"Ugh... that corpse-like stench of crushed animals again!"
Watz covered his nose and couldn't help but ask, "Where are we?"
The two were startled by the void before them.
Rosalyn answered, "This is his next memory."
Watz: "I know, but can you explain why such a disgusting smell followed us to this sky city?"
"There must be a malfunction in the machine."
Rosalyn said faintly, "But it doesn't matter, we're already in John's childhood. We just need to implant the astronaut's wish into young John's memory."
Act II
——Tens of thousands of lighthouses, piled up in the distant sky.
Seeing the prompt on the screen.
Mo Zhi knew that things were far from as simple as the two doctors thought.
However, in the game, all actions were based on the NPC's self; the player could only passively follow the NPC's decisions.
As expected.
Even though the memory of wanting to become an astronaut was transmitted to young John.
To change the trajectory of his memories, to fulfill his dream in the depths of his memory, and thus achieve his wish to go to the moon.
After the transmission was completed.
The two doctors transformed into tadpole-like forms to observe whether John's reconstructed life in his memory already had the trajectory of becoming an astronaut.
Whether he had already gone to the moon.
To give players a sense of participation.
The old thief deliberately assigned the implantation mission to the player.
There was no difficulty; it was as simple as a puzzle game, which made Mo Zhi feel insulted.
Is this the difficulty of a game made by a man who once created UT with its perverse difficulty?
Or was the difficulty design handed over to the studio team, and the old thief was only responsible for providing ideas?
Mo Zhi couldn't care about that anymore.
Because there was a problem with the game!
As the two doctors investigated, they found that John's entire life trajectory was exactly the same as their previous exploration.
There was no change.
They refused to believe it, thinking that perhaps the transmitted wish was not strong enough.
So they returned to the scene where John and Xiaoxi watched a movie and used the machine to change the posters on site to things related to the moon.
This was to stimulate young John's future desire to go to the moon.
They even changed the movie in the cinema to a moon-related romance film.
In John's school, they pretended to be space agency staff to recruit astronauts... hinting to young John in various ways.
But young John was completely uninterested. No matter how hard they tried, young John couldn't muster any interest in going to the moon.
The exhausted doctors had to return to reality to rest.
Taking off their helmets, the female doctor Rosalyn felt something was wrong, and it must be related to Xiaoxi. The doctor told Rosalyn that John didn't have much time left.
Fortunately, the male doctor Watz had some progress after a busy day. He learned from contacting headquarters that John had taken a large amount of beta-blockers as a child.
This thing could cause memory loss!
"I see, I see!"
Mo Zhi shouted excitedly, "That mass of black void is the memory erased by the beta-blocker. Now, as long as we fill in this piece of memory, everything will be clear!"
"Oh yeah!"
'The closer I get to the truth, the more I feel like something big is about to happen.'
'This blocker is a key point!'
'Although I'm still in the dark, I know that the deeper the foreshadowing, the greater the impact.'
......
"Don't mess with me, guys. If you say that, I'm a little scared that the old thief will pull off something big in the end."
Mo Zhi was startled by the barrage of comments.
Other games were uncertain, but the old thief's might actually happen.
Despite the talk, he didn't stop his actions, controlling the NPC to constantly rummage through boxes and cabinets, looking for clues through various dialogues.
Finally, the good news was that Watz had obtained the corrected frequency, which could bypass the influence of the blocker and see what happened during that period.
The bad news was that they needed a trigger to awaken that affected memory.
After thinking for a long time, and having searched through all the details in the room, there were still no clues.
Mo Zhi felt like he could walk through John's house with his eyes closed.
Helplessly,
She had to seek outside help. She saw several streamers stuck here, rushing around anxiously.
"Hahaha, they can't get past it either, big idiots."
Mo Zhi couldn't help but burst into laughter after exiting other streamers' rooms.
So, not only I couldn't find it, but everyone else was the same.
At this moment, the male doctor Watz, depressed, wanted to go out for some fresh air...
"Ugh~"
Watz ran back into the room covering his mouth, "It stinks!"
"Shut up and get out," Rosalyn said unhappily, "It's all because you were driving and ran over that squirrel."
The two looked at each other simultaneously: Wait a minute...
Watz slapped his forehead, "The last memory, we were stuck at--"
Quack--
Rosalyn jumped up excitedly, "This... this is still that smell!"
Mo Zhi was still a bit confused. What were the two NPCs going crazy about?
Lily, as the mouthpiece of the internet, asked, "What are you talking about?"
Watz explained, "Olfactory receptors are directly connected to the brain's limbic system, Lily!"
"Do you understand it now!"
Lily: "I... what?"
"He means that smell is the most effective stimulus to awaken memories," female doctor Rosalyn added, "We can use this as a link to synchronize with his childhood memories!"
While explaining to Lily, she was actually explaining to the confused players outside.
"Oh!"
Mo Zhi slapped his thigh hard, "I understand!"
"The sense of smell is the trigger that Watz mentioned, and the smell of the corpse is the important intermediary that can activate the trigger!"
"As long as we stimulate John's sense of smell, we can supplement the memory affected by the beta-blocker."
"Then everything will be clear!"
"Damn it! I'm so awesome!!"
Audience: Ptooey~~
'The squirrel that was run over at the beginning turned out to be a foreshadowing that was laid for the entire game!'
'My scalp is tingling! This foreshadowing is too deep!'
'What? Too deep?'
......
Having found a way, Mo Zhi didn't waste any time and got to work!
Watz and Rosalyn put on their helmets again.
Ding--
With a flash of white light, they entered John's memory again.
The perspective followed the football as it shrank and then enlarged!
Sister, I'm coming in!
Backyard,
The two doctors successfully landed in the affected memory fragment.
The timeline had now arrived at John's early childhood.
The football under their feet emitted a faint light. This should be John's childhood home. A boy, young John, sat on a swing.
Outside the yard, a car was parked, and an adult woman was talking to a neighbor. She was John's mother.
"...Alright, see you later." John's mother waved goodbye to the neighbor and got into the car, starting the engine.
On the road, John was kicking a football.
At this moment, John's mother was reversing the car.
Click--
No!
Thump--!
In the eyes of everyone's disbelief, the car hit John, who had run behind the car to pick up the ball!
Instantly, the sky turned black.
The background music became eerie again.
The woman ran out of the car in a panic, her face filled with grief.
"Joey—!"
At this moment, a child's voice sounded from a distance.
He ran while shouting:
"Mom, what happened to Joey?"
"Joey, why are you lying on the ground?"
"Wake up, Joey!"
????
........