"White Room?"
After hearing Echidna's words in the video, people worldwide began discussing this matter.
They had previously learned about the existence of the White Room from the narrative or psychological activities of Ayanokouji on several occasions. They knew that he would transform as seen in the video, which was related to what was called the White Room Project, but no one could find any clues.
In an office at Advanced Nurturing High School, Sakayanagi Arisu's father, Chairman Sakayanagi, the real director of the school, was sitting in a chair, staring intently at the image on the screen.
The white environment was undoubtedly the secret experimental base of the White Room Project that he had seen before.
"Ayanokouji's memories are truly being shown? That's akin to revealing the White Room plan directly to everyone..."
Chairman Sakayanagi shook his head and sighed. Although he greatly respected Ayanokouji's father, the truth was that from the beginning to the end, he never supported such an inhumane experiment.
"Ayanokouji-sensei, what will you do next?"
Chairman Sakayanagi said to himself that if possible, he certainly wanted to end the White Room Project completely.
However, at the same time, he also knew that Ayanokouji's father was no ordinary person. He was someone he respected as a teacher. Although he was now relegated to the second line, he still had the ability to reach for the sky in this country.
❀❀❀
In an unknown building, the originally white room had been repainted, and all the equipment and furniture inside had been evacuated. All traces that once existed were gone; even the room itself had been cleaned, as if no one had ever lived there.
"Ayanokouji-sensei, the fifth edition of 'them' has been moved to a more secret location."
"Mm."
"Sorry, do you need to pause the White Room to continue?"
"No, we can't stop. We've been stagnant for a long time, so we gave him a chance to escape, which should become the ultimate masterpiece."
Outside the building, a man in a suit and leather jacket, surrounded by many bodyguards, spoke to his cronies about how the so-called ultimate masterpiece was like a dead object.
"Arrange his travel plans for me. I will meet that man. He should be my most outstanding work and must be mine... I must bring him back before the situation worsens. If not, it will cause problems in the future, and if necessary, Sakayanagi must be eliminated."
"Understood."
❰❱SKY SCREEN❰❱
In the white room, dozens of boys and girls wearing white clothes, like hospital gowns, sat in rows and completed extremely difficult math problems on exam papers.
A grown man was sitting at the front of the room, his eyes scanning the faces of these children, and the stopwatch in his hand ticked.
"Ah, what is this thing?" Echidna leaned forward and slowly walked over to a child, staring intently at the exam paper he was writing on. "I've never seen images and symbols like this before."
"This is math." Ayanokouji said calmly. He knew that he and Echidna were merely witnessing their past memories and had no way to interfere with the past.
Seeing the white room where he once lived, his heart felt very calm, and he had no particular feelings in his heart.
"Eh? Math, is this the kind of math where one plus one equals two?" A look of surprise appeared on Echidna's face.
"You've already read my memory. Actually, you should have long understood the relevant science. You should be able to solve these questions easily." Ayanokouji said.
Of course, he realized Echidna's earlier expression of surprise was merely a disguise. In theory, the other party had inherited all his knowledge.
"Understanding is one thing! But is such knowledge really useful? Isn't it fundamentally just used as exam questions?"
"Although this is not wrong for most people, it doesn't sound like words from the knowledgeable Witch of Greed." Ayanokouji slightly shook his head. "In other words, do you have something more curious?"
"Do you need to solve these questions within the set time?" Echidna turned and looked at him, with a meaningful smile on her face.
"Yeah, if I remember correctly, we have to solve ten questions in ten minutes."
"Do you want to solve ten questions in ten minutes?" Echidna raised her eyebrows slightly. "That would be quite embarrassing, but I'm more curious, what happens if I don't finish?"
"They will be considered talentless." Ayanokouji said, his eyes fixed on a child among the crowd. "I don't know how they will be dealt with."
❀❀❀
"Hey? What kind of topics are these?"
"This is definitely not the scope of high school students... I feel even university students wouldn't be able to study this, let alone this is just a child..."
"Did you finish ten questions in ten minutes? If you gave me a whole day and night, I might not be able to solve even one question."
Everyone also looked at the questions on the exam paper and began discussing them.
Shirogane Miyuki, in the student council office, immediately recalled these questions in his mind and quickly pulled out a paper and pen: "It's very difficult to solve questions of this level in ten minutes. It's a challenge, but since it's math, maybe I can give it a little try!"
After speaking, the pen in his hand moved quickly across the white paper, leaving line after line of formulas.
❰❱SKY SCREEN❰❱
About five minutes had passed, and a boy had raised his hand.
The man standing at the front of the room stared at the boy, then walked over to him and carefully examined his exam paper before nodding in satisfaction: "Passed."
