An ominous fact lay before everyone.
All the stone sculptures they saw were essentially not artworks carved in the likeness of humans, but living people who had been petrified by a curse.
Not only the flesh and blood in their torsos, but even the clothes of those statues had turned into a lifeless, dull gray.
Cheng Tingyu reached out and touched the cheek of the stone sculpture. Its jaw had long since sunken in, as if, during the petrification process, only a thin layer of skin remained.
Connected to the sixth room was the seventh room.
The two buildings maintained both relevance and independence simultaneously. Their architectural styles were not similar, but there was a passageway inside, as if the neighbors on both sides wished to look after each other more conveniently, so they had opened up the wall in between.
Cheng Tingyu stepped into the passage.
Little Jia, who was half a step behind, quietly glanced at Little Yi.
However, this time, it was the latter who refused to meet her gaze.
The details of life in the seventh house were even sparser than in all the other houses, the whole place exceptionally empty, as if it had been deliberately cleared out.
There should be two beds in the bedroom, one large and one small.
The bedroom contained more items than outside. Squeezed between the two beds was presumably a desk, on which lay paper and pen, as well as a slightly yellowed letter.
Cheng Tingyu bent down to pick up the letter, her movements exceptionally gentle, as if afraid it might crumble into dust. However, she also realized that even if she used a bit more force, the letter would not be damaged.
The letter paper was relatively sturdy, similar in texture to the paper in the notebook, and it had been deliberately placed on the table, surrounded by dry materials that were not so easily decomposed.
Cheng Tingyu carefully opened the envelope.
Inside, there was a message left by the owner of the seventh house for those who came after.
"Before leaving with my sister, I need to write down what I discovered. If anyone enters the village, as long as they follow the instructions in the letter, they will survive."
Perhaps it was an illusion, but upon reading this line, everyone felt an abnormal tension in the atmosphere around them.
"This is a nameless village where the villagers live peaceful lives."
"But three days ago, a curse suddenly appeared in the village."
Cheng Tingyu quietly looked at the letter paper, her dark eyes showing no ripples, as if everything in the outside world would be completely swallowed up the moment it touched her gaze.
Generally speaking, when story creators mention the core setting, they tend to keep a bit of mystery. However, this scenario directly wrote the content of the curse in the letter. This also proves that discovering the existence of the curse is not the participants' objective in this scenario.
"I went to ask Miss Shan at the other end of the village. She is someone who loves to study and has a wealth of knowledge."
"Miss Shan showed me her book. It mentioned that language has weight, and after being refined, it can turn into a secret potion."
"Only one bottle is the antidote; the others are all deadly poison."
"Everyone who speaks in the village will be afflicted by the petrification curse."
"Remember one thing."
"Don't speak."
"Don't say a word."
"Also, I summarized the methods to avoid the village curse,"
"One, those who do not speak will not be poisoned. The mute are those who do not speak. The mute can leave alive."
"Second, the hearts of children are pure; children will not be poisoned."
"Three, the more you talk, the faster you turn to stone."
"Now I am going to take my sister and leave, stranger. Good luck to you."
The three of them read the text very quickly, and they almost finished the last line at the same time.
Xiao Yi had been restraining his arm's subconscious movements all along, but at this moment, it suddenly stiffened for an instant.
Xiao Jia's motion of touching his elbow suddenly stopped.
The light inside the room was unusually dim.
Outside, there was no wind; the entire village was as silent as a grave.
...At this point, it seems there is no longer any need to hide it.
After entering the village, each of them had already spoken at least once.
The ivy clung motionless to the surface of the stone wall, evoking images of large patches of moldy paste or tar.
Although Xiao Jia hated the surrounding plants, he couldn't help but feel a bit grateful at this moment, as he could use them to hide his figure.
Five minutes ago, under the pretext of splitting up to look for clues, she deliberately got separated from the other two participants.
The three did not directly fall out, but after leaving the other two, Xiao Jia still breathed a sigh of relief.
If staying silent was the key to survival, then without a doubt, she had already lost the qualification to take this simplest path to success.
However, after making the mistake, she quickly realized a way to remedy it, a method she had learned from the new young person.
The new young man had once casually mentioned that, for her, leaving the path didn't matter.
At that time, Xiao Jia couldn't understand, but now he finally realized.
If they couldn't find the next scene after getting lost, as long as someone in the team died, the remaining two would likely respawn in the cabin, waiting for the instance to automatically fill the missing role.
Similarly, in the petrified village, as long as one person dies first, the remaining two can use this opportunity to escape.
Xiao Jia touched his elbow.
The places where my fingers touched had already gone numb, and more and more areas of my body began to expand continuously. When I moved my joints, I could even hear the abnormal cracking sounds.
