Forces of Temptation - v2 Chapter 278

    Nanzhou had a dream.

    It’s more like a transitional plot before the script starts than a dream.

    He was buried in a suffocating space, as if there was a thousand strength pressing on his chest, forcing him to breathe.

    He could only use all his strength to push away the heavy load that was pressing on his chest and in front of him, like a survival ant, struggling to wiggle its whiskers and limbs, trying to burrow out of the hard soil, Find a way to survive in the infinite darkness.

    Finally, fresh air and sunlight slowly permeated through the loosening soil.

    Nanzhou finally came under the sun.

    He briefly enjoyed the joy of freedom.

    But the sun coming down soon brought severe, burning pain.

    Nan Zhou’s body started to catch fire.

    He wanted to escape from where the sun could reach, but his power simply couldn’t reach the sun beyond the moat.

    The ubiquitous sunlight ignited a monstrous fire on him.

    The fire rose to the sky, and Xinxin’s flames rolled all the way, but it still couldn’t touch the sun.

    Nanzhou used the last of her strength to look up, trying to see where the sun was, so she could find a shaded place around her.

    Immediately, he realized that the sun was not hanging above his reach.

    …it is a convex lens.

    This is a game that many people played as children.

    In the children’s laughter, a lone ant had nowhere to hide, and was firmly aimed at by the sunlight refracted by the convex lens.

    For the ants, this is an absolute catastrophe.

    To people, this is just a slightly cruel game.

    In the burning pain, Nan Zhou propped up the bed with both hands, and suddenly turned over and sat up.

    After a few seconds, Nan Zhou slowly lay back again.

    He was in no hurry to open his eyes.

    However, the moment he opened his eyes, Nan Zhou uttered a question: “…Huh?”

    Everything is too familiar.

    Homemade calendar on the wall showing the date August 18th.

    There is a diary spread out on the table.

    Besides the half-painted watercolor, there is a palette that has not yet been cleaned.

    Nan Zhou turned around and lifted the pillow. Below is a book of “Analysis of Dreams”.

    He immediately raised his hand and made a gesture to wake up the game menu.

    The tree of life in the background has withered away, leaving only an old branch. All the vitality and hope have been exchanged by them as the last card.

    …that proves he’s still in the game.

    And when the strong tinnitus subsided, a familiar and gentle chirping sounded outside the window.

    Nanzhou lifts her legs to the ground.

    The pair of slippers that he would never wear out were placed in his memory.

    He kicked off his slippers, opened his shirt slightly, walked straight to the window, and opened the hidden window.

    The originally dim sky in one room suddenly brightened.

    Nan Zhou noticed that there were no apple trees outside his window.

    And the source of the chirping sound was captured by him in an instant.

    —It was a chubby little bird with a short yellow beak.

    Every morning since he can remember, the bird has been at his window.

    Nanzhou calculated that it would stay in front of its window for 50 seconds at 6:00 a.m. every morning, just like the alarm clock, rain or shine, just to make a few voices.

    Sing for 50 seconds and it will leave on its own.

    Even if the Nanzhou opens the window, it will not have the startle response that any creature should have. It will sing its song, come on time, and leave on time.

    Nanzhou also tried to catch the bird into the room when he was a teenager, and forbid it to leave, hoping to see what would happen the next day.

    This bird, which has no self-awareness and only obeys the established instructions, flew around the house all day and night, from east to west, tirelessly, without making a sound.

    Young Nanzhou also stayed up all night, guarding it, wanting to see what would happen.

    The next morning at 6:00 am, the chirping sounded on time outside the closed window.

    The young Nan Zhou ran to the window with a little joy, thinking that he had really changed something.

    Before opening the window, he turned back to the little yellow bird on the bookshelf and declared seriously, “I found another bird for you.”

    He doesn’t have a creature who can accompany him and understand him, but it would be nice to have a new bird to befriend this bird.

    However, when he opened the window, it was completely empty.

    When he was in a trance, the bird in the house leaned out from the gap in the window, landed firmly on the window where it stood familiar, and sang.

    The melodious chirping sounded for 50 seconds before flapping her wings and turning away.

    Never in town, there has never been and never will be a second bird.

    Even the first bird was Schrödinger’s bird.

    Before he opened the window, no one knew whether it was a bird outside, or a chirping sound at 6 o’clock.

    …

    This time, when he opened the window and saw the bird again, Nan Zhou was not surprised at all.

    He even greeted the long-lost little yellow bird politely: “Hello.”

