Chapter 180

(Considering that some readers gave feedback that they didn't understand, there is more explanation in this chapter.)

People always feel happy when they are close to happiness. And after truly obtaining a certain result, they will gradually become worried about gains and losses.

So the essence of happiness is the sense of acquisition.

People who lack money will feel happy when they get money; people who lack wisdom will feel happy when they get wisdom.

And the more knowledge and wisdom a person has, the more they feel their own shallowness.

This is Wen Xishu's way of breaking the situation.

Next, he will also begin to complete the unification with Yoshida Xiaohui and break open the first human cave.

At this moment, Wen Xishu looked at the 'Doubt' that had disappeared and began to 'talk to himself'.

"You should have already realized that you are actually living in a fake world," Wen Xishu said.

Yoshida Xiaohui nodded:

"You are me?"

The conversation between the two, presented in the eyes of Lisa behind him, was like one person talking to himself, as if he had schizophrenia.

"I am me, you are you. You have already died, but I am still alive. I am playing you, and you are covering me," Wen Xishu's words were a bit obscure.

But Yoshida Xiaohui understood quickly.

Wen Xishu continued to add:

"You should have discovered that your life has the conceptual power of being destined to obtain happiness..."

Yoshida Xiaohui nodded:

"Yes, my life is too smooth, without any misfortune. This world seems to only allow me to feel misfortune for others."

"But I myself have never had the subjective feeling of misfortune."

Wen Xishu said:

"Because this world does not allow you to be unhappy. Misfortune will be quantified; once you generate unhappy emotions, the concrete body of that emotion will be born around you."

"If a person doubts nothing, they will often become happy because of 'rare confusion', so doubt is one of the sources of misfortune."

"And because of this, that woman appeared beside you; she is Doubt."

Yoshida Xiaohui asked:

"I have doubts about the surroundings, leading to her birth... but why would she be in that form?"

"Because of me. I said, you have already died, or rather, Yoshida Xiaohui has already died. So the appearance of Doubt is determined by me, Wen Xishu," Wen Xishu said.

Yoshida Xiaohui wasn't surprised to hear that he died; he just smiled:

"So, in your cognition, or rather in my cognition, beautiful women are all worth doubting?"

"Yes, beautiful women are all worth doubting. This doubt is my natural sense of vigilance towards certain beautiful things. A person like me, once I live happily, I will feel something is wrong. Once a beautiful woman approaches, I think about what she is plotting. It's probably because I was too unhappy before, so I have always had a sense of unworthiness," Wen Xishu said frankly.

"So you like this type of woman," Yoshida Xiaohui smiled again.

"If the world were at peace, if I were absolutely safe... if I were not suspicious, I might marry a woman who looks like 'Doubt'."

Wen Xishu was also very frank. Because from beginning to end, he was facing himself.

Yoshida Xiaohui said:

"Then, since you have dared to appear, why not solve the puzzle for me."

Yoshida Xiaohui nodded after speaking. Then he turned around:

"Lisa, leave my room."

Lisa's expression was very weird; she didn't act immediately, but then, Yoshida Xiaohui said:

"I need you to leave my room; this is my desire at this moment."

Lisa nodded and finally left the room.

After closing the door, Xiaohui began to formally solve the puzzle.

Or rather, Wen Xishu began to formally solve the puzzle:

"Xiaohui, you are in a human cave. And I am an... adventurer exploring the human cave."

"The human cave is very dangerous, a narrow escape from death. No... it's more exaggerated than that word, almost impossible to survive. It can be said that exploring the human cave is one of the most dangerous missions I have encountered so far. Strictly speaking, I survived this time by luck."

"I will first tell you about the characteristics of the human cave. First, once you enter the human cave, you will lose yourself, or rather, when the sense of incongruity is not obvious—forget yourself."

"As soon as I entered the human cave, I became you and began to forcibly experience your happy life."

"At this time, I couldn't realize that I was me at all."

"My memory was temporarily missing, replaced by your memory. I would crave what you crave and possess the same cognition as you. I almost became you."

