Chapter 178 The mystery of the man cave is solved
(Considering that some readers reported that they did not understand, this chapter contains more explanations.)
People always feel happier when they are close to happiness, but after they actually get a certain result, they will gradually become anxious about gains and losses.

Therefore, the essence of happiness is a sense of achievement.

People who lack money will feel happy when they get money, and people who lack wisdom will feel happy when they gain wisdom.

The more knowledge and wisdom a person has, the more he feels his own shallowness.

This is Wen Xishu’s way out of the impasse.

Next, he will begin to unify with Yoshida Koki and break the first human hole.

At this moment, Wen Xishu looked at the “doubt” that had disappeared and began to “talk to himself”.

“You should have realized that you are actually living in a false world.” Wen Xishu said.

Yoshida Xiaohui nodded:
“You are me?”

The conversation between the two, in the eyes of Lisa behind them, was like someone talking to himself, as if he was schizophrenic.

“I am me and you are you. You are dead, but I am still alive. I am playing you and you are covering me.” Wen Xishu’s words were a little obscure.

But Yoshida Xiaohui quickly understood.

Wen Xishu continued to add:

“You should have discovered that your life has the power of a concept that is destined to bring you happiness…”

Yoshida Xiaohui nodded:
“Yes, my life has been too smooth, without any misfortune. It seems that this world only allows me to feel unhappy for others.”

“But I myself have never had any subjective feeling of misfortune.”

Wen Xishu said:
“Because this world does not allow you to be unhappy. Misfortune will be quantified. Once you feel unhappy, the concrete manifestation of that emotion will be born around you.”

“If people do not doubt anything, they will often become happy because of the rare ignorance. Therefore, doubt is one of the sources of misfortune.”

“That’s why that woman appeared next to you. She was suspicious.”

Yoshida Koki asked:

“I began to question the things around me, which led to her birth…but why did she look like that?”

“Because of me. I said that you were dead, or rather, Yoshida Xiaohui was dead. So the look of suspicion was determined by me, Wen Xishu.” Wen Xishu said.

Yoshida Xiaohui was not surprised to hear that he was dead, he just smiled:
“So, in your opinion, or in my opinion, beautiful women are worthy of suspicion?”

“Yes, beautiful women are worthy of suspicion. This suspicion is my natural vigilance towards certain beautiful things. People like me will feel something is wrong once we live a happy life. Once a beautiful woman approaches me, I will wonder what she is trying to do. Maybe it’s because I was too unfortunate in the past, so I always have a sense of unworthiness.” Wen Xishu said frankly.

“So you like this type of woman.” Yoshida Xiaohui laughed again.

“If the world were at peace, if I were absolutely safe…if I wasn’t so suspicious, I would probably marry a woman who looked like ‘Suspicion’.”

Wen Xishu was also very frank, because from the beginning to the end, he was facing himself.

Yoshida Xiaohui said:

“Well, since you’ve dared to show up, why not solve the mystery for me.”

Yoshida Xiaohui nodded after he finished speaking. Then he turned around and said:
“Lisa, get out of my room.”

Lisa’s expression was very strange. She did not act immediately, but then Yoshida Xiaohui said:
“I need you to leave my room. That’s what I want right now.”

Lisa nodded and finally left the room.

After closing the door, Xiaohui began to solve the puzzle formally.

In other words, Wen Xishu began to formally solve the puzzle:

“Xiaohui, you are in a man cave. And I am an adventurer who is exploring the man cave.”

“The man cave is very dangerous. It’s a life-threatening situation. No… it’s even more exaggerated than that. It’s almost impossible to survive. It can be said that exploring the man cave is one of the most dangerous tasks I have encountered so far. Strictly speaking, I survived this time by luck.”

“Let me first tell you about the characteristics of the man cave. First of all, once you enter the man cave, you will lose yourself, or in other words, if the sense of incongruity is not obvious enough – forget yourself.”

“As soon as I entered the man cave, I became you and began to be forced to experience your life of happiness.”

“At this moment, I didn’t even realize that I was me.”

