Day of Imprisonment

“I know, it's the nine-宫 grid!” Lin Qiqi's reaction was quite fast.

Luo Xi nodded.

However, Lin Qiqi quickly had a new question.

“Without any hints, how did you know to use the nine-宮 grid's number arrangement for labeling?”

“There are hints!” Luo Xi said with certainty.

“Where?” Lin Qiqi recalled all the details. As an observer, she should have had a more comprehensive and careful observation.

“Side dishes!” Luo Xi only gave these two words.

Lin Qiqi recalled for a moment, and then suddenly understood.

“Although Lao Wang only took a small piece of meat for cooking, these meat pieces, even from the outside, look indistinguishable. Only by chewing or cutting them open can you slightly taste the subtle differences. If I were a true gourmet, I might be able to distinguish them in this way, but I'm not a gourmet.” Luo Xi said, “Lao Wang knows this, so he used another hint!”

“Different side dishes?”

“Correct!” Luo Xi nodded: “Although the diced meat is the same, the side dishes in each plate are different. Some have bay leaves, some have chopped green onions, some have lemon, some have garlic slices... And these side dishes are all available in the fresh food section, and each has its own number. If you had gone to see for yourself, you would know. I simply pasted the corresponding numbers on them. It's actually very simple.”

“…” Lin Qiqi had not expected this at all. So, Luo Xi was really eating when he tasted the meat before, not trying to distinguish which part it was. He was just labeling the corresponding numbers based on the side dishes.

“This, this is cheating!”

“That's right, but cheating is the norm in life. In this world, there is mostly only relative fairness, where is there absolute fairness?”

“…” Lin Qiqi is a smart person, and she naturally understood what Luo Xi meant.

She then took a deep breath: “Now you have accumulated a lot of shopping coupons, probably close to 7000, right?”

Luo Xi nodded.

“Perhaps, by challenging all the shopping games here several times, the earned shopping coupons could be used to buy card number 003 or 002.” When Lin Qiqi mentioned these two numbered cards, her eyes lit up. She herself was clear that this almost pre-orgasmic feeling was influenced by diseases such as [Desire] and [Greed].

But knowing is knowing, it is difficult to control.

Luo Xi then glanced at Lin Qiqi and said, “I never intended to buy those two cards. I need to find another card here, then communicate with Lao Wang again, and finally find An Zhiyan and Lin Yixuan, hypnotize the latter, and take him away.”

Lin Qiqi was stunned.

“No, those are card number 003 and card number 002! Even that card on the golden shelf is number 000. This is almost the ultimate goal we are pursuing! Now that the goal is right in front of us, you say you want to leave? What are you thinking?”

Obviously, Lin Qiqi's idea is very simple. As long as they are not like the pure madmen in the 'Eternal Society', then any normal Reminiscent has a common goal, which is to escape from the Day of Imprisonment.

Return to the real reality.

Here, death, fear, and despair are almost the trials faced every cycle day.

Most importantly, this torment is an infinite loop.

Endless repetition, there is no escape.

Everyone wants to get rid of this almost endless torment and pain, so number 000 has become the ultimate goal of all Reminiscent.

Now the goal may be in the supermarket.

Then they should stay here, try every means to obtain shopping coupons, and then buy the card to escape from the almost cursed Day of Imprisonment.

This is what should be done.

Luo Xi heard Lin Qiqi's words and glanced at her.

“Although seeing is believing, sometimes what the eyes see is not necessarily the truth.”

These words made Lin Qiqi's heart skip a beat.

Luo Xi nodded. He was mostly clear about his goals, which is to set a goal and achieve it; continue to set a goal and then achieve it.

In psychology, this belongs to the 'Ladder Incentive Method'. People are very realistic and timid. If they see a towering mountain, then the first reaction is, the mountain is so high, I definitely can't climb it; but if it is a flight of steps up the mountain, you can go up one step, it's easy, and then do the easy small things one after another, which is equivalent to going up one step at a time, and finally you can climb the high mountain that you originally thought you could not reach.

At the Yongge Supermarket checkout counter, behind it is the exit.

A dark passage, I don't know where it leads.

There are several checkout counters, each with a mannequin worker standing next to it. Reminiscent occasionally come here to check out, but very few leave directly. Most of them only buy some food to fill their stomachs when they are unbearably hungry, and then return to the supermarket with eyes like gamblers, looking for opportunities to earn shopping coupons.

It was like a birdcage that was always open, but the birds inside rarely took the initiative to leave.

Just then, several Reminiscers were settling their bills over there.

