The siblings continued from where they stopped and told Lin Sanjiu about their experiences. With everyone's narratives, they were getting closer to the truth.
AN IMPORTANT TURNING POINT WAS WHEN I FLEW UPSTAIRS AND FOUND RENA.
Lin Sanjiu found that it was too slow for her to write on her skull and instead chose to write on the dusty marble floor of the train station.
BEFORE THAT, THE BUILDING DID NOT EVEN CARE TO RECOGNIZE MY EXISTENCE. THIS WAS WHY I WAS UNPREPARED WHEN I FOUND TWO PAIRS OF SIBLINGS IN THE BUILDING WHOSE IDENTITIES I COULDN'T ASCERTAIN.
IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT, IF I WEREN'T AROUND, YOU MIGHT NOT EVEN HAVE REALIZED THAT THE PERSON BESIDE EACH OF YOU WAS A SPIRIT. YOU PROBABLY DIDN'T KNOW THAT THERE WAS ANOTHER YOU IN THE BUILDING, RIGHT?
Seeing Reno and Rena nodding, Lin Sanjiu continued writing: FOR THE BUILDING, THE BEST SCENARIO IS THAT NEITHER OF YOU EVER FINDS OUT THAT THE PERSON BESIDE YOU IS AN IMPERSONATOR. THE ROOMS CAN MOVE AROUND LIKE TOY BLOCKS, SO YOU WOULD NEVER MEET EACH OTHER. IF YOU WERE KILLED BY THE DUOLUOZHONG BESIDE YOU WITHOUT KNOWING ANYTHING, THAT WOULD BE SIMPLE.
However, the siblings had Lin Sanjiu with them for better or worse.
After a few encounters with those duoluozhongs, Lin Sanjiu could more or less tell what her Higher Consciousness form meant to them. She was like a floating piece of cotton wadding. A normal person wouldn't chase after it just to smack it to the ground. No matter what the duoluozhongs were planning, they certainly didn't calculate her existence into their plans.
When that cotton wadding has self-awareness and some abilities, it becomes an unexpected bug in a well-programmed process. When Lin Sanjiu discovered the fake siblings' plan, the building finally realized its mistake.
I WOULD SAY THAT THIS BUILDING IS CRAFTY BECAUSE IT GUESSED CORRECTLY WHAT I WANTED TO DO NEXT AND QUICKLY MADE PREPARATIONS.
When those words appeared, the siblings, who had been matching their experiences with Lin Sanjiu, understood what she meant immediately.
"At this point, the building planned for me and Rena to meet," Reno added with conviction.
When Lin Sanjiu brought Rena down one floor to look at the additional pair of siblings, the building moved away from that apartment unit. When Lin Sanjiu and Rena were at a loss, the real Reno appeared. Since that 'prank,' this was the first time the siblings reunited.
"Damn, it's smart," Reno said as he clicked his tongue. "Anyway, when someone finds out that there is an imposter around, his or her first thought would be to verify if that person is who they truly claim to be. And when that happens, the building would replace the imposter with the real person."
Lin Sanjiu agreed somewhat helplessly with a slight nod. The plan to verify their identities by their abilities was logically sound. However, they were playing into its trap once the building was prepared for this."
THE BUILDING USED THE RESULT OF OUR VERIFICATION TO FOOL US. AFTER BOTH OF YOU HAD DISPLAYED YOUR ABILITIES TO PROVE YOUR IDENTITIES, RENO AND I WENT TO ANOTHER APARTMENT UNIT ACROSS THE CORRIDOR FROM WHERE RENA WAS. AT THAT TIME, I DID NOT KNOW THAT THE APARTMENT UNITS WERE BEING MOVED AROUND. I ONLY KNEW THAT RENO WAS ON MY RIGHT, RENA WAS ON MY LEFT, AND THAT BOTH OF YOU WERE REAL. THAT WAS UNTIL THE FAKE RENO INFORMED ME THAT HE SUSPECTED THE REAL RENA WASN'T HIS SISTER. I WAS STUNNED THEN.
