World No. 3, 2:00 PM.
The sky was covered with lead-gray clouds, and a cold wind blew, and the first snowflakes slowly floated down.
In an instant, several people in the clearing in the jungle either fell to the ground or held onto the trees around them.
They opened their eyes, took a breath, and regained consciousness.
——They completed the fusion with the clones in World No. 3, and the third five-pointed star on their arms was filled in black!
Players who filled in three black stars will have a black "√" appear on their arms. Their bodies have finally completely eliminated the transparency, which may mean that they have initially qualified to leave the copy.
The continuous escapes had exhausted their physical strength, and several of them were holding their knees and gasping for breath.
Xia Jing calmed his breathing a little, stood up and looked around.
Xi Nuanyang was successfully brought over by Jiang Shuye of this world through his gaze, and the couple hugged each other, looking relieved.
The copy had obviously judged Xi Nuanyang as a monster-like individual, so they still had a chance to leave this place together.
The "2" on Lu Chenfei's forehead disappeared, and was replaced by a big "3" on Li Mian's forehead.
She was panting and looking around vigilantly, fearing that another blood-sucking moth would suddenly appear.
Jin Yaya is not here, and Sun Qian is not here either...
In this world, both of them died in the brawl the day before.
The Jin Yaya in this world is the clone who originally killed the Jin Yaya in World No. 1 and took away the fragments of World No. 1.
Luo Jiu was sitting under a tree not far away, with one knee bent and his right arm resting on it. Two empty stars and a black X next to it were clearly visible.
He looked at the group of people coldly without saying a word.
After everyone recovered, Lu Chenfei said in a deep voice, "Okay, let's see whether this World No. 3 is real or fake."
Fei Shengxiao glanced at the volcano in the distance, swallowed, and said, "This volcano is also smoking. We still have to hurry."
But the same thing goes, how easy is it to find clues to the real and fake world?
A few people looked around for a while, but had no clue, and the snow was only falling heavier.
Song Yang exhaled and said, "Let's stop for a while and go to that cave to avoid the snow. We'll think about it when we get there."
The group nodded, and Luo Jiu also stood up and said indifferently: "I'll go with you."
…
At present, they have collected helicopter fragments from three worlds, and moving these three things is also a big project.
When they reached the cave and started a fire, Jiang Shuye put down one of the fragments and hesitated, "I'm wondering, at this point, do we really need to run with the helicopter fragments?"
Everyone looked at him.
"Collecting fragments is to glue them together to form a complete plane. This clue first appeared because the monsters were trying to trick us into killing each other. Later, it became a clue that we need to reunite in order to leave the dungeon."
Jiang Shuye spread out his hands, looking a little puzzled: "But at this point, the only thing we need to do is to find the world of truth. Helicopters are no longer useful to us, right?"
Xia Jing answered his question simply: "Yes, we don't need this helicopter unless it is absolutely necessary, but I think it should have other uses."
After hearing what he said, everyone else was a little confused.
"This is just my intuition," Xia Jing thought for a moment and tried to explain it in a straightforward way. "The helicopter clue is a big target. I don't think the dungeon will have it eliminated halfway through."
As for what other uses this helicopter can be used for, Xia Jing still doesn't know.
He just knew that they couldn't let the pieces fall easily.
Song Yang said, "If you can't move it, let me do it."
He said this without any sarcasm, he was just making a suggestion.
Jiang Shuye shook his head awkwardly and said, "Since you all still think the fragments are useful, then we'll take them with us."
At this point, they were completely convinced by these two people, so how could they doubt their speculation?
After solving this problem, the group sat down around the fire and started discussing.
Lu Chenfei: "I remember that the thunderstorm and insect plague in World No. 3 have already occurred. Now that it has started snowing, the only remaining disaster in this world is a volcanic eruption."
"Based on the experience of World 1, I estimate that tomorrow morning is the deadline," Lu Chenfei rubbed his hands to warm them, "We'd better confirm the status of World 4 and World 5 first."
"Let me do it. I still have three chances to observe." Xi Nuanyang said quickly.
After the clones merged, they could clearly feel that the remaining observation times of the several clones were also added together.
Xi Nuanyang in World No. 1 has not used her observation ability yet, so she still has plenty of opportunities.
Xi Nuanyang closed and opened his eyes twice.
For the first time, she frowned and said, "The people of World 4 have been attacked by bugs. They haven't completely escaped yet, but many of the bugs have been eliminated. It should only be a matter of time before they are resolved."
The second time, Xi Nuanyang said, "World No. 5 is very peaceful now, and they are also trying to find clues about the true and false worlds."
Song Yang pondered, "World No. 5 should still have one more snowstorm. After the snowstorm is over, they will be just like us, with only one volcanic eruption left."
Worlds 3, 4, and 5 are all about to face the final disaster.
