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Ping An Asylum
Chapter 186: Grasshoppers on a rope
Luce subconsciously nodded and then immediately froze after answering.
He turned to look at Wen Jianyan and asked in astonishment:
“…How did you know?”
At this point in the instance, hiding information was no longer necessary.
So, Wen Jianyan raised his eyes and summarized his speculation about the entire instance in the simplest language.
After listening, although Luce was also blank for a few seconds, he quickly reacted, saying, “So, what you mean is that the instance we are in right now is actually a mental world? Like the Matrix?”
Upon hearing this, Blond became excited and nodded vigorously, saying, “Yes, yes, yes!”
“More or less.”
Wen Jianyan glanced at the inexplicably excited Blond.
…Unexpectedly, the brain circuits of these people are quite similar, but that’s a good thing; at least explaining it won’t be difficult.
He thought for a moment and added, “However, I think everything I experienced in the special scenes might be a memory of 05, or it might be the content of the real world before the start of the entire instance.”
At that time, when the faceless doctor saw him, he said to him, “Before the plan is initiated, we need you to perform the exorcism ritual for these poor souls possessed by evil spirits.”
In the chapel of the small church, 05 was a fragmented human image, while inside the Ping An Asylum, 05 was a formless neuron. Only in that “former laboratory” did he truly see the entity designated as 05 by the system—the enormous crimson brain.
Whatever the purpose, the so-called plan mainly involved using 05’s body to construct a mental prison, which was the “Ping An Asylum” instance. The mental worlds of other patients were connected to the instance, and they were perpetually imprisoned here.
That was why the entire instance gives such a strong sense of “design.”
The entire Ping An Asylum was like an Ouroboros. The laboratory symbolizing the beginning and the underground tomb symbolizing the end overlap each other, like a snake biting its tail.
There were seven critically ill patients, and there were a total of seven floors from top to bottom.
The bell has to ring seven times in total, and if one wanted to obtain the most critical legendary-level item, the task content was the Seven Sacraments…
And so on.
In many nightmares, although there were connections between many NPCs, monsters, and the instance, the connections were not tight. Even if there was intervention by some powerful force, it was not powerful enough to control the direction of the entire instance. It was built by accidents and coincidences, like dominoes; knocking down one would trigger countless chain reactions, and the anchors were thrown into this stage, trying to find the initial domino that fell—perhaps they could find it, perhaps not; it depended on their individual abilities.
This instance, on the other hand, was quite the opposite.
Because it was itself a “fabrication,” it was “designed and constructed” by those implementers of the plan in the laboratory according to some blueprint.
Even those seven patients were artificially nurtured by the others.
So the initials of their names would have such a “coincidence”: because they didn’t have names originally, these were just assigned codes.
That’s why, in the data room of the Ping An Asylum, all the data has no timestamps.
The names of those several high-risk patients—including Dr. Reese—have been appearing frequently since the establishment of the Ping An Asylum, even though the experiments they experienced were enough to kill anyone hundreds of times.
Because they were imprisoned here in spiritual form, they were the only ones closely related to the internal structure of the entire instance.
Upon hearing this, Luce turned pale, obviously shocked by Wen Jianyan’s implications: “So, you mean… what I saw during the time I was captured was actually real?”
It was absolutely terrifying to think about.
“It’s just speculation,” Wen Jianyan lifted his eyelids and advised, “and I don’t recommend you to continue thinking along this line. It’s better to focus on the information we currently have.”
This is also why the hypothesis of the “brain in a vat” has puzzled so many people.
Is it Zhuang Zhou dreaming of being a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming of being Zhuang Zhou?
Who can draw a conclusion?
Since all human senses can be fabricated, even pain, vision, and touch, how can you be sure that you are in the real world now and not in some virtual instance?
If you continue to dwell on this theory, it’s easy to lose a sense of reality, and it will never end.
“Oh, right,” Wen Jianyan thought for a moment, then turned to Luce and Shao Yao, “If you’re ready to complete the mission, you’d better hurry up and finish it within an hour.”
Shao Yao was surprised, “But… isn’t this instance not time-limited?”
And only Wen Jianyan activated the hidden route, meaning that the one-hour limit for the “ultimate mainline task” was only for him, and it shouldn’t have much impact on other anchors.
“Do you still remember my previous speculation? About the purpose of the ‘plan’?” Wen Jianyan asked in return.
Luce: “To create god and the world?”
