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“You said you kissed a merman with a silver-blue tail in a jar and a ghost in a mirror that was about to explode on a burning train?” Little Bai Liu (6) asked softly in a nonchalant tone. “Your relationship history seems a bit extraordinary.”
Bai Liu didn’t care. “They are all just characters in the game. By the way, you listened to me today for so long without hanging up. Why? Do you want to call me for the full three hours?”
“If I could, I would call you for three hours.” Little Bai Liu (6) answered indifferently. “After all, it is billed by the minute. Today is the rare occasion where everyone is running around and attracting the attention of the deformed children. At present, only me and Mu Ke have managed to call and inform our investors of what is going to happen tomorrow.”
“However, the blind little girl called Liu Jiayi moves very quickly. She can’t see but she has been moving while attaching herself to the walls. Just now, I covered her and led away the deformed child on her side. She should be able to finish the call soon and go back.”
“The other children are running pretty fast. I remember that they are called Miao Feichi and Miao Gaojiang. They managed to call but they were crying the entire time. They didn’t explain to the people on the other side that they would invite investors to watch the ceremony tomorrow.”
Little Bai Liu (6) explained the situation quickly to Bai Liu with some gasping in his breath. Still, his explanation was very clear. “You can rest assured that I am more alert. I didn’t know that you and the investors of these two children have a grudge but I deliberately avoided them when I ran with Mu Ke. They didn’t discover that we were on the phone together. In addition, perhaps it is because they are running around and attracting the attention of the monsters that the three of us can call so easily tonight.”
“Oh yes, I forgot to tell you. There is more than one deformed child tonight.” Little Bai Liu (6) calmly added. “There are three with different deformities. They aren’t the same as the child last night. One is moving on the ground with four limbs and his lips are purple. Another has limb deformities. They fold inside when running and he will limp. The ratio of limbs to body and head is very strange. The last one has abnormally white hair and skin. I just hid on the slide and looked at it. I didn’t see it clearly but the child’s eyes should be purple.”
Bai Liu had lived in a welfare home and he was familiar with common deformities. He thought about it. “It feels a bit like congenital heart disease, incomplete bone development and albinism.”
They were all congenital genetic diseases and largely coincided with the diseases that the five children who survived in the real world had.
Bai Liu quickly found two peculiar points. First, there were indeed many disabled children in the welfare home. Those who died and those who survived were children with certain congenital diseases. This was already a very special point. What did it mean? Secondly, why could the deformed children in the real world survive while the deformed children in this world became ghosts?
For the first point, Bai Liu needed more information to reason things out and explain. As for the second point, Bai Liu felt he already had an answer.
Bai Liu played with the broken coin hanging against his chest while falling into contemplation. According to the information currently given in this instance, a normal child i.e. children with no deformities were attracted by the sound of the flute and disappeared. They never reappeared after disappearing. The manner in which the deformed children died was currently unknown. After death, they became monsters and came out to play.
However, it wasn’t like they couldn’t die. Based on the rules that Bai Liu knew about the Love Welfare Institute, the six children with congenital diseases in reality, including Liu Jiayi, should exist as NPCs like the deformed children in the instance. If all the NPCs in this Love Welfare Institute instance died then the six children who didn’t have accidents in reality would have to die to conform to the law of this instance.
However, these six children were currently under the close care of Lu Yizhan in reality and the possibility of death was very low. The one who might die and be alienated into a monster was Liu Jiayi who entered the game.
Yet according to the system’s consistent planning, most of the children in reality would still die in order to conform to the logic of the instance. The question was: if they were going to die, how were they going to die?
“There is a good chance that the deformed children who survived in reality will eventually die. However, they were still alive when I entered the instance. If they die, how will they die…?”
Bai Liu muttered to himself as he leaned against the wall.
The loading of the game couldn’t be separated from the routine. If the data of ‘NPC death’ was forcibly loaded, the ‘real world’ would probably get bugs. Lu Yizhan who was closely observing the NPCs would notice something was wrong. Of course, the system could use rogue means to delete the memory data of all NPCs paying attention to this matter but the memories of ‘players’ couldn’t be deleted. Bai Liu would know there was a bug in this place. If so, the official version of the ‘real world’ would be meaningless to many players.
