The news of Shi Da's death only lasted for two days, and after that, even his subordinates stopped mentioning his name.
Death in the desolate corner is like this: a name etched in the sand, blown away by the wind, vanishing without a trace.
Two days passed after that, and it was a rare sunny day with a clear, transparent sky and an endless expanse of blue sea.
Ren Yifei was lying on the golden sand, sunbathing and replenishing his energy, with a steaming thermos cup beside him.
The seaside scenery is extremely beautiful, the only downside is that it's currently winter and the seaside is a bit cold.
Even when it's cold, he'll still wrap himself in thick winter clothes and drink hot jujube rice porridge while facing the sea.
Rice milk made from ground rice flour, combined with chopped red dates, is not sweet. It's warm, a bit thick, and has the unique sweetness of red dates. Drinking it makes you feel warm all over.
It feels so good to be lazy and do nothing. At this moment, Ren Yifei is like a salted fish that doesn't even want to turn over.
"system."
"Here I am~" the guide sprite jumped out excitedly.
"Saman is treating us to dinner tonight. Call me again in three hours."
"Yes." The guiding spirit was listless, feeling that it was about to fall out of favor. Its host talked about that Saman outside more often than it did!
To maintain harmonious relations with the system, one must guard against fire, theft, and players; the old system proved them right.
"Oh, right," Ren Yifei sat up and took off his blindfold, "shouldn't I bring a gift too?"
He still remembered the last time he ate a box of pastries from someone.
Later I found out that the person who made the pastries was also a high-end connoisseur. He made the pastries purely out of interest, but they were just exceptionally delicious. It wasn't easy to get a box of pastries made by the person himself.
"I don't really understand how players socialize, but if you want to give a gift, why not just give an item?" The guide spirit asked the host with a hint of sadness, showing him 'Ten Gifts to Give to Players'.
"..." Ren Yifei thought of Saman's bold and dazzling golden aura, "Then forget it."
I can't afford to give it to you; I'm poor.
After saying that, Ren Yifei wrapped himself in his cotton-padded coat, rolled it up, and fell asleep on the large recliner.
He has been eating, drinking, and sleeping well these past two days, and his complexion is rosy, making him seem nothing like a player from the Wasteland. Meanwhile, the aftershocks of Nian Tianxi's death continue to reverberate outside.
Nian Tianxi was different from the others; his main source of income was videos, and his influence lay among ordinary players. Therefore, his death had a greater impact on ordinary players than on the top ten.
At least most players have watched one or more of his walkthrough videos, and now all of those videos have disappeared.
After two days, they already knew which instance Nian Tianxi had died in—the 'mini-game'.
A high-end instance, a 100-player raid, that has been around for over a year.
"I remember someone cleared it, but for some reason failed to get the Ghost Card. So, is the dungeon upgraded now? A hundred high-level players were wiped out?!"
The 100-player raid is the perfect dungeon for players who prefer disguise, and it's also the easiest to survive. With both advantages combined, how did Nian Tianxi still die there?
Just how dangerous is this 'mini-game'?
"Nian Tianxi is so powerful. Judging from his previous videos of clearing dungeons, he's like a drop of water disappearing into the ocean. How could he die?"
"The boss in the game world must have been upgraded and mutated, turning into a dungeon type that wipes out the entire party."
"It's really unfortunate. The disguise style is most afraid of encountering this kind of dungeon. There's absolutely no way to reason with them. Whether you're a player or an NPC, you're doomed to die."
Players shared a similar sentiment, realizing that in dungeons where the entire party is wiped out, no strategy is effective.
"Don't be too pessimistic. Maybe Nian Tianxi was just unlucky. There are also those who can achieve a perfect clear even with a team wipe ending. Some can even carry other players to a victory."
"What the person upstairs said is true. Although the dungeon tries its best to kill the players, it is not really a dead end. There is always a glimmer of hope. It just depends on whether you have the ability to seize it."
Against this somber backdrop, Black Rabbit's edited video, "Nobody Knows," was released.
Without Nian Tianxi's video, some players clicked on this walkthrough video from another player using the same "disguise" strategy, hoping for some comfort: "There's another player using the disguise strategy here. Maybe things aren't as bad as we think."
The video begins in an abandoned house, where the Scarlet Witch makes her appearance.
Ren Yifei no longer hides his 'resume' skill, so the audience follows the main perspective to see the contents of the resume.
Seeing the short, uninformative two-line introduction above, everyone's expressions became numb: After using a skill, all they got was this little clue?
Scarlet Witch tried going outside, but her skin cracked and turned gray as soon as she was exposed to sunlight. It seems this character is inhuman and has a constitution that cannot withstand sunlight.
Is it too difficult to disguise oneself? Players couldn't help but worry and put themselves in the shoes of others.
"..." Forget it, don't torture yourself. If you encounter this situation, you can only lie down and accept it.
Then, shifting my gaze, I saw that it was already dusk.
The scene of Scarlet Witch walking from her home to the beach was so beautiful that the editor didn't cut a single frame, presenting the desolation of the post-apocalyptic wasteland to the audience in its entirety.
