The night before the promotion

Chapter 74 Eternal Nightmare
"Because it's too beautiful, it reveals its flaws?"

The black shadow came to the photo wall, holding up his chin, looking at every detail of Zhou Si's past while reflecting on himself.

"Yes, Dr. Zhou, you gave me a very good suggestion."

The shadow turned around and said, "The real world is imperfect. If we want humans to be completely immersed in this illusion, we also need this imperfection."

"So this isn't the real world, is it?"

Zhou Si lazily sat on the sofa, looking out the window at the boundless blue sky. "Virtual reality? I heard Pei Dong talk to me about this thing. You dragged her into a perfect dream, which rekindled her hope to live."

At this point, Zhou Si looked at the black shadow curiously, "But I didn't expect that you could make this place so real. I admit that I was indeed deceived when I first woke up."

He laughed at himself and said, "I thought it was some rebirth plot in a novel that happened to me... This is totally inconsistent with materialism."

"Hahaha."

The shadow also laughed in response, and then he explained, "It's not difficult to build this place."

"We investigated your and Ruan Linrui's social media and used the photos you posted in the past to 3D process this living room and recreate it."

The shadow added, "Of course, this method also has its limitations, for example..."

Zhou Si answered first, "For example, you can only reproduce this living room, and the place closed by the door is blank, right?"

The shadow responded with silence.

Zhou Si glanced at the tightly closed bedroom door, then looked at Ruan Linrui's body at his feet.

He sighed helplessly, "You'd better tell me that she is also the result of programming. If I just kissed a stranger wearing her skin, it would feel really disgusting."

"She is of course the result of programming. We scanned Ms. Ruan's photos to generate a 3D image, which was then processed by technical personnel. The timbre of her voice was collected from her public speeches. As for her personality, it was restored based on her performance on social media and our investigations."

The shadow's tone was very excited, like a product manager enthusiastically introducing his products to investors.

Zhou Si shook his head, not interested in his product. "It has a shell but no soul."

The shadow joked, "Doctor Zhou, you have to know that many people only care about the body."

Zhou Si didn't intend to talk to him any more. He just looked to the other side of the living room, where there was a huge photo frame hanging.

In the black and white photo, a man and a woman stand face to face, pulling a taut bow in their hands. The arrow in the man's hand is pointing at the woman's heart, and the woman holds the bow tightly. The tension of the bow causes their bodies to lean backwards. Once there is the slightest deviation, the arrow in the man's hand will shoot out and pierce the woman's heart.

This is a work created in 1980 by performance artists Abramović and Ulay, titled "Potential".

Ruan Linrui liked this work very much and hung it in the most conspicuous place in her home. Zhou Si knew nothing about this kind of art work. He once asked Ruan Linrui about the deep meaning behind it. Ruan Linrui said that such things need to be felt by oneself.

After many years, seeing this work again, Zhou Si understood a little bit that he was the man in the work. As long as he held the arrow tightly, he could maintain that fatal balance with Ruan Linrui... But Zhou Si let go first.

It pierced Ruan Linrui's heart.

Zhou Si looked away; everything here made him feel upset.

He shifted his focus and asked, "Where is the real me? Am I locked in a water tank by you?"

"No, facing the explosion directly caused multiple fractures in your body and a large area of ​​burns on your skin," the shadow explained, "You are currently lying in the medical cabin, receiving our treatment."

Zhou Si continued to ask, "So what are you going to do next?"

"Let me ask you a few questions."

Zhou Si's attitude was firm, "You know I won't answer... no matter what you ask."

The shadow was silent for a few seconds, then burst into terrifying laughter, "Doctor Zhou, you don't understand the current situation at all."

He opened his arms and looked around, like a great creator, showing everyone the world he created.

"This is a system called Paradise. You should be able to guess how it works. Since humans can upload their consciousness into the avatar body and gain various senses, why don't we just delete the avatar body and directly stimulate the brain through simulated electrical signals?"

Zhou Si understood, and said, "Is this the so-called 'Elysian Paradise'?"

"As long as there is enough data, it can simulate any dream that a person desires, whether it is good or bad, noble or despicable, all dreams will come true here."