They don't have much time left.
What should I do next?
Lu Chenfei grabbed a handful of hair and counted on his fingers: "The first clue we found about the fake world is the plane world, and the second clue is the virtual world. We can continue to think in this direction. Have you ever seen movies with similar themes? If so, you can refer to them."
Xi Nuanyang and Jiang Shuye were both a little embarrassed: "We don't usually watch science fiction movies."
Xia Jing lowered his eyes and thought quietly. When he heard this topic, his eyes turned and he looked at Song Yang curiously.
Song Yang felt his gaze and straightened his back. He coughed lightly and began to try hard to recall.
After thinking for a while, he really remembered something.
He said, "I once read a science fiction story in which people successfully created an artificial universe the size of a ping-pong ball. This artificial universe was almost identical to the real universe, with countless planets giving birth to life. All children could learn by observing the reproduction and changes of life in this small universe. But in the end, they discovered that the big universe they lived in was just a small ping-pong ball toy created by a higher civilization."
Fei Shengxiao's eyes lit up: "I think I've seen something similar, but it's danmei, cough cough cough!"
The expressions of the others were: =口=
Fei Shengxiao pondered, "There have always been many works with similar settings. You could say that this is the real world, because where you live is reality. But if you want to say that this 'world created by a higher civilization' is unnatural and false, that's fine too. Every reader can have their own definition of that."
Li Mian frowned and said, "Let's put aside whether the 'created microcosm' is a real world or a fake world. If we want to use this as a reference for verification standards, then do we need to observe the sky? Or, in other words, outer space? Then do we still need to use Sun Qian's supernatural power?"
Now only World No. 4 and World No. 5 have Sun Qian's clones.
At this moment, a pair of eyes suddenly opened between them, scaring them.
Those are Xia Jing's eyes.
The eyes lowered their gaze, took away a branch that Xia Jing was playing with, and wrote a few words on the ground: I can't see it, it's too far away.
Everyone suddenly: "..."
Although they all understood that while they were discussing this, the idle people in World No. 5 must also be thinking about it.
Since they are all the same, their thinking must be quite similar.
But the fact that the other side gave them the answer as soon as they thought of it, and the synchronization rate, still made people feel a little weird.
After writing these three words, Xia Jing in the parallel world wrote again: On the 5th, it snowed.
Everyone was startled.
In World No. 5, it also started snowing.
Everyone's brows furrowed even more tightly as they pondered hard.
Xia Jing thought for a while, stood up, walked to the three pieces of helicopter fragments, stared at them and began to ponder.
Song Yang walked over to him, and Xia Jing said thoughtfully: "Let's get the fragments of the other two worlds and start assembling them."
"Although it's a bit of a waste of time," the young man said slowly, "I think there must be a clue on this thing."
Song Yang never doubted Xia Jing's intuition.
He also looked at the three fragments and thought deeply: "Okay."
*
The snow outside the cave was falling heavier and heavier, and the cold wind was howling.
The people in the cave began to assemble and glue the helicopter according to the instructions.
There are actually certain risks in assembling the helicopter directly here.
Because with their strength, they can move the fragments in groups, but once the fragments are completely glued together to form a helicopter, even if they use props, they have to work together to lift it.
If they continue to run with this thing, their movements will be severely restricted.
But since they can't think of any other clues, they can only try their best.
There are five pieces, which are easy to put together but difficult to glue together.
Everyone was busy and sweating until the snow stopped outside and night fell.
A huge helicopter stood quietly in the cave.
Several crooked cracks were still visible all over the surface of the helicopter, making it look particularly shabby and not like something that could be used by humans.
Everyone looked at each other, and Lu Chenfei asked uncertainly, "What do we say next?"
This plane is just an empty shell, without even an engine or fuel tank.
They only found a small metal box on the tail fragment that resembled an energy tank, but what kind of energy could it contain? The terrifying power of Smiley City?
Song Yang didn't think too much about it. Since the copy provided the key, the helicopter must be able to be started.
If anything, gluing a helicopter together with adhesive is ridiculous enough, so why would they bother with that?
He opened the hatch and jumped in, standing at the driver's seat, and inserted the key in his hand into a position that looked like a starter socket.
As soon as the key was inserted and turned, the entire helicopter suddenly emitted a burst of air, and the others took a step back.
Immediately afterwards, the crooked cracks covering the surface of the plane completely disappeared, and the entire plane instantly looked so brand new that it didn't look like it had ever crashed!
The group stared in amazement. Lu Chenfei exclaimed, "This thing... is so fantastic!"
Xia Jing jumped onto the plane without saying a word, held onto the cabin door and looked inside.
The lights inside the plane came on.
There were no seats in the inner cabin, and it seemed a bit empty, but a series of things appeared on the walls of the inner cabin, which quickly attracted the attention of Xia Jing and Song Yang.
