CH 61.1

After the initial anger, Dr. Huai’s expression was gradually replaced by calmness.

He then extended an invitation with enthusiasm, “I am not a bad person. Everything I have done, I have done to create the most perfect human genes in the world. I have been working for so many years, and if I keep fusing and reproducing quality genes, only the most perfect genes will be left in the last batch of humans.”

“Can you imagine what you could do with the most perfect genes? They should be like geniuses.”

“Proficient in everything from piano and chess to calligraphy and painting, knowing astronomy from above and geography from below, whatever field they are in, they can easily master it. They might even grasp the true meaning of the universe and would be like Superman who is using supernatural powers.”

“I used to fantasize about what humans with the best genes would be like.” The little boy looked at Bai Lixin excitedly, “Until I saw you.”

“You could easily play back piano pieces that others have been practicing for months or even years. Your enviable powers of deduction and your body control and force value are the best.”

“In addition, your appearance is top level. You fulfill all my fantasies.”

“It’s great, thank God for sending you to me, your presence has shortened the progress of mankind by hundreds …… no, thousands of years. Follow me and let’s contribute to the progress of mankind together.”

If it weren’t for the greedy expression on the young boy’s face across the room, Bai Lixin would have thought he was quite good looking.

Bai Lixin, “Let me hear how you completed your genetic evolution?”

—

In the live broadcast room.

[Uh, is this a conversation? If I understand correctly, this little kid with the greedy smile is the boss of this copy? So Bai Lixin is talking to the boss in such a natural way? Not bad for a God Xin. It’s the first time I’ve seen this.]

[Normally, people would flee, right?]

[This copy boss is right in one thing, God Xin can make you feel the difference between humans. How did he manage to be perfect in every way?]

[This boss plays such a big game, those inside the barrier are “things,” while those outside the barrier are test subjects.]

[It’s so sick, there are so many undead, but was it because of the plague a hundred years ago, or was it because of this boss’s experiments?]

[I think it was from experiments, the ghosts trapped in the Red Apple House are missing organs. It would be too much of a coincidence if it was because of the plague.]

—

“In the very beginning, I was using a simple and crude splice.” The tip of Dr. Huai’s shoe ground against the clean white wall and a black mark immediately appeared on the wall, “The lab was in the basement back then. The conditions were rudimentary and I would take out the strongest parts of the individual and put them together in the hope of completing the new human.”

“But unfortunately, I found that method didn’t work. There were always problems like blood rejection, body necrosis, etc.”

“One day, I suddenly discovered that there were traders who kept breeding pets in order to create a breed that their customers would like, and it suddenly dawned on me. Instead of using this crude method of intervention, it was better to go with nature.”

“After changing my thinking, the path was instantly opened. I would start by fusing those with the same genes, for example, a genius in mathematics and science would have to be with a mathematical genius only, so that the genome is not too “chaotic.”

“A musician would have to be with a musician….in short, I kept fusing similar-quality genes to evolve first. I’d eliminate the unstable genes and wait until the unilateral genes are stable, then fuse genes from different categories.”

“But even after a hundred years, I am still at the stage of genetic evolution of the same kind because the human reproduction cycle is so long.”

Dr. Huai spoke of this as easily as if he were saying I had trampled an ant to death today.

Bai Lixin couldn’t help but be a little curious, “Are you human?”

Dr. Huai paused and cupped his chin in contemplation before speaking a few seconds later, “Physically speaking, I should be considered human. But spiritually, I am higher being than human. I understand the true meaning of life better than anyone else, that humans are nothing more than slaves to their genes.”

“Humans are not only slaves to their genes but they are also slaves to their emotions. In the course of my experiments, I discovered an interesting phenomenon. When the experiments were conducted in a state of panic, the survival rate of the experimental subjects was lower than that of the humans in a cheerful state of mind.”

“So I started to give those in the Red Apple House pills so that they could forget all their unpleasantness and become the happiest of humans.”

Bai Lixin, “And of the experimental subjects here, how did you convince them to bond to your arrangement of giving birth to offspring?”

Dr. Huai sneered. He slowly walked over to a bookcase in the corner and pulled a videotape from it.

“It’s even simpler here, by using inheritance. As long as I keep instilling in them the values and views on fertility that I want them to receive, they will implicitly follow my ideas. But the funny thing is, they still think it’s their own idea.”

Bai Lixin pursed his lips as he stared down at the square floor tiles at his feet, his eyes flickering.

Mental suggestion.

Humans were a group that was easily suggestible psychologically; texts, videos, the words and practices of those around them were all a form of psychological suggestion.

As long as Dr. Huai kept releasing some kind of signal around the experimental subjects, it was easy for those people to remain affected, and they would continue acting in the way Dr. Huai wanted them to.

It was a good tactic to win the hearts and minds of the people, but also to make the experimental subjects behave and proceed obediently.

