Chapter 181 Old Tool Man
A peaceful and quiet exile town.
The newly-launched undead had not received any battlefield missions yet, and while they were complaining that all their mentor NPCs had run away, they were also running around the streets happily.
The women from the town of Kamore have become accustomed to the noise made by the dead and mind their own business; occasionally when a dead ghost comes up to them to make gestures, the women will skillfully take out their needles and thread and use their skills to exchange for some candy to improve their lives.
In front of the open space behind the headquarters of the Undead Chamber of Commerce and the Undead Canteen, two undead wearing novice suits of cotton T-shirts and shorts were squatting in an experimental field that had been carefully turned over with a small hoe, checking the germination conditions.
"The case has been solved. It's not the soil or water that's the problem, it's the seeds." Master Liu dug out a rotten vegetable seed from the slightly moist soil and said with a grin, "The seeds from Earth won't germinate here. No seeds will germinate at all."
"Yes, the crops here can be planted. These wild garlic and wild onions are growing so well." Old Geng looked at the lush new sprouts emerging in the other half of the experimental field with melancholy, and said, "Native crops can be planted, but foreign species cannot. This world with magicians is not simple..."
"Let's make a suggestion to the expert group and find some technical personnel to study the agricultural situation here." Master Liu patted the dirt on his finger bones. "I heard from Xiao Ji that in the town over in Westram, farmers work hard to grow crops for a year, but one acre of land can only produce 200 to 300 kilograms of grain. Even corn is less than a thousand. At least half a year, they have to rely on potatoes to fill their stomachs. What a life!"
"The helmet is a problem." Old Geng shook his head. "The young patient named Gong that Xiao Lu is working with has regained consciousness. All the vegetative patients in the country want to be sent to the expert group's research institute. If anyone wants to take advantage of that batch of helmets at this moment, it will cause public outrage."
To date, the national team has long discovered the secret of the helmet - Ji Tang, Master Liu and Lao Geng, three people who have to spend their days in bed in real life, the more days they "log in", the better their spirits are. It would be strange if they still don't understand that the "log in" game has the function of rehabilitating and improving people's mental state.
Master Liu said "Hey" and muttered, "That's why I told you last time not to be so stubborn and suffer. It's fine if we can get a hundred quotas for the three thousand helmets, but they keep saying that we need to consider the long-term..."
Lao Geng was about to say something when he suddenly stopped.
He was clearly standing in the backyard of the Undead Canteen. In front of him, apart from Master Liu, there was an experimental field with half of it bald and the other half full of new seedlings. But at this moment... a layered double image suddenly appeared in his sight. He saw the world through the eyes of another person, heard what this person said, and the sounds around him were also clearly audible.
"Hey, what's going on?" Master Liu's voice sounded, "Old Geng, I saw something strange, what about you?"
"I saw it too." Old Geng said hurriedly, "Wait, let's listen to the sound first."
In the double-image scene, Master Liu and Lao Geng both saw the same person speaking: "What kind of mission is this? They want us to find out the truth, but they don't give us the translation function?"
The person who was speaking also had the appearance of a ghost, with a conspicuous green ID on his head: Vanilla Pudding.
As well-known players in the game, Master Liu and Lao Geng certainly knew who he was... and looking at the IDs above the heads of the undead around him, the two old guys guessed with their knees that they had "switch channels" to other players' perspectives.
"Don't worry." The female player with the ID Miaobishenghua said calmly, "Since it is a hidden mission, it should need to trigger key points to give the next clue. Let's see what clues these 'mission props' can dig out first."
The ghost image began to move, and it seemed that the player in the "main perspective" moved along with the wonderful writing.
A group of locals, looking dusty and in a miserable state, appeared in the double-image screen.
The "main perspective" and the wonderful writers, as well as the players who came to watch the fun, surrounded the group of locals who were tied up and unable to move, checking their appearance, checking their pockets, and searching anywhere they could...
