Chapter 184: Connected from the beginning to the end. Forming its own world.
After listening to Wen Jianyan’s narrative, the entire underground tomb fell into silence.
“Wait… wait, what?”
Blond and others looked dazed with their mouths agape, overwhelmed by the amount of information in the other party’s words. Their minds were in disarray, almost losing the ability to speak.
“So, you’re saying…”
Su Cheng pressed his temple, organizing his thoughts, trying to keep up with the other’s train of thought, “These seven high-risk patients were all manufactured? The whole ‘Ouroborous’ project was meant to create a god…?”
“Yes.”
Wen Jianyan nodded briefly.
“How will it be created then?” Shao Yao furrowed her brow, “By using witchcraft and killing each other?”
“Unfortunately, that possibility is unlikely.”
Wen Jianyan sighed.
Based on his previous experiences dealing with these seven patients, although their relationship wasn’t exactly harmonious or friendly, there wasn’t a trend of outright hostility between them. Even due to the setting of the mental world within the instance, conflicts among the high-risk individuals were somewhat avoided.
“So, what’s going on then?” Shao Yao looked puzzled, pressing for more information.
“There’s too little evidence now, and even if there are speculations, they’re meaningless.”
Wen Jianyan shrugged, averting his gaze.
As the teammate who had gone through the most instances with Wen Jianyan, Su Cheng knew that this meant he already had some answers to the question in his mind but just hadn’t found conclusive evidence yet.
This guy was best at manipulating everyone with his words and equally adept at keeping silent. If he truly had no intention of sharing his guesses, then no one could pry the information out of him.
“Alright,” seeing Wen Jianyan’s reluctance to discuss further, Su Cheng sighed and said, “What do we do next then?”
Blond suggested, “The inner world has ended; should we go up?”
Shao Yao glanced back at the now quiet and dark passage behind them and said, “The zombies over there should have quieted down by now. If we’re cautious, we should be able to safely go up.”
“…”
Wen Jianyan didn’t reply immediately. He kept his eyes lowered, deep in thought. The rest of the group’s gaze fell upon him, and after a while, he slowly spoke up:
“Have any of you noticed that this time’s clue is very vague? It didn’t tell us how to complete the ultimate mainline task.”
According to the mechanism in the Nightmare Live Room, after collecting all the items, the instance would provide hints for the progress of the ultimate mainline task.
The last time Wen Jianyan triggered this mechanism was in the Decai Middle School instance. The hint at that time was “Return the items to their original place, and all will end,” which was simple to understand: returning the items to their original locations would end everything.
However, this time, the hint was quite different.
Upon hearing this, the others’ expressions slightly darkened, realizing the same point.
Indeed.
【Seven chimes, connected from the beginning to the end.
The brain in the vat, forming its own world.】
This passage didn’t provide any clues related to “completing the task.”
“However, the absence of a hint is also a kind of hint.”
Wen Jianyan redirected the conversation.
“In other words, the content of the ultimate mainline task is closely related to the secret of this instance. To complete the task, we must understand the core mechanism of the instance.”
“Are you suggesting we don’t go up yet?” Su Cheng asked.
Wen Jianyan nodded. “Yes.”
He lowered his gaze, looking at the open stone coffin in front of him, his eyes resting on the crooked carvings, and said, “There are still mysteries here to unravel.”
Why was Reese’s name engraved on the coffin?
Following this logic… would the other high-risk patients also have corresponding coffins?
“Look for other coffins.”
Next, Wen Jianyan repeated the names of several other high-risk patients as quickly as possible and asked them to write them down, and then he said: “If you find a coffin with these names carved on it, call me.”
“Okay.”
The group exchanged glances, nodded, and dispersed.
Wen Jianyan looked at Shao Yao, speaking gently:
“I have no right to demand what you do next; you are free to act.”
After all, Shao Yao hadn’t activated the ultimate mainline task, wasn’t subject to the mechanism of dying upon mission failure, and wasn’t bound to this team. For her, the primary objective remained accumulating points to leave the instance, rather than risking it all to explore hidden pathways.
