Chapter 235: The Truman Show

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

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 never touched that concealment talisman; he is still waiting for the right moment.

These are long, drawn-out hours.

In the past, when Wen Xishu entered a Strange Tower, he might have solved the mystery in a few hours, perhaps even entering the Desire Tower by then.

But this time, he simply waits patiently.

While Wen Xishu is manipulating Zhou Fei and waiting for results, several more people suddenly wake up in the ward.

The moment they wake, they seem to still possess some of their own consciousness, but just like that old tea seller...

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 shortly 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 are large... If there were really that many large 'thems' inside my body, I would have died long ago."

"So these sounds are perhaps not captured by hearing."

"Few people can hear the sound of a flea jumping, but if the flea itself had ears, it would certainly be able to hear it."

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

"Perhaps they have already occupied a portion, which allows me to establish a connection with them when they crawl."

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

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

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

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

It 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 absurd, is not hard 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 someone bitten by a vampire becomes a new vampire.

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 control them directly; the second generation is his avatar.

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

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

They can even possess shared sensations.

For example, if the first generation has an orgasm, the other second generations 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 very much like a first-generation now...

And Zhou Fei, Chris, and Britney are three second generations.

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

The four of them are working together to deal with another "first generation" of the same structure.

Wen Xishu decides to temporarily call the boss hiding in the shadows the "Great Good Person."

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

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

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

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

Theoretically, the ending with the highest completion rate must be defeating a mastermind entity like a "Zerg Queen," "Ant Queen," or "Bee Queen."

But right now, Wen Xishu is really not confident.

"First, find a way to find the path to leave."

Wen Xishu has already figured out much of the layout of 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."

It must be said that 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 where Britney is.

Under Wen Xishu’s control, Zhou Fei soon returns to his hospital bed.

The "sleepwalking" is over.

Wen Xishu did not arouse suspicion.

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

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

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

"But... it is 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" for a short time, 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 again. 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 in hospital gowns playing and frolicking in the courtyard.

That old tea seller is among them.

It is just that, like everyone else, the old tea seller’s hospital gown has changed to a different style.

When Wen Xishu gets up at this moment, he realizes 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, although also a hospital gown, have no stripes at all.

They are purely white.

"I didn't notice it 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 is really not used to this state; it is 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 a vanity mirror, Wen Xishu examines her carefully.

This is different from the blurry image quality when switching characters; now he can truly feel Britney’s beauty.

It must be said that Britney is like a person from a painting, even if she is just glancing in the mirror casually.

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

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

But Britney is very close to their level.

"With this appearance, if I were to mix into the Desire Tower, I 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.

The child from last time was targeted by a white coat because he didn't open his mouth while chanting the Standards for Being a Good Pupil and Child.

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

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

However, why these real people are here leaves Wen Xishu somewhat puzzled.

"Perhaps the Hall of Good People also keeps some real people, just for personality modification, using electrocution, coercion, and intimidation... to make real humans 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 find... this laughter repeats from time to time, with no fluctuation in volume or change.

Those scriptures like the Standards for Being a Good Pupil and Child are also recited in a mechanical tone, as if it were a piece of code being written into their brains.

But there are a few among them who appear very natural, who think, and who frown because they cannot remember what to chant for a moment.

These few are the real humans.

They are almost all children.

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

It could be said that the few uncanny feelings in the mild-symptom zone stemmed from the collective actions of the Good People.

When real humans—those children—did not perform neatly enough, the Good People would collectively turn to look at them with the same frequency of movement.

"These 'Good People' aren't playing; they are performing a final 'break-in' to be more like real humans."

Wen Xishu thought of his experience controlling Zhou Fei and Chris not long ago.

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

"To turn people into Good People, besides implanting eggs, it seems one must also slowly make them muddled."

"This actually has quite a sense of 'goodness is ignorance'."

Good People Hall sounds like a Longxia name, but I don't know in which city this Good People Hall is opened.

"If there were no bunker players, then this city would truly be miserable... These Good People will sooner or later completely 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 the act of being human."

When Wen Xishu controlled Britney to walk out of her room and arrive in the courtyard...

"They" all looked at Britney in unison again.

Only, unlike the gaze directed at those children... these gazes appeared extremely greedy.

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

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

That sense of discomfort from Britney was also transmitted to Wen Xishu. Under the stimulation of this feeling, some new memories were unlocked.

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

These titles in book titles appeared 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, leading to depression.

Her family background was well-off, but she was very playful when she was young. Aside from being playful, she had no other shortcomings and loved helping others...

Combining these things together made Wen Xishu realize something was wrong.

Britney didn't like studying, yet she became a teacher...

And those flashing titles—words like "Playful Britney" and "Social Experiment"—stimulated 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 was so special and why she could be so well-liked in this area seemed to have been found.

Magic City.

This could be considered Wen Xishu unlocking a new city in the Three Towers world.

Britney’s memories were not complex, but they were absurd enough.

From childhood to adulthood, Britney had lived in a huge, meticulously woven scam.

All her friends and family, all her social relationships... were entirely fake.

Her daily encounters were all exposed through countless hidden cameras.

Simply put, everything about Britney was a script.

But she herself did not know.

The direction of Britney’s life would be decided by audience votes.

What kind of person Britney would become, who she would fall in love with, when her parents would die—it was all a program.

Not long ago, Britney’s parents died in a car accident; this was actually just for the show's effect. Because everyone was tired of watching Britney’s joy and wanted to see her vulnerability.

Britney began to suffer from depression.

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

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

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

One could even say that the death of her parents was something she had orchestrated herself.

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

She said that nothing sad would ever happen in her life, and that no one would ever see her tears.

