Not wanting to die, the teacher NPC closed his eyes and opted for a more detailed explanation: "I'll say a few more words, but that's all. If that still doesn't work, then you're just useless and have no one to blame but yourself."
"Of course." Ren Yifei nodded, knowing that this NPC had reached his limit, so he didn't say anything more.
Even so, the players were pleasantly surprised, as the two extra lines reduced the game's difficulty by at least fifty percent.
The teacher NPC continued drawing pictures. The pictures that appeared afterward were not difficult and were basically free, but many players still guessed them. Even Ren Yifei answered twice and was correct both times.
Forty-five minutes passed quickly, and the school bell rang, signaling the players to return to the train.
Nine people entered the arena, and three died in the end. One died while attacking an NPC, and the other two failed to collect 6 points in the end.
But this is already quite good; many people thought it would be a total annihilation this time. If it weren't for Ren Yifei's brilliant, unpredictable move, a total wipeout... might have been the case.
"Oh, look at the item shop!" one player exclaimed.
Everyone else, including Ren Yifei, opened their phones and went into the item shop. They saw that the price of the "Life and Death Bond" item, which was originally worth 10 points, had skyrocketed to 20 points, and a sentence was solemnly added at the end: "Do not use on NPCs!"
Players who were hoping to exploit this bug were extremely disappointed. Ren Yifei thought to himself: I fixed a bug for them, but I didn't get any reward. What a loss.
However, he was rekindled in his enjoyment of browsing the item shop. Whether an item is useful or not probably depends on how it's used. Trash can become treasure when used correctly.
At this point, the remaining five players all added his contact number. They were filled with curiosity about Ren Yifei; he seemed like a cold and aloof social elite, but what he did was so unexpected.
"My previous promise still stands. You can come and play games with me anytime." The gaming content creator was so excited that he wanted to give him a hug.
Ren Yifei politely declined, as he was not used to close contact with people.
When the time came, Ren Yifei left the game world. He wiped his face and, without wasting a minute, dialed the mysterious number.
"Xing Ming is not. He may not be a participant, or he may be dead, but he has definitely been ruled out. I can't tell you how I did it, but I can assure you that he is not."
"We just found out about this too," the other end said.
"This matter?" Ren Yifei grabbed a strand of hair from his forehead, relaxed slightly, and sat down in a chair.
There was no attempt to hide anything from him; the other party stated directly, "Xing Ming's body was discovered half an hour ago. He appeared in the underground parking lot of an unfinished building. There are no security cameras in that area, and no one lives there. If someone hadn't happened to be jogging nearby with their dog, we probably wouldn't have found out until much later."
Ren Yifei frowned deeply: "Die before 9:30?"
"Judging from the degree of deterioration of the body, the time of death was between 8 p.m. and midnight last night. The other party was very cautious; Xing Ming was completely naked, and there were no suspicious marks on his body."
How did he die?
"sudden death."
Sudden death reminds me of He Jun. Losing a game can lead to sudden death. So, this happened in the game? That means it was around 10 PM last night. He must have had access to the diary beforehand.
Even ghosts have identity cards. He saw the information prompt "Failed Scholar" and knew that Xing Ming's identity couldn't be hidden from the players of the Desolate Corner. So this was done for the officials of this world, to confuse them.
Does the ghost's actions imply that the authorities in the source world caused him a lot of trouble, even leading to his demise?
Ren Yifei felt that this was not impossible.
However, he never considered that players in the Wasteland might choose to cooperate with the official team.
"Judging from the formation of livor mortis, the body appeared in the basement six hours prior. (Leviticus mortis forms between 2 and 14 hours after death; moving the body caused a change in the location of the livor mortis.)"
"Due to road construction these past two days, many side roads have been closed, and only two main roads lead to the unfinished building. We are already checking the road surveillance footage from 10 p.m. last night to 4 p.m. today. If we find anything, we will notify you as soon as possible."
By this time, Ren Yifei had calmed down and cleared away the mess left by the charades game. He said to the phone, "Thank you for telling me all this."
They laughed too: "We can't let our comrades down."
A simple sentence, yet it carries a promise: Don't be afraid, just do it. As long as it's the right thing to do, they will do their best to support you.
Ren Yifei was taken aback and didn't know how to answer. After a long while, he finally said, "Tomorrow, I will check the other three as well."
After hanging up the phone, I was faced with a quiet office. Outside the frosted glass was a pitch-black office building, as dark as the future of the players in this world.
From cautiously following the game rules at the beginning to now exploiting loopholes, Ren Yifei has also grown. He believes other players have done the same, regardless of where they are from.
These are all experiences summarized from individual lives.
The players in this world might be able to escape the nightmare with official help, but what about the players in the Desolate Corner? They were inexplicably brought to this abnormal world and forced to play game after game.
Even Ren Yifei, who enjoys acting, sometimes feels tired and bored; others must feel even more so.
"I wonder if I can practice my skills using the infinite game here," he thought.
Player: Zhong Lan
Level: lv.3
Points: 65
The next game will start at 10 PM.
Next game hint: Suspect X.
Outside of game hours, players are prohibited from revealing the existence of the game to any non-player in any way, directly or indirectly; otherwise, they will be eliminated.
You can send an invitation code to non-players within ten minutes before the game starts. After a successful invitation, you will receive one exemption opportunity.
The first thing he saw wasn't the game notification 'Suspect X', but the changed 'No use of any means, directly or indirectly...'.
It seems this infinite game has also discovered the players' underhanded tactics. Being a relatively young and inexperienced player of the infinite genre, they've left too many loopholes, failing to anticipate that players would use hints, metaphors, and deceptive tactics to reveal game details.
It's alright, everything that needed to be revealed has already been revealed. Now their concern isn't about the game itself, but about some ghost who's in charge.
The game rules state that the existence of the game cannot be revealed, but there is no rule against revealing the existence of a particular player in the game.
See, if you look carefully, there are still loopholes you can exploit.
Yawning, Ren Yifei took a shower and went to sleep. The all-nighter had left him feeling unwell all day, and the sleep he managed to get in the afternoon wasn't enough to make up for it.
Let's talk about the information tomorrow. I'm going to sleep now.
He slept straight through until eight o'clock the next morning when his assistant, Xiao Wei, knocked on the door, and Ren Yifei finally woke up.
After washing up and having breakfast, it was almost nine o'clock. The employees arrived at the company right on time, and a new busy day began.
"Oh, right," Ren Yifei called to his assistant, Xiao Wei, "choose a five-figure set of cosmetics and send it to Xiao Zhang in the secretary's office."
"Huh?" Assistant Xiao Wei didn't react immediately.
His boss is usually very dedicated to his work and keeps himself clean-living, never giving any flirtatious women a chance to get close. So why is he suddenly gifting him cosmetics? And not just any cosmetics, but five figures worth. Doesn't that seem a bit unbecoming of a 'CEO'?
This is too cheap! Why not just pick a set of jewelry?
"I borrowed her loose powder yesterday." Ren Yifei explained clearly in one sentence, leaving no room for speculation.
Assistant Xiao Wei nodded and noted it down, then asked a new question: "General Manager, when do you plan to go downstairs to inspect the work of each department?"
"Remind me before you leave, according to the usual schedule."
"OK."
Assistant Xiao Wei carefully closed the door, leaving him alone in the large office once again.
Ren Yifei took out his identity card:
[Fourth Night: Making a living by writing books.]
[56 players have died; the Ghost Seal is 56% complete.]
More than half of the players have died. It seems the game difficulty was increased again yesterday, which is why so many players who were just getting used to the game died.
To be honest, if it weren't for a small bug in the game—that items could be purchased during dungeons and used on NPCs—the game would have been completely wiped out yesterday.
Oracle bone script? Such an obscure topic, less than one percent of people know about it.
This also reflects that these players from the desolate corner posed a threat to this infinite flow world, and the mini-game panicked.
"I wonder if the next game will be even harder." Ren Yifei sighed; he thought it would be.
With nothing else to do, he opened the player group again and learned that a pop diva had released a song called "Despair Train". In addition, many other famous people were also hinting at or alluding to "Despair Train".
No wonder the rules for mini-games have been changed; their existence is as obvious as a bald man's lice.
"Collecting travel tokens, 10 points per token, 2 tokens available, first come first served."
Ren Yifei posted the request, and in the blink of an eye, the same player, at the same speed, snatched it up in a second.
"How many more?" The other party's calm reply carried an air of domineering confidence, as if to say, "I have plenty of stock."
Ren Yifei was particularly curious about where this person's confidence came from: "Isn't it true that each person can only buy one ticket per day?"
"Reselling," the other party explained.
Oh, so he was just a middleman. But Ren Yifei needed it urgently and was too lazy to haggle. In the end, he exchanged two Travel Tokens for a 'high price' of twenty points. He could buy one more from the item shop to make a total of three.
"Bang bang."
A soft knock sounded at the door. It was indeed his assistant, Xiao Wei, who came to remind him that he could go down and inspect the work of each department.
Ren Yifei closed the communication page and waited for the computer to shut down before going downstairs with his assistant, Xiao Wei, to start looking at the bottom layer.
"Hello, this is Ms. XX's package, and also Mr. XXX's..."
Unfortunately, just as he stepped out of the elevator and arrived at the front desk, he ran into the delivery guy delivering packages—a stack of more than a dozen, all belonging to company employees.
The security guard at the entrance was preparing to sign on behalf of someone.
Ren Yifei glanced at it, about to move on. Suddenly, he stopped and quickly glanced at the deliveryman again.
Assistant Xiao Wei sensed the pause, but as soon as he looked up, he saw that their general manager had already turned and gone to the front desk.
"Why doesn't the company set up a dedicated employee parcel locker? This messy pile of parcels here is an eyesore," he said, quickly glancing at everyone.
"It's him." Ren Yifei's heart was in turmoil. "Is he the mastermind, or merely a tool?"