Doomsday Jigsaw Puzzle

Chapter 488: Chapter 105: The Hero Defeated by Reality

Professor Tao, Jing Si, Wu Jiu had heard Bai Wu mention him during the exploration of the heart of Jing Si.

One was an entity second only to Origin Level intent on saving the world, the other was the leader of the scientists.

Compared to Jing Si, Professor Tao was both a mentor and a friend. The complete records about Professor Tao in the heart of Jing Si illustrated the position he held in its heart.

"What is written here?" Wu Jiu asked.

As Bai Wu flipped through the blood-soaked files, he said:

"Some very strange things, experimental reports."

Bai Wu couldn’t understand the experimental data, and the annotations of Prayle’s Eye were limited—

[It’s not that I’m lazy, I never shirk work, I just finish tasks efficiently. After all, you’ll meet him in person later, why should I tell you now?]

Since there was infinite resurrection here, one could fail countless times, this exploding scientist would naturally be seen again.

"Experimental reports? He doesn’t look like someone who had the mindset to conduct experiments." Wu Jiu felt something was off.

"Yes, he’s constantly pleading to become an Evil Fallen, as if he can no longer survive as a human."

Why would someone carry experimental reports on their person?

He clearly had difficulty even surviving, Bai Wu thought of a possibility—perhaps this person was forced.

He had no choice but to take these documents to a certain place.

"Where does he plan to go? Who is he praying to? Why did he die in the technology building?" Wu Jiu fired off three questions in a row.

Bai Wu shook his head:

"I’m not clear on that right now. The experiments in the file are about the possibility of destroying the cellular structure of the Evil Fallen. I don’t understand it, but I can feel that this research is thorough... as if a lot of preparation went into it."

"Destroying the cellular structure of the Evil Fallen? Do Evil Fallen really have such a thing? I encountered Shen Shuyue not long ago, and I’m very skeptical that a being like Shen Shuyue actually has something like a cellular structure."

In Wu Jiu’s view, the Evil Fallen were unscientific, and using science to combat them seemed utterly absurd.

Bai Wu became interested:

"Where is Shen Shuyue now?"

"Probably still outside the fog, why?"

"Shen Shuyue can split endlessly, not because of cellular structure. Merely studying cellular structures and approaching from biology definitely won’t work on the Evil Fallen. The main thing is still to study Entries like the one Shen Shuyue has. She possesses a Legendary Tier Entry, and now that Jing Liu is gone, it’s time for the three sisters to reunite."

Bai Wu really wanted to say—after this exploration is over, he’ll arrange for the three sisters, Liu Chengzi, Qu Li, and Shen Shuyue, to meet.

But realizing that might be a flag, he didn’t say it out loud.

Wu Jiu and Bai Wu were completely indifferent to a great beauty like Shen Shuyue. Wu Jiu had already steered the conversation back to the experiments:

"The scientists of Denglin City must have done quite a bit of research. Is it possible... that each of them is responsible for a different field? Maybe some are unraveling the secrets of the Entries, as you said?"

"According to what you said before, Entries can be transferred, even ones as significant as Reincarnation."

Bai Wu was startled; the captain was quite something, coming to the same conclusion as himself.

"Too bad this person is dead, but according to the rules, he should be resurrected somewhere. We just have to go to that place and take a look. There should be quite a few scientists in there."

Bai Wu and Wu Jiu continued their exploration.

The seventh floor, nothing was discovered.

The eighth floor, nothing was discovered.

On the ninth floor, they faintly heard some noises, but Prayle’s Eye led Bai Wu to find a document scattered on the ninth floor.

It was like a page fallen from a scientist’s journal—

[The rules are getting more and more twisted, and our living environment is also getting worse. I don’t know how much longer I can hold on.

Jing Si is terrifying, Tao’s obsession has protected us... but is this really protection?]

We’ve kept our human identity, yet we live in unbearable pain.

Sometimes, hiding in the buildings, those with bad luck die after four hours, and even those with good luck who manage to live a few more days are tortured beyond the capacity for thought due to various negative attributes.

In such conditions, can we really fulfill Tao’s demands? Our research is far behind the rate at which the monsters outside are mutating...

Professor Tao, let us go, let yourself go too, we’ve all failed... we’ve failed!

But even if I told you that humanity simply cannot surpass Evil Fallen, you wouldn’t give up your obsession, would you?

It’s just that... how much longer can we hold on?]

After reading this page, Bai Wu handed it to Wu Jiu.

After Wu Jiu finished reading, he sighed and said:

"When I was a child, living in the lower levels and doing odd jobs for a nutritious meal, other kids my age asked me: Gu Qingyu, will we live like this forever?"

