Zhang Chenyan stared at the blood-stained axe in his hand, suddenly feeling an overwhelming sense of familiarity. This axe... how is it any different from the one Chen Yijing was holding?
"Do you think they were innocent?" Chen Yijing suddenly moved closer and asked, his voice sharp and accusing.
Anyone would find it terrifying to have a blood-soaked face suddenly appear so close, and Zhang Chenyan was no exception. He was so startled that he fell back and landed on the ground.
"They weren't innocent... but..." Zhang Chenyan stuttered, not knowing how to continue.
"What are you trying to say?" Chen Yijing's grin became more sinister. "Wasn't that feeling just now thrilling? The feeling of fighting back, of venting your anger... wasn't it great? Do you want to experience it again?"
Zhang Chenyan looked at the person before him. He had never seen this side of Chen Yijing, and to him, Chen Yijing shouldn't be like this.
"You're not like this! Chen Yijing isn't like this!" Zhang Chenyan finally shouted, his voice echoing in the room.
He wasn't sure when the next attack would come, so he had to say it now. It was his most basic thought, something he was certain of.
Unexpectedly, Chen Yijing nodded in agreement. "Yes, Chen Yijing isn't like this."
Then, just as Zhang Chenyan was about to question him further, the person in front of him suddenly changed appearance... to someone who looked exactly like Zhang Chenyan.
Zhang Chenyan's feelings now were exactly the same as when he first faced Zhang Chenyan 2.0.
"Of course, Chen Yijing isn't like this," the person in front of him repeated. "But you are."
"Me?" Zhang Chenyan was stunned.
"Yes, you. Don't you have hatred in your heart?" The person standing across from Zhang Chenyan questioned him. "You hate yourself for not doing more for Chen Yijing, for not saving him earlier. You hate those who attacked him, those who hurt him... you even want to kill them with your own hands."
"No, I wouldn't be that irrational," Zhang Chenyan instinctively refuted.
The other person smirked, not arguing further but instead asked, "Are you really as righteous as you think? Don't you harbor resentment? Resentment that people like Chen Yijing's parents can secure a place in the underground city, while your father had to stay above ground! Have you never resented the unfairness of the Alliance? The inhumane policies targeted at the elderly?"
Hearing this, Zhang Chenyan was frozen in place. It was as if the person in front of him could read his mind, revealing every hidden thought he had ever had.
"Keep going; this is only the first stop," the person said, unexpectedly letting Zhang Chenyan off the hook and not pressing the issue further.
The once-closed door suddenly opened a crack, a clear signal that he could leave.
But before leaving, Zhang Chenyan couldn't help but ask, "Have I met you before? Are you my clone?"
Of course, he didn't get a response.
If anyone else were to ask such a question to someone who looked exactly like them, it would probably seem like they needed their head examined. But Zhang Chenyan was different; he was someone with a clone.
To be precise, his clone was one he had created himself.
What Zhang Chenyan wanted to confirm now was whether the person, or rather the thing, standing before him just now was indeed his clone.
Having dealt with the metaverse for so many years, Zhang Chenyan had always believed in the power of technology, but he also knew that there was no such thing as mind reading in this world.
The bloodstains in the room gradually faded, leaving only Zhang Chenyan in the empty space, as if nothing had ever happened.
Zhang Chenyan understood that this was a sign telling him it was time to move on to the next level.
He had read the game rules before and knew that delaying was pointless. Once a level was completed, if he didn't proceed to the next one within a certain time, he would be forcibly logged out.
Zhang Chenyan reached for the doorknob, but to his surprise, he was faced with yet another door.
He didn't understand, but before he could think, the door in front of him opened.
Suddenly, it was as if a powerful force pulled him in, and he fell straight through the doorway.
A violent storm hit him, and Zhang Chenyan felt himself shivering uncontrollably. He had never experienced such cold before, the kind that seemed to freeze his very bones.
He wanted to run, but he had no sense of direction.
All around him was the same bone-chilling cold, and Zhang Chenyan wanted to cry out for help, but even opening his mouth seemed nearly impossible.
The world, blanketed in snow and ice, was breathtakingly beautiful but equally deadly.
Zhang Chenyan couldn't shake the feeling that the scenes were familiar. After a moment, he realized—this was the surface, the place he had visited before.
But this time, there was no protective shield, no temperature control, and not even Liu Xixi was by his side.
He stood there, terrified, feeling the warmth drain from his body, as he slowly turned into an ice sculpture.
In truth, he didn't want it to end this way, but in such severe weather, he had no other choice.
The limits of human endurance were all too real, and after all, he was only human.
Just when Zhang Chenyan thought things couldn't get worse and that he would simply freeze to death, he suddenly heard a roar.
It was the sound of an animal, driven by the hunger for food, mixed with excitement.
Zhang Chenyan tried to see what it was, but he found that in the extreme cold, it was a futile effort.
A warm breath hit his face, and the rare warmth gave him a slight reprieve. He almost wanted to move closer to the source of warmth. But as the sensation of burning pain from being licked grew stronger, Zhang Chenyan realized—this warmth was just like the fleeting light and visions seen by the Little Match Girl before she died.
It was an infected creature licking him.
To be precise, it was tasting its food.
Zhang Chenyan had no way to escape, and even if he did, he couldn't. In the extreme cold, humans were too fragile, too weak to even put up a fight.
If given a choice, Zhang Chenyan would rather have turned into a statue of ice than be eaten bit by bit as he was now.
The excruciating pain was beyond terrifying.
