Survivorship Bias

    After lying down, An Wu Jiao calmly put down the hand holding the clothes on his chest, enduring the pain in his heart, pretending that nothing happened.

    Exposing the weak to the other side is not a rational thing to think about.

    But Shen Ti doesn't look so rational, his every move is very emotional. Do whatever you want, no matter how strange it is.

    For example, right now, he was lying on his side beside An Wujiu, looking straight at his profile from an almost negligible distance.

    An Wujiu's vigilance can naturally feel this intense and direct gaze, like a leopard locking on its prey.

    I was about to ask him why he was staring at him, but Shen Ti was the first to speak.

    "Your profile looks like..."

    He paused for two seconds, as if thinking about adjectives, making An Wugui and a little curious.

    "Precise."

    Accurate, what is the description?

    "Why?" An Wujiu turned his head, no longer looking at the "ceiling" of the container, but Shen Ti's face. He spoke in a low voice because he remembered Zhong Yirou's exhortation.

    As soon as he turned his face, Shen Ti added, "The face is also."

    Shen Ti's expression was a bit like a child's, he answered An Wujiu's last question, "I just feel...it's a face that is very suitable for modeling as a representative of human appearance."

    After he finished speaking, he added, "If only one human could be chosen."

    These words sounded so strange that An Wu Jiao didn't immediately feel the significance of the huge compliment.

    What he cared about was why Shen Ti seemed to set himself up as a bystander who was different from humans.

    But he recognized one thing, so he said to Shen Ti very directly: "You give me a feeling of...not my race."

    If the dialogue between the two is replaced by another person, I am afraid it will be difficult to proceed smoothly.

    "That means you think I'm special."

    Seeing that he was so confident, An Wujiu didn't know how to react, so he vaguely said, "Maybe."

    "I can see your face, as if I can see you directly when you were a child." Shen Ti returned to the discussion of "accuracy" again, "The one that is scaled down."

    An Wujiu closed his eyes, "I almost don't remember what I looked like when I was a child." He only knew that in the dream he looked very thin and his face was blurred.

    "It's pretty." Shen Ti gave the answer he thought to himself, as if he had really seen him when he was a child.

    I don't know why, because of Shen Ti's few words, An Wujiu's heartache seemed to gradually subside, but some unnamed emotion came up little by little and drowned him.

    He raised his hand and covered his face.

    Therefore, Shen Ti's observation object was forced to become the hand of the innocent.

    The fingers are long and thin, as white as snow, but the raised veins give a subtle sense of strength.

    There is also a number on the back of the hand - 99.

    "This number is also tattooed by you?"

    Hearing Shen Ti's voice again, An Wu Jiu put down his hands and shook his head.

    "No, it only appeared after entering the game."

    After he finished speaking, he turned his head to look at Shen Ti, "Don't you?"

    Shen Ti shook his head slightly, he thought of something, so he said, "But I have met other people in the game, and there are numbers on them, but not 99."

    An Wujiu thought for a while, "Maybe it was made by the altar." It's just that he hasn't figured out the purpose.

    They are just competitors who participated in the same round of the game. It is reasonable to say that the conversation should be polite and superficial, but maybe because Shen Ti's weirdness is too different, it seems that he can't treat Shen Ti as an ordinary person to treat.

    Even if he persuaded himself, these performances may be a hoax carefully designed by Shen Ti.

    “Why did you enter the altar?” An Wujiu raised a deeper question.

    But he regretted asking and felt that he was crossing the line. Because this is very similar to the question he asked Shen Ti after he just left the game factory.

    He probably doesn't want to answer such a private question yet.

    "I said it, I want to die." He repeated what he said before, but also gave more, "Well... from birth to entering the altar, I seem to have been in Repeating one thing, and it's a very painful thing."

    But perhaps because of the brain's self-protection mechanism, he couldn't remember what was going on.

    "I can't find relief, I want to find a meaningful way to die."

    An Wujiu listened, a very mythical story popped up in his mind.

    Sisyphus, who offended the wrath of the people, was punished by the gods by pushing a boulder to the top of the mountain, and when he really reached the top of the mountain, he would fall again. So he repeated this work again, pushing the boulder to the top of the mountain, over and over again, with endless use.

    An Wujiu looked at him.

    "Maybe death is not relief."

    Shen Ti also turned his face and looked into his eyes.

    "What is that?"

    An Wu Jiao showed a firm and serene look on his face.

    "Find what it means to live."

    The temperature drops at night and the air becomes very cold.

    For the first time, Shen Ti felt the warmth of non-physical meaning, which made him feel a great sense of weirdness.

