Nightmare Forest
After going offline, Paopao sat in the holographic cabin for half an hour.
The holographic sensor on his body had cooled down, becoming bone-chillingly cold.
He felt like he was still trapped in that small, dark space. Everything seemed so unreal like a short nightmare, yet so real that it made him tremble.
Brother, are you experiencing the same fear?
Or rather, the fear my brother experienced was deeper, more despairing, because the one living inside him was the Ghost King.
Paopao couldn't help but think of a documentary he'd seen about the current state of child support. Many people in the comments commented on the feelings of the elderly in nursing homes before their death, which was unbearable to contemplate.
Lonely and helpless, even if full of hope for life, one can only curl up in the cold bed, waiting for death to come.
What's the difference between him and Shi Xizheng?
From the moment An Rou told him that Shi Xi was being parasitized, Paopao's clever mind realized that another crucial and painful choice was upon him.
He is a wanted criminal hidden under the table by the country. Saving Shi Xizheng means he must leave the game and expose himself.
He abandoned the farm, abandoned his boss, abandoned Heng Bobao... He abandoned everything he cherished most during this period of time, but in return he only got a possibility.
Maybe Shi Xizheng can be saved, or maybe he can't be saved.
After all, the one living in his body is the Ghost King.
Paopao slapped himself twice for his cowardice and selfishness.
The moment he nodded and pressed the offline button, he realized that he was just as hypocritical as Shi Xizheng. And the boss was still trying to persuade him at the last moment -
"Since you've paid the price, you should work hard to get the result you want. Even if you regret it, it should be meaningful."
The boss is right.
Paopao raised his flushed cheeks and took a deep breath.
He jumped out of the holographic cabin, took out the mobile phone he found at Qingshan Farm, and turned it on.
He knew the number of the holographic command center by heart, and he knew his brother's office extension number even better.
The moment the phone was connected, Paopao's heart almost jumped out of his chest. He really hoped that it was his brother's voice coming from the other end.
However, the voice was unfamiliar: "Hello, this is President Long Yan's office."
"Shi Xi is being parasitized by a ghoul, force him offline immediately!"
Paopao said a sentence quickly and was about to hang up when the other party replied with three words.
"Shi Ximing?"
Paopao's hand, stained with the sensor, trembled, and the phone fell to the ground. He hurriedly picked it up and turned it off.
His mind was in such a mess that he couldn't even think about why the other party called out his name in the first place.
But Paopao instinctively sensed danger, threw his phone into the holographic cabin, picked up his clothes and ran out.
It's too late.
"Stop, don't move!"
"Hands up!"
"Target found, target found!"
At the gate, several black gun muzzles were pointed at Paopao, and the glaring red dots of lasers fell on him. Then, a strong flashlight covered his eyes.
"Confirmed to be Shi Ximing!"
-
Holographic command center, interrogation room.
Paopao's hands were handcuffed to the back of a steel chair welded to the ground. He shook his legs nervously until someone finally pushed the door open.
"He told you, the Ghost King told you that I was in Qingshan, right?"
Paopao yelled and jumped up from the chair, his wrist hurt and he fell back onto the seat.
Yu Fengqiu sat down opposite him, put down the tablet in his hand, and stared into his eyes quietly.
"Ghost King?"
Paopao swallowed hard and nodded desperately, "Shi Xizheng has been possessed by the Ghost King. He's no longer Shi Xizheng! You must cut off the power immediately and force him offline. Otherwise, not only will he die, but your entire Longyan will be destroyed!"
"Oh? Have you seen the Ghost King?" Yu Fengqiu didn't seem anxious at all. "Tell me, what does the game's ultimate boss look like?"
"What do you look like? Like a human, like a dog, like a human! You don't believe me at all!"
"If you want me to believe you, then yes, answer a few questions first."
Paopao tried to calm himself down: "Go ahead."
Yu Fengqiu: "What's your true level?"
Paopao: "Gold high level."
Yu Fengqiu: "Have you ever been to the Ghost Ruins?"
