ebookland Chapter 227 Watchdog
Chapter 227 Watchdog
Upon hearing Qin Ke say that she had never left her crib before the age of three, Yan Xun's first reaction was that the other person was not in good health when she was young.
But soon he realized that it shouldn't be like that.
He couldn't help but think of a tragedy that happened in the 20th century, where an orphanage once housed countless orphans.
"Of course there are others?" Yan Xun thought for a moment. "I mean, other children?"
Upon hearing this, Qin Ke gave a strange smile. "It seems you've heard of similar things."
“Yes, a lot,” Qin Ke said. “Because there are so many, we have to share a crib. Most of the time, no one will hug us, and we can only sit in the crib and stare blankly.”
"But this part of my memory may not be accurate. I just read materials after I grew up and guessed what happened to me at that time."
Qin Ke said he looked at the priests and nuns who represented the fear in his heart.
"It is interesting."
"I thought I wasn't afraid of them."
Yan Xun understood what Qin Ke meant. He thought he wasn't afraid of these things, but the nightmare still sensed his fear and recreated the appearances of the priests and nuns in his memory in the most realistic way.
“When I saw these things, I knew I was dreaming,” Qin Ke said. “I was sure they were all dead.”
He pointed out that they were in a dream.
He then examined the underground structure they were in. "Is this something you imagined?"
"You grew up here?"
Yan Xun ignored him and simply sat down on a boulder lying nearby. "Promise me you won't overthink things right now."
He was afraid that the nun had just disappeared, and then some new monsters would appear.
Qin Ke completely disregarded Yan Xun's attitude and came to the boulder where Yan Xun was sitting. He then looked curiously at the pillars supporting the underground structure and asked, "Didn't you encounter anyone else?"
“Unfortunately, it’s only you,” Yan Xun said.
He paused for a moment and then said, "Perhaps the others haven't realized yet that this is a dream."
He was able to meet Qin Ke because Qin Ke also discovered that everything here appeared based on her own memories and subconscious thoughts.
The source of fear comes from past memories.
What appears in the future comes from their subconscious thoughts.
"Should we wait for them?" Qin Ke asked, looking around. "It seems you haven't found Blue Gold yet."
Yan Xun bent his knees, resting his face on them without saying a word.
Yan Xun hadn't yet determined what the hidden conditions were for the system to determine if they would complete the Blue-Gold mission—
Is it to find the blue gold? Acquire the blue gold? Or steal the blue gold from someone else?
The hidden quest was vague, and the old man's words couldn't be entirely trusted. He worried that if they rashly left the dream, the nightmare inside the ice wall would suddenly awaken... and they didn't know if they could leave the instance alive then.
"Is Blue Gold really the blood flowing from that thing inside the ice wall?" Yan Xun suddenly asked.
He looked at Qin Ke, "If what's inside the ice wall is a nightmare, is its power really that great?"
Qin Ke sat on the boulder, looking with interest at the cucumber-flavored potato chips in Yan Xun's hand. He felt he roughly understood how Yan Xun had discovered it was a dream. Hearing Yan Xun's question, he thought for a moment, "Are you trying to gather information from me?"
As soon as Qin Ke said this, Yan Xun knew that the other party knew what Blue Gold was.
That's true. If Qin Ke could understand the contents of the letter directly, it's normal for the Angel Guild to know the specific information about Blue Gold.
"Didn't I share information before?" Yan Xun didn't answer, but asked in return, "I just want to know what Blue Gold is, it won't involve any secrets."
"It's blood." Qin Ke said succinctly, but seeing that Yan Xun looked like he was about to explode, he added, "It's not the blood of that thing inside the ice wall."
"It just got lucky, it happened to be near this blood."
"You can think of it as..." Qin Ke thought of a metaphor, "...a watchdog?"
Qin Ke made a licking motion.
“It just so happened to land near this blood and get it, but it couldn’t digest so much stuff for the time being,” Qin Ke said. “What it has already eaten is enough for it to digest for a long time.”
That's why the things inside the ice wall fell into a deep sleep.
Yan Xun pondered Qin Ke's meaning for a moment, "Did you get dizzy from being so full?"
“You could also say it’s dozing off or sleepy,” Qin Ke added.
