"It was like time had stopped, but my consciousness was still working." Now Hu Ma said in a reminiscent tone, "But I couldn't move, and I could only watch the undead shake the bell for the third time." ”

"It didn't shake it, did it?" I asked, "Otherwise, you wouldn't be standing here now." ”

"Do you know what kind of undead it is?" He still didn't seem to know the details of the undead.

"It is the undead spirit known as the 'Hand of the Cracks', and the ancient bell in its hand can make a bell with magical powers. Anyone who hears this bell will be affected by the speed at which they can move forward in time. I said.

"It's just people who are affected, not all matter?" He asked.

"Yes. If people are 'dust' that is carried by the endless river of time and moves at the same speed, then the hand of the crack has the ability to 'make the dust heavier'. To put it simply, because you move slower through time, the movement of matter around you appears to be slower. And when you stop moving forward in time, the movement of matter around you seems to stop. I said, "Of course, even the light stops during the time it stops, and you can't see anything at all, and you don't have the concept of temperature anymore." But because this is a dream, I guess it's not so particular. ”

He nodded heavily, and asked again, "What happens if I hear the third bell?" ”

"According to the records left by the mediums of the Hell Holocaust, you will be locked up in a completely static time without light and heat, forever, while maintaining your normal thinking function." I said, "If there is a very small chance of liberation after becoming the living dead, then there is no hope of ending up like this." ”

He pressed his heart in great fear, "Fortunately, it didn't turn out like this." ”

"How did you break the game?" I asked, "Is it a rune array?" ”

"Yes......" he nodded, and asked curiously, "how do you know?" ”

"If it were, I could only come up with this solution. Psionic energy is a universal force, even beyond the concepts of time and space, but because the human imagination cannot transcend these concepts, it often does not play this characteristic. I said, "But if you give your psionic energy to some special runes, you can even use it in the time and space where it has stopped." The people of the Hell Havoc era used this method to ambush the hands of the cracks. While the Hand of the Cracks can be resurrected indefinitely, it is usually reincarnated far away. ”

"Well, the undead is weird, but its body is fragile...... " he said, suddenly silent.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm ashamed to say that I didn't know what would happen when the third bell rang, but I knew that something really bad was going to happen. That's what my inspiration tells me. He bowed his head in shame, "And I was facing that kind of crisis, and I had a lot of bad thoughts in my heart. ”

"I suppose the survivors are just Dream Dwellers, not real human beings, so why should I fight for them?" he muttered. It's better to just run away with your buddies and leave everyone else here. Even if a few more people died, it was all the fault of the undead and the living dead, not mine......"

"Surely everyone would have this thought." I say.

"But when I see the survivors smiling, I want to be with them." "And if I think when they're crying, I'm thinking they're dream dwellers anyway, and I don't share their suffering." Such...... I always felt that it was wrong. ”

"Perhaps." I'm noncommittal.

Whether to choose emotion or rationality is a question that he must choose by himself, and he can only choose by himself.

I turned to asking, "So, what happened after that?" ”

He collected his mood and continued.

*

Back to the description just now: at the moment when the hand of the crack was about to shake the ancient bell for the third time, a large piece of light suddenly appeared on the ground under its feet, like a carpet made of light. This is undoubtedly a runic array that the Prophet has set up inside the Vault in advance to fight against the undead of its type.

Standing in the light carpet, it suddenly stiffened, as if its joints had been stuffed into concrete.

As soon as it stopped, time resumed its flow, and the soothsayers rushed upon it. It tried to shake the ancient bell again, and although the action was extremely difficult, it did so once. And so time slowed down again.

Just as it was about to continue ringing, a gunshot rang out, and the ancient bell in its hand was shattered by a bullet from nowhere.

I saw that Xu Fu was like a ghost, and he came to the back of its side at some point, he threw his cane aside, and held a pistol in his left hand, and the muzzle of the gun was smoking.

Time returned to normal flow again.

The hand of the crack did not look back at Xu Fu, but only stretched out his bone-like hand, and the scattered fragments of the ancient bell were like going back in time, trying to recondense in its hand. When Xu Fu saw this scene, he threw the pistol aside and took off a double-barreled shotgun from his back.

Then, he staggered forward and pressed the muzzle of his gun against the back of the hand's head.

He pulled the trigger with a blank face.

There was a bang, and the head of the hand in the gap suddenly fell apart.

After that, the battle became lackluster.

In addition to the large number of living dead enemies who broke into the shelter, only the Hands of the Cracks and the Werewolves are worth mentioning. Werewolves, on the other hand, have no other messy abilities other than immortality, super-fast regeneration, and strong flesh. Although the flames of flax could not kill the werewolf, the prophet was prepared, he induced the werewolf's path, caused it to fall into a hidden pit, and then detonated the psionic explosives inside the pit, successfully burying the werewolf alive.

