Chapter 110
On the first day of the opening of Fengdu Ghost City, a letter of challenge containing threats was received.
Cen Xun asked someone to reply and the matter was left unresolved.
On the second day after Fengdu Ghost City opened, six million humans who became new players through QR codes entered Fengdu Ghost City. The operation of Fengdu Ghost City entered an overloaded state, and Cen Xun convened a meeting to discuss countermeasures.
0002 handed over a research report that had been prepared long ago, suggesting that Cen Xun consider banning players who had died six times or more from the game, and give priority to new players who had just joined the Nightmare World to enter Fengdu Ghost City.
"During this period, I selected a certain number of players as research subjects and conducted follow-up surveys. The experimental results show that if a player dies more than six times in the nightmare world, their body in the real world will begin to fall into a negative state. At the same time, the negative emotions available for the Domain Master to extract will be greatly reduced."
0002 handed everyone a report: "This is the amount of points players earn after dying a certain number of times. You can compare them. After dying more than six times, the points earned by a player will drop to half of their previous amount."
The ghosts flipped through the report, and 0002 continued, "Every time a player dies, a portion of their soul will be damaged. If the damage is not severe, the player's soul can be restored."
"Once you die, the recovery time is 23 days."
"Died twice, recovered in 78 days"
"Death three times, recovery time is 1518 days."
"In other words, you can actually treat players like leeks, nurturing them and then harvesting them again. The total points you gain from this will be countless times more than simply eating their souls."
0002 spoke earnestly, "So, I suggest giving priority to new players entering the game. The reasons are as follows: First, new players generate more points than veteran players. Second, veteran players can also nourish their souls, making it easier for us to harvest leeks in the next round."
As his words faded into the air, the conference room became quiet again.
Tong Ming casually threw the report on the table and laughed. "My opinion is the opposite of Dean Shen's. I think there's no need to make it so complicated. Although you can gain more points by cutting leeks in rounds, the cycle is too long, isn't it?"
"We can just eat the player directly, so why wait so long?" Tong Ming shrugged. "Even if we lose some points, it doesn't seem to matter. Besides, what if the player dies in real life? Wouldn't we lose our money?"
Yun Shiqing looked at Tong Ming and said, "There are now six million new players, not six hundred thousand or sixty thousand. Can they be taken in at once?"
Tong Ming said with a sullen face, "We can't just let the old players go, right? What would become of our Nightmare University then? Would it really become a charity?"
Yaxu agreed with Tong Ming for the first time: "I agree. If Fengdu Ghost City can't accommodate them, just stuff these players into my Ghost Domain. I can handle it."
Tong Ming looked at Qin Xiu again: "Dean Qin, you should also express your opinion."
Qin Xiuping said calmly, "From a long-term perspective, the approach proposed by Dean Shen is indeed more conducive to the sustainable development of Nightmare University."
"So you mean to support 0002 and the others?" Tong Ming glanced at Yun Shiqing and the others and said bluntly, "What are you talking about the results of data analysis? In fact, you just want to save more players' lives. What do you call this? You are in Cao's camp, but your heart is with Han?"
0002 frankly admitted, "Yes, we wanted to keep more players, so we specifically conducted this survey, hoping to convince the mayor with data. But the survey results are absolutely true. It's more profitable to cut leeks than to swallow them all at once. This is an undeniable fact."
Tong Ming: "Who doesn't know that harvesting leeks is good? The question is, do we have the time to grow them?"
0002 refused to give in: "Why not? Tell me."
Wu Jin lay on the table watching them bickering, and finally got so annoyed that he sat up straight: "The mayor hasn't spoken yet, what are you guys arguing about?"
After all the arguing, isn’t the final decision maker his fourth brother?
Realizing this, all the ghosts looked at Cen Xun.
Cen Xun held the report in his hand, lowered his eyes and remained silent.
From the beginning to the end, he had never been involved in the dispute between Tong Ming and 0002, nor had he expressed any opinion on the matter. Therefore, they had no idea what Cen Xun was thinking.
His attitude, his choices, his decisions.
