Chapter 22 Chapter 22 Yinhuai Village 8
When people are extremely nervous, they always make some small movements subconsciously.
Clenching fists, gritting teeth, biting fingertips...
Tian Tian didn't dare to move. She closed her eyes and could even feel her hands shaking on the mattress.
Zhang Wei...Zhang Wei is no longer here!
He just used his last voice to tell them that the locust tree was there.
Does the locust tree exist? Or is the locust tree where?
She didn't dare to think about it and forced herself not to think about it.
Tian Tian heard a sound. What was that sound? The seal on the coffin lid seemed to be moved, tested.
The surroundings were too quiet, and the players' five senses were already very sharp. In such an extremely silent environment, although Tian Tian closed her eyes, she even felt that she seemed to see the branches and leaves of the locust tree, which were gradually passing through the gaps and going deeper into the room.
Closer and closer.
Tian Tian bit her lips tightly, I fell asleep, I fell asleep, she kept hypnotizing herself in her heart.
Don't move, absolutely don't move. All you can do now is trust the guide. What did the guide say?
Her mind was blank, and her body remained motionless, suppressing the instinct of fear and tension.
The yellow cloth covering Tian Tian's face moved suddenly.
She held her breath and could clearly feel something groping on the yellow cloth pressing against her face.
The thing was extremely thin and delicate, like a tentacle, it slid across the cloth covering her face and touched her neck!
The silver quilt in the coffin completely wrapped the body from the neck down. At this moment, although there was a thick quilt between them, Tian Tian clearly felt the tentacle-like things brushing against her body, moving from the upper body to the lower body.
It seemed to have left, but in this dark and narrow coffin, it seemed to be everywhere.
Is it gone? Is it gone? Tian Tian didn't dare to relax. There was a sharp tingling sensation in her neck.
This feeling is very familiar. This morning on the back mountain, when I was tied up by the locust tree, the thorns on the locust leaves were so prickly!
The burrs are prickly, brushing against every exposed piece of skin, making you itchy and a little painful, making you want to reach out and scratch it to get rid of it.
Hold on, hold on, you must hold on.
If you move now, all your efforts will be wasted.
After an unknown amount of time, Tian Tian finally felt that the tingling sensation on her neck was gone, but she still didn't dare to relax.
How long will this so-called ceremony last?
Where is the tour guide? How are the others? Sister Xiaoliu, Yiyi, and Teacher He, how are they doing now?
Xiang Tianyi lay peacefully in the coffin. It was difficult for players to get a good night's sleep in a dungeon, but Xiang Tianyi felt that when she entered the coffin, it was like returning to her mother's warm womb. It was so comfortable.
The coffin was small, not too big, and with a mattress underneath, it didn't feel uncomfortable. The darkness and the narrow space gave her a special sense of security.
When people are born, they bring nothing with them. When they die, they are locked in urns and coffins, and they can take nothing else with them.
Xiang Tianyi felt a long-lost sense of pure relaxation. The surroundings were quiet and there was no noise at all. She gradually fell asleep.
Suddenly, Xiang Tianyi became dazed and felt that the yellow cloth on his face seemed to be peeled off.
Is it a spooky thing? Or a locust tree? What is it?
She closed her eyes, ready to go back to sleep, when she felt it on her face.
Tiny hairs, thorns, and leaves scratched her cheeks, across her brows, and tried to penetrate Xiang Tianyi's nostrils...
Her eyelids were pulled up.
Players all have very good night vision. With her left eyelid pulled up, Xiang Tianyi saw what appeared in her coffin.
Oh, it’s a locust tree after all.
It is an extremely thin leaf bud with needle-like thorns.
Now it’s time for the plot to kill and reap the players’ lives.
Xiang Tianyi was very calm. She was ready to die anyway, so it didn't matter.
Her left eyelid was lifted, then lowered, and then her right eyelid was pulled up again.
The locust tree leaf buds were so close to her eyes that she could see very clearly that there were tiny hairs on the leaf buds.
