What’s Wrong With Seeking Death?

dizzy. noisy. Shaky tentacles. Changing light and shadow.

Then all of a sudden, everything fell into a long darkness and silence.

After an unknown amount of time, Xu Tuoran slowly opened his eyes.

It is a strange ceiling decorated with exaggerated lamps. As if aware of her waking up, the chandelier suddenly lit up, emitting dazzling multicolored light, and the lamp itself was still spinning like a disco ball.

Xu Tueran was caught off guard, his eyes dazzled by the shaking, he quickly turned his head to compare, and at the same time raised his hand to block the glare of the light, his gaze fell on the back of his hand inadvertently, and he was taken aback for a moment.

I saw that the skin on the back of her hand was slightly loose, as if she had many fine lines.

Xu Turan's eyes widened slightly, he hurriedly got up from the bed, looked around, noticed a floor-to-ceiling mirror in a corner of the room, and hurriedly walked over.

The mirror seemed to have not been used for a long time, and was covered with a layer of dust. Xu Tuoran raised his hand to wipe it off, and with the help of the spinning lanterns behind him, he finally saw his appearance clearly at the moment.

"...Wow." She stared at the mirror for a moment, slightly speechless, "This experience card is quite new."

I saw the image in the mirror, it was her, but it wasn't her—the appearance and body shape were indeed similar to Xu Tuoran's, but he looked much older, with gray hair and disheveled look.

The clothes are not Xu Tuoran's original set. It was a set of very heavy silver clothes with weird fabrics and a cold feeling similar to metal.

…In short, it’s like wearing a thickened iron sheet.

Compared with the change in appearance, it was obvious that this strange clothes made Xu Tuoran more uncomfortable. At the same time, she noticed something else that was a little ominous—the backpack she was carrying was missing.

The watch on the wrist, the dagger and the medicine bottle in the pocket are also missing. But the ring on the little finger is still there.

Hmm... now this situation seems to be a bit troublesome.

Don't rush, don't rush, solve one by one—

Xu Tuoran exhaled, turned away from the mirror, and continued to observe the current space.

This is a room of about 20 square meters, with a low ceiling and heavy red curtains. In addition to a single bed, there is also an old leather sofa and a table full of sundries. . There are odd little things hanging on the walls that look like decorations.

Noticing a piece of paper stuck on the wall, Xu Furan leaned over and took a closer look. I saw that it seemed to be a price list, and a product corresponded to a price. However, the product items listed are quite extraordinary, full of things like "steel heart", "mechanical arm", "new unopened brain", Xu Tuoran looked puzzled.

She subconsciously touched her current body and breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that nothing strange was installed.

She turned the note around and saw a huge, misshapen worm drawn on the back—a worm tangled in wires and mechanical parts, with one eye glowing like a light bulb, and a computer screen hanging from its mouth . Look at the unspeakable weirdness. Below the bug, there is a line of big characters:

[May Chuangshen bless you and me! 】

Xu Turan: ...

Although I don't know the specific situation, but you people here are really not picky about the appearance of gods.

Xu Tuoran read the whole paper carefully again, and pasted it back. By the way, she remembered the appearance of the worm—she intuitively felt that this so-called "Chuangshen" was probably the domain master, and it was always wrong to write down the characteristics first. Incorrect.

Next to the paper, there are two other switches. Xu Tueran pressed one of them, and the rotating colored lights finally stopped, and the light turned into a steady white light, which made Xu Tueran's eyes feel better; she pressed another switch, and one side of the wall opened to the side, revealing the inside wardrobe.

There are not many clothes in the closet, and there is a basket below with some accessories. Xu Furan picked and picked out a set of loose yellow sportswear. After putting it on, he pulled out a hair rope and tied his disheveled gray hair into a neat ponytail. He glanced at the mirror and nodded in satisfaction. .

OK, it looks much better. Refreshing!

Xu Tuoran rolled up his sleeves, checked around the room again, and found a wallet on the table with a certificate in it. "Zhang Baixue is a 72-year-old retiree" written on the front, and on the back is a table with items such as "HP", "Intelligence", "Combat Power", "Speed", etc., perhaps because she was set As an old man, all her values ​​are not very high, basically only around 20.

Xu Tuoran didn't quite understand it, but he probably knew that this thing was closely related to him, so he temporarily put it away. Looking through the table again, I found a notice to residents and a "Registration Form for Apartment Tenants".

