Mental Overwrite of Reality (5,500 Words)

Amidst the chaos in the surrounding carriages, Xiao Xiao closed his eyes slightly.

Previously, while he was in the small building, the content of his theoretical research on the indigenous people gradually came to mind.

Most of the indigenous people's theories are just guesses and theoretical logical deductions, because they cannot directly participate in the interactions and effects brought about by various strange forces, nor can they clearly perceive the spiritual world of strangers. Therefore, they have left behind a lot of theories, but very few have been confirmed. But Xiao Xiao is different; he has truly felt all kinds of changes.

It can be said that he had already made great achievements in the study of the "matrix" theory after only staying in the Old Chairman's small building for a few days.

Maybe if you go into the Black Forest, you can get a good job.

So...

... Is the key question whether there are bullets in the gun?

This Silver Revolver was confiscated from the Silver Bullet Family. The Silver Bullet Family is known for making a kind of Bloodthirsty Bullet, a bullet with a certain degree of autonomy. When combined with this pistol, which has a strong desire to fire, it can often unleash terrifying power. However, Xiao Xiao obtained the Silver Revolver but did not know how to make that kind of bullet, so he was not pursuing great power.

He liked the gun simply because he didn't have to worry about forgetting to reload it.

Because this gun has a constant urge to kill, and it can reload itself even when it's out of bullets.

But this is only from the perspective of a stranger in a foreign land.

From the perspective of the indigenous people, if there are no bullets in the gun, there are no bullets. This is an unchangeable reality and a physical law.

But why was I still able to kill this man?

Silently comparing the information he had seen in the Old Chairman's small building, Xiao Xiao came to an explanation.

It's because he believed there were bullets in the gun.

Because he believed the gun was loaded when he fired, he completed the act of shooting and killing. Because he completed this act on a mental level, his mental world affected the man at the same time. The man also believed he had been shot and died on a mental level, and the onlookers were also affected mentally.

They thought they were seeing someone shooting and killing people, so they imagined their heads being blown apart.

Thus, reality was rewritten in this train carriage.

Mingming just an empty gun, because he believed there was a bullet in it, it created the scene that everyone saw someone being killed.

For the indigenous people, what everyone sees is actually an illusion.

But because everyone saw the same illusion, that illusion became reality for the people in that carriage.

I think my gun has a bullet in it, you think my gun has a bullet in it, and the onlookers also think it has a bullet in it.

So, the fact of the murder came to light.

Such bizarre and absurd logic appeared in Xiao Xiao's mind, and for a moment he felt countless suspicions filling his heart.

His Mind Burst, and his face grew increasingly cold and his eyes became increasingly heavy.

"Not good..."

At this moment, Lin Bo was shocked to see that Xiao Xiao had Mingming said not to take action, but suddenly changed his mind and killed the Shedding Skin guy. He saw that the people in the carriage who had just been sleeping were now awakened and staring at them. Many of them had Shedding Skin marks and cracked skin.

"We Mingming agreed not to fight, your change of mood is too sudden..."

He cried out, "Killing the Shedding Skin monsters in front of the indigenous people could spread and intensify their malice. It's possible that all the indigenous people in the carriage will turn into monsters and attack us, or even affect the train's progress."

"Once we are forced off the train, we could get lost in a vast Mist Sea..."

"... We're not pirates; we might not be able to find the right path back to the city through the Mist Sea."

"..."

"Don't be nervous."

Hearing Lin Bo's worried words, Xiao Xiao simply let out a slow sigh.

Within two seconds of firing the gun, he understood the logic and began to want to verify other things. So, before the panic spread and before everyone around him became tense and their skin split open like that man's, turning them into Shedding Skin monsters, he had already moved his arm slowly to the left, aiming the gun at someone else.

The woman faced the gun barrel with a look of terror on her face.

In the world of strangers, the woman's eyes suddenly turned blood red, and the skin on her back split open, revealing bright red tentacles.

"Bang!"

Xiao Xiao shot her dead.

