Doomsday Jigsaw Puzzle

Chapter 141: Chapter 141: Each Person’s Improvement

The black material all turned to dust, then slowly returned to nothingness, revealing something that had been buried underneath.

A piece of Doomsday Puzzle.

Bai Wu picked up the fragment and examined it.

"Aha! Finding pieces resembling human body parts two times in a row must make you think these are parts of a human, right? But the content of that painting includes much more, with mountains, rivers, the sun, moon, and stars all within. Their functions are generally similar: Negative Attribute Nullification, Evil Fallen Purification, Physical Laws Normalization, and the ability to hear the voice of the Evil Fallen. However, there are also some special items similar to travel tickets. The ’Full Moon’ you’ve found is one of them, capable of materializing certain obsessions in the heart."

Special ability Doomsday Fragments...

Bai Wu roughly understood. Regular Doomsday Fragments have a regional restriction; for example, collecting a complete Sequence such as eyes, ears, mouth, nose, or palms and fingers, could release the entire area.

There were also some fragments with very special functions, not bound by regional restrictions.

"The Full Moon is round, so it seems the travel tickets are likely boat-shaped..."

Materializing inner obsessions?

This seemed like a difficult ability to use, but Bai Wu did not underestimate it. Perhaps the pixelation of the area was caused by the influence of this item.

Bai Wu thought it was a double-edged sword. If he encountered an Evil Fallen with remaining goodness in their heart, perhaps he could find a chance for survival within their materialized realm of consciousness.

But if he misjudged... it might twist a blue region into purple or even red instantly.

But what would be the effect if used on himself?

Bai Wu placed the "Full Moon" into his backpack. He didn’t know what obsessions he had.

Before long, Wu Jiu arrived at the twenty-fourth floor.

Seeing his captain rush over, looking baffled and in a hurry, Bai Wu smiled.

"What happened? Is the game over? I had just cleared the way to the shelter... and then it was deemed a success? Or did you trigger something else?"

Wu Jiu had many questions.

On the twentieth floor, with the support of all his equipment and highest level, as well as his own combat experience, he had stealthily advanced, killing many powerful Evil Fallen along the way, and finally reached the door of the shelter—but before he opened it—

Suddenly, the world around him became clear and real.

"It can be considered over. By the way, were the scientists rescued?"

"They were, but whether these objects are scientists, I’m not sure. You can come with me to see."

"Objects?"

Bai Wu furrowed his brow, sensing something was off, and immediately went with Wu Jiu to the twentieth floor.

The Evil Fallen in this building were real Evil Fallen, and the game props were also real Spirit Possession items.

Humans should indeed be real if verified by the eyes, so why did they turn into objects? frёeweɓηovel.coɱ

The shelter turned out to be a physical laboratory on the twenty-fourth floor, which often simulated molecular acceleration collision experiments, requiring relatively high safety standards.

Evil Fallen were almost unable to sense the breath inside, and lower-level Evil Fallen couldn’t easily break through the laboratory doors.

For seven hundred years, the scientists had been hiding inside.

Bai Wu was also wondering how Jing Si had "preserved" these scientists, and he soon understood.

Inside the laboratory, Bai Wu didn’t see any scientists but saw many "eggs."

To be precise, they were large, egg-shaped nutrient pods.

Unlike the nutrient pods seen at the Ninth Hospital, the eggs in the Xuanhui Technology Building laboratory were of a more futuristic technology.

"Is this what those scientists are in?" Wu Jiu asked.

Bai Wu nodded.

It came back to him that Jing Si and Jing Liu had the same setup in their bedrooms, sleeping inside shell-shaped sleeping bags that looked like they were residing in eggs.

"Jing Si and Jing Liu are from the Well, perhaps to resist the power of the Well, they must live in some kind of special eggshell. Jing Si mentioned he had bathed in Well Water, but Jing Liu did not say the same... now it seems, Jing Si’s madness is related to this."

"Deep in Jing Si’s heart, he believes that such eggs are safe. So he made something similar to preserve these scientists..."

Prayle’s Eye’s feedback was still a set of human notes, but at the beginning of each person’s note, there was a passage like this—

[They are like infants returning to the womb, their lives eternally suspended in sleep. You can awaken them, but you’d better make sure the time is right.]

This seemed to confirm Bai Wu’s guess.

Some of these scientists were from Xuanhui City, while some indeed came from the Denglin Technology Building.

Bai Wu did not plan to wake them up; arranging so many people to go to the High Tower might lead to some unpredictable changes. If these scientists wanted to survive, they could only mine in the white zone.

The Investigation Corps might be able to take them in, but could humans from seven hundred years ago coexist harmoniously with those from seven hundred years later?

If they inadvertently said certain things, could that bring about some kind of trouble?