    He didn't sleep well all night, closed his eyes and listened to An Wu Jiao's even and small breathing sound intermittently.

    This never-before-seen peace continued into the morning, he got up when the sky was a little bright, sat on the ground again, folded his arms beside the bed and stared at An Wujiao, watching him quietly The profile of the face, the slightly undulating chest, and the index finger.

    Press down the ends of An Wujiu's long hair scattered on the bed, and release it when he doesn't notice it.

    The boring and fulfilling morning activities lasted for half an hour, An Wu Jiu also woke up.

    When he wakes up, he always looks stunned, he can bury his hair for a long time by himself, like a mushroom.

    Until Zhong Yirou's voice penetrated the iron wall of the container.

    "Going!"

    So the four of them once again embarked on a journey back to the altar.

    This time their mood became more complicated. On the aircraft, Wu You kept looking at the rearview mirror, but didn't speak.

    He's a quiet kid.

    After parking the aircraft in the game factory, he followed his brother and sister without saying a word until everyone selected a random game cabin and was ready to step into it.

    Zhong Yirou said a lot, probably wishing everyone good luck, before going in, she helped An Wujiu tie up her hair and tied it high behind her head.

    And Wu You said a second before closing the glass hatch, "You will all survive, right?"

    The robotic arm in the game cabin appeared and inserted the tubes for feeding nutrients into An Wujiu's arm, his eyes turned to Wu You next door.

    "I'll do my best, and so will you."

    Shen Ti couldn't understand the desire to survive, but nodded anyway.

    "Of course!" Zhong Yirou shouted, "Next time I'll make roast chicken for everyone!"

    Wu You pursed her lips, "Then... no need."

    It is different from entering the game without knowing anything before, this time An Wu Jiao smiled slightly, made preparations, and made a promise with others.

    He is the complete opposite of Shen Ti in a kind state. He is a person who can easily establish emotional relationships with others. He has strong empathy, sympathy for others, and is willing to reach out to help others.

    So the people around you are easily influenced.

    A familiar voice came from the game cabin.

    "The database interface is connected."

    The moment she heard the holy voice, An Wujiu felt that a beautiful dream was shattering.

    Their peace was the pause button.

    "Loading Survival Data."

    "Loading—"

    "Environment configuration successful, variable initialization—"

    "Welcome back."

    He was briefly blind and deaf, as if falling into a quiet pure white.

    "Loading warm-up game configuration."

    In an instant, countless blue light particles appeared in the field of vision, and these tiny particles gradually gathered to model a dark space.

    Different from the rooftop of the building in the last warm-up match, this time they came to a dimly lit hall, and the only light source was the overhead light from the dome in the center of the hall.

    Soon, a huge bird cage appeared under the ceiling light, and a cylindrical low platform was placed on the outer edge of the bird cage. An Wu Jiu paid attention to the number, there were six in total.

    There is another one in the center of the bird cage.

    Seven people?

    Just as he was about to turn his head, he felt a light tap on his right shoulder, and turned his head to the right. There was no one there, but a voice came from the left.

    "What a coincidence."

    It's Shen Ti.

    What a childish trick.

    An Wujiu turned to look at him, Shen Ti had a lollipop in his mouth, his cheeks bulged, and he said vaguely

    : "We're competitors again."

    An Wujiu nodded, "Is this not common?"

    Shen Ti thought for a while, "Maybe there are, but I can't remember their faces."

    The holy voice appeared again, "Welcome players."

    "You are all survivors of the last round of the game. You came here after a desperate struggle. There is no need to say much about the rules of the warm-up game."

    I don't know why, An Wujiu felt that this time the holy voice seemed to be more human.

    Maybe it was because the last time someone tried to escape, it was **** from the start.

    Soon, he saw a familiar figure from the black shadow on the opposite side, wearing high heels.

    "Yirou is also there."

    "Yi Rou?" Shen Ti repeated this sentence, but not in a questioning tone, but more like she was surprised by An Wujiu's intimate name for dropping her surname.

    An Wujiu would be wrong, he pointed to the opposite side, Zhong Yirou also saw them and waved his hand gracefully.

    Holy Sound begins the introduction.

    "There are seven players in this round, please come to the center of the lobby and familiarize yourself with each other's names."

    According to the regulations, An Wujiu and Shen Ti walked towards the center of the hall, his eyes looked around, and he was surprised to find that Wu You was also there.

    Wu You was very calm, even if he was surprised by their reunion.

    On the one hand, An Wujiu was happy because there were familiar people, and on the other hand, he was uneasy because they became competitors again.

