Song Yang's message aroused Xia Jing's interest: "Number?"
Sha Yu remembered this and nodded quickly. He explained to the puzzled people, "There was a large golden three-dimensional number above our train. It was following us as we moved forward. I remember it was 378."
After hearing this, Xia Jing leaned towards the window.
Just as he had observed before, outside the train, there was a faint golden halo at the edge of his vision.
Golden three-dimensional numbers - it turns out that the golden light comes from this thing.
Xia Jing was very sure that this halo was not there when the train first started, and he first observed it after Ma Qiu's death.
So the three-dimensional figures also appeared at that time? Or even earlier?
Xia Jing rested his fingers on his chin and thought about when it might have happened if it had happened earlier.
After thinking about it, it's probably...
After Cheng Jiayu's death.
Xia Jing's eyelashes moved slightly.
In other words, it is very likely that the three-dimensional numbers appeared above the train only after they passed the first level.
Li Mian was surprised and asked, "378? Does this number have any special meaning?"
At this time, Xia Jing and Song Yang stood up at the same time, attracting everyone's attention.
The two of them also looked at each other.
They had just had a very delicate conversation, but their chemistry remained the same as always.
Xia Jing raised his lips and walked towards the second carriage. Song Yang also laughed, then calmed down and said to the others, "There's not much time left. He and I will go outside to see if the number is still the same. You go knock on the door of the cab and see what conditions the conductor has given this time."
Li Mian and the others nodded quickly.
Time was running out, so the two groups immediately split up.
When Song Yang arrived at the last open platform, Xia Jing had already climbed up the ladder and was looking up.
The wind blew up the young man's tattered clothes, and his back was as slender as a willow branch.
Song Yang shouted against the wind, "What time is it now?"
Xia Jing turned around, climbed down and said, "548."
"548?" Song Yang pondered for a moment and said in a deep voice, "170 more than before. If it's increasing at this rate, then the number 378 may have increased twice before."
Until 548, this three-dimensional number has most likely increased three times in total.
The two quickly walked back into the carriage. Xia Jing analyzed the situation methodically, "We've already gone through four rounds of the game, but in one round everyone died and had to reload the game. If that round doesn't count, then this number will only increase if we truly 'complete the game.'"
An idea is becoming clearer and clearer.
Song Yang took a deep breath and whispered, "This copy is really well designed."
After the two returned to the first carriage, they found that the atmosphere among the five people here was a bit awkward.
Fei Shengxiao's face turned pale. Wang Zhi was crying again, shaking his head and hiding in the corner. "I can't do this. I really can't do this!"
Song Yang and Xia Jing paused.
Song Yang asked calmly, "What's wrong?"
Li Mian's expression also turned ugly: "The conditions given by the conductor this time are completely different."
Song Yang and Xia Jing immediately looked towards the small window of the cab, and saw a piece of white paper stuck on the window. This time it read:
"Only passengers who meet the following conditions may open the door of the cab and enter the cab:
1. No gender restrictions;
2. There are moles on the face.
Song Yang subconsciously touched his face, then remembered that he had almost no moles on his body, let alone on his face.
As for Xia Jing...
Song Yang turned his head and saw Xia Jing's disappointed expression. He knew that this guy didn't have a single mole on his face.
In this way, among the people present, only Fei Shengxiao and Wang Zhi met these two conditions.
Fei Shengxiao has a beautiful teardrop mole at the corner of his right eye.
Wang Zhi has more moles on his face, including on his cheeks and chin.
There were only three minutes left and everyone was getting anxious. What should they do this time?
Wang Zhi cried and begged, "How about we just try the reload and restart route first, okay?"
Fei Shengxiao was also scared. When she saw the white paper, cold sweat broke out on her palms.
She didn't want to go into the cab and face the conductor.
Just because Song Yang and Sha Yu were able to kill the monster didn't mean she had the ability to do the same. If she entered the cab, she might simply be committing suicide.
But... you can't solve this dungeon by just reloading the game again and again!
Thinking of this, Fei Shengxiao gritted his teeth and mustered up his courage.
She raised her head and tried to calmly ask, "How are you, your side? How's the situation?"
Li Mian glanced at her and clenched his fists hanging at his sides.
She closed her eyes, calmed herself down, then looked at Song Yang and Xia Jing and asked, "Has that number changed?"
Song Yang nodded seriously and said, "We have a guess."
Assuming everything is really as he and Xia Jing guessed——
When Cheng Jiayu died, the golden three-dimensional numbers officially appeared.
Every time a disaster occurs in the future, the golden three-dimensional number will increase.
Song Yang asked: "What do you think this pattern is like?"
Several people frowned in thought, and Fei Shengxiao was the first to exclaim, "This is... bonus points?!"
The others opened their eyes wide.
Song Yang nodded: "That's right."
This is very similar to the bonus points you would get in a small mobile game with a simple mode.
Combined with the game mechanism of "reloading the file" -
Song Yang said slowly: "We are inside the body of a monster, and this monster itself is probably playing a game."
When these words came out, the others were shocked.
Sha Yu covered his head. "Wait, wait, wait, you mean... we're playing a dungeon game, and the monsters in the game are also playing the game? We're in a game within a game?!"
Nested copies are actually not particularly rare in the entire Smiley City.
The last instance Song Yang and Xia Jing participated in, "Don't Think!", was a nested dream instance.
However, when players are in a nested copy, it is often difficult to quickly realize this.
Furthermore, the nesting method of each copy is different, and the presentation form is also different, which requires players to figure out bit by bit.
