In the past, most players in Smiley City strictly abided by the time limit of logging into the dungeon once every seven days, and rarely gathered in large numbers in Smiley City at the same time.
At this moment, looking around, the game hall is full of players.
There was someone sitting on the ground, holding his head, staring blankly at the ground, not knowing what he was thinking.
Someone was crying and shouting "I don't want to go in".
There were also people who stood in front of the empty login room door with their heads down for a long time. At a certain moment, they calmly raised their heads and pushed the door open.
Xia Jing quickly scanned the entire game hall.
In such a large space, there were unexpectedly several rows of login rooms, totaling more than a few hundred rooms.
This is a symbol of the sudden increase in demand for login rooms during the same period of time.
Of the nearly a thousand login rooms in total, most of them are already occupied and the lights are red.
And the lights in these red login rooms are constantly turning green.
Green light means the game is over.
No one came out of the login room for a long time, and the silence was so chilling that it made one's heart chill.
——All the players in the login room died in the dungeon.
Countless players watched these scenes with their own eyes and collapsed and screamed.
Xia Jing narrowed his eyes, swept his gaze over everything, and landed on the large holographic screen in the front.
This holographic screen was the same as before, with the top like the college entrance examination countdown calendar hanging in the senior high school classroom, displaying—
:) It has been running for 270 days, with 2,656 players online, 302 copies updated today, and 302 historical copies.
…
Xia Jing remembers it very clearly.
Before they entered the Island of Eyes, the number of players in Smiley City had almost reached four thousand.
Although many players die in the game every day in this strange world, the number of players does not fluctuate much overall because Smiley City also attracts many new players every day, and it grows slowly and in a roundabout way over the long term.
But within the few hours they were in and out of the Island of Eyes, the number of players in Smiley City dropped from nearly 4,000 to more than 2,600, and more than 1,000 died.
This is an abnormally high number of deaths.
And the number of copies——
Normally, the number of new copies added to Smiley City every day is between 0 and 50, and has never exceeded 100, but today it reached 302.
And the historical copies are actually on par with the newly added copies today?
This is basically a complete erasure of past historical copies, starting the count from zero.
In the few hours that they had been dealing with the Island of Eyes, everything seemed to have changed dramatically.
What he had just warned Lu Chenfei and the others about in the copy was already happening.
Xia Jing took a step back, decisively closed the door of the login room, spent two points, and stood in front of the copy selection machine again.
He lowered his head and looked at the display page of the machine that he had not noticed at all just now, his eyes moving rapidly.
...One-star dungeons, two-star dungeons, three-star dungeons, for some reason, all disappeared.
There are currently 302 copies in Smiley City. Starting from the beginning, the first one is an unfamiliar four-star copy.
——These are 302 brand new four-star copies.
There is simply no other star rating to choose from.
With a "ding" sound, the holographic screen received the message again.
Xia Jing opened the holographic screen and Song Yang sent a second message: "Have you returned to the safe house? If not, I'll come to the game hall to find you."
It seems that Song Yang has also realized that something is wrong.
After Xia Jing replied to Song Yang, he opened the door of the login room and walked out.
Passing through the crowd of collapsed players and the widespread wailing, he met Song Yang, Lu Chenfei, Li Mian, Fei Shengxiao and Feng Shi Jia Qing at the corner of the game hall, at the entrance of the winding corridor.
The six people took a breath, looking a little anxious.
When Song Yang saw Xia Jing and confirmed that Xia Jing was safe, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He had just come out of the private login room and did not see Feng Shi Jia Qing in his personal space, so he did not realize anything was wrong for a moment.
Until he remembered that he had come out of a four-star copy this time.
Whenever he entered a four-star dungeon in the past, these two people would always be waiting outside for him to return.
He suspiciously asked through the holographic screen where the two were, and Feng Shi quickly replied that he and Jia Qing were in the game hall to understand the situation.
Later, Song Yang realized that in just over three hours, Smile City had suddenly become unrecognizable, just as Xia Jing had said.
At this moment, Lu Chenfei cursed: "What you said is really happening, it's too much of a waste of time to prepare!"
Feng Shi and Jia Qing quickly reported what they had learned.