"If nothing unexpected happened, I would feel the happiness you crave and finally say that sentence at every node of your life—I am so happy."

Yoshida Xiaohui is now a bit afraid of the words 'I am so happy'.

He didn't interrupt Wen Xishu's speech.

Wen Xishu said:

"You should have noticed that at every node, for example, childhood, youth, prime... as long as you say such words, there will be one more count in your palm print."

"This number, I guess, if it reaches three... I will die."

"In other words, your life is broken down into several nodes, but if there are three nodes where you feel very happy and say it out loud... I, who invaded the human cave, will die directly."

Yoshida Xiaohui said:

"So that's how it is. So this is actually a way to kill you."

Wen Xishu smiled:

"This is just one of the ways."

"My greatest characteristic is doubt. I became you, but I also retained my doubt."

"This also has to mention the second mechanism of the human cave, the misfortune correction mechanism. When I have doubts..."

"Doubt, a psychological activity that is not conducive to your feeling of happiness, was concretized, concretized into an existence with superb assassination capabilities."

Yoshida Xiaohui understood:

"So... when I had nightmares, 'Doubt' was looking for you?"

Wen Xishu nodded:

"Yes, she was looking for me; she couldn't let you feel unhappy. And Doubt is a powerful assassin capable of instantly killing everything in this world... that is unfavorable to you and would make you unhappy."

Yoshida Xiaohui sighed:

"Tsk. Looking at it this way, she is my bodyguard. But then again, you and I are one."

Wen Xishu continued:

"When doubt arises, you will feel fear about certain things."

"At this time, fear is also concretized."

"I discovered fear a long time ago; he has two heads, the heads of my parents. This appearance is aimed at me. It is very difficult for me to face it directly."

"So at the first node, I realized the danger and absurdity of the human cave."

"To be precise, it was my secondary personalities who realized the danger and absurdity. In this world, any negative emotion you produce will become an esper trying to eliminate your misfortune."

"But this world has a third setting: once my personalities appear in the real world... it will attract the pursuit of everyone in this world, and it will also attract the pursuit of 'Doubt' and 'Fear' at the first time."

"I can only hide in the dream. Because in the dream, there is only yourself. But if I try to tell you the truth in the dream, the cruel truth will also make you feel unhappy."

"So, 'Doubt' and 'Fear' can even kill directly into the dream."

"There is no way; relying on the Nightmare Absolution sequence, I can only hide my many personalities in the dream and give up telling you the truth in the dream."

"Because none of my personalities can beat them."

"But whether it's Doubt or Fear, they are all created by you; you are the master of this world, understand?"

Yoshida Xiaohui was silent for a few seconds, then nodded slowly:

"So that's how it is, this is your strategy."

Wen Xishu took over the conversation:

"Yes, I am still quite good at strategy. Of course, I must emphasize that I was lucky this time."

"I am one of the many personalities of Wen Xishu, a relatively calm personality who likes to analyze. This counter-kill was also planned by me; you can call me—the absolutely calm version of Wen Xishu."

"First, I arranged for a lustful personality, which is also the weakest of Wen Xishu's many personalities, to seduce 'Doubt'. I made this personality forcibly give you a hint."

Yoshida Xiaohui immediately thought of what the hint was.

In childhood, Haruko asked him if he felt happy.

At that moment, Yoshida Xiaohui heard 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."

This voice was one of Wen Xishu's personalities.

"Sigh, from now on, Wen Xishu, this person, will probably really be immune to female beauty. Because this personality died. Of course, only for this mission," the absolutely calm version of Wen Xishu said.

It is indeed only for this mission, because returning to the bunker will repair all damage, including the mental level.

Yoshida Xiaohui understood:

"At that time, I answered Haruko, which led me to think I was very happy at the childhood node."

"And at that moment, one of your personalities died?"

The absolutely calm version of Wen Xishu nodded:

"Yes, it was indeed very dangerous at the time. I said, if I tried to give you any hint that would make you unhappy... it would lead to being targeted by Doubt."

