Chapter 120 Chapter 120 Cage
[The Qianjin Yinuo live broadcast ends——]
[Starting immediately, the Rugui App will enter the data interoperability phase. The upgrade is expected to be completed at 2:30 PM, and the next live broadcast will begin after the upgrade.]
The live broadcast interfaces of the two forums switched, and new words floated out.
At the Eye of the Ghost City Ferris wheel, Xiang Tianyi and others had already left the box.
Qin Yinuo looked at them and said, "If nothing unexpected happens, all dungeons will be suspended today. Players are prohibited from working."
She gave a somewhat helpless smile, "The world projection that appeared early today caught us off guard."
"Go back."
Outside the Ferris wheel project, there was already a shuttle bus waiting for her. Qin Yinuo got on the bus with her hands in her pockets.
Xiang Tianyi and the other three waved goodbye to her, and countless messages had already appeared on their phones.
They stood outside the railing, taking the opportunity to look down at their phones and check messages.
"We can leave work early today." Li Xiang said.
"Well, among us from other places, other working compatriots also said they wanted to leave work early."
"It's the same thing at the hospital. It seems like they ended the case early, but they issued them a one-month labor contract. Today counts as a holiday, but they still have to go back to work afterward."
"Those who stayed in the community said that Murphy and Xiao Tang were taken away by my sister. When they came back, their eyes were swollen like walnuts. Xiao Tang was still holding an urn tightly, saying that she had taken it to the archives."
"The urns...are their relatives who were forgotten here. I remember that Murphy and Xiao Tang both said they were orphans." Xiang Tianyi murmured.
There were constant messages in the group. Xiang Tianyi and the others replied to a few of them and immediately decided to go back to the community together.
After they met up with Princess Hair and Pigtails who stayed behind at the training location, the six of them got on the subway together.
"The data interoperability mentioned in the announcement, does it mean the Rugui app and the forum are connected? And they suddenly started a livestream today. Is there something else going on out there that we're not aware of?"
"It's possible. We saw the projection here, and we can see it in real life too. I'm afraid we're all going crazy. This probably wasn't within their expectations, so they had to launch these functions in advance and start the live broadcast temporarily."
By the time the group of six returned to their safe home, they were already the players who came back relatively late.
This time, seeing the neighbors skillfully cutting off their heads and wagging their tails downstairs in the community, the players all felt complicated.
Once upon a time, they thought that this was the way the indigenous people did it and it was also a local custom.
They would even regard the indigenous people with prominent mutations as weird.
Not the indigenous people, not the weird ones, but the forgotten compatriots.
They are polluted and mutated, but they still struggle to survive in this world.
During this period, there were too many players returning to the community, and the official residence obviously could not accommodate so many people.
In addition to Xiang Tianyi and the other four people whose voices appeared in the live broadcast, Mo Fei and Tang Siyang also attracted much attention.
And Liu Yanran returned from reality.
"Sister Xiao Liu, didn't you just leave? Why are you back again?" Liu Yanran came out of the subway and happened to meet a few people who were buying lunch at the 404 convenience store at the entrance of the community.
"I think I should come back." Liu Yanran looked at Ping An Real Estate on the side.
The shop door was still open at this moment, but there was no one guarding the shop. A sign saying "Go home and cook, call me if you need anything" was hung on the door.
As the first player to enter the ghost city, the first to find a place to rent, and the first to find a job.
It must be Luo Qing who chose her.
As the fog of the strange realm was dispelled layer by layer, corner after corner of the curtain was revealed.
Liu Yanran felt that perhaps her sister also had something to say to her.
Standing at the door of the convenience store, she told the anxious people about the real changes, and they were stunned.
"Do you think our sister will appear in the live broadcast this afternoon?" Li Xiang asked in a low voice.
"I think it might be the person in charge of other copies." said the princess.
"Didn't my sister take Mo Fei and the others to the archives this morning? If everyone has different responsibilities, it's likely she won't be there in the afternoon."
"I have to go find Mo Fei and Xiao Tang." Liu Yanran said, and separated from the others.
Mo Fei and Tang Siyang had already returned to their safe home. Luo Qing drove them back. The two of them simply sent a message to other players in the group, then returned to their respective residences and watched the live broadcast again.
They didn't come out of the house until Liu Yanran contacted them.
