Chapter 235: The Truman Show

That said, Zhou Fei's current situation is not very good.

Wen Xishu continues to manipulate Zhou Fei into performing meaningless, illogical actions. One moment he is on the second floor, the next he is on the first.

Sometimes he even sleeps at the foot of the stairs.

Wen Xishu has yet to touch that Concealment Talisman; he is still waiting for the right moment.

These are several long, drawn-out hours.

In the past, when Wen Xishu entered the Mysterious Tower, he might have solved the mystery within a few hours, perhaps even reaching the Tower of Desire.

But this time, he simply waits patiently.

During the process of Wen Xishu manipulating Zhou Fei and waiting for results, several more people suddenly wake up from their hospital beds.

The moment they wake, they seem to retain some of their own consciousness, but just like that old tea-selling man...

Before long, these people immediately "die."

Afterward, someone in a white coat enters to carry them away.

Wen Xishu guesses that by this time, "they" have already become "them."

Because not long after, everything is very similar to before; they will suddenly chant some ancient texts.

It is precisely these identical procedures that allow Wen Xishu to form a closer guess at the truth.

"First, there is the sound of something crawling inside the body..."

"I can hear these sounds, but as I said before, assuming these sounds can be heard, it means the things inside the body are large... If there were really so many 'them' of significant size inside my body, I would have died long ago."

"So these sounds are perhaps not captured by the sense of hearing."

"Not many people can hear the sound of a flea jumping, but if a flea had ears of its own, it would certainly be able to hear it."

"These things will eventually occupy our brains..."

"Perhaps they have already occupied a portion, which is why I can establish a connection with them when they crawl."

"Secondly... and this is the most critical point."

"Why is it that what everyone chants in Britney's 'Mild Symptom Zone' is being chanted by these 'them' who have just obtained new bodies in the Moderate Symptom Zone?"

"Also, I can feel some kind of bug crawling inside my body, which isn't strange... but why can I also feel the things crawling inside so many other people in the ward?"

That rustling sound makes Wen Xishu feel as if thousands upon thousands of cockroaches are crawling about.

That is the momentum created only when the sounds from inside many individuals in the ward converge.

"The new 'Good People' in the Moderate Symptom Zone chant the things from the Mild Symptom Zone... and I can hear the sound of bugs crawling inside many people."

"The result, while outrageous, is not difficult to guess."

Wen Xishu thinks of a horrifying conclusion.

"Hive mind. Or rather, insectoid mind. Everyone is sharing one brain, one consciousness..."

Wen Xishu once read a story where people bitten by a vampire would become new vampires.

The first generation is supreme, while the second generation is quite special.

The first generation can directly convey commands to the second generation, or even directly control them; the second generation is merely his avatar.

Of course, if the first generation chooses not to control the second generation, the second generation remains an independent individual.

But if the first generation wishes, then all second-generation individuals are avatars of the first.

They can even possess shared sensations.

For example, if the first generation reaches a climax, the other second-generation individuals will also feel like they are having a blast.

Furthermore, if the first generation wishes—it can also switch perspectives at any time to experience others.

In a sense, Wen Xishu is now very much like a first-generation being...

And Zhou Fei, Chris, and Britney are three second-generation beings.

Because Wen Xishu's will can be directly conveyed to the three of them. Under certain circumstances, the three of them can also have their own volitional activities.

The four of them are together dealing with another "first-generation" being of the same structure.

Wen Xishu decides to temporarily refer to the boss hiding in the shadows as the Great Good Person.

After all, this place is called the Hall of Good People.

"This way, it can be explained: all parasitized people possess a certain degree of 'empathy'."

"That is why I can hear the sound of parasites crawling inside them."

"And those who are thoroughly parasitized can use this empathy to obtain the memories of other Good People."

Theoretically, the highest completion ending must involve defeating a mastermind existence like an "Insect Queen," "Ant Queen," or "Bee Queen."

But right now, Wen Xishu really isn't confident.

"Let's first find a way to find the path to leave."

Wen Xishu has already figured out much of the terrain layout in the Moderate Symptom Zone.

"The Moderate Symptom Zone is not the escape point... Now it seems that the Mild Symptom Zone where Britney is located is the most dangerous; perhaps the exit is there."

I have to say, once the character switched to Zhou Fei, Wen Xishu felt his thoughts suddenly open up.

But for now, he must settle Zhou Fei and switch to the place where Britney is.

Under Wen Xishu's manipulation, Zhou Fei soon returns to his hospital bed.

The "sleepwalking" is over.

Wen Xishu has not aroused any suspicion.

"The most dangerous moment was being surrounded by three people in white coats, with them almost pressing their ears against my body..."

"As long as I empty my mind and don't deliberately think about anything, I can awaken the parasites inside my body."

