We can only understand the world’s consciousness through collective imagination.

 

Warning: mention of suicidal thoughts

 

It wasn’t until "Lu Mingze" disappeared that Cao Qian finally came to her senses and remembered that she had seen this face on Xing Ye's mirror. The three-dimensional appearance was even more beautiful than the flat reflection in the mirror, causing her to subconsciously breathe more lightly in his presence.

Cao Qian said to Xing Ye, "Where is your mirror?"

Xing Ye glanced at Cao Qian without directly answering her question. Instead, he said, "Let's keep looking for people and clues to quickly figure out what this world is all about."

His underlying meaning was that he couldn't find the mirror right now.

Cao Qian touched the swan crystal in the large pocket of her cleaning uniform. When she chose Linda, she never expected to receive any reward; she just didn't want to be someone who stands by and does nothing while another victim of the game suffers. But unexpectedly, the one being saved turned out to be herself.

Why did the system do this?

Xing Ye stood for a moment at the spot where "Lu Mingze" had disappeared. Wei Miao, coming back to his senses, said, "Thank goodness such a handsome man only exists in the game world. If he existed in the real world, I'd never find a wife."

A very typical straight man's thought.

Wei Miao asked, "So, he was someone you imagined? Why did you imagine him?"

Xing Ye also didn't want to see the embodied Lu Mingze under these circumstances. He hoped to see the Little Mirror return to his body in the real world, and a conscious Lu Mingze thanking him. Yet here, he had to watch him disappear right before his eyes...

Wait a minute!

"There must be some key clue on the 20th floor, or I wouldn't have seen him here," Xing Ye said to the other three. "Generally, when people see something they don't want to see, they subconsciously want to escape the place that makes them sad. Since I saw him on the 20th floor, it means there's something here that the world's consciousness doesn't want me to find."

Wei Miao was stunned. He felt that Xing Ye had a deep connection with that beautiful person who disappeared and seemed very sad to see him vanish. How could someone maintain such calm and rationality under such an emotional state and analyse the situation? If it were him, he would never want to return to the 29th floor to face his embarrassing self.

Cao Qian and Guan Ling were already used to this. They were more concerned that Xing Ye had just mentioned "escaping a sad place," which meant Xing Ye was currently feeling sad, though he was forcibly suppressing it.

The 20th floor had been rented by a well-known psychology consultation office. It had several specialized consultation rooms, equipment rooms, archive rooms, and some classrooms for students or people with mild psychological issues who needed group therapy.

It was already 10 p.m., and even if there were night classes, they would end around nine. At this time, the 20th floor was empty, with all the doors closed.

Cao Qian wanted to kick down a door but was stopped by Guan Ling. He pointed to the surveillance cameras above, indicating they might be caught.

The hallway on the 20th floor was dark, and they could only see their surroundings with the light from their phones.

Xing Ye frowned slightly. Why was there nothing here?

Wei Miao, after checking around, said, "All the doors are locked. I looked through the windows; there's no one inside. It doesn't seem like there's any key clue here. Maybe you guessed wrong."

Guan Ling reacted, "How could the boss ever make a mistake? I trust the boss's judgment. There must be something on the 20th floor."

With the other side having the upper hand, Wei Miao merely curled his lip in response, but he privately despised Guan Ling and Cao Qian, feeling they had been brainwashed by Xing Ye.

Xing Ye remained standing by the window where Lu Mingze had disappeared, surveying the 20th floor and replaying everything he had experienced since entering this world, especially the system's hints.

System hints were often misleading, but they could be useful if players cleared away the fog to see the essence. At that point, the hints might offer an epiphany.

Xing Ye said, "The system mentioned that the longer we stay in this world, the less rational we become. Do any of you feel a lack of rationality?"

Generally, people can sense when something is off with their state but are often reluctant to admit it. Here, everyone was aware that losing rationality was due to the system's influence, so they wouldn't conceal it out of pride.

Cao Qian, who had once gone mad, thought for a moment and shook her head, "No, ever since I followed your advice not to think negatively and avoid entering collective imagination, I've remained clear-headed. I haven't exhibited any of the increasing madness the system described."

Guan Ling also said, "Me too. My condition is good. I haven't been having irrational thoughts. It's simple. I checked my phone earlier; it can connect to the internet, so I downloaded an English listening practice and listened to it. It stabilized my mood."

