Chapter 35

To be honest, Xu Ming did not make such a change out of courtesy.

It was purely out of caution.

Because just like the use of "secondary basis", once "double substitution" is activated, it also needs to pay a price. But this price is floating. According to the original instructions, "the smaller the difference between the replacement word and the original word, the smaller the price to pay."

However, the so-called "difference" is not clearly stated in the rule book, so Xu Ming can only figure it out by himself. After thinking about it, it seems that the only way to start is from the aspects of part of speech, meaning, and category of speech; and in comparison, "bichon frise" is obviously closer to "butterfly" than "idiot" is to "beauty".

At least they are both animals.

Facts have proved that her judgment is really correct - now that the replacement has been completed, she does not feel any discomfort. Only his shoulder was still aching, but that was caused by the "double basis" he had used before.

It seemed that "double substitution" was easier to use than "secondary basis". As long as the words were chosen well, it was possible to make damage-free changes. The only problem was that the vocabulary required was relatively high...

Xu Ming thought silently, and finally unlocked the door chain in front of him. The moment he opened the door, he heard Qiu Yufei gasp again.

Xu Ming didn't see anything. He just took a deep breath instinctively. While walking with her outside, he turned his head nervously: "What's wrong? What did you see?"

"A lot of people..." Qiu Yufei followed her obediently. Because she was wearing sunglasses, she couldn't see clearly. "Is the corridor in front of us widened? Why do I feel like there are a lot more doors? Then the lights changed, red lights, flashing all the time, there are a lot of papers on the walls, and a lot of people walking around here..."

...?

A lot of people?

Xu Ming frowned slightly, but heard a rustling sound. The whale man was lying on the edge of the porch and secretly looked out. Then, she heard a sincere sigh in her mind:

"Wow, so many minotaurs!"

Xu Ming: ... Shut up!

"What time is it and you are still saying such weird things!" She couldn't help but said in her consciousness.

Whale Blubber: ...

???

At this moment, Gu Yunshu, who had realized it, also walked out. When she saw the situation in the corridor, she was obviously stunned for a moment.

Then she sighed softly:

"Ah, so many minotaurs."

Xu Ming: ...

Sorry, I thought too much.

But, minotaurs?

Xu Ming's heart moved, and he suddenly remembered Tang Menglong's report on the fourth round - and that sentence, "My hooves are so beautiful."

"...Are they all minotaurs?" She asked softly after a pause, and while speaking, she led a few people to move carefully to the side along the wall.

Xu Ming's room was at the end of the corridor, and a few steps further in was the staircase. However, at this moment, the scene seen by Qiu Yufei and the others was obviously different from Xu Ming's. Every step they took was very hesitant, as if they could not see the road.

The most urgent thing was to find a way to send Qiu Yufei and the others downstairs. At least to meet up with the staff of the Rubik's Cube Building first.

Almost at the moment of stepping on the stairs, the voice of the whale fat man rang in her mind again: "Not only minotaurs, but also goat-headed people, cat-headed people, monkey-headed people... There are all kinds of animal characteristics, it can be called a paradise."

Xu Ming: "..."

Is she overthinking this? It did say something strange, didn't it!

"I see, zoo style." She corrected the blubber man's wording as best she could, and looked around again. She didn't know if it was her illusion, but after leaving the room, the oppressive feeling didn't seem so strong, "Do they have any intention of attacking?"

"No. They all seem to be stupid." The blubber man said, "They just keep circling in the same area, as if trapped by an invisible wall."

...I see, it's still a zoo full of stereotyped behaviors.

This matches Tang Menglong's description of the fourth round - those strange tenants who suddenly appeared, couldn't communicate, and were only immersed in their own world...

So where are they now? Butterfly Building? Or are the two buildings already overlapping, but as an idiot, she just happens to ignore all the parts related to the Butterfly Building?

"Besides that?" Xu Ming pursed his lips slightly and asked, "What else?"

"Flying butterflies. And the strange scenery." The whale man said in his mind, "The hazy red lights, the winding corridors, the murals that can turn their eyes... oh yes, and there are many small advertisements."

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

"It's the paper stuck on the wall, everywhere." The whale man explained, "and there are weird words written on it."

"What's it about? The butterflies here are so beautiful?" Xu Ming guessed, and while speaking, he had already led Qiu Yufei and Gu Yunshu all the way to the staircase platform on the second floor.

"Not only that." The whale man said, "There are all kinds of crazy things."

"For example, there is a piece of paper on the handrail of the stairs next to you - it says, 'Stairs are wriggling intestines, elevators are mouths that eat people'."

