Chapter 27

"So... these are all what you brought from Hongqiang."

Another five minutes later.

Inside 831B.

Xu Ming sat cross-legged on the bed, his tone still carrying a hint of disbelief: "And I have already gone through a cycle in this hotel. In the last cycle, I promised to give them all work badges."

"..." Gu Yunshu tilted his head and recalled carefully, feeling that there seemed to be nothing wrong, so he nodded firmly.

Xu Ming was immediately more numb.

I dared to accept so many A Jiao directly, I am really amazing!

"Then, was it me who asked you to wait in this room in advance?" Xu Ming pursed his lips, "You didn't get discovered by anyone, did you?"

"No." Gu Yunshu immediately shook his head, "The staff only came once. As soon as someone came, we all hid on the wall outside, and we were not discovered."

"..." Xu Ming silently imagined the scene of the hotel's outer wall full of A Piao, and was deeply shocked.

"It shouldn't be full." The voice of the whale fat man suddenly sounded in his mind, and it was obvious that he had been eavesdropping just now, "These souls only look numerous, but they are actually very light. With a suitable container, you can carry it with you, so it doesn't have to be so spectacular."

...?

"Light?" Xu Ming asked, "What do you mean?"

"It means... foldable? In short, it's easier to carry." The whale man seemed to be at a loss for words, "The weight of a soul is determined by its power, do you understand?"

Like Gu Yunshu, who is conscious, determined, and strong, she is heavier than other souls - if she is a stone, then the weight of these A Jiao together may be just a handful of sand. You

can't count on her in a fight, and if a fight breaks out, she'll just be defeated; but she's really good at bluffing, and when she first walked in, even the whale man was startled.

"But before that, I suggest you think carefully about the ID card." The blubber man thought for a moment, and added, "Such a light soul, even if it is bound with an ID card, the unlocking progress of a single one is estimated to be very limited, and it is definitely not comparable to the likes of Gu Yunshu."

In other words, even if you take the trouble to put up cards for all of them, the actual benefits you can get are minimal.

Xu Ming: "..."

There is nothing you can do, she is here.

What's more, she agreed.

Closing his eyes helplessly, Xu Ming resignedly took his bag and began to look for tools, intending to draw the ID card while listening to Gu Yunshu's explanation of the rest; in the process of searching, he happened to catch the blubber man who had just crawled out of his stockings, raised his eyebrows subtly, and took it out and put it aside.

Unexpectedly, just after putting it down, there was a knock on the door.

"Teacher Mingming!" Qiu Yufei's voice came in, "Are you free now?"

"I found a lot of strange photos in my mobile phone, I want to show them to you!"

"?!" Xu Ming was stunned and responded hurriedly. While standing up, she quickly grabbed the blubber man and planned to put it back into the bag. The blubber man fluttered in her hand unhappily, and the voice in her mind sounded:

"No need to take it!

"You introduced us to each other in the last round. At most, we can get to know each other again. It's not a big deal..."

...? ?

Xu Ming looked at it in surprise and blurted out: "You also have memories of the last round? "

She thought only Gu Yunshu had it.

The whale man snorted coldly and tried to slip out from between her fingers.

"I guess so." It whispered while reshaping its waistline, "But it's not very complete. After all, I was not in a good condition at that time..."

"Not in a good condition?" Xu Ming raised his eyebrows suspiciously, "What do you mean?"

"Well... it's just, it has suffered a little negative impact." The whale man patted his shoulder line pretentiously and turned his face to the side, "Some insignificant effects..." "

Mr. Haitang has been busy looking in the mirror and pinching his face." Gu Yunshu supplemented seriously, "Director, you said it has a broken brain. "

Xu Ming: "..."

Wait, so why did you start calling him Director too?!

After looking at the Fat Whale Man suspiciously, Qiu Yufei knocked on the door again. Xu Ming didn't delay any longer and quickly got up to open the door. Considering

the bunch of A Jiao in the room, Xu Ming wisely didn't let Qiu Yufei in. Instead, after a brief exchange, he temporarily moved his position to the other room, not forgetting to bring Gu Yunshu and the Fat Whale Man.

——And after a relatively peaceful and friendly ice-breaking session, her inquiring gaze finally fell back on the Fat Whale Man.