“My memories are temporarily lost, and replaced by your memories. I will desire what you desire and have the same cognition as you. I almost become you.”

“If nothing unexpected happens, I will feel the happiness you desire, and eventually at every point in my life, I will say those words – I am so happy.”

Yoshida Xiaohui is now a little scared of the words “I am so happy”.

He did not interrupt Wen Xishu’s speech.

Wen Xishu said:
“You should have noticed that at each node, such as childhood, youth, and adulthood… as long as you say something like this, there will be an extra count in your palm lines.”

“I guess if this number reaches three… I will die.”

“In other words, your life is broken down into several nodes. If you feel happy and express it at any of the three nodes… I, who invaded the man cave, will die immediately.”

Yoshida Xiaohui said:

“I see. So this is actually a way to kill you.”

Wen Xishu smiled and said:
“It’s just one of the ways.”

“My greatest characteristic is doubt. I have become you, but I still retain my doubt.”

“This brings us to the second mechanism of the man cave, the unfortunate error correction mechanism. When I had doubts…”

“Suspicion, a mental activity that is not conducive to your happiness, has been materialized into a being with extraordinary assassination abilities.”

Yoshida Xiaohui understood:

“So…when I have nightmares, ‘doubt’ is looking for you?”

Wen Xishu nodded:

“Yes, she is looking for me. She cannot let you feel unhappy. And doubt is a powerful assassin that can kill everything in this world in an instant… It is bad for you and will make you unhappy.”

Yoshida Xiaohui sighed:
“Tsk. So, she’s my bodyguard. But then again, you and I are one.”

Wen Xishu continued:
“When doubt sets in, you become afraid of something.”

“At this point, fear becomes concrete.”

“I’ve discovered Fear a long time ago. He has two heads, which are the heads of my parents. This shape is aimed at me. It’s hard for me to face it.”

“So at the first node, I realized how dangerous and outrageous the man cave was.”

“To be precise, it was my secondary personalities that realized the danger and the absurdity. In this world, any negative emotions you have will turn into psychics trying to eliminate your misfortune.”

“But there is a third setting for this world. Once my personalities appear in the real world… they will be hunted down by everyone in this world. They will also be hunted down by ‘suspicion’ and ‘fear’ immediately.”

“I can only hide in my dreams. Because in dreams, there is only you. But if I try to tell you the truth in my dreams, the cruel truth, it will also make you feel unhappy.”

“So, ‘doubt’ and ‘fear’ can even penetrate directly into dreams.”

“I have no choice. With the Nightmare Absolution sequence, I can only hide my many personalities in my dreams and give up telling you the truth in my dreams.”

“Because all my personalities can’t beat them.”

“But doubt or fear are all created by you. You are the master of this world. Do you understand?”

Yoshida Xiaohui was silent for a few seconds, then nodded slowly:
“I see. This is your strategy.”

Wen Xishu took over the conversation:
“Yes, I am quite good at strategy. Of course, I have to emphasize that I was lucky this time.”

“Among Wen Xishu’s many personalities, I am a relatively calm one who likes to analyze. I was the one who planned this counterattack. You can call me the absolutely calm version of Wen Xishu.”

“First, I arranged a lustful personality, which is also the weakest one among Wen Xishu’s many personalities, to seduce ‘Suspicion’. I let this personality forcibly give you some hints.”

Yoshida Xiaohui immediately figured out what the hint was.

When they were young, Haruko asked him if he felt happy.

At that moment, Yoshida Xiaohui heard 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.”

This voice is one of Wen Xishu’s personalities.

“Alas, from now on, Wen Xishu will probably be really immune to women. Because this personality is dead. Of course, this is only limited to this mission.” said the absolutely calm version of Wen Xishu.

It is indeed limited to this mission, because returning to the bunker will repair all damage, including the mental one.

Yoshida Xiaohui understood:

“At that time, I answered Haruko, which led me to think that I was very happy at a young age.”

“And at that moment, one of your personalities died?”

Absolutely calm version of Wen Xishu nodded:

“Yes, it was indeed very dangerous at the time. As I said, any attempt to give you any hint that would lead to your misfortune… would result in suspicion.”

