Chapter 113
On the fourth day of Fengdu Ghost City’s opening, the number of players holding the Fengdu Ghost City QR code exceeded 100 million.
Compared to the crowded Fengdu Ghost City, the situation in other strange places can be described as extremely deserted.
Players are completely monopolized by Fengdu Ghost City, and the ghost domains outside Fengdu Ghost City cannot even get a sip of soup. If this continues, it will inevitably trigger a desperate counterattack from these domain masters.
Therefore, Cen Xun seized the opportunity and extended an olive branch to the domain lords of other cities, inviting them to join Nightmare University, and promised that as long as they joined before the end of the Fengdu Ghost City project, Nightmare University would take them to play in the next project. The cooperation between the two parties would be win-win, and both parties would earn points.
However, after the invitation letters were sent out, the response was not as good as expected. Many domain owners agreed to cooperate, but more domain owners chose not to respond.
Cen Xun flipped through the stack of cooperation documents in his hand, frowned slightly, and vaguely felt that something was wrong.
Now almost all players in the Nightmare World are monopolized by Nightmare University. If other ghost realms want to attract players, they must either share players with Nightmare University or bypass the Nightmare World and directly enter the real world to capture humans.
According to Cen Xun's estimation, after he handed out the invitation letter, at least half of the domain lords would reply.
But now, only about 25% of the domain owners have replied to agree to join, and the remaining 75% have remained silent.
This is definitely not normal.
The domain lord has to support his followers and maintain the operation of the entire strange domain. Without any points income for a long time, they cannot help but be anxious.
Cen Xun held his chin thoughtfully. "So, have they found another way to earn points?"
It seems that this is the only reason that can explain the abnormal behavior of the domain lords.
Cen Xun thought about it and still felt uneasy, so he sent a message to Tong Ming, asking him to find out what the domain lords who did not reply were planning behind the scenes.
Tong Ming replied with a received message, and then went to check. He didn’t know what happened until he checked.
During this investigation, Tong Ming actually discovered something important.
Tong Ming didn't even have time to pack his things and rushed into the meeting room with the things he had found.
The ongoing meeting was forcibly interrupted, but Tong Ming could no longer care about so much. He placed the form in front of Cen Xun and said solemnly, "Brother, look at this!"
He pointed at the contents on the form. There were two columns, one was "Register for the Strange Domain" and the other was "Status".
"The first event launched by the Nightmare System was the 'Top 100 Rankings,' and there were a total of 106 Ghost Realms that signed up at the time." Tong Ming said solemnly, "I just checked and found that 46 Ghost Realms have withdrawn from the event, and the withdrawal time is almost the same, all today."
I saw on the table that the status of many strange domains was "Exited".
Cen Xun calmly picked up the form and studied the name of the Ghost Domain that showed "Exited" for a moment. Suddenly, he smiled and said, "I was wondering why no one responded. It turns out they're collectively rebelling."
The sudden and simultaneous withdrawal of these Domain Lords from the Nightmare System's activities must have been organized and premeditated. Cen Xun asked Tong Ming, "Have you found out who the organizer is?"
Tong Ming shook his head: "My all-seeing eyes have been disturbed, and I can't see what's going on inside."
The identity of the organizer is even more intriguing if even the omniscient one cannot see the inside story.
Both [Fate] and [Time] can interfere with Tong Ming's omniscience, making him unable to see clearly what happened in the past. The organizer behind the scenes may be one of [Fate] and [Time].
Other people who were in the meeting also heard their discussion and joined in the conversation.
"Quitting the event is equivalent to giving up on attracting players through the Nightmare System. If they haven't found a channel outside of the Nightmare System, they're unlikely to do so." Yun Shiqing's expression was serious. "Perhaps they have found a way to enter the real world and prey directly on humans."
0096 was shocked and said, "Is this possible? Isn't the only passage inside our Nightmare University?"
"Are you stupid? If there is only one passage, how can there not be a second one?" 0002 said bluntly.
Qin Xiu analyzed the situation from an economic perspective: "If a new channel really exists, it will be troublesome. Not only will it break Nightmare University's monopoly, but our future potential customers will also be snatched away by our rival, Guiyu, causing huge losses."
Who can tolerate this?
