[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-surviving-the-doomsday-apartment-with-infinite-c":3,"chapter-surviving-the-doomsday-apartment-with-infinite-c-surviving-the-doomsday-apartment-with-infinite-c-chapter-571":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Surviving the Doomsday Apartment—With Infinite Clones!",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":20,"prevChapterSlug":21,"totalChapters":22,"novelImage":23},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":16,"volume":17,"translator":18,"content_hash":19},950093,1242,"Chapter 571: Real Illusions","surviving-the-doomsday-apartment-with-infinite-c-chapter-571",571,"\u003Cp>When Wan Xin asked this, Li Ku couldn't help but glance at him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This guy...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He really did talk too much.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Talkative, unlucky, yet somehow still alive...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was truly a talent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The administrator didn't answer directly either. His eyes fixed on the compass without lifting his head.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But his other hand deliberately tucked away the Carefree Dao Stone, and his tone flatly offered a remark:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Like I said before—those three spatial anchors on this Carefree Dao Stone weren't marked by me.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When he'd said this earlier, Wan Xin hadn't heard it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"So the person who gave you the Carefree Dao Stone told you that you could only explore in the direction the compass points?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"And this compass... was it also given to you by that same person?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The administrator didn't reply, just swept him a cold glance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That look wasn't exactly polite.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wan Xin belatedly swallowed his throat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The administrator directly ignored him, handed the compass to Li Ku, and said, \"Here, you give it a try?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Ku took the compass but frowned, \"This thing... how do you use it?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You don't need to operate it. It's like a compass needle—it points the way on its own...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The administrator's words trailed off mid-sentence, so much so that the last word never came out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And what caused this reaction was naturally the change in the compass in Li Ku's hands.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for the change, it wasn't much.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The direction the needle pointed remained the same as when the administrator had held the compass.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The direction hadn't changed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But on the disc, slightly larger than a palm, Roman numerals from I all the way to XII appeared around the edges.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What had originally looked like an ordinary compass now seemed like an old-fashioned clock!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the direction the clock pointed wasn't the apartment's most special zero o'clock, but IX, which was nine o'clock.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wan Xin counted from I, II, III before figuring it out: \"This IX stands for nine o'clock.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"So, we can only explore in this nine o'clock direction? Is that right?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He clearly hadn't grasped the administrator's shock yet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The administrator didn't say a word, but Yang Wenchao immediately spotted the clue:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Did this compass never show a time mark when you held it? Only just now, in Li Ku's hands, did it show a time?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment this came out, Wan Xin was stunned, looking at the administrator.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The administrator's expression was complicated, but he quickly nodded in admission: \"That's right. In my hands, it was just an ordinary compass—it never showed a time surface.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yang Wenchao and Li Ku both fell into thought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Ku asked the administrator again for confirmation: \"Do you have any leads on this time? Also, every time you explore this place, does the compass point in the same direction?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The administrator was about to answer, then suddenly froze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yang Wenchao guessed something and said bluntly, \"You always thought before that you followed the same direction each time with the compass.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"But you just realized—you can't even judge whether the direction the compass points is the same every time.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Because the compass has no easy distinguishing marks, and this endless stretch of grave mounds doesn't seem easy to differentiate directions either.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This claim was likely close to the truth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But it stung the administrator's pride somewhat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No matter how endless it is, I wouldn't fail to distinguish the direction I explore each time.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Saying this, the administrator clearly wanted to salvage some face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Yang Wenchao swept his gaze across every direction again, then said with a heavy tone, \"Are you sure you can distinguish direction?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This remark initially sounded like simple doubt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the administrator quickly caught a hint of seriousness in Yang Wenchao's eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He too immediately scrutinized every direction carefully.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When he'd come here before, he'd also tried to distinguish directions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But never as carefully as this time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the end, his face turned grim, and he admitted honestly, \"Alright, I admit it—on my own, I really can't distinguish direction using the grave mounds.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"These grave mounds, they seem chaotic... but no matter which angle you look from, the arrangement pattern is the same.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"There's simply no way to tell direction through the layout of the grave mounds.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This statement naturally caught everyone's attention.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wan Xin, Li Hongbin, and the others also tried observing this endless stretch of grave mounds from various angles.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for Jiang Ye...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>While paying attention to their conversation, he attempted several more times to use Ji Zixuan's clone red-eye perspective.