Chapter 16: Should Not Generalize About Bai Wu
Can't go back...
Bai Wu looked at the warning note with interest.
"Wu Jiu's strength isn't so poor that she can't extricate herself, but to actually 'return', one must use the Return Roulette. Without this action, naturally, one cannot go back. Little Pitiful is in the fourth building... then I can probably guess her method."
Bai Wu pressed the elevator button for the third floor. Wu Jiu asked again,
"Why are we going to the third floor?"
"The clues are on this floor."
"The feeling you give me is as if you've been here before; this isn't a conclusion one can deduce from reasoning. I need an explanation."
Their earlier conversation with Evil Fallen, and the detail about the key being inside Evil Fallen's stomach, had made Wu Jiu begin to suspect that Bai Wu seemed to have other sources for his clues.
Bai Wu had anticipated that later on he might make some choices and actions that others might not understand because of the notes, so he explained,
"I don't like to explain, but since the captain asked sincerely, I'll reluctantly tell you. When we were on the eleventh floor of the first building, you heard Evil Fallen's call, which caused emotional fluctuations and attracted its resentment. So I went to look for the source and entered that room in the corner."
"Why did you think that room was the source?"
Wu Jiu's logic was meticulous, but in a world filled with strange forces, Bai Wu was not panicked at all,
"Maybe it's because my emotional fluctuations are very low; the voice I heard was different from yours."
"What did you find in that room?" Wu Jiu continued to probe.
"A choice between three items, picking two of them. Evil Fallen's voice whispered in my mind, prompting me to make a choice. Evil Fallen itself was not in that room, it had left a key, a file, and a comb; it told me I had to choose two of the three."
The elevator had arrived at the third floor, but everyone listened intently to Bai Wu talking about the previous clues.
Bai Wu seriously went on, half-truthfully and half-fabricating,
"I chose the file and the comb."
"Why not choose the key? And why not take all three?" Lin Wurou asked.
"Because after choosing two, the remaining item would disappear. The reason I didn't choose the key is because a key corresponds to a lock, and whatever is locked outside the tower, whether good or bad, carries a risk."
Everyone nodded, seeing some sense in Bai Wu's judgment, but Wu Jiu's expression became even more solemn.
It wasn't a lack of trust in Bai Wu, quite the opposite because of trust in a teammate, Wu Jiu felt all the more that the Evil Fallen Bai Wu mentioned was very powerful.
"The file documented many things, such as the arrangements in the second building, and some strategies for the third building. The reason I could engage in a conversation with that Evil Fallen called Elijah was because the data came from the file."
"Where's the file now?"
"It disappeared. Just like the key, it disappeared after I finished reading the file. Only this comb is still here, but after fulfilling its purpose, I assume it will also disappear."
Bai Wu's reasoning seemed sound, and no one doubted it.
"You didn't stay long inside; did you remember everything in the file?"
Since it was a file, naturally, it contained a lot of information, Lin Wurou's concern was understandable.
Recalling Lin's sparring, Bai Wu said indifferently,
"Isn't a photographic memory a standard feature of this group?"
Lin Wurou fell silent, to be more precise, the whole group collectively muted.
"What else was in the file?" Wu Jiu asked.
"The clues are on the third floor; let's start looking from here. And stick close to me, don't get separated."
"That's it?"
"Of course, there are more, but I'll mention them when they're needed. Besides..."
Bai Wu swept his gaze over the group and, after a slight pause, he continued earnestly,
"A team without any blind spots should have everyone in their own place, performing their duties. My role is the eyes, the observer, so don't question my words. It's good to want an explanation for everything, but that's not applicable in a team where we entrust our lives to each other. Moreover, cutting out doubts can improve team efficiency."
His words were naturally meant for Wu Jiu. In Bai Wu's past life, pyramid scheme teams would always demand their underlings to "simply obey and carry out orders."
To be an underling didn't require brains, but Bai Wu didn't see his teammates as underlings.
However, for the sake of using Prayle's Eye more smoothly in the future, he needed to start building the mindset of "Bai Wu is responsible for thinking, and I am responsible for acting."
As they exited the elevator on the third level, everyone could feel an indescribable eerie atmosphere.
The blood-red lines they had seen at the registration area in the first building were once again covering the walls in the third building.
No one understood the significance of these twisting symbols, and all Bai Wu's notes mentioned was a simple remark—"Part of an array."
Prayle's Eye provided limited information, but with no warnings, Bai Wu began to search for clues.
