Chapter 121 (Minor Repair)

Xu Ming's words were joking, and in fact, many people did laugh because of her words - but soon everyone realized that this was not a funny thing.

This is actually a choice. A very bad choice.

The premise of this choice is that the person in question has a membership card. And anyone who gets the card understands the value of this thing.

In order to keep this valuable card, it is very likely that someone will choose to increase the settings. But the so-called "increase in settings", in other words, is actually to add trouble to others, or even increase the danger...

The atmosphere in the carriage suddenly became solemn. Everyone looked at each other, and their expressions became subtle.

Xueshui Jiancha was also silent, and his mood was even more complicated. Because until this moment, he finally understood why Xu Ming believed so much that the rules of this place might change - the rules are based on the settings in the scene. Once the settings change, the rules will naturally change as well.

"Boss?" At this moment, someone looked at the big gold chain, paused for a moment, and then turned to Xu Ming who was standing next to him, "Boss, what do you think is going on now..."

Seeing this, Xu Ming straightened up slightly, opened his mouth as if to say something, but paused again. After a moment, he gently closed his eyes, turned his neck, and leaned back against the wall.

"You got the card, I don't have the right to make arrangements." She said softly, "I'm just a freeloader, so you guys should make your own decisions."

Blood Water Tea: "..."

Not sure if he was thinking too much, but he felt that Xu Ming's words "freeloader" were particularly deliberate, even a little forced. It was as if he was emphasizing this point to someone.

Before he could figure it out, other people's voices rang again.

"This matter... eh, how should I put it?" The man who asked the question scratched his head, as if he was in a dilemma. Du Rong looked around and said tentatively: "Maybe we can try to add some settings? Don't add the scary ones, just a little gentler..."

"No? There are rules here, and irrelevant settings will not be passed." Su Cui flipped the book and pointed to another line of rules inside, "Too casual will also be punished."

"Isn't that something that directly adds weight?"

"It's just to harm people, it's obvious."

"If it really doesn't work, just use up a card." Xue Shui Jian Cha couldn't help but say, "Anyway, we have two cards." And there is a real boss.

At this point, he suddenly had an idea.

So that's it... Is this why Gu Ming took him back to the electronic scale at that time?

Deliberately discussing the topic of self-interest or altruism with him, deliberately reminding him of the importance of leaving a way for future generations. Maybe, all of this was just a pretext, just to leave a shining seed in his heart...

Yes, that makes sense - otherwise, with the boss's ability, how could he not even remember the way to the electronic scale?

... The question is again, why did he only take him there at that time?

Did he not want to cause trouble? Or maybe, this was originally a lesson for himself, just like now, it was actually a test for himself...

Xueshui Jiancha was a little dazed for a while, and suddenly remembered a reading comprehension essay he had just done not long ago - "Silent Selection"...

Perfectly ignoring the possibility that a certain director really didn't remember the way.

And just when he couldn't help thinking about whether he was really that special in the eyes of the boss, special enough to be specially pointed out and tested, Xu Ming, who had been silent all the time, finally couldn't help but speak again.

"Well... interrupt for a moment." She said softly, pausing a little, as if trying to choose the right words, "Or maybe we can change our thinking?"

"Scary things are not necessarily useless, right? For example, Sadako can fight Kayako, and Godzilla can fight King Ghidorah. The mannequins on the floor we just visited are also scary, but they can drop cards, right?"

She looked at everyone encouragingly: "So——?"

Blood Tea: "......?"

What does that mean? Isn't it a perfect answer to directly consume the cards?

The one who was boiling the blood tea paused for a moment, but the other one suddenly realized and shouted: "I've got it!"

The one who spoke was the man in the bathrobe. He was now reinforcing the belt around his waist and said excitedly:

"To deal with a dummy, don't we need a weapon?

" "Then we can set up something related to a knife... a monster!

"Yes, we set up a knife rack, a knife rack that has become a spirit! It chases the butcher wholeheartedly, hoping to be used by the butcher, so every time the butcher appears, it will follow, but the butcher has his own original knife, so he never even looks at it. So it will... lose its hair because of sadness."

Others: "......?"

"Oh, it's just a dropped knife!" Bathrobe clicked his tongue, "If a knife falls on the ground, can't people pick it up and use it!"

