Chapter 111

"The Marquis of Nevernight who owns a box full of beads———" Yan Momo read out the somewhat irritating comment, "How long has he lived?"

She murmured, "...How long have you lived?"

After she learned about the comic book called "Language of Mountains and Seas" from her deskmate that day, she spent half a month reading through all the posts in the forum and found that except for the poster of the amusement park, no one else doubted the authenticity of the comic book.

But just a few days ago, this comic suddenly attracted a lot of new readers, and the forum became very lively again. More and more people supported the comic as true, and they even set up a small group, which Yan Momo found a way to join.

She noticed that the IP addresses of all those who believed the comics were real were in Chongming City.

In the small group they created, many people posted photos. The photos were from various towns under the jurisdiction of Chongming City. There were crowds of people with bloodshot eyes fighting each other, a messy lakeside, and even an abandoned cemetery filled with scattered bones of strange colors.

Most of these photos are blurry and taken at strange angles, as if they were taken in a panic. Some of the photos are even out of focus.

This group is usually very lively, and most of the group members are extremely active. After the comics are updated, the activity level reaches its peak - especially after this update of the individual biographies.

Yan Momo got a position as an administrator in the group because of her unique experience compared to others. She put down the biography that she had read countless times and prepared to go to the group to see what new discoveries everyone had.

Then... she found that there was a new applicant in the group. The applicant's online name was [Wu Zai Qing]. Not only did he answer the questions they set correctly, he also attached a photo that was somewhat similar to the one in the group.

Yan Momo was about to click through when she found out that another administrator had already let someone in. Yan Momo curiously clicked on the person's homepage and found that the person's location was not in Chongming City, but in Beijing City.

Yan Momo: “……?”

She was a little strange.

99% of the members who joined the group are from Chongming City. Occasionally, there are one or two with different IP addresses. They joined the group as early as the last comic update. Why did they apply for it some time after the comic update?

But she didn't feel strange for long. After all, people get into it at different times, and it takes some time to get from the forum to the group.

As soon as the new member entered the group, he was greeted warmly by everyone. There are only a few people now, and one more person means more hope of knowing the information. Yan Momo returned to the group chat interface and found that everyone had exaggerated———

[Dude, your photo has a professional angle and clear content. In one word, great! ]

[The photo looks like Wenyu City. It's in the comics. There are a lot of zombies over there.]

[Just from a side view, I can feel the horrifying, atrocious ugliness of this zombie... Your hands weren't shaking with fear when you took the photo? ]

[Luckily, the ones causing trouble here are not the assembled zombies, otherwise our sanity would have dropped drastically. ]

[You guys are not fighting against the assembled zombies, you are fighting against the little mushrooms, hahahahaha! ]

Yan Momo read on and found that someone had already asked the question she was wondering about.

[Brother Qing, why is your IP address in Beijing? ]

The good-tempered new member quickly responded:

[My family is in Wenyu City. When the accident happened, I happened to be on annual leave to go back and rest, and then I ran into this unfortunate incident.]

After his answer, there was a series of “hahahahahahahahaha” from the audience.

After they finished laughing, they stopped asking:

[There are many discussions about Nevernight in the forum. What do you think? 】

Speaking of this, the members in the group became excited and posted their guesses in the group chat. Soon the number of messages reached 99+.

What they don't know is that behind the account interface of this new member named "Wu Zai Qing" is not just one person, but a group of people.

"This method works!" After subtly guiding a group member to say what he wanted to know, the speaker leaned back and said in a relaxed tone, "Although the comic pictures they took screenshots are completely invisible, as long as their answers use pseudonyms and do not involve specific names or overly detailed things, there will be no big problem."

"Our boss is still reliable." Behind him, a row of tables were placed with him as the center. Everyone had a computer and a pen in their hands. The person on the far right raised his thumb. "So, boss, are you sure who the male protagonist of the comic is?"

"The male lead's surname is either Gu or Huo, and at least one of his names sounds like '嘤'. His father even gave him special training a month before school started..." The person who was called the eldest brother muttered to himself, "Why does this setting feel so familiar?"

He always felt that he was just one step away from the truth, but he just couldn't get past it.

"The male protagonist is a freshman at Miller College this year." A voice suddenly came from behind another row of tables opposite them. "The person who delivered the letter is Sanqing, and he is the only candidate who was fully supervised by Sanqing and took the pre-entry test."

"You guys, Team 8, are pretty good!" The guy called the boss raised his eyebrows, "Did you guys catch the real deal in the forum fishing?"

The identity found by Group Eight plus some information obtained by Group Six can basically lock down the identity of the male protagonist.

"You guys, Group 8, send someone over here, and we'll both gather the information and report it to the headquarters. If we want to transfer the freshman information from Miller's University, we need the approval of the president there."

Something happened in Chongming City, and the network department of the Escape Plan Office was extremely busy. In addition, they had to investigate the identity of the male protagonist of the comic. They rarely bowed to the special team and borrowed the sixth and eighth teams that had made great achievements in the network field.

The two groups were on the verge of "forced oblivion". They spent several days to define the identity of the male protagonist by unilaterally retelling the remote speech to manipulate the forum and directly contacting the first group of people who doubted the authenticity of the comics. As the scope continues to narrow down, the identity of the male protagonist has been narrowed down to an extremely precise level.

