Chapter Ninety-Eight: The End
"Congratulations to player Lu Cen on successfully completing the game."
"Rating you, please wait..."
"The full score is 100, and your score is... 97."
"You have successfully gained access to view the full story details..."
"You have one chance to draw a special item. Would you like to draw it now?"
......
"Player Lu Cen, you have successfully cleared the level 5 dungeon. We are now granting you access."
"Identity: Official player".
"Time: Enter the instance once every ten days. Completing the task will grant survival days, while failure will deduct survival days. If the survival days are insufficient to cover the deductions, the user will be immediately eliminated!"
"Space: Players can freely travel between this world and the world of the dead. Other worlds are not open to players for the time being. Please keep trying."
"The mall has granted you more purchasing privileges."
"Instance: You can invite players or be invited by players to enter the same instance, but the number of players cannot exceed 50% of the instance's limit."
......
You have received a friend request. Would you like to accept?
You have received a friend request. Would you like to accept?
You have received a friend request. Would you like to accept?
You have received a friend request. Would you like to accept?
......
Lu Cen was annoyed by the electronic noise, and seeing that it showed no sign of stopping, he manually turned off the assistant's output.
He didn't feel any discomfort after taking the medicine. When he woke up, he was lying in his room without any pain. The two points were well worth it.
He had too many unresolved issues with the previous instance. Putting aside the endless stream of information, he first clicked on the plot details. The first scene featured Li Yan, but his face was Lu Cen's own, a small face brimming with youthful energy. A girl stood in front of him, and he didn't know what she was saying. Li Yan adopted a posture of attentive listening. At this moment, Jiang Zhao suddenly appeared from the side, grabbed his hand, and led him silently into the woods. Lu Cen knew perfectly well what would happen next.
Jiang Zhao confessed his feelings to Li Yan, but Li Yan rejected him, calling him a pervert, and subtly distanced himself from Jiang Zhao.
The turning point came in May when Jiang Zhao wanted to ease the tension between the two, or perhaps he was unwilling to give up and was still thinking of slowly winning Li Yan over.
Jiang Zhao invited Li Yan to film scenery in the desert. To dispel Li Yan's suspicions, he invited many people, both men and women.
On their first night there, they checked into the hotel.
A black sedan drove straight towards the crowd. Lu Cen was horrified, because the dead person was not Jiang Zhao, but himself, Li Yan!
Li Yan lay in a pool of blood, her eyes fixed on Jiang Zhao, as if she wanted to say something. Her lips moved a few times, and the light in her eyes slowly faded. Jiang Zhao was terrified and, with a heart full of fear, lifted half of Li Yan's head. Before he could even lift it up, Li Yan breathed her last.
After Jiang Zhao returned, he became increasingly thin.
One day, he was lying on the sofa at home when, through a hazy vision, he saw Li Yan coming from the light. He was overjoyed and trembled all over.
He fell into a deep sleep without realizing it.
The scene changes.
The black car reappeared, but this time the person who died was Jiang Zhao, who died willingly and even gladly.
He often thought to himself, "I wish it were me who died."
Why did he invite Li Yan to the desert, and why did he book that hotel?
He regretted it, he was in pain...
When he actually died in Li Yan's place, he realized how painful it was to be hit by a car, a pain that made his limbs tremble.
Perhaps in a dream, he was still unwilling to accept his death, and appeared in front of Li Yan as a ghost. He even went to Li Yan at night and told him incoherently that the person who died was not him, but Hu Si.
The first dream constructed quickly collapsed due to logical flaws. After waking up, Jiang Zhao became addicted to this self-deceiving dream and kept improving it until a complete world appeared, which could even be self-consistent, until Lu Cen was drawn into this dream.
Lu Cen was dumbfounded after reading it. He never expected that a dungeon could be played like this. The entire dungeon was Jiang Zhao's perfect dream.
If he hadn't remembered the mission hint at the last moment, he might not have been able to complete the mission. It can only be said that he had a bit of luck involved.
Having traversed these two worlds, Lu Cen's craving for food outweighed everything else; he ate snacks while watching the plot unfold.
While studying the open sections of the shopping mall, there was a world icon at the bottom. Clicking on it revealed two worlds. Lu Cen clicked on the icon for the world of death.
A single line of text as a prompt.
[Would you like to travel to the world of the dead?]
Lu Cen clicked "confirm".
The familiar dizziness made Lu Cen suppress the urge to vomit. His thoughts were stuck in a long-term silence. He didn't know how much time had passed when he heard a faint noise. Someone was talking from a distance. Gradually, the person was getting closer and closer to him, and the noise became more and more irritating.
"Hand, the hand moved!"
"Check if it's manually operated!"
Accompanied by excited voices, Lu Cen opened her bewildered eyes. Her vision was obscured by a hazy veil, and it took her a while to make out the people walking back and forth in front of her.
A middle-aged woman rushed forward, wanting to hug her but hesitant, her hands trembling with emotion, her eyes brimming with tears. The middle-aged man standing beside her, though also agitated, managed to remain calm, putting his arm around her shoulder to comfort her. Lu Cen was startled, her mouth slightly moving, "Mom... Dad..."
