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Towsey lay on the ground, the pain so intense she was numb. Blood gushed from the wound on her back, and she felt the floor gradually grow warm and wet.
Breathe in slowly and exhale slowly.
A feeling of fatigue suddenly came over her, and she wanted to rest. She closed her eyes, but what she saw was not darkness, but an overwhelmingly strong white light.
Countless memories flashed through her mind. She thought of her mother, her grandfather, the water town where she grew up, and countless vivid faces. Tears streamed down her cheeks and dripped onto her ears.
Consciousness was fading bit by bit, this was probably the passing of life, she thought.
The world was hushed, the river undulating. Against this vast background, she heard a distinct sound, a continuous, rhythmic rhythm. She carefully discerned it and realized it was the beating of her heart. Her heart was strong and powerful. Suddenly, a thought flashed through her mind: she wanted to live, desperately.
She forced her eyes open, but she didn't have time to study the subtitles on the panel one by one. Her strong desire to survive made her focus on the first one.
You killed the character [Jiang Yifeng], and you gained 4 attribute points (which can be freely allocated).
Without any hesitation, Tao Sai added all the 4 freely assignable attribute values to resistance, bringing the total resistance value to 7 points. Now the most important thing is to save his life.
Then she went into the [Mall] to buy [Recovery Potion] and poured it into her mouth.
A bottle of [Recovery Potion] held 50ml and had a strong bitter taste, but she didn't care and drank five bottles straight. Better-quality medical supplies were currently grayed out and required upgrading the shelter to a higher level before they could be purchased.
The various medicines sold in the system's [mall] take effect much faster than ordinary medicines. The five bottles of [recovery potion] were quickly absorbed by the body after entering it. Coupled with the resistance of self-healing, Tao Sai clearly felt that the wound on his back began to itch, and new flesh was growing rapidly.
She didn't dare drink more [Recovery Potion], she had to take it slow, otherwise her body wouldn't be able to bear it.
After a while, Tao Sai found she was able to exert more strength. She pushed herself up from the ground, but the simple movement caused the wound to tear and hurt. She began to feel her senses return. She took a bandage from the [warehouse], took off her T-shirt, and, enduring the pain, wrapped it around her waist. The bleeding quickly stopped.
Looking down, she saw a pool of blood behind her. She felt that she might have lost one-third of her blood. If it weren't for the support of her resistance attribute, she would probably have died of shock by now.
"Xiao Tao! Are you okay?" Zhou Weixing shouted anxiously on the shore, then he grabbed the edge of the fishing boat with both hands and prepared to climb up.
He was startled by the gunshot just now. He was worried that something had happened to Tao Sai on the boat. After putting Grandma Zhou down, he quickly ran over here.
"Uncle Zhou, I'm fine." Tao Sai tried to make his tone sound more relaxed.
"What happened? I just heard a loud noise coming from the fishing boat." Zhou Weixing said.
Tao Sai calmly estimated Uncle Zhou's leg strength carrying Grandma Zhou, as well as his distance from the fishing boat. The T7 pistol wasn't a real-world weapon, but rather a game weapon. Its main characteristic was its powerful power, but its quietness was relatively low for a similar firearm. Zhou Weixing probably couldn't hear it clearly from the distance he was at.
So she lied: "It's not from my side, I heard it sounded like it was coming from the gas station."
"Really? Did I hear it wrong?" Zhou Weixing scratched his head. He had just been concentrating on the road under his feet while carrying his old mother on his back. He did not hear it clearly, but it felt very much like a gunshot.
Tao Sai quickly changed the subject, "Uncle Zhou, I need to go to the bathroom. I'd like to trouble you to bring back the snacks I bought on the street."
"Don't worry, leave it to me." Zhou Weixing agreed readily, let go of his hand, and jumped back to the ground from the edge of the boat.
The footsteps faded away, and Tao Sai calmed himself down and stood up from the ground.