"Hmm... these NPCs are all very delicate and tender, completely different from the villagers over there. Is this a clue?" A player said, scratching his head .
"You call something like this a clue? Don't embarrass yourself! These NPCs are 'Innadri Citizens', and those over there are 'Kane Town Villagers'. Even a blind person can tell the difference!" the player next to him mocked.
"Since these NPCs are quest props, then the clues must be on them...wait." Miaobishenghua thought of something and ran away.
The "main perspective" began to move, and Master Liu and Lao Geng, who were on the show, unexpectedly enjoyed the rural scenery of this world...
The dark yellow loess roads, the gray yellow mud walls, the burnt yellow thatched roofs, the whole world looked like a scene from an old movie from the last century, covered with a layer of dull and soft khaki light. Except for the equipment on the running undead, there was not a trace of bright colors.
When the villagers appeared on the screen, Lao Geng, an old soldier who had once helped build the Northwest, felt a pang in his heart.
Although the Northwest was poor back then, the local people were full of energy and spirit. When the country said it wanted to change the world and make the Northwest prosperous, the local people firmly followed the country's lead. Their spirit of daring to compete with God was visible to the naked eye.
The local villagers who appear in the "main perspective" are lifeless and gray, blending in with the ochre world they live in.
Just like... those suffering people in the old society whose backbones were taken away in the old photos of the Republic of China, they are just a group of numb walking corpses surviving.
Lao Geng sighed inwardly, unable to bear watching... Young players thought these were just NPCs, just data, but he knew that these were living people, people who were suffering.
The approach of the undead caused a commotion among the villagers of Mahogany Village. The timid ones shrank behind the crowd and houses, and only a few brave ones stayed where they were.
Miaobishenghua had a good memory. After scanning the crowd twice, she found the target that she thought had "a clue" - a teenager standing against the earth wall, trembling with fear.
A clear female voice came from the “main perspective”: “Huahua, what did you find?”
Miaobishenghua approached the young man and said without turning his head: "When we passed by just now, I saw a man with whip marks on his body that were not new. This is it."
The "main perspective" also moved closer to the boy.
There were still fresh wounds on the boy's elbows and knees from when the crowd was hit by the horses just now. The blood was very uncomfortable to look at, but as Miao Pen Shenghua said, there were more than just new scars on his body - the whip marks on his left cheek and the outside of his left arm, the blood from the wounds had scabbed over and dried, and it was obvious that these two whip marks were left at least one or two hours ago.
The "main perspective" stared at the whip marks on the boy's body and looked carefully, then turned back and shouted, "Xiao Tang, bring all the whips of the quest monsters over here!"
“Oh, okay!” The player with the ID “Gummy Candy” on his head responded.
The player with the ID of Lahongge took the initiative to help Sandwich Gummy to collect the whip and bring it over. He looked at the "main perspective" with a sharp gaze and said, "Girl, have you found anything?"
"Just compare and you'll know."
The "main perspective" took the whip and drew lines on the boy's wounds.
The young villager was very nervous about being so close to the undead, but at least he was brave and had a strong ability to accept things. Seeing with his own eyes that the undead did not attack them but instead attacked those who were hunting on horseback gave him a great sense of security. He suppressed his fear and let the undead do what they wanted.
Soon, the "main perspective" entropy did not increase and the brilliant writing contrasted to produce a horsewhip with a gold thread wrapped around the handle, the pattern and width of which were highly consistent with the old wound on the boy's body.
“Before returning to the city and meeting us, this group of quest monsters came to this village and hurt this young man.” Miaobishenghua said sharply.
"They lured us here so skillfully, obviously they are quite familiar with the terrain here. In other words, these mission monsters are not here for the first time." Entropy said.
At the same time, the two brainpower bosses turned their eyes to the side of the village road, and to the door panel that was carefully placed under the eaves by the villagers.
Anticipating a certain possibility, both Entropy and Writing Skills took a deep breath...
