Chapter 200 The Truth
The "online GM" on duty, Lao Geng, witnessed the whole process of En Bu Zeng connecting the logging site with the neighboring village, and couldn't help but praise: "This girl has a good brain."
The players thought they were just completing tasks in the game, and Lao Geng would definitely not have such a misunderstanding... Ever since Lord Yang had revealed the truth to Comrade Zhao Zhenzhen sent by the National Security Bureau, it was as if they had tacitly acknowledged that those of them who had obtained "tool accounts" had a common channel of information, and they were too lazy to use the "game" as a cover for anything they did.
Therefore, Lao Geng knew very clearly that the "Exorcist Mission" that seemed to be a new part of the game was actually a path opened by Lord Yang for players to contact the weird core of this strange world.
It can also be understood that by opening up access paths to players, it indirectly allows those on the national team to gain a deeper understanding of this alien world from a side perspective.
How bizarre is this alien world? Although Lao Geng does not know anything about astrometry, he has learned some knowledge that goes against the common sense of earthlings from Director Lu (himself) of the expert group.
For example, through months of (alien time) celestial observations in Exile Town and Westram, the expert group has been able to determine that the planet beneath their feet does not belong to the Milky Way.
After measuring the movement trajectory of the sun for many days and referring to the movement trajectories of celestial bodies and galaxies during the day and at night, the expert group calculated and unanimously agreed that the volume of this planet is much larger than that of the Earth, at least three times larger.
It stands to reason that the larger the planet, the heavier its gravity. However, when the expert group tested the density of the wood transported to Earth by Lord Yang's "space logistics" and reweighed the goods that Lord Yang's "logistics" brought to this world, they found that the gravity of the celestial bodies on both sides seemed to be almost the same, leaving many experts in related fields scratching their heads and unable to figure it out.
Through carbon 14 testing on the mud and sand attached to the wood, the expert group believes that this planet has an ancient history like the Earth, or perhaps even older than the Earth.
Through careful testing and observation of the wood itself and the microorganisms attached to it, the expert group found that there were huge differences between the microscopic world of this world and the evolutionary path of microorganisms on Earth - of course, Lao Geng couldn't explain exactly where the difference , and he didn't understand the professional terms that Director Lu said.
In short, the expert group has a strong desire to learn about this planet that is particularly interested in overturning the common sense of the earthlings in all aspects. Lord Yang took the opportunity of opening "new content" to the players to give the national team the opportunity to get in touch with the core. Of course, Lao Geng will very diligently keep an eye on these players who are running "exorcist missions" and "bounty missions".
Seeing that the players had no awareness of being undead and were running towards the indigenous village in the middle of the night, Lao Geng quickly sent out a warning message:
"Hint: You are entering Lanna Village."
"Your Innadri territory's reputation has reached Friendly, allowing you to enter Lanna Village."
"【Warning】: The villagers are resting, please do not disturb them. Please come back at dawn."
The players who have fought in the Innadri Territory War have a territory reputation above friendly. In theory, players can go to any village or town, but disturbing people's sleep late at night is absolutely prohibited. Houses in the countryside are not like those in the city, which are mostly made of brick walls and do not have such good sound insulation.
The first reaction of the players who were given a warning was of course to curse the stupid planner.
It would be fine if it was a normal time. Qin Guan could just take the team to kill monsters first and come back when the daybreak in the game. But this time the difficulty of the mission was ridiculous. When the daybreak in the game came, even if the entropy didn't increase, he would have to log off and go to class. What the hell was going on?!
Tang Jia, who didn't want to miss the mission, made a bold suggestion: "Wait, since we can enter the village, isn't it okay as long as we don't disturb the sleeping villagers? We are going to find the hunter to interrogate the truth. This hunter is a mission NPC. It's okay to do the mission, right?"
Qin Guan immediately gave a thumbs up: "Not bad, it's no big deal to find a quest NPC to do the quest!"
"That's right, let's enter the village quietly and don't use guns!" A group of players echoed with laughter.
Then these guys really ran into the village...
Old Geng, who was sitting in the back of Exile Town, looked at this group of people from a distance with a helpless look.
Well... he was also quite curious about this "exorcist mission". As long as these young people could really do what they said, he would turn a blind eye.
The black book contains the addresses of all the suspected related persons. Hunter Ulduar's home is at the foot of the mountain at the end of Lannar Village, quite far away from other houses. As long as the players do not demolish Ulduar's home, they will not disturb other villagers.
Lanna Village is very close to Innaderi City, less than ten kilometers away in a straight line. Many villagers have opened vegetable gardens in front of and behind their houses and rely on selling vegetables in the city to supplement their family income.