The surrounding panic intensified immediately, and even Lin Bo and the others were so shocked that they could hardly describe it.

They even jumped up, unsure if Xiao Xiao had gone mad, or whether they should stop him.

But their reactions were clearly not as quick as Xiao Xiao's. After firing the second shot, Xiao Xiao no longer hesitated and pulled the trigger repeatedly, aiming at everyone in the carriage. A feeling of ecstasy appeared in the Silver Revolver in his hand. He had never experienced such satisfaction before. The barrel emitted excited whistling sounds, and deadly bullets pierced through the bodies of the people in the carriage.

A single bullet can shatter a person's skull and then penetrate another person's chest.

As this murderous urge intensifies, the bullets become increasingly powerful, eventually producing sheet-like lethality.

A gunshot rang out, and passengers in the surrounding area died en masse.

Lin Bo and Little Four were both so frightened that their faces turned pale, and they huddled tightly in their seats, wishing they could hug their legs up.

In just four or five seconds, Xiao Xiao had killed all the passengers in the carriage.

Then, he quietly sat back down in his seat, his expression calm.

"You..."

Lin Bo's face was filled with panic, and he shouted at Xiao Xiao voice, "Why did you do this?"

"Because I find it annoying..."

Xiao Xiao glanced impatiently at Lin Bo, but amidst the bloody and cruel scenes he had made, a look of ease and relaxation gradually appeared on his face. He slowly closed his eyes. At this moment, the calmness on his face contrasted sharply with the strong smell of blood and the cruel scenes around him. Even someone like Lin Bo couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine.

But similarly, because everyone had been killed, the carriage was plunged into a profound silence.

Outside the carriage, an endless sea of blood churned, while inside, something eerie seemed to be laughing wildly.

I don't know how much time passed, but theoretically it should have been a very short time.

The surrounding limbs, severed limbs, scattered brain matter, and blood suddenly began to flow back, as if time were reversing. The blood flowed undisturbed back to the bodies of their respective owners, and the wriggling blood-red threads pulled the shattered flesh and tissues back into their bodies, piecing them back together bit by bit. The dazed eyes gradually calmed and regained their focus.

One by one, the people in the carriage came to life and sat quietly as if nothing had happened.

However, the expression on his face inexplicably became much more friendly and gentle.

Including the first one to split, the burly man.

Lin Bo and the others looked at Xiao Xiao with astonishment and disbelief. "All the malice has subsided..."

"How do you manage to pinpoint the malice towards the indigenous people so precisely?"

"..."

From the perspective of a stranger in a foreign land, this is indeed unbelievable...

Xiao Xiao thought to himself: After outsiders cause great damage to the natives or the surrounding environment, the city will often undergo a certain degree of self-repair. The destroyed buildings will first turn into flesh and blood, and then automatically recover. The killed natives will also go through the process of death and resurrection, returning to their original life track without knowing anything.

However, such repairs often involve uncertainty.

In other words, we know that this kind of repair will occur, but we don't know to what extent it will be repaired.

Some of the dead strangers will be resurrected, but some are simply dead and cannot be resurrected. Of course, from the perspective of the natives, these dead strangers often have other causes of death, rather than being killed by strangers.

Only the City Will would deduct points from the stranger's account at this time.

Lin Bo was worried about this very thing; he didn't know that everyone in the carriage would be brought back to life.

Therefore, he felt that Xiao Xiao's behavior was incomprehensible and was deeply terrified.

But Xiao Xiao knew.

Killing the people in this carriage was part of his own verification process.

Because there were no bullets in the gun.

Therefore, the act of killing that man, and even killing everyone in the carriage, only occurred on a mental level. After all the natives were killed, this shared illusion came to an end. The influence of his mental power as a stranger began to withdraw from their minds, and thus, they began to resurrect and repair themselves.

In reality, they were not actually injured; what was injured was their perception and mental world.

Once the self-repair process begins, the disrupted memory will disappear, and they will automatically return to the moment before the conflict.

