Even though no one dared to waste even half a second, an hour passed in the blink of an eye. When the TV screen finally hit zero, a line of white words appeared in front of everyone's eyes.
"Time is up. Stop failure. The 129th game conference is about to begin. "
In the living room, everyone's foreheads were glistening with sweat. The heavy panting of someone who had yet to recover from the shock could be heard clearly in the room. In the past hour, no one had been idle. They had turned the entire town upside down. However, aside from themselves, they did not find a single living soul, let alone a game conference. If they wanted to search outside the town, the map was almost infinite. An hour was not enough.
"Han Suiping," Lin Sanjiu looked at the line of white words and asked softly, "Did you sense the signal?"
One of Han Suiping's arms had already turned into a greenish-black claw. He closed his eyes for a few seconds and shook his head. "No … The words seem to be generated by some kind of force field. It does not involve signal transmission," Lin Sanjiu nodded.
Lin Sanjiu nodded. She didn't have much hope in the first place.
"The 129th game will begin in 10 minutes," the words on the screen changed. "All players within the range of this message, please head to the elevator at the town entrance immediately. It is located at the next gaming venue in Basement 1."
"Elevator?"
She turned around and saw that everyone was frowning. They had all seen the signboard with the town's name before. It was erected at the highway junction. They had seen it a few times when they scanned the area, but they had never seen any elevator.
Even after the announcement appeared, the road under the signboard was still empty. It did not seem like there was an elevator there. While the people were looking at each other, there was a deep sound of metal rubbing against stone slabs. After the road surface suddenly split open, another layer of metal slabs was revealed, and a square hole gradually opened up. Everyone gathered around and lowered their heads to look inside. They found that there was a very spacious elevator box inside. It even had a digital button and a display screen.
"This doesn't look like something that only appeared after the apocalypse," Ji Shanqing was the first to jump down. He looked around and said to Lin Sanjiu, "Look, there's the name of the manufacturer and the date of quality inspection at the corner. It should be built by the humans here, but I don't know what it's used for."
"This space is pretty big," Lin Sanjiu commented as she looked around. There were a total of eight of them, and they were all standing in the elevator. There was still a lot of empty space in the elevator.
"The notice is for us to go to B1, right?" The female evolver called Lu Hua asked.
There were a total of nine "floor" numbers on the elevator panel, and a lit "G" key. Unlike the ordinary G Layer, the G Layer they were currently in was the highest surface layer. Lin Sanjiu pressed the button a few times and realized that only the next floor would light up. Not long after the door above her closed, the elevator began to descend.
Although it was only one floor deep, unexpectedly, everyone stayed in the elevator for a full four to five minutes. They didn't know if it was because the elevator was too slow or because it was sinking too deep. When it finally stopped, the elevator door in front of them opened.
A man wearing a black top hat and a white mask stood motionlessly outside the elevator. His hands were clasped in front of him as if he had been waiting for a long time. His entire body was covered so tightly that not even an inch of his skin or hair could be seen.
"Welcome to the first floor." The voice that came from behind the round white mask buzzed and lost its authenticity. It did not sound welcoming at all. "Please don't be nervous. I'm a volunteer of this floor. I'm here to help you adapt to the game world."
"He's not a duoluozhong … He's a posthuman," Silvan said in a low voice, frowning.
The man in the white mask nodded and turned to look at him. He staggered two steps back as if he was startled. His voice finally became human. "Ah, could it be that you're … the one from the Munitions Factory?"
Silvan didn't say anything. The fact that he could recognize Silvan meant that he was from the Twelve Worlds Centrum and that he was sane and had free will. Could it be that posthuman who came to this world could volunteer?
The masked volunteer didn't seem to want to gossip. He mumbled a few times and wiped his hands on his pants, regaining his composure. "First of all, I have to congratulate all of you for passing the test of the surface layer and entering this game world without knowing anything." He had repeated this sentence countless times. As he spoke, he moved away from the elevator door, revealing an empty gray room behind him. "This is the place to watch the new game conference … I'll be responsible for explaining the rules of this world to you. Come, please follow me. "
This underground space was more than a hundred square meters. The walls above, below, and beside him were all smooth walls painted with gray cement. There was a projector hanging down from the ceiling, projecting the words "Please wait" on one of the walls. The masked volunteer led everyone to the center of the room. He took out a remote control and pressed it. The image on the wall changed instantly.