As a result, these words quickly stimulated the audience, and so, the audience voted for the death of Britney’s parents...

In a sense, Britney had reverse-manipulated those who manipulated her...

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

She learned to dance, learned to cook, eventually became a teacher, and became a goddess in the eyes of many... all of it was a performance.

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

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

He gradually adapted to the surrounding gazes and then put on a fake smile.

The smile was brighter than the sunshine.

The surrounding Good People also began to respond to this smile, though their greedy gazes had not changed in the slightest.

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

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

"For her, not only was life fake, but even the actors were not real humans..."

"She came here—perhaps she came here on her own initiative?"

"The Good People really like the Britney in the program... This explains why Britney is here yet hasn't been completely parasitized."

Wen Xishu was not sure; he needed more memory clues regarding Britney’s past.

However, the trigger conditions for unlocking memories were not strict; Wen Xishu hadn't searched very deeply for memories, but he already had an understanding of the pasts of all three.

But regarding the Good People, Wen Xishu did not yet have enough understanding.

"I may have underestimated the influence of the Good People. Looking at it now, the number of souls erased in this soul concentration camp is already not small."

"Additionally, my previous guess that the Good People are a hive mind... controlled by a queen bee, is likely correct. Though 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 flawlessly captivating to everyone."

"But rather, because the master of the Good People, that primary species, the queen bee, that Zerg queen-like character, likes Britney?"

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

Wen Xishu had not forgotten Rule Four: when they like something, their desire to xxxxx, after xxx reaches its limit, xxxxxxx.

Although the rule was mostly obscured, Wen Xishu could guess... as an existence that "they" like, Britney’s fate would likely not be very good.

Must escape.

The qualified ones this time are likely 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 understand the Good People well enough.

Wen Xishu began to formulate a strategy in his mind:

"Britney is the only one who can observe 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 still have to find a way to know the enemy’s weaknesses and characteristics..."

Wen Xishu’s biggest problem at the moment is that he knows too little about the faction of the Good People.

He was also wondering which constellation’s handiwork the Good People might be.

Wen Xishu’s thoughts quickly shifted because there was an extra little fellow in the courtyard.

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

He looked at the cat thoughtfully.

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

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

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

Wen Xishu felt this seemed to be a clue.

Time passed minute by minute, and the bright sunshine soon turned dark red; the sunset was about to fall.

Dinner time had arrived.

Dinner in the severe-symptom zone and moderate-symptom zone was eaten in extremely enclosed environments.

But the mild-symptom zone was not; the mild-symptom zone was in a spacious and clean cafeteria.

Wen Xishu controlled Britney, looking at the food in the bowl; it was all very normal food that met human appetite and physical needs.

This made Wen Xishu feel it was very magical.

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

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

He guessed that the Good People have some kind of "empathy," just as he could 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 individuality of each Good Person.

But although there is individuality, some of their feelings are actually shared, which makes their movements sometimes abnormally uniform.

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

However, Wen Xishu’s guess was soon verified.

In the place where dinner was enjoyed, Wen Xishu saw an interesting scene, and only from Britney’s perspective could he see these details at such close range.

Because of the queue, some Good People would eat first, and Wen Xishu’s gaze also fell on a person in a white coat who was eating dinner.

"That person in the white coat... before it was parasitized and became a Benevolent One, he seemed to like eating spicy food."

The food of the Benevolent Ones is different.

"Interesting. From this point of view, although the Benevolent Ones have to learn human behavior... after the parasitism is complete, they actually retain some of the original host's habits, or rather, desires."

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

"And looking at the food... this food is normal human food; they are Benevolent Ones, yet they eat no differently from humans!"

The most crucial point Wen Xishu discovered was... when the one in the white coat enjoyed food full of chili peppers, some Benevolent Ones would subconsciously make a "hissing" sound from the spiciness.

Others started to drool.

Empathic connection...

Wen Xishu was certain that these Benevolent Ones indeed shared common sensations; this hypothesis had been confirmed.

"At the same time, I can also conclude that the Mother can sever sensations with certain individuals."

"Although it is the Mother, because of the empathic connection, it is very likely to sever the connection with the majority of the swarm."

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

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

To give a simple example, the first-generation specimen doesn't eat cilantro, but the second-generation specimen loves to eat it like crazy...

The first-generation specimen would naturally have to sever part of the sensory connection with this second-generation specimen, at least severing the shared sense of taste, to avoid being disgusted by the cilantro itself.

That is exactly the situation now.

Many Benevolent Ones who don't like spicy food cast puzzled glances at the one in the white coat who was eating spicy food.

And many Benevolent Ones who love spicy food showed that signature fake Benevolent One smile toward that Benevolent One in the white coat.

Throughout the cafeteria, some people were nauseous from time to time, while others were drooling from time to time.

This scene was so interesting that it suddenly gave Wen Xishu confidence.

The most interesting thing was that when that cat, following its habits, subconsciously ate the food that had fallen on the ground, all the ones in white coats began to retch.

"So... I can at least confirm that the Mother, hmm, the Great Benevolent One, is not omnipresent. If it were linked to every single Benevolent One, I'm afraid it would take quite a while just to process the information."

"And, I also discovered that every Benevolent One still retains a portion of the original host's desires."

"And when one person feels an appetite surge, the other Benevolent Ones will also have cravings."

"This is the breakthrough point!"

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

"The Benevolent One is truly a trump card."

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

However, Wen Xishu can be certain... when all the Benevolent Ones looked at Britney with greedy eyes in unison, at that moment, the Great Benevolent One was definitely watching too.

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

"But that's not enough; Britney still needs to attract more firepower."

(End of chapter)