“Yes, and now it seems that this probably has a specific timing,” Wen Jianyan squinted, “7 is the crucial time point.”
The number 7 has been repeated too many times, and it was also an important number in Catholicism, whether for creation or destruction. In some beliefs, it was also tied to the days of Jesus Christ’s resurrection…
Therefore, after the seven bell tolls end, this artificially created blueprint will have completed its mission, and some “god” will be gestated from this designed “womb.”
Most anchors wouldn’t stay in this instance for so long. Either they’ve already died, or they’ve figured out the rules and completed the main task to leave the instance.
But this time was different. Due to the distortion of the instance, progress had significantly accelerated.
In other words, the seventh bell toll, symbolizing the end, was coming soon, probably in an hour—after all, once the womb completes its gestation, Wen Jianyan’s main mission will lose its meaning.
If there was indeed some connection between the instance and the real world, Wen Jianyan had a premonition that the Nightmare itself didn’t want to see the outcome of “creating a god” at the end.
After hearing Wen Jianyan’s explanation, both Luce and Shao Yao’s faces darkened.
They had thought that the duration of “one hour” was only for the ultimate mainline mission, but it turned out to be for the entire instance! This was unexpectedly harsh.
“How many points do you still need to complete the task?”
Wen Jianyan asked.
Luce and Shao Yao reported their respective amounts—although they had accumulated quite a few points, there was still a significant distance to go before completing the main task.
“The entire Ping An Asylum should have been swallowed by the body of 05 by now. It might be very difficult to return. The church isn’t large, mainly divided into two parts: the underground tomb and the upstairs chapel. According to our previous theory, the current state is the surface world, meaning the chapel upstairs should be tightly closed.”
With each word Wen Jianyan uttered, the expressions on Luce and Shao Yao’s faces grew increasingly grim.
“Of course, you can choose to continue the task, but the time is approximately…” Wen Jianyan glanced at the livestream interface, “…only forty-five minutes left.”
Then, Wen Jianyan’s tone shifted, “Of course, you still have another option.”
All eyes were on him as the young man raised his eyes and flashed a pleasant smile, “You can join me to complete the main task.”
“Of course, I’ll share the task with you.”
In the dim underground tomb, Wen Jianyan’s amber eyes gleamed, conveying a convincing implication, “The greater the risk, the greater the reward, right?”
“…”
There was almost no suspense in the outcome.
In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:
[Wow… I’ve never seen anything like this before, a team completing the ultimate mainline mission growing so large… After all, this is a suicide squad-level mission that you’ll die if you fail!]
[The anchor’s skill of enticing people to join the team is really extraordinary!]
[Yeah! The most stable method is definitely to let the anchors take the risk. After all, who knows if this one-hour time limit is something he made up or if it’s helping them? But if you don’t share the mission, even if the mission fails, it won’t affect you.]
[It’s like creating a logical chain for oneself: If you want to survive, you have to help out → But if you don’t join the team, even if you help successfully, you won’t get any points or trophies → So you have to join the team.]
[The real purpose: recruiting people to join the team and sharing the risk.]
[This is hilarious—going straight from an independent mainline task to a team mainline task! Unbelievable!]
[This is like a classic scam that got everyone on board the pirate ship! Hahaha, this time everyone really is like grasshoppers tied together on the same rope, not afraid that someone won’t contribute or will turn and run like before.]
A system notification sounded in the ear, indicating that the ultimate mainline task had been successfully shared.
“…”
Luce let out a long sigh, his face showing a somewhat nostalgic expression.
He never expected that one day he would also become a proactive participant in accepting the ultimate mission… As a seasoned player, he had always avoided situations with no way out. He would escape if he could, but in the end, he couldn’t escape this outcome.
In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:
[Wait a minute… I suddenly realized that, at this point, communication between both sides has been smooth, right? Luce seems to have the idea of continuing to cooperate with the anchor after leaving the instance. So, if Wen Jianyan wants them to help with something now, Luce and his team shouldn’t refuse…]
[Yeah!]
[But he chose such a roundabout way to bind them together… So, how dangerous are the methods in his mind right now that he needs to make sure everyone stays on board before implementing them?]
Luce looked at Wen Jianyan and said, “What’s next? Do you have a plan?”
The silver-haired young man smiled faintly, still appearing gentle and harmless, without any hint of aggression, giving people a feeling of being embraced by a warm breeze:
“Of course.”
