The head lying on the ground had his eyes closed and his cheeks were covered in mud and water, making them dirty.
He was still wearing the same baseball cap that he had worn when everyone first met him.
From beginning to end, the male college student never took off the hat, and at this time the hat had been deformed by Xia Jing's stepping on it.
After Xia Jing said this, Deng Kai's head remained motionless, as if dead.
Chai Feng looked at them for a moment in surprise, his face filled with doubt: "...You said he is the main monster? Isn't he a robot?!"
"Yes, it probably placed a robot inside its body because it knew some players would think that way."
"If we were all misled by the footprints it left behind after crashing here yesterday and ran to the North Mountain, that would be even better. It could easily catch the UFO here, escape Earth, and close the instance," Xia Jing chuckled. "But who ever said that the robot and the main monster couldn't be one and the same?"
After Xia Jing said this, Chai Feng suddenly thought of something and his face changed.
Beishan?
He quickly turned around and looked at the footprints hidden under the grass behind him - that was indeed the direction leading to Beishan!
And yesterday, he brought Deng Kai, Zhang Yan, and Shen Bai to search Beishan...
Right on the slope of Beishan Mountain, both Zhang Yan and Deng Kai had fallen silent.
Facts have proven that Zhang Yan was actually parasitized by the robot, and Deng Kai...
When Chai Feng thought of this, his expression became ferocious, and his eyes were like swords, stabbing at the head under Xia Jing's feet.
Xia Jing moved his feet, treading over the head like a soccer ball, and said thoughtfully, "You hid the crucial glass fragment, didn't you? You couldn't have hidden it when you crashed here yesterday, because then you could have hidden it so that the players couldn't find it. But a dungeon would never let a crucial clue disappear without a trace."
"So when you first fell on this mountain yesterday, I'm afraid you didn't think much about it and ran away in a hurry?"
The rain washed over the head.
It was still motionless with its eyes closed, but if you looked closely, you could see that this thing, which should have been a pile of skin, flesh and bones, was now tensing its muscles.
"Did you just hide temporarily? Where did you hide?"
Xia Jing glanced at the people above him: "In the mouth?"
At this moment, Chai Feng and Tang Yi could clearly see that the eyelids of the human head twitched.
Tang Yi was so frightened that he screamed, while Chai Feng was so angry that he felt fooled that he froze there and couldn't move at all.
The human head seemed to be unable to stay put any longer, and it suddenly opened its eyes, and countless thin tentacles suddenly grew out of the broken neck!
These tentacles dug into the ground hard, as if trying to lift up Xia Jing's foot that was pressing it down, but the struggle was of no avail.
The head gnashed its teeth, but couldn't move at all!
It panted, its eyes looking upwards, glaring at Xia Jing fiercely, and Xia Jing laughed.
The young man bent down.
At this time, Song Yang came over and pried open the mouth of the human head for him, and picked out the piece that was about to be swallowed down the throat by the human head.
Song Yang said calmly: "It's dirty, don't touch it."
Xia Jing glanced at the man, enjoying the service with peace of mind, then moved closer to take a look.
There was a lot of blood on the fragments, but it was quickly wet and washed away by the rain.
I saw a small pattern clearly printed on this piece of glass.
That is...
Tang Yi looked closely and felt goosebumps all over his body: "Is this... a brain?!"
"The soldiers are the heart and the commander is the brain. This makes sense, doesn't it?" Song Yang said in a deep voice.
And where can the main monster, who is the brain, hide in this human head?
Tang Yi and Chai Feng immediately looked at the baseball cap on the head.
Xia Jing moved his feet, bent down, and took off Deng Kai's baseball cap.
Under the baseball cap, close to the hairline, a circle of scars around the skull can be seen!
——The medical supplies in Smiley City can quickly heal players' wounds, but injuries that are too serious will still leave scars. Only when the player successfully leaves the dungeon will all these scars completely disappear without a trace.
At this moment, the hideous scar on the man's head showed that Deng Kai's skull had been opened before.
——How could it be possible that what is hidden inside is his own brain!
Chai Feng was extremely shocked and furious. He shouted angrily, "So this guy sneaked in during the first search of the mountain?!"
In fact, Song Yang and Xia Jing only completely locked onto their target just now as a series of clues emerged one by one.
Looking back on the entire process of this copy, everything actually has a traceable path.
Song Yang: "I'm afraid there's a main monster and three secondary monsters hiding in the slope where Zhang Yan and Deng Kai fell yesterday."
——The robot in Deng Kai's throat could not have hidden in "Deng Kai's" body when Xia Jing was attacked in the mountains this afternoon. It was only because Xia Jing was alert enough. If there was a fourth robot at the scene at that time, he would not have been unaware of it.
