Chapter 253: Inhuman (61) (1st + 2nd) [VIP]
The environment in Nightmare is a bit strange.
The air was filled with the aroma of food. In the middle of the set, several chefs wearing chef hats were struggling to move a large pile of ingredients. The camera was aimed at each item one by one. The host was diligently introducing what kind of ingredients were there.
They seemed to be at the taping of a cooking show.
The newcomers who entered the nightmare before Bai Jinshu had already explored it and gathered together to discuss the situation.
"It's confirmed that this is a TV show. They are recording a cooking competition," Dita was the first to speak. "I went out to take a look around. This place is the central civic square of the violent city. Generally speaking, if there are any activities or large-scale fights in B City, everyone will choose to hold them here."
"Zha'er? The central civic square of B City?" Xiao Tang looked around, "It doesn't look like it..."
She vaguely remembered that Civic Square was a big square, right? Wasn't this a hotel kitchen?
She remembered that the Civic Square was flat and level. Today, when she was walking on the deserted streets of B City, there were no such buildings around the square she passed by.
"Ah, this is the former Civic Square," Dita explained. "When I was a newcomer three or four years ago, the Civic Square was still a commercial area, and this hotel was inside the commercial area. Later, when I came back to lead the team, this place had already become a square."
"I heard from the old leader that the fighting was so intense that someone went on a rampage and blew up half of the commercial district. The cost of repairing it was too high, so the municipal government simply bulldozed it and filled it up to form a large square. This is what the Civic Square looked like before it was built."
"So the nightmare is about what the City of Violence looked like three or four years ago?" Bai Jinshu grasped the key point of her words.
"Three or four years isn't quite accurate," Dita scratched her head. "I just took a look outside, and the environment here is a little different from when I first came here. It may have to be pushed back a few years, at least five years ago."
She came in the earliest and was most familiar with the City of Violence. According to her judgment, this was the City of Violence at least five years ago.
"What else?" Bai Jin asked.
"And..." Dita looked around, "Have you noticed that we don't seem to exist in the eyes of these people?"
"I found out," Guan Hongyan frowned, "I tried to talk to a few people, but they seemed to be unable to see us and completely ignored my existence."
"Not only are they ignoring us," Yuan Shanming shook his head, "Xiao Tang and I just tried to stop them. If we block their way, they will act as if a wall or a fence suddenly appeared in front of them. They will just walk around it as if nothing happened, not realizing that it was a person who was blocking their way."
"And if we force them to stay in place, they won't communicate with us," the gym guy added. "If we keep them in place, they won't move. After we let go, they'll just walk away with a nonchalant look on their faces."
"Ordinary?" Bai Jinshu frowned. "What kind of ordinary?"
Do you think it's normal for them to behave like this?
"Look, just like this," Guan Hongyan stopped someone casually, "Look."
The person she stopped was a young man in a short-sleeved shirt, holding a walkie-talkie in his hand. Guan Hongyan blocked his way, and the young man who was stopped acted as if there was a wall in front of him, and walked around it calmly.
"Or like this." Xiao Tang shrugged and overturned the table next to him in an immoral manner.
With a "crash", a stack of documents on the table fell to the ground, startling a girl in a business suit next to her: "Why did the table suddenly fall over?"
She looked around and naturally passed by Xiao Tang who was standing nearby. Then, while avoiding the direction where Xiao Tang was standing, she waved to an intern in the distance: "Xiao Liu... Hey, Xiao Liu!"
"Pick up this stack of documents. This table is not stable. Don't put them here."
"Okay, sister." Xiao Liu came over, squatted down and started picking up information.
Throughout the entire process, the two of them ignored the existence of Xiao Tang, the instigator from the beginning, and acted as if the stack of information was blown away by the wind.
Bai Jinshu seemed to be thinking about something.
"In their eyes, we are like non-existent." The fitness guy twitched his lips and pushed the camera next to him.
"Hey - who is it?! I told you not to touch the camera I adjusted! Don't pass through here when the shooting has already started!" The photographer in front of the monitor shouted angrily, looked around, and adjusted the camera to the appropriate position while cursing.
"Old Xu! What's wrong?" someone shouted from a distance.
"He's adjusting the camera!" The photographer said angrily, "I told you not to go through here, not to go through here. I don't know which idiot has messed up the camera I adjusted. Don't let me catch him!"
"No one passed by you just now," the person who called him was puzzled, "Did you not fix it properly?"
"Bullshit, it must have been knocked crooked by some bastard." Old Xu muttered to himself, ignoring the fitness guy standing next to him.
The fitness guy looked helpless: "We have tried it several times just now, and it's always the same."
Bai Jinshu withdrew his gaze thoughtfully.
It seems that although they can interact with everything in the nightmare, in the eyes of these people, they cannot be called "people". In their eyes, those things that suddenly blocked their way might be roadblocks or fences, the table suddenly overturned was the wind, and the armrest suddenly overturned was a passerby with a mischievous hand.
In short, people in the nightmare collectively ignored their existence.
Without the ability to communicate with these people, it would be impossible to effectively intervene in the environment within the nightmare. It was still a mystery how to complete this S-level ghost story.
"Now I know why no one has ever triggered this strange story before," Dita put her arm around Guan Hongyan's shoulder helplessly, "We are here, but what can we do?"
"Uh... infer from the formation of nightmares? Now everyone is asleep, so if we want to complete the ghost story, we have to wake everyone up," Guan Hongyan thought, "We all fell asleep in front of the residents' gate in the community. Sister Tazi said before that this was the Citizen Park of the City of Violence five years ago, so this nightmare is most likely generated by the memory of the citizen behind the door..."
What she said sounded like nonsense.
The nightmare they entered was naturally created by a certain citizen, but now the whole city is trapped here. Who knows who the randomly selected lucky audience member at the door is, and whose dream they entered.
"Could it be that in this dream, only the person who created the nightmare can communicate, the person who created the Citizen Park five years ago?" Bai Jinshu tentatively guessed, "When we tried it before, the residents who did not participate in the first stage of the trigger had transparent doors in front of their houses, so it is very likely that only the citizens who participated in the first stage of the trigger can create a nightmare, and the others who did not participate can only become NPCs in the nightmare, and have no reaction to the entry of outsiders?"
"We think so too," Guan Hongyan recalled, "Do we have to try them one by one?!"
The entire set was full of people, and it would take a lot of time to try them one by one.
"Let's try," Xiao Tang clenched his fist, "Isn't it just a matter of picking out someone who will react to us from the crowd? We'll punch each of them one by one, and the one who fights back is the nightmare master!"
"If he doesn't admit that this place is a nightmare, I'll beat him until he admits it!"
Bai Jinshu: ...
"Are you really not a native of the capital of violence?" he asked sincerely.
Xiao Tang rubbed his hands in preparation: "I also feel that I was born in the wrong place. The capital of violence is where I should be."
"Don't be impatient," Guan Hongyan grabbed Xiao Tang, who was eager to try, and pointed at the surroundings, "This strange story seems to have time and scope restrictions..."
Looking out from the floor-to-ceiling windows of the hotel, the environment in the distance has become a little vague and fuzzy compared to before, and it seems that as time goes by, this false illusion will slowly shrink.
"If we don't solve the problem before the time comes, will this nightmare collapse completely?" She looked at everyone.
It’s not some inexplicable salvation plot, but if the ghost story cannot be completed, it is obvious that they will be buried with him.
It is possible.
After the two of them speculated back and forth, they had almost found all the clues to the nightmare story.
A ghost story without any clues can only be carried out by guessing at every step. Bai Jinshu and Guan Hongyan, two team members from the foundation, are used to this mode, but it is obvious that Yuan Shanming and Dita, the two leaders in the novice village, are not used to this mode. The right to speak in the team has gradually shifted to the two people.
"This is probably an unknown illusion with time and space restrictions," Guan Hongyan almost blurted out the unknown space, but luckily she was quick-witted and rounded it off, "The one who created the illusion was a citizen who participated in the first stage of the triggering, and he is behind the door of the corridor where we fainted."
“Yeah,” Dita nodded, “but there are too many people here, and I don’t know who is behind the door.”
"It doesn't matter who is behind the door," Guan Hongyan shook her head. "All the citizens who participated in the first stage of the triggering may have participated in the construction of this illusion. There is more than one person who constructed this scene. It is very likely that we can only affect this illusion after contacting these citizens."
"To summarize, except for the citizens who participated in the first stage of the triggering, no one else can communicate," Bai Jinshu tapped the table with his finger. "If you want to end this illusion, you have to wake up the citizens who created the illusion. Any other questions?"
Everyone shook their heads.
"Then our current goal is to find the citizens who appeared in the first stage of the trigger," Yuan Shanming thought thoughtfully, "In this case, I think..."
He felt that...there was no need to look for it anymore.
Everyone's attention involuntarily shifted to the set where the show was being recorded.
In the center of the camera, in the hotel kitchen, several teams of chefs are facing each other in front of the table, engaged in the intense food preparation process.
What was being recorded seemed to be some kind of cooking program. The participating teams could choose certain ingredients from the food preparation basket. The ingredients picked up by the previous team could not be used by the next team.
"We can see that in the first round of ingredient selection, our team of chef Wan took away the chicken meat!" The host said excitedly while holding the microphone. "Chef Zhan's team is famous for making big plate chicken. After taking away the chicken meat, it is obvious that Chef Zhan's team can't make their specialty dishes. What will Chef Zhan do?"
"I'm applying to start a chef competition." Chef Zhan leaned forward to the microphone.
As soon as these words were spoken, the chefs around showed surprise on their faces.
"Isn't this Master Zhan the boss?" Even though he knew that the people around him couldn't hear them talking, and even if they did, they would think it was the sound of the wind or something else, as the scene on the stage became increasingly outrageous, Xiao Tang couldn't help but lower his voice and said, "When we triggered the first stage, the one who made the big plate of chicken, was it recommended by Dita?"
"Okay, let's go to the Chef Contest!" The host said excitedly, "Our Chef Zhan has started a round of the Chef Contest that can only be started three times. So, Chef Zhan's choice is -"
Master Zhan: "I will compete on my own!"
"What about Master Wan?" the host looked to the other side.
"I choose... my last disciple." Master Wan pondered for a few seconds.
A strong young man walked out from behind Master Wan.
"Okay, then our contestants have been decided!" The host looked around and said, "Let's give the venue to the two contestants."
"What's the point?" The yellow-haired man twitched his lips. "A competition for the title of chef. Are they really going to compete for the title?"
Isn't this a violent city?
The crowd tacitly stepped back a rectangular distance, leaving the space for the two contestants who stood out.
Master Zhan took off his apron and threw it on the ground, revealing his strong muscles, a sign of exercise.
Master Wan's last disciple took off his hat, revealing his shiny head, the medal of a strong man.
Following the host's command, the two men started fighting officially. The old one was the wisest. In the end, Master Wan's last disciple was defeated by Master Zhan and was pinned to the ground. With a whistle, he fell powerlessly to the side.
"Okay, the champion of this competition is Master Zhan. Master Zhan won the chicken and also got an extra round of choices," the host stepped forward and handed the microphone to Master Zhan, "Then Master Zhan's choice is..."
"I choose to take the peppers from the prepared dishes." Chef Zhan was very serious.
"Chili peppers," the host said, his face suddenly enlightened. "Chef Wan's team specializes in Sichuan cuisine. Chef Zhan took away the chili peppers. Chef Wan will be in trouble!"
"Master Wan's team is discussing countermeasures fiercely!"
"Okay, let's move on to the next round of food selection!"
With Master Zhan's victory, everyone couldn't help but look in Dita's direction.
"Why are you looking at me... It's Boss Zhan," Dita twitched her lips, "But Boss Zhan... I haven't heard that he has participated in this chef competition...?"
The man on the stage with muscular arms was the ruthless man who had ignited the natural gas in the hotel kitchen that day.
"What happened in the nightmare may not necessarily have happened in reality. Maybe he just wanted to participate in a competition," Guan Hongyan twitched her lips, looking at Master Zhan who was holding chicken and peppers with a proud face, and Master Wan who was sighing with regret after losing the competition. "Sister Tazi, don't you know this Master Zhan? If you go up, will he wake up?"
"Let's...try it first?" Dita looked embarrassed. "I'm not too sure."
She tentatively walked to the center of the camera that was recording the program and waved to Master Zhan: "Boss? Boss, do you still remember me? I'm Xiaota, the leader of the Violent City!"
Master Zhan looked straight ahead, as if he didn't take Dita seriously at all.
"Boss!" Dita reached out and patted Master Zhan on the shoulder.
Master Zhan moved away a little impatiently, but still didn't even look at Dita.
"Let me see," Guan Hongyan came over and raised her voice, "Hello? Hello!"
Still no response.
"Ignoring us, could it be that Master Zhan is not the one who created this illusion..." Dita thought.
"Tsk, Sister Tazi, this doesn't work! Just watch me!" Xiao Tang waved her away, stood in front of Boss Zhan and punched him.
Xiao Tang really didn't hold back when he threw this punch.
As Master Zhan felt the pain, he took a few steps back and looked around. The expression on his face gradually changed from confusion to anger: "Host, I want to report Master Wan for private revenge!"
"What?" The host's face turned serious. "Master Zhan, please explain carefully."
"I was standing here just fine, and suddenly I was punched," Chef Zhan was indignant. "Just now, after I applied for the chef competition, I took the peppers from the food preparation basket. I have the right to suspect that they are holding a grudge and are retaliating against me in private!"
"Stop spitting blood!" Master Wan, who was standing next to him, put his hands on his hips. "We are all under the camera. It's fine if you took the peppers, but why are you trying to put the blame on us?"
"Blame the blame? It was you who hit me," Master Zhan said angrily, "Host, I request to suspend the game and retrieve the surveillance footage."
"Okay... let's pause the game," the host said after receiving a signal from the director. "There's a little problem on the scene right now. There's a dispute between Master Zhan and Master Wan's teams. Let's check the video first."
The two teams walked towards the camera menacingly.
"Ah, this..." Xiao Tang scratched his head awkwardly while standing on the stage, "Even a punch won't work?"
"Could it be that we have made a wrong analysis..." Yuan Shanming frowned, "Could it be that this nightmare has nothing to do with the trigger of the first stage?"
Master Zhan, who makes big plate chicken, is a participant in the first stage of triggering, but his reaction is no different from that of others. They, the triggerers, are still like non-existent transparent people in front of Master Zhan.
"That shouldn't be the case..." Guan Hongyan also frowned. "Logically speaking, the nightmare puts everyone into a deep sleep, so shouldn't the solution be to wake everyone up?"
If the key point of the environment is not in those who participated in the first stage of triggering, then where else can it be?
"Could it be in the illusion?" Huang Mao guessed, "Just like finding the differences, we can solve it by finding the differences between here and the real world. For example, this is the Violence Capital Hotel five years ago instead of the Citizen Square or something..."
But this doesn’t make sense.
After experiencing the second stage trigger, everyone who appears here knows that the principle of nightmares is that they are generated based on the dreamer's subconscious mind. As long as the dreamer realizes that this is a nightmare, he will wake up.
No matter how you look at it, the key point should appear on the dreamer.
"Could it be that the dreamer of this environment is not Master Zhan? Did we find the wrong person?" Yuan Shanming thought thoughtfully.
"No," Bai Jinshu stood up, "It's him, I know."
He knew what was wrong.
"But just now..." Xiao Tang was at a loss.
"There's nothing wrong with the person, it's your approach that's wrong." Bai Jinshu suddenly walked towards Master Zhan.
In front of the monitor, the masters of the two teams were incompatible, glaring and saying harsh words to each other under the checks and balances of the program crew.
Amid the puzzled looks of the crowd, Bai Jinshu stood next to Master Zhan and said in a faint voice, "Stop looking at it. The food you cook is not tasty. It's useless to look at who hits you."
Master Zhan in front of the camera suddenly jumped up: "Who!"
He widened his eyes and looked straight in the direction of Bai Jinshu, as if he had just noticed someone here: "What right do you have to say that my food is not delicious! Have you ever eaten it? Are you deliberately slandering me? You must be the accomplice hired by Master Wan! Slandering me in front of the camera! Were you the one who hit me just now!"
"Of course I have eaten it," Bai Jinshu remained calm in the face of this barrage of questions, "Your big plate of chicken is too salty, you put too much MSG, and the chicken is too overcooked."
"Bullshit! Stop smearing me!" Master Zhan's face showed a very clear anger, "Host, I want to report the chefs in Master Wan's team for personally attacking me!"
Following Master Zhan's words, everyone else on the set seemed to wake up from a dream, and suddenly they realized that a living person had appeared on the set.
"This contestant..." The host frowned, "It seems that he is not from Master Zhan's team? Master Wan?"
"Who are you?" Master Wan reacted even more. "Host, I report you! This person was hired by Master Zhan to slander us!"
"Get lost!" Chef Zhan said angrily, "How could I possibly ask someone to say that my cooking is not good!"
The two were about to fight.
Xiao Tang on the side tried to push Master Zhan.
Master Zhan still didn't respond.
Bai Jinshu pushed it.
"Don't pick on me!" Master Zhan was extremely angry. "If you can do it, come on! No one in the entire city of violence dares to say that the big plate chicken I make is not delicious!"
"He still can't see us..." Guan Hongyan whispered, "He seems to only see Ersi..."
Everyone looked at each other.
They seemed to have found a pattern.
Only someone like Ersi, who accurately hits the point that Master Zhan cares about, will Master Zhan take him seriously.
Only when Ersi appeared in Master Zhan's eyes could other people in this illusion see Ersi.
This scene was indeed constructed by Master Zhan, and his reaction determined the reactions of others around him.
"Sir..." the host frowned, "We are currently filming a show here. If you are not a guest, please do not enter the filming site."
"Security! Security!" Master Wan had already shouted, "Drag this guy out! He came in to cause trouble!"
Outside the set, several people in security uniforms rushed over aggressively.
"Of course I'm a guest on the show," Bai Jinshu said calmly under the watchful eyes of the crowd, "I'm Chef Er from the third team participating in this Chef King Contest. Have you forgotten?"
He looked in the direction of Master Zhan.
"Where did the third team come from?" Master Zhan was not fooled at all. "You are just someone from other cities who sneaked in to discredit me! Get out!"
"Really? Aren't you afraid that the food I cook will taste better than yours?" Bai Jinshu raised his eyebrows, his face full of disdain. "Isn't this too bad? In order to exclude dissidents, you don't hesitate to slander me as someone from another city?"
"Hey," Master Zhan jumped up and down, "Do I have the guts to slander you? Today I want to see what you are going to make!"
Following these angry words, the faces of the people around them changed rapidly. The host raised the microphone and said with a look of sudden enlightenment, "It turns out that the one who made the provocative remarks is Master Er from the third team. Master Er has challenged our Master Zhan!"
"I'll give him half of the chicken! I want to see what he can make!" Master Zhan was extremely angry!
"The two teams had a dispute over their cooking skills. Chef Zhan was willing to give up half of the ingredients and challenge Chef Er!" She took the microphone and handed it to Bai Jinshu, "Then our Chef Er's choice is...!"
"Okay," Bai Jinshu raised his eyebrows, "I accept the challenge."
The author has something to say:
Master Er has brought back the dead with his miraculous hands, Master Er (x)
First 40+Random 20 (lying down)
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