don't open your eyes [unlimited]

……

Treatment room.

Chairman Yan closed the door. He seemed to have noticed something. When he turned around, he was already stared at by the black and cold muzzle of the gun.

"It seems that you are in good spirits today."

Seemingly not surprised by this, Chairman Yan walked to the table and put down the medical records in his hand: "It turns out that this is what the legendary 'Three Generations Cocoon' made."

"This rude way doesn't look like the...number zero I taught you."

Chairman Yan glanced at the gun: "I thought that you would directly cut open my carotid artery with a scalpel the moment I entered the door."

Ling Su leaned back in the restraint chair, playing with the gun in his hand: "Have I done this before?"

"Compared to now, you used to be much cleaner and more efficient."

Chairman Yan flipped through the records: "You are the kind of student who is very rebellious. Once you find out that I am manipulating you, you will immediately do it to my projection—or your own projection. To be honest, we are very Worrying that one day you will finally be completely unable to distinguish between dreams and reality, and accidentally slit someone's throat outside..."

"There is no such possibility." Ling Su said calmly, "Instead of worrying about me, it is better to care about global warming and animal protection."

President Yan heard Ling Su speak like this for the first time, not only did he not get angry, but he looked at the student with more interest for a while: "It seems that you have really had a good life these few years."

"At lunch, something else must have happened...to turn you into this."

Chairman Yan suddenly stretched out his hand, poked into Ling Su's temple, and pulled a pale white mist out of his mind.

That period of mist turned into a film with a fresh color. President Yan opened the film and unfolded it backwards: "You met in the cafeteria, and you met a third-generation cocoon tasker who was sent... He took the outside The news was brought to you, and you were given the gun."

"You still saw the man in the game plan that was unsealed yesterday. You know the game I set up for you, and you know that the sacrificed pioneer did not exist in the first place, and you feel very angry... What is there to be angry about?"

Chairman Yan looked at it unhurriedly. He raised his head and gave the student a strange look: "You should be relieved to know that your mistake did not lead to truly tragic consequences, right?"

As he spoke, he fished in the pocket of his white coat, grabbed a handful of bullets, let go of his hand, and let them jingle and land on the table.

"Check your magazine." Chairman Yan reminded him, "See if I missed a bullet or two."

Chairman Yan pulled out his chair and sat down: "If this thing accidentally goes off during our conversation, and it pierces someone's lungs or other internal organs, it will be very troublesome."

Ling Su removed the empty magazine and threw it on the table: "Do you have anything to explain?"

"Want me to explain?"

President Yan looked at him: "Number zero... I don't understand what you are thinking."

"You show more and more resistance and non-cooperation, you start to doubt everything, every time you fall into a near-death state, you refuse to wake up in time, and you are always indecisive and not firm enough in the task."

"Among the testers of the first cocoon, you are the only one who survived soberly. You are my best student, that's why I lent you to them as an instructor-but you see how bad you are?"

President Yan propped his arms on the edge of the table, leaned forward, and stared at Ling Su: "Now you know that I was deceiving you, so you feel dissatisfied and angry... Have you ever thought that if I didn't give you By arranging such a 'non-existent person', your mistakes may kill a real tasker?"

Ling Su glanced at the information in his hand: "Even if the probability is only [-] out of a thousand?"

"No matter how small the probability is, it's not zero!" Chairman Yan stood up abruptly, clapping his hands on the table, "But once this probability of [-] in a thousand happens, a living person will become worse off because of you." Death, completely lost self-concept, can only wait for death walking dead... Do you think that the situation I set up for you is impossible?!"

"Do you think that I cultivated you for myself, to satisfy my desire for control and ambition?"

President Yan sternly said: "How did I think your talent was excellent? Why haven't you realized it until now? I don't need to control you to satisfy these things—here, I'm already a god!"

With a firm grip, the gun that Ling Su threw on the table was instantly twisted into a ball and turned into an unusable scrap metal.

"Do you think you can deal with me with the weapon of the third generation of cocoon? I can't believe it. It turned out that until three years later, my most satisfied student couldn't even do this level of thinking and reasoning... what can decide everything is not Programs, not machines, are 'rules'!"

