Chapter 148 : Chapter 148

Chapter 148 “It’s not your host’s problem, it’s your problem.”

【Domestic violence brews tragedy: Young child unfortunately passes away, police intervene in investigation, the underlying process is appalling!】

Our newspaper report (Reporter Li Chunmin) Recently, an appalling case of death due to domestic violence occurred in Li'an District, Dongyuan City: a 12-year-old boy was suspected of being severely abused by his parents…………

…………………

…………………Currently, the police have intervened in the investigation, and the parents involved have been detained.

According to neighbors, cries and arguments were heard from the boy's home that afternoon, suspecting the boy was being beaten.

Subsequently, the crying stopped abruptly.

In the evening, an eyewitness saw……………….…………After the incident, surrounding residents urgently called the police.

When paramedics arrived at the scene, the child had already lost too much blood and unfortunately passed away.

The forensic examiner's preliminary examination found that the boy……………………caused by.

Police investigation showed that the parents were suspected of long-term domestic violence, and the violent behavior on the day of the incident caused the boy to go into shock at one point.

But the two did not seek medical treatment in time, instead worrying about bearing responsibility, ……………………, …………. Currently, the parents involved have been lawfully criminally detained on suspicion of intentional injury (resulting in death) and other charges, and the case is under further investigation.

……

The old newspaper was pressed under a tin box filled with trivial items, many parts stained with black bloodstains, making it hard to see clearly.

Yang Mangshu got the general idea, which wasn't too different from the truth they had pieced together.

She told Chu Zu about this.

Chu Zu: “That’s it?”

Yang Mangshu was puzzled: “Yes……?”

Chu Zu nodded, turned around and put the two heads into the wardrobe first.

The heads were too big, the wardrobe couldn't close.

He stood outside pressing against the wardrobe door and called Tong Qinzhen over.

“I’ll count down from three, you get ready.”

Chu Zu gently lifted Tong Qinzhen’s arm, which had been dislocated by a hard pull, and placed his other hand on his shoulder.

Tong Qinzhen knew he wanted to help pop his arm back in... this person seemed to know how to do everything, so he bit his lower lip, took a deep breath, and nodded.

The two heads behind him were frantically banging against the wardrobe door.

Chu Zu said softly, “Three... two...”

With a “Kacha” sound, Chu Zu applied force with his hand.

Tong Qinzhen was still waiting for “one” and was caught off guard.

He had no mental preparation and it hurt terribly, tears instantly streaming down.

Chu Zu pulled the two heads out of the wardrobe again: “Let’s go, find the police.”

“That kidnapper...”

Yang Mangshu, “Are we leaving him here?”

Chu Zu: “He’s about to die.”

Yang Mangshu: “But...”

“My hands are full. If you want to take him, you’ll have to carry him yourself.”

Chu Zu said, “He probably isn’t as heavy as you think. He’s missing a leg and has lost a lot of blood. You and Tong Qinzhen can carry him.”

Hearing Chu Zu say this, Yang Mangshu lowered her eyes and smiled bitterly: “Forget it, it’s my 'saint' complex, just pretend I never said it.”

Leaving the room, Chu Zu carried the two heads and led the way, followed by Yang Mangshu, with Tong Qinzhen, who was wiping his tears, bringing up the rear.

The black blood seemed to never stop dripping, leaving two long black trails in the corridor.

Little yellow chicken heaved a sigh of relief.

The amnesiac host was still very calm.

With 「Master Wang」, the danger of the room to him plummeted.

There were four types of rooms in total, basically all mentioned:

The home where the child died tragically from domestic violence, the fire scene, the laboratory where a chemical leak occurred, and that well where people were buried alive.

Little yellow chicken believed that the host could quickly figure out the rules.

As long as he followed the rules, this building was basically not dangerous to him.

The problem was Chu Shiju.

In the main text, the perspective didn't always follow Chu Zu and the others.

Not long after Chu Zu left the room, two dark figures pushed the door open and entered.

They saw the murderer's corpse.

The tall one chuckled lightly, crouched down to examine his cause of death, while the other shorter person was extremely irritable.

“You said if I killed that person named Chu Zu, you would take me out——where is he?”

The short person spoke strangely.

