Brain in a vat

Chen Yingsheng was kidnapped by a short man on a motorcycle.

It may not be polite to say this, but the young woman riding in the driver's seat was really short, less than 1.5 meters tall, and wearing a helmet, so Chen Yingsheng couldn't see her face.

They rode motorcycles on an ever-expanding, dimly-glowing path. On both sides were different spaces created by the mentor's superpowers, where deformed people were performing suicide rituals.

Chen Yingsheng asked loudly: "Where are we going and who are you?"

The motorcycle was going too fast and Chen Yingsheng was filled with wind. The young woman didn't hear what she said clearly and just drove forward as if she was trying to escape.

Chen Yingsheng had to hold the woman's waist tightly, close his mouth tightly, and watch the scenery in front of him continue to flow.

Was it her illusion? The film covering the alien space was slowly fading.

They ran as fast as they could, as if they were heading to the end of the world. After an unknown amount of time, a vague figure appeared in front of them, and the young woman in the driver's seat finally slowed down.

The figure shouted with full energy: "Mary Ren, drive faster!"

The short young woman said angrily: "Damn it, another stupid name, my name is not Ren Mary!"

Such a familiar surname, such a unique way of naming.

The motorcycle slowly stopped, and with the help of the glowing path, Chen Yingsheng could clearly see the middle-aged woman in front of him.

A Ku

No, it was Luo Chunxi, who looked very similar to the middle-aged Ah Ku, but not exactly the same. Her face was more weathered, and she was more relaxed and calm.

The young woman on the motorcycle took off her helmet and complained loudly: "Don't call me Mary! I already said I want to change my name to Wei-Me!"

Luo Chunxi remained calm: "Your first task is to uninstall the pornographic novel app on your phone, and your secondary task is to come up with a new name."

The two quarreled for a few more sentences, like a mother and daughter who were not related by blood.

Luo Chunxi turned his head and asked: "Is Ah Ku awake?"

"Awake." Chen Yingsheng replied.

"If her identity problem can't be solved, let her bring Lina to live with me." Luo Chunxi pointed to the glowing path under his feet, "Although I am chased by a crazy woman every day, life traveling through space is not bad."

It seems that the superpowers that Luo Chunxi acquired are related to space travel. After Hong Jinsheng's death, she used her abilities to escape the patriarch's pursuit and also picked up Wei Wo who had nowhere to go.

Luo Chunxi got on another motorcycle: "Where are you going?"

Chen Yingsheng fell into deep thought.

"The instructor paid for your trip. You are our passenger and the destination is up to you."

"Let's go to Danjiang University." Chen Yingsheng made the decision.

The space walls on both sides were getting thinner and thinner, and they could hardly support it. Chen Yingsheng couldn't help but ask: "What happened to the mentor?"

I said calmly: "When people get old, they die. He was almost at his limit last year. He managed to get through January 4 this year, but it seems he can't hold on any longer."

Chen Yingsheng asked again: "Ren Shanshan——"

"Don't ask anymore." I interrupted her, "I have done everything I should and could do in the mountains."

Chen Yingsheng sighed silently. She was left alone on the campus of Danjiang University. It was almost midnight, the dormitory building had already been locked, and there were almost no people on the street. Only a stray dog ​​was lying alone under the street light.

She walked slowly forward at the pace of a post-dinner stroll, along the lakeshore all the way to the School of Superpower Science.

There is a statue right in front of the academy to commemorate the world's first super-powered person who voluntarily donated his body.

A middle-aged man wearing a washed-out plaid shirt and brown black-framed glasses stood under the statue. He was visibly stunned when he saw Chen Yingsheng.

Chen Yingsheng walked over and greeted the strange man: "Professor, what is your name?"

The strange man looked away: "How do you know I'm a professor?"

"There are slight scars on his hands but the joints are not big. It should be corroded by the reagents. He is not a man who does rough work. He is wearing a shirt and trousers, but sneakers on his feet because he has to stand to teach. When he saw me, his expression suddenly changed..."

"Okay, that's enough. My name is Qiao Feixiang." Qiao Feixiang pushed his brown glasses. "Not only do you look like Chen Tuchang, but your reasoning style is also similar."

"Really?" Chen Yingsheng said faintly, "But I was just told that my father and I have no blood relationship."

Qiao Fei wanted to blurt out: "How is it possible?"

"You are the professor who invented the kaleidoscope. I have many questions."

"Come with me." Qiao Fei wanted to walk in front and lead the way.

They quickly walked through the teaching building and came to a laboratory. Qiao Fei wanted to swipe his card to enter.

"This is it," he said. "The Kaleidoscope Research Center."

Chen Yingsheng stared at Chen Tu in front of him.

Chen Tu's body - she wasn't sure if it could be called a body. His body was wrapped in a white straitjacket and soaked in a capsule-shaped nutrition chamber filled with blue liquid.

The corpse had turned blue-black, the head was completely open, and the skull had been neatly sawed off, revealing the brain inside. The grayish-white brain was beating slightly, connected to countless tiny, cotton-like tubes.

The outside of the capsule is connected to two machines, one is an identifier used to identify the collected superpower residues, and the other is a familiar kaleidoscope.

"Is he still...alive?"

Qiao Fei wanted to shake his head: "He used his superpowers to kill himself."

"Why"

"For making a kaleidoscope with his super powers."

