Chapter 92 Nothingness (4)

"But this cat is too unbelievable." Duan Jiangli said, "How could it survive in a place where monsters live and grow so big?"

The cat in Gu Qiufeng's arms had smooth fur all over its body, and it was obvious that it had been raised with great care and attention.

In this abandoned university campus, this ragdoll cat is so beautiful that it seems out of place.

Gu Qiufeng touched the cat's head and said, "How can you be sure that it's the cat's fault? Aren't there enough bizarre things around you?"

Duan Jiangli: "..."

Yes.

Gu Qiufeng looked at him and said slowly: "Maybe it's not that there is something wrong with us, but that this world is fake at all."

Duan Jiangli asked suddenly: "What do you mean?"

It's not like he hadn't speculated whether he was being targeted by some crisis, so his memory was tampered with. But he had never doubted the whole world.

This is the world where Duan Jiangli was born and raised, and the source of his memories, his soul, and his emotions. There is currently no flaw in this world that is inconsistent with Duan Jiangli's imagination, and he would never make such an absurd guess.

In other words, to be able to construct a complete, real, and logically self-consistent world, how powerful must the builder of this world be?

If that's the case, then what kind of terrifying thing are they going to have to contend with?

"Are you scared?" Gu Qiufeng said with a smile, "I always feel that you shouldn't be of this kind of personality."

Duan Jiangli frowned: "Normal people will always be afraid of the unknown, so it's understandable. But I don't plan to escape."

"Have you seen the movie 'The Truman Show'?" Gu Qiufeng asked, "That movie is quite a classic."

Duan Jiangli said, "Of course. In the end, the protagonist found the boundary of the studio and a way out to reality... Wait, are you saying that there may be such a boundary in our world?"

Gu Qiufeng said: "It's just an unfounded guess. You don't have to take it too seriously."

He murmured, "I always feel like we have something to do. If a world is constructed just to trap us, it is naturally impossible to make it as huge and detailed as the real world. We are not Truman. We have seen the most realistic human society, so we can detect all kinds of bugs. So I guess the boundary of this cage that traps us should not be very large."

Duan Jiangli smiled bitterly and said, "How do I find it?"

"I don't know." Gu Qiufeng said, "But we can try to guess the intention of the person who asked the question and work our way back."

Duan Jiangli: "First, let's assume that this world is a game level set for us. Then, what is the significance of this level?"

Gu Qiufeng: "As the saying goes, a hero cannot resist the temptation of beauty, and gentleness can wear down a person's will the most. If the enemy's goal was to kill us from the beginning, it has the ability to construct a small world. Why not just erase our memories and create a more dangerous scenario for us?"

"Maybe I don't have enough ability." Duan Jiangli touched his chin and said, "No, to build a place that matches our memory requires more precision, which must be difficult. Maybe there is some kind of limitation."

"I think its fundamental intention may not necessarily be to kill us. Like you said, there are restrictions, so at most it can only restrain us first. Does it feel like a paradise on earth? It intends to trap us with the most real things, but unfortunately a cage is only a cage after all, and the fake can never become real." Gu Qiufeng sighed.

Duan Jiangli said in a deep voice: "But what do you want to do by trapping us?"

"Perhaps it is to prevent us from getting something, or perhaps it is stalling for time to do something bad." Gu Qiufeng said, "If this is really the case, the exit to the real world must be set in the most unlikely place that we would never expect."

After he finished speaking, he pinched his nose and felt like a madman. If there was no definite weirdness, Gu Qiufeng would have suspected that he was a senior paranoid patient.

Gu Qiufeng didn't expect Duan Jiangli to completely trust him after hearing these words. It is very difficult to change a person's inherent cognition.

Fortunately, he still has a trump card that can directly convince Duan Jiangli.

As expected, just like what Gu Qiufeng thought, Duan Jiangli asked suspiciously: "How can you be sure that these speculations are true? What if we just overthink things after losing our memories? Looking for an 'exit' that doesn't exist, wouldn't that be crazy?"

Gu Qiufeng, who was described as a "madman", said disapprovingly: "Why don't you believe it?"

Duan Jiangli said truthfully: "All of our speculations are based on the premise that the world is fake. But first of all, why is the world fake? How can you be sure that the things you feel strange are not the sequelae of memory tampering?"

Gu Qiufeng said: "I'm going to show you something, don't be surprised."

He took out the card from his pocket and put it on the cat in his arms.

Gu Qiufeng thought that there must be some reason why he liked this cat.

Brother Cat, please give him some face.

As soon as he finished speaking, a white light suddenly flashed before his eyes.

The cat meowed softly and disappeared. Then, a picture of a cartoon ragdoll cat appeared on the card in Gu Qiufeng's hand.