The first half of the sentence was directed at the tall person crouching on the ground, while the second half was directed at the empty space beside him.

“What do you mean I came late? You said he was here, that’s why I came!”

“Get lost!”

He waved his hand, the gun in his hand making a swishing sound in the air, “Disgusting or not, don’t just come close whenever you feel like it!”

The tall one rubbed the black blood on the ground, turned his head and smiled lightly: “Don’t argue, Yang Jing. I already said, he’s your friend and has always been helping you. If the person isn’t here, we can just look again. Don’t fall out with your hard-won friend over him.”

“……”

Yang Jing fell silent, then sneered, “It’s easy for you to say. Chu Shiju, you can’t see how disgusting he is, stop making sarcastic remarks.”

Chu Shiju stood up, took a clean handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his hands: “You described him: two heads, four hands, two hands are very long, almost a meter, bones piercing through the skin, the other two hands are very short... what else?”

Chu Shiju thought for a moment, and regardless of Yang Jing’s increasingly ugly expression, said: “He has always been crawling on the ground, following you since childhood, and always trying to attack you. He calmed down a bit after coming to this building... is that right?”

Yang Jing really wanted to shoot this man.

But this police gun had limited bullets, he had to keep them for self-defense.

And Chu Shiju was very strange; attacking him might not end well.

Yang Jing mocked himself internally a couple of times.

He was really a coward, becoming so wretched after just a few empty threats.

When he first met Chu Shiju, Yang Jing wanted to kill him without a second thought.

But he was quickly subdued, and the gun he had picked up from beside the police officer’s corpse also fell to the ground.

Chu Shiju didn’t take his life.

He stepped on his neck and asked him in a leisurely manner if there was something following him——something only he could see, but others couldn’t.

Yang Jing was stunned for a long time.

Because there really was.

He called the monster following him the “Gnarled Man”, which was completely literal.

Deformed limbs, blurry and disgusting facial features, it had two heads, one large and one small, the small one looked like a flesh tumor squeezed out from the side of its neck.

When Yang Jing was young, he was tormented by the Gnarled Man following him to the point of breaking down.

He told his parents, and they took Yang Jing for a full set of examinations.

The doctor said there was no problem.

Finally, they transferred him to the psychiatric department, and the psychiatrist also diagnosed no problem.

At that time, his parents were in the middle of a divorce.

They thought he was making up stories to get attention and gradually stopped paying attention to his words.

Yang Jing really couldn’t bear it.

He took a knife from home and slashed at the Gnarled Man, but what he chopped up was only the sofa.

Yang Jing couldn’t touch the Gnarled Man, and the Gnarled Man let out a weird and piercing laugh, as if mocking his cowardice and incompetence.

Over time, Yang Jing’s personality became more and more gloomy and perverse.

He didn’t like to look up in class, nor did he like to talk.

He knew that as soon as he looked up, he would see the Gnarled Man close at hand.

This became the trigger for his classmates to bully him.

Actually, Yang Jing didn’t care about being bullied.

The elementary schoolers’ methods were not worth mentioning compared to the shadow of the Gnarled Man.

He didn't mean to kill his classmate... he was trying to kill the Gnarled Man, which was constantly making strange noises in front of him.

But by the time he came to his senses, the classmates in the class were screaming, the teacher rushed over and pinned him down on the blood-covered desk.

The fruit knife he usually carried for courage was knocked away, and the classmate’s wide-open eyes after falling down were right beside his face.

The Gnarled Man, for the first time, emitted a sound that Yang Jing could recognize: “You... are finished...”

The parents who originally didn’t believe in the Gnarled Man told the police and doctors that he had a mental illness, that he had been like this since he was a child, and even produced a psychiatric diagnosis certificate that they had prepared at some unknown time.

Yang Jing thought his parents finally understood him.

He was also very scared, but he couldn't distinguish the reason for his fear.

The Gnarled Man was right beside him, but he wasn't as afraid as before.

Instead, the face of his classmate’s tragic death that he saw in a daze made him want to run to the bathroom and vomit.

The object of fear and the reason for fear were split apart.

Yang Jing didn't know how to deal with it.

And after the police left, his father hit him hard on the back of the head.

His vision went black, and he was completely stunned.

His mother stood by with her arms crossed, directly starting to say that she didn't want this child after the divorce, telling his father to take him and get lost.

