Chapter 233: The Hall of Good People

A mushroom appeared right under the nose of Britney, or rather, Wen Xishu.

The mushroom was very vibrant, emitting an alluring red, the kind that made one feel like they would immediately kick the bucket upon eating it.

But this mushroom also had a strange halo.

Wen Xishu carefully recalled his past life... This mushroom was quite famous, deeply tied to a certain sewer repairman.

Eating this mushroom would make the body grow larger, allowing one to smash through brick walls hanging in the air.

[You can possess it now, but you must bear the cost of possessing it.]

Wen Xishu saw the special note.

Unaffected by the Anti-Magic Value; it looked like the tone of Scorpio.

"Looks like the effect of Scorpio's 'Great Tribute' blade."

Unfortunately, the item that appeared this time was not one that could break the deadlock. Growing in size would attract attention, which would make Wen Xishu's escape journey very troublesome.

Britney was currently the one with the most freedom of movement.

It was a simple matter to manipulate Britney into a safe state; Wen Xishu only needed to have Britney return to her room.

Britney was very likable.

Wen Xishu seemed to gradually recall some things.

This girl had been popular since childhood; everyone seemed to tacitly assume that someone with her looks must be beautiful in both appearance and heart.

Britney was indeed like that, often helping others. But Britney was not good at her studies... She was too playful, always thinking about going out to play, neglecting her education.

But in the end, Britney was not the type of person who needed to rely on education to change her life.

Her family background was very affluent.

This "Soul Concentration Camp" also appeared magnificent, stirring up emotions in Wen Xishu and making him think of some things regarding Britney's family background.

Soon, he operated Britney and returned to her room.

The beautiful and kind-hearted little angel had her own independent room in this concentration camp.

After settling all this, Wen Xishu immediately switched characters.

[Britney is currently in a safe state, with a duration of two hours. Switch?]

Without any hesitation, Wen Xishu switched directly to Chris.

Seeing that tough-guy face, Wen Xishu suddenly felt as if he himself had become fierce.

……

……

Severe cases ward. Solitary confinement cell.

The light in the solitary confinement cell was dim, but not entirely dark.

Wen Xishu suddenly switched scenes, coming from the bright and warm mild cases ward to the damp and dark solitary confinement cell; he was still slightly unaccustomed to it.

However, he had not forgotten the rules related to the solitary confinement cell.

[Unlock Rule 1: Within xxx, do not xx count numbers silently. xxxx you are within xxx, hear someone looking for you xxx, please do not xxx.]

The solitary confinement cell was very narrow. Chris was a standard muscular hunk; curled up in the cell, his body's space for movement was actually very, very small.

Wen Xishu was not counting numbers silently at this moment.

He just waited patiently, but he did not wait long; only a few seconds passed before he began to feel something squirming and crawling.

On his own body, on his spine, on his arms, very tiny things were crawling.

Wen Xishu had to start counting numbers silently.

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5……"

As the silent count reached thirty, Wen Xishu finally felt a bit better; the feeling of something crawling inside his body disappeared.

He had been parasitized. There was something in his body, crawling along various parts, trying to reach his brain.

Wen Xishu realized an extremely terrible thing.

If "they" did not refer to humans, then had Chris in the severe cases ward already been parasitized?

"43, 44, 45……"

Wen Xishu was still counting silently, but he still had the capacity for extra thought.

"Why do I need to count numbers silently?"

Wen Xishu began to recall.

The first thing he thought of was electrocution; electrocution was to make Chris compromise. To make Chris submissive.

In Wen Xishu's past life, there were people who relied on this trick to "cure" quite a few children.

In a sense, these children had their creativity erased.

Subsequently, Wen Xishu thought of Zhou Fei in the moderate cases ward.

Zhou Fei took medication, and the medication would cause the brain to fall into a state of chaos, making the whole person become dull……

And once one entered the solitary confinement cell, it was inherently easy to be in that state.

Wen Xishu seemed to understand.

"They do not want the 'patients' to think."

"It seems that once one thinks, it can hinder the movement of the parasitic organisms within the body……"

"Of course, this is just a guess."

"But it is impossible for a person to stop thinking, unless they are sleeping…… and even when sleeping, there is thinking."

"Completely isolating thought is impossible. If their goal is to make this person into someone who cannot think, then what they should do is the same as the scene I experienced: perform a prefrontal lobotomy."

"So, they do not want people to think, but for some reason, the intensity of the intervention is very limited."

Wen Xishu had already counted to ninety-nine.

At this moment, Wen Xishu noticed some indentations on the wall. He touched these carvings and discovered they were numbers.

"It seems someone came here before; they carved the numbers onto the wall."

"But why carve them on the wall? Could it be that their brains at the time had reached the point where they needed to use spelling to reinforce memory just to write down the numbers?"

Sometimes, people cannot remember certain things, but after seeing certain things, they immediately remember them by association.

Therefore, children's memory reinforcement always starts with copying.

Wen Xishu shook his head; it was hard for him to imagine what kind of torture the people previously locked here had endured.

