What’s Wrong With Seeking Death?

tea room.

Xu Tuoran thought about the paper for a moment, then calmly put it back into the box, and buried it as it was. At the same time, I silently determined the next phased goals in my heart.

It seems necessary to go there once.

Out of some subtle psychology that she couldn't explain herself, she didn't touch the silver box, but put away the two brooches she found next to her. After packing up, she got up and went on her way. She took out the map and pretended to look at it for a long time, and decided decisively, Still walk from the woods.

Xu Turan felt that it was closer this way—the gravel road twisted and twisted, and if he walked straight through the forest, it would save a lot of time. But the pen of the pen fairy pointedly exposed her lie: [Pull it down. You just think it's convenient to make trouble in the woods. 】

"So what. Do you have an opinion?" Xu Tuoran glanced at it coldly, and the pen of the immortal spit out a few bubbles silently, and chose to remain silent again.

Facts have proved that there are quite a lot of surprises in the woods——Xu Tuoran left the stone road again, entered the red light enveloped by the prompt sound of "dangerous value" rising, walked forward a thousand steps, and let her discover interesting stuff.

She found a body again. But not the corpse of a monster.

"Big black bear..." Xu Tuoran murmured, and pulled the head of the black bear on the ground with the stone spear he carried with him, "So it is also mortal?"

No one answered her question. The "corpse" of the black bear lay quietly on the ground like that, its round eyes stared straight at the sky, and there was still an unchanging smile on its headgear.

The "corpse" in a puppet costume naturally has no blood. However, the body on the ground is separated, and the texture of **** flesh can be seen at the fracture. If you look carefully, you can still see the texture of the muscles and the distribution of blood vessels. For some reason, there are many small bite marks.

There were no other fatal wounds on the **** bear's body, and it looked like it had been killed by someone's head. Two bear paws were also cut off, and it was not known where they fell. The cut edge of the arm is surrounded by a circle of red, and the cut surface is covered with camphor leaves.

Xu Tuoran poked the stone spear again, and the leaves covering the cut rustled down. However, it was just a mistake, and they were seen floating up one after another, sticking back to the incision again—Xu Tuoran sensed something was wrong, squatted down and tore off a piece, only to see insect-like mouthparts growing out of the supposedly smooth back of the leaf , the upper jaw can't stop wriggling.

Xu Tuoran: "..."

So what are you?

Anyway, at least she knew where those tiny bite marks came from. Xu Tuoran frowned in disgust, threw the leaves on the ground, and slapped his head and body for a while. After confirming that no leaves were touched, Fang raised the stone spear in his hand again and poked around the corpse, wanting to see what had been cut off. Is Bear Claw around here.

Just at this time, there were dull footsteps not far away.

Xu Tuoran raised his eyes alertly, and was meeting a big white bear.

The white bear walked over from nowhere, still holding several barbecues wrapped in iron skewers in his hand. After realizing Xu Tuoran's existence, it was also obviously taken aback.

Afterwards, its eyes fell on Xu Tuoran's stone spear.

He looked at the iron sign in his hand again.

Then he looked at the corpse of the black bear that Xu Tueran was poking with a stone spear.

"..." I don't know if it was Xu Tuoran's illusion, but the big white bear seemed to be frozen in place.

In the next second, it opened its hands upwards, and the skewer it was holding fell to the ground, but it didn't even care to pick it up, turned around and ran away with its head in its arms!

Xu Turan: ...

Just as she opened her mouth to say something, she saw the big white bear running back with her cheeks in her hands, covering her face with one hand, and quickly touched the ground a few times with the other. After picking up two skewers, she ran again without looking back. splash.

Xu Tuoran: ...

"It's embarrassing." She hissed, "I think it must have misunderstood something."

Because at the moment the other party covered his face and ran away, the voice of increasing the value of words sounded in her mind again.

…But forget it, never mind.

Xu Tuoran lowered his head indifferently, checked the fallen leaves around the **** bear's body, and confirmed that he couldn't pick it up... No, after finding more clues, he ignored it and turned away.

After walking a few thousand steps forward, relying on the little pink flower to correct the route from time to time, Xu Tuoran finally caught a faint glimpse of the outline of the teahouse through the trees.

Compared with the "Tree Roots Museum" where exhibits grow outside, this so-called tea room looks much more normal. A small two-story building, which seems to be made of wood, with a roof covered with green tiles, looks like a huge cauliflower from a distance.

Xu Tuoran walked around from behind the building. Through the window, you can see that there are still many people sitting on the second floor of the tea room—as for whether they are real people, she is not sure.