When Liu Yanran saw the two of them, she could see their big swollen eyelids. Tang Siyang was still holding the urn in his arms.
"This is my mother," she said dryly.
"I'm worried about leaving it in the dormitory."
His mother's spirit is still there, and Tang Siyang knows that the spirit has special abilities. If it were brought into reality, he doesn't know what the consequences would be.
Most likely, you are not allowed to take it back.
So, although she was temporarily living in the dormitory of Qingshan Hospital, Tang Siyang thought that she should rent a house for herself.
In Room 503, Unit 1, Building 9, Liu Yanran and several official players listened quietly to the intertwined stories of Mo Fei and Tang Siyang.
About the archives, about the remains, about the bad guys.
"My mother is No. 4461. From the basement level 1 to the basement level 8, these are where the deceased's souls are stored." Tang Siyang's voice was hoarse.
Liu Yanran's eyelashes fluttered. From the first floor to the eighth floor, each number represented a person, or perhaps... more than one person.
They don't even know how many bad guys have sacrificed, but there are eight floors underground where their souls are stored. This is an unimaginable number that makes people feel heavy and breathless.
"We still have a lot of problems now." Liu Yanran said softly.
"What exactly is He? The black uniform, the blue uniform, the red uniform, and what's the situation of that old man you saw at Happy Amusement Park?"
Murphy nodded silently.
Liu Yanran did not ask about his specific abilities as she returned to her safe home from the Ghost City Archives.
Murphy couldn't help but think in his mind that his father's ability was called [Words Are Ineffective] and his mother's ability was called [Loan Balance].
But what was left to him was the dice.
[Words Don't Work] gives him luck, and [Balance of Credit] gives him balance.
Looking back, when using the fortune dice, good luck always comes in dungeons, and back in reality, even if the dice roll a low number, it's just a small thing like getting up and encountering a power outage, stepping in dog poop when going out, or someone stepping on your foot on the subway.
Even if the dice rolled a very low number, he could always escape danger in the dungeon.
Murphy's copy of the phone rang.
He turned on his phone and then froze.
He actually received a text message on his copy phone from Anxi Technology.
[Anxi Technology] Hello, Murphy. You've passed the Anxi Technology online test and resume screening. We invite you to visit Anxi Technology's Ghost City headquarters. Check-in time is 2:30 PM today. Enjoy your visit.
After waiting for more than a day for Anxi Technology to recruit, they actually invited him to visit the headquarters at this time.
14:30 is the time when the forum data is marked to be interconnected!
And he was not the only one who received the text message.
[Guicheng Talent Introduction] Hello, Li Ying. You have passed the preliminary review for Guicheng's talent introduction program. Anxi Technology, a key talent introduction provider in our city, invites you to visit Anxi Technology's Guicheng headquarters. Check-in time is 2:30 PM today. Enjoy your visit.
In the group chat of [Outsiders from all over the world unite], Liu Yanran @ed all members and finally confirmed that only Mo Fei and Li Ying received this invitation.
One is that I submitted my resume to Anxi Technology.
One is to actively submit a talent introduction application on the Rugui APP.
When Li Ying met up with Mo Fei, he saw that Mo Fei was wearing a pair of sunglasses.
Yesterday, the two of them went to Happy Amusement Park together.
Today, they are going to Anxi Technology together again.
If nothing unexpected happens, the two of them will be listeners in this afternoon's live broadcast.
"Li Ying, do you think the text messages we both received are related to the countdown for the dungeon we discovered in Happy Amusement Park yesterday?" Murphy asked.
"I'm not sure." Li Ying shook her head.
He reached out his hand to touch his chest. His heartbeat had been accelerating uncontrollably since the morning, and he even felt a little panicked.
After 2:30 in the afternoon, the Rugui Forum used by the players and the APP used in the Guiyu were interconnected, and Mo Fei and Li Ying also arrived at Anxi Technology in advance.
There are people coming and going here all the time.
They saw someone with a work badge and glasses waiting for them.
Li Ying didn't know him, but Mo Fei did.
It's a plaid shirt.
Inside the forum where countless people are waiting.
[Bald and I have no chance to start live broadcast——]
"Long time no see." He took the initiative to walk forward and greeted Murphy. Murphy looked at him and felt that the dust had settled.
