"..."

Du Yuheng was visibly a bit flustered: "Senior, your skill is..."

"Memory theft," Jiang Ye answered quite bluntly.

Sure enough, the expressions of these six newcomers visibly changed.

They all seemed somewhat regretful about actively joining Jiang Ye's "comrades" small group.

However, Jiang Ye quickly added with a smile:

"You don't need to worry too much either, after all, this memory theft skill of mine is also quite useless."

"It's pretty much the same—when used on the same individual for the first time, you can't see any useful information, just one or two brief flashes of images, similar to the garbled code you see when mind reading."

"And strictly speaking, the use of my skill is even more useless than your [Heart's Voice Externalized]."

"When you use [Heart's Voice Externalized], you don't need to touch the target individual, right?"

"But when I use memory theft, I need to have contact with the target individual."

"Moreover, when I use it multiple times on the same individual, the skill cooldown time is as long as 6 hours. That means, at most 4 times a day."

After this explanation, Du Yuheng visibly relaxed.

But the other five clear-eyed and foolish youths still seemed somewhat suspicious.

Their gazes shifted back and forth between Jiang Ye and Du Yuheng, obviously suspecting whether these two might have deliberately agreed to use a "useless skill" to deceive them.

Especially...

The beginning of Jiang Ye's statement used "you all" instead of "you"...

Which meant...

The bespectacled youth reacted first: "Do we also need to cooperate with you stealing our memories?"

"Of course," Jiang Ye said with a completely natural expression.

The five youths looked hesitant.

In the end, it was the cold, bespectacled youth who first asked Jiang Ye: "Can you get us out of here?"

Jiang Ye raised an eyebrow: "I'll do my best."

"Alright then, we'll cooperate with you," the youth pushed up his seemingly correct glasses, apparently having made the right decision.

So, the six youths lined up one by one for Jiang Ye to use his skill on them.

Jiang Ye still chose the same method as when he used the skill on He Yuliang earlier, having them press their fingertips against his forehead.

The first to have memories stolen was naturally Du Yuheng.

And when memory images surfaced in his mind, Jiang Ye's first impression was—

The overall tone of these memory images was very similar to the memory tone he stole from NPC passengers on the bus earlier.

And this "memory tone," simply put, was...

Full of the feeling of normal lighting from the real world.

Even if some people's memory images were at night, that kind of night still felt very real.

In short, it was completely different from the dim, gloomy feeling in the "doomsday" background without normal sunlight.

And the main reason for this tone might be because the Land of Exile had no "sun"?

Du Yuheng's memory images seemed to show him working at a crematorium?

The visual information from the perspective seemed to be Du Yuheng taking corpses that needed cremation from the crematorium's mortuary. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

After witnessing family members say their final goodbyes, he then transported the corpses to the incinerator.

However...

The images presented in the perspective clearly recorded—

That corpse ultimately wasn't thrown into the incinerator at all.

Instead, it was transported to a hidden room.

The incinerator operated normally.

Then Du Yuheng took out cremains of unknown composition that were still hot, sealed them in a box, and finally handed the cremains box to the family...

The entire scene ended right at the point where the cremains box was handed to the deceased's family.

Strangely, throughout the entire process, Jiang Ye's chest didn't surge with any emotions similar to hatred.

He only felt an unprecedented sense of calm.

Like an outsider observing an event absolutely unrelated to himself with complete detachment.

When he finally snapped back to reality, he didn't need any emotional adjustment, directly returning to awareness.

Du Yuheng was somewhat nervous and asked: "Senior, what did you see?"

Jiang Ye felt that the images he just saw were a bit strange.

He thought for a moment, didn't answer directly, but said solemnly: "Next."

Next was the bespectacled youth.

He was also quite nervous, but probably felt that compared to survival, revealing his memories wasn't a big deal.

So, he actively offered his finger to Jiang Ye's forehead.

And this time, something strange happened!

