Chapter 63: Road Trip Tips
"Bzz… Bzzzz..."
The car was speeding on the road, and the wind blew past the car window.
The radio buzzed.
At first, there was just FM noise inside, and then fine music began to appear, and Tang Xinjue just let it play inside.
Countless pieces of information were spinning rapidly in her mind, colliding and splicing together.
The expression of the faceless child, the strange behavior of the restaurant owner, the tingling in the brain and the ominous premonition... Various clues cleared away the fog and revealed the vague outline.
Tang Xinjue finally found the source of all the strangeness——
From the beginning, everything she saw, knew, and felt was wrong.
Recalling that when she opened her eyes in the convertible, her preconceived environment made her think that this was the beginning of the exam: her roommates were scattered somewhere, and she was alone in the car.
But what if... this wasn't the real beginning at all?
Through the rearview mirror, Tang Xinjue looked at the interior of the convertible from a new angle. There were exactly four seats: one sitting in the driver's seat, another in the front passenger seat and two in the back seat.
Perhaps, the truth has been obvious from the beginning: this exam was not a one-person start at all, but should be four people sitting in a convertible!
This was the normal configuration for ordinary college students to go on a "road trip" together.
And why did she know nothing about it, and why couldn't she find the other three people... Tang Xinjue tapped the steering wheel, and a word came to her mind.
Cycles.
After stepping on the brakes and pulling over to the side of the road, Tang Xinjue closed her eyes, feeling overflowing.
She has no relevant memory, but once the framework is determined, she can still gradually deduce what happened by understanding herself and her roommates.
In the blank sea of consciousness, a picture is gradually sketched.
At the beginning and the first cycle, the vehicle should be fully staffed.
After seeing Grandma Mayas's mission, the four of them kept the gift box properly, and Tang Xinjue took the driver's seat and drove on the road.
A few steps away from the starting point, there was a small coffee shop. The NPC gave them coffee that could be reimbursed, and then roughly marked four items on the menu.
Continuing driving, they found a highway fast food restaurant. There was an owner with a weird smile and a little boy with no facial features, and they were given meals that were also reimbursable. The restaurant owner probably didn't make any aggressive moves, but her cold and sticky eyes kept lingering on the four of them... Unwilling to stay for a long time, they hurried on the road and soon arrived at the gas station.
Did the accident happen at a gas station?
Tang Xinjue opened her eyes, looked at the foggy road ahead, and crossed out this branch.
No, they mostly managed to leave the gas station and even drove all the way to the end of the road, trying to find Grandma Mayas' home.
Then something unexpected happened.
The mission failed to be completed successfully and the instance was restarted - or in other words, they returned to the starting point of the road. But this time, the number changed from four to three people.
They also woke up in a daze, thinking that the exam had just started, and hurriedly hit the road, encountering coffee shops, fast food restaurants, gas stations... No one knew where the missing roommate had gone.
Tang Xinjue felt that she in the second cycle should have realized something, so they gave Guo Guo's watch to the faceless kid who meant no harm in the restaurant. Of course, the marks they left should be far more than these.
But when the third cycle came, the mark disappeared along with Guo Guo.
The fewer people there are, the more dangerous the roads are for them. The restaurant owner who attacked them in the second or third cycle, the unknown gas station, and the inevitable failure in the end.
Just like the kid's gestures, the four people in the dormitory were wiped out one after another without any sound... until the fourth cycle, which is now.
Tang Xinjue was the only one left on this road trip.
The only traces of her roommate's existence were the ten messy pencil scratches on the coffee shop menu, the watch in the kid's pocket, and the tingling pain in Tang Xinjue's mind.
She finally realized where the pain was coming from -
[Danger Summoner].
Before the exam, she and Zhang You bought a [danger summoner]. Once Zhang You was in a dangerous environment, the summoner would automatically send a signal to her. The greater the danger, the stronger the signal.
There was no chance to test it before entering the examination room. What would happen to the signal when the danger reaches a certain level? There was no need to test again in the future.
Tang Xinjue spread out a hand to press her temple.
The signals would become tingling pains in her head, warning her of danger at all times.
But at the same time, this signal also conveys a message...
Zhang You was still alive!
"Zizzi..."
The time was approaching five o'clock, and the sky was gradually covered with an invisible layer of darkness, indicating that dusk is coming.
After the long and hoarse music, the radio finally turned into a chaotic signal flow again, as if it wanted to condense into something again.
Tang Xinjue now felt that the contract was indeed somewhat effective. He might have judged that the "friendship" she gave Wu Shi was not worth even a few cents, so he repaired the radio into this half-dead look.
By far the biggest use was destroying her ears.
[Identification: This is a poor car radio, but occasionally it will provide a little useful information, maybe it depends on your luck]
Listening to the intermittent noise of the radio, Tang Xinjue keenly discovered that the fog at the end of her vision seemed to be less dense than at the beginning.
The road seemed to have finally changed a little in its long, unchanging stretch.
The mental power was beating in the sea of consciousness, which was not a good premonition.
Slowing down the speed of the car, Tang Xinjue held her breath and concentrated. All the information in her mind was spinning all the time, dismantling it and looking for a way to break the situation.
The worst possibility is that it still fails this time, she becomes the last person to disappear, and cycles would never restart again.
They would forever lose the opportunity to pass the level directly by road, and might even be trapped in this instance forever.
...However, there was too little information.
Even if you know the rules of the reincarnating cycles, if she wanted to break the game, she still lacked an important information point: the reason for triggering the failure mechanism.
