Chapter 16: Chapter 16: Should Not Generalize About Bai Wu
Translator: 549690339
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Can't go back...
Bai Wu looked at the note's warning with interest.
"Wu Jiu's strength is more than enough to break free, but to 'return,' one must use the Return Roulette. Without this step, naturally, we can't go back. Little Pitiful is at building four... That's probably how she did it."
Bai Wu directly pressed the elevator for the third floor. Wu Jiu asked again:
"Why go to the third floor?"
"The clues are on this level."
"The impression you give me is like you've been here before, and that's not a conclusion one can reach by deduction alone. I need an explanation."
The previous conversation with Evil Fallen and the detail of the key being inside Evil Fallen's stomach began to make Wu Jiu suspect that Bai Wu might have other sources of information.
Bai Wu had anticipated that he would perhaps make some choices and movements later on that others couldn't understand, so he explained:
"I'm not too fond of explaining, but since the captain has asked so sincerely, I'll reluctantly tell you. On the eleventh floor of the first building, you all heard the call of Evil Fallen, which led to emotional fluctuations that attracted its grudge. I went to find the origin and entered the room in the corner."
"Why did you think that room was the origin?"
Wu Jiu's logic was meticulous, but in a world full of supernatural phenomena, Bai Wu was far from flustered:
"Perhaps my emotional fluctuations were very low, and I heard something different from what you all did."
"What did you find in that room?" Wu Jiu continued to probe.
"A multiple-choice question with three options to choose two from. Evil Fallen's voice whispered in my mind, prompting me to make a choice. Evil Fallen itself wasn't in that room, but it left behind a key, a file, a comb; and told me I must choose two of these three things."
The elevator had already reached the third floor, but everyone was listening intently to Bai Wu's recounting of the previous clues.
With a serious face, Bai Wu continued to weave half-truths and half-fictions:
"I chose the file and the comb."
"Why not choose the key? And why not take all three?" asked Lin Wurou.
"Because by choosing two, the remaining item would disappear. I didn't choose the key because the key corresponds to a lock, and whatever is locked away outside the tower, regardless of good or bad, poses a risk."
Everyone nodded, Bai Wu's judgment made sense, but Wu Jiu's expression grew even more serious.
Not that she didn't trust Bai Wu, but precisely because she trusted her teammate, she felt even more that the Evil Fallen Bai Wu mentioned must be very powerful.
"The file contained many things, such as the various arrangements in building two, as well as some strategies for building three. The reason I was able to engage in conversation with the Evil Fallen named Elijah was because of the information in the file."
"Where's the file?"
"It disappeared. Just like the key, after I finished reading the file, it disappeared. Only this comb remained, but I suppose it too will disappear once it fulfills its purpose."
Bai Wu's reasoning was plausible, and no one doubted it.
"You were inside for only a short time, do you remember everything in the file?"
Since it was a file, it naturally contained a lot, and Lin Wurou's concern was normal.
Recalling Lin's previous argument, Bai Wu said indifferently:
"Isn't having a photographic memory standard for this team?"
Lin Wurou stopped speaking, and to be precise, the entire team fell silent.
"What else was in the file?" asked Wu Jiu.
"The clues are on the third floor; let's start there. Also, stick close to me and make sure not to get separated."
"Is that all?"
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"Of course there is, but when the time comes to use it, I'll discuss it further. Moreover..."
Bai Wu's gaze swept across everyone, taking a slight pause before he seriously continued:
"A team with no blind spots should have each person in their designated role, with everyone performing their respective duties. My role is the eyes, meaning the observer, so don't question what I say. It's good to have the habit of requiring an explanation, but it's not suitable within a team where lives are entrusted to one another. Besides, omitting doubts can enhance team efficiency."
This speech was naturally directed at Wu Jiu. In Bai Wu's previous life, pyramid scheme teams often required their 'crops' to simply 'listen, obey, and act accordingly'.
'Crops' don't need brains, but Bai Wu didn't consider his teammates as crops.
However, to use Prayle's Eye more smoothly in the future, he had to start building a mindset of "Bai Wu is in charge of thinking, I'm in charge of acting" among them from now on.
Upon exiting the third-floor elevator, everyone perceived an indescribable and bizarre atmosphere.
The various bloody patterns they had seen at the registration area of the first building were once again covering the walls of the third one.
What meaning these meandering symbols held was unclear to anyone, and the only note Bai Wu saw was a simple mention—[Part of a formation.]
Prayle's Eye provided limited information, but with no alert given, Bai Wu began searching for clues.