It is also because of this geographical convenience that the economic conditions of this village are pretty good. In addition to their houses, many families have built sheds to raise chickens and ducks, and only pigs and dogs live with people... Considering the current situation in rural areas of this world, this is already a reflection of "living a good life."
As the dead spirits tiptoed through the village, some people's dogs were startled and sporadic barking sounds were heard.
But it was not a big problem, as not many villagers were woken up by the noise, and those who were woken up were unwilling to go out, so they just kept their dogs under control.
Odur is the only hunter in Lanna Village. His economic condition is slightly better than that of the villagers. Two earthen-walled thatched houses built side by side at the foot of the mountain, a half-person-high chicken coop in front of the house, a small courtyard of about 40 square meters surrounded by a fence, and two hunting dogs kept in a kennel made of wooden boards in the yard are all Odur's property.
Dozens of undead surrounded the fence of Ulduar's house, and the first ones to be alarmed were the two dogs in the yard.
Country hunters certainly cannot afford expensive hunting dogs. The hunting dogs of the Ulduar family are actually just guard dogs commonly seen in the central and eastern countries of the Nabaron continent. When they popped their heads out of the kennel and saw the groups of undead outside the fence, the two dogs did not dare to bark loudly at all, and shrank back with a whimper.
The noise was enough to wake up Ulduar. The strongest man in the village jumped off the bed as soon as he opened his eyes, picked up the hunting bow hanging on the wall, grabbed the quiver and rushed out.
Then... he rushed out of the room, and under the starry sky, he stared at a large group of undead across the fence.
Like his hunting dog, Ulduar subconsciously wanted to hide inside the house, but when he thought of his wife and children who were still sleeping in the house, he stopped abruptly and blocked the door with his head held high, looking at these undead spirits wearing fish scale armor and carrying weapons as if they were facing a great enemy.
People in the surrounding villages knew that the owner of Innadli City had changed a week ago - it's not that the farmers suddenly became concerned about the replacement of the lord, but because the villagers who came to the city to sell vegetables would see the undead wandering around the streets in broad daylight, and they couldn't help but pay attention.
An undead walked to the gate of the courtyard and shouted "KABAKABA" several times at Ulduar through the waist-high gate.
Ulduar must not understand what it was saying, and could only confront the group of undead with a look of horror on his face.
"Damn it, even the quest NPC can't understand what we say?" Qin Guan cursed angrily.
In the back, Lao Geng silently sent a task reminder to Entropy Bu Zeng who was holding the hemp rope:
"Do you want to use the quest item 'a roll of hemp rope'?"
Entropy glanced at the information bar in surprise, raised the hemp rope and pointed it towards the hunter.
Ulduar must have no reaction.
En Bu Zeng thought for a moment, handed the hemp rope to Qin Guan, and pointed at the hunter: "Show this to the NPC."
Qin Guan jumped over the waist-high gate with a hemp rope in his hand, walked into the yard carelessly, and handed the hemp rope to Ulduar.
Ulduar was very confused and looked with fear at the large group of undead surrounding his yard. He gritted his teeth and took the hemp rope.
Lao Geng took the opportunity to operate the "GM authority" and dragged Ulduar into the matrix.
The operating principle of temporarily pulling the indigenous people into the matrix is similar to that of the Azalea Badge engraved with the Spirit Link Rune, but it is not as convenient as the Azalea Badge. It requires immediate online "adding people" and can only drag people who have been in contact with the undead. The time limit is very short, usually only lasting half an hour. It is a new function developed after Yang Qiu allowed the players to go out to do "hidden tasks".
To put it simply, it allows people who come into direct contact with the undead to be temporarily contaminated by the aura of the spiritual imprint runes hidden in the undead's skeletons...of course, the effectiveness of this will not last long.
Ulduar was stunned when he got the hemp rope. The "KABAKABA" sound of the undead in front of him was almost instantly replaced by the impatient clear voice of a young man: "...Don't pretend, Ulduar, we all know what you did. Look at this roll of hemp rope, do you recognize it?"
Ulduar stared stiffly at the aggressive undead in front of him and swallowed hard - Lady of Gold Coin! Why could he hear the undead talking? !
Qin Guan naturally couldn't understand how the natives' fear was different from the previous one, and said angrily: "Do you still want to play dumb? What good things did you do in the Misty Shadow Forest in the spring?"
The two key words, spring and Misty Forest, plus the hemp rope that the undead stuffed into his mouth, made Ulduar shudder, and the horrifying memory that he had tried his best to ignore suddenly came flooding back to him.
It is difficult for living people to discern the expressions of the undead, but the undead can observe the reactions of living people accurately. Qin Guan's eyes lit up, and he quickly took out the badge given by the Night Watch NPC, shoved it in Ulduar's face, and shouted: "We are exorcists investigating the Misty Forest incident. Tell us quickly! Otherwise, we will take you back!"