Shao Yao also understood this principle.
She nodded. “Thank you; take care.”
With that said, Shao Yao turned and walked toward her teammates, preparing to try and wake them from their unconsciousness.
At that moment, from the side came Blond’s voice, “Over here! I found it!”
“Me too!” Su Cheng’s voice came from another direction.
So fast?
“Coming.”
Wen Jianyan snapped back to attention and hurried over as quickly as possible.
It wasn’t that these two had exceptional talent for finding things; it was just that these names were relatively easy to find.
Throughout the entire underground tomb, there wasn’t a single corpse. All the stone coffins were empty. After pushing open the coffin lids, the names were mostly carved crookedly on the backs of the lids, making them easy to recognize.
Once they understood the pattern, finding them wasn’t difficult. So, the group quickly located all the coffins with these names engraved on them.
“Over here, this one, and these two coffins are together.”
Blond pointed to the coffins nearby and then nodded in Su Cheng’s direction, not far away, saying, “The remaining two are over there with Su Cheng.”
The positions of these coffins…
Wen Jianyan paused for a moment, almost experiencing a brief moment of dizziness.
“Stay here and don’t move. Wait for me.”
He hurriedly instructed, then turned and walked briskly toward the entrance of the underground tomb.
Though Blond and Su Cheng didn’t understand, they followed Wen Jianyan’s instructions and stayed in place.
Wen Jianyan counted his steps as he walked, finally stopping at the entrance and looking back into the vast underground tomb.
In his mind, two maps slowly overlapped.
They were identical.
The entire underground tomb and the hidden laboratory on the seventh floor of Ping An Asylum were exactly the same size.
And the positions of these coffins corresponded perfectly to the five wards in the laboratory.
It could be said that there was no difference at all.
At that moment, Wen Jianyan felt a chill run straight up his spine. It was hard for him to pinpoint where this physiological sensation originated from—perhaps fear or maybe excitement.
“Connected from the beginning to the end,” he muttered.
The laboratory on the seventh floor was the “beginning,” where the seven monsters were created, marking the starting point.
The underground tomb hidden in the depths of the church was the “end,” filled with corpses, coffins, and death, marking the end.
…like a snake biting its own tail, a perfect, never-ending circle.
Nearby, Su Cheng’s voice sounded puzzled, “Hey! Are we done? Can we move now?”
His voice snapped Wen Jianyan out of his thoughts. He nodded absentmindedly and said, “…Yes, you can.”
Blond and Su Cheng exchanged a glance and walked over to Wen Jianyan’s direction.
“What are you thinking?”
Su Cheng asked.
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath.
“The structure of this instance.”
Both Su Cheng and Blond looked puzzled.
“Anyway,” Wen Jianyan redirected the conversation, “do you know about the hypothetical concept of ‘brain in a vat’?”
“Uh…”
Blond blinked, hesitating. “Is it a brain floating in a vat?”
The other two: “…”
Are you the master of pointless literature?
“I think it’s some kind of hypothetical scenario,” Su Cheng said somewhat helplessly, taking over the conversation. “It suggests that since human senses fundamentally rely on neural signals transmitted to the brain, if you were to remove a human brain and place it in an isolated container, then artificially generate neural signals using a computer, the human wouldn’t be aware that they are actually in a virtual world.”
“Ah!” Blond suddenly caught on. “Like the Matrix, right?”
“Yes.”
Wen Jianyan nodded. “Do you remember what I mentioned earlier about the true form of high-risk patient 05?”
Though it chose the appearance of “Wu Zhu,” fundamentally, it was still a brain floating in a nutrient solution. Whether it was the humanoid body or the completely non-human fleshy tentacles and red membranes in the laboratory, they were all composed of neurons.
Su Cheng blinked, “Wait a minute, you mean…”
“That’s right,” Wen Jianyan took a deep breath and continued, “that’s exactly what I just speculated.”
“???” Blond looked at the two of them, feeling a bit anxious at being left out. “Wait, what are you guys talking about?”
In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:
[LMAO, I can’t keep up at all!]
