Day of Imprisonment

Luo Xi couldn't find Wu Rui.

He had clearly seen her go to the women's locker room earlier, a place Luo Xi couldn't enter. He waited at the entrance for a long time, but she didn't come out. He asked other female colleagues, but they said there was no one in the locker room at all.

A living person, just disappeared like that?

It was like seeing a ghost.

But today, the bizarre things were far more than just this one.

Old Gao's body had been taken away, but the police in charge of the investigation were still surveying the scene. This clearly affected the company's normal operation and work. Manager Du Lei gathered several team leaders to temporarily take the staff to the twenty-fourth floor, which was another customer service area.

The company leased both the twenty-third and twenty-fourth floors in this office building.

There were still some empty workstations on the twenty-fourth floor, and now they were all filled.

"Everyone, please make do for now. After the police finish their investigation, we'll return to our original positions. In addition, everyone should stay at their posts at this stage. If the police need to understand the situation, everyone must fully cooperate."

Old Du was still very capable.

As the person in charge of the company, a murder case occurred in his own territory, which clearly made this bald, pot-bellied middle-aged man feel the pressure.

From the beginning, sweat had been constantly dripping from Old Du's forehead.

Everyone was panicking, and there were all sorts of private discussions. Luo Xi, on the other hand, was observing and thinking about the information Wu Rui provided in his mind.

About the Day of Imprisonment, about the Memory Gatherers...

The 'Luo Xi' in the mirror at the workstation was currently complaining frantically.

"Idiot, you're a moron! You let a woman play you! She must have hidden a lot of things from you. She used that garbage information to get the card from you. That card must be very special and of great value. Didn't you see her expression when she took the card? What's the difference between her and a starving dog seeing a piece of fat? Besides, she didn't say how many Memory Gatherers there are here. I think she's doing it on purpose. She's setting you up!"

"And one more thing, she killed Old Gao not to save you, but to get the memory card reward, because the rule in the Day of Imprisonment is that Memory Gatherers kill each other to get memory card rewards. Obviously, the rules encourage killing... So, that woman will definitely kill you, just like she stabbed Old Gao, because it's the most profitable thing for her to do."

Luo Xi rolled his eyes at himself in the mirror.

"Can you stop blabbering? You're always cursing me to die. What good will it do you if I die?"

"There's no good. I just can't stand you, a stupid donkey, occupying the toilet without shitting. This kind of occasion should let me do it..."

"You think you can do it?"

"Nonsense, definitely better than you."

Luo Xi snorted coldly, rubbed his face with both hands, and when he looked at the mirror again, his eyes already had a kind of indifference. The terrifying chill of that sudden change of face made the 'Luo Xi' in the mirror realize something and immediately shut up.

"Ha, if you were stronger than me, then you wouldn't be in the mirror, and I would be outside."

After speaking, Luo Xi stared at himself in the mirror, with a faint smile on his face.

Inside the mirror, behind that 'Luo Xi', there were several similar shadows stirring, with malicious intentions.

And Luo Xi's gloomy eyes directly made the other party and the shadows behind him retreat, and retreat again.

He didn't take medicine, and there was no medicine to take, so the hallucinations in the mirror and other places were unavoidable, but for Luo Xi, this was not an unacceptable thing. On the contrary, he had long been accustomed to it.

The doctor said that one of his symptoms was severe schizophrenia, that is, having multiple personalities, such as the uneducated, foul-mouthed guy in the mirror.

Only the victor would not stay in the mirror raging impotently, or hide in the dark, eking out a living like a rat.

"You think I don't know those things?"

Luo Xi seemed to be talking to himself.

"Wu Rui certainly has something to hide. She is very smart and very cautious. Assuming that the few pieces of information she has revealed are true, then for me, the most urgent things right now are only two things. One is to figure out all the information about this so-called Day of Imprisonment as soon as possible, including the rules here, the number of Memory Gatherers, the existence of the Cleaners, and what does it mean? Why did she specifically use the word 'danger' to describe it? The other thing is to get at least one 'memory card', because assuming that the existence of the Day of Imprisonment is real, then without a memory card, I will not be able to save this memory. Once I become an amnesiac, I will not remember everything before, and then, as Wu Rui said, I will become a 'toy'. But why did she use the word 'toy'? Does it have any special meaning?"

Luo Xi actually showed a smile at this time. The 'him' in the mirror wanted to say something, but he still held back.

"Wu Rui is a smart person. She hid because she was afraid that I would attack her and take back the card... Of course, there may be other reasons. Actually, she thought right. Anyone placed in my position, once they believed what she said, then the first person to deal with would only be her, because the currently known Memory Gatherers are three: me, her, and Old Gao. Old Gao has already been killed by her, so she must already have at least one 'memory card'. If she is killed, conservatively estimated, two memory cards can be obtained, plus my card, which is equivalent to two memory cards in itself. It's a crime to possess a treasure..."

"It's just, does she think she can really keep hiding?"

Luo Xi looked at the time on the computer. 9:17 AM.

Less than forty minutes had passed since Old Gao's body was discovered.

“If we assume all of this to be true, then during the last Day of Imprisonment, Brother Mao transformed into a monster at ten o'clock... well, it should be a little after ten. Will the time change this time? If it's still around that time, Wu Rui hiding herself is a brilliant move, avoiding both me and Brother Mao.”

