[Task One: Survive for Ten Days and Nights (Remaining Game Time: 2 hours)]
[Task Two: Find the reason for Pan Pan’s distress (Incomplete, please answer) and resolve them(?)]
[Task 3: Give the Red-Clothed Demon the hairpin she mentioned (Completed)]
Bai Lixin stared at Task Two for a moment and quickly wrote a few words with his consciousness: Reuniting with her mother and aunt.
[Ding! Congratulations, Player Bai Lixin, for completing Task Two.]
[Ding! Congratulations to player Bai Lixin for completing task two. ]
With the system sound, Bai Lixin checked the task bar and found it had already changed to: [Task Two: Find the reason for Pan Pan’s distress (Completed) and resolve it (Completed)]
Escape System: [Congratulations, Player Bai Lixin, for successfully completing Task Two and Task Three. Task rewards will be distributed after returning to the game lobby. There are only two hours left until the end of the copy game, please cherish the remaining time!]
The woman stood on the top of the mountain with Pan Pan in her arms. After waving goodbye to Bai Lixin and his group, she turned and walked towards the other side of the mountain.
When Bai Lixin and his three companions returned to the entrance of Gentle Village, there was half an hour left until the end of the game.
Due to the curse inside the village, Beast Eared Dijia reluctantly bid farewell to Bai Lixin at the village entrance. He pulled Bai Lixin behind a tree where no one was around, his bright eyes fixed on Bai Lixin with determination. “I don’t know why, but after recovering my strength, I remembered something else. Don’t worry, after you leave, I will come to find you soon.”
Bai Lixin was deeply moved.
Beast Eared Dijia kissed Bai Lixin’s smooth forehead. In the gradually romantic atmosphere, he suddenly said, “The wolf cub hasn’t been born yet, how could I let you go.”
Bai Lixin: “…”
‘No thanks, get lost!’
After seeing off Dijia, the three of them returned to the village.
Other players couldn’t wait anymore and Bai Lixin noticed that three players were missing.
Upon inquiry, he found out that those two male players hadn’t been interested in anything since marrying the villagers. Despite other players’ advice, they didn’t listen. In the end, they died in the dead of night and their bodies were thrown into the well.
As for the male player who raped the mute woman, he had also disappeared.
Except for these three, all other players were safe.
They anxiously waited at the village entrance, and eagerly rushed towards Bai Lixin as soon as they saw him.
“Are you guys alright?”
“It’s so good to see you return safely.”
“Thank goodness, coming back is good. Just endure for another half an hour, and we can return to the game lobby soon. Finally, we can leave this hellish place.”
They stood at the village entrance, relatively close to the blue iron house and pigsty.
Occasionally, they could hear the pitiful cries of the pigs, one after another.
Bai Lixin scanned the players one by one. “I’ll tell you the answer to Task Two.”
The players were stunned and quickly opened their task bars, completing the answer under Bai Lixin’s guidance.
One of the players was moved to tears, “Wow, thank you so much. All I thought about was being able to go back alive, I didn’t expect such a pleasant surprise. Is this the benefit of teaming up with a boss? Thank you, boss!”
Li Cancan instantly thought about the boss’s luck value: “…”
Is there a possibility…
Half an hour passed in a blink of an eye. The system prompt welcoming them arrived as scheduled.
[Ding! Game time is up. Congratulations to all players for successfully clearing the copy.]
[Copy [Gentle Village], participants: 20 players, remaining players: 17.]
[The system will activate teleportation in five seconds, teleportation destination: Horror Game Lobby — Player Dormitories.]
[Because this copy unilaterally activated the blocking function, it is permanently closed and will never be opened again.]
[The follow-up storyline of this copy has been sent to all players’ system mailboxes. Players can check it yourselves after returning to the dormitories.]
[Teleportation is starting now . Countdown: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0. Teleportation initiated.]
Under the players’ feet, a massive black vortex appeared.
All players instantly fell into it, disappearing into the darkness.
——————————
After a moment of dizziness, Bai Lixin found his bearings from the weightlessness.
When he opened his eyes, he was back in his dormitory.
He accessed the system and quickly found the system mailbox.
The moment he clicked on the video icon inside the mailbox, he found himself in an immersive holographic projection.
He didn’t know how much time had passed. On this day, when the woman and Skeleton Pan Pan were playing in the yard, a man with long black hair and dressed in a dark luxurious ancient robe walked in slowly.