The person who fits the key words that the two groups have repeatedly considered must be the protagonist of this unknown comic.

The upright whiteboard was already covered with densely written words and marks in black marker. Groups 6 and 8 were constantly checking the data collected by both parties, and then carefully crossing out the incorrect ones based on their considerations.

"Eighteen years old, freshman at Miller College, training location is barren mountains, father's surname is Huo, mother's surname is Gu, metal attribute..." The leader of Group Six read out the key words they left one by one. The more he read, the more familiar they felt. He slapped his head and said, "Isn't this Gu Hongying, the son of Group Huo!"

There is no information that doesn't match his!

As soon as the name "Gu Hongying" came out, a few people who were familiar with him suddenly understood.

"Yes, Sister Gu and Brother Huo's son is called Gu Hongying. He is eighteen years old this year and has indeed gone to study at Miller College. Their son's nickname doesn't seem to be 'Yingying', right?"

"Yingying is a nickname given to him by comic readers." The leader of Group 6 stroked his chin, "It's not his real nickname."

The Alien Bureau did not pay much attention to this unknown comic at first, but as the network department sent out a few scattered people to investigate, they found that the things drawn in this unknown comic were inextricably linked to the real world. It was not an adaptation for the sake of popular favor, but the things that happened in the outside world were moved into the comic exactly as they were!

The investigators realized the difficulty of this matter, so they bowed their heads and borrowed manpower from the special team. The more Group 6 and Group 8 investigated, the more worried they became. They spent a lot of effort, using spells and formations, and went through a lot of circles before they got some fragmentary important information, and they also guaranteed that they would not forget the information again after coming into contact with it.

"It's very likely that it's Gu Hongying, but we can't help but make other assumptions. Others who meet some of the conditions can also apply." The head of Group 6 said, "In addition to the male protagonist of the comic, there is also a character who has a lot of scenes and is very popular."

The leaders of the two groups looked at each other and saw embarrassment in each other's eyes.

Not long after the senior appeared in the world, Director Jiang classified his information as top secret and repeatedly warned that no one could contact the senior without her permission.

Now they are responsible for tracking an unknown comic, but they discovered that this predecessor also played a big role in this comic.

The leader of Group 6 sighed: "Old Xiao, this is difficult..."

"It's useless to say sad words at this point. We should just keep investigating." The leader of Team 8 was very calm. "Sooner or later, the truth will come out."

*

When the box was closed, an unknown formation flashed, and with a "click" sound, the box was instantly opened.

Jiang Jiang reached out and took out a few thin pages of paper from the box with a serious expression.

She first carefully read over the data that she knew by heart, and then picked up the stack of printed papers on her desk, which recorded the results of the six and eight group surveys over the past few days.

"Gu Hongying, the male protagonist of the comic." Jiang Jiang stared at the name for a long time, his eyes a little dark, "Why is it Gu Hongying?"

Groups 6 and 8 have yet to find out the name of the comic's author. The only information they passed on to Jiang Jiang was the identity of the comic's male protagonist and... some scattered records about Buye.

The two most important points in this information are: first, the identity of the male protagonist of the comic is most likely Gu Hongying; second, the number of years that Buyehou has lived in this world may be longer than they imagined.

After Jiang Jiang sat quietly at the table for a while, orders, text messages, and phone calls flowed from her office to all corners of the inner and outer worlds.

After the sun went down, her work came to an end.

Jiang Jiang put away the documents on the table and made the last call. The call was quickly connected and Gu Xingzhu's voice came from the other end: "Director Jiang? What's wrong?"

"Xingzhu." Jiang Jiang said, "You and Hanzhi come to Qilin."

On the other end of the phone, Gu Xingzhu's voice suddenly became solemn: "Okay."

"I can come, but Hanzhi can't." Gu Xingzhu said, "He's at the Mirror and can't leave for the time being."

"You know the same thing as he does." Jiang Jiang said, "Come quickly."

Ten minutes later, in the "Qilin", the room with the highest security factor in the headquarters of the Foreign Affairs Bureau, Jiang Jiang and Gu Xingzhu were face to face. Gu Xingzhu was flipping through a thick stack of information in her hand, and her face became uglier with each page she read.

"Too ridiculous..." Gu Xingzhu muttered, "How could the male protagonist of this unknown comic be Tongzi? Is there a mistake?"

"I have investigated all the possible male protagonists." Jiang Jiang said, "What I can present to you is the confirmed result."

She asked back, "Why do you think it couldn't be Gu Hongying?"

"He has lived as an ordinary child for eighteen years." Jiang Jiang stared at her and said slowly, "Now, it's time for him to take responsibility."

"Director Jiang, you're betting your hopes on a child who has just reached adulthood———" Gu Xingzhu looked up at her, his eyes unyielding, "This is simply crazy!"

"Don't be so confident." Jiang Jiang pushed the box filled with arrays in front of Gu Xingzhu, "Read this before you express your opinion."

"The day that Team 6 and Team 8 finally began to track down the contents of the comics was the day that the Mirror had problems."

"Time is running out."