As Su Ming'an slowly moved the flashlight upward, the light in his hand suddenly went out.
The ticking sound on the wall had stopped at some unknown point, and a chill gradually crept over his entire body from all around.
He had originally thought that, as the strongest player in the world right now, he shouldn't have encountered any obstacles in this beginner world. If not completely dominating, at least clearing the stage shouldn't be too difficult.
But now it seemed... was decryption also an important part, too?
He heard a "clang!" behind him, as the door that had been open was suddenly closed by an unseen hand.
Then, there was a burst of laughter.
It was the laughter of a child, tinkling like bells, crisp, pure, like that of children running and playing in a park.
He slightly lowered his head and saw a little girl dressed in blood-red clothes staring at her, her eyes like whirlpools of blood, her lips bearing a chill smile.
"Big Brother."
The little girl's voice reverberated in her ears: "Do you like picking mushrooms?"
Speaking thus, she hummed to herself the nursery rhyme, "The Little Mushroom Picker," each note eerily chilling to the core.
...
[The little mushroom picker
Carrying a basket of bones
Barefooted at night~ traveling through graves and hills~]
...
"Pfft!"
With a crisp sound, he punched at the apparently frail little girl.
Looking so cute, she would probably cry for a long time after one punch.
But he quickly realized that his punch went straight through her, and then, everything around him went completely dark.
He lifted his head and saw the white-collar worker standing in place, her feet as if rooted to the ground. She seemed very afraid, her teeth chattering, wanting to escape the room, but her figure was frozen in place.
It seemed as if she had triggered some abnormal mechanism, unable to move, and the blood bar representing her Health Points was gradually decreasing.
The barrage began to surge:
[I kiao, this scene is so Underworld]
[Lucky I died early, this kind of game, let whoever wants to play it play it, I don't dare to play]
[Aliens are definitely not anything good, this is too Underworld...]
[What travelers shuttling through otherworlds, just a group of humans being driven to a place like this to die...]
Perhaps because of LV.1 Mentality Resistance, Su Ming'an wasn't affected much.
He glanced at the dim room in front of him, and then reached out to the wall beside him.
"Click."
The laboratory lit up.
The eerie sight before him vanished in an instant, and at the same time, the white-collar woman finally saw the graffiti wall that had been stained with dark red palm prints and pitch-black liquid.
Trailing blood stains extended from the top to the very bottom, as if someone's body had been dragged from one side to the other.
Just thinking about having spent so much time in such a room caused her to tremble all over.
"What was that just now..."
"Not sure." Su Ming'an turned off the flashlight: "It seems that turning on this light switch is a condition to avoid the death mechanism—you can go out now."
He pointed to another door in the laboratory that was open, where slanted sunlight was spilling in; it appeared that one could leave directly from here.
"I can leave? What about you?" The woman hesitated in her steps.
"I need to investigate a bit more." Su Ming'an walked directly toward the corner where a body lay in a ghastly state.
The woman went to the edge of the door, hesitating for a moment.
[Player (Yu Ruohuo) requests to add you as a friend.]
A prompt suddenly popped up in the corner of his vision.
"I'm not usually like this... I'm just more afraid of ghosts and such, but I'm quite confident when it comes to fighting." Yu Ruohuo said while pinching the hem of her clothes: "You just saved me once, so if you want to travel together later, it's not out of the question..."
She saw the young man crouched in the corner examining the body and waved her hand without lifting his head.
...
[Goodbye.]
...
Yu Ruohuo understood what that meant.
A look of annoyance and blush spread across her face, she clutched the half-melted dagger, and left without lingering any longer.
...
Watching Yu Ruohuo finally leave, Su Ming'an lowered his head and began to examine the body.
[I feel like the host has a sort of big shot aura, like he's not afraid of anything... I wonder what rating the host got in the newbie stage.]
[The host is too much of a straight man, turning away the girl that came on to him.] The barrage floated across his field of vision.
"This isn't a gal game, there's no Favorability setting—it's not like I must like her just because she came onto me," Su Ming'an said as he examined the body.
The playfully teasing barrage briefly went silent for a moment.
They seemed to sense that this player, who claimed to be a "normal college student," wasn't that ordinary.
[You have discovered an item (corpse in a gruesome state), do you wish to start an investigation? (Clues obtained from the investigation are related to Mentality Points and Wisdom)]
[*You have obtained Clues One, Three, Six (dark blood) (fresh mushrooms) (scarlet imprint on the wrist)]
```
[Clue One: Dark Blood: Blood of a strange color, it's best not to touch it directly with your hands—unless you're truly thirsty.]
[Clue Three: Tender Mushrooms: Completely white, with plump caps. They look delicious and are good supplies in the apocalypse.]
[Clue Six: Crimson Mark on the Wrist: It doesn't seem to be drawn on. Could it be a special tattoo?]
[Clues have been recorded in the Clue Column and can be viewed at any time. (Linking more clues later can form hypotheses. Hypotheses can be used in the "final deduction".)]
...
[Hint: You are gradually getting closer to the truth.]
[Gained 10*3 Exploration Points]
[Survival probability has increased slightly]
After gaining an unexpected surprise, Su Ming'an placed the cup of purple solution into his backpack and then, after thinking for a moment, temporarily closed the live stream and used regained mana to create a clone.
