Chapter 85 "The Little Taoist Priest" Whether you are here or not, the corpse remains...
Zhong Ding frowned, not understanding why the people around him were looking at him. Only when he saw Jian Dieda's expression did his pupils contract nervously.
He recalled why he remembered that face so vividly the first time he saw it; it seemed to be because he had met that gaze. The light in Jian Dieda's eyes was incredibly intense, like a ball of fire, but not a raging inferno; it was like cold coals in a furnace, seemingly extinguished yet harboring deadly intent. All of this man's strength was undercurrents of turmoil, but Jian Dieda's temper was undeniable; others had better not provoke such a flame, or the consequences would be severe.
Zhong Dingming knew that his past self would never have acted this way because of a human, yet he repeatedly became infatuated with this feeling. Jian Dieda's appearance was like a rope falling in front of him, sometimes pulling him up from a cliff, sometimes suffocating him like a hanging rope. But he understood the pain of not being able to hold on. Without Jian Dieda's kisses, without Jian Dieda's gaze, he would shatter. He knew it was wrong, yet... he felt an insatiable desire for the fire in those eyes.
He himself didn't realize that his previous level of corruption... had once again exceeded the limit.
...Yes, Jian Dieda is an independent person. He understands, but he is truly not satisfied with the status quo. He cannot separate himself from others at all times. His ailing heart is like a deformed brown cocoon, with red veins growing outwards towards the young man. All his emotions and desires flow through these "nerves" into the organ called love. The more intense and frantic Zhong Ding's love is, the more he tries to nourish love with his actions and possess Jian Dieda, the more blood he will lose, and the more he will be tortured by those red threads.
"The Mountain God Virus has invaded the NPC's brain center. When it takes effect, it can directly tamper with memories and kill the player Jian Burang."
"...Warning! Warning! Please stop resisting the Mountain God Virus and fighting against your own bloodline will. This will trigger the system's automatic virus removal and ultimately destroy the mother terminal!" In the pitch black, Zhong Ding could no longer hold back.
With a "ding-dong," a row of white lanterns lit up again, just as a murder had occurred inside the house. Everyone was pulled back from the brink of collapse and looked at what was above them.
One of my bald teammates pointed at a white puppet and said, "It...it...doesn't it have a long neck?!"
Everyone looked in that direction, and the eerie red light illuminated the loose threads sticking out of the puppet's body. Jane Dieda caught the change in a second.
“Yes, it has changed.” He raised the candle in his hand, which was now devoid of light, and said to the striking overhead structure, “The proportions of its head and neck have changed a bit.”
Someone in their group seemed to have poor eyesight; they started acting as keyboard warriors online, accusing Jian Dieda of using cheat software to show off even though they couldn't see it themselves.
He thought he was speaking very quietly, but he wasn't; everyone heard him, including Zhong Ding.
But the pretentious Mr. Jian Dieda wasn't angry. He casually asked, "Have you noticed a very regular phenomenon?"
What phenomenon?
“…” Zhong Ding also glanced at Jian Dieda’s face.
Zhong Ding wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt that the young Taoist priest's gaze had fallen on him out of the corner of his eye, but it quickly moved away. Jian Dieda even deliberately interrupted him with a comment.
Master Jian said, "It seems that the two who just died were people who had questioned me. So it seems that the order of death was arranged according to me."
"..."
Jian Dieda began to take attendance, as if calling on the King of Hell: "Do you think I'm a man or a god? 'Iron Pot Stewed Goose'."
In China, or more specifically in the legendary Northeast China, there is an ancient story that says if you walk home at night in winter and pass through farmland, you might stumble upon a grave of a weasel. Weasels are actually yellow weasels. It is said that after cultivating for a certain number of years, these creatures will ask humans for a "blessing" and borrow energy to transform into human form. Their common phrase is, "Tell me, am I a human or a god?"
"Iron Pot Stewed Goose" is that player's ID. His ancestral home is obvious. When Jian Dieda asked him the question, this goose was so embarrassed that he was about to lose his pants. Ever since his second great-aunt who was a shaman passed away, this was the first time in his life that he had seen someone begging for a title in human skin. Could this host really be the ghost of this game?
