Little Shelly
(I got home late today and was extremely tired. I was hoping to write 5000 words, but I'm afraid I won't be able to. I'll have to make up for it later. I should be able to get back to a normal pace starting next week. Please vote for me, thank you.)
Upon seeing Zhuo Qingxuan and Bao Ling meet, Li Wei knew things were going to get bad. The other party would definitely be able to see something from Bao Ling. However, there was no time to pay attention to that at the moment. What Li Wei was concerned about was whether Bao Ling could hold on until the end of the performance.
Fortunately, Zhuo Qingxuan didn't say anything after seeing Bao Ling. She seemed to treat Bao Ling as a stranger, only showing a faint smile on her lips.
On the big screen, Bao Ling carefully walked down the stairs. At this moment, he had temporarily separated from the other four people and was walking alone on a certain floor of the supermarket.
Li Wei saw the floor markings on the screen.
"The third floor is a fresh food market."
Bao Ling had already taken out her weapon and put on a decent set of defensive armor, but these did little to give her confidence. On the contrary, even the slightest breeze in the quiet supermarket gave her goosebumps.
The surrounding area was filled with fresh produce shelves, displaying a lot of frozen meat. Several shopping carts were randomly placed on both sides of the aisle, and the entire floor was eerily quiet.
Even though Bao Ling has reached A3 level, she can still sense the presence of danger. This feeling is everywhere; it might be behind the opposite shelf, or it might suddenly appear when you are careless.
At that moment, her Yellow Paper suddenly popped out, startling Bao Ling, who was already on edge.
"It's happening! It seems a mission has been issued!" Greedy Wolf, watching this scene on the big screen in the theater, exclaimed in surprise, "However, we're already on a mission! So, is Bao Ling's location a mission world within a mission world?"
Li Wei stroked his chin, and he also had his own thoughts on Greedy Wolf's question. Shadow Street didn't explicitly state that another mission world wasn't allowed within a mission world; of course, there was another possibility. That was that Bao Ling's current location was in the same world as this one, and Li Wei had already thought of a way to verify this.
He slowly closed his eyes, using a secret technique of spatial power to try and establish a connection with the Copper Pot World. If he could establish a normal connection, it would mean that the place where Bao Ling was at this moment was the same world as the place where he was. If he could not, it would mean that there really was such a thing as a 'world within a world'.
With the activation of spatial power, Li Wei, who possessed the Eye of Space, emitted a unique wave that pierced through space and traveled towards the space where the Copper Pot World was located.
A moment later, Li Wei's eyes lit up; he had already established contact with the Copper Pot World.
This result surprised Li Wei. The Copper Pot was now on Zhuo Qingxuan's person, and Zhuo Qingxuan was in the story world, which meant that the two worlds were in the same space.
With this discovery, Li Wei felt much more at ease. Being able to establish a connection with the Copper Pot meant that he could teleport to the story world at any time to help Bao Ling. However, now was not the time to rush, or rather, it was not yet time for him to make his appearance.
Continuing to watch the big screen, Li Wei spotted Zhuo Qingxuan.
At this moment, she was on the fifth floor of the supermarket, a floor filled with baby and toddler products, and many baby dolls. Normally, seeing this would be a heartwarming scene. But now, with so many dolls sitting, standing, or lying down, some even covered in blood, the warmth turned eerie. The surrounding environment was eerily quiet, yet being there gave her a feeling of being watched. Not just Zhuo Qingxuan, but even Li Wei, through the large screen, could feel that terrifying gaze, as if the dolls were staring at him.
"It's bizarre, absolutely bizarre!" Even Typhoon, standing to the side, looked serious and didn't dare to utter a sound.
Then Zhuo Qingxuan's Yellow Paper popped out, but she didn't show any panic. She remained calm and unmoved. After reading it, she calmly put the Yellow Paper away.
"Brother Li, the women in the Infinite Starfield are no ordinary people," Bright Wolf chuckled and whispered to Li Wei.
Li Wei snorted, thinking to himself, "This woman's face is calm, but she is still a woman after all. I don't believe she's not afraid."
The other three were located on different floors. Like Bao Ling and Zhuo Qingxuan, they also received the tasks issued by the Yellow Paper. Some of them looked happy, while others looked solemn.
As for Bao Ling, she moved forward cautiously, clearly having discovered something, peeking out cautiously. But when she saw the thing in the corner, her expression relaxed.