     Immediately, he stepped on the window frame with one foot and jumped downstairs without hesitation.

    To artificially create the feeling of weightlessness and heart palpitations is the best way to force yourself to wake up from a dream or hallucination.

    When his feet landed firmly and the scene around him remained the same, Nan Zhou sighed softly.

    So it’s not a dream or a hallucination.

    Unless he is in a deep sleep that is not suicidal and cannot wake up, otherwise, this is the copy he wants to pass.

    …he returned to Never.

    Where it all started.

    The sun shines on him, bringing endless warmth.

    Nan Zhou thought, where is Brother Fang?

    What about his teammates?

    Are they scattered in the town, or not in this instance at all?

    Nan Zhou recalled today’s date.

    Fortunately, this is an extremely ordinary day, not a day of extreme day when the luminous collective is active, nor a day of a full moon that brings debilitating effects.

    Even if Yinhang and the others are lost in Nevertown, the residents of Nevertown during the day will not cause any harm to them.

    What’s more, Jiang Fang has come here before, he knows the way.

    Nan Zhou wants to try to wait for him here.

    So, what is the mission of the game copy?

    It seems that he received this question from him, and the mission description of the copy is long overdue.

    The voice was different from usual, stiff and dull, with a sense of inorganic coldness.

    【Dear player, hello Nanzhou. 】

    [Welcome to the dungeon: Ant Train]

    [Number of participants: 1]

    [Dungeon Nature:…Shasha…Escape…Sha…]

    【I wish you game…sand…happy…】

    Suddenly, the voice that seemed to have no signal, gave a clear and low laugh.

    That mechanical laugh is enough to make people instantly creepy.

    【Are you really happy in the game? 】

    [Your life is a ridiculous story written by others, you should be used to this kind of thing. 】

    [How sad. 】

    [Whatever, try to escape from here, even so, it’s just escaping into the next story. 】

    [Unless, you can find a ticket to get on the train leaving the tragedy. 】

    [Departure time is 12 hours later. 】

    [Try to catch the train, but it doesn’t matter if you miss it. 】

    [Because this is your home. 】

    Nan Zhou listened to the statement of rules quietly, and his expression did not change at all.

    He didn’t even notice that it was a high-dimensional person who was using the rules to ridicule him.

    The life that he should think about, he finished thinking about it as early as when he was a child.

    He only noticed the amount of information after the taunt.

    First, the “Cube Ark” was indeed split.

      Train looking for tickets.

    Secondly, no matter what mission other people have received, his temporary mission goal is to escape this world and find the so-called “ticket” to get on the train.

    And…”ants”?

    Nan Zhou couldn’t help but think of the too real dream that he experienced before waking up.

    In that dream, he was burned alive from the perspective of an ant.

    Is that some kind of metaphor?

    Or some kind of hint?

    Thinking of this, Nan Zhou breathed a sigh of relief.

    As the voice said, waking up and returning to the original place alone must not feel very good.

     Fortunately, Nan Zhou’s distress never showed on his face.

    His thinking will never delay his action.

    He put on those “death” glasses.

    Nan Zhou pushed the glasses frame.

    The silk thread of the Qianren puppet takes Nanzhou’s pupil as the origin and spreads out around.

    Nan Zhou knew that it was almost impossible to escape from this world through formal means.

    He lived in Neverland for twenty-four years and explored for twenty-four years.

    If Gravity hadn’t knocked a gap to the outside world for him, he would have been trapped here for the rest of his life.

    After countless explorations, he has long known that there is a square transparent frame that firmly traps him in the never town.

    That is also the fourth wall that separates him and the human world where Jiang Fang lives.

    Nanzhou certainly wouldn’t expect a gap to open out of thin air on the fourth wall.

    Since the apple tree has not been planted yet, the current time point must be before the official launch of Gravity.

    It is impossible to borrow other players to leave.

    So the goal becomes simpler.

    …find out if the world is missing something, or adding something more.

    This must contain the core clue to escape from the world.

    In the normal world, this is an enormous amount of work that would never be done.

    Fortunately, the town is limited in size and operates regularly. It is a precision machine.

    When the author does not arrange the plot, the residents of Never Town are a group of flesh and blood walking corpses, like the little fat bird, doing everything the author asks them to do step by step.

    The housewife is always shopping, the students are always in class, and the children are always chasing and playing, carefree.

    The “Eternal Day” comics ended when Nan Zhou was 19 years old.

    After that, the author’s absolute control over the dungeon has been greatly weakened, and Nan Zhou, who has a certain strength, can finally have a little influence on the characters in the dungeon.

