Surviving the Doomsday Apartment—With Infinite Clones!-Chapter 426: Welcome...

Surviving the Doomsday Apartment—With Infinite Clones!-Chapter 426: Welcome...

Lin Jing didn't answer for quite some time, for some reason.
Just as everyone was starting to suspect something had really happened to him, he finally spoke slowly in a hesitant voice:
"There might be some differences—"
"I heard the clicking sound, but the death knell you all discussed, I didn't hear it."
"And also… the clicking sound you heard was very faint?"
"The clicking sound I heard seemed to become my heartbeat, which deeply shocked me."
"My momentary daze just now was also caused by the shocking sensation from that clicking sound."
The others noted down Lin Jing's description, but for the moment, they didn't know what this difference truly signified.
Of course, there were plenty who suspected…
What Lin Jing said might not necessarily be the truth.
Perhaps he did have some different sensations, but that didn't mean he was truly revealing them.
However, Jiang Ye thought—
Lin Jing probably wasn't lying.
Because there was no need.
Lin Jing, currently trapped within the stone, was essentially without a physical body.
In this state, he had absolutely no capacity for action.
And the 75 people currently capable of action were essentially on the same boat as him.
Therefore, Lin Jing had absolutely no reason whatsoever to lie and mislead them.
Not to mention, there was still the threat of Jiang Ye's black cloth.
However, not lying didn't mean not withholding.
Jiang Ye had used the [Mask of Deceit] for lie detection, so he was acutely aware—
Deliberate concealment didn't count as lying.
So Lin Jing was telling the truth, but perhaps he was withholding something.
In reality, Jiang Ye's guess was indeed correct!
Lin Jing's "daze" before immediately answering the question wasn't solely due to the inexplicable shock caused by the clicking sound.
More importantly—
The moment the anomaly occurred, his vision changed.
Originally, his field of view was relatively dark, dominated by black with less white, opposite to the Forbidden Zone.
But as the clicking sound rang out…
He felt the small amount of white in his vision seemed affected by the sound waves, vibrating intensely.
The ripples formed by that vibration also felt similar to sound waves.
So, while Jiang Ye and the others outside were merely listening carefully to the clicking sound,
He also spared mental effort to observe the sound wave patterns.
Even more—
When his attention was highly focused on the clicking sound and the sound wave patterns…
He vaguely felt certain images rapidly flashing through his mind!
The flashes were too fast, making it difficult for him to discern those images clearly.
However, he could vaguely sense—
He had no impression of those images;
they felt completely unfamiliar.
Therefore, they probably weren't images from his own memory.
The color tones of those images were initially eerie and gloomy, faintly tinged with blood, as if ghostly scenes deliberately crafted for horror.
The images that flashed later had some faint light, allowing him to vaguely capture a bit of environmental background and figures…
Unfortunately, the images flashed too quickly.
And they undulated like the ripples of sound waves, making it truly difficult for him to grasp any details.
Add to that Lu Shen's sudden question, he ultimately gave his answer, withholding the matters of ripples appearing in his vision and images flashing through his mind.
And because his vision was focused on the sound wave ripples and his mind concentrated on the images in his head…
Lin Jing didn't notice—
Shortly after he answered the question.
After the second bell toll rang out.
Jiang Ye's hand reached towards that Next Life Stone again.
Of course, a bare finger couldn't touch it.
So Jiang Ye froze his finger again.
He actually just wanted to try again, to see if he could pry the stone loose in the current bell toll environment…
Only this time—
Prying at the perfectly fitted, seamless joint where it was embedded still had no effect.
However!
When the frozen tip of Jiang Ye's finger accidentally touched the center of the Next Life Stone…
His freezing effect was inexplicably dispelled!
Yes, not dispelled by him actively!
But rather, as if an invisible energy silently erased the freezing effect from his fingertip!
What was even more miraculous…
Even though the freezing effect was clearly dispelled—
Jiang Ye's fingertip touching the center of the Next Life Stone still had a tangible sensation!
This…
This wave of thawing caused a change in his yin realm person body!
Jiang Ye's clones in the Forbidden Zone previously, even when not in yin realm person state, weren't actually affected by the Forbidden Zone's annihilation effect.
But the consequences of multiple unauthorized experiments made him have ideas this time, yet also feel somewhat hesitant.
