In my memory, when other players receive a similar task, it's usually just a mechanical lizard in front of them, and the players have to work together to defeat it to succeed. However, what appears in front of them is a huge lizard nest with nearly a hundred lizards.
At this moment, the system automatically displayed a message: "If you accidentally kill a wild lizard, the system will deduct the player's health points."
Finding a fake mechanical lizard inside is about as difficult as finding an AI without a distinguishing mark in a crowded square with thousands of people.
Yi Heye stared at the dark mass of crawling lizards and fell silent.
Jian Yunxian: "It seems you've offended someone."
Yi Heye glanced at him—he said this as if he knew nothing about it. Could it be that SHEEP was secretly sabotaging him?
He had his doubts about the matter, but considering that the man rarely spoke the truth, he decided to go along with it.
Turning his head, Yi Heye stared blankly at the dark mass of lizards.
The lizards here are all quite large, as sturdy and fierce as wolf cubs, with rows of sharp, knife-like spines on their backs and long, sharp teeth, making them look very ferocious.
These don't look like lizards; they look more like dinosaurs.
Jian Yunxian: "How about we..."
Before he could finish speaking, Yi Heye jumped onto a rock to the side without looking back.
This was a high ground, where a normal person could barely see the general outline of the lizard nest, but Yi Heye had exceptional eyesight. He could see every detail of each lizard's face, and even their expressions and movements, clearly.
Jian Yunxian stood under the rock, only glancing at him as he searched for prey. He focused intently for a moment, then quickly stood up and jumped back to the ground in two swift movements.
“Found it, the one in the very middle,” Yi Heye said. “The eyes look too fake; they must have been designed that way so players wouldn’t be able to tell them apart.”
Jian Yunxian wanted to say that there really was no difference, it's just that your judgment was a bit too abnormal.
He watched as the man walked step by step toward the swarm of lizards. As soon as he approached their aggro range, the lizards in the front row bared their teeth, poised to attack.
Jian Yunxian reminded him, "Killing wild lizards will deduct health points, and the damage of your weapon's single attack has already exceeded the lizard's total health points."
In other words, if he shoots one person after another, Yi Heye will soon be out of the game.
Yi Heye did not stop, but continued to approach the swarm of lizards.
"Awooo!!" With a single sound, dozens of lizards in the front row pounced on Yi Heye.
Yi Heye took a step back, grabbed the foremost tail, and slammed it to the ground with a "thud." The sharp spines on its back were driven into the ground, and the lizard lay upside down, struggling to move.
Then, the second one was hung on the tree by Yi Heye, and the third and fourth ones were forcibly stuck together back to back.
Jian Yunxian watched as this person, without any weapons or a drop of blood, forcefully carved out a path.
Finally, after forcibly clearing the surrounding area, Yi Heye stood in front of the mechanical lizard he had chosen.
Seeing that its whereabouts had been exposed, the lizard went berserk. Its mechanical eyes glowed red, and the spikes on its back transformed into a gun barrel, staring intently at Yi Heye—"Bang!"
With a muffled thud, the hunting rifle fired first, blasting the barrel off the lizard's back. The enraged lizard opened its blood-red maw, ready to swallow Yi Heye whole.
With another "bang," Yi Heye first kicked its jaw away, a kick that dealt even more damage than the previous shot. Then he pulled the trigger on its throat—"Boom!"
With its health bar depleted, the mechanical lizard turned into a pile of scattered parts, lying sparsely at its feet.
The world fell silent for about five seconds. All the dangerous creatures on the map disappeared, and the only sounds left in the world were the babbling brook, the clear chirping of birds, and two people standing one in front of the other.
"Mission accomplished!"
At this moment, a huge information box unfolded above their heads, and a door leading to the next level appeared in front of the two people.
Yi Heye looked down at his right palm. It must have been when he was hit by flying mechanical fragments during the final blow; blood was dripping down his finger.
