Chapter 232

After completing the day's tasks and returning to the dormitory, Su Bei was not sleepy. He was thinking about the Life Stone.

Through Wu Mingliang's judgment, Su Bei had learned that the dust floating in the sky of the Nightmare World was the fragments of meteorites falling from the sky. But this could not completely rule out the possibility that the Life Stone was also a meteorite falling from the sky.

Before, he couldn't give the Life Stone fragment he had to Wu Mingbai for evaluation. After all, it was one of his trump cards and he couldn't expose it easily. He couldn't see the Life Stone in the Nightmare World, let alone bring them out, so this idea could only be put on hold for the time being.

Now that the Life Stone has fallen into the real world and is likely to be obtained by the protagonists or the government, can he take this opportunity to verify it?

Don't think this is just looking for trouble, this kind of verification is very necessary. Su Bei doesn't want to find out that everything is not over yet and he has missed something after he has gone through so much trouble to destroy all the meteorites in the Nightmare World. That would be really funny.

It seems that I have to stay with Jiang Tianming during this period of time, as he is the one who is most likely to come into contact with the Life Stone. Thinking of this, Su Bei glanced at the recent task schedule.

Although they are now on a mission to kill nightmare beasts as required by the government, the academy has not completely given up on training them during this period. They are carefully divided into groups, and try to let everyone form teams randomly, so that they can have a better understanding of each other.

Except for the first day when he and Jiang Tianming teamed up, they never met again afterwards. Thinking about it this way, maybe he didn't need to do anything at all, and he and Jiang Tianming would naturally encounter the Life Stone together.

However, Su Bei would not hold out too much hope for such a coincidence, he had to be fully prepared. Su Bei thought about it and quickly came up with an idea. According to their experience during this period, the Life Stone incident could not be concluded in one chapter, at least their previous experience of killing the Nightmare Beast would also be part of the prelude.

Judging from the author's previous writer's block, I'm afraid that when they encounter the Life Stone, the next comic will be updated. So no matter where he is at the time, as long as he calls Jiang Tianming when the update prompt for the next chapter of the comic appears, Su Bei has an 80% chance of rushing over to participate in the plot.

One month after the incident, Su Bei finally teamed up with Jiang Tianming again. This time, there were four members on the mission, because according to the clues shown in the intelligence data, there was at least a mid-level nightmare beast at the mission location, and there was even a certain possibility that it was a high-level nightmare beast. So the academy sent four people to complete the mission together to ensure that everything went well.

The four people were Su Bei, Jiang Tianming, Ling You and Li Shu. This lineup made Su Bei unsure whether something big would happen, after all, except Jiang Tianming, the others were nothing special.

"Do you have any misunderstanding about your popularity?" Just as he was looking at the message on his phone and thinking this, the voice of "Comic Consciousness" suddenly rang out, as if it could no longer bear it.

Su Bei was startled by its sudden appearance, but quickly reacted and sneered: "So what? I don't have any way to judge popularity."

The only three-dimensional things he could see were forums. Although the number of posts on a forum was one way to judge popularity, this forum mostly discussed the plot, and everything else seemed to be on other software, so it was only lively for two or three days when the comics were updated, and then it would become quiet.

In Subei, comics are updated only once every few months, so it's even slower to see posts on the forum. He can only guess who will have higher popularity based on some comic common sense, such as the protagonists, himself, and a few girls...but he knows almost nothing about the real situation.

"..." "Comic Consciousness" was silent for a while with a guilty conscience, and then replied, "In your team, you and Li Shu are both very popular. Although Ling You rarely appears, he is very popular among male readers.

Su Bei knows that he is very popular. Please, he created this character specifically for the purpose of discussion. If his popularity is very low, doesn’t it mean that all his efforts are in vain? Moreover, every time the comics are updated, there are always discussion topics related to him. Even a fool would not fail to realize that he is very popular.

However, because he is not an original character in the comics, Su Bei always subconsciously believes that the comic book author will ignore him and not actively add him into the plot. This is not an unfounded worry. After all, he does not even have the aura of a protagonist, so it is normal for him not to think of himself as a protagonist.

Now he realized that he had overlooked one thing. The protagonist's halo is not equal to the author's impression. The author can also see his high popularity and will naturally not leave him unused. You know, popular characters = money-making tools. Who doesn't want to make money?

As for Li Shu, he understood it after thinking about it. The yandere character of the other party has a large market in the two-dimensional world, not to mention that the object of his yandere is the protagonist of the comic, Jiang Tianming, which is really full of buffs.