Zhou Si pondered for a moment, and then he guessed what the black shadow would do next.

He asked, "You are Huo Daochuan."

The black shadow's movements paused, and soon, the shadows covering him faded away, revealing a familiar face.

Huo Daochuan sighed helplessly, "Doctor Zhou, I respect you very much, so please cooperate with me."

Zhou Si whispered, "But I don't respect you."

Huo Daochuan's breathing gradually became heavy. He raised his hand and snapped his fingers. The familiar living room suddenly collapsed and disappeared in a white light like shattered ashes. Even Ruan Linrui's body under his feet did the same.

The bright light made Zhou Si unable to open his eyes. When his vision returned, he had arrived at a dark and damp clinic. He was tied to an iron chair, and the cart beside him was filled with all kinds of shocking instruments. They were stained with blood, as if they had just ended the life of a poor man.

Zhou Si laughed, "Oh? Where did you extract this scene from? A horror movie?"

Huo Daochuan said nothing. Behind him, two dark shadows appeared. The data was loaded on their bodies. The shadows faded away, and two medical staff appeared in front of Zhou Si.

He persuaded again, "Doctor Zhou, you still have a chance. You don't want to know what you will experience next."

"I know, I know everything."

Zhou Si still looked nonchalant, "Since this place can simulate all kinds of happiness and joy, it can also bring absolute pain and torture."

Taking a deep breath, Zhou Si prepared himself. But before he started, he asked with concern, "You should have set a threshold for the pain limit, don't let me go into physiological shock and die in the medical cabin."

Huo Daochuan sneered, and the medical staff walked over quickly, picked up the instruments on the cart, and took off Zhou Si's socks.

With a loud bang, a piercing pain came from Zhou Si's left foot, as if these bastards had cut off his toes.

Huo Daochuan asked ruthlessly, "Do you want to continue, Doctor Zhou?"

In response, Zhou Si spat at him.

Huo Daochuan grabbed Zhou Si's hair, forced him to raise his head, picked up a scalpel, and gently pressed the sharp tip of the knife on Zhou Si's eyelids.

"In fact, we can directly input pain signals into you, just like sitting on an electric chair, to apply continuous and stable pain, but I don't think this fits the meaning of 'torture'.

The purpose of torture is to break down the opponent's psychological defenses and obtain the desired information. This can be regarded as a kind of "language art" rather than pure sadism and torture. "Zhou Si let out a series of painful low moans, and Huo Daochuan used a scissors to cut open his eyelids, exposing the bloodshot eyeballs directly to the air.

"At the same time, I also think that the interrogator's vision is also extremely important. Vision can absorb the most information. When watching one's body being gradually disintegrated, it can bring a huge impact."

Huo Daochuan picked up the bandages and forcibly fixed Zhou Si's head, forcing him to look at the bloody mess under his feet.

"Damn, this is so well made."

Zhou Si saw the turned flesh and blood, the exposed bones and blood vessels, it all seemed too real.

"By the way, Doctor Zhou, the speed of time in the virtual world and the real world is different, about five to one."

Huo Daochuan wiped the blood off the scissors gracefully and said with a smile, "We still have a lot of time left."

Zhou Si showed a pale and embarrassed smile, "Come on."

Soon, the medical staff cut off all of Zhou Si's toes. After finding that this level of torture had no effect on him, they rummaged through the tools on the cart like mathematicians facing a difficult problem, trying to find a more effective torture device.

"Ha ha……"

Zhou Si kept gasping for breath, sweat oozing out from his forehead and falling into his eyeballs which had no eyelids to protect them. The stimulation of the sweat made Zhou Si cry uncontrollably, and he fell to the ground and broke into pieces.

"Don't be afraid, Dr. Zhou, you won't die."

Huo Daochuan snapped his fingers again, and with a flash of light, as if time was going back, everything returned to its original state.

All the injuries on Zhou Si's body disappeared, only the residual pain lingered in his mind. The door was pushed open again, and two medical staff walked in pushing a cart.

