Every player who enters the game has a clear purpose. Some want to escape the distorted living environment of the original world, some want a clean past, and of course there are also those who pursue fame and fortune... The reasons are all kinds of strange.
Zhu Yun is a bit special among them, she just wants to live as a simple human being.
When she was chosen by the game, all the people in Tianji City had been transformed into snake-people in a crazy experiment. To put it bluntly, they were just a bunch of walking corpses. So when a voice from the unknown asked her if she was willing to join the game and escape her current environment, Zhu Yun agreed without hesitation.
Compared with other players, she has a natural advantage...prophecy.
Even if her memory was wiped, the fact that she was a snake person could not be changed. The strange future that would occasionally invade her mind was enough to drive a normal person to a mental breakdown. Fortunately, as she grew older, Zhu Yun began to gradually master her abilities.
Prediction abilities are divided into active and passive.
Active means to calculate someone's future personally, which puts a huge burden on the body and risks the risk of eye explosion; passive means that someone's future automatically flashes in her mind, which is relatively better and will only make her weak for a short period of time.
Zhu Yun had done special research on the triggering conditions of the passive ability, but unfortunately, because the number of times was too small, it was difficult to determine, and could only be reluctantly attributed to the bond.
Those who may develop a deep bond with her in the future are most likely to passively see some fragment of her.
As he continued to clear dungeons, his ability to predict the future grew day by day, until one day, Zhu Yun saw his own death - in Tianji City, surrounded by countless snakes, he was eaten alive until not even a bone was left.
She is a snake person, and those besieging her are also snake people. Combining some clues from special dungeons, Zhu Yun deduces that she is doomed. In order to change her predetermined fate, she tries every possible way to enter the special dungeon, trying to find more useful information.
After some planning, Zhu Yun successfully entered the special copy where the ghost king Gou Baopu was.
While other players were hesitating whether to exchange items for coins to survive, Zhu Yun went straight into the office and took out all his assets: "Buy news about a doomed game."
The predicted scene only shows the moment of death, and the specific process is not clear.
Hearing the words "dead end" coming from a player's mouth, Gou Baopu didn't show any surprise. Instead, he smiled and pushed the props back in front of her.
Zhu Yun frowned: "Not enough?"
Gou Baopu stood up and walked to the window, throwing the withered branches into the trash can. His tone was rarely filled with a hint of pity: "In this world, only life and death are irreversible."
Zhu Yun was silent for a moment, then asked, "It's not that the future can't be changed, but that life and death are irreversible?"
Gou Baopu nodded.
Zhu Yun's expression remained unchanged as she continued to analyze calmly, "Unlike other players, I was already dead when I entered the game, in the state of a snakeman. Although the game has great magical powers, it can't bring people back to life."
The last four words sounded somewhat darkly humorous. Gou Baopu couldn't help but look at her with a higher regard. He turned around and said something else: "Games can create a falsely prosperous world with a string of cold data, but fake is fake. They are not gods and cannot create life."
"I see."
Zhu Yun put away the props, pushed the door open and left the office.
Her expression remained cold, but when she blinked, her eyes turned slightly red.
The corridors were dangerous at night, and most players, after exchanging their coins, immediately used their credit cards to request a relatively safe room. Zhu Yun, repressed for too long, needed to vent her emotions through killing, so she walked alone in the corridors.
In the dim light, she spotted a player leaning against a wall around the corner. Subconsciously categorizing him as someone unlucky enough to have missed out on a room, Zhu Yun ignored him and continued walking slowly forward. Just as they were about to pass each other, she suddenly stopped... If she remembered correctly, this was the player with the highest total money in this dungeon.
"You, didn't want a guest room?"
Su Er shook his head: "No, I'm waiting to kill monsters."
This is not a game. Killing monsters will not only fail to gain experience, but will also consume your own strength.
There is definitely nothing wrong with the players' brains for them to get several achievement points. It just means that there are indeed unexpected benefits.
Zhu Yun thought for a moment and said, "Together? You get the benefits."
It just so happened that she also needed to vent through killing.
Su Er said seriously: "This benefit is only for me."
As they spoke, the lights in the corridor began to fade one by one, until the last light went out, and a ghostly figure suddenly appeared on the ceiling. A man with eight arms sprinted towards them like a spider, liquid dripping from his mouth onto the floor, leaving pits on the red carpet from the venom.
