Doomsday Jigsaw Puzzle

Chapter 170: Chapter 170: A Beautiful Refuge

Bai Wu didn’t immediately put on the watch, and a bell rang from a building in the distance. All the children playing on the lawn erupted in cheers.

He looked at his hands, realizing that he was playing the role of a child this time. But it seemed that he was one of the more inconspicuous among these children.

Like all the children, Bai Wu wore the same style of clothing. This seemed like a scene from a game, although the uniform was very similar to patient garments from his previous life, he bore no illness.

At a glance, these children were all lively and bouncing around, very healthy, and he even sensed that some of them were quite smart.

Bai Wu noticed the child leaning against the trunk of a big tree, engrossed in a book titled "The Silence of the Lambs."

It was definitely not a book for children. The child beneath the tree read intently, while the other children, prompted by the bell, instinctively thought of delicious food and joyfully ran toward the dining hall, but he did not.

He simply closed the book slowly and then revealed a strange smile, which gradually vanished. His smile began to resemble the innocent look of the other children.

[If the previous area was too far back, revealing a tragedy from ninety years ago, then this time it is too early... so early that Food City wasn’t even called Food City yet. By the way, this dead kid is very annoying.]

Not yet knowing who this child was, Bai Wu quickly noticed something on his wrist, a mark of Hearts Seven.

The Hearts Seven from a deck of playing cards.

He watched as the children ran past him and suddenly reached out to grab the wrist of one of them, a boy of about eight or nine—Bai Wu in the guise of a child seemed to be about fourteen.

The child looked at Bai Wu with clear eyes, utterly devoid of malice.

He immediately realized that these children were well-educated and appeared to have good relationships with one another.

On this little boy’s hand, there was also a symbol from a deck of cards, Diamonds Sixb, followed by a letter.

Bai Wu let go of the hand, only for a voice to arrive from behind him.

"Your behavior is very strange. Despite seeing these things every day, you suddenly act as though it’s your first time seeing them. You couldn’t have been possessed, could you?"

The speaker was the child holding "The Silence of the Lambs."

He looked to be between nine and ten but possessed an unusual composure. Bai Wu said nothing, just calmly looked at the child.

"It’s time to eat. Mom will be unhappy if we’re late."

The child with the book turned and walked unhurriedly toward a certain building. Bai Wu followed his gaze and received another strange prompt.

["With Mom’s abilities, she won’t notice you at the dining area. You can go in and see if you can find more clues about this place. But it’s a gamble, and you’d better pray Dad doesn’t show up. He usually isn’t at this farm, but at other farms instead. If he does show up, leaving this area might be quite painful."]

Stroking his chin, Bai Wu pondered the meaning of the dialogue as he slowly made his way toward the dining building.

"Mom and Dad? That’s quite interesting. Here, Mom and Dad probably refer to two positions, not parents in the sense of blood relations."

This place was indeed strange; looking around, he could only see children ranging from five or six to fourteen or fifteen, yet not a single adult was in sight.

It wasn’t long before Bai Wu entered the dining area.

The place looked like a Victorian wooden loft from his previous life, where men used to sit around drinking, eating meat, and watching women dance. He could almost hear the singing of the dancers in his mind from afar.

But looking around, Bai Wu saw no dancers, only a woman in a nurse’s uniform, probably in her mid-twenties.

She was beautiful.

Though in Bai Wu’s eyes, she wasn’t quite as lovely as Yin Shuang, Dwarf’s Wife, or Yan Jiu, she wasn’t far behind. Her face bore a sweet smile, and her eyes clearly showed her affection for the children.

[As someone who lost his mother early and shared an exceptionally filial bond with his father, I suggest you try hugging this Mom and act a little spoiled, maybe steal a little tofu. Don’t worry, I won’t tell the girls in the High Tower. You can treat her like your own mother; she will treat you as her own until you’re fifteen.]

Why only until fifteen?

"All around are children, with the only adult I’ve seen so far being this mother dressed in a nurse’s uniform and wearing a smile like Maria’s. So can we assume that once you’re over fifteen years old, you’re sent somewhere else except for Mom?"

Such a big farm surely must have other grown-ups in charge of operations, right? Where are they?

The food was quickly laid out on the table.

Bai Wu looked over.

