Song Yang almost immediately shouted, "Stop Gu Xing!"
Gu Chen came to his senses and hugged Gu Xing the moment she rushed towards Cheng Hua, shouting, "Xiao Xing, wake up!"
Tears welled up in Gu Xing's eyes, his look was filled with ferocity and pain, and he was as hungry as a wolf.
Her hands formed into claws and she grabbed Gu Chen's arms tightly, leaving bloody marks on Gu Chen's arms, which was shocking.
You Ye simply took out a rope and tied up Gu Xing. Gu Xing fell to the ground, gasping for breath with his mouth wide open, and saliva flowed down his side.
Gu Chen felt heartbroken when he saw his sister like this.
Cheng Huayi gasped as he watched the scene. After a moment, he said in a hoarse voice, "If the seeds are removed, eating these fruits won't cause her to mutate, right?"
Everyone was stunned.
Song Yang was silent and said, "No."
"Then let her eat it," Cheng Hua moved, motioning Gu Chen to pick the apple, and said with a wry smile, "After eating these damn things, she might go crazy like me after taking a bite. But Xiaoxing can't even walk in her current state, so why not let her try a little? Maybe her condition isn't that serious, and a little bit of food can actually help."
"If everything goes well for you, you should be able to leave this dungeon tonight. As long as you can hold on until then, she'll be fine."
Gu Chen struggled and said, "But Uncle Cheng, you..."
Cheng Hua said, "Hurry up and pick them. Just help me lighten the load. Otherwise, I won't be able to run any further."
You Ye and the others sighed, and Lu Chenfei turned around, really not wanting to watch this scene.
Gu Chen gritted his teeth and said with red eyes: "Then, then I will pick it, Uncle Cheng..."
He walked forward, grabbed an apple and picked it.
Chenghua groaned.
Gu Chen trembled as he peeled off the seeds stuck to the apple skin. He handed the apple to Gu Xing and asked cautiously, "Xiao Xing, do you want to eat it?"
Gu Xing smelled the scent, struggled to sit up, and began to bite the apple in big bites.
On the other end, Cheng Hua suddenly groaned in pain again.
Several people looked over immediately and were surprised to see that on the small tree on the back of Cheng Hua's neck, seventeen or eighteen apples had grown out in revenge!
Lu Chenfei squatted down to examine it, frowning and saying, "I'm afraid the growth mechanism of these seeds is that once they are removed, more will grow."
They will keep growing and growing until they have sucked the host dry and turned into white bones in the vegetable and fruit field, and then the plant will completely wither.
Picking an apple would not only not relieve Chenghua's burden, but the weight of the growing apples would almost pull his cervical vertebrae out of his flesh.
Cheng Hua tried hard to get up, but the next second, he fell to the ground as if he had been hit hard, and then the clothes on his abdomen bulged!
Lu Chenfei immediately lifted up his clothes.
Countless winding vines, covered with flesh and blood, emerged from beneath the skin of Cheng Hua's abdomen. The vines blossomed and hung with grapes, strawberries, and dates - all the things that should grow on the vines and shouldn't grow on the vines grew out. Cheng Hua was almost instantly like being locked in a coffin woven with vines. His eyes were wide open, staring blankly at the void, gasping for breath.
Lu Chenfei looked at Song Yang silently.
We had said so much before, but at this point, everyone could see that Chenghua was probably dying.
Cheng Hua knew it himself, but he still struggled to get up and said, "Hurry... hurry up, I will follow you... I won't die here..."
"Uncle Cheng." Lu Chenfei hesitated.
"You were the one who told me that keeping my life would be more meaningful than dying, wasn't it?" Cheng Hua's gaze didn't even seem to be focused on Lu Chenfei anymore. He just stared blankly into the corner, pulled the corner of his lips, and panted, "Now... it's not the time yet!"
...It's not time for him to die yet!
Lu Chenfei closed his eyes.
Song Yang took a deep breath and said, "Gu Chen, can you carry Gu Xing on your back?"
Gu Chen gritted his teeth: "I can do it!"
"Okay," Song Yang said calmly, "Then let's keep going."
