Chapter 405: Triple-Layer Simulation (2) (3-in-1 Chapter)

My name is Chen Ran.

I am the author of the novel "The Eighteen Levels of Hell: Lying is Prohibited".

With the novel updated to this point, it might be nearing its end. Please prepare yourselves mentally.

The stats for this novel have always been poor. I only get around 120 urges for updates every day, which really makes it hard for me, the author, to persevere.

I've summarized the reasons for this failure.

There are two points.

First: The author is terrible at naming things.

The book title isn't attractive enough to readers. Even if the website's algorithm pushes it, very few people click to read this novel. The cover is also a failure.

Second: The Novice Instance, with the Shepherd, Wolf, and Sheep, was overly convoluted and turned away many readers.

Regarding some questions from readers, let me give a unified response here.

First, some people think the author is a middle-aged man. Bullshit! The author just turned eighteen years and ninety-six months old.

Secondly, regarding the issue of one update per day.

My dear readers, actually you just need to click "urge for updates" more often. How could the author ever let my dear readers down?

Let alone two updates a day, even three updates a day is doable. Although this novel is a bit brain-burning and thinking of the plot makes the author scratch his head in frustration, as long as you dare to click, I dare to update.

Finally, regarding lies. The author has always believed that the most brilliant lie is not the Emotional Deception, Common Sense Deception, Affective Deception, Unknown Information Deception, or Deceiver's Tongue mentioned in the book.

Rather, it is how to deceive you, who are reading this novel—my dear readers.

Back to the main topic.

The novel is about to end, and the two points summarized above are both secondary reasons.

The main reason is...

If I am to continue writing, the author will have to start making up the subsequent plot.

No way, no way, nobody really thinks the previous plots were all made up by me, right?

Those are my personal experiences!

You'll know after reading this chapter.

…

I woke up on a hospital bed and saw Qiu Yinong, Big Gold Tooth, Hua Changsheng, and Lin Xuan. The four of them were all in this ward.

My instinct told me this was another trick conjured up by Shu Renjun, so I didn't strike up a conversation with the four of them, even though the four of them didn't look like robots.

I looked at my watch.

Thinking that as long as I held on for 15 minutes, this Instance would end. I didn't care about whatever demons and monsters were around; as long as I guarded my original heart, I could clear the stage.

The four of them seemed to have the same thought and immediately looked at their watches.

Following that was silence.

Time passed minute by minute, and just as the fifteen minutes were about to end, looks of joy appeared on all five of our faces.

15 minutes ended!!!

However, strangely, the five of us looked around and found that the Instance scene...

Did not disappear!

'Why hasn't it disappeared?'

'Could it be that there is a difference between the Instance time and the Rule-based Weird Tale Instance time?'

As I was thinking this.

A very pretty nurse pushed the door open and entered. Seeing the five of us, her eyes widened.

"Doctor! Doctor! All five of them are awake!" The young nurse ran out in pleasant surprise, her loud voice echoing throughout the hospital.

Not long after.

Several doctors rushed over and conducted a detailed examination on the five of us.

At this time, I noticed that our bodies were covered with white data cables.

These white cables were like the ones attached to prisoners when they are electrocuted in movies.

What terrified me the most was that the doctor could touch me, but didn't kill me.

According to my past Instance experience, if an NPC touched a player, it definitely meant the player had triggered a certain-death mechanism.

Moreover, I could feel the temperature of the doctor's hand, indicating he was not a robot.

Is it a hallucination?

Suppress Mental State!

But after suppressing my Mental State, I was shocked to find that the scene hadn't changed at all, and I could still feel the temperature of the doctor's hand.

Unscientific!

Unscientific!

An NPC being able to touch me while I wasn't killed by the NPC was the first unscientific thing.

His hand having temperature meant he wasn't a robot, which was the second unscientific thing. After all, an NPC without a killing mechanism would be repelled by my Liar-Slayer protection mechanism.

Wait!

My hand reached for my waist, and my pupils instantly shrank. Where was my Liar-Slayer?

The doctors checked our bodies and carefully recorded the parameters on the instruments. I could clearly feel a sense of relief from the doctors, followed immediately by wild joy.

"It succeeded!"

