Chapter 237: The Wise Man's Mystery

Successive breakthroughs across several stages caused Zhou Fei’s ability values to soar.

Among them were even some abnormal abilities that Wen Xishu found extremely astonishing and felt were somewhat overpowered.

Memory accumulation directly reached the fifth stage.

The character of the Wise Man was thus maxed out by Wen Xishu.

Wen Xishu even felt... that with Zhou Fei’s current skills, using them merely to escape an area made the game seem a bit too simple.

Of course, he also didn't know how strong these "Kind People" really were, or what kind of role the "Kind Person" behind the scenes played. Therefore, Wen Xishu remained very vigilant.

But for the moment, Wen Xishu was indeed shocked by Zhou Fei’s uniqueness.

There are many ways to play a game.

Some people feel that playing according to the developers' requirements is called playing. Others feel that if one can find a cheat, modifying it according to one's own preferences is called playing.

Of course, there are also some people who like to dig into the underlying code; their way of playing games is to lock horns with the programmers, look at various code packages in advance, guess the subsequent direction of the game, and violently crack hidden game plots, obtaining extremely difficult-to-trigger plot content by extracting dialogue text.

Wen Xishu now had something of the latter's vibe.

It was initially not difficult to obtain the memories of the three people from the Kind People Hall. But the further one went, the more demanding the trigger conditions became.

The early-stage memories, Zhou Fei’s past, were very easy to trigger.

A top student, a pitiful child whose parents went abroad, who was not cared for by his uncle’s family, and who eventually came to the Kind People Hall because of a glimmer of kindness.

This was Zhou Fei’s past.

Comparing it, everything seemed to make sense.

This is just like the past of another character—Britney; if one didn't dig deep, one would know that Britney had a well-off family background, her parents died in an accident, and in her depression, she came to the Kind People Hall...

It also seemed quite reasonable.

But soon, Britney’s past was overturned.

Because upon further digging, Wen Xishu discovered the truth about Britney—living in a city wrapped in Kind People and True Humans.

Living in a giant lie.

The story changed from an ordinary version to a thriller version.

At this very moment, Wen Xishu also discovered through bug-exploiting that Zhou Fei’s memories seemed to overturn some things.

Making Zhou Fei’s story also change from that kind of urban top-student-style short drama... into another, somewhat eerie style.

In the memories recounted by Zhou Fei, there was a segment like this, and it was this segment that caught Wen Xishu’s attention.

"I often can't distinguish between dreams and reality. Sometimes I clearly feel that I have done many things... but suddenly I wake up."

"Everything I did before, as I opened my eyes and found myself in bed... was all overturned."

"I was told I have sleepwalking disorder."

So, Zhou Fei’s sleepwalking disorder wasn't faked? It was real?

Wen Xishu felt something was wrong, because in a drugged state, he was indeed affected by the drugs, but in Zhou Fei’s sleepwalking state, he felt everything was normal. He could conduct normal surveying.

"It’s as if I feel everything I am experiencing now might be sleepwalking."

"My life seems to have two segments of experience. If I say this, you might think I’m crazy. Sometimes I even suspect I’m crazy myself."

"When I was a child, I saw my father molting."

The word "molting," when applied to a human, seemed slightly eerie.

Some guesses formed in Wen Xishu’s mind.

"Layers of skin started to be torn off by him bit by bit; after tearing them off, he looked at me with a bloody face."

"I was terrified at the time."

"But the next second, I opened my eyes. I was lying in bed, and my father and mother were feeding me medicine. They told me I was sleepwalking."

"Similar things actually happened; I remember once, on the way home, a child’s shadow became very strange... his shadow turned into a winding thing that looked like a snake."

"I suspected I had seen wrong, so I called out to him."

"But the moment he turned around, I was terrified; his face was split open."

"Although I felt afraid, I really wanted to get closer to observe, but when I really intended to get closer..."

"I woke up."

"I returned to the bed at home, I was lying under the covers, everything was very warm."

"No split face, no strange human molting."

