Chapter 107

The first person to discover this situation was Niu Bugeng.

It was originally very interested in the computer that Xu Ming had stolen. After studying the real use of the computer, it spent all its time on it, opening it from time to time to see if it could spawn new scenes of strange stories.

Once it spawned, it would consciously follow Xu Ming's previous demonstration and check step by step whether there were any living people in the strange stories. If not, it would spend some time to slowly dig out and organize all the clues it could see, and then hand them over to Xu Ming.

Because its hands also had some changes, some operations were not very convenient, and many tasks could only be done by Mataigor. But it must be said that as a dead person, its thinking was really clear, and it was very skilled in data organization, saving Xu Ming a lot of work.

And it was on this afternoon that it saw a shadow on the computer screen that clearly did not belong to a ghost story.

It was a pair of young people who looked like students, trapped in a mirror-like place, huddled together like two little rabbits, shivering, and the shadows in the mirror next to them moved, and it was a reflection that clearly did not belong to them.

Niu Bugeng made a prompt decision and immediately asked Mataigor to find Xu Ming, while he stayed in front of the computer, closely watching the two people's every move - soon, Xu Ming came and his face changed after seeing the situation on the screen clearly.

"Are you sure they are alive... Forget it, just pretend I didn't ask."

Xu Ming's eyebrows moved slightly, and he carefully studied the scene where the two people were. Then he took out his mobile phone and began to send messages to Anxin Gardening and Dali Weeding in the name of Gu Ming.

Strictly speaking, they couldn't actually say whether the two students were dead or alive - Dandelion didn't know that he was dead, and Cang'er knew that he was not alive. When they were in a strange story, even monsters could hardly distinguish them from living people; whether this computer had the ability to distinguish was not certain at present.

But Xu Ming felt that they couldn't gamble. And they couldn't afford to gamble.

Fortunately, both professional units responded quickly. Especially for Anxin Gardening, their specially hired mutant root consultant is very good at finding people. After obtaining some keywords and appearance descriptions from Xu Ming, he soon found the entrance to the corresponding ghost story by relying on his own ability. But new problems also emerged -

just like last time, they couldn't go in directly.

The ghost story was opened, but not fully opened. Those who did not meet the conditions, even psychics could only worry outside. Fortunately, Xu Ming was well prepared. He just sent a message to the two units and then went to find Gu Yunshu and Lu Yueling. In the middle, he also switched to the state of a dream walker and took out two flashlights from Guo Shuyi's warehouse.

Considering that the entrance to the strange story this time was exactly the same as last time, and that they now had a computer to assist them, Xu Ming hesitated for a moment and decided not to go with them this time - after all, their biggest problem last time was that they spent too much time looking for people. At least the

people last time were insiders who had some self-protection capabilities, but this time they were two trembling middle school students, and they couldn't afford to waste time - Xu Ming estimated that if someone was observing and reminding them from the sidelines, the efficiency would be higher. Anyway,

she still had the rule book in her hand, and the rule book also contained the work badge records that could be used for remote communication, so she was not worried about losing contact. If there was any accident, she could just switch to the dream walker state and rush over.

Facts have proved that Xu Ming's judgment was correct.

The difficulty of this strange story was not high either. With the help of someone remotely, it didn’t take long for the two middle school students to be successfully brought out by Gu Yunshu and her team. As soon as they were brought to the exit, they were taken over by Anxin Gardening’s people to take notes and comfort them.

Fortunately, they didn’t suffer any physical injuries, but because of the shock, their emotions were not very stable. Anxin Gardening arranged hypnosis for them, and after careful questioning, they finally figured out the whole story.

[The girl among the two also has a psychic physique, and her symptoms are very mild. Normally, she can only see a little shadow at most. 】Another day later, Shi Mian took the initiative to share intelligence with Xu Ming, [The man was her boyfriend, the two of them went out on a date without telling their families, ran to a small park in the north of the city to chat, and then smeared bull's tears on their eyes...]

Xu Ming: "......?"

