Su Er was not aware of the azalea breeding plan that Ji Heng had in mind, otherwise what would be served on the table now would not be food, but "medicine"... the kind that Pan Jinlian gave to Wu Dalang to drink.
He made four dishes and a soup, all of his signature dishes.
"Try it."
Su Er picked up a piece of pork ribs for him and asked, "How is it?"
Ji Heng took a bite and found it sweet and sour and delicious. To be honest, it was really good.
Suer has a special liking for white rice. After swallowing it, he said, "It's not good to always eat takeout. I'm at the age of growing up, so I learned a few dishes."
Ji Heng laughed: "You know how to maintain your health."
Zhu Yun had nearly strangled Su Er to death earlier in the interdimensional encounter, and the painful lesson of the past was still fresh in his mind. He had no intention of moving out of Ji Heng's residence just yet. That night, they both lay on the same large bed as usual. As soon as they touched the pillow, the accumulated fatigue from the past few days in the dungeon overwhelmed them, and they soon fell into a deep sleep.
Ji Heng dreamed of Su Er. He dreamed of him standing beneath the library clock tower, his hair disheveled by the wind, his smile ironic yet determined. He had clearly cut off everyone else's escape route, yet he could still continue to play along with them in a gentle, feigned manner.
The high heartbeat rate made him wake up instantly. After taking a few deep breaths, he turned his face slightly, and stared at the sleeping face of the person on the other side with his deep eyes, which stirred up a little ripple.
"Full marks...top scorer...interview..."
Suer slept soundly. His obsession with the college entrance examination far exceeded that of the escape game, and he dreamed of a bright future.
Ji Heng's eyebrows couldn't help but jump. This is what they mean by sleeping in the same bed but dreaming different dreams.
For the first few days after returning, Suer devoted himself almost entirely to solving exam questions, a form of self-protection, if only to a degree. Most people, upon learning the truth, inevitably become obsessed with the idea that this world is a fantasy. Over time, this can lead to a loss of individual sense of existence, and a mental breakdown is only a matter of years.
However, as long as people have dreams, they will not lose the motivation to live.
Amidst the potent self-hypnosis, a blindingly bright light suddenly appeared, forcibly dragging him into the transit station. Before Su Er could even regain his balance, a mysterious force pushed him into the water curtain, automatically entering the dungeon.
Before he could react, he tripped and nearly fell headfirst. Thinking it was a sneak attack, Soul summoned his Charisma and opened his mouth to suck. Fortunately, his vision cleared in time, and when he looked down, he saw a body that had been violently dead.
Looking around, he first saw Ji Heng, and then saw the man sitting at the bar.
The person was sitting peacefully among the corpses, so he couldn't be an indigenous person. He wasn't wearing a badge, so he could only be the host or a ghost.
The man didn't even look at him. He knocked on the bar, and the two cocktails on it rippled. "Drink."
Su Er looked at Ji Heng and saw that he drank it without hesitation, so he also picked it up and drank it all in one gulp.
The spiciness in his throat lingered for a long time, and his body seemed to be getting lighter and lighter. Su Er lowered his head in confusion and found that his body was lying on the ground, and his soul was floating in the air... Was his soul leaving his body?
In the blink of an eye, the surrounding environment changed, and both sides were filled with flickering fluorescent lights.
"Sending you there directly might cause your soul and body to separate," the man said calmly. "We have to do it in two steps."
Su Er was surprised to find that Ji Heng seemed to accept it well. The latter sensed his shock and slowly said, "We are all going to be the meat on the chopping block anyway."
Su Er thought about it and said, "That makes sense."
No matter how strong they are, players are always at a disadvantage in the game and need to work hard to complete the task.
Thinking of this, he calmed down and let the mysterious man do what he wanted.
·
The fog was getting heavier, and players wearing hooded sweatshirts put on their hats to keep out the cold wind.
"Why haven't you started yet?"
It will be completely dark in half an hour at most. When the night really comes, all the lurking evil things may come out in droves.
Suddenly, a figure appeared in the fog, threw out two balls of light and disappeared.
The hoodie player froze for a moment, then subconsciously stepped forward to investigate the ball of light. As he got a little closer, he was repelled by the intense vibration and fell back several steps. Not long after, the figure reappeared, carrying the two unconscious bodies and forcefully slamming the ball of light into their shells.
About two or three minutes later, Su Er twisted his stiff neck and saw four figures through the mist. He took the initiative to greet them: "Hello, everyone."
