Infinite Weird Game

Chapter 330 Beware of the Rabbit (XII) No Peace for the Dead
The discussion in the live broadcast room was heated.

"Lu Ming is already dead, so what are the players playing? Are they ghosts? This is the first time I've seen a player playing a ghost in a dungeon..."

"I've completed NE before, and the plot is back to familiar territory. I remember the result of the puzzle I solved at the time was that Lu Ming used his own death to make a big news story, which led the media to dig deep into the darkness of Hope Middle School. Unfortunately, the news was suppressed in the end."

"I have a guess. The player may not be a ghost, or even possessed by Lu Ming. There is only one Lu Ming, the designer of the game "Escape from Rabbit God Town". The player is more like a puppet created by Lu Ming to reenact what happened in the past."

"I understand a little bit now. Lu Ming's goal from the beginning to the end was to save Lingzi. Since the news route is not feasible, then he simulated the situation and let the players try to find a feasible route. Is that right?"

……

Qi Si memorized all the clues in Li Fang's desk before putting the documents back in place and closing the drawer.

It's 6:10 and there are still twenty minutes before the wake-up bell rings at 6:30.

But the sky was already bright, and the pale yellow sunlight poured into the school, penetrating into every dark corner like tentacles, dispelling the fog and ghostly shadows.

Qi Si rushed to the dormitory building. After the door was opened, there was no female dormitory manager in the duty room. He wondered if she was still on the second floor catching those girls who ran around at night.

Qi Si lowered his footsteps, walked through the corridor on the first floor, came to the staircase, stepped silently up the steps, and went up to the fourth floor.

Perhaps because it was already daybreak, his passing did not trigger the sensor lights, and the corridors and stairwells were all light gray.

The entire dormitory building was quiet and peaceful. I could even hear some boys snoring peacefully through the door. It seemed that the abnormality last night was just an illusion. Everything in front of me was no different from that of an ordinary dormitory in a middle school.

Qis returned to dormitory 0415. His three roommates were no longer the skeletons he had seen at night. Their faces were rosy and their limbs were alive. They were now lying peacefully in bed, and he could see the rise and fall of their chests through the quilts.

Qis did not disturb anyone. He quietly lay back on the bed, closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep, while reviewing the new information in his mind.

Originally, he thought that the abnormality at Hope Middle School was caused by the Rabbit God, but now it seems that Lu Ming cannot be ruled out as a suspect.

Just one day after Lu Ming's death, the entire Hope Middle School fell into a seven-day loop. The timing was too coincidental, just like a newly dead evil spirit constructed a ghost domain with resentment.

The clue text of Hope Middle School is too complicated, and the NPC's actions are full of the exaggerated feeling of a stage play, which makes Qis think of word games, and then finds that its design is similar to "Escape from Rabbit God Town".

Since Lu Ming was able to design "Escape from Rabbit Town", it is not impossible for him to make Hope Middle School into a game.

Moreover, he had every motivation to do so.

Reiko has only one life, but the method to save her is uncertain, so a fictional world is simulated, starting a cycle of reincarnation until a feasible solution is found and put into practice.

Unfortunately, the system prompts that Reiko's ending has been determined and no one can change her fate.

Everyone failed, or had no intention of saving her, so Lu Ming could only repeat the seven-day cycle over and over again.

The weird game obviously did not agree with Lu Ming's approach, and threw the player into the world of Hope Middle School, with finding Qi Lingzi's body as the main task, just short of telling Lu Ming to give up.

But Lu Ming never gave up and persisted in his pursuit...

Qi Si felt that he seemed to be able to get a glimpse of something from the relationship between Lu Ming and the strange game.

During the "Frog Hospital" copy, he knew that the game's control over certain copies was not very high. Is this the case with this copy as well?
I just don't know what role the Rabbit God plays in this copy.

It is known that the Rabbit God needs to consume his own soul to fulfill a wish. From Qis's perspective, if he were the Rabbit God, he would most likely not be willing to pay attention to his believers, nor would he intend to use his divine power too much.

So, what exactly was the Rabbit God thinking that made him get involved in this mess?
Is it an active intervention with other purposes, or is it because they are forced to do so and are stuck in the mud?

At half past six, the shrill alarm bells rang in all directions, followed by the almost earthquake-like sound of people getting up.

The connected bed boards began to shake violently. Some people twisted themselves like maggots on the bed and yawned unwillingly; some people sat up straight as if they were dead.