At this moment, he suddenly wanted to conduct an experiment.

He began to stop counting silently, but kept his brain in a state of high-level thinking, starting to set problems for himself and doing calculations in his mind.

"It didn't appear……"

That feeling of something waking up and starting to crawl inside his body did not appear.

But when Wen Xishu started thinking about other questions, such as history, philosophy, or the Three Towers—before long, that feeling of something slowly crawling inside his body appeared.

He felt the urge to vomit.

Because it seemed there were "them" in his stomach too.

Wen Xishu understood.

"The function of the solitary confinement cell is to restrict…… Outside the solitary confinement cell, or in a normal environment, these parasites in the body seem to be suppressed because the human brain is active and thinking about various things."

"But inside the solitary confinement cell, only one type of relevant thought can suppress them. That is numbers."

"In other words, only when numbers appear in the mind can they be suppressed."

Just as Wen Xishu reached this conclusion—

A woman's voice appeared:

"Chris…… Chris…… my Chris……"

The silent counting was immediately interrupted.

Multitasking was not difficult for Wen Xishu, but if this process was suddenly hit by a massive emotional impact and memory implantation, then it was very difficult.

Wen Xishu immediately recalled some memories about Chris.

"My name is Chris, I am a soldier, but I have no concept of protecting the country; it was just that everyone wanted me to go, so I went."

"I have a childhood sweetheart, her name is Margaret. She didn't want me to go because my unit had no legitimate reason to fight; we were going to the Middle East to invade. On TV, those children in Batan sat in the middle of ruins, their eyes dull. Margaret would cry every time she saw this."

"And where I was going was to invade that place."

Wen Xishu's brain felt a series of stabs, as if steel needles were pricking his nerve endings.

Chris's memories surged forth continuously.

He went to the Middle East of this world and began to slaughter the people there. He was only responsible for carrying out his commander's orders, but his comrades-in-arms would hang children's corpses on the walls to admire them, just like specimens in a museum.

And all these images would be broadcast to Margaret.

When he returned in glory, after that invasion finally ended, Chris enjoyed the cheers and curses of millions, but he didn't care; he just felt he needed money to provide Margaret with an affluent life.

But Margaret was killed by radical pro-war factions during a street protest.

Bugs in his spine, stomach, arms, and various places suddenly began to appear.

Chris was in agony, and Wen Xishu was also in agony.

Snot and tears began to flow out continuously.

"Margaret! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I am a sinner! I am a sinner!"

Wen Xishu suddenly discovered that his control over Chris had failed.

He was not sure if it was Chris under extreme emotion breaking free from his control, or if he had truly identified with Chris under extreme emotion.

What the millions were cheering for, I do not know. But the tenderness I wanted to hear has already disappeared forever.

Tears of remorse burst from Chris's eyes; post-war stress was actually not the real reason Chris detached from the crowd.

The real reason is that the person he loved most died while praying for peace, while he accepted the medals bestowed upon him by the murderers.

This immense irony caused Chris to fall into endless self-reproach.

Oh no!

Wen Xishu realized that he had violated the rules.

xxxx when you are in xxxx, if you hear someone looking for you xxxx, please do not xxxx.

Although the latter half of this rule was also obscured, Wen Xishu now understood the meaning.

When you are in the confinement room and hear someone talking to you, please do not respond.

Chris heard Margaret's voice, and Chris responded.

"It's okay, Chris... You are a person full of sins, your thoughts are filthy from top to bottom, you are a war criminal! But it's okay, just embrace me now!"

"Don't think about anything, and I will return to your side; I will forgive you!"

Chris opened his arms, trying to embrace something that did not exist; Wen Xishu only felt that... this desire was too strong, and it had begun to suppress other thoughts.

It was like a person on the verge of starvation facing food; he would only think about eating it immediately, and during this process, he might be unable to engage in any other thinking.

Wen Xishu himself even longed to embrace Margaret.

The Chris he was controlling was like a machine that had gained self-awareness. Wen Xishu's control was constantly weakening.

Yet, within the scope of his ability, Wen Xishu still controlled Chris's small hand to slap himself hard across the face.

Slap!

The crisp sound left Chris's brain dazed.

Only that feeling of something crawling became increasingly intense.

But before long, they fell silent again.

"One hundred twenty-nine, one hundred thirty, one hundred thirty-one..."

After experiencing a round of torture, Wen Xishu began to count silently again.

Gradually, Chris's emotions also stabilized.

Wiping away his tears and snot, the disheveled Wen Xishu could not help but sigh.

"I haven't gathered any intelligence yet... I know very little about them, but I nearly lost a character."

If the Brave dies, I fear the Wise will not have it easy either, right?

Outside the confinement room, some kind of sound suddenly came. It was the sound of a broadcast.

"Are you still worried because your child doesn't like to study?"

"Are you still worried because your child is too rebellious?"

"Or do you feel that your husband, wife, father, mother... they have some kind of bad habit that you find unbearable?"

"As a company boss, do you wish for your employees to get along with you more happily?"