“What do they have to lose? I am their savior. I saved their predecessors a hundred years ago and saved them from a terminal illness a hundred years later. They can’t thank me enough, so how can they blame me?”

“Don’t you admire me? I have used the gentlest of methods to keep the humans of the Red Apple House and the humans here living in exquisite ivory towers. But don’t worry, I wouldn’t do that to you. They are lowly ape-like creatures, but you are a superior human being. If either one of us was a woman, I wouldn’t resist the desire to have an offspring with you.”

“Let me take a little slice of flesh from you. Maybe by analyzing your genes, I can get to analyzing the finest genes straight away. I can study the evolution of the species with fewer detours. ”

Dr. Huai pulled out a scalpel from somewhere, and as he spoke, the bed beneath Bai Lixin suddenly seemed to come to life and swallowed him in one go.

The leather straps wrapped around Bai Lixin’s body securely, holding him in place like a white rabbit waiting to be dissected in a lab class.

Dr. Huai held up his scalpel and slowly approached, “Don’t be afraid, I won’t hurt you now. I just want to feed you a little something.”

With that, he took out a bottle of white pills from somewhere and said, “This medicine will make you forget the pain for a short while. I don’t actually want to give you this as it’s a psychotropic drug. Too much of it will destroy your brain.”

Bai Lixin’s hand knocked on the iron bed three times.

Dr. Huai laughed, “What, you’re scared now? Don’t worry, you’ll be relieved soon.”

The light overhead kept flickering as they followed Dr. Huai’s excitement.

Just when Dr. Huai was about to deliver the medicine to Bai Lixin’s mouth, a strong cold wind suddenly rushed through the room.

Black mist scrambled into the room, and Dr. Huai was slapped against the wall with a tremendous force. He spat out blood as he braced himself against the wall and struggled to stand up, watching as the black mist swept Bai Lixin off the bed and flew out of the room.

A crack appeared on the innocent-looking face, and tiny shards like cracked glass appeared all over his body.

The black pupils of his eyes were gradually replaced by pure white as Dr. Huai roared in anger, a roar that filled every corner of the hospital.

“Get him! I want him! But don’t hurt him, I want him alive!”

Dr Huai ran out of the room but all he saw was an empty corridor. The people from earlier had all disappeared.

Dijia held Bai Lixin as weaved through the corridors like a black meteor. Following behind him was the equally fast ghost mother, Emil and Xia Chi.

As the patients stared in shock, countless mechanical men scurried out of the corners.

The nurses, who had been smiling gently a moment ago, also tore the fake smiles off their faces.

Their skin began to peel off, revealing the dry, cracked, rotting, shredded faces inside. The nurses, still wearing their nice super-short skirts, chased after them with their bodies in contorted postures.

Their spliced thighs and torsos could be seen as they ran. Some were running on two legs, while others simply ran on their hands and knees. Not only were they roaring, but they were also chasing after them in beastly poses.

Many heads poked out of the wards and they looked on at the mutated nurses, and at the mechanical men in horror.

Perhaps it was Bai Lixin’s intention, or the monsters were slow runners, but the monsters kept following them from a constant distance. With Bai Lixin in his arms, Dijia just ran through floor after floor and corridor after corridor. Under Bai Lixin’s direction, everyone rushed to the energy wall after all the humans had seen the terrible monsters.

The monsters followed close behind, and when it looked like they were about to rush through the barrier, they all stopped in their tracks.

They looked at the group on the other side of the barrier and roared, venting their anger at what Bai Lixin and the others had caused. Feet shuffled uneasily on the ground, but their bodies did not dare to come one step closer.

It was already 1 a.m on the taskbar.

Xia Chi tightened his grip on the ghost mother’s hand, panting heavily.

The run just now had exhausted him, “What the hell is going on, brother?”

Bai Lixin, “The only way to awaken these brainwashed humans is to use the most straightforward and brutal means possible, and that is to rip off Dr. Huai’s false mask right in front of them.”

“From what these humans say, Dr. Huai has always been a perfect being, like the moon in the sky.”

“In reality, he is a moon reflected in water at best. It’s hard to destroy the moon, but it’s easy to destroy the reflection in the water. ”

“Before entering the hospital, I made a pact with Dijia. With three knocks as a signal, he was not to make any move no matter what he heard until after the signal was made. Then he can rush in and take me away.”

Xia Chi still didn’t understand, “But how did you know that the perverted doctor would get so angry?”

Bai Lixin, “It’s simple. For an experimentalist in pursuit of success, it’s impossible to be calm when you’re watching the optimal test subject that was at hand being taken away.”

“In fact, I was only speculating at first. So when I deliberately said something that would irritate him the most when I went in to see how patient he would be. If he remained calm, I would simply abandon the plan and think of other ways. If he got angry because of a few words, it would mean that his character was extremely conceited and could be exploited.”

