Published at 20th of December 2020 11:21:42 AM
Chapter 71
Chapter 71: Seed of Slaughter (X)
Early the next morning, Qi Leren woke up in the sunset-filled room . In his recent dream, he repeatedly dreamed of killing and being killed . Over and over again, sticky and bloody death tormented him during his dreams and waking hours . Fortunately, he was awakened by a knock on the door .
The Village of Dusk was shrouded in sunset all the year round, and people’s concept of time became weak after a long time; even if they looked at clocks and watches, they couldn’t be sure whether it was “day” or “night”, and everyone’s work and rest were inevitably confused after a long time .
The knock on the door still sounded rhythmically, and Qi Leren put on clothes and dragged slippers to open the door .
When the door opened, Chen Baiqi stood outside her arms crossed and looked him over from head to toe . Qi Leren pressed down his mussed hair, and his voice was hoarse as if he had just climbed out of the grave: “What happened?”
“Get dressed and come with me,” Chen Baiqi said .
“Where to?” Qi Leren is baffled .
“Go see Lu Youxin . ”
Qi Leren was shocked: “Isn’t she dead?”
Chen Baiqi leaned against the door and said faintly, “Yes, so we are going to sweep her grave, are you coming?”
“…Wait for me . ” Qi Leren hurried back to wash, dressed and followed Chen Baiqi to the coast .
“I thought you and Lu Youxin weren’t very familiar,” Qi Leren said on the way . Chen Baiqi heard him say that Liu Youxin died when he was on the Witchcraft Sacrifice mission . At that time, she was only slightly surprised, but she didn’t show any sad feelings . He thought they should just be nodding acquaintances . He didn’t expect Chen Baiqi to visit her grave .
Chen Baiqi, with her hands in her coat pockets, walked in a hurry: “We’ve done tasks together before and exchanged some information, which is not too familiar . Ning Zhou is familiar with her and should be regarded as her friend . ”
Qi Leren lowered his eyes and didn’t ask any more questions, but his heart vaguely understood why Lu Youxin would kindly send them tips before she died . After all, she was friends with Ning Zhou, otherwise why would she bother?
On the coast, a boat the size of a small yacht was docked at the shore . The two people got on the boat, and Chen Baiqi took the helm . This old-looking boat made a mechanical roar as it started, and white steam came out of the chimney covered with rust, puffing out a long white mist after the fast-moving boat .
Qi Leren was a little curious about where they were going, but he didn’t ask . He would soon know anyway .
“At sea, the air is finally better . I really can’t stand the smell of engine oil,” Chen Baiqi said with a cigarette in her mouth, the cigarette butt burning fast in the wind . She blew out a mouthful of smoke with the cigarette in one hand and grasped the steering wheel in the other .
“I don’t like it very much… I don’t really understand the energy of the Nightmare World . I heard that it’s neither coal nor oil, but devil crystallization?” Qi Leren remembered that he’d heard NPCs talk about this problem in the game, but it was not very deep .
“Thank God it’s not coal, otherwise there’d be smog everywhere . ” Chen Baiqi curled her mouth and continued, “The technology development in the Nightmare World is very strange . It’s reached its peak in steam, and there’s no problem in power application . However, the use of other energy sources still stays at the stage of coal and firewood burning . Ha, thanks to the Devil invading the Nightmare World more than 20 years ago, although it brought great damage, it has also made human beings discover a new energy - devil crystallization . ”
Qi Leren pricked up his ears and listened to Chen Baiqi tell the story of devil crystallization .
“Devil crystallization comes from the devils bodies, and can be obtained from their bodies after they’ve been hunted . It can be said that it’s highly condensed devil energy . If you deal with devil crystallization for a long time, human beings are even in danger of demonization and become low irrational demons . However, it was soon discovered that this crystallization has a magical power . ”
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“What power?” Qi Leren asked .
Chen Baiqi threw the cigarette butt away, and the sea breeze blew her hair back . The goggles made Qi Leren unable to see her eyes, but he could still see that she smiled: “The power of boiling water . Can you guess how long it will take to boil the water in a 50-meter-long swimming pool by throwing in a devil crystal as large as a fingernail? ”
Like putting sodium in water? Qi Leren thought about it and guessed boldly as much as possible: “An hour?”
“Hahaha, what a conservative answer . ” Chen Baiqi laughed loudly, and her voice was scattered in the sea breeze . “For three days and three nights, the water will boil steadily . Now do you understand why the steam engine is the king of this world?
"If you throw enough demon crystals into the sea, maybe the sea will boil, it’s such an incredible power,” Chen Baiqi’s clear voice said .
