Doomsday Jigsaw Puzzle

Chapter 522: Chapter 139: The Well World Connected to Reality

Well World.

Images of the Order Faction’s modus operandi surfaced in Bai Wu’s mind, and he furrowed his brow.

He didn’t feel fear, so he couldn’t be afraid.

Right now, he had to figure out how to deal with some issues.

"So you’re saying, you only saw humanoid silhouettes?"

Bai Wu was surprised. Although the facial features of the two corpses were a bit ordinary, they should still be distinctive.

He subconsciously reached out to touch, and he could indeed make them out.

But if the visuals were deceiving, couldn’t the sense of touch be deceived as well?

And once he entertained that assumption, Bai Wu had to consider what kind of space he was actually in.

"But you should have heard, they asked if you could see their faces. You also realized, upon reflection, that under normal circumstances, you shouldn’t be able to see his face, right?"

Jing Liu’s logic was sound, and Bai Wu thought the same.

This was a very eerie scene, with two members of the Order Faction dead at his doorstep.

The Order Faction, as the name suggests, was responsible for maintaining the order and security of Well City.

However, as the seven financial groups gradually took control of the world, the Order Faction no longer represented the official authorities.

Most people knew that the current Order Faction was nothing but a dog for the seven conglomerates.

Whoever paid more, they targeted. In the past, the seven financial groups had overt adversaries and generally avoided infighting.

But as their overt adversaries weakened, the seven financial groups slowly entered a state of disunion that led to unity.

Ten of Spades said:

"We have been following you wherever you go. The ritual to enter this level was carried out by you alone. Jing Liu and I were able to come in, which means you dragged us into this."

Jing Liu furrowed his brows:

"You mean... he’s tied us down?"

Bai Wu was a bit confused, listening to the conversation while trying to sort out the current situation.

"The names of these two people popped into my memory, and they felt familiar."

"If these two people are not models from some VR game bug... then considering how from Jing Liu’s hand went through the wall, plus the two brutes earlier didn’t hear their voices or see their faces—these scenarios suggest that they are indeed hallucinations only I can see?"

"Then I must consider the words of these two hallucinations, maybe they hold considerable truth... I might indeed have had my memory tampered with."

Bai Wu briefly summarized the situation for himself.

One year ago, his parents both passed away, leaving him an inheritance.

He graduated from an average university, but due to his keen observational skills, he found a good job opportunity. He passed an interview yesterday and joined one of the seven financial groups—the Gluttony Financial Group’s investment company.

His life was just beginning, with a head start over most people.

That, and his fundamental understanding of this world.

If today’s events hadn’t happened, Bai Wu thought he would be starting his first day of work.

"But now... I can be sure that my memory has indeed been altered."

"Combat is muscle memory, which is often not wiped. It’s like how a person, despite amnesia, won’t forget how to brush their teeth or wash their face."

After getting a rough grasp of the situation, Bai Wu asked:

"What should I do now?"

Ten of Spades said:

"You have quite a few problems to solve; your weapon has disappeared. Your three knives are now missing."

Weapons?

Bai Wu said:

"You’re joking? I’ve always abided by the law, walking around with weapons on the streets..."

He stopped mid-sentence.

"I’m not from this world?"

"Indeed, for someone whose memories have been tampered with, you react quite quickly. You’ve been assimilated by this world. Now you’re not just weaponless but have also lost some of your abilities."

"But no matter, the Well will only make you stronger,"

The Ten of Spades smiled with mirth, finding the situation before him amusing.

What a pity he couldn’t share this interesting event with Bai Yuan.

"I need to take care of the bodies first. Two members of the Order Faction dead at my doorstep is too suspicious."

"Take care? How do you plan on doing that?" The Ten of Spades asked with keen interest as he looked at Bai Wu.

Bai Wu was also thinking. Each to their own trade, and when it came to killing and disposing of corpses, he was not on the same level as the Ten of Spades.

"Though you’ve lost your memory, your Sister and I haven’t."

The words "Sister" disgusted Jing Liu. The Ten of Spades tapped his fingers in the air:

"To use your words... from your ’past life,’ yes, I’m someone with a bit of experience in crime. I’m familiar with murder and dismemberment. Next, I will direct you, and at the same time, you will tell us everything you know from your memories as completely as possible."

"I can make the bodies disappear."

Bai Wu realized that this Ten of Spades had some unique tricks up his sleeve, and this so-called Sister must be no simple character either.