Energy-saving lights illuminated the rest cabin, both inside and outside. Tao Sai turned around to find, startled, that the body of the bald man she had stabbed outside was beginning to vanish bit by bit, like ashes blown away by the wind after a fire. His body, including his clothing, vanished without a trace. The other identical bald man in the cabin, whom Tao Sai had stabbed, also vanished bit by bit, along with the blood that had begun to congeal on the floor inside and outside.
But her own blood was still there.
They'd all be back soon, and this matter needed to be kept secret. Tao Sai quickly grabbed a mop and cleaned the bloodstains from the floor. Enduring the stinging pain from the wound on her back, she mopped away most of the blood, then carefully cleaned the floor with a rag. But the smell of blood still lingered in the air. She took some incense from the [Storage] and placed it on the wardrobe beside the bed, then sprayed some mosquito repellent.
After changing into clean clothes, Tao Sai lay quietly on the bed waiting for them to come back.
She remained prone to avoid touching the wound, chewing food non-stop and forcing herself to swallow it. Even though she had eaten enough for dinner, she still needed to eat like crazy because her body needed to convert a lot of energy to repair itself.
The pain in her back eased a little, and she had the energy to think about more things.
…She killed someone.
For some unknown reason, the corpse and the bloody mess vanished without a trace, as if she had just had a nightmare, as if she had not killed anyone but a game character. But the traces of fighting inside and outside the rest cabin, the bent iron rod, the wound on her back, were a constant reminder to her that this was not a dream, but reality.
Although she could justify her actions, he was an unforgivable murderer who had killed several people and deserved death no matter how he was judged. Moreover, her situation at the time was special. She was acting in self-defense. If she hadn't done so, she would have been the one to die.
Suddenly, her stomach felt uncomfortable, and her whole body felt awkward and uncomfortable for no apparent reason. She scratched her ears and cheeks. She felt her scalp and every inch of her skin was itchy, as if she had eaten ten thousand ants. They were crawling and gnawing madly in her body. She kept scratching and struggling.
The wound on her back was torn again due to her large movements. She felt the blood seeping through the gauze and a stinging sensation came over her.
She forced herself to control herself.
She was cold as she pulled the trigger, her eyes filled with a deadly determination and indifference, but she was still only a young woman in her early twenties. She had played many gun-themed games: Counter-Strike, Grand Theft Auto, Battle Royale. In these games, she was decisive, sniping from a distance, fighting in close combat, never holding back. But games were not reality, and she never brought them into the real world. Games were games, and reality was reality. Gamers had countless chances to resurrect, and when they got tired of one game, they could always move on to the next. But in reality, once a life was gone, it was gone.
She suddenly thought of her blossoming forehead and the gushing blood. Her stomach churned and she convulsed uncontrollably again, crying out loud.
Tao Sai held his chest, leaned forward, stuck his head over the edge of the bed and vomited on the ground.
The wound was healing quickly, and the food she had just eaten was digested quickly enough that she only vomited some sour gastric juice.
She hung her head over the bed, breathing heavily.
After several minutes, her brain finally started to work again and she tried to divert her attention and think about other things.
Jiang Yifeng is also a player.
Previously, netizen [Ronaldo] told her that she was not the only player. According to estimates, there are about two thousand players around the world.
The original game was just a stand-alone game with a relatively simple gameplay. Players only needed to follow the main storyline in their own independent parallel worlds, manage shelter ships, upgrade characters, accumulate resources, and accommodate more survivors. Although the scene of the insect swarm is shocking enough, and fighting with insects is exciting enough, it is more like a management and development game most of the time.
But now, some unknown mysterious force has seemingly transformed this single-player game into a multiplayer online game, with all players sharing the same world map. Weibo user [Ronaldo] and player Jiang Yifeng both cite this view as evidence.
If the game changes, will the gameplay also change synchronously?
Since it is an online game, it is impossible for players not to communicate with each other, and competition is inevitable.
It was still that mysterious force that separated the players intentionally or unintentionally, but even if the Internet could block it, reality seemed unable to do so, and she and player Jiang Mingfeng met.
So how should players interact with each other? Hostility? Alliance? Resource exchange? Looting each other's resources?
The worst case scenario is a battle royale.