Goodness, while danger indeed merits caution, this food must be eaten. ƒгeewebnovёl.com

The food on the farm might not be as comprehensive and luxurious as that of the manor he had previously explored, but to Bai Wu, these Western pastries, eggs, beef patties, pumpkin soup, and the like were already ten thousand times better than the nutritional meals.

Just as he was about to eat, he realized everyone had their hands clasped together as if in prayer.

"We thank Daddy for giving us life," the mother in the nurse’s uniform also made the same gesture.

After she uttered these words, the rest of the children followed suit—"We thank Daddy for giving us life."

"We thank Daddy for giving us food."

"We thank Daddy for giving us shelter from the wind and rain."

"We thank Daddy for bestowing upon us wisdom and meekness, tolerance and kindness."

"We thank Daddy for passing down to us great strength."

Luckily everyone had their eyes closed with hands clasped, otherwise Bai Wu would probably find himself the center of the children’s attention.

He did not join in reciting these strange sentences.

To him, a father’s love is like a mountain—susceptible to landslides. That was perhaps the best description for his relationship with Mr. Bai.

The relationship between this father and son seems harmonious to outsiders. Little Bai is handsome, obedient, kind, and sensible, and crucially, intelligent.

And Old Bai, as a doctor in the town, is well-educated, gentle, and elegant. Even though his wife died early, he never remarried. An attractive and affectionate uncle, he perfectly fulfilled many young girls’ fantasies about the word "uncle."

Yet, it is this father and son who have a chilling "parent-child activity."

So Bai Wu, no matter what, could not bring himself to recite these disgusting sentences, unless saying them was a condition for being allowed to eat.

Everyone began to eat, and at this time the broadcast in the house started to announce news.

First came the cheerful music suitable for the children to listen to.

The children, listening to the tune, happily ate their food. Bai Wu didn’t care; to him, whether it was the children around him, the rough men in the Investigation Corps cafeteria, or even beautiful women like Yan Jiu, Yin Shuang, and Dwarf’s Wife, they were all just obstacles that affected the speed of his meal.

But the content aired by the broadcast next interrupted Bai Wu’s eating.

"Today is graduation day for Red Heart Five C from Farm Seven; let us send him our blessings. He is about to venture into the world outside the wall, just like many brothers and sisters before him, to bring back more supplies for the refuge."

"Let us applaud him on his way."

In all the dining rooms of the farm at this moment, the children’s applause rang out. Bai Wu saw envy, admiration, reluctance in these children’s eyes.

Suddenly, he felt uneasy.

He had a feeling that something bad was going to happen to this Red Heart Five from Farm Seven when he went outside the wall.

If the world outside the wall is the same world he’s in... then why would they envy him?

The phone booth had definitely teleported him to some place outside the tower, and it must be connected to Food City.

So, the world beyond the wall is likely the chaotic world outside the tower.

"You don’t seem happy?"

The child reading under the tree sized up Bai Wu.

Bai Wu noticed that the card in the other’s hand was the ten of spades.

He didn’t know that these numbers weren’t meaningless; the higher the number, the higher the aptitude.

The highest aptitude was K.

However, among the children currently allocated in this batch, there was no K. If children with the same aptitude also had the same suit, they would be distinguished by letters such as a, b, c, d.

Although Bai Wu didn’t understand the meaning of the numbers, he knew that five of hearts c probably meant that the number seven farm also had five of hearts a, b, and even d, f.

Like the child he had seen before, whose codename was six of diamonds b, meaning there were two children corresponding to a particular trait designated by six of diamonds.

And currently, his own seven of hearts and the ten of spades of the child beside him had no replacements yet.

"Not going to talk? Right, you usually don’t talk much. It makes me wonder if you’re pretending to be dumb on purpose, keeping your codename low to avoid mother’s and father’s attention. But you can’t fool me, you’ve been acting very strangely today."

Bai Wu didn’t respond; he just smiled at the clever child. The child had inadvertently revealed something that he happened to want to know.

Feigning stupidity could lower one’s codename. Did that mean the codename represented intelligence?

"My name is Ten of Spades, but I don’t like this name."

Ten of Spades was very smart. Bai Wu pondered; was this little guy suddenly talking to him to try to fish for information?

"Oh, I am called Seven of Hearts."

"So you have been replaced, have you? We just had this conversation nineteen days ago."