The third floor of the third building once housed the hospital's medical records.
The layout here differed from that of other floors, not having many rooms but instead merging them into a single archive exhibition room.
While on the periphery of the exhibition room, Yin Shuang suddenly stopped.
"You've come looking for me, huh..."
A soft voice drifted past Yin Shuang's ears.
"I'm outside, come find me, sister, I miss you so much..."
Yin Shuang turned around, the voice sounding like it carried a certain enticement, as if a long-lost sister was calling out to her.
But Yin Shuang didn't have a sister, and her expression became vacant as she prepared to walk away in the opposite direction.
"Where are you going?"
The others were observing the surrounding symbols when Bai Wu suddenly spoke up, causing them to realize that Yin Shuang had unknowingly fallen behind, nearly losing track of the group.
"I heard a voice." Yin Shuang came to her senses from her daze.
Wu Jiu's pupils contracted sharply, realizing his negligence as a team leader. The patterns on the walls had caused him to lose focus for a moment.
"There's no voice, and also, take a deep breath and suppress your emotions."
29.
To Yin Shuang's surprise, the number on her wristwatch had suddenly skyrocketed from single digits to 29...
But she didn't feel fearful.
Fear, anger, sadness—the three negative emotions had different effects, and Bai Wu quickly deduced the outcome:
"The conclusion we have now is that people turn into Evil Fallen when experiencing extreme negative emotions. Whether it's anger or sadness, their past will inevitably evoke empathy, but they're no longer human."
Yin Shuang looked at Bai Wu, surprised by his composure that belied his age.
"Everyone, the instant you hear any voice, speak up immediately."
Bai Wu was now confident in his hypothesis that the fourth building held Little Pitiful, but the third and fourth buildings were too close, making the malicious attacks more diverse.
It wasn't just the arm attacks from the first building anymore; there was a high probability that the third building would frequently present hallucinations.
He suddenly remembered the little girl in red who would intermittently flash her figure on the road during moments of extreme panic.
...
...
The most conspicuous building on the third floor was the Archive Display Room.
After the minor episode where Yin Shuang fell behind, the group arrived at the Archive Display Room.
Even after seven hundred years, the room did not look overly dirty or disordered.
It was Wu Jiu's first time seeing so many documentary materials outside the Tower.
Although it was not certain that they would find the historical truths he was seeking, he could at least learn as much as possible about the time before The Era of the High Tower.
Just as he was about to touch the archives, Bai Wu suddenly spoke up to stop him:
"Captain, don't touch."
"What's wrong?"
"These archives... they're not normal. It's better if you don't look through them."
Bai Wu wasn't being alarmist. When his gaze focused on the archives, the remark did not explain any single archive:
"[Here are displayed many of Evil Fallen's experiments, but it's best not to open them carelessly because Little Pitiful has added a twist~ By browsing the archives, you will vividly feel the agony that the test subjects suffered. Don't you think Little Pitiful has used her abilities in the wrong place? Manuscript of Thousand Souls, even genre films need this (1/10000)]"
In short, the archives were not presented in text but rather in memories, directly infused into the brains of those who perused them.
Reading these archives would cause the reader to empathize deeply.
After Bai Wu briefly explained the situation, the team was once again silent.
Any person with a shred of empathy, any normal person, could imagine the terrifying torment these patients must have endured before becoming Evil Fallen.
Even Wang Shi, the most hard-hearted, wasn't sure he could read these archives without his heart stirring.
If it really was memory implantation, it would be the same as suffering the same pain; one could very well turn into Evil Fallen on the spot.
"So the most dangerous one is still this building... If we hadn't seen the information Bai Wu found earlier and just read these archives directly..."
Wang Shi felt a shiver of fear because the Captain's hand had already touched the cover of the archive.
Bai Wu also hadn't expected there to be a trap here.
If it was memory implantation, indeed there would be no chance even to touch the Return Roulette; they would simply become Evil Fallen.
"Is there any value in reading these archives?" Wu Jiu withdrew his hand and asked seriously.
Bai Wu nodded:
"This is also a part of history, although on a micro level. But this hospital's research is on Evil Fallen. Even if there's no record of the origin of Evil Fallen, we can still find some results from these perverse experimental records regarding the traits of Evil Fallen."
"So what do we do? The archive told you the clue is on the third floor, but the clue can't be read." The speaker was Yin Shuang.
"The only option is for the person with the biggest guts, the most heartless, the most even-tempered, to go through these medical records." Lin Wurou implied deliberately.
