Chapter 150 : Chapter 150

Chapter 150: “A tiger's ghost cannot be freed, it can only find someone else to take its place.”

Intermittent lightning made Chu Shiju's face flash bright and dark, thunder roared, and the storm finally poured down like a waterfall.

Chu Zu subconsciously felt danger, not because of Chu Shiju.

He quickly retreated along the path he came from, almost at the same time, the glass window beside him shattered with a crack, fragments splashing outwards, disappearing into the rainy night.

The leaden clouds scattered a little, weak daylight provisionally illuminating the experimental building's corridor.

A cursing voice came from behind Chu Shiju: “Damn, another freak.”

The man holding the gun walked into the light, he was unfamiliar with firearms, his posture holding the gun was awkward, seeing one shot miss, cold sweat broke out on his head, he glanced sideways at the smiling Chu Shiju: “You’re just going to watch like that?”

Chu Shiju: “Then I'll move aside a bit for you.”

The man cursed again, but didn't say much more, watching Chu Zu with full vigilance, approaching him with the gun raised.

The man held a domestically-produced □□ handgun, the caliber was indiscernible, the magazine was either 15 rounds or 20 rounds——if it was police-issue, it was most likely 9x19mm caliber, 15-round magazine, at most 16 rounds including the one in the chamber.

Chu Zu was still puzzled, not to mention his physical fitness suddenly improving, how could he even dodge bullets...?

It was probably because the other party's aim was bad.

Chu Zu thought, China banned guns, he was also clearly a novice, this gun wasn't his.

Had something already happened to the police officer in the building?

If there was no police officer, the previously envisioned way to resolve the domestic violence room wouldn't work.

Chu Zu had buried those two heads at the bottom of the well, wanting to see if the room could target other rooms.

Now the heads had disappeared, he still had to try going to the domestic violence room to see if those two heads had returned to their original positions, or if they were completely buried at the bottom of the well.

Just as he was thinking, several more gunshots rang out, Chu Zu dodged purely on instinct——he didn't know if this counted as instinct, it seemed as if his body had another framework, as long as he subconsciously thought of the goal, his body could automatically operate.

Bullets flew wildly, several windows were shattered, rain drifted in, the wind filled Chu Zu's sleeves, making them flap loudly.

The man cursed: “Fuck.”

Dodging was not in Chu Zu's character, Chu Shiju watched from the sidelines, he also acted as if Chu Shiju didn't exist, after retreating several times, he seized the opportunity, leaned forward and pressed down, aimed at the nearest face and threw a punch, the force was immense, directly smashing him onto a door.

The gun fell to the ground, the man was terrified, and hurriedly wanted to pick it up, but the door at that moment quietly opened a crack.

“No no no no no——”

He was swallowed by the door, along with the “thud” of the door closing, his wails also completely disappeared.

Chu Zu picked up the gun, aimed it at Chu Shiju.

His posture was much more standard, this was also what made him feel incredulous.

It seemed he could not only immediately identify the type of gun, but was also accustomed to using various guns.

“His name is Yang Jing this time, thanks to you, he died from a laboratory material leak.”

Chu Shiju tilted his head, as if admiring Chu Zu's reaction at this moment, a smile in his scarlet pupils, he said, “You got him killed, will you regret it?”

“Where are Tong Qinzhen and Yang Mangshu?”

Chu Zu said softly.

Chu Shiju slowly walked towards Chu Zu, not at all afraid of the approaching muzzle, finally stopping in front of Chu Zu, the muzzle pressing against his Adam's apple.

When he spoke, the vibration was transmitted from the gun's body to Chu Zu's hand: “You should regret it. We have the same settings, the same experiences, so our personalities are also the same.”

This person was insane.

Chu Zu was too lazy to say more to him, Chu Shiju's expression was the type he disliked greatly, as if he knew everything, but just kept rambling deeply.

He couldn't see his personality, nor could he see his characteristics, apart from really looking exactly the same as himself, he completely disagreed with the "personalities are also the same" that the other party spoke of.

