Yan Wei was momentarily startled by his own thoughts.
The question of “Am I really me?” is fundamentally unanswerable.
He blinked, a hint of confusion flashing in his amber eyes, and instinctively blurted out, “Yan Mingguang, have you ever thought that maybe you just mistook someone for me?”
Beside him, Yan Mingguang seemed to be reconfirming the condition of his wound. He had one hand resting on Yan Wei’s shoulder, slightly bowing his head, looking down at the injured area, and calmly said, “It will feel much better in a few hours.”
Yan Wei: “…I’m asking you.”
Nearby, Lin Zhen was peeking around the corner of the hallway, munching on nuts while watching the fight between the four players not far away, showing no interest in what was happening beside him, appearing to have no complicated thoughts at all.
Yan Wei didn’t expect Lin Zhen, who clearly didn’t care about breaking the deadlock, to think much. He just slightly raised his gaze to Yan Mingguang and said solemnly, “I’m serious. Benevolent Automaton players have the same awareness, so everything we experienced before entering the castle, as a Benevolent Automaton and as a player, I would know. So—”
“So I won’t mistake anyone.” Yan Mingguang simply stated.
The rare flicker of doubt that had just emerged in Yan Wei vanished under the other’s resolute words. He chuckled lightly, raising an eyebrow, “Why are you so sure?”
“Intuition.”
Yan Wei: “…Are you kidding me, you ice block?”
Yan Mingguang fell silent.
Yan Wei asked again, “What about you? Have you never had doubts? What if you didn’t mistake anyone, but… I did?”
“No, I’m not a Benevolent Automaton.”
Yan Wei suddenly felt an indescribable sense of stability. Yan Mingguang hadn’t provided him with any evidence, just a confident attitude, but this confidence was crucial in the current situation.
It was as if it completely severed his wavering.
He lifted his foot and lightly kicked Lin Zhen’s ankle.
Lin Zhen turned around, “Hey, why are you kicking me?”
“Have you ever encountered a version of yourself?”
“No, if I did, I’d just beat him up.”
“What if you are the Benevolent Automaton?”
Without thinking, Lin Zhen replied, “Then it wouldn’t stop me from beating up another idiot, and besides, I firmly believe that I am me.”
The sounds of fighting grew louder; it seemed the battle between the four players not far away was nearing its end, with the sounds of someone being knocked to the ground already echoing. A few players still inside the room slightly opened the door to take a look, but those remaining inside either wanted to stay low-key and observe the situation or were simply too afraid to step outside, showing no interest in the commotion. After glancing, they closed the door again.
At this moment, players or Puppets were scattered throughout the castle.
Outside, crows circled the deep and eerie castle, emitting hoarse caws. The moonlight was sparse, and the starry night enveloped the entire mountain.
Inside the castle, the sounds of the wind and the cawing of crows could still be faintly heard.
Yan Wei fell silent for a moment.
He said, “I understand now.”
Whether or not he was a Benevolent Automaton, whether or not he was a player, was fundamentally unimportant.
If he truly became entrapped by this façade of reality, began to question his own existence, and completely fell into the slaughter deliberately guided by the instance, that would be the real trap set by the instance’s intricacies.
“So what if I’m a player? So what if I’m a Benevolent Automaton? There is no distinction between a Benevolent Automaton and a player. Yes, this is irrefutable, but precisely because of this irrefutability, it also brings a flaw— we will have the same thoughts.”
“Since the purpose is the same, why should I be entangled in who I really am? I just need to break the deadlock.”
On another floor of the castle.
A young man dressed in a trench coat and scarf stood on the third floor, surrounded by shards of broken glass, turning to look back at the forty or so seed players who had originally intended to capture him.
The layout of the third floor was complex, filled with various items for making Puppets, making it a natural trap.
At this moment, those players had fallen right into his trap, caught in a massive Puppet production line, surrounded by all sorts of swaying blades, leaving them no time to search for him.
He stood in the corridor, looking up at everything before him, his light brown eyes filled with contemplation.
The face that resembled Yan Wei’s bore a naturally gentle expression, slightly obscured by the depth of his thoughts. He surveyed his surroundings, his expression unchanged.
Behind him, a player, cut down by the Puppet-making items, let out a long wail, blood splattering and barely landing at his feet.
After a moment, he suddenly chuckled lightly.
“There’s nothing to think about,” he murmured to himself, “If I can’t tell the difference, then there’s no need to. I am me, the Benevolent Automaton is me, and the player is also me.”
“What we all want is simply to come in first.”
“I’m on the third floor, he’s on the second floor. If I were on the player-dominated second floor, what would I do…?”
Second floor.
The four players had already determined the victor— the refined man, no matter how strong, could not possibly be a match for his three teammates.
