I picked up a boyfriend in the infinite game

When Song Guicheng put the last apple into the bamboo basket, the electronic voice of the system finally rang in his ears:

[Side quest: Completed picking a basket of intact apples, reward: 3000 points]

[System mall has been opened]

Finally finished, Song Guicheng breathed a sigh of relief and looked up at the sky. The gray sky was hazy like a net, the darkness swallowed the edge and gradually moved towards the center. Soon, the sky would be completely dark.

Chu Wei was the first to hand in his task, followed closely by Song Guicheng. Other players also came over one after another carrying bamboo baskets, fearing that they would be left behind if they were a step slower.

Baskets of fresh and intact apples were placed in front of Grayson, but Grayson's face was gloomy and he paced back and forth around the apples, as if he would not give up until he found something wrong with them.

"Ding ding--" On the hillside not far away, an old blue truck staggered over and honked at Grayson.

Song Guicheng recognized it as Allen's car with his sharp eyes.

The truck slowly stopped at the entrance of the apple orchard, and a man in dark blue work clothes and a baseball cap jumped out from the driver's seat. It was Alan, who had driven them to the manor the day before yesterday.

"Hey, Alan, you're here," Grayson came forward and greeted Alan familiarly, "How are you today?"

Alan took off his hat, revealing his bold brown-red hair: "Thanks to you, it's not bad."

Grayson pointed to the apples that the players had just picked and said, "I'll have to trouble you to deliver these to the city."

"Oh, no problem." Allen walked right past Song Guicheng as if he hadn't seen him. He picked out a few apples and weighed them. "They're good quality. They should be able to sell for a good price."

"Of course." Grayson said, his gloomy eyes swept across the player standing next to him, and his turbid eyes narrowed slightly, like a hungry wolf with murderous eyes.

Alan stretched his muscles and said, "It's a bit hard for me to move so many by myself. I need someone to help me."

After he finished speaking, without waiting for Grayson to speak, he pointed at Song Guicheng and said, "You, come and help."

The players' eyes instantly focused on Song Guicheng, and the air was silent for a moment.

Grayson came up and pushed Song Guicheng: "What are you standing there for? Go ahead."

Song Guicheng staggered two steps after being pushed and walked in front of Allen. Allen looked him up and down and said in a commanding manner: "Watch my movements and handle it with care, understand?"

Song Guicheng nodded obediently.

He followed Alan and carried a bamboo basket, climbed up the siding of the truck, jumped up lightly, and placed his bamboo basket next to Alan's.

"You can't put it this way, you won't be able to put anything else in later," Allen suddenly pulled Song Guicheng's sleeve and adjusted the direction of his bamboo basket, "You have to do this, do you understand?"

Song Guicheng rolled his eyes and nodded, looking like he was willing to learn: "I understand. Thank you."

The two men quickly loaded the apples onto the truck.

Alan wiped the sweat off his forehead and said, "Grayson, let's go." Then he jumped into the driver's seat. Grayson didn't delay and got on the passenger seat right after him.

Before leaving, he turned around and said to the players: "Go back on your own."

The players didn't want to continue to get along with this unfriendly male host, so they nodded.

The truck jolted twice in place as if it was stuck, and the exhaust pipe made a sluggish, irregular roar before it slowly started and drove forward.

Most of the sky in the distance had been swallowed up by the sky, leaving only a small piece of sky above the apple orchard, still struggling to emit the last few rays of gray light.

The mountain road was reflected at the junction of heaven and earth, like a winding thin rope, separating the sky and the ground. The shadow of the truck swayed on the mountain road.

Xie Siyou stared at the swaying shadow of the car for a while and said sarcastically, "Now we don't have to worry about the apple getting damaged."

*

Today's dinner was still prepared by the hostess, the same old dry bread and boiled beans, and two slices of smoked meat.

Li Ranli didn't like beans, so she shared the boiled beans with Wang Huixiao.

She took a bite of dry bread, which was tasteless. "Why are the meals cooked by the host and hostess so different? Could this also be a hint?"

Generally speaking, the food in a dungeon won't vary that much. It's either always good or always bad, and the taste is quite specific.

"It's possible," Zheng Jiyan said, "and the couple's attitude towards us is also very different."