She pondered for a moment, and did not rush forward, but first covered the silver box she was holding in her hand, and stuffed the whole thing into her bag. Using **** again, he picked up the little pink flower sitting on his shoulder.

"There may be a big bear on duty here." She whispered to Xiaofenhua, "You hide for a while. I will release you after I inquire about the situation."

The leaves of the little pink flower were visibly wilted, but she still nodded obediently. Xu Tuoran heaved a sigh of relief, and opened the backpack while praising it for being good-looking—she arranged a separate compartment for Xiao Fenhua. There wasn't any silver box inside. It’s just that a bunch of medicine bottles were put there for some reason, and she was thinking whether to take out two to make room, but she saw the little pink flower jumping in actively, the two leaves hugged the medicine bottle closest to it, very relaxed look.

Xu Tuoran: "...?"

"Okay, as long as you like. Be careful not to crowd yourself." Xu Tuoran said, zipping up. He took off his coat again, wrapped up the stone spear in his hand, and fixed it with a rubber band tied with his hair before continuing to walk towards the tea room.

She went around to the main entrance of the building, went in and saw that there was only a big white bear in the lobby on the first floor, standing behind the counter, playing with her fingers boredly. Xu Tuoran tentatively walked over and asked about the operating rules of the tea room. The other party just looked up lazily at her, pointed to a piece of paper pasted on the counter, lowered his head and continued to touch the fish and clasp his hands.

I saw two lines written on the paper:

[1. This tea room is open 24 hours a day. Tea is free. All you can drink. 】

[2. After dark, please do not stay in the dining area on the second floor. 】

... into the night?

Xu vainly thought that although the outside was covered by the canopy of trees, there was still bright sunshine. After a little thought, he turned and walked to the second floor.

The stairs are also made of wood, and there will be a slight shaking feeling when stepping on them. Xu Tuoran walked all the way to the second floor along the stairs, looked up, and said "wow" in his heart.

In the dim light, dense figures can be seen on the second floor, almost filling the tables. But if you take a closer look, you will find that these "people" are actually weird everywhere.

Motionless, silent, deformed limbs, extremly elongated limbs, skin like dried bark...

Oh no, they are bark.

Xu Tuoran walked a little closer and finally understood. Those sitting on the seats are all dolls made of wood. The surface is rough, even the bark has not been peeled clean, but the movements are very vivid, as if they are really eating and drinking tea, but it is even more weird.

These puppets have no facial features on their faces, but when Xu Tuoran walks past them, he always has the feeling of being watched. However, the "dangerous value" in her mind didn't sound, so she didn't take it too seriously, and walked around on the second floor to see if she could find the "13940" that left the clue.

This was not a difficult task. However, the light in the tea room was insufficient, and the presence of the puppets even obscured his sight. Xu Tuoran didn't pay attention to his feet for a while, and he never stepped on someone's feet, and a voice immediately sounded in his head:

[Congratulations, you have gained 200 mouth points! 】

Xu Tuoran: ...?

She lowered her eyes to look at the "feet" she stepped on, and then turned her head to look at the puppet sitting beside her.

After a little thought, Xu Furan stepped on it tentatively again.

[Congratulations, you have obtained 300 mouth points! 】

Yo, it's still up.

It was obviously a reminder of "dangerous value", but for some reason, after Xu Tuoran noticed this wave of price increases, his first reaction was not to be alert, but to instinctively raise his foot and step down hard—

It's a pity that she stepped on a blank this time. His right foot stomped heavily on the floor, making a bang sound, and looking at the puppet, it had already moved to the side as if nothing had happened, and the distance between Xu Tuoran and Xu Tuoran was instantly widened to two people.

Xu Tuoran: "..."

Still unwilling to give up, she raised her hand and poked at another puppet. Seeing that his finger was about to poke the other person's cheek, a misty voice suddenly floated over:

"You don't touch them. They'll be angry."

Xu Tuoran: "!"

She immediately straightened up and looked around where the voice came from. The line of sight went around under the cover of countless puppets, and finally locked on the person sitting in the corner.

Female, long hair, taller. Sitting alone in the most inconspicuous position. Because of the lighting problem, Xu Tueran couldn't see her face clearly, but he could clearly feel the calm demeanor exuded from the other party - a kind of demeanor only available to elders.

She hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward: "Hello?"

"Hello." The man responded gently, "Sit down first. Don't worry. It's safe here now."

"Now? Is it because it hasn't entered the night yet?" Xu Tuoran asked.

