Chapter 115: The Prison of Narration (Twelve)

Strictly speaking, 256GB of brain capacity was a translation by the system to ensure Li Cheng could understand, but the final figure should be roughly accurate.

"I didn't choose to forget."

Hui Yu bit her lip and said: "The prison resets periodically; words carved on walls or floors, and previously requested newspapers, vanish on their own—meaning you can't rely on external storage for information."

"And each escape attempt inflicts severe physical and mental strain on the escapee. Many lose parts of their memory, even become idiots—like the one in the lower-right cell."

"." Li Cheng finally understood: Hui Yu collaborated with him to escape not only because she didn't want to die imprisoned, but because she feared gradually losing her memories and her self.

A person's self is composed of memories; forgetting everything is no different from death.

"Old questions remain unanswered, yet new doubts arise."

Li Cheng rubbed his temples, slightly headache-ridden: "Let's summarize the current mysteries."

"First, in the 【Protagonist Effect Room】, the rabbit-eared aide seemed to possess self-awareness—he pressed the button and said to me: 'You don't belong here.'"

"Second, after pressing the button, Isaac didn't return—she vanished into thin air."

"Third, the prison resets periodically—then why do clues like the Book of Chai and the Last Redemption Pistol still remain in the upper-left cell (formerly Isaac's)? Shouldn't everything have disappeared?"

Hui Yu squinted and said: "Perhaps Isaac got trapped in the 【Protagonist Effect Room】 during her escape attempt, leaving her in some half-dead state—so anything related to her wasn't reset."

Li Cheng corrected: "It's 'she,' not 'he.'"

"Huh?"

Hui Yu paused, then realized: "Wait—you're saying Isaac is female? How did you figure that out?!"

"Bone structure."

Li Cheng shrugged: "Isaac claimed she was once a mechanical citizen of the Zelos civilization. From the physical traits of Zelos refugees on the Blood Eagle, there are objective differences between male and female physiology."

"Earlier, during combat, I cut open Isaac's uniform and saw her metallic skeleton."

"Her pelvic inlet and inferior pubic angle were larger, her cranial thickness relatively thinner, her glabella flat, her frontal tubercles prominent—all consistent with female traits."

"Additionally, I visually estimated the angles and thicknesses of her cranium, sternum, clavicles, scapulae, and long bones, then plugged the data into a regression function."

"For example, estimating age from sternum morphology: Y=14.561.46x11.25x23.66x31.99x40.47x50.38x61.82x71.2x8, with a negative correlation coefficient of 0.9916 and standard deviation of 1.3290, where x1 is the sternoclavicular joint surface, x2 is the first rib notch, x3 is the dorsal margin, x4 is the manubriosternal junction and second rib notch."

Listening to Li Cheng's incantation-like speech, Hui Yu's head seemed filled with question marks, her eyes spinning dizzily.

"Furthermore, her mandibular angle is 116, the ratio of zygomatic width to temporal width is 1:0.819, and the ratio of zygomatic width to mandibular angle width is 1:0.678—both conforming to the golden ratio; her nasal bridge is straight, her facial contours elegant."

"In summary, Isaac is very likely a 25- or 26-year-old adult female with East Asian features, nearly two meters tall, with a curvaceous figure and a beautiful face, fitting the conventional definition of sexy beauty."

Li Cheng finished his statement calmly, then smacked his lips thoughtfully: "If there were a Tiger Post Goddess Competition among skeletal populations, she'd rank among the top, possibly even claim first place."

"."

Just from the name, Hui Yu could guess what the Tiger Post Goddess Competition was likely about. She took a deep breath and asked, stunned: ". What exactly were you doing before you got arrested and thrown in here? You weren't some grave robber stealing bones, were you?"

"Hahaha, impossible."

Li Cheng laughed brightly: "In my country, cremation is the norm."

Meaning it's fine to do that in countries where cremation isn't common?

Hui Yu felt her CPU was about to burn out.

"Anyway,"

Li Cheng instantly switched expressions, asking seriously: "What else can you remember? All information beyond common knowledge."

They were now on the same rope—only cooperation could get them out.

Hui Yu strained to recall, then spoke slowly: "Hmm… I was probably a very good soldier—killed a lot, a lot of enemies."

