Chapter 172 Guardian (Thirty)
In the next few days, time seemed to be speeding up, and the alternation between day and night happened in an instant.
Although the players felt that the time that had passed was short, they realized that a few days had passed by looking at the constantly changing time on the electronic clock. There were only a few days left before the college entrance examination, and they only felt slightly tired.
Nothing else happened during this period, but it was extremely peaceful, which surprised the players who had been thinking that they would be attacked by ghosts in the next few days. But no matter what, they had not encountered ghosts so far, which was a good thing for them, but they did not forget that this might be the calm before the storm.
However, the anomaly was eventually discovered.
Xu Yunchuan is missing.
Song Yanchi was the first to discover this matter.
After knowing Xu Yunchuan's feelings for Qiao Yuan, Song Yanchi inadvertently paid more attention to Xu Yunchuan.
In his memory, Xu Yunchuan came at least once a day, but now he has not been seen for several days in a row. Seeing that he was about to leave the dungeon, Song Yanchi took advantage of a long break time and deliberately brought it up in front of Sheng Yegui while all the players were there.
Before, Sheng Yegui would have turned a deaf ear to most of Song Yanchi's words. But now he could hear that the other party seemed to want to lead him to this matter intentionally or unintentionally, so he explained in a gentle voice: "Young people's love is like this, although it is passionate, it comes and goes quickly. Many twenty-year-old boys are still immature."
Song Yanchi: "..."
Of course, he could also think that Xu Yunchuan might have chosen to give up because he didn't get a response, but this did not affect his ability to attack Sheng Yegui. Now it seems that this is a double-edged sword.
And Sheng Yegui obviously mentioned the age of twenty on purpose, after all, he was exactly twenty years old.
In the past, Song Yanchi was always proud of himself for being able to achieve such achievements at this age, but now when Sheng Yegui mentioned it, he seemed to be only immature, not to mention that the other party seemed to be talking about Xu Yunchuan on the surface, but in fact it was more like making a veiled criticism of him.
Song Yanchi sighed, "I'm definitely not as good as you. I remember you were 27, 28 or 30 years old. You're really old, definitely not as young as me and Xu Yunchuan."
Hearing Song Yanchi's words, Sheng Yegui's lips froze. It must be said that Song Yanchi's words really hit his sore spot. After all, it was an indisputable fact that he was older than Qiao Yuan and Song Yanchi. It was only because of the same age setting in the dungeon that he could temporarily ignore this gap.
When facing Song Yanchi, his eyes showed coldness for the first time.
But before he could open his mouth, a curious voice rang out: "Who is Xu Yunchuan?"
After listening to a few words, Qiao Yuan was not very interested in the conversation between Song Yanchi and Sheng Yegui. However, after hearing this voice, he turned his head abruptly.
The person who spoke was Su Zeyuan who was walking towards this side.
As time passed, Su Zeyuan's injury finally improved.
Although Qiao Yuan knew this, he never expected the other party to suddenly come over.
But the most important thing at the moment is what Su Zeyuan said just now.
Su Zeyuan also noticed that everyone was looking at him, and immediately explained a little embarrassedly: "Sorry, I didn't mean to hear it, I was just close to..."
Qiao Yuan: "Were you asking who Xu Yunchuan was?"
"You don't remember him?"
Su Zeyuan looked at Qiao Yuan blankly, and then asked cautiously, "Should I know him?"
Of course, after all, Xu Yunchuan and Su Zeyuan had interacted quite a bit before, not to mention that Xu Yunchuan had saved him in a way. And Su Zeyuan's memory couldn't be so bad that he would completely forget Xu Yunchuan after just a few days...
At this time, other players have also noticed the abnormality.
Song Yanchi immediately spoke up: "Xu Yunchuan, the guy who saved you before, I think he's from Class 195, he always looks at people with this expression..."
He also imitated Xu Yunchuan's expression. I don't know if it was because he observed Xu Yunchuan properly, but his imitation was very lifelike. But even with such extraordinary acting skills, it seemed that he still couldn't awaken Xu Yunchuan's memory.