Xiao Jia tried hard to recall. After entering the instance, she hadn't said too much or too little, certainly not more than that young man. She shouldn't be the first one to be petrified.
...As long as it isn't discovered, it's fine.
...As long as she wasn't discovered by the other two, she could return to the first scene, wait for the missing roles in the instance to be filled, then come back to the village and leave the instance by keeping silent.
Little Jia hid in the overgrown weeds behind an abandoned house, motionless, his eyes filled with a complex mix of emotions.
After a long while, she shook her head at herself inwardly.
If we just wait, it might not be safe enough.
If I want to ensure my survival until the end, I should be more proactive.
As an experienced player, Xiao Yi was not particularly foolish. Almost at the same moment he read the letter, he understood the meaning of the words on the paper.
All the stone sculptures were once living people. The moment they spoke, the villagers were already tainted by the curse of the village.
A very obvious conclusion is that since it is dangerous inside the village, it must be safe outside the village.
After leaving the others under the pretext of searching for clues separately, Xiao Yi quietly slipped out of the village along the path they had come.
The cursed part of his body did not lift as he stepped out of the village boundary; it continued to slowly erode the rest of him.
The forest was filled with roses.
Xiao Yi never knew that he would come to despise the scent of roses so much.
Sharp thorns grew on the branches of the rosebush, severely hindering Xiao Yi's movements.
While he stepped on and broke the obstructive branches with his foot, he pondered the mechanics of the game.
Since leaving the village, he had been feeling uneasy, worried that he might overlook some clues.
Xiao Jia's realization was slowly dawning on Xiao Yi as well.
Although he still didn't know how to find the antidote, as long as one person died, it would probably trigger the reset of the dungeon scene, right?
Fortunately, he was a flesh-and-blood player. Although he couldn't use his original abilities, he naturally had a stronger resistance to things like petrification curses.
Thinking of this, Xiao Yi's movements suddenly paused.
That new young man was also a flesh-and-blood player.
...Can he really guarantee that he won't be the first character in the story to be completely petrified?
As Xiao Yi advanced deeper into the forest, he slightly slowed his pace.
He seemed like he should go back to the village for a look, not too close, just a few glances from afar would suffice.
After all, the village wasn't very large. As long as those two kept moving, he would definitely be able to see them.
Xiao Yi thought, if those two were lucky enough to find the antidote, he could naturally follow them through the level. If they also had no clue for a long time, he could find an opportunity to give Xiao Jia another stab and try to trigger a scene reset.
Large clusters of rose flowers blocked the path of the person in the forest, and the bushes pressed against Xiao Yi's body, making every step he took require considerable effort.
There were no paths in the forest, and everything around looked exactly the same. Even though Xiao Yi had left traces along the way, they were now barely visible.
Xiao Yi stopped in his tracks.
He hadn't actually made up his mind to go back to the village, yet his steps had unconsciously come to a halt.
Xiao Yi lowered his head and saw that the spot where his toes had been was now a blank space.
"..."
At this moment, he finally realized what he had overlooked.
Characters too far from the plot point will disappear from the story. In the second scene, the rose bushes represent places without roads. If the third scene gives the impression that speaking will turn one to stone, the rose bushes affect one's sense of direction.
The forest that blotted out the sky and the sun, and the vibrant red roses, led him unknowingly to the edge of the plot's boundary.
"Don't panic," Xiao Yi said to himself urgently, "just retreat immediately..."
After making the decision, his body did not move accordingly.
The curse of the village would first manifest on the limbs of the one who spoke of it.
His feet and knees were already covered with a stony shell.
"..."
At this moment, the forest seemed to become even quieter than the village.
Xiao Yi's chest began to heave, feeling as if his entire being was seized by immense fear: "...As long as I stand still, I still have a chance..."
He couldn't finish his sentence.
The body was losing its balance. Xiao Yi lowered his head and discovered that the transparent parts of his body were rapidly increasing—the plot point of the story was shifting.
Xiao Yi disappeared into the Storybook.
In the nameless village, even the sunlight seemed different from the other two scenes.
A young man sat quietly on the dilapidated rooftop.
The durability of the roof tiles below was already low, and perhaps in the next second, they would be completely destroyed by the pressure from above.
The young man sat here not only because of his cheerful personality but also because he believed the high vantage point was advantageous for observation.
The person who wrote the letter being able to leave with his sister means that there is a way out of the village.
The young man standing at a high place also saw that passage at this moment.
The target was not hard to find. Strangely, before realizing this, she had not felt the presence of the passage at all.
——So the previous scene hint was correct; the place where Xiao Jia found the storybook implied both "cage" and "exit."