"That means there's a real possibility that something might happen to us," Su Bei said, quickly standing up and walking towards the desk.

"Where are you going?" "Comic Consciousness" asked puzzledly.

Su Bei sat at the desk and picked up his pen: "Of course I made preparations in advance."

First of all, judging from the list of participants this time, Wu Mingbai probably will not participate in this incident. Therefore, if he wants the Life Stone to be judged by the other party, he has to think of a good way.

Secondly, to be honest, Su Bei is a little worried about the "Black Flash" organization. He has a hunch that no matter what the results of their research on the underground people are, the next time they cause trouble will definitely be big.

By then he might not have the leisure to plan to save the world, so while they are not involved in the plot now, Su Bei feels that he'd better finish laying the groundwork as soon as possible.

It would be best to take advantage of recent events to let readers know that as long as all the meteorite powder in the Nightmare World is destroyed, the Nightmare can also be destroyed.

If it doesn't work this time, try again next time, the sooner the better. As long as he can get this impression right, the author will have his own design and he won't need to plan it all.

But it's not certain, who knows whether the author will carry out his idea. Thinking of this, Su Bei asked the "comic consciousness": "If I design a method for the nightmare beasts to be completely eliminated and let the readers believe that this is the fact. Then do I still need to design a plan for the protagonist group to complete the plan?"

"No, as long as there is enough discussion on the forum about this plan, the author will design the plot himself." "Comic Consciousness" replied.

This is undoubtedly good news, and northern Jiangsu can save a lot of trouble.

"Comic Consciousness" went on to say: "The reason why he didn't think of a solution to the problem was mainly because he didn't know that this was a real world, and he didn't think that readers would care about it, so he didn't solve the problem. But since the solution has already been found, and readers have noticed the problem, the author naturally doesn't mind using it."

After hearing this explanation, Su Bei suddenly thought of a question: "If you say so, then if I had made this issue a big deal in the forum from the beginning, wouldn't the author have to find a way to solve the problem?"

If this is true, then he is a real complainer.

"Of course not." "Comic Consciousness" immediately retorted, "You know, even if the author has some unfinished foreshadowing, he can leave it unfinished as long as he is too lazy to write, which can just leave some room for fan authors to create."

Su Bei: "..."

Such reasonable words, he couldn't refute them.

After saying this, he continued to plan what he should do next. After the design was finished, Su Bei suddenly remembered something and sent a message to Feng Lan: "How is the underground man's prophecy being handled?"

A month has passed since they fell, the Black Flash organization has not shown any signs of change, and the underground people have not been exterminated. But this does not mean that the matter has been resolved, otherwise the teacher would have told them long ago.

Feng Lan did not hide it and quickly replied: "We have used a secret method to delay the prophecy, but if we want to solve it completely, we still need to find the reason for the demise of the underground people."

"Do you have any clues about the reason for their demise?" Su Bei asked curiously.

"No." The other party replied with a message and then attached an explanation, "But according to my feeling, it will take some time for them to be extinct. After we delay it, the time will only be longer. It should be enough for the government to find out the truth."

He obviously talks more than usual on the phone, but that may be because of the professional issues involved.

After learning about the current situation of the underground people, Su Bei frowned slightly. The current situation is very obvious, they definitely have a plot. The author has left a foreshadowing in the comics, but there is no intention to provide a sequel in the short term. Then their sequel may form a new event.

That doesn't sound very interesting. I'll see if I can avoid it when the time comes.

Shaking his head, Su Bei lay on the bed. The plot might start tomorrow, so he had to fall asleep early and conserve his energy.

When he woke up and arrived at the school gate, Jiang Tianming and the other two were already waiting for him. There were many special government taxis parked outside the school gate, all used to pick up and drop off students from their school.

Generally, a team would last a whole day, and a driver would pick them up and drop them off for all the missions. As soon as he got in the car and saw the driver's appearance, Su Bei raised his eyebrows in surprise.

The driver also recognized him and greeted him with a smile: "Hello, little classmate. I didn't expect that we meet again today."

This person was the driver who had driven the car with Lan Subing that day. He was a supernatural being with the ability of "Smooth Driving". After getting to know the driver, they drove to the first mission location of the day.

This is a small town surrounded by mountains and rivers. Recently, nightmare beasts have been appearing frequently, and several people have died in the town. However, it is worth mentioning that the first deaths occurred a month ago, before the nightmare beasts sensed the breath of the life stone.

So even though the presence of the Nightmare Beast was detected in the town, the supernatural government was a little suspicious that it was not the Nightmare Beast that was killing people. That's why they didn't send professionals, but instead sent students to practice.

