The street lamp on the coast is a lonely landscape, standing quietly amidst the sound of waves.
The small island surrounded by sea water is especially lonely in the dark curtain.
Only some inconspicuous lights exist in every corner of the island...
Located in a small town on the island, the villa area next to the town is surrounded by an iron fence covered with thorns.
In one of the villa rooms, faint snoring echoed.
Without turning on the light, a dark figure sat cross-legged on the rather delicate bed, hunched over his head, looking listlessly at the scenery outside the window.
Of course, there is actually nothing to see...
There was no one outside, except for the chirping of crickets, there was only a fairly green lawn.
"It's about time."
Qianye glanced at the clock on the wall and could see through the moon that the hour hand on it was pointing at twelve.
It's early morning.
Remembering that he had to go find Kawakiko tonight, he didn't linger on the bed much. He got out of bed, arranged his hair casually, and got ready to go out.
Lin Yuan and Fatty squeezed into another bed.
When passing them, Qianye paused for a moment...
He felt a little unhappy when he thought that he had been kept awake just now by the snoring of these people.
After giving each of the three sleeping people a slap in the face, he walked out of the room under the eyes of the three people who were confused...
...
The villa is very quiet.
But fortunately, even in the early hours of the morning, the lights in the hall were not turned off, and they were still brightly lit as before.
Those who didn't have rooms were basically lying in a mess on the hall floor, and most of them were already asleep.
Only a few people were still awake. After hearing the noise, they subconsciously raised their heads and glanced at Qianye upstairs.
"Well, when it comes to security, I'm actually quite conscientious."
Scanning the sight of the big men holding guns on the second floor, Qianye found that the faces of these guys had become unfamiliar.
It seems to be quite humane, and there are also shift changes...
Otherwise, if he just stood down all day long, Qianye would probably stand for half his life no matter how strong he was.
He never forgot the painful feeling of standing there in a daze when he was role-playing as a security guard in a tavern.
"But after the sleep incident, the background story of the town was blurred..."
"Even the envelope tasks are no longer updated."
"So what was the reason for those things we did before, Black Friday and the like..."
Qianye walked downstairs naturally.
The big men on the second floor turned a blind eye to this.
It seems that the so-called shelter does not have any strange curfew regulations. When she opened the door and found that everything was quiet, Qianye was a little worried about such annoying rules.
There are probably no entertainment activities, so everyone chooses to sleep as much as possible...
"Forget it, we can't figure out the background story right now. Let's find Kawakiko first."
Qianye put aside the thoughts in her mind just now and looked for Kawakiko in the crowd in the hall.
"Well, I was still in that corner before, where are you running now..."
He was thinking.
I felt like someone tapped me on the shoulder.
Turning around, he found that Kawakiko was standing behind him at some point and had put back his tiptoed feet.
"I'm here."
Kawakiko said softly.
All right.
It is said that women are fickle animals, Qianye thinks this sentence is true.
Although her appearance and facial features had not changed much, Qianye was still keenly aware that Kawakiko seemed different from the morning.
To describe it.
Just like the strange look in his eyes before, it has disappeared now.
The only thing was Kawakiko standing quietly in front of him...
"Come on, let's go to the back."
Before Chino could say anything, Kawakiko spoke first.
Without waiting for Qianye's consent, she already turned around and led the way, looking towards the back of the villa.
Follow along...
Chino accidentally discovered that Kawakiko was very familiar with this villa.
Kawakiko managed to walk through the winding and maze-like corridor very smoothly. Even Chino, who had been there once before, was a little confused.
Not long after, as Kawakiko pushed the door open, the scene in front of Qianye suddenly became clear...
Well, I thought it was some strange thing.
After walking for a long time, it turned out that it was just the backyard of a villa...
Qianye was a little confused as to why Kawakiko brought him here.
"No one is here now, and of course no one wants to come. You don't have to worry about being heard when you speak."
Kawakiko explained what Qian Zhizhong was thinking.
