The two arrogant soldiers were defeated, and Xiaohua also died.
Wen Shi was scolded and retreated. Now the three of them were squatting in the corner. In the end, Wen Shi acted as the spokesperson: "This is the situation. You can do whatever you want."
This is their only condition. Anyway, the game has clearly indicated that the first clue mission has been successfully triggered, so the Straw Demon must open this mission line no matter what.
The straw demon's hollow eyes were about to become bright as it glared at the three desperate troublemakers.
Wen Shi, preparing to make one last effort, tried to offer a suggestion: "How about just letting it go?"
A large amount of straw ash was blown by the wind. Because it was too scattered to avoid, it covered Wen Shi's face and made him look a little ugly.
Xiaohua, who had just been spat on, said calmly, "I was just about to hit it, but you held me back."
This kind of thing should have been burned long ago.
That has to be able to burn... Wen Shi pressed his eyebrows and stopped talking, waiting to see what the scarecrow was going to do.
The originally lifeless house became completely quiet, and the night became even more sinister for a moment.
Amidst the silence, the tangled straw suddenly rustled, and the straw demon had an idea. It lowered its head benignly, its lips curling even more sharply than before. "Do you want to know the city lord's secret?"
Wen Shi nodded politely, cursing it in his heart for talking nonsense.
The devil spat out another straw from his slit mouth, this time the tip of the straw was covered in black blood.
"Later, time will go back to the point where the city lord possesses the secret."
Wen Shi's guard suddenly increased. The last time he dealt with the Scarecrow, the other party did not mention time travel. The process was simply a formality, and then the time was reversed unexpectedly.
"You can take turns experiencing this time, playing a specific character and manipulating them to uncover the city lord's secrets." The scarecrow laid the hay back down, and he reached the point. "But if, during the performance, you exhibit behavior that doesn't align with the character's logic, you will be deemed a failure, and you will sacrifice your entire soul."
Li Nan got to the point: "Are the three people playing the same role? Will it be considered passed if all of them play the role successfully?"
The Scarecrow nodded in answer to the first question, then shook his head at the second, relaxing the rules: "As long as one succeeds."
The more generous it is, the more disturbing it becomes. The generous winning mechanism suggests the mission is incredibly difficult.
Wen Shi's transformation time was about to end. Looking at the cat's tail that was about to disappear, there was a hint of thought in his eyes.
The game proposed by the Straw Demon fits the theme of "The Horror Club": role-playing.
They need to understand the psychology of the characters they play and not let their character designs collapse. At the same time, they also have to be careful about other things. For example, if they go back in time, any behavior that changes history will be immediately erased by the rules.
The Straw Demon also specifically reminded this point, with a strange tone: "Anyone who attempts to change history will become a dead man."
After that, we return to the original question: "Who goes first?"
Wen Shi and Xiao Hua looked at the most stable person at the same time.
Role-playing is something that suits a more stable person better. Li Nan didn't refuse and walked back to the demon.
The scarecrow inserted the black end into his head, and the moon in the night sky appeared a faint blood color, and then more blood-colored mist poured down, surrounding Li Nan's whole body.
The fog was so thick that it was impossible to tell what was happening in the enclosed center.
Wen Shi's gaze silently shifted to the straw demon. From its smug expression, he knew the retracement had been successful. Soon, the demon itself vanished.
During the long wait, Xiaohua glanced at her phone and said, "We don't have much time left."
Including the time it took to get there by taxi, more than an hour had passed.
"Not much, but enough." Wen Shi thought that what he needed to worry about more right now was the mission itself.
The Straw Demon's ability cannot be compared with that in the game. In the replay of the quality inspection area of the large factory, the time inside and outside is almost one to one, but it is just the opposite in the Sealed Coffin Village. He wasted most of the night at that time, but after returning to the copy world, not much time had passed.
That being said, waiting is the most exhausting thing. After only twenty minutes, the two of them were growing increasingly anxious. Xiaohua found a tree to lean against, tapping the trunk with her fingernails until she was about to dent the bark when the red mist before them finally changed.
The fog dissipated, and a familiar figure walked out. Facing the two people's questioning eyes, Li Nan shook his head slightly: "It didn't work."