The "Notice to the Residents" is signed by the apartment management office. The general content is that a monster has appeared near the apartment recently. The monster is characterized by sharp claws and blue eyes. It often haunts at night and kills the residents it sees. . I hope that the general residents can tell each other and pay attention to safety.

And through the "apartment tenant registration form", Xu Tuoran roughly figured out his current identity.

To put it simply, she is now a retired elderly living alone and also a tenant of this apartment. I just moved into the "New City Second City" two days ago, in order to seek a new life from Chuangshen...

No, wait, what's up with this domain? Also bring character settings?

Xu vainly raised his eyebrows. She probably understands why she is now in the body of an old man - she plays the game as "Zhang Baixue", and in the cognition of the other two, the identity she gave is a seventy-two-year-old old woman .

This domain probably relied on this to create her current identity. As for whether it was unintentional, or consciously trying to weaken her in this way, Xu Tuoran is not sure.

She personally prefers the second possibility. Whichever it is, it doesn't matter now.

The important thing is to find more information and confirm the current situation. And there's the matter of retrieving those lost items...

Xu Tuoran pursed his lips and continued to check around the house. The room was actually not big, but with her current body, she couldn't bend down, which gave her a headache.

After a lot of effort, she finally found the watch Yang Buqi gave her under the bed, and found a ball of silver colored paper in the bathroom next to it. Wrapped inside is a fox ornament—Yongday Tendency, lamp-grade. It is said that it can affect the mood of the holder, but Xu Tuoran has not felt it so far, and usually uses it purely to make people "confusing".

According to the time displayed on the watch. At this time, it was only five minutes since she "jumped off the building" in the previous game.

Other than that, nothing else was found. This made Xu Tuoran a little upset. She touched the edge of the window sill all the way, and when she heard some noises from outside, her heart moved, and she hurriedly pulled down the curtain in front of her.

I didn't expect this thing to be quite heavy, and I couldn't move it. Xu Tuoran took a deep breath, used both hands, and pulled to the side forcefully—

With a "crash", the heavy curtains seemed to be pulled open, and the dazzling light penetrated from the window. Xu Tuoran closed his eyes reflexively, and then fixed his eyes after he got used to it, he couldn't help being startled again.

I saw outside, a large area of ​​dazzling colored lights.

Or orange or pink neon lights, spread far and wide into one piece. There are also huge holographic projections flickering in the air, changing fascinating colors.

The projection looked like some kind of rune, a pattern Xu Tueran had never seen before. She instinctively looked away from that thing, looking in other directions, her eyes were even more surprised.

Below her is the street, which is also lined with neon signs. There are pedestrians coming and going on the road, some are humans with mechanical prosthetics—at least they look like humans; others are all kinds of strange robots.

Extending the line of sight to the distance, you can see a huge statue standing on the square in the distance. It's still the huge worm with a single eye and a computer on its mouth.

Perhaps because the curtains were opened, Xu Tuoran could hear the voice more clearly. She turned her head and heard a vague voice coming from afar:

"Creator loves the world—"

"Abandon the filthy body and embrace the real soul—"

"The city of new life, give you a new life—"

Xu Tuoran: "..."

Um. Although I still don't know the situation clearly, but this domain owner seems to be quite generous this time.

This is not as simple as just building a "domain". Judging from the current situation, it even has an independent world view.

"Do you want to decorate the 'Domain' as a different world, so that the human beings who enter the 'Domain' will believe in it..."

Xu Tuoran thought to himself, and closed the curtains again.

What does the so-called "new student" mean?

Xu Tuoran remembered the price list of artificial organs posted in the room, and remembered the human beings with prosthetic limbs he had seen just now, and his brows frowned even tighter.

Just at this moment, her ears moved, and she caught another strange sound.

There was a bang, like the sound of a heavy object falling to the ground, also coming from outside the apartment—the sound was a bit muffled, accompanied by a suppressed shout.

The sound was fleeting. Xu Tueran was slightly startled, and after recognizing that the voice was not coming from the current window, he immediately turned to the bathroom.

On the wall on the other side of the bathroom, there is a small transom window. Xu Tuoran had climbed up to look at it when he was looking for props before. Outside the window was a very narrow alley, which looked like it was used to pile up garbage.

When she came to the bathroom, she just heard a second abnormal noise—this time it was caracalla, as if something was being torn apart. Xu Tuoran was sure now, the voice came from the transom.

