Prev | Table of Contents | Next
Chapter 59: “Can we not use the player’s face to model such inappropriate scenes?”
“Growth Show?” Josh’s puzzled frown relaxed as he recalled the logs of his own character. “Could it be… A02’s adoption, growing up, then working, getting sick, being cloned… is all just part of a reality show?”
“It’s a possibility, and there are indications from many places,” An Wujiu said. “Especially with the omnipresent cameras on floor A.”
This possibility was beyond everyone’s imagination, but Yang Erci was not surprised. She quickly thought of the movie list she saw in the fourth-floor laboratory, with the last film being “The Truman Show.”
Perhaps A02 was really like Truman and all his social relationships were part of the experiment, part of this growth show.
So she asked, “Is this experiment planned by A01’s father?”
The screen displayed a circle.
“Yes.”
“Then it was continued by A01?” Yang Erci continued to inquire.
“Yes.”
The two affirmatives essentially set the direction of the plot.
An Wujiu organized his thoughts, “Now we know at least that A02 was nominally the adopted son of the manager of this containment center, the foster son of the former director, and the current director’s brother and lover. But in fact, he was an important experiment in this containment center. Judging by A02’s personality, he had been cultivated to be very kind and dedicated to those children. Therefore, the experiment was likely to be carried out under the slogan ‘all for humanity,’ with the genetically edited A02 clone ensuring continuity to prevent the experiment from being interrupted.”
“For what purpose then? Just raising a child?” Josh asked.
“It’s possible that they aim to brainwash him with beliefs and see what kind of person this child will grow up to be,” Nan Shan suggested.
Yang Erci felt that this was a possibility. “Perhaps they also set up a control group for the experiment, such as clones without positive guidance and with incomplete memories.”
After saying this, she looked in the direction of the screen and asked, “Am I right?”
The system’s response confirmed her speculation.
“Yes.”
This could explain why some A02s had extremely bad personalities, but in his personal videos, he appeared upright.
“They just chose a child with congenital pathological defects from countless abandoned infants, and under artificial manipulation, they made him grow into a perfect child that can be perpetuated.”
Upon hearing this, Shen Ti felt uncomfortable but restrained himself from moving. He and An Wujiu were close, and any slight movement on his part might deepen An Wujiu’s predicament.
“Is it okay to describe it to the system now?”
“Wait a moment,” Zhong Yirou spoke up. “Not just the details; the system requires a truth similarity of over 80%, and we still have many omissions, such as…”
She thought for a moment: “The affiliations of each character we represent.”
“We’re all dead,” An Wujiu said very directly.
“All dead…” Wu You glanced at Shen Ti: “Including A01?”
An Wujiu nodded: “Everyone, from our initialization to the start of this game, has already died. The marks on Yirou and Nan Shan’s necks should be traces of their killings. You were probably placed in a bathtub or something. Your knees were wet, and your upper body was soaked, probably forced into a kneeling position by the edge of the bathtub.”
“But how do we explain that they died during the editing process?” Wu You said. “My work log was not edited completely.”
“That’s easy,” An Wujiu said. “First, it doesn’t necessarily have to be written in front of the mainframe; perhaps just having permission is enough. Secondly, A02 is an acquaintance, and you were writing something he couldn’t see. If he suddenly appeared, imagine, wouldn’t you temporarily shut it off and get up to deal with him?”
Wu You nodded.
An Wujiu looked at Yang Erci. “You had your throat cut. I suspect it was done with tools from the B05 laboratory.”
“What about A01?” Nan Shan looked at them. “He doesn’t have any wounds.”
“Both of us have broken watches on our hands,” An Wujiu naturally took Shen Ti’s wrist, “and both are broken watches. Shen Ti’s watch stopped at 3:19 AM on October 8th, and mine was around 3:20 AM that day.”
“The most important point.” An Wujiu let go of Shen Ti’s hand. “He and I have the same scent.”
Wu You and Nan Shan squinted at the same time.
“No,” An Wujiu denied helplessly, realizing they misunderstood, but Shen Ti was laughing beside him.
“It’s the scent of bitter almonds, very faint. Perhaps I’m more sensitive, but I’ve only smelled this scent on him and myself.”
Yang Erci understood. “You mean cyanide?”