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the result was the same as when he'd used the cat's eye to probe in his portable apartment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Every time, his vision went black, then a sharp stab of pain shot through his brain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But these few observations confirmed for him—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The blackness in his vision was indeed because his red-eye perspective was seeing black!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, from this red-eye perspective, was this space black?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was thinking to himself—could he train his spirit attribute by using the red eye a few more times?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then he heard Yang Wenchao ask the administrator directly, \"Is that all there is?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The administrator was taken aback: \"What do you mean?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yang Wenchao didn't answer but instead looked at Li Ku: \"And you? Any findings?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No one knew what Li Ku's crack-eye perspective saw.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But after a moment of silence, he indeed gave a response that satisfied Yang Wenchao:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I noticed that when we unconsciously look from different angles, all the grave mounds seem to be randomly distributed.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"But when we deliberately try to remember the positions of the grave mounds to distinguish direction, we find that the mounds seen from every angle are identical.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"This alone is far too abnormal!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Philosophers say there are no two identical leaves in the world.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"So logically, there shouldn't be two identical trees either!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Suppose the grave mounds here are leaves, and countless mounds form trees.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Then it's like seeing the same tree from any angle.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"This situation is completely unreasonable!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"So...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Either the environment itself has some kind of strange trick.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Or it's our eyes—or the part of our brain that processes visual information—that has something wrong.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As he spoke, he analyzed while thinking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Meanwhile, his gaze stayed fixed on the compass in his hand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wan Xin followed his line of thought and immediately said, \"So everything here... is it an illusion?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Then could this compass be the means to break the illusion?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When Yang Wenchao heard this, he instinctively frowned but didn't refute.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the administrator directly dismissed the idea:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It's unlikely to be an illusion. I've dug into grave mounds in every direction around here. Although many are empty, some do contain items.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"For example, the bone ash box I showed you, and the portable apartment card—both came from those mounds.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Ku was startled: \"But why aren't there any traces of digging? Could it be...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A terrifying thought rose in his mind, but he didn't say it outright.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The administrator fell silent for a moment, likely guessing Li Ku's thought, and directly nodded: \"That's right.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The mounds I've dug get refreshed every time I re-enter.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"In other words, they revert to their untouched state.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"However, the items inside don't respawn.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The mounds I've already dug items from become empty.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"So I suspect that the other empty mounds I've dug might have been looted by someone else before me.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This claim was inevitably thought-provoking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The players present each had their own thoughts, but none voiced them openly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only Wan Xin, carefree as always, blurted out:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Refreshing the map... doesn't that sound just like a game setting?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment these casual words left his mouth, Wan Xin sensed the atmosphere shift.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Startled, he couldn't help but blurt out again:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Could this place really be a game world?!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even as he said it, he was still in shock.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Li Hongbin and Gong Cheng—who had used recording orbs to explore the underground palace and seen the \"white paper\" and \"stick figure\" through Guan Gong Eyes—widened their eyes instantly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Hongbin glanced at the administrator, then at Gong Cheng, and muttered under his breath:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Could it be... that the white light world beneath the underground palace stairs is essentially a game world?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Then could that white light be data we can't see or touch?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"And even... what they call the taboo...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When it came to the unspeakable taboo, a flash of fear crossed Li Hongbin's eyes, and he quickly shut up, not daring to say more.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Afraid of being directly erased with one careless word.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The \"taboo\" he referred to was still the Light faction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But it was just that now he thought—could what players understood as \"Light\" actually be a piece of data in the game world holding the highest authority?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Ku had never known what they meant by \"taboo.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only now, hearing Li Hongbin's words, did he suddenly understand—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So the so-called taboo was game data?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Was it the game's protection mechanism, preventing players from discussing it, so the concept of game data became the so-called \"taboo\"?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Clearly, Li Ku never considered the Light faction and directly equated the taboo with \"game data.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And because of this understanding, he didn't dare discuss the topic openly, fearing he'd trigger the \"taboo\" and get erased...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as he was thinking this, he heard Yang Wenchao gazing at the grave mounds and speculating:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"From the perspective that items can be dug from the mounds, they do seem real;\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"But from the special phenomenon of observing the mounds with the naked eye, and the characteristic that they refresh automatically upon each re-entry, they also seem like illusions that don't truly exist...