Song Yang came out of his private login room.
When he came out, his personal space was empty. Jia Qing and Feng Shi were not there. They probably hadn't completed the dungeon yet.
Song Yang took the space key from the space bag, and with a thought, a door opened in front of him.
After opening the door, there was a communication hall outside with people coming and going. Most of them gathered in front of the large holographic screen, looking up and discussing the player rankings that had just been updated in Smiley City.
Song Yang looked up silently.
First place, 5390 points.
Second place, 2078 points.
Third place, 2070 points.
Fourth place, 2036 points.
…
The game hall was filled with whispers.
"The first place guy's score has increased to over 5,000?! Over 4,000 points in just one week?!"
"The first one must be one of the five people who entered the four-star dungeon a few days ago... Clearing a four-star dungeon only earns 80 points. So, if you calculate the points based on the number of kills..."
"Wait, the first boss couldn't have cleared the four-star dungeon alone this time, right? He took all the kills?"
"The top four seem to be relatively stable, and second, third, and fourth are still very close. But look, there's a sudden gap between sixth and ninth place!"
Song Yang slowly scanned the entire ranking list.
Every week, someone seems to disappear from the rankings.
Death is a common occurrence in Smiley City, and no one knows where these missing people died.
Among them, is there that fox-like young man?
Song Yang lowered his eyes and recalled the system sound that rang in his consciousness when he left the copy just now.
"Congratulations to player Song Yang for passing the three-star dungeon 'Death Ringing'!"
"The full score for a three-star dungeon is 50 points, and player Song Yang scored 49 points!"
"Player Cheng Jiayu has died, and his total points of 87 will be distributed; player Ma Qiu has died, and his total points of 75 will be distributed; player Ye Xiang has died, and his total points of 222 will be distributed; player An Ruming has died, and his total points of 112 will be distributed; player Wang Zhi has died, and his total points of 65 will be distributed; player Xia Jing has died, and his total points of 4 will be distributed."
"The total points to be distributed are 565, and player Song Yang receives one-fifth, or 113 points."
"Player Song Yang's total score for clearing the game is 162 points, and his current accumulated score is 5390 points. Please keep up the good work!"
Player Xia Jing, total score 4 points.
The young man seemed to have a habit of squandering all his points once he left the dungeon, so there was no possibility for him to enter the top 100 list.
Even if he died, he would die quietly in some corner of this strange world.
Song Yang couldn't describe his mood.
He stood there silently for a long time. Finally, he just called up the small holographic screen, withdrew the bounty order he had issued a few days ago, and turned around and left.
About five minutes after he left—
In an inconspicuous corner of the game hall, the light in a public login room changed from green to red.
The next second, the door of the login room was opened and a young man walked out.
The young man was tall and slender, and he was calm and composed. After coming out, he glanced at the ranking list on the holographic screen.
When Xia Jing noticed the score jump of the first place in the leaderboard, his eyes moved slightly, and a hint of interest flashed in his eyes.
His guess should be correct.
Song Yang is currently the player with the highest total points in Smiley City.
That man was capable and decisive, with a clear goal, so it was inevitable that his points would soar. I just don't know why he didn't even take a piece of the monster's body this time.
Could it be that something happened suddenly and he left in a hurry?
Xia Jing thought about it for a moment and put this unimportant question behind him.
Back at the safe house, Tuanzi came up to greet him warmly.
Xia Jing closed the door, and the safe house immediately began its daily drifting.
In this game, Xia Jing was judged dead by the copy.
Although he finally exited the dungeon thanks to his immortal body, he did not gain any points, and his original 4 points were confiscated. He only got back a big bag of monster body parts.
——Fortunately, this is what Xia Jing wants most.
He walked past the window and gently tapped the microphone monster's head. The microphone monster shook, opened its mouth obediently, and sang passionate rock music vigorously.
As the music played, Xia Jing walked into the kitchen and happily began to "dismember the body".
