The night before the promotion

Chapter 79 Chaos and Complexity
Huo Daochuan left the office, and the moment the hatch closed, he also cut off Shan Jun's desires and conspiracies.

He pushed Zhou Si back into the narrow cabin. There were only the two of them in the room, sitting face to face, and the atmosphere fell into an unspeakable silence.

The tiger's punch made Zhou Si's eye socket turn blue and there was faint bleeding under the skin. Zhou Si squinted his eyes and silently endured the pain in his body.

Huo Daochuan lowered his head, his hands crossed and fiddling restlessly, all kinds of frantic thoughts entangled in the shadows, like a group of mice entangled by their tails, trying madly to break free from each other's restraints.

The suffocating silence lasted for a long time until Zhou Si's slightly hoarse voice sounded.

"Huo Daochuan, I believe in your justice."

Zhou Si suddenly said this without any context. Huo Daochuan raised his head and looked at him in confusion.

"At first, I thought you were like Shanjun, a maniac completely dominated by desire, but now it seems that I was wrong."

Zhou Si laughed deeply, "You are a fool, a naive, idealistic fool. Only such a fool would have a spirit of self-sacrifice, thinking that everything he does is for others."

Huo Daochuan did not respond. Not long ago, he was still proud of the justice in his heart, but in the blink of an eye, the tiger pushed it all down and burned it.

"No... Shanjun won't compromise like this. We agreed on this at the beginning..."

Huo Daochuan tried to defend himself, but all he got was a more sympathetic look from Zhou Si.

"Forget it, Huo Daochuan, just believe what I said."

Zhou Si waved his hand to stop Huo Daochuan from speaking, and then he asked, "Compared to these, I'm more curious about what you've been through to become such a fool."

Huo Daochuan looked at Zhou Si warily without saying a word, while Zhou Si comforted him, "Don't worry, I'm not a danger to you."

"Since the Paradise of Bliss is gradually out of the control of the Immortal, I think that I am just a gift of the Immortal Transformation Technique to the Mountain King. Maybe in a while, a few people will rush in, extract my brain alive, and carefully seal it up."

Zhou Si imagined the terrible future, but there was no fear in his expression.

"This time it's not an illusion created by the Paradise system, but a real dissection that happened in reality."

Zhou Si paused and guided, "Say something, Huo Daochuan. I am your doctor. This will be your last resort."

Huo Daochuan was amused by Zhou Si. He sighed, "It's already this time, and you still care about this kind of thing?"

"I can't help it. Just like I have the stubbornness of self-righteousness, I also have the stubbornness of a doctor's benevolence."

Zhou Si reluctantly changed his sitting position and stretched his body as much as possible. "I think you should understand my idea."

This time Huo Daochuan was silent for a long time. Zhou Si closed his eyes and waited patiently. His mind was exceptionally calm, even though he was in extreme danger.

A long time ago, Zhou Si was a person who was prone to anxiety, but after the Xianyue accident brought about a huge change in his life, Zhou Si seemed to be liberated. He would no longer worry about things that had not yet happened.

Zhou Si is a person who lives in the present.

Huo Daochuan sorted out his thoughts and said, "I think the reason why I am so naive is probably because the Paradise System can satisfy anyone's desires, but not mine."

"why?"

Huo Daochuan said expressionlessly, "Remember my love story? It is indeed true, but the difference is that I concealed some key information."

"I guessed it," Zhou Si nodded, "Go on."

"I fell in love with a... Prisoner incarnate? I guess that's the kind of person she is. In order to support her family, she borrowed a large sum of money from the gang. As a result, she was used as collateral and was stuffed into a water tank to work day and night."

Huo Daochuan's gaze gradually became blurred, as if he was looking at an extremely distant shore.

"We worked together for a long time and talked about everything. In my closed life, she was my only window to the world. But one day, she suddenly disappeared from my life, and I knew nothing about her except the memories that became blurred over time."

Huo Daochuan laughed awkwardly, "Since then, I have been looking for her, joining one human resources company after another, constantly projecting my consciousness until I contracted the disease of separation from consciousness, and have come all the way to now."

