Cheng Xubo, who was hiding under the hospital bed, saw Chi Lian disappearing, and immediately jumped out, searching for her location.
As a player, Cheng Xubo recalled Chi Lian’s actions before she disappeared and immediately realized, “Chi Lian went offline? Is it possible to go offline now?”
He excitedly called up the system panel, but there was still no “exit game” button.
Cheng Xubo’s hopes were dashed by a pot of cold water, and he sat on the ground, muttering, “Why can’t I log off?”
At this time, everything in the sanatorium was frozen as if the stop button was pressed, neither the feather-eyed dependent nor Yao Wangping could move, even the power of the big-eye couldn’t penetrate into it.
Even if Cheng Xubo sat on the ground and cried bitterly, he would not be contaminated by negative emotions, and he wouldn’t be in danger.
For a moment, it was unclear whether Cheng Xubo was sad, or venting his emotions because the surrounding area was safe.
The moment the self totem was affixed, Mu Sichen’s body returned to normal.
The contaminated blister eyes disappeared, the frog eyes also shrunk back into their sockets, and he returned to a clean and handsome young college student.
Mu Sichen glanced at him and also opened the system panel, on which the “exit game” button also appeared.
It turned out that the first ten minutes of the newbie protection period was really a chance for players to quit the game, but which player would really quit the game? Everyone would take these ten minutes as a gold medal, using this time to familiarize themselves with the game as much as possible.
Mu Sichen didn’t rush offline like Chi Lian, but took advantage of the safety to explore this pillar that belonged to him.
He raised his head and looked at the totem located in the air through the large hole that the Feather Eye dependent had smashed in the ceiling earlier.
If he was right, this was his pillar. However, the original power of the pillar wasn’t his, but he had “dug” it from the Big Eye.
“Digging” this skill, had more variety than he imagined.
Believers, abilities, pillars,…… Instead of calling this ability “digging”, it was more like snatching, stealing,…… or transferring.
Yes, transferring was more graphic than stealing.
Because before he dug the believers, he didn’t dig the big-eye’s believers to himself, but dug to Qin Zu, and he could turn Qin Zu’s believers into the big-eye’s followers, this was a kind of transfer.
Thinking about this, Mu Sichen pinched the chest badge and thought of Chi Lian’s skills.
When he thought about it, Chi Lian’s skill, seemed to be of this type.
Cutting and pasting, wasn’t that also a type of transfer?
Cheng Xubo’s cart came with the skill of stuffing items in a space and carrying them to another location.
Current location, three players, skills manifested in different forms, but the essence was the same, transfer.
This wasn’t in line with the fundamentals of a game.
Mu Sichen was a game tester and had delved into many games.
A qualified game should embrace all types of abilities, attack, assist, heal, defense ……
But My Ideal Town was a game that currently only gave players the ability to “transfer”.
What was the reason why?
Mu Sichen couldn’t figure it out for a while, so he pressed this question to the bottom of his heart.
He had a vague feeling that even if he left the game this time, he would definitely come back later.
He had merely completed the novice quests and was temporarily given a moment of respite.
Mu Sichen raised his head to the sky and remembered one thing: Big Eye’s “pillar” was hidden inside the sanatorium, making it difficult to find.
Obviously, once the “pillar” was found, it would be easy for other god-level monsters to destroy or plunder it.
His totem was hanging over the sanatorium, so when the Big Eye woke up, with his power, he should be able to retrieve the “pillar” in an instant, right?
Shouldn’t he also hide the Pillar inside the sanatorium, just like Big Eye did?
In that case, even if Big Eye wanted to retrieve the pillar, he would have to send someone to infiltrate the sanatorium and find out the rules of the sanatorium, just like he did before, and find a way to lure out the “pillar”?
He wondered if the system would give a hint.
Mu Sichen tugged at the system panel for a few moments, and suddenly saw a red exclamation mark on the quest bar symbol.
This was the sign of an unfinished task.
Mu Sichen tapped into the quest bar.
[Congratulations to the player who has obtained the first pillar, please find a spiritual support for your pillar to facilitate the protection of the “pillar” and hide the “pillar”].
Mu Sichen: “……What would have happened if I hadn’t found this quest and just went offline?”
[The Newborn Pillar is very fragile and can easily be recaptured by god-level monsters. If the player goes offline directly, and waits for the next time he comes online, the pillar will have been taken away long ago, and the moment the player comes online, he will be devoured by the god-level monsters due to the loss of his only pillar.]
Mu Sichen: “…… Then why don’t you prompt?”
This time the system didn’t answer him.
Mu Sichen didn’t know what to say, this broken system, for a moment it was impossible to tell whether it was well-intentioned or malicious.
Let’s say it was goodwill. It brought everyone to this dilapidated place, with holes everywhere and no prompts. Even if there was an exit opportunity, it was hidden and players were left to fend for themselves in a strange world. To obtain any information, players must actively explore and discover it before the system would give corresponding prompts. If players didn’t expect it, the system would definitely not proactively prompt.
