Forces of Temptation

"...you slept too long today."

Amidst the noise of the children drifting away and the sound of the wings of moths chasing lamps close at hand, Jiang Fang hugged him by the shoulders and whispered softly without hearing: "If you sleep for too long, your spirit will be bad." .”

Nan Zhou gritted his teeth, to get over the numbness and tiredness rising from inside his body.

He slowly squeezed the uncomfortable air out of his teeth, trying not to let out a low moan.

...He is really uncomfortable today.

So after waking up, he just stood at the door, restraining his curiosity about this grotesque and complete small world of the walled city, and didn't go anywhere.

He didn't even go to see Jiang Fang playing mahjong.

Nanzhou tried his best to suppress the disordered breathing rhythm.

Jiang Fang also hugged him, stroking his second vertebra tolerantly and tenderly - the place just a finger away from the tooth marks on the back of Nan Zhou's neck.

He pretended that he couldn't hear the clear and broken breathing like the wind in his ears.

Nan Zhou suspects that Jiang Fang has discovered his secret.

But Jiang Fang didn't ask any more questions, and he didn't have any evidence to support his judgment, so he could only swallow the question by himself.

After Nan Zhou recovered completely, he took a step back with a calm expression: "Let's go back."

Jiang Fang didn't object either: "Okay."

When Jiang Fang and Nan Zhou returned to the room, Li Yinhang had just put down the pen and paper in his hand.

She clipped the pen to her ear, "Hey, you guys are back so soon."

She also thought that due to Nanzhou's feline nature, she would wander around the city and play until midnight before returning home.

Jiang Fang laughed and said, "He found me, and we came back together."

Li Yinhang didn't think much about it.

The three sat together and had a small meeting.

As a very self-aware tool man, Li Yinhang simply sorted out the points, props and levels currently held by everyone.

According to her calculations, Nanzhou's points are 4815 points, level 12, a total of 5 storage compartments can be used, and she holds the A-level prop "Countercurrent Clock Hand" and the B-level prop "Ma Liang's Sketchbook".

In addition to the two props, there is also a dagger in his storage compartment, and a mushroom corpse whose oxygen has not been completely consumed.

After offsetting their food and drink expenses at Douzhuan Casino, Jiang Fang made a net profit of 400 points.

In the end, Jiang Fang gambled and bet almost all the points that Nanzhou and Li Yinhang had. After discussion, the 400 points will be used for their consumption in the past few days, and they are public property.

Jiang Fang's points are currently the highest in "Cubic Ark", with a total of 4890 points and a level of 12.

He also has 5 storage slots available, and holds the B-level consumable item "Secret of the Clown".

In his storage compartment, there are still two items that he exchanged for points before entering the first instance.

A small tin can of fruit jelly, worth 10 points, a total of 20 pieces.

Item Description: A must-have product that can supplement high-quality sugar for hypoglycemic patients.

If exchanging a jar of sugar is within the scope of normal people's comprehension, then Jiang Fang spent 50 points in exchange for another item, which is beyond the standard.

He bought an apple sapling.

Item description: Want to eat fresh apples?Put it in the storage compartment and try it out for a year.

...Goddamn try it for the last year.

In the original game world view of "Gravity", farming style is also considered one of the mainstream gameplays, so it is not surprising that apple saplings are sold in stores.

But this did not prevent Li Yinhang from thinking that Jiang Fang was engaging in performance art.

Li Yinhang's thigh hugging effect is also quite remarkable.

Her current points are 4660, her level is 12, and she holds the B-level waste prop "ghost grinder".

After listening to Li Yinhang's summary, Nan Zhou was concerned about another matter: "How much is the ranking?"

Li Yinhang looked at the records he had made: "As for the team... our current ranking is 172nd in the server."

Currently, the server in China where they are located has a total of 16800 online players.

The "Cubic Ark" team ranked 172nd.

In terms of individual rankings, Nanzhou ranked 723rd, Jiangfang ranked 720th, and Li Yinhang ranked 888th.

It can be seen that most of the players in the game are struggling with a score of several thousand, trying their best to get a mouthful of oxygen and a mouthful of food.

They either bite the bullet and go through the barriers to earn pitifully few points, or sell themselves in exchange for meager living supplies, or simply bite their teeth and fight for a chance to turn a bicycle into a motorcycle in the Douzhuan Casino.

But anyway, they are online.

Online, at least means alive.

There are so many lives that were wiped out of the ranking sequence in the first level or even the trial level.

For such a result, Li Yinhang couldn't figure it out: "Why is our team ranked so high?"

It stands to reason that the first choice of most normal people after entering the game would be to form a group instead of fighting alone, so the number of teams must be considerable.

Team members can be capped at a maximum of five.

They are a trio and do not have an advantage in numbers.

The more people there are, the more scores should there be in theory?

Moreover, in terms of the number of games played alone, "Cube Ark" should even be classified as a newcomer.

They have just passed a level, why are they so close?

After listening to Li Yinhang's confusion, Jiang Fang explained: "Yinhang, you are talking about the ideal state."

Li Yinhang was at a loss.

Nan Zhou sat by the bed, traced the seams of the floor tiles with his toes, and took Jiang Fang's words: "Because the more people in the team, the more opinions, the greater the probability of death, and the greater the possibility of score fluctuations."

Li Yinhang: "..." Although this statement was simple and rude, she understood it in no time.

As he said that, Nan Zhou raised his head and said seriously: "So we 'Li Ark' can't kill anyone, not even one."

Looking at Nan Zhou's calm but solemn face, Li Yinhang was inevitably moved.