"Well. At this point in time, it's still early in the night." The woman replied in a gentle voice.

She spoke softly, but her voice was more mature. Xu Tuoran responded, sat down opposite her, looked at her in the limited light, and said probingly: "I came here after seeing the message you left..."

The other party listened to her very patiently, and Fang interfaced: "Is it in a silver box? Or is it hidden on the gravel road?"

Is there any on the gravel road?

Xu Tuoran was taken aback for a moment, and replied, "It's in the box."

"Oh, okay. Then wait for a while." The other party said, took out a flashlight and a notebook from the bucket bag he carried, and began to flip through the pages under the light of the flashlight—from Xu Tuoran I can't see what is written on the book, but I can see that it is densely packed, full of handwriting and numbers, and a series of slashes.

The person's eyesight seemed to be very poor, and his face was very close to the notebook. After reading it for a while, he probably found it troublesome, so he put his hand into the inside of the clothes—Xu Furan took it for granted that she was going to take out her glasses, but unexpectedly the other party was He took a brooch out of his clothes and placed it gently on the table.

Xu Tueran looked over with the flashlight, and saw a large line of characters on the brooch: [I have poor eyesight. 】

…So, what is the significance of wearing such a brooch?

A question mark appeared in Xu Tuoran's heart. On the other side, after the woman took off the brooch, her reading became much smoother, and she said again soon: "The silver box... oh, I found it. Yes, I buried this one. But the time has passed It's pretty far away."

She said, took out a map, and showed Xu Tuoran the number below: "13940. The number of the map."

Xu Tuoran nodded, and said casually: "Your picture seems to be different from mine."

On the map the woman took out, there were three more buildings than Xu Tuoran's. Xu Tuoran only has "Tree Roots Museum" and "Tea House" in his picture. On the picture of the woman, there are also "office", "execution ground" and "bug museum".

As for the Bug Museum, there are also places marked with question marks.

"Some places, if you have been there in person, they will be unlocked naturally." The woman replied unhurriedly, "It seems that you are not the person I am waiting for. Have you communicated with those black bears? If you speak well, they should Will let you go back."

Xu Tuoran: "..."

Communication... does violent communication count?

"I asked them. They didn't directly answer the question of whether I can leave. So I don't trust them very much." Xu Tuoran covered it up, and was a little curious, "How do you know that I am not the one you want to wait for?"

"People who have been here for a long time will at least unlock another location." The woman tapped the map, "Go straight along the gravel road, and you can reach the 'office' smoothly. Whether you can be sent out, look there You know the attitude of the employees. I have been kicked out by them more than once."

The woman's voice was steady, and she didn't sound annoyed at all: "If you've been stuck here for a long time like me, you must have also hit a wall in the office. And you, it seems that you haven't been there at all."

Xu Tuoran: "..."

That's right, normal people generally seem to look for the exit along the road first.

"Well, I did just come in today. But for some reason, I'm pretty sure I can't get out through the normal way." Xu Tuoran thought for a while, and told the truth, "It just so happened that I found out that you stayed behind That's why I came here to ask."

"So..." The woman nodded thoughtfully, "It's a coincidence that I also met a new girl a while ago, and she couldn't get out after she came in. The frequency of this kind of thing seems to have increased a lot recently. "

"A while ago?" Xu Tuoran's heart moved, "How long has it been?"

"Not sure. The concept of time will become blurred if you stay for a long time." The woman said so, but she still opened her notebook again and turned a few pages forward, "According to my records, the body sensation was three or four days ago."

"Then do you know why she couldn't leave?" Xu Tuoran asked curiously.

"If I knew, I probably wouldn't be sitting here now." The woman chuckled and put away her notebook, "Okay, let's talk about you. Do you have any questions? Meeting is fate, I will Answer as best you can."

"...Uh, thank you in advance." Xu Turan didn't expect the other party to be so generous, but was stunned for a moment, pondered for a while, and remembered a very important question, "May I ask under what circumstances can the **** bear be killed? "

woman:"…"

...?

She seemed to be confused by Xu Tuoran's question. After a few seconds of silence, he suddenly laughed.

"Sorry, I really don't know about this. I've never tried it... I don't have the guts." She chuckled and shook her head, with a hint of helplessness in her tone.

Xu Tuoran was stunned: "What do you mean, 'I don't have the guts'?"

"Black bears can evoke fear. And it is the kind of fear that will make people lose all fighting spirit. If it is the black bear in the area south of the teahouse, I may still have the courage to face it. If it is further north, I will have to run away." Woman Sighing, he took a deep look at Xu Tuoran, "I admire you for having the courage to ask such a question."

