The original real environment of the marketplace was concealed by curtains, and what the participants could interact with was an altered stage, more suitable for the performance.
This curtain felt smooth to the touch, carrying a weight disproportionate to its volume. Its surface shimmered faintly, like a handful of silver sand that could slip through one's fingers at any moment.
Four items, three of which can be associated with stage performances. The only exception is the [Lucky Decision Coin], referred to as a remnant.
This is a metal coin. Cheng Tingyu had seen it on York's neck before. The surface had ancient patterns, imbued with an indescribable aura of mystery.
At this moment, the color of Cheng Tingyu's right eye seemed to deepen, and her gaze fell upon the coin in her hand—
"...!"
A completely unexpected sharp pain came from her right eye, as if her brain had been instantly pierced by a sharp object. A nauseating dizziness overwhelmed Cheng Tingyu, and she instinctively bent over, covering her eye with her hand.
The temples were damp with cold sweat, and bright red blood flowed continuously from the pale fingers, like wine from an uncorked bottle.
A series of strange, incomprehensible words flashed before her eyes. If she tried to decipher them, the pain would only intensify.
After about five minutes, or perhaps even less, Cheng Tingyu slowly lowered his hand.
She hadn't had time to put mirrors in every room yet, so she could only communicate with herself through the bedroom window.
The image reflected in the glass was distorted by its slight undulations. Cheng Tingyu looked at his own reflection and smiled apologetically, "I'm really sorry for making you bleed so much."
Although it was only a brief moment, Cheng Tingyu still managed to capture some information related to the coin.
In my hand is an artifact imbued with the power of the secret eye.
The usage is very simple. The person holding the [Lucky Decision Coin] can determine good or bad fortune by tossing the coin. Wearing it for a long time also increases the chance of having prophetic dreams.
However, as a powerful tool, the [Lucky Decision Coin] also has a potentially fatal side effect.
Although its name contains the word "luck," this item always manages to lead its user into a trap without them even realizing it.
The previous Yote who possessed the decision coin chose to enter the "fiery" megastore, which was completely unsuitable for him.
The current owner of the prop is now Cheng Tingyu.
After a moment, Cheng Tingyu looked away.
The intense pain in her right eye just now had a strange sense of familiarity, reminding her of the moment in Apartment No. 6 when she was only a corridor away from the ancient one's kin.
A similar feeling raised a hint of suspicion in her heart; perhaps it was precisely because of the mingling of the ancient source's aura that this artifact ultimately underwent an ominous transformation.
Rubbing his temples, Cheng Tingyu stopped worrying about the situation with the [Lucky Decision Coin] and placed it together with the previous three rewards.
At least there are two things to be thankful for now. First, as long as it is not used, her safety should be guaranteed. Second, fortunately, she did not awaken Wei Xu's ability, otherwise, she could have poisoned herself in one go.
After waking up from an afternoon nap, the feeling of hunger became particularly pronounced. Cheng Tingyu wiped the blood off his face and staggered towards the living room.
The living environment of the rental house could only be considered average, with just the basic necessities inside. Moreover, whether in terms of the level of decoration or the completeness of the furniture, it couldn't compare to the previous No. 6 apartment.
A small consolation was that there was actually a refrigerator in the kitchen.
Although it looked a bit old, Cheng Tingyu, who had gradually gotten used to life in the outer district, no longer had many demands regarding his living conditions.
When Cheng Tingyu had just moved in, he specifically bought a magnet and made a fridge magnet himself. He stuck a note on the door to ensure that every time he came to look for food, he would see the message on it.
At this moment, the words on the sticky note were "Need to buy staple foods and fruits and vegetables."
Cheng Tingyu raised his hand to take down the sticky note and flipped it to the back.
There was a string of scrawled characters, "90 19 09 12 05 14 20."
This is a hint that Cheng Tingyu left for himself when his mental state was normal.
She worried that she might go too far and forget to restrain herself when the time came.
Once the sanity value drops too much, players will gradually find it difficult to control their actions. However, those who are consumed by madness cannot clearly perceive their own condition.
Among them, 90 is the baseline for mental value. If it really drops to 70, she would probably be so lively that she couldn't control herself. The six numbers that follow are not a password; they are unprocessed English letter codes.