"But Grandpa said...?" What Yan Xun wanted to ask was that Grandpa had said that the thing was the blood flowing from the monster inside the ice wall... Although he had already suspected this after learning that what was inside the ice wall was something similar to a nightmare.
It's not that nightmares can't bleed; maybe in this world's setting, it is.
But Yan Xun thought it was unlikely that the blood of nightmares could grant immortality or even bring the dead back to life.
It was at that moment that Yan Xun suddenly understood what the old man had been using to entice Wen Yuanzheng.
"...the possibility of becoming a god," Yan Xun said.
"That's exactly how Wen Yuan was deceived."
If blood alone could grant immortality or even bring the dead back to life, that would be considered divine.
The only reason that could make Wen Yuanzheng instantly forget his previous stance and his suspicions about the old man, and immediately choose to cooperate, is that the temptation offered by the other party was great enough.
“Nightmare can fall into a deep sleep after drinking this blood,” Yan Xun said. “If an ordinary person drinks it, they will definitely become a god.”
The problem is, even the Nightmare's enormous body struggles to digest something, so how can an ordinary human survive after drinking it?
“Wen Yuanzheng will die,” Yan Xun said.
Qin Ke didn't understand why he would say something so obvious.
Immediately afterwards, Yan Xun asked him another question.
"Is this blood related to the one you believe in?"
Qin Ke made a praying gesture. "Aren't you worried that the madman will go insane right now?"
Yan Xun thought to himself that he had met White and knew that the people in the Angel Guild were not very bright—this was not a harsh assessment, but an objective evaluation—they had probably been corrupted when they first came to believe in angels.
But after Qin Ke realized that he knew his identity, he did not immediately reveal his disguise. Even now, whenever the two of them are together, the other party still maintains his disguised appearance.
That's why he wanted to test the waters.
"Would you like to hear the official version, or my own judgment?" Qin Ke asked.
"Is this some kind of inside information?" Yan Xun wondered, but he still spoke honestly, "You two tell me, and I'll make the judgment."
Qin Ke didn't seem surprised by his answer, and he didn't keep him in suspense any longer.
"The official explanation is... that person was seriously injured, and their blood splattered on the ground, forming blue gold. My mission is to retrieve this scattered blue gold."
Qin Ke seemed to find this statement interesting. He pondered his statement for a moment, then laughed, "But my judgment is that half of it is a lie."
"It is true that he was seriously injured."
"But the scattered blood is not His."
"That person wants this blood simply to replenish their strength."
Qin Ke spoke boldly, showing no respect for the angel whatsoever. "It's just like a nightmare," he commented. "They all just want to get this blood."
"It's just that Nightmare is much faster than Him."
"And according to the rules of the instance, Nightmare can freely enter and exit these areas, but that one cannot."
Yan Xun pondered Qin Ke's meaning for a moment, "That person is unable to enter the instance?"
“These copies are like balloons,” Qin Ke said. “Normally, we inflate them to this size.” He gestured to indicate the size of a soccer ball.
"This is the most suitable state, allowing players and NPCs to complete tasks together in this instance."
“But those things outside are like alien creatures.” He pointed at Yan Xun. “You think this is great, so you want to get into this balloon.”
Do you think it's possible?
Yan Xun shook his head. That was obviously impossible; his size would only burst the balloon.
"The same is true for those beings; they can only watch from the outside, but cannot come in."
"There are only two possibilities if you want to get in."
"First, He was very weak, and His strength and body shrank until He became the size of a thumb, so He was able to enter these balloons."
"Second, He gave a wisp of his consciousness to something inside the balloon, such as a player after forming a bond, so that He could also briefly enter these balloons."
"But the latter is extremely harmful to players who have formed bonds with them. Unless they don't care about the players they have formed bonds with and only treat them as disposable tools, they will not descend frequently."
Yan Xun understood the second scenario that Qin Ke had mentioned.
For example, when Sun Yue left the Wusheng Village instance, she prayed for the witch to descend. Even though the witch only descended for less than a minute, it caused great damage to Sun Yue's body, causing her to fall into a coma for a period of time.
Most of the time, players who form a bond simply borrow the power of the protective aura rather than choosing to descend directly.