All are closely related to the future destiny of the players.
Yun Shiqing held his breath and looked at Cen Xun. If his heart was still beating, the heartbeat in his ears would be as loud as thunder.
What decision will Cen Xun make?
Start a massacre and eat up the extra players, or temporarily release the old players to free up operating space for Fengdu Ghost City?
Tick, tick, tick
Time flows slowly, and every second seems so long.
Finally, the meeting came to an end.
Cen Xun raised his eyes and said, "Just do as Dean Shen said."
0002 His throat rolled and his whole body suddenly relaxed. Only then did he realize that his hands, which were supporting the table, had squeezed the table so hard that it cracked.
Tong Ming pursed his lips slightly and looked deeply at Cen Xun.
Cen Xun didn't look at him. He handed the task of compiling the list to Wu Sa, stood up with the report, and left the meeting room.
The domain master can take the initiative to kick players out of his own strange domain, but apart from Cen Xun, there should be very few domain masters who would not eat the food that is right in their mouths, but instead kindly let the food go.
"Fourth brother!"
Cen Xun stopped and, as expected, saw Tong Ming catching up with him.
Tong Ming had been dissatisfied at the meeting just now, and now it seemed that he had to get an explanation.
"Fourth brother, what are you thinking about?" Tong Ming asked in confusion, "Why did you agree to Chen Yaoshan's proposal? Do you know how important time is to us now? We can't afford to waste it!"
This was also the reason why Tong Ming did not say it in the meeting just now. With the emergence of Fengdu Ghost City and the sudden appearance of promotional activities, the situation in the nightmare world was completely disrupted. [Time], [Natural Disaster] and [Seven Evils] emerged one after another, all eyeing Cen Xun covetously.
Cen Xun is only half awake now. If he doesn't seize the time to devour humans to increase his own strength, how can he calmly deal with the storm that will come later?
Tong Ming sighed, "Fourth brother, a half-awakened monster is absolutely no match for a fully awakened one. You must understand this. If you don't eat more now, when do you plan to eat?"
Cen Xun asked him back, "According to the most conservative estimate, after the Fengdu Ghost City project is completed, I will be able to obtain at least 10 billion points. Isn't that enough?"
"How do you know it will be enough? What if it's not?"
Cen Xun did not answer, and Tong Ming was silent for a while.
After a moment, Tong Ming slowly spoke: "I should have discovered it earlier."
"Before, you said you wanted to start a business war, so you lowered the death rate and stopped consuming the players' souls. But what about now? Do you still need to start a business war?" Tong Ming laughed. "There's no Ghost Realm left to challenge Fengdu Ghost City. You could obviously raise the death rate and consume the players directly, but you haven't done so yet."
"Why?" Tong Ming raised his eyelids, his eyes sharp as if he could see through people's hearts: "Fourth brother, why?"
Cen Xun said calmly, "Because there's no need to increase the workload."
"No," Tong Ming shook his head, raised his hand, and pointed at Cen Xun's heart: "Because your heart has already leaned towards humans."
"The balance in your heart is tilting towards the human camp." Tong Ming's tone was almost demanding: "You can no longer eat humans without regrets, right?"
Cen Xun laughed at this. "What leverage do humans have that would make me side with them? I simply feel that since maintaining the status quo is good enough, why should I do anything unnecessary and upset the current balance?"
"What do you mean by superfluous?" Tong Ming said, "Preying on humans is what we were born to do. Now, do you think it's superfluous?"
"Fourth brother, do you remember what you said to me when you first recruited me into Nightmare University?"
"You said you would take me with you to conquer the world," Tong Ming stared at Cen Xun, "Have you forgotten your original intention?"
Cen Xun lowered his eyes: "My original intention?"
"Do you really know what my original intention is, Tong Ming?"
"At first, I just wanted revenge on all those who had deceived me and trapped me. I wanted to gain complete freedom and make sure no one in this world could cover my eyes, no matter what the price I had to pay."
Cen Xun: "All I wanted at the beginning was freedom."
