Chapter 905: The Core of the Modification

The Bai Yang in front of me feels truly strange.

He makes me feel extremely afraid.

It's clear his own mind is a bit disordered, so why am I getting disordered along with him?

It's like a neatly organized book suddenly having a few pages shuffled.

The overall direction is still fine, but those few pages are definitely out of order.

A bold idea suddenly rises in my mind.

What exactly am I?

Are the memories in my mind, my entire life, all fake?

Did Bai Yang alter my life?

When exactly did I come here?

When did I meet Jiang Ruoxue, Lao Sun, and Gu Yu?

When did I establish "Jidao"?

Why am I spacing out? What was I doing before I spaced out?

"Yang, Yang Ge," I asked hoarsely, "what have you done to me? Why has my memory turned out like this?"

"I advise you not to ask," Bai Yang said. "Just remember that you've helped me a lot, and I won't harm you."

I believe Bai Yang won't harm me. After all, if he wanted to, he wouldn't go to all this trouble.

But my memory really is messed up.

After spending so much time by Bai Yang's side, this is the first time I've truly wanted to back away.

"Yang Ge," I asked quietly, "will this pawn of yours be abandoned?"

"No," Bai Yang said. "We'll still need your power when we liberate this place."

"What about after the liberation?" I said. "Afterward, will I return to reality along with everyone else?"

Bai Yang turned his head to look at me, paused for a long time, and then slowly uttered one word: "Yes."

How can he say that?

He's an expert in psychology; he knows this kind of answer will make me see that he's lying.

Why would he deliberately do that?

"Yang Ge, in your eyes, what exactly am I?" I asked, trembling. "Am I a smart dog, or a useful pawn?"

"Neither, you're one of us," Bai Yang replied.

I slowly lowered my head, feeling that I finally understood Jiang Ruoxue's thoughts back then—Bai Yang is truly dangerous.

Even though I've always felt a sense of excitement and anticipation toward this danger, this time it's really different.

The Bai Yang from before seemed like a smart person to me.

Now, the Bai Yang in front of me seems like a smart monster.

I'd be willing to engage with the former, but absolutely not with the latter.

This monster with ultra-high intelligence could tear me apart at any moment, and I've been jumping into the fire pit all along.

"You don't have to believe me," Bai Yang said. "But you must believe in your own life; every scene you've seen is real, even if they contradict each other, they're still real."

It's hard for me to believe Bai Yang.

When Jiang Ruoxue called me "wife," it was impossible for me to have met Gu Yu.

"Or you could leave now," Bai Yang said. "For the four years you've worked for me, I'll compensate you with 'Dao' in the form of the organization, so you won't lose out."

"Compensate me with 'Dao'?"

"That's right," Bai Yang said. "I can give you three thousand 'Dao'. That's an amount no ordinary person could earn in four years no matter what. Many organizations now use 'Dao' as currency to exchange for food and supplies. These chips are enough for you to live stably here for many years."

"But that would mean you'd be kicking me off the ride, right?" I retorted.

"I don't want to lie to you," Bai Yang said. "But yes, you would get off."

"I'm not leaving," I said. "Yang Ge, I won't get off, but we need to renegotiate our terms."

"Oh...?" Bai Yang frowned and looked at me.

I knew his confusion, because this was the first time I'd proactively set conditions since I met him.

"How about it?" I asked. "Deal?"

"Let's hear it."

"I'll continue doing what you arranged for me before and guarantee it's flawless." I took a deep breath and said, "But you have to promise me four things: first, ensure that Jiang Ruoxue and I are always safe. Second, never modify my memory again. Third, guarantee that I can return to the real world. Fourth, once I'm back in the real world, give me back all my real memories that belong to me."

Bai Yang stared at me for a long time.

I thought he might refuse or agree, but once again, he exceeded my expectations.

He just reached out and knocked on the table.

"Knock knock knock."

I'll never be able to figure out Bai Yang.

"What are you doing?" I asked, my lips trembling slightly. "At a time like this, do you need to create an 'anchor point' for yourself?"

"Yes, this scenario is important," Bai Yang said. "If I don't remember it, I might forget your requests."

"What?" I was slightly stunned. "So, you're agreeing?"

"I'll agree to three of them," Bai Yang said. "The fourth one won't work; I won't let you see your real memories."

"Why?!" I said, getting anxious. "Those are my memories! What right do you have to modify them?!"

Bai Yang gave me a meaningful look, then said: "Yan Zhichun, you think someone has altered your life. You remember poisoning your roommates through the water dispenser, but with your intelligence, if you really wanted to kill a few roommates, you wouldn't leave such obvious evidence, right?"

"Though it sounds arrogant, I could definitely do it," I argued. "If I were really going to kill someone, why would I use such a stupid method?"

"You think of yourself as a smart person, so you always find clues in your memories," Bai Yang said. "You even think the person who modified your memory doesn't understand you, so they created a life full of flaws and contradictions, making everything inconsistent, right?"

"Yes," I didn't expect Bai Yang to guess my thoughts so accurately. "But so what?"

"What you're guessing is very reasonable," Bai Yang said. "You're a smart person; there's no logical flaw in any of that—anyone could see the issues."

"What exactly are you trying to say?"

"What I'm saying is," Bai Yang stared at me coldly and said in a low voice, "What if I didn't modify your life, but your intelligence, what then?"

"What..."

"What if it was me, who turned you into a smart person? What would you do then?"

Bai Yang's faint words floated from his mouth, making me stand there as if struck by lightning.

My eyes widened, and my heart churned like a tsunami.

Wait.

What is he saying?

"If I agreed to the fourth condition, you wouldn't be as strong as you are now," Bai Yang said with a deep sigh. "This is for my sake and for yours, so I can't agree."