Ghost Island
With Paopao away, Zhang Da and Meng Ziyu took on the task of cleaning up the battlefield.
First, he ordered the ghoul employees to piece together the players' corpses, and then soak them in pickle jars in groups of two, filling up most of the pickle building.
They will be the employees' food rations for the next few days.
Then they collected the gold coins and props that exploded at the scene.
The ghouls parasitize the players' bodies and have balance accounts and item bars, so picking them up is very easy, but the process still takes until almost dawn.
In fact, according to the previous practice, you only need to wander around the battlefield, swallow all the spoils, and spit them out twice, and a mountain of gold and a mountain of props will appear.
It's much more convenient than using ghoul employees.
But Bao Fu seemed to notice that An Rou was in a bad mood, and Da Lian stayed at An Rou's feet obediently, not leaving her side all night.
An Rou looked at it quietly, and it also looked back at its owner quietly.
“Gurgle——”
An Rou came back to her senses, opened her lips, and swallowed the words that were about to come out of her mouth.
What does Baofu know? He is just a ghoul. Devouring those who are destined to be his is his instinct.
What's more, she directed all the actions herself.
But the rich man's big mouth with the corners of his lips turned down slowly opened, and a pure white person walked out of the black hole.
An Rou slowly opened her eyes.
That is the soul of a wealthy man. It still has no facial features, but its outline is more three-dimensional and looks more solid.
The most important thing is that it no longer passes through the gathering and dispersion of the soul light spot, but directly "walks" out.
The movements are smooth and natural.
It’s not quite right to say that the soul walked out. The soul cannot escape from the void. It just stops at the edge of the black hole at a flat angle.
"Master," it said.
On its face, as smooth as an egg, a crack appeared as it spoke, and that was its lip.
An Rou felt a strong sense of familiarity. It wasn't the familiarity of sudden wealth, nor the familiarity of the soul, but...
The black hole suddenly closed and disappeared with the soul.
Meng Ziyu jumped in through the window.
"An Rou..."
As soon as he called out the name, Meng Ziyu was hit on the back of the head. It was Zhang Da who jumped in afterwards.
Zhang Da corrected him sternly: "Call me boss."
Meng Ziyu turned his head and bared his teeth, then when he looked at An Rou again, he changed his words obediently: "Boss, everything has been packed up. Old Zhang is not good at speaking, so he asked me to come and report to you.
"A total of 562 bodies of the Chosen Ones, pieced together and placed in a sauerkraut jar. 115 million gold coins, 3,690 knives... Your naming skills are really poor. Weapons are weapons, but knives..."
Zhang Da interrupted: "The knives have all been put into the warehouse. We'll sort them out when the leader comes online."
Just run, run, run and you'll be there.
He was offline in the next room, just separated by a door.
"Boss..." Paopao called out after pushing the door open. His eyes were drawn to Meng Ziyu. "Hey, Xiao Meng, why haven't you returned to your body yet?"
Meng Ziyu still parasitizes on Khan.
Khan was tall and strong, with three-dimensional and rugged facial features. He was half a head taller than Zhang Da, which made Paopao very uncomfortable.
Meng Ziyou crossed his arms and chuckled, "Why? Can't I have two parasites at the same time?"
"What about your original parasite? Don't you want it anymore? Zisha doesn't have a brother anymore..."
"Who said I don't want it anymore?! Why are you asking so many questions? Is it your business?"
Zhang Da interrupted: "Xiao Si is saving it."
"Lao Zhang, why do you tell everyone everything? Do you believe I'll beat you up?!"
Meng Ziyu raised his arm, but met Zhang Da's emotionless gaze, so he put it back awkwardly.
After the battle on Black Market Island, Zhang Da was promoted to S-rank. The ghost technique "Mist City" was mysterious and unpredictable. Even though Meng Ziyou possessed the skills of a super-divine parasite, he didn't dare to say that he could defeat it.
Xiao Si is saving?
Paopao didn't figure it out.
An Rou explained calmly, "Zhang Si transfers the parasite to Brother Zi Sha every hour to ensure that the parasite does not die."