Like a horror movie that was constantly replaying, Huo Daochuan reset the entire scene, trapping Zhou Si in this nightmare forever.

"Doctor Zhou, I hope you understand that as long as you cooperate, everything will be over and you will have a better future."

Huo Daochuan tempted, "Do you like sex? As long as you are willing, you will get pleasure beyond your imagination. There is no so-called sage time, only absolute stimulation. In the end, you will even get tired of this most instinctive desire."

"By the way, let me mention one thing. Don't pin your hopes on the Supervisory Bureau and Shenwei Technology."

Huo Daochuan laughed and said, "We checked your body and took out the locator. As for the artificial organs in your body, their positioning signals have also been blocked."

Zhou Si was silent at first, but then a defiant smile appeared on his face.

“No one can conquer me.”

Huo Daochuan said indifferently, "Then let's give it a try."

This time the medical staff changed their tactics. They cut off the flesh from Zhou Si's legs piece by piece, as if they were performing a slow slicing operation. After all, this was a virtual world and Zhou Si would not really die from bleeding.

Zhou Si remained silent, his eyes were dazed and blurred. He could still have hysterical reactions to various pains, but he seemed to have lost his soul, and it was only his physiological instincts that were at work.

Huo Daochuan opened his mouth to speak again, but the voice that came out was no longer his own, but another voice that Zhou Si was extremely familiar with, his own.

"What a mess, Dr. Zhou."

Zhou Si raised his head, and Huo Daochuan in front of him disappeared, replaced by the person in the mirror.

He brought a chair from somewhere and sat opposite Zhou Si, crossing his legs, looking relaxed and comfortable.

"Cough...cough..."

Zhou Si coughed twice in pain, but with the arrival of the person in the mirror, the pain all over his body was fading away little by little, as if Zhou Si had stripped the pain from his consciousness.

"Whenever you encounter something fatal like this, you will remember my kindness." The man in the mirror shook his head. "I have to say, you are indeed an asshole."

"Stop talking nonsense."

Zhou Si took deep breaths repeatedly to repair the wounds in his consciousness.

During this period, the scene was reset again, but the man in the mirror did not disappear. He was still sitting in front of Zhou Si, and only Zhou Si could see him.

Slowly, Zhou Si regained his consciousness. He asked in a low voice, "What's the situation?"

"It's so bad, they're sawing your thighs with angle grinders."

Then, the man in the mirror joked, "Oh? They missed... You can call me Eunuch Zhou now."

Hearing these damn words, Zhou Si was actually amused and forced a smile at the corners of his mouth.

The man in the mirror added, "But please rest assured, whether you are Zhou Si or Eunuch Zhou, you will not feel any pain, right?"

Zhou Si lowered his head and said nothing.

In mental training, Chen Wen-Ge gave some examples that some people would lose self-awareness and suffer from schizophrenia under high pressure, but these situations were passively triggered under extreme circumstances.

What qualified people like Zhou Si have to do is to actively use means such as "schizophrenia" and "loss of consciousness" to protect themselves when they are in extreme environments.

To this day, Zhou Si is still not sure whether the person in the mirror is the afterimage of his dead alter ego or the embodiment of this self-protection mechanism.

But what is certain is that, to a large extent, the man in the mirror does serve as an early warning of cognitive disease and a protective function in extreme environments.

The man in the mirror asked, "So what are you going to do?"

Zhou Si narrowed his eyes. He knew that it was not the "man in the mirror" who was asking the question, but Zhou Si himself who was asking himself.

"This kind of technology that constantly stimulates the brain is bound to put a burden on the brain," Zhou Si analyzed calmly, "If I continue to torture like this, my brain will be damaged sooner or later due to the burden, or even brain death."

"If they don't want to kill me, they will definitely release me... at least give me a break."

"And then?" the man in the mirror continued to ask, "Just passively endure it?"

Zhou Si thought deeply for a while, shook his head and said, "No, I'm just waiting, waiting for the changes to come."

"Which variable?"

"Bt-24."

……

In the continuous heavy rain, the Bt-24 flapped its wings with difficulty and moved towards the shadow under the thunder.

(End of this chapter)