A Woman Who Imprisoned Herself in Hell

That night, the then-young Old Man An woke up from a fright, still shaken, and deeply plunged into endless panic.

It turns out that all the drugs he tested came from a woman?

He didn't quite understand the principle behind it, nor did he know who the woman was, or why he could see the images that appeared in her field of vision and perception.

But the more he thought about it, the more chilled he became. He knew how many times he had taken the drug, how many others were currently using it, and how many people had gone insane after using it. Furthermore, he knew he belonged to only one batch. Therefore, he couldn't even accurately calculate how much the Black Forest had already extracted from that woman. How could so much be extracted from one person? He also had no idea how much more of these substances could be extracted.

The second problem is the most serious. Old Man An is very worried: what if she can't hold on?

After all, he was only a little bit away from the success of his experiment. If he failed, wouldn't all his hard work have been for nothing?

So, Old Man An spent a small part of the night in fear and dread, but the majority of the time was spent in prayer.

The situation took a significant turn the next day.

Old Man An didn't proactively mention the hallucinations he'd experienced the previous night to the medical staff, but the person in charge still found him, questioned him sternly, and brought in some people who seemed somewhat timid. Old Man An instinctively felt he couldn't lie to these people, so he could only truthfully recount the hallucinations he'd seen the previous night. It was only then that he realized he wasn't the only one who had experienced such hallucinations the previous night; many others had experienced the same phenomenon.

The person in charge's expression turned very serious, and Old Man An had no choice but to ask him, "What exactly is going on?"

"Spiritual resonance".

The person in charge said coldly, "It's a kind of horizontal spiritual resonance phenomenon."

"Previously, we only knew that this kind of spiritual resonance would only have a vertical effect, starting from the spirit and resonating with the physical body in reality, thus producing some incredible effects."

"Unexpectedly, this kind of mental resonance can also have a lateral effect, attracting creatures with similar mental fields, causing these people to feel the same pain, see the same hallucinations, and hear the same sounds."

What does this mean?

"..."

In Old Man An's memory, the person in charge had a serious and angry expression, with a hint of fear. "This means that all the test subjects are missing a safety valve!"

The strictness of the person in charge at the time made Old Man An dare not ask too many questions, but he quickly realized the consequences. From that day on, not only did his own experiment stop, but all other experiments in the laboratory were temporarily suspended. He only knew that the person in charge was holding meetings day and night, and they could only continue to stay idly in the laboratory. Occasionally, a nurse who had become familiar with them would inadvertently reveal a little bit of information. "The higher-ups are considering whether these experiments should continue..."

"That night's spiritual resonance was a phenomenon that had not been observed before, so for safety reasons, the Black Forest faced two choices:"

"First, all research projects must be halted to ensure safety."

"Second, we must accelerate all research projects, complete the experiments before bigger problems arise, and then take final confidentiality measures."

"..."

Old Man An was terrified. He thought the experiment would have to be stopped and that the upper-class life he longed for and the big house in the city center he had longed for would be gone forever.

After all, even he understood that such a mysterious experiment, involving so many bizarre abilities and having such a huge impact, should be stopped immediately, even by a fool. How could the smart people in the laboratory not know this?

But to his surprise, the final result of the meeting at the top was the second item.

This decision puzzled many people, and even later, when he held absolute power in Old Man An City of Rest and controlled everything, he still couldn't quite understand why the laboratory leaders had come up with a different result when even a fool could understand the matter.

It wasn't until he grew older, gained control of the political landscape in City of Rest, and came into contact with too many people at the center of power, that he began to vaguely understand.

It's not that the lab directors don't want to stop, but that they can't stop.

They have already begun to influence the world, have done so much, and have driven the world's development.

So the world is also urging them on.

None of them could bear the consequences of temporarily terminating the experiment, so they had no choice but to grit their teeth and continue.

The news that the experiment would continue excited Old Man An at the time. However, he also noticed many changes in the laboratory, such as the temporary addition of some electromagnetic equipment, which was said to be a mental barrier, etc.

