Free Web NovelChapter 189: Chapter 189: The Question and Answer Section of Clearing the Game
This moment, right here, right now.
The response he provided actually deviated slightly from the required answer; the joint entity of the twelve Evil Fallen was not merely trying to seduce.
More precisely, it was a question that even they did not know the answer to.
The darkness became denser.
Bai Wu found he could hear extremely faint whispering voices, but he could no longer discern their contours.
It seemed that the Evil Fallen were discussing something.
Bai Wu was taken aback—could this also be a reading comprehension question without a standard answer?
He waited patiently, and at the same time, he began to ponder the abilities of the eye.
"Prayle’s Eye originally only provided hints when concentrating on objects, now could this be some form of auditory feedback? Come to think of it, there were similar situations before, like the phone booth area in Food City. Could this be a sign of some kind of advancement?"
Bai Wu speculated internally that this might have something to do with advancement; he did not know how Sequences advanced.
Both Wu Jiu and Jiang Yimi had advanced inexplicably, but neither could offer an explanation.
While Bai Wu was pondering both how Sequences advanced and why the twelve Evil Fallen knew these secrets, a reply came from the darkness—
"We cannot consider your answer correct, nor can we deem it incorrect. You will have the chance to continue participating in the subsequent questions, and we will reassess your previous answer based on your responses that follow."
Bai Wu had to engage in a bit of sophistry:
"All things have cause and effect; if you consider traveling back to any day of the seven days when Baichuan City was destroyed as the cause, and the result of that day as the effect, then my answer precedes this cause, because there is relativity between cause and effect. I provided the cause, and traveling back would be the effect. It is only if this causality is established that your causality can be established. Philosophically speaking, my answer cannot possibly be wrong, even if you have a time machine and can control time freely, but any decision stems from the present."
The Evil Fallen in the darkness fell into low-voiced discussion again. This time, however, they quickly came to a conclusion:
"Your sophistical logic only leads to an endless retrogression of cause and effect; rejected."
This was unexpected for Bai Wu.
Indeed, his previous statement had been sophistry. If according to that logic, cause and effect could be traced back to the origin of the world.
He had not considered that these Evil Fallen, trapped in the school for seven hundred years, could be so clear in their reasoning.
"The next question is a geography question."
A geography question?
Bai Wu furrowed his brow, fearing that this geography question was also beyond what he could answer. After all, for seven hundred years, there had been no systematic mapping of the world beyond the High Tower.
Because the location of the High Tower was unknown, they couldn’t even pinpoint the base point.
"Please listen to the question. The road to the Well is fraught with difficulties; countless disordered regions are arranged like a Rubik’s cube, and their positions are not always fixed. Please list the names of the regions on the road to the Well, at least four. You have one minute."
Alright, this question is impossible for anyone to answer.
The regions leading to the Well are places humanity currently cannot reach.
But through the hints, Bai Wu remembered.
"In the revelries of the mine, there once was an awful singer who provided quite a bit of information, and you only need to answer a few places from there."
"Are there places whose names I don’t know that I can refer to with a simple description instead?"
"Yes," the voice directly in front responded quickly.
Originally, when the Traveler was describing a new home to a large group of Evil Fallen, he never dreamed that someone would be able to jot these places down and describe them according to various directions, building a map in his mind.
The map was incomplete, and at first, Bai Wu didn’t know that the areas the Traveler had given were scattered around the outer perimeter of the Well, but the information within was enough for Bai Wu to handle the question.
He quickly reported his answer.
Built on an old mountain village by a lake, with many bizarre traditions, that village was the first to be destroyed by the apocalypse. While cities were the first to be destroyed, those technologically backward mountain villages far from the urban areas were also affected by many strange rules.
That place was very likely to be Hong Yin’s new home. Then Bai Wu mentioned Gender-Swap Village and a small town where time flowed in reverse, as well as a Mechanical City powered by an unknown energy source.
All these were areas that the Traveler had once boasted about visiting, and Bai Wu remembered them all.
After he gave his answers, several voices from the twelve Evil Fallen resounded at once:
"You’ve been to these areas...?"
"Is there extra credit for this question? If not, I refuse to answer," Bai Wu said.
The Evil Fallen were taken aback. Why was this human so hypocritical?
Under the cover of darkness, their astonished expressions were unseen, and after a while, one of the Evil Fallen said:
"The answer is correct."