In a game, there were two possibilities for reaching the Bad Ending: one was not following the established path, and the other was completely following the established path.
The former means you would be eliminated if you made a mistake. You only needed to follow the steps without triggering the error point, and you could pass the level safely.
The latter was much more difficult.
Tang Xinjue stared at the front of the road from a distance. In the golden light of dusk, the road became narrower and narrower. The convertible could no longer change lanes and could only continue along the center of the road.
Even though she hadn't reached the finish line yet, she already had a premonition in her heart.
The danger of this instance should be exactly the latter.
Following the established path, even if you are walking on thin ice and doing nothing, it will still lead to death. Because of its existence itself, it is executing a failed program, causing them to slide into the irreversible abyss without knowing it.
Only by finding a unique exit can we break the shackles of reincarnation and find the mission goal named "Grandma Mayas's House".
But this was a straight road with no turning back. There was no branching point, not even a chance for her to choose.
Wait a minute.
Tang Xinjue suddenly tightened her hands, and a certain line of logic in her mind that she thought was a dead end suddenly opened up, revealing an answer she had never thought of.
No, she had a choice.
That choice opportunity even appeared in front of her with great clarity. If it was really related to it, if there was only the last possibility left..
If this speculation was correct, then she still had a chance!
The road became narrower and narrower, and the convertible suddenly swayed and seemed to change from a straight road to a rugged gravel road. The trees on both sides got closer and closer, and finally it was almost struggling to move forward.
At this time, the radio finally buzzed, and the current converged into an understandable broadcast tone.
"In order to promote the development of road travel outside the city...in order to increase students' interest in out-of-city travel and improve safety...we will give the following advice, which is hereby summarized as "Road Trip Tips" and set as a required course for each university, set by the university level corresponding difficulty..."
“Here are the nuts and bolts of what you need to know about your road trip.”
The sound from the radio was still flickering, and only part of the words could be successfully transmitted.
"Please make sure you bring enough food to ensure your physical strength is stable during the trip..."
"Please prepare enough university coins, download maps, and confirm the location of highway buildings... In order to protect students' eyesight, the buildings have been painted green. Please do not litter..."
This time the radio was turbulent for a long time, and finally the last sentence popped out:
"... Please find the correct entrance and exit of the highway in advance to ensure smooth access. If you find the wrong starting point, you may fall into an endless loop. Recently, the education center has discovered many cases of missing students on the highway and is currently investigating."
The turbulence disappeared, the radio rang softly, and silence returned.
At the same time, the car finally drove out of the rugged and narrow road. As the road surface became smoother, the scene ahead came into view.
At the end of the line of sight, a narrow green coffee house is standing there quietly.
The familiar man in the kitchen hat seemed to be leaning against the window, showing an invisible smile.
This road was a closed loop with no exit!
Tang Xinjue stepped on the brakes, but the car did not stop and continued to drive forward at a constant speed. By this time, everything seemed to be beyond her control, and she would only mechanically follow the planned death path to the end.
Tang Xinjue took her hands off the steering wheel. There was no point in controlling the convertible at this time. Glass rises from all sides and the hood becomes closed, blocking the possibility of students leaving.
This was why every cycle failed repeatedly. When the people in the car finally realized the problem, it was already too late.
Was it too late...?
In the last few seconds, Tang Xinjue did not close her eyes. Instead, she pulled out a small white bottle from her pocket with a hand speed that was too fast to be seen, and poured the pills inside into her mouth in one breath.
For her, there was no 100% possibility of "too late" because there are still three variables of probability.
Regret medicine!
[A bottle of regret medicine (low-level): Nine times out of ten, life will be unsatisfactory. After taking this bottle of regret medicine, you have a 10% chance of changing your decision at a certain point in the past. ]
[Of course, it can only find nodes that match your memory]
There were three red pills in the regret pill bottle.
They entered her esophagus one after another, the first one, the second one, the third one...
The moment the third pill was swallowed, before the convertible completely rushed onto the familiar road, the surrounding scene suddenly changed——
*
A convertible parked quietly under the sign that said "Highway outside the city".
Not far in front of it was a green coffee shop that shows it was in business. Through the narrow business window, the man in the kitchen hat saw that the girl in the car had woken up and was subconsciously looking around. She got out of the car and checked the broken cliff behind.
He showed a weird smile, put down the blocking rod, prepared a cup of steaming coffee, stretched out his hand and shook it up and down.
However, the next second, the girl returned to the car, but the convertible did not continue to move forward.
Tang Xinjue quietly looked at everything in front of him, the foggy road, the exaggerated smile on the face of the man in the kitchen hat, and the destined journey.
She drove to the front, took the cup of coffee, and drank it in one gulp.
The man in the kitchen hat smiled and said, "I wish you a pleasant journey."
Tang Xinjue also nodded, then shifted into reverse gear, and the convertible began to slowly retreat.
Man in kitchen hat:? ? ?
In the sight, the face of the man in the kitchen hat changed from stiffness to shock, and finally his whole face was pressed against the window, his eyes were about to split and he was extremely ferocious——
Cold mist surged from behind, and the writing on the coffee cup also changed in the mist:
[It all ends here]
From beginning to end, this was both the starting point and the end point.
The exit they were looking for was right here.
Tang Xinjue stepped on the accelerator and the whole car jumped into the cliff in reverse!
The author has something to say:
Exam: Regret it, but it’s a pity that there is no regret medicine in the world~
Tang Xinjue: Thank you, I have it.
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