Day of Imprisonment

Regarding what he might find in an opened compartment, Luo Xi had mental expectations. Finding a human face wasn't surprising; it was within the numerous possibilities he'd envisioned, a rather unchallenging one.

It was as if you expected your opponent to unleash a powerful move, only to find they'd merely taken a massive dump.

Somewhat disappointing.

"Hello!"

The face in the compartment actually whispered, its tone normal and even strangely polite.

A normal greeting, but in this environment, it was clearly morbid and abnormal. Fortunately, Luo Xi wasn't normal either.

"I'm fine, how about you?" It was like insincere small talk between old friends who hadn't seen each other in ages.

"Not good. I'm waiting for someone," the person in the cabinet said, with a hint of helplessness and resentment in their voice.

"Waiting is agonizing. Have you waited until that person comes?" Luo Xi asked, holding the [Soul-Seizing Bell] in his other hand, ready to let the person hear what 'ding-a-ling' really meant if necessary.

"I don't know."

"What do you mean, you don't know? You don't know if you've waited for them, or you don't know who you're waiting for?"

"I don't know either."

"Then you might never wait for that person."

"I've never seen him, because I'm blind, but I remember his voice. Your voice is very similar, but the tone is different. You sound like a person, while that person's voice didn't sound like a person at all."

"Then, what will you do?"

"Ask you a few questions. If you answer correctly, you might be the person I'm waiting for. If you answer incorrectly, hehe, you'll keep me company in the next compartment."

This person's words didn't seem like much at first, but upon closer thought, they were terrifying.

A normal person couldn't enter the adjacent compartment unless their head was cut off and stuffed inside.

So, were all 150 compartments on this wall filled with human heads?

That scene must be quite spectacular.

"May I ask you the questions now?" The person was still very polite.

"Ask away."

"What's your name?"

"Luo Xi!"

"Ha, correct! You're the first person in a long time to answer the first question correctly. I can finally ask you the second question." The person in the compartment sounded very excited, and their voice was slightly louder.

However, they seemed to realize something and quickly lowered their voice: "I almost forgot myself. You can't speak loudly here, or the spider will eat you."

Spider?

A man-eating spider in the dark. Okay, that was indeed scary, accurately hitting the element most feared by 99.9% of people.

"The second question is, there are two gamblers, A and B, who are engaged in a special gamble. There are two boxes of different sizes on the gambling table, one of which contains a huge prize. A says: 'The prize is in the small box.' B says: 'A is lying.' It is known that one of the two people must be telling the truth and one must be lying. Then, which box contains the prize?"

"Answer quickly, three, two, one, answer!"

"The prize is in the big box!" Luo Xi answered almost at the same time as the other person counted down, and besides, the other person's countdown was very fast, actually less than a second.

"You got it right again, amazing, good, good, then, the last question... There are three bowls, one of which contains a bean. A, B, and C stand in front of the three bowls, respectively, and then they are asked to close their eyes. After randomly placing the bean in one of the bowls, the three are asked to open their eyes and asked if they know whether there is a bean in the bowl in front of them. A says: I don't know. B says: I don't know either, but I know that A doesn't know either. After hearing this, C immediately says: I know which bowl the bean is in. You say, which bowl is the bean in? Three..."

"The bean is in B's bowl!" Luo Xi answered almost the instant the other person finished asking, without even waiting for the countdown.

But Luo Xi also answered immediately.

"The box is in my hand."

Luo Xi believed that this 'box' was the numbered 077 [Horadric Cube], and 'she' referred to Qiukui, the manager of the Tun Tun Bookstore.

However, strictly speaking, the box wasn't given to him by her, but was Luo Xi's reward after clearing the level.

"The person I'm waiting for has arrived. You, you've finally come." The voice of the person in the compartment suddenly became much colder, far from the cheerfulness it had at the beginning, and now this low and cold tone was more suitable for this scene and atmosphere.

The next moment, Luo Xi felt his hand in the compartment suddenly grabbed by another hand.

However, after grabbing it, the other person immediately let go.

That hand placed a card in Luo Xi's palm.

Then, the person in the compartment seemed to fall silent, not saying a word, as if they were an NPC who had triggered all the dialogue and completely stopped working.

Luo Xi withdrew his hand. Although it was dark, the cards in the Day of Imprisonment had a characteristic: after touching them, you could see a strange text. This text could be seen whether there was light or not. Obviously, it wasn't information received through sight, but the text was directly displayed through thought and the brain.

[Psychopath], unactivated state, job card, activation requires component cards [Mental Confusion] × 1, [Insanity] × 1, [Bewilderment] × 3, [Pain] × 2, [Amnesia Great Art] × 1.

