Chapter 87
After coming out of the classroom, except for Cen Xun, all the other prisoners were still immersed in their own emotions, so no one spoke along the way. When they arrived at the restaurant, the new nutrient solution was already on the table.
The unpalatable nutrient solution hit the taste buds hard and finally brought everyone back to their senses.
Taking advantage of this gap, they reviewed the current clues and doubts.
"Last night, 0006 and I chose to kill, while 0088 and 00113 chose to commit suicide. But this morning, only my prison guard became taller, while the guards of the other three remained the same." Cen Xun glanced at the others present, including but not limited to his teammates: "Do you have any clues?"
0001, 0009 and 0096, these three are old prisoners who have been in prison for ten years. They must have more clues than these four who have only been in prison for one day.
Therefore, it is very necessary to cooperate with 0001 and others to integrate known clues.
Fortunately, 0001 was a smart guy who quickly understood what he meant and was willing to cooperate: "There have been cases of prison guards getting taller, but most prison guards usually get thinner over time. For example, prison guard 0096 is almost as thin as a skeleton."
It took 0096 a while to realize that someone had mentioned his number, and he slowly raised his unclear eyes.
Cen Xun pondered, "Is there a case where a prison guard's size remains unchanged?"
"Yes," 0001 silently raised his eyes to look at 0009: "0009's prison guard is the only prison guard whose body shape hasn't changed in the past ten years."
Cen Xun: "Have you ever asked about the content of his illusions? Does he usually choose to kill himself or others?"
0001 said helplessly: "I asked, but he refused to say."
Cen Xun: "Why?"
0001 said tactfully, "He feels that we have nothing in common with him and that our thinking is not on the same level as his, so he despises each of us equally."
Cen Xun: “”
This middle school boy is really rebellious when he gets rebellious.
He looked not far away and saw 0009 being pinned to the ground and beaten by prison guards because he refused to drink the nutrient solution. The sound of punches hitting flesh was heartbreaking, but 0009 was so stubborn for some reason that he gritted his teeth and refused to say a word.
After a round of beating, 0009 spat out blood and laughed wildly: "What doesn't kill me will make me stronger. I don't care about life or death. I will fight you to the death if you don't agree!"
After saying that, he suddenly turned over and wrestled with the prison guard.
Cen Xun turned his eyes away speechlessly.
How could this extremely weird and stubborn person still be alive and well after spending ten years in prison?
If you want to find out the reason, you can only ask 0009 how he deals with the illusion.
While Cen Xun was lost in thought, 0009 struggled with the prison guard for a few moves, but naturally he had no strength to fight. In a blink of an eye, 0009's face was covered with bruises and he was knocked to the ground. 0009 growled and struggled under the prison guard's hands, like a wild dog that was forced into a desperate situation.
Before the guard in 0009 could start another round of unilateral beating, Cen Xun suddenly spoke up to stop him, "Wait."
The prison guard stopped and turned his black-masked face towards Cen Xun.
Cen Xun said calmly, "If he doesn't want to drink, then forget it. I'll drink it for him."
0009, who was pressed face down on the ground by the prison guard and was about to be beaten with his eyes closed, was stunned for a moment, struggled to look up, and looked at Cen Xun with wide eyes, as if he couldn't believe he would make such a decision.
The prison guard paused, lowered his raised fist, and pulled a red card from his cloak.
0001 frowned and explained to Cen Xun, "A red card represents a punishment. If you receive a red card, you will have to atone for your sin once more at midnight."
Cen Xun smiled slightly: "That's exactly what I want."
After that, he picked up the nutrient solution for 0009 and drank it in one gulp. Then he turned his head slightly and said to the prison guard for 0009, "Let him go."
0009 shook off the prison guard's hand on his shoulder, stood up shakily from the ground, and looked at Cen Xun with shining eyes, as if he had seen a peerless hero.
