If he wasn’t mistaken…

Usually detached eyeballs have no image reflected in their pupils.

But Jiang Ye’s eyeballs were different.

So those detached eyeballs that still reflected images after being removed likely belonged to Jiang Ye’s clones.

That group of sixty Sun-and-Moon People who infiltrated Exile City and the six humans…

There’s a high probability all sixty Sun-and-Moon People had become Jiang Ye clones.

Even two Sun People were “infected”!

Usually this kind of silent “infection” wouldn’t be noticed.

It’s like how Jiang Ye, back in the Doomsday Apartment, used the effect clone kills clone to replace a player’s identity.

With perfect acting, it usually goes undetected.

But precisely because of a “flaw” on the eyeballs, this Sun Person player standing in front of them discovered it…

And while studying that “flaw,” this keen slightly chubby Kid Brother also seemed to notice a hidden tacit understanding and unity among those sixty-two people.

Mainly because normal Sun People players wouldn’t regard Sun-and-Moon People as human.

Yet those two “special Sun People” displayed mindsets that directly exposed the core problem.

That made this Sun Person vaguely realize what the so-called “eyeball flaw” might actually imply…

So now seeing this phenomenon again on Cheng Lin, this guy became so alert.

However…

Jiang Ye thought for a moment, then raised an eyebrow and answered the Sun Person’s question:

“From your tone I can tell you still believe players with that ‘eyeball flaw’ are special.”

“And according to psychology research, most people consider themselves the ‘normal’ ordinary ones, while those different from themselves are the ‘special’ others.”

“So based on your tone it’s not hard to infer that your detached eyeballs couldn’t reflect images.”

Of course that explanation was just a rationalization.

Yet after thinking long and hard, the Sun Person showed a deep, resonant feeling:

“Yes…”

‘Those not of my clan must have different hearts.’

“There have always been only two kinds of people in this world: one is ‘me,’ the other is ‘others.’”

“Wherever ‘I’ stand, that camp is the ‘normal people,’ the other camps are ‘others’…”

“Everyone can only see the world in front of their own eyes…”

“The clearest example is the Sun People and the Moon People.”

“Although the cases where Moon People evolved into Sun People are extremely rare, virtually nonexistent.”

“But there have been a few instances of Sun People falling into Moon People.”

“I have indeed seen it. When a Sun Person falls into a Moon Person… their mindset and worldview change utterly at the moment their identity shifts.”

“When they were a Sun Person, they wouldn’t regard Moon People as human.”

“But once they become a Moon Person, they will immediately hate all Sun People…”

“It’s like a drop of water accidentally falling into the sea; then it becomes seawater. Everything that happens is so reasonable and follows nature…”

From this guy’s musings, Jiang Ye could easily deduce—

He must have witnessed such identity shifts and the resulting mental transformations firsthand.

So now he had such deep reflections.

Jiang Ye followed his train of thought and pondered carefully.

After a brief silence, he suddenly asked, “Do any of you Sun People know about system coupling?”

The Sun Person fell silent.

Jiang Ye then explained—

“Hang two pendulums with different rhythms on the same wooden beam and swing them. Gradually, the two pendulums will synchronize.”

“Put different metronomes on the same platform and they will slowly match each other’s rhythm.”

“Just like The Crowd describes how individuals are submerged by the group and can only emit the group’s voice.”

“But stranger still, phenomena like the crowd effect appear widely in non-living machines.”

“When many individuals exist within the same system, they gradually emit a single frequency or voice… as if to make it convenient for us to treat them as one system, one ‘whole.’”

What Jiang Ye was really thinking about at this point was—

He had earlier hypothesized that, in a dimensional attack like the Dual-Vector Foil’s dimensional descent, the only way to escape a dimensional reduction strike is to exceed the speed of light.

There are indeed two situations in which something can exceed light speed.

One is the cosmic expansion at the universe’s edge, which can exceed light speed and becomes an unprobeable forbidden zone for humans.

The other is when two particles in the same system achieve apparent faster-than-light effect via quantum entanglement.

