Since when did his younger brother Xing Shuo gradually become a digitized person in Xing Ye's eyes?
Xing Ye thinks he understands and dotes on his younger brother, but in reality, all he knows is data.
Xing Ye remembered every piece of data, including how many points Xing Shuo scored in the college entrance examination to become the top scorer in the city, which university he entered in which year and month, his grades in every exam and every course, his grades during his exchange study abroad, and the papers he published in journals during his graduate studies. He also asked his assistant to send Xing Shuo a gift on his birthday and holidays.
Xing Ye always believed that he cared about his younger brother.
But this kind of care does not seem to be much better than treating corporate customers.
After a moment's silence, Xing Ye decided to change the subject and said to Guan Ling, "Your abilities are very useful. We can team up temporarily. As a temporary teammate, I want to remind you not to over-trust the family affection granted to you by the system."
Guan Ling became nervous. He only had Old Nick as a relative. "Are you saying that Old Nick might be a player?"
"Aren't you allowed to have your own ideas, since you're not a player?" Xing Ye asked. "You have to remember that the bond between you and Old Nick was bestowed upon you by Benedict. He created two completely different puppets, telling them that you are father and son, and that you should be kind and filial. But he also gave you humanity, and even normal fathers and sons can have misunderstandings. So, how does Old Nick feel about you? Are the puppets willing to acknowledge a parent-child relationship that's been forced upon them without any blood relationship?"
Guan Ling fell into deep thought.
Xing Ye said to the two, "My principle has always been to make bold assumptions and then carefully verify them. When analyzing a situation, you should consider all possible possibilities, but you shouldn't blindly believe any of them. Eliminate impossible assumptions through gradually uncovered clues. Do you understand?"
Guan Ling stood in awe.
He has a father and cannot stay at Xing Ye's place tonight. After the three of them finalized the itinerary for tomorrow, Guan Ling left Xing Ye's small warehouse and went home.
With Linda as her cover, Cao Qian didn't have to go home for the next few days. And according to Xing Ye's analysis, a laid-back player like Linda wouldn't usually be surrounded by aggressive players. After all, she was lucky.
Cao Qian glanced at the small mirror leaning quietly against the wall like a wallflower, her heart full of doubts.
I believe Guan Ling is the same, and he believes too much in what Jingzi said about being stupid. Xing Ye treats Xiao Jingzi with great trust, even more than they do.
Xing Ye also knew that Cao Qian and Guan Ling would never believe it. Fortunately, the small mirror could change bodies in the next world and would not be fixed to one object, which would make it much safer.
This is also one of the reasons why Xing Ye allowed Xiao Jingzi to act as he pleased.
Fortunately, Cao Qian doesn't talk nonsense, so I won't explain it for now.
Puppets don't need sleep, but humans need to rest their spirits. The three of them leaned against the wall and closed their eyes to rest. Cao Qian suddenly asked, "In the last world, we only had 200 points and still encountered an opponent like Di Kuang. In this world, our points combined are over 10,000. What kind of people will we encounter?"
Xing Ye: "I don't know."
So far, they have only encountered one unfamiliar player, Linda. Xing Ye didn't understand Linda's thinking at first, but now that he has calmed down, he feels that Linda's approach is actually a choice that most ordinary people would make.
The game is played once every seven days. Players who follow their fate will have a good life in the game. As long as they pass the novice world, they will treat the melee world as a holographic game and enjoy life. It can also be regarded as a passive lifestyle. There are also players in the real world who live in games without the purpose of upgrading.
But will the system really allow players to do this? After all, Shunming is a pawn of the system. Even players like Xiao Jingzi who diligently complete their tasks will eventually be ruined by the system's arrangements. Can Linda continue to live a peaceful life?
Xing Ye always felt that something was wrong.
He told Cao Qian about Linda's situation. Cao Qian didn't know much about it, but she had also seen players like Linda.
"If I had chosen to accept my fate, I would probably have chosen to live a peaceful life." Cao Qian thought for a moment and denied it. "No, I won't admit defeat. Even if it's just a mobile game, I will play until I win once."
"Why did you choose the anti-fate camp?" Xing Ye asked.
"I think the reasons for players who choose the fate-defying camp are probably similar. They all refuse to accept their fate," said Cao Qian.
Xing Ye understood her thoughts very well, and so did he.
The little mirror that had been sitting next to him without saying a word moved its legs, and Xing Ye realized that he must be lonely.