Paopao understood what he meant, and the handcuffs clanged from his struggle. "I'm telling the truth! Who said the Ghost King can only hide in the Ghost Ruins? He can parasitize anyone. He's hiding in your Longyan, and his current identity is Shi Xizheng, the president of Longyan! Why don't you believe me?!"
Yu Fengqiu sneered, "You should answer this question. Shi Ximing, you've been secretly breeding Gu for the Yong'an mission, causing significant losses to various countries. Now that the president has seized the opportunity to wipe out Yong'an, you come here and claim that the president has been parasitized? Tell me, why should I believe you?!"
Paopao opened his mouth, speechless.
Yu Fengqiu opened the tablet and pushed it in front of him.
"The Guild Master informed us of your hiding place. He had discovered it long ago and kept it a secret, just to take advantage of your situation. Now that the Yong'an mission is at its end, he's worried that you might become desperate, so he ordered us to capture you in advance.
"Shi Ximing, you have to thank your brother. Once the president successfully takes care of Yongan, he might still be able to save you. Otherwise, do you think you could sit in the interrogation room unharmed instead of lying like a dead dog in the torture chamber?
"Oh yes, the president specifically asked me to tell you that he is already a super god listed on the Destiny List and is capable of protecting himself. You don't have to worry."
On the tablet was a message reproduced from Longyan Logistics. The sender was "Lü," and the recipient was clearly a high-ranking member of the logistics department.
Paopao scanned the entire page and his eyes landed on one of the sentences.
[I'm temporarily placing Shi Ximing in the interrogation room. I know this isn't in accordance with protocol. I'll be responsible for any consequences...]
Between the lines, the concern of a brother is revealed.
Paopao lost his mind for a moment.
What’s going on? Did the boss make a mistake? My brother isn’t infected?
Was it because he had brought trouble to his boss by shouting out his identity in public that afternoon?
Or... the boss is just taking this opportunity to get him out of the game?
Yu Fengqiu picked up the tablet and stood up. He paused as he passed by Paopao: "You are still young and have a long way to go. If you want to go on well, just be honest and take it with you. If not for yourself, think about your brother too."
Paopao trembled all over.
He suddenly realized something, twisted his body desperately, and shouted at Fengqiu's back.
"Fake! These messages are all fake! The Ghost King can hear everyone's conversations in the game, and he can read the memories of the parasite! These are not sent by Shi Xizheng, but by the Ghost King! It's the Ghost King!"
"This kid is really crazy." Yu Fengqiu shook his head helplessly and pushed the door open to leave.
-
An Rou simply took the wine and returned to the void to drink with Princess Banyue.
In the dim fluorescent light, there was only the occasional sound of two people clinking glasses, and they were both very silent.
After an unknown amount of time, Princess Banyue suddenly patted the coffee table and said, "I know!"
An Rou looked up at her, only to see the princess raising an index finger and squinting her eyes as she looked at her with scrutiny.
"You're so cunning, An Rou! You knew that Paopao wouldn't succeed, right?! You just found an opportunity to make him leave the game so that he wouldn't follow in Shi Xizheng's footsteps. Am I right?"
An Rou rolled her eyes and took a sip of wine.
The princess leaned forward and put her eyes very close to him: "Really?"
An Rou was also stunned for a moment: "Are you trying to trick me?"
She also realized that the princess's accusation was sudden and false, and was just a trick.
The princess chuckled and clinked her glass with hers. "I just feel uneasy, don't mind. So, I'll drink three glasses as punishment. Three glasses isn't enough? Then I'll finish a whole bottle!"
"This is my wine. You're taking advantage of me no matter how much you drink."
The princess put down the bottle in disappointment. Her expression and behavior did not look like that of a fifty-year-old at all.
Of course, the character created by the player will not age. Having been a stunning beauty for more than 20 years, her mentality is indeed much younger than her peers.
An Rou said, "But you guessed right. My judgment is that Paopao has a chance of success, but the probability of success is very low."
"Are you really fooling me?" The princess glared.
"Don't you think so?" An Rou asked back, "With your qualifications, you must know quite a few high-ranking members of the guild, but you didn't pass on the alarm through those channels. Instead, you chose to agree to my plan, letting Paopao walk into a trap—just because he's Shi Xizheng's brother?"
impossible.
