Chapter 178

"No one can leave alive"—this phrase seemed not at all unfamiliar to Wen Xishu.

"I have experienced many scenarios, and many people have said such things to me. However, I didn't expect that in a human cave that looks incomparably dangerous... there would actually be a little child like you."

Wen Xishu looked ahead and asked again:

"Next, as long as I pass through the tunnel, I will have officially begun the exploration, right?"

The little boy nodded:

"Yes, big brother. Do you have any unfulfilled wishes? Does your life... have any regrets?"

"Why not tell me about them? At the very least, after you die, I can help you find happiness within the human cave."

Wen Xishu looked at the little boy in surprise:

"Who exactly are you?"

The little boy said helplessly:

"I have already said, I am the guide of the human cave, but I have also forgotten who I am. The meaning of my existence is to let everyone leave the human cave and not approach it."

"If you enter... it will be too late for everything. So at least, let me do something else for you, let you experience happiness in death."

Wen Xishu suddenly remembered.

According to Albert, this dungeon mission combines pain and happiness.

Two elements.

Wen Xishu already knew what the element of pain was about.

But what is happiness?

Can happiness also kill?

Wen Xishu wanted to ask this child again who he was; if necessary... he could use violence, relying on the 'Spirit Barrage' to 'inquire' for information.

But the feeling the little boy gave Wen Xishu was not that of a villain:

"Life is like a play. Countless people, as characters in the play, are nothing more than seeking a good ending. Big brother, if there are no regrets in your life, have you imagined what that situation would be like?"

Wen Xishu shook his head:

"Why would there be no regrets? Life is inherently filled with countless choices, and people always hold more favor for the choices they did not make."

"If I had done such and such back then, perhaps things wouldn't be the way they are now. This is a thought every mentally sound person has. How could life have a unique solution?"

The little boy said:

"It seems you are unwilling to tell me. That's right... everyone in the human cave is like this; they are all very vigilant."

The little boy waved his hand, making a final farewell:

"Do not easily generate negative emotions inside; live happily... but happiness will bring death, and so will doubt."

"Also... follow your feelings. Additionally, for some questions, the answer must be spoken according to the target. If you realize the answer is not like that, please do not say it directly..."

"That would be very dangerous, very dangerous. I'm sorry... I thought everyone could be very happy."

"Life has many nodes... one node might succeed, another might fail. Do not be discouraged if you succeed... no, if you succeed... then just succeed."

A paragraph of incoherent, inexplicable words spoken from the mouth of the angel-like little boy.

Wen Xishu only felt that something was wrong everywhere. What did 'do not be discouraged if you succeed' mean?

But after the little boy finished these words, his figure began to become gradually ethereal and transparent.

Finally, he disappeared.

"Good luck, big brother."

Only this sentence echoed in the tunnel on the outskirts of the human cave, but it also gradually fell into silence.

Wen Xishu looked at the front of the tunnel, feeling creeped out by the little boy's words just now.

But the warm, colorful tunnel soon made him cast aside his sense of crisis.

"Pain Necklace, Pain Sake, Dark Umbilical Cord, Scorpio Knife, Luo Pan, Gloves, Football..."

"Plus my current sequence: Spirit Barrage, Nightmare Absolution, Personality Party, and Tower Power Absorption. I should... be able to pass this thing, right?"

"Although Hujiang is chaotic, there shouldn't be anyone more powerful than me at the moment."

This was a very strange feeling; Wen Xishu always felt that he was not facing tigers, leopards, or wolves, but he was inexplicably afraid in his heart.

For the first time, he began to take stock of his trump cards to cheer himself up.

"I still have the invitation!"

"Regardless, I must go deep into the dangerous places of the Mysterious Tower to know what this level is trying to reveal."

"If I back out now, I'll activate the invitation... I don't even know who the key target is."

Thinking this way, Wen Xishu decided to go for it.

He gritted his teeth and rushed into the tunnel.

Node One.

Yoshida Xiaohui opened his eyes and found that everything just now was a dream.

This was truly a strange dream.

He dreamed that a woman wearing a black mask and holding a blade shaped like a snake wanted to kill someone beside him.

That person... what was their name again?

He suddenly couldn't remember.

He always couldn't remember many things because he was diagnosed with an intellectual disability when he was very young.

"So, did I actually fall asleep?" Yoshida Xiaohui suddenly smiled.