He took a few steps in Cen Xun's direction, then unexpectedly knelt down beside Cen Xun's chair with a plop. He hugged Cen Xun's right leg and choked with emotion, "No one has ever been so kind to me. Brother Si Ling, you will be my real brother from now on! I want to be your little brother, and I will take care of you in your old age! Please use me as you please from now on!"
Cen Xun: “”
Although he had his own calculations in helping 0009, it is too easy for 0009 to immediately acknowledge him as his brother for such a small favor.
Cen Xun took a deep breath and used a little force to push away 0009's hands that were holding his right leg. He said with a pleasant face, "I didn't mean to help you for any other reason. I just saw that you have amazing bones and strong willpower. You will definitely achieve great things in the future. I couldn't help but help you out of my love for your talent. Don't worry about it."
0009 became even more excited when he heard this. It was worth it that he didn't beg for mercy when he was beaten today. Wasn't it just to show his strong willpower to the super bully 0000!
And 0000 really had a keen eye and discovered his great talent hidden beneath his fragile appearance!
He! Understand! Me!
0009 It feels so good, so good that my scalp is tingling.
Isn't this feeling of being recognized what he has always dreamed of?
0006 began to feel inexplicably unhappy.
He stared at the boy who was holding Cen Xun's right leg with displeasure, and felt vaguely unhappy that his position was taken away by someone else.
Where did this wild boy come from? He calls me brother after just knowing me for a short time. He has no sense of boundaries!
0006 squeezed the glass test tube, making a creaking sound. His eyes were about to spit fire. 0113 saw this and asked 0088 curiously, "What's wrong with 0006?"
0088 said calmly: "I don't know, maybe his defense was broken."
On the other side, Cen Xun helped 0009 up and asked him about the illusion of atonement. 0009 naturally told his new big brother everything he knew, and explained everything like a colander.
"Well, I've never chosen that." 0009 said carelessly, "It always ends after a night's sleep. I rarely dream."
"You haven't chosen one?" Cen Xun realized something was wrong and asked him, "Is there anyone you care about?"
"Of course not," 0009 said in a nonchalant tone, "Strong people don't need weaknesses."
Cen Xun: “”
Cen Xun narrowed his eyes: "0009, you can't remember anything?"
The relaxed expression on 0009's face froze slightly, and his eyes flickered.
His reaction made Cen Xun more certain of his guess.
0009 is the only prisoner with complete amnesia. He is like a blank sheet of paper. He doesn't care about anyone, nor does he care about his own life or death. Even the illusion can't find a way to defeat him.
As 0009 himself said, he has no weaknesses.
If you don't have any weaknesses, you won't be caught by the prison.
With sample 0009, Cen Xun figured out the third result of experiencing an illusion: if the prisoner didn't care about anyone at all, then the illusion would be unable to do anything to the prisoner and would simply ignore him.
However, even if 0009 was not affected by the illusion, he would not be able to defeat the prison guards and would eventually die in prison.
Cen Xun quickly integrated the known information.
0009 is not affected by illusions, and the prison guard's size remains unchanged within ten years.
Old prisoners like 0096 could not stand the torture of the illusion, and the prison guards became thin.
He chose to kill people in the illusion, and should have been affected by the illusion and fell into remorse, but not only did his mood not change, on the contrary, his prison guard became taller.
Why?
Putting the three clues together, Cen Xun quickly captured a key word: emotion.
If you are not affected by the illusion, you will not have any emotions and the prison guard's body size will remain unchanged.
Affected by the illusion, suicide will lead to weakness, killing others will lead to remorse and self-blame, and the prison guards will become thin.
However, the remorse and self-blame that Cen Xun should have felt disappeared, and correspondingly, his prison guard grew bigger.
So, could it be that Cen Xun came to this conclusion because all his negative emotions flowed towards the prison guards, which is why the prison guards changed?
But how could the prison guards absorb his negative emotions?