Xu Yunchuan's expression was still full of confusion.
Qiao Yuan realized something and turned around to ask the classmate next to him.
The students were originally discussing the topic or reading books, but after hearing Qiao Yuan's words, they all had the same doubts as Su Zeyuan.
The players were now fully aware of the problem. After all, Xu Yunchuan was well-known in the school. When they first saw Xu Yunchuan, many people in the class recognized him directly. But now...
Sheng Yegui looked at Qiao Yuan first: "Then should I go to Class 195 to take a look?"
Xu Yunchuan is in Class 195.
Qiao Yuan nodded.
Although she had already guessed the result in her heart, she still needed to see it with her own eyes to confirm her guess.
Song Yanchi followed suit and said, "I'll go with you."
At this time, he also temporarily put aside his personal grudge with Sheng Yegui.
After Song Yanchi and Sheng Yegui left, Qiao Yuan's gaze fell back on Su Zeyuan. The other party obviously didn't understand what they had just said, but he still stood aside obediently.
It was only at this time that Qiao Yuan finally had time to ask the other party if he remembered how he injured his foot.
Su Zeyuan's narration was almost the same as before, he even remembered the dead Yang Zhe, but the only thing missing was Xu Yunchuan.
Noticing that Qiao Yuan's expression was becoming more and more serious as he continued to talk, Su Zeyuan asked cautiously, "Is he someone important to you?"
It wasn’t important before, but now the other person’s presence has become very important.
Although she thought so in her heart, Qiao Yuan still changed the subject to avoid the other party having any unnecessary suspicion and questioning their identities. In the end, she succeeded in making Su Zeyuan put aside his doubts for the time being and return to his original seat.
Sheng Yegui and Song Yanchi also rushed back quickly.
Both of them were in a hurry to come back, and soon brought back important information -
The two of them asked almost all the students in Class 195 and even met the teacher on the way here, but none of them had any memory related to Xu Yunchuan.
It was as if Xu Yunchuan did not exist at all, or he only existed in their memories.
Although Tang Huan had a vague premonition when she heard that other students around her acted as if they didn't know Xu Yunchuan, she still couldn't help but be surprised when she finally got the definite answer.
Song Yanchi had been shocked before, so now he could think: "Is there something wrong with Xu Yunchuan?"
"He's not a human?"
Before anyone else could say anything, he quickly denied his answer: "But if he is not a human, why did the teacher and classmates remember him before?"
Tang Huan spoke cautiously: "Perhaps it is also possible that he was killed by a ghost like Dai Lele?"
Sheng Yegui: "But the classmates still remembered Dai Lele who was killed before."
"But it could also be a special ghost."
Qiao Yuan didn't say anything. She had already thought of the possibilities mentioned by the others, but she didn't know which one was right for a moment.
Her brain was thinking rapidly. She felt weird and a little absurd when she was suddenly told that Xu Yunchuan did not exist.
How could a person's existence be erased so easily? And now it was only a few minutes of brief thinking, but it showed that nearly half a day had passed...
She has been observing time these days, but still hasn't found a pattern in the flow of time. It seems to be random.
This sense of randomness and chaos is like a dream.
When this thought came to his mind, Qiao Yuan couldn't help but be stunned.
Suddenly, a bold idea came into her mind.
They were probably just dreaming.
Qiao Yuan's expression became unusually serious. After all, if her idea was confirmed, it would be equivalent to completely overturning the existence of this world. However, her intuition told her that this was the only possible explanation at present.
Song Yanchi looked at Qiao Yuan's expression and realized something: "Sister, have you thought of something?"
Qiao Yuan: "We are most likely in a dream."
When she finished speaking, the other players fell silent.
Some of them didn't react in time, while some understood but were so shocked that they seemed to be still digesting Qiao Yuan's words.
After a long while, Song Yanchi's voice finally rang out: "Is this a dream?"
Song Yanchi still remembered that there were classmates around him, so when he spoke, his voice was not very loud.
He also expressed what everyone was thinking.
But soon others realized that what Qiao Yuan said made sense. If this was really a dream, it would be normal for something like this to happen. After all, everyone has had the experience of dreaming, and they know that anything can happen in a dream.
