Chapter 2025: The Rejection of the Shadow Personality
“Under what circumstances would they stop the experiment?” Xu Huo asked after listening.
“Based on your situation, it might be because your mental power value is too high,” Dr. Deng said. “At first, you didn’t notice anything wrong with those bugs, but after close contact, you would realize that what your eyes saw and what you felt were different. The stronger a person’s mental power, the more obvious this gap between falsehood and reality becomes. So for you, this experiment was considered a failure because your data lacks reference significance. Once you woke up, you would definitely find a way to wake others up. Even if the experiment continued afterward, it would be meaningless.”
“The mental power of everyone on the entire train was projected out and influenced each other. Is this the level that an evolved species can achieve?” Xu Huo pushed the teacup in front of him, and the tea inside swayed slightly, rippling faintly.
Looking at the final result, everyone remained in their original positions without moving. So even if everyone shared the same illusion, each person’s imagination of others’ reactions couldn’t possibly be identical. What difference did this make from what happened in reality? Yet it wasn’t real. Thinking about it carefully made it seem especially absurd.
“This is what ordinary people can’t understand,” Dr. Deng said. “Although everyone is in the same false environment, people’s thoughts are different. Moreover, there are quite a few people. How could things imagined by one person be accurately projected into everyone’s senses? But this is a game. How can you be sure that what you’re seeing right now is real?”
Xu Huo’s expression darkened. “Don’t fool me with ambiguous nonsense. Any falsehood must be based on reality. The more something can deceive people, the more this holds true. The people on the train were random. Only one thing was brought by someone else—the bugs.”
“What exactly is the function of those bugs?”
Dr. Deng hesitated for a moment before saying, “This is just my guess. It might be a special evolved species that allows players to project their mental power in a short time, combined with a specially crafted environmental simulation instrument… This is what I consider a relatively reasonable possibility based on my experience. But if there have been new developments in the game, then I wouldn’t know.”
“Projecting mental power into reality? And mass-producing it?” Xu Huo was almost laughing in anger. If this could succeed, then what were Dr. Zhang and Zheng Yuci doing? What was Tang Guangbo doing? And what about those Super Players? Were they just playing in the mud all day?
Seeing that he was genuinely angry, Dr. Deng quickly explained, “I said, this is just my speculation. It’s not necessarily accurate. And to be blunt, eighty or ninety percent of these experiments fail. Sometimes they aren’t even fully testing the abilities of evolved species—they might just want to collect player data.”
In short, in this type of experiment, very few actually produce results. But it helps the game obtain a large amount of specific player data. This data is a behemoth to ordinary people, but for the company that developed the game, it’s the foundation for perfecting it.
“That’s why I said there’s no need to dig deeper into this…” Dr. Deng’s voice grew quieter, realizing that if he continued, he might get hit, so he found an excuse to return to the laboratory.
Xu Huo took a deep breath, his thoughts repeatedly turning between the experiments with the Xenomorph in Zone 017 and the events on this train. It took a long time before he gradually calmed down.
At that moment, Painting Woman placed some snacks in front of him. “Are you hungry?”
Xu Huo had no appetite. He got up and went to the study upstairs. Sitting behind the desk, he stared blankly at the materials He Pu had left behind.
Time slowly flowed forward. After sitting in silence for a long time, he opened the Library Tower and walked down the stairs step by step to the very bottom. He sat down beside the deepest table in the Library Tower. Soon, the other personalities also came, following his example and sitting down. Among them was the Shadow Personality, who had always been reluctant to come out.
The Shadow Personality was still pitch black, but he now possessed a solid body like a real person. However, his facial features were invisible, and his body was wrapped in black smoke, making him hard to see through.
Xu Huo stared at him for a long time before making up his mind. He slowly extended his hand toward him.
The Shadow Personality moved his head, seeming to first look at Xu Huo’s face, then at his hand. After a while, he placed his own hand on the table.
The Shadow Personality was extremely hesitant, but Xu Huo had patience. The two of them just waited like this.
No one knew how long passed before the Shadow Personality finally was willing to extend his hand toward Xu Huo. However, the moment they touched, he suddenly grabbed Xu Huo’s hand and violently twisted it downward!
Xu Huo felt pain. Although he didn’t forcefully pull his hand away, he still retreated a step.
The Shadow Personality sensed this, gripped him tightly, and brought his head close to Xu Huo’s, releasing malice through his faceless, expressionless visage.
But he had no intention of killing Xu Huo, nor did he try to seize control of the body. After a while, as if losing interest, he let go, swept away the materialized objects representing the other personalities on the table, took his own black shard, casually opened a door, and hid inside.
Whether it was disappointment or relief, Xu Huo raised his hand, and the scene before him returned to the study. He laid out paper and pen and used his trait, “Home Field Perspective.”
Regarding this train incident, “Home Field Perspective” described it simply. The process didn’t need elaboration. It only pointed out one thing at the end:
“If Xu Huo’s mind had been a bit clearer, he would have realized that the train passengers didn’t all appear in his hallucination. There were also certain discrepancies in the characteristics of other players, such as appearance and height. Because even if everyone shared the same false external environment, each person’s thoughts would influence others to a certain extent, eventually forming an objective that everyone compromises to accept.”
Xu Huo frowned slightly and closed his eyes to recall the changes around him after waking up from the hallucination.
Some details were indeed blurry. It was just that his thinking habits had filled them in for him. When he couldn’t concentrate on certain subtle points, these details were naturally overlooked.
After burning what “Home Field Perspective” had written, he leaned back in his chair again. Whether it was searching for the Perfect Potion or advancing the investigation into Dr. Zhang and Stellar’s secret laboratory, he first had to resolve the issue of the Shadow Personality.
“Knock, knock.” Mr. Dong knocked on the door, bringing steaming hot food.
Xu Huo’s mood had calmed down considerably, and he finished the food Mr. Dong had brought.
Mr. Dong waited nearby until he put down the utensils before saying, “Do you need to invite Miss Coco? Although she doesn’t like you because of the inheritance issue with the ancient castle, she is a powerful Super Evolver.”
Xu Huo paused for a moment. “Not for now.”
He believed he could solve this problem himself.
(Chapter End)