And at this moment, the door opened.

A monster crawled out from inside.

Chu Zu turned his head to look, his indifferent brows furrowing instantly.

He had never seen such a disgusting thing——

Its pale skin was covered with various tumor-like growths, the bones of its two arms were overgrown, forcefully tearing apart the muscles, revealing several sections of stark white bone.

What was even more goosebump-inducing was that his mutation hadn't stopped.

Amidst muffled, indistinct screams, a lump suddenly appeared on the side of his neck, a bloody tumor broke through the epidermis, snapping his cervical vertebrae with a “creaking”.

And even so, he did not die, after his central nervous system could no longer maintain standing, he collapsed heavily, crawling and moving on the ground, at first using his hands and legs, then using two "severed arms" that had grown from his waist...

This creature, whose human form was almost unrecognizable, was still wearing the clothes of the man who held the gun earlier——they were already completely ill-fitting for him, stretched to tattered by the overgrown mutated organs, red blood and yellow fat were smeared on them, sticking clammily to the floor with the wriggling of its huge body.

He moved towards Chu Zu.

Two books appeared in Chu Zu's mind.

——Nuclear Chemistry and Radiochemistry and Radiation Protection.

He was sure he hadn't read them, because the mental hospital's library wouldn't stock such books, it was mostly novels and magazines, even if there were textbooks, they leaned towards the literary type.

Not just the two books, related content also appeared in his mind out of thin air.

If a leak of plutonium (Pu) or uranium (U) derivatives occurred in the laboratory, the radiation would induce rapid cell mutations, leading to tumor-like growths on the skin.

Genetic mutations could cause excessive bone growth, muscle fibrosis, or the growth of extra limbs.

...

And then one would become like this man.

The man crawled to Chu Zu's feet, his eyeballs were exposed outside their sockets, ready to fall out at any moment as the connection broke, his vocal cords could barely maintain operation——

“Lied... Chu Shiju... Gnarled Man...”

“I... it's me...”

“He didn't...”

“You... Chu Zu...”

...

The intermittent short words couldn't form sentences, even if Chu Zu was skilled at wording sentences, there was no way to piece together the fragmented things into his original meaning.

Chu Shiju squinted his eyes: “Are you regretting it now?”

Chu Zu pulled the trigger.

A bloody hole appeared in Chu Shiju's throat, as he fell down with a smile, Chu Zu heard a sigh from Gentleman.

Little yellow chicken's internet was cut off, fortunately, their system had its own local area network, and could still maintain a certain degree of contact with the internal system.

Dazed Feather Little chicken was on a mission, already deployed into the novel, contacting it required an internet connection, but Long Aotian Little Chicken was still in "grief over its master", and hadn't been assigned a new host, its Superior gave it time to get out of the gloom.

Little yellow chicken directly sent a series of desperate calls, the core theme was only one: Good brother, help me pull a network cable, I want to steal your internet for a bit!

Long Aotian Little Chicken was already puffed up with anger, its host became so abnormal after contacting the host next door, directly resigning and running away, it certainly wouldn't give Little yellow chicken a good attitude.

Ignored for its desperate calls, Little yellow chicken wasn't discouraged, it took out the data strips and upgrade firmware from its inventory, packaged them and sent them to Long Aotian Little Chicken.

Long Aotian Little Chicken was willing to reply: “What are you doing, trying to harm me again?”

Little yellow chicken was well-versed in the technique of getting along with colleagues in the workplace, and stuffed a bunch more good things over.

“Just pulling a network cable, my internet is bad, borrowing some internet.”

Before Little yellow chicken nearly emptied its inventory, Long Aotian Little Chicken finally agreed, sent the password key, and even tried to cover its tracks, saying: “This little bit of stuff from you is useless to me, I'm helping you out of collegial affection, don't go blabbing about it outside.”

Little yellow chicken thought to itself, the stuff I gave you is enough for your next host to do ten missions, and you're still saying "useless".