[I give up; I’m lost too.]
[Me too! So what’s the anchor’s speculation?!]
[Hahaha, everyone’s lost; we’re all Blond (LOL)]
Wen Jianyan spread his arms, “What I mean is that the entire Ping An Asylum is the mental world of 05.”
In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:
[?]
[???]
[??Huh?]
Blond was also dumbfounded, “Wait, what??”
“In the Ping An Asylum instance, every high-risk patient has their own mental world, right?” Wen Jianyan asked, turning the question back. “So why doesn’t 05?”
Blond was taken aback.
Indeed… if 05 is the red membrane, then they have encountered 05 more than once, but have never entered 05’s mental world.
He shuddered as if struck by lightning, murmuring, “Because… we’ve been in it from the start.”
“So the clue tells us that ‘the brain in the vat, forming its own world,'” Wen Jianyan concluded.
Wen Jianyan squinted his eyes.
If we use The Matrix as an analogy, 05 itself was cultivated as the mother body. It didn’t have a body, only a brain, serving as a standard medium and tool.
Everyone else, whether patients or anchors, were individuals connected to the mother body.
They moved within 05’s brain and consciousness, yet were unaware that they were in a vast virtual space.
“The anchors are connected to the nearby patients’ mental worlds after the bell rings, and after the next bell disappears, we return to our original positions, as if we had just had a dream…”
“We heard the bell twice, right? Once to start, once to end.”
Wen Jianyan lifted his eyes and said slowly, “Although we’ve experienced six rounds of the inner world, in reality, we heard the bell twelve times.”
“!” Su Cheng exclaimed, suddenly realizing, “But the clue says there are seven chimes!”
“Yes,” Wen Jianyan nodded, “So I speculate that the beginning and ending chimes are actually the same. We are like being connected to the mother body, entering nearby patients’ mental worlds when the bell rings.”
So… although they heard the bell twelve times, in reality, there were only six because the time they spent in the mental world did not exist for people in the real world.
“If I were to guess, the bells are likely a measure used by the laboratory to suppress the entire ‘Ping An Asylum’ world,” Wen Jianyan said. “When the bell rings, 05 is weakened, so the anchors are connected to the mental worlds of other patients.”
So, just now, in the confession room, even though the ringing of the bell indicated the arrival of the inner world, 05 lost the ability to maintain its body and was forced to let Wen Jianyan go.
Therefore, the power balance between it and the other patients was a matter of give and take.
Before the bell rang, it was the Ping An Asylum itself, designed to restrain the other patients within it—both the building and the attendants were part of it.
But when the bell rang, it was the weakest part of the entire instance, where the patients’ power exceeded that of the asylum, beginning to construct their own mental worlds.
05 was both a prison and a nurturing dish.
It was the womb; it was the mother body.
“So, what lies before us are essentially two options,” Wen Jianyan solemnly raised a finger. “Destroy the prison.”
He lifted a second finger. “Or help the prison capture the prisoners again.”
Perhaps that’s why there were no instructions in the “hints” on how to complete the ultimate mainline task.
Because there was more than one way to complete the task.
However…
Wen Jianyan seemed to have thought of something. He fell silent, his face gradually stiffening.
Destroying the prison only required facing 05, and while the difficulty might seem lower, it also meant that the other several aberrants would be free to roam and wreak havoc.
Images of the faces of 01, 02, 03, and 04 flashed through his mind, along with their deeds…
Wen Jianyan’s face turned green.
But if he chose the other path and cooperated with 05, it not only meant having to face the others simultaneously but also…
The image of 05 with “Wu Zhu”’s face writing something on his hand flashed through his mind.
One was “eat,” and the other was “marry”… It was clear this guy wasn’t anything good either.
Wen Jianyan’s face turned even greener.
He couldn’t help but feel that for him, both of these paths… were damn pits!!!
“What’s wrong?” Su Cheng noticed Wen Jianyan’s ever-changing expression and asked, puzzled, “Have you decided what to choose?”
Wen Jianyan: “.”
To be honest…
He doesn’t want either.