Because Jiang Ye discovered—

The memory he stole from this bespectacled youth was actually exactly the same as the memory he just stole from Du Yuheng!

Both were scenes of pretending to cremate bodies at a crematorium while actually pushing corpses into a secret space!

This...

What's going on?!

This time when he snapped back to reality, Jiang Ye's entire mind was going berserk!

What? How? How can two different people share the exact same memory??

Could it be... I'm the clown here, and you two are actually clones sharing consciousness?

Of course, based on the stolen memory images, Jiang Ye had another speculation in his mind.

After a moment of silence, facing the bespectacled youth's nervous inquiry, he still didn't say much, only calling out "next" in a business-like manner.

However, the next four "Foolish Youths" all provided him with the same version as Du Yuheng's memory!

Even the duration of the memory fragments was exactly the same without any difference!

The last four youths didn't actively ask him what he saw.

Only after all six of them had completed the memory theft process did they look at Jiang Ye together, their eyes showing unconcealed confusion.

Jiang Ye thought for a moment and directly asked: "Have any of you six worked at a crematorium?"

All six of course shook their heads repeatedly.

"I'm still studying, how could I have work experience."

"I haven't either, even if I work in the future, I wouldn't choose crematorium work."

Right.

All six answers were negative.

From this answer, combined with the future memory Jiang Ye just stole from He Yuliang.

Perhaps it could be inferred that these six people would experience crematorium work at some point in the future.

But this most intuitive speculation was directly rejected by Jiang Ye.

Because the memory tone of the crematorium work just now clearly didn't belong to the Doomsday Prison background.

If the Doomsday Prison background was really the hidden past of the Doomsday Apartment.

Then these six people's "future" couldn't possibly experience that normal-toned imagery with normal sunlight.

So...

Then the answer to this question should only have two possibilities.

Either, it's the upcoming "Ideological Reform" in this Grand Auditorium!

Or, it's the so-called "Dreamland" after 23:00 at night!

These two scenarios could potentially inject the same memories into these six people.

For example, Song Jie gave "watching movies" as an example of an ideological reform project.

So that crematorium work scene might be something they would see while "watching movies" in this Grand Auditorium.

Including the mysterious "Dreamland" segment could also potentially cause such effects.

And this movie-watching-like scenario could well explain why all six of them would have the same memory.

It seemed the problem of identical memories was explained.

But there was still one detail—

Even if all six would acquire that crematorium work memory in future "movie-watching" or "Dreamland" segments.

But Jiang Ye's [Grudge Memory] for memory theft clearly displayed as "random theft"!

How could "random theft" on these six different people yield exactly the same result?

This identical result clearly violated the "random" principle of the skill!

So...

Jiang Ye immediately thought of the results Du Yuheng got when using [Heart's Voice Externalized] on players for the first time.

Although it seemed like the externalized heart's voices he got were also "random."

Actually, within this "randomness," there existed certain patterns.

The heart's voices those players first externalized were basically 100% related to their firmly believed "convictions."

Then, could the memories Jiang Ye's [Grudge Memory] skill first stole also have some pattern within the "randomness"?

Actually, during previous skill use, he had already discovered some localized patterns.

For example, the memories stolen from Xiao Hei and from the giant turtle both spanned long time dimensions.

And both were related to their special experience of being "arrested."

Li Ku's memory showed his future downfall.

Song Jie's memory showed him being forced to fall/corrupt by Superior People, which could be seen as a life turning point.

The scene of the bus driver being expelled from normal cities might also foreshadow some hope being shattered, a desperate life turning point...

Of course, there were also memory images provided by some NPCs... which might be like the pure garbled code Du Yuheng read, not having reference value?

Because those NPCs, like those numb hollow people, were almost equivalent to having no souls.

So synthesizing these patterns...

Perhaps, the memories Jiang Ye first stole from individuals using his skill were also similar to the "convictions" manifested by [Heart's Voice Externalized], being a "key memory"?

Key memory...

