Chapter 15 No Man's Land Jiang Yang's wrists and ankles were bound with black straps...
"Jiang Yang!"
On the brightly lit platform, Nan Ke waved excitedly to Jiang Yang from not far away.
Jiang Yang looked in the direction of the sound, but before he could take two steps forward, everything suddenly went black. The oppressive feeling in the space made him straighten up, and his fingers unconsciously rubbed the ring on his finger.
"Heh," a soft laugh came from the darkness, "You lost. He didn't beg for mercy or pay up."
A carefree voice came from behind him, and Jiang Yang breathed a sigh of relief. As long as it was a person.
Two figures emerged from the shadows, each wearing a metal badge with the numbers 003 and 007 on their chests, and also wearing masks.
However, unlike the Hanged Man with his blue face and fangs, the silver-white masks they wore seemed to blur their appearance, making them impossible to ignore yet impossible to discern.
The one who just spoke must have been 007. He was twirling a money bag in his hand and exuding a cheerful mood.
"Hello, a player has reported that you have a bugged behavior in the Zero Train trial. We need your cooperation in our inquiry and investigation. Please come with us." 003 spoke with a slightly affected tone.
"So..." Jiang Yang raised an eyebrow, her face full of wariness, "who are you?"
"I am Judge 003, the number 003 from the Judgment Tower bug fix department."
Jiang Yang crossed her arms in front of her and asked with a smile, "Hello 003, do you have a work ID?"
003 and 007 exchanged a glance. 007 took a step forward, pointed to his blurry face with a bent finger, and said defiantly, "You don't recognize us?"
"Hmm...maybe...perhaps...possibly...do we know each other?" Jiang Yang frowned as she tried hard to remember, while 007 stood there, hands on hips, puffing out his cheeks in annoyance.
Jiang Yang quickly explained, "It's like this, 007, I haven't registered in No Man's Land yet, so I might not really know you guys~"
So, this is the key point.
"Why don't you two keep it a secret from everyone?" Jiang Yang suggested.
Then they turned around, and Jiang Yang looked up helplessly, realizing that he had only carried a few people on his back.
"If the soft approach doesn't work, we'll try the hard one. Take him back first!" 003 gritted his teeth and said fiercely.
"No, if I get complained about again, I'll fall to the ground and turn to dust."
007's voice suddenly rose, and 003 shook his fist at him. He was on the verge of tears, "Then let's do it, bro."
"Forget it, let's go. We're all working people, it's not easy for us."
"Let's go then," 003 said, reverting to his usual businesslike seriousness.
[Judge 003 requests mobile authorization from player Jiang Yang]
[Current Location: External Platform of Train Zero Trial]
【Target location: %￥#@】
Time taken: 3 seconds
Jiang Yang felt as if he were sitting on a pirate ship, swinging violently from left to top right to bottom right and then back to top right. The moment he landed, he immediately grabbed a nearby trash can and vomited.
"See? I told you putting one here would definitely work," 007 boasted.
003 ignored him and walked straight ahead. A voice came from not far away, "Bring him over in a bit."
A persistent, churning pain rose in my stomach. I steadied myself against the wall, and 007 handed me a handkerchief. "Alright, alright, you'll get used to it."
Jiang Yang waved his hand, refusing the offer, beads of sweat sliding down his pale cheeks.
007 hesitated for a moment, then said, "Forget it, I'll avoid places like this in the future."
Jiang Yang was led to a dark little room at the end of the corridor. 007 opened the door and said, "Someone will come to ask you questions in a moment. Just answer whatever they ask. Don't lie. If you lie, it will be considered a violation, regardless of whether you did it or not."
"Thank you," Jiang Yang said, pressing her stomach. She walked in and sat down in the only chair, slumping slightly, her gaze fixed on the overhead light, her expression pale.
Half a meter away from the chair was a whole glass wall, reflecting his figure. 007 stood at the door and stared at him for a while before closing the door.
