Rhodes Island does not exist.

"Are you alright?" Skadi asked tentatively when the Doctor remained silent for a long time.

"What if."

The doctor closed his eyes and parted his lips slightly.

A small crack appeared in the cocoon inside my brain, letting out a little flowing light.

"If the idea of ​​the cognitive filter is not my original idea at all, but something I unearthed from the sea of ​​memories, then have we ever known each other before?"

Her leaping thoughts transformed into words, flowing into Skadi's cochlea.

"What?" She didn't even understand what the doctor said at first.

“You’ve heard of cognitive filters, and my cognitive filter might not be my original creation either. So there’s a possibility that the idea we know is actually something we heard from others, but was forgotten because we both lost our memories,” the Doctor said slowly. “At the same time, we all have one thing in common—we have no memories outside of Rhodes Island. So maybe we were acquaintances before we came to Rhodes Island.”

Skadi remained silent.

If she were to think about it, she probably wouldn't come to this conclusion.

Even when she heard the doctor's words, she wondered if she had misheard.

"Skadi." Before Skadi could sort out her thoughts, the Doctor called her name again.

"Do you have a mission here?"

"Yes." Skadi had the answer to that question.

"Leave Rhodes Island?" the doctor asked.

“No, no.” Skadi shook her head. “Although I have no memories of what happened before I came to Rhodes Island, I am certain that I did not come here to escape, but rather with a mission.”

"So what is your mission?" the doctor continued.

His voice even rose two octaves when he asked the question.

“I’ve come to reclaim what’s rightfully mine,” Skadi replied. “But the problem is, because I’ve lost my memories, I only know that I’ve come to reclaim something, but I don’t know what I’m actually looking for.”

"That's why you've been wandering around Rhodes Island." The Doctor shook his head.

“Yes, because I thought maybe when I see my target I’ll remember it.” Skadi looked up at the ceiling. “But so much time has passed and I still haven’t found it.”

“I think this is probably part of Rhodes Island’s rules,” the Doctor said in a deep voice.

"What rules?"

“Cognitive filters, memory loss, and the room's own traps, and… various linguistic restrictions,” the doctor explained. “The cognitive filter severed the exchange of information between us, and even triggered a crisis of trust. Memory loss left us clueless about what to do, only able to wander aimlessly through this tower. You've probably experienced enough of the dangers of the various rooms, and as for the linguistic restrictions… my forgetting you is the best example.”

Thinking of this, the doctor couldn't help but give a wry smile.

"No, besides this example, I'm afraid there's an even more suitable one that I can tell you."

As he spoke, the doctor extended his right hand toward Skadi.

A dark green vine was wrapped around his flesh, with mottled, dense thorns embedded within, and flesh turned inside out.

-

Thank you segment.

Chapter 163, Section 162: Information Exchange

Because he had mentioned Skadi's name to the strange creature, he had forgotten about her—the Doctor had intended to tell Skadi about this in detail.

But compared to the story of lavender, this example may seem a bit too bland.

So the doctor rolled up his sleeves and showed his right arm to Skadi.

The mutilated limbs of lavender clinging to the top are proof that the hundred-eyed monster once lived.

"What is this...?" Skadi stared at the thorny vines on the Doctor's arm, feeling a suspicious but harmless aura emanating from them.

"Do you remember what I told you at the beginning?" The doctor raised his missing left hand and pointed to his head. "Because I said your name to someone else, I forgot about you."

“Yes, I was waiting for you to elaborate on this, but you suddenly jumped to the topic of cognitive filters.” Skadi nodded.

"It's just that I happened to think of it." The doctor chuckled. "I was thinking about too many things at the time, so I naturally jumped to other related matters."

"So what's the deal with the name?"

“When I arrived on the thirteenth floor, I was greeted by a friendly oddity,” the doctor said. “But since we had become separated, I asked her if she had seen you before.”

“Then everything suddenly changed the moment I said your name,” he recalled. “I felt like I was hallucinating, and after I came to, I forgot everything about you.”

“This is the rule called the Language Prohibition,” the doctor sighed. “What I’ve experienced since then has made me fully understand it.”

