Chapter 232 Island (XIV)
Qiao Yuan's words naturally received everyone's response.
Just because of what happened just now, none of them were in the mood to continue chatting. After rearranging the duty roster, everyone prepared to take a break.
Cheng Mengting and Qin Ning did not move over like they did before, but occupied another corner, next to Huo Ling.
Morning arrived as expected.
Just as Yu Guo said, from that day on, the amount of food distributed to everyone was half less than before, and everyone seemed to be able to see the stretched granary.
However, because Qiao Yuan said that he would take time out today to look for food, apart from Huo Ling's low complaint, neither Cheng Mengting nor Qin Ning said anything else.
After dinner, several people headed towards other directions of the island.
Because the main purpose of today was to find food, everyone gave up on the places they had searched before and headed towards other places on the island, moving much faster than before.
But again, nothing was achieved, and the sky even tended to gradually darken.
"No, nothing..." Qin Ning said subconsciously while looking down. His words were like lingering mist, lingering in everyone's ears.
Song Yanchi only felt a buzzing in his ears. Just when he was about to order Qin Ning to shut up, he heard Qiao Yuan suddenly signaling everyone to look nearby.
"I thought there might be food there."
Huo Ling: “…Really?”
But no matter what, this is everyone's hope. Therefore, after Qiao Yuan spoke, Cheng Mengting and Qin Ning subconsciously walked over.
Under Qiao Yuan's instructions, several people dispersed and started searching in this area.
Just when they were about to get nothing, Qiao Yuan's voice suddenly rang out: "Wait, I found something..."
Hearing Qiao Yuan's voice, everyone naturally walked over here. Qiao Yuan was half squatting in the bushes, and there were several stone tablets in the bushes.
Qiao Yuan's gaze fell on one of the stone tablets.
After seeing the stone tablet, Cheng Mengting and Qin Ning, who were still holding out hope, suddenly showed disappointment on their faces after seeing the scene in front of them, and Huo Ling even asked directly: "What is this?"
"Can I eat it? Or have you found a way to deal with the ghost?"
After Huo Ling finished speaking, many people showed expectant expressions on their faces again.
Qiao Yuan: "No, but it says food is on it."
Huo Ling:?
After hearing her words, everyone except Huo Ling showed puzzled expressions and their eyes fell on the stone tablet.
The words on the stone tablet were the same as those they had seen before, somewhat difficult to decipher, so it took some effort.
Fortunately, Qiao Yuan translated it for everyone: "I saw it said that you can actually eat ghost meat..."
Everyone: ???
Even Yu Guo, who had a smile on her lips just now, froze. From her expression, it seemed that she was trying to confirm whether she had heard it wrongly.
Qiao Yuan did not seem to be affected by everyone's doubts, but continued to read the words on the stone tablet seriously. The words on the stone tablet recorded what happened to an islander after he accidentally ate ghost meat. He thought he was going to die, but he found himself refreshed and even did not feel hungry for nearly a month. His originally weak and sickly physical condition improved a lot.
There are not many words, but every word makes the people and ghosts present subconsciously savor it repeatedly.
Qin Ning said cautiously: "It turns out that ghosts are edible."
Although Qin Ning was a newcomer, there were quite a few people in the live broadcast room. After all, almost all players had received the prompt and had seen from the forum that the game was actually integrated with reality, so many people came in.
Qiao Yuan and others' live broadcast rooms were full, so many people chose newbies like Qin Ning. Coupled with the deaths of other players before, the number of people in Qin Ning's live broadcast room was not small.
At this time, in the live broadcast room, barrages of comments emerged like a flood.
[Oh my god, not to mention Qin Ning, this new guy, I was stunned]
[So ghosts are really edible?! ]
[No wonder this instance doesn’t have any other food. I thought the game was broken. It turns out that you still have to find the food yourself.]
[The Road Never Imagined]
[It also says that ghost meat tastes like fish, but it seems to be much more nutritious than fish]
[The stone tablet is not food, it is a recipe]
Because some people also learned about Huo Ling turning into a ghost from other players' live broadcast rooms, the audience in the live broadcast room quickly turned to discussing catching ghosts.
[It just so happens that the ghost is right next to me, so I don’t have to bother looking for it anymore]
[Wait, but isn’t the final mission to send the ghost away? What if it eats it?]
[Could it be a forgery by a ghost?]
