Players, Please Board the Train

”Why?” Xu Huo overlapped with his younger self, asking the question.

”A person’s thoughts are the most dangerous thing. Once an idea takes root, it will influence a person’s behavior for at least a long period of time, and in special circumstances, that time can extend to a lifetime.” The Doctor’s voice was calm, neither as gentle as when facing a child’s coddling, nor as cold as when declaring someone unqualified. He was simply stating a fact.

”Showing weakness to achieve your goals is acceptable, but meaningless concern is unnecessary.”

”Especially pity for the present moment.”

This was not the admonishment of an adult or an elder to a child, but a conversation built on equal footing between two parties.

”Why isn’t it necessary?” Xu Huo said. ”I think you need my concern.”

”Only the weak need others’ concern.” The Doctor’s tone softened again. ”Comparing you and me, who do you think is the weak one?”

Xu Huo was silent for a long while before reluctantly admitting, ”Me.”

”So your concern for me is false. It can neither change my current situation, nor solve the root of my problems.” The Doctor continued. ”However, this wound also holds meaning.”

”Showing weakness?” Xu Huo asked.The Doctor smiled. ”Giving you a failing grade.”

After a moment, Xu Huo spoke again. ”I saw Xiao Liang yesterday. He didn’t show you any concern, and you scolded him.”

”His situation is different from yours.” The Doctor said. ”He’s too mischievous and doesn’t listen well, so he needed a lesson. He still hasn’t learned to control himself, which puts him far behind you in that regard.”

Xu Huo fell silent after that. The Doctor took out another syringe from the leather suitcase. ”You’ll need an extra shot today.”

The young child calmly accepted this reality, and then a wave of intense pain washed over him. He clutched his head as darkness filled his vision, and then the scene before him shifted. He was sitting in a sealed room, and besides him, there were several other children.

The children were all wearing patient gowns, sitting on fixed stools. No one moved or spoke. Xu Huo couldn’t see their faces, but he identified one of them as Chang Bei from his physical characteristics.

After growing up, Xu Huo had almost no memory of this period. He only knew that several children were receiving treatment at the hospital at the same time, and he never had much contact with them. He could recognize Chang Bei because he had looked into Chang Bei’s records. Before being admitted, Chang Bei had injured his hand, leaving a curved, hook-like scar on the back of it.

”What did the doctor tell you?” One of the children walked over, holding a lollipop in his hand. ”If you tell me, I’ll give you the candy.”

”The doctor said you don’t listen.” Xu Huo couldn’t control himself and spoke automatically.

The child laughed in a strange, twisted way, then raised his hand and pressed the lollipop stick toward Xu Huo’s eyes. Xu Huo dodged, but the child tripped him, sending him to the ground. Instinct made him roll over after hitting his knees, but when he looked back, he saw the child pulling out a spoon from his pants, its handle already sharpened to a deadly edge.

Xu Huo scrambled up to run, but two other children had already grabbed his arms, pinning him in place.

Chang Bei was secretly edging toward the door, while the one remaining child who wasn’t involved stayed seated where he was.

Xu Huo reached into his pocket and found the pebbles, grabbing one and hurling it hard against the door.

”This room is the farthest from the stairway. Even if the nurse hears the sound and comes running, it’ll take her five seconds. And before they get here, they’ll need to assess the cause, the location, and the severity of the incident, which will delay them at least fifteen seconds or more.” The child who had asked the question walked toward Xu Huo. ”That’s plenty of time to turn you into a blind man.”

”When you see the doctor, you tell him I did it.”

Xu Huo’s struggling gradually stopped. He said, ”The doctor doesn’t like you. He said you’re not as smart as me. You still haven’t learned to control yourself, you’re like a pig.”

”Both Chang Bei and I saw you stealing medicine. You’re really stupid.”

The child across from him trembled violently for a moment, but after the surge of rage subsided, he steadied himself. ”If you’re gone, that’s all that matters.”

”You’re like a pig because you’re inherently like a pig, not because I make you look like one.” Xu Huo said directly.

The child was enraged by his words. He grabbed the spoon and thrust it toward Xu Huo’s eyes. Xu Huo stared wide-eyed, unflinching, as the spoon stopped just a finger’s width from his eye. No matter how hard the other boy pushed, he couldn’t drive it in.

Then the door opened and the Doctor walked in. The child immediately dropped the spoon, the two children holding Xu Huo released their grip, and Chang Bei and the uninvolved child both straightened up.

”What are you smiling about?” The Doctor asked Xu Huo.

”The doctor is like Xiao Liang too, just like a pig.” Xu Huo replied with a grin.

The scene gradually blurred, but he could feel that the Doctor was quite pleased after hearing that.

The young Xu Huo might not have understood, but the current Xu Huo knew exactly why the Doctor was so happy.

He had provoked Xiao Liang. If the Doctor’s training had been effective, Xiao Liang might have truly stopped. If he hadn’t stopped, it wouldn’t have mattered either, because the Doctor would certainly have stepped in to stop it.

He had played a clever trick, believing that the Doctor, like Xiao Liang, was predictable in his behavior.

The Doctor was happy because he understood that Xu Huo had clearly estimated his own value, which was why he dared to pull such a clever trick.

At least in that environment at the time, Xiao Liang wasn’t worth the Doctor sacrificing one of Xu Huo’s eyes for him.

After the scene faded into darkness, Xu Huo opened his eyes after a moment. He was still sitting at the desk, maintaining a reading posture, not having slumped over to sleep.

Pushing the documents aside, he walked to the balcony and said to the neighboring one, ”That’s more effective than the Wish-Fulfilling Dream potion. Pretty handy. Next time you want to do something like this, just come tell me directly instead of sneaking around probing me.”

He had been sitting there and just fell victim to it. Apart from Bai Kou on the neighboring balcony, he couldn’t think of anyone else. Both of them had undergone mental evolution, and he was familiar with this trick.

But Bai Kou showed no trace of guilt, nor did she tease him. Instead, she looked at him with a strange expression. ”I never would have guessed your experiences were so rich.”

Mental suggestion could only reveal the subject’s actions; what the subject themselves saw could not be observed by outsiders, unless it was in an environment like the Seventeenth Hospital. In reality, the products of imagination couldn’t be projected outward for others to witness.

”My memories were modified.” Xu Huo made a rare joke. ”And I took quite a few drugs.”

Bai Kou smiled. ”I can tell. But if what you saw wasn’t fabricated people and events, then it probably wasn’t an illusion. It’s more likely your memories are being unsealed.”

”Your memories were sealed during your childhood, right? Now that you’re a player and your brain has evolved again, the old seals don’t work anymore.”

”Maybe the reason you underwent Super Evolution so quickly is also related to the drugs you took.”

Xu Huo had thought about this question before. He turned and asked, ”What method could be used to alter a person’s memories, and also wipe out any real-world records in one fell swoop?”