Forces of Temptation

Nan Zhou slept very deeply this time.

After waking up, he found that Jiang Fang had one hand resting on the edge of his sleeve, looking quite casual.

But when Nan Zhou tried to pull back his hand, Jiang Fang grabbed his sleeve.

The brows also wrinkled heavily, looking very unhappy.

...as awkward as he is.

Seeing that he couldn't do without his clothes, Nan Zhou simply rustled, took off his coat, and put it on Jiang Fang.

Then he stood up and walked into the distance.

After feeding a round of geese, the blond girl was sitting and resting by a blue pool.

Seeing Nan Zhou approaching her, she burst into a brilliant smile: "Have you recovered your spirit?"

Nan Zhou glanced at her reflection in the water.

Young, beautiful, and fluffy and beautiful long hair like gold.

He responded softly: "Yes."

The girl noticed that his eyes stayed in the water, and his smile became brighter and brighter.

There was some soft light in her eyes: "Why don't you look at yourself, but at the shadow."

She was quite sorry.

It would be fine if Jiang Fang failed.

Since she started raising geese here, Nanzhou has the most beautiful coat color she has ever seen.

She really didn't want to let him go like this.

Nan Zhou finally looked away from the sparkling water: "I have some questions, I want to ask you."

The blond girl held her peach cheeks with a smile: "You ask."

Nan Zhou said, "I've read some stories about you."

The girl nodded reservedly and proudly, and her demeanor showed her good background and upbringing.

Nanzhou: "So, what is your fear?"

The girl didn't wait for the compliment she imagined, but got such an inexplicable question.

Her face gradually sank.

...During the period of waiting for Jiang Fang's return, Nan Zhou was not idle.

He looked back at the girl who was feeding the swans, thoughtfully.

When he was young, Nan Zhou had read fairy tales about tin soldiers.

Of course he had also read The Wild Swans.

The theme belonging to the one-legged tin soldier in the fairy tale is "loneliness".

This is completely consistent with the tin soldier they met who has been staying in the library, inner loneliness, anxiety and longing for freedom.

The tin soldier in the fairy tale also has a partner who secretly admires, is crippled, and cannot give him a response.

This is also consistent with what Nanzhou and the others encountered.

Therefore, this further contrasted the abnormality of the "fairy tale protagonist" in front of him.

In Nanzhou's impression, Alisa, the protagonist of "Wild Swan", is a complicated and contradictory girl.

She is both timid and brave, both cowardly and tenacious.

For the sake of her 11 older brothers who were cursed by her stepmother, she was willing to be stung by nettles so that her hands were covered with blood blisters.

Even though she was almost burned to death as a witch because of her weird behavior and offending the churchyard, she followed the instructions and never spoke out about her grievances until she finished weaving the nettle clothes that could restore her brothers to normal.

But she is not talkative, and physically weak, she is quite introverted, traditional, pious girl.

Her resistance was also negative.

...Anyway, she was completely different from the blond girl in front of her.

This girl is confident, lively, cheerful, and loves to laugh.

She can even say a few witty words with ease.

If there is no tin soldier as a reference, Nan Zhou will not notice anything, and will only regard her as an ordinary Princess Alyssa whose character has been changed by magic.

Nan Zhou said: "The character of Alisa is brave. She will be afraid of some things, but never afraid."

"You're not like her."

"Turning people into swans is not something Alisa can do."

He proceeded step by step and asked the core question: "...so, are you really Alisa?"

Following Nan Zhou's questioning, the blonde girl's golden silk-like hair gradually faded, became dry, and thinned.

The corners of her eyes were covered with haggard mottled lines like tree bark.

Her lips seemed to be pulled by the strong gravity, and there were thick shadows and puppet lines extending downward.

Her snow-white skin became scorched and wrinkled, with layers of wrinkles, like the disgusting links of a centipede.

—she was impersonating Alyssa's blond-haired, snow-skinned... vicious stepmother.

In the fairy tale, the villain who transformed the protagonist Alisa's brothers into wild swans.

Only she has the ability to turn people into swans.

Only she was particularly jealous of Alisa's beauty when she was an adult, and ruined her appearance with walnut juice and stinky ointment.

As for her love of the number "11", it was because it was her masterpiece of driving Alisa away, a rare success in her jealous life.

So of course she likes the number.

She is in charge of the level of "fear", and she is always afraid herself.

What she is afraid of is the truth that belongs to her.

The smile on the blond girl's face collapsed in the face of the truth.

She knelt down hastily beside the mirror-clear lake, scratching her face in vain, as if she wanted to keep the youthful beauty that was lost like water.