[Wait. ] The first part was understandable, but the last sentence suddenly became unbelievable, [What bull's tears? ]

[It's the legendary thing that can make people see ghosts. ] When Shi Mian wrote this, she also felt it was absurd, [The boy bought a bottle from the Internet and smeared it on his eyelids in front of the girl. He said he wanted to see the world in her eyes. ]

The result was a glance for a lifetime, directly into a ghost story.

Xu Ming: "......"

[No, wait a minute. ] The more she read, the more confused she became, [What kind of logic is this? 】

She had also heard about the legend of Bull's Eye Tears, but never took it seriously; besides, how could it be possible to send people directly to the Ghost Story when it was supposed to be a ghost story?

【We also find it strange. This kind of case has never happened before, and it doesn't make sense.】 Shi Mian replied.

Xu Ming: 【…Is it possible that they were actually led in by the dead, but they didn't know it themselves?】

【This seems unlikely at the moment.】 Shi Mian said truthfully, 【If there was a dead person leading the way, then there should be three [people] who entered the Ghost Story together, and the girl also insisted that before using the Bull's Eye Tears, she didn't feel anything unusual around her.】

【We have two speculations now. First, the [Ox-Eyed Tears] that the boy bought was actually a derivative of a certain root, and under its effect, they entered the strange story; second, their behavior of [seeking to see ghosts] just happened to meet a certain hidden entry condition of the strange story, and the girl's physique was a bit special, so she entered. 】It

needs further verification to know what it is. It's a pity that the bottle of ox-eyed tears was thrown into the strange story by the boy, otherwise it would be enough to take it and test it.

【Now I have done ideological work for the two children, and notified their parents to come and pick them up. 】Shi Mian followed, 【It may not be good to say this, but I feel that they are going to be separated. 】After all,

in a sense, the two children are in love and have ended up in the police station.

[……] This time, Xu Ming simply typed an ellipsis on the screen, [Okay. If there is any progress, could you please tell me again? ]

[Of course, no problem! ] Shi Mian replied very quickly this time, [As it should be, this time it’s all thanks to you guys. ]

[By the way, speaking of this, there’s something else I want to ask. ]

Xu Ming: [? ]

[Can you give me a delivery address? ] Shi Mian said, [Those two kids said they wanted to send you a banner for your relocation. ]

Xu Ming: …? ? ?

What banner? You two are probably about to break up, and you’re still sending a banner... Thanks for breaking up the couple?

[We don't care about these things here. It's not very convenient to receive.] Xu Ming wanted to just say forget it, but considering that he was currently using Gu Ming's account, he was a little more tactful in his wording and asked Shi Mian to help him reject it.

Shi Mian didn't seem surprised by this and quickly agreed. He also expressed his gratitude to the demolition office on behalf of Anxin Gardening, and then ended the conversation.

Xu Ming put down his phone and thought about it carefully, but the more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong.

After all, bull's eye tears... I have never heard of such an effect before.

I hope it's just a coincidence. She comforted herself in her heart, rubbed her throbbing temples, and got up and walked towards the bedroom.

*

The bad thing is that it doesn't seem to be a coincidence.

Because the very next day, Xu Ming received another request for help from Shi Mian -

Anxin Gardening discovered another strange incident, and this time the person involved in the strange incident was an ordinary person who had not been trained. And just like the previous two times - the psychic could not go in directly.

Xu Ming had no choice but to quickly get up from the bed. He looked for Lu Yueling everywhere.

Gu Yunshu was injured when she rescued someone yesterday and needed to rest, so she could not be called this time. On the other hand, their laptops could not lock the strange stories being played, and could only play randomly, so it was useless this time. Xu Ming thought about changing his form and going directly there, but before he went out, Niu Bugeng stopped him and pointed at the computer screen for her to see.

- On the screen, there was another group of people huddled together and shivering in the haunted house.

"..." After confirming the scene, it was not the strange story that Shi Mian said.

