Chapter 43 – But I failed.

He said, ‘I know, he’s me’.

These words cause Lu Chu’s throat that had been moistened by the hot water to become dry again. He opened his mouth, but didn’t know what to say.

7 looked at Lu Chu’s bewildered gaze, hooked up the corner of his lips, then ruffled the top of his head and said, “you don’t have to worry about this, I’ll find a way then.”

When Lu Chu heard that, he felt greatly relieved.

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Standing up, 7 said, “you probably haven’t eaten in some time. I’ll make something for you to eat. You can use the first room you see upstairs however you want. There’s a bathroom, and my clothes. Although it’s a little big, but you can probably wear it. We still have thirteen days, so there’s no need to hurry.”

It would have been okay if 7 hadn’t mentioned it, but when he said it, Lu Chu really felt hungry, as if he hadn’t eaten all day. Although the basement couldn’t be called dirty, it was still wet and messy. When Lu Chu first woke up, he was sitting on the ground against the wall, then he had walked around the basement room for some time to check, he really did feel a little uncomfortable.

When he thought about how he was originally sitting on the basement floor, and how he had directly sat on the sofa, Lu Chu stood up somewhat awkwardly, and patted his pants a little uncomfortably.

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When 7 saw this, the delight in his eyes became stronger, and he said, “I’ll go and make something for you to eat.”

“Okay,” Lu Chu said, “thanks.”

Three days after that, Guo Jianping suddenly asked Liu Cuihe to go to his house. Liu Cuihe was very surprised, and asked him if Lin Lin was there, but Guo Jianping shook his head and said that she wasn’t there anymore.

It was if a long time had passed, until she started to become used to the sound of bones being cut apart, when Guo Jianping pulled her up and said, “Lin Lin ran away with a another man.”

Liu Cuihe knew that she should be scared, but she didn’t know why there was a weird feeling of pleasure. She had always been jealous of Lin Lin, and this was the same kind of pleasure she felt in the depths of her heart when she had an affair with Guo Jianping.

There was no need to mention how the both of them met again, and a few years after Guo Jianping married Wei Rong, Lin Lin’s resentment which had been accumulating for too long eventually turned her into a resentful ghost, and she killed Guo Jianping.

Taking advantage of the time 7 used to prepare the food, Lu Chu followed that he said and went up the stairs, then entered into the first room. There was a set of new clothing on the middle of the bed, along with a pair of new underwear. Lu Chu hid and set aside the shame in his heart, then entered the bathroom and took a good, long, bath.

It had to be said, ever since the Senseless City started, Lu Chu had never been so relaxed before, as if the countless times he escaped from death was nothing more than a dream.

After bathing, Lu Chu washed the clothes that he changed out of, before he went down the stairs.

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Downstairs, 7 had already finished cooking. Four dishes and a soup, extremely sumptuous.

Lu Chu smiled and said, “I didn’t know you could cook.”

When they first met, 7 was extremely quiet, and after he had been invited into the house to be a guest, he still did things without saying a word, as if he had forgotten how to communicate with other people.

“It’s just getting in character,” 7 raised the recipe in his hand, “just learnt it. Whether it’s the ingredients, their amounts, the heat or time, they’ve all been calculated. Come and try it.”

In his mind, Lu Chu thought about the serious appearance 7 would have had when he weighted the ingredients on a scale, and couldn’t help smile a little, “the taste should be quite good.”

The two of them sat down face to face, and 7 had already served out the dishes. Lu Chu took some bites, and praised, “it’s delicious.”

7 didn’t move his chopsticks, and only looked at Lu Chu and said, “it doesn’t have much taste as yours.”

Lu Chu was surprised, “what taste?”

7 naturally added some food to his plate, “a sense of reluctance to leave.”

Lu Chu was a little shocked, then smiled, “if you like it, I can make it for you anytime.:

if you see this, this is a scrambled version.

Her voice was very dry and muffled, as if there was sand in her throat, “let me enter into your memories, and I’ll let you go.”

