Alternate Dimension Game: Happiness is all that matters!
Chapter 200 - 184: Two Security Guards

Chapter 200: Chapter 184: Two Security Guards

"Parallel Worlds ▇▇2-6-3-1-5▇▇" was fairly easy to understand. As long as one pressed these buttons in order, the elevator would transport a person to a parallel world.

But the content that followed was hard to make out.

It felt like guessing a word puzzle, vague and indistinct. I had no idea what the redacted content actually referred to.

Wang Hao was not good at solving word puzzles; he had always hated Chinese language classes when he was in school!

That was because Chinese relied solely on solid skills, with no room for luck, which meant his grades in Chinese were relatively poor.

"What does it detest? Who is ’it’... the elevator, a strange entity, or an unknown Demon God, or perhaps some other life form?"

A brainstorming session unfolded in my mind.

The biggest possibility was that ’it’ referred to the elevator.

"...If the elevator is a very powerful monster, then that would explain some things."

"It detests something."

"Due to its aversion, it suppresses the monsters inside and does not attack ’me’ readily."

"But why did the Box Monster break through the suppression and attack?"

Could it be, it detests violence?

...It detests... blood?

That possibility wasn’t out of the question.

The more Wang Hao thought about it, the more he felt this was highly likely. He tapped lightly on the desk and pondered thoroughly.

"After the Box Monster attacks me, there won’t be any bloodshed, but other monsters might explode into blood when they attack!"

"So, only the Box Monster dares to attack..."

"I must kill this damned Box Monster!"

"Next Reincarnation, I’ll bring a Rune Knife with me."

"I’m such a genius! To think I could even solve a puzzle like this!"

After clearing this up, he surveyed the elevator area. Although the elevator was old, it was clear that it was cleaned regularly, with no obvious signs of blood.

At that moment, the red-clothed woman beside me seemed to grow restless again and started to act up, making heavy "hiss-huff-hiss-huff" breathing sounds as if she could run out of breath at any moment.

Glancing inadvertently, I only saw the crimson eyeballs on the woman’s face rolling around, stealthily watching me. As soon as our eyes met, the woman quickly shrank back like a turtle retracting its head, her body trembling non-stop.

"Damn lunatic!"

Wang Hao cursed inwardly and swallowed.

Controlling the character, he pressed the buttons hard, only to find that the elevator wouldn’t light up.

"I must go out and come back in before I can light up the buttons... that’s it, right?"

"But what’s the deal with the outside world?"

Since I had already died once, I wasn’t planning on playing through with just one life.

It was clearly a parallel world that had suffered a major disaster, caused by the unknown Demon God that I would have to confront in the future.

In these several scenarios, it was very important to explore information about this "unknown Demon God." If I couldn’t figure it out now, it might hinder me in the future.

After mulling over it for a few seconds, Wang Hao stopped paying attention to the red-clothed woman, who kept having fits, and walked straight out of the elevator.

The underground first floor was dim and damp.

I found the staircase and followed the light upwards.

The sunshine was bright, yet it brought about an unreal feeling, somewhat hard to describe...

After all, the Game Avatars could be "cognitively contaminated," but Players would not be "contaminated." Figuring out how to make the Player feel this "contamination" was an art; the game developers could only work on the visuals and music.

It is said that to create a sense of eeriness in movies, one could occasionally insert a frame of a dead person in the footage. One frame = 1/12 of a second; the human eye may not discern a single frame, but the subconscious mind forms an impression, leading to a psychological fear.

Similarly, inserting a single frame of an advertisement every 24 frames in a movie could have a brainwashing effect. For example, occasionally inserting a frame of a Coca-Cola image could make the movie-goers inexplicably crave a Coke.

This is the special psychological effect brought about by visuals.

Wang Hao just felt that this world was a bit strange... He carefully surveyed his surroundings, not rushing around like he did on his first week.

Around... there weren’t any significant clues.

The streets were deserted, a concrete wall stood behind him, with piles of garbage stacked like mountains.

In this world of despair, where order was nearly collapsed, of course, there was nobody to clean up the garbage.

All kinds of clutter were piled up everywhere, from rotting food to plastic bags, to broken televisions, clothes, toys, and so on—almost anything one could think of.

But most of it was just junk.

Wang Hao picked up a piece of broken glass from the pile of garbage, about 10 centimeters in length.

"I can use this to cut my skin and spill blood... if it detests blood."

"If there’s a monster that wants to kill me, then we’ll die together!"

Further ahead was the security booth. Wang Hao picked up a stone from the side of the road and threw it over.

