Day of Imprisonment

Luo Xi called another taxi. In his opinion, this mode of transportation was the second safest way to travel, besides driving himself.

Of course, walking was safer, but if the distance was too far, it would inevitably take more time due to the slow speed.

"The administrator is essentially an organization, a force, possibly involved in the most core secrets of the Day of Imprisonment. And the administrator refers to it as 'the Company.' Right, I did hear Lao Wang mention something about performance before, and he had something like 'KPI' written on his desk. Could it be that managing all the checkpoint scenarios is really a company?"

Luo Xi was perplexed by more than just one question.

In his way of thinking, there was a list containing the content of all the questions, and each question was followed by corresponding clues. There were also connections between the clues and between the questions.

If this way of thinking were displayed in a way that a normal person could see, for example, in a table or a mind map, it would definitely be an extremely large, spiderweb-like thing.

Of course, Luo Xi preferred to call it a 'maze'.

He had childhood memories. Of course, at the moment, it's hard to say whether these memories are real or fake, but for the time being, Luo Xi believed that this was his own childhood.

Back then, he remembered that his favorite game to play was 'maze solving'.

At first, he would find flat mazes in newspapers or magazines to play with, but this was obviously not very durable. Later, Luo Xi started drawing his own mazes. Sometimes, a branch or a piece of soil could provide endless fun. Or, he would draw on paper with a pen, and the difficulty of the maze would increase over time.

Later on, he didn't even need branches, soil, paper, or pens.

He would directly conceive a maze in his brain. When the maze was stable, Luo Xi would imagine himself standing in God's perspective to play this maze. But to be honest, this kind of top-down flat maze was still a bit boring.

The sense of immersion was missing, which basically meant it wasn't 'stimulating' enough.

So, Luo Xi made some 'upgrades' to the maze he conceived in his brain.

It became a 3D model, and he was in the first-person perspective within it.

Playing like this was much more interesting.

He structured all the questions into a maze, and the clues were those strange, winding passages with many forks. Whether he could find the answer in the maze depended on whether he could find the passage that directly connected to the answer.

The advantage of doing this was that Luo Xi would not miss certain questions.

Therefore, later on, when Luo Xi came into contact with the subject of 'data structures' at school, he immediately immersed himself in it and couldn't extricate himself.

At this moment, in Luo Xi's thought world, he was standing at a fork in the maze, and no matter which path he took, he would return to the starting point.

This meant that he had not yet found the clues and answers to solve the problem.

The phone rang at this moment, pulling Luo Xi out of the mental maze.

Luo Xi sighed.

He didn't like being disturbed, but he did need to stay in touch with others. Since the two things were contradictory, he could only try to adapt.

"I've also brought Wang Shuting here. She's a little scared."

"Understood. Stay at Mao Ge's house and don't run around. I'll be there soon," Luo Xi said.

"Oh, right, Guo Zening is here too. He's a little nervous, and I'm giving him some guidance." There was a hint of laughter in Wu Rui's tone. Luo Xi could even imagine her expression, the kind where she found it funny but had to restrain herself.

Of course, this was also a psychological sense of superiority that a senior player had over a newbie.

"Where's Mao Ge?" Luo Xi didn't care about Guo Zening's psychological counseling. He asked, and Wu Rui immediately called out. Soon, Liu Mao's voice came over: "Luo Xi, I'm here."

"Mao Ge, did you go to 809?"

"Hey, don't even mention it. Something happened there. Before I went, I saw police cars and ambulances downstairs. It was all people in uniform. I heard that Zhou Ya, that girl, committed suicide. But that's strange, it wasn't like this last time. Could it be that after you cleared the scenario, it affected these things?"

"Where's Zhou Xinpeng?"

"Lao Zhou doesn't remember what happened before. He can't even cry. He's completely broken down. He roared before, the kind that tears your heart out. It's so pitiful, they all have children. I can understand that feeling." Mao Ge's voice was also a little low, obviously, he didn't care about Zhou Xinpeng's actions against them in the previous cycle, but only felt sympathy as a fellow father.

"Understood. Don't take any other actions for now. Wait for me to get there," Luo Xi said.

Luo Xi hung up the phone.

"So, when the administrator violates the rules, they will be killed by some force, and then all memories will be erased, and they will become amnesiacs... Then, is Lao Wang also like this?"

"But if that's the case, did Wu Rui encounter Lao Wang when she went to pick up Wang Shuting? He shouldn't be there. If Lao Wang was there, he wouldn't have let Wu Rui take Wang Shuting away, and Wu Rui would have told me. Lao Wang was fired by 'the Company,' then the same should be true for Zhou Xinpeng."

The scenery outside the car flashed by quickly, and the gloomy weather foreshadowed a heavy rain.

According to the experience of the previous cycle day, there would be a torrential downpour next.

