Chapter 197: Transforming Community Experience (VI)
Tang Xinjue couldn't be sure whether they had ever made enemies.
But they were clear about one thing: there is no free lunch in the world, there are no easy rewards in the game, and this dungeon is undoubtedly still a huge pit.
In order to prevent the atmosphere from becoming too deadly, Zhou Ao quickly comforted him, "We still have one last chance. Do you have your ID cards?"
Zhang You: "What is that?"
Zhou Ao immediately explained that the ID card was the candidate's proof of access to the community. Once they obtained the ID card, even if they were penniless, they could return to human form. As long as they earned money before being hunted again, they could extend their lives.
"Usually, you can get your ID badge upon entering the venue, but we owed too much money before, so it was all detained in Community 2. I thought maybe yours was there too?"
He offered his thoughts uncertainly.
Zhang You spun the wheel and looked at Tang Xinjue and the other two: "Then shall we go to Community No. 2 first?"
"Standing out is a blow, hiding it is also a blow." Tang Xin Jue smiled. "After such a grand opening, I'm even more excited to see what the rewards are."
Zheng Wanqing scratched her head irritably: "Anyway, it's not the first day that the dog game is not human, just rush and it's over."
"Hey, wait." She suddenly realized something and shook the metal arm up and down vigorously. "Can I move now?"
Before this, she had just evolved from being completely unable to move to being able to move her fingers slightly. She originally thought that the road to rehabilitation would be very long, but she didn't expect the recovery speed to be so rapid that all her limbs regained sensation.
Guo Guo exclaimed in surprise: "I can move too!"
Under the four gazes, the eyeball doll shook vigorously left and right.
"...It doesn't matter. There are no disadvantages except that you can't move." Zhang You comforted her.
"This means your own vitality is fighting against the doll seal." Zhou Ao said: "The further away from the original inhabitants, the faster our vitality will recover, and vice versa, it will decrease."
Zhang You nodded: "Then we still have to avoid ghosts and monsters. Xin Jue, can you sense the current situation outside?"
During their exchange, Tang Xin Jue hadn't stopped expanding her mental power and monitoring the outside world. She closed her eyes, and the streetscape and distant rustling sounds slowly came into her mind.
"The child who had caught Zhou Ao ran away, and the woman chased after him. They entered Block 1. No new residents have come out yet. The only ones left in the area are the woman and her child."
Guo Guo's reflexive response was: "Which child?"
"The kid who nearly cut the top of your head."
“…”
Although he was arrested for a short time, it left a deep psychological shadow on Guo Guo.
However, as if it weren't bad enough, when they quietly passed by a little boy who was peeking at a claw machine, Guo Guo suddenly felt that some kind of restriction on her body had loosened. With a little force, the eyeball doll naturally turned and rolled to the child's feet in one go.
The child lowered his head and rubbed his eyes.
Guo Guo: "...Hello."
In fact, her screams appeared earlier than the child's. But the doll can't make any sound, while the child's voice can easily echo through the neighborhood:
"I found the baby—"
In the blink of an eye, Zhang You shoveled over with a sideways tackle, turning the child's last syllable into a loud cry after falling down.
Zheng Wanqing then jumped up, stepped on the child's head and jumped to the glass window of another claw machine, and her iron right arm rolled up a strong wind!
The glass shattered, debris flying all over the ground.
Guo Guo seized the opportunity and rolled the largest piece of debris into the child's hand, making it look like the culprit.
Child: "Wow... burp?"
Before he realized that he was being scammed, the 606 quartet had already pushed an immobile hippopotamus away and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
When the mother heard the noise and rushed out of the community, she saw another claw machine had broken down and a child scratching his head with broken glass.
The woman, already emaciated to a skeleton, glanced silently at her bill, then took out a razor with a cold gleam.
…
When the chaos outside came again, Tang Xinjue and his group had already successfully slipped into Block 2.
After passing through the section of road behind the initial arch, the road became narrower the further inward one went. Soon, everyone had no choice but to line up in a vertical row and grope their way forward along the extremely narrow path.
As the only person still paralyzed and unable to move, Zhou Ao took on the role of commentator: "Block 2 is also known as the poor area. It's more run-down and the roads are narrower. This is where we have to be most careful, because if residents come out, they will narrow the road with us..."
Before he finished speaking, a skinny middle-aged man staggered out from inside.
Zhou Ao: "...Meeting."
A person won't fall in the same place twice, unless it's a pit dug by a copy. He closed his eyes in despair.
However, after a few seconds, he did not hear the sharp reaction of the natives. Zhou Ao slowly opened his eyes and found that the other party had walked past them as if they were not seeing anything and continued to walk out.
Tang Xin Jue made a completed gesture in the glass ball: "Keep going."
"Your ability can also affect ghosts and monsters..." Zhou Ao then remembered that it was Tang Xin Jue's mental power that was at work when he was rescued from the indigenous people.
This is just the scope of play in the doll state. If it is in human form, how much mental power can the other party control?
If they had met 606 earlier in the exam, or had found someone similar, would they have avoided being nearly wiped out?
Hearing Zhou Ao's mumbling, Guo Guo comforted him, "Don't be upset. Think about it the other way around. If you had met us earlier, the difficulty of the exam might have really gone from A-level to S-level."
Zhou Ao: "...Thank you, I feel much better now."
After all, pain and regret cannot bring back the dead. He can't even protect himself now, let alone his teammates who are missing?