The players' eyes fell on the classmates around them. The expressions of these people were very vivid. Some of them seemed to notice their gazes and turned to look over. However, when they realized that everything in front of them was a product of a dream and the classmates around them did not really exist , looking at these classmates again, the players always had an inexplicable sense of weirdness.
But soon an important question came up: was this world originally a dream, or were they dreaming in the middle of it?
If it was the former, it would be fine. Whether it was a dream or not, they just had to wait for the day of the college entrance examination. But if it was the latter...
Qiao Yuan: "It is very likely the latter."
Although it is very likely, Qiao Yuan has basically confirmed through speculation that they were dreaming. After all, before this, the time was normal.
Now that she thought about it, the time anomaly only started after they came out of the school hospital. Qiao Yuan guessed that they must have entered the dream at that time.
This also means that the passage of time before their eyes is false, and they must wake up as soon as possible.
Song Yanchi also realized this and pinched himself. He used quite a bit of force, and after he let go, there were still two fingerprints on his skin, but he was still standing here intact.
Obviously, the pain couldn't pull him out of his dream.
Song Yanchi: "Is it because the pain is not enough?"
"Do we have to stab ourselves or die in the dream to escape from this dream?"
Hearing Song Yanchi's words, Tang Huan and Zou Lu both turned pale.
Tang Huan: "It would be fine if I could escape from the dream like this, but if I can't escape from the dream..."
They would really die.
"These methods are useless." Qiao Yuan's voice rang out, and even at this time, her voice was still calm: "We must be in someone else's dream."
They are not the masters of the dream, so naturally they cannot end or escape from the dream without permission.
"The owner of the dream..." Tang Huan repeated, looking distressed: "No...it can't be a ghost?"
Now that I think about it, it seems normal that there were ghosts who were good at ventriloquism before and now there are ghosts who can pull them into their dreams.
Song Yanchi: "If it was a ghost, its goal should be to kill us or Su Zeyuan, but it hasn't taken any action yet. Could it be a good ghost?"
Tang Huan also realized this possibility later and silently overturned her original idea. After all, she had only seen ghosts that liked to eat people before, and had never seen a good ghost.
Sheng Yegui thought of the two ghosts he encountered in kindergarten before. He knew that there were indeed good ghosts in the copy, so he did not rush to speak.
Qiao Yuan's gaze fell on Zou Lu. After hearing her words, the other players subconsciously fell into deep thought, but only Zou Lu looked directly in one direction.
She looked in the direction of Zou Lu and met Su Zeyuan's gaze.
It seems that Zou Lu is suspicious of Su Zeyuan. To be precise, the way he looks at Su Zeyuan is more like a confirmation.
Qiao Yuan was actually also suspicious of Su Zeyuan, but she was suspecting whether he was a product of a dream or was in a dream like them. After all, they could still feel the rapid change of time and knew that Xu Yunchuan once existed, but Su Zeyuan, like everyone else, perfectly integrated into the surrounding environment.
Although they knew that Zou Lu was a novice in disguise and had a high probability of killing Ren Shirui, she later behaved very normally and her reaction was not prominent among the players, so Qiao Yuan didn't pay much attention to her.
But now…
Qiao Yuan looked at Zou Lu thoughtfully, and then asked directly: "Student Zou Lu, do you already have a target of suspicion?"
“Can you share it with us?”
When Zou Lu suddenly heard Qiao Yuan calling her, her body stiffened, so that when everyone looked at her, she still kept her head slightly turned, as if she was looking at something.
Song Yanchi: "Are you looking at Su Zeyuan?"
"You doubt him?"
After Zou Lu hastily retracted his gaze, he realized that everyone had just seen the direction of his gaze, so he hesitated for a few seconds before speaking: "I... I just thought that our mission this time is to protect his safety, so I went to see if he was still safe."
Qiao Yuan could tell at a glance that the other party was lying, which made her even more certain that the look Zou Lu gave Su Zeyuan at that time was not one of suspicion, but of certainty.