"So, let's have a good chat." She leaned back in her chair and slightly raised her chin towards the Fat Whale Man who was placed on the coffee table, "What happened to you in the last round? "

Bubble Man: "..."

"Tsk, it's not a big deal." It wiped its face, trying to make it sound as nonchalant as possible, "I just accidentally got tricked by the domain lord here."

Xu Ming: "?"

"My state was forced back to a few days ago, and has been fixed in that time period. This forced state was not lifted until the second cycle began."

It said, hugging its arms unhappily: "I'm not sure of the exact trigger time, but it should be after entering this hotel. This is the core area of ​​this strange story. This may be some kind of passive defense mechanism against external anomalies..."

The reason why it was certain that it was after entering the hotel was because it was very sure that its mind was still clear when it was on the highway. It

was just simply lazy and didn't want to pay attention to Xu Ming.

"..." Xu Ming poked it unhappily, and then frowned, "Highway..."

She seemed to have an impression of this word.

On the other side, Qiu Yufei, who had been looking down at her mobile phone, suddenly raised her head and waved her mobile phone excitedly: "I know this! There is relevant information in my photo album! It says in it that before entering the hotel, you must first cross a circular highway..."

"Really? Let me see." Xu Ming took the phone and flipped through it. After a moment of hesitation, he took out another notebook from his bag and found that he had indeed left corresponding records.

"You came from there at that time, taking a taxi." The whale man added, "The driver should have come in with you, and together with you two, he just took up the quota for the newcomers in that round."

Xu Ming: "..."

"Strange." She thought about it and felt something was wrong, "Then why was Yun Shu not affected since she was also from outside?"

"Who knows. Maybe this mechanism is specifically aimed at mutant roots." The whale man spread his legs and sat on the coffee table. "Some ghost story areas are like this, because they are afraid that mutant roots from outside will come to cause trouble, so they arrange some defenses in advance..." As

he spoke, he seemed to notice something and paused. Then he got up again, stretched his neck and walked back and forth on the coffee table.

Finally, he stopped in front of Qiu Yufei's bag.

"What's in here?" It sniffed closer and said curiously, "I seem to feel that kind of smell."

"?" Xu Ming raised his eyebrows slightly, stretched out his hand and lifted it a little further, "Tell me clearly, what kind of smell."

"The kind of smell that affects me!" The whale fat man said seriously, and ran to Qiu Yufei's bag again, "But this bag seems to be more concentrated, and a little sweet..."

...? Sweet? ?

Qiu Yufei was startled, and then she exclaimed, and quickly took the bag to her knees to search, "If it's sweet, is it this?"

She took out a plastic bag from the bag. In the bag were five white chess candies given by the front desk.

I don't know if I didn't pay attention when I was studying it before, the mouth of the plastic bag was not sealed well, and it was half open. It is estimated that it was because of this that the whale fat man smelled the smell.

"...Yes, that's it!" The blubber man took one and held it in his arms. He sniffed it carefully and nodded repeatedly, "The scent is the same!"

"But this candy was distributed by the hotel." Qiu Yufei whispered, "They also said that it is used to deal with monsters..."

"It should be able to deal with it, but it depends on the target." The blubber man sat down with the candy, and felt it carefully again. His tone became more firm, "This should be a direct derivative of the root. It is more than enough to deal with some not-so-powerful guys."

"Derivative?" Xu Ming looked thoughtful, "Just like the work badge printed by the Hongqiang printer?"

"That's still a little different." The blubber man said, "Your work badge is used to connect to other beings, which is equivalent to a 'vine'. And this candy is more like a poisonous 'fruit'."

However, this poison is not aimed at humans, but at other abnormalities. The blubber man estimated that if he accidentally ate it, he would probably fall into the chaos of his own time like he did before.

"But the guy who made this is really brave..." The blubber man thought for a moment, and then said, "He is really generous."

Xu Ming: "? What do you mean?"

"Because no matter how poisonous the fruit is, it is still a fruit. To other anomalies, it is edible after all." The blubber man argued, "Will humans not eat mushrooms because they are poisonous? Will they give up crabs because they have shells?"

"No, right? Because it is fresh and delicious, so even if there are risks, we will find ways to eat it."

The blubber man said, pointing to the white chess candy in his arms: "This thing, to some beings, is mushrooms and crabs."

There is a threat. But also a temptation.

