Chapter 356: Inhuman (164) (1st + 2nd) [VIP]
Yuan Shanming is indeed not a bad person.
Yun Guang and Guan Hongyan got together and exchanged a few words, and soon got information about the team leader.
An ordinary team leader who once led a team in N Port, but later transferred his team leadership area to S City because his friend died unexpectedly in the [Mirage].
Compared to those team leaders they met in Port N, Yuan Shan Ming Ren was not bad and had not done anything to help the evil.
"Yuan Shan Ming Ren is actually fine," Guan Hongyan held up her chin, "If he's not okay, we can bring him back to the foundation."
All the employees in the investment bank were pulled in here when they were on the verge of death. If the investment bank goes bankrupt and the institution that kept them alive is gone, the whereabouts of this large number of employees will be a big problem again.
Although there are certainly a large number of employees whose obsession with life is deep enough to meet the foundation's standards, it is still unclear whether the foundation will accept them.
Not to mention that among this large number of employees, there are quite a few fake people and Gu Kings.
Whether the foundation will accept the former is one question, and whether the latter can adapt to the foundation is another question. In addition, even if the copy factory is destroyed, the investment bank cannot be completely destroyed. At best, it will only suffer a heavy blow.
What happened next...
Guan Hongyan laid on the table in a resigned manner: "Let the foundation officials worry about the rest."
As the first batch of undercover agents to enter the investment industry, it was already very good for them to achieve this. After leaving the Novice Village, she would take a long vacation.
Yun Guang nodded reliably: "We will discuss this matter with the officials of the foundation later."
"You? Who else?" Guan Hongyan asked curiously.
"Ah... yes," Yun Guang pinched his nose after realizing it belatedly, "I haven't finished yet."
The topic had gone off topic just now, and he hadn't finished talking about what they were going to do next.
"Where were we just now?" he asked.
"Speaking of the pseudo-human space and the novice village space, they are two spaces that are forcibly stitched together. The only way to connect the two sides is fog. If someone enters an area that is empty except for themselves, it means that the pseudo-humans are ready to attack them and conduct the final drill," Bai Jinshu said, "So the fog connects the two worlds, and the fog outside this [church] is..."
"It's a kind of barrier," Yun Guang answered every question. "The main function of the fog is to deceive the live broadcast signal, making them think that this area does not belong to [Non-Human], but to the pseudo-human world, so that they will take the initiative to cut off the live broadcast and achieve the purpose of hiding themselves."
There is a live broadcast in the entire Novice Village, and each person has a camera with him or her. In this case, if you want to say anything in the Novice Village, you can only speak in riddles.
Before entering the nightmare, Bai Jinshu and Guan Hongyan could only communicate through tacit understanding and eye contact for several times. Only after entering the nightmare fantasy where live broadcast was not possible, were the two able to communicate openly.
It now seems that this live broadcast room is also one of the means for investment banks to prevent their secrets from being revealed.
Everyone lives under live broadcast. Even if someone plots to destroy the copy factory, it will become an open conspiracy under live broadcast.
It seems that Hang Yiqing and Lao Guan also realized this, which is why they returned to the no-man's land from the city of violence. This is because only here in the entire novice village is the density of newcomers in the investment industry low enough that they can make some small moves without being discovered by the fake person on the other end of the live broadcast.
"Oh, right, what's the situation with these two people?" Xu Zichen realized belatedly, "This strange story called "Church" is from Lao Guan, right? What about Hang Yiqing?"
"He only comes back here for a short period of time. Most of the time, he is outside the no-man's land, searching for clues about the pseudo-human space. When his strange stories reach their peak, he rushes back," Yun Guang spread his hands. "Because his strange stories are closed most of the time, he also needs to reduce stimulation as much as possible..."
But it was the same as saying nothing. On the one hand, in order to prevent a breakdown, Hang Yiqing needed to reduce stimulation. On the other hand, in order to investigate the details of the fake person, he had to get in touch with them.
"That's why his strange story is so special," Yun Guang concluded. "The version I heard from the leader of Port N before was that this strange story is seasonal. During this season, any team that enters the No Man's Land will most likely have all the fake people in the team killed. The truth is that generally speaking, Hang Yiqing will reach a critical point during this period and must come back to start the strange story. Since time is tight, there is no choice, so all teams that have seen him will be absorbed."
The next step of killing the fake person is probably due to some personal grudges.
"Then he came back this time because..." Guan Hongyan raised her eyebrows.
"Because of what I didn't finish talking about just now," Yun Guang said with a dry mouth. Lu Changfeng handed him a glass of water very considerately. He drank it all before continuing, "Before, I mentioned that Changfeng and I came here and successfully found these two people. We learned this information that the Novice Village is alive. Then, because we revealed our identities, Hang Yiqing found hope to destroy the replica factory, so we learned some of his speculations."