The third floor of the third building had once been where the hospital stored medical records.
This floor was different from the others; instead of many rooms, they had been combined into one large archive room.
As they approached the archive room, Yin Shuang suddenly stopped.
"You're here to see me, huh..."
A soft voice drifted past Yin Shuang's ears.
"I'm outside, come find me, big sister, I've missed you so much..."
Yin Shuang turned around, lured as if by a spell. It was as if a long-lost sister was calling out to her.
But Yin Shuang had no sister; she looked dazed and prepared to walk backward.
"What are you going to do?" asked Bai Wu.
The rest had been observing the symbols around them when Bai Wu suddenly spoke up, making them realize that Yin Shuang had unknowingly fallen to the back of the group, about to be left behind.
"I heard a voice," Yin Shuang stated as she came to her senses.
Wu Jiu's pupils contracted sharply. It was his negligence as a team leader that had allowed him to be distracted for a moment by the patterns on the walls.
"There's no sound. Also, take deep breaths, suppress your emotions."
29.
Yin Shuang was surprised to find the number on her wristwatch had surged from a single digit to 29...
But she felt no fear.
Fear, anger, sadness—each negative emotion had different effects. Bai Wu quickly concluded the result:
"The conclusion we have now is that a person becomes an Evil Fallen under extreme negative emotions. Whether it's anger or sadness, they trigger empathy, but they're no longer human."
Yin Shuang looked at Bai Wu, surprised by his composure that belied his age.
"Everyone, the instant you hear any sound, speak up immediately."
Bai Wu was now convinced his guess was correct. Little Pitiful was confined in the fourth building, but the third and fourth buildings were too close, and the attacks of malice were more diverse.
It was no longer just the arm attacks of the first building—hallucinations were likely much more frequent in the third building.
He suddenly remembered that little girl in red who would occasionally flash an apparition amidst extreme panic.
...
```
...
The most conspicuous building on the third level was the archive exhibition room.
After Yin Shuang lagged behind in a little interlude, the group arrived at the archive exhibition room.
Seven hundred years had passed, and the archive exhibition room did not appear to be particularly dirty or disordered.
It was Wu Jiu's first time outside the tower, seeing so many documentary resources.
Although it was not certain that the historical truth he sought would be inside, he could still try to understand as much as possible about the events before The Era of the High Tower.
Just as he was about to touch the archives, Bai Wu suddenly spoke up to stop him:
"Captain, don't touch."
"What's wrong?"
"These archives ... are not quite normal, it's best if you don't look through them."
Bai Wu was not being alarmist, as their gazes focused on the archives, the remarks did not explain any single document:
"These archives contain numerous experiments of the Evil Fallen, but it's best not to open them lightly, for Little Pitiful has added a special touch to these books~ By reading the archives, you will experience firsthand the agony that the test subjects endured. Don't you think Little Pitiful has misapplied their abilities? The Manuscript of Thousand Souls needs this too, just like the island nation's movies (1/10000)."
In other words, the archives were not presented in a textual manner, but rather in the form of memories, directly infused into the reader's brain.
Reading these archives would cause the reader to empathize deeply.
After Bai Wu briefly explained the situation, the team once again fell into silence.
Anyone with even a modicum of empathy, anyone normal, could imagine the horrors these patients must have endured before turning into the Evil Fallen.
Even the hard-hearted Wang Shi was not confident that he could read these archives without being emotionally affected.
If it truly involved memory implantation, it would be tantamount to enduring the same torment and one might instantly undergo an Evil Fallen Transformation right on the spot.
"So the most dangerous building is still this one ... If we didn't have the information Bai Wu saw earlier and had directly looked through these archives..."
Wang Shi felt a chilling fear, for the captain's hand had already touched the cover of the archives.
Bai Wu also hadn't expected there to be traps here.
If it involved memory implantation, indeed, there would be no chance to even touch the Return Roulette; one would turn directly into an Evil Fallen.
"Are these archives worth reading?" Wu Jiu withdrew his hand and asked seriously.
Bai Wu nodded:
"This is also a part of history, even though it's on a micro level, but this hospital's research on the Evil Fallen, even if it does not record the Origin of Evil Fallen, could still yield some research results on the characteristics of the Evil Fallen through these perverse experiment records."
"So, what should we do? The archive tells you the clues are on the third level, but the clues are unreadable," said Yin Shuang.
"We need someone with the greatest courage, who is heartless, and has the calmest temper to look through these medical records." Lin Wurou said pointedly.