An Wujiu nodded. “I speculate that on that night, A02 poisoned A01 and then took poison to commit suicide.”
After hearing all this, Nan Shan suddenly remembered what he had said before on the first floor about the bad Feng Shui here.
“The hexagram-shaped structure obstructs the flow of energy, and the Feng Shui is not smooth. In the distant past, some places used to build very small baby towers where they would throw unwanted infants, leaving them to fend for themselves. The majority were female infants.”
After saying this, he looked at the others. “I think the building was constructed in this form to trap the souls of the sacrificed children. But in the end, it trapped the seven of us who died.”
“That’s a creative interpretation,” Shen Ti said, raising an eyebrow. “So, if we say the game started at midnight and the last person died around 3 AM, maybe the first person died around midnight, perfectly matching the save time in the logs.”
An Wujiu found it frightening. “So, in reality, this game is having us players replace the spirits of the deceased, returning to the first floor, and experiencing the darkness and ugliness here with our own eyes. In 72 hours, if we can’t unravel the secrets of the containment center, we’ll be forever trapped here. If we solve it, then we have a chance to leave.”
Nan Shan nodded. “It’s very possible. There has long been a tradition of keeping the corpse for three days before burial. The 72 hours here might signify the same.”
“So that’s it…” Josh sighed. “We’re like vengeful spirits who lost their memories after death, trapped in this building.”
Things gradually became clear.
An Wujiu, being cautious, carefully thought through everything, not only describing the details of the situation but also everything the containment center had done to the system. Together with the others, they waited for the final result.
“Analyzing results.”
“Now announcing accuracy.”
A number appeared on the screen.
“The similarity between your analyses and the truth is approximately 95%. Congratulations! You have completed this task, and this is the first time all members have passed this level since the opening of this round of the game.”
Most likely, many had died in the earlier stages.
“Does this count as breaking a record?” Shen Ti smirked, glancing at An Wujiu.
“It’s not certain that we’ve really passed yet,” An Wujiu said calmly.
Suddenly, the screen played some surveillance footage, with people having the exact same face as An Wujiu.
It turned out that the system was using this method to review their journey.
In the footage, A02 grew from a child into a pillar of the containment center, busy every day, pouring most of his energy into providing a better life and future for the children.
But what he didn’t know was that all these efforts were part of a deception. He was working for things that didn’t exist, even against his own values and beliefs.
His assumed colleagues, such as B05 and C04, were actually genetic engineers editing him. E06 and E07 were responsible for preserving and handling his clones. Even his supposed friend, D03, was just a “manufactured” companion.
Even his “lover” was fake.
Apart from work, all of A02’s remaining time was spent chasing A01. The A02 on the screen, with An Wujiu’s face, tried to please the nominal older brother A01 in every possible way. Eventually, they became secret lovers.
“There’s no need to use the player’s face to model…” Wu You looked at the extremely out-of-character scenes and felt very uncomfortable.
But Shen Ti shamelessly exclaimed, “Fortunately, I look good.”
An Wujiu glanced at him, not expecting that some scenes inappropriate for children would start appearing on the screen.
Nanshan immediately pushed Wu You’s hat down to the lowest, covering his eyes. “Kids shouldn’t watch this.”
Yang Erci shook her head speechlessly and turned her face aside, while Zhong Yirou widened her eyes and began to scrutinize carefully.
“You two… forget it,” she said halfway and then stopped herself.
Even the footage of A01 and A02 engaging in intimate activities had been recorded as materials.
At first, An Wujiu was watching with a curious mind, but suddenly his face started to burn.
He didn’t know if it was because the person in the video had a face similar to his own or because the other person looked exactly like Shen Ti.
The face on the bed was almost entirely flushed, body tinged with a rosy hue, mouth open in irregular gasps, and fingers nearly digging into the other’s arm. The whole scene resembled drowning in a wet, hot, and sticky sea, emanating a strange aura that was entirely unfamiliar to An Wujiu.
It was both peculiar and embarrassing.
An Wujiu still lowered his eyes, waiting for this segment to pass. He thought he had kept a poker face; after all, his inner turmoil was known to no one.
But his reddened ears betrayed him.
Just as this scene was about to conclude, with A01 putting on clothes and preparing to leave, the usually silent Shen Ti let out a long sigh.