“In short, I lost the first node. One of my personalities died. I was killed because I was trying to give you a hint.”

“But I also tested the degree of danger of this world. So in the second round, which is the second node, your youth stage – I realized that I absolutely cannot fight head-on.”

“Wen Xishu himself is not the owner of multiple personalities. In fact, it is the sequence of personality parties that causes some of his characteristics to materialize into a certain personality.”

“If all these personalities died in the man cave, Wen Xishu would also become emotionally deficient.”

“So I realized that I had to be careful not to wake you up by force, but to let you realize the dangers of this world yourself.”

Yoshida Xiaohui thought for a moment:

“I understand. No wonder you said you relied on luck!”

Absolutely calm version Wen Xishu smiled and said:

“Yes, thanks to Yoshida Xiaohui, the root of your misfortune lies in your intellectual disability, otherwise I would not be able to break the situation.”

“Your misfortune stems from your intellectual disability, so I have been hinting to you in my dreams that you will become a genius, that you are a genius, and so on.”

“Subconsciously, it makes you want to become a genius and have a higher level of intelligence.”

“In the early stages of this round, I didn’t dare to let any personality emerge from my dream. Because in the first round, I realized the difference in combat power between the two sides.”

“Fortunately, I can still attack the heart.”

“Although you are very happy, the editor-in-chief also said that your painting skills need to be polished. You still have to become better.”

“Once a person has a goal, in the process of achieving it, as long as everything goes smoothly and there is stable positive feedback, he will feel happy.”

“The more positive feedback you get, the more your skills will improve, and the more you will be aware of the gap between you and the masters.”

“You will become more and more hungry for wisdom and talent.”

“The key to this node lies in the ending. I let a personality appear, which caught your attention, and then let suspicion kill it.”

“Well, this personality symbolizes Wen Xishu’s laziness… In fact, it is also a weaker personality among many personalities.”

Wen Xishu is indeed not lazy, which is why he can keep climbing the tower without stopping.

Now, without this personality, Wen Xishu will climb the tower even more crazily.

“Sacrificing this personality is mainly to stimulate your memory and make you more suspicious and fearful of the people around you.”

“Just when you said you were happy again, the number on your palm turned into 2… At this time, you, who were gradually becoming smarter, would definitely feel that something was wrong.”

“You want to find out the truth, but you are at a loss, so you want to gain more wisdom to solve the mystery.”

Yoshida Xiaohui nodded.

It really is.

When I was young, there was an extra 1 on my palm that I couldn’t rub off no matter how hard I scrubbed it. On the same day, I saw a strange masked man doing parkour, and a group of people chased him.

When he was young, the number on his palm turned into 2, the masked man appeared again, and then suspicion appeared and killed the masked man in seconds.

Although in the end Doubt and Fear chose to commit self-harm to eliminate Yoshida Xiaohui’s doubts and fears…but this incident left a deep impression on Yoshida Xiaohui.

There was no way he could ignore this in his heart.

There was something wrong with the world, the idea began to grow.

Absolutely Calm Version Wen Xishu said:

“Next, it’s node 3. After you open the next node with a desire to know the truth, this world will naturally make you smarter and smarter over the years in order to make you happy.”

“Your parameters are constantly rising.”

“As you become smarter, you lose interest in all kinds of vulgar desires.”

“You want to know something more fundamental.”

“Plus, the real Xiaohui has been unfortunate all his life due to his intellectual disability, so my main personality who plays Xiaohui, that is, you, will be more eager to gain wisdom.”

“Such desires and the mechanisms of the world have made you smarter and smarter, and your cognition has become higher and higher. Gradually, those past memories have not become blurred by the passage of time, but have been connected together by you.”

“This may seem to make you happy… but once you become smart enough, you can observe everything. This will make you unhappy. At the same time, it will kill doubt.”

Yoshida Xiaohui nodded, or rather, the real Wen Xishu personality nodded:
“I understand. So… the doubt is dead, because I already know the truth, I see through everything, there is no doubt in my heart anymore, so the ‘doubt’ disappears.”

