Escape from the Madhouse [Unlimited]

Clouds and mists filled the top of the head, the valley was empty and silent, and there was no sound of birds and insects. The witch's base camp was in an exceptionally quiet paradise.

As far as the eye can see, there are row upon row of one-story houses, and the growth of vegetables and fruits is gratifying.

The witches who came and went to work abandoned all modern equipment, carried water on their shoulders, and went to work in the field by themselves, very busy.But they all seemed to feel that they were doing the right thing, so they all had joyful smiles on their faces.

What they have done is very consistent with the slogans posted here and there - "Technological development is the original sin", "Abandon technology and return to nature", "Stay away from electronic equipment and communicate with the world"...

Looking around, Zhou Qian looked at the cemetery in front of him again.

Soon he found the tombstone belonging to Lily.

According to her mother Eva, her favorite hairpin is buried under the tombstone.

While looking at the tombstone, Zhou Qian quickly ran through all of Eva's expressions in his mind.

He found that he couldn't find Eva's flaws.

When she was accused of being the murderer of her daughter, if Eva refuted, cried, and expressed her grief for her daughter's death, it might be wrong, maybe she had the emotion of acting in it.

Not so with Eva.While mourning, Eva showed proud eyes. She felt that she was expelling evil spirits, doing the right thing, and fulfilling her beliefs.

So, no matter what the truth of the story of this dungeon is, what Eva said is at least the facts and the truth in her eyes.

That is, within the scope of her cognition, she did not lie.

At this time, the diary written by Lili that he had read appeared before Zhou Qian's eyes.

A very important paragraph in the diary is the description of the fireworks at the music festival.

Lili mentioned that after the fireworks bloom, they fall like thousands of meteors.

Meteors have always been linked to wishes.So she made a wish, hoping it would come true.

In terms of logic and timeline, this diary must have been written after she returned from the music festival.

On this basis, the tone and tone of everything in the diary is indeed as if Lili wrote it herself.

Before the music, she recorded trivial daily life and occasionally complained about her studies; after the music festival, she became more and more angry.Judging from the whole diary, the words, grammar, etc. are all Lili's own habits.

Even Lili hated her mother later, and wrote something on the back of the photo that she wanted to report her, which is completely logical.

She grew up in a small town where everyone hated witches. After being imprisoned by the witch mother for a long time, she couldn't escape no matter what. When she collapsed, the sentences that kept coming to her mind were all "witches are evil". , They should all be burned to death" such words...

Therefore, maybe she used to be very well-behaved and loved her mother very much, but after being imprisoned, even after being treated as an "evil spirit" by her mother, and even after being tortured a lot, she developed fear of her mother, hated her mother, and even reported her. Of course, this is reasonable.

This diary caused Zhou Qian to never believe that Lili was really possessed.

If she is really possessed by an evil spirit, or takes her home, is it necessary for the evil spirit to write these diaries?What is its purpose?

Even if we don’t talk about the logical analysis of these behaviors, there is still an ironclad evidence—that thick diary, which recorded all kinds of trivial things, and the words were written from crooked to neat, but it is not difficult to find that the handwriting on the diary is indeed from the beginning. One person at the end.

If Lili was really "looted" at the music festival, why did the words written after the music festival remain the same as those written before the music festival?

Is it necessary for the evil spirits to imitate her handwriting?

Or could it be said that Lili was indeed not possessed by the so-called evil spirit at all?

So now comes the most critical question.

If Lili hadn't been possessed.

If it's true that her mother, Eva, wasn't lying...

In this case, how to explain Lili's "monsterization" and the fact that she took out the heart of her friend Lina with her bare hands?

The voice of Eva urging everyone to go to the residence was heard, and Zhou Qian withdrew his gaze from the tombstone and turned to look at her. "Can I ask you something?"

"Just ask." Eva said.

Zhou Qian asked her: "Have you read the diary written by your daughter?"

"No. I also respect the child's privacy." Eva said, "I have never read her diary."

Eva had never read Lili's diary before, and after locking her up, she never went to pick up the diary on the desk to read it.

"What's wrong?" Eva asked him.

That diary is now in Zhou Qian's bag.

