Chapter 298: Inhumanity (106 (1st + 2nd) [VIP]
Xiaoying took a deep breath and took two or three steps back.
"Huangmao and the others are on the float, then who is this!" She grabbed Bai Jinshu's arm and subconsciously hid a few steps behind him before looking up and looking forward.
"It's gone..." Bai Jinshu raised his head and squinted his eyes thoughtfully.
Just as the two of them lowered their heads to look at the photo, the four people who were calling them over suddenly disappeared.
Xiaoying looked extremely frightened, and the hand holding his arm was shaking: "We...we are here! Who is the person in the photo!"
"Calm down," Bai Jinshu patted her shoulder, "Maybe you're wearing the same clothes."
Although both of them knew that this was impossible.
Not long ago, a group of people who looked like them appeared next to the damaged amusement facilities. Now that they have separated from Huangmao, figures similar to them have appeared next to Huangmao's float, and Huangmao and his group have also appeared here. No matter how you look at it, this cannot be a coincidence.
There is definitely a connection between these two things.
What would have happened if they hadn't been looking at their phones and had just walked over?
Bai Jinshu pinched his nose and looked in the direction where the four people had just stood.
There was indeed no one there, only an empty landscape tree and a row of rest seats under the tree.
Xiaoying also realized that she was acting too scared. Fortunately, there were no cameras at the moment. She took a few deep breaths and tried to calm down: "Okay...Okay."
She opened her phone and turned to the next picture with trembling hands.
Huangmao posted several photos in one breath, all from top-down angles. He was probably standing at the top of the float, hiding inside the doll to take photos.
In the photo, the positions of the three of them kept changing as the float moved forward.
In the first photo, the three are still standing at the back of the crowd; in the second photo, they seem to have squeezed into the middle of the crowd; and in the third photo, "Bai Jinshu", who is standing in the front of the three, has already stood at the front of the crowd.
When you put them together, it looks like the three of them discovered that Huangmao and the others were standing on the float, so they squeezed forward to see it more clearly.
But the strange thing is that in these three photos, no matter which one, the three people are looking straight in the direction of the yellow-haired man, with their necks tilted up, as if they know he is taking pictures, and three pairs of eyes are always locked on his camera.
Xiaoying's lips trembled and she looked at Ersi.
"These three..." She paused and searched for words in her mind, "Things."
"Is it Hong Conghua... from the comic? What do they want to do by pretending to be us?"
Ersi's emotions seemed so stable, and he didn't look frightened at all. She unconsciously began to ask for his opinion, trying to get some safer answers from him to comfort her brain which was about to shut down due to excessive fear.
"It could be," Bai Jinshu gave a very ambiguous answer, "but we cannot rule out the possibility that someone is playing a prank."
Xiaoying: "Then I'll tell them not to trust anyone who looks like us!"
"Wait a minute, don't say it in the group yet," Bai Jinshu stopped her, "They are still on the float now, let's talk about it later, otherwise I'm afraid Huangmao and Conghua will explode."
The yellow-haired man was very jumpy, and Hong Conghua was the original author of the comics. Once the news came out, these two people would most likely react too intensely in public.
Looking at their photos, the three of them are still inside the doll costumes. Most likely, the program crew plans to record a segment where the guests hide inside the dolls, appear and leave in full view of the public, and then edit it out to create a program effect.
If we send it out now, what will happen if these two people jump off the float?
According to the character Huangmao usually shows, he might really do this...
Xiaoying hesitated to speak, as if she wanted to refute what Bai Jinshu said, but she also felt that Huangmao would indeed do that.
Huang Mao was sending a message in the group with a clear conscience: [Speaking of which.]
Huangmao: [How did you three know that I changed my doll? You recognized me in the float at first sight? ]
Hong Conghua was making trouble: [Maybe it's because among all the dolls, you're the only one who suddenly moves around and then suddenly stops, as if you had a sudden illness.]
Yellow-haired: [? ]
Huangmao: [I am just maintaining my character and being enthusiastic and interactive, okay? Look at the puppets in the float, which one of them is not actively interacting with tourists! Everyone is moving in a big way, why am I the one who suddenly gets sick? ]
Huangmao: [Besides, what does it mean to stop suddenly? I was just taking pictures. I also took pictures of Nianyu. How come they didn’t recognize her?]
Thought: [I recognize it.]
She casually threw a photo up.
Bai Jinshu clicked on the photo. Nian Yu was probably a little lower in the photo, so it wasn’t as clear as Huang Mao’s. However, she could still see that behind the layers of tourists, there were indeed three faces vaguely visible looking in her direction.
These three faces were also accurately aimed at Nian Yu's camera, as if they knew she was taking pictures from behind.