As for the first situation mentioned by Qin Ke, it is somewhat similar to Jia Ye's.
After the opponent was downgraded, their power shrank significantly. To use Qin Ke's analogy, it was like their body rapidly shrinking, which is why Jia Ye was able to stay inside the balloon (the instance).
Looking at it this way, Yan Xun couldn't help but think how useless the system was.
It's one thing if we can't withstand that powerful, mysterious being.
Even ghosts and nightmares can give the main system a headache. In the end, can the main system only bully lonely ghosts and lone wolves like himself?
When Yan Xun was internally complaining, he made no attempt to hide it from the system, and both sides heard it clearly:
system:【……】
Main system: [...]
The green dinosaur wanted to argue, but felt it was too weak and pointless, so it could only shut up.
"Are there no other possibilities besides these two?" Yan Xun asked again.
He thought of Gui Yuchong, and the "fragments" he kept collecting... Although the system was still being secretive, Yan Xun had already discovered that the so-called soul fragments were most likely the parts he had collected.
Qin Ke pondered Yan Xun's meaning, "Which possibility are you referring to?"
"For example, after breaking into pieces, they could be scattered across various instances?"
Yan Xun said, "Today I lost my hair in the dungeon, tomorrow I'll lose my skeleton."
"Because it has been divided into many parts and its power has been greatly weakened, the dungeon will not reject the entry of these things."
Yan Xun observed Qin Ke's expression and saw that the other party looked surprised, as if he really hadn't thought of this possibility.
"...I've never heard of such a thing," Qin Ke said.
But he stopped halfway through his sentence, saying, "But what you're guessing isn't impossible either."
"The copy theory only excludes things that are too powerful; they will burst the balloon."
"But if it's broken into many pieces, it seems there really isn't this problem."
As Qin Ke continued talking, she became curious again, "How did you come up with this idea?"
"You've seen something similar."
"More or less," Yan Xun said vaguely. "In the dungeon, I saw a skeleton. This skeleton transformed into a human form, but there were patterns on its back that I couldn't understand."
"I looked it up later and it said that it was some kind of séance text."
"The one in the garden was once severely injured by something," Qin Ke suddenly said. "Could Blue Gold also be one of those parts you mentioned that were scattered throughout the instance?"
This is also what Yan Xun wants to know.
He was still somewhat wary of Qin Ke, but he could also sense that the other person was different from the others in the Angel Guild.
If I had to say something, it would be that he wasn't that devout.
“I’ve met White before.” Yan Xun bluntly stated that he had met members of the Angel Guild before. “You’re not quite the same as him.”
Qin Ke was amused by this remark.
Yan Xun: ? Such an unpredictable person when it comes to humor.
"Your pickup line sounds like a really old-fashioned one," Qin Ke said.
Yan Xun: "..."
"I'll strangle you." He made a move to strangle Qin Ke, but Qin Ke interrupted him with a smile.
"Of course I'm different from him."
Qin Ke began, “White and his men are all firmly believers in the one in the garden.”
"Aren't you the same?"
"You asked that because you know I'm different, didn't you?" Qin Ke retorted.
Yan Xun naturally noticed that Qin Ke's attitude towards that angel was subtle; he was less a devout believer and more like an employee who was paid to do things.
If the other party is willing to share their power with him, he is willing to pretend to believe in angels.
"Aren't you afraid of being discovered?" Yan Xun glanced at the space they were in. "Could it be that He can't hear you?"
"He was too badly injured to leave the Garden of Bones." Qin Ke generously revealed the information. From the moment he stepped onto the ice cap, all the players' live streams were forced to shut down, so he wasn't worried that these conversations would be leaked through Yan Xun's live stream.
"We are currently in a dream."
“This thing.” He kicked the boulder. Yan Xun knew that Qin Ke was referring to the Nightmare. “After absorbing that blood, it became much stronger. In addition, since we are in a dream and there is the obstacle of the dungeon, it cannot easily lock our conversation.”
In short, nightmares are the first layer of protection, dreams are the second, and dungeons are the third.
That's why Qin Ke was able to talk directly with Yan Xun about the one in the Garden of Bones without any reservations.
"He brought me to this instance, both to deal with the traitors and to obtain blue gold to heal my wounds."