Chapter 331: Inhuman (139) (1st + 2nd) [VIP]
Xiao Tang was dragged away by Guan Hongyan while muttering to himself, leaving Yuan Shanming alone. He touched his nose with a guilty look on his face, as if he wanted to say something to the others, but didn't know how to start, so he just stood there stiffly.
It seems that this matter is really interesting.
Xiao Tang is not stupid. The first time she said that, she might have been just being rude. Later on, it was obvious that she was deliberately provoking Shi Pang. After Shi Pang said that, her goal was achieved.
Is that thing related to the big secret of the investment bank? Then how did Yuan Shanming and Shi Pang, the two leaders in the Novice Village, know this secret that only the backbone can rely on?
Bai Jinshu's eyes flickered. Before, when they were in the subway, they had heard complaints from other team leaders. The identity of a team leader was definitely at the bottom among the employees of the entire investment bank. It could be said that apart from the newcomers, the lowest level were the team leaders who were living on the minimum living allowance in the Novice Village. Otherwise, those people would not complain that they were despised by the team members they brought out.
Then... this secret is weird.
How is it possible that there is a secret whose insiders are distributed between two extremely extreme classes, with the insiders being either at the top or at the bottom?
Moreover, Yuan Shanming is the team leader among their team members. The team leader has a higher status and authority than the team members. Even though these people here are good seedlings who will definitely have a higher level than him after entering the investment industry in the future, as newcomers, they don’t know as well as Yuan Shanming about the novice village and various ghost stories and areas.
Even if they will look down on Yuan Shanming after they go out, as long as they stay in the Novice Village and get higher ratings and tax rates here, they will not fall out with him.
Besides, these days, the people in Yuan Shanming's team, Huangmao Xiaotang, Jinling and Guan Hongyan, don't look like people who would do such a thing. The relationship between Yuan Shanming and them is more like friends rather than leader and team member.
Why does Yuan Shanming have this attitude?
Why is he embarrassed? Why is he guilty?
If he regarded everyone as friends, then not telling them about this matter was for their own good, and his mood could only be earnest; if he regarded everyone as his future big-legged partner, then his attitude when not telling them about this matter should be ingratiating and cautious; at the very least, if he regarded everyone as team members he met by chance, then the team leader Yu Zhi had absolute authority over the team members before they left the Novice Village, and his attitude should be tough.
There is no way I could be embarrassed or feel guilty.
His attitude didn't seem like he knew some secret but couldn't tell them, but more like he felt sorry for them.
Everything that happened next confirmed Bai Jinshu's guess.
Huang Mao was very sensible and gave him a way out. He shook off his coat and said, "Um...Brother Yuan, do you have any clean clothes to change into in your room? I feel so cold wearing these wet clothes."
As he spoke, the yellow-haired man shook his shoulders slightly and looked really cold.
Yuan Shanming quickly took off his coat and put it on Huangmao, then led everyone towards the building where the team leaders were staying.
The small building, which was quite empty when I came here last time, is now full of people. Walking up from the first floor, various sounds can be heard from behind the surrounding doors. It seems that all the explorers who came back from [Mirage] are here to change clothes and take a break.
Bai Jinshuo said that when they were changing clothes, Yuan Shanming was busy running around, looking for clothes for them and borrowing a kettle and ginger tea from next door.
The more he tried to cover up, the more Bai Jinshu felt something was wrong. The Gu King's Gu Farm was only related to that small group of people. What did Shi Pang say to Yuan Shanming to make it related to them?
However, Yuan Shanming and Shi Pang were keeping their mouths shut and he couldn't find out anything no matter how much he asked. Bai Jinshu could only suppress his doubts and change his clothes first.
The town of N Port also became briefly lively with the entry of the triggerers. Many small shops on the street downstairs opened their doors. Bai Jinshu stood at the window and looked down, and saw groups of triggerers eating in the shops.
On a nearby stall, there were a few figures who looked familiar. Bai Jinshu squinted his eyes and looked carefully for a long time, and found that these were the people who were standing in the corridor when he was trying to escape from the corridor in his remaining memory.
The one in the middle seems to be... Bai Jinshu dug out a name from the depths of his memory, Director Qiao?
Are these people also the triggerers? That only means that after they left, these people also left.
[Mirage] is indeed a strange story that will never kill anyone.
While he was observing, someone knocked on the door a few times. Just as the yellow-haired man behind him opened the door, Xiao Tang squeezed in nimbly: "Er Si!"
"What's wrong?" Bai Jinshu turned around.
"I just overheard Shi Pang and Brother Yuan talking," she lowered her voice and looked around mysteriously, "Guess what they were talking about?"
"What?" Bai Jinshu raised his eyebrows. "It can't be the one they're hiding from us about 'encountering something strange', right?"
