Seeing the tension in these three men's heads about to snap, Song Yang exhaled, rubbed his eyes, and said, "Stop for a moment, calm down."
While being suspected and guarded against was unpleasant, allowing the situation to spiral downward wouldn't be beneficial for them.
Song Yang said, "I told you we still have many unresolved issues. If you're still willing to listen to my advice, from now on, lay down your weapons."
With these words, Sun Qian, Xi Nuanyang, and Jiang Shuye all fell silent.
They froze in their places, suspicion and uneasiness still lingering in their eyes.
Humans are full of contradictions.
Everyone who mustered the courage to participate in a four-star dungeon did so to earn high points and to leave Smiley City sooner.
But they also understood that the high points in four-star dungeons were due to the high mortality rate.
It could be someone else who died, or perhaps even themselves.
Entering a four-star dungeon with this mindset, it was difficult for them to fully view the other players as partners in overcoming difficulties together.
On the other hand, Sun Qian, Xi Nuanyang, Jiang Shuye, and the deceased Jin Yaya and Luo Jiu were not inherently bad people.
They were unwilling to consider each other enemies, and even less willing to focus solely on themselves and ignore others in a life-or-death situation.
These two contradictory sides would lead to a huge conflict in the dungeon world.
This conflict would drive them to confront each other when their interests were involved, but it would also naturally lead to a hint of regret after they calmed down.
After a moment, the three of them pursed their lips and lowered their weapons.
Song Yang gave Li Mian a look, and Li Mian walked over, collected the weapons of the three, put them all into the snakeskin bag, and tied it tightly with a few loops of twine.
Song Yang said calmly, "This is to prevent the 'Eye' from using your weapons to harm you if it reappears."
The three men stood there uncomfortably for a moment. Sun Qian moved his lips, "So, these five-pointed stars..."
Xia Jing said calmly, "To understand their purpose, we must first understand what exactly happened in that chaotic fight."
As Xia Jing finished speaking, a flurry of snowflakes suddenly fell from the sky.
The group looked up, startled.
Unbeknownst to them, the clouds above the island had turned a leaden gray.
The temperature suddenly plummeted, and the sea breeze sent goose bumps down Fei Shengxiao's arms.
The snowflakes fell silently.
Lu Chenfei's face darkened slightly, and he cursed under his breath, "This damn weather."
Song Yang frowned and said, "Let's find shelter in a cave first."
Camping in the wild in this kind of weather is not a good idea.
Fortunately, there was a cave just a kilometer away from their clearing.
The eight people moved quickly. By then, the snowstorm was already raging.
The cold wind whipped, sending snowflakes drifting like goose feathers, blanketing the entire island in a blanket of silver.
They had been assigned short-sleeved shirts and shorts upon entering the dungeon, and now the temperature plummeted below zero, causing several of them to look grim.
They took refuge in a cave and blocked the entrance with branches.
Lu Chenfei used tools to build a fire, while the others, those with clothes, donned them. Those without could only shiver to stay warm.
Fortunately, Song Yang still had a blanket in his space bag, so he pulled it out and wrapped Xia Jing in it.
As he finished wrapping Xia Jing and stood up, Xia Jing raised her head and asked calmly, "Song Yang, are all your muscles made of fat?"
Song Yang was stunned, unable to grasp Xia Jing's meaning for a moment.
When his mind caught up, he realized Xia Jing was indirectly asking, "Aren't you afraid of the cold?" He couldn't help but laugh.
Xia Jing's face was expressionless. He lifted a corner of the blanket, his meaning clear.
Though his attitude was bland, Song Yang was as happy as if he had drunk a can of honey.
He sat down again, hugged Xia Jing, and wrapped the blanket tightly around them. He raised his lips and said, "I was afraid you wouldn't like being so close to others."
Now they were truly close together.
Xia Jing glanced at him, raised an eyebrow, and said, "Why don't you see Dr. Song being so polite other times?"
Song Yang's lips lifted even higher.
It sounded sarcastic, but Song Yang's heart grew sweeter.
He gently touched Xia Jing's head and whispered, "I know, I know, Xia Xia."
Fei Shengxiao and Li Mian both brought warm clothes, while Lu Chenfei placed his fire-related items directly next to him.
Xi Nuanyang and Jiang Shuye also had blankets in their space bags, but Sun Qian was the only one left to endure the toughness of his body.
After the eight people's body temperatures returned to normal, Song Yang straightened his expression and said, "Have you three used eye drops?"
"Lu Chenfei can no longer observe the parallel world. This ability must have a limited number of uses. Xia Jing, Li Mian, and Fei Shengxiao haven't 'opened their eyes' yet, so we can only observe you three."
Upon hearing this, Xi Nuanyang and the others quickly took out their eye drops and applied a drop.
