Chapter 96
"Turn on the lights during the day and turn them off at night. Don't be too crazy!"
The moment the lights disappeared, China and Heigs simultaneously drew their weapons and took defensive stances.
The skill light hit the farmer's face, flickering.
An Rou frowned. "This is a farm. We work from sunrise to sunset. Isn't that normal? Besides, with Yong'an's meager financial resources, we simply can't afford to consume coal day and night. There's a daily quota for coal. We start the generator in the morning and stop when it's used up."
She looked at Yali and said, "Mr. Yali, I personally add the coal every day, and I'm the only one with the key to the engine room. There's no way the ghoul is hiding in there."
"Not necessarily. Many ghouls possess abilities you can't even imagine," Ali said. "I can only draw a conclusion after I've gone in and searched."
"Sorry, the generator is too precious. Please understand my difficulties." An Rou refused firmly.
Ali stared at her for a moment, then stepped back and asked, "Since the generator is so valuable, could the farmer explain how you got it?"
"Sorry, this is about the An family's past, so I can't talk about it."
"It must have been stolen, stolen from the train!" China shouted.
Yali glanced at her coldly, then turned to An Rou again: "If the farmer doesn't cooperate, it will make it more difficult for us to strangle the ghoul."
An Rou immediately spoke up, "I'm beginning to suspect you all have other motives for coming to the farm. You've searched for so long and found nothing, right? In that case, Mr. Yali, please take your companions and leave."
Ali glanced at the light screen and saw that the favorability level was only 40%, and suppressed his annoyance.
He didn't ask any more questions, but instead said, "We've been traveling for too long, so we plan to rest here for one night. Since the farmer wants to attract guests, why not treat us as the farm's first guests?"
An Rou shook her head: "Sorry, the farm hasn't officially opened yet."
Before he finished speaking, Ali stretched out his hand and a pile of gold coins appeared at his feet. "I see there's a hotel up ahead. Let's stay there."
-
The Yong'an Hotel was formerly the Hongyun Hotel, which was magnificent just now, but now it has fallen into darkness.
As night fell, an unsettling silence filled the huge hotel.
A dim light came in from the gate and slowly wandered into a corridor.
"There's no hot water. I'm sorry to bother you all. I'll send someone to bring dinner over in a while. Please wait." An Rou said and looked at Yali, "Mr. Yali, is there anything else?"
Yali was looking around the room and snorted when he heard this.
An Rou turned and left without even leaving a kerosene lamp. Players already had all sorts of glowing items, so they didn't need any lighting.
After walking out of the hotel, An Rou looked back at the dark lobby with a serious expression.
She could deceive players within the rules of the game as an NPC, and players could naturally use the NPC's settings to manipulate her. Given that An Rou's farm was short of money and food, Ya Li directly offered her 10,000 gold coins to stay overnight, and she couldn't refuse.
Rejection is equivalent to a flaw.
However, the first confrontation between the two sides, which was a test of each other, was finally passed.
An Rou let out a breath, holding a kerosene lamp, and walked along the pond towards the villa. She stopped at the intersection and looked at the small building next to the staff dormitory - the warehouse.
The reason why they resolutely refused Ali from entering the generator room had nothing to do with the generator. The purpose was only to use the generator room to attract the attention of the three people so that they would ignore the warehouse.
Most of the farm's ghoul employees are now in the warehouse.
Yali came too hastily, and the short time allowed An Rou to only make two arrangements: let the employees evacuate to the warehouse, and let Paopao drive the resident NPCs back to the villa to prevent them from accidentally revealing any clues.
However, if Ali delayed leaving and kept the residents locked up from beginning to end, it would not only be unsafe, but would make this behavior one of the clues.
An Rou walked towards the gate of the villa while thinking, stopped in front of the gate, and turned around to look at the buildings around the pond.
After Yali arrived, Chu Mo and Jie Xin did not show up... where did they go?
It was too much of a coincidence that Ali came right after these two uninvited guests arrived.
An Rou shook her head and pushed the door open.
The door was crowded with people, all with different expressions.
An Younian came forward and said, "Rou Rou, what happened? They... aren't good people?"
An Rou nodded: "Yes, they are from the Gal Gang, they are not good people, and they may be coveting our farm. But don't worry, Dad, I will send them away."
After dispersing the crowd, An Rou took Mei Hong and Leng Hanli to the study.
"You two performed well. However, that girl named Qina is quite hostile to you, Meihong, so she will appear less in the future. Madam Leng, I'm sorry to trouble you."