Tao Sai continued to analyze the subtitles given by the system, which included two parts: killing characters and killing players.
Obviously, these are two completely different parts. The subtitle system for killing characters is displayed in white letters, while killing players is displayed in eye-catching and chilling red letters.
After killing a character, you can seize the target's attribute points and skills. In this way, she took away Jiang Yifeng's [Clone] skill and 4 attribute points. After killing a player, you can also take away the gold coins and decompose their system carriers into your own resources.
Therefore, different players, characters belonging to different players, and players and characters can plunder each other's resources by killing each other.
This is the new gameplay added to the game.
Jiang Yifeng probably didn't know this at the time. He just wanted to kill people out of revenge after his gang was wiped out by the police.
Tao Sai held her breath. By sheer coincidence, she might be the first to know. If this new gameplay feature were to be made public, and known to all players, a wave of belligerent players would undoubtedly seek to plunder others, ultimately sparking an unstoppable bloodbath and war. Meanwhile, players with good intentions would strike first to protect themselves. Players would be unsure who was friend or foe, and the world would descend into a terrifying atmosphere reminiscent of a battle royale.
Thinking of this, Tao Sai felt a chill down his spine.
Tao Sai comforted himself, of course, this was just the worst case scenario.
Another lagging online taxi also drove to the riverside, and everyone came back carrying large and small bags.
There was a height difference between the river bank and the fishing boat. As the only man, Zhou Weixing first climbed onto the boat to get the ladder, and then stood on the deck to pick people up one by one.
Zhou Ning put the big bag of snacks into the empty cabinet and sat down next to Tao Sai's bed. "Tao Tao, I remembered something on the way that I forgot to tell you."
"What's the matter?" Tao Sai asked.
This question seemed to stump Zhou Ning, and she felt as if her brain had short-circuited.
There was a moment of silence. She tried hard to think, but failed. She couldn't remember anything. "I think I forgot."
Tao Sai said, "Maybe I'll remember it later. I often forget too."
It was already late, and after taking turns washing up, everyone assigned rooms. There were just eight beds, just the right size. But except for Zhou Ning and Tao Sai's, none of the other beds had mattresses or pillows, just hard wooden slats. Fortunately, Tao Sai had bought four extra sets online and brought three old ones from his grandfather's house, enough for every bed.
Considering that Zhou Weixing was the only man and it would be very inconvenient, Zhou Ning chose to move his bed next door. Their family lived in one room, and Tao Sai lived in another with the three girls.
The lights went out. After experiencing so much today, everyone was physically exhausted and quickly fell asleep. The fishing boat became quiet.
Tao Sai tried to turn from prone to side, but the weight of her body pressed against the wound, causing pain, and she also felt a strong sense of foreign body. She suddenly realized that the bullet was still in her body.
Thanks to the resistance properties and the repairing effect of the medicine, the wound tissue was healing rapidly and the bleeding had stopped. She untied the gauze circle by circle and reached out to touch it. There was an obvious depression in the middle of the smooth skin on her back. She didn't dare to touch the entire wound for fear of bacterial infection.
She rinsed it with clean water in the bathroom, put on disposable shell gloves, gritted her teeth and reached her hand to the wound. The touch showed that the bullet head was squeezed out a little by the healing organ tissue, but more of it was still stuck in the flesh, and it was difficult for her to operate with her hands behind her back.
Tao Sai put on his clothes and called Zhou Ning, who was half asleep, out of his sleep and brought him to the cockpit.
"What's the matter, Taotao?" Zhou Ning tried hard to open his eyes and look at her.
"Help me take the bullet."
Tao Sai said this as he turned his back to her, lifted up half of his clothes, and then lay down on the "operating table" made of two stools, showing her the wound on his back.
On the low cabinet next to her were the surgical tweezers and disinfectant she had prepared in advance, as well as the [anesthetic agent] she had purchased from the [mall].
Zhou Ning looked at the bloody wound and the bullet lodged deep in the broken flesh. His scalp tingled and he felt terrified. "Taotao, I don't dare..."