"When these bugs crawl, the character Zhou Fei can roam the Moderate Symptom Zone without restraint."

"But... it's best not to do this. Because doing so will increase the 'parasitism progress'."

"I cannot let the character Zhou Fei become a 'Good Person'."

Wen Xishu lies on the hospital bed, and the familiar prompt appears.

【The current character is in a safe state and will not attract the attention of "them" in the short term, meeting the conditions for switching. Do you wish to switch the character to the Brave One or the Benevolent One?】

Wen Xishu switches to the Benevolent One, Britney.

The perspective changes once again.

The dark confinement room and the dim ward have both disappeared.

Replacing them is bright sunshine once more. It is already afternoon; looking through the window, Wen Xishu sees the warm afternoon sun, feeling a sense of dreaming back to his past life.

But soon, he sees people wearing hospital gowns playing and frolicking in the courtyard.

That old tea-selling man is among them.

Only, like everyone else, the old tea-selling man's hospital gown has been changed to a different style.

Only when Wen Xishu gets up at this moment does he discover that his own style is actually different from those around him.

The "quasi-Good People" around him are all wearing those zebra-striped outfits. At first glance, they don't look like patients; they look like prisoners.

And Britney's clothes, while also a hospital gown, have no stripes at all.

They are just pure white.

"I didn't even notice last time; I was truly negligent... Is it a character issue? It seems I can only maintain full-power thinking when I am in Zhou Fei."

Wen Xishu really isn't used to this state; it's as if he has been split into three people, each with distinct characteristics.

He begins to manipulate Britney to walk out of her room. Passing by a vanity mirror, Wen Xishu examines himself carefully.

Unlike the blurry image quality when switching characters, he can now tangibly feel Britney's beauty.

I have to say, Britney is like a person in a painting, even if she is just casually looking in the mirror.

Wen Xishu thinks that the young Evelyn is probably at the same level of attractiveness as Wen Renjing.

Up to now, Wen Xishu has not seen such a level of handsome men and beautiful women.

But Britney is quite close to the level of the two.

"With this appearance, if she were to mix in the Tower of Desire, she would definitely be a top-tier player."

Wen Xishu looks elsewhere.

In the Mild Symptom Zone, or rather the "quasi-Good Person" zone, Good People wearing the advanced form of white coats are rarely seen.

Most are "quasi-Good People." Yes, most.

Last time, that child was targeted by a white coat because he didn't open his mouth while chanting the Di Zi Gui.

In the end, it was Wen Xishu manipulating Britney that let the white coat spare the child.

Combining these pieces of information, Wen Xishu is certain that there are still real humans here.

However, why these real people are here makes Wen Xishu somewhat confused.

"Perhaps the Hall of Good People also keeps some real people, only performing personality modification, using electrocution, coercion, and intimidation... to make real humans become obedient and submissive, but not parasitized. The purpose is probably to keep samples?"

Wen Xishu notices that these Good People in the courtyard look like they are playing and frolicking, with laughter appearing from time to time, making the atmosphere of the entire Mild Symptom Zone lack the oppression of the Severe Symptom Zone and the eeriness of the Moderate Symptom Zone.

But if one observes carefully, one will discover... this laughter repeats from time to time, and there is no fluctuation in the volume.

Those scriptures like the Di Zi Gui are also recited in a mechanical tone, as if it were a piece of code being written into their brains.

But there are also a few people inside who appear very natural, who think, and who frown because they can't remember what to chant for a moment.

These few people are the real humans.

They are almost all children.

And once these children make some mistakes... they immediately attract the attention of many gazes.

It can be said that the rare sense of eeriness in the Mild Symptom Zone comes from the collective actions of the Good People.

When the real humans, these children, do not perform neatly enough, the Good People will collectively look at these children with the same frequency of movement.

"These 'Good People' are not playing; they are doing the final 'fine-tuning' to be more like real humans."

Wen Xishu thinks of his experience manipulating Zhou Fei and Chris not long ago.

Only by constantly thinking can one suppress the bugs inside the body, which also means that only a brain that has given up thinking is the "paradise" that these bugs like.

"Turning people into Good People, besides implanting bug eggs, seems to require slowly making them muddled."

"This actually has a bit of a meaning that goodness is ignorance."

The Hall of Good People sounds like a name from Longxia; I just don't know which city this Hall of Good People is opened in.

"If there were no Bunker players, then this city would be truly miserable... These Good People will eventually thoroughly parasitize everyone in the entire city."

"Perhaps it is already quite exaggerated now; thinking pessimistically, maybe this city already has quite a few Good People, and they are disguising themselves as humans, performing that they are humans."

When Wen Xishu manipulates Britney to walk out of her room and also arrives in the courtyard...

"They" look at Britney in unison again.

Only, unlike the gazes looking at those children... these gazes appear extremely greedy.

