Chapter 125 - Narrative Cage (Eight)

Chapter 125: Chapter 118: Narrative Cage (Eight)"Your son, Li Richeng, does not fit the above descriptions, more like an imaginary friend tulpa."

"Imaginary friend?"

Li Zhao’s expression changed slightly as he turned his head to look at the seven-year-old boy sitting in the corner of the therapy room, wearing thick glasses and holding pen and paper, scribbling and drawing.

On the drawing paper on his knee, a youth was vividly depicted taking steps toward a red button in a concrete unfinished building.

"Imaginary friend is a term in child psychology, globally, children with imaginary friends account for approximately 52% to 65%. It is a normal and common phenomenon, so there’s no need for excessive worry."

The female doctor said, "Your son, Li Richeng... he has exceptional artistic talents and a sensitive soul, integrating the troubles he encounters in life into his fantasies.

To cope with the loneliness after his parents go to work, he imagines a character named Li Cheng (actually his projection) and sets up Li Cheng with adoptive parents and cousins who don’t get along well.

In such an environment, Li Cheng still grows up to be a teenager with courage, wisdom, and kindness, experiencing one adventure after another. This can be seen as a psychological defense mechanism of your son."

Li Zhao quickly asked, "Then we should..."

"Pay close attention and let it be. Most children will gradually forget their imaginary friends as they grow up, so there’s no need to intervene too much."

The female doctor paused, then smiled and said, "However, you might consider enrolling him in an arts class or something. With his talent in drawing, he might become a cartoonist in the future."

"Cartoonist? That was my childhood dream."

At the international film festival, the twenty-something-year-old director, Li Richeng, shyly scratched his head in front of the camera, "But because my teacher criticized my drawing as terrible, I had to switch careers."

The reporter enthusiastically asked, "Do you feel that your past experience in comics has helped you in your directing career?"

"Yes, if I hadn’t developed my imagination back then, I couldn’t have made ’Lord of the Rings vs. Terminator 2: Saving The Godfather of Shawshank.’"

His wrinkled fingers gently brushed over the disc, the famous director Li Richeng with reading glasses sighed, and put the disc, which carried his glorious directorial years, back on the bookshelf.

In the elegant and cozy countryside villa, he was the only one left. His wife had passed away a few years ago; both of his children did not follow in his artistic footsteps but instead joined the space industry of the Human Federation, busy all year round at the equatorial space elevator station, hardly able to return home.

He sat in a plush sofa, flipping through the latest newspaper.

The news headline , the content read, "A group of unidentified terrorists launched an armed attack last night in the downtown area of Proxima Centauri A on the Junban Company skyscraper. After causing the deaths and injuries of thousands of company employees, and military police personnel, the cornered terrorists brazenly detonated a nuclear bomb with a yield of over 500kt."

A certain long-sealed memory suddenly awakened; his eyes widened in shock, and the next second a stabbing pain shot through his heart, causing him to collapse to the floor.

Far away, the cylindrical domestic robot heard the noise, quickly moved over, opened its chest to take out the emergency heart-saving pills, and stuffed it in his mouth, "Mr. Richeng, can you hear me? I have called an ambulance for you..."

His eyes fixed on the country villa’s ceiling, his vision gradually blurring, as if he saw that concrete unfinished building again.

He suddenly widened his eyes, staggered to his feet, ignoring the robot’s advice, lunged at the bookshelf, and with all his might pulled out a stack of old yellowed drawing papers, his hands trembling as he drew.

"Hey? Dad?! We’ve come to see you, open the door!"

Outside, the doorbell rang along with the calls of his son, daughter, grandsons, and granddaughters.

Yet, he disregarded everything, frantically drawing the last scene—a youth holding a heavy straight knife in his right hand, and a Bat Hook Claw Gun in his left, finally pressing the red button.

"Hisss!"

Li Cheng suddenly snapped back to reality, his eyes’ pupils violently trembling, his hands uncontrollably shaking.

