Rhodes Island does not exist.

"The sixteenth floor, I suppose."

The doctor answered.

The reason his answer carried a degree of uncertainty was not because he lacked confidence in his memory, but because he didn't know enough about Rhodes Island at the moment.

Therefore, he could only reveal the information he already knew, and add a question mark to it.

"Hmm...?" Exusiai's empty eyes widened slightly, as if she were looking at her own birthday present. "How did you know there were sixteen floors here?"

Incidentally, the doctor did indeed give her a birthday present.

"It's just a guess," the doctor waved his hand dismissively.

It seems that, in terms of the number of layers, the structure of Rhodes Island has not changed.

However, Exusiai's tone was so surprised that the Doctor concluded that there must be some changes hidden within this unchanging situation.

"Guessing? You'd better be guessing." Exusiai stared intently at the Doctor. "Because all the elevators and stairs here only go up to the fifteenth floor, I really can't understand how you knew there was a sixteenth floor... I'll ask you again, are you really just guessing?"

"Ah, absolutely true." The doctor raised his right hand. "But how did you know there were sixteen floors here? Since you asked me that question, you must have your own explanation, right?"

“It’s very simple, because there is a path to the sixteenth floor somewhere.” Exusiai stated the situation directly. “And the sixteenth floor is the place that all of us Oddity want to reach, and it is also the meaning, value, and goal of our existence here.”

"What will happen when we reach the sixteenth floor?" The doctor stared at her.

After all, he had never heard anything about the sixteenth floor from Ghost Shark before.

She said nothing, and she didn't ask anything herself.

However, since she said she would try her best to answer her questions, perhaps I should ask her that question next time.

But since we're facing Exusiai now, let's hear her answer as an Oddity Sharer.

"What will happen? The sixteenth floor is the exit." Exusiai's tone became much more serious. "So as long as we reach the sixteenth floor, it means we can gain freedom and leave this hellish place."

“Wait a minute… Warfarin said something similar before.” The Doctor recalled the conversation in that room earlier. “So you two are considered to be in a cooperative relationship?”

“Maybe it’s not just us,” Exusiai said. “After all, as the sentient beings here… or rather, the monsters, all we can do is stick together and try to escape.”

"But your current form is just a phantom; if you were to leave this place, I'm afraid—"

“If we can leave, then the rules here will no longer bind us.” Exusiai shook her head. “Naturally, we will be able to break free from the shackles of this form and regain our past memories.”

"Recovering past memories...? You even know you have amnesia?" The doctor was surprised.

“At first, I didn’t even know I had amnesia.” Exusiai suddenly laughed.

That was her signature energetic smile, which the Doctor had experienced countless times during missions and everyday encounters.

“But it wasn’t until one day I started dreaming about a different version of myself and a different life, dreaming about strangers I didn’t know, that I slowly began to realize this,” Exusiai said. “Later I asked other people, but it seems that there aren’t many like me.”

"Do you remember what happened in your dream?" the doctor asked.

“I don’t remember most of it.” Exusiai smiled. “After all, it was a dream. Many things aren’t that real, and they can’t leave a record in the brain.”

"However... your voice seems somewhat familiar to me." Exusiai's eyes scrutinized the Doctor before her, her tone gradually becoming ethereal.

"Ah, no, I still can't remember." But soon, her empty eyes returned to normal, and she waved her left hand to chase away her bad mood.

"Then let me ask something else." After a moment's thought, the Doctor tossed another question related to the previous topic to Exusiai, "About the path you mentioned that connects to the hidden sixteenth floor, where is it located?"

"Hmm... good question, but also a silly question." Exusiai nodded. "But first, do you know the floor logic of Rhodes Island?"

"Floor logic?" This was the first time the doctor had ever heard this term.

Perhaps his conversation with Exusiai was the first valuable exchange he had since arriving at Rhodes Island.

