Chapter 16 Chapter 16 Bad news: He hasn’t finished reading yet…
After taking a shower, Jiang Shizao cleaned up again and lay back on the bed.
The sheets and quilt covers have been replaced with new ones.
He threw the previous set into the washing machine.
Everything seemed to be back to normal. But at this moment, Jiang Shizao's mind flashed back several fragments of his dream uncontrollably as he stared at the bedroom ceiling.
What a... suffocating dream.
Why would I have such a strange dream?
Looking back now, Jiang Shizao seemed to still be able to feel his five senses in the dream...
The pressure of having your body wrapped tightly around you.
Countless slippery monster tentacles.
and foreign objects that get stuck in the mouth.
It was too real to be a dream.
As he thought about it... finally the person lying on the bed sat up again.
Have you been under too much pressure recently?
Jiang Shizao sat up, shuddered, and then shook his head violently, ordering himself not to think about it anymore!
He glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table. It was six in the morning. Finally, Jiang Shizao picked up the unfinished novel from last night and continued reading while there was still some time before going to school.
This novel tells the story of the protagonist and his group hiking in a famous national forest in Scandinavia.
The protagonist team plus a local male guide, a total of ten people.
Their original plan was to hike in the forest for half a month, with the starting point and the end point about 214 kilometers apart, and they would cross various complex terrains along the way.
After the story begins, on the first and second days, everything is relatively normal. Throughout this journey, the author seamlessly depicts the personalities of each member of the team through their dialogue, interactions, actions, and choices, then seamlessly weaves in their underlying stories. Using the most refined brushstrokes, he lays the groundwork for the interplay of light and shadow between the characters.
From the early morning of the third day, strange events began to occur one after another.
Jiang Shizao flipped through the pages of the book. From what he had read so far, he couldn't tell whether these events were man-made or supernatural. But whatever the reason, the author's depiction of the scene was very compelling and compact.
By the third night, a member of the protagonist's team disappeared.
So on the morning of the fourth day, the group decided to stay at the original location for another day to search for their missing teammates.
Jiang Shizao was now seeing the main characters split into several teams. Two of them stayed behind to guard the base, the guide led two people to search in one direction, and the other four people formed a team to search in another direction.
"In this type of story, acting separately is the beginning of being defeated one by one..." But we can't help but search for the missing people. Moreover, the relationships between these characters are very complicated. There's no guarantee that everything happening now is part of someone's plan.
Jiang Shizao was flipping through the pages of the book, muttering comments in his mind.
When the alarm clock on the bedside table rang, he had already seen the fourth night of the story. The two teams that went out to search for people were unable to return to their original base due to the development of the plot on their respective routes.
The guide found a forest cabin at a supply point to stay.
Another group of people entered an abandoned villa.
As he put down his book, Jiang Shizao also reached out to turn off the alarm clock. He got up and changed. After putting on his school uniform, he opened the curtains. Looking at the sky outside, he thought it would be another sunny day.
Jiang Shizao still has expectations for the setting of "Bell City"!
…
South Bank Station 13.
On bus No. 444.
When Wen Qianchuan sat next to Jiang Shizao, he saw the book in the boy's hand at a glance.
The two had just said good morning to each other when the bus started running again.
Wen Qianchuan sat down and said, "Is Shi Zao also reading this book?" He pointed to the cover of the book.
What Jiang Shizao was holding in his hand was the novel "Skadino-via" which he had not finished reading. The story took place in a forest.
"I have a book by this author at home." Wen Qianchuan's eyes fell on the cover of the book. "'Skadino' means darkness in Germanic, and 'via' is a suffix that symbolizes territory. The two together do not form a real noun or place name."
When Wen Qianchuan said this, he withdrew his gaze and fell on Jiang Shizao's slightly drooping eyelashes.
...I wonder if her eyelashes will tremble when I kiss her.
As the thought quickly grew, the man continued to speak, his tone steady and gentle. "I guess the author of this book wants to describe a 'dark zone.' This can be understood as a dark and isolated geographical location, such as the misty forest in the book, or as the darkness in the hearts of the characters."
Listening to Wen Qianchuan's voice, Jiang Shizao, holding the book, nodded seriously.
As Wen Qianchuan notes, the author's descriptions of the forest environment are often described as "damp," "dark," "foggy," and "easy to get lost in." Within the protagonists' team lie the complex relationships between many characters. These conflicts, both large and small, the complex geographical environment, and the unknown, surreal factors could all potentially trigger a team's path into a dark and hopeless situation.
Jiang Shizao's eyes also fell on the book in his hand. He looked at the author's name on the cover. "The author of this book is 'Chuan'... He has a great grasp of human nature and character psychology."
Although the story seems to go smoothly in the first few days, there are undercurrents of conflicts within the protagonist group.
As early as when Jiang Shi was reading the book, he would often worry that the story would turn into a legal scene before it even entered the supernatural part.
"...Many of the characters' psychological descriptions are creepy." Jiang Shizao still feels a chill down his spine when he thinks about it now.
Wen Qianchuan smiled at this time, "Shi Zao, remember the bookstore I told you about? Last night when I passed by, I saw the bookstore had a newly published novel by "Chuan". Do you want to come and take a look?"
Wen Qianchuan invited.
"Okay." Jiang Shizao thought about it and agreed. It just so happened that he and Wen Xu had made an appointment to go to the bookstore to read books on the weekend, so let's choose this one. Jiang Shizao said: "My friend and I will go to the bookstore to read books on the weekend."
"……friend?"
When he heard these two words, Wen Qianchuan's smile froze for a moment, but his facial expressions adjusted very quickly, as if he was a precision instrument that had been trained billions of times.
