118: This chapter says: The above request for help is purely fictitious

【Blue? City? Divine Guard? Center? Library? Afternoon】

The afternoon sun should have been lazy and warm.

But today...

The light beams it cast through the library's dusty glass windows...

Appeared so pale and cold, just like the light of a shadowless lamp in an operating room.

Sword River Fish sat in his usual spot, his hands in his pockets.

His fingertips unconsciously caressed the cold bell.

His face was even paler than the light outside the window, with two dark circles under his eyes.

He looked like a plant drained of all its moisture, leaving only a crumbling shell.

When Lin Wan'er pushed open the door, this was the scene she saw.

She had specifically worn a bright yellow dress today, hoping to bring a touch of color to this gloomy and oppressive “revolutionary base.”

In her hand, she carried a bag of chilled Coca-Cola and a few packets of potato chips, freshly bought from outside.

“Teacher Jian! I’m here!”

She greeted him cheerfully, placing the snacks on the table with a soft rustle.

“Look what good stuff I brought!”

“Today, let’s hold our meeting and celebrate the successful first phase of the ‘Jailbreak Project’!”

However, Sword River Fish merely lifted his eyelids and glanced at her, his eyes hollow and unfocused.

It was an expression Lin Wan'er had never seen in him before, a mixture of fear, despair, and extreme exhaustion.

“Teacher Jian... what’s wrong with you?”

The smile on Lin Wan'er’s face instantly froze.

She keenly sensed that something was wrong, and carefully sat opposite him, lowering her voice, “Is... is something wrong with the plan?”

Sword River Fish did not answer.

He just slowly focused his bloodshot eyes on her face, his lips moving a few times, as if he wanted to say something, but no sound came out.

“Don’t scare me, Teacher Jian.”

Lin Wan'er’s heart leaped into her throat.

She instinctively reached out to touch his hand, but his icy cold temperature made her retract her hand in fright.

“Wan’er…”

Finally, a voice so hoarse it was almost broken squeezed out of Sword River Fish’s throat.

“The plan... might need to be changed.”

He took a deep breath, as if using all his strength, and recounted the hellish scene from last night to the young girl before him, using the most concise and trembling language.

From the guidance of that mysterious voice to the ominous red door on the second basement level.

From the still-wet bloodstains on the operating table to the still-beating heart in the incubator.

From the medical records stamped “Accident” to the woman clutching a pillow, and the “Death Notice” stating “Sudden death at 9 PM tomorrow night”... Time seemed to stand still at this moment.

In the library, it was so quiet that only the increasingly heavy breaths of the two of them could be heard.

Lin Wan'er’s face turned visibly pale at a speed perceptible to the naked eye.

Her eyes, which had once sparkled like stars, were now filled with immense shock and terror.

She tightly covered her mouth, preventing herself from screaming out loud.

“This... this is impossible...”

Her voice trembled like a leaf in the wind.

“This... this is a society ruled by law in the 21st century...”

“How could such a thing happen...”

“...Are you... seeing another ‘hallucination’?”

She wished so much that this was just another one of his “episodes.”

However, Sword River Fish slowly pulled out the blood-soaked medical record from his embrace.

When the haggard yet happy smiling face belonging to “Mother,” and the words “Sudden death at 9 PM tomorrow night” written with a black marker, clearly appeared before Lin Wan'er’s eyes...

Her last shred of hope was shattered.

“Call the police... We must call the police immediately!”

She blurted it out, her voice tinged with a sob.

“It’s no use.”

Sword River Fish shook his head, his eyes holding a despair heavier than the abyss.

“Do you still remember the two people who brought me in?”

“Their IDs were real. Their procedures were also legal.”

“This hospital dares to so brazenly treat living people as an ‘organ bank.’ ”

“Behind them, there must be a ‘protective umbrella’ beyond our imagination.”

“If we call the police, not only will we not be able to save anyone.”

“Instead, we’ll be like two rabbits voluntarily jumping into a trap, silently ‘dealt with’ by them.”

“Just like them, dying from an ‘accident.’ ”

He pointed to the death list and gave a self-deprecating smile.

Lin Wan'er’s body swayed.

Although she was inexperienced in the ways of the world, she was not a fool.

She immediately understood the weight of Sword River Fish’s words.

“Then... then what should we do?”

Her voice was filled with helplessness and confusion, “Are we... are we just going to watch...”

“I don’t know.”

Sword River Fish closed his eyes in pain, burying his hands in his already disheveled hair.

“I thought all night last night...”

“I thought about escaping according to the original plan.”

“As long as I can get out, I can write all of this down and let the whole world know about the evil here!”

“But... that woman... she won’t live to see that day...”

“And that Napoleon who always said he lost ‘Europe’...”

“He used to always share half of his hidden steamed buns with me...”

“And Teacher Zhao, who always loved to pull me aside and tell me how he ‘pointed out the country’s affairs’ in his younger days...”

“He would stand up like a true emperor and curse at the nurses when they bullied me...”

“They are all ‘lunatics’...”

“But they are also my ‘family’ in this world...”

“I... I can’t do it...”

“I really can’t just abandon them and run away by myself...”

Sword River Fish’s voice grew softer and softer, finally turning into a suppressed sob.

He was an orphan.

The word “home” was a distant, almost luxurious term for him.

He thought he would never have one in this life.

But fate, in such an absurd and cruel way...

Allowed him to find the feeling of “home” in this living hell.

Now, it was forcing him to personally push this “home” into a pit of fire.

Lin Wan'er watched his body, so pained it was almost curling up, and her tears could no longer be held back, gushing out.

She didn’t know how to comfort him.

Because this was an insoluble deadlock.

