Chapter 123
[I’m home, no wonder I feel mixed emotions…]
[I can’t help but think how sad the families of the victims must be. They all hope that they are just missing and can be found.]
[Luckily it's just a comic, otherwise I would have cried my heart out
[That’s right! Fortunately, it’s just a comic!]
Yu Tu sighed.
It would be great if this was just a comic, a fantasy story, and no one was hurt.
Yu Tu closed the comic and clicked into the forum. The forum was as lively as ever, but this time there were some strange posts that seemed to be coded messages, such as—
[Eri Ka, Saturday Police, Bloody Stairs] hot.9
【Quiet nightmare, one to twelve hours】hot.18
【Reality, Mu Liu, Fish Monster, Understand and Come】hot.23
These strange posts are mixed in with discussions of combat power, background analysis, character experiences, and high-definition wallpaper screenshots, giving off a sense of disconnection.
Yu Tu checked these posts one by one. Almost every poster posted a screenshot from a comic and attached a few vague words. For example, the ninth most popular post [Erika, Saturday Police, Bloody Stairs] had the following in the main post:
"On Saturday, something strange happened on the stairs of Erika's private party hall. It started eating people. Two cars of police came. Several people were seriously injured, and several were slightly injured. I am a survivor.
I wanted to find someone who had the same experience as me, to prove that I was not just a lunatic with imaginary experiences.
The monster is right beside us, the danger is right in front of us, but we don't realize it.
The real terror is about to come."
The first few replies were shocked by this weird tone, and some even asked if the poster was obsessed with comics. After a long time, the poster picked a post to reply to———
[Immersive role-playing is not allowed [狗头.JPG]]
As soon as the poster's reply came out, those who were scared were no longer afraid. They all laughed and played a real immersive role-playing game below, and many of them said things that were much scarier than the poster's.
It looked like a post for fun, but Yu Tu noticed that, except for the first reply of "immersive role-playing", the answers of the people who were replied by the poster had something in common, as if these people were in the same place, describing the same experiences despite the different times and angles.
Yu Tu summarized the contents of the posters to whom the thread owner had replied:
The Erixiang bombing party hall was located in the suburbs. The incident occurred at 12 noon. After being trapped for six hours, the police came to rescue. There were ten policemen in two cars. Three policemen were seriously injured and five were slightly injured. There were nineteen people in the bombing party hall. Two had broken legs, one had lost an arm, one had a wounded knee, and four had their feet bitten so hard that they were bleeding and the bones were visible.
After Yu Tu stared at what he had summarized for a while, he had a bold idea:
He wants to join the group of this poster.
From the poster's reply, Yu Tu guessed that he might have set up a group offline.
Yu Tu did what he said. After carefully choosing his words, he typed a long reply in the comment box. He did not deliberately exaggerate the bloodiness and horror, but simply described these things in the first person.
The poster was obviously online in real time. In less than ten minutes, Yu Tu received a private message from him on the forum, which was a series of communication numbers.
Yu Tu searched on his phone and found that it was a group number. There were already eight people in the group. He applied to join the group and was successfully added. Yu Tu "made friends out of nothing" and became "I had always doubted that the comics were real, but after listening to my friend's experience I became even more convinced." He successfully gained the trust of the administrator and temporarily became a member of the group.
When he came in, the group was in the middle of a heated discussion. There were many pictures in the group album, but only a few were clear. However, the main subject of every picture was the stairs, which looked inexplicably eerie and strange.
After Yu Tu finished looking at all the pictures, the heated discussion in the group paused. Yu Tu scrolled up the message history and saw that the group was now arguing about a question - whether they should go back to the area near Huili Xiangbo Party Hall to take a look.
Someone @虞荼 asked him if he wanted to go, and 虞荼 quickly replied: [It’s too dangerous, I don’t recommend going. 】
After he finished posting, there were several more chats below:
[But I’m really curious TAT]
[I also... I won’t be able to sleep if I don’t figure it out...]
[We are not going to enter the party hall, we are just watching from a distance outside? ]
Yu Tu: “……?”
He really underestimated people's curiosity and ability to commit suicide.
Before Yu Tu could persuade them to give up such dangerous thoughts, a group member named [留取忠心] spoke up:
[When the bloody staircase appeared, none of you were injured, at most you were a little frightened, right? ]
If you really suffered a big loss at the Bloody Stairs, you will definitely not have such a strong curiosity and will just avoid it.
[留取忠心] After being silent for a while, he threw up two pictures. The background of the pictures was in a hospital. The people in the pictures were wearing hospital gowns and their faces were heavily mosaiced. Only the bloody injured parts were particularly clear.
[If you can accept such or even more serious injuries, you can pay for your curiosity.]
As soon as the picture came out, the nine people in the group fell silent. After a long while, someone responded tremblingly.
[I’m sorry, I was wrong!!! I shouldn’t have been so curious!! It’s really scary!!!]