Absolutely Calm Version Wen Xishu said:

“That’s right, so we are very lucky. Now, are you ready to return to being the real Wen Xi Shu?”

Yoshida Xiaohui nodded:

“of course.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Wen Xishu’s memories began to emerge in large numbers.

Yoshida Xiaohui, or Wen Xishu’s main personality, truly began to awaken at this moment.

The reason why he chose to awaken the main personality now was because “Absolutely Calm Wen Xishu” knew very well that if Yoshida Xiaohui did not have enough wisdom to suddenly accept this information –

You will feel fear and panic, and suddenly realize that the real you is dead, and that your grandfather burned half of his head in order to find you… It must be very painful and miserable.

Therefore, these things can only be told to Yoshida Koki when the main personality, that is, Yoshida Koki, has enough wisdom and no longer has any “doubts”.

Otherwise, either Yoshida Koki will not be able to bear it, or “doubt” will suddenly flash.

“It turns out that Xiaohui’s grandfather has given so much for Xiaohui.” The real Wen Xishu said.

At this time, there is no so-called “Yoshida Xiaohui” or “absolutely calm version” of Wen Xishu.

Now Wen Xishu has been completely awakened. “This is the first time that I can’t break free from my fake life by my own strength. If it weren’t for the Personality Party and Nightmare Absolution… I would have died.”

“Even with these two sequences, if it weren’t for the fact that the root of Yoshida Koki’s misfortune was his intellectual disability, I wouldn’t have broken the rules. After all, happiness and wisdom are only proportional at a certain stage.”

Once you remember who you are…

Wen Xishu finally realized the danger of the man cave. No wonder the child at the entrance of the cave said that no one had ever been able to break into the man cave.

“Now, I have found myself again, and in this copy, I have gained ‘wisdom’, which allows me to face any situation calmly. I will not fall into fear, sadness, anger, or anxiety.”

Without these negative emotions, there would naturally be no enemies that embody negative emotions.

To a certain extent, Wen Xishu is very safe now.

“Then how can I leave? Besides, this is just the outermost man cave… There are many man caves in the Man Cave Village. The reason for the formation of man caves is probably in the inner man caves.”

“If I were to go into those man caves…how could I maintain my own identity and not become someone else? It’s impossible for everyone to be like Xiaohui, thirsting for wisdom.”

Wen Xishu thinks now that all this is really dangerous.

If it weren’t for the right time, place and people, I would really have fallen into this trap.

Many problems did not bother Wen Xishu for too long.

Because at this time, Wen Xishu obtained an amazing “intelligence bonus” in the process of playing Yoshida Xiaohui.

He quickly remembered:

“I need to collect something.”

“The kid next to the tunnel told me that I had to bring something that didn’t exist from the man cave…”

“What is something that doesn’t exist in this man cave?”

The answer is not difficult to obtain.

Wen Xishu also quickly came up with the answer in a flash of inspiration.

“It’s…unfortunate!”

In a world of absolute happiness, of course, the only thing that does not exist is misfortune.

But this answer also made Wen Xishu further aware of the dangers of exploring the man cave.

“What if Yoshida Xiaohui’s lack is not intelligence, but other defects, such as lack of money, lack of love, not handsome, not tall, short there, bad luck…”

“Then the corresponding corrections will be money, the care of others, good looks, being tall and strong, and good luck…”

“These things can really make people live happily. If I realize that something is wrong, I may not be willing to admit it. I may not be willing to wake up from the sweet dream of the man cave.”

“Destroying one’s own happiness to search for misfortune is an anti-human act that cannot be done without sufficient wisdom.”

“Besides, even if I realize that I need to collect misfortune…how should I collect it? I already know the truth…”

“So I want to destroy Yoshida Xiaohui in this world? Let his career and family be destroyed?”

“No…it shouldn’t be like that. If that were the case, I would probably get caught up in some emotions and summon those weird guys again.”

“so……”

Wen Xishu began to fall into deep thought.

During this process, he seemed to hear the sound of something breaking.

That’s the world falling apart.

Wen Xishu deliberately began to think about some difficult problems that could not be solved at this stage.