"You really are a programmer here. Xiao Xiang said she saw Zhang Wei earlier, so we wondered if you might be here too."
Murphy murmured, he had already taken off his sunglasses.
"Come to think of it, it's only been a month, but it feels like a long time."
"Come on, I'll show you around."
As a player in Yinhuai Village, Murphy recalled the dungeon at that time and had a lot of questions in his mind.
Li Ying was looking at the work badge on the plaid shirt, which had its name written on it.
Jiao Ning, technical support.
The two followed the man in the plaid shirt to take the elevator. On the floor index next to the elevator, the [Copy Operation Planning Department] and [Technical Development] occupied several consecutive floors. Just by looking at them, one could tell that it was an extremely large team. The [Copy Review Department] had one floor, and the [Copy Audit Office] firmly occupied two separate floors.
"Anxi Technology controls all network technology and dungeon monitoring within the Weird Domain. There are many specific functional departments, but in summary, they can be divided into two types: those that provide services to players, and those that provide services to residents."
"Zhang Wei and I were in Yinhuai Village. After violating the dungeon rules that night, we were taken to live with other villagers. We then returned with Brother Yan to conduct a dungeon credit investigation. After that, we were arranged based on our real-life work."
He gave a bitter laugh. "Zhang Wei is better off than me. I was directly captured and used like a beast of burden. I came here to work straight away. After a month, I lived in the dormitory and didn't even wander around Ghost City. After working for a week, I was promoted and given a raise. It was all work."
Murphy couldn't help laughing: "I finally caught you, a senior programmer, how can I let you go?"
"What is a copy credit investigation?" Li Ying asked.
"It's similar to your talent introduction assessment. You can think of it as a credit investigation for the dungeon. The rating of each level passed and the performance in the dungeon will affect the results of the credit investigation." The man in the plaid shirt replied.
"We are going to the dungeon operation planning department." He used his face to press the 14th floor.
"This department sounds large, but in reality, it's divided into separate project teams based on different dungeons. Each dungeon has its own independent development team, but everyone works together. After a period of time, the development teams will rotate and update the design. This is what players see as dungeon changes."
"It's like a game development studio," Murphy said. "People are coming and going."
The man in the plaid shirt nodded, "That's understandable."
The elevator in the Anxi Technology office building was very fast and reached the fourteenth floor in the blink of an eye.
"What's the difference between the Copy Review Department and the Audit Office?" Li Ying asked.
"The Brother Yan you are talking about should be your brother-in-law?" Murphy asked at the same time as him.
"right."
"He is the husband of our tour guide Luo Qing. When I broke my leg in Yinhuai Village, he was the one who carried me down the mountain." said the man in the plaid shirt.
"I call him Brother Yan. However, most people call him Chief Engineer Yan. He and Mr. Shang are responsible for the domain-wide copy audit, but this audit is different from the real world."
"It's to review and check, to find out if there are any traces of His power, and whether there are any signs of contamination in the entire copy. That's the Copy Audit Office." The man in the plaid shirt replied.
"The Instance Review Department is easier to understand. They review the content of each updated instance, as well as the instance planning, execution difficulty, logic, and level of shock. Instances that are too difficult, too logically complete, too prone to excessive shock, or filled with malicious intent will not pass review. They'll be required to manually add loopholes to reduce the difficulty, but they can't be too deliberate. Therefore, perfectionists can't be in the role of instance planner. I heard this department was only established in the past two years."
Both of them were stunned. Others' review procedures were very strict, checking for deficiencies and filling in the gaps, but the review department of Anxi Technology was very lenient.
The public area on the 14th floor is not an open, large work area, but a series of separated glass partitions.
Li Ying and Mo Fei followed Plaid Shirt, but they couldn't see inside the glass partition.
"Each copy project team has an independent partition. The glass is one-way. You can't see inside from the corridor, but you can see outside from inside." said the man in the plaid shirt.
Every few project group areas, they saw a tea room and a toilet.
Plaid Shirt led them through one project room after another, and finally came to the copy monitoring room located at the deepest part of this floor.
Computers, operating tables, screens... There are so many screens in this monitoring room that it makes people dizzy.
However, at this moment, there are no players in the copy displayed on the screen.