Su Er had no intention of escaping. He took out the tool and said slowly:
"Li Huaimeng, male, excelled in school, winning the gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad and first prize in a computer science competition, among other prestigious awards. After graduation, he exploited his talents to commit nine-figure fraud. He was later stabbed to death by the victim's family... This is the information I bought from Gou Baopu."
As soon as he finished speaking the last word, a bloody mouth appeared on his head.
Sur poked it with a steel rod with an expressionless face.
Originally he could handle it alone, not to mention now he had a helper, and with the combined efforts of both sides, they easily knocked Spider-Man down from the ceiling.
"Leave some breath." When Zhu Yun was about to cut his throat cleanly and neatly, he was stopped by Suer.
He removed Li Huaimeng's extra limbs, leaving only one arm hanging from his chest. Then he pulled a rolled-up exercise book from his sleeve and turned on the flashlight. "I'm a little confused here. Why can the maximum value of a be 3?"
Li Huaimeng was confused: "What the hell?"
Su Er's eyes darkened, and he kicked him to the other side: "Answer me."
He had been a ghost for too long, but fortunately the question was not difficult. Li Huaimeng endured the pain and quickly gave the answer.
Soul asked a few more questions, then let him go, asking, "Do you know anyone who's good at chemistry? If so, introduce them to me."
It is really not worth doing business with Gou Baopu.
Li Huaimeng shook his head reflexively.
Considering that there was still some residual value, Su Er didn't make it too difficult: "I'll come to see you again tomorrow night."
"…"
Li Huaimeng felt like he was in a dream. He climbed up with his only remaining arm like a sleepwalker, and escaped along the same route, physically and mentally injured.
Su Er put away the exercise book and looked at Zhu Yun: "Thank you very much, otherwise it would be unavoidable to consume energy when dealing with this multi-limbed ghost."
Zhu Yun forced a smile.
The forest is big and there are all kinds of birds.
She had just felt some emotion when her expression suddenly changed and a picture suddenly appeared in her mind.
"you..."
The passive prophecy triggered her and instantly made her weak.
Regardless of all this, Zhu Yun stared at Su Er with eyes wide open in surprise. She saw it, she saw that this person had escaped from a dead end alive!
The beauty held her heart like Xi Shi, but instead of taking advantage of the situation to help her up, Su Er suddenly took a step back and said righteously: "I will not accept any kind of touching porcelain!"
Zhu Yun: "I..."
"I know you want to have physical intimacy first, and then force me to take responsibility."
After saying that, Su Er took a defensive stance: "I have someone, I won't cheat on you."
Ignoring the crazy talk, Zhu Yun's eyes flashed with a dark color: "You got a fraudulent ticket."
The tone was almost firm.
Su Er raised his eyebrows and spread his hands: "You should have said it earlier. It turned out to be a robbery of money. I thought it was a robbery of sex."
Zhu Yun took a deep breath and couldn't help but ponder. Could it be that only by living a sufficiently insane life could one possibly leave the game? She forced herself to block out these chaotic thoughts, lowering her eyes. Suddenly, she made a decision and drew a knife, pointing the blade not at Su Er but at herself.
The tip of the knife thrust upwards from the eye socket, blood gushing out. A few minutes later, Zhu Yun perfectly removed an eyeball. She extended her white, blood-stained hand in front of Su Er and said, "Touch it."
The impropriety just now disappeared in an instant, and Sur took out the self-defense props, while cautiously placing only one finger on it.
It was definitely not an ordinary human eye, he quickly made a judgment, and the pupil that was taken out automatically changed into a vertical pupil. Sur could feel an extraordinary power in it.
Zhu Yun drank a bottle of healing item and slowly told her story. Worried about being erased from the game, she didn't mention key words like 'certain death'.
Suer himself had grasped some of the information and sorted out some logic from the obscure words and sentences.
"I understand what you're saying, but why gouge out his eyes for no reason?"
Zhu Yun: "You won't believe me unless I prove my identity as a snake person." After that, she tore off a piece of cloth and slowly wiped the blood off her hands: "Just now you said you already have someone. Is it someone you like?"
Su Er curled his lips and said stubbornly: "It's just that he has a one-sided crush on me."
No one spoke for the next five minutes.
Suer was the first to break the silence and asked, "What conditions must be met for you to deduce a stranger's future?"
Zhu Yun: "Do you want to count your secret admirers?"