Noticing the two men's slightly restrained expressions, Lu Chenfei asked sternly from outside the plane, "What did you find?"
In the sight of Xia Jing and Song Yang——
Two rows of small portraits appeared on the left and right walls of the helicopter's interior cabin.
The small heads appeared directly on the metal wall in the form of images, one every half meter, as if they were arranged according to the seats that once existed in the cabin.
The portrait that appeared on the wall next to the driver's seat was Sun Qian.
Luo Jiu was sitting in the passenger seat.
Then came the first row of passenger seats, with Xia Jing and Song Yang on the left and right.
Next came Li Mian, Fei Shengxiao, Xi Nuanyang, Jiang Shuye, Jin Yaya, and Lu Chenfei.
All of their portraits appeared in the helicopter.
After listening to Song Yang's simple description, everyone was stunned.
Luo Jiu, who was standing in the corner, said coldly, "But what does this mean?"
Everyone came to their senses.
That's right, these avatars… don't seem to provide any useful information.
Xia Jing moved closer to Song Yang, bent down, and carefully looked at Sun Qian's portrait next to the driver's seat.
Sun Qian smiled in the video and looked energetic, like an excellent captain.
There is a line of small text at the bottom of the image.
Xia Jing read softly: "May xx, 20xx, destination: Eye Island."
These two pieces of information are not new.
This date appeared on the aircraft assembly manual they picked up, written in Xia Jing's notes.
At first glance, these things do not seem to be able to help them discern the world of truth.
This was also the first time that Song Yang encountered a copy that left him completely clueless.
He exhaled, stood there with his arms folded across his chest, staring at the image in deep thought.
Xia Jingyi pondered for a moment and said, "It's very strange."
Song Yang nodded and said, "This information seems useless, but let's not talk about the rest for now—"
He pointed at the date and asked, "Why does this message appear twice?"
time.
Xia Jing tilted his head and raised a possibility: "Could it be possible that the time in a parallel world doesn't match the time displayed on the plane?"
If the time doesn't match, then that parallel world is likely a fake world.
Song Yang: "But the only thing on us that can show time is the holographic screen."
"My holographic screen now shows two days longer than the time displayed on the plane. We actually spent two days in the dungeon without any problems. If there were any time issues in Worlds 4 and 5, they would have discovered it long ago."
But the fact is, World No. 4 and World No. 5 never mentioned this matter at all.
The two fell silent again and continued to think.
Xia Jing stood up and said, "Maybe there are other clues about the helicopter that we left outside."
"I still think time is an important piece of information. The holographic screen is something we brought in from outside the dungeon, so it's likely unusable as a reference."
"But perhaps there is something else in this copy that can provide a clue to time. This third clue to time may tell us the answer to whether the world is real or fake."
"The two timelines we have now are provided by helicopters and related items. The third timeline is likely to be provided by something similar."
At the same time, two pairs of eyes appeared around them.
One pair of eyes is Sun Qian's eyes, and the other pair of eyes is Jiang Shuye's eyes.
They must have been sent from World No. 4 and World No. 5 respectively, which means that the insect plague in World No. 4 should have ended.
The people from their three worlds have all reached the final moment.
At this moment, everyone's hearts are gathered together, and they are determined to work together to find the final answer.
Xia Jing said, "When the instance began, the helicopter was already in pieces. So far, we've only found the outer shell and the instruction manual, and nothing else."
"Some of the contents may have been burned during the fall or completely shattered upon hitting the ground, but if there are any informative contents, the replica will have preserved them."
Outside, Luo Jiu questioned, "What if this plane is really of no help in distinguishing the real from the fake? Then we might search for a long time and still find nothing."
"This island is so big, searching it all over again is no easy task," Luo Jiu said, then fell silent for a moment before chuckling. "But I can't leave this dungeon anyway, and I don't intend to be taken out of it by any of you. I'll have to stay in Smiley City for the rest of my life. Go ahead and look for it if you want. It's so cold outside, I can't help you any more."
The cold water poured down upon him made the air momentarily still.
But soon, Lu Chenfei said calmly: "Anyway, we don't have any other clues now, right?"
The other four nodded.
Lu Chenfei: "Sitting there is just like waiting for death. Regardless of whether it is useful or not, this is an idea after all. Now that the snow has stopped, let's go out and look for it."
Except for Luo Jiu, everyone seemed to agree.
Xia Jing said to the two pairs of eyes, "You two worlds should go out and look for it together."
The two pairs of eyes disappeared instantly, probably because they went back to inform.
Pushing aside the branches blocking the entrance to the cave, a chill hit me in the face.
The clouds in the sky were always thick, but at least the heavy snow had stopped and they didn't have to move forward against the wind and snow.
Seven people filed out and hurried back into the jungle.