When he truly headed to Denglin City and figured out what exactly Jing Si, Jing Liu, and Mr. Tao had experienced, perhaps he would wake them up.

Bai Wu used the Traction Disc to mark this area.

This exploratory trip was over.

"Did you get the Doomsday Puzzle Fragment from this area?" Wu Jiu asked.

"Got it, Captain. Regarding this region’s exploration, do you still have many things that are unclear?"

"Hmm... Even though there are mission guidelines, how to carry out and choose these missions are all up to you. I only know the general gist."

At this moment, neither of them were in the pixel world anymore, and each had a negative attribute, one was [Sluggishness] and the other [Negative Thinking].

Wu Jiu slowed down, Bai Wu looked very calm, which was an attribute Lin Wurou had been infected with back in the Ninth Hospital; but in Bai Wu’s view, it was a freebie attribute.

Although he did not feel negative inside, he also couldn’t feel happy.

"Before we go back, shall we tally up the gains from this exploration, and then may I tell the Captain a story?" Bai Wu said.

Wu Jiu didn’t quite understand, and Bai Wu pointed to the knife in Wu Jiu’s hand:

"Captain, your weapon has changed, can you feel it?"

Upon examining his weapon for a while, Wu Jiu did not feel any change in it.

Bai Wu thought it made sense; Evil Fallen had just acquired the blood-sucking attribute, and the Captain, not having killed an Evil Fallen, simply couldn’t feel it.

However, Wu Jiu soon looked at Bai Wu in amazement because of something else:

"How is this possible..."

"What happened?" Bai Wu hazily guessed that maybe the Captain’s power had increased.

After the twenty-four-day survival journey outside the tower, Wu Jiu was now standing at the position of the High Tower’s top, but he had always struggled to progress...

To refresh that record, even he himself was not confident.

Eighth Sequence, fourth phase, might not have seemed like Wu Jiu’s ultimate limit to many, but it definitely wasn’t something Wu Jiu could surpass in the short term.

Wu Jiu thought so, too; he always wanted to acquire another talent outside the tower before attempting to break through his own limits.

He wasn’t in a hurry anyway, after all, he was still young.

But at this moment, Wu Jiu found himself... had actually broken through to the ninth tier, level one. The eighth tier was already a level where one could proudly overlook all peers, and in the entire lower four floors of the High Tower, there weren’t even any known fighters of the seventh tier.

And Wu Jiu had entered the ninth tier, a realm he himself was not even clear about.

He incredulously looked at Bai Wu, who said,

"Did your Innate Force improve? Captain, stay calm, mine also improved—although just a little bit."

"That’s right... But how is this possible?"

"Normally, it’s impossible. Because in this game, there are no true victors."

Wu Jiu did not understand.

Bai Wu explained,

"In this game we’re playing, all the items are actual Spirit Possession artifacts, and our Innate Force is converted into basic attributes. If this were an equation, then the equation works both ways—meaning that if we improve our basic attributes, we can also increase our Innate Force. Taking away the items inside is the same as owning Spirit Possession items."

"Of course, the premise is being able to clear the game. Up until now, only our team has cleared it. If we had made the wrong choice, had not saved the people, or had failed to protect them after saving them, we would have ended up like those skeletons we saw upon first entering the area."

Bai Wu then pointed to the scientist encapsulated in the egg:

"If we had chosen to save the scientist, more than likely... we would have encountered an unstoppable force."

"An unstoppable force? What is that?" Wu Jiu asked.

Bai Wu shook his head.

In this game, if you don’t solve the crux of the problem, you can’t clear it. Choosing to kill the Great Demon King would result in being immediately killed by the Great Demon King’s combat strength of 9999.

Choosing to save someone would ultimately cause the mission to fail for some reason, and the game would start over.

And those who start over would more than likely think that saving someone was the wrong choice.

So they would be led to again choose to kill the Great Demon King, and that’s why this game... has no victors.

But Bai Wu had cleared it because he had resolved the core issue.

By calming the obsessions, he naturally received the reward.

Bai Wu and Wu Jiu began to take stock of their spoils of war.

In Bai Wu’s hand was an Unlucky Axe, with a 5% chance of causing dizziness. For him, it’s essentially a 0% chance—of course, Bai Wu didn’t see it that way.

He also gained a pocket watch-like Temporary Save Device—allowing only him to return to his state thirty minutes prior, with a limit of four uses.

And a Resurrection Coin, which could be considered a health potion as it would restore health when the life gauge hit bottom.

There were also shoes capable of hiding footsteps and tracks, a favorite of assassins. Although Bai Wu was holding onto an axe, as everyone knows, an assassin wielding an axe is the most authentic type of assassin.

A ring that granted some kind of mystical guidance, or in other words, enhanced intuition.