However, he didn't hesitate for long.
Roughly around the time the third bell toll rang.
Jiang Ye vaguely felt…
In the vision of this Zhou Qiming clone, whose body was a yin realm person but with one finger turned solid, something seemed to be flickering!
But he was absolutely certain—
His other pure yin realm person clones did not "see" this kind of flickering!
Therefore, not long after the third bell toll ended, Jiang Ye finally made a decision—
He found another clone, pressed its fingertip against the center of the Next Life Stone.
Then directly froze this entire clone!
Subsequently, still without him dispelling the freezing effect, the freezing effect on that clone began to melt away inch by inch along the fingertip…
And this entire clone completely transformed from a yin realm person state into a solid entity!
And immediately, Jiang Ye noticed—
The vision of this solid entity clone was indeed different from that of the yin realm person clones!
Accompanied by the clicking sound, the vision of this solid entity clone actually seemed to have sound wave ripples undulating!
Generally, the human naked eye shouldn't be able to see sound waves.
But this Forbidden Zone environment was special;
Jiang Ye's vision was like a snowy screen of black and white…
So against this black-and-white background, he could capture traces of the sound waves.
Jiang Ye immediately directed the solid entity clone's full mental focus onto those sound wave patterns!
And with such intense concentration, the solid entity clone's mind seemed to have images rapidly flashing through it!
Only, the images flashed too quickly, making it truly difficult to see anything.
He could only vaguely sense that the initial images had darker tones, which gradually warmed up later…
Jiang Ye performed this freezing and thawing effect in front of everyone.
However, no one noticed anything abnormal.
After all, in their eyes, the thawing effect might have been actively completed by Jiang Ye himself.
And distinguishing between solid people and yin realm people by the naked eye alone was difficult.
Unless through touch…
But the problem was—
Solid people and yin realm people couldn't touch each other either!
Only solid and solid could achieve touch effects!
Otherwise, as long as one party was a yin realm entity, touch was impossible!
Everyone present were yin realm people;
they couldn't touch solid entities, so naturally they couldn't detect the change.
Jiang Ye's solid entity clone quickly retreated to a corner.
He did consider whether he should also perform a yin realm person to solid person conversion on Zhao Dongliu?
To have this guy also help study those flashback images in their minds?
But ultimately, he abandoned this idea.
After all, Jiang Ye's solid entity clone surviving in the Forbidden Zone was a special circumstance.
If others truly turned solid, they would most likely be annihilated by the Forbidden Zone over time, like Xiao Bai, Xu Gou, and the others before…
And they hadn't mutated, so their annihilation speed would only be much faster than Xu Gou and the others!
So, Jiang Ye better not harm them.
However, because the images in his mind were truly bizarre and difficult to capture,
Jiang Ye eventually arranged for 11 more clones to go over, undergo freezing and thawing, and successively transform into solid entities.
Meaning—
Among his 25 clones here, aside from the Zhou Qiming clone holding authority, the remaining 24 clones were split evenly into two groups.
12 of them were yin realm person clones;
The other 12 were solid person clones.
The yin realm person clones focused on listening to the bell tolls.
The solid person clones focused on capturing the images.
The bell tolls were something everyone could hear;
Jiang Ye devoted more energy to the flashback images in his mind.
He discovered another very strange phenomenon—
His 12 clones, despite capturing the flashback images at different times,
The images they saw all started dark and then warmed up.
It was as if they were watching a movie, but they weren't entering the theater at different times and missing a certain portion of the beginning.
Rather, they entered at different times, yet all started watching from the very beginning of the movie…
This was strange, but it could also be understood as—
They weren't watching the same movie on the same machine.
But each used a different phone, each starting the same movie from the beginning.
Understood this way…
If the movie hadn't ended when they "left the theater,"
Then the movie ending each person saw should be different.
Those who started earlier should see more content.
Those who joined last should see the least content.
But in reality, that wasn't the case!
Jiang Ye was observing with full concentration, yet the result…
Roughly around the time the 10th bell toll rang.
He discovered that the images seen by the 12 solid entity clones synchronized!
It was just bizarre!
They were watching flashback images at different times!
Yet as they watched, the flashback images they saw actually synchronized!
This couldn't be explained by "perceptual confusion" anymore!
But rather, the time for these different individuals had indeed developed a problem!