"And her."

The doctor raised his right arm.

Skadi's gaze fell on the lavender once again.

"They are victims of these rules."

“So…who is she?” Skadi asked. “Also an anomaly?”

“Hmm.” The doctor nodded. “I met her on the spiral staircase on the second floor. She was originally the owner there, but I later discovered that she had the ability to think independently and communicate with others, so we formed a cooperative relationship.”

"A cooperative relationship...? How did you two cooperate?" Skadi seemed to have heard some incredibly unbelievable news.

"She let me out of here, and I'm responsible for finding her a way out," the doctor said frankly.

"Wait a moment." Skadi glanced at the lavender, then at the Doctor's eyes. "Strange, trying to escape from here?"

“That’s true.” The doctor nodded. “And coincidentally, she seems to have lost her memory just like us, and can’t even remember what happened not long ago.”

“If there are too many coincidences, then it can no longer be considered a coincidence,” Skadi pondered.

“That’s true,” the doctor nodded. “But we’re not discussing that now… Let’s put it this way, have you ever been to that spiral staircase?”

“No.” Skadi shook her head. “Perhaps it’s because of the cognitive filter you mentioned earlier. My experience on the second floor is different from yours.”

“Lavender herself is as strange as a tree, covered with eyeballs, and looks terrifying,” the Doctor recalled of lavender’s appearance. “After the cooperation was reached, I came to the fifth floor prison with her, and we planned to stay together until we left Rhodes Island.”

“The prison is right.” Skadi listened to the doctor’s explanation and nodded slightly. “I’ve been there before, but I didn’t go this time.”

"Later, in the upper levels of the prison, I took out the used seawater bottle, but this action caused lavender to go crazy," the doctor continued.

"Even weirdos can go mad?" Skadi heard something beyond her comprehension again. "I thought they only caused madness."

“Indeed, I’ve had the same question, but Lavender has indeed gone mad,” the doctor sighed. “And in her madness, she seems to recall some memories she had lost and claims to have seen a woman.”

"……woman?"

Skadi had a bad feeling.

"Then, I asked her a question that I will regret forever." The doctor lowered his eyes, his gaze falling quietly on the withered lavender, his words growing softer.

“You asked her that woman’s name, I guess,” Skadi said quietly.

"Ah."

The doctor nodded.

"And then she became like this, just a single stalk left?" Skadi asked, staring at what had once been lavender for a moment.

“She should have withered and disappeared directly.” The doctor stretched out two fingers and ran them through the safe area between the thorns. “But just before she disappeared, she suddenly stretched out one of her branches and put it on my arm, and that’s how she survived.”

"So is she still alive?" Skadi asked.

“I think it probably doesn’t count,” the doctor said with a wry smile. “But even so, this branch still has its own consciousness, and it will even tighten its grip on the thorns to remind me when it senses danger.”

"May I touch her?" Skadi seemed to have something on her mind.

"Please." The doctor extended his right arm.

Skadi, without hesitation, touched her gloved fingers to the thorny vines.

A tingling sensation traveled through the nerves in the doctor's arm.

“I see. So it’s parasitizing you.” Skadi nodded slightly and removed her fingers from the lavender. “Now her life is intertwined with yours. As long as you live, she will not die.”

"This sentence……"

The doctor pondered the meaning of those words, then looked at Skadi and asked, "What if I die?"

“Then of course she will die,” Skadi replied. “And she probably won’t be resurrected along with you, since the rule of resurrection is probably only available to you.”

"Then...and what about you?" the doctor asked. "What are you? If resurrection is a rule that I enjoy alone, are you a human like me, or a strange being wandering in here?"

“What if neither?” Skadi looked at the Doctor. “You mentioned before that there was a nun in the room where you were resurrected. In your opinion, what was that nun? A monster or a human?”

"Yes……"

The doctor did not know how to answer.

After all, if he really knew what a Specter Shark was, he wouldn't be sitting here discussing these unfounded theories with Skadi.

“Don’t let Rhodes Island limit your vision,” Skadi said.

"No matter how big Rhodes Island is, it is still part of the outside world."

