Chapter 56: Great Memory Restoration Technique

Chen Ran woke up on the floor.

Frowning at his surroundings, he clutched his splitting, aching head and rolled on the ground. It took a long time for the piercing pain to fade. When he pulled his hands away, he saw they were covered in blood.

'My head is bleeding?'

'Wait.'

'Who am I?'

'Where is this?'

He instinctively reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.

He pulled one out and lit it.

"Cough, cough!" Chen Ran choked on the smoke, coughing violently, and immediately threw the cigarette away.

'If I don't smoke, why do I have cigarettes in my pocket? And just now, when I was getting ready to think, I subconsciously reached into my pocket. If I wasn't reaching for a cigarette, what was I reaching for?'

Chen Ran struggled to his feet. Seeing a beanbag chair in front of him, he threw himself onto it without a second thought and lay down.

A short while later.

Chen Ran caught his breath and finally began to examine his surroundings. This was a secret room.

In front of the sofa was a coffee table, and resting face-down on the table was a copy of Journey to the West.

'I can read?'

'How strange. In my memory, I have never studied any written language, yet I know these are characters, and I recognize all of them.'

'There is something hard at my waist, pressing uncomfortably against my side.'

Chen Ran reached for his waist. It was a pure white pistol, completely snow-white.

'This is a gun.'

'Strange, why can't I pull the trigger? It should be able to fire.'

He tossed the pistol onto the coffee table.

Continuing to survey the environment, he noticed a full-length dressing mirror facing away from him, directly in front of the sofa. To the left of the mirror sat a chair.

There was nothing else.

He picked up Journey to the West and carefully flipped through its contents.

'Chapter Twelve, why has a small portion been torn out? Given the context, the torn-out part should be...'

'Guanyin Bodhisattva telling Tang Sanzang: Hinayana Teaching cannot transcend the souls of the deceased, but Mahayana Teaching can.'

'But...'

'In Chapter Thirteen, when Tang Sanzang faced danger just after leaving the borders of the Great Tang, he was saved by the hunter Liu Boqin and brought back to his home.'

'In the hunter's home, Tang Sanzang used the Hinayana Teaching to transcend the soul of Liu Boqin's father.'

'Guanyin Bodhisattva said Hinayana Teaching could not transcend the souls of the deceased, yet here Tang Sanzang did exactly that.'

'Guanyin Bodhisattva lied.'

'But why would someone tear out the content containing Guanyin Bodhisattva's lie?'

'The lie was torn out.'

'The lie was erased from the book.'

'No lying allowed?'

'Could this be the message the person who tore the book wanted to convey to me?'

Feeling his strength return, Chen Ran stood up from the sofa. He hadn't noticed anything before, but now...

He couldn't shake the feeling that he was missing something.

'I must have lost my memory. I do not even know who I am.'

'But what is certain is that my common sense remains intact. For example, I can read characters, I know a cigarette is a cigarette, and a lighter is a lighter.'

'At the same time, my habits are highly likely still there. Just like earlier, when I wanted to think about a problem, I subconsciously reached into my pocket.'

Chen Ran began searching for clues. First, he dumped everything from his backpack onto the coffee table in one go, taking inventory item by item.

It was all just food and medicine.

He reached into his pocket again and pulled out a numbered glass bead.

The number was...

Number 1!

'There is nothing special about the food and medicine. The keys are the glass bead and the pistol.'

'The pistol symbolizes judgment, which is easy enough to understand, but what does the glass bead mean?'

'Take it slow.'

'Just now I deduced from the book that lying is forbidden. What happens if someone lies?'

'They will be punished.'

'The pistol symbolizes judgment, so lying must be linked to the pistol. Lying will get you shot. However, I can't break the no-lying rule myself; I need to find someone else to test it on...'

With this in mind.

He glanced around the secret room again, but unfortunately, there was no one else here besides him.

Stretching his limbs.

He walked over to the chair, which looked like something used for interrogating prisoners.

He turned to look at the mirror.

The mirror reflected his appearance: a frail body, a delicate and handsome face, and several bloody streaks on his head.

At the same time, he noticed two paragraphs of crimson text on the mirror, seemingly written with the blood flowing from his head.

The first paragraph:

"The chair has the effect of the Great Memory Restoration Technique. Sitting on it instantly restores your memory."

Chen Ran did not believe it.

'I am the only one in this secret room. How did I get this head injury?'

'Nine times out of ten, it has something to do with this so-called Great Memory Restoration Technique.'

The second paragraph:

"I've finally looped back. Anyone who doesn't want to die, sit on the chair. Also, according to my deduction, the glass beads we carry can store one Memory Anchor."

'Glass beads?'

Chen Ran took out the glass bead again.

Only then did he realize he was still holding that copy of Journey to the West.

He casually tossed the book aside, but the sound it made when it hit the floor wasn't quite right...

Sensing something was off, he looked at where he had thrown the book, and his pupils immediately shrank.

Nearby that exact spot lay a total of five copies of Journey to the West.

They were positioned very cleverly. If one looked from the front of the sofa, these five books were completely hidden by the upright dressing mirror.

He picked up the books and flipped through them one by one. In every single book, the lie told by Guanyin Bodhisattva to Tang Sanzang in Chapter Twelve had been torn out.

'How could this be?'

'A loop?'

'In other words, do I throw a book here every time I loop?'

'I've thrown it exactly five times.'

Chen Ran felt his mind reeling in chaos. He reached into his pocket once again.

'What exactly am I trying to grab?'

'Also, I threw the cigarette I took a puff of onto the ground earlier. If this is a loop, why is there only one cigarette on the floor?'

'Shouldn't there be five?'

'Two possibilities.'

'First: The writing on the mirror is a lie, meant to trick me into sitting in the chair.'

'Second: The cigarette and the book have different properties. The cigarettes cannot loop, but the books can.'

He glanced at the chair, then returned to the beanbag chair to start organizing the information.

'First: I have lost my memory, and... this body feels completely wrong for me. It probably isn't mine.'

'This is confirmed by the fact that I do not smoke yet have a pack in my pocket, and the feeling that something is missing from my body and pockets.'

'Second: Someone else previously occupied this body and left words on the mirror.'

'And they occupied it twice.'

'This is confirmed by the two separate paragraphs written on the mirror.'

'Finally: The person who occupied this body twice likely has not deduced the answer yet.'

'After all, the text left by that person mentions, "I've finally looped back."'

'Based on the current situation, I am trapped in this secret room, and my primary goal is to escape. The fact that person was here before means they were also trapped.'

'But the message left by them states they finally looped back, not that they finally escaped this room. Therefore, it's highly probable that person hasn't figured out the way to escape either.'

'Or rather, that person already knows how to escape the secret room, but they can't do it alone and need our help...'

'Help?'

'The glass bead!'

'The writing mentioned that the glass bead is a Memory Anchor. In other words...'

'That person wants to obtain the glass bead we carry to retrieve their memories?'

'But the problem is, if they wanted to get our glass bead, why would they remind us that it functions as a Memory Anchor?'

'Unless...'

Realizing something, Chen Ran rushed over to the five copies of Journey to the West and quickly flipped through them.

Just as he thought!

With an answer in mind, he walked over to the chair and immediately sat down.

The moment he sat down, four fixed handcuffs emerged from the chair, firmly locking his limbs in place.

The next moment, he felt something cover his head.

Immediately after, he was knocked unconscious by an electric shock, blood continuously seeping from his forehead.