What is that?" Cao Qian looked at the transparent card that disappeared on Xing Ye's phone.
Xing Ye: "Complete the side quest system reward for the special QR code, and there are 5,000 points."
"What?" Cao Qian was so shocked that her accent came out.
"You haven't encountered it? Haven't you seen any players who follow their fate encounter it?" Xing Ye was a little surprised. Xiao Jingzi once said that he got 5,000 points by giving a flower to a little girl, and Teacher Li Hong also got more than 30,000 points. It seemed that getting points was a very simple thing for players who follow their fate.
"Do you know how hard it is to get 5,000 points?" Cao Qian was clearly confused. "I was surprised when I gave the music sheet to Zeng Jingrou last time and got 2,000 points. How can points be so easy to get? If it were so easy, why would players kill each other and just focus on completing the mission? Killing a player only gives you 1,000 points at most, but turning in a music sheet is 2,000. How easy is that?"
"Our game progress is 1.257. Turning in all of it will earn us 14,000 points. Even if split between two people, it's still quite a lot. It seems a bit easy. At this rate, it seems that in just a few worlds, we can reach 50,000 points and become a high-level player. And if the points are converted to RMB at a ratio of 1:100, that would be 200,000 yuan in one go. For an ordinary person, it's still a very high return."
There is a problem, a big problem.
As Xing Ye spoke, he opened his phone and checked the special QR code "Requiem" he had just obtained. The description on the phone was completely different from the previous ones: "Requiem", which has a miraculous effect on undead NPCs and undead QR codes, lasting half an hour, a delayed rare QR code, and can be used in conjunction with ordinary delayed QR codes.
Rare QR codes are a bit like SSRs in card-drawing games. They have very strong effects and can be stacked. Even the effects are not hidden and are explained in great detail, breaking the previous perception of players about special QR codes.
"You... have you... forgotten... that I'm still here?" When Xing Ye and Cao Qian were confused about the QR code and points, the head girl Liu Mucheng finally couldn't stand being ignored and jumped up again, splashing blood all over the two of them.
Xing Ye: "…"
The head had been so well behaved before, I thought he had been subdued. Was he just being gentle with Lin Jingxue? He wiped his face and said to the head, "Liu Muqing, the three-day deadline hasn't expired yet, and we have no clues. You fell to your death on the stairs, your body is intact, but where is your head?"
At this moment, Liu Mucheng didn't seem to be as angry as she was a few days ago, but that was towards Lin Jingxue, who was also a ghost. The resentful spirits could talk and negotiate with each other, but not necessarily with humans. She still remembered the saying that those who are not of my race must have different hearts.
"What do you care? Find the head for me! Otherwise I will bite you to death!" Liu Mucheng showed his white teeth with a ferocious look.
He really turned his back on me. Xing Ye thought about it, quickly clicked on his phone, and activated his initial skill - the pen of redrawing.
He has two skills, Eye of Impression and Pen of Redrawing. Eye of Impression can force him to remember 50% of what he has seen. This ability is useless in Xing Ye's opinion, because he can remember 100% without activating any skills.
The pen of redrawing is very powerful. It can redraw things that you have seen and remembered, and give them half the effect of the original object.
Previously, his points were pitifully low, only 200, and he'd be sent back to the novice world after just two experiments. Later, even 500 points wasn't very generous, but now, with 5,000 points, Xing Ye had practically become rich overnight, allowing him to experiment with his skills a few more times.
The first thing he chose to redraw was the "Requiem" QR code he had just seen.
After clicking to use a skill and deducting 50 points, a transparent pen appeared in Xing Ye's hand. He drew a QR code in the air according to his memory.
The moment he got the pen, Xing Ye mastered the hidden information of the Redrawing Pen skill. This was something the system did not tell Xing Ye, and he could only understand it by communicating with the skill when using it.
First, the Redraw Pen can indeed grant half the original item's effectiveness, but only within the two-dimensional world. For example, if Xing Ye used the skill to depict a famous painting in the game world, it would fetch half the price at auction. However, if he painted on a table, the resulting image would be a flat, useless surface.
Second, when using the Redraw Pen to draw a QR code, it must be drawn and used immediately. After successfully drawing in the void, the QR code will immediately appear and take effect. There is no need to scan it with a mobile phone to start it, and it cannot be saved. In other words, if Xing Ye wants to use the Redraw Pen to fight, he must draw it temporarily during the battle and cannot move while using the skill. If the opponent is fast, he may be killed before he draws a single stroke.