Before long, the refined man was knocked away by his teammates, crashing against the wall with a loud bang, and when he rolled to the ground, his eyes were already somewhat glazed over, clearly gravely injured.
“Let’s go!” one person stepped forward, using an item rope to tie up the refined man, “We’re heading to the Stargazing Platform upstairs to score another point.”
Not far away, Lin Zhen waved his hand, “Little pet, Yan Mingguang, they’re done fighting. Should we make our move?”
Yan Wei replied irritably, “Make a move? Just follow behind. I want to see what happens if they take someone who has already scored a point or a Benevolent Automaton to find the Man in Black Robe.”
“Eh? What do you mean? Is there something special about someone who has already scored or a Benevolent Automaton?”
“Just a guess. I mentioned to Yan Mingguang before that under the current rules, the last couple of days will create an imbalance between effort and reward, leading everyone to abandon the peaceful situation of not making a move, which completely contradicts the theme of the instance. That’s why I want to cooperate with you to act, causing them to turn on each other, sending this person who scored first to exchange points, to see if my guess is correct.”
As he spoke, he gestured for Yan Mingguang and Lin Zhen to follow, and the three of them quietly trailed behind.
Yan Wei had strong perception; although his body index was still inferior to those forty-plus seed players, at this moment, with deliberate attention, he could ensure that every step he took made no sound. Yan Mingguang and Lin Zhen were both players with outstanding body indexes, so following the few players who had just fought was a piece of cake.
Thus, the three of them followed closely behind those players, arriving at the Stargazing Platform at the top of the castle.
The castle had four floors; the first was the grand hall they entered, the second was guest rooms, the third was various laboratories and operating rooms, and the fourth was where the Man in Black Robe stayed.
When Yan Wei and the others reached the stairway to the fourth floor, they hid behind the stair railing, gazing from a distance without approaching.
The higher the castle went, the smaller the space became, and the fourth floor could be seen in its entirety at a glance.
The ceiling of the fourth floor was made of glass, allowing an unobstructed view of the entire starry sky, along with the crows circling around the castle and the Jungle Maze. The Man in Black Robe stood in the center of the Stargazing Platform, looking up at the sky, seemingly lost in thought.
Not far from the Man in Black Robe, there was a massive meat grinder.
That must be the meat grinder mentioned by those players earlier, used to destroy Benevolent Automatons and exchange for points. The meat grinder was still stained with blood, the blood of those sent here and the Benevolent Automatons.
Yan Wei and the others hid in the shadows, watching as the group tied up the refined man and brought him before the Man in Black Robe.
Someone said, “We’ve caught another Benevolent Automaton.”
The refined man struggled, but he was already gravely injured and tightly bound, utterly powerless to move.
The hoarse voice of the Man in Black Robe rang out, “Lift him up with me.”
As he spoke, the Man in Black Robe extended his hand, and the player holding the refined man lifted him up, positioning him directly over the meat grinder’s feed opening. The refined man struggled frantically, but both the player and the Man in Black Robe acted as if they were not lifting a life, unhesitatingly throwing the refined man into the meat grinder’s feed opening.
In the next moment, the sound of the meat grinder starting up echoed.
The refined man was thrown in feet first, and at the moment he was tossed in, even Yan Wei, who was hiding at the stairway, heard the sickening crunch of bones being ground, along with the refined man’s scream.
The scream lasted only a short while; within seconds, the refined man’s head was also pulverized.
Yan Mingguang’s expression remained unchanged, Lin Zhen watched the meat grinder operate with keen interest, while Yan Wei frowned uncomfortably at the smell of blood wafting through the air.
A few minutes later, the refined man was completely ground to pieces.
The Man in Black Robe said nothing, simply turned around and slowly walked back to the center of the Stargazing Platform.
The player who had thrown the refined man into the meat grinder seemed momentarily stunned, then said, “What’s going on? We didn’t gain a single point?”
Another person turned pale, “…He’s not a Benevolent Automaton!?”
“But that doesn’t make sense,” the first person said, “Then why did I gain a point? Look, our total score hasn’t changed, but I gained a point.”
Yan Wei withdrew his gaze.
He exchanged glances with Yan Mingguang and Lin Zhen, and the three of them quietly descended the stairs again, arriving at an unoccupied corner.
“Just as I thought.”
Yan Mingguang said nothing, just walked to the other side, taking out a lighter and a cigarette. In a moment, the rising smoke obscured much of his face, covering his indifferent expression.
He didn’t speak, but Yan Wei knew he must have realized something as well.
Yan Mingguang’s character… probably couldn’t stand such rules more than he could.
Lin Zhen asked, “So? Can you two stop playing guessing games and just talk? It makes me feel superfluous!”