To gain his freedom, he fought for the position of principal, started a business war with the domain lord, and planned to deal with all enemies who dared to stand in his way.
In order to have freedom, he fought against evil and refused to let himself become a monster that only knew how to kill.
What's the point if his whole life is just about running for food?
Do what you want to do, and don’t do what you don’t want to do.
Why not just eat the player's soul?
Because he doesn't want to do that.
It's that simple.
Cen Xun: "What about you? Tong Ming, what do you want?"
Tong Ming was silent for a moment. "Since we're talking about original intentions, well, I admit that at first, my original intention was just to spy on more people's private lives and eat some humans in the human world. It was because you said you wanted to take over the entire world that I took your original intention as my own."
"I don't care what disputes we had before," Tong Ming whispered, "At least since we left the mountain village, we two brothers have never been apart. Call me a scoundrel, but I just want to follow you."
"So you've changed your mind. I don't have much to say to you." Tong Ming said calmly, "Anyway, I will always watch you with these eyes, to see how far you can go on this new path, and whether you will get hurt."
Cen Xun looked at him thoughtfully: "It's rare to hear you talk so much."
"Don't be upset," Cen Xun patted Tong Ming's shoulder. "Of course there are other reasons for not adopting your suggestion."
Tong Ming's expression remained calm: "What other reasons do you have?"
"Eating people will only increase pollution." Cen Xun smiled slightly: "You don't want to see me fully awaken and go crazy and eat you too, right?"
Tong Ming's eyes changed slightly, and he frowned and asked, "What do you mean?"
Cen Xun said, "The human soul is mixed with pollution. If you swallow it directly, you will consume the pollution along with it. The way we are doing it now is actually the safest way to consume it."
"Is this true?" Tong Ming asked doubtfully, "I'm omniscient, how could I not know?"
"If you have struggled with high concentrations of pollution like me, perhaps you will be able to discover the pollution mixed in your soul," said Cen Xun.
"I don't want to become estranged from my family after fully awakening," Cen Xun's eyes deepened. "So, you should support my decision, Tong Ming."
Tong Ming was silent for a moment, then asked, "Where is your awakening progress bar now?"
"70%."
By devouring most of the power of one-third of the natural disaster, Cen Xun's awakening progress bar advanced by 7%.
Tong Ming murmured, "You're almost three-quarters awake. Are there any special changes in you?"
Cen Xun said calmly, "A little bit."
Tong Ming's eyes immediately moved and swept towards Cen Xun's upper body.
Cen Xun said in a cold tone: "If you don't want me to poke your eyes out, you'd better not look around."
Tong Ming looked away awkwardly: "My younger brother is just concerned about me, what's wrong with that?"
Cen Xun sneered, "What brother would be so perverted as to use his X-ray vision to look at his brother's body?"
Tong Ming shuddered: "Don't say it, I already feel a little ambiguous."
Cen Xun rolled his eyes at him and left.
Tong Ming rubbed his arms. In order to calm the aftershock in his heart, he posted "The True Story of a Little Bird" on the campus forum, making Cen Xun and Feng Jihan socially dead on the forum. Only then did he feel much better.
In the evening, after taking a shower, Cen Xun came to the mirror and wiped off the mist on the mirror with his hand. The unclear mirror reflected his expressionless face.
Cen Xun looked down at his heart. Under his originally fair skin, black thread-like veins had appeared at some point and were spreading outward radially.
Cen Xun used a knife to cut open the skin on his heart. The bright red blood slid down the wound and fell into a small puddle of water at his feet, turning into a bloody mist.
The wound healed almost the next second after it was cut. There was no scar on the smooth skin, and the thin black veins under the skin did not change at all except for slightly moving.
Cen Xun placed his hands on the sink and took a deep breath.
After a while, he put on his clothes and went out. Feng Jihan was fiddling with two lamps by the bed.
Feng Jihan had just made a lamp that looked like a ball of wool and wanted to place it next to the bird lamp. There wasn't enough space on the bedside table, so he was trying to clear out some space.