“She shouldn't be concealing anything, because the rule of the deal is to reveal all the information she knows. From this point of view, she broke the agreement first. Therefore, finding her first and asking her for all the information she knows is the top priority.”

Just then, Luo Xi's phone vibrated.

Due to the requirements of the workplace, it had to be on vibration mode.

He picked it up and saw an unfamiliar number, but it was marked as 'Delivery'.

He answered the call.

“Hello, I'm here to deliver your medicine. I'm at the elevator entrance on the 23rd floor. They won't let me in; the police have sealed it off.”

“I'm sorry, please deliver it to the 24th floor. I'll meet you at the elevator entrance.”

Luo Xi knew this was the delivery guy arranged by his mother to deliver the medicine.

The last time, the other party delivered the medicine around this time as well.

As he walked out, he passed a corridor with glass rooms on both sides. The smooth, clean glass reflected Luo Xi's figure.

His shadow walked with him, whispering, “There's a question, haven't you thought about it?”

“Speak your mind, or shut up!” Luo Xi said coldly.

“If the Day of Imprisonment exists, then in reality, there is no yesterday, no tomorrow, only today, so Mom, she...”

“Shut your trap! These two things are unrelated. At least, there doesn't seem to be any connection at the moment. In any seemingly cyclical and infinite theory, there is actually a starting point. If there is a starting point, then there are things that happened before. So, what are you trying to say?”

“Nothing, I'm just reminding you. You know, so I won't say it.” The blurry shadow on the glass then returned to normal.

Luo Xi also walked to the door, pressed the door release switch, and pushed the door open.

Outside was the fire escape, connected to the fire stairs and the elevator lobby. A delivery guy was standing there holding a small plastic bag.

“It's mine.” Luo Xi pointed to the plastic bag in the other's hand. The tanned delivery guy handed over the bag: “Here you go, that's all. Well, that's it then.”

“Thanks!”

“Don't forget to leave a good review!”

“Definitely!”

Returning to the office area, Luo Xi called his mother to tell her that he had received the medicine and to reassure her.

“That's good, remember to take your medicine.”

“Don't worry, Mom!”

After hanging up, Luo Xi looked at the bottle full of pills, was silent for a moment, thought for a while, and finally screwed on the lid and put it in his pocket.

He wouldn't take the medicine for now.

Luo Xi had considered that perhaps all of this, including those strange things, the Day of Imprisonment, were all fantasies from his illness.

But honestly, he felt very good now.

His brain had never been so clear, his thinking so agile. If he took the medicine... Therefore, he would wait and see. If he confirmed that all of this was false, that he had imagined it all, then it wouldn't be too late to take it then. If not, then taking the medicine would be equivalent to strangling his possibility of uncovering the truth.

Some things, you always have to try first.

For Luo Xi, ten o'clock was a turning point.

He had to find the hidden Wu Rui before then and 'dig' out what she knew.

The 24th floor office area was similar to the 23rd floor, with nearly a hundred cubicles for telephone receptionists. At this moment, they were basically all occupied, with many people, some even very familiar. So, who among these people was a 'Memory Gatherer'?

Everyone looked very normal.

Luo Xi sat at his workstation, attended to two customers, then temporarily signed out of the system and whispered to himself in the mirror: “According to Wu Rui, Memory Gatherers can kill each other. The killer gets a memory card as a reward. The result of this rule is that once a Memory Gatherer's identity is exposed, that person will be in great danger. Old Gao, perhaps, was just the first person to die today.”

“You're right, that's obvious.” The 'Luo Xi' in the mirror seemed to sense some change in the person outside the mirror, so he didn't dare to mock him anymore and was much more polite.

“Actually, many things can be deduced with a little thought. Wu Rui doesn't seem to say much, but in reality, we can get far more information than she says.”

“Oh? For example...”

“For example, I roughly know the meaning of the cleaners' existence.”

“What do you mean?”

“Regarding the last piece of information Wu Rui provided, she said that this is essentially a survival game. If you can survive until the last moment of the Day of Imprisonment, which is midnight, both Memory Gatherers and Memory Losers can get a 'Memory Card'. If it were that simple, everyone here should be a Memory Gatherer, but the actual situation is the opposite. The number of Memory Gatherers should be very small, at least much smaller than the total number of people here.”

“Holy crap!” The 'Luo Xi' in the mirror immediately understood.

“Right, the meaning of the cleaners' existence is to kill everyone here before midnight, or rather, to ensure that no one gets a Memory Card reward for surviving past midnight, whether Memory Gatherer or Memory Loser. Because the purpose of doing so is to ensure that a Memory Gatherer's memory card is consumed. As for the Memory Losers, they are still Memory Losers. That's why Wu Rui said Brother Mao was dangerous, and she must have seen, or even personally experienced, the scene of corpses everywhere and rivers of blood here.”

The 'Luo Xi' in the mirror was silent for a moment, then asked an irrelevant question: “Hey, aren't you taking your medicine anymore?”

“I'm not taking it. Since it's a game, then there are rules, and if there are rules, then there is a 'clearance' setting. If I take the medicine, it won't be easy to clear the game, oh!”