"It seems that the trial is not a complete failure..."

If your soul is not strengthened, you may really lose yourself and fall into the infinite darkness.

Even if there is a chance, this time you have to be cautious. That kind of soul pain can't be endured by the strength of the soul alone. Even if there is still strength left, in many high-intensity punishments, there is no doubt that you will completely fall into madness.

The painful memory of the last time remained on Lee himself, and Angelos's personality kept it in mind, causing the aftershocks to keep coming.

"Angie, Miss Kelly is waiting at the door. The mechanical maid reminded him.

"Let her in. Li Ben responded.

"Angie, look what I've brought!" The conversation that followed was the same as before.

But this time, Lee Ben chose option 1 and politely refused.

After the selection, Kelly showed a very clear sense of loss.

"It's a disappointment. She said: "Obviously, I said I really wanted to play, but this is the internal beta qualification that I finally obtained." ”

Although he was a little sorry for her, Li Ben didn't want to enter the game to play any two-player mode, and if they both died in it, it was unknown what would happen.

This should be no problem... He hoped so.

After that, Kelly and Lee Ben chatted a little bit, because he was constantly thinking about what happened at night, and he didn't have the time to take Kelly seriously.

"What the hell is going on?" he muttered to himself.

"What are you talking about?" Kelly asked him dissatisfied.

"Nothing..."

"Forget it! I'll go back!

Li Ben didn't keep her, and now he wished that no one would bother him.

"Slightly!" Kelly grimaced at him before leaving.

Knowing that everything here was fake, he still hooked his mouth with his finger and gave Kelly an ugly face back, which made Kelly smile briefly, but then left pretending to be angry.

Hmm? The pressure from Angelos' personality seems to have been reduced a little bit... I see, so the fault tolerance rate should be improved.

After Kelly leaves, Lee Ben begins to think about what happened during the night.

Where did that monster come from?

He had to find the clues to the monster. So Lee Ben passed through the portal and came to Angelos' parents' house.

At this time, the mechanical maid was still in a normal state of activity: "Welcome back, Angie." ”

He didn't talk nonsense, and said directly: "Instructions: Exception Elimination, Vulnerability Checking, Scope: Whole Building, Whole System." ”

The mechanical maid received an order: "Checking." ”

After a while, she reported, "After the inspection, no anomalies or vulnerabilities were found. ”

"Where have my parents gone?" Lee asked, speaking as Angelos.

"Mr. and Madame are traveling to the Rose Star, do you need to contact them?"

"No need. ”

No anomalies were detected, and there are two possibilities. One is that the time has not yet come, and the real chaos erosion only occurs at a certain time. The second possibility lies in people. Chaos lurks in his parents or his sister.

Judging from the previous experience, Margaret did not know where to go at night, and she was not seen in the corpse at the scene in the end, which seemed to be the most suspicious.

Lee Ben decided to go directly to his sister's residence to investigate.

Angelos is on Margaret's whitelist and has direct access to her residence without notice. The mechanical maid in the house informs Lee Ben that Margaret is not at home.

This is a good opportunity to investigate.

He began to explore the small two-story building, and the kitchen and bathroom were also carefully inspected. As a result, nothing was found.

There is no abnormality in the self-test of the security system... There are still two places to go, Margaret's private room is not accessible, so you can only go to the basement to have a look.

The door in the basement is very strange, there is no electronic lock, and the materials used in the production are also vintage-style carved wooden boards, and Li Ben has some inexplicable familiarity after seeing these.

Probably because it's similar to the style of the original Earth world. He thought.

Upon entering the underground, he was greeted by a space with a strange style.

Different from the minimalist style of the futuristic design in the outside world, this place is very similar to the places where witchcraft, cult sacrifices, and faith worship have been seen in various film and television works in the past.

Intricate patterns and totems of unknown meaning are carved on the floor, walls, and ceilings, and some hideous monster sculptures are displayed in the corners of the room.

In the center of the place, a large starfish-like pattern is painted in red paint of an unknown substance, and its five heel antennae are crooked and elongated like squid whiskers. It is surrounded by several layers of circles, and the rings are also filled with strange and unknown symbols.

On the front wall was a huge red eye, like some kind of existential gaze, making Li Ben feel like he was being exposed to the monster's sight.

Candles, stacked in three layers in the form of a tower, burned quietly in this era that should have been completely eliminated a long time ago, but it seemed that it could not emit the slightest heat, and the whole space was covered by a strange coldness.

Maybe it's my own psychological delusion... However, I should be in the right place...

"Brother, why don't you tell me when you come!"

Leeben, who was deep in thought, was awakened by Margaret's sudden voice, and he turned around.

Margaret was glaring at Angelos with some annoyance.

When did she come, and will she do something against me because her secret was discovered?