"It's okay, just take the bullet out. I won't feel any pain." Tao Sai said, and she poured a bottle of [anesthetic] into her mouth. This drug only numbs the local area of the body where the wound is, and will not make people unconscious. Seeing that she was still hesitant, Tao Sai added: "It will hurt if you don't take it out."
Zhou Ning's eyes became firmer. He put on surgical gloves, picked up the tweezers on the low cabinet, tried hard to control the trembling of his hands, and reached out to the wound.
The wound was on the right side of the spine. She used tweezers to grab the bullet embedded in the flesh and pulled it out with all her strength. She succeeded in pulling out some of it, but it also brought out some flesh threads and necrotic tissue, and blood seeped out. She suddenly lost the strength in her hands.
She had to be more resolute, otherwise Taotao would feel even worse. She calmed herself down and exerted force again, and the bullet head covered in blood and muscle tissue was finally taken out.
The wound, which had already begun to heal, was torn open again, and blood gushed out. Zhou Ning quickly pressed the hemostatic cotton he had prepared on the wound. After the bleeding stopped, he bandaged it. It would take about three or four days for it to heal completely.
"Taotao, will it get infected?" Zhou Ning asked with a worried look on her face. Although the bleeding had stopped and disinfection had been carried out, they were not professional medical staff after all, and the subsequent complications would be truly fatal.
"It won't be contagious," Tao Sai said affirmatively.
She now has 7 points of resistance, and her repair ability and immune system are far superior to those of normal people. In short, her body is strong enough.
Zhou Ning believed her and gathered up the extra hemostatic cotton and bullets, wondering, "Taotao, how did you get shot?"
"It was Jiang Yifeng, the leader of that gang of robbers. He was still hiding on the boat, but I have killed him," said Tao Sai.
There was silence in the cockpit.
Zhou Ning asked with a puzzled look on his face, "Who is Jiang Yifeng?"
"The bald guy who held you hostage should be called this name." Tao Sai said, considering that Zhou Ning might not have heard of his name.
"Bald head? There's no bald head." Zhou Ning was even more confused.
"What did you say?" Tao Sai's eyes froze. "No bald head?"
"Yes, all four of them have hair. Although one is a little bald, the other three have thick hair." Zhou Ning was very sure. She made a special note of their appearance, intending to provide clues to the police if necessary.
"How many people are there on the boat?"
"There are only four. Weren't they all arrested by the police? Are there any who slipped through the net?"
Hearing this, Tao Sai's eyes froze completely.
When the fishing boat stopped to refuel, she was in the top room of the gas station. Through the glass, she saw the bald middle-aged man on the deck from beginning to end, until he was shot and jumped into the Yangtze River during the police chase. And Zhou Ning seemed to have completely ignored this man. How could this be possible?
Just then, An Nan got up to go to the bathroom. Tao Sai immediately walked over to her and called out, "How many people kidnapped you today?"
An Nan squinted her eyes because she was too sleepy. After thinking seriously for a moment, she replied, "Four? What's wrong, Sister Sai?"
Tao Sai suddenly thought of something and looked up the subtitles that the system had given him before.
[You killed the player [Jiang Yifeng], and the player's information has been erased.]
Erase.
She seemed to understand a little, and if she asked the others on the boat, they would probably get the same answer. Combined with the system subtitles, the real situation was probably that everything about Jiang Yifeng, his body, his blood on the floor, and everyone's memory of this person had been erased by the system.
So Zhou Ning said she had something to say before, but she forgot it. It is possible that she remembered something related to Jiang Yifeng, but the memory was instantly erased by the system.
When she thought of this, she seemed to be hit by something.
She remembered reading somewhere that a person's true death isn't when their heart stops beating, nor when their flesh and bones turn to ash and decay, but when they are completely forgotten by everyone. The process of being forgotten can take years, decades, or even centuries, but now, that time span has been shortened to a single moment.
Tao Sai returned to his room stiffly and lay on the bed, feeling inexplicably desolate.
This is the fate of the player after being killed.