In other words, there are now two groups of people trapped in different strange stories - Xu Ming felt suffocated for a while, paused for a while, and went into the house helplessly, looking for Panpan and Landuo again, and pressed Gu Yunshu who was struggling to help back.

Fortunately, Landuo, that bastard, was very clear-headed at this time, and followed him out as soon as he was called. While Xu Ming was quickly communicating with Shi Mian on his mobile phone, he quickly assigned tasks. Panpan and Lu Yueling went to help Shi Mian, and Landuo went to the strange story displayed on the computer alone. He still stayed in the backstage and contacted with his work badge if there was any problem.

It was a surprise but no danger, and both sides finally solved it smoothly. Lando's situation was over quickly because he had more combat experience and was directly guided by Xu Ming. Panpan and Lu Yueling almost got into trouble, but fortunately Fang Xueqing had given them a key she made before, so they managed to escape with their men.

Fang Xueqing's keys were all derivatives of the rule book, and once they were used, she had to pay the price. Fortunately or unfortunately, the price she paid this time was a dislocated jaw - the doctor on the team quickly put it back in place, but it was said that there would be sequelae, and she would not be able to yawn significantly in the future.

These two groups were also taken away by Anxin Gardening for questioning. The conclusions given in the end were equally incredible.

One group of people went to a villa in the suburbs for a party. There was also a person with a mild psychic physique among them. Before entering the ghost story, they were playing Pen Fairy. Another group of people was even wilder. They were netizens who met through playing games. This time, under the organization of one of them, they went to the abandoned office building to play the "ghost-seeing game

". It shouldn't have been a problem. Unfortunately, someone in that group didn't get along with the leader of the event, so he deliberately dragged his friend who was said to be able to "see ghosts" to mess up the place.

I don't know if the game can see ghosts, but his friend can really see ghosts. As a result, a group of people all saw ghosts.

[……] Xu Ming looked at the report sent by Shi Mian and felt overwhelmed. After a long time, he finally started typing with difficulty. [I thought that psychic physiques were rare?]

[In terms of proportion, they are definitely rare.] Shi Mian said, [but the base number is large.]

Xu Ming: ...That's true.

[Besides, didn't the ghost stories evolve a few years ago?] Shi Mian followed closely, [You should also know that since then, some things are not so clear-cut.]

The boundary between "normal" and "abnormal" has been blurred, and even normal people under the protection of order can sometimes glimpse shadows that do not belong to this world.

Some people have seen it and that moment of abnormality will not cause more impact on them; but some people will gradually approach the other side of the boundary with repeated contact, until finally, they can no longer be protected by order...

[Now there are many people with mild psychic abilities, and they all came from this way.] Shi Mian said, [Some are because of ghost stories, and some are because of contact with other things... It has no impact on normal life, but at this time, it is very troublesome.]

Indeed... Xu Ming nodded in agreement in his heart. Recalling the commonalities of these cases, he couldn't help but frowned.

[Come to think of it, the previous way of entering the ghost story [the dead leading the way] was also after the first evolution of the ghost story, right?] She confirmed with Shi Mian.

Shi Mian quickly gave an affirmative reply. Xu Ming paused for a moment, then tentatively typed: [Then don’t you think that the current situation is a bit like another new version of the entry method? ]

[? ] Shi Mian didn’t understand what she meant at first, and subconsciously replied with a question mark; but soon, as if she realized something, she sent another exclamation mark. Shi

Mian: [You mean, everything is not a coincidence, but the entry method of ghost stories has been fundamentally changed? ]

[Just a guess. ] Xu Ming immediately said, [But you see, all the cases have something in common...]

In every batch of entrants, there is a person with mild psychic ability, and before entering, they are all performing the so-called ritual of being able to "see ghosts."

It feels like the original entry rules of the ghost story were completely abolished, and then a new version was made.

... Or, it is not "abolished"? It is because it can no longer be used, so it has to be redone from scratch...

