Which means...

His appearance within the prison event is determined by the identity reflected by his Authority Level?

This guess isn't particularly surprising.

But Jiang Ye suddenly realized he might have made a stupid mistake.

All that "hidden prison room" exploration he just did might have been a complete waste!

That one hidden room he specifically noted down, the one he could "enter" without "forcing" his way...

Might also be a wasted effort!

Because—

Once he extracts himself from this "event," his Authority Level could still change!

When that time comes, if he's no longer the "Guilty Youth," perhaps he won't meet the entry criteria for that hidden room anymore?

Still, it's not completely useless.

Once he leaves this event, he can go back and check that hidden room.

If the prompt sound has changed, that would perfectly prove his guess is correct—

The entry criteria for hidden prison rooms are judged based on "Authority Level."

Thinking this, Jiang Ye didn't dwell on it too much.

Taking advantage of the auntie reaching out to pry at the bus window, pretending to help, he reached out and grabbed the auntie's wrist.

In reality, he was using the SS-tier skill [Grudge Memory] again.

This time, it took about two or three seconds before images appeared in his mind.

Again, they were clear and came with sound.

However, the scene in those images seemed quite old.

Like a poor rural village from the sixties or seventies.

A mud house, a mud stove, a mud kitchen. The image showed a fire burning in the mud stove.

The scorching heat of the flames seemed to wash over Jiang Ye's face through the memory.

Then the scene shifted. Through the kitchen smoke and fire, the viewpoint saw—

A woman cooking in the kitchen, stealthily slipping an egg into a little boy's hand.

Along with the image, that inexplicable feeling of heartache and anger surged again in Jiang Ye's chest.

Simultaneously, he even seemed to feel the emotion of being so hungry it distorted his perception.

Probably just that one fragment, and then he snapped back to reality.

The moment he did, the back of his entire hand was slapped with a "smack!"

The auntie, who couldn't pry the window open no matter what, had a foul temper and started cursing at him:

"Are you helping or hindering, you little brat?"

"You grab my hand but don't use any force! You kid... you kid, are you trying to take advantage of me?!"

"Oh heavens! Morals have truly decayed, society's standards have fallen! Young people these days are worse with each generation, the younger they are, the more perverted!"

As she spoke, the auntie looked at Jiang Ye with utter disgust, as if he were some kind of bus pervert...

Jiang Ye: "..."

For crying out loud, even if I were a pervert, I wouldn't have tastes *that* heavy!

Her yelling gave him a headache. He desperately wanted to just slap this noisy auntie to death.

However...

He had, after all, experienced one "event" already.

Jiang Ye had some guesses about the "events" triggered by the prison's empty rooms.

First and foremost, the most important thing to pay attention to was how the "event" ended.

His previous event ended after he killed the pregnant woman.

He originally wanted to kill the man too.

But before his axe could swing over, the illusion vanished.

At first, he didn't pay much attention, even thinking the "event" itself deliberately prevented him from killing the man.

But thinking about it carefully afterwards, perhaps the moment he killed the pregnant woman, he triggered the rule for "event conclusion."

Which means...

Applying it to this bus incident.

Among this whole bus of people, he might still only be able to kill one person to trigger the "event conclusion" effect.

And besides event conclusion, something even more worth paying attention to is the event settlement.

In the last event, he obtained the 「Sentence Reduction」 effect.

This was clearly an effect given based on his "Performance."

If he had directly driven the car to hit the man back then, or truly chosen to save people?

Then different "Performance" should trigger different settlement effects.

And this bus event probably also wouldn't allow him to kill everyone on the bus.

It's likely similar to the last event—

There's only one chance to kill.

And the choice he makes influences the event's settlement effect.

So even though this auntie was quite annoying, he couldn't just kill her arbitrarily.

Analyzing it this way, Jiang Ye felt that his [Holds Grudges] talent being able to reach SS-tier might be because it just happened to be well-suited to the Doomsday Prison environment.

In these illusions, everyone is an ordinary person, not difficult to kill.

And the [Grudge Memory] skill, which helps him obtain more information, is a pretty good auxiliary ability.

What the auntie held a grudge about was probably her mother's favoritism towards boys over girls when she was a child, giving the egg to her younger brother.

Overall, this grudge content didn't seem particularly noteworthy.