[It’s useless to fake this, but it makes people feel that it’s not that scary]
[Wait, you really believe this?! The words on this stone tablet were forged by Qiao Yuan]
Although there were many comments, this comment still attracted a lot of attention as soon as it appeared.
【Ah? Forgery?! 】
[No, how did you know?]
[But there are still scratches from the years on it, it doesn’t look like it]
[And this handwriting looks similar to the handwriting seen on the stone tablet before]
[It was really forged by Qiao Yuan. I just saw it from Qiao Yuan’s live broadcast room, so I came to other players’ live broadcast rooms to see everyone’s shocked expressions.]
[I also just witnessed Qiao Yuan sending everyone else away and then secretly doing these things on the stone tablet. She also deliberately made the stone tablet old.]
【this……】
[Although I know that Sister Qiao always surprises me, I was still shocked this time]
[Is she doing this to stabilize the team? ]
[It may also be to reduce people’s fear of ghosts]
Soon, some people began to pay attention to the mental health of ghosts.
[But, will other people and ghosts believe it?]
[I think so. If someone hadn’t told us just now, we wouldn’t have noticed it.]
[It is indeed very realistic. Even if the ghost is an indigenous person, he may not remember every stone tablet.]
[Is it my illusion? Why does Huo Ling look paler than before? Is he naturally pale?]
[Maybe he is calculating his own psychological shadow area]
Huo Ling's face turned pale, and it took him a long time to find his voice: "It's fake, right?"
Cheng Mengting's tone was hesitant: "But it does look like it was left behind before."
Qiao Yuan also spoke up at this time: "Yes, I was just thinking about taking a look at the stone tablet to see if there were any clues, but I didn't expect to see this."
Because she had indeed looked at the stone tablet often before, no one else doubted Qiao Yuan's words.
Yu Guo smacked his lips: "This is the first time I know what ghost meat tastes like..."
"But aren't we supposed to send the ghost away? What if it eats it?"
Although he didn't see the barrage, it was obvious that Yu Guo had also thought about this problem.
Just as Huo Ling was about to respond, Qiao Yuan's voice rang out first: "The mission didn't say that a complete body was required. Leaving half is fine."
Huo Ling: “…”
His open mouth closed again, and judging from his expression, it seemed that he had forgotten what he wanted to say.
Qin Ning thought of something and continued, "But...but how can we catch the ghost? What if the ghost wants to attack us..."
Although Huo Ling didn't say anything, he nodded silently, supporting Qin Ning with his actions.
Song Yanchi: "So what? As long as we stay together, the ghosts can't hurt us."
"When there's no more food, we can catch the ghost first, eat it while looking for a way to get rid of it. It will be fine if there's only a little left."
Huo Ling: "...Didn't she just say that half was left?"
How come after it passed through Song Yanchi's mouth, the portion was reduced to half again?
Song Yanchi: "Because I don't know when I can find clues."
Huo Ling seemed to be quite hesitant: "But ghosts were also human beings when they were alive. Would it be bad to eat them..."
Qiao Yuan comforted him in a gentle voice: "There is a saying that goes 'people and ghosts have different paths'. People and ghosts are not the same."
Regardless, this discovery made everyone present feel relieved. After all, at least when the day came when they ran out of ammunition and food, at least they would still have food.
At this time, the sky was getting dark and the players returned to their residences. The atmosphere was much better than before, but Huo Ling seemed much quieter.
At night, after dinner, everyone prepared to rest and the room fell into a brief silence.
Song Yanchi and Sheng Yegui were on duty, so Qiao Yuan closed her eyes without any worries and fell into a dream until she was awakened by a gentle male voice: "Qiao Yuan..."
Although he hadn't heard this voice for some time, Qiao Yuan still recognized it and opened his eyes suddenly.
What comes into view is an exquisite and handsome face, with a temperament as gentle as jade, and his eyebrows and lips seem to have a smile on their own.
Damn it, it’s Lu Zhi.
This was the first thought that popped into Qiao Yuan's mind, but then she recalled what had happened before and realized that the Lu Zhi in front of her must be a ghost in the copy in disguise.
It looked like the ghost was anxious, so he chose her as his target.
After returning from Huoling, Qiao Yuan realized that something was wrong with the other party and realized that it was a ghost in disguise, but he did not expose it directly. One reason was that he had no evidence, and the other was that he wanted to know what the ghost was going to do.
