Xin Meng opened his eyes, and the first thing he did was look around, searching for a familiar figure.
When he saw that person sitting right next to him, he finally couldn’t help but burst into tears, his vision blurred by tears, making it hard for him to see the person’s face, his body trembling uncontrollably.
Until the other person embraced him and gently kissed his forehead. “It’s okay, don’t cry.”
“Who told you to do this!” The originally gentle and obedient Xin Meng roared at the man like a lion whose tail had been stepped on for the first time, “What inheritance of the demon king, I don’t care about that at all! Why did you make me… make me…”
Make me kill you?
Xin Meng choked up and couldn’t say anything, but You Yi didn’t explain, just held him tightly, comforting him by patting his back.
“It won’t happen again.” You Yi promised.
“You swear!” Xin Meng wiped his tears but didn’t forget to lower his guard.
“Okay, I swear.” You Yi said helplessly.
Only then did Xin Meng gradually calm down, but he didn’t leave the man’s embrace; instead, he nestled deeper into it, gripping You Yi’s clothes tightly, as if letting go would make this person run away.
He couldn’t blame You Yi; he knew the other party’s intentions were all for his sake, but he was terrified that the other person would really die. That kind of fear and the pain of living worse than death was more unbearable than dying himself!
“Um… sorry to interrupt you…” A clear male voice suddenly rang out, and Xin Meng finally remembered that there might still be others watching around, his face flushed as he lifted his head from You Yi’s embrace.
The other person was even redder than him, awkwardly scratching the back of his head, his eyes darting around as if he didn’t know where to place them.
Qi Xiaokui came over when he saw that Xin Meng was fine, breaking the awkwardness for the three of them—well, mainly for the two, as You Yi was completely unaffected.
“I’m Qi Xiaokui, I’ve been through four games already. Are you a new teammate?”
The big boy was still a bit out of it, “I… I just arrived. What is going on? What game is this? Where is this place?”
He was a bit younger than Xiong Jiabao, about the same age as Qi Xiaokui, and should also be a college student.
However, he looked clean and tidy, dressed normally, much more reliable than Xiong Jiabao.
Qi Xiaokui glanced at the two people who were stuck together; You Yi was just looking down at Xin Meng in his arms, showing no intention of explaining, while Xin Meng was actually leaning against him, rarely silent, possibly related to his current state, his eyes red like something, not suitable for explanations.
So Qi Xiaokui had to take on the responsibility of explaining.
Xin Meng clung to You Yi’s shoulder, looking around and discovering that they were now in a vast grassland, with no boundaries in sight. Not far from them, there were actually two people sitting, a man and a woman, leaning against each other, looking like a couple. The man was looking this way, his gaze full of scrutiny, while the woman was full of curiosity, resting her chin on the man’s bent knee, blinking her eyes as she observed Xin Meng and the others.
They were older than the people present, around thirty. The man had a buzz cut, was strong, and had a calm expression, but his gaze towards the woman beside him was very gentle. The woman had a head of chestnut-colored big wavy hair, a beautiful face, and her tilted head gave her an innocent look, naturally charming and very cute.
Seeing that Xin Meng was looking at them, the couple stood up and walked over.
“Hello, I’m Luo Yiyi, I used to be a kindergarten teacher,” the woman introduced herself generously, pointing to the man beside her, “This is my husband, Li Wenjun. He’s a martial arts coach, really amazing. He protected me through the first three games, so I could clear them.”
Luo Yiyi spoke frankly, her tone filled with pride, clearly proud of her husband. Li Wenjun nodded at the few of them as a greeting.
Xin Meng politely replied, “I’m Xin Meng, and he is…”
Seeing that he was about to introduce You Yi, Luo Yiyi playfully winked at him and teased, “I know, he’s your husband, right! I also know his name is You Yi. You kept calling his name when you were unconscious just now.”
Xin Meng was stunned, completely unaware that he had done such an embarrassing thing just now, wishing he could dig a hole and bury himself immediately!
Li Wenjun sighed helplessly, gently pinching Luo Yiyi’s waist, and Luo Yiyi secretly stuck her tongue out at Xin Meng.
Xin Meng was amused by her, and the awkward feeling disappeared, leaving him with a good impression of the couple.
Over there, Qi Xiaokui had also explained the current situation to the couple, bringing the downcast big boy over to join them.
“Qi Xiaokui, and Xin Meng, they were originally teammates.” Qi Xiaokui said.
“How could this happen…” The big boy was still mumbling, but when he looked up and saw five people staring at him, his face turned a bit red, and he said, “I, I’m Dou Dou, hello…”
“Dou Dou? Dou Dou Long?” Qi Xiaokui exclaimed, surprised that someone had this name?
The big boy immediately exploded, loudly retorting, “Not Dou Dou Long! It’s Dou from the surname Dou! And Dou from the bean! Dou Dou! Not Dou Dou!”
Everyone: “…Why does it sound the same?”
Dou Dou: “…”
The group exchanged information; in the last game, three people had died in Xin Meng’s team, and in this game, the team was unexpectedly filled up, or to be more precise, they had reformed a new team with other survivors. Among the other three, that couple had gone through three games together, and all their teammates had died, leaving only the two of them, while Dou Dou was entering the game for the first time.