Cen Xun is willing to cooperate with other domain masters purely for the purpose of expanding the scale of operations, and all profits are his.
But now, there are rivals who want to take a piece of the pie from him, and Cen Xun will certainly not allow it.
Cen Xun stood up and called a few people: "The meeting is suspended. 0001, 0096, Tong Ming, Wu Jin, come with me and personally visit those Ghost Realms that have withdrawn from the activities."
Wu Jin pointed at himself in disbelief: "I can go this time too?"
Cen Xun pulled the chair away, lowered his eyes and said, "I'll take you with me to fight from now on."
A group of people walked out of the meeting room in a swift and decisive manner. Yun Shiqing left first, preparing to drive a fighter jet over to facilitate his teammates to reach the battlefield quickly.
While waiting, Cen Xun received an encrypted video from Feng Jihan.
Cen Xun paused, then opened the video. It was an aerial video, clearly capturing a strange figure climbing and destroying buildings. A helicopter bearing the insignia of the Heretic Monitoring Bureau fired continuously at the creature. Amidst the incessant gunfire, the terrified screams of humans could be faintly heard below.
There is a helicopter of the Heretic Monitoring Bureau in the picture, and it is obvious that this is not happening in the nightmare world.
Cen Xun's eyes darkened slightly and he called Feng Jihan.
"I saw the video," Cen Xun said, "Let me be clear, I didn't release these monsters."
"I know it wasn't you." Feng Jihan's voice was filled with a lot of noise in the background. "You should just sit in Fengdu Ghost City and wait for the players to come and deliver the food. There's no need to do this. So I guess it was your rival who did it."
Cen Xun asked him promptly, "When did it happen, and how widespread was it?"
"An hour ago, strange monsters appeared all over the world." Feng Jihan's voice was a little distorted by the sound of electricity. "Thankfully, their levels are not high. A D-level psychic can basically deal with them."
Cen Xun: "Have any Domain Lord-level monsters appeared?"
Feng Jihan: "No, I haven't found it yet."
"Send me that weird information." The turbulence from the fighter jet brushed against Cen Xun's hair as he landed. Cen Xun said in a cold tone, "Today, forty-six Domain Lords suddenly withdrew from the Nightmare System event. I'm planning to visit them now."
Feng Jihan understood: "Okay, I'll send it to you later."
Yun Shiqing parked the fighter plane and the ghosts boarded. Cen Xun asked as they walked, "So many new passages suddenly appeared in the nightmare world. Do you have any idea?"
"Although the barrier of the nightmare world is indeed gradually thinning, it is impossible for it to be damaged to this extent overnight." Feng Jihan: "The only possibility is that these cracks are man-made."
But who can destroy the barrier of the nightmare world and open so many channels at the same time?
Almost instantly, a thought flashed through my mind.
Cen Xun and Feng Jihan said at the same time: "[Traveler]!"
That’s right, [Walker] possesses spatial skills. If it were him, he would indeed be able to break through the barrier of the nightmare world and release the monsters into the real world.
Cen Xun fastened his seatbelt: "I'll go over and check now."
[Walker] cannot interfere with [Omniscient]'s vision. If [Walker] has had any interactions with those domain masters, Tong Ming will be able to see it clearly when he arrives at the scene.
Feng Jihan looked at Administrator 01 who was standing beside him. Administrator 01 gave him an OK gesture, and Feng Jihan said to Cen Xun, "I've sent you all the information about the weird things that appeared in the real world."
Cen Xun said "hmm" and forwarded the message to Tong Ming, then asked him, "Are you on a mission now?"
Feng Jihan answered without any defense: "Yes, I am sitting in a helicopter and opening a domain now, what's wrong?"
"A helicopter? That's too slow," Cen Xun said with a smile, "I'm riding in the fighter jet your captain is flying."
Feng Jihan: ""
Feng Jihan really didn't expect that Cen Xun had laid the groundwork for so long, but his ultimate goal was just to show off in person.
"Your captain is a really good fighter pilot," Cen Xun said slowly, "When you were in his fighter plane before, you must have flown as fast as I am now."
Although he knew that Cen Xun was deliberately selling the sword, Feng Jihan was really a little broken. He forced a smile and said, "If you are satisfied, treat him well."