Sur nodded.
Zhu Yun shook her head: "One photo will be fine, but I won't help you."
The price to pay is too high.
Su Er said seriously: "I can help you find a way out."
They were both smart people, and they wouldn't release their eagle until they saw the rabbit. Previously, Zhu Yun had taken the initiative to gouge out his eyes, and now it was his turn to come up with a plan: "Just because you can't be a human doesn't mean you can't be a ghost. There's an old woman in the castle who really likes my skin. When the time comes, I'll skin my whole body, and you gouge out all your eyes as well, and provide them as materials."
Zhu Yun was a ruthless person, but she didn't expect this person to be even more ruthless: "The reason."
"My...my suitor and I once played a dungeon and saw a strange creature called the Painted Skin Ghost."
As Su Er explained the characteristics of the Painted Skin Ghost, Zhu Yun immediately understood: "Becoming the Ghost King?"
Soul nodded: "Since the game can't reverse life and death, then you should redefine your goal direction."
This was a difficult choice. Zhu Yun's fingertips turned white and her nails almost scratched her palms. Under the stimulation of pain, she finally decided to accept this suggestion.
As agreed, after calming down, Zhu Yun began to make calculations.
Su Er pulled out a group photo from his pocket and pointed at the taller person: "Look. This is the guy, his name is Ji Heng."
Zhu Yun spent a lot of time to calculate, and found that the bloodshot degree of her only remaining eye was extremely exaggerated. If she had not been using healing items all the time, it would have exploded long ago.
"He will stay in the game." Zhu Yun gave a weak and cryptic answer.
I thought Su Er would be very disappointed and sad, but unexpectedly he looked calm. Zhu Yun was curious: "Aren't you sad?"
Su Er snorted softly: "There is no such thing as a happy ending in the game world."
Then, with an unfathomable look in his eyes, he changed the subject dramatically: "We look about the same age. What grade are you in?"
"Second year of high school."
Su Er quickly said, "Transfer to another school and sit at the same table with me so that we can work together in the future."
Zhu Yun refused without a second thought: "I like individual activities and don't join any organizations."
Su Er waved his hand: "Not this kind of cooperation."
For fear that the key words would be caught, I wrote a few words on the other person's palm: Help me come back later.
Zhu Yun's fingers trembled and she looked up at him in surprise, while Su Er stood there calmly, with no intention of changing his decision.
After a long moment, Zhu Yun clasped her fingers together and whispered, "Okay."
Under the cover of night, the most sinful deal in the game was concluded.
·
Zhu Yun's body was soaked in the cold lake water. She looked at the moon in the sky, silent.
It has been a long time since I thought about the past, but tonight all those things flashed through my mind like a passing scene.
"Only life and death are irreversible."
Some sad murmurs escaped from his lips.
At that time, she was drowning, and Su Er was the straw that saved her life. The possibility of saving her life was too low, so she didn't hold out much hope. Unexpectedly, their plan went so smoothly.
Ghosts can use work as an excuse to wander in different spaces. After they degenerate into ghosts, they go to the world of Wudu and bring Sul into a dead end in advance by summoning the Painted Skin Ghost.
The only thing that went against the plan was that she originally wanted to facilitate the meeting between Suer and Ji Heng, but who would have thought that the two would miraculously form a team again.
Suddenly, Zhu Yun withdrew his thoughts and frowned slightly... Is he here to make trouble again?
The clear lake water began to grow thick and viscous, emitting a rotten smell. Some of it lingered for a long time, corroding the skin. And the one behind these little tricks was the new host... the Teng Snake Cave Master.
Some time ago, the Divine Calculator went to the Novice Field for some reason, and Nongxu was temporarily closed. There was no need to guard the maze, so the Lord of Tengshe Cave took the initiative to take over the work of Tianji City, and since then he has been causing trouble every few days.
"It's your connection to Sur that's to blame." The Teng Snake Cave Lord appeared in mid-air, increasing the corrosiveness of the lake water while saying gloomily, "As long as I'm around, you can forget about evolving into a Ghost King."
There was originally a Ghost King in Tianji City, Tianyi Gua. Before Zhu Yun entered the game, the two were from the same family, so Tianyi Gua did not kill him, willing to have two tigers in one mountain.
But this is not what the game wants to see, and the Lord of Tengshe Cave took perfect advantage of this.
