That day, after Song Yang returned to the real world and had a meal with his family, he returned to Smile City and spent the night with Xia Jing.
It was already midnight, but Xia Jing was still staying in Song Yang's personal space and had not been kicked out.
So, can he gain freedom in Smiley City by using the player's personal space?
Under Song Yang's gaze, Xia Jing walked forward and tried to open the door of the private login room.
The door didn't budge.
Song Yang was stunned, frowned and walked over to open the door for Xia Jing - the door that seemed to be welded shut a second ago was now easily opened.
At this time, Song Yang already had a bad feeling in his heart.
Xia Jing paused and tried to take a step forward, but his foot was blocked by an invisible wall.
Song Yang's face began to darken.
Xia Jing's expression was calm, because he had thought about this possibility.
He picked up the metal key Song Yang gave him, closed his eyes, and tried to give the key a command to open the door to the game hall.
However, the door appeared, and when it was opened, the world outside was not the game hall, but an empty safe house.
Song Yang pursed his lips and used his key to open the door leading to the game hall, but Xia Jing couldn't pass through this door. He was once again blocked in this small house.
——None of them work, he can't leave here.
Song Yang closed the door with a cold face, turned to look at Xia Jing, and said in a hoarse voice: "Xia Xia."
Xia Jingping said calmly, "It's not that simple after all. It seems that the player's personal space is similar to the dungeon world for me. I can enter here from the safe house, but I can't get to the game hall from here."
He looked at Song Yang, whose eyes were dark and complicated, and said, "Don't show that expression. We haven't thought about this possibility, right?"
"It's okay," Xia Jing said slowly, "Let's take it one step at a time."
*
Perhaps out of sympathy for Xia Jing, in the next few days, Xia Jing received a lot of... monster body parts.
In addition to Song Yang's, there is also one written by Jia Qingfeng.
According to them, all players collect ordinary monster body parts in preparation for entering the safe house in the future.
Since all of it is to be contributed to the safe house manager, why not give it all to Xia Jing now.
So, in recent days, all players who entered the safe house have discovered that an unknown liquid seems to be constantly overflowing from the tightly closed kitchen, and that liquid emits a slight fishy odor...
A discussion thread appeared in the forum: "Want to ask, is there a sewage pipe leak in the safe house recently???"
Main floor: "There's sewage all over the floor outside the kitchen. It stinks. Is the beautiful store manager really okay in there?"
1L: "Yeah, a little bit, but are there sewage pipes in the safe house?? There are such realistic things in this damn place? [laughing and crying]"
2L: "OP, is there a possibility that it's not sewage, but..."
3L: "It's the stench of monster corpses, right? I'm familiar with that smell. I often dissect monsters after dungeons, so I've smelled it a lot."
4L: "Wait, if the blood flowing out of the kitchen is from the monster's corpse, then this location and object are too subtle..."
5L: "Kitchen and corpses..."
6L: "yue..."
Original poster: "??? SOS, then what did we eat in the safe house???"
8L: "OP, we've already discussed your question many times in the forum. I suggest you use search. Also, in this damn place called Smiley Face City, you should take things easy [lights a cigarette]"
The original poster: "Wow, I'm a newcomer who has only been here for a short time. I don't know a lot of things. So the food we eat is probably made of monster corpses? This is too scary. If I had known this earlier, I should have not been allowed into the safe house!"
10L: "Damn, OP, if you don't want the blessing of entering the safe house, you can give it to me!"
11L: "Give it to me!"
12L: "Give it to me!! As long as I can see the beautiful store manager, I'll even let me show off the soup on the kitchen floor!"
13L: "As long as I can meet the beautiful store manager and let her show me off, I'm fine with it!!"
14L: "? How many peanuts did you eat upstairs? Why are you so drunk?"
15L: "Did everyone fight so hard to get into the safe house? [laughing and crying]"
OP: "[Dumb][Dumb]"
…
While Xia Jing was preparing meals for the players in the kitchen, she received a message from Song Yang.
Song Yang: "Are you there? Open the door."