But he didn't say anything, just shook his head and said to Eva, "Let's go."

·

When the player first entered this dungeon, he was located in a closed study room, completely unaware of the time.

They've only now learned that it was around 9am when they came and it's almost 12 noon now.Eva arranged two rooms for them, let them rest for a while, and then took them to the cafeteria for dinner.

The work and rest of the witches are very uniform. According to the rules, no one can start a small stove by themselves, and they have to go to the cafeteria for three meals a day.The cafeteria prepares everyone's meals uniformly, and there are strict regulations on how much each person can eat per meal, no more and no less.

"You are new here. The cafeteria didn't prepare your dishes in advance. I'll go and tell them to prepare seven more."

After saying this, Eva was ready to leave.

Zhou Qian sent her to the door and seemed to whisper something to her before returning to the house and closing the door with his own hands.

In Zhou Qian's room, there are Zhou Qian himself, Qi Liuxing, and Wu Ren.

Under Zhou Qian's strong request, Ke Yuxiao went to the next room with Situ Qing, Yin Jiujiu and Li Buhui.

Seeing Eva leaving at this time, Qi Liuxing looked at Zhou Qian: "We will eat later, we have to eat together. No one else is wearing a mask, what are we going to do? We can only eat with the mask off."

Qi Liuxing said this sentence in one go.As soon as he finished speaking, he was struck by himself.

He couldn't help frowning and looked at Zhou Qian: "Why did you give me this voice changer? Zhou Qian, you really..."

"The first method is what President Sarah said. Just in case, we'd better wear this so-called... clothes that have been engraved with a protective spell for a while. As for the mask, of course we can't take it. As for the second Two ways..."

Zhou Qian looked at Qi Liuxing with a smile, and said in an encouraging tone, "Shall we go and place an order for wigs and cosmetics now?"

Qi Liuxing said decisively: "No way. I think the first method is quite good!"

Zhou Qian didn't stay with Qi Liuxing anymore.

Turning his head and pushing open the window, he looked at a large bungalow not far away through the thick black veil.

That should be the house where the kitchen and dining hall are located.

Smoke was rising from the chimney at the moment, and someone was cooking lunch in it.

"Actually, compared to this..."

Zhou Qian whispered, "Don't you think that the story is very strange and awkward from beginning to end?"

Wu Ren answered, "It's really strange. Aren't witches able to fly on broomsticks? Why haven't I seen it?"

"Yes. Judging from the fact that Lihua Town is infested by so-called 'evil spirits', there are strange butterflies, exotic flowers and weeds. It really looks like a magical drama.

"But if this is really a magical drama, witches can not only summon the undead, but also set up some kind of protective barrier for the entire town... Logically speaking, it should not be difficult for them to fly into the sky and escape from the ground."

Zhou Qian shook his head and said, "But no. The so-called Luna's husband was dug out and mutilated. Sarah herself said that it was man-made. The reason why the man disposed of the body so cruelly was to fabricate lies. It makes people feel that this kind of thing is done by witches.

"Sarah said in person that many seemingly weird incidents were caused by people forcibly fabricating the words 'spell' and 'spell' in order to escape the crime, and finally imposed the crime on the witch. In addition——

"The witch farms and cooks with her bare hands, including the way we come here, which is actually by bus...

"Do you think there is a possibility that there is no magic in this dungeon world?"

The road from the mountainside to this hidden valley far away from human habitation is very difficult and dangerous, requiring the driver to have very high driving skills.

If the players were brought into the valley by a witch summoning some kind of eagle or even a dragon, or if the witch brought them down directly on a broomstick, Zhou Qian would not doubt that there is something wrong with this worldview.

But what he saw and felt now really gave him an increasingly serious sense of disobedience.

In a reasonable worldview, the forces of good and evil in it should be relatively balanced.

In other words, if the "villain" of this world is a butterfly monster with human feet, a flower with a human-faced stamen, or an evil spirit that can corrode an entire town and kill countless people...

Correspondingly, "decent" people who can "sweep evil and eliminate evil", such as witches, are not required to be able to control birds and beasts, but at least they should be able to ride a broom, cast spells with a magic wand, and grow vegetables.Otherwise, how would they fight the villains?