Oh -

everyone nodded in sudden realization, and then someone realized something was wrong: "But isn't this a bit too dangerous?"

"No, no." Bathrobe said immediately, "The knife rack spirit just looks scary, but it doesn't hurt people. It's a simple and shy monster..."

"I'm talking about the person who picked up the knife." Du Rong said, "What if they don't know that the knife is used to chop the dummies? What if they can't think straight and kill each other?"

"..." It seems to make sense.

Someone nodded in agreement, but soon someone else retorted: "It shouldn't be the case, right? We have left the escape rules and the way to obtain the cards. We have all the necessary information. No one should mess around,

right?" "But will those dummies take the initiative to sow discord?"

"I think we shouldn't think of people as too kind..."

Another wave of discussion spread out. Xueshui Jiancha was listening and suddenly frowned again - of course he remembered leaving a message, after all, he was the one who watched Xu Ming leave the note. But he was sure that neither he nor Xu Ming had told anyone else about this...

How did they know?

Out of caution, he hurriedly asked again, and then he learned that when he and Xu Ming were not there, they also took the initiative to leave another record in a certain room.

This idea was thought of by Du Rong. Facing the surprised look of Xueshui Jiancha, she looked as if it was a matter of course:

"We found the exit and the membership card this time because of Gu Ming and Xueshui Boss, but others may not have the same conditions. So I'll try my best to help."

Leave a record so that people who come in later can avoid taking detours.

"Oh..." Xueshui Jiancha nodded, but for some reason, he felt a little uncomfortable, as if he was one step behind others. After a pause, he added, "But the one you left was not signed, so it might be changed by something strange."

"Ah?" Du Rong was surprised.

"We need to add the words '怪談恷徦'." Xueshuijiancha explained, and looking at the surprised eyes of others, he felt a little relieved. "Gu Ming said that these words are magical. With them, the words on the note will not be changed."

Oh -

everyone suddenly realized again, and looked at Xu Ming with a bit of awe.

Xu Ming was rubbing his neck on the spot. Seeing this, he smiled uncomfortably and turned the topic back to the setting that needed to be modified. So everyone discussed it again, and soon rejected the unsafe "knife holder" plan, and tried to optimize a more appropriate answer on this version.

Perhaps it was because most of the people present were professional second-party, and when it came to "modification", they suddenly became professional, and various terms were used one after another. Xueshui Jiancha, the only minor present, was forced to witness the swordplay of adults in advance. He soon became confused and fell silent. He wisely withdrew from the discussion and nestled beside Xu Ming.

Xu Ming really didn't seem to want to participate in the discussion. He just stood quietly against the wall, turning his neck from time to time. Xueshui Jiancha looked at her, then at the others who were discussing, and suddenly understood -

"I know!" He lowered his voice with sudden realization, and said in a volume that only the two of them could hear, "Boss, you did it on purpose, right!"

Xu Ming: "..."

Xu Ming: "Ah?"

"You deliberately didn't say anything, letting them think for themselves and figure out the correct way to solve the problem." Xueshui Jiancha said firmly, "This not only cultivates their thinking patterns, but also distinguishes the abilities and qualities of each person in the team."

He had participated in a similar activity when he went to a summer camp outside. It was called... leaderless group discussion.

This makes sense. The boss is leading the team, so he can't treat everyone equally. He always has to choose the top, second, and third in command...

"Uh." Xu Ming was silent for a moment, but chose to tell the truth, "Actually, you think too much."

Xue Shui Jian Cha: "...Ah?"

"The reason I didn't say anything was because...I was muted." Xu Ming pursed his lips.

Xue Shui Jian Cha: "...Ah?"

"I can't go into detail, but didn't I come in once by myself before? When I saw the requirements for the use of this elevator, I thought it was a bit dangerous, so I tried to do something..." Xu Ming paused and sighed, "Then I was punished."

It is forbidden to add settings, participate in any topics related to modifying settings, and talk about anything related to elevator rules when outside the elevator. Not only that, her cervical spine was still hurting. It was fine outside, but in the elevator, it was so heavy that it drove her crazy. Her head also started to hurt, and her temples were hot.