When you collect all the cards, you can activate this [Mental Patient] and place it in the profession card slot of your card book to gain the corresponding abilities.

The [Mental Patient] abilities include using any card to transform into a [Transference] card, which can transfer negative mental effects, including [Pain], [Mental Confusion], [Bewilderment], [Insanity], [Mind Control], [Heartbreak], [Evil Curse Possession], [Amnesia]; using any card to transform into [Extraction], absorbing the depth-of-field effect from the target and transforming it into a corresponding card; [Mad Feast], when one's mental state is on the verge of collapse, a card is automatically generated, followed by a descent into madness with loss of reason.

Luo Xi carefully read the introduction of this profession card.

"So, this is what you left for me?" Luo Xi was somewhat disappointed.

Strictly speaking, this profession card is very powerful.

Especially the abilities after the profession card is placed in the card book, each one is very powerful. If it were outside, it would definitely become a treasure for many Memory Retrievers to compete for.

But Luo Xi still felt that with such a thing, the other party could have directly given it to him. Why did they have to make it so complicated?

It could be forcibly explained as a kind of 'test'.

The newest novels are first published on 69shu.

But Luo Xi believed that there must be something deeper, a kind of information that is not outwardly revealed, a kind of content that needs careful analysis and deliberation to know.

"If the mental patient is also a type of 'setting' or ability within the Imprisonment Day, then can my own illness be understood as something artificially set up?"

"Is that what you're trying to tell me, right?"

The only implicit hint Luo Xi could think of.

Then he quickly recalled the Imprisonment Day, the false world, the artificially created level scenarios, the card system with supernatural powers, the endless cycle of repeating days, and the strange dream he had through the [Nightmare] card.

In the dream, that self, who seemed cowardly and ordinary to him.

Combining these, Luo Xi suddenly thought of a possibility.

The emergence of this possibility was accompanied by several questions that Luo Xi had never been able to figure out.

How did the Imprisonment Day come about, and how many times has it cycled?

How were they trapped in the Imprisonment Day?

Was he originally a schizophrenic?

Individually, almost none of them can be answered, but combining these questions with the known information, a conclusion can be drawn.

A timeline derived from the order of the questions.

"So, you actually wanted to give me a reminder. What you really wanted to tell me is this…"

"The beginning of the Imprisonment Day… an ordinary and unremarkable me… the fear and despair of nearly infinite cycles… knowing that it is a false world, thus giving birth to the instinct to resist and escape… and the driving force behind this instinct is not just because of suddenly discovering being trapped in an infinitely looping false world, but because the original me knew why he was trapped here, and there must have been a reason to escape from this place. And after countless attempts, the original me determined that a normal person could not escape, so the original me turned himself into a madman."

"He believed that only a madman could possibly escape from the Imprisonment Day."

This was the conclusion Luo Xi came to.

If this conclusion was correct, then the number of cycles in the Imprisonment Day, the count of repeating days, must be a terrifying number.

Definitely not the kind that Lin Qiqi said, where experiencing a hundred repeating days makes you an expert.

What is a hundred repeating days?

Perhaps the Imprisonment Day has existed for hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of times longer.

Even Luo Xi, at this moment, just thinking about the possibility that the repeating days have existed for tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of cycles, would produce an irrepressible despair, and even a fear that even [Absolute Rationality] could not suppress.

This feeling made Luo Xi realize that he was still a person.

A living, breathing person with emotions, not a pathologically insane, ruthlessly rational madman.

Fortunately, Luo Xi quickly regained his composure.

[Absolute Rationality] took effect at this time.

"If this is the case, then what factor is hindering my escape? Is it some kind of being? And it must be a being with unequal power… is it that Dimension Four?" Luo Xi continued to sort out his thoughts.

Not many people know about the existence of Dimension Four.

Qiu Kui knows, but she seems to be constrained by some powerful rules and doesn't dare to say much. For the time being, she can be considered to be on his side.

Zhou Ya, the little girl in the Sega apartment building, also knows about the existence of Dimension Four as a cleaner.

But there are so many scenarios in the Imprisonment Day, why does she have the opportunity to come into contact with Dimension Four?

Or can other cleaners or managers also do it?

"So what exactly is Dimension Four? Is it a person, or some unknown existence?"

"What is the relationship between the Imprisonment Day and Dimension Four?"

Luo Xi planned to leave and go find Lin Qiqi.

But just at this moment, the person in the grid who he thought would not speak again, suddenly said in a low voice: "Luo Xi, do you think we can escape?"