So-called speculation is a clue that has not yet been confirmed.
"Sometimes the ghost stories here will drop some very strange materials. These materials are useless and have little to do with the ghost stories themselves. The only feature is that when you leave with these materials, you can exchange them for a lot of points in the investment bank. Moreover, the ghost stories that obtain the materials are usually either very difficult to trigger or very few people trigger them," Yun Guang explained in detail. "The materials that can be obtained after completing the ghost story look fine. The team leaders who often lead the team in a fixed area can't find anything wrong. After Hang Yiqing's personal experiment, he found that this thing is not even related to the ghost story itself. Instead, after the ghost story is fixed in a certain area, this kind of material will be produced regularly."
Most ghost stories don't know what this thing is used for, so it simply becomes a material that will be dropped to newcomers after completing a ghost story.
Newbies don't know what this thing is or what it is used for. Only the team leaders who have seen it know that this kind of material has no practical significance. It can only be used when leaving the Novice Village and be recycled by the investment bank to obtain a large number of points.
"According to Hang Yiqing's observation, after walking in the Novice Village for so many years and crossing a large number of areas, he found that the materials produced by these strange stories are often in the form of body organs."
Body organs?
Everyone looked at each other, their eyes focused on Yuan Shanming, who slowly took out something: "This?"
What appeared in his hand was exactly the Nightmare Heart that everyone had obtained in [Nightmare].
"...Hmm?" Yun Guang was stunned for a moment, "Let me see."
"What's wrong with this thing?" Guan Hongyan couldn't wait.
"It's not a problem, but it was because of this discovery that Hang Yiqing suspected that this space was alive," Yun Guang paused, "because he gradually discovered that these fallen materials could be put together to form a person."
"Hiss..." Everyone gasped and felt a chill on their backs.
"This is much more creepy than Night City!" Guan Hongyan blurted out, "At least the cells in Night City are all personified."
What the hell is this? Can the dropped dungeon materials be used to fight a person?
"Well... in short, it was because of this opportunity that Hang Yiqing discovered that this place was alive. Then combined with the speculation that the pseudo-human space was stitched in later, after listening to it, I suspected that these things were because the [Non-Human] space was repairing itself."
"The pseudo-human space and ours are like a one-way valve. Under normal circumstances, we can't get in. So after discovering this, we hope to help [Non-Human] repair itself, and after the repair is completed, it will take the initiative to get rid of the pseudo-human space." Yun Guang gestured to Yuan Shanming to hand over the nightmare heart and studied it carefully. "Yes, this is what I'm talking about. The heart is here with you."
"This is a huge project, because the materials that can be used to form an individual are very scattered, and most of them can only be obtained by completing the ghost story," Yun Guang raised his head and looked at Guan Hongyan, "So what did you mean by 'we' before? It refers to the team that will find us in the Port of Raging Waves, in addition to Changfeng and me."
These materials look like some fantasy props, but actually have shelf lives of varying lengths. Hang Yiqing has been investigating in the Novice Village for many years and has collected a lot of such materials. He also discovered that as time goes by, the materials will gradually lose their activity and eventually turn into garbage.
Different materials can maintain their activity for different periods of time, and his efforts alone are not enough to collect all the materials before they lose their activity.
During this period of time, he also tried to develop some cooperative relationships with team leaders, such as Zhou Ju and other team leaders, but he gradually discovered that completing these ghost stories that dropped active materials required very high team qualifications, and most new teams were actually unable to complete the ghost stories to obtain the materials.
It was at this time that Yun Guang appeared.
After getting this clue, all the teams that came to the Port of Rage to find Yun Guang were informed of the news. According to Yun Guang's guess, these materials were the characteristics that were constantly recovered and precipitated by the living Novice Village, and it was very likely its self-rescue behavior. As long as all the materials were obtained to piece together a complete person, they would definitely be able to find a way to fight against the pseudo-human space.
So before Bai Jinshu and his team showed up, there were already teams that connected with Yun Guang continuously, following the list made by Hang Yiqing, to hunt those special ghost stories and obtain the body parts extracted from them.
This process is very long and it is definitely not something that their group can complete, so Yun Guang's initial plan was to wait until their group of team members left, then deposit all the collected body parts with Hang Yiqing, and then ask the foundation to send more people in.
I believe that with Hang Yiqing as an insider, the people who come in later will be able to complete the collection of all the body replacements according to his list, complete the collection before all the materials become invalid, and then cause a devastating blow to this novice village.
After hearing Yun Guang's statement, Xu Zichen and Guan Hongyan's expressions gradually fell, with a look on their faces saying, "Ah, it will take so long. I thought we could completely eradicate the other party this time."
