Chapter 212: Transforming Community Experience (Twenty-One)
Hearing this, Guo Guo's heart stopped for a moment.
However, after she subconsciously held her breath and kept silent, the expected sound of fierce fighting did not appear.
At an unknown distance, Tang Xinjue and the tall figure met eyes. The former remained motionless, as she quickly discovered that the other person's chaotic eyes had no focus at all.
It didn't seem to see itself.
Logically speaking, the probability of this is very low - even if the other party cannot see, ghosts will never miss the scent of humans.
Correspondingly, she also rarely felt the breath of this ghost.
So it's very likely that... something is blocking them.
Tang Xinjue and Zheng Wanqing, who came down later, looked at each other, and they both climbed back to the top of the well to observe the movements of the ghost.
Even though their figures disappeared from "front", the ghost stared at the head in front of it without any reaction. Instead, after a few seconds, its neck suddenly "clicked" and began to twist slowly.
After twisting it 180 degrees, there was another face on the other side of the head!
If it weren't for the pair of dim eyes that finally began to move, one would almost think that the twisting of the neck was an illusion. Because the two faces on the stiff neck were almost identical, even the dense wrinkles were exactly the same.
Just as Guo Guo had described, this was one, no, two, faces of an extremely decrepit old man. This head, however, grew on a two-meter-tall, muscular body, looking like a haphazardly assembled, defective product.
The next moment, both of their eyes fell on its arm at the same time.
Even stranger than the head was the fact that beneath this man's broad shoulders grew two thin, short, white arms. The skin at the shoulder joints had shrunk inward, wedging two clearly mismatched bones together. The slightest movement caused a frightening grinding sound.
In Guo Guo's memory before he lost his arms, this ghost had no hands.
——Then it is self-evident who the female arm on it comes from.
Through the transparent curtained door, the ghost briefly scanned the area, still noticing anyone outside. The constant creaking of an arm quickly diverted its attention. It knocked several times in frustration, a string of inarticulate curses escaping its lips.
On the other side, Guo Guo seemed to sense something and asked worriedly:
"Xin Jue Wanqing, did you manage to avoid them? Has my arm been eaten by them?"
“…”
For a moment, Tang Xinjue and the others couldn't be sure which one was easier for Guo Guo to accept: having his arm become like this or being eaten.
But before they had time to form their words, the ghost suddenly growled and strode away from the door.
Its figure disappeared at the end of a yellow corridor, and Tang Xinjue suddenly felt a bad premonition in his heart.
Immediately afterwards, Guo Guo's consciousness in the mental link was suddenly disconnected again.
Without further hesitation, the two jumped directly in front of the glass door. Tang Xin Jue's spiritual power came into contact with it, and it felt like a drop of water merging into the ocean, instantly sinking without a trace.
"There really is a shielding effect here, but I don't know the specific extent."
Thinking of Guiguai and Guo Guo's abnormal state, Tang Xinjue frowned slightly: "We may have to be prepared to lose all our abilities."
If she guessed correctly...
The glass door was quietly opened, and the two entered without any resistance, but the sudden change in perception made them pause at the same time -
"I can't feel anything anymore."
Zheng Wanqing subconsciously raised her hand, but the place where the metallic luster should have been was empty.
She can no longer summon her powers, not even her iron arm!
At the same time, there was only air in the palm of Tang Xinjue's right hand, and the toilet plunger disappeared.
There were faint sounds of footsteps in the distance. Tang Xinjue took a deep breath, pulled Wanqing and hid in the nearest door.
The room was small, cluttered with various human body models, leaving barely enough space for two people to stand. They listened to the footsteps approaching and then gradually fading before continuing their conversation.
"My superpowers are gone too." Tang Xinjue's voice was soft yet deep. "All of them."
The toilet plunger, the mental strength, the enhanced five-dimensional physique, the space bag and props on the body...
What does it feel like to lose everything in an instant?
Even though I had made guesses and mentally prepared myself, the moment it actually happened, the intense feeling of weightlessness still gripped my heart tightly.
After going through dungeon after dungeon, upgrading and strengthening one after another, they have long since adapted to their current "superhuman" bodies, their keen five senses and their ability to control the environment. They also have the courage to fight bravely in the face of danger.
Instead of the body of an ordinary college student.
But the moment they stepped into the door, all the additional power evaporated into thin air, leaving only a weak body.
This feeling is like working so hard to train your main account to level 70, but then the system suddenly initializes with one click, and you instantly return to a blank account with nothing. Who can stand that?
"It wants to return to its origin, so why doesn't it return my arm?"
Zheng Wanqing was speechless. So this house's ability was to only take away the good, not the bad?
In this house filled with the chilling atmosphere of ghosts, the physical pressure alone was enough to force one to grit their teeth. The two could only adjust their state first and wait for an opportunity to act.
Tang Xin Jue was still optimistic: "The constraints in this space should be two-way. If we are deprived of our abilities, the ghosts will definitely be suppressed as well. We may not have no chance of winning."
In fact, after the initial setback, she quickly adapted to her current state. In fact, for her, this feeling of sluggishness and powerlessness, like being immersed in cold water, was actually the "normal" state.
After all, in nightmares, there are no upgrades or superpowers.
