Spirit Realm
"How's the disembowelment going?"
"I'm receiving psychotherapy."
"Still unwilling to return to the game? I saw this kid used to be quite arrogant. If he gives up his game qualification, he'll have to stay in that sanatorium for as long as the Soul Summoning Song exists. Have you made it clear to him?"
"Old Wei, we can't force anyone to be a hero."
"But we kept it a secret from everyone and kept trying to create a hero."
"……you're right."
The office fell into silence. After a while, Wei Gang sighed.
"These past two days, every time I close my eyes, I think of what you said. I can't even take a nap."
Shi Xizheng turned his head away: "What are you talking about?"
The coffee in his hand had gone cold. Wei Gang put down the cup with a sad expression.
“We cannot be sinners.
"Xi Zheng, have you ever considered that perhaps keeping it secret is our true sin?"
Due to not getting enough rest for several days, Shi Xizheng's fair face now had two dark bruises.
He stared at Wei Gang silently for a long moment before speaking: "So you support the referendum?"
After the sudden deaths of players became frequent, China convened a top-secret meeting of world leaders. At the meeting, two proposals were formulated regarding the divine revelation.
1. The game continues, and each country challenges the ghost ruins with its own ability and solves the divine puzzle.
Second, make everything public and hold a referendum to let the people decide whether to shut down the Soul-Guiding Song.
Before Wei Gang could respond, Shi Xizheng spoke up, "Forget about the fact that you and I weren't able to attend that meeting. Even if we had been there, what would have changed? The referendum option was rejected before we even left that office."
Wei Gang sighed and hesitated to speak.
Shi Xizheng knew him too well and shook his head in advance: "Although the four copies were launched one after another, the planning proposals came out at the same time. Aside from the differences in the game background, the world view and game settings are the same...
"Old Wei, we only have two instances in China. After twenty years of hard work, we've only just managed to get other nations to agree to put the main server in China. What do you think will happen if we insist on shutting down the server, even if we get support from above?"
"...Besieged by a crowd." Wei Gang murmured.
Shi Xizheng adjusted his glasses and said, "That's right. Even if we give up, other countries won't give up. The final outcome will be the same."
It would be better to take advantage of the current situation to have the greatest say and secure the position of big brother.
Wei Gang took a sip of the cold coffee and felt it was a bit sour.
He forced a smile and brought the topic back to work: "Four guilds sent out hundreds of people, and still haven't found Yongan?"
Shi Xizheng frowned. "We searched Lengbing City and Guidao's respective camps first, but found no clues. The Land of No Life is too vast to be easily found."
"Spirit Realm didn't conduct a self-inspection?" Wei Gang was surprised. "You didn't notify the Second Council, did you?"
Shi Xizheng sneered, "If I don't notify them, how can they not notify the higher-ups? That old man has a lot of experience and used the horse racing theory to convince the higher-ups that we can't put all our eggs in one basket and refused to intervene."
Wei Gang said unhappily, "Isn't he clearly trying to split up Dragon Flame? He even changed the name of Dragon Flame's second headquarters."
Not to mention the guild, even the logistics Dragon Breath Group he was in charge of was forcibly split into Dragon Breath Group 2 a few years ago, and they had no communication no matter what situation they encountered.
Wei Gang also snorted coldly: "Yong'an had better move to the Spirit Realm and see how that old guy cries!"
-
A hundred kilometers west of Lingyu, the farm is quietly located.
The six ghoul employees spread out in all directions, guarding against players approaching.
"Boss, it's already been arranged."
An Rou looked up at Si Ji and smiled slightly: "It's hard work."
The two walked to Yongrou Lane together.
Beneath the blossoming cherry trees, nearly two hundred residents lined the alley from the entrance to the end, eagerly looking in. Seeing An Rou approach, they all fell silent.
It is not out of fear, but out of respect for the parents who provide us with food and clothing.
In the middle of the team, Zhang Da was maintaining an order that didn't need to be maintained at all.
There is a long table under the first cherry tree at the entrance of the alley, and on the table there is a red lacquered wooden box.
Meng Ziyu was sitting behind the table, then he slowly stood up and made way for An Rou.
