CH 178

Led by Wang Taidi and Qi Ning, the four of them head for the only hotel in the town.

The hotel is about as run down as the rest of the town, with an old neon sign that doesn't light up at all and is so thickly dusted that you can't tell what it says unless you look closely.

Entering the hotel, it was gloomy inside.

The electric lights are of low wattage and a number of them have gone on strike, the floor is covered in dust and there is an appearance of no cleaning staff at all.

There is also a smell in the air that is exclusive to old houses, and the overall atmosphere is very uncomfortable.

The telephone in the hotel is still the old type with a disc dial.

Given the information he had read and the closed nature of the town's information, it didn't look like there was any contact with the outside world, and Xiao Lan suspected that the call might not even go through.

Xiao Lan The four of them were about to go upstairs when a very nonchalant voice came from next to them.

"Hey, you strangers come and register." The voice sounded very rude and unserviceable.

They looked towards where the sound was coming from and found that it was coming from the shadowy side of the front desk.

There is a fat old man sitting at the front desk of the hotel.

His hair is thin, his face is blotchy and, like the town, he has a disability.

One of the old man's eyes had been gouged out, leaving only an empty hole, and his left hand was twisted, with the palm bent in a strange direction.

"This man is the owner of the hotel." Wang Taidi explains softly to Xiao Lan and Luo.

The innkeeper stared at them with a look similar to that of the rest of the town, as if he was ready to pounce and tear into them.

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It seems that even the people who are open for business in the small town of Mo Na are still not friendly to outsiders.

He slapped the desk heavily, "Register! Every stranger must be registered! The two new ones, you are no exception."

Luo stepped forward and began to register the two men.

The registration is very perfunctory, it just says who you are and what you are here for, so you can make up your own story.

So Luo went along with it and showed off his made-up skills.

While Luo was checking in, Xiao Lan took the opportunity to ask, "Do all the foreign visitors stay with you?"

The owner glanced at him, "Hmph, it's all in my place. Making my place stink with the stench you all bring with you. Not a sign of faith in you all, why can Sara always pay attention to you hypocritical strangers."

Xiao Lan caught the key words, "Signs of faith?"

The owner pointed to his empty eye socket: "This is a sacrifice to Sara."

He pointed to his twisted arm again: "It is a symbol of devotion. But you foreigners, you talk about yearning for Sara, but you always do nothing, a bunch of lying liars."

Xiao Lan asks, "Do all foreigners come to see Sara?"

The boss's face twisted, "Oh, who knows what you strangers are up to."

Xiao Lan wanted to ask more, but the boss cut him off brusquely: "Go away and don't try to get Sara's information from me! Sara will not accept you! He will only become one with us!!!"

Xiao Lan has a slight frown on his face.

It seems that the reason people here exclude outsiders is because they are afraid they will compete for Sara's attention?

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Why does it feel like there's a bit of a subtle vibe of competition for favour?

In fact, he didn't want to be one with this kind of thing with an unknown body at all.

You are worrying too much.

At this point, Luo finished writing the registration information and interrupted the boss.

The boss took Luo's writing and after reading it for a long time, he did not understand what was meant by "a spiritual journey of redemption in search of artistic inspiration" and "one must always strive for a noble ideal".

The owner scratched the top of his thinning head, again not wanting to display his ignorance in front of a foreigner.

He then didn't ask too many questions, put away the register and said, "Well, you can get lost and leave me alone if you have nothing to do. The hotel will provide you with meals, which will be delivered directly to your room door when the time comes."

Xiao Lan asked, "What is the delivery time please?"

There was annoyance in the owner's tone, "You will be served when it is ready, and there is no restaurant here for you to enjoy, we don't love to gather like you foreigners."

--

The four men came upstairs.

The corridors are full of closed doors, from which no movement comes out.

Qi Ning and Wang Taidi have booked a room for Xiao Lan and one for each of them, so that they can easily support each other if anything happens.

Xiao Lan and Luo went into their room.

The room is still so shabby as to give no sense of expectation, and you can see the street scene next to it through a crack in the wall.

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A totem in the shape of an eye is painted on one side of the wall, as if it were looking into the room, and next to it is the inscription "This place is watched by Sara".

Xiao Lan looked into that eye: "How uncomfortable."

Luo moved closer to the totem on the wall and reached out to touch it: "No energy fluctuations are felt, it's just a normal graffiti, I can change the pattern if it feels uncomfortable."

Xiao Lan looked at her boyfriend's smiling face.

And then I thought about his brash with bravado and wild with unrestrained painting style.

If you open your eyes to Luo's painting, you might as well open them to this thing, which is a bit of a pain in the ass anyway, but at least you can see what you're painting.

Xiao Lan shook his head, "No."