"This is the operations team's monitoring area. There will also be real-time monitoring in the project team's work area. However, there will be more people here, making it easier to monitor and record the movements of players in the dungeon in real time."
There were only three people in the copy monitoring room at this time, and it was obvious that the staff had been cleared out in advance.
Murphy and Li Ying looked at the screens one by one, and their eyes finally fixed on a certain area.
The monitoring screen of the [Happy Amusement Park] copy.
Because the two had been here before and were particularly familiar with it, multiple angles of view on the surveillance screen were focused on the Ferris wheel and the lake.
The lake is calm and the Ferris wheel moves slowly.
Li Ying then spoke up: "Can I ask a question? What do the black uniforms, blue uniforms, and red uniforms represent?"
The man in the plaid shirt seemed to have anticipated this question. He answered directly without hesitation.
"The dungeon serves as an isolated safe zone. In the event of possible contamination in the Ghost Domain, the staff in black uniforms are assistants, responsible for emergency escape, emergency evacuation, and maintaining order. Under normal working conditions, they will also perform normal work duties."
"The staff in blue uniforms are combat guards and are also bad guys with special abilities. They are the second line of defense in the event of contamination."
"The staff in red uniforms are frontline guards, more senior bad guys, and the guardians of the strange domain."
Murphy looked straight at the man in the plaid shirt. He pursed his lips and finally chose to speak.
In the live broadcast room, his voice was crystal clear.
"I didn't mean to question you, buddy."
"It's just that you took us through the operation and planning of the dungeon. I want to know where the construction of the dungeon comes from."
"Is it related to the bad guys in red uniforms?"
The man in the plaid shirt was stunned by his question, and he closed his mouth and remained silent.
Li Ying looked at the two men's expressions and spoke up.
"Five years ago, our predecessors left behind three rules that used abilities. They also gradually established dungeons as safe zones. I wonder if abilities were also used."
"Furthermore, since the dungeon is already a safe zone, why was there an emergency evacuation and quarantine at the Happy Amusement Park earlier? How did new contamination occur?"
The man in the plaid shirt remained silent.
Everyone watching the live broadcast was staring at this moment. Murphy and Li Ying had obviously asked the key question, but the person in charge in front of them seemed unwilling to answer it.
Seeing that he didn't say anything, Murphy stood in front of the surveillance screen and pointed at the Ferris wheel and the lake.
"Here, you're not just monitoring the dungeon, you're monitoring this Harbinger Lake, right?"
"We went to the Eye of the Haunted City yesterday and rode the Ferris wheel twice."
“When I was looking down from the highest point of the Ferris wheel, I saw more than just the Ferris wheel reflected in the lake.”
"There's another person, an old man in a red uniform. He's sitting on a throne-like position, with lines under his feet extending towards the amusement park. Those lines are thick and thin, like... blood vessels." Murphy said word by word.
Li Ying looked at him, and at this moment, he finally understood what Murphy was thinking about when he was distracted and lost in thought on the Ferris wheel yesterday.
The man in the plaid shirt had a tense expression and said nothing.
There is no option to post barrage in the live broadcast room on the forum, but at this moment, in the synchronized discussion thread, players are constantly flooding the screen with question marks.
Li Ying stared at him:
"So the replica was constructed using the lives of the red-uniformed delinquents?"
In the live broadcast room, there was silence for 30 seconds so long that you could hear a pin drop.
【Enter the live broadcast room in Business Talk——】
The door of the monitoring room opened and Shang Wei Yan walked in.
He looked at the man in the plaid shirt and nodded, then looked at the two people who asked the questions.
"Not exactly," he said.
Countless players' pupils trembled. Is this business? Isn't this the prop dealer in the forum?
He is the man behind the Ghost City, so it is clear where all those props came from.
“Before we can answer this question, we need to know what He is.”
"Our definition of Him does not use the term 'Lord God'."
"He is the embodiment of all evil, evil, and negative energy in the world. He delights in mockery, betrayal, envy, betrayal, fear, deception, and disaster... We call Him Malice." "He has isolated a strange domain as his playground, brimming with malice and the strangeness of pure negativity. We are not only captured to provide him with negative emotions and nurture his strangeness, but also his toys."
"The abilities we acquire are the result of being contaminated, infected, fought, and devoured by the strange."
