The corridor was covered with graffiti, and the little apprentice stopped outside the iron door at the end of the corridor, and before she could knock on the door, a voice came from inside: "Please come in." ”

Qi Yan opened the curtain and bowed into the house, only candles were lit in the room, and the light was dim and unclear.

The windows on all sides of the room are tightly locked, the shelves on the south and west sides are filled with crystal pendulums and other objects, and the east side is planted with dozens of rows of exotic herbs with fill lights.

"Good evening," said the witch, who was sitting at a table covered with black flannel, noticing Qi Jiu's gaze, "it has been raining in the city for most of the year, and there is hardly any sunlight, and the herbs will not survive without a fill light." ”

As she spoke, she motioned to Qi Yan, "Please sit down, what do you want to count?" ”

Qi Zhen got to the point: "Last time in the hot spring hotel, you said that I have a strong energy connection with the dungeon, I would like to ask, if I didn't enter the dungeon, would the connection between my energy field and the dungeon also exist?" ”

The last time the witch mentioned the matter of energy connection, Qi Zhen had an idea.

He needs to go into different dungeons to find the abandoned hidden plot line in order to unleash the energy of that guy in 079. However, not all copies have the character played by 079, in order to improve efficiency, his previous practice was to let the little gray cat choose a familiar copy card, and then manipulate the next random copy through the "European Emperor Experiment".

He was able to enter the "404 Hot Spring Street" where the male oiran existed, relying on the "European Emperor Control Random Method".

But the disadvantages of this method are also obvious, first, although it is random through luck manipulation, but in essence, the gambling is still too big; Second, he needed to get his hands on a large enough number of quest cards, which in itself was not an easy task.

The most important thing is that the use of the "European Emperor Control Random Method" will inevitably implicate Qin Rang, once or twice may not be a big problem, but after all, it is a matter of gambling on his life, and the other party is not obliged to lead the way for himself every time, so this is not a long-term solution.

Qi Ji continued to find a new solution until the witch told him that the energy field in his body was closely connected to the dungeon.

Is it possible to use this "connection" to control randomness?

"Connections don't disappear for no reason, no matter where you are," the witch had a keen instinct and judgment, and she looked at Qi Zhen for a few seconds, then asked, "Do you want to enter the corresponding quest through your connection to the dungeon?" ”

Qi Yan nodded: "That's right." ”

"The 'random' rule itself is a two-way choice, except that this choice is not a choice of our will, but a mutual selection of energy and energy," the witch explained, "It makes sense in theory, but I haven't practiced it in practice, and I've never seen a similar case, so I can't give you a definite answer." ”

"After all, no traveler is born with an energetic connection to the dungeon like you." The witch was very measured, and did not ask Qi Ju why she wanted to enter the corresponding dungeon.

"So, then again, if you're born with a strong energy connection to some dungeon, you can theoretically enter it by enhancing the connection, but not precisely enough to select a certain dungeon, and can only enter from a relatively large random range to a relatively narrow range," the witch tries to explain in a more plain way, "similar to going from a large pool to a small pool." ”

Qi Yan listened very carefully, and waited for the other party to stop before speaking: "But the copies in the small pool are all obviously connected to me, right?" ”

The witch nodded, "That's right. ”

"I want to try," Qi Zhen said firmly, "please tell me how to do it?" ”

The witch looked at him fixedly: "All I can do is to use rituals to help make the connection between you and the dungeon more 'revealed', so as to increase the probability of entering the corresponding dungeon." ”

"There's a probability that this thing will fail, and there's no way to measure it," the witch explained conservatively, "and is that okay?" ”

Qi Zhen nodded firmly, and continued to ask, "What price do I have to pay you?" ”

The witch smiled and shook her head: "I know that we were able to survive the 404 Hot Spring Hotel and get a lot of money, which is almost all due to you, and it is more than enough as a reward." ”

"Of course, the main reason is that I'm not sure how much I can help you, and in principle, I don't charge clients who can't give a definite answer." The witch added.

Witches are keenly aware of people and know how to use what words on whom.

She could see that the "weakness" of this polite young man was principle, and he was extremely interested in principle, so he would never let others abandon it.

