She was Bai Jiu?
Bai Ci was taken aback for a moment. Fortunately, she was currently looking down and wringing out her wet clothes, so the physical movement hid her momentary lapse.
She looked up and gave everyone a faint smile, nodding as a greeting.
Taking advantage of this action, Bai Ci quickly scanned the expressions of her classmates. None of them showed any reaction to her being called Bai Jiu.
In other words, in their perception, she was indeed named Bai Jiu.
Did this mean her identity in this scene was supposed to be “Bai Jiu”?
“Ah, like the beautiful jade. A wonderful name, a wonderful name,” the man in the suit chimed in supportively. He then waved over the other three classmates who were still standing politely. “Come sit, come sit! Hurry and warm yourselves by the fire to dry your wet clothes.”
The group walked over to the campfire and sat down, gathering around to warm themselves.
The theater was so dilapidated that the remaining chairs, tables, and props were very easy to break apart. Along with some scattered scrap paper, they made perfect firewood.
She didn't know how they had divided the labor or if it was just tacitly understood, but maintaining the campfire was the job of the plaid shirt guy.
A pile of scrap paper was stacked beside him. Using the firelight, he carefully read the information on each page before tossing them one by one into the flames to burn.
Bai Ci observed this. This plaid shirt guy, Fu Yan, was highly likely a player. Only players would pay so much attention to information that might be hidden in the random corners of an instance.
Seizing a moment when everyone was warming themselves and chatting, Bai Ci feigned curiosity and asked, “Brother Fu, is there something written on those papers? You're reading them so seriously.”
Fu Yan looked to be around the same age as Bai Ci's actual age, both appearing to have been in the workforce for two or three years. But since Bai Ci was currently playing a college student, she shamelessly called someone of her own age “brother.”
In any case, in this instance, she was determined to play the role of a college student with eyes full of clear, naive stupidity.
Fu Yan looked up, scrutinized Bai Ci for a moment, and then said, “Nothing important. Just some scattered records about this Magnolia Theater. I'm just passing the time. You can read them too if you like.”
“Since you've already finished reading them, why don't you tell us about it? There's no point in keeping it a secret anyway. I'm from the Hedonists, so I won't get in your way,” the camera girl, Cheng Xi, said bluntly, pausing her wiping.
She was also a player.
To avoid raising suspicions among the NPCs, Cheng Xi casually added a fake explanation: “'Hedonist' is a slang term in our circle. It refers to people who just want to enjoy life and have no competitive drive or ambition.”
To be precise, players of the Hedonists faction were a group who, for various reasons, were unwilling to return to the real world. They enjoyed living under the Anomalous Infection, didn't care much about instance evaluations, and had a very laid-back attitude.
That was how the Hedonists were: if they could survive, they survived; if they couldn't, or if they had lived enough, they died. Their own comfort was what mattered most.
Fu Yan accepted Cheng Xi's initiative to show goodwill, or at least he appeared to on the surface.
“This Magnolia Theater was funded and built by a wealthy merchant named Bai Yu. Not only was he obsessed with theater, but he was also a playwright. He wrote the scripts himself and had the actors in the theater rehearse them.”
“However, the scripts he wrote were obscure and difficult to understand. Aside from a brief period of excitement when it first opened, which drew a decent crowd, the business gradually declined afterward.”
“The final play performed at the theater was called 《The Feast of Sacrifice》. After that play ended, the wealthy merchant and all the actors in the theater vanished mysteriously and were never seen again.”
“Afterward, because there was no one to manage it, the theater fell into ruin and became what it is today.”
“《The Feast of Sacrifice》?” The worker tried his best to sound dismissive, but his fear was hard to hide. “What a terrible name. Sounds incredibly unlucky.”
“And that mysterious disappearance nonsense is probably just some stunt. Maybe that wealthy merchant was in debt and ran off with the actors, making up this ghost story to fool people.”
The man in the suit quickly smoothed things over. “Oh, Brother Wang Er, don't say that. It's all in the past. It might just be some fictional tabloid story. Don't take it to heart. We're just here to shelter from the rain, and we'll leave as soon as it stops.”
Just then, footsteps echoed again. Immediately after, three people walked in, looking quite disheveled.
Their clothes were soaked with rain, and their faces bore signs of fatigue. Clearly, they were also here to seek shelter from the rain.
These three didn't communicate with one another, nor did they even look at each other. They seemed to be strangers.
The one leading the way was a young woman wearing a professional suit, her long hair completely drenched like a drowned rat.
Behind the long-haired woman was a well-built man wearing a black tank top. He was the most lightly dressed person present, and it was obvious he worked out regularly, as his muscles were bulging.
Walking at the very back was a man wearing a baseball cap and an outdoor jacket, looking lean and wiry.
Bai Ci mentally labeled these three as: the long-haired woman, the muscular man, and the capped man.
The man in the suit stood up once more and enthusiastically stepped forward, saying almost the exact same words he had used to greet Bai Ci's group, before introducing everyone present to them.
The long-haired woman sat on the ground, looking somewhat dazed. “My name is Li Yi. I came to climb the mountain, but I got lost, and then the heavy rain started. I saw a theater here, so I came inside to shelter from the rain.”
The muscular man spoke next. “I'm Zheng Ba, ‘Ba’ as in banana plant. It's pretty much the same situation for me.”
Finally, the capped man only gave his name. “I'm Sun Hao. Is that enough?”
Zheng Ba?
Hearing this name, Bai Ci instantly remembered it. Because it was quite an unusual name, and in the choose-one-of-five grave digging, one of the graves belonged to someone with this name.
Was it the same situation as Fu Liu?
Twelve graves, and now there were exactly twelve people. But leaving the players aside for a moment, except for Fu Liu and Zheng Ba, the names of the other NPCs didn't match the names on the graves.
The man in the suit was excellent at maintaining his composure and could smooth over any situation, putting it all down to fate. “So that's how it is. It's all fate. Everyone, quickly find a place to sit and warm yourselves by the fire.”
The campfire continued to flicker, casting a faint glow that illuminated everyone's faces and dispelling some of the damp chill.
The crowd sat around the fire. Some were drying their clothes, some stared blankly in silence, and others chatted in low voices. Bai Ci leaned against Fu Liu, quietly observing everyone present.
For some reason, Bai Ci felt her eyelids growing heavier and heavier. Her head felt groggy, the glow of the campfire began to dim, and the scene before her gradually warped and blurred.
“Babe, are you sleepy? Lean on my shoulder and sleep,” Fu Liu said, letting out a massive yawn. He carefully guided Bai Ci's head to rest against his shoulder.
Before she completely fell into a deep sleep, a thought flashed through Bai Ci's mind: this sudden drowsiness was definitely not an accident.
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