He exuded an aura of nobility, with a majestic and heroic posture.
The mother and daughter weren’t surprised by the man’s arrival; they just stopped what they were doing and stood there quietly.
The man looked at them and spoke slowly, “I am King Yama, you should be aware.”
The scalded face had already turned towards him, her mind filled with the words of the young man from before. Upon hearing the man’s voice, she hastily spoke, “King Yama, there’s a person who asked me to deliver a message to you. He said his name is ‘Bai Lixin.’”
King Yama fell silent for two seconds. “I know.”
After that, the man’s gaze swept across the courtyard. Bai Lixin wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but he felt like Tuanzi seemed to have glanced his way.
Bai Lixin was momentarily stunned. [Sister System, is this a hologram or something happening in real time?]
Escape System: [Master Bai Lixin, this is definitely a hologram. We simply transmitted the later scenes to your personal terminal. And depending on the level of development you had in the copy, players would see different video contents.]
[For example, for you, because you participated in Pan Pan’s final wish, you would see this kind of scene. But ordinary players would see the scenery of Gentle Village a few years later.]
Bai Lixin looked at Tuanzi in puzzlement and noticed that Tuanzi had already turned his gaze back to the woman. “I know what he wanted to tell me. Ah Jing, even though I am King Yama, your punishment remains yours. You need to be punished in the Underworld for a hundred years. After a hundred years, you can reunite in Yanwang Town. This is the lowest punishment I can offer you.”
“Just a hundred years?” Scalded Face knelt down in excitement, repeatedly kowtowing as tears flowed uncontrollably. “Thank you, King Yama!”
“As for those in Gentle Village…” King Yama turned his body. When his gaze shifted, it once again fell on Bai Lixin.
But it was only a moment. He quickly shifted his gaze as if he had seen Gentle Village across the yard.
A wry smile appeared on the man’s lips. “You’ve given me a great inspiration.”
“Do you know, there were actually no people in Gentle Village. You killed all of them many years ago, Ah Jing.”
“Those you trapped are their souls, not living people. I just didn’t expect that these souls could still harm people. A village with just over twenty people, yet they managed to deceive and manipulate their way to almost a hundred.”
“They were originally supposed to be punished anyway. I was considering how to punish them before, now it seems this village of yours is quite intriguing. How about just moving this village back to the Eighteenth Level of Hell?”
“But there are still some details to be worked out, such as why only women give birth? There’s no gender in the Underworld. I quite admire your creativity in this regard. We’ll discuss it in detail later. If you can provide me with a constructive suggestion, it might count as a significant achievement. Balancing merits and demerits is also possible.”
The woman knelt on the ground, hardly daring to believe what she was hearing. Grateful, she knocked her head heavily on the ground several times, tears streaming down. “Thank you, thank you, King Yama.”
King Yama moved his gaze. When it passed by Bai Lixin, he didn’t look away this time but kept staring in Bai Lixin’s direction.
One man, one god, one father, one son, separated by two different times, met like this.
Bai Lixin met Young King Yama’s gaze, and soon he understood: Tuanzi could see him.
He smiled slightly at Tuanzi, who promptly responded with a knowing smile.
Bai Lixin opened his mouth, about to say something, but he saw Tuanzi shake his head gently, seemingly indicating something to him.
The young man blinked, then promptly closed his mouth.
The two of them stood there, looking at each other.
After a dozen seconds, Tuanzi smiled at Bai Lixin again before turning his head. “Ah Jing, Liang Tingting, Huang Panpan, let’s go.”
As Tuanzi’s voice fell, Bai Lixin’s vision went black, and his surroundings once again transformed into the familiar dormitory.
The holographic projection had ended.
Bai Lixin: “…”
Just now, Tuanzi could see him.
But he hinted that he should not to reveal it.
Why would he do that? Was he afraid that the main brain system would detect something?
If he was worried about the main brain system detecting it, did that mean Tuanzi could also do something to the operation of the horror game lobby?
He could see him through the holographic projection, was he indirectly telling him that he possessed the ability to cross through time and space and enter the game lobby?
Bai Lixin’s initial surprise about Tuanzi being able to see him gradually settled into contemplation.
[Ding! Congratulations to player Bai Lixin for successfully and exceptionally completing all tasks in the [Gentle Village] copy. As this is a welfare copy, points are doubled. Congratulations on receiving 400,000 performance points and 500,000 mall points.]