Jiang Ye couldn't determine exactly what the problem was.
But accompanying the 10th bell toll and the synchronization of the flashback images…
He realized—
When the 11th bell toll arrived, perhaps something would happen!
The other players probably had similar premonitions.
Because even those who hadn't played games before, pure Newbies like Gao Chang and others, clearly remembered—
When they first entered the Novice Apartment, the prompt indicated—
The Novice Apartment had an 11-day time limit!
So perhaps this bell tolling would also terminate on the 11th?
Thinking this, the players who had been discussing gradually quieted down.
Their expressions were tense, expectant, grave…
And in this tense and oppressive atmosphere, Jiang Ye suddenly had a very inexplicable thought—
The first bell toll rang once.
But before the first bell toll, there was nearly 2 minutes of clicking sound…
Could he interpret it as—
Before the clicking sound started, there was a 0th bell toll that rang 0 times?
Of course, he was actually trying to think from another angle—
Was there a Day 0 before Day 1 of the apartment?
If not…
Then the clicking sound before the first bell toll should count as Day 1?
If there was a concept of Day 0…
Then the clicking sound before the first bell toll should count as Day 0.
Following these two angles, two different schemes for calculating days actually formed.
While pondering this, Jiang Ye couldn't help but wonder…
Would they still hear the 11th bell toll?
Indeed, they did not hear it!
Whether due to extreme psychological tension or some method again confusing their perception,
After the 10th bell toll, before the 11th bell toll, the click-clack sounds they heard seemed to grow increasingly rapid…
And this increasingly rapid sound seemed to drive their heartbeats!
As their heartbeats grew faster and faster, everyone sensed something abnormal!
It was as if their heartbeats had jumped out of their bodies!
Before Jiang Ye's [Observer] clone formed, he had also experienced an extremely abnormal heartbeat once.
He clearly knew that an accelerated heartbeat required the body to supply more energy.
But here, they were all ordinary people;
they had no way to empower themselves…
Thus, when the heartbeat reached its limit,
Everyone seemed to explode and die!
Of course, only "seemed."
In reality, their consciousness merely blanked out for an instant.
That instant felt like touching death…
But soon, as if resurrected from death,
Everything around them changed!
Simultaneously, a familiar prompt sounded in everyone's mind—
[Welcome… to the Doomsday Prison!]
[Prison players bear different "crimes" and will be executed within stipulated times.]
[Prison players can obtain different effects such as 「Pardon」, 「Additional Punishment」, 「Sentence Reduction」, 「Probation」, 「Immediate Execution」 based on their own "performance."]
[Pardon: The prison player is pardoned of their crime, gains freedom, and can move freely.]
[Additional Punishment: The prison player's crime is aggravated, with reduced permissions or shortened execution time.]
[Sentence Reduction: The prison player is forgiven, gaining partial permission enhancement.]
[Probation: The prison player is forgiven, with their execution time extended.]
[Immediate Execution: The prison player is heinously guilty and is executed on the spot immediately!]
[Prison law enforcers are taking action…]
[Prison player talent awakening in progress…]
[Ding! Law enforcers are in position!]
[Ding! Talent awakening completed!]
[For individual prison players, 「Exile Fruit」 distribution in progress…]
[Ding! Exile Fruit distribution completed!]
[Exile Fruit: Upon consumption, additionally awakens Glyph Pattern Ability!]
[We wish all prison players an early ascent to paradise!]
Early ascent to paradise?
Hah!
Jiang Ye looked at the spherical object suddenly appearing in his palm, resembling a three-dimensional version of a Taiji diagram, thinking this should be the "Exile Fruit" mentioned in the system prompt?
The prompt said [Exile Fruit] was distributed to individual prison players…
Meaning this thing wasn't available to everyone?
Coincidentally, he had one.
Jiang Ye certainly wasn't in a hurry to eat this thing.
His gaze surveyed the prison he was in, and he couldn't help but fall into deep thought.
Because this so-called "prison"…
Was exactly identical to the [Prison] environment from the second stage of his personal exclusive instance!
An empty room, only an electronic screen.
It recorded his crime—
[Prisoner Number: 414]
[Convict: Zhou Qiming]
[Crime: Intentional Homicide]
[Sentence: Death Sentence with Reprieve (Countdown 46 minutes)]

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Chapter 426: Welcome...