Sure enough, Qi Yan only hesitated slightly, then nodded and said, "Then I'm sorry for you." ”

Witch: "I'll pick a suitable date for the ceremony, but before I can do that, I'll need you to provide something that represents the connection." ”

Qi Zhen frowned slightly: "What do you mean by the object that represents "connection"...?" ”

The witch gestured: "It's probably like a figurative object that symbolizes the "connection" between you and the dungeon, or an iconic symbol, or even a key word or phrase, you have to think of it yourself, I can't give you an accurate reference." ”

Qi Yan only thought for a moment, the corners of his lips curled unconsciously, he took out the sticky notes and pen he carried with him, and quickly wrote three numbers on the paper-

079。

He handed the note to the witch, who looked at the overly simplistic content on the note and raised her eyebrows: "Are you sure?" ”

Qi Yan nodded: "Sure." ”

I don't know if it's a witch's illusion, she feels that Qi Jiu's eyes are lit up at this moment, as if she has talked about something that the other party is very interested in.

Tut. It doesn't look simple.

But the witch is very professional, and since the client has no intention of talking deeply, she will not take the liberty to dig into the reason.

"Well, I'll let you come when I've fixed the date of the ceremony," said the witch, raising her eyelids and glancing at him, "but you're not here today just because of this?" ”

Qi Yan nodded: "You said the other day that if you are interested in 'bug', I will come to you." ”

"Or... You knew from the beginning that I was going to be interested, so you gave me the business card? Qi Zhen refocused on the witch sitting in the shadows.

The witch was also very frank, and said with a smile: "That's true, when I gave you the business card, I imagined that if you came to me for divination, after solving your appeal, I would reveal to you about the 'bug', but I didn't expect you to take the initiative to bring it up." ”

The witch gave her business card to Qi Ji when she was in the subway station, on the one hand, she really appreciated Qi Ji's performance in the "404 Hot Spring Hotel" dungeon, and she could get the most generous rewards after the dungeon ended, all because Qi Ji opened the hidden core line of the dungeon and successfully closed the entire dungeon, so she wanted to give the other party a certain reward through her expertise;

On the other hand, she is also interested in this special traveler.

Qi Yan's eyelids jumped, and he asked bluntly, "Do you think that the bug in the "Rules Illustrated Book" has something to do with me?" ”

Chapter 63: Dream Backtracking

The witch stared into his eyes, as if judging something, and replied ambiguously, "Because you are the only player I have ever seen who is intrinsically connected to the dungeon, I don't think it is just a coincidence that such a player appeared at this time." ”

"If my hunch is correct, it shouldn't have been long since you entered the Rules Book, right? Although judging from your control of the dungeon and your decision to the crisis, it doesn't look like a newcomer. The witch said thoughtfully.

Qi Jiu, who was seen through by the other party, smiled calmly: "I am indeed a newcomer with little experience. ”

The witch shrugged, agreeing that Qi was a newcomer, but the "inexperienced" statement was debatable.

As paradoxical as it sounds, witches have always trusted their instincts.

"I mean, there's probably some causal relationship between your presence and a bug in the system," the witch explained, "though there's no way to prove my point yet." ”

There is nothing good or bad about cause and effect in itself, and witches express their opinions very objectively.

Qi Ji remained silent: "So what's going on with the bug?" ”

The witch sighed softly, "Maybe you already know about the Death Row Defendants. ”

Qi Zhen nodded: "As far as I know, death row inmates will be composed of death row prisoners in the real world, and after they are sentenced to death, they enter the "Rule Illustrated" through illegal operations. ”

Ji Xiaoye had popularized this term with him before, and in the first dungeon, he met Wu Ghost and Wife Killer, both of whom were members of the Death Row Society.

In Ji Xiaoye's words, the Death Row Prisoners Association is a very dangerous group of people, who not only squeeze out the survival resources of normal travelers, but also snatch the props and rewards in the dungeon by any means.

The witch nodded, and then she tried to fiddle with the crystal stone gesture, "We have speculated before, because there is some unknown bug in the system first, so the first person who gets stuck in the bug appears, whether that person is a member of the death row club or not, but we know that the system has the ability to heal itself, and can automatically find and fix the bug that suddenly appears." ”

"But if someone obstructs it, knows about it, and uses some means to interfere with the automatic repair function of the system, and by constantly stuffing people into the copy, this vulnerability is getting bigger and bigger, and the system continues to send repair warnings but can't really be repaired, and over time, the whole system will be chaotic, and even face the risk of collapse, is this understandable?" The witch patiently explained to Qi Ji.