There were even a large number of flamethrower devices that could instantly release temperatures of several thousand degrees Celsius, installed around their small white beds.

This is to prevent unnecessary trouble caused by accidents involving experimental subjects; the laboratory where the problem occurred can be directly incinerated inside the laboratory.

The feeling of being targeted by four devices that could spray temperatures of several thousand degrees every day was very uncomfortable, but at least the experiment did continue to move forward. During that period, Old Man An suddenly received ten times more doses of the drug than before, and the effects of these drugs were far more powerful than those he had taken before. For example, even just 1% of the previous dose could allow him to exert a more significant and still controllable effect than the initial 100% dose of the drug.

Old Man An knew it was bizarre, but he endured it and longed for it.

Aside from the material rewards he would receive after the successful drug trial, he even began to like this power.

This power allows him to blend into his surroundings at any time, and no one can see him. It's practically... a kind of power.

In this world, countless people possess countless kinds of power. Some can decide whether you own a house in the city center, whether you have a beautiful girl, or whether you have a high-paying job.

It can even decide whether you live or die.

These are all forms of material power.

But what right does one have to decide whether or not to be seen by others?

Despite his limited formal education, Old Man An intuitively grasped the essence of this phenomenon: it was still a form of power, albeit one that transcended the realm of reality.

It's like becoming a god...

But it is precisely because Old Man An is a wise man that he knows how rare his current opportunity is and how important what he is doing is, so he yearns for success.

In order to succeed, he did not hesitate to conceal a little bit of insignificant information. For example, when asked in the daily routine, he would say that he had not been affected by any side effects, that he was fine, and that he had not seen or heard anything.

That was all he could say, because he was afraid that if he revealed some of his discomfort, the experiment would be stopped.

Even worse, some were burned to death.

Of course, Old Man An was lucky, because normally if he told such a lie, the person in charge of the experiment would have exposed him quickly. The previous test of the Min Lock also left him with almost no chance to hide the truth. However, the experiment had been progressing rapidly in recent times. Because it was fast, the various stages were also rough. They were so rough that they only cared about the controllability of Old Man An's abilities and the normality of his speech and behavior, but did not realize that Old Man An actually had a nightmare very often...

That nightmare was very subtle, only flashing occasionally, and even sleep monitoring devices couldn't detect it.

But it was these fragments of nightmares that allowed Old Man An to occasionally sense the changes in the woman even in the laboratory.

He often heard people in those fragments coldly discussing. "We have no other choice but to either do nothing or speed up the process."

"The pain-induced reaction experiment is working very well, so let's continue doing it."

"Use that new brainwave connection technology from the Black Forest to collect pain from every corner of the world... Don't just look for those who've been beaten or executed. Physical pain is only part of the pain. We need all kinds of pain. The more types of pain, the more it will stimulate her power. We'll encode all the painful experiences we can collect and print them directly into her brain, so she can experience them as if she were personally going through them..."

"..."

Among them, there were also some angry and worried voices. "She can't hold on anymore, she really can't hold on anymore..."

"Her physical resonance phenomenon is the strongest; now her body has developed too many problems and deformities... She no longer resembles a human being at all!"

"Then cut her body off. Brain storage technology is already available, isn't it?"

"Anyway, all we need is her brain!"

"..."

Old Man An didn't know how those people were dealt with in the end, but he found that not long after, he received more and more types of medicine.

And so he spent a month filled with anxiety. During that time, almost all the experimental projects made remarkable progress. He could even hear the neighboring project team celebrating with champagne every day.

He himself was nearing the end of the experiment and was about to gain everything.

But just when everything was about to go in a positive direction, that night, he overheard the last conversation:

"It's now certain that her potential has been exhausted, but the good news is that we're also capable of unlocking the final code to all these mysteries, so we no longer need her."

"..."

Someone asked in alarm, "Does this mean we have to get rid of her?"