It just thought it, and agreed readily: “Ok Ok”

Borrowing another system's network could only solve the immediate urgency.

Little yellow chicken didn't dare to continue checking information about The Fifth Door now, afraid of getting Long Aotian Little Chicken banned along with it.

According to the original plan, it began to work on making the virus its Superior had made.

To understand the current progress of the main text, Little yellow chicken opened the main text panel next to the input terminal.

Then it saw Chu Zu shoot Chu Shiju in the neck.

The man was killed easily, his body fell to the ground, lying together with Yang Jing who had already become a Gnarled Man.

Little yellow chicken's coding claw paused for a moment, it couldn't believe it was that simple——it really wasn't that simple.

The perspective of the main text switched, Chu Shiju opened his eyes on the rooftop.

“He used a prop... all the previous things that were called deus ex machina were because of props...”

Little yellow chicken was both angry and anxious, its wings slapped “thwack thwack” on the main text panel, “Is it fun to bully someone with amnesia, damn you, just you wait, when I come, I'll hang you up and whip you!”

The place where Chu Shiju hid himself was very cunning.

To leave the building, one must constantly find the correct door.

Even to replenish the body's need for food and water, one had to gamble on what was behind the door.

In the structure of this building, the rooftop was a completely useless place.

There was no food here, no water, if the randomly assigned building was a tall building, just climbing to the roof with two legs would consume a lot of time and energy.

Chu Shiju touched his throat, his face expressionless.

After the smile faded, Chu Shiju and Chu Zu looked even more alike, it was still raining at this time, he was soaked all over, rainwater dripped down from the tips of his hair.

After his short hair was soaked, his eyes were more exposed, cold red, staring straight at the night sky.

After a long while, he fumbled for a short knife from behind his waist, the style was the same as the one Chu Zu had casually thrown at the bottom of the building before, incomparably sharp.

Although he let Yang Jing go kill Chu Zu, Chu Shiju knew that that man couldn't do it.

It was just a trivial greeting.

Chu Shiju could swiftly send everyone who stepped into this building to hell, only towards Chu Zu did he have a bit more complicated emotions.

It was absurd, he knew very well, he would regret killing Chu Zu, not because a life was ended by his own hands, that feeling was like... betraying himself.

He would spend the rest of his life regretting this matter.

——But at least he would still have a rest of his life.

So Chu Shiju said to himself in a low voice: “If I regret it, I regret it, this is the last chance.”

Little yellow chicken's claws sped up, countless characters flashed line by line on the terminal.

It was impossible to investigate The Fifth Door, so it could only use higher-privilege code to brute-force a breach... speaking of which, it was magical, before, Little yellow chicken had hand-crafted a composite prop that could blow up the system framework, now Little yellow chicken was dismantling the novel.

It was just like a terror chicken.

That's right.

Little yellow chicken suddenly realized.

It had crafted a “nuclear weapon” before, in order not to be discovered by its Superior, it deleted all records, the host wrote the relevant code into his diary.

And after Death by Entertainment, the host gave him the diary, and also gave it permission, saying it could read it anytime!

If it could borrow the previous framework, its development speed would undoubtedly be much faster!

Little yellow chicken got to work immediately, taking out 「Who the hell writes a diary」, and nervously tried to open it.

It was actually very curious about what the host wrote.

The golden sentences left by Long Aotian Little Chicken's host in its diary were too famous, widely circulated among the little chickens, and even raised the price of diaries quite a bit.

When the host bought the diary... he wasn't very familiar with Little yellow chicken yet.

It was a little apprehensive, and did a few seconds of mental preparation, deciding that even if it saw sentences criticizing itself, it would pretend not to see them and just ignore them.

If the host was really dissatisfied with it... that was also its problem.

The host not scolding it to its face was already very considerate, what was wrong with writing a few sentences behind its back!

Little yellow chicken saw the first page of the diary, an expression of extreme astonishment appeared on its face, the wing turning the page froze in mid-air.

...