After returning from searching the mountain with Chai Feng and the others yesterday, Deng Kai was almost always in everyone's sight and never disappeared.
This was probably to eliminate his own suspicion at the critical moment, but at the same time it also cut off the possibility of the main monster having contact with the soldiers again.
It is only possible that this robot entered Deng Kai's body together with the main monster at the very beginning.
Xia Jing's speculation about the robot was not wrong.
If robots want to transform and control the human body, the bottom line is to control the human heart.
The reason why this robot is hidden in "Deng Kai's" throat is precisely because its function is merely to disguise and mislead.
As for the real control of this body, it was actually handed over to the commander early on.
Thus, the first battle between players and monsters was formed.
There were three robots, one disguised as Zhang Yan, one hid in Zhang Yan's backpack, and subsequently attacked Zhao Leya, while the last robot and the main monster returned as Deng Kai.
Chai Feng, who was with the two of them throughout yesterday, was completely unaware of all this.
At this time, Chai Feng's face was extremely ugly and he was completely embarrassed.
Song Yang said, "Last night when everyone sat down together, Deng Kai was sitting next to me, and I smelled a bloody odor."
At that time, "Deng Kai" explained that the smell of blood came from Zhang Yan.
The fact is that the robot "Zhang Yan" is the earliest and crudest version of a clone. There is no human blood in his body. There is only gel and machinery under his skin. Where does the blood come from?
Even if she really used the gel to transform "blood", the liquid would not smell like blood.
But they discovered the identity of "Zhang Yan" this morning. By then, Song Yang had already forgotten about the smell of blood, which is why he did not realize that something was wrong at the first time.
——The bloody smell at that time was actually emitted from "Deng Kai" himself, coming from the circle of wounds on his head under his baseball cap!
Chai Feng suddenly thought of something, clenched his fists, and said grimly, "Pei Guang was attacked when this guy accompanied him to the restroom. This morning, before Zhao Leya revealed her identity, I wanted everyone to confirm each other's identities first, but this guy interrupted me!"
Xia Jing chuckled. "Perhaps this is to give 'Zhao Leya' time to deal with Zhao Mingjing? 'Zhao Leya' is a second-level disguised robot. If she can deal with Zhao Mingjing and shift the blame onto the other party, even if they have to prove themselves, she might still be able to survive for a while."
But the main monster probably didn't expect that this group of players had already locked onto "Zhao Leya" at that time.
Under the circumstances at that time, the best choice was to let "Zhao Leya" escape as soon as possible.
Once it gets rid of Zhao Leya's skin, the robot can quietly make a comeback and disguise itself as any one of the players again.
But the main monster didn't do that at the time, perhaps because -
"You have to be within a certain distance before you can give orders to the soldiers, right?" Xia Jing asked.
The human head looked extremely angry. It clenched its teeth and didn't want to answer any of Xia Jing's questions.
"On the afternoon of the first day, you ran to Beishan and only found three of your own soldiers."
"Although the other seven soldiers didn't have the instructions implanted, they should also know that they are heading to the top of the mountain—where the UFO is located."
"As long as they get close enough, the main monster will arrange their next move."
Xia Jing's voice was neither fast nor slow.
As for "Zhao Leya", she was concentrating on following orders at that time, but she didn't know that she had been targeted.
By then the main monster should have known that the robot could no longer be saved.
It simply gave up this chess piece, not only confessing the information that "Zhao Mingjing was the one guarding outside the toilet the night before", but also rushed over at the first moment to make "Zhao Leya" shoot off target.
If it were not Song Yang, Xia Jing and the others standing here today, but other players, then perhaps "Deng Kai's" series of actions would be enough to mislead those players countless times.
——First, he showed himself several times, becoming the one among them who was most active in hindering the monsters.
——Then he moved the robot to his neck, the part that would least arouse suspicion.
——If the identity is really suspected, then use the robot to let the player kill it. After killing the "monster", the player generally will not suspect that this "monster" can actually be another monster.
——Finally, he hid the most crucial piece of glass, allowing the players to discover its traces of escaping to Beishan yesterday.
——If the players realize that the main monster is hiding among them, how could it, a dead person, arouse suspicion?
Even if players really don't need glass fragments to realize that the main monster might be the "brain", it may not be the first thing they suspect.
After all, it's dead.
As long as it can drag the UFO until it starts automatically and come to greet it, it will win!
Unfortunately, the people it met happened to be Xia Jing and Song Yang.
