"What is going on?! Is this damned gun in my hand not a real one but a fucking water gun? Why isn't it working?!" Gao Qi shouted.
"Hold it! I'll send another message." 922 found a gap and rushed into the car.
Gao Qi was almost about to vomit blood, "Send, send, send! Hurry up!"
Several invigilators nearby were also confused. As they fired, they slowly retreated. Once there were some doubts in their thoughts, their attacks became mixed with a trace of hesitation.
In just a few minutes, the momentum of the two sides had reversed. Many people now carried traces of damage on their ends.
Greyish-yellow smoke rolled down from the top of the mountain like a tide, covering a large part of the forest.
021's shoulder had a large gnash left behind by a bullet. She swiftly cleaned off the blood, bandaged it and then skilfully reloaded her gun before coming back out of the car again.
"It's not completely useless." She looked out the scope as she spoke to Gao Qi, "There is at least some blood now."
"Yeah, after half an hour of bombing, they're finally scratched. I'm sooo happy." Gao Qi snorted sarcastically a few times and then proceeded to pick up his rocket launcher again with an unhappy expression.
"Their skin is too thick." Yu Wen couldn't help but say.
"The method is probably wrong." Di Li thought for a while, "In the end, it might still involve the poem mentioned in the question; a toast to invite the bright moon, shadows form three people. Could it be that bombing the person is useless and we should be attacking their shadows instead?"
As he said this, Yu Wen aimed at a nearby car and said, "Top student...We have been bombing them for half an hour you know? Half an hour! After using almost half our ammunition, how could it be possible for their shadows not to be hit? If it only works if we hit their shadows, they should already have been blown to smithereens by now."
"I know." Di Li furrowed his brows in thought, "I'm not talking about the shadows on the ground. Shadows form three people...three people...Where is the other one?"
Yu Wen, "The moon. Even I remember this so how could you forget?"
Di Li pointed at the sky, "Then you try and blow the moon up for me."
Yu Wen: "...."
"Of course, I remember the original meaning of the poem but this is clearly not applied this way here!" Di Li was still pondering, "The person counts as one, the shadow on the ground counts as the other. What about the third? Where else could it be…"
He covered his ears and thought hard amidst the gunfire. He suddenly slapped his forehead and said, "That's right! The sea!"
"C?" Yu Wen asked back as he reloaded.
"...." Di Li pointed in the distance, "The sea! I'm talking about the sea! The sea can also reflect people!"
Gao Qi and 021 looked at each other. They immediately rushed over to the car and shouted, "922! Send a message and get them to try and blow up the sea!"
922 was still in the midst of contacting 154 to see if he could figure out a way out of this deadlock. Hearing the shouts, he switched interface and quickly sent the news to Qin Jiu.
『Boss, try blowing up the sea!』
Time was short and the message was sent without context, but Qin Jiu understood the meaning the moment he saw it. He fired out his last shot before flipping over a wall with his cannon. Stuffing the phone into his pocket, he clearly didn't have any intention to head over to the sea.
You Huo appeared from around the corner.
He squinted his left eye and scanned through the people using the scope. Turning back to Qin Jiu, he asked, "What news did you receive?"
"922." Qin Jiu fished out a long bullet from a wooden box and skilfully reloaded, "They are probably trying to analyse the meaning behind the three people in the question and wanted us to lead them over to the sea and try blowing up the reflection."
Whoosh———
A bullet flew through the building, hitting a bulletproof car on the opposite side.
You Huo lowered his gun and said, "You want to try? I think it's useless."
"It can't be the reflection of the sea. The sea is on the edge and the only thing that can be reflected are the buildings by the edge. At most, you can add the Twin Tower if it's tall enough. Those NPCs can be lured over to the sea but what about the others? Buildings don't have legs." Qin Jiu said.
This was just what You Huo was thinking too.
If the so-called "third person" is the reflection of the sea, then only some people and buildings exist. Those that are too far could not be reflected by the sea.
The real "third person" must be something that can reflect everything here.
Very quickly, Qin Jiu's phone vibrated again. 922 sent another message:
『Boss, don't worry about it. It's not right』
"See? They realised." Qin Jiu said.
You Huo looked out through the scope.
The bulletproof car was still shrouded in smoke and next to them were NPCs who looked identical to the actual invigilators. They each carried weapons and there were traces of blood on their bodies, but they didn't seem to care about those wounds. It was as if the blood flowing out of them weren't theirs.
Those wounds were also only inflicted during the last few minutes.
You Huo frowned as he stared in the distance. He suddenly whispered, "Could it be the actual person?"
"What?"
Cannons whizzed past forcing them to roll and dodge.
You Huo said, "Shadows form three people. Could the third person be the actual person themselves?"
Qin Jiu turned and glanced at him.
At that moment, a bullet flew over from the distance.
Qin Jiu looked up and glanced over. The fake version of 001 was standing on a certain roof platform, aiming his gun in their direction.
The moment the stray bullet flew by, Qin Jiu suddenly stretched out his hand.
"What are you doing?" You Huo very quickly grabbed his hand, only to come into contact with a wet surface.
Human fingers are always filled with blood. Qin Jiu's three fingers at this moment was covered in red blood.
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing." He casually wiped the blood off onto a nearby wall and showed You Huo his fingers. The bullet had flown by, leaving a long cut across three of his fingers. Although there was a lot of blood, the injury wasn't serious.
He picked up his gun indifferently and looked out through the scope.
On the roof platform in the distance, the fake 001 looked down at his hand. Bright red blood flowed across his palm. He indifferently shook off the blood and continued to reload his weapon.
