Chapter 211: Ideas Cannot Be Killed

The police cars ultimately failed to catch Wen Xishu.

Aided by the Power of the Three Phases, Wen Xishu’s parkour made it seem as though he had broken free from the constraints of gravity.

He kept leaping back and forth among the towering, dense buildings.

Sometimes he would suddenly hide beneath a massive neon billboard, and other times he would hang onto a pane of glass like a spider.

The Power of Dragon Concealment made it very difficult for him to be detected.

High in the air, Wen Xishu was finally able to see the vast masses of people in this city.

It was so uniform and consistent.

Everyone in the city walking a dog was walking the exact same breed, of the same size, turning at the same time.

Even the dogs in this city were disciplined; if a dog’s movements were not standard, it would be immediately shot dead by security, and the factory would be contacted to arrange for a new, identical-looking puppy to be delivered.

Glory in sameness, shame in difference.

Wen Xishu was undoubtedly that outlier. His willpower was strong; even after being injected with a massive amount of "Happiness Element," he did not become addicted to that exaggerated sense of euphoria.

Especially after pulling out the implant in his body... Wen Xishu was even more convinced that this city had a major problem.

It was also at this moment that he saw a prompt.

【Current World Discordance: 66.】

【Current Character Synchronization Rate: 34.】

The Scorpion Blade had finally started working normally, which was also a point that concerned Wen Xishu greatly.

The efficiency of the Mad Dice remained completely unaffected, but the Scorpion Blade seemed to be suppressed by something.

From the moment he climbed the tower until now, the Scorpion Blade’s presence had not been very strong.

Wen Xishu roamed above the buildings, moving horizontally and vertically through the space toward the tallest office building in District 14, where Horn was located.

He had to admit... this city truly possessed a pleasing kind of beauty.

On the overpasses, the distance between all pedestrians, and the speed and distance of all vehicles, were so orderly.

Each road was just like a production line in a factory.

Even in the rest areas, the people reading newspapers and drinking coffee stood in neat, orderly positions.

Even when Wen Xishu played Age of Empires 4 or Cities: Skylines, he had never seen anything so orderly.

In schools, all the children stood in long lines, like industrial products about to be stamped with a "Product Qualified" label.

They entered the campus in an orderly, sequential fashion.

It was too beautiful.

Wen Xishu truly felt that this sense of order was visually striking.

Everyone was like a machine.

But he knew that this kind of beauty should not exist.

Because this beauty only felt beautiful to him after he had seen chaos for too long.

If the situation were that he had lived in this environment since childhood... perhaps he would also find a messy scene shocking and beautiful.

Traffic lights appeared.

Logically speaking, in a city like this, it wouldn't matter if there were traffic lights or not. But soon, Wen Xishu realized the traffic lights weren't aimed at vehicles—or rather, not just at vehicles, but at the crowds and the vehicles alike.

When the crowd crossed on a green light, primary enforcers quickly appeared. Everyone stopped in their tracks, perfectly in unison.

Someone in the crowd was quickly pulled out.

Wen Xishu couldn't hear clearly, but his astonishing eyesight allowed him to see the clue.

A smile.

Among everyone, one person’s smile was different in degree from the others.

And so, this person had to smile again.

Because it took three attempts to smile correctly to pass, the person was even questioned about their identification and the like.

Soon, the person seemed to feel a great sense of euphoria, finally smiling just like everyone else around them, and re-entered the crowd queue.

The world returned to order, and everything became as beautiful as it was in the beginning.

Wen Xishu only took a fleeting glance, yet he felt the massive discordance of this world.

"Everyone here is different; their heights and weights are actually all different... Theoretically speaking, their lifespans should be different, too."

"That person’s smile didn't meet the standard—perhaps because they had suffered some kind of bereavement?"

This was just Wen Xishu’s thought, but it made him feel an inexplicable fear.

【Current World Discordance: 67.】

【Current Character Synchronization Rate: 33.】

District 15 was a residential zone.

Here, there were various entertainment facilities, parks, playgrounds, cinemas, and all sorts of novel places.

Wen Xishu, disguised as a passerby, wore a standard smile and crossed a road.

On this road, he saw an architectural facility with a particularly ironic feel—a "Moderate Loss-of-Control Experience Performance."