Considering the fact that Xu Ling, as the key, has been taken away, Xu Ming is more inclined to the second guess. But no matter what, the ghost story itself has a new and universal way of entering, which seems to be an indisputable fact.

[...I roughly understand what you mean.] After a while, Shi Mian sent another message, [Regarding your guess, in fact, someone in our company has also proposed it. But the specifics still need to be further summarized and verified based on other cases.]

Other cases...Xu Ming's eyelids jumped when he saw this word. She wanted to continue the discussion, but her thoughts were so chaotic that she didn't know where to start. In particular, her temples began to throb for some reason, making her feel upset.

So she paused for a long time, and finally gave up. She only reminded her again to pay attention to the "door" in the strange story, and then hurriedly ended the conversation.

She put down her phone, sat alone for a while, picked up the notebook left by her aunt, stared at the lock on it for a while, and finally sighed heavily.

Assuming that the first evolution of the strange story was because the "door" in the unit building was opened, the current change in the rules is most likely related to the existence behind the door. But for that world, the current information is still too little - the only thing that can be relied on seems to be this notebook.

The problem is that the memory with the password is nowhere to be found... Xu Ming closed his eyes helplessly, rubbed his throbbing temples again, picked up his rule book, found a place and lay down.

*

At the same time, An Xin Gardening.

Shi Mian looked at the chat interface with Gu Ming, shrugged helplessly, closed it casually, lowered his head and dealt with other matters.

After a moment, he suddenly raised his head as if he realized something. Then he quickly picked up the phone and called up the chat interface again. After reading Xu Ming's last two sentences twice, his eyes widened in shock.

Then he picked up the phone and ran to the leader's office.

"You mean..."

Another twenty minutes later, in the office.

The middle-aged woman with neat short hair looked at the phone in front of her and raised her head thoughtfully: "What is she hinting at?"

"It's just a feeling." Shi Mian said seriously, "It may be that I think too much, but the way she speaks seems to be different from before."

The first sentence was still discussing the new way to enter the strange story, and the second sentence jumped directly to the "door", and the final ending was obviously a bit hasty, as if he was in a hurry to end the topic - this was a bit abnormal for Gu Ming.

"The Ghost Story Demolition Office once announced that the ghost stories were temporarily closed. And they also reminded us through Gu Ming to pay attention to the 'door'. From this, it can be seen that they must have a special source of information." The director muttered his analysis, leaning back in his chair, his fingers unconsciously crossed, "It is completely reasonable to say that they know something about the changes in the ghost stories this time..."

But if we speculate that Gu Ming is deliberately hinting at something because of this, wouldn't it be too arbitrary?

"Of course it's not just because of this." Shi Mian spoke firmly, took the phone and began to look through the previous chat records. "I didn't think much about it at first, but I suddenly remembered that about a week ago, she asked me about something similar..."

Minister: "......?"

"Look, it's right here." Shi Mian quickly turned it and pointed it to her leader. "She said that she has a friend who is constrained by the power of an abnormal existence. She knows a lot of things but can't tell anyone. She asked me if there are similar cases in Anxin Gardening and if there are any ways to solve them..."

She didn't think much about it at the time, but now that she thinks about it, it's very subtle - who exactly is Xu Ming's friend referring to?

"If that's the case, then it's probably that she learned something from the Demolition and Relocation Office, but was constrained by the power of the Demolition and Relocation Office and couldn't say it directly. She could only remind them in some indirect ways..." Shi Mian naturally followed this line of thought, "Then what she said was 'just a guess' is probably not just a simple guess..."

Then the hypothesis she proposed is worth paying attention to.

Of course, what is more worthy of attention is the attitude of the Demolition and Relocation Office - or, in other words, the attitude of the managers of the Demolition and Relocation Office.

The legendary "Director Xu".

What does she know, and what is she hiding? And why is she hiding it?

"No matter what, at least judging from the response to the rescue activities, the attitude shown by the Demolition Office towards humans is still very friendly." After a moment's thought, the minister pondered and said, "As for the rest... it's the same thing, don't jump to conclusions and don't take it lightly."

