Chapter 110
Chapter 110
According to Ning Wang, at the time, he had been in another world and turned into Passerby B. He had followed all the surrounding “You Ge” in chanting that passage, and then the floor beneath him had become an abyss. The “You Ge” kept reciting that jingle over and over while grabbing him and dragging him down.
Ning Shuo dipped a finger into the ink bottle beside him and wrote 667.
The inexplicable, scalp-prickling sense of stagnation around him faded. Ning Shuo opened the door, only to see Ning Wang standing outside, his face covered in sweat and a dismantled doorknob still in his hand.
Ning Shuo froze. “You…”
The question had barely left his mouth before he was pulled into a full embrace.
Ning Wang’s voice was laced with tension. “You were taking so long to come out, and the window wouldn’t open. I was afraid kicking the door down would make too much noise and draw other NPCs over, so I could only try taking the door apart.”
Ning Shuo reached for his hand.
Because Ning Wang had been in such a hurry dismantling the door, the nails on two of his fingers had been torn up. The moment Ning Shuo touched them lightly, blood started flowing nonstop.
He suddenly thought of how Ning Wang must have felt that day on the rooftop when he saw Ning Shuo injured.
Ning Shuo pressed his lips together. He could now say he had truly experienced that suffocating frustration of having nowhere to vent his distress.
The bell rang for the end of class. Ning Shuo said sternly, “This King is going to find Imperial Physician Song. You stay right here at the door for this King.”
Ning Wang, who had yet to react to the fact that his flirting spot had been used for other purposes, went blank. “…Oh.”
He crouched at the stairwell not far from the classroom. Aside from a few NPCs who came out to get water or use the restroom, the rest were basically all doing practice problems.
Ning Wang stared at his bleeding fingers. In that instant, enlightenment struck him.
Ning Shuo felt bad for him.
Ning Shuo couldn’t even bear to scold him.
That was why Ning Shuo had made him wait here alone, using the excuse of looking for Z to go off and digest his emotions by himself.
Having already mastered the art of self-convincing, Ning Wang thought, Ning Shuo really does like me. To keep me from feeling upset, he even ran somewhere else to talk himself through it.
In that case, he would only hold it against Ning Shuo for using their date spot as a stage for “school bullying.”
—
Ning Shuo went to find Song Zhu not only so he could treat Ning Wang, but also because there was other information he needed to share. Song Zhu himself came with a built-in System Shielder, which made him perfect for passing messages to the other teammates.
Ning Shuo said, “The Water Moon Mirror Fragment no longer works on Fan Jiangnan.”
When he had patted Fan Jiangnan on the shoulder earlier, Ning Shuo had used that fragment.
But in the Ghost Bride Script, the fragment had been able to give an NPC self-awareness and make them realize this world was nothing more than a Script. In this Script, however, it no longer had any effect.
Only after Ning Shuo carefully checked the item slots in his Backpack did he notice that the slot originally holding the Water Moon Mirror Fragment had turned gray, so faint it was almost impossible to see unless one looked closely.
No Player would be bored enough to randomly inspect the item slots in their Backpack for subtle differences.
If Ning Shuo had not used the fragment in secret, Fan Jiangnan would have seen the class study rep-who was originally not a bad person and had no connection to her-suddenly trying to stab her for no reason. If they failed to explain that away, Fan Jiangnan would have mutated.
And if Ning Shuo and the others could not deal with Fan Jiangnan in a short time, then once other NPCs were drawn over, Ning Shuo and Ning Wang would become the mortal enemies hunted by every NPC in this Script.
Not to mention, there was still a You Ge lurking in the shadows.
In the Ghost Bride Script, they had been able to hide in the deep mountains and old forests because the greatest threat in that Script-the bride in the ghost marriage-had already developed self-awareness. But the You Ge in this Script had not.
Ning Wang frowned. “The System sabotaged you?”
Ning Shuo said, “Yes. Also, are most of the people watching our stream right now people we’re familiar with?”
Song Zhu nodded. “Do you need me to remove the shielding?”
When the signal shielding was active, even the Live Stream Room was a black screen.