"It succeeded!"

"It succeeded!"

The several doctors were celebrating wildly. A madness for science emerged in their eyes.

The observing nurses were also very happy. For a time, the psychiatric ward turned into a celebration venue for the doctors and nurses.

A long time passed.

After they calmed down, one gentle-looking middle-aged doctor, who seemed to be the leader, looked at us with a vigilant yet bewildered gaze. He cleared his throat and said:

"You must be very confused, wondering if this is Shu Renjun's Instance, right?"

As he spoke, he pointed to the work badge on his chest, which clearly read: 【Director of Psychiatric Experiment Department: Shu Renjun.】

His name was...

Shu Renjun!!!!!

"Two questions." Seeing our eyes change, he asked with a smile:

"First, the time the Liar-Slayer Alliance and the Deceiver Alliance were established is much shorter than the time players' skills have existed. Before these two alliances were born, what was the incantation when players wanted to use their skills?"

"Second, in the setting, the leader of the Liar-Slayer Alliance has already survived for hundreds, even thousands of years. The world's first gun was invented in 1132. It's currently 2025; pushing back 1000 years is 1025. At that time, guns hadn't been invented yet, so the Liar-Slayer belonging to the leader of the Liar-Slayer Alliance couldn't possibly be a pistol. If it's not a pistol, what is it?"

These two questions.

Left us speechless.

When players used skills.

The incantation was: Liar-Slayer XXXX, or Ghost Whisperer XXXX.

But the problem was, there were players before the two alliances were established, so when players used skills back then, 【Liar-Slayer】 or 【Ghost Whisperer】 wouldn't exist in the incantation.

Without 【Liar-Slayer】 or 【Ghost Whisperer】 in the incantation, the skill couldn't be used.

This was the first logical paradox.

Then there was also.

As the doctor said in the second question.

Simply put.

When the leader of the Liar-Slayer Alliance first arrived in Hell, the world's first pistol hadn't been invented yet, so what was the Liar-Slayer the leader of the Liar-Slayer Alliance obtained?

As everyone knew.

In Hell, as long as one cleared the Novice Tutorial Room, a player could obtain a Liar-Slayer, which is a pistol. When the leader of the Liar-Slayer Alliance first came to Hell, he definitely cleared the Novice Tutorial Room, so he must have obtained a pistol.

But at that time, the world's first pistol hadn't been invented yet.

This was the second logical paradox.

Both of these logical paradoxes were like the Chicken-and-Egg Paradox.

However, the Chicken-and-Egg Paradox was very easy to explain. Chickens are oviparous animals, and the mutation of oviparous animals starts from the embryo. In other words, a certain animal laid a mutated egg, and this egg was what later became a chicken egg, which hatched into a chicken.

Therefore.

The egg definitely came first, then the chicken.

The paradox of the chicken and the egg was easy to solve, but I couldn't figure out these two paradoxes Doctor Shu Renjun mentioned. I really couldn't figure them out.

"Do you still not understand?" At this moment, the doctor suddenly raised his voice: "The so-called Hell, eighteen levels, Instances, players, were all constructed by us! Because... you five are all mental patients!"

"Chen Ran, you couldn't accept your girlfriend's death and contracted mental illness."

"Qiu Yinong, because your company infringed on the interests of a lot of capital, you were jointly suppressed by them, leading to bankruptcy, and that's how you contracted mental illness!"

"Hua Changsheng, you couldn't accept your adoptive father killing your biological father, thus contracting mental illness!"

"Lin Xuan, you inherited the family business but drove your parents and siblings out of the house and exiled them to another city. On their way to the other city, they got into a car accident and all died. You couldn't accept the condemnation of your conscience, coupled with high-intensity work, and contracted mental illness."

"Cui Yu, you were previously a crosstalk comedian. You trained hard for ten years, but once you took the stage, it was a performance disaster. You couldn't accept this outcome and contracted mental illness."

"Chen Ran, Qiu Yinong, Lin Xuan, Hua Changsheng, Cui Yu." Doctor Shu Renjun looked around at the five of us and raised his voice again: "If you don't wake up now, when will you?!!!"

His words were like a booming bell, resonating within the minds of the five of us.

But the five of us still didn't speak.