"Why are you mobilizing so many troops? What are you trying to do?"
An Rou replied, "I didn't invite you, why are you joining in the fun?"
Meng Ziyu glared at her. "I've checked. The box contains nameplates. Am I not considered a member of the farm? Can't I get a nameplate?! Hurry up and find mine and Sasha's!"
An Rou gestured to Si Ji.
Siji silently took out a string of small wooden signs from the prop bar. The wooden signs were about two fingers wide and long, and were painted with varnish. They were yellow with a hint of red, and had a warm color.
The front of the wooden sign is engraved with a name on a black background, all written by An Rou herself, stroke by stroke. On the back is a cherry blossom emblem with simple and lively lines, which was picked out by Paopao from the Internet.
Meng Ziyu snatched it away and took out his and Zisha’s nameplates.
"Everyone else is put in the box, why are we treated differently..."
It flipped through the books and saw that they were all filled with the names of ghouls. "Is this discrimination against ghouls?"
An Rou was too lazy to pay attention to him: "Take it and divide it up, don't stand here and waste time."
Meng Ziyou couldn't leave. "I have something serious to discuss with you. There are more and more resurrected Chosen Ones in the pickle jar. Are you going to keep feeding them? I say, split a few more. There are only 9 ghouls on the entire farm and about 200 living people. Is that reasonable? It's so unfair."
"I've said it before, no division. Do you want someone to compete with you for food?"
"Stealing food? I'm already full at such a high level..."
"Then give up your share."
Of course Meng Ziyu refused to do it, so he had to shut up.
To put it bluntly, it was just jealous because Zhang Da had six younger brothers under his command.
An Rou: "Aren't you leaving yet?"
Meng Ziyou became even more reluctant to leave: "Let me see what you're up to."
An Rou thought about it, then ignored it and nodded to Si Ji: "Let's get started."
Siji walked to the front of the group and announced loudly, "From now on, the farm owner will personally hand out nameplates to you. This is a symbol of your status as farm residents, so everyone must keep it safe."
The residents looked delighted.
It’s easy to guess what these NPCs are thinking.
Although there are ghouls on the farm, they don't eat them, but only those with destiny. In comparison, the fear of ghouls can't resist the longing for a carefree life on the farm.
The company operates in a commune-style manner, with equal distinctions in work status, equal treatment in food and daily life, and abundant material resources.
Isn’t it much better than the days of fear and anxiety in Lengbing City?
Life is so dreamy that many people worry about the day when they will suddenly wake up from the dream.
This so-called identity plate is equivalent to recognizing their identity as members of the farm, eliminating such concerns.
At the head of the queue was An Younian.
An Rou handed over the nameplate and said softly, "Dad, you and Qiaojie don't have to queue."
An Younian smiled and waved his hands: "That won't work. I said no special privileges, then no special privileges. Dad is just like everyone else."
An Rou met his eyes that had stopped smiling, and indeed she heard the "background noise" in her mind.
[It’s so cold, I’m so cold…]
At the same time, a picture popped into my mind.
She shook her head, didn't look, and instead smiled at Qiaojie.
Qiaojie walked forward. In public, she always called Anrou "farmer".
An Rou chatted for a while, and when she handed over the nameplate, she met Qiaojie's eyes.
No memories were captured.
It seems that the invisible favorability is not up to standard.
It’s hard to say she was disappointed, because An Rou could see that Qiaojie was soft-hearted and feared her more than she loved her.
Next came the jumping Heng Bobao and a group of his old employees.
As expected, Heng Batong, Leng Hanli, Mei Hong and other older people who have witnessed her rise to fame do not have a favorable impression of her.
Young people such as Heng Bobao, Qingqing, Aya, Baozi, etc. have a high enough favorability level for An Rou to read fragments of their memories.
In every memory fragment, there is the figure of a ghoul employee, mostly Zhang Da.
What surprised An Rou a little was that she actually read Xiang Sao's memory.
This old lady is usually even more serious than Zhang Da. She always acts as if no one is allowed to enter when she sees her. How could people have a very high impression of her?
They just handed out nameplates and said a few words of greeting, and the team moved forward very quickly.