This kind of thing that didn’t exist in the real world had completely changed the technological structure of the Nightmare World and the Village of Dusk . The efficient and clean demon crystallization made the steam engine destined to be eliminated firmly occupy the mainstream position . Even after the discovery of electricity, human beings still used steam to generate electricity instead of water power and thermal power .
Unfortunately, in the world outside the Village of Dusk and the Village of Dawn, human beings still lived in the primitive times of the Middle Ages and were ruled by demons .
The sea became foggy, and the boat drove all the way into the fog . Unconsciously, even the sunset withered in the fog, and thick white fog continuously emerged from the sea in all directions, covering the boat .
Chen Baiqi jumped off the rudder and hung a lamp at the stern .
The misty yellow light lit up the foggy world, and Qi Leren looked intently at the sea water . There seemed to be something moving under the surface, a mass of black things… With a crash, a blue arm stretched out from the water and hit the rusted ship . The dead body under the water showed half a swollen head, which was as bumpy and horrible as over-fermented steamed bread after highly rotting .
“What is this?!” Qi Leren took a step back, and his voice suddenly lifted .
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Chen Baiqi glanced: "Water ghosts, stand far away, they won’t come up . ”
With her words, the white mist gradually dispersed in the yellow light, and Moses divided the sea to reveal a channel full of moonlight . He didn’t know when the sunset disappeared and the horizon was replaced by bright moonlight . The water ghosts on the sea seemed to be afraid of the pure moonlight, and fled into the sea and hid in the depths of the fog .
The boat set sail again, along the dreamy sea paved by moonlight, heading for the faintly visible island ahead .
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There was also a thin layer of fog on the island . Chen Baiqi threw a flashlight to Qi Leren . This flashlight was heavy, big and portable, and it had an old and rugged temperament . Qi Leren studied it a little and was interested in the technology development of the Nightmare World .
“When the sun goes down, we have now left the scope of the Village of Dusk . We can find this small island through the Sea of the Undead . A player discovered it many years ago and found that the dead players can be found on this island . A tombstone is generated, and there will be brief personal information on the tombstone . Since then, players have come here to mourn their friends, which can be regarded as sweeping graves . ” Chen Baiqi took Qi Leren up the stairs and walked through a large cemetery . “We are now passing through the tombstones of those players from more than 20 years ago . Those people should have died . After all, the monthly compulsory task will become more and more difficult later . The third year will be a watershed, which will eliminate those ordinary people who are not working hard . For more than 20 years, that’s two or three hundred compulsory tasks… Oh, the difficulty is probably comparable to the beginning of the world . ”
The sense of despair in Chen Baiqi’s discourse depressed Qi Leren for a while . He asked, “Do you still have to carry out compulsory tasks even if you go to the Village of Dawn? Is there no way to get rid of this event?”
“I don’t know, no one has proved it . Maybe we’re all just waiting for someone to complete the world’s ultimate task and end it . All this is just a legend between players . After all, the Nightmare World’s not a game, but a real world,” Chen Baiqi said .
Clear moonlight fell all the way, and flowers and trees along the way were shrouded in faint fog, dreamlike . It was just that the tombstones, which were arranged layer after layer as if they were seats in a theater, make all this supposed beautiful scenery heavy, as countless deaths were superimposed together, adding a bit of solemnity to this cold night .
The two people walked deeper and deeper until they came to the depths of the island . The endless spread of tombstones finally came to an end . Chen Baiqi signaled Qi Leren to illuminate the words on the tombstones with a flashlight, and the two walked forward from the end .
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Strange names appeared in the light of the flashlight and finally settled on the tombstone of the person they were looking for .
[Lu Youxin . Witchcraft Sacrifice . The survival time was 731 days . ]
Such a simple three lines summarized Lu Youxin’s life .
“He really came,” Chen Baiqi whispered, looking at a bouquet of lilies lying in front of the tombstone .
Ning Zhou? Had he been here? Qi Leren gawked at the lilies, and the picture of Ning Zhou setting foot on this island with flowers came to his mind . He must have been alone, perhaps in such misty weather, to see a dead friend alone . At that time, what kind of mood was he in?
Chen Baiqi sprinkled a bottle of wine over the front of the grave, and the wine gave off the bitter smell of alcohol, wetting the lilies in front of the grave . She didn’t say anything, just standing in front of the tombstone, as if lost in her own memories .
The flashlight in Qi Leren’s hand turned to the grave next to it, and it was Xie Wanwan, who also died as a sacrificial witch . Going forward was an unfamiliar name, who died in a task called Haunted Halloween, next to a player who also died in Haunted Halloween, and going forward…
Qi Leren’s footsteps stopped .
The beam of the flashlight was fixed on the tombstone, and together with the heartbeat, mortal fear poured in from the depths of his soul, like a cold wave that drowned him .
[Qi Leren . Witchcraft Sacrifice . The survival time was 13 days . ]