Human dimension reduction

Siberia's winter snowstorm can be called a devastating disaster. This vast and endless wilderness plain is sparsely populated, and it is covered with hard frozen soil for three quarters of the year. When the warm current passes by the coast, the south blows The incoming humid air melts the land, and the life-swallowing swamp will be revived, especially in the era of farming and agriculture, where there are countless strong packs of wolves wandering here.

It is said that a hunter once captured a tundra gray wolf as tall as a person here. The wolf skin was handed over to the landlord as a hunting tax, and then sent to Sochi to the judge, and then appeared in the Winter Palace after heavy packaging. Tsar's chair.

As far as the eye can see, it is white, and the sky is covered with low snow clouds, which indicates that a blizzard will come soon. The thick snow covering the ground has not reached the thighs of adults, and the coniferous forest is like a little girl. Like our favorite crystal ball model, the pieces point stiffly and coldly at the sky.

In such weather, even a pack of wolves would not come out to hunt rashly, so on the endless plain, the little black spot that was walking slowly was extremely eye-catching.

A string of long footprints landed behind him, and the exhaled breath turned into snow-white frost mist in front of him. The tall man with black curly hair was wrapped in a cloak and trudged through the snow.

It was a... accident that he was here.

During this time, Qiao Zhou is used to logging in to different accounts and wandering around. It may be because of the ice and snow illusion he saw last time. He came to the border of Siberia by accident, intending to enjoy the red maples in autumn along the railway line. Unexpectedly, a black hole unfolded on the vast plain and swallowed him upright.

The scene in the black hole is really the coldest time in deep winter. It stands to reason that accounts that have already transcended the scope of human beings should not be able to experience this kind of coldness, but it may be that the coldness of Siberia has exceeded the scope of physical attacks. As a precaution, the Duke of Stuart was so cold that he had to wrap the cloak tightly around his body.

He has been trekking here for more than an hour, and the snow and cold kept him from walking a long distance, but from what he saw on the road, he could already tell what kind of situation he was in.

It was extremely cold, desolate, and there was no human habitation, and even the traces of wild animals were wiped away by the ice and snow.

This was the first time he entered the black hole for almost two hours, but he didn't get any useful news.

How about changing Vincent? He stopped and thought. The mad doctor's movement skill is the best cheating tool in this situation. If you use it continuously, you can always find the city.

In any case, if you want to go out, you must figure out what kind of world this is.

Feeling a bit of coolness belatedly on his cheeks, he looked up and saw fine snowgrains drifting down from the gray clouds, the light in the sky was getting dimmer, a night of snowstorm was coming, if he just stayed in the woods like this One night, he had no doubt that this account would end up being scrapped prematurely.

The black-haired Duke had a gloomy face. He lowered his head and walked a few steps forward. He stood on a higher snow hill and let a pine tree block the snow above his head. It was better than nothing. When he was about to switch accounts, the A sudden color caught his attention, and his pupils shrank slightly.

...someone?

someone.

It's not uncommon for someone to be buried in the snow. He was surprised because there was a golden exclamation mark floating above that person's head...everyone who played games would be very familiar with it.

What a classic "click here" "important clue to collect" symbol...

So this is another world alienated from games?

When you see a golden question mark and an exclamation mark, you have to click on it. It is the instinct of all players engraved into their genes.

The black-haired man trudged over again. Although he didn't look far away, it took him almost 100 minutes to walk the short distance of more than 10 meters.

The man didn't know how long he had been in a coma. The fluffy white snow had covered most of his body. The color Stuart saw from a distance just now was his golden brown hair and black boots.

golden brown hair...

The man reached out and turned the face-down figure over, revealing a face he had seen not so long ago.

Fifteen or sixteen years old, with golden brown hair, a weak and pale boy, may have suffered too much, and his whole body is only a handful of bones, but he can still distinguish the sharp and handsome facial contours.

It turned out to be an old acquaintance.

Stuart subconsciously looked around, trying to find the firewood he was dragging in his hand... Ah no, the corpse.

But there's nothing around but this poor thing.

The man stared at the golden exclamation mark twice. If the exclamation point was inspired, a dialog box popped up in the void.

【You are exhausted walking in the barren snow, and you find a beautiful boy who is unconscious. His identity doesn't seem simple, what will you do?

a. It is important to save people, take him forward together to find a shelter.

b. Let's see if there is anything worth collecting around.

c. A big trouble, hurry up before he wakes up. 】

Oh hoo, it's still a classic role-playing game!

Even the plots and scenes encountered are a bit too old-fashioned.