Doctor Shu Renjun, seeing that we were still unable to distinguish between the virtual world and the real world, could only continue saying: "As long as you complete Heart Cultivation in the virtual world, which means becoming rational through guidance, your mental illness will be completely cured."

"Of course, we also left two emergency exits for you, which are the two logical paradox questions I just asked you."

"These are just emergency exits. Only when you are about to die in the virtual world will you think of these two logical problems; normally, you would unconsciously ignore them."

"You all performed very well, completing Heart Cultivation in the virtual world we constructed. Thus, we used the Instance to reasonably splice the virtual and real worlds."

"That's right! It was the Rule-based Weird Tale Instance you just experienced."

"We used the setting of robots and cyborgs to make you gradually accept the real world. For instance, do you still think we are robots now?"

"Regarding this point, you don't need to worry too much. This is your Ego's consciousness protecting you. In a few days, you'll be able to independently distinguish whether this is the virtual world and whether we are robots."

After Doctor Shu Renjun finished speaking, seeing that the five of us still remained silent, he didn't continue to insist, but rather let us feel it for ourselves.

After the doctors and nurses went out.

I began to check my body, checking it inch by inch, feeling all over.

This was simply because I felt my consciousness might have possessed a cyborg.

The result surprised me a lot.

There was no metal in my body. For this, I even went specifically to the Nurses' Station to weigh myself.

120 catties.

My build was on the thin side, so this weight indeed matched my weight, confirming once again that there was no metal inside my body.

In other words, my consciousness had not possessed a cyborg.

This obviously didn't make sense.

Since my consciousness hadn't possessed a cyborg, then how did my Liar-Slayer disappear?

Simply put, 15 minutes in the Rule-based Weird Tale Instance might be 15 hours here.

I just needed to wait for the 15 hours to end!

I can afford to wait!

Are you kidding me, how could I possibly be a mental patient?!!!

But the problem was.

If I wasn't a mental patient, how could I explain those two logical problems regarding the leader of the Liar-Slayer Alliance and the Liar-Slayer?

I lay on the hospital bed.

Staring intently at the hands on my watch, I firmly believed this was still an Instance.

About two and a half hours passed.

The ward door was pushed open again. Several middle-aged people rushed in, travel-worn, their gazes quickly sweeping over the five of us.

I locked eyes with a middle-aged couple, my eyes widening, looking at them in disbelief.

Mom and Dad?

My mother covered her mouth, tears welling in the corners of her eyes.

She ran toward me.

She hugged me tightly, her tears falling on the back of my hand with a warm sensation.

I could clearly feel my mother's heartbeat. She was... a human!!!

I don't believe it!

I don't believe it!

Finally, I saw it, I saw the flaw. When I was alive, my mother's hair was clearly black, jet black. Whenever there was a white hair, my father would always help her pluck it out.

But this mother in front of me, she had... so much... white hair on her head!

She is fake!

Yes!

She must be fake. My mother, who loved beauty so much, how could she have white hair?

And also!

I looked at my father. He also had a lot of white hair on his head. That stalwart father in my memory was somewhat hunched at this moment, and his face had many more wrinkles.

Fake!

My father was also fake!

Haha!

They were all fake!!

In my memory, they weren't this old. Fake! Definitely fake!

Trying to trick me!

No way!

"Little Ran, it's Mom. Don't you recognize Mom anymore?"

Boom!

It was as if something had exploded in my brain. I wanted to open my mouth, but I didn't dare to. I was afraid, I was really so afraid.

Suppress Mental State!

This was the Superego!

I couldn't suppress it!

I wasn't a madman. I was very sad about Xin Tong's death, but it was impossible for me to go crazy.

Right!

Chen Yang!

If this was an Instance constructed from my memories, then Chen Yang should also be set according to my memory!

As long as I found even the slightest unreasonableness on him, then this was an Instance constructed by Shu Renjun!!!

Right! That was it!

Hahaha!

Who would have thought!

The strongest protection mechanism in my mind was my arch-enemy from when I was alive!!!

Thinking this.

I abruptly pushed away the robot in front of me.

Paper and pen.

I couldn't speak, and I didn't dare avoid looking into the eyes of these two 【Robots】, searching the ward for paper and a pen.