Unfortunately, their eyes remained motionless.
That was all they could do.
Song Yang pondered, "But those in the parallel world who have opened their eyes should have used up their observation time today. There's no need to worry too much about them appearing again." "
Even if they do appear again, remember not to attack them. For now, we just need to protect the helicopter debris, understand?"
Xi Nuanyang and the others nodded uncomfortably.
So, what they needed to study next was what happened in the melee just now.
Xia Jing handed over the arrow, his tone calm: "The same weapons in Smiley City look exactly the same, but there are always some differences between individuals. You should carefully distinguish and see if you can tell whose arrow it is."
It was not until this moment that Xi Nuanyang and Sun Qian were able to take the arrows without arguing with each other and concentrate on distinguishing them.
After a while, Xi Nuanyang opened his mouth and said, "My arrow... the color of the arrow shaft seems to be a little darker, beige."
Sun Qian nodded and said, "Yes, this is indeed my arrow."
Xi Nuanyang's face suddenly showed a deep sense of uneasiness. She actually made a mistake.
Then what was the second five-pointed star that disappeared -
Xi Nuanyang subconsciously covered her right arm, turned her head and asked Jiang Shuye nervously: "Shuye, are you sure you just killed a pair of eyes?"
Jiang Shuye nodded with a serious face, and said, "A pair of eyes was indeed stabbed by me."
Lu Chenfei pointed at the three people and said, "So, assuming that the eyes corresponding to the five-pointed star that disappeared from Sun Qian's body are the ones he killed, then the eyes that Jiang Shuye killed must belong to Xi Nuanyang."
Li Mian asked suspiciously, "Could it be that eyes and people still correspond well?"
So far, it seems to be true.
However, a puzzling point has also arisen.
Lu Chenfei analyzed, "Assuming we correspond one-to-one with the people in the other four worlds, then this is like a connect-the-dots puzzle. We should have some similarities or connections with them. But when I observed those parallel worlds, I didn't find any clues at all."
Xia Jing thought for a moment and whispered, "Eyes."
He said thoughtfully, "They come to our world, and we go to theirs. The only window is our eyes, and theirs."
"In other words, even if we find a connection between us and them, we need to identify their identities the moment their eyes appear in our world. The only identification target we can rely on is their eyes."
Song Yang thought of something and looked up at them, "Did you observe those eyes when they appeared just now? The shape of the eyes?"
Everyone was stunned and looked at each other.
Almost everyone shook their heads, only Sun Qian hesitated and said, "I think a few pairs of eyes look similar, but I can't be sure if it's the same person observing our world repeatedly. Didn't Lu Chenfei observe it three times in total?"
Lu Chenfei nodded.
Then—
Xia Jing turned and asked Xi Nuanyang, "Do you remember the shape of the first pair of eyes you killed?"
Xi Nuanyang strained to recall, then shook her head. "I don't remember... I just thought they were familiar."
When she'd killed them, she'd been so consumed by the urgency of completing the dungeon that she hadn't had time to dwell on them.
But now, recalling them, the familiarity she felt was quite subtle.
Xi Nuanyang felt she'd seen those eyes countless times before, but she couldn't find anyone who matched them...
Xia Jing turned to Jiang Shuye and calmly asked, "What about you? Do you still remember the eyes you killed?"
Jiang Shuye froze, then shook his head, hesitantly saying, "I think they're familiar too. I feel like I've seen them somewhere before, but I can't quite place them."
This familiarity stirred within him a deep sense of unease.
At that moment, Jiang Shuye suddenly felt a surge of regret, regretting not listening to Song Yang's advice.
But the vanishing five-pointed star, those eyes that had so vehemently attacked them—before, who could have imagined that those eyes might truly be untouchable?
Seeing things becoming increasingly bizarre, Fei Shengxiao rubbed his arms and asked anxiously, "What on earth is going on? Song Yang, Xia Jing, have you figured out anything yet?"
Xia Jing and Song Yang were still pondering.
Once a four-star dungeon is set up to rely on brainpower, it will be impossible for players to solve the puzzle so easily.
This is a very complex thinking process, and problems need to be solved one by one.
At a certain point in his thinking, Xia Jing looked up again and confirmed with Lu Chenfei, "Are you sure that the people in the three worlds you saw all look different?"
As soon as this question came out, everyone was stunned.
Why did Xia Jing ask this?
Lu Chenfei paused for a moment, then nodded, baffled, "I'm sure... What? Do you think the dungeon is using a trick on us? It's changed the appearances of the people in those parallel worlds?"
Thinking of this, Lu Chenfei's face suddenly tensed, and he whispered, "Come to think of it, in the three parallel worlds I saw, someone called out the names of the members, but either the rain or the wind suddenly intensified, and each time I didn't hear clearly. Could this be intentional by the dungeon?"