[This wound looks like it was torn by a wild beast, and it's black... Is it poisoned? ]
[Why are there such strange things in the world? ! ]
[No, no, the real world is not like the game. You can't watch a 30-second ad to be resurrected! ]
…
In any case, shocked by such horrific and intuitive pictures, everyone in this group has given up the idea of going to find out what's going on.
This is really cause for celebration.
The group was silently performing the following words. In the newly established Cyber Security Department of the Foreign Affairs Bureau, a young man leaned back and breathed a long sigh of relief:
"That's great. Finally, no one in the group of people who witnessed the bloody staircase incident wants to commit suicide! I will contact the police station there and ask them to extend the cordon further and send people to patrol 24 hours a day."
Next to him, his colleague, whose fingers were almost leaving afterimages on the keyboard, stared at the screen tightly: "If possible, let the police equip them with loudspeakers, and say that anyone caught entering the cordon will be detained for a period of time, which will affect their chances of taking the civil service exam."
Young man: "Does this trick work?"
"It works really well in the area I'm in charge of," his colleague said. "When you tell them you can't take the civil service exam, even the most curious people become quiet."
He pointed to the four characters "Adapt to local conditions" on the wall in front of him and said, "If this doesn't work, then let's do something even more drastic - those who are arrested, including their immediate family members, will not be allowed to enter the system within three generations, even if they pass the exam."
Young man: "..."
Is this some kind of modern version of punishing the entire clan?
*
While Buyehou was immersed in the forum and group chat, Yu Tu's body had already entered five rounds of medical formation.
After coming out of the medical formation in the sixth round, Yu Tu sat cross-legged on the ground, holding the whip and supporting his cheek, falling into a state of emo.
He had clearly fulfilled his ambition of not being defeated in one move, so why didn't he feel happy but instead felt even sadder?
Yu Tu stared at the "person" opposite him who looked exactly like him for a long time, and finally came to a conclusion———
Or is it because he is too bad?
To some extent, he and Gu Hongying are really similar. Gu Hongying carries a heavy pressure of expectations, while he is surrounded by a fog. The enemies that appear are all capable. In just over a month, he has already shouldered two heavy debts.
If he continues to be in debt like this... Yu Tu is worried about how long he can hold on.
In the final analysis, it is the panic caused by insufficient strength. If you want to have enough strength, there is no shortcut except to grit your teeth and practice.
Yu Tu poured the free wood energy he captured from the air into the whip in his hand. The scene of blocking the first attack appeared and decomposed in his mind.
Yu Tu's heart gradually calmed down. He slowly raised his hand. The whip in his hand did not move at all, and it stayed in the air in an almost frozen posture.
Inhale and exhale, inhale and exhale, Yu Tu's breathing gradually became consistent with the fluctuations of wood-attributed energy. It seemed like a long time had passed, yet it seemed like only a moment had passed. Yu Tu's hand suddenly moved.
The whip is "resurrected" and is more clever than a snake!
This was the first time that Yu Tu actually attacked the phantom on the opposite side. It was not that kind of empty nothingness, but a soft, jelly-like texture - the whip sank into it.
But soon, a light green color started from the tail of the whip and spread in all directions like the roots of a plant. Yu Tu seemed to vaguely feel the "core" of the phantom. When he tried to go further:
【Yu Tu failed and switched to medical treatment. 】
The sixth round ends.
After waking up from the medical formation for the seventh time, the bracelet on Yu Tu's wrist kept vibrating, reminding him that it was time to end the class.
Under normal circumstances, Yu Tu would stay and practice for more than an hour, but this afternoon's class was rather special. No one knew why it was special, because Mr. Yu Wen, who was teaching the afternoon class, smiled and said it would be kept secret.
With a little curiosity, Yu Tu left the athletic tower. As soon as he stepped out of the door, he heard the school broadcast - the biggest function of this broadcast was to report criticism to the entire school.
During this time in school, Yu Tu has heard, including but not limited to:
[Criticizing the third-year student in the Oriental Department, xxx! It is forbidden to add spicy or hot sauce to the Maoxuewang of a student with vampire blood! Deduct 1 credit! ]
[Name and criticize xxx, a sophomore in the Western Department! Once again, it is forbidden to modify the flying broom! Flying brooms are not allowed to be stepped on! In view of the fact that this student has not changed despite repeated warnings, 5 credits will be deducted this time! ]
[Name and criticize xxx, a third-year student in the Eastern Department, and xxx, a third-year student in the Western Department! Please do not use the name of food training to put on a big chef's sack, and please change the lunch for the whole school to pineapple-flavored pizza, strawberry-flavored dumplings, and roast duck with bean juice! 10 credits will be deducted from each of them this time! ]
This broadcast is different from previous ones:
[Please pay attention, the large-scale joint formation of the fourth graders has failed. Skeletons, undead, zombies and other summoned creatures are wandering around the campus. First and second graders, please find shelter nearby! 】