Feng Shi lowered his voice and said, "Ten minutes after you entered the Island of Eyes, Smiley City suddenly became abnormal. The forum suddenly became unusable, and all functions of the holographic screen except for the communication function were disabled."
"Jia Qing and I rushed to the game hall and noticed that the number of public login rooms had suddenly increased significantly," Feng Shi said, glancing at the holographic screen with an obscure gaze. "It may seem normal now, but just now, it displayed the new rules for Smiley City."
As soon as Lu Chenfei and Li Mian returned to the game hall and found that something was wrong, they immediately contacted Song Yang.
Hearing Feng Shi say this, they tensed up and asked, "What new rules?"
Jia Qing said with a pale face, "The minimum rest period for all players has been reduced from seven days to one day. This means that from now on, everyone must enter a dungeon once a day!"
Li Mian and the others were shocked.
"For some players, today was supposed to be the last day of the seven-day deadline. Logically, they only needed to select a dungeon before the deadline and enter, right? Instead, they were forcibly thrust into the dungeon from the real world—this is what a few players who just emerged told us. However, many have already been caught off guard and thrust into four-star dungeons, where they died!"
Jia Qing's teeth chattered. "Those who last logged into the dungeon six days ago will be informed in their brains that they have four hours left to choose freely, otherwise they will be forced into the dungeon. Those who last logged into the dungeon five days ago will have eight hours left, and so on..."
Feng Shi said with a serious face, "Jia Qing and I also received the notice. I have eight hours left, and Jia Qing has four hours."
Xia Jing listened calmly.
These players who just came out of the dungeon naturally would not receive any prompts.
They wouldn't receive a warning from Smiley City until at least tomorrow.
"And as you can see, all dungeons have now become four-star dungeons," Feng Shi frowned and said, "Smiley City has gone completely crazy."
Lu Chenfei glanced at the holographic screen, discovered something, and said, "But now the number of historical copies and newly added copies is equal, and the numbers of both are still decreasing..."
As they were talking, the number of newly added copies and historical copies had both dropped from 302 to 299.
Feng Shi nodded and said, "Yes, in fact, the newly added dungeons just now jumped to 425 and then stopped, and then continued to decline. The rules of the four-star dungeons seem to be the same as before. If you clear one... or completely destroy one, it will be closed."
The reason these dungeons were eliminated so quickly was actually because many players in the dungeons were wiped out too quickly.
"But precisely because of this, all of us are now considering one question, which is——"
Feng Shi looked at them and said word by word, "Once all these four-star dungeons are destroyed, what will we players face?"
Li Mian and the others were stunned.
There was clearly something wrong with Smiley City's system.
At this moment, although they were all facing four-star copies, the number of copies was constantly decreasing as players passed the levels.
Then wait until the number of copies in the entire Smiley City is cleared to 0...
What kind of turning point will these players face?
Fei Shengxiao's eyes suddenly turned red, and she asked in a trembling voice, "Will we be able to leave Smiley City?"
"Or, even if we can't leave, if no new copies are created in Smiley City, then we can be considered free in disguise?" Li Mian's voice was a little hoarse.
Lu Chenfei frowned, "You're too optimistic. If, as Xia Jing said, someone is deliberately causing all this trouble, then now might be the time when their bugs are at their worst. Once they've fixed all the bugs, we might be in trouble again."
Song Yang thought for a moment and said, "Everything is still unknown now, but at least, if we clear all the existing copies, maybe all the players will have a chance to breathe."
Everyone looked at him.
"Now that we have a chance to catch our breath, we can fully respond to whatever 'those guys' plan to do."
Jia Qing sniffed: "So Brother Yang, you mean we still have to enter the four-star dungeon..."
Lu Chenfei exhaled: "There is no other way now. We can't compete with the Smiley City system. The time is up, you have to go in even if you don't want to."
Jia Qing looked miserable, as if he was definitely dead.
It's hard for him to even get through a three-star dungeon now, so asking him to enter a four-star dungeon would just be asking for death, right?
Song Yang said calmly: "I will go into the four-star dungeon with you later."
Feng Shi was stunned for a moment and disagreed, "You just came out of a four-star dungeon. This is too much physical and mental exertion!"