He didn't know why he had suddenly fallen asleep, but looking at the test score in his hand, he felt unprecedented joy.

"Yoshida-kun, you've made great progress. Your grandfather will definitely be very happy when he sees this."

What a strange score. 80 points.

On a test out of one hundred, he actually scored eighty.

The little girl beside him was also happy for Yoshida Xiaohui. Yoshida Xiaohui was a bit surprised:

"Haruko... are, are you praising me?"

"Of course, Xiaohui has made great progress. Let's go home together after school."

"Oh oh, okay, okay!"

A huge sense of happiness welled up; Yoshida Xiaohui had never thought that Haruko, who had previously looked down on him, would be willing to go home with him.

It really... felt unreal.

It always felt very unreal.

Past memories began to strike; Yoshida Xiaohui remembered that it seemed like a long, long time ago...

He had an intellectual disability, and he attended the same school as normal people, which led to him being ostracized everywhere and unable to make friends.

Classmates always mocked his bizarre scores.

After all, in elementary school—

Everyone else could score eighty or ninety points at their lowest, but when it came to him, it was really a random fluctuation between a few points and twenty.

So much so that everyone was guessing—how many points did the idiot score this time.

But that really... felt like something from a long, long time ago.

Yoshida Xiaohui always felt that once he tried to recall something, he would have a sense of unease and vicissitudes.

That feeling would immediately interrupt his memories.

And—

"Yoshida-kun, let's go." Haruko showed a cute smile.

And, whenever he tried to recall something, someone would interrupt him.

But... he was still young, and it seemed there was nothing worth recalling.

Yoshida Xiaohui immediately followed Haruko's pace.

The two began to chat and laugh as they headed home.

"Yoshida-kun, what do you want to be when you grow up? You're not allowed to answer 'scientist', that's too cliché."

"Then what do you want to be, Haruko?"

"I want to be a painter."

"Then I'll be a manga artist," Yoshida Xiaohui said.

At this moment, Yoshida Xiaohui suddenly felt... as if someone breathed a sigh of relief.

He looked around and found that apart from Haruko and himself, there was no one else.

"A manga artist! That's also great. Then let's both work hard."

"But, can I really become a manga artist?" Yoshida Xiaohui couldn't help but ask.

He didn't want to be so self-doubting, but he just felt that this profession, which required penmanship and brainpower, didn't seem to suit him.

He inexplicably felt that he was the type who ran errands for others, doing physical labor that didn't require using his brain.

This feeling emerged again, but soon, Haruko said:

"You will! No problem! Yoshida-kun, let's work hard together! You have to cheer up."

Yoshida Xiaohui nodded earnestly, vowing that he would definitely become a manga artist.

Soon, the two waved goodbye and went home.

After returning home, Yoshida Xiaohui took out the test paper, but he was very afraid in his heart, afraid that his grandfather would scold him for cheating.

This score actually wasn't high in the class ranking, but it seemed unreal when it fell on him.

But after his grandfather finished reading the test paper, he laughed loudly:

"Hahahaha, my good grandson, you are truly amazing! Truly amazing! What do you want to eat! Grandfather will take you to eat!"

"No need, Grandfather, let's just eat at home." Yoshida Xiaohui was very sensible.

He understood that in order to treat his intellectual disability, his grandfather had spent a lot of money, and the family was already poor.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go out for a good meal. Grandfather recently earned a large sum of money, the market has been doing well lately. You also got a good score, there's no reason not to celebrate." Grandfather's voice was full of happiness.

Yoshida Xiaohui widened his eyes:

"Really? Grandfather, are we not poor anymore?"

Grandfather waved his large hand, excitedly saying:

"Of course, if everything goes smoothly, Grandfather might usher in a comeback in his later years! Hahaha, you are going to be a third-generation rich kid."

"In the future, there will be money to support you in becoming a manga artist."

At this moment, Yoshida Xiaohui felt something was wrong...

Did I tell Grandfather that I wanted to be a manga artist?

I don't think so, right?

How could someone like me have such an extravagant dream?

I am a... person with an intellectual disability; everyone scolds me, saying I should go to the zoo and be locked up with the monkeys.

A strange sense of inferiority emerged again.

Yoshida Xiaohui always felt that he shouldn't have dreams; not to mention the extravagant dream of being a manga artist, in fact, dreams themselves should be extravagant for him.

But today, facing Haruko's sincerity, he still said it out loud at that moment.

He wanted to become a manga artist.