An Rou's smile was warm and calm on the surface, but she looked a little tired.
She took out the prepared mental potion and drank it, and her mental burden was immediately relieved.
Half an hour later, all the nameplates had been distributed. The results were encouraging: she had read the memories of more than half of the residents.
The new residents didn't know her well as a farmer, so their cherishment for the magical day was naturally transferred to her.
But after the last resident left, An Rou's smile quickly faded.
In all the memories I read, there is a similar background sound, with simple words repeating over and over again: cold, so cold, I am so cold...
Similar to NPC residents, the ghouls also have the same background sound in their consciousness, except for the addition of "I'm so hungry".
"Very cold" and "very hungry" are different.
The former is more like a moan emitted in an unconscious state, while the latter is driven by instinct.
The ghoul's instinct to devour souls may simply be due to the game setting.
Apart from this, ghouls and NPCs are most likely of the same origin, as the background sounds of both in their unconscious states are exactly the same.
At this point, the ability to read NPC memories has only one function - to help An Rou explore the real soul world.
Her intuition told her that this background sound was not a game setting, but a flaw that the Soul Society inevitably mixed into the game.
Is it possible that the real Soul World is an extremely cold world, so the same background color is given to all NPC characters: fear of cold?
An Rou looked up at the lush pink cherry trees and couldn't help but whisper silently: Dad, are you cold?
Unexpectedly, An Younian hurriedly turned into the alley: "Rou Rou, are you looking for me?"
He patted himself and said with a smile, "Dad is well dressed, so he's not cold. But you, on the other hand, only wear cheongsam all day long, which is too little. Are you cold? Let me get you a windbreaker."
An Rou stared at him blankly, then shook her head and smiled, "I'm not cold, don't worry, Dad."
After coaxing An Younian away, she looked at Meng Ziyu, who looked like he had seen a ghost.
"You...you just spoke in his head, didn't you?"
The little brat was smart enough not to ask in front of An Younian and endured it until now.
An Rou smiled faintly and said, "You are quite clever. I never thought that besides you ghouls, I could also connect to the consciousness of ordinary people."
Because Meng Ziyu obtained Khan's memory, An Rou asked him many questions, trying to get some clues from it.
Not much useful information was obtained, but it instead led the cunning Meng Ziyu to make many more guesses.
In terms of the depth of their conversation, it can be considered as An Rou's other confidant besides Paopao.
Meng Ziyou suddenly frowned, his expression serious: "I feel more and more that you are a bit like him, high and mighty."
"Who?" An Rou thought for a moment, "Jie Xin?"
Meng Ziyu's face was serious: "Yes. Don't look at me as a ghoul and Uncle An as an ordinary person, but we live in the same world. You and him, although seemingly with us, actually live in another world."
An Rou gradually became serious.
A ghoul is a ghoul, and his perspective on the Soul Society may be very different from hers.
"Can you tell me more specifically?"
"It's just a feeling, how can I be more specific?"
"I am me, he is Jie Xin, there is no third person?"
Meng Ziyou was horrified: "You guys are so scary, two is too many, and there's a third one?!"
That's right, ink removal has never appeared in front of it.
An Rou patted its head and said, "It's lunchtime. Let's eat SS quickly. We'll set off into the Spirit Realm at night."
"Don't touch my head!" Meng Ziyu's fierce voice quickly became smaller because a familiar crack appeared on the ground.
An Rou stepped in.
The white soul waits inside.
An Rou was stunned for a moment and frowned: "Change back!"
The soul that had become rich had lost its long hair and the outline of its white robe had shrunk, becoming an outline exactly the same as Wang Da's.
The contours of some parts slowly stretched out and returned to Jie Xin's appearance.
"I thought the master would like it."
An Rou suddenly realized.
When she first saw the figure, she mistook it for Wang Da because of the similarity in figure and outline, and she did have a fleeting moment of surprise.
It turns out that Su Fu also captured this subtle emotion.
However, An Rou is not a wishful thinker. Wang Da is Wang Da and Bao Fu is Bao Fu. She can make a clear distinction between them and has never regarded Bao Fu's soul as a continuation of Wang Da.