It was so easy to hear that it was hard not to suspect that Yuan Shanming had known that Xiao Tang would eavesdrop, so he told her on purpose.
"No," Xiao Tang curled his lips and sat aside in frustration, "I heard Brother Yuan talking to Shi Pang about the place we entered before, and when they talked about those signs, Shi Pang asked him what color he was, and Brother Yuan told me."
What color is Shi Pang?
Bai Jinshu remembered that he and Yuan Shanming were both red.
"Then what?" Bai Jin asked, "What did Shi Pang say after he found out?"
"He... I feel his behavior is very strange," Xiao Tang frowned and said softly, "After Shi Pang knew that he was red, he seemed relieved, and then asked Brother Yuan where he planned to go next..."
"I feel like the place we went to might have something to do with what they were talking about." Xiao Tang winked at Huang Mao, asking him to close the door. He then picked up a cup of untouched ginger tea on the table and drank it without hesitation. "What do you think that thing is?"
Although she seemed to have a good relationship with Guan Hongyan, she seemed to trust Bai Jinshu, whom she had known longer, more in her heart. Her first reaction after hearing the news was to come find him.
Bai Jinshu thought about it and decided to tell Xiao Tang: "Do you feel that Brother Yuan's attitude doesn't seem like he is hiding something from us?"
"It seems like you owe us something, right!" Unexpectedly, Xiao Tang finished the ginger tea in one gulp and said directly, "I heard what Shi Pang said behind me."
"What did he say?" Huangmao came over after closing the door.
"He said that if you feel bad about it," Xiao Tang paused, "you can take your team to a seasonal weird talk in Area W."
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"If there are no problems, there are less than seven days left. I suggest that all of us go to Area W first and then return to the City of the Dead," Yuan Shanming said as he led everyone forward. "Although the trigger rate of the City of the Dead has increased, there are basically few valuable S-level ghost stories. Shi Pang in Area W recommended a seasonal ghost story that I can go to recently. Not many people know about it, so maybe I can find a loophole."
"What is seasonal weirdness?" Guan Hongyan asked curiously as she walked.
"Seasonal legends are..." Yuan Shanming was stuck for a moment and scratched his head in confusion. "Uh, they are legends that only appear seasonally. This is the first time I've heard of them."
Xiao Tang only had time to run to Bai Jinshu and tell him the conversation he had heard. Before the two of them finished talking, Yuan Shanming came back from Shi Pang and urged everyone to set off together.
"Although there is no danger in the no-man's land at night, it is still better to arrive during the day," Yuan Shanming explained as he packed his things. "This area is one of the largest areas in the entire Novice Village. This is because it has no very obvious boundaries, and there are no cities or towns in the universal sense. All the undead and ghosts living in this area have no fixed residence, but habitually wander around this area."
He didn't know much about Zone W, but he was familiar with the common sense that most team leaders knew.
"The subway station in District W is located in the center of the entire area, radiating outward from the center. In the popular understanding, any area where the boundaries of the surrounding town clusters cannot be seen is generally classified as a no-man's land."
"In this area, there are almost no modern towns or settlements. Instead, there are absolutely pristine vegetation and landforms. So at night, apart from the moonlight in the sky and the light from the flashlights of the entrants, visibility is almost zero. So basically the team leaders and the team members who are doing the ghost stories there... are all jungle campers and adventure survival experts," Yuan Shanming led everyone downstairs and walked in the opposite direction of the subway station. "Although there is no danger, it is definitely more convenient to camp during the day than at night. After all, we have no experience."
"Let's buy some equipment first, then have our last meal before we go on," Yuan Shanming sighed, "This is probably the last hot meal we'll have in a while."
After he said this, everyone clearly understood why the No Man's Land is a No Man's Land.
From Yuan Shanming's description, this place sounds like a tropical rainforest or a deep forest in the mountains. Humans are social animals after all. If there are other options, no one can survive in an area like the No Man's Land where there is no electricity, no water, no modern houses, and no similar settlements.
In addition, the undead and ghosts here are generally xenophobic. There is no strong third party to restrain the behavior of both parties, and there are no long-standing conventions to ensure human safety. Even if people intend to live in a group and live in seclusion, they will not choose such a place with inconvenient living and limited safety.
The areas outside the urban towns in the Novice Village are places where humans rarely set foot. Therefore, as an area without obvious landmarks, any place without people may be classified as an uninhabited area. Over time, this place naturally becomes the largest place in the entire Novice Village.
Yuan Shanming had little camping experience, and apparently the newcomers in the team didn't have much experience either, not to mention that N Port was a small coastal town, and it was impossible for its stores to have equipment for camping in the forest and grassland.