“That’s right, the logic of the floors.” Exusiai nodded, then reached out and broke off a piece of the illusory honey cake from the table and put it in her mouth. After chewing for a moment, she said, “It’s actually very simple. In short, the higher the floor, the lower the position.”

"Does that mean the higher I climb, the closer I am to the first floor on Rhodes Island?" The Doctor thought about it and found it not hard to understand.

"Wrong, and completely wrong."

But Exusiai crossed her forearms in front of her chest, making a cross shape.

"The higher you climb, the closer you actually get to the ground on Rhodes Island."

"Why is that?" the doctor asked, puzzled.

"Because the first floor of Rhodes Island represents the basement," Exusiai explained, "and the exit must be located on the floor that represents the first floor."

"But if we follow your logic, then Rhodes Island doesn't have a first floor, since the first floor represents the basement level, and the second floor must be the basement level." The Doctor was somewhat puzzled.

“This is the significance of the sixteenth floor.” Exusiai withdrew her arm and snapped her fingers casually. “As the exit, it is hidden away, and thus represents the main gate of Rhodes Island—the first floor.”

Chapter 282 Two Hundred and Eighty, The Wolf Alliance

In truth, the Doctor harbored some doubts about Exusiai's statement.

It's not that he only suspects Exusiai, but that he suspects everything within Rhodes Island.

After all, the testimony he received from Ghost Shark before he left home was not like this.

[Upon your death, your body will be retrieved into this room and reconstructed. Each reconstruction requires a price; otherwise, you will be removed from Rhodes Island and never allowed to return, thus forfeiting any chance of completing your mission.]

That's right, let's bring out Rhodes Island.

Asking him to leave Rhodes Island was essentially a way of getting him to leave immediately.

In other words, the doctor can choose to leave at any time if he wants to.

But can he really do it?

The answer is no.

He can't.

The reason is the last sentence of Specter's testimony.

[This also means you lose the possibility of accomplishing your mission.]

mission.

mission.

mission.

The Doctor came here to fulfill a mission, to Rhodes Island after his death.

Here, everything is inanimate, devoid of any sign of life.

But it is precisely because this place is full of inanimate objects that the possibility of birth can be discovered.

So the doctor is standing here.

In order to fulfill his mission, in order to explore the possibilities of life.

Upon realizing this, the doctor understood.

He no longer had any questions or doubts.

Rhodes Island now is probably like a walled city.

The oddities inhabiting this place, just as Warfarin had said before, are burdened with the mission of escaping. The Doctor, having gone through countless hardships to arrive here, carries a different mission.

One side wants to get out, while the other side wants to get in.

For the Doctor, leaving is a piece of cake; he simply needs to give up his temporary life here. But for those oddities, death is death, and there will be no further consequences.

So they searched for traces of the sixteenth floor, looking for a way to escape.

Although the Doctor did not understand why this obsession was so deeply rooted in their hearts, at this moment, the Doctor undoubtedly understood this obsession.

Therefore, he no longer has any problems.

"About the sixteenth floor." The Doctor looked up, his gaze passing through the aroma of honey cakes in the air and landing on the sides of Exusiai's nose. "You want me to help you find that place, right?"

“Correct.” Exusiai nodded. “The problem now is that we simply can’t find the passage leading to the sixteenth floor.”

"Wait a minute," the professor asked, "Didn't you just say there was a passage connecting to the sixteenth floor somewhere? How come you're saying you can't find it now?"

“Because we couldn’t find it from the beginning.” Exusiai shook her head. “Don’t forget, I’m talking about a certain place.”

“But you’ve seen this so-called place,” the doctor said, looking at her. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t even know about the existence of the sixteenth floor.”

“Ah, you’re right, of course you’re right.” Exusiai made a helpless expression, the illusory honey cake in her hand rippled in the air. “It was a passage, a stairwell, a place that radiated light, but it no longer exists.”

"It no longer exists?" the doctor asked.

“Yes, it’s gone.” Exusiai nodded. “It should have been at the end of the third floor, like a mysterious door that was suddenly opened, but now there’s nothing there.”

"Wait, why is the door to the sixteenth floor on the third floor?" the professor asked.

"Ah, you're curious, aren't you?" Exusiai swallowed the honey cake in her hand, then patted the Doctor's shoulder with her hand, which was completely free of grease. "If I knew why it was on the third floor, I wouldn't have needed to ask you to help us find it."

Gazing at Exusiai as she swallowed the honey cake, the Doctor couldn't help but realize something trivial—it seemed that the illusory honey cake could only be eaten by illusory people.

"So, can I consider this a long-term commission?" the Doctor asked after listening to what Exusiai had said.

"A long-term commission? How long do you want?" Exusiai laughed. "Although we can probably handle as much time as we need, I'm afraid you might not be so sure."

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

“Because you are different from us, aren’t you?” Exusiai’s tone was casual, as if she had already seen through everything about the Doctor. “You came here for a different purpose than us, the mission you need to complete is different from ours, and even your composition is different from ours.”

"And if I really have to say it... hehe."

Her illusory fingers climbed up the doctor's right shoulder, then passed through his neck and slid down his left shoulder.

"That is, you are alive, and we are dead—isn't that right?"

"How could you even handle something like this...?"

Exusiai's words always manage to touch a nerve with the Doctor, to the point that they begin to disrupt his thinking.

After all, she clearly doesn't recognize him, and she clearly has amnesia, yet she knows so much information.

All I can say is that what happened on Rhodes Island is the only memory she lacks.

"I can probably answer any question you want to ask." Exusiai removed her fingers from the Doctor's shoulder and sat back down in her seat. "But the condition is that your efforts will earn me the answers to these questions in return."

"Ultimately, it all comes down to transactions." The doctor shook his head.

“Trading is a matter of course. If I were to give it to you for free instead of through hard work, you certainly wouldn't find anything I say credible, would you?”

Exusiai stared into the Doctor's eyes and asked a question in return.

“No, if it were you, I would choose to believe you.” The doctor shrugged.

“Saying it is one thing, doing it is another.” Exusiai shook her head. “Even if you choose to believe it, I won’t. Because in my opinion, those who don’t have a mutually beneficial relationship are mostly unreliable.”

"It seems you lack trust in others, although that's not necessarily a bad thing," the doctor affirmed.

“Only friends are trustworthy, but we’ve only just met.” Exusiai stood up from the bench and took away the plate that had been full of honey cakes but was now empty. “So, Doctor, try your best, consider it as building a friendly relationship between us, okay?”

"After all, there may be more opportunities for us to collaborate on this path of helping each other achieve our respective missions, won't there?"

-

Thank you segment.

Thanks, Carmen, for the dog food!

Thank you to Nan Yuan Hui Shang Tiao Jun webmaster Zai Na, Qian Xiao Bei Shang De La Tiao, and for the monthly pass.

Chapter 283, Number Two Hundred and Eighty-One: Insignificant

"Can I ask some unimportant questions?"

Just before Exusiai turned to leave, the Doctor called out to her.

"Ask away," Exusiai nodded. "I'll answer you as appropriate."

"Are all the rooms on this thirteenth floor occupied?" the doctor asked, pointing to the closed doors.

To be honest, he cared about this from the very beginning.

“Ah, of course.” Exusiai nodded. “However…”

Most of the strange people living here are quite shy, so it's best not to bother them, or they'll dislike you.

“Okay.” The doctor always listened carefully to friendly suggestions.

"Then there's another problem: how do I get out of here?" The doctor looked around at the pitch black surroundings, feeling that visibility was almost useless here.

“Either go back the way you came, or take the elevator,” Exusiai said. “By the way, the elevator is at the very back of this Polar Night Hall; just walk straight along the path in the middle of the dining tables to get there.”

"Okay, thanks." The doctor nodded, then hesitated for a moment before asking, "By the way, don't you guys ever think it's too dark here?"