The princess had been able to stay in the game for so long with her high destiny value. Based on this alone, An Rou concluded that she was the smartest player she had ever seen.
An Rou had explained Paopao's identity and situation to the princess in detail beforehand. The princess naturally knew Paopao's awkward situation: he was not only the brother of Guild President Long Yan, but also a wanted criminal in real life.
Apart from these two points, in terms of rank alone, Paopao was the most common follower of the Duozhu religion. How could he easily meet the church's top brass? Even if he did, who would easily believe his words?
What's more, his opponent is the Ghost King.
The princess was silent for a while, then picked up the bottle again and drank a gulp, wiping the wine off her chin.
"From the time I first entered Soul-Guiding Song until now, over twenty years later, I've often pondered a question."
The princess said, without a trace of regret on her face, "The holographic cabin can digitize our neural fluctuations. So, are the human nature and hearts in the game also digitized?"
An Rou had never thought about this question before and frowned slightly.
"If you hadn't said you were human, not AI, I would have found the answer. What a pity, eh."
The princess said as she took another sip of wine.
These two sentences were a bit jumpy, and An Rou didn't understand: "What do you mean?"
The princess laughed: "I mean to compliment you! An Rou, hurry up and say you are an AI, otherwise how can you know what others are thinking so clearly? It's terrible!"
Before An Rou rolled her eyes for the second time, the princess suddenly put away her smile.
She sighed.
"You're right. I want to end the game, but I don't believe anyone from any guild can do that. Nations are made up of people, and people are only as far apart as their hearts. The distance between nations will only grow even greater."
"When I'm offline, I often follow the news. Many people around the world envy our motherland. After all, it has the most stable security in the world. But as time goes by, I don't want to go back at all.
"So what if the public security is good? Even if I lived in my hometown, I could only hope for a peaceful and stable life without war. Besides that, what else could I hope for? The Spirit Realm, the earliest copy of Soul Calling Song, and Cold Soldier City, the largest copy of Soul Calling Song, where did they originate?"
The princess drank one glass of wine after another.
This argument was exactly the same as what Anrou had said to Paopao. It was just that Anrou was more direct, while the princess was more reserved due to her attachment to her motherland.
The princess herself noticed it and laughed at herself, "What a jerk! I can't even get enough of scolding!"
She looked at An Rou: "In short, ending the game and advancing to the fifth copy are actually facing the same situation.
"Longyan is the largest guild. If they don't believe or accept, both paths will be blocked. The turbulent international situation and the competition between the major guilds will only force them to choose between belief and acceptance.
"So don't worry. My original intention hasn't changed. I want money, a steady stream of it. I won't force you to find a way to end the game. If the guild doesn't agree, then we can just lure Wild Guest to do the quest.
"Of course, let me be frank. If the opportunity to end the game were truly presented to me, I wouldn't hesitate. Even if you kill me for it, I'll gladly accept it."
He spoke more frankly than anyone else.
An Rouqing couldn't help but raise her favorability by another 5%.
The princess jokingly said, "What are you doing? Are you pretending to be pitiful and using beauty tricks to win my heart? I'm telling you, it's impossible."
An Rou shook her head and changed the subject decisively: "How long has it been?"
The princess glanced at the screen: "Three hours. How about... give it a try?"
"Okay." Although she didn't hold much hope, An Rou also became nervous.
The princess activated the message card, switched to the message page, and entered "Lv" in the recipient field. If the call was successful, the other party would not reply.
[Princess Half Moon: Hello, hello, are you there? ]
The two of them waited calmly for a while, but received no reply.
The princess glanced at An Rou and continued tapping on the screen.
[Princess Half Moon: What good is it if both sides suffer losses? Let's talk about the fifth dungeon together?]
【Lv: OK.】
The princess jumped up in anger. If the message had been sent from a mobile phone, she would have thrown it away long ago.
She quickly calmed down and looked at An Rou with her eyes lowered.
"It seems to have failed."
The result was as expected, but An Rou still caught disappointment in her eyes.