Qi Si slowly opened his eyes and sat up. Since he didn't change into pajamas and slept in them, he was the first one to get out of bed.

He quickly folded the quilt and spread the sheets, then looked at the head of the dormitory of bed No. 1: "Which dormitories am I responsible for cleaning today?"

The dormitory head was still deeply in a bad mood after waking up, and thinking of Qi Si's behavior last night, he said unhappily: "We all find the places you touched disgusting and unhygienic. Don't make them dirtier the more you clean..."

"Thank you for your hard work." Qi Si nodded in agreement and walked out.

Behind him, the boy in bed number 2 reacted and asked, "Who will take care of the sanitation that Lu Ming is responsible for? I don't want to clean the toilet..."

The dormitory head also remembered this, but was too embarrassed to change his words, so he pretended to be serious and said, "I'll do it. It just so happens that I have never cleaned this area before. I'll practice and understand the situation."

Qi Si went down to the first floor and saw the female dormitory manager patrolling the corridor on the first floor with a roll call book in her left hand and a loudspeaker in her right hand.

While patrolling, she shouted at the top of her voice: "Don't stay in bed! Go to bed early and get up early for good health, and keep your house clean!"

She seemed to have no recollection of what happened last night. Her gestures and movements were no different from those of a living person, and her face did not show the anger of having caught a large number of undisciplined students.

Seeing Qi Si, she came over and frowned and asked, "Have you finished cleaning your room? You came downstairs so early, did you get up early?"

"Good morning, Teacher Qian!" Qi Si greeted with a smile.

Everyone likes polite children, and the female dormitory manager's expression softened.

Qi Si continued calmly, "I had an acute gastroenteritis attack yesterday. Although I felt much better when I woke up this morning, I still had no strength. The dormitory head took the initiative to ask me to go to the cafeteria first, and he would help me with the cleaning and other things."

"Students need to help each other. You are Teacher Li's students, right? She has taught all of them good kids." The female dormitory manager smiled and asked with concern, "Is your gastroenteritis okay? Although studying is important, you also need to take care of your health."

"I'm fine now, thank you, Teacher Qian!"

Qi Si walked out of the dormitory building but did not go to the cafeteria. He did not want to eat the messy things in the cafeteria at all.

Moreover, as a ghost who died on July 7st, he would not starve to death even if he didn't eat.

Morning reading doesn’t start until 7:30, so there’s still an hour left, enough time to explore a lot of places.

Qi Si walked towards the natural lake in his memory.

The campus was sparsely populated in the early morning, and the road was clean and deserted. He didn't meet anyone along the way, not even the early teachers and the sweepers.

Going around the edge of the playground, you can see the mirror-like lake in the distance, shimmering with ripples. The mist is rising, and the air is filled with a damp smell. Even the sunlight is diluted and cold, as if it is still early morning before dawn. Qi Si walked forward step by step, and suddenly a crooked notice board appeared in front of him. It was written in the handwriting of an elementary school student:

[There is a lake ahead, be careful of drowning]

At the corner of the sign, a piece of A4 paper with half of it missing was taped with a piece of transparent tape, and the words [Number of people drowning: 239] were written in cold printed letters.

Next to it was a black-and-white photo of a recent drowning victim, with delicate features, innocent eyes, and shoulder-length hair. It was Reiko again.

Qi Si has become accustomed to seeing Reiko's dead face in every corner of Hope Middle School.

This copy world tries to sentence Lingzi to death with the simplest and crudest repetitive method, like earnest persuasion and weak intimidation.

But there is always such a living Lingzi in existence. Whether it is because of Lu Ming's obsession or the trick of the Rabbit God, she is unaware of her own death and is active in the copy as an important NPC.

The natural lake was ten meters away from the signboard, but the moment he walked to the signboard, Qis felt a chilling aura, and even had the illusion that the lake was vast and extended to his feet.

He took a step forward, and in an instant he was enveloped by an eerie chill. The fog suddenly became thicker, and his vision was blurred by the vapor, making it almost impossible to see the road ahead.

The school uniform quickly absorbed enough moisture and clung to my body, as if I had fallen into the bottom of a lake and then been fished out of the water.

The originally empty field of vision was suddenly filled with shadowy figures, and Qis heard the childish voices and whispers of students.

"I heard from my mother that because the lake water is not circulated with the outside world, the water inside is dead. The older the lake is, the heavier the negative energy is. Gradually, it will form a demon that will lead people to fall into the bottom of the lake and drown.

