Knock knock knock.

After drinking a few sips of water, Xu Nanxing handed the water bladder to Gao Qingzhu: "Drink some, after walking for so long, replenish some water." ”

After taking the water bladder, Gao Qingzhu didn't drink it immediately, but noticed the old man rushing in the distance again.

"I'm bored, here I go again." Xu Nanxing scolded, "It's been six times, what the hell is that old man." ”

Speaking of which, the two of them had been walking on this long trail with no end for nearly half a day, and they had met the old man six times alone, and they really didn't understand what the situation was.

It's like ...... It's like falling into an endless loop.

"Are we hitting the wall?" Gao Qingzhu asked.

"Not really." Xu Nanxing quickly denied this statement, "The trees and mountain walls on the side of the road are different from before, although there is only one road, but I still made a mark just in case, after walking for so long, I didn't see the mark I made before." ”

"The old man who ran over......" Gao Qingzhu fell into thought, and couldn't figure it out after thinking about it.

Xu Nanxing sighed: "I thought about it carefully, in my memory, it seems that there are no similar alien creatures that will cause such an incident to happen, perhaps, we really fell into a certain formation." ”

"Maybe it's a strange creature you haven't heard of." Gao Qingzhu looked at the old man who was getting closer and closer, and after noticing the other party's gaze on him, he said slowly, "There are so many alien creatures in the River of Time Flow, you can't have heard of every one of them, right?" ”

Xu Nanxing shrugged: "Yes." ”

The old man had come from far and near, and he had already arrived in front of them at this moment, thinking that he would ignore them directly like Fang Cai, but who expected that this time, he actually stopped......

The vigilance was suddenly pulled to the highest, and Xu Nanxing hurriedly dragged Gao Qingzhu behind him.

I saw the old man's bloodshot eyes staring straight at the two, the three of them did not say a word, the atmosphere was silent for a while, there was no sound, and this secluded mountain path fell into a dead silence at once.

The old man in front of him, disheveled, with clear bones like firewood, was so thin that it seemed that the wind could blow it away, but the hardness of his face made people feel that he was not old, as can be seen from the posture of the previous run.

But his gray-black skin has no spirit, as if he is sick, and he is thin and only has thin skin.

"Who the hell are you?" Finally, after a period of silence, Xu Nanxing couldn't help but speak.

At first, the old man did not answer him, but rolled his eyes, and his gaze wandered between the two in front of him.

The pair of sunken eye sockets were full of wrinkles, large and small age spots covered his face, and only slightly on the side of his neck, the chapped skin was moved, as if it would be completely shattered in the next second.

For a long time, just when Gao Qingzhu and Xu Nanxing thought that he couldn't speak, he actually spoke, and the shriveled and rough voice like a dead tree squeezed out of his throat stiffly: "You guys, why don't you run?" ”

"What?" Xu Nanxing frowned, obviously not understanding what he said.

Suddenly, as if stimulated by something, the old man suddenly raised his hand, stretched out the thin and thin index finger with distinct bones, pointed directly at the two of them, and shouted: "Don't stop!" Come on! Run! ”

This sound startled Xu Nanxing and Gao Qingzhu, and the two retreated to the side of the mountain wall, looking at the old man who seemed to have gone crazy, suddenly took a step and ran again.

He waved his arms quickly, and headed straight for the other side of the trail with his still heavy steps.

He said, "Run! Run! Come on! Don't stop! If you stop, you won't be able to get out for the rest of your life! ”

"Neurotic, huh?" Xu Nanxing couldn't help but scold.

Gao Qingzhu didn't speak, she always felt that the old man did this for a reason, she retracted her gaze from the old man, and then fell on Xu Nanxing, and said, "Does he want to tell us something?" ”

"Tell us not to stop? Running all the time? ”

"......" Gao Qingzhu was silent.

Speaking of which, the sight on the side of the road has always been different.

The shape of the trees, the unevenness of the mountain walls, the dwarf grass on the ground, and even the rocks on the side of the road, neither of them had ever seen what they had imagined.

Maybe it's not paying attention?

Gao Qingzhu quickly denied this idea, after all, Xu Nanxing said that he had made a mark, and where he had made a mark, they had not encountered it a second time.

Perhaps, this road is so long; Or perhaps, this road is not long in the first place, but it is because they have fallen into a certain formation that they think that this road has become so long.

Shaking her head, Gao Qingzhu smiled self-deprecatingly, she was almost defeated by her messy thoughts.

"What are you thinking?" Xu Nanxing patted Gao Qingzhu's shoulder and pulled her far away thoughts back, "If you are serious for a while and laugh for a while, let's find a way to get out." ”

Yes, find a way to get out, but where does this come from?

Once again, the two were in a state of confusion.

"Perhaps, it's not us who are trapped, but the old man?" Cold, Gao Qingzhu suddenly said.

Xu Nanxing, who was about to continue walking, took back the steps he had just taken after hearing what Gao Qingzhu said.

He turned around and looked at Gao Qingzhu suspiciously: "What did you just say?" ”

He stammered a little, apparently not expecting her to say this.

"I'm talking nonsense." Even Gao Qingzhu himself didn't expect that the casual mention of a sentence would become the fuse for Xu Nanxing to think of important things.