The way Jian Dieda came over to "ask for a title" didn't seem like he was fooling around with anyone. His expressionless face made it the hardest to figure out what he was thinking.
Jane has come to catch the chicks.
With the dead man in front of them, everyone was so frightened that they all moved to the side.
To be precise, they crouched behind Zhong Ding, and everyone seemed to have become his offspring. There was no way around it; Zhong Ding now looked like the kindest mother hen in the whole place, while Jian Dieda was more like the main villain.
Jian Dieda glanced at Zhong Ding.
Zhong Ding remained silent: "…………"
To be honest, he couldn't laugh; he felt a tightness in his chest.
Zhong Ding also found the scene absurd. He felt that the "system" must also be in a bad mood, since even the super red progress bar from before had returned to normal.
Jian Dieda was just joking; he simply didn't want Zhong Ding's corruption progress bar to explode prematurely.
Fortunately, the man who cooked goose in an iron pot seemed to realize his mistake. He immediately performed a splitting motion and knelt down to kowtow to an old man.
"Host, let's talk this out! Okay, okay, you're not a man or a god, you're my dad! You're my living dad!"
Who was the mastermind behind this? They've fooled us again. Jian Dieda withdrew his last step. "Alright, eldest son, it's almost time for the next round of submissions."
Realizing that the time for the third round of questions was almost up, everyone had to quickly huddle together and continue answering.
Having learned from the previous two experiences, everyone really stopped fighting over it this time. They didn't dare to continue being curious about what was inside the box this time. However, Bai Xiaosheng took the initiative to bring up a strange thing. He said that when he, Furong Dan, and Gu Dong Zhang entered the Treasure Pavilion last time, they had drawn a special box.
The three of them came in together, but throughout the process, Fu Rongdan held the photos of the conjoined twins. Fu Rongdan seemed very interested in the sisters' background. Later, when it was her turn to take things out of the box, something strange happened. After the puppets sang a local children's song called "Ding Ding Ding," Fu Rongdan disappeared in the dark.
Antique Zhang and Bai Xiaosheng searched everywhere for where she was hiding. Suddenly, they heard a strange sound coming from inside one of the wooden boxes. It sounded like someone was crying intermittently and saying, "My doll, Xiaohua, is lost... Mother... Furong knows she was wrong. Mother, please don't take my doll away..." The voice sounded the same as Furong Dan's, but it was as if she was being controlled by some kind of childhood demon and was dreaming about the doll she had lost.
Suddenly, a scream came from behind him, this time from Gu Dongzhang. Bai Xiaosheng turned around, but Gu Dongzhang was gone, leaving drag marks on the ground. Holding a candle, he flicked his dark blue robe and chased after him, only to see a crawling black shadow grab Gu Dongzhang's legs and drag him upstairs. Bai Xiaosheng was horrified, but no matter how he chased or shouted, he couldn't grab Gu Dongzhang's limp hands. To make matters worse, when Bai Xiaosheng turned back to check the box containing the hibiscus doll, the woman crying for her doll was long gone.
Because each box looked exactly the same and wouldn't budge no matter how hard a person tried to pull it open, he had no choice but to temporarily give up on opening the boxes. After hearing this, everyone had various questions about the information given by Bai Xiaosheng.
"Master Bai, I want to ask you something, is it convenient for you to answer me?" A female voice spoke up from the group. Everyone looked and saw it was Milu. Milu was sitting between Jian Dieda and Stewed Goose. She pinched her chin and asked, "Have you seen the rag doll that Furong Dan mentioned?"
Seeing Bai Xiaosheng's blank expression, Jian Dieda, the scholar who had entered the dungeon twice, thought for a long time before finally uttering an incredulous and confused voice, "No... I was right behind her at the time. After she opened the box, it really didn't seem like there was any rag doll named Xiaohua inside..."
Stewed Goose said with a frightened look, "Shining gems, braised pork, childhood dolls... these boxes are really strange. How come only those who answer correctly can see the treasures? Is this dungeon also called 'The Emperor's Wardrobe'?"
"I'm talking about Heilan Home! You're kidding me! It's just a hallucination caused by the sister ghosts!" A bald guy in the group complained about Da'e, but his statement was immediately refuted by Stewed Goose on the spot.