The evil fleece got the reaction he wanted, and was finally satisfied. He even deliberately asked him, "Why do I feel like someone is talking with gnashing teeth? Feng Jihan, are you breaking down again?"
Feng Jihan acted as if nothing had happened: "It's just a small matter, why should I care about it? As long as the captain is doing well, it's fine for me to take the helicopter. The wind is too strong and the signal is not good. I'll hang up first."
Cen Xun looked at the hung-up call with amusement, already imagining the fake smile on the person's face on the other end of the phone.
Yun Shiqing, who was flying a fighter plane, listened to Cen Xun's voice and thought helplessly, he could hear everything.
Tong Ming rolled his eyes and said speechlessly, "Fourth brother, such a big thing happened, aren't you anxious at all? How can you still have the leisure time to play with birds!"
Cen Xun said calmly, "You don't understand matters of the heart."
"I don't understand?" Tong Ming was unconvinced and insisted on arguing with him: "I know everything! What can I not understand if I know everything?"
Cen Xun crossed his arms and said, "Then find someone who is willing to chat with you now."
Isn't this simple? Tong Ming confidently opened the chat room with Zhou Mian, typed a message and sent it out: "Where are you?"
As the message was sent, a red exclamation mark suddenly appeared in his field of vision.
Tong Ming's smile faltered slightly: "It must be a bad signal. I'll send another one."
Then another glaring exclamation mark popped up.
[Friend verification is enabled, but you are not yet his/her friend. Please send a friend verification request first. You can only chat after the other party passes the verification.]
Tong Ming was completely mad now: "Damn it! How did I offend him again? Why did he delete me again?!"
Wu Jin slapped his thigh and laughed heartily: "It seems Xiao Zhou has deleted you more than once. Sixth Brother, just admit the fact that you are unpopular!"
Tong Ming's face was as dark as iron. He edited the message quickly and didn't even bother to continue complaining about Cen Xun.
Tong Ming never expected that he would suffer so much at the hands of Zhou Mian.
Tong Ming originally thought that he could control Zhou Mian by making a deal with him, so he promised Zhou Mian that he would help Zhou Mian's grandmother find a legal and compliant liver source and use normal medical means to prolong his grandmother's life. In exchange, Zhou Mian agreed to let him do whatever he wanted.
As a result, Zhou Mian became obedient and would go to bed if asked. However, Zhou Mian was completely different in and out of bed. No matter what he had promised him in a state of collapse the night before, he would never do it the next day as if he had lost his memory.
People like Zhou Mian are ruthless and turn their backs on others.
Always indifferent, always rational, always sober.
Even if he signed a contract with Zhou Mian, Tong Ming could do nothing to Zhou Mian.
You can't kill him, and he refuses to obey you. What can you do to him?
Tong Ming had never seen a human being as difficult to deal with as Zhou Mian.
After a long time of effort, Tong Ming finally succeeded in threatening Zhou Mian to add him back. He immediately asked Zhou Mian why he deleted him.
As a result, Zhou Mian actually replied to him: "Your profile picture is too ugly, so I deleted it."
Just because the profile picture is ugly! Just because the profile picture is ugly! ?
What a bullshit reason!
Tong Ming gritted his teeth and typed, "I'm warning you, if you dare to delete me again, I will spread your video to all platforms!"
Zhou Mian: "Oh, go ahead and spread it. I just feel like I don't want to live anymore. I'm going to commit suicide when I get home tonight."
Then Tong Ming was deleted.
When Tong Ming realized that the message he had sent had once again become an exclamation mark, he slammed his fist on the seat in front of him and yelled madly, "Damn it!"
0096 in front was shot innocently and immediately sat up straight: "What's going on? What's going on? Is this an enemy attack?"
Cen Xun said calmly, "It's just the impotent rage of a loser."
Tong Ming gritted his teeth and sent a text message to Zhou Mian: "Did I allow you to commit suicide? Your life is mine now!"
After a while, Tong Ming sent a message to Zhou Mian with an expressionless face: "I have changed my profile picture. Come back to me after you finish the mission to take medicine."
Fighter jets flew over the sky of the nightmare world, heading for their destination.
