First Player

　　After asking Chang Ge, Su Mingan reconstructed what happened in these eight hours.

 …

 One hour after going to bed.

“Da da.” Black Magpie knocked on the door, holding a small lighthouse ornament in both hands: “This is my gift to you, Su Mingan.”

Changge took it blankly, his eyes a little confused... What does it mean to give a gift suddenly?

Black Magpie asked: "Can you tell me how you feel now?"

 Long song: “…”

 …He is not Su Mingan, how should I answer this?

 Changge answered truthfully: "I don't know why you gave me a gift..."

Black Magpie nodded, turned and left.

 …

 Three hours after going to bed.

 “Da da.” The black magpie knocked on the door.

Change stopped playing the piano.

“Your piano sounds so nice.” Black Magpie smiled and said, “Can you teach me how to play?”

Changge: "Didn't you say that the pollution outside is very serious? Why are you always walking around my door..."

Black Magpie's eyes brightened a little: "So that's the answer."

 Long song: “…”

 …his heart suddenly welled up with sympathy. It turns out that what Su Ming'an usually faces are such bizarre and difficult-to-understand NPCs. I really don’t know what Black Magpie is doing.

 Considering that Black Magpie was considered a friendly NPC, Chang Ge did not refuse. Black Magpie learns quickly and seems to have a talent for playing the piano.

 …

 Five hours after going to bed.

 “Da da,” Black Magpie knocked on the door, this time holding a sheet of music.

"This is a piece of music I wrote, and I named it "To Su Ming'an." It was the song you played that inspired me. What do you think?" Black Magpie's eyes flashed.

Chang Ge deeply felt how difficult it was for Su Ming'an. Not only do you have to work hard to find clues, but you also have to care for all the weird NPCs. He looked at the music score and was surprised to find that Black Magpie had a very good musical talent. Although there were still abrupt notes, the melody was very beautiful. Chang Ge did not hesitate to praise: "It's very smart. Is the image the moonlight and the sea?"

Black Magpie squinted his eyes and smiled: "Moonlight, waves, lighthouse, cats...this is what I thought of."

Changge: "I don't have much in-depth communication with you. We even met for the first time a few hours ago, but you know me very well?"

Black Magpie did not answer.

Changge looked at the black magpie's mask and suddenly asked curiously: "Can you take off the mask and let me see what you look like?"

Black Magpie stroked the mask. When Chang Ge was looking forward to it the most, he pressed the mask tighter.

"No." Black Magpie pressed his fingers firmly on the mask, revealing only a pair of dark eyes, and smiled wickedly: "This is the most perfect face in the world."

Changge almost spit out a mouthful of blood.

 …I have never seen such a narcissistic person. If you don't want to show it, you won't show it. What should you do with this excuse?

After Hei Que left, Chang Ge took the piano score and meditated. He sat in front of the piano and played the song "To Su Ming'an" composed by Hei Que. There seems to be the sound of waves washing on the beach, and the bright moonlight is watching the lighthouse all night long. These images make people feel peaceful.

 He could feel that Black Magpie's obsession with Su Mingan was very deep. Deep emotions can be felt even in the written score.

 …

  Within eight hours, the black magpie came again and again. Sometimes it's sending desserts, sometimes it's writing new songs, sometimes it's asking some inexplicable questions.

 After listening to Chang Ge’s somewhat helpless narration, Su Mingan also felt embarrassed. Although he has become accustomed to these inexplicable NPCs, it is still too advanced for ordinary players.

“It turns out that the NPCs you usually meet are like this.” Chang Ge considered his words carefully.

"how?"

"The riddle type, similar to Sheng Qi and Li Mingyue, with the main theme of 'I know, but I won't tell you.'" Chang Ge concluded: "The liar type. Similar to Xi Boer and the gods, with the main theme of 'You will find me in the end. Why did I lie to you?'. The obsessive type, similar to Naraku, Noah, and Beilisel. Then there are the blackening types, which are too many, Shen Xue, Xu Anna, Lin Guang, Xiao Jingsan, Hei Que... a comparison An abnormality…”

Su Ming'an listened to Chang Ge's summary, coughed and asked him to stop talking.