“Sigh.”
An Wujiu turned his face to the side: “What are you sighing about?”
Seeing his indifferent expression, Shen Ti burst into laughter: “I’m not telling you.”
An Wujiu felt a bit disgruntled, but he didn’t press further. He would seem overly concerned if he did.
As the surveillance continued, A01’s performance on the bed was documented in the experimental manual for the growth show. Once they detected A02’s deteriorating condition, they would initiate the “inheritance” experiment—collecting the current clone’s memories, euthanizing him, and resurrecting the next one with the transferred memories.
He typed a line of text.
[This experiment will provide immense value for achieving eternal life in humans.]
It turns out that A02 is just a small screw driving the future of humanity.
Just a piece of living experimental data.
In the footage, A01 was manipulating the system when A02 suddenly entered, claiming to have a surprise and covering A01’s eyes with his hands.
Afraid of being exposed, A01 hastily shut down the system while closing his eyes, causing a bug during the system’s self-repair.
In reality, the bug wasn’t significant; it simply delegated floor E permissions to all staff, including A02.
Curious, A02 entered floor E and discovered numerous bodies identical to his own frozen in liquid nitrogen chambers.
So, everything that followed, he found out about.
The moment the deception was exposed, A02 lost everything, including his identity.
He was nothing, not even a standalone human.
And his unwavering belief was all shattered. This place wasn’t a paradise to save the children; it was a hell that consumed lives. The cherished children had no freedom; they had even lost their lives. He himself was not a savior but merely an experiment.
As they watched A02 cry out in anguish, the seven individuals in the fluid swamp fell into silence.
None of them could comprehend such a tragic life.
So, on the night of October 7th, A02 began killing, starting from floor E and making his way to the top floor.
He mixed a deadly substance he brought from floor B into red wine, changed out of his bloodstained clothes, and entered A01’s room.
In the video, A02 smiled with An Wujiu’s face, a poignant beauty that could easily win anyone’s love and sympathy. Perhaps because of this, he also received a rare, genuine kiss from A01.
After the kiss, he told A02, “I plan to make our relationship public.”
“Don’t you like kids? Let’s adopt one and treat it as our child.”
Adopt?
Choose another experimental subject again?
A02 smiled and agreed, then handed the red wine to A01.
Without suspicion, A01 took a sip, then embraced A02, expressing a mix of half-truths and half-fake affection.
A02, in turn, leaned gently against his shoulder: “I truly love you, from the moment I first laid eyes on you.”
“No,” he chuckled, “it’s from the first time my original self laid eyes on you.”
A sudden change crossed A01’s face. He released the embrace, stepped back, and before he could ask, he spat out a mouthful of blood.
A02 reached out and wiped the corner of his mouth, “My memories might lack something or repeat, but there’s one thing I steadfastly believe, no matter how many times it’s duplicated.”
“That I love you.”
“And you?” A02’s eyes had lost their sparkle, “Do you even remember which iteration I am?”
A01’s blood continued to flow, staining the new shirt A02 had given him and the couple’s watches he had bought for them.
Before receiving an answer, A02 kissed A01, mingling blood and poison, concluding their deceitful game with no survivors.
“Ge, let’s go to hell together.”
The surveillance continued until the end, capturing kindness and ugliness, deception and sincerity, scheming and revenge—all turned into data, permanently preserved.
The system emitted a sound.
“This is the hidden plot of the current game.”
The fluid that confined them disappeared, and everyone regained their freedom.
The massive screen slowly descended, transforming into an incomplete puzzle.
An Wujiu noticed that the shape of the puzzle pieces matched their keys.
The system informed them, “Once the key puzzle is fully restored, you will receive corresponding instructions, trigger the true end, and exit the game.”
All the key fragments were on An Wujiu, who reached into his pocket only to find the fragments missing.
“What you’re looking for is with me.”
It was Josh who spoke, opening his hand to reveal a stack of shimmering fragments.
Wu You frowned, “What are you doing? Why do you have the key fragments?”
Everyone was more or less surprised by the turn of events, but An Wujiu remained calm, as if he expected this.
“Do you have a special mission?” An Wujiu took a step closer, turning the tables, “Let me think… You’re a player about to be resurrected. After completing enough NPC tasks, you came here for your last chance to become a player, right?”
