What game has officially launched...?
An uneasy atmosphere suddenly enveloped the open space.
These five five-pointed stars appeared silently, without any pain or itching, and there was no change in the skin when touched. I had no idea what they were used for.
Luo Jiu's expression changed constantly. He asked Sun Qian, "Are you sure you didn't see it wrong? Is there really someone over there?"
"Let's go and take a look and we'll know." Jiang Shuye said as he picked up an axe and a flashlight and walked towards the dark jungle.
Xia Jing's eyes moved slightly, and he followed. Xi Nuanyang, Song Yang and Li Mian also followed immediately.
The five people were paying attention to each other's front, back, left and right. Jiang Shuye raised the flashlight vigilantly, and a bright beam of light shone into the depths.
The light shone in front, but all I could see were layers of dark green plants stacked up in the night, and strange insects crawling under the leaves.
Move the light source left or right.
The jungle was even quieter late at night, and they didn't even see a mouse.
They searched silently for about ten minutes before returning to the clearing and shaking their heads at the others waiting there.
They found nothing.
Sun Qian recalled with a tense face, and said with certainty: "Although I didn't see it clearly just now, my intuition is not wrong. I could feel that someone was watching us from that direction at that time!"
Song Yang pondered and said, "The pentagram did appear after you discovered 'that person'. There's no doubt about that."
Regardless of whether the thing Sun Qian noticed at that time was a person, an animal, or something else, at least something unusual must have appeared in that direction at that moment.
The emergence of such unusual situations has promoted the important progress of the copy game.
Jin Yaya frowned and asked, "Could it be that a monster just appeared? But if it really was a monster, there would be footsteps when it approached or left. How come we didn't hear anything at all? Could it be that the monsters in this dungeon are shadow-like creatures?"
If Sun Qian hadn't been facing that direction and noticed the sight, they might not even have known that "something" had appeared there the whole time.
The evening breeze blew through the jungle, rustling in all directions.
The group's hearing became sensitive, and everyone looked around warily. The black shadows that changed with the wind looked like monsters dancing in the dark.
After a moment, Song Yang said calmly, "This wishful thinking will not yield any results. Tonight, everyone will form groups of two to keep watch, and the rest of you should go to bed early."
…
The first group to keep watch were Sun Qian and Jin Yaya.
The fire in the center of the clearing still burned brightly, branches crackling in the flames.
When Song Yang came over and sat down, Xia Jing was still looking at his right forearm in thought.
Song Yang was just about to ask Xia Jing to lean on him and rest for a while, but Xia Jing had already moved towards him very naturally, with his back resting on his shoulder, like a lazy cat.
This feeling is indescribably flattering.
Song Yang coughed lightly.
After studying his own arm, Xia Jing turned and picked up Song Yang's arm and pulled it in front of him to study it.
The five five-pointed stars are all hollow, with only black lines outlining the shape of the five-pointed stars.
Xia Jing's fingertips lightly touched the edge of the five-pointed star.
Song Yang was so distracted by the touch that he took a deep breath to stop it. Xia Jing slowly said, "Do you think this five-pointed star will be filled?"
Song Yang paused.
The hollow pattern will be filled, which is a very logical idea, but -
Song Yang thought for a moment and said, "If so, under what circumstances will they be filled? What will happen after they are filled? Why are there five?"
The five-pointed star pattern is too clear a goal.
If these questions surrounding the pentagram can be answered, they may know how to crack this copy.
Xia Jing squeezed his sturdy arm and said thoughtfully, "I still feel like we're transparent."
But it feels real when you touch it.
When Song Yang heard this, he remembered something and raised his head to put a drop of eye drops in himself.
Unfortunately, his vision was still blurry, and he couldn't confirm Xia Jing's feeling at all.
If Xia Jing's feeling was not wrong, then what did this sense of transparency mean?
There are so many mysteries in this copy.
*
Nothing unusual happened after that.
The open space became quiet, and after an hour or two of vigilance and anxiety, everyone gradually fell asleep.
Song Yang and Xia Jing also closed their eyes and prepared to rest for a while.
They were assigned to be the last group to keep watch, and Lu Chenfei and Luo Jiu from the group before them were supposed to wake them up at four in the morning.
But no one knew how much time had passed, but Xia Jing finally woke up on his own in the quiet morning.
Very strange.
Although he does not need sleep, usually if he decides to sleep, his sleep quality will be very good and he will not be easily awakened.
—Unless he felt something.