"In general, I was defeated at the first node. One of my personalities died. It was killed because I tried to give you a hint."

"But I also tested the danger level of this world because of this, so in the second round, which is the second node, your youth stage—I realized that I absolutely cannot fight head-on."

"Wen Xishu himself is not an owner of multiple personalities; in fact, the Personality Party sequence caused some of his characteristics to be concretized into a personality."

"If these personalities all died in the human cave, Wen Xishu would also become emotionally deficient."

"So I realized that I must be careful and not forcibly wake you up, but let you realize the danger of this world yourself."

Yoshida Xiaohui pondered:

"I understand, no wonder you said you relied on luck!"

The absolutely calm version of Wen Xishu smiled:

"Yes, thanks to Yoshida Xiaohui, your root of misfortune lies in intellectual disability, otherwise I wouldn't be able to break the situation."

"Your misfortune stems from your intellectual disability, so I have been hinting to you in the dream that you want to become a genius, that you are a genius, and so on."

"Subtly, let you crave to become a genius, crave to possess a higher level of intelligence."

"In the early stage of this round, I didn't dare to let any personality appear from the dream. Because in the first round, I realized the gap in combat power between the two sides."

"Fortunately, I can still attack the heart."

"Although you are very happy, the editor-in-chief also said that your drawing skills need to be polished. You have to become even better."

"Once a person has a goal, in the process of conquering the goal, as long as everything goes smoothly and there is stable positive feedback, they will feel happy."

"And the more positive feedback there is, the more your skills improve, and it also means you can realize the gap between you and those masters."

"You will crave wisdom and talent even more."

"The key to this node lies in the ending part; I let a personality appear and then attracted your attention, and also let Doubt kill it."

"Um, this personality symbolizes Wen Xishu's laziness... it is actually a relatively weak personality among many personalities."

Wen Xishu is indeed not lazy, which is why he can climb the tower crazily without stopping.

Now, without this personality, Wen Xishu will climb the tower even more crazily.

"Sacrificing this personality is mainly to stimulate your memory and make you have more doubts and fears about the surroundings."

"It just so happened that when you said you were very happy again, and the number on your palm print became 2... at this time, you, who were gradually becoming smarter, must have felt that something was wrong."

"You crave to find the truth, but you can't figure it out, so you will crave to obtain more wisdom to solve the puzzle."

Yoshida Xiaohui nodded.

It really was.

In childhood, there was an extra 1 on his palm that couldn't be scrubbed off. On the same day, he saw a strange masked man doing parkour, attracting a group of people to chase and kill him.

In youth, the number on his palm became 2, the masked man appeared again, and then Doubt appeared, killing the masked man in seconds.

Although Doubt and Fear both chose to self-harm in the end to eliminate Yoshida Xiaohui's doubt and fear... but this matter left too deep an impression on Yoshida Xiaohui.

He couldn't ignore this in his heart.

There is a problem with this world; this idea began to grow constantly.

The absolutely calm version of Wen Xishu said:

"Next is node 3. After you open the next node with the desire to know the truth, over these years, in order to make you happy, this world will naturally make you smarter and smarter."

"Your various parameters are constantly rising."

"And as you become smarter, you will lose interest in various vulgar desires."

"You crave to understand more essential things."

"Coupled with the fact that the real Xiaohui has been unhappy all his life because of intellectual disability, so the main personality of Wen Xishu who plays Xiaohui—which is you—will crave to obtain wisdom even more."

"Such desires, such world mechanisms, lead to you becoming smarter and smarter, and your cognition becoming higher and higher. Gradually, those past memories, not only did not become blurred because of the years, but were instead connected by you."

"This seems to be making you happy... but once you are smart to a certain degree, you can observe everything. You will become unhappy because of this. At the same time, it also killed 'Doubt'."

Yoshida Xiaohui, or rather the main personality of Wen Xishu, nodded:

"I understand. So... Doubt died, because the truth has been known by me, everything has been seen through by me, and there are no more doubts in my heart, so 'Doubt' has disappeared because of this."

