Chapter 61 Spot the Differences Together!

"The feeling of losing one's truth is rather like having a kidney removed—it doesn't actually interfere with your daily life, but it just feels terribly awkward."

Zhou Ke muttered a complaint about the hollow sensation inside him, then turned around to inspect the steel cable along its path.

Behind him was a wall covered in pink wallpaper; the end of the steel cable burrowed into a small hole, penetrating deep into the other side of the wall.

"Huh?" Zhou Ke gave it a tentative tug and discovered that there was actually some slack left in the cable.

So, grabbing the steel cable with one hand, he tried to walk forward to see how far he could reach into the room.

"Oof—"

Just as he reached about the center of the room, Zhou Ke suddenly heard a muffled grunt of pain—a woman's voice, unexpectedly melodious and stirring.

Hearing this, he turned his head back toward the wall, as the sound had clearly come from right behind it.

Before he could select an answer from the hundred different guesses racing through his mind, the slightly taut steel cable instantly jerked backward.

"Ugh—" This time it was Mr. Zhou's turn to emit a grunt of pain.

Well, neither melodious nor stirring.

Zhou Ke did not stubbornly resist, but simply let the cable pull him back, dragging him right back against the wall.

He glanced at the wall thoughtfully, a conclusion already forming in his mind: "There's someone else here."

Rubbing the neck that had been yanked by the steel cable, he took the initiative and spoke up: "Stop pulling. You're human, right?"

The tension coming from the steel cable immediately ceased.

About two seconds later, a female voice, so flat it bordered on cold, came from behind the wall, consisting of just three simple words: "You too?"

This speaking style reminded Zhou Ke of Su Wumi.

Yet, upon closer listening, there was a qualitative difference.

Su Wumi's demeanor carried a detached, proud aloofness that kept people a thousand miles away, though without any actual malice.

The girl behind the wall, however, was simply cold, tinged with a faint trace of aversion directed toward all humanity.

Zhou Ke's thoughts raced, but in reality, only a split second had passed. He immediately retorted, "No, actually, I'm a parrot that can speak human language. Squawk, squawk~"

At the end of his sentence, he actually went mad enough to mimic the call of a bird.

"..."

There was silence from behind the wall for a long time. Zhou Ke felt a burst of secret triumph, thinking she had been left utterly speechless by his antics.

Just as he was about to get down to business, he heard the girl pronounce clearly:

"May you be prosperous and wealthy?"

"Prosperous your head! Did you actually believe I'm a parrot?" Zhou Ke felt a rare moment of bewilderment.

"..." This time there was truly no sound from behind the wall. She was probably dying of embarrassment.

Zhou Ke almost forgot his purpose as well, pausing for a second before saying, "Do you mind if I ask a few questions?"

"Go ahead."

Perhaps due to her unfavorable predicament, or perhaps out of an urgent desire to change the subject, the girl answered without hesitation.

"Is this steel cable fastened around your neck without any dignity, just like a pet collar?"

"Just a reminder, your current situation is likely identical to mine, so that counts as insulting yourself as well."

Zhou Ke's sharp tongue was purely instinctive; he hadn't expected the other party to keep up with his banter so effortlessly, which made him hold her in slightly higher regard.

He continued, "How could that be? You're a girl, and a girl wearing a collar is quite alluring—"

Before he could finish, Zhou Ke felt his neck being yanked hard.

It was harmless enough; he hadn't intended to finish the sentence anyway, as it probably wouldn't have passed the censorship.

"Did your truth become ineffective too?" Zhou Ke asked again.

"Yes."

"I see..." Realizing that the other person was suffering from the same restrictions as himself, Zhou Ke roughly guessed the malicious nature of this stage.

It was no different from the [Knocking Hotel] incident—a dual trial of the human heart and wisdom.

Sure enough, on the small desk directly opposite Zhou Ke, a vertically placed tablet computer automatically powered on.

The pitch-black screen flashed abruptly twice, and a line of text condensed from fresh blood appeared right in the center:

[Seek the truth if you wish to be free.]

The bloody characters melted and flowed downward until they completely vanished, finally revealing a colorful image.

In the picture, a cartoon-style buck-toothed rabbit wearing blue overalls stood on the left. It held a carrot, lifted one foot, and rocked back and forth stiffly.

At the lower right of the rabbit, precisely where the carrot was pointing, a new line of chibi-style text appeared—

[Spot the differences together!]

This was a game, a rather old one by now, having been around for quite a few years.

Simply put, the gameplay involved finding the differences between two similar yet not entirely identical images.

"What the hell? You want me to play Spot the Differences? At least put the tablet a bit closer to me," Zhou Ke muttered, narrowing his eyes.

To his surprise, upon hearing this self-talk from behind the wall, the girl sounded somewhat startled and uncertain, "Spot the differences? How are you able to see that tablet?"

"With my eyes, of course—"

Zhou Ke didn't continue. He realized something was amiss.

"A tablet? How does she know about a tablet? The tablet is clearly in my room, and there are no peep holes in this wall."

He quickly seized upon the suspicious detail and asked, "Are you saying your room also has a tablet, and that tablet is likewise displaying the [Spot the Differences] game interface?"

"No, wait."

Before the girl could reply, Zhou Ke cut her off.

He glanced at the floor on the left side of his body, where a lone teddy bear doll sat quietly.

"On your right side, is there a teddy bear doll wearing a white shirt?"

Hearing this, the girl immediately looked to her right, her tone growing even more perplexed, "How on earth do you know that?"

"Not only do I know about the teddy bear doll, but I also know that directly opposite your room there is a clock with dog ears, your desk is pink and white, and one corner of the quilt on your bed has fallen onto the floor," Zhou Ke rattled off in an affirmative tone.

His gaze fell back onto the tablet. The game interface was brilliant and colorful, and the cartoon rabbit was bouncing around energetically, yet he couldn't find the words "Start Game" anywhere.

"The game [Spot the Differences] isn't being played on the tablet computers; it's being played between our two rooms."

Hearing Zhou Ke spell it out, the girl immediately caught on.

"You can't actually see the scenery inside my room; it's simply because our two rooms are largely identical that you were able to describe it so accurately."

"Bingo!"

Zhou Ke had already entered puzzle-solving mode, his fingers instinctively forming the shape of a pistol.

"Now it's time to test our tacit understanding."

He secretly congratulated himself on his good luck.

In the [Gate of the Ghost Metal Sheep], encountering a teammate who was either too foolish or too clever for their own good was never a good thing.

For instance, just now, had either of them possessed a volatile and suspicious temperament without considering the consequences of their actions—

Once they realized someone was on the other end of the steel cable and frantically fought over the cable's length, resulting in one person's death, the game would have become completely impossible to play.

In other words, a dead end.