"Father was fine; I even pinched his face, and he showed a loving expression, no different from usual."

"But that very day, Father and Mother received a mission, saying they were going to investigate some mysterious things. They needed to leave for a long time."

"So I was arranged to go to my uncle’s house."

"At my uncle’s house, I had a cousin named Zhou Ming. Zhou Ming’s academic talent was very average... it was the kind where even if he studied frantically, hired famous tutors, and was himself very hardworking and loved learning..."

"He would likely only be able to get mediocre grades."

"In my memory, Zhou Ming was jealous of me, and my uncle was also jealous of me. Because I was smarter than Zhou Ming."

"My story, at first glance, looks like I was always crushing Zhou Ming, but in order not to be oppressed, I finally chose to endure and show weakness, only bursting out during the college entrance exam."

"That is how the outside world advertised it."

"But the truth is actually not like that. I disdained showing weakness. I once tried hard to befriend Zhou Ming."

"My uncle did indeed use some drugs on me, but those drugs had no effect on me... perhaps it is hard for you to understand, I seem to feel that I have been taking medicine since I was a child."

"This might be an illusion, but I do... often wake up suddenly."

"Back to the point, I kept repairing my relationship with Zhou Ming, I started teaching him to study, I even thought about deliberately showing weakness to give Zhou Ming some confidence so he wouldn't be scolded by my uncle."

"You know, there is a kind of idiot in this world; they are not capable themselves, but when their child can't compare to someone else's child, they will get angry at the child."

"During that time, I was thinking, perhaps I could progress together with Zhou Ming."

"In my second and third year of high school, my grades started to slide continuously. Actually, it wasn't because of the drugs, nor was it like the outside world said, that I was deliberately showing weakness..."

"It was because I knew that by doing this, my uncle would be better to me, and there would be less pressure on Zhou Ming."

"Zhou Ming could actually get into a school that people thought was pretty good if he performed normally."

"But if I performed too excellently, it would put too much pressure on him. Because although parents explicitly forbid children from comparing material things, they constantly compare children’s grades."

"I didn't want to pressure Zhou Ming."

"My relationship with Zhou Ming also eased... no, it had a big breakthrough, because one day, he apologized to me!"

"No... it’s all fake, it’s all fake, I never did that. Zhou Ming never apologized to me either..."

Zhou Fei pressed his head, appearing somewhat pained:

"It’s all fake? No... how could it all be fake! Zhou Ming even promised to tell me a secret!"

"No... fake, after I wake up, Zhou Ming is still the same as before!"

"Is it real or is it fake?"

Wen Xishu did not expect Zhou Fei’s memories to be like this.

Zhou Fei presented a sense of madness, unable to distinguish between dreams and reality.

"What exactly is real?"

This sentence seemed to also stimulate Chris, who was being controlled by Wen Xishu at the moment.

He actually subconsciously recited this sentence as well:

"What... what exactly is real?"

Margaret.

War, invasion, treatment, psychologist...

Hiss.

Wen Xishu felt his head ache a little.

Zhou Fei was the same at this moment:

"Zhou Ming apologized to me, said sorry to me, and said he would tell me something very important one day."

"But everything... everything ended when I woke up."

"I am afraid of waking up! I am afraid of suddenly opening my eyes, lying in bed, and everything I worked for being overturned!"

"I hate my sleepwalking disorder! I really hate why I suffer from such an illness."

"Why can't it just be simple sleepwalking? Why does it also make me experience a completely different world?"

"No, that’s not it either, it’s not completely different, it’s just that some places are terrifying, but generally it is the same."

"In that world, Zhou Ming seemed to have made a great determination; I felt that at that moment, Zhou Ming was very real, whereas in the other world... Zhou Ming seemed to be performing deliberately."

"No... no, I was wrong, it’s not like that... actually it’s all my imagination, Zhou Ming... Zhou Ming is just that kind of person."

"His whole family is disgusting! They are all disgusting!"

"After I came here, the doctor told me to think less and sleep more."