"But behind their abnormality, they all have their own reasonable reasons. So I am thinking, what is the reason why Black Magpie is so obsessed with you?" Changge changed his subject and quickly got down to business: "And, I feel that every time he comes, his aura will be stronger. I don’t know what he did during this period. Did my answer help him? "

Su Mingan doesn’t know. But he's going out.

Black Magpie asked him not to enter those locked rooms. In the language of the world game, he had to enter very hard.

He pushed the door open, and blue-green semi-liquid liquid floated in the air. There are eleven locked rooms. Every door is exactly the same.

 At this time, Su Mingan heard a voice in his ear:

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　is the voice of Yamada Machichi.

　　【Yamada? 】Su Mingan responded immediately to his watch. There had been no signal before, but now I could finally hear a little sound. It should be that Yamada Machichi was very close to him.

  【I...we are about to %#...come down to find you...@%*Give us...@&points to the way down. 】The sound was stuck, and Yamada Machichi was very anxious.

　　　Okay, I’m on a very high building. You can just find a taller building. 】Su Mingan said.

  【Okay...】The signal is interrupted again.

 At this time, another voice sounded:

　　【Su Mingan. 】Su Lin's voice is smoother and clearer than Yamada Machichi's.

　　【You finally have a voice. 】Su Mingan said. Su Lin has been missing for too long, and there is no response when he calls his name, as if he has disappeared from the world.

  【I have entered the Nine Netherworlds and am looking for your location. There are too many high-rise buildings, so I looked for them one by one. 】

　　【Beware of pollution. 】Su Mingan said.

Su Lin’s voice quickly faded away.

Su Mingan faced the locked room and took a deep breath. He activated the Dawn Eternal Life Skill, propped up the space to conceal himself, and covered his figure. Then, the spatial displacement—

Su Mingan quietly entered a locked room and remained invisible.

 —He saw a shocking scene.

A young man who looked exactly like him was sitting on the bedside reading a book. What he held in his hand was "On the Origin and Basis of Human Inequality." There are some philosophy and detective books on the bedside.

"...What are you doing? How come this person is exactly like you?" Chang Ge was shocked.

Su Mingan closed his eyes and thought deeply before moving to the next room. In the next room, there was still a young man who looked exactly like him. But there are no philosophy books in the room. The young man is sitting in front of the computer playing games. Su Ming'an took a closer look and saw that they were some horror games that he had played, such as Paper Man, Burning Grandma, etc.

“Let’s go here, burn a stick of incense...save it, and that’s it. Now the ghost can’t get in.” The young man showed off one thrilling operation after another. But the most chilling thing is that although there is a live broadcast room interface on the computer, Jiuyou has no signal, so there is no way that there are viewers watching. The young man just talked to himself in front of the empty live broadcast.

　　　…” This time, Chang Ge didn’t even speak. Looking at this seemingly ordinary scene, he suddenly felt a deep sense of strangeness and fear. It's like seeing a puppet on strings, acting according to a fixed behavioral pattern.

Su Mingan moved to the next room.

This time, there is no reading or playing games. The young man is immersed in writing. Under the warm warm light, he looks like a college student doing his homework seriously.

Su Mingan used to have the habit of writing diaries. He took a few steps closer and saw what the young man was writing. The young man's face was still exactly the same as his, as if he was looking in a mirror.

 …

  【September 21, 2023, sunny. 】

　　【It's been more than half a month since the university started, so I chose the Youth Quest Club for the Hundred Regiment Battle. It is said that there are many fun script-killing activities and board games. When I was in high school, I was too busy, so I could only watch some Up masters playing board games. However, I always feel a little socially intimidated when playing board games with strangers... I hope I can let go. 】

 …

  【September 23, 2023, sunny. 】

  【I kind of want to join the student union. It is said that after joining the student union, my resume will be more outstanding in the future. But some people say that competitions and grades are more important, what should I do... I asked in the high school group, and my former classmate Shen Xue told me that as long as I have a happy life in college, she also invited me to attend her birthday on the 30th. At the party, I asked her why she sent a private message, and she said that she didn’t want to invite some people from the class group. 】

　　　Since she kindly invites you, let’s go. As an ordinary person like me, I can just hang out at parties and eat desserts. 】

