Mu Sichen didn’t enter the game pod inside the hotel.
In case he didn’t come back this time, a sudden sudden death of a customer inside the hotel would have an impact on the hotel’s business for some time.
He took advantage of He Fei’s time at work and quietly sent his suitcase back to the dormitory, stuffed the octopus doll into his backpack and left the dormitory.
He also didn’t want to enter the game in the dormitory.
Mu Sichen had submitted an application to stay at the school during his vacation, and if something happened, the teachers and housemasters who approved him to stay at the dormitory would all be disciplined, and it would also have a certain impact on the school.
He didn’t like to cause trouble for others.
So Mu Sichen carried his backpack to the vicinity of an artificial lake and sat down on a chair near the lake.
If he couldn’t come back, the reason the system arranged for him should be drowning, this was the way Mu Sichen thought of to minimize the impact.
There were still five minutes left, Mu Sichen held the backpack in front of his chest, pulling the zipper, exposing the octopus doll’s head.
In addition to the octopus doll, there was also some food in the backpack.
Obviously, he was going to go on an adventure to a different world, where he didn’t know the life and death of the people, but he wanted to pack snacks such as coke and spicy strips in his backpack.
When Mu Sichen packed his luggage, he saw the octopus doll lying motionless on the snacks, when he picked up a bottle of coke and stuffed it into the luggage, the octopus doll’s tentacles gently wrapped around another bottle of coke.
Mu Sichen saw this, and picked up the bottle of Coke that was wrapped around the octopus doll.
He thought there would be a tug-of-wa.r, and the doll would hold on to the coke, not letting him take it away.
But he didn’t encounter any resistance and easily picked up the coke, the octopus’s tentacles just rested softly on the coke bottle without exerting any force.
“Don’t you like coke? Why don’t you stop me?” Mu Sichen asked.
The octopus doll didn’t respond.
But Mu Sichen had already guessed why.
Qin Zu was an “absolutely rational person”, even though he liked these snacks, when faced with a choice, reason would prevail.
It wasn’t an unreasonable octopus doll.
However, precisely because the octopus doll didn’t fight, didn’t grab and didn’t make trouble, Mu Sichen actually brought many snacks that the dolls liked.
The snacks may not be able to follow Mu Sichen into the other world, he also didn’t need to bring such a pocket of heavy things, since he didn’t want to eat these things, why did he bring them?
The reason was simple, Mu Sichen wanted to verify if he was being too sensible.
He recently felt that his situation was a bit dangerous, he knew that the octopus doll was Qin Zu’s doppelganger, and his five senses might even be connected to Qin Zu.
But Mu Sichen still couldn’t help but feel that the octopus doll was cute. He liked to take advantage of the doll’s inattention to touch the octopus’s head and pinch its tentacles. When he went to bed at night, he deliberately woke up the octopus just to see the octopus doll’s suppressed and frustrated appearance, both angry and overly rational.
Mu Sichen suspected that he was also mentally contaminated by Qin Zu, otherwise how could he find an Evil god’s puppet cute?
For this reason, Mu Sichen wanted to try to see if he would do something that was not rational enough as a way to verify if he was polluted.
However, the truth was that he did some meaningless things and brought along some snacks, and not only did he not feel remorse in his heart, but on the contrary, he was a bit happy.
He hadn’t been contaminated by Qin Zu.
That was even stranger, since he hadn’t been contaminated, why did he find this thing cute? He even thought that the next time he returned to reality, the octopus doll would definitely stay in the other world, so he would order a doll of the same type.
After analyzing for a long time, Mu Sichen concluded that he was too lonely.
His parents died, his relatives became estranged, and he was on good terms with his roommates, but he didn’t befriend anyone.
Suddenly encountering the event of traveling through a different world, which was extremely terrifying and could potentially lead to death at any moment, anyone would want to confide in something.
Like Chi Lian and Cheng Xubo, despite being thousands of miles away and both having jobs, they took time off work to meet, and reportedly hugged and cried for a long time.
Mu Sichen understood them.
The previous experience had upended their three views and shattered their peaceful lives. And the experience wouldn’t end, they had to be forced to travel to that world again and again, risking death every time.
Anyone would want someone to confide.
But Mu Sichen was an unwilling confidant, and he didn’t want to meet the two in reality and disrupt his routine life.