Chapter 184: Connected from the beginning to the end. Forming its own world.
After listening to Wen Jianyan’s narrative, the entire underground tomb fell into silence.
“Wait… wait, what?”
Blond and others looked dazed with their mouths agape, overwhelmed by the amount of information in the other party’s words. Their minds were in disarray, almost losing the ability to speak.
“So, you’re saying…”
Su Cheng pressed his temple, organizing his thoughts, trying to keep up with the other’s train of thought, “These seven high-risk patients were all manufactured? The whole ‘Ouroborous’ project was meant to create a god…?”
“Yes.”
Wen Jianyan nodded briefly.
“How will it be created then?” Shao Yao furrowed her brow, “By using witchcraft and killing each other?”
“Unfortunately, that possibility is unlikely.”
Wen Jianyan sighed.
Based on his previous experiences dealing with these seven patients, although their relationship wasn’t exactly harmonious or friendly, there wasn’t a trend of outright hostility between them. Even due to the setting of the mental world within the instance, conflicts among the high-risk individuals were somewhat avoided.
“So, what’s going on then?” Shao Yao looked puzzled, pressing for more information.
“There’s too little evidence now, and even if there are speculations, they’re meaningless.”
Wen Jianyan shrugged, averting his gaze.
As the teammate who had gone through the most instances with Wen Jianyan, Su Cheng knew that this meant he already had some answers to the question in his mind but just hadn’t found conclusive evidence yet.
This guy was best at manipulating everyone with his words and equally adept at keeping silent. If he truly had no intention of sharing his guesses, then no one could pry the information out of him.
“Alright,” seeing Wen Jianyan’s reluctance to discuss further, Su Cheng sighed and said, “What do we do next then?”
Blond suggested, “The inner world has ended; should we go up?”
Shao Yao glanced back at the now quiet and dark passage behind them and said, “The zombies over there should have quieted down by now. If we’re cautious, we should be able to safely go up.”
“…”
Wen Jianyan didn’t reply immediately. He kept his eyes lowered, deep in thought. The rest of the group’s gaze fell upon him, and after a while, he slowly spoke up:
“Have any of you noticed that this time’s clue is very vague? It didn’t tell us how to complete the ultimate mainline task.”
According to the mechanism in the Nightmare Live Room, after collecting all the items, the instance would provide hints for the progress of the ultimate mainline task.
The last time Wen Jianyan triggered this mechanism was in the Decai Middle School instance. The hint at that time was “Return the items to their original place, and all will end,” which was simple to understand: returning the items to their original locations would end everything.
However, this time, the hint was quite different.
Upon hearing this, the others’ expressions slightly darkened, realizing the same point.
Indeed.
【Seven chimes, connected from the beginning to the end.
The brain in the vat, forming its own world.】
This passage didn’t provide any clues related to “completing the task.”
“However, the absence of a hint is also a kind of hint.”
Wen Jianyan redirected the conversation.
“In other words, the content of the ultimate mainline task is closely related to the secret of this instance. To complete the task, we must understand the core mechanism of the instance.”
“Are you suggesting we don’t go up yet?” Su Cheng asked.
Wen Jianyan nodded. “Yes.”
He lowered his gaze, looking at the open stone coffin in front of him, his eyes resting on the crooked carvings, and said, “There are still mysteries here to unravel.”
Why was Reese’s name engraved on the coffin?
Following this logic… would the other high-risk patients also have corresponding coffins?
“Look for other coffins.”
Next, Wen Jianyan repeated the names of several other high-risk patients as quickly as possible and asked them to write them down, and then he said: “If you find a coffin with these names carved on it, call me.”
“Okay.”
The group exchanged glances, nodded, and dispersed.
Wen Jianyan looked at Shao Yao, speaking gently:
“I have no right to demand what you do next; you are free to act.”
After all, Shao Yao hadn’t activated the ultimate mainline task, wasn’t subject to the mechanism of dying upon mission failure, and wasn’t bound to this team. For her, the primary objective remained accumulating points to leave the instance, rather than risking it all to explore hidden pathways.