Xu Tuoran said to himself that he dared not ask, he had already hammered the hammer; after thinking about it, he added: "I don't mean anything else, I just saw the dead body of a **** bear on the road, so..."

As soon as these words came out, the person on the other side was stunned: "Where is the body of the **** bear?"

"It's... behind the tea room, about three thousand steps away." Xu Tuoran didn't expect her reaction to be so big, his eyes turned lightly, and he added, "Not only the corpse of a black bear, but also the corpse of a monster. A stone spear was nailed to the tree."

"Stone Spear..." The woman looked pensive, her brows furrowed even tighter, "It's even more strange."

Xu Tuoran: "?"

"I've seen the stone spear you mentioned. It's only found at the 'Execution Ground'." The woman opened the map again and pointed it to Xu Turan, "'Execution Ground' is a place specially used to execute powerful monsters. The black bears there will be specially equipped with stone spears to deal with monsters. The black bears south of the execution ground do not have this kind of equipment."

Xu Tuoran was confused: "But the stone spear and the paving stones are made of the same material. Black bears can't walk on the stone road, but they can use stone weapons?"

The woman nodded slightly, her tone affirmative: "The black bears at the execution ground will have a layer of red flesh on their hands. I don't know what it is, but this should be the reason why only they can use stone spears."

Red meat film.

Xu Turan's heart suddenly moved.

Speaking of which, the black bear corpse she saw in the woods did have a red ring left at the broken arm.

More importantly, its hands have been neatly cut away.

...so what's the situation now? Someone deliberately got the black bear out of the execution ground, just to take away its bear claws? Then the stone spear I picked up earlier actually belonged to that black bear?

But doesn't it mean that black bears have a range of activities? It's too far from the "execution ground".

Xu Tuoran was puzzled, but out of caution, he still informed the person in front of him. After the woman listened, her expression was even more bewildered than her.

"This... this kind of thing is indeed relatively rare, I only encountered it once. It's because I wore the wrong brooch..."

She took a deep look at Xu Tuoran, and her expression became a little complicated: "And, to be honest, I thought you would care more about your own survival."

Xu Tuoran: "..." I am concerned about my survival. Knowing the cause of my enemy's death, doesn't it mean improving my survival rate in disguise?

Seeing that the other party really couldn't give more answers in this regard, Xu Tuoran could only temporarily suppress the confusion in his heart, and asked other questions instead.

For example, the detailed usage of the brooch, those strange leaves, and how many people are currently trapped here...

"Why don't you all act together?" Knowing that in this forest, there are five or six "residents" that the girl herself met, Xu Tuan couldn't help but said, "Always act together, even if someone forgets, others People can help more or less."

"It's not that we don't want to act together, but we can't do it." The woman said sincerely, "In this place, it's very difficult for human beings to stay together all the time. Whether it's on the gravel road or in the woods, as long as they start moving, it's easy to get separated from each other. "

Sometimes in the blink of an eye, the person who was walking in front just now has disappeared. Once separated, the next time we meet again, we don't know when it will be.

"There are only two ways to make people stay together for a long time. Either stay in the building, or stand still and keep eye contact." The woman shook her head helplessly, "But everyone is going People who are looking for themselves. They have to flee when they are in danger. It is not realistic to stay where they are all the time.”

"So that's how it is..." Xu Tuoran suddenly realized and nodded, "It's like forcing humans to disperse."

"The good news is that as long as there are multiple human beings, there will always be cooperation." The woman smiled lightly, and suddenly seemed to remember something, opened the bucket bag again, took out a handful of brooches from it, and piled them on the On the table, "I have the habit of collecting extra brooches. Just right, you can see if there are any that match you."

Xu Tuoran was taken aback for a moment, and hurriedly thanked him. He also held out the brooch he had picked up, indicating that the other party could also search for it. The two nodded politely to each other, like two big cats exchanging friendly food. Soon, they each turned their attention to the pile of brooches in front of them.

After all, Xu Tuoran was not very proficient, so he had to pick and choose for a while before he remembered that the gloves hadn't been taken off yet. Just as he was about to take off his gloves, his eyes unconsciously glanced at the one he was holding in his hand, and he let out a "huh".

"'I want to kill Jianglin'..." She whispered the words on the brooch, "Hey, if this kind of brooch is worn, will it arouse the hatred of the big bear?"