Jiang Ye thought for a moment, then pretended to be unable to stand the auntie anymore and gave up his window seat.

He struggled to squeeze out. The auntie moved over to sit in his former seat, and the seat the auntie vacated was quickly snatched by a female student with a heavy backpack standing nearby.

Jiang Ye was just thinking about how to be a proper bus pervert to obtain Grudge Memory from that female student.

But then an old man nearby who also wanted to grab the seat suddenly spoke sarcastically to the female student: "Young people these days, ah, have no respect for elders or care for the young..."

Very familiar rhetoric. Jiang Ye, very "respectful of elders and caring of the young," went up to support the old man.

While making gestures to placate the old man, and following up by angrily scolding the female student, he secretly stole "Grudge Memory."

This old man's memory didn't seem too distant.

But the location was at a police station, and the target was even a police officer.

Based on the dialogue, it seemed the old man had been scammed, and the money couldn't be recovered.

Because he didn't know what the scammer looked like, he could transfer his hatred onto the handling police officer.

Hmm...

Also not a crucial grudge.

Jiang Ye reached out again to pat the female student: "I'm talking to you! Hurry up and give your seat to our elder!"

The girl hugged her backpack. When she was being sarcastically criticized earlier, she kept her head down and didn't speak.

Now, with Jiang Ye's hand pressing on her shoulder, she fiercely turned her head to glare at him.

That look seemed to say: Take your filthy hand off me!

Jiang Ye, of course, did not remove it. He still needed to seize the chance to steal memories.

So he continued helping the old man with moral coercion while keeping his hand on the girl's shoulder.

This "Grudge Memory" actually caught his attention a bit.

Because the scene in this "memory" was also on a bus.

A crowded bus. In the girl's field of view, a lecherous hand reached towards a plump butt.

From the memory image, that was obviously not this girl's butt.

But seeing this scene, a surge of hatred welled up in the girl's chest.

Hmm.

This "memory" might be worth paying a little attention to.

Jiang Ye felt that among this bus full of people, perhaps he needed to kill the one with the deepest "sin."

Or possibly, the one most hated by others.

So there was also a certain probability it was a genuine bus pervert.

Thinking this, Jiang Ye extended his own sinful, lecherous hand towards the other crowded passengers.

After all, bus perverts are usually standing.

Mainly because it's harder to find a reason to touch seated passengers.

Standing passengers are already crowded.

In the process of squeezing through, he could easily touch others and steal memories.

And so, Jiang Ye pretended to squeeze forward while secretly stealing passengers' memories.

Those grudging memories were all sorts of things.

Some, like the auntie, resented their parents' favoritism.

Some, like the old man, had pent-up frustration with nowhere to vent, so they randomly hated others.

Some were scenes of pointless arguments with people, hating the person they argued with...

None of them seemed particularly noteworthy.

The key was, with everyone packed like sardines, Jiang Ye really couldn't manage to touch everyone.

Moreover, his constant squeezing was already causing some discontent.

Those he squeezed past were complaining in various ways.

Jiang Ye couldn't overdo it, so he stopped forcing the memory theft and instead squeezed directly towards the front of the bus.

From the very beginning, he had one target whose memory he absolutely had to steal.

That was the person with the most special identity on the bus—the driver.

He even had the fleeting thought of interfering with the driver, making all the passengers on this bus die...

Ahem, of course, just a thought.

The bus driver's seat was surrounded by a protective barrier, clearly to prevent passengers from interfering with the driver.

In this situation, no matter how crowded, it was hard for Jiang Ye to touch the driver.

He thought for a moment, then said to the driver with an expression of righteous indignation:

"Driver uncle! Could you please drive straight to the police station? A pervert just groped my butt! It's so damn disgusting! I must send this scum to the police station!"

As soon as he said this, the noisy front section of the bus seemed to quiet down for a moment.

The driver uncle looked at him with a very strange expression.

After a good while, the uncle finally cursed in exasperation: "Is your butt made of gold or something? Wasting my time here?!"

This reaction was completely within Jiang Ye's expectations.

He had noticed that everyone on this bus had a short temper.

So he also very angrily retorted: "What do you mean? Just because my butt isn't made of gold means it can be groped freely? I don't care! Today, I'm definitely going to drag this pervert out!"