Players do treat everything they see as game data, but that doesn't mean they don't have hearts.
Players can get angry and scold the production company when the paper figures across the screen encounter unreasonable things, let alone this kind of holographic real-life game?
With heavy hearts, the two girls slowly walked to the door, squatted down, and lifted the straw mat.
Under the straw mat was the body of an elderly man wrapped in white cotton cloth.
The white cotton cloth in this world is different from the white cotton cloth understood by the people on Earth. The white cotton cloth in the perception of the people on Earth is soft, sweat-absorbent, and skin-friendly, and merchants are also happy to use pure cotton as a gimmick; but in fact, the cotton cloth that the people on Earth come into contact with in their lives is not real pure cotton, but synthetic cloth with various chemical fibers added.
It's a real replica of the white cotton cloth produced in British factories in the 19th century and the white cotton cloth made by modern industry put together. Anyone who chooses the former is a moron... In Europe at that time, cotton cloth was exclusive to the working class, and decent people mostly wore cotton and linen products.
In this world where the level of industrialization is close to that of the Earth in the 19th century, white cotton and pure linen are both the main fabrics used by the lower classes, with civilians living close to cities using white cotton and civilians living farther from cities using linen.
The old man's body was wrapped in a wrinkled 100% pure cotton cloth. Every inch of his skin was covered with horrific wounds. His face was so swollen that his appearance before death could not be seen.
Miaobishenghua, a cultured man, couldn't help but curse: "Fuck! Is this what 'hunter' means?! Fuck his ancestors!"
The two girls discovered the truth. The players of the advance team, as well as Master Liu and Lao Geng who had "crossed over" to the perspective of Entropy, all saw the yellow words popping up in the information bar at the same time:
"Suspicious Hunter"
"Suspicious Hunter: 13/13 (Completed)"
"The Dirty Truth: 1/1 (Complete)"
"You have discovered the secret of these strange hunters. Their targets are not wild animals, but their own kind!"
"You cannot forgive these hateful and despicable people. You decide to take these hunters back to the city of Innadri and hand them over to Charlie Rex."
"Bring back the criminals: 0/13."
"Take back the lizard horse: 0/13."
Old Geng took a long breath, turned his head with a strange expression, and looked at Master Liu.
The double images that appeared before their eyes were transparent. Although their field of vision was occupied by the images from other people's perspectives, they could still see the situation around them.
If Lao Geng has seen foxes for thousands of years, then Master Liu, who has been engaged in road and bridge engineering for many years, is a hairless monkey... The "truth" that Lao Geng could vaguely guess, he figured out almost exactly in an instant, and his expression was even more interesting than Lao Geng's.
In the double-image scene, the players who were infuriated by this dark and cruel mission were angrily stripping the thirteen criminals of all the valuable-looking items, such as clothes, pants, belts, shoes, rings, necklaces, brooches, scarves, wallets, etc. that they had not stripped off before, and silently stuffed them into the hands of the villagers as compensation. Then they tied the criminals, who were stripped down to their underwear, to the ground lizard horses and led the horses away from the village.
As the group of players left the village, the forced ghosting images in front of the two brothers disappeared.
The two old brothers didn't say a word and just squatted there without moving.
Not long after, rows of yellow words popped up in the brothers' message boards:
"You have obtained the permission to publish hidden tasks."
"You have obtained the authority to distribute the reputation rewards of Innadri territory."
"You are given the GM panel, clearance: D level."
"You have obtained the permission to view the activity range and perspective reading of online players."
"A new personal exclusive task has been added to the task panel: "The Invisible Guardian""
“Regulating online players’ gaming behaviors and guiding online players to adopt a positive gaming culture is the unshirkable responsibility of every GM authority holder.”
"The time you spend on Guardian missions can be exchanged for a login helmet. Every 200 hours (game time) of service time can be exchanged for 1 login helmet."