Was it to choose to bear the guilt and moral condemnation, to seek a faint glimmer of “life”?

Or was it to choose to uphold the last glimmer of Humanity, and fall into the “hell” of eternal damnation with this “home”?

No matter what choice, it was wrong.

No matter what choice, it was a loss.

The library fell into a deathly silence.

The sun began to set in the west.

Lengthening their desperate silhouettes.

Just then...

An absurd, almost insane thought...

Like lightning tearing through the dark night, it suddenly struck Sword River Fish’s chaotic mind!

He suddenly lifted his head, and in his dim eyes, a faint but incredibly frantic light reignited!

“No... no...”

He murmured to himself, like a drowning person grasping at a last straw.

“I... it seems... I still have a way...”

“What way?” Lin Wan'er asked eagerly.

“Wan’er, do you remember me telling you that my story was ‘invading’ my reality?”

Sword River Fish stared intently at her, asking each word clearly.

Lin Wan'er paused, then nodded.

“That bell...”

“And that voice that always guides me at critical moments...”

“They are all things from my novel.”

“I always thought there was something wrong with my mind.”

“I always thought I was being ‘contaminated’ by my ‘story.’ ”

“But... what if... what if we think about it the other way around?”

Sword River Fish’s voice began to quicken.

His eyes also grew brighter and brighter, frighteningly so!

“What if it’s not the ‘story’ writing me...”

“But rather, I am ‘writing’ this story?”

“What do you mean?”

Lin Wan'er was confused by his almost “mad ravings.”

“What I mean is!”

Sword River Fish suddenly stood up from his seat, bracing his hands on the table, leaning forward, and staring intently at her.

“What if my current ‘reality’ is itself part of the ‘story’ I am creating?”

“What if everything I’m experiencing, everything I’m seeing, is just a ‘chapter’ in my writing?”

“Then I...”

“Can I not, through ‘writing,’ change the direction of this ‘story’?!”

“Can I not, through this ‘chapter,’ ask for help from the ‘readers’ who are reading this story?!”

Boom—!!!

Lin Wan'er’s mind went blank!

She was completely stunned by Sword River Fish’s earth-shattering idea!

Asking for help from readers in the real world through a novel?

This... this was no longer within the realm of “mental illness.”

This was simply... a myth!

However, looking at Sword River Fish’s eyes, burning with madness and hope...

She actually, inexplicably, chose to believe him!

Because she knew.

This was their only, and last, chance!

“What do I need to do?” she asked tremblingly.

“It’s very simple.” Sword River Fish’s lips curved into a self-deprecating yet resolute smile.

“From now on, every word I say, every action I make, will become the ‘content’ of my latest chapter.”

“And you, my ‘heroine,’ you just need to cooperate with me and play your part well.”

After speaking, he took a deep breath and slowly closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, his gaze had become incredibly calm, almost cold.

He was no longer the “patient” struggling in despair.

He had reverted to the one who could control everything... — the “Author.”

He slowly raised his head, his gaze seemingly piercing through the library’s ceiling, through the steel and concrete of this city, through that invisible “dimensional wall.”

Looking towards the countless “readers” who were peering at his every move from behind their screens.

Then, he spoke.

His voice was not loud, but it echoed clearly in the dead silent space.

And also echoed in countless unknown “worlds.”

【“Hello, dear readers, I am Sword River Fish.”】

【“I apologize for meeting you in such a way.”】

【“If you can see this text, then please believe that every word I say next is true.”】

【“I am trapped.”】

【To be precise, “I am trapped in my own story. Or rather, I am trapped in a ‘reality prison’ constructed based on my story.”】

【“My current location is ‘Blue Star,’ ‘Xia Country,’ ‘Haishang City,’ ‘Seventh Mental Health Center.’ The address is ‘Haishang City,’ ‘Jingan District,’ ‘Kangping Road No. 600.’ ”】

【“This is not a mental hospital. This is a human slaughterhouse engaged in illegal organ trafficking.”】

【“They are using mental patients as ‘living organ banks.’ Every patient sent here will not live for more than five years.”】

【“Now they are preparing to operate on an innocent woman. Her ‘surgery time’ is 9 PM tonight.”】

【“I cannot call the police. Because there is a ‘protective umbrella’ behind this place.”】

【“So, I can only use this method to ask for your help.”】

【“If any of you are readers in ‘Haishang City.’ If you still believe that there is ‘justice’ in this world.”】

【“Then, please, report it to the police for me! Report it to higher authorities!”】

【“Tell the police everything here! Please!”】

【“Save me! Save those innocent people!”】

...Just as Sword River Fish used all his strength to shout out this last plea for “help”...

A passage of text he had never “written,” enclosed in parentheses...

Like the most malicious “virus,” silently appeared below the text he had “written.”

【(The above content is an “immersive” writing attempt by the author of this book to advance the plot. All place names and character names in the book are fictitious. Please do not associate them with reality to avoid unnecessary panic. Thank you for your cooperation, dear readers. We wish you a pleasant reading experience.)】

【(—Your loving ‘True Author’.)】

Sword River Fish’s pupils suddenly contracted into pinpricks!

...He saw it!

He clearly saw that text that did not belong to him!

A thought more terrifying and chilling than “organ trafficking” exploded in his mind!

If he was just a “character in the play”...

Then who was the “True Author” who was behind the scenes, writing all of his “destiny”?!!

“No—!!!”

A desperate, almost despairing roar erupted from Sword River Fish’s throat!

He waved his arms like a true madman, roaring wildly at the empty air!

“Don’t believe it!!!”

“Don’t believe that voice!!!”

“It’s fake! It’s lying!!!”

“What I’m saying is true! Help!”

“Someone save us—!!!”