So does a normal locust tree look like this? Or is this just a weird thing in the dungeon? Xiang Tianyi wondered.
There were no locust trees in her rural hometown. When she grew up, she only saw locust trees on both sides of the road. She had never observed them carefully. I'm afraid she will take this problem with her into the coffin.
Xiang Tianyi's eyelids were lowered, and the locust tree branch seemed to have groped up and down in the coffin, covering the yellow cloth on her face again, and then stopped on the wreath on her quilt. After that, she knew nothing.
Xiang Tianyi fell asleep again.
"Bang, bang, bang—bang, bang, bang—"
"Get up, get up! The ceremony is over. We have to pay extra for those who exceed the time limit!"
"Everyone, it's time to get up!"
A sudden sound appeared beside her ears, and Liu Yanran was momentarily confused. Was it an illusion? Or a strange illusion? Was it a sound deliberately designed to lure them into action?
It was not until her coffin lid was opened that Liu Yanran opened her eyes and looked at the tour guide Luo Qing who opened the coffin lid. She sat up reflexively.
Survived, really survived.
The ceremony is over?
The ears were no longer filled with the previous silence. The tour guide opened the coffins one by one and knocked on the coffin lids. Liu Yanran looked at the sky which was already half bright. It was almost daytime.
"Sister Liu, are you okay? Yi Yi?" Tian Tian's face was pale, and her coffin was next to Liu Yanran.
"I'm fine."
Liu Yanran lifted the silver quilt from her body, untied her belt and leg ropes, and jumped out of the coffin. When she landed on the ground, her legs were still a little weak.
"You're asking for my life. I'm so sleepy. It's already so late." Xiang Tianyi's voice sounded a little irritable.
In a fit of anger, she sat up and opened her eyes. Liu Yanran, Tian Tian, and Mo Fei were all looking at her.
"Oh no, I'm going?" Xiang Tianyi was distracted.
"Am I alive or dead?"
She was holding a small wreath she had made in her arms.
Tian Tian's expression was indescribable, and Mo Fei's face was also very complicated. Finally, Liu Yanran spoke: "Are you asleep?"
"Ah. I was woken up by it in the middle. It kept pulling my eyelids and I looked at it. Then I fell asleep again in a daze." Xiang Tianyi scratched his head and tried to recall.
"Fuck!" Murphy cursed.
"Two coffins are missing." Teacher He's voice was deep.
"The plaid shirt is gone too." Tian Tian murmured.
Everyone heard what happened to Zhang Wei last night, and everyone knew it, but when did the plaid shirt incident happen? They didn't even know.
"He was scared, one after another." Murphy could no longer laugh at this moment.
Plaid Shirt was frightened when he entered the locust tree forest as soon as he came to the village, again and again. With the situation last night and the accident happening to Zhang Wei, people were in panic and fear, and they got into the coffin in that strange and strange way. With Plaid Shirt's mentality collapsed twice in a row, it was really difficult for him to hold on.
The five players were all silent. They had now come out of the coffins one after another. Liu Yanran was looking at her phone.
"The dungeon reminder ceremony is complete. Today, we should just check in at two more attractions."
The most difficult mission was over. Players were already used to seeing death, but no one felt relieved.
At this time, they heard the tour guide's urging voice again, "Come out, breakfast is ready, the five of you should prepare to eat breakfast."
"Today is our last day in Yinhuai Village. The travel agency's minibus will arrive at 3 pm. You can take advantage of the remaining time to continue walking around and experience the rural customs."
"By the way, we need to return the items we experience in the project. If you like them very much, you can buy them at your own expense. They are very meaningful as souvenirs."
Everyone was stunned. Five of them, and they were even going to buy burial clothes and a coffin at their own expense?!
"Guide, aren't there two more people in our group?" Liu Yanran spoke at this moment, staring at Luo Qing.
Luo Qing blinked and tilted her head, "Miss Liu, did you remember it wrongly because you slept too much?"
"Our group has always been a small private group of only five people. Where did seven people come from?"
