I picked up a boyfriend in the infinite game

Song Guicheng spent a few minutes organizing his thoughts and backpack. There was an extra item in the storage cabinet, a pocket watch called [Time and Space Stillness].

The surface of the pocket watch is a gold hollow pattern, the back of the watch is carved with exquisite and delicate relief patterns, the time scale is evenly distributed, and the gold-plated pointer moves forward a small grid on the hour marker.

He noted the time, 2:35 AM.

More than an hour had passed since they set out.

After Wu Zhi left, the room returned to normal, empty and with nothing in it, even the image on the ground disappeared.

The darkness that had once covered the entire sky retreated back to its original place, leaving only emptiness and silence.

"Squeak-"

The door behind him was suddenly pushed open. Song Guicheng quickly turned around and retreated, his slender body slightly bent in a defensive posture. He relaxed only after he saw clearly who was coming.

"mom!"

Xiaohua, who was lying on Chen Wenyu's head, greeted him happily.

Shi Sui and Xu Chongchuan followed closely behind. The three of them came up together, but Shi Sui looked very bad. He was pale and bleeding, his eyes were half closed, his eyelashes were trembling, and he looked a little fragile in Xu Chongchuan's arms.

Song Guicheng hurriedly took two steps forward, frowning slightly, and asked nervously, "What's wrong with him?"

Xu Chongchuan said succinctly: "It's okay, it's a side effect of the prop."

Song Guicheng was silent for a moment. Four people jumped down from the fifth floor together, but no one was injured, disabled or dead. One can imagine how powerful this prop is, and also how great the side effects are.

Perhaps he saw Song Guicheng's self-blame, so the usually taciturn Xu Chongchuan actually comforted him: "Compared to the outcome of four people dying together, you have minimized the losses as much as possible."

There will indeed be changes on the fifth floor at 1 a.m. Xiaowen deliberately revealed this information to Li Yi in order to lure the snake out of its hole and then catch the turtle in the urn.

If Song Guicheng had not acted decisively and asked them to jump from the fifth floor, I'm afraid they would have died in the fire.

Before meeting Song Guicheng, Chen Wenyu was always holding his breath. After each copy, Song Guicheng took good care of him. Not only did he help him pass the level, but he also taught him all the skills he knew.

It was hard for Chen Wenyu not to admire such a wise, kind and brave partner. Song Guicheng's decisiveness just now made his trust in him reach a new level.

In his heart, he secretly increased the balance of Song Guicheng several times.

Song Guicheng had no idea what Chen Wenyu was thinking. He could only see a mixture of nervousness and happiness in his eyes. Xiaohua lay on his head and played with his slightly long bangs. He stood there at a loss, not moving, looking a little silly.

"Come back to your senses." Song Guicheng stretched out his hand and waved it in front of Chen Wenyu.

Only then did he realize that the hand he had bitten had now recovered, without any visible scar, and was completely clean.

Chen Wenyu blinked in confusion and let out a long breath: "Brother Cheng, I'm glad you're okay. Just now the three of us went downstairs and didn't see you. We were so worried. Fortunately, Xiaohua came to find you."

Chen Wenyu's hair was soft, and it drooped down as soon as it was pulled up. Xiaohua persevered in pulling it up again and again, and did not forget to grin at Song Guicheng: "Mom, Xiaohua is capable, right?"

Song Guicheng praised her: "You are the most capable little paper man that mom has ever seen."

Anyway, he had never seen any other little paper figures.

Chen Wenyu was puzzled: "Why did you think of jumping down at that time?"

"Hmm..." Song Guicheng supported his chin and thought for a while, then met Chen Wenyu's inquiring eyes and said two words, "Guess."

Chen Wenyu: …

Song Guicheng somehow understood the accusation in Chen Wenyu's eyes, and smiled softly. This was not to fool him. Sometimes people really need to rely on intuition, especially in times of crisis, the body often makes choices faster than the brain.

He tapped his elbow nonchalantly and said slowly, "No sound from the outside world can be heard from Yongding Tower. The arrangement of the bodies is surprisingly consistent, either hanging upside down or face down, leading to the 13th staircase on the fifth floor. Combining these clues, we can figure it out."

Seeing that Chen Wenyu still didn't understand, Song Guicheng broke it down a little more:

“There is an extra level of stairs, and when we step on it, we will enter another world.

But we did not enter another world and were still in Yongding Building, which means that Yongding Building has changed.

I smelled a strong earthy smell at the time, so I guessed that the time and space of Yongding Building had reversed, and the fifth floor we were standing on was not the fifth floor above ground, but the fifth floor underground. "

"I understand," Chen Wenyu habitually reached for his notebook, but couldn't find it, so he had to pick his fingers. "We were jumping downwards at that time, but if time and space were reversed, our direction would actually be upwards, and we would have landed on the ground."

Song Guicheng raised his eyebrows: "Smart."

