Money in hand felt more secure, and Ye Tiancheng and the others didn't have to worry about anyone stealing it from them.
This money wouldn't earn interest if it were in a bank; it was just an ordinary bank card. Moreover, Ye Tiancheng remembered that their examination venue this time was the School of Business, and he suspected the exam content might be related to "business."
Long Miaomiao and the little fox followed Ye Tiancheng's instructions without any objections. Long Miaomiao also found her card.
The little fox asked, "Should we find a bank first now?"
Ye Tiancheng nodded and said, "There should be banks near the commercial street. Let's look around and see if we can find out where those students have gone."
They followed the street, searching as they went, and at the same time, memorizing the routes and the environment of this illusion.
The streetscape on this street was completely unfamiliar to Ye Tiancheng and the others. Whether it was in this university town or any place they had been before, they had never encountered the same location. It was possible that all the scenery here had been created by the entity behind it.
Furthermore, they could feel that the scope of this illusion was indeed vast.
What was even more astonishing was that the pedestrians here were very lifelike, as if they were real people with real thoughts, unlike the rigid NPCs in games.
The reactions of these pedestrians were basically normal human reactions.
Ye Tiancheng was secretly shocked by the powerful entity that could create so many lifelike pedestrians with independent thoughts on such a large scale. He wondered how powerful that entity must be.
Ye Tiancheng asked Long Miaomiao about this, wanting to know if Long Miaomiao could determine what level of expert the entity behind this was based on this.
However, Long Miaomiao gave a different answer.
Long Miaomiao said to Ye Tiancheng, "You don't need to think of the entity behind this as too powerful. Manipulating and influencing so many people requires immense power. It's impossible for it to construct so many lifelike people with independent thoughts solely through its own abilities, even if they are just illusions. It cannot achieve this."
"This requires extremely powerful strength. If someone could truly do this, even just constructing illusions, why would they bother with the vital energy and life force of these students? They wouldn't have the inclination to do such a thing."
"These pedestrians appear so lifelike simply because, to some extent, they are all living people from the outside, possibly even people from outside the school. As for how they entered, it's not the same as these students."
Long Miaomiao paused and continued her explanation.
"You know about dreams, right? These pedestrians are roughly like those pulled from dreams. Regardless of whether they remember it after waking up, they will only think they had a dream, and most people don't remember their dreams."
After hearing Long Miaomiao's explanation, Ye Tiancheng was still very shocked.
To possess such power, even if it was just manipulating so many people's dreams, while also controlling tens of thousands of students in this university, was incredibly terrifying. Ye Tiancheng couldn't imagine how much energy this would consume.
The entity behind this was truly not to be underestimated.
Ye Tiancheng frowned, and the little fox also marveled inwardly.
They wandered around the vicinity and hadn't seen any banks yet, but they did spot ATMs for deposits and withdrawals.
As they entered together, they saw familiar faces – several students they had seen in the examination venue earlier. They were likely here to withdraw money as well.
Based on this, Ye Tiancheng's decision to withdraw money should be correct.
These students didn't seem like novices; they weren't encountering this situation for the first time and had some experience. If even they chose to do this, there must be a reason, or it would be helpful for the exam.
The little fox whispered to Ye Tiancheng, "I just realized something, Big Brother. We don't know the bank passwords. How can we withdraw money?"
"I remember bank card passwords are six digits. If the password is the candidate number, our candidate numbers here are five digits, and we are outsiders, so our numbers should be newly assigned. These numbers should be arranged according to the number of students in the school. There can't be more than a hundred thousand people in the school."
Ye Tiancheng carefully observed the situation at the ATM withdrawal point.
Then, he answered the little fox's question, saying, "In a place like this, not everything can strictly follow the rules of the outside world. I just observed that withdrawals probably don't require a password."
"I saw the student in front of me insert his card into the ATM, and then the ATM seemed to scan his face before entering the deposit and withdrawal interface. He didn't enter a password. The ATMs here are likely using facial recognition."
The little fox was slightly surprised and said, "That sounds quite advanced?"
However, since they didn't need to guess passwords, it was good. Ye Tiancheng and the others lined up and took turns withdrawing money, totaling three thousand yuan in cash, a small stack of pink bills, all collected by Ye Tiancheng.
Long Miaomiao and the little fox both handed their money to Ye Tiancheng for safekeeping.
After leaving the ATM withdrawal point, the little fox looked at the surrounding streets and asked Ye Tiancheng, "Big Brother, what should we do next? What should we do?"
"We haven't heard the exam questions. This is the School of Business, and the exam tool we were given is one thousand yuan. Could the exam require us to make money and increase the money we have?"
