Neverland

Xu Muzhou's remaining half-pack of cigarettes was rounded up and seized by the man. The man flicked the lighter, and forcibly gathered a cluster of small flames from the bottomless kerosene.

The man was much more proficient in smoking than Xu Muzhou. He threw the hot and discarded lighter on the ground, stepped over the mess on the ground, walked to Xu Muzhou's side, and sat in another seat across the aisle from him.

The vehicle was moving forward steadily, shaking slightly, as if he had intuitively felt that there was no danger, Xu Muzhou relaxed in one breath, and his whole body was almost limp on the seat.

"Are you an atheist?" the man asked suddenly.

"Probably." Xu Muzhou replied cautiously, "But I respect other people's beliefs and remain in awe of the unknown."

"Don't be so nervous." The man was amused by his hard-working appearance, and the man glanced at him sideways, as if trying to figure out how to phrase it: "...do you know how the world works?"

This question is too profound, Xu Muzhou said angrily: "If you want to discuss this issue, you shouldn't arrest me, you should arrest Hawking."

"Just as the world you live in needs laws to regulate order, the world also has its own laws to maintain the normal operation of the world." The man didn't care about the thorns in his words, but said seriously: "And we, are The staff responsible for regulating the law."

"Based on what you can understand, this is more like a scheduling company, with different departments in charge of different business areas." The man looked at Xu Muzhou: "And you are the expected employee we selected."

Xu Muzhou: "..."

"Why?" The man asked empathetically, "What did I not explain?"

"Do you want to say that I am the chosen child." Xu Muzhou stretched out his hand expressionlessly: "Okay, you can take out my summoner."

man:"……"

Fortunately, Xu Muzhou didn't keep the man speechless for too long, he moved lazily and straightened his numb legs in the aisle.

"You're not a very good HR. If my company recruited like you, I'm afraid it would have gone bankrupt." After Xu Muzhou complained about the man, he changed the subject: "But I probably understand... this world is very mysterious, Maybe what you said is true, but what does it have to do with me? In other words, is the standard for your job selection of reserve employees random selection?"

The man bit his cigarette, squinted his eyes slightly and stretched his legs, hooked his backpack with his feet, took out a slightly thick folder from it, and handed it to Xu Muzhou.

"Of course not." The man signaled Xu Muzhou to open the document: "We have done careful consideration and investigation."

There were a few sheets of paper in that document, which looked no different from personal files.Xu Muzhou flipped through it and found that it was a file that belonged to him.

"Xu Muzhou, 26 years old, graduated from an engineering school, working in a private enterprise." As Xu Muzhou flipped through the folder, the man also said: "Working attitude is serious, but the social circle is narrow. Logical and thoughtful Clear, loving and good at deciphering games."

"And there's more." The man paused: "From an orphanage, the social connection is weak."

With a snap, the folder in Xu Muzhou's hand was closed vigorously.The man turned his head following the sound, only to realize that his expression was uneasy, obviously he said something wrong.

This file was detailed and meticulous. Xu Muzhou flipped through a few pages and found that even the primary school he attended and the internship he had attended for only two months after graduation were all listed.

These resumes Xu Muzhou can reluctantly accept, but the privacy involved in his background, growth environment, etc. inevitably makes him feel that he is being spied on.

Xu Muzhou frowned in disgust, no one wants his secrets to be exposed to the sky, even if he doesn't feel guilty about it, it's definitely not a good experience.

Maybe it was because his face was too ugly, the man was stunned for a moment, and then realized that he seemed to have hit his pain point, and said in a low voice, "...Sorry."

"Did you do this?" Xu Muzhou pointed at him the documents in his hand.

The man seemed a little guilty for no reason: "No, I just got these materials."

"Then you don't need to apologize." Xu Muzhou said, taking out the papers in the folder and putting them back together, tearing them into two halves with a blunt sound.While tearing it up, Xu Muzhou smiled at the man in his busy schedule and said, "After all, to you, this is just a letter of reference."

The man saw his subordinates mercilessly tearing those thin papers into pieces, and immediately felt that the credibility of his words was very doubtful.

There is no doubt about the decompression effect of destruction. Xu Muzhou threw the shredded paper on the ground and clapped his hands: "You can continue, my Mr. HR."

"Cough." The man coughed dryly: "So please come, it's—"

"Wait a minute." Xu Muzhou interrupted him: "If this is an interview, you should introduce your name to me first."

Xu Muzhou was nothing more than an excuse to vent his dissatisfaction. The man in front of him knew everything about his life, but he knew nothing about the man.

But he looked very serious again, the man looked a little serious, and began to look at the person in front of him.