But it wasn't to let people experience chaos; rather, it was to make people realize the risks of life losing control by watching chaos.

In the end, Wen Xishu didn't go to watch the performance inside; presumably... even the loss of control was controlled.

Yes, everything in this world was controlled.

And everyone accepted this control.

That vanished concept was a very complex one; it was a fusion of many concepts.

Wen Xishu already felt that the answer was on the tip of his tongue; after the World Discordance reached 72, he could feel it—he was approaching the target.

But he just couldn't remember it.

On a bench in a scenic park in District 15, a man and a woman were quickly interrupted by a man dressed in the clothes of a primary enforcer.

They had been kissing.

But because the thermometer on the bench showed the man’s body temperature was abnormal during the kiss, it was interrupted.

Fortunately, the man quickly regained his reason, and under the influence of a massive sense of euphoria, he became a part of the park once more.

Wen Xishu quickened his pace.

He had a strong ability to adapt, so he didn't intend to look at these chaotic phenomena anymore.

……

……

District 14.

In the restroom of an office building, Wen Xishu changed his clothes again.

To Wen Xishu’s pleasant surprise, in a place like a restroom, there was always some private space.

There were no cameras here. But there were sensors; if an employee spent too long on the toilet, it would trigger a three-stage musical sequence.

The first stage was the toilet singing to encourage the employee not to forget the beauty of work; the second stage provided health advice based on the employee’s excretory capacity; the third stage was a company-wide announcement that so-and-so had spent too long excreting.

That was why Wen Xishu saw everyone in the office building restroom in a rush.

He held one of them hostage and snatched the person’s access card.

On the elevator billboard were a group of men and women with expressionless faces, looking exactly like vegetative patients, with a sutured incision drawn across all their foreheads.

They were people who had undergone prefrontal lobotomies, yet their clothing was extremely luxurious and expensive.

Wen Xishu even noticed... someone sneaking a glance, the flash of envy in their eyes.

Of course, no one spoke in the elevator, and the movement of eyeballs could not be captured.

Everyone maintained their distance, upholding the tidiness of the office building.

It was hard to imagine... that this place was the greatest source of creative output, the place that produced the emotional seasonings of people’s lives, like movies and novels.

Although everyone here didn't have a physical scar on their foreheads, everyone here was already approaching a state of madness.

The thirty-fifth floor arrived quickly.

A publishing house had gone bankrupt here not long ago because it had published contraband.

A certain writer had been arrested for creating a forbidden word in a book. The writer’s original intention was to write about an anti-order society to praise the greatness of order.

But inexplicably, he created a villain, and the villain did whatever he wanted... which actually sparked a small amount of discussion.

This discussion was naturally not very good, so the publishing house was sealed, and the author’s whereabouts became unknown.

It was expected that within three days, the thirty-fifth floor would be replaced by a new company, but for now, this place had become a temporary refuge for Horn and Wen Xishu.

"Wen Xishu, I’m here."

Horn’s wrist had a shocking wound. Sitting in a wheelchair, he let his hand hang down, dripping blood, which made Wen Xishu feel he looked too pitiful.

Wen Xishu said:

"Give me the controller."

Horn was puzzled, but he did as he was told. The next second, Horn suddenly felt that something had established a link with him.

Horn realized:

"So that’s how it is. So someone like me can also gain power with the help of a tool. But I feel the gap between my power and yours is very large."

After being connected by the controller, all of Horn’s attributes were improved. His wound-healing ability also became extremely powerful.

This feeling made Horn feel it was incredible:

"You really are a person who brings miracles."

Wen Xishu smiled:

"Many people say that. Tell me, why did you choose this place?"

"And... did you discover anything?"

Huo En nodded:

"This city has lost a very important concept; everyone's obedience is maxed out. The city is filled with the beauty of order."

Wen Xishu did not speak.

Huo En said:

"But this is very strange. Because some professions are still allowed to exist."

Wen Xishu seemed to understand:

"Is this the reason you chose this place? You want to know if these creators have grasped any information?"

Huo En nodded again:

"Yes. When I first entered this world, I was one of the creators at work."