But the illusion that was shattered by the truth, the fear that was hidden under the truth, the fear that I had done something bad, really came out.

Nan Zhou stood up, turned away without looking at the flakes of skin peeling off her face.

The stepmother, who had been stripped of her skin by the truth, no longer had a warm and beautiful smile.

She yelled frantically, "Come back! Come back!"

Hearing this, Nan Zhou turned around.

...and then he shook his head slightly at her.

I'm not going back.

The stepmother was overwhelmed by this unacceptable moment of reality.

She covered her cheeks and wept bitterly.

The gentle wind wrinkled the mirror of the lake.

Her haggard face therefore appeared even more distorted and terrifying.

In this particular level, she cannot die.

Therefore, this face that should belong to her will always be with her here, life after life.

……

Jiang Fang didn't know when he woke up.

He watched Nan Zhou return to his side step by step with leisure.

Nan Zhou squatted on one knee beside Jiang Fang, and performed a standard knight salute without knowing it.

Nan Zhou said, "I'm going to bully her."

Jiang Fang was amused by his serious tone: "Are you afraid that she will go crazy?"

"This is already after the game is completed. We have no control over her." Nan Zhou said, "You also said that in this world, people will not die."

"But she might attack you, too."

Nan Zhou thought for a while and said seriously, "Isn't that just right?"

Jiang Fang couldn't help laughing, and talked about Nanzhou's previous theory: "If she doesn't hit you, you can't fight back. Otherwise, it's a mistake?"

Nan Zhou solemnly said, "Yes."

Jiang Fang put his elbow on his knee and looked at Nan Zhou: "So, is your anger gone?"

"...'Qi disappear'?" Nan Zhou couldn't understand Jiang Fang's logic for a while, "When did I get angry?"

There was a bit of coquettish grievance in Jiang Fang's voice: "Then you only left me the clothes, and left me here alone."

Nan Zhou paused, and suddenly realized: "Oh."

"When you were asleep, you held my sleeve, not for my clothes, but for me to stay, right?"

Jiang Fang: "..."

He coughed lightly: "...Mr. Nan, we can not explain some things so clearly, okay?"

Nan Zhou: "Why?"

Nan Zhou: "Ah."

Nan Zhou: "Are you shy?"

Jiang Fang: "..."

Nan Zhou understood again, obediently put his index finger on his lips, and made a "shh" gesture.

Seriously studying Jiang Fang's reddish earlobes, Nan Zhou felt that he still had a long way to go in understanding the complexity of human beings.

Li Yinhang had already woken up and was waking up.

After silently watching the whole process of the blond girl shedding her skin and changing her face, she hugged her clothes and tiptoed around a big bend, consciously approaching Nanzhou.

She whispered to the two of them, "Let's go?"

Nan Zhou: "Yes."

Jiang Fang: "Let's go."

Before the stepmother's collapse was over, the three of them pushed open the only door and stepped into the brain corridor again.

Same as last time, with the closing of the gate, the gate will naturally disappear, and there is no turning back.

However, even though they were mentally prepared, when they heard the all-pervasive rough chewing sound again, the expressions of all three of them stiffened for a moment.

Li Yinhang couldn't help but said, "Have you already started eating this thing, or have you been eating it all the time?"

No one could answer her question.

They entered as if it were the brain of a glutton.

They eat like pigs non-stop outside, without even considering the capacity of the stomach pouch.

Because the structure of the brain corridor is too intricate and complicated, it is difficult for Nanzhou to judge the specific function behind each door.

And they had four doors left to enter.

There is not much time left for them.

Without information, you can only enter the door to collect information.

So they picked one of the doors, looked at each other, pushed the door open and entered——

All that came was the smoky darkness.

The reason why it gives people the illusion of "fog" is because there is a bit of ambiguous and fishy moisture in the darkness that covers them.

The mobile phone that Li Yinhang had been holding tightly in his hand was also affected by unknown influences and went dark.

She tried tapping the screen again, but couldn't wake it up.

Nan Zhou thought that the darkness would pass quickly.

But the darkness seemed boundless, without end.

After standing still in the dark for 3 minutes, he took two steps forward and found that the place where they were was very cramped.

As long as his fingertips touched the soft inner wall next to him, the "wall" would twitch and contract extremely sensitively.

...like a living thing.

In the dark, people will not be willing to stand alone and without support, but will take the initiative to find a solid support.

Li Yinhang's palm also stuck to the wall beside him.

...I have to say, it feels very disgusting.

Like the feeling of the brain corridor outside, there is a sticky sense of movement.

She was so disgusted that she immediately withdrew her hand and gently rubbed her palm on the seam of her trousers twice.

