"Memory loss??"

The Cardboard Box Monster's two pitch-black holes emitted a slightly strange sound, clearly tinged with suspicion.

Those two holes suddenly merged into one.

It resembled a dark vortex, aimed directly at Li Ku in his Death State.

Li Ku could vaguely sense that the black hole was probably capable of sucking people inside.

However, in his Death State, he wouldn't be sucked in.

Sure enough, after this attempt yielded no results, the black hole atop the Cardboard Box Monster's head split back into two holes, from which a voice sounded again:

"Judging by your condition, it shouldn't be memory loss, but rather..."

"You appear to have the identity of a player, but in reality... you were probably recently possessed by a monster, right?"

"Moreover, judging by your strength, you're likely a Reincarnation Ghost."

"But would a Reincarnation Ghost possess a player?"

"And... a 'memory-less' Reincarnation Ghost? Could also be an ignorant monster that never had memories from the start?"

"But an ignorant monster would find it very difficult to grow into a Reincarnation Ghost, and couldn't possibly be as strong as you."

"With your strength, you should be a Reincarnation Ghost whose mindset changed, who actively discarded some memories."

"Then, during the process of discarding memories, improper handling caused you to forget some common-sense memories as well."

"That should be it... right?"

The Cardboard Box Monster analyzed on its own, its tone sometimes confident, sometimes doubtful.

Meanwhile, Li Ku learned from the information it revealed—

This Cardboard Box Monster really did seem to be a monster!

And according to what it said, monsters and players seemed to be two different identities.

And monsters could possess players? Transition from monster to player?!

And among monsters, there also seemed to be distinctions.

Ignorant monsters without memories were probably the weakest type of monster?

And Reincarnation Ghosts... were a type of powerful monster?

Wait? Reincarnation Ghost?

Reincarnation?

Feeling shocked and suspicious in his heart, Li Ku continued to fish for information by playing along:

"So it seems, I should be a Reincarnation Ghost who possessed a player, and then for some reason lost many memories, including common sense."

"So... what is a Reincarnation Ghost? Where does the experience of 'reincarnation' come into play?"

The Cardboard Box Monster fell silent for a moment, then continued its explanation:

"A Reincarnation Ghost is the kind of monster that can reincarnate within the Novice Apartment."

"Simply put, it can survive from this Novice Apartment to the next Novice Apartment."

"Novice Apartment..." Li Ku muttered these four words, "So the place I'm in now is called the 'Novice Apartment'?"

"Obviously!" The Cardboard Box Monster retorted with exasperation, but quickly considering this was a formidable Reincarnation Ghost senior, it hurriedly continued explaining, "The Novice Apartment is a temporary apartment set up by the Doomsday Apartment when accepting new players, or rather, screening new players."

"This temporary apartment only exists for 11 days each time."

"After 11 days, the old temporary apartment is destroyed. Then the Doomsday Apartment generates a new temporary apartment to accept a new batch of players."

"New players generally refer to this 11-day temporary apartment as the Novice Apartment."

"However, on the Eighth Day, veteran players from the Doomsday Apartment will descend upon the Novice Apartment to further screen new players from the veterans' perspective."

"Of course, the veteran players will also take away a batch of monsters, usually choosing to help monsters possess new players, allowing the monsters to obtain player identities, and then go to the Doomsday Apartment as players."

"The remaining monsters that nobody wants, unable to reach the Doomsday Apartment and unwilling to be destroyed along with the Novice Apartment, can find their own way to reincarnate within the Novice Apartment."

"The 'reincarnation' of a Reincarnation Ghost means exactly this."

The Cardboard Box Monster seemed to guess what Li Ku would ask next and directly added, "If you're going to ask me how to reincarnate, then I'm sorry, I don't know! I'm not a Reincarnation Ghost!"

"You, as a Reincarnation Ghost, are indeed very powerful among all monsters. But I advise you, it's best not to offend me too much."

"Because I am a monster with veteran players as my backers."

"When the Eighth Day of this cycle's Novice Apartment arrives, veteran players will come find me to help me possess a newcomer and obtain a player identity."

While saying this, the Cardboard Box Monster seemed quite confident.

This was probably also why it hadn't fled directly like the bandaged monster in Room 4949.

Li Ku summarized the information it revealed in his mind, unconsciously falling into deep thought.

As for Jiang Ye...

He was somewhat shocked, sure.

But the information revealed by this Cardboard Box Monster wasn't exactly unfamiliar to him.

Damn it...

Isn't this just the situation during the Doomsday Apartment era?!

So... damn it, did he really travel back to the Doomsday Apartment era again?!

Could it be...

That the hidden space on the 49th floor is actually a passage connecting two timelines?

