Chapter 176 Dangerous and Happy Man Cave
No one can leave alive. Wen Xishu seemed familiar with this sentence.

“I’ve been through a lot of situations, and a lot of people have said this to me. But I didn’t expect that in this man cave that looks so dangerous… there would actually be a kid like you.”

Wen Xishu looked forward and asked again:
“Next, I just need to pass through the tunnel and start the official exploration, right?”

The little boy nodded:

“Yes, big brother, do you have any unfulfilled wishes? Do you have any regrets in your life?”

“Why not tell me about it? At least after you die, I can help you find happiness in the man cave.”

Wen Xishu looked at the little boy in surprise:
“who are you?”

The little boy said helplessly:

“I’ve said before that I’m the guide to the man cave, but I’ve also forgotten who I am. The meaning of my existence is to make everyone leave the man cave and stay away from it.”

“If once you enter… it’s too late, then at least let me do something else for you, so that you can experience happiness in death.”

Wen Xishu suddenly remembered.

According to Albert, this dungeon mission is a combination of pain and happiness.

Two elements.

Wen Xishu already knew what the element of pain was.

But what is happiness?
Can happiness kill people?
Wen Xishu wanted to ask again who this child was. If necessary… he could use violence and rely on barrage to “find out” information.

But the little boy didn’t seem like a bad guy to Wen Xishu:

“Life is like a play. Countless people are the characters in the play, and they just want a good ending. Big brother, if there are no regrets in your life, have you ever imagined what it would be like?”

Wen Xishu shook his head:
“Why would there be no regrets? Life is full of countless choices, and people always feel more favorable toward the choices they didn’t make.”

“If I had done this or that back then, maybe I wouldn’t be the way I am now. This is a thought that every person with a healthy personality would have. How can there be only one answer to life?”

The little boy said:
“It seems that you are unwilling to tell me… Everyone in the man cave is like this. They are all very wary.”

The little boy waved and said his final goodbye:

“Don’t easily develop negative emotions, live happily…but happiness will bring death, and so will doubt.”

“And… follow your feelings. Also, for some questions, the answers must be in line with the goal. If you realize that the answer is not that, please don’t say it directly…”

“That would be dangerous, very dangerous. I’m sorry… I thought everyone could be happy.”

“There are many nodes in life… If one node succeeds, another node may fail. Don’t be discouraged if you succeed… No, if you succeed… Just succeed.”

The incoherent and confusing words came out of the mouth of an angelic little boy.

Wen Xishu just felt that something was wrong. What does it mean to not be discouraged after success?
But after the little boy finished saying these words, his figure began to become gradually invisible.

Finally, he disappeared.

“Good luck, big brother.”

Only these words echoed in the tunnel outside the man cave, but gradually, it fell silent.

Wen Xishu looked ahead at the tunnel, feeling uneasy at what the little boy had just said.

But the warm, colorful tunnel quickly helped him get rid of his sense of crisis.

“Pain necklace, pain sake, dark umbilical cord, Scorpio knife, compass, gloves, football…”

“Add to that my current sequence, Psychic Barrage, Nightmare Absolution, Personality Party, and Tower Force Drain. I should be able to… get through this thing, right?”

“Toe may be in chaos, but there isn’t anyone more powerful than me right now.”

It was a very strange feeling. Wen Xishu always felt that he was not facing any tigers, leopards, jackals or wolves, but he just felt inexplicably scared.

For the first time, he began to take stock of his own tricks to cheer himself up.

“I still have an invitation!”

“Anyway, I have to go deep into the dangerous places of the spooky tower to know what this level will show.”

“If I back out, I’ll start sending invitations now… I don’t even know who the key target is.”

Thinking of this, Wen Xishu decided to give it a try.

He gritted his teeth and rushed into the tunnel.

……

……

Node one.

Yoshida Xiaohui opened his eyes and found that everything that had just happened was just a dream.

This is a really strange dream.

He dreamed of a woman wearing a black mask and holding a snake-shaped blade, trying to kill someone around her.

That person…what was his name?

He suddenly couldn’t remember.

He always can’t remember many things because he was diagnosed with intellectual disability when he was very young.

“So, I actually fell asleep?” Yoshida Xiaohui suddenly smiled.

He didn’t know why he suddenly fell asleep, but when he looked at the test paper and the score in his hand, he felt unprecedented joy.