Jiang Ye pondered these words in his heart and couldn't help but draw another bold conclusion—

Perhaps...

If every player experiences a final flashback when dying, with life experiences flashing through their mind like a revolving lantern.

Then among the countless memories flashing through those dying players' final moments, the most deeply imprinted scene in their hearts might be the memory stolen when [Grudge Memory] is first activated?

Precisely because [Grudge Memory]'s search range is a player's entire life...

That's why situations occur where "future memories" are stolen!

If a player already has the most profound memory of their life, then what Jiang Ye steals is a past memory.

But if the most profound moment of their life hasn't been experienced yet, then he can steal future memories?

But if this is really true...

Then why would the memories first stolen from these six new players appear as exactly identical, watched memories?

Hiss...

What if this kind of memory isn't something they "watched" like "watching a movie."

But rather, like lab rats in a laboratory... had this memory injected into them?!

Hiss... ideological reform... personality reconstruction...

Jiang Ye suddenly shuddered, having to re-examine this "Personality Reconstruction School"...

His gaze fell on these six newcomers again.

And these six people felt their scalps tingling under his strange stare.

Du Yuheng couldn't help but ask: "Senior, what exactly did you see?"

"Did you see us working at a crematorium?"

"Could your skill have malfunctioned like when I read minds and get garbled code?"

This casually mentioned possibility indeed gave Jiang Ye a new line of thought.

Jiang Ye took a deep breath and suddenly asked Du Yuheng for more details: "How exactly are the 'garbled code' you see presented? Is it Chinese character garbled code like decompression errors? Or is it like AI-generated garbled code that isn't even Chinese characters?"

Du Yuheng answered this question without hesitation: "It should be considered AI garbled code, those messy symbols that can't be called characters, even mixed with incorrect foreign languages."

"And those garbled codes look very blurry, not mosaic-like blurry, but like poor eyesight blurry."

As he spoke, Du Yuheng also speculated with chin in hand: "Actually, I also suspect whether it's because my own ability is insufficient, or my 'pupil power' is inadequate? That's why I can't see those garbled codes clearly?"

He Yuliang listened thoughtfully and couldn't help asking Jiang Ye: "What exactly did you see from them that made you react so strongly?"

After all, when Jiang Ye saw his "monster" perspective, he hardly reacted at all, still rationally analyzing the possibility of confusion state with him.

He Yuliang really couldn't imagine what he saw from these six newcomers.

Crematorium?

But what's so scary about a crematorium?

Could it involve some information about the "later world" underground cemetery?

Many speculations bubbled up in He Yuliang's heart.

Then he heard Jiang Ye hesitantly give an answer.

But not an answer to He Yuliang.

Instead, he directly addressed those six youths:

"I saw exactly the same memories from all six of you."

"This 'exactly the same' means from the beginning to the end of the memory, even the duration of the memory images... are like copy-pasted, exactly identical without any difference."

The announcement of this information indeed caused all six to show expressions of confusion and shock.

Actually, they didn't understand Jiang Ye's so-called memory theft skill.

But even without understanding the skill, they vaguely felt that such a phenomenon shouldn't occur.

They were six different people, how could they have the same memory?

Immediately, one youth gave the same answer Jiang Ye had speculated:

"Could the identical images you saw be memories we'll all receive together during the upcoming 'Ideological Reform'?"

He Yuliang also nodded, agreeing with this speculation.

But Jiang Ye noticed...

After he publicly revealed this answer, Du Yuheng's expression showed a brief, momentary abnormality.

Actually, all six showed either shocked or confused expressions.

Only Du Yuheng's shock and confusion contained a momentary strange emotional change.

Jiang Ye actually didn't catch exactly what that momentary abnormality was in terms of emotion.

But he clearly perceived—

Du Yuheng deliberately concealed that trace of emotion!

And this phenomenon made Jiang Ye suddenly develop another new idea.

He looked at Du Yuheng and directly asked: "What do you think?"