Wei Miao also said that aside from a slight fear of water, he hadn't experienced anything unusual.

"I see," Xing Ye concluded. "I must have underestimated this world."

Hearing this, Wei Miao was displeased, "Underestimate? What do you understand now? What do you mean by underestimating the world? It’s not simple at all! I almost drowned myself drinking water, relying on imagination to do so."

He still felt some resistance toward Xing Ye, which was normal. He wasn't a member of Xing Ye's team and had to follow someone else's orders for no clear reason, which naturally led to some resistance.

Xing Ye wasn't angry; instead, he smiled and said, "Yes, maintaining that mindset means you can enter collective imagination."

Wei Miao immediately fell silent.

Xing Ye continued, "I didn't mean to mock you. I just realized that if this world only existed on the surface, we wouldn't find any clues. Only by entering collective imagination can we uncover the truth."

"Why?" Cao Qian was the first to express her reluctance to fall into that state again. She didn't want to be an ant, let alone to saw her legs again.

Xing Ye explained, "The system hint says this world will become more uncomfortable over time, gradually leading to a loss of rationality. Yet we have remained calm for 3 hours without any signs of losing rationality, which contradicts the system’s description. Therefore, the only answer is that madness occurs only within collective imagination. Cao Qian and Wei Miao's recent behaviours have already proven this."

Cao Qian and Wei Miao: "…"

"Similarly, collective imagination represents the world's consciousness. If we don't enter it, we won’t be able to escape from here. This world tests our ability to maintain calm thinking amidst negative emotions, which is a self-contradictory task. It's difficult to achieve, but it must be done. Otherwise, we'll either be stuck in the normal world, treading carefully in place, or go mad within collective imagination," Xing Ye explained to the three. "Whether you want to enter collective imagination is up to you. I’m going."

After saying this, Xing Ye closed his eyes, stopped suppressing himself, and let his anxious emotions flow freely.

Cao Qian and Guan Ling naturally followed suit. When the three opened their eyes, they saw two ants, a lion’s head, and a long-legged carp.

Xing Ye gestured for them to look towards the psychological counselling room. At that moment, the 20th floor appeared lit to the three of them, with one counselling room's door open.

“Indeed, it’s different,” Guan Ling whispered.

The three quietly approached the door of the counselling room. Wei Miao, puzzled, asked, “What’s wrong with you? What did you see?”

“If you want to know what we saw, enter collective imagination,” Cao Qian said. “The method has already been given to you. We are not obligated to provide you with the clues as well.”

“Will speaking like this startle the people inside?” Guan Ling asked with concern.

Xing Ye shook his head, “No, they are not real people in the real world. These two individuals do not actually exist. They are part of imagination, and not our imagination. What we do will not affect them.”

Wei Miao followed the other three into the counselling room, where they saw two people sitting on a sofa, conversing. One was an elderly woman with a kind appearance and a human demeanour.

The other was a completely black figure, not in terms of skin colour but because he was hidden in darkness, somewhat like a character from a Conan animation, with his face impossible to see.

This indicated that the world’s consciousness did not want them to see his appearance clearly.

“How have you been feeling lately?” the counsellor kindly asked. She was the only human figure they had seen in collective imagination so far.

“You advised me to go out more, so I recently visited Lhasa, went to the Potala Palace, to experience the feeling of being in a vast and empty space,” said the black figure. His voice sounded altered, making it difficult to discern gender or features. “But there were people everywhere, which was even more suffocating. Sometimes, when I pass by a school lake, I just want to jump in and stay submerged, so I wouldn’t hear the irritating noises. But then I think about how there have been students who committed suicide in that artificial lake, and I hesitate. I want to die in a quiet place.”

(NT: Potala Palace : renowned palace which served as the winter residence of the Dalai Lama and as the political and religious centre of Tibet)

He had a clear suicidal tendency, but the counsellor neither confirmed nor denied this. Instead, she said, “The situation you’re describing is completely understandable from a psychological perspective. Many people experience such thoughts, and it’s one of the reasons some people prefer the darkness of night. It doesn’t mean you are abnormal. You might find it helpful to listen to some quiet instrumental music regularly, appreciate the beauty of life, and explore the positive aspects of human existence.”

