Forces of Temptation

Inger's story is also called "The Girl Stepping on Bread".

She is an extravagant child.

She was like a little dragon, vain and ill-tempered, and fond of luxurious, shiny, ornate objects.

When she went back to her hometown to visit relatives, she passed by the swamp, and because she was afraid of soiling her beautiful shoes, she used the bread that her employer kindly gave her as a pad for her feet.

Stepping on the bread, she unfortunately sank all the way to hell.

Inger was wrapped in a dirty toad and wrapped around his neck with a slimy snake.

She turned into a stone statue that couldn't move at all, and couldn't even bend down to take a bite of the bread she had trampled under her foot.

Her stomach ate itself because of excessive hunger.

Still later, her internal organs began to devour each other.

Because of her disappearance, bad stories about her began to circulate among the people.

Her mother was crying, her employer was sorry, countless strangers mocked and despised, and only one child shed tears for what happened to Inger.

The child asked what she would do if she knew she was wrong.

Inger suffered a long period of torture in hell.

Until the little child who had cried for her was old, saw Inger in hell before his death, and shed tears for her again.

Ingle realized it and cried bitterly. Then, she turned into a silent bird and flew to the sky.

She diligently collected the bread crumbs that were lost and wasted by everyone, and donated little by little to other hungry birds.

Until the bread crumbs she collected accumulated and reached the length of the bread she stepped on.

She fluttered her wings and flew to the sun freely, like Icarus in the myth, and has since disappeared without a trace.

...Dream linkage.

Nan Zhou expressed dissatisfaction with himself: "I should have found out earlier."

There's a lot of overlap between Candy House and The Girl on the Bread.

Hunger, and crumbs, are the two most obvious characterization elements.

One is used to lead the way home, and the other is used to redeem sins.

In addition, the overlapping details have long been left to them.

For example, in "Candy House", the brother and sister are carried across the river by wild ducks, but what they see is an unattractive bird.

After the brother and sister escaped from the candy house, it should be the river that stopped them.

What they saw was a fetid swamp.

Nan Zhou, who considered himself a tenth-level scholar in "Candy House", silently reflected on himself for a while.

Seeing him closing his head and bowing his head, Jiang Fang couldn't help rubbing the back of his neck to comfort him.

Both of them had a rough guess about the direction of the next plot.

Therefore, after Jiang Fang put on his choker again, Li Yinhang, who had fallen into a groggy and hungry sleep after entering the storage compartment, was forcibly captured and asked to answer questions by name.

After getting a general understanding of the plot after he was imprisoned, Li Yinhang rubbed his eyes and roughly extracted the main points of the information: "So, there are two fairy tales in total?"

Jiang Fang added: "In terms of the plot ratio of the two stories, Inger should only be regarded as a side plot."

Teacher Nanzhou strictly demanded: "Don't remind her."

Jiang Fang raised his hands and smiled to say OK.

"Why is only this copy of the game special?"

When Li Yinhang woke up, he also recovered a lot from the shadow of seeing people eating raw people.

Her thinking gradually became active, and the questions she asked gradually had the sharpness of Nanzhou bypassing the chaotic information and directly hitting the core: "The other fairy tales we have experienced are all single-threaded, and there is no such branch plot."

"why……"

Talking to himself for a while, Li Yinhang suddenly realized, and slightly raised his voice: "Is that the sound of eating in the corridor...!"

Nan Zhou and Jiang Fang made a "shh" gesture to her at the same time.

It was only then that Li Yinhang realized that they were still in the middle of the trail, and he covered his mouth suddenly.

The woodcutter in front also heard something, and turned around nervously, his sweaty face flushed like a red-skinned egg.

The three lowered their bodies and squatted side by side in the bushes.

Nan Zhou pressed Li Yinhang's head, and Jiang Fang pressed Nan Zhou's head on his shoulder.

Looking around, the woodcutter felt that he did hear a female voice.

But he was worried that his new wife would come with him, and that she would insult him and throw away the two oil bottles born to his ex-wife. He hugged the two children, quickened his pace, and plunged into the depths of the dense forest without looking back.

