Chapter 214: Transforming Community Experience (Twenty-three)
"Xin Jue, Xin Jue, wake up and see who we are. I am Guo Guo!"
Opening his eyes again from the darkness, Tang Xinjue saw Guo Guo with tears streaming down her face.
Her hand still remained on the other person's brow, and she was about to crush the thin protective shield in the next second, while Guo Guo was still trying miserably to awaken her conscience.
...It seems that this is still a cycle.
Compared with the last tragedy that was resolved quickly, something seems to have changed this time.
——For example, at this moment, Tang Xinjue no longer had the urge to dig out his eyes, nor did he have any cold and cruel thoughts.
She tried to withdraw her hand, and her arm fell down obediently. Guo Guo was startled by this, his eyes showing surprise:
"Xin Jue, you, you are back to normal?"
Tang Xinjue did not answer directly. She looked around and saw some outlines from the thick darkness.
It seemed to be a long-abandoned bathroom, the machines covered in dust and an unknown black slime. The edges of the room were shrouded in darkness, and no further sight was visible.
But judging from the structure of the water room alone, it does not look like a small hot water room in the teaching building, but more like a space in the dormitory building connected to the laundry area.
Keeping all this information in mind, Guo Guo called her several times from the other side, and Tang Xin Jue turned around and asked, "What happened before?"
The fragments of memory she had been filled with contained only the scene of attacking Guo Guo and her own inner thoughts. The entire process was completely blank.
In this confusing plot, she wants to know the clearest information, such as the timeline.
Guo Guo hesitated for a moment, and did not choose to escape immediately, but told the truth:
"Have you forgotten? Today was the day we agreed to go out exploring. We wanted to take this opportunity to have you and Wanqing talk it out and clear up any misunderstandings... but for some reason, you suddenly attacked me the moment we reached the bathroom on the first floor!"
She was still a little frightened: "Could it be that the ghost left its aura here and affected you again? Then we should hurry up..."
Before she could finish her words, her eyes widened in fear:
Tang Xinjue, who had just returned to normal, suddenly stretched out his hand and strangled her neck!
[Hehe, this is not enough.]
Listening to the voice in his heart reappearing, Tang Xinjue watched his hands move again and dug out Guo Guo's third eye.
The lucidity and self-control just now seemed to be just a brief illusion. The second cycle of killing began again, and every step was exactly the same as the last time:
Attacking Guo Guo, injuring Zhang You and Wan Qing who came to rescue him, mocking him, and being mocked...
When the process reached the part where Zhang You was ridiculing him, Tang Xinjue felt his movements pause subtly.
Zhang You coughed violently, his bloodshot eyes showing no fear of impending death, only intense mockery:
"On the contrary, I think your self-righteousness is very..."
"Don't say that!"
This time, Tang Xin Jue heard himself interrupting him harshly and taunted him, "You, the kind of losers who have never experienced any hardship or pain, living in a greenhouse, are nothing more than nameless nutrients in the underground, even after you die. Allowing you to survive until now is the biggest mistake of the rules. Who gave you the confidence to fight me?"
Every word she spoke employed her mental force to crush the opponent's sea of consciousness.
Zhang You coughed up another mouthful of blood, but just shook his head: "Because... I am a human."
"As long as we live, we will die one day. Whether it's birth, old age, sickness, or death, or being killed in the game, it's just the end of life. If you kill me, will my life make you more noble? Will it give you another life?"
Even before Zhang You died, he still had a half-smile on his face:
"...Classmate, life and death are not in our control."
Tang Xinjue suddenly calmed down.
These words seemed to have turned on a switch. Although there was no sound, she could feel the raging anger in her heart, as if it was about to break free from the restraints of her body and burn the entire space to ashes in the next second!
But just like the last time, there was no one left for her to vent her anger on.
Dragging this irritability that had nowhere to vent, when the light came in again and Guo Guo was standing at the entrance of the cave, Tang Xinjue raised his weapon without thinking and rushed towards Guo Guo with a murderous attack!
Guo Guo, who had just seen this scene, said: "???!!!"
But before the attack could reach her, it was as if it were obliterated by some invisible barrier. Nothing happened. Guo Guo remained standing there unscathed.
"So that's how it is."
The moment he briefly regained control of his body, Tang Xin Jue couldn't help but laugh, "You can only let me experience the future, but you can't change what happened in the past. This is the foundation of the illusion, right?"
[……]
The voice did not answer.
Although its existence took the form of a constant inner thought, so real that it was almost indistinguishable from one's own mental activities, Tang Xin Jue was still able to accurately capture the moment of its silence and calmly and politely break the opponent's defense:
"Next, are you going to start the third cycle, letting me personally experience the process of eliminating my roommate once again, feeling my own cold and cruel thoughts, over and over again, until it is completely implanted in my consciousness?"
[……]
"But it seems like, after all this hard work, you can't even defeat a single cannon fodder. Isn't that a bit too lame?"
Tang Xin Jue didn't even need to say the rest of the words. It was obvious that the effect the other party had originally planned was definitely not what it was now.
The darkness around her began to thicken again, but before it swallowed her up again, Tang Xinjue felt a slight flicker of some kind of power in her mind, and the darkness stopped moving.
[…Hehe, I'm curious too. Your teammates, who lived and died together with you, died at your hands, yet you remained completely indifferent. Did you hide it well, or are you just a cold-blooded person at heart?]
[Look at your inner thoughts. Do you really not desire supreme power and status? The moment you personally eliminate the burdens and completely release your true nature, won't you feel a sense of relief and joy?]
Look at all this. This is the future that will inevitably happen soon, and no matter how hard you try, you can't avoid it. You're a very smart person, and you wouldn't do something without a chance of success. Of course, you don't need to resist fate, just accept it little by little, accept your true self...
This voice was exactly the same as Tang Xinjue's own voice, but as it began to try to guide Tang Xinjue's thoughts, it revealed a strange and distorted feeling.
Tang Xinjue listened quietly, as if he could not find any reason to refute, so he could only remain silent.
The voice in my heart also smiled clearly, and continued to strike while the iron was hot:
[But you guessed it right, time here is infinite, and you still have many opportunities to see your true self, right?]
"You're trying really hard, even though you're talking a lot of nonsense and your only purpose is to persuade me not to be a human being." Tang Xinjue suddenly said, "But, what the hell is it to you?"
[?]
In the other party's momentary astonishment, she briefly regained control of her body, raised her head and looked into the endless darkness, as if looking into a pair of eyes within:
"I've seen your world countless times, and heard these threats and temptations countless times. But every time I wake up from a dream at dawn, I only have . That is, it's none of your business."
"How about it? Does this sentence sound familiar? I feel like I've heard it once before."
Tang Xin Jue also smiled gently:
"It's been a long time since we last met and you advised me to give up being a human and become a ghost. I didn't expect you still remember your original intention, classmate Li Xiaoyu."
It is impossible to be brainwashed. From the moment the vicious "thought" appeared in her mind, Tang Xinjue realized that there was a high probability that part of her consciousness was occupied by ghosts.
This was equivalent to sharing the same brain and soul with a ghost. Being eroded to this extent, one was not far from becoming a coffin bearer. But she didn't think she had reached that point yet—it was very likely that she was still being influenced by the illusion.
The reason why the source of the voice can only hide in her body to cosplay the real person is very obvious: due to certain restrictions, the other party cannot directly come forward and take action.
Otherwise, is there any need to keep brainwashing her that "life is meaningless" - if you just kill her, won't she be forced to become a ghost?
The voice was silent for a long time again, so long that Tang Xinjue thought it had simply walked away. Then it suddenly admitted:
[Long time no see, your guess is still so accurate. It seems I was right, we are indeed of the same kind. Even in this broken illusion, even though your abilities have been sealed, you can still sense my presence.]
"No, you're overthinking it."
Tang Xinjue politely retorted, "Because of all the ghosts I've encountered, you're the only one who's so eager to recruit me like a pyramid scheme leader, and your rhetoric is so clichéd and low-level."
She didn't even need to ask any pretexts, as the other party had already revealed their characteristics clearly during the pyramid scheme brainwashing process.
Of course, we also have to thank "Zhang You" for his precise taunts in the two cycles, which enabled Li Xiaoyu to break through the defense so quickly.
"But even so, my answer to you is still the same: none of your business. Who the hell are you?"
She is willing to be a human being, willing to live in the sunshine, and willing to fight against darkness for her whole life. This is her own choice and there is no room for others to control it.
"Even if I sink into the earth, I will always be human. And even if you were given another chance to be human, could you go back? Are you worthy of being one of my kind?"
Li Xiaoyu: [……]
It might have wanted to say something, but it might have been limited by the ghost's brain capacity and the environment, and could only watch the darkness flow again, following the set process, and swallowing Tang Xin Jue again.
…
"Xin Jue, Xin Jue, wake up!"
The third cycle began, and she opened her eyes accompanied by a voice that Tang Xinjue had gradually become accustomed to.
But this time, just as the malicious thought in her heart was about to emerge, she noticed something strange:
"Li Xiaoyu is gone, you are the new one."
[? ? ?]
It hasn't done anything yet!
"You're not saying anything, and you're not trying to control me directly. This shows you're being cautious. You probably know me well, as we've met before... and possibly even clashed."
The repetitive cycle was indeed tiresome. Tang Xin Jue didn't want to repeat himself, so he went straight to the point:
"Would you like to tell me yourself, or let me guess, who are you?"
The author has something to say:
Tang Xin Jue: That’s almost it