It’s like being in a real game. The player leaves the game, but the game program still runs normally and a new player joins. However, everything about that player no longer exists. The data is deleted in the background and there is no evidence of their existence.
This is a bit too cruel.
After the effect of the [anesthetic] wore off, the pain in the wound continued to come. Tao Sai equipped himself with the skill [Deep Sleep] and forced himself to fall asleep.
After six hours of deep sleep, Tao Sai was awakened by the alarm clock.
Reaching out to turn off the alarm on her phone, she noticed a news push notification on the lock screen.
"Amazing! Villagers captured a terrifying scene."
After clicking on it, it turned out to be a video shot by a villager. He found countless black bugs swarming in his own field, eating the crops in the field, leaving no leaves behind wherever they passed.
But the highly praised comments under the video almost all said that the pictures were well edited. The atmosphere in the comment section was cheerful and harmonious, and no one took it seriously.
Tao Sai turned his eyes away from his phone and noticed that the insect swarm countdown on the main page had disappeared. The natural disaster had begun and a large-scale insect swarm was coming.
She lifted the thin quilt and prepared to get up. Her body had recovered well after a night's rest. She couldn't do strenuous exercise, but basic walking was no problem.
Sitting up from the bed, Tao Sai changed [Deep Sleep] to the combat attribute [Charge] as usual, and found that there was an additional [Clone] skill in the skill list. She remembered that this was a new skill she had plundered from Jiang Yifeng last night.
The amount of information she received at once was too great, and she had no time to study it carefully. Only now did she have time to read the skill introduction word for word.
This is an A-level skill that can create an avatar that exists for 5 minutes. The consciousness can switch between the two bodies at will, serving as the original body and the avatar of each other.
Tao Sai understood the literal meaning, equipped himself with the skill [Clone], then looked outside the cabin and used the skill.
The next second, a girl who looked exactly like her appeared out of nowhere at the side of the ship, standing quietly there. Her clothes, hairstyle, and teardrop mole on her face were exactly the same, except that her eyes were a little dull and lifeless.
Tao Sai's mind moved, and she tried to switch her consciousness to her clone. Her vision suddenly went black, and when she could see again, she found herself outside the cabin. The morning sun was bright red, and the wind was blowing gently across her face. Zhou Weixing was chatting with Aunt Li on the deck.
In the cabin, a girl who looked exactly like her was sitting on the bed, her eyes dull and lifeless. The original her had become a clone.
With another thought, her consciousness returned to herself on the bed.
As expected, she could switch between them at will. She understood the meaning of the skill description, which said the two were the original and the clone. When she used the [Clone] skill, the clone completely copied the original, including the wound on her back.
Now she's going to do more experiments.
Tao Sai switched herself to the side of the ship. The continuous and rapid switching of perspectives made her brain a little dizzy and she needed more time to adapt.
She walked along the side of the ship to the bow deck. Even though she was far away from her clone in the cabin and they were out of sight of each other, she could still return to the main body of the cabin in an instant.
Tao Sai tried it several times in a row. When he first created the clone, the farthest distance he could project the clone was about 10 meters. Then he switched his consciousness to the clone, which was almost equivalent to a teleportation skill.
However, the skill can only be used again after the previous clone disappears, and each use of the skill consumes a lot of physical strength.
After several experiments, Tao Sai suddenly had an idea. If a clone is released and the original body is fatally injured, and then the consciousness is switched back to the intact clone, then after five minutes the injured clone disappears, then will the original body also be intact?
If her conjecture is correct, it would be equivalent to having two lives.
Perhaps this was the situation when Jiang Mingfeng was arrested. He projected his clone into a corner of the boat, then jumped into the river after being shot several times, and finally switched his consciousness back to the intact clone on the boat.
This would also explain why he had no signs of being shot during their fight last night.
The hypothesis still needs further testing. This concerns life, so we must be extremely cautious.
After resting for a while to recover her strength, Tao Sai projected her clone onto the side of the ship again. She then slashed the back of her hand with a switchblade, transforming into her clone on the side of the ship. Five minutes later, the clone on the bed vanished. She raised her hand and saw no wound on the back of her original hand!
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