「Based on the above verification, you already know the three thousand five hundred and forty-eight reasons for his unsolvable deaths.」

「You must go back, save him, let him live.」

「You only have one chance.」

...

Then the second page.

...

「You are a liberal arts student, liberal arts student, art student, you have not studied, nor attended school, you have had three thousand five hundred and forty-eight occupations.」

...

The third page was written with the code created in King of All Kings.

Little yellow chicken didn't stop, its whole body stiff, it continued to flip.

Fourth page.

...

「Are you an original draft character that the author did not delete, after being dragged into the main text, perhaps you were not hated, but you should not exist?」

「Finally, you need to remember.」

「You do not mind whether you are lonely.」

...

Little yellow chicken roughly knew how many times the host had written in the diary, the host didn't open the diary much later on, it thought it was because he was worried about the code being exposed.

But flipping further, there was still content, it didn't know when it was recorded.

Fifth page.

...

「I know, only when I am not around, will you open this diary.

You respect my privacy very much, thank you.

By now you should know many things, and have received no small shock.

You can relay my affairs to your Superior, it's all up to you.

First, a greeting.

Hello, Sidney.

To clarify beforehand, you are not the Sidney we know, I am perfectly clear on that.

That child learned too much from me, and doesn't believe in things outside of cognition, but you are different.

I believe, even if you know many things, you will not cover up the simplicity in your heart.

You will, according to your own judgment, make heartfelt evaluations of others, so you respect me very much, and also respect your Superior very much.

And you have always been curious.

The world is vast and infinite because it accommodates curiosity, imagination, and at certain specific times, it will exchange your ideas for reality.

You have such an ability.

Seriously, Sidney, you always give me unexpected surprises.

When I was first bound, you always put on a business-like attitude towards me, that period was very hard for me, I had to quickly adjust my mentality, understand the current situation, thinking in my heart that I absolutely must not let any clues be seen.

Admittedly, when you forcibly imported me into Neon Crown, I was furious.

And then you asked me to sell you out.

You said, if I die, I am truly dead.

This was the first time I discovered that the one trying to save me, might not just be myself.

I dare not say I am a person who stays calm at all times, I am more pessimistic than you think, that allows me to rack my brains to consider the worst possibilities.

At the beginning, I wanted to escape the worst possibility, and settle for the next best thing.

Actually, I respect tragedy, if I am a character destined to meet death, and the author gives me a complete story, and a dignified lone light, I believe that is one of the expressions of being loved.

A creator's love is the shaping itself, it can be cruel, through precise calculations, giving a character pain or happiness are both a kind of gaze.

I do not crave the author's kind treatment, the situation I face is perhaps——he has never looked at me completely, not even once.

He put me into various novels, serving as scraps, then felt it was unsuitable, and removed me, repeating this over and over.

He couldn't bear to delete a "meticulously" designed character, yet was unwilling to write a place for me to belong.

So my thinking changed.

If I cannot gamble for the best result, then I want nothing at all.

After seeing the setting of The Fifth Door, I immediately figured some things out.

Chu Shiju is the same as Chu Zu.

I am the discarded original draft Chu Zu, he is the Chu Shiju born from me.

He turned The Fifth Door into a long-winded and stinky foot-binding cloth, killed everyone, and was unwilling to walk towards the ending I had longed for in the past.

The deus ex machina is because he also bound a system, your Superior letting specialists try repeatedly, is the system wanting to purge this undignified character nailed into the book.

As long as I substitute myself, it's not difficult to figure these things out.

I am very sorry for hiding it from you again, subjectively I don't want you to interfere.

I hope you can calm down and listen to me.

I know how to save myself, be watched by readers, be read, and then walk out of that building alive——in that way I will truly possess life.

Perhaps I will use some extreme methods, if your Superior investigates, all problems stem from me.

Your only problem is having bad luck, encountering a host full of nonsense.

You were maliciously deceived by him, he used emotional cards to make a simple silly chicken do things it shouldn't have.

After believing in yourself, your Superior will pick a more suitable host for you, perhaps it will be someone like Guanfu, he is an evil silver-shaded who has a very good temper, and even knows how to comfort little chickens.