City H has become Cen Xun's strange domain, but the strange domains in other cities are intricate and complicated. Cen Xun compared the strange information sent by Administrator 01 and visited one of the strange domains first.
For a domain lord like Cen Xun who has billions of points, facing such a small strange domain can be regarded as a dimensionality reduction attack. Cen Xun successfully entered the opponent's strange domain without much effort. After searching for a while, Tong Ming indeed found a passage leading to the real world.
Tong Ming used his all-seeing eyes to carefully observe for a moment, then turned back to Cen Xun and said with certainty, "It was indeed Lao Wu who did it."
Cen Xun asked, "Is there any way to turn it off?"
Tong Ming shook his head. "It can't be closed. This is a spatial channel created by Lao Wu using his power. It's different from our port that can be turned into a key. To close it, either find Lao Wu and have him close it himself, or find another person with spatial abilities on par with Lao Wu and forcibly close the channel."
Cen Xun pondered for a moment and asked another question: "If I take this passage, will my level still be suppressed by the barrier of the nightmare world?"
When entering and exiting through the port of Nightmare University, the level of monsters will be suppressed to around the Qingyi level. I wonder if the space channel created by [Walker] will still have this disadvantage.
Tong Ming gave a negative answer: "No, Fourth Brother, you can think of space channels and ports as two different things."
"The void channel is similar to a portal. It doesn't pass through barriers, but directly jumps through space, from one point to another," Tong Ming explained. "So if you use the space channel, your level won't be weakened by the presence of barriers."
As for the port, it is equivalent to making a hole in the barrier. If the monster wants to go back and forth through this hole, it will inevitably be affected by the barrier.
"That is to say, the levels of the monsters that entered the real world through the spatial channel have not been weakened." Cen Xun looked at the spatial channel thoughtfully. "Some low-level monsters are fine, but if [Fate], [Time], and the remaining two-thirds of [Natural Disasters] also enter the real world through the spatial channel, then the real world will be completely destroyed."
"Yeah, if monsters can directly enter the real world and eat people, who will still abide by the rules of the game?" Tong Ming frowned and said, "In this case, all the business wars fought by Nightmare University will lose their meaning."
This is exactly the problem. The monsters are in a competitive relationship with each other. In order to annex a larger monster domain and gain stronger power, the monsters will use any means to devour each other.
Cen Xun is willing to cooperate for mutual benefit, but other domain lords may not have such a broad perspective. Once they are given the opportunity to grow, Nightmare University will fall into a very unfavorable situation in the future.
Cen Xun didn't hesitate and made a decision immediately: "We must catch Lao Wu as soon as possible and make him close these passages."
However, when it comes to capturing the Walker, Tong Ming is somewhat helpless.
"That guy, Lao Wu, ran too fast." Tong Ming tried to use the Eye of All-Seeing to check the traces of the Walker. After a moment's observation, he said with a headache, "Even if I tracked his real-time location, he would open a space portal the next second and run away again."
[Walker] has special abilities and can relocate at any time and anywhere. [Omniscience] does not have much of an advantage over [Walker].
Cen Xun thought for a moment and said, "Let's let Precognition take a look. Instead of chasing after Lao Wu, it's better to sit tight and wait for the rabbit to come."
He glanced at Tong Ming and said bluntly, "Xiao Zhou gets annoyed just by seeing you. Don't worry about this matter. I'll go talk to Xiao Zhou."
"Tong Ming responded with a frustrated look.
Next, Cen Xun tried to let 0096 use a bomb carrying special metal to blow up the space channel, but failed. Cen Xun had to settle for the second best and let Yun Shiqing use [Solid Heart Like a Boundary] to directly cover the space channel to prevent more monsters from escaping.
After dealing with the space channel, Cen Xun walked out of the semi-ruinous building and stepped on the monster that looked like a pile of scrap.
"Who asked you to withdraw from the event?"
Cen Xun leaned forward slightly, his amber eyes gazing at it indifferently: "Didn't you see the invitation I sent?"
"Look, I saw it," the Waste Ghost murmured tremblingly, "I really wanted to agree, but that big ghost said that if I joined Nightmare University, he would turn my time back to before my birth and make me disappear from this world. I, I'm scared, so..."
"Time." Cen Xun slowly read out these two words and smiled.
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