"You think I'm giving you one-on-one tutoring? Do you think the box contains a math tutor or a steamed bun?!"
"Then you come here! Look at you, all talk and no action! Just like Liu Neng!" Big Goose's face turned red as he cursed loudly.
"Me, Liu Neng? I think you're more like Nicholas Zhao Si!" The bald man was all muscle and had an excellent verbal fighting ability.
Let alone others, even Jian Dieda was about to be defeated by this pair of brilliant strategists. He really wanted to teach them a lesson and make them show respect to their female teammates.
The gentle deer's train of thought was interrupted by the two, but she wasn't angry with these two idiots. The only female high school student present obviously had a guess on the tip of her tongue, but after glancing at Jian Dieda and Zhong Ding, she silently chose to keep quiet.
Jian Dieda sensed something.
"..." Zhong Ding had already raised his head and looked at him.
Jian Dieda said nothing, silently reached out, grasped the bell and tripod, and stood up.
Zhong Ding was restrained by him and seemed to have no intention of resisting. The time was up, and the system automatically urged all players. Jian Dieda and she exchanged a glance, and the host asked magnanimously, "Deer, will you submit first or should I submit?"
The deer was very polite; she smiled slightly and gestured for him to answer first, as she wasn't in a hurry.
Jian Dieda started the new unboxing round for the third time, and the order in which everyone submitted their answers was quickly revealed. Stewed Goose was at the bottom, and he and Baldy were tied for first place in terms of speed. But they didn't expect that this time, the spot for trouble would still go to the Deer. She had her limbs cut off and was hanging in mid-air, her body like a broken rag doll.
The remaining six people remained silent. This girl had always been a very kind person, and no one understood what she had done wrong in this round. They just stared at the system's refreshed matching rate of '81%' without saying a word.
But it was far from over. Today, the system was truly different, issuing another series of strange killing orders.
In the fifth round, the person who died was none other than the stewed goose who was with them, as if to verify that what Bai Xiaosheng said was true. After the lights were turned off, the stewed goose was dragged away by something crawling on the ground. It didn't scream at all, but whether it was a coincidence or not, after the lights came on, Jian Dieda immediately noticed something. He told everyone that the wooden puppet with the neck that could grow longer was gone.
"It broke the rope and came down."
Jan Dieder also said, "It may have been alive from the beginning."
"..." Everyone was completely stunned. What terrible things would happen next?
The atmosphere inside the room became oppressive again. An unseen and intangible eerie event loomed over everyone's heads. Apart from passively guessing questions and waiting to die, they didn't even receive a reward for answering correctly. The so-called sense of security among the players was gradually crumbling and shattering.
Ultimately, they were just afraid of dying. If they had known they would die such a terrible death, they would never have come in.
The development system, which had been working tirelessly behind the scenes, finally revealed a strange and cynical smirk, as if mocking these players for finally realizing that the game was more than just a "game".
"Clap. Clap clap."
A sound rang in Jane's ears.
Bai Xiaosheng panicked and whispered, "Who's crying now?"
Everyone was dumbfounded. Jian Dieda looked at the boxes that hadn't cooled down yet. It was quiet inside now, and they couldn't hear anyone crying. They stood together and couldn't help but wonder if Bai Xiaosheng had gone mad while searching for someone.
Bai Xiaosheng seemed certain. His face was pale as he said, "Listen up. The crying is hidden in the ceiling. Are the rats coming? Are the rats going to eat us?"
A ghost nursery rhyme drifted out softly, sounding like the song "The Rat's Wedding" that the children in the town sang before they disappeared. Strangely, no one could see the children, but they could hear the singing of each child... or rather, the "rat."
"Stop singing...stop singing...I'm going to kill myself and go back home."
The bald man, who used to be quite bold, was now truly terrified. He huddled in a corner, clutching the portrait of the woman, as if having a nightmare, muttering, "...The Rat's Wedding...Who is the real rat? Could it be us...? Could it all be a trap set by the 'cat' to deceive the 'rat'..."
The bald man seemed to be right. Behind this children's song was a famous folk tale about a family of mice who married their daughter to a cat. On the wedding night, the cat groom ate the entire mouse bride's family.