As if he had experienced an incredibly long, incredibly real dream, an overwhelming mix of real and illusionary, unclear memories and emotions flooded into his mind.

Even though his brain had been extensively trained by the Multi-threaded Brain Domain Method, it still overloaded, causing bursts of stabbing pain.

Worse, the feeling of immobility of an elderly person had come into reality, spreading to his limbs and making him feel uncomfortable all over.

He dropped the button like it was electrified, stumbled out of the room, and leaned against the space between the wooden and metal doors, gasping for breath heavily.

The wooden door creaked open, and Gray Rain appeared outside the door, grabbed Li Cheng, and pulled him out of the space into the hallway.

Upon reaching the hallway, that drowning, suffocating feeling suddenly lessened considerably; Li Cheng steadied himself on the forehead and slowly stood up, speaking hoarsely to Gray Rain, "Thanks."

He glanced at the time displayed on the vending machine; it had been just over sixty minutes since he entered the Misleading Room, but it felt as if it had been over sixty years.

"As a newcomer, managing to get through two rounds is not bad."

Gray Rain crossed his arms in front of him, squinting his eyes as he asked, "What did you encounter inside?"

"...It’s complicated."

Li Cheng rubbed his temples, his vision gradually clearing.

From the moment he stepped into the Misleading Room, the so-called reality distortion engine and narrative array had begun to take effect.

His existence was peeled off at the narrative level, replaced by a higher-dimensional "Li Richeng."

Li Richeng lived a relatively happy life; parents loved him and were willing to pay attention to his mental issues, allowing him to grow up healthy, have a smooth career after graduation, and a harmonious family.

If it wasn’t through a newspaper, he became aware of the anomaly,

He would’ve been perfectly "misled" into thinking he was Li Richeng, while the so-called "Li Cheng" was just a fictional character/virtual friend conjured up by the latter during childhood.

"Zhuang Zhou dreams of the butterfly, the butterfly dreams of Zhuang Zhou. Pretty sinister..."

The shackles on his feet disappeared of their own accord as Li Cheng murmured to himself, looking down at his right palm.

He was originally holding that 170 Straight Blade, but after leaving the Misleading Room, there was something extra in his palm.

A piece of newspaper.

It was this piece of newspaper that jolted him back to his identity during the misleading, causing the room system to induce a sudden heart attack as an emergency response.

"The mere illusion, to think it could be brought back to reality."

Li Cheng took a deep breath, placing this piece of newspaper fragment next to another newspaper he had gotten from the vending machine, and laid them on the ground side by side.

The layout, font size, and style of the two newspapers were different, but both mentioned "Proxima Centauri Sector A," this same keyword.

Li Cheng was sure that the false worldview created by the Misleading Room was around the year 2070, when the Human Federation was just established, still busy colonizing within the Solar System, far from reaching the nearby star systems.

That is to say, this newspaper comes from a discordant, real source elsewhere.

"Do you know about the so-called Proxima Centauri Sector A?" Li Cheng asked.

"...No idea." Gray Rain shook his head in denial, watching him get up to stand and puzzledly asked, "What are you planning to do?"

"Going to the next room." Li Cheng headed straight for the Main Character Effect Room without turning back.

"Are you crazy?" Gray Rain said in disbelief, "Aren’t you going to take a break?"

Going in and out of the Misleading Room once, the Spiritual Power Value didn’t drop much, but the Sanity Value indeed fell sharply from 240 to 159.

If the next room is of the same type, it’s not guaranteed that his sanity won’t be completely depleted, making life worse than death.

Li Cheng strode through the hallway, "One, there’s not enough time. Two, no time to spare."

After initiating the escape process, not pressing the engine room button for too long would reset the entire cage system. And each challenge damages the escapee’s narrative integrity. Until they turn into a fool, like the one in the cell at the bottom right corner.

Players have, and only have, one chance.

Moreover...

Li Cheng silently put away the piece of newspaper, expressionlessly pushed open the grand door to the Main Character Effect Room.

He faintly caught on to the pattern of this script task.