Chapter 173

"Hey... how come it's gone again?!"

- Kuai Le just happened to hear this wail the moment she entered the room.

Curiously, she looked out and saw several girls huddled together at the table in the living room of the small house, sighing with regret.

"Hey!" Kuai Le greeted them and walked in with her skirt lifted. "What are you looking at?"

The people around the table turned their heads, and Kuai Le saw that there was an open cake box on the table, with several small cut cakes neatly placed inside. They looked delicate and cute, and they looked delicious.

Just this aura...

Kuai Le raised her eyebrows: "Is this something from the ghost story?"

"Yes." Gu Yunshu walked up and politely pulled out a chair for her, "It was sent by the Magic Cube Building. There is a new spirit there, and he is very good at making these things... Are you looking for the boss? She is in the ghost story now."

"I know, the one with Xiao Xiao Guo. She told me about it." Kuai Le responded, her eyes still lingering on the box of cake, "This looks pretty good, what were you shouting just now?"

The remaining girls looked at each other, and Lu Yueling, who had just wailed, curled her lips and looked towards the stairs unhappily - there, the agile figure of the whale fat man flashed by, and there seemed to be something blue on his head.

"It's nothing, it's just that the flavor she likes is out of stock." Gu Yunshu explained helplessly, "We received this cake once before, and we all thought the blueberry flavor was the best. But this time, the amount of blueberry flavored cake we brought back was not very large..."

"Only two pieces in total!" Lu Yueling added angrily, "They were all taken away by Haitang!"

She was really angry and didn't even call her "Teacher Haitang" anymore.

"It's okay, the others are delicious too." Bonnie on the side consoled him, noticing that Happy's eyes were still on the cake box, and took the initiative to say, "Teacher, do you want to try one? Although the best blueberry is gone, the other flavors are not bad either."

"Huh? Forget it." Happy seemed to be tempted for a moment, but after thinking about it, he shook his head, "I have an appointment with Xu Ming, so I have to go now. And this is divided according to the number of you, right?"

The whale fat man took two pieces by himself, which was already too little.

Bonnie smiled and shook her head.

"It's okay. Sister Ming and Sister Yufei can't eat it, and there's just one extra piece."

As she spoke, she took out a paper box very skillfully: "I'll pack it for you, and the teacher can take it home to eat. But you have to do it as soon as possible, otherwise it won't taste good if it's kept for a long time... Can I take the strawberry one?"

The strawberry one was also beautiful and fresh. Seeing this, Kuai Le was no longer polite, and thanked him generously, took the box and put it away carefully, turned around and nodded to Gu Yunshu.

Gu Yunshu understood, took out his own copy of the rule book, and skillfully turned to the page at the entrance of the strange story. Kuai Le felt a flash in front of his eyes, and when he reacted, he was already in Guo Shuyi's strange story.

The sunlight in the strange story was still very good, and the sycamore trees on the side of the road were exactly the same as in reality. Only the occasional spontaneous trembling of branches and shadows would quietly reveal a bit of strangeness that could not be concealed.

Happy looked down at the things in his hand, confirmed that the cake was fine, and then walked along the street familiarly.

Guo Shuyi's ghost story is now being built more and more decent. There are not only shops on both sides of the street, but also a constant flow of customers and pedestrians. Some are dead people who have been accepted, and some are "NPCs" created by Guo Shuyi with the power of beautiful dreams - but judging from their appearance, words and deeds, they can almost be confused with the real thing.

Without a moment's hesitation, Happy ran directly to a cafe on the street. The moment he pushed the door open, the wind chimes hanging in the entrance rang softly, and a fresh breath blew over his face.

Xu Ming was sitting by the window in the store at this moment, holding a pen in his hand, sketching casually on a notebook. Hearing the sound, he looked up subconsciously, and a smile broke out on his face.