Josh’s face showed a forced smirk, admitting after being exposed, “Yeah, that’s me. Now, I’m going to clear the game on my own.”
With that, he directly took the fragments in his hand and approached the incomplete puzzle, somewhat irrationally restoring the pieces.
“Wujiu-ge.”
Wu You glanced at An Wujiu.
“Let him go.” An Wujiu allowed it, watching Josh’s figure as he worked hard for his resurrection.
“To be honest, I had noticed it a long time ago, and I even knew when you took the fragments.”
Josh’s actions came to a sudden halt.
“I am an extremely cautious person. Each of these fragments here represents the life and death of the seven of us, so I kept them very carefully.” An Wujiu’s gaze was indifferent. “Only when I was fully immersed in the fluid, preoccupied with questioning, was I unable to attend to them. It was during that time, through your special means, that you took away all the fragments, right?”
“I indeed used you all to collect all the fragments.” Josh didn’t turn around. “When did you figure it out?”
An Wujiu smiled, “You really had no flaws because you didn’t harm anyone. You even gritted your teeth, enduring the pain, and helped us complete the tasks.”
“But since the system set a special role, it would inevitably set clues for players to discover their existence.”
“And this clue was the deck of cards you found at that time.”
“The deck of cards?” Wu You frowned, realizing, “The ghost card.”
An Wujiu nodded, “Exactly. Josh, you knew that the deck of cards would expose your identity, so you deliberately did some small tricks. If I’m not mistaken, the back of the diamond 3 on you right now must also have traces of glue where the ghost card was stuck.”
Shen Ti smiled and clapped, enjoying the spectacle.
“Yes, you’re right.” Josh didn’t turn around but admitted, “I did tear off your diamond 2 and then peeled off the ghost card stuck behind the diamond 3, creating the illusion of the disappearance of the number 2 card and hiding the ghost card in the box, pointing the clue to the metaphor of A02’s death.”
“You discovered it a long time ago. Why didn’t you expose me?”
Josh placed the last puzzle piece.
“Because there was no need.”
An Wujiu walked toward him: “This isn’t a zero-sum game. Since we can all survive, why not do it this way?”
“I was indeed used by you, but from another perspective, you also made necessary sacrifices for our clearance. Without you, we wouldn’t have passed the fourth level.”
Josh’s hand trembled. He took it down, looking at the puzzle in front of him, which, combined with the words they had collected earlier, formed a passage.
Everything is a hoax.
A child consecration.
This is your sin.
I truly love you deeply.
This is our revenge.
Nobody is innocent.
___should be destroyed.
We shall be burned in hell.
One word was missing.
Josh turned his head, furrowing his brow at An Wujiu.
An Wujiu’s face remained indifferent, unperturbed. He wore a faint, almost imperceptible smile. As long as he didn’t transform into his other self, he seemed like a flawlessly debugged machine.
“It’s with me.”
Shen Ti reached out, holding the final piece between two fingers.
“You indeed kept an ace up your sleeve,” Josh remarked.
Shen Ti smiled and approached, “All is fair in war. Besides, knowing we have a trickster among us, I naturally kept something reliable with me.”
He put his arm around An Wujiu’s shoulder and gave him a shake: “Right?”
An Wujiu felt that he was like a triumphant little dog, much like the type that excels at barking to claim the credit.
“Yes, you are the most reliable,” he agreed.
“Why does it not sound like praise?” Shen Ti walked over, placing the final puzzle piece in its place and giving it a pat.
The complete puzzle disappeared, and something descended from above. Shen Ti caught it effortlessly—a bag of chocolates with a total of seven pieces, matching their current number. They looked quite unappetizing.
“Go ahead, eat.” Shen Ti opened the bag and distributed the chocolates to everyone.
“We’re supposed to eat this?” Wu You looked skeptical.
An Wujiu took the bag from Shen Ti, retrieved his piece, and only one remained.
“Eat, do you all remember the puzzle just now? It was the hidden message’s code. The first letter of each sentence connects to spell ‘eat it now.’ The last piece spelled ‘organization.‘”
“Ah, I see.”
The others ate without worry. An Wujiu eventually handed the bag with the last piece to Josh.
