Wen Xishu and Tang Rui enjoyed a peaceful day of life in Jiangcheng.
Wen Xishu also tried to use the Compass to find the mastermind behind the scenes... but failed.
Either there was no mastermind, or they were already inside the other party’s Barrier, and the Compass could not point out the creator of the Barrier.
Since they couldn’t find them, the two of them went shopping, eating and drinking like lovers.
This sense of calm made it easy to grow fond of this city.
Although this was a city without sunny days, after all the killing and struggle in the apocalypse, to have a city where it always rained yet was far away from the end of the world...
It was hard not to want to stay here.
For Tang Rui, this place carried a sense of fate.
"After that rainy night, I began to transform, and the world began to fall into the apocalypse."
"My body became ugly, no longer human. I devoured more and more monsters. Of course, there were times when I had to hide from other monsters too."
"I’m grateful for my power, for letting me survive in the apocalypse, but sometimes, in the puddles’ reflections... when I see that face of mine, when I see myself living like a beast..."
"I can’t help thinking, if only—if only the apocalypse had never come."
"I want to protect this city, Wen Xishu. It feels like a pure land."
When Wen Xishu heard this, he even wondered if this city really was the pure land in Tang Rui’s heart.
Those endlessly spawning monsters... the owner of that girl’s laughter—could it be Tang Rui herself?
That seemed a bit too idealistic.
Night fell.
The second night arrived, and the familiar process began quickly.
Wen Xishu and Tang Rui were already sitting upright on the sofa.
Tang Rui said:
"I’ve started. Are you ready?"
Wen Xishu nodded.
Tang Rui closed her eyes and fell asleep quickly. This counted as a kind of ability.
Very soon, Wen Xishu began to sense the changes in the surroundings.
The familiar scene of the villain-manufacturing base appeared again.
This time, Wen Xishu arrived at the control console.
As usual, he heard that girl’s laughter.
[Heehee, sis, you moved so fast. She didn’t even have time to kill more people before you found her. Do you have some kind of item?]
Since this was Tang Rui’s dream, Wen Xishu had only slipped in by piggybacking on "All the Feels."
So for the owner of that laughter in the electronic screen, she thought the one she had trapped was still Tang Rui.
In the earlier attempts, when Tang Rui didn’t have the Compass, it took her a long time to find the villain she designed.
Wen Xishu’s participation indeed let Tang Rui see hope of breaking the game.
Wen Xishu really couldn’t place that voice.
But he had a feeling this girl was not Tang Rui, nor some blackened version of Tang Rui.
This girl... he might have met her before.
All of this was only his speculation.
Very soon, Wen Xishu entered the villain-design phase.
[Please select the target’s gender.]
This time Wen Xishu decisively chose [Male].
[Another male, sis? Is it because it’s easier to kill stinky men?]
Wen Xishu ignored her and started the second round of choices.
This round was to select the family environment in which the boy would grow up.
Because in the previous round, Jiang Zhaonan had only killed one drunk, and Wen Xishu and Tang Rui rushed over, the urban legend hadn’t had time to spread.
Therefore in this round, the conditions for creating the urban legend were harsher; the question changed from multiple choice in the previous round to single choice.
[A: The boy grows up in a luxurious environment.]
[B: The boy grows up in an ordinary family.]
[C: The boy grows up in a poor environment.]
[D: The boy grows up in a crowded, lively environment full of opportunities.]
Wen Xishu had already figured it out and gave up on the possibility that one of the options hid something good.
This game was built to mess with your head, to try to corrupt Tang Rui. No matter what you chose, it would be tragic.
Wen Xishu could picture it: a luxurious environment, but no mention of family... most likely a servant’s child growing up in some tycoon’s manor.
An ordinary family... that would surely be riddled with its own distortions.
"The richer the environment, the easier it is to breed psychos. After all, poor environments are vicious enough, but with the pressure of survival, people don’t have the time or energy to indulge in curiosities and perversions."
"Rule out A. As for D... an orphanage?"
Wen Xishu chose a poor family. But this time, he didn’t use the buttons on the control console.
He tried answering with words.
"I choose C, the boy grows up in a poor environment."
[Unlocked Jiang’s filth characteristic: Viral Constitution.]
[On the day Ping’an was born, many people in the outer city’s slum area heard his cries. No one paid attention. Abandoned infants showed up every year, after all. Jiang Ping’an was thrown onto a garbage heap the moment he was born. Cockroaches, flies, and rats were his playmates in early childhood.]
Wen Xishu hadn’t expected he’d chosen wrong. This poor environment was even worse than he’d imagined.
A child growing up on a garbage heap? That seemed to stray from the kind of personality he originally meant to mold.
At this point, Wen Xishu began cheating.
Having been classified as a cheater by Three Towers Company, he not only didn’t feel ashamed, he actually thought it was a good thing; going in with hacks suited his style perfectly.
This time, the Scorpion Knife’s function was to retract spoken words.
Wen Xishu had thought he wouldn’t need it, but decided to try it out this time.
And sure enough, it worked.
After Wen Xishu retracted the sentence "I choose C, the boy grows up in a poor environment,"
the choice was actually undone as well. In other words, when the memory generated by that sentence was erased, the choice made in the dream could actually be wiped out too.