"Even if the first-generation cocoon is rejected by those ignorant guys, the design ideas, concepts, and procedures of the subsequent two so-called 'substitutes' are completely different, and the rules they abide by can only be the same... because of the subconscious world. There is only one core rule!"

The restraint chair changed unexpectedly, completely imprisoning Ling Su's body in it.

This time, there was no extra restraint belt, and the chair became a huge rusty iron bucket filled with soggy fine sand.

These heavy wet sands were buried all the way to Ling Shu's neck, they were heavier than imagined, oppressing his whole body below the shoulders so that he couldn't move.

"Not too advanced." Ling Su frowned, "These methods are too primitive..."

Chairman Yan stared at him like a vulture: "What did you say?"

"You have received a sufficient modern education. Although you are completely out of date now, you were at least once considered a leader in the field of psychology."

Ling Su looked at the drenched sand that still smelled of salty sea water.

His chest and abdomen were severely squeezed, and he could hardly take in any breath of air, which made his voice much lower and weaker: "The restraint chair is a treatment method in the [-]th century, burying people alive with wet sand... ...I can't even find a symbolic node, the era of cold weapons? Or earlier..."

He seemed to have to stop talking under some invisible pressure, let out a breath, his face finally became faintly pale, and a little blood overflowed from the corners of his mouth.

Ling Su licked the blood on the corner of his lips.

His expression was not in pain, but as if he was carefully feeling some kind of experience that he had never experienced before.

"I don't know where you learned such nonsense and bluffing... But if you want to use this to prove to me that you are useless, so that I don't have to expect anything from you, then it is indeed very successful."

Chairman Yan bowed his body, propped his hands on the edge of the table, and looked down at him: "I've already begun to consider completely abolishing you and re-cultivating a scalpel..."

Ling Su smiled: "Yes."

Chairman Yan's pupils shrank slightly: "What did you say?"

"Come on, kill my consciousness completely here, and let me be swallowed up by this dream."

Ling Su coughed a few times, more blood poured out of his mouth, and the wet sand turned into a dazzling bright red.

"Just continue like this..." Ling Su gasped, showing a smile full of interest, "Let me become a walking dead waiting to die in reality, and you can find a new scalpel, wouldn't that be great? "

Chairman Yan was completely stunned.

This is not the first time he said this to number zero... In fact, all the training content for number zero is a well-designed and complete experiment.

In the dream world, everything that happens around number zero is a set trajectory.

Through calculation, the computer will automatically select the worst event development mode—no matter how small the probability is.

——Through uncontrollable strong pain stimulation, no matter what the target does, the punishment cannot be suspended.

No matter what time it is, Number Zero will encounter the most unfavorable factors, emergencies, dangers and desperate situations... This is not because he is unlucky, but because the computer actively guides him to these situations, and even intentionally He was stuck in these situations.

He will suffer countless pains, countless inability to do anything, watching the person he wants to protect or other things suddenly destroy before his eyes, turning into powder dust that cannot be grasped .

This is the only way to forge the sharpest scalpel.

Number zero must completely give up all chances, hesitation, and stop evading and resisting.

Only then will he gain the ability to calmly respond and handle any worst-case scenario.

…Similarly, there is no way to ensure continuous negation and absolute psychological isolation.

At least number zero three years ago couldn't bear the level of complete negation from the teacher.

Although he won't collapse, of course, it is absolutely impossible to admit his mistakes and repent bitterly - if this is the case, Chairman Yan will not pick him out and send him into the first-generation cocoon as the most promising experimental subject.

He will only practice hard and hard without saying a word, forcing himself to do better, completely abandoning those weak naive delusions, and keep walking according to the set track.

This is a perfect experiment, perhaps not humane, and some places seem too cruel, but this is also a sacrifice of last resort.

The "tide" of the subconscious world is irresistible, and that piece of sea water will swallow reality one day in the future, which will be a catastrophe for all mankind.

Before that happens, someone has to step up and do something...

"Very good logic, but one thing is wrong." Ling Su said.

President Yan's gaze fixed on him suddenly: "What did you say?"

"It's not a question of inhumanity or inhumanity... The design of the whole experiment is wrong."