In the early morning of this forest, he was indeed drawn to wake up by some feeling.
As soon as I opened my eyes, my vision was still blurry, with flying catkins floating in the air.
It was very quiet all around. The rest of the people were either curled up on the ground, leaning against trees, or perhaps snuggling up to each other, sleeping soundly, without even a snorer.
The branches crackled and burned in the fire, but the flames had died down considerably since no one was adding more wood.
The sky was covered with a vague light, but the jungle was still almost pitch black.
In this vague darkness—
Xia Jing slowly opened his eyes and vaguely met a gaze.
A pair of peach blossom eyes, clearly black and white, hung in the darkness in front of his vision, a little high up, looking down at him quietly.
Xia Jing sat up, rubbed his eyes that were blurry, and subconsciously said in a hoarse voice, "Song Yang?"
The next second, footsteps were heard behind him.
Song Yang's voice fell from above his head: "Are you awake?"
Xia Jing paused, quickly opened his eyes, and looked forward again.
In the darkness ahead, there was nothing.
The appearance of those eyes seemed like an illusion to him.
Xia Jing stared at that place.
Song Yang sat down next to him and said, "Lu Chenfei woke me up just now, but I didn't wake you because I wanted you to sleep a little longer."
He probably walked around in the jungle behind him, tossed a fruit in his hand and said, "This looks a bit like an apple. I wonder if it's edible. If we have to stay in this dungeon for a long time, the dry food in the space bag may not be enough."
After talking for a long time without getting a response from Xia Jing, Song Yang turned his head and then moved forward following Xia Jing's gaze.
His expression tightened and his voice lowered: "What did you see?"
"Eyes," Xia Jing said softly, "I'm not sure if I saw it wrong, but——"
"Just a pair of eyes."
*
After daybreak, they told others about this incident.
"Could it be that what I felt last night was also the gaze of a pair of eyes?" Sun Qian frowned deeply.
Fei Shengxiao said, "If it only had a pair of eyes, that would easily explain why the monster came and went silently."
Li Mian pondered, "Island of the Eye... If the 'eye' is a monster, how would this monster attack us?"
Just use "look"?
Luo Jiu said sullenly, "Let's first think about how we're going to kill this monster! It seems like these eyes can appear and disappear at will. We can only wait for them to reappear on their own. That's too passive!"
The group started talking in low voices.
Song Yang thought for a while and said, "There are too few clues right now. Let's continue searching the jungle. Everyone should be careful on the road."
Everyone nodded.
After they put in the eye drops, they prepared to set off.
Jin Yaya didn't want to be left there, so she gritted her teeth and decided to follow them.
Because the appearance of the eyes and the five-pointed star increased their sense of crisis, the group decided to take the helicopter debris with them. It would be tiring, but it would be more reassuring to keep the important clues with them.
This island is not very big, but it will take at least a day to walk around it.
It rained heavily yesterday, and branches and tree trunks were lying everywhere in the jungle, making the road, which was already deserted, even more difficult to walk on.
Persistent dry eyes can also make your head feel dizzy.
Halfway through the journey, Jin Yaya couldn't take it anymore.
Her wooden branch-like legs were badly worn out, and the bloody red blood oozed out again.
Jin Yaya held onto a tree and pounded her legs in anger, regretting why she had used that prop without thinking when the thunderstorm happened yesterday.
Now that it's like this, she can't help at all!
Xi Nuanyang stopped her self-destructive behavior and said, "Yaya, you'd better not go any further. I'll stay here with you. The helicopter debris will be left here. The two of us will watch over it, and the rest of you can go on your own."
"Is it okay for you two to stay here?" Jiang Shuye was a little worried.
Jin Yaya said with red eyes: "No problem, don't waste manpower to control me, even if you call me Sister Xi, you don't have to control me!"
"That's definitely not possible," Jiang Shuye sighed. "Then Nuanyang, you stay here and take care of Yaya. Contact us anytime if anything happens, okay?"
Xi Nuanyang: "Okay."
After that, the rest of the group continued on their way.
They never saw any animals or humans in this jungle.
Lu Chenfei pondered and said, "If the eyes are really monsters, then the monsters in this copy really only have a pair of eyes and no other body parts? Why do I always feel that there are still pits buried ahead."
"It's normal to have this feeling. This is a four-star copy after all." Song Yang said as he observed his surroundings.
