Chapter 71: Dialectical Game (Finale) Existentialism

The situation seemed to have changed again, but compared to seeing his own eight dead Corpses, this was nothing.

Qi Si pretended not to hear the urging, acting on his own accord as he picked up the Corpse he fancied and held it tightly to his chest.

Ensuring all critical areas were shielded by his own Corpse, he maintained his unchanging smile and asked the person behind the door, “Why can’t you be the one to come out?”

The voice behind the door chuckled, “Because you want clearance, and the key to clearance is with me.”

“clearance?”

Qi Si narrowed his eyes slightly.

instance NPCs usually don’t know this clearly, unless… “You’re not an NPC?” Qi Si asked.

The voice laughed and spat out two words: “Guess.”

“…”

Qi Si, who had never guessed a multiple-choice question correctly, had no intention of guessing now.

Still holding the Corpse in front of him as a shield, he stepped through the door one step at a time.

Behind the door was a massive Temple, dimly lit, with shadows enveloping the four corners, obscuring the details.

The ancient walls were adorned with messy lines, appearing to be murals depicting mythological stories, yet it was impossible to discern what they portrayed, as if the meaning had been forcibly erased by some power.

A pair of Scarlet Eyes were embedded in the ceiling overhead, looking down upon the entire Temple. The thin, reddish shadows cast enveloped everyone and everything, coating the scene with an atmosphere of bloodlust.

In the center of the Temple sat a High-backed Chair, occupied by a young man whose appearance was identical to his own. He was currently yawning, his tone languid: “You brought the key, right? Give it to me.”

Qi Si noticed that the youth before him had clearly defined features, wore the same white shirt he had on before entering the instance, and his cuffs bore no numbers.

—From any angle, this person looked more like the real human than he did.

The face filled with an inhuman quality he had seen in the mirror flashed before his eyes again, and Qi Si recalled the name of the instance.

Dialectical Game—what is dialectics? Dialectics of the self, the Id, the Superego, existence… The attitude of the Research Institute members and Jin Yusheng’s side description had negated his social identity as ‘Qi Si’.

Upon seeing his own appearance, he had self-negated his natural identity as the human ‘Qi Si’ and comfortably wished to exist as a clone.

Later, he promptly realized he was still in the instance and picked up the identity of ‘Qi Si’ once more, but soon discovered the Corpses of eight ‘Qi Sis’.

He was not the most special one, but every one of them possessed the instinct for survival.

He didn’t care whether he was the real ‘Qi Si’ or not, but in order to leave the instance as a player, he had to be, and could only be, ‘Qi Si’.

All thoughts raced through his mind. The latter version of himself squinted, with a half-smile, “This Research Institute is too cold and boring. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life here at all—the real world is much more interesting.”

The leaning youth straightened up slightly, adopting an expression identical to his own: “I think so too. That’s why when I designed this Research Institute, I added a little easter egg. If you can escape, perhaps you’ll see it.”

Qi Si stroked his chin and asked with interest, “Who are you?”

The youth countered, “Then who do you think you are?”

Qi Si calculated the attack trajectory and distance in his mind, saying with a smile, “I can be anyone, but in this situation, I think it’s better for me to be ‘Qi Si’.”

“It seems you already know,” the youth also smiled, rising from the High-backed Chair and walking toward him step by step.

That familiar yet strange face looked down at him, his gaze seeming like pity mixed with mockery: “Then I can only regretfully tell you, I am the real Qi Si, and you are my Copy.”

“The victor has the right to define everyone’s identity, don’t they?” As Qi Si spoke, he completed his calculation, pushing the Corpse in his hands toward the youth while simultaneously rushing forward a few steps, raising his elbow to strike the latter’s neck.

The youth before him smiled sarcastically, as if he had long expected it. He sidestepped the Corpse, raising his right arm in an identical posture, but his fingertips held a flash of silver light.

Glancing at the silver bracelet on the other’s wrist, his gaze sharpened slightly.

That’s right, weapons. He lacked a weapon… From beginning to end, the planner never gave him a chance to acquire one… When the skill levels of both sides in a game are equal, any minor detail discrepancy can become the deciding factor for victory or defeat.

This was never a fair game to begin with.

In a contest against himself, the one with the first-move advantage could not leave any loopholes or room for failure… The youth’s eyes held a touch of affected pity: “Only Qi Si can scheme against Qi Si. Does knowing that make you feel any better?”

“It certainly makes me feel less upset,” he said, “But being completely schemed against is still a bit annoying.”

The icy fingertips were already flashing toward his neck. The youth holding the blade revealed a smile that could almost be called gentle: “Since you’re annoyed, you should just die quickly.”

The knife cutting his skin brought a sharp sting, exploding outwards from the point of impact. Warm liquid sprayed out, draining all strength and heat from his body.

A sense of powerlessness and coldness swept over him densely, dragging him from head to toe into a void of nothingness.

It was clearly a desperate situation, yet he felt an untimely surge of elation.

The unique experience of death was pleasurable. The fascination of learning the truth overshadowed the value of life itself. He was immensely excited, wanting to laugh out loud.

Unfortunately, his muscles were long beyond his control. At this moment, he couldn’t even manage the small movement of twitching his lips.

Thus, he could only fall forward with a heart full of regret, embracing death… For two rational individuals with identical physical conditions to determine a winner, they could only manipulate the amount of information, weapon equipment, and the rules of first move advantage—this was the foundation for planning this unfair contest.

Time reverted to the beginning. After the ‘Dialectical Game’ instance loaded, Qi Si opened his eyes and found himself sitting within the Temple, upon the divine throne.