Although Bai Wu did not answer their question, their tone became much more polite, seemingly with a certain respect.
When they heard Bai Wu mention Mechanical City, they were even more incredulous because the next question was related to Mechanical City.
Bai Wu grew more curious—how on earth did they know these questions?
Although the areas inside the campus were connected by the Doomsday Fragment, the Evil Fallen could not leave the campus, so how could they know about areas outside the campus?
He didn’t have time to ponder further as the next question came.
"The next question is a biology question."
"Alright."
Gradually getting used to it, Bai Wu was no longer surprised. Anyway, it wouldn’t be a conventional biology question. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
"We all know that Evil Fallen and humans cannot reproduce offspring. Humans can undergo Evil Fallen Transformation, but Evil Fallen cannot become human; hence, the number of Evil Fallen is doomed to decrease over time, assuming no human replenishment. But there is an entity that changed all that. It can ’give birth’ to many offspring, and it occupies a huge city under its control. Do you think those offspring can be considered living beings?"
Who is it? What kind of life form is it?
Bai Wu really wanted to complain—such a vaguely worded question only made sense if you cheated to know the answer.
So, with a clear conscience, Bai Wu accepted the answer provided by Prayle’s Eye—
[Perhaps sooner or later, you might enter this area, encounter this ’procreator.’ His name is Zero. We all know that Evil Fallen lack certain organs and cannot reproduce, but fully mechanized entities in this world can possess souls. Zero has the power to bestow souls upon mechanized bodies.
He was the first human to experience a mechanical Evil Fallen Transformation reaction, once attracting worldwide attention, and he also went through a period of inhumane dissection. But he’s a machine, how could disassembling a machine be called inhumane? After a long time, the apocalypse descended, and he mechanized the entire city. In that place, there were no living people; all beings... were created by him.
Whether his creations, mechanized bodies, are considered life or machinery, there is no unified standard. However, to convince these old-timers, you’d better show your humane side.]
Bai Wu probably understood.
Although Prayle’s Eye’s description was not detailed, he still instantly thought of a certain scenario.
Maybe before the apocalypse arrived, a very small number of humans sensed some kind of power, beginning to awaken or undergo Evil Fallen Transformation.
It was quite unfortunate for Zero to... have a mechanical reaction.
Human beings sometimes exhibit extreme rejection of the other.
Suppose someone with electronic eyes and a mechanical arm, a half-mechanical cyborg, suddenly appeared among people... his destiny would certainly not be too good.
Turning an entire city into machinery, one could imagine the fear and loathing Zero held inside his heart towards humans. One could also imagine... the inhumane torture he had undergone.
Bai Wu said:
"The answer is his offspring are living beings; as long as they have their own thoughts and a soul, they are living beings."
"But what if they don’t love humans? What if they only despise humans?"
"That has nothing to do with whether they are living beings. Besides, forcing a victim to love their attacker is a disgusting act. Next question."
Read as a biology question, it was actually an ethical one.
Bai Wu had little interest in pondering such questions, after all, he was not clear about everything inside Mechanical City.
Although he would firmly stand by humanity’s side, dilemmas like the trolley problem wouldn’t trouble him, but if Hong Yin, Professor Tao, Jiang Yimi, and Bai Xiaoyu harbored hate and resentment towards this world, he could completely understand.
Zero’s experiences were probably even more painful than theirs.
The twelve dark figures fell silent once again, and after about half a minute, a somewhat elderly voice said:
"Up to now, your answers have been mostly correct. Congratulations, the most excellent student; get two more questions right, and you will be able to leave this place. Also, please remember these answers you’ve given. The next question is a political one."
"Is there a reward for answering all the questions correctly?"
"There is."
"Good, continue."
Bai Wu was very reluctant to touch on the sensitive field of politics, but he was also curious about what a political question in the apocalyptic era would look like.
"Suppose an area different from anything outside the tower appears, where humans can exist, and you are the leader of this area. As the population grows, you begin to expand your territory. Facing the internal strife of resource grabbing and establishing a hierarchy within the group, as well as the external threat formed by Evil Fallen blocking when expanding territory, how would you choose? Please provide a thousand-word strategic planning proposal."
As the voice stopped, Bai Wu found a desk appeared in front of him, with paper and pen set upon it.
This was actually an essay question?
He found it quite interesting, so he began to write down his answer.