The reason for the memory loss is probably that the memory was corrupted by the power of the "mother body".

Only when reality excludes this corrupted force can they repair themselves automatically.

Essentially, this is related to the first indigenous person he killed, Jiang Cheng, who was at the class reunion.

It's the same principle.

Having grasped this principle, Xiao Xiao knew that these people would definitely be resurrected after they were all killed.

As for why Lin Bo and the others couldn't determine this, it's because they were always in a world of strangers. Therefore, they simply couldn't discern whether Xiao Xiao's gun was loaded with bullets in reality. If, in reality, Xiao Xiao's gun was loaded with bullets, then the person Xiao Xiao had just killed couldn't be resurrected, and things would indeed develop in the direction they feared most...

Strangers live in a chaotic world, unable to realistically determine whether their guns are loaded, whether they actually possess offensive weapons, or whether they are saving or killing someone.

Strangers are a bunch of chaotic lunatics!!

"So..."

Xiao Xiao's expression was extremely calm at this moment, so calm that Lin Bo felt afraid.

Needless to say, Little Four was already trembling.

But deep down, Xiao Xiao felt a cognitive shock, as if his heart was spasming.

"... The real world exists."

This was the first time Xiao Xiao had verified and understood a clear theory of the indigenous people:

"The power of the mother is the power of imagination."

"And the power of this kind of fantasy is essentially to cover up people's spiritual world."

"Our actions and consciousness can exert layers of influence on the real world. The first layer of influence is that I kill someone with a gun. In reality, there are no bullets in my gun, but in the reality influenced by mental power, there are bullets in the gun, and I do kill someone in reality. This is the first layer of coverage on top of reality. Similar layers can be added one by one."

"When the influence of this spiritual power reaches its limit, it becomes the world of strangers."

"Are all strangers really just madmen? Or are they a group of madmen who can use their mental power to override reality?"

"But is this really the final explanation?"

"..."

Xiao Xiao was somewhat incredulous. He had just verified that some of the indigenous people's theories had a complete logical basis.

However, the thought that believing this logic would be tantamount to overturning all the logic of the stranger was hard to accept. He felt like someone caught between day and night, on one hand, he had already leaned towards the world of day, but the unfathomable night held endless mysteries and strange things that seemed to be watching him and laughing, as if mocking his ignorance...

Seeing Xiao Xiao fall silent, Lin Bo and the others were so nervous that their hearts were pounding and they didn't dare to breathe.

Although they saw everyone in the carriage come back to life, the image of Xiao Xiao calmly and suddenly killing everyone in the carriage was still deeply imprinted in their hearts. For a long time, this shadow lingered above their heads, refusing to be dispelled.

"Because it was too much trouble, they killed everyone in the entire carriage and waited for them to respawn..."

As they looked at each other, they could see the deep fear in each other's eyes. "Isn't he afraid that some of them can't be resurrected?"

"... Or do you simply not care?"

"..."

Outsiders often feel a deep sense of alienation from the world of the natives, but most of them also remind themselves to learn to find warmth and safety in the natives' world. This feeling of complete disregard for the lives of the natives, that indifference, even to them as outsiders, evokes a deep sense of dread and an inescapable dread...

"Team leader..."

Even his own subordinates lowered their voices and whispered to Lin Bo, "You gave away the information that Night's End City had the Unquenched Heart for free, and you were even willing to lead him here to find it, just to get Xiao Xiao revenge on Night's End City, right?"

Lin Bo nodded blankly.

The man in the plaid shirt finally couldn't hold back any longer. "But do you think it's right to lead a guy like that to Night's End City..."

"... Isn't this revenge going too far?"

"..."

Lin Bo pondered blankly for a long time before whispering, "I originally planned to sow discord among them after we got to Night's End City, to prevent them from causing trouble if the deal falls through. But now... I've changed my mind. Once we get to Night's End City, we need to persuade those stingy people to complete the deal properly and not let it escalate into an unmanageable mess..."

