Doll Survival Game - Chapter 132

The magician was sitting next to Luo Yiran. He was stunned for a moment when he heard this, then a thought flashed through his mind and he looked at Via.

Via’s expression was somewhat confused: “Why are you asking this?”

Luo Yiran’s lips curled up: “Just a bit curious.”

Li Qi Feng, who was quietly sitting on the small stool by the door, glanced over.

For a moment, only Xia Lang was still focused on his workbook.

The silence lasted for a while before Via spoke in a relaxed tone: “It’s just an ordinary instance.”

Luo Yiran leaned slightly, his whole body tilting toward the invisible magician: “It’s fine, just tell me about it.”

Via pursed his lips as if annoyed: “Why don’t you ask Lin Ye and the others?”

Luo Yiran’s gaze wasn’t aggressive, but it was uncomfortable nonetheless… After all, no one likes being stared at, especially when Via heard Luo Yiran say: “Because you’re in front of me.”

“……”

What was that supposed to mean? Was he being observed to see if he was lying?

Via’s eyes darkened: “What do you mean?”

Luo Yiran smiled: “Just what it sounds like.”

Xia Lang finally sensed something was off. He looked up in confusion: “Are you guys arguing?”

Luo Yiran shook his head, then lowered it with a smile.

The magician, for some reason, instinctively bent down to look at Luo Yiran’s face after he lowered his head, and then saw the rapid change in Luo Yiran’s expression.

He was stunned. When Luo Yiran looked up again, Via gave a light snort and said, “Fine, fine, it’s no big deal to tell you.”

Luo Yiran’s smile deepened: “Alright.”

Magician: “……”

He felt the young master probably already knew what was going on.

And he’d noticed that as soon as something was said, it would be “corrected.”

Via poked at his notebook as he spoke: “It’s just a tower, really. We have to climb it, and every floor has a challenge. As long as we reach the top, we clear the instance.”

Xia Lang was dazed. He looked at Luo Yiran: “That sounds… kind of familiar?”

Via tilted his head: “Huh?”

Luo Yiran explained calmly: “Our instance task is also climbing the tower.”

Via blinked: “What a coincidence.”

It really was quite a coincidence.

Luo Yiran lowered his head again, his expression shifting-

Out of sight, the magician half-squatted, watching his face.

Via interjected with stories about his last instance, but didn’t mention the name of the tower.

Luo Yiran seemed to listen seriously, but as soon as he finished, he stood up: “I’m going out for a bit.”

Xia Lang looked up, mouth open as if to ask where Luo Yiran was going, but before the words left his throat, he suddenly froze like a statue.

Via and Li Qi Feng also froze, though Li Qi Feng rarely moved anyway, so it wasn’t obvious at first glance.

Luo Yiran watched them with interest, as if they’d been immobilized, not moving at all. After a while, he blinked.

Xia Lang, as if released from a spell, continued: “Ranran, where are you going? Want me to come with you?” He didn’t notice his strange pause at all.

Luo Yiran lowered his hand: “No need, I’m just going to see if I can buy some milk tea.”

With that, he turned and left.

Luo Yiran strolled casually down the street, his gaze wandering around. He didn’t avoid cars or pedestrians, stepping boldly onto the road, but no one seemed to find his behavior odd.

The magician tried to pull him back, repeating words he’d heard these past few days: “Young master, follow the traffic rules.”

But Luo Yiran couldn’t hear him. He walked straight into the middle of the road. Though people acted as if they couldn’t see him, the cars kept moving, so one car suddenly sped toward him, but stopped instantly just before hitting him.

Luo Yiran lifted his head slightly, pressing his index finger to his lips, the corners of his mouth curling up.

-He couldn’t speak.

Standing in the middle of the street, after making this gesture, everything around him abruptly and miraculously stopped: the passing pedestrians, the sparrows mid-air, the fluttering clothes-all frozen.

At the same time, far away at the edge of a small boat on the sea, the Demon folded his tired wings and lowered his head, his gaze moving from the frozen waves upward, finally resting on a big fish leaping out of the water nearby.

Half the fish’s body was exposed, the spray still clinging to its side, but it couldn’t return to the sea.

It was as if the whole world had stopped in that instant, everything becoming like a painting on a wall.

The sea was still, and the Demon finally managed to stand steadily on the boat. He rubbed his sore shoulder: “So you figured out the ‘principle’ this quickly.”

But to break it, discovery alone wasn’t enough.

Luo Yiran looked at the stopped car in front of him and the driver inside, whose expression remained calm.

He was still in the game.

Perhaps still in Baige Tower.

So was this the seventh floor’s… illusion? Or somewhere else?

Luo Yiran tilted his head back, suddenly remembering something he’d once said-

The only one who can fool me is myself.

“……”

It was almost prophetic.

Luo Yiran stepped forward in this frozen world.

From the very beginning, after he accepted the notification that the game would be paused due to an attack, everything that happened afterward was a world he constructed himself-an illusion.

Back then, he accepted that statement because their task was to reach the top, so when they got there, he assumed the game was over. The notification about the game being attacked… the game ending and then being attacked was “normal,” since it wouldn’t affect their current result.