It then dawned on Xia Chi, “That’s why you’re my brother.”

Also, we are all human. How do you manage to take one step and see ten steps, I kneel down for you.

The ghost mother looked at the hospital behind her reluctantly, “What about my children? I seemed to feel some force pulling me when I was standing there. Was it my children?”

Bai Lixin, “Although I am not 100% sure, you can wait a little longer if you are willing to trust me.”

The ghost mother looked behind her, then at Bai Lixin, and then slowly lowered her hood, “Okay, I believe you.”

It was already two in the morning when the group came out of the tunnel, and the harsh roars from the confinement cell could still be heard in the corridors.

Xia Chi took a deep breath and poked his head in to take a look.

The confinement cell was bustling with ghosts.

Each seemed to be doing their own thing, but they had something in common.

They were repeating the momentary experience of death.

Looking at the ghosts’ twisted and painful expressions, Xia Chi withdrew his gaze in fright. “Brother, why can’t they leave here and enter the Underworld hotel?”

Bai Lixin stopped in his tracks. The lights overhead swayed, falling on these translucent souls and making them appear even paler and more eerie.

“Do you remember the first day when we walked to the edge of the apple orchard and smelled the stench?”

Xia Chi, “Of course I remember, and I remember the answer was that the corpse stench was because there were bodies buried in the walls.”

Bai Lixin placed his hand on the corridor’s mottled walls, “The body is the carrier of the soul, and this copy is set up in a way that the soul is supposed to be unable to leave the vicinity of the body when its energy is very low. That’s why the ghost mother couldn’t leave her corpse to go look for her children back then.”

Slender jade-like fingers stroked the wall for a split second, “What do you think is built into this wall?”

Xia Chi gulped. He was a little scared, but he felt more sympathetic and sad.

Those ugly and terrifying ghosts were all just victims too. “Brother, can you save them?”

Bai Lixin withdrew his hand and said with certainty, “Definitely, I can.”

The ghost mother said, “If the physical body is gone, the ghosts can regain their freedom. I was able to move freely because I had accumulated enough energy, but also because my corpse was cremated.”

Xia Chi’s eyes lit up, “Then why don’t we just burn the place down?”

Emil, “I have torches, fuel, and TNT in my backpack.”

Xia Chi, “Fuck, why do you have such props in your backpack?”

Emil gave him a blank look, “What’s your point? I heard that there was a god who occasionally blew up copies of the game to get through it. I was just following the example of my predecessor when I bought them, but I just never got the chance to use them. I’ve been led by the game since the beginning, but who hasn’t had the idea of rebelling and smashing through the copy?”

“Thank you for reminding me,” Xia Chi slapped his head, “I’m going to stock up on this stuff when I get out.”

Emil, “But you can’t just blow up copies. Some players blew up copies and it created a butterfly effect that led to bugs in the copy. There are also many players who, even after blowing up the copies, did not leave but were trapped instead. Even when the time was up and the tasks were completed, they couldn’t come out and were trapped there until they died.”

Xia Chi was a bit shocked, “How could that happen?”

Emil, “Do you think the game is stupid? How could it happen if one could just clear a copy by blowing it up?”

Xia Chi, “But why can some be successfully cleared like that but others aren’t?”

Bai Lixin casually said something that made the two people’s jaws drop, “Because these are not just pure data worlds. Some can and some can’t. It’s not the system at work, but the self-feedback of the world itself.”

“W-What do you mean they aren’t mere data?” Xia Chi looked at the ghost mother beside him with a complicated expression, and then at Bai Lixin, “Brother, make it clearer.”

Emil was also a bit dumbfounded.

—

A moment of silence fell in the live broadcast room.

[What does God Xin mean by this?]

[The NPCs and the ghosts and monsters inside the copies we played were not data, could they be real?]

[ Is that possible?]

[It’s not impossible. I’ve seen a few copies where the same plot develops but the NPCs’ conversations and expressions are sometimes different. I always assumed it was the diversity of the copies.]

[God Xin is about to speak, let’s see how he explains it.]

—

Bai Lixin opened his mouth and was about to say something when his expression suddenly changed and his whole body shuddered for a moment.

Dijia was quick on the uptake and he rushed to hold his shoulders so that he would not faint.

A red light kept flashing in his mind and the escape system roared shrilly.

[ Ding! Warning! Asking the player to stop over-interpreting and speculating on the game immediately, or the escape system will activate the forced self-destruct mode!]

It didn’t just shout but also brought a dense string of text across Bai Lixin’s mind.

The blue screen had turned a blinding red, constantly stimulating Bai Lixin’s brain.

S419M was quick to say: [Lord host, this thing has gone wild. I detected a lot of energy suddenly pouring in, so what it said is true. It will really self-destruct.]