"For a while, I felt that after I took their medicine, I started to get better."

"But I still dare not believe which side is real, because... because I feel they are not human."

"Just like what you said to me, they are parasitizing us."

"I want to escape from here... many times when I open my eyes, I am thinking, if I open my eyes and suddenly wake up, will I return to the previous home?"

"Is everything just a long sleepwalk?"

"I am always very careful."

"Because I discovered that every time I encounter something strange, or even something that can be called eerie and terrifying... I will suddenly wake up!"

"And then my world becomes normal, and everyone is as annoying as ever!"

"But after coming here, I feel again... that this place is full of eerie and terrifying things; I try my best to deny them, I don't want to let myself wake up too quickly..."

It is self-contradictory.

Wen Xishu noticed that Zhou Fei was desperate to escape this place.

The way to escape this place was to wake up.

Because in the past, every time Zhou Fei encountered something bizarre—a child with a splitting face, a brother who suddenly apologized, a father who shed his skin...

He would suddenly wake up and learn that everything was just a dream.

That is why Zhou Fei feared this place and wanted to wake up.

But Zhou Fei also wanted to figure everything out, to avoid waking up.

So Zhou Fei tried his best to deny certain things, pretending not to know about them, thinking that by doing so, he would not have to wake up.

Wen Xishu also suddenly understood why, at the beginning, the person named Zhou Ming existed in Zhou Fei's memories.

The secret that Zhou Ming wanted to uncover might be a key.

At this moment, Zhou Fei seemed to truly be unable to distinguish between reality and dreams.

He even thought that sometimes he would dream within a dream.

But Wen Xishu was an observer; he knew that Zhou Fei was in a state of reality right now.

Now, he could roughly divide Zhou Fei's world into the sleepwalking line and the waking line.

The sleepwalking line always ended in a rush.

In the waking line, the older brother never liked his younger brother Zhou Fei, and the uncle was an even more stereotypical brainless villain.

And Zhou Fei, plagued by distress, could not tell where the sleepwalking ended and where reality began.

However, it seemed that Zhou Fei's heart leaned toward the idea that the waking line was real.

Zhou Fei held his head in great pain as he recounted everything.

Without a doubt, Zhou Fei had made a firm decision; otherwise, he would not have exposed his own pain and madness.

Wen Xishu said:

"Zhou Fei, perhaps you are not sleepwalking at all."

Zhou Fei was confused, still squatting outside the door of the confinement room while holding his head.

Wen Xishu said:

"Have you ever thought that both experiences are actually real, and it is just that every time, the other party used a brutal and identical method to end your prying into the truth of this world?"

"Every time you saw something, something that did not fit your understanding, your fate was to wake up from bed..."

"Coupled with your familiarity with medication—I think you really have been taking some drugs. These drugs have severed a part of your perception of reality."

"When you come into contact with the truth, someone forces you to fall asleep. Then you wake up... and attribute everything to sleepwalking."

Zhou Fei was shocked:

"Both... both experiences are real?"

Wen Xishu said:

"Actually, there are not two experiences; it is just one experience. The environment you live in has not changed... which makes it even harder for you to distinguish."

"You saw your father shed his skin; that was real, but it led to you coming into contact with the real world too early, and someone does not want you to know these things..."

"So you were controlled by some kind of drug. After the effects wore off, you woke up, and you thought everything was a dream."

"A certain child was unstable and seemed not to have adapted to its new body yet, so it exposed itself in front of you."

"This also led to you seeing what you shouldn't have, so you were controlled by drugs once again. After the effects wore off, you woke up."

"Zhou Ming is the same; Zhou Ming tried to tell you the truth, and he saw everything you went through."

"But without a doubt, some kind of will does not want you to know the truth."

"They made you go crazy just so you would continue to play the role of the Zhou Fei they want you to be."

Zhou Fei was stunned; he tried to accept this reality, but he was also afraid of suddenly waking up.