"I was thinking about what Xiao Xia said yesterday. If the remaining fragments of the helicopter do exist in this copy, but not on the island, then where would they be?" Sun Qian said as he pushed aside the bushes in front of him.
No one answered, everyone was thinking about this question.
Suddenly, Fei Shengxiao noticed something with her sharp eyes. She ran to the side and picked up something from a pile of grass.
That's a one-liter can of strong mechanic's adhesive!
Everyone cheered up and looked in that direction again. They soon found two instruction manuals and a key with a helicopter logo engraved on it scattered on the ground.
The contents of the two instruction manuals are actually how to assemble a helicopter!
"So they're asking us to find all the pieces of the helicopter and then glue it back together with strong adhesive?" Jiang Shuye asked in disbelief. "Isn't that a bit too hasty?"
Sun Qian said excitedly: "What kind of absurd things are impossible to happen in the dungeon? Regardless of whether it is hasty or not, this is the direction the dungeon guides us!"
Xia Jing flipped through the two instruction manuals. On the upper left corner of one of the pages was a line of words written. It seemed that the other person had scribbled them down while thinking. The handwriting was very messy and did not form a coherent sentence. There were only a few scattered words.
Mysterious island, magnetic field, eyes.
May xx, 20xx.
Xia Jing looked at these words for a while. Song Yang came over and took a glance, then said, "This date is the time in the real world. It's today."
Xia Jing tilted his head and said, "These words are in my handwriting."
Everyone was stunned.
They gathered together to study the three words, and Xia Jing analyzed, "I think this helicopter must be the means of transportation we used to arrive at this island."
To accommodate ten passengers, this helicopter must be quite large.
Before "they" rushed to this island, they already knew the strangeness of this island. It doesn't matter whether they are researchers in a mysterious research institute seeking a way out for mankind in the apocalyptic context, or they may be travelers who are forced into a desperate situation with no way out.
The two words "magnetic field" are important.
"Magnetic field..." Xia Jing chewed on the two words and raised an eyebrow. "If magnetic field is associated with horror elements, it always seems to be related to supernatural phenomena."
supernatural phenomena.
Eyes that come and go without a trace.
Fei Shengxiao asked uncertainly, "Could it be that the monster we are dealing with this time is some kind of ghost?"
At this moment, Jiang Shuye seemed to have received the message and turned on the holographic screen.
Seeing the content of the message, his expression changed: "Let's go back quickly, something happened in Nuanyang!"
*
When they rushed back to the place where Jin Yaya and Xi Nuanyang were resting, they were all shocked by the situation there.
Xi Nuanyang stood aside with a pale face.
Jin Yaya was leaning against a tree with a dagger stuck in her left chest, and blood soaked the cloth on her chest.
She tilted her head, spread her arms at her sides, and the five-pointed star on her right forearm disappeared.
Her chest was motionless, she was dead.
The huge helicopter debris disappeared.
Luo Jiu shouted, "What happened here? How did she die?!"
"I don't know," Xi Nuanyang said in a trembling voice, "I was just talking to her, and when I turned around, she was already like this. I don't even know where the helicopter debris went!"
Xia Jing asked, "Whose dagger is that?"
Xi Nuanyang quickly said, "It's Yaya's. After you left, she took out this dagger to protect herself."
Sun Qian questioned: "So you mean Jin Yaya committed suicide?"
Xi Nuanyang was at a loss: "I——"
Jiang Shuye's face darkened as he walked over to stand in front of Xi Nuanyang, saying cautiously, "Are you suspecting that Nuanyang killed Jin Yaya? If it was really Nuanyang who did it, then she should be punished by the system now."
Luo Jiu said coldly, "The system's punishment is graded. If she used some means to indirectly force Jin Yaya to death, then the system's punishment would only be a point deduction. She hid the points the whole time, so we couldn't see them at all!"
The sudden situation plunged the group into an atmosphere of mutual distrust.
Song Yang looked at these people and said in a deep voice, "I don't think any of us here would be willing to take such a risk just for a mere share of the head, right?"
As soon as these words came out, the others shut up.
"Even if we really want to divide the heads, you all know that it's appropriate to wait until the opportunity to completely eliminate the rest of the people before taking action."
Song Yang's words were blunt, but they were not wrong.
It would be unprofitable for the ten people present to act rashly at this time.
But if it wasn't Xi Nuanyang who did it, then what happened to Jin Yaya's death?
How could it be possible that someone would be dead and even helicopter debris would be lost in the blink of an eye?!
