End of ten days

I don’t know if it’s because I’m not suitable for talking to people, or because Zhang Qiang is similar to me. We have met many times before, but our first serious communication was very difficult.

"Aren't you also participating in the game?" Zhang Qiang asked again.

"Yes." I nodded. "The "human level" game has low difficulty and low reward, while the "earth level" game is very strange. Even if the rules don't sound difficult, there will always be casualties. I suspect there are some hidden rules that need to be entered. Only after the game can we know, this is also the root cause of the death of the "participants."

"Yes." Zhang Qiang agreed, "I'm not a smart person. I can't participate in those "prefecture-level" games alone, but I can't find suitable teammates. After all, there are too many stupid people in our room."

After the two of us finished speaking, we couldn't help but look at each other, and I seemed to know what he was thinking.

"Brother Qiang, do you want to form a team with me?" I asked, "Although I don't know if I can earn 3,600 Dao, it's better than nothing, right?"

"No..." Zhang Qiang thought for a while and said, "If you really want to collect "Tao", I suggest trying another method."

"What method?" I asked.

Zhang Qiang paused and said: "It has been three reincarnations, right...? Every time we die, we will come here again."

"Yes."

"You come with me."

Zhang Qiang took me around and came to an alley. He squatted down in a very secret corner, and then reached out and wiped a brick close to the ground.

I followed him with some confusion, stood behind him and looked in front of him.

I saw a fresh notch on the brick - "ZQ".

"Look." Zhang Qiang said, "These are the words I carved in my last reincarnation."

"oh……?"

Seeing this scene, I instantly figured out something.

It turns out that people can be reincarnated and reborn here, but time in this city does not pause...it is always rushing forward.

I have a hard time understanding this concept, maybe it's like how old cartoons are made... characters can move on a static background?

No... we are obviously stationary people, but we are moving in the field of passing.

We have been misled by "people". It does not mean that if "people" come back again, time will start over again.

"Zhichun." Zhang Qiang looked at the carvings on the wall and said to me in a deep voice, "You are a smart man, you should have thought of it... We just got the "echo" and saved the memory, but it doesn't mean that we just came here. , maybe we have been reincarnating here for several months."

I nodded: "Yes, and...if time can flow, it means that this city may not be what it is now."

"The appearance of the city doesn't matter, and we can't interfere with these supernatural things." Zhang Qiang said, "Let me ask you... If there were other powerful "participants", they would have started collecting "Tao" a long time ago, but there are This is a strange phenomenon, that is, people who live to the tenth day will be annihilated no matter what. In this case... what should those who have collected the "Tao" do? How can they ensure that the fruits of their labor will not disappear? "

I thought about Zhang Qiang's question carefully and quickly came up with the answer.

"Will they hide the Tao before annihilation?"

"Yes." Zhang Qiang nodded, "You are indeed very smart. That Aries is right. It is impossible for you and me to disappear from the room."

"I understand what you mean..." Yan Zhichun said, "That's why you don't participate in the game..."

"That's right, Zhichun." Zhang Qiang turned to look at me and said, "Since we are collecting "Tao", since they are all 3,600 pieces... we can not participate in the game, but try to become "thieves". What do you think?"

"Thieves..." I slowly lowered my head after hearing this, "You're right... We just need to steal the "Tao" hidden by those people... Then we can leave."

"It's hard to say whether we can leave." Zhang Qiang shook his head, "But this road will be safer. We can not only avoid contact with other people, but also avoid games that can be fatal, so I want to find someone to try together."

After he finished speaking, he stood up, blocked the letters in the corner with a stone, then turned back to me and said, "Everyone who comes here is guilty, right? I was a thief originally, how about you?"

"I..." I stared at Zhang Qiang's eyes and thought carefully for a long time, then said, "It's not convenient for me to talk."

"It doesn't matter if it's inconvenient." Zhang Qiang said, "I saw that you are not very gregarious like me, so I guess I can guess that we are inseparable. Do you want to cooperate with me?"

To be honest, I was a little overthinking.

Because I know that I am not a bad person, I subconsciously think that everyone here is not bad.

But I was wrong. Zhang Qiang is a habitual burglar.

I once heard a saying...that all thieves who break into homes carry a murder weapon with them.

Although what they do is "theft", if the owner of the house suddenly returns home during the theft, they will turn into murderers.

Each of them steals with a murderous mentality, and they are not the "same kind" as me.

But I cannot tell them here that I am not "the same kind", otherwise the situation will be more dangerous.

"What's wrong?" Zhang Qiang interrupted my train of thought, "It doesn't matter if you don't want to cooperate. I can do it myself. I just feel that you are a smart person and can take care of each other."

After thinking for a few seconds, I smiled and said, "I'm willing to cooperate, let's do it together."

"Have you figured it out?" Zhang Qiang asked.

"Yeah." I nodded, "This is the "hedgehog theory." When it's cold, hedgehogs will hug each other to keep each other warm, but they must also keep a distance to avoid hurting each other. We are like these two hedgehogs."

"I don't see that you are still a cultural person." Zhang Qiang nodded, "Then so be it."

Thinking about it carefully, when did I start to have doubts about the whole "Endgame"?

It should be on this day.

Twelve years ago, on the day I decided to become "thieves" with Zhang Qiang.

Did you know that it took us ten days to find out how many hidden "Taos" there were?

One.

Since this place is no different from the real world, people go out during the day and rest in buildings at night, so we can only choose to move during the day to avoid sight.

The two of us walked through all the hidden corners of the city. We even climbed into buildings that were about to collapse and crawled into sewers that had been abandoned for many years.

Zhang Qiang relied on his professional experience to help me find places suitable for hiding items one after another.

But all the corners are empty, we can even find anything, except the "Tao".

The only "Tao" fell into a deep crack in the broken ground. Zhang Qiang used two wooden sticks as chopsticks to pick it out.

It's strange... This "Tao" doesn't look like it's hidden here, but it seems like it fell here.