"What do you remember?" Gao Qingzhu saw that Xu Nanxing's expression was slightly wrong.

I saw him nod and said, "When you say this, I do remember that there is a kind of alien creature that seems to be able to create a strange situation like the one now." ”

"What is it?" At this moment, Gao Qingzhu's curiosity was completely suspended, and he suddenly became interested.

"It has a nickname, it's called a perpetual motion machine." Xu Nanxing had just spoken, and in the direction behind him, he heard the footsteps of the old man walking quickly.

The two of them turned around and looked squarely at the running old man.

"And what about its original name? What is Competency? How do we get out? Gao Qingzhu threw out three questions at once.

Xu Nanxing patiently explained one by one: "The original name of this alien creature is 'gear', which is a kind of, um...... It can be said that it is an ADHD alien creature, which usually creates its own space, and has one of the creatures in it continue to do the same action over and over again, as if it is doing some kind of experiment. ”

"But we're in this space, why is it only the old man who keeps running?" Gao Qingzhu was puzzled.

"Didn't you notice?" Xu Nanxing pursed his lips and said in the direction of the old man, "Every time we stop, the old man will appear." ”

When he said this, Gao Qingzhu found out that this was indeed the case.

The old man would appear every time he stopped to rest, not at a specific point in time.

"So how can this situation be solved?"

"Now that you know what's going on, it's easy." Xu Nanxing raised his mouth and smiled, looking very confident, and asked, "Then do you know, why does the old man keep running?" ”

Gao Qingzhu shook his head, squatted down and pounded his sore calves, raised his eyes and frowned at Xu Nanxing, meaning to let him explain quickly.

Xu Nanxing understood and explained: "Because the space created by the 'gear' is not the valley where we are located, the marks I made before are all wasted. ”

"Then ......," Gao Qingzhu understood, "you mean, that old man is the space it creates?" No, how can the sun in the sky explain? Time hasn't changed, and it's also the ghost of 'gears'? ”

"Bingo, the first answer is correct, but the second half of the sentence is wrong." Xu Nanxing snapped his fingers, "One more thing, why does he appear when we stop, don't forget, it's called a perpetual motion machine, it wants all the creatures that stop to work, so it will appear to remind us." ”

"And this sun is the same as the Frost Valley, it seems that we left there, but we should still be within the bounds of the Frost Valley enchantment, but here is daytime, but the valley is eternal night. Maybe walking out of this long road can be regarded as truly leaving this ghost place. ”

After saying that, Xu Nanxing looked at the road with no end in sight ahead, and sighed secretly, hoping to get out of here before the water source ran out.

Gao Qingzhu was speechless for a moment: "That 'gear' is quite boring...... I'm here to remind us, but is this meaningful? ”

"No, of course it doesn't make sense." Xu Nanxing smiled, "That guy is just so boring, alien creatures are actually the same as humans, they all have their own thoughts, 'gear', you can understand it as a mental illness in human beings, and the brain is abnormal." ”

"Who do you say is not in their right mind?"

Suddenly, a hoarse voice without a trace of emotional fluctuations appeared in the ears of the two, which was very weird.

Turning back suddenly, the two of them found the old man standing in the middle of the path, staring blankly at them.

Xu Nanxing didn't expect him to respond to what he said, and he was looking embarrassed at the moment.

"You just said, who is not in their right mind?!" The old man asked again, but this time, his tone was obviously much heavier than before.

Slightly startled by his sudden increase in volume, Xu Nanxing frowned and took a step back, he grabbed Gao Qingzhu's wrist, for fear that the other party would hurt her.

"Say you're not in your right mind." Unexpectedly, Gao Qingzhu behind him suddenly spoke.

Xu Nanxing was taken aback, isn't this a perpetual motion machine that is clearly angering the nervousness?

Green bamboo! You really dare to say anything!

Sure enough, after the old man in front of him heard Gao Qingzhu's words, his wrinkled face sank instantly.

Xuan even heard his ugly voice say, "In that case, then you can run down with me?" The kind of one for a lifetime! ”

The old man's voice gradually became sharper, and the wrinkled old face was already oozing, and then it became more hideous.

He stretched out his skinny arms, the slender, cracked nails of his palms, which were at least one knuckle long, and his fingers were slightly curved, but they pointed at the two of them with a gloomy attitude.

"Qingzhu, I'll run when I count to three, don't hesitate." In front of him, Xu Nanxing's voice came, he said it very softly, but it was extremely clear.

But Gao Qingzhu just didn't play her cards according to common sense, she tore Xu Nanxing's hand away, and stood up from behind him with a stride.

"What are you doing?" Xu Nanxing was stunned and looked at her in a daze.

Unexpectedly, Gao Qingzhu smiled faintly and said to the old man: "If this is to run with you for the rest of your life, how boring it is, otherwise, you leave this valley with us, and when you get outside, there are many people who can accompany you to run all the way." ”

Unexpectedly, after hearing Gao Qingzhu's words, the old man's facial expression softened a lot, and he looked at her suspiciously and asked, "Are you serious?" There are a lot of people outside the valley who can accompany me? ”

"Yes, there are countless people in this world." Gao Qingzhu was obviously fooling people, but she was telling the truth.

Xu Nanxing watched stunned from the side, without saying a word.