Chapter 57: Dull

Guan Ling and Cao Qian were both filled with questions, but they didn’t interrupt and patiently waited for Xing Ye’s explanation.

“Everybody knows a few legends about how the world was created. All of them have one similarity- they all have a god that created the human race, then destroyed the world. A god, whether unintentionally or because of a beautiful wish, created the human race. But then, disappointed by human nature, they decided to destroy the world to put an end to the human race.”

Guan Ling didn’t understand, “You think that Benedict wasn’t satisfied with the Neverland he created, so he wanted to destroy the Puppet City to create a new one afresh? But what proof do you have? And besides, if that’s what Benedict wanted to do, why didn’t he just do it?”

“It’s just a hunch, an idea that we could refer back to later.”

Xing Ye didn’t have anything he could use to explain because he couldn’t reveal the little mirror.

At first, Xing Ye thought the little mirror was the final puppet Benedict created, so he didn’t get a chance to give it a nucleus. Thus, the puppet ended up becoming pieces of scrap metal and thrown into the river.

But after seeing Old Nect, Xing Ye realized his original way of thinking was wrong.

The puppets’ bodies were more nimble than he had imagined. If Benedict made a body for himself, then he definitely would’ve been able to finish the project he was making while he was alive.

But he just threw the little mirror’s body away, letting the original collect the copper mirror puppet.

This meant that after becoming a puppet, Benedict clearly didn’t value the puppets he had created and even abandoned his failed projects.

This was completely different from the kind and compassionate Benedict described in the system’s background. It was hard for somebody as suspicious as Xing Ye to believe that Benedict really had kindly feelings towards Puppet City.

Guan Ling wanted to say that Xing Ye saying such empty words would mislead people, but Cao Qian silenced him with a fist.

With iron padding her matchstick body, one fist was enough to create a hole in Guan Ling’s face. It went deep into Guan Ling’s face, leaving behind a fist shaped imprint.

“Shut up and listen to what the teacher… boss says.” Cao Qian stopped Guan Ling’s questions.

Cao Qian covered her mouth- she had almost called Xing Ye teacher.

With no more interruptions, XIng Ye continued talking. “It’s just a hypothesis. We have to have multiple plans, or we’ll be tricked by the game. It’s like the last world’s true ending and surface ending; just a moment of carelessness, and we would’ve missed it. I won’t hide this from you guys: I’ve gone through two worlds and got two books. There’s a bookshelf in the mission space, with the word ‘reincarnation’ written on it. What about you guys?”

The teacher asked a question, so Cao Qian answered. “I’ve gone through several worlds, but I only got a perfect ending in the last world. When I got the book from it, the word reincarnation appeared on my bookshelf.”

Guan Ling raised his hand. “Same as Cao Qian.”

Xing Ye nodded, “It’s not clear what the bookshelves mean right now, but it’s definitely something important. We have to do our utmost to find the story’s perfect conclusion. We have to be prepared in order to collect as many books as possible.

“Suppose Benedict had two attitudes towards the puppets in the city. First is goodwill: he wants to do his best to change the current troubled puppet city to one not so profiteering. Second is malice: since Puppet City can’t be fixed, it would be better to destroy the city and create a new one. This time, he wouldn’t give puppets human nature. That way, wouldn’t he be able to forever keep the utopian Neverland he always desired?

“The worst situation is the second attitude. It means we would have to face the person who created our puppet bodies- the same thing as facing god.

“While Little Nect was fixing my body, I found the puppet’s weak point. With how much it hurts when my nucleus threads are even just touched, destroying the nucleus will definitely kill the puppet. Our bodies aren’t unkillable. If Benedict decides to start from there, then even with all our special abilities, we won’t be able to defeat him. After all, he’s the one who understands our bodies best.”

Xing Ye’s words made Guan Ling tremble.

“So, my idea is to not let down our guard. If we run into Master Benedict, we have to use our own eyes to judge him. We can’t let ourselves be influenced by the narrator’s judgement.”

“Apart from that,” Xing Ye looked at Guan Ling, “You offered great help to us earlier and also showed that you want to join our team. I’m not completely on board with accepting you yet, but since we’ll have to explore the illegal mine together, I need to understand your abilities, personality, goal, and the way you joined the game.”

Guan Ling felt like he was being stared at by the principal and couldn’t help but straighten his back as he answered, “For my abilities, I need to first explain how I entered the game. I have an issue with gambling. Because of that, I even lost my house and got divorced by my wife. The evening my wife left with my child, I felt like I couldn’t go on living anymore. I drank until I was drunk and cried that I would do anything if my wife and child could come back.

“Then I heard a notification by my ear, asking me if I would really do anything. Obviously, I said yes. Then my beer bottle’s label turned into a QR code. I scanned it to enter the game.”

You could also enter the game like that? Xing Ye listened seriously.

Cao Qian continued, “Because of how I entered the game, my starting skills were Losing the Family Fortune and A Shattered Mirror Put Together.”

There were no phones in the puppet world and the wristband couldn’t show his abilities, so Guan Ling could only explain it verbally.

Losing the Family Fortune is a defense ability. When Guan Ling has zero QR codes, he could pay 50 points to get a one time absolute defensive ability. With this ability, no matter how strong the opponent is and no matter how many special abilities they have, they can’t harm Guan Ling or his protected teammates. Truly, a dead pig doesn’t fear scalding water and the shoeless aren’t afraid of new shoes.

A Shattered Mirror Put Together is a healing, restorative ability. It can repair a damaged person or thing. It costs 50 points per use and can only be used thrice within 24 hours.

“Because of this Losing the Family Fortune ability, Di Kuang would never let me take any QR codes when we enter a world so I could only ever use my starting ability. I want to collect a lot of points so once I become a high level player, I can exchange points for money so my wife and child can come back to me.” Guan Ling said.

Cao Qian shook her head, “If you don’t give up gambling, your beloved won’t forgive you.”

Xing Ye didn’t care about Guan Ling’s life in the real world. Those with sad stories were too many to count. He didn’t have time to care about each and every one.

He only cared about Guan Ling’s starting abilities and whether he would betray them or not. In other words, maybe he could use Guan Ling’s gambler mentality to control him, leaving Guan Ling no way to betray him. After all, that Shattered Mirror Put Together ability was very useful.

Guan Ling also mentioned a new way of joining the game. This time, Xing Ye asked Cao Qian, “How did you join the game?”

Cao Qian answered, “I really like reading stories on the internet. One day, I was fantasizing about being a female lead in a story. Then, when I was reading stories on Jinjiang, a page with a QR code suddenly opened. I couldn’t help but scan it and ended up joining the game.

> Jinjiang literature, also known as jjwxc, is a Chinese webnovel platform where High Energy QR Code and a ton of other novels (including most BL novels) are hosted!

“I was reading a book where the female lead had extraordinary strength and strong fighting power at the time. It’s probably because I really like those kinds of female leads, so my starting abilities ended up being like her’s.

“If I had to say I had something in common with Guan Ling, it’d probably be that I found life too dull.”

Cao Qian’s sister, Linda, also seemed to think that.

So the system would randomly choose people who weren’t interested in life to join the game world? Then why the little mirror and Xing Shuo?

The little mirror was optimistic and cheerful. He never found life meaningless. There was no way a QR code suddenly appeared in front of him, he should’ve just woken up and found himself in the game.

Then what about Xing Shuo? How did he enter the game?

Xing Ye suddenly realised that he might’ve not understood Xing Shuo at all.