Xu Ming: "..."

"I strongly recommend not to show it to your friends." The whale man continued, "Although I can't be sure..."

"But I think this kind of thing will corrupt people's minds."

*

At the same time.

At the other end of the corridor on the second floor.

While Ling Guang was anxiously waiting, the elevator finally made a ding sound.

The moment the elevator door opened, he couldn't help but take a step back.

Fang Xueqing, who was standing by, hurriedly reached out and pulled the man aside. She looked at the man's face, which turned pale in an instant, and couldn't help but frowned:

"Are you okay? What did you see that scared you so much?"

"..." Ling Guang didn't answer immediately, but tentatively looked at the elevator again. He only took a glance, then quickly withdrew his gaze, his throat rolling nervously.

After another two seconds, he heard him whisper: "That's an open mouth."

"?" Fang Xueqing looked puzzled and looked at the normal carriage next to her, "What?"

"The elevator I saw was an open mouth." Ling Guang said with a lingering fear, "I don't know if it's an illusion or... no matter how I look at it, it's just a big open mouth..."

The lips were red and two meters high, and below the lips were jagged and sharp teeth, with strands of meat hanging between the teeth.

At this moment, the mouth was wide open and stood upright, like a carnivorous plant waiting for its prey to fall into its trap.

Fang Xueqing listened, but became more and more confused. After a while, she remembered that not long ago, when they just realized that something was wrong and rushed out in a hurry, Ling Guang had picked up a piece of paper from under the door.

On the paper were some inexplicable words, which said "The stairs are a wriggling intestine, and the elevator is a mouth that eats people."

"Damn, you won't be affected by that sentence, will you?" Fang Xueqing's face changed instantly, "I only took a look..."

"Maybe it's because I thought seriously at that time, what did that sentence mean." Ling Guang turned his head away and didn't dare to look at the elevator. He was also regretful in his heart, "I was careless. I didn't expect the effect of those words was so strong." "

It's just a strong brainwashing effect. Why don't you try to give yourself some hints? Or just do a big fuck?" Fang Xueqing tried to give him advice, "Or just go in directly, hallucinations are hallucinations, hallucinations won't...!"

Before he finished speaking, he accidentally looked to the side, but the whole person froze in an instant.

——I saw an elevator not far away, where is it?

There was only a huge abyss mouth made of dirty flesh and blood, with a circle of sharp teeth protruding outwards, coiled on the original position of the elevator, and the octopus-like mouthparts kept opening and closing.

Fang Xueqing: "..."

OK, it seems that her mind is not clean.

"Xueqing?" Noticing her stunned look, Lingguang raised his eyes slightly, with a few bad premonitions, "What's with your expression?"

"...You shouldn't have told me what you saw just now." Fang Xueqing didn't answer directly, but closed her eyes to adjust herself, "No wonder Brother Tang didn't give any useful information in the fourth round..."

Highly polluting and highly contagious. Unprecedented.

I just don't know if this illusion is offensive. If not, maybe they can still grit their teeth and overcome it...

Fang Xueqing thought silently, took a few steps forward tentatively, and groped her hand towards the elevator door - but the next second, a stinging pain shattered her luck.

With a low cry, she retracted her hand like lightning. But she saw a deep bloody mark on the back of her hand that had been plowed by the protruding fangs.

Blood immediately gushed out, Fang Xueqing quickly pinched the wound, and her face became even uglier.

"This is definitely not just an illusion." She murmured, slowly backing away, "I now really believe that Butterfly is the domain lord of this weird legend."

This terrible distortion ability is completely the level that only the domain lord can possess.

"What should we do now?" Ling Guang looked around vigilantly, took out a roll of gauze from his bag, and skillfully tore it open to wrap Fang Xueqing. While wrapping it, he forced himself to lower his eyes, trying not to look at the butterflies flying around above his head. "Our cognition is polluted, and we can't take the elevator." "

The problem is that there is no other way out." Fang Xueqing whispered, also scanning the surroundings, with the corners of her lips tightly pressed down.

In fact, according to reason, she and Ling Guang should not take the elevator. When they found something was wrong, they were both in Fang Xueqing's room, which was 8201. According to the emergency action guide of Anxin Gardening, the best strategy they should take is to run to the right towards the stairs, and at the same time wake up other tenants on the same floor as much as possible to cover them and escape together.

Elevators are a standard feature of horror movies that break down at any time. When an accident happens, it is best not to touch them.

The problem is that they can't do it.

They left the room as soon as they found something wrong, but the situation outside the room had changed completely. The corridor has completely changed, with disturbing red lights everywhere, strange tenants with animal characteristics and flying butterflies everywhere, and at the same time, they can't find any familiar tenants, nor can they see any familiar rooms.