The guide's words sent shivers down the spines of the five players present. Five? Was the guide playing dumb? Or had the dungeon simply erased the NPC's memories and modified them?
"Don't dawdle. By the way, if you want to buy souvenirs at your own expense, remember to come to me." Luo Qing did not forget to sell.
"Guide, how much are these?" Xiang Tianyi touched his wreath, shroud, and coffin.
"You can obtain an exclusive bound set of props, [Xiang Tianyi's Coffin Set]: Contains [Exclusive Shroud], [Sophora japonica Wreath], [Gold and Silver Blanket], [Red, Black, and Yellow]." This was the dungeon prompt she had just received, and Xiang Tianyi was startled! This was the first time she had seen an exclusive bound set of props.
Is this the benefit the tour guide mentioned?
Luo Qing tried her best not to reveal an overly mercenary smile: She held up three fingers: "Only 3999, a full set! Produced by Yinhuai Village, it must be a top quality product!"
3999 Ghost Coins? Xiang Tianyi's eyelids jumped. This set of props is exclusive to this player and other players can't take it away. This price is really cheap!
"Buy!" she said concisely.
"Buy, buy, buy. I want them all!" Liu Yanran also responded.
Having just woken up from the crisis of death, the prop set in front of me seemed like an exclusive gift for this copy.
Tian Tian didn’t have enough ghost coins, so Liu Yanran and Mo Fei each lent her some, agreeing to return them after leaving the copy and returning to reality.
So many exclusive props gift packs were dropped that the five players were still a little dazed while eating breakfast, their faces filled with joy.
"This is the first time I've seen such a generous copy. It has a prop set. You can buy it by saving up some ghost coins." Teacher He said.
"Because of the high difficulty, the early stages of this dungeon are full of misleading information, especially our own inferences, which will only make us more and more scared." Murphy gave a wry smile.
"The information we've collected leads us to the inevitable conclusion that players' lives are being sacrificed here. If we hadn't listened to Sister Xiao Liu and the tour guide, we would probably..." He didn't continue, but everyone understood.
The ancient village, locust trees, rituals, and sacrifices are too typical elements. They clearly point to people’s death and make people want to escape.
But as the saying goes, the most dangerous place is the safest place.
The answer to this copy is also death.
The only way to survive is to stay in the coffin, motionless like a dead person.
Players must face death calmly, pretend to be dead in the coffin, deceive themselves, and overcome their fear of death and the unknown.
To face death with equanimity and live towards death is the real solution!
"The information we have collected is definitely not enough. The legend about Yinhuai Village must be related to the core concept of living towards death." Liu Yanran said.
"I wonder what kind of story the next batch of players who enter this dungeon will experience." Teacher He sighed.
After breakfast, the players returned to their rooms.
The deceased player Zhang Wei originally shared a room with Teacher He, Plaid Shand and Murphy, but when Teacher He and Murphy opened their respective rooms, they found that the luggage that originally belonged to the deceased player was also missing, and the bedding on the bunk bed was as clean as new, as if there had never been a second person there.
Together they confirmed that the traces of the two players had indeed "completely disappeared." If it weren't for the five people clarifying their memories, it would be as if Zhang Wei and Plaid Shirt had never really been here.
"I have a question." Tian Tian suddenly spoke.
The four of them looked at her. Tian Tian pursed her lips and said, "The villagers have to participate in the ceremony, right? So we participated too."
"What did the tour guide do last night?"
In the farmyard, there were only the coffins of the seven players.
"As an NPC, the tour guide won't be affected by the plot like us. She's not under the village's jurisdiction either. She's like an outsider in this dungeon."
"But she is both involved and disengaged." Murphy said slowly.
By now, he had almost confirmed that the "?" that he got from rolling the dice might mean a variable.
And the variable in this copy is their tour guide Luo Qing!
"If it were any other NPC, it is entirely possible that they would not tell us the taboos before the ceremony last night. The three things she told us can be said to be the key to the survival of the five of us." Xiang Tianyi agreed.
Not only did they survive, but each of the five of them even received a complete set of special props.