After hearing what the ghost said, Qiao Yuan also realized that the other party was trying to sow discord. Seeing that the atmosphere was getting more and more intense, Qiao Yuan quickly stood up to stabilize everyone's emotions. At the same time, a plan was quietly formed in her mind.
In order to find clues, Qiao Yuan had previously studied the text on the stone tablet, so it was not difficult to replicate it, and the ghost really took the bait.
And this ghost obviously regarded Qiao Yuan, who discovered this matter, as the main target, so he chose her.
Qiao Yuan glanced around and found that the surrounding environment was no longer the small fishing house, but a room she was very familiar with.
After all, I lived here for eighteen years.
She was still wearing her high school uniform.
Lu Zhi in front of her was also wearing a school uniform. He had a tall figure and a gentle smile on his face. He had a schoolbag on his shoulders and another in his hands. He smiled and reminded her to hurry up, just like he did in the past, otherwise they would be late for school this time.
I have to say, her acting skills are good enough to make it in the entertainment industry. Obviously, this ghost is not Lu Zhi at all, and she has never seen her and Lu Zhi get along, but she imitates him very well, even replicating Lu Zhi's habit of carrying her bag while waiting for her.
But Qiao Yuan knew that if she followed Lu Zhi out the door, what was waiting for her was not the familiar campus life, but death.
Noticing that Qiao Yuan still showed no signs of moving, Lu Zhi tilted his head and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Let's talk about it on the way. Otherwise, if we are late again, Mr. Lu will deduct all our living expenses."
Qiao Yuan was used to calling Lu Teacher, and Lu Zhi followed her.
As Lu Zhi spoke, he walked forward and stretched out his hand to Qiao Yuan, apparently wanting to hold her hand. But even so, Qiao Yuan still didn't use his strength to stand up.
Did the other party notice something was wrong?
The ghost was startled.
The reason why the ghost chose to blend in with this group of players was very simple. It had been observing from the side and found that some of these people were quite difficult to deal with. Therefore, it wanted to borrow the identity of this person named Huo Ling to see if it could find a reason to alienate them.
It’s just that the appearance of the stone tablet was beyond its expectations.
Although it also doubted the authenticity of the stone tablet, the handwriting was indeed very similar to what was written on the stone tablet before. Most importantly, it felt that normal people could not think of such a thing, and dared to attract the attention of ghosts.
However, the stone tablet has already been discovered by these players. It is useless even if it is destroyed. The only thing left to do is to vent anger on the person who first discovered the stone tablet.
Qiao Yuan.
In addition, there is another important reason why it chose Qiao Yuan, that is, the ghost has discovered that Qiao Yuan seems to be the leader among this group of players.
If we can capture her first, it will be easier to capture the others later.
Because of previous experience, the ghost knew that if he wanted to lure a person out of the room, the dead, the person he wanted to see the most, and fear were the best ingredients.
Therefore, the ghost chose to transform into a man named Lu Zhi.
After all, the other party had been with Qiao Yuan for a long time and had already died. As a former human, it naturally knew the lethality of such a deceased person, just like Aunt Zhong before, and had already followed closely.
However, what it didn't expect was that although Qiao Yuan looked touched, he showed no signs of getting up, which made it wonder if it had chosen the wrong person or if there was a flaw somewhere.
But that's impossible. Not to mention that it spent a lot of energy to create the illusion, it even imitated the little movements.
And if it was an evil ghost, Qiao Yuan could still be so calm...
Fortunately, at this moment, Qiao Yuan finally spoke up, interrupting its internal friction: "My legs are a little tired, and I can't stand up."
Very good. From the other party's tone, I couldn't tell. There was even a hint of coquettishness in his words.
The ghost's tone became relaxed: "Then I'll carry you on my back?"
Isn't it just the back...
Qiao Yuan: "What you said is a little unlike your previous self."
ghost:?
It was stunned when it heard Qiao Yuan's words.
Could it be that its reaction was wrong, and Lu Zhi actually wouldn't say that?
Realizing that he seemed to have revealed a flaw, Gui was thinking about how to remedy the situation when he heard Qiao Yuan say, "If it were before, you would help me take a leave from school, or help me massage my legs."
ghost:"……"
Although it had never met Lu Zhi before, it discovered at this moment that the other party was quite capable.