At this moment, looking at his grandfather's smile, those strange emotions were suppressed again.

"Grandfather! I really want to become a manga artist! But I don't want my dream to become a burden on the family."

Grandfather paused for a second, then suddenly said with heartache:

"You can have dreams too! You can have them too! Xiaohui! It wasn't possible before, but it is now! Our family has money! If you want to draw manga, draw manga; if you want to sing or act in TV dramas, you can do it all!"

Grandfather hugged his grandson, chatting happily about the future.

This was a warm night.

If there was any part that wasn't warm... it was probably the dream after falling asleep.

In the dream, a masked person holding a snake-like blade appeared again.

"Where is that person hiding?"

"Who?" Xiaohui was confused.

"The one who told you that you are not you." The woman's tone was very cold.

"I... I don't know?" Xiaohui really didn't know.

At this time, he seemed to be at school, with people coming and going, but everyone was very cold to him.

The woman said:

"Hmph, damn Dream-type sequence, do you think hiding in a dream is useful?"

"All his abnormalities during the day will summon us. I will find you."

"Before he says that sentence, you can't do anything."

The black mask covered the woman's mouth, but it couldn't cover her gloomy eyes.

Doubt.

At this moment, Xiaohui seemed to suddenly know the woman's name.

This was a very strange feeling.

The woman's name... was actually 'Doubt'.

He didn't know why he suddenly thought the woman had this name.

"Are... are you called Doubt?" Xiaohui asked boldly.

The woman paused.

She was a bit surprised that the intruder this time was so powerful.

Already able to let the 'target' feel some reality.

But she didn't say much more.

"I will find you. You interfere too much; my team members will only become more and more... more and more."

The dream woke up.

Xiaohui opened his eyes, feeling a bit tired. This dream made him feel that something was wrong.

Doubt.

This word refers to having some kind of thinking or questioning about the surroundings.

But it had become a person's name.

If Doubt was a real existence, should her appearance be like a female assassin?

Xiaohui was still too young to figure this out.

He soon arrived at school.

At school, everyone had become Xiaohui's friends. Everyone chatted with Xiaohui, sharing interesting things they had experienced.

Haruko was also there, and she shared her paintings.

The content of the painting made Xiaohui blush a little.

The sunset was setting, and on the road by the small pond, a little boy and a little girl were walking home hand in hand.

Xiaohui suddenly thought, is this a hint?

Clearly... I didn't hold Haruko's hand yesterday. I always feel that Haruko is a sound person.

She is beautiful, smart, and has no shortcomings. If there were shortcomings, it would probably be... looking down on me?

But that's not her fault, it's just my fault for being a low-functioning moron?

But am I really?

At this moment, Xiaohui seemed to become the focus of the crowd.

Those past mocks... perhaps they were just my dreams?

That sense of vicissitudes, that feeling of having passed a long, long time, perhaps it was all because of the dream?

There was someone in the dream who wanted to make me unhappy...

It must be like that.

"Xiaohui, are you happy?" Haruko suddenly smiled.

At the same time, everyone around looked at Xiaohui in unison.

This scene was actually a bit... weird.

Xiaohui subconsciously wanted to say:

"Happy... I am really very happy."

But suddenly, he seemed to hear a voice.

"For some questions, the answer must be spoken according to the target. If you realize the answer is not like that, please do not say it directly..."

"That would be very dangerous, very dangerous."

Xiaohui was a bit dazed.

"Don't answer! Change the subject! Change the subject!"

A voice seemed to be screaming desperately in Xiaohui's mind.

But that voice soon disappeared.

"Xiaohui, are you happy?"

Haruko took Xiaohui's hand and showed a sweet smile again.

Everyone's smiles were also so friendly and sweet.

Such smiles appeared dozens of times at once, which should have seemed weird.

But Xiaohui couldn't distinguish; he only felt that the moment Haruko held his hand...

His heart was beating very, very fast, and he nodded earnestly:

"I am very happy."

He really felt very happy, very joyful, happy to the point of being unreal, as if something he had long hoped for had finally been realized.

When he said this sentence... he seemed to hear the sound of a sharp blade piercing flesh and blood.

Something was quietly killed at this moment.

(Life has returned to its normal rhythm, tomorrow the update time might be a bit late... um, because 4,000 words a day has been too comfortable lately, my hands are a bit rusty. Tomorrow I will try to restore the update to 8,000 to 10,000 words.)

(End of chapter)