Faced with this extraordinary self-confidence, Zhao Sanliang laughed dryly and waved his hands repeatedly: "Goodbye, I can't bear it."
Sur shaved a piece of fish and dipped it in vinegar, intending to eat it directly, but he suddenly put down his chopsticks halfway and talked about the last clue left by the loyal servant guarding the tomb.
"Red paper, new clothes, and a perm on the hair," Yao Zhi adjusted the frame of his glasses. "Just listening to this sentence, there are wedding elements."
The topic shifted, and Zhao Sanliang couldn't wait to join in the discussion. "That last line is a bit eerie, 'The young man and the coffin dance with red sleeves.' It's mainly because of the word 'coffin'. It might be related to ghost marriage."
"Ghost marriage?" Su Er raised an eyebrow: "This is my strong point."
"…"
Zhao Sanliang buried his head in eating silently. Yao Zhi felt that as a teacher, he needed to correct his student's absurd ideas, but when he met Suer's calm eyes, he swallowed his words back.
Just before the atmosphere froze, Ji Heng finally spoke: "We'll only know what it is once we enter the dungeon."
Speaking of ghost marriages, the methods of handling them are different in different dynasties and places. Collecting relevant information is not very useful and may even affect your judgment.
Su Er nodded and continued, "The host suggested that I enter the game on the 13th, saying that it would be a bad day for everything."
Ji Heng thought about it and actually agreed: "Do as he says."
Once the chat involves games, everyone loses interest.
Zhao Sanliang's eyes flickered between Ji Heng and Su Er. After a long moment, he asked, "Boss, are you still planning to form a team?"
Ji Heng nodded and looked at him: "When are you going to go to the dungeon?"
Zhao Sanliang: "The day after tomorrow."
Ji Heng paused for a moment and said, "If you come back alive, remember to post a transaction information at the transfer station and purchase the team props."
Zhao Sanliang said "Oh" and looked at Su Er with some distress. He sat over and whispered, "It seems that you don't have the chance to have a romantic encounter again."
Soul: "What do you mean?"
Zhao Sanliang: "They're all curious about your achievements. I heard that a few organizations are trying to use a honey trap, thinking that you're easy to seduce at such a young age."
Su Er was surprised: "Would someone really use such a method?"
Zhao Sanliang smiled meaningfully, "It's a pity that whenever the boss is here, even if we have ideas, we can't implement them in front of him."
Su Er breathed a sigh of relief, his tone rather thankful: "Dealing with peach blossoms takes up too much time, and studies are the most important thing right now."
Zhao Sanliang twitched the corner of his mouth and sat back down.
Yao Zhize affirmed: "You are right."
·
There are still nearly two weeks before the next dungeon. During this period, Suer's life is very regular. He goes to school and goes home on time, and the loyal tomb guardian has not appeared in his dreams again.
If there was one interlude, it was probably the recurring dreams of snakes. In those dreams, the sky was filled with a pair of large, round eyes, staring intently at him, clamoring for blood.
Su Er wouldn't harm himself to feed a ring. He was just an ordinary student, and it was even more impossible for him to buy blood on the black market. This eyeball was too strange, and Su Er was always worried that when it grew to a certain size, it would devour him for nutrients.
No one was willing to give in, and before they knew it, a strange confrontation formed between the two sides.
Time jumped to the 13th. Suer and Ji Heng agreed to meet at the transfer station at 8 o'clock in the evening.
Ji Heng is preparing to use team props.
"Is it feasible?" Su Er was a little skeptical.
Ji Heng: "Previously, the game clearly stated that you needed a card to enter the dungeon, but this time it's different. The stamps are given to you by the host."
Su Er was thoughtful: "So the team props can play a role?"
Ji Heng smiled and crushed a bead in his hand: "Try it and you will know."
Unexpectedly, the transmission time was unusually long, as if there was a time gap in the middle. Su Er was immersed in darkness, and a prompt sounded in his ears:
In a remote place, there is a group of people who dream of going to a free town. Among them is a family mediator who is good at mediating, a loving newlywed couple, two bachelors who can't find wives, and three poor wives who have been suffering from domestic violence for a long time.
You are a bachelor who cannot find a wife. Please find the stamp leading to the Free Town as soon as possible to embrace a brand new life.]
The moment the prompt sound ended, Su Er found himself wearing tattered clothes, leaning against a dark corner, and the smell of alcohol permeated his whole body.
Obviously, this instance has assigned an identity to the player.
After Su Er came to his senses, he immediately looked at the ring on his hand and found that it was still there.