A taxi was passing by an alley at this moment, and Luo Xi had a flash of inspiration, immediately telling the driver to stop.

“Master, just stop here.”

Getting out of the car, Luo Xi walked into the alley and then pushed open the door of 'Bikini Bottom Card Shop'. The bell on the door frame made a 'ding-dong' sound, and the unique scent of old book pages mixed with a hint of tea fragrance immediately made one feel relaxed.

Hao Xiuwen was currently attending to another customer.

When Luo Xi came in, the other person glanced over, and after recognizing Luo Xi, smiled and nodded.

Luo Xi wasn't in a hurry, he returned a smile, and then gestured that he would look around.

Then, he went over to pet the dog.

Petting a dog is very addictive, especially when the dog is very cooperative. Different techniques will elicit different expressions and postures, which easily creates a desire for exploration.

Just as Luo Xi unlocked the fourth posture and the third expression for this dog, the customer who had been speaking in a low voice suddenly raised his voice a few degrees.

“You're ripping me off! Last time we agreed that information about certain cards and dungeon scenarios, if deemed valid, could be exchanged for 【Memory】, but why isn't it working this time? Moreover, you already know the information I provided... This is kicking away the ladder after crossing the river, it's a scam!”

The customer was a middle-aged man, dressed plainly with dark skin. Perhaps because he was angry, the veins on his neck were bulging.

Almost simultaneously, the dog lying on the ground enjoying Luo Xi scratching its belly immediately put on a fierce expression, rushed over, bared its teeth, and began to growl.

【Watchdog】, responsible for maintaining order in a fixed location. If someone comes to cause trouble or steal something, it will unleash extremely terrifying combat power.

Luo Xi hadn't seen the dog attack before, but the fact that Hao Xiuwen's card shop had been open here for so long without incident indicated that this dog was definitely more powerful than it looked.

“Sir, don't be angry, calm down. You need to know that the most important thing in business is honesty, and I am a very honest person.” Hao Xiuwen didn't seem angry at all. He was clearly used to this kind of situation and was very good at handling it: “Regarding the price, I remember reminding you from the very beginning that the cost of exchanging 【Memory】 varies every cycle day. Its value fluctuates. Sometimes the production is high, and I buy a lot, so naturally it will be cheaper. Sometimes the production is low, of course, things are valued for their scarcity. Also, information of all kinds, whether cards or scenarios, actually has a very strong expiration date.”

“For example, last cycle day, if I was missing information about a certain card or scenario, you could of course use it to exchange for the corresponding card. But in this cycle day, the information will be updated. I'm sorry, someone already sold me the information you provided about half an hour ago, so…”

“Impossible, you're lying to me.” Although the middle-aged man was still angry, his voice and movements were much smaller. The deterrent power of the watchdog was evident at this time.

“It's true, I have a record here, you can look if you don't believe me.” Hao Xiuwen carefully took out a booklet from below at this time, and on the booklet were words he had recorded, which should have been the time and date, who came to sell what information, and what they exchanged for it.

After the middle-aged man saw it, he was stunned for a moment, seemingly unwilling to believe it, but it was clear that this kind of record must have been written in advance. The key point was that the other party didn't know he would come to sell this information, so the credibility was very high.

Even if it was forged, what could he do?

Did he dare to attack?

If he did, that dog would probably transform and tear him to pieces, then eat him as dog food.

“Damn it, damn it… I don't have any 【Memory】 cards left, I have to find a way, I don't want to lose my memory, I absolutely can't…” This middle-aged man cursed and muttered to himself as he left.

Seeing that the crisis was resolved, the watchdog ran back over and lay on the ground, exposing its belly, as if to say, keep scratching me.

Luo Xi patted it, got up, and walked to the counter.

“You came very early today, much earlier than last time.” Hao Xiuwen was clearly much more casual than before, because he had a very speculative chat with Luo Xi last time. In comparison, he clearly regarded Luo Xi as a 'friend'.

Luo Xi nodded, then his gaze fell on Hao Xiuwen's somewhat worn-out booklet.

“A card materialization prop?”

“Good eye, that's right, 【Damaged Diary】, some have more than a dozen pages, some may only have a few pages. It can be used to record information. After all, even memories can be forgotten, so you need a memo. It will not be reset by the Day of Imprisonment.”

Luo Xi nodded.

But Hao Xiuwen's next move stunned him.

The other party actually directly handed over the diary.

Luo Xi didn't take it, and asked with his eyes.

“Don't you want to take a look?” Hao Xiuwen asked back.

“You don't seem to have mentioned the price yet.” Luo Xi knew that the content recorded in the notebook was all information exchanged by the other party for 【Memory】, which was valuable.

“You forgot, we are friends, I am never so snobbish to friends!” Hao Xiuwen smiled.