An attachment that could spew fire.

There had also been alcohol, dice, a toolbox, and a Master Key, but these had already been used up during the game.

Now, Bai Wu possessed a sin-copy weapon capable of dealing damage based on a percentage of life, a permanent bronze battle-axe, a pair of shoes favoured by Wang, and a coin that could only be used when the health gauge hit zero. His Innate Force had improved to the sixth tier, level three.

Wu Jiu had a ring that enhanced intuition and sixth sense, a Resurrection Coin that could only be used when his health was depleted, an upgraded Evil Fallen blade that could drain health, along with the boost to his Innate Force.

After taking the inventory, Wu Jiu was very pleased with the gains from this exploration but felt that the owner of this area could achieve such a level; he was even more curious about how Bai Wu managed to defeat the Great Demon King.

For Wu Jiu felt... it was almost like a gift.

"The Great Demon King couldn’t be defeated; he could only be persuaded to let go of his obsessions. Assuming there really was a chance to clear the game, in the end, these items, our improved strength, would all be restored to their original state once we leave the game."

A few seconds of silence later, Bai Wu said,

"The reason we’ve been able to achieve advancements, equipment, and items, even ourselves, is all due to the Great Demon King’s sacrifice, or rather, his gift," Bai Wu explained.

Why would Jing Si’s heart disappear after receiving Bai Wu’s answer? Naturally, the heart wouldn’t be so fragile.

It simply had no more regrets, having passed on the task of protecting these scientists to Bai Wu.

Bai Wu also understood this, and only then accepted the mission to rescue those in Denglin City.

"The Great Demon King’s gift? It seems what you know and what I’ve seen are entirely different," Wu Jiu remarked.

"Yes, I was just about to tell the captain, it’s a long story..." Bai Wu started to recount the tale.

Among the six people from the twisted origin, four stood against humanity. The other two chose to trust humans and allow human scientists to research them.

This research went on for over a decade.

Tao Xingzhi, Xie Yingjie, Jing Si, Jing Liu, Tan Lei, and the interviewer Mo Cheng all played their roles in this story.

Bai Wu narrated the entire psychological journey of Tao Xingzhi, from confusion to collapse, to the upliftment inspired by Xie Yingjie and Jing Si Jing Liu, through the long span of research, and the myriad of hardships and academic breakthroughs they faced.

When Wu Jiu learned that humans had once been close to finding a way to counteract Evil Fallen on their own, he wore an incredulous expression.

If Xie Yingjie hadn’t left back then, if those people hadn’t been so eager to enter the High Tower, if the scientists had been given more time...

Would the long seven hundred years of exploration have necessitated such a loss of human life?

The history of humanity’s exploration beyond the tower is also written in blood and bones.

After hearing this tale, Wu Jiu said:

"I once overheard the Legion Commander mention that among the rulers of the fifth level, there indeed was a Xie Family... But for specifics, you might have to go back and ask Yan Jiu."

This story undoubtedly left Wu Jiu feeling downhearted as well.

"By the way, where did Jing Liu go?" Wu Jiu asked.

"I don’t know..." Bai Wu shook his head.

"According to Mo Cheng, on the eve of Jing Si’s infection of Denglin City, he was still with Jing Liu, but afterward... he left. The time we spent in the game was the last day Jing Si and Jing Liu were together. Where Jing Liu went after that, I’m not sure..." Bai Wu explained.

Wu Jiu then asked:

"And Mr. Tao?"

"That’s an even more depressing issue. Jing Si’s heart always harbored regrets. After Xie Yingjie left, Mr. Tao and the scientists didn’t give up, but Jing Si did, a year later. Along with his surrender, he carried out some terrible actions.

He regretted those actions so much that, in his rage, when he had moments of clarity, he took the last of his conscience and led some of the survivors back to Xuanhui City, encapsulating them in the form of eggs. He even carved out his own heart, causing this place to become twisted."

Wu Jiu fell silent.

The terrible actions obviously involved something Jing Si did to Mr. Tao.

Finally, just before they were about to return, Wu Jiu asked:

"That prophecy... was it true?"

"False, I made it up. There’s no savior, and humanity is still inside the tower. To this day, we don’t know the secret of the fifth level’s ruler, nor what lies on the sixth level. Everything is hugely deviating from the prophecy," Bai Wu responded.

There was no anger, no sorrow, for Bai Wu didn’t possess such emotions. Even the desperate screaming at Jing Si’s face at the last moment was but a performance.

Yet, performance doesn’t mean deception; it was just to add persuasiveness. Bai Wu said:

"But although reality deviates greatly from the prophecy, I know that the future outside the prophecy is not the future I want. Therefore, I will spare no effort to make this prophecy come true."