Ling Su lowered his gaze: "Chairman Ouyang should have reminded you, right? Game theory cannot be fully applied to psychology... In the initial stage, its method was to examine how an emotionless genius would act in a game. A general population with emotions and limited foresight."

"Considering you're still using nineteenth-century restraint chairs and burials on me, that probably doesn't make sense to you."

Ling Su said in a low voice: "Your experiment is contradictory."

"In your experimental design, only when the individual has normal human emotions, a considerable sense of responsibility, optimism, and a desire to live... can you give what you want in the experimental steps you have designed. the result of."

"If I don't have these qualities, even if you let a hundred 'non-existent people' die in front of me, I will be indifferent, and I will watch the movie."

President Yan's pupils shrank: "Do you think I don't praise you enough?"

"The strict requirements for you are to prevent you from becoming slack and complacent." Chairman Yan said, "I have never denied my favor for you. You are my most satisfied student——"

"You misunderstood."

Ling Su said indifferently, "Don't interrupt me, I haven't finished yet."

Ling Su said: "I want to tell you that for such a genius who is optimistic, upright, and has a strong sense of responsibility, the easiest way is to tell him directly...the world is a bit dangerous, and we need you."

"You want to discuss human nature with me?" President Yan's tone was a little sarcastic, "I didn't expect you to still think about this. Want to talk to me about whether people are the product of the environment, or that set of psychodynamics? You convert to humanism." Is it true? Didn’t see it... Are you going to lead everyone to sleep optimistically in their dreams?”

Ling Su was a little curious: "Do you think this method won't work?"

"Of course it won't work!" President Yan sternly said, "This is not an ordinary high-risk incident. We are dealing with the invasion of the subconscious mind. This has never happened before!"

"Nothing is different." Ling Su's tone seemed casual, "Have you seen how the three generations of cocoon deal with the Dream Realm? It's very easy, just like playing a game..."

"This can't last long! This kind of system will collapse soon. Only people can solve people's problems, otherwise they won't come to the Psychological Association to cooperate!"

"What do you think psychology is for? Everyone of you should know it when you get started. Its core is to describe, explain, predict and influence people's behavior. This is a science, not accompanied by a few storytellers. Tears!"

President Yan waved his hand vigorously, the table was like a piece of paper, and it flew out of his hands: "I know you are extremely dissatisfied with this experiment, but this is the only way!"

He grabbed Ling Su's hair and forced him to raise his head to look at himself: "Only to obliterate the weak humanity in you, leaving only the part that is purely capable—"

His voice suddenly paused.

Ling Su's voice suddenly made him very irritable.

...the experiments are contradictory.

Only with humanity can the desired results be given in the designed experimental steps.

But if the subject completely wiped out his humanity because of the experiment—no matter how he justifies, refutes, or uses other more grandiose descriptions to whitewash the excuse, he is finally forced by Ling Su to admit this—those steps will not It worked again.

Even though a large number of precise and rigorous behavioral predictions, cognitive analysis, and experimental procedure design covered up this point...but when it was exposed, Chairman Yan could not find any reason to deny it.

Therefore, all the experimental subjects in the first cocoon except Ling Su ended in failure.

Failure is the standard outcome of this experiment.

The reason why Ling Su survived and became the only survivor was not because of the beautiful and perfect design of the experiment... but because there is only one Ling Su in this world.

Ling Su must not be discarded, there is no second spare scalpel.

It is impossible to find another person to be trained to this level, because this experiment itself is not universal, he must—

Chairman Yan's consciousness almost froze in place.

He stared in disbelief at Zero, who was being grabbed by his hair and forced to raise his face...and the other party also looked back at him.

Unlike any other time before, there was nothing in those eyes but a hollowness of calm relief.

"No...no no." Chairman Yan seemed to be gripped by fear, he hurriedly dug up the red sand, "You can't die...you can't die at this time!"

He seemed to have lost control of this space, and just frantically dug Ling Su's body out of the sand.

During the out-of-control rage just now, Chairman Yan manipulated the sand to continuously increase the pressure, trying to force Ling Su to obey him as before, but he didn't notice that this level had exceeded the limit that anyone could bear.

Ling Su was thrown crookedly on the ground by him, eyes still open.

His chest had been dented by the sand, and the broken ribs had probably pierced his lungs. A large amount of blood didn't come out of his mouth until this time, flowing down and covering the ground.

