Chapter 59: Chengnan Bookstore 6
After the main frame of the Zeus Grand Hotel was completed, it was left empty in what was then a desolate suburban wilderness, rarely visited by anyone. The media described it as “forgotten by time,” but upon closer inspection, this description wasn’t entirely accurate. The mottled walls, exposed concrete, and cracked statues were all proof that time had long resided here.
With the hasty disappearance of the monster Dou Dekai, the storm also stopped, and the hall filled with the stale, earthy smell of post-rain decay. Zhuang Ningyu went out alone for some air. He was still wearing Yi Ke’s coat, his hands in his pockets, as he slowly strolled to a rooftop on the fourth floor of the hotel. From this position, he could just see the warehouse where the explosion had occurred, with a few dismal incandescent lights still hanging by the entrance.
“What are you hiding out here for?” Ten minutes later, Yi Ke found him and handed him a hot bun. “Eat something.”
“I was thinking about the rules,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “The investigation team just said that when Tang Xiaoyuan rented the shop back then, she did indeed use Bao Mingming’s bank card. After transferring the money, Tang Xiaoyuan even called the landlord to ask if he had received the transfer from her boyfriend. They must have been a couple. It’s not strange that Bao Mingming had so much money. His biological mother was quite beautiful, with a gentle and compliant personality. She provided Bao Yuzhou with extremely high emotional value in their daily interactions, so Bao Yuzhou was also very attentive to this mother and son. Even after his capital chain broke and he was struggling to keep his own head above water, he was still spending a lot of money to arrange for his mistress and son to go abroad.”
“Tang Xiaoyuan was eighteen at the time, and Bao Mingming was sixteen. It’s plausible that they were a couple,” Yi Ke said, sticking a straw into a milk carton. He held the bottle and felt it was still a bit hot, so he said, “Let it cool down a bit before you drink.”
In the rule zone, Zhuang Ningyu was so pampered by him that he barely had to lift a finger for clothes or food. His life skills had to temporarily give way to his love-addled brain, and it was hard to say whether he would even need to hold his own chopsticks in the future. But fortunately, his work abilities were still intact. He continued, “Bao Mingming not only supported Tang Xiaoyuan, but also covered her mother’s monthly medical expenses. Tang Xiaoyuan once discussed with the hospital about consulting foreign experts, stating that money was not an issue. The doctor had already contacted a research institute abroad, but then Tang Xiaoyuan’s financial situation took a nosedive. Not only could she not afford the foreign expert’s consultation fee, but even the most basic hospitalization fees were repeatedly delayed. Not long after Mother Tang was transferred from a special needs ward to a regular ward, she passed away from her illness.”
“If that’s the case, then Dou Dekai killing Bao Mingming was tantamount to killing Tang Xiaoyuan’s boyfriend and mother at once. It’s reasonable that she wouldn’t be able to move on,” Yi Ke placed the milk bottle in his hand. “But where did Tang Xiaoyuan get the prohibited drugs and guns?”
“I’d say nine times out of ten it’s related to Bao Mingming. Bao Yuzhou prided himself on being well-connected and must have taken his precious son to ‘see the world’ quite a bit,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “As for whether Tang Xiaoyuan proactively sought ‘revenge’ or was used by some organization, it’s hard to say for now.”
Besides the government, many private organizations were also, openly or secretly, studying the logic and patterns of the rule zones’ appearance. One of the most well-known was an organization called “Invisible Giant,” based on an island in the South Pacific and backed by several financial consortiums. In the beginning, the organization still managed to abide by the law on the surface, but later they became more and more reckless, brainwashing “volunteers” to enter rule zones and carry out various degrees of destruction to test the different reactions of the rule zones to this destruction. This was considered one of their routine experimental methods.
“Rule zones have been appearing more and more frequently in the last two years,” Yi Ke said. “In the very first year, there were only five cases in total worldwide.”
And now, rule zones had spread like a virus. Although governments around the world were doing their utmost to maintain normal social order, a sense of panic inevitably spread among the populace. This also led to ideological divisions: the obedience faction, the resistance faction, the moderate faction, and, like the Invisible Giant, the “arms faction” that sought to profit from the rules. The world still seemed calm, but no one knew how long this surface-level peace could be maintained amidst the surging undercurrents.
What if one day, the world is completely swallowed by the white fog?
Zhuang Ningyu looked into the distance and suddenly spoke, “Have you ever felt that while the number of rule zones is increasing exponentially, their ‘quality’ is declining exponentially?”
Yi Ke was puzzled. “Quality?”
“The five rule zones that appeared in the first year were logically tight and had detailed rules, like the magnum opuses meticulously crafted by the best mystery writers. No matter from which angle you analyze them, they were flawless. In the second and third years, there were over a hundred rule games. Although the quality was still good, small bugs had started to appear in their logical chains, lacking perfection. And developing to this day, ‘masterpieces’ like Agatha Christie’s or Conan Doyle’s have long since disappeared. The current rule zones…” Zhuang Ningyu thought for a moment, “…are more like sloppy works generated by a junior AI.”
Yi Ke pondered his words and tentatively explained, “You mean, assuming there is a ‘programmer’ in the universe, the first five rule zones were ‘games’ he personally designed. Later, as humans continuously entered the rule zones, the observational samples for the game also continuously expanded. And when the samples accumulated to a certain number, the ‘programmer’ himself no longer personally designed the ‘games,’ but could randomly deploy a large number of rule zones globally by relying on a model built from massive amounts of data?”
Zhuang Ningyu nodded. “Just like now.”
Yi Ke looked at the depths of the starry sky, obscured by the white fog, and pursed his lips. “Well, he must be pretty bored.”
Zhuang Ningyu said, “NPD.”
Yi Ke didn’t hear clearly. “What?”
Zhuang Ningyu repeated, “NPD, extreme narcissistic personality disorder. Just like Bao Yuzhou, who insisted on putting his own head on Zeus’s statue. I think the ‘programmer’ is the same as him, just with a different form of expression. Up to now, the basic logic of all rule zones has actually been ‘punishing evil and promoting good.’ This is also the theoretical basis for the existence of the obedience faction. They believe that the appearance of rule zones is essentially to help human society unearth hidden ‘evil,’ aiming to make the Earth an ideal state as soon as possible. When ‘evil’ completely disappears, the rules will naturally disappear along with it. Therefore, the root cause of the current chaotic situation is still humanity itself.” Of course, this theoretical basis was also very weak. Taking the Taoli Community as an example, the basic logic was indeed Lan Lan’s maternal love for Xiao Cong, but if the mission failed, wouldn’t the harm caused to the current residents of the Taoli Community by the space-time distortion be another kind of “evil”?
“NPDs are highly self-centered, enjoy a sense of privilege, and lack empathy for others. So the ‘programmer’ might not even realize that this is a form of moral tyranny. His rule logic only has the most basic concept of good and evil. Once the game starts, apart from the initially chosen protagonist, all other participants are just NPCs. Just like when we play ‘Super Mario,’ we don’t really care about the life or death of the Goombas and Koopas. As long as we can rescue the princess, the game is cleared,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “Of course, this is just a not-so-appropriate example. The role humans play in the rules is still a bit more advanced than that of a Goomba.”
Yi Ke smiled and took the empty milk bottle from his hand.
The progress of society lies in balancing good and evil, not completely eliminating one side. Zhuang Ningyu put his cold hands back into his pockets. “Forget it. Let’s get back to this rule zone for now.”
Yi Ke asked, “Do you want to drink some water first? Your voice is hoarse again.”
Zhuang Ningyu was highly vigilant. “What kind of water?”
Yi Ke’s expression didn’t change. “Sweet. I just asked Master Zhang for some of his signature, meticulously cooked hot apple juice for you.”
Zhuang Ningyu took the thermos half-believingly, took a sip, and immediately contorted from the bitterness. Yi Ke wrapped his arms around him to keep him from running away, holding the cup and coaxing, cajoling, and forcing him. “Be good. You’ll stop coughing after you drink it.”
Zhuang Ningyu: “Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough.”
The counter-effect was immediate.
Zhuang Ningyu: “I’ve been drinking this for half a month!”
Yi Ke wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “The reason it hasn’t worked for half a month is because you ate two more popsicles the day before yesterday.”
Zhuang Ningyu was choked up and couldn’t refute. He had indeed, as soon as his cough subsided, splurged five yuan on two old-school popsicles to celebrate. The result was that on that very afternoon, he was found squatting by a trash can, coughing his lungs out at the two empty wrappers inside, caught red-handed by Yi Ke who was coming off work.
Yi Ke packed the thermos. “We’ll continue drinking later.”
Zhuang Ningyu’s throat was numb from the bitterness. He fished a candy from his pocket, and after a while, continued, “The rules this time are actually a bit like a crude AI product.”
“For example?”
“The logic is very strange.”
In the story of the Taoli Community, the logical chain was Lan Lan’s maternal love for Xiao Cong. She wanted to leave with Xiao Cong before she died, so the solution to the rule was a bus. The logical chain of the Doll Party was Wen Ling’s desire to escape. Although later, because of Wen Yue’s entry, the older sister gave the chance of survival to her younger sister, the solution was the same: as long as they could leave before the big fire, the game was cleared. And Jiajia’s story was the simplest: a desire to get a puzzle, and the solution was also a puzzle.
In short, the basic logic of all current rule zones is “to fulfill the protagonist’s greatest dying wish.”
“Then shouldn’t the theme of the Zeus Grand Hotel game be helping Dou Dekai get a house?” Zhuang Ningyu said. “It was because he bought an unfinished building that he had a mental breakdown and developed the idea of perishing together with the Bao father and son. But the solution given by the rules is marriage.”
Yi Ke guessed, “Could it be that in Dou Dekai’s mind, buying a house is equivalent to getting married? He attributed his repeated failures in hitting on women to his material conditions, believing that as long as he bought a house, he would have a happy marriage?”
“Unlikely,” Zhuang Ningyu shook his head. “He had been PUA’d by that subway pickup class to the point of obsession, convinced that even if he didn’t have a house or a car, a beautiful woman with discerning eyes would fall deeply for his personal charm. In Dou Dekai’s mind, a house was actually not a necessary condition for marriage. He finally lost control purely because his money was scammed, he didn’t get the house, and still had to pay back the loan. The mental pressure was too great. His suicide note only mentioned this.”
Yi Ke said, “Hmm.”
The night wind was cold. Zhuang Ningyu glanced at the time. “Let’s go. We’ll go back first and wait for the new rules to appear. You should go to sleep.”
Yi Ke took the opportunity to hold his hand, walking back with their fingers intertwined. He made a request, “You sleep with me.”
Zhuang Ningyu refused flatly. “I don’t need to sleep.”
Yi Ke: “Please.”
Zhuang Ningyu: “Stop acting.”
Yi Ke gave him a bear hug. “But I’m scared. Fu Han brought two S-level bodyguards, and he’s going to be sleeping in the same hall as me tonight!”
Zhuang Ningyu was being dragged and couldn’t walk. “You sleep your sleep. Why do you care what level of bodyguards he brings?”
Yi Ke: “Then I’m not sleeping either!”
Zhuang Ningyu: “Suit yourself.”
In the end, later that night, the little puppy was so tired his eyes were filled with tears. He squatted in a corner, eating coffee-flavored lozenges. Zhuang Ningyu couldn’t tell if he was being real or faking it, so he could only treat it as real, going over and hauling the person up. “Sleep, sleep, sleep.”
Yi Ke was overjoyed. He pulled out a wash bag and brushed his teeth until his mouth was full of foam, looking like a happy Santa Claus. Then he wrung out a hot towel for his wife to wipe his face. Finally, he crawled into the temporarily set up small tent with him, nuzzled his minty-scented head against that fragrant neck, and whispered, “Good night.”
There were still members of the public and colleagues in the surrounding tents. Zhuang Ningyu reached back and ruffled his hair, saying with a helpless laugh, “Stop messing around. Go to sleep.”