As fate would have it, just as the eerie melody finished, Jian Dieda saw Zhong Ding standing beside him again.
The situation was already very bad. The first thing Zhong Ding did after the music ended was to pat him on the shoulder and let out a sinister laugh.
"Kitty, you're here."
"...Did you see the 'mouse'?"
Zhong Ding's voice, which was originally very gentle, now echoed eerily in the haunted house.
*Smack*
Suddenly, all the lanterns in the Treasure Pavilion went out, and darkness descended. At the same time, the sound of wooden clogs clattering around their heads could be heard. Jian Dieda, who was holding Zhong Ding's hand, was pushed over by someone and bumped into someone. However, he quickly realized that it wasn't Zhong Ding because he could clearly smell the scent of the mummified corpse.
"Shh shh shh".
This thing makes a sound.
Jian Dieda immediately retreated, knowing that fighting this thing in the dark would be extremely disadvantageous. He instinctively grabbed his peach wood sword and moved his retreat towards the faint light source. His intuition was spot on. As a stench continued to waft over, he saw a humanoid shadow crawl to the side of one of his teammates' boxes. The shadow's lower limbs seemed severely underdeveloped. After the thick fog dissipated, it revealed a woman's long, trailing hair. When the severed body parts crawled to his feet, the shadow made a crunching sound as if it had something in its mouth.
Her identity was also confirmed by the photo in the Jane Diedda package.
"Mouse": "Sister... Sister... Sister... Xiaomei... I'm Yingying... I'm your twin sister... Yingying..."
Jian Dieda: "Yingying?"
So that's how it is... Yingying in "Yingying Teases Zhang Sheng" is actually her.
Jian Dieda saw that the female ghost who appeared next to Xiaomei that night was Yingying in front of him.
Just as he was about to communicate further with the female ghost, it seemed that some even larger ghost was approaching him and Yingying from between the walls.
Jian Dieda unconsciously gripped the peach wood sword, but then heard another scream of "Ahhh!!!" from Bai Xiaosheng. At the same time, the little Taoist priest groping in the darkness saw Yingying and Bai Xiaosheng.
They were entangled by a vengeful ghost in red and pulled away together from between the walls.
Jian Dieda: "The All-Knowing Scholar!"
Jane chased after him, and the man in red vanished instantly. The remaining players also disappeared.
Without waiting for anything to continue, he prepared to plunge into the mystery and overcome his fear, but when he reached the wall, the surface of the wall that had taken the two away no longer had an entrance.
[System: The pursuit of the "Twin Boxes" has begun. Please be aware of all attacks in the darkness. Taking three hits will result in your data being wiped and you being forced out of the game, and all main quests will fail!]
Jian Dieda felt a tightness in his chest, his anger flaring more than ever before. He closed his eyes and punched the wall. Afterward, he picked up the peach wood sword and the black-and-white photo of the conjoined twins from the ground. Back downstairs, the tables and chairs were all broken, and a musty smell filled the air. Of the puppets hanging in the air, only one remained—this single puppet had its mouth, nose, and ears bound by various red threads, looking like a "little Taoist priest" controlled by an unpacking game. Jian Dieda finally understood the system's initial hint: he would inevitably enter the game and reach this point. But he had become a puppet being led by the nose; what way was there to pass this level?
He was thinking when he suddenly heard someone calling him. He looked down and saw a bald man emerging from under an overturned wooden table on the ground.
The strong, bald, muscular man was terrified. He rushed over and grabbed Jian Dieda's arm, bursting into tears. His tearful appearance made him look like a delicate flower that needed a man's protection. Jian Dieda was shocked by his effeminate manner. Feeling utterly disgusted, he dragged him along to his death.
The bald man then grabbed his leg and begged, "Dad! Dad!! Please don't!!! There are only the two of us left! Please don't go and open the boxes!! We barely survived, so let's just stop playing!"
Jane Dieda said directly, "Who said there's only one way to open the box? I don't want to wait for the contents of the box to open by themselves."
The bald player was stunned: "What are you talking about? Are you sure you understand the rules? If you want to see all the clues, you just have to wait for the box to open by itself!"