"If we count the surface layer as the highest layer, there are a total of ten layers in this world." As the masked volunteer explained, a diagram appeared on the wall. "There are several underground elevators in each area, and they can reach the underground layer. Take note that only the surface layer, the fifth layer, and the tenth layer are interconnected. You can change areas freely. The other layers are independent. "
The image on the wall looked like a dissecting map of an ant's underground nest. From the map, the area that Lin Sanjiu and the others were in was about a few hundred square kilometers. Obviously, it covered more than one small town. The area of each area was much smaller.
"Why is there such a construction?" the posthuman named Haust asked.
"This is the reason for the apocalypse in this world," the masked volunteer said as he changed the image on the wall. "A long time ago, in this prosperous, peaceful, and balanced human society, as boredom spread, a small group of people started to play games in reality."
A group of green cartoon characters stood on the projection. Some of them were dyed yellow.
"This small group of people would set their own rules, set up the venue, and provide the conditions to start a large-scale game in real life. It was said that in order to make the game a reality, they would even go bankrupt … The participants of the game, who were initially invited and informed, gradually became the general public. For some reason, after the game ended, many people who had participated in the game in reality would actively participate in setting up the game. The more dangerous the game, the more attractive it would be. "
As the masked volunteer explained, the green cartoon characters turned yellow one by one. The group of yellow cartoon characters gradually expanded.
"At first, it seemed like a harmless method of entertainment, but as the number of participants increased like a snowball, it quickly developed into a problem that society had to face. They found out that the symptoms of wanting to play the game in reality belonged to a permanent functional disorder of the brain. After a certain experience, the normal brain would also experience similar symptoms due to stimulation … Although it wasn't a virus, it was still called a game virus because it was more convenient for the public to understand its contagious nature. It's dragging down the entire society's operations, not to mention the security and economic problems caused by the game's diverse content. "
"Can't the military and the government stop it?" Han Suiping couldn't help asking.
The masked volunteer pressed the remote control. Two groups of yellow cartoon characters appeared on the wall. They were all holding guns and seemed to be fighting each other. "I was just about to say this … An army that was once sent to disrupt the operation of a certain large-scale game, because they were infected, they held a large-scale war game of their own. As a result, just the nearby civilians were implicated and tens of thousands were injured or killed."
"So, this underground facility is a means of self-protection?" Lin Sanjiu began to understand.
"Yes, because they don't know why such symptoms appear, and they don't know how to prevent it or treat it. They can't bear the consequences of the game virus spreading … For example, a small game with a small number of people, or even just two or three people, can be played by a family, so it's not uncommon for a family to be left with only one person. The government built this large-scale underground facility as soon as possible and moved normal civilians in. Other than the necessary connections, each area was isolated from each other. This way, even if an accident happened underground, it could prevent the spread of the game virus. "
Obviously, the plan did not succeed, and that was why the world became what it was today.
The masked volunteer pointed at the new projection on the wall and said, "Perhaps it was due to the Matthew Effect. It seems like the world ended before it was officially completed and put into use."
"So, all posthumans who came to this world," Ji Shanqing asked, "have no choice but to play the game like they used to? None of us felt the urge to set up a game … "
The masked volunteer nodded his head. He sighed and said, "That means none of you will become duoluozhong. However, not being infected doesn't mean that you won't set up a game … In this place, after every game ends, a portion of Evolved People will be randomly assigned to release a new game mission. In other words, every game you participate in is actually designed by other Evolved People. "
In other words, stopping the release of a new game was the same as stopping other posthumans from releasing a new game.
"What about the punishment?" Ji Shanqing asked the most important question, "What will happen if we don't cooperate?"
"When it's your turn, nothing will happen even if you don't set up a game. You will just be dragged into another person's game," the masked volunteer said calmly. The masked volunteer said calmly, "You might say, 'Wouldn't it be better if we don't set up a game? However, that is almost impossible. Anyone who sets up a game can be exempted from participating in the next game. They can even get some resources as a reward. If nothing goes wrong, everyone has to survive for 14 months. The fewer games you participate in during these 14 months, the higher your chance of survival … Even if you don't set up a game, someone else will. So, in the end, everyone hopes that they can set up a game. If it's possible, they will even fight for the opportunity. "
"Is this … the so-called Prisoner's Dilemma?" Lin Sanjiu thought to herself.
Silvan suddenly turned to look at the volunteer. "The game is about to start, and you are just here as a volunteer to explain. You don't look like you are going to participate in the game … So, you must have set up a game before? As a volunteer, you must have been exempted from playing the game, right? "
The masked volunteer did not say anything. He reached out and touched his neck, which was covered by his collar.
"You are really smart … Sorry, I was the one who designed the Blue Wall Man."
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