Xi Nuanyang, Jiang Shuye, and Sun Qian were almost unable to sit still.
The strange developments and the ominous premonition made them break into a cold sweat.
Song Yang pondered and said, "In theory, the dungeon will not cover up clues, only monsters will."
Sun Qian's throat was dry, and he asked for confirmation, "Aren't the monsters still those people in the parallel world? They are hiding their identities, right?"
Li Mian shook his head, "If they want to hide their names and identities, it must be because once their identities are exposed, we will know 'who' they are, then how can they still be monsters? The name is only meaningful to the players, so their identities can only be real players."
Xi Nuanyang said puzzledly, "But if we harm the players, we will be punished by the system. Now we haven't received such a prompt."
"And Song Yang also said that the dungeon was officially opened as soon as we logged into it yesterday. The dungeon did not wait for the arrival of other groups of players."
The clues contradicted each other, and the fog became thicker and thicker.
Xia Jing did not continue the issue they were discussing, but asked Lu Chenfei again: "When you were observing those three worlds, did you notice the five-pointed stars on the arms of the people in those worlds?"
Lu Chenfei was stunned and said: "They do have five-pointed stars on their arms, but I didn't notice a few of them..."
His brows frowned deeply: "Most of them were still five stars at that time, right?"
After asking this, Xia Jing finally looked at everyone else and said: "Don't you feel that all of us are filled with a sense of transparency?"
Everyone was stunned.
Xia Jing observed their expressions and concluded, "You all didn't notice."
"This sense of transparency existed the moment we entered the dungeon and appeared in this world." Xia Jing raised his head, scanning the cave, then scanning them one by one. "I think the problems we face now may also stem from this strange world itself."
"The helicopter fragments were scattered across five parallel worlds, but these five worlds gave the people in each world the opportunity to spy on each other and seize each other's fragments."
"At the same time, disasters are happening in successive worlds, accelerating our plundering of each other."
"If they're accelerating conflict and making us fight each other—why couldn't the world itself be behind this?"
Xia Jing's words left the others dumbfounded, as if their minds were completely lost.
Song Yang pondered for a moment, then continued Xia Jing's words, saying in a deep voice, "If it's truly the 'world' that's concealing the identities of those in the other four worlds, then we might very well appear completely different to them."
The other six were even more stunned.
Xia Jing nodded. "That's right. The people in those worlds probably haven't realized it yet. We've all been fooled by these five worlds."
"Every time we kill a pair of eyes, one of us will lose a five-pointed star—but is the world accelerating the conflict between us so quickly, just to allow some of us to clear the dungeon as quickly as possible?"
"Impossible," the young man said slowly. "If the 'world' itself is a monster, then its purpose must be to keep the players here."
"Canceling five-pointed stars definitely doesn't mean the player is getting closer to completing the dungeon. It could even be the opposite—the more five-pointed stars a player clears, the closer they are to being trapped in the dungeon forever."
Everyone's eyes widened, a chill running through their bodies.
Sun Qian stood up, incredulous, "Who are those people in the parallel world?! Why would attacking them even hinder us?!"
At that moment, Xi Nuanyang exclaimed in surprise as a pair of eyes suddenly opened behind Xia Jing's head!
They all stood up, wary of these sudden eyes, frozen in place, unable to move.
Xia Jing and Song Yang turned their heads.
Xia Jing stood up and looked directly into those eyes.
They stared back at him silently.
They had appeared before Xia Jing earlier this morning, at daybreak.
Back then, they had also gazed at him with the same quiet gaze.
Xia Jing took a step closer.
He and the eyes were instantly within a fist's reach, each one a foot away.
Li Mian said nervously, "Xia Jing!"
Xia Jing raised his hand to indicate that everything was fine, and then shifted his gaze to the left eye of the pair of peach blossom eyes.
A beautiful and charming eye shape, a gentle and calm gaze, dark brown eyes, and hidden in them, black numbers.
The eyes were also looking at him seriously, observing him, until a few seconds later, it revealed a look of helplessness and relief of finally confirming the answer.
At the side, Song Yang's expression became subtle.
He coughed lightly.
Xia Jing stared at the eyes, turned his back to everyone else, and slowly said: "Let me correct my previous statement. Those people in the parallel world are players, but not 'other players'."
"They are us, our clones."
This sentence was like a blockbuster bomb, and the others were all stunned.
"Why are our bodies so transparent?
Because as soon as we log into the dungeon, we are split into five and placed in five parallel worlds."
"Why doesn't the system punish us for killing those people in the parallel worlds? Because those people are just our clones, not our complete selves at all."
Xia Jing chuckled. "These five worlds must keep us secret from everyone, otherwise how could they let us kill each other?"