Chapter 41: Reincarnating Through Endless Memory Loss

The numbered Glass Beads in the upper section of the Hourglass read: 1, 5, 6, 11...

They were completely disorganized, with absolutely no logical sequence.

Meanwhile, the eleven Glass Beads resting in the lower section each had their own specific numbers.

"Everyone, do any of you remember the numbers of the ten Glass Beads that were previously in the top of the Hourglass?" The Middle-aged Woman immediately realized that by focusing on the numbers, they could determine exactly which ones had dropped.

Everyone tried their hardest to recall, but none of them could remember the numbers of those ten Glass Beads.

Seeing that no one had an answer.

The Middle-aged Woman and the rest of the players stopped dwelling on the issue.

Having finished examining their surroundings.

They began to observe each other.

There were three teams of five, one team of two, and three Unaffiliated Wanderers.

Zhang Jinhua, one of the Unaffiliated Wanderers, stared at the writing on the wall, seemingly trying to recall something.

Chen Ran and Qiu Yinong exchanged a glance and silently stepped back behind the group...

"These are Second-round Simplified Characters, but they were abolished a long time ago, so I don't recognize many of them," Zhang Jinhua muttered with a frown.

"It doesn't matter how many you know. Do you happen to remember which year the Second-round Simplified Characters were introduced?" the Middle-aged Woman asked, pointing at the numbers on the bookshelves.

A wave of realization washed over the group.

The labels on the bookshelves appeared to be formatted as dates. As long as they knew the exact year the Second-round Simplified Characters were implemented, they might just find the corresponding book on the shelves.

"It's been too long, I can't remember clearly. But I do recall that it was the same year our theater association resumed work."

Hearing this, the crowd fell speechless.

Who in their right mind would pay attention to when a theater association from the last century resumed work?

The group gathered in front of the shelves, left with no choice but to check the books one by one for any manual regarding the Second-round Simplified Characters.

However, they were merely putting on a show of searching. No one dared to actually touch the books for fear of triggering a trap.

Clink!

'Are there really idiots who fall for this?'

They saw the Teenager standing frozen in terror, holding a copy of Journey to the West, while everyone else dropped to the floor on sheer reflex.

After a long time passed with no traps springing.

The crowd finally stood up and hurried over to the desk. Only eight Glass Beads remained in the upper section of the Hourglass, and the missing one was number 6.

At the same time, they noticed that there was no number 6 in the lower section of the Hourglass, but there was one Glass Bead without a number entirely.

'The one without a number must be number 6.'

Standing at the back of the crowd, Chen Ran and Qiu Yinong discreetly pulled out a Marker Pen. However, just as they were about to write the number of the dropped Glass Bead on their palms...

Both of them froze.

Chen Ran's palm read: Number 10.

Qiu Yinong's palm read: 10.

The two snapped their heads around just in time to see the Teenager stealthily sliding the book back into its original place. Their pupils instantly contracted as they yelled, "Don't!"

While shouting, their hands did not stop, hurriedly scribbling the number 6 onto their palms.

But their warning ultimately came a step too late. The very moment they wrote down the number.

The Teenager placed the copy of Journey to the West right back where he found it.

A sudden wave of intense dizziness washed over the group, a sensation that dragged on for quite some time...

...

Inside the Study Room, twenty people lay scattered haphazardly across the floor.

They slowly roused from their slumber, everyone feeling overwhelmingly groggy, as if they had just woken from a remarkably long sleep.

It took a long while for the crowd to regain their bearings before they began inspecting this current Instance. They were in a Study Room.

A string of characters hung on the wall facing them:

[A series of strange, fragmented symbols resembling archaic radicals and disjointed strokes]

They looked like standard characters, yet not quite, actually bearing a slight resemblance to Japanese writing.

There were three bookshelves in the Study Room, and the books on each shelf had their own specific numbers.

Ranging from number 19301 to 19999.

On the desk sat a strange Hourglass about the size of a water kettle, with twenty Glass Beads resting in its lower section.

Every Glass Bead had its own individual number.

From 1 to 20.

In addition to this, there was a stack of Xuan Paper on the desk, visually estimated to be around twenty sheets.

The top sheet of Xuan Paper bore eight words: "The earth possesses four terrains, and energy flows from all eight directions."

Having finished examining their surroundings.

They began to observe each other.

Three teams of five, one team of two, and three Unaffiliated Wanderers distanced themselves from one another.

This time, no one took the initiative to decode the puzzles. Except for Chen Ran, Qiu Yinong, and the Teenager, who had already silently retreated behind the crowd, the remaining seventeen people stood with deeply furrowed brows.

"Everyone, something strange is going on here. I've cleared Instances over a dozen times, and while Players do pass out when entering an Instance, there shouldn't be any other side effects. But this time, the moment I woke up, my head was spinning so badly I could barely stand..." the Middle-aged Uncle stated.

"That's right, we all had to rest for quite a while just now before we could even manage to stand up. This is highly irregular. If we don't figure out the cause, I suspect the upcoming puzzle-solving won't go smoothly." The speaker was the Middle-aged Woman, her gaze sweeping back and forth over the crowd and the Secret Room's environment.

'Strange Anomalies Imply Monsters.'

'There are two possibilities: first, someone used a Liar Hunter Skill to change something.'

'Second, this is a special mechanic of the Instance.'

'If it is the former, that's manageable—we just need to find the Player who used the Liar Hunter Skill.'

'What's terrifying is if it's the latter.'

'If it is a mechanic of this Instance, then it will persist until we break out of the Secret Room.'

At that moment, the two team captains among the three groups, who had remained silent until now, stepped forward and exchanged a glance.

One of them, a man around thirty years old wearing gold-rimmed glasses, declared, "Our team does not have any Liar Hunter Skill that causes extreme dizziness."

The Middle-aged Uncle immediately followed up, "My team does not possess that kind of Skill, either."

Now that all three captains had made their stances clear, everyone immediately focused their gazes on the remaining five people.

Chen Ran looked at Qiu Yinong, and upon seeing her nod, he chimed in, "Neither do we."

The three Unaffiliated Wanderers also voiced their denials one after another.

None of the twenty Players possessed a Liar Hunter Skill capable of inducing such overwhelming dizziness.

There was only one truth: the severe dizziness was a special mechanic of the Instance itself!

"Since it is an Instance mechanic, according to Murphy's Law, whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. If we are just at the very beginning of the Instance, I honestly cannot fathom the point of a mechanic that merely makes us dizzy. Unless..."

The Gold-Rimmed Glasses Captain pushed the frame up his nose. The words he spoke next made everyone's blood run cold.

"Unless... this is not the beginning of the Instance at all. In other words, the Instance has already been underway for a very long time! And our memories..."

"...have been stripped away!!"

The concept of memory deprivation sent a jolt of terror through the crowd. What horrified them wasn't just the memory loss itself, but the chilling implications it brought.

It went back to that same saying: whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.

Since they were already experiencing memory deprivation, it meant that during the time they had forgotten, they must have triggered some sort of trap.

What was even more terrifying was that they had only lost their memories pertaining to this Instance; all their other memories were fully intact. This meant...

The mistakes they had made before would be repeated—this time, the next time, the time after that, and the time after that! They would be trapped in an endless cycle of reincarnation through continuous memory loss!

Of course, this was still just a deduction. The Middle-aged Uncle steadied his nerves and looked toward Gold-Rimmed Glasses.

"Where is your proof?"