The train monster's attacking part is the throat, and the name of the monster's item is "The Throat That Devours Everything".
Xia Jing put all four monster props on the shelves of the small supermarket for sale, and stored the remaining monster body parts.
But just as he closed the warehouse door, he paused.
With a change of mind, Xia Jing curled his lips, took some monster body parts, and came to the living room of the safe house.
Consumption is inevitable. If you have time, you should enter a few more low-star dungeons to get more monsters.
…
That night, the Smiley City Forum was once again in an uproar. A post quickly became popular and stayed on the front page for a long time.
The post was titled "Did anyone enter the safe house today?"
1L: "The laxative didn't work. Today is another day of hiding from monsters."
2L: "What? Is this a question you ask every Monday?"
3L: "The chance of encountering a safe house is very small. I've been here for two months and haven't encountered one yet..."
4L: "Oh my god, you've been in there, right? Did you play?"
5L: "? What are they talking about upstairs? What are they playing?"
6L: "I bought game consoles from the safe house. I have ten of them. They're monster-killing games. There are all kinds of monsters in them. I even ran into a monster I've killed before, and this time I got killed [smile]"
7: "????"
8L: "Huh????"
9L: "Brother on the 6th floor, what a coincidence! I made it to the finals today, and was killed by a monster I had killed in the dungeon before [dog head]."
10L: "Finals?? Wait, how many of you are playing?"
11L: "I'm the 6L one. Although I'm embarrassed to admit it, the people who played the same game with me at that time were not only the two brothers who also hid in the safe house, but also the beautiful store manager and his golden retriever [covering face]. When I died, the store manager and the dog were still alive. In the end, the dog bravely died to protect the store manager, and the store manager won [covering face]"
12L: "???????"
13L: "Dog???"
14L: "??? The brothers on the 6th floor can't even beat Xiu Gou?!"
15L: "Damn, no wonder I saw the safe house when I was killing monsters today. I was wondering what all those people were doing together inside! They were actually playing games!"
16L: "I also want to play games with the beautiful store manager [saliva]"
…
In reality, it is May.
Song Yang went back home during the May Day holiday, and as soon as he entered the house, he received a call from Feng Shi.
Feng Shi is one year older than him and is a graduate student. The two grew up together, and unexpectedly, they both had the misfortune of being selected by Smiley City when they grew up.
On the phone, Feng Shi asked, "Have you withdrawn the bounty?"
Information related to Smiley City will be erased from reality, provided that the player clearly reveals the existence of Smiley City.
As a result, many players have learned to "communicate in encryption." As long as they are careful, some small things can still be mentioned implicitly in the real world.
Song Yang recalled this and simply explained, "Well, we withdrew two days ago and forgot to tell you."
Feng Shi continued to ask: "Have you found the other party?"
"No," Song Yang turned around and leaned against the window, lowering his eyes and said calmly, "That person is dead."
Feng Shi paused and asked, "Are you sure he's dead? I just came out of a game and received a call from someone who said he met someone who looked very similar to your description."
In their communication, "game" refers to the copy.
Song Yang subconsciously stood up straight, but he soon thought that this was most likely a player who rushed over without thinking when he saw a similar person for the bounty.
Xia Jing's death was clearly reported by the Smiley City system, and there can be no exceptions.
Feng Shi asked: "So what do you say now? Do you want to see him, or forget it?"
Song Yang glanced at the time. It was still early. His parents and sister hadn't come home yet. He had nothing to do anyway, so he said, "I'll go in for a while."
After entering Smiley City, he and Feng Shi met in their personal space.
Feng Shi and the player currently only communicate through the holographic screen, and they agreed to meet again if the information is useful.
But precisely because of this, the other party asked them to first provide a weapon sold in the official supermarket of Smiley City as a deposit to prevent them from getting the information for free.
