After reading these files, Song Yecheng's guess has been more strongly verified, and even gave him a very bold idea.
At this moment, Jiang Que, who had been waiting for him to finish reading all the files, finally asked, "Have you decided now?"
This question was obviously a continuation of the choice he had previously made downstairs - whether to participate in the experiment again and erase the memories he had already retrieved.
The cruel "lesson from the past" was right before his eyes. Song Yecheng estimated that any other volunteer would not easily choose the dead end of "re-participating in the experiment" after reading these files.
But he didn't refuse directly. Instead, he asked in an unconventional way, "Will Tang Yao and the others be brought here after reading the files?"
"Yes." Jiang Que said.
Song Yecheng thought for a moment and said, "Then can I go find them?"
"Now?" Jiang Que confirmed.
Song Yecheng nodded: "I remember the base allows volunteers to communicate with each other, right?"
Jiang Que hesitated for a moment, seemingly considering the potential impact on the plot, but quickly nodded and said, "Okay, but after we're done discussing this, you need to let me know your decision as soon as possible."
Song Yecheng readily agreed without further delay. He left the archive room and went straight downstairs after saying "see you later" to Jiang Que.
Returning to the dormitory area on the second floor, Song Yecheng just turned into the corridor and happened to see a figure in the distance in front of him.
"Ling An?" He immediately called out to the other party.
Ling An probably didn't expect to be called out. He was stunned for a moment before turning around. In his arms was the file bag he had just obtained.
Song Yecheng took a few quick steps to greet him: "Are you going back to check the files now?"
Ling An nodded: "Have you finished reading it?"
Song Yecheng thought to himself that he had already completed the next step, but he didn't explain much. He just nodded and pointed at the door next to him. "After you finish reading the file, come to Tang Yao's dormitory?"
Ling An was puzzled: "Why?"
"You'll know when you come." Song Yecheng kept it a secret with a mysterious look on his face. "I won't hurt you anyway."
Ling An narrowed his eyes suspiciously, thinking that, logically, anything out of the ordinary must be wrong. But as a player, all the unexpected things were extremely attractive, so he didn't refuse in the end, sneering, "Alright."
Song Yecheng didn't say anything more. He waved at him and walked towards Tang Yao's room, knocking on the door.
Ling An went back to his dormitory, and Tang Yao's door was soon opened. When she saw Song Yecheng at the door, she was quite surprised: "What are you doing here?"
Song Yecheng glanced behind her and found that only the director and cameraman were in her room. He Jingsheng was not there. He knew that she had not yet triggered the next link, so he suggested: "I want to share a clue with you?"
Tang Yao's reaction was similar to Ling An's earlier. She asked with a half-doubtful smile, "Is this true?"
Although she didn't quite believe it, she still stepped aside to make way. Song Yecheng didn't hesitate and walked straight into the house.
Tang Yao's room is completely different from Song Yecheng's. From the color tone to the furnishings, they are completely two different styles. There is a complete set of exquisite dressing tables next to the large European-style bed, and a low-legged coffee table and several cushions on the carpet in front of the window.
At this time, some papers and file bags were scattered on the coffee table in a slightly messy manner. It was obvious that Tang Yao had been sitting there reading the files before opening the door, and had not had time to put them away.
Song Yecheng walked over there naturally: "Have you finished reading the file?"
"Hey, hey, hey—be more self-aware?" Tang Yao took two quick steps, passed him and reached the coffee table. She defensively turned the paper upside down and glared at him, "Why are you peeking?"
Song Yecheng had no awareness of being treated as a competitor. He walked to the coffee table without being affected. With his hands in his pockets, he raised his chin towards the documents that had been turned over. "I know what it is without having to peek."
Before Tang Yao could doubt it, he said with certainty: "——Criminal record, right?"
Tang Yao's expression changed visibly, but she quickly regained her composure. "Why do you say that?"
Song Yecheng had already gotten the answer from her instantaneous change in expression, but he didn't rush to expose her. Instead, he gestured for her to sit down first, and he also bent down and sat down at the coffee table: "Do you know what the next step is?"
When they met on the third floor just now, Song Yecheng said he was going upstairs, so it was not difficult for Tang Yao to guess that the next link was related to the fourth floor, but she didn't know the specific content: "What is it?"
Song Yecheng said truthfully: "Your instructor will ask you if you want to erase your memory again, but before you make a decision, he will take you to the archives on the fourth floor and show you the files of volunteers who have previously initiated the revocation procedure for your reference."
"Then what?" Tang Yao asked.