While speaking, he did not forget to use his peripheral vision to search for Ji Heng and the mysterious man.
Ji Heng was still there, but the man who brought them here disappeared without a trace.
"Your way of appearing... is very unique!" The player in the hoodie introduced himself: "My name is Chen Buqi."
Suer noticed that there was a layer of white frost on Chen Buqi's shoulders, and he had obviously been waiting here for a long time. It seemed that he and Ji Heng were players who joined in temporarily.
"Some people like to be different and seek attention, which wastes their time." The person who spoke was only in his early twenties and had good facial features.
Su Er glanced at his name tag: Zhou Que.
For some reason, the other party seemed to have a vague hostility towards him.
Sur did not retort immediately. Zhou Que was indeed right about one thing. The most important thing now was to find a relatively safe shelter before dark.
They stood at the foot of the mountain, with no signs of life around them. There was a shabby ticket office on the side, with tables and chairs scattered about.
Everything indicates that this is a deserted tourist attraction.
A female player named Lin Lele said seriously, "I've never heard of a mountain area being abandoned as a tourist attraction."
Some areas may close their mountains during certain seasons due to natural disasters like mudslides. But from the ticket office, it was clear that the mountain before us had been completely excluded from the scenic area. Furthermore, there wasn't even a single household living at the foot of the mountain.
There was a strange sound in the air, and everyone looked in the direction of the sound, and the cable car suddenly moved by itself.
Ji Heng: "Let's go and take a look."
Regardless of what others thought, he simply pulled Sur over there.
"Let's go too." Ye Xiaocen, who had never spoken before, finally said the first sentence.
Zhou Que: "Captain, we don't need to take this risk."
Ye Xiaocen: "Going into the mountains is only a matter of time."
Many dangers in the dungeon cannot be avoided by not actively causing trouble.
Zhou Que then took a step forward to catch up.
Lin Lele glanced at Chen Buqi and said, "Let's go too."
Chen Buqi nodded.
It takes a long mountain road to get to the cable car. Su Er stepped on the cracked stone steps and said as he walked, "This dungeon may be an unpleasant journey."
I've encountered unfriendly players before, but there are only a few who have openly shown strong hostility.
"I strongly suspect that the game deliberately chose this person to play against me."
Ji Heng smiled: "It's not impossible. He has always stood behind Ye Xiaocen. Ye Xiaocen is in charge of an organization and is quite powerful."
"No wonder..." Su Er understood: "With a backer, Zhou Que dares to target me openly without fear of retaliation."
Besides, we can't kill each other, so we can just fight.
Ji Heng nodded.
After a moment of thought, Suer quickly walked to the front, turned around and used Ji Heng as a shield. He raised his eyebrows at Zhou Que behind him and smiled.
Who in the gaming world these days doesn't have a backer?
Zhou Que's eyes turned cold: "Bitch..."
"How many inches long is a human tongue?" Ji Heng suddenly interrupted him and asked an irrelevant question.
Zhou Que frowned.
Ji Heng continued to talk to himself: "Unfortunately, I don't understand it very well. For things I don't understand..."
Intentionally draw out the tone.
Su Er glanced at Zhou Que and continued, "Practice makes perfect. Why not ask someone to cut it off and measure it and you'll know?"
Ji Heng nodded slightly: "Well said."
After the two finished singing in unison, they focused on walking on the road again.
Zhou Que clenched his fists tightly, his expression showing resentment and unwillingness.
Although Ye Xiaocen was also dissatisfied with Ji Heng's verbal threats, which clearly showed that he did not take him seriously, he still said, "You should also be quiet. The mission is important."
Zhou Que said bitterly, "If it weren't for Su Er, I would have gotten the advanced item long ago."
He had previously participated in a dungeon at a welfare field and accepted a task to sew a doll for an old woman, even peeling off a piece of skin from his back to save his life. As luck would have it, a host at the time was helping Su'er make a cross-dungeon exchange. When the old woman saw the hand skin Su'er offered, she was amazed at how white and delicate it was, and she began to dislike Zhou Que's skin. Although she eventually gave him a doll as promised, it was far inferior to the one she had given Su'er.
Zhou Que saw with his own eyes that the old woman specially sewed an extra eye on the prop.
Why?
He'd paid with an entire back skin. If Sur hadn't intervened, even if he hadn't gotten a high-end item, he'd have at least gotten a mid-range one. Zhou Que had specifically inquired about this after leaving the dungeon. Normally, the item the old woman gave was the "Crying Child," said to inspire pity in ghosts.
