The Real-Level Hypothesis

Zhao Yijiu and Yu Xing, who had just dealt with all the infected people in the screening room, stared at the suddenly silent little paper figure with different expressions.

Zhao Yijiu's gaze turned slightly cold. She shook the paper figure's head to confirm that there was no special power attached to it. Carlos must have actively disconnected the connection from the other end.

But why?

Every day, Carlos would ramble on and on, partly reporting on the internal situation of Base 51 Survivor Base, and partly because he was bored and wanted to "call" him.

Zhao Yijiu wasn't surprised at all that Carlos would call today. His opening remarks were also quite normal; it sounded like he was eating in the survivor base's canteen. So why did he suddenly hang up?

Paper figures are different from real telephones. A telephone requires the receiver to decide whether to answer, but a paper figure is merely an extension of the five senses. When Carlos manipulates a paper figure, it's as if he attaches his own five senses to any paper figure he creates. If he wants, he can even achieve face-to-face communication.

On their first day of remote communication, Carlos, attached to the paper doll, snuggled in Zhao Yijiu's arms for a long time. After being taken out, he complained that the gap between Zhao Yijiu's pectoral muscles and tactical vest was too small, and Zhao Yijiu almost destroyed the evidence on the spot.

Later, under Zhao Yijiu's threat, Carlos promised to only be given the abilities of hearing and speech, and would no longer use his sight and touch to sense things.

Even so, if Carlos's mental energy were to accidentally break down, he could reconnect in the next second, instead of remaining silent after the connection was lost, as it is now.

Something must have happened.

Yu Xing also came over and took the little paper figure from Zhao Yijiu's hand.

A year has passed, Carlos seems to have made some progress in making paper dolls. The outlines of the paper dolls have become clearer and more adorable, and they even have the outline of hair.

On that face, the features were still so unkempt and horribly disfigured, seemingly even more so than before.

Yu Xing noticed this detail, her eyes flickered slightly, and she sensed something strange.

However, that's not the focus right now. The fact that they've lost contact is definitely not right, and the topic they were just talking about was... about Lingren.

No matter how I think about it, it doesn't seem to put my mind at ease.

"Could it be that the Lingren attacked him?" Zhao Yijiu speculated coldly.

Zhao Yijiu thought that the Lingren was a madman. Whether he was too lazy to fight them or was secretly plotting something, no one could be sure.

Even though Yu Xing said that the Lingren had no interest in them, it couldn't stop the Lingren from having a sudden whim and just wanting to try attacking them out of curiosity.

"You've been mentioning Lingren a lot these past few days, it doesn't make sense, but today is different." Yu Xing touched the paper doll's tiny eyes with the pad of her thumb, calmly analyzing, "The only difference is that I spoke just now."

Zhao Yijiu was startled, a cold glint in her eyes. "If the Lingren had been secretly monitoring and eavesdropping on Carlos, he would have heard your voice just now."

Yu Xing is like a trap for the Lingren; no matter how detached the Lingren is one moment, once he realizes that Yu Xing is nearby, he will probably fall ill instantly.

It must be said that although they wronged the Lingren this time— the Lingren didn't monitor Carlos at all, but rather Carlos was monitoring the Lingren everywhere and taking advantage of him—the final conclusion was correct.

Yu Xing sighed.

"It's not necessarily the worst-case scenario... There must be times in his survivor base when it's inconvenient to control him, like if someone suddenly approaches him and talks to him. I'll leave the paper doll with you for now. If Carlos contacts us again later, I'll ask him directly."

"What if it's the worst-case scenario?" Zhao Yijiu glanced at Yu Xing.

Based on his understanding of Yu Xing, this guy always seemed to annoy people on the surface, but he was very good to his own people.

If Carlos were to clash with the Lingren because of him, he would most likely be in mortal danger.

Because the Lingren's strength is unfathomable, many people speculate that the Lingren is a True-level being. Although there are no True-level beings openly in the entire Absurdity System, all the deducers basically understand that the Absurdity System has the ability to distort personal perceptions and treats high-level individuals with considerable favor.

If the True-level beings never disappeared, but merely had their impressions of the True-level beings erased by the system, then the current Absurdity System structure could have formed with a few exceptionally strong beings who are almost completely separated from the Despair-level beings. They might actually be True-level beings, but the system simply made everyone else forget about it.

Not to mention those mysterious figures whose names will never be remembered—they exist, they are powerful, but they are always overlooked. This is nothing short of a distortion of our understanding.

The concept of cognitive distortion was first proposed by Ren Yi of the Research Institute, and it was quickly accepted by members of other guilds, making it the mainstream view among high-level deducers.

If this mainstream speculation is correct, Lingren will inevitably occupy a spot with a high degree of authenticity.

This post-apocalyptic scenario appears to be a battle of twenty evenly matched opponents at the Despair level. However, in reality, there are also Lingren seem to be at the Real level, as well as a few usually inconspicuous individuals. Perhaps one or two Real level individuals have infiltrated the group.

In this situation, Zhao Yijiu and Carlos, two desperate teammates, along with potential allies such as Zhao Ruru, Xu Shu, Luo Jue, seem to have a great advantage, but in reality, it's all just a pipe dream.

A True Level cultivator would definitely crush any Despair Level cultivator. Among the Broken Mirror cultivators, Qu Xuanqing is the closest to the True Level, but she still needs an advancement deduction to complete her transformation to the True Level.

In short, in a one-on-one fight, Carlos was completely powerless against the Lingren. If the Lingren really wanted to attack Carlos would probably have no choice but to run away.

If you're not careful and run too slowly, you might never be able to run it again.

In this situation, Zhao Yijiu could almost predict what Yu Xing would do.

If Carlos doesn't contact them again soon, Yu Xing will definitely go to the base to check on Carlos's safety.

As expected, Yu Xing put the paper figure into her pocket and replied to Zhao Yijiu the next second, "If it really was the Lingren who put Carlos in danger, then it's entirely my fault. I need to go to the base to check in person."

"I want to go too." Zhao Yijiu had been listening to Carlos talk about the base every day, but she had never actually gone to see it.

However, he was already prepared to be rejected by Yu Xing. If he went along, the Lingren would essentially have another means to control Yu Xing. (The fastest updates for the mobile version can be found at: [website address missing])