Jane regained some of her composure and pulled her right leg back, saying, "Not necessarily."
The bald guy genuinely didn't understand what was going on. After everyone went from answering questions to "dying" one by one and finally scattering to this place, he and Jian Dieda had been circling the box and hadn't noticed anyone behind them. Now, suddenly turning around, he saw the black-haired Taoist priest practically touching his nose with a blank expression. Most importantly, besides being handsome and having pale skin, the black-haired youth had incredibly blue pupils in his narrow eyes! Combined with his robotic expression, this was too strange. Could the system have chosen an AI as the "host"?! Damn! No wonder he wasn't afraid of horror games!
The bald man was studying Jian Dieda's eye color, trying to figure out what was going on. Jian Dieda had no idea his eyes had changed like this. It seemed like some kind of emergency management program had been activated for him. After seeing the "man in red," he had no emotions left in his mind, only one thought—to pass the level quickly and find Zhong Ding and Bai Xiaosheng. At the same time, he didn't want the system to directly eliminate Zhong Ding, otherwise what he had just seen would never be clear.
Fortunately, by this point in the game, everyone's fear and greed had been amplified to the extreme. Only he seemed to grow colder the more frightened he became. Even after being treated as "AI," his eyes continued to reflect an inorganic blue light. With the professional gaze of a script analyst, he gestured to his teammates to look at the box and said:
"Didn't the elk say that what everyone sees in the box might be different?"
Bald man: "Mhm."
Jane Diedda: "That's right."
Baldy: "What's right?"
Jane didn't give a direct answer, but glanced at him and asked, "What's your name?"
The bald man blushed and said, "Just call me A-Qiang."
Jian Dieda: "Okay, Bald Qiang, you must be the worst class I've ever led, but I can't find any teammates now. What I'm about to say is the first and last time I'll say it."
Bald man: "...Yes, sir! Ah Qiang understands!"
Seeing that he was teachable, Jian Dieda began to explain: "Let me give you an example. Do you remember that blond boy? He said he saw braised pork and smelled the aroma of meat, but none of us could smell it, right? Have you ever thought that there was no smell in the box at all? The 'smell of meat' that we smelled was not the aroma of food, but dopamine."
"Dopamine?"
"Hmm. Or rather, desire. In modern society, there are many people addicted to electronic products, takeout food, and cigarettes. Essentially, it's because the brain's pleasure comes from the secretion of dopamine. When you eat something delicious, you will definitely feel happy. But in the end, happiness that is too easily obtained is low-level happiness. If people don't learn self-control, it's easy to become dependent on food. The consequences can range from obesity and high blood pressure to serious problems. All the boxes in the Treasure Pavilion have this reward mechanism, making you addicted to low-level pleasure."
The bald man seemed to understand but not quite: "So, if we ask for the box, we'll be paralyzed by low-level pleasures and have our brains controlled by dopamine? What are we supposed to do then? Not open the box?"
No, he just said he wouldn't wait for everything to happen; he would plunge into the mystery and conquer his fear.
"Whether it's opened or not, the box is still a box. Whether you're here or not, the body is still there. What can be changed is always our own hearts."
Jian Dieda raised a hand, his eyes, which were a pure blue-white like a robot's, staring at the box. At the same time, Bald Qiang noticed that the black-haired youth was wearing a leather half-finger glove on the back of his hand, and the silver-blue bracelet that Zhong Ding had put on him perfectly matched his temperament.
He touched his lips with his right index finger, then reached his left hand around the back of his slightly bent neck, pulled out the lotus hairpin, and let down his long, flowing black hair, which resembled an ink painting. Among the strands of hair that covered half of his face, a faintly visible, icy blue mechanical pupil was locked onto its target—the terrifying box that had emitted the countdown start sound.
Jane Dieter: "Next, I will start the last unboxing game, but this time I will not wait for anyone to show up. I will use my own method directly."
"As soon as it opens, I jump in and close the box, and then I can see the contents of the box clearly."
"Whether it's a human or a ghost, and what the truth of the story is, let me go into the box and see for myself."
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The author's note: The hymn to humanity is a hymn called courage. — Jane Dieda
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