Prev | Table of Contents | Next
Ping An Asylum
Chapter 186: Grasshoppers on a rope
Luce subconsciously nodded and then immediately froze after answering.
He turned to look at Wen Jianyan and asked in astonishment:
“…How did you know?”
At this point in the instance, hiding information was no longer necessary.
So, Wen Jianyan raised his eyes and summarized his speculation about the entire instance in the simplest language.
After listening, although Luce was also blank for a few seconds, he quickly reacted, saying, “So, what you mean is that the instance we are in right now is actually a mental world? Like the Matrix?”
Upon hearing this, Blond became excited and nodded vigorously, saying, “Yes, yes, yes!”
“More or less.”
Wen Jianyan glanced at the inexplicably excited Blond.
…Unexpectedly, the brain circuits of these people are quite similar, but that’s a good thing; at least explaining it won’t be difficult.
He thought for a moment and added, “However, I think everything I experienced in the special scenes might be a memory of 05, or it might be the content of the real world before the start of the entire instance.”
At that time, when the faceless doctor saw him, he said to him, “Before the plan is initiated, we need you to perform the exorcism ritual for these poor souls possessed by evil spirits.”
In the chapel of the small church, 05 was a fragmented human image, while inside the Ping An Asylum, 05 was a formless neuron. Only in that “former laboratory” did he truly see the entity designated as 05 by the system—the enormous crimson brain.
Whatever the purpose, the so-called plan mainly involved using 05’s body to construct a mental prison, which was the “Ping An Asylum” instance. The mental worlds of other patients were connected to the instance, and they were perpetually imprisoned here.
That was why the entire instance gives such a strong sense of “design.”
The entire Ping An Asylum was like an Ouroboros. The laboratory symbolizing the beginning and the underground tomb symbolizing the end overlap each other, like a snake biting its tail.
There were seven critically ill patients, and there were a total of seven floors from top to bottom.
The bell has to ring seven times in total, and if one wanted to obtain the most critical legendary-level item, the task content was the Seven Sacraments…
And so on.
In many nightmares, although there were connections between many NPCs, monsters, and the instance, the connections were not tight. Even if there was intervention by some powerful force, it was not powerful enough to control the direction of the entire instance. It was built by accidents and coincidences, like dominoes; knocking down one would trigger countless chain reactions, and the anchors were thrown into this stage, trying to find the initial domino that fell—perhaps they could find it, perhaps not; it depended on their individual abilities.
This instance, on the other hand, was quite the opposite.
Because it was itself a “fabrication,” it was “designed and constructed” by those implementers of the plan in the laboratory according to some blueprint.
Even those seven patients were artificially nurtured by the others.
So the initials of their names would have such a “coincidence”: because they didn’t have names originally, these were just assigned codes.
That’s why, in the data room of the Ping An Asylum, all the data has no timestamps.
The names of those several high-risk patients—including Dr. Reese—have been appearing frequently since the establishment of the Ping An Asylum, even though the experiments they experienced were enough to kill anyone hundreds of times.
Because they were imprisoned here in spiritual form, they were the only ones closely related to the internal structure of the entire instance.
Upon hearing this, Luce turned pale, obviously shocked by Wen Jianyan’s implications: “So, you mean… what I saw during the time I was captured was actually real?”
It was absolutely terrifying to think about.
“It’s just speculation,” Wen Jianyan lifted his eyelids and advised, “and I don’t recommend you to continue thinking along this line. It’s better to focus on the information we currently have.”
This is also why the hypothesis of the “brain in a vat” has puzzled so many people.
Is it Zhuang Zhou dreaming of being a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming of being Zhuang Zhou?
Who can draw a conclusion?
Since all human senses can be fabricated, even pain, vision, and touch, how can you be sure that you are in the real world now and not in some virtual instance?
If you continue to dwell on this theory, it’s easy to lose a sense of reality, and it will never end.
“Oh, right,” Wen Jianyan thought for a moment, then turned to Luce and Shao Yao, “If you’re ready to complete the mission, you’d better hurry up and finish it within an hour.”
Shao Yao was surprised, “But… isn’t this instance not time-limited?”
And only Wen Jianyan activated the hidden route, meaning that the one-hour limit for the “ultimate mainline task” was only for him, and it shouldn’t have much impact on other anchors.
“Do you still remember my previous speculation? About the purpose of the ‘plan’?” Wen Jianyan asked in return.
Luce: “To create god and the world?”
