"That brings us to the second mechanism of the Human Hole: the unfortunate error correction mechanism. When I begin to have doubts..."
"Doubt, an activity that hinders your experience of happiness, is then personified into an entity with ultimate assassination abilities."
Yoshida Koki understood:
"So... when I have nightmares, ’doubt’ is searching for you?"
Wen Xishu nodded:
"Yes, she is looking for me. She cannot let you feel unhappy. And doubt is a powerful assassin that can instantly annihilate anything in this world that is harmful to you, or makes you unhappy."
Yoshida Koki sighed deeply:
"Tch. From this perspective, she’s like my bodyguard. However, on the other hand, you and I are one entity."
Wen Xishu continued:
"When doubt arises, you start to feel fear towards certain things."
"At that moment, fear also becomes personified."
"I discovered fear long ago. It has two heads, my parents’ heads. This appearance is directed specifically at me. I find it difficult to face it directly."
"So during the first node, I realized the danger and absurdity of the Human Hole."
"To be precise, it was my alternate personalities that realized the danger and absurdity. In this world, any negative emotion you generate will transform into a superpower trying to eliminate anything that makes you unhappy."
"But there’s a third setting in this world: once my personalities appear in the real world... it will attract a hunting effort from everyone in this world, and immediately draw the pursuit of ’doubt’ and ’fear’."
"I can only hide in dreams. Because in dreams, only you exist. But if I try to tell you the truth in the dream, the harsh truth will also make you feel unhappy."
"Thus, ’doubt’ and ’fear’ can even directly invade the dream."
"I have no choice, using the exemption sequence of nightmares, I can only hide my multiple personalities in dreams and abandon telling you the truth in the dream."
"Because all my personalities cannot defeat them."
"But doubt and fear are both created by you; you are the ultimate master of this world, understand?"
After a few seconds of silence, Yoshida Koki slowly nodded:
"I see, so this is your strategy."
Wen Xishu picked up the thread:
"Yes, I am rather adept at strategy, though I must emphasize that I got lucky this time."
"I am one of Wen Xishu’s many personalities, a relatively calm and analytical one. I was the one who planned this counter-strike, you can call me—’Absolutely Calm Version of Wen Xishu’."
"First, I arranged for a lustful personality, the weakest among Wen Xishu’s many personalities, to seduce ’doubt’. I forced this personality to give you a hint."
Yoshida Koki instantly recalled what the hint was.
During childhood, Haruko asked him if he felt happy.
At that moment, Yoshida Koki heard a voice.
"Some questions require answers that align with the target. If you realize the answer is not like that, do not say it directly..."
"That would be very dangerous, very dangerous."
This voice was one of Wen Xishu’s personalities.
"Ah, from then on, Wen Xishu would probably be immune to female charm. Because this personality died. But only within this mission," Absolutely Calm Version of Wen Xishu said.
Indeed, it’s only within this mission, because returning to the Bunker would repair all damage, including mental layer damage.
Yoshida Koki understood:
"At that time, I answered Haruko, leading me to believe I was very happy during childhood."
"Was it at that exact moment that one of your personalities died?"
Absolutely Calm Version of Wen Xishu nodded:
"Yes, it was indeed very dangerous at that time. I’ve mentioned before, if one tries to give you any hint that may make you unhappy... ’doubt’ would lock onto them."
"Overall, I was defeated at the first node and one of my personalities died. In attempting to give you a hint, it led to its death."
"But this also allowed me to test the danger level of this world, so in the second round, which is the second node, during your youth—I realized that I absolutely could not fight head-on."
"Wen Xishu himself is not actually a person with multiple personalities. It’s the effect of the Party-Personality sequence that caused some of his traits to be personified into individual personalities."
"If all these personalities died in the Human Hole, Wen Xishu would become emotionally deficient."
"Thus, I understood that I must be extremely cautious, I cannot forcibly awaken you, but must let you realize the danger of this world yourself."
Yoshida Koki pondered for a moment:
"I see, no wonder you said you rely on luck!"
Absolutely Calm Version of Wen Xishu laughed:
"Yes, fortunately Yoshida Koki, your root of unhappiness lies in intellectual deficiency, otherwise I could not break the situation."
"Your unhappiness stems from your intellectual deficiency, so I kept hinting to you in the dream, that you should become a genius, that you are a genius and such."
"Subtly influencing you, making you long to become a genius, longing for higher intelligence levels."
"In the early stage of this round, I always dared not let any personality appear from the dream. Because during the first round, I realized the difference in combat power between the sides."
"Luckily, I could still attack the heart."
"Although you were very happy, the editor-in-chief also said your drawing skills need polishing. You have to become more excellent."
"Once a person has a goal, in the process of conquering the goal, as long as everything goes smoothly and there is stable positive feedback, one will feel happy."