After a moment, Zheng Wanqing adjusted herself and nodded. The two of them opened the door a crack. There was no sound from outside. But before they could leave, Tang Xinjue's phone screen lit up:
It’s Guo Guo’s call.
After closing the door, Guo Guo's deliberately lowered voice came from the other end of the line:
"That ghost is here again. Do you know what it did? It actually..."
Guo Guo couldn't hide his anger: "It actually threw its arm back! It hates my arm!!"
She was speechless enough having her arm taken away for no reason, but the other party actually despised it? Could it be that the old man's head on its neck, which looked like it was about to die at any moment, was healthier and more elegant than her arm?
Tang Xin Jue: "...You know what it's used for."
"Yes, because it only gave me back an arm."
Perhaps because it was inconvenient to be without an arm, the ghost finally kept one for himself. The look of disgust and helplessness on its face at that time still played over and over in Guo Guo's mind.
Fortunately, the arm that was returned to her allowed her to use her mobile phone to talk to Tang Xinjue and the others even though she had lost the mental connection.
"I think I can remember more now. There's more than one ghost here. They all look strange, and each has different abilities. Some can conjure up terrifying illusions, some can torture people, and some can dismantle people's bodies... Oh, and they don't seem to like moving. Many of them hide in small rooms. When they get close, the cell phone signal will disappear..."
Before he could finish his words, the call was disconnected again. The phone signal on the screen returned to zero.
Tang Xinjue and Zheng Wanqing quickly looked up at each other.
According to the clues, this means that either the ghost went to find Guo Guo again, or a ghost approached them.
There was no sound outside the door, but there was a peephole on it.
Zheng Wanqing opened her mouth and said, "Do you want to see it?"
Tang Xinjue shook his head, silently placed the camera of his mobile phone on the cat's eye, and then turned on the camera.
A normal phone cannot focus in this situation, but the phone modified by the game is obviously different:
In the image displayed by the camera, a yellow eyeball, magnified several times, was slowly turning towards the door.
There was complete silence inside and outside the room.
Because both of them were close to the door, they couldn't see it with their naked eyes, so after a while, it slowly moved away from the peephole, and then there was a sound of movement outside.
But this voice... Tang Xinjue pointed above his head.
It didn't sound like footsteps, but more like the friction of a body dragging and crawling on the wall.
Only after the noise completely disappeared did they contact Guo Guo again: "Do you remember your exact location?"
Judging from Guo Guo's fragmentary words and the fact that they had already encountered two ghosts within two minutes of entering, the concentration of ghosts in this building was very high. They had to minimize detours and get the person away safely as quickly as possible.
Fortunately, Guo Guo had been led down the same path as them. She gestured and described a route from her memory, and Tang Xin Jue immediately pictured the destination in his mind.
"We're not far away," she concluded. "You're just around the corner at the end of this corridor."
After turning the corner, there should be two stairs leading upwards.
Guo Guo immediately warned: "Be careful. I remember the one that creates illusions, it seems to have entered the door opposite me!"
If Tang Xinjue opened the wrong door, it would mean that the two of them would have to face the ghost head-on, which was Guo Guo's biggest fear.
"Because..." Guo Guo paused. She seemed to want to say something, but couldn't speak decisively. She could only hurriedly instruct: "If you come over, give me a call and I will knock on the floor gently from the inside. The door you get close to and hear the knocking sound is the room I'm in."
Tang Xin Jue could hear her hesitation and guessed, "Is there something hidden about that illusion that affected you that we don't know about?"
Guo Guo was startled: "You know?"
Faced with this answer, Tang Xinjue immediately grasped the key point: "It's related to me, right?"
Guo Guo: “…”
Tang Xin Jue continued calmly, "It's also related to your unusual reaction when you looked at those caves, right?"
Guo Guo: “…”
Zheng Wanqing was completely confused. "What are you talking about? What cave?"
"Those caves we encountered while searching for the entertainment venue."
At that time, the four of them each made a judgment. Only Guo Guo showed hesitation and panic when observing her own cave, and her reasons were hesitant. She was reluctant to speak at the time, so Tang Xinjue just wrote it down and didn't delve into it.
But now judging from Guo Guo's reaction, the two are indeed related.
Otherwise, with Guo Guo's caution and clairvoyance, no matter how realistic the illusion was, as long as it only contained three people fighting, she would not be frightened to tears, let alone rush in recklessly.
Tang Xinjue's voice was calm and steady, not anxious. "Guoguo, if you're worried about what will happen if you tell me, then I hope you can trust me."
Guo Guo sighed: "I will always believe in you."
She had 100% trust in her roommate, but not in herself, so she was worried that it would backfire.
"Then trust me a little more, this time. Okay?"
Here, every bit of information was extremely important. Even if it was a double-edged sword, she had to master it.
Guo Guo was silent for a few seconds, then took a deep breath and said, "Okay, I'll tell you the Heart Sutra... but Wanqing can't listen."
Zheng Wanqing, who had just pricked up her ears, said: "???"
Five seconds later, Zheng Wanqing walked out of the room alone in anger, leaving Tang Xinjue alone in the room.
"Now it's just me, you can talk."
In the silent air, Guo Guo spoke:
"...I see that you will attack us."
Guo Guo's voice was hoarse: "But my perception tells me that it is not an illusion, the Heart Sutra."
"That was a death prophecy."
