Tonight, after the illusion of reality and fantasy ended, several players were physically and mentally exhausted.
Shangguan Cuihua was probably in the best condition. After all, she already had the Silver Zen Staff in hand, and this time she only had to dance to please that blue-named NPC. Although it was indeed embarrassing, after struggling all night, the Silver Zen Staff was still in her hand—it wasn't a complete loss.
Wang Erma was much more unlucky. He had been forced to keep playing Gomoku with Xia Fenghua, who didn't follow any rules at all. He couldn't win, couldn't lose, and had to rack his brain to make the board position complicated, making it look like both sides were evenly matched in an intense battle until the blue-named NPC won by being slightly superior. It was exhausting—he had never played such troublesome Gomoku in his life. And even after a whole night of torment, his kasaya wouldn't unlock until the other players finished collecting their magic tools. Sigh.
Lying on the wooden bed, staring at the pitch-black room, he tossed over and fell asleep again, with the only thought in his mind being the hope that the other players gained something tonight.
Zhang San had been running all night and still couldn't escape the pursuit of the shadow. Running like this was absolutely beyond what a human could endure; he was already physically exhausted before the illusion was even halfway through. In such a condition, forcing himself to run offered no hope. So in the cycle of resting and challenging, the utterly exhausted Zhang San, who could barely even get up, finally saw the dawn of the illusion ending.
Li Si originally thought writing a story would be easy. After all, she had read so many novels, so many TV dramas, and had skimmed several literary works back in the day too. Dog-blood melodramas, romance, tragic love, unforgettable passion—she had seen all of it! But when she actually started writing, Li Si couldn't hold it together.
After racking her brain for over an hour, she produced a story of more than 800 words. After reading it herself, her eyes hurt—"hard to swallow." It proved that just wanting to write didn't mean one could write something good. Still holding onto the hope that the NPC wasn't picky, she handed the thing over… only to have it thrown back at her three seconds later.
"If I could write well, I'd have become a literary master years ago!"
But no matter how much she complained, it was useless. Li Si could only continue revising her "peerless masterpiece."
As for Yuchi Goudan… better not mention him. Although it's unclear whether he was the most miserable among the players, he definitely ranked near the top. Sword practice? Chopping trees with a wooden sword? Hahahahaha—he might not even manage it with an iron sword. In the end, the wooden sword was nearly broken, while the big tree merely lost a bit of bark. Yuchi Goudan even felt that if the tree had a spirit, it would be completely speechless: "What are you doing, giving me a massage? Come on, harder!"
As for the blue-named NPC showing off that technique… If he were really that skilled, he would've killed the blue-named NPC long ago, hunted everything down, and cleared the level. What rules would he bother with?
Nangong Meili had reached the point where the moment she gripped the needle, her hand began trembling uncontrollably. Her vision was even starting to blur. No wonder—who wouldn't feel awful staring at bean sprouts and shredded meat like this? This dish was definitely not something humans could make. She really didn't understand—bean sprouts stir-fried with meat should smell great, right? Why must someone keep challenging their limits, torturing themselves? Did chefs have this much free time?
After inlaying bean sprout for a while, her vision grew unbearable, so Nangong Meili switched to slicing Wensi tofu. And the moment she started, she was dumbfounded—how could tofu possibly be cut that thin?! She had seen demonstrations before, but had only admired the knife skills and appreciated the beauty of the tofu unraveling. Now that she was doing it herself, managing to cut the tofu into sticks would already be an achievement!
"Obviously… I remember that when I was alive, you could buy a tool online for slicing Wensi tofu—you just had to press the mold down. Why won't they give me anything here? A knife? What's the use of just a knife? Being able to slice it depends on your hands!"
Reading up to this point, you might have noticed that the progress of these players isn't very good. Yes, you're not mistaken. Even Huangfu Tiezhu also suffered a miserable defeat and failed to bring back a magic item.
Huangfu Tiezhu himself couldn't figure it out.
During the first illusion, he returned to his youth, reliving everything from his past life, then continuing into the life he would have lived had he not died. The immersion was too strong, he couldn't break out—understandable. He could accept that. But what was with the second time?! He actually became a girl! A normal family, loving parents, a dull and ordinary school life. From wearing pink dresses as a child to wearing a school uniform as she grew up, then learning makeup—everything felt completely normal to him. He didn't even feel the slightest discomfort. Even later, falling in love, breaking up, dating again, breaking up again, dating, marrying, having children… he was completely immersed and didn't sense anything wrong at all! Until he died again, he suddenly woke up and saw that blue-named NPC looking at him with a half-smile.
He forcibly held back his words. The blue-named NPC didn't act maliciously and ask him anything either. After he calmed himself, the third illusion directly sent him to become a dog. Let's not talk about the bittersweet joy of that. When the illusion ended, Huangfu Tiezhu was still grieving—"I can't stay with my little master anymore. Woo woo woo, you must all live well…"—when it suddenly ended, leaving him stuck halfway, not even sure if his tears should fall or not.