Li Yinhang, who was hiding behind the bushes, was nervous and excited at the same time, his heart pounding against her chest.

This feeling is as if she accidentally discovered during the college entrance examination that she has a solution to the penultimate big question that has always been given up tactically.

She looked at Teacher Nan, wanting to verify whether her train of thought was correct.

Nan Zhou nodded without any trace.

What Li Yinhang said did touch on a core issue.

They appear to be playing five discrete games.

But in fact, the overall name of the dungeon is called [Brain Invasion].

In theory, what they're hacking into is a person's brain.

The various divisions of the brain are interconnected and interact with each other, silently reflecting the person's preferences.

What is in the brain often represents what the person has.

[Brain Invasion] The nature of the game in the dungeon is labeled as "exploration" that seems harmless to humans and animals.

Their wandering journey is the process of discovering the person.

After entering the instance, what impressed Nanzhou the most was the regular sound of teeth chewing food that echoed in the corridor.

The sound had a strong sense of presence and lasted for a very long time, only pausing for a while when they walked out of the third door.

This happens to overlap with the nature of the story at hand.

It is precisely because the appetite of the master of the brain is extremely strong that two stories with the theme of hunger interspersed in "Candy House" and "Inger" appeared in this level.

From this point of view, the three levels they have experienced before are manifesting the characteristics of their brains that they are exploring in a tangible and intangible way.

In fact, Li Yinhang performed very well at the very beginning of the dungeon.

As early as entering the library, when Nan Zhou and Li Yinhang were in the bookshelves, she made a discovery about Nan Zhou.

At that time, Li Yinhang said cautiously: "Mr. Nan, don't you think there are too many books here?"

What kind of person can read so many books?

Up to hundreds of bookshelves, enough books to form a maze?

However, while playing around, Li Yinhang forgot this question that was originally raised by her.

Because each level has a different fairytale distraction, she naturally treats all of the games as separate mini-games.

And Nan Zhou never forgot.

Every level he passes through is constantly sending information to help him draw a portrait of the master of the brain.

The portrait was drawn with a stroke of strokes, but gradually formed a treacherous freak.

The rough lines and too many contradictions made the image of this person more and more elusive in Nan Zhou's mind.

Of course, in this extremely time-limited dungeon, it is only suitable for inspiring thinking, not suitable for continuing to analyze calmly.

That's it.

And Nan Zhou also needed to change his environment as soon as possible to help him think.

Appropriate hunger can also speed up the speed of thinking.

Excessive hunger will only make people crazy.

Li Yinhang: "Then shall we follow them?"

She was still a little apprehensive.

What to do if you encounter a witch?

Could it be that the wish of the brother and sister is to kill the witch?

If the witches were also ordinary people who were controlled by the candy house and had to eat people to fill their stomachs, they might still have the power to fight.

So, are they going to hurry up and get ahead of the woodcutter?

This kind of decision-making is not within the scope of Li Yinhang's ability.

She cast her eyes on Nan Zhou for help.

Nan Zhou thought for a while and said, "I also think it has something to do with witches."

As he spoke, he looked at Jiang Fang.

But Jiang Fang did not agree immediately.

Not long after the woodcutter and his brother and sister left, the sound of birdsong gradually gathered here.

Four or five little birds gathered around, pecking at the bread crumbs that my brother had sprinkled on the ground as a guide to go home.

Jiang Fang asked a question: "Why is there a story about Inger?"

Li Yinhang: "...?"

She was confused.

Isn't it because the owner of this brain has too much appetite, so the function of the brain area responsible for the transmission of hunger signals is extremely active?

Didn't they just discuss this issue?

However, after thinking for a while, Nan Zhou resolutely gave up his reasoning, and instead agreed with Jiang Fang's proposal: "You are right."

Li Yinhang: "...huh?"

Whenever this happened, Li Yinhang would feel that he was the foreigner among the three.

"We have gone through three timelines. Now is the fourth." Jiang Fang said, "The four timelines have something in common."

Li Yinhang cautiously guessed: "...are they all hungry?"

Jiang Fang: "Yes. This is one of them."