But his father didn’t want him either.

Later, Yang Jing finally understood the original purpose of that psychiatric diagnosis certificate prepared in advance.

His parents divorced, and he didn't go with either side——he was sent to a professional medical institution for isolated treatment.

The doctor locked him and the Gnarled Man in a room for six long years.

The professional medical institution couldn’t cure him.

The medicine he took only made him lose perception of everything, his emotions became blank, thinking was very difficult, and he couldn’t muster the energy to do anything.

He would sit blankly by the barred window for a long time, but the Gnarled Man’s voice was still ringing, howling in a low voice: “You... you... are finished...”

The first time he talked to the Gnarled Man was after he lost control and hit the wall and was rescued by the doctor.

The doctor injected him with an overdose of tranquilizer and put him on a stretcher, pushing him towards the emergency room.

The blood on his forehead blurred his vision, the lights on the ceiling passed by one by one, the doctor kept checking his pupillary response, and his footsteps became faster and faster.

The Gnarled Man was still beside him.

Yang Jing could hear the sticky sound of its body tissue rubbing against the ground as it crawled close to the floor.

And the Gnarled Man said: “You are truly... pitiful...”

Yang Jing replied: “Because I was finished long ago.”

He wasn’t sure if he said it out loud.

It should have just been a reply in his mind.

The Gnarled Man seemed to have heard it and let out a terrifying low laugh again.

Yang Jing wanted to just die, but he couldn’t live well, and he couldn’t die either.

After Yang Jing came out of the treatment facility as an adult, his parents had already remarried separately.

They gave him two houses, a credit card, and a bank card, with the only requirement being: stay away from us.

Yang Jing secretly went to find them, and this incompatible couple made the exact same move.

They protected their own children behind them, looked at him with incredulous eyes, and didn't say a word.

Yang Jing didn’t lack money.

Theft, robbery, and kidnapping had no purpose.

He had seen 《New Police Story》 and saw Guan Zu, played by Daniel Wu, create a criminal group of five.

At that time, he also wanted to find his own group of five.

It was fine even if they didn't commit crimes; he wanted people he could talk to.

But a movie is just a movie.

The people willing to associate with him were all scoundrels, or murderers——murderers can understand a murderer’s eyes, fear can always recognize fear, Yang Jing could tell at a glance.

Yang Jing didn’t really look up to them, but he soon discovered the benefits.

His parents despised him, but in order not to let their own families be affected by public opinion, they would still show up when he got into trouble.

Yang Jing thought, things started to go wrong from there.

The noise made by the Gnarled Man became louder and louder, drowning out the other voices in his head.

He forgot the face of the classmate he killed as a child.

He felt that he was really crazy.

Only a madman would be numb to fear.

Perhaps he really was sick, a congenital disability.

The Gnarled Man was a monster he imagined.

He had always been very dissatisfied with his parents’ arguments, their neglect of him, so he chopped up the sofa and killed the classmate who bullied him.

Yang Jing had already accepted it.

But Chu Shiju said, that is not your imagination.

The Gnarled Man is real, and he has always been protecting you.

Yang Jing burst into laughter after hearing this, followed by a wave of nausea.

He spat at Chu Shiju.

Chu Shiju was very tolerant, moved his foot away, and his handsome face showed a helpless smile.

“Really, he’s the only one in the world who wants to protect you. If you didn’t have such a disgusting friend, you would have been killed by me long ago.”

Yang Jing turned his head.

The Gnarled Man was, for the first time, very far away from him.

It seemed to be afraid of Chu Shiju, not daring to make a sound.

Its two overly long arms reached towards him.

There was skin on the white bones, but the skin had long since ulcerated, and mucus dripped down as it trembled.

So disgusting.

Chu Shiju sized him up for a few glances, didn't say anything, and finally dragged him up from the ground.

“I won’t harm you. Actually, I want to help you.”

He said inexplicably, “I always want to help everyone who has a ‘good friend’, hoping they can leave this building, but it has never succeeded. However, you are different from them.”

Yang Jing was on full alert: “Where am I different?”

Chu Shiju looked down at him and suddenly suppressed his smile.

When he smiled, his features appeared approachable.