How he wished he could grab the NPC's shoulders, shake her hard, and shake the water out of her brain! How much he wanted to righteously demand, "What exactly do you take me for? Why didn't you even let me be human this time?!"
Unfortunately, he could only think it. The resentment could only be swallowed. As for writing his name to try to recall everything? Whether as a girl or as a dog, he adapted just fine to being called "Huangfu Tiezhu."
No—his real name wasn't even Huangfu Tiezhu! He was on the verge of going crazy. After this game, he might not even react when friends called his real name, but if someone yelled "Huangfu Tiezhu," he would reflexively turn around. What kind of tragedy was this?! But there was at least one benefit: after the game ended, he could firmly tell himself that everything experienced in the game and in the illusions happened to Huangfu Tiezhu—what did it have to do with him?
After the illusion ended, lying on the wooden bed, it took Huangfu Tiezhu a long time to calm down enough to sleep. But perhaps because the illusion experiences were too rich, he actually dreamed that after dying in his past life, he became a dog, was raised by a little girl, and after dying again, turned into that little girl. That dream was too long—when he woke up in the morning, Huangfu Tiezhu didn't even know who he was.
Until Huangfu Niang in the game kicked open the door with a kitchen knife in hand: "The food's ready and you're still not up?!"
"Up! I'm getting up right now!" Huangfu Tiezhu was so frightened his voice changed. After he answered, Huangfu Niang went back to chopping meat with her kitchen knife.
...
That day, the exhausted players gathered again and poured out their grievances. Feeling too embarrassed to admit he became a girl in the illusion and felt perfectly natural about it, Huangfu Tiezhu only complained about the part where he became a dog. The other players weren't doing much better either. Even Shangguan Cuihua was speechless that despite obtaining the magic item, she still had to continue the challenge—otherwise the item would be taken back.
"What?! Even after getting the magic item we can't rest?" The players were shocked.
"None of you got a new magic item yesterday?!" This was the despairing Wang Erma, who began to wonder if he would ever get his kasaya.
After the players finally calmed down and accepted reality, Shangguan Cuihua thought for a moment and said, "Some of these tasks are pretty simple, but some… are really difficult to complete. Doesn't this mean we might be able to find something helpful in the village's world? This game runs on a fixed schedule, and the illusion only opens after nightfall. It's impossible that the village's real world is just for show, right?"
Beside the shrine on the mountain was an unknown sealed monster, and there might also be secrets in the village that they had yet to discover. But the village was so big, and they had already explored many places without finding anything unusual.
They would have to explore the village again!
The players split up on the spot, searching for any hidden secrets within the village. The blue-named NPCs might be key; they needed to find a way to get information out of them. And the village chief's house—there might be some kind of treasure hidden there. The rituals, the mountain god… the village chief definitely knew more about all of it.
Some players went to the school hall, some visited the village chief's home, and some saved up their money and returned to the Fang siblings' tavern.
"Strange… where did the two sisters from the village chief's house go? Why are they never home?" Li Si, Nangong Meili, and Shangguan Cuihua were completely confused. They had wanted to visit the two blue-named sisters in the chief's house, only to find that no one was home. Standing outside the door, they thought for a moment. With the sisters gone, they had no excuse to go in! But they still wanted to see whether the chief's house had any hidden passages—
Forget it, they would climb the wall! They were all players—who didn't have some skills? As long as they weren't caught, they wouldn't go out of character.
On her end, Mu Anqi watched as the three players climbed over the wall in broad daylight to sneak into the village chief's home. She didn't even know what to say. She switched her viewpoint and found that Zhao Guoguo and Si Suying were slacking off again—they had brought food and wine from the tavern up to the mountaintop and were now sitting there enjoying the scenery!
Good thing the players weren't climbing the mountain, or who knew how they would explain that! Actually… thinking seriously about Zhao Guoguo's "lucky emperor" status, maybe getting discovered was something that simply wouldn't happen to her at all.
Mu Anqi sighed—what else could she do but accept her fate? The power of a luck-blessed creature was truly impossible to measure.
Fortunately, Fang Xunjiu and Fang Yunjiu were both properly running the tavern, and with Tiezhu and Goudan visiting today, everything went smoothly. As for the school hall, Wu Sansheng and Xia Yun were playing their roles well. Zhang San and Wang Erma were only sitting in to listen at first, and couldn't find a chance to talk to them alone to gather information.
Just as Mu Anqi was finally relaxing, Li Si, Nangong Meili, and Shangguan Cuihua suddenly released a huge burst of emotion value! She quickly switched her viewpoint and saw Shangguan Cuihua lifting a red cloth with her Silver Zen Staff, while the three of them stared at the smiling-face shrine in the village chief's secret room, all looking at each other in shock.
"Wh-why… why is something like this in the village chief's house?!"