Bai Wu asked:

"What did you say?"

Wu Jiu’s expression was one of guilt and self-reproach:

"I said I didn’t know, and then he asked me: Can we change our destiny?"

"I was very young then, and I still said I didn’t know."

"It seemed like because of that... he fell into a long remaining life, always struggling desperately for a nutritious meal. So one day... unable to bear the torment, he entered the blue stele."

Bai Wu patted Wu Jiu’s shoulder, and Wu Jiu said: freēwēbηovel.c૦m

"In this page of the diary, you should be clearer than I am. I’m starting to understand the meaning of the words that scientist was muttering."

Bai Wu nodded, the leader had realized, and he had too, slowly articulating his own view:

"Here... there exists some rule, forcing them to research a certain project."

"They want to become Evil Fallen so that they can be free from the torment of negative attributes every four hours."

"But they are restricted by the rules and cannot become Evil Fallen; these rules likely stem from Professor Tao’s obsession."

"I think I understand what you mean, Leader. These scientists have given up, they’re in despair, but their minds can’t breakdown, their consciousness remains clear, so they understand one thing—they have to live a prolonged life facing an undefeated Evil Fallen, dying over and over again."

"Death may reset life, but the meaning of the reset is to face even more brutal death. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com

Just like you said about the children in the lower levels, taking on all kinds of exhausting jobs for a full meal, but the meaning of a full meal... is to throw oneself into even more burdensome work."

This time even Bai Wu felt the weight:

"Such a future... seems too cruel."

Wu Jiu said:

"Now it seems, Professor Tao may have... become twisted?"

"Mm, we’ll meet these scientists soon. Let’s go and see."

Wu Jiu and Bai Wu moved forward once again.

As they reached the twelfth floor, Bai Wu looked through the floor-to-ceiling window and saw a huge tentacle. As a scientist had just died, it seemed the tentacle had mutated further.

Just last night, when Wu Jiu saw the Evil Fallen outside the tech building, he only saw huge tentacles, but then in the daytime, crimson flowers bloomed from the huge tentacles, and now—bone spurs had grown on the tentacles.

"Gigantification, Crimson Bloom, Bony Thorns. They’re all perfect Mutation Entries... Given this rate of growth, I’m starting to feel like this place might have already exceeded its capacity."

"What do you mean?"

"I’ve always thought the strongest monsters in the black zone couldn’t possibly compare to Jing Wu and Zero of Well Level, but Jing Si from seven hundred years ago... was already beyond Jing Wu’s and Zero’s reach. Perhaps Jing Si has broken some rule."

Wu Jiu still didn’t understand, but Bai Wu and Wu Jiu continued on to even higher floors.

As Bai Wu walked, he explained to Wu Jiu:

"God’s ability is 9999, and he endowed humans with an ability of 1, but humans can learn and observe, gaining roughly a 0.1 increase in ability."

"Jing Si is the very god itself, and the Evil Fallen outside are humans created by god. These people can obtain a 0.1 boost through the death of scientists."

It seems like an insurmountable gap between humans and god, but in fact, the moment humans possessed the incremental attribute, it was destined that they could surpass god."

Wu Jiu realized:

"Are you suggesting... that within the seven hundred years of evolution, there could be some kind of monster in this city that has surpassed the Well Level? Surpassed Jing Si?"

"That’s not possible, Jing Si’s strength is immeasurable. No matter how the Evil Fallen evolve or amplify, they can’t compare to Jing Si.

However... it is very likely that a few lucky monsters have evolved powerful abilities that could reach the threshold of the Well Level..."

Bai Wu continued:

"With our strength, we haven’t encountered any threats in this area yet, but we can’t rule out their existence. Ddnglin City, as the earliest black area and the last stronghold of human obsession... it is bound to have a few monsters."

Wu Jiu, who was already vigilant, became even more so:

"Don’t worry, I never underestimate any area. When exploring outside the tower, I can’t rely too much on past exploration experiences."

The fourteenth floor.

On this floor, Bai Wu and Wu Jiu heard a woman’s crying.

The fourteenth floor is the potion chamber, where various potions are stored in cold storage.

Following the sound, Bai Wu and Wu Jiu quickly arrived in the middle of the corridor and found the crying woman in a forbidden potion storage room.

"Who... who are you?"

Bai Wu was sure he had never seen this woman before. She appeared to be in her forties, disheveled and in poor mental state.

But according to previous intelligence, due to Professor Tao’s obsession, people in this building should not go mad and crumble nor become Evil Fallen.

They are forever lucid, forever in pain.

