No Life
When she reached the unit door, An Rou stopped and looked to the side.
Lingling, who lived in the same neighborhood, was clinging to her mother's arm, bouncing along as she chattered about something interesting that had happened at school. Her mother, having overheard something, poked her forehead with a finger and muttered a few words of reprimand, her eyes filled with unconcealed doting.
The mother and daughter turned a corner and walked into the next building.
An Rou withdrew her gaze, tugged at her backpack strap, and walked in. Before the elevator even opened, she could already smell the cold, deserted atmosphere of the house.
An Rou stopped in front of her house, turned around, and inserted the key into the door of the neighbor opposite.
As the lock clicked, she put on a smile.
"Yan Shou, I'm done with school! Guess what I bought besides the buns?" An Rou took out the bag she had tucked behind her. "Happy birthday!"
The sound stopped abruptly.
The bright house, the setting sun shining through the window, and the tidy living room made her think she had come to the wrong place.
She glanced at the keys in her hand.
That’s right, it’s Yan Shou’s family.
But it wasn’t Yan Shou’s house, which was a mess everywhere and required her to spend half an hour cleaning it up after school.
Suddenly, An Rou's heart was grabbed by an invisible hand. It was a very bad premonition.
"Yan Shou?"
There is no one in the living room.
"Where are you?"
There was no one in the bedroom and the quilt was neatly folded.
An Rou ran to the bathroom, but still didn't find any familiar figure.
She felt something empty beneath her feet, as if the floor was collapsing.
She took out her cell phone.
The receiver announced "number not in service".
Every floor collapsed and An Rou fell down involuntarily.
She looked at this familiar yet unfamiliar "home", Yan Shou's home, and also their home.
She felt like she had entered a parallel world. In this world, in this house, every piece of furniture and every decoration looked familiar to her, but there was no familiar smell.
Newspapers…most importantly, newspapers.
Yan Shou is considered a freak by the uncles and aunts in the community. He has no money to buy newspapers, which have long been eliminated in the information age but have never become extinct.
His favorite thing to do is pick up newspapers from the trash can and pile them all over the house.
Wardrobe, cupboard, under the bed, under the sofa... An Rou threw the cake aside and searched everywhere.
No.
Not even a scrap of paper.
The hand that was squeezing her heart got tighter and tighter, until she was almost used to the palpitations, and then it suddenly loosened.
An Rou felt like she had fallen into a bottomless abyss.
“Boss, boss!”
When An Rou was brought back to her senses by Paopao, she was sweating all over.
Paopao and Meng Ziyu both looked over without blinking, the former's eyes full of worry, while the latter's were more of inquiry.
That’s right, Paopao was once parasitized by Meng Ziyu. With the help of the ghost technique "Tongchen", it should have obtained all of Paopao’s memories in the game.
Even if we put aside the sensitive words that the ghouls could not accept, it was enough to make Meng Ziyu have many speculations about his true identity.
An Rou shook her head to suppress the thought and whispered, "I'm fine. Are you all okay?"
Paopao shook his head: "The hallucinogenic effect produced by a tree is ineffective for both of us."
An Rou stepped back a few steps and carefully looked at the dead tree in front of her that was reborn.
Paopao said that there was only one kind of grass in the land of the dead, the lifeless grass. There was also only one kind of tree, the nightmare tree. As the name suggests, it could cause people to fall into nightmares because it emitted an invisible but hallucinogenic smell.
Paopao spent 10,000 gold coins to reshape it, giving it a new life.
Unexpectedly, the first person to be fooled was An Rou herself.
At first, when Paopao said that this tree could trap the joint team, An Rou was skeptical. Now she is convinced that it is very effective.
More real than a dream.
Meng Ziyou turned his attention back to the tree and frowned, "Is this thing really that magical? It looks no different from the trees in Lengbing City."
“It’s because there’s no difference that people are easily trapped.”
Paopao explained, "You've been in Lengbing City since the beginning of the division, no wonder you didn't know. The Nightmare Tree is equivalent to the weapon of the ghouls in the Land of No Life. The hallucinogenic effect is ineffective against ghouls, only humans. If anyone accidentally falls into the Nightmare Tree, without help, they can only wait to be eaten by the ghouls."
Meng Ziyu widened his eyes, as if saying: Is there such a good thing?
Then it can just take Meng Zisha to find a place to live and plant a row of nightmare trees at the door, wouldn’t it be able to sleep soundly?
An Rou saw through his little thoughts clearly.
