Capítulo 17: Chapter 17: Meeting the Great Demon King Ahead of Time
Time trickled by, moment by moment.
In the time that followed, Bai Wu remained engrossed in reading. His expression fluctuated between disappointment and furrowed brows, but he didn't seem to be in much pain.
Lin Wurou even thought that perhaps the so-called memory implantation, the sense of immersion, wasn't that strong... Maybe I could handle it too?
He merely entertained the thought and did not act on his curiosity about the content of the files, avoiding making any foolish team-damaging moves.
As Bai Wu perused various files and medical records, Lin Wurou made several attempts to tease him and threw a few jibes his way, only to find Bai Wu unresponsive.
It seemed that Bai Wu, while immersed in the memories, couldn't hear any external noises.
So the group started to talk about him.
"Captain, this newbie is quite interesting. Where did you find him?" Lin Wurou turned to Wu Jiu.
The others were rather surprised—it was indeed rare to hear such a compliment from Lin Wurou's mouth.
"Do you remember the investigation we had the interrogation team join? About the secretive gambling run by the nobles on the third and fourth levels. He was one of the slaves, sent to the Blue Zone, and the bet was on how long Bai Wu could survive."
Wu Jiu spoke with a meaningful tone:
"That was Bai Wu's first time venturing beyond the Tower. This time is his second. The first time, he survived nearly two hours alone in the Blue Zone. And it was in the Extreme Temperature Zone."
"Extreme Temperature Zone..." Wang Shi's eyes widened,
where temperatures are either in the high seventies or down in the negative twenties or thirties. If one couldn't find a temperate area immediately, half an hour later, one would be dead...
"The interesting thing is, to make Bai Wu die faster and the game more entertaining, the house sent an Assassin into that area to kill Bai Wu. But Bai Wu, through his words, provoked an emotion in the Assassin. Nearby Evil Fallen smelled it and killed the assassin, after which Bai Wu seized the Return Roulette and made it back to the Tower. That's how I found him."
This turn of events was indeed unexpected. What Wu Jiu implied was that Bai Wu seemed to be immune to the Evil Fallen.
"So the Evil Fallen killed the gambler, but didn't sense this kid... you mean to say, even in the Extreme Temperature Zone, he remained calm?"
Lin Wurou could hardly imagine someone being cool and composed in such harshly cold and hot environments.
"Bai Wu... probably lacks certain emotions." Yin Shuang suddenly said.
"That's the most logical explanation."
"Who cares, as long as he's not antisocial, in our team, this kid is a razor-sharp weapon."
For the second time, Lin Wurou offered a positive assessment.
At this time, Bai Wu had actually already regained consciousness, his awareness having freed itself from the memories of the Evil Fallen.
But he was rather sly, maintaining his previous demeanor, keeping his heartbeat and breathing unchanged, listening to everyone's assessments of him.
Deep inside, Bai Wu too wanted to know if these people were worthy of trust.
"So the nobles didn't come after you for trouble? Captain, how did you know where he would return? The fourth level's gambling affair, if I remember correctly, was investigated for quite a while with almost no leads."
"At that time, a woman called me and told me some things. She instructed me to save Bai Wu before the gamblers could get to him."
"A woman?" Wang Shi frowned.
"We're still looking into it, and so far, there are no clues. But it's certain that the woman is from the third or fourth level, and at least a noble. When I return to the High Tower, I'll ask Bai Wu."
"What would he know?" Lin Wurou snorted dismissively.
Wu Jiu spoke seriously:
"If it were just a lack of emotions, that alone wouldn't be enough to survive in the Extreme Temperature Zone. The ability to use the environment to his advantage, to find the most beneficial combat approach for himself—that is why I value him."
Shang Xiaoyi nodded.
He could feel that Bai Wu, like himself, was somewhat interested in the Evil Fallen.
But while his interest stemmed from wanting to slay, to suppress fear with excitement, Bai Wu did not have fear to begin with—his interest was purely genuine.
Wu Jiu had been observing Bai Wu all along and understood his calm and reason better than anyone, especially the way Bai Wu had behaved the day he awoke in the interrogation room of the Investigation Corps.
At that time, Liu had even thought about snatching Bai Wu for himself directly from Wu Jiu's team.
"So is there a chance that one day, some noble lady will come asking us for our man? What do we do then?" Wang Shi didn't want Bai Wu to be taken away.
Wu Jiu's tone remained as light as a cloud:
"No one can take away what's mine."
Bai Wu felt somewhat pleased.
Though his teammates were all a bit abnormal, even oddballs have their charm.
In fact, Bai Wu had already thought that if the Investigation Corps could find him so precisely, perhaps someone in the Corps had participated in the gambling affair.
But given Wu Jiu's not insignificant status within the Legion, if Wu Jiu didn't know about it, it meant the matter was anything but simple.
Bai Wu didn't ponder on it further.
About thirty seconds later, he began to breathe a little faster, signaling to Wu Jiu and the others that his consciousness was returning from the memories of the Evil Fallen.
The others sensed it too and stopped talking, behaving as though the previous conversation had never happened, each looking natural.
"How did it go? Did you find anything?" Wu Jiu asked.
"How much time has passed?" Bai Wu replied with a question of his own.
"Forty minutes."
"I made a slight discovery, but it's not any significant information. I haven't found the key to breaking the case yet; I will continue to search—wait a little longer."
As Bai Wu spoke, he reached up to the shelf and pulled out another medical record.