Xu Muzhou didn't look thin and thin, his body was still stained with dust and blood from the fight just now, his hair seemed to have not been taken care of for a long time, it was a little long, and when the bangs fell down, they could just cover the eyelashes.But in terms of appearance alone, Xu Muzhou doesn't look like a 26-year-old. He looks younger, more like a young man who has just graduated from college.

According to the information, Xu Muzhou is by no means a lonely person, but he can't be called enthusiastic either. He doesn't like wasting time on socializing more often.But his appearance is not sharp, he can even be called gentle.So if I have to describe it, it's probably the kind of rebellious high school senior who likes to go alone - or the kind with a group of little girls behind him chasing after him.

Maybe it's because he grew up in an orphanage. He has his own temper, even occasionally a bit sharp, but his personality is very independent.

That's good, the man thought, after all he wasn't looking for a mascot.

The flame of the cigarette butt flickered out, the man exhaled a puff of smoke ring, sat up slightly, and replied seriously: "Yan Cen."

The name seems to be a very meaningful symbol to him, and he speaks slowly and with a perfect accent.

Before Xu Muzhou could ask him which character it was, he had already grabbed Xu Muzhou's hand, and wrote the character Cen in his palm stroke by stroke.

Yan Cen's hands had a layer of calluses, Xu Muzhou spread his palms to make him feel a little itchy to write, and subconsciously wanted to retreat, but there were only a few strokes of this word, and Yan Cen had already finished writing.

Xu Muzhou clenched his fists, recalling the feeling of touch just now, when the other party wrote like a human being, both horizontally and vertically were very powerful.Only the last third of the cigarette was left in Yan Cen's mouth, and the smoke was steaming upwards, he narrowed his eyes slightly to avoid being blinded by the smoke.Xu Muzhou looked at him through a layer of soft smoke, and could almost imagine the sharp and good handwriting.

"Yan Cen." Xu Muzhou repeated: "I remember."

"As you said, in this game, you are real, and so are the rest of the people." Yan Cen took the last puff of cigarette deeply into his lungs, and threw the cigarette butt on the ground: "But you are not like them." Similarly, they need to survive in this game, and you just need to find the truth. Those inexplicable memories are indeed to protect you-of course, they should disappear now."

Xu Muzhou followed his words and thought back for a while, only to realize that what he said was true, his memory had returned to the right track, although he still had the impression of remembering those "memories", but it was not as chaotic anymore.

"I have told you before that this world has its own laws, which will maintain the normal operation of the world—"

"Sorry to interrupt." Xu Muzhou said, "What exactly is this 'law' you are talking about?"

"Balance." Yan Cen replied quickly: "It's balance itself... It may be difficult for you to understand, but I'll try to put it in a simple way—do you know what the most powerful force in this world is?"

Unable to answer Xu Muzhou, Yan Cen gave the answer first: "It's fear, disappointment, unwillingness and pain. If you have to mix them into one point, it's resentment."

Xu Muzhou was taken aback.

"Maybe this is not the same as your cognition. Most people will say that power comes from love. The love of love, or some other kind of love." Yan Cen shook his head: "But in fact, it really comes from the explosion of love The power of love is very limited - love makes people weak, people have a way out. But hate it, the power of all-or-nothing is very terrifying."

What he said made sense, Xu Muzhou thought.He did not interrupt Yan Cen, but waited patiently for the other party to continue.

"Every existence in this world is meaningful, and so are these feelings. It is not just affecting everyone's subjective emotions, but a potentially huge energy." Yan Cen continued: "This power is Imprinted on the soul itself, and can be absorbed by the world, if this power exceeds the acceptable safety limit for balance, the original composition ratio of the world will be tilted—to put it simply, don’t you think, Have there been too many natural and man-made disasters in recent years?"

Xu Muzhou followed his train of thought and thought about it. He is an engineering student, so it is not difficult to understand what the man said.Assuming that the world is regarded as the most basic pie chart, when the proportions of the various parts that make up the world are roughly equal, if "resentment" itself grows too fast, it will compress the proportions of other parts.

Although Xu Muzhou didn't know the specific composition of the world, he could probably understand this kind of development, and it was probably the culprit that affected the balance in Yan Cen's mouth.

He nodded hesitantly, signaling Yan Cen to continue.

"But in fact, most of the negative emotions of ordinary specifications can be digested artificially, and there is no need for too much intervention." Yan Cen said: "But there are always exceptions to everything, and there are still a small number of extremely powerful and firm obsessions that cannot be digested. smoothed by time and thought."

"If this kind of 'resentment' exceeds the supposed safety value by several times or even hundreds of times, human intervention is required. And the organization I am in - we simply call it a balance system. The system will Various values ​​in the world are tested to find targets that require manual intervention." Yan Cen said: "...and our job is to eliminate these obsessions."