The woman's high heels approached little by little, and finally she sat down on the other side of the glass.
Jiang Yang couldn't see her, but this was still a social distance he couldn't accept.
I tentatively tried to move backward by bracing my calf against the chair, but the chair didn't budge.
"Jiang Yang, I am Deyue."
"Hello, Deyue," Jiang Yang was forced to change his demeanor.
"I am the head of the bug fixing department at the Trial Tower. A player has reported that you have engaged in bug-related behavior during the Trial on Train Zero. Do you have anything to say about this?"
"I believe that his report is true."
"He just admitted it like that?" 007's gossipy chatter was very quiet, but Jiang Yang still noticed it.
He couldn't help but chuckle, crossed his legs, clasped his hands together, leaned back slightly, and completely relaxed.
"That's right. My trial assistant said that it was a bug in your system that led me to this trial, so there's no doubt that there is indeed a bug."
The young man's cool and calm voice left Deyue speechless for a moment. 007 and 008, who were birds of a feather, were struggling to suppress their laughter, so they simply gave the signal and went outside.
001 bent forward and pressed the microphone button on the desktop. "The system bug is one aspect, but the main problem is that some of the irregularities you made during the trial caused the Zero Train trial to deviate from the plot, creating new bugs."
"For example?" Jiang Yang tilted her head on the other end of the one-way glass, her bewildered eyes looking through the glass, her expression full of fatigue and weariness.
"You cut the power cord on Train Zero, forcing it to stop, and then returned to Train K0027!"
"Is there a problem?" Jiang Yang countered. "My final destination is no man's land, but Train Zero's isn't. What's wrong with what I did?"
Jiang Yang's tone became aggressive, and 001 remained silent. Everyone in the bug fixing team knew that there was nothing wrong with this operation.
The problem is that the bug report submitted by the Hanged Man states "suspected memory not being erased".
After the players entered train K0027, the observation room was lost. All they currently have are scattered images of Jiang Yang on train zero and a short segment recorded by the Hanged Man.
The two sides were deadlocked. Deyue lowered her head and tucked her hair behind her ear, her emotions unreadable. "Let's proceed with the second round of interrogation."
For players who enter the repair area, there is almost never a second round.
Normally, the first round is basically conducted in three stages: 001, 002, and 005, which relies heavily on the subjectivity of the judge.
The second round, however, requires the person being judged to have a strong will and endure an infinitely long lie test under the pressure of the tower.
Jiang Yang's wrists and ankles were secured to the chair with black straps, his neck was also restrained, and his head was forced to be upright, his thin and weak body reflected in the glass.
"Player Jiang Yang," the mechanical voice echoed throughout the small room, and Jiang Yang felt a buzzing in his head after hearing it for only a moment.
"Did you have ulterior motives in this trial, and attempted to sabotage it...?"
"No, I just want to live..."
"Did you know the contents of the trial beforehand...?"
"No, I just arrived in the No Man's Lands..."
Why did you choose to help Nan Ke...?
"We reached an employment agreement, and he paid me..."
The sounds were chaotic, and Jiang Yang tried very hard to discern the cold, emotionless voice within them.
"What was the basis for your guidance to player Nan Ke...?"
Maintaining the same position for a long time, Jiang Yang subconsciously tends to turn his head to one side.
The strap around his neck tightened with his movement. The young man gasped for breath, veins bulging on his clenched fists. "I...I'm sorry...I didn't...understand..."
Behind his black-rimmed glasses, the young man's eyes reddened with grievance. The straps suddenly came loose, allowing air to circulate freely, but this also caused him to cough violently.
"It means, how did you make the decision to let Nan Ke cooperate with Xiong Bingxin, and then let Nan Ke give Xie Lu and Mantou?" It was Deyue.
"I don't know," Jiang Yang wanted to shake his head, but he was restrained. "Perhaps it's intuition? You should know about my talent, right?"
"Lucky fool, trust your sixth sense..." Jiang Yang chuckled softly.