He walked straight up and pulled a cupboard over with his bare hands to block the totem.

Luo sighed a little regretfully at the prospect of when the gentleman would appreciate his art.

Suddenly, both eyes turned to the window at the same time.

By this time it was already a little dark, but the mountain fires burning around them still lit up the sky with a fiery red colour.

It was against this backdrop that a head draped over the window of their room and watched them with a malicious smile.

Aware of the sight of the two men, the prying head was unhurried.

He made a gesture towards the two men: hey ...... Stranger in a Strange Land ......

Then it tries to leave upwards.

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Xiao Lan rushed to the window in one step, just in time to see a long neck attached to the back of this head.

The neck was sticking out of the building next to it and was growing on a body which, judging by the clothing on the body, must also be a town resident.

The man over there retracted his neck, craning his own head while humming a strange song towards the house.

He didn't seem to be worried at all about the community's severe beatings, or maybe it was the most important thing for him to keep an eye on these foreigners.

Luo moved his fingers, "Do you want to get rid of it? Sir."

Xiao Lan shook his head, "Their surveillance seems to be everywhere, there is little point in dealing with one or two of them. Besides, looking at the mental state of the town's inhabitants, I suspect that if we make any movement, they will just attack us, it's better not to irritate them for the time being."

Of course, when it's time for excitement, another story.

Xiao Lan's brow furrowed slightly: "But ...... they don't really look like people anymore. Maybe if we stay here for a long time, we might become like that too."

Luo said, "Those who are eligible to enter here are top advanced players, and according to your physique, the rate of being changed should be very slow."

Xiao Lan nodded his head, suppressing the unease he felt for the moment.

Wang Ke is one of the most powerful players among the advanced players, and is also a physically strong melee fighter, although he is restrained due to his skills, he should not be so easily assimilated.

It's better not to speculate too much until you actually meet him.

This is just a waste of time.

--

Afterwards, the men went to Wang Taidi's room to discuss what would happen afterwards.

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So far they have not found the main thread of Sara's song, and with the game's hints vague, finding Wang Ke's trail will not be an easy task.

Xiao Lan compared the information in the hands of several people, "We all have the same information, it doesn't point to any exact location, what about you, Taidi?"

Wang Taidi shook his head: "Brother Tao couldn't tell me where my brother disappeared because of his unstable mental state. I tried many times and he could not give a full account, only that there were many monsters there. And I suspect that my brother might not have stayed in the same place where he was attacked."

It seems that they still have to find their own clues to do so.

Wang Taidi said, "Since Brother Tao mentioned the altar earlier, why don't we go and find out about this altar first and find the [Stone of Forgiveness] first, so that we can leave ourselves a way out."

Qi Ning turned to Wang Taidi: "I'm amazed at how calm you've grown."

Wang Taidi smiles a little bit to himself: "It was only later that I realised that emotions, too, don't help. The calmer I am, the closer I get to my goal."

He was the most desperate of the group to find Wang Ke, even though he had been suppressing such emotions for a long time.

But Wang Taidi also knew that the more critical the time was, the more he could not afford to make mistakes.

He didn't want it to be himself at the end of the day who caused all the efforts to be lost.

At that moment, there was a "thud" of something heavy hitting the ground outside the door.

This was followed by a man's shouting, which consisted of incoherent gibberish that made the content inaudible.

A few people looked at each other and opened the door.

In the corridor, the door of a closed room opened.

A bearded man half out of the room is rolling around on the floor.

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He didn't mind the dirt on the floor at all, crying and howling as he rolled around. His clothes could no longer be seen in their original colour, I don't know if it was caused by not having washed them for too long, or by rolling around too much.

But there was nothing handicapped about this man, nor could he see the same physical alienation as the rest of the town's inhabitants.

As the man moved, Xiao Lan could see the reason for his rolling.

A knife had been lodged in his thigh and blood was gurgling out of the wound, which appeared to be deeply embedded.

But the man reacted oddly, looking at his wound, his hands trembling as if he wanted to pull the knife out, and as if he wanted to stab it a little deeper.

"Hy ...... hy ...... Sara ...... will see my devotion ...... " He stopped tumbling and reached for the hilt of his blade.

But again he looked hesitant, his arms shaking more and more, but unable to continue with the movements that followed.

As if such hesitation made him feel ashamed, the man abruptly covered his face and cried out, "Well ...... ah ah ah ah ...... ooooooooo ...... "

The howling sound echoed in the corridor, a little harsh and very annoying to listen to.

But the other rooms in the corridor remained quiet, and apart from a few people in Xiao Lan, no one was even interested in coming out to have a look.

The man cried one moment and then tried to reach for the knife again to continue.

His movements are repetitive, and his emotions are momentarily suppressed and momentarily heightened as he moves, looking insane.