They walked even slower than before for the rest of the journey.
As time passed and it gradually approached ten o'clock in the evening, everyone's pace became more and more anxious.
When the time on the mobile phone officially jumped to ten o'clock, Lu Chenfei threw the two torches to You Ye and Gu Chen respectively, and Song Yang took out the fire attack props.
It was a fiery red ball that could be held in the palm of your hand.
Song Yang swung his hand towards the torches in the hands of Lu Chenfei, You Ye and Gu Chen, and three fireballs flew over, instantly igniting their torches.
At the same time, they could hear rustling sounds coming from the front and back at the same time!
And the door in front is already right in front of us!
Song Yang took out another prop and smashed it ten meters behind him. The prop sprayed out mud like a fountain, and in a blink of an eye it piled up into a small hill, blocking their way!
Xia Jing was one step ahead of them and arrived at the door.
"Blood" quickly overflowed from the gaps on the four sides of the door. Only after the "blood" overflowed successfully could one see that it was actually a tide formed by a bunch of round, bead-like seeds, crawling densely towards Xia Jing.
Song Yang quickly shook his hand, and the seeds near the door handle were instantly burned.
Xia Jing tried to open the door, but found that the door could not be turned at all!
"Damn, if this door can't be opened, does that mean the copy originally wanted us to break through the basement head-on?!" Lu Chenfei cursed.
"We have no way out now," You Ye stepped forward decisively, "We can only force our way in!"
"Wait a minute!" Cheng Hua, now pale as a ghost, shouted, "Let me do it!"
He dragged his heavy body forward step by step, saying firmly, "I'm almost dying. Let me break through this door. Whether you lose points or get locked up in the dark room, I'll bear the consequences. Don't make a meaningless sacrifice!"
"Uncle Cheng..." Gu Chen choked up.
Lu Chenfei seemed to want to say something but stopped himself, while Song Yang and the others fell into silence.
Time waits for no one, and in this situation, there is nothing more to say.
Song Yang closed his eyes and whispered, "Sorry to bother you, Uncle Cheng."
Chenghua took out the axe from the space bag and held it tightly with both hands.
Many leaves have also sprouted on his arms.
He shouted loudly and slammed the door hard!
I don't know if it was because the seeds absorbed nutrients from his body, but this man who once looked so strong was unable to break down the door in one go.
Cheng Hua's eyes were filled with bloodshot. He roared, swung the axe high again, and smashed it down with force!
With a loud bang, the axe chopped a hole in the door handle. Cheng Hua kicked hard, panting, and the door opened!
The ground behind the door was densely covered with red seeds!
Song Yang led the way, Lu Chenfei and You Ye followed behind, and the group immediately moved inside!
"Thirty points were deducted, but I wasn't locked up in the small dark room!" Cheng Hua glanced at the palm of his hand. The number on it changed from "0" to "-30". A hint of joy flashed across his pale face.
But the next second, the seeds in his body woke up and began to fall down.
Cheng Hua's face changed and he hurriedly stepped on the seeds with his feet, but more and more seeds poured out of his body and flowed down, trying to find a new host.
"Don't worry about it for now. These seeds will only take root in the human body once they enter the mouth. Everyone, watch your mouth!" Song Yang said sternly.
Cheng Hua gritted his teeth and saw Song Yang and the others coming to the second door of the basement, which was obviously also closed.
"All of you, get out of the way!" Cheng Hua strode over, already panting heavily, "Let me do it!"
Before taking action, Chenghua turned around and glanced at them one by one.
This is a very straightforward, last look before death, which is shocking.
His smile was uglier than crying: "You must get out alive."
After saying this, he turned around and without hesitation, smashed the door open.
This time, he disappeared in front of everyone.
Gu Chen was shocked and cried out, "Uncle Cheng was locked up in the dark room?!"
You Ye whispered, "Perhaps it's because this door is the most important part of this dungeon."
If the most important link is destroyed by violence, the system's punishment will become the most severe.
However, they no longer had time to worry about so much.
They couldn't waste the opportunity Chenghua had sacrificed himself for.
