Chapter 157: The End of the Water
After knocking on the door twice, the sound of knocking inexplicably stopped. Then there were only a few sounds of clothes rubbing against each other, and it seemed that the person at the door had left.
Li Ziyue frowned slightly and began to doubt his previous judgment.
People coming.
It doesn’t seem to be Zhang Xingzhi.
If not him, who else could it be?
Why is there a sound of clothes rubbing against the ground?
Sun Yuancheng's expression was equally solemn. He exchanged a glance with Li Ziyue, then stood up without hesitation and went outside to see what was going on.
However, as soon as I opened the door, I heard noisy voices outside.
Sun Yuancheng stood there in a daze.
Outside the door is a busy street. It is the time when summer turns to autumn and winter. People coming and going are all wearing thin coats to varying degrees. There are children grabbing their mothers' long skirts and making noises, and there are students carrying their schoolbags and rushing to school.
Night was about to fall, white lights were turned on on both sides of the street, and red warning lights of airplanes could be seen flashing in the sky in the distance.
"If you want to go out, then go out." Bai Yu narrowed his eyes and smiled, "But once you go out, you can't come back in."
This was the first time that Sun Yuancheng's sixth sense could not give him any answer.
He guessed that what he would see after opening the door might be a bloody scene, or at worst a pure white corridor whose bottom could not be seen when he first came here. He never expected to see such a lively and peaceful scene, so peaceful that it made him feel an indescribable weirdness in his heart.
Sun Yuancheng took a step back unconsciously.
Then close the door gently.
“People are more inclined to survive in an environment that they are more familiar with, even if that environment is bad and harsh, rather than in an unknown area that is confusing.”
"You would think it's safer here," Bai Yu shook his head. "It's really ironic, but it's also my honor."
Li Ziyue pursed her lips and said nothing.
It is indeed as Bai Yu said. All the players who have stayed in the dungeon for a long time are like frightened birds. When they see a peaceful and normal scene, they will feel abnormally afraid, fearing that someone's corpse is hidden under this tranquility.
Terror, blood, violence and oppression make them feel at ease.
Before they knew it, they had an invisible rope around their necks that they had tied for themselves.
The ropes deprive them of their freedom, but also give them a cruel sense of security in this small activity area.
"Li Ziyue." Bai Yu called him softly, "Do you believe me? I have no ill will towards you."
Li Ziyue sneered: "I want to believe it, but how can your behavior make me believe it?"
Bai Yu looked at Li Ziyue for a long time, and finally sighed: "You doubted me but not your identity, but have you ever thought about why she didn't question your identity when you met your senior sister later."
Li Ziyue had already thought of this.
He just kept refusing to accept the truth.
Bai Yu moved his lips twice, but finally stopped.
"You already have the answer in your heart..."
"Could it be that at that time... at that time, the senior sister had already..." Li Ziyue's eyelashes trembled, "She said she wanted to commit suicide..."
Bai Yu propped up half of his arm: "You just need to know that no matter who she is, she has never hurt you from beginning to end, and you don't need to feel guilty about it."
"I changed your position just to let you know who died in front of you."
All of this stems from the creation of the largest virtual world for players - the mechanical world.
Machines can help people process massive amounts of information, but they cannot make decisions. At that time, the mechanical world urgently needed an artificial intelligence leader who could take on the responsibility of making decisions on all things in the big world. She could not be entirely composed of computer simulations, but needed to refer to human data who were familiar with how to lead a team.
At that time, the senior student who was the commander of Li Ziyue's team was considered the primary target.
Their request was simple: to let her enter the Advanced Pseudo-Human Copy, kill her with a "legitimate" reason, and freeze her data forever at the most perfect time.
However, the senior student's sharpness surprised them again.
She figured everything out almost at the moment the fake man attacked.
"Since you and I are so similar," Huo Qianyun sneered, "Isn't using your data the same as using my data?"
Huo Qianyun said indifferently: "I was not born to die."
The fake human is superior to Huo Qianyun in terms of physical strength and speed. Even so, Huo Qianyun did not appear to be at a disadvantage in many confrontations.