Liu Cuihe was in a daze, and could only repeatedly blink as she reacted, “yes! Yes! Let me go! Let me go!! I didn’t do it; it was Guo Jianping! Everything was Guo Jianping’s fault!”

It was only then that Lu Chu understood Lin Lin’s intention. She wanted to broadcast Liu Cuihe’s memories, and see how much Guo Jianping had cheated her at that time, or perhaps, she wanted to see who divided her corpse up after she died. Maybe there was a limit to this method of peeping into another person’s memories, such as the person involved needed to agree, which was why Lin Lin asked Liu Cuihe in this manner.

At this time, the scene completely changed again, and their surroundings turned to Liu Cuihe’s perspective.

The atmosphere was just right.

The two of them continued to talk about the ‘rules’ and the ‘game’ once Lu Chu was half-full.

After that, was the night that Lin Lin decided to personally pay a visit, and Liu Cuihe burrowed into the quilt in a hurry while Lin Lin was dragged home by Guo Jianping.

Lu Chu thought, and finally still asked about the question he had in his heart, “7, you, what exactly is your identity?”

Are you a player that had been chosen, or were they the same, and 7 was someone from inside the game, who had thought that the world he was in was the real world.

At this time, the scene completely changed again, and their surroundings turned to Liu Cuihe’s perspective.

It was as if 7 had expected that he would have asked this question, and didn’t give a direct answer, but added a vegetable to Lu Chu’s plate and asked in return, “think about what I have to do if I need to get used to a role.”

Although Lu Chu didn’t know why he said this, he still answered seriously, “follow the original’s hobbies, lifestyle, and life path, but not get influenced by the behaviour and will of the original.”

“En,” 7 nodded in agreement, “then, do you know, what will happen if a person or a thing in a ‘game’ deviates from their original worldview, or break away from the role that the ‘game’ attached to them?”

Deviates from their original worldview…… Or break away from the role that the ‘game’ attached to them.

Hearing that sentence, Lu Chu first thought of himself.

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In the game that he came from, the worldview given by the ‘rules’ was that nobody in this town had ever lost their senses before, thus, the moment the city became senseless, everybody would end up being caught in a panic, and the people caught in such a panic would either commit suicide or kill each other. Obviously, ‘Lu Chu’s original exisntence should also follow this worldview, and live a healthy and peaceful life until the day the world fell into chaos, then, like everybody else, live or die within that panic.

Then, Lin Lin’s body before in the illusion started to decay, and her originally fresh skin dried and crumbled. Just like she had crawled out of hell, she slowly approached Liu Cuihe with dishevelled hair covering up her face, a messed up torso, and a choking scent.

But, Lu Chu didn’t.

For some reason, he became the only person in that town that couldn’t see, violating the worldview given by the ‘rules’ – regarded as an abnormality, enduring ridicule and scorn.

Liu Cuihe was so scared her whole entire body was shaking, yet she was stuck in place by an unknown force and couldn’t move, as watched Lin Lin’s rotten body crawled along to in front of her chubby body.

“In every ‘game’, there’s a chance of something becoming out of control,” 7 looked like Lu Chu and said, “just like the self-cleaning mechanism of the human body, once a certain link is out of control, then the ‘rules’ will try to find a way to eliminate this unstable factor.”

Lu Chu frowned, “eliminate.”

One…… two…… three…… until the snakes were all piled up, entwining with each other as they crawled and twisted together, accompanied with a noisy hissing sound.

7 said, “yes, eliminate. For example, the identity that I’m currently replacing is a kidnapper. He’s pale and morbid, and likes to kill people for fun. The only one who has the chance to kill me is a player who chose this game. Once I deviate from the personality of his character, the ‘rules’ will find a way to remove me.”

Lu Chu placed the chopsticks in his hand down, and said in a serious manner, “how would you be removed?”

“For example,” 7 gently helped Lu Chu wipe the corner of his mouth, “finding someone to kill me.”