It could be said to be malicious, but it really did provide players with skills and methods to save their lives.
Mu Sichen knew that with his own strength, it was impossible for him to occupy this pillar.
The reason why he was able to grab the “pillar” was because he had the power of the system behind him.
It was like he possessed a secret martial arts book that was enough to dominate the world, but there was no one to teach him. He had to fumble around on his own to learn the contents of the secret book, and if he practiced correctly, he could exert great power. Once one practiced wrongly, one would die, and anyway, many people had this secret martial arts book, so it was just a matter of changing one’s practice.
The system was neither kind nor malicious, but rather condescendingly picked the right people.
Mu Sichen temporarily put aside his preconceived notions about the system and pondered how to protect his pillar.
He came to the side of Cheng Xubo who was bawling and comforted, “Don’t cry.”
Cheng Xubo sobbed, “Chi Lian went offline, why can’t I go offline? You didn’t leave either, is it that you can’t either? Is this game sexist?”
“I think it’s not sexism, it’s faith discrimination.” Mu Sichen said.
“What?” Cheng Xubo asked, confused.
“This is the safe house I created after completing the novice quests, I think it’s probably because only people who believe in me can leave the game.” Mu Sichen said.
“Believe, I believe!” Cheng Xubo said without hesitation, “You saved me before, I already trusted you ah! And as long as you can get me out of the game, it’s fine to believe anyone! Then how should I believe in you?”
Mu Sichen rummaged through his body and was embarrassed to realize that he had just used all the self stickers on his body in order to seize the pillar.
He was barely sane at the time, and had no room to think about anything else other than throwing self stickers on himself.
Now that there was no self sticker, how was he going to turn Cheng Xubo into his believer?
Cheng Xubo was looking at Mu Sichen with expectant eyes, and he sheepishly averted his gaze.
“To become my believer, you need to put on a self sticker.” Mu Sichen said, “The sticker is a byproduct of my skill, and now I don’t have a self sticker anymore.”
“Can’t use the skill?” Cheng Xubo pointed at the people who had been turned into volunteers by Mu Sichen, “Can’t you use skills on these people?”
After Mu Sichen had risen to level 10, his energy value had reached five thousand, a world away from his previous value.
Now even if Chi Lian was borrowing his energy value, with a consumption of 120, Mu Sichen wouldn’t be too distressed.
Previously, when he borrowed Qin Zu’s energy to convert volunteers into Qin Zu’s followers, the average consumption per person was around 3,000, so the current energy was quite enough for him to convert one volunteer.
“I don’t think I can do that.” Mu Sichen said.
It was a wonderful feeling.
This time it was his energy that was being consumed, and once he used “digging” on a volunteer or patient, that person would become his believer.
However, Mu Sichen always had a feeling that these people weren’t from his world, if they voluntarily believed in him, it was fine, but if he used his skills to forcefully transform them into his believer, something bad would happen.
What exactly was the bad thing, Mu Sichen couldn’t say, he just had this feeling.
He could use his skills to free these people from the Big Eye’s spiritual pollution, he could turn them into Qin Zu’s believers, but he couldn’t force the other person to become his believer.
It had to be voluntary.
Mu Sichen frowned in thought.
Cheng Xubo looked at him blearily.
Mu Sichen looked up at the self totem in the air, thinking about the system’s hint that he needed to find a spiritual support before he could hide the pillar.
Just like Big Eye’s pillar would be attracted to despair.
His sticker was called “Self Sticker” and his totem was “Self Totem”, the system had named him right from the beginning.
Was it because the name of his power was “Self” that he couldn’t force the people of this world to believe in him?
On the contrary, a sticker could be placed on players like Chi Lian and Cheng Xubo because they were from the same world.
Mu Sichen looked at the Self Totem, which was on his palm, and he felt like he could utilize the power of the pillar.
“How about trying that one? That’s a sticker too, right?” Mu Sichen said, pointing to the ceiling.
“How can I try?” Cheng Xubo’s expression was filled with skepticism.
“Climb up and see!” Mu Sichen said.
There seemed to be no other way at this moment, the ceiling was smashed through by the Feathered Eyes Dependent, the two young men were athletic, so it was quite easy to climb up.
Cheng Xubo stacked several hospital beds on top of each other, and with the help of the beds, the two climbed up to the roof of the building.
Standing on the roof of the building, Mu Sichen found that the self totem position was very low, it seemed to be affected by the power of the big-eye and couldn’t fly into the air higher, it could only be low against the roof of the sanatorium.
Moreover, this self totem seemed to be falling, and in a little while, it would descend below the ceiling.
If Mu Sichen went offline regardless, he probably wouldn’t have to wait for Big Eye to wake up, the self totem would have fallen to the ground.
“Wow, it’s descending so fast.” Cheng Xubo said, “I’ll jump a little to touch it.”
