This temporary NPC who led them forward was named Xiao Yao. Soon his other two companions Xǔ Baiyang and Xú Chao appeared.
They were all the same, very happy to see them coming.
"Don't worry, this research institute is very safe, do you want to eat something? The cafeteria and resting area are on the next floor, and there's some food like beef, canned biscuits and such." Xǔ Baiyang said.
The research institute's elevator was already broken down, so they could only climb the stairs floor by floor.
The others were indeed hungry, and in the past few days, all the meat they ate was fish. They were lucky to have rabbit meat occasionally, but there wasn't much and they lacked seasonings. When they thought of beef, canned food with various food additives, they couldn't help but gulp.
They wanted to eat, but still looked towards Song Juyao.
Song Juyao's gaze swept over the three people, "Have something to eat first, let's take a rest."
This decision made people very happy. The door opened, and a desolate messy cafeteria appeared before their eyes. There were still a few corpses on the ground, the air was cold and smelly, but they were now used to it.
The cafeteria lights flickered, making their eyes uncomfortable, but it didn't hinder them from devouring the food.
Song Juyao, however, walked over to those few corpses, squatted down to check them, and then began walking around in this vast cafeteria, exploring the kitchen, warehouse...
Evans and Jiang Baiqi both followed her.
On the other side, the three temporary real-NPCs, seemingly casually, walked to the few people.
"I can see that you all listen to Miss Song. She looks quite young, is she so smart and capable?"
“Yes, she is very smart, we have seen the consequences of not listening to experts, and have learned our lesson.”
“You are talking about wilderness survival skills, right? But it's not a wilderness survival situation anymore, do you still listen to her? She couldn't have faced the current situation before either, right?”
“Huh?” They were taken aback.
“You have gotten so used to listening to her orders that you have forgotten about this, right? She is just an 18-year-old girl, while she might be great in some aspects, her experience is too little...”
"What do you mean by that?"
“Actually, we have other ideas, take a look.” They opened their palms, revealing a transparent gem-like crystal.
“What is this?”
“This is the crystal that Fanxing Group wants. We dug it out from the brains of those bloodthirsty patients.”
“What?!”
“You should already know the effects of this thing, right? Curing terminal diseases, transforming the body, prolonging life, and even gaining talent in certain areas. If it were you, how much money would you be willing to pay for this thing? And how much money would rich people be willing to spend on it?"
This was a huge temptation, making their heart rates accelerate and breaths to quicken.
They, like tempting demons, continued, "Eat one of these, and your life will change forever, and you will have more chances of winning when facing the pursuit of the Fanxing Group. In this research institute, on this island, there are countless such treasures for us to take...Some people have already died, and are beyond rescue, so instead of letting it be cheap for the Fanxing Group, why don't we take them away?"
【Wow, the plot seems to be taking an exciting turn!】
【Is this a test of human nature? [Frowning]】
【Shit, I don't want my house to collapse! Don't pay attention to these devilish words. Let's grab the antidote, seize a means of transportation, and leave!】
【To be honest, this kind of temptation is just too great. It's fine if no one mentioned it, but now that it's mentioned, who wouldn't be tempted.】
【I feel what they said makes quite some sense. Why should they let the Fanxing Group take the advantage? They're dead anyway, so just dig them out and take them away.】
【The reactions of Wen Zhulian and Wei Yan... they asked them if they were temporary real-life NPCs? Could it be that they already know this is a virtual world?】
【That can't be right. If they knew this was a virtual world, they wouldn't be so calm. Does Wen Zhulian not know how she's presenting herself there? With her true colors exposing, she would definitely be very scared, ashamed, and panicked.】
The staff members of the Survive Island Paradise project looked at each other in puzzlement. They had been paying attention to these three people who had suddenly and arbitrarily changed the script, trying to understand their motives and what was happening. But the situation was becoming more and more strange.
Wen Zhulian and Wei Yan's attitudes seemed like they knew what was going on with these three people, and even mentioned "temporary real-life NPCs". But the staff members were sure that Wen Zhulian and Wei Yan didn't know that they were broadcasting live. Come to think of it, Wen Zhulian and Wei Yan had been acting strangely from the beginning...
Now it was looking like the five of them were in cahoots.
The people in the virtual world were utterly confused.
......
When Song Juyao brought Evans and Jiang Baiqi out of the cafeteria, the atmosphere was a bit strange. They had complicated expressions. Although they were hungry, they had no appetite. Wen Zhulian, on the other hand, wore a look of watching a show.
Song Juyao, seemingly oblivious, looked at the three and said seriously, "What did you do?"
Three temporary real-life NPCs: "What have we done?"
"Those corpses had their brains dug out, was that you guys? Did you take the crystals?"
"How can you prove we did it? The staff of Fanxing Group regularly come to collect corpses and dig out crystals."
"The wounds are all fresh, it couldn't be the Fanxing Group's people."
The three showed no signs of nervousness. They didn't think they could hide it from Song Juyao. They relaxed and leaned back, "That's right, you really are meticulous and smart, we did dig up the crystals. Why wouldn't we dig them out? Anyway they're already dead, if we don't dig them out people from Fanxing Group would dig them out, so why spare them the benefit? You guys also agree with us, right? We've suffered so much here, we deserve something in return as compensation!"
"But the freshness of the brain fluid and blood raises suspicion of their cause of death."
"Don't talk nonsense, we waited until they breathed their last before we cracked open their skulls, at that time the blood and brain fluid were indeed still fresh, but they were beyond saving anyway, right?" Xiao Yao's expression was unhappy, "What? Kid, are you trying to lecture me?"
Xǔ Baiyang continued: "They see you as their leader, but we don't, little girl, furthermore what's wrong with us doing this? Where is it not right?"
Xú Chao: "Okay, you don't approve of what we're doing, but we think there's nothing wrong with it, you don't have the right to tell us what to do, do you?"
The three of them took turns adding fuel to the fire and bringing a rhythm, so that the more people listen to it, the more they feel that it's reasonable. Song Juyao doesn't have the right to meddle so much, right? Also, taking something from dead people's bodies isn't really harming others. It doesn't seem like an unjust act affecting others' interests, right?
People whose minds were tempted thought like this and so the atmosphere suddenly became even stranger.
Evans was furious, but he couldn't think of anything particularly reasonable to rebut. Indeed had no right to interfere with what others did, and there was no way to stop them.
"I think what they said makes sense, Juyao..."
"Yeah, when Fanxing Group recovers the corpses, who knows where they'll throw them after digging out the crystals, anyway the result is the same, if we take them, we can also use them as evidence or something..."
"Yeah..."
Some whispered, but Song Juyao was unusually stern, her usually gentle face turned serious: "Once you get the first crystal, you'll want a second, once this door is opened, the consequences will be unimaginable. In the future when you see others have more crystals than you, won't you have the unbalanced mentality of comparison? When you see patients still breathing, will you choose to save them, or kill them and dig out their crystals? Never test human nature, and don't have too much confidence in your own willpower and self-control."
There was silence in the cafeteria, and no one made a sound for a while.
"Our ways are different, please leave, we can find the antidote ourselves. If we find out that you're preying on living patients, don't blame us for being impolite to beasts in human form." Song Juyao fixed a piercing, icy stare on the trio.
The three left with relaxed expressions, not taking Song Juyao's threat seriously.
Some exchanged furtive glances, sensing each other's inner unrest and wavering.
……
The research institute was extremely large, its structure was like a maze inside. Even the internal staff wouldn't wander freely, because the company assigned them fixed working areas, and they were not required to walk around, it was easy to get lost and go round and round.
The first day yielded nothing, everyone had no choice but to rest in the research institute.
Song Juyao had stopped it as fast as possible, but a single word can plant seeds in people's hearts and the seeds planted were still germinating in the darkness. Some tossed and turned, unable to sleep at night.
Getting up to use the public restroom outside, one heard noises in the corridor, and peeked out carefully to see Xiao Yao's trio dragging a corpse dripping with blood down the corridor.
Fearful yet curious, they discreetly followed and saw them stab open a skull with a knife. Brain matter oozed out as they stirred it, revealing a crystal core...
Terrifying, absurd, yet overwhelmingly tempting, it burned like fire in some people's hearts.
The next day, they continued searching the various labs in the research institute, looking for an antidote.
Wen Zhulian suddenly spoke: "I just thought of the previous topic. We don't even need them, right, because we all have them originally. We're all very talented people, we don't need others' talents. With our talents, we can naturally earn a lot of money, so we don't need to rely on selling those crystals to earn money. Health-wise, we're all very healthy, as long as we pay attention to our diets and exercise daily, we will have no problem living into our seventies-eighties..."
Wen Zhulian's seemingly comforting words, however, pierced the hearts of several people like arrows.
The 'talents' Wen Zhulian spoke of—was it her and Evans' creative abilities? Or Li Wenling's extraordinary acting skills? Or Song Juyao's intelligence? Sorry, but they didn't have that, not everyone is so lucky to have God provide such innate abilities to them. Without such abilities, earning money naturally wouldn't be so easy...The more they pondered, the more they found themselves yearning for those crystals.
Why couldn't they take them? They just lay there, motionless, open for anyone to take. They could take whatever they wanted and even if they didn't take them, it was also good to just eat one by themselves. They could become healthy, smart, and live a long life...Their lives would transform dramatically akin to cheating in a game, becoming completely different.
Once such thoughts surfaced, it was impossible to suppress them.
But Song Juyao would not allow it. She was very resolute and angry, possibly to the extent of resorting to stab with a knife. And though half the team would support her due to her opposition, they too were moved in their hearts.
When one wants to do something they recognize as morally questionable, they will feel guilty and afraid. Consequently, they want to drag others down with them, seeking collective validation to justify their behavior. The desire to prove that their actions are excusable, especially when shared by others, stems from the notion that if everyone is doing it, it can't be entirely wrong, as the legal system doesn't hold everyone accountable. (game play of safety in numbers)
In an instant, Song Juyao went from being a shining leader in some people's eyes, to a thorn in their side, a stumbling block. What right did she have to stop them? Just because she taught them some survival skills in the wild, would they have to obey her and be controlled by her?
"The seeds of betrayal have sprouted," Xiao Yao chuckled.
It was time for Song Juyao to experience the pain.
She had led the team with such hardship, they only survived thanks to her abilities. She must think that she had a good weight in the other party's heart, then imajine suddenly receiving a stab in the back - how would she feel? Would her world shake? It might crumble down.
But that was not all they wanted.
Wen Zhulian and the three temporary NPCs had already communicated, hearing their plans. The plan was extremely malicious, and she felt empowered, as if she could finally deal with Song Juyao. To ensure she also gets credit in the success of the plan, she added some of her own ideas to make them even more lethal. After all, Song Juyao was a murderer; she deserved all the suffering.
As for Wei Yan, that useless thing was already abandoned by her. He was no longer part of their game. He loves to be a salted fish so much then let him enjoy all his idleness.
Little did they know that their cunning and malicious plan was clearly open to the virtual world's audience.
"Mrs Lai, dare I ask how you raised this daughter?" Mother Chang was all stunned and couldn't help but voice her question.
Lai Xin went chilled to the bone and had no mood to pay any attention to Mother Chang.
……
On the third night in the research institute:
Evans and Jiang Baiqi had just finished preparing their makeshift beds on the floor when a knock sounded at the door.
Evans kicked Jiang Baiqi and said gruffly, "Go open the door."
Jiang Baiqi stared at Evans with his large, ashen eyes, but thinking he was Song Juyao's brother, he reluctantly got up to open the door.
Several members of the team stood outside. "We need to discuss something with Juyao."
"What is it?" Evans walked over, with an intimidating aura that made people fearful.
"Uh..."
"What's wrong?" Song Juyao walked out from the back room. They were using an office, there was a small resting area inside the office.
They said they had something to discuss, and Song Juyao seemed to have an unwavering trust in her companions. She put on her coat and left, not even bringing Jiang Baiqi along.