Forces of Temptation

Nan Zhou had a dream.

It's not so much a dream, it's more like a transitional plot before the script begins.

He was buried in a suffocated space, as if there was a great force pressing on his chest, forcing him to be unable to breathe.

He could only use all his strength to push away the burden on his chest and in front of him, like an ant trying to survive, struggling to swing its tentacles and joints, trying to get out of the hard soil and find a thread in the infinite darkness A way to live.

Finally, fresh air and sunlight slowly seeped through the increasingly loose soil.

Nan Zhou finally came under the sun.

He briefly enjoyed the joy of freedom.

But the blazing sun soon brought sharp, burning pain.

Nanzhou's body started to catch fire.

He wanted to escape from where the sun could reach, but his power couldn't touch the sun beyond the sky.

The omnipresent sunlight ignited a monstrous fire on his body.

The fire was raging towards the sky, and Xinxin's flames rolled all the way, but it still couldn't touch the sun at all.

Nan Zhou exhausted his last bit of energy and looked up, trying to see where the sun was, so he could find a shady place around him.

Immediately, he found that it seemed that it was not the sun that hung high above his reach.

...but a convex lens.

This is a game that many people played as children.

In the children's laughter, a single ant has nowhere to hide, and the sunlight refracted by the convex lens is firmly aimed at it. Green smoke slowly rises from its body until its limbs are convulsed and curled up.

For ants, this is an absolute catastrophe.

But to humans, this is just a slightly cruel game.

In the lingering pain, Nan Zhou supported the bed with both hands, turned over and sat up suddenly.

A few seconds later, Nan Zhou slowly lay down again.

He was in no hurry to open his eyes.

With one hand on his chest, he breathed evenly, allowing his senses to quickly recover from the confusion of the illusion, so as not to mistake the illusion for reality again.

However, the moment he opened his eyes, Nan Zhou questioned: "...Huh?"

Everything in front of me is too familiar.

The self-made wall calendar on the wall shows that the date is August 8th.

On the table is a diary spread out.

Next to the half-painted watercolors is a palette that hasn't had time to be cleaned.

Nan Zhou turned around and lifted the pillow, and there was a copy of "The Interpretation of Dreams" underneath.

He immediately raised his hand and made a gesture to wake up the game menu.

The tree of life in the background has withered, leaving only an old branch, and all the vitality and hope have been exchanged by them for the last card.

...which proves that he is still in the game.

And when the tidal tinnitus subsided, a familiar and gentle chirping sounded outside the window.

Nan Zhou raised his legs and got off the ground.

The pair of slippers that he will never wear out are placed in his memory.

He kicked off the slippers, his shirt was slightly unbuttoned, and went straight to the window, and opened the half-covered window.

The originally dim sky suddenly brightened in a room.

Nan Zhou noticed that there were no apple trees outside his window.

And the source of the chirping sound was captured by him in an instant.

——It was a round, plump little bird with yellow hair and a short beak.

Every morning since he can remember, this bird will always appear in front of his window.

Nanzhou has calculated that it will stay in front of its window for 6 seconds every morning at 50 o'clock sharp, rain or shine like an alarm clock, just to call a few times.

Sing for 50 seconds, and it will leave by itself.

Even if Nanzhou opened the window, it would not have the startle reaction that any creature should have, and would sing its own song, come on time, and leave on time.

When Nan Zhou was a teenager, he also tried to catch the bird into the room and not allow it to leave, hoping to see what would happen the next day.

This bird, which has no self-awareness and only obeys the established instructions, fluttered around the house for a day and a night, from east to west, tirelessly, without making a sound.

The boy Nan Zhou also stayed up all night, guarding it, wanting to see what would happen.

At 6 a.m. the next morning, the chirp rang out of the closed window on time.

The young Nan Zhou ran to the window with a little joy, thinking that he had really changed something.

Before opening the window, he turned his head and announced to the little yellow bird resting on the bookshelf seriously: "I found another bird for you."

He didn't have a creature who could keep him company and understand him, but it would be nice to have a new bird to befriend this bird.

However, when he opened the window, there was nothing outside the window.

When he was in a trance, the bird in the house leaned over and rushed out from the gap in the window, and landed on the familiar place on the window, singing loudly.

The melodious chirping sound lasted for 50 seconds, then he flapped his wings and turned to leave.

In Neverland, there has never been and never will be a second bird.

Even the first bird was Schrödinger's bird.

Before he opened the window, no one knew whether it was birds outside or the chirping at 6 o'clock on time.

……

This time, when he opened the window and saw the bird again, Nan Zhou was not surprised at all.

He even politely greeted the little yellow bird whom he hadn't seen for a long time: "Hello."