Just as he let out a long sigh and was not paying attention for a moment, heavy footsteps were heard from inside the block, heading straight outside!
Zhou Ao was startled. He knew the voice was coming from more than one body. "Be careful! Many residents are coming out..."
Even if Tang Xin Jue could cover them all up, if these residents didn't step properly, the five toys wouldn't be enough for them to step on on such a narrow road!
However, no matter how many times he reminded himself, there was no movement. Then, the world spun around him, and Zhou Ao found himself falling out of the toy car, his hippopotamus doll landing on the cold ground with its legs up in the air.
With a slight sound, the mental connection was broken.
A huge fear instantly gripped his heart: "Classmates, what's wrong with you? Are you still there? Classmates..."
"Hey, why are you blocking the road?"
A drunken voice suddenly sounded from behind. The person inside had already walked over here, but seemed to be blocked by something and started shouting loudly.
"One in and one out, it's just a coincidence. When you come out sideways, we should just go in sideways as well."
A familiar young female voice sounded.
When Zhou Ao first heard it, he thought the mental connection had finally responded, but he soon discovered that this passage was not information from his mind, but a real "sound" in the physical sense -
Tang Xin Jue turned back into a human?!
Before he could fully react, he heard the drunken middle-aged man say unhappily, "Why should I walk sideways? You came in last, you should leave first and come back after we leave!"
Another sharper female voice sneered, "Then I was saying, you guys came in last, you should all go back inside and wait until we get in before coming out."
"What do you mean? Are you looking for a fight? Do you know whose territory No. 2 Street is?"
"gentlemen."
The third girl's calm voice interrupted the other's threats: "I think it's necessary to remind you that the three of you are so thin that your combined weight may be less than 200 pounds, while we have four full-weight people. Are you sure you want to confront us head-on?"
Slum Ghost: "..."
They were still stubborn: "But we are men and you are women, do you understand?"
Finally, a slightly socially anxious voice whispered, "But your thighs don't look as thick as my arms. If you fall too quickly during the fight, do I have to pay you?"
“…”
At the same time, Zhou Ao, who felt something was wrong the more he listened, realized another thing belatedly:
Wait, so except for him, all four of 606 have returned to their human forms?
The next second he felt himself flying into the air, and when Tang Xinjue grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and pressed him against the wall, the scene on the road suddenly came into view.
There were three drunkards who looked like compressed upright apes with reluctant faces. It was not until Zheng Wanqing turned her right wrist impatiently that they moved sideways without saying a word, leaving enough space for the four people to pass.
Zhou Ao: ...When we first entered the dungeon, you didn’t have this attitude!
The two parties passed each other safely. Suddenly, one of the residents narrowed his eyes and asked, "Hey, what are you holding in your hand?"
The hippopotamus stiffened. Tang Xinjue spun it twice with one hand and replied calmly, "A kid smashed . The bill is on his mother's account. You can take any of the dolls inside. There's still a chance to grab one now."
Drunk: “!!!”
Is there such a good thing as picking up something for free?
A gust of wind blew by, and in the blink of an eye, only Tang Xinjue and a few others were left on the road.
The hippopotamus doll's tense body finally relaxed a little, and then it rolled its eyes wildly, trying to communicate with them through its eyes:
"How did you suddenly become human?"
Why is he the only one who hasn't changed?
The four 606s looked at each other and confirmed that they had returned to their normal forms. The oppressive and restraining feeling brought by the dolls also disappeared.
"We don't really know."
Tang Xin Jue mobilized his mental power and injected it into the hippo doll, but at most it could only make the doll learn to crawl on the ground, and it still couldn't change its shape.
Zhou Ao gave up temporarily: "It's okay, we will be at the block office soon."
As long as he can get proof of identity, he believes all his confusion will be resolved.
As they spoke, a simple brick building appeared before them. The hippopotamus suddenly became excited, even his short legs moved more vigorously: "We're here!"
He rushed to the door first, but was bounced out mercilessly.
Tang Xin Jue stopped his roommate: "Be careful, there is a barrier."
As Zhou Ao fell down dizzy, the door of the house creaked and a strong and powerful thigh stepped out.
The four people and the hippopotamus raised their heads at the same time and looked at the middle-aged woman who was over two meters tall.
The woman took off the hood of her sun-protective jacket, ate a cucumber, and with one hand, she lifted a table and chair and slammed them to the ground, slamming her whole body into the chair. "Identification?"
Zhou Ao quickly explained: "Hello, clerk, I left my ID card here, and I'm here to pick it up!"
The clerk raised his eyelids to look at him, then made a line on the paper: "Pickup fee: 1 jin."
Zhou Ao: ...I'm sorry, the whole doll probably weighs less than one kilogram now.
He mustered up the courage to ask 606, "Um, can you lend me one kilogram? I'll definitely pay it back right away!"
"Them?" The clerk glanced at the four people in 606 again and made another mark on the paper: "Even if they have money, they can't pay. They are all illegal residents."
Illegal household?
The four of them looked at each other, and Tang Xinjue asked, "Can we open an account here?"
The clerk nodded and wrote another line: "Okay, the temporary ID card processing fee is 1 jin per person, pay first and then issue it."
“But we don’t have an identity, how can we pay?”
"Isn't there someone with ID here?" The clerk pointed at Hippo and said, "Just pay 1 kilogram and take your ID. Then they can process it for you."
Zhou Ao was stunned: "But I don't have any money."
"Then let them lend it to you."
Five people: “…”
Are we doing infinite nesting dolls here?