"I think she is a well-intentioned NPC. If I meet her again in other dungeons, I will choose to listen to her," she said.
"However, the tour guide also deliberately concealed information from us. Whether it was when we were in the car on the first day, or afterwards, before we experienced the projects yesterday, the tour guide did not introduce them at all." Teacher He said.
"That's the cleverness of this copy. It's half-hidden, making us doubt the tour guide, the NPC, and everything." Murphy continued.
If they kept the conclusions they had inferred from the clues, remained suspicious of the tour guide, and did not do what Luo Qing said in the coffin, they would have been completely wiped out.
At this moment, the players no longer have the heart to explore the truth behind the ancient legend of Yinhuai Village.
Afterwards, the five people moved together to the village entrance. The obstacles that Tian Tian and Xiang Tianyi had originally seen blocking the village entrance were also removed by the villagers.
They successfully completed the task of visiting two attractions and checking in on the third day.
[Ding! Dear tourists! Enjoy your three-day, two-night rural folk customs tour! Please board the return tour group minibus at 3:00 PM. The local specialties you purchased in Yinhuai Village will be distributed after transportation.]
The copy prompt appeared after the last two check-ins at the scenic spots, and all five players breathed a sigh of relief.
In order to prevent any unexpected problems from happening in the village, after checking in at the village entrance and Huaiquan, they went straight back to the farmhouse, had lunch, and gathered in a room to wait for the final moment.
"Sister Xiao Liu, do you really want to go with the tour guide?" Tian Tian asked worriedly.
Liu Yanran has already told several players the relevant information about the city bureau she belongs to, and asked them to go to the Special Affairs Bureau as soon as they leave the dungeon to report the dungeon.
"Who knows what players who leave the dungeon will encounter." Xiang Tian nodded.
Liu Yanran laughed: "Yi Yi, didn't you say you are not afraid of death?"
"Now that I've met the tour guide and struck up a conversation with her in this instance, I've finally been able to make further progress. I can't miss this opportunity."
"And there's also a new prop set." She pretended to be relaxed.
"Teacher He, I'll trouble you when the time comes in Beijing." Liu Yanran said.
She planned to try to follow the tour guide back to Ghost City and "view houses" in Ping'an Home after other players left the dungeon!
Fortunately, among the five players, Teacher He is from Beijing and can contact her direct unit the fastest and report immediately.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, the familiar minibus drove into the courtyard of the farmhouse, and Luo Qing called on the group members to get on the bus.
"Everyone has packed their luggage, don't forget your things, express delivery is not convenient in the village."
"The souvenirs will be sent together. Don't worry if they can't fit in the car."
Luo Qing was in a great mood. Her group members all bought souvenirs, and she was able to take a 20% commission, which meant that in the end, she had nearly 2,000 Guibi coins! Add to that the 500 yuan the travel agency had paid for the three-day tour, and she had earned over 2,000 yuan in three days. She was so happy.
The players looked at each other and got on the bus one after another. There were seven players when they came, but only five when they left. The empty seats reminded them of the experience of this copy all the time.
Liu Yanran was still sitting in the seat she had come in. She thought for a moment, took out the "Ping An Real Estate" business card from her pocket, and handed it to Teacher He.
If she never returns, this business card will be wasted and lose its meaning. It's better to give it to Teacher He, send it back to the bureau, and pass it on to other comrades.
The minibus drove out of Yinhuai Village and onto the road. The locust trees outside the window were no longer visible and turned into a vast gray fog.
Liu Yanran looked at Teacher He, who nodded at her, said "don't worry," and disappeared from her seat.
Murphy, who was sitting a seat away, mouthed "See you later".
"Sister Xiao Liu, I'm leaving. I'm waiting for you to come and ask me for money. If you don't come, I'll default on the debt." Tian Tian said.
"Come on." Xiang Tianyi spoke at last and disappeared.
The prompt of leaving the copy kept flashing in front of Liu Yanran's eyes. Five minutes later, the prompt disappeared.
