A full five seconds passed, and their palms were still touching in mid-air.
The boy clapped his hands and yelled "Yay!" because it was Wen Shi's skill that was sealed, not his own. If he could successfully seal a few, he would have a clear advantage by the end of the game. The only downside was that there were tourist attractions to visit later, and if too many people died, they might have to bring in a new group of players.
Six of the current group were sent in by Li Nan using a team-building item, and their shadows are high quality. That won't be the case with the next group. Being powerful isn't a big deal; the trouble lies in encountering idiots who betray their teammates, like in this situation.
"You're dead." The similar peach blossom eyes narrowed, like a cunning fox.
Wen Shi opened his eyes, his cat-like round pupils full of smiles: "Little idiot."
The scarecrow went to find his brain, so from now on, this title will be given to the boy in front of me.
Wen Shi lowered his hands again, looked at everyone and said, "The Screaming House will definitely generate a side quest. Don't forget I have a card shuffling item."
As soon as these words were spoken, the pairs of eyes seemed very bright in the darkness.
"It cannot refresh special side quests."
To date, Wen Shi had only completed one special side quest, the "Butler's Request" in the Castle dungeon. The Screaming House certainly wasn't a special side quest. Under normal circumstances, the risk of this part was extremely low. As long as he chose an average-level player to seal their skills, it would be easy to complete.
Unfortunately, the more ordinary something is, the more it tests people's hearts.
Even if all players vote for a weak player, the decision is still in the hands of the shadow because of the uneven number of teams.
Shadows delight in killing players, and they won't directly turn to a powerful figure like Nanyu Xingzhou, as the risk is too high. The best approach is to eliminate a relatively powerful but controllable individual. The combined power of several powerful figures' shadows and their original bodies can effectively block a newcomer's abilities.
The plan is beautiful, but the reality is cruel.
Wen Shi gave a warning in advance: "There is no guarantee what the final outcome will be."
As a free attraction given away by the travel agency, the Scream House is a must-see place. The best case scenario is that you can vote again, and the worst case scenario is that anything can happen.
"It's okay." A player said immediately.
Whatever happens, it's better than now.
However, Wen Shi stood aside with his arms folded, with no intention of moving, and his actions clearly told everyone: I want to raise the price.
He looked at the conductor and asked, "How many people voted for me and my shadow combined?"
The ticket seller at this newly upgraded 5A scenic area was quite friendly: "Twenty-seven people."
Excluding the tour guide and the teenager, almost half of the players want to know what their skills are.
The game temporarily disabled the points transfer function. Shadow didn't have a player ID, so no transactions could be made within the system. Wen Shi paused, then glanced at the players. "Those who voted should step forward and use props to replace them. Each person must provide spiritual compensation worth no less than 3,000 points."
Then he looked at Shadow and said, "As for you, use this contract item to promise me one thing in the future. Of course, this does not include unreasonable demands such as asking you to die."
"Dream on." The burned player was the first to retort, with a sneer on his face. Apart from anything else, the shadows of several big players would never agree.
Unexpectedly, Wen Shi's next sentence removed the shadows of several people, including powerful players like Yu Xingzhou: "Forget it."
Wen Shi also has the ability to sow discord.
"You want to hitchhike with others without even thinking about whether you can get a ride." He suddenly felt that the brainless little scarecrow was not that stupid.
Some players looked at Li Nan and the others, wanting someone with a say to come forward and say a few words. After all, too many casualties would not benefit anyone.
Xiaohua did speak, but unfortunately she didn't say what they wanted to hear. Her smile deepened. "You haven't heard a single word of what our president said before. Don't forget what our president's skills are. We will use the lives of some idiots to open a safe passage."
As soon as these words were spoken, some people who wanted to take advantage of the situation looked completely disheartened.
——Time pauses.
Yu Xingzhou's skills were no secret, and some people had even witnessed them with their own eyes in the waiting room.
Shadow Flower asked coldly, "Some people agree, and some people don't?"
Wen Shi was calm and composed: "If there is one less person, I won't start a team fight."
Shadow Xiaohua glanced at the boy. The other party also had a refresh item in his hand, and perhaps he could lower the price through vicious competition.
