A Midnight Escape Story for Farmers

After two weeks, Fang Shiqing stepped into this bar again.

The environment here has hardly changed.There is brisk music playing in the store, the bartenders in front of the bar are busy, and most of the guests around are sitting alone bored, only having brief conversations occasionally. The overall atmosphere is more suitable for sleeping than drinking and having fun.

Gu Jinhong was also working in the store unshakably today. He was wearing a uniform of a waiter, and he was a little surprised when he saw them.

"Why are you here?"

"Well, it's not convenient to go back today." Fang Shiqing said vaguely.

Gu Jinhong was at work, and the guests had just entered the venue, which was the busiest time. He didn't have time to listen to people's detailed explanations, so he walked away quickly.

Xiao Fengdi sat down directly by the bar and started talking to the bartender.

"Are you still drinking Coke today?" He turned his head and asked Fang Shiqing.

When I came here last time, Fang Shiqing was the only one among the men who drank drinks with the girls.

It seems that this has left a deep impression on the boss, he smiled wryly and said: "No, I can't drink Coke all the time... let's change it to Hedy this time."

Xiao Fengdi smiled, and ordered a completely non-alcoholic drink with him.

The bartender didn't show any disgust or surprise, just calmly prepared drinks for them, just like a machine running steadily.

Fang Shiqing couldn't help but secretly looked at him.

The boss said that this bartender was once a human... However, now his real consciousness has been erased, and the basic data is used to reconstruct the NPC in front of him.

He looks like an introverted and shy ordinary person, no different from any NPC, without any doubts about the world in front of him, just focusing on the life and work in front of him.

When serving drinks, Xiao Fengdi greeted him and chatted casually.

The bartender still remembers them, and he doesn’t shy away when asked about them. Instead, he talks about his daily life in a flat manner: work, rest, chatting with customers, talking about a girlfriend who is a local, and the two may not have a relationship. What a deep love, but the conditions are suitable.

When asked about his family, he said they were all out of town, and when asked when he would go home, he just shook his head in a daze, unable to say why.

It is "unable to speak out", not "unwilling to speak out".It can be felt that he himself does not know the reasons behind his actions, and does not think at all.

The NPCs here do not have the ability to "know the outside world" and "acquire new knowledge".In the beginning, the game system can only maintain as much information as it has recorded for them.

Fang Shiqing was filled with emotion.

——he almost became like this once.

It wasn't until this time that he felt a little bit afraid.

Do I really want this kind of life—this kind of life that loses its personality and only follows the prescribed routine, in a game world like Hakoniwa?

He thinks this kind of fear is very despicable, because it is based on the failure of others and his own survival, a kind of lucky psychology of survivors.

But at this moment, it actually exists.

He really wanted to hold Xiao Fengdi's hand, and use all his heart to thank this benefactor who was willing to take the risk to give him a hand.

Being able to get to know Xiao Fengdi was one of the best things he could think of, and it was one of the best things he had ever experienced; it was also this incident that made him feel that perhaps he could still live a good life, since some people hoped to do so.

"Is it good?" Xiao Fengdi suddenly turned his head and asked.

The bartender has already gone to other jobs, and there are only two of them left at the bar counter.

"...delicious." He answered honestly.

"Then drink more. The drinks in the game don't hurt your body, you can drink more."

The other party's eyes stayed on him, and the light in the bar was dim, so they couldn't see each other's expressions clearly.But his voice was soft, like when he said "I want to be nice to you".

Fang Shiqing was a little ashamed, and felt that the tone was completely coaxing children, and he was extremely doting and almost bottomless - but he was an adult after all, even if he hadn't tasted it in reality, he would never like this kind of thing. Can't stop like a child.

Seeing that Gu Jinhong was busy with work and came back to them in time, he pushed the cup away and began to briefly explain to Gu Jinhong why they came here.

"—a young girl with long black hair." Gu Jinhong repeated thoughtfully, and stretched out his hands to gesture on both sides of his head, "Long black hair, is it the kind of hairstyle that looks very like an animation character?"

"Yes, yes, the standard black is long and straight. Why, have you seen it?"

"I'm not sure if it's the one you mentioned," Gu Jinhong said, "However, when I sang on stage a few days ago, I did see such a girl—she looks like a doll."

It was impossible for him to notice the seams in her joints under those conditions, but he still noticed the abnormality of the girl.

He thinks that his singing is quite provocative, and he can attract the attention of almost all the audience, cheering and indulging with him.But the girl just stood in a corner, with an elusive smile on her face, quietly observing everything around her.

Like a piece of art that was placed there.

And every time after singing, he couldn't see the girl, and thought she had gone upstairs to rest.

"So is she here tonight?"

"I won't sing today," Gu Jinhong shook his head, "Sing the day after tomorrow, do you want to come?"

"Well," Xiao Fengdi interjected, "I'll come here by myself, so don't follow me." The latter sentence was said by the other party, Shiqing.

Fang Shiqing opened his mouth and said nothing, but Gu Jinhong asked in surprise, "Why? That girl doesn't look dangerous, so there's no need for people to avoid it."

"Whether it's dangerous or not will only be known after investigation."

"By the way," Fang Shiqing remembered, "Actually, I saw her again this afternoon, just outside the delivery point."

He briefly explained what happened in the afternoon, Xiao Fengdi frowned and said, "You just asked him to return that doll? You should have shown it to me first."

"...I'm sorry, I forgot." Fang Shiqing apologized awkwardly, he really completely forgot, "However, in fact, I also have a similar wooden figurine, which was given by the same NPC, although I don't know if it is the same Something... I'll bring it to you tomorrow?"