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"So... is there a possibility that both conditions exist simultaneously?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"That is, these grave mounds are in a unique state of combining reality and illusion?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Reality and illusion combined?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The others were still following Yang Wenchao's train of thought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Ku, however, was thinking of that unspeakable \"taboo\"...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If, as he thought, the so-called \"taboo\" was data capable of erasing anything...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then could the world they lived in also be, like Yang Wenchao's analysis of the grave mounds, a product of combined reality and illusion?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Part of it belonged to the \"game world.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And another part belonged to reality?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just like the so-called \"game invasion,\" which could be understood as games transforming into reality, or as real people entering games...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then there could equally be a third possibility—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That games and reality had merged, jointly creating a world of combined reality and illusion?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Like... like what?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Ku found it strange.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His train of thought was perfectly smooth; he was about to land on a very natural metaphor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But it felt inexplicably blocked, as if something had stuck, preventing him from recalling the metaphor he was about to use.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This odd sensation made him extremely uncomfortable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As if that so-called \"taboo\" had imprisoned his thoughts!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If Jiang Ye knew what Li Ku was thinking, he could immediately answer the metaphor that was stuck in his mind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because Jiang Ye, who already knew what the \"taboo\" was, directly thought of a metaphor related to \"combined reality and illusion.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was... light.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The metaphor stuck in Li Ku's mind was light's wave-particle duality!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Waves as illusion, particles as reality.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And light possesses both characteristics simultaneously.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Related to this was also the terrifying double-slit interference experiment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was said that the introduction of an observer could influence the experimental results.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Combined with Jiang Ye having seen the white paper and stick figure...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was almost like—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without an observer intervening, light is a wave, the world is an illusion;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once an observer intervenes, light is a particle, the world is real!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So that white paper expanded its boundaries as the \"stick figure\" observer explored it!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So this seemingly endless expanse of grave mounds...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Was what they could see with the naked eye the real part?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And what they couldn't see with the naked eye was the illusory part?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The characteristics actually shown by the grave mounds didn't perfectly match this.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The pattern here was more like...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What the naked eye saw as \"grave mounds\" was illusory, while what the naked eye couldn't directly see, the \"inside of the mounds,\" was real!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was equivalent to—observation equals illusion, non-observation equals reality!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was completely opposite to Jiang Ye's earlier inference!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That's not right!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The two situations aren't completely opposite at all!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The \"observation\" in the two cases wasn't even comparable!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The observation of players' naked eyes and the observation of Guan Gong Eyes were on completely different levels!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That's also wrong!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wait—was the limitation on players truly only about their naked eyes?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The \"physical body\" that contained the players' naked eyes...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seemed to be the key to the problem!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as Li Ku had said earlier...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The information received by the eyes is essentially processed by the brain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because of the mechanical eyeballs and red eyeballs, both Jiang Ye and most players instinctively associated the word \"observation\" with the naked eye.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But what truly processed the information from the naked eye was the brain!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, if players were truly limited...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then what was truly limited wasn't just the naked eye, but also the brain!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And very likely, the entire physical body was limited!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With this thought, the differing results of the two kinds of \"observation\" could have a new interpretation!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because their physical bodies were themselves \"false\" products!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So the \"observation\" results of the naked eye in this grave mound area were completely opposite to the \"observation\" results of Guan Gong Eyes!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then could it be understood that... Guan Gong Eyes were a \"real\" product?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unfortunately, Jiang Ye had amnesia...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Otherwise, at this moment, he might also deduce that—his Pure Black Clone, and the pure black Nomadic Merchant, the pure black crow, even the pure black auditorium reliefs...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those things he could hardly see through with his naked eye were all \"real\" products!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their essence wasn't pure black...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was just that the \"false\" naked eye, produced from a \"false\" source, perceived them as black!\u003C\u002Fp>",2343,"2026-06-03T07:17:58.030Z","2026-06-03T07:18:08.301Z",1,"novelbin.me","384060c63f48102559052741ae363430e399784ba37dc508c482dca724f01e58","surviving-the-doomsday-apartment-with-infinite-c-chapter-572","surviving-the-doomsday-apartment-with-infinite-c-chapter-570",575,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fsurviving-the-doomsday-apartment-with-infinite-c-cover.jpg"]