But before they could marvel at this mysterious and dangerous background, the human hunt for witches began.
"How tragic...so tragic! He's become the enemy of humanity, unable to get any help from NPCs, and is instead being hunted down." Players were stunned by this turn of events. So how did Black Rabbit manage to achieve the ending in such a perilous situation?
The second night was another witch hunt, but this time there were many more players.
The players watching the video couldn't help but worry: the official stance on Black Rabbit is too unfriendly; with that kind of identity, anyone who comes here is doomed.
"Since the walkthrough video is out, there must be no problem." The players comforted themselves, believing that this would definitely be a thrilling game that would restore their confidence.
Despite being hunted, the black rabbit didn't die; instead, he even turned on one of the players.
When the Scarlet Witch, who was lying on top of the player, raised her head, her lips were stained with blood, her expression was straightforward and pure, and her bright red eyes, filled with pure hunger, looked at the screen, the player in front of the screen felt their heart stop.
It's like being targeted by a wild big cat in the jungle.
"No...is Scarlet Witch really a player? Did they cut something wrong and edit out an NPC's perspective?"
"Even when I was alone, I maintained the inhuman state of the Scarlet Witch. My loss was not unjust." The players were all amazed, but only Ke Bei was reflecting.
Black Rabbit missed the last game because he was tied up with trivial matters and the recent adjustments to the difficulty of high-end dungeons.
The difficulty of low- and mid-level games remained largely unchanged. However, the number of team wipes increased in high-level games.
Three years ago, before Ke Bei truly entered the top ten, a similar situation occurred. During that period, the competition among players was extremely fierce; seven or eight of the top thirty players died, and even two of the top ten players perished, allowing Ke Bei to eventually rise to the top.
This is the beginning of another cycle.
He has already sent people to find some life-saving items; at times like this, no high-attack item is as useful as a Nirvana Card.
Legend has it that some games even have items that can instantly save lives. Ke Bei saw one once—a one-time use item that could revive someone as long as they had a breath left. He has already sent someone to look for it.
At this moment, Ke Bei wasn't the only one searching for healing items, because he wasn't the only one feeling threatened. All high-level players, especially those on the leaderboard, were targets of this official purge.
Lower-level players don't have such an intuitive feeling; at most, they'll just wonder why they can't find healing items lately.
It's not that we haven't considered delaying this period, but the authorities won't give us that opportunity.
If the number of players to be eliminated is not reached, the officials will become enraged, and it could escalate into a massacre like it did seven years ago.
All high-end dungeons have been upgraded in difficulty, and the elimination rate of high-end players has reached 50% or even 70% before the great purge ends.
"What a pity, you entered the game a month too early." Ke Bei's fingers brushed across the Scarlet Witch's face on the screen.
He really admired this player, even after the other player destroyed one of his Nirvana cards.
A prodigy who entered the top 100 in just one month, but unfortunately lacking in foundation and resources, he is also at the top of everyone's hunting list this time.
"Have you made contact with Black Rabbit?"
"Refuse letters from strangers," Ke Bei's guiding spirit said coldly.
"I see," Ke Bei coughed twice, a strange smile on his pale face. "I'm adding a reward of one million for Saman's life. The people around him are getting in the way."
"Achoo!" Ren Yifei sneezed on the beach, turned over and continued to sleep soundly, accompanied by the sound of the wind and waves, leading him into his dreamland.
"It hasn't been long, and you've become this useless?"
"Huh?" Ren Yifei 'woke up' and found himself sitting in a cement room with many books hanging in the sky, but a beam of light was shining in from outside.
Following the light, he saw a window appear on the wall.
"My spiritual world... has a window?" Ren Yifei was stunned. Ignoring the white-haired body beside him, he stood up and walked over.
Perhaps it was a sense of trepidation as he approached the window, but the closer he got, the slower he moved, and finally he hesitated: what could be outside?
"Whoosh—" A gust of wind blew in, and the window opened by itself. He smelled a familiar scent of sea breeze and sunshine, warm and comforting.
Ren Yifei took three steps at a time and walked over, and a cartoonish blue sea came into view.
It was an endless expanse of blue oil paint, from which a whale leaped, circled in the air, and crashed down, splashing blue water.
Another blue bulge appeared, a ship emerged, emitting two white smoke rings before turning back into blue liquid and merging into the blue world.
The sea and sky are formed by various shades of blue pigment, the sun twists and turns in a vortex shape, and white clouds crawl around.
This is not the real world, without a doubt, because it is so bizarre, like a child's crayon drawing that keeps changing.
"Boom!" Suddenly, two chubby white clouds collided. Two simple, crying emojis appeared on the chubby clouds. Then, in the blink of an eye, the white clouds turned into dark clouds, the light blue turned into dark blue, and crooked golden lightning struck down. Where the lightning struck, a wobbly, extremely abstract cake floated out, surrounded by circles of simple, drawn hearts.
"Hahaha—" The white-haired man behind him laughed uncontrollably. Ren Yifei slammed the window shut and drew the curtains.
What brings you here?
Author's Note: Cartoon Cake: Look at me~ Look at me~
Ah Fei: *Slap!*