Lin Sanjiu sighed, feeling a little scared when she remembered that situation.
OF ALL THINGS, HIS ANALYSIS OF RENA'S ABILITIES DID MAKE SENSE. THE DUOLUOZHONGS WHO WERE IMPERSONATING YOU KNEW EVERYTHING THAT HAD HAPPENED EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE NOT AROUND. FROM THIS, WE CAN INFER THAT THE BUILDING HAD CONSTANTLY MONITORED OUR EVERY MOVEMENT SINCE THE BEGINNING.
The siblings exchanged glances and clearly showed the lingering fears from their experience.
After the fake Reno convinced Lin Sanjiu, she went to look for the real Rena. She found the real Reno playing cards with the fake Rena on another floor. One could imagine her shock when she made that discovery.
When the real Reno sensed something was wrong with the 'sister' beside him, fake Rena started to cajole Lin Sanjiu into believing her. Perhaps the duoluozhong could not launch a direct attack, so she wanted Lin Sanjiu to work with her to attack Reno. Lin Sanjiu was convinced that the real Reno in front of her was an imposter, so she wasted no time agreeing to that course of action.
"Yes, I took a hit from you. I was already shocked by that sudden attack in the dark. Then, that duoluozhong pressed a creepy, cold item on me. I am sure that sped up the corrosion process," Reno ranted, showing his sister the green impression on his skin. "Why did you suddenly switch to attacking the duoluozhong instead?"
If Lin Sanjiu hadn't noticed and reacted in time, Reno would have died there and then after a few attacks. She couldn't help feeling a retrospective fear when she remembered the events.
IT'S LARGELY DUE TO LUCK. WHEN YOU CAME OUT OF THE BATHROOM AND SAW THAT NO ONE WAS AROUND, YOU SAID: GOSH. DID THEY DISAPPEAR AGAIN?
Lin Sanjiu realized that something was wrong when she heard that sentence. At that time, she had the impression the Reno she met incidentally in the corridor (who was looking for hers and Rena) and the Reno with the mark on his wrist were the same person as the real Reno. In other words, only the real Reno found Lin Sanjiu and Rena missing twice. The fake Reno did not meet such a situation and did not need to mutter this to himself when no one was around.
Suppose that was the tipping point that made Lin Sanjiu reconsider her suspicions. She was finally convinced when she saw Reno shivering with chattering teeth as if he was cold. As expected, that fake Rena could no longer maintain its form after being attacked. It escaped in a hurry.
HOWEVER, AFTER I RUSHED INTO THE CORRIDOR AND LOST SIGHT OF THE FAKE RENA, I DIDN'T RETURN TO THE SAME ROOM. THE ROOM WITH THE FAKE RENO HAD TAKEN ITS PLACE.
Due to this ingenious combination of factors, Lin Sanjiu started believing that the fake Reno was real. When both of them went upstairs, they found the real Rena successfully. This was because the fake Reno had to be by the real Rena. Moreover, the cotton wadding called Lin Sanjiu was deceived at that point and would no longer pose as a troublesome pest.
When Lin Sanjiu explained this part, the dusty floor was already covered by many lines of words. Without any space left, Lin Sanjiu had to write on her skull again. After resting for such a long time and writing so much, she regained her first vertebrae. After Lin Sanjiu had polished and strengthened her Higher Consciousness, she could use it longer, and its recovery speed was much quicker. After reading the extensive prose on the floor, Reno crooked his head, and his face turned bitter.
"Wait. You say you went upstairs with the fake Reno, but I saw you on another floor."
Lin Sanjiu floated silently before the words on her skull confirmed his suspicion, "That was not me. I guess that the fake Rena, who was nearly killed, couldn't recover its original form in a short time. So, it must have chosen to impersonate me due to my smaller size."