"... It's like this?" Xue Shui Jian Cha was stunned. "Wait, so what did you do?" Did you really try to add Mickey Mouse to the settings? "

That's not the case. I'm not that outrageous." Xu Ming hurriedly said, waving his hands, "I just tried to change the rules in my own way."

Xue Shui Jian Cha: "Oh...ah?"

What? ?

"It's okay, don't worry about it. It didn't work anyway." Xu Ming muttered, and hammered his neck again. Looking at the people in front of him who were still discussing, he paused for a moment, but couldn't help but raise the corner of his lip.

"But don't you think this is good?" She said to Xueshui Jiancha, "Seeing that the person you once passed the rope to is also trying to pass the rope to others, and may have come up with a better and more useful method than you..."

At least she had never thought of the idea

of ​​Daozijiajing. ...Although the reason for this Daozijia dropping the knife was a bit hasty. So hasty that she would like to call it "Dao Duoduo".

"..." Upon hearing this, Xueshui Jiancha just looked at her deeply.

Then he looked at the group of people discussing in front of him. There was a bit of thought in his eyes. After a pause, his eyes quietly swept to his ankles.

Shorter.

From the time they entered the elevator to now, the bruises on her feet were obviously shorter, and the gap between the beginning and the end had expanded to nearly three centimeters.

Sure enough...Xu Ming breathed a sigh of relief.

I guessed it right.

[The more obedient you are, the happier it is, and the more disobedient you are, the angrier it is. Try not to make it happy.]

The focus is actually on this disobedience - to put it bluntly, it is still about the rules.

In ghost stories, what is obedience?

Follow the rules, don't question them, and completely accept the guidance of the rules until, in the end, you are led to the ending that the rules want.

Correspondingly, what is disobedience?

...There are many.

Ignore the rules, challenge the rules, pretend to obey but secretly violate them...or like she is doing now, secretly teach people to take advantage of loopholes.

The more she makes trouble like this, the more unhappy the thing that catches her will be. The more unhappy it is, the harder it is to close this seal.

Following this line of thought, another conclusion is almost set in stone - that thing is definitely related to this weird story, or rather, this bunch of weird stories.

It is better to be cautious before figuring out the truth about this ghost place.

- On the other hand, after fierce mutual vetoes and voting, the discussion of the other few people finally came to a conclusion -

the knife rack plan was finally rejected. The version they finally chose was a vague bloody shadow.

This shadow will only appear randomly when wearing a pig face, and it will only appear in the afterglow. Once you try to turn your vision and look at them with your eyes, they will disappear without a trace.

According to the original author, this perfectly meets the needs of the client and cleverly avoids the "face-to-face killing" mode that is unfriendly to human psychology. On the other hand, it can also effectively increase the frequency of humans taking off the pig-face mask, thereby delaying the time they are affected by the pig face...

Of course, it is hard to say whether it is effective or not. Anyway, they tried to write it in the book, and it really passed smoothly.

Each time you use the elevator, you can only add one setting. Therefore, other equally good versions can only be temporarily abandoned. Xu Ming comforted others, "It's okay, there will be another chance to compete next time," while pressing the button leading to the first floor. The elevator immediately made a harsh buzzing sound -

this damn thing finally started.

Everyone in the elevator breathed a sigh of relief, and Xu Ming was also relieved. Not long after, he saw the big gold chain and Xueshui Jiancha exchanged glances, took out the two membership cards again, and handed them to him together.

"Boss, why don't you take it." Da Jinlianzi said in front of everyone, as "Blood Tea", "We don't know what's on the first floor. If we can get out directly, it would be the best, if not, you can be more useful with it..."

The implication is that Xu Ming will be the leader of the team in the future.

Xu Ming paused slightly, pondered for a moment, and finally took it. But after a little thought, she still returned one.

"Don't put eggs in a basket." She said in the tone of an experienced person, "What if everyone gets separated later?"

"Look at what you said." Da Jinlianzi couldn't help laughing.

"They are not children on a spring outing, how can they get separated so easily..."

- Yes.

How is it impossible?

A few minutes later. In a strange room. Xu Ming stood in the dimly lit entrance. She glanced at the closed door behind her, then turned her head to look at the empty room in front of her, closed her eyes, and finally couldn't help but take a deep breath -

what is going on.

She thought silently, and couldn't help but slap her forehead.