"I was going to call you... But after seeing this...", Li Ben said tentatively.

"What, if you want to play with me, just say it. Margaret seemed to have misunderstood something, she was in the air, operating her account system, and at the same time said, "I haven't played this for a long time, and it's good to miss it once in a while." ”

She spoke like a little adult.

After a while, an invitation message appeared in Li Ben's view, showing the game "Ancient End".

Choose when the moment comes.

1. Accept the game invitation.

2. Decline the game invitation.

3. Restart reincarnation.

Taking advantage of the time pause effect during the selection period, Li Ben quickly sorted out his thoughts.

"Margaret invited me to play a game, apparently the quirky furnishings in this room had something to do with the game... Judging from what she said, we must have played it before, otherwise there is no nostalgia, but why don't I have an impression of "Ancient Doomsday" in my memory? Could it be that the trial gave me from the beginning was not the complete memory and personality of Angelos?... And what's going on with this option? Restart reincarnation... Literally it should be back to the beginning before Kelly came to me, but the day is not over, and I have not failed, why give such an option... Is it a sign of what's going to happen next, give me a chance to turn back?"

There are more and more mysteries. However, if you choose to escape here, you will only make the truth farther away from you.

Here Lee Ben chose 2.

While he might have learned more about it by jumping straight into the game, he feared that there would be another accident like Kelly's first.

"Aren't you here to play?"

"Margaret..."

"Huh?"

"What do you think I am?" Lee Ben had to confirm that his Angelos personality was complete, which was likely to be the key to this trial.

"What are you talking about?Why are you suddenly so serious??," Margaret asked Sanlian, exactly the same as Angelos's impression of his sister.

“... Leave that alone, just tell me what you think of me. ”

"Looks like my brother wants to grow, um... Think about it. The little girl sat down on the bench by the entrance.

She pondered for a moment and then said, "I feel very ordinary, but you have become a little strange lately, you have been gloomy all day, and you haven't come out to play, and you don't know what to do at home, and I heard Kelly say that you ignore her when she goes to play with you." ”

"When did you talk about this?"

"Just two days ago. ”

"And what's going on with the furnishings of this room?"

Margaret looked at him suspiciously, and said, "Do you have amnesia? This is the game peripherals we used to put up, these patterns are still drawn by yourself, don't you like to play "Ancient Apocalypse" the most? ”

"I see. Li Ben said.

The key to the matter is in itself, and he made that clear.

"What do you know?"

"It's nothing, I'll go back first. ”

The personality and memories of Angelos that the trial has given him are incomplete, and these missing things will be the necessary key to complete the trial.

Hurriedly leaving his sister's residence, Lee had planned to take the initiative to find Kelly and use her to get more information about Angelos.

It's a pity that he came one step late.

When he arrives at Kelly's house, it is surrounded by robots. Kelly's mother, supported by her husband, walked out of the house with tears streaming down her face.

"No, no, no, it shouldn't be like this. "It's obvious what happened here, Kylie must have gone back and entered the game on her own.

Angelos was frightened, and Lee Ben felt the nameless fear coming from his personality, causing his words and actions to begin to spiral out of control.

The memory of the last reincarnation was rekindled by this fear.

"Why, why, why me!"

It seems that the soul is about to be completely torn apart in two parts.

"Who are you?Who am I???," the two personalities began to entangle.

"This is not the end of the road! Get out!" Leeben's will roared and pounded, and finally forced Angelos to calm down.

But the sequelae are also obvious, he feels very tired, even though he has not exercised vigorously, but he has symptoms of soreness.

You must break this cycle within a limited number of times, or you will really be devoured by Angelos. The impact of this incident was much less than the last one, after all, he didn't enter the game world in person, and Kelly didn't die in front of his eyes, so the impact was not too strong. This is Li Ben's analysis after his recovery.

Since the clues on this side are broken, he can only go back to Angelos's residence to investigate first. Previously, due to the influence of Angelos's personality and memory, he did not pay much attention to his own residence, which is the so-called dark under the lamp.

"According to Margaret, the teenager I'm playing now has a lot of secrets, and judging from the basement of my sister's home, it's likely that his obsession with occult culture is the root cause of Chaos. Lee Ben teases out his reasoning by talking to himself, but also to counter the chaotic personality influence of Angelos.

"If I were a boy, where would I hide my secrets? bedroom, basement... These two places should be the main places. ”

Angelos' bedroom is neat and clean, with no clutter and superfluous things, and this is largely due to the intelligent mechanical maid.

There is a wooden bookshelf in the room with piles of paper books.

Paper books were used as collectibles and classical decorations in this era, and it is hard to imagine that a 13-year-old boy would enjoy reading so many books if he were not a lover of them.

When Li Ben got closer, he found that the content of these books was actually the backstories, game settings, characters, or monster books of various games.