The black figure hesitated, “I find it very uncomfortable. Adapting to a new environment is so difficult. Why do people constantly change their environment and location? I just want a quiet space to study. I don’t want to interact with this or that; communicating with people makes me irritable. I can’t stand even the slightest noise. I wish I could not hear, see, or feel anything at all.”

The conversation ended there, and the two figures disappeared. However, immediately, the door of another room opened.

The four hurried into that room and found the black figure sitting alone, staring blankly.

In front of him was a voice recorder. After sitting in a daze for a while, the black figure picked up the recorder and said, “My grades are excellent, and both classmates and teachers praise and commend me. I know what I should do next—continue studying and stay on this path. My family is also financially secure, allowing me to pursue my studies indefinitely.

“I understand what my future self will be like, but I don’t know if I will be happy with this future self. I have no happiness, no pain. This feeling of losing everything makes every moment of existence on this world feel like torment, with the ticking of the clock’s second hand dragging out each second unbearably.”

“But I can't let others see me like this; I have to keep smiling in front of people and make them think I'm doing well. At first, it seemed like I cared about others' opinions, but now I don’t even know why I care about these things. Socializing is exhausting; it feels like I'm immersed in water every moment, and even lifting my hand feels incredibly difficult. Living is so strenuous.

“Why do I have to live?”

The scene then disappeared, and the 20th floor returned to its quiet state, with no further images appearing.

The group looked at each other and saw that they were still in animal forms, realizing they were still in the collective imagination, and that the scene had ended on its own.

“What does this mean?” Guan Ling frowned and asked. “Don’t you think this person is annoying and bothersome? How can someone have so many demands? Does the world have to revolve around him?”

Wei Miao said, “A lot of young people nowadays have this kind of thinking—world-weary, depressed, seeking stimulation to relieve stress. It’s because life is too easy and idle. Back in our time, we didn’t have so many issues.”

From his tone, it was clear he was from at least the 60s or 70s. However, since Wei Miao said he was from the provincial swimming team, he should be a coach or similar role, which explained his age.

Cao Qian said, “It’s not that there weren’t psychological issues before; it’s just that no one paid attention, and many were treated as mental illness. But now, things are different. There are professional counselling rooms to alleviate such issues, so Xiao Hei (NT: little black) should be able to get relief.”

The three of them looked at Xing Ye, who said, “From the conversation we just heard, Xiao Hei initially showed signs of social anxiety, anxiety disorders, and mild depression during his discussion with the counsellor. Fortunately, he chose active treatment. However, the later scenes showed that his treatment was ineffective, and his condition worsened, showing signs of severe depression.”

“Why did we have to see this part?” Cao Qian asked, puzzled. “Was it just something that happened on the 20th floor?”

“Let’s move to the next floor,” Wei Miao suggested. “I’m really worried about my teammate and how he’s doing. Also, I find this floor very uncomfortable and disappointing. I don’t want to stay here.”

The negative emotions made everyone uncomfortable. They looked at Xing Ye.

“Disappointment, discomfort... Strange, I also feel this way. Could this feeling also be part of the collective imagination?” Xing Ye murmured as he looked at the counselling room. “This floor is full of weirdness.”

Seeing that the others were waiting for his opinion, Xing Ye felt that there was nothing more to discover here and said, “Let’s go.”

This time, as they entered the elevator, everyone felt uneasy—breathing difficulties, cold, heaviness, and a sense of crowding. Even though four people in the elevator should be comfortable, it felt cramped, as if being alone would be better.

Upon reaching the 19th floor, which was rented by a foreign enterprise covering the 18th and 19th floors, they found many people working late into the night due to the multinational company’s late-night operations. Various animals were moving around in the corridor, startling Cao Qian and the others.

They felt increasingly intolerant of the place. If Xing Ye couldn’t come up with a solution, they felt they might go mad.

Xing Ye continued to think about where the mirror might be and what the scene in the counselling room represented.

He observed the animals moving back and forth in the corridor and again detected the foul odour he had smelled on Ren Tingman, which was nauseating and made him not want to be in this space or interact with so many people.

Social anxiety, people turning into animals, the elevator, and the harsh external environment—Xiao Hei said he hated changing environments and preferred to stay in familiar places…

“I understand now,” Xing Ye sighed in relief, “I know where we are.”

 

Translator : DarNan