When escaping from the witch’s house, in the storyline, the elder brother was afraid of getting fat and would be eaten by the witch. He hadn’t eaten for several days, while the younger sister lived in fear and probably had no desire to eat.

Li Yinhang continued to speculate: "If there is anything else—in each timeline, is it when they are in crisis?"

...As soon as the words came out of her mouth, she herself denied her own inference.

In the original timeline, when the two brothers and sisters were digging pits and waiting to eat people, it was obvious that the three guests were in greater danger.

So, what are the other commonalities?

Jiang Fang put forward his conjecture: "What if the four timelines all represent a departure from 'home'."

"The brothers and sisters in the first timeline, they couldn't overcome their appetite, so they took over the candy house and became the masters of the candy house. They seemed to be free, but they were forever tied to the candy house by their appetite and the desire to survive inside."

"In the second timeline, they also couldn't overcome their appetite and ate their father."

"In the third timeline, they were blocked by Daze on their way home."

"It stands to reason that if what happened to them was the 'most fearful moment in their lives', I think that in the fourth timeline, the brother and sister should be imprisoned by a witch, and we should witness how they killed the witch."

"But no."

Li Yinhang suddenly realized: "We have arrived at the timeline when the two of them were abandoned by their father—"

These moments, for both children, symbolized moments in their lives when they departed from home.

Haunted by starvation, forced to live in a place that cannot be called "home".

Dominated by hunger, he destroyed his "home" with his own hands.

Being blocked by Daze, he was unable to return to "home" for a time.

Abandoned by his father, and aware of this, he still leans on his father's back and drifts away from "home".

In the timeline starring brother and sister, the presence of a witch threatens their lives.

It may scare them, but it doesn't make them feel extra pain.

They stumbled and supported each other, making irreparable mistakes along the way.

Players, like them, experience the gnawing hunger and uneasiness, rush all the way in reverse, and walk the road they have walked.

However, the prayer implied by the brothers and sisters under the surface of many wishes is just to go home.

Although it is not warm, it means heaven to the two children, and there is a father's home.

The brothers and sisters in the first world line really couldn't express their wishes.

At that time, the two brothers and sisters had no other desires except to eat people.

Because what they really want is long gone.

Jiang Fang said: "So, I think the existence and insertion of Inger is a dark thread."

Li Yinhang finally understood: "Little Bird, is it a 'savior' role?"

She became excited again: "Does that mean that it can also save us, as long as we find half a piece of bread—"

"Edible bread." Nanzhou added, "It said that it doesn't want the bread in the candy house."

Li Yinhang became active, and even the sharp hunger in his stomach was not obvious: "Then let's go to the big lake to find the little bird first, and ask it—"

Nan Zhou didn't speak, and raised his hand to point not far away.

Among the birds that came to peck at the bread crumbs, at some point, a familiar small bird with mixed hairs was mixed in.

But it just poked its neck, pecking at some bread crumbs in the corners of the grass, with a girlish demeanor.

The woodcutter and his brother and sister have gone far away.

So Nanzhou walked out of the hiding place frankly, and stood still in front of it.

He cut to the chase: "If I give you half a piece of bread, can you take us to the door to leave?"

Li Yinhang: "..." Can you be so direct?

The bird stopped moving and looked at the three of them quietly.

It made a girly voice: "Yes."

Nan Zhou: "Will you always be here?"

It said, "You can find me by the swamp."

After finishing speaking, it flapped its short wings and flew into the distance.

Seeing that he had a goal and had the possibility of getting out of this endless hunger hell, Li Yinhang hurriedly said: "Then let's go!"

Seeing Li Yinhang walking towards the cabin, Nanzhou and the others did not immediately follow.

"Do you want to tell her?" Nan Zhou asked Jiang Fang, "My business."

Jiang Fang asked back, "Now? Here?"

Nan Zhou thought for a while: "Yeah. Let's talk about it after taking her out."

Before the end of the dungeon, there are still about ten hours to go.

At least for the next period of time, they need trust and relatively stable emotions.

Let's explain it to Li Yinhang after they release the copy of [Brain Invasion].