Rena was stunned as she read what Lin Sanjiu wrote. Based on Lin Sanjiu's description, three narratives were progressing simultaneously. Now and then, they would influence each other. Rena never even thought that it would be so complicated.
Lin Sanjiu was just inwardly thankful that they were very lucky. Without using her [Consciousness Mimicry], she wouldn't have discovered who the real Reno was if she had not used her Diary Card.
However, when she finished reading her Diary Card, the building sensed that she had discovered something, so it moved the fake Reno from his original floor to the 26th floor. This was probably to confuse Lin Sanjiu so she would lose her target.
At the same time, the fake Lin Sanjiu and the real Reno decided to go to the 26th floor to find Rena.
"Why did the building lead me to Rena? There was already a duoluozhong by my side," Reno said, unable to understand the logic behind that decision. On the other, Lin Sanjiu quickly figured that out. The biggest difference between Lin Sanjiu and the siblings was that she was just a Higher Consciousness being. This probably made it very hard for the duoluozhong to imitate.
When the duoluozhong impersonated Reno, it was only necessary to maintain Reno's appearance. When it impersonated Rena, it didn't have to stretch its body up to two meters now and then. Meanwhile, Lin Sanjiu, who could morph herself into many shapes and even form words in midair, wasn't that easy to imitate convincingly.
Reno didn't even need to do much. If he tried communicating with the fake Lin Sanjiu, the duoluozhong would probably slip up.
As for the events on the 26th floor, Rena explained, "At that time, I followed the fake Reno up to the 26th floor. We were supposed to take a corridor each. According to him, we not only had to look for Lin Sanjiu, but we also had an obligation to search every inch for the duoluozhong that was creating all sorts of trouble there, as the 26th floor was the most suspicious. Don't you think that made sense? I agreed, and when I checked one of the apartment units, both of you entered the door without any warning."
Things became interesting after that. The two teenagers, who had each been accompanied by a duoluozhong for the past few hours without even a shred of suspicion, became paranoid after their experiences. When the real siblings reunited, they grew suspicious of each other.
As they were both guarded, none of them could suddenly take any action. The siblings started grilling each other about their past experiences. However, after many journeys together over many years, they each have their angle and perspective on a similar event. So, their memories of the same event could be different. Furthermore, they weren't on good terms and were always quarreling.
Under such circumstances, even when the other party could answer the questions, they would wonder why that person didn't know it. When the other party cannot answer, it would create a confirmatory bias to prove that the person wasn't their sibling.
When they were on the 26th floor, Rena was again badly deceived.
"According to Lin Sanjiu's theory, the building shifts the apartment units around like toy blocks. When my brother entered the bathroom, the building shifted the bathroom away. The fake Reno replaced him. So, the person that walked out wasn't even my brother," Rena concluded and turned to pat Reno's shoulder, "You might not know this, but I was scared witless! I could see your back when I peeped at you, yet your face looked back at me."
"At that time, it didn't feel like I was being shifted," Reno said puzzledly. "When I came out of the bathroom, I saw Rena but didn't see Lin Sanjiu."
"From what you say, that duoluozhong recovered? It transformed into me again," Rena said. "Then, why didn't the building keep things this way? Why did it let my brother return?"
Lin Sanjiu felt she had written all the words she could write her entire life. She slowly scribbled: BECAUSE THAT WOULD HELP IT REACH ITS GOAL QUICKER. THE BUILDING COULDN'T PREDICT IF I WOULD FLY HERE AND THERE AGAIN. I DID FLY AROUND THE ENTIRE BUILDING ONCE. I THINK IT CHANGED ITS STRATEGY TO PREVENT ME FROM SPOILING ITS PLANS. IT WANTED TO MAKE BOTH OF YOU SUSPECT AND ATTACK EACH OTHER.
Its strategy nearly worked. Rena immediately looked at her brother apologetically, but before he realized that, she hastily turned her eyes away.
"At that point, how did you know we were both ourselves?" Rena asked, tilting