He pushed up his glasses and said, "The food provided by the hostess is terrible. She is quite indifferent to players like us. She doesn't provide any information or issue any tasks."

Although the information provided by the NPCs in the copy was a mixture of true and false, and the tasks issued were extremely dangerous, it also guided the direction of their investigation and provided a handle for them to obtain the rules and complete the main tasks.

The hostess of this dungeon obviously adopted a "free-range" approach to the players, so they wandered around like headless flies on the first and second days of their arrival in the dungeon, and in the end they obtained very little useful information.

Zheng Jiyan continued, "But the attitudes of the host and hostess were completely different. He provided us with sumptuous meals, and we were not allowed to dirty the hotel. We had to pick apples from the hotel's apple orchard, and the apples we picked had to be intact. He was very strict with us."

He crossed his hands on the dining table, giving the illusion that he was not discussing the copy but attending an academic seminar.

Wu Haochen took a sip of water: "I still prefer the hostess. I hope my mother is like her and doesn't control me all day long..."

He suddenly paused and could not continue. He complained habitually, but forgot that he was no longer in the real world, had not seen his mother for a long time, and no one was watching over him all day.

The word "Mom" probably touched the nerves of many people at the table. The flickering candlelight made the faces of everyone in the hotel look real and unreal, and bitterness was swirling in the air.

They didn't know how long it had been since they had truly felt the hustle and bustle of the world.

At the time, it was only common.

Song Guicheng changed his sitting position, feeling a little at a loss in such an atmosphere.

His only impression of his mother was her crazy love for his father, and he couldn't even remember his mother's name.

All I remember is that what that woman had been pursuing all her life was the love of a man, a man who didn't love her at all.

In order to get the man, she forcibly broke up the man and his engaged girlfriend, and in order to keep the man, she gave birth to a child.

They hurt each other, tortured each other, and wasted each other's time in vain, like a pair of enemies who would never stop fighting.

But as a pair of parents, they both ignored that the pain they felt would only be multiplied on their children.

Whether the father says he doesn't love the mother or the mother says she doesn't love the father, to the children it means they don't love themselves.

Song Guicheng turned his head to look out the window. The sky was dark and gloomy. The candlelight reflected his face on the glass. The bright red light licked his outline but could not illuminate his light brown eyes.

Sometimes he felt extremely fortunate that he had lost ten years of memory and no longer had to go through so many long and painful memories. This was probably a blessing from God, Song Guicheng thought.

Memory loss is often thought of as a disease, but sometimes it is a cure in its own right.

Just as Song Guicheng was about to look away, a ray of clear moonlight suddenly broke through the silent darkness around him, tearing a crack in the endless night and shining forcefully into his eyes.

Although only a corner of the moon was exposed, the bright moonlight had already dispelled the shadows without any hesitation, until it filled Song Guicheng's eyes.

Song Guicheng remained silent and did not move, curling up his fingers on the jade beads.

"The moon is out." Not only Song Guicheng, but Xie Siyou also noticed it. He put one hand on the back of the chair, looking quite relaxed. "Tomorrow will definitely be a good day."

"Probably." Song Guicheng continued to eat dinner with his head down, as if his appetite was not affected at all by what happened just now.

"In fact, Wu Haochen's words just now reminded me," Song Guicheng glanced at the hostess's kitchen and lowered his voice unconsciously, "The couple's attitude towards us is not like treating tourists, but a bit like..."

He hesitated for a moment and then gave his conclusion: "It's a bit like treating your own child."

From the players' perspective, this conclusion is a bit ridiculous, but if you put it into the dungeon world, it does look like a family.

The hostess who is tired of housework, the strict host who punishes people severely, and the player who lives in fear in the hotel correspond to the roles of mother, father, and child respectively.

"Based on our investigation over the past two days, the couple in the hotel must have a child, but we have never seen it," Song Guicheng's eyes moved slightly and pointed at himself, "We may be the role of the child."

Zheng Jiyan couldn't help but sit up straight, frowning, "That's possible, but the man can still make sense, but the hostess's attitude is really not like that of a mother. It's rare for a mother to ignore her own children."