Huh??

Then what does the mutation in the Abyss Restricted Zone count as?

Thinking this, Jiang Ye directly asked the Cardboard Box Monster:

"Have you heard about the mutation in the Abyss Restricted Zone while in the Novice Apartment?"

Whether it could "see" Jiang Ye or sensed him as a fellow monster, the Cardboard Box Monster didn't seem particularly surprised by Jiang Ye's sudden voice.

The two black holes on its head directly responded:

"The mutation in the Abyss Restricted Zone... wasn't that something that happened on the Eighth Day?"

This answer made Jiang Ye freeze completely.

He was about to ask more.

But Li Ku beat him to it, questioning the Cardboard Box Monster: "You just said that on the Eighth Day, veteran players will come pick you up..."

"This means the current time is not the Eighth Day."

"But how did the mutation in the Abyss Restricted Zone become something that happened on the Eighth Day?"

Asking this, Li Ku belatedly realized...

Perhaps what the Guiwen mentioned about the 'mutation in the Abyss Restricted Zone' didn't happen on the Eighth Day of this Novice Apartment, but on the Eighth Day of the previous Novice Apartment?

Just as he thought this, the Cardboard Box Monster's explanation turned out different from what he imagined—

"The Eighth Day I mentioned isn't the Eighth Day of the Novice Apartment, but the Eighth Day of the entire Doomsday Apartment."

"The Novice Apartment and the Doomsday Apartment have a subordinate relationship."

"You can think of the Doomsday Apartment as the branches of a tree, and the Novice Apartment as the leaves."

"A tree's leaves grow and wither over time... then continue growing and withering the following year."

"The Novice Apartment is like that; it grows within a survival cycle, then withers."

"And the Doomsday Apartment is that tree; it's always there."

"The survival cycle of each Novice Apartment is 11 days."

"And the survival cycle of the Doomsday Apartment is also 11 days."

"But these two 11-day periods don't follow the same time standard."

"Within one day of the Doomsday Apartment, many 11-day Novice Apartments can be derived."

"It's like a human lifespan versus a mayfly's lifespan."

"Within a human's lifetime, over thirty thousand mayflies complete their lifespans."

With this explanation, Li Ku somewhat understood: "So..."

"The mutation in the Abyss Restricted Zone happened on the Eighth Day according to the Doomsday Apartment's time standard?"

"Then what day is it now according to the Doomsday Apartment's time?"

The Cardboard Box Monster answered: "The Ninth Day, and it's just the beginning of the Ninth Day."

"The mutation in the Abyss Restricted Zone directly destroyed the final Novice Apartment cycle of the Eighth Day."

"And the Novice Apartment we're in now is precisely the first cycle of the Ninth Day's Novice Apartments."

Hearing this...

Jiang Ye increasingly felt that, damn it, could this really be travel between two timelines?

A large group of players traveled to the Doomsday Prison era.

Meanwhile, the Doomsday Apartment era directly switched from the Eighth Day to the Ninth Day!

So when he returned from the Doomsday Prison era to the Doomsday Apartment era... he returned to the early stage of the Doomsday Apartment's Ninth Day?

Hiss...

In that case, those "time-traveling" existences directly skipped the special time node of zero o'clock in the Doomsday Apartment?

Originally, at zero o'clock on the Ninth Day, beings infected with Lightburn should have been erased.

But those existences, through "time travel," skipped zero o'clock?

Jiang Ye suddenly couldn't help but suspect...

That Evil Infant Wulie who survived from the Seventh Day to the Eighth Day...

Could it be that he also skipped the zero o'clock of the Eighth Day through such means, which is why he wasn't erased during the zero o'clock settlement?

Even...

The reason Evil Infant Wulie rejuvenated and became an "evil infant," could it be that before the time travel at the end of the Eighth Day, he had already traveled to the Doomsday Prison era once?!

This...

Is indeed possible!

If they hadn't already experienced time travel...

How could existences like the Formation Master predict the existence of time travel?

For a moment, numerous thoughts flashed through Jiang Ye's mind.

He couldn't help but ask the Cardboard Box Monster again: "Do you know what happened to Salvation in the Doomsday Apartment?"

"Wasn't he infected with Lightburn? Did he survive the Eighth Day?"

The Cardboard Box Monster clearly found this strange—wasn't it agreed you had memory loss? You seem to know quite a lot?

However, since it wasn't particularly secret information anyway, it naturally had no reservations and continued answering:

"Salvation is definitely dead. Not only Salvation died, but all those various powerful seniors who were formidable on the Eighth Day seem to have been purged."

"However, some monsters say they died in that terrifying mutation of the Abyss Restricted Zone;"

"Other monsters say they died in the Ninth Day Major Reshuffle."

