"But in the end, you all still revolted," Xiao Buli said, and this was not rely conjecture; from the archives he had initially seen, the test subjects had indeed collectively revolted in the end.
"No, we did not; it was General Huo who revolted," the voice of Xuan Zhenzi was not loud, but it exploded in Xiao Buli's mind like a clap of thunder.
"General Huo? How is that possible? He was the initiator of this project, and he had no reason," Xiao Buli said eagerly.
"At first he did not, but as the experintation faced obstacles and higher-ups even considered halting the process, General Huo could not find a solution to the Soul Departure Syndro. In the end, he decided to enter the ga himself. A few of us elders who had not succumbed were tasked with aiding General Huo's rapid growth within the ga. During that ti, we had to hand over any superior equipnt we obtained, truly becoming re laborers. We knew this was not the way forward. Initially, we hoped to enhance our strength in the ga and one day escape. However, once General Huo entered the ga, he beca like a queen ant, and we the worker ants perford the bulk of the labor, with the fruits of our labor going to him. When would we ever get our chance to shine? We saw no hope, no future, and in the end, we made a decision that seems terrifyingly dreadful in hindsight." Even after so many years, when recounting this portion, Xiao Buli could still see the intense fluctuations in Xuan Zhenzi's emotions, though he strove to steady his trembling voice.
"You decided to stay in the ga?" Xiao Buli whispered this most logical of guesses. With this, everything made sense.
"Exactly," said Xuan Zhenzi, "I consulted my master and learned that I could shape a physical body within the ga. We could kill our own avatars and then go into those bodies, but doing so ant giving up all our abilities, and the bodies required rit Points to rebuild. Not all of us had enough rit Points at the ti. Later, a man nad Bi Huaxuan ca up with an even riskier thod. Before he was imprisoned, he was a university professor, said to be of a scientist's caliber. He hypothesized that our projections in the ga were actually bodies created for us by the ga, because once we donned the helt, spiritual power would enter the ga through the helt. One could imagine it as the spirit leaving the body, but then what about the bodies we occupy in the ga? We can feel pain, have auditory and visual senses; the only plausible explanation is that in the ga, we actually have a physical body. Thus, things beca simple – if we killed our real-world selves after entering the ga, we could stay in the ga forever. Given our situation at the ti, there was no way to test if this theory was correct, but everyone hesitated about this; it's one thing to fight, quite another to be killed without a sound. No one was willing to take a risk with a 50% chance of failure. Plus, such an act would require soone to make a sacrifice since soone in reality would have to truly kill us, and this person would likely et their end at the barrel of a gun."
Xiao Buli listened to Master Xuan Zhenzi's account, and his mood seed to be gradually infected by the threat of death and despair. "How did you finally make up your minds?"
"We didn't, we never reached a firm decision by the end. It was soone else who made the decision for us. At that ti, the experint was making no progress, and people were constantly coming down with Soul Departure Syndro. Although new people were added to the team, it essentially ant that the experinters were bound to die after a certain period of ti. Eventually, General Huo began to manifest Heart Demons. Unlike the rest of us, General Huo had planned to collaborate with his Heart Demon from the very beginning, which was different from those who contracted Soul Departure Syndro as a result of resisting their Heart Demons. We didn't notice anything unusual with General Huo until he started having us collect a certain special material. We weren't very familiar with this material, but there was soone, Luo Sen, who specialized in Array Spells, and he unintentionally revealed to that this material was used to construct Teleportation Portals, just like the ones you see commonly in the ga. At that ti, I didn't know if he had heard sothing because he was acting all secretive and neurotic. I thought his Heart Demon was about to conquer him, making him succumb to Soul Departure Syndro. That day, his condition was particularly severe, and General Huo ordered him to be placed in the observation room, the last checkpoint before the execution chamber. If his condition remained the sa after two days, he would be put into the execution chamber. We all felt sorry for him; in the ga, his skills were strong, he was a key part of our escape plan because of his lock-picking skills due to his specialization in Arrays, chanics, and traps."
"That day we entered the ga as usual, and suddenly, everything went dark. When I woke up again, we were still in the ga, with no change in our positions. At that ti, I thought it was just so reaction in the ga and didn't pay much attention. But when night ca and it was ti to log off, we weren't awakened as usual. At first, no one was too worried, since if we wanted to leave the ga, we could do so by willpower alone. But as ti trickled by, we started to panic. So of us tried to leave forcefully, but it was useless. Every ti we opened our eyes, we were still inside the ga. Not just us, even General Huo was the sa, although he didn't seem to care much about it, turned around, and abandoned us. From then on, I never saw him again, nor do I know whether he died in the ga. We settled down in a village and analyzed the situation. In the end, everyone thought it was very likely that Bi Huaxuan's theory was correct, and that we in the real world had been killed, although at that ti we didn't know by whom."
"Was it Luo Sen?" Xiao Buli asked.
"Yes, we thought the military was also a likely candidate at that ti. General Huo wasn't adept at playing politics, he had many rivals, and the failure of the experint was a good excuse to execute him. In the end, everyone felt that since we had what we had always hoped for, there wasn't much point in regretting anything. We started to live as before and finally felt a sense of freedom and hope. But these good tis didn't last; one by one, we started to beco programd. It began with the youngest among us, just a 20-year-old kid, whose occupation was still that of a farr. Soon, we noticed sothing was amiss—his daily life was like a pre-set film, repeating over and over. He hardly ever spoke a word more to us; each ti we spoke to him, he had only a few fixed responses: 'The weather is good today,' 'I'm going to the village chief's house to see if soone is hiring,' 'Hello, I hope you're having a good day.' He gradually turned into one of those low-level characters in the ga. Everyone started to look for a way out. I found my master, and he taught the Doppelganger Shadow Technique. Even after thirty years, luckily, I finally succeeded, right?" A complex gleam spun in Master Xuan Zhenzi's eyes. It turned out his original intention was not to rid himself of the Heart Demon, but to avoid becoming an NPC. But in doing so, had he really escaped such a fate? (To be continued. If you like this work, please co to Qidian ) to cast your recomndation votes and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian to read.)
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