Qin Jiu raised his head and said to You Huo, "You were right."
A toast to invite the bright moon, shadows form three people.
Di Li and the others had subconsciously thought that those "three people" should exist in the examination centre and that the NPC is the main body and the other two should be its shadow or reflection.
But they were wrong.
Those shadows on the ground are illusory and those NPCs are also illusory. The entire examination centre itself was a shadow, a reflection.
For the shadows to form three people, the actual 'person' themself is outside this place.
Those NPCs who had been unscathed despite being attacked for more than half an hour were now carrying various wounds on their bodies. This wasn't because their copper skin and iron bones were no longer able to resist the attacks, it was because Qin Jiu and the other 'actual people' were injured.
To hurt the NPCs, one must hurt themselves.
Similarly, in order to blow up the white tower guarding the systems core, one must first blow up the real on outside the examination centre.
Thinking this, You Huo almost sneered.
The system had it well planned out —— If he and Qin Jiu were still working as lone wolves like how they used to be, then this would be the biggest obstacle for them.
No matter how many weapons they have and how much they have prepared, it would be impossible for them to break through.
Surrounded by this group of undead NPCs, they would run out of ammunition and exhaust themselves until they are forced to retreat or become trapped in this place.
The reason it was set this way was because the system was very certain. It was certain that those who are willing to take risks and do something dangerous are of the minority and would always work alone.
But unfortunately, its calculations were once again wrong.
You Huo and Qin Jiu no longer wasted time in the city centre. They drove through the gunfire, heading straight to the mountain to gather up with the others.
There, they used 922's special machine to contact 154.
After understanding the whole situation, 154 asked, "Can you try and preserve ammunition and use it to distract the system? Only then will I have a chance."
You Huo asked, "How long?"
154 said, "Give me 15 minutes."
"Okay."
The next second, the entire forest was once again filled with sounds of gunfire and explosions.
At the same time, the real Invigilator's District was daytime, 14:37.
It was the busiest time of the day and the invigilators who are there would usually gather at in the conference room for their usual meetings while the rest would be lingering around the shops, bars or be wandering on the streets. There was even a small team guarding the Twin Towers.
Three minutes later, a long alarm suddenly sounded across the entire Invigilator's District.
Just as everyone thought the system was about to send out a notice again, a calm voice sounded.
[ I am Invigilator 154. Temporarily taking over the 67, 000 speakers in this district, I will be sending out an order.]
In every corner of the Invigilator's District, everyone was stunned. They had never encountered such a situation.
There were the sounds of tables and chairs being overturned in the conference room as everyone stood up in shock.
[We are doing something a little crazy. Since I am communicating with you like this, you should already know what it is. We have now run into some trouble and are standing at the very last door. There are 708 people currently trapped in an obstacle set by the system and amongst them are 37 current invigilators including Head Invigilator 001 and former Head Invigilator A.]
[Since we are colleagues, I don't think you would mind helping us out a little.]
[There is a total of 12,300 boxes of movable weapons in the Invigilator's District; 3,700 of which can be accessible by invigilators, and there are 400 bulletproof vehicles. These weapons and vehicles are all concentrated in the conference centre and in the underground warehouse of the Twin Towers. Please pick up the weapons and head to the tower in the northeast forest within the next five minutes to help us blow it up.]
[This is very important, and time is short so we can only take some extreme measures.]
[I have a team list with me. Some may not understand what it is. Basically, as long as I write down the name of someone on this list, whether it is an examinee or an invigilator or any other personnel, as long as you are in the system, you will be forced to join the team. The current leader is A.]
[I would like to ask everyone to choose from one of the two; bomb the tower or join the team.]
The speakers went silent for a moment. The entire Invigilator's District was completely quiet.
It then started to bubble up and explode like water entering a pot of hot oil.
Discussions and exclamations filled the air. Before they could process the information, the speakers sounded again. 154's voice echoed throughout the Invigilator's District:
[Oh yes, I forgot to introduce myself. My existence is quite special, and I can be considered to once be a part of the system. Because emotions affected its ability to make judgments, I was removed by the system and I managed to survive until now using the identity of an invigilator.]
[To some extent, anything the system can do, I can do as well. Those words earlier were not threats but I was also not joking around.]
[I know this is something very dangerous. The system has many algorithms. It always uses those to predict your behaviour and it only believes in those predicted results so it can never understand why someone is willing to do something that is clearly so dangerous.]
[But I can understand this, and this was the reason why I was removed.]
[Since I can understand this, I believe you can too. This is why I came to you.]
154's voice indeed sounded a little like You Huo's but it was more similar to the systems. When he spoke however, no one felt that the person behind the broadcast was someone non-human.
He said: [The Invigilator' District always snows and rains on fixed days and it is also dark and bright at fixed times. You have seen the same scenery for many years now, I'm sure you must be bored of it by now.]
[I will give you a minute to think about whether you want to stay stuck in here or blow it up with us.]
***
In the examination centre, under the leadership of the two head invigilators, a large fire enveloped the white tower symbolising the systems core. The roar of gunfire continued nonstop.
Smoke filled with gunpowder scattered, stray bullets few from all directions.
The night sky was turning into a patch of white.
15 minutes was both long and short. It finally came to an end with one last explosion.
The moment it was about to end, another splendid roar of gunfire and explosions started.
It came from nowhere, like a phantom appearing, but it caused the white tower to finally reveal some cracks.
Two kinds of attacks worked together under the night sky.
Half a minute later, the tower collapsed.