I just wanted to rush out of the ward, but then considered the underlying logic of this Instance, which was to act like a robot, so I slowly walked out of the ward and headed to the Nurses' Station.

"Little Ran, where are you going? Mom begs you, please don't torment us anymore!"

The dagger is revealed when the map is unrolled!

This robot still wanted to trick me!

She was afraid I would find a flaw!

That must be it!

Arriving at the Nurses' Station, I got a piece of paper and a pen and slowly wrote:

【Go find Chen Yang.】

Just as I finished writing, I was pinned to the ground by a male nurse and two doctors.

See!

They panicked. They were afraid I would find their weakness based on Chen Yang, so they tried to forcefully subdue me. That must be it!

…

The doctors injected me with a sedative.

I lay on the hospital bed.

"Doctor, what's my son's situation now?" my father asked.

"Parents, don't worry. Chen Ran's condition is a normal reaction. He still can't distinguish between the virtual and real worlds. What he needs now is evidence to prove to himself that he has returned to the real world," Shu Renjun explained.

Saying that, he pointed to the note I had just written in my father's hand: "Perhaps in his consciousness, this person named Chen Yang can help him prove that this is the real world."

My father nodded repeatedly and immediately walked out of the ward, probably to make a phone call.

While my mother sat by the bed, holding my hand, crying incessantly.

I closed my eyes.

And soon fell asleep.

When I woke up, I saw my parents weren't in the ward. Even the four of them including Qiu Yinong weren't there. Instead, a young man was standing in front of the bed.

"Awake?" the young man smiled.

It was Chen Yang!

I looked at him and didn't speak.

"Did you find a flaw?" Chen Yang looked at me with a smiling expression. "Alright, actually I was the one who asked them to step out."

Saying that, he took out a Cigarette Case from his pocket, drew out a cigarette, lit it, and took a deep puff: "Did you find another flaw? After all, it's basic Common Sense that smoking is not allowed in a hospital ward."

Damn, this guy.

Whether in life or in an Instance, he was always this infuriating!

"Alright, I won't tease you anymore." Chen Yang extinguished the cigarette butt and said with a serious expression: "I've reviewed the entire process of your treatment. Have you noticed what you need to pay attention to in what you think is an Instance?"

"Hell has three types of deception: first is Emotional Deception, second is Common Sense Deception, and third is Affective Deception. If you didn't want to be tricked into a lie, weren't you constantly paying attention to your own emotions, common sense, and affections?"

"The so-called mental illness, as the name implies, means a problem with the mind. And the three types of lies in Hell just happen to help you sort out your emotions, common sense, and affections..."

"Simply put, as a mental patient, your emotions, common sense, and affections are severely disordered. The doctors' treatment plan helps you re-establish emotional, common sense, and affective baselines. This is preliminary treatment. Heart Cultivation helps you stabilize your emotions. After all, whether it's common sense or affection, what ultimately controls everything is the Id's emotion."

I still didn't speak, but instead looked around. At this time, Chen Yang took out a piece of paper and a pen from the drawer of the bedside cabinet: "Here, I knew you couldn't understand such a profound topic and still wouldn't dare to speak. The paper and pen were prepared long ago."

"I suggest you write down some questions that robots can't answer."

I took the paper and pen and wrote.

【Who is the 9th True Self Player?】

"Your illnesses are not severe. There is no specific setting in the treatment plan; it just unfolds based on a reasonable plot. However..."

"I can help you deduce it."

"First, the leader of the Liar-Slayer Alliance didn't descend upon you, which is understandable. After all, in the setting, you are a True Self Player. But why didn't he descend upon Qiu Yinong?"

"However, Qiu Yinong shouldn't be the 9th True Self Player either. The answer lies in your deduction that someone appeared in the Instance..."

"The 21st person!"

"This person... is the 9th True Self Player. I feel that she and Qiu Yinong should be in a symbiotic relationship."

I was stunned, simply because Chen Yang's deduction was exactly the same as mine.

I continued to write:

【What are the eighteen levels?】

Chen Yang gave me a flat glance: "Haven't you already deduced the answer? Are you sure you want me to say it out loud? After all, if this is Shu Renjun's Instance, and Hua Changsheng can spy on everything in the Instance, as soon as I say the answer out loud, wouldn't you be done for?"