"Oh, that's it."
Qianye glanced around.
I found that it was really quiet here, with no one around.
Except for a little bird chirping, there is basically no unnecessary sound...
"Let's walk inside. There is a garden inside."
After seeing that Qianye had almost finished sizing it up, Kawakiko took Qianye deeper.
I have to say.
The Perrin family is really bigger than expected...
In the past, Qianye had no idea about rich people. All he thought about was that they might have better food and more expensive clothes than ordinary people.
Looking back now, he realizes that he is really a guy who has never seen the world.
The courtyard of the villa alone looks like a garden.
According to a rough estimate, the construction cost would probably be enough to buy the house he has in the real world.
"Really, I originally thought that if I could return to my previous state of writing novels and become a little god or something, I would be able to afford a big house."
"Looking at it now, the gap is really ridiculous..."
I remember the popularity of my first novel at that time.
At that time, Chino's dream was to squeeze into the ranks of the rich through novels, and then buy things for himself, and realize all the fantasies about reality that could only be achieved through novels.
Equivalent to the royalties, Qianye also carefully calculated how long it would take him to save enough money to meet the requirements if he maintained that state.
But now just looking at this yard, Qianye knows how interesting his idea was at that time...
Save money.
I'm afraid it will take ten years to save for a yard like this.
The backyard is made like a park, and there is even a pavilion for people to rest...
If you change your clothes, you might be able to shoot a costume film or something like that here.
Surrounded by flowers, plants and trees, there is no need to worry about any modern technology being exposed.
"By the way, no one comes to such a big place?"
Walked for a while.
After Qianye confirmed that he and Kawakiko were the only ones here, he asked curiously.
Since there is no entertainment to kill time, someone should come here.
And Kawakiko was one of the people who was rushed to the lobby. Since she was allowed to come, there should be no rules requiring who can enter...
"There are indeed a lot of people during the day, but there are too many mosquitoes at night. No one wants to be bitten all over their body, so we left it empty."
Kawakiko revealed the secret with one word.
Only then did Qianye realize that his arm had been bitten extremely painfully, with large and small bumps, and it was extremely itchy.
"You didn't tell me earlier."
He quickly put down the sleeves he had rolled up when he got up, and took off his coat to cover his head, leaving only his two staring eyes...
The style of the pavilion is very simple.
It can even be said to be a bit crude...
There is no special design, just a few pillars and a flat roof. There is no decoration at all, which is very inconsistent with the style of the villa.
There were four wooden chairs placed inside, like those in a park, surrounding the pavilion.
Qianye doesn’t know which sleeping dragon and phoenix chick came up with this...
"What do you know and why did you bring me here?"
After sitting down, he asked Kawakiko.
Perhaps she was too cautious, Kawakiko looked around before speaking.
moment.
She just said in a deep voice.
"Someone is controlling this place."
"Manipulation?"
Isn't this obvious?
Not only did they create a so-called shelter, they also created some security and management personnel. Although the reason was to unite together, the actual control was still in the hands of the people at the top.
Qianye didn't quite understand. If it was just this, then there was no need for Kawakiko to bring him here.
There aren’t many idiots in the world…
Anyone with a little bit of brains can see this.
It's just that I don't want to break it out loud and acquiesce to this rule.
"I mean, a conspiracy...a conspiracy against everyone who gathers in the shelter."
"Here, everything becomes a bargaining chip."
Seeing that Qianye looked a little strange, Kawakiko explained.
After finishing speaking.
She took a deep breath and then added.
"I am considered the second batch of people to come to the shelter. When I came here, it was not that large, and there was only one villa used for shelter."
"There was no management at that time, and the people below were all a mess, running around, chatting and looking around."
"I didn't notice anything unusual at first, because after the big guys were gathered together, it really made the predators fearful and they didn't dare to act rashly against the people here."
"When the numbers were overwhelming, I never saw the slightest trace of the predator again..."