Xin Meng casually asked and learned that Luo Yiyi and Li Wenjun had experienced three games before, none of which were the same as the ones they had gone through.
It seemed that there were indeed countless copies in this game.
Except for the confused Dou Dou, the others skillfully took out their cards and looked at them together.
“Why does it seem like a poetic hint?” Luo Yiyi said while holding the card, “And there’s an order too, let me see…”
In order, the first card should be Qi Xiaokui’s, and this time the content on the card was actually the most extensive, and it was all in couplets:
【Ten little black boys, running around for food; one gets stuffed and can’t be saved, leaving nine out of ten.】
【Nine little black boys, sleepless in the dead of night; one falls asleep and dies, leaving eight out of nine.】
The second card was Xin Meng’s:
【Eight little black boys, going to explore the German castle; one loses their life and returns to the west, leaving seven out of eight.】
【Seven little black boys, chopping trees and branches clumsily; one gets split in half and dies, leaving six out of seven.】
The third card was Luo Yiyi’s:
【Six little black boys, playing with a beehive and attracting bees; one gets stung and dies, leaving five out of six.】
【Five little black boys, causing trouble and getting into lawsuits; entangled in lawsuits until death, leaving four out of five.】
The fourth card was You Yi’s:
【Four little black boys, teaming up to go to sea and encountering great danger; a blue fish swallows them, leaving three out of four.】
【Three little black boys, suffering misfortune in the zoo; a bear suddenly falls from the sky, leaving two out of three.】
The last card was Li Wenjun’s:
【Two little black boys, sighing under the sun; baked to death, leaving one out of two.】
【One little black boy, returning alone; hanging himself to end this life, leaving none.】
“This is a song from ‘Mother Goose Rhymes,’ called ‘Ten Little Black Boys!'” Luo Yiyi immediately said, “I’ve read this book and even recited it to the children!”
“No way,” Dou Dou exclaimed dramatically, “You actually dared to recite such a dark and bloody nursery rhyme to kindergarten kids! Child abuse!”
Luo Yiyi rolled her eyes, “What are you talking about? I didn’t recite this one to them; there are many nursery rhymes in ‘Mother Goose.’ I recited a different one; this one is usually cut out in translated versions. But I’ve seen the original book and still remember this!”
“The question is, why is the hint on the card a rhyme that is often cut out?” Xin Meng said softly.
“Hmm… let’s look at the content of this rhyme…” Dou Dou rubbed his arms, grinning, “I have a bad feeling about this; if it appears in a horror game…”
“By the way, where’s your card?” Qi Xiaokui suddenly realized that the content of the rhyme was printed on their five cards, and Dou Dou hadn’t looked at his yet, “Quick, take it out.”
Dou Dou looked around, then felt his pockets, pulling out a card, and Qi Xiaokui and Luo Yiyi leaned over to take a look, only to see it read:
【The game entrance has a save point, and you can save infinitely.】
Infinite save points!
Except for the confused Dou Dou, the others looked at each other; they had never seen such lenient conditions before!
“Does this mean that even if we fail, it’s okay, and we can start over infinitely?” Dou Dou said excitedly.
However, the others were not so optimistic. Luo Yiyi frowned and said, “According to the game’s conventions, the more times you can save, the harder it gets later on. This infinite save…”
“And there’s another problem,” Xin Meng continued, “Besides this line about saving and a nursery rhyme, the game has given us almost no hints on how to clear it, what to do, or to what extent it counts as clearing. There’s no explanation.”
He tugged at You Yi’s backpack, “The backpacks can’t be opened either; ours can’t.”
The others quickly tried as well, and it was the same.
“Maybe we need to trigger some conditions to open them?” Dou Dou guessed.
“It seems we need to analyze the rhyme,” Li Wenjun said, “There won’t be useless hints; the clues are mostly hidden in the rhyme.”
“But I think the priority is to find the save point first,” Qi Xiaokui said.
After a few people finished speaking, they exchanged glances, all secretly relieved; having reliable teammates felt different indeed.
Except for Dou Dou, everyone present had survived through four or five games. Xin Meng looked at the people around him and suddenly had a thought—those who could survive to the later stages were the more outstanding individuals.
Those who weren’t good enough had all been “eliminated.”
“Where is the save point?” Dou Dou looked around but could only see the vast grassland, with nothing but green grass and blue sky, all looking quite similar, making it impossible to tell if there was anything special.
“It wouldn’t be like in novels, where it’s an inconspicuous little grass that the protagonist has to find, would it?” He guessed wildly, lowering his head to look at the grass beneath his feet, unknowingly walking in one direction, mumbling, “That destined little grass, where are you…”
“Young people are great,” Luo Yiyi sighed, and Li Wenjun quickly patted her head, gently saying, “You’re younger than him.”
Luo Yiyi pouted, “What? I’m almost a whole round older than him!”
Li Wenjun said matter-of-factly, “In my eyes, you will always be eighteen.”
Luo Yiyi’s face turned red, her expression very sweet, “In my eyes, you’re the most handsome.”
Xin Meng: “…”
Qi Xiaokui: “…”
“Oh no!”
Just as the two were caught off guard and nearly drowned in a bathtub of jealousy, Dou Dou’s loud scream suddenly came from the other side!