However, Bai Wu did not take the suggestion of the Ten of Spades:

"I am not someone who keeps disposal tools on hand."

"Besides, that’s too much trouble, and even if you use chemical agents to get rid of the bodies, it’s hard to get rid of the components of those agents. What I should do now is frame someone else."

"Now it’s five o’clock in the morning. If they visited others, then others should be awake just like me. But it’s very quiet around here."

Bai Wu looked towards the Ten of Spades and Jing Liu:

"Have you been awake all this time? Can you hear sounds from the outside, see images from the outside?"

"We can. Before you, there wasn’t much disturbance."

The Ten of Spades answered Bai Wu’s question and also guessed the method Bai Wu was considering.

"This is to my advantage, meaning that I truly was the first to be investigated. Despite the other floors in this building where I reside, they came straight to me."

"Since I was the first to be investigated, it’s likely that I am at the very center of the investigation."

"So you plan to... do nothing?" Jing Liu didn’t expect Bai Wu to be so bold.

Bai Wu nodded and said:

"If I’m not wrong, the case the two members of the Order Faction were investigating occurred on this floor. To my knowledge, there are only two other apartments on this floor that are rented out."

As he spoke, Bai Wu went back inside the room, put on gloves, and then returned to the hallway, feeling the bodies.

"It’s reasonable for the killer next door to kill two members of the Order Faction. A newbie like me, about to start a career and powerless as a chicken, couldn’t possibly have killed two grown men."

"I’ve never been awake. I drank alcohol last night and slept until morning. Okay, I’m going back to sleep. When I wake up, I’ll report to the company."

Jing Liu thought that Bai Wu was truly crazy.

He had just killed two people and even deduced that the previous murder might have happened right next door. The victim could be his neighbor.

Even if the killer was really as he said, living right next door, he planned to go sleep?

What if the Order Faction couldn’t reach the two members? What if the killer next door saw the two bodies and began to suspect Bai Wu?

The Ten of Spades, however, seemed to have guessed Bai Wu’s thoughts.

In any case, after Bai Wu made sure there was nothing on the two large bodies that could incriminate him, he went back to sleep.

Of course, he didn’t really fall asleep but lay with his eyes closed, contemplating.

In the moment he killed the two big men, Bai Wu had this mysterious sense.

It was as if he had done something... changed something.

As for what to do next, Bai Wu had an answer in his heart.

The Order Faction would definitely send someone again.

If he encountered someone from the Order Faction again, he wouldn’t make the same slip of the tongue; he would pretend, just like Jing Liu and the Jack of Spades, that he couldn’t see the other person’s face.

Speaking of which, why was he the only one who could see these people’s faces?

"If my memory has been altered, if I really don’t belong to this world, perhaps from the moment I entered this world, someone was already watching me."

Just as Bai Wu was confused, a call from an unknown number suddenly came in.

Bai Wu became alert, while the Jack of Spades and Jing Liu also immediately went on guard.

But in just one second, Bai Wu decided to answer the call.

"Who is it... disturbing someone’s sweet dreams so early in the morning, if you’re selling crappy insurance, I’ll curse you to be childless."Bai Wu feigned waking irritation.

"For someone who has just killed two people, you seem a bit too arrogant."

The voice on the other end of the line felt very familiar.

This sentence revealed quite a bit of information.

However, Bai Wu remained calm; indeed, he was a madman, but madness reflected only in certain choices.

From the moment he instinctively killed the members of the Order Faction, he understood that no matter what he did, he could not avoid the seven conglomerates.

So he decided to change his strategy.

"I don’t want to waste time, that’s too inefficient, you listen to what I say next."

So domineering.

Bai Wu didn’t refuse, though.

"From the moment we learned that a newcomer would soon appear in the Pure Well District, we began to take note of you."

"But unfortunately, the Gluttony Financial Group beat the seven conglomerates to it, and they assimilated you first. Now, you’ve lost your equipment, parts of your memory, and your abilities."

"To retrieve these things, you must cooperate with us."

Bai Wu really wanted to ask, why should I trust you. But the person with the all-too-familiar voice said:

"Don’t ask some boring questions. You might not believe us, but you came to the Well City area with inherent memories, and these memories will tell you what kind of organization the Gluttony Group is."

"Who are you?" Bai Wu asked.