Huang Mao reluctantly said: [Oh, that's fine. ]
Huangmao: [I thought the three of them were looking at me the whole time.]
Hong Conghua laughed: [You are being sentimental, aren't you? ]
She also threw out a photo.
Sure enough, the three blurry faces in this photo are also looking towards her camera.
"But we can tell they are not the three of us!" Xiaoying bit her lower lip anxiously, "Will those three creatures target them?"
And there were three people on the float, and here were only her and Ersi, so...
What about the other person?
"Where's Herbiskus?" She turned around. "Could something have happened to him?"
"It shouldn't be..." Bai Jinshu didn't know why, but he had an inexplicable confidence in this mysterious economics tycoon.
"Don't think too much about it," he said in a steady tone, "Now these few people who suddenly appeared and look exactly like us haven't shown any aggression. It seems that they don't intend to attack us. The two times they appeared were just to create the illusion that we 'did something' or 'appeared at a certain scene'. For the time being, everyone is safe."
However, compared to other ordinary people who encounter such things, for the guests who are recording the program and are public figures, this behavior will indeed cause reputation loss in addition to trouble, and in serious cases will cause unnecessary negative public opinion.
This is probably why these "things" chose them?
Because they are live streaming and have a certain degree of fame, by imitating them we can maximize the creation of negative public opinion?
Bai Jinshu opened the group chat thoughtfully and clicked on Herbisk's chat box. The message was still on the last message sent by the other party not long ago, asking where they were now and whether they needed him to come over.
Ersi: [Where are you now? ]
The other side replied quickly: [On the way to the tourist center. 】
Hibiscus: [Almost there.]
Bai Jinshu said softly, "Hmm?"
Ersi: [I don’t think I told you that we are in the visitor center?]
Didn't Herbieske not just pass the float ahead, and he didn't participate in the float, and launched it somewhere he didn't know about it?
He flipped through the chat history and only said that it was not just him and Xiaoying who were in trouble, but that all six people were involved in a new incident.
There was no mention of a visitor center at all?
Hibiscus: [I guess you are here.]
Hibiscus: [If something really happened, Director Qiao would definitely come to communicate with the park staff. The radio would call out every ten minutes or so, asking lost tourists to go to the visitor center. The park office should be right next to the visitor center.]
Er Si: […You guessed it right.]
"Ersi," At this moment, Xiaoying pulled his sleeve, "Is Herbisk okay?"
"It's okay," Bai Jinshu nodded, "He's on his way here."
"Then remember to tell him not to trust anyone who looks like us!" Xiaoying quickly added.
*
Herbisk turned off the screen, raised his eyebrows, and looked towards the fork in the road not far away.
The two people who were standing there a few seconds ago disappeared in an instant.
Shortly before Ersi's message arrived, he saw Ersi and Xiaoying on the side of the road. The two seemed to be standing on the side of the road waiting for him. When they saw him, they waved at him and asked him to come over.
Although this road led to the visitor center, he never mentioned that he had guessed that they were at the visitor center and were heading there.
So how did these two people know that he would definitely pass by here, so they stood on the roadside waiting for him?
Ersi: [That’s right.]
Ersi: [Don’t trust anyone who looks like us on the road. Xiaoying and I are on the side of the visitor center building. Just walk to the side after you come in.]
Hibiscus: [Is this what everyone is involved in?]
Er Si: […Come over and tell me, it’s not just this, this matter is a bit complicated.]
Herbisk turned off his phone and walked towards the visitor center according to the instructions in the park.
After passing a few paths, you will see the sign of the visitor center under the Ferris wheel in the distance.
Several girls in skirts stood at the entrance of the visitor center, with a little worry on their faces. Herbiskus walked in and heard the girl with short hair saying worriedly, "Is it okay for us to leave like this?"
"What's the matter?" the girl with a bow hairpin on her head said impatiently, "We have been waiting for them for more than an hour. If we keep waiting, will we be able to play?"
"They were called so many times on the radio, but they didn't come on their own," another girl added.
The amusement park was full of puppets walking around, and Herbisk was standing nearby, not attracting anyone's attention.
The girls gathered together, and the one who spoke first was worried: "But they didn't bring their phones, what if they get lost..."
"If they get lost, that will be the concern of the park security..." Her friend next to her pushed her a few times, "Anyway, the phone has been placed at the lost and found area, so they can get it when they come here."
"Okay, stop worrying!" Another girl next to her grabbed her arm. "We just got together last night on Weibo. How do you know if these two have other plans? Come on, the floats are already halfway started. We can still catch up if we go now!"
Before she could retort, the two girls pulled her and ran.
The music from the float in the distance did sound like it was coming to an end. Several girls ran quickly and passed by Herbisk among the dolls.