The question was: how could these six children die in a way that was in line with the logic of the game and the real world, so that it wasn’t considered a forced loading bug?
Bai Liu suddenly remembered the pile of bodies he had seen at the hospital that day and what Lu Yizhan had solemnly told him. The signs were normal when the children entered the hospital but there started to be attacks one day later… the livor mortis and rigor mortis appeared too early. It felt like they had died earlier and the death was delayed…
Yes, this was the main point: delayed death.
Bai Liu suddenly thought of this point. It was the most reasonable and in line method of loading a death without arousing the suspicion of NPCs.
These six children weren’t free from the mushroom poisoning. They were just more likely to be resistant to mushrooms than other children and the signs of poisoning were delayed until later. Therefore, the children didn’t show any signs when Bai Liu entered the game but this didn’t mean they wouldn’t show signs of poisoning later on.
In other words, they were dying but the medical examination didn’t work on them so no one had discovered it except for Bai Liu in the game. The six deformed children who survived death were still covered in the shadow of death.
Bai Liu’s eyes narrowed. If the real world was a loaded copy of the game, would those children die in the same manner inside and outside the game?
Little Bai Liu (6) didn’t disturb Bai Liu’s silence. He quietly waited for Bai Liu’s next question without hanging up the phone. After all, he counted money by the minute. After a moment of silence, Bai Liu suddenly asked him, “Have you eaten mushrooms at the welfare home today?”
“No.” Little Bai Liu (6) was concise. “I’m sensitive to the taste of mushrooms. The food I ate should have no mushrooms in it.”
“For the deformed children chasing you, do they smell like mushrooms?” Bai Liu changed his thoughts and asked again.
Little Bai Liu (6) answered quickly, “I don’t know. I’ve always been far away from them and I haven’t gotten close enough to smell them. Do you need me to get closer to confirm? Of course, it isn’t for free.”
“No, not for the time being.” Bai Liu quickly rejected the proposal of the courageous Bai Liu (6). “These children’s movements aren’t slow. If there is no one else to shift the attention then it is easy to get caught if you get too close.”
Based on the description of the deformed children in the monster book, the player’s children would completely go missing once they were caught. Bai Liu’s health was currently only 6 points and the things he told Bai Liu (6) before weren’t a lie. Compared to himself, little Bai Liu (6)’s life was very important since he had high health. Bai Liu would now use all means to ensure the safety of this greedy child.
“However, you need me to get closer, right?” Bai Liu (6)’s tone was calm.
“Yes.” Bai Liu was honest. “Not only do I need you to get closer, I also need you to find the weaknesses of these deformed children.”
He needed to unlock the weaknesses of these monsters. It was much safer to control these deformed children wandering around every night with their weakness than to let them chase his child every night. After all, Bai Liu felt that the ‘missing’ attack of these deformed children was more terrifying than the blood-sucking attack of the plant patient. It could be called a one-hit kill.
There were no children missing yet. It was probably because the deformed children had too many targets that were scattered. Once locked on, it was easy for a child to be taken away. The thing that made Bai Liu feel it was dangerous was that there was one last night and three tonight. The number of these deformed children seemed to be increasing.
“I do need you to get close to these children to help me find out their weaknesses. This is very important to me and I will naturally pay you,” Bai Liu spoke softly. “However, not tonight. Little friend, tonight is too dangerous. I won’t sacrifice you to do this type of thing. Tomorrow night when I find a way to protect you, we will do this again.”
The opposite side was strangely quiet. Then after a minute, little Bai Liu (6) changed the topic like he hadn’t heard anything. “Miao Feichi and Miao Gaojiang have gone into their rooms and their three children are coming to chase me. Mr Investor, tonight I called you for a total of 31 minutes. I’ll erase one minute and only charge you for 30 minutes. It is a total of 3,000 yuan. You already owe me 6,000 yuan.”
Little Bai Liu (6)’s tone was polite and aggressive. “It isn’t good to default on payment when it comes to wages for minors. I hope you can settle the 6,000 yuan when we meet. Thank you for your patronage. Mr Investor, good night.”
CG 10K event
Proofreader: Purichan