Chapter 344: Inhuman (152) (1st + 2nd) [VIP]
In the thick fog, the air is extremely humid, and every breath is filled with thick water vapor.
Xiao Tang wiped the water droplets from his bangs and pushed all the wet hair to the back of his head. He took a few tentative steps forward and accurately summarized what Bai Jin said: "So this fog is two-way, right? We are the ones who are trapped, and they are the ones who are blocked."
"I guess it's this... cough, cough..." Bai Jinshu suddenly started coughing before he finished speaking.
"What's wrong with you?" Xiao Tang was shocked. "Oh my god, is this fog poisonous?"
Why are you suddenly coughing so hard?
"No... cough, it's okay," Bai Jinshu adjusted the condition of his throat, "I choked..."
The steam was too thick. He had just wanted to take a deep breath, but the moment the air entered his throat, he choked himself and started coughing before he could finish his words.
When he choked, people around him started to complain.
"Oh, you scared me to death. I thought the fog was poisonous and you were the first one to fall." Xiao Tang breathed a sigh of relief. "But to be honest, this fog is too thick. I have never seen such thick fog in my twenty years of life."
"My sleeves are all wet, and my collar is wet too." This is Guan Hongyan.
"Your hair is all wet," Xu Zichen took out a pack of tissues from his pocket, "Wipe it off."
"Forget it, never mind," Guan Hongyan shook her hair, "If I wipe it now, it will get wet later."
"Brother Shiyuan, do you have any more paper? Give me one so I can wipe my hair." Zhou Zhou reached out and took a piece of paper from Xu Zichen.
"You also brought paper? I want some too." Xiao Tang reached out and took one.
"Ah? You all want them? Then I want one too." Guan Hongyan had no intention of wiping them off, but when she heard that everyone wanted them, she changed her mind instantly. She took two from Xu Zichen and threw them on her head, "Just leave them like this. We still have to stay here later."
"Give me one too." Everyone was drying their hair, and Bai Jinshu also took a piece of paper and looked around thoughtfully, "This mist feels like real mist."
"What's real fog and fake fog? Can fog be fake?" Guan Hongyan looked confused.
"The fake one is the Nameless Mist, which you have seen in Nightmare, Sister Hua," Xiao Tang continued while wiping his bangs, "Didn't we talk about it last time when we entered Nightmare? When we were doing ghost stories with Shi Pang's team, we entered the Nameless Mist once. The mist at that time was not so heavy with water vapor, it simply blocked the vision. Now think about it, it is a bit abnormal."
"Yes," Bai Jinshu nodded, "The nameless fog only blocks the vision, it's not that humid. When we entered last time, there was no mist on the surrounding objects. It was more like odorless white smoke, not mist."
I guess although these two are both fog, they are not the same thing.
Among the people present, only Xu Zichen and Zhou Zhou did not know what the nameless fog was. Xiao Tang gave a brief explanation in a few words, and both of them nodded to indicate that they understood what was going on.
The previous few times we entered this fog, everyone entered with the hope of getting out of here, so naturally we didn't stay too long and didn't notice the subtle differences between here and the nameless fog.
After standing there for a long time, not only was everyone's hair covered with water droplets, but Bai Jinshu blinked slightly and realized that his eyelashes were also covered with tiny water droplets formed by mist. When he raised his eyes, he could still see the faint reflection of tiny colorful lights from the water droplets on his eyelashes.
He wiped his eyes and looked into the depths of the fog.
After trying many times, they found that the place where they were standing now was the teleportation point in the fog. If they went a little further forward, they would be directly teleported to the entrance of the shelter. This was the farthest place they could reach.
The fog not only blocks the vision, but also seems to block some of the sounds. The sounds outside the fog are intermittent and unclear, with a bit of reverberation and echo, vague and hazy, making it difficult to hear what is being said.
"Can you hear what is being said outside? Can you tell what local disease is out there?" Guan Hongyan knew that Xu Zichen had good hearing, so she tilted her head and asked in a low voice.
"Not very good," everyone stopped their actions and voices in tacit agreement, waiting for Xu Zichen to tilt his ear and listen carefully for a long time before speaking, "The sound is too vague and fragmented. There is no obvious rhythm of question and answer dialogue. It doesn't feel like two people are talking, but like a group of people talking to each other."
"It was very strange to hear so many people talking so late at night," he added.
"Didn't Captain Zhou say there was a war going on outside?" Zhou Zhou replied casually, "Maybe outside the fog is a certain team's camp? They fight at night, so they must be resting during the day. It's not surprising that someone is awake at this time, right?"
"Ah? Are you serious? Do you really believe what Zhou Ju said?" Xiao Tang stared at him in surprise for a long time, which made Zhou Zhou a little embarrassed. Then he slowly said, "Zhou Ju is not right at first glance. Don't you think she is deliberately hiding some information from us and telling us the wrong clues?"