[You are currently on the 480th floor. Within floors 301 to 600, advancing one floor requires 10,000 performance points. With 400,000 performance points, you can advance 40 floors. Congratulations, Master Bai Lixin, your floor has been upgraded from the 480th floor to the 520th floor.]
[Wow, what godlike speed! Amazing! Please keep up the good work, Master Bai Lixin.]
[Congratulations to player Bai Lixin for unlocking the 500th floor entertainment area, the [Library]. The library contains a vast amount of information and peripherals for players to consult. Borrowing books requires spending mall points, and the mall points needed for each book vary.]
Finally, he had reached the entertainment area on the 500th floor: the library.
After the system announcements, Bai Lixin opened the task bar.
He had completed 40% out his main mission, the requirement to leave the Horror Game.
At level 520, he had completed 40%. It seemed like the game was deliberately trying to keep him from leaving. As long as he was alive, it’s goal was to make him reach the 900th floor.
Now he was on the 520th floor, seemingly just a step away from the 900th floor.
The clock on the wall showed that it was already 9:00 PM. Bai Lixin walked to the window and opened it. Outside was darkness veiled in white fog.
Looking down, he could vaguely see a vast expanse of white clouds. Looking up, there was just a sea of white.
But in the dense fog, he seemed to see the sharp tips almost reaching the sky.
There was a time when he couldn’t even see through this cloud.
But now he was getting closer and closer to the highest point.
After staring at it for a while, Bai Lixin retracted his head.
Ten days of tasks, coupled with the absurd and bizarre journey in the village, and the craziness of the final night, Bai Lixin felt like his bones were falling apart.
Stretching lazily, he bought a clean set of clothes from the points mall and then entered the bathroom.
Soon, the bathroom was enveloped in a hazy white mist.
…
The next day, Bai Lixin woke up naturally, and it was already noon.
Li Cancan and the others had sent him messages, nothing major, just a few simple greetings.
Li Cancan was quite frightened in this copy, and he heard that she had started running a fever as soon as she returned to the game lobby.
After briefly asking about her condition, Bai Lixin got ready and took the elevator to the 500th floor, the library.
The entrance fee was 1,000 points.
After paying the points, he received a library card from the NPC receptionist and walked in.
Rather than calling it a library, it was more like a museum of books.
The architecture inside the library was in the shape of a straight cylindrical tower.
Although the library was only on the 500th floor, it was divided into several floors.
The first floor didn’t contain any books; instead, it displayed black and white photos.
Bai Lixin walked up to the photo closest to the entrance. The photo was black and white, and both its texture and content had a strong sense of the past.
In the first photo, a cube was captured.
Each side was cut very smoothly, and on its glossy surface, intersecting straight lines were carved, giving it a futuristic feel.
This photo only featured this object, and there was no explanation below the photo.
It just awkwardly sat there, its purpose unknown.
However, since it was placed in the library of the Horror Game Lobby, it should have a deep connection with this place.
Bai Lixin stared at the photo for a while before moving on to the second one.
The second photo depicted a simple house.
The house was small, and there was a sign hanging above it indicating it was a bar.
The photo was still black and white. Through the café’s semi-transparent glass, Bai Lixin could see several neatly arranged tables inside. Several people were sitting by the window, and at the far end of the window, a bartender could be seen mixing drinks. The bartender wore a mask, so his facial features couldn’t be seen.
Bai Lixin curiously stared at the bartender for a while.
For some reason, he felt a sense of familiarity as he looked at the bartender’s figure.
He tried to search his memory for a while but couldn’t find a match, so he stopped and withdrew his gaze.
When he withdrew his gaze, his eyes inadvertently passed over a customer by the window, and his expression suddenly froze.
The person who had just been resting his chin in his hand and chatting happily with the person opposite him was now looking out the window. His gaze seemed to be fixed on Bai Lixin.
Bai Lixin blinked, and the photo returned to normal.
There were no customers looking outside, only the ones enjoying their time, resting their chins in their hands and chatting happily with each other.
He stared at the customer by the window for a long time, but the photo remained unchanged.
Everything seemed like his imagination.
But was it really?
Bai Lixin deliberately looked for a while before moving on to the third photo.
This photo had acquired a bit of color, but due to the passage of time, the colors had faded, leaving only a faint layer clinging to the surface.