Kawakiko was as calm as Chino had ever seen before.
She has relatively excellent sensitivity and insight, as well as receptivity.
This can be easily seen from her reaction when she first entered the world of horror...
While others were still shouting, or cowering in corners, not believing that all this was true, she was the only one who dared to look around.
Recklessness can be considered a kind of bravery from a certain perspective...
And Kawakiko did the same thing when she was in this shelter.
"This is weird."
"Although the reason why they did not show up is because the refugees have gathered, it is difficult to remove the refugees."
"But there is not much time left. I think besides the replicators, there is something else chasing them, otherwise this polarization phenomenon would not have happened so quickly..."
"Time." Qianye pointed out the problem.
He thought of this contradiction very early on.
If the relationship between the evacuees and the predators was just a game of chasing and eliminating replicators, then there would be no need for such a polarizing choice.
Well, even if selfishness arises because of people...
But that won't happen that quickly.
You know, it was only a few days after the sleep crisis incident.
No matter how much people care about each other, have selfish motives and deceive each other, in such a short period of time, everyone is accustomed to living in the real civilized world.
It is difficult to accept the laws of animals for a while.
This little time is not enough for people to digest the elimination rules of the weak and the strong, let alone establish this so-called antagonistic relationship in advance, and make the dividing line between the opposites particularly obvious.
Then, the only thing that can produce such a little bit is time...
It allows everyone to quickly accept the confrontation between people, rather than the confrontation with replicators.
It just means there is not enough time...
After all, replicators are great.
But they are not grotesque, nor are they unkillable.
A better way is actually to gather everyone together, or hide in a villa, or hide in other places, find a way to arrange a sufficiently hidden place, and wait until you have an idea and feel confident before going to confront the replicator.
Just now, this is even better.
Qianye understood that the reason why he didn't do this was probably because he didn't have enough time.
Not enough people gathered together to come up with the so-called idea to eliminate the replicators.
They were afraid that they would be blamed when the time came, so under the pressure of time, they pointed their sharp spearheads at their relatively weak peers...
"Yes, time."
Kawakiko nodded, confirming Qianye's guess.
"After the sleep incident, I have been curious about two things."
"The first one is the envelope that lets us complete the mission in the first place. It's like the latter in Truth or Dare, which allows us to complete various tasks."
"The second one is what I knew when I came here. I have to stay in this town for thirty days..."
"But after the sleep incident, they no longer have any sense of existence. Even the contents of the envelope are no longer updated and become a piece of waste paper. It's like everything before was just for fun."
Qianye said nothing.
But his lowered eyes and lack of rebuttal showed his tacit agreement.
Indeed, Kawakiko is right.
And she has not even mentioned the background story about this world. Qianye had been talking about it for so long at the beginning, but now it has disappeared without a trace like evaporating from the world.
It was as if everything I had done before was in vain...
This made him find it difficult to accept.
Qianye has yet to get any answers to a series of questions about Robert's green pill vial, the coordinated performance in the room, and the question about Brown's grave in the basement below Perrin's house.
However, when thinking about this, Qianye immediately thought of something and asked Asakawa Noriko.
"By the way, I think you seem quite familiar with this place. Have you ever been to the basement of this villa?"
heard asking.
Kawakiko was obviously surprised for a moment, but she didn't expect Qianye to say this before her.
"That's the point I'm going to talk about next... After I noticed something was wrong, I investigated the shelter matter intentionally or unintentionally, and accidentally discovered that there was a basement under the villa."
"But how did you know? Did you also investigate?"
"That's not right... As soon as I broke into the basement by mistake, it was already sealed off. Given the time you came in, you probably couldn't get in."
Qianye pondered for two seconds.
Unexpectedly, I accidentally got close to the topic of Kawakiko.
Of course, he didn't want to talk about Officer Bernard and then lying to Perrin right now, so he directly bypassed Kawakiko's questioning.
"How I know this will be discussed later. You first tell me what you discovered..."