Despite He Fei’s constant threats, Mu Sichen stayed at the hotel for the full three days.
He asked a friend in the same dormitory building to contact He Fei, and found that there was nothing unusual about He Fei except for his hurt foot.
He Fei even went to the company internship according to the original plan, he just used the noon and evening time to find Mu Sichen.
If He Fei really went out of his way to look for Mu Sichen, he would have found him in no time at all and would not have needed to waste any time.
He Fei’s life was routine, looking for the octopus doll seemed to be just a hobby in his spare time. Judging from his routine, He Fei wasn’t obsessed or crazy.
He was even overachieving!
Mu Sichen had been working part-time all these years, and had also helped He Fei’s internship company employees to do some odd jobs.
He consulted a familiar person, the person told Mu Sichen that He Fei was excellent beyond words.
Although He Fei came to work with a crutch, it didn’t affect his performance at all. He Fei’s eyes were very poisonous. Whether it was documents or reports, he only needed to carefully review them once to identify the problem.
No matter how insignificant a typo, punctuation mark or decimal point was, it wouldn’t escape his sharp eyes.
Despite only being an intern for a few days, He Fei had already become the company’s auditor, and everyone liked to ask him to help find typos.
But according to Mu Sichen’s understanding of He Fei, He Fei wasn’t such a serious person.
He Fei was a person who would write psychology wrong when writing a paper, and he would always lose things and wear two different shoes when he was in a hurry, so letting him do the proofreading work would be killing him.
Now He Fei was serious and sensible, in addition to sending messages threatening Mu Sichen from time to time, he behaved like a sensible social elite.
This made Mu Sichen think of a title of Qin Zu – “Absolute Rationalist”.
This was what Shen Jiyue told him.
He Fei’s current performance in the company, didn’t go beyond his knowledge, but he had become precise, serious, and made no mistakes.
This was exactly in line with the title of Qin Zu.
Through the information, Mu Sichen could feel He Fei’s desire for the octopus doll, if it wasn’t still the internship, he was afraid that He Fei would work around the clock non-stop looking for Mu Sichen.
But because of his work, He Fei had to suppress this desire. He wouldn’t even stay up all night looking for him, because staying up all night would cause physical weakness, affecting the next day’s work.
Mu Sichen couldn’t even say whether this was spiritual pollution or personality modification.
He didn’t enter the game immediately, one was that he didn’t know if he could still come out alive the next time he entered the game, he wanted to live for as many days as possible, and these three days were even more important to order whatever takeout he wanted to eat, and never aggravate himself.
Secondly, he wanted to observe He Fei.
The matter of the octopus doll following Mu Sichen to the real world brought him a deep sense of unease.
He couldn’t help but think out of the box, thinking that since Qin Zu’s power could invade the real world, was it possible for the power of other god-level monsters to be brought back by players who went offline?
It wasn’t impossible, after all, it had already happened to him.
Big Eyes was only a Hidden Star level god-level monster, with Sheltering Sun and others above him.
The Hidden Star was already an existence he couldn’t peer into, how strong were the Sheltering Sun and the others?
From Qin Zu and Big Eye’s abilities it could be seen that each god-level monster had different titles and very different abilities.
These abilities were not something that Mu Sichen could imagine, even if he was careful, there was a chance that he could unknowingly bring back a god-level monster.
Therefore, Mu Sichen wanted to observe just how much influence the octopus doll had on He Fei, on whether or not it would have an even more horrifying effect on the real world.
Fortunately, He Fei didn’t behave differently other than his personality leaning more towards Qin Zu’s title.
However, this was determined by Qin Zu’s ability, and in case it was changed to Big Eye’s ability, it would definitely be different again.
Mu Sichen tried to imagine what would change if He Fei saw the Big Eye doll.
The point of wanting to get the doll would definitely not change, maybe he would become more fond of looking at other people’s eyes, his eyesight would become better, and he would be able to notice details that other people couldn’t see.
So far, there were effects, but they were all at an acceptable level.
But what if the one who followed back wasn’t a power doppelganger, but the main body?
The repercussions of that would be too terrifying.
Mu Sichen asked the octopus doll, “What would happen if your main body came here?”
To this, the octopus doll replied, “A god cannot leave their throne for long.”
Mu Sichen understood this sentence to mean that god-ranked monsters couldn’t leave the realm, the town He ruled, for too long.
Mu Sichen slightly relaxed.
Based on He Fei’s current reaction, the doll didn’t have too much of an impact on his daily life.
Moreover, the octopus doll told Mu Sichen that as long as he stayed away from it, He Fei would slowly return to normal.
In other words, even if Mu Sichen entered the game at the first opportunity and completed his agreement with Qin Zu to get rid of the octopus doll’s following. When he returned to the real world, he would also have to endure He Fei’s pestering for a while.