God knows, just a minute ago, she was still in the elevator - the elevator just swayed to the first floor and made a ding sound. The elevator door opened automatically, but it was dark outside, which made people nervous.

As the most reliable person now, Xu Ming was very decisive and walked out first. She originally only planned to explore the way first...

As a result, she just stepped out of the elevator, and she came here with her back foot.

The house, with night lights on, was exquisitely decorated, large in size, and fully equipped with all kinds of furniture. At first glance, it was full of life.

The only problem was that there was no one inside.

The door behind him was completely locked and could not be opened. Feeling a little lucky, Xu Ming waited for a while, but the rest of the people did not show up again.

Not only that, she also found that her belongings had changed again -

a smartphone and a box of loose powder appeared in her bag. On her side, she was missing a multi-function flashlight, and...

well, it seemed that a piece of paper was missing.

Xu Ming remembered that she had taken out a sheet of employee rules in order to fool... no, in order to communicate with Xueshui Jiancha and the others in a friendly manner. Later, due to time constraints, the paper was never put back in the bag, and it was just randomly stacked in the bag.

But now it is completely lost.

"Tsk, this is a bit of a headache." The whale man who was talking to her on the long-distance call fell into thought, "Is there any hidden rules in this place? For example, if you go out with others, will you randomly exchange things with your companions?"

"It should be." Xu Ming nodded in agreement, and after thinking for a while, he added, "It should be one for one."

"?" The whale man was surprised, "But you exchanged a lot from Yufei kid at that time."

"She put all the things in a small bag at that time." Xu Ming said, "Maybe because of this, everything is counted as one."

Like this time, the things were all taken apart. So only one weapon was lost.

"Oh, that makes sense!" The whale man understood it immediately. After checking his belongings, Xu Ming tried to move forward, carefully observing the space he was in, "By the way, how is Yufei?"

She had originally agreed to meet up with her first, but judging from the current situation, she was probably teleported to a random floor.

"She also arrived at a new house. But her house isn't as good as yours. It's crowded, like a shared house." The whale man said, "But she was lucky. She met a living person as soon as she entered. She was gardening and was being taken to familiarize herself with the situation."

Xu Ming: "..." Her luck was indeed good.

While they were talking, she had passed through the restaurant and came to the more spacious living room. There was a piece of paper on the table in the living room. Xu Ming picked it up carefully, and several lines of beautiful handwriting immediately caught his eyes:

[Hello, Sister Liu, thank you very much for taking my order and helping me look after the house at such a difficult time.

[I will be back in about a week. I'll leave my child to you for the next few days.

[You can use everything in the house as you like. But for the sake of safety, I still list some precautions first. I hope you can read these patiently first, please.

[[Strikethrough] After all, it is really difficult for me to find someone willing to come to my house to help. The housekeeping company has blocked me, and they always want to call the police [Strikethrough]

[Then let's start with the restaurant and the living room...]

*

Same time. On the other side.

In the same dim light, Da Jinlianzi and Du Rong were staring at each other.

Behind them was a whole wall, and above their heads was a small, bare light bulb. The light bulb was not very bright, and the range it could illuminate was very limited. It could be vaguely seen that there was a corridor in front of them.

The inside of the corridor, and even the distance to their feet, was completely dark, with only a lamp hanging at the end, which looked brighter than the light bulb on their side.

The two looked at each other again, with deep fear in their eyes - no one could explain the current situation. They clearly walked out of the elevator with others, but in the blink of an eye, they were all here.

The others were still missing.

Not only that, Da Jinlianzi's cell phone was missing. He had been putting it in his pocket. But correspondingly, he found a small flashlight in his pocket, which was the one Xu Ming had used before.

He took out the flashlight in a panic and turned it on. The area around them was finally brighter.

"There is no door at the back." Du Rong looked around and whispered, "There are wire meshes on both sides. I can't see the situation at the top..."

"There may be power lines." Da Jinlianzi smiled bitterly, "I remember there seems to be a similar description in the post."

Unfortunately, he only remembered these - he was not a genius with photographic memory, and browsing the phone was just to kill time. Who would take the time to remember what he saw.

Similarly, he had no idea which floor the current scene was on. The only thing that was certain was that this was definitely not the first floor.