But at present, the magic wands in the hands of the witches seem to be completely decorative.

Zhou Qian has never seen them play any practical role.

Qi Liuxing thought for a while, and said, "If witches don't know magic...is this a normal world?"

"Yes, I think this world should be similar to the real world we live in. Leaving aside this strange game, there is no such thing as magic and metaphysics in the normal life of ordinary people."

Zhou Qian said, "In the world of ordinary people, technology brings absolute convenience to everyone. Mobile phones, computers, airplanes, and high-speed rails are what people really need. There will be no witches who can really use magic. In this case, President Sarah..."

Looking out of the window, his pupils shrank slightly, and the corners of Zhou Qian's mouth curled up, and he said, "She looks a lot like a 'magic stick' who promotes a cult."

"Look at the slogans in this village and the letter Sarah wrote to Eva. The words are all about 'abandoning technology and communicating with the natural world'. It is not practical at all. She didn't say, Abandon technology and return to magic, magic can make our lives more convenient. So—"

Zhou Qian concluded, "We can completely assume that there is no magic in this world. The so-called 'magic' is a huge deception fabricated by Sarah."

"There is nothing wrong with incriminating crimes. Some things that cannot be explained by common sense at first glance, or sensational murders, can all be blamed on witches. The result is that many people really hate witches.

"But in the same way, events such as 'this person's illness suddenly healed', 'the lost child was found', etc., can also be pushed to the witch, saying that it is because of the effect of witchcraft, the power of the crystal ball, etc. Guidance and so on..."

"To put it bluntly, public opinion can be manipulated. And due to group effects such as herd mentality, people are easily brainwashed.

"People in the small town can easily believe that evil witches can cast spells and kill people at will. Under the influence of each other, the witches who joined this association are also easily brainwashed by Sarah, thinking that they can really communicate with heaven and earth and obtain magic. the power of."

When Zhou Qian said this, someone was ringing the bell outside.

Immediately came a majestic female voice: "Everyone, please come to the cafeteria to eat within 1 minute. During this extraordinary period, frugality is the main priority. Everyone must finish their own meals and not waste them. The food allocated to each person is also limited. , no additional requests are allowed.”

Hearing this, Zhou Qian added in a deep voice: "The Witch Association has a management method similar to militarized management. Sarah is very similar to the dictator who leads everyone. In this case, people living here are more likely to be brainwashed gone."

Wu Ren couldn't help asking: "If there is no real magic in this world, we are not brought by magic. How did we come here? Besides, why do those children turn into monsters? This is what we have seen with our own eyes Huh? Why did the flowers and plants in the city become like that? In the end... these witches, in the dungeon, are they good or bad?"

Zhou Qian only said: "About your questions, I have some guesses. But I can't confirm it yet. Find a chance to visit the Strawberry Music Festival, maybe we can know everything."

After a moment of silence, Wu Ren said again: "Okay. The most important thing now is the issue of food. They asked us to arrive within a minute, and they also said that no waste is allowed. We, we can't escape—"

"It can be avoided." Zhou Qian said with a smile, "When I sent Eva out just now, I told her that there is no need for the kitchen to prepare our meals. So there will be no share for us there."

Three seconds later, Qi Liuxing realized something, and immediately looked at Zhou Qian: "Then you still wanted to buy wigs and cosmetics just now!"

Zhou Qian looked sideways at Qi Liuxing with a smile. "Xiao Qi, your voice is really cute now."

Qi Liuxing: "..."

·

Zhou Qian used the system to send a message to Ke Yuxiao and Situ Qing, first to tell them not to go out for dinner, and second to ask them to continue to pay attention to Li Buhui and Yin Jiujiu.

Afterwards, Zhou Qian stayed by the window to observe the situation.

After only about 15 minutes, all the witches finished their lunch efficiently.

During the period, Zhou Qian counted, and there are not too many witches here, the number is less than 20.

After that, Zhou Qian continued to keep an eye on the situation outside. He noticed that Sarah left with a few more people, wondering if she went to Lihua Town again.