She immediately moved the small stool, climbed up again, opened the transom and looked down, breathing slightly stagnant.

—In the garbage alley below, a person was lying on his back in the garbage dump, his eyes were wide open, and he looked over blankly.

…No, “hope” shouldn’t be said. The man was clearly dead.

Limbs are paralyzed straight. He was disembowelled below the neck, exposing mechanical organs with tangled wires.

Xu Tuoran's floor is not high, and she herself has not yet reached the point of presbyopia. With the light cast from outside the alley, she could clearly see that some of those organs had been seriously damaged, and black liquid flowed out.

A black shadow was squatting beside the man, reaching out to pull his internal organs. Because of the angle, Xu Tueran couldn't see his face clearly, he could only see his raised back—this guy's back was slightly arched, his shoulders were extremely wide, his neck leaned forward, his arms were slender and deformed, and he looked like a capital letter strange.

He reached out and grabbed the mechanical internal organs of the deceased, revealing the overgrown sharp nails. Xu Tuoran blinked thoughtfully, then quietly retracted his head, lowered his eyes, and began to delineate his own territory.

…In any case, it is always right to circle yourself in a safe area first. And her current "absolute kingship" is at the lamp level, and she should be able to enclose the entire bathroom...

and many more.

Something is wrong!

Xu Tuoran, who was about to use his mind to activate his skills, suddenly widened his eyes.

She couldn't tell what was going on... Almost at the same time as she was about to delimit the country, she suddenly felt very sad.

Sad for no reason. Huge and inexplicable sadness rushed over like a tsunami, and my heart was so sad that it began to ache—tears spilled out uncontrollably, blurring my eyes.

... Gan!

Xu Tuoran was bewildered, subconsciously stopped the skill, stretched out his hand to hold the window frame, panted hard for a while, and finally calmed down.

She stretched out her hand to wipe away the tears that were blurring in front of her eyes, and belatedly realized that something was wrong, and looked out again, facing a pair of blue eyes.

really. The person in the garbage alley had heard her commotion and was looking up.

No matter how you look at it, it reveals a face that is very inhuman.

—Excessively protruding snout, beast-like teeth. Lush and messy hair.

Xu Turan couldn't help but move her eyebrows slightly. After looking at each other for a while, she tentatively raised her hand and waved at the other party: "Hi?"

other side:"…"

In the next second, he left his tearing body, shuffled, and got into the small door next to him.

That door is located on the same building as Xu Tuoran's transom. Probably the back door of the apartment. Xu Tuoran didn't get a response when he greeted, so he could only touch his nose in embarrassment, turned around, climbed off the small stool cautiously, and walked towards the door.

She had a hunch that the guy would definitely come to her. There's always something wrong with being prepared first.

Sure enough, as soon as she reached the door, she heard the sound of the elevator opening, followed by heavy footsteps and the heavy and exaggerated panting of the beast.

There was a knock on the door. Xu Tuoran looked out through the cat's eyes, and once again met the beast-like hairy face and blue eyes.

She pondered for a moment, then took a step back.

"Excuse me, please wait a moment!" She opened her mouth in response, looked around, quickly put the fox ornament she just found in her pocket, and then walked back to the door quickly, just about to reach out and press the doorknob , Suddenly heard a "bang" from outside the door!

It seemed to be something, and fell heavily in the corridor.

Xu Tuoran's heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly stood on tiptoe to look out through the cat's eyes again. After seeing the situation outside the door, the secret channel sounded bad, and hurriedly opened the door.

In the corridor, the tall blue-eyed weirdo just now fell to the ground, with something like a syringe stuck on his shoulder. Next to him was a young man in white and clean, wearing a neat uniform and holding a launcher in his hand.

The muzzle of the launcher was still aimed at the weirdo on the ground. Hearing the sound of Xu Tuoran opening the door, the young man immediately turned his head seriously, with a serious tone:

"Hello, I am the security guard of this apartment. There is an emergency situation. Please return to your room immediately and stay calm. We will notify you after the matter is over."

Xu Tuoran: "..."

She glanced at the strange man lying on the ground, and looked away as if nothing had happened.

"Hold...Sorry, I'm just curious and want to take a look, so as not to delay your work."

She whispered, looked into the corridor, and moved her steps carefully.

Xiaonian was unmoved, and emphasized again: "Please return to your room immediately and stay calm. We will notify you after the matter is over."

"All right, all right... Auntie understands everything, Auntie knows. Auntie won't cause you any trouble..."