"Eyes," Xia Jing said, waking them up. "Aren't you curious about how the monsters in this dungeon kill players?"
The young man narrowed his eyes and said, "If the 'eyes' on this island can seize objects by sight, then they can naturally use the weapons in our hands to kill us in an instant."
Immediately, everyone tensed up.
In the next second, Sun Qian's expression suddenly changed, and he shouted at Xi Nuanyang: "Watch out behind you!"
Xi Nuanyang turned around suddenly - a pair of slender eyes appeared silently behind her waist, floating in the air. Xi Nuanyang was shocked!
The eyes stared upward at Xi Nuanyang with a fierce look.
At the same time, Luo Jiu threw a dagger in that direction. The dagger flew straight and pierced the left eye of the pair of eyes!
Blood spurted out from the air, the eyes disappeared on the spot, and the dagger fell to the ground!
Everyone gasped in shock. Xi Nuanyang said with lingering fear, "This, this counts as killing a monster?"
Luo Jiu discovered something, raised his arm and shouted, "Look, one of the five-pointed stars on my arm has disappeared!"
Everyone looked over and saw that the five-pointed star on Luo Jiu's arm had actually changed from five to four!
They quickly realized what was happening. Luo Jiu breathed heavily and said, "Killing a pair of eyes can eliminate a five-pointed star?! Then maybe if we can eliminate five five-pointed stars, we can leave this dungeon!"
His mind raced, "No, everyone has five five-pointed stars. This dungeon is likely a one-on-one dungeon. Whoever completes the five-star goal first will be the first to leave!"
The group of people had different expressions at once, but finally seeing a breakthrough, their spirits were obviously lifted and their eyes lit up.
Xia Jing and Song Yang fell into deep thought, while Lu Chenfei, Li Mian and others also felt that something was not right.
Xia Jing lowered his eyes.
It kills the eyes, the five-pointed star is not filled with color, but just disappears?
He turned and glanced around.
In addition, if, as he guessed, the eye monster on this island could take objects and kill people, then where did it store the helicopter fragments?
The rest of the people were so excited that they seemed to have completely forgotten this.
"Something's wrong," Lu Chenfei whispered as he and Li Mian approached. "If blinding the monster's eyes counts as killing it, and each of us kills five to clear the level, isn't that too easy?"
"It's not that simple, after all. The eyes' appearance is unpredictable. In this situation, it's easy for everyone to compete to leave the dungeon as quickly as possible," Li Mian said in a low voice. "If there are less than fifty pairs of eyes on this island, then if we don't act quickly, we might end up being stuck in the dungeon forever because we can't eliminate the five five-pointed stars."
This sense of urgency will force everyone to view each other as competitors or even enemies.
Luo Jiu and the others obviously realized this. After their excitement, their expressions became cautious and they suddenly stopped talking.
This sudden silence made the atmosphere seem very strange.
Lu Chenfei thought about it, shook his head, and whispered, "I still don't think it's right. Even if this dungeon is about testing the players' individual combat capabilities, I still think it's too easy."
Xia Jing suddenly tilted his head and asked them, "Did you use eye drops at noon?"
They were stunned.
Xia Jing said: "The key point of this dungeon lies in the 'eye'. Currently, in addition to the eye monster, our own blurry eyes are also a clue."
"Perhaps we won't get the correct answer until our eyes return to normal."
The five words "correct answer" made Lu Chenfei and the others look slightly restrained.
On the other side, Luo Jiu breathed slightly due to the excitement.
He was full of energy, but also spoke with a cryptic tone, "Let's find a place to sit down and discuss this. If everyone really goes their separate ways and becomes a disorganized group, that wouldn't be a good idea. I think we can discuss the order of priority for everyone to take action if the Eye appears again."
The word "priority" made everyone's expression even more subtle.
Just as Sun Qian was about to speak, Fei Shengxiao suddenly pricked up his ears and asked nervously, "It seems like there's a sound approaching us. Did you hear it?"
Everyone fell silent.
Then they heard rustling sounds coming from all directions -
The sound was getting closer and clearer, and then, groups of dark shadows appeared from the depths of the jungle, flying and clustering together, pressing towards them. They were—
"Oh no!" Luo Jiu's excited expression froze. He looked at Jin Yaya's body and his face changed drastically. "These insects are attracted by the smell of blood!"
A swarm of colorful blood-sucking moths swarmed out from the surrounding jungle like a wave, surrounded them, and attacked them fiercely!