Chapter 353: Inhuman (161) (1st + 2nd) [VIP]
Except for Yuan Shanming who knew about this matter from the beginning, and Bai Jinshu and Xiao Tang who had just guessed it not long ago, everyone present had varying degrees of surprise on their faces.
Guan Hongyan and Xu Zichen both looked like they couldn't wait to get away from here and expose this matter.
Just after the scene fell into this strange silence for more than ten seconds, a familiar voice sounded behind everyone: "Ah Qing, you just asked me to go..."
The sound suddenly stopped.
Everyone turned their heads in the direction of the voice. At the corner of the garden wall where they had just walked past, Lao Guan was standing there, frowning and looking at all of them: "Why are you here?"
Perhaps it was because everyone was forced to suppress their height, even though Lao Guan was no different from themselves in the illusion, the moment he appeared, everyone still felt the oppression of an adult on a child.
Lao Guan held a black coat in one hand and raised the other hand vigilantly.
"Wait a minute?" Yuan Shanming asked unexpectedly, "Didn't you ask us to come here?"
Didn't they change their minds because of what Ersi said?
Now Lao Guan appears and says that he sent all of them away, so who kept them here, couldn't it be...
"No." Lao Guan denied it straightforwardly, "I sent you out."
"I called," Hang Yiqing's voice rang out, confirming Yuan Shanming's guess, "I'm the one who stayed."
Although Lao Guan had a strange expression on his face, he still walked over and handed the coat in his hand to Hang Yiqing: "The clothes you want."
Hang Yiqing propped up his chin and didn't look at him, saying lazily: "I don't want it. I just wanted to get you away for a while."
The tone of these words sounded much more lively, and much more intimate than the tone he had used when speaking to Bai Jinshu and the others before.
He said it so bluntly, but Lao Guan was not angry. He put the clothes on the back of the chair as if he was used to it, bent down and asked in a low voice: "Why do you keep them here?"
Hang Yiqing raised his eyebrows, leaned close to the other person's ear and began to explain.
The two people over there went to talk in a low voice, and the few people who were left aside finally got the chance to communicate after hearing two bombs in a row.
Yuan Shanming couldn't wait any longer and hurried to find Xiao Tang to verify it. After seeing Xiao Tang making a bunch of movements under the control of Huangmao, he accepted the fact with a dazed expression. Guan Hongyan twitched her mouth towards Xu Zichen, meaning that her teeth were about to sour, and received the same expression from Xu Zichen.
Next is the question about investment banks.
Xu Zichen pulled Bai Jinshu over to the side and said impatiently, "What are the chances of the Foundation winning if this gets out?"
"The chance of winning... maybe half." Bai Jinshu thought about it.
"Only half done?" Xu Zichen widened his eyes.
"If you want to expose this and guide public opinion, so that the investment bank will lose its reputation and there will be no Gu Kings or cloned employees, so that their strength will drop sharply and they will go from being a competitor on par with the Foundation to a second- or third-rate space organization, then the chances of winning are very high," he signaled Xu Zichen to calm down, "but if..."
He made a throat-slitting gesture: "If you want the investment bank to go bankrupt and be finished, then there is still a lot of work to be done."
After all, this matter has only been exposed, and it is just one of the scandals. It is like the two generations of Gu venues in the investment industry. Although there are not many spaces with similar characteristics, you can always find one or two if the base number is increased.
When Xu Zichen destroyed the first Gu farm, he certainly could not have imagined that a second one would appear in the investment industry many years later.
Then they revealed the existence of the replica factory in the Novice Village and brought it down. Who knows what special mechanism the investment bank used to build the replica factory?
Who can guarantee that there won't be a second one in this place?
Now it is so easy for Bai Jin to guess the purpose behind it, simply because [Fei Ren Zai] is a novice village that everyone must enter and even has developed a set of corresponding rules. The clue that "everyone will come here once" is too conspicuous.
Once the investment bank suffers a loss in this matter, they might change the way they build the clone factory next time.
For example, abolish the Novice Village and let their employees, like the Foundation, enter the investment bank to explore the unknown space. Then, after each person enters the investment bank, a copy of the factory space will be randomly inserted. Each time, the name and space used will be different, so that they can enter without knowing anything.
In other words, create a place like a special space of a foundation, package it as the base of a so-called investment bank, and everyone who joins the investment bank will need to enter their information here.
It doesn't even need to be in the form of a space. They can turn this replica factory into a live broadcast that follows the employees at all times. When the time is right, it can replace the anchor in any space.
There are too many methods, and by that time, it will be extremely difficult to find any trace of the copy factory.
The feud between Xu Zichen and the investment bank has become so deep that it cannot be reconciled. If he is given a choice, he will definitely bring down the investment bank once and for all, causing it to go bankrupt and disappear, rather than reducing its strength in the short term.