Immediately, he stepped on the window frame with one foot and jumped upstairs without hesitation.

Artificially creating the feeling of weightlessness and heart palpitations is the best way to force yourself to wake up from dreams or hallucinations.

When his feet landed firmly and the surrounding scene remained unchanged, Nan Zhou sighed lightly.

So, it's not a dream, it's not a hallucination.

Unless he is in a deep sleep where he cannot wake up unless he commits suicide, this is the copy he will go through.

...he returned to Neverland.

Where everything has not yet begun.

The pouring sunlight shone on him, bringing endless warmth.

Nan Zhou thought, where is Brother Fang?

What about his teammates?

Are they scattered in the small town, or are they not in this instance at all?

Nanzhou recalled today's date.

Fortunately, this is an extremely ordinary day, not a day of extreme day when Guangmei is active, nor a day of full moon that will bring weakness.

Even if Yinhang and the others are lost in Neverland, the residents of Neverland during the day will not cause any harm to them.

What's more, Jiang Fang has been here before, he knows the way.

Nan Zhou wanted to try to wait for him here.

So, what is the mission of the game dungeon?

It seems that he has received this question, and the task description of the dungeon is long overdue.

That voice was different from usual, dull, with an inorganic coldness.

[Dear player, Nan Zhou, hello. 】

[Welcome to the copy: Ant Train]

【Number of people participating in the game: 1 people】

[Dungeon nature: ... rustle... escape... sand...]

【I wish you a happy game... Sha...】

Suddenly, the voice that seemed to be losing its signal gave a clear and deep laugh.

That kind of mechanical smile is enough to make people's hair stand on end for an instant.

[Do you really feel happy in the game? 】

[Your life is a ridiculous story written by others, you should be very used to this kind of thing. 】

[It's really sad. 】

【Whatever, try to escape from here, even so, it's just escaping into the next story. 】

[Unless you can find a ticket and get on the train away from the tragedy. 】

[Departure time is 12 hours later. 】

[Try to catch the train, but it doesn't matter if you can't. 】

【Because this is your home. 】

Nan Zhou listened to the rule statement quietly without changing his expression.

He didn't notice at all that the Gaowei people were taunting him with the mouth of the rules.

He had already thought about the life that should be thought about when he was catching birds when he was a child.

He only noticed the amount of information after the taunt.

First, the "Cubic Ark" was indeed taken apart.

He is the only one in Yongwu Town now, Brother Fang, Yinhang, Chen Sufeng and Yuan Mingqing are probably all dismantled, and they are looking for tickets to successfully board the train that stops at an unknown station.

Second, no matter what missions other people have received, his temporary mission goal is to escape from this world, find the so-called "ticket" and board the train.

And... "ants"?

Nan Zhou couldn't help but think of the too real fantasy dream he experienced before waking up.

In that dream, he was burned alive from the perspective of an ant.

Is that some kind of metaphor?

Or some kind of hint?

Thinking of this, Nan Zhou heaved a sigh of relief.

As the voice said, it must not be a good feeling to wake up and return to the origin alone.

Fortunately, Nanzhou's distress never showed on his face.

His thinking will never delay his action.

He put on the "life and death" glasses.

In the next second, a cloth puppet leaned on a tree more than ten meters away, and poked out half of its head in a naive manner.

Nan Zhou pushed the glasses frame.

The thousand-ren puppet silk thread started from Nanzhou's pupil and spread out in all directions.

Nanzhou knew that it was almost impossible to escape from this world through formal means.

He has lived in Neverland for 24 years and explored it for 24 years.

If "Gravity" hadn't knocked open a gap leading to the outside world for him, he might be trapped here for the rest of his life.

After countless explorations, he already knew that there was a square transparent frame that firmly enclosed him in Neverland.

That was also the fourth wall that clearly separated him from the human world where Jiang Fang lived.

Of course, Nanzhou would not expect a gap to be opened out of thin air on the fourth wall.

Since the apple tree has not been planted yet, the current time point must be before the official launch of "Gravity".

It is also impossible to borrow other players to leave.

Therefore, the goal becomes simpler.

...to find out if there is something missing from the world, or something more.

This must contain the core clue of escaping from the world.

In the normal world, this is a huge amount of work that is absolutely impossible to accomplish.

Fortunately, Yongwu Town is limited in size and operates regularly. It is a precision machine.

When the author does not arrange the plot, the residents of Neverland are a group of walking corpses with flesh and blood, like the little fat bird, doing everything the author asks them to do step by step.

The housewife is always shopping for vegetables, the students are always in class, and the children are always chasing and playing, carefree.

The "Eternal Day" comic ended when Nan Zhou was 19 years old.