“Yoshida-kun, you’ve made great progress. Your grandfather will be very happy to see you.”

What a strange score. 80 points.

I got 80 points out of a full 100 on the test.

The little girl next to him was also happy for Yoshida Xiaohui. Yoshida Xiaohui was a little surprised:
“Haruko…are you praising me?”

“Of course, Xiaohui has made great progress. Let’s go home together after school.”

“Oh, yeah, yeah!”

A huge feeling of happiness arose spontaneously. Yoshida Xiaohui never thought that Haruko, who had originally looked down on him, would be willing to go home with him.

It’s really… unreal.

It always feels unreal.

Memories of the past began to come back to him. Yoshida Xiaohui remembered that it seemed like a long, long time ago…

I have an intellectual disability and I went to the same school with normal people, which resulted in me being excluded everywhere and having trouble making friends.

My classmates always laugh at my ridiculous grades.

After all, in primary school——

Everyone can get 80 or 90 points no matter how low the score is, but for me, it really fluctuates randomly from a few points to twenty points.

So much so that everyone was guessing – how many points did the idiot get in the exam this time.

But that really…seems like a long, long time ago.

Yoshida Xiaohui always felt that once he tried to recall something, he would feel uneasy and vicissitudes.

That feeling would immediately interrupt his memories.

and–

“Yoshida-kun, let’s go.” Haruko smiled cutely.

Moreover, every time I tried to recall something, someone would interrupt me.

But… I am still young, and there seems to be nothing worth remembering.

Yoshida Xiaohui immediately followed Haruko’s pace.

The two began to talk and laugh as they headed towards home.

“Yoshida-kun, what do you want to be when you grow up? Don’t say scientist, that’s too old-fashioned.”

“So what do you want to do, Haruko?”

“I want to be a painter.”

“Then I’ll become a cartoonist,” said Yoshida Koki.

At this moment, Yoshida Xiaohui suddenly felt… as if someone breathed a sigh of relief.

He looked around and found that there was no one else except Haruko and himself.

“A cartoonist? That’s great. Let’s all work hard then.”

“But can I really become a cartoonist?” Yoshida Xiaohui couldn’t help but ask.

He didn’t want to doubt himself, but he felt that this kind of career that required writing and brainpower didn’t seem to suit him.

For some reason, he felt that he was the type of person who ran errands for others and did physical work that didn’t require much brainpower.

This feeling came back, but soon, Haruko said:
“Yes, yes! It’s no problem! Yoshida-kun, let’s work hard together! You have to do your best.”

Yoshida Xiaohui nodded seriously and vowed that he would become a cartoonist.

Soon, the two waved goodbye and went back to their homes.

After returning home, Yoshida Xiaohui took out the test paper, but he was very scared, afraid that his grandfather would scold him for cheating. This score was not high in the class, but it seemed unreal to him.

But after reading the test paper, Grandpa laughed and said:

“Hahahahaha, my dear grandson, you are so awesome! So awesome! What do you want to eat? Grandpa will take you to eat!”

“No, Grandpa, let’s eat at home.” Yoshida Xiaohui is very sensible.

He understood that his grandfather had spent a lot of money to treat his intellectual disability and his family had become poor.

“Come on, let’s go out for a nice meal. Grandpa has made a lot of money recently, and the market has been improving recently. You got a good score in the exam again, so there is no reason not to celebrate.” Grandpa’s voice was full of happiness.

Yoshida Xiaohui widened his eyes:

“Really? Grandpa, our family is not poor anymore?”

Grandpa waved his hands and said excitedly:

“Of course, if everything goes well, Grandpa might have a comeback in his later years! Hahaha, you’re going to be a third-generation rich man.”

“I’ll have money to support you as a cartoonist in the future.”

At this moment, Yoshida Xiaohui felt something was wrong…

I told my grandfather, did I want to be a cartoonist?
No, right?

How could someone like me have such a luxurious dream?

I am a…mentally handicapped person, and everyone tells me I should be put in a zoo and locked up with monkeys.

The strange feeling of inferiority came back.

Yoshida Xiaohui always felt that he should not have any dreams, let alone the extravagant dream of becoming a cartoonist. In fact, dreams themselves are a luxury to him.

But today, facing Haruko’s honesty, he still said it at that moment.

He wanted to be a cartoonist.

At this moment, looking at grandpa’s smile, those strange emotions were suppressed again.