"So, there is no point in producing this kind of derivative. It is a very stupid survival strategy." The blubber man finally concluded, "It's like those plants that have evolved for millions of years but only think of using toxins to defend themselves. Once the methods of dealing with them are mastered by the anomalous beings with intentions, it is equivalent to directly delivering food to others, which is not worth the loss."

In a sense, this is not as good as plants. After all, the fruits of plants are produced for reproduction; however, this kind of derivative, from the perspective of the producer, has no effect and does not bring any benefits.

As for defense, there are many more efficient defense methods. Why do you have to use this way of delivering food? And you have to distribute it everywhere...what's the point?

"..." Hearing this, Xu Ming couldn't help but frowned again.

"…Useless defense?" She murmured softly, and took the candy from the whale man's arms, examined it carefully, and fell into deep thought again.

*

Unfortunately, Xu Ming's thinking did not produce any results.

There was no choice but to put the candy back into the bag. Considering the loss of their own memories, Xu Ming and the others had to turn their focus back to the results of the previous round of exploration. Relying on previous notes and photos, combined with the oral statements of the whale man and Gu Yunshu, it took a lot of effort to finally piece together everything they had learned before. By

the time all the information was roughly sorted out, most of the day had passed.

They checked into the hotel at noon. It was almost dinner time now. But since they were in the ghost story area, it didn't matter whether they ate or not.

However, they still had to go out.

As I said before, it is important to collect intelligence. Especially after confirming that there are different batches of people in the hotel, trying to get the information in their hands has become the top priority.

Xu Ming handed the job to Qiu Yufei without hesitation. After thinking about it, he arranged another task for Gu Yunshu.

Tan Tu, the man who was paid special attention by the staff in the last round. If the restored intelligence is correct, he is the direct reason why they entered the cycle early.

He killed someone.

Such a guy must be paid special attention.

"As for image and so on, I can't find any records here for the time being... Anyway, you should try to pay attention, and pay attention to those guys who look abnormal." Xu Ming pondered for a while, and told Gu Yunshu, "Be careful. Also, don't get discovered by the hotel staff."

Gu Yunshu is now equivalent to a stowaway, and he is the kind that will not lose his memory due to the cycle. For the sake of safety, it is better to keep a low profile.

Gu Yunshu nodded obediently, turned around and left the room. Xu Ming was left alone. He exhaled deeply, got up and returned to his room. He poked his head to look at the large number of charred corpses inside. After a moment of silence, he couldn't help but slap his forehead.

According to the whale man, in the last round, because these guys suddenly appeared halfway, they were blocked from his sight by their "idiot" characteristics; but this time, because he entered the hotel again, and they happened to be in the hotel from the beginning, waiting for him in the room...

As a result, this time they were no longer blocked by "idiots", and appeared directly in his world, presenting him with the purest shock without hesitation.

... In a sense, this may become the scariest thing he has seen in this area of ​​​​weird stories.

"What the hell is going on..."

She murmured with a headache, closed the door resignedly, took out a pen, and opened the rule book again.

"Okay, then let's start signing in now, you all line up, one by one... No, line up, line up, do you understand?"

"Forget it, forget it... Okay, then you go first, stand still. By the way, can you speak? Do you have a preferred name..."

...

On the other side.

Inside 8201.

Fang Xueqing was studying the tenant instructions on the TV cabinet, and suddenly heard a slight movement behind her. Turning around, she saw her companion opening his backpack, taking out a box of foundation, and applying it to his face skillfully.

He has a normal wheat skin color, but he chose the whitest foundation. After a few applications, his whole face was covered with a dead white painted wall.

"Hey." Fang Xueqing was stunned and said in surprise, "Are you planning to go out and cheat? So early?"

"Old Zhang has died, and Brother Tang's condition is unknown. I'm a little anxious." Ling Guang said truthfully, "And the setting here is 'Horror Hotel', which is suitable for my actions. Such a good opportunity, don't waste it."

As he spoke, he already had a lip gloss in his hand, bright red, brushing his upper and lower lips and deliberately smearing it outwards, looking like he was going to eat a child.

"Okay, it's almost done. I'm leaving first." Ling Guang looked at the mirror and decisively put away the lip gloss, "If you don't come back in 45 minutes, find me with the rule book, don't forget."

After speaking, he took out a tattered piece of clothing covered in blood from his luggage, casually put it on, turned around and walked out.