They compared the few food cards and drinking water cards they had selected, weighed their options, put some back, and only chose the cheapest food and drinking water to pay for.

The mannequins operated with meticulous precision.

"Three crispy rat biscuits, one 2-liter bottle of Dolphin Drinking Water, totaling 20 shopping points," a sweet female voice came from the name tag and small loudspeaker on the chest of the mannequin model wearing a short skirt.

The Reminiscers paid with their crumpled shopping coupons.

Then, trembling, they materialized the cards, tore open the packaging, and greedily ate the cheap and tasteless biscuits. They even shared a single bottle of water, not even wasting the water on the cap.

After eating, the group returned to the supermarket and disappeared into the rows of shelves.

"Do you think someone would be discovered if they materialized a card and used it without paying?" Lin Qiqi asked softly, noticing that Luo Xi seemed to be hiding something in the gap between the shelves.

She was stunned and wanted to ask, but seeing Luo Xi's expression, she immediately stopped.

What did Luo Xi just put there?

A sense of curiosity arose in Lin Qiqi's heart.

"Definitely, otherwise someone would have done it already," Luo Xi gestured, indicating that besides the mannequins wandering around like ghosts, there were also many surveillance cameras in the supermarket.

Luo Xi had carefully observed these monitors, and inside the light-ink-colored glass罩 were bloody eyeballs.

If you look at them, they will also look at you.

After speaking, Luo Xi walked over and handed the selected product cards to a mannequin at a checkout counter.

"Hello, I'd like to check out!"

"Okay, three guinea pig chocolates, two bottles of Cow-Horse Compound Vitamins, one box of Goat-Goat-Goat Calcium Milk, one Dumb Cow Dumbbell, totaling 180 shopping points," the mannequin's sweet voice, combined with its stiff appearance, created an extremely intense sense of dissonance.

The dissonance, of course, was with reason.

Luo Xi paid the bill, took out his shopping cart card album, and put the product cards inside.

His shopping cart had a load capacity of 30 kilograms.

The weight of these goods just reached that value.

"Your shopping cart is full, you can leave from the exit now. Thank you for shopping!" The mannequin cashier seemed to have triggered some kind of mechanism at this moment, bowing to Luo Xi, maximizing the service experience.

Luo Xi then walked outside the checkout counter, waited a moment, and looked around.

"Is that it?"

He muttered to himself.

Obviously, this was another practical activity. Many things were clearly not enough to just observe; they needed to be put into practice.

According to what Luo Xi had discovered, as long as he selected the goods that filled the shopping cart's load capacity and checked out, he could leave the supermarket. Logically speaking, this should be considered a successful run.

But was there no reward for a successful run?

Or was it simply not a successful run at all?

"Qiqi, remember what I said, wait for me at the entrance!" Luo Xi turned around and said, then walked towards the exit passage.

Lin Qiqi watched as he disappeared into the darkness of the exit passage.

Naturally, she was worried, but she also knew that Luo Xi could handle any situation, after all, Luo Xi had already told her about the plan to leave through shopping via soul link.

The reason for trying to leave Yongge Supermarket in this way, besides verifying whether this method was feasible, was also to figure out another thing.

The rumor about Yongge Supermarket's 'amnesia'.

That is to say, every Reminiscer who leaves the supermarket will not remember their experiences in the supermarket.

If it is regarded as a kind of ability and carded, it corresponds to the last component card missing in Luo Xi's professional card, [Amnesia Great Law].

This was entirely based on association due to the name.

However, because there were not more clues and evidence to support it, Luo Xi had to verify it himself.

Of course, the benefits of leaving the supermarket once were not limited to this. For example, Luo Xi had already noticed that no matter where he went, there would be mannequins around him, either organizing shelves or pretending to pass by.

Even though the墨色 glass罩 in the monitors blocked them, their gazes were mostly on him.

In other words, he had already been targeted by 'someone'.

At least for now, this was not a good thing.

Therefore, Luo Xi needed to actively experience a 'reset', and at the same time verify the way to obtain [Amnesia Great Law].

The passage was very dark, and he couldn't see where the real exit was, and it was frighteningly quiet.

Vaguely, Luo Xi seemed to hear some kind of sound. He stopped to listen carefully, but couldn't hear it again.

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew, as if stirring up a cloud of dust. Luo Xi subconsciously closed his eyes. Almost the next second, he opened his eyes and found himself sitting in an internet cafe, with a line of words written on the screen: You have left Yongge Supermarket, welcome to visit again!

"Yongge Supermarket? Heh, when did I ever go in there?" A trace of confusion appeared on Luo Xi's face.