An Rou didn't have time to deal with it right now, so she asked Paopao, "With Su Fu's size...how many nightmare trees would be enough?"
"...Uh," Paopao scratched his head embarrassedly, "Brother Baofu can carry more than a hundred acres of land on his back. I can't calculate it in a short time... Anyway, the more the better?"
-
Dusk is falling and night has fallen.
The barren land, which should have been pitch dark, was illuminated by a long dragon of diverse lights.
After losing Sand Pen 4, the remaining eleven members of the joint team rushed across the wasteland, continuously using their most powerful skills to attack the ground in front.
Everywhere he passed was full of potholes, and each pothole was bottomless.
There are three people at the head of the long dragon, Kairi, Witt, and Zhencha.
Zhencha's task is to track the target's scent through the Wanhua Stick, Kaigan and other team members are responsible for attacking the target position, only Witt has not taken action yet.
Previously, when the ghoul appeared and was being chased, Witt successfully activated the ghoul identification function and learned the names of the three ghost arts possessed by the ghoul.
After the ghoul sank into the ground, its movement speed dropped significantly. He could even multitask, chasing while communicating with the two commanders.
[Law: It has been confirmed that Shabi Si is not dead.]
Witt secretly breathed a sigh of relief at President Lu's message.
He was almost certain that his brother, Ali, had died at the hands of this SSS-rank ghoul, so as one of the team leaders, he felt an extra pressure, fearing that a team member would be devoured by the ghoul and lose his life in reality.
President Lu brought good news.
[Law: One of the ghoul's magic arts, "Elephant Devouring," is likely the skill used to devour the entire ground. The second magic art, "False Abduction," is the current skill used to sneak underground. The third magic art, "Night Travel," is most likely a skill used to disguise flying at night.]
[Law: Witt, open the chest. It's getting dark. Be careful of ghouls using "night walk" to escape.]
【Witt: I understand.】
After Kairi finished using his skills again, he also opened the light screen to take a look and sent a voice message: "Don't worry, President, we are keeping a close eye on it. It can't escape today!"
His double-edged sword "Hidden Moon Blade" is a blue weapon that consumes extremely high energy. Even with his super-god-level energy and mental value, he cannot support too frequent use.
He opened his chest and drank a bottle of high-level energy potion, then shouted at Witte, "Why haven't you done anything yet?"
Witt shook his head.
The two had just clashed yesterday, and he was well aware of the power of the Ripper skill. Ripper's attack had been ineffective, so it made no difference whether he used it or not.
The purpose of the current attack was simply to keep Zhencha on the trail, and the team members' attacks were sufficient to achieve that effect.
"You should also conserve your strength."
Witt said, his voice low but clear enough to reach Kai's ears, "A ghoul's energy is limited. It can't stay underground forever. Kai, we should wait patiently for it to come out, and then join forces to give it a fatal blow."
I don't agree with disembowelment.
"That Meng Ziyou was already incredibly cunning even back when he was A-rank, and now that he's S-rank, he's only getting more treacherous. He's hanging around with SSS-rank ghouls, so who knows what he might be up to. We must end this quickly and without further delay!"
The words were blown away in the air by the night wind.
Kaiche used his skills once again, and the double-edged sword flew forward, transforming into several phantoms that sank into the ground together.
A dull and angry roar suddenly sounded from deep within the bottom layer, and every member of the team felt a tremor beneath their feet.
Shincha: "Ghoul is speeding up!"
He opened the chest and took back the double-edged knife, then turned to look at Witt with an expression that said, "Just as I expected."
"Witt, it's time to get ready."
Witt flipped his arm and wielded the heavy sword.
Kairi turned his gaze back to the front, raised the corners of his mouth, and put on a determined smile.
My dear, it's time to end the hide-and-seek game.
As if in response to his thoughts, a huge black shadow suddenly jumped out from the ground a few hundred meters away.
It didn't appear in a ghostly state. The last few times it appeared on the surface, the ghoul's body had shifted between reality and illusion, causing little commotion. But this time, it was like a giant whale emerging from the sea, forcing a massive wave forward.
The ground beneath my feet shook violently, and thick clods of earth exploded and splashed in all directions. Winding cracks tore through the earth, rapidly extending in all directions.
Including the ghoul itself, it seemed as if a huge mountain had broken out of the earth on the land of no life.
The earth-shattering movement did not affect the movement speed of the advanced players.
"Fan-shaped encirclement!" Kairi shouted.
The eleven players quickly changed their formation and surrounded the mountain under the cover of night.