In the end, everyone could only buy some equipment that didn't look very reliable from N Port based on their own poor knowledge of camping and the suggestions of the audience in the live broadcast room.
Among all the people present, everyone except Guan Hongyan can teleport, so in the end, Yuan Shanming and his companions went to the subway, while the remaining people all used the "Thousand Miles a Day" teleportation method.
Before leaving, they gave the Nightmare Heart to the team members who could teleport as usual, and Yuan Shanming and Guan Hongyan walked into the subway with their noses pinched.
After more than two days of fermentation, the dead fish in the subway station had developed a fishy and rotten smell that made people smell it as if they were seeing milk. Xiao Tang just sniffed it at the door and it looked like the fish was about to die. He hurriedly took a few steps back to avoid vomiting on the street.
Others who also need to take the subway are not as lucky as her.
The smell near the subway station was so bad that many team members who came to take the subway couldn't help but vomit on the side of the road.
The subway station was full of team members holding their stomachs and vomiting. Xiao Tang watched Yuan Shanming and Guan Hongyan enter the subway with lingering fear and patted his chest: "Oh my God, those who know that these people are vomiting because of the nausea in the subway station, and those who don't know would think that the sea in N Port is the water of Daughter River. These people entered the whole world..."
Bai Jinshu twitched his lips and said, "Be more restrained. If someone comes to fight you later, I won't help you."
As soon as Xiao Tang said this, the big brother next to him who was holding his stomach and vomiting frowned and cast a dark look in their direction.
"Uh... I won't say any more," Xiao Tang shuddered, "Hurry up and walk, he's already vomiting like this. Fighting isn't scary, I'm just afraid that if I fight he'll vomit on me."
This is indeed cause for concern.
Bai Jinshu held his forehead and saw that the face of the big brother next to him turned from green to black. Finally, he couldn't help but pull Xiao Tang and quickly used the BUFF to go to the no-man's land.
According to Yuan Shanming, the landing location of this buff will not be too far from the subway station, because the no-man's land does not have a very broad official area definition, and it can only be determined that the subway station is built in its central area.
Therefore, if you use the concept of "teleporting to an uninhabited area" to enter here, you will only land near the subway station.
The subway station in the no-man's land is one of the temporary stops for the new team here.
Only here can you see many teams. The new team leaders will take the newcomers to spend the first night around the subway station to let them get familiar with the place where they will stay for the next fifteen days. This is also an established custom.
But that was all Yuan Shanming knew. He had no idea about the "seasonal weird talk" that Shi Pang mentioned. He guessed that this might be a form of weird talk unique to Area W.
"Just like the great migration of animals?" Xiao Tang thought for a moment and made an analogy. "Anyway, all the ghosts and undead in this place don't have a fixed residence. They all wander around. The leader of Area W has summarized some wandering patterns of ghosts based on their wandering routes, and then waits for a ghost at a certain location according to this rule. If you miss this time, the ghost will not appear in this area. So it's called seasonal ghost?"
Yuan Shanming: “Almost.”
Seasonal ghost stories are like the great migrations in the African savannah during the dry and rainy seasons, and the groups chasing after them or waiting for the ghost stories at fixed locations are like the tourists who come to photograph the great migration.
But compared to tourists, their equipment is much more professional.
As soon as Bai Jinshu landed, he felt that this place was more lively than he had imagined.
They landed near a subway station, and a few hundred meters away from the subway station was a small, shabby residential area made up of camping tents.
"It feels like there are quite a lot of people here?" The yellow-haired man scratched his head.
"Didn't they say before that the people from Team 2 were from Zone W?" Xiao Tang wasn't surprised at all, and threw a bubble gum into his mouth. "With Zone W having a buff that's easier to trigger, there will definitely be more people there."
However, compared with the other three areas, the entry threshold of Area W is indeed a bit higher. Not to mention the hard condition of being familiar with the migration rules of ghost stories in order to trigger the ghost stories, just the camping experience and related knowledge alone can block many leaders and team members who have no understanding of these. Compared with the no-man's land, they will definitely prefer other areas.
This is probably the reason why, although there seem to be a lot more people here, it is far from being as crowded as the City of the Dead and the City of Violence.
Xiao Tang was a very outgoing person. After just one round of observation, he started chatting with the team members in that tent.
After a while, he came back with a small pot and a sleeping bag in his hands: "I met a kind-hearted person. He heard that we didn't prepare any useful camping equipment and that we escaped from N Port, so he just gave me a set!"
"Escaped from Port N?" Bai Jinshu narrowed his eyes.
"Ah?" Huangmao opened his mouth, "Only one set?"
"Uh... well, I gave myself the identity when I was away from home!" Xiao Tang answered Bai Jinshu first, "If I didn't say that, why would others take pity on me and give me an extra set of camping supplies!"