There, a little girl stood facing the wall.
Li Wei, sitting in the theater, suddenly changed his expression. Greedy Wolf, standing beside him, remarked, "Thank goodness, it's just a child, not a monster. Wait, what's this...?"
Before he could finish his first sentence, he choked, unable to speak, as if he had swallowed a fishbone with a thorn. Greedy Wolf's eyes swept over the other reincarnators participating in the story mission, and he strangely discovered that each of them had encountered a little girl.
More importantly, the little girl's back view was almost identical.
As if to answer Li Wei's question, the five little girls on the big screen turned their heads together, revealing their faces. This caused even the reincarnators from the advanced star regions in the story to exclaim in surprise.
On the big screen, the five girls appearing next to the five men turned out to be the same person.
They had the same clothes and the same looks; they were practically cut from the same mold.
Could they be quintuplets?
"How could this be?" It wasn't just one person who shouted this. The White-Brow Daoist Venerable of the Infinite Starfield was sitting in the front row, his face also solemn. Suddenly, he seemed to have thought of something, and his expression changed.
On the screen, the five people reacted remarkably in unison.
They all stared warily at the little girl, not approaching, seemingly observing her. Just then, everything on the screen froze instantly, as if a 'pause' button had been pressed, and then the host suddenly appeared on stage.
He was still dressed the same way.
"Everyone, the plot is finally about to get on track, and here comes our first test. As you can see, each of them has encountered a Little Shelly, but I must tell you that of these five identical Little Shelly, only one is real. The other four are imposters, what we commonly call counterfeits."
"The five lucky individuals will have to make a choice: whether or not to take the Little Shelly in front of them into the storyline. However, they don't know if the Little Shelly is real or not. I must tell you that they must stay in the storyline world for 12 hours. Before that, each of them has been injected with a terrible virus. If no measures are taken, the virus will take effect after 12 hours, turning everyone into a hideous zombie. The only way to stop the virus from taking effect is to stay with the real Little Shelly..."
Upon hearing this, the companions of the lucky ones all changed their expressions drastically, and almost simultaneously tried to contact their companions.
The host on stage chuckled and said, "I must remind you all that your usual communication devices or props cannot contact your companions in the story world. So, abandon this unrealistic idea. All you need to do is quietly watch the show."
After saying that, the host took a step back and disappeared into the darkness beyond the lights.
"What a brilliant way to hide!" Typhoon watched the vanished host, a few beads of cold sweat trickling down his face.
The image that had been frozen on the screen suddenly resumed playing. It was still the same five people in different places facing a little girl who looked exactly the same.
All they had to do was make a very simple choice, but as the people involved, they had no idea that this choice would determine their fate.
"Bao Ling, no matter what, you have to stay with that little girl. Otherwise, if you turn into a zombie, that will be a real problem," Ming Dong kept muttering. Of course, he knew that Bao Ling couldn't hear him.
His brother, Bright Wolf, slapped him on the forehead and said, "Just staying with the little girl isn't enough; she has to be with the True Shelly. But how will Bao Ling know which one is the real one? This is troublesome, Greedy Wolf, what do we do? Brother Li, what do you think...?"
Looking back, Bright Wolf was stunned to find that Li Wei was nowhere to be seen.
Greedy Wolf, who was closest to Li Wei, was also completely bewildered. He looked around privately but did not see Li Wei, and a sense of foreboding suddenly arose in his heart.
"Could it be that Brother Li...?"
Greedy Wolf quickly pulled up Zhuo Qingxuan's image, glanced at it, and then breathed a slight sigh of relief. The Copper Pot was still hanging safely on her lower back.
In the story world, Bao Ling looked at the little girl with her back to her a dozen meters away and felt a slight sense of relief. After all, the person facing her was a child dressed like a doll, and judging from her appearance, she didn't seem to pose any threat.
Upon seeing Bao Ling, the child's eyes reddened, and she said sweetly, "Sister, I can't find my way home. Would you take me back?"
"Mission: The Lost Baby, Difficulty Level *, Help Sherry return home. Reward upon completion..." Looking at the mission prompt, Bao Ling was somewhat tempted.
She was already short of money, and when she saw that there was a task that didn't seem difficult and would reward her handsomely if she completed it, she was surprised.
In that case, let's accept the task.
So Bao Ling thought about it and accepted the task. Then the Yellow Paper disappeared, and the little girl came running over with a beaming smile.