Chapter 17
Chapter 17
Having worked all this out, Su Chen proceeded with extreme caution.
He was afraid that one careless step would land him in a trap.
Yamashita Kenichiro, beside him, possessed no such intelligence.
Perhaps he was simply foolish.
Or perhaps drinking real rabbit blood had damaged his perception.
He kept looking this way and that, utterly unconcerned by the danger.
He looked as though he had truly come to the zoo for fun.
Suddenly, his expression changed.
He grabbed Su Chen and cried, “Look over there! Is that the Aquarium?”
Su Chen was startled by his words.
He immediately looked in the direction of Yamashita’s finger.
All he saw was a vast empty expanse.
Su Chen looked baffled.
“Where?”
“Right there! Look–huh? Why did it disappear?”
Yamashita pointed toward the entrance.
Confusion appeared on his face as well.
He rubbed his eyes and looked into the distance again.
He still saw nothing.
“Su Chen, you have to believe me. I really saw the Aquarium just now.”
Yamashita spoke solemnly.
Judging by his resolute expression, Su Chen could tell that he was probably not lying.
But Su Chen truly had not seen any Aquarium.
It was far too strange.
Suddenly.
A possibility occurred to him.
Perhaps only people with contaminated perceptions could see the Aquarium.
Yamashita had drunk rabbit blood and been deceived by the man in black, shocking his perception.
Combined with his earlier absentmindedness and lack of concentration, that might have allowed him to see the Aquarium.
Speaking to Su Chen had focused Yamashita’s attention.
That had weakened the cognitive contamination.
That was why he could no longer see it.
Su Chen considered this for a moment.
He thought it was the likeliest explanation.
For now, however, the Aquarium was not his primary concern.
The Aquarium might contain a backup exit.
But if he could not survive the Elephant Enclosure, thinking about what came afterward was pointless.
Su Chen drew his thoughts back and focused once more on the elephants to his right.
He continually watched for anything unusual.
The two followed the crowd and strolled slowly onward.
In the real world.
Longguo’s firewall finally collapsed under an assault led by Ugly Nation.
Large numbers of foreigners flooded into Longguo’s livestream.
Their countries had already obtained some hidden rules through espionage.
They did not yet know the rules in the Employee Handbook.
They had only just obtained this rule and had not yet had time to organize a systematic study.
Their country’s Chosen One had also entered the Elephant Enclosure.
Their national advisers reached a clear conclusion.
The Elephant Enclosure had to be filled with danger.
Naturally, they needed to share everything they knew with their Chosen Ones immediately.
If the contestants died before their countries used their hint, the opportunity would be wasted.
Every country that still had its hint hurriedly sent its previous analysis and the newly obtained Employee Rules to its Chosen One all at once.
Sakura Nation fell into the greatest despair.
Through the video, they had seen everything Su Chen did in the shop.
The rabbit blood turning into mineral water in sunlight had stunned them.
They connected it with the entire course of Yamashita Kenichiro’s experience.
They went mad.
He might have drunk rabbit blood!
They told Yamashita this as well.
Su Chen soon noticed the man beside him stop walking.
He saw Yamashita staring blankly into empty air.
He knew Sakura Nation had sent him a hint.
Yamashita soon began trembling, and his eyes turned red.
His perception was showing signs of contamination.
Su Chen could not understand it.
What was happening? How could guidance from his own country break his perception?
Smart as Su Chen was, he never imagined that Sakura Nation had told Yamashita everything Su Chen had done.
Yamashita had believed he drank holy water. Even if it had really been rabbit blood, the influence would have remained limited.
Then Sakura Nation revealed the truth directly.
How could he endure that?
The thought that he had drunk an entire bottle of rabbit blood nearly drove him insane.
The mental shock allowed the rabbit blood he had consumed to take effect.
Yamashita Kenichiro’s perception began to waver.
Meanwhile, Longguo’s data analysis had reached a crucial stage.
But they were running out of time.
Su Chen had already entered the Elephant Enclosure.
The young man in glasses suddenly had a flash of insight, as though remembering something.
But it was only a flash. Fog still shrouded his mind.
That’s right! The fog!
Silent Hill!
His whole mind lit up.
Perhaps the Aquarium resembled Silent Hill’s two layers of reality: the normal world and the Otherworld.
Having understood, he hurriedly reported to Elder Qin.
“Elder Qin, could the Aquarium be like Silent Hill, with a normal world and an Otherworld? Could cognitive contamination be the key that switches between them?”
Elder Qin stiffened.
It seemed entirely possible.
Then he looked at the progress bar for the computer analysis.
There was no time.
Su Chen could encounter danger at any moment inside the Elephant Enclosure.
They could no longer delay sending him the information already deciphered.
It had to reach him immediately.