Until she was pressed into the corner by the fake man, with the sharp knife blade close to her throat, Huo Qianyun's force points were almost blocked, and it was easy for the fake man to kill her.
However, Huo Qianyun just leaned close to her ear and said in a low voice, "I will pretend to make a mistake, and you will immediately attack my abdomen."
Huo Qianyun was stunned.
"After that, you have to take my identity and make others think that you are a fake person instead of a real person. You will get many privileges because of this," Huo Qianyun said faster, "Only in this way can you save them."
Before Huo Qianyun could speak, she saw tears in [Huo Qianyun]'s eyes and smiled at her: "You are me, you understand my thoughts best."
[Huo Qianyun] indeed reduced his strength. At the same time, Huo Qianyun kicked at an angle without hesitation.
Unexpectedly, several sharper needles suddenly flew out from there.
Huo Qianyun's legs suddenly lost strength and she fell to the ground with dark red blood flowing from the corners of her mouth.
"you……"
In fact, Huo Qianyun did not believe what Huo Qianyun said. Huo Qianyun was familiar with her, so she naturally knew the truth in Huo Qianyun's words. However, who would have thought that Huo Qianyun had kept a trick in the dark.
"You know what?" The sharp knife mercilessly stabbed into Huo Qianyun's throat. Huo Qianyun's eyebrows were cold. "They don't need me because I am much more insidious and cunning than you. As an artificial intelligence that will manage the largest virtual world in the future, lying is a taboo."
"I know you don't believe me, but so what?" She smiled ruthlessly, "You care too much about your team. Even if you know I'm lying, you will still think about what I say. This is the biggest difference between you and me."
Huo Qianyun's eyes were complicated: "You are indeed the best leader."
Huo Qianyun could no longer speak.
But there is no need for verbal communication between them.
She felt the blood draining from her body, and could even feel the coldness of her body and the slow trembling of her organs.
The last thing she "heard" was what Huo Qianyun told her with his eyes - "Killing you is my first instinct, but I also love everyone in the team. I promise you, I will do my best to save everyone who is still alive, and I will help them pass the dungeon smoothly, even if it means sacrificing everything I have."
"You know, this is the only reason I won't lie to you."
This is a secret that even a third party cannot monitor; it belongs only to them.
On the other hand, Bai Yu finally found a way to pass the "Advanced Pseudo-Human Copy" after thousands of failed simulations. He cooperated silently with Huo Qianyun and began to perform a drama that was destined to be full of hardships.
Li Ziyue muttered absentmindedly: "...That's why I saw so many of my corpses at the beginning of the Advanced Pseudo-Human Dungeon..."
Bai Yu smiled lightly: "Yes, those are all you who died in failed simulations."
“Then [Li Ziyue]——” Li Ziyue raised his head.
Bai Yu just shook his head: "From beginning to end, there is only one him."
He was born from Li Ziyue, but he has long been an independent individual, with joys, sorrows, anger and happiness that are different from Li Ziyue's.
Li Ziyue lowered his head again and pressed his right hand on his forehead to cover his eyelashes.
The slight tremor revealed the turbulent ups and downs in his heart at the moment.
He struggled to find a little precious happiness in the sadness.
Perhaps Li Ziyue would think the same when he heard the answer.
Later, it was a deliberate arrangement for [Li Ziyue] to kill the fake person of the senior sister when he lost control. At the same time, in order for the plan to proceed smoothly, Bai Yu had to let Li Ziyue see with his own eyes [Li Ziyue] covered in blood and the heads of his three companions.
They must hate each other, hatred will give them the power to become strong, but Li Ziyue has too much love suppressed in his heart.
Love will let him go in hatred.
Love will make him reach out and save him in the midst of hatred.
Only the interweaving and collision of love and hatred can turn the dead end of "no way out" into countless sunny mornings and countless moonlit and windy nights.
Li Ziyue remained silent for a long time, with only a small piece of his clothes wet by water left.
“It’s really cruel.”
Bai Yu was silent.
The tea in front of him had turned cold, and for some reason a small pure white butterfly flew in from the gap in the door that Sun Yuancheng had not completely closed earlier.
The butterfly landed on the edge of the teacup.
The wings fluttered gently, then returned to stillness.
And at this moment.
“Knock, knock.”
There was another knock on the door.
The people outside seemed to be hesitating.
Sun Yuancheng called out softly, "Come in, Zhang Xingzhi."
Zhang Xingzhi, or rather Zhang Xingzhi, who came in, had a more mature face than usual. In just a few days, the immaturity in him had completely faded away, leaving behind the steady composure of an adult.
He stood in front of the door and looked at Sun Yuancheng.
Finally, he slowly smiled.
…
Zhang Xingzhi was not a fake person before, but he was not a real person either.
He had long been a person who would not act easily without sufficient information. Before each dungeon, he would do his best to predict the dungeon information in advance to be prepared.
However, the "Advanced Pseudo-Human Copy" was the most unpredictable to him. Zhang Xingzhi did not dare to enter the copy rashly, but he did not want to miss this opportunity.
He did not forget that the reason he took a huge risk to escape from the real world and the Zhang family was to complete the "Advanced Pseudo-Human Copy" to gain true freedom.
He didn't want to be put in a testing box again, nor did he want to be locked in a cage like livestock because of his mental disorder.
He thought that one day he would be able to lie peacefully on a sailboat that was swaying up and down with the waves, letting the wind blow him to any place in the world.
Zhang Xingzhi had one more channel than ordinary players at that time, that is, he could travel to the real world at will. One day, he happened to meet the leaders representing the players and some system camps. He deduced some information about the "Advanced Pseudo-Human Copy" from those people's words.
However, he never thought at that time that it was this piece of information, which was not certain whether it was true or false, that harmed him.
Zhang Xingzhi went through untold hardships to find the entrance to the "Advanced Pseudo-Human Copy" in advance. It was a clock so huge that the edge was almost invisible. Human legs served as the hour hand and minute hand respectively. As time passed, those bodies twisted at angles that ordinary people could hardly imagine.
Zhang Xingzhi was almost stunned.
He uncontrollably touched the headless man hanging on the clock, but the moment he reached out his hand, he saw his own split head on the glass behind the clock.
Someone.
Someone was about to grow out of him.
Zhang Xingzhi was so frightened that he fell backwards to the ground.
He escaped from the clock almost without hesitation.
When he returned to his virtual world, the half-grown head had disappeared at some point.
Zhang Xingzhi initially thought he was hallucinating. Later, when he woke up from countless nightmares, when he saw the extra flesh on his neck in the mirror, and when he discovered that his age would not change with time.
Only then did he fully realize that he had turned into a monster that was neither human nor ghost.
Only by returning to the "Advanced Pseudo-Human Copy" can he make a new choice - to become a permanent pseudo-human, or return to his fragile human identity.
However, it was difficult for him to clear the dungeon alone, so Zhang Xingzhi kept waiting until he heard that someone had miraculously escaped from the "Advanced Pseudo-Human Dungeon".
That person was Li Ziyue.
A long time later, if someone asked Sun Yuancheng why he was sure that the person knocking on the door was the real Zhang Xingzhi and not a fake one.
"Is it better to be imprisoned indefinitely without the possibility of death, or to have a chance at freedom?"
Sun Yuancheng just smiled: "If he would choose to be trapped in the dungeon as a fake person for the rest of his life, he would not have insisted on coming to the dangerous infinite dungeon in the first place, nor would he have stayed in the dungeon under great pressure after being discovered by the Zhang family. He had already asked himself the above questions."
"Besides," Sun Yuancheng recalled the last words he said to Zhang Xingzhi, "Since we have come this far, what is there to lose if we trust our companions a little more?"
“What if…” He stretched himself and squinted his eyes towards the sun and smiled, “What if I get lucky and pass the level?”
…
Bai Yu raised his eyebrows slightly and smiled at Zhang Xingzhi: "Seeing you become like this, I really can't get used to it."
Zhang Xingzhi just shook his head, his expression changed slightly, and he looked diagonally behind him.
I don't know since when, a man in black has been standing there quietly and silently.
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