The black-haired man didn't rush to choose among the three options. Instead, he took two steps back, carefully avoiding the possibility of accidental contact, then squatted down and began to shovel the snow.

The hands and feet of this unlucky guy who was buried in the snow for some reason showed a bluish-purple color that was about to die. After Qiao Zhou pulled him out, he realized his identity. He was probably...a fugitive?

To be more precise, he should be a fugitive from a wealthy family.

The clothes on him are very thin, but the fabric is soft and expensive. There are exquisite layered lace on the collar and cuff edges. The woolen breeches fit the curves of the body. They are obviously custom-made high-end products. There is no belt around the waist, but It was knotted carelessly with a length of hemp rope, and there were old stains on the clothes. No one who could afford such clothes could not afford to replace them, so he was clearly born rich and had some misfortune.

There is a rough iron ring hanging on the skinny wrist. Anyone can see the purpose of this thing at a glance. It seems that people from all countries have invariably shown too little imagination when it comes to inventing restraint instruments. force.

There are streak-like wounds on the exposed skin, probably the marks left by whipping. Human beings can even use empty whips to scare cattle and sheep, but they have always shown outstanding viciousness and cruelty in treating their compatriots.

The most amazing thing is that Qiao Zhou also found a violin beside him.

Carrying a violin on the way to escape?What kind of entertainment spirit is this!Qiao Zhou suddenly became interested in him.

Judging from the clothes, this should be the middle and late nineteenth century. At this time, the Maoxiong Kingdom was in extreme chaos. Tens of thousands of serfs were squeezed by the big landlords and nobles, and the decadent and dark society would soon be smashed to pieces. The tsar is about to face the fate of being exterminated, and a new social system will be born out of labor pains. The noble boy in front of him may be the unlucky one who suffered in this turmoil.

Thinking of this, Qiao Zhou finally felt reassured that the situation was under his control, and he looked up the three options again.

Assuming that this world is alienated from the game, the boy in front of him is an important npc with a story, and the role he plays is obviously the player of the game, so how does the game work?

In video games, after the player selects an option, the program will automatically jump to the next scene according to the option to promote the continuous development of the plot. The player's degree of freedom is limited, but when the game and the world are integrated, the player can do more things It is beyond calculation, if a response other than the game option is made, how will the world change?

Also, if the player never appears, will this unclicked npc always lie here?Will he remain in a half-dead state waiting for players to appear, or will he adapt to physiological changes to meet death?

In video games, this character will undoubtedly wait forever in this ice and snow, waiting for the program to push a player to come to him to decide his fate, but when the game becomes a world-then what is the game program's occupation? Dominance, or the rational operation of the world?

It is very simple to verify this problem, just do a move that the program can never calculate.

Qiao Zhou ignored the string of abc, raised his hand, and grabbed the dying boy's neck.

He chose d to kill this unlucky bastard of unknown origin.

This deliberate murder did not even arouse the victim's resistance. The person who had already fallen into a deep coma did not even struggle. His fingers could not feel the beating of the pulse. Qiao Zhou changed his posture and sat cross-legged next to the warm corpse. His fingers were still pressed against the carotid artery, and he patiently counted the seconds.

The string of funny dialogue boxes reluctantly disappeared after the pulse stopped, not even the golden exclamation mark, and the world once again returned to a clean whiteness that made obsessive-compulsive disorder happy.

When Qiao Zhou counted to 306, the quiet carotid artery under his fingers began to beat, and flickered twice as if the signal was unstable, and the golden exclamation mark appeared swaggeringly in its original position.

Under his gaze, the dialog box opened with a clatter.

【You escaped from the vicious overseer, walked exhausted in the barren snow, and found an unconscious beautiful boy. His identity does not seem to be simple. What will you do?

a. It is important to save people, take him forward together to find a shelter.

b. Let's see if there is anything worth collecting around.

c. A big trouble, hurry up before he wakes up.

d. Go back to the old line. 】

New options appear.

And the first sentence of the front background has also changed.

"You who escaped from the vicious overseer"?There was no such sentence in the game introduction that appeared just now. Is this arranging an identity for Qiao Zhou? ——Because of his behavior just now?

Who would escape from the vicious overseer... Either a slave or a prisoner, but looking at the "old business" with profound meaning in new options.

It seems that the world has arranged for him the identity of a murderer, so he doesn't need to find ways to integrate into the world, but another problem also arises, the npc killed by him will be reset and resurrected, which means that he is in this instance Can't collect new accounts?

This new discovery made him a little dissatisfied, but he didn't pay much attention to it. Exploiting loopholes and bugs is his specialty, and the boat will naturally go straight to the bridge.