No one knew that there was a crack on the top of the mountain. Meng Ziyu stuck his head out of the crack and looked at the two people on the edge of the crack.
At its arm's length away is the huge eye of the rich.
An Rou's sense of sudden wealth flashed through her mind: "It should be less than 500 meters."
Paopao rubbed his hands nervously: "Closer."
An Rou then said, "300 meters."
The movement speed of top players is truly amazing.
But Paopao still gritted his teeth and said, "Closer."
There was only one chance, and he was really worried that he wouldn't have enough gold coins.
An Rou: "100 meters! Run!"
In Bao Fu's field of vision, two figures jumped up about a hundred meters away.
Its night vision was extremely strong, enough for An Rou to see the faces of the two men clearly. One had his chest opened, and the other was taller, with a high nose and deep eyes, obviously a member of the Gal Guild.
Sventovit!
"Come on, little darling, do it again!" The roar of the disembowelment suppressed a crazy laugh, "Hidden Moon Blade, Moon Wheel Slash!"
He stood on a double-edged sword.
This time, Witt jumped higher than him.
Witt also used the displacement function of the weapon: he swung the sword twice with both hands, then released one hand, allowing the huge inertia of the heavy sword to pull his body into the air.
Witt squinted his eyes at the mountains below, and launched his most powerful final move.
His eyes suddenly blurred.
In the dark and endless lifeless land, it seemed as if someone suddenly poured out a bucket of dark green paint, blurring his vision.
No, that's not paint, that's a tree!
The trees on the land of the living... Nightmare trees! Many Nightmare trees gathered together to form the Nightmare Forest, which players ranked as the most forbidden land in the land of the living!
Moreover, the forest that was spreading now was larger than any nightmare forest he had ever seen!
It was like a raging tide, engulfing all the team members on the ground who were trying to get close to it in an instant!
Another trap!
"Rip it open!" For the first time, Witt lost his gentle nature and yelled at the Rip not far away.
At the same time, the inertia of his body rising was exhausted and he began to fall.
Witt gritted his teeth, twisted the epee with force, and released the hilt. The epee spun vertically and fell downward.
He put both hands on the hilt of his sword.
Lan Wu, Gentleman's Hand, ultimate skill - Judgment!
The heavy sword and Witt's body suddenly expanded countless times, as if Pangu was holding a giant axe and slashing towards the center of the Nightmare Forest!
The top of the mountain a moment ago has turned into a depression like a volcanic eruption. It is obvious that the ghoul has used ghost magic to sneak into the ground again.
But it doesn’t have to be so fast!
The giant sword was like a pillar of heaven, sinking into the forest up to the hilt.
At the same time, the figure of the Ripper plunged into the forest with the Moon Wheel Slash.
And then...nothing happened.
The giant sword in Witt's hand was not hindered at all.
Run away, or let it run away!
“Real tea!”
No one responded.
"Open up!"
Still no one responded.
Such a large-scale nightmare forest, such a strong hallucinogenic atmosphere, if he had not transformed into a giant, he would have been trapped in the nightmare by now.
Witt wanted to crush all the nightmare trees with his giant feet and cut down the entire forest mountain with his heavy sword.
But he couldn't do it.
The giant sword that the gentleman's hand conjured could only touch ghouls. Besides holding the sword, the giant could also only touch ghouls. Neither of them could cause any damage to entities other than ghouls.
For a while, he couldn't find Zhencha in the Nightmare Forest. No matter where the ghoul fled, he could no longer track him.
Hope collapsed into huge disappointment in an instant. Witt raised his head and let out an unwilling roar.
A few kilometers away, in a crack in the ground that appeared quietly, An Rou used her rapidly growing eyes to look at the giant in the distance.
Compared with Witt at this moment, the temporary mountain was just a small mound of earth.
It turned out to be the right decision not to engage in a head-on confrontation without knowing the details.
With the eighth and ninth on the Destiny List combined, An Rou didn’t think that Bo Fu could withstand their attacks.
The rescue task posed by Chu Mo is not as easy as it seems at first.
"Boss, that's terrifying! Is that Sventovit?" Paopao heard the thunderous roar. "Isn't he said to be the most gentlemanly man in the server? He sounds like he has violent tendencies."
An Rou agreed deeply: "The calmer a person appears on the surface, the more intense the suppressed emotions are inside. It's just to make his brother lose the game qualification, is it necessary to pursue him so closely? At Yali's age, he shouldn't be in school. Is it wrong for me to send him back to school?"
Paopao had a complicated expression and paused before nodding: "That's right."
