Today, the order in which the five groups completed their tasks was completely different from yesterday.
Li Shanyin fiddled with the clay figurine over and over again, seeming to feel that it was not safe enough.
Seeing Song Yang and Feng Shi finishing their work and preparing to go up the tower, he shouted with sweat on his forehead: "Hey, hey, wait, come and help me see if this is okay?"
When Song Yang and the others looked at him, he immediately changed his mind and said through gritted teeth, "Forget it, forget it. You guys go now."
He muttered that their judgment criteria could not represent monsters, and it was useless to ask them for help, otherwise they would harm him.
Song Yang was a little speechless.
Xu Ning glanced at Song Yang and Xia Jing's work and said, "...Are you sure you're done?"
Although she didn't pay much attention to the nursery rhymes of the other four groups, and had no idea what progress each group had made today, the two lumps of plasticine on the desks of these two people...they were so crooked and shapeless, they didn't look like finished products at all!
Xu Ning realized what they were planning to do, trembled, and said, "Although Brother Li survived... the risk is really too great. You must think carefully!"
But still the same sentence -
If you don't take risks, some information may never be obtained.
Song Yang could only say, "Please rest assured."
Feng Shi knew Song Yang's plan, as Song Yang had already discussed it with him in advance.
Today, Song Yang's team took the initiative to attack the monster, and Feng Shi's team completed the toys according to the plan. At night, they only needed to stay in the glass house.
It was actually quite annoying to have to stay put and watch my brothers go on adventures.
However, in the absence of any clues, it is indeed a meaningless choice to rush into the risk together.
This was a consensus reached between Feng Shi and Song Yang a long time ago.
They have to ensure that every time they face serious danger, at least one of the two people will survive.
——If something really happened to Song Yang, then at least Feng Shi could continue to find a way to crack the copy.
Similarly, in the past, when Feng Shi chose to take risks first, Song Yang would stay where he was and wait obediently.
This is the tacit understanding formed between them after knowing each other for many years.
The only thing that made Feng Shi feel a little confused this time was that since Song Yang decided to take the risk, Xia Jing from the same group could have stepped back first. After all, as long as there was one player in a group who failed to complete the task, the secondary monster would break the glass wall of their room.
As a result, he clearly saw across the long table just now that Xia Jing was also following Song Yang in pinching things.
In response to this, Song Yang explained that this was their tactic to disperse the monsters' combat effectiveness.
Feng Shi expressed doubt.
He always felt that Song Yang could not defeat Xia Jing.
He couldn't help but think that these two people were quite affectionate towards each other.
At that moment, Song Yang felt that his good brother's eyes were a little weird...
…
After going up the tower, the four people faced the countless copy-pasted "Jia Jia" and fell into deep thought again.
Bian Ya thought, "I think there's no need for us to keep running back and forth between these ten floors."
No matter how far they ran, there were endless "Jia Jia"s on every floor. What they were looking for were details, so they might have to change their thinking to find the clues they really wanted.
A few people thought for a while, and Xia Jing turned around and walked into the nearest classroom.
The Jiajias in the classroom were all chatting. Xia Jing smiled gently at a Jiajia sitting at the door and said, "What are you doing?"
Jia Jia turned around, held her face in her hands and said obediently, "We are chatting, brother."
Xia Jing asked again: "Isn't this a kindergarten? Don't you have to go to class?"
The other three followed him in and heard his question.
His eyes turned to the little girl in front of him.
Jia Jia said cheerfully, "No, we don't have to do anything. We just have to wait for the day when the master arrives!"
"It's just that we've been waiting for too long and it's a bit boring, so we have to chat to kill time!"
The little girl said, shaking her head.
--"Owner"!
This information appeared before them for the first time.
The four of them exchanged glances quickly and perked up.
Song Yang took a step forward, bent down, put his hands on his knees, and asked, "Who is your master?"
The girl blinked and said, "I don't know, we haven't met him yet!"
The "master" who has never been met?
Feng Shi and Bian Ya frowned slightly.
The setting of this copy is becoming more and more confusing.
If it were someone else, the place would probably have fallen into chaos by now, but fortunately the four people standing here were not ordinary people.
Song Yang's thoughts were clear as day, and he asked with a smile, "When can you meet him?"