The absolutely calm version of Wen Xishu said:

"That's how it is, so our luck is very good. Now, are you ready to return to being the real Wen Xishu?"

Yoshida Xiaohui nodded:

"Of course."

As soon as this was said, memories belonging to Wen Xishu began to emerge in large numbers.

Yoshida Xiaohui, or rather the main personality of Wen Xishu, truly began to be awakened at this moment.

The reason why he chose to awaken the main personality now is because the 'absolutely calm version of Wen Xishu' knows very well that if Yoshida Xiaohui didn't have enough wisdom and suddenly accepted this information—

He would feel fear and panic, and suddenly knowing that the real himself had died and that his grandfather had burned half his brain to find him... would definitely be very painful and unhappy.

Therefore, only after the main personality, which is Yoshida Xiaohui, has enough wisdom and Yoshida Xiaohui no longer has 'doubt', can he tell Yoshida Xiaohui these things.

Otherwise, either Yoshida Xiaohui couldn't bear it, or 'Doubt' would suddenly flash.

"So, Xiaohui's grandfather paid so much for Xiaohui." The real Wen Xishu said.

At this time, there was no so-called 'Yoshida Xiaohui' or 'absolutely calm version' of Wen Xishu.

Now Wen Xishu has been completely awakened.

"This is the first time I couldn't break free from a fake life by my own power. If it weren't for the Personality Party and Nightmare Absolution... I would have already died."

"Even with these two sequences, if it weren't for the fact that the root of the misfortune of the protagonist of this story, Yoshida Xiaohui, lies in intellectual disability, I wouldn't be able to break the situation. After all, happiness and wisdom are only directly proportional at a certain stage."

Once he recalled who he was...

Wen Xishu finally realized the danger of the human cave. No wonder the child at the entrance of the cave said that no one had ever been able to break open the human cave.

"Now, I have found myself, and in this dungeon, I have obtained 'wisdom', which allows me to calmly face any situation. I will not fall into fear, sadness, anger, or anxiety."

Without these negative emotions, naturally, there will be no enemies that concretize negative emotions.

To some extent, Wen Xishu is very safe now.

"Then, how should I leave? Also, this is just the outermost human cave... human caves are everywhere in the human cave village. The reason for the formation of the human cave is probably still in those human caves inside."

"If I want to enter those human caves... how can I maintain myself and not become someone else? It's impossible for everyone to be like Xiaohui, craving wisdom."

Wen Xishu thinks now, all this is really dangerous.

If it weren't for the right time, place, and people, he would have really fallen into the human cave.

Many problems didn't bother Wen Xishu for too long.

Because Wen Xishu at this time, in the process of playing Yoshida Xiaohui, obtained an amazing 'intelligence bonus'.

He soon remembered:

"I need to collect something."

"The child beside the tunnel told me that I must bring something that does not exist from the human cave..."

"What thing does not exist in this human cave?"

The answer is not difficult to obtain.

Wen Xishu also soon had a flash of inspiration and thought of the answer.

"It is... misfortune!"

In a world of absolute happiness, of course, only misfortune does not exist.

But this answer also made Wen Xishu further realize the danger of exploring the human cave.

"If what Yoshida Xiaohui lacked was not intelligence, but other defects, such as lack of money, lack of love, not handsome, not tall, short there, bad luck..."

"Then the corresponding correction would become money, others' concern, appearance, tall and hard, strong luck..."

"These things will indeed make people live very happily. If I realized some wrong places, I might not be willing to admit it. I might not be willing to wake up from the beautiful dream of the human cave."

"Breaking one's own happiness to search for misfortune, such an anti-human approach, without enough wisdom to support it, is impossible to do."

"Additionally, even if I realized that I needed to collect misfortune... then how should I collect it? I already know the truth..."

"So do I want to destroy Yoshida Xiaohui of this world? Let his career be destroyed, his family be destroyed?"

"No... it shouldn't be like that. If it were really like that, I'm afraid I would also fall into some emotions, and then I would summon those strange guys again."

"So..."

Wen Xishu began to fall into deep thinking.