Without waiting for Zhou Zhou to answer, she turned to look at Xu Zichen and raised her chin: "Brother, I see that your expression is very interesting. Did you find something?"
Everyone looked at Xu Zichen.
"It's not like I discovered anything," Xu Zichen said with a calm expression, but a hesitant tone, "I just feel like this place is really not right. It's a bit unlike the No Man's Land."
"Tell me about it," Guan Hongyan crossed her arms, "Your team leader Brother Yin also said that this strange story is not right. What is wrong with it?"
"Let me think about it... It's just a sense of disharmony. There shouldn't be so many people in the No Man's Land. You're not a No Man's Land team, and you haven't done any No Man's Land weird talk before," he said as he thought, "This weird talk is weird because there are so many people."
"And it is particularly..." He paused for several seconds, probably searching for some appropriate words in his mind, "particularly social and modern."
"What is sociality?" Xiao Tang wondered, "and what is modernity?"
"That's right, let me think about how to describe it." Xu Zichen looked at Zhou Zhou, "What was the name of our last weird story?"
"Mountain climbing." Zhou Zhou continued.
"Oh, right, [Mountain Climbing]," Xu Zichen patted his forehead, "You know there aren't many people in the No Man's Land, right? The ghost stories we did before all had very few people after entering, or basically no people. Most of the ghost stories only had people from our team after entering. Apart from teammates, we couldn't see other living people."
"For example, the story about [Mountain Climbing] is about climbing a dangerous peak under the attack of wind, snow and wild beasts. There was also a story called [Night Walk], which is about coming out of a minefield full of traps." Zhou Zhou added.
"Yes, that's right. Basically, all the ghost stories in the No Man's Land are like this," Xu Zichen scratched his head, "So we felt very strange when we entered here. There are too many people in this ghost story, and there is also a building that looks like a church."
As we all know, there are no people in the no-man's land, and there are definitely no buildings.
Although each team leader has different ghost stories, and the routes handled by the same team leader have some distinct personal styles, it can be seen from the ghost stories led by Brother Yin that the overall tone of the ghost stories in the No Man's Land is the same as the name of this area, with few people.
Bai Jinshu guessed that it was probably because few people had seen the ghost stories here.
As we all know, people cannot imagine things beyond the scope of their own imagination, and the emergence of ghost stories is probably the same.
How could such a strange thing happen in an area that has never seen human settlements and an area where few people have set foot in and built buildings?
Weird indeed.
"I remember Brother Yuan said before that the ghost stories in the No Man's Land have no fixed location and will move around," Xiao Tang sneezed a few times and looked into the depths of the thick fog. "Could this ghost story have moved from the inhabited area on the edge of the No Man's Land? Isn't it said that the boundaries of the No Man's Land are vague, and sometimes the suburbs of some human settlements are included?"
"It's possible," Zhou Zhou nodded, "but we don't know if the ghost story will go that far, maybe it will work."
"But the possibility is not very high," Bai Jinshu immediately said, "I don't know how the ghost stories in the no-man's land can move, but..."
"Because they can move," Xu Zichen interrupted, "I heard that only the ghost stories in the No Man's Land can move, and the other areas are fixed."
"Yes, the other areas are fixed. Brother Yuan has mentioned this. Most ghost stories cannot leave their birthplaces, and ghost stories are mutually exclusive. In the area of ghost story A, ghost story B cannot absorb explorers, and its capabilities will be greatly reduced. Therefore, generally speaking, ghost stories will not leave their fixed areas."
Just like [Teahouse], [Xuxu Photo Studio], and the later [Revenge] and [Monopoly], the ghost stories all have a fixed location waiting to be triggered. Except for Huai Jiamu, team leader Yuan Shanming has never seen a ghost story that can leave his range.
Bai Jinshu touched his chin, feeling that he seemed to have grasped a clue: "If this strange story is a suburban strange story from another area, but was simply classified as a no-man's land, then he should not move."
By the same token, if it could move and was a complete no-man's-land weirdness, then it shouldn't have so many people and buildings.
After all, the generation of ghost stories is closely related to the region, and what kind of place will produce what kind of ghost stories.
"Something is wrong," the voices outside the fog gradually faded away. Everyone had been in the fog for too long. Not only their hair, but even their clothes began to get a little damp. Guan Hongyan shook her collar uncomfortably before continuing, "So now either an impossible ghost story has appeared in the No Man's Land, or a ghost story from another area has left its own area and moved to the No Man's Land?"
She glanced at Huai Jiamu intentionally or unintentionally, indicating that the latter was more likely. After all, there was a living, moving example of a weird story standing here.
