People are scared in America, my uncle is Dante

Chapter 211 Outside the Truman Show

If one day you wake up and find yourself in "The Truman Show," should you be happy or sad?

The good thing is that you no longer have to struggle to make a living, and your daily food, drink and other necessities are carefully arranged by someone.

The painful thing is that people are born free, yet they are manipulated like puppets.

Until we see the next experiment, Suren might still consider this an interesting philosophical question to discuss.

But now, he only felt a bone-chilling cold.

On the big screen, an ultra-high-definition photo was displayed. The photo was so large that even after it had been downloaded, it lagged for a moment while loading.

A small, sealed water tank was slowly loaded from top to bottom.

A human body with almost no intact skin is fixed in murky liquid.

The liquid around his body was filled with wisps of blood mist, stained red with fresh blood.

His body was pierced by countless flexible tubes.

His eyelids were detached, leaving his eyeballs exposed and unable to close. They were also held in place by metal wires, forcing him to stare straight ahead.

On the surface of these muscles that have lost their skin, tiny black worms burrow in and out of the wounds.

Because the photos were so clear, Suren could even see that some insects had half their bodies embedded in the flesh, leaving only a wriggling, round tail on the surface.

Even at some wound sites, white sac-like growths grow, stretching the skin into holes of varying sizes.

Even though it's just a still image, these scenes instantly freeze the atmosphere in the room.

Anqiong turned her head away, unable to bear watching any longer.

Director Arthur frowned.

Even with two lifetimes of experience, Suren found it hard to bear such a scene.

The feeling of being bitten all over by insects, feeling the eggs hatching under your skin, feeling the insects grow under your skin, devouring your flesh, and finally bursting out of your skin—

He glanced back and was relieved that the two girls hadn't come; otherwise, given Liz's personality, the house probably wouldn't have survived.

On the contrary, Charlie, perhaps because he surfs the internet frequently and has seen all sorts of bizarre and bloody materials, has a psychological tolerance far exceeding that of ordinary people.

Faced with such an inhumane scene, he did not show much stress reaction, only his face turned a little paler.

Below this photo is a detailed report about it.

[Volunteer: No. 042, male, 34 years old, married, with one daughter.]

Phase 1: Physical Pre-treatment

1. In a living body, perform full-body epidermal peeling, destroy the entire dermis, and remove both eyelids.

2. Apply the high-concentration inducing agent evenly.

3. An electric array was implanted along the main nerve plexus, and a low-voltage current was set to stimulate the nerves every two minutes to ensure that the volunteers' nerves were active around the clock.

Anqiong's face paled even more as she looked at the cold words.

The room was quiet; no one spoke.

Suren patted Charlie on the shoulder, gesturing for him to scroll down.

Phase Two: Environmental Parameters

The tank is filled with high-concentration industrial brine and other mixed solutions, and the water temperature is maintained at 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

According to quantitative standards, aquatic carrion nematodes, blood-sucking leeches, and small parasites are released into the water tank, allowing them to feed and lay eggs on the surface of the wound.

As Charlie read this, the hairs on his arms stood on end, and his breathing became slightly heavy.

Next, [Stage Three: Psychological Stimuli]

Charlie's fingers suddenly stopped; he stared at the screen, his face turning pale.

"No need to look at the rest."

No one answered from inside the room.

But Suren had already seen the initial trigger A in the line: his spouse and young daughter —

The image was quickly swiped away.

"Feel sorry."

Charlie paused for a moment before continuing to operate the computer.

After scrolling through that text, the photo was still displayed at the bottom of the screen, but now there were many annotations next to it.

The labels clearly indicate the names of all the creatures in the tank, highlighting them with red lines and indicating their toxicity and feeding speed.

Even the composition ratio of the liquid in the water tank, the temperature, and the air humidity in the laboratory are all accurate to two decimal places.

And these are merely an appetizer.

The following details a series of tortures, both physical and mental. Suren even saw Nailhead's face laughing wildly in several photos of the experimental records.

What's most terrifying is that these methods are all coordinated.

The records show that they would specifically select an orphan, carefully nurture him from a young age, provide him with the best growth environment, arrange for him to have the most trusted brothers, best friends, perfect wives, and even mentors.

It's like creating a perfect Truman Show, except that the people in it are all real, living beings.

Until he reaches the pinnacle of his life and enjoys the happiest moments, they will torture and kill this orphan's best friend, wife, parents, and mentor in front of him using various means.

As Suren looked at these words, the image of the created Valrid came to mind.

Did that man also experience a meticulously crafted life that gave birth to that monster?

Even more tragically, this suffering was eventually controlled by others.

"Bang!"

Charlie slammed his fist on the table.

Judging from his appearance, if he could stand up, he probably would have smashed the screen.

"Damn it, what the hell are these people researching?!"

As a hacker, he spent many years navigating the dark web and witnessed countless darknesses that are unimaginable to ordinary people.

But at this moment, his mental defenses were breached by these cold words.

A loud noise came from behind Suren.

Anqiong could no longer bear the oppressive atmosphere and slammed the door as she stormed out.

He couldn't imagine how he would feel if the content described in those words were true.

It's even more unimaginable that after experiencing all this, there was a series of tortures tailor-made for him.

The two girls downstairs saw An Qiong storm down and rush out the door without a word. Worried, they asked, "What happened? An Qiong, what's wrong with your face—hey!!"

Hearing the noise outside the door, Chief Arthur closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath.

Suren looked away from the screen, lost in thought.

This process is very similar to artificially creating apostles.

He recalled the origins of the apostles that Bayonetta had told him about.

When everything you own is destroyed, those unknown beings will cross the dimensional barriers, descend upon you, grant you power, and allow you to be reborn.

But this unfortunate subject, used as experimental material, obviously won't have such a pleasant experience.

Because the ones who orchestrated this experiment were the apostles themselves.

Perhaps it is precisely because they have personally experienced the pain of being deprived of everything that they are able to grasp the human heart more accurately than anyone else.

From this perspective, the existence of those who created the apostles was not some kind of unconscious rule or rigid program.

They must have some purpose that these apostles need to accomplish.

As his thoughts raced, Charlie had already scrolled to the very bottom of the document.

At the end of the document, Walrid's conjecture on morphological changes is recorded.

[Primary Form]:

It has no physical entity, manifests as an uncaptureable particle, cannot exist independently of its host, has an extremely unstable form, and is prone to disintegration.

Suren recalled the ghost she encountered in the underground base, which was probably at this stage.

At that time, no attack was effective against it.

In the end, only by destroying its physical body could it lose its host and go berserk, ultimately perishing together with Nailhead.

If something that isn't even a finished product can already ignore attacks, what about a fully completed version?

Suren's gaze slowly moved downwards.

[Complete Form Conjecture]:

Abandoning the limitations of a mortal body and breaking down the boundaries between matter and spirit, his gaze paused when the Witch's End was ignited.

At this point, the rest of the content turned into a jumble of garbled characters.

"What's going on?"

Charlie forced a few keystrokes, his trembling body trembling, before finally shaking his head, sighing, and surprisingly relaxing a little.

"This is probably because the USB drive was suddenly unplugged during the data reading and transfer process, and the file was not completely downloaded, which caused this situation."

Suren nodded, said nothing more, and stared at the line of text that had been cut off.

When the Witch's End is ignited.

This sentence is like a condition, or something that already exists but needs to be triggered.

So, was Valrid also created for this purpose?