ITOTIABSAM | Infinite Flow | 187
Using the paid world channel as a chat box on WeChat, sentence by sentence, is indeed not something an ordinary person can do.
Moreover, the world channel is far more transparent than the rankings, unable to be anonymous, unable to use nicknames. Even if someone happens to have the same name as the BOSS, they wouldn't pop out to make jokes at a time like this.
The prefix is bare, representing no guild, no team. The search result for "Eternal Rest" being gibberish, doesn't sound like a fabrication either.
After a brief silence, someone finally responded:
【Thorn Rose - Li Fei: How do you prove what you're saying is true?】
【Xie Ye: I am not lying.】
Seeing this, Cheng Xiaorong, who was sitting in the villa's living room playing with her watch, suddenly swept away the gloom and laughed out loud. "Not lying," this answer, which seems like playing dumb and being evasive in the eyes of ordinary players, is indeed Xie Ye's style.
Li Fei who asked the question seemed to be choked up as well. After a while, somewhat wastefully, she sent out two ellipses in bewilderment.
Once someone initiated, knowing that Xie Ye would respond in real-time, many players who hadn't intended to get involved in the mission immediately got excited to gossip:
【Spectator Club - Tian Tian: Xie Ye, Xie Ye, are you really the BOSS?】
【Xie Ye: Yes, I am.】
【Salted Fish Team - Yang Zhizhi: Wow! BOSS! Alive! Are you the only one who came out? Why does the system need us players to help? And offering such high rewards, it feels like there's a conspiracy.】
【Xie Ye: Yes, I am the only one.】
【Xie Ye: Because it's weak.】
Almost thinking she had misread the words, Yang Zhizhi's hands were quicker than her mind, and she sent another message: "Who's weak?"
Xie Ye: "The system."
Thinking his answer might have been vague, he emphasized again: "The game system."
The game system that was secretly spying immediately became infuriated, feeling like its belly was about to explode with data.
But it truly couldn't do anything to Xie Ye.
Unlike other paranormal dimensions connected by "Infinite Games," the instance "Eternal Rest" is entirely shaped by the grievances of players. It's like a massive furnace, endlessly repeating the deaths of players in a hellish manner, using the fear of players' deaths as fuel to provide energy for the operation of the game.
And the game in operation will eliminate old players and absorb new players, ensuring a continuous source of "fuel," thus achieving perpetual motion.
Xie Ye is the crystallization forged in this furnace.
As long as "Eternal Rest" exists, he can respawn time and time again. Even the system can't truly erase him.
Admittedly, when Xie Ye initially left home, the game system didn't pay much attention to it. Compared to other ghosts, Xie Ye lacked a tragic past. Even though there were player remnants whispering and wailing in his ears day and night, it was ultimately someone else's experience, separated by a layer of veil.
If there was a chance to completely disappoint Xie Ye and let him wander around for a few days, it would be worth it.
So, time and time again, it leaked Xie Ye's identity in the instance, repeatedly induced players to betray him through tasks, and repeatedly watched Xie Ye's death with cold eyes.
Until Jiang Chuan appeared.
That damned Jiang Chuan.
Even though it left him with enough room to retreat, he still foolishly followed Xie Ye around in circles.
Based on the data from previous instances, Jiang Chuan had a bottom line, but not much. Beneath his gentle smile was absolute rationality. Once it involved his and his teammates' interests, it was wise to prioritize self-preservation, which should have been the other party's choice.
So, when Xie Ye inexplicably broke free from the instance's constraints and arrived at the transfer station, the system simply played along, deliberately allowing him to enjoy a few days of leisure, then quietly orchestrating this city-wide siege, waiting for Jiang Chuan to turn cold-hearted and reject Xie Ye, even personally taking away the 100,000 points hidden in the trap.
But the reality unfolded completely opposite to its expectations.
Instead of fleeing in embarrassment, these two men boarded the bus to the outer city right under its nose, swaggering as if they had nothing to hide, not even bothering to conceal their faces.
As the dinner hour approached, there were few passengers on the bus. Xie Ye followed Gu Cong and sat shoulder to shoulder with him, quietly whispering in his ear, "My watch seems to be broken."
Gu Cong raised an eyebrow, "Hmm?"
"No one replied to me," Xie Ye handed over his watch without any defenses, the black-haired youth humbly seeking advice, "Did I say something wrong?"
His last words still lingered on the phrase "the system is weak."
"Maybe they think there's something wrong with your head," Gu Cong teased without malice, "After all, in the eyes of most players, the system is incredibly powerful and needs to be appeased."
Sure enough, not long after, players biased towards the system began to appear in the world channel.
【Everyone, don't be fooled by him. If he's really stronger than the system, why would he waste time here chatting with us?】
【A monster is a monster. Dislike killing? Who would believe that? Even if he learns to mimic humans, it's useless. The system has already made its judgment, and the bounty missions can't be wrong.】
【Who cares which instance's BOSS he is? If he can be killed once, he can definitely be killed a second time.】
【Xie Ye, are you still there? Don't mind those cowardly idiots. I believe in you, I want to help you. Can you private message me your current location?】
Reading the last reply twice, Xie Ye was puzzled, "Does he think I'm very stupid?" To casually expose his whereabouts like that.
Gu Cong chuckled.
Naivety and foolishness cannot be equated arbitrarily. Perhaps Xie Ye's attitude was overly sincere, which led some players with ulterior motives to mistakenly believe that he was easy to deceive and bully.
