Chapter 1597: The Bridge
"You mean dying in your sleep..." The man dragged out his words. "There is, there is. Anyway, we're all going to die sooner or later. What's wrong with dying in a dream?"
"Do you still remember how you got in?" Xu Huo asked. "Were there any others with you?"
The man twisted his mouth. "Not just anyone can enter the 'Midsummer Night.' Only those with hope can come in."
Then, with a personal emotional touch, he recounted the process of his entry.
First, he saw a beam of colored light—which he took as a special sign of being chosen by the "Midsummer Night." Then, thick fog appeared where he was, covering the entire Brown Skin City. Finally, he alone passed through a special passage to arrive at this white fog world, the so-called "Midsummer Night World."
As for how exactly he passed through the "special passage," he himself couldn't remember. He only felt a light breeze brush against him, and the next second, he was somewhere else.
After entering, he didn't see anyone else. Thinking he was special and certain he would meet the legendary "Midsummer Night Star River," he was happy for a while. But after walking through the entire city without any clue, he was starving to death, yet that belief still hadn't disappeared.
He changed his approach, deciding that the "Midsummer Night Star River" wasn't something you found by searching, but rather something you had to be "chosen" by. Meaning his current efforts were futile. If he truly had hope of being saved, then the "Midsummer Night Star River" would appear before him on its own.
"Maybe it's in a dream," the man couldn't help but speculate.
"Have you personally seen someone saved by the 'Midsummer Night Star River'?" Xu Huo asked, seeing how certain he was.
The man looked at him excitedly and nodded vigorously. "Right there in our Brown Skin City. He was exactly like me back then, but after coming out of the 'Midsummer Night,' he was fine. Really fine. All the brown skin on his body fell off, and he grew this new, slightly pinkish skin—beautiful and smooth. Real human skin!"
Xu Huo was a good listener. He didn't interrupt, waiting until the man finished his thoughts before asking, "The person who came back to life must have talked about his experience."
The man had told the story many times, but when asked, he started from the beginning without any sign of boredom.
The person saved by the "Midsummer Night Star River" was a young man in his early twenties, and his experience was nothing short of legendary.
In Brown Skin City, where the average lifespan was even shorter than in Zone 013, many young people died from fungi and the various pollutants they produced. This young man, not wanting his mother to witness his death firsthand, left home alone and entered the forest.
This wasn't uncommon in Brown Skin City, so the woods near the city were littered with skeletons. While walking, the young man saw the skeleton of a child. Out of sympathy, he dug a hole and buried the bones. It was at that moment that the thick fog suddenly descended, and he entered the "Midsummer Night."
Since he was already dying, he thought he had entered the afterlife. He walked far along the city until, exhausted, he saw a patch of beautiful, glowing stars. His wish at that moment was to see his mother one more time. When he woke up, he found himself back in the forest. The layer of brown skin formed by fungi and pollutants had largely fallen off, and he felt energized.
After regaining his strength, he returned to Brown Skin City and told his family and friends about the experience.
Many people witnessed the shedding of the brown skin firsthand. However, due to the environment of Brown Skin City, as time passed, the young man's newly grown skin showed signs of being parasitized by fungi. So, the players in Brown Skin City found a way to send him to another district. What happened to him afterward, the ordinary people of Brown Skin City didn't know.
But for a long time afterward, the "Midsummer Night" became the aspiration of everyone in Brown Skin City.
"During that time, all the skeletons in the forest were dug up and reburied. No one dared to do anything wrong, for fear that when the 'Midsummer Night' world descended, they would be excluded." The man laughed as he spoke. "Unfortunately, after searching for a year or two with no results, everyone was about to give up when a second person returned from the 'Midsummer Night.'"
"Too bad that person was a player. He left without saying much and never returned to Brown Skin City."
Xu Huo nodded slightly. For ordinary people, the "Midsummer Night" might be a miracle, but anyone with player knowledge would know it was just an instance. The reason it appeared so mysteriously was most likely due to its unique spatial properties.
Under normal circumstances, non-ticket holders could only get trapped in an instance if they accidentally entered the instance grounds before it started. The location of the "Midsummer Night" fluctuated, and its entrances and exits changed. Getting in was more a matter of luck, similar to ordinary people, and players didn't have a numerical advantage either—it seemed like a kind of screening process.
But this was just a fleeting thought for Xu Huo, completely unfounded.
He then pressed for more details, especially regarding the process of encountering the "Midsummer Night Star River" as described by the local population of Zone 013.
The man's throat was dry. He drank the remaining half bottle of water before saying, "I know you players. You say this is an instance, specifically for you to play in."
"Do you have a problem with players?" Xu Huo asked casually.
"Evolved humans," the man said with a sour tone. "They act like the whole world revolves around them. They insist on calling it a game world. Even if everyone lives in a game, there must be something beyond the game. The 'Midsummer Night' is like that. I've asked around. Instances don't swallow people like this. There must be some special force interfering with the instance, only letting the right people in."
"You have a point. Not everyone with a ticket got in," Xu Huo agreed.
The man was quite surprised, then said, "You're different from other players."
"I see all kinds of people coming in. It's not like only good people can enter," Xu Huo added.
The man seemed to have already figured this out. "If doing good deeds was the ticket in, this place would be overcrowded. Whether good or bad, the 'Midsummer Night' chooses someone for a reason. You might see someone as utterly evil, but maybe they're just a bridge. The 'Midsummer Night' wants to pass some information through them."
Xu Huo smiled. "I haven't thought of it from that angle. That's insightful."
The man waved his hand, his eyes fixed on the white fog. "Even if I can't get out alive, at least let me see the Star River once..."
Xu Huo didn't ask any more questions. He gave the man another pack of dried meat and a bottle of water and let him go.
Chi Xian had come over earlier. Only after the man left did he speak. "I think he's embellished most of what he said. Is this old guy so obsessed with finding the 'Midsummer Night Star River' that he's gone crazy?"
He pointed at his head.
(Chapter End) Source: /txt/35960/32061037