Britney's good figure, top-tier appearance. It stands to reason that being looked at is a common occurrence. As a beauty, one must adapt to being the center of attention.

But next, Wen Xishu feels a strong sense of discomfort.

Britney's sense of discomfort is also conveyed to Wen Xishu. Under the stimulation of this feeling, some new memories are unlocked.

"Playful Britney," "Social Experiment," "Magic City's Latest Reality Experiment Show," "The Good People's Favorite Program"...

These titles with book titles appear one by one in Wen Xishu's mind.

Regarding Britney, Wen Xishu's previous memory was that she was a language teacher whose parents had passed away not long ago, and she had begun to suffer from depression.

Her family background was wealthy, but she was very playful when she was young; besides being playful, she had no other shortcomings and loved to help others...

Combining these things together makes Wen Xishu realize that something is wrong.

Britney didn't like to study, but she became a teacher...

And those flashing titles—"Playful Britney," "Social Experiment," etc. —stimulate Wen Xishu to obtain some new memories.

"No way... could it be that Britney has always been in this kind of environment?"

The reason why Britney is so special and why she can be so well-liked in this area seems to have been found.

Magic City.

This can be considered a new city in the Three Towers World that Wen Xishu has unlocked.

Britney's memory is not complicated, but it is outrageous enough.

From childhood to adulthood, Britney has lived in a huge, carefully woven scam.

All friends and relatives, all social relationships... are all fake.

Every day's encounters are exposed in countless hidden cameras.

Simply put, everything about Britney is a script.

But she herself doesn't know.

Britney's life trajectory is decided by audience voting.

What kind of person Britney will become, who she will fall in love with, when her parents will die, are all part of the program.

Not long ago, Britney's parents died in a car accident; this was actually a program effect. Because everyone was tired of Britney's joy and wanted to see Britney's vulnerability.

Britney began to suffer from depression.

This is the memory Wen Xishu unlocked, but in fact, this is just a montage.

Britney's depression has little to do with her parents' death; what Britney is depressed about is... she finally discovered the truth of the world.

She lived in a huge scam. She discovered it long ago.

It can even be said that her parents' death was planned by herself.

She constantly hinted to those qualified to write the script that her life was very happy, very happy every day.

She said that no sad things would happen in her life, and no one would see her tears.

As a result, these words quickly stimulated the audience, and so, the audience voted Britney's parents to death...

In a sense, Britney can be considered to have reverse-manipulated the people who manipulated her...

But she is not happy, because she further verified that she lived in a "lie."

She learned to dance, learned to cook, and eventually became a teacher, becoming a goddess in many people's eyes... all of it was a show.

"Chris's story is outrageous, and so is Zhou Fei's, but neither is as extreme as Britney's..."

After digesting all the memories, Wen Xishu begins to ponder some details.

He gradually adapts to the gazes around him, then puts on a fake smile.

The smile is brighter than the sunshine.

The Good People around also begin to respond to this smile, only the greedy gazes have not changed.

"Social experiment... the Good People's favorite program."

"Britney's memory has these things; it seems she really does know about the existence of the Good People."

"For her, not only is life fake, but even the actors are not real humans..."

"She came here; perhaps she came voluntarily?"

"The Good People like Britney in the program very much... this also explains why Britney is clearly here but has not yet been thoroughly parasitized."

Wen Xishu is not sure; regarding Britney's past, more memory clues are needed.

However, the trigger condition for unlocking memories is not strict; Wen Xishu didn't really search deeply for memories, but he already has an understanding of the pasts of all three.

But regarding the Good People, Wen Xishu doesn't yet have enough understanding.

"I may have underestimated the influence of the Good People; now it seems that the souls erased in this soul concentration camp are already quite numerous."

"In addition, I guessed earlier that the Good People are a hive mind... controlled by a Queen Bee. However, they have appropriately retained some self-consciousness."

"If this guess holds... the Good People collectively liking Britney might not be because Britney is truly so flawless that she captivates everyone."

"But rather, the Good People's master, that first-generation being, the Queen Bee, the Insect Queen-like character, likes Britney?"

"But I cannot be careless because of this..."

Wen Xishu has not forgotten Rule Four: they like xxx things, their desire for xxxxx, after xxx reaches the limit, xxxxxxx.

Although the rule is mostly obscured, Wen Xishu can guess... as an existence that "they" like, Britney's fate will likely not be very good.

Must escape.

The qualified ones this time are perhaps the three: "Zhou Fei," "Chris," and "Britney."

Must let these three escape.

But to escape from here, one must not only understand the terrain but also have enough understanding of the Good People.

Wen Xishu begins to formulate a strategy in his mind:

"Britney is the only existence capable of observing the Good People at close range."

"Undoubtedly, I must use Zhou Fei to interpret the rules and remember the terrain, and use Chris to break through certain hard obstacles."