19 is s, 09 is i, and so on. Combining the six letters together, it spells "silent."
This string of numbers was Cheng Tingyu's way of reminding himself that if his mental value dropped below 90, he had to remain silent.
If she wrote "90 silent" directly, and someone entered her room and discovered the content behind the sticky note, they would inevitably wonder how Cheng Tingyu could know the detailed data of her mental state.
Cheng Tingyu glanced at the mirror in the living room and identified the current detailed data from it.
[Mental Value (Mild Madness): 83/125]
...it wasn't a particularly surprising outcome.
Originally, after some rest, her sanity value had actually recovered a bit. However, she was just hit by the [Lucky Decision Coin] again, causing her already not fully restored mental state to become even more precarious.
In this world filled with absurdity and danger, it is truly difficult to keep a sane mind.
The living room had a mirror. Cheng Tingyu turned around and faced his own reflection: "I... don't think I've gone mad."
She still had normal thinking, and in the afternoon, she even communicated with the inspectors about the copy issues. When she was tired, she would sleep; when she was hungry, she would eat... Every action had sufficient reason to support it.
Cheng Tingyu walked to the mirror, placed his hand over the eyes of the person in the reflection, and whispered, "Is this what you think too?"
Although he felt it wasn't really necessary, Cheng Tingyu still respected the advice he had given himself when his mind was still clear, deciding to remain silent for two days to regain his sanity.
Since we need to be "silent," let's try to stay quiet, sleep if we want to sleep, play if we want to play.
In a word, just go with the flow.
Cheng Tingyu stood at the refrigerator door for three seconds, contemplating that cooking was indeed a highly risky endeavor, so he turned and knocked on the neighbor's door.
Two minutes later, Wei Xuguang opened the door, expressionless: "What's the matter?"
Cheng Tingyu sincerely said, "I just did a divination for myself, and today is not a good day to start a business."
As someone who must carefully consider his words, Wei Xugu's feelings towards players who could talk nonsense were quite complex. He glanced at the newcomer, then went back to his room to fetch a bag of dry bread and tossed it to the other person. Before closing the door, he hesitated for a moment and still reminded, "You've been clearing dungeons too frequently. Recently, take care to rest and relax your mind. Even if a player doesn't clear the dungeon and just stays inside, they will gradually draw power from it. Once the power they draw exceeds their limit, aberrations will occur."
After spending some time together, Wei Xuguang had come to understand the state of his neighbor across the hall. Cheng Tingyu sometimes appeared quite experienced, while at other times he seemed to lack basic common sense.
The latter point does align with the background of a visitor from a desolate region.
Faced with the neighbor who suddenly spoke at length, Cheng Tingyu raised an eyebrow slightly: "Are you available to talk now?"
Wei Xuguang: "It's not like I'll be using my ability all the time."
Cheng Tingyu kindly reminded, "If I were you, I wouldn't say that."
Wei Xugui: "..."
Careless.
It wasn't that she wasn't cautious enough; the main issue was that the sanity-draining attacks in the game were multi-faceted and omnidirectional. Even though she remained silent and barely noticeable, she wasn't spared.
Cheng Tingyu, having successfully obtained the dry bread, lay back peacefully at home.
The afternoon nap only slightly alleviated the fatigue from clearing the dungeon. After dinner, Cheng Tingyu once again fell into a deep sleep and didn't wake up until eleven o'clock the next morning.
Cheng Tingyu was originally browsing a forum to pass the time, but according to her habit, even when skimming through trivial posts, she couldn't help but ponder over something. So, she simply took out the map of the outer city she had bought earlier and searched for a suitable place to kill time.
The surrounding entertainment options were so few it was infuriating. Considering it was not suitable to go to the bustling city center and she couldn't engage in activities that required thinking, the best activity for her at the moment was to enjoy the scenery.
Cheng Tingyu intended to take a walk in the park, but the nearest Camellia Park was right across from the capsule hotel, a densely populated area. Normally, it wouldn't be considered dangerous, but if she went alone, there was no guarantee that nothing would happen.
