Chapter 33: Transformed and destroyed
It was a game filled with childlike innocence and a magnificent gate, but the deciphered text revealed a distress signal. Behind this gate, there were no monsters lurking or scenes of rivers of blood. Instead, there was a staircase crafted from marble, resembling a helical genetic chain, leading to an unknown but predetermined upper level.
Delicate and beautiful angel reliefs adorn the pure white handrails.
It truly seems like a staircase to heaven.
As the gate opens, a golden droplet hovers in front of An Wujiu.
Just as he reached out and his fingertips touched the droplet, a burst of light transformed the droplet into four fragments, each bearing different pieces of information.
[conSecration]
[Our]
[Shall]
[!]
“The four characters from earlier are hidden in these fragments,” Shen Ti pointed out, all the letters in uppercase.
“Yes, this should be related to the key.” An Wujiu looked at the fragments, softly pronouncing the meanings of these words. “‘Consecration,’ ‘Our,’ ‘Shall,’ ‘…'”
They seemed like temporarily unrelated words.
They stood in place, and suddenly, Wu You’s voice came from behind them.
An Wujiu collected the fragments and turned around to see Nan Shan and Wu You walking side by side in the corridor. However, they had not encountered each other before this moment.
Nan Shan extended a hand that was originally in his pocket, waved, and greeted with a smile, “It seems like you’ve found the way to the second level.”
An Wujiu also nodded slightly.
Shen Ti imitated Nan Shan’s way of greeting, but his hand was raised somewhat casually. Rather than a greeting, it looked more like a noble young master bidding at an auction.
“Wujiu-ge.” Wu You quickly stepped forward. “After we entered his workspace, we found these fragments in the incinerator.”
He unfolded his hands without hesitation, displaying the fragments he had collected.
Nan Shan, standing beside them, felt a bit bitter. Even though he was a comrade who fought alongside this kid, there wasn’t even a mention of his name in his words.
So, after Wu You extended his hand, Nan Shan deliberately added, “Yes, we found them. I’m Nan Shan.”
An Wujiu looked at him, “I remember your name.”
This person was just so peculiar.
“We found some too.” Shen Ti grabbed An Wujiu’s wrist slightly higher, and because of his injury, the touch was gentle. “Stretch out your hand and show him ours.”
At this moment, An Wujiu was immersed in examining the fragments obtained by Wu You.
He and Nan Shan only found one piece, which reads [Burned].
An Wujiu quickly combines “shall” and “burned.” Because it was in the passive voice, it could only be “[…shall be burned alive].”
“Put it with yours.” Wu You handed it directly to him, his face showing absolute trust.
Nan Shan observed the person beside him with hands in his pockets, thinking to himself that he didn’t expect this poker-faced kid to be a loyal puppy. Apparently, in front of him, he only knew how to be cold and sarcastic.
It seemed that the long-haired handsome guy in front of them was quite reliable and looked very kind.
But how did such a kind guy survive in this cannibalistic place?
An Wujiu agreed to Wu You’s suggestion.
As he lifted his head, he saw three other people approaching from around the corner—Yang Erci, Zhong Yirou, and Josh. He was about to ask Zhong Yirou about the communicator when she, upon seeing him, reacted as if she had seen a ghost and hid behind Yang Erci.
“Be careful! This An Wujiu might be fake!”
An Wujiu was a bit puzzled. He glanced at Shen Ti beside him and then looked at Zhong Yirou.
Shen Ti directly said, “Did you make a mistake?”
“Is there another me?”
Everyone was a bit confused, and a hint of strangeness emerged in the previously calm atmosphere.
Zhong Yirou stepped out from behind Yang Erci and asked An Wujiu tentatively, “In the last game… what color were the clothes I wore on the second day?”
Shen Ti and Wu You both rolled their eyes when they heard this question.
“Who remembers that?”
“You turned this game into a dress-up game.”
An Wujiu thought for a moment and then looked at Shen Ti’s face.
“It’s a bit like his eye color, a kind of… mint color.”
He actually remembered.