The next second, Wen Qianchuan continued as usual: "This is the first time I heard Shi Zao mention friends. Coincidentally, I'm in the company this weekend. I remember that you loved drinking coffee..."
Wen Qianchuan paused at this point. After his eyes met Jiang Shizao's, he continued, "When Shizao arrives, remember to message me. I'll let you try our coffee...it's delicious."
Wen Qianchuan's mind conjured up a picture of drinking the coffee he brewed early in the morning.
This imagination made him feel much better.
The two people on the bus were very close to each other at this moment, their seats side by side making them the closest beings to each other in this space. When they looked at each other, they could only see each other.
This is when the anomaly occurs.
The first thing Jiang Shizao noticed was that the light in the carriage had changed.
Then he was horrified to find that the world outside the bus had changed!
In fact, it was because of the changes in the environment outside that he first noticed the changes in the light in the car.
"...Brother?" Jiang Shizao's voice also changed. He was originally going to reply to Wen Qianchuan in front of him, but now he could only tremble his voice and signal him with his eyes, "Did you see it?"
In Jiang Shizao's eyes, except for the space in this bus, the outside world has completely become another appearance!
The passenger and driver disappeared.
Except for Wen Qianchuan beside him.
The most terrifying thing was that this driverless bus was still moving forward, driving on a street that looked like a lonely city at the end of the world.
Tall buildings stood in all directions, but all was silent. Countless dark windows, uncovered and utterly black, made it impossible for anyone looking at them to tell what lay within.
At this moment, Jiang Shizao seemed to be back in the corridor last night.
The Lingcheng he saw at that time was exactly what it looked like outside the car window now. There were no lights on any of the buildings, only the occasional flash of light behind the high clouds, illuminating the darkness on the surface.
After Jiang Shizao's reminder, Wen Qianchuan turned around and looked around. He raised his right hand and gently placed it on Jiang Shizao's shoulder. This gesture was like protecting him in his arms.
"Don't panic." Wen Qianchuan's steady voice had a certain soothing effect at this moment.
Jiang Shizao also truly realized that he was not alone in this abnormal situation.
After the initial panic passed, he gradually calmed down and realized that the situation was indeed similar to last night.
Last night in the activity room, he also saw the other people in front of the mirror disappear. After that, he and Wen Xu fled the activity room, stood in the corridor, and saw the strange bell city outside.
And now, except for him and Wen Qianchuan, everyone else on the bus disappeared.
Lingcheng also changed into another appearance again.
The only difference from what was happening in the activity room back then was...
The lights on the bus were on at this time.
After the light outside changed, the white woven lights in the bus lit up.
The bright light seemed to give this space a slightly different atmosphere, as if it was safer here than the outside world.
But this weird yet safe feeling...
It also reminded Jiang Shizao of the storage room last night.
If it's really what he thinks.
So what's next...
[Player Jiang Shizao, player code 209999, welcome back to the Inter-Dimentional Travel infinite game space.]
"..." When he heard the expected system prompt sound, this time, Jiang Shizao immediately observed Wen Qianchuan's reaction.
Wen Qianchuan's brows moved slightly, and there was a moment of confusion on his face, but when he found that Jiang Shizao was looking at him, he gave Jiang Shizao a soothing look, and his expression returned to gentleness.
For some reason, Jiang Shizao suddenly felt guilty when he saw Wen Qianchuan like this.
Even at this time, this kind-hearted office worker was still thinking about others and trying to calm Jiang Shizao's emotions.
"Brother...are you okay?"
Jiang Shizao was now 99.99% certain that Wen Qianchuan had heard the system notification sound just like him, just like Wen Xu had last night.
Jiang Shizao even suspected that Wen Qianchuan was dragged into that infinite game space just because he met a BUG book-traveler like him.
It was he who implicated the other party.
Thinking of this, Jiang Shi had already grabbed Wen Qianchuan's left hand, "Brother, don't worry, we'll enter the dungeon later, just follow me... I've been to that place before!"
Jiang Shizao tried hard to make his voice sound more reliable.
Wen Qianchuan looked at his hand held by Jiang Shizao, and the emotions in his eyes were almost uncontrollable.
He replied with a trembling voice, "Okay. I'll follow you."
Wen Qianchuan was very excited.
Jiang Shizao nodded vigorously again. He sensed it. Wen Qianchuan was indeed a little scared. His pleasant voice began to tremble.
Anyone who encounters such a thing would be scared. Jiang Shizao understands this very well and has a deep understanding of this.
"Brother, what's your code name?"
Jiang Shizao tried to calm the other party down through dialogue.
"210001." Wen Qianchuan replied cooperatively.
Jiang Shizao: "...I'm 209999." At this time, Jiang Shizao didn't mention that he had a friend, who was 210000.
At this moment, the second prompt sounded:
[About to enter the infinite game instance "Skadino-via", number of players: 6]
…
Jiang Shizao: “!!!”
After the new prompt sounded, this time, Wen Qianchuan spoke earlier than Jiang Shi: "Skadino-via?"
As standard German was read out from this person's mouth, his eyes fell on the book that Jiang Shi had placed on his lap.
At this moment, Jiang Shizao found it difficult to describe his feelings.
His eyes widened slightly for several seconds, staring blankly at the person in front of him.
Good news: the next copy they are about to enter is likely to be the world in the book on their legs.
The bad news: He hasn't finished it yet.
Good news: his bus partner Wen Qianchuan must have finished reading this book!
Finally, Jiang Shizao sincerely grasped Wen Qianchuan's hand and said in a more reliable voice than before: "Brother, we are saved."
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