Bai Wu always felt that this was not a test aimed at students, but rather a test for some sort of pioneer outside the tower.
The most important thing to consider in the apocalypse was resource management, the rational use of each person’s abilities, assigning to each the corresponding status and resources, as well as catering to their preferences appropriately. This required great observational skills and organizational abilities.
But this was no trouble for Bai Wu.
As for the external threats, there was no doubt that the response should be to unite against them or find a way to establish common interests and win them over.
To establish a temporary and stable refuge is not a difficult task. After all, in this world—there are those who are as weak as ants, and there are those as powerful as gods.
The vast disparity in strength, coupled with external threats that are nearly impossible to eradicate completely, would ensure a stable rule over the refuge for an extended period. Should any internal strife arise, it would be easily resolved.
Of course, the most important thing is that the person leading as the leader must possess virtues that all can believe in.
These are some rather idealized matters.
But Bai Wu had long since realized that the morals and views on justice held by these twelve test-setters were very idealized.
Or to put it another way, these former teachers from Baichuan Middle School were extremely virtuous.
So the solutions that Bai Wu presented in his answer sheet were quickly approved. It was nothing more than swapping oral arguments for written ones, and he was well-practiced at this.
"You have passed this test, there’s one last question awaiting you, and it is a comprehensive interpretation question,"
"Alright,"
The final question had finally arrived. It had to be said that without Prayle’s Eye and some of the previous experiences, he probably wouldn’t have been able to pass even the first hurdle.
Suddenly, Bai Wu started to look forward to it.
On the surface, these questions seemed to be inquiries, but they were also a means to convey certain information under the guise of these questions.
"Please listen to the question. Suppose one day, the High Tower no longer provides stable living conditions, and at the same time, you find a way to make humans stably evolve into Intelligent Evil Fallen. You face the heavy responsibility of leading mankind to survive. You must make a choice, whether to fight outside the Tower as Evil Fallen, or to seek a path to survival inside the Tower as a human. If it were the former, what would you do? If it were the latter, what would you do?"
"Unlike the previous questions, even if your answer is incorrect, you can still leave safely, but you will not receive our blessing nor be able to remember today’s conversation."
Bai Wu was now convinced that these twelve Evil Fallen teachers must have seen something, or received some sort of guidance.
"This is definitely some kind of leadership test,"
Just like a movie he’d seen in a past life, where an interviewee came in for a job interview, but never would have imagined that the position being offered was actually CEO of the company.
[Who can predict the future? The fruit of the past cannot change, but in the present, which seeds the future, our every choice can determine what’s to come. I think I know what these pessimistic old folks have, but since this is the last question, I might as well wait patiently for the answer. I don’t have any advice to give you for this question. You can follow your heart. Besides, you already have the answer.
This kind of open-ended question... In general, as long as there’s enough content and the paper is neat, the examiners will always award some points, especially since you’re the first person to hand in your paper in seven hundred years~]
The Riddler’s habit is kicking in again, huh...
But indeed, Bai Wu had his answer ready.
"This question is truly leading. If it were as simple as turning humans into Intelligent Evil Fallen, then what to talk of doomsday at all? According to some people’s absurd theories of evolution, isn’t becoming an Evil Fallen just an evolution? In that case, why would humans need to hide inside the High Tower? Therefore, this answer is wrong. I can accept that some heroes become Evil Fallen to protect mankind, but I refuse to let everyone become Evil Fallen."
"I don’t know what kind of future you have seen, but humans will definitely not stay in the High Tower. The notion that humans will survive inside the High Tower is equally wrong. Starting seven hundred years ago, humanity has been continuously researching and seeking ways to leave the High Tower, as humans, not as Evil Fallen. If the answer you want is how to huddle inside the High Tower, I can very responsibly say that I would not provide any solutions."
"So my answer is, if one day the High Tower truly becomes unfit for human habitation, then I am convinced that before this happens, the outside world will have already found a refuge."
This time, the twelve Evil Fallen did not deliberate for long, and the whispering in the darkness quickly concluded:
"Your answer is excellent. From now on, you shall receive our blessing. May you remember every choice you made today, and may you stay true to your words."
This blessing can’t be just empty words like "Oh, great sage above, I praise you," right?
As Bai Wu was thinking this, the surrounding darkness began to fade, and the true forms of the twelve Evil Fallen slowly emerged.
