Buzz…
Ma Fei purposely drew out the last syllable, making it sound extremely suggestive.
From his hesitant tone, one could tell that he did not have much confidence in the choice that this Su Mo person from the future would make.
He could not be certain if Su Mo would even answer this question.
“Interesting. Is he giving me the power of choice once more?
“It seems my previous actions and demeanor have managed to trigger the mechanism Ma Fei left behind, and it’s actually interacting with me.”
Glancing at the camera on the corner of the wall with its blinking red light, Su Mo smiled and walked over to stand in front of this small monitor.
He did not mind violent, yet truthful responses.
He was only wary of being given vague answers that promised an explanation, yet explained nothing at all.
Su Mo admired Ma Fei’s work very much and had no intention of mounting any objections.
There was no specific subject on the screen at the moment, merely a simple single-choice question.
[Do you want to understand the meaning of life? Do you want to truly… live?]
[Yes or no!]
After a pause, Su Mo gently tapped the button for ‘yes’. The screen was plunged into darkness, and Ma Fei’s voice rang out again at the same time.
“Very good. You’ve made your choice.
“From the looks of it, you’re a radical protester as well. This is something I hadn’t actually expected. I really want to see what kind of results all of you can achieve this time.
“Honestly speaking, since your compatibility received a good score of 91 points in the evaluation rules I set, I’ll just let you have the next three questions.”
A simple analysis screen appeared with such a terrible UI design that a mere glance revealed it to be a layman’s “masterpiece”.
Still, this screen showed how Su Mo had conducted himself since entering the first floor, from his most basic standing posture to the various changes in his body when he selected his options, as well as the several most important big choices.
Apart from the single low score he received in the 13 seconds when he came in earlier, Su Mo had received close to full points for the other scores.
In total, he had managed to achieve a high score of 91 points!
He only needed to accumulate another nine points to gain the authorization for proceeding to the third floor in the top right corner. Then he could obtain the secret that Ma Fei had left behind.
“Every question is awarded three points. If you answer one question correctly, you can take one item from everything here without a penalty.
“If you answer two correctly, you can take two items.
“Correspondingly, if you answer three correctly, you can take everything in here and obtain the authorization for the third floor as well. So now…
“Are you ready!”
Three questions worth three points each. That was exactly nine points.
After looking around and realizing that he could not find the passageway or the iron door to the third floor, Su Mo nodded and chose “yes”.
The gains on the second floor were already this incredible. Based on this logic, the third floor probably held even more of Ma Fei’s treasures.
All these had been left behind by the people who had worked so hard for close to ten years in this doomsday wasteland. They were unbelievable treasures.
Now that he had reached this point, even if it was because he wanted to take everything from the second floor, he had to choose an answer.
Whir…
Whir whir whir…
The exhaust fan behind the monitor started to hum. At the same time, the first question Ma Fei had set appeared on the screen.
[Question one]: After you transmigrate into this wasteland and work hard for a few years, one day, a group of powerful strangers gatecrash your life. They tell you that they have found some mysterious tickets. As long as you have a ticket, you can leave this wasteland and go to a world with no disasters, where all you have to do is enjoy yourself. However, there’s a price if you wish to trade for this ticket.
[A. Listen to the price B. Refuse at once C. Agree at once]
“Uh-huh… It really is a very interactive and comprehensive multiple-choice question!”
Seeing the choices that popped up on the screen, Su Mo did not even bother to think and chose option A—listen to the price.
Leaving the wasteland was tempting as usual, but any normal person would choose to continue listening.
[Supplemental Question One]: You agree to their first request. You want to leave the wasteland, so you chose to listen to the price, but they do not tell you what it is. Instead, they tell you that they are building a nation—a country in the wasteland. As long as you join them, you will be able to leave with them. As for the price? You do not need to know.
[A. Agree B. Reject C. Persist on listening to the price]
“Oh? We’re playing now?”