After that, the author's absolute control over the dungeon was greatly weakened, and Nanzhou, who had a certain strength, was finally able to have a little influence on the characters in the dungeon.

But even so, normal residents of Neverland have limited responses to what their paper heads can comprehend.

In other words, even if the stuffed dolls roam the streets or openly enter their homes, they will not show any surprise to these guests.

Nanzhou released all the puppets, opened up the field of vision on the whole map, and relied on their eyes to search every corner of the town with the highest efficiency possible.

It is not only looking for an exit, but also looking for a ticket.

As for himself...

Nan Zhou turned around and returned to his room.

Taking him to open the door as a signal naturally triggered the daily "say hello" plot.

Two smiling faces poked out from different rooms.

Dad: "Are you back?"

Mom: "Are you back?"

Exactly the same opening remarks, common smiling faces.

Nan Zhou greeted them as usual: "Yes."

...It's been a long time.

With his own room as the center, he launched a search simultaneously.

With the help of the puppet, Nanzhou's search time was greatly shortened.

About an hour later, through the eyes of a puppet, Nan Zhou found a pitch-black iron box on the desk in the studio of the school where he worked as an art teacher.

The box is quite exquisite, it is a rectangular box of 50cmx30cmx25cm, the surface is engraved with fine and dense dark patterns, and a lock is placed on it.

The dolls made by Yi Shuige are both rough and fine. The doll who found the box has both hands in ball shape, like Doraemon, and it is impossible to perform such precise movements as opening the lock.

Of course, Nanzhou can let the puppet destroy the box from a distance, in case there are any traps in the box.

However, even though the box was no longer that box, Nan Zhou recognized at a glance that the lock on it was the one that was locked in the first copy [Xiao Ming's Daily] that he had with Brother Fang and Yin Hang. Small brass lock for the invoice box.

... exactly the same.

He didn't destroy the box rashly, but let the puppet take the box back home.

Nan Zhou, who had practiced quietly and had reached 5 in lockpicking skills, opened this elementary lock very easily.

He reached out to hold the box.

The box tentacles are as cold as a sheet of ice.

He pushed aside the lugs, twisted the lock body, and after removing the lock, lifted the brass piece.

He was not in a hurry to open it, but put his fingertips against the copper piece, thinking: Can we find it so soon?

He was still suspicious of what was in the box, so he waited quietly.

After another hour, after confirming that there was nothing strange in the town other than the box in front of him, Nan Zhou opened the box with his backhand and looked intently——

Everything that caught his eyes caused Nan Zhou's expression to change slightly.

...He saw a scaled down, exactly the same Neverland.

The box that was originally in the closed darkness, because he opened the lid, the sun shines in an instant.

Nanzhou seems to be the god who injects sunshine into the world.

When the sunlight hit the box in front of him, Nan Zhou suddenly felt dizzy, his body and mind sank together, and he fell into a bottomless darkness.

What woke him up was the all-too-familiar bird song.

When I opened my eyes again, I saw a little yellow bird squatting on the window lattice, singing high and low.

There are still buildings in Never Town all around, but he is no longer in the room, but in a woodland opposite his house.

The box in his hand was also missing.

Before Nan Zhou could escape from the stunned and puzzled, not far away, his own window was pushed open from the inside.

Immediately afterwards, Nan Zhou took a breath.

He saw himself.

...exactly the same as myself.

That self leaned out of the window, grabbing a small handful of corn kernels in his hand.

The little fat bird stopped singing, twisted its chubby body to peck at it, and obediently let Nan Zhou stroke the soft down on its forehead.

As if it came to sing just to beg for this breakfast.

Nan Zhou was in a daze.

In the "Never Town" where he came, the little fat bird had never been fed by Nanzhou like this.

...and did not actively stay for more than 50 seconds.

Nan Zhou hid behind the tree trunk, with his back against the rough bark, opened his mouth slightly, and used his mouth to help him breathe, so that he could barely keep the rhythm and sound of his breathing from being too heavy.

He had to think of something else to distract himself.

Here... where is it?

Is it a world in a box?

Did he escape from the original world?still--

The next moment, another thing happened that was completely out of his expectation.

A knock on the door came from the direction of his door.

A gentle and smiling young voice sounded behind him: "Nanzhou, I made breakfast, do you want to eat?"

Nan Zhou's heart beat wildly.

He poked his head out and found his neighbor's courtyard and gate open.

A figure in pajamas stood at the door of his house, with his back to him, a head of silver hair that hadn't had time to take care of it, and was casually and softly draped over his shoulders.

Only by the figure, Nan Zhou recognized that it was Jiang Fang.

……Do not.

To be precise, it was Jiang Fang in a box.