Without Zhou Si's further questioning, Huo Daochuan continued to tell the story himself.

"Looking back now, I can't tell whether this was love or an obsession woven from my own fantasy, like a puzzle that haunts you your whole life, and you try every possible way to solve it."

Huo Daochuan said self-deprecatingly, "In fact, I envy those who can be satisfied in the paradise. I have also sneaked into the paradise, but when I was in it, I felt a strong sense of confusion."

Zhou Si pointed out Huo Daochuan’s confusion sharply.

"Yes, you have entered a paradise where all your desires can be satisfied, but you can't even describe your desires."

Huo Daochuan raised his hands to cover his face and sighed deeply, "I don't know her name or appearance, and I don't have any audio records. I can't even restore her voice. The only concrete image I have is a rusty infrastructure incarnation."

"Isn't this ridiculous, Doctor Zhou?"

Zhou Si shook his head calmly, "No, I just think it's pathetic."

"That's about right."

Huo Daochuan stared at the blazing white light above his head, numbing his vision. "Sometimes, I even wonder if all this is just an illusion of my own imagination?"

"Except for the increasingly blurred memories in my mind, there is nothing to prove that she existed. Perhaps all this is really just a fantasy caused by neurological disorder."

The conversation between the two fell into a long silence again. As the wind and rain outside intensified, the cabin also trembled slightly, and the roar of thunder could be heard faintly.

Zhou Si laughed suddenly and said, "The typhoon outside should be very strong, right?"

“Think about it, the typhoon named General Lin is coming in big strides, lifting the mighty sea water high into the sky and then smashing it down hard, just like a child playing, it has no meaning.

In front of General Lin, the magnificent Anyan City is nothing more than some slightly hardened earth mounds, and we, the common people, are no different from the fish caught in the sea."

Zhou Si laughed happily and said alertly, "Huo Daochuan, as your doctor, I have one last advice for you. Run away quickly."

"You are a naive person who is driven by 'justice'. People like you are as stubborn as me, inflexible and only care about what's in your heart.

When the interests of the tiger and you are aligned, and you work together for that ridiculous ideal, you can comfort yourself and console yourself with "justice" and swing your sword without hesitation, but when you have a disagreement, everything is completely different. "

Zhou Si judged coldly, "The paradise cannot give you the desire you want, which also means that you are not someone who will be completely dominated by the tiger... As for the rest, there is no need to say more."

Huo Daochuan was naive and idealistic, but he was not a fool. How could he not have thought of what Zhou Si said? In fact, Huo Daochuan had begun to regret his speech in the office just now. He should not have expressed his dissent so clearly.

Zhou Si noticed a corner of Huo Daochuan's pocket, which looked like a booklet.

"what is that?"

Huo Daochuan took the booklet out of his pocket, glanced at the cover with a complicated expression, and replied, "This is our Taoist scripture." "Taoist scripture?" Zhou Si's swollen eyes lit up, "Can I take a look?"

Now Zhou Si only has one hand left, and it is covered with scars. Even a simple task like turning a booklet with one hand is extremely difficult for him.

Huo Daochuan considerately opened the booklet, held it in front of Zhou Si, and flipped the pages at a certain speed.

"Man follows the earth, the earth follows the sky, the sky follows the Tao, the Tao follows nature... Mortals are weak and can only be liberated by becoming immortals."

Zhou Si read a few pages in a low voice and commented, "Hahaha, it's quite interesting. It's just like the setting in the immortal cultivation novels that can be found everywhere on the Internet... What is this repeatedly mentioned time of ascending to immortality?"

Huo Daochuan put away the booklet and sighed, "Just like in many religious myths, there is a doomsday that ends everything, and there are similar stories in the legend of the construction of the paradise."

Zhou Si responded, "When you ascend to heaven?"

"Well, the general meaning is that at some point in the future, when the paradise is about to be destroyed, the door to becoming an immortal will also open, and everyone will ascend to the immortal realm on that day."

Zhou Si carefully analyzed Huo Daochuan's words, thought for a long time, and asked, "Huo Daochuan, do you believe such a ridiculous belief so easily?"

"When people are desperate, they always try to believe in something, don't they?"