"But just this is not enough; I must also find a way to know the enemy's weaknesses and characteristics..."

Wen Xishu's biggest problem right now is that he knows too little about the Good People faction.

He is also wondering which constellation's handiwork the Good People might be.

Wen Xishu's thoughts soon shift, because a little guy has appeared in the courtyard.

It is a cat. There are actually pets in this courtyard. The cat is constantly sniffing around on the ground.

He looks at the cat thoughtfully.

And the others in the courtyard turn a blind eye to the cat.

Because even this cat is wearing a zebra-striped hospital gown. This is clearly a parasitized cat.

"The cat was also parasitized? That's why they aren't curious?"

Wen Xishu feels this seems to be a clue.

Time passes second by second, and the bright sunshine soon turns dark red; the sunset is about to fall.

Dinner time has arrived.

Dinner in the Severe Symptom Zone and Moderate Symptom Zone is eaten in an extremely enclosed environment.

But the Mild Symptom Zone is not; the Mild Symptom Zone is in a spacious and clean cafeteria.

Wen Xishu manipulates Britney, looking at the food in the bowl; it is all very normal food that meets human appetite and physical needs.

This makes Wen Xishu feel very magical.

"Is it the price of occupying a human body? Although the body is controlled, it must also bear the desires of this body."

Regarding the Good People, Wen Xishu currently only has the following guesses—

He guesses that the Good People have a kind of "empathy," just as he can hear the sound of those bugs crawling inside other quasi-Good People.

They uniformly serve a certain will and can be replaced by that will.

But at the same time, when not replaced, they retain a small portion of self-will. This is the difference between each Good Person.

But although there are differences, some of their sensations are actually shared, which makes their movements sometimes abnormally neat.

Of course, everything is a guess; Wen Xishu cannot formulate a plan based on guesses.

However, Wen Xishu's guess is soon verified.

In the place where dinner is enjoyed, Wen Xishu sees an interesting scene, and only from Britney's perspective can one see these details at such close range.

Because of the queue, some Good People eat first, and Wen Xishu's gaze also falls on a white coat who is eating dinner.

"That white coat... before it was parasitized and became a Good Person, it seems he liked spicy food very much."

The food of the Good People is different.

"Interesting; from this point of view, although the Good People have to learn human behavior... but in fact, after they are parasitized, they still retain some of the original owner's habits, or rather, desires."

"Some people like sweet, some like salty, and some like spicy."

"And looking at the food... this food is normal human food; they are Good People, but they eat no differently from humans!"

The most critical point, Wen Xishu discovers... when the white coat is enjoying food full of chili peppers, some Good People subconsciously make a "hiss" sound as if they were burned by the spice.

Others begin to drool.

Empathy...

Wen Xishu is certain that these Good People indeed have shared sensations; this guess has been confirmed.

"At the same time, I can also conclude that the mother body can cut off sensations with certain individuals."

"Although it is the mother body, because of empathy, it is very likely to cut off the connection with most of the insect swarm."

This is very natural; if Wen Xishu were a first-generation vampire who bit a bunch of second-generation vampires... and everyone had the same sensations.

Then Wen Xishu would certainly find a way to cut off the connection with certain second-generation beings.

To give a simple example, the first generation doesn't eat cilantro, but the second generation likes to eat cilantro crazily...

The first generation would naturally have to cut off a part of the sensory connection with this second-generation being, at least cut off the taste sharing, to avoid being disgusted by cilantro himself.

It is just like that now.

Many Good People don't like spicy food and cast suspicious glances at the white coat eating spicy food.

And many Good People who love spicy food show the iconic fake Good Person smile at that white coat Good Person.

In the entire cafeteria, some people are nauseous from time to time, and some are drooling from time to time.

This scene is too interesting, giving Wen Xishu confidence all of a sudden.

The most interesting thing is that when that cat subconsciously eats the food dropped on the ground according to its habits, all the white coats begin to retch.

"So... I can at least determine that the mother body, um, the Great Good Person, is not omnipresent; if it linked every Good Person, I'm afraid just processing the information would take quite a while."

"And, I also discovered that every Good Person still retains a portion of the original owner's desires."

"And when one person feels appetite surge, other Good People will also have cravings."

"This is the breakthrough point!"

With all the clues strung together, Wen Xishu has already thought of the framework for the escape plan.

"The Benevolent One is truly a trump card."

Although the Great Good Person is not omnipresent, Wen Xishu doesn't know if the Great Good Person, this final boss, is watching them.

However, Wen Xishu can be certain... when all the Good People look at Britney with greedy gazes in unison, at that moment, the Great Good Person must also be watching.

"It likes Britney; Britney is the bait to lure its attention away."

"But it's not enough; Britney must attract more firepower."

(End of chapter)