Infinite Weird Game

Chapter 367 Vacation
Jiangcheng Branch of the Weird Investigation Bureau, fifth underground floor.

The cold white light illuminated the containment area like an operating room. In a fully transparent containment room in the core area, dark blue electronic patterns flowed on the glass surface, projecting cold holographic data:

[Strange name: Life Book]

[Type: props]

[Danger level: E (?)]

[Note: Indicates the life status of the named person, red characters for life, black characters for death. It has the same origin as the "Death Book" (danger level A, the effect is to kill the named person within one minute), but has not yet shown any harm to humans, and there is no pollution leakage. ]

In the middle of the containment room stood an ancient book with torn and yellowed edges. The names of the investigators were densely written on the open pages, reminiscent of the legendary Book of Life and Death.

The two names "Fei Zhenqi" and "Ning Xu" were written at the end. They were newly added and were bright red like blood, forming a strange and sharp contrast with the more than ten black words above.

Mu Dongxu put out the cigarette butt into the spittoon which was already full of ashes. Liao Bingchen beside him peeled off the 25th piece of chewing gum and put it into his mouth.

Ever since they lost contact with Ning Xu and the other person, the two of them each brought a stool here and have been sitting outside this shelter for two days - this is the only "battlefield" they are allowed to enter.

After the news of the final copy was confirmed, Fu Jue, Shao Qingmin and a group of people who came from the headquarters took over the affairs of the Jiangcheng Branch. All investigators originally from Jiangcheng were included in the temporary review list, and even applications for external investigations had to go through layers of electronic approval.

Mu Dongxu knew too well the subtext behind this process: most of the original staff of the Jiangcheng Branch were killed in the God's Descent incident, and those who survived were all under suspicion to varying degrees. Not locking them up with the weirdness was already a consideration for past friendship.

"Old Mu, this doesn't make any fucking sense." Liao Bingchen crumpled up the candy wrapper and muttered, "On the one hand, they said they wanted to reduce unnecessary losses in preparation for the final instance, but on the other hand, they packed them up and sent them out. What does that mean?"

Mu Dongxu interrupted, "Don't let your imagination run wild. The investigation into the previous God's Descent incident has not yet come to a conclusion. Be careful not to speak out of turn."

He stared at the [Life Book] behind the glass and lowered his voice: "Sending them out to handle the incident is the least troublesome. Whether it succeeds or fails, the headquarters can't investigate further these days. Otherwise, Chang Xu's mess may not be resolved for a while."

"Hey, isn't this what your second department is responsible for? What does it have to do with the tip?" Liao Bingchen blinked twice. "On the day when the gods descended, our entire first department was out on a mission and didn't come back until noon the next day..."

"Old Liao, Qijia Village is a B-level weirdness. According to the regulations, we must send at least two people there. Xiao Ning is a civilian, so shouldn't we let Xiaofei keep an eye on it?" Mu Dongxu said calmly, but he also had doubts in his heart.

According to normal assignment principles, Ning Xu and Fei Zhenqi belong to different departments and will not be singled out and put together...

He was lost in thought when he saw that the blood color on the names "Fei Zhenqi" and "Ning Xu" in the "Birth Book" behind the glass faded rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if they were erased by an invisible eraser.

His nails gripped the chair handle, making a creaking sound. Mu Dongxu staggered to his feet and wanted to get closer to the glass for a closer look, but he backed off at the last moment and fell heavily on the chair.

Liao Bingchen stopped chewing. Two seconds later, he stood up suddenly and kicked over the chair. "I've said before that E-level props are unreliable. This broken thing will break down sooner or later if you use it every day..."

The following words were so faint that they were almost inaudible. He sat down on the ground dejectedly and laughed, "Hahaha," "I must have made a mistake. I taught Fei Zhenqi step by step. If he encountered something weird that he couldn't handle, he would just run away... He can't die no matter what..."

"There are signs of human intervention in the ghost zone of Qijia Village. If they happen to meet the culprit, it will not be easy to escape." Fu Jue's voice came from the shadows, sounding lukewarmly in the spacious shelter area.

He had also gone down to the fifth underground floor without knowing when, and walked towards Mu Dongxu, his expressionless face showing no emotion: "Five minutes ago, Qi Si was included in the S-level wanted list. The military will immediately block all entrances and exits of Jiangcheng and conduct a carpet search until the final instance is completed."

Mu Dongxu turned slowly and looked into his calm eyes: "Fu Jue, you knew this would be the result, right?"

Fu Jue's eyes swept across the solidified ink on the life book, and then met Mu Dongxu's gaze, with an expression that could not tell whether he was happy or angry.

"My name is also on the review list." He said calmly, turned and walked into the elevator, and the iron door closed behind him.

……

At ten o'clock in the morning on May 5st, Qi Si opened his eyes in a two-story building in Qijia Village.