It was just one word, without any words of praise, as if it were something that should have been done by someone else.
The boy had no expression on his face. He sat in his seat like a robot, waiting for the next instruction.
With his golden eyes, yellow hair, and indifferent expression, one could immediately tell that he was a young Ayanokouji Kiyotaka.
"Did such difficult questions take less than five minutes to complete?" Echidna said with a smile, her eyes focused on him. "It seems you behaved almost exactly as you did before."
Ayanokouji didn't speak but shifted his gaze to the other children.
Most of them had pained and distressed expressions on their faces, some looked desperate, and some were even crying uncontrollably. It seemed that this wasn't because they were limited by difficult topics but because they were worried about what would happen if they failed the exam.
Ayanokouji knew that in the eyes of his father, the creator of the White Room, he was the only successful case among this batch of experimental subjects.
In other words, everyone else had failed.
In his memory, as time passed, the number of people the same age in the White Room gradually decreased.
Some people left the White Room because they failed the exams, but Ayanokouji heard nothing about them after they left the White Room. Some were injured during some tests and were labeled as defective products, also eliminated, unable to bear all this and used all available means to end their own lives.
Among countless test subjects, only Ayanokouji made it to the end.
The entire White Room experiment was akin to producing poison, and he was the poison that survived until the end.
After a few minutes, as the time limit approached, some children finally raised their heads one by one, carefully asking the teacher to check their exam papers.
The children who passed the exam finally sighed in relief, as if they were relieved, while those deemed unqualified due to high error rates slumped over their desks like zombies, with despair in their eyes.
And the children who hadn't finished were completely upset, with the sobs of some clearly heard within the room.
These ten minutes felt like the most painful ten minutes for these children.
Soon, the final bell rang, the door to the room opened, and several men in white uniforms entered, dragging the students who were considered unqualified directly out. Under the supervision of well-trained adults, even if they continued to struggle, there was no chance of escape, and the cries and groans continuously echoed throughout the room.
"It's so rough to treat children like this." Echidna said with a smile. "How will they be dealt with?"
"I don't know." Ayanokouji said calmly, his eyes indifferent.
"These were your former friends, don't you care at all?"
"Sorry, we just grew up in the same environment. We didn't even communicate much, so we can't be considered friends." Ayanokouji said, as if the others were individuals who had nothing to do with him. "And according to that man's thinking, once labeled a failure, there's no difference between them and trash; they must be disposed of."
He knew exactly what his father had planned. He couldn't easily give away failed products because that would leak information about the White Room.
For failed products, they would either be used for other experiments or be 'destroyed.'
"That's very heartless." Echidna said meaningfully.
"My concern can't change their situation, let alone this has already happened, and we can't change it anymore."
Echidna gazed at him with her obsidian eyes, and the smile on her face became even clearer. She looked into his eyes, and her own reflection was mirrored within them.
"How fascinating, I'm growing more fond of you." Echidna said, snapping her fingers. "Let's begin the next lesson."
The scene had changed. It was still a white room, but the tables and chairs were gone. All that remained was a vast white space. Even the walls and floor were hard to distinguish with the naked eye due to their similar color.
In this White Room, the children paired up and practiced combat skills. This was also an essential part of the training in the White Room.
"Begin!" Following the command of a man who appeared to be an instructor, the students in each pair began to engage in one-on-one combat.
The same thing happened to the young Ayanokouji. His opponent was a girl of the same age, who appeared very delicate. But he showed no mercy and broke through with a feint in the third round of the opponent's defense before throwing the girl to the ground.
Even though Ayanokouji was still a child at this time, the strength he displayed was not small. The girl nearly lost her ability to move due to this attack.
But he didn't stop attacking. He moved to another position, stretched out his hand, and tightly locked his opponent's neck with the joint of his arm.
"I surrender, I surrender!" The girl screamed desperately, but Ayanokouji still didn't release her. The girl soon started coughing, desperately trying to free herself from Ayanokouji's arm lock, but it was all in vain.
The girl struggled violently, but it only lasted a few seconds. Such violent activity would only accelerate the depletion of oxygen in her body. Soon her movements gradually slowed, and her hands weakly dropped.
"Stop!" The instructor finally gave the order, and Ayanokouji eventually released his hold and left the girl's body.
Then a group of medical staff quickly entered. After checking the girl's physical condition, they carried her away on a stretcher, while the young Ayanokouji stood expressionless. He stood by as if nothing had happened.
"Did you kill someone?" Echidna asked with a smile.
"At this level, the chances of her dying are not high." Ayanokouji said calmly.
"Do you not feel the slightest bit of guilt?"
"Sorry, why should I feel guilty about this?"