The head's face was filled with anger and shame. It suddenly spoke, its voice hoarse and filled with hatred: "—I should have killed you two long ago! Kill you and replace you with soldiers!"
Tang Yi on the side had a subtle look on his face, obviously wanting to ask, who gave you the confidence that you could easily kill these two people?
Xia Jing was still in the mood to analyze: "If you had changed your move on Zhao Leya to Chai Feng, maybe you would still have a chance to win now."
When Chai Feng heard this, his expression became even more distorted.
"No one can control the other players anymore. Zhao Leya, Zhao Mingjing, and Shen Bai all have a chance of surviving until the final stage of the game. When Song Yang suggested that everyone go down to search the mountain together, if you could convince any one of these three to stay with you on the top of the mountain, you wouldn't seem too out of place."
"And as long as you can stay on the top of the mountain, you can kill the other party at the last moment and enter the UFO."
Unfortunately, this main monster left behind a Chai Feng.
Chai Feng was determined to kill Song Yang, and he controlled all the other players who were easy to control, leaving no chance for the main monster to fool the players. Isn't this a dead end?
It would be too strange to stay alone on the top of the mountain. If I followed most of the actions, I would have to be on guard against Xia Jing and Song Yang.
The main monster struggled to survive until the end, but was still stepped on by Xia Jing like a ball.
The head began to roar, and suddenly gave up struggling to get out from under Xia Jing's feet. Countless tentacles grew out and flew towards the four of them, as if it wanted to kill as many as possible at the last moment!
The attack came unexpectedly, and Xia Jing and Song Yang waved their hands to cut off the tentacles.
Tang Yi was standing at the farthest point, and before he was touched by the tentacles, Xia Jing stabbed a knife into the human head.
Only Chai Feng failed to react in time at the last moment and was pierced through the chest by the tentacles.
His eyes were wide open, his expression frozen at the moment of greatest anger.
Xia Jing, Song Yang, and Tang Yi quickly turned their heads to look at him.
The next second, Chai Feng disappeared from where he was.
The main monster is dead and the copy is over.
He escaped from the dungeon with his last breath.
*
The tense and brain-excessive copy finally ended. Tang Yi breathed a sigh of relief, and only then did he feel the coldness that soaked his whole body.
In the copy, the UFO was still motionless above them, but it could no longer welcome its owner.
The heavy rain is still falling without stopping for a moment.
Xia Jing looked in the direction where Chai Feng left and said softly, "For many players, he may be scarier than the monster itself."
Song Yang said calmly, "It would have been fine if we didn't know about his abilities before, but now that we know about them, he won't be able to act as recklessly as before."
In Smiley City, the reputation of a dangerous player will spread faster than the strategy guide for a horror dungeon.
Although Chai Feng is still alive, how he will face the players who know his methods in each subsequent copy will become his most troubling problem.
In this dungeon, he had one thousand points deducted at once. With his greedy personality, it was unknown whether he could maintain his caution, let alone take advantage of the situation to attack other players.
Xia Jing laughed and pulled the knife out of the head at his feet.
He lifted up the entire head and began to open the skull again, exposing the small brain inside, and then poured the brain out.
Tang Yi was stunned by this rough method. Song Yang still frowned and said with disdain, "Dirty."
Xia Jing turned to look at him, tilted his head, and said teasingly: "You won't stop me this time?"
When Song Yang heard this, he glanced at him and said, "I said I would give you all the monster parts from now on."
Oh wow, he is really a man of his words.
Xia Jing savored the taste.
Pretty good.
He raised the corner of his lips, looked away, and admired the thing in his hand.
A hole had been poked in his brain, but the moment he took it in his hand, Xia Jing still captured the description of the monster prop in his consciousness.
The commander's brain.
By placing the item above your head, you can control a secondary monster for 24 hours without being discovered by its companions.
The way this item is used is a bit strange, but its function is very rare, so it should be able to sell for a considerable price.
Xia Jing stuffed the thing into the space bag with satisfaction.
Song Yang watched Xia Jing finish cleaning up, and finally had the chance to finish what he hadn't said in the previous instance: "Xia Jing, let's exchange the holographic screen contact numbers."
Xia Jing turned his eyes and looked at him.
The rain kept falling.
The man reached out and smoothed his hair again, saying lazily, "I'm not cheating, and I don't ask you to open a backdoor, but before I find you, we can always chat online."
"Just think of it as," Song Yang said slowly, "online dating."
Xia Jing raised his eyebrows.
He chuckled and said, "Okay."
Apart from them, the only one left here is Tang Yi.
