Chapter 7 The Twelve

When Feng Bujue returned from the Thought Altar, time outside resumed its flow.

Jue-ge looked at the monster's head in his hand, and continued the previous question as if nothing had happened, "How many of you are there in total?"

The monster replied, "Including me, twelve."

"Oh?" Jue-ge's expression changed slightly upon hearing this.

This number was very different from what Feng Bujue had estimated...

Undoubtedly, Jue-ge knew the story of the "Soviet Sleep Experiment," and in the version he knew, there were five subjects.

Although in Thriller Paradise, the plot being altered or even subverted was commonplace, this script had explicitly mentioned in the introduction that the experiment used "five war criminals from World War II."

So, why did the head in front of him say the number "twelve"?

"Who are you trying to fool! Are you guys the freakin' Saint Seiya?" The next second, Feng Bujue deliberately put on an angry expression and glared at the head, "There were only five people in the experiment, and now you're telling me there are twelve? I..." As he said this, he raised his hand, making a gesture as if to smash the head against the wall.

"Wait! I'm not lying to you!" The monster quickly shouted, "The other seven were 'converted' by us!"

Upon hearing the word "converted," Feng Bujue immediately stopped his movements.

Clearly, he was only pretending to be angry, using it to test the other party...

The possibility of "conversion" had naturally occurred to Jue-ge in those few seconds, but he couldn't be sure if this assumption was correct.

Here, he had to get the truth out of the monster's mouth, but... how to ask the question was an art.

If Feng Bujue used a questioning tone to ask "Did you convert some people?" then the other party's first reaction would be—"This guy doesn't know the answer, I can lie to him"; although "can lie" doesn't mean they definitely will, the chances of this monster lying would definitely increase.

However, Feng Bujue's current way of asking the question would have a very different result.

He first pretended to be angry, using an accusatory attitude, to list the facts he knew... namely, "There were only five people in the experiment," shifting the focus of the question from "Why are there twelve people?" to "How dare you lie to me?" and using force to threaten the other party into responding quickly.

In this way, the monster's first reaction would be "I have to quickly make an excuse, using more specific information to prove that I'm not lying," so it revealed the information about "conversion" itself...

Okay, although I've explained it relatively clearly, it may not be understood by everyone, so let me give an example that is easier to understand...

For example, one day, you go out to play after work and don't come home until very late. At this time, if your wife asks you in a questioning tone... "Why are you so late coming home? Were you out messing around again?" you'll probably just make up an excuse like working overtime to fool her.

But if your wife grabs a frying pan, glares at you, and shouts, "You bastard! You still know how to come back? You didn't even call, tell me! Are you having an affair? Are you smuggling weapons? Are you Heisenberg on the streets!" Then... you'll definitely blurt out—"No... I was just out messing around."

In summary, the questioning technique used by Feng Bujue is roughly based on this principle.

"That's not right..." Two seconds later, Jue-ge continued, following the other party's words, "There are so many people in this base, if you can convert them... how could you have only converted seven?"

The monster replied, "Not everyone meets the conversion conditions... Although all humans have a latent madness within them, some people's souls are not strong enough, and some people's bodies can't withstand it. These people can't survive the 'ritual.' Also... most of the people in this base died resisting us, and dead people can't be converted."

"Oh...'Ritual,' is it..." Feng Bujue heard another interesting word and instantly understood what happened to those who were captured alive by the demons.

Even Igor, after a little thought, realized this.

"Then... one last question." After a few seconds, Feng Bujue said to the monster, "How do I get out of this base?"

This time, the monster was silent for a few seconds before responding, "Impossible."

"What did you say?" Feng Bujue's question was more of an intimidation.

"It's impossible." But the monster didn't yield, because it was telling the truth, "We... can't find the exit either..."

"What about your memories as a human?" Feng Bujue asked again.

"Each of us retains all of our memories as humans." The monster said again, "But... I don't know, I just don't know. I don't understand why, it's as if that part of the memory never existed."

[Hidden Mission Triggered]

Before the monster could finish speaking, the system voice sounded again, which seemed to indicate that the monster's dialogue was significant.

Feng Bujue immediately opened the game menu and glanced at the taskbar. The content of the hidden mission was—[Crack the Worldview].

"Crack the worldview?" Jue-ge immediately became suspicious and thought to himself, "What does that mean? If we're talking about the worldview, isn't it the '****** Universe' setting? If that's the case, I should have already cracked it (in a single-player script, there's no need to speak the worldview aloud; as long as it can be understood and confirmed at the conscious level, it can be considered a successful crack), and... is this considered a hidden mission?"

Abnormal, unnatural, uncoordinated...

This faint, prickling feeling had been lingering around Feng Bujue since shortly after the script began.

And it all seemed to have started when he saw "that mirror."

"Okay, I've told you everything you asked, what are you going to do next?" At this time, the monster took the initiative to speak, provoking him again, "Kill me? Heh... do you want me to teach you how?"

"Destroying the brainstem should do it." Feng Bujue replied in a very relaxed tone.

"Uh..." The monster couldn't help but be stunned upon hearing this, and it seemed Jue-ge was right.

"Something you can figure out using the process of elimination..." Feng Bujue continued, glancing at the monster's headless body, "After being beheaded, the body is useless, but the head can still move normally." He paused, looking directly into the monster's eyes again, "The brain loses blood and oxygen, and the vocal cords are gone, but it can still speak..." He looked at the head in his hand as if it were a scientific specimen, "These are all typical characteristics of spiritual parasitism, and the parasitic location... is already very obvious."

