Absolute Death Game-Chapter 428 - 41 The Story of Xuan Zhenzi_4
"But in the end, you all still revolted," Xiao Buli said, and this was not merely conjecture; from the archives he had initially seen, the test subjects had indeed collectively revolted in the end.
"No, we did not; it was General Huo who revolted," the voice of Xuan Zhenzi was not loud, but it exploded in Xiao Buli’s mind like a clap of thunder.
"General Huo? How is that possible? He was the initiator of this project, and he had no reason," Xiao Buli said eagerly.
"At first he did not, but as the experimentation faced obstacles and higher-ups even considered halting the process, General Huo could not find a solution to the Soul Departure Syndrome. In the end, he decided to enter the game himself. A few of us elders who had not succumbed were tasked with aiding General Huo’s rapid growth within the game. During that time, we had to hand over any superior equipment we obtained, truly becoming mere laborers. We knew this was not the way forward. Initially, we hoped to enhance our strength in the game and one day escape. However, once General Huo entered the game, he became like a queen ant, and we the worker ants performed the bulk of the labor, with the fruits of our labor going to him. When would we ever get our chance to shine? We saw no hope, no future, and in the end, we made a decision that seems terrifyingly dreadful in hindsight." Even after so many years, when recounting this portion, Xiao Buli could still see the intense fluctuations in Xuan Zhenzi’s emotions, though he strove to steady his trembling voice.
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"You decided to stay in the game?" Xiao Buli whispered this most logical of guesses. With this, everything made sense.
"Exactly," said Xuan Zhenzi, "I consulted my master and learned that I could shape a physical body within the game. We could kill our own avatars and then go into those bodies, but doing so meant giving up all our abilities, and the bodies required Merit Points to rebuild. Not all of us had enough Merit Points at the time. Later, a man named Bi Huaxuan came up with an even riskier method. Before he was imprisoned, he was a university professor, said to be of a scientist’s caliber. He hypothesized that our projections in the game were actually bodies created for us by the game, because once we donned the helmet, spiritual power would enter the game through the helmet. One could imagine it as the spirit leaving the body, but then what about the bodies we occupy in the game? We can feel pain, have auditory and visual senses; the only plausible explanation is that in the game, we actually have a physical body. Thus, things became simple – if we killed our real-world selves after entering the game, we could stay in the game forever. Given our situation at the time, there was no way to test if this theory was correct, but everyone hesitated about this; it’s one thing to fight, quite another to be killed without a sound. No one was willing to take a risk with a 50% chance of failure. Plus, such an act would require someone to make a sacrifice since someone in reality would have to truly kill us, and this person would likely meet their end at the barrel of a gun."
Xiao Buli listened to Master Xuan Zhenzi’s account, and his mood seemed to be gradually infected by the threat of death and despair. "How did you finally make up your minds?"
"We didn’t, we never reached a firm decision by the end. It was someone else who made the decision for us. At that time, the experiment was making no progress, and people were constantly coming down with Soul Departure Syndrome. Although new people were added to the team, it essentially meant that the experimenters were bound to die after a certain period of time. Eventually, General Huo began to manifest Heart Demons. Unlike the rest of us, General Huo had planned to collaborate with his Heart Demon from the very beginning, which was different from those who contracted Soul Departure Syndrome as a result of resisting their Heart Demons. We didn’t notice anything unusual with General Huo until he started having us collect a certain special material. We weren’t very familiar with this material, but there was someone, Luo Sen, who specialized in Array Spells, and he unintentionally revealed to me that this material was used to construct Teleportation Portals, just like the ones you see commonly in the game. At that time, I didn’t know if he had heard something because he was acting all secretive and neurotic. I thought his Heart Demon was about to conquer him, making him succumb to Soul Departure Syndrome. That day, his condition was particularly severe, and General Huo ordered him to be placed in the observation room, the last checkpoint before the execution chamber. If his condition remained the same after two days, he would be put into the execution chamber. We all felt sorry for him; in the game, his skills were strong, he was a key part of our escape plan because of his lock-picking skills due to his specialization in Arrays, mechanics, and traps."
"That day we entered the game as usual, and suddenly, everything went dark. When I woke up again, we were still in the game, with no change in our positions. At that time, I thought it was just some reaction in the game and didn’t pay much attention. But when night came and it was time to log off, we weren’t awakened as usual. At first, no one was too worried, since if we wanted to leave the game, we could do so by willpower alone. But as time trickled by, we started to panic. Some of us tried to leave forcefully, but it was useless. Every time we opened our eyes, we were still inside the game. Not just us, even General Huo was the same, although he didn’t seem to care much about it, turned around, and abandoned us. From then on, I never saw him again, nor do I know whether he died in the game. We settled down in a village and analyzed the situation. In the end, everyone thought it was very likely that Bi Huaxuan’s theory was correct, and that we in the real world had been killed, although at that time we didn’t know by whom."
"Was it Luo Sen?" Xiao Buli asked.
"Yes, we thought the military was also a likely candidate at that time. General Huo wasn’t adept at playing politics, he had many rivals, and the failure of the experiment was a good excuse to execute him. In the end, everyone felt that since we had what we had always hoped for, there wasn’t much point in regretting anything. We started to live as before and finally felt a sense of freedom and hope. But these good times didn’t last; one by one, we started to become programmed. It began with the youngest among us, just a 20-year-old kid, whose occupation was still that of a farmer. Soon, we noticed something was amiss—his daily life was like a pre-set film, repeating over and over. He hardly ever spoke a word more to us; each time we spoke to him, he had only a few fixed responses: ’The weather is good today,’ ’I’m going to the village chief’s house to see if someone is hiring,’ ’Hello, I hope you’re having a good day.’ He gradually turned into one of those low-level characters in the game. Everyone started to look for a way out. I found my master, and he taught me the Doppelganger Shadow Technique. Even after thirty years, luckily, I finally succeeded, right?" A complex gleam spun in Master Xuan Zhenzi’s eyes. It turned out his original intention was not to rid himself of the Heart Demon, but to avoid becoming an NPC. But in doing so, had he really escaped such a fate? (To be continued. If you like this work, please come to Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your recommendation votes and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)