"Player Jiang Yang, when did you arrive in this no-man's-land...?"
"today..."
"Player Jiang Yang, do you have any memories from before?"
Jiang Yang looked at her reflection in the glass. "I'm sorry, before I came here, I had been suffering from amnesia for three years due to a car accident."
"Player Jiang Yang, why did you enter the No Man's Land...?"
"The result was not a lie." A recorder had appeared on the table, and 001 had been watching its results closely.
Deyue gazed at the other side, the young man's hair already damp with sweat and clinging to his forehead. "The video and results will be sent to the Hanged Man simultaneously."
"What if he's not satisfied..." 001 probed.
"If he's not satisfied, he can interrogate me himself!" Deyue's violent impulses surged again, his chest heaving. "Fine, arrange for someone to monitor his next trial."
"So, who will decide on the personnel, you or...?"
Deyue looked around, somewhat disappointed, "Where are 007 and 008?"
"I'll go call him," 003 said, taking two steps away. The three of them were usually quite close.
"Stop!" 003 stood up straight.
"Since he's not here, just send a notification: 007 will be in charge of monitoring player Jiang Yang."
At this very moment, 007, who had used the excuse of going to the bathroom to go with 008, had already sneaked back to his residence and was happily lying down.
He covered his head with the blanket, as if he were asleep, while the message notification from the bug fix site sounded again and again.
"007, 007, you tricked me again! You sneaked back to sleep again!"
"I'm telling you! You're finished! This time you're going in to monitor that Jiang Yang!"
"Just go to sleep! We'll see how you sleep then!"
008 ran over and pounded on the door, knowing full well that 007 wouldn't open it, but still insisted on causing trouble. After pounding on the door for a long time, he finally left angrily.
007 pulled the blanket off his head. In his private space, his mask automatically fell away, and his jovial expression disappeared.
He raised his hand to bring up the control panel, pressed the voice recording button, his brows furrowed and his nose wrinkled slightly, "Boss, can you please let me off the hook? I promise I won't leave early next time, okay?"
"Hehe, 007, now you know how to beg for mercy, so we'll send you! Let you live your life!" 008 added fuel to the fire.
"001, the other one is assigned to 008."
"receive."
Having successfully survived the second round of interrogation, as compensation, the bug fix team booked Jiang Yang a hotel in No Man's Land worth 10,000 points per night.
As Jiang Yang sank into the soft blankets, she felt a rare sense of relaxation.
The email icon on the panel was still flashing red. After clicking it, Jiang Yang chose to view the emails in order of receipt time, from bottom to top.
First email:
Congratulations to player Jiang Yang for gaining the support of the Puppet Master!
[The Puppet Man: The engineer who made a mistake made a deal with the devil, and what awaited him was an infinitely magnified fear and regret. Fortunately, in the endless darkness, he found his own liberation, and he chose to use this power to support his god.]
【Use or not?】
[Whether it can be transferred]
The email will expire in 30 days and will automatically become invalid if not claimed in time.
Jiang Yang doesn't want to be a god; he wants to be a fool right now. He's decided to put that aside for now.
Second email:
[Zero Train Trial Statistics]
[Gained Soul Weights: 300 points]
[Points reward amount: 2000 points]
Jiang Yang's inner monologue: I'm working myself to the bone and I still can't afford a hotel room for one night.
(If a new player's observation room is disconnected for an extended period, it will affect the viewing experience of other observers and also make it harder for the player to gain their support.)
No wonder the interrogation focused solely on the events on Train Zero; it seems that nothing that happened on K0027 was released to the public.
Except for the Hanged Man incident...
[Since player Jiang Yang does not have the qualification for the final trial, a comprehensive simulated trial will be conducted based on the completion rate of the main quest, feedback from observers in the observation room, and NPC evaluations.]
Final ranking: 3
[No player Jiang Yang's Boundless Land identity information was detected; the Ultimate Judgment ranking rewards cannot be distributed.]
After the information registration is completed, the system will reissue the card.