The regularly beating brain is housed in a body that has long been dead. A bunch of tiny tubes continuously transport nutrients, deceiving the brain that the body is still alive, allowing the brain to continue working and maintain the operation of its super powers.

Chen Yingsheng asked in a low voice: "His superpowers..."

"A strange story is coming."

Chen Yingsheng instantly understood that Chen Tu committed suicide in order to extract the residual superpowers from his body, and then let Qiao Fei turn him into a brain in a jar, and then trick his brain into activating superpowers and throw him into his own world of ghost stories.

Her eyes lit up instantly: "Are the superpowers left from his suicide still there? I want to enter his kaleidoscope."

There was one thing she wanted to know the truth about no matter what, and that was Wen Yuan's death.

At this point, the only person who knows the truth is probably Chen Tu. It is impossible that Wen Yuan committed suicide by jumping off the building.

Qiao Feixiang pushed his glasses and said, "Although I don't want you to go in, I promised Chen Tu that if you ask to go into his kaleidoscope, I can't refuse."

"Can't I come in?" Chen Yingsheng was very curious.

"In his own world of consciousness, humans are like the creator gods." Brown lenses completely covered Qiao Feixiang's eyes. "You are an outsider in his world. It's hard to say how he will react."

"Assuming the main scene of the ghost story is his school days, he will completely forget that he has a daughter. If you show up rashly, he is likely to hurt you."

Chen Yingsheng certainly knew there was danger, as she had just emerged from He Kang's kaleidoscope. He Kang first burned the rules in the strange story, and then forced her to recall her real name, leaving her with a minor aftereffect.

But she still said, “No.”

He is the old way, he will not hurt the little way.

Qiao Fei wanted her to lie on the instrument. His cell phone rang. He answered the phone and said a few words. Then he said to Chen Yingsheng:

"I'll make a phone call. You can observe the kaleidoscope in ten minutes."

“Why can I only enter after ten minutes?”

"Chen Tu has been dead for 9 years. The remaining superpowers will take some time to activate."

Chen Yingsheng nodded and watched Qiao Feixiang walk out while talking on the phone.

The time is now 12:00, and she will observe the kaleidoscope in 10 minutes. Before that, there is nothing to do, so Chen Yingsheng walks gently to the capsule and looks at Chen Tu quietly.

They do look very similar. When Chen Yingsheng was in college, various photo-taking apps were very popular. One app even launched a function that could change the gender of the people in the photos.

Her roommates recharged their membership for this and excitedly asked them to play together. Chen Yingsheng uploaded a one-inch bare-headed photo of herself, and after changing her gender, she looked almost exactly like the young Chen Tu.

At that time, Chen Tu had just passed away for a year. Chen Yingsheng felt a little sad when she saw the male version of herself in the photo who looked so much like Chen Tu.

The gray-white brain in the blue-black corpse suddenly started beating faster, and Chen Yingsheng couldn't help but move closer to observe it carefully.

When her brain returned to normal, she was shocked to realize that it was now 12:12, two minutes past the time Qiao Fei wanted to give her instructions.

She hurried back to the instrument and lay down to observe the kaleidoscope.

......

The player, Memory Master, wakes up in a seat that looks like a dental chair.

In front of her was a pair of naked, slightly swaying feet, with a long white skirt hanging down to her feet.

The illusionist carefully climbed down from the chair and saw that there was a dead body hanging above her head.

A girl with white hair and a white dress was hanged in the laboratory with her hands and feet tied up. There was a kicked-over stool on the ground.

It was a perfect suicide scene. Even a memory master couldn't find any possibility of homicide.

The movement trajectory of the girl that appeared before the illusionist:

First prepare the rope and stool, sit on the stool and tie your hands and feet with hemp rope to prevent you from struggling during the hanging process. Then stand up from the stool, put your neck into the rope, and finally kick the stool down to complete the suicide.

But——The Memory Master shifted his focus. Why were there two bodies of young girls in the laboratory?

The illusionist walked silently towards the capsule filled with blue liquid, where the second corpse was soaking.

This corpse and the hanging corpse have exactly the same appearance, both are girls so beautiful that they only exist in fantasy.

She had just died, and rigor mortis had not yet set in. Her limbs were stretched out limply in the blue liquid, and her white hair was floating slowly like holy algae.

Not like death, but more like a nap.

A red fountain pen sank to the bottom of the capsule, and an old piece of paper floated on the top of the water.

Is that a suicide note?

The Memory Master climbed to the top of the capsule and saw two words written on a yellow paper: Rules.

The word wasn't even finished.

So what am I here for? The amnesiac looked around blankly. She had no memories, but was strangely familiar with her current situation, as if she had experienced waking up with amnesia many times.

In addition to the dental chair and capsule chamber in the laboratory, there is another machine connected to the capsule chamber. There is a groove in the machine, and the illusionist doesn't know what it is used for.

The front door was locked and there was no key in the room. She checked the time, 12:20, just eight minutes after she woke up.

There was a sudden knock on the door.

"Knock knock knock"

After three gentle and quick knocks on the door, the Memory Master stood there for three seconds and quickly decided to open the door. The door lock was opened by the person outside.

There was no one outside, only a small piece of paper, the texture of which was exactly the same as the one floating in the capsule.

There were only two words on the paper:

[Death]