Bai Jinshu accepted it well.
The investment bank has been running this novice village for so many years. It needs to completely eradicate the copy factory, or the pseudo-human space, from here. It is definitely not something that can be done in just fifteen days.
According to Yun Guang and Hang Yiqing's plan, the foundation will need to send about six more batches of their people. Assuming each batch takes fifteen days, it will take another three months to collect all the materials.
This is already fast.
At least faster than he expected.
"But..." Yun Guang changed the subject, "You also heard that Hang Yiqing asked me to investigate the earthquake."
"Oh, yes, the earthquake is the thing he asked you to investigate?" Guan Hongyan's attention naturally shifted to this.
"No," Lu Changfeng said, "When Brother Hang asked us to come, he said that he suspected that the Novice Village and the pseudo-human space were rejecting each other. It might be because these active materials were too enriched. Then we came. As a result, an earthquake occurred in the Novice Village a few days after we arrived, so we went to investigate the earthquake."
The final result of the investigation was that the earthquake was not simple. There had never been an earthquake in the Novice Village. This time, when it occurred, the entire Novice Village shook together. No one would believe that there was no trickery involved.
"Now according to what you said, the earthquake was most likely caused by what you did in the subway..." Yun Guang tapped his finger on the table, "Is there any unknown relationship between the two?"
Everyone looked at each other, and no one could think of any connection.
"It seems that we are still missing key evidence..." Yun Guang frowned slightly, "If it weren't for the fact that there are live broadcasts and fake people everywhere in the Novice Village, there would be no need to be so timid in the investigation."
Although they were all investigations, it was obvious that entering the Novice Village was much more troublesome than the unknown space they had obtained in the Foundation.
You can buy props in the unknown space, and the live broadcasters are all investors of the foundation. Apart from the fact that the space itself may be dangerous, most of the time everyone is allowed to trial and error.
But it's different here.
The live broadcast room following everyone here is the biggest hidden danger. If it weren't for Hang Yiqing's existence, they would probably have problems even communicating normally.
"That..." Yuan Shanming suddenly spoke in a low voice.
"What?" Everyone looked over.
"I have an idea," he said weakly, "Didn't Zhou Ju say before that every time Hang Yiqing killed a fake person in their team, he would give them a small bottle of red blood-like substance in exchange for points to prevent them from dying, so where did this thing come from?"
"There is such a thing?" Yun Guang was stunned. "I'll go ask."
He's not quite sure either.
It would be a bit too exaggerated for a group of people to go and ask in a grand manner. Yun Guang himself would definitely go. Guan Hongyan and Xu Zichen both said that they had thrown away all their brains. Just go, and call them if there is a fight.
Jin Ling said that she wanted to go and listen, and Bai Jinshu nodded. Since he was going, Huai Jiamu would not stay here. Finally, with Xiao Tang volunteering, there were five of them who went to ask Hang Yiqing about this matter.
Yun Guang and Hang Yiqing had a pretty good relationship and seemed to be very familiar with the place. After walking out of the small garden, they headed towards a building at the back with ease. On the way, they also took the time to discuss a few issues with Bai Jinshu.
"I don't know what happened to that dragon, and Hang Yiqing doesn't seem to know either," Yun Guang touched his chin, "It's possible that it's the nature of the subway itself. After all, didn't you say that the subway had an accident after you cut the chain? Could it be that the subway relies on that dragon to operate?"
According to Cen Bingqi, after they entered the well, they came into contact with a large amount of fresh blood. Combined with the bleeding characteristics of the subway ghost story itself, this thing was most likely a newcomer who died in the ghost story.
The subway relies on life to run, and the blood of the dead flows into the well. Could it be that the dragon is the one absorbing life to run the subway?
"But he didn't volunteer..." Bai Jinshu said thoughtfully.
The dragon was tied to a pillar and chained. No matter how you look at it, it's impossible for it to be running the subway voluntarily, right?
"According to Yuan Shanming, the subway is also a strange story, and it's a big strange story covering the entire new village. Combined with what Hang Yiqing said, strange stories are all caused by pain," he took a deep breath, "Is there a possibility that this dragon was forcibly tied down and made to suffer, and it became a strange story artificially?"
"It's possible," Yun Guang answered quickly, "So the original intention of creating this strange story is to create a railway system that can extend in all directions in the Novice Village?"
According to the two people's reasoning, the final answer is this.
"That's strange..." Bai Jinshu touched his chin, "What's the connection between the pain caused by the dragon and the earthquake?"
[Subway...] Nian Yu typed a few words tentatively, [Aren't subways spread all over the Novice Village?]
She thought about it: [If there is a problem with the dragon under the subway, then the whole novice village will also experience an earthquake. That makes sense, right?]