Yan Wei sighed, “The current apparent rule is that as long as you capture a player you see and hand them over to the Man in Black Robe like before, you have a fifty percent chance of earning a point. From a probability standpoint, the expected value is 0.5; if you catch one, you might mistakenly catch a real player and not earn a point, but if you catch ten, you’ll likely earn around five points. This rule will make players unable to resist the temptation of profit, leading them to start capturing other players, because the players here have varying strengths, and strong players will definitely capture ordinary players in the early stages.”
“But later on, the ones who survive will be the rare ones, and the risk won’t outweigh the reward, so everyone will hold back, and there will be fewer Benevolent Automatons left. In the end, there will be more players remaining.”
“So what can keep the players fighting? I was just thinking, right now there are many Benevolent Automatons, so what drives us is capturing Benevolent Automatons. Later, when there are more players, what drives us… is it capturing players?”
Lin Zhen wasn’t stupid; as soon as Yan Wei finished this thought, he immediately reacted, “Wow, is this instance that thrilling?”
“It’s not thrilling; it’s cruel. The Man in Black Robe said that a Benevolent Automaton can earn one point and ten gold coins, but he didn’t say that this is the only way to earn points and gold coins—players can also exchange for points and gold coins.”
“If a person hands over another player who has already scored a point to the Man in Black Robe and throws them into the meat grinder, then that player’s point will transfer to this person. The total score of that organization didn’t change, but the player who threw the refined man into the meat grinder gained a point, which completely aligns with the instance’s motivation—he ‘killed’ the refined man, and he obtained all of the refined man’s scores.”
This is how the instance guarantees player conflict.
At the beginning, capturing those ordinary players, spending time and effort, earned points one after another, with risk and reward being proportional.
Later, as the remaining players increased, they would specifically target high-scoring players. The risk would be high, but the reward would be even greater—capturing one would yield a massive score all at once!
Yan Wei sneered, “This game has only one purpose from start to finish, which is to draw out the greatest evil in human nature, making everyone harm their kind for profit and survival. At first, players capture Benevolent Automatons, and in the end, players capture players.”
“But there’s still a chance of capturing the wrong one, ending up with a Benevolent Automaton,” Lin Zhen pouted, “Benevolent Automatons have the same strength as players but are only worth one point. Isn’t that a risk far outweighing the reward? How can you tell if you’re capturing a player and not a Benevolent Automaton?”
Yan Wei raised an eyebrow, pointing at the Number Lamp light beneath their feet.
“Do you see this number? In the early stages, it helps us confirm the number of Puppets around us; later on… as the number of Puppets and players drastically decreases, the player density will drop, and there might not be a single player or Benevolent Automaton within three hundred meters. If you encounter a player, your number will only be ‘0’; if you encounter a Benevolent Automaton, your number will be ‘1’, then you won’t need to waste time with them.”
This game fundamentally becomes more rewarding the further it goes.
Capturing a player can yield a massive score; why not? Plus, this Number Lamp can help distinguish whether the person in front of you is a player, so there’s no fear of making a mistake.
“When that time really comes, everything will spiral out of control.”
Yan Mingguang extinguished his cigarette, looking at him through the swirling smoke, and said, “What will you do? There are many players in this instance capable of discovering clues, and time is pressing.”
And those people might prefer such slaughter and elimination, not necessarily willing to choose other ways to break the deadlock.
These were the unspoken words of Yan Mingguang, but Yan Wei understood.
“No, time is indeed pressing for my thought process alone.”
“But I’m not alone.”
On the other side of the castle, a young man identical to Yan Wei was quickly running down the stairs.
“I have doubts and speculations about the instance’s rules; just now, I was guessing whether capturing a player who has already scored would yield that player’s points all at once. If I were on the player-dominated second floor, I would definitely first verify this.”
The meticulous logic in “Yan Wei’s” mind was interlocking, each piece fitting together rigorously.
Forward and reverse thinking continuously flipped; he gasped for breath, sprinting down to the first floor.
He was confident in himself; his guesses generally wouldn’t be too far off, but the process of verification was essential. If he verified incorrectly, he would immediately take new action, but the lack of other movements on the second floor indicated that his guess was not wrong.
If the guess was not wrong, this rule would only become more terrifying later on. His first thought must be to delay the arrival of this situation, to find alternative ways to break the deadlock and win the ranking match.
Thus, the first thing he needed to do was delay everyone’s scoring.
The Number Lamp beneath the players played a crucial supporting role.
“Yan Wei” ran down another floor, slightly out of breath, but his amber-clear eyes were filled with confidence.
On the third floor of the castle, hiding in a corner, Yan Wei said to Yan Mingguang and Lin Zhen, “I am me, he is also me, and our goals are the same.”
“I’m here to verify this scoring method, so he will…”
On the first floor of the castle, “Yan Wei” stood in front of the power box supplying the entire castle’s Number Lamp, chuckling lightly.
“I will be the first to destroy this power source.”