Xie Ye felt a bit angry.
He was clearly trying to communicate sincerely, but the responses he received were more or less mixed with falsehoods. If they wanted points, they could just say so directly. Why bother harping on the word "monster"?
He disliked being called a monster.
Gradually losing interest in continuing the conversation, the black-haired Xie Ye leaning against Gu Cong's shoulder typed slowly:
【Xie Ye: Since you're so confident in completing the mission, why hasn't anyone come to see me?】
【Xie Ye: Is it because you don't want to?】
【Xie Ye: Or is it because you simply can't find me?】
It was mockery, blatant mockery.
The players, accustomed to the game's mindset and influenced by Xie Ye's relatively friendly demeanor, subconsciously regarded him as someone carrying a hefty amount of points in his pocket.
But at this moment, they finally realized, albeit belatedly, the ferocity of the "prey."
Someone couldn't hold back their temper and asked, "Are you declaring war on the players?"
Xie Ye replied, "If you think so."
After typing this, he turned off his watch, pursed his lips, and looked out the window as if admiring the scenery.
Gu Cong shrugged his shoulder. "Are you angry?"
Xie Ye nodded, then shook his head. He felt he hadn't done anything to harm the players, yet they called him a monster one after another. Even normal dissatisfaction could be seen as a threat, providing others with a reasonable excuse to attack him.
However, in the infinite game, there were still players like Jiang Chuan, Cheng Xiaorong, Zhao Dong, and Cheng Qing, whom he could clearly distinguish. So he couldn't redirect his anger towards them.
"A little," like a child who had just learned to speak, he didn't understand or excel in human subtleties or nuances. He simply earnestly analyzed his own feelings.
"But it's okay," with a smile in his phoenix-like eyes, Xie Ye looked at the reflection of Gu Cong on the window, "Seeing you makes everything seem alright."
Gu Cong knew Xie Ye wasn't saying sweet nothings. But undoubtedly, this was the most beautiful compliment he had ever heard in his life.
As the neon lights of the inner city gradually emerged, Gu Cong thought Xie Ye was admiring the scenery, marveling at the vibrant and peculiar sights. However, he didn't expect that the only scenery that could capture Xie Ye's attention was "Gu Cong" himself.
Thirty minutes after the mission was issued, the world channel refreshed Xie Ye's real-time coordinates in the system's unique golden font.
However, the two on the bus remained extremely calm.
—The average speed of a regular bus is about 30 kilometers per hour. By the time a large number of players arrived at the coordinates provided by the system, they might already be in the outer city.
The real troublemakers were those players who weren't led by the nose by the system.
Calculating the timing precisely, as soon as the system broadcast Xie Ye's coordinates for the second time, Gu Cong reached up and pressed the bell, leading Xie Ye to get off the bus at the nearest stop.
Bus routes are predictable and easy to check. Somewhat smarter players, through the two location broadcasts, could guess that their destination was the outer city and rush to the terminal to lay siege.
But the outer city didn't have a fixed entrance.
Like a big circle enclosing a smaller one, the entire perimeter of the transfer station was considered the outer city, where anyone could stay.
What was unexpected, however, was that when they got off the bus, they encountered a familiar face.
It was Tang Yan.
She seemed to be injured, her expression clear-headed but surrounded by a strong smell of alcohol. Her black hood was pulled down over her head, leaning against the bus stop sign with a somewhat tired appearance.
Meeting each other's gaze, the woman who had once kindly brought Xie Ye onto the bus to advance the plot turned her head away.
Without giving any warning or drawing a weapon, she simply closed her eyes quietly, as if telling the two people in front of her with her actions that she was tired and didn't have the energy to fight.
However, Xie Ye was still being protected by Gu Cong, walking on the side further away from Tang Yan, as they passed by her.
One minute later.
Staring intently at the small red dot marked on the map, a male player, feeling distressed about his failed high-level item, looked around, eventually fixing his gaze on the woman waiting for the return bus at the bus stop.
"Hey," time is points, he had no patience for courtesy. Taking advantage of her being a woman, he asked bluntly, "Did you see anyone else pass by just now?"
The woman coughed several times in a muffled manner, then raised her hand and pointed to an alley to the east.
It was in the opposite direction of Xie Ye's retreating figure.
Never had he expected her to be so cooperative. The male player casually thanked her and was about to leave, but suddenly stopped, "Aren't you going after them?"
"Why should I?" She lifted her hood, revealing a face flushed with alcohol. The woman reeked of booze, and she seemed to be pondering something, dragging out her words, "Oh - he's quite handsome, is he your lover?"
"Don't worry, sister, I'm not interested in handsome guys," the player responded.
At present, no one had publicly disclosed the specific appearance of the BOSS Xie Ye, but the advanced ghosts in the instance, when wearing human skins, usually had very attractive appearances.
Slightly believing the woman's words, the male player frowned in disgust, avoiding the drunken woman and hastily turning into the alley across the street.
Behind him, Tang Yan, with a calm demeanor, looked up at the sky, basking in the pale red moonlight, and shrugged her shoulders.
"Nightmare Town," she muttered.
"Tsk."
"I've repaid the favor," Tang Yan said with a calm expression.
Author's note:
Here we go.
PS: The death rate in "Nightmare Town" is too low, and the following days are too calm, which means gaining points for nothing. This abnormality must be related to the appearance of Xie Ye as the BOSS. That's why Tang Yan said she had repaid the favor.
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