Jiang Fang was different.

His palm was attached to Nan Zhou's waist.

Nan Zhou was taken aback by the embrace, but immediately thought he understood his intention: "Hold tighter."

After the three confirmed that they were still standing together, they walked along the wall and began to explore.

The place is really not big.

It took them a few minutes to explore this dark place.

This is a small room.

There is an extremely soft bed in the room.

There was a crude wooden wardrobe that creaked harshly when opened and closed.

There is also a square table with one foot shorter.

The broken foot was padded with a stack of books, barely maintaining the most basic balance.

The only door is where they first came in.

It's a pity that it is so strong that even the Nanzhou can't open it from the inside.

The darkness magnifies people's sense of touch, and naturally urges people's nerves to tense up.

For example, Li Yinhang is very scared now, worried that when he is groping, he will touch the stiff and cold face of an NPC.

When she thought that somewhere in this narrow cabin, a pair of eyes might be quietly watching them, she couldn't help but burst into cold sweat.

So, when she accidentally stepped on a piece of soft ground, she didn't even have time to cry out, she jumped up, faster than a rabbit, and finally kicked on a hard ground that exudes the fragrance of elderberry. The foot of the bed was so painful that he jumped again, and hissed inhaling.

Nan Zhou groped to where she was standing just now, and took the object she stepped on in his hand.

—a cloak with a hat?

He said, "A cloak."

As he spoke, he put the material under his nose.

Nan Zhou easily smelled a little blood.

Li Yinhang, who was still in shock, came over: "Why is there such a small house in a fairy tale, and there is a fight..."

Before she finished speaking, she herself had captured the key information.

Isn't this the top three in the fairy tale popularity list...

But before she could say her name, the shrinkage of the "wall" in Nanzhou's palm suddenly increased.

The walls seemed to be squeezing and releasing some invisible substance.

And almost at the same moment, the three of them felt a strong sense of tiredness rushing towards them.

The three of them had rested in a place with beautiful mountains and clear waters, and they were at the most tense moment when they first entered an unfamiliar area. It is absolutely impossible to get sleepy at this time.

So they immediately made the same judgment:

...this is what the world behind this door does to them.

Li Yinhang resisted the dizziness, ignoring the rough hand feeling, supported the trembling, viscous "wall" beside him, and asked Nan Zhou and the others in a trembling voice: "What's going on..."

Nan Zhou bit his lip and found that the pain could not relieve the drowsiness at all.

His consciousness was falling uncontrollably into the abyss of sleepiness.

Before he completely lost his clear thinking, Nan Zhou suppressed his voice and said, "I seem to have guessed... where this is."

He uttered a term that Li Yinhang had never heard before: "The...'pineal gland' in the brain."

Li Yinhang bit his tongue while speaking: "What's that for?"

Nanzhou: "Sensitive to light, secretes melatonin - helps sleep..."

Li Yinhang: "..." I knew they would come here to sleep.

But after thinking about it, she realized that once they stepped into the game process, it would be extremely difficult, every step was dangerous, and there was no rest at all.

Unexpectedly, Nan Zhou actually had a supplementary explanation.

He continued the second half of the sentence he hadn't finished saying: "...there is the secretion of reproductive hormones."

Li Yinhang: "..."

Jiang Fang struggled to regain consciousness, and guided the two people who had already staggered to the soft and clean big bed.

He made a simple footnote for Nan Zhou: "The earliest social significance of "Little Red Riding Hood" is indeed to teach the importance of chastity."

"The little girl and the big bad wolf are some kind of symbols of the times. In order to teach young women, don't listen to men's coaxing, but should be clean and self-respecting."

Li Yinhang, whose consciousness gradually became chaotic, was suddenly thankful for his mother's solo attribute.

Even if her reproductive hormones were skyrocketing, she would have no one to play with or fill her brains with.

Unless it's for her salary card.

... just thinking about that scene is completely uninteresting.

Before falling asleep completely, she tried to confirm the safety of her teammates: "Mr. Nan... have you ever been in a relationship before?"

Nan Zhou shook his head: "I haven't."

She continued to ask: "Brother Fang..."

Jiang Fang: "..."

Jiang Fang: "Me neither."

Li Yinhang felt relieved.

Although Li Yinhang was quite surprised that a beauty with a high degree of affinity like Jiang Fang had no love experience, but it was not incomprehensible.

Moreover, since she entered the game, because she was so resigned to her life, she spent most of her time huddling with the two of them, leaving little room for them to communicate beyond friendship.

Since everyone has no such experience, is it possible to pass the level easily as long as they sleep soundly and soundly?

With good expectations in her arms, she fell asleep like this.

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