Feng Shi placed a weapon in the corner they agreed upon in the game hall in advance. At this moment, a call came in on the holographic screen, presumably meaning that the other party had already obtained the weapon.
Feng Shi answered the phone, and the person said, "I ran into that person today in the one-star dungeon 'Starry Sky'! I remember it very clearly. This dungeon was a nine-player dungeon, and there were indeed nine players who gathered at the beginning. Five veteran players, and four new players."
"Everyone got separated halfway through the game. I was playing alone, and when I encountered a monster, a stranger suddenly appeared, chopped the monster down, took the head, and ran away!"
"I was startled. After the dungeon ended, I thought something was wrong, and then I remembered the bounty you posted. I don't know what that guy's personality is like. I only met him once, but that's definitely a human skin mask on his face, and the style of painting is indeed very 'personal'..."
The brother's tone was very subtle when he said those four words.
Song Yang's heart moved, and he asked, "Are you sure that player was not among those nine people at the beginning?"
The other party was very excited: "I'm sure, that guy is too ugly, like, too ugly to be human. I don't know how to describe his face. Anyway, if I see this guy, I will definitely not forget him. He is definitely not among the other eight people at the beginning. By the way, brother, who is this guy? How can an ordinary player sneak into the dungeon in the middle of the game? It seems a bit weird to me!"
After hearing these words, Feng Shi looked at Song Yang.
He had never asked Song Yang about the man on the wanted poster. He had only heard from Jia Qing that the man Song Yang was looking for might be a young man named "Xia Jing".
As for why Song Yang suddenly wanted to find the other party and had not yet announced the other party's name on the bounty order, Jia Qing didn't know.
Jia Qing didn't even know when Xia Jing and Song Yang had a dispute over the monster props.
Feng Shi knew Song Yang quite well, and he could probably guess that there must have been more unknown things happening between Song Yang and the young man named Xia Jing.
But Song Yang hadn't planned to tell them yet, so he didn't ask.
But I didn't expect to hear such news at this moment.
There was no surprise on Song Yang's face, but more of contemplation, suspicion and confusion.
…
Song Yang clearly remembered what happened last time he was in a four-star dungeon.
He was sure that Xia Jing had intervened in the copy midway. The young man was not even afraid that others would notice how strange his appearance was. He was very bold and reckless.
If what the player who contacted them said was true, then this situation was indeed very similar to his last experience.
But again, the Smiley City system has already reported Xia Jing's death.
Unless there is a bug in Smiley City itself, the person this player will meet will definitely not be Xia Jing.
But if it wasn't Xia Jing, who would this player meet?
A person whose action habits are so similar to Xia Jing, and even has the ability to break into an ongoing copy midway like Xia Jing.
Will they be a group?
Song Yang thought for a long time and asked, "When you saw that person, did you notice anything else wrong?"
The other party thought for a moment and said, "No, I didn't see this guy after that. I was just running away. I even came across a safe house on the way... Oh, could that guy have come out of the safe house?"
Song Yang rejected the idea, saying, "If a player leaves the safe house, they will simply return to the instance they originally belonged to."
The other party muttered, "That's right. If that guy entered the safe house from another instance, he couldn't have come to our instance after leaving the safe house."
Moreover, it is impossible for a player to jump directly from the previous opening of the same copy to the next opening through the safe house.
Some players have tried it before.
Normally, after the game ends, the dungeon will give the surviving players about twenty minutes to exit the dungeon one after another.
But if a player enters the safe house at this time, the copy closure time will be extended until he comes out.
In other words, it is impossible for a player who entered the same copy when it was opened last time to stay in the safe house until the copy was opened for the second time and join the second group of players.
So no matter how you think about it, the situation encountered by the player who contacted them at this time was just as wrong as the time with Song Yang.
However, the safe house can be considered a clue.
Song Yang said, "Let's meet."
He thought that he might have to find a way to track down the safe house, the most mysterious existence in the Smiley City.