Mu Sichen had a headache with this, but it was a trouble he had caused and he had to face it.
Thinking about this, Mu Sichen stroked the octopus doll’s head for a moment.
He was so bold, mainly because this wasn’t Qin Zu’s original body, and after three days of getting along, Mu Sichen realized that when the octopus doll was really well-fed, it had a pretty good temper.
As long as he could let the octopus doll eat well and sleep well, and keep it clean and fragrant, this thing would become very good, also from time to time it’d sit by the window, using water moist big eyes to look at the sun, with a very happy expression.
It also felt very good to the touch.
The head was round and silky, and its temperature was below body temperature, so while it was hot in summer, putting your hand on it was like poking a cool jelly.
If he wanted to compare, it was kind of like a balloon filled with ice water.
Of course, the octopus doll’s touch was much better than a water balloon, and it wouldn’t burst.
Mu Sichen would secretly touch the octopus head and pinch the tentacles at night.
At this time, he also used the opportunity to communicate with Qin Zu to secretly touch the octopus head a few times.
When the octopus doll saw his thoughtful look, he hesitantly extended his tentacles and tapped on Mu Sichen’s brow.
“Limited to below Maitian.” Qin Zu’s majestic voice echoed in Mu Sichen’s mind.
“What? There are levels above Maitian?” Mu Sichen asked.
After receiving this information, Mu Sichen’s brain went into a trance, and his entire body became delirious as if he had eaten poisonous mushrooms.
Things around him became distorted, the table looked like a dog with wavy line legs, the bed was a colorful swamp that was bubbling, and the door to the room turned into a monster with a bloody mouth.
He nervously took a deep breath, but he saw countless little people pouring into his nose, as if they would invade his body with his airway and turn him into slime like the bed.
Mu Sichen didn’t dare to inhale, he held his breath, wanting to escape from this light and strange space, suddenly he saw a spacious big road behind him, only there was a glass door in front of the road.
Mu Sichen held his breath until he was about to suffocate, he wanted to escape from this place where he couldn’t breathe.
He ran towards that glass door, yanked it open with all his might, and ran towards that big road.
At this time, a cool thing was pressed against his eyes, and his mind became much more clear, and only then did Mu Sichen’s movements stop.
He touched the cool thing, it was the octopus doll’s tentacle.
The touch made him inexplicably at ease, he sighed in relief and breathed smoothly.
After a while, the tentacle moved away, and Mu Sichen opened his eyes, realizing that he was standing in front of the window, and one leg had already stepped out.
His room was on the sixth floor, if he ran out like this, the end could be imagined.
Mu Sichen carefully retracted his leg, closed the window, and looked at the room in shock.
The condition of his mind was similar to when he looked directly at the big-eye, no, it was even worse than then.
He had nearly gone crazy to the point of self-destruction simply by knowing the information that there was another level above Maitian.
If it wasn’t for the octopus doll stopping him in time, he would have run towards the bright path outside the window.
The doll’s tentacle pressed against Mu Sichen’s brow, “I thought you were able to withstand it.”
The voice was still as majestic, only it seemed to hide a hint of apology.
Mu Sichen didn’t blame the doll, in a sense, he did withstand it.
Even in his madness, he had a sense of self-preservation and wasn’t crazy enough to lose his mind. And if the room was on the first or second floor, he would have been fine if he jumped out like that instead.
“When I ask you questions, you always answer in a mysterious way, is it because there is some information that I can’t bear?” Mu Sichen asked.
The doll didn’t answer.
But acquiescence was also an answer.
This answer made him fall into a deeper fear, why would he still go crazy because of the information from the game world when he had already returned to the real world?
All the evidence seemed to point to a fact that Mu Sichen was unwilling to admit – the power of the game world, was able to penetrate the real world.
In fact, as early as when He Fei was mesmerized by the doll, Mu Sichen had vaguely had this idea.
But he didn’t dare to face this fact.
The real world was the safe house in his heart, and if he couldn’t even keep reality safe, was there any safe place in the whole world?
“Neither you nor the system would explicitly tell me the situation, and now it seems to be a protection for me.” Mu Sichen said bitterly, “I feel happier not knowing anything.”
The octopus doll saw that he was very downcasted and seemed to have lost the will to fight on, it hesitated for a moment and patted Mu Sichen’s forehead with its tentacles.
“Be sensible.” The commanding voice echoed in his mind.
Mu Sichen didn’t know whether it was the octopus doll that used its ability on him, or whether Qin Zu’s voice had an uplifting effect, but his short-lived frustration actually faded away.
“You’re really good at comforting people.” Mu Sichen smiled, “But could you get off my head, your body is so icy, my head feels like it’s submerged in ice water, I have a bit of a headache.”