It is definitely impossible to take a leave from school. After all, it is busy taking Qiao Yuan out and dealing with the other party.
Beat your legs...
Although it had never done this before, it thought to itself that it would be good to make the meat more chewy.
With this thought in mind, the ghost with Lu Zhi's face sat down, pretending to be regretful and saying that they would definitely be late, while helping Qiao Yuan massage his legs. His attitude was quite serious, but what he was thinking about in his heart was how to eat Qiao Yuan later.
Unfortunately, this is just an illusion after all, and there are other people in reality, so it can't bite them directly and tear off a large piece of flesh from the other person like it did to the previous person.
But it's okay to wait for a while. Then it must enjoy the food slowly and not eat it too impatiently. After all, the food this time is more difficult to obtain than before.
It was busy for a while, and just as it was about to ask Qiao Yuan how it was, it heard Qiao Yuan say, "There is another leg."
ghost:"……"
Well, who has two legs?
Just after massaging the other leg, Qiao Yuan's two arms stretched out in front of him again. Although the other party did not speak, the ghost already knew what Qiao Yuan meant.
Unfortunately, this is not a buffet delivered to your door, but a massage is needed.
Ghost: "Don't you have leg pain?"
Qiao Yuan: "One thing affects the whole body. Now my arm hurts too."
ghost:???
However, thinking that both legs had already been massaged, Gui still held back what he wanted to say.
After finally finishing massaging his arms and legs, before Gui had time to breathe a sigh of relief, Qiao Yuan's voice rang out again: "I don't know if it's my illusion, but I always feel that you are a little strange today."
If one's inner voice could be expressed outwardly, the ghost's inner voice would definitely be "What's wrong again?"
However, it couldn't say this out loud. It could only look at Qiao Yuan and said softly, "What do you mean?"
On the surface, the sound is so gentle that it seems to be able to drip water, but in fact it can only squeeze out its tears of blood.
Qiao Yuan: "You didn't ask me why my legs were tired."
Ghost: "...Sorry, I thought it was because you didn't get enough rest at night."
It is patient, but a lack of patience will ruin big plans.
Qiao Yuan: “It’s okay.”
"You reminded me that I didn't get enough rest last night. Shouldn't I get some rest now? Why go to school?"
Ghost: “This…”
No, why did the topic turn here?
Realizing that something was wrong, the ghost quickly tried to change the subject: "You can sleep even if you go to school..."
Qiao Yuan: "It's more comfortable at home."
For a moment, the ghost thought that Qiao Yuan in front of him was playing a trick on him, but this thought only appeared for a moment and was quickly forgotten.
After all, it is a ghost, how could anyone dare to play tricks on it...
Calm down, it needs to be calm.
The ghost thought to himself that if he was exposed because of his anger now, all his previous efforts would be in vain.
Qiao Yuan watched the emotions in "Lu Zhi's" eyes change several times, and finally turned into helplessness: "Since you don't want to go to school, then I will accompany you."
"How about we go out and play?"
Qiao Yuan frowned slightly and pretended to think under the ghost's expectant gaze.
After a while, seeing that the ghost was about to urge him, Qiao Yuan said again: "No, I'm really too tired."
Ghost: “You…”
Seeing that the other party was about to get angry, Qiao Yuan realized that the surrounding environment was also changing. The familiar living room was distorted, and finally, as darkness came, Qiao Yuan closed his eyes.
When I opened my eyes again, what came into view was the fishing hut.
As if he had noticed the movement here, Qiao Yuan had just opened his eyes when he met Sheng Yegui's gaze.
Sheng Yegui also asked in a puzzled voice: "It's still early, why are you awake?"
Song Yanchi also heard what Sheng Yegui said. He turned his head impatiently. When he followed Sheng Yegui's line of sight and saw Qiao Yuan who had also woken up, his eyes lit up, but soon the same question as the other party emerged in his eyes: "Sister, what happened?"
After all, Qiao Yuan had already spent the night with Fei Zhi, so he could sleep until dawn.
Qiao Yuan stared at Sheng Yegui and Song Yanchi for a few seconds. After confirming that they were not another disguise of a ghost, he said, "Nothing. I just had a good dream."
She glanced and saw Huo Ling in the corner.
The other person had his eyes closed, as if he was sleeping, but she didn't know if he heard what she said, his chest was heaving violently.