Compared with Zhou Qian's calm demeanor, Wu Ren was a little anxious. "What's the situation now? There are no obvious small levels or small plots for us. I, I have only 5 hours to live right now! Hey wait——

With a change in tone, Wu Ren said: "It's strange... Have you noticed that the countdown has slowed down?!"

The countdown has indeed slowed down.

Zhou Qian took out his life point card and looked at it. Logically, he should have 22 points left, and the next one-hour countdown is about to end, and he will only have 21 points left immediately.

But now he actually has 23 points left.

The one-hour countdown under the points is still continuing, but the speed at which the number of seconds decreases has slowed down a lot.

The original one second may have slowed down to three seconds.

After a while, Zhou Qian put away the card, put his hand on the black robe he was wearing thoughtfully, and looked at it a few more times.

Wu Ren exhaled, his voice calmed down a bit, but he was still a little worried. "Although the time for this point reduction has slowed down. But I am still worried... I won't be so unlucky, right? Even if I have 6 more points, I still fall in the last place? I don't think other people are in a hurry... …We can’t just wait here and find the plot.”

Wu Ren didn't expect that shortly after he finished speaking, a scene actually started.

There was a sudden commotion outside.

"Many witches were reported back then, all of which were done by wizards!"

"Now it's their turn!"

"In order to avoid evil spirits, they dared to pretend to be women and sneak in! Fortunately, we found out!"

"He must be executed!"

"Take him to the 'Place of the Forum' and burn him!!!"

"Support! Must burn him to death!!"

"Everyone who has not received the task, come to the square to gather!"

"Quick, quick! Assemble!"

Hearing this, the three men in the room couldn't help but exchanged glances.

It is not difficult to hear from these words that a man pretended to be a witch sneaked in and was discovered.Don't say that Sarah is not here at this time, just say that she is, I'm afraid it can't be stopped-all witches want to execute the wizard.

Therefore, what Sarah said earlier was still mild. If a man disguised as a woman is accidentally discovered, he will really be killed by the witch.The long-standing historical contradiction between the two sides has reached the point where it is difficult to reconcile.

This incident actually verified Zhou Qian's guess just now from another level.

If they really know countless magics, there should be ten thousand ways to punish wizards, why do they have to use burning?

Furthermore, when Eva told the story of the incident before, she also said that she injected an anesthetic into the unconscious Lili's body.

If she could really control people with magic, why use anesthesia?

As for the follow-up incident of cutting hair and fingers to summon the undead... She didn't really summon her daughter's soul at all. Whether this magic is really useful is something that cannot be verified.

Walking to the window and staring out, Wu Ren asked, "Is this a plot? Shall we go to the meeting square?"

"I can't go." Zhou Qian said decisively, "It is now clear that once our identities are exposed, the consequences will be disastrous."

At this time, through the window, Zhou Qian saw that the four players in the next room had gone out, as if he wanted to see the excitement.

His eyes sank all of a sudden, revealing a clear chill.

He said in a deep voice: "The place we live in is quite remote. Once there is something, we want to escape, and there is still time. When we really go to that so-called 'meeting square', if we want to run at that time, there is really no time to escape." There is a way."

After saying this, Zhou Qian squinted his eyes, pushed open the door, and walked out, as if he wanted to stop the four players.

Qi Liuxing and Wu Ren exchanged glances, and quickly followed.

Then they unexpectedly discovered that Eva came with five witches.

Eva bumped into seven players head-on, and couldn't help but ask, "You guys want to go to the meeting square? Have you heard what happened?"

"I heard." Zhou Qian stepped forward and asked her, "What about you? Where are you going?"

"We're going to go to Mount Vail to investigate," Eva said. "That's where the evil spirits come from. Maybe there, we can figure everything out. Do you want to go? We're short of manpower. I can teach you how to find evil spirits." .”

This time, the player seems to have made a mistake.

Now it seems that there are two plots to choose from, one is to go to the meeting square to watch the wizard being burned; the other is to go to Weishan, the place where the Strawberry Music Festival was once held.The latter is undoubtedly a very important plot.

Zhou Qian didn't answer for the time being, but looked at the rest of the people, as if he wanted to wait for the reaction of some of them.

But the answer that everyone immediately gave was to go to Weishan, including Yin Jiujiu, who he suspected most.