Song Yecheng briefly recounted the files he saw on the fourth floor, emphasizing that all the volunteers had experience in causing death, repeating the same mistakes again and again, and finally chose to surrender or commit suicide because they could not bear the torture.
After that, he concluded, "After you finish reading the files, the instructor will ask you again if you want to repeat the experiment."
Tang Yao was stunned for a long time to digest the information, and then asked after a while: "Then how did you choose?"
"I haven't chosen yet," Song Yecheng said frankly, "I came down to see you because I have an idea, but I need to confirm with you and Ling An first. Is the content of your files also... you know?"
Tang Yao's defenses had been mostly let down by now, but she still retained a trace of caution: "What about yours?"
"Yes." Song Yecheng admitted decisively.
Seeing how straightforward he was, Tang Yao finally stopped hesitating and nodded honestly, "Me too."
Song Yecheng nodded in understanding. "So, that means that so far, all the volunteers we know of who have participated in this experiment, including ourselves, have a history of committing crimes, or at least breaking the law. And none of our 'predecessors' have truly escaped their memories. Even after repeated attempts to escape, they all end up in the same tormented end. Do you think this is a coincidence?"
Tang Yao bit her nails unconsciously, thinking for a moment, and then unsurely speculated, "You suspect... that the purpose of this experiment isn't to help us erase our memories, but... a form of punishment for criminals?"
Song Yecheng nodded. "Although I'm not 100% sure, you can think back. We didn't even know about the existence of the revocation procedure at first. We were supposed to participate in the second stage today, so how did we get to the point of starting the procedure? - It was because we found the map and pass in the room, and were caught on the spot when we went to the archives to look for files. Then we learned about this procedure from the instructor, right?"
Tang Yao nodded as she recalled the past. Song Yecheng continued to guide her, "Then think about it. Why is it so coincidental that maps and access cards can be found in each of our rooms? Why do we need positioning devices installed on our communicators? Why are our instructors monitoring our movements?"
Although this was a question, Tang Yao quickly understood what he wanted to express - this series of steps was more like a pre-designed bait, leading them step by step into the trap of starting the regret process.
Tang Yao said: "So now——"
Boom boom boom.
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
If it were just now, Tang Yao would probably go and open the door directly, but at this moment, she inexplicably felt a sense of danger, so she subconsciously raised her voice and asked, "Who—?"
"I, Ling An!"
Hearing this answer, Song Yecheng immediately stood up and walked towards the door, explaining to Tang Yao: "I asked him to come over."
Tang Yao then said "Oh" with relief, and stood up and followed.
As soon as the door opened, Ling An squinted his eyes and asked jokingly, "What are you two plotting?"
Song Yecheng turned around and motioned him to come in. After he entered the room, he closed the door again. Before he could open his mouth, he heard Tang Yao ask him bluntly, "Have you ever killed anyone?"
"What, what?" Ling An was startled.
"No," Song Yecheng didn't expect Tang Yao to ask such a ridiculous question. He explained with a smile, "She wanted to ask if there was any experience of causing death in your file."
Ling An's eyes froze for a moment, and then he immediately became alert: "Are you two teaming up to get clues from me? I can choose to refuse to answer, right?"
The rules did give them the right to refuse to answer, and his caution was understandable, so Song Yecheng was not in a hurry. After leading him to sit down at the coffee table, he methodically repeated the clues he had just shared with Tang Yao.
Ling An, a veteran gamer, had already keenly grasped something when he heard him talk about the files upstairs. "So you're asking about the contents of my files because you suspect all the volunteers who participated in this experiment are criminals who have escaped legal punishment—including us?"
Song Yecheng didn't answer but asked: "So are you or not?"
Ling An still held on to his last bit of stubbornness: "...both of you?"
Song Yecheng and Tang Yao nodded in unison.
Ling An finally gave up resisting: "Okay... me too."
In this way, the judgment that "volunteers are all guilty" is basically uncontroversial.
After listening to Song Yecheng's further recap of how they initiated the retraction process last night, Ling An quickly came to a similar conclusion as Tang Yao: "So they probably didn't intend to let us proceed to the second stage, nor did they intend to help us erase our memories. Is this whole experiment just a trap?"
"That's my guess," Song Yecheng nodded, "but our situation is a little different from that of previous volunteers."
"What's the difference?" Ling An and Tang Yao asked curiously.
Song Yecheng said, "In the files upstairs, the volunteers all chose to repeat the experiment after regaining their memories. This led to a repetitive dead end, ultimately leading to suicide or surrendering. This is like a form of psychological torture, where repeated torture leads to the criminal's ultimate collapse."