Then he became worried: "Boss, what should I do? Nearly 50 million gold, all spent in one go..."
An Rou was furious. "Just tell me how you learned math, huh? It only costs 10,000 gold to save a tree, and 20,000 gold to replicate one. And in such a small place, you planted 2,500 trees at once?"
"I've never planted trees before, so how do I know how much distance there should be between two trees..." Paopao felt a little aggrieved.
Moreover, the more trees there are, the stronger the hallucinogenic effect. He was also worried that if he planted too few, he wouldn't be able to completely trap the advanced players of the joint team.
An Rou's account balance had been emptied, leaving only a few thousand gold coins, and she was back to the days before liberation overnight.
"Forget it, forget it. If the enemy comes, we will fight with our soldiers. If the water comes, we will block it with earth. If we escape a disaster, we will escape it." She shrank back into the gap. "Let's go back to the farm first."
A large ball of black mist emerged from the ground, blending perfectly with the night, and flew towards the farm.
With the electricity connected, neon lights spread like flowing water, and the farm finally came alive.
During the time that An Rou was away, all the residents were filled with anxiety and waited on the spot.
An Rou made a few casual remarks before asking her father to take Leng Hanli, Mei Hong, and the others to continue comforting the new and old residents. She herself went to the warehouse and then took Meng Ziyu to the dance hall.
Paopao also followed, but Anrou didn't let him in.
"The people have been rescued. You should go home and have a rest."
"Oh, Boss, where are we going next? Is it Ghost Island again?"
An Rou thought for a moment and said, "Let's talk about it when you come online tomorrow morning."
She held Paopao's hand and handed him 4 million gold.
"You just lost your own money, didn't you? This is the reserve fund in the warehouse. I just didn't need it, so I'll give it to you first."
"Ah? No need... Boss, I want to save people too. Just consider that money as the cost of running the farm. I'm a partner, so it's my responsibility to pay..."
"You're making a mess of your accounting!" An Rou poked him on the forehead. "Let's put things in perspective. Besides, I'm not really poor, and I still have so many props in the warehouse. Hurry up and get off work, and stop talking nonsense to me."
Paopao walked away scratching his head.
An Rou closed the door and turned around, only to see Meng Ziyu leaning against the wall with that inquiring look in his eyes again.
Meng Ziyou: "Partner, 5% dividend?"
This little brat really got Paopao's memory.
An Rou didn't respond, but walked to the bar and poured two glasses of wine.
Meng Ziyou didn't intend to ask further questions, so he brought up another topic: "Um... Thank you for letting you spend so much money."
An Rou was quite surprised.
Do ghouls understand the meaning of money?
That's right. It has been wandering with Zisha for so long, and they have inevitably suffered from hunger, so it naturally knows the value of money.
However, Meng Ziyu's tone suddenly turned back to its usual hard tone: "But we were caught because of Yong'an Farm. Those people were after you. You contributed money and effort to settle the problem, that's what you should do!"
After saying that, he even said "hmm" to himself.
An Rou couldn't help but laugh out loud.
Meng Ziyou: "What are you laughing at? Am I wrong? Long Yan and Jia Er formed a joint team to pursue Yong'an Farm - I have every conversation between you and Paopao in my mind, word for word!"
"Yes." An Rou nodded and took a sip of wine. "Since you are so direct, I won't hide it anymore. Meng Ziyu, you and Zisha can't leave the farm from now on."
Meng Ziyu slammed down his cup: "Why?!"
"Just based on the memories you've obtained from Paopao, you know too much." An Rou said matter-of-factly, "Is that enough?"
"Do you think I'm a loud speaker? I know exactly what to say and what not to say!"
Before Meng Ziyu could finish her words, An Rou unexpectedly slapped her face. It wasn't hard, so it wasn't really a slap.
An Rou: "You're just a kid, don't call me old man."
Meng Ziyu was angry, his eyebrows were twisted together, and his black eyes were fierce.
"An Rou, I'm warning you, it's no use pretending. I already know you're not a ghoul! If you dare touch me again, I'll eat..."
An Rou patted it again without hesitation.
Meng Ziyu was startled and rushed forward, but unexpectedly, a warm hand pressed on his forehead.
"There are people like you on Yong'an Farm, and your sister won't have to worry about food and drink. What's wrong with staying here? I've been here for so long, and I can only be a guest."
Meng Ziyu glared at him fiercely and took two steps back.
"I know you! Jie Xin!" It pointed at the young man in white robes and black hair, frowning. "Strange, didn't Paopao say you were Zhan Xingce, the Chosen One of the Spirit Realm... Why don't you smell like a soul?"
