Chapter 114: Riverside Projection
The 24 cars of the Ferris wheel are like the 24 hours on a clock.
As the Ferris wheel box they were in moved, the support frame of the entire Ferris wheel seemed to become a clock hand in the reflection of the lake.
"The Eye of the Haunted City..." Li Ying repeated the name of the Ferris wheel.
"Murphy, do you think that the name of the Eye of the Haunted City should have some other meaning?" he asked.
Murphy nodded. Although naming the Ferris wheel after the Eye of XX is an operation of many well-known cities, the Ferris wheel will also become a well-known tourist attraction, such as the London Eye, the Tianjin Eye and so on.
But the Eye of the Ghost City in front of him was obviously different.
"I finally understand why you have to wait until tonight to come and see it again." Li Ying murmured.
"Did you look at the reflection in the lake and wonder at noon?"
Murphy didn't deny it. He just whispered, "We need to hurry back. The amusement park is probably closing soon."
Li Ying agreed. They didn't know if there would be any danger in the haunted city at night, and Happy Amusement Park was about to close at night.
However, for him, the discovery he made on the Ferris wheel tonight was worth the risk.
Just now, when the Ferris wheel box was at the top, he took out his mobile phone and took a picture of the lake. However, what he saw with the naked eye could not be displayed in the photo on the mobile phone, which made Li Ying more determined.
This "Eye of the Haunted City" Ferris wheel is another secret hidden in this strange world!
"The Eye of the Ghost City, the eyes are used to see things. Murphy, when you were in Happy Amusement Park, was there any legend about this lake?" Li Ying asked again.
When he asked this, Murphy was stunned for a moment, then immediately reacted.
"Yes, there are."
"This lake is called Xiansheng Lake. It's an artificial lake."
"Artificial lake?" Li Ying repeated.
"The artificial lake and the Ferris wheel set up at 24 hours a day—these two features must have some meaning."
Murphy thought more than he thought.
Is the meaning of the "Eye of the Haunted City" that when people are in this Ferris wheel, they can see more and more special things?
If we simply interpret the name as the eye of the Ghost City, then what is the "Eye of the Ghost City" looking at? Is it looking down at the entire Ghost City from the highest point?
Wait, artificial lake.
Was the old man he had seen at noon located beneath the waters of this Presage Lake? Was this artificial lake built to conceal what lay beneath the surface?
Murphy was full of thoughts. After he and Li Ying got off the Ferris wheel, they hurried out of the amusement park.
There were still many indigenous people in the subway at night. Li Ying and Mo Fei got on the train at Happy Amusement Park. It was a big station and there were no seats, so the two of them stood for most of the way holding the hanging rings before returning to Ping'anli.
By the time they arrived at Ping'an Home, it was almost nine o'clock in the evening. The players stationed at the official site had not yet rested, waiting for the two to return safely.
Although some new messages were sent in the group chat of [Outsiders from all over the world, unite], because many new and unfamiliar players came yesterday, familiar old players prefer to meet and share.
Besides, the information they have on hand still needs to be reported to the official and posted in the group chat. The more players see it, the more it will be spread.
In Unit 503, Building 9, the waiting players breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Li Ying and Mo Fei returning safe and sound.
"You two are really brave. This is the first time someone has come back so late."
"Next time, you can try to come back around midnight."
"But the Ghost City subway seems to only run until 11pm, and after that it's hard to say."
Everyone made a few lighthearted jokes. Cheng Lixue glanced up and down at Li Ying twice and called out to him, "Brother Li, this way."
There was a reserved cushion next to her, and Aunt Tian Fang was sitting on the other side of Cheng Lixue.
Because of the discovery at the museum today, although Tian Fang returned to the community in the afternoon, she still came to participate in the discussion in the evening.
Li Ying and Murphy talked about their discovery of the Ferris wheel at night, and the players inside fell into deep thought.
Xiang Tianyi couldn't help but grumble: "If I had known earlier, I might as well have gone to the amusement park with you guys."
Her job search journey at the photo studio ended in complete failure!
"No, Xiao Xiang, it's all thanks to you going to the photo studio. The photo studio rejected your job application and instead exposed more information." Liu Yanran said.