"That is to say, the floor the elevator stops at is random?" Du Rong pondered, "No, it should be said that when we step out of the elevator, we will enter a random floor."

Not only that, the things she was carrying would change. Her newly bought loose powder was gone.

That was too scary. If it's random every time, how long will it take them to reach the first floor? ?

"Compared to this, I'm more concerned about how we should leave here." The big gold chain looked around and couldn't help but say, "Why don't we first...Ah! Ah! Ah!"

His ears suddenly itched, and then there was an obvious sense of foreign matter. The external ear canal was scratched and hurt, as if some small insect had suddenly flown into the ear and was now crawling along the ear canal - Big Gold Chain was frightened. Seeing this, Du Rong quickly took the flashlight from his hand and pulled his arm to make him turn his head.

"Don't move! I'll see if I can use the light to lure it out... Ah, I saw it! It's crawling out... Hey! What is that!"

The insect quickly crawled out along the light. Du Rong took a breath, but still stretched out her hand and grabbed it before it flew away, and brought it to Gold Chain.

In fact, it was hard to say that it was a "bug" - it just had insect wings and three pairs of thin legs.

Its body looked more like a leech, and the mouthparts on its head were constantly expanding, revealing its black hole-like interior.

Du Rong had grabbed it by its wings, and it took her most of her courage just to pass it to Jin Lianzi. After Jin Lianzi had seen it, she immediately threw the insect to the ground and stepped on it, constantly looking for a place to wipe her hands as she rolled it.

"......Ah." Jin Lianzi was also disgusted by the bug. He paused for a moment and suddenly reacted, "Oh my god... I remember what is written on this floor!"

Du Rong: "...... Huh?"

"The most critical monster in this place is this kind of bug!" Jin Lianzi said quickly, "They only appear in the dark, drill into people's brains through their nostrils or ears, and eat people's memories..."

Once you are eaten up, you will completely forget anything, like a walking corpse, and can only wander in this space forever.

There is only one way to drive away this kind of bug, that is light. That is to say, in this space, light is a safe zone.

"Also, in order to save energy, the lights cannot be turned on during the day." Da Jinlianzi's face changed slightly when he said this, "But this place is set up indoors, which means that you can't see the sunlight."

Du Rong was stunned: "What do you mean?"

"It means that as time goes by, the closer it is to daytime, the weaker the lights will be. When it gets bright, all the lights will turn off automatically." Da Jinlianzi's throat moved slightly, "At that time, we will be really finished."

Relying on Xu Ming's flashlight, maybe they can hold on for a while longer. But such a small flashlight has been used as a torture instrument by Xu Ming several times before. Who knows how long it can last.

As if echoing his thoughts, the flashlight in Du Rong's hand suddenly flashed, and the light obviously dimmed.

It was so dark that both of them shuddered.

"Well... why don't we go there first." Jin Lianzi said, "At least it's brighter at the other end of the corridor."

Du Rong nodded subconsciously, paused for a moment, and then said "wait a minute", then looked around again, gritted her teeth, and suddenly handed the flashlight to Jin Lianzi, then took out a piece of paper from her pocket, took out a bottle of lip gloss, and wrote on the paper with great difficulty.

"?" Jin Lianzi came closer in surprise, "What are you writing?"

"Things about bugs." Du Rong said, "The light in this place is dim, and it's easy to get caught. If others don't know the settings of the bugs, they'll basically be caught at the beginning."

Leaving a reminder, at least let others know, run quickly, don't stand stupidly in this area.

Jin Lianzi nodded in sudden realization, and immediately began to help Du Rong with the flashlight. After a two-second pause, he couldn't help but whispered:

"Well, speaking of which, I have to confess something to you."

Du Rong didn't even raise her head: "Huh?"

"I'm actually... not Blood Water Tea." Jin Lianzi said awkwardly, "My ID is actually Pig Face Boy. I exchanged it with the real boss... because he said, oh, not him, it's because we met some..."

"Oh." Du Rong nodded, "I know."

"..." Jin Lianzi's expression froze, "You know?"

"Not really knowing, I kind of guessed it." Du Rong said, "The IP of Blood Water Tea is in Yuecheng, but you obviously have a northern accent when you speak."

"..." Jin Lianzi's expression froze again, and he frowned subconsciously, "Really?"

He wondered what kind of accent he had.