    But even so, the inhabitants of Never in their normal state have only limited responses to what they can comprehend in their paper heads.

    In other words, even if the cloth dolls roam the streets, or openly enter their homes, they will not show any surprise to these guests.

    Nanzhou released all the puppets, opened the field of vision on the whole map, and used their eyes to search every corner of the town with the highest efficiency.

    It is both looking for an exit and a ticket.

    As for himself…

    Nan Zhou turned around and returned to his room.

    He opened the door as a signal, which naturally triggered the daily “hello” plot.

    Two smiling faces stick out from different rooms.

    Dad: “Back?”

    Mom: “Back?”

    The same opening remarks, the usual smile.

    Nanzhou greeted them as usual: “Yeah.”

    …Long time no see.

    He started the search synchronously with his room as the center.

    With the help of the dolls, the search time of Nanzhou has been greatly shortened.

    About an hour later, Nan Zhou found a pitch-black iron box on the table of the school studio where he was an art teacher through the eyes of a puppet.

    The box is quite delicate. It is a rectangular box of 50cmx30cmx25cm. The surface is carved with fine and intricate dark patterns and a lock is placed on it.

    The dolls made by Yi Shuige are rough and fine, but the dolls who find the box have spherical hands, like Doraemon, it is impossible to perform such a precise action of unlocking.

    Nanzhou can of course let the puppet destroy the box from a distance, in case there are any traps in the box.

    However, although the box is no longer the box, Nan Zhou recognized it at a glance. The lock on it was the first copy he had with Fang Fang and Yinhang [Xiao Ming’s Daily Life] ], the small brass lock that locked the invoice box.

    …the same.

    He did not rashly destroy the box, but let the puppet take the box home.

    Nanzhou, who practiced quietly and hard and has unlocked skill 5, can easily open this elementary lock.

    He reached out and supported the box.

    The tentacles of the box were as cold as ice.

    He opened the mounting ear, twisted the lock body, took off the lock, and lifted the brass plate.

    He did not rush to open it, but pressed the copper sheet with the pulp of his finger, thinking: Can it be found so quickly?

    He was still suspicious of what was in the box, so he waited quietly.

    After another hour, after confirming that there was nothing strange in the town except the box in front of him, Nan Zhou opened the box with his backhand and looked intently—

    Everything that caught his eye made Nan Zhou’s face change slightly.

    …he saw a scaled-down, identical Nevertown.

    The box that was originally in the closed darkness, because he lifted the lid of the box, and the sun was shining in an instant.

    Nanzhou seems to be the **** who injects sunshine into the world.

    When the sun shone into the box in front of him, Nan Zhou suddenly felt dizzy, his body and mind sank, and he fell into a bottomless darkness.

    What woke him up was the familiar birdsong.

    When I opened my eyes again, I saw a little yellow bird squatting on the window lattice, singing loudly and quietly.

    There are still buildings without town, but he is no longer in the room, but in a woodland opposite his house.

    The box in his hand was also gone.

    Nan Zhou has not yet escaped from the stunned and puzzled, not far away, his own window was pushed open from the inside.

    Next, Nan Zhou took a breath.

    He saw himself.

    …just like myself.

    The one leaned out of the window and grabbed a handful of corn kernels.

    The little fat bird stopped singing, twisted its round body to peck, and let Nanzhou stroke the soft fur on its forehead obediently.

    As if it came to sing just to ask for this breakfast.

    Nan Zhou was in a daze.

    In the “Never Town” where he came, the little fat bird never let Nanzhou feed like this.

    …and did not actively stay for more than 50 seconds.

    Nanzhou hides behind the tree trunk, sticks to the rough bark on her back, slightly opens her mouth, and uses her mouth to assist her breathing, so that she can barely keep the rhythm and sound of her breathing not too heavy.

    He had to think about something else to distract himself.

    Here… where?

    The world in a box?

    Has he escaped from the original world? still-

    The next moment, another completely unexpected thing happened.

    The knock on the door came from the direction of his house.

    A gentle and smiling young voice sounded behind him: “Nanzhou, I made breakfast, do you want to come eat?”

    Nanzhou’s heart was beating wildly.

    He looked out and found his neighbor’s courtyard and gate open.

    A figure in pajamas was standing at the door of his house with his back to him, his silver hair draped casually and softly over his shoulders without time to take care of it.

    Only by the figure, Nan Zhou recognized that it was Jiang Fang.

    …no.

    Accurately speaking, it is the Jiang Fang in the box.