"Logically, with a street full of photo studios like this, every owner should be familiar with each other; they're old neighbors and competitors. Ghost City's market is so small, and you're being reckless by asking door to door today. They're probably just trying to evade you after some discussion. Perhaps they've verified your non-local status and are rejecting you altogether."
What Liu Yanran said made sense. Xiang Tian nodded. She was just complaining casually.
Although she came back at noon, she was not idle in the afternoon. She accompanied Cheng Lixue to a tutoring class near the Seventh Middle School to look for a job.
"There's no way to take a picture of the countdown you see with your phone. I'm wondering if our employees can find out when to go up there. Ask your colleagues." Cui Xiangwan touched his chin.
"We're just working part-time now and aren't regular employees yet, so it might be difficult to get any information." Li Xiang scratched his head.
As part-time performers, they are currently in training and have to leave work earlier than full-time employees, so they don't have many opportunities to go to the Ferris wheel.
"Well, who is free tomorrow? Let's go to the amusement park to check." Xiang Tianyi looked at everyone.
Mo Fei lowered his head and looked at his phone. After thinking over and over again about his "special discovery", he chose to send a private message to Liu Yanran.
Murphy: Comrade Liu, I have a rather presumptuous question that may violate your official personnel confidentiality agreement. I'd like to know if anyone in the official Jianlian player database possesses some sort of supernatural power, capable of discovering things that ordinary players can't see.
Liu Yanran sat on the sofa. She didn't have much to do this morning. It wasn't until four o'clock in the afternoon that new people came to rent a house. Her sister and brother-in-law were at home, and the three of them went together to show people the house.
She saw Murphy's message without changing her expression and replied quickly with her fingers.
[Liu Yanran]: Yes.
[Liu Yanran]: I can guarantee you the safety and confidentiality issues.
All players who rent a house in Ping'an Home use their real names. Most of them will return to reality the next day after renting the house, and then contact the official to record the relevant copies.
And Murphy was the one who didn't keep any records.
Liu Yanran knew about this a long time ago. After all, she was also there in the Yinhuai Village dungeon. In the whole dungeon, only five out of seven people survived. In addition to Mo Fei, Teacher He, Tian Tian, and Xiang Tianyi all made dungeon records.
At that time, Liu Yanran didn't take Mo Fei too seriously. There were many players who were socially anxious and autistic and didn't like to contact the outside world.
Until the Special Affairs Administration's player database confirmed that Murphy did not exist in the database.
People leave traces when they live in the world, so even if Murphy has no official connection, as a resident of modern society, he always has an ID card and this person exists in the population database.
However, since Murphy did not show up on his own initiative, they also respected the personal will of the citizens and did not look for Murphy in reality.
Players who haven't established an official alliance fall into three main categories. The first is those who have committed shameful acts in dungeons, harming their compatriots and fearing arrest. The second is the cautious and reckless, unwilling to establish an alliance. The third category often harbors secrets, is distrustful of the outside world, and only trusts themselves.
Judging from the fact that Murphy took the initiative to post a strategy guide after the Yinhuai Village dungeon, as well as his performance in the dungeon, Murphy obviously did not belong to the first type.
He seems to be a combination of the second and third types. His camp tends to be friendly, and he is not a loner or a social phobia, but he has been slow to establish contact with the authorities. The most likely possibility is that he has a secret.
Previously, Xiang Tianyi had reported some "bad" information to the authorities. After the "bad" information was reported, no relevant records could be found in the copy record library of ordinary players.
As the head of the Ghost City office, although Liu Yanran has not returned to reality these days, the level of intelligence she and several other official players have been exposed to has increased dramatically.
It was also from this intelligence transmission that she first learned that there was a group of special players in the strange copy. The exact number of these players was uncertain, and they possessed special abilities from the copy.
This group of top-secret players with special abilities belong to the "Superpower Team" in the Special Affairs Bureau. The official expression similar to "bad" was found in the report files of this group of superpower players.
It is a very coincidence that these players with "superpowers" are either single-parents, orphans, or raised by the elderly. It seems that they are born to suffer disasters as the fortune teller said, and have five disadvantages and three shortcomings.
And Murphy happens to be an orphan.
Therefore, Liu Yanran gradually began to suspect his "specialness". Luo Qing gave him sunglasses and even chose a house specifically for Mo Fei.
So, if other players with "superpowers" come, will they receive similar treatment?