Xu Tuoran said cooperatively, his eyes caught the camera diagonally opposite, and his heart moved, and he turned the fingers of his right hand without any trace.

A thin layer of frost immediately covered the lens of the camera.

Almost at the same time, an inexplicable great sadness hit Xu Tuoran's heart again, and she couldn't hold it back, tears flowed out.

...? !

Whether it was the subdued weirdo or the young man holding the launcher, they were obviously startled by her sudden cry. The weirdo narrowed his eyes and tilted his head in bewilderment, while the young man opened his mouth slightly, his expression froze.

"Then, what, please cooperate with our work."

He obviously didn't realize what Xu Tuoran was doing to the camera, he was stunned for a moment, and then said in a businesslike manner: "Please go back to your room immediately..."

"Mm, um. Auntie understands, understands..." Xu Tuoran was sobbing, and instead of entering the door, he took two steps in the direction of the young man.

Then he picked up the fox ornament hidden in his pocket, and threw it directly at the young man's head.

With a bang, the fox ornament collided with the opponent's head, but what came out was the sound of metal colliding.

The little young man's head was smashed and a hole was missing, exposing the sizzling circuit inside.

He stared at Xu Tuoran, opened his mouth, but still said the same lines: "Please return to your room immediately and stay calm. After the matter is over, we will notify you... Please return immediately, return, return, return... Cooperate with us to work hard..."

"Damn, it's so hard." Aunt Xu Tuoran complained, and activated the No. 7 ice again, simply freezing the opponent's entire body.

The young man wrapped in ice fell to the ground with a bang. Xu Tuoran wiped away the unstoppable tears, feeling so sad that he almost wanted to cry.

"...What are you still looking at here?"

Noticing that the strange man was still sitting on the ground with sluggish eyes, Xu Tuoran felt like cursing:

"Can you move? If you can move, you can go into the house by yourself. Do you want my aunt to hug you?"

"Huh?...Oh, oh oh oh!"

The strange man was stunned for a while, Fang Rumeng nodded when he woke up, hurriedly got up from the ground, and limped towards Xu Turan's room. In the middle of the walk, I remembered something, turned around quickly, and helped push up the big ice lump on the ground.

"I'll come, I'll come, I'll—big, big, what, auntie? Are you all right?"

Xu Tuoran wiped away tears that he couldn't stop, and didn't really want to talk.

She sobbed and went back to her room, slammed the door shut, sat on the sofa, wiped her tears with a tissue, and raised her chin at the weird man:

"Which organization are you from? How long have you been in? How did you get in?"

wack:"…"

He just pushed the ice lump to the corner of the room and arranged it. He was startled when he heard the words, and turned his head to look at Xu Tuoran in disbelief: "You... how do you know..."

Xu Tuoran said in his heart that I just stared at you for a long time, and there was no movement of the premonition of crisis and the value of death, but as soon as I met the young man, the premonition of crisis beeped, and I couldn't tell the good from the bad; Without any hesitation, just say "I have my way".

...Of course, at best, she can judge that the person in front of her is actually harmless. The reason for guessing that the other party is a capable person is mainly because of the beast characteristics on the other party.

People with beast tendencies are prone to animal symptoms after upgrading. This is the knowledge point that Xu Tuoran knew when he first came into contact with the circle of ability users.

Just now, she took a casual interview, which further confirmed her thoughts.

She threw the wet paper ball aside, sniffed, and said, "I'm Zhang Baixue, from Old Man Jiang's Taobao shop, here to investigate this domain owner. How about you?"

"You are also in the store?" The strange man stared wide-eyed, and immediately sat down, "Me too. My ID in the forum is 'Shiyue'... Oh no, I haven't seen your name before. "

"I joined the Taobao store after you came in." Xu Tuoran wiped his nose, "I have seen your ID. It is in the post related to this mission. You are the first to accept this mission, right? ?”

Shiyue was startled, and nodded in embarrassment.

"At that time, the two of you should have been playing the game together. Then both of you disappeared." Xu Tuoran exhaled, grateful to find that the sadness in his heart finally calmed down, and his tears gradually dried up. She wiped her eyes one last time and asked:

"Where's your partner? What were you doing in the garbage alley just now?"

"He...I don't know. He got lost after he came in. He should be in another area, but I can't go there." Shiyue sighed, "As for the man in the garbage alley...he, he is actually not a human being."