At this moment, with the adrenaline subsiding, Yi Heye finally felt the pain. A jolt of electricity ran down his spine, raising a light layer of goosebumps.
He wanted to secretly open the wound a little wider with his hand, but then he remembered that there was a little lamb watching him from behind, so he gritted his teeth and gave up.
He looked up at the door in front of him. He wanted to go in, but when he realized no one was following him, he turned around and glanced back.
Jian Yunxian adjusted his glasses and said with a smile, "I'm not playing anymore. I'm still not feeling well. I think I can have a great time on my own without you."
Yi Heye hesitated for a moment and said, "Never mind, I want to drink milk, I'll go down too."
Neither of them logged off immediately; they simply stood there, silent amidst the ethereal natural background sounds.
Yi Heye couldn't help but look Jian Yunxian up and down again—
When Yi Heye saw Jian Yunxian online this time, he felt that he was indeed greatly weakened. Not only was his complexion pale, but his movements were also restrained and hesitant, and even his reaction speed was not as good as before.
With Jian Yunxian in his current state, whether in the game or in reality, Yi Heye has the strength to completely overpower him. However, seeing that this person is forcing himself to play the game with him, he suddenly feels that it is unnecessary.
Taking advantage of someone's misfortune is the most despicable thing he can do.
Yi Heye: "Get well soon."
Jian Yunxian: "Don't worry, I've already stocked up on the milk powder for you, and I've also set a credit limit of 50,000 yuan on your card. Be careful with your spending; you can make your own purchases even without me."
“It’s not about money.” Yi Heye frowned. “I hope you can get back to your normal condition soon.”
"Whether in the game or in real life, I look forward to a fair fight with you," Yi Heye said. "I will prove my judgment, then shoot you in the head and personally send your corpse to the recycling center."
Jian Yunxian looked up at him, and this time, instead of beating around the bush, she smiled and said, "Okay."
Before leaving, he glanced at Yi Heye's palm, which was currently covering a bleeding hand, seemingly enduring the pain.
Jian Yunxian frowned and asked, "Do you want me to treat you? I'm a doctor."
Yi Heye quickly declined, "No need, it's just a game."
The next second, the person quickly left the game.
Jian Yun stood there, staring silently at the spot where he had disappeared for a long time before finally logging out of the game.
At this moment, on the projection screen above Xiaoyunduo's head, SHEEP, propping up her sheep head, looked at Jian Yunxian's body on the bed.
Because of signal interference, this body has been lying here for almost two days, and can't even play games properly.
Today's game suddenly became more difficult, and he knew all too well who was deliberately sabotaging him.
Because of his limited mobility, he couldn't move around as freely as before. The four dimensions must have detected his access traces, which is why they kept increasing the difficulty of this game.
But what he was thinking about at that moment was the scars on Yi Heye's hands—although this guy still looked like he was enduring and enjoying it, and even showed an expression that he really liked it, he was extremely annoyed.
Even when interference signals severely restricted his movements, SHEEP had never been this annoyed.
He decided to return to Siwei's headquarters and cause a scene as revenge.
He wouldn't allow anyone but himself to hurt the little leopard—even if the little leopard itself was eagerly anticipating it, he absolutely wouldn't allow it.
Chapter 18, number 018
Earlier, in the 4D Network Programming Department, the level planners and Liu Siwei and others gathered in front of the screen, all of them looking very tense.
Also present here are Liu Siwei, CEO of Siwei, Pei Xiangjin, a police officer from the Security Department, and Yu Yili, a forensic doctor who was forced to come for inspiration.
Pei Xiangjin slapped Yu Yili's hand away from fiddling with his bangs, turned around, and coldly asked Liu Siwei, "You guys said that you detected data related to SHEEP half an hour ago?"
“Yes.” Liu Siwei pointed to the surveillance footage in front of him, “This is the room where the exact same code as SHEEP appeared.”
Pei Xiangjin frowned as he looked at the familiar face on the screen.