"The so-called 'Major Reshuffle' is also a term that just became popular."

"It's said that those top-tier permission seniors, VIP Players, etc., experience a major reshuffle at zero o'clock of the Doomsday Apartment."

"It's said the major reshuffle at zero o'clock on the Eighth Day killed almost half of the top seniors."

"And the major reshuffle on the Ninth Day seems to have purged 99% of the top-tier seniors!"

"Leaving others aside, it seems even the administrators of our Novice Apartment were all purged..."

While saying this, the Cardboard Box Monster's tone, besides gossip, carried some sighing and lingering fear.

Listening to it, Jiang Ye couldn't help but suspect...

Could the "time travel" he understood actually be the Ninth Day Major Reshuffle itself?

It's just that all players involved didn't know it was the Ninth Day Major Reshuffle?

That seems a bit inconsistent...

After all, players like Zhou Qiming, Cheng Lin, etc., don't seem to meet the conditions for being drawn into a "Major Reshuffle."

However...

Could it be that the Ninth Day Major Reshuffle is different from the Eighth Day's?

No longer only players with specific permission identities from the Eighth Day get drawn into it?

But players from other specific regions also get drawn into it?

For example, the Abyss Restricted Zone, the black ice domain?

Even, in the Cardboard Box Monster's understanding, the entire Novice Apartment destroyed by the mutation in the Abyss Restricted Zone...

Were actually all drawn into the Ninth Day Major Reshuffle?

Actually...

Whether it's the Ninth Day Major Reshuffle or time travel...

Both could be explained.

You could directly understand the Ninth Day Major Reshuffle as time travel.

And thinking carefully, whether it's the Ninth Day Major Reshuffle or time travel... they actually share some commonalities.

Both have a key detail worth noting—

Time!

The Ninth Day Major Reshuffle is destined to happen at "zero o'clock" on the Ninth Day.

Time travel is equivalent to directly reversing time.

So, these two...

Perhaps are inextricably linked to the [Moon Phase Clock] on the Doomsday Apartment Rooftop?

The zero o'clock of the Doomsday Apartment itself is determined by the [Moon Phase Clock].

And the matter of time travel...

Is clearly closely related to the Blood Pool that extends iron chains to restrain the [Moon Phase Clock].

After all, at this moment, Jiang Ye and Li Ku seem to have used the Blood Pool Elevator within the Blood Pool to return to the current Doomsday Apartment era...

Huh? Wait?!

Jiang Ye suddenly thought again—

If there really is a passage connecting two timelines within the "Blood Pool"...

Then after time traveling from the elevator at the bottom of the Blood Pool in the Doomsday Prison era...

Why didn't he and Li Ku appear in the space at the bottom of the Blood Pool on the Doomsday Apartment Rooftop?

Instead, they came out from the red-lit elevator in the Novice Apartment?

From this, it's not hard to see that the red-lit elevator also seems to have some issues.

And then...

The previous apartment boss also created a hidden space on the 49th floor of the red-lit elevator in Apartment 9999.

Could it be that the hidden space created by the apartment boss is the passage connecting two timelines?

Jiang Ye felt that was probably unlikely?

Does the apartment boss have that much power?

A more likely situation might be—

They just created a space in the red-lit elevator of the Novice Apartment that leads to some secret within the Blood Pool.

Perhaps even they themselves didn't know that secret within the Blood Pool connects two timelines?

These temporarily unclear things, Jiang Ye temporarily stopped thinking about them.

During his brief period of contemplation, Li Ku was also calculating the time agreed upon with Lin Dong.

Finally, with an urgent tone, he asked the Cardboard Box Monster:

"So the elevator in this 49th-floor corridor belongs to the Novice Apartment's elevator, and it leads to other floors of this Novice Apartment?"

The Cardboard Box Monster couldn't nod, but answered straightforwardly: "Of course."

After saying this, it added: "However, players in the red-lit elevator can also get drawn into some strange secret realms at any time."

Li Ku fell silent for a moment, then said solemnly: "I'll go take a look inside the elevator first, then come back later to learn more from you."

Saying this, his shadowy form swiftly flew towards the red-lit elevator on the 49th floor.

Reaching the elevator, he checked the time on the Prison watch and called out to Jiang Ye: "Guiwen? Are you there?"

"Or... you don't want to go back with me?"

Jiang Ye fell silent for a moment, then stated: "If I guess correctly, simply returning to the elevator won't take us back."

As soon as the words fell, Li Ku, precisely at the 180-second mark, pressed the button to open the elevator door.

With a "ding," the opened elevator was indeed empty, with no sign of Lin Dong or the others.