In the grass next to the visitor center, Xiaoying pulled Bai Jinshu's arm and asked, "Is that Herbisk?"
At the fork in the road, there stood an octopus doll.
She clutched her cuffs a little nervously, looking already frightened by these four beings pretending to be them.
"It should be." Bai Jinshu received a message and opened it. It was a picture sent by Herbisk. In the picture, he and Xiaoying were standing on the grass. "He sent me a picture of me."
Xiaoying blinked nervously: "Call to confirm."
Bai Jinshu dialed the number, and after a few seconds, the person on the other end actually made a gesture to answer the phone, and a familiar voice came from the receiver: "Hello?"
Xiaoying heaved a sigh of relief: "That's fine."
In the group chat, Huangmao's message came in almost immediately: [The float is almost at the end, where are you three? Can we get ready to meet up after work? ]
Conghua: [We have to wait a moment. Let’s follow the float team into their preparation room and change into this doll costume.]
Bai Jinshu thought for a moment and replied: [After you come out, come to the visitor center.]
Three consecutive [OK].
I didn't ask why.
"You mean everyone has encountered trouble..." Herbisk asked as he stood in front of the two of them.
"The six devices that were stopped just now were all deliberately damaged. If they were forced to start, it would cause a lot of casualties," Xiaoying said as concisely as possible. "The surveillance footage shows that there were tourists like the six of us on the road nearby before and after the accident. After we left, the amusement equipment broke down."
She lowered her voice and said, "Ersi and I suspect... someone, or something that is not human, is pretending to be us."
"And in the group, you saw it," Bai Jinshu added, "the three of us appeared in the group of tourists next to the float."
"So that's how it is..." Bai Jinshu heard Herbiskers thoughtfully, "It happened to me too."
He looked up and said, "On my way here, I saw two people who looked like you waiting on the roadside and waving at me. Before I could go over, I received a message from Ersi. I lowered my head and sent a reply, and then they disappeared."
Xiaoying:!
She grabbed the tentacles on the Herbiskex doll and shook it several times. "I told you! Something is pretending to be us, luring us over!"
"Hmm..." Herbesch thought for a moment, "Do the other three know about this?"
"Not yet," Bai Jinshu shook his head. "We are worried that Huangmao and Conghua will see this information on the float and do something unexpected, so we haven't told you yet."
“But if you put it that way, then actually the six of us all encountered these things pretending to be us…” Bai Jinshu pinched the octopus’ tentacles thoughtfully, “Huangmao and the others encountered the three of us who were mixed in with the tourists, you met Xiaoying and I, and Xiaoying and I met the remaining four people. These three encounters all have one thing in common…”
"No words." Herbiskus replied.
"And they all waved at us and asked us to come over." Bai Jinshu added.
"Could it be that this thing... can only imitate our appearance but cannot make the same sound?" He thought for a moment and speculated, "Or is it simply an illusion... um, a ghost?"
"It's possible..." Xiaoying scratched her hair, "But in this case, as long as we are sure that the other party can make a sound, we can be sure it's true, right?"
"Well... I'm not sure," the remaining three people in the group had already left the float, and Bai Jinshu first reminded the three people in the group.
Ersi: [Come here quickly after you leave the float. The three of us are on the grass beside the visitor center. If you meet anyone who looks like us on the way, don’t trust them.]
Ersi: [It seems that someone is pretending to be us. ]
Night has fallen. As time goes by, the sun gradually lowers to the horizon and the street lights around are gradually lighting up.
There was more than half an hour between the fireworks show and the floats. The park closed all high-altitude projects including the Ferris wheel on the grounds that it was unsafe after dark, leaving only sporadic ground projects still in operation.
The three people who hurried to the visitor center listened to Xiaoying's narration and watched a surveillance route copied by Bai Jinshu. The emotionless AI in Nianyu's phone read aloud: "So now someone is pretending to be us to do bad things, but because it was discovered in time, the bad things did not succeed. Because what they did was not like what humans could do, so we were ruled out as suspects?"
"Yes," Bai Jinshu nodded, "Director Qiao thought someone was targeting the guests or the production team, so he went to the production team's top management and planned to adjust the schedule for the next few days to indoor projects."
"That means the three people we found on the float were not you, and you met other people like us when you were acting alone?" Hong Conghua added with a frown.
"Yeah," Xiaoying nodded. "Ersi and Herbisk said that these things pretending to be us might not be able to speak. Because the two times we met them, they stood far away and didn't speak. They just waved at us and asked us to come over."
"They may not be unable to speak," Bai Jinshu added, "It's just that they appear to be unable to speak now. Are there such villains in your comics?"
He looked at Hong Conghua.
"I... I can't remember," Hong Conghua pulled the corners of his mouth awkwardly, "No, if you serialize a comic for so many years, you will also forget what villains there are in it. I have drawn hundreds of villains, if not thousands, and there are also various extra-chapter stories. Except for the villains with independent chapters and the very popular ones, I really can't remember the others. I have to go back and look through them to remember."
"Then go ask your comic supporting character, Xiaobai," Bai Jinshu quickly decided, "They will definitely remember it better than you."
"Before you ask, we need to determine a code to prevent these things from sneaking into our midst," Herbisk began. "We can't judge by whether they can make sounds. First, we can't be sure whether the other party is really unable to speak. Second, it's very dangerous to read words in this way."
"Then..." Xiaoying thought for a moment, "Every time someone leaves everyone's sight and returns to the sight, send a message in the group?"
"After all, appearance can be impersonated, and any special movements can also be learned. There are only a few of us in our small group, and social media accounts cannot be impersonated."
"Okay," Bai Jinshu thought for a while, "Then it's decided." Everyone nodded.
"No..." The yellow-haired man who hadn't spoken a word scratched his head in confusion, "Why are you so receptive?"
"Someone is pretending to be us. This person pretending to be us can even cut the steel bars with his bare hands and destroy the foundation of the roller coaster with his own flesh! Aren't you scared? Don't you find it weird?"
"It's okay..." Everyone looked at each other, and Hong Conghua touched the tip of his nose. "After all, the two-dimensional paper people can travel through time. The villain's brain circuit is so abnormal. Isn't it normal to want to make a big news in another world?"
Xiaoying nodded.
Nian Yu's AI silently said: "Otherwise, except that the person who did this deliberately framed us and was not human, how do you explain the six facilities that were destroyed this afternoon?"
Yellow Hair: “…That’s right.”
He scratched his head: "But I still feel very strange..."
"You find it strange because the person pretending to be us doesn't seem to be planning to attack us," Bai Jinshu suddenly said, "Conghua said that the supporting characters believed that the two murders last night were committed by these villains. Today, someone destroyed the amusement facilities with their bare hands. It sounds like they are planning to cause accidents to all the tourists who are playing. These two things are intended to cause murder."
"If they want to spread public opinion, they can just use our faces to kill people indiscriminately in the park. This behavior is much more serious than destroying the amusement facilities and then deliberately showing up in the surveillance. Why don't they do this?" Bai Jinshu continued, "It's weird that they pretend to be us."
"Ah, right, right, right!" The yellow-haired man slapped his thigh, "This is where something is wrong!"
"It's weird!" he said loudly. "They can pretend to be us. Why don't they make some big news? They just show their faces in the surveillance video or lure us over. This doesn't match what they did, such as the midnight murder and the destruction of amusement facilities."
If you just look at the act of pretending, it really seems more like a fan is deliberately playing a prank.
Everyone fell into an inexplicable silence.
yes.
The problem is back to where it started.
What are these people pretending to be them for?
"Hello, Director Qiao?" Just then, Huangmao received a call.
"Ah? I didn't," he said in a strange tone, "How could I!"
"I know, that's not me!" He suddenly realized, "That's someone pretending to be me!"
"I'm at the tourist center. I'll be there right now!" He hung up the phone and spoke quickly without waiting for anyone to ask, "Director Qiao said to check the surveillance footage. I was with two girls. They are now missing."
"Missing?" Bai Jinshu was a little sensitive to this word.
"It seems that...these two people got separated from their friends," the yellow-haired guy scratched his head. "They were holding a camera and were planning to take pictures. There were people taking pictures at the place where they were taking pictures, so they decided to wait for a while. Then the other friends didn't want to bask in the sun, so they went to wait in the cold drink shop next door. As a result, they didn't come back after waiting for a long time. When they went out to look for them, they found that they were no longer at the place where they were taking pictures."
"And because the two men's cell phones were in their hands, after they couldn't find them, they waited for the two men at the tourist center?" Bai Jinshu continued with a frown.
"Hey, how did you know?" Huangmao asked curiously.
"The radio broadcast said that two tourists with the online names Bear and Poker were missing, and their phones were in the hands of their friends," Bai Jinshu added.
"Those are the two people," Huang Mao confirmed. "Their friend left and left the phone at the visitor center. Since no one came to claim the phone, the park decided to check the surrounding surveillance cameras based on what the two said. As a result, they found out..."
"What did you find?" Hong Conghua asked.
"They found me walking with these two people in the surveillance video," Huang Mao frowned. "They seemed to have recognized my identity, so they kept covering for me in the camera. In order to avoid being recognized by other tourists, they walked farther and farther away, until they left the surveillance camera of the crowded place."
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First 20 + Random 20
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