Josh’s big eyes stared at An Wujiu with a mix of suspicion and a touch of pity.
“Are you sure you want to give it to me?”
“Of course.” An Wujiu finished his own chocolate. “I’ve been acting for so long.”
“Aren’t you afraid I’ll go out on my own and harm you all?”
An Wujiu smiled and said, “I guess your resurrection mission doesn’t include killing other players. If it did, you would have acted long ago because, being one against six with thin chances of hiding until the end, you would at least try to take down Yirou, who’s physically weakened.”
“But you didn’t, so I assume you don’t have that task. You just need to survive. Of course, if you go out on your own, you’ll earn the most points.”
Shen Ti leaned next to An Wujiu, “Not only that, hiding so discreetly, there’s probably a task to conceal your identity. Being discovered would result in failure.”
“That’s why I didn’t expose you,” An Wujiu said.
“But you exposed yourself.”
“Right, the hidden task failed.”
An Wujiu asked, “But you shouldn’t completely fail because of identity exposure, right? You can still resurrect, I presume.”
Josh’s emotions were complex. He didn’t understand why An Wujiu would help him and tolerate his lies and betrayal. Yet he also felt a sense of sadness because no one had cared about his life or death. Perhaps it was precisely because of this that, even when he could have hidden, he chose to be electrocuted under Wu You’s encouragement.
An Wujiu was someone easily able to influence others.
A holographic projection appeared where the puzzle pieces used to be, displaying only one question.
[Leave the containment center?]
Below were the options [Yes] or [No].
Josh raised his hand, intending to press [Yes] and leave, even though he knew it was futile.
An Wujiu grabbed his hand and pressed [No].
Josh thought An Wujiu regretted it, “Are you crazy? This way, none of you can leave!”
An Wujiu let go of his hand and calmly said, “This isn’t the true end.”
Indeed, after choosing [No], the holographic projection displayed the complete system of the containment center, including the underground experiments and corresponding data.
These were the hints given by the last two lines of the puzzle.
Using the permissions of A01 and A02, An Wujiu and Shen Ti organized and sent everything the containment center had done to the outside world, revealing the ugly truth. In the end, they completely dismantled and deleted all permissions for the entire organization.
“Did you notice that we haven’t actually seen many real children?”
An Wujiu said, “Those mutated monsters are not actually the children. What’s mutated are our characters. Their obsessions and fears manifested into all the monsters.”
Yang Erci understood, “A02 released the children.”
An Wujiu nodded and typed a line.
“Burn down the abandoned infant containment center.”
A massive fire erupted, consuming everything.
In the flames, all seven of them disappeared.
“Congratulations to the seven players for clearing the game and becoming survivors, setting a new record for everyone surviving this round.
No eliminated players this round. The identities of resurrected players will be exposed, losing the rewards and points for this round.”
“Entering the settlement page.”
They fell into a pure white void, continuously plummeting.
An Wujiu opened his eyes, and the closest person to him was still Shen Ti.
He was the one who needed to answer all the questions. So, even after confirming their survival, An Wujiu couldn’t help but speak.
“I have a question for you.”
Falling too fast, the howling wind separated the two, stirring An Wujiu’s long hair.
Shen Ti reached out and grabbed his arm in the midst of the descent.
“What do you want to ask?”
“You…” An Wujiu hesitated rarely, but only for a second, “Why did you sigh?”
Shen Ti took a moment to react, appearing somewhat stunned, but soon he laughed.
So, it was about that.
In An Wujiu’s pupils, meaningless pure white was reflected, but before him were Shen Ti’s green eyes and red corals; everything about him was vibrant with color, as if sparkling and shining brightly.
“I warned you that it might offend you.”
Their speed slowed, gradually descending to solid ground. An Wujiu’s feet touched down slowly, and a strand of hair stuck to his cheek.
“I’m not easily offended.”
“Alright, then I’ll tell you the truth.” Shen Ti found An Wujiu’s words cute and a bit amusing. Seeing his face, he instinctively reached out and gently pushed the strand of hair to the side.
“I admit that after watching the video, I had a tiny, very tiny, strange, unexplainable…”
An Wujiu stared into his eyes, listening to him struggle to say the last word.
“…anticipation.”
Prev | Table of Contents | Next