Du Rong looked up at him, smiled, picked up the written message and stood up: "If you say there is no, then there is no."

She put away the lip gloss and began to look around for a place to put the note. Jin Lianzi helped her to light the flashlight. The more she thought about it, the more unbelievable it became: "Then you acted like you believed in me before..."

"No one can lead a team apart. No one can make an idol fail. And I really thought Xueshui was a big shot before." Du Rong said, hanging the paper on the hooked wire of the wire mesh, and exhaled softly.

She didn't have any paper with her originally - except for tissues.

The paper she is using now appeared inexplicably in her pocket after she came to this space. Because the words "Strange Talk Demolition Office" were printed on it, Du Rong suspected that it should have originally belonged to Xu Ming.

The paper was already printed with large words on both sides, so Du Rong's message could only be squeezed into the blank space as much as possible. The color was bright enough, and there was glitter, so it looked conspicuous and would not be ignored.

After confirming this, Du Rong pulled the big gold chain into the corridor. The big gold chain walked a few steps with the flashlight, and suddenly realized something was wrong:

"Wait, what did you mean when you said 'I really thought Xueshui was the boss'? Xueshui is the boss?" Isn't he? "

Ah? So you haven't figured it out yet... Forget it, it's okay, just pretend I didn't say anything."

"No, wait, you're making it look even weirder..."

"Shh, shhh - be quiet, let's go first, okay, we'll talk about it later, we'll talk about it later..."

The voice gradually became lower. Soon, the footsteps gradually faded away.

Finally, they could no longer be heard.

*

And soon after the two people walked away.

In the pitch-black darkness, there was suddenly a strange, creeping sound.

A huge figure slowly moved out of the darkness - or should I say "a mass".

Soft and huge. The sagging and trembling fat could be seen during the movement.

There were many holes on his body. One by one, round holes.

The skin inside the hole was very flat, more like a naturally existing depression than a "wound". But the big guy knew clearly that this was not it.

Unfortunately, for some reason, his memory is now very vague, and he feels that he has forgotten a lot of things, including who he is, where he came from, and why he appeared here...

But he still retains some impressions of some things. Just like these holes on his body - he vaguely remembered that these were not supposed to be holes. They should be eyes, lively eyes that can move on their own, but for some reason, all the eyeballs have disappeared. Only these deep holes are left.

Fortunately, it doesn't hurt, and the big guy doesn't care about it. It just rubbed its empty belly, moving confusedly in this dim and narrow area. After noticing a piece of paper hanging on the wire mesh, it slowly stopped.

The place where the paper was hanging was a little low for it. It had to lower its body slightly to see every word on the paper clearly.

"Strange talk... Demolition Office?" It muttered to itself, and then lowered its head to look at its chest.

There was a work card hanging there. Although the surface of the card was already torn and there were obvious creases on it, if you tried hard, you could still read the words on it.

The column for the unit also said: "Strange Talk Demolition Office

" Big Guy: "..."

To be honest, it didn't know what "Strange Talk Demolition Office" was. Maybe it knew it before, but it forgot. It only knew that when it woke up with a dazed look on its face, this work card was the only thing around it that was not food.

...Although it looked really torn. And strictly speaking, this thing was found in its stomach. Its stomach was now full of holes, some of which were quite big. When it woke up, it instinctively moved its body, causing a bunch of undigested food to flow out of the hole in its abdomen, and this work card was mixed in.

It couldn't remember why it stuffed such a thing into its stomach. But since it appeared on it, it meant that this thing was most likely related to it.

So it picked up the work card, cleaned it briefly, hung it around its neck, and began to wander aimlessly - until now, it saw the name of "Strange Talk Demolition Office" again on another piece of paper.

A notice will be left for those who enter to explain that this unit is real. The big guy blinked slowly, took the paper off the wire mesh, and took a closer look, only to find that there was other content printed on the paper.

"'Strange Talk Demolition Office...Employee Code'?" It struggled to identify the small words on the paper, then glanced at the work badge hanging on it, and suddenly something flashed through its mind - everything suddenly became clear.

Then it was seen folding up the paper with great care, putting it away, and stepping on the deep darkness, slowly moving towards the light at the end.

It planned to find a quiet place according to the requirements of this code, and then take it out - study it carefully.