Chapter 26 The Bird in the Cage

After lying down, An Wu Jiu calmly put down the hand holding the clothes on his chest, enduring the pain in his heart, pretending that nothing happened.

It is not a rational thing to think about exposing the weak in front of the other party.

But Shen Ti didn't look so rational, and his every move was very emotional. Do whatever you want, no matter how strange it is.

For example, now, he is lying on his side beside An Wu Jiu, looking straight at his profile from an almost negligible distance.

An Wu Jiu's vigilance can naturally feel this intense and direct gaze, like a leopard locking on its prey.

Just as he was about to ask him why he was staring at him, Shen Ti was the first to speak.

"Your profile looks like..."

He paused for two seconds and seemed to be thinking about adjectives, making An Wujiao a little curious.

"Very accurate."

Accurate, what does this describe?

"Why?" An Wu Jiu turned his head, no longer looking at the "ceiling" of the container, but Shen Ti's face. He spoke in a low voice because he remembered Zhong Yirou's exhortation.

As soon as he turned his face, Shen Ti even added, "The front face is also."

Shen Ti's expression was a bit like a child's, he answered An Wujiu's last question, "I just feel...it's a face that is very suitable to be modeled as a representative of human appearance."

After he finished speaking, he added, "If only one human could be chosen."

These words sounded so strange that An Wujiu didn't immediately feel the huge compliment meaning in it.

What he cared about was why Shen Ti seemed to set himself up as a bystander who was different from humans.

But there was one thing he recognized, so he said to Shen Ti very directly: "You give me a feeling of...not my race."

If the dialogue between the two is replaced by another person, it will be difficult for them to proceed smoothly.

Shen Ti listened, the corners of his mouth raised, and he gave a unique understanding of An Wujiu's evaluation.

"That means you think I'm special."

Seeing him so confident, An Wujiu didn't know how to react, so he said vaguely, "Maybe."

"I see your face, and it seems that I can directly see what you looked like when you were a child." Shen Ti returned to the "accurate" discussion again, "The one that is scaled down."

An Wujiu closed his eyes, "I almost don't remember what I looked like when I was a child." He only knew that in the dream, he looked very thin and his face was blurred.

"It's pretty." Shen Ti gave the answer he thought to himself, as if he had really seen him when he was a child.

For some reason, because of Shen Ti's few words, An Wujiu's heartache seemed to gradually subside, but some unnamed emotion came up little by little and drowned him.

He raised his hand and covered his face.

As a result, Shen Ti's observation object was forced to become An Wujiu's hand.

The fingers were long and thin, as white as snow, but the raised veins gave a subtle sense of strength.

There is also a number on the back of the hand - 99.

"This number is also tattooed by you?"

Hearing Shen Ti's voice again, An Wu Jiu put down his hands and shook his head.

"No, it only appeared after entering the game."

After speaking, he turned his head to look at Shen Ti, "Don't you have it?"

Shen Ti shook his head gently, he thought of something, so he said, "But I have met other people in the game, and they also have numbers on them, but not 99."

An Wu Jiu thought for a while, "Maybe it was made by the altar." But he hasn't figured out the purpose yet.

They were just competitors who participated in the same round of the game. It is reasonable to say that the conversation should be polite and superficial, but perhaps because Shen Ti's weirdness was too different, he seemed unable to treat Shen Ti as an ordinary person.

Even if he had persuaded himself, these performances might be a hoax carefully designed by Shen Ti.

"Why did you enter the altar?" An Wujiu still asked a deeper question.

But after he asked, he regretted it and felt that he was crossing the line. Because this is very similar to the question he asked Shen Ti after he just left the game factory.

He probably didn't want to answer such a private question yet.

It was not comfortable to maintain one movement for a long time, Shen Ti moved a bit, his head accidentally touched An Wu Jiu's head, and then he just pressed it and didn't move it away.

"I said, I really want to die." He repeated what he said before, but also gave more, "Well... in my impression, from birth to entering the altar, I seem to be repeating one thing all the time, and it is A very painful thing."

But perhaps because of the brain's self-protection mechanism, he couldn't remember what was going on.

"I had no way of getting out of it, I was looking for a meaningful, way to die."

An Wujiu listened, a very mythical story popped up in his mind.

Sisyphus, who offended the wrath of the people, was punished by the gods by pushing a boulder to the top of the mountain, and when he really reached the top of the mountain, he would fall again. So he repeated this work again, pushing the boulder to the top of the mountain, over and over again, with endless use.

An Wujiu looked at him.

"Maybe death isn't relief."

Shen Ti also turned his face sideways and looked into his eyes.