Of course, quantum entanglement itself does not traverse the space between entangled particles.

This “ignoring space” kind of apparent superluminal effect seems meaningless in reality.

But for Jiang Ye…

It’s actually very easy to trigger entanglement-like phenomena.

All his clones…

As long as they aren’t blocked by the mist,

Their shared consciousness can likewise ignore space!

And when a phenomenon ignores “space”…

Then by creating a sufficiently large spatial separation, it’s easy to surpass the speed of light!

Only that…

Against the backdrop of the Doomsday Apartment, aside from the Doomsday Apartment and the Novice Apartment, the whole world is shrouded in mist.

And light travels 300,000 kilometers in a second, roughly circumnavigating the equator seven and a half times.

Such distances are difficult to reach within the Doomsday Apartment’s space and the fragmented spaces that might exist inside the apartment.

From this angle…

Jiang Ye even couldn’t help but suspect—

Could the mist exist to block the interactions between his clones, to prevent them from exceeding light speed?

So long as space doesn’t exceed 300,000 kilometers,

His clones’ consciousness sharing naturally can’t surpass light speed.

However…

Jiang Ye thought of one area large enough to break this constraint.

Namely, the Formless Domain generated before a Court Session in the Court of Disorder.

The entire Formless Domain’s space was absurdly vast!

The spatial span in that area seemed to exceed 300,000 kilometers!

Back then Jiang Ye hadn’t considered superluminal issues.

But looking at it now…

The existence of the world’s mist might be his greatest enemy.

Under the Doomsday Prison world background, the mist still seemed to be in an expansion phase.

At least a considerable portion of this world had not yet been overrun by the mist.

Wait a moment?

Based on historical deduction…

And based on the characteristics of the Land of Exile and Qiankun Land,

Maybe the mist’s spread is related to the Sun and Moon?

Qiankun Land avoids the mist because it possesses the sun and moon.

And in the next solar eclipse within the year…

Chen Cang will steal the moon.

Then the sun?

Will someone else steal it, or will it fall into another realm?

In any case it’s not hard to infer—

The next solar eclipse might trigger an event that affects the entire Doomsday Prison world pattern.

And that event will determine the development of the whole world…

The mist spreads, leaving only one Doomsday Apartment for all to survive…

For a moment, many thoughts crossed Jiang Ye’s mind.

After a stretch of silence, the Sun Person suddenly blurted, “Seems you already guessed…”

Jiang Ye snapped back to the present, raising an eyebrow.

He indeed had guessed—

“You shouldn’t be a natural-born Sun Person.”

Sun People are born in Qiankun Land; they don’t understand human history, science, or civilization.

So Sun People don’t know what system coupling is.

They also don’t know there’s a book called The Crowd.

Those who knew these things were Moon People who were drawn into this world.

Jiang Ye felt suspicious from this guy’s oddly deep reflection.

If he had merely witnessed the instant mindset shift when a Sun Person fell into a Moon Person…

He wouldn’t have had such profound feelings.

His reflections seemed more like they came from personal experience.

So, even though he himself said Moon People evolving into Sun People is nearly impossible,

Jiang Ye couldn’t help suspecting that this slightly chubby Kid Brother who first appeared as a Sun Person…

Might actually be one of those extremely rare Moon People who successfully crossed classes and evolved into a Sun Person!

There were some supporting details.

First, this guy’s carefulness.

Ordinary Sun People wouldn’t notice that detached eyeballs can’t reflect images.

But he noticed that phenomenon.

And he discovered this anomaly while infiltrating Exile City.

He called it an “accidental” discovery, but behind that “accident” was serious attentiveness.

Second, his pessimistic remark to the other two Sun People about “ascension” actually being destruction.

That didn’t sound like something an ordinary Sun Person player would say.

So…

Sure enough!

After Jiang Ye voiced his guess, the guy gave a complicated snort and smiled:

“Yes, I used to be a Moon Person.”

“I once struggled painfully to shake off the Moon Person identity and become a Sun Person.”

“At one time I thought that because I’d been rained on, I would hold an umbrella for all Moon People.”