The scarecrow reappeared, seemingly not surprised by the ending, and smiled with particular satisfaction.
While guarding against the demon, Xiaohua asked directly, "What happened?"
The Scarecrow ignored their exchange of information and gave a cold reminder: "Thirty seconds."
This means that each person has thirty seconds to communicate.
Generally speaking, all the requirements expressed by NPCs have been carefully calculated by the game.
Xiaohua's brows haven't been furrowed as much as tonight, even if she has only frowned for a whole year. This is a special opportunity for players to communicate. How bad is this clue mission?
Li Nan took the time to explain the situation. Xiaohua didn't dare to be distracted and listened attentively.
"All information was unknown. I had no idea who I was playing from the beginning to the end. No natives came forward to communicate, and I couldn't even make out the character's face; it was a complete mosaic." Li Nan emphasized the important information: "I staked out the city lord's residence for half the night, and just before dawn, I received a notification that my roleplay had failed."
"...A thief sneaked in through the inner door, screamed briefly, and never came out again."
With only a few seconds left, Xiaohua looked at Wen Shi and asked, "Any ideas?"
Li Nan's method was correct: first, he'd learn the secrets of the city lord's residence. Unfortunately, the character he played didn't seem very composed. This choice of merely monitoring without immediate action was deemed OOC.
With just a few words, Wen Shi didn't have any thoughts and took the initiative to say, "It's my turn this time."
He and Li Nan's personalities are at two extremes. If we explore the past and the present, the information we get can be compared.
When Wen Shi walked towards the straw demon, Li Nan seemed to have caught a cold and coughed lightly twice.
The straw demon began to insert straw.
"hiss."
When the blood-stained straw was inserted into his head, it was much more uncomfortable than the previous time, almost a severe pain. Wen Shi was breathing slightly.
The blood mist hit, and the sky was dark. It was hard to tell whether he fainted from the pain or from the dizziness caused by the teleportation.
When I opened my eyes again, the sky was just as dark. The artificial hills, the black stones... these elements were reflected in my pupils, as if there was no such thing as looking back.
Wen Shi looked around and found that Xiaohua and the others were gone, and the wandering corpses had also disappeared mysteriously and could no longer be summoned. All this showed that he had truly returned to the past.
[Your skills will be temporarily frozen]
[Your props will be temporarily frozen]
[Please make a decision as soon as possible and find the most suitable identity for your role among all the professions in the Golden City]
"The teleportation point is still at the city lord's residence." Li Nan said it concisely. Wen Shi originally thought that he had been teleported somewhere outside and there might be some clues that he had overlooked. Now it seemed that there was no oversight at all.
The monsters' barrage can still be seen on the electronic watch face.
Wen Shi took a quick look and found that some monsters who had seen Boss Mei retreat were @ed back, and their comments generally said that they had not seen this branch line in that chapter before.
Wen Shi, who wanted to catch some scattered clues from the audience's words, completely gave up.
Suddenly, a sound of footsteps was heard from the front, which was being concealed, and Wen Shi quickly hid behind a tree.
A furtive figure appeared. As he approached, he revealed himself to be a thin man wearing a black sportswear and carrying a backpack. The zipper wasn't fully closed, revealing the end of a hemp rope. An orange-gray box hung from his waist, and there was a slight metallic clang as he walked.
Wen Shi had seen thieves carrying this kind of box when houses were broken into before. It usually contained professional lock-picking tools.
The person who came should be the thief mentioned by Li Nan.
The thief did not trigger the ghost wall that the player encountered, and easily came to the second door. Seeing that there was no one around, he bent down and walked in carefully.
The black air in the house became more intense, almost overflowing.
If Li Nan had not made a mistake in his trial, Wen Shi would not have wanted to step into this yard at all. After all, the formation was set up in the first yard. Even if the thief died, the body would most likely be transported out and buried somewhere here. It would be the same to observe it later.
But he had to follow in now, and when he passed a puddle of water on the ground, Wen Shi's eyes fixed.
It's blurrier than mosaic, and the reflection in the water can't even make out a basic human shape.
"What a trap!" I couldn't see his face clearly, and he had nothing in his pockets. How could this be role-playing? It was more like a guessing game.
The scenery behind the second door is not much different from that of the front yard. The only difference is that there are not so many piled stones on the ground.
The thief walked forward, took out a stethoscope-like object, leaned on the third door and listened carefully to make sure that he did not hear any footsteps.
This greatly relieved him. Thief was also a profession in the Golden City, but the information was not disclosed to the public. If someone could really steal something from the city lord's residence, they would not be held accountable afterwards.
The buddy he'd been hanging around with the last time said the third door of the city lord's house was the hardest to open. As long as you pay attention to the patrols at 3 a.m., it's easy to steal something from the warehouse. Don't touch anything in the safe, or it'll trigger the alarm.
The four walls are made of black bricks, there is anti-climbing barbed wire on the top of the wall, and the third door is a smart electronic door.
It was already past three o'clock. The thief took out the prepared magnetic card and ball-end cutter and skillfully unlocked the door. In less than a minute, there was a click and the door opened.
Everything went smoothly, and the thief couldn't help but smile. He pushed the door open a crack, and to avoid making too much noise, he stepped in sideways. Wen Shi also came out from behind the tree, ready to go in together.
The dark moon was high in the sky, and Wen Shi, who was following from a distance, was blinded by a bright light and closed his eyes.
Thieves are accustomed to bending over and sticking their heads inside to peer in. The thief, halfway through the door, suddenly felt a chill. The moment he looked up, a pair of dark, rigid eyes stared at him intently. Behind the door stood a man holding a large knife. The man was much taller than him, brandishing the knife with a condescending attitude.
The smile on the thief's face froze, and he subconsciously opened his mouth. Before he could let out a shrill scream, scarlet blood cut through the darkness.
A head fell from mid-air, and half of the thief's body was still at the door, standing still, and it took a few seconds before he fell down.
Wen Shi almost exclaimed "Fuck" and quickly retreated.
Soon the door was completely opened from the inside. Wen Shi held his breath and looked sideways, not daring to make any sound.
Taking a peek in the moonlight, I saw a pale, sickly face. After the other person appeared, he actually took off his mask, and the entire lower half of his face was almost covered with purple-red patches.
"Corpse spots." Wen Shi was shocked.
Judging from the exposed outline and figure, it can be determined that this person is the city lord. This is the first time he has seen the other person take off his mask.
Wen Shi had long suspected that the city lord was not a living person, but he did not expect that he was so cold that even corpse spots appeared.
Facing the blood all over the ground, the city lord's eyes were quite indifferent.
Standing calmly in front of the thief's body, the city lord cut open the thief's stomach with the tip of the knife and took out his internal organs more skillfully than the thief had picked the lock before.
Wen Shi stopped peeping and realized for the first time that having good hearing was also a problem. He could imagine the sticky sound when the organs were taken out even without seeing them.
His back pressed against the rough bark of the tree. He didn't know if it was an illusion, but this city lord was subtly different from the one he remembered. Even though the bodyguards hadn't really cared about his life or death that day, the city lord he had met was generally quite friendly. It was hard to connect him with the executioner who was disemboweling him.
The moment the footsteps sounded, Wen Shi became a little nervous. His skills and props were now blocked, and he would be in trouble if he was discovered.
Fortunately, the footsteps were moving away and not coming towards him.
When Wen Shi found the body still there, he thought for a moment and did not rush out to check immediately, but continued to stand there.
This was a relatively wise judgment. The city lord returned soon and brought a thick red candle.
Wen Shi stuck his head out again and saw a few inconspicuous black straws stuck under the red candle.
After lighting the candle himself, the courtyard brightened slightly, the faint flames floating like ghosts in the night. The corpse was affixed to the red candle with wax, and the city lord walked to the other side.
Wen Shi pressed closer to the tree, and the distance between them was now less than two meters.
He could control his breathing, but he couldn't control the violent beating of his heart. He could only press his chest and try not to make any noise.
The city lord vaguely felt something, looked up and saw the branches swaying in the wind. Without thinking much, he picked up the head and put it together to form a complete body.
Four people hold candles.