    An Wujiu noticed that there was a tall young woman standing directly opposite him, with a low ponytail tied behind her head, with a three-dimensional silhouette and the softness of an oriental face, which was probably a mix of Russian Bloodline, but there is a feeling that strangers are not allowed to enter.

    She wore black suit pants and a neat white shirt, buttoned to the top, like a professional woman or a scientific researcher.

    But An Wujiu denied his conjecture.

    Why do researchers come here?

    In front of her is the name of the holographic projection.

    [Yang Erci]

    It sounds like a Chinese name, but it really is a mixed race.

    He looked to the other side, beside Yang Erci, he saw an adult man, tall, with a ball on top of his head, wearing a blue-gray, similar to Taoist robe clothes.

    "Taoist?" He couldn't help but whisper, this was a character he had only seen in the book.

    Shen Ti also looked over, "What is a Taoist..."

    He only saw that the Taoist priest was a good-looking, bookish little white face.

    But there was a mole at the corner of his eye, Shen Ti shook his head affectionately for An Wugui.

    It is not serious at first sight.

    It seemed that he heard An Wujiu's voice, and the Taoist priest diagonally opposite bowed to him.

    His name is [Nanshan].

    An Wujiu also nodded at him as a courtesy, then looked at Nanshan's left hand side, there was a young boy with European appearance, he looked a little older than Wu You , his face was pale, and his slightly curly brown hair was scattered on his cheeks.

    His name is [Josh]

    Josh, a common western name.

    Including the four of them who were already familiar, all of them came to the birdcage in the center of the hall and waited quietly.

    "The name of the warm-up game is 'Cage Bird'." Shengyin said.

    Soon, from somewhere in the hall, there was a faint nursery rhyme.

    [A bird in a cage, a bird in a cage, a little bird in a cage, when will you come out and jump?

    The night passed, it was dawn, and the cranes and turtles fled together. Guess who's making trouble behind you? ①]

    In the empty and dark hall, the voice was particularly ethereal, echoing above the high dome. I don't know if it was An Wujiu's delusion, he saw a child standing in the bird cage in a trance, covering his eyes with his hands and turning his back to them.

    But in the blink of an eye, she disappeared again.

    "The rules of the game are now announced, players please note that no sound is allowed throughout the game."

    Accompanied by the nursery rhyme, Shengyin introduced: "As you can see now, there is a platform in the birdcage in front of you, and there are six platforms with numbers outside the birdcage, which are 1 to 6."

    "At the very beginning of the game, a player needs to take the initiative to stand up as a caged bird, blindfolded, and stand on the platform in the cage.

    You can ask to be a caged bird. If multiple players stand up voluntarily, the system will randomly select one from the candidates.

    If there is no caged bird in the first round, 5 points will be deducted from each player. "

    "On the premise that the player in the cage cannot see the situation outside the cage, he shouts an integer from 0 to 6, and the rest of the players stand on the platform outside the cage and follow the clockwise order. The number called out by the caged bird moves the corresponding number of times."

    "For example, it is initially located on platform 1, and the number of caged birds reported is 3, then move forward three squares clockwise to reach platform 4."

    "After the move, the blindfolded caged bird stayed still and guessed who the 'bird catcher' was behind him."

    "If the caged bird guesses correctly, the caged bird wins and gets 10 points.

    If the bird in the cage guesses incorrectly, the bird catcher will get 5 points, and the rest of the outsiders will get 3 points. 5 points will be deducted from the caged bird. "

    This is a blindfolded guessing game that can neither be heard nor touched.

    "There are 4 rounds in the game. The bird catcher in the previous round will automatically become the caged bird in the next round. After entering the cage and reporting the number, the people outside the cage will choose and stand on the platform outside the cage again according to their own will. .

    After 4 rounds, the player with the most total points wins.

    If there are multiple players with the highest score, a play-off will be played. "

    "If a player makes a sound during the game, or fails to move or leave the platform as required, it will be regarded as a foul and will be directly disqualified."

    "The game starts in a minute."

    --------------------

    The author has something to say:

    Shen Ti: He is very special to me (surely)

    An Wujiu: I feel like you just learned to be a man a few days ago.

    ①From a nursery rhyme game, the rules of the game are that a group of people form a circle, the person standing in the middle is regarded as a caged bird, and the people in the circle sing the content of the nursery rhyme together, and when the last word ends, the middle The bird guesses who is behind it. Some adjustments have been made to the rules in this chapter, and the caged bird reporting and scoring rules are adopted.