Chapter 27
Chapter 27
Ning Wang stretched and leaned back on the sofa. “I’m okay with that too.”
“You know what I’m planning to do?”
“When you left, you talked to me about that incense. I had a vague idea then.”
…
The Script reset. The Dreamweaver, who had been a corpse moments ago, stood up, preparing to retrieve his internal organs and continue with a new round of the Script.
He actually quite enjoyed playing with those so-called travelers; he loved observing their reactions when they stumbled upon his corpse from the shadows.
It was his favorite part.
Oh, more than that-he also cherished the sight of the infinite pain and regret those guests felt when they entered their dreams.
It was a pity, though, that a guest in the last round had woken up so quickly.
He had intended to trap that person in the dreams of others, but to his surprise, the entire group had woken up.
The Dreamweaver walked into the inner room with a sense of regret, only to find that his internal organs were missing.
The Dreamweaver frowned.
Strange. They weren’t in the physical world?
What made the Dreamweaver even more uneasy was that Chen Wan’s internal organs were also gone.
He crossed the arched bridge and entered the dream realm.
Had those guests found his organs and hidden them inside the dream?
Filled with doubt, the Dreamweaver reached the inner room only to see a little girl in red eating something.
Chen Sichen’s pupils shrank. “Wait!”
Chen Wan glanced at him and swallowed the last bit of meat.
Then, Chen Wan bared her teeth at Chen Sichen in a grin. “Uncle’s meat is so delicious.”
As her true internal organs were returned to her, the wound in her chest began to heal continuously.
In stark contrast stood Chen Sichen, whose organs were being devoured. It was as if his life force had vanished instantly; his face grew paler and paler until, before long, he collapsed to the ground, gasping his final breaths.
Chen Wan walked toward him step by step, giggling. “I wonder what will happen to the rest of the meat on Uncle’s body?”
Behind Wanzi, a slip of paper fluttered onto the bluestone floor.
-Give your uncle’s incense to the other townspeople. They will obey you. Tell them to jump into the water to find your internal organs and bring them back. You’ll know what to do with the rest.
It was truly wonderful; the townspeople didn’t know which of the two jars belonged to her, so they simply brought both back.
Dreamville was swallowed by white mist, and the wandering townspeople flickered in and out of view within the fog.
The Script ended before the reset could even complete, triggering yet another round of resetting.
Chen Sichen’s eyes snapped open and shut. With a dark expression, he headed straight for the dream realm, only to find that he couldn’t possibly keep up with the speed at which Chen Wan recovered once she obtained her organs.
The scene from moments ago played out once more.
Looping over and over like this, the Script finally exceeded its threshold and completely collapsed.
…
Lolita had just indicated she was logging into a Script when a System prompt suddenly popped up.
[The Script “Dreamweaver’s Troubles” cannot be reset due to a failure in resetting key characters. The Script is now being shredded. Matching current Player with another Script in PvE mode. Loading…]
Lolita frowned. Recalling the System’s recent self-repair, she noted that another Script had been shredded.
If she remembered correctly, a Script had been shredded not long ago, and that incident had been accompanied by a System repair.
Sure enough, a second later:
[System calculation complete: A serious bug interfering with gameplay has been detected in a Script. All Players in all Scripts will be forcibly pulled into the Rest Area. Once in the Rest Area, the System will undergo an update. The System will compensate Players for any losses incurred.]
The Forum exploded once again. Lolita exited the matchmaking, lay down on her bed, and pulled up the customer service interface.
[Respected Player Lolita, No. 027 on the Heat Ranking List, how may I assist you?]
Lolita went straight to the point: “Is there a problem with the Script Song Zhu made?”
[Querying… Yes, Player Lolita. Customer Service Agent 113 has confirmed that a serious bug was detected in the 217th Script, “Dreamweaver’s Troubles,” created by the Author (Player: Song Zhu, Code Name: Z). A scan of all Scripts is currently underway to identify and fix any similar bugs.]
Lolita asked, “Who caused the bug?”
[Apologies, Lolita. That information pertains to another Player’s privacy. The System must maintain confidentiality, even though you are a High-level Player.]
Lolita crossed her arms and sneered. “Your confidentiality work is truly impressive. You can’t protect a Hidden Rule, but you guard trivial information more strictly than anyone.”]
