Day of Imprisonment

At this moment, Du Lei looked at Wu Rui behind Luo Xi.

He wasn't surprised.

"Back then, you said the hidden seventh Memory Collector was her, right? Heh, I had a feeling she was strange. Luo Xi, let me tell you, she's cycled no fewer times than I have, and she's killed just as many people."

Wu Rui didn't refute.

She didn't speak, only standing quietly behind Luo Xi, her hand behind her back gripping the knife hilt, like a knife-wielding guard.

"Give me that cigarette," Luo Xi said at this moment.

It was clear that Du Lei was a little pained by this request, but he didn't refuse, nodding his head.

"Luo Xi, you must have seen it too. We've just left the wolf's den only to enter the tiger's lair. The danger hasn't been lifted. At this time, we should cooperate."

"How to cooperate?" Luo Xi retorted.

"This..." Du Lei clearly hadn't thought it through; he didn't have any plans.

"President Du, I'm just like you right now, not understanding the current situation. Why don't we split up and see what we can discover? If there are any special clues, we can contact each other by phone, how about it?" Luo Xi put forward a very reasonable suggestion.

Du Lei thought about it carefully and nodded.

Indeed, this wasn't the closed environment of the company. It could be said that he could go anywhere except the company.

Completely free.

Forcing them to act together in this situation would only tie their hands, and besides, they hadn't established any real trust before.

They even had to be on guard against each other most of the time, worrying about a knife in the back.

"Oh right, President Du, lend me your lighter too. It won't do to have a cigarette without a light." After Luo Xi finished speaking, Du Lei generously took out a lighter from his pocket and handed it over.

"Luo Xi, let's keep in touch and share information."

"Definitely."

After Du Lei finished speaking, he glanced at Wu Rui, got in the car, and left.

Once the other party was far away, Wu Rui spoke, "So, last time you broke some kind of balance, causing all the Memory Collectors' time anchors to advance?"

"No, only those Memory Collectors with memory cards who can retain their memories. If they don't have memory cards..."

Luo Xi didn't finish his sentence when another acquaintance walked over.

Lao Gao.

Gao Shengjie.

Before this time point, Memory Collectors are actually the same as ordinary amnesiacs.

They do what they're supposed to do according to their original memories.

Last time, the time point when he recovered his memory was 7:41 AM, and after 'clearing' the work area scene, the time point when he recovered his memory became 6:09 AM.

Wu Rui and the others should be similar; there wouldn't be much difference in time.

"That cigarette..." Wu Rui couldn't help but ask.

When Luo Xi took the cigarette just now, he said 'as expected'.

Luo Xi didn't waste any words and directly handed the cigarette over.

After Wu Rui took it, she immediately understood what Luo Xi meant.

Because she actually saw a blurry card floating above the cigarette.

Looking closely, the blurry card had a picture of a cigarette on it, and the text below said: [Brawler Cigarette], Status: Materialized (Can be converted to card), Quantity 1/20, Smoke one to increase constitution, strength, speed, and reaction by 30% for ten minutes. During the duration, gain Brawling (Level 1). Disappears after the duration expires. Please note that smoking is harmful to your health and is addictive.

At this moment, Wu Rui's expression was very interesting.

"So that's it. I remember now. No wonder President Du always has a cigarette with him. Once, Mao-ge went completely crazy, with corpses all over the ground, and President Du still had a cigarette and that lighter in his mouth?"

"It's just an ordinary lighter."

"So, you came this time to meet President Du and get a cigarette?" Wu Rui felt that she had seen through Luo Xi's plan.

Having this cigarette is equivalent to gaining ten minutes of 'superman time.' After all, all physical attributes are increased by 30%. If she smoked the cigarette, she could definitely fight a man head-on, because it's not just strength that's increased, but also speed, reflexes, and resistance to blows.

If she also had a weapon, or was a physically strong man himself, smoking this cigarette would indeed make it easy to kill people.

This trip achieved its purpose and was well worth it.

As a result, Luo Xi shook his head: "The cigarette is just a bonus. Taking it or not doesn't matter, and it's not the purpose of my coming here this time."

"Ah?" Wu Rui was stunned: "Then what did you come for?"

Luo Xi looked at Wu Rui with a sense of helplessness: "How can you be a veteran, having cycled so many times, and not think there's a problem here?"

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"What's the problem?" Wu Rui tried her best to recall, but to be honest, her mind was blank. Either she felt there was no problem, or she felt there were problems everywhere, but she couldn't pinpoint the main point.

"Okay, since we are already teammates, then I should explain it clearly to you." Luo Xi looked up at the building: "First of all, why the twenty-third and twenty-fourth floors?"