The stairs at the other end of the corridor were completely gone. They had walked around the corridor several times, but no matter how they turned, they could not find any other exits. The only one that seemed to lead to the outside was this elevator.

But now, the elevator was gone, and instead there was only a huge mouth of the abyss.

Fang Xueqing didn't know why the cycle was suddenly broken, and they suddenly fell from the first round of sightseeing perspective to this hell mode - but there was no doubt that this was closer to the Butterfly Building they knew.

A place that would trap prey in a limited space, and then slowly torture, tame, and eat it.

As if responding to her thoughts, at this moment, there was a more frightening sound from above. Countless circling and fluttering butterflies fluttered and fell, their wings spread out and passed in front of them. The moment they fell, they turned into a lot of papers full of words.

Fang Xueqing knew that she shouldn't look at these papers, but her sight began to get out of control. In a few quick glances, several more lines of text were engraved in her mind in a disorderly manner -

[The wall is the contracted stomach wall, and the eyeballs of the mural are butterfly eggs. ]

[Is your companion your companion? Are you sure he is someone you know? ]

[The direction of the butterfly is the direction of reality. Where the scales are is the truth. ]

[The Bichon here is so beautiful! ]

...

Wait, what Bichon?

How come something strange seems to have sneaked in?

Fang Xueqing was stunned for a moment, and for some reason, her thoughts suddenly came out of that uncontrollable state.

Then she took a deep breath.

"If it really doesn't work, we can only come up with the last plan." She said, taking out a black leather notebook from her bag, "I'm not sure to what extent I can modify the rules, but at least it should allow us to escape from this closed space."

"Are you sure?" Ling Guang seemed a little skeptical, "You had a plaster cast for half a month after you used this thing last time."

"That's better than being trapped here." Fang Xueqing gritted her teeth and showed him the blood-stained gauze on her hand, "Do you think the elevator looks like it can be taken?"

"I'm not sure... maybe we can think of another way?" Ling Guang pursed his lips, "It is indeed possible that the Territory Lord hides rules that are beneficial to people, but this does not mean that such rules do not exist. Take Brother Tang for example, his cognition had already been affected, but at the last moment he thought of leaving us a message, which means that this state is reversible! We just need to calm down and think about it again..."

As he spoke, he lowered his eyes, as if he was lost in thought. After a moment, he stood up again and ran back quickly.

Not long after, he ran back under Fang Xueqing's questioning gaze, with an extra piece of paper in his hand.

"What's this?" Fang Xueqing looked over suspiciously, and Ling Guang had a serious face.

"It's the one that says the elevator is a mouth, I picked it up. I'm going to study this carefully again, you keep an eye on me, if there is anything wrong, just slap me..."

After Ling Guang finished speaking, his throat rolled, and finally put his eyes back on the piece of paper.

After a moment, he was seen sucking in a breath and slightly widening his eyes.

Fang Xueqing had been observing his expression from the side, and she tensed up instantly when she saw this, and subconsciously asked: "What's wrong?"

"...The content on it has changed." Ling Guang murmured, raising his eyes, "It changed in front of me."

"?" Fang Xueqing was made even more nervous by his words, "What did it change to?"

Ling Guang moved his lips, but seemed to be at a loss for words.

After another pause, he softly said: "It changed into a beautiful corner of the lip."

Fang Xueqing: "..."

Fang Xueqing: "Ah?"

"That's right, the description on it..." Ling Guang didn't know how to express it for a moment, "It became even more weird..."

Fang Xueqing became more and more confused. Seeing that Ling Guang didn't seem to be affected any further, she simply took the paper and unfolded it to look at it. The moment she fixed her eyes, she was also silent for a moment.

On the paper, there were two lines of eye-catching red handwriting:

[The stairs are the green but sincere intestines.]

[The elevator is the beautiful corners of the white-clothed boy's lips raised gently.]

... Wait, who is the white-clothed boy?

And why is it the green but sincere intestines... What

a strange expression. Take another look.

Fang Xueqing pursed her lips, and pursed them again. Finally, she came to the conclusion: This place may not be too serious.

At this moment, she heard Ling Guang's low cry. Fang Xueqing raised her head and saw that the other party was looking in the direction of the elevator in surprise, and even raised his hand to point.

"It's normal!" His tone was filled with surprise. "What about you? What did you see in the elevator?"

He soon realized that his question was a bit redundant - almost at the moment he raised his hand, Fang Xueqing also looked over. From her slightly parted lips, Ling Guang had no doubt that what she saw was the same as his.