He really wasn’t straight at all.
Zhong Yirou’s face showed a bit of surprise, and then she coughed twice. “Then let me ask you, in the bunker, Shen Ti slept with you…”
“Handcuffs.” An Wujiu almost immediately interrupted her. “Don’t ask anymore. I remember. If you don’t believe it, I can take them out of storage for you to see.”
His voice inexplicably lowered, speaking so fast that there were no pauses, as if he felt a bit guilty.
“Oh!” Nan Shan showed a sudden realization, “So Mr. Wujiu and Mr. Green Eyes have that kind of relationship.”
Wu You showed an expression of “I knew it,” but did not deny it for them.
No one paid attention to An Wujiu’s solitary denial. Zhong Yirou was happy to find the real him; Yang Erci breathed a sigh of relief; Josh’s ears turned red as she looked at the others with a shy smile; and Nan Shan tried to decipher the relationship between An Wujiu and Shen Ti through expressions and glances.
After the reunion, everyone’s uneasy hearts were somewhat relieved, even though no one said it out loud.
“Let’s go up first.” An Wujiu had no choice. “After going up to the second floor, we need to exchange the information obtained on the first floor because, if I’m not mistaken, we were forcibly separated by some illusions.”
So everyone walked into this gate together, climbed the stairs, and on the rotating staircase attached to the wall, there were many photos hanging, all of children’s smiling faces, each one adorable.
But the more adorable they were, the more chilling An Wujiu felt.
The door to the second floor was similarly an exquisite relief door. Before pushing it open, An Wujiu thought it might be similar to the first floor. However, when it was really opened, what he saw was a colorful scene—pink floors, blue ceilings, walls with various children’s drawings depicting characters from various fairy tales.
In addition, in the corridor full of childlike joy, there was a bouncing teddy bear, seemingly a robot. However, it could only move forward and backward and could only jump, unable to walk or speak.
When everyone entered the second floor, the door leading to the first floor closed with a bang.
Unlike the clean and empty first floor, this level was full of fairy-tale colors from the indication signs at the entrance. One sign points left with the words “Rainbow Babies,” while the sign pointing to the right reads “Double Perfect Angels.” Both signs are embedded with a circle of gem-like mini-lights, which is very eye-catching.
“Let’s organize the information first,” Yang Erci said calmly, “and don’t separate. I suspect that as long as we are separated, this place will split into subspaces. We will unconsciously enter them and won’t be able to find each other.”
Zhong Yirou nodded, “I got separated before and encountered someone who looked exactly like An Wujiu.”
An Wujiu’s eyes widened a bit, expressing surprise in a restrained manner.
“So you cut off my signal.”
“It was accidentally cut off. I didn’t know which one was real, so I tried to trick the person standing in front of me, pretending to be An Wujiu.”
Zhong Yirou put her hands on her hips, “But he doesn’t even know his own name. I shouted ‘Wujiu’ at him in panic before, but he seemed not to notice. Later, I called him Wu You, and he didn’t object. That’s when I knew he was fake.”
An Wujiu didn’t understand, “Is he an NPC? But if disguising identity is a task given by the Altar, they can’t possibly not know the identity information of the imposter.”
“That’s why I find it strange.” Zhong Yirou warned the others, “I don’t know if there will be other players later. Be careful, everyone. If Erci hadn’t saved me, I might have been strangled by the fake An Wujiu.”
At the familiar way Zhong Yirou addressed her, Yang Erci pursed her lips.
An Wujiu, on the other hand, had another question, “How did you find her?”
As Yang Erci had guessed earlier, indeed, no matter how long An Wujiu and Shen Ti wandered in the four-cornered corridor, they couldn’t find any other players. Zhong Yirou only encountered the fake version of herself.
“I was with Josh. Due to an accident, my communicator connected to Zhong Yirou, and I heard that she was in danger, but we couldn’t find her.”
Josh added, “The scariest part is that we checked other rooms and corridors in the control room, and there was no one. Later, when we went out together and circled around, we suddenly saw a very strange nine-grid on the ground.”
