Free Web NovelChapter 164: Chapter 164: Love Should Never Be Tested
On the dungeon map that Jiang Che displayed, this labyrinthine overhead view showed glowing green dots in every winding corridor and corner.
On this map, red dots represented the challengers, while green dots stood for the Blood-colored Crystals scattered throughout the map.
"Why not set the red dots as the Blood-colored Crystals, and the green ones as the challengers instead?" Flying Tiger muttered a small complaint.
She just felt that these two clashing colors in reality and on the map looked a bit too familiar.
"It kind of looks like..." She frowned, thinking, but couldn’t recall where she’d seen this before.
"Like those domestically licensed games—where all the blood is green!" Zhou Ang raised his hand. He hadn’t played FPS games since the weirdness descended, but seeing the red turn to green, his first reaction was that the game blood had changed color.
If Zhou Ang hadn’t said anything, it would’ve been fine, but as soon as he spoke, everyone except Jiang Che instantly thought of those games that swapped red blood for green just to pass the censors.
Jiang Che definitely never played games. Xiong Jie stared strangely at the flat map. If Jiang Che’s thoughts lined up with those censorship-devoted game developers, then before the Weirdness happened, he’d have been the ultimate censorship saint.
Jiang Che looked at them, confused, not understanding this changing-the-color-of-blood talk at all.
The reason he’d designed it this way was because the blood was from his own body, red from the very beginning.
And in Jiang Che’s mind, these Blood-colored Crystals represented the other patients, his companions, inside the asylum.
The green color stood for life, for vitality.
He just wanted someone to bring everyone out with them, that’s all.
Jiang Che saw the little red dot on the map standing motionless in the corner—the challenger was just standing there, and that woman hadn’t started the dungeon yet.
"There’s only one dot to see. If only we could watch her solve the dungeon in real time." Zhou Ang sighed, a little regretful.
Flying Tiger looked over at Jiang Che. He was the dungeon master now—shouldn’t it be easy for him to project the challenger’s perspective?
Why was he only showing them a flat dot view, without displaying how that person was tackling the dungeon?
Jiang Che’s eyes could see two images: one was the 2D map, the other was a third-person perspective watching the challenger.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t show their view—it was that he didn’t want to.
The challenger was an evil spirit, not human.
She wore a tight black leather suit, had no head, and black smoke constantly rose from her neck stump.
The black leather suit didn’t look entirely solid, yet her shapeless body still managed to fill out the suit, taut and shapely.
Jiang Che could say with 100% certainty—he didn’t know this evil spirit.
Not a shred of familiarity.
But he really didn’t want Flying Tiger or Xiong Jie to see what she looked like now; the skin-tight outfit showed off every curve perfectly.
"Do you think this kid will recognize you?" Hua’s gossipy voice buzzed in Ding Ning’s ear.
"I’m pretty confident he can’t. My Illusion Technique isn’t something he can see through—unless you purposefully give him a chance," Hua said sarcastically.
With their current power, neither Hua nor Ding Ning could forcibly break through the dungeon’s rules, but with Xiong Jie as a medium, they could observe a wide area centered on him.
"If he doesn’t recognize me, so what? He’s not as strong as you, and even evil spirits at his level can’t necessarily see through your Illusion Technique. It’s normal that he can’t." Ding Ning curled her lip, not caring about Hua’s words.
"If he did recognize you, would that mean he loves you more? That he really likes you?" Hua lowered her voice.
Ding Ning didn’t respond. She was still running mental simulations, mapping out the best escape route from Jiang Che’s dungeon.
"With the Illusion Technique’s cover, and me not exposing myself—actually even hiding on purpose—it’s perfectly normal he can’t recognize me," Ding Ning ignored Hua’s teasing.
"I’ve read human books and information. All of them say—the one thing you mustn’t do in a relationship is test the other person," Ding Ning sighed.
"Besides, I’m not here to see whether he’ll recognize me." Ding Ning rolled her eyes hard.
Humans say, the moment you start testing each other, the relationship is already doomed.
She’d already simulated all the possible escape routes from Jiang Che’s dungeon, including the routes those chasing spirits would take. No matter how she played it out, every result led to a dead end. In Jiang Che’s dungeon, you just can’t escape.
She’d run it countless times—none of the results were good.
Ding Ning’s lips curled upward despite herself.
Flying Tiger and Xiong Jie both thought Jiang Che’s dungeon rules were weak now, like some ATM machine—just memorize the map and you could extract energy whenever you wanted.
But now that she’d tried it herself, she could say for sure—
This place was true despair.
From the moment she saw the endlessly repeating asylum, she’d understood why Jiang Che’s dungeon took this form.
This was everything he’d once suffered through.
No matter where you went, the ’spirit’ would always catch up, because in the real-world asylum, Jiang Che could never go anywhere without being found by staff.
She was just a projection—if she failed, she wouldn’t die for real.
"I’m going to start." After saying this last line to Hua, Ding Ning reached out toward a Blood-colored Crystal.
"What’s the rush? Let me try again. I feel like I’m just about to figure out the route," Hua said anxiously.
In her own mindscape, she’d already created an identical micro-illusion, and kept running simulations, convinced she could find the right answer.
Ding Ning shook her head, staring at the Blood-colored Crystal in front of her.
Whatever the answer was, she’d have to find out for herself.
Jiang Che saw the figure in the black leather suit freeze for a while, then reach out and touch the Blood-colored Crystal.
"She’s started!" Zhou Ang watched as the small dot representing Ding Ning started moving rapidly across the 2D map.
Following the radar in her head, she began quickly collecting Blood-colored Crystals.
Her speed was impressive—at first, things were going very smoothly.
"Uncle Xiong, what do you think?" Zhou Ang looked at Xiong Jie, who was the only one there who’d actually tried Jiang Che’s dungeon before.
Xiong Jie stared hard at the screen, watching the dot collecting crystals so smoothly. After a long while, he finally spoke.
"I don’t know."
"Well, I think it won’t work." Flying Tiger squeezed in too, tracing the dot’s intended route on the screen with her finger.
If nothing unexpected happened, in three minutes, the dot would be pincered in by the ’spirits’.