Jia Jia: "It's tomorrow!"
The four people were stunned.
"Tomorrow is Jiajia's birthday, and it's also the master's birthday. We'll be able to see the master tomorrow!"
Speaking of this, the other Jia Jias also gathered around.
"It's so boring not being able to see my master. Jia Jia is going crazy with boredom!"
"Jia Jia is so lonely!"
"It would be great if the master could come to see Jia Jia earlier!"
"I wonder what the master looks like. I'm so excited!"
They complained in unison.
Song Yang stood up straight.
Feng Shi whispered, "Tomorrow is the completion date given by the NPC. It's Jia Jia's birthday, the master's birthday, and the day the 'master' arrives."
Bianya said, "Doesn't the word 'master' sound a bit too bad?"
"I don't think Smiley City would give such a twisted and perverted setting," Song Yang rubbed his eyes and said, "The 'master' here must have a special meaning."
He suddenly thought of something: "These 'Jia Jia's' look like dolls. Could the 'master' they're referring to be the person who bought the doll?"
This analysis was well-reasoned and immediately gave the four people a new idea.
Xia Jing said slowly: "Doll, birthday..."
He turned around and said to the four people, "Humans will receive gifts on their birthdays, right?"
This question was actually very strange, but Feng Shi and Bian Ya didn't notice anything unusual for a while.
Song Yang reacted and said, "It's hard to say for sure about everyone's situation in reality, but theoretically speaking, birthdays are of course the day when everyone receives blessings and gifts."
Xia Jing said in a gentle voice, "That seems to make sense. 'Jia Jia' is the gift that the 'master' is expected to receive on his birthday, and the doll's arrival in the 'master's' hands marks the true day of its birth."
"Similarly, once the doll possesses human-like consciousness, it can naturally ask for birthday gifts like humans," Xia Jing said slowly, "The toys that the NPC asked us to make before Jiajia's birthday are exactly the gift Jiajia wants most." Jiajia is the master's gift.
The toys they made were gifts for Jia Jia.
All nodes point to tomorrow——
Tomorrow is Jia Jia's birthday, the host's birthday, and the day they meet each other.
After figuring this out, the four of them quickly started thinking and deducing further.
Feng Shi immediately said, "So, the main monster in this instance is the master?"
This copy character, who has never been seen but only heard of, looks the most mysterious and seems to be the most special existence.
Bian Ya quickly said, "If it's really as we suspected, then the master wouldn't appear until the very last moment, on his birthday, right? I don't think it's possible for a dungeon to have a character with such a time limit as the main monster."
Song Yang nodded in agreement and analyzed, "Every dungeon in Smiley City is open to the most capable. Theoretically, as long as the player is strong enough, they can complete the dungeon at any time. In other words, Smiley City will not force players to stay in the dungeon for a certain number of days before leaving."
Therefore, characters or items with time limits cannot become the main monsters in the Smiley City dungeon.
"And don't forget," Song Yang said calmly, "it was Jia Jia who checked our work results at night. It must have been her who sent the secondary monster to kill the player because she was dissatisfied with the player's results."
"I think our positioning of the main monster is correct, but—"
Having said this, Song Yang stopped.
I always feel like something is wrong.
He thought "Jia Jia" was the main monster in the copy, but the Jia Jia in these classrooms didn't give him the same feeling.
He even felt that the real "Jia Jia" was not the Jia Jia in these classrooms.
Then the problem arises.
Where is the real "Jia Jia"?
In what manner will the "master" appear before them?
If the "master" is not the main monster, then what role does he play in cracking this dungeon?
Admittedly, the existence of the "master" can allow players to understand the significance of "Jia Jia's Birthday", but in the final analysis, players only need to kill the main monster to pass the copy.
Every special clue that appears in the dungeon should be able to actually push players through the dungeon.
Thinking of this, the four people seemed to be in trouble again.
Xia Jing walked across the classroom and came to the window again.
This is a classroom on the west side of the tower.
Just like yesterday, he first lowered his head to observe the glass house and the green lawn below.
Then he raised his head and looked at the blue sky and white clouds.
At this moment, Sun Fujing, Sun Qianqian, Xu Ning and Li Shanyin finally finished their work and went up to the second floor.