Lu Chu’s heart skipped a beat.

“Then,” Lu Chu swallowed slightly, “did the ‘rules’, try to eliminate me before?”

7 stoop up, walked to the living room, took the pen and paper that Lu Chu had written on just now, and then walked back. He asked Lu Chu, “do you know what requirements your ‘game’ had?”

Lu Chu, “what is it?”

7 bent down, and smoothly wrote several lines on the paper.

Lu Chu took it.

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To see that on the paper was written–

“Requirements: Live.

Clue: None.

Tips: Seven Days.”

Extremely concise.

Lu Chu asked, “is it to survive seven days after the city became senseless?”

Lu Chu was thoughtful, “in the story of beheading a snake, the snake left after taking its revenge, and didn’t harm the child’s parents. Now, I can’t sense Lin Lin’s soul, and she probably won’t make a move against us. Only……”

7 nodded, “seven days later, once the player reaches the tower we went to at that time, then they would be able to return to the ‘rules’.”

At this moment, it was pressing tightly against Liu Cuihe’s back, lying on her body, and as if it had felt something, the snake and the hideous head turned to look at Lu Chu at the same time, stared at him, then slowly showed a creepy smile.

Speaking of which, Lu Chu remembered, in the first seven days since the city turned senseless, he had been imprisoned in his room by 7, and listened to the chaotic sound from the outside. People were shrieking in fear, and there were people continuously banging on his door, yet, he never stepped out of the room door even once.

During those days, it seemed that 7 often went out at night.

Before they went out of the door, they looked back the Liu Cuihe, who was sitting on the ground, crying in an extremely ugly manner. Lu Chu suddenly realised, that the bones of Lin Lin they had dug up before turned into a complete human skeleton. Her white bones were mottled with dirt and creepy reptiles, and a brightly coloured snake peeked out from the left eye of the skull.

At that time, Lu Chu could feel that 7’s actions didn’t hold any malice at all, and instead, it seemed like he was being protected.

Just as Lu Chu thinking of saying something, Qi Li sat down across Lu Chu again, and said, “have you ever thought about it, in the game that you originally live in, why those ‘senseless people’ would knock on your door?”

Lu Chu felt that his whole body became light, and ‘it’s scent had slowly disappeared, not longer surrounding them.

Clearly, they couldn’t see or hear, and normally, they would be aimlessly panicking on the street, wandering around dejectedly, even to the point of despair and self-mutilation. They, who never knew that human beings could lose their senses, after falling into that situation, should be clueless and easy to deal with, and not know where someone would be, but they accurately went to bang on Lu Chu’s door.

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“Because,” Lu Chu said, “the ‘rules’ wanted to get rid of me?”

“Yes, you’ve already become a variable, and within that seven days, the ‘rules’ will try its best to get rid of you.”

It seemed that, the actions 7 took at that time, was indeed to protect him.

However, there was still another question in Lu Chu’s heart, “after finding out that my existence was against the world, then why didn’t the rules try to find a way to get rid of this unstable factor earlier, but instead, only took action after the city lost its senses.”

It turned out that Yang Cheng had died before he and everybody else came to the village. At that time, they were planning on making a film, and Yang Cheng came into the village beforehand to investigate the situation, but stumbled into a well, and became possessed by Lin Lin, who had been accumulating her resentful energy for over twenty years.

“Before that,” 7 touched his own eyebrows, “of course there was.”

Lu Chu suddenly looked up at him.

Lin Lin’s half rotten face was covered by her grass-like hair as she faced Liu Cuihe, opened her mouth and said, “that person…… is you.”

“Because, I’m the one responsible for getting rid of you.”

7’s tone was too gentle, and this made Lu Chu feel as if it wasn’t real, however, such a 7 coincided with the quiet and steady man that he had first met.

While Lu Chu was in a trance, 7 touched the corner of his lips, and said in a manner as if he was reminiscing about:

“Killing you, would be the easiest cleaning up operation I’ve ever done.”

“But I failed.”