Chapter 494 Source
Before dark, Professor Yin Zhengliang completed his visit to the last household in the town.
After visiting thousands of households, Professor Yin had some guesses and was about to return to the town hall to check last year's tax report.
As soon as they walked out of the civilian area in the east of the town, Professor Yin and Qi Tian, who had been running with him all night, heard a noise coming from the other end of the street at the same time.
"Um?"
They both turned their heads to look over at the same time...
On the cobblestone street that was barely big enough for three carriages to run side by side, an undead wearing a robe and holding a staff... no, a player, was running towards this side at a rapid speed.
Not to mention Qi Tian who has already integrated into the player group . Professor Yin can also directly see the green ID floating above the head of the undead in his field of vision, so there will be no unnecessary misunderstandings.
"Brother Pin?" Qi Tian knew that only those who work hard can win, so the other party shouted out curiously when he passed by them.
"It's Brother Tian. I have something. Let's talk later." Only hard work can win. He waved and greeted him. He didn't stop at all and rushed over like the wind. When the last few words came over, only his back was left.
Players call each other brother, sister, or grandpa, which has nothing to do with whether there is a big age gap between the two parties or whether they respect each other... It only has to do with the player's own gaming style and whether his aura is strong.
Only those who work hard can win. This player does things a little bit unscrupulously and does not look like a good person, but his personality charm is there, and it is not difficult for him to be known as a "brother" in the player community... Before he used Qin Guan as a tool, Qin Guan actually called him "Brother Pin".
Just as Aipincaiyingying had just passed in front of the two of them, a large group of players appeared at the other end of the street, chasing after Aipincaiyingyingying while shouting and cursing.
“Huh?!”
Qi Tian and Professor Yin Zhengliang's expressions changed at the same time.
Qi Tian has long been accustomed to the wild style of players fighting among themselves anytime and anywhere. Professor Yin, who is not unfamiliar with the player group, will never be shocked by this.
The real reason that stunned the two national teams was that when Qin Guan, who was leading the pursuit and who would only win if he worked hard, passed in front of them, a hazy, strange, and blurry ghost figure suddenly appeared above their heads, and one had to have a certain imagination to barely make out the rough outline of a human figure.
"This, this is--" Professor Yin raised his finger in horror and pointed at the ghost.
The ghost tried to wrap around Qin Guan's skull the moment it "appeared"... But Qin Guan, who was busy chasing after the ghost, had no intention of paying any attention to the ghost at all. He flew away like the wind and left it far behind.
Some of the players who followed Qin Guan in the chase did look back at the lonely ghost with reluctance... but perhaps because their teammates were all chasing, no one stopped.
Just as this group of people disappeared at the other end of the street, another group of players came running , happily surrounding the ghost figure that was standing alone in the middle of the street...
Professor Yin, who was planning to get closer to see what was going on, had to stop.
Before Professor Yin could sort out the situation, a lot of players came running over from the other end of the street, cursing at the group of players who surrounded the ghost.
Some of the players surrounding the ghost were separated to intercept their competitors, while the rest besieged the ghost monster more fiercely.
As the two sides were in a stalemate, another team of players appeared from the corner of the street and used all kinds of skills to attack the players in the melee.
Professor Yin: “……???”
The street, which was not very spacious to begin with, was quickly blocked by the fighting players. There was a mixture of curses in various dialects, shouts of commands to focus fire, and voices greeting each other. Even Professor Yin and Qi Tian, whose mother tongue was the same as theirs, could not hear clearly what these compatriots were shouting.
What's even more outrageous is that Professor Yin & Qi Tian can't even tell how many parties there are in this melee - some people run away while the fight is going on, and some people come back; the number of people in the melee is as confusing as the overlapping and intertwined ID fonts above the heads of these players, and no one can figure out the situation.
While the two were confused, the first group of players who ran out killed the ghost. An old man with a particularly rough voice, who sounded like he was from Northeast China, shouted "Get out of here", and then led his teammates into the alley on the other side.
The players in the melee seemed to have received some signal, and some of them quickly left the battle circle, either running along the street, or going into the alley, or climbing the wall...
The remaining players were not idle either. Some of the hot-tempered ones chased after the enemy directly, while others greeted their teammates before moving on...
It took a total of two or three minutes for an inexplicable melee among players to unfold in a muddled way and end in a disastrous way; in an instant, the only two national teams left on the entire street were those who were still blocked at the entrance of the alley.
Professor Yin & Qi Tian: "..."
The townspeople, frightened by the noise on the street, only dared to open the windows to see what was going on... and found that there were still two undead left on the street. Fearing that they would get into trouble, the townspeople closed the windows in fear again.
Professor Yin, with a stiff face, looked at Qi Tian blankly.
Qi Tian wiped his sweat and said, "Please wait a moment. I will ask someone I know about the situation."
Although Qi Tian did not join the Great Blood Alliance, he got to know many core players with his excellent skills and outstanding performance in large battlefields. Although his thin skeleton physique greatly limited the player's mobility, and a strong man who was particularly good at fighting in reality might not be able to fight a delicate and weak girl with his bare hands in the game, players like Qi Tian who came with his own skill points could still perform better in battle than ordinary people who had not received any systematic training.
Huan Ling, a core member of Lahong Ge's wild group who would occasionally come out to join in, is on Qi Tian's friend list.
The player Huanling is a second-generation rich man like the orange cat boss. He has a wide circle of friends and is a carefree person. When Qitian, who has infiltrated the small blood alliance as a senior executive and has a decent relationship with them, asked about it, Huanling told them openly about Aipincaiyingying's plan to cooperate with them.