He clearly has a body, but he still pretends to be stupid; he can clearly kill a player who obeys his fate as a disguise, but he insists on sticking to his bottom line and never takes the initiative to hurt others.
It's such a reassuring mirror.
Xing Ye stretched out his arm and grasped the mirror's rusty fingers in the darkness.
No matter how finely the puppet is made, its skin is still very dull. When you shake hands at this time, you can't feel the other person's temperature at all, but just two pieces of metal put together.
But the little mirror suddenly felt warm, psychologically warm.
They spent the night quietly like this. At dawn the next day, Guan Ling came knocking on the door. Several people immediately ran to the city gate and waited for it to open.
The city gate officials generally do not check items leaving the city, but they will check items entering the city. This is mainly to check whether anyone is carrying excess raw ore into the city. It is said that the official mines will also be searched.
Xing Ye and others still don't understand what the raw ore is, why it can be used as currency, and why it is mined in limited quantities.
Finally, they left the city and followed the map to the moat. Because Xing Ye often went out to scavenge, his visit to the moat didn't attract curious glances; it was a common occurrence. It would have been unusual for Xing Ye to have gone to the mines.
Besides them, some people also bathed in the moat. There were specialized cleaning and rust removal shops in the city, but the fees were high. Many clean-loving but poor puppets would bathe outside the city. However, if they didn't dry themselves quickly, they would easily rust or rot, as happened to Xing Ye's body.
Puppet City does not encourage this type of cleaning, but it cannot control the residents.
"Why is there a gap between the rich and the poor among the residents of Puppet City even though each puppet can mine a piece of raw ore every day?" Guan Ling was a little puzzled.
"Where there's buying and selling, there are differences," Xing Ye said. "Some puppets only consume and don't make money, so they naturally become miners. Puppets like Old Nick can get plenty of raw ore without having to go out to mine. So I'm very curious why he wants us to go to the illegal mine. Is it really just for the raw ore? Did he give you any special instructions last night?"
Guan Ling shook his head. "He only told me to tell him in detail about the scene in the mine when I returned."
"So that's how it is. It seems we have to be careful. Illegal mines must be very dangerous." Xing Ye said.
So what? How did they determine that the mine was dangerous? How did Xing Ye come to this conclusion based on the same information? Guan Ling had no idea!
Did Guan Ling lose his mind to gambling? No wonder he lost everything.
Xing Ye sighed inwardly and explained, "Old Nick isn't short of money. He didn't ask us to come here just to mine. He only asked you to tell him what you saw and heard in the mine. This means Old Nick's real purpose is to observe the mine and look for something or some clues. If that's the case, why didn't he come here himself?"
Guan Ling: "Isn't it because I can mine more by following you? The city gate officer won't check the garbage in your bag in detail."
Cao Qian: "…"
Xing Ye: "The puppets in Puppet City can lie. I said it from the beginning. Old Nick is not short of money. He doesn't want to train you. Of course, his goal is not mining, but the mine itself."
"Oh, so that's how it is." Guan Ling finally understood. He scratched his head and said, "Is my brain rusty? Why can't I think of something like this?"
"Just practice more." Xing Ye said weakly.
The four of them walked along the river towards the mine. After an hour's walk, there were fewer and fewer people by the river. After all, no one would come so far to take a bath. At this time, two people followed them.
Xing Ye became alert and continued walking for half an hour. The two men were still following him, so Xing Ye stopped and turned to look at them.
Cao Qian also took a fighting stance, standing in front of Xing Ye, using her body to support him.
Guan Ling hid behind Cao Qian. As a wet nurse, his task was not to charge into battle, but to protect himself.
In the last world, Xing Ye also guessed that Guan Ling might be the one with the ability to repair himself, so he asked Cao Qian to kick Guan Ling downstairs as soon as possible. Killing the healer first in a team battle is the correct operation.
One of the two puppets was a tattered and poor puppet similar to Xing Ye, while the other one was either rich or noble from his clothes.
"Don't be so vigilant," the tattered puppet said. "It's unlikely that anyone walking here isn't a player. Let me introduce myself, a player who defies fate. You can call me Randy, which is the name of this body."
The wealthy new tin man does not seem to be close to the tattered puppet man, but there is no hostility either. The two keep a safe distance and seem to have reached a tacit understanding.
"I'm the mayor's son," the wealthy tin man said. "I'm a player who obeys orders. I got news of an illegal mine from Randy and have decided to temporarily cooperate with him to investigate the mine."