"It doesn't look like these people were killed by nightmare beasts looking for the Life Stone." After reading the information, Jiang Tianming frowned and analyzed, "Nightmare beasts looking for the Life Stone generally don't waste time killing people. They will retreat if they don't find anything. How could they delay here for a month? Not to mention that their first death was a month ago, and the Life Stone issue hadn't happened yet at that time."

Indeed, this incident definitely had nothing to do with the nightmare beast that was looking for the life stone, but it might not be unrelated to other nightmare beasts. According to the person who reported the case, most of the victims died in a very cruel way, and every one of them died of bleeding without exception.

Bleeding takes a long time and smells very bad. If it was done by a human, it would be hard for the villagers around to notice something was wrong, especially since it wasn't the first time the person had done it.

Perhaps only a mid-level nightmare beast or a mutant can do this.

"The sheriff reported the case. We can go meet the sheriff later." Li Shu was also looking at the information. He suddenly raised his head and asked in confusion, "Didn't the families of the deceased report the case?"

This is indeed a problem. So many people died. Even if they were killed by nightmare beasts, it is impossible for the people around them not to report it.

Jiang Tianming was about to say something when he suddenly noticed that Su Bei had a smile on his face, as if he had thought of something interesting. He asked curiously, "Su Bei, what are you thinking about?"

"I was thinking, 'Changsheng Town', this name is really interesting." Su Bei had a meaningful smile on his face.

Isn't it interesting? This name is not easy to use in comics or novels. Su Bei is curious whether the residents of this town will live as long as the name of the town. If so, it will be even more interesting.

Jiang Tianming and the other two didn't know the truth about the world, so naturally they couldn't understand what he meant. Ling You asked hesitantly, "What's so interesting about that?"

"In my heart." It was impossible to explain, so Su Bei chose to talk nonsense.

The three people present were silenced by him, and Ling You felt so regretful. She was not a talkative person normally, but she got such an answer when she was occasionally curious. She just felt like shutting herself off.

After a moment of silence, Jiang Tianming decisively changed the subject, his eyes fell on the window: "This place looks a bit remote."

At this time, they were gradually driving into the mountains, and it seemed that their destination was a village deep in the mountains.

"Of course I did. I spent the whole night memorizing the route map for this place." The driver pointed at his dark circles. "It's really hard to find a village in the mountains."

"The villagers in the mountains..." Jiang Tianming suddenly thought of something, "Could it be that they didn't know about the existence of the Nightmare Beast and that's why they didn't report it?"

This is possible in the stereotype. The villages in the mountains are indeed very isolated from the news. Although the eye beast has appeared for many years, even people in big cities don’t know much about the existence of psychics, let alone a small village like this. It is normal not to call the police when you don’t know who to find.

"There shouldn't be police in a village like this, right?" Ling You asked with his eyes lowered while sitting in the back row.

Because there were four of them traveling this time, and the road they were going to was not easy to travel, the supernatural government arranged a larger off-road vehicle for them, with two rows of passenger seats. Jiang Tianming and Li Shu sat in the front row, Ling You sat in the back row, and Su Bei sat as the co-pilot.

Although this is a stereotype, it is true. In a small mountain village like this, the clan concept is strong. Justice is administered by the village chief or a respected elder, and the police are of little use here.

Li Shu gave a standard answer: "Just ask the policeman when the time comes."

They set out at 8am and arrived at their destination at noon. It was definitely not a good idea to go to someone else's village at noon. If you didn't know, you would think they were here to get a free meal.

So everyone finished their lunch in the car before driving to the front of the village and sending a message to the policeman who reported the case.

The policeman came quickly. He was wearing a T-shirt, jeans, and a crew cut. He looked very capable. When he saw the five people, he shook hands with the driver, Brother Wang, and said, "You must be the supernatural person sent by the government! I have heard of you for a long time, and I am glad to see you."

Wang Ge withdrew his hand awkwardly: "To be precise, it was these students who were on the mission, I was just the driver."

“…”

Silence is Cambridge tonight.

"Hahaha, look at me, I don't know the real man. You guys are really promising young people." After laughing awkwardly, the police immediately changed the subject, "My name is Zhou Zijian, you can just call me Xiao Zhou."

Jiang Tianming took the initiative to answer: "Officer Zhou, can you take us to a quiet place to talk about what happened in the village?"

"Of course, no problem!" Seeing that he was willing to answer, Officer Zhou breathed a sigh of relief, "I'll take you to my house. I live alone at home now."