He chose to bear this great pressure alone, but it didn’t mean he didn’t have a desire to talk, it didn’t mean he wasn’t lonely.
It just so happened that the octopus doll was by his side at this time.
Although the octopus doll seldom gave him a response, it knew everything that was happening over there, and appeared so harmless, and would steal food, which made Mu Sichen put some of his emotions on the octopus doll.
He knew that this was nothing more than an emotional attachment created by the drawbridge effect, and that he was projecting his emotions onto the octopus doll, not Qin Zu.
He separated the two clearly.
Mu Sichen poked the octopus doll’s head and laughed somewhat despondently, “When we travel to Tongzhi Town, you’ll turn back into a totem on my chest, right?”
The octopus doll looked at him with big eyes.
“It’s the last time we’ll meet.” Mu Sichen rubbed its head.
He hoped that he would survive, that Qin Zu could get what He wanted, and that there would be no conflict between him and Qin Zu.
After all, he got along quite well with the octopus doll, and didn’t want his relationship with Qin Zu to be too stiff.
Mu Sichen made three wishes in a row in his heart, but didn’t declare them.
Once the appointed time arrived, he picked up his heavy backpack and clicked on the game pod app on time to enter the game.
The process of traveling through was much smoother than the first time, the first time Mu Sichen was dizzy and nauseous, creating a feeling of discomfort much stronger than seasickness.
This time, however, it seemed like he just stood still for a while before appearing in the lobby of the first floor of the sanatorium.
The last time he got offline at the safe house, this time he also logged into the game at the safe house.
It seemed that logging in and out operations could only be performed in the safe house.
[Welcome player back to the game.]
The system prompt rang in his ears.
“System, do you really think we’re in the game?” Mu Sichen said.
The system didn’t say anything.
Entering the sanatorium at the same time as Mu Sichen were Chi Lian and Cheng Xubo.
“Captain Mu!” Chi Lian’s eyes lit up when she saw Mu Sichen, the light of seeing an idol appeared in her eyes, and she rushed to Mu Sichen like an arrow.
Cheng Xubo’s expression was a bit more introverted than Chi Lian’s, but he was also quite happy to see Mu Sichen, and he smiled implicitly.
Mu Sichen just nodded lightly.
He was more concerned about how much time had passed in the other world, whether it was like the real world that time didn’t pass; how the sanatorium that had become his pillar was now, the sanatorium was located in the town of the big-eye, whether it had been contaminated by the big-eye for the second time; and whether …… the octopus doll had returned to his chest.
Mu Sichen felt that his back was heavy, he reached out and touched it, the backpack was actually still there, not only that, but his pile of snacks had also followed him.
He opened his backpack to see that the octopus doll’s tentacles were attached to a bottle of coke, and the coke was already half gone.
Qin Zu’s totem didn’t return to his chest.
Mu Sichen felt puzzled and troubled, but a little happy.
Doubtful as to why the doll didn’t change back, it would be troublesome to have to run around with such a thing on his back, as for what he was happy about, Mu Sichen didn’t know.
Mu Sichen held up the doll’s tentacles and looked at them, seeing that countless small thorns were born on the suction cups.
It was these small thorns, small thorns that pierced through the coke bottle, allowing the doll to drink coke outside the coke bottle.
When in the real world, there were no little spines on the suckers. After entering the game, there seemed to be some changes on the octopus doll.
Mu Sichen reached out and poked the octopus head and tentacles, fortunately, the bouncy feeling was still there, the suckers were just long thorns, the octopus had gotten stronger, it wasn’t a big deal.
“Drink it all if you want, don’t spill the coke in my backpack.” Mu Sichen reminded.
The octopus doll blinked.
“And no spitting bubbles in my bag.” Mu Sichen said.
The octopus doll blinked again.
Mu Sichen just assumed it agreed.
At this time, Chi Lian and Cheng Xubo came over, they curiously looked at the backpack, and when they saw the octopus doll, they immediately revealed an unbearable look.
Chi Lian quickly covered her eyes and turned her head, saying uncomfortably, “I saw something dirty!”
Cheng Xubo also turned his face away and said, “It’s too ugly, even uglier than the Feathered Eye Familiar!”
Mu Sichen expressionlessly pulled on his backpack and said to the two, “Don’t waste time, let’s go see what the sanatorium has become, and if it’s still dangerous.”