Chapter 164, Chapter 163: The Ditch Rat

"Come on, stand up."

The journey begins again.

The two stood up from the bench. The doctor looked around, glancing over the four forks in the road at the crossroads.

"Which way should we go?" Considering that Skadi had rescued him, the Doctor felt it was only natural to ask Skadi for her opinion.

“I came down from the seventh floor, and if I go back the way I came, I can only go to the seventh floor,” Skadi said. “But your destination is not the seventh floor.”

“I’m here to find a shop,” the doctor nodded. “If I don’t get any more water and food, I’ll be facing the threat of starvation.”

“There are no shops on the way I came, so this is not the way you should take.” Skadi stretched out her right hand, pointed to the path behind the Doctor, and then clenched her fist.

"But haven't you been here before?" the doctor asked. "How did you find the store then? Do you look for it the same way now, or do you not remember?"

"Ah...sorry."

Realizing she hadn't provided the Doctor with this information, Skadi shrugged apologetically. "The terrain on the sixth floor changes. It's full of branching paths, so the layout is similar to a maze, but even more so because the arrangement of the paths changes randomly."

"In other words, the path you took back then doesn't offer any experience for the present?"

Although the Doctor had long suspected that there might be such a trap on Rhodes Island, he did not expect that the trap would appear on the sixth floor.

“Hmm.” Skadi nodded. “By the way, the layout of the sixth floor is similar to a shopping mall, and the food store is only a small part of it, so it may take some effort to find it.”

"In that case, I should thank this weirdo that almost ate me in a way." The doctor turned around and sighed as he looked at the enormous corpse behind him. "After all, under its illusion, the sixth floor would at least seem a little more benign."

"In short, if you're ready, then we should set off." Skadi reached behind her back with her right hand and tightened the sheath of her greatsword.

"I have one more question before we set off," the doctor said, pulling his gaze away from the strange corpse. "Have you seen the anomaly on the sixth floor?"

This question made Skadi frown slightly.

"Isn't that what's cut open and gutted? Or do you not consider it strange in your eyes?"

“No, that’s not what I meant.” The doctor shook his head, then stretched out his right arm. “I was thinking, if the Infinite Corridor on the second floor has a strange creature like Lavender as its master, could there be such a strange creature on the sixth floor as well?”

“You mean, a weirdo like her who can talk and has independent consciousness?” Skadi was silent for a moment, then shook her head. “I don’t know, at least I haven’t seen one in my few visits to this sixth floor.”

"Perhaps your cognitive filter is separating you from those strange beings capable of conversation," the doctor speculated. "Just like on the thirteenth floor back then. By the way—what does the thirteenth floor look like in your eyes?"

“A restaurant, brightly lit, with locked rooms on both sides of the road, and an open elevator at the end of the road,” Skadi replied. “I took the elevator all the way to the third floor, but when I opened the door on the third floor and went out, I found myself on the seventh floor.”

"...This is too strange." The doctor was stunned.

“It does happen occasionally,” Skadi shrugged. “It’s happened once or twice before.”

"And then?" the doctor asked again. "You stayed on the seventh and sixth floors until you met me?"

“That’s about right, since both floors are quite large,” Skadi said after thinking for a moment. “Also, I don’t have a good sense of time here on Rhodes Island, so I don’t know exactly how much time has passed.”

"Conservatively speaking... a day, or twenty-four hours," the doctor said. "I feel like that's about how much time has passed."

“No, it shouldn’t be like that.” Skadi waved her hand. “If that were the case, my biological clock would at least prompt me to take a nap. Even in this strange place, I still need to get enough sleep and food, or I’ll die.”

"..."

The Doctor stared at Skadi and slowly spoke, "Could it be that the flow of time differs in different regions of Rhodes Island? Or does this cognitive filter affect time itself?"

“No, I don’t think so.” Skadi shook her head. “I suggest you don’t overcomplicate things. Sometimes the underlying principles of many things are actually quite simple.”

"For example?"

“For example, it could be that your own perception of time is flawed,” Skadi stated bluntly. “Where does your estimate of the passage of time come from? From that endless spiral staircase?”