After losing his expression, his whole face suddenly revealed a full sense of oppression.

His scarlet pupils stared motionlessly at Yang Jing, and he said calmly:

“You are a murderer. In the story, a murderer cannot become a survivor. Perhaps only people overflowing with a 'saint' complex would try to save you, but when they find that their own survival is a problem, you will be the first character to be abandoned.”

Yang Jing frowned as he listened.

“So I cannot become a murderer. This is very troublesome. I have to go in circles for anything I want to do.”

Chu Shiju sighed, “You can help me do many things. In return, I will help you leave this place. It finally makes logical sense.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Yang Jing said.

Chu Shiju replied: “I am helping you.”

He said, “You seem to crave attention, so you can’t die inexplicably in the building——I will help you.”

Chu Shiju: “In return, you only need to help me with one small thing.”

He said, “Ask your friend, where is Chu Zu.”

Yang Jing: “Who is Chu Zu? How would the Gnarled Man know where he is.”

“He knows, and he will tell you.”

Chu Shiju said, “Because he knows I am an emotionally unstable guy. If I can’t kill Chu Zu, I will do something else to divert my attention.”

The Gnarled Man seemed to be saying “no”, but Yang Jing couldn’t hear clearly.

In the end, it still pointed the way for Yang Jing.

The person named Chu Zu was no longer in the room.

The coward who wanted to escape before was there, though, with one leg broken, dead with lingering grievances.

Yang Jing continued to ask the Gnarled Man, where was that guy named Chu Zu.

This time, the Gnarled Man wouldn’t say anything.

Chu Shiju was about to leave when his ankle suddenly tightened.

He looked down and saw that a hand soaked in black blood had reached his foot at some unknown time and was grabbing his ankle.

Chu Shiju crouched down again and said to Yang Jing: “See what I said, a murderer cannot become a survivor.”

He patiently pried open the fingers of that hand one by one, very carefully, trying not to hurt the hand’s owner, and advised:

“It’s better for you to die now. There are no police in the building right now, and that couple will come back. If you die now, you won’t have to deal with all that later.”

“This is Chu Zu’s fault. Why didn't he give you a quick death? Did he think killing someone with his own hands would cause controversy? Oh no, he probably doesn’t remember anything.”

Chu Shiju started sighing again.

“Sorry, I can't give you a quick death either. You'll have to work hard and die quickly on your own.”

Yang Jing felt that this person was even crazier than him.

And, just what kind of deep hatred did he have with that person named Chu Zu?

Chu Shiju got up, took out his handkerchief again to wipe his fingers carefully, tossed aside the handkerchief stained with black blood, and said to Yang Jing: “Let’s go, let’s find where he is. There aren’t many living people left in this building.”

……

Little yellow chicken was terrified watching this.

Chu Shiju’s words were too... strange.

He was very certain that the Gnarled Man was following Yang Jing... This was a new setting added to this round of plot.

All the main characters were followed by something only they could see.

——Like the Gentleman by Chu Zu’s side.

Furthermore, Chu Shiju also said, in the story, a murderer cannot become a survivor... he cannot become a murderer... it finally makes logical sense.

This was also a controversial point in 《The Fifth Door》.

Chu Shiju always acted indirectly.

He tricked people into rooms, watched them struggle, but never did it himself.

And he basically only acted in the later stages.

At that time, the main characters had pretty much collapsed, most had abandoned their social nature, tormented by fear to the point of only wanting to protect themselves.

Many people cursed Chu Shiju, thinking he was an inhuman beast, but a portion of people directly treated 《The Fifth Door》 as a niche cult classic.

Since it was a cult classic, who cared about all that.

Moreover, many “doors” were not certain death.

In other words, if it could be confirmed that Chu Shiju was a complete scoundrel who killed without batting an eye, 《The Fifth Door》 would have been taken down long ago.

But Chu Shiju’s character setting was too ambiguous.

His past wasn’t revealed, his motive was unknown, and his final outcome was also unknown.

If he died, and did so in a way that “conformed to contemporary values”, or was punished, then 《The Fifth Door》 would not have a problem with its value orientation.

Now it was stuck here.

After reading the main text, Little yellow chicken even thought... was he doing it on purpose?

Because he clearly knew where the line was, that’s why, as he said, he went in circles.