He held the card and waved it in front of the stunned Duan Jiangli: "How about it, do you believe me now?"

But just after he finished speaking, Gu Qiufeng's expression changed slightly, and he looked at the card in his hand with some distress: "Why is there no reminder sound?"

Could it be that the collection was wrong?

When Feng He turned into a card, a reminder sounded indicating that one-sixth of the card had been collected.

Duan Jiangli came back to his senses and looked at Gu Qiufeng in horror: "Are you sure you are still human?"

"Nonsense. It's absolutely true." Gu Qiufeng said in confusion, "If you go to check the file now, you can still see my life experience."

Duan Jiangli murmured: "But just now..."

He saw with his own eyes that the cat in Gu Qiufeng's arms disappeared.

Duan Jiangli's dynamic vision is very good, and he can see that Gu Qiufeng did not use any deceptive means.

The cat literally disappeared out of thin air.

Gu Qiufeng asked: "So, do you still believe that this world is real?"

"By the way, you mentioned the prompt sound, what prompt sound?" Duan Jiangli asked.

Gu Qiufeng exclaimed, "Ah!" and shook the cards in his hand: "After collecting them, I will hear a prompt sound. This is the specific reason why I suspect that this world is fake."

"So that's how it is." Yu Chi'ang said thoughtfully, "Then the man we lost seems to be very important to you. What does this mean?"

Gu Qiufeng said: "Maybe it's a breakthrough, but my intuition tells me that it's best for us not to get close to him."

Duan Jiangli has already witnessed Gu Qiufeng's magical powers, and he is now convinced.

So he said, "Then let's look for the things you need to collect in school first."

*

Under the window, two talking figures gradually moved away.

Xie Xin withdrew his gaze and turned to look at the young man who was bound by the hideous vines behind him, disgust and ridicule flashed across his peach blossom eyes.

"They're gone," he whispered.

The young man lying on the ground had a pale face, with only the dried blood on his lips that had been vomited out giving him some color.

This is Yu Chiang who had been missing in the A-level copy for several days.

Yu Chiang had not originally planned to go to the A-level dungeon alone.

At this time, the confrontation between human players and X has become increasingly serious. In addition, he has a close relationship with Gu Qiufeng. Yu Chiang is not stupid and he has long guessed that X will take action when he is alone.

He just went to the Central Hospital with a few exploration players.

Unexpectedly, Xie Xin, a derivative of X, suddenly appeared in the Central Hospital. Naturally, the human players had no power to contend with X, and without a doubt, they were completely wiped out.

Yu Chiang never expected that Xie Xin would appear in a small built-in copy of the map.

This is not like X at all!

It was not until he was captured by Xie Xin and brought into the world he created that Yu Chiang belatedly thought of a possibility.

Maybe this isn't X's style.

X doesn't like to be so straightforward in his actions, as this can easily lead to many hidden dangers.

After Yu Chiang figured it out, he felt like laughing.

I wonder if X will be furious when he finds out that Xie Xin has developed his own consciousness and begins to betray him?

This time, the action of strangling him was obviously a spontaneous act by Xie Xin.

Yu Chi'ang was seriously injured but not dead. Xie Xin deliberately gave him a breath of life and brought him into this world.

Then Yu Chiang saw Gu Qiufeng and Duan Jiangli who came to look for him.

But Xie Xin didn't give them a chance to meet.

"Xie Xin," Yu Chi'ang said, "The person I saw in the mermaid copy before was not X, but you in disguise, right? From beginning to end, you are just Xie Xin, not the carrier of X's will."

The young man laughed softly, "I should have thought of this earlier. How could X have such obvious mood swings? From the beginning to the end, the only one who was extremely jealous of my relationship with my senior was you, Xie Xin."

Xie Xin’s eyes moved.

He said, "So?"

Yu Chiang said: "Why did you trick the senior into this small world that you dominate? If X knew that you intercepted the senior from going to the A-level copy, would He just make you disappear? Xie Xin, you really ruined X's entire plan."

Xie Xin looked at him coldly: "Why should I act according to X's will?"

Yu Chiang sighed in his heart: "I am asking seriously, Mr. Xie, what do you think? Do you want to save the senior, or do you want to kill all of us and then imprison him?"

Xie Xin lowered his eyes, and after a long while, he said, "I don't know."

Yu Chiang said: "...You are really a monster that is neither human nor ghost."④

Xie Xin said: "I only know that I don't want my brother to die."

"So, you can actually go against X because of this? Aren't you afraid..." Yu Chiang said, "Forget it, maybe you are not really afraid of any emotion at all."