As a god, he does not need sleep and has no dreams. Last night, he closed his eyes, but was just tracing the roots of the soul leaves and collecting information from every corner of the world.

He was pleased to discover that Dong Xiwen had escaped from the Redan Casino by facilitating a draw in the Survivor game.

This saved him the trouble of offering help, but of course it wasn't that much trouble.

If Dong Xiwen really died in the Ruidanshen Casino, he would most likely just mourn for his loss and look for a new tool.

Qi Si entered the Ruins of Sunset and threw the [Scholar] card to Dong Xiwen who was forcibly summoned, and then turned his attention to the territory of Jiangcheng.

He saw figures armed with real guns and bullets emerging from the border of Jiangcheng. All entrances and exits were blocked, and his photo was placed together with the word "wanted".

The picture was sometimes blurry and sometimes clear, but he could still accurately judge that official forces were conducting a carpet search of Jiangcheng.

Strangely, the search was limited to Jiangcheng.

Qi Si knew that the news of Fei Zhenqi and Ning Xu's death must have been known by the Strange Investigation Bureau through unknown means, and anyone with a discerning eye could see that he was "in Jincheng, not Jiangcheng."

It seems that the manhunt for him was full of showmanship, or perhaps a threat to make him leave Jiangcheng and never come back.

Qi Si sat up from the bed, picked up his phone and swiped the screen boredly, stopping at a chat record from a month ago.

[Jin Yusheng: You should be careful too. Don't leave Jiangcheng before the end of the year. I told you that you are in conflict with any place except Jiangcheng!]

When this message came, Qi Si was in a taxi from Jiangcheng to Jincheng, and he didn't feel that he was unlucky.

Considering the relationship between Jin Yusheng and Ning Xu, is this a sincere reminder or a false inducement?

He was too lazy to think about it.

In short, he had no intention of returning to Jiangcheng until the final copy was completed.

Rather than playing dirty in the sphere of influence of the Weird Investigation Bureau, he would rather stay in Qijia Village, a ghost town that is completely under his control.

Qi shrugged his chin and stared at his phone. He inexplicably found that he was becoming more and more afraid of trouble. It seemed that even playing with people could not arouse his interest in taking action.

If it was a month ago, he might have remotely controlled Weird to kill a few people, create some chaos, and then make the people in the Weird Investigation Bureau run around in circles.

But now, any interest that arises will be dispelled by other boring thoughts. He seems to have become a barren wilderness with no flowers or animals. The strong wind blows silently, only causing the shallow grass to fall down.

Was it the influence of his millions of years of memory as a god? After all, he was an "old man"... Qi Si thought about it in a mess, and felt inexplicably uncomfortable.

The feeling of being a stranger because a piece was missing lingered in his mind, like finding a childhood photo many years later and seeing a completely different face.

But if he really looked into it, he couldn't remember what he had lost or what was missing.

At twelve o'clock noon, Qi Si received a text message from Lin Chen, saying that it was time for the holiday and he hoped to get together in real life to have a meal and discuss some things.

Xu Yao, who had been playing on the computer all day, came out from the corner and peeked at the content of the text message: "Qis, you are going out for a meal, right? This person said he wants to talk about the final dungeon, so will you take me with you?"

She has undoubtedly adapted well to modern life. She has no problem recognizing simplified Chinese characters, and her speaking habits do not show any signs of being ancient.

Qi Si said, "You can go if you want to. I think even if you are unlucky enough to meet the Heavenly Master, you can handle it properly with your ability."

"But this ghost area must be guarded by a ghost of my level. I can't leave." Xu Yao touched his face in distress, his eyes fell on the prayer belt tied on Qi Si's wrist, "Unless there is a kind-hearted ghost willing to replace me, or you catch another ghost? We have to hurry, otherwise I can't enter the final copy..."

Qi Si heard the hidden meaning in her words, silently pulled off Lingzi's prayer belt and summoned Lingzi.

Lingzi, with her face full of cracks and blood, squatted in the middle of the room, staring blankly into the void in front of her. It was obvious that she had not figured out why she was here.

Before she could make any move, the statue of the God of Joy appeared out of thin air in front of her and hovered in mid-air. A blood-colored thread was tied to her left wrist, connecting her and the statue through the air.

"Thank you!" Xu Yao gave Qi Si a mischievous smile, then bent down and touched Lingzi's head, "Little sister, please take good care of the house. Sister is going out to play."

Lingzi: “…”

……

On May 5, the game forum and Sunset Ruins were in chaos.

The forum is filled with posts containing the keyword "life-saving strategy". The content is of varying quality and most of it is garbage. There are also outrageous suggestions such as "chanting the name of God to seek protection from the evil god". Some people even claim that they should kill more people and turn to slaughtering players to cater to the orientation of the supreme rules of the weird game.