Wen Shi understood the city lord's trick.
Qian Lai had mentioned this story to him in the Mirror House, but now it was a person holding a candle. By hollowing out a person and gluing them to the candle, the dying person could extend their lifespan.
The city lord had corpse spots on his body, and it was obvious that he was forcibly prolonging his life, so the effect was a little poor.
The candle burned quickly, and Wen Shi thought about what he needed to do next.
At present, it seems that he has completed his mission. The city lord's secret is that he is a living dead and has been relying on sting law enforcement to prolong his life. Wen Shi can imagine the other party's operation, occasionally letting some thieves taste the sweetness, letting them go, and then coaxing more thieves to come.
Perhaps he was also a thief who happened to witness this horrific incident. According to normal reasoning, he should now wait for an opportunity to escape. After leaving the city lord's residence, he would have completed his role-playing for the night.
But there are two points that don't make sense.
Why did the city lord want to participate in Boss Mei's gambling game to help himself put aside the chips?
Looking beyond the mission itself and from the boss's perspective, if the mission was just that difficult, there would be no reason for the Straw Demon to keep laughing.
The sun rose very early in the Golden City, and an overly bright morning star appeared dimly in advance. Li Nan received the notification sound of mission failure when it was almost dawn. Wen Shi half-closed his eyes, quite hesitant.
The discussion in the comment section is in full swing:
"The fear bar is going up! I haven't seen this line, but I have a sixth feeling that the protagonist is going to die, hahahaha."
"He also sacrificed his life to let us see the story behind the scenes. No wonder there's a soul-locking formation in the front yard. The living dead need to be nourished by Yin energy at all times."
"It's not a dead end yet, but I agree with what was said above. The Straw Demon won't give such a simple question. It seems that the protagonist has been idle and doing nothing, and he will die sooner or later."
The monsters were talking to each other, and seeing Wen Shi in trouble, the happiest people were the audience behind the ghost gate.
Wen Shi's lips suddenly moved, and he murmured almost silently: "Tools."
No matter what he came here for, he shouldn't come empty-handed. Wen Shi had already carefully checked his clothes and trouser pockets, but found nothing.
Looking back at all the words that the Straw Demon said, there was one sentence that didn't seem right.
When you come to the Golden City, you have to consider things from the perspective of the city people. What Wen Shi lacks the least is capitalist thinking. He changed his thinking and stopped speculating about the psychology of unknown characters. He began to think about what he should do to maximize his benefits if he were in their shoes.
After a while, his eyelashes drooped even lower, and an idea that was too crazy to describe began to grow.
An unprecedented solemnity flashed across Wen Shi's expression. He knew that if he tried to do this, he would either succeed or be reborn.
He leaned a little sideways again and saw that the candles in the yard were almost burned out. When Wen Shi raised his eyes again, his gaze suddenly became firm.
He concentrated, trying to identify himself in his mind.
"The matching character identity is... a killer."
[Are you sure your character card is a killer?]
[yes.]
After Wen Shi answered, he immediately checked the items he was carrying again.
His pockets were empty, but during the inspection, his fingers touched something sharp and cold. Wen Shi was stunned and touched it. He found a small pendant on his neck.
The pendant was as blurry as his face, but from the feel, it looked like scales.
When Wen Shi's fingertips touched the center of the scales, he suddenly had the illusion that he was about to evolve into a wild beast. His muscles tensed and the strength in his body continued to rise. This time, Wen Shi no longer hesitated. He seized the moment when he was full of strength and jumped out like a cheetah!
The city lord felt a surge of urgency and immediately turned around with his sword. He put the sword aside temporarily while doing the candle-holding trick. The distance was not far, but Wen Shi's speed was a little faster.
Facing the approaching black shadow, the city lord sneered, formed his five fingers into claws, and grabbed backwards fiercely.
The black shadow disappeared, and the calmness in the city lord's eyes disappeared along with it.
"How could it be…"
The next second, the black shadow appeared behind him again and strangled the city lord's neck directly. The scales in his hand were no less terrifying than the blade.
Xiao Bailing: Oh my god! Is he crazy? He actually wants to kill the city lord.