My mind was shaken greatly.

I continued to write:

【In this Instance, frame drops occurred. Why is that?】

"Very simple. The leader of the Liar-Slayer Alliance wanted to descend upon a certain player, but was stripped away by the 9th True Self Player."

【I used Eternal Kingdom. Why didn't it restore the memories from the frame drops?】

"That's even simpler. Although your skill levels are the same—both are True Self Skills—the values are different. If my guess is correct, once a player reaches a certain Star Rating, the skill is sublimated."

"This can be derived from the fact that the Liar-Slayer Alliance leader's skill only affected you guys in the Instance, but did not affect all players in Hell. From this, it can be concluded that a sublimated skill can affect all players in Hell, and can also affect a specific area designated by the user."

"In other words, a sublimated True Self Skill has an even higher priority level."

A full sweep!

Every answer was exactly identical to what I had deduced!!!

Unwilling to give up, I continued to write:

【Why is the highest rank for players in Hell only ten stars?】

Chen Yang rolled his eyes at me: "This question of yours is a repeat of the second question you just wrote: 【What is Hell】."

Seeing me standing there dumbfounded, Chen Yang said earnestly: "Actually, the IQ of both of us is about the same. The moment you saw your parents, you should have understood that this is the real world, not the virtual world. You just don't believe your own judgment."

"Chen Ran! During the time you were crazy, Second Uncle and Second Aunt gave up so, so much for you. They aren't even 50 yet, and their hair has gone so white. To fight for this experiment for you, they even sold their house. You're a smart person. Don't live in your own world anymore. It's time to face reality."

Chen Yang left. Perhaps he felt he had already done everything he could, or perhaps he felt he should leave me time to think.

I thought for a long time.

Indeed, in my judgment, the doctors were not robots. The nurses were not robots.

My parents were not robots.

Chen Yang was not a robot.

And I was not a robot either.

Perhaps, the Eighteen Levels of Hell was really just a mental illness curing experiment I participated in.

As for Gao Lan?

Qiu Yinong was also a mental patient; her memory might have had issues.

But, I still didn't dare to speak.

This feeling was like, the heavens gave you one hundred million, but you aren't allowed to eat beef.

I was afraid that if I ate beef, this one hundred million, along with me, would all disappear.

Maybe this was the aftereffect of the treatment.

The next day, I was discharged.

Doctor Shu Renjun gave me a transparent small box, containing a red pill inside.

"Logically, you should stay in the hospital for a month's observation, but the fees here are truly expensive, and you can't afford it."

He said, handing the box to me.

"When you feel you are showing signs of a relapse, take it. It should last for two years. By then, our technology might be more mature and can completely cure your illness. However, the premise is you must have the money ready."

I took the box and didn't speak.

Back home.

I looked at the familiar scenes, greedily breathing in the familiar scent. Only at this moment did I realize that I no longer had to live in constant fear participating in Instances every day, and I no longer had to engage in deceit and trickery with others.

An indescribable sense of relief.

So, I sat back in front of my familiar computer and opened the word processing software on it.

Thinking that, perhaps if I wrote the process of treating mental illness in the virtual world into a novel, there might be...

A considerable income.

I considered for a while, and based on the scene names and settings in the virtual world, I typed on the create novel interface:

"The Eighteen Levels of Hell: Lying is Prohibited"

…

The above...

Is my story, the story I encountered during the process of treating mental illness.

It's been fifteen days since I was discharged from the hospital. Although I haven't spoken a word in these fifteen days, the scene hasn't changed at all, making me even more certain that this is not a virtual world.

Now, esteemed readers, you should know why I want to finish this novel, right?

After all, the previous chapters were all my personal experiences. If I were to continue writing, I would have to start making up the plot. This novel hasn't reached my expected revenue, therefore...

I looked at the red pill in the transparent small box on the computer desk, hesitating whether I should type the words 【The End】.

PS: Dammit, I wanted to deceive you guys, but I was also afraid I'd scare you all away, so I had to post three chapters together. So, did I deceive my daily three-chapter update out of you?