Over time, the thought that "my soul is like Wang Da" disappeared.
Now that she thought about it, it was actually Jie Xin who An Rou overlooked because of his rather unconventional outfit and long hair, which was rare in the game.
——After changing Jie Xin’s outfit, he does look somewhat similar to Wang Da.
An Rou frowned and thought for a while, but couldn't find any special meaning in this coincidence.
"Master, are you angry?"
She came back to her senses, her eyes fell on the rich soul, and she couldn't help but laugh angrily.
"How can you not know whether I'm angry or not?"
The soul's answer was very honest: "The master is not angry, and it seems that he doesn't hate me anymore."
An Rou: "When did I ever hate you?"
Soul: "...Master has never hated me."
An Rou had a headache.
People are often very artificial creatures.
When Baofu was still a loyal "dog", she would hit him wherever he pointed and they were in tune with her. But now that she has developed a human soul, she has started to speak in a roundabout way.
"Come here." An Rou gave a serious order.
The soul approached obediently.
An Rou raised her hand and gave a violent slap. Of course, the touch was soft and half of her hand was sunk in, but she didn't feel any pain.
But there must still be power.
She kicked Soul's calf again.
"If you dare to imitate Xie Xin's weird ways, I'll break your legs."
The soul was much higher than her, but it was like a puppy, keeping its head down obediently.
"Okay, I won't learn."
No matter how I listen to it, it sounds weird.
An Rou was about to do it again when it continued, "I don't like the name Jie Xin. Master, please call me Bao Bao."
An Rou slowly lowered her raised hand.
right.
It's violent.
It is not a remedy for the symptoms of stagnation.
No matter what Bao Fu’s true identity is, or whether he will replace Jie Xin as the new Ghost King in the future, he is still Bao Bao, the little ghoul she raised.
An Rou sat down on the ground and patted the front of her body: "Sit down."
One person, one soul, sitting opposite each other.
"Have you thought of anything in the past two days?"
"No, Master."
"Then I won't ask you that. You can always explain the relationship between you and...your physical body clearly, right?"
An Rou has been confused about this problem for a long time. There are too many signs that the sudden wealth of a ghoul and the sudden wealth of the soul are not a complete whole.
Likewise, there are too many signs to prove that the two are inseparable from each other.
The soul looked up at the stars in the sky, as if thinking.
It gave an unexpected yet reasonable answer: "The relationship between us is the relationship between body and soul."
An Rou understood and asked, "Is it possible that you know all the instructions I gave to Bao Fu?"
"Yes, Master."
"Then I'll give you instructions, and will Baofu know?"
The soul hesitated and was silent for a long time.
Just as An Rou was secretly worried, it asked, "Can I ask the master a question?"
"Can."
"When the master's hands are doing something, the brain knows it. When the brain is thinking about something, do the hands know it?"
This question really stumped An Rou.
The drum in An Rou's heart stopped beating.
The problem of getting rich quickly conveys a clear meaning, and it is one with the rapidly changing physical body.
The reason why An Rou could clearly perceive the "inconsistency" between the two was simply because the "hands" and "brains" of getting rich quickly were too concrete.
In other words, no one can recognize a person's hand through the brain, nor can anyone recognize a person's brain through the hand.
An Rou couldn't help but laugh, and the laughter got louder and louder until she cried rational tears.
The question that has troubled me for so long is actually so simple to explain.
But this doubt, as the soul of the rich man condensed into the appearance of Jie Xin, almost shattered her trust in it.
-
At dusk, Paopao goes online.
An Rou finally made an important discovery in the matter she asked him to investigate.
The two approached the void inside Bao Fu's body.
"I found a photo album from the Martyrs' Memorial Hall in my brother's study. The album itself is nothing special; you can buy it when you visit the memorial hall. But behind one of the photos, there were two one-inch photos without names.
"I searched it using a facial recognition engine, boss, guess what?"
An Rou didn't guess and frowned at him: "Facial recognition engine?"
This kind of stuff is only available in the public security department, right? How did this guy get his hands on it? Could it be that he's using his wealth to commit some illegal activity?