Always on the brink of madness and collapse.

Seeing syringes scattered on the ground, Bai Wu knew that this woman had tried to commit suicide using various lethal reagents to end her suffering. And not just once.

In the woman’s pocket, there was a file dossier.

It must also be aimed at the Evil Fallen, regarding the study of potions.

Bai Wu spoke softly:

"You are infected with a negative attribute, Chiseling Heart... This kind of negative attribute makes one feel terrible, as if the heart is being stabbed by a sharp cone."

The female scientist shook all over, tears in her eyes, trying to plunge the forbidden drug into her neck to end it all.

But Bai Wu’s tone provided a bit of warmth.

In the current science team, although no one has gone insane, the endless torments of death leave no one the mind to care for others.

Bai Wu gently comforted the female scientist, and his hand touched her wrist.

Although Bai Wu didn’t inherit Jing San’s Power of Life and Death, only his body and basic combat ability, his strong physique allowed him to master some of the basic applications well.

The female scientist immediately felt much better.

Wu Jiu was taken aback, wasn’t this what Li You did when he became a cat for himself?

Several times, when Wu Jiu was in a negative state and felt worse than death, Li You always managed to alleviate much of the pain.

"I know it’s hard to endure, but death only brings four hours of panic, and if I’m not mistaken, you must have some sort of result within these four hours, right?"

The scientist didn’t recognize Bai Wu, but looking into Bai Wu’s eyes, she felt a long-lost sense of security.

She had almost forgotten this feeling, as big tears spilled from her eyes, and her emotions became extremely complex.

"I am an outsider, I come from Xuanhui City, the hometown of Professor Tao."

Upon the mention of Professor Tao, the female scientist’s trembling became even more violent, terrified to the extreme.

Bai Wu gently patted the female scientist’s back, as if comforting a child.

They wouldn’t collapse, wouldn’t turn into Evil Fallen, but they were already on the brink of collapse.

"Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, I am not one of Professor Tao’s people, I am here to rescue you."

"Really... really?" the woman staggered back a few steps, panic-strickenly looking at Bai Wu.

"I hope you can tell me, what exactly happened here?"

Bai Wu didn’t mind the female scientist’s retreat and considerately thought about how this woman would be tormented by the heart-piercing negative attributes once she left him.

So he gently took the female scientist’s hand again.

"Are you... are you real? Could it be... I took the wrong medicine... am I seeing hallucinations?"

In seven hundred years, no one had come to redeem them.

In the beginning, colleagues would huddle together for warmth, researching strategies together.

Even at first, everyone was grateful for Professor Tao’s obsession, which protected them—they were the last human group outside the tower!

As long as everyone worked together, someday... they could drive out the Evil Fallen.

But as time passed...

More and more people became neurotic, more and more people grew irritable.

The colleagues started to blame each other, to point fingers, to regret why they had listened to some people’s advice to stay in this place to research methods to counter the Evil Fallen.

The Evil Fallen became stronger and stronger, while the human camp became increasingly fragmented...

Although they wouldn’t turn into Evil Fallen, they had already begun to detest their human identity.

Although they wouldn’t mentally collapse, they had already begun to give up on themselves.

Although they wouldn’t truly die, they also couldn’t obtain true redemption.

The appearance of Bai Wu and Wu Jiu made the female scientist think she was seeing illusions.

"No one will come to rescue us... no one will come to save us..." The voice, with a sob, was filled with such despair.

Despair so deep that even when they saw hope, they dared not regard it as hope.

Bai Wu and Wu Jiu exchanged a look.

This was real human nature; this was the harsh reality.

Like The First Generation, who was always smiling in the face of disaster, rescuing humanity... such people were almost nonexistent.

That’s why Zhou Zeshui said—The First Generation was almost comically righteous.

The real saviors of the world were probably like these scientists.

They made a choice for their beliefs but were ultimately crushed by the harsh reality.

They once had an immense desire to combat the Evil Fallen, but now they just wanted to shed their human identity, to become the Evil Fallen.

But such people are still worthy of respect, because no one could withstand the endless despair of these seven hundred years.

Their decision to stay and continue fighting the Evil Fallen was reason enough to respect them, to be redeemed.

They were heroes, just defeated by reality.

Bai Wu gently took the injection from the female scientist’s hands.

"We are real, and since you are in a clear state of mind, you must be able to feel it."

"I’m sorry, I promised to come to Denglin City to rescue you; but I only managed to get here now."

"I can’t imagine what you’ve been through over seven hundred years, watching the monsters outside grow stronger, what your feelings must be like."

"But please believe me, my friend and I will definitely, definitely get you out of here."