"Hello, Aunt Huang!" She greeted Kuai Le warmly, closed the notebook in her hand and pushed it aside. Kuai Le went over to put her things down and sat down. She glanced around casually and was a little surprised: "It's strange, why are you in the state of a living person?"

She had made an appointment with Xu Ming to meet here before. For convenience, Xu Ming used the state of a dream walker almost every time he came in, and his breath was no different from that of an ordinary dead person. This was the first time that Kuai Le saw her moving around in this strange story directly with the body of a living person.

Xu Ming just shrugged and pointed to the notebook beside him: "Because we need to use the rule book later. I can't use it in sleepwalking state, and I'm too lazy to make another trip, so I just came in like this."

"?" Kuai Le tilted his head curiously, "Do you need to change the rules? Why don't you let Xiao Xiao Guo and the others do it?"

"No." Xu Ming shook his head, "It's the work badges."

"Some employees' badges need to be changed."

Some of them here, especially A Jiao, and some dead people who were brought back from outside by Tong Jie and Gu Yunshu in the past few months - as their wills gradually recovered, their self-awareness became stronger. And the enhanced self-awareness is directly reflected in their need for work badges.

Xu Ming was very casual when he gave out work badges at the beginning. The names were randomly made up and the portraits were not drawn very carefully. This week, A-Jiaos have come to her one after another, hoping to change their names and profile pictures to something that better suits their taste.

The name is easy, just change it directly. As for the profile picture, she has to redraw it. Considering their feelings, she has to make a sample first and show it to them.

No one else in the demolition office can draw, so this matter can only be handled by Xu Ming himself... Fortunately, the A-Jiaos are generally good-tempered, not very picky, and don't need much revision. Even so, she still has about seven or eight work cards on hand.

If she acts as a dream walker, she will not be able to use the rule book. In order to improve efficiency, she simply came in as her original body.

"What a trouble." Kuai Le was surprised and turned his head to look at the people coming and going outside, "Then you haven't gone out this week?"

"You mean leaving home? Almost." Xu Ming nodded, "Now the ghost stories are basically let Sister Yun and the others go. If necessary, I will provide help through the rule book."

"That's good." Kuai Le nodded in agreement, "Safety first."

"By the way, what do you want to talk to me about this time? You look so mysterious."

"It's nothing big..."

Xu Ming said this, but his expression was obviously serious, which made Kuai Le's heart tremble slightly, and he couldn't help but sit up straight.

The next second, Xu Ming exhaled softly:

"I just want to ask, are you willing to go behind the door again."

Kuai Le: "..."

Behind the door?

She was subconsciously stunned, her eyes swept over the rule book on the corner of the table, and suddenly reacted: "Oh - you mean using your passage?"

"Yes." Xu Ming nodded, "During this period of time, we have been sending supplies to Aunt and others through that passage... At present, as long as the soul itself is intact and the length of stay is controlled well, there will basically be no negative impact. So I want to ask you..." "

Of course I'm willing to go. At most, I can come back and lie down for a few days." Kuai Le responded without hesitation before she finished speaking, paused, and looked thoughtful, "But why did you suddenly think of calling me..."

"Actually, I had this idea before, but you were still recuperating at that time." Xu Ming said truthfully, "And now... well, I don't know how to calculate the time behind the door, but according to reality, it's already July..."

"Oh." Kuai Le suddenly realized, "Da Zhuang's birthday!"

"Yeah." Xu Ming nodded and immediately lowered his eyelids.

"I originally wanted to persuade my aunt to come out first... Even if she still couldn't let go of the things behind the door, at least she could come out for this day, just as if it were a holiday. But she disagreed. So I thought, if I could let her get together with her old friends, it would be considered a holiday."

"Sure." Kuai Le's heart moved, and he became more and more excited, "You can bring more wine in then! And you can bring mahjong! Your aunt likes this the most! You, me, plus Da Zhuang and Lao Yang, the number of people is enough..."