Xia Jing raised his eyebrows and opened the door with his key.
After opening the door, Song Yang walked in swaggeringly and handed him a new space bag, saying that it was a new body part collected recently.
After Dr. Song paid the bill, he glanced at the food Xia Jing had placed on the kitchen counter. "Are there a lot of customers now?"
After smacking his lips again, he chuckled and said, "Meeting secretly in the kitchen like this feels a bit like an affair."
After he finished speaking, he turned his head and looked at Xia Jing who had no reaction. He couldn't help but be curious: "You don't tease me?"
In the past, at this time, Xia Jing would tease him until he was speechless.
After Xia Jing peeked into the small space bag, he raised his head with satisfaction, looked straight at Song Yang and said, "Doctor Song is very handsome recently, why would I tease you?"
Song Yang: "..."
Although he knew clearly at that moment that it was this bag of monster body parts that brought him glory, he still instantly became excited and planned to clear a few more dungeons so that Xia Jing could expand this place into a luxurious hotel as soon as possible...
Doctor Song walked away with a proud and heroic look, while Xia Jing opened the space bag with a smile and poured out the monster's body.
The black, red, white, and green body parts mixed with colorful unknown liquids poured onto the kitchen floor. Soon they filled the entire space and even squeezed the kitchen door out of shape.
Outside the kitchen door, a passing player watched as an unknown liquid flowed out from the gap in the door, and the door actually bulged outward, looking very strange.
The player hesitated, then stepped forward and called out tremblingly, "Manager, are you okay?"
There was no response from inside the door.
The player hesitated for a moment, gritted his teeth, and tried to open the door: "Manager, you—wupupupu!"
He was instantly pinned down by the falling monster's body, and the foul-smelling liquid splashed all over his face. The player suddenly fell into a daze.
And amidst this pile of hideous bodies, a handsome young man stepped out and asked in surprise, "Are you okay?"
He bent down and held out his hand.
The player trembled, looked at the slender white hand, swallowed his saliva, and his dull eyes regained their luster.
He laughed foolishly twice and wanted to hold this hand -
Then he watched helplessly as the hand passed over him and picked up a monster tongue that had fallen on his cheek.
The handsome young man looked at the tongue with satisfaction, then noticed his stiff gaze and smiled slightly, saying, "This is a very rare monster item."
Noticing his hand frozen in mid-air, the young man exclaimed "Ah" as if he suddenly understood.
Then he stuffed the tongue into his pocket and stretched out his hand again.
Only this time, the slender white hand was covered with black and smelly corpse fluid.
The player: "..."
To hold or not to hold, that is the question.
That night, the discussion post in the forum was pushed to the top again.
On the 30th floor, the original poster reappeared: "Wow, I went into the safe house again today, and it erupted again. This time, the door was even deformed. I was so curious that I opened it, and ended up getting covered in monster carcasses!"
31L: "The OP really doesn't believe in evil, tsk tsk tsk."
32L: "Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!"
The original poster said: "But this time I felt different from last time, because the beautiful store manager was really beautiful. When she saw me fall to the ground, she reached out her hand to me!"
34L: "Damn!"
35L: "Fuck!"
36L: "Fuck!"
37L: "??? Is it possible?"
The original poster: "Although the beautiful store manager's hands were covered with monster corpse fluid and looked scary, she was still a beautiful store manager. I hesitated for a moment, but still couldn't help but stretched out my hand... [shy]"
39L: "Jealousy drives me crazy [smile]"
40L: "Jealousy makes me kill [smile]"
41L: "Jealousy has made me dream about hunting down the OP every day from now on [smile]"
42L: "Damn, so the OP touched the pretty store manager's hand?!"
The original poster: "No, just when I was about to touch the store manager's hand, a man named Song Yang suddenly appeared from the kitchen and cut off my beard [smile] Who can tell me who he is, what is his relationship with the store manager, and why he can keep holding the store manager's little hand [turns the table]"
44L: "????"
45L: "Unexpected development..."
46L: "Damn, this boss again?!"