The person with the greatest courage would not fear, the heartless person would not suffer sorrow, and the person with the calmest temper would not get angry.
Bai Wu did not concern himself with Lin's misuse of words and changing of concepts; after all, he was too lazy to explain the reason for his lack of empathy, so he directly took out a medical record.
Before opening the medical record, Bai Wu said:
"Stand still here, don't move, and if you hear any sound, try to remain as calm as possible."
The medical record was located in the second row of the archive exhibition room, on the top shelf of the bookcase number one. There were a thousand medical records here, and Bai Wu wasn't sure if what he was looking at was what they needed.
He could only start by reading them in order to find the pattern of arrangement.
"2025.04.07. There was a little problem with the serum swap experiment between Ding Jiu and Yi Liu. Doctor Liu and I decided to seek help privately, although the dean had strictly ordered that we should not seek help from that person, we both knew that his research on the Evil Fallen was far beyond ours. But before that, I had to at least make Ding Jiu stronger, to make that person take me seriously."
```
Bai Wu hadn't finished reading the first section when he already saw the hallucination.
Wu Jiu, Yin Shuang, Lin Wurou, Shang Xiaoyi, and Wang Shi had all disappeared, and the surrounding bookshelves suddenly vanished.
He collapsed on the hospital bed, looking at the back of a doctor who seemed to be recording something while preparing some kind of reagent.
Bai Wu found that he couldn't move, while his body felt alternately cold and hot.
At this time, the patient—or rather, the experimental subject—was in great pain, being injected with a higher grade of Evil Fallen's blood serum, their body undergoing a transformation.
It could be described as being on the verge of death and rebirth.
If someone else had entered this memory, lacking the pain insensitivity of the Evil Fallen, they would only feel more pain, thus generating negative emotions.
Bai Wu did not, he frowned not because of the pain—such sensations only made his brain become exceptionally active—he was just a bit headachy because he couldn't use Prayle's Eye within the memory of the Evil Fallen.
"This way, the information I can obtain is very limited…"
Since he could not empathize with the Evil Fallen's emotions at that time, Bai Wu surprisingly came to his senses soon, not even waiting for the doctor to finish recording.
The scene before him changed back.
He smiled, thinking the experience was indeed quite good, except the patient in the medical record was a bit too resilient.
He began to read the second section.
"2025.0409. I really wanted, before I meet that person, to use my own formula to give Ding Jiu C-4's sense of smell. But damn it, C-4's blood serum actually made Ding Jiu grow scales! All my conclusions are wrong! Wrong! The mutations of the Evil Fallen… there's simply no pattern, utterly uncontrollable! What kind of power it is that transforms them into Evil Fallen is also unknown…"
The memory began again.
This time, Bai Wu saw "himself" angry and frightened because of the scales, plucking them off one by one.
Pulling something that was growing on your own body off forcibly was naturally very painful.
Bai Wu frowned again, not because of the pain, but out of pity for the scales.
Considering his conversation with Elijah, he had seen a note stating that Elijah possesses a rare mutation entry: Block.
Bai Wu thought that it was very likely an attribute brought by the scales.
So he tried to stop it:
"Don't pick at them, growing scales isn't something unacceptable, is it? Who wouldn't want to grow scales? In our country, everyone is proud to be able to grow scales. Those without scales aren't even worthy of finding a partner."
This sort of nonsensical comfort naturally had no effect and could even make the other party go berserk.
The reason it didn't trigger a berserk reaction was because Bai Wu's voice, the owner of the scales couldn't hear.
The reader was just in the owner of the scales' memory, feeling the same pain as them, but unable to communicate with the people in the memories.
Bai Wu felt that this feature was still not perfect. Even if Little Pitiful really applied this ability to the movies of the island nation, you could only follow the plot, but couldn't change the actor's positions midway, what's the fun in that?
Project Manuscript of Thousand Souls was terminated.
He returned from the memory again and began to turn the next page.
During this process, Wu Jiu and the others indeed sensed some kind of energy fluctuation from the Evil Fallen, as if it was pulling Bai Wu…
But the value on Bai Wu's wristwatch… was still zero.
As the ace team's ace group, Wu Jiu and the others had all experienced teammates going through an Evil Fallen Transformation…
They knew how terrifying that kind of memory could be, so they all found Bai Wu's calmness incredible.
Yin Shuang had always thought, except for herself, everyone in the team was a monster.
But now she felt… not all monsters are the same, compared to Bai Wu, they were the normal ones.