The octopus doll maintained its image, each tentacle very elegantly adhering to Mu Sichen’s hair as it slowly climbed down.
“One day at a time,” Mu Sichen rubbed his temples, “We’re going into the game tomorrow, so before worrying about the world, it’s better to care about ourselves first.”
He opened his cell phone and checked the group messages.
Chi Lian hadn’t been idle in the past few days, she had collected a lot of information about the game, she had even contacted Cheng Xubo through the forums, and had also built a small group, sharing new information in it every day.
Chi Lian found out that it wasn’t only eight people who entered the game with them that day, in addition to the four players who died, the three of them and the one who used the self sticker but didn’t rendezvous with Mu Sichen, Chi Lian also found three players who claimed to have received invitations to the internal test.
They also passed away.
Unlike the player who died suddenly, these three had choked to death on their meals, fell on their own while walking down the road and passed away when the back of their heads accidentally bumped into a sharp rock, and were also struck by lightning while standing underneath a utility pole on a rainy day.
The reason why she was able to find out about these three people was that Chi Lian was looking for people who died suddenly when they quit the game on various forums, bars, and other websites.
Since these three people died in such a peculiar way that they were posted on the internet, after confirming the time of death, Chi Lian contacted their friends and family and inquired about the game they liked to play, and also asked about the name of the game, My Ideal Town.
Among these three people, one of them was a foreigner, and she found him on the Internet.
In addition, she also found a few people who claimed to have received invitations to the beta test through the game forums, and wrote to them privately. Unfortunately, just like the forums, the warning statements that were sent out would all turn out to be touting of the game.
Chi Lian wasn’t discouraged, she was very action-oriented. She sent the information of these people to Cheng Xubo, who found out their IP addresses. Chi Lian chose a location closest to her and took the high-speed train to find it that day.
After meticulous investigation and analysis, Chi Lian found a player and wanted to remind the other party face to face.
However, whenever she tried to tell the truth, her throat felt like it was blocked, unable to make a sound, and there was no way to even write it down on paper.
The group of three of them could instead chat about game-related events, and Chi Lian sent screenshots of the group chat to the others, but the group chat would automatically turn into a blow-by-blow account of the game.
Within three days, Chi Lian had tried countless methods, but there was still no way to get the information out.
However, her ability to gather intelligence was very strong, and in just a few days, she investigated a lot of information.
Chi Lian: [I even used Morse code, but as soon as it was written down, the content of the code would change, all the ways I could try were tried.]
Cheng Xubo: [It feels like the three of us are trapped on an island, and tomorrow we’ll have to enter the game again, so desperate.]
Mu Sichen: [Maybe there are some things that are better if you don’t know them.]
Chi Lian: [Fear not, we have to be hopeful, maybe we’ll get through the game someday? We may not be able to win if we have hope, but we will definitely lose if we don’t have hope]
Chi Lian’s words inspired Mu Sichen, but the word “hope” also gave him a very subtle feeling.
The spiritual support he had found for the pillar was hope, and the system had also allowed him to establish Hope Town.
Chi Lian’s words were normal, and were the common phrases used by ordinary people to encourage their companions. But when combined with the game, it was a bit subtle.
Mu Sichen suspected that these two were still being influenced by the system and held the emotion of faith in him, not just teammate love.
Mu Sichen thought for a moment, turned back and took a picture of an octopus doll, sent it to the group, and asked: [What do you guys feel when you see this doll?]
Chi Lian: [So ugly, not as good looking as you.]
Cheng Xubo: [It looks bad, not as affectionate as you.]
Mu Sichen: “……”
It was delightful that these two weren’t affected by the octopus doll’s sanity, but why were they coincidentally comparing the octopus doll to him?
Could people and octopus dolls be analogized?
And the octopus doll was very nice and cute ah, Mu Sichen turned back and looked at the octopus doll again, it was secretly putting its tentacles in Mu Sichen’s newly purchased coconut to drink coconut juice, spitting out white bubbles, the room was filled with the sweet fragrance of coconut.
Mu Sichen looks at his phone again.
Chi Lian: [I deleted the picture, oh my god, it was so hard, looking at the picture was like betraying our squad].
Cheng Xubo: [Captain Mu, send more pictures of yourself, otherwise it’s a bit difficult for me.]
Mu Sichen: “……”
These two people, it couldn’t be that the octopus doll’s photo appealed to them, causing their beliefs to be shaken, and that was why they became antagonistic, thus hating the octopus doll, right?
“I’ll send you back tomorrow.” Mu Sichen said firmly.
The juice-drinking octopus doll’s body stiffened, looking kinda reluctant.
So cute! Thank you for the chapter!