Wen Xishu seemed to know Zhou Fei's worries:

"You will not wake up. Because you are not in a dream at all, Zhou Fei; this is reality."

Zhou Fei was confused:

"If it is as you say... what kind of environment am I living in?"

This was also the question currently troubling Wen Xishu.

Britney and Zhou Fei both seemed to live in a world where "monsters wear human skin" and a large number of them impersonate humans.

Wen Xishu had indeed experienced this world before, back in the time turbulence.

Of course, it might not be the same world.

But Wen Xishu always felt that perhaps the world that ate children and the world where Britney and Zhou Fei were... might not be the same, but the master behind them and the associated constellation might be the same.

This was a constellation with an extremely vast influence, and this constellation likely controlled several cities, with a very high rate of dominance over these cities.

Unlike places like Jiangcheng, Moen, and Hujiang, where multiple forces existed.

But Wen Xishu could feel that the cities occupied by this constellation seemed to have no other forces.

Almost an entire city was cooperating with its arrangements.

For example, with Britney, everyone was following orders to let Britney live in a carefully crafted lie, making everything about Britney seem like a show.

She was the only one who was unaware.

The feeling it gave Wen Xishu was that the forces behind the scenes went to great lengths to make Zhou Fei and Britney believe that the world they originally lived in was normal.

Wen Xishu had also thought, could it be that the operating style of this constellation was to try to let everyone live in a city full of monsters without noticing anything unusual?

But he quickly overturned this thought:

"The Hall of Goodness, a place that transforms humans into 'good people.' It erased the differences in many people's souls. This is a concentration camp for souls."

"Logically speaking, the story's direction at the beginning was for me to let Zhou Fei, Chris, and Britney, who were about to become 'good people,' escape this place."

"But this is the strange part. In the process of exploring, I noticed one thing—the monsters' influence is huge, and monsters have already spread throughout the entire Demon City."

"It can be said that monsters have already ruled the Demon City. Then why go through the trouble of slowly converting Zhou Fei and the others?"

"Wouldn't it be better to just kill the three of them? Why go to such great lengths to deceive and hide things from Zhou Fei and Britney, not letting them know of the monsters' existence?"

Wen Xishu felt that through Zhou Fei's memories, he seemed to be very close to the truth.

"Zhou Fei, Chris, and Britney are all different from ordinary people."

"So, there is a reason why I can control the three of them and not others."

"And it is precisely because of the uniqueness of the three of them... that the person behind the scenes pays special attention to them?"

"Think about it carefully, if Zhou Fei's abilities were used to climb the Bizarre Tower, they would actually be very overpowered. If these abilities were resident on him and he could use them proficiently himself... then Zhou Fei would definitely be a sharp tool for deciphering the bizarre."

"So that person tried to weave their lives, letting them think they lived in a normal world?"

"But it failed in the end; Britney and Zhou Fei both sensed something was wrong. Was that why they were sent to the Hall of Goodness as a last resort?"

The truth was elusive, and everything was just Wen Xishu's personal speculation.

But Wen Xishu was becoming increasingly interested in the truth.

"Zhou Fei, I will control you from now on. Don't worry, I will definitely uncover the truth you want."

The memories of Zhou Fei and Britney made Wen Xishu notice a key point—

This city was full of monsters, and the monsters were disguised as humans. The situation he was most worried about had already become reality...

Assuming this was the work of a certain constellation, then that constellation's execution was truly astonishing.

At this very moment, Wen Xishu's perspective had already come to Zhou Fei.

Zhou Fei, who was deeply confused and unable to distinguish between reality and dreams, had eyes that gradually became sharp.

"Hello, Chris."

Inside the confinement room, Chris said in surprise:

"Who are you?"

"My name is Wen Xishu, and I am the person who has come to save you and help you leave this place."

Britney in the mild-symptom area and Zhou Fei in the moderate-symptom area had already allowed Wen Xishu to make some gains regarding the truth.

Wen Xishu had a premonition that Chris's memories might be able to help him solve the puzzle.

(End of chapter)