The boy completely ignored his teammates' hints. He had a premonition that his invisible advantage was about to be eliminated again, and there was a hint of hostility in his eyes.
Wen Shi wanted the props in order to sell them for points after he got out. These things were useless to him, and he couldn't sell the junk props in the dungeon.
For a moment, the bloody color of the terrifying screaming house faded away, and everyone gathered together to discuss the matter.
Some players swore that they definitely did not vote, while others asked to use a lie detector to find out who actually voted.
Burned Player: "I'd rather die than give it to you."
Xiaohua: "Or give it to me, and ask Pei Wenwei to organize a tax reduction event for Shadow, and we will hire Shadow to kill you."
Someone asked with a guilty conscience: "Are three thousand points worth of props too much?"
The noise from Shadow's side was even louder.
"With his character, if he agrees to something now, he will definitely cheat us to death later?"
"The key is to have a future. Let those who are more capable formulate the contract regulations."
"I'm so annoyed. Why don't you just start not listening to advice?"
The tour guide held the bill and said absentmindedly, "I don't want to wash the dishes, I don't want to wash the dishes..."
You and I were arguing back and forth, and in the end we almost got into a fight, it was just like a vegetable market.
The girl covered her ears silently and moved to the side.
Wen Shi glanced at the clock on the wall. It was already past eleven, and he estimated that it would take until midnight for them to finish arguing. Reluctantly, he walked towards the counter and chatted with the ticket seller to kill time.
The dispute ended faster than Wen had imagined. A few people with a say made the final decision, and under the pressure of the herd mentality, they finally reached a consensus.
"Just as you said...where are the people?"
The player who spoke looked around and finally saw Wen Shi chatting happily with the ticket seller in front of the counter. The ticket seller even gave him a cup of tea and the two of them talked and laughed.
People doing things?!
There was a sudden silence behind him. Wen Shi turned around and raised his eyebrows at Yi Shui's resentful gaze: "Have you thought it through?"
Everyone nodded.
Frankly speaking, the asking price wasn't very high, and it was within the affordable range for most people. Only about half of the player team voted for Wen Shi's shadow, so it didn't cause any conflict within the team.
In the next ten minutes, Wen Shi collected so many props that he was overwhelmed. He felt very sorry that Yingzi didn't have a player number, otherwise he could have earned a lot of points.
"Forget it, one should not be too greedy."
After he goes out and sells it, he can activate the "Come to my house" function.
The terms of the Shadow Contract were drafted by Yu Xingzhou's shadow, taking almost every situation into consideration. They were only willing to agree to do something for Wen Shi as long as it did not violate these terms.
Wen Shi only glanced at the regulations and said, "No problem, sign it."
The restrictions set by Shadow were all for their own safety. Seeing Wen Shi agreed so readily, Shadow Linan seemed to have thought of something.
The young man's face darkened. It was only then that he understood Wen Shi's true intention. He wanted to use these people to restrain himself.
"Be obedient, and I won't secretly instruct anyone to harm you." Wen Shi blinked.
The girl had stood in front of the boy with a serious expression, staring at Wen Shi. When she was not pretending to be soft, her pair of dark pupils were very intimidating.
Wen Shi actually took the initiative to step forward, smiled brightly and said, "Compared to his life, I am more interested in the life of Scarecrow Shadow. My scarecrow needs to evolve."
Some things cannot be copied. They have the same memory, but the boy's skills are far inferior to Wen Shi's.
The girl believed that at his age, she would never have such cunning. The other party's first sentence was to reassure Shadow, implying that the target was the boy. The second sentence was to reassure himself, telling her that apart from the boy, Scarecrow was more important to him.
"Actually, I have a third purpose," Wen Shi said in a low voice, as if he knew what the girl was thinking. "I believe you will know it soon."
As soon as he finished speaking, he used the [King Box].
"I've detected that you are currently in the [Screaming House]. Do you want to refresh the side quests in that area?"
"yes."
The moment the item took effect, everyone heard a notification from the system at the same time:
"Attention everyone, player 460872 has used an item to refresh a group side quest. Since the Screaming House is a required attraction, the quest cannot be reset. You currently have two options:
1. Re-vote
2. The voters remain unchanged, but the Screaming House has been downgraded from a 5A-level scenic spot to a 2A+-level scenic spot. The number and power of different-level skills will be reduced as appropriate.