Liu Yanran didn’t know, but soon players from the psychic team would come and rent a house.
The two of them exchanged only a few words on their phone. Mo Fei replied with a message, "See you downstairs later." Liu Yanran then turned off her phone.
After all, the copy phone is not safe, so it would be better to talk to him face to face at Murphy's house downstairs.
The two of them only communicated on the phone for half a minute. In the living room, everyone was still discussing the problem of the Ferris wheel's reflection.
"Could this countdown be related to the time between the two worlds?"
"Everyone remembers that the speed at which time flows in the Ghost City and the dungeon has only recently become consistent with reality." Yue also looked at everyone.
"I can confirm this time very accurately. Our group of wedding banquet players returned to reality the day after renting the house, and the time on both sides was synchronized. It was May 27, 10:32." Yue Ye said with certainty.
"By this calculation, it has only been twenty days since the time was completely synchronized until now." Ji Feishuang said.
"But so much has happened in these twenty days." Li Ying smiled bitterly.
"I've been in the dungeon for over two years, and the changes in those two years haven't been as numerous as in the last month."
"If you count carefully, all these changes started with my sister's appearance." Someone pointed at the ceiling.
"By the way, how are the players at Qingshan Hospital today?" Murphy looked at the others.
"All employees got off work as usual. They left work at five o'clock and came back on the bus at around half past five. Some people even went to Sasa hypermarket to shop after get off work." Sui Yan said.
Mo Fei sent a message to Tang Siyang, asking her how her work was going today, and Tang Siyang replied quickly.
[Xiao Tang]: The work is pretty easy! Today I was still responsible for scanning codes, but there were stools so we could sit and just repeat the same task. During lunch break, we took turns eating in the cafeteria. The Indigenous doctors and nurses even brought me snacks and fruit!
Murphy: Wasn't there any yesterday? Did you have the snacks and fruit, or did others have them too?
[Xiao Tang]: Yesterday we didn't have any stools, and their attitude was average, but today they were pretty considerate. I think they only gave me the snacks and fruit. [Awkward] They just called me over and gave it to me.
Looking at the news about Tang Siyang, Murphy seemed to be thinking about something.
At ten o'clock in the evening, the players who had discussed today's intelligence dispersed and went home. After everyone else left, Mo Fei went downstairs and went home. After a while, Liu Yanran and several official players came to him.
This time, Murphy started talking about the "red uniform" he had seen at the beginning, and when he mentioned the "red uniform", the faces of several official players changed.
June 19th, 8:00 a.m.
In reality, this period is the morning rush hour in major cities, the city roads and the Second Ring Road elevated highway are extremely congested, and the subways and buses are also crowded.
Official player intelligence courier Xie Xiangbei returned to the headquarters of the Beijing Special Affairs Bureau from Guicheng with a bunch of the latest intelligence.
Information about "red uniforms", "old men in red uniforms", the Ferris wheel of the Ghost City Eye, and reflections of what appear to be 24 time mark countdowns are being reported to the expert group analysts.
At 8:12 am, the Longjiang City Special Affairs Bureau urgently connected to the Beijing headquarters via video.
Located in the main city of Longjiang, a building-shaped mirage appeared over the Songhua River and was identified by the branch.
The mirage is the main building of the strange copy of the "Anxi Technology" park.
This "mirage" can be observed with the naked eye, photographed and recorded, observed through video, and detected using special means such as drones. It is determined to be a non-physical existence and cannot be touched.
"Mirages" from different angles appeared on multiple screens in the command center of the Special Affairs Bureau headquarters.
Zheng Hao, captain of the First Action Team, listened to the hoarse reports of his colleagues from afar. "This thing looks colorful and substantial, but no matter how hard the drone flies, it can't actually get close. It can only be seen, like a distant projection."
The mirage that appeared on the bank of the Songhua River was posted on the Internet as soon as possible. For the citizens of this city, they would get up early in the morning for morning exercises, get off work in the evening, and stroll along the river bank whenever they wanted.
When they saw this thing, they thought it was just a mirage and sent it out as a rare sight.
But for the players who are taking a break in reality at this time, it is like a big bomb dropping from the sky.
In the [Rugui] forum, real players came online one after another.
Everyone enter! Highlight! A projection of the [Anxi Technology] building suddenly appears on the banks of the Songhua River. Is the strange world about to invade?
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