"What is that?"

An Wu Jiu's face showed a firm and serene look.

"Find the meaning of living."

At night the temperature drops and the air becomes very cold.

But for the first time Shen Ti felt the warmth of non-physical meaning, which made him have a great sense of weirdness.

So that all night, he didn't sleep well, closed his eyes and listened to An Wu Jiu's even and small breathing sound intermittently.

This never-before-seen peace lasted until morning, when he got up when the sky was light, he sat on the ground again, laying on the bed with his arms folded, staring at An Wujiu, quietly looking at his profile, his slightly undulating chest , then extend your index finger.

Hold down the ends of An Wu Jiu's long hair scattered on the bed, and release it before he notices it.

The boring and fulfilling morning activities lasted for half an hour, An Wu Jiu also woke up.

When he wakes up, he always looks dazed, and he can stay alone for a long time with his hair buried, like a mushroom.

Until Zhong Yirou's voice penetrated the iron wall of the container.

"Going to go!"

So the four of them once again embarked on a journey back to the altar.

This time their mood became more complicated. On the aircraft, Wu You kept looking at the rearview mirror, but didn't speak.

He is a little boy who doesn't like to talk.

After parking the aircraft in the game factory, he followed his brothers and sisters without saying a word until everyone selected a random game cabin and was ready to step in.

Zhong Yirou said a lot, probably to wish everyone good luck, before going in, she helped An Wujiu tie up her hair and tied it high behind her head.

And Wu You said a second before closing the glass hatch, "You will all survive, right?"

The robotic arm in the game cabin appeared, and inserted the feeding tubes into An Wu Jiao's arm, his eyes turned to Wu You next door.

"I'll try my best, and so will you."

Shen Ti couldn't understand the desire to survive, but nodded anyway.

"Of course!" Zhong Yirou shouted, "I'll make roast chicken for everyone next time!"

Wu You pursed her lips, "Then... no need."

Unlike before entering the game without knowing anything, this time An Wu Jiu smiled slightly, prepared and made a promise with others.

In a kind state, he is the complete opposite of Shen Ti. He is a person who can easily establish emotional relationships with others. He has strong empathy, sympathy for others, and is willing to reach out to help others.

So the people around you are easily affected.

A familiar voice came from the game cabin.

"The database interface is connected."

The moment he heard the holy voice, An Wu Jiu felt that a beautiful dream was shattering.

Their peace was just hitting the pause button.

"Loading surviving data."

"Loading"

"The environment configuration is successful, the variables are initialized-"

"Welcome back."

He was briefly blind and deaf, as if falling into a peaceful pure white.

"Loading warm-up game configuration."

In an instant, countless blue light particles appeared in the field of vision, and these tiny particles gradually gathered to model a dark space.

Different from the rooftop of the building in the last warm-up match, this time they came to a dimly lit hall, and the only light source was the overhead light shot from the dome in the center of the hall.

Soon, a huge birdcage appeared under the ceiling light, and a cylindrical low platform was placed on the outer edge of the birdcage. An Wu Jiu paid attention to the number, there were six in total.

There is another one in the center of the bird cage.

seven people?

Just as he was about to turn his head, he felt a light tap on his right shoulder, and turned his head to the right. There was no one there, but a voice came from the left.

"What a coincidence."

It's Shen Ti.

Such a childish trick.

An Wu Jiu turned his face to look at him, Shen Ti had a lollipop in his mouth, his cheeks were puffed out, he said vaguely

: "We are competitors again."

An Wujiu nodded, "Is this not common?"

Shen Ti thought for a while seriously, "Maybe there are, but I can't remember their faces."

The holy voice appeared again, "Welcome all players."

"You are all survivors of the last round of the game. You came here after a desperate fight. There is no need to say much about the rules of the warm-up game."

For some unknown reason, An Wujiu felt that the Holy Voice this time seemed to be more human.

Maybe it was because the last time someone tried to escape, it was bloody from the start.

Soon, he saw a familiar figure from the black shadow on the opposite side, wearing high heels.

"Yirou is also there."

"Yi Rou?" Shen Ti repeated this sentence, but not in a questioning tone, but more like he was surprised by An Wujiu's intimate name because she dropped her surname.

An Wujiu would be wrong, he pointed to the opposite side, Zhong Yirou also saw them and waved his hand gracefully.

Shengyin started the introduction.

"There are seven players in this round of the game. Please come to the center of the hall and familiarize yourself with each other's names."

According to the regulations, An Wu Jiu and Shen Ti walked towards the center of the hall, his eyes looked around, and he was surprised to find that Wu You was also there.