Studying the three new choices with interest, Su Mo’s brain worked rapidly as he started considering the deeper meaning behind these three choices.
If this were a choice Ma Fei had made previously, given his current position, he would still choose to participate in the end no matter which option he picked.
In that case, what was the answer Ma Fei wanted—to participate or to not participate?
“This is really a question that tests one’s character, but I choose C!”
Glancing at the moving camera on the top right corner, Su Mo gently tapped the answer—he chose to keep listening to the price.
At this point, Ma Fei was no longer asking a personal question—instead, he was transmitting the secrets of how Blazeland was first formed.
Compared with heading to the third floor, knowing exactly why Blazeland was formed was even more important to Su Mo.
[Supplemental Question One]: Because of your insistence, you manage to get them to leak a “portion” of the price, which can be summed up in three points:
[A. Accept B. Reject]
“Huh, so that’s how Ma Fei’s level 17 shelter came to be? He accepted the benefit of upgrading ten levels in one go?”
After staring at the words on the screen for a while and ascertaining that this was not a joke, Su Mo’s expression became serious.
If things were really as described in Ma Fei’s question, then this group of individuals who established Blazeland could actually affect a shelter core to a certain extent.
This kind of ability was not something that could be accomplished through mere technology alone. They must have obtained some sort of secret!
“If a choice like this were laid out in front of me, would I accept… or reject it?”
At this moment, Su Mo really had to put himself into the options to consider exactly what his true desires would be when faced with choices like this.
Would he participate in establishing a country, or would he choose to not believe it and determinedly go down his own path of development?
Seeing that Su Mo was in such deep thought, the question on the screen did not hurry him either. Instead went into screensaver mode, patiently waiting for him to think it through.
If he put himself in Ma Fei’s shoes, choosing B for this question was possibly more correct, but what Su Mo wanted to know even more was what exactly he himself would choose.
“I’m a bold person. Under these circumstances, if this group of strangers were put in front of me to negotiate conditions, that’s already overstepping the rules.
“How could I still let them talk to me about some bullsh*t price!”
After thinking about it and coming up with the answer in his heart, Su Mo laughed aloud, then chose B without hesitation!
Reject!
[Question Two]: Please state your reason for Question One in a single sentence.
After Su Mo chose to reject in Question One, the screen did not indicate whether it was right or wrong but jumped straight to the second question instead.
“Devious man, so he laid the trap here.”
It did not matter whether he chose to agree or refuse in the first question; no score would be given.
In the second question that had been set, only the reason given for the answer would become what was evaluated.
If it was wrong, he would lose everything, and there probably would not even be a chance for the third question.
If it was correct, then he could get six points at once and enter the thrilling third stage.
“A reason in a single sentence—what else could it be? Of course it’s because I abide by my true desires.”
Laughing confidently, once the familiar input method popped up after he chose the input box, Su Mo used his hand as a pen and wrote down his extremely idealistic answer.
[The shelter level is my foundation of life. You want to seal it? 10 levels are far from enough—you’ll have to add money to that!]
A single sentence written in Su Mo’s fluid strokes—after he tapped the submit button, the screen in front of him started to freeze up.
Static started flashing across the display. Alongside the sound of flowing water from the blood vessel energy network, the temperature in the room seemed to have risen a few degrees as well.
“Ahem…”
A low cough sounded. Compared to the lively AI and recorded voice, this voice sounded as if it had just woken up and had not yet fully come to its senses.
“Person from the future, your answer is very interesting. It’s been so long…
“Far too long since I’ve bumped into someone as interesting as you!”
After a few seconds of lag, the recovered part of Ma Fei checked the answer. His chronic phlegm no longer caught in his throat, and his speech became more fluent as well.
“Not bad, not bad. Your rejection was reasonable. At the same time, you’re not outdated either. You know how to adapt.
“You’re able to fight to gain the greatest benefits for yourself. I’ll let you pass this stage.”