"You seem to know Miaobishenghua as well? Don't tell them about this yet, haha. When the BOSS spawns, we will call a truce with them. Anyway, there's no need to fight to the death for the BOSS that rewards you for participating in killing it. By the way, Brother Tian, if you have nothing to do, you can go and gather the group first, and then bring them over to join in later. Don't let your people come over now, it's a mess right now, and it will get even more chaotic if more people come."
Qi Tian: “…”
Qi Tian, with a look of annoyance on his face, relayed the news that Huan Ling had told him to Yin Zhengliang, and incidentally, he also passed on his annoyance to the old professor.
"I haven't even concluded my investigation yet...but the players have found the source?!"
Professor Yin Zhengliang couldn't help but doubt life.
Fortunately, the old professor had a very strong psychological quality. He quickly adjusted himself and analyzed calmly: "Wait... the player didn't find the source, but just found a method that seemed to have a probability of making the source emerge... Lord Yang intervened."
When it comes to understanding the mysticism of this alien world, the national team cannot say that they understand it better than Lord Yang.
"Since Lord Yang has let these players try it in the form of a mission... it means that he is not very confident, otherwise he would have solved it himself." Following this line of thought , Professor Yin came to a further conclusion.
The reason is very simple. Professor Yin has done special research on Lord Yang's personality...
Lord Yang is a bit reckless at ordinary times, for example, he would ask players to attack cities and seize land, and ask players to arrest people and investigate cases everywhere... But Lord Yang would not let down his team at critical moments. Whenever there was an emergency situation that was highly harmful and would lead to serious consequences, Lord Yang would usually take action himself to handle the matter.
Lord Yang obviously would not ignore the fact that the population of Xinxili Town had been lost silently over the past few decades.
Professor Yin is skeptical about whether the strategies adopted by players can lead to the source; but the ghosts discovered by players and the meaning of these ghosts are also of great help to Professor Yin's investigation.
With reference to the players' findings, the intelligence obtained by Professor Yin through field investigation became clearer in his mind, and he was able to sort out the general outline:
"Lord Yang defined the source as the 'Evil God's Messenger', which means he believes that the abnormality in Xinxili Town is related to the Evil God. In this regard, his opinion must be more reliable than my guess."
"If... the people who were evaporated were converted into believers by the evil god because they had murderous intentions, and were erased from the memory of the world by the evil god, then the subsequent investigation of the missing persons can be omitted."
"The focus must be on... the person who first summoned the evil god."
"And the person who first summoned the evil god... is still alive."
The case became clearer , but Professor Yin did not feel relieved.
On the contrary...it becomes heavier.
He also looked through the cases involving evil gods that were collected and organized by Zhao Zhenzhen and solved by players.
If the evil god's messenger is dead, the evil god will no longer have the power to interfere with the human world through the "god's favored ones". The so-called "evil god's favored ones" will turn into something like a crystal and be collected by Lord Yang in some way.
The town of Xinxili was shrouded in the power of the evil god, and the evil god's messenger was indeed not dead.
And... the number of townspeople who had strong murderous intentions towards someone many years ago and are still alive... is really not large.
After staring at the deserted street for a while, Professor Yin sighed, waved to Qi Tian, and continued to rush to the town hall.
The journey is not peaceful... You may suddenly run into two or more groups of players who are shouting and fighting.
The hard-working person who only wins runs around the town with a tail dragging his buttocks. Wherever he goes, the street will be in chaos - people follow behind him to pick up monsters, chase him, try to stop him from chasing, try to counter-block him, and kill him... It's as dazzling as a nesting doll.
After finally bypassing those overly energetic compatriots and entering the town hall, Professor Yin immediately dove into the household registration files that were piled up in a mess and had not been sorted out at all.
Due to the hard life of the civilians in this alien world, most of them look older than their actual age, and it is difficult to judge their actual age from their appearance. Professor Yin must confirm from the household registration files how many townspeople are actually over the age of 50.
The result of looking through the household registration files is... the average life expectancy of the residents of Xinxili Town is really not long. Even in the relatively wealthy area in the northern part of Tachia Territory, the number of civilians over 50 years old who are still alive can be counted.
The reason why the investigation was limited to the civilian area was not because of discrimination against the poor... The privileged class in this world really has privileges. Even Baron Eli, who has been "living in disgrace" under the shadow of Viscount Carter for many years, has two farms, a big house and a country villa, and monopolizes the bakery business in the town. When he enters the city, he has to be respectfully addressed as "Baron". He is not so frustrated as to pin his hopes on the evil god.
After selecting a dozen files of townspeople whose actual age could be confirmed to be over 50, Professor Yin began to look through the files of their family members, searching for families whose relatives had passed away 40 to 50 years ago and whose death records were registered and had not been completely wiped out by the evil power.
After two rounds of screening, no matter whether Professor Yin is willing to accept the fact... there is still only one family that meets both conditions.
John and Tina Lawrence.
Professor Yin held the Lawrence family's household registration file and remained silent for a long time.
The actual ages of Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence are sixty-seven and sixty-nine respectively. Such longevity of civilians is rare in the other world.
The Lawrence couple's deceased son, Carl Lawrence, died at the age of six in June 988, just three days after receiving the book from the then-living Viscount Carter.
The household registration files of the town hall would certainly not record the cause of death of a civilian child. On the simple population registration form, there was only a date of 988.6.3 scribbled in red pen behind the child's name, indicating the day the child died.