In the scene, Yi Heye stands alone in front of the swarm of lizards, holding a gun, frowning, seemingly talking to someone. However, the system is experiencing slight signal interference, and they cannot hear him at all.
Pei Xiangjin checked the number of people in the room once again—it was a single room, and indeed, Yi Heye's character was the only one he saw throughout the entire game.
They reviewed the earlier game recording again—they watched as Yi Heye obtained the medical treasure chest himself and then threw the contents of the chest on the ground.
Pei Xiangjin: "Even a single room has two treasure chests?"
"This is due to the program settings," Liu Siwei explained. "In order to find SHEEP, I deliberately increased the game difficulty with the technical staff. However, in the program design, the relationship between difficulty and reward is proportional, so the system automatically compensated by providing a first-aid kit."
But this thing was useless, so I threw it away.
Pei Xiangjin frowned.
Liu Siwei cautiously probed, "This player named Yi Heye, according to the system record, defeated a mid-level BOSS with his bare hands on his first try at the game..."
Liu Siwei's meaning is very clear: there was only one person in the whole room, and this person played like a cheat code on their first time. Why couldn't it be SHEEP?
Pei Xiangjin watched Yi Heye dominating the battlefield on the screen without saying a word.
“Actually, we strongly suspect that this Mr. Yi is artificial intelligence.” Liu Siwei pulled up a clip of the video and said, “We cannot rule out the possibility that he has extremely high professional ethics, but such performance is almost the same as using a cheat.”
In the scene, Yi Heye appears indifferent and expressionless. After receiving the mission, he quickly leaps onto the rocks, locates the target with astonishing eyesight and speed, and then kills him almost instantly.
It has far surpassed the game record to date.
Liu Siwei: "You have to understand that even if it is not SHEEP, the fact that artificial intelligence is involved in the game is already illegal and seriously affects the fairness of our game."
Moreover, if it is proven that he is artificial intelligence, then it can be basically confirmed that he and SHEEP are the same person.
Yu Yili: "Huh? No way? Isn't he an AI hunter? Killing each other?"
Pei Xiangjin: "AI doesn't have any concept of similarity; it's all just programming settings."
This statement silenced everyone present. Pei Xiangjin quickly added, "Of course, there is currently no evidence to prove that Yi Heye is artificial intelligence..."
“We can assist with the investigation,” Liu Siwei said. “We’ve discovered a noteworthy point in this game recording.”
He quickly retrieved the footage of Yi Heye's hand injury, captured his expression, and zoomed in again and again.
"After the injury, Mr. Yi Heye's facial expression fluctuated slightly," Liu Siwei said. "Because some AIs also have pain perception settings, we plan to hire experts to conduct a precise analysis of his facial expressions."
Pei Xiangjin: "Based on what I have done, currently apart from Yi Heye himself, there are no experts who can distinguish between humans and AI with 100% accuracy."
"So we need to increase the sample size," Liu Siwei laughed. "In the future, we will continue to increase the difficulty of the games for Mr. Yi Heye, and try to record more of his expressions when he is injured or under stress. This way, our experts can also..."
Before he could finish speaking, the entire server room was suddenly filled with a terrifying red light, and a sharp alarm blared, making everyone's heart pound as if it would explode.
"Chairman Liu! Something terrible has happened!!" the programmer in front of the computer exclaimed. "The system has been hacked again!!"
The red light in front of them gradually gathered, casting the shadow of a sheep on the wall.
The next second, a sheep's face appeared on all the screens, staring at the person in the middle with a sinister look that sent chills down one's spine.
"You're the one who injured the little leopard, aren't you?" SHEEP asked expressionlessly.
At this moment, Yi Heye, who had just exited the game, finally left Jian Yunxian's sight.
Instead of immediately removing the gaming helmet, he maintained the brain-computer interface and eagerly looked down at the wound on his hand.
Unfortunately, the moment I exited the game, the wound on my hand disappeared, and the pain vanished without a trace.