Xiao Xiao had no idea what Lin Bo and the others were thinking; he was simply using this trip to confirm his own suspicions.

Lin Bo and the others sensed that Xiao Xiao, who was leaving the city for the first time, did not feel the same intense panic and unease as other strangers. In their understanding, strangers leaving the city for the first time, because they were far away from their familiar Mysterious Source and saw many unknown and distorted changes, often experienced strong psychological pressure and revealed their weak and timid side.

But Xiao Xiao not only remained unusually calm, but his level of madness even reached a new level.

In the journey that followed, Xiao Xiao actually broke his understanding step by step. Faced with the huge mystery outside the city, Xiao Xiao remained unusually calm. He could stand aside and remain calm when the twisted monsters at the bottom of the abyss suddenly pounced on him and his group, letting them back down. He could also find the key at a glance when faced with a complicated route.

Compared to him, Dante Organization of experienced travelers seemed like children.

Is this what it feels like to take a mentally ill person out?

In Xiao Xiao's eyes, it was also difficult to describe the feeling of leading these people to transfer and face other things.

They are afraid of many things in the real world. Even if a balloon suddenly pops up around them, or someone cuts in line while they are queuing, it will make them feel tense and panicked. They will also be startled if they see an advertising balloon floating in the air from afar.

It felt like I was taking care of several children.

Of course, in the eyes of these children, they seemed to be omnipotent.

However, constantly maintaining this state of being at the limit of one's insight is an incredibly heavy burden for oneself.

So, aside from occasionally glancing at it, he could only return to being a stranger in a foreign land.

He watched as the train passed through the mysterious Mist Sea and the enormous flesh and blood. As the train approached its destination, an enormous flesh and blood structure appeared before him. As the train rapidly drew closer to the flesh and blood structure and entered it, the flesh and blood structure began to change rapidly, gradually coalescing and recombining to outline the shape of a city.

"We've arrived at Night's End City..."

Xiao Xiao stood at the train exit, watching the endless crimson tentacles hanging down from the sky.

They seemed completely invisible to the indigenous people, yet they descended from the city's skies, one by one, connecting to the indigenous people who disembarked from the train, and then disappearing again, thus temporarily making the indigenous people a part of them.

Xiao Xiao allowed the red tentacles to connect to his body, his mind reeling.

Name: Night's End City

[Level: Mid-level Life Form]

[Note: Possessing only partial authority to steal, it dares only hide in the deepest part of the night, indulging in greedy yet extravagant dreams. When the stars return to their original positions, such a vile and inferior life form is only fit to become food for higher life forms.]

[...]

"Um?"

The sudden information made Xiao Xiao look up sharply, gazing at the city nestled in the deepest darkness of the night.

A strange thought arose in my mind: the city didn't seem to welcome my arrival, but I had no choice but to accept it.

It's afraid of itself!

This unprecedented experience surprised Xiao Xiao.

"Can you sense the city's fear of you?"

At this moment, Lin Bo, who was behind him, suddenly chuckled and spoke, taking a few steps forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with him and look at the city in front of them.

Xiao Xiao nodded, somewhat surprised, "Why is it afraid of me?"

It's not afraid of you.

Lin Bo said in a low voice, "It is the Black Gate City behind you. You are the lord of the Black Gate City, which means you are the highest authority representative of the Black Gate City in this world. Cities have different sizes and ranks. Compared to a superior city like the Black Gate City, the Night's End City is just a weak life form, not much stronger than those chaotic and Mysterious Source in the Mist Sea."

"Night's End City sensed the aura of Black Gate City from you, so of course it felt an instinctive fear."

"This fear will be your advantage in operating in Night's End City."

"..."

He explained in a low voice, patted Xiao Xiao on the shoulder, and said, "Of course, don't be too arrogant."

"After all, it is a high-level being. If it is provoked, it can still devour you or eliminate you directly."

"..."

Xiao Xiao frowned and said, "To be specific, what should I do?"

Lin Bo thought for a moment and said, "Be a little arrogant, but not too arrogant?"