He had thought that releasing the clone would be like having a remote-controlled car: just send a command from his original body and it would be done.
But he found that the five senses were shared between them, and the field of vision required willpower to switch control, or it would appear simultaneously in front of him. This operation was like having two of him, making his head spin for a while.
When the clone was in pain, he would feel it too; whatever the clone heard, he could also hear, just that the intensity depended on where his attention was.
It seemed that, for now, attacking the same target with his clone wasn't possible.
He resumed the live stream and walked out the door, showered with sunshine from head to toe.
Today is the first day of survival, and the apocalyptic crisis hadn't erupted yet. Based on Shadow's judgment, it was now noon.
This was the periphery of the laboratory. He saw tall grey-white walls and upright iron bars surrounding him, and several guards' bodies lying on the ground with clear wounds on their necks—seems like Yu Ruohuo's doing. That woman kept a knife hidden, and her skills were obviously good.
It was best not to deal with these naturally. Su Ming'an followed the road and walked out.
Standing by a bus stop next to a city supermarket, he posed as a local resident waiting for a bus, listening to the conversation of passers-by who were obviously players.
"Damn it, the system didn't issue the currency for this city; there's no way to buy food..."
"I'm so hungry. I was already rushing to meet a deadline without eating, and then I was pulled into this damned game... I also wonder how my parents are doing, where they are now if they got selected to come as well..."
"And my sister, just last night I told her I would take her to the amusement park, and then suddenly I can't see her anymore... I wonder if this game lets you add friends remotely."
"Forget it, what's done is done."
"Indeed, that rabbit from the Organizers said that completing tasks earns Points, maybe I can become a superhero—then when I return to Zhai Xing in a year, I'll beat that dead Vest guy up a bit."
"Hehe, even though this World Replica is apocalyptic, maybe the next one will be the legendary magical Otherworld? If I could see Elves, the Dragon Clan, and Brave heroes, and even the future world of space... As long as we survive, we can see whole new worlds. That's way more interesting than the day-to-day work grind in Zhai Xing, I'm already eager to see what's next..."
"Enough with the fantasies, we need to fill our bellies first. Let's buy some food and leave this city quickly. If what's about to break out is a zombie crisis, crowded places are the most dangerous. Let's find somewhere in the wild to hide before the crisis erupts..."
Su Ming'an stood by the bus sign, listening to the conversations of people coming and going.
He noticed that many who looked like players, due to the lack of circulating currency in this city, were buying mushroom food to fill their bellies—as it turned out, mushroom food was surprisingly cheap.
Logically, this shouldn't be the case, as the news had just told him that treating special diseases could only rely on mushrooms. Judging by how people hoard salt during pandemics, mushroom food should have been snapped up.
But here, it had become the cheapest thing.
```
The issue that players currently face should be the food crisis... because they don't have enough money, and they only receive a small amount of initial funds from the system, the system store doesn't sell local currency or food.
Su Ming'an used all of his initial funds to buy just enough bread for two meals, steering clear of any mushroom-based food.
[You have acquired item (Sealed Meal Packet) *2]
[(Sealed Meal Packet): An inferior meal packet, perhaps only the destitute and students would choose it.]
Su Ming'an felt that as a student, he was doing quite well.
He went to the job market following the crowd but found out after inquiring that the market only hires locals—this meant that players had no way to earn money through normal means here.
...
[System: You have a video call request.]
Su Ming'an chose to accept, and suddenly a display panel appeared in front of him, with the white-collar worker Yu Ruohuo watching him through the video.
"I'm sure you've noticed the current issue," she said, "What do you plan to do?"
"As you can see," Su Ming'an, holding a meal packet, sat on a park bench.
"Eating bread, sleeping in the park?" Yu Ruohuo frowned, "Is that all you've got?"
"You seem to think too highly of me," Su Ming'an, "I'm just a student."
Yu Ruohuo looked skeptical, "The park isn't safe, I've already seen several plundering gangs, all six-player teams that formed at the outset, specifically targeting those who are alone, snatching their food and funds."
"It's to be expected," Su Ming'an said, "In times of crisis, when the rule of law collapses and violence prevails, I can imagine people making such decisions. After all, in their eyes, the caps that locked them no longer exist, everything is within reach."
"...You aren't planning to move?"
"The very practical reason is, no money."
"Ding-dong!"
Su Ming'an heard a notification sound.
[Friend (Yu Ruohuo) is requesting your current location.]
"I just sold my dagger, so I have a bit of spare cash. Where are you? I'll bring some money, as a way to repay you for saving me once," Yu Ruohuo said.
"No need," Su Ming'an waved his hand—this person really did ensure to repay favors, despite being annoyed by him once.
But he didn't want to team up with this woman; with her mentality resistance, she was basically the source of triggering crises.
"I've already found a place nearby where I can stay peacefully."
"What?" Yu Ruohuo didn't catch on.
The next moment, through the video chat, she saw the shapes of several figures behind the young man, brandishing weapons. The clubs in their hands were swinging straight toward Su Ming'an's head!
In her astonished gaze, bright red numbers suddenly leapt out from above Su Ming'an's head.
[——HP-300! (Weakness Strike, Full Force Strike!)]