"Teacher, admit it?"

Ling Su's shadow squatted beside him: "This is not an experiment at all."

"Shut up!" President Yan's eyes were almost red, and he frantically tried every means to save the people on the ground, "Shut up, don't come out!"

Two Ling Su appeared in his vision, one was lying on the ground silently, and the other was smiling and biting a cigarette, chattering endlessly.

"With your ability, it's impossible to design a contradictory experiment... It's too bad, even Yan Xun would not make such a bad experiment plan."

The shadow asked curiously: "But you did it anyway, even at the expense of exhausting effort, why is that?"

"I couldn't figure it out at first, but not long ago, I discovered something."

Shadow Lingsu said: "In order to ensure that I don't go crazy... I have self-hypnotized what I experienced in a generation of personality models and made it a job as a ghost story radio anchor. I changed the fifty failed records into Fifty complaints."

"In fact, I have always cared about it." Shadow Lingsu said, "With my optimism, bravery and perseverance, it's not like I could come up with an idea on my own...unless someone taught me."

Chairman Yan seemed not to have heard these words, and hurriedly carried out the useless rescue as if possessed by a demon.

Ling Su's shadow circled in front of him: "Unless... I saw you do this before."

"Shut up, shut up, shut up..."

Chairman Yan knelt down on the ground, closed his eyes tightly, and covered his ears with both hands: "Go back, you are just my illusion!"

"That's right, teacher." Ling Su's shadow nodded, still squatting beside him, "I'm just your illusion—the real me is dead. Just now, I was freed by your own hands...Thank you You let me go."

"When did you have a hallucination with my image as the carrier?"

Ling Su's shadow brushed off the soot and watched the gray embers fall down: "It should be when you hinted to yourself and convinced yourself that this is a crappy experiment, right?"

"You hide your real purpose, interpret injury as sacrifice, escape as helplessness, and your self-saving as a great act of saving the world."

"Then your remaining insignificant conscience... was changed into my appearance by you."

"You call it a monster."

Ling Su's shadow whispered, "In this way, you can fool everyone and keep me locked in a cage."

……

President Yan raised his head.

His face seemed to convulse, and he asked slowly: "I am the god of this dream world, why do I have to do this?"

"Okay, God." Ling Su's shadow made an insincere prayer gesture, "You save me, so your knife will come back."

President Yan's eyes shrank, he seemed to be deliberately avoiding the tragic scene on the ground, and he raised his hand and pressed his ears hard.

But Ling Su's shadow was still chattering, and those voices clearly reached the depths of his consciousness: "Because you know very well in your heart that you are not the master here."

"You're trapped in a place, and you need a scalpel to get out."

Ling Su said, "Then...you chose me."

"In order to hide it from others, and to justify your own behaviour, you interpreted it as an entirely necessary experiment - you even hypnotized yourself into believing it yourself. "

"So no matter what the situation is, you will try to save me and ensure that I can survive."

"That's why...you collapse like this when I die in front of your eyes."

Ling Su made a gesture of quotation marks: "Your plan has completely failed."

"This is just your one-sided statement..." President Yan's pupils moved with difficulty, "You are just trying to disturb my thoughts and make me doubt reality and the truth."

"This is the method I used to train you at the beginning. It is useless for you to use it against me."

Chairman Yan repeated in a low voice: "I am here to save the world..."

"Perhaps, your actions are still good for the world."

Ling Su nodded, and threw away the exhausted cigarette: "You did give me quite powerful abilities, making me a scalpel—not to save you. I cultivated the first batch of pioneers, Participated in the construction of the real cocoon... If the world has built a Noah's Ark in the face of the subconscious flood, I am at least a key component at the level of the keel."

"But these..." Ling Su looked at him curiously, "What does this have to do with you?"

President Yan trembled violently, his face gradually paled.

"You can't take it anymore at this point? Teacher, your defense system has to be dismantled layer by layer, so hold on."

Ling Su continued: "You don't need to believe me, but you should always believe in yourself."

"You actually left a reminder for yourself."

Ling Su looked at him: "You named this experiment 'Man in the Game', and asked Ouyang Huan to succeed you as your next president..."