Ling An and Tang Yao nodded, and Song Yecheng continued, "Assuming this is how they punish criminals, then now that we've regained our memories, they can simply follow the usual practice and let us choose whether to repeat the experiment. We'll likely end up following the same path as those volunteers—entering a vicious cycle, right?"
He clearly hadn't finished his point, but Tang Yao had already grasped his point. "But now they're taking us to look at the files, letting us know in advance the consequences of re-running the experiment. It's like they're deliberately using this 'lesson from the past' to warn us not to repeat the experiment."
Song Yecheng nodded and said, "Yes, that's why I said our situation is different from that of previous volunteers."
He pondered for a moment, then quickly changed the subject: "But if you think about it a different way, this problem can be explained."
"How do you say that?"
"Think about it," Song Yecheng guided, "after those volunteers had endured years of repeated psychological torture, what was the final outcome?"
Ling An and Tang Yao were stunned, not because they couldn't answer, but because this was a question that was asked knowingly: "Suicide or surrender?"
Song Yecheng nodded in confirmation and continued, "Now that we can no longer choose the option of 'erase memory again', what other options are left?"
Ling An and Tang Yao exchanged a glance, their minds racing as they suddenly realized, "They want us to go straight to the end, to surrender or commit suicide?!"
Song Yecheng raised an eyebrow. "If psychological torture is just a means to an end, and ensuring the criminal receives the punishment they deserve is the ultimate goal, then by showing us the files now, perhaps we can skip the means and get straight to the goal. For them, wouldn't that actually shorten the process?"
This idea actually makes a lot of sense, and for anyone with normal values, as long as they make a mistake, even if it is unintentional, it is reasonable to accept punishment.
But perhaps because this is just a "game" after all, as a game character, even if the thoughts are not so glorious and upright, it is understandable.
"Actually...we have another choice."
Ling An pondered this, then raised his eyelids, looked at the two of them cunningly and said, "--We don't want to erase our memories, but we also don't want to surrender ourselves. Can't we just leave the base and live with these memories?"
Although this proposal may sound like a case of inaction and rogue behavior, it is theoretically a feasible way to deal with the situation.
Tang Yao looked at Song Yecheng hesitantly, but saw that Song Yecheng's expression was very mysterious at this time, with a hint of sympathy and mockery in his eyes: "Do you think that if their purpose is really to punish criminals, they will still give us a chance to leave the base safely?"
This was really a bit creepy to hear, coupled with Song Yecheng's sophisticated and bossy actor-level performance, Tang Yao couldn't help but grit her teeth and rub the goose bumps on her arms.
Ling An was stunned for a long time, and finally let out a wailing cry as if admitting defeat, looking up at the sky: "Oh - this morning I thought Duan Jingming was too indifferent, but after all this time, it turns out he is really wise and foolish? Look at him, he's not even curious about what he forgot, and now he's participating in the second stage without any problems? He doesn't have to choose anything. Isn't ignorance bliss?"
Among the four of them, only Duan Jingming did not search the room last night and did not get the map and pass, so he was the only one who did not fall into the trap of starting the regret procedure and regaining his memory. Now it seems that he is the one who has it the easiest.
However, when Song Yecheng heard this, he did not agree, but lowered his eyes and seemed to be thinking about something, as if he did not agree.
Ling An squinted at him for a moment, then raised his chin: "What? Am I wrong?"
Song Yecheng raised his eyes: "I think..."
Beep-beep-beep-beep-
At this moment, a sharp alarm suddenly exploded outside the door, and the three people in the room were all startled: "What's going on?!"
As they were talking, they had already stood up and rushed to the door, opened it, and saw that the entire corridor was covered by the red light of the warning lights flashing wildly, and the rapid alarm sounded continuously irritating the eardrums.
"Emergency assembly! Emergency assembly!"
Suddenly, a female voice boomed from the overhead speaker, sounding incredibly anxious over the blaring alarm: "All personnel, please assemble immediately in the office area on the third floor! I repeat! All personnel, please assemble immediately in the office area on the third floor!"
Beep-beep-beep-beep-
Song Yecheng and the other two looked at each other, all of them inexplicably having an ominous premonition in their hearts. However, the life-threatening urging continued, and together with the sirens, it made it impossible for them to think at all: "Emergency assembly! Emergency assembly! All personnel, please gather in the office area on the third floor immediately!"
Beep-beep-beep-beep-
Ling An shouted, "Go up—?!"
Tang Yao looked at Song Yecheng, and Song Yecheng thought that if it was a blessing, it would not be a disaster, and if it was a disaster, it would not be avoided, so he simply nodded: "Let's go!"
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