Sure enough, when Xu Zichen heard what Bai Jin said, he thought for a few seconds and then looked up at him: "What other ideas do you have?"
"There is a way, but it's not in my hands," Bai Jinshu shook his head and motioned him to look at Hang Yiqing and Lao Guan who were still talking, "It's up to them."
"We have only been in the Novice Village for a few days, and the information we have is only enough to speculate that this is a replica factory. As for how the factory operates, how it is destroyed, and what the evidence of its existence is, we will definitely not find anything with only the few days we have left to explore," he said calmly, "but Hang Yiqing and Lao Guan are not like that."
These two people definitely had much more time than them to know that the Novice Village was a copy factory.
The investment bank has existed for so many years, so they are definitely not the only ones who have discovered something wrong. The problem is that all newcomers can only stay in the Novice Village for fifteen days. Even if they visit one area per day in fifteen days, it would be impossible to visit the entire Novice Village. In this case, let alone finding the basis for the existence of the replication factory, it would be good enough to discover that this is a replication factory and ensure that they and the people around them are not replicated.
It is nothing but wishful thinking to expect that the newcomers who come here can destroy this replication factory.
Even for Xu Zichen, his first reaction after receiving the news was to leak it to the foundation for handling, rather than destroying the replication factory as he did with the Gu farm.
"But they are from the Novice Village after all..." Xu Zichen muttered in a low voice, "Can it work?"
The main reason they wanted to bring down the investment bank was that they would have somewhere to go after leaving the bank, but Hang Yiqing and Lao Guan, one was a native of the Novice Village, and the other was a ghost story in the Novice Village.
Even if they know something, can they help them destroy the Novice Village?
"How do you know it won't work if you haven't tried it?" Guan Hongyan put one hand on Xu Zichen's shoulder, nonchalantly, "I say you just think too much. Whenever it comes to things related to this lousy investment bank, you bring yourself into it. Weren't you also an aboriginal when you destroyed the Gu farm? Have you ever thought that you can still be invited by the foundation after you destroyed the Gu farm?"
"That's different," Xu Zichen retorted subconsciously, "I was mentally unstable at that time. I was almost crazy and planned to drag everyone to death with me."
"What's the difference?" Bai Jinshu narrowed his eyes. "Haven't you figured it out yet? Why have Hang Yiqing and Lao Guan been so angry with the clones for so many years?"
"Because of that ungrateful little bastard!" Xiao Tang, who had been listening for a long time, finally couldn't help but speak up, "Brother, you are really stubborn. Something was wrong with the Purple Street incident. I guess the people in this copy factory can only copy newcomers and not natives. That ungrateful little bastard from Purple Street... ah, sorry, I just called him that."
Under Guan Hongyan's glare, she changed her words smoothly: "The child from Zi Street was probably replaced by a clone. In order to kill everyone who knew the real child, they set fire to the compound."
"Little... Huangmao," Guan Hongyan said with a complicated expression, "Can't you speak for yourself?"
This is weird.
Everyone knows that Xiao Tang is a shadow puppet controlled by Huang Mao, but now Xiao Tang is talking here with a smile on his face, and Huang Mao is standing beside him. It feels weird no matter how you look at it.
"Ah? Oh, I'm used to it." The yellow-haired man blinked awkwardly and continued, "Hang Yiqing and Lao Guan must have discovered something was wrong back then. They must have investigated this matter longer than us, and their feud with the investment bank must be no less serious than ours."
This time she really stopped pretending and kept calling people "our" all the time, as if "Hello everyone, I'm also a traitor from the foundation. It turns out we are colleagues, haha" was written all over her face.
Guan Hongyan rolled her eyes and punched Xu Zichen on the shoulder: "Okay, now there is still a question about what happened in Purple Street in the first place. Let's go and ask."
There must be a reason why Hang Yiqing brought them back after Lao Guan had originally sent them out.
"Me ask?" Xu Zichen pointed at himself.
"Hurry up, you three have a common language." Guan Hongyan pushed him forward and in front of the two men.
Xu Zichen's face was still a little embarrassed. Seeing that both of them were looking at him, he chose a topic that would be the best for conversation and started talking awkwardly: "Um, the child you raised in Zijie was replaced by the replica factory, right?"
As soon as he said this, he heard the yellow-haired man whisper behind him: "Oh my god, brother, why are you asking directly? The map of Yan State was not even unfolded, and the knife was placed directly on it?"
Xu Zichen's mouth twitched as if he had a toothache.
Of course he knew that if he spoke up about this, the two people might get angry, but he couldn't just say, "Hello, I'm actually an undercover agent from the Foundation, a rival organization of the investment bank. I've revealed the truth about the copy factory, and I've blown up the Novice Village for you."
