Forces of Temptation

Xiao Xie is a very honest person.

He told Nan Zhou that he was actually a fictional character in a comic "Eternal Day".

And just two days ago, a console game called "Gravity" was officially released.

The author of "Eternal Day", Nan Zhou's real father, completed his debut novel "Eternal Day" in two years, and since then he has occupied his place in the comic world. The genius horror cartoonist Yongwu died of cancer 12 years ago .

Because of his withdrawn personality and indifferent relationship with relatives and friends, he entrusted the copyright of thirteen comics including his debut work "Eternal Day" to one of his most trusted editors.

The part of the property belonging to him, this eccentric man did not announce the specific disposal method.

Therefore, "Eternal Day" has been included in the adaptation echelon of "Gravity" as early as three years ago.

Now, Nanzhou is already a character in a game copy.

Xiao Xie said that he had read "Eternal Day" before and liked it very much.

So, after the game cabin he just bought arrived, he was the first to choose to parachute into the copy of "Eternal Day" to see this young man who had met him unilaterally and who was separated by a dimension.

Nan Zhou just nodded to Xiao Xie's eloquent speech.

He couldn't feel the cruelty and malice behind Xiao Xie's purpose of telling him the truth at all.

——Normal people are clearly told that no matter how hard they try, their fate will always be in the hands of others, and when they will always be in control for endless years in the future, their first reaction will often be to collapse and go crazy.

But Nan Zhou didn't take it to heart.

Because he already guessed it.

Nan Zhou outlined the shape of Ms. Apple Tree's lips on the paper, and stamped fine lines on her lips to make those lips more colorful, and responded symbolically: "...well."

Noticing Nan Zhou's calm expression, Xiao Xie's eyes lit up with a moving light: "Aren't you surprised?... How much did you guess?"

Nan Zhou glanced at Xiao Xie: "About what?"

If it's about his own identity, then it's something he's been thinking about since elementary school.

At one point he thought he was a character in a book.

In terms of comics, it is almost the same as his speculation.

If it's about game copies...

Nanzhou's understanding of the concept of games is limited to a few game magazines in the bookstore that are still dated ten years ago.

In Nanzhou's cognition, games are stories locked in a box.

It's not much different from his feeling as a book.

It's just that he doesn't feel like a puppet being pulled by the silk thread for the time being, which shows that the box is very open, and the control over him is not as strong as imagined.

In the future, more new people will come in.

If someone can come in, he must be able to get out.

So he didn't understand why Xiao Xie kept looking into his eyes.

It seemed that his flat emotions and reactions did not meet his psychological expectations.

Xiao Xie focused on looking into his eyes: "Have you ever talked to someone like me?"

Nan Zhou thought carefully.

He hadn't been able to speak to the apple tree lady.

So he shook his head.

Xiao Xie's shoulders slumped slightly, looking rather disappointed: "Why aren't you surprised?"

No madness, no breakdown, no pain.

Not interesting.

Nanzhou's surprises were exhausted as early as yesterday.

He was not used to expressing emotions with ups and downs, so he looked at Xiao Xie with confusion in his eyes.

He asked, "What exactly do you want to ask?"

Xiao Xie's expression improved a bit: "I will be your friend from now on, okay?"

Nan Zhou: "Why?"

Xiao Xie: "..."

Xiao Xie: "...Aren't you lonely?"

Nan Zhou put down his pen: "Lonely."

Nan Zhou: "But why should I be friends with you?"

What Nan Zhou asked was from the bottom of his heart.

But classmate Xiao Xie seemed to be choking heavily.

In order to avoid humiliating herself, Xiao Xie took the initiative to change the topic: "Do you feel that your world is different?"

Nan Zhou thought about it, but he didn't feel that his life was any different from the past.

The sun was still scorching hot.

The arrangement of the buildings has also not changed.

The world is still that world.

The only difference is that there is an extra apple tree.

Thinking of the apple tree, Nan Zhou's mood suddenly improved a lot.

If what Xiao Xie said about making friends is to plant apple trees for each other...

Then he hoped to find Lady Apple Tree and plant one for her too.

It's just that Xiao Xie's question still caught his heart.

According to his reading accumulation, shouldn't ordinary games use data, algorithms, and models to construct another virtual parallel world where all conditions are as close as possible?

Why did Ms. Apple Tree and Xiao Xie come to him?

This is a question worth thinking about.

But for so many years, Nanzhou has no habit of sharing ideas with others.