Ulduar's face turned pale and his whole body became limp.
If the person who came was a Night Watch investigator, Ulduar would still dare to pretend nothing happened; but if the person who came was a group of undead who even knew that he had hidden the hemp rope for hanging... he really wouldn't dare to talk nonsense.
Ulduar's mind was blank, so he didn't have the energy to wonder why even the undead could be exorcists. This was a question that shattered his worldview. He was naturally afraid of the undead, and mistakenly believed that the undead knew about the afterlife and could even communicate with the dead. The ordinary rural hunter wrinkled his face and stammered:
"I, I really didn't do anything, you undead masters... I just, just... collected the body of that shameless Janet..." Odur said with tears in his eyes, "She was obviously Master Jeff's woman, but she was secretly communicating with the foreman of the forest farm, and she went to the forest farm to hang herself for no apparent reason... If this matter were known to outsiders, Master Jeff would be disgraced, and there is nothing I can do——"
"Who is Janet?" Seeing that the NPC was finally willing to speak, En Buzeng quickly jumped into the yard.
"She is the fourth daughter of the headman of Needham." Odur replied tremblingly, "For her, Master Jeff would come back to live in the big house in the village for one or two months every year ... Although she can only be a maid in Jeff's family, for a country woman like her, what's wrong with that? If it weren't for Master Jeff's kindness, she wouldn't be able to live the same good life as the city people. Besides, Mrs. Jeff is also very good to her."
Hearing this, Qin Guan snorted, "What the hell, being a concubine makes people envious?"
En Bu Zeng frowned as he looked at the trembling NPC in front of him and said, "Are you sure Janet hanged herself?"
"Of course, undead... lady." Ulduar nodded vigorously. "I was the first person to go up the mountain that day. When I found her, she was wearing the skirt given to her by the forest foreman. There were no wrinkles on the dress, and there was only a mark on her neck. I have seen several women in the village who had hanged themselves, and they all looked like this."
"Wait a minute, have you seen several women hanged themselves?!" Qin Guan was shocked.
"Every few years, there will always be one or two people who can't get over it." Odur was frightened by Qin Guan's raised voice and spoke haltingly.
En Bu Zeng shook his head slightly and said nothing.
Before the game "Another World" was released, besides studying, Enbuteng's biggest interest was watching legal programs, so she had all kinds of weird knowledge points - for example, she knew the symptoms of some diseases, and she was also quite familiar with the Chinese police's investigation and evidence collection routines.
Anyone who is familiar with the progress of the rule of law in China will know one thing: the suicide rate among rural women in New China was once alarmingly high.
The planner of the game "Another World" seems to be obsessed with "realism" like a disease. It is not impossible that he has made a set of hidden settings like "easter eggs" for players to discover by referring to the laws of social development in reality.
"Then why did you try so hard to cover up the fact that Janet hanged herself? Is Robert Jeff's reputation important to you?" Entropy asked again.
"Of course, Madam Undead!" Ulduar straightened his back, his voice no longer trembling, and even carried a sincere plea, "When this place was still the territory of the Korf family, 60% of the food was not enough to pay the autumn tax! For a family like mine with very few fields, there is not much corn left after paying the tax!"
"After Master Jeff came, no matter how much the grain price dropped during the autumn harvest, he only bought 50% of our grain!"
"If Master Jeff leaves, and another lord comes who is almost like the Korf family...what shall we do then?"
Entropy does not increase, and it falls into silence again.
Because his original family is relatively complicated, although En Bu Zeng is young, his understanding of the ways of the world is no less than that of adults who have lived for several decades.
For example, in this case, the fact that entropy does not increase can make one thing clear... Whether the little mistress in the country has fallen in love with someone else is not a big deal for a knight of status like Robert Jeff. If he really cares about Janet, he would not abandon her in the country.
But for the villagers of Lanna Village, Robert Jeff's small matter is their big matter.
In order to "protect" Lord Jeff, who is a little more "merciful" than other lords and not particularly cruel in sucking blood, the villagers here can calmly do what they think is the right thing to do.
Forcing a young girl who they considered to be "improper" and "ungrateful", and who was tacitly accepted by everyone at a young age as " very happy to be an old man's mistress" to shut up, not even allowing her to express her resistance by hanging herself, strictly hiding her personal joys, sorrows, pain, and anger, and completely erasing her existence, even the investigator "Mountain Rat" who had investigated the matter did not know her name... of course, it was the "right" thing to do.
But at least, this kind of thing was not right for that girl. She was unwilling to disappear silently. In her own way, she shouted to all those who couldn't see her: she was there, right there.