Shi Mian was stunned for a moment, then nodded seriously.

"As for the speculation you put forward, I will pay attention to it." The minister followed up, "Please print out the chat record of Gu Ming and discuss it in the next meeting. Oh yes, and..."

Shi Mian: "?"

"...Assuming that your speculation is true, then Gu Ming's behavior must have carried certain risks." After a brief pause, the minister raised his head again, "Gu Ming is still working as a 'part-time' here with us, right?"

"Well... well!" Shi Mian blinked and nodded hurriedly, "Yes. She has been providing us with information about different strange stories."

"Okay. Then let's apply for a new budget." The minister said, "After all, this is all we can give her..."

It is impossible to write a thank-you letter directly to the person who issued the banner - but it is still possible to increase the original remuneration line appropriately.

*

On the other end.

A few days later, Xu Ming learned that her clue fee had increased.

It would be a lie to say that she was unhappy. Especially since Anxin Gardening had always given quite generous clue fees, and now with the increase, one order would almost be equal to her annual salary for the past year.

...Although her previous job didn't pay much.

Xu Ming was moved, and she sorted out another piece of information about strange stories on the spot and sent it directly to Shi Mian.

This time, the clues about strange stories were still collected through a laptop. After sending them, Xu Ming went online to buy some books that Niu Bugeng needed, then put down his phone and turned his attention back to the paper in front of him.

It was a piece of draft paper torn casually from a notebook, with only a few lines of words scribbled on it in pencil. The fat man went to the living room to look for the game console. He saw Xu Ming sitting at his seat chewing on the tip of a pen. He immediately became interested and ran over to see

what was going on. "What are you writing?"

"Go away, you're blocking my view." Xu Ming pushed him away a little unhappily and continued to think hard on the paper. He tried to write a few words and then crossed them out. He caught a glimpse of the fat man who was still curiously looking over his shoulder and couldn't help poking him with his pen.

The fat man was poked so hard that he flipped over backwards, but he was still curious about what Xu Ming was writing. Xu Ming exhaled and turned the pencil in his hand:

"It's not something great... I just want to prepare a guide for you to follow in ghost stories."

"Oh, ghost stories... huh?" The fat whale man was stunned for a moment, and suddenly reacted, "Wait, this 'you', what exactly do you mean...?"

"You non-humans, what else." Xu Ming was puzzled.

The fat whale man: "..."

No, you, a human, are writing a guide to ghost stories for a group of non-humans, don't you think there is something wrong with this?

"Do you think I'm free? I wrote it just because I thought you guys needed it." Xu Ming said helplessly, "Isn't it because you have been doing a lot of ghost stories recently..."

This is the truth. Ever since the last "bull's eye tears", the incidents of humans mistakenly entering ghost stories have never stopped. It is still difficult for human psychics to directly enter the ghost stories, and the only ones who can reach the scene the fastest are still the non-humans from the demolition office.

But this leads to two problems - first, there are not enough people going out. Second, there are seriously not enough people who can take charge of a matter.

The first problem is easy to solve. First of all, Guo Shuyi's ability has been upgraded. Not only can he bring two extra people out of his ghost story, but there are no previous restrictions on the range of action, so he can run around. In addition, Guo Shuyi and the others don't mind helping him, which means he has three more helpers.

Add to that Gu Yunshu, Lu Yueling, Niu Tou Ma Mian, Lan Duo and the Whale Fat Man, an extra-staff Pan Pan, and thirty A Jiaos. Even if you exclude Niu Bu Geng who is guarding the computer, there are still many possible combinations.

The main problem is the second one.

There are enough people. But there are not many people who can be released without worry.

After all, there are too few fully developed employees in the Demolition and Relocation Office, and they are more or less biased in some subjects

. In terms of single combat and flexibility, Lan Duo is undoubtedly the strongest, followed by Lu Yueling. But these two are relatively... more straightforward. When they encounter a complex situation that cannot be broken by force, they will easily be "held up" and restricted. Not to mention that Lu Yueling is actually a little afraid of ghosts... If she can't be appeased in time, this is also quite troublesome.