"I’m just teasing you."

"..."

"Are you pretending to be abnormal today, too?"

"I’m not being abnormal. I’m deliberately trying to get your attention because you are Ten of Spades, and I’m just a Seven of Hearts. I want to be friends with you."

Ten of Spades blushed, feeling like he had been teased by Seven of Hearts.

At that moment, the announcement playing over the broadcast was something Bai Wu was even more interested in:

"We hope that the children of all nine farms will learn from five of hearts c, awaken their Sequences early, and become the people needed beyond the wall as early as possible. Let’s clap again and send off five of hearts c!"

Awakening Sequences?

After hearing this, Bai Wu’s expression shifted slightly. And at this moment, a sudden twist occurred—

[Nuclear energy ahead, detection of a large boss appearing. Either self-terminate and force an exit, or do you want to go head-to-head with him? Put on the watch quickly; without it, you don’t even have the qualifications to probe him.]

The note in his eyes disrupted Bai Wu’s plan to uncover the truth bit by bit while undercover at the farm.

In fact, the situation was indeed very urgent now, because a man was approaching the building.

This man seemed to have sensed an unusual energy fluctuation. He had just been at Farm Number Seven, giving a loving embrace to five of hearts c, but he quickly excused himself and rushed over with unbelievable speed.

Bai Wu frowned. His Innate Force had been too low previously to use Prayle’s Eye in the red zone.

But after strengthening his Innate Force, even facing monsters like the God of Wealth or the heart of Jing Si, Prayle’s Eye never failed.

Suddenly encountering a target he couldn’t observe with his eyes unless he turned into an Evil Fallen, Bai Wu decisively put on his watch.

"Is that a gift from mother? Why do I have a book and you have a watch? Why is the hand of the watch constantly moving?"

Bai Wu looked at Ten of Spades, guessing he probably wouldn’t be able to fulfill a certain woman’s obsession. He suddenly said:

"Ten of Spades, do you know what’s beyond the wall?"

"What’s there?"

"I don’t know, but I’m about to leave here soon. I suggest you take a look if you get the chance. Your aptitude is ten, you’re smarter than most people here, but you have to hide your cleverness, not letting others know your true level too early. Before you graduate and go beyond the wall, make sure to see for yourself what’s out there!"

"What are you talking about?"

The music on the broadcast stopped, and footsteps could be heard coming from the wooden loft stairs.

A tall man appeared, and the moment he came in, all the children ran towards him, joyfully calling out "Daddy."

Only Ten of Spades and Bai Wu, posing as Seven of Hearts, stood still.

One had no need to; the other was contemplating the words of the person beside him.

"Daddy" was a doctor.

In Bai Wu’s view, this doctor compared to his own father was merely dressed as a doctor, just as these healthy children were inexplicably clothed in patient gowns.

Mother dressed as a nurse, father in a doctor’s white coat.

But there were no patients here, no nurses, no doctors.

The gaze of "Daddy" soon fell on Bai Wu.

He furrowed his brows, and at the same time, Bai Wu also felt something was amiss.

[I can’t observe it! This guy is way stronger than you; I can tell you responsibly that you’re done for! Are you ready to forcefully return to town? No town portal scroll, the black and white screen kind of returning to town!]

"Boring game."

The man in the white coat snapped his fingers. Bai Wu suddenly found that everything around him began to distort.

The man in the white coat said:

"Did you think blending in with these children, I would have no way to deal with you? Playing with causality has its limits. The circle you constructed changes nothing."

Bai Wu couldn’t move.

The strong presence emanating from the man in the white coat, far surpassing that of red Evil Fallen’s terrifying pressure, made even breathing difficult for him.

At this moment, the watch hadn’t even induced the reaction of Evil Fallen in him.

"I’m giving you one last warning, little sister. The only destiny you can change is that of some riffraff. Do not attempt to influence your elder brothers and sisters. Our causality is not controlled by anything, Laosi has gone mad, and you no longer have your strongest support."

"Don’t come here again! Get lost!"

A beam of black light pierced through Bai Wu’s body. At that instant, Bai Wu’s pupils lost focus. His life force was nearly zeroed in a flash.

At the same time, he heard a woman’s voice in his mind:

"Sorry, this process will be a bit painful, but you won’t die. I know you have many questions, and I will answer some of them afterward."