Compared to this, another question concerned him more.

Why is it a murderer? !Just because he used some extreme means to test the game mechanism?

Qiao Zhou felt that he was greatly misunderstood.

It seems that the intelligence of this game world is very high, and it will make adjustments according to the abnormal behavior of the players to achieve the goal of logical self-consistency.

In fact, it is not impossible to be a happy fugitive prisoner, but Qiao Zhou is not happy to be arranged so roughly, he has to choose his own route!What's so interesting about the story of two fugitive prisoners, especially if he, a big prisoner, wants to take this little prisoner with him, then he must take care of each other afterwards, but Qiao Zhou doesn't like being a nanny, he prefers to let others follow him .

When thinking of this, he didn't consider at all that the half-dead man who fell in the snow was still a teenager, and he seemed to be in terrible health.

Qiao Zhou, who could do whatever he wanted, ignored the four options in front of him, logged out of Stuart's account, and chose Duke Richard, the youngest of all the accounts, to log in.

Richard, who is only 11 years old, is the age to be taken care of, perfect.

The little duke with blond hair and big round green eyes was standing in the snow. He was wearing a well-fitting and comfortable cloak, but in the next second, he started ripping off his clothes.

A long coat embroidered with a silver rose totem, a scarf, a girdle, and a lining... All the expensive clothes and accessories were taken off, and only the innermost shirt and trousers were left on his body. He also roughly tore off his jewels, and together with the pile of clothes, he buried them deeply in a snowdrift under a tree not far away.

After doing all this, the blood on the child's face disappeared, and the cold wind took away all the heat from his body. He staggered back step by step, like an abandoned small animal, carefully sitting on the still Beside the saving man, he raised his hand to click on the golden exclamation mark.

【You are exhausted walking in the barren snow, and you find a beautiful boy who is unconscious. His identity doesn't seem simple, what will you do?

a. It is important to save people, take him forward together to find a shelter.

b. Let's see if there is anything worth collecting around.

c. A big trouble, hurry up before he wakes up. 】

The text above changed again, and became exactly the same as when I saw it for the first time. It seemed that a change in the player's identity had been detected.

...the response is quite quick.

As a kind, innocent child who was separated from his elder brother, of course his choice was to save people!

The little blond player pointed to option a with a smile.

The dialog box disappears as if washed with water, and another subtitle appears.

[With good intentions, you find a cabin in front of you. It seems to be a cabin built by hunters during the hunting season. Although it is a little crude, it can also provide basic cold shelter functions. Maybe you can find a little food in it that is enough for two people to eat. ? 】

Qiao Zhou raised his eyebrows.

It seems that this is the next scene promoted by the game program, but since he knows that there is a wooden house in front of him, and there is food for two... Then why did he bring this big trouble?

After thinking about it, Qiao Zhou with an online IQ still won't leave behind this important npc that can trigger the plot.

The 11-year-old boy's strength is not small, especially the comatose boy is so thin that he is almost out of shape. Qiao Zhou dragged and tossed the boy for nearly an hour, and finally brought the boy to the hunter's hut.

It was exactly the same as the wooden house he had seen, with thick white snow pressing on the roof, and ice picks hanging down long and short, like countless sharp ice knives surrounding the wooden house.

[A typical Siberian wooden house is an excellent place for various interesting stories to happen.Desolate, isolated, dependent on each other... What a perfect place for love to begin! 】

When he fixed his eyes on the wooden house, a line of strange introduction appeared in front of him.

Where does love begin?Shouldn't this kind of introduction be more like a homicide scene in the Blizzard Villa mode?What game is this?

Qiao Zhou narrowed his eyes, and suddenly thought of a direction that he had never thought of before... Could it be, this is an otome strategy game that is very popular in the island country? !

This idea swirled around in his head, and was quickly forgotten. Whether it was an otome game or a puzzle game, it made no difference to him.

The steps were covered with thick snow, no one would come here after the snow season. Fortunately, the door was not locked, so Qiao Zhou dragged the person in with great difficulty, threw him on the ground with a thin layer of dust, and turned his backhand. Close the door, with the shelter of the room, the body that no longer has to suffer from the cold wind is slowly warming up.

The wooden house is not big, and you can see it all at a glance. The simple and rough wooden tables and chairs are placed by the window, and there is a hand-made single bed at the other end. The brick fireplace is as tall as him, and the inside is blackened by the charcoal fire. Apparently, there are some dilapidated boilers and waste piled up in the corner.

Qiao Zhou dragged the violin onto the bed together with him, and didn't care that the bed was covered with dust and greasy stains, and kindly covered him with the dirty blanket that couldn't see its original color up.