Song Yang and Xia Jing took the lead and broke into the real basement. The scene inside made everyone feel cold.
The basement was surrounded by various refrigerators and cabinets, and the ground was littered with naked corpses, all covered with various plants.
The fruits and vegetables looked vibrant and lush, but this small basement, illuminated by the fire, looked like a small forest filled with ghostly shadows.
Song Yang turned on the light, and saw a pile of seeds gathered under their feet, trying to crawl onto them.
After roughly sweeping the area with his knife, Xia Jing scanned the small basement and said, "According to the information provided by the passenger NPC, we are looking for a 'white cabinet'. This cabinet contains the secret of the seed, most likely a notebook or document."
There are four white cabinets in this room, located in the four corners.
The two deepest corners have the most seeds gathered.
Song Yang made a quick decision: "Xia Jing and I will go to the innermost cabinet, Lu Chenfei will go to the front right, You Ye will go to the left, and Gu Chen and Gu Xing will check the cabinet on the right. Is that okay?"
Everyone agreed and immediately took action separately.
They stepped over the corpses on the ground. Because their naked bodies and the various bodies damaged by plants were unbearable to look at, several people were reluctant to look, but they still easily found Cao Jun and Zhou Yaqing.
One of the two men was lying in the corner near the door, and the other was lying a little further inside, both of them were lifeless.
At this moment, Xia Jing glanced at Cao Jun's wide-open eyes and was almost certain that the person who looked at him through the crack of the door yesterday was Cao Jun, who was already dead at that time.
He and Song Yang came to the deepest part of the basement.
The white cabinet was not locked and was easily opened.
Everyone was scrambling to look through the documents in the cabinet.
More and more seeds gathered in the basement. Some crawled down from the corpses, and some crawled in through the earth wall where Song Yang was standing outside. The ground beneath their feet became a sea of red seeds.
Gu Chen was fine. Gu Xing ate an apple and became a little more sober. He lay on Gu Chen's back and gritted his teeth to clear away the seeds for him.
The other four people could hardly move. The seeds pressed down their feet tightly. They could only distract themselves and use fire to drive away the seeds while flipping through them.
Xia Jing and Song Yang worked together and quickly searched the white cabinet, but they did not find the target item. It was full of miscellaneous items.
Xia Jing turned around and scanned the entire basement again.
He thought for a moment, bent down, and picked up a handful of seeds. Then he looked at the body lying at his feet, buried under the seeds, and narrowed his eyes. He said, "Whether it's here or in the vegetable and fruit fields, a large proportion of the bodies are obese. This can't be a coincidence."
Song Yang frowned upon hearing this and said, "Indeed, we currently only know that the hotel took Zhou Yaqing away because they likely wanted to eliminate all clues related to the seeds. However, Cao Jun was taken away on the first night, and he also put up a mosquito net on the first night. The reason he was chosen must be different from Zhou Yaqing's."
"The hotel needs a stable supply of fruits and vegetables, which requires stable production," Xia Jing slowly repeated what Lu Chenfei had said, "Fruits and vegetables take root in the soil. To grow well, they naturally need the most suitable land."
The two looked at each other.
Song Yang said in a deep voice: "Seeds are monsters with self-awareness. In order to reproduce, they will naturally tend to seek out the land that suits them best. The hotel's selection of 'land' must have followed the law of seeds seeking prey!"
Various clues indicate that among countless players, seeds will tend to gather on the fattest people.
At this moment, Lu Chenfei shouted: "I found it!"
He held a folder in his hand. "This hotel has a seed research report. Let me find the key points..."
Xia Jing put the handful of seeds in his hand into the space bag. Several people gathered around. Lu Chenfei's eyes quickly scanned several A4 papers. Soon, he said, "Song Yang and Xia Jing are right. Seeds love 'fertile soil' the most. If there is a smell of blood, the seeds will rush towards the target like crazy!"
"It says here that they don't know how many seeds there are in the forest right now, but if they could find a fat enough person and cut open their body, perhaps all the seeds in the forest could be gathered on them. Or maybe, if they could get enough people together, they could achieve the same effect!"
Lu Chenfei raised his head.