Not everyone present is your own people, so sometimes you don’t need to be so clear about what you are saying.
"If it's another ghost story that has left its own area..." Xiao Tang muttered, "Then why can't he go somewhere else? To the No Man's Land? This place is deserted, and it has to move along a fixed route to be triggered. This is much more troublesome than going to other places."
"Could it be that because no one triggered it, it got anxious and started catching people everywhere?"
"Maybe," Bai Jinshu shrugged.
"Then stop the loss in time," Zhou Zhou nodded silently, "Since it has left its area, why not go somewhere else?"
"That's what I mean, why are you so stubborn and insist on coming to a place where no one is..." Xiao Tang was talking when his voice suddenly stopped.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait! Ersi!" She suddenly raised her head and looked at Bai Jinshu, her words stuttering with excitement, "No, there is! There is one that we all know!"
She slapped her thigh and suddenly shouted: "There is such a weird story! If this is the case, and it's him, then it makes sense!"
"Connect what..." Before Xu Zichen finished his words, he saw Guan Hongyan, Cen Bingqi, and Xiao Tang looking at each other in the thick fog, with surprisingly consistent expressions.
A few seconds later, Cen Bingqi slowly said a name: "Hang Yiqing."
The name sounds a bit unfamiliar just by saying it.
Another more familiar name is - tall and thin man.
There was a loud bang like thunder outside the fog, and Xiao Tang took a loud breath and said in a clear and loud voice: "Fuck!"
*
Everyone hurried back to their rooms before the second loud noise woke up the children.
They had been out for too long, and when they came back, Xiao Tang came back with them, and he was soaked all over. Yuan Shanming and Brother Yin, who stayed in the room to keep watch, had no time to ask what happened, and quickly asked everyone to change their clothes.
The long hair of both Guan Hongyan and Xiao Tang was soaked, as if the tips of their hair were soaked in water. Maybe a few drops of water could be squeezed out if they were wrung a few times. After changing their clothes, they lay down on the edge of the bed in a surprisingly consistent manner, letting their hair hang down from the bed and waiting for it to dry.
After all, the conditions here are limited and there is no hair dryer, so this is the only way.
"Where did you guys go?" Yuan Shanming looked at Bai Jinshu, then at his two teammates lying on the bed, and couldn't help but ask, "Jumped into the river?"
"It's raining?" Brother Yin's question was obviously more practical.
Although their clothes and hair were wet, it did not look like they were wet from being soaked in water, but rather a vague sense of dampness.
"Stop talking," Xiao Tang waved his hand, "We stayed in the fog for a long time."
Her hair was too long, and she didn't want the ends of her hair to hang on the ground and get dusty, so before she lay down she asked Huangmao to bring a stool for her to place her hair on.
"Why is Xiao Tang back?" Yuan Shanming pinched his nose and yawned a little tiredly. "Did you find anything after you went down?"
It was expected.
"No, we found out," Xiao Tang suddenly jumped up from the bed, "Brother Yuan, let me tell you, we found out a big secret."
"Just lie down, just lie down," Yuan Shanming was startled by her sudden movements, "What did you find?"
"You'll never guess it." Xiao Tang raised his eyebrows complacently. Seeing Yuan Shanming's expression, he kept the secret. "Brother Yuan, I tell you, I was shocked when I thought of this. If someone else went down there tonight, not me... uh, not Ersi,... uh, not Sister Hua, they would definitely not have been discovered!"
"I tell you, you are lucky to have met our team this time," Xiao Tang waved his hands proudly, "If it were anyone else, I guarantee that no one who enters here would know what happened in their lifetime!"
Brother Yin was not curious at first, but Xiao Tang's words aroused his curiosity. Seeing that the girl was still keeping it a secret, he simply asked Xu Zichen directly: "So exaggerated? What did they find?"
"I'm not sure either." Xu Zichen really didn't know this time, "I don't know what the three of them were talking about."
Yoongi raised an eyebrow in interest.
Yuan Shanming was already used to Xiao Tang's occasional antics. Seeing her sitting on the bed smugly waiting for everyone to ask her questions, he simply looked at Er Si and asked, "What did you find?"
"Hey, don't say anything, don't say anything, let Brother Yuan guess!" Xiao Tang's shout and Bai Jinshu's voice sounded together.
"Hang Yiqing." Bai Jinshu said directly.
"Oh, you... are boring!" Xiao Tang was halfway through his suspense when it was exposed. He rolled his eyes and lay back down in dissatisfaction. "You just said out such a genius association so easily. At least let Brother Yuan guess for two or three rounds!"
However, Yuan Shanming's expression was the surprise that Xiao Tang had expected.
After hearing the name, he was stunned for a few seconds before he suddenly dug out the name from the depths of his memory.