The loyal tomb guardian said that it could be retracted and released freely. Sur tried to order the eyeball to return to the body, but the ring seemed reluctant and gradually disappeared after a few seconds.
"It's worth it." At least the transaction didn't lose money.
If the ring becomes uncontrollable and cannot be closed like before, the worst that can happen is to throw it aside.
Sur stood up and observed the surrounding environment. The street not far away was in shabby condition, with many small advertisements on the walls, and the pedestrians were dressed rather simply.
I looked around but didn't see any other players, let alone the host.
"Help!"
A wailing sound was heard.
Sur walked out of the alley and saw a woman with disheveled hair running away frantically, but the pedestrians on the street just dodged. The aunt selling vegetables carefully protected the vegetable stall and growled at people not to step on her vegetables.
When I ran a little closer, I saw that the woman had a badge.
The other party also saw Sur, gritted his teeth and ran over, stopping shouting for help for fear of exposing his position.
The alley ended in a dead end, so Soul grabbed her and jumped into a trash can, blocking it with the lid.
"Fuck." The woman gasped and blurted out a curse word.
Suer: "What's going on?"
As fellow players, it can be considered a different kind of meeting an old friend in a foreign land.
Woman: "The identity assigned to me by the copy is a woman who is being abused."
Sur's hand never left the stun gun, and he was skeptical about this statement. The players were all strong in fighting, so why would they be chased and beaten?
The trash can was dark and dirty. The woman covered her mouth and nose and explained, "For one hour every day, my strength is depleted and I can only passively take the beating."
Soul: "There are many ways for the weak to defeat the strong."
Woman: "Someone once planted a rat poison and thought it would go unnoticed. Unexpectedly, they were taken to the police station the next day and told they would be sentenced."
In this world, the Governance Bureau exercises the powers of the Police Department.
Su Er heard something wrong and frowned and asked, "When did you enter the game?"
Woman: "Two days ago."
Su Er was a little surprised.
Across the darkness, the woman seemed to understand his confusion: "Everyone entered the dungeon at different times this time. There was also a player who had been in for five days, but died yesterday."
The woman cursed, "Damn this setup! I went to the Bureau of Justice to file a report, and they told me they'd focus on mediation. Divorces must be approved by a family mediator, but the family mediator is also a player, and they're set up to make the data look good, so they won't approve divorces. Every time I try to escape, I'm caught and beaten again."
"…"
"Learn from the past. If you kill your husband, you'll be caught immediately. No matter what the final punishment is, if you stay in jail for seven days and don't complete the task within the stipulated time, you'll be killed!"
Soul sympathized and said, "That sounds pretty tragic."
Woman: "You'd better leave quickly. According to the game settings, I will be found no matter where I hide."
Soul: "Is there no other way?"
The woman sighed, "During the time when my strength is low, I'm bound to be beaten, and I can only waste time chasing each other."
Su Er did not hesitate and walked back to the street. Sure enough, he saw a strong man walking towards him with a stick in his hand and cursing. He asked everyone he met if they had seen my wife.
Su Er pretended to be drunk and staggered over, deliberately pointing in the opposite direction: "She ran towards that place."
The strong man was walking in the direction he said, but he tripped over a stone on the road and when he fell, the stick in his hand flew onto the trash can.
There was a loud thud, and the person inside was frightened and screamed out of reflex.
The sturdy man's eyes changed, he brushed off the dirt on his body and walked over, kicking the trash can fiercely: "You bitch! You're quite good at hiding!"
The woman had no choice but to crawl out and gave Sur a helpless look... See, no matter where she hides, she will be discovered.
Fortunately, an hour had already passed. Just as the burly man was about to kick him again, he suddenly felt a little hungry and said fiercely, "Go back and cook!"
The woman breathed a sigh of relief, tidied her hair, and followed him back.
Without the obstruction of his long hair, Sur could finally see the name on the badge: Xia Zhi.
The smell of alcohol and garbage cans mixed together, and people on the street avoided him.
Su Er also knew that he was annoying, so he took the initiative to walk to a secluded place, looking at the bustling streets with a strange look in his eyes.
The game has always been fair to players. For example, Wen Buyu's strength was average at the beginning, but her identity in the copy was that she was in a romantic relationship with the son of the candidate for the chief of guards, which to a certain extent made up for her lack of strength.
The female player named Xia Zhi had a rather demanding identity. The bachelor's identity, a player in the same dungeon, was much better.
This is not in line with the rules of the game.
Suer lowered his eyes, fearing that there were many unknown pits ahead waiting for him to jump into.
