Chapter 84:
From a high-altitude perspective, the broken walls of high-rise buildings cast shadows of different lengths on the ground, as if towering steep cliffs, in the middle of this dark cliff, Two human-shaped reflections of different lengths are moving forward slowly.
"Huh...huh..."
The rapid exhaustion of physical strength made people gasp more and more quickly, Wan Chao wiped the "sweat stains" on his forehead, and when he spread his hands, it was full of dust.
Fine dust particles are everywhere, and every breath seems to purify the air with the respiratory tract. In the apocalypse of industrial paralysis, there will be an air environment that is as bad as the pollution discharge area. This is a very strange thing in itself, and the two people who are in it are completely ignorant of it.
.
Tang Xiao helped him in time. The researcher glanced at her gratefully, and continued to stagger forward. The only goal in his head was to return to the research institute. It seemed that nothing could stop him.
"Soon...coming soon, coming soon..."
Tang Xiao indifferently glanced at the countdown suspended in the air, there were still fifty-five minutes left in the constantly jumping numbers, and there was plenty of time. The countdown interface floated quietly in the air without any urging, and there was no other sound from the system.
She stopped and put her hand on Wan Chao's shoulder.
Wan Chao continued to move forward without noticing it, but the imperceptible weight on his shoulders made him unable to move a step forward. The researcher took a few steps in place. I suddenly realized that I couldn't go. He turned his head blankly, a cluster of green lights looming in the gray air on his head:
"Tang, Miss Tang, what's wrong?"
Tang Xiao was casually looking at the surrounding environment, when he heard this sentence, he suddenly glanced at him, Wan Chao subconsciously shrank his neck, I don’t know if it was his illusion, the girl in front of him had clear and bright eyes For a moment, it was like a cold light on the blade of a knife.
But in the next second, Tang Xiao withdrew his gaze and just said: "The visibility is too low now, and it may be dangerous to continue walking, otherwise we will find a place to avoid it for a while, Wait until the air is better the next day before going back."
Wan Chao shook his head without thinking, and said nervously, "No, you must go back as soon as possible. The longer you stay outside, the more dangerous it will be. Only the research institute is absolutely safe."
Speaking of this, the researcher suddenly felt something, shrank his neck in fear, and swept his eyes around the circle like an electric shock, "You don't know, the air will not get better, it will only get worse and worse. ... we can only go forward, yes, go, go now!"
He seemed to have found the backbone, and he was about to continue on his way with a shock, but he forgot that his shoulders were still under Tang Xiao's control.
Tang Xiao stood on the spot without moving like a mountain, the old **** said: "Not necessarily, there is no absolutely safe place in the apocalypse, I don't quite believe your words."
Wan Chao looked like he was about to cry, and said aggrievedly: "You said you wanted to go with me, but you won't go now. If you don't go, I'll go by yourself, don't stop me."
Tang Xiao: "I just saved your life, and reciprocate, should you tell me the truth?"
Wan Chao: "Everything I say is the truth!"
Tang Xiao: "Perhaps your memory is not good, and you have misremembered some places. Think carefully. Where did you come from? If you don't come back late, but you go back at this time, is there any reason why you have to go back? If it is very dangerous outside, why do you come out? Think clearly about the previous questions, and then you can answer me, where is the research institute, we Is the direction you are taking the way back to the Institute?"
Three major questions of philosophy, who am I, where do I come from, and where do I go. Tang Xiao asked a lot of questions in one breath, and didn't even give the other party a chance to think about it. These questions were thrown into his head, and even normal people would have to be confused for a while.
Sure enough, Wan Chao opened his mouth, but couldn't say a word, his expression looked a little suspicious of life. Tang Xiao was not in a hurry to ask questions. After asking, he quietly looked at him, as if he was out of the way.
Two minutes later, Wan Chao finally recovered from his confusion. He felt that his mind was a mess, and he was angry and tired. Xiao's hand, "No, I won't tell you! You bully people, love, love to leave or not, I'll go back myself!"
The researcher stumbled and ran away, and the system made a sound like a corpse:
[The distance between the player and the target character is too far, which is not conducive to the completion of the task, a warning. Please complete the task as soon as possible! 】
"Can't you rely on yourself, you can only act under the 'guidance' of the target person..." Tang Xiao said to himself, raised his eyebrows, raised his legs and walked into the dusty haze, After a few moments, they caught up with each other.
…
"You...you are..."
Wan Chao opened his eyes wide as he looked at the girl who fell from the sky, in deep doubt about the materialistic world, he accidentally inhaled two large mouths of smog and almost choked himself to death.
Tang Xiao looked at the coughing researcher in front of him, and heard the notification sound of the system.
[Congratulations to the player, the primary goal has been completed: find and rescue the researcher Wan Chao who is entangled by the infected, then please find the research institute under the guidance of the researcher, the time limit is half an hour, and the countdown begins...]
"Half an hour...?"
Tang Xiao did not comment on this notice, but did not pay attention to the mission objectives on the ground, and did not even bother to comment on the dark and thick air around him, but pressed the terminal interface for the first time. Complaint button.