Shi Sui, who was standing aside, was listening to their conversation. His body temperature seemed to have been turned off, and he couldn't stop emitting chills.

Xu Chongchuan didn't care whether the ground was dirty or not. He sat down on the ground directly, found a fox fur coat from the cupboard, wrapped him up, and held him tightly in his arms.

"Then what do the inability to hear any sound and the upside-down corpse mean?" Chen Wenyu looked like a good student studying hard.

Song Guicheng sighed imperceptibly, a little helpless: "When you look at a problem, you can't just look at this issue, but you have to put the problem in the overall context and look at it from a point to a surface."

"The dungeon will not provide you with useless information. Every piece of information and every clue is linked together, and you have to figure it out," he said patiently. "What kind of information did the fifth floor provide you with?"

Chen Wenyu replied: "Time and space can be reversed."

Song Guicheng nodded: "How about you put this information in the context of Yongding Building?"

Chen Wenyu is obviously a student with a strong ability to learn. With just a little guidance, he can figure out the key points.

He couldn't control his trembling voice due to excitement and surprise: "Yongding Tower can also be a reversed time and space."

Song Guicheng did not comment, tapping his toes occasionally. He turned around and sat with Shi Sui and Xu Chongchuan, leaving Chen Wenyu in a daze.

Now it all makes sense.

The isolation of Yongding Tower, the upside-down corpses and the abnormal changes of day and night...

Shi Sui and Xu Chongchuan were not surprised. They had guessed this when they landed on the first floor of Yongding Building. Song Guicheng arrived earlier than them, leaving only Chen Wenyu, bumping around like a headless fly.

Song Guicheng supported himself with his knees and rested his face on them. Looking at Chen Wenyu's dazed expression, he thought to himself that he still lacked exercise.

Shi Sui beside him was breathing shallowly. Xu Chongchuan was putting the fox fur coat under Shi Sui. He tightened his hands and wrapped them around Shi Sui's whole body. Suddenly, he felt Shi Sui's hands tap him twice.

As if receiving a signal, Xu Chongchuan turned around and asked Song Guicheng: "Did you find anything here?"

*

Just now, Song Guicheng's flashlight alone was not enough to illuminate the entire wall above his head. Now that four people gathered together, four beams of light hit the white wall above their heads.

When several people saw the scene above their heads clearly, they gasped at the same time.

Others were shocked and frightened, while Song Guicheng was confused.

The original broken walls and ruins disappeared, replaced by a strange formation.

The formation was drawn with blood, and had long since solidified into brown solid marks under the erosion of time. Even so, one could still feel the ominous aura when looking at the formation.

Because he had a certain degree of understanding of the general background of the copy in the past few days, Song Guicheng could see that this formation was drawn based on the Yin-Yang and the Five Elements.

Apart from the complicated patterns and strange symbols in the magic circle, they could roughly see the five directions of gold, wood, water, fire and earth.

Among them, the three directions corresponding to wood, water and fire have been activated, and a faint light corresponding to the attributes has emerged.

Song Guicheng had not expected such a scene, and his hands at his sides tightened slightly.

He was unsure again at this time. Did they enter the real 508?

Is the 508 where this formation is located the real 508, or is the 508 on the altar that can summon Wu Zhi the real 508? He even began to doubt all his previous inferences.

The black jade beads exude bursts of chilliness, like the ice from the Antarctic glaciers, cutting into the skin's texture.

He stroked the round jade bead unconsciously.

But no matter what, there are two established facts that cannot be changed. First, he has become a believer in God; second, the formation above his head has been activated.

Perhaps he had just entered another dimension.

The concept of time and space here is problematic and unstable, so changes only occurred on the 1th floor at 5 a.m. This may also be the reason why he walked into the crack of time and space.

Xu Chongchuan grabbed the coat that had fallen from Shi Sui's legs, wrapped it up again, and stared at the formation above his head for a long while: "The five elements are interdependent, flowing endlessly, and circulating over and over again."

Song Guicheng listened silently, with some surprise in his eyes. He noticed that Xu Chongchuan was pinching his fingers, closing his eyes, and mumbling something, as if he was calculating something.

He was well-read and had invited many monks and Taoist priests to his home. He could tell that Xu Chongchuan used the Nine Palace Flying Stars method. The nine knuckles of the middle three fingers were arranged into nine palaces, which could be used for calculation.

What surprised him was not that Xu Chongchuan understood Feng Shui, but that from the proficiency of his deductions, he knew that he must be very skilled in the art.

After a moment, Xu Chongchuan opened his eyes. The emotions in his eyes were obscure and difficult to understand. There was shock and anger. He rarely showed such emotions: "Use the Five Elements magic to steal power from the Tao and bring people back to life!"

"Resurrected from the dead?" Chen Wenyu was confused. "Who is resurrected from the dead?"

Chen Wenyu had only heard of resurrection from the dead in fantasy stories. He looked up in disbelief as he watched the formation above his head spin twice.