In response, the viewers who knew that the Live Stream Room camera could not be turned off during the competition had already started filing complaints with the Main System.
[Why can Zone F’s Live Stream Room be turned off by themselves? Isn’t it supposed to be impossible to turn it off during the competition?]
[After all this, Zone F’s brain-dead fans still won’t admit their side is cheating?]
[Cheater Team, 666.]
[And Luo Li only shook Ning Shuo’s hand. How did she suddenly know Ning Wang was in danger on the rooftop?]
[This cheater Team? Let me tell you, even if they win, we won’t acknowledge it!]
[Lmao, who cares whether you acknowledge it or not? Blocking the Camera feed had zero effect on the outcome for either side, and you’re still trying to flame them over that?]
[Anyone who watched Lolita’s early streams knows her original name was Zhu Xiangfeng. I don’t know how she managed to change her name, but she had a long blank period before, clearly longer than the one-month interval for entering a Script. Her name change and predictive ability were obviously gained from being trapped in a Script for a very long time, okay, everyone?]
[If you think that’s unfair, you can also ask why the Players on your Team didn’t stay in a Script longer and bring out some kind of ability too.]
[Don’t act like you’re the only ones who think this is unfair. We haven’t even brought up what we think is unfair yet: why did some random teacher NPC suddenly appear in the Script to make Gu Qi want to deliver documents, and then she just so happened to run into a ghost wall that could be broken with a low-level item, while Zone F needed Ning Wang to almost die before they could enter that world and see things related to the plot?]
[Forget everything else. Gu Qi wanted to deliver documents, ran into a ghost wall, and directly saw a plot-related scene. After she escaped, the documents never got delivered. Now here comes the strangest part-what happened afterward with the teacher who asked her to deliver them? The documents weren’t delivered, and there was no follow-up at all. It was as if asking her to deliver the documents was specifically meant to let her see that scene.]
[You’re really bringing up the ghost wall now??]
[Why can’t we? That teacher NPC has only appeared in Gu Qi’s Live Stream Room so far. Have you seen that teacher in any other Live Stream Room? Was he an NPC who was originally part of the Script, or was the System giving them special treatment and rigging things behind the scenes?]
The Danmu, which had been running just fine a moment ago, suddenly froze for an instant. Then a System notification popped up: [Live Stream Room Danmu function has been disabled.]
It was shut off here, but the match Forum was still perfectly fine.
Soon, the incident from the stream was compiled into a post, and its Heat kept climbing.
[Come on, come on, let’s keep talking.]
[When people accused them of cheating, nothing got blocked. The second someone says the System is giving Zone B special treatment, the Danmu gets shut down. The System’s playing guilty now, huh?]
[Who’s guilty, exactly? You people slandered the System by accusing it of favoritism. What’s wrong with the System blocking the related Danmu?]
[Ah, right, right, right. It’s not guilty, so it directly sealed every Player’s mouth and stopped people from talking.]
[The Live Stream Room Camera feed is back!]
In truth, the Live Stream Room Camera feed had only been blocked for a few minutes.
On-screen, Ning Shuo held a fragment between his fingers, his tone casual. “Sorry for blocking the signal just now, but we weren’t cheating. The reason I blocked it was only to confirm a few things.”
“This fragment is called the Water Moon Mirror Fragment. I obtained it in a Script during the arena preparation period.”
The livestream was one-way, so the Players couldn’t see the Danmu, but that didn’t stop Ning Shuo from deducing what some uninformed Players might be thinking.
He opened access to his personal Backpack, and the “Water Moon Mirror Fragment” in his item bar was plainly visible.
Ning Shuo smiled helplessly. “It’s obviously an item, right? And it’s an item with no usage limit. I used it in the Script where I obtained it, so I know how to use it. But after entering this Script, something strange happened.”
“Why is it that after entering this Script, this item can no longer be used?”
His voice was mild. “I have no need to smear the System over this. Blocking the feed just now was only to get to the bottom of things. But as for the fact that an item we obtained has inexplicably become unusable, I do hope the System will give us an explanation.”
“After all, you are the one who made the rules. It would be best if you didn’t become the first to break them.”