They have no clear direction, let alone a clear destination.
They didn't know where the remaining clues related to the plane were. In order to save time, they divided into three groups and acted separately.
Xia Jing and Song Yang headed towards the west side of the island, Lu Chenfei, Li Mian and Fei Shengxiao searched the east side of the island, and Xi Nuanyang and Jiang Shuye and his wife went to the south side of the island.
As time passed, the smoke coming out of the crater in the distance became thicker and thicker.
The night sky was blocked by clouds and there was not a trace of light. They could only move forward in the dense jungle with flashlights, making the search even more difficult.
After searching for a full hour, Lu Chenfei sent a message: "Did you find anything?"
Song Yang replied: "No."
Lu Chenfei: "We and Jiang Shuye haven't yet. Li Mian and I are now preparing to search the north."
Song Yang: "OK."
The monotonous dark view, the soft snow underfoot, and the biting cold wind blowing on the face.
Even after Xia Jing and Song Yang crossed the jungle, reached the westernmost part of the island, and returned to the beach where they first landed, they still couldn't find anything.
Xia Jing stopped, took a breath, and thought calmly.
Is his thinking wrong?
Is it true that the helicopter no longer has any value, and the repeated date is just invalid information?
Song Yang stood beside him, thought for a moment, and said, "If there really is any clue related to the helicopter that we left behind, it must not be something particularly large, otherwise Sun Qian would have discovered it when he first used his supernatural powers to observe the entire island."
"But if it's something particularly small, then it's possible that, like the instructions, it was scattered all over the island when the helicopter crashed. Since it snowed on us and World 5, it would be even more difficult to find."
Xia Jing lowered his head and thought for a moment.
Suddenly, he looked up and said, "The helicopter debris is the largest object we've found in every world. This probably means that the location of the debris is essentially the most important scene of the helicopter accident."
"If there really are things left on the island, perhaps they are still at that scene."
Song Yang was stunned for a moment, then realized - that's right, when they discovered the helicopter debris and the ten bottles of eye drops under the debris, they fell into a wrong thinking.
The copy provided them with clues intuitively, and they felt that all the clues at the moment might be there.
They never dug deeper into the sand, and never even thought that there might be something else hidden under the thick sand.
Thinking of this, Song Yang and Xia Jing's eyes were fixed on the reef standing on the beach more than ten meters ahead.
——That's where they first found the fragments!
The two of them ran over immediately.
Song Yang used fire items to melt the snow there, evaporating the snow water, and the sand became clearly visible in their field of vision.
The two of them lost no time and started digging sand.
With the tools, the job becomes very simple.
Song Yang whispered, "If time is the clue that allows us to distinguish the real world from the fake world, then there are other things in the copy that can provide us with time information, perhaps newspapers, tablets, or notebooks that passengers are reading."
These things were not large in size, so they had to look very carefully.
Just as he finished speaking, the shovel in his hand made a "ding" sound.
They dug something up!
The two men threw away their tools and used their hands to spread the remaining sand covering the unknown object.
The object gradually appeared in front of them. It had a black metal shell and a smooth surface.
At first there was only a small corner, but as the sand was spread away bit by bit, the exposed area began to grow larger.
That size doesn't look like a tablet, let alone a laptop...
Gradually, Song Yang frowned and Xia Jing narrowed his eyes, and both began to feel that something was wrong.
They continued to push away the sand, and the thing revealed beneath the sand became larger and larger...
Until one moment, they could finally vaguely distinguish the shape of this strange thing, and they both stopped.
They stared at this thing that was completely beyond their imagination and fell silent.
…
Lu Chenfei suddenly sent several messages in succession.
In order to keep in touch at any time, Song Yang did not put away the small holographic screen, and the four messages were displayed directly in front of the two of them.
"Did you look up? Song Yang, the example you gave of a science fiction story is actually correct. Even though it's not 100% the same, the third clue to the true and false world is in the sky!"
"The clouds in the sky have dispersed. There are stars in the sky of our World 3 and World 5, but World 4 is completely dark. World 4 must be a fake world!"
"Hey, the people in World 4 didn't realize this before."
"Now we just need to find the world of truth between World No. 5 and World No. 3!"
…
Under the shining stars, on the vast beach, in a small corner behind the reef—
Song Yang and Xia Jing fell into a strange silence.
The two of them didn't even look at the content sent by Lu Chenfei on the holographic screen.
What they saw before them was beyond their comprehension.
After a few seconds, probably because he didn't receive a response, Lu Chenfei asked again: "We still haven't found any clues about the helicopter, what about you?"
Song Yang finally moved.
He took a deep breath, rubbed his eyes, and sent a message: "We are on the beach where we first logged into the dungeon. Come over, we found a clue."
"We spotted a second helicopter."
"A complete helicopter."