Apart from these stupid or bad rumors, the second most common thing is the offline trading posts for props. Many wealthy and powerful people who don’t have many points but have a lot of money are willing to pay a premium to purchase various life-saving props, even if most of the props that enter the market are actually useless, at least they buy them to feel at ease.

A non-governmental group called "Final Dungeon Survival Camp" was spontaneously formed, and posted a message calling on all players who hope to survive the changes to gather in Myanmar Province for survival training. Hundreds of players have signed up so far.

Jiuzhou and Tingfeng held several public meetings in Sunset Ruins, announcing some of the candidates who would enter the final dungeon in order to reassure the players who were not eligible to participate. Although the results were minimal, they did manage to restore some of their reputation.

Human beings have always liked to use fear to reshape new gods on the ruins of the idols they have toppled. On normal days, they are happy to criticize authority and demonstrate freedom, but when the sky really falls, they begin to expect a patriarch to take care of everything for them.

More and more people are calling on Jiuzhou to regain management rights over the game forums and Sunset Ruins, and to lead all human players to fight against the weird game like Ark did in the past.

Fu Jue returned to Jiuzhou in response to public expectations, and immediately set about cracking down on various chaos and stabilizing order.

In the real world, twelve autonomous regions including Xiangcheng, Gulan, and Jerusalem declared independence from the federation, and the Libra Church quickly took over the politics, economy, and military of these regions, which was obviously a long-planned move.

The Federation immediately organized troops to suppress the rebellion, but to everyone's surprise, they returned in defeat. There were rumors that they had seen ghosts on the borders of these autonomous regions.

In the afternoon, Qi Si and Xu Yao arrived at the Tianxianglou Hotel booked by Lin Chen. Xu Yao floated on the ceiling, hiding her figure and did not attract anyone's attention for the time being.

What Qi Si didn't expect was that in addition to Lin Chen, there was also a gray-haired old couple in the box. As soon as they saw Qi Si, they came up to him and said, "You are Qi Si, right? Xiao Chen often talked about you to us at home, saying that you helped take care of him in college, so we thought of treating you to a meal..."

Lin Chen smiled bitterly beside him: "My parents heard that I want to treat you to a meal, so they must come along..."

Qi Si understood the general idea, responded with a smile, and played the role of "college classmate" very well.

Facing Lin Chen's nervous and uneasy look, he sat down calmly and chatted with Lin Chen's parents patiently and appropriately.

By the end of the conversation, they even knew about the embarrassing incident when Lin Chen fell into a mud pit as a child, washed his own clothes to avoid troubling his parents, and was then accused of wetting his pants by his classmates.

Lin Chen smiled awkwardly, and Xu Yao, who was floating on the ceiling, also laughed. As a player, Lin Chen could see her, and he was startled as soon as he looked up, and almost dropped his glass to the ground.

Qi Si held the glass with his hand and teased in a gentle voice: "Lin Chen is meticulous in everything he does at school. I didn't expect him to be so cute when he was a child."

Cheerful laughter rang out in the box. Lin Chen's mother picked up a bag of red dates next to her and handed it to Qi Si, saying with a smile, "Good boy, these are grown by auntie herself. They are sweeter than those sold in the market. Take them back and eat them as snacks.

"We didn't have much education, so we didn't know anything. Xiaochen had to figure it out on his own. He's causing you trouble at school."

Qi Si took the red dates, said thank you, and suddenly felt a subtle sense of disobedience.

He possessed Lin Chen's soul leaf, and should have been able to obtain all the information about Lin Chen, but he didn't know that Lin Chen's parents would also come.

It’s like there’s a filter in the process of cognition, and everything you know and see has been filtered through an invisible existence, leaving behind fragmented and incomplete information…

Qi Si had no appetite for a moment, so he made an excuse to go to the bathroom and walked out of the box.

Behind him, Lin Chen followed out with a worried look on his face.

"Brother Qi, I've had a very strange feeling lately, as if someone is watching me. As long as I appear in any place related to the weird game, he will know where I am. I can only look for you in reality..."

Qi Si stopped, looked back at him and asked, "What happened?"

Lin Chen swallowed his saliva and said, "On the day when Fu Jue and I met in Sunset Ruins, I heard your voice. You said to me: 'My dear president, remember to wear gloves when shaking hands with dangerous people in the future.'

"I felt very strange afterwards, so I contacted you through the soul leaf and asked you what happened. You said that you were indeed passing by at the time and took advantage of Fu Jue's little trick..."

Zeiss narrowed his eyes.

He had no recollection of the two things Lin Chen mentioned. He was sure that he had not contacted Lin Chen on his own initiative since the "Be Careful with the Rabbit" copy came out.

"Brother Qi, I don't know if I'm overthinking it, but I always feel like there's someone playing you, blocking your connection with me, and even trying to replace you..."

Lin Chen's voice was filled with palpable worry, and his tone was strange: "Brother Qi, do you think there will be two of you?"

(End of this chapter)