ecstasy

Anyway, Sidney's word choice is weird, and he doesn't look like an ordinary person at all:

"What? Are you an agent for some big company? I'm still in school and don't plan on working part-time; don't recruit me."

Sidney shook his head repeatedly, and his earrings made a clanging sound.

"Ah, ah. No! It's just... I want to tell you something:"

She came closer. Sydney had green eyes like deep pools; at this moment, the green water was stirring:

"Have you ever considered that you're killing people too quickly?"

Doudou looked around - these rows of bookshelves were all quiet, no one noticed them here.

The old electric fan overhead creaked but produced little wind; it looked like it might fall over at any moment. Only the electronic reading room had air conditioning.

He finally put down "Happy Robot 2137." The conversation before him began to attract him more than the book in his hand:

"what?"

Doudou never thought that someone would strike up a conversation with him in the book city—and the topic was about this kind of thing.

Sidney crossed his fingers, clasped them before his chest, and moved them up and down; his movements were like supplication and prayer:

"You think—many of the characters you killed had their arcs not yet completed and their characterizations not yet three-dimensional; they were killed off by you!"

"The backstories of these characters and their relationships with each other can't be shown if they leave the stage."

Doudou took a step back, putting some distance between himself and Sidney:

"what?!"

He was a little dizzy from the strange words that suddenly flooded into his mind -

"Oh, oh! I didn't explain it clearly. Wait! Let me start from the beginning:"

Sidney crossed his fingers in front of his chest, clenching and unclenching them from time to time:

"Have you ever thought that you and I might be in a comic book? Or a TV show? Or even a video game? Anyway, it's a work of art. Everyone in this world is a character in it?"

After hearing this, Doudou began to understand what the crazy girl in front of him meant:

"--Hey, did you just watch Sophie's World recently?"

He raised his finger and pointed to the bestseller section—there were stacks of copies of "Sophie's World." The book had just been translated into Chinese this year and was selling very well. Doudou remembered its ending, which had a similar concept to "The Fourth Wall" or something.

Doudou had heard some of the plot from his homeroom teacher, but he didn’t remember it clearly: it was probably about the protagonist suddenly realizing that he was actually a character in a novel, and finally running into the real world.

Sidney waved his hands repeatedly and shook his head like a rattle:

"No, no, no! It's not a philosophical question, it's real! It's a fact! I discovered it more than ten years ago!"

Doudou patted the bookshelf beside him—these rows were filled with novels and comics:

"Um—so, you mean: we are also characters in the book?"

Sidney pointed at the book "Happy Robot 2137" and said in a firm tone:

"Comics. We are characters in comics; but not four-frame funny comics, maybe thrillers or horrors?"

Sydney gestured back and forth with her hands; she adjusted her headband made of plastic bottle caps and shook out her plain white tulle dress:

"Look, my look is simple and memorable, right? And since it's mainly white, it saves some effort in coloring—whether it's black and white or color comics, it's more convenient."

"I designed it specifically so the author wouldn't have too much trouble drawing me. I read an interview article before: some characters are just too complicated to draw, and they get killed off right away."

As he was speaking, Sidney suddenly changed his words, with a hesitant tone:

".Is it a comic? Not necessarily a comic."

"Oh, maybe a TV show or a movie? Anyway, it's a popular entertainment medium; it's definitely not poetry or something. I think the span and length should be very long--"

Doudou was listening intently, but the other party's sudden self-doubt triggered a wave of emotion:

"What the hell? You don't even know! Besides, you say that—do you have any evidence? If you do that, people will definitely think you're crazy."

Sidney still spoke softly, lowering his voice very low:

"Well—I've been researching this for a long time, but there's really no easily understandable evidence. It's inevitable that you don't believe me."

"But there's no rush, no rush. It's okay if you don't believe me. It's okay. Let's just assume, assume! Assume that what I say is right, okay?"

"Imagine you're a character in a comic book. You kill all the other characters the moment they appear! And this comic book doesn't have the concept of resurrection or anything like that."

"Wouldn't that be a waste? Think about it, you could have had a lot of plot and possibilities with them; they would have had a lot of stories of their own to explore."

Doudou placed one hand across his chest and the other hand on his chin:

"Well, just hypothetically. If you think along those lines, it would be quite beneficial for this [comic]."

"But keeping the bad guys and listening to their nonsense doesn't help my personal experience, right? I don't care whether the story develops or not, and I don't care whether other people are characters or not."

Sidney bit his middle finger nail, clicking:

"Yes, there is help! Didn't you notice? Oh, you might not know it yet!"

She placed her hands on her chest, then opened them, making an expansion gesture. The bottle cap headband made a small sound as it rubbed against her.

"Actually, you can make the people around you become—make their fanaticism even stronger! And even if they weren't fanatic before, they might become fanatic just by being in contact with you. It's like an amplifier!"

"So if there's someone you want to kill, you can wait a while before killing them: they might gain new abilities, or their existing abilities might change; they might evolve and level up! Wouldn't it be more fun to kill them that way?"

Chapter 119 The Truth About the World

An amplifier? Can it also induce frenzy in those around it?

This time it was Doudou's turn to be thoughtful: he had many associations with this word -

Doudou spends about ten hours at school every day; the person who is closest to him and spends the longest time at school is undoubtedly his deskmate Ai Xi.

But Ai Xi has no superpowers, and the sky in her vision is very clear, perhaps because she is neither a [patient] nor a [sinner], literally.

What about the other students? If we must count, perhaps Ruan Jingbo is an example: was the old scavenger who sent Doudou thousands of miles into the sky that morning influenced by this?

