Doomsday Wonderland Vol. 12: New Game Launch [Complete]

1396: The Reappearing Exit

When you begin to blame human nature, you forget the existence of the elephant.

Lin Sanjiu stared at her own hands, repeatedly reciting this sentence in her heart. In recent days, she had secretly harbored resentments, feeling that these newcomers who hadn't experienced life and death with her couldn't withstand the test, and quickly showed their true colors. But now, as she sat weakly in a corner, immobilized, she suddenly felt gratitude and relief. Thankfully it was these people.

If Han Suiping hadn't died, or if those who entered the game with her happened to be Maxin or even Bohemia, could she ensure that they wouldn't end up in the same predicament? What would she have done then?

And could she herself have avoided it?

Perhaps humans are such creatures that they can only possess goodness in an environment that allows for it. Blaming someone for not retaining their humanity is like blaming a certain bacteria for not surviving in temperatures above 100 degrees – it's simply not the environment in which it can thrive. She might be lucky, akin to a heat-resistant bacterium, but even such bacteria have their limits.

Thinking deeply, maybe humans, aware of this, have spent millennia slowly transitioning from barbarity to civilization.

Ji Shanqing's silhouette constantly hovered beside Nu Yue. Glancing at the wall's timer, six hours had passed. Her gaze shifted quickly away from the sentence next to the timing digits.

"Please explain within an hour why the fields were damaged."

According to Silvan, the game hadn't given up; it had resumed its mental exercises. The game probably recognized that they had remembered the elephant's existence. When they thought of the chief culprit that placed them in this situation, the grievances, discontent, and animosities they harbored against each other over the past few days had been suppressed and gradually faded.

"I'll answer the question," Silvan insisted, despite his pain and weakness. "Don't worry about it."

As the hour neared its end, he answered, "Unforeseeable circumstances, similar to natural disasters, destroyed the fields."

Everyone in the room heard his response. But after some thought, Lin Sanjiu realized that Silvan's answer was specially crafted. He didn't directly state "natural disaster" because that answer, aligned with the game's will, would once again force them to overlook the elephant's existence. However, unforeseeable circumstances similar to natural disasters met the question's requirement yet immediately reminded them of the elephant that had taken lives one after another.

The question reluctantly disappeared. She expected a barrage of questions to follow, but to her surprise, everything halted. Half a day passed, and the wall remained empty.

The elephant slowly took a couple of steps, probing its trunk into the vacant food trough, seeking something before stopping. It turned, its body covered in human eyes, each one scanning as if trying to scrutinize every individual's face, searching for reasons why the tax hadn't been paid today.

In truth, they could no longer pay the tax. The tax collector, Jian Sheng, was lying beside Silvan, his breathing erratic. Nobody knew how much longer he would last.

"If you can hold on till tonight," Lin Sanjiu told him, "I'll give you three food balls to keep you alive till tomorrow. If you can last until the game ends, we'll treat you."

Asking Ji Shanqing to access Nu Yue's data had already been a significant burden for him. After discussing with the grand prize, Lin Sanjiu realized that having him access Jian Sheng's data wasn't as straightforward as it sounded. Ji Shanqing was currently just a thin strand of his original consciousness, and this consciousness was quickly running out of energy. If he were to vanish from excessive strain, Han Suiping and Nu Yue would disappear along with him.