Chu Shiju really resembled... a specialist.

And he looked exactly like Chu Zu...

Little yellow chicken told its Superior about this.

“Chu Shiju is not a specialist. I can’t find any record of him.”

The Superior was writing code, parsing the item codes from the mall, and splitting them into a new program.

“If you’re scared stiff, go run an antivirus on yourself. Don’t bother me.”

Little yellow chicken had done similar things before, buying props from the mall to dismantle, and finally synthesizing a “nuclear weapon”.

It found that the Superior’s movements were much faster than its, clearly a skilled worker.

“But you couldn’t find the host’s permission issue either.”

Little yellow chicken said, “Just because you can’t find it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. What if Chu Shiju’s permission level is very, very, very high, and he deleted his own records from the database?”

The Superior looked up: “His permission level is very, very, very high, high enough to go to any novel he wants to complete tasks.”

“But he chose not to, felt life was too comfortable, so he deleted his information just to stay in a long and tedious novel to mess with people——is that what you mean?”

Little yellow chicken: “……”

Little yellow chicken couldn’t find a rebuttal, harrumphed, and sat down on the chair with a plop, opening the input terminal: “You’re just too rigid. If you won’t check, fine, I’ll check myself!”

Superior: “What permission do you have?”

Little yellow chicken: “None of your business!”

Originally, Little yellow chicken had a permission code higher than the Superior’s, copied from the administrator room of 《The Third Economic Law》.

It only needed to overwrite its current code to complete the permission update.

But the relevant code was all compressed into that bullet.

To avoid the Superior, Little yellow chicken didn’t save a copy.

The bullet was now in Guanfu’s hands.

Little yellow chicken immediately contacted Dazed Feather Little chicken in secret.

It always had a bad feeling in its heart, and couldn’t care less about whether it would be exposed and punished by the Superior... it would deal with the aftermath later!

It managed to contact Dazed Feather Little chicken, but the other party brought bad news.

【That son of a bitch Evil Silver-Shaded resigned.】

Little yellow chicken was instantly dumbfounded.

After a specialist officially resigns, they cannot take related props with them and can only exchange them for credit points according to a ratio.

The system would gift the resigned specialist a USB drive, which contained... pictures of the props they once obtained, mainly for collection purposes.

Like Teacher Big Mango.

After he resigned, he took away a picture of the diary, allowing him to slowly appreciate every golden phrase insulting the Superior in it for the rest of his life.

As for other lethal props, they could only be saved as an image. Conceptual ones like 「Master Wang」, 「Physics Beast」, 「Catch Me If You Can」 only had a few lines of document description.

Little yellow chicken almost jumped straight out of its seat.

My bullet!

What about my super powerful bullet!!!

Little yellow chicken sent Dazed Feather Little chicken fifty question marks and one hundred and fifty exclamation marks.

Dazed Feather Little chicken replied: 【If you’re so idle, come and curse Long Aotian Little Chicken with me.】

【It’s all his host’s fault, resigning suddenly when things were going fine. My host was already driven a bit mad by your host, so he was easily influenced and also quit.】

【What kind of monsters are these new hosts? I’m so angry every day I’m jumping, all my dazed feathers are about to fall out!】

Little yellow chicken didn’t want to know who influenced whom; it was still thinking about that bullet.

Specialists had no chance to re-register after resigning, so the system wouldn’t intentionally keep a way to contact them.

Where was it going to find Guanfu?!

And that bullet had become a 4K high-definition image, what use was it!!!

Little yellow chicken hesitated, starting to think about what to do.

It calculated the current situation.

The host, following the Gentleman’s reminder, knew to look for a gate of life.

If he could find it, he could leave this building.

As long as “Chu Zu” left, the story would be considered over, and the host could also detach immediately.

Currently, the host was still trying to solve Tong Qinzhen and Yang Mangshu’s problem, but the police officer who could have been the solution had already died in the fire room.

Chu Shiju watched him die.

The police officer thought he was saving someone, but it was actually just one of the room’s steps.

The person he desperately tried to save... was a victim who had already died in the fire.

Jiang Ran and Yang Mangshu had encountered the same situation before.

At that time, Jiang Ran was very decisive, prioritizing Yang Mangshu’s safety, absolutely not doing anything beyond his capabilities, and keeping Yang Mangshu’s eyes covered.