"You know what? A lot of people died in the lake at our school. The bodies of the students are all buried at the bottom of the lake. Let's leave quickly. If we don't leave now, the ghosts will know we are here and come out to take our lives."

"The story I heard is different from yours. They didn't fall into the lake and drown. They were killed and then their bodies were thrown into the lake to offer sacrifices to the gods at the bottom of the lake. Otherwise, why would the school accept so many orphans?"

"God? How could there be a god at the bottom of the lake? Shouldn't gods be enshrined in shrines? Why would they be at the bottom of the lake?"

"Of course, that's because that god is an evil god who has killed many people. Two hundred years ago, he killed everyone in a village at a fireworks festival, and was punished by heaven, and sank to the bottom of the lake along with the entire village."

"Since he is an evil god, why should we offer sacrifices to him?"

"To fulfill wishes. Only evil gods can satisfy those greedy and evil wishes. The most painful thing for people living in this world is to have delirium in their hearts without knowing the exact result.

"The evil god has come and told people that they can make their wishes come true by sacrificing lives. What a wonderful thing."

"I did hear that some strange things were found during the construction of the school. I guess that must be the evil god you mentioned. Did the Eternal Life Technology Company know about the existence of the evil god before investing in building the school?"

"So what if we don't know? Human desires have always existed, and everyone has unrealistic fantasies. Human nature is greedy. Who can not have evil desires after seeing the evil god?"

"So, it was the evil god who seduced them? It sounds a bit like a religious fable."

"Who knows? Let's go quickly, the evil god is about to come out..."

The sound gradually faded away, but Qis felt that there were many people standing around him, and they were as wet as he was, as if they had just been pulled out of the water.

He found himself standing in the water without knowing when. The water level had already reached his waist. Pale, wrinkled faces floated on the water like oil, and the sticky, soft skin scratched his arms.

Countless pairs of wet, rotten hands hung on him like ribbons, pulling him gently and unshakably towards the center of the lake.

There seemed to be a person sitting there. Upon closer inspection, I found that the person was leaning back and floating. His pale and pretty face was above the water, and his black hair was floating in the water like ink.

Reiko's drowned body floated weakly, but her eyes were wide open, as if she had sensed Qis's arrival. She slowly turned and looked at him across time and distance.

Scenes emerged before my eyes: a group of girls with blurred faces dragged Lingzi, who had her eyes closed and was unconscious, towards the natural lake step by step, talking to each other.

"What bad luck! I just played the bamboo cage game and asked her to be a 'ghost', and she looked like this. She pretended to be dead very well."

"Yeah, we haven't had the chance to do anything to her yet. Is she trying to scare us? Throw her into the water to sober her up, maybe she will wake up."

"But... she doesn't seem to be breathing..."

"It has nothing to do with us anyway. Who knows if she has any disease?"

"Hurry up, just throw it into the lake, no one will care..."

Qi Si saw the girls throw Reiko's body into the lake and turn away.

The perspective suddenly changed, and he suddenly turned his face, staring at the backs of those girls with resentment and unwillingness.

At that moment, he was actually in the middle of the lake, and once again possessed Lingzi's body...

[Main quest progress has been updated]

[Main Quest: Find Qi Lingzi's Body (5/7)]

Two lines of silver-white text refreshed, and the main task was very close to completion.

Qi Si knew that this was another necessary step to complete the plot, so he gave up the idea of ​​using the pocket watch of fate and let his limbs fall naturally.

He began to sink slowly, and the dark pool water wrapped around him, very gently, yet not allowing him to retreat.

My eyes, which I tried to open as hard as I could, felt uncomfortable because they were soaked in water. The pool water also filled my nasal cavity, irritating my mucous membrane.

But in the blink of an eye, all the discomfort disappeared. Qisi felt as if he had turned into a fish, able to breathe freely underwater.

This is not difficult to understand. After all, he is now the dead Lu Ming, and the dead cannot be drowned.

A faint light appeared in the darkness, and countless golden vines stretched out from the bottom of the pool, entwining Qis's body from all directions, conveying a soothing message.

Qi Si calmed down, and the vines led him to a place at the bottom of the pool. They slowly placed him in a position perpendicular to the bottom of the pool and loosened his restraints.

He stood up straight and looked up. In front of him was a statue of a god in a black robe and a rabbit face, lying silently at the bottom of the pool.

Rabbit God!

(End of this chapter)