The person with the biggest guts wouldn't be afraid, the heartless wouldn't feel sad, and the even-tempered wouldn't get angry.
Bai Wu didn't take offense at Lin's misuse of terms or concept substitution; he simply didn't feel like explaining why he lacked empathy and directly pulled out a medical record.
Before opening the record, Bai Wu said:
"Just stand here and don't move. If you hear any noise, try to stay as calm as possible."
The medical record was on the second row in the Archive Display Room, upper shelf of bookcase number one. There were a thousand medical records there, and Bai Wu wasn't sure he was looking at the one they needed.
He could only start to look through them in order, to find the pattern of arrangement.
"2025.0407. There was a slight problem with the serum exchange experiment between Ding Jiu and Yi Liu. Doctor Liu and I decided to seek help privately, even though the Dean explicitly ordered us not to seek that person's help. But we both know that his research on Evil Fallen far exceeds ours. However, before that, I must at least make Ding Jiu stronger, to impress that person."
Bai Wu hadn't finished the first section when he already started seeing hallucinations.
Wu Jiu, Yin Shuang, Lin Wurou, Shang Xiaoyi, and Wang Shi all disappeared, and the surrounding bookshelves suddenly vanished as well.
He collapsed onto the hospital bed, watching the back of a doctor who seemed to be recording something while simultaneously preparing some kind of reagent.
Bai Wu found he couldn't move, and his body was alternately hot and cold.
At this time, the patient—or rather, the test subject—was in great pain, having been injected with a higher-grade Evil Fallen's serum, causing his body to undergo abnormal changes.
It was a matter of life and death.
If someone else had entered this memory who did not possess the Evil Fallen's dullness to pain, it would have been even more painful, thereby producing negative emotions.
Bai Wu, however, did not feel this way; he frowned not because of the pain—such sensation only made his brain unusually active. He was merely annoyed by the fact that he could not use Prayle's Eye while in the memories of an Evil Fallen, which gave him a headache.
"This way, the information I can obtain is very limited..."
Because he couldn't empathize with the Evil Fallen's emotions at the time, Bai Wu actually woke up soon after, without waiting for the doctor to finish recording.
The scene before his eyes changed back again.
He smiled, finding the experience rather good, but feeling that the patient in the case history was too robust.
He began to read the second segment.
"2025.0409. I really hoped to give Ding Jiu the sense of smell of Yi Liu using my own summary of equations before meeting that person. But damn it, Yi Liu's serum actually caused Ding Jiu to grow scales! All my conclusions were wrong! Wrong! The mutations of the Evil Fallen... have no pattern, they are utterly uncontrollable! The power that turned them into Evil Fallen is also unknown..."
The memory began again.
This time, Bai Wu saw "himself" feeling angry and fearful because of growing scales, even pulling them out one by one.
Tearing something that grew on one's own body, using brute force, was naturally very painful.
Bai Wu frowned again, not because of the pain, but because he felt pity for those scales.
Considering his exchange with Elijah, he saw a remark that Elijah possessed a rare Mutation Entry: Block.
Bai Wu thought it was very possible that this was an attribute brought by the scales.
So he tried to stop it:
"Don't pull them out. Is growing scales really such an unacceptable thing? Who wouldn't want to grow scales? In our country, everyone prides themselves on being able to grow scales. Those without scales are unworthy of finding a partner."
This nonsensical consolation naturally had no effect, and it might even provoke an outburst.
The reason there was no outburst was that the owner of the scales couldn't hear Bai Wu's voice.
Readers were only in the memories of the owner of the scales, feeling the same pain as them. But they could not interact with the people in the memories.
Bai Wu felt that this feature was still not perfect. Even if Little Pitiful really applied this ability to island nation movies, you could only follow the plot and not change the actors' positions midway. What's the fun in that?
The Manuscript of Thousand Souls project was aborted.
He returned from the memory and began to turn the next page.
During this process, Wu Jiu and the others indeed sensed some kind of energy fluctuation from the Evil Fallen, as if it was pulling at Bai Wu.
But Bai Wu's wristwatch showed a reading of... zero.
As the ace team's ace members, Wu Jiu and the others had all experienced a teammate's transformation into an Evil Fallen...
They knew how terrifying those memories could be, so they found Bai Wu's composure to be unbelievable.
Yin Shuang had always believed that except for herself, everyone in the team were monsters.
But now she felt... not all monsters should be tarred with the same brush; compared to Bai Wu, they were the normal ones.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone