Rhodes Island does not exist.

“So, what happened to that room?” Skadi asked. “Did you see your past self visit there?”

"Hmm." The doctor tried his best to recall what he had just seen and then recounted it as best he could. "The layout and structure there were similar to when we visited, but the only difference was that there was a person there."

"one person?"

“A living person, a woman.” The doctor recalled the woman’s physical characteristics, “white hair, red eyes, looking sickly…wait a minute?”

When describing the woman's appearance in his memories, the Doctor couldn't help but connect her with Skadi in front of him and Specter on the fourth floor.

"Why are you staring at me like that all of a sudden?" Skadi frowned. "Don't assume I'm involved just because you see white hair and red eyes, or do you think that person is actually me?"

“No, not at all.” The doctor shook his head. “She looks rather thin and somewhat sickly, but you are not.”

"Thank you for the compliment," Skadi said to the Doctor, a rather uninformative remark.

"Of course, the main reason is that in my memories, my past self mentioned that woman's name," the doctor said after thinking for a moment. "It seems that she and my past self were acquainted."

"name?"

“Yes, I used to call her Warfarin,” the doctor said. “Does that name ring a bell?”

“…No, I don’t really remember.” Skadi thought for a moment, then gave a negative answer. “In fact, I hope you don’t expect me to remember these things.”

"Really, what a shame."

Despite saying that, the doctor did not show much disappointment.

Perhaps it's because he himself didn't have any expectations regarding Skadi's memories.

"Wait a minute, Warfarin, Warfarin... um?"

Surprisingly, the locked circuit on the throne seemed to remember the name and began to mutter to itself.

"Do you recognize this name?" The doctor immediately shifted his attention to the eyeless little girl.

"Hmph... Since it's time to get down to business, let me take over the control of this body for a while." In order to discuss information-related topics with the Doctor, the closed-circuit alternate personality appeared.

"First of all, I may or may not have met this person." When the closed loop switches to the alternate personality, it always gives people a very reliable feeling. "After all, if my other part had communicated with her or met her, I might not remember it very clearly."

“But I do remember this name,” she added. “Because I heard this name from the Reapers who were invading the sixth floor before the seventh floor was completely destroyed.”

"Wait a minute...you said the Reaper?" A bad feeling flashed through the Doctor's mind. "Why did I hear it from her?"

“Because she was chasing me at the time… Oh right, the Reapers back then could even talk, and they were a bit different from the Reapers now.” Closed Circuit recalled something. “She said that she had to kill me for her own purposes, and begged me not to resent her. She also said that she had already killed Warfarin, so killing one more wouldn’t matter.”

"You mean, the woman I saw in my memories was later killed by the Reapers?"

The information revealed by the locked circuit left the Doctor in a state of shock for a long time.

He had never even considered that direction.

“If the Reaper isn’t lying, then that’s basically it.” Closed Circuit shrugged. “That’s all I can remember about the name.”

Chapter 262 Two Hundred and Sixty, The Empty Heart

I wish I could intervene in the past.

That's what the doctor thought.

Although he didn't know whether Warfarin had actually died at some point in time he didn't know, he genuinely wanted to save her.

Even though he doesn't know her at all now.

"You're a good person." Looking at the doctor's complicated expression, the locked circuit made a slightly ambiguous statement, "Even though we're complete strangers, you still want to do everything you can to save me."

"But this can't be considered complete strangers, can it?" The doctor reclined on a mountain of discarded dolls, his eyes fixed on the ceiling. "The past me and the present me are the same person. Although the present me has lost my memory of her due to memory loss, she is still my friend, isn't she?"

“Maybe,” the locked circuit said, “but only if you can actually regain your memories.”

"I...I'm trying." The doctor gave a wry smile.

"Effort?" Closed-loop glanced at the Doctor's expression. "How do you make an effort? How will you put in the effort? The prerequisite for making an effort is to find a goal for yourself. Only with a goal does the effort have value. And what is your goal?"

"Do you really know how to get your memories back?" The Locked-Circuit's tone was almost like interrogating the Doctor.

“I am indeed trying to regain my memories.” The doctor lowered his head, pondering the things he had experienced along the way. “In fact, I now feel that I have never forgotten anything at all. It’s just that those memories have been torn into pieces, then scattered and disordered, and are unrecognizable, which is why I can’t remember them.”

"So, how do you plan to piece these jumbled fragments back together?" the locked loop asked. "Do you really have a suitable method?"

“If I had, I probably would have regained my memories by now.” The doctor shook his head with a wry smile again. “But as I’ve come this far, I have indeed remembered some things, and I’ve even regained some of my former abilities.”

"do you know."

Looking at the PhD student, the locked circuit let out a sigh.

“I’m not trying to be aggressive and interrogate you,” she said. “I just want you to understand that if you don’t fully recover your memories, you will continue to live in this prison.”

"I understand, I understand," the doctor said in a slightly somber tone.

“I really feel that maybe I’ve known you before.” Locked Circuit gazed at the Doctor, and after abandoning that irrational personality, every word she spoke was filled with sincerity. “And maybe we had a pretty good relationship.”

"It sounds like he's trying to get on my good side," Skadi remarked casually.

"I suppose you feel the same way?" But the closed loop immediately turned its attention to Skadi, "You also feel that your past self and your past Doctor knew each other and had a good relationship, right?"

“I won’t lie about this…you’re right.” Skadi nodded.

"Because your charm cannot be obscured by anything external," the closed loop continued to tell the Doctor. "No matter how time changes or how the environment changes, you will always remain you."

"Perhaps the day of our reunion will be delayed, but it will surely come... I always believe that." Her lips curled up, and although she had no eyes, one could still feel the fervent gaze emanating from her.

“Back when the seventh floor was still a library, I read some of the books there.” She leaned back in her throne and began to recount her own story. “Of course, those were all novels and biographies…after all, other serious books were meaningless to me.”

"Back then, I was completely absorbed in the stories in those books." She gently pinched her hair, recalling like a little girl. "The fate of each character seemed to be closely related to me, every plot twist tugged at my heartstrings, and the ending of the story kept me up at night."

"Then, after reading those books, I gradually realized that I was probably more concerned about the ending than the process," Closed Circuit said slowly. "After all, for a work, the ending often determines the tone and theme of the work."

"To give an example, if a novel that mainly depicts family feuds ends with the male protagonist becoming the lord of an alien kingdom on a distant planet, then I think most readers would find the book very strange." Closed Circuit seemed to have actually read that book.

“Indeed.” The doctor, who had been listening to the locked circuit speak, nodded in agreement.

"Therefore, I believe that only an excellent ending can support the entire work." Closed Circuit said, "Some works have extremely ingenious foreshadowing in the beginning and middle, and the climax is even more amazing, but for some reason the ending is like a free fall, crashing to the ground and turning into a pile of mud."

"There are also some works that start off unremarkable and have a mediocre process and setup, but at the last moment they turn over all the previous plots like a shovel, revealing the gold mine underneath." At this point, Closed Circuit laughed, "Such works are rare and hard to come by, so whenever I read similar books, I treat them like treasures."

“And then there are some works…they are legends in themselves.” The closed loop let out a long, drawn-out sigh, as if it were talking not about the works themselves, but about its own life.

“They are meticulously crafted by the author from the very beginning, like babies born with a silver spoon in their mouths. And when those babies grow into toddlers, they will receive a complete set of early education materials,” Closed Circuit said. “Then comes childhood and adolescence, during which the author prepares both toys and school textbooks in advance, ensuring that they do not suffer any hardship in the process of growing up.”

"It sounds like a perfect work," the doctor remarked.

“Yes, if everything continued like this, then perhaps it would truly become a perfect work, but don’t forget, what I just talked about was the ending of the work,” said the closed loop.

"Could it be that it's going to be abandoned?" the doctor thought for a moment.

“No, this is worse than all the unfinished projects and tragedies.” The locked loop shook its head.

"That is?"

"It is the death of the author," the closed loop sighed.

"..." The doctor was speechless.

"The fate of all the characters in a work is controlled by the author, and once the author leaves this world, it means that those people in his work will no longer have any fate."

It's like an empty heart.

-

Thank you segment.

Thank you for the blades and monthly passes, thank you.

Chapter 263, Part 261: A Laughing Question: Where Do You Come From?

"So, back to the main point, do you think that woman named Warfarin... could be a collector?"

Skadi interrupted the conversation between the doctor and the locked circuit, steer the conversation away from the topic.

"Didn't you ever suspect that the collector was actually me?" the doctor asked Skadi.

“I’ve thought about it,” Skadi nodded. “After learning about your amnesia, I considered the possibility, but ultimately I still think the chances are almost zero.”

"Why do you say that?" the professor asked.

“Because you keep a diary.” Skadi gently tapped her chin with her fingertip, pretending to think. “A diary can reflect a person’s language and lifestyle habits, and judging from the contents of the diary, I think the recorder is very different from you… Besides, I don’t think you are the kind of person who would keep a diary.”

Who would write a diary if they were serious?

“Before viewing my own memories, I did wonder if it could be me, but after viewing them, my thoughts became the same as yours.” The doctor shook his head. “However… we might be thinking about this from a slightly different perspective.”

"Oh?"

“Because the self I saw was a self that remembered everything.” The doctor recalled the images from the first-person perspective, “knowing everything, understanding everything that happened, and also knowing why I came here… and such a person could not possibly appear in a diary with only a superficial understanding.”

“Hmm.” Skadi nodded. “So, do you think Warfarin might be that collector?”

"Perhaps," the doctor pondered. "Although she never mentioned me in her diary, the fact that she left without saying goodbye... probably overlaps with her subsequent trajectory."

"In short, if we want to know what happens to her after she wakes up, we'll have to see what she does," the doctor concluded, bringing the discussion to a close.

“And if you want to see her wake up, you have to go to sleep,” Skadi added, embellishing the Doctor’s conclusion.

"So... are you planning to continue?"

The locked loop on the throne crossed her legs, indicating that she hadn't switched back to her dominant personality yet.

“Please continue,” the doctor nodded to her. “This time I plan to immerse myself for a longer period.”

"Is everything alright?" The closed loop smirked. If she had eyes, her gaze would surely be somewhere between unease and indifference.

"I think I should be fine. The previous times I only felt slightly tired, and I didn't suffer any real damage." The doctor shook his arm to indicate that he was still healthy.

“No, I’m not really worried about you.” Locked Circuit shook its head, raising a finger at Skadi. “I’m just worried about this woman. If something really happens to you, she’ll be the one who’s anxious.”

"Skadi?" The doctor looked at the Deepsea Hunter, who still had a calm expression.

Although he had caught a glimpse of her unusually different expression when he woke up earlier, it now seemed that she had returned to her usual state.

"Don't be too hard on yourself," the closed loop said. "Everything you have is everything to us. Do you remember Lavender's wish?"

Why bring this up all of a sudden...?

The doctor recalled that he seemed to have talked about lavender with locked circuits before, but he didn't expect her to actually remember it.

"She said she hoped you could take her out." The locked circuit ignored the doctor's question and continued speaking to itself, "And my wish... is the same as hers."

As the words of the closed loop were spoken, the lavender wrapped around her right arm tightened its body.

Strangely, it did not cause the doctor any pain, but was more like a gentle caress.

“Don’t be fooled by my main personality’s usual demeanor; she also has pure thoughts.” Closed Circuit spoke to the Doctor. “No, not just her, all the anomalies here are the same.”

"So, if you can't find your own goal, think about our aspirations."

she said so.

-

A few minutes later, a drone arrived carrying a screen and replayed the previous recordings.

Amidst the chaotic images and the intoxicating dream, the doctor once again fell into a coma-like slumber.

His consciousness gradually sank, sank, sank to the bottom of the sea level, sank to the entrance of the abyss, sank to the gate of the Ruins of Return.

Then, he heard a voice.

The sound flickered, gradually fading his consciousness.

"..."

"Yes...you..."

"Ah, that's right, that's why I fell asleep here... But you seem to know me. Being so familiar isn't good. If you were this familiar with other people, you'd get scolded... Are you listening?"

Warfarin stood with her hands on her hips, her expression a mix of anger and laughter.

"I'm listening, I'm listening... Oh, I see, that's how it is."

The doctor gazed at Warfarin before him and couldn't help but chuckle to himself.

She looked exactly the same as the doctor from Rhodes Island, and even her attire and tone of voice were quite similar.

The only difference is that she probably doesn't recognize herself.

It seems that, like Patriot, she probably lost her memory during the process of being reshaped and placed here.

But so be it; at least he'd seen a second acquaintance. The professor thought to himself.