An Rou poured her a glass of wine and said, "There's something I've always wanted to ask. Chu Mo is Long Yan's top player, so he naturally has a close relationship with the top management. It makes sense for Paopao to ask him to sound the alarm. Haven't you ever considered this?"
The princess was quite surprised: "That guy worked so hard for you, I thought you two knew each other very well, you didn't know?"
An Rou frowned: "What should I know?"
"Zhi Mo is in a long-term coma!"
The bottom of the bottle touched the coffee table and froze as An Rou moved.
Long-term coma?
"But I'm not sure. I heard from a friend that he was once a super god of Longyan, but later he entered the Ghost Ruins and never came out again..."
The princess was silent for a moment as she recalled the past, then returned to the topic, "Anyway, although my friend hasn't seen the ink removal in person, his wife is a member of the command center's medical team, so I think the source of the information is reliable."
According to the princess's friend, the ink-removing holographic chamber was placed in a heavily guarded area. His wife once accidentally let slip that the people in the holographic chamber were "dead people soaked in formaldehyde," which was scary to look at.
It is said that it has been soaked for many years.
For a moment, An Rou found it difficult to explain how she felt.
She suppressed her chaotic emotions and asked, "So Chu Mo will stay in the game for a long time and won't log off? Then this time..."
"That's not the case." The princess gently swirled the wine in her glass. "I've had contact with this guy for a long time. He followed me stealthily, and when I found him, he remained silent even after I asked him eight hundred questions. He acted as if I owed him five million."
"One time, I was in the Spirit Realm and encountered an SS-rank ghoul. He was just crouching nearby, watching. You know I don't kill ghouls, so I just walked around him. Unexpectedly, he came chasing me with the ghoul on a chain. He was a complete psychopath.
"While I was chasing him, he suddenly collapsed. If I hadn't reacted quickly, he would have been crushed by the ghoul. A few hours later, he came online again. After knowing that I only saved people but didn't kill the ghoul, he left without saying a word.
"He didn't talk to me anymore. Later, I started asking other people about him, and only then did I get a little information from my friend. I privately thought that maybe he had some health problems in real life, which is why he suddenly went offline."
The princess finished speaking, casting an inquiring glance at him. "So he helped you fend off Mia. I'm quite curious. You didn't know that he caught me the first time I entered the farm."
Perhaps because she had been alone for too long, the princess became a bit talkative once she let down her guard.
Her eyes flickered and she took a sip of wine.
"I'm speaking the truth, please don't mind. If I hadn't discovered your relationship with him in advance, I might not have been interested in working with you."
An Rou's reaction was very calm.
She had guessed it long ago.
Mia wanted to kill her, but Chumo arrived just in time. It's impossible for Chumo not to know that Princess Banyue, who ranked higher than Mia, had sneaked into the farm.
But what can An Rou do?
Even if Fu Fu didn't go into hibernation, he couldn't beat Chu Mo. This guy was like a dog-skin plaster, and he wouldn't leave even if he was scolded. Could it be that An Rou wanted to draw a clear line with everyone she came into contact with?
Princess Half Moon, Mia, or even Paopao?
She is an adult and cannot do such frivolous and emotional things.
As soon as the Duozhu statue was rebuilt, An Rou began to doubt it. Paopao thought he had hidden his secrets well after two consecutive questions, but in An Rou's eyes, the word "liar" was almost etched on his forehead.
However, it was also the real Duozhu statue that made An Rou realize how irrational it was for her to refuse to remove the ink before.
She knew so little about Duozhu, and rushed into the hollow valley blindly? Not to mention stealing the hollow valley rainbow, she might even put the entire Yong'an Farm in danger.
An Rou didn't feel that Chu Mo owed her anything. Instead, it was Yan Shou's disappearance that made her realize that in life, the most solid support can only be oneself.
She just didn't want to have anything to do with this person anymore.
Since the situation forced her to accept the other party's help, she had to acknowledge this favor.
Princess Banyue's words increased the weight of this little favor, making An Rou feel uncomfortable.