Bai Jinshu and Yun Guang looked at each other and found the same information in each other's eyes.
Yes, the subway is spread all over the Novice Village.
*
"Blood?" Hang Yiqing thought for a few seconds, "What are you talking about?"
He took out a small glass bottle from the room.
The bottle was very small, only a few centimeters high, and was plugged with a rubber stopper. The liquid flowing inside was dark red, just as Zhou Ju had described.
"This is a material I discovered by chance," Hang Yiqing paused, "It can be obtained in any area of the Novice Village through some special methods around special areas, and can also be exchanged for points. Later, I used it as a special material for the team leaders to ensure that they would not die. Now that you mention it, it does look like blood."
"It's not that it does look like it, but this thing should be it," Bai Jinshu took it and observed it for a few seconds. "According to what you said, the Novice Village is a living weird thing that constantly precipitates various active materials. Then this thing is the blood precipitated from it."
"...You're right, I was thinking about it wrongly," Hang Yiqing pressed his solar plexus, "I didn't think of this."
As a person in the dark, he was trapped in a vicious circle of "active materials can only be precipitated in places where ghost stories are present", and he did not expect that the material he got was also the same.
If anyone who has persisted in something for more than ten years suddenly sees the dawn of victory, the people who receive his information will be dazzled by the large amount of information accumulated over the years, and the people who convey the information will not be able to find the right entry point and focus all of a sudden.
Many things were probably forgotten during his communication with Yun Guang.
These things can only be remembered and conveyed slowly over time.
"Is there any problem with this?" Hang Yiqing looked at the four of them.
"You come?" Yun Guang looked at Cen Bingqi, "You should know better."
"Let me do it," Bai Jinshu nodded and organized his words. "It's like this. According to what you said, these active materials are all extracted from strange stories, such as the eyeballs extracted from [Mirage] and the heart extracted from [Nightmare]."
Hang Yiqing nodded.
"So if the blood is also extracted from a strange story, then this place will continue to bleed, right?"
Jin Ling next to him slightly widened her eyes. Xiao Tang said directly: "Do you suspect that the blood material was produced by the subway?"
"Yes," Bai Jinshu paused, "and Jin Ling just reminded me that the subway has a feature that we all overlooked."
It is spread all over the Novice Village.
What else can be spread throughout the human body?
"Blood vessels." Yun Guang spoke slowly.
The subway is the blood vessel of the entire Novice Village, and blood is the active material that is constantly released from the blood vessels.
This stuff is not the blood from the bodies of people who died in the subway, but the material precipitated from the living Novice Village.
"Where did you get these things?" Yun Guang looked at Hang Yiqing.
"Deep in the no-man's land," Hang Yiqing answered quickly, "These things are usually at the center of each area."
He finally realized what was happening, and his expression suddenly became inquiring: "The center point of each area happens to be around the subway station..."
This thing really has something to do with the subway.
"If that's the case..." Xiao Tang muttered, "Didn't we block the blood vessels of the Novice Village last time?"
After the blood vessels were blocked, no accidents occurred in the Novice Village?
"The last time I called Yun Guang and the others here was because I discovered that there was unrest in the Novice Village..." Hang Yiqing spoke slowly.
This time point was just after the subway accident.
The first time an accident happened, they accidentally cut the dragon's chain, causing it to stop operating for several hours. The blood vessels of the living Novice Village were blocked. Hang Yiqing discovered the problem and called back Yun Guang and Lu Changfeng.
Immediately afterwards, Guan Hongyan entered the subway again with the eyeball, and the subway had another accident, and an earthquake occurred in the new village.
“So if something happens in the subway, the impact will spread to the entire Novice Village.” Yun Guang blurted out.
"Not only the entire Novice Village," Lao Guan walked in from outside and said solemnly, "I suspect that the last earthquake has shaken the connection between the two spaces."
"I just went to check on the leader who was still unconscious after being drugged by Zhou Ju," he was referring to Brother Yin, "his live broadcast should have returned to normal, but after I threw him out, the signal was still cut off."
This means that without the obstruction of fog, his live broadcast was temporarily disconnected.
From an academic perspective, an earthquake is nothing more than the sudden and rapid rupture or displacement of rock layers under a plate, which generates seismic waves that travel to the surface and cause the ground to vibrate.
So what will happen if a dragon under the subway causes an earthquake in a "living" novice village where there has never been an earthquake and there may not even be a concept of rock layers?
"The plates here will also be squeezed or dislocated..." Bai Jinshu slowly said what was in everyone's mind, "The connection between the Novice Village and the Pseudo-Human Space has been shaken."
The author has something to say:
So both sides did something big behind each other's back (x)
First 20 + Random 20~
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