Today, I Have Yet to Become a Doll

Chapter 17

Chapter 17 – Exchange Of Information

The middle-aged couple only thought of Bai Youwei as a spoiled young lady. They did not care about her words and only said to Shen Mo, “We’re going to have a meeting at the restaurant later, do you want to join too?”

Shen Mo lowered his eyes and shot a glance at Bai Youwei. He casually asked, “What meeting?”

“Just getting together to discuss solutions.” They explained amiably, “There’s strength in numbers, so it’s better for us to work out a solution together than to worry helplessly alone. It’s fine if you don’t want to come, we don’t want to force you.”

Shen Mo nodded and said politely, “Okay, we will be there in a bit.”

After getting an answer, the middle-aged couple said no more and left.

“Why are we staying? You’re trying to gather information from them?” Bai Youwei lowered the corner of her lips, expressing her disgust. “The supermarket is empty. They have definitely been hiding here indulging themselves with food and drinks for more than a day or two. They don’t even dare to take any risk, what do you expect them to know?”

Shen Mo pulled open the car door, bent over and carried Bai Youwei in. Then, he gave her bread and water.

“Since the highway is blocked, we will have to take a long detour to get to Yangzhou, and perhaps it will be dark already before we even get there. It’s hard to see the road while driving at night, it would be difficult to avoid dolls in time if we meet them. So we might as well stay and see what they’re going to say.”

Upon hearing this, Bai Youwei frowned, not expressing her opinion.

She did not have a good impression of the people in the rest area, but right now, it seemed that no matter what decision they made, it would not be safe.

Bai Youwei nibbled on the bread and chewed it. She asked Shen Mo again, “Do you think anyone among them has passed the game before?”

Shen Mo had opened the car trunk and was searching for useful items. He raised his eyes and took a glance at her. “What do you think?”

“I think there is.” Bai Youwei spoke, “The two people just now look honest and well-behaved. They don’t seem to enjoy taking on jobs, but they took the initiative to wait for us here. They looked like warm-hearted people at first glance but I think that someone sent them here.”

Shen Mo’s hand movement paused a while, feeling somewhat surprised.

He was aware of this as well but he did not expect Bai Youwei to notice it too.

“You’re quite observant.” He rummaged out a military poncho liner1 and placed it over Bai Youwei’s legs. He continued calmly, “There must be someone leading these people. In order to gain information, he must continuously meet new passers-by. As to why he doesn’t appear in person, it’s understandable as it’s easier to gain trust by sending an honest-looking couple over.”

Bai Youwei looked at him suspiciously. “You know something is fishy but you still want to attend that meeting?”

Shen Mo smiled, “Something’s fishy but that doesn’t mean there’s malice. He needs information and so do we.”

As could be seen from the game “The Tortoise and The Hare”, not everyone would be turned into a doll. You could survive if you cleared the game. But why didn’t anyone in the city know? There was not even the slightest bit of news about it.

If you think about it again, after they cleared the game, they immediately noticed that there was no network signal, so did that mean that…others who won the game, had all gone to places with no signal, so they could not get the information out?

If that was the case, then this world-class disaster might be even worse than they imagined.

…

Later, as the night fell, only the restaurant out of the whole rest area had the lights on.

Shen Mo pushed Bai Youwei into the restaurant.

The people inside sat in a circle. Upon hearing a sound, they all turned around to look. After they saw Shen Mo and Bai Youwei, they calmly withdrew their gazes.

The cold white light shined down from the ceiling. It casted deep shadows on the faces of these people, accentuating their similarly lifeless expressions and made the scene before them look inexplicably eerie.

“Newcomers?” A bespectacled man looked up and said in a mild tone, “To attend the meeting, you need to do an exchange of information first.”