Cen Xun was just a hair's breadth away from catching the tail of inspiration. He frowned in deep thought. At this moment, 0088, who was not far away, suddenly asked 0006, "Did you get woken up by anything stepping on you last night?"
0006 loosened his grip on the glass bottle, his attention diverted as he asked, "Have you ever been woken by being stepped on? Did you see the face clearly?"
"It's on all fours, not quite human-like," 0088 said succinctly, "but its body shape is human-like."
0001 calmly replied, "I was also woken up by being stepped on. When I opened my eyes, the thing had already escaped."
0096, who looked exhausted, spoke for the first time: "Yeah, it was so dark. I ran all over the house and nearly broke my bones."
Only 0113 looked around in confusion, scratching his head and saying, "Strange, why haven't I been stepped on and woken up before? What on earth is this thing that is so rude?"
0009 looked at the confused faces of the crowd, crossed his arms and snorted coldly, looking up proudly: "Haha, a bunch of losers, no way, I can't be the only one who reacted quickly enough to catch the ghost who stepped on people and beat him up, right?"
0006 looked at him with a puzzled look, and was about to say something back when he suddenly heard some applause coming from Cen Xun's side.
Cen Xun praised, "0009, you're so quick! No one here can match you. This prison only ranks you ninth. It's really an insult to you."
0009I was instantly overwhelmed by the praise!
He had never heard such heartwarming words!
This 40-year-old brother really understands him too well!
He wants to be Brother 40's little brother for the rest of his life!
0009 suppressed the corners of his mouth and pretended to be disdainful: "In fact, my level is just average. I haven't even exerted one percent of my usual strength."
With Cen Xun setting the example, 0001 quickly mastered the trick of stroking the middle school boy's fur. He asked in an admiring tone, "0009, that thing moves so fast. How did you catch it? Can you teach me?"
0009 glanced at 0001 and said reluctantly, "Since you asked so sincerely, I will mercifully tell you."
0009 really enjoyed being the center of attention. He coughed solemnly, then spoke again in a tone that was inexplicably weaker: "It was actually very simple. He was stepping on me when his foot suddenly slipped."
0009 turned his face away and whistled guiltily: "Then he fell to the ground unluckily. He tripped over his left foot and I easily pinned him down."
Others waiting for answers: ""
0009's bad luck can actually lead to human-to-human transmission!
0009 was a bit embarrassed himself, so he changed the subject, "I saw his badge. He's actually a prison guard from 0113. I don't know what quirk he has, but he likes to wake people up in the middle of the night by stepping on them."
As he spoke, 0009's face showed a bit of reluctance: "It's a pity that I just punched it and it ran away."
Hearing this, a flash of inspiration suddenly came to Cen Xun's mind.
The prison guard who likes to wake people up in the middle of the night
Cen Xun's eyes fixed on him, and he immediately looked at 0113 and asked him seriously, "0113, I remember one of your charges was disturbing the public."
0113 was confused and said subconsciously: "Yes, the warden said that I once ran in the middle of the night and disturbed my cellmate's rest."
"Do you still have this thought now?" Cen Xun interrupted him and pressed him, "The thought of running in the middle of the night and disturbing others' rest."
0113 shook his head, his eyes determined. "Of course not. How could I do that? It's immoral to disturb others' rest!"
Cen Xun nodded and turned to 0006: "What about you, 0006? Do you still have a strong desire to pry into other people's privacy?"
0006 immediately revealed a humiliated expression: "I'm not a pervert, why would I want to spy on other people's privacy!"
He even swore, "If I peek, I'll be struck by lightning!"
See, here's the thing.
As the saying goes, it is difficult to change one's nature, even if one loses memory, certain criminal instincts should not be forgotten or even resisted.
So, where did their evil side go?
Cen Xun looked at the prison guard. Only then did those inconsistent and strange details finally connect to reveal the complete truth.
That is, these prison guards are actually themselves.
0006 likes to peek into other people's privacy, so 0006's prison guard appears in his cell and deliberately eavesdrops on his conversation with 0001.