For example, how to get out of the man cave, how to collect misfortunes. But he already knew this problem.

So he began to think about bigger questions.

What is the origin of everything in the Rendong Village? How can we use pain to suppress the Rendong Village?

What is Scorpio trying to achieve with An Rongzai’s plan to reverse the Seven?
When I summoned Wen Chaohua, what was the source of that feeling of being locked in by a huge force?
Why did Wen Chaohua’s strength improve so quickly?

Why is Mr. Jin in the bunker always unwilling to break through the 100th floor with the old principal? Is he really afraid of death?
I don’t know! I don’t know! I don’t know! I don’t know anything! There are several questions that I cannot answer at this stage, even if I have gained a lot of wisdom.

Even though wisdom supplemented many ideas, Wen Xishu only became more clearly aware of how far he was from the truth.

He couldn’t think of an answer.

But the only and eternal misfortune of the wise man is precisely his inability to obtain the truth.

When Wen Xishu deliberately thought about the problems that he couldn’t think of at this stage, he was not worrying about nothing, but collecting misfortunes.

The world began to break apart.

At this time, Lisa’s voice came from outside the door.

Lisa’s voice became extremely sharp.

“Open the door! Open the door!”

“Do you really want to destroy this world?”

“You can be so happy! Why are you doing this! Why are you doing this! Open the door!”

It’s not just Lisa.

If Wen Xishu stuck his head out and looked out the window at this moment, he would see a crowd of people:
“Open the door! Open the door! Open the door!”

The crowd was crowded and countless people were shouting to open the door.

Everyone’s expression became extremely ferocious.

But Wen Xishu was unmoved.

“Do you want to deliberately create fear to make it correct its mistakes? Unfortunately, right now, I am only interested in the truth that I don’t know. Everything else cannot arouse my interest.”

Wen Xishu guessed that this world has an error correction mechanism.

That is to make emotions concrete, doubt becomes a beauty, fear becomes a two-headed man, that’s it.

When he was about to destroy the world, the world began to become hideous, because he wanted to use this hideousness to create fear, and then let the materialized fear destroy those variables.

But now, Wen Xishu doesn’t care about all this.

He began to focus on collecting misfortunes.

The source of misfortune is the unknown. Constantly pondering those difficult questions that you long to know but cannot get the truth about.

The feeling of frustration, the sense of uncertainty, and even the feeling of powerlessness that cannot be understood throughout one’s lifetime are all sources of misfortune.

This is the fate of wise men. They know more and more, but the problems they have to solve become more and more difficult.

So people always say that it is bliss to be ignorant and that it is happier to take a step back.

This is Wen Xishu’s misfortune.

This misfortune began to accumulate, and finally… the world began to fall apart.

The surrounding scene began to change constantly, and Wen Xishu knew clearly that something was coming…

I am about to leave the man cave.

“It seems that this still doesn’t work. I can’t get information out of thin air… This has nothing to do with wisdom.”

“But next, I will most likely be the first person to survive the man cave, and maybe I will get help from the Pain Auction. After all, I have passed their test.”

“To break the curse, they should tell me more.”

When he thought of this, Wen Xishu opened his eyes and found that he did not leave the man cave immediately, and tunnels appeared around him again.

The colorful light shone on Wen Xishu, making Wen Xishu feel that… something in his body was recovering.

Those beings that had been killed began to slowly revive.

“Big brother, nice to see you again… You are amazing. I didn’t expect you could use such a method to get out of the man cave.”

The little boy’s voice appeared again.

He was obviously surprised and happy. The spotless white kimono made him look like an immortal.

“Ah, we meet again. You see, I told you that in my life I have faced many situations that people thought were impossible to survive. But I always survived.” Wen Xishu said with a smile.

The little boy nodded:

“Big brother, you are awesome. This is the misfortune you have collected.”

The little boy handed over a bottle with a scale.

It was a cylindrical glass bottle.

The scales above are: sorrow, pain, failure to obtain, world-weariness, and unforgiveness from reincarnation.

Obviously, Wen Xishu only collected a little bit of misfortune. The black liquid in the bottle was more sorrow but less pain.