Tang Yi hesitated for a moment, then walked over and said, "Brother Xia, Brother Song, can we exchange contact information? I won't cling to you, but I just hope there will be someone I can contact at any time in Smile City in the future."
There was nothing to refuse in this request.
After the three of them memorized each other's contact information, they climbed up the slope again and took a look at the situation of Zhao Mingjing and Shen Bai.
The two people were locked to the ground by Chai Feng's props, and they kept bouncing like a bugged robot. They had no self-awareness at all and were really hopeless.
Tang Yi sighed.
They are preparing to officially leave the copy.
Xia Jing closed his eyes, and the system sound of the Smiley City machinery rang in his mind.
"Congratulations to player Xia Jing for passing the three-star dungeon 'Bionic'!"
"The maximum score for a three-star dungeon is 50 points, and player Xia Jing scored 50 points for completing it!"
"Player Zhang Yan has died, and his total points of 145 will be distributed; player Deng Kai has died, and his total points of 189 will be distributed; player Zhao Leya has died, and his total points of 109 will be distributed; player Pei Guang has died, and his total points of 317 will be distributed; player Shen Bai has died, and his total points of 203 will be distributed; player Zhao Mingjing has died, and his total points of 113 will be distributed."
"The total points to be distributed are 1076, and player Xia Jing has received a quarter, or 269 points."
"Player Xia Jing's total score for clearing the game is 319 points, and the current accumulated score is 323 points. Please keep up the good work!"
*
People are coming and going in the game hall.
Among the public registration rooms around, one of them turned red and was opened from the inside.
Xia Jing walked out from inside.
After leaving the copy, his whole body returned to its most neat and clean appearance.
The rain, mud, dirt, and blood all disappeared from his body, and he became the ordinary-looking yet elegant young man again.
Xia Jing turned around and went to the small supermarket as usual.
He had consumed many weapons in this dungeon, and all of them needed to be replenished one by one.
As usual, this large purchase attracted a lot of surprised looks. When Xia Jing left the supermarket, the big screen in the game hall updated this week's rankings, causing an uproar all around.
"Did the original third place suddenly disappear?"
"Really?"
"Is he dead too?"
"Hmm, there seems to be something wrong between the rankings of 19th, 20th, and 21st. It feels like number 20 just popped out of nowhere. Let me research it..."
…
Xia Jing walked straight to the winding corridor in the other corner of the game hall.
Just as he was about to step into the corridor, he suddenly stopped.
The next second, he turned around and calmly scanned the entire game hall.
He always felt as if someone was watching him in the crowd.
However, the moment he turned around, this feeling disappeared.
After searching for a while without finding the target, Xia Jing seemed to be lost in thought.
After a moment, he turned around and walked into the corridor.
Suddenly, I heard a "ding" sound next to my ear, which was a signal that the holographic screen had received a message.
Xia Jing opened the small holographic screen in his field of vision as he walked.
He received two private messages.
One is obviously from Tang Yi.
"Brother Xia, this is my contact number. Let's get in touch when you have time^^"
It is even more obvious where the other one comes from.
"I'm going to start brushing the one-star dungeon tonight."
This declaration made Xia Jing raise his lips and smile.
He replied: "Keep going, Dr. Song."
Song Yang: "When I find you, I'll take off the mask."
There was a glimmer in Xia Jing's eyes.
He tapped his fingertips on the holographic screen.
"As long as you can find me."
Song Yang seemed dissatisfied with his relaxed attitude and sent him an unhappy expression.
Xia Jing chuckled, exchanged a few words with Song Yang, then turned off the holographic screen and pushed the door open to the safe house at the end of the corridor that he had called back to.
However, as soon as he stepped in, Xia Jing felt something and his smile immediately disappeared.
The safe house was empty.
Everything seemed to remain the same as before he left, without any change.
The microphone monster was sleeping obediently on the cabinet, countless fruits and flowers were blooming quietly in the pots, and two goldfish were swimming back and forth in the fish tank.
Only the golden retriever rushed out, barking at him in grievance, and its pair of dog eyes anxiously signaled him to look at the wall to the right of the gate.
Xia Jing looked in the direction it indicated, turned around and walked to the wall.
He stared at the wall for a few seconds, then raised his arms.
The slender white fingertips gently stroked a nearly half-meter-long crack that suddenly appeared on the neat wall.
The golden retriever whimpered continuously, and Xia Jing read its thoughts without turning his head.
——This crack appeared suddenly.
Without any warning, the crack suddenly appeared on the wall just a few minutes after Xia Jing left the safe house.
This is also the first time that the safe house has been damaged without any external force.
Xia Jing withdrew his hand, stared at the crack, and said nothing.