"Purple Street...?" The shock on his face was real.
"Hmm," seeing him so surprised, Xiao Tang was in a good mood and got up from the bed again, "Are you shocked? This is totally unexpected!"
"Yes, a little bit..." Yuan Shanming nodded sincerely, "What's going on? Tell me in detail."
"The story begins when we heard the sound of someone talking..." Xiao Tang was very excited. He talked about the voices everyone heard, and Bai Jin's speculation that the fog trapped them and blocked outsiders, and then they felt that the existence of this strange story was very strange and it was not a common strange story in the uninhabited area.
"That's true," Brother Yin interrupted, "At least I haven't encountered such a modern weird story in the No Man's Land. That's why I said something was wrong here at the beginning."
"Then why didn't you mention it at the beginning?" Xiao Tang curled his lips. "If you had mentioned it at the beginning, wouldn't we have guessed it earlier?"
"Well... I'm not sure," Xiao Tang said in a bad tone, but Brother Yin didn't get angry. Instead, he explained, "I've said it many times. Information in the No Man's Land is not exchanged. I'm not sure if this kind of weird talk is abnormal, because it's very likely that I haven't collected relevant information."
That's true.
Xiao Tang puffed his lips and stopped pursuing, and continued, "Then we speculated that either a very special ghost story appeared in the No Man's Land, or a very special ghost story from other areas came to the No Man's Land."
"Considering... well," she exchanged glances with Yuan Shanming knowingly, "so I prefer the second option."
"Zhou Zhou said that there is no such thing as a ghost story in a place like No Man's Land. I thought so too. Then I changed my mind and suddenly remembered that there is one."
In Purple Street, the identity of the "gang boss" is a mystery, and only in Lu Yun's illusion can we get a glimpse of his true identity.
Suddenly appeared in the Purple Street, suddenly established a gang, and suddenly disappeared after a fire, leaving no trace in the mouth of the leader of the violent city.
The only clue that might be related to his identity was an accidental conversation between two people in Lu Yun's nightmare.
Xiao Tang was right. If it weren't for the three of them who went down tonight, if it weren't for Yuan Shanming's team who entered this strange story, no one else would have thought of this place.
Not only are they the only ones who have entered this strange story of Nightmare, but it is also because of the information monopoly.
Also, there are very few foreign teams in the No Man's Land, and the entry threshold is too high, so basically no foreign teams will dive into this unfamiliar area.
A person who has been to the City of Violence, come into contact with the ghost stories related to Purple Street, and knows the existence of Hang Yiqing who is buried in the history of the Purple Street gang. He is also clear that he is not a human being, but a member of a ghost story team from No Man's Land. After leaving the City of Violence, he entered No Man's Land and then encountered this church ghost story.
The probability of this series of events combined is almost zero.
"Hang Yiqing is indeed a strange story in the No Man's Land..." Yuan Shanming thought for a few seconds, "But, but we can't conclude that this place has anything to do with him just based on this, right?"
Compared to the excited Xiao Tang, Yuan Shanming regained his senses after the shock.
"Of course not," Xiao Tang looked like he wanted to get out of bed and grab Yuan Shanming's shoulders and shake him, "But Brother Yuan! Brother Yuan, look at this place and what's happening, Brother Yuan!"
"Church?" Yuan Shanming was a little confused. "Shelter?"
"No!" Xiao Tang pointed out the window, "Outside!"
"Outside?" Yuan Shanming seemed to be confused.
"War," Bai Jinshu continued, "We were misled by Zhou Ju from the beginning. She said there was a war going on outside, with peace during the day and fighting at night. We followed her thinking and thought there was a fight outside."
"But Brother Yuan," he paused, his tone serious, "putting aside the war outside, just looking at the strange ecology here, very quiet during the day and unusually noisy at night, where would you think of?"
Yuan Shanming exhaled slowly: "The city of violence."
There are only two areas in the Novice Village with obvious differences between day and night: the City of the Dead and the City of Violence.
In the City of the Dead, humans and undead ghosts coexist. The undead are rampant at night and generally no one goes out. When there are no humans, the undead are mostly quiet at night.
The City of Violence is a city that ostensibly belongs only to humans. When the undead attack at night, the residents will not go out, but there will be city guards patrolling and fighting every night, just like the sounds of fighting that occur every night on Purple Street.
The biggest difference between the two cities is how quiet they are at night.
They were all distracted by Zhou Ju's statement and the area where this strange story belonged.
There can be no human settlements or buildings in a no-man's land. So what if the prototype of this place is not actually a no-man's land, but... a city of violence?
Only at night will the undead invade your violent city and you need to fight them off.
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Finally found the problem here!
First 20 + Random 20
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