Ordinary Chapter 57: Goodbye

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: KarateChopMonkey

 

“Sure enough…” He Xin exhaled heavily.

Bai JunYi was sitting in the seat next to him reading the information, and looked over when he heard He Xin’s exhale, “Team Leader He?”

“Cognitive dummies can’t exist for too long.” He Xin put the fragment in his hand on the table, “The setting of the cognitive dummy is broken after the Survivor leaves the playfield. Since he left the playfield, that means his cognitive dummy has been broken. The broken cognitive dummy possessed Shen Si, but, after all, he is already a shattered thing.”

“So what you see in Shen Si’s eyes is the fragments of the cognitive dummy.” Bai JunYi sighed, “That means, even if we don’t do anything, Shen Si will recover soon?”

“That’s right, but I just don’t know why the cognitive dummy would do such a thing.” He Xin leaned back in his chair, “As a dummy born out of playfield, to leave playfield, or even attach to Shen Si and come out together, so far, I can’t understand his thoughts at all.”

Bai JunYi gathered the information up, then smiled gently, “Maybe we can ask Shen Si.”

“You mean ask the fake Shen Si?”

“Shen Si’s cognitive dummy, which is by definition his own self-conscious self, and what the cognitive dummy is doing should be his own thoughts.”

“What you say also makes sense, but…” He Xin remembered the Shen Si with light red pupils that he saw at the stairway, “But, the gap between that cognitive dummy and Shen Si is a bit big, I still don’t understand why someone’s performance is so different from his cognitive self.”

In the previous playfield, no matter Jian Nian, Bai JunYi, or even Ning Yangze’s cognitive dummy was almost exactly the same as the original, maybe just magnifying their inner thoughts, but not so much that they would be unrecognizable. Only with Shen Si, the difference between his cognitive dummy and himself was too big.

If Shen Si looked like a piece of cold ice, then his cognitive dummy was like a piece of ink.

The same hardness, but presenting a different exterior.

“He will talk.” Bai JunYi smiled and said, “Knowing himself and accepting himself long ago, that’s Xiao Si.”

… 

Thinking that Shen Si would run away from the hospital, after catching up with him, Jian Nian realized that Shen Si didn’t leave at all. He returned to the ward, and as Jian Nian passed he looked at the flowers on the windowsill, the tender yellow flowers were in delicate bloom. He reached out his hand and carefully touched the stem, looking very fond of it.

He liked plants, and he was really Shen Si.

Jian Nian walked over, he stood about a meter away from Shen Si, and picked up the jacket that Shen Si had thrown on the ground. Jian Nian patted the dust on it, then spoke, “It looks like you’re not afraid of being discovered by us, or even by Shen Si. Why? Because you know it won’t help even if we find out?”

“Of course not.” Shen Si dropped his hand as he sat back down on the hospital bed, his voice calm, “Because I’ll disappear soon.”

Jian Nian froze for a moment, “Disappear?”

“Of course, I’ve shattered, the cognitive dummy will die when it shatters.” Shen Si lay back on the hospital bed, “Even if I leave from the playfield and attach to the subject, I will still die, there is no way, this is the rule that was set from the beginning.”

Jian Nian looked at him with some surprise, “I thought you were completely prepared.”

“I was born in less than a day, such a short time is not enough for me to come up with a complete plan, so wouldn’t it be nice to do what I can, so that even if I disappear, I don’t disappear in the playfield, but in the real world.”

“…Can’t figure out what you’re thinking.”

“You don’t need to figure it out, because it’s Shen Si’s idea, not yours.” Shen Si was lying on the hospital bed looking at the ceiling, “So, I really hate fate.”

To be born from a playfield, to be a false life form, to have a task set by the system, or to be killed by others, or to be taken out after being recognized by the main body, he must die, this shitty short time destiny. Why must he die when he was given consciousness?

He was Shen Si, and because he was Shen Si, he was disgusted with the process and decided to change it all.

Although still dying, but as long as it was not in a playfield, then it was a change, right? Even if only a little.

Jian Nian sat back in his chair, and in his mind, Shen Si’s appearance kept coming back, the Shen Si of his childhood, the Shen Si of his adulthood, and the Shen Si of today.

If the person who encountered this matter was Shen Si, he would indeed do such a thing, although it seemed Shen Si was a very go-with-the-flow person, completely without any concept of autonomy, but he was not the kind of person who randomly allowed himself to be oppressed to continue to die.

Shen Si’s cognitive dummy did this, and it really fit Shen Si’s persona.

If a playfield was just a game, then the cognitive dummy was the NPC in the playfield. How did it look now that an NPC had escaped from the main system?