Third, the Redraw Pen is a basic skill, and the special QR codes it draws are not subject to the time delay and non-overlapping restrictions. Ultimately, the items Xing Ye draws are counterfeits, not authentic QR codes. For example, after using a QR code that controls emotions, Teacher Li becomes unable to use other QR codes, but the Redraw Pen is not subject to this restriction. As long as Xing Ye has enough points, draws quickly enough, and his opponent gives him enough time, he can theoretically use an unlimited number of special QR codes at once.
The three explanations about ability are a tribute to Xing Ye's sneaking into the game and breaking the rules, and also a challenge to him.
The redrawing stroke meant Xing Ye had to completely trust his teammates to fully utilize their initial skills in battle. If they were interrupted mid-fight, all their efforts would be wasted. Points would still be deducted, but there would be no QR code.
"So that's how it is." Xing Ye understood.
The system fully recognized his abilities, but also saw his weaknesses.
Challenge Fate Game, with a malicious smile, asked Xing Ye, "Can you trust others? Can you put your life in the hands of your teammates? Can someone as strong and controlling as you be vulnerable and strong?"
Strong enough to decide the outcome alone, yet fragile enough to be fatal to teammates with one move.
The system will force Xing Ye, who is the least able to trust others, to entrust his life to his companions, otherwise he will not be able to exert his greatest strength.
The last stroke of the QR code was drawn successfully. The black and white QR code in the void emitted golden light and turned into musical notes. A shortened version of "Requiem" sounded on the third floor.
It takes fifteen minutes.
"What kind of ability is this?"
Cao Qian felt that since she met Xing Ye, everything he did was challenging her common sense.
"What ability?" Xing Ye asked coldly, "It's an ability that can make me successful or destroy me."
Under the soothing "Requiem", the head girl became very calm. Xing Ye asked amid the music: "Liu Muqing, how did you lose your head?"
The ferocity on Liu Muqing's face disappeared, revealing a gentle smile: "Thank you for bringing Lin Jingxue to see me. One of my regrets has been eliminated. I still have another regret before I die. I know Lin Jingxue will not frame me, and I want to find the person who hurt me.
Lin Jingxue didn't know how I fell, but I did. The shoes I was wearing that day were greased with oil.
As I was carrying my luggage downstairs, I didn't pay attention to this matter. Besides, it is normal to step on dirt on the soles of your shoes. As long as you walk carefully, it will be fine.
But just as I was going downstairs, I saw Lin Jingxue and Bai Xu walking up the stairs arm in arm. Lin Jingxue seemed to want to say something, but Bai Xu pulled her, and she didn't say anything. As we passed each other, Bai Xu's foot slipped and stepped on Lin Jingxue's shoelaces. Lin Jingxue stumbled and bumped into me. At this time, the soles of my shoes were very slippery, and I couldn't help falling down the stairs.
The person who did it probably didn't expect that it would be such a coincidence that I would just break my neck and die. She probably just wanted to add insult to injury and make me fall and embarrass myself.
Lin Jingxue, who was in a trance, didn't notice Bai Xu's action at all. After all, it happened under her feet. She just thought that she accidentally bumped into me.
Later she suffered from depression and blamed herself. She always felt that it was her unintentional act that killed me.
It's not that the surveillance footage wasn't working, but rather that Lin Jingxue's father bribed the principal to destroy the evidence immediately. The camera couldn't capture my feet at the time, so I only saw Lin Jingxue bump into me as she passed me. This would have made it very likely that she would be charged with intentional injury. She couldn't explain why she couldn't walk steadily, so Lin's father resorted to this desperate measure.
It turns out that there is such an unknown truth. Zeng Jingrou is an outsider after all, and was just a child two years ago. Her family would not tell her about this matter. She always believed that her sister did not hit Liu Mucheng, and it was Liu Mucheng who just stepped on empty air.
Bai Xu is... quite cruel.
"It's not over yet," the head continued. "Lin Jingxue is suffering from depression, but she hasn't reached the point of suicide. Someone around her is instigating suicide. Bai Xu didn't expect me to die. She was afraid that Lin Jingxue would recover and remember her actions that day. They were close friends, so she kept hinting at Lin Jingxue to commit suicide.
For example, no one in this world understands you; this crappy school isn't worth lingering on; your parents are a little too much and don't care about you at all, and there's a boy who probably doesn't want you anymore; why are your teachers and classmates looking at you like you're murdering someone, even though it wasn't intentional, you just slipped; luckily the security camera isn't working, or else it would be a disaster. I know you slipped and hit someone, but I won't tell anyone because we're friends.