The mayor's son? Linda's suitor? He was a powerful figure in the city.
Randy said, "Don't be so hostile. This isn't a war world. Our positions aren't opposed, right? We can definitely work together to complete the mission."
Battle World? The three of them looked at each other, none of them had ever experienced the Battle World.
Little Mirror knew it, but he couldn't speak carelessly at this time.
"It looks like you're new here," Randy said calmly. "I won't hide anything. The Melee World focuses on plot puzzles, while the Advanced World is mostly a Battle World. Even if you enter the Advanced World, if your points drop below 50,000, you'll return to the Melee World. I'm not interested in the few points I earn from killing players, and wasting special QR codes will put me at a disadvantage in the Battle World. It's better to save some money and build up some reserves so you can navigate the Battle World with ease."
Xing Ye once analyzed that there should be players in the advanced world who guessed that they could get a lot of points by cracking the correct plot in the melee world, but he didn't expect to meet one like this.
In fact, as he said, there were seven players in the previous world, and Cao Qian and Wu Yu had very few points. Even if Xing Ye killed the other six players by himself, he could only get 4,200 points. However, the points obtained by unlocking the real ending and completing the side quests were far more than that.
The real purpose of the melee world is not to let players compete against each other, but to accumulate, find QR codes, and gain points to prepare for the battle mode of the advanced world.
The city lord's son said, "I also heard this from Randy. There are many side quests and hidden endings in the chaotic world. Completing these quests will earn you far more points than hunting players. So why don't we kill each other? Why not cooperate and pass the level? Of course, earning points will depend on your own ability."
What they said makes a lot of sense. This is the correct way to get along in a world of chaos.
The few of them temporarily put aside their hostility, but did not let down their guard.
Randy said, "I know you don't trust me. How about this, I'll walk in front and you guys follow behind? That should be fine."
Facing other players with his back, Randy is very confident in himself. Is this the aura of a high-level player?
Cao Qian and Guan Ling looked at Xing Ye at the same time, and Xing Ye said, "Stay alert."
The three of them briefly introduced themselves. When they came to the small mirror, Xing Ye was a little worried about how to introduce the mirror.
Perhaps because he was too concerned, he wanted to protect the mirror and didn't want it to get hurt.
"He is a player who follows fate, the Bronze Mirror Man." Xing Ye simply introduced him at the end.
"A player who obeys fate? Haha." Randy glanced at the mirror and smiled meaninglessly.
His eyes seemed to say, I know everything, you don't need to lie to me.
This made Jingzi very uneasy, and she couldn't help but grab Xing Ye's arm.
Mirror regretted changing his body. If he were still a small mirror, he could have hidden himself safely in the body of the little wooden puppet, without having to face the gazes of so many people.
"Don't be afraid." Xing Ye whispered comfortingly.
Thinking that Xing Ye was so smart, Jingzi felt a little more at ease.
They were still far away from the illegal mine, and they exchanged information as they walked. There was no news from Xing Ye. He concealed the fact that the bronze mirror man was salvaged from the river, and only talked about the strangeness of Old Nick.
Randy said, "I'm an apprentice at a shoe store. I don't know why I'm under contract with the boss, so I'm not a free agent. Yesterday, I met the city lord's son, who was there to shine his shoes. I offered him information about the higher world, and he redeemed me with five pieces of raw ore."
From this perspective, Xing Ye is much luckier than Randy. Although he was disabled at the beginning, at least he was free and had a small warehouse, but he owed a lot of foreign debts.
Cao Qian has a family, but she is a stick figure who may spontaneously combust at any time.
It's hard to say which of the three players who defied fate was more miserable. They looked particularly miserable next to the two players who followed their fate.
The city lord's son continued, "After I brought him home, I overheard the city lord's conversation with his men and discovered that he was looking for Benedict's whereabouts and had someone kill him immediately after finding him."
"Kill your own creator?" Guan Ling asked puzzledly.
Randy: "If you were a toy, and you had consciousness, and knew that your owner had the power to dispose of you, you would also want to kill your owner to gain freedom."
The mayor's son continued, "The mayor had previously sent a number of people to search for Benedict. They discovered Benedict's whereabouts at this mine and sent one person to guard the mine. The rest of the people entered the mine with heavy weapons. The gatekeeper waited for three days but saw no one return, so he reported the matter to the mayor. I happened to overhear their conversation."
He is indeed a player who follows his fate, and he can easily get important clues.