He had mixed feelings. He didn't expect that X wanted to use Xie Xin to contain his senior, but Xie Xin turned against him.

This was something that would shock even Gu Qiufeng.

Xie Xin looked at him: "You seem to be always concerned about Gu Qiufeng, aren't you afraid of death?"

Yu Chi'ang was stunned for a moment, and he said, "Maybe I'm afraid. But I don't care. If you kill me, don't go with X to deal with senior."

Xie Xin suddenly asked, "I'm curious, why does he want to get out of here?"

Yu Chi'ang was stunned by his sudden question, and then he realized that Xie Xin was talking about Gu Qiufeng.

He thought helplessly that although Xie Xin looked like a normal adult male, he actually lacked normal human emotions and had been disturbed by X, so his mental state was even worse than that of a child. He didn't know how Gu Qiufeng packaged him into the image of an elite movie star.

Yu Chiang said: "Humans don't like to be kept in captivity."

"Captive?" Xie Xin asked doubtfully, "But I am protecting him. There is no difference between here and reality, but he still wants to leave."

"Xie Xin, senior doesn't know that you did this to protect him." Yu Chi'ang didn't expect that he would have to be a spiritual mentor for the person who was about to kill him before he died, but he still explained to Xie Xin calmly, "Although this place is the same as reality, fake is not real after all."

Xie Xin said: "I even erased my own existence."

Yu Chiang: "Do you also feel that your existence is a mistake for Senior?"

Xie Xin closed his lips and did not answer Yu Chiang's somewhat sharp question.

Yu Chiang said: "Humans are very strange animals. We like to pursue empty things, such as emotions, truth, and freedom."

"But, once we leave here, I won't be able to protect him anymore." Xie Xin said softly, "Even so, he will still be determined to leave me."

Yu Chi'ang suddenly thought of a suspicious point, and asked: "Senior, there are some changes in your left eye. Is it related to you?"

Xie Xin said: "It has something to do with you too."

Yu Chiang's eyes widened: "What do you mean?"

"My brother has never been an obedient person." Xie Xin said in a deep voice, "He always wants to leave me. But once he leaves me, he will be killed by that monster. I have stopped him many times until you showed up."

Xie Xin's sharp eyes fell on Yu Chi'ang: "You inherited Gu Jiu's will, and you wanted to take him away from me. You succeeded. So you left City A without my knowledge. You were targeted by X and sent into this game of life and death. After that, I finally saved my brother."

After hearing this, Yu Chi'ang felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. He subconsciously wanted to refute, but found that he really could not remember the whole story of entering the game.

Xie Xin continued: "In order to save my brother, I gave him some of my power."

"That should have been his umbrella, but I don't know why it was suddenly activated." Xie Xin said unhappily, "If he hadn't remembered it, if he hadn't seen you, none of this would have happened."

Yu Chiang lost his voice and said, "You went against X's will from the very beginning?"

Hearing this, the man stretched out a hand. On his hand were burn marks exactly the same as Gu Qiufeng's.

He said slowly: "Why do you humans think that monsters are not worthy of emotions?"

Because of his affection for his brother, Xie Xin had gone against X from the beginning. Even though he didn't know the nature of human beings, even though he was still a monster.

But he is also an independent individual.

Yu Chiang choked up: "You killed me... because..."

He said in frustration: "It's my fault that I harmed the senior. I deserve to die."

Xie Xin said, "I changed my mind. I don't want to kill you now. Didn't you just mean for me to consider Gu Qiufeng's feelings? If I kill you, he will be sad."

Yu Chi'ang was stunned.

He received too much information at this moment, and his heart was in turmoil for a moment, but he didn't know what to say for a moment.

Xie Xin added: "Also, you humans really like wishful thinking. I am not a derivative of X."

"I am a creation of another being. His power was once given to two people," Xie Xin said, "One is me, and the other one..."

“It’s God’s Tears.”

*

Gu Qiufeng looked up as if he realized something.

"What's wrong?" Duan Jiangli asked.

Gu Qiufeng said: "It seems that there is a black line on the horizon."

It's not an illusion.

The two stood there and looked out. The line on the horizon gradually became clearer and larger, like a bright machete, splitting this false world in half. The whole world was split in the middle, and the shock that could not be described in words spread out in front of Gu Qiufeng and Duan Jiangli.

As the world turned into nothingness, Gu Qiufeng closed his eyes, and the sudden blankness in his mind was finally filled by the past memories that surged up.

He remembered it all!

When he stood still again, Gu Qiufeng looked beside him and found Duan Jiangli who was also in shock.

He asked tentatively: "Do you remember?"