Shao Yao also understood this principle.
She nodded. “Thank you; take care.”
With that said, Shao Yao turned and walked toward her teammates, preparing to try and wake them from their unconsciousness.
At that moment, from the side came Blond’s voice, “Over here! I found it!”
“Me too!” Su Cheng’s voice came from another direction.
So fast?
“Coming.”
Wen Jianyan snapped back to attention and hurried over as quickly as possible.
It wasn’t that these two had exceptional talent for finding things; it was just that these names were relatively easy to find.
Throughout the entire underground tomb, there wasn’t a single corpse. All the stone coffins were empty. After pushing open the coffin lids, the names were mostly carved crookedly on the backs of the lids, making them easy to recognize.
Once they understood the pattern, finding them wasn’t difficult. So, the group quickly located all the coffins with these names engraved on them.
“Over here, this one, and these two coffins are together.”
Blond pointed to the coffins nearby and then nodded in Su Cheng’s direction, not far away, saying, “The remaining two are over there with Su Cheng.”
The positions of these coffins…
Wen Jianyan paused for a moment, almost experiencing a brief moment of dizziness.
“Stay here and don’t move. Wait for me.”
He hurriedly instructed, then turned and walked briskly toward the entrance of the underground tomb.
Though Blond and Su Cheng didn’t understand, they followed Wen Jianyan’s instructions and stayed in place.
Wen Jianyan counted his steps as he walked, finally stopping at the entrance and looking back into the vast underground tomb.
In his mind, two maps slowly overlapped.
They were identical.
The entire underground tomb and the hidden laboratory on the seventh floor of Ping An Asylum were exactly the same size.
And the positions of these coffins corresponded perfectly to the five wards in the laboratory.
It could be said that there was no difference at all.
At that moment, Wen Jianyan felt a chill run straight up his spine. It was hard for him to pinpoint where this physiological sensation originated from—perhaps fear or maybe excitement.
“Connected from the beginning to the end,” he muttered.
The laboratory on the seventh floor was the “beginning,” where the seven monsters were created, marking the starting point.
The underground tomb hidden in the depths of the church was the “end,” filled with corpses, coffins, and death, marking the end.
…like a snake biting its own tail, a perfect, never-ending circle.
Nearby, Su Cheng’s voice sounded puzzled, “Hey! Are we done? Can we move now?”
His voice snapped Wen Jianyan out of his thoughts. He nodded absentmindedly and said, “…Yes, you can.”
Blond and Su Cheng exchanged a glance and walked over to Wen Jianyan’s direction.
“What are you thinking?”
Su Cheng asked.
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath.
“The structure of this instance.”
Both Su Cheng and Blond looked puzzled.
“Anyway,” Wen Jianyan redirected the conversation, “do you know about the hypothetical concept of ‘brain in a vat’?”
“Uh…”
Blond blinked, hesitating. “Is it a brain floating in a vat?”
The other two: “…”
Are you the master of pointless literature?
“I think it’s some kind of hypothetical scenario,” Su Cheng said somewhat helplessly, taking over the conversation. “It suggests that since human senses fundamentally rely on neural signals transmitted to the brain, if you were to remove a human brain and place it in an isolated container, then artificially generate neural signals using a computer, the human wouldn’t be aware that they are actually in a virtual world.”
“Ah!” Blond suddenly caught on. “Like the Matrix, right?”
“Yes.”
Wen Jianyan nodded. “Do you remember what I mentioned earlier about the true form of high-risk patient 05?”
Though it chose the appearance of “Wu Zhu,” fundamentally, it was still a brain floating in a nutrient solution. Whether it was the humanoid body or the completely non-human fleshy tentacles and red membranes in the laboratory, they were all composed of neurons.
Su Cheng blinked, “Wait a minute, you mean…”
“That’s right,” Wen Jianyan took a deep breath and continued, “that’s exactly what I just speculated.”
“???” Blond looked at the two of them, feeling a bit anxious at being left out. “Wait, what are you guys talking about?”
In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:
[LMAO, I can’t keep up at all!]