"As company employees, do you all wish for your boss to become more friendly?"

"In your life, is there that one particularly difficult person?"

"In your life, are you always unpopular with others?"

"Welcome to the Hall of Good People. Here, whether it is you yourself, or those in your life whom you feel need to become good, all can come here."

"In fifteen days, we will make the target become friendly, docile, and harmonious."

"The Hall of Good People, a good place that makes people become kind."

The broadcast ended here.

Accompanied by soothing light music, the intellectual-sounding female voice broadcast made this passage seem to give people a feeling full of hope and sunshine.

But listening to it, Wen Xishu only felt it was eerie.

He remembered that he had seen a city in the time turbulence of Pisces.

In the city...

There were no people between thirteen and eighteen years old; the children there were man-eaters, and the entire city gave one the feeling of being sunny and bright, with everyone wearing smiles on their faces.

Although there was a high probability that the two places were unrelated—

But Wen Xishu still thought of it.

After all, neither city had "people."

If the good people in the Hall of Good People were "fully treated" and left the Hall, it is hard to imagine what these things, which had completely occupied their brains, would become after the apocalypse truly arrived.

People think that those once-familiar people have just become better and then returned to their side...

Little do they know, the once-familiar people beside them are just monsters wearing human skin.

Thinking of this, Wen Xishu realized that perhaps to achieve the perfect ending, the three of them must escape and describe the scenes inside to raise awareness.

The appearance of the Hall of Good People might not just involve monsters; there might be even more evil or terrifying things laying plans behind the scenes.

Of course, all of this requires first escaping the current predicament.

Now Wen Xishu seemed to have encountered a small problem.

"I have to switch to another perspective... Chris is in confinement, which means Chris cannot act for a short time."

"If I count numbers here, it is a real waste of time."

"But if I switch characters and Chris stops counting, it might wake up the 'them' inside his body; hmm, that's quite troublesome."

If he didn't leave Chris, heaven knows how long the confinement would last? If he kept counting numbers here, Wen Xishu felt that this game would be too boring.

Chris is in the intensive care unit and does not possess exploration capabilities.

"Now that Chris is stable, should I try to violently break open the door of the confinement room?"

After all, Chris has been assigned items and a sequence.

Wen Xishu could have Chris launch a Limit Kick and use the Killer Soccer Ball to break out.

After thinking about it, Wen Xishu decided to remain still for the time being.

At this moment, Wen Xishu touched the numbers on the wall again.

"Wait, could it be..."

Wen Xishu's hand stroked the carvings on the wall; these carvings were all kinds of numbers.

But at this moment, Wen Xishu stopped thinking about the numbers and just kept stroking them... his brain in a state of emptiness.

After a while, that eerie feeling of being crawled on by something did not appear.

Wen Xishu sighed:

"So that's it, so the numbers carved here have this kind of use!"

Strange to say, after touching the numbers on the wall, even if Wen Xishu didn't think about numbers in his mind, it wouldn't wake up those things lurking in his body.

"The principle is still unclear, but it seems... once you touch these carvings, the corresponding shapes automatically appear in your mind?"

"The brain allocates extremely low computing power to instinctively think about what is being touched?"

Wen Xishu wasn't sure, but now, after testing, it seemed that even if Chris didn't think about anything, he could avoid waking those things up.

"Truly, within three steps, there must be an antidote."

At this moment, Wen Xishu also received a familiar prompt.

[The current character is in a safe state and will not attract the attention of "them" for a short time, meeting the conditions for switching. Do you wish to switch the character to the Wise or the Sage?]

In Wen Xishu's field of vision, the avatars of Britney and Zhou Fei appeared.

"Britney has the greatest freedom of action, and Scorpio Blade brought many game item supports this time; should I switch from Britney?"

From what he could see, Zhou Fei seemed to have already woken up.

This made Wen Xishu very curious, because theoretically, Zhou Fei should have been asleep. Logically speaking, choosing Britney and using the "Great Tribute" enhanced by the Scorpio Blade might allow him to find some kind of item to break the deadlock.

But Wen Xishu wondered, what if there were no Scorpio Blade?

Zhou Fei had taken medicine and should have fallen into a deep sleep; why did he suddenly wake up?

Wen Xishu decided to take a gamble; he did not choose the "Benevolent" Britney, but instead chose the "Wise" Zhou Fei.

"I have a general idea of Chris's bravery; I hope you can truly live up to the title of Wise."

After the switch was completed, the scenery in Wen Xishu's field of vision changed again.

This time, Wen Xishu returned to a hospital room with a somewhat cold color tone.

There was actually more than just Zhou Fei in the hospital room.

Yet there was a sense of silence.

The so-called silence was not absolute quietness, but rather hearing certain sounds in a quiet environment that one usually cannot hear—

Only then would you feel it was extremely silent.

For example, the sound of insects crawling.

Wen Xishu had his eyes open because Zhou Fei had his eyes open.

But at this moment, Wen Xishu felt many insects crawling. Crawling on the other people in the hospital room!

(End of chapter)