Paopao suddenly realized.
In this way, as long as Meng Ziyu parasitizes Khan for more than 24 hours, he can completely annihilate Khan's soul and completely occupy this super-divine parasitic body.
But he was still a little confused: "Why go to all this trouble? Why not just eat the Khan's soul and become a complete parasite?"
Meng Ziyu glanced at An Rou.
Did it not want to eat? No one knew better than it how fragrant the Khan's soul was and how powerful it was.
After completely devouring it, it is very likely to be directly promoted to SS level.
However, An Rou disagreed.
An Rou: "You two go ahead and do your work. I have something to say to Paopao."
Zhang Da and Meng Zi wandered away.
Paopao watched Meng Ziyu leave, scratched his head and smiled, "It's great to have more super-divine parasites. Old Zhang and the others can parasitize anyone they want. The farm is like having a super-divine weapon."
An Rou smiled noncommittally: "You're online so early? Are you in a hurry to get your bonus?"
Paopao shook his head repeatedly: "No way, didn't the boss ask me to check something? I checked everything."
"The result?" An Rou's smile faded.
Paopao laughed and said, "Boss, you really think too much. I called my brother first to test the waters, but he was fine and didn't realize anything serious had happened.
"Also, if the people who died at the hands of the overly wealthy brother also died in real life, how many lives would that have cost? Four or five thousand in Zhongsu Town, and another two or three thousand on the Black Market Island last night. All together, it's almost ten thousand.
"But—I checked all the news reports, and there's nothing related to this. I also went through the Great Firewall and browsed various gaming forums, but no one mentioned anything like this either."
An Rou was unsure: "Not even one?"
"Some people died playing games, but that was all due to overwork and not managing their online time. It had nothing to do with the farm, the boss, or the overly wealthy guy."
Paopao paused and said, "Let's put it another way. If so many people died simultaneously in the game and in real life, how could public opinion be suppressed?
"Let's talk about the guilds, but there were also quite a few stray players who died in Zhongsu and Black Market Island. Their gaming locations are so scattered, it's impossible to completely control the information. Oh, right..."
He thought of some tidbits of gossip: "I also found out about Chizen Ichiming and Mantis.
"There's gossip online on Xiaori Island that Chizen was arrested and tortured for failing a mission; Mantis is actually the boss of a transportation group and even attended a meeting a few days ago. They're both alive and well, so it's even more impossible for the others to be dead."
"real?"
"Of course it's true!"
An Rou frowned and looked at him: "Tell the truth."
"Uh... well, I didn't find out what happened before the ruler, but Mantis went bankrupt and attended the creditors' meeting."
If you lie to your boss, you will be caught nine times out of ten.
"But boss, no matter what they do, at least the person is alive, isn't he?"
The haze in An Rou's heart finally began to dissipate. She remembered another matter she had asked Paopao to investigate and asked, "Is there any news from Qingshan Farm?"
Paopao hesitated to speak, then confessed truthfully: "I only found out that Qingshan was closed. I don't know the reason or the whereabouts of the person in charge."
Qingshan is closed?
According to Xie Xin's theory, this was an expected outcome.
An Rou didn't bother to care about the life or death of Cui Qing's family. This news made her feel better, but it was not enough to dispel all her doubts.
Paopao observed the expressions and began to change the subject.
"By the way, the forum is buzzing with activity. Everyone's discussing the disappearance of Black Market Island No. 7. Boss, do you think Phil and Yatan will join the joint investigation?"
An Rou's heart moved.
Very likely.
More and more forces were tracking Yong'an, and Nong'an had fewer and fewer places to hide. So Chu Mo and Jie Xin didn't tell her where to go next, leaving it to her to decide.
They probably thought that no matter how low-key Yongan was, it would not be able to get rid of the troubles that would come later.
After chatting with Paopao for a while, he sent him to purify the corpse poison on the battlefield land.
An Rou stared at the floor, took a deep breath, and prepared herself mentally: "Violent."