"—You have them too?" This time Xiao Fengdi stood up directly, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"...I'm sorry," Fang Shiqing became more and more embarrassed, "I didn't have time to say it before. I'm sorry, boss, next time I will definitely tell you earlier."

Gu Jinhong leaned on the bar, quietly observing their interaction, as if he had noticed something.

Xiao Fengdi thought for a moment, then suddenly asked: "Where is that black-haired girl every time she appears?"

Gu Jinhong came back to his senses and took them to a corner in front of the song stage.

It was indeed just an ordinary corner of the bar, nothing special.

However, Xiao Fengdi bent down and began to carefully search for something around him, and soon he pulled out a palm-sized object from the seat gap a few steps away.

——It is a female doll made of wood.

"..."

Fang Shiqing and Gu Jinhong looked at each other, each a little surprised, but also vaguely aware of something.

He took the doll from Xiao Fengdi, turned on the flashlight and looked at it: "Yes, it looks the same as other dolls I've seen, and it must have been made by Carpenter Wang."

Is this doll left here by Carpenter Wang?

"Well," Xiao Fengdi looked at the puppet, "Now I roughly know what it is."

"——This is a stand-in."

"……what?"

After that, Gu Jinhong was quickly called away by the guests.The two sat back in front of the bar and continued to drink refills while explaining about the dolls.

Speaking of the word "substitute", the first thing that comes to Fang Shiqing's mind is "substitute doll".This is a common prop in the game, and its effect is usually to offset the death of a character.

But that's obviously not the meaning here.

"A more accurate term should be 'a body that can be replaced'." Xiao Fengdi shook the cup lightly, looking down at the bubbles floating up. "It means literally."

Fang Shiqing suddenly remembered the common scenes in fantasy novels: a certain boss was destroyed by the protagonist, but his soul managed to escape back to his lair, and he found his spare body made of other materials before, and his soul and body were united for the second time. Another [-] chapters against the protagonist...

"Yes, you are right." Xiao Fengdi did not deny this, "Some monsters with special abilities can strip their spirits from their bodies and temporarily put them into empty bodies prepared in advance—this kind of empty The body is the 'stand-in'."

The owner of the "stand-in" can switch consciousness between different stand-ins at any time, just like a network administrator can connect to different computers in the network at any time-just like a god can descend on his own sculpture at any time.

"That is to say," Fang Shiqing also understood, "assuming that these wooden dolls are the substitutes of a certain monster, then it only needs to prepare a few more dolls and place them in different locations in the town, and it can reach the town at any time by switching its body." any place?"

"Yes." Xiao Fengdi nodded, "If you guessed correctly, the same doll is probably hidden by the side of the road where you first encountered it. I'll go find it tomorrow. By the way, there Before I go back with you, you have to give me the doll you received."

He made clear arrangements for tomorrow's plan in a few words.Now that the usefulness of the doll has been discovered, the biggest question remains.

"So, who is the master of these substitutes—that monster that appeared in front of us...?"

Will it be Carpenter Wang?But no matter how you look at it, he is just an ordinary human NPC?

"I don't know. Anyway, it will definitely come again, let's talk about it later."

That night they still spent the night on the sofa in the rest area, and when they woke up in the morning, Fang Shiqing found that he was wearing Xiao Fengdi's coat.

In the past two days, he has been bombarded with various "just want to treat you better" operations, and he has become a little numb.

Xiao Fengdi himself was not at the side, he hung his coat in his arms, and when he died, he found Gu Jinhong waiting opposite him, looking at him with quite special eyes.

"..." Fang Shiqing looked around himself, "Do I have any questions?"

"No, no." Gu Jinhong looked at the coat in his hand and said nothing.

When he packed up and went out, Xiao Fengdi had already gone to the library and came back, and there was another wooden doll in his hand, which was still stained with mud.

"It was dug out from under a certain street tree." He showed the doll to Fang Shiqing, then took the coat from his hand and put it on, "Let's go, go back to your farm."

Fang Shiqing and Gu Jinhong said goodbye, followed his steps with a wry smile: "Well, boss, it's actually not cold in the bar at all, you don't have to..."

He pointed to the dress.

"Isn't it cold?" Xiao Fengdi looked at him, "But you almost shrank into a ball in the middle of the night."

"..."

That's just because of sleeping position.

Fang Shiqing is in poor health in reality, and his sleeping position has been specially corrected. Usually, he can lie flat all night without pressing his heart; but once he lies on his side, he will unconsciously retract his limbs and hug his shoulders with his hands.Curl yourself into a ball as small as possible - psychologically, this is a sign of a person's lack of security.

But this cannot be said clearly.Seeing that he was speechless, Xiao Fengdi pressed his shoulder and said comfortingly: "It's okay, I'm not cold at all at night."

"...Well, anyway, thank you last night."

Back at the farm, Fang Shiqing took Xiao Fengdi to his hut, and unexpectedly found a notice on the door.

"What is this?"

Fang Shiqing took off the piece of paper, opened it and took a look at it.

"Oh, I received that one too." Xiao Fengdi recognized it at a glance. He just picked up the exact same thing at the entrance of the library. "It's a holiday arrangement."

This should have been sent by the mayor or other staff yesterday, and it should have been delivered to them, but neither of them were at their jobs yesterday afternoon.

"Festival? What kind of festival? Are there any special festivals in spring? Shouldn't it be..."

Fang Shiqing was looking for keywords in the notice. Considering the "Arbor Day" last time, he had no hope for the game's festival design...

as predicted.

"It's the Dragon Boat Festival." Xiao Fengdi said.

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

Happy New Year everyone...! ! !

In the new year, I hope everyone can be happy and healthy!

The author has returned to his hometown these days, and it is inconvenient to do anything. After returning, he will give out red envelopes or add updates!