The system was silent for two seconds and responded: [The system has received a complaint prompt, please enter the reason for the complaint. Non-important situations will be forwarded to customer service for processing. 】
It seems to remind Tang Xiao that time is precious and don't waste time doing irrelevant things. The countdown words in the air suddenly brightened, and the numbers jumped impatiently on it.
Tang Xiao turned a blind eye to this, but said to the system seriously: "I report the system for stealing my props!"
System: ? ? ?
If it weren't for the fact that the system itself does not allow nonsense, Tang Xiao has no doubt that these three big greetings can be directly printed in his sea of consciousness.
But in the face of power, Tang Xiao was not afraid: "I remember every prop in my package clearly. For the safety of wealth, I put the prop wooden bird in the system backpack The most conspicuous place in it, make sure that the mental power can see it all the time, and there is absolutely no possibility of accidentally losing it. But just now, I found that it was gone! "
Poverty is what makes people righteous!
System:…
The system probably did not expect that someone would look at the item like a lifeblood all the time, not to mention it was just a defensive item of a slightly better grade! Across the dimension, Tang Xiao seemed to feel the silent breath.
Even Wan Chao covered his nose and probed in horror, "I just heard the sound of vomiting blood, is there another zombie chasing after you!?"
...After a few seconds, the mechanical voice replied stiffly: [After inspection, the system has never stolen player items, and there will never be such violations. 】
Tang Xiao continued to press the complaint button: [Are you sure that you did not touch my props or let my props through some medium in any form without my conscious or active use? lost? 】
System:…
System: [The system determines that the player's props are not lost in any form.... 】
At the end, it also added a sentence: [Please do not abuse the power of complaint and interfere with the operation of the system. Once it is verified as illegal operation, the player may be warned or punished! 】
The last word has an exclamation mark, which shows the resentment of the system.
Tang Xiao just let it go, shrugged and said: "This is strange, I can be sure that I have not used this prop, after all, it has only been less than two minutes since I entered the dungeon, There is no place where the props are needed at all. But if I didn't take out the props myself, and it wasn't due to external force...then the question is, why did the props disappear out of thin air?"
"Unless, indeed, I used it myself, but for some reason I don't have this memory - there is something that erases my memory."
Tang Xiao blinked, the air around his body suddenly had no wind, and under the rush of spiritual power, he was quickly swept out of a dust-free area, and his breathing returned to freshness.
The sudden change in the environment made Wan Chao even more shocked. He looked at the dust layer that was blocked by some invisible force, and stammered: "What is this, a new weapon developed by the country? Or, or a miracle? Tang, Miss Tang, did you do this?"
Tang Xiao gave him a deep look, "...what existence can do this? A crazy researcher?"
Wan Chao shivered.
"Or a system that always wants to dig a hole for me?"
System:…
"Or, the copy itself."
Tang Xiao gave his answer.
"If I guess correctly, in this dungeon, my real enemy is not a zombie that I will encounter at any time, because with my current strength, there is no zombie that can pose a threat to me. But The game won't let me simply pass the dungeon, so it's still difficult, because the enemy I have to face in this game may be the dungeon itself!"
Tang Xiao glanced at the countdown in the air, and continued: "There are only two situations that will make me lose my memory of what I have done, one is the time, every time a node is reached, the time of the copy It will reverse the flow and start all over again. But the paradox of this possibility is that under the time reset, the props will also return to the unused state, leaving no flaws. The copy will not remain This kind of dead end is equivalent to obliteration, so it is excluded."
"Then there is only the second case - an infinite loop. Every time a node is reached, the things in the copy will be reset, including the target character, copy task, and my memory. There are only two things in the loop that will not be reset, one is the countdown, and the other is my props. The former is killing the game. Every time the copy is reset, the time given to me will be shortened accordingly. When the time ends, I will either be obliterated or ejected from the copy. . The latter is a life game, as long as I use props in a certain cycle, I will find flaws."
"Of course, this is just my guess. After all, there are obviously more than one loopholes in the copy..."
Wan Chao was stunned to see her talking to herself, swallowed her saliva and asked cautiously, "Tang, Miss Tang, I'm sorry to disturb you, but I don't seem to understand what you are saying... ?"
Tang Xiao smiled: "For example, I don't seem to have told you my name. How do you know my surname is Tang when you have never met?"
In the first few rounds of the cycle, she obviously had doubts, so when there was still uncertainty, she reluctantly cut love and used the "wooden bird" prop, which is In order to remind myself in the next round, either there is a problem with the system, or there is a problem with the copy.
As long as the hidden rules are revealed, the final answer will not be difficult.
"If the copy itself is regarded as a running machine, and the cycle is the first law, then this law must have conditions that need to be satisfied. I should have guessed in the last cycle of the cycle, Maybe the only thing I don't understand is where the loop node is. So after "I" found something wrong, I still walked along the system prompts."
The prompt given by the system is: [Please find the research institute under the guidance of the researcher].