There was only one line of text on the system interface:

【main quest: Obtain the Key of the Superego】

Before him lay a long Parchment Scroll, inscribed with rules in handwriting he could recognize:

【1. You have arrived here as a temporary designer for the Eerie Game and cannot leave the Main Hall until the main quest is completed. However, you can redesign and arrange the buildings outside the Main Hall through consciousness, and deploy a fixed number of NPCs.】

【2. Once the design is complete, the scene will become operational, and you will be unable to make any changes to any details.】

【3. The Key of the Superego is located in the Side Hall, invisible to NPCs, unknown to NPCs, and NPCs cannot interact with anything related to the Key of the Superego.】

【4. There are eight death points in the Corridor outside the Main Hall. Each can only be triggered once; they cannot be avoided or resisted. Encountering one means instant death.】

【5. Nine copies of you, possessing your complete memories and thought processes, will be introduced into the scene sequentially as players. You may select the spawn point, and once selected, it cannot be changed.】

【6. After a Copy dies, the Corpse will not disappear. Except for the location of the Key of the Superego, the rest of the scene and NPCs will reset, and a new Copy will be deployed, until all copies have been deployed.】

The rules were clear, essentially explaining the solution to the player with painstaking detail: use the first eight copies to fill the eight death points, and then let the ninth Copy complete the mission.

But achieving this outcome was not simple.

Jin Yusheng knew he was extremely suspicious. Once the copies saw the Corpses of their Predecessors, what happened next would become uncontrollable.

Therefore, he needed to find a plausible explanation for the existence of these Corpses, yet the explanation could not be too logical, lest it seem too much like a calculated setup.

The theories of ‘clones’ and ‘Parallel Universes’ could work together perfectly to effectively lower the copies’ suspicion.

Jin Yusheng also knew he was absolutely selfish and self-serving, so he couldn’t let the copies realize the existence of the main quest, otherwise, they would most likely refuse to pave the way for the original, or might even maliciously destroy the Key of the Superego.

Thus, he needed to make the copies, amidst their suspicion about their own existence, gradually solidify the false belief that ‘I am the optimal individual, the one most likely to escape,’ thereby convincing themselves that all their actions were efforts toward their own survival.

Finally, Jin Yusheng designed the Research Institute Instance out of some kind of perverse amusement. He was very curious to see what expression he would wear when faced with the negation of his own existence.

Playing with others is fun; isn’t playing with oneself also a Form of play?

As for whether he would be counter-killed after playing with himself, Jin Yusheng didn’t particularly care.

Firstly, he held the home-field advantage and possessed weapons; if he still couldn’t win, he could just chop himself up and feed the pigs. Secondly, dying by his own hand might be an interesting experience. If the Corpse could be taken out of the instance, he would have liked to have himself mounted as a Specimen.

Soon, everything was ready.

Under Jin Yusheng’s gaze, Copy No. 1 woke up in a small room and found the Key of the Superego in a drawer.

He didn’t know what the key was for, but before the Researcher entered, he quickly hid the cold key under his tongue and took it out… In the dimly lit Temple, Jin Yusheng crouched down, pried open the Corpse’s tightly clenched right hand, and retrieved a key from it.

【Name: Key of the Superego】

【Type: Item (Cannot be taken out of the instance)】

【Effect: None】

【Note: Did I kill ‘Me,’ or did ‘Me’ kill me?】

Seeing the question in the note, Jin Yusheng smiled: “What does that matter? Even if he killed me, as long as he believes he is me, the one who survives is me.

“In my view, what determines ‘me’ is memory and behavioral patterns. An entity possessing my complete memory, making the same choices under the same circumstances, can be considered me, regardless of outward appearance.

“Survival of the fittest; I came to this world as a victor who won out of one in billions of competitive chances. What’s wrong with engaging in another competition where one is chosen out of ten now?

“Memory, intelligence level, thought patterns, behavioral logic, and other multi-dimensional aspects constitute the consciousness. For me, my material existence is not important; I am very willing to select the most outstanding version of myself to become ‘Me’ through competition.”

【main quest Complete】

【Congratulations Player on clearing the single-player puzzle instance <Dialectical Game>】

【In the game of Rationalists, the existence of the Ego, Id, and Superego has long transcended its original scope. From a macroscopic perspective, ‘I’ is always ‘I’.】

【<Dialectical Game> True End – ‘Me’ Collected】

【Automatic teleportation out of the instance in three minutes】

Jin Yusheng sat back in his High-backed Chair, looked up at the Scarlet Eyes on the Temple ceiling, and scoffed, “Is this the so-called answer you wanted to give me?”

Time ticked by second by second. After a long silence, his own voice echoed from the depths of his mind: “Haven’t you already grasped it? Would you feel better if I said I am you? After all, only Jin Yusheng can scheme against Jin Yusheng, hahahaha!”

The moment the voice fell, the countdown in the upper left corner of his vision abruptly stopped.

Countless black tentacles erupted from the Identity Card in the upper right corner, accompanied by gray mist pouring down over his head and drilling into his eye sockets.

Jin Yusheng felt his Form instantly dissipate, his tendrils of consciousness flowing through every corner like a tide.

In the Panoramic View, the scene drastically changed. The white walls of the Clone Research Institute rapidly dimmed and faded, replaced by mottled, ash-covered bricks.

Fine flames connected into lines, and the Corridor, full of technological feel, burned fiercely like an old photograph scorched by fire. The illusory surface yellowed, curled up, and turned to ash, leaving behind a Corridor of murals filled with bizarre lines.

Scenes deeply buried in memory regurgitated like a tide; Jin Yusheng’s pupils constricted.