This is the beginning of the collapse of the sky, okay?
In contrast, choosing a child that both parties know to start a conversation means that at least you can always have a conversation about this no matter whether the other person is angry or sad.
However, these two people were obviously much better than he had imagined. After stopping talking, Hang Yiqing just raised his eyelids, and there was only a slight change in the expression in Lao Guan's eyes.
Perhaps after so many years, both of them have long passed the stage where their emotions would fluctuate drastically when they heard about this matter.
Huang Mao was scratching his head in the back. When he saw Xu Zichen was speechless, he quickly came out to save the situation: "It's like this, our team leader and Dai Quan are acquaintances. The two have been friends for many years. Dai Quan has been missing for more than ten years. Our team leader also wants to know what happened back then. Do you two know anything about Dai Quan?"
Guan Hongyan continued to have a complicated expression.
When she thought about how Xiao Tang, the noisy and self-destructive man in the past few days, and the Huangmao with a very high emotional intelligence who was trying to smooth things over here were the same person, she felt like her heart was about to break.
And her lovely sister Xiao Tang.
As soon as the name Dai Quan came out, Yuan Shanming also came over, and the rest of the people followed.
Hang Yiqing and Lao Guan were standing and sitting respectively. Lao Guan, probably because he had listened to Hang Yiqing's explanation, became much more friendly to them than before. He even lowered his head and asked directly, "Ah Qing, can these people be trusted?"
Hang Yiqing, who was being questioned, put his hand on his chin and said, "I don't know about the others...but there is one person among them who is very special. I met him before. They can help us."
His eyes slowly fell on Xu Zichen: "It was because I saw this person and heard what they said that I decided to ask them to stay."
"Ah?" Yuan Shanming said briefly, "You are not here because of Huangmao and Xiaotang..."
"Of course not. When did I say it was her?" Hang Yiqing looked at him with an expression that said, "What are you thinking? Is this worth my effort?" "This is Lao Guan's Ghost Story. How could I possibly see a newcomer there? I just took a quick glance and found something wrong."
He certainly didn't say that.
It seems that the mention of children did irritate Hang Yiqing a little. The strange man who had been speaking calmly before finally spoke out against others.
Yuan Shanming touched the tip of his nose and decided not to get involved in the bad luck brought about by others.
But Xu Zichen's expression was much weirder.
"I don't remember meeting you before..." He looked at Hang Yiqing in confusion.
If he had seen such an S-level ghost story back then, he would not have forgotten it.
"Normal," Hang Yiqing nodded, "We only met once at the beginning."
He and Xu Zichen just passed each other once.
He had just left the No Man's Land and was looking for a place to stay. He accidentally learned that there was a Gu King going crazy in the area ahead, so he and his friend stayed to take a look out of curiosity.
"At that time... you seemed to be killing other undead spirits," Hang Yiqing recalled. "I looked over curiously, and you mistook me for a native and walked past me."
Compared to the strange-looking undead creatures on the street at that time, he did look more like a human.
"Is that so?" Xu Zichen nodded, "That's... quite a coincidence."
He was probably the first person in the entire Novice Village to be sent back to prison, except for the team leader.
A Gu King who was supposedly never to come back, became a newcomer and entered the Novice Village again for the second time. Hang Yiqing, who recognized him, naturally found something wrong and kept everyone behind the next second after Lao Guan made his move.
Yuan Shanming curled his lips and completely gave up interrupting.
Things have come to this point, no matter how stupid he is, he should have realized that his teammates, including all the newcomers who stayed here, are not normal, and they are most likely not ordinary people.
And he, a truly ordinary person, an extremely ordinary team leader, was being dragged onto the pirate ship by them.
Yuan Shanming was in tears. Could he still run away now?
Obviously not.
After Hang Yiqing's words, Lao Guan quickly understood that they were not here with good intentions, and at his signal, he started asking, "What did you know about that year?"
Huangmao swiftly repeated what they had seen.
"We just want to know," he concluded, "what happened in the end and what happened to Dai Quan?"
"Let's start from that night," Lao Guan said slowly. "That night, people from other gangs asked for help, so Ah Qing and I went out to help them kill the undead. We ended up running into the city guards outside Purple Street."
The two of them fought with the guards.
After the Zijie guards recognized that they were not their own people, they launched an attack. But these two men were not pushovers either, so the two sides started fighting. During this process, Hang Yiqing was sharp-eyed and discovered that one of the guards was a dead man he had seen before.
"So you know that the guards of the City of Violence are the dead members, and then what?" asked the yellow-haired man.
"Ah Qing... is very angry," Lao Guan thought for a moment, "He thinks Dai Quan is hiding something from us."