Noticing Xu Ming's slightly pursed lips, Kuai Le paused. After a moment, he tentatively said: "Da Zhuang... still doesn't want to see you?"

"..." Xu Ming pursed his lips even tighter and nodded gently.

In fact, as early as the first time she tried to send Lando over, her aunt had entrusted Lando to convey a message, expressing her idea firmly -

she was happy to see the existence of the passage, and was willing to accept assistance from the outside world. But she didn't want to see Xu Ming here again.

If Xu Ming dared to show up, she would definitely turn around and leave without hesitation, hiding until Xu Ming could no longer bear to go back, and she would definitely do what she said.

... Of course, it has been so long, and Xu Ming has naturally tried to sneak over. But as Xu Zhuangyan said herself - she keeps her word.

She said she would not see him, but after she went there, she really couldn't see any shadow at all.

Xu Ming had no choice but to entrust the task of smuggling supplies to Lando and Gu Yunshu. Counting it down, it has been more than half a year since she left the door.

She has never seen him once.

"Well... there's nothing we can do about it." Kuai Le looked at Xu Ming comfortingly, and she understood her aunt's actions very well. "But Da Zhuang would really not want you to see her like this."

"I'm prepared." Xu Ming muttered in a low voice, looking up, "Then is it settled first? I'll let you know when the time comes."

"No problem." Kuai Le agreed neatly. Seeing that Xu Ming's eyes were still a little depressed, she sighed secretly and took the initiative to say, "Think about it. Didn't you tell me before that there has been a lot of progress in closing the doors? When all the doors are under control, Da Zhuang will have no choice but to come out no matter how unwilling he is, right?"

"Well..." Xu Ming responded, thought for a while, and took out another notebook from his bag.

The notebook was spread out, revealing a square form. She pushed the form in front of Kuai Le and exhaled again:

"That's true - at this rate, maybe we can still pick up Auntie in time for the New Year."

Kuai Le exclaimed, and curiously leaned over to take a look, then exclaimed,

"Oh my god, what is this? A statistical form of doors? And it's hand-drawn?"

"Yeah. Actually, there's an electronic version on the computer... I think the hand-drawn one is more convenient to carry." Xu Ming said, and took the initiative to point his finger at her, "This column is the directory of 'doors', and this column is for processing situations... Those with a check mark have been processed."

"Awesome, it looks like they're basically all checked." Kuai Le was amazed, "But why is the 'door' column in different colors?"

"Different colors correspond to different sources of intelligence." Xu Ming explained, "The red ones are all the information provided by Teacher Jing, as well as the information provided by Anxin Gardening and Dali Weeding. The blue ones are found by informants. The green ones below mean that the information has been confirmed."

"......?" Kuai Le was stunned, "Informant?"

"It's the spirit that was released." Xu Ming said.

Those who were smuggled back from behind the door, or those who were picked up from outside by Gu Yunshu and others, some of them will choose to live in the safe strange world after regaining self-awareness, or stay to help the demolition office; but there are also some who are bohemian and love freedom all their lives, and are still willing to wander outside.

Because of the stabilizing effect of the work card, most of them will still take the work card with them when they leave. Because they were grateful for the help of the demolition office, after seeing the existence of the suspected door, most of them would choose to contact Xu Ming and inform him of the situation - although it may not be reliable, but it is always good to have one more source of information.

For example, in Xu Ming's current notebook, the ratio of red and blue marks is almost one to one, and the ratio of blue and green lines is almost two to one, so the hit rate can be said to be quite good.

As for the closing rate of the door, a quick look shows that it has reached about two-thirds... Kuai Le helped with some of them at the time, and the memory is still fresh.

"What about the ones with asterisks in this column?" Kuai Le scanned the form again and found something interesting, "What does this mean?"

"One asterisk means that this ghost story has been 'cleaned'. Two asterisks mean that Hu Yang has already moved into the ghost story and has reached a cooperative relationship with the Demolition Office." Xu Ming explained seriously, "Didn't I tell you before that we should unite with Hu Yang in all the ghost stories."