Xie Xin reached out and pressed his hand against its forehead again, and Meng Ziyou quickly stepped back. It couldn't even see how the other party came over, but Xie Xin was already standing in front of it, holding its forehead firmly.
Xie Xin leaned over to its ear and said, "Don't ask questions that you shouldn't ask."
Meng Ziyu's hair stood on end.
This guy has no gloves, this guy has no soul!
Could he be the SSS-level ghoul that An Rou mentioned who doesn’t hate human food?
There are two top-tier ghouls on the farm?!
Xie Xin straightened up and looked over with a smile: "How about it, do you want to stay?"
"...Stay." Meng Ziyu couldn't help but spit out a word and swallowed his saliva, "I'll go see Zisha!"
Escaped from the dance hall in a panic.
An Rou watched the interaction between the two quietly, and secretly sighed: The Ghost King versus the S-level Ghoul, is this bloodline suppression?
She didn't ask, but smiled and said to Xie Xin, "I brought it here specially, but before I could ask anything I wanted to ask, Mr. Xie scared it away."
"Oh?" Jie Xin brought himself a glass of wine. "The farmer asked me about the ghoul matter, and I told him everything I knew."
An Rou thought quickly.
She originally wanted to ask Meng Ziyu about the "sister and brother" matter to see if she could get more information to solve the mystery of his sudden wealth.
Jie Xin is the King of Ghosts. From what he said, it is possible that he can let her know the truth in just a few words.
Not only this, but also her doubts about the soul of the rich.
The crazy ghoul Baofu and the soul inside Baofu's body seem to be one, but when they come into contact, they are like two individuals.
"I'm curious about where Meng Ziyou's feelings for Zisha come from," An Rou said with a smile. "It occupied Zisha's body and inherited his memories... Can I understand it as replacing him with someone else and becoming Zisha's new soul?"
Jie Xin was quite surprised and laughed, "The farmer's imagination is really too rich. Ghouls are just parasites. When they get tired of one host, they move on to another. Will the farmer's soul abandon his own body and enter another?"
An Rou: "Meng Ziyu can't bear to part with this parasite."
"That's because it's trapped by the ghost magic." Jie Xin didn't care. "It has long been at the A-level bottleneck. The ghost magic has already shown signs."
"Mr. Jie, are you saying that its feelings for Zisha stem from the memories of Zisha's brother?"
"Without memories, how can there be emotions?"
Jie Xin's explanation made some sense, but An Rou had her doubts.
Meng Ziyu's self-narration of the past did not immediately receive the memory of Zisha's brother.
Furthermore, according to An Rou's previous speculation, the sign of the ghostly art of "being one with the dust" lies in Meng Ziyou's ability to disguise himself as a living person. Disguise is the prelude, and reading memories is the ability after the ghostly art is awakened.
Jie Xin...seemed to be just trying to please her.
An Rou smiled slightly: "Thank you, sir, for clearing up my doubts."
Xie Xin shook his wine glass and said, "If the farmer has any other questions, why not ask them as well?"
"Forget it. Talking to Mr. Hejie is like solving a puzzle. It's too tiring. I'm already tired enough today. I don't want to use my brain anymore."
Xie Xin watched her walk out of the dance hall, thoughtfully asking, "Really?"
He picked up the bottle, took a step forward, and reached the roof.
A dark figure sat on the roof with his head down, like a silent stone statue.
A glass of wine quietly floated in front of the stone statue.
"I posed a puzzle, and you approved it, and she solved it. Do you still want to kill her?"
Without waiting for a reply, Xie Xin took a sip of wine and said with a smile, "What meaning does a world without her have for you? Chu Mo, join forces with me. Not only will I not stop you, I will also help you kill her."
Bang.
The wine glass floating in front of Chu Mo shattered, and the glass fragments mixed with the wine were still floating without falling to the ground.
“She loves that world.”
The hoarse voice remained, but the stone statue disappeared.
-
The sky gradually brightened, and gray light shone on the dense forest.
After traveling all night, a legion of a hundred men arrived at the Nightmare Forest and found Witt standing quietly outside the forest.
"President Lu, I'm sorry." His voice was hoarse and low.
Shi Xizheng patted his shoulder and said, "The enemy is in the dark and we are in the light. Don't lose heart. Besides, Yong'an Farm hasn't escaped."
"The transmission card can no longer be tracked..."
"You've already put a new tracker on the ghoul." Shi Xizheng smiled and took out a prop, "It's dawn. See, it really works."
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