His lines sounded like gibberish to Igor, leaving him impressed but confused...

"Generally speaking... you should be considered a special consciousness lurking in the human sea of consciousness. When you lose your inhibition, you take over command of the brain, and then stimulate those areas of the human brain that ordinary people can't use to stimulate the body's potential, causing it to undergo some kind of physiological mutation." As Feng Bujue spoke, he squatted down and placed the monster's head on the ground, "In terms of spiritual energy, your level is not even as good as a normal ghost, but it's stronger than ordinary humans..."

Even the monster itself couldn't summarize its own characteristics as well as Jue-ge could.

But it knew that Jue-ge was right...

"You're not afraid of death, which can be inferred from your reaction when you were first beheaded." Feng Bujue continued, "But there are things you're afraid of, otherwise you wouldn't have cooperated with me."

As he said this, the monster's face involuntarily changed.

"Considering your nature and the upper limit of your abilities, I think..." Feng Bujue said, "Death... for you, should be a relief, which can free you from the shackles of the body. As for where you'll go after that, I don't know, and I'm not interested." He paused for half a second, and added, "Living... of course you can accept it, so you can use this body to carry out massacres or convert more people."

At this point, Feng Bujue stood up, "However, being like this... half-dead, seems to be more difficult..."

His words finally terrified the monster.

"The main body you're parasitizing is in the brain. As long as this part hasn't been destroyed, you can't get out of this entity." Feng Bujue continued, "And you obviously don't have the ability to heal yourself or anything like that. A severed head is a severed head, and there's basically no chance of recovery."

"What are you going to do!" The monster shouted, looking panicked.

"The reason you surrendered to me before wasn't because it hurt so much when I smashed you against the wall, but because you thought... it would never end." Feng Bujue said, "As I said... 'I can play like this all day,' but you can't stand it all day, can you?" He smiled, a very evil smile, which looked extremely terrifying to the monster, "Heh... in fact, I think you can't even stand a few minutes."

"Brother Feng... what are you doing..." Igor couldn't help but come over at this time and asked Feng Bujue.

At this moment, Igor's fear of the so-called "devil" had almost disappeared. In comparison... he felt that Jue-ge was more terrifying.

"You were also left with only a head, Igor, what was the most terrifying feeling for you at that time?" Feng Bujue turned to look at Igor, and asked, "Was it death? I don't think so..."

"It was..." Igor thought for a while, and replied, "It was the feeling of despair and helplessness..." Recalling the feeling at that time, he showed a look of lingering fear, "I didn't know how long I would be in that state, and I was powerless... it was more terrible than death."

"Hehe... in fact, you still had hope." Feng Bujue continued, "As long as the oxygen and blood supply device connected to your neck ran out of power, or the vno-9 in that container ran out, you should die. Although that kind of death may be slow and painful, it's still a visible future..."

As he spoke, Jue-ge looked at the monster's head on the ground again, and smiled, "But... this one is different. This one is a spiritual creature, it won't die... Moreover, its pain in this state far exceeds your experience in the same state. Because it's the manifestation of the madness in human nature after it's released, for it... the current situation of being almost unable to move is a hundred times more uncomfortable than being suppressed in the 'cage of reason.'"

Igor heard a hint of cruelty in Feng Bujue's tone, because he seemed to have understood what the other party was saying, and guessed what was going to happen next...

"So, what if I leave it here now? Imagine what would happen?" Sure enough, Feng Bujue said, "Perhaps, it will be found by someone, or perhaps... no one will ever find it again. It will spend a long time in this extremely painful state... so long that it's unimaginable."

"Kill me! Kill me!" Finally, the monster collapsed, it began to shout hysterically, desperately shaking its face and jaw, wriggling laboriously on the ground...

Feng Bujue was very satisfied with this. It was also the first time he knew that the "madness" in human nature could also "collapse again"—as long as the stimulation method was appropriate.

"Okay, Igor, we should go." At this time, Feng Bujue took off the last blood bag on his arm, and the blood in it was basically transfused, "Since the number of enemies has been clarified, things will be easier... Just deal with eleven more..."

"No! Don't go! Kill me!" The monster was still shouting hoarsely on the ground.

But Feng Bujue didn't even look at it, turned around and left without hesitation.

Igor, on the other hand, cast a complex, seemingly sympathetic look at it. But... he didn't disobey Feng Bujue's meaning, but quickly turned his head, picked up the toolbox, and trotted to catch up with Jue-ge.

Soon, their figures disappeared into the distance of the corridor.

Left here... only the continuous, shrill screams, the repeated echoes of the plea to "kill me" in the empty corridor... making people shudder.

…………

At the same time, in Dr. Cox's office.

"Did you see that, Doctor?" A slightly trembling voice came from the communication channel.

"Ah... of course." Cox looked at the screen with a solemn expression, and responded.

"Although each ***-3232-1 is a unique sample, at least in terms of personality, it's not much different from ordinary humans." The voice in the communication channel continued, "But... this sample seems to have some..."

"High-IQ antisocial personality?" Cox took over the other party's words, and sneered, "Hmph... so what?"

Hearing this, the person on the other end of the communicator was speechless.

"The proportion in the population is low, but it doesn't mean there aren't any... If ***-3232-1 comes from humans in another dimension, it's only a matter of time before this kind of case appears, isn't it?" Cox said, "In my opinion, it's a good thing that he appeared. Maybe this observation... will be a historically significant one."

As he said this, a bold plan had begun to take shape in Dr. Cox's mind...