Realizing this, he would rather go with the Summer Solstice setting. At least it is more cruel and obvious. Now if he is not careful, he may trigger the death point.
"Catch him!"
The roar interrupted his thoughts, like a gust of wind blowing over. Su Er watched helplessly as two tall and strong men appeared beside him, holding his arms on the left and right.
"Take away!"
Su Er did not struggle and was detained, pushed and shoved to an unknown place.
No matter how much he imagined, he never expected that he would be taken to the Justice Bureau in the end.
From the office and uniforms, it was clear that this police station was completely unregulated. An elderly woman was crying, saying that a masked man had touched her buttocks while she was closing her stall last night.
As soon as Sur came in, the aunt opened her eyes wide and started cursing.
"It must have been one of them!"
The two of them?
Sur glanced around and soon saw another person on the far left being questioned. He was also dressed in rags and reeked of alcohol. The person turned slightly, and after seeing his profile clearly, Sur almost laughed out loud.
Ji Heng?
Judging from his attire, he is probably the same as me, and is considered a bachelor.
"Everyone in this town knows these two hooligans!" The auntie continued to accuse them, "They can't find a wife, so they set their sights on me!"
Suer did not try to reason with him. From the experience of female players who were abused at home, we can see that reason does not work in a pathological environment.
At this time, every possible one should be rescued.
So he said very straightforwardly: "I did it."
He admitted it so quickly that the crying aunt was stunned.
Su Er: "Sister, you are still charming even in your middle age. I was deceived for a moment."
Someone took the responsibility, so Ji Heng was naturally released. The two of them had no time to communicate privately, and Ji Heng was forcibly driven away.
Behind an iron door, Su Er was expressing his deep regret for not meeting his elder sister and not getting married. Even the people in the administration bureau couldn't stand it and wanted to take him to a dark room and lock him up. But Su Er turned around and banged his head against the wall, shouting that he would not live until he saw his elder sister.
Because of his rogue behavior, he was eventually thrown out as garbage.
Suer staggered down the stairs, still chasing the aunt, and only stopped when he saw Ji Heng.
"Very wonderful." Ji Heng commented on his performance.
Su Er put away his infatuated expression and asked seriously, "Do you have a house to live in?"
Ji Heng shook his head. If he had some money or a house, he would not be mistakenly arrested as a gangster.
Su Er shrugged: "So what are you going to do tonight?"
Two bachelors without houses warming each other under an overpass?
Ji Heng said calmly: "Find the host first."
They walked side by side. The smell from when Sur was hiding in the trash can was still there. Anyone who saw them on the road avoided them, which made the conversation easier.
Ji Heng: "The host didn't show up immediately, which means he has another identity in this world. It's important to find him."
Sur felt that Gentleman Rose was quite lazy. The last copy was just a prefix with a variety show, and in essence he was still doing the job of a host.
"I have a way to try." He stopped, pulled Ji Heng to the corner and said a few words.
·
It gets dark early in the town, and after six in the afternoon, most of the sky is dark.
By nine o'clock, there was basically no one on the road.
The figure of the loyal tomb-keeper was like a ghost, wandering through the streets and alleys. Just as Ji Heng expected, the host also had an identity in this copy: the mysterious guide of the free town.
Wherever he went, he left a stamp.
Some of these stamps will lead players to death, while others will provide hope.
The loyal tomb-guarding servant was followed by a trainee guide, who was learning from him how to do the job of guiding.
"You must always remember that guides belong to darkness," the loyal gravekeeper looked up at the crows perched in the tree. "Only in the long night can we walk freely. Once the townspeople discover our presence, their lust will force them to detain you and me and take the stamps."
"Master Guide." The young intern, who had been listening attentively to the instructions, suddenly stopped and said, "It seems to be you."
The loyal servant guarding the grave stopped and looked in the direction of the intern's finger.
Missing Person Notice:
Name: Shou Mu Zhong Age: 27
He went missing earlier this month, looking tearful and wearing a black windbreaker and black trousers. He is mentally unstable and has a tendency to be violent. If anyone sees him, please report him to the disciplinary office immediately.
In this incomplete missing person notice, not only were the names and ages changed, but the paper used was also tattered and stained, as if it had been picked up from a trash can.
What is even more distinctive is that the poster replaced the photo with a sketch, but the portrait is drawn vividly and realistically.
"Mr. Guide." The intern called out carefully, wanting to know what was going on.
As a cultured and mysterious guide, the loyal tomb keeper stared at the missing person notice for three seconds. Because of his physical condition, his emotions fluctuated and tears began to flow. He wiped his face and cried and cursed: "Damn it!"