"..." Are you talking about the 10M-sized plan sent a few months ago?

Kuai Le was silent for a moment, not knowing whether he should tell the other party that he had never clicked to read it.

However, if Xu Ming really said it...

Kuai Le's eyes swept across the form again, roughly calculated the current proportion of "two asterisks", and silently stuck out his tongue in his heart.

It's hard to say whether Xu Ming has united with Hu Yang, who is all about strange stories, but according to this table, he has united almost half of them.

From this point of view, maybe he can really get Da Zhuang and Lao Yang out before the New Year...

Kuai Le thought to herself, and her eyes turned again. This time, her sight fell on the few rows of data that were not checked.

Almost all of them were not checked, but marked with asterisks. This means that the strange stories have been cleared, but the doors could not be closed.

"Most of the doors like these that are not closed are because the key was not found, right?" Kuai Le was silent for a while, and then he said thoughtfully, "What are you going to do with these doors?"

"..." Her answer was a heavy sigh from Xu Ming.

"Honestly, I'm still thinking about it." Xu Ming said, turning the notebook back in front of him, tapping his fingers on the table with a little annoyance, "We have held several rounds of meetings internally about this matter... So far, there are three directions."

"?" Kuai Le leaned forward slightly, "What do you mean?"

"First, use all the power you can to continue looking for the key." Xu Ming raised a finger, "After finding it, follow the process and use the key to close the door."

"Second, collect roots as much as possible - try to find roots with sealing ability, and then use the roots to force the door to close."

The door of Tianyu Eye Hospital was closed in this way - the root Xu Ming used at that time happened to have the power of "sewing", which could force the door to be sewn shut.

However, closing the door consumes too much energy, and the root was directly scrapped after it was used up. But this example at least proves the feasibility of using roots to close the door directly.

The pile of roots that Xu Ming brought back from the unit building has not been used up yet. Guo Shuyi and the others are searching inside now. If they are lucky, they might find something that can be used. If not, we can only, um...

"We can only look for it in the ghost stories outside when we are out on the field." Xu Ming hesitated for a moment and chose the most euphemistic way of expression.

Kuai Le understood it immediately: "Oh, I see." He

grabbed it directly.

"What about the third way?" She asked immediately, holding her cheek thoughtfully.

"For the third option, we need to cooperate with Anxin Gardening." Xu Ming whispered, "Anxin Gardening has an employee named Fang Xueqing, you should know her, right?"

"I've heard of her." Kuai Le nodded, "Xiao Tian knows her, and she saved his life... Is her ability to dig holes?"

"It's to open doors." Xu Ming corrected, noticing that Kuai Le's brows were unconsciously furrowed, and quickly added, "It has nothing to do with the door in the lighthouse. Her ability is only aimed at ghost stories."

"Bluebeard Key", this is the initial root of Fang Xueqing's rule book. The positive effect is already very clear, that is, you can use the key made by the rule book to forcibly open a door to any location in the ghost story, including the exit; but at the same time, the restrictions are also very large.

Needless to say, the price is bound to be high. It was only after Xu Ming had a good discussion with An Xinyuan that he learned that there is another rule that must be followed for her ability:

the generation of keys is in rounds of thirteen. Among them, the first twelve keys can lead to any place as the user wishes, but the thirteenth key is destined to be ineffective.

No one knows where the door opened by the thirteenth key will lead to, and the usage rules only remind you "never enter".

What's worse is that once the thirteenth key is generated, it will continue to exist for a long time. During this time, Fang Xueqing cannot actively cancel the key, nor can she create another key again. Only when the skill time is over and the thirteenth key disappears by itself can you count from the beginning, create a new key and use it.