3. Since this is a collective task, the voting result will be decided by the majority.
Games love to play with human nature. Wen Shi had thought of all the possibilities, but he had never expected that it would do this at the last moment.
The risk is greatly reduced, and the greed of players who have just lost their props is aroused again. It is just a 2A+ scenic spot, and the mortality rate is not too high.
Not to mention Shadow, everything that happened before was enough to show how numerous and terrifying Wen Shi's skills were. If some of them were not sealed, he would become their biggest threat in the subsequent team battles.
Song Yan noticed the changes in their expressions and felt a little scared. He moved to Wen Shi's side and swallowed his saliva: "Will anyone choose number two?"
Wen Shi: "Have you ever seen a gambler stop? Remember to stay closer to Li Nan and the others later."
The 5A rating at the beginning and the subsequent 3A rating seem to be nothing special. This is the perceptual confusion caused by the comparison. In fact, the difficulty of the scenic area, which was originally only A-level, has more than doubled. It is definitely not easy to complete it.
"A black marketeer." Wen Shi sighed.
There's a psychological difference between a price tag of fifty and a price tag of forty-nine. There's basically no difference between a 2A+ and a 3A-, but the former is more acceptable.
This time, the young man next to him didn't curse him as a fool, but instead called him an idiot.
He suddenly felt a sense of human sadness. This was the gambler's mentality: when they threw down their first chip, they were destined to end up with nothing.
Just half a minute later, the game's cold notification sound came online again:
"Option 2 is selected."
"The mission content has been updated."
[Side Quest: Screaming House
Mission Description: After a long journey, you finally arrived at your first stop, the Screaming House. Earlier in your journey, you had enough of a player's arrogance and decided to work together here to seal his skills.
Please read the precautions for visiting the Scream House carefully.
After the announcement ended, the conductor's lips, which had always been suppressed, curved slightly. "Strange, why haven't some of these frozen fossils thawed yet?"
In the plastic basket, only a small part of the fossils thawed and began to wriggle.
I moved my ears to make sure I heard correctly. The tour guide rushed to the counter and said angrily, "We have other trips later and don't have time to wait. Just use as much as you can thaw now."
The ticket seller felt a little regretful, but there was no sign that the remaining fossils would be unsealed, so he could only reissue the ticket and settle the bill.
She wanted to soak the living creatures further, so she went upstairs to make arrangements. Everyone gathered together to read the regulations. There were not many things to pay attention to, except for the one Wen Shi had just seen, there were only two left:
1. Visitors can leave only after experiencing all the themes and cannot stay for more than 30 minutes.
2. Visitors are not allowed to make loud noises. If the noise exceeds a certain decibel, their belongings will be stolen!
It wasn't until half an hour later that the ticket seller came down from upstairs, panting. "You can go up now. Today we have three themed scenes for everyone to enjoy: 'Sword in the Song,' 'A Bowl,' and 'Night of the Resurrection.'"
When Wen Shi heard the name, his mouth opened slightly and he couldn't even control his expression.
You really know how to play games.
The complex and distorted expressions made many people who were eager to explore the other party's secrets become active, mistakenly thinking that this was a kind of anger and shame before the secret was revealed. In addition to fear, they also felt a bit of excitement about the Screaming House, which had been downgraded three levels of scenic spots.
Xiaohua walked over to Wen Shi with a smile, "Would you like to give me some tips?"
Wen Shi knew that Xiaohua would not vote for him. He thought for a moment and said, "Protect her well..."
The ticket seller interrupted their conversation: "Please, all visitors, please go into the house and visit as soon as possible."
Obviously, such communication is not allowed.
Wen Shi glanced suggestively at Xiaohua's head, signaling her to protect it. The first two themes were easy to guess, but the final one, "Night of the Resurrection," was likely targeting the 101 health points.
Under the urging gaze of the ticket seller, everyone lined up to go upstairs, and did not forget to be on guard against each other in the narrow stairwell.
The second floor had a simple curtained door. Li Nan was the first to walk in. He glanced at the people who were deliberately standing back, hoping to enter later, and said, "The tour guide said that our round is a group. If we don't all go in, we can't start the game."