In this process, he seemed to hear the sound of something breaking.

That is the world breaking apart.

Wen Xishu deliberately began to think about some difficult problems that could not be solved at the current stage.

For example, how to leave the human cave, how to collect misfortune. But he already knew the answer to this question.

So he began to think about more grand problems.

What is the source of everything in the human cave village? How can pain be used to suppress the human cave village.

What is the goal of An Rong's Reverse Seven Plan and Scorpio?

That time summoning Wen Zhaohua, what was the source of the feeling of being locked by huge power?

Why did Wen Zhaohua's strength improve so fast?

Mr. Jin in the bunker, why is he always unwilling to break through the 100th floor with the old principal? Is he really afraid of death?

Don't know! Don't know! Don't know! I don't know anything! There are several questions that even I, who have obtained a lot of wisdom at the current stage, cannot know.

Even if wisdom supplements many ideas, Wen Xishu only more clearly realizes how far he is from the truth.

He can't think of the answer.

But the only and eternal misfortune of a wise man happens to be the inability to obtain the truth.

Wen Xishu deliberately thinking about problems he can't think of at the current stage is not worrying about nothing, but collecting misfortune.

The world began to break constantly.

At this time, Lisa's voice came from outside the door.

Lisa's voice became incomparably sharp.

"Open the door! Open the door!"

"Do you have to destroy this world!"

"You could have been very happy! Why do this! Why do this! Open the door!"

It wasn't just Lisa.

If Wen Xishu poked his head out at this moment and looked out the window, he would see a dense crowd of people:

"Open the door! Open the door! Open the door!"

The crowd was crowded, and countless people were shouting to open the door.

Everyone's expression became extremely ferocious.

But Wen Xishu had no waves.

"Want to deliberately create fear to let Fear correct the error? Unfortunately, now I am only interested in the truth I don't know, and everything else cannot arouse my interest."

Wen Xishu guessed that this world has a correction mechanism.

That is to concretize emotions; Doubt becomes a beautiful woman, Fear becomes a two-headed person, that is how it is.

When he is about to destroy this world, the world begins to become ferocious, because it wants to create fear through this ferocity, and then let the concretized Fear destroy those variables.

But now, Wen Xishu doesn't care about all this.

He began to focus on collecting misfortune.

The source of misfortune is—unknowability. Constantly thinking about those difficult problems he craves to know but cannot get the truth.

That sense of frustration, sense of unknowability, and even the sense of powerlessness that he cannot comprehend in his life are all sources of misfortune.

This is the fate of a wise man; they know more and more, but the problems to be solved become more and more difficult.

So people always say 'rare confusion', always say 'taking a step back is happier'.

This is Wen Xishu's misfortune.

This kind of misfortune began to gather constantly, and finally... the world began to break.

The scene around began to change constantly, and Wen Xishu knew very well that it was coming...

He is about to leave the human cave.

"It seems it still doesn't work; I can't obtain information out of thin air... this has nothing to do with wisdom."

"But next, I will likely become the first person to survive from the human cave. Perhaps I will get help from the Pain Auction. After all, I have passed their test."

"To dismantle the curse, they should also explain more things to me."

Thinking of this, Wen Xishu opened his eyes and found that he didn't leave the human cave immediately; the tunnel appeared again around him.

Seven-colored light shone on Wen Xishu, making Wen Xishu only feel... some things in his body were recovering.

Those existences that had been killed began to revive slowly.

"Big brother, we meet again... you are really amazing, I didn't expect you to use such a method to walk out of the human cave."

The little boy's voice appeared again.

He was clearly surprised and happy. That spotless white kimono made him look a bit immortal.

"Ah, we meet again. Look, I said, I have faced many situations in my life that people thought were impossible to survive. But I can always survive," Wen Xishu smiled.

The little boy nodded:

"Big brother is really great, this is the misfortune you collected."

The little boy handed over a bottle with scales.

It was a cylindrical glass bottle.

The scales on it were: sorrow, pain, unrequited desire, world-weariness, and unforgivable reincarnation.