Chairman Yan was stunned for a moment, and suddenly strong fear appeared in his eyes: "Stop talking!"

"You really are a monster." President Yan stared at him, his chest heaving in despair, "How did you get out? I obviously locked you in my cage, obviously—"

Ling Su smiled: "I didn't come out."

Chairman Yan was stunned.

He seemed to have suddenly realized something, stood up in a panic and looked around.All those tragic and embarrassing scenes disappeared, and there was only a dark and dead space... He was standing in a cage.

Why is he in the cage?

...Why is he standing in the cage? !

President Yan stood in a daze for a few seconds, he suddenly realized something, almost frantically reached into his mind, and grabbed out a bunch of memories.

Those memories turned into pale sheets of paper, one after another images emerged from above as if developing, and fell down one after another.

The bondage chair became an iron bucket filled with wet sand, imprisoning...himself.

Across the table is himself.

It was himself who aimed the gun at him.

Driven by anger, his facial features were twisted ferociously, and he strode back and forth, yelling and furious at himself.

He pulled his hair and forced himself to look up, and he saw his long-dead face.

……

These chaotic and weird pictures completely dragged him into intense fear.

Unable to stand, he slipped and fell to the ground, his legs were weak, desperately shaking the hard and cold cast iron bars of the cage, screaming hysterically and recklessly, words that he couldn't hear clearly.

This is his dream cocoon, as the dream master, he can check anything.

He already knew that Ling Su used his lunch time to meet the taskers who sneaked in, and he also knew that Ling Su would definitely come to him to settle the account, and he had already prepared in advance-but what method did the other party use? !

When exactly did it go wrong, and why was he the one sitting in the bondage chair, being tortured and punished? !

"Person in the game... Oh, this is a professional term in game theory, referring to the players in a game."

Ouyang Huan's voice sounded in his mind: "The referee is not in the game."

"As long as the ending has nothing to do with his gains or losses, he is not considered a player in the game."

"In order to achieve their own goals and strive for a favorable outcome, the players in the game must formulate action plans to deal with their competitors."

"...in your field of psychology, doesn't that description sound a little underhanded?"

Ouyang Huan scratched his hair: "Game, it's a branch of mathematics. It doesn't matter whether it's mean or not, the purpose is just to maximize the benefits..."

……

"Why such a lame experiment?"

The phantom about Ling Su...that face and voice, finally became his own.

"It's lame because it can only be covered up so far."

"Because its real purpose is hidden."

"What are the psychological defense mechanisms? The worst students should memorize them."

"This is a means of self-protection in the subconscious world. As long as you use them well, no one will be able to hurt you."

"fantasies, compensations, idealizations, rationalizations, diversions, projections..."

"Okay... okay! I lied!"

President Yan yelled hysterically, he had already had enough of the countless voices echoing in his ears: "I admit, the experiment is fake——"

The deafening roar brought his consciousness back to reality in an instant.

……

He stood and had a dream.

...The bullets jingled and fell on the table.

Chairman Yan froze in place.

He still kept taking those bullets out of his white coat pocket and throwing them on the table.

As one of his psychological defenses completely collapsed, a building opposite also collapsed.

There was a ruined wall outside the window, and the smoke and dust filled the sky almost like a sandstorm, covering the entire window.

"You hypnotized me?" President Yan stared at Ling Su incredulously, "Impossible... I taught you your hypnotism, how could you have the ability to hypnotize me? Obviously—"

His voice stopped abruptly.

He was horrified to find that his body was also shattered at the same time—his forehead on the upper left was like smashed clay, and dust was falling, and a crack ran through half of his face, and several pieces were dry. Fragments fell to the ground.

Chairman Yan retreated a few steps in a panic.

He didn't want to stay in this ghostly place any longer, and he didn't want a scalpel anymore... This is a monster, and that terrible monster has been completely released.

President Yan threw down those materials, turned around and desperately wanted to escape, but found that the door had disappeared.

Opposite him is a wall.

……

"Don't worry, it's just a building."

Behind the desk, Ling Su leaned back in the restraint chair without sitting up.

He removed the empty magazine and threw it on the table: "Now, do you have anything to explain?"

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The author has something to say:

The definition of player in the game: excerpted from "Basics of Game Theory"