But before she could forcefully say the declaration "None of us will die", Jiang Fang took out his beautiful little sugar bowl: "I have candy, can you eat it?"

Nan Zhou immediately turned around: "Eat."

Li Yinhang: ... Gan.

You also need to look at the atmosphere when you eat.

On the other side, Nan Zhou chewed the fudge at a constant speed, added the second half of the sentence he hadn't finished just now, and successfully dispelled the warm atmosphere that had nothing left: "Once someone dies, we will also lose track."

He said this while looking at Li Yinhang, obviously thinking that both he and Jiang Fang were safe.

Li Yinhang thought sadly, the big brother is right, I will try my best not to die, not to hold back.

"Also, Yinhang—"

Speaking of this, Nanzhou slightly lengthened the ending, as if to emphasize something important.

Li Yinhang immediately cheered up and pricked up his ears.

"Why do you say we are at the top?" Nanzhou asked sincerely, "Our team is only ranked in the top 100, which is very bad."

Li Yinhang: "...I'm sorry, I'm too careless."

"Don't worry." Jiang Fang reassured the two, "Let's rest here for a few days."

Nan Zhou and Li Yinhang asked him in unison: "How many days?"

What Nanzhou cares about is the ranking.

What Li Yinhang cared about was the rent.

When Jiang Fang was able to properly handle his emotions, he was still the gentle and good-tempered Jiang Fang.

He smiled: "I don't need to do the task today."

Li Yinhang: "It's definitely not going to work today. You can only check out before 12:[-] noon every day, and today's room fee has already been added."

Nan Zhou held the soft candy in his mouth, heaved a sigh of relief, moved from the side of the bed to the middle of the bed, and lay down.

Sensing his intention, Li Yinhang was a little surprised: "Are you going to sleep again?"

Nan Zhou: "Yes. It's getting dark."

Li Yinhang opened the bedside table: "Let's eat something. I went to buy breakfast in the morning. It was originally 5 points for each, but I bargained down the price to 10 points for 3 points..."

Nan Zhou closed his eyes and softly refused: "I'm eating candy."

He was very tired and had no energy, and a chill was oozing from the cracks in his bones.

He didn't like this feeling, but there was nothing he could do.

This is Nan Zhou's disease, and there is no cure.

Nan Zhou thought that as long as his wish came true, everything would be better.

However, not long after his head sank into the soft pillow, he sat up suddenly.

Li Yinhang was startled: "What's wrong?"

Nan Zhou opened his eyes and said without thinking, "...the pillow."

Jiang Fang: "...Huh?"

Nan Zhou turned around: "There is something under the pillow."

It was only then that Li Yinhang remembered that Jiang Fang and Nan Zhou's pillows still had a men's and women's knowledge promotion magazine.

When she was about to explain, Jiang Fang had already taken out the magazine from under the pillow.

When he saw the cover, he raised his eyebrows slightly.

Li Yinhang hurriedly explained the source of the little yellow book.

As expected, Jiang Fang was not very interested. After hearing the calendar, he put it on the bedside table.

While Li Yinhang was speaking, Nan Zhou kept rubbing his temples, but his eyes fell on the two men on the magazine cover out of the corner of his eye, unable to hide his curiosity.

Probably because he didn't like this kind of eye-catching things being placed where he could see them casually, Nan Zhou took the magazine and put it back under the pillow, and then lay back on his own.

This is just an ordinary episode, and no one takes it to heart.

Nan Zhou didn't take out the book from under the pillow again.

Next, they rested in the Walled City for three days.

Everything was smooth and nothing weird happened.

Except that Nan Zhou woke up on time at 28 o'clock the next morning, swept away the lethargy and fatigue of yesterday, and visited all [-] floors of the ring city, there was nothing special.

During the rest period, Jiang Fang, Nanzhou, and Li Yinhang's human oxygen cylinders ran out one after another.

After refilling the oxygen balance, they found three vacancies in a nearby cemetery, buried the bodies of the three players in them, and hand-carved three tombstones symbolically for them.

Until now, they only know that the real name of the first "ghost" they caught was Liu Xiao.

They didn't know Fatty's real name, nor did they know whether Qin Yadong's name was Qin Yadong.

Of course, they may never know for the rest of their lives.

After burying the three corpses that had accompanied them for some time, Nan Zhou went to the mall page and selected a new checkpoint with a face value of 100 points.

This time, they still intend to choose the PVE mode.

Jiang Fang asked Nan Zhou, "Are you sure?"

Nan Zhou: "Yes."

Li Yinhang also agreed, and analyzed: "In the PVE mode, it seems that the probability of obtaining props is higher."

This time, Nanzhou's answer was a moment late: "...well."

Nanzhou chose PVE, not entirely for points and props.

When hesitating whether to choose PVP to see the difference from PVE, he inexplicably thought of the barefoot monk in Tsing Yi.

Once he thought that he would bare his feet, walk and sing, chant sutras for someone, say goodbye to someone, Nan Zhou didn't really want to fight against other players.

Thinking of this, Nanzhou clicked on the "use card" option.

The thousand-turn brilliance spread out, engulfing the three people standing or sitting in the hotel room from head to toe.

[Dear "Cubic Ark" team players, hello~]

[Welcome to the dungeon: sand, sand, sand]

【Number of people participating in the game: 7 people】

[Dungeon nature: supernatural, campus, role-playing]

【Wish you a happy game~】

Listening to the name and nature of the dungeon broadcast by the mechanical female voice, Nan Zhou thought, is this school full of rats?