Like a psychopath.

But this man was the most different person several people had seen since they entered the town.

He seems less fervent in his belief in Sara than the others, or at least he will produce a hesitant movement when it comes to self-harm, unlike the others who are all obsessed and excited.

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Xiao Lan tries to speak to him, "Hello ......"

The man, however, did not react to his words, but simply immersed himself in his own world and cried and laughed.

But in the end he didn't stab the knife any further.

When he finally got tired of crying, he moved his body and crawled a little back to his room, dragging the blood with him.

Throughout, he didn't share a single glance with the few onlookers, as if they were all pillars of the wall.

"Daddy won't talk to you." At that moment, a soft but undulating child's voice rang out.

A pale little girl emerges from the shadows behind the door.

She looked normal, with her limbs intact, no disabilities or alienated parts, and even in better mental condition than the man just now.

Xiao Lan asked, "Why do you say that?"

The little girl said, "Daddy only has eyes for Sara, and he comes after her songs."

Xiao Lan looked at her, "Pursuit? Are you from somewhere else?"

The little girl remained expressionless: "We lived in another town before, and one day Daddy said he heard Sara singing and he was going to chase the most beautiful song in the world, so he brought me here, but I couldn't hear anything."

Xiao Lan confirmed again, "Are all the people who live here foreigners?"

The girl nodded her head.

"Daddy thinks about Sara all day and doesn't even play with me, he's becoming more and more like the people in this town." The girl's tone was a little cold, "He'll turn out to be crazy sooner or later too."

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Xiao Lan met the little girl's gloomy eyes, "Don't you want to get out of here?"

The girl shook her head, "Daddy is not going to leave."

Xiao Lan suddenly pointed to Wang Taidi and asked, "Have you seen another brother who looks a bit like this one? He has short hair."

The little girl looks closely at Wang Taidi and then nods at the nervous look in her partner's eyes.

Wang Taidi hastened to ask, "Do you know where he went?"

The little girl reached out and pointed to Xiao Lan's room and said softly, "All the strangers who live in your rooms will disappear, and so will he."

Having said that, the little girl reached out and closed the door.

A few people stood in the corridor and a short silence fell.

After a few moments, Xiao Lan opened her mouth, "I think she meant that the players who enter will be placed in these rooms, and whether they end up succeeding in the deed or failing, they will naturally no longer live here."

"Well." Wang Taidi nodded as he smiled to liven things up, "At least it means we're in the right place."

At that moment, the heavy figure of the innkeeper appeared in the corridor.

He carried a basket and threw the lunch boxes he was holding roughly at the door of the different rooms, which were obviously occupied.

As he walked, the owner cursed and expressed his displeasure with these foreigners.

His face sank even lower when he saw Xiao Lan standing in the corridor.

He dropped four lunch boxes directly at the feet of several people, "Hmph, restless strangers, what are you plotting again?"

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And without waiting for a reply from several people, he walked away with his feet in the air.

It's as if spending one more moment with them would be tainted: "One look at you and I know you're the most restless kind ...... The more restless you are, the faster you die ......"

When the boss disappeared across the corridor, Wang Taidi reached for a lunch box and opened it to look at it.

"......" He lapsed into an eerie silence.

Qi Ning, next to him, also glanced over: "......"

Intrigued by their reaction, Xiao Lan came over to take a look: "......"

Seeing Xiao Lan, the proud owner of the dark cuisine world, fall silent, Luo couldn't help but look over: "......"

The language system of the four men came to a brief standstill.

Because what's in this box is honestly beyond the realm of dark cuisine.

Dark cuisine is still cuisine at least, but what the hell are these?

Dried rat, eye paste of an unknown creature, and skinned toad sashimi with a side dish of a yellowish-brown, mushy bean on the side.

Wang Taidi, who was face to face with the toad, was in a state of shock: "...... This is too exciting, isn't it?"

Qi Ning laughed lowly, "Oh, I wish I could dissect their biological structure ......"

Xiao Lan asked a tough question, "Do they get constipated when they eat like this?"

Wang Taidi closed this demon box and suggested, "Let's just go to the kitchen and do it ourselves. It's fine not to eat for a few days, but the game has only just begun and there's no need to do this to ourselves."

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Xiao Lan nodded, "OK, it's good that I can cook."

Luo looked at her husband with a slightly incredulous look, where did this confidence come from?

Wang Taidi's eyes turned to horror and he hastened to say, "No no no ...... that ...... better let me do it so you can see what I have been practicing for all this time."

The fear of Xiao Lan's cooking reared its ugly head, and he had no desire to return to the experience of jumping up and down in hell.

Qi Ning, who hadn't been killed by Xiao Lan, turned uncomfortably to Wang Taidi - and the

Why was there a look of survival in his eyes?