Zhang Chenyan felt like he was about to lose his mind. If not for the freezing cold dulling his senses, he would have already passed out from the pain, but the cold forced him to witness everything, to endure this slow, torturous death.
Just when Zhang Chenyan thought all hope was lost, Zhang Chenyan 2.0 appeared before him once again.
By now, Zhang Chenyan didn't care whether this was his clone or not. Whether it was 2.0, 3.0, or the nth version, it made no difference to him anymore.
Besides, Zhang Chenyan had a strong feeling that this was indeed his clone!
Even though he still didn't know what the clone's purpose was.
"Have you ever thought that your father might have died in a similarly desperate situation?" Zhang Chenyan 2.0 said slowly.
With just one simple sentence, Zhang Chenyan was nearly driven to the brink.
"In such an environment, 'disappearing'—what does it really mean? Even if I don't say it, you should understand, right?"
"Without the thermal protection, all humans can do is wait for death. As for the infected... I'll be blunt: even under normal circumstances, humans wouldn't necessarily stand a chance against them."
As Zhang Chenyan listened, picturing the scene in his mind...
He wanted to cry, but no tears came. He could only wait and endure the torment.
Zhang Chenyan 2.0 looked at his pitiful state and sighed in disappointment.
"Your father might have left this world in the same way, and countless other humans may have as well."
"Those who were abandoned, their fates were sealed long ago."
"You see, this world has never been fair. People like Chen Yijing's parents can rely on the protection of their ancestors to secure a place, while countless others are forced to accept death."
"Of course, if it weren't for your father choosing you, you would have been among them."
...
By this point, Zhang Chenyan was no longer paying attention to what the other person was saying, as his body was gradually being consumed.
Zhang Chenyan 2.0 continued smugly, "Look at me, I don't have to worry about any of this. Neither the cold nor the infected can harm me."
Zhang Chenyan didn't know how he managed to endure, but he did. He persevered until the very end.
Until the very last moment, he didn't give up.
The reason wasn't that this project was particularly fun or that he was reluctant to leave, nor was it about earning any sort of reward.
He just felt extremely puzzled.
From the moment he saw Chen Yijing, he knew something was off.
He could accept being thrown into a horror story, or being made to experience fire and brimstone, or even being forced to repeatedly jump from great heights to test the limits of his heart. But none of those should have been like this.
Perhaps due to the use of the brain-machine interface, Zhang Chenyan felt that he had greater control over his avatar in the digital world, which also made him think more calmly.
Something wasn't right! He had to uncover the mystery behind all of this!
Whether it was Chen Yijing's appearance, his own innermost thoughts, or even the clone, the extreme cold on the surface, or the infected attacking him...
Everything was too strange, so strange that it felt like a trap.
But if someone were to tell him all of this was orchestrated by a person, Zhang Chenyan would find it hard to believe—who could possibly have such power?
However, on second thought, as 0810 had mentioned before, if someone could manipulate the probability of a hash collision... then compared to that, what he was experiencing now didn't seem so impossible.
Zhang Chenyan didn't know how much time had passed. Just when he thought he was truly dead, he suddenly felt warmth.
Not an imagined warmth, but real warmth!
He moved his fingers, confirming that he could feel them.
He heard someone calling him—a human voice, full of curiosity and confusion.
"Grandpa, come quick, he's awake! He actually woke up!"
A young girl's voice called out, clear and sweet.
Gradually, Zhang Chenyan's condition improved further. He could already lift his arm.
As he looked down, he saw no bloodied stumps, but rather a whole, uninjured arm.
With this arm, he had drawn many sketches, created many designs, and signed his name countless times...
"You're awake. Here, have some ginger tea to warm yourself," said an elderly voice, followed by a few coughs.
Soon, the strong aroma of ginger tea wafted into Zhang Chenyan's nose.
"This ginger tea tastes awful, but Grandpa says it's good for you, so you'd better listen to him and drink it up," the girl beside him said with a hint of mischief in her voice.
Zhang Chenyan turned to look and finally noticed the clear-faced girl who had been by his side all this time.
She looked to be only about seventeen or eighteen, dressed simply but neatly. The fabric of her clothes was visibly coarse, but she was pretty and had a good figure, making her look sweet and neighborly.
As Zhang Chenyan hesitated over how to greet her, the elderly man who had prepared the ginger tea slowly walked over.
"Young man, what's wrong with you? I called the village doctor to take a look, and he said you were frozen, and quite badly too."
"How could anyone be frozen in such hot weather? I just don't get it. But since you're frozen, ginger tea is the best remedy. So you'd better drink it while it's hot."
Hot weather? Zhang Chenyan keenly picked up on this crucial point. If he remembered correctly, he had just been in a world of ice and snow, but now this old man was talking about the heat?
So, it seemed that he had already moved on to the next level.
Zhang Chenyan smiled and drank the ginger tea. As the warm liquid flowed down his throat, he felt his body gradually warming up.
In fact, he knew that his body had already recovered when he entered the next level. What hadn't recovered was the fear in his heart.
Suddenly, Zhang Chenyan had a thought.
He turned to the girl and asked, "Do you have a mirror?"
The girl seemed surprised by the question and playfully teased him, "Why, do we have a man who's more vain than a woman? Don't worry, your face is smooth, and your skin looks even better than mine."
As she spoke, she handed a mirror to Zhang Chenyan.
The person in the mirror was indeed Zhang Chenyan, but it was his real appearance, not the avatar's.
Zhang Chenyan had felt that something was off before, but because of the brain-machine interface, which blurred the line between virtual and reality, he hadn't noticed it.
Facing the mirror, the doubts he had earlier suddenly became clear.
The doubts about the clone.