Qi Yan quickly sorted out the information points given by the witch: "Because death row inmates will continue to send in a steady stream of death row prisoners through card bugs, you think they are the root cause of the expansion of system vulnerabilities, right?" ”

The witch rarely showed a solemn expression: "Well, their existence itself is a violation, and the system judges it as a mistake, but the system can't take the initiative to eliminate the error, so it's been a vicious circle, of course, these are still our inferences." ”

"But because of the speculation, I used the card array to calculate and got almost the same guidance."

Qi Yan quickly understood what the other party meant, and he quickly cleared his mind: "So if you want to solve the bug, you can consider starting with the death row prisoners, but it's not as simple as eliminating their people, because the system chaos is not just because of their existence, but to figure out why they exist and what forces are manipulating this bug, and you think I am a special existence, probably some kind of breakthrough, right?" ”

The witch was stunned for a moment and smiled: "Look, the guidance given to me by the card array is never wrong, and you are really suitable to participate in the investigation of this matter." ”

"If—" The witch paused and looked back at Qi Jiu, "If you don't mind, can you tell me how you got in?" ”

In the "Rules Book", it seems that everyone is very taboo to talk about the cause of their death, which is also part of personal privacy.

Now Qi Ji is in the witch's spirit field, in a disadvantaged state, she has the ability to obtain Qi Ji's private information through hypnosis, but she did not do this, but respected Qi Ji's wishes and asked frankly.

Qi Yan nodded and said in an understated tone: "I was shot and brought in." ”

His tone was so calm that he didn't seem to be describing his own death.

"I'm sorry," the witch was slightly stunned, "did you see the murderer before you died?" ”

Qi Yan shook his head: "He fired the gun from behind me, and before I could turn back, I was already dying." ”

"But I'm trying to figure out who the other person is." Qi looked at the witch fixedly, he knew the purpose of the other party's question.

At the moment, his interests and the witch's interests are aligned, and they both want to find out who the murderer is.

"Maybe I can try to help you." Said the witch.

Qi Jiu: "Then it's troublesome." ”

According to the witch's instructions, Qi Zhen lay down on the hypnotic chair.

Beside him was a blue-purple plant fill light, and the witch's herbs reflected a strange light in the light.

Qi Jiu closed his eyes, and blue-purple light dots danced on the retina.

The sound of rain falling and dampness in the air came from the closed windowpanes, and the dancing blue-purple light dots gradually diffused and expanded in the rain, and finally connected into patches and spread into a dazzling light.

In this rainy and dark night, in this room without open windows, Qi Jiu's illusion is brighter than daytime at this moment.

Just like that night, he stood on the zebra crossing at the crossroads, and the snow around him lit up the night—

Temporary traffic lights at intersections are flashing.

Several young people returning from the party were partying across the road, but this time Qi Yan didn't pay attention to them, he stared at the man in the black trench coat who hid himself among the party youth.

The red light goes out and the green light comes on.

The man in the black trench coat mingled with the party youth and walked towards him from the other end of the zebra crossing.

Because it was a dream backtrack, Qi Ji couldn't make any moves and choices, let alone control the occurrence of the incident.

He could only stay in his own body, observing the murderer who was getting closer and closer.

The murderer was as tall as himself, but the brim of his hat was pressed low, almost covering most of his face, and he was walking against the light, so Qi Yan couldn't see his face at all.

But Qi Yan noticed again that the cuffs of the other party's windbreaker were stained with gray cat hair.

Is it Ash?

passed by each other, and at this moment, Qi Yan wanted to hold each other's hands and confront him head-on.

Why did you send him to the "Rules Book"? What is the purpose of the other party? Is the other party related to the thief who stole 079's data?

It's a pity that Qi Zhen can't do anything during the dream regression.

The cold muzzle of the gun against his back, followed by the familiar sound of a bullet being loaded—

"Don't make a sound, don't look back."