In terms of observation and logical analysis, the most reliable ones are Gu Yunshu and Guo Shuyi. Comparing the two, Gu Yunshu is more thoughtful, pays more attention to details, is good at command and has certain combat capabilities, and has more comprehensive abilities; Guo Shuyi is smarter, but relatively speaking, he is a little more simple, and because he can only walk outside in the form of an ordinary spirit, he has the ability of a domain master, but he can hardly use it.

After that, the only combat forces that can be mobilized are Panpan, the blubber man, and the people who live in Guo Shuyi's ghost stories, such as Big Guo and Little Guo Bonnie. To be honest, the overall quality of the girls in Guo Shuyi's ghost stories is quite good, but there is still that problem. They can only move outside in the form of spirits. Although they are strong, they cannot show their strength, and now only two can appear at a time...

Panpan's ability is not clear yet. It seems that she has a strong ability to protect herself, but it seems that she can't leave her mother for too long. As for the blubber man... Xu Ming really doesn't want to comment.

The problem of insufficient combat power can still be solved by distributing flashlights and personnel matching, but if the brain power is insufficient, this matter is really troublesome...

After all, it is impossible for him to follow every team, or to monitor every ghost story with a computer.

This matter really gave Xu Ming a headache for a long time. Until yesterday, when I accidentally saw the "Guidelines for Newbies to Ghost Stories" compiled by Qiu Yufei, I suddenly had an idea.

Nowadays, ghost stories are generally relatively simple, the rules are easy to find, and the escape is clear - if that's the case, wouldn't it be better to make a guide and distribute it?

"In simple terms, it is to list all the situations you may encounter after entering a ghost story and give you guidance. This way, even if you are in an unfamiliar environment, you won't start to grope in the dark."

Xu Ming muttered, as if he finally had an idea, and started to draft on paper with a pencil.

The blubber man listened quietly beside him, blinking as if he understood, "So, it's your own rules?"

"..." Xu Ming paused with her pen tip, looked at it in surprise, thought for a moment, and nodded, "Well, that's about right."

In fact, she would rather call it a process-based operation.

"..." The blubber man was silent again, and when he spoke again, his tone was a bit serious, "But if the rules are modified after we enter the ghost story, what should we do?"

In the ghost story, this kind of thing is quite common.

"So I will write the 'mark' in advance." Xu Ming said, pointing to the top layer on the paper with his pen. The whale man leaned over to take a look, and then he noticed a line of faint pencil writing on it:

[Strange Story Demolition Office]

"Don't forget, 'Strange Story Demolition Office' itself is a rule basis." Xu Ming said leisurely, "As long as something is written in its name, it will not be changed."

Not to mention that "Strange Story Demolition Office" has been upgraded to a second-level basis, which is even more difficult to be modified.

"That's right." The whale man blinked in agreement, thought about it, and said, "But what if it is us who are affected? You know, such as amnesia or something..."

Xu Ming: "..."

It must be said that when it comes to issues involving personal safety, this little yellow man is unexpectedly strict.

"I haven't really thought about this yet." Xu Ming muttered, and unconsciously turned the pen again, "Suppose this situation really happens... In other words, we must make a setting so that even if you lose your memory, you will naturally believe in this guide and act according to it..."

Substitute the corresponding scenario. If you wake up in a strange story without knowing anything, except for your roots, there is only an ID card on your body, and the ID card says "Strange Story Demolition and Relocation Office"...

"Then I will most likely think that 'I' am an employee of the Demolition and Relocation Office." Xu Ming pursed his lips thoughtfully, and then snapped his fingers, "Then this is easy."

After speaking, he lowered his head and wrote on the paper again.

The whale man followed her movements and saw that behind the original "Strange Talk Demolition Office", there was an extra line of words:

[Strange Talk Demolition Office·Employee Strange Talk Action Guide]