"Clatter~"

...

Feng Ling, who had been in a state of observation, tensed up once again after seeing "herself" do these bizarre things.

Even though she had a resigned attitude, the accumulation of so many unknowns still made her shiver with nervousness, her bladder faintly swelling.

Even with the excessive tension, there was a sour and swollen feeling in the muscles of her lower legs.

Only after dying once did she start to understand some information.

"This underworld... might not be reality, although it looks exactly like reality."

"This place is the Delusion!"

"If I stay here, I will be contaminated and become twisted."

She had heard some of the elders in the organization vaguely warning that its greatest ability was to create the "Delusion".

You think you have reached reality, arrived at your destination, which is exactly as expected, but it’s all just an illusion.

Once you accept this kind of illusion, you will become part of the "contamination".

The most crucial point is that humans must not divulge a single word about it.

Even a vague warning can be very dangerous...

This is also the main reason why various "Rule ghost stories" are rampant. Many things must be kept vague and unnoticed by it.

Its wisdom is unlike that of humans.

But even so, humans still can’t control the overflow of the Delusion, just as they can’t control their own mental illness and can’t distinguish between illusion and reality.

Without intervention from an external force, it is very difficult for humans to achieve self-redemption.

"The one controlling me is either it; or, could it possibly be a real external force? Have the two sides already begun their gamble?" With that thought, Feng Ling’s desperate heart couldn’t help but beat faster.

...

From Wang Hao’s perspective, the security guard heard the sound of a stone and came rushing over!

That blurry face, no matter how hard he focused, was as if it had been pixelated.

"Is this a special effect brought about by Advanced Cognitive Resistance? If I didn’t have Advanced Cognitive Resistance, would I be seeing a handsome guy?"

"Hey!"

Wang Hao quickly manipulated the Player character, retreating at high speed.

Although she was slightly malnourished, it must be said, the female character was attractive, with clear, bright eyes, curved eyebrows, delicate skin, and a frailness reminiscent of Lin Daiyu.

But amidst the crisis, she ran surprisingly fast, like a sprinter, her ponytail with its bow whipping in the wind.

She quickly returned to the elevator lobby.

The security guard who was chasing her didn’t hurry but followed into the elevator.

"Isn’t this exactly like the first cycle?"

In the moment the elevator doors were slowly closing, Wang Hao sought a change and immediately pressed the door-open button, stepping out again.

This time, the security guard was trapped inside the elevator and did not follow him out.

"Isn’t that an escape? I’ll investigate further. If this place is like reality, maybe there’s another elevator somewhere?"

Wang Hao took a deep breath and returned to the surface.

Nothing seemed to have changed in the pile of trash behind him.

But when he searched for clues, he found that at the spot where he had just picked up a piece of glass, another identical piece had appeared.

Now he had two pieces of glass.

"No way...?!"

Wang Hao vaguely thought of a possibility, which was a bit terrifying.

A few steps further, at the original security booth, he found another security guard, looking in his direction!

"Ah this..."

Wang Hao shivered, chilled by the bizarre turn of events, his skin prickling.

Controlling the girl, he sprinted for his life, returning once again to the elevator.

Then, the new security guard also entered the elevator.

The elevator doors closed.

Now, in this narrow room, there were two security guards, plus a woman in red.

Wang Hao scratched his head, feeling the situation was not good.

After waiting for some time, Wang Hao saw one of the guards pressing the buttons "532..." in sequence on the elevator.

Then, once again, the elevator began its descent.

The atmosphere inside was eerily tense.

Two security guards dressed alike, their faces impossible to see; a red-clothed woman having seizures, twitching, continually taking medication.

And—a powerless girl, Feng Ling.

In the quiet environment, the only thing audible was the female character’s suppressed breathing and her frantic heartbeat.

The thumping sound of that heart made Old Wang a bit irritable too.

"Sorry about this, how did it end up like this?"

"This whole operation made things even weirder. If I go out again, there might be three security guards, and if I keep going out a hundred billion times, cloning a hundred billion guards, could I exploit all of the ’Demon God’s’ power for nothing?"

That was obviously unrealistic...

Even if he became a tapping sprite and his fingers tapped until tendinitis set in, he couldn’t repeat it a hundred billion times.

"It’s nothing, I wasn’t expecting to clear this Reincarnation in one go," Wang Hao comforted himself, "If it hates blood, then two security guards it is."

Having nothing better to do, he turned his head to study the slightly yellowed piece of paper.

Five minutes passed quickly.

"Ding-dong! Second basement level reached!"