Lu Yuan's cold sweat broke out instantly, and in that moment, his entire body felt as if it had been drenched by a heavy rain.
"Can't exit? What do you mean by can't exit!?"
Before he could roar, he only asked himself this in his heart, because he simply could not believe why a Minion in a Game would say such things to him. In any case, he continued to frantically click on the game menu presented before his eyes.
"Exit! Exit!"
"Exit, damn it!!!" He finally shrieked!
However, just as he had said before, he really could not exit.
As for that Doctor, he seemed to have known all along that Lu Yuan would end up in this state, so he was in no rush to explain anything; he simply used the sweat oozing from the other man to smear his forehead more evenly.
After a while, Lu Yuan finally seemed to have shouted himself tired.
"Hmm, it seems you have calmed down. So now, I ask and you answer, how about that?" The Doctor said in a slow and methodical manner: "First, the first question—who are you?"
"I... who am I?" Lu Yuan choked out with a somewhat hoarse Throat, wondering what kind of question this was. However, he still tried his best to recall in his Mind the Identity this Instance had arranged for him.
"Oh, I... I am called Lu Yuan, an office worker. Because of a recent breakup, I was filled with disgust for life, so I quit my job and prepared to go on a Road trip with my meager savings..."
Lu Yuan said, Trembling.
But just as he was speaking—
"This is the third day of your Road trip. A heavy rain caused you to lose your way, and your car broke down. In this helpless situation, you vaguely saw a piece of Architecture in the Shadow not far away. Holding the mentality of treating a dead horse as a living one, you ran over through the rain, only to find that this is an abandoned hospital, right!"
Lu Yuan's Head buzzed, and he looked at the Doctor before him in disbelief.
Because this character in the Game was actually reciting the story that belonged only to him, word for word, at the same speed.
"How... how do you..." He asked subconsciously, terrified.
"How do I know your story?" The Doctor's tone remained calm: "Heh, there is nothing to be surprised about. I said, you are not the first person I have tied up, and you should be able to guess that I have asked everyone who has been here this question. As for these people, they have all given me almost the same answer. It is as if each of you has used the same Identity." The Doctor said indifferently, not caring at all about the horrified Lu Yuan.
"I don't want to hear this answer anymore. What I want to know is the most real answer. You! Who are you? The 'you' hidden behind the 'lovesick office worker'."
"Who exactly are you people?"
"Why do you call yourselves—Players!"
Lu Yuan's Head was buzzing. He looked at that calm, yet inexplicably twisted, pale face, his lips twitching constantly, but he could not say a single word.
After a few seconds—
"Hehe." The Doctor smiled and shifted away his hands: "I am very sorry, I scared you. But it seems that, like those before you, you simply cannot give me any answer."
As he spoke, he began to attach electrode pads to Lu Yuan's temples, and his tone seemed as if he were telling a very long-forgotten story.
"Once, I woke up and found myself standing in this Operating Room, holding a Scalpel, staring fixedly at the main door. I didn't know what I was doing, but I was very clear that if someone pushed open the main door of the Operating Room, I would definitely have to rush up and fight them to the death. The ridiculous thing is, I didn't know why I had to do this. After a while, just as I had anticipated in my Mind, someone really pushed open the door, and I really did rush up. But the result was unfortunate; I was killed by that person because he had a gun in his hand... my Head was shot dead."
"After that, I woke up again. That door was pushed open once more, and I rushed out to fight to the death again. Only this time, my Head was smashed by a punch. The one who smashed my Head was a young girl..."
"I have experienced this cycle of waking up and dying 47,431 times. Being killed, being poisoned, being hacked to pieces, being painfully burned for Several hours until I became a dried corpse. I have experienced all kinds of ways to die. Of course, during this time, I was also lucky enough to kill the other party a few times, but it didn't seem to change anything. In short, I finally realized that this is what I do: either kill the person who pushes the door open, or be killed by them."
"Just like that, after a long time, I began to try to trace the reason. My method was that whenever I faced someone pushing the door open, I would not attack, but instead try to ask the other party some questions. Of course, doing this only made it easier for them to kill me... they seemed to think that I was just meant to die, even if they had never seen me before opening the door."
Speaking of this, the Mad Doctor smiled helplessly.
"And in this process, I was terrified to discover that my past memories had unknowingly become incredibly blurry, as if I shouldn't have remembered those things in the first place. At that time, I was flustered, so I thought I must use something to preserve these memories. Thus, I began to write them down on a piece of paper and then lifted a Ceiling tile, intending to hide those papers on top of it. But to my surprise, the space above that Ceiling was already stuffed full of thick pages."
"It turns out that this painful Samsara is more numerous and more ancient than I remembered."
"Subsequently, I slowly sorted through the Information left behind by my former self. I discovered some interesting words, such as Players, such as Ark, and a blueprint for a Magical machine capable of blocking a certain signal..."
Speaking of this, the Mad Doctor reached out to the top of Lu Yuan's head and took out an iron helmet, a 'helmet' covered in dense wires.
During this time, Lu Yuan had long been so flustered by the Doctor that his Mind was in chaos, and he hadn't even taken in the story he had just told. However, the moment he saw that terrifying-looking electric shock helmet, Lu Yuan's eyes widened sharply.
"No—Ahhh—No!"
He shrieked miserably, his whole body trembling violently.
But the Mad Doctor did not pay him any mind; he simply held the electric shock helmet steadily and placed it on his own head.
"?" At this, Lu Yuan was stunned. He looked at the Doctor in front of him who had already put on the helmet, inexplicably wondering, why did this guy put it on himself?
And just as he was puzzled, the Mad Doctor also stood up. He carefully maintained the stability of the wires on his head and walked to the wall, where there was an ancient manual circuit breaker.
He looked at Lu Yuan.
"This device can allow our consciousnesses to swap. That is to say, I will become you, and you will become me. Of course, you don't need to worry about these details, because your memories of all this will be washed clean in the coming cycles."
"What?!" Lu Yuan's body jolted violently: "How can you do this? Stop!" Lu Yuan's body struggled like a madman.
The Mad Doctor looked calmly at Lu Yuan, whose Voice was already hoarse.
He knew that his behavior was undoubtedly equivalent to killing the other party.
"Then, if viewed from the perspective of these Players, I must certainly be a Bad guy, right."
"Perhaps I was a Bad guy to begin with; otherwise, why would everyone who sees me want to kill me?"
"To tell the truth, I don't want to conflict with those people, but it seems no one cares about my thoughts."
The Mad Doctor thought this as he watched.
Finally—
"I'm sorry."
He said this helplessly.
The next second,
the circuit breaker was pulled down.
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