Lu Cen's body was too weak, and after a brief awakening, he fell back into a deep sleep.
His parents were initially very worried, but later Lu Cen would wake up from time to time and talk to them for a while, and they gradually calmed down.
"It's amazing. I heard that his heart stopped in the operating room and the doctors gave up after trying to resuscitate him for more than ten minutes, but his heart started beating again the next second."
"It's simply a medical miracle."
On the day Lu Cen was discharged from the hospital, he heard two nurses whispering to each other. He smiled nonchalantly. Who knew that he had actually died once?
He never imagined that the world of the dead would be the world he lived in.
This was the best thing that had happened to him in a long time.
The three of them returned home. After being settled in by her parents, Lu Cen was busy cooking and tidying up the room.
Lu Cen couldn't sit still, so he went to the kitchen to peel potatoes.
Lu's mother urged him, "You've just been discharged from the hospital, and your heart was just replaced. Listen to me, don't exert yourself during this time, take good care of yourself. The chicken soup I made for lunch is ready, take it out and drink it."
As she spoke, she ladled him a bowl of soup and added a chicken leg to his plate.
Helpless, Lu Cen could only bring the soup to the table and drink it.
His body was not as fragile as they had imagined; in fact, he recovered faster than most people.
This might be a small reward given by the dungeon.
But the parents didn't believe it.
Nine days passed in this peaceful and happy way. On the last day, Lu Cen lay in his warm bed at dawn and clicked the button to return to his original world.
The two-story building remains unchanged.
"Welcome back, player Lu Cen."
"There is half an hour until the next instance starts. Please get ready."
"You have one chance to draw a special item. Would you like to draw it?"
Lu Cen clicked "extract," and the screen began to rotate.
Special item: Colored stone.
"Function: Can block one fatal attack in a dungeon."
"Restriction: Special items can only be used once."
Side effects: None.
Note: This special item is a passive item.
"Player Lu Cen, someone has invited you to participate in the next dungeon. Do you agree?"
Lu Cen then opened his friends list. He already had dozens of friend requests, all using real photos and nicknames. He saw Chen Ning and Jiang Zhao. Before he could even be surprised that Jiang Zhao was a player, he felt a chill run down his spine when he saw the next name: Josiah's face, but his name was Chen Nan. He had an upward gaze and gave off a cold feeling.
This person is a player too!
We don't add each other as friends, but there's no limit to the number of messages we can send.
The contents of the dialog box were shocking.
Perhaps the character of Josiah had such a great influence on Chen Nan that he picked up many of his habits and ways of speaking.
Has my little darling forgotten about me?
"He hasn't accepted my friend request for so long."
"Do you have other lovers?"
"I miss you so much, Rhine... no, I should call you Lucen."
"Lu Cen, my little darling."
......
"It's okay, I'll find you even if you don't accept my friend request."
"We'll meet soon."
I miss you so much, I miss you so much.
Lu Cen's face turned pale, and she closed the chat box.
"003".
"I am here."
What does this * mean?
"Are these bad words? Do you need me to unblock them for you?"
Lu Cen: "...No need to deactivate it."
Scrolling down, He Zhizhou and Zhou Yang were also in the friend request list.
He didn't even want to open the chat window; he knew it wouldn't be anything nice. Lu Cen only accepted Chen Ning's friend request; he didn't intend to accept the requests from anyone else.
He was about to close it when he caught a glimpse of a name that sent chills down his spine.
NPC Xu Li.
That killer with the black hood!
Lu Cen's breathing became rapid and uncontrollable, and images of the mountains of corpses and seas of blood in the mental hospital flashed through his mind again.
He felt nauseous and dry heaved, and even his whole body started to ache.
The scene of Xu Li pressing down hard on the back of his neck, trying to rub against him, was still vivid in his mind.
Overwhelmed with fear, Lu Cen broke out in a cold sweat. Looking down, he saw Xu Xi's name listed, along with Lu De, Ados, Hu Si, Su Lian, Su Lie, Su Lie, Xiang Ming, Su Yi'an...
They are all prefixed with NPC.
And at the very bottom lies a person's name.
That was the person Lu Cen feared most. On the surface, he was impeccably dressed, but in secret he was even more terrifying than Xu Li. Moreover, he possessed the power of curses, which inspired fear in everyone.
That name is...
Xie Lin.
"003".
"I am here."
Why can NPCs in dungeons contact people in real life?
"Hello player, NPCs operate on a points system. The higher the NPC's points, the higher their self-awareness, the more information they have about this world, and the greater their authority, even more than that of the player."
"The abilities they possess within the instance have a fatal impact on players in this world. Therefore, the first rule for NPCs in this world is that NPCs cannot leave the instance; otherwise, they will be immediately eliminated!"
Lu Cen didn't know whether to be happy or unhappy about this news.
He huddled on the sofa, looking dazed.
Just then, there was a knock on his door.
Since entering this world, he has always been a loner. Although he knows that this is a base and that he is not the only person living here, they usually do not disturb each other.
He curiously poked his head out from the second-floor balcony.