But today, Li Shanyin and Xu Ning went upstairs not to work together to find clues about the main monster, but to seize the time to search for some special materials needed to make nursery rhymes tomorrow.
The segment that Li Shanyin is going to produce tomorrow involves the word "vinegar", but how could there be vinegar in the studio on the first floor?
He rushed upstairs with red eyes, intending to search every classroom.
The same goes for Xu Ning. The paragraph she will produce tomorrow includes the line "Suddenly, heavy rain came pouring down."
She now had no idea how to fulfill this sentence tomorrow, so she could only go to the tower to see if she could find suitable materials.
Sun Qianqian seemed to be looking for the main monster, but she was actually secretly searching the tower to see if there was a real knitting needle somewhere that could replace the inferior one she made out of plasticine.
She hid it from Sun Fujing and walked anxiously.
Seeing this group of people, Xia Jing suddenly called Li Shanyin and asked, "After you left the glass house yesterday, did you feel the wind outside?"
Li Shanyin was stunned and said in confusion, "Wind? Why would I care about that?"
After saying that, he turned and left.
Xia Jing narrowed his eyes and looked at Xu Ning again.
Although Xu Ning stayed in the glass house yesterday, her room had been destroyed after all, so she should have had contact with the outside world.
Receiving Xia Jing's gaze, Xu Ning thought for a moment and said uncertainly, "I don't remember either... There should have been wind, right? Aren't the grasses swaying?"
She walked to the window and looked down.
As she said, the grass on the lawn below has been swaying from side to side from yesterday to today.
And when she looked down at the glass house again, she suddenly murmured, "The house we live in looks like a melon seed."
Xia Jing and Song Yang paused slightly and looked at the glass house again.
That's right, the shape of the glass house is actually more like a melon seed than a spindle.
One end is round and the other end is pointed.
But what does this shape represent?
Xu Ning came back to his senses and apologized, "I, I still have to go find some materials, so I won't chat with you for now. If there's anything you need my help with, you can always contact me through the holographic screen."
After she left, Xia Jing tapped the windowsill with his fingers and repeatedly scanned everything outside.
Song Yang asked him in a low voice: "Do you think something is wrong outside?"
Xia Jing nodded.
Something was wrong, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what.
In the "Don't Think!" instance, he once mentioned the issue of time to other players.
If a very special time setting appears in a copy, then this setting may contain important information.
This is the case with "Don't Think!", and the same is true for "Death Ringing" - when the player first logs in to that dungeon, it is daytime, and after the dungeon is officially opened, night falls directly.
It turned out that the world they were in at that time was indeed not a real copy world, but a monster's game world.
So what about the copy world they are in now?
The six-hour daily time setting obviously contains important clues.
What kind of existence is this world?
Xia Jing carefully observed the outside world for a long time and said, "Song Yang, don't you think the swaying amplitude of the grass is always the same?"
Song Yang was slightly stunned.
He lowered his head, looked carefully, and spent two minutes carefully confirming it before frowning and saying, "Hmm."
Although it was impossible to confirm with any tools, visual observation of the vast lawn revealed that the grass on the lawn was indeed swaying left and right at the same amplitude.
Xia Jing's gaze turned to the sky again.
At this moment, there was a huge clover-like cloud in the sky outside their window.
Xia Jing's voice was soft, but his tone was firm: "At this time yesterday, from this angle, the clouds in the sky were exactly the same as they are now."
Xia Jing stood up straight, full of interest: "Where on earth is this place?"
To truly solve the mystery, I'm afraid we'll have to wait until tonight.
*
An hour later, all four of them dispersed.
They tried to look for any other clues, but to no avail.
At three o'clock sharp, they returned to the studio on the first floor and were led to the glass house by the NPC.
After returning to their respective rooms yesterday, night quickly fell.
After yesterday's experience, the wait after the night fell this time made several people feel very uneasy.
"Who was the first group to be inspected by the monster yesterday? It was you, right?" Li Shanyin ran to the glass wall, stared at Xia Jing and the others, and asked, "What time did your dolls start moving yesterday?"
"According to the time calculation in this copy, it should be four o'clock." Song Yang said after looking at the small holographic screen.
And now it is still half an hour until four o'clock in the copy.
After hearing this, Li Shanyin paced back and forth in the room anxiously.