"She is the beginning of all this mystery, such a perfect being... wouldn't it be a pity to destroy her?"

"..."

The person who made this decision spoke with an unusually cold tone, replying indifferently, "Ever since that incident of lateral mental resonance, the higher-ups have already decided to get rid of her."

"She can influence all the test subjects. Do you know what that means?"

"This means that all the drugs we have successfully developed and put on the market will become unsafe."

"Even though we have been researching mental barrier technology in parallel, we can't afford to take even a 1% risk."

"Therefore, only by completely eliminating her can we ensure that our products and technologies can face the world without any worries."

"..."

"But..."

The white-haired old professor pleaded desperately, "It was she who brought about this world's upgrade..."

"There are nearly 10 billion people in this world!"

The indifferent voice said, "No one will care about the death of this one patient, and this secret will only be buried in our hearts. There will be no record of it, whether on a computer or in writing."

"It's as if it never happened."

"..."

"Don't put too much pressure on yourself..."

Old Man An even heard the person's relaxed and cheerful words of comfort, "Such things have happened countless times in our world, and they happen all the time."

"This world has the quality of forgetting certain secrets."

"What we need to do is just a tiny, insignificant part of it..."

"..."

Old Man An didn't know why his dream was so vivid and real.

But is all of this finally coming to an end?

That night, Old Man An was filled with unease, as if he had a feeling that something was about to happen, but he didn't know what it would be. As he drifted off to sleep, he vaguely heard a sobbing sound. It was a powerless and desperate cry, but it didn't have the strength of a real cry. It could even be interpreted as a groan, an empty sound, as if he had already cried all his tears and was numb, but then his wounds had been peeled away layer by layer, leaving a bloody sense of powerlessness...

At the same time, Old Man An knew that the most intense and final emotional shock in history was taking place in the deepest part of the experimental building.

Those were the staff from the Black Forest, implanting the last kind of "pain" they had collected into that brain. This act would provide the brain with a final stimulus and a final collection.

Afterwards, the brain will be shut down and permanently destroyed.

But on that very day, Old Man An was suddenly awakened by the alarms of the surrounding instruments. He opened his eyes abruptly and saw that all the instruments monitoring his body were flashing red lights frantically. He saw that the weapons that could spray temperatures of several thousand degrees had automatically activated and were aimed at him. He saw the medical staff screaming and running around the laboratory. At that moment, he also felt fear and wanted to jump up and run away, but he was tightly restrained.

He saw intense flames erupting, and time seemed to freeze as they slowly approached him.

But at that very moment, everything around him began to change. He saw that the laboratory he was in had suddenly become soft, writhing flesh and blood, and even the flamethrower had turned into flesh and blood and strange tentacles.

He jumped off the platform and looked around in astonishment, only to see a massive mass of flesh and blood appearing, with countless tentacles tearing apart the steel building.

It wasn't until much later that Old Man An understood what had happened that day.

The researchers in the Black Forest made a mistake: they believed that the instrument they had developed could truly block out all phenomena of spiritual resonance.

They also thought that someone with only one brain left was powerless to do anything.

What they didn't know was that not every experimental subject they controlled and created accepted their status as such.

And so, on that night, the most powerful lateral mental resonance in history occurred.

At the time, Old Man An, who was in the laboratory, was unaware of the changes happening outside. He only saw endless flesh and blood, and felt his entire soul being frantically pulled towards a certain place. In his perception, he seemed to be constantly sinking, sinking, as if he had sunk into the deepest place in the world. There, he saw many, many people, all silent, with their backs to him, facing a woman who was squatting on the ground crying.

The woman wept bitterly, screaming in despair, and behind her, the world seemed to be torn in two.

Layers of flesh and tendrils spread wildly from behind her, intertwining to form a black gate that shut her, along with the countless eerie and black shadows around her, inside.

He saw that some of the people in front of him, with their backs to him, were bowing to the woman.

Yes, they bowed their heads in repentance.