Words like these, under the guise of concern, pushed Lin Jingxue, whose condition was already very serious, into a desperate situation."
"It's too cruel." Cao Qian said.
A high school girl is so dark in her heart that no one finds out what she has done. Even if she calls the police, there is insufficient evidence and she cannot be punished.
Before the fifteen-minute limit expired, Liu Muqing continued, "No one can be so unscrupulous and remain unaffected. Bai Xu is also under tremendous pressure. Her jealous act has killed two people in succession. During the day, she brainwashed herself, telling herself that everything was worth it. But at night, she began to sleepwalk."
Every night she would walk out of the classroom, take out the painting that was rejected that year, and hang it in the corridor, as if she was displaying her own work.
That was the painting she lost to me. The National High School Student Art Exhibition, where winners received 20 extra points on the college entrance exam, allowed only one painting from each school. Her painstaking three-month copy of "Mona Lisa's Smile" was criticized by her teacher as lacking in spirit and life, and she lost to my ink painting. My painting was entered in the exhibition and won, and she's been haunted by it ever since.
When no one was looking, Bai Xu bit her finger and smeared her blood on the painting, making it look like Mona Lisa was shedding tears of blood.
"You mean, is Bai Xu crazy? She forced herself to brainwash. She has forgotten what she did during the day, but appears in the corridor and goes crazy at night?" Xing Ye asked.
"How could she just be going crazy and cause all the girls in the dormitory to fall asleep? I'm not sure what Bai Xu is now, but she's definitely not a human. She also took my head away somehow..." Liu Muqing shook her head, "I've been looking for it in this building, but I can only move around on the third and fourth floors. I can't get to the second floor."
Cao Qian stepped down the stairs and nodded to Xing Ye: "We can go down."
"Whose head are you using now?" Xing Ye didn't go downstairs immediately. "The face is no different from your own."
"It seems that what was taken away from me was not my head, but my brain." The little lady with the human head suddenly said, "Strange, why do I feel that it was my head that was lost? It was clearly my brain..."
As she spoke, a small crack appeared on her forehead. Xing Ye picked up the head and opened the crown. It was full of blood. After pouring out the blood, it was empty.
Cao Qian: "…"
She was about to vomit.
Xing Ye covered Liu Muqing's head. By this time, the pirated copy of "Requiem" was about to expire. Xing Ye thought for a moment and used the redraw pen again to draw a QR code for Liu Muqing to help her wake up.
Liu Muqing is in a state of confusion because his brain has been lost and his memory has been controlled. Only by using the QR code obtained from the piano to pray for Lin Jingxue's soul and obtain the "Requiem" can Liu Muqing temporarily return to normal and tell the truth.
But saving Lin Jingxue's soul is just a side quest and should not affect the main storyline. What is going on?
Xing Ye frowned and thought for a moment, finally confirming that under his operation, the story had already moved towards another branch.
The actual plot of the game was not like this. It was originally just a school find, and no one asked him to discover the truth.
When Xing Ye embarks on the path of pursuing the truth, the plot and story change, the tasks change accordingly, and the points also change accordingly.
Just like fate, if you choose a different path, the destination and what you gain along the way will be completely different.
"I might have increased the difficulty of the game," Xing Ye said to Cao Qian as he walked downstairs. "In the simple mode game, maybe after accepting the head mission, you snatch the head from the boy holding the head and give it to Liu Muqing. Under control, she dazedly accepts the head and disappears, completing a hidden object. There should be other ways to tell the story. 404 was the clue the principal gave me after I smashed the piano, but if we really want to explain it, Zeng Jingrou's dormitory was also 404, but the house number was forcibly changed to 405. Following this route, we won't be able to uncover Bai Xu's actions, and we might get a different ending."
"What's the ending?" Cao Qian asked.
"On the surface, Liu Muqing used despicable means to get Bai Xu eliminated from the selection process, causing her to become somewhat delirious and sleepwalk at night, hanging paintings in the dormitory corridor. Lin Jingxue and Liu Muqing fought each other, both suffering losses. Bai Xu was an innocent victim. We used the method she provided to liberate the two and frame Zeng Jingrou. The truth was buried, Bai Xu's illness was cured, and she ultimately became the beneficiary."
"How could this be?" Cao Qian asked in confusion, "Why is a game so complicated?"
"Do you still think this is a game?" Xing Ye said seriously, "We've joined a game that challenges fate. These...are all real destinies. Every choice the players make affects the future of the world."