"..." Wu Rui shook her head. How would she know?

"Wu Rui, the unknown is not scary. On the contrary, obtaining the answer is not the key from the unknown to the known. Discovering the unknown problem is. For example, when I have the question 'Why the twenty-third and twenty-fourth floors?', if I only consider the problem itself, I will inevitably fall into a dead loop, because I don't know, so there will be doubts, but because I can't answer the doubts, the result is still not knowing."

"..." Wu Rui nodded. She felt that Luo Xi was right, but she couldn't say exactly where he was right.

"This is a typical thinking trap. Cognitive bias will definitely limit the problem to known conditions. For example, a child who has only learned addition and subtraction cannot do multiplication and division problems, but can raise the irrationality of the problem itself, forcing the question setter to change the question... The problem we encounter is not that simple. Fortunately, we ourselves are the question setters, so jump out of the original problem and propose a new question with another diversified way of thinking, that is, replace the original question with 'Why can't other floors become scenes?'. In this way, the thinking to solve the problem will have diffusivity."

"... Is there?" Wu Rui still didn't react.

"Yes, for example, you will get inferences and concepts similar to 'range restriction' or 'duty authority' from the two questions. Or, if you expand your thinking further, if you regard those two floors as 'territories', then you can infer according to the law of the jungle, the theory of biological evolution, and the rules of the territory. Various creatures live in the forest. In order to survive and reproduce, they constantly evolve to adapt to the environment and fight against enemies. The premise of the existence of the territory is competition, enemies, and scarce survival resources. Then, since there are enemies, they must also have their controlled 'territory'."

Luo Xi said expressionlessly at this time, as if there was a written manuscript in front of him, and he was just an emotionless repeating machine.

"So, there will be the twenty-third and twenty-fourth floors, and there will be the subway and the No. 45 bus that Guo Zening took."

"Then, then what?" Wu Rui had already given up resisting. She felt that she understood, but she didn't seem to understand.

"A core concept of the territory is sovereignty, which can also be understood as control. I told you before about the cycle mechanism of the Day of Imprisonment, restart, memory card, and cleaner. Of course, now it seems that it is just a scene in the Day of Imprisonment, and the mechanism supporting this scene is indispensable. So, who designed this mechanism? You don't think it's nature, do you?" Luo Xi said, walking to the lobby on the first floor of the building.

"I think there must be an existence who has the management and control rights over this scene. Let's call it the manager for now. Of course, the above are just my guesses, so I must verify it."

Here, a floor plan is posted on the wall, indicating the function and affiliation of each floor.

Luo Xi pointed to the sign on the first floor of the building on the sign: Building monitoring room, security room, logistics center.

"Got it, Room 104!"

That is the building's monitoring room.

After speaking, Luo Xi walked towards that side.

"Wait, wait a minute!" Wu Rui stopped Luo Xi at this time.

"What's wrong?"

"Luo Xi, wait a moment. I understand what you mean, but if your deduction is correct, and there really is a master, an administrator, then it will be dangerous if you just go over there directly." Wu Rui's face was worried.

Luo Xi nodded: "Yes, but if you want to gain something, you must pay the corresponding price. This is a kind of equivalent exchange. If you only see the danger and stop, it would be impossible to break the cycle mechanism last time."

"I understand. Your [Ebbinghaus's Pen] should be used one more time, so you have the capital to try and make mistakes, but if it is really as you think, the benefits may be very great." Wu Rui's eyes lit up at this time.

At this time, she felt that she had caught up with Luo Xi's pace.

Luo Xi didn't continue to explain, but walked towards Room 104. However, after taking a few steps, he stopped again and turned to Wu Rui and said, "You go to the women's toilet over there. You can see Room 104 at the entrance of the women's toilet, about seven or eight meters away. The distance is relatively safe, and then act according to the circumstances."

As soon as Wu Rui heard this, she hurriedly grabbed Luo Xi: "What do you mean by acting according to the circumstances?"

"Limit it to twenty minutes. If I don't come out, you run away quickly; if I come out, ask me something that only you and I know, and it's not about the last Day of Imprisonment. If I answer incorrectly or show that I don't understand, run away quickly; if I call Mao Ge, you rush in with a knife and help me kill people; other than that, no matter what I call, don't pay attention to it, just leave."

After speaking, Luo Xi took the cigarette he had asked Du Lei for, grabbed the lighter with the other hand, walked to the door of Room 104, and directly pushed the door open and walked in, leaving Wu Rui, who was frightened and uneasy.

The latter stomped her feet and could only trot all the way to the entrance of the women's toilet and started a tense countdown.