Wen Xishu was very curious about who this child was.

“Who are you anyway? What do you want to do by collecting misfortunes?”

The little boy shook his head and said:

“I’m sorry… I really don’t remember. Big brother, please leave here. It would be a pity for the world if someone like you died.”

“Stop exploring other caves.”

Wen Xishu said:
“Should I go deep into other human caves and collect all the misfortunes? Collect them to the point where my reincarnation will not forgive me?”

The little boy really didn’t want Wen Xishu to risk his life and go to other caves again.

But in response to Wen Xishu’s question, he still said very honestly:

“Yes, big brother, you need to keep collecting misfortunes from the man cave…it’s a balance.”

Wen Xishu was about to ask more questions, but the little boy said:

“Let’s go… Big Brother, go back through this tunnel. You have completed your mission. After you come out of the Man Cave, you will be temporarily rejected by the Man Cave Village.”

“Don’t explore too many man caves. You should know that you can rely on luck once, but what about twice or three times?”

……

……

The little boy disappeared again. Wen Xishu certainly did not complete his mission.

He pondered the little boy’s last words and soon had an idea.

“He must be hinting to me not to explore each cave one by one. Instead, I should find the most critical man cave.”

“If I were to experience every cave again and again, seven days would not be enough.”

Wen Xishu suddenly remembered that he should ask a very important question.

“I experienced someone’s life in the man cave… so how much time has passed outside the man cave?”

He walked out of the tunnel. This time, he passed through the tunnel, not into the man cave, but returned to Hujiang.

The moment he passed through the tunnel, Wen Xishu even felt a sense of confusion.

“Am I really Wen Xishu? Or am I actually Yoshida Xiaohui…but I had a dream that I was Wen Xishu?”

Was it Zhuang Zhou dreaming of a butterfly, or was it the butterfly dreaming of Zhuang Zhou?

This moment of trance made Wen Xishu realize…the harm that the human cave had caused to him.

The super immersion that made him unable to realize who he was at all, once he was out of it, he began to have subtle withdrawal reactions.

Feeling the light coming from outside, Wen Xishu patted his face:

“If I go through this a few more times… maybe I’ll really go crazy, right?”

He finally returned to the real world.

Back to the special area of ​​Toe, Rendong Village.

It was also at this time that Wen Xishu heard a familiar voice.

Virtual 04 exclaimed:
“Oh my god! Warrior, you really did it! You destroyed a man cave!”

“Oh my god… The curator is right! Warrior, you really are the chosen one!”

In the ruins floating in the sky, Xu04 has been observing the man cave on the ground.

What she originally saw was Wen Xishu entering the man cave, and at the same time, another man cave appeared.

That man cave is Wen Xishu’s man cave.

But soon, the man cave belonging to Wen Xishu was still there…but the other man cave that Wen Xishu entered at the beginning had disappeared.

Hollow04 once again used the knife to cut open his own hattori, as if he wanted to pull out his intestines for people to see.

In severe pain, Void04 opened the portal.

“What’s that bottle in your hand?”

Wen Xishu said:
“Teleport me back to the auction first. I think I can meet your curator now?”

Xu04 nodded:
“You are the first person to survive the Man Cave in the true sense. You are definitely qualified to meet our curator.”

In Wen Xishu’s opinion, the curator is most likely a Honkai Impact 3rd.

Only the Honkai Impact 3rd know the so-called “Warriors”.

But strangely, Wen Xishu had never seen a Collapser in the Strange Tower.

Logically speaking, the Collapsers should all be cycling within the timeline of the Tower of Desire.

So Wen Xishu was very curious about the curator of the Pain Auction.

As it happened, he did something that was truly unprecedented and was qualified to meet the curator.

Xu04 said:

“Let’s go. I’ll take you out of Rendong Village first.”

(There is another dinner party tomorrow… so I’m posting it in advance. It’s just a dinner party for the younger generation, so it shouldn’t be that bad this time. Let me go and take a look. If there is another bloody plot, I will update it at the end of each chapter!)

(End of this chapter)