0113 liked to get up in the middle of the night to do parkour, disturbing his "roommates"' rest, so the prison guards at 0113 stepped on them one by one to wake them up in the middle of the night.
In this Chiyuan Prison, most of the prisoners have only committed murder, so even after ten years, they still cannot realize that their prison guards are their evil sides.
If the evil side of 0113 and 0006 were not so special that people could recognize the two crimes of "voyeurism" and "disturbing the public" at a glance, I am afraid no one would be able to associate them with the true identity of the prison guards.
After lunch, they were taken to the underwater mine. In the elevator leading to the seabed, Cen Xun kept thinking about the prison guards.
If the prison guard is the evil side of each of them, then the reason for the change in the prison guard's body shape is easy to infer.
The good and evil sides of the thin prison guard are essentially the same individual, and if one suffers, all will suffer.
The malice generated by the prison guard's good side was absorbed by his evil side and became the nourishment for its growth.
Some people would fall into self-blame because of the pain of loss, but Cen Xun would not.
After waking up from losing her husband in the illusion, the first thing Cen Xun felt was actually anger.
He hated the prison for playing with his true feelings and hated the prison for forcing him to experience the pain of losing his husband in a fantasy world.
What grew out of his pain was a bloodlust that wanted to destroy everything, rather than self-blame that was full of internal friction.
Whoever makes him suffer, he will repay them with an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, until he has returned the pain double.
So after a night in the illusion, Cen Xun was not overwhelmed by the painful emotions. Instead, his killing desire was aroused by what happened last night.
All these negative emotions were absorbed by the evil face, causing it to grow abnormally taller.
After reviewing all the clues, Cen Xun already had a bold idea on how to leave the prison.
After going down the well that day, Cen Xun said a few words to his teammates and then went to 0001 and 0096.
0001 didn't seem surprised by his arrival. He lowered his eyes and used a tool to cut off a cube of black stone. He spoke casually, "Actually, several years ago, I planned a prison break with 0002, 0003, 0096, and others."
Cen Xun: "What's the result?"
"We failed. Prison escapes are forbidden, and we were all severely punished," 0001 said softly. "0002 and 0003 were severely injured at that time and lost a large part of their memories. Otherwise, they wouldn't have survived until now."
Cen Xun pondered for a moment and asked, "Who is hindering you?"
0001's eyes darkened slightly. "The prison guards, the warden, and the prison's automated defense system."
Cen Xun lowered his eyelashes: "If I can deal with the first two, the remaining one..."
0096 coughed a few times and said, "I'll take care of the rest."
Cen Xun looked at 0096, clearly doubting his mental state. "Can you do it?"
0096's pale face gave a stiff smile. "I vaguely remember having a relationship when I was doing my doctorate. Although I've forgotten the person, I'm glad I still have the knowledge."
"What are you reading?"
"Network Engineering and Information Countermeasures Technology."
Cen Xun: "It sounds quite professional."
0096, curious about the person in front of him, asked, "You can deal with the warden and the guards. What did you learn?"
Cen Xun thought for a moment and casually gave an answer: "Folklore studies."
0001 and 0096: "This ruthless boss who has killed countless people is actually a liberal arts man!
Your major doesn't sound relevant at all!
0096 asked with difficulty, "How do you plan to deal with the warden and the prison guards? Are you going to summon evil spirits to deal with them?"
Cen Xun smiled subtly: "Almost."
That night, when Cen Xun was locked back in the cell by the prison guard, he called out to the other party.
"Are you willing to be a low-ranking prison guard forever?"
"Now you are stronger than other prison guards." Cen Xun's tone was calm, as if he was simply saying that the weather was very good today, but the meaning of his words was not as peaceful as it seemed on the surface.
The corners of his lips curled up slightly: "Why don't you consider getting a promotion and make yourself a warden?"
Prison guard 0000 stopped.
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