47L: "Why did he come out of the kitchen? What was he doing in the kitchen with the store manager?! [Flips the table]"
48L: "Fuck, are these two really hooking up?!"
49L: "Very good, it seems my journey of hunting down the boss cannot stop [Goodbye]"
50L: "Ahhhhhh my beautiful store manager ahhhhhhhhh QAQ"
That night, Song Yang sneered at the forum post, thinking that it was a good thing that he remembered that he had forgotten to give a monster prop to Xia Jing, so he made a surprise attack.
Then he closed the post and encouraged Xia Jing to leave the door in the kitchen open and not close it, so that they could come and go freely with each other 24 hours a day.
After nagging for a long time, he received a reply from Xia Jing: "Dr. Song, who is full of jealousy, doesn't look handsome anymore."
Song Yang: "..."
Xia Jing: "But it's cute^^"
Song Yang: "."
*
Feng Shi and Song Yang soon obtained new clues.
It is a coincidence that two secret incidents happened in the real world recently.
This was discovered by a player Song Yang knew through investigation.
A socialite from a wealthy upper-class family had a dispute with another socialite some time ago. The two wrote short essays to each other on the Internet and quarreled with each other, which attracted a lot of public attention. As a result, three days later, the former suddenly disappeared from the Internet, and only the latter was still showing off proudly on the Internet.
When netizens asked why the other party suddenly disappeared, the latter replied: "Oh, maybe it's retribution."
What many netizens don't know is that the former socialite suddenly disappeared mysteriously on the third night.
The matter was suppressed because her family was still frantically asking the police for help in finding their daughter.
They suspected that the socialite who had been arguing with their daughter online had done something, but they had no clues to support their suspicions.
What's strange is that if this is a simple ransom kidnapping, then why haven't they received any ransom calls from the criminals yet? What is their purpose?
The police dug deep but could not find any clues about the disappearance of the socialite. It was as if this person had suddenly disappeared from the face of the earth. It was very strange.
The reason why Song Yang's player friend noticed this secret case was because he accidentally learned that a friend of a friend had allegedly met the missing socialite in the dungeon game.
At night, in Song Yang's personal space, Song Yang said, "According to him, the socialite successfully cleared the dungeon and could theoretically return to the real world alive, but her family seems to have never been able to see her."
So where did she go?
This long period of "disappearance" could not have been caused by Smiley City itself, so the only possibility was that she was imprisoned somewhere. Did the person who imprisoned her know about the existence of Smiley City?
This is one of the strange things they have discovered in recent investigations.
Feng Shi learned about the other incident through a friend.
The head of a well-known financial group died suddenly. The news of his death was announced to the public through online channels a few days ago, but privately, the case is still under investigation because the way this wealthy man died was very strange.
He did not suffer any external injuries, but his heart in the left chest cavity was broken.
Feng Shi frowned and said, "I once encountered a person with special abilities in a dungeon. His ability was to crush the heart of an organism at a certain distance. If it weren't for this ability, which prevented him from escaping Smiley City's surveillance, players entering the same dungeon with him would be in great danger."
Jia Qing was dumbfounded and said, "Brother Feng, are you saying that... that rich man was probably killed by someone with superpowers?"
"Yes, in reality, the relevant departments are not unaware of the existence of people with special abilities, so they are still investigating this case," Feng Shi said. "I always feel that regardless of whether the original birth of Smiley City was accidental or not, the current Smiley City is secretly involved in more things in the real world."
Moreover, these involvements are either related to money and power, or to the owners of money and power.
After hearing these words, Xia Jing pondered for a long time, then looked up and asked, "Under what circumstances were you all captured by Smiley Face City?"
Feng Shi and Jia Qing were stunned.
Song Yang spoke first, "I was in the apartment, standing by the window, about to call my sister, when a car accident happened downstairs. By the time I came to my senses, I had already been extracted into a black space by Smiley City."