"Don't worry about us now. The real thing is for everyone to work together to clear the dungeon," Lu Chenfei scratched his hair and said irritably, "But I may not be able to go in with you this time. I need to find a friend of mine. That guy can't clear the four-star dungeon by himself, so I have to take him with me. We'll contact each other later."
Li Mian and Fei Shengxiao exchanged a glance, made up their minds, and said, "Let's help clear the dungeon together, but we also have friends to take care of, so we can't go together this time... You must be careful."
"Yes, you should also pay attention to safety." Song Yang nodded.
Feng Shi thought of something and quickly reminded him, "Oh, by the way, in addition to the new rules I just mentioned, some players who came out of the four-star dungeon said that Smiley City seems to have opened up and allowed players to fight each other in the dungeon for head counts."
As soon as these words were spoken, Lu Chenfei and the others' expressions became even gloomier.
"This news just came out. A player killed someone in the dungeon and received no punishment... You must be extra vigilant when you enter the dungeon."
Lu Chenfei cursed softly and said, "Got it. I'm leaving now. I'll contact you when I get out."
Li Mian and Fei Shengxiao: "We'll contact you after you get out."
After the three of them hurried away, Song Yang looked at Xia Jing and whispered, "Then, Xia Xia, you..."
Xia Jing had been listening to Feng Shi and the others talking, but at some point he seemed to suddenly feel something and kept his eyes down and silent.
At this moment, he raised his head and opened his lips.
However, before he could say anything, he was suddenly pulled by a powerful external force, and the whole person disappeared in front of them and flew into the winding corridor.
This sudden change startled Feng Shi and Jia Qing, and Song Yang was severely shocked.
His face suddenly changed, and he immediately chased after him with Feng Shi Jia Qing.
They rushed to the end of the corridor and broke through the door of the safe house.
Xia Jing was already kneeling in the middle of the safe house, supporting himself on the ground with his hands.
Tuanzi was sobbing anxiously around him, while the young man lay motionless with his head down, his black hair falling in front of his forehead.
At this moment, panic surged from Song Yang's heart.
He rushed over, half-knelt down to help Xia Jing up, and asked nervously: "Xia Xia?"
Xia Jing leaned on his shoulder, but did not respond to him, still keeping his head down and motionless.
The young man closed his eyes tightly and his face was a little pale.
Song Yang's heart sank.
He had never seen Xia Jing like this before. Even when he was severely injured by monsters in the "Creation" copy, Xia Jing was more than this.
He tensed his body and immediately picked up Xia Jing.
The next second, Xia Jing suddenly reached out to support him, took a breath, opened his eyes, and said in a hoarse voice, "I'm fine."
Song Yang paused, his voice still hoarse: "You call it nothing?!"
Xia Jing coughed lightly and said, "It's just that the safe house was damaged, and I was somewhat affected."
As soon as he finished speaking, Song Yang heard Jia Qing gasp behind him.
He froze for a moment, then realized something and slowly raised his head.
Feng Shi and Jia Qing looked at the interior of the safe house in disbelief.
Look around.
The originally peaceful and beautiful safe house was now covered with shocking cracks.
There are cracks on every wall and in every corner. These cracks are intertwined to form a huge net, which seems to be able to completely collapse the house at any time.
The microphone monster was trembling on the cabinet by the wall, and the two little goldfish in the goldfish bowl couldn't sleep and were swimming restlessly.
Even the flowers and plants that Xia Jing planted in the pots seemed to be affected and became a little wilted.
Song Yang's Adam's apple rolled, and his eyes darkened.
He gritted his teeth and said, "...What is this?"
"It was invaded by an external force." Xia Jing tightened his grip on Song Yang's wrist slightly. He looked at the cracks and whispered, "It seems that the people behind Smiley Face City have been looking for an opportunity to destroy this place in one fell swoop."
A storm was brewing in Song Yang's eyes.
Then, Xia Jing said, "However, it seems that thanks to this external force, it impacted the safe house, disrupted my energy, and seemed to have awakened some of my memories."
Song Yang was stunned and suddenly looked down at him.
Xia Jing thought: "Some memories from when I was still a human."