"...What's going on?" He was still in disbelief. "Is it not an illusion again?"

Fang Xueqing did not respond, but stepped forward carefully, tried to poke the elevator button, and looked inside.

"Never mind, at least it looks normal now." She quickly made up her mind and stepped in first. If something really happened again, she could use her rule book to back it up.

More importantly, she could vaguely feel that she was now...seemingly more normal.

For some reason, the oppressive feeling brought by those strange words and phrases seemed to have faded a lot, and she seemed to be much more sober.

Ling Guang obviously had a similar feeling, and he followed quickly without any hesitation.

The elevator door closed quickly, followed by a familiar feeling of falling.

After a moment, Ling Guang's hesitant voice sounded again:

"So, what does the green but sincere intestines mean?"

Fang Xueqing: "..."

Why are you asking me, I don't understand these! Strange!

*

At the same time.

On the first floor, at the front desk of the hotel.

Xu Ming raised his eyebrows slightly and gestured calmly. Qiu Yufei beside him lowered her head and pushed the paper in her hand forward.

"The modification I mentioned is probably to this extent."

Xu Ming spoke slowly, tapping the table with his fingers. On the table was the piece of paper she had taken with her when she went downstairs - it was the piece of paper about "stairs" and "elevators" that the whale man had read to her.

Strictly speaking, she did not take the paper, but she asked the whale man to take it down. On the one hand, she did not want Qiu Yufei, who was following behind her at the time, to see the paper. On the other hand, she wanted to keep a case to continue to verify the effect of "double substitution."

The subsequent developments were very smooth. It didn't take her much effort to take Qiu Yufei and Gu Yunshu down the stairs to the first floor and went straight to the front desk. Other staff members were seen on the way, but their conditions were obviously not right - they were always circling in a very small range, just like the strange tenants described by the whale man.

The difference is that they seem to be able to hear Xu Ming's voice, and will react according to the sound they hear. But that's all.

There seemed to be a wall around them that Xu Ming couldn't see. She could see them, but they couldn't see her.

There was no way, Xu Ming and others could only run to the front desk first. There were still three staff members on duty at the front desk. They looked relatively normal and had no stereotyped behavior, but their faces were very solemn.

The door of the room behind them was rarely open. Over their shoulders, Xu Ming could see that there was another person sitting in the room, with a fluffy skirt hanging down along the chair.

Without time to think about it, Xu Ming quickly turned his attention to several staff members, and without waiting for them to speak, he directly asked to meet with their boss.

And then... to use the words of the blubber man, one of the staff members' head exploded again.

Their boss descended on him, his huge body hung with clocks swaying, and he lowered his head and looked at Xu Ming silently.

Xu Ming was still in that unhurried state, and only confirmed one thing with it -

"It's two o'clock in the morning." Looking at the air above, Xu Ming tried his best to look at it, "If we can hold on until twelve o'clock noon, can we still come to your place to check out?"

She was answered by the other party's ambiguous reply.

It said, "Maybe."

Xu Ming directly asked back, what does "maybe" mean. This time, the one who answered her was the blubber man curled up in her bag.

"The current situation is that the Butterfly Building has moved to a new location and is now completely overlapping the Rubik's Cube Building. The Butterfly's rules are invading, but the Rubik's Cube's rules have not yet been completely abolished."

The whale fat man added quietly: "It means that if it is not dead by the time the time comes, then you can check out according to your own rules."

Xu Ming: "..."

Why does he sound so confident?

But in this way, what to do next is clear.

"In other words, as long as we delay the invasion of butterflies as much as possible, right?" She confirmed it with the person opposite her, and then without hesitation, she asked Qiu Yufei to take out the paper with "stairs and elevators" written on it, and directly performed a modification demonstration in front of the person opposite her.

Then, facing the serious air in front of her, she opened her mouth again:

"You are lucky. Before this expedition, we also studied the characteristics of butterflies and made some special preparations for this.

"Some small tricks should be able to help you hold on for a little longer. However, if you want it to play the greatest role, you still need some cooperation. "

"..." In response to her, there was a brief silence. Then the voice of the whale fat man sounded in her mind again:

"It asks you, what to do specifically."

Xu Ming: "..."

In fact, I'm not very sure, let me think about it.

But at least one thing is certain-

"The first step is to take these two and distribute them to your employees."

Xu Ming said, and casually slapped two things on the table. It was she who made two semi-finished temporary work cards before going to bed.

"Fill in your name and wear it directly, giving priority to those who are more sober, can communicate with others, and..."

"Those who usually have good reading habits."