“I thought I would become a hero who would save the fate of every Moon Person.”

“But in reality…”

“I even suspected that my soul had been infected by a virus called ‘Sun Person’?”

“Otherwise why would I have completed the Moon Person to Sun Person ideological change in such a short time?”

“All my thoughts were immediately assimilated by the Sun People…”

“I no longer thought I was a hero saving Moon People; instead I was convinced Moon People were guilty by nature.”

“Like I said just now—those not of my clan must have different hearts.”

“What I really want to say is…”

“When I was a Moon Person, Sun People were not my clan, I hated Sun People;”

“When I became a Sun Person, Moon People were not my clan, I loathed Moon People…”

“So you’re right—”

“Because my eyeballs didn’t reflect images when detached, eyeballs that do reflect images became a ‘flaw’ in my eyes…”

“So, if I’m not mistaken…”

“The condition where detached eyeballs can still reflect images also appears in a certain ‘category’ of humans.”

“They are not Sun People, not Moon People, and not Sun-and-Moon People…”

“What do people like you call yourselves?”

Jiang Ye thought—We call ourselves Ye People :)

But he didn’t answer the question. Instead he asked again:

“My initial question remains unanswered—why didn’t you become someone like me?”

The guy sighed lightly and shook his head:

“At the time I chose the minority yield to the majority, and stopped arguing about which of the two kinds of people was normal or special.”

“Later, before executing the plan to storm the Inner City, I deserted at the last moment, fled Exile City, and returned to Qiankun Land.”

“Afterward I repeatedly changed my appearance and lived very low-key until now.”

“As for that group of Sun People and Sun-and-Moon People… I don’t know whether they died in Exile City, died in Qiankun Land, or are barely surviving somewhere else. In any case, I never saw them again.”

“Until the moment I saw you, I almost thought an ‘old friend’ had come back to settle a score.”

“But then I confirmed: you are not that old friend, only their kind.”

This part was rather brief.

Jiang Ye vaguely suspected the man was still hiding something.

But he didn’t probe urgently; accepting these statements for now, he finally followed the man’s original line of thought and asked:

“Okay, I roughly understand your situation.”

“So you came to meet me in secret to ‘talk.’ What exactly did you want to discuss?”

The Sun Person fell silent for a moment, then introduced himself: “My name is Li Si. I share a name with the Prime Minister Li Si from the Qin dynasty.”

After a pause he looked at Jiang Ye with meaning and continued:

“As the old saying goes, generation after generation the Qin kings wronged the Qin prime minister, only Li Si wronged the First Emperor of Qin.”

“Li Si aided Qin Shi Huang in becoming emperor, yet after Qin Shi Huang’s death he cooperated with Zhao Gao and Hu Hai to alter the edicts and usurp the throne, ending in a miserable fate.”

“Perhaps because of the shared name, I often wonder—”

“If Li Si could return to that small county town where he once observed mice and hamsters…”

“Would he still choose the path of chasing fame and gain?”

“Like I mentioned earlier—”

“To remain a Sun Person who lives in peace, or risk a tragic end to pursue the so-called truth of ascension… which should I choose?”

“I think my choice would be the same as the historical Li Si’s.”

With that sentence, the meaning became clear—

He wanted to pursue the truth.

That is… 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

On the surface he had fooled those two Sun People into giving up the experiment.

But in reality he intended to continue experimenting, to keep pursuing this so-called “rebirth state”!

Oh no, since he took the initiative to call Jiang Ye out to talk…

Then this “continuing the experiment” probably wasn’t the extremely complex process of achieving ten thousand betrayals.

So…

After a bit of thought, Jiang Ye tentatively asked:

“You’re not looking to learn about my talent from me and find a shortcut to achieve the ‘rebirth state,’ are you?”

Li Si was silent for a moment, then answered in a low voice:

“Indeed, I have little patience to perform those ten thousand betrayals to reach one hundred percent ‘rebirth state’ …”

“But a recent case has already given me direction.”

“That Chen Cang who has the [Protagonist Halo]…”

“If I’m not mistaken… you know him?”