Previously, An Xin Gardening had been planning to let Fang Xueqing go behind the scenes, and she also considered that once this restriction appeared, Fang Xueqing's chance of survival in the ghost story would be greatly reduced. However, with the upgrade of Fang Xueqing's distortion characteristics, An Xin Gardening has re-evaluated her position, and the specific arrangements in the future are not something Xu Ming can interfere with.

She originally only valued Fang Xueqing's ability to create keys.

"You mean, you want to use her key to close the door?" Happy thought about it carefully, eyes slightly widened, "Is this feasible?"

"Not sure. But it's worth a try." Xu Ming said seriously, "I think so, since we can create a key to open the door, then conversely, we should be able to create a key to close the door, right?"

Happy: "..." So you went to Anxin Gardening to book a girl before you even had a chance to date? ?

What kind of weird version of "I'm thinking" is this?

"Anyway, I have communicated with Anxin Gardening. When Fang Xueqing cooperates with them to complete the research at hand, she will be sent to the demolition office to cooperate with our closing work. If this plan can be successful, it will be a long-term cooperation. It will probably take two days."

Xu Ming said, putting his hands in his pockets, "I'm actually not sure, but I finally have an idea, I have to give it a try."

"I hope it's useful." Kuai Le pursed his lips, and suddenly became curious, "By the way, what is the research inside Anxin Gardening? What kind of research is it?"

"It is said to be about the upgrade of distortion characteristics." Xu Ming said, "Fang Xueqing seems to be the first case of characteristic upgrade that was discovered."

"Oh, about that." Kuai Le finally responded and tilted his head, "Come to think of it, Xiao Tian was also upgraded a while ago."

In fact, it's not just Tian Yiliang - starting with Fang Xueqing, all registered psychics seem to have gradually shown some kind of changes in the past few months. Those who

originally did not have the distorted characteristics suddenly awakened in large numbers. Those who originally had the characteristics have shown their abilities strengthened one after another. Xu Ming privately asked Teacher Jing that most of the main forces in the two human organizations have been upgraded.

"Upgrade..." Kuai Le thought, "Why are you so sure, it must be an 'upgrade'?"

"Because the abilities are basically strengthened." Xu Ming said, "Especially the coward and the yellow croaker head, these two abilities have been improved the most."

The coward represents the ability to predict. The holder can originally sense danger to a certain extent. After the enhancement, it is directly upgraded to a future prediction that can be actively performed.

The basic ability of the yellow croaker head is state preservation. After the upgrade, both the duration of preservation and the number of "items" that can be preserved at one time have doubled, and the improvement in effect is naturally self-evident.

On the contrary, the first feature that was noticed to be upgraded, "Pickpocket", is not as obvious as the above two in terms of strengthening effect if compared horizontally; and the "Villain" and "Fencegown" that were previously recognized as the most useful are very few that have not changed at all.

The current research focus of Anxin Gardening is to collect and record the differences before and after the changes of various characteristics, and then study how to actively stimulate and control the enhancement of characteristics.

Dali Zhiwei is not so concerned about this for the time being, and Happy doesn't know much about these. Listening to Xu Ming's explanation, I just felt a burst of excitement. Thinking about

it, I still can't help but care: "But why is there a sudden characteristic upgrade..."

"I've thought about this problem." Xu Ming shrugged, "It's a bit of a guess, not necessarily right."

Happy: "Hmm?"

"Well, the distortion characteristic is originally an advantage that Aunt Bai has tried to gain for us." Xu Ming raised his eyes, "People who climb up the lighthouse can use the power of the lighthouse to impose rules on reality before their consciousness is assimilated by the lighthouse... If I remember correctly, this is the principle, right?"

"Hmm..." Kuai Le nodded slowly, and Xu Ming followed closely, "And when Fang Xueqing's characteristic change was discovered, it was right after we had started scanning doors and successfully closed several doors - and before that, the most critical first door and the door of the unit building had been closed."