On the night when the child's identity was revealed, Hang Yiqing almost had a falling out with Dai Quan. Dai Quan talked to the two of them for a long time, explaining the child's life experience and the cause of death of the child's mother. Finally, he repeatedly assured them that he was not hiding anything else from them.
It was at that time that they realized that the child they had adopted was not abandoned, but his mother was a newcomer here and died after giving birth to him.
Hang Yiqing was very angry that time. If Dai Quan had not listened to Lao Guan and shamelessly come several times later, Hang Yiqing would probably have broken off his friendship with this team leader.
It was because of this incident that their mentality changed a little. They had not named the child before because they felt that the child had his own family and name, and would leave sooner or later. But now the last relative he had in this world has died, and they are the child's new relatives, and there will never be anyone closer than them in the future.
Hang Yiqing was naturally angry when he suddenly learned that the people who died in the City of Violence would become the guards, because this meant that the child's biological mother was likely still alive in this world, and he might still have relatives.
And Dai Quan had been hiding this from them.
He didn't even finish explaining it at the beginning!
In a rage, Hang Yiqing planned to go directly to Dai Quan to ask for clarification. Lao Guan was a little worried that if he went alone, he would have a big quarrel with Dai Quan, so he hurriedly went with him.
"We searched for a long time before we found Dai Quan," Lao Guan took a deep breath, "but Dai Quan didn't know what was going on either."
Faced with Hang Yiqing's doubts and anger, Dai Quan's face was filled with confusion.
He also didn't know that the members of the Purple Street team who died would become the guards.
Since the guard team would kill all living people who were not members, Dai Quan could not go to verify it in person at night. He had to promise Hang Yiqing and Lao Guan that after he led this team of newcomers, he would go back to the investment bank to ask why such strange things happened to dead people.
After more than ten years of friendship, there is still trust between the three of them. Hang Yiqing once again believed him and chose to go back to Zi Street to wait for news from Dai Quan.
The next thing they saw was the ashes of the yard and the child standing in front of it setting fire to it.
"We know the child we raised best. He wouldn't do such a thing. I was so angry at the time, but Ah Qing had already guessed it," Lao Guan said in a dry tone. "But at that time, Dai Quan who went to the investment bank to ask for information was still a hope for solving the problem. In addition, he found that his condition was not right, so he didn't say anything to the faker, but let him go in order not to alert the enemy."
"But..." He took a deep breath and looked at Yuan Shanming, "But after that, we never saw Dai Quan again."
Dai Quan died under unclear circumstances.
Died outside the Novice Village.
In the following time, the two of them continued to discover secrets hidden in the Novice Village, vaguely guessed the hidden truth of what happened back then, and set about building such a ghost story that blocked the live broadcast, and tried to hide its existence so that the investment bank would not find them.
"Wait a minute," Huang Mao suddenly interrupted, "What did you mean by Hang Yiqing saying that he found something was wrong with him?"
Does this sound like there's something else going on?
Lao Guan paused, then lowered his head and looked at Hang Yiqing.
Hang Yiqing was silent for a few seconds: "Do you know how the strange talk here came about?"
“Isn’t it the characteristic of space…” Yuan Shanming said weakly.
"What I mean is," he didn't even look at Yuan Shanming, his eyes fixed on Bai Jinshu, "how did the weird talk here become a weird talk?"
"Have you ever thought about why Lao Guan became a ghost story? Why can't countless ghost stories leave the place where they originated?"
Yuan Shanming doesn’t dare to say now that it is because he has obtained the [Church], and there is no speculation about where he goes.
The crowd was silent, and Huai Jiamu suddenly spoke: "Strong negative emotions."
Oh, and there’s a big weird story here.
Everyone's eyes suddenly fixed on Huai Jiamu.
"What a euphemism." At this moment, Hang Yiqing suddenly laughed twice in a mocking tone and said directly, "Pain, it is pain that makes ghost stories come true."
"Do you know why this space can accommodate so many newcomers to the strange stories, and why countless strange stories welcome others to explore, trying to trick you into entering and snatch your place in the strange stories?"
"Because ghost stories are formed by something that cannot be let go. They are trapped in that day, trapped in that place, and the more people repeat its pain, the more it will be relieved." He raised his eyelids and said in a mocking tone, "You think you are experiencing new adventures, no, you are repeating its experiences and sharing its pain."
"And once the pain is not shared, this strange story will immediately be trapped in this pain and will never be able to get out of it," Hang Yiqing raised one corner of his mouth with a sarcastic expression, "and before that day..."
Before that day, he was just a strange undead who didn't fit in with the group. He could wander around the Novice Village at will, go to the slums of humans for fun, and live with them for more than ten years because of affection. He never knew that one day he would be able to experience so many ghost stories so vividly and get out of the nightmare that he couldn't get out of even if his hands were stained with blood.
He was also trapped in that day.
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First 20 + Random 20~
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