Chapter 415: Contract

"You speak."

The horse-headed man's attitude was friendly—of course, it might also be that he hadn't taken the few players as opponents.

Binary Tree didn't waste words either. He first took a printer out of his inventory, controlled it with his cyberbrain, then fed in a sheet of papyrus printed with a scale motif.

The printer hummed, spraying long passages of text across the papyrus's surface.

【Item Name: Thoth's Scale Contract】

【Type: Magical Contract】

【Quality: Perfect】

【Effect: Oath That Must Be Kept. Both parties sign the contract under conditions of complete willingness, full understanding, and acknowledgment of its contents. If either party violates it, they will suffer severe backlash.】

【Cost: 500 Spirit Points】

【Cooldown: None】

【Usage Requirement: Intelligence attribute greater than or equal to 5】

【Note: The Scale Contract can be used multiple times, but only one can exist at a time, until the contract is fulfilled, or one party actively breaks the oath, or the preset time limit is reached.】

【Note: "Just sign this, I just want a little sense of security." The nobleman said to the slave, holding an indenture.】

Among the player base, there was more than one popular type of magical contract.

There were jade discs from Eastern fantasy settings, and also parchment scrolls from Western fantasy settings—their functions were more or less the same: both parties reached an agreement, notarized by supernatural power. Violation by either side brought punishment.

This 【Thoth's Scale Contract】—Thoth refers to the Egyptian god of wisdom, Thoth, who presides over writing and documents.

His wife Ma'at is the Egyptian goddess of truth and justice, the officiant of the Weighing of the Heart ceremony recorded in the Book of the Dead.

A cost of 500 Spirit Points was almost on par with some Perfect-quality attack-type skill scrolls, so its effect was naturally quite overbearing.

The oath-breaker would have their heart torn out, and be inflicted with a large number of debuffs. Including but not limited to: reduction of Spirit Point cap, slowing of Spirit recovery, mental confusion, bodily weakness, complete sealing of all special abilities, and so on.

Roughly equivalent to degenerating from Taro to Tyson.

However, precisely because Thoth and Ma'at, the husband-and-wife pair, were Egyptian deities symbolizing wisdom, truth, and fairness, the contract explicitly forbade setting traps and required both parties to fully understand and acknowledge its contents—leaving players little room to maneuver.

Corresponding to it was a similar item from the DND worldview, 【Baator Hell Devil's Contract】.

It set no limits at all; the two contracting parties could stuff it full of textual traps, loopholes, and tricks—even the decorative patterns along the contract's edges could be disguised in unknown scripts.

It was purely a contest of who was more ruthless, more black-hearted, more meticulous in thought, and had fewer scruples.

What Binary Tree wrote on the papyrus was relatively fair—nothing more than requiring the horse-headed man to fully explain the boundaries of his abilities, to release Crimson Roar completely after losing, and not to settle scores with the players; in turn, the players wouldn't attack the horse-headed man, and so on.

"You players really are interesting."

The horse-headed man curled his horse-lips, took the papyrus, glanced at it, and briskly took the pen Binary Tree handed him, writing down his name.

"So be it—the contract is formed."

Binary Tree likewise signed his true name, his expression taut, not the slightest bit relaxed in his heart—the contract's principals were himself and the horse-headed man; it had nothing to do with Li Cheng or Red Spider.

And yet the horse-headed man still signed, which was enough to prove he had ample confidence and wasn't afraid of Li Cheng and Red Spider turning on him.

"So, which of you is going to do it."

The horse-headed man rubbed his palms together, his face full of anticipation. As the theater's manager, he could hardly wait to recruit new "actors."

"I'll do it." Red Spider raised a hand with a solemn expression, but before he could finish, Binary Tree cut him off directly: "I'll go first."

"Huh? You sure?" Red Spider started to speak, then hesitated—he happened to have a relevant skill on hand.

"Trust me, it should work."

Binary Tree nodded, stepped forward, took off his VR goggles, revealing an extremely exquisite, factory-original mechanical prosthetic eye.

"Hehehehe."

The horse-headed man grinned lightly. An invisible force radiated outward from him as its center, stirring up a breeze.

In the audience seats, large numbers of blurry humanoid phantoms materialized out of thin air, and every single phantom turned its head to stare at Binary Tree.

"Look into my eyes."

The horse-headed man pressed his right hand onto Binary Tree's shoulder, and the equine eyes on either side of his head blazed with a soul-stealing orange-red light.

Binary Tree fearlessly locked eyes in return. Inside his skull, a cyberbrain named 【Neural Wanderer】 was running at full capacity, taking over his thoughts.

In the span of mere seconds, the breeze had become a violent hurricane.

The stage curtains flapped thunderously. A group of puppets, including Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao, along with school desks and backdrop boards, were flung up by the gale, swirling rapidly above the theater.

"Sheltering from the wind now."

Grey Rain's height shot up, transforming into the size of a French-door refrigerator, blocking the wildly flying tables, chairs, and benches for Li Cheng.

Li Cheng stood in place, activating his Information Integration Goggles effect, staring at the two figures frozen on the spot, not missing a single detail.