So he also retorted very angrily: "What do you mean? Just because my butt isn't made of gold means it can be groped freely? I don't care! Today, I'm definitely going to drag this pervert out!"

Saying this, he acted as if he was furious, reaching his hand over the guardrail towards the driver.

However, such a dangerous action was immediately stopped by a worker-looking uncle nearby:

"What? Young man, if you want to catch the pervert, catch the pervert. No matter how much you cause a scene, you can't reach for the driver!"

Other passengers nearby agreed, following suit to warn him not to lay hands on the driver.

But the more they tried to stop him, the more Jiang Ye felt—

This driver's memory might be the key!

So he started another round of relentless arguing and cursing about the pervert.

That furious, hate-filled display made it seem as if the pervert had done something terrible to him...

Fortunately, although some passengers were annoyed by his noise, a "pervert" as a public enemy on the bus eventually struck a chord with some people.

Gradually, some also spoke up for Jiang Ye:

"This young man looks like he's suffered a great injustice. Why don't we help find the pervert who bullied him?"

"Exactly! Just because the victim is a male comrade doesn't mean we shouldn't take it seriously! This kind of perverted molester should be caught! Otherwise, more people will be victimized!"

Of course, some objected: "Easier said than done! With everyone packed like this, even the cameras can't capture everything. How do you catch the pervert?"

"And we all have places to be on this bus. We can't delay everyone for one person!"

Jiang Ye silently noted the passengers who agreed and disagreed, while putting even more effort into his tantrum:

"I don't care! My butt *is* made of gold! No matter who it is, if they dare reach for me, I'll make them pay!"

"Driver, if you don't handle this for me, I'll definitely find a way to report you!"

"And you indifferent bystanders! I'll post you all online!"

Saying this, he actually pulled out his phone and started filming.

The phone was, of course, also generated within the illusion, just like the axe in the previous event.

And in this environment, a phone was actually a more effective tool for causing trouble than an axe.

The moment he assumed the filming posture, the voices objecting to catching the pervert instantly quieted down.

Instead, the voices "kindly" trying to calm him and those helping persuade the driver to catch the pervert increased significantly.

Indeed, people under the "lens" always become more "virtuous."

Jiang Ye directly performed for the phone, narrating to himself his experience of encountering a bus pervert, seeking help from the driver, only to be insulted by the driver in return.

With some embellished, biased storytelling, he portrayed himself as a victim repeatedly insulted by both the pervert and the driver.

Then he pointed the camera at the driver, at the bystanders.

The driver's face was now very ugly: "Stop disrupting public order here! I already said catching the pervert isn't that simple!"

It seemed like a simple reprimand.

But Jiang Ye noticed the driver's eyes seemed to glance somewhere.

The next second, a hand reached towards him!

It was the worker uncle from before, cursing: "You little punk, stop causing trouble here! Such a small matter! What are you filming!"

The worker uncle's hand, still stained with grime, immediately tried to snatch his phone!

Although Jiang Ye had a different identity in the illusion, his physical stats were still that of Combat Power 9.8.

This number far exceeded that of an ordinary person.

He easily avoided the worker uncle's reaching hand, even seizing the chance to kick the uncle in the knee.

Immediately, a pig-slaughtering scream erupted. The worker uncle fell back onto a seated passenger behind him.

That passenger pushed him away with great disgust: "Get off! Don't touch me!"

Jiang Ye continued cursing and raving while pulling the worker uncle off that passenger.

Taking this opportunity, he stole another wave of memories.

This time, the memory again wasn't too old.

Jiang Ye had also deduced some patterns from his previous touching experience—

The more distant the grudge memory, the longer he needed to touch the person.

But at most, five seconds.

The more recent the memory, the faster he could sense it.

That fifty-something auntie's memory, probably from about fifty years ago, took Jiang Ye two or three seconds to sense.

So the five-second memory from initially touching the light screen was at least from a hundred years ago?

This worker uncle's grudge memory was clearly recent.

He sensed it almost the instant he made contact.

And this time, the "sound" entered his mind before the "image"—

*DuangDuangDuang!*

Thud after thud. This sound actually bore some resemblance to the bell toll from before.

But listening carefully, one could tell the difference.

Combined with the memory image, one could see clearly—

It was the sound of a butcher's cleaver hitting a chopping block, or more precisely, hitting hard bone.