"Then is there a possibility that our thinking is correct. Closing the door can indeed weaken the power of the lighthouse to a certain extent. And this weakening is also reflected in the tug-of-war between the tower climbers and the lighthouse, thereby giving the tower climbers who were about to be assimilated the opportunity to influence reality again..." "

..." Kuai Le savored her words carefully, seemed to realize it, and gradually widened his eyes.

When he spoke again, even his voice was a little stuttering: "You mean, Bai Li's consciousness is still there?" "

...Just saying, maybe." Xu Ming lowered his voice, "I'm just guessing."

After all, a new round of changes has just begun, and no one can find the source, nor can they tell what the future will be like. Even whether this change is good or bad is still unclear now - maybe the so-called "strengthening" is just another round of conspiracy by the lighthouse, who knows.

But no matter what, "the consciousness of the tower climber still exists"... Such a possibility, even if it only appears in the mind, is enough to make people happy.

Kuai Le closed his eyes tightly and rubbed his face vigorously. After a long while, he finally calmed down and exhaled deeply.

"I'll keep an eye on the changes in Dali Zhiwei for you." She said softly, and suddenly seemed to think of something, and looked at Xu Ming again, "Speaking of which, don't you feel anything?"

"?" Xu Ming looked at him puzzledly, "What?"

"Your abnormal characteristics." Happy said, "You are the same as Bai Li, both are 'idiots', right...Are there no changes in you?" "

It seems not." Xu Ming shook his head without thinking, "At least I don't feel it."

Happy: "...What about other 'idiots'? Have any upgraded?"

Xu Ming shook his head again. She asked Teacher Jing, and the only registered "idiots" are those who have just awakened, and their ability level is similar to hers; and there are no "idiots" among the original characteristic people, so there are no cases to refer to.

But she didn't really care about it. Anyway, she mainly relied on the rulebook to investigate ghost stories. Besides, the ability of Idiot is already weird. How much stronger can it be?

Maybe it's just like Villain and Fencer, and it's not included in the list of enhancements in this version.

"Whatever you want, just don't make me unable to see anything in the end." Xu Ming said, and put away the notebook in front of him, glanced at the cake bag beside him, and pushed it in front of Happy.

"The cake from the Rubik's Cube Building, right? That's great. I've always heard them say it's delicious, but I've never eaten it."

"?" Happy looked at her in surprise, "Can you recognize it by looking at the bag?"

"Because it was given away before. At that time, Bonnie packed several copies and gave them away everywhere, using the same bag." Xu Ming said casually, "Eat this as soon as possible. It won't taste good if it's left for too long."

"That's what they told me too." Happy nodded. Anyway, nothing happened now, so she planned to take it out and eat it directly - if she took it back directly and was seen by Tian Yiliang, who knows how upset she would be. "That's great.

" Xu Ming looked at her enviously as she lowered her head and rummaged in the paper bag, "I heard them say that this blueberry cake is delicious."

"Really." Happy replied casually, "It's a pity that the blueberry ones were gone when I came here..."

She stopped talking before she finished.

Xu Ming looked over in confusion: "? What happened? Did it fall over?"

"...No."

Kuai Le responded, but her eyes were still fixed on the paper bag. After a long time, she raised her head again and looked at Xu Ming.

"Mingming." She tried to say, "Let me ask you a question."

"What flavor of cake do you think I'm holding now?"

"......?" Xu Ming's expression became more and more strange, "What do you mean? Isn't it blueberry?"

Blueberries are the most delicious. According to Gu Yunshu and the others' personalities, they would definitely use it to entertain guests first.

Kuai Le didn't say a word, just looked into the bag again.

Then she exhaled deeply.

"I think I roughly know what the upgraded effect of the idiot trait is."

She said softly, carefully reaching out, taking out the cake from the paper bag, and placing it on the table.

The delicate cake was decorated with a layer of dark blueberries.

Every version has its own god.

Every version praises fools.