Old Man An's experiment was nearing its end, and he possessed miraculous powers, but he sensed a deep and oppressive aura about these people, like the ocean.

At that moment, Old Man An was in extreme panic and wanted to escape from this illusion.

He wanted to get away from the woman who had locked him inside the black door, away from that black door, and even away from the black figures standing in front of the door, seemingly having reached some kind of tacit understanding.

But he never imagined that for the next forty years, he would never be able to escape these things again...

... It wasn't until forty years later that someone rescued him from this illusion, although by then he no longer wanted to escape.

"Call..."

Xiao Xiao suddenly gasped for breath, breaking free from reading about Old Man An's memories.

Even now, he has only read a portion of Old Man An's long memories. There are still forty years of memories to read, but as an observer, he feels all of this too deeply, so he can only temporarily detach himself from it.

He himself did not personally experience the illusion that Old Man An experienced at the end, the scene of countless figures sending the woman into the black gate, but when he looked at Old Man An's memories, he felt as if he had really participated in that moment.

For a moment, my mind was in complete turmoil, and countless strange and complex images flashed through my mind.

What was that experiment?

What were the experiences of the previous generation of drug test subjects?

That woman, that woman...

Xiao Xiao clearly remembered that the woman he saw entering the black door in Old Man An's memory was the same patient he had seen in the video when he first became an observer.

And those figures that finally appeared in front of the gate...

... Xiao Xiao was certain that two of them were the leaders of the Hell Organization and the Dante Organization, who had just left his high-ranking position.

In an instant, an overwhelming sense of fear welled up inside me.

He hadn't finished reading Old Man An's memories yet, but he had already learned some of the truths. Some of his preconceived notions were being overturned like a tidal wave.

He witnessed the transformation of the world from a normal world to the world it is today.

But throughout this entire process, and in that most crucial moment of spiritual resonance, where was there any outsider in sight?

Because he was reading Old Man An's memories, Xiao Xiao might not understand the scenes Old Man An had personally experienced, but he could still discover new things through his own perception. Just like Old Man An at the time, he didn't really understand what it meant for that woman to be sealed in hell, nor did he understand what it meant for that huge mass of flesh and blood to suddenly crowd out from all over the world. But Xiao Xiao understood, because not long ago, he had personally witnessed that mysterious, black door...

He even confronted a giant hand that emerged from the black gate and severed it.

And that giant hand...

... Xiao Xiao was certain that the aura emanating from it was exactly the same as the eerie shadows that the woman had taken with her when she entered the black gate.

"Don't panic, you need to think calmly..."

The ability to Mind Burst came in handy; even after witnessing such a shocking scene, Xiao Xiao forced himself to remain calm.

He just kept thinking: if those Mysterious Source are considered to be the culprits behind the strangeness and terror of this world, then they are called Mysterious Source.

So, in this memory, what is the woman who caused this final disaster?

The Old Chairman's Noah Project, ostensibly an escape, was actually aimed at finding the mysterious end and shutting down the singularity...

How do I turn it off?

The more he thought about it, the more Xiao Xiao couldn't help but smile bitterly: his understanding of this world was still too shallow!

Perhaps the Mysterious Source doesn't come from outer space or anywhere else, but from the deep spiritual world of humankind?

Perhaps, that black door is hell?

That woman, who had experienced all the pain and misery in the world, imprisoned herself in the deepest part of the ocean of her spirit, in hell, carrying this endless despair.

So, if I actually carried out the Old Chairman's plan, what would that be?

The insightful can always read more information than others. Now, he couldn't help but recall the two people who had just entered Gaolie, their expressions slightly dazed as they looked at him before leaving.

"Yes, if you do that, there are only two possible outcomes."

In his hazy vision, he seemed to see the two people speaking to him, "First, you go and kill that woman's last remaining spiritual remnant in this world, and complete the order that the Black Forest gave her to cleanse her."

You will become an accomplice!

"Secondly, you will open the gates of hell, plunging this world into true despair!"