The two of us walked towards the village together. Since it was 1pm, most people were taking a nap, so we didn't meet other villagers on the way. The information that the village is surrounded by mountains and rivers is not a lie. There is a small river flowing beside the village, which, combined with the ancient buildings and the quiet environment, is particularly soothing.

Because he didn't meet anyone else, Su Bei could only take a look at Officer Zhou's fate compass. He was stunned at the sight of Officer Zhou's large pointer in the lower half of the compass, which meant that he would pay the price of losing his life in this incident.

The specific location is that he was killed, which means that Officer Zhou will be killed intentionally by a person or nightmare beast. There is a special location for accidental death.

It seems that this Officer Zhou is most likely a good person, the type of old policeman who dies the night before retirement, which is common in TV dramas.

Noticing Su Bei's gaze, Officer Zhou looked over in confusion: "What's wrong with this student?"

Su Bei retracted his gaze and shook his head gently: "Nothing."

Unless it is necessary for battle, he will not change the fate of others at will, even the fate of death. As the saying goes, everyone has their own destiny. At the beginning, "comic consciousness" saved his fate, but the price was the death of another innocent person.

If he changed the fate of Officer Zhou's death, then another person might die. Besides, Officer Zhou might not be a good person, so let's wait and see what happens.

Seeing Jiang Tianming and others observing the environment in the village, Li Shu took the opportunity to inquire about Officer Zhou's situation: "I have a house in the village. Officer, are you from this village?"

"Yes, this is the village where I grew up. However, after I went to police school and my parents passed away one after another, I seldom came back. After graduating from college a few years ago, I started working at a police station in the neighboring city." Officer Zhou could sense that he was trying to tease him, but he didn't mind and told him everything about his situation.

After hearing this, everyone's previous doubts were immediately answered. The people in the village really did not call the police. It should be that Officer Zhou returned to the village, found the abnormality, asked about the situation, and then reported it to the supernatural government.

Jiang Tianming took over the conversation: "Why did you suddenly return to the village?"

"Because it's the anniversary of my mother's death." Officer Zhou's expression was relatively calm, but inexplicably one could feel sadness. "After returning, I wanted to visit some elders and old friends in the village, but I found that some of them had passed away. When I asked them about the specific situation, the uncles and aunts were hesitant. I asked again, and then I learned that there was a nightmare beast wreaking havoc in the village."

He then gave another bitter smile and said, "No one in the village knows what the monster is called. They think it is a monster like Nian. They only use traditional feudal superstition methods to exorcise the ghost and don't even think of finding someone to deal with it."

"Please accept my condolences. Information in the village is not well developed. We young people can only rely on us to come back often to visit." Brother Wang empathized with Officer Zhou and patted him on the shoulder to comfort him.

When they came to a house, Officer Zhou stopped to introduce: "This is Xiao Chen's house. He was one of the deceased. Because there was no one else in the family, the house was temporarily vacant. The village chief has not yet arranged a new resident for this house."

"Can we go in and take a look first?" Jiang Tianming originally wanted to get a general understanding of the situation of all the deceased, but since he had already encountered the house of one of the deceased, there was no reason not to go in and take a look.

"Of course you can." Officer Zhou naturally had no objection, because the person was already dead, the house was not locked, and he could just push the door and go in. As soon as the door opened, a gust of dust hit him in the face. Judging from the age of the house, it can be seen that the deceased must have died relatively early.

As expected, Officer Zhou fanned the dust in front of his face with his hands and said sheepishly, "Xiao Chen was the first to die, and because he had no relatives, no one helped him clean the house. It's only been a month and it's already covered in dust."

"It's okay. Where did he die and how did he die?" Jiang Tianming asked patiently.

Officer Zhou was obviously familiar with this process: "The place of death was in the woods outside the village. The cause of death... There were several small holes all over his body, and then he bled to death. If you go to the forest now, you can still see dried blood. Xiao Chen's body has been buried. If you want to dig it up, the villagers probably won't agree. But I can take you to dig the grave secretly at night."

Conservative villagers all valued being buried in peace, and if they heard they wanted to dig a grave, they would definitely stop them. Officer Zhou didn't have such an idea, but he didn't want to conflict with the villagers, so he came up with this compromise. The main reason he didn't go to dig a grave first was that he wanted to wait for professionals to go with him.

Listening to his narration, Su Bei noticed a question: "Is there anything in that grove? Why did he go there alone?"

The grove sounded like a place for secret meetings, so Su Bei suspected that the other party was not alone and there was something else hidden. The secret here might be hidden by most people, or it might be that most people were hiding it from them.