Just as he said, there was no killing after entering. The old wall was white and bulging, with a label hastily pasted on it: Sword in the Curve, representing the theme content.
The room was sparsely furnished, its wallpaper covered in dense ear patterns. Aside from making those with trypophobia uncomfortable, it offered no threat. A sword hung in the center of the wall. Against the wall on the other side, a faceless zombie cradled a harp.
Frozen fossils can only imitate skills, but other details cannot be portrayed, such as the real appearance of the zombies.
Everyone looked around and saw no attempt to hide the truth. It seemed that the Screaming House would directly demonstrate Pei Wenwei's skills to them.
This is simply exposing the secret to the sun.
The few people standing at the end of the team looked at each other. There was a big player in front, and they would take over this skill, which would make things much easier for them.
The thinking is similar, even some powerful players are not too vigilant. They have encountered too many unknowns, so it is inevitable that they will be calm when faced with the cards.
This theme is clearly a combination of sonic and sword attacks.
They still maintained basic vigilance, and when the sword floated in the air, they did not rush forward rashly.
The simple long sword automatically exuded an unstoppable sharpness. At first, it was just the sound of wind, and in a moment it turned into rolling waves. With only one sword, the momentum alone was extremely terrifying.
The game is the best at playing word games in the world. It emphasizes in the prompts that it will reduce the power of skills. However, this sword once killed hundreds of monsters in seconds when helping Wen in the big factory. Even if the game adjusts the power to half, it is still not something ordinary players can resist.
Launching a missile and shooting a gun at an ordinary person have the same effect despite the different power.
"One sword—"
A faint hollow sound rang in everyone's ears. It was the onomatopoeia made by the absurd monster.
The sword did not come straight at them, but first raised an arc. At this time, the three insect people were the ones who reacted the fastest. They did not pin their hopes on others, nor did they expect to resist. They ran towards the zombies without any hesitation.
The insect people did not make any sexual attack movements, but said in unison in a horrible wave of swords: "Tie Tie--"
They shrank in size and stuck to the zombie's shoe. The zombie raised its foot, but in the end failed to crush them with its heel.
As the fat bug passenger on the track said, there are many creatures that have the ability to kill bugs, and considering how disgusting they are, they are too lazy to even step on them.
The long sword seemed to have a strong evil taste, its movement was slow, and it had not yet fully unleashed its killing move.
Seeing that it was slow to move, someone tried to rush forward two steps. At that moment, a long sword slashed through the air, and the whistling sound affected the hearing, so they could only vaguely catch the word "ping".
In such a short time, there was no time for thoughts to function, and they had to rely entirely on instinct. Both Yu Xingzhou and his shadow had to subconsciously use [Time Pause]. Yu Xingzhou was concerned about his teammates and was about to divide the time barrier into one section, which caused him to be half a beat slower. His shadow paused time first, and he himself was temporarily fixed in place.
Shadow seized the opportunity and ran away alone until he saw the almost solid shadows of sword light in the air. Only a few of them were targeting the necks of female players, while the others were all aimed at the lower bodies of male players.
So despicable!
He turned around, carried his original body and rushed out together. This was certainly not a virtue of saving people, but he had never seen such a perverted trick. The first scene was like this, so how could people survive the next two?
The time-stop skill is powerful, but has a cooldown.
Based on his understanding of the original body, the other party will definitely not owe anyone anything, and the next time it is the original body's turn to use a skill, it should take him away.
At this moment, there was only one thought left in Shadow's mind: Look at what they have been forced into, they have no choice but to slow down and save the players.
Worried about the noise, he didn't dare run too fast. Fortunately, the small room was only a few dozen square meters and not far from the door, so he had plenty of time. By the time the blockade was lifted, Shadow had already successfully escaped with his original body.
The exit was also a curtained door. The next themed scene was just ahead, separated by a narrow corridor. Shadow was considering whether to take a look when music started to play behind him.
clang!
Without exception, everyone almost vomited their internal organs the moment they heard the piano music. Some music can pollute the soul.
"Ugh..." The volume couldn't exceed too many decibels, so the player who almost vomited covered his mouth and swallowed it hard. This scene was accidentally seen by other people, and the urge to vomit became even stronger.