A crack appeared in the ground, and tentacles surrounded her and carried her into the depths of the void.
The soul of sudden wealth is waiting.
In the past, when An Rou saw it, she was completely relaxed and approachable, but this time, there was a hint of vigilance in her eyes.
Because the soul becomes more concrete, its body size and shape become more and more like a human being.
An Rou got straight to the point: "Jie Xin?"
Soul raised his chin slightly, and even without any facial features, he still revealed an air of surprise.
"How did the master know my name?"
An Rou was horrified.
The soul lowered its head again, its tone confused: "I'm still struggling to figure out who I am... Jie Xin, yes, my name is Jie Xin."
An Rou: "Are you the Ghost King?"
"Ghost King? What is a Ghost King, Master? I... I don't know. I can't remember."
The soul's tone and movements are very much like those of a person with amnesia, and it doesn't seem like a disguise.
An Rou quietly clenched her fists: "Then what do you remember?"
The soul knocked its forehead: "I don't remember, I don't remember anything..."
"No, you must remember, for example, Meng Ziyu and Meng Zisha are not brother and sister, but sister and brother."
An Rou's voice was cold.
The soul paused and said, "Yes, they are brother and sister. They are brother and sister... Wuliang Mountain, they are the children of the Wuliang Mountain Master..."
"What is Wuliang Mountain?"
"...I don't know. Master, I really don't know."
"Then you know I am your master?"
"I……"
The soul was stunned for a while, as if freed from the pain of memory blank, and raised its arms.
In the direction of his palm, the void tentacles were sensitive to some kind of sensation, extended over, and gently stroked his palm.
He turned around and faced An Rou: "Yes, it was you who helped me find myself again. You are my master."
An Rou remained unmoved: "Then who are you?"
The soul was silent for a moment and shook its head. "I only know that my name is Jie Xin. But I'm not the Jie Xin outside. I don't know what the Ghost King is. I'm sorry, I really... can't remember.
"Master, give me some more time, okay?"
An Rou said nothing, just looked at him quietly.
"Master... don't you believe me?"
These words finally melted the ice in her eyes.
Her slender brows furrowed, and she felt that things were becoming more and more complicated, so complicated that she felt an urge to abandon the entire farm, give up everything she had gained, and live in seclusion forever.
The soul was keenly aware of her emotions.
A round hole slowly appeared on the pure white chest, and inside the hole, an equally flawless heart was beating.
An Rou looked at the heart and vaguely realized that its beating frequency was exactly the same as her own.
"Trust me, Master."
An Rou turned around and left, her steps so hurried that she didn't know where to go.
She soon realized that she was in a void within Baofu's body, and there was nowhere to go unless Baofu spoke.
When the wish comes true, the crack opens as expected.
An Rou rushed out, fell on the floor, and gasped for breath.
The black cracks on the ground were gradually closing.
She saw the white soul inside standing there, one foot forward, as if wanting to chase but not daring to.
Lost and lonely.
An Rou believed her eyes.
She knew very well that the Ghost King Jie Xin had ulterior motives and was a terrifying existence. The soul of the rich man not only looked like him, but also said that his name was "Jie Xin".
But at the same time, she trusted her intuition.
Her intuition had been telling her from the beginning that the soul had no ill intentions and was her most loyal servant.
The problem was that the other person was a human soul from head to toe, not a personification created by a ghoul out of his yearning for humans and his desire for souls, as An Rou had previously suspected.
There is a huge difference between pretending to be a human being and actually being a human being.
She could accept that she had a close relationship with the dog, replacing the dog with a human...she just wanted to run.
The farther you run, the better.
The building beneath me began to shake slightly.
An Rou calmed herself down, walked to the window and looked out, only to see that the buildings around her were moving.
The large square representing the free trade zone was covered by two streets and one alley again, and the sauerkraut building appeared on the opposite side.
The arc-shaped building in the official trading area where she was located moved away for a distance, and the pond covered with a water boardwalk and a pavilion in the middle of the lake slowly moved over.
The pool water shimmered in the morning light.
