Minna's sharp scream ripped open the air in the cave like Jiajiada's face.
Amidst the screams that echoed in the mountain wall, Lin Sanjiu was the first to rush towards Jia Jiatian who was on the ground; when she knelt down and carefully lifted his shoulders, Pina and Pan Cui also arrived one after another.
No one understood what happened just now, and none of them dared to make a sound; the rapid breathing in their ears seemed to be cut off by the silence as Lin Sanjiu slowly turned over Jia Jiatian's body.
Lived.
Minna's screams stopped, and the lingering sound still echoed inside and outside the portrait. She seemed to have rushed to her nephew in the "portrait world" and shouted angrily: "Raven! What did you do!"
The "Jiajiatian" she saw in the portrait world was probably different from the one in the cave - because after seeing Jiajiatian's face, for several seconds, Lin Sanjiu wanted to move her body, but not a single muscle was obedient, let alone angry.
.
She couldn't understand what she was seeing.
Pina covered her mouth with both hands, her fingertips and cheeks were turned white from the pressure, and her whole body was trembling slightly. Pan Cui stretched out a hand, as if she wanted to touch Jiajiada's face, but immediately withdrew it without waiting for him to get closer.
There is no blood, no exposed muscle tissue, and no subcutaneous fat... From a certain perspective, Kajiada's face shouldn't be scary. There is only a long crack, starting from his forehead and slashing diagonally.
His whole face was opened, making his face open like an oil painting canvas - under the crack of the canvas, there were no bones, no nerves, just an empty blackness like the background of an oil painting.
Lin Sanjiu reacted and hurriedly pressed Jiajiatian's body. His body was the same as that of a normal person. His body temperature was warm, his skin was elastic, and he could feel the shape of his muscles and bones when he pressed it. He was indeed a person, or
Yes, I was once a person.
But what happened to his face? Why is it like this?
"Mingna, please stop shouting,"
An impatient scolding came from Peter's portrait, and then he raised his voice to the others: "Everyone, please be quiet, don't panic!"
Lin Sanjiu raised her head involuntarily.
Raven has left Kagada's portrait and returned to his own oil painting portrait again - so, if Raven had done something in his own oil painting last time, would she have become like Kagada?
Pan Cui seemed to have thought of the same thing. She turned pale and looked at her with fear.
"We all know what's going on," Peter's deep voice said. If you listen carefully, you can hear a bit of satisfaction. "Why are you panicking? I have warned everyone that they might borrow someone.
came to approach us... but I didn’t expect that the first one to be exposed would be Jiajiada.”
The three evolvers seemed to be frozen in place, and Kagada, whose face was cut open like a canvas, did not dare to move.
A small part of the reason why they didn't dare to move was that they didn't want to make a sound to attract attention; a large part of it was because they all heard Peter's voice coming from two places at the same time.
One source of the sound is Peter's oil painting; the other is the deep darkness behind Jia Jiata's cut and opened face.
"Leaven and I have already discussed it. Once someone reveals his true nature irrefutably, we will immediately deal with him without giving that person any chance to escape." Peter seemed to be enjoying every word he said.
He slowly said: "Ming Na, please stop crying. Your nephew is not the person on earth at all... They created the appearance of a human to get close to us and want to completely cut off the spread of the truth."
This is the nature of portrait copies... Lin Sanjiu felt his head buzzing.
Sure enough, just as she had guessed, there was no plot at all - what they wanted to do was not to make the portrait suspicious, pretend that they were also a person in the world of the portrait, and escape from the portrait cave after the party.
If you fail to do so, you will be attacked by the portrait, and you will become like Kajiada in front of you.
However, where did Jia Jia Tian get exposed? Lin Sanjiu really couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he tried.
"Wait, wait a minute," Kate asked tremblingly, "Peter, you just said that the first one to be exposed was Kagada...how many are there?"
This sentence grabbed the attention of the three evolvers.
Lei Wen's sentence "It's possible that all four of them are" jumped into Lin Sanjiu's mind.
From under Jiajiada's broken face, from the bottomless darkness, a small part of Peter's voice floated out: "Well, I think Jiajiada may be the first one, and he may be the only one.
The truth is, until we see the evidence, we can't tell whether a person is a real person or a character 'they' have inserted into our world."
What "evidence" did Kajiada give him?
Peter added: "According to our research over the years, 'they' have an inseparable relationship with the characters created by 'them'... Cutting off the characters will severely damage 'them' in another dimensional world."
"If there are more characters, then we shouldn't talk about it now," Nika interrupted nervously and said hesitantly: "You know-"
Peter laughed lowly. "Yes, I know, 'they' are capable of hearing us."
Wait. Considering what Raven said before, "Why aren't anti-monitoring facilities used?", could it be that the portrait knew that they would be heard by his group when they spoke, but still——
So, everything has a purpose... No wonder, no wonder Kate keeps holding back from going to the toilet!