Jia Qing quickly said, "I was walking down a small path by the canal. There were very few people there at the time. A couple suddenly started arguing by the river, and both fell into the water. I was so scared, and then my eyes went dark, and I heard the Smiley City system gloomily explaining some bullshit rules to me. I was really scared to death! Speaking of which, I also ran into the man from that couple in that one-star dungeon, but he died quickly and didn't make it through. Ugh."
Feng Shi said, "Song Yang and I are similar. We were also captured by Smiley City after witnessing a car accident."
Xia Jing listened to their statements, looked at Song Yang and said, "The old lady in the dungeon 'Don't Think About It!' once said that she was captured by Smiley Face City after being hit by an electric bike on her way to buy groceries."
Song Yang said: "Yes."
So it seems that at present, the opportunity for most players to enter Smiley City is some events.
Some players are parties involved in the event, while others are bystanders.
Song Yang said, "Later, the old lady came to my place. When we sat down to talk about this incident, she said that she was very panicked at the time and the collision caused her body to be in great pain. The emotion and feeling left a deep impression on her and she still can't forget it."
Although the old man has lived to this age and has become indifferent to life and death, his instincts will still emerge when he suspects he is facing death.
Song Yang frowned and said, "At that time, I was wondering if it was possible that the trigger for Smiley City to capture players was not the occurrence of an 'event', but the emergence of human emotions such as panic, fear, pain, and sadness."
Xia Jing said thoughtfully: "I have also thought about this possibility."
"If Smiley City is the manifestation of the supernatural powers of one or a group of supernatural beings, then theoretically, it would be difficult for a supernatural being to maintain such a large system for over two hundred days on their own. None of the supernatural beings we have seen so far are as powerful as this."
The other three nodded.
Xia Jing's voice was unusually calm as he analyzed everything calmly: "If we continue along this line of thought, the only thing the other party can use is external forces."
"The fear, despair, and pain that emerge from the torture of dungeons in Smiley City are the nourishment of Smiley City. The benchmark for Smiley City's player acquisition is naturally 'people who can evoke these emotions.'"
Thus, the capture rules of this strange world came into being.
Jia Qing was puzzled: "But if that's really the case, then what about us bystanders? We don't have any negative emotions!"
Xia Jing looked at him and said, "You should be considered as the people in that space at that time who were covered by the negative emotions of others. The fact that Smiley City captured you as well may mean that Smiley City's capture at that time was 'inaccurate'."
As soon as these words came out, Feng Shi and Jia Qing were completely stunned.
"But you've also noticed that Smiley City is gradually showing a 'tendency,' and the emergence of a 'tendency' means its selection is becoming more precise," Xia Jing said, leaning back on the sofa, squinting his eyes. "It's gradually shifting its focus from 'humans with negative emotions' to 'psychics with negative emotions,' so there are more and more psychics in Smiley City."
"Now, Smiley City is also involved with those with money and power."
——The gradual manifestation of this purpose is very fast. Rather than saying that "the people behind Smiley City gradually have a purpose and start to want to do something", it feels more like "the people behind Smiley City are trying to control this strange world bit by bit in order to achieve his or their original purpose."
But if this is true, then they have all discovered a contradiction.
Four years ago, the creator of Smiley City was unaware of the risks and recruited people from the same city as players. This was due to his inexperience, which can be said to be a question of cleverness.
But now, four years later, he or they seem to have shown a transition from uncontrollable to controllable, which is a matter of operational proficiency.
How could the person who created Smiley City suddenly become unable to control what he created four years later?
"Yeah," Xia Jing looked out the window at the sea at night and laughed, "So, the person who opened Smiley City four years later is really the same person from four years ago?"
At this moment, Feng Shi and Jia Qing felt horrified.
Of course, they cannot find the answer to this question in a short period of time, and the investigation needs to continue.
Something temporarily interrupted their thoughts and appeared in front of the players.
A four-star dungeon, "Island of Eyes", suddenly appeared in Smiley City.
A new player gathering post appeared in the forum.
The host of the post shouted in the main post: "Come on, come on, anyone who wants to participate in this dungeon, please deduct 1 in the post. There are ten spots in total, and we will cut it when it is full!"