"Boss!" Paopao waved his arms downstairs, "Where are we moving this building to?"
Seeing that An Rou didn't answer for a long time, he simply ran up.
"Boss, this trading building seems suitable for office use. Does our farm need an office building?"
An Rou shook her head: "The front yard of the villa is enough for office use, so we don't need it. This building... can be used as a staff dormitory?"
"Ghoul employee?"
Paopao was surprised to get Anrou's affirmative answer.
The previous staff dormitories were all bunk beds, crowded together, but now they have been replaced by a trading building covering such a large area. The salary upgrade is too fast.
But whatever the boss said was what he agreed to, and he finally nodded.
"There are a total of 10 trading rooms in the trading building, and the upper floors are the official traders' dormitories. Excluding Brother Fufu, including Xiao Meng, we have a total of 8 ghoul employees, which is a suitable number."
When An Rou heard Bao Fu's name, her eyelashes trembled slightly.
"Then I'll ask Brother Baofu to move the trading building behind the warehouse? Oh, there's a vegetable patch over there, should we move it back there?"
"Um."
Paopao remembered something and didn't leave.
Seeing him scratching his head, An Rou asked, "Ask whatever you want to ask."
Paopao was embarrassed. "Last time, when I saw the figure in Baofu's stomach, didn't the boss say it was his soul? I'm just curious... Has Baofu's soul changed since he ate three super gods at once?"
An Rou answered irrelevantly: "Aren't you curious about why a soul can be born in a ghoul's body?"
"I'm curious!" Paopao nodded vigorously. "I've searched all the information but couldn't find any relevant settings. Maybe it's hidden. Boss, I'm just guessing... Maybe Brother Baofu can really break through SSS and upgrade to Ghost King!"
An Rou couldn't help but look at him a few more times.
Paopao's guess coincided with hers.
Assuming that there is only one Ghost King in the Soul World, there is only one setting for the Ghost King's appearance and identity, and that is Jie Xin.
It is reasonable that another "jiexin" will be born in the body of a person who becomes rich overnight.
Xie Xin's position was threatened, so it made sense that he showed some inexplicable fear.
"Have you heard of Wuliang Mountain?"
Paopao shook his head: "I've never heard of it. Is it a mountain in Soul Realm?"
He didn't know, and An Rou didn't know even more.
Paopao: "I'll check it out after get off work. Boss, can I go see the soul of the rich old man?"
"No different from before, nothing to see."
An Rou evaded the question and transferred some money to him, "This is the dividend. Keep it safe."
Paopao was shocked by the balance.
11.5 million gold?
Success was distracted.
-
After devouring the three super gods, Bao Fu's strength increased significantly and his movement speed also increased. It only took him two days to reach the spiritual realm.
During these two days, Jie Xin, Chu Mo, and the joint team did not show up.
With the money, Paopao was busy all day long, transforming farms everywhere.
Based on the original layout, the mountain stream was reshaped to form a circular channel at the edge of the farm, and multiple tributaries were diverted to lead to vegetable fields, fish ponds, ponds, and newly reclaimed rice and wheat fields.
One of the tributaries is the widest, crossing two streets and one alley, running through the entire farm, and was naturally named "Yong'an River".
Several arch bridges have been built across the Yong'an River.
Using gold coins to reshape it is not a big task.
However, under An Rou's instructions, Paopao did not take on too much, but instead took his little helpers to copy various building materials and then directed the residents to work together.
Only with a sense of participation can residents develop a sense of belonging to their home.
As for Paopao’s little helper, it was none other than Siji.
Siji was the only player to survive the Black Market Island mission. He escaped into the trading house before the thermal ship crashed and was controlled by Zhang Da.
An Rou concluded that he had been possessed by Jie Xin, so she asked Zhang Da to kill him twice, until his destiny value was in danger and was about to fall below the lower limit of 50 points.
He was resurrected after two temporary deaths, which largely eliminated the possibility of him being controlled by Jie Xin.
Originally, An Rou wanted him to completely log off the Internet, but thinking of their conversation on the way to the Black Market Island, she went there in person.