"Fortunately, my disability did not draw too much attention to me, and furthermore, I felt a foreign object in my arm from the very beginning."

"After removing the implant, I roughly understood that this world is a highly monitored one."

"But my intelligence-gathering ability is limited; I don't know much."

"By reviewing the enforcement records, I learned that the thirty-fifth floor of this building had been subjected to enforcement."

"So I came here."

Huo En looked at Wen Xishu:

"This time, we cannot rely on Mia; we must become Mia ourselves."

Wen Xishu naturally understood the meaning of these words. One must accumulate the degree of dissonance to the maximum value to naturally comprehend that vanished concept.

"This will lead us into an extremely dangerous situation," Huo En said.

Enforcers, as well as even more powerful Sea of Sin Behemoths... would indeed lead one into an extremely dangerous situation.

And Wen Xishu could not afford to lose.

The concept of no women was, for Wen Xishu, naturally the loss of a very important concept, but he could at least still climb the tower.

But this time, Wen Xishu could feel that the concept was extremely important. Once lost, one would be reduced to a puppet.

"We have no way back; since we have entered, we must find a way to break the situation."

Huo En nodded:

"That is why I am thinking about the rationality of this city."

"Actually, you and I both know very well that human thought cannot be completely controlled."

"If this city were entirely composed of people with lobotomies, I could understand it."

"But the problem is that those with lobotomies are the minority."

"Most people actually have complete thinking abilities; they are just enslaved by pleasure agents."

"We have entered the mental world of Sirius. Wen Xishu, don't you think this city is very similar to Sirius's situation?"

Asked this by Huo En, Wen Xishu really did catch on to something.

Sirius is enslaved but longs to break the enslavement, only the probability of this is very, very low.

But deep in Sirius's heart, he must want to resist.

And the minority of "superior people" who have been lobotomized represent a certain imagery.

Sirius longs to escape imprisonment but is blinded by this imagery, to the point that in his inner world... everyone feels—only those who have lost the ability to think are the superior people.

But correspondingly, this world also has some potential rebels. Or rather, subconscious resistance.

Wen Xishu immediately thought of this publishing house.

"Yes, if this world truly promotes order, then this group of creators who play with words and stir up thoughts should be the first to be killed."

Huo En said:

"But they haven't been killed; they are just being monitored... Suppose everything in the entire world is imagery."

"Then, what do these so-called creators represent?"

Wen Xishu blurted out:

"They represent the will that Sirius longs to obtain..."

He was almost about to say that word, but suddenly Wen Xishu felt aphasic.

Huo En was also briefly stunned, but soon he smiled:

"Don't think too deeply. Before we figure out how to break the situation... we cannot think too deeply."

"Even for you, it would be difficult to face a Sea of Sin Behemoth that has evolved several times, right?"

That was true; Wen Xishu had felt last time that the evolution of the Sea of Sin Behemoth had reached the limit of what he could handle.

If it evolved again, he would truly have to use certain forbidden trump cards.

Huo En said:

"Have you noticed? Actually, in this mental world of Sirius, everything is behavioral correction."

"But it does not correct thoughts."

"Therefore, thoughts cannot actually be killed. I believe that Sirius longs to break free from imprisonment, so in his subconscious... in this mental world, there must be many sparks hidden."

"Chaotic, rebellious, resistant sparks."

"But unfortunately, Wen Xishu, I have no way to obtain information; the speech of these people has all been corrected by the behavioral code of conduct manual."

"I also tried to strike up conversations with others, but everyone already has an urge to stay away from me when they see me in a wheelchair. I am like a nuisance."

Huo En was clearly very helpless.

He always felt that Wen Xishu's strength was great, and without Wen Xishu, he would not dare to initiate this gamble.

But he was distressed that the help he provided to Wen Xishu was too small.

Upon hearing this from Huo En, Wen Xishu immediately became happy.

"Yes, thoughts are not controlled, Huo En! You really hit the nail on the head! Thoughts are not controlled!"

"How could I have forgotten about this?"

Wen Xishu was extremely excited, and Huo En said:

"What way do you have... to read thoughts? You can even do that?"

Wen Xishu said:

"Then I have plenty of ways. I might not be good at gathering news, but I am definitely an expert at gathering thoughts."

(End of chapter)