowed.
Shen Yunzhe was stunned for a moment.
He just watched the little girl meowing and running away happily with the doll in her arms.
"No way." Shen Yunzhe breathed into his palm, then took out his phone, took a photo of the jumping child, and sent it to the community group, asking her parents to come and pick up the child quickly. This was the entrance to the community, and further out was the road, which was still full of cars. If an accident happened, it would be a lifelong regret.
The last person to pick up the child was a resident of the neighboring community. They had been searching frantically for their child, but they didn't expect that she would run two blocks to get here by herself.
"Is it because I've been to a gaming venue before that I'm too sensitive?" Shen Yunzhe murmured, "Why do I always feel like something's not right?"
【No. 】
"Ah?" Shen Yunzhe was startled by the sudden voice of the system.
The expansion of the game world will naturally have an impact on the real world. This impact is difficult to detect and is relatively slow. Many legendary supernatural events are not entirely false. If it continues to develop, the real world may become the same as the game world.
Shen Yunzhe was genuinely shocked. "No, it's like the playground? Is there any way to deal with it?"
【This is not our business.】
Okay.
Shen Yunzhe went upstairs carrying the doll. He was not a savior. He was tricked into entering the playground. As an unemployed young man with no money, he could do nothing and had no way to save the world.
After entering the house, he put the bought vegetables into the kitchen and changed his heavy coat. Then Shen Yunzhe began to sort out the dolls on his wall bit by bit, placing the newly bought doll in the center. He finally nodded with satisfaction.
The feeling of loneliness that was influenced by the code name hope also disappeared.
Filling his home with dolls gives Shen Yunzhe a strong sense of satisfaction.
It's not necessarily that he likes dolls that much, he just wants them, he wants a lot of them, so many that he can see them as soon as he opens his eyes, and it would be best if each one is very beautiful. Although this hobby has become a little difficult to control, it can even be called a "doll collecting addiction."
Shen Yunzhe is an orphan who grew up in an orphanage. It is said that he was picked up in the snow by the director, so he took the director's surname.
Everything in the orphanage is shared, no one has anything of their own, and food is distributed equally. Beautiful dolls are rare, and as a boy, Shen Yunzhe couldn't get any of them at all. The thought of wanting one was always on his mind.
When I grew up and left the orphanage, my high school tuition was waived, and I worked part-time in college to pay for tuition and earn living expenses.
After graduating from college and starting to get rich, I finally became addicted and filled an entire wall with dolls.
He planned to draft a will, stating that if something unexpected happened, he would donate all the dolls on the wall to the orphanage, so that every orphan in the orphanage would have one.
Adhering to the ridiculous logic of "If you have money, you should buy dolls", "Why should I sit here alone and want to die when I have no problems", and "Hurry up and buy a doll to comfort myself", Shen Yunzhe bought three more dolls in the past ten days, piling up the doll wall in his house, and placed three orders online and waited for the delivery time.
After putting all the dolls in order, Shen Yunzhe picked up his phone and checked the time before speaking, "It seems to be about time."
Ten days passed in a flash, leaving no trace.
Ding-ling, the phone started ringing in his hand. Shen Yunzhe looked at the incoming call number and confirmed that it was an unknown number.
I pressed the answer button and put it to my ear, and a familiar mechanical sound rang out.
[The game "Strange Objects Exhibition Hall" is loading. ]
[The game is loading...]
Just like before, after saying this, the phone was hung up. Shen Yunzhe looked around the room. The originally slightly narrow rental house continued to expand, and soon even the walls disappeared. After a moment of darkness, there was a faint firelight. Should it be a candle?
This time, Shen Yunzhe was no longer as confused as the first time, but he was not the only one this time.
There were maybe ten men and women holding cell phones standing in different places around.
Not far away stood a strange building with an old signboard and a chain-link fence. Outside was an exhibition board with an advertising slogan in old handwriting.
[Keep away from strangers, and don't enter if you are timid. This will be a mysterious and strange journey...]
With a ding-dong sound, a notification sound came from the phone. Shen Yunzhe opened the phone and saw the announcement of this game field.
[The game "Strange Objects Exhibition Hall" has been loaded]
Game Content: A strange and bizarre museum of rare objects closes down overnight, its owner disappears, and its employees leave. However, someone sees lights on inside the museum in the middle of the night, and what appears to be human figures moving around. To uncover the truth, a group of people push open the old door.
[Main Mission: Survive in the exhibition hall for seven days.]
Shen Yunzhe carefully looked at the people around him. Most of them had calm expressions, but a few were obviously anxious, with suspicion and confusion in their eyes. It might be their first time in the game field.
The phone screen automatically switched to a countdown, and with a creak, the gate and fence of the exhibition hall opened. Everyone present hurried inside, and Shen Yunzhe followed, but not everyone believed what was on the phone.
"Where is this?! Kidnapping! I'm telling you I'm calling the police!"
A middle-aged man with a slightly fat head and big ears roared, his voice a little bit explosive, and he raised his voice very loudly because he wanted to threaten others.
"Hey! Where are you going?! Didn't you hear me?"
No one paid any attention to him.
Finally, a young man, feeling somewhat reluctant, spoke up. "Go in before the countdown ends! Hurry up! Time is running out. If you don't get in before the allotted time, you'll die."
"Huh? Who are you kidding? I, your grandpa, have connections in society!" The middle-aged man grabbed the kind-hearted young man and said, "I just don't believe it. You can die after a certain period of time? It's just right that you stay with me. Don't leave! You must die with me."
The young man was stunned. He quickly started to shake his hands, but the middle-aged man's hands were very strong and he couldn't pry them apart.
"No, let me go! Let me go now!"
Seeing that time was running out, the young man began to call for help, but no one around him came to help. Some of them had already entered the exhibition hall and were looking outside indifferently.
Listening to the young man's cry for help, Shen Yunzhe glanced at the time. There were still 30 seconds left in the countdown. It was useless to say anything at this time. He picked up a wooden stick from the ground. When he came in, Shen Yunzhe found that he should have synchronized with the forensic doctor again. The kind of thinking logic that would not appear in his reality kept emerging.
There are some acupoints on the human body that will cause the body to reflexively defend itself if poked, but there is only enough time for this.
When the middle-aged man was dealing with the young man's struggle, he poked him in one breath. Sure enough, the other party screamed in pain and reflexively let go of his hand.
Shen Yunzhe took the opportunity to pull the young man out. The young man looked at him with gratitude in his eyes, and the two of them quickly ran into the exhibition hall.
He jumped in at the last second, and before the two of them could breathe a sigh of relief, a sharp scream came from behind them.
The door of the exhibition hall slowly closed. Shen Yunzhe turned his head and looked behind him at the last moment. Through the gap in the closed door, he only saw a man with his head and legs held down by a pair of pitch-black hands. He was screaming, his body was twisted into a knot, and his blood was swallowed up bit by bit by the darkness.
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