The corridor outside the door was empty. Ling Guang closed the door behind him, carefully looked left and right, closed his eyes and took a deep breath -

when he opened his eyes again, what he saw was very different.

He saw that the corridor that was empty just now was now filled with countless black translucent shadows, walking around the corridor on their own, or shuttling in and out of the rooms.

Not only that, he also heard a lot of sounds in his ears. Some sounded like whispering, some sounded like talking to themselves, and the countless voices mixed together made people feel like they were in a vegetable market.

... Very good. Done.

Ling Guang secretly breathed a sigh of relief, tidied up his tattered clothes, and walked out of the corridor carefully.

- "Liar".

One of the distorted characteristics of human psychics, but Ling Guang has always believed that "undercover" might be the most suitable name for it.

Its effect is also very straightforward, that is, deception - the user can choose to disguise himself as a non-human to deceive the strange story area. If the deception is successful, he will be regarded as a peer by a certain non-human group in the strange story area, and thus come into contact with many things that are difficult for others to reach...

such as abnormal beings that should not be seen, and the sounds of some abnormal beings communicating.

Of course, there are also restrictions on its use. One is that he can only passively receive information, cannot make any sound, and cannot interfere with any behavior of abnormal beings. Once violated, the deception will fail immediately, and after failure, it will no longer be possible to continue deceiving in the same strange story area;

in addition, the probability of "deception" success is not 100%. Appropriate makeup and disguise can increase the probability of success, but the increase is also limited.

Finally, there is the issue of side effects... Just like using a "pickpocket" will inevitably lead to weakness, a "cheater" also has very obvious risks of use. Once the "cheat" exceeds a certain period of time, he may even deceive himself, not knowing who he is, and forgetting the way he came. The worst outcome is to die in a daze, completely lost in the depths of this strange area.

That's why he made a special appointment with Fang Xueqing to return - although according to past experience, the first time to gather intelligence often takes less than 45 minutes...

Ling Guang thought silently, one hand quietly reached into his pocket, while wandering repeatedly in the corridor on the second floor, he kept taking shorthand in his notes, extracting all the sounds he thought might be valuable.

After wandering for about twenty minutes, he had heard all the noises in the corridor on the second floor. Ling Guang estimated that he had enough time, so he walked all the way to the end of the second floor and planned to go up to the third floor.

Because he was still wearing heavy makeup, he wisely did not choose the elevator, but took the stairs. Unexpectedly, when he was halfway there, he suddenly felt a chill all over his body, and then he saw a very dark shadow flashing past him like lightning.

- Oh my God!

Ling Guang was frozen and instinctively hugged his arms tightly. His heart was still pounding because of the passing by just now. The astonishment in his eyes soon turned into fear that could not be concealed.

... A big gang.

That was definitely a big gang.

Even though he didn't see the true face of the other party, the extreme coldness just now was enough for Ling Guang to make a judgment.

In the "cheating" state, the monsters in his eyes all looked like a uniform black shadow, which could only be used to sense the existence of the other party, and he couldn't see more.

But even so, Ling Guang could roughly judge the strength of an abnormal existence through other methods. For example, the color depth of the black shadow, the change in body temperature when approaching, the words and tone of the other party when talking to himself...

Like the one just now, the color was dark and the coldness was strong. Not to mention the weird whispers Ling Guang heard when it flew past -

"Squeak, kill you, squeak, kill you..."

"Who to pick, who to pick. Squeak, squeak, there are three in total, who should I pick?"

- undisguised malice.

So who is it going to kill?

Ling Guang's body froze, and he suddenly heard the sound of a door lock turning above the stairs. He felt a chill in his head, and without thinking, he quickened his pace and rushed up!

Gathering intelligence is important, but he can't just sit and watch ordinary people get killed! If that guy really intends to hunt humans, then even if he risks failing in his deception, he must find a way to stop it -

at this moment, the constant malicious whispers suddenly stopped.

Ling Guang's footsteps subconsciously paused.

Immediately afterwards, he heard a strange female voice coming from above. The voice was a little hoarse, and the tone was tired and helpless, as if she was talking to some troublesome little animal -

"I don't know you, but thank you for coming here specially, but you really came at the wrong time, I'm very busy now...

" "Can you please leave first? Please close the door when you leave, thank you."

Ling Guang: "..."

Who is that girl? Who is she talking to?