“Grandpa! I really want to be a cartoonist! But I don’t want my dream to become a burden to my family.”

Grandpa was stunned for a second, and suddenly said distressedly:
“You can have dreams too! You can have dreams too! Xiaohui! You couldn’t do it before, but you can now! Our family is rich now! If you want to draw comics, then draw comics. If you want to sing or act in a TV series, then you can do that!”

Grandpa held his grandson in his arms and talked about the future.

It was a warm night.

If there is one thing that is not warm…it is probably the dream after falling asleep.

In the dream, a masked man holding a serpentine blade appeared again.

“Where is that person hiding?”

“Who?” Xiaohui was puzzled.

“It’s just to tell you that you’re not the person you should be.” The woman’s tone was cold.

“I…I don’t know?” Xiaohui really didn’t know.

He seemed to be in school at this moment, with people coming and going around him, but everyone was indifferent to him.

The woman said:

“Humph, damn dream sequence, do you think hiding in a dream will work?”

“Any abnormality he has during the day will summon us. I will find you.”

“You can’t do anything until he says that.”

The black mask covered the woman’s mouth, but could not hide her gloomy eyes.

doubt.

At this moment, Xiaohui seemed to suddenly know the woman’s name.

It’s a very strange feeling.

This woman’s name…is actually “Doubt”.

He didn’t know why he suddenly thought of a woman with this name.

“You…are you calling me doubtful?” Xiaohui asked bravely.

The woman was stunned for a moment.

She was a little surprised that this invader was so powerful.

It has been able to make the “target” feel somewhat real.

But she didn’t say much.

“I will find you. You interfere too much. There will be more and more of my team members… more and more.”

……

……

wake up.

Xiaohui opened his eyes and felt a little tired. This dream made him feel that something was wrong.

doubt.

This word refers to some kind of thinking and questioning about the surroundings.

But it became a person’s name.

If suspicion is a real existence, should her appearance be like that of a female assassin?
Xiaohui is still too young to figure this out.

He arrived at school quickly.

At school, everyone became Xiaohui’s friend. They chatted with Xiaohui and shared interesting stories about themselves.

Haruko was there too, and she shared her paintings.

The content of the painting made Xiaohui blush a little.

As the sun sets, a little boy and a little girl are walking home hand in hand on the road beside a small pond.

Xiaohui suddenly thought, is this a hint?

Obviously…I didn’t hold Haruko’s hand yesterday. I always feel that Haruko is a healthy person.

She is beautiful, smart, and has no shortcomings. If she does have a shortcoming, it is probably… she looks down on herself, right?
But that’s not her fault, it’s just myself who should be blamed for being a mentally retarded idiot, right?
But is it really you?
At this moment, Xiaohui seemed to have become the focus of the crowd.

The ridicule in the past… maybe it was just my dream?
That sense of vicissitudes, that feeling that a very long time has passed, perhaps it is all because of the dream?

There is someone in my dream who wants to make me unhappy…

It must be so.

“Xiaohui, are you happy?” Haruko suddenly smiled.

At the same time, everyone around looked at Xiaohui.

This scene is actually a little… weird.

Xiaohui subconsciously wanted to say:
“Happy… I am really happy.”

But suddenly, he seemed to hear a voice.

“For some questions, the answers must be in line with the goal. If you realize that the answer is not that, please don’t say it directly…”

“That would be dangerous. Very dangerous.”

Xiaohui was a little dazed.

“Don’t answer! Change the subject! Change the subject!”

There was a voice that seemed to be shouting desperately in Xiaohui’s mind.

But that voice soon disappeared.

“Xiaohui, are you happy?”

Haruko took Xiaohui’s hand and smiled sweetly again.

Everyone’s smile is so friendly and sweet.

Dozens of such smiles appearing at once should have seemed strange.

But Xiaohui couldn’t tell, he just felt that the moment Qingzi held his hand…

His heart was beating very fast, and he nodded seriously:

“I’m very happy.”

He really felt very happy, very joyful, so happy that it seemed unreal, as if something he had longed for had finally come true.

When he said this… he seemed to hear the sound of a sharp blade piercing through flesh and blood.

Something was quietly killed at this moment.

(Life has returned to its normal rhythm, and the update time may be late tomorrow… Well, because I have been too comfortable with 4,000 words a day recently, and my hand is a little rusty. Tomorrow I will try to resume the update of 8,000 to 10,000 words.)
(End of this chapter)