Meihong nodded and silently accepted any arrangements made by Anrou.
Leng Hanli wasn't nervous about dealing with someone destined for destiny, and she had no objections to the arrangement. But she couldn't help but ask, "Farmer, how long will Bo Bao be held captive?"
An Rou: "When you can recite the employee code word for word, you can come out."
Of the farm's inhabitants, only Heng Batong and his daughter, Heng Bobao, had not memorized the rules. Heng Batong didn't want to, while Heng Bobao simply didn't take them seriously and was too lazy to do so.
An Rou thought for a moment, spread out a piece of paper and pen, wrote a few words, and handed them to Leng Hanli: "I'm going to add one more rule to the code. You're responsible for teaching it to everyone, and make sure you follow every word."
Leng Hanli glanced at the contents on the paper: Do not mention or acknowledge the existence of ghouls on the farm in any way.
"Remember that it is taught orally. Burn the paper after you have memorized it. I will listen to all of you recite it before dinner." An Rou added.
Leng Hanli: "Yes. Also, Farmer, I didn't find Sister Xiang in the other courtyard."
An Rou was shocked. Paopao actually missed one?
Meihong said: "Sister Xiang just came back and went straight back to her room. I asked her and she saw Qina, but she didn't say anything."
An Rou let go of the worry in her heart.
Of all the NPC residents, Sister Xiang had the strangest temper. However, before Manager Liang took over, the bathhouse had always been stable under Sister Xiang's management, so she could rest assured.
Even if Ali and the other two stayed, it would be difficult for them to dig out clues from the residents due to the employee rules.
-
An Rou arranged a room for each of Yali and the other two. At this time, the three of them gathered in Yali's room to discuss their respective search results.
"Aside from the farmer, Hagrid and I encountered a total of three NPCs, none of whom were ghouls..."
In the game setting, the way players identify ghouls is simple and crude: just look at someone and determine in your heart that the other person is a ghoul.
If the opponent is really a ghoul, the ghoul level information will pop up on the light screen and activate the entire mission details.
After reporting the search results, Qina turned on the screen. The original clue lay quietly in the notification bar, the font was still black, and it had not expired.
[Quest clue: It appeared, in a place where it shouldn't have appeared.]
China said, "Captain, the clues are 40% relevant. If the ghoul is really hiding here, the mission details shouldn't be difficult to uncover..."
Yali interrupted her: "So according to your judgment, this farm is fine?"
China was speechless.
How could there be no problems? Intuitively speaking, this strange place was full of problems.
But experience told her that it shouldn't be that difficult to dig up clues with such a high degree of correlation.
Ali was also pondering the clues word by word. "The connection is so high, yet the ghoul is hiding so deeply. This contradiction itself is a problem. But this problem is also easy to explain. This SSS-level ghoul has a high IQ. It's playing hide-and-seek with us."
The farm in Zhongsu Town inexplicably appeared in Guangyuan Town, which perfectly matched the clues given. This clue must point to Yong'an Farm, and the clue has not yet failed, indicating that the ghoul has never left the farm.
Before China could say anything, Heigs couldn't help but exclaimed, "But didn't the forum say that the boss of the Zhongsu Town Ghoul Tide was a Crazy Ghoul?!"
Normally, all berserk ghouls are already mentally demented. So how could this SSS-rank berserk ghoul possess such high intelligence?
With the help of IQ, the difficulty of strangulation is increased by several orders of magnitude compared to the crazy transformation!
"Hagrid, you... know?" China looked at him in surprise.
Heigs didn't bother to answer her. He said to Ali, "Captain Ali, we're reporting to headquarters..."
He covered his mouth with a lightning-fast movement from Yali.
Someone is knocking on the door.
Ali's sharp eyes swept over Heigth, and Heigth blinked quickly.
Qina walked over and opened the door: "Mrs. Leng?"
Leng Hanli put on a polite smile and gestured to the dining cart: "The farmer asked me to deliver the food to the guests."
She looked past China and nodded to Heigs.
Heigs shuddered and lowered his head.
"Thank you." Qina pulled the food cart in and said before closing the door, "You can pick up the empty plates tomorrow."
"Okay, everyone, enjoy your meal." Leng Hanli's calm voice came from outside the door.
The footsteps faded away.
Yali lifted the curtain and looked out. Leng Hanli was walking towards the courtyard with a kerosene lamp in her hand, without any unusual behavior.
He nodded to China.
Heigs quickly said something nonsense: "I just took a closer look, Madam Leng is not a ghoul."
