Chapter 48: Varying Degrees of Memory Confusion

Chapter 48: Varying Degrees of Memory Disorientation

"There were twenty players in that game, a full third of whom were newcomers. Ning Yan always grumbled about those who couldn't survive on their own, but if there wasn't a more experienced player on the team, she'd still look after the newcomers until the very end. It was always like that."

As Sister Yao spoke, Su Bai recalled Ning Yan's initial disdain when she first met him and Feng Ling. Yet, after inviting them to sit on the sofa in Room 204, she would meticulously pour coffee and even pack up freshly baked bread for them.

That bag of bread Ning Yan had given Su Bai, in particular, had transformed in his left eye's vision into slightly spoiled meat after being delivered to the cat-keeping "her," becoming a delicacy for the felines.

Even then, Su Bai found Ning Yan quite peculiar.

Perhaps the ingredients in Room 204 were problematic from the start, but normal human food shouldn't attract supernatural beings. After all, food appealing to eerie entities either had to be imbued with despair and fear or possess some special power.

Ordinary players held very little of the Red Moon's power; it couldn't possibly manifest in their baked bread. Unless the "person" baking the bread had long since mutated into something else entirely.

Reflecting later, Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie's interactions also struck him as odd. Initially, Su Bai thought they were meeting for the first time in this game, but he later sensed Fang Xiujie knew Ning Yan intimately.

When Ning Yan faced Fang Xiujie, she behaved like an unfamiliar young lady meeting him for the first time.

Conversely, Fang Xiujie treated Ning Yan as an old acquaintance he knew inside and out.

If it were just these two points, Su Bai would have merely found Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie a bit strange. It wasn't until the scoreboard on the first-floor lobby wall indicated two player deaths that Su Bai felt something was truly amiss.

There were now seven players in Building One's lobby, and some knew each other, able to confirm identities.

Logically, the remaining three players should be Feng Ling, Ning Yan, and Fang Xiujie. If so, the two players killed by supernatural entities earlier must have been among these three.

Before learning Lan Xingchen's past, this deduction was quite reasonable. Even experienced players like Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie could easily meet their end in the Nightmare World—a common occurrence in such games.

The only anomaly was Feng Ling. Having heard Ning Yan's *Ode to Joy* when leaving Building Three, Su Bai believed Feng Ling must have been with the two deceased players when they met their fate.

The first time he encountered Feng Ling in the lobby, Su Bai had already recognized her, even chuckling impolitely at her attire, which was completely different from his memory.

The second time they met, Su Bai noticed she seemed to have regained her memories, even recalling her identity as a Nightmare World player and the rules and hints given by the "Administrator" upon entering the game.

But from Su Bai's perspective, with a decade of additional knowledge, Feng Ling hadn't fully recovered her memories. She still hadn't remembered who she truly was.

She even unconsciously used the term "Administrator"—a term no newcomer fresh from their first game should know.

This also solidified Su Bai's belief that some players or supernatural entities might mistakenly think they had recovered all memories from before entering "Blissful Community," yet were still under its influence. Just as the "Administrator" stated upon entering the game, all humans and supernatural entities would experience varying degrees of memory disorientation.

"Varying degrees" is a subtle phrase, and "disorientation" is equally nuanced.

If Su Bai was not mistaken, this implied that players and supernatural entities in "Blissful Community" weren't merely losing one layer of memory; they might lose two, three, or even four layers. One of these layers could even become disoriented due to manipulation.

This was a zone where memory and cognition were utterly chaotic!

Out of trust for Miss Feng Ling, Su Bai believed that even with incomplete memory recovery, she wouldn't allow her teammates to perish so easily.

Thus, Su Bai formed a hypothesis—

If the two deceased players weren't Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie, then only two possibilities remained. One was an inaccurate player count. The other was that... Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie were not normal players from the very beginning.

Su Bai still remembered the fourth-floor corridor he saw with his left eye—those once clean, beautiful white security doors had transformed into colossal tombstones in his vision.

In Su Bai's understanding, a place where "people" would mistake tombstones for home entrances could only be a cemetery, a resting place for the dead.

...

Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie had clearly once been players, as they knew many details related to the real world. Fang Xiujie had even given Su Bai a contact number for the real world.

But just as the "Administrator" had said when entering the Last Bus 444, those who die in the Nightmare Game would be forever trapped in the Nightmare World.

Therefore, Su Bai speculated that Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie had once been players but, after death, were confined to the Nightmare World's cemetery. Then, for unknown reasons, that cemetery transformed into "Blissful Community," and they naturally became its residents.

Due to memory disorientation, Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie treated each other somewhat differently.

Because of memory disorientation, they remembered being players but forgot they had already died.

Because of memory disorientation, though they were clearly deceased, they still subconsciously sought to help Su Bai and Feng Ling, who claimed to be newcomers...

Speculation was just speculation. Even Su Bai hadn't anticipated that Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie not only had bizarre identities but had also died three years ago in the Nightmare Game while helping Lan Xingchen. They were even the true reason why Lan Xingchen called himself a sinner, constantly seeking redemption by helping others!

It was as if unseen eyes were deliberately orchestrating the game's narrative, eagerly anticipating the plot developments that might follow.

Speaking of which, Su Bai suddenly recalled a small incident from his previous life.

In the view of the experienced players Su Bai knew in his previous life, the Red Moon in the sky was like the eyes of the Nightmare World, or perhaps even its consciousness. The Red Moon brought so many humans into the Nightmare World as players, creating one game scenario after another. Many so-called strategists from the human faction analyzed its possible behavioral patterns, and the conclusion they reached was surprisingly consistent—

For amusement.

Whether it was cruel mass escapes, endless bus rides, puzzle games in locked rooms, or role-playing games under false memories—everything might just be entertainment that those eyes in the void desired.

"Ning Yan helped many people, but she might have even forgotten that she was just a second-year university student—an age when she should have been protected. Instead, she secretly reflected every day on whether she was too immature because her words offended others." Sister Yao closed her eyes in pain, her hand gently brushing over her abdominal wound. "I went to see Ning Yan's mother. Three years have passed, and she's still relentlessly searching for her missing daughter."

"I once lost a child myself. To this day, I don't dare recall the pain of that time."

"I know, that's why I'm atoning!" Lan Xingchen raised his head, his expression equally pained.

"You're not atoning; you're running away!" Sister Yao's abdomen was still bleeding, but she had the two players beside her help her up to lean against the wall. "I can't speak for Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie. I don't even know what they were thinking when they died, but..."

"They chose to save you."

"They chose to save you."

Sister Yao scratched her hair in distress, seemingly struggling to find the right words.

"Although I act like I hate you, I've known you far longer than I've known Ning Yan and the others. If you're willing to admit it, we're essentially... familiar faces who often meet in the Nightmare World. Even if many people mock, despise, or use you in the games, there are people like me and others who hope you can change your way of atoning."

"For example, leave the Nightmare World, return to the real world to see your family, or visit Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie's families—do something actually meaningful. For example, stop blindly saving those newcomers who can't do anything. Help and guide them like Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie did, so that after they leave your help, they can rely on their own strength to complete future games."

"And also... take good care of this body that Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie sacrificed themselves to save."

"Dammit, I really can't talk well, just like Ning Yan." Sister Yao sighed. "I really wish those two could jump out themselves, chew you out, and then punch some sense into you!"