…The only one who can fool himself is himself.

Luo Yiran clicked his tongue.

And since he believed the game task was already completed, when he heard about the game needing to pause, his first thought was that the whole game would stop running, so he returned to “reality.”

Moreover, because he had taken the passageway from the fifth floor directly to the seventh, there was a fleeting moment when he wondered if Xia Lang had been here before.

This thought must have been amplified by the game, which is why it overshadowed another idea.

That idea was his speculation during the minor instance: that the Baige Tower they were in was a location within a full-immersion game, and Xia Lang might have exited the full-immersion game and appeared in the real world of another game.

But that thought had been suppressed.

So, when he arrived here, Xia Lang told him that after disappearing earlier, he had spent the time in the passageway.

And because he hadn’t doubted Xia Lang at the time, he accepted Xia Lang’s explanation.

Luo Yiran took two steps forward, then stepped onto the hood of a stationary car. He sat on the scorching hood, but at this moment, he no longer felt the “heat.”

Squinting, Luo Yiran gazed at everything before him-this was a world he had constructed.

It was quite intriguing. Many places within Baige Tower hinted at illusions and the interplay between reality and falsehood, as if testing them along the way.

And in the end, they had entered yet another “world.”

Moreover, because this illusion was an extension of his own thoughts and ideas, everything appeared incredibly real to him-just like the actions and reactions of Xia Lang and the others.

However, he must have realized earlier that this “world” was developing according to his thoughts, though nine times out of ten, the illusion corrected itself.

After all, he wasn’t foolish enough not to notice anything amiss during this time.

It was likely because he had tried to express his suspicions that the illusion corrected itself. After all, he had done everything “against the rules” except for speaking, yet this time, he hadn’t been corrected.

That said, the reason he had voiced his doubts so easily back then was simply that he felt something was wrong with his surroundings; he hadn’t considered that Xia Lang and the others might also be part of the problem.

He hadn’t even thought that the entire world was fake.

Most people wouldn’t suspect something like that, would they?

Luo Yiran swung his legs slightly-this time, he was rather lucky.

Aside from the fact that most things were developing as he expected, which felt unnatural, there was also his unique body.

Even though he had only briefly experienced the sensations of normal humans-heat, taste, and emotions-within the minor instance, why could he still feel them after leaving?

And now, he no longer felt them.

-It was highly likely that, at the start of the illusion, he hadn’t yet thought about this aspect, so his body retained the state it had in the minor instance.

Later, he began to wonder if his body had undergone changes due to the minor instance.

But as soon as he corrected his perception, the sensations disappeared.

“……”

In short, not only had he overthought things earlier, but he was also quite good at rationalizing them.

However, he was now 100% certain that this world was his creation and that it developed according to his thoughts. This certainty came from his recent “test” of Via.

At that time, Via’s reactions were exactly as he had expected.

[Didn’t want to tell him]that the instance content was supposedly about [climbing the tower].

The “time stop” was also something he had imagined.

From another perspective, this world, where everything he wanted could be formed through imagination and self-persuasion, was a paradise.

But unfortunately, he didn’t like fake things.

Luo Yiran retracted his legs and sat cross-legged, staring idly ahead-but how was he supposed to get out of here?

Even after discovering all this, he still couldn’t leave.

And where would he end up if he did leave? The seventh floor of Baige Tower? Or wherever Xia Lang was?

Resting his chin on his hand, Luo Yiran’s gaze wandered around, multitasking as he searched for flaws while pondering-

Since they had entered the illusion, it meant that reaching the seventh floor of Baige Tower wasn’t their task. So, the task notification they heard upon entering the Monster World instance must also have been fake.

“……”

Luo Yiran’s mouth twitched as he became acutely aware of one thing.

Even if the initial notification was fake, not everything that happened along the way was entirely false or part of the illusion.

So…

It was [a mix of truth and falsehood].

…Indeed, a mix of truth and falsehood. After all, on the slaughterhouse floor, those creatures locked in cages were clearly not human, yet they appeared human.

It was blatantly telling them that appearances were deceptive.

And the minor instance on the fifth floor-that was also a fabricated world.

Luo Yiran’s expression shifted subtly-throughout their climb up the tower, there had been falsehoods and illusions, yet they still fell for them.

Perhaps it was precisely because these elements were so blatantly presented that they let their guard down.

But the boss who set things up this way had a rather obvious penchant for dark humor.

Luo Yiran suppressed the faint urge to curse, his expression calm-

He’d better focus on figuring out how to get out.

…Typically, once someone realized the world was fake, it would collapse on its own.

But now, aside from his ability to manipulate the illusion, the illusion showed no other signs of breaking.

It was as if he had finally figured out how to play with a toy but didn’t know where its off switch was.

…

Luo Yiran’s gaze, which had been scanning his surroundings, suddenly froze. Across from him, on the balcony of a residence, a half-wilted red rose was casually placed.

“……”

Luo Yiran’s eyes lingered on the rose, and he thought of someone-the magician.

Though he had no concrete evidence, Luo Yiran still felt that the magician must have followed them.

But where?