"That's all?"

【Hahahahahahahaha, I’m dying of laughter.】

[Is there a contempt chain in the formation circle? 】

[If you don’t believe it, try it yourself~]

[Formation: I*******]

[Swearing is so dirty]

【Thank you for the compliment】

……

Perhaps it’s because the resurrection from the dead in fantasy stories requires searching all over the world for rare treasures, and the timing must be specifically chosen to achieve it.

Although the formation in front of him was very complicated, it was still too simple compared to the hard work and efforts he had put in.

It is hard to believe that resurrection can be achieved with such a small formation.

*

Compared to Chen Wenyu's surprise, Song Guicheng was obviously much calmer. No matter how magical the formation was, it was not as shocking as what he had just experienced.

His focus is on Xu Chongchuan's words "stealing power from the Tao."

Lao Tzu once said: Tao begets one, one begets two, two begets three, and three begets all things.

The copy world scene is limited, and it is highly likely that there is not such a complete world view.

As he deduced more and more, he began to doubt the nature of this game.

Previously, he believed that the "Soul-Tracing Game" was a game developed by higher-dimensional creatures and released into the three-dimensional world for entertainment and money-making.

It has always been assumed that the copy world was developed by the "Soul Tracking Game", and the scenes, stories, and characters in it are all virtual.

But now, the copy world and the real world are connected. The "people" in the copy world can steal the power of "Tao" in the real world, and thus create another small world in the copy world.

This gave him another idea: the dungeon world exists independently. "Soul Tracking Game" is only the discoverer of the dungeon world, not the developer.

This raises an even more horrifying question: If the "copy world" really exists independently, what force is it relying on to run it?

Just as he taught Chen Wenyu to think about the information he got in the context of a larger context, he put the "'fake Yongding Tower' stealing the power of 'Tao' to operate" in the context of the entire copy.

Can we indirectly deduce that the copy world is also able to operate by stealing some kind of power?

If this conjecture is true, then whose power did the dungeon world steal, and why does the "Soul-Tracing Game" require people to complete the dungeon?

After several rounds of games, he concluded that the tasks issued by the system were more like destroying the core strength of the copy.

In the first copy, the source of the world's alienation was Li Caixia, in the second copy, it was because of her sister, in the third copy, it didn't matter, and in the fourth copy, it was because the children failed to escape from the orphanage.

That’s why there are main quests such as “Burial”, “Find Sister” and “Escape from the Orphanage”. These quests are all about correcting the source of alienation and resisting ghosts rather than helping them.

Combining several clues, the ghosts and systems in the copy world are two opposing forces.

The system requires someone to clear the level and destroy the copy, which may also be the source of the "player" identity.

No matter which forces the system and ghosts come from, one thing is certain: "Tao" and "God" really exist.

To which side do these undiscovered forces belong? Or are they a separate faction? Or do they simply not understand the struggle between the two forces?

To sum it up: the copy steals a certain power to operate, the copy does not allow it to operate and wants to make it go bankrupt, and the players are the system workers who come to destroy the place.

In addition to the ghosts and systems in the copy, there are also third-party forces.

He thought of Wu Zhi, who did not help the ghosts or the players, and seemed to be just a person who was there to watch the fun.

While watching the fun, he would also harass me from time to time. I would save him today and kill him tomorrow.

At this point, he suddenly thought of an important question, and turned to ask Xu Chongchuan: "If the stolen power is enough, can the fake Yongding Tower exist stably in another time and space?"

Xu Chongchuan did not answer immediately, but stared at Song Guicheng intently, as if he wanted to see through his skin to his soul. After a long while, he said, "Maybe."

Since it is possible, his inference is 75% correct.

It’s higher than his chance of clearing the dungeon.

Chen Wenyu leaned over and asked: "How did you come back from the dead and jump to a stable time and space?"

"I told you to study more, but you went to feed pigs." Shi Sui's head poked out from his coat, his hair a little messy, and Xu Chongchuan reached out to tidy it up for him.

Shi Sui asked: "Where are we now?"

Chen Wenyu replied: "In the real Yongding Tower."

"Is anyone in the building?"

"No."

"Let me ask you, since there is no one here, who are those mothers, aunts and uncles we saw during the day? Who has come back to life?"

"..."

"Then let me ask you again, since the person has already been resurrected from the dead, why do they still need to activate the formation and steal the power?"

"In order to stabilize the time and space they are in?"

Teacher Shi snapped his fingers and said, "Not that stupid."

Xiaohua finally made Chen Wenyu's hair stand up, and the two tufts of hair on top of his head looked like antennas.

Teacher Song lifted Xiaohua down and looked at the two antennas, trying not to laugh: "Now do you have any idea on how to clear this dungeon?"

Chen·Good Student·Wen Yu: How did I jump from the stable time and space to the clearance copy?

Aren't we all exploring the dungeon together? Why do I feel like I'm wrong?