[I give up; I’m lost too.]
[Me too! So what’s the anchor’s speculation?!]
[Hahaha, everyone’s lost; we’re all Blond (LOL)]
Wen Jianyan spread his arms, “What I mean is that the entire Ping An Asylum is the mental world of 05.”
In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:
[?]
[???]
[??Huh?]
Blond was also dumbfounded, “Wait, what??”
“In the Ping An Asylum instance, every high-risk patient has their own mental world, right?” Wen Jianyan asked, turning the question back. “So why doesn’t 05?”
Blond was taken aback.
Indeed… if 05 is the red membrane, then they have encountered 05 more than once, but have never entered 05’s mental world.
He shuddered as if struck by lightning, murmuring, “Because… we’ve been in it from the start.”
“So the clue tells us that ‘the brain in the vat, forming its own world,'” Wen Jianyan concluded.
Wen Jianyan squinted his eyes.
If we use The Matrix as an analogy, 05 itself was cultivated as the mother body. It didn’t have a body, only a brain, serving as a standard medium and tool.
Everyone else, whether patients or anchors, were individuals connected to the mother body.
They moved within 05’s brain and consciousness, yet were unaware that they were in a vast virtual space.
“The anchors are connected to the nearby patients’ mental worlds after the bell rings, and after the next bell disappears, we return to our original positions, as if we had just had a dream…”
“We heard the bell twice, right? Once to start, once to end.”
Wen Jianyan lifted his eyes and said slowly, “Although we’ve experienced six rounds of the inner world, in reality, we heard the bell twelve times.”
“!” Su Cheng exclaimed, suddenly realizing, “But the clue says there are seven chimes!”
“Yes,” Wen Jianyan nodded, “So I speculate that the beginning and ending chimes are actually the same. We are like being connected to the mother body, entering nearby patients’ mental worlds when the bell rings.”
So… although they heard the bell twelve times, in reality, there were only six because the time they spent in the mental world did not exist for people in the real world.
“If I were to guess, the bells are likely a measure used by the laboratory to suppress the entire ‘Ping An Asylum’ world,” Wen Jianyan said. “When the bell rings, 05 is weakened, so the anchors are connected to the mental worlds of other patients.”
So, just now, in the confession room, even though the ringing of the bell indicated the arrival of the inner world, 05 lost the ability to maintain its body and was forced to let Wen Jianyan go.
Therefore, the power balance between it and the other patients was a matter of give and take.
Before the bell rang, it was the Ping An Asylum itself, designed to restrain the other patients within it—both the building and the attendants were part of it.
But when the bell rang, it was the weakest part of the entire instance, where the patients’ power exceeded that of the asylum, beginning to construct their own mental worlds.
05 was both a prison and a nurturing dish.
It was the womb; it was the mother body.
“So, what lies before us are essentially two options,” Wen Jianyan solemnly raised a finger. “Destroy the prison.”
He lifted a second finger. “Or help the prison capture the prisoners again.”
Perhaps that’s why there were no instructions in the “hints” on how to complete the ultimate mainline task.
Because there was more than one way to complete the task.
However…
Wen Jianyan seemed to have thought of something. He fell silent, his face gradually stiffening.
Destroying the prison only required facing 05, and while the difficulty might seem lower, it also meant that the other several aberrants would be free to roam and wreak havoc.
Images of the faces of 01, 02, 03, and 04 flashed through his mind, along with their deeds…
Wen Jianyan’s face turned green.
But if he chose the other path and cooperated with 05, it not only meant having to face the others simultaneously but also…
The image of 05 with “Wu Zhu”’s face writing something on his hand flashed through his mind.
One was “eat,” and the other was “marry”… It was clear this guy wasn’t anything good either.
Wen Jianyan’s face turned even greener.
He couldn’t help but feel that for him, both of these paths… were damn pits!!!
“What’s wrong?” Su Cheng noticed Wen Jianyan’s ever-changing expression and asked, puzzled, “Have you decided what to choose?”
Wen Jianyan: “.”
To be honest…
He doesn’t want either.