There is no firewood in the house.

Qiao Zhou didn't plan to brave the wind and snow to go out to find firewood. He picked up the wooden chair and smashed it to pieces on the ground. In the fireplace, I lit the rag with a box of matches that was fortunately not damp, and it took more than half an hour to finally successfully light the fireplace.

The hut began to feel a little warmer, and the freezing temperature was slowly rising steadily.

He rummaged through boxes and cabinets in the house to find food, and finally found two long loaves of bread that were frozen hard and could be used to beat people at the bottom of the dilapidated wooden cupboard. Qiao Zhou used the bent iron spoon in the broken pot to grind away the dirty parts on the edges like sawing wood, and threw the two pieces of bread on the bed.

Although it looks hard and unpalatable to death, this game still has a bit of conscience. The weight of each loaf is a full catty and a half. If you save a little, it will be enough for them to eat several meals.

The boy who was hit by the bread was still lying there without a sound, it seemed that he was waiting for him to serve him.

Qiao Zhou walked out of the hut with the dilapidated iron pot, the cold wind outside instantly blew away the heat gathered on his body, the clouds in the sky were lowered to a height that seemed to be within reach, the snow clouds rolled, those little The snow graupel is quickly turning into loose snowballs and rushing towards people's faces.

Standing under the wooden eaves, he rubbed the dirty pot with snow as a way of comforting himself, then picked up a pot of snow and went back to the wooden house with it.

The cabin is warm and cozy, the orange fire in the fireplace is dancing lively, the snowy weather outside the window only provides a little light source for the cabin, Qiao Zhou took the pot of snow and hung it on the iron hook in front of the fireplace, I adjusted the position so that the fire could reach the bottom of the pot better, and stirred the snow inside with the bent iron spoon.

A pot of snow quickly melted into half a pot of water at a speed visible to the naked eye, and then small bubbles began to bubble up. Hot water vapor floated from the surface of the water. Human stinging temperature.

At this moment, the person lying on the bed made some movement.

The boy who woke up from the drowsy and cold dream did not get up hastily, but maintained the previous posture, controlled the low and slow breathing rate, opened his eyes halfway, and silently rolled his eyes to look at the surrounding environment.

He should have been unconscious in the snow before, but now he appeared in a strange place. He thought it was the guards who caught up with him, but it seemed that he was rescued by a kind person. Yes, he deliberately chose a snowstorm If he fled in the cold weather, those lazy guards would not leave the fat, tender wine and meat and warm fires in the manor to hunt him down, a corrupt nobleman. He probably thought that he would die in the winds of Siberia soon after he escaped. Let's snow.

It’s okay to die, what the Heavenly Father bestows should naturally be taken back by the Heavenly Father, and the wind and snow are also the decree of the Heavenly Father, and he is willing to return to the embrace of the Heavenly Father with gratitude.

But since he was rescued, there were more troubles to face.

Who saved him?Now is not the hunting season, no matter how arrogant the hunter is, he will not appear on the great plain in winter. Is it the rioting revolutionary army?Town Self-Defense Forces?Or the cavalry under the command of the nobles?

He deliberately chose the marginal route to advance. There are no towns along the way. The self-defense army should not appear here, the noble cavalry... When they were established, they were brave and invincible, but they have long been abandoned by the flashy and luxurious life. Corroded into veteran soldiers, serfs who even marched with them to help lead the horses, it is even more impossible to appear on such a cold and cold Siberian plain.

So... a sentry from the Revolutionary Army?

From the beginning to the end, he never thought about the possibility of being picked up by passers-by, because passers-by who dared to walk alone into the barren and snowy Great Plains this season... were either crazy or fools.

But he quickly overturned his guess.

The firelight from the fireplace cast a small figure on the wall in front of him. In the military order issued by the Revolutionary Army, the minimum age for joining the army was 16 years old, and this person was obviously far below this age line.

He waited patiently for a while again, there were no other adult voices around, as if it was only him and the child squatting in front of the fireplace.

With his back to the wooden bed, Qiao Zhou stirred the hot water in the pot, watching the transparent bubbles burst on the water surface one by one, and keenly noticed a slight change in the sluggish heartbeat behind him.

Woke up in time, he thought with relief, at least he didn't have to cook.

--------

The young shall be born, and the old shall die,

God sends tribulations and trials with thunder,

The villain surrounds the blessed land of flowing balm and golden honey,

The sage died in the bitter cold,

What a pity, what a pity,

The saint died in the bitter cold!

————— "The Book of Truth: The Devout"