According to the normal route, she will follow the target person, clearing obstacles along the way, until "successfully reached the research institute", but in this almost non-threatening copy, she still every time without exception If it fails every time, then the most suspect is undoubtedly the mission target itself.
Walking along this line of thought, Tang Xiao seemed to be able to vaguely see his figure repeatedly shuttled in the haze in the rapid thinking: ... She kept walking, kept walking, until a certain For a moment, she stopped.
And realize that I have failed.
research institute.
Tang Xiao took a deep breath and said the last answer in his mind:
"Because the person who guided me didn't know where the research institute was at all, when he found what he thought was the 'research institute' and stepped into a false illusion, he would never come out again!"
Thirty minutes ago, in the sixth cycle.
Wan Chao's pace is getting faster and faster, he seems to have seen the outline of the institute through the gray air. He raised his finger excitedly: "Look, Miss Tang, the research institute is here!"
Tang Xiaowang went over and saw that building.
Clean and sturdy, it is somewhat similar to the research building at the base of Zhaixing City, and the surroundings are very quiet, as if it can isolate all monsters and viruses. If it is as Wan Chao said, it looks very safe.
But...too safe.
How can there be a building that looks like new in this piece of **** and ruins that is full of miasma, zombies, overwhelming?
But it was too late, Wan Chao danced and rushed over, and the electronic door opened in response, revealing the dark hole inside. Standing in the dark, the researcher was half sweat and half tears, in a state of madness, "Institute...I remembered, what I want to do...I want, I want to leave the institute!"
"Don't come!"
Wan Chao waved his hands desperately towards Tang Xiao, and his appearance changed... His body was covered in blood, and his originally beautiful face was even more terrible:
"Get out of here! Never enter the Institute!"
[Ding, the mission target enters the wrong place, the mission fails, and this cycle ends. 】
…
The air is quiet.
Since Tang Xiao made the inference that "there is a fake research institute in the copy", Wan Chao seemed to be in some kind of confusion and didn't move.
Tang Xiao knew that it was impossible to count on him, so he simply continued to speculate. Fortunately, she already has a certainty in her heart, and she only needs to tell the inference process to verify it.
"The copy itself is not the real game world. The capital has almost completely fallen. Except for the base, there is no such a running research institute. Whether it is a 'researcher' or a research institute , is the same as the dungeon of Zhaixing City, it is a scene condensed by human obsession. If Wan Chao's obsession is to return to the research institute, then he can't find the way back."
"But if the opposite is true, what if it is assumed that his obsession is not 'return', but 'escape'?"
Wan Chao raised his head abruptly, his light brown pupils stared at Tang Xiao without blinking, looking a little scary.
Tang Xiao also looked straight back without shyness, "If there is a researcher, when he finds that the safest and most sacred research institute in his heart suddenly appears many infected people, mutants, and even more The scary thing is that the institute itself became a source of infection. What was the first thing he did?"
Wan Chao murmured, "Escape, he wants to escape."
Tang Xiao has already determined 80%, "But he didn't escape, and he didn't even have time to tell the outside world. He died at the exit, and he couldn't see the sun again until he died."
" So his obsession was trapped here, and he kept repeating the process of escaping, and because of this, obsession's world was full of gray sky and dust haze, no sunlight. But slowly Because of some kind of accident, he forgot what his purpose was. He thought he was a researcher who went out and wanted to return to the institute. But the direction he took was always the opposite of the direction of the real institute."
"Or...he was vaguely aware of what he was doing, but instinctively, in order to protect the 'outsider' from danger, he instinctively directed it to the opposite position of the institute. This Traits were exploited by dungeons and instead became a tool to confuse me."
One of the effects of "Hope Leader", the NPC's favorability increases. So Wan Chao really won't harm Tang Xiao... He just used all his abilities to do the last "right" thing.
The tasks released by the system are also correct, it just hides the rules of the copy cycle, which forms a fatal trap.
If Tang Xiao understood anything at this moment, it is that he should never let his guard down. Every second in the game may be more dangerous than the last. And she has no room for error.
Wan Chao unconsciously blinked his eyes, and his eyes were filled with tears at some point: "He wants to leave here, wants to convey this secret to the outside world, he thinks, he wants everyone to know, This is not a research institute, but a breeding ground for virus infection!"
Tang Xiao kicked away the dilapidated hotel door, leaving the ink-black hole completely exposed in the air. Until this moment, the endless malicious malice inside finally broke through some kind of barrier and was clearly conveyed into her spiritual consciousness.
From the beginning, they have been standing at the target location, and every step since then is moving away.
The place where Wan Chao appeared, the first place in his obsession, was also his last place before his death - the gate of the research institute!
She sighed inaudibly: "Don't worry, the outside world now knows the essence of this institute, you don't have to run away again and again."
"Really, really?" Wan Chao snorted and looked at her with a dazed look in his eyes.
"It's true."
Tang Xiao stepped into the darkness one step at a time, while reaching out to Wan Chao, his body flickered in the reflection of light and shadow: "Go, I'll take you for revenge."