Song Guicheng wanted to say, "My mother is it," but he held back and looked at Xie Siyou next to him and asked, "Do you remember what you said at lunch today?"

Xie Siyou was suddenly asked:?

What did I say?

How could I remember!

I talk so much every day!!

Xie Siyou faced Song Guicheng's inquiring gaze and brainstormed urgently. For the first time, he hated himself for having a mouth. It was long, so what could he say?

He finally remembered a few bits and pieces and said cautiously, "A biological father and a stepmother, like?"

"Yes," Song Guicheng propped up his chin with one hand, his beautiful eyes curved, "As expected of my little Ba, he still remembers this."

To be honest, the face is good-looking, but the tone is a bit scary.

Xie Siyou swallowed his saliva, hesitated for two seconds, and took out the rational candy that Song Guicheng gave him: "Brother, you...have a candy."

You look like you're losing all your sanity.

Chen Xinke burst out laughing.

Song Guicheng also covered his mouth and laughed, shaking his hands.

It's really fun to entertain children.

He turned to look at Zheng Jiyan and regained his composure: "If she is a stepmother, such an attitude is not strange."

Indeed, if it is the configuration of stepmother and biological father, it can be explained.

But whether it is true or not, I will have to ask the villagers in the farm tomorrow.

Xie Siyou muttered, "This kid is so miserable."

It ’s really miserable. Dad does n’t hurt. Mother does n’t like it. If he dirts the floor, he has to be violent. Today, more than a dozen players picked the apples to pick him alone.

Chen Xinke sighed: "Don't just give birth to a child and treat him badly."

But there are many people who don’t know how to love and yet have children. They don’t know how to love themselves, the people around them, or their own children.

For children, this is also an unexpected disaster...

*

The moon in the sky was getting higher and higher, and gradually it became a complete moon from a broken corner.

The moist moonlight passed through the forest, over the mountains, and gently fell on Song Guicheng's body. He leaned against the window and took out a note from his pocket.

"Brother, is this what Allen gave you?" Xie Siyou stood up in surprise.

Just now, when Song Guicheng and the other three people in the team said that Alan had slipped him a note, they were all surprised.

It's very rare for a dungeon NPC to proactively send clues to players.

There are very few neutral NPCs, and the chances of gaining their favor are even fewer. After all, NPCs are fundamentally different from players. They are fickle and unpredictable, and deliberately trying to gain their favor can easily backfire.

The four players gathered in Room 7, staring in amazement at the yellowed paper that Song Guicheng took out of his pocket.

Song Guicheng didn't want to hide it, so he opened it directly. There was some dried mud on the edge of the paper, and the words on it were crooked, with only three simple lines:

Three days later!

ceremony!!

run! ! !

The number of exclamation marks gradually increased, and the last stroke of the word "run" cut through the paper with a click, leaving a shocking scene, making people's breath stop as the stroke disappeared.

The entire space seemed to have been paused, and a sense of uneasiness suddenly spread.

"Ritual?" Chen Xinke repeated tremblingly, "What ritual?"

It couldn't possibly be a ceremony to send them out of the dungeon.

Song Guicheng shook his head.

He had wasted a lot of time on this copy, but had not yet obtained enough useful information.

Song Guicheng pinched his brows and felt annoyed for a moment. The shock he had received from meeting the priest that time was too great and it disrupted his composure.

He had to admit that he had been slacking off in the past few days and had been unconsciously hesitant and confused.

He looked up at the moonlight falling on him and stretched out his hand to catch something, but only the quiet moonlight covered him with a veil.

Song Guicheng let out a long breath: "We have to hurry up and investigate."

Regardless of whether the ceremony that Allen mentioned three days later was true or not, they had no time to waste. The knife of death was hanging over their heads, urging them to run for their lives.

The silence of the night is like a bottomless pool of water, drowning the life and vitality of the day, leaving behind desolation and loneliness.

Song Guicheng and Chu Wei slept together in Room 7. He lay on his side on the bed, his eyes fixed on the window covered by curtains.

The moon is too gentle tonight.

He listened to the sound of the watch hands ticking by and calculated the time in his mind.

He was waiting, waiting for a deeper darkness, one that would be dark enough to conceal a person's figure.

He plans to visit the hostess's kitchen tonight.