Wu You was very calm, even though he was surprised by their reunion.

On the one hand, An Wujiu felt happy because there were people he knew well, on the other hand, he was uneasy because they became competitors again.

An Wu Jiu noticed that there was a tall and tall young woman standing directly opposite him, with a low ponytail tied behind her head, her silhouette was three-dimensional and with the softness of an oriental face, she was probably of Russian descent, but there was a kind of strangeness. the feeling of going in.

She wore black suit pants and a neat white shirt, buttoned to the top, like a professional woman or a scientific researcher.

But An Wujiu denied his conjecture.

How do researchers come here?

In front of her is the name of the holographic projection.

[Yang Erci]

It sounds like a very Chinese name, but it really is a mixed race.

He turned his gaze to the other side, and beside Yang Erci, he saw an adult man, tall, with a ball-shaped head on his head, wearing a blue-gray robe-like dress.

"Taoist?" He couldn't help but whisper, this was a character he had only seen in the book.

Shen Ti also looked over, "What is a Taoist priest..."

He only saw that the Taoist priest was a good-looking, bookish little white face.

But there was a mole at the corner of his eye, Shen Ti shook his head affectionately for An Wujiu.

It's not fair to look at.

It seems that he heard An Wu Jiu's voice, the Taoist priest diagonally opposite him bowed his hands.

His name is [Nanshan].

An Wu Jiu also nodded towards him as a courtesy, then looked at Nan Shan's left hand side, there was a young boy with European appearance, he looked like he was older than Wu You, his face was pale and his head was slightly curly. Brown hair scattered across his cheeks.

His name is [Josh]

Josh, a common western name.

Counting the four of them who were already familiar, all of them came to the birdcage in the center of the hall and waited quietly.

"The name of the warm-up game is 'Cage Bird'." Shengyin said.

Soon, a faint nursery rhyme came from somewhere in the hall.

[The bird in the cage, the bird in the cage, the little bird in the cage, when will you come out and jump?

The night passed, the day dawned, and he fled with the cranes and tortoises. Guess who's making trouble behind you? ①]

In the empty and dark hall, the voice was particularly ethereal, echoing above the high dome. don't know if it was An Wujiu's delusion, he saw a child standing in the bird cage in a trance, covering his eyes with his hands and turning his back to them.

But in the blink of an eye, she disappeared again.

"Now announce the rules of the game, please pay attention to the players, no sound is allowed in the whole game."

Along with the nursery rhyme, Shengyin introduced: "As you can see now, there is a platform in the birdcage in front of you, and there are six platforms with numbers outside the birdcage, 1 to 6."

"At the very beginning of the game, a player needs to take the initiative to stand up as a caged bird, blindfolded, and stand on the platform in the cage.

Everyone can take the initiative to ask to be a caged bird. If multiple players stand up voluntarily, the system will randomly select one from the candidates.

If there is no caged bird in the first round, 5 points will be deducted from each player. "

"As the bird in the cage, on the premise of not seeing the situation outside the cage, call out an integer from 0 to 6, and the rest of the players stand on the platform outside the cage and move the corresponding number of times according to the number shouted by the bird in the cage in clockwise order. ."

"For example, it is initially located on platform 1, and the number of caged birds reported is 3, then move forward three squares clockwise to reach platform 4."

"After the move, the blindfolded caged bird stayed still and guessed who the 'bird catcher' was behind him."

"If the caged bird guesses correctly, the caged bird wins and gets 10 points.

If the bird in the cage guesses incorrectly, the bird catcher gets 5 points, and the rest of the outsiders get 3 points. A caged bird will be deducted 5 points. "

This is a blindfolded guessing game that can neither be heard nor touched.

"There are 4 rounds in the game. The bird catcher in the previous round automatically becomes the caged bird in the next round. After entering the cage and reporting the number, the people outside the cage will choose and stand on the platform outside the cage again according to their own will.

After 4 rounds of the game, the player with the most total points wins.

If there are multiple players with the highest score, a play-off will be played."

"If a player makes a sound during the game, or fails to move or leave the platform as required, it will be regarded as a foul and will be directly disqualified from the game."

"In a minute, the game starts."

The author has something to say:

Shen Ti: He is very special to me (surely)

An Wujiu: I feel like you just learned to be a human being a few days ago.

①It comes from a nursery rhyme game. The rules of the game are that a group of people form a circle. The person standing in the middle is regarded as a bird in a cage. The people in the circle sing the content of the nursery rhyme together. When the last word ends, the bird in the middle guesses who is behind it.Some adjustments have been made to the rules in this chapter, and the caged bird reporting and scoring rules are adopted.