Binary Tree's demand to confront the horse-headed man directly was, in a sense, equivalent to sacrificing himself to buy an opportunity for his companions.

Of course, he wasn't simply seeking death either—he genuinely had confidence.

Bzzt-bzzt—

The Neural Wanderer cyberbrain emitted noise. Binary Tree, whose expression had been blank, unconsciously curled the corners of his mouth into a smile: 'If you dare sit down at the gambling table, how can you do it without resolve?'

"What's happening?" Red Spider's brows knit tight. From his perspective, Binary Tree's hands and feet were showing a tendency toward puppet-ification, which would vanish and revert in an instant. Repeating in cycles like this.

Li Cheng vaguely guessed what was happening—Binary Tree had deleted a large amount of memory.

The 【Neural Wanderer】 installed in this hacker's head was not merely a prosthetic component assisting the brain—it was a cyberbrain with the authority to modify synaptic structures, more advanced than the relic chip once possessed by the Laughing Troupe's Joker.

'According to the theory of neurobiology, memory resides in neurons and can be divided into sensory, short-term, long-term, and permanent memory.'

Li Cheng's thoughts raced. Sensory and short-term memory could only be stored for seconds or minutes; its chemical mechanism might be reversible conformational changes of key macromolecules, such as phosphorylation and dephosphorylation.

Long-term and permanent memory, on the other hand, concerned the enhancement of synaptic function, modification of synaptic structure, and the generation of new synapses—irreversible changes to synaptic structure.

For example, some patients with accidental amnesia would forget all past interpersonal relationships, yet still remember their own name and commonly used language. Because those memories had already been written into the permanent structure of the synapses, unforgettable in this lifetime.

The relic chip held by the Laughing Troupe's Joker back then tampered with the neuronal synapses in other people's brains, "transforming" them into a new Joker, achieving his own immortality.

But Binary Tree's 【Neural Wanderer】 was more precise—it directly severed some of the neuronal synapses in the brain, physically deleting those life memories that could make him recall "shame"!

This move could be called pulling the firewood from under the pot, because personality is a combination of memories — it is precisely those beautiful, ugly, joyful, angry memories that make one who one is.

Moreover, neural synapses are not isolated like a USB drive, but a complex, multi-layered network. Severing neural synapses means losing the large fragments of memory associated with them, and affecting future cognitive function.

It could be called an all-or-nothing gamble.

The electronic eyes in Binary Tree's eye sockets flickered with electric light. He reviewed his past life — better to kill wrongly than let go, delete every memory that could arouse a sense of shame.

Confessing to a girl and being rejected, climbing over the school wall to surf the internet and getting caught by the teacher, playing Truth or Dare with friends… even as a child wetting the bed and refusing to admit it, tricking his parents into saying he had accidentally spilled iced black tea.

One by one, item by item, these memories all turned to ash-white.

If you can't recall it, then there is no shame.

"Holy shit, how can this programmer be such a gambling man. Scraping his own brain, that's something."

A sense of admiration welled up spontaneously, and Li Cheng couldn't help but stand at attention.

No madness, no survival — this programmer brother looked gentle and refined on the outside, but at his core was a ruthless man.

Time passed second by second,

At the eye of the storm, Binary Tree slowly regained control of his body. The puppet-like tendency at the extremities of his limbs gradually receded, and his mouth unconsciously said: "I won."

"Did you, though?"

The Horse-Headed Man opened his horse mouth, revealing large, white, flat teeth. The orange-red light in his eyes surged. The next instant, Binary Tree's limbs were all turned to wood; before the look of astonishment could even rise on his face, his entire countenance became a wooden carving.

Crack.

Time was locked at the very last second; his whole body froze in place, motionless.

"You cheated!"

Red Spider suddenly drew his gun and pointed it at the Horse-Headed Man. Though he didn't know exactly what had happened, from the noise coming from Binary Tree's brain he could roughly guess that he had used his electronic brain.

The Horse-Headed Man stared straight into the dark gun muzzle. His hands suddenly became afterimages, and with extraordinary speed and brute force he seized Red Spider's wrist and turned the muzzle toward himself.

"If I had cheated, I would already have been harmed by your magic contract. That magic contract is enough to make me degenerate into someone even worse than an ordinary person, someone who can be killed easily."

The Horse-Headed Man's tone was flat. He turned his head to look at Li Cheng. "Isn't that so?"

Li Cheng was silent for a moment, then said seriously: "You awakened the memory."

"Hahahaha."

The Horse-Headed Man laughed up at the sky, snapped his fingers, and Binary Tree's wooden puppet rapidly shrank, degenerating into the form of a child of four or five.

He stood in front of the TV, singing loudly along with the 2005 talent show "Super Girl," wiggling his bottom, completely unaware of his parents who had at some point opened the front door.

"Memory originates from the mutability and plasticity of neurons. Your companion here did indeed delete a great many memories by excising neurons. But he forgot one thing — some memories were already impossible to recall in the first place."

The Horse-Headed Man said with a light smile: "During a child's growth, the hippocampus constantly grows new neurons, which squeeze and compress the old neurons, causing the latter to degenerate and even fall away.