Several people looked strange.
They could already roughly guess that the latter should be the normal solution to this dungeon, and "enough people" could refer to NPCs, and naturally could also refer to players.
However, harming NPCs will be punished by the system, and if the players do it themselves... that means they will face the risk of being wiped out.
What if it is the former method?
You Ye frowned and said, "--The question is, where are we going to find someone who is 'fat enough'?"
Not to mention whether they are willing to die for the rest of the people, there is not even a slightly fat person among them.
This document also specifically states that people must be "obese enough" to qualify.
Gu Xing was able to think a little more now, and asked weakly, "I remember there's an NPC who looks very similar to Brother Cao. Could it be that we just need to find him?"
"But do you think Cao Jun's body is big enough to hold the seeds of an entire forest?" You Ye asked.
Everyone looked towards the door and saw Cao Jun's body covered with all kinds of vegetables, which was a horrible sight.
Although Cao Jun is fat, it is indeed hard to believe that his obesity is enough to attract the seeds of an entire forest.
"How fat does one have to be to be this fat?" Gu Chen asked, "Is there really anyone in real life who is this fat?"
Several people fell into deep thought.
At a certain moment, Song Yang looked at Lu Chenfei and said, "That prop of yours——"
Lu Chenfei nodded solemnly.
You Ye was stunned: "Isn't Lu Chenfei's prop an inflatable doll? Although it is big, it has no flesh body, right?"
Lu Chenfei: "In single-player mode, there is indeed no physical body."
The four words "single-player mode" attracted everyone's attention.
Lu Chenfei: "After all, it is an offensive prop, and its offensiveness is mainly reflected in its two-player mode."
"If you hit another player with this item, it will fuse with them and expand. The resulting object will become a true giant. However, the attacked player's self-awareness will be reduced to a minimum. They will become a 'real doll' that the item user can control, and even the right to exit the dungeon will be transferred to the item user."
After hearing these words, several people's expressions changed slightly.
Lu Chenfei said cautiously, "That is to say, using this item, we may indeed be able to gather all the seeds in the entire forest. Even after we set fire to the 'Real Doll', the item user can actually take advantage of the moment when the seeds are burned and the 'Real Doll' is still breathing its last breath to escape the dungeon and save their lives."
"But firstly, the timing is difficult to grasp, and secondly..."
Even if they all swore that they would never deliberately frame the "real doll" sacrificer, who would dare to really put their life in the hands of another player?
The seeds surged under the feet of several people. Gu Chen gritted his teeth and said, "At this time, there is really no choice but to sacrifice one person. It is better than sacrificing everyone. Let Xiaoxing and I go. Let Xiaoxing use the props and I will make the doll!"
Everyone was shocked.
Gu Chen and Gu Xing are brother and sister. In theory, these two are indeed the pair who will undoubtedly fight for each other.
but--
Song Yang said: "Gu Xing's energy should be running out."
They all looked at Gu Xing, whose face was pale on Gu Chen's back.
You Ye and Lu Chenfei nodded. It was very inappropriate to let Gu Xing play at this time. It was very likely that Gu Chen would just be sent to his death.
And among the remaining four of them——
Song Yang looked at Xia Jing and asked, "I'll be the doll and you'll be in charge of the timing, okay?"
Lu Chenfei and You Ye were surprised.
Xia Jing raised his eyes to look at him and said, "Given our physical conditions, shouldn't we switch places?"
He will be resurrected from the dead, but Song Yang is a mortal, and once dead, he is dead.
Hearing this question, Song Yang laughed and said, "I can't let you die every time just because you have this special physique. We each have one chance, which is fair."
"What is this?" Xia Jing raised an eyebrow. "Pointless stubbornness?"
"Let's take it as it is," Song Yang said, his pupils reflecting the firelight, frowning, "Anyway, no matter what, I will never treat my friends as tools."
He whispered in a voice that only the two of them could hear, "Also, don't forget, I said I want to treat you as an ordinary human being."
Xia Jing stared at him.
Song Yang raised his lips and pressed his head: "Of course, I chose you because I believe that with your ability, you will definitely be able to keep me alive."