He really jumped and his fingertips touched the edge of the Self Totem.
When Cheng Xubo touched the Self Totem, Mu Sichen heard a system prompt.
[Congratulations to the player for obtaining the second believer, currently the number of believers is too small to open a new gameplay, in this startup period, please try to increase the number of believers.]
“Look at the system panel again.” Mu Sichen said.
Cheng Xubo’s heart had an inexplicable trusting feeling towards Mu Sichen as he opened the system panel, only to see the “Exit Game” button light up.
“Great! I’m going offline!” Cheng Xubo waved his hand at Mu Sichen, “I hope that none of us will return to this hellhole again!”
After saying that, he disappeared onto the roof.
Mu Sichen still didn’t leave, he looked up at the totem, raised his hand, and his fingertips touched the totem’s hand.
A power spread throughout his body, and Mu Sichen felt that he could use it.
He closed his eyes and quietly felt the power, gently spitting out two words, “Purification.”
The self totem emitted a faint glow, and with the power of his left eye, Mu Sichen saw that the blistering eyes on both the patients and the family members in the sanatorium had all disappeared.
Shen Jiyue became more handsome.
Yao Wangping’s polluted half of his body had also returned to normal.
On the contrary, some of the alienation on the volunteers’ bodies didn’t change, their changes were different from the blister eyes, they were physical aberrations, and it was difficult to change them again.
But Mu Sichen could feel that many of the volunteers’ not-so-firm faith in the big-eye had disappeared.
However, people like the Feather-eyed dependent who possessed a portion of the power of the Big Eye hadn’t changed in the slightest.
With the power of the self Totem, Mu Sichen vaguely felt that the location where the Feather-eyed dependent was located was like a mass of garbage that would be difficult to clean up, and continuing to allow him to stay within the sanatorium would corrode the power of the self Totem.
“Exclude.” Mu Sichen said softly.
A force “swept” out the Feather-eyed dependent, Yao Wangping, Shen Jiyue, and a dozen other people, who were thrown out.
These people should be heavily polluted by the Big Eye or undercover agents from other small towns.
Sweeping out a dozen people at once, he didn’t expect that there were quite a lot of people from other forces within this sanatorium.
He didn’t know if they were all subordinates of Qin Zu, and he didn’t know if there were any other forces, such as that demonic town’s Lord of Night.
Mu Sichen used the power of the self Totem to clear out all the forces that didn’t belong to him in the convalescent home, and at the same time, he felt that the power of the self Totem was gradually dissipating.
Just like the pillar of the sanatorium, the “pillar” would not last long without a constant supply of spiritual energy.
The system told him to find a spiritual support for the pillar, and the spiritual support generated by the people currently existing in the sanatorium would become the support for the pillar.
“What kind of spiritual support should I look for?” Mu Sichen muttered to himself.
[What kind of town would a player want if they were a god-level monster?]
The system took the rare initiative to prompt.
“I want to leave this world and never come back.” Mu Sichen said, “Although it’s a delusion, one must have hope, no?”
He thought for a moment and said, “I’m not a god-level monster, even if I am, there’s no way I can carry the emotions of so many people, and I myself am just an ordinary college student, whether I can find a job after graduation or not, and when exactly I can buy a house is still unknown.”
“But one must have hope, mustn’t one?”
Hope that life can change for the better, hope to be able to get a good love, hope that you can become a good person.
When Mu Sichen said these words, the self totem transformed into dots of light that entered the hearts and mouths of everyone in the sanatorium.
[The player named the town Hope Town, player should make further efforts to establish Hope Town.]
Sure enough, it was still necessary to continue the game ah. Mu Sichen shook his head helplessly.
He sensed that the sanatorium and his pillar had been carefully guarded, and for the time being, there wouldn’t be any problems, and he could leave for now.
Mu Sichen felt so tired that he wanted to take a rest.
He clicked “Exit Game”, and in the next second, he appeared in the dormitory.
The game pod disappeared, and Mu Sichen realized that he was lying on the cold ground, as if what he had just experienced was just a dream.
He looked at his cell phone, the time was the same as when he entered the game, for the time he was in the game, the time in reality didn’t pass.
Only the mechanical watch, which differed from the time of his cell phone by several hours, told Mu Sichen that what he had experienced was not a dream.
He tried summoning the system in his mind, but no system panel surfaced in front of him.
It was as if there was not even a medium to enter the game again.
“I’m really back? No need to go back again?” Mu Sichen muttered to himself hopefully.
He stood up with his hands on the ground, but suddenly felt that something was wrong.
When he sat up, it seemed like something had fallen off of him.
Mu Sichen looked at the ground and saw that where he had just laid down, at some point, there was an extra Q version of an octopus doll.
[TN: Q version —- the cartoonification or infantilization in the artistic renderings of real life or human, animal figures or other characters or objects, especially in the styles of Japanimation.]
This octopus is quite sticky..