For Xiao Xie, he also has no desire to share his thoughts.

He just intends to digest it slowly by himself.

It has to be said that Nanzhou's animal intuition is quite powerful.

He was wary of Xiao Xie from the very beginning.

He felt that there was something in his smile that he didn't like.

But no matter how careful he was, Nanzhou could not escape the influence of the full moon night on Guangmei.

The tides rise and fall periodically, culminating in a monthly full moon.

It was the full moon when Xiaoxie came to the dungeon on the third day.

In Nanzhou's room, the watercolor window paintings of white doves in the blue sky and the wooden fence for January [-] have tried their best to block out all the moonlight.

Even so, Nan Zhou was still limp on the bed, his whole body was sore, he was sweating like crazy, his waist was so weak that he couldn't use his strength.

At the time of the full moon, all the Guangmei in the town were too weak to get out of bed, so there was almost no threat.

But Nan Zhou still remembered that there was a Xiao Xie who lived next door to him.

Therefore, before nightfall, when he found that his physical strength began to drain violently, he struggled to lock the door.

The clock on the wall slowly pointed to 12 o'clock.

The moonlight outside the window is getting brighter and more dazzling.

Nan Zhou uncomfortably grasped the hard bed board with one hand, and his fingertips were pinched faintly, bleeding in vain.

At this time, Xiao Xie's gentle voice suddenly sounded outside the door: "Nan Zhou, are you there?"

Nan Zhou's heart skipped a beat.

Since just now, he hasn't heard any approaching footsteps.

... Xiao Xie, it seems that he has been standing at the door for a long time.

Nan Zhou bit the corner of the quilt, and tried hard to swallow the weak gasp.

However, not long after, he heard the crackling sound of a key being inserted into the keyhole and turning.

He didn't know how Xiaoxie got in at all.

When he heard the door creak and was pushed open, Nan Zhou's throat tightened, and before he could think about it, he stretched his limp wrist under the pillow——

Before he had time to grab the handle of the hidden fruit knife, his wrist was easily grabbed by a hand.

Nan Zhou pressed his pale lips tightly, was turned over and sat down by Xiao Xie, and easily controlled on the bed.

Xiao Xie covered his mouth with his hand, and pressed his little finger viciously against his lips, like some kind of condescending teasing.

"Too painful. So lonely, isn't it?"

Xiao Xie spoke to him in a whispering voice, but she didn't have much sympathy. She just enjoyed Nan Zhou's slightly out-of-control expression when he couldn't restrain his panting.

"If I were you, I would have wanted to die a long time ago."

Nanzhou: "..."

ill.

You are not me.

When did I want to die.

Xiao Xie leaned over and said softly, "Let me help you out."

The heavy pressure suddenly left.

Before Nan Zhou had time to catch his breath, a small, cold object pressed against his waist.

The lethal electric current boiled all the blood in his whole body from his waist.

With the electric shock point as the center, a substance similar to a black hole was formed, causing all of Nanzhou's perception and consciousness to collapse inward.

In the corner of his eyes, for a moment, it was filled with scattered and colorful lightning trails.

Drilled from his fingertips, drilled from his chest.

So wonderful, so eye-catching.

All of a sudden, all the excitement returned to complete silence.

At the same moment when Nan Zhou's heartbeat stopped, there was still an afterimage of reality in his vision.

Xiao Xie's figure blurred, like a TV with a blurred screen, flashing snowflakes.

Xiao Xie also looked a little surprised, looking at his palm.

But in the next second, he disappeared into Nanzhou's room.

And a burst of oxygen rushed into Nanzhou's heart, as if someone was holding an electric shock device and roughly pressing his chest repeatedly.

——The feeling of being controlled by an irresistible force has returned.

——The result this time was a forced resurrection.

Nan Zhou sat up suddenly from the bed, causing a terrible palpitation and dizziness.

He leaned on the side of the bed, gasping for breath for a long time before re-adapting to the influx of oxygen and the uninterrupted pain in his body.

Next, Nanzhou asked the school for a three-day leave.

He went to the library, found some books related to the game, and reread them carefully.

He was in severe pain, and he was the only reader in the library. He simply abandoned the upright sitting posture in the past, lay on the table like a cat, put the book under his head, curled up, and read while resting.

The author has never dabbled in the field of games less.

Therefore, in the "Xinhua Bookstore" he built, there are the most books on literature and art.

Regarding games, there are just a few outdated magazines and a brief history of game development.