“Definitely not dangerous!” Chi Lian immediately said, “As soon as I entered here, I felt that the air became fresh, our world is good, but it’s just that the environment is a bit polluted, too much smoke and haze.”
Cheng Xubo touched the few hairs on top of his head, “This place really has the feeling of a sanatorium, it seems like if I stay here for a while longer, my hair can grow quite a bit.”
The two were filled with a sense of happiness, looking at their expressions as if they wanted to stay here and not leave. If it weren’t for the danger in this world, they might not even want to go back to the real world.
However, Mu Sichen felt different from the two of them. He stayed in the sanatorium and felt his shoulders heavy, not because there were too many snacks in his backpack, but an invisible pressure.
As if he was carrying the entire sanatorium, there was a feeling of suffocation.
One after another, some people walked through the hall on the first floor, they included volunteers who were born with some deformities, patients and family members who looked normal, and doctors and nurses wearing white coats.
All of them had happy smiles on their faces and looked energetic.
When a volunteer with eyes growing on his face saw Mu Sichen, he happily pounced over and said, “Director, it’s been a long time.”
“Director?” Mu Sichen looked at him in confusion.
“Yeah, it’s been three days since we last said goodbye.” The volunteer said, “We all missed and were worried about you, seeing you today is a relief.”
Three days …… The three players looked at each other.
After they left, the passage of time in the game was actually about the same as the real world. While they were in the game, time in the real world would not pass.
Why was the time in the two worlds so unequal?
“How are you guys doing?” Mu Sichen suppressed the doubt in his heart and asked.
“Having a good time, we’re happy, rich, and hopeful at heart.” The volunteer crossed his arms over his chest, looking peaceful.
“Yeah, when you guys are happy, we’re happy.” Chi Lian didn’t mind that the volunteer was born deformed, and went up to him and shook his hand warmly, with an attitude as cordial as if she had seen a relative.
This was very wrong.
Mu Sichen continued to ask, “Did the pupil of the sky hurt you guys when ‘Daylight’ descended?”
The volunteers had only changed their beliefs, but had not lost their memory, so they naturally knew the meaning of “Daylight” and “Pupil of the Sky”.
“There were a couple of earthquakes during the ‘daylight,'” the volunteer replied, “but they were very small, and when we all got together and worked together and prayed to the director with hope, the earthquakes passed, it was the director who watched over us.”
Mu Sichen: “……”
No, he, the director, didn’t answer everyone’s prayers, he didn’t even hear these people’s prayers, he was probably secretly squeezing the octopus doll’s tentacles at that time.
“Yeah! All problems will be solved if you have hope in your heart!” Chi Lian resonated greatly with the volunteer, and the two were so close that they were on the verge of hugging.
Seeing the two of them being close, Mu Sichen only felt creeped out.
This was the pillar he had built, these were the people within his domain, Chi Lian and Cheng Xubo were his believers.
If the people who believed in him turned out to be like this, what was the difference between what he had given and spiritual pollution? What was the difference between him and Big Eye and Qin Zu?
Was he going to become an evil god as well?
Mu Sichen finally understood where that suffocating feeling came from after entering the sanatorium.
It came from the believers’ expectations.
He was not a god, all he could do was to help the crowd to get rid of Big Eye’s mind control, recognize themselves, and return to their true hearts, he couldn’t carry so many expectations.
Mu Sichen suddenly remembered the My Ideal Town test game he initially played.
The very beginning was him defeating zombies, and the second half of the game was him rebuilding a house and planting plants to build a home.
Mu Sichen felt as if he understood the meaning of the test game.
Taking over the domain from the zombies, i.e., the god-level monsters, but that wasn’t the end.
One also had to help the townspeople rebuild their homes.
This was not a simple infrastructure game, but a remodeling from the heart.
When Mu Sichen thought of this, the system also popped up a prompt at the right time.
[Players are invited to formulate a true town system to help the townspeople address their needs in life and establish psychological independence].
As expected.
Mu Sichen had a vague feeling that if he continued to let the townspeople and Chi Lian and Cheng Xubo go on like this, sooner or later he would be overwhelmed by this heavenly pressure and turn into the same monster as the Big Eye and Qin Zu.
While they at least had strength to back them up, Mu Sichen was just an ordinary person and definitely couldn’t withstand such a terrible mental burden.
The mental pressure brought to him by the townspeople was no lighter than the Big Eye’s mental pollution.
I wonder what their mission will be this time?