Patient 109: You overestimate lunatics. Even lunatics have a desire to live. Openly changing the past in the old days, isn't that just courting death?
Patient 233: @Frank Hospital Schizophrenia Patient @Organic Mental Disorder, don't sleep, come over and watch someone commit suicide.
"You..." Every night when someone was going to be killed, the city lord would not leave many people in the mansion, and the sound squeezed out of his throat would not attract the guards who came to patrol the inner courtyard at intervals.
Wen Shi was very ruthless in his attack. His scales had the function of cutting through space individually. Not to mention the city lord, even he himself was shocked.
Seizing this advantage tightly, the moment Wen Shi successfully locked the throat, he pointed the sharp end of the scale downward and rubbed it forcefully against the cold neck.
There are many taboos in time travel, and killing the city lord is definitely a crazy and suicidal act.
The Straw Demon once specifically reminded them not to try to change history, but it was this reminder that made Wen Shi suspicious. The rest of his words were introducing the rules of the game. The Straw Demon would not be so kind as to worry that they would violate taboos.
The more it forbids you from doing something, the more carefully you should consider it.
The city lord's blood was black, like a piece of meat that had been wrapped in cloth for a long time. When it was opened, it was all spoiled solution.
The taste was too disgusting. Wen Shi resisted the urge to vomit, fearing that he would not die, so he cut another hole.
The stiff body trembled violently twice, and blood gurgled out of the cut wound. Wen Shi used his arms to hold the other person tightly. The scales on his hands seemed to be born to be used as weapons. At this moment, his strength was unprecedentedly great.
Wen Shijing waited for the city lord Yan to breathe his last.
The whole process lasted for several minutes. The city lord's physical condition was different from that of an ordinary person. Only when his struggling hands fell down weakly did he drag the body aside and begin to clean up the scene.
After a brief silence, the comment section ushered in a round of explosion:
"He killed the city lord, why didn't he die!"
"He killed the city lord, why didn't he die!"
The same message seemed to be copied and pasted by other monsters, constantly flooding the screen, making it almost impossible to see other comments. Some monsters, in extreme confusion, even openly @ed the Mirror God. As for the evil star, the Death Gate God, no monster dared to @ him, even if they were killed.
Wen Shi, who was using a machete as a shovel and digging a hole, actually took the initiative to respond to the comments.
"The City Lord is just a character in the story. Why can't he be killed?" The corners of his lips curled up in a strange arc: "Go back in time, kill the City Lord, then play him again, do what the City Lord would do, and keep the story going."
There is a very important sentence in the background of the copy: the plot can deviate within a reasonable range.
The city lord's daily focus is on borrowing life and sting enforcement. If you keep an eye on someone for a while in advance, you can imitate them more carefully.
The corpse decayed very quickly, and before the pit was dug very deep, it had almost dissolved into a pool of mud, which saved a lot of trouble.
"Inherit the city lord's wealth and take over his territory..."
Wen Shi sighed that his intuition was still very accurate. Even after his body disappeared, when he was just teleported here, he had the urge to lift his tail and patrol the territory.
There is also some speculated information that he did not disclose to the live broadcast room.
The rules have not yet erased him, indicating that the killer's identity card speculation is absolutely correct. The city lord in the old times has been killed, and the current Golden City Lord is played by the killer.
The scales used as weapons can divide space individually, a function that Wen Shi is very familiar with.
In the previous instance, Jian Qingrong's shadow took the Mermaid King's scale from the bottom of the lake outside the school. That scale happened to have the same use -
Will we meet again? -
soon.
The conversation they had when they parted that night came to mind... Wen Shi closed his eyes, completely blocking all the information.
After Shadow took the scales, he used the straw demon to go back in time, killed the city lord, and then played the role of the city lord waiting for his arrival.
His temples couldn't help but throb slightly. The demon in the shrine probably knew the city lord's true identity long ago. Wen Shi even suspected that the demon was Jian Qingrong or the little octopus.
Because after he became a bodyguard, the devil had suggested that he become a killer for free. A devil with ten thousand thoughts and ideas never said a word of nonsense.
Considering the identity of tonight's character card, this is simply a disguised clue of the topic!