Siji had already been terrified by Zhang Da, and he trembled and answered every question. When it came to supporting the family, he kept the same statement as before.
From this point of view, Jie Xin can also read the memory of the parasite, and there is no restriction on sensitive words, which is more useful than Meng Ziyu's ghost technique "Tongchen".
An Rou even suspected that the Ghost King Jie Xin possessed all the ghost magic.
Siji had a three-year-old daughter whose mother reportedly died during childbirth. Because the couple was poor and couldn't afford to admit her daughter to the hospital early, she suffered a hemorrhage during labor and died in the ambulance.
I guess the reason why Siji is working so hard to make money now is because of the unshakable guilt in his heart.
For the first time, An Rou showed mercy to the player and let him stay.
It's not just out of kindness. Player skills are very useful, and having only one player running around on the farm is not enough.
Having more people to help can solve the urgent problem after Paopao goes offline.
In order to prevent Siji from overthinking and revealing the farm's secrets, Paopao made up many stories about the farm's origins, but they were all rejected by Anrou.
Lies can never be fully covered up.
An Rou simply didn't mention her identity, but waved her hand to create a mountain of gold in front of Si Ji.
"I believe that no matter who you sell the clue to, you won't get as much money as I can give you."
Very simple persuasion.
Of course, An Rou couldn't give Si Ji too much money at one time, so she offered him a salary of 50,000 gold per month - which is equivalent to 250,000 gold in reality, a number that would satisfy anyone.
If Si Jiruo is smart, he should understand the principle of slow and steady progress. Otherwise, An Rou would have no reason to keep him.
Judging from his performance over the past two days, he seems to be quite well behaved. He follows Paopao around and does his work every day, and never asks any unnecessary questions.
The farm was becoming more and more lively, but An Rou locked herself in her room and rarely came out.
She had too many doubts in her mind, and she couldn't sleep until she figured them out.
An Rou wrote down every little thing that happened after entering the game and the information she collected. It was a thick stack of paper, which she read over and over again.
She gradually figured out a vague outline of the soul-calling song's core.
First of all, it is certain that the game world is connected to the real world, and the connection is much closer than people imagine.
Secondly, the top leaders of various countries, or the top leaders of large guilds with national backgrounds, are well aware of this connection, which is why they continue to invest manpower and material resources and enthusiastically participate in the Soul-Guiding Song.
There is no doubt that holographic games were developed by real people. Even An Rou had seen development videos from more than 20 years ago.
Therefore, it is normal logic that the real world has an impact on the virtual world.
This is of course abnormal logic and should be taken seriously: the virtual world affects the real world.
The theory of "luck" is the most favorable evidence.
In other words, the Soul World is not an artificially developed world at all, but more like a mysterious other world that is connected to reality through the soul-calling song.
So she didn't enter the game at all, but entered a different world.
——This conclusion made An Rou feel horrified from the bottom of her heart.
The question is, what impact does the other world have on reality? If Jie Xin is considered a person from another world, what is his purpose?
Following this conspiracy theory, the answer is clear.
One is the chaos of the real world.
After the Soul-Calling Song was released, the situation in various countries began to become turbulent.
An Rou has been watching TV news since she was a child, and most of the news she sees is about armed conflicts breaking out on the borders of certain countries or anti-socialist violence occurring in certain places.
When she was young, she thought it was really dangerous abroad, but soon she discovered that it was also dangerous in China.
Her parents died in a man-made accident - someone blew up the bridge, and dozens of vehicles and hundreds of people were killed at the same time.
The second piece of evidence is ink removal.
Chu Mo was Longyan's top player, dominating the leaderboard for two full years. It was said that many top-tier ghouls had perished at his hands, yet he had yet to achieve Legend status.
He was blocked outside the Ghost Ruins by Jie Xin.
Chu Mo went to great lengths to betray the organization and use his sudden wealth to allow other high-level players to open the Ghost Ruins.
The direct goal is to kill Jie Xin, and the ultimate goal... is most likely to end the game.