“I’m sleepy, good night.” Shen Si closed his eyes, “Maybe I shouldn’t say good night, you’re waiting for the other me to wake up, soon, he will regain consciousness.”

Jian Nian looked at him without speaking or moving, he just sat in the original chair and looked at Shen Si in the hospital bed with his eyes closed.

With his eyes closed and not talking, Jian Nian couldn’t find the difference between Shen Si and the cognitive dummy at all. After all, they looked the same and even gave a similar feeling. Jian Nian leaned back in his chair.

The time passed, and about an hour later, Jian Nian heard a very slight sound and looked at Shen Si on the bed. Although there was no change, there was a sound of glass breaking from Shen Si, followed by a little bit of golden light from Shen Si’s body, floating like a powder, melting in the air.

It should be that the cognitive dummy finally couldn’t hold on.

Without waking Shen Si, Jian Nian stared at his face very quietly, as if he could see the end of the world just by looking at him.

Bai JunYi and He Xin saw such a picture when they came over, as they stood at the door of the ward and looked at each other, but didn’t walk in.

“Did it disappear?”

“Mn, according to the time, the cognitive dummy should have disappeared, and those pieces falling on the stairs are the sign that he is breaking.”

Bai JunYi sat on the bench in the corridor, “What a peculiar event to commemorate.”

“Commemoration doesn’t really speak for itself, but for Shen Si it should be very special.” He Xin pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose, “Although I don’t know the reason, it is Shen Si’s will that caused the cognitive dummy to do this, including the possession of his body. The significance for Shen Si is probably to be able to understand himself better.”

“This whole playfield is a psychological game, with all kinds of traps laid down, but in the end it just let people understand themselves better.” Bai JunYi sighed, “Really, what playfield is full of unexpected malice.”

However, this was a playfield, the reason for its existence was to kill all Survivors.

… 

Shen Si woke up the next day, his eyes returned to black, and he still had little memory of what happened before, but he was clear about his possession by the cognitive dummy.

“You don’t know what happened, but you know you were possessed?” He Xin recorded this on the paper, “So Shen Si, did you feel anything in your sleep?”

Shen Si shook his head, “No, the same as usual, just sleeping.”

“Unconscious.” Adding this sentence above, He Xin looked at Shen Si, “So, Shen Si do you know why your cognitive dummy acted like this? Also, why do you know you were possessed even though you have no memories?”

“Because of time.” Shen Si snapped his fingers.

With a tick, the clock slowly floated behind Shen Si, this time the clock didn’t pause or rewind, but rotated like normal. He Xin was startled for a moment, as he looked at the clock floating in the air, then only looked at Shen Si with some surprise, “You have more control over your abilities?”

“Hmm.” Shen Si nodded, “Now I can basically control time pause and rewind at will without losing control, only, the time range is still not very large.”

He Xin nodded as he made a note of that, “So, you relied on time to discover you were possessed?”

“Probably that time didn’t seem to exist.” Shen Si looked at the clock floating in the air, “It’s like a broken belt of time, it’s impossible to view.”

After reawakening, Shen Si found that his ability control was much stronger, and the clock that only appeared when using his ability could be called out at will. In the process of trying, Shen Si found that his control over time was expanding, but there was a time when he couldn’t go backwards even with his strong ability.

Because his state at that time was unconscious, so even reversing time couldn’t change the future.

“It’s like in a game where a stunned character can’t move?” He Xin was a little surprised, “Your ability is evolving, it seems to be extending more and more from simply pausing and rewinding time briefly.”

Shen Si frowned slightly before he nodded a moment later, “Probably.”

“That’s a good thing.” He Xin closed the book, “So can you tell me why your cognitive dummy would do something like that?”

“It’s not quite clear, but if I had to name a reason, it would probably be fate.” Shen Si calmly sat on the hospital bed, “Because I’m not willing to casually be born because of a playfield, and casually die because of a playfield; this kind of decided fate, I don’t like it.”

“Fate?” He Xin nodded his head, “If that’s the case, it does make sense.”

After that there were no more incidents, Shen Si’s recovery was fast, and in a very short time he was healed enough that he no longer felt pain even when walking.

Today’s weather was very good, the sun was shining through the window sill, and Shen Si stood in front of the window sill bathing in the warm sunlight, his dark eyes void of emotion.

Standing like this for about ten seconds, Shen Si lowered his head and looked at the green plant placed on the windowsill, the small yellow flowers had been blooming for a long time. The flowers were past their best and now looked a little withered, not so lively. Putting the glass shards in his hand in the pot, Shen Si looked at the potted flower, and after a moment he narrowed his eyes slightly, “Goodbye, me.”