"The Rebel Army. We are dissatisfied with the world being ruled by the seven great financial groups: Greed, Pride, Gluttony, Lust, Envy, Sloth. We are the warriors fighting to overthrow their rule."

What a bunch... Bai Wu frowned and said:

"But in my memories... under the rule of the seven conglomerates, Well City was still relatively orderly, the crime rate was decreasing year by year, and people might not be living happy lives, but at least they had food to eat."

The voice on the other end of the phone fell silent for a while:

"You haven’t realized what everything you’re seeing represents."

"What do you mean?" Bai Wu was puzzled.

"In ten minutes, my partner will come to pick you up. In these ten minutes, I will briefly explain some things. Listen carefully."

The voice on the phone became even more serious:

"Even though new people appear here every day, these newcomers are just created by the conglomerates, and real outsiders have not appeared for a long time. The last outsider...appeared seven hundred years ago."

"The memories in your mind now are nothing but replacements from other memory templates used by the seven conglomerates."

"Many years ago, there were two forces in this world, but now, one force has become too large, while the other has been continuously suppressed."

"This world has become imbalanced, and correspondingly, the world you came from is also losing its balance."

"The more orderly you perceive this place, the more chaotic your real world becomes." freewebnσvel.cøm

Bai Wu felt like he sort of understood these words.

So, he indeed comes from another world, and this world is the opposite of that one?

In this world, everything is well-ordered, and all people are ruled by the people of the seven great financial groups.

All of society’s resources are in the hands of these seven major financial groups.

The food we eat, the places we live and travel to, the clothes we wear, entertainment, and even our spiritual needs are all controlled by these seven financial groups.

Which online celebrity will become hot, what news will happen tomorrow, what movies the citizens should watch, even the birth rate...

All are precisely controlled.

It could be said that the Order Faction and the seven financial groups have made the world operate like a machine.

If what this person said on the phone was true, did it mean—

The world he lived in had already become distorted to the extreme?

"Not long ago, our people assassinated three individuals, but because we’re extremely weak... the targets were insignificant nobodies,"

"One was a middle manager in an air conditioning company. We killed him to intimidate the company, and for a time, the conglomerate lost temperature control over a certain residential area.

This allowed your world to temporarily avoid becoming an area with extreme temperatures."

"Next was a pop star, who emerged from a talent show. After we assassinated him, it led to the temporary shutdown of a TV station belonging to the Lust Group.

As a result, many creatures in your world were freed from becoming distorted by mental hypnosis. Of course, it’s still temporary."

"Lastly, six days ago, we assassinated a member of the Order Faction and had our own person go undercover in their place.

This also caused a piece of the Doomsday Puzzle to appear in a highly distorted area of your world."

The person on the other end of the phone began to summarize:

"You act the good person in this world... The more law-abiding you are, the crazier you may become when you return to your original world."

Jing Liu also heard these words. The person on the phone mentioned that seven hundred years ago, another person came here...

Jing Liu suddenly wondered, could that person have been his elder brother, Jing Si?

Jing Si’s original intention was kind, so he chose to maintain order.

But did that also make the real Jing Si insanely crazy, greatly increasing the distortion?

The Jack of Spades was also pensive; he and Jing Liu hadn’t lost their memories, but Bai Wu was completely lost.

Fortunately, at that moment, there was a knock at the door.

"My person has arrived, and he will bring you to us next. You have no choice."

Bang, bang, bang.

The knocking didn’t sound hurried but rather slow and deliberate.

Bai Wu didn’t hesitate and opened the door.

A tall figure with silver hair and squinting eyes appeared before him:

"Did you take care of the two from the Order Faction outside? Thank you for your contribution to the real world... although I don’t even know what distortions correspond to these two members of the Order Faction."

"Arcas...?"

Bai Wu subconsciously uttered these three syllables. That was a substitute of Zero in Mechanical City.

He was also the captain of the Divine Guard who had granted Wu Jiu the ability of Instant Shadow.

However, he died in the battle against Jing Wu later on.

Of course, Bai Wu was just subconsciously calling out the name right now.

He had already forgotten most of his memories.

"Are you calling me? That’s not my name. We here don’t have names, only numbers,"

"However, you outsiders see a projection of your own world on each of us, so I might just happen to overlap a lot with a certain character, which makes you see his projection."

Bai Wu couldn’t remember who Arcas was, but like the Jack of Spades and Jing Liu, he knew the name.

What he was more curious about now was, who was the person that called him?