The following few records would still expose Bai Wu to the painful memories of many test subjects just before, and even after, their Evil Fallen Transformation.
But Bai Wu remained the same as ever, showing no emotional fluctuations.
He even began to attempt to take control in the memories of the Evil Fallen. If the memories were like a segment of continuous footage.
So, Bai Wu, in order to search for many details and having repeatedly experienced this kind of memory, can now "pause," "rewind," and "fast-forward" the imagery.
He could also exit freely.
The medical records were attached to the resentment of the strongest Evil Fallen from the fourth building, which is why he could see all kinds of memories. However, even the owner of the resentment had not anticipated...
that there would be a human whose emotions could remain completely unaffected by the memory of the Evil Fallen.
Thus, when Bai Wu opened the eleventh medical record, the memory showed a slight change.
"2027, 0206, during the Spring Festival, Subject A3's spiral arm modification project is more than half complete. Next, we will proceed to testing. The degree of mutation in the monsters around the city outskirts is increasing. We must accelerate our pace. If that person's prediction is correct... then we have one year before the world is completely ruled by monsters... But what about that tower? I have never seen the tower he speaks of..."
Bai Wu had already discovered that the hospital was creating monsters, and this world had not yet entered The Era of the High Tower but was in a transitional period.
Monsters of various kinds, the Evil Fallen, appeared on the outskirts of the city and even within some cities.
The earliest date mentioned in the hospital records was the year 2023, which means that this world had been resisting the Evil Fallen for several years. The hospital was undoubtedly evil even though their goal was to find a way to direct and control mutations to create an Evil Fallen they could control.
Then there was the mention of a mysterious figure in several of the medical records.
This person seemed to possess vast knowledge and had answered many questions for the hospital staff.
"Was it Elijah's teacher? The High Tower hadn't appeared yet, but Elijah had mentioned a tower... which means the two towers are indeed not the same."
The tower where people now live is enormous, and this tower couldn't have appeared out of nowhere.
This investigation, for Wu Jiu and his companions, was merely a discovery of a hospital researching Evil Fallen.
How did the Evil Fallen come to be? How did people get inside the tower? All this remains unknown.
Just as Bai Wu was preparing to exit this memory, he suddenly found... he couldn't get out.
The memory continued.
He was experiencing the pain suffered by Subject A3, whose spiral arms were weapons that could spin like drill bits.
This kind of mutation was ordinary, but it required enduring excruciating pain.
While the mutated could not have the correct emotional response to such agony, the sensation of pain was there.
Bai Wu's mind became clearer the more pain he felt, but his body also began to sweat profusely from the intense pain on his forehead.
"Am I being targeted?"
Bai Wu suddenly realized that his inability to exit the memory of the Evil Fallen might mean that Little Pitiful from the fourth building had begun giving him "special attention."
Indeed, although his head couldn't turn, Bai Wu could see a flash of red in the corner of his eye.
It was a petite young girl with long hair, slightly shorter than Wu Jiu.
But Bai Wu couldn't see her face.
"Why do people without scales not deserve girlfriends?" the girl asked a strange question. Her voice was very clear, completely different from Elijah's.
After turning into Evil Fallen, Elijah's voice sounded like rusted metal grinding. In contrast, from the corner of Bai Wu's eye, the girl in the red dress... looked almost identical to a normal person.
Bai Wu frowned...
So she had heard everything he said in the memories of other Evil Fallen?
This must be the Great Demon King of the fourth building, now the master of the Ninth Hospital, Little Pitiful.
But Bai Wu felt as if he was in a nightmare; he couldn't exit the memory or turn his neck to get a clear view of her.
"I made that up. I just feel there's no need to panic and feel sad about growing scales."
If an Evil Fallen looked human and had human reasoning, could they still be considered Evil Fallen?
For some reason, the aura emanating from Little Pitiful didn't seem dangerous to Bai Wu.
"You're lying," Little Pitiful's voice rang out.
"In an environment where you can cut me up at will, do I have a need to lie? My name is Bai Wu, what's yours?"
Bai Wu remained calm, figuring that the big boss wouldn't do something like killing someone in a dream, like Cao Mengde would, right?
Before the final boss fight, triggering a conversation with the boss early on usually meant a chance for an alternate ending.
This might be an opportunity. According to the note, all this was a choice given by Little Pitiful.
If he handled this choice well, he might unlock more information.
"You're lying!"
Little Pitiful didn't respond; she simply repeated herself, this time sounding a bit angry.
Bai Wu wasn't panicked at all; although Evil Fallen tended to have extreme personalities, they were all once human.
All emotions have their own logic.
I must find the reason for her anger... maybe I need to play the Assassin for a while.
"I'm not lying. Although it's not what the doctor hoped for, if faced with danger, scales might help one survive longer... Being ugly is a foregone conclusion, so at least don't let oneself be on the weaker side."
To find the reason for Little Pitiful's anger, I must put myself in her shoes.
She was a little girl who was frequently tortured by humans until her resentment was immense, and she became an Evil Fallen.
I can't be fooled by her non-threatening demeanor; she might be a super Evil Fallen that even the captain would need to face with all his might.
In the display room of the third building, these records directly entered the memory because she wanted those who later reviewed the records to feel the pain of the test subjects.
Bai Wu vaguely found the direction to break the situation.
Without waiting for Little Pitiful to speak, he began to take the initiative:
"You left me with a multiple-choice question: a key, a file, a comb. I chose the last one. Actually, the comb doesn't exist, does it?"
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