Ye Tiancheng thought for a moment and shook his head, saying, "It can't be that simple. If that were the case, these students wouldn't be so scared. There will definitely be more dangerous events later, causing injuries or even life-threatening danger in the illusion."
"However, the exam time is seven days, and this place looks so unfamiliar. I don't think we have accommodation. We need to find a place to stay. Are we going to sleep on the streets?"
The little fox also thought of this.
"Oh, right, but we should be able to stay in a hotel. With three thousand yuan, including food and accommodation, if we're frugal, it should be enough for the three of us. Most hotels charge around a hundred yuan per night for a room. There are three of us, but the little fox and I can share, so we can save one room. However, this would mean spending half the money at once."
"We have to stay for seven days. Assuming one hundred yuan per night, two rooms for a week would be one thousand four hundred."
"Or should we look for some ordinary small inns? I remember some small inns have cheaper rooms, maybe a few dozen yuan a night. We're staying for seven days, so maybe we can get a discount."
Ye Tiancheng rejected the little fox's later suggestion and said, "Those small inns have poor environments and low security. In normal circumstances, if we were outside, we could make do, but in a place like this, we don't know what might happen. It's better to stay in a hotel with better conditions."
The little fox nodded, "That's true."
Ye Tiancheng looked around, pondering, and said, "As for what to do next... why don't we observe a few students and see what they do, and then we can learn from them?"
"At least they have more experience and might not make big mistakes. Moreover, we are better equipped to deal with danger than them."
Having made up his mind, and being near the ATM withdrawal point, it was easy to find targets to follow.
However, if they only followed one person, it wouldn't be ideal. What if they happened to follow a "slacker"?
Ye Tiancheng and the others discussed it, and finally decided that the three of them would split up, each finding a student to follow, observe their behavior, and then return here to meet, exchange information, and then decide what to do next.
However, Long Miaomiao and the little fox had both given their money to Ye Tiancheng. To prevent them from being inconvenient when they were out, Ye Tiancheng gave each of them five hundred yuan for emergency use, just in case. Even if it wasn't needed, carrying it wouldn't be a burden, but it was better to be prepared.
For Ye Tiancheng and the others, tracking people was not difficult.
Let alone their cultivation or other abilities, Long Miaomiao herself knew magic and could cast a spell of invisibility and concealment on herself, so even if she followed people openly, she wouldn't be discovered.
As for Ye Tiancheng and the little fox, with the help of the little fox's talismans, it was not a problem for them to hide their tracks and keep up with their targets.
Ye Tiancheng observed the students who had arrived here and finally chose a young boy who looked very young and somewhat cute.
He saw that this young boy was very alert and cautious, like a little hamster, perhaps very knowledgeable about how to survive in such a place and what to do.
Ye Tiancheng followed behind this boy.
He first saw the boy hesitate when choosing accommodation, finally opting for the more expensive grand hotel. Then, he went to the supermarket and bought a large quantity of various foods. At the same time, Ye Tiancheng noticed that other students they had seen were also making similar purchases.
What made Ye Tiancheng even more speechless was that he saw students shamelessly stealing. While clearing the shelves, they would occasionally pocket something. When it came to checkout, some students who had stolen things were discovered, but they would directly fight with the supermarket staff and then escape with all the goods, paying no price at all.
Just witnessing this, although it might be because in such an environment, everyone was helpless and it was for survival.
However, Ye Tiancheng felt that if such things happened frequently, it would definitely cause very bad consequences. After experiencing so many similar events here, abandoning moral bottom lines and committing bad deeds, what kind of psychological impact would it have on these students when they returned to reality?
This was a very serious matter.
Ye Tiancheng followed the little boy and saw him return with his purchases, then retreat into his hotel room, showing no intention of coming out again.
There was still a long time until the agreed-upon meeting time. Ye Tiancheng remembered that these students were quite aggressive in clearing the shelves, emptying many of them. If he didn't hurry, he might not be able to buy as many affordable foods and supplies later.
Therefore, Ye Tiancheng decided to leave first to make his purchases.
Unfortunately, they had no way to contact each other. Their mobile phones had disappeared here. According to something Long Miaomiao later explained to Ye Tiancheng and the others, they had entered a place that was both real and somewhat like a dream. In any case, their original bodies had not entered here, and their mobile phones should have been left with their bodies.
If the entity manipulating all of this behind the scenes didn't provide them, they wouldn't have mobile phones.
Ye Tiancheng wasn't fixated on this; having an agreed-upon meeting point was enough.
However, without the ability to contact each other in advance, Ye Tiancheng couldn't book a room beforehand because he didn't have enough money on him.