But then they saw a man who was nearly 1.9 meters tall wearing a trench coat standing in front of the door, persistently ringing the doorbell.
He sensed something, looked up at the building, and met Lu Cen's gaze.
Chen Nan smiled, as if an iceberg had melted.
Lu Cen showed no joy; the first thing he did after retreating was to call 003.
"003, please help me find a suitable base. I need to move."
"OK."
"Hello player, time's up, please draw your dungeon."
As the screen rotated, Lu Cen was about to draw when 003 said, "Received the designated copy. This time, your copy is named [The Vanished Treasure]."
"Instance Level: 6".
"Mission: Find the designated treasure in the dungeon to complete the game."
Note: This does not apply to any object or form of existence.
Time: Unlimited.
...
"There are six players in total. You can choose your character first... Ding—Character assigned..."
"Your name is Lu Cen, and you are a live-streaming adventurer who often goes to remote and terrifying places in search of thrills."
"The live stream attracted many people with similar interests..."
"When you open your private messages, your attention is drawn to a description..."
"You've decided to go on an adventure to the place mentioned in the private message..."
"You didn't dare go alone, so you invited a few of your streamer friends..."
"The destination is an abandoned building on the outskirts of the city. It used to be a giant amusement park, but as the city expanded outwards, it became less and less popular until it closed down..."
“Scattered residents in the vicinity can hear the amusement park rides starting up every night…”
"It looks like someone is playing on it..."
"An old story is also told here. It is said that before the amusement park was built, a family of five lived here. They were incredibly wealthy, and they owned a fine jade Guanyin statue, which was extremely valuable..."
Lu Cen felt dizzy and lightheaded, and the electronic voice intensified his dizziness.
He stood at the entrance of the huge amusement park, with colorful lights flashing on the horizontal beam above. The mottled marks looked like a product of the last century, and most of the paint on the five characters "Happy Amusement Park" had peeled off, making them barely legible.
Beyond the main gate are various amusement facilities, flashing with lights of different colors. Although they look old, they give people a warm feeling.
"Lu Cen, let's go!"
The people in front turned around and waved to Lu Cen.
The people were backlit, so Lu Cen couldn't see their faces clearly, but they seemed familiar. The amusement park that was cozy just a moment ago now looked different to him; the light suddenly turned pale, like a funeral procession.
His heart was pounding, as if he had encountered some danger, and he just wanted to retreat.
But thinking of his mission, he suppressed the strange feeling and stepped into the Happy Amusement Park. The moment he crossed the gate, Lu Cen suddenly heard a soft laugh coming from somewhere...
It was like a hallucination.
He was so startled that he took a step back, but unexpectedly bumped into a warm chest.
Lu Cen looked up and caught a glimpse of white.
The man was wearing a white shirt with loose sleeves, gold-rimmed glasses perched on his high nose, and a watch on his left wrist.
Shrewd and refined.
He grabbed Lu Cen's forearm, his fingers touching her smooth skin.
He seemed to have found a lost treasure, his five fingers pinching Lu Cen's chin, his movements gentle yet brooking no refusal. He lowered his head and kissed Lu Cen's slightly cool lips, grinding them until they were red and moist.
Lu Cen heard the person who kissed him say, "We meet again, baby."
Lu Cen froze, his whole body trembling uncontrollably...
Xie Lin.
This person is Xie Lin.
No, it wasn't Xie Lin.
It was his shadow.
He struggled free and staggered toward the crowd...
Xie Lin smiled, his body twisting in the darkness, transforming into a black shadow, and quickly followed after him, like a shadow.
He had waited for this moment for far too long. He couldn't remember how many years had passed. The buildings here had changed again and again, from bustling with people to deserted and desolate, with no one ever setting foot here again.
It was as still as a stagnant pool of water.
Xie Lin didn't want to be separated from him for even half a second longer, so he blended into Lu Cen's shadow.
Lu Cen bumped into a player's back in his haste, and the player gently helped him regain his balance, speaking in a gentle tone.
Be careful.
Lu Cen felt the voice was like a demon's whisper, which startled him so much that his scalp tingled.
"Chen Nan..."
"Long time no see, Lu Cen. Have you missed me? You haven't accepted my friend request."
"Have you forgotten about me...?"
"I miss you so much……"
The aggrieved words did not soften Lu Cen's heart. Instead, they reminded him of Chen Nan's countless tentacles when he was a demon. He took a few steps back again, but someone grabbed the back of his neck forcefully. Lu Cen caught a glimpse of a face that had become blurry in his memory. That face belonged to He Zhizhou.
Jiang Zhao from the previous instance was also standing next to him.
Besides, in the shadows not far away, Lu Cen saw Su Yi'an hesitating...
Lu Cen's breathing quickened. Who had assigned him this copy?
NPCs or these players?
His expression changed instantly, and in fear, he ran deeper into the amusement park.
The shadow behind him gradually changed shape. Under some kind of force, he broke away from Lu Cen, and a man with the exact same appearance walked up beside him.
The two are 100% alike; they are wearing the same clothes, have deep eyes, and their glasses reflect light, as if they were copied and pasted.
One of them said, "They can't escape."
Another person repeated, "They can't escape."
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