Rules of the Strange: I Can See Through All the Weird

Just then, the sky suddenly changed.

The vision, which had already turned into a thin mist, was now shrouded in black energy.

A huge, black-red eyeball slowly emerged in the sky.

It opened its eyelids and kept turning its head, its movements extremely choppy, making a "click-click" sound.

Finally, their gaze settled on Qi Tong.

"...Found it."

For some reason, Qi Tong always felt that this thing was very dangerous.

The moment the eyeball appeared, she had already grasped the new item, the "Dagger of Love," in her hand.

Suddenly, a giant hand reached out from below Qi Tong's eyeballs and struck her. Just as Qi Tong managed to dodge it, another hand swiftly attacked her as well.

This thing seems to have the sky as its body, without any human characteristics.

Qi Tong thrust his dagger forward, and the next second, the dagger vanished.

She stared in shock at the eyeball, then immediately calmed down, letting the large hand grasp her and disappear from the spot.

Before the crowd could react to what they had just witnessed, Qi Tong had already vanished.

Xu Ning immediately activated the props in her mind.

"We can't get in touch with Qitong!"

Xu Ning was so anxious that sweat was pouring down her forehead.

Chen Jie also used his props to cut off the live stream.

The live stream was suddenly cut off, but all viewers saw Qi Tong being abducted and disappearing by a large hand.

The audience went to the forum and built a long thread.

Even veteran players who are about to complete the game are paying attention to this incident.

Players being kidnapped is unprecedented in history.

Xu Ning expended a great deal of mental energy, and large beads of sweat rolled down her cheeks and splattered onto the ground.

She trembled uncontrollably and fell backward.

Qin Yu caught her.

Xu Ning leaned against Qin Yu's chest, her breath weak, and managed to utter a few words with difficulty.

"Found it...found it. Let me catch my breath..."

"I've recovered enough to start tracking down the past..."

Anxiety appeared on Qin Yu's usually expressionless face.

He took out a large number of high-quality pills to restore mental energy from his spatial storage and fed them to Xu Ning.

The system announcement sounded.

[The instance is collapsing due to external forces! Players, please escape the instance immediately! Teleportation is in progress!]

Su Xin glanced at the anxious crowd; they showed no sign of leaving.

Su Xin opened her mouth, then closed it again.

Chen Jie could see Su Xin's concerns.

"You go first, we'll go find Qi Tong."

If the instance collapses, everything will be lost. They will resolutely choose to save Qi Tong, but they cannot ask others to go and die with them.

Su Xin nodded: "Okay. I hope we'll meet again."

As soon as she finished speaking, a flash of blue light appeared, and Su Xin disappeared from the spot.

As soon as Xu Ning recovered, she couldn't wait to use the props to track him.

Her face was pale, and her lips trembled slightly.

Her prop has no physical form, and no one can imagine the extent of her suffering.

Xu Ning disregarded her own discomfort; she had only one thought in mind.

That is, to find Qi Tong.

I recalled the blood-red eyeballs and the giant hand that kept spinning in mid-air.

Xu Ning kept praying in her heart.

Wait a little longer, wait for us.

A tearing pain shot through her brain, and Xu Ning couldn't help but cry out in agony.

She kept her eyes closed, accepting everything.

A white light began to spread from her body until it formed a halo that enveloped all three of them.

The aperture then shrank, and all three disappeared along with it.

When Qi Tong opened her eyes again, she was back in her home in reality.

She went through a lot and suffered a lot to save up money to buy the small house.

She got out of bed and walked into the living room, where she saw a woman knitting on the sofa.

She had seen this woman before; she had seen her in her dreams.

She was the woman who took her to kindergarten with that man.

The crackling sounds coming from the kitchen caught Qi Tong's attention.

Qi Tong looked up and saw that the man was there too.

He was wearing an apron and carrying a plate of food to place on the table in the corner of the living room.

He looked at Qi Tong with eyes full of affection.

"You're awake? Come and eat. Daddy made all your favorite dishes."

Qi Tong walked over, and the man who called himself her father had already pulled out a chair for her.

Qi Tong sat down, and the woman who was knitting on the sofa also came over and sat down beside her.

She took a bite of food and placed it in Qi Tong's bowl.

"Eat up, Tongtong, these are all your favorites."

The two of them, each with a chopstick, piled up the rice bowl in front of Qi Tong into a small mountain.

Qi Tong picked up her chopsticks, took the sweet and sour fish from the top of the bowl, and took a bite.

It is salty.

How could it be salty?

The woman pulled two tissues from the box, hugged Qi Tong, and wiped her face.

"Oh, silly child, why are you crying? Your mom and dad are back now, aren't they?"

Qi Tong hugged the woman tightly, his fingers gripping her clothes, and cried his heart out in her arms.

It was as if she had never been the strong person she had always been; she had always been a child who was loved.

It turns out that it's because the tears go into your mouth first that you feel the saltiness.

Having someone who loves you makes you want to cry even when you're hurt.

Over the years, she has longed for such an embrace countless times, and she has been exhausted countless times, but she has never shed a single tear.

She finally understands now that it wasn't that she wasn't tired enough, or that she wasn't heartbroken enough.

She just lacks someone to love her.

She just lacks someone to care about her.

But now that her loving parents are here, it's all a lie.

Qi Tong sat up and wiped the tears from her face.

He hugged his mother and then his father amidst his parents' bewildered gazes.

He then stood up and strode towards the kitchen.

Prayer's father, realizing her intention, shouted loudly.

Qi's mother also begged her to go back, tears streaming down her face.

But Qi Tong's steps did not stop.

She can't stop.

She went to the kitchen, picked up a knife, and ignoring her parents' shouts behind her, cleanly and neatly slit her own throat.

She cannot live in a fantasy world.

Blood gushed out, and Qi Tong's consciousness gradually faded.

I opened my eyes again.

The place in front of her was no longer her warm home.

A huge sphere floated in the air and rotated in front of her, emitting a blue light.

There is a display screen in front of the sphere, densely divided into countless windows.

A person with their hands behind their back is standing in front of the display screen.

She was staring intently at the screen.

"What are you looking at?"

Qi Tong spoke first.

The woman came to her senses and smiled gently.

"Awake?"

"You woke up pretty quickly; very few people can resist the things they crave most in their hearts."

Qi Tong didn't respond; instead, she asked warily.

"What is your purpose in capturing me?"

The woman smiled but didn't speak. She stared blankly at Qi Tong's face, as if she were looking at someone else through that face.

After a long silence, she finally uttered a single sentence.

"Linda, this child looks a lot like you."

A loud crash rang out behind Qi Tong.

It was Xu Ning and the other two who were unconscious.

Qi Tong turned around and looked at the woman in front of him with wary eyes.