After its power was weakened, [One Sword Flattened] slowed down. Three layers of sword energy surged forward. The first wave was barely resisted, but Li Nan used [Rebound] to create a natural barrier for several nearby players. Simultaneously, Xiao Hua used [Imprison] to temporarily seal off a section of space. [Imprison] only had a limited area to block. The sword energy came from all directions, leaving those behind no time to squeeze into a safe area.
Li Nan no longer cared about whether the volume would exceed the decibel level at this moment. He sprinted forward at the fastest speed without hesitation, and the same went for the people around him.
Not everyone has the powerful skills to resist the sword energy. Three seconds later, some people began to feel the chilling coldness in their flesh. When they realized what was happening, their minds went blank and thousands of words turned into a shrill scream.
"ah--"
The sound stunned the earworm fossils hidden in the wallpaper. Out of some subtle sympathy, they were not going to argue too much with these tourists, but some people seemed to be afraid that they couldn't hear it.
"ah--"
There was more than one person screaming.
Downstairs, the tour guide was puzzled. It was the first time she heard tourists making such noises in the Screaming House.
"Killing chickens?" She shook her head.
The cry was like a rooster being strangled.
Wen Shi and the young man, who also had the aura of the Cutting Princess, turned away from each other guiltily.
Upstairs, the nightmare continues.
One sword strike leveled it, and the third wave of sword energy leveled it. After lowering the difficulty, the zombies only uttered three notes. The players with quick reactions endured the severe pain and nausea, and used their last bit of strength to rush forward.
Finally, they rushed out of the small room.
Those who were a few steps slower were not so lucky. Their heads hit the ground with a bang, but their eyes were still open.
The long sword was hung on the wall again, and the zombie hugged the piano and closed his eyes, as if falling into a permanent sleep.
A fishy smell of blood spread across the narrow passages.
Several female players could only look at the ceiling as much as possible to show their final respect.
The insect people who survived the disaster regained their self-esteem amid the tragic scene of many people being covered in blood.
Some people were only concerned about the progress of the dungeon. The players and the big guys in the shadow team counted the number of people at the first moment. In the process, they noticed that at least seven or eight of the people who were still alive had been killed.
At first, they thought these people were quite strong, only shedding tears and taking medicine, and they never cried again after coming out. That was until the person being cut opened his mouth and screamed "ah ah" twice, and they desperately pointed at their ears, indicating that they could not speak or hear.
After exceeding the decibel limit, these people had their voices and hearing removed, including the burned player. This person's vitality was unusually tenacious, and he was still alive, but unfortunately, something in him was gone.
The pervasive despair made Xiaohua feel embarrassed to think about using the rules to trick him.
"May Buddha have mercy on me." She sighed softly.
"Go on." Facing the miserable state of some people, Li Nan lowered his voice deliberately, unable to tell whether he was happy or angry. "Didn't you all choose this yourself?"
At this point, we can only go ahead with it.
They walked to the end and opened the second curtain door. The scene inside was even more perfunctory than the first one. There was only a bloody man holding a bowl standing in the middle, staring at them.
After the bloody experience of the previous battle, another war of attrition would completely wear down one's will. At this time, one must give people some hope. Yu Xingzhou was very decisive. He asked the players to stand behind him, signaled that he would use time pause, and then everyone launched a group attack.
Almost at the same time as he hinted, he set up a time barrier with the position in front of him, and used the skills seamlessly.
In that split second when time stood still, everyone realized how correct this decision was. The bloody man was so fast that he stopped half an inch in front of Yu Xingzhou, still holding the bowl.
Its body was extremely tough and no weapon could penetrate it completely. People with attacking skills took the lead in the attack and they worked together to finally pierce the bloody man's head.
The trip went smoothly, with no casualties, and the unbalanced mentality was slightly adjusted.
Yu Xingzhou said solemnly, "There's only one topic left. I don't want anyone to engage in foolish internal strife at this time." He issued a warning in advance: "Whoever tries to be cunning will be killed by me."
Someone smiled bitterly: "Don't worry."
The first two waves were deadly enough, and no one is willing to gamble with their lives now.
The group walked forward, and for the first time their main focus was not on guarding against the people around them, but on the dangers they might encounter ahead.