This seems to make sense.

"Let me find out where Ancient End is..."

After searching for a long time, Li Ben did not find that crucial thing.

It doesn't make sense... Why don't you just visit the gaming community and have a look.

The system prompts that the game community has been closed and only supports game downloads. The game is tagged as retro, puzzle-solving, horror...

With the help of a high degree of intelligence, most of the games of this era can be designed by a single person. Coincidentally, the author of this game died before last month, and the closure of the gaming community seems to have played a role in this as well.

Between going directly into the game and staying in reality to investigate in order to avoid risks, Lee Ben chose the latter.

Entering the basement of Angelos' residence, Lee Ben saw a layout that was essentially the same as that of Margaret's. Those mysterious patterns seem to be more complete and "accurate", and the intuitive feeling brought to people is slightly different.

Could it be...

In order to test his conjecture, Li Ben once again went to his parents' residence and obtained access to the basement through remote contact.

As his parents say, the basement is a digital photo showroom.

The walls are filled with videos and pictures of the past, not only Angelos and Margaret, but also their ancestors, a total of ten generations.

Information from the past is integrated into a memory museum. However, Angelos does not have this place in his memory, which means that this is also a place where key information is hidden.

He found a photo album of his childhood memories and took the monitor off the wall, revealing a dark red eye pattern on the wall behind him.

Was this what Angelos himself painted?

Although he had already guessed, when the truth approached step by step, he felt a wordless horror. The culprit that caused the chaos is the role he is playing now?

However, the emotions transmitted from his personality are not false, and the great pain of the disappearance of his childhood sweetheart and relatives in front of his eyes undoubtedly torments himself, which shows that he is unaware of the monsters that suddenly appeared.

Was it really just a matter of interest? Angelos didn't know what the consequences of what he was doing. This explanation makes sense, after all, in this era of incomparably advanced science and technology, who would have thought that chaos would really make those monsters appear in reality?

Angelos is just a 13-year-old... No, something went wrong...

Li Ben fell into deep thought.

Lost memories, strange behavior, mysterious symbols that appear in the home, Kelly's death, monsters that appear at night...

To put these pieces together, there is still a bit of crucial information missing, no, it should be conclusive evidence.

Kelly's house, do you have these blood symbols too?

Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to get to Kelly's residence, which is considered to be the scene of the accident and has been completely cordoned off by mechanical security.

There's also a way to prove...

The time came to the evening, the legendary time of the demon.

Under the deliberate guidance of Leeben, the news of Kelly's death has been learned by Margaret and their parents. After going to pay her respects, Margaret again offered to spend the night at her parents' residence.

Sure enough, these options will happen depending on the direction of some specific plot direction. This was confirmed by Leeben.

This time, he chose no other option, and in order to test his suspicions, he still returned to his parents' residence with Margaret.

After eating a tasteless dinner, the tiredness struck again, and Li Ben was forced to fall into a deep sleep.

When she woke up, just like the last time, Margaret was gone. In the next room, for Li Ben, who knew the truth, those wheezing voices were particularly terrifying.

Don't get close to there first, the last time I looked for the missing Margaret, I didn't go to the basement, and when I wanted to find my parents for help, I went straight to the worst ending.

Everything happened suddenly.

However, this time, Li Ben, who obtained permission, successfully entered the underground space.

It was as if it had been swept away by a storm, and the displays on the walls were all scattered and completely shattered.

The mysterious red runes seemed to have been written on the wall not long ago, except for the red eyes that had been there in the beginning, the place where the display was originally placed was covered in a large amount of red, and these blood-like liquids slid down the walls under the effect of gravity, and their tracks obscured the original appearance of the runes.

Still, Lee knew that those were never good.

On the floor, Margaret's clothes were torn to shreds, and a large puddle of unidentified red and green liquid enveloped the fine fabrics. Chaos erodes order.

Not seeing my sister's body was not something to be happy about.

Li Ben turned and went upstairs and stood in front of his parents' room.

The option came, and this time, he chose 1. Forcibly open the door. Face the brutal truth.

The monster was gnawing at two humanoid pieces of flesh on the bed, its twisted tentacles that could easily drill and bite. And the bony mouth at the top doesn't seem to be used for eating.

At this time, Li Ben was holding a certain type of high-energy restraint device, which could confine high-energy ions by creating a specially shaped force field to form a sword or knife. To describe it more bluntly, it can be compared to a lightsaber from Star Wars.

He looked at what he was holding. I guess I used it to cut the lock and open the door.

And that monster...

Li Ben turned his gaze to it, and instead of attacking Li Ben immediately, it opened its bony mouth slightly, and said the word to the little boy in a voice that could not distinguish between men and women:

"Brother. ”

A feeling of dizziness came.