Jiang Ran lied to her, saying the smoke stung the eyes, and his glasses could block some of it.

In fact, he didn't want her to see the person covered in flames.

Tong Qinzhen and Yang Mangshu either had to find the gate of life early, or... they were beyond saving.

The host’s speculation was completely correct.

Those parents would not die.

Even if the person acting as the child left the room, they would chase after them until the entire past event was completed.

At least this wasn’t dangerous for the host.

Little yellow chicken could only think this way.

The host seemed to have a strange cognition, believing he had no parents... and the room’s rules actually recognized this.

On the other side, Chu Shiju was bent on killing Chu Zu.

It was unknown how he knew there was such a person in the building, as if he had the script, knowing many things he shouldn't know.

And he seemed to have some deep-seated hatred for Chu Zu... where did this hatred come from?

Currently, it seemed the biggest danger to the host was not this building, but Chu Shiju.

He really was too much like a specialist, a crazy one.

Not just his words and actions, but also his skills, which were praised by readers as deus ex machina——wasn’t that equivalent to 「Master Wang」!

Now the host had no memory, didn't know the novel’s limitations, and might not gain an advantage against Chu Shiju.

Thinking it over and over, Little yellow chicken was still burning with anxiety, unable to sit still at all.

“Um...”

Little yellow chicken asked awkwardly, “What format are the pictures specialists get after resigning? JPG, PNG, BMP, TIFF... or others?”

Superior: “Why are you asking this?”

“Just asking, just asking.”

Although the Superior didn’t want to bother with it, it still answered: “Once a prop is bought, it’s considered the specialist’s property. We can't retrieve it, so we can only compress it using a special compression method.”

“They can’t parse the system’s proprietary format. On the surface, it’s TIFF.”

TIFF is a high-quality image format, often used for professional photography and printing, supporting multiple color modes and resolutions.

Little yellow chicken’s heart settled slightly.

It was good that there was a specific format.

If it were just a photo, the code would be all gone!

But this also led to a chicken-killing problem——Guanfu had brought a complete set of system code with system administrator permissions into the real world.

That set of code was completely copyable.

As long as one had the corresponding technical skills, one could even directly build the framework and run it with one click.

If this was discovered, it was no longer a question of whether it would be punished.

The Superior would slaughter it!

Little yellow chicken wanted to bravely ask how to contact a resigned specialist, but as soon as it asked, the Superior would definitely be able to guess most of the story.

In fact, if it were the usual Superior, it would have grabbed Little yellow chicken by its chicken head and shaken it around when it asked about the picture format, making it confess clearly.

Now, being tied up with the matter at hand, the Superior answered casually, without thinking.

Little yellow chicken agonized for a long time.

Its anxiety was clearly caught by the Superior’s peripheral vision.

The Superior said: “I’m working on a virus.”

Little yellow chicken: “Ah...”

“Ninety-three percent complete. After I’m done, I’ll stuff you by your host’s side.”

The Superior had no expression, its tone a bit impatient, speaking comforting words in its usual patronizing way.

“Stop sighing over there, it’s so annoying. If you really have nothing to do, go run an antivirus, or see what good deeds your host is up to again.”

Little yellow chicken: “Do you need my help?”

The Superior became fiercer: “Get lost.”

Little yellow chicken whimpered and got lost.

It didn't run an antivirus.

While watching the main text, it wanted to open the reader forum to check the current feedback.

In the main text, Chu Zu was carrying two huge heads, looking for people everywhere.

Not only were the rooms in this building random, but the appearance it presented was also random, with no discernible pattern.

If they couldn't achieve their goal before the next transformation, they would either have to continue searching among the numerous high-rise floors, or wait in the relatively safe corridors and lobby for the next change.

It was also possible to not encounter the laboratory building for dozens of days straight... people couldn't go without eating or drinking for that long.

To find food and water, they still had to enter the rooms.

Currently, the building was a laboratory building, with only three floors in total and not many rooms.

Whether it was finding people or finding rooms, now was the most convenient time.

But at the same time, this meant that Chu Shiju could also find them very easily.

Chu Zu realized this and told Tong Qinzhen and Yang Mangshu to stay far away, to try and find people outside, while he checked the rooms one by one.