Shen Ti said, “We saw it too.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, that was made by me.” Nan Shan spoke up, explaining to the others what he and Wu You had encountered, including the process of using the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams along with Qimen Dunjia to unlock the ghost wall.
“Perhaps, as Miss Yang said, this place is not ordinary. Maybe because of the different choices we make, it categorizes different parallel spaces. In these spaces, we can’t see each other. Even if she stands in front of us and makes a mark, due to the displacement of space, we still can’t see her.”
Shen Ti nodded, “So it’s because of your Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams that these parallel spaces have intersections.”
“Exactly. Everyone has to go through the Nine Palaces array to meet and enter the same space. Only then can this open-split illusion be closed.”
An Wujiu pondered for a moment, showing the fragments of information he obtained to others. They exchanged clues found in different spaces. After learning about the incinerator incident and hearing Zhong Yirou talk about the bizarre sleep room, it was no longer surprising.
He speculated, “He not only knows but is very familiar. Being able to directly bring Zhong Yirou to a designated room to attack indicates that he is well aware of which room has the whip he needs.”
“What does the work log say?” Shen Ti asked.
“It contains a lot of information about children, with recorded times and reasons. The time should be the time of death, and the reasons are represented by Roman numerals one, two, three, and four, without being very clear, except for one special case, which is directly stated.”
An Wujiu frowned, “What is it?”
“Transformation,” Zhong Yirou said.
Nan Shan repeated these two words, “I also have this term in my work log.”
“The transformation here is definitely not just a concept in sociology and philosophy, although we are constantly being technologically transformed,” Yang Erci said with a meaningful tone.
“I think this should be related to some mysterious Western religion,” Nan Shan explained. “This kind of transformation is the process from human to non-human, like turning into a monster.”
An Wujiu suddenly flashed the image of the slime ball like monster in his mind.
“Are you suggesting that some children undergo ‘transformation,’ so they are destroyed?” Shen Ti finished, then asked in a somewhat puzzled tone, “Why should they be destroyed if they are no longer humans?”
“It probably has to do with the inherent aversion of humans,” Nan Shan smiled and added. “Of course, what we Taoists pursue is the establishment of a utopian world, advocating equality, non-discrimination, and unity of all things…”
“Are you here to preach?” Wu You unexpectedly interjected.
Nan Shan smiled calmly, “Of course not. Taoism never seeks universality, only inner freedom and unity of heaven and man.”
Seeing him confidently go on, Wu You didn’t want to argue. He just thought Nan Shan was showing off again.
After discussing the information from the first floor, they gathered all the fragments they currently had from the E-level, most likely the information for the key.
However, when Zhong Yirou opened her log, she only obtained one piece with the word “[Hell].”
The current fragments couldn’t form anything meaningful, so they had to focus on the second level of the containment center, where they were currently located.
The little bear robot had completed another round and bounced in front of them again before shaking them off.
Just after they finished discussing, during the silent seconds, a voice appeared in this splendid fairy-tale corridor, with clear traces of synthesis.
[I’m here.]
An Wujiu frowned. The others were equally puzzled, looking at each other.
[I’m here.]
The voice repeated again.
[Do you need any help? Please command.]
Goosebumps appeared on Josh’s arms. He touched his arm and whispered, “Do you guys think this… resembles those home AI systems?”
“But nobody even called him.” Zhong Yirou’s face wrinkled.
While they whispered to each other, the voice appeared again.
Or, rather, some kind of response.
[No problem, I am about to play a song for you.]
Suddenly, the corridor once again played a clear and sweet children’s song, a classic English nursery rhyme sung by many children. The melody was very pleasant.
[London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down…]
Everyone looked up, following the sound, toward the ceiling filled with stars and lakes.
But An Wujiu felt a flash of something and turned his head.
He saw a little boy with two heads standing at the end of the corridor with the sign “Rainbow Babies.” His two heads tilted in different directions, smiling at him.
The next moment, he disappeared.
[…London Bridge is falling down, my fair lady.]
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