This leads to memory loss — what is known as the boundary of 'being able to remember.'"

Binary Tree did indeed have this memory as a child, and it was the first time he felt shame. But on the physical level, he had already forgotten this experience.

If you can't recall it, then there is nothing to delete."

As his words fell, Binary Tree's child puppet played this scene over and over in a loop.

He had already fallen completely under the Horse-Headed Man's control, just like Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao had.

"I won."

The Horse-Headed Man folded his arms across his chest and looked with great interest at Red Spider and Li Cheng. "Well? Still want to gamble? As long as you beat me once, I'll return both your companions to you."

"."

Red Spider was silent, seemingly having a choice, but in reality he had none.

From the moment his player essence was taken and he fell into the secret realm, he could no longer back down.

"If I'd known, I never should've come on this treasure hunt."

He shook his head with a bitter smile, but still took a deep breath and stepped forward.

"Wait."

Li Cheng suddenly said, "Brother Spider, you're a member of the Suit Mob guild, right?"

"…Either call me Spider or Red Spider, alright? 'Brother Spider' sounds weird."

Red Spider's eye twitched, and he nodded: "That's right."

"Understood."

Li Cheng said: "If your method is your guild's title skill, then you'd better be careful."

"Mm."

Red Spider's expression shifted slightly — he understood what Li Cheng meant.

So-called heroes are not asked their origin, nor are hooligans asked their age. Those seemingly lofty large guilds in the real world were, at first, just shoddy troupes.

For example, the Evil Science Alliance started out as a nightclub, the Monutong Alliance originally sold cosmetics and medical-aesthetic services, and Whale Song was a small group of programmers from various countries huddling together for warmth.

As for the guild Red Spider belonged to, 【Suit Mob】, its origins go all the way back to temp workers helping each other.

In the early days of Killfield, many lone-wolf players were owed wages by mercenary companies and organizations.

The mercenary companies, relying on their lv15 security guards, simply refused to pay the temp-worker bottom-tier players.

This forced these lone wolves to band together for warmth, forming Suit Mob to violently demand their wages from the companies.

This background is also reflected in their guild's namesake title skill — once 【Suit Mob】 is activated, it seals and suppresses all emotion, entering an absolutely rational, cold-blooded state.

What Red Spider was probably thinking was: since he couldn't cut away memories, he might as well use the title skill to keep himself from feeling any shame.

Then, no matter what memories the Horse-Headed Man displayed, he wouldn't feel any emotional fluctuation, and could hold out for more than ten seconds.

"If I don't make it out alive, please send my will out."

Red Spider finished his instructions, rolled up his sleeves, and stared straight into the Horse-Headed Man's eyes. "Bring it on!"

"As you wish."

The Horse-Headed Man's eyes lit up red once more, power spread, and a gale rose.

One, two, three.

Red Spider's situation was slightly better than Binary Tree's—the rate at which his limbs petrified was much slower.

But when the countdown reached its final two seconds, he still couldn't hold on. He abruptly stiffened and turned into a puppet.

"Tsk tsk tsk. Still not good enough."

The Horse-Headed Man shook his head back and forth. Red Spider's image shifted from a tall, sharp-suited cool guy back to the chubby kid he had been in his school days, mocked by the rugby team captain, his cheerleader girlfriend, and their lackeys.

"Emotions can be suppressed, but they won't simply vanish."

Watching the puppet show, the Horse-Headed Man said with a light laugh, "As social pack animals, the capacity for empathy is hardwired into human genes. Seeing someone else's embarrassing moment makes you feel embarrassed yourself.

Especially when what you're seeing is your own memory."

The title skill 【Suited Tough Guy】 suppresses emotions like a whack-a-mole game. Any emotion that surfaces gets quickly stamped down.

What the Horse-Headed Man seized was precisely that instant when the emotion rose but had not yet been suppressed.

Although the time window was incredibly brief, it was enough to strike a fatal blow.

"Third body, acquired."

The Horse-Headed Man turned around triumphantly to look at Li Cheng. "Your player essence is still intact—you can withdraw at any time. That was agreed in the contract."

【Thoth's Scale Contract】 would not be interrupted by one party's death, sealing, or stasis; it was still in effect.

Li Cheng thought for a moment, tilted his head, and said, "I'd like to try."

"Huh?!"

Grey Rain tugged at his clothes in astonishment. "Please don't?"

Binary Tree and Red Spider had no choice because their player essence had been taken. Li Cheng had already done more than enough by rescuing the two of them from the book; there was no need to get involved.

At worst, next year at this time he'd visit their graves, light an extra two sticks of incense, and burn them a couple of Nintendo Switch 2s.

"I have confidence."

Li Cheng patted the back of Grey Rain's hand, then turned his head to look calmly at the Horse-Headed Man.

"."

Although he had no idea where Li Cheng's confidence came from, as the theater manager, the Horse-Headed Man naturally wouldn't pass up the chance to acquire a new puppet. His horse face immediately darkened, his eyes lit up, and he said, "As you wish!"

(End of this chapter)