Before entering the room, Chu Zu also warned them not to run too far.

If they encountered someone not holding heads, that would be Chu Shiju, and they should just run.

Chu Zu just pressed his wrist against the edge of the door, and the door immediately opened a crack, instantly pulling him in.

The room was very dark, more than half as narrow as the previous rooms, with weak light.

There was a well in the center of the room.

It should be the room the murderer mentioned earlier.

Chu Zu observed more carefully than the murderer.

Outside, the door was still a large metal door, and it felt distinctly cold when he pressed his wrist against it.

Now, the door behind him had become a wooden door.

If one looked closely, there were many scratches on the door, messy, some scratches were slightly deeper, embedded with various black and red stains.

There were indeed a few dark shadows by the well, resembling hyenas, or perhaps people crouching on all fours.

Chu Zu pondered for a moment, and before the shadows by the well could move, he jumped into the well himself, carrying the two heads.

His skills were still unexpectedly good.

The well was at least ten meters deep.

When he hit the bottom, Chu Zu rolled sideways half a circle.

He didn't know the purpose of this action, but the impact was significantly reduced.

Looking up, the mouth of the well had become a small, round speck of light.

The surrounding rock walls were rough, with a slight sheen brought out by the light.

The rest of the darkness squeezed in towards the center like a giant mouth.

Chu Zu also saw a few shadows flickering at the top, which should be those things that were neither human nor dog.

“Are you still here?”

Chu Zu couldn’t see what he was stepping on and asked the Gentleman.

The bottom of the well was too narrow.

The Gentleman had always kept a distance of two meters from him, but now he was nowhere to be seen.

But he answered, his voice echoing in the narrow bottom of the well: “I am here.”

“I can’t see you.”

“I am in the wall.”

Without Tong Qinzhen and Yang Mangshu, Chu Zu could finally ask the questions he had been temporarily suppressing.

“Do you know what Tong Qinzhen has been looking at?”

Chu Zu said, “He has a habit of looking up in a daze. It was like this in the lobby on the first floor, and it’s the same in the room.”

And it was always after hearing certain news, or receiving certain shocks.

Normally, when people face pressure or social discomfort, their eyes will subconsciously look to the side, or down.

This can prevent others from noticing their unease.

If they look up, and to the extent of raising their head, it’s easily noticed.

And the few times Tong Qinzhen looked up, he tried to cover it up afterwards——he didn't really want others to know, but he couldn't change this habit.

Chu Zu had silently observed several times.

He always looked at a fixed angle, his gaze not unfocused——there was nothing there, but he could capture it precisely.

Chu Zu was no stranger to this kind of situation.

This was also how he found the Gentleman.

The Gentleman’s voice came from all directions: “He has nothing to do with you.”

“No one has anything to do with you, Wanshu Zu. They can’t affect you. What you need to do is find that correct door as soon as possible, and go in.”

Chu Zu knew.

After all, how long had he known Tong Qinzhen?

They couldn't even be considered acquaintances.

“But it’s very strange.”

Chu Zu said, “He cries a lot. When he cries, my head starts to hurt. I keep feeling like he resembles someone, but I can't say who.”

Gentleman: “Besides the headache, do you have any other reactions?”

Chu Zu said honestly: “I want to kick him.”

Large clumps of stuff started to fall from the mouth of the well.

Chu Zu stood to the side, pressing against the wall.

The clump of stuff fell at his feet, perhaps it was cement.

He crouched down, pressed the two heads he was carrying into the cement, and even gathered it around them, waiting for the next clump of cement to come down and completely cover these two heads.

The heads weren’t very peaceful.

After leaving his hands, they began to struggle desperately, but being only heads, at most they could just buck, unable to make any big movements.

Chu Zu didn't seem to mind being buried alive, and continued: “When I found out he was the other man, and the other man for both partners in a relationship, I wanted to kick him.”

“But who he has emotional entanglements with is none of my business. And I probably am not a...”

He searched for his words, “Not a person with normal social morals?”

“You want to save him.”

The Gentleman said.

The cement was falling rapidly, already reaching Chu Zu’s knees.

He said: “Do you think I am saving him now, or am I using his targeted status to figure out the room’s rules?”