Nanzhou read through the information he could collect, and sure enough, he noticed something was wrong.

——In a normal game, the player should be the core role being served.

The performance is that the boss in the dungeon, no matter how miserably killed by the player, will end the process as the player leaves.

Status reset, nothing happens.

But what about yourself?

In addition to being resurrected, his memory has not been cleared, and the wound on his body is still painful.

It's like... the reset wasn't complete at all.

Nan Zhou didn't have time to think about why he was so different.

On the second day after he resumed class, the town ushered in two more strange guests.

A man, with a cute and pretty little girl, strolled around the town.

The two looked like they were on a tour.

When the little girl saw him, she stuffed him with a fruit candy.

If there is no little loli who is about the same age as his students, Nanzhou will not relax his vigilance towards them at all.

She reminded him of his sister after a long absence.

He even took the little girl to his sketching class.

Two days later, on the night of the full moon that came suddenly, when the little girl stabbed her in the back with a knife, Nan Zhou heard clearly that "she" shook off the blood dripping from the knife, and smiled and said in a man's voice, Said to the partner beside him, "The time modifier is really easy to use. Another achievement."

The man also had a relaxed smile: "The strategy is right. He is really easy to deceive."

The two were talking and quickly disappeared.

Just like the situation when Xiao Xie disappeared.

The same.

Nan Zhou fell to the ground, and after a long delay, he resisted the pain in his back and got up.

He reached into his sweater pocket.

There was an apple there, crushed to one side.

It was originally intended to be left for the little girl to eat.

...Since you don't want it, forget it.

Nan Zhou sat on the side of the road, wiped the apple with his skirt, took a bite, and calmed down a bit.

He quietly thought about the "time propeller" that the little girl said, and the "master key" that Xiao Xie used to open the door of his room.

——He has another piece of information.

The players he meets are very likely to have a large number of props and items with different functions.

He needs to think of a way to deal with it.

After that, another player came to Never Town one after another.

Some players just came here for a stroll, but some players obviously deliberately wanted to get close to Nanzhou.

Although Nan Zhou was lonely, he was not stupid.

He really wanted to ask, do you have anything else to do.

Why play games?

Why get obsessed with something that doesn't make much sense in reality even if you win?

Why do I have to kill me in another world in order to achieve this goal?

No one can answer these questions for him.

So he tried to show his fierce and indifferent side, trying to drive them out of Neverland.

However, the night of the full moon was a curse that he could not escape after all.

The next full moon night is just around the corner.

After finally escaping the siege and interception of the four players, Nan Zhou just wanted to take a breath, but fell into the hands of three players who he had never seen before and sneaked into the town at some point.

They used stun guns in the dark.

An assault weapon studded with barbs and electrodes ejected from high-pressure nitrogen gas.

The power is very strong, it is said that it can be fatal at once, but it is not enough.

At this time, Nanzhou had already dealt with the previous four players until dawn.

Nan Zhou was exhausted physically and mentally.

So they hit it off.

The moonlight in the sky is gradually disappearing, and it has gradually dimmed.

The light that fell on Nan Zhou's body was very faint and thin.

The familiar and severe pain caused Nan Zhou to fall to the ground again, dripping with cold sweat.

He didn't continue to resist, but closed his eyes and pretended to be dead, ready to wait for an opportunity.

The three of them found that he was not moving, so they squatted not far from his "corpse", ready to receive the reward and accept the teleportation.

"Why doesn't this boss have a health bar? It's so brittle, it will be gone with one shot?"

"Hey, it's really like a strategy guide. You just need to click on the dungeon, and you can kill if you say kill. You are just an ordinary person, so boring."

"Forget it. It's good to get the achievement."

The tinnitus caused by the pain, coupled with the sharp roar of hot blood rushing to the top of the head, interweaved into a piercing and messy symphony.

The voice of the conversation that came into his ears was mixed with the noise in his head, making Nan Zhou's heart beat faster than a moment.

"Strategy".

"boring".

"Achievement".

Is this what they are for?

So, why must their goals be achieved?

These strange and provocative words stimulated his nerves, causing anger to gradually erode Nan Zhou's mind.

He supported the ground with his arms, borrowed a little strength, tapped the ground with his toes, and rushed forward.

On the empty street, a gust of wind suddenly blew.

The tall and strong man with his back to Nanzhou inadvertently turned his head to the side, and he only had time to catch a cold figure approaching a short distance behind him from the corner of his eye.

...and a cold hand resting on his throat.