[Lolita, this information is not categorized as useless. According to System calculations, once this confidential information is leaked, there is a 19.6% probability that it will cause extreme harm to the System.]
“Only 19.6%?”
[Yes. There is also an 80.36% probability that it will directly cause the game System to collapse.]
Lolita’s eyes flickered, and she smiled. “Alright, I understand.”
The customer service interface vanished. Lolita pulled up her contacts and sent a few characters to someone.
She counted them carefully to ensure there were no mistakes before grumbling as she hit send, “What kind of codebook did Rao Lin make anyway…”
On the other side, all Players received a message, including Ning Shuo.
Ning Wang turned a page of a magazine-a popular gossip rag found in the Rest Area. “When did you use up the incense?”
Ning Shuo rolled over lazily, seeking the most comfortable position to read his novel. “Before we crossed that gate for the first time, back when the Townspeople weren’t so crazed yet. I saw a Townsperson and thought I’d try the incense on him. Who knew it would cure his illness instantly?”
He sighed with emotion. “If the things Chen Sichen makes could be used for the right reasons, who knows how much of a contribution he could make.”
Ning Wang asked, “So you had the Townspeople follow you to the real world, and then had them bring the internal organs back?”
“Of course.”
“You realized early on that the organs were in Chen Sichen’s house in the real world?”
“No, I just guessed. I simply gave the Townspeople a direction,” Ning Shuo said, splitting his attention. “The incident with Chen Wan happened at home, so the organs of those two wouldn’t be placed too far apart. For Townspeople in a high-level Script, finding something-especially something as distinct as internal organs-isn’t hard. The town is only so big; it wouldn’t stump them.”
“Weren’t you afraid the incense would run out before they found the jars?”
“Then I’d just move on to the next Script and keep causing trouble. It’s not like we’re going to succeed in shattering a Script every single time anyway.”
Two Open Wolves were brazenly discussing how to collapse a Script right under the System’s nose. Ning Shuo added, “But you’re pretty impressive too. You guessed the purpose of that incense and what I might do with it, so you actually left a note by Wanzi’s body in advance.”
Ning Wang looked calm, but he silently struck a profound, enigmatic pose. “It’s because I’m too smart. Later, I thought about that evening-looking from the angle of the shore, there was a possibility of the ‘Golden Light Piercing the Cave’ phenomenon. It wouldn’t work for Ying Jian and the others to go into the water at any other time, but at dusk, it might have a miraculous effect.”
“A Script won’t just reset once. To shatter it, you have to make sure it fails to reset every single time.”
“For a Script to reset, the Dreamweaver must be resurrected. He has to find his internal organs, so the reset time must be fixed at ‘Golden Light Piercing the Cave’-in other words, while the portal is still open.”
“As long as the portal exists, the Townspeople can travel back and forth between the real world and the dream.”
“However,” Ning Wang looked at the lazy Ning Shuo, “before you actually found the portal, everything I did was based on a mere guess. So, I have to say…”
A smile reached his eyes. “My future self isn’t so bad after all.”
Ning Shuo’s attention had already been captured by a novel he stumbled upon on the Forum. He gave a perfunctory reply, “In any case, Xie Ning is the absolute best.”
As they were chatting, a commotion suddenly erupted in the hallway.
At the same time, a notification popped up from the System.
[Player Ning Banxian, the annual Large-Scale Murder Mystery Game is about to begin. This period’s theme: Paradise.]
[The game rules will now be read to you.]
[Participation in the Large-Scale Murder Mystery Game is not mandatory. If a Player chooses to participate in this Script, please proceed to the scene-The Clown’s Favorite Paradise.]
[In the Large-Scale Murder Mystery Game, Players may determine their own roles, personas, and life stories. Players must complete tasks assigned by NPCs while maintaining their personas. The more tasks completed, the greater the rewards.]
[Players, take heed: Victims and Murderers will still appear within the venue!]
[If a victim is discovered, you are considered involved in the case. At that time, please find the Clown within the venue and make an Accusation against the person you believe to be the Murderer. Failure to make an Accusation or an incorrect Accusation will result in a penalty based on task progress, but the life of the accuser (if they are not the Murderer) will not be endangered. Once an Accusation is successful, you will receive a generous reward!]
[Additionally, Secret Missions unknown even to the NPCs may appear during the game.]