 …

  【September 24, 2023, Yin. 】

【Participated in the first board game event of the Youth Quest Club, and killed them until they lost their armor. Isn't it bad to be a junior? 】

　　【But some people are too weak... I want to take the game seriously. 】

　　【A senior sister invited me to watch a movie. Why did she invite me alone? Did she want me to teach her how to play games? I rejected her, not wanting to play with a novice. 】

 …

  【September 26, 2023, heavy rain. 】

　　【I passed by the bridge today and saw some homeless people, shivering with their newspapers covered. The city is being renovated recently, and I don’t know if they can stay. If not, where will they go? 】

　　【There are always many people struggling to survive in this world. I can't help the world, but now that I have seen it, I can't just pass by. 】

I gave them some old clothes and bread, hoping that their lives would be better. 】

　　…I am just an ordinary person and can only do this. If I could be like my father, maybe I could help them find a new home...]

　　【But when I see many social realities, I am the one who is filled with righteous indignation, and the one who is powerless is also me...】

 …

  【September 28, 2023, Yin. 】

  【The staff of Station B sent me an invitation to meet at the Quchang Street Cafe on the 30th for business cooperation. 】

  【I am not a big up, but I can actually do business cooperation offline? Go listen first, and refuse if you want to show your face. I hate standing under the camera, and I don't like a group of people staring at me. 】

  【If the business cooperation can be achieved, will it be possible to develop some side businesses in the future? It’s getting more and more difficult now. I don’t want to take the postgraduate entrance examination, nor do I want to take various certificates, but if I don’t take the exam, I won’t be able to find a job... I can’t rely on Yueyue’s family to deliver food every day. I still want to continue reading seriously, make some friends, go out to play occasionally, read many books, and live a stable life. 】

　　　【I hope I will no longer be powerless when I see something that makes me angry in the future. I heard a news before that a male student in Fuso was bullied and swallowed an overdose of sleeping pills because he liked women's clothing. This was just his private preference and he didn't even wear it. I just thought...if people were more tolerant, a lot of tragedies might not happen. 】

　　【If I could be of any help. But my words couldn't even get through. 】

 …

  【September 29, 2023, sunny. 】

　　【After delving into some personal hobbies, it turns out that formalin tastes like this. 】

　　【I also developed the skill of making bowl cake, but I didn’t expect that I still have a talent for cooking. Come back and give it to Yueyue to taste. 】

 …

  【September 30, 2023,】

  【I’m going to a coffee shop today and to Shen Xue’s birthday party in the afternoon. Want to dress more formally? 】

　　【Looking through the wardrobe, they are all old clothes that have been mended, so that's it...】

　　【I am about to go out, so I will write less in my diary today and continue writing tomorrow. 】

　　【By the way, let me record my schedule. I will post the new video I just finished recording tomorrow, I want to read a new detective novel the day after tomorrow, and I want to go to the zoo the day after tomorrow...】

 …

Su Mingan was motionless.

 He stared at the young man's moving penholder, feeling as if he had fallen into a deep nightmare. A sense of weirdness and fear crawled up his tailbone.

These are indeed the diaries he once wrote.

 The diary ends on September 30th. After writing the last punctuation mark, the young man closed the diary and fell into a state of standby, motionless, like a machine that had completed its program.

"In the first room, the young man is reading the books you like. In the second room, the young man is playing the game you like. In the third room, the young man is writing the diary you wrote." Chang Ge's voice was trembling: " Is this... 'synthesizing you'?"

 A strong sense of suffocation surrounded Su Ming'an.

 He has long realized that he seems to have never really entered this world called "the old world". All this time, what he saw was guided by the gods, the sheep in the rain, the screams of the fire bearers, the goddess and the witch, the tragic battle between gods... He had never really found anything on his own.

 …like a butterfly in a dream.

 Thinking of the historical butterflies, it’s like waking up from the first level of a dream.

Thinking of the butterfly that returned ten times and woke up from the second level of dreamland.

 Knowing that each era is like a butterfly spread out like a map, waking up from the third level of dreams.

The butterfly that stepped into the Nine Nethers and saw all this has not yet broken through the fourth level of dreamland.

 Layers upon layers of dreams turn into a huge raging net, catching butterflies one by one -

 When the butterfly has not yet emerged from its cocoon, the [net] has already been established layer by layer.