The game ends, the bridge connecting the two worlds disappears, the influence of the other world on reality is eliminated, and the real world returns to peace and prosperity?
——This conclusion also left An Rou stunned for a long time.
That annoying guy, doing annoying things, actually wants to be the savior?
If Chu Mo was here, An Rou really wanted to get straight to the point and have a good chat with him.
Unfortunately, the other party was so elusive that we couldn't find him at all.
If Chu Mo was at the farm, Bao Fu would be able to smell his scent. However, An Rou, intentionally or unintentionally, did not want to have any contact with Bao Fu these past two days.
Even if Big Face is guarding outside the door all day long.
After this analysis, a new question arises: What are the means by which the soul world interferes with reality?
Chaos is the result, not the means.
Games are a place, not a means.
An Rou thought about it and there was one thing she was certain of: the development of the Soul-Calling Song to its current state was definitely not random or coincidental.
Soul Calling Song is a monster-killing game, and using high rewards to attract players to complete tasks is the main theme of the game.
Apart from players like Siji who are just trying to make a living, for ordinary people, the goal of the game is to level up from Black Iron to Super God and Legend, and from non-leveling tasks to SSS.
The mission reward is just a carrot to attract them towards their goal.
In other words, the person who designed this game hopes that all players can climb to the top of the pyramid and kill... Jie Xin?
No, that's not right. With the Ghost King's unrivaled power, the player is not going to kill him, but to die.
An Rou thought of the Destiny List.
A strange list that has never been carefully considered.
From 0 to 100, players clearly have levels, so why are the top 100 players not sorted by level but by destiny value?
Destiny value is equal to luck.
The higher the player's destiny value, the better the luck in the game, and the higher the chance of obtaining clues and completing tasks.
On the other hand, the luckier the player is, the higher the achievements they can achieve in the game.
The legendary players in history were undoubtedly the best of the best... but they failed in their challenge to the Ghost Ruins and disappeared.
It's luck!
This game mechanism is to select the players with the highest luck and send them to the Ghost Ruins to die!
What the Soul Realm deprives of is the luck of the real world?!
-
Kairi was awakened by the sound of a looping report.
The cabin lights gradually came on and people started to get agitated.
He couldn't understand foreign languages, so he quickly opened the real-time translation software and asked his seatmate, "What happened?"
The software translated the woman's panicked voice into text.
"Terrorist attack! They said there was a terrorist attack. The plane has to return! What should I do? I need to go see my grandson... wuwuwu..."
An hour later, Kai Du returned to the transfer airport. After making many phone calls and spending a lot of money, he finally found a car willing to go to his destination through his connections.
He was stunned when he opened the car door, turned around and ran, but was clamped by people who had been lying in ambush and sent to the car.
"I just want to go see Witt. I want to give my savior a last farewell. Is that not allowed?!"
Kaiche roared angrily and helplessly, tears streaming down his face uncontrollably.
No one answered from inside the car.
He was taken to a military airport and escorted onto a special plane.
Shi Xi was waiting inside the cabin door, looking at him quietly: "If you act on your own, it will be unsafe for both you and me. Open your chest, you should understand."
"...I, I just wanted to go see him. If it weren't for him, I would be dead."
Shi Xizheng handed over a tablet. On the screen, a dark sky enveloped the cemetery, and people in black clothes held black umbrellas. The only sound coming from the speakers was the silent, subdued sound of footsteps.
The Ripper reached halfway and didn't dare to take it.
"This is……"
Shi Xizheng placed the tablet in his hand and patted his shoulder: "As long as the intention is there, that's enough. I don't mean to stop you... This is all I can do."
Kaichu held the tablet and sat down.
He was born a dwarf who never grew up. When he buried his head and cried, he looked like a helpless child.
Shi Xizheng made a gesture to the special police: Take off in five minutes.
This is the longest stay he can get, otherwise, there will be a lot of complicated and troublesome procedures later.
In Werther's kingdom, tears of gratitude, regret, or mixed feelings can only flow for five minutes.
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