Under the strong corrosiveness, the scales on Zhu Yun's arms were contaminated and ulcerated, and the skin on her back was also burned by the lake water.
Finding the effect satisfactory, the Tengshe Cave Master let out a sigh of relief and gloated, "Here's a piece of advice for you: get out of this world now. Demons thrive on devouring each other, and your kind hiding in the shadows can't wait any longer."
Before he finished speaking, many snakes had already appeared in the grass and on the beams.
This lake is the only one in the entire dungeon that has the most Yin energy. Without the Yin energy feeding back, it would be almost impossible for Zhu Yun to become the Ghost King relying solely on the power of the Painted Skin Ghost.
But faced with the cruel reality, she could only stand up silently before being besieged by the snakes, and leave in a panic with her seriously injured body.
Upon seeing this, the Lord of Tengshe Cave shook his wings with satisfaction and felt refreshed.
Meanwhile, Zhu Yun was forced to leave Tianji City. Instead of wandering around, she went to Nongxu. After four months of hiding, she finally waited for the annual report day.
The so-called reporting day, to put it simply, is the day for reporting bugs. Whether it is the host or the ghost, if they find a loophole in the rules and report it, and it is adopted by the game, they can get certain benefits.
There were more than a hundred hosts who came to report this year, and the Tengshe Cave Master was also there. To avoid being discovered by him, Zhu Yun went in at the last moment.
An hour later, there were seventy or eighty hosts and ghosts reporting, but only three were adopted.
The fortune teller and Gou Baopu were sitting next to each other in the audience. They suddenly frowned and felt a sense of crisis.
Before he could divine, a snake man appeared on the podium.
Zhu Yun calmly spoke to the monitor, which showed only a black shadow, "No one understands the loopholes in the rules better than Su Er. We can hire him to be the host. The host will play the role of the player. There will definitely be unexpected gains."
The originally quiet hall suddenly became noisy because of this sentence.
The Tengshe Cave Master was so angry that his wings couldn't even tremble. He gritted his teeth and said, "Is this woman crazy? Isn't she afraid of being hated?"
In fact, Zhu Yun is very rational. If her suggestion is adopted, the game will provide a large amount of Yin energy. With the use of this Yin energy, she is sure to be promoted to Ghost King.
The host is not allowed to cause harm to the Ghost King without reason, otherwise he will be punished by the rules.
Gou Baopu's smile froze slightly in the audience, and the fortune teller closed his eyes, finally understanding where the sense of crisis came from.
"The game will never agree to such a ridiculous proposal." The host sitting behind them kept comforting himself.
During the game's silence, many ghosts and the host's hearts nearly jumped into their throats. Then, right before their eyes, Zhu Yun's previously corroded scales became smooth as new, and in full view of the crowd, he evolved into a Ghost King.
In order to prevent the winners from being robbed later, on every reporting day, the game will directly transfer the benefits to the host or ghost whose suggestions are adopted.
Now that Zhu Yun has been promoted to Ghost King, he has already shown his attitude towards the game.
The hosts who had never come into contact with Suer were fine, but the faces of those who had had intersections with him were uglier than each other.
A ghost who lost his job because of Sul even fainted on the spot.
After being rescued, the familiar ghost was speechless: "You are not the host, why are you so excited?"
"You don't understand. What if they ask us to work in a dungeon hosted by Sur?"
"…"
For a moment, countless eyes focused on Zhu Yun, as if they were knives slicing her into pieces. Zhu Yun remained calm, bowing deeply and saying calmly, "I will never forget your kindness in giving me a new life."
She didn't go into detail, believing that someone would soon come to find out the reason. Once they knew that she was driven out of Tianji City and had to resort to this method to earn Yin Qi, the Lord of Tengshe Cave would surely be angered.
Zhu Yun walked off the stage calmly, passing by the Teng Snake Cave Master. Her voice was devoid of any emotion, as if nothing that had happened today could stir up any ripples in her heart. "There's a term called 'off-field assistance.'"
After a pause, he added, "Give my regards to Su Er."
Suffocating silence suddenly became the theme of the hall at this moment.
After an unknown amount of time, the Teng Snake Cave Master finally came to his senses, his scales erupting in anger. "Hey, your whole family! Get back here!"
If it hadn't been pulled by the divine fortune teller by the tip of its tail, it would have rushed forward long ago.
Unfortunately, that beautiful figure had already walked away, as if it had never appeared.