"A delinquent with special abilities can only maintain his abilities by constantly devouring strange things and absorbing evil power or emotions."
"So, we are not pure, nor are we completely selfless and noble."
"The dungeon is not just a safe zone, it's also a reservoir for capturing fear and nourishing our energy."
His tone was frank.
But Murphy still shook his head.
"You didn't answer our questions directly."
"Besides, I inherited my abilities from my parents' spirits. I don't need this kind of malice to use them."
He looked directly at Shang Weiyan, "If you have reached the point where you need to absorb these emotions and evil energies, it means that the abilities you have mobilized are beyond imagination."
"So, this is the price you pay for opening up the dungeon and establishing the safe zone, right?"
Murphy's thoughts were extremely clear at this moment. He looked at the position of the lake on the surveillance screen.
"That old man in the red uniform sat there alone. His blood vessels were using their own abilities to transfuse blood into the copy, and it was also the copy's energy that kept him in shape."
"The staff in red uniforms are not only the bad guys, but also the pioneers, dedicated people, and guardians of every dungeon."
"Is the controller of Happy Amusement Park actually under the water of the artificial lake, or even unable to leave?"
"Mr. Shang, what I said is correct?"
Shang Wei Yan looked at him deeply, and his silence at this moment seemed to explain everything invisibly.
Snowflakes flashed across the surveillance screen.
Immediately, scenes appeared on the surveillance screen of Happy Amusement Park.
There are staff members in red uniforms on duty in the corridor.
There was an old man in a red uniform sitting at the desk, and next to him were other people in red uniforms standing.
The old man looked up. One of his eye sockets was empty, and the other eye was cloudy and weak, but seemed to penetrate the screen.
"Hello, Murphy, I finally meet you."
"My last name is Wu, and I'm the director of Happy Amusement Park."
He said a few words and started coughing violently.
"The first group of people who strangely merged with the pollution were different from the heirs of the pure spirits. We endured the pollution with our bodies, constantly devouring and absorbing it. As we age, our minds are filled with a mess of things."
“It’s easy to get out of control.”
"For those of us with bad habits, it's very scary to lose control. We become weird and unrecognizable."
"You tell me, is it scary? So, I won't cause any trouble for you all. I'm the director of the amusement park. I'm here to see everyone having fun. I'm happy to see the kids back home so energetic. I'm glad too! Having something to look forward to helps me feel more energetic. Besides, this is my job after all."
"Alright, alright, I don't understand what you young people are doing with livestreams. This isn't a big deal, so stop imagining it."
Director Wu waved his hand as if saying goodbye.
The monitor screen returned to its calm state again.
Li Ying turned from the surveillance screen to Shang Weiyan and the plaid shirt.
He pushed his glasses up, his eyes were sharp, and his tone was calm and firm.
"The dungeon is where the Bad People devour powerful monsters and use their bodies and abilities to build an expanded safe zone."
"They need malice, or negative energy, to maintain the operation and expansion of their abilities. Therefore, dungeons always inspire fear in players. The blood vessels Murphy saw have a two-way effect."
"Bad guys like Director Wu always stay in the dungeon, absorbing the emotions they rely on for survival and maintaining the safety zone."
"Absorbing too much negative energy and emotion will cause the Delinquent to lose control and become treacherous. Therefore, he also needs positive energy, or rather, concern, no, it should be said that it is an anchor. This anchor helps him maintain his state, not lose control, and not get lost in the sea of malice."
"Behind Director Wu, there are other red-uniformed staff members in the corridor. They are both bad guys and the first line of defense to prevent the dungeon creators from getting out of control."
Li Ying was silent for a few seconds, then he continued:
"Every dungeon opened is a safe zone for players, but it's also a prison for every bad guy who opens it."
"If my guess is wrong, please refute me."
Li Ying put one hand on Mo Fei's shoulder, and both of them were trembling all over.
But they waited for a long time without any rebuttal.
All that could be heard was a long sigh, as if it had lasted for a century.
"You really deserve to be the first player introduced as a talent."
Tears wet the lenses, and Li Ying and Mo Fei struggled to support each other's bodies.
The man seemed to be trying hard to lighten his tone.
"It's no big deal."
“Everyone volunteered.”
"We are all dead."
"And the dead should make way for the living."
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