After searching for half a day, Cheng Tingyu finally found another riverside park that was more secluded, accessible by taking the No. 67 bus.
Forty-five minutes later.
Generally, bus drivers don't pay much attention to where passengers are headed, but today, he couldn't help but watch the young man who got off the bus for a while.
In the outer district, there are few entertainment facilities, and during regular working hours, not many people come out to stroll in the park. Naturally, even fewer choose to visit an abandoned park.
With bottled water and dry bread in hand, Cheng Tingyu set off towards Riverside Park with a mindset of a winter outing. Before long, the sound of a car engine starting finally came from behind her.
The No. 67 bus finally pulled out of the station.
The weather was excessively clear, the blue sky seemed to have been washed, reaching an incredible level of clarity and purity.
Fluffy white clouds drifted leisurely, one after another.
The warm sunlight shone on the lush golden lawn, and the wind carried the sweet, intoxicating scent of flowers.
"..."
Cheng Tingyu gazed at the surrounding beauty, then slowly, slowly let out a sigh.
Sure enough, going out for a stroll can hardly be considered silent. Even if one leaves a note for oneself and sets reminders, daily actions can unconsciously deviate due to madness.
Cheng Tingyu whispered to himself, "This was also unexpected. Given the visitor density at Hejing Park, this place shouldn't have triggered a dungeon."
While speaking, Cheng Tingyu rarely showed a guilty expression.
In fact, simply strolling through the park is not a dangerous activity. Even if she had some mental issues, as long as she maintained the purpose of sightseeing, taking a few glances before leaving, it wouldn't be difficult to come out unscathed.
Of all the things he shouldn't have done, Cheng Tingyu should never have relied on his exceptional vision, enhanced by the power of his unique pupils, to spot the book lying in the flowerbed at a glance.
The name of the book was "A Boring Storybook," and the information identified matched the title exactly—
[A Boring Storybook: A book filled with boring stories, not worth reading.]
Cheng Tingyu thought that she indeed had a bit of rebellion in her mind.
If I said it was interesting or exciting, she would have left immediately.
With the mindset of "since I said it was boring, I should at least take a look," Cheng Tingyu picked up the storybook, about one centimeter thick, and gently opened it.
The next moment, she found herself in an endless expanse of golden grass.
In the center of the golden meadow, there was a clearing with a neat and tidy little wooden house standing on it. The roof was thatched with straw, and the walls and windows were made of wood. Each plank had been sawed into the same shape, and there was a beautiful square chimney on the roof.
The blue sky, white clouds, blanket-like grass, a charming little cabin—vivid colors imprinted themselves in Cheng Tingyu's eyes. From an aesthetic perspective, this was truly a scene that could be used as wallpaper with just a casual snap.
Cheng Tingyu lowered his head, parted the golden grass, and examined the soil beneath.
...There was nothing.
Theoretically, the worms that should exist in the soil were nowhere to be found.
Cheng Tingyu never imagined that the soil in the wild, covered with grass, could be as clean as if it had just been unwrapped.
On the soil, countless blades of grass swayed gently, each one indistinguishable from the other.
Cheng Tingyu closed his eyes.
She could only hear the sound of the wind and the rustling of the grass.
This is not an entirely silent world, yet the overly monotonous sources of sound carry an eerie resemblance to deathly stillness.
"..."
The wind was ceaseless, the rustling of the grass and leaves incessant. Cheng Tingyu's hearing was average, but in her perception, every sound was identical to the one before.
The breeze always blows at the same angle, with the same force, and the blades of grass sway with the same amplitude.
This is a beautiful world.
This is also a monotonous world.
It seemed like a scene had been cut out and was being played on an endless loop.
Cheng Tingyu opened his eyes again and looked at the small cabin in the distance.
"..."
Her pupils suddenly contracted.
The wooden cabin, which had originally resembled a still oil painting, now had wisps of white smoke curling from the chimney on the roof.
A wooden house in the golden grass: a standard house, primarily made of wood, with people living inside.
Since there are people, there will naturally be traces of human activity.
The breeze seemed to have turned a bit colder.
Cheng Tingyu looked at his own hand.
The surrounding temperature hadn't changed; it was she herself who, at some point, had begun to break out in a cold sweat.