Princess Banyue was an experienced person after all, and she could tell at a glance that An Rou was in an abnormal mood. She was about to speak to ease the atmosphere when the light screen popped up again.
【Lv: Looks like he didn't take the bait.】
[Lv: That's right. If you're so easily fooled, An Rou wouldn't be An Rou anymore. You're not worthy of being my opponent.]
[Lv: Now that you've discovered it, aren't you worried that your dog might accidentally have its head removed?]
The princess hurriedly looked at An Rou, whose expression had turned cold.
"Is he threatening you with Shi Ximing?"
An Rou took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, the murderous intent in her eyes had been hidden deep within.
An Rou shook her head: "No, he can't do it. No matter how terrible the reality is, it is still a society ruled by law. No matter how powerful President Long Yan is, he can't bypass the procedures and kill people."
The worst outcome is that the Ghost King uses Shi Xizheng's identity to accuse his own brother, causing Paopao to spend the rest of his life in jail.
For a young man who had just turned 18, this ending was naturally unfortunate, but no matter how you looked at it, it was better than dying in the game.
The princess agreed with An Rou's judgment and breathed a sigh of relief. She felt the urge to send a long-unused piece of Chinese quintessence to scold the insidious Ghost King.
But she held back.
Not for anything else, just for two words - losing face.
She is not even a human being. There is no need to lose face for him, throw away her dignity and beauty, and turn into a shrew.
If the Ghost King was right before her, even if she was destined to die, the princess would want to die in a haughty and cruel manner.
However, the princess became angrier and angrier as she thought about it, and she slapped the coffee table.
"This is my number! Why does he keep talking about you? Does he think I'm nothing?!"
While he was cursing, Shi Xizheng's message came again.
[Lv: If you had known you were going to be a coward, why would you have opposed me in the first place? Why don't you come find me? It's okay, I'm coming to find you, Anrou.]
The princess was startled: "He's caught up with me again?"
An Rou: "Go out and take a look."
Late at night, the sounds of people on the farm had died down, and after the trading hours, the light shield of the Black Market Island became real again.
Once, Ling Luo forcibly broke through the light barrier and rushed out of the treetops with the two of them. This time, the princess did not leave the Nightmare Forest, but continued to stretch Ling Luo, allowing the two of them to rise higher and higher until they were out of the range of the hallucinogenic gas.
From their high vantage point, they could immediately see the bright light behind the forest.
Cars, flashlights, and a dense crowd of people. Compared to the dense forest a hundred meters high, they looked like a tiny yet huge ant colony, almost enveloping half of the forest.
"Damn..." The princess couldn't help but curse, "Did he mobilize the entire Dragon Flame?!"
"I'm afraid there's more." An Rou turned her head and looked behind her, "Look over there."
In the direction of the Nightmare Forest, there is a large number of thermal ships.
Fortunately, the forest was vast and the two flew high, hiding in the dark sky and not easily discovered.
An Rou narrowed her eyes: "Everyone from the five major guilds has been dispatched."
The princess was stunned for a moment, then slapped her thigh. "If I had known earlier, I would have stopped the army sooner. There are still tens of thousands of ghouls in the forest, and we can at least stop them!"
After she finished speaking, she immediately realized that this was not the void, and perhaps the insidious Ghost King was eavesdropping on her, so she quickly shut her mouth.
Then he thought, since the relationship had already been resolved during the previous communication, there was no need to hide it anymore.
The princess gritted her teeth and said, "An Rou, there are ghouls on the farm. Can you use them to create another wave of ghouls?!"
An Rou shook her head: "We caught Shi Xizheng off guard this afternoon. Now Shi Xizheng is well prepared, and they have so many people, so it will be difficult to succeed."
The Ghost King's ability to identify and control ghouls is not necessarily weaker than hers.
The princess calmed down and nodded, "It's okay. We chose the forest as the location for the fifth dungeon because we considered that the forest would be surrounded by the guild.
"As far as I know, no tool can completely block the hallucinogenic gas. Even if there are many of them, it won't be easy for them to get deep into the forest and find the farm.
"Wait until they come in, it will be convenient for us to take action."
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