Cen Xun walked over and placed the fur ball lamp on the bird's back: "Isn't this okay?"
Feng Jihan turned around and looked at him, his eyes shimmering with warmth: "Are you done washing?"
He suddenly sniffed: "Why does it smell like blood?"
"You must have smelled it wrongly." Cen Xun sat calmly on the bed and picked up the woolen lamp to play with it.
Feng Jihan went straight to the bathroom he had just left. After checking around, he found nothing. When he came back, he saw Cen Xun playing with the lamp with his head down. He squatted down in front of him, raised his hand and held Cen Xun's hand, and asked him softly, "What's wrong? Why are you unhappy?"
Cen Xun held up the fur ball lamp and showed it to him: "If I become like this in the future, what are you going to do?"
Feng Jihan smiled and said, "Then I can put you in my pocket and take you wherever I go."
Cen Xun thought for a moment and said, "Your pocket may not be able to accommodate me."
"Then let's put it in a sack," Feng Jihan teased him seriously, "What color sack does our teacher Cen like? I'll prepare one in advance, just in case."
"Don't you think it's weird?" Cen Xun asked him in confusion, "I suddenly transformed from a human form into a pile of threads. How can you be sure that it's me? And not something else?"
As Feng Jihan listened, he actually started laughing. He leaned on Cen Xun's knees and laughed for a long time before stopping.
"First of all, I don't find it strange, because when I first met you, you were living in the Silkworm Cave. I was shocked to see your human form later." Feng Jihan said seriously, "Secondly, the strange physiological characteristics are completely different from those of humans. You don't understand it now because you are used to being human. Once you fully awaken, you will quickly get used to it."
Feng Jihan stood up and sat down next to Cen Xun. He held Cen Xun in his arms and patted his back soothingly: "Being a monster is much more comfortable than being a human. There is no pain and no illness."
"Besides, it's not like you've completely lost your human form. You can still transform back into a human." Feng Jihan looked up at him, "So don't overthink it. It's all normal. I promise you'll get used to it."
Cen Xun whispered, "You've never been a monster before, so how do you know I can adapt?"
"I just know it."
Feng Jihan lifted Cen Xun's shirt and gently kissed his heart, which was covered with black veins: "Our little butterfly will soon break out of its cocoon."
Cen Xun said calmly, "I don't want to turn into a butterfly."
Feng Jihan looked up in confusion: "Hmm?"
Cen Xun thought for a moment and said, "Becoming a panda is still acceptable."
Feng Jihan: ""
"Tong Ming turned into an eye monster because he wanted to pee into other people's privacy too much." Cen Xun even asked him seriously: "If I like pandas very much, then what is the probability that I will become a panda monster?"
Feng Jihan silently laid Cen Xun flat and covered him with a quilt considerately.
Cen Xun asked in confusion, "What do you mean?"
Feng Jihan sat next to him and said, "It means that the probability of you dreaming is relatively high. Remember to use [Illusionary World], 100% success."
""
Seeing Cen Xun's expression, Feng Jihan thought to himself that something was wrong. He got out of bed and wanted to run away, but was dragged back to bed by the puppet thread.
Cen Xun sat up and said with a half-smile, "I've thought about it and feel it's necessary to simulate my nightlife after I'm fully awakened. This is very important. What do you think?"
Feng Jihan had a bad feeling: "What do you mean by nightlife?"
Cen Xun moved his fingers slightly, and strands of puppet silk wrapped around Feng Jihan's body, binding his hands and feet.
Cen Xun's tone still sounded serious, but the wriggling puppet silk continued to drill into the front end: "If I turn into a pile of silk threads, of course I can only do it with you in the form of silk threads."
Is it so exciting? Feng Jihan's throat rolled for a moment, revealing a slightly forbearing look: "Wife, don't play like this or you'll get hurt."
"It's okay," Cen Xun lowered his voice, "If it's broken, just let Chen Yaoshan fix it for you. Don't you have some friendship with him? He will definitely be willing to help you."
Feng Jihan thought that if he really asked Chen Yaoshan to deal with this, he would lose all his face.
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