His tone became a little irritable, and Xu Furan waved his hand reassuringly: "It's okay, it's okay, just speak slowly. Auntie believes you."

She said, and poured a glass of water for the other party.

Perhaps because her tone and performance were quite reliable, the tone of the ability user named Eclipse Moon calmed down again:

"This time the domain owner is very cunning. It made this domain look like a city, and let its companions and created energy bodies act as citizens, preaching in it, and bewitching people who enter this domain..."

"The city is divided into different areas, and it is difficult to communicate with each other."

"I stayed here alone for a long time. On the one hand, I wanted to find a way to go to other areas. On the other hand, I also wanted to find out the humans trapped here. You know, we can't leave humans alone. As a result, this area Instead, he framed me as a monster and planned to arrest me. The one you saw just now is..."

"I... I couldn't get angry for a while, so I took it apart." Shiyue raised her back foot and scratched her neck, "Auntie, do you believe me?"

"At present, I believe it." Xu Tuoran dropped the ball of paper in his hand, "But I need more information. And..."

She wanted to ask if the other party also had the symptom of wanting to cry when she actively used the ability, but after thinking about it, it seemed too early to reveal this, so she swallowed the words again, and turned to talking about herself Items lost after entering the domain.

"Hey, Auntie, this happened to you too." Shiyue couldn't help but raised her neck, "Me too! Before I came in, I specially applied for a sealed box and a few pieces of silver colored paper, but they were all gone after I came in." .I found it and now I only got back a little paper..."

"It means that this prop may 'fly' very far?" Xu Tuoran frowned, "Would it not be swallowed by the domain master?"

"I don't know. But I have encountered a similar situation before. It is basically lost. At most, it will be picked up by monsters in the domain. It should not directly fall into the hands of the domain owner." Shiyue said honestly, "Auntie, you have lost some What? Is the loss serious?"

Xu Tuoran: ...That's actually a bit serious.

"Auxiliary props are fine. They are mainly spiritual props. Losing them will be more troublesome. And it may cause riots." Xu Tuoran pursed his lips, "Well, let me tell you a few more important things first. If you If you see it, you can help me pay attention."

Shiyue nodded, and Xu Tuoran immediately snapped his fingers:

"A teddy bear with a knife—the kind that cuts people down."

"A small pill bottle—the pills in it can parasitize other creatures and cause them to fight. Oh yes, if you encounter it, remember to stay away. Don't eat or drink."

"A flashlight—can cause burns and hallucinations."

"A Polaroid—the kind that can take pictures of female ghosts. Well, but if no one has a lot of hands to take pictures, it shouldn't be a big problem."

"And a pen... oh, forget it."

Xu Turan thought for a while, then shook his head.

"That silly pen shouldn't be a big problem."

Eclipse Moon: "...?"

What?

at the same time.

The City of Rebirth·Fringe City.

Jason, who finally got home from get off work, sighed wearily and collapsed on the sofa.

His house was shabby, and the floors rattled when stepped on. But Jason didn't have the heart to take care of these—just to ensure his survival, he almost exhausted all his strength.

Even his own body, he hasn't taken care of it for a long time. When the old machinery is running, it will always make an unpleasant sound.

He didn't know how long he had lived here. He only knew that every day he lived here was exhausted and hopeless. The fringe urban areas lack supplies and poor living standards, like a dark tunnel with no exit. He didn't even know what he was living for.

As far as his class is concerned, it is even more difficult to move to a better urban area. For him, life has no hope at all.

Jason collapsed on the sofa and sighed again. After a while, I finally regained some strength and dragged my feet to open the refrigerator.

Only poor quality electrolyte drinks in the fridge. He flipped through it in disgust, and suddenly froze.

Unknowingly, a silver square box appeared in the refrigerator, rattling and vibrating.

Jason's pupils shrank slightly, he hesitated for a moment, took out the box, and opened it carefully.

A red pen flew out of it.

It seemed to be a little confused about the situation, and it flew randomly in the air for a while. But soon, it calmed down, suspended vertically in the air, and quietly met Jason's gaze.

Jason opened his mouth slightly, and it took him a while to find his voice:

"You... what are you?"

The fountain pen floated up dignifiedly, took off the cap, and left a string of delicate cursive characters in the air.

[I am the spy of fate, the decryptor of time and space, and the omniscient **** who knows everything. 】

【Just like now, I can see the confusion in your heart. 】

【Confused lamb, answer my question—do you want to change your destiny? 】