Lin Sanjiu felt a flash of lightning flash through her mind and subconsciously opened her mouth. Just when she almost made a sound, Pan Cui next to her held her arm down and shook her head.
Lin Sanjiu reacted, quickly shut her mouth again, put Jiajiatian back on the ground, and took out a pen and pad.
"Peter," Scott's voice sounded like a ghost from the end of the cave: "You promised me, you said that the characters they sent were of high value. Once you catch one, you will
It will..."
"Of course," Peter said solemnly, "I will certainly remember what I promised you. Now let me see what kind of abilities this character is equipped with..."
Pan Cui beside him froze almost imperceptibly.
Just the tightening of muscles and the subtle change in expression, so slight that it was almost like an intangible breath, were enough at that moment to make Lin Sanjiu raise her head from the notepad and glance at Pan Cui.
"I'm so envious," an unmistakable inner monologue sounded from Kate's portrait in the cave. "When will it be my turn to gain the ability extracted from the character?"
Lian Nika's portrait couldn't help but feel envious, and snorted sourly in his heart. "Originally, according to seniority, it was my turn to get the ability of this role. If it weren't for Scott, he might have been elected.
Local councilor, why does Peter favor him so much? Why don't I run for office in the next round..."
Pina's lips opened and closed silently a few times. Although no one made a sound, Lin Sanjiu could imagine what she wanted to say - it turned out that their group was just prey caught in the portrait's trap.
.
From the moment they entered the cave, the portraits were staring at them, trying to find any clues from their bodies that they were not portraits...
She didn't want to raise her eyes to look at Jiajiada's body, suppressed the turbulent emotions in her heart, lowered her head, and continued to write on the note pad.
"I know what's going on, although I don't understand the whole picture yet," she wrote. "The most important thing is that the portrait party tonight is a test for us. Jiajiada doesn't know why he was exposed.
, it is impossible to save... But at least, I know how to save the three of us. Pan Cui, please give me the book with the clues written in it."
When Pan Cui finished reading this passage, she suddenly raised her head and her neck bones made a slight sound.
She said nothing, just lowered her head to get the notebook; Pina took the lead and hurriedly wrote on the notepad: "How to protect it?"
This has to be explained from the beginning... Just as Lin Sanjiu was sorting things out in her mind, she suddenly heard a surprised and suspicious question coming from Peter's portrait: "What's going on?"
Several people turned their heads in unison.
They exchanged glances with each other. At Lin Sanjiu's signal, Pina nodded and whispered to the portrait of Peter: "What, what's wrong? I'm a newcomer, I don't understand..."
The three of them must participate in the conversation from time to time, otherwise the three of them will sit quietly next to this incident without making a sound, which will definitely arouse the suspicion of the portrait.
"Why not?" Peter's anger seemed to be directed at Kagada. "His body looks like this, which means he is just a character. There is no doubt about it. But why can't I extract the ability from him?
?”
Scott became uneasy and said, "If you try again, it won't be my turn, so you won't be able to do it."
Although I don’t understand how they tried, nor why they couldn’t extract the ability from Jiajiada; but while the portraits were talking louder and louder, there was a way for the three of them to communicate with each other.
A good opportunity. Lin Sanjiu took Pan Cui's notebook and read every clue and speculation in detail. She even read what Pan Cui wrote to Jiajiatian. When she closed the notebook, she felt more and more confused.
There is a bottom.
"Since the beginning of this copy, I don't know how many evolvers have walked into this cave again and again, dealt with the portraits, completed various conditions, and then completely disappeared from the portrait world - in other words, evolution
They either died or left here."
Lin Sanjiu had to write a lot of words, so she had to hurry up, so the characters and strokes were very simple, and there were skipped strokes from time to time.
"After so many confrontations with the Evolutionaries, I think the portraits have a very deep understanding of us. Although they may not really understand our existence and concepts such as copies, there is one thing that they are undoubtedly very clear about.
.”
Pina tilted her head slightly, looking at this sentence in the notebook, confusion written all over her face.
"They know that we can only hear them, but we can't see them.
"We can't see them, and we can't see where they are - and that's the trap of tonight's party."
Pina and Pan Cui raised their eyes, confused and shocked.
"So, when we prove that we can see the surrounding environment clearly, it also proves that we are also a member of the portrait world... If I guessed correctly, as long as we pass the test, the party will be over
, we should be able to leave from here."
Pina grabbed another pen and hurriedly wrote on another notepad: "Prove that we can see the environment clearly? Why do we need to prove this? I don't understand."
Lin Sanjiu breathed out.
The following part is mainly her guess based on the clues given by each portrait. If it is wrong...
She shook her head and shook off the fear.
"Don't forget," she wrote in her notebook, "the experiment was set up by Peter to screen the evolvers, and the location of the 'Hilltop Mansion' was also what he told us through his inner monologue at the beginning - he knew clearly that in his heart,
The monologue may also be heard by the evolved ones. In fact, neither the portraits nor us are in the mountaintop mansion at this time."