Paopao scratched his head and said embarrassedly, "I just paid some money to ask someone on the dark web to help me check it out. Don't worry, boss, I won't get into trouble... I'm serious!"
An Rou: "You say."
"Those two people died on the same day, both from a myocardial infarction. The strangest thing is, two days before their deaths, Long Yan and the other two on the Super God Ranking were simultaneously promoted to Legendary."
Paopao's expression grew serious. "When they died, my brother was still the vice president of the Dragon Flame Guild. He couldn't have collected their photos for no reason. So, I think they're most likely the pair of super-powerful players who vanished after being promoted to Legendary."
He turned on the light screen and entered two IDs on the forum: [Bamiianfeng] and [Chuantangxiao].
Judging from their IDs, they look like a pair.
Sure enough, the first search result was a highly-anticipated post: [Eight-faced Wind Chuantang Xiao Becomes a Legend! The Two Enter the Ghost Ruins Together!! Come and Witness History Together!!!]
An Rou read the post while listening to Paopao continue his story.
“It is said that they are good friends from an aristocratic family. They entered the game together, joined Longyan together, became Super Gods together, and finally became Legends together to face the final battle.
"As soon as I saw the ID, I remembered that my brother also lived in the office all day and night during that period. There were rumors everywhere online that the Soul Song game would end at the hands of this duo.
"It's just that the game is running as normal. Obviously, they failed to kill the Ghost King and failed the challenge... No one should have known that they would die on the same day."
An Rou caught a glimpse of his hesitant expression from the corner of her eye.
"Where did the news of their death come from?"
"Of course..." Paopao paused, "Boss, you guessed it. Money makes the world go round."
Seeing that the boss didn't ask any further questions, Paopao continued, "The death information is definitely not fake. The fake one must be the cause of death. Diing on the same day from the same sudden death disease, how could it be such a coincidence? I suspect that their death dates are all fake."
An Rou nodded slowly: "The real date of death might be the day he became a legend."
So this game is really deadly.
She couldn't help but recall Chu Mo's question again: Do you want to kill them all?
Paopao put away the screen and said seriously, "Boss, even if people die in the game, it has nothing to do with you. They all died at the hands of the Ghost King, and we don't have a Ghost King on our farm."
Kejie Xin is the King of Ghosts.
Just because Jie Xin didn't take action doesn't mean he can't take the players' lives.
An Rou suddenly understood what Jie Xin meant when he shook his head at Chu Mo when he said this: thousands of players on the Black Market Island will not die.
He didn't reap their lives, so Paopao couldn't find any signs of trouble.
In other words, whether Jie Xin wants to reap someone's life or not, rather than simply losing the game qualification, is probably just a matter of thought!
This is the most terrifying inference so far.
-
The dinner was extremely sumptuous, with twenty dishes filling a large round table, but there was only one person sitting at the table.
Including An Younian and Paopao, everyone was sent away by An Rou.
She waited for five minutes, and Xie Xin appeared at the table as she wished, and sat down leisurely.
"It seems the farmer has more questions to ask."
"Where's Mr. Mo? Could you please ask Mr. Jie to come over? I have something important to tell you."
Xie Xin shook his head helplessly: "He keeps to himself, how can I find him? I can't say how far he is, but within a radius of 500 miles, there is no trace of him."
"Okay, let's do it one by one."
An Rou said as she poured him a glass of wine.
Jie Xin looked at the wine, then at her, and said with a smile, "The farmer's words are horrifying. It sounds like he wants to send Chu Mo and me to the guillotine."
An Rou smiled slightly: "Mr. Jie is such a joke, how could I possibly chop off the head of the Ghost King?"
"Isn't it the Hongmen Banquet?"
"no."
"Not for some answers?"
"no."
Xie Xin's expression became interested, and he turned his glass: "What is that?"
"Practice wine, watch tea wine, and drive away guests wine. Mr. Xie chooses whichever word he likes."
An Rou's smile remained polite as she spoke slowly, "After this meal, please leave the farm, Mr. Jie."
"So it's a toast. What if I want to drink the penalty drink?"
For the first time, the Ghost King dropped his politeness and gave her a provocative smile.
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