If you think about it carefully, the "reload and restart" mechanism in this copy is already a metaphor. It's just that they always think that the copy is a game, and it is normal for all kinds of mechanisms to appear in the game, so they fall into the thinking that it is too natural.
After Song Yang explained this, several people quickly digested the information in shock.
"But if the monster is playing a game... then, are we inside the game console?!" Sha Yu said in surprise, "Then how are we going to get out?"
Li Mian quickly dismissed this conjecture: "No, according to common sense, there's no way the characters in the game console can leave the console and go to the 'three-dimensional' world."
Sha Yu: "Then——"
"Hologame."
Xia Jing uttered four words, causing the others to fall into a daze again.
Xia Jing said slowly, "If the monster is playing a holographic game, and it brings us into the game with it in reality, then we can kill it by simply exiting the game."
After analyzing to this point, several people were completely stunned.
Fei Shengxiao was confused and asked, "But, but how can we exit the holographic game?"
For people of their generation, holographic games are just a product of fantasy. They have never actually played a holographic online game!
Li Mian quickly asked, "Is there an exit button on the control panel in the cab?"
Sha Yu shook his head. "No, you should have seen it when you entered the cab just now. There are only a few simple buttons on the control panel, nothing related to the game. Song Yang and I even pressed them when we were killing that monster, trying to see if we could stop the train, but it didn't work! We suspect that this control panel was just randomly placed there by the dungeon, just for show!"
Yang Leliu racked his brains and asked, "Could the 'Exit' option be outside the train? For example, if we were playing a holographic game, the control panel should be within our field of vision, right? And now that the train monster is playing the game, the control panel should be right in front of it!"
Sha Yu shook his head in confusion and denied it again: "Song Yang and I didn't see anything like this when we climbed out just now!"
This is not right, that is not right, what should I do?
Song Yang then asked seriously, "Do you usually watch the Internet?"
Fei Shengxiao nodded dully.
Li Mian, Sha Yu and Yang Leliu all shook their heads in confusion.
Wang Zhi was still hiding in the corner, shaking his head in horror.
Song Yang looked at Xia Jing again.
Xia Jing blinked at him innocently.
If he could use the Internet, would he still be so bored all day?
Song Yang: "..."
Song Yang looked at Fei Shengxiao and asked in a strange tone, "Based on your experience with online novels, how do you usually enter and exit holographic online games?"
Fei Shengxiao was stunned: "No way?!"
Song Yang's expression was also a little hard to describe: "I think this should be the only way."
"Actually, if you've ever visited forums, you should know about the origins of Smiley City. Many people have discussed this. There are all sorts of speculations, but there's one that many people agree on," Song Yang said word by word. "That is, this place was man-made."
These players do not have much basis for making such speculations, the main reason being that they feel that Smiley City is deliberately selecting players.
This selection may not be very detailed, but it does show a trend that Smiley City prefers players with superpowers.
And preference is a trace of human nature.
Xia Jing's eyes moved slightly.
Beside him, Song Yang said, "Assuming that these replicas were all constructed by humans, then when constructing the replica we have now, what basis do you think 'he' could have used for his imagination?"
Fei Shengxiao blurted out: "Comics, movies and TV series!"
Li Mian hesitated and said, "But what if this person isn't from our time? To be able to build a special space like Smiley City, perhaps he's from the future?"
What's worse, maybe they are a group of aliens with a higher civilization?
Song Yang asked, "You've played through so many instances. Have you sensed any elements beyond our time?"
Everyone was stunned.
Indeed, the copy of Smiley City is very scary and weird, and many settings are beyond imagination.
But this is beyond imagination, not beyond imagination at the cognitive level.
For example, even if they entered a copy today and there was a spacecraft in the copy that could travel in the universe, that spacecraft would definitely be the kind of spacecraft they imagined and would not really be completely beyond their cognition.
It is said that human imagination is unlimited, but most of the time, human imagination is based on the information they have been exposed to in the past.
People have no way of imagining things that are completely beyond their imagination.
This may seem like nonsense, but it is also a benchmark.
At the same time, this also means that
"If the people who built Smiley City were truly future humans, or aliens, then in order for us to have the possibility of completing the dungeon, they would have to keep the dungeon's settings within the bounds of our imagination."
After Song Yang said this, everyone understood, but at the same time they also broke out in a cold sweat.
The idea that Smiley City was built by a single person or group of people is truly chilling.
There was only a little over a minute left in this round of rest. Fei Shengxiao didn't waste any more time. She quickly started thinking and said:
"Holographic online games, holographic online games... In the ones I've seen, you either use a game pod or a gaming helmet. As for how to exit... I can't recall the specific exit methods right now. I do remember one book where the protagonist's mind is in the game, and they can call up the game's main board. Simply by selecting Exit on the main board, they can exit the game!"
——But the protagonist's thoughts are equivalent to the thoughts of the train monster in their copy!
How are they going to get into the train monster's mind?!
Some people are going crazy because of this crappy copy setting!
Xia Jing said slowly: "If you want to enter the monster's mind, you must first merge with the monster."
Li Mian frowned: "What does this mean——"
Her voice stopped abruptly and her pupils suddenly contracted.
Xia Jing calmly said something that silenced everyone.
"—By becoming the monster's nourishment, you can become one with the monster."
The carriage suddenly fell into dead silence.
The next second, the announcement inside the train sounded.
"Ding Dong!"
"The train will now cross the ocean. The waves are strong, so please hold on tight."