Qina rolled her eyes and said to Yali, "The food is fine. It contains... Yong'an Hotel's signature pickled fish."
He hadn't eaten lunch yet, so he strode over. He couldn't use chopsticks, so he grabbed a fork and stabbed a piece of fish.
“Oh my god, weird and delicious!”
Qina retracted her speechless gaze and walked towards Yali: "Captain, I also think we should report to headquarters."
Yali looked at her coldly, and his meaning was very clear: he would not report.
"Why?" Qina didn't understand. "That might be a top-level ghoul that hasn't transformed yet. It's very cunning!"
-
Paopao sneaked into the villa and went into the study, where he saw An Rou sitting on a chair with her face raised.
Her appearance has returned to its familiar appearance.
Paopao didn't say anything. He put a stack of disguise cards on the table, sat down opposite Anrou, and began to take off his goose feather boots.
I bought the disguise card temporarily at the pawnshop in Guangyuan Town. It had the speed bonus of the goose feather boots, and it took less than an hour to go back and forth.
"How many did you buy?" An Rou suddenly asked.
Paopao: "Thirty, all high-quality."
Advanced Disguise Cards are very useful, but they have many limitations, mainly two of which are: first, NPCs can naturally see through disguises, presumably to prevent players from using Disguise Cards to deceive NPCs; second, the more players around the Disguise, the shorter the duration of the Disguise effect, but the specific duration is not stated in the item details.
To steal the generator, An Rou bought four advanced disguise cards from a pawn shop. She used two of them to escape the train, each lasting less than two hours.
After Ali arrived in the afternoon, he used up two more cards. Since there were always players around, the duration was shorter than before, and it only added up to more than two hours.
The fourth disguise card was activated by Paopao when he was "forced" away by Ali. Otherwise, Anrou would have been exposed long ago.
Paopao himself used a disguise card, which he had picked up from the pile of props when he had locked the employees in the warehouse. It was only a basic card, and with three players around, it lasted less than five minutes.
Before he even ran out of the farm, his true colors were revealed.
Fortunately, Ali and the other two didn’t see it.
An Rou silently calculated in her mind that as long as she could get rid of Ali as soon as possible, thirty advanced camouflage cards should be enough.
It's just a waste of 300,000 gold.
Paopao asked in confusion, "Boss, why don't you just kill Ali? Even though he's ranked 37th on the Destiny List, his rank is only that of a Great God. Brother Baofu should be able to defeat him."
"And then what? Destroy the farm you worked so hard to rebuild?"
Paopao thought for a moment and said, "Why not lead him out of the farm? This is all wasteland anyway."
An Rou kept looking up and shook her head: "Chu Mo is a super god, he doesn't take Bao Bao seriously at all. Yali is a great god, I'm not sure if Bao Bao can beat him. You forgot, Yali has the Seven Souls Sword in his hand."
Paopao suddenly realized that the situation was so sudden that he had actually forgotten about the Seven Souls Sword.
The combat power of a high-level great god who possesses the Lanwu Flying Sword is indeed not comparable to that of Tang Lang and his ilk.
"I'm sorry, boss. It's because my level is too low that I lost the Seven Souls Sword..."
If the level is higher and the mental value consumption is less, he can use two stages of the Seven Souls Sword skills in succession, so he won't have to flee in embarrassment when he encounters Ali and lose the Seven Souls Sword.
Paopao scratched his head and added, "But Brother Baofu is already at the top level, and we still have so many A-level ghouls we can use. Killing Ali will definitely be no problem."
An Rou still shook her head.
His sudden wealth was achieved by devouring two top players—Jiu Ren and Shakuzen Ichimura. It was said that Shakuzen Ichimura had reached a high of 32nd place, and like Ali, he was only one step away from becoming a god.
But they were buried in the belly of sudden wealth, which was an extremely sudden situation from their own point of view.
It was clear in front of the ruler that An Rou had carefully planned it, and that Bao Fu was going to deliver the final blow.
The old guys were all focused on the ghost ruins, and with victory in sight, they were unexpectedly swallowed up by the sudden wealth.
If they really fought face to face, An Rou didn't think that Su Fu could kill the old man. After all, he was number three on the list, the best of the best.
In other words, An Rou had no clear benchmark for the combat effectiveness of the wealthy. She didn't want to take any risks.
To put it another way, the other A-level employees were also farm assets that she had cultivated at the expense of many players' corpses. If they were to be lost at Ali's hands... it would be a huge loss.
"Then..." Paopao continued to suggest, "Why don't we create a mission in Guangyuan Town, a small ghoul wave, to lure them away, and then we can take the opportunity to escape? Anyway, we already have the generator."