The living dead seem to be "outnumbered", but they are the most familiar opponents of the survivors. Some of the survivors who are not good at fighting only need to flee down the stairs to the top of the shelter and then drop the heavy steel door panels, which is enough to be invincible; Other survivors who are good at fighting hurry up and put on a full set of cut-proof suits and helmets, even if they can't completely kill the living dead with ammunition, they won't be bitten and scratched by the living dead.

When flax burned all the living dead in the shelter, the battle ended.

The children who were taken to hide by Xu Fu were also miraculously uninjured.

However, the survivor who witnessed the man in the mirror was eventually bitten by the living dead who accidentally broke in, and the flax burned him to death, freeing his soul. In addition, a small number of people died in the battle. The surviving people came to thank Hu Ma and Xu Fu one after another, and then turned around and threw themselves into the work of cleaning up the battlefield. The death of the companion does not seem to bring much sadness to the surviving people, who already have the spirit of seeing death as home. On the contrary, Hu Ma couldn't let go for a long time, he first condemned Xu Fu's dangerous move of breaking into the battlefield with a serious face, and then hesitated, telling Xu Fu the idea that he wanted to abandon the survivors just now.

"Surely everyone would have this thought." Xu Fu comforted.

"But I don't think that way normally." Hu Ma looked at his hands, "I feel like I'm not being like myself at that time." ”

Xu Fu looked at him and suddenly said, "Since this is the case, you might as well act with your feelings." ”

Hu Ma said blankly: "Follow the feelings? ”

"Do you want to be happy with them when they are happy?"

"Yes."

"Then, if you choose to run away from them when you should be suffering with them, then you will definitely punish yourself." Xu Fu said slowly, "Because, even if they are fake, the feelings they bring you are real." Their presence or absence cannot bring any change to the real world, but it can bring change to the real you. In this way, they undoubtedly have authenticity. ”

"They're real too?" Hu Ma looked at the survivors.

"Maybe everything here isn't the dream of the dream monster, it's your dream. Survivors and 'black' are all residents of your dreams. Xu Fu said, "Even I may be the product of this dream, and I will cease to exist when you wake up." But what I say still makes sense to you, doesn't it? ”

"How could you be a fake?"

"It's just hypothetical."

Hu Ma thought for a moment, and then asked, "In other words, I should fight for the survivors?" ”

"No, I mean—" Xu Fu said, "you should fight for yourself." ”

At this time, the nun also came over and thanked Hu Ma and Xu Fu.

Unlike the other survivors, the nun looked at the few who had died, and sighed. Hu Ma wanted to comfort her, but couldn't find a good word, "If these are just dreams, not reality......"

"If it's really a dream, then it's all a dream." The nun said, "None of us are real people, and this kind of hell is not real. How nice it would be. ”

With that, she seemed to have made up her mind and walked in the direction of the prophet.

However, Xu Fu was one step ahead of her and took the lead in the prophet.

The prophet, who was in the crowd, saw Xu Fu coming and smiled, "Thank you for being active just now." ”

"Even if you don't have me and him, you can finish it. You're always prepared. Xu Fu said, "Besides, those two undead, those living dead, weren't they all brought by you personally?" ”

Hearing this, everyone was stunned.

*

I have long since learned from the doctors of Turin that the prophets are the ones who put the spirits of the dead and the living dead into the town. Therefore, even when I heard Hu Ma talk about this, I was not moved, I was just curious about why Xu Fu was able to learn about it. However, I have also speculated that perhaps it is because the doppelganger is connected to me in some way, and when he sees the secret room in the flax narrative, his reaction is more like seeing the scenery I saw in my dreams and dreams. It is likely that this led him to become suspicious of the prophet and to investigate some clues.

But the people at that time were different, and no one expected Xu Fu to say such a thing. Hu Ma was also shocked and at a loss for a while.

The soothsayer retracted his smile and said expressionlessly, "Why do you say that? ”

The survivors cast questioning or angry glances at Xu Fu, no matter how popular Xu Fu was in the shelter, it was not his reliance on such nonsense.

Having said that, with their understanding of Xu Fu, they also understand that he is not the kind of person who talks nonsense. Since it has been spoken, there must be corresponding reasoning and evidence, otherwise it is just self-inflicted humiliation.

Yet, while everyone was waiting for him to come up with a brilliant reasoning, he didn't.

He simply took something out of his pocket and threw it to the prophet.

Prophet - Actually, according to the rules, he has changed his nickname now, but for the sake of convenience, let's continue to call him Prophet here.

The soothsayer took the object, glanced down, then looked up and looked around.

"Yes." He said, "I admit that I did it all." ”