…
Downstairs, Wen Shi, the boy, and the tour guide gathered together to eat melon seeds.
The melon seeds belong to the tour guide.
This has nothing to do with letting go of prejudices. Waiting is just too boring.
Wen Shi frowned: "Why did you take so long?"
The first two topics are all about speed, so they shouldn't take that long.
Ignoring him, Wen Shi glanced at the ticket seller and deliberately said to himself: "How strong! He only screamed a few times."
The scene was set by the conductor, who must have known what was going to happen.
The NPC always had a desire to show off his work. The ticket seller's voice was soft, but the corners of his mouth kept rising: "Maybe he wants to shout but can't."
Can't shout out?
Have you become mute?
Wen Shi continued to eat melon seeds, but an unknown emotion flashed in his eyes.
A melon seed kernel accidentally slipped and fell to the ground. When his sight shifted, Wen Shi's eyes met with the tour guide's, and then he looked away calmly.
Under the illumination of the old light bulb, even a melon seed kernel on the ground had a shadow.
Wen Shi stared at it for a long while.
The existence of the shadow interfered with his judgment. Wen Shi had always thought that the focus of this copy was on the struggle between the light and dark sides of human nature, but now it seems that the focus of the problem is not copying, but deprivation.
The game started by taking away their shadows, then blocked their abilities, and now it's taking away their voices.
It takes away the player's belongings one by one. Once everything is taken away, won't the player disappear from the world?
A shadow fell over Wen Shi's heart. He hadn't taken the skill blockage too seriously at first; after all, it only affected a single dungeon, and the downgrade of the scenic area wouldn't completely block it. Now, it seemed, the more things were taken away from the dungeon, the more disadvantaged it would be.
Wen Shi frowned and was thinking about a solution when he heard a prompt from the system:
"Player 460872, your skill [One Sword Flatters All] has been temporarily sealed;"
"Player 460872, your skill [Zombie-Shell Breaking] has been temporarily sealed;"
"Player 460872, your health is temporarily adjusted to 100, zombies are disabled."
"The above blockade period ends before this instance is cleared."
A series of beeps proved that the people upstairs had successfully passed the Screaming Room.
Despite the alarming report, Wen Shi seemed to have second thoughts and chuckled silently. He stood up and walked to the stairs, ready to greet his teammates.
The sound of people coming down the stairs was not loud, and it seemed that everyone's steps were very light.
Wen looked up and saw that some people had horrible bloodstains on their pants and their faces were pale. Some were holding the handrails and walking down the stairs with dull eyes. Some seemed to have aged ten years overnight.
It was not until they saw the lights below that they realized they had escaped from the devil's cave.
Wen Shi coughed lightly: "So long?"
A person, either a player or a shadow, rushed in front of him and pressed down on Wen Shi's shoulder. "Why did it take so long? Let me tell you the answer. We used our skills to cheat in the second theme and worked together to kill a blood corpse. Then we all went to the third theme room, where stood the Black and White Impermanence and the Judge."
"Judge?"
"That's not important. They're all made of paper, they have no offensive power." The man laughed maniacally. "What's important is that the judge, holding a wordless heavenly book, kept spouting nonsense about his lifespan not yet ended and his resurrection tonight. Guess what happened?"
The function that was sealed was the blood lock function, and the judge was responsible for deciding life and death. Wen Shi had already guessed what was going to happen next, but he still cooperated and asked, "What's going on?"
"The blood corpse actually appeared behind us. It's resurrected! After resurrecting on the spot, it rushed over and beat us up!"
This resurrection was beyond everyone's expectations. Some people had their heads split open and were killed. If the resurrected blood corpses hadn't slowed down considerably, at least half would have died right there.
The man was about to collapse, and there was a gap on his head.
"What I cannot accept the most is..."
Wen Shi listened to him patiently.
"I chose the first option! The first option! I requested a re-vote, but a bunch of idiots almost sent me down a path of no return."
"…" Now Wen Shi really began to sympathize with him.
The more miserable the tourists are, the happier the tour guide is.
She'd come over excitedly to see the show, but after seeing the blood-stained pants scattered across the stairwell, she fell silent. After a moment, the tour guide's mocking words turned into an erratic gaze: "Well...it's getting late, everyone should go back home and wash up."