Beep!
Beep!
After Ma Fei’s voice dissipated, the screen returned to normal as well, and two celebratory beeps sounded as two green ticks appeared.
The score at the top right corner had already reached 97 points. At the same time, the special authorization to take two items was displayed.
“For the third question, you can choose to answer now, or you can choose to answer when you next come here.
“Make your choice!
“Yes or no.”
It was another familiar single choice. Without any hesitation, Su Mo chose to keep answering.
If he wanted to enter this ruin another time, it would take at least half a year. It was too great a variable, so it would be best to finish answering everything in one go, then see what happened.
[Question Three: If I tell you that the foreign races withholding our goods every time are doing so because of orders and reports from higher up—if I tell you that the reason Liangfang Town was established was not for trade but to deplete Shan Bei Province’s supplies, please share your thoughts!]
???
The line of text that suddenly appeared on the screen shocked Su Mo to the core as he stood in front of the screen still, waiting to answer the question.
At this moment, no matter how lighthearted Su Mo behaved, he could not help being stunned!
What?
The foreign races withholding goods was actually what the Blazeland higher-ups wanted?
The purpose for establishing Liangfang Town was not for mutual exchange of trade, but to deplete Shan Bei Province’s food supplies?
What were the higher-ups doing?
Were they… robbing the poor?
“Solicitation, tickets, barriers, foreign races…”
As he read out the keywords he had extracted, at that moment, Zeta the dragon’s story suddenly came to mind.
It was the story about Zeta’s coming to the wasteland and protecting his clan, only to slaughter the entire clan when all of them were defenseless.
Were not the dragon Zeta’s methods the same as what the higher-ups in Blazeland were doing now—the same thing but a different tune?
“What a big picture—this is the big picture!
“Human parasites rely on the sky barrier’s protection, and the foreign race parasites rely on being bloodsuckers and leeching off humans to survive.
“When a condition is about to be fulfilled, as long as supplies are cut off and the barrier is removed, everyone has no option but to kill if they want to survive.
“But humans who constantly rely on the barrier and live in a fantasy world, as well as foreign races who keep relying on collecting tolls and never toiling for themselves—what skills would they have to survive in this wilderness when the time comes?
“This is their true goal!”
The fan in the old machine whirred. The room became even hotter, but Su Mo—who was standing in front of the screen—was trembling as if he were in an ice cellar.
The world was not benevolent and treated everything like dogs.
The saints were not benevolent and treated people like dogs!
Looking at the conversation box that was waiting for him to enter information, at this moment, Su Mo’s mind was clear. A classic saying suddenly popped into his mind, and he lingered no longer.
His body was like a great spear, his hand like the spear tassel; the screen was like an enemy, and the text was like a presentation of ideas in a composition.
Su Mo’s writing strokes were fluid as he began expressing the “shock” in his heart.
“I opened the log; there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with it. The phrase “fight to the end” was written in skewed letters on every page.
“I lay down but I couldn’t sleep. After looking closely at the log practically all night, only then did I notice that in between the lines, there were three large words written throughout this mayor’s log…
“Robbing the poor!”
Whoosh!
After Su Mo typed out the last three words, a boom like a crack of thunder erupted throughout the entire room.
With that, the ruins seemed as if they were shattering.
The earth was shaking, and the sun and moon had been reversed.
Even if direct monitoring had been lost, the sky barrier was immediately stung by the words and began reacting as if it wanted to kill this “heretic”, Su Mo.
Compared to a newly awakened individual who became aware later, Su Mo—this individual who had seen through their act from the very beginning—was an even greater danger!
The next moment, however, when an angry lion-like roar erupted, everything became silent, and everything stopped!
“Good! Good! Very good!
“Robbing the poor! These rules, this country, this channel, they’re all robbing the poor!”
As a green tick appeared on the screen, a loud roaring noise began. On the ceiling, the door to the third floor…
Now appeared!