Seeing this, under the black veil, Zhou Qian couldn't help raising his eyebrows, but he remained calm for the time being.

In his opinion, the pink army probably continued to send people to kill him.

If that person wasn't Wu Ren, then most likely it was Yin Jiujiu.

The plot of "the wizard was burned to death" is most likely not for players to break through the level and gain life points, but for mutual harm.There are traps for teammates to pit each other everywhere in this game.The current setting of "witches are hostile to wizards" can undoubtedly be put to good use.

A moment ago, there was news that the wizard was going to be burned in the meeting square, and the four people next door went out immediately without discussing it with him. In Zhou Qian's view, they were likely to be deliberately guided .

And that person is probably Yin Jiujiu.

——Bring all the teammates to the meeting square surrounded by so many witches. Once Yin Jiujiu exposes Zhou Qian's identity as a man, Zhou Qian will be killed by many witches up to S rank without her own hands. attacked.

He will be burned to death, and it will be difficult to get out.

From Yin Jiujiu's point of view, there is no resentment here that Zhou Qian can use.Because all the clothes are buried under the grave.As for Lihua Town, although many people died there, it was too far away, far beyond Zhou Qian's skill range.

With this in mind, when Eva asked everyone if they want to go to Weishan with her, Zhou Qian did not deliberately not answer, but was waiting for Yin Jiujiu's reaction.

But Yin Jiujiu quickly replied that she was going to Mount Weier.

Li Buhui, who hugged her thigh, also quickly agreed.

In this way, did I think too much, or did they find out that they could go to Weiershan, and suddenly decided to do the main task first?

Many thoughts ran through my mind in an instant.However, there was no change in Zhou Qian's tone of voice. In fact, everyone was wearing veils now, so he didn't even need to pretend.

He just replied to Eva with a sexy female anchor voice: "Can you teach us how to find evil spirits? That's great. We can't live here for free. We joined the Witch Association to contribute to the people." of!"

·

Another hour later.

Seven of Zhou Qian took the bus with the five witches and arrived at the back of Mount Weier.

After the witch said that there was no way for the bus to go ahead and everyone needed to walk, she took everyone off the bus and began to climb the mountain instead.

After asking and knowing that it would take 10 minutes to climb the mountain, Zhou Qian asked Eva again: "Did you send people here before?"

At this moment, Eva was also fully armed, wrapping her body tightly.She replied: "Yes. There were 6 people who came here this morning, and only 4 went back. I don't know where the other two went... We have to take a look. Hope they don't have any accidents.

"Oh, by the way, I'll give you the crystal ball later. You can't learn any advanced magic now. Let me teach you how to detect evil spirits first... It's really simple, just see if the color of the crystal ball changes. Find out Wherever there are evil spirits, you call me, and we will deal with them."

Zhou Qian nodded seriously.

At this moment, he suddenly heard an obvious "uh".

He stopped and looked back, the voice came from Wu Ren.

Walking to him calmly, Zhou Qian asked him, "What's wrong with you?"

But Wu Ren took out his own card and said with a pale face: "It, it's countdown has sped up!!! I, uh..."

"Are you all right?" Zhou Qian noticed that his walking body suddenly staggered.

Five witches were leading the way. Wu Ren glanced at them, turned around quickly, and opened his black robe, revealing his sleeves.

At this time, Zhou Qian discovered something strange together with him - his skin had dense small chickenpox, and his complexion faintly turned purple and blue.

"What the hell is this..." Wu Ren's tone changed in horror.

His gloomy temperament was gone, and his whole body became a little trembling.

And behind them, Yin Jiujiu sent another message to Li Buhui. "Ready to cooperate with my actions."

After sending this message, Yin Jiujiu looked in Zhou Qian's direction.

Zhou Qian, Wu Ren, Qi Liuxing, Ke Yuxiao and Situ Qing were standing together at this time.

Situ Qing was a little behind them, watching from the left and right.

If you look closely at Yin Jiujiu's eyes, you will find that she is not looking at Zhou Qian, but Situ Qing.

Facing this other girl in the team, Yin Jiujiu's gaze showed obvious killing intent for the first time.