Huo Daochuan didn't care. "What's more, the tiger did take out the feather transformation technology and the paradise system. Just as the tiger said before, everything he promised will be fulfilled in our lifetime."

After a pause, Huo Daochuan sighed again, "I also doubted it, but Shanjun gave me a good reason."

"what?"

"Most of our members suffer from cognitive dissociation, and are constantly affected by it. Clear rules and principles cannot restrain them. On the contrary, if we use some mysterious beliefs, they will become addicted to it."

Zhou Si praised, "When it comes to organizing and operating the organization, Shanjun is really great."

There was a sudden ticking sound. Huo Daochuan picked up the communicator in his arms and listened attentively until the call ended.

Huo Daochuan's expression became noticeably more serious, like a frozen mask hanging in the dark and dilapidated temple.

Zhou Si noticed his change and asked, "Have you decided what to do with me?"

"Yes."

Huo Daochuan took a deep breath. Before in the paradise, he could inflict all kinds of cruel torture on Zhou Si without any psychological pressure. That was because he knew that all this was fake.

But right now, the absolute truth is about to happen.

"What are they going to do to me?"

Zhou Si still kept smiling, "Tell me about it, I'm looking forward to it too."

"Just as you guessed, you are Chen Wen Ge's best student, the most perfect candidate, and the first one. They plan to extract your brain and make you into wetware to test the feathering technology."

"Oh? Are you going to push me into the operating room next?"

Zhou Si thought, "If I only have my brain left, it means that all my senses from my body will be cut off. I will be in absolute darkness and can't do anything except thinking... It doesn't sound that bad."

"You are really optimistic."

Huo Daochuan added, "In fact, at first, I just thought you were a charlatan."

"now what?"

"You are indeed a powerful person, Dr. Zhou."

Huo Daochuan sincerely admired her, "No matter the torture in the paradise or the cruel facts you are about to face, you can always keep your sanity and dignity... Few people can do this."

"I'm just good at convincing myself," Zhou Si asked, "but compared to that, when you performed the surgery on me, you should have injected me with anesthetics, right?"

Huo Daochuan smiled helplessly and explained, "No, before that, they plan to let you go through another step."

"what?"

"Shanjun wants to use you as an example to show our other business projects and assets to customers."

Huo Daochuan walked behind Zhou Si, pushed his wheelchair and continued, "By the way...by the way, I'll play another round with you and win back the one I lost."

Zhou Si asked curiously, "Does he care so much about winning or losing?"

"From what I know, Shanjun was once a soldier, controlling an armed avatar and fighting on an empty battlefield."

Huo Daochuan took the opportunity to talk about Shanjun's past, "But in one operation, the enemy broke through the layers of blockades, raided Shanjun's position, and bombed their dream pool into ruins."

“Miraculously, the tiger did not die in the ruins, and the dream pool that was crushed by the building debris was still able to operate to a certain extent.

So in the ruins, the seriously injured tiger used the damaged dream pool to control the armed avatar and defeated the opponent in turn. "

"That's awesome!"

Zhou Si cheered with a hoarse voice. If he only had one hand left, he really wanted to applaud the story of the tiger.

"Is that when his legs were broken?"

"Yes, after that Shan Jun retired honorably. I don't know what happened after that. When I first met him, he was already our leader."

After Huo Daochuan finished telling the story of the tiger, a look of struggle appeared on his face.

Zhou Si keenly caught this point and said, "You are hesitating whether to send me over... You don't agree with Shanjun's behavior of putting profit above all else, right?"

Huo Daochuan ignored Zhou Si's words and said to himself, "We exist for the patients with cognitive impairment and for the greater advancement of mankind, not for the selfish desires of some individuals."

He took a deep breath, as if he wanted to burst his lungs and let the feeling of fullness fill his chest.

"I don't think these few words can make you change your mind and betray Shanjun," Zhou Si said softly like a wise man, "Don't worry about it, Huo Daochuan, send me over."

Zhou Si tried to adjust his sitting posture and clenched his numb fists.

"Besides, I've always wanted to kill Shanjun... really kill him."

(End of this chapter)