It can't be... the one that just went up, right?

Ling Guang thought doubtfully, and slowly took another step up.

The next second, he saw a black shadow, running down from the upstairs again.

"Oh, oh, so scary. Oh, oh, so scary." The black shadow was muttering as it ran, and it ran even faster than when it went upstairs. When it ran to the last few steps, it even jumped directly down.

It was like running for its life.

... Ling Guang was the only one left, standing there stupidly. After being stunned for a while, he belatedly hugged himself again.

After confirming the coldness, it was the shadow he had seen before.

So who exactly was it... the one who just spoke was...

Ling Guang blinked, still with a question mark in his mind. At this moment, the voice sounded again, louder than before, and the impatience in the tone was more obvious:

"What are you still doing here?"

"Didn't you hear what I said?"

...? ! !

Ling Guang slightly widened his eyes, subconsciously looked around, and confirmed that there was no longer any shadow around him -

so who is he talking to?

Could it be... to me?

Ling Guang's eyebrows jumped. Although there was no abnormality around him at this time, he felt a chill on his back for the first time.

Then, he heard the voice sigh again.

"Still there, right? Okay, forget it, stay there if you want, it won't bother me anyway."

"..." Confirmed. It was talking to him.

Ling Guang's throat moved, and he was tense while his inner confusion became stronger.

He could tell that this voice was completely different from those abnormal beings, at least not of the level of weirdness he was encountering now - but whether it belonged to a human, or some other more special being, he couldn't tell for a moment.

Was it an alien root that sneaked into this strange area? Or was it some other human with special abilities?

Ling Guang couldn't be sure for a moment. But since he had been discovered, he felt it necessary for him to show his friendliness.

Taking a deep breath, he slowly ended his current deception state, and then slightly raised his volume.

"I'm sorry to bother you." He said politely, "I... I'll leave now. Don't worry, I have no bad intentions."

After saying that, he stepped back quietly. He didn't turn around until he reached the bottom of the stairs, and then left quickly.

The stairwell fell into silence for a moment.

After a while, some slight sounds were heard - the door of room 831B, which was closest to the stairs, was slightly open. A rather irritable "tsk" sound came from inside, followed by the sound of unlocking the door chain.

Xu Ming stuck his head out, looking around with a slightly irritated and puzzled expression.

He was really irritated - being forced to stay in the room and having to keep drawing Q-version portraits of the charred corpse was already very irritating. Unfortunately, these Ajiao were all very stupid, making communication with them doubly difficult, not to mention asking them to give her a name, so she had to paint while scratching her head and thinking of names for them...

In addition, these Ajiao had a smoky effect on them, and the communication efficiency was extremely low. She had only communicated with them for more than 20 minutes, and her voice was as hoarse as a junior high school teacher who had taught four classes in a row. She wanted to soak some Sterculia lychnophora on the spot.

If it were just that, it would be fine. Who would have thought that something would go wrong when they were painting well? The door of the room suddenly opened by itself, and all the Ajiao in the room looked over at the same time, as if they saw a small animal flying a Frisbee.

Xu Ming guessed that something strange must have come, but he really didn't want to care about it at this time. If she was alone, it wouldn't matter, because the other party couldn't do anything to her. But there were so many A Jiao in her room right now...

Xu Ming could only try to reason with them, and tactfully tell them that it was not the right time to come, and that they should get out as soon as possible and remember to close the door when they left.

However, no one paid any attention to her. The door was still open. It made her seem like she was talking to herself, like an idiot.

Xu Ming couldn't see them, and seeing that there were still A Jiao looking out, he could only guess that thing had not left. So he rolled his eyes and chased the servants away again, and for safety reasons, he chased them away twice.

... As a result, something even more outrageous happened.

The whale blubber man who had been sleeping in his bag couldn't stand it anymore and finally spoke up, telling her that the rat-faced monster that suddenly appeared had run away ten seconds ago, and it seemed that it was frightened by the A Jiao in the room;

but just after he finished speaking, Xu Ming clearly heard another sound in his ears.

- Although he didn't hear it very clearly, he still heard the word "leave".

This made people a little concerned.

Xu Ming had to get up and look outside.

Still saw nothing.

"...What the hell is going on."

She muttered suspiciously, took off the pen cap stuck on her bangs with her backhand, shook her head angrily, and shrank back into the room with a bang.