"If you want it, go by yourself!" Then he waved at the yellow-haired man, "Go away, go away, you're cheating on your own equipment."
The things she was holding did look more professional than the equipment they had pieced together in Port N.
The yellow-haired man hesitated for a few seconds, seemed to be willing to move, turned around and prepared to walk towards the tents.
Just then, the ground suddenly shook a few times, and he lost his balance and fell to the ground.
Before Huangmao realized what was happening, the shouting in the tent area reached everyone's ears.
"Fuck, there's an earthquake!"
"There's an earthquake! There's an earthquake!"
"Why are you panicking? This is an endless plain. As long as the ground doesn't crack, can't we just stay where we are?"
"Put out the fire! Put out the fire! Quick, quick, quick!"
He was pulled up from the ground by Xiao Tang. When he looked up, he saw that the ground was still shaking. Someone in the tent area had picked up some firewood, put it on the ground, lit it, and then used the small camping pot he brought with him to heat up dinner.
Since the earthquake, the pile of firewood that had been stacked suddenly collapsed, and the fire began to spread along the ground.
"Put out the fire, put out the fire!" The crowd suddenly panicked.
"Is there any water? Quick, quick, quick!"
The fire spread very quickly. There were no obstacles on the plain, and the grass underfoot was all flammable. In addition, people could not stand steadily during the earthquake, so it was extremely difficult to put out the fire.
The fire suddenly spread to the downwind direction.
Fortunately, with the advice of the experienced leader and team members, all the tents were set upwind, which prevented too much damage.
But several tents were instantly engulfed in the sea of fire.
"Don't come near!" Bai Jinshu grabbed Xiao Tang who wanted to go over, and he swayed a bit, and lost his balance, and fell directly into the arms of Huai Jiamu behind him.
Xiao Tang wanted to go over to help at first, but during the few minutes of delay, the fire suddenly intensified and seemed to be spreading further down the plain. The earthquake seemed to be even more severe, and many people lost their balance in the violent shaking and fell to the ground.
The fire and earthquake lasted for more than a minute.
When the earthquake slowly subsided, everyone present was unable to react for a few seconds.
"Is it stopped?" Bai Jinshu heard someone ask.
"Stop... Stop, put out the fire!" The crowd seemed to react suddenly and all ran towards the sea of fire.
But it was too late at this time. The fire had turned into a sea of fire and could no longer be extinguished by a few bottles of water.
Everyone could only watch helplessly as the fire gradually rolled downwards. The only news that could comfort everyone was that if they followed this direction downwards, there was a main river in the uninhabited area, and the fire would not spread endlessly downwards.
The bad news is that the wind direction will change.
If it blows downwards now, who knows, it may blow upwards later.
All the people present had no time to pay attention to anything else. They all quickly packed up their tents and camped out in preparation for moving to another place.
Guan Hongyan and Yuan Shanming came out of the subway station at this time.
Seeing the situation outside the subway station, not only Guan Hongyan, but also Yuan Shanming was stunned for a few seconds.
"What's going on?" He looked at the fire, then at the team members who were packing up their things. "These people...are they planning to trigger S?"
This kind of large-scale destruction can only be explained by triggering S.
"No," Bai Jinshu shook his head and explained briefly to Yuan Shanming, "There was an earthquake here just now. Someone built a fire in front of the tent to cook, but the earthquake dispersed the fire and ignited the flammable vegetation on the ground. There was no time to put out the fire during the earthquake, and it was too late after the earthquake. We could only quickly pack up and prepare to go to a safer place."
"Ah?" Unexpectedly, after saying this, Yuan Shanming showed a trace of disbelief on his face, "There was an earthquake here too?"
"Also?" Xiao Tang poked his head out.
"Brother Yuan said that when he was processing my visa at the customs in the subway just now, there was an earthquake inside the customs," Guan Hongyan added.
"This is the first time I've felt an earthquake at the customs since I led the team here for so long," Yuan Shanming said in disbelief, "I thought there was a problem with the subway operation again..."
I didn't expect that there was an earthquake in Area W just now.
"So the customs is under the no-man's land?" Bai Jinshu seemed to be thinking.
Otherwise, how could there be earthquakes at the same time?
"I'm not sure about that..." Yuan Shanming thought for a moment and looked around, "Everyone is running. Let's run quickly too, so as not to be spread by the fire."
Everyone was running upwind in a scattered manner. Bai Jinshu was following behind and thinking about the future relationship between the subway and the no-man's land, when he felt Guan Hongyan slightly pulling his sleeve and coming closer.
"I feel," she paused, "that this earthquake is not normal."
"Do you still remember the dragon in the Dragon Locking Well?" She said in a low voice, "The earthquake was so severe, could it be that the dragon broke free?"
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