Sidney, your appearance is one of the few, unexpected mercies in my life, so I write this diary entry on the fifth page.

You saw my confession on the fifth page, and I will try to push open the fifth door.

I also want to go see Chu Shiju, perhaps from him, I can understand myself more clearly.

I think I understand him, he has cycled through the shadow of death more than three thousand times, me too.

I am very sorry for hiding this from you, Sidney.

Thank you for everything.

Little yellow chicken saw a few drops of water on the diary, it touched its face, sniffled, wanting to wipe the tears dry.

But no matter how it wiped, it couldn't wipe them all away, in the end, Little yellow chicken burst into tears, like a crazy chicken, and just like Sidney crying on the rooftop holding his dad.

“He's not as good as you think...”

Little yellow chicken cried as it spoke, “You want to go see him, he only wants you to die... I am not Sidney, and you are not Chu Shiju...”

It wanted to say this in front of the host, just like before, crying and holding the host's leg in the sea of consciousness.

Then the host would start to comfort it, his usually cold voice would soften, pat its head, and tell it not to cry.

Little yellow chicken couldn't stop crying, it felt Chu Shiju was despicable.

Depriving the system meant depriving memories, he definitely knew this point, because he erased his own system, but he still had a large number of props, and remembered everything clearly.

Chu Zu didn't treat this meeting as a contest at all, but Chu Shiju had already arranged everything.

...

Due to the plot arrangement, Chu Shiju in The Fifth Door would meet a death ending.

It was unclear when he bound the system, perhaps it was before the novel was published.

His situation should be similar to Little yellow chicken's, Little yellow chicken and Sidney shared the same origin, but had different developments, he was the same.

Chu Shiju bound a system, continuously completed missions as a specialist, and finally was accidentally deployed into The Fifth Door.

From then on, he gradually understood everything, the reason he was always unwilling to die was very simple, if the novel character met death, it was equivalent to "Chu Shiju" being sentenced to death.

Chu Shiju didn't want to die, and couldn't leave, so he got rid of the system, and kept cycling through similar plots in The Fifth Door.

And Chu Zu was his original draft character, thus producing a BUG.

The original draft character was recognized by the riddled world rules, he was not deployed into Chu Shiju's body, the world rules turned him into another "Chu Shiju", so all the settings were the same.

Therefore, Chu Shiju would definitely kill Chu Zu without sparing any effort.

Chu Zu was recognized as Chu Shiju, as long as Chu Zu died, the original death END for Chu Shiju would be considered achieved.

Chu Shiju could also leave this building, and welcome a survivor's ending.

Just like a tiger's ghost, a tiger's ghost cannot be freed, it can only find someone else to take its place, when the new tiger's ghost is born, the old one is free.

Chu Shiju waited for more than three thousand times, the endless killing didn't make him forget his original purpose, and finally, he waited for Chu Zu.

Perhaps the only thing Chu Shiju didn't expect was that Chu Zu without his memories was actually far more cold and ruthless than Chu Zu with his memories.

He was exceptionally good to the two university students, firstly because he was influenced by past memories, and more importantly, the university students posed no threat.

Once he judged someone as dangerous, and they posed a threat to his life, whether it was the previous murderer, or the later Yang Jing, Chu Zu didn't hesitate in the slightest when he struck, and had no psychological fluctuations seeing them die tragically.

He was always a person who prioritized self-preservation.

If Chu Zu remembered everything, he would not have pulled the trigger on Chu Shiju so decisively.

...Now the host had 「Master Wang」, and a hard heart.

Little yellow chicken cried as it moved towards the terminal panel, applied the previous code framework, and started typing the virus code again.

The host subjectively didn't want it to interfere, that was the host's subjective view.

Little yellow chicken's subjective view was that it must interfere.

Who lived and who died between Chu Zu and Chu Shiju was not yet decided, before that, Little yellow chicken hoped Chu Zu could have fairness.

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