Obviously, Wen Xishu only collected a little bit of misfortune; the black liquid in the bottle was above sorrow but not yet pain.

Wen Xishu was very curious about who this child was.

"Who exactly are you? You collect misfortune, what are you going to do?"

The little boy shook his head and said:

"Sorry... I really don't remember. Big brother, leave here; a person like you dying is a regret for this world."

"Don't explore other human caves."

Wen Xishu said:

"Do I have to go deep into other human caves and collect the misfortune until it's full? Collect it to the point of unforgivable reincarnation?"

The little boy really didn't want Wen Xishu to risk his life to go to other human caves.

But facing Wen Xishu's question, he still said very honestly:

"Yes, big brother, you need to constantly collect misfortune from the human cave... this is a balance."

Wen Xishu still wanted to ask, but the little boy said:

"Go... big brother, go back from this tunnel. You have already completed the mission. After coming out of the human cave, you will be temporarily rejected by the human cave village."

"Don't explore too many human caves; you should know very well that once you can rely on luck, but what about twice, three times?"

The little boy disappeared again. Wen Xishu certainly didn't complete his mission.

He pondered the little boy's last words and soon had an idea.

"He should be hinting to me not to explore the caves one by one. But to find the most critical human cave."

"If I am allowed to experience every human cave one by one, I'm afraid seven days is not enough at all."

Wen Xishu suddenly remembered that he should ask a very important question.

"I experienced the life of someone in the human cave... then how much time has passed outside the human cave?"

He walked towards the outside of the tunnel; this time, he passed through the tunnel, not entering the human cave, but returning to Hujiang.

At the moment of passing through the tunnel, Wen Xishu even had a sense of confusion.

"Am I really Wen Xishu? Or am I actually Yoshida Xiaohui... but I had a dream that I was Wen Xishu?"

Is it Zhuang Zhou dreaming of a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming of Zhuang Zhou?

This moment of trance made Wen Xishu realize... the damage the human cave had done to him.

That super immersive feeling of being unable to realize who he was, once detached, made him start to have subtle withdrawal reactions.

Feeling the light shining from outside, Wen Xishu patted his face:

"If I experience it a few more times... I might really go crazy, right?"

He finally returned to the real world again.

Returned to the special area of Hujiang, the human cave village.

It was also at this time that Wen Xishu heard a familiar voice.

Xu 04 exclaimed:

"My god! Warrior, you really did it! You dismantled a human cave!"

"My god... the curator is right! Warrior, you are truly the chosen one!"

In the ruins floating in the sky, Xu 04 had been observing the human cave on the ground.

What she originally saw was Wen Xishu entering the human cave, and at the same time, another human cave appeared.

That human cave was Wen Xishu's human cave.

But soon, the human cave belonging to Wen Xishu was still there... while the other one, the human cave Wen Xishu entered at the beginning, had disappeared.

Xu 04 cut her abdomen with a small knife again, as if she wanted to pull out her intestines for people to see.

Under the intense pain, Xu 04 opened a portal.

"What... what is the bottle in your hand?"

Wen Xishu said:

"Send me back to the auction first, I think I should be able to see your curator?"

Xu 04 nodded:

"You are the first person in the true sense to survive from the human cave; you are absolutely qualified to see our curator."

In Wen Xishu's view, the curator is highly likely a 'Collapse-er'.

Only a Collapse-er would know the so-called 'Warrior'.

But it's strange, Wen Xishu had never seen a Collapse-er in the Mysterious Tower.

Logically speaking, Collapse-ers should all be circulating within the timeline of the Tower of Desire.

So Wen Xishu was very curious about the curator of the Pain Auction.

It just so happened that he had done something unprecedented in the true sense and was qualified to see the curator.

Xu 04 said:

"Let's go, I'll take you out of the human cave village first."

(There is a dinner party tomorrow... so I posted it in advance, but it's a dinner party for the younger generation, it shouldn't be that annoying this time, let me go and see. If there is any dog-blood plot unfolding, I will update it at the end of each chapter!)

(End of chapter)