The top message was to inform Jiang Yang that a judge would be present to monitor him during the next trial, and to prepare him accordingly.
Jiang Yang clicked "confirm," then pulled the covers over her head and fell into a deep sleep.
He seemed to have forgotten something.
A note from the author:
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Jiang Yang - The Fool
[Player Jiang Yang unlocks personal talent: Gift of Roses]
【Instructions for Use 1: Anyone who comes into contact with the Fool's Rose will have their memories read by the Fool. The initial reading time is 15 minutes, and the initial cooldown time is 12 hours. The reading time will increase as the player's abilities improve, and the cooldown time will decrease in the opposite direction. Unused time can be accumulated.】
[Instructions for Use 2: The Fool can replace a character in a memory fragment. The replaced character will not have the memory of being replaced. The initial replacement time is 15 minutes, and the initial cooldown time is 12 hours. The replacement time will increase as the player's ability improves, and the cooldown time will decrease. Unused time can be accumulated.]
[Player Jiang Yang unlocks the Time Travel Bottle: The Last Tear]
[Instructions for Use: Collect Tears of Regret to upgrade; more features await unlocking]
[Player Jiang Yang unlocks the title: The Lonely Traveler in Time]
Nan Ke - Stars
[Personal Talent: Inspiration in the Night]
[Instructions for Use - Thread: Players entangled in the thread cannot escape; the holder can unleash a curse.]
【Instructions for Use - Star: When a star explodes, it releases a mist that has a paralyzing effect. Staying in the mist for an extended period will cause confusion.】
[Instructions for Use - Star Lines: Has predictive properties and can be used to guide you when lost]
Ako - Six of Cups
[Personal Talent: Inner Purification]
[Instructions for use: This can obtain unconditional compromise and love from any living being]
Duration: 10 minutes
[Number of uses remaining for this dungeon: 3/3]
Xie Lu - Power
[Personal Talent: Vampire Protection]
[Instructions for Use - Presence: When actively activated, it reduces your presence in other perspectives during trials. When the talent is upgraded to the maximum level, you can achieve complete invisibility. Currently, players can use it for 3 hours at a time. After clearing the duration, you can go to the dark, where darkness will provide the best protection for your power.]
【Instructions for Use - Domination: Creatures in the darkness can be manipulated by power; the effect of manipulation depends on the individual attributes of the creature】
【Instructions for Use - Vampire Protection: By harnessing the mysterious and powerful abilities of vampires, you can transform from a mortal into a vampire and gain control of the supreme power of the entire vampire race】
[Existence - Upgrade: After the talent is upgraded to the maximum level, you can achieve a state of complete invisibility]
[Existence - Max Level: When in complete stealth mode, everything can be ignored]
Huang Er - The Hermit
[Personal Talent: The Book of No Owner]
[Instructions for Use - Stasis: The cessation of time is the hermit's greatest blessing to you; it wishes you a long and healthy life.]
[Instructions for Use - Vitality: The wisdom of the hermit has left you a glimmer of hope. If you feel lost, light a cigarette in your pocket. Please stay clear-headed and don't get lost in the confusion.]
[Instructions for Use - Unveiling the Secret: The hermit, who knows everything about the universe, can not only reshape the past but also foresee the future. If you feel lost, you might as well ask the hermit for advice, and the hermit will tell you the answer and guide you in the right direction.]
The Hanged Man - The Hanged Man
[Personal Talent: The Well of Despair with Time Reversal]
[Instructions for Use - The Well: An unbreakable cage where the Hanged Man enjoys the self-struggle and sacrifice of his playthings]
[Instructions for Use - Time Travel: You can travel through time within the well; perhaps you can find a glimmer of hope for salvation.]
1v1 Throwing: During the 1v1 throwing event, the initiating observer is the dealer, providing a prize pool of no less than 1000 Soul Weights. Other observers throw at least 10 weights each time. After the trial, the result is determined based on the number of weights each side obtained during the trial.
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