“Yes, and now it seems that this probably has a specific timing,” Wen Jianyan squinted, “7 is the crucial time point.”
The number 7 has been repeated too many times, and it was also an important number in Catholicism, whether for creation or destruction. In some beliefs, it was also tied to the days of Jesus Christ’s resurrection…
Therefore, after the seven bell tolls end, this artificially created blueprint will have completed its mission, and some “god” will be gestated from this designed “womb.”
Most anchors wouldn’t stay in this instance for so long. Either they’ve already died, or they’ve figured out the rules and completed the main task to leave the instance.
But this time was different. Due to the distortion of the instance, progress had significantly accelerated.
In other words, the seventh bell toll, symbolizing the end, was coming soon, probably in an hour—after all, once the womb completes its gestation, Wen Jianyan’s main mission will lose its meaning.
If there was indeed some connection between the instance and the real world, Wen Jianyan had a premonition that the Nightmare itself didn’t want to see the outcome of “creating a god” at the end.
After hearing Wen Jianyan’s explanation, both Luce and Shao Yao’s faces darkened.
They had thought that the duration of “one hour” was only for the ultimate mainline mission, but it turned out to be for the entire instance! This was unexpectedly harsh.
“How many points do you still need to complete the task?”
Wen Jianyan asked.
Luce and Shao Yao reported their respective amounts—although they had accumulated quite a few points, there was still a significant distance to go before completing the main task.
“The entire Ping An Asylum should have been swallowed by the body of 05 by now. It might be very difficult to return. The church isn’t large, mainly divided into two parts: the underground tomb and the upstairs chapel. According to our previous theory, the current state is the surface world, meaning the chapel upstairs should be tightly closed.”
With each word Wen Jianyan uttered, the expressions on Luce and Shao Yao’s faces grew increasingly grim.
“Of course, you can choose to continue the task, but the time is approximately…” Wen Jianyan glanced at the livestream interface, “…only forty-five minutes left.”
Then, Wen Jianyan’s tone shifted, “Of course, you still have another option.”
All eyes were on him as the young man raised his eyes and flashed a pleasant smile, “You can join me to complete the main task.”
“Of course, I’ll share the task with you.”
In the dim underground tomb, Wen Jianyan’s amber eyes gleamed, conveying a convincing implication, “The greater the risk, the greater the reward, right?”
“…”
There was almost no suspense in the outcome.
In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:
[Wow… I’ve never seen anything like this before, a team completing the ultimate mainline mission growing so large… After all, this is a suicide squad-level mission that you’ll die if you fail!]
[The anchor’s skill of enticing people to join the team is really extraordinary!]
[Yeah! The most stable method is definitely to let the anchors take the risk. After all, who knows if this one-hour time limit is something he made up or if it’s helping them? But if you don’t share the mission, even if the mission fails, it won’t affect you.]
[It’s like creating a logical chain for oneself: If you want to survive, you have to help out → But if you don’t join the team, even if you help successfully, you won’t get any points or trophies → So you have to join the team.]
[The real purpose: recruiting people to join the team and sharing the risk.]
[This is hilarious—going straight from an independent mainline task to a team mainline task! Unbelievable!]
[This is like a classic scam that got everyone on board the pirate ship! Hahaha, this time everyone really is like grasshoppers tied together on the same rope, not afraid that someone won’t contribute or will turn and run like before.]
A system notification sounded in the ear, indicating that the ultimate mainline task had been successfully shared.
“…”
Luce let out a long sigh, his face showing a somewhat nostalgic expression.
He never expected that one day he would also become a proactive participant in accepting the ultimate mission… As a seasoned player, he had always avoided situations with no way out. He would escape if he could, but in the end, he couldn’t escape this outcome.
In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:
[Wait a minute… I suddenly realized that, at this point, communication between both sides has been smooth, right? Luce seems to have the idea of continuing to cooperate with the anchor after leaving the instance. So, if Wen Jianyan wants them to help with something now, Luce and his team shouldn’t refuse…]
[Yeah!]
[But he chose such a roundabout way to bind them together… So, how dangerous are the methods in his mind right now that he needs to make sure everyone stays on board before implementing them?]
Luce looked at Wen Jianyan and said, “What’s next? Do you have a plan?”
The silver-haired young man smiled faintly, still appearing gentle and harmless, without any hint of aggression, giving people a feeling of being embraced by a warm breeze:
“Of course.”