[Hmm, I don't understand. I'll have to pay more attention.]

For a moment, he didn't know whether what the other party said was true or false -

But this statement still sounds quite interesting.

The most attractive thing is that the bad guys might become obsessed; maybe next time I should find a way to try it out and verify whether it is true:

"Hey! You, big sister—really?! Your perspective sounds quite interesting."

".According to your line of thought, it seems that there is no problem?"

"You can't judge a book by its cover: you looked crazy, but you turned out to be quite intelligent. But how did you know I could amplify madness or anything like that?"

Sydney clapped her hands and stood on tiptoe. Although she was smiling, her green eyes widened:

"You get it! I knew you could! Unlike me, you just look smart!"

"I also heard it from other people. I know a lot of inside information."

Somehow, Doudou always felt a little unmotivated in front of this strange girl:

"Huh? Am I really too smart? Or is there something wrong with your brain and I've been infected too?"

Sidney ignored his response, his green eyes sparkling in the sunlight; he was immersed in his mumbling:

"You can also try pretending to be weak, letting the bad guys down, letting them show their ugly, smug faces! Then kill them! That way there will be ups and downs, twists and turns, and it will be more fun."

"Otherwise, you'd just keep running into the bad guys—rushing over them—and smacking their heads off. Wouldn't that get boring?"

"Or maybe the bad guys get scared and run away when they see you. What can we do then? It's so tiring to keep chasing you and me running away."

Doudou followed the other party's words and continued:

"So, you're saying, kill the bad guys slowly? Take your time, don't kill them all at once? But cat and mouse games are really cruel."

"Hmm—I think I need to think carefully about how to do this."

Sidney kept his voice low, as if he was deliberately observing the rules of the library:

"Don't worry, don't worry. Just take your time to think about this kind of thing and ponder it. You will definitely have many opportunities to practice it."

"Also—be prepared, I'm about to tell you a big secret!"

She cleared her throat and suddenly opened her hands to the sides. The movement was so large that her bright white curls swung.

"I feel like—you are the protagonist of this world! Everything revolves around you. Do you feel that?"

"That's right. The world actually revolves around you! The Earth wouldn't even rotate without you. Have you noticed?"

Doudou had met people who were even more talkative than him—

But the words came like waves, one after another, and he didn't even need to hold his breath; it was really rare for him:

"Me? I don't feel that way. In the real world, there's no such thing as a protagonist or not. Isn't everyone the master of their own life?"

"Then why are you telling me all this?"

This conversation couldn't be said to be boring; but Sidney's strange accent and endless chatter made Doudou have to pay as close attention as if he were attending a lecture in order to understand what the other person meant.

Every time Sidney spoke, he hardly had to think; the words just flowed out like water:

"Because—because a character has to be useful! I'm here to push the plot along, otherwise I can't survive; if there's no value in continuing to exist, I'll be eliminated."

"So what's the most important thing for a qualified person? It's motivation!"

"Think about it, do you have such a motivation? Do you have something you want to pursue? Do you have a belief you want to uphold? Maybe you actually want to destroy the earth or something like that—"

"You have to find something like this, right? At least try! Seeking motivation is also a form of motivation."

As he was talking, Sidney suddenly bit his nails and laughed out loud:

"It's okay, it's okay! You should be able to find it. Let's talk about something else."

"I'm telling you, three groups of people in Mong Cai are preparing for war! Right now, it's just minor skirmishes, but things will be different soon."

Without waiting for Doudou to reply, she suddenly stretched out her hand, with a folded piece of paper between her fingers - no one knew when it appeared.

She looked mysterious, her eyes sweeping around the empty area, and stealthily slipped the note into her pocket. Her movements were exaggerated, like she was performing a pantomime:

"Look at this secret letter. It contains crucial information! Don't be impatient, don't read it now. Remember to wait until I'm gone before you take it out and read it—"

Doudou took the note and immediately opened it in front of Sidney, facing the sunlight outside the window; he read aloud without hesitation:

"[We're going to the Mong Cai Observatory tonight. The mathematician and Richard might be there.] Huh? They're back in Mong Cai. Why don't they come and play with me?"

"Uh, that's all you have to say? Your handwriting is so ugly."

Then he raised his face again, his brows knitted together, his expression helpless:

"No—why did you write me a note instead of just saying it in a few words? Why don't you just let me go around the library and solve a few puzzles to get it?"

Sidney was still smiling, her hands waving. Doudou had violated her wishes in front of her, but she didn't care:

"It needs to be mysterious! It needs to set the mood. It's okay, it'll probably be skipped in a storyboard in the comics."

Doudou folded the paper again:

"But you're well-informed, sister. I get the feeling you know a lot: are you kidding me?"

Sidney adjusted the bottle cap headband—his smooth forehead was covered with red marks:

"I'm just a minor character who carries the plot threads. I don't know much more. Doudou, let's keep going. Don't forget to give your whole self more depth and dimension, so the audience will like you more!"

"It's almost time. Okay, I'm leaving!"

Gulp, gulp.

As soon as the words fell, the sound of bubbling suddenly rang out; the smell of burnt syrup filled the entire humanities reading room, which was very pungent.

Suddenly, a black mass of asphalt, one meter square, appeared on the floor of the book city, sticky and churning.

It was born right at Sydney's feet, all around her:

Guji

A woman named Sidney slid into it and was swallowed up.

"See you next time, Doudou!"

A muffled farewell echoed through the asphalt.

呲呲