But Anrou shook her head for the third time and rejected his proposal.
"Yali just came here for Baobao and won't leave." An Rou said, "Do you remember what you told me about Yali's personality?"
"Arrogant and domineering, looking down on everyone?"
An Rou sneered: "Judging from his words and actions today, it doesn't seem like it."
Although a bit strong, overall he is polite.
Paopao touched his neck. It was injured by Ali's high-powered Silver Wind Mace. Now there was a light red mark there that could not be erased.
Ali, he let me go because of his boss's face.
Why?
Paopao's eyes lit up: "For favorability? He's trying to win the boss's favor?"
An Rou nodded, then shook her head. "It's not just me, it's the favorability of all the NPCs on the farm. At Yali's level, he wouldn't go to such lengths to please the NPCs when doing ordinary tasks. He did this for one reason: he wanted to keep his destiny as high as possible and not destroy his luck."
"And the only things worth his caution are high-level missions and high-level ghouls."
-
"You don't need to ask why, just obey my orders."
Qina was very upset by Yali's coldness.
China: "Losing an SSS-class mission would have more serious consequences than losing a generator. Yali, you have Witt's support, but Hagrid and I have nothing!"
Bang!
China turned her head away, her face burning with pain.
The thin glove scraped a dense trail of blood on her face.
Ali fished out a few gold coins and slowly cleaned the stains off his gloves. His movements were graceful, but his words were cold: "My current situation has nothing to do with Witt. Do you understand, China?"
Qina gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, saying nothing.
Heigs quickly mustered up the courage to chime in: "Qina, you're taking the guild rules too seriously. When you're on a mission out there, you must obey the captain!"
He secretly winked at Qina.
Qina turned and walked away, returning to her room.
Heigs continued to smile apologetically at Ali, "Don't be angry, Captain. That's just how China is. She's even more impulsive than a man. I...I'll go ask about the T23's driving situation."
He glanced at the hot food on the dining car, touched his hungry stomach and walked away. He didn't notice that when he mentioned "T23", Ali's hand on the windowsill suddenly clenched.
The T21 mission a month ago was a success for the guild, but a complete failure for him.
That ghoul boss, just an SS-level crazy-transformed ghoul, actually ran away right under his nose!
Later, rumors spread in the forum that the boss was strangled by the ink remover, making Ali feel even more humiliated.
Being recycled by the game, or being strangled by other high-level players, Ali would not feel such intense humiliation. But it was Chumo, and the nickname forced upon him was Little Chumo!
"Remember T21? I'll give you one."
——This morning, the man appeared in the lifeless land, stepping on the Seven Souls Sword in the weeds, and said these words to him who was following him in the most casual tone.
And a quest clue.
"Give me back one...ha!"
His mittened fist slammed down on the windowsill, shattering the tiles.
The SSS-level ghoul and Lanwu Seven Souls Sword were like trash that could be discarded at will for Chumo.
You can give it to beggars on the street at will.
-
"They had already discovered that the farm was Yong'an Farm in Zhongsu Town, and naturally thought of the SSS-level BOSS in the farm's ghoul tide. Whether it was the mission reward or the Purple Phoenix Flame Sword that was violently devoured along with the old people, each one was enough to make Ali's heart beat.
"Yali, we're here for Baobao."
Paopao pondered Anrou's words carefully: "Boss's analysis... is correct."
An Rou lowered her head, her dilated pupils refocused, and she looked at Paopao.
“It was just analysis before, but now it’s a fact.”
Paopao suddenly realized: "The boss was eavesdropping just now?"
A huge, terrified face emerged from the ground.
An Rou bent down and touched Bao Fu's forehead. In this land, it was everywhere, just like she was everywhere.
"Then Boss, what are we going to do with Ali?"
"From the beginning to the end, Ali was not the focus." An Rou said, "The focus is on the purpose of the person who brought him here."
Paopao was confused again: "Didn't Yali track him down? He led him here... oh yes!"
He clapped his hands: "Qi Mo, it must be Qi Mo! No wonder he didn't leave even after I told Yali that Qi Mo had completed the task. He knew Qi Mo was here a long time ago!"
"Besides," An Rou narrowed her eyes, "Yali knew that Chu Mo wouldn't do anything, so they might have reached some kind of deal."
After saying that, An Rou suddenly smiled: "No matter what it is, it's a good thing that Chu Mo didn't do it himself."
Otherwise, the chance of getting rich quickly would have most likely disappeared.