Xu Ning sat alone on the edge of the bed, staring blankly into the void.
Sun Fujing was coaxing Sun Qianqian, wanting her to sleep for a while first.
Sun Qianqian glanced at their square plate, closed her eyes, snuggled into Sun Fujing's arms, and said, "Grandpa, we will all survive."
Sun Fujing nodded with red eyes: "Yeah, yes."
Bian Ya and Feng Shi stood at the edge of the glass wall, gazing into the dark distance and whispering their thoughts.
Xia Jing and Song Yang sat on either side of the bed.
Xia Jing suddenly asked, "Did you go downstairs during the last bit of the day?"
Hearing this, Song Yang raised his lips lazily: "Is there?"
Xia Jing glanced at him and said nothing.
At this time too—
The doll in Xu Ningfang's plate suddenly moved.
Xu Ning was startled by the "cracking" sound coming from behind him, and jumped up and turned around.
Everyone quickly walked to the glass wall.
——Today, the order of checking monsters has changed!
It seems to have returned to the correct order they got from rock-paper-scissors yesterday!
Xu Ning retreated repeatedly until he reached the wall, staring at the square plate on the bed, holding his breath, his face tense.
The four sentences she made today involved three pugs, three black cats and two fat pigs, and the elements involved included curly tails, thin veils, clothes and wigs.
Xu Ning spent a long time in the studio, comparing every word to create all of this. In theory, there should be no problem...
And that is indeed the case.
Amid the sound of her accelerating heartbeat, the pug, black cat and fat pig on her tray woke up and happily stroked their tails, faces and clothes, looking very satisfied.
They were swaying their heads and tails, holding hands and dancing. The atmosphere was cheerful and there was nothing unusual at all.
A few seconds later, Li Shanyin pointed at Sun Fujing and Sun Qianqian's room, eyes widening as he said, "It's your turn!"
Sun Fujing and Sun Qianqian quickly turned around and looked at the square pan on their bed.
The "I" and "Thief Taffy" in the square plate both woke up and stretched together.
According to the nursery rhyme segment they made today, "I" first secretly ran to Taffy's house.
"I" should have wanted to confront him, but I didn't find anyone. The arrogance in my body suddenly subsided, and I frowned.
On the other side, the thief Taffy broke into my house, stole a bone with a smile, and hid it in his clothes.
So far, the doll has successfully passed the plot.
At this moment, Sun Qianqian secretly swallowed her saliva, quietly pushed her grandfather away, and took two steps to the side. If something unexpected happened next, she couldn't let her grandfather get involved...
On the square plate, the plot continues.
"I" walked out of Taffy's house angrily, with my hands on my hips and my eyes rolling back and forth, as if wondering why Taffy was not at home?
After sulking for a while, "I" walked into Taffy's house again, but still didn't see anyone!
On the other side, Taffy circled around "my" house again and found a "needle".
Taffy's grin widened, and he picked up the "needle" excitedly. The next second, his expression turned into confusion.
In an instant, the expressions of the people in the other four rooms all changed.
——The needle element is difficult to reproduce using plasticine.
First of all, the question is whether it is possible to roll the plasticine into a piece as thin as a needle.
Secondly, if the clay is rolled into this thin layer, can it hold the shape and not fall off?
If the shape cannot be restored, then the color of the clay may be able to protect the player, but obviously, Sun Qianqian was unable to find clay of the matching color in the studio.
During the hour she spent climbing the tower, she was unable to find more suitable materials.
At this moment, the pale yellow "needle" in Taffy's hand drooped down softly amidst the fearful and heavy gazes of the crowd.
Sun Qianqian trembled and said, "Grandpa, don't worry about me for a while, I can hold on!"
On the square plate, the little puppet Taffy became furious.
It threw away the "needle" and stepped on it vigorously until it was crushed to pieces while panting. It suddenly raised its head and stared coldly at -
Sun Fujing.
Sun Qianqian was stunned.
The next second, a huge black shadow appeared silently outside their glass house.
The glass wall of their room was kicked to pieces. Sun Fujing closed his eyes and was carried out by the giant Taffi.
Sun Qianqian pounced forward, but failed to catch Sun Fujing. She knelt among the debris, looking up and screaming in disbelief:
"Why?! Why was it Grandpa who was arrested?!"