Click.

……

Ding.

When Nan Zhou put the small spoon back on the plate, the slight collision sound between the plate and the wooden spoon woke him up from his memories.

Nan Jixing finished eating the lychees, licked his little paws clean, and ran back erratically, sticking out his meaty buttocks, and was about to slip into the sleeves of Nan Zhou's windbreaker.

The apple-faced girl came over shyly and handed Nan Zhou an elaborate fruit plate.

She said gently: "Guest, here it is for you. Thank you for helping my sister just now."

Nan Zhou looked to the side of the fruit plate.

There were a few cut apples with red skins that were translucent.

The apple-faced girl said softly to herself: "The fruits are all grown by myself, and they are not worth anything. I just hope... I hope, you can come often—"

Nanzhou suddenly got up.

Familiar scent.

The familiar gloss.

The familiar... Apple.

For a moment, he thought that he was still in the memory and did not leave.

He was sitting on the tree that belonged to him, picking off the apples, and swallowing the apples and the sunlight into his mouth bit by bit by the light sifting through the fruit branches.

Nan Zhou asked, "How did you get your apples?"

The apple-faced girl was taken aback by his actions and tone, holding the apple in her hands, Nuonuo said: "How did it come here... Everyone got the seeds from Boss Zhong..."

Nan Zhou asked, "Where is Boss Zhong?"

Apple-faced girl: "Go south and walk along the path... There are signs on the side of the road, and the seed shop is very eye-catching."

Nanzhou grabbed the little tail of Nanjixing who was trying to crawl towards the fruit plate, and stuffed it straight into his arms: "Thank you."

After all, he hurried and left the dessert shop.

Like rushing to a late date.

Li Yinhang was puzzled for a moment, and turned to look at Jiang Fang.

While Jiang Fang was in a daze, he couldn't help pursing his lips, and his eyes flickered slightly.

...does he remember the apple tree thing?

Jiang Fang had something on his mind, so he didn't answer Li Yinhang, but just left with Nan Zhou.

Li Yinhang quickly packed up his things and planned to put them on.

Before leaving, she didn't forget to pat the shoulder of the apple-faced girl who didn't know if she had done something wrong, and said with relief:

"It's not your fault."

No one noticed that there were two men and a woman who had been sitting two tables away from Nan Zhou's right.

Seeing three people and one mouse leave, the girl's back, which had been tense all the time, finally relaxed.

She patted her chest and let out a sigh of relief: "...Wow. It scared me to death."

Only then did the man A who was walking with her dare to let go of his voice and asked her, "Are you sure you didn't admit your mistake?"

"I can't be sure."

The girl frowned: "That little thing is so small. We are not sitting very close, how can I recognize it clearly."

Man B tried to comfort her: "You read it wrong. Maybe it's a small pet. Where is the monster?"

"Do not……"

The girl frowned fiercely: "I've played "Gravity", and I've been farming on 'Homeland Island' before. That little animal looks very much like the...monster in the only idyllic copy of 'Homeland Island'."

She gestured to the size of Nanjixing: "If there is a lightning-shaped mark near the hair on its belly, I can be sure!"

Man B still had some doubts about her vision: "Even if it's a monster, it's just a little mouse..."

The girl gave him a hard look.

"Little mouse?" she muttered, "That's a monster with an A+ combat power rating on 'Homeland Island', which is close to S rank!"

Having said that, the girl doubted her eyesight again.

If that sugar glider was really the kind of monster she knew, how could it walk with other players?

And how could it be bred into such a...

one...

... cutie?

……

After using the world channel to send a rally signal to other teams, He Yinchuan temporarily closed the background page, and said to Lu Bifang: "Xiao Lu, tell me about your discovery. You said Jiang Fang, Mr. International Friend, used to be the author of "Gravity" players?"

Lu Bifang nodded obediently: "En."

Unlike Lin Zhisong, Lu Bifang couldn't understand professional information, so he focused most of his attention on the information on missing persons.

Lu Bifang added: "To be precise, he is not an official player of this game."

"The price of the game "Gravity" is still very high, and when each machine is sold, the real ID of the buyer will be recorded."

"After the accident, the relevant departments investigated the relevant circumstances of each comatose person."

"Only Lodoka...Mr. Jiang Fang, his game cabin was not registered with his own ID information."

Zhou Ao, who doesn't play games much, frowned: "What does this mean?"

Lu Bifang scratched his head.

"how to say……"

"He should be regarded as a power leveling?"