"What exactly does ink removal mean?" Paopao muttered, "Boss, I'll go find him and ask him!"
An Rou stopped him and said, "If Chu Mo knew how to explain, he would have shown up long ago. Why are you hiding? Go offline and have a rest first. Come back online early tomorrow."
"Ah? I'm still offline? I definitely can't log off in this situation!"
"Don't worry, as long as we hold our ground and don't let Ali and the others see the ghoul, they won't be able to activate the mission details. To protect their life points, they won't dare to act recklessly. You should log off and log back on as soon as possible. If something really happens, you can still help tomorrow."
After An Rou finished speaking, she narrowed her eyes again, "As for removing the ink, let's see how much patience he has first."
-
On the roof of the barber shop, the pitch-black night enveloped two figures, one standing and the other lying, as if they had not changed their posture since the afternoon.
Xie Xin put his hands behind his back, glanced at the man with his eyes closed as if dead, and said with a smile: "She is smarter than you and I thought."
After waiting for a long time, I finally heard Chu Mo's hoarse voice: "It's smarter than you think."
"Are you calling me conceited?" Xie Xin smiled dumbly, not paying any attention. "Since you're here for the Ghost Ruins, why don't you just force that ghoul out? Beating around the bush and wasting time isn't like you."
"You're at the mission location, but you're still too stupid to dig out the details of the mission." Chu Mo opened his eyes and gave Jie Xin a dead look. "Can I open the Ghost Ruins and see you?"
Xie Xin nodded in agreement: "That makes sense. Let's wait and see."
This wait lasted for three days.
For the past three days, An Rou issued an eviction order every day, but Ali always stayed on the farm under the pretext of searching for ghouls and using gold coins as a means to spend.
The three of them wandered around the farm day and night looking for clues, but found nothing.
At five o'clock in the afternoon, the power was cut off and the lights were turned off on the farm. The sky darkened again, and the darkness enveloped the buildings around the pond layer by layer.
"China," Heigs jumped onto the roof of the hotel and sat next to China. "It's been so long, headquarters shouldn't have noticed, right?"
"Didn't Ali tell the headquarters that he would take us to stay on Ghost Island to complete the mission?" Qina squinted her eyes and looked at the fruit forest not far away without turning her head.
"I was talking about the generator."
China turned her head to look at Heigs and frowned.
Train T23 had lost three steam generators, which Ali had paid to replace. Carriage 18 was severely damaged, which Ali also paid to repair. This astronomical sum, which the two of them could never come up with, became Ali's weak point in gaining control over them.
T23 arrived at Onigashima the next day, and the headquarters did not ask about it, which means that the matter had been successfully covered up.
But Heigs's complacency made China feel a little contempt.
This partner in the game still can't tell the difference between the important and the unimportant after all these years.
Is the generator theft the most important thing right now? It's the SSS-rank ghoul lurking in the farm!
After three days, she felt as uneasy as the peacefulness of this strange farm.
They saw other residents of the farm, but without exception, these NPCs turned around and left when they saw the three people.
Forcibly intercepting it will immediately reduce the favorability.
I took out the gold coins and asked about the matter in a nice tone, but no one bought it.
Those with bad tempers just pretend to be deaf and dumb, and occasionally they see a few people whose eyes are dazzled by gold coins, but they stammer and say nothing useful.
Abnormal, this place and the people here are really abnormal.
China wanted to report directly to the headquarters countless times, but when she thought of Ali's warning, she had to suppress the urge.
The more bizarre the farm became, the more confident Ali became, especially since the initial clue that was said to have come from ink removal had not yet failed.
Heigs sat on the bench in silence, rubbing his nose. "Qina, go get some sleep. You haven't logged off or rested in three days. I'll be on guard today."
China: "Go to sleep."
Heigs shrugged indifferently, jumped off the roof, and went back to his room.
Qina took out a spiritual potion from the props column and drank it carefully in a small sip.
The first thing affected by staying up late is your mental state. Once your mental state reaches zero, your health will suffer. However, of the four potions, mental state potions are the least used by ordinary players. Qina only has two low-level potions in her inventory.
Now, there is only half a bottle left.
Fortunately, the life potion can also relieve mental fatigue, so I can hold on when I really need it.
Qina rubbed her eyes and took a sip of the medicine. Her slightly blurry vision immediately became clear, and she could even see the weeds on the barren land outside the farm.
Unfortunately, the slowly rising hillside further away blocked her view.
On the back of Yuyangling, a line of black shadows rushed towards the farm like a tide of ants.
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