What I got was called a 'Patched Doll', which was less than one tenth as effective and was considered a low-end item.
Not long after, Suer became famous in the game because of his continuous achievement points. As a result, Zhou Que became completely hated by others.
Su Er naturally didn't know the reason behind this. Of course, even if he knew, he would probably just say: Don't get close to me, you will die a miserable death if you try to scam me.
There was no one in front, and the lonely cable car went up and down, with a total of black and white colors.
Black cable cars are rare, and this is the first time Suhl has seen one. Under the influence of fog, the cabin is filled with an ominous atmosphere.
Ji Heng: "What color do you like?"
Soul: "Black."
Just then, a black cable car passed by. Ji Heng said, "Get on."
The cable car, which had been deserted for years, was running very slowly. The wind was strong tonight, and the cables occasionally made strange, piercing noises that made people feel uneasy. Suer looked out the window. The woods were pitch black, and the abyss seemed to be waiting for them to fall.
After a moment, he asked, "Is a black cable car unlucky?"
"Not a good choice."
Su Er exclaimed: "Then why did you come up here?"
A strange light flashed in Ji Heng's eyes: "Weather vane."
They chose black, and there's a high probability that others will follow suit.
Su Er was stunned for a moment, but instead of questioning his actions, he asked, "Who among these players has offended you?"
"I don't remember it." Ji Heng turned his head to look at the dim stars that appeared in the sky. "But for some reason, I can't control the killing intent in my heart."
From the beginning, he has been trying his best to suppress his negative emotions.
Turning around, he saw Su Er, his eyes became much gentler: "Sit next to me, just in case."
Emotions are emotions, and they are different from impulsive behavior. Since he chose the black cable car, he was sure of getting away.
Darkness in the mountains only lasted a moment. Soon after the night fell, the cries of crows could be heard from the forest. With his sharp eyes, Suer saw several black spots approaching in the night sky. They turned out to be several ferocious eagles.
The raptors seemed to regard the cable car as an enemy, tearing at the cables frantically. One of them flew outside the cable car where Sull was sitting and slapped the glass hard. Its wings were far stronger than those of an ordinary eagle, filled with powerful force, and in the blink of an eye, cracks appeared in the glass.
Su Er's eyes changed slightly. This was definitely not the quality of normal cable car glass. Judging from the thickness and resistance, it was at most ordinary double-layer glass.
The cable car was shaking wildly, and his body was moving back and forth in the narrow space with the bumps. Several times he almost slipped to the window and had a close contact with the ferocious eagle through the glass.
Ji Heng helped him up, and Suer took out the crying child to defend himself, and carefully observed the situation outside with the only remaining light between heaven and earth.
"Step back a little." At this moment, Ji Heng reminded in a low voice.
Seeing the eagle claw and the dagger in his hand, Sur had a guess and leaned back cooperatively.
Ji Heng leaned over and stabbed the glass with force. Under the impact from both inside and outside, the glass was completely shattered.
The strong wind and eagles in the mountains all rushed in at the same time. Ji Heng did not attack again, but simply held the dagger across his body and took a normal defensive posture.
Miraculously, the eagle changed its previous ferocity, flew over and landed on the blade, its sharp beak open, and the weight of its body caused the dagger to bend slightly.
Sur took the initiative to move closer to the eagle, carefully untied a small bamboo tube from the eagle's sharp claws, and poured out two crumpled pieces of paper with three shocking blood words on them: Invitation.
The moment the paper appeared, the cable car accelerated dramatically, reaching its destination in just a few tens of seconds. When flat ground appeared, Soul quickly jumped out and escaped the dangerous car. The situation had been so urgent that he hadn't noticed until now that there was a countdown in the lower right corner of the invitation.
40, 39, 38... the seconds are decreasing every moment.
The crisis was temporarily resolved, and Soul made a joke: "How do you send letters at Hogwarts?"
But this eagle is much more ferocious than an owl and is easy to confuse people.
Ji Heng: "The key to this game lies in the eagle."
Players are completely at a disadvantage in high-altitude combat, so the only way out is a bird of prey that suddenly appears. The problem is that everything happens in a split second, and players can easily lose basic judgment in a panic and mistake the eagle for an enemy.
Su Er stared at the crumpled paper in his hand and suddenly asked, "What will happen if the invitation letter is not found by the end of the countdown?"
Ji Heng looked up at the swaying cables and the eagles tearing at them with their claws, and said coldly, "Die."