Gentleman: “Right now, doing one thing can achieve two goals simultaneously. Why must you differentiate?”

Chu Zu looked down.

The two heads were already buried tightly.

The speed at which the cement dried was abnormal.

The cement falling down was still viscous, but everything below his knees had already completely solidified, unable to move.

He didn't ask the Gentleman anything else, and the Gentleman also remained silent.

The cement gradually rose past his head.

……

After Little yellow chicken finished watching, it wasn’t nervous.

This room’s rules were completely safe for Chu Zu.

It was just an uncomfortable process for a few minutes, posing no threat.

The fire or laboratory accident rooms still required adjusting one’s behavior, but the rooms for being buried alive in a well and death by domestic violence were completely unnecessary.

The rules only targeted those it deemed applicable.

However, Little yellow chicken hadn’t noticed before that the host had long discovered Tong Qinzhen’s problem.

He just never said it, waiting until no one was around to communicate with someone he trusted.

Originally, the person the host communicated with should have been itself.

Little yellow chicken started to feel sour again.

It couldn’t participate in much, and now could only wait for the Superior to finish its virus.

Once Little yellow chicken forcibly intervened and the system reconnected with the host, the host would be able to synchronize his previous memories.

It waited anxiously, secretly asking: “How’s the progress, dear Superior?”

The Superior found it disgusting: “Ninety-eight percent.”

“Okay okay, go go go, dear Superior!”

After saying that, Little yellow chicken opened the reader forum, searching for keywords.

【30014: No query results.】

Little yellow chicken: ?

It tried repeatedly, but still couldn’t find anything.

Searching for 《The Fifth Door》, it prompted no results.

Searching for Chu Zu, dozens of pages came up, all discussions about 《Neon Crown》.

Searching for other characters, it was either characters with the same name, or still no results.

Little yellow chicken was stunned.

This time, it directly entered the readers’ previous comments about Chu Shiju.

【30014: No query results.】

——Why?

Little yellow chicken began to investigate, wondering if the forum had a BUG again, or if there was a problem with this book, and related terms were all blocked.

It was just connecting to the network when the Superior’s voice suddenly came.

“What are you doing?”

Little yellow chicken didn’t look up: “I can’t find anything related to 《The Fifth Door》 in the reader forum. What’s wrong again? This shouldn’t be happening!”

While it was checking, Little yellow chicken’s internet was suddenly cut off.

The panel prompted that its system permissions were temporarily disabled.

There was only one chicken that could disable its permissions...

Little yellow chicken snapped its head up: “What are you doing?!”

The Superior stopped programming the virus, the progress halted at ninety-nine percent.

It leaned back in the small chicken-sized office chair and let out a long sigh.

“It wasn’t me.”

It was a little weary, “Didn’t I say before that I would check on the issue of your host’s shielded time?”

“I found... part of it.”

Little yellow chicken: “Can’t you just say it all at once! Are you trying to kill this chicken with anxiety!”

Superior: “It’s not your host’s problem, it’s your problem.”

Little yellow chicken: “?”

“If you told your host the time rules, he could immediately figure out your origin——all attempts to explore the origin of the little chickens are forbidden.”

The Superior said, “Later, he figured it out himself, and also knew who you were. Concealment was no longer necessary, so your restriction was also lifted.”

Little yellow chicken was full of question marks: “What do you mean, who I am... Am I not Little yellow chicken? A string of smart and capable code?”

The Superior didn’t answer directly, continuing: “Originally, you were like all systems, without so many targeted restrictions. I specially selected a stillborn character from the database and gave you consciousness.”

“Apart from the hard rules, you were originally very free, with autonomy second only to mine. Even if you messed up, you were only hung up in the mall, not deleted and reset. I still had that much decision-making power.”

“But you just had to meet Chu Zu... he added many restrictions to you.”

Little yellow chicken didn't understand the first few sentences at all, but it understood the last sentence.

The Superior was badmouthing its host again!

“Don’t spread rumors! I can’t listen to this!”

“Right, you can’t listen to it.”

The Superior said, “Chu Zu saved ‘you’, so you can never listen to anything bad about him...”

It said, “But, Sidney, why don’t you ask, now that Chu Zu already knows who you are, why does he continue to use you?”

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