Liu Yanran clenched her hands tightly. She heard Luo Qing yawn, as if he had just woken up.
"Eh? Where are we?"
"Oh, everyone's gotten off the bus."
Luo Qing turned around from the passenger seat and looked at Liu Yanran, the only one left.
"Ms. Liu, oh by the way, you have to go with me to the residential complex to look at houses. We'll be there soon. Brother Qi, where are you?" She called the driver.
"We're back in the city, just past No. 7 Middle School. You're sleeping so soundly," said the driver.
As the driver talked to Luo Qing, Liu Yanran looked out the window and the fog disappeared.
Is it necessary for the NPC to mention the location so that the player can encounter a bug and see the strange world from another perspective?
This is a city that is exactly the same as the real one. Liu Yanran saw students playing football on the school playground she just passed by.
Other cars were passing on the road and pedestrians were walking on the sidewalk.
Just as Fatty and Uncle Li said, Liu Yanran saw a different "city".
The Seventh Middle School that we just passed by is a campus copy that is well-known on the forum.
Liu Yanran stared out the window intently, not wanting to blink at all, wishing she could remember everything she saw.
Unfortunately, she was alone now and had no way of remembering the buildings on both sides of the car window.
The car turned right, passed Qingshan Hospital, and there was a 404 convenience store right next to the hospital!
The Seventh Middle School and Qingshan Hospital, these two copies that are considered nightmares for players, are actually so close to each other!
The places Liu Yanran could quickly identify were all copies she knew, but there were obviously more than so many copies of these buildings.
She saw a fruit shop, a coffee shop, a cake shop, and a strange creature wearing a delivery vest whizzing past on the street.
"Miss Liu, Miss Liu?" Luo Qing greeted the last member of his group.
No, maybe she can’t be called a member now, the tour group has ended, and Miss Liu is her future tenant!
"We'll be arriving at our community soon. Our group returned to the city early today, so it's not dark yet." Luo Qing said easily.
"Oh, okay." Liu Yanran was already a little nervous.
"You are not allowed to enter your community." said the driver NPC.
"No, Brother Qi, just park next to the subway station. Miss Liu wants to see the house with me, and I have to go to the store to get the key." Luo Qing was sorting her small bag at this moment.
"Brother, you won't be back until tomorrow."
"That's right. He said he still had some things to finish in the village and would be back a day later than me." Luo Qing complained.
She was on a business trip with her lover, and she had finished leading all the tour groups there, so Yan Fufeng would be home a day later.
Liu Yanran silently memorized their conversation. Was the "brother" the driver was referring to the tour guide's husband? The male NPC who had the plaid shirt on his back?
"Okay, we're here at Ping'anli. Xiaoqing, see you later."
"See you later, Brother Qi, Miss Liu, don't forget to take your luggage."
Luo Qing said a brief goodbye to Brother Qi and quickly greeted Liu Yanran.
At this moment, the car stopped steadily, the door of the minibus opened, Luo Qing got out of the car and took a deep breath.
This tour group said it was three days and two nights, but in reality it was not even three days at all. They stayed in the village for two days before returning to the city. Phew, Luo Qing felt refreshed. The air in the village was just different.
Liu Yanran was holding a backpack, which was an item that automatically appeared when entering the Yinhuai Village dungeon. Because she did not leave the dungeon, it has not disappeared yet.
Just now, through the car window, she saw the "Ping'anli Subway Station", "404 Convenience Store Ping'an Home Store" outside, and the "Ping'an Real Estate" with bright red and yellow letters on the signboard!
Liu Yanran carried her bag and stepped down from the steps of the minibus. Copy prompts appeared in her ears and in front of her eyes at the same time.
[Ding! Player Liu Yanran's three-day, two-night trip to Yinhuai Village has been completed. The dungeon settlement is being processed for you...]
Ding ding ding ding——
[Ding! Player Liu Yanran's current location is Ghost City. The Ghost City dungeon is in progress and settlement is unavailable.]
Liu Yanran's pupils shrank, haunted city!
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