"...Sorry, I haven't tried this." The woman flicked through the brooch for a while, then gave Xu Tuoran a surprised look, and said at a leisurely pace, "But since the name can be displayed on it...maybe it will There is also a brooch that says 'Jianglin'."

According to her experience, the names that can be used to wear may not all come from the tourists themselves. Possibly from other brooches as well. For example, now she sees "I hate Du Jianhua" from Xu Tuoran's brooches, then the name "Du Jianhua" is likely to be extracted separately to form an independent name brooch.

"A separate 'Jianglin' ​​should be fine." The woman came to a conclusion, and after a few seconds of silence, she deliberately added: "But I still don't recommend you to try it. I wrote it because I wore one before" The brooch with the word "lin" was chased from the worm museum to the tree root museum."

She didn't know it was the brooch at the time, and the situation was so dangerous that she really thought she was going to die. In the end, I lost the brooch with the mentality of trying, and was finally saved.

Xu Tuoran blinked, said "oh" earnestly, and then raised the brooch that said "I want to kill Jianglin" again: "Can I have this one, please?"

"..." For some reason, the woman suddenly felt that she had said nothing.

"It's okay. Take it away." She paused and said calmly, "Those **** are meaningless to me. As long as you need them, you can take them away."

"Thank you so much." Xu Tuoran said, put away the brooch that said "I want to kill Jianglin", took off his gloves, and touched the remaining broochs one by one.

Touching and touching, my ears suddenly caught a slight rubbing sound. She turned her head vigilantly, but there was darkness in front of her eyes—

The light on the second floor of the tea room was not good. Just now they had been facing the light of the flashlight again, and suddenly turned their eyes to the dark place, and it seemed that the dark place was getting darker, and they couldn't see clearly.

Xu Tuoran frowned slightly and turned around. She was surprised to find that the writing on the brooch in her hand was still there—she touched the brooch with bare hands this time. Means this one is matching yourself.

...It's just that the words written on it make people confused.

"'I'm haunted by hallucinations'..." She muttered the above words with a look of disbelief, "God, am I a psychopath?"

"What?" The woman next to her didn't understand what she said.

"...It's nothing." Xu Tueran pursed his lips, and while unconsciously playing with the brooch, he asked, "Did you hear anything just now?"

The woman paused: "Sound? What sound?"

"It's just a small rubbing sound..." Just as he was speaking, the voice rang out again, Xu Tueran frowned, and turned his head again, "Yes, that's it."

This time the voice was louder, even the woman next to him could hear it. She also frowned, turned the flashlight, and shone behind Xu Tuoran. Xu Tuoran instinctively dodged to the side, reaching out to stabilize the shaking stone spear beside him. As soon as she moved, she heard the woman gasp and said in disbelief, "God, how could it be? The time has not come yet..."

Almost at the same time, a voice sounded in Xu Tuoran's mind again:

[Congratulations, you have obtained 500 mouth points! 】

Xu Tuoran: ...?

She clenched the stone spear in her hand, raised her eyes suddenly, and immediately understood the reason for the woman's astonishment—

I saw that in front of them, at this moment, was full of figures.

One by one, row by row. Tall and thin, with slender limbs.

It was the puppets who had been sitting on the seats.

At some point, they all stood up. He was standing quietly behind them, looking at them.

Xu Tuoran: "..."

Her first reaction was to put away the brooch in front of her first. Seeing that the woman moved a little slowly, she helped to sweep the brooch in front of her into her bag, and said while sweeping: "Go out and divide. The living don't lie to the living." — so what's going on now?"

"...It's night. We have to leave quickly." The woman pursed her lips tightly, her expression solemn, and she moved her body cautiously while speaking—she was in the innermost position, and it would take a lot of effort to move out.

She moved very lightly, as if she was afraid of waking up something, and she should speak in a breathy voice: "It's strange. It should be the Tree Root Pavilion at night now. How could it be here first..."

...it's your turn?

Xu Tueran didn't quite understand what this meant, but she remembered another thing.

"Tree Roots Museum? It's closed today..." She also whispered back, taking away the last brooch on her side while speaking, but her fingers just touched the tip of the brooch, and she hissed in pain.

That brooch happened to be the one that said "I'm troubled by hallucinations"—Xu Tueran only rang after being stabbed in pain, and he just unconsciously played with it, as if he had popped out the needle and forgot to put it away...

It was so hard that she was sure she was bleeding. Xu Tuoran cursed secretly, without thinking too much, he quickly grabbed the brooch, and the moment his blood-stained fingers touched it, there was a buzzing in his head—

Fragments of broken memories flooded in at this moment.