This information held little value; everyone imprisoned here started as a war criminal—even Li Cheng had killed nearly a hundred (during his first escape scenario).

A low-ranking foot soldier probably wouldn't even qualify for incarceration—Hui Yu's account was certainly incomplete.

"Follow me." Li Cheng led the way, sprinting toward the cells.

"Where to?"

"Lower-left cell. Help me pick the lock."

As a noble, efficient, and pure silicon-based lifeform (also called the Three Highs), Hui Yu's body was mostly liquid metal—she could liquefy her fingers, pour them into the keyhole, then solidify them to pick the lock.

She'd used this method to escape her single cell before. As for why she didn't turn part of her limb into coins to trick the vending machine into giving her corn juice—

Probably because the machine had internal barriers; once her limb became a coin, she couldn't retrieve it.

Click.

Hui Yu cleanly pried open the lower-left cell door. Inside was another identical single cell—clean, tidy, unoccupied.

"I told you—this room was never occupied."

She sneered: "When I was locked in, this cell was already empty."

Li Cheng crawled on the floor, meticulously searching the room. The floor, mattress, bed frame—all showed no anomalies.

Only one oddity remained: beneath the outer rim of the metal toilet, a line of letters: AMORAONRORTIRAF.

"A cipher?"

Hui Yu frowned: "The toilet metal is unknown—extremely hard. How was this carved?"

"Not carved. Scratched. With a softer metal, scraped against the toilet, leaving marks."

Li Cheng instantly recalled the fine needle found in the upper-left cell—the tip nearly worn smooth. This line was likely left by Isaac.

"As for the cipher's content: reverse it, and it reads Faritornoaroma—Latin for 'Return to Rome.'"

Li Cheng wasn't surprised by "Rome." Players universally accepted that, for unknown reasons, the scenario world's lore and history resembled Earth's.

"What does that mean?" Hui Yu asked, confused.

"It means we need to toss in coins."

In both Eastern and Western real-world cultures, people have the custom of throwing coins into fountains. Tang Dynasty's Zhang Zhuo recorded in "Chao Ye Qian Zai, Volume Six": "At the border of Shi'ai and Shouyang in Bingzhou lies the Jealous Woman Spring, with a shrine. The water is clear and pure, a thousand zhang deep. Offerors throw in coins and sheep bones, which remain clearly visible."

Italy also has the legend: "Stand with your back to the fountain, toss a coin over your left shoulder with your right hand, make three wishes—one being 'return to Rome'—and all three will be granted."

The 5∑ coins Li Cheng collected from the child's backpack had already been used to buy Hui Yu corn juice—he had no money left.

"Unless... someone has already tossed a coin in."

His eyes lit up. He rapped his knuckle against the edge of the toilet, and sure enough, heard a faint metallic clinking from inside, like coins.

"From the direction of the sound, the coins seem to be stuck in the U-bend. A human hand can't just reach in and fish them out." He stood up and looked at Hui Yu. "What about that corn juice you drank earlier? Spit it back up?"

"Huh?" Hui Yu said righteously, "I'm a silicon-based life form, I also need to draw nutrients from food, okay? The corn juice is already digested."

"What about pee?" Li Cheng said, unwilling to give up, urging her like he was pressing drinks on someone: "Give me a couple jin, come on."

"Don't even think about it!" Hui Yu hurriedly crossed her hands in front of her chest. "Why don't you pee yourself."

"It's not like I don't have to."

A person is at their most vulnerable when excreting, so before entering a scenario mission, players usually go to the bathroom first.

Li Cheng sighed: "Young people nowadays, truly each generation worse than the last — the moment you bring up pee and poop they think it's dirty. Back when I was young, sent down to the countryside, cow dung could be made into honeycomb briquettes, donkey dung balls could be burned to fill a kang stove, chicken dung could be fermented into organic fertilizer — all treasures, I tell you."

Too bad Hui Yu isn't a modern person, otherwise she could have roasted him with, "Sent down to the countryside? May I ask how old you are this year? Oh right, do you know Beijing's Olympic bid succeeded?"

Li Cheng muttered to himself, looking around the room for a tool he could use to fish out the coins, his gaze finally settling on the showerhead.

(End of chapter)