"Fuck, Senior, this A-level copy is too mysterious." Duan Jiangli said in shock, "If neither of us noticed anything unusual, would we really have to live in this fake world forever? What kind of monster can build such a realistic world?"

Gu Qiufeng said: "That was not an A-level copy."

Duan Jiangli: "Ah?"

"Have you ever seen a copy that was completely intact? Moreover, this is an A-level copy." Gu Qiufeng said, "I feel like it's a small world that dragged us into it before we entered the A-level copy."

Duan Jiangli: "How could this guy have such a terrifying ability?"

Gu Qiufeng: "My Arcana has it, but it can't be so seamlessly integrated with the real world."

Duan Jiangli: "... Damn, is he really that awesome?"

"It doesn't seem like X's work. He was eager to send us to the A-level dungeon so that he could take action." Gu Qiufeng pondered, "Although I encountered danger in there, I avoided it easily. It was as if the architect of the world was just playing a white joke on me."

Duan Jiangli was speechless: "You care about trapping us in that place, erasing part of our memories, and calling it a white joke? That's because we woke up... I just think that guy must have a very bad personality."

Gu Qiufeng said: "It's useless to speculate now, why don't we first see what this place is. If it is an A-level copy, we have to hurry and complete what we need to do."

Duan Jiangli looked left and right: "Where is Xie Songjin?"

"Xie Songjin has no experience of living in the real world, so he probably has never encountered the world that trapped us. There is a time difference between him and us, so he must have entered the A-level dungeon." Gu Qiufeng said, "Let's go, and look for him while completing the task. Xie Songjin is not stupid, and if he really encounters danger, he will probably exit the dungeon directly."

After they left the world, they did not return to City B, but stood on a strange and strange urban street, surrounded by traffic. Because they had just been deceived by an illusion, Gu Qiufeng and Duan Jiangli were both on guard and observed their surroundings with extreme vigilance.

After Duan Jiang left and walked around the area, he said, "It looks like the car can get through, but it's all fake. There's an air wall less than 200 meters to the side. We can only go to the building in front."

Gu Qiufeng looked up and exclaimed, "This building is quite tall. It must be more than 40 floors high, right?"

Duan Jiangli said with a sour smile: "Please don't let us fight through level by level, or I will die of exhaustion before I even pass the level."

Gu Qiufeng said, "Have you forgotten that the A-level copies that each of us has seen are different."

Duan Jiangli: "...That would be even worse!"

They looked at each other. Now the way back was blocked, they could only move forward.

So the two of them went into the building.

The building was visibly empty and lonely. There was no one inside and no decoration of any kind. The blank walls seemed suffocating in this situation.

"There is an elevator." Gu Qiufeng said, "Looks like we have to go upstairs."

Duan Jiangli bent down and pulled out a piece of paper from under the carpet at the elevator entrance.

"Rules of the game," he read out, "the elevator can only carry one person at a time. This building is an entertainment building, and each floor has different entertainment projects. Players can choose any floor in the elevator, but they must experience the experience projects of the first selected floor before going to other floors. After a player selects a floor for the first time, other players cannot make a second choice. Only after experiencing the first project can players have the right to choose freely, but the floors that have been experienced cannot be experienced again. Each time a player goes to another floor, he must first experience the entertainment projects on the current floor. If a player wants to leave after experiencing the current floor, he can also take the elevator directly back to the lobby."

Gu Qiufeng smiled and said, "It's really interesting."

Duan Jiangli looked up at him and asked, "Which floor do you want to go to?"

"You mean, let me wait on my own floor first, and then come to me after you experience your project?" Gu Qiufeng said, "That's a good idea."

Duan Jiangli nodded: "I will find you as soon as possible, senior."

Gu Qiufeng nodded and said, "I'm going to the eighteenth floor. You must remember this."

Duan Jiangli's mouth twitched: "Senior, since this is your first selection, shouldn't you choose an auspicious number?"

Gu Qiufeng smiled and said, "Very good, it fits the situation. Do you think our current situation is better than the eighteen levels of hell?"

Duan Jiangli: “…That’s right.”

After Gu Qiufeng said goodbye to Duan Jiangli, the two of them entered two elevators.

When Gu Qiufeng was about to press the button for the eighteenth floor, he saw a button quickly go dark. It must be because Duan Jiangli had chosen this floor, so he could not choose it again.

Gu Qiufeng pressed the button for the eighteenth floor, and the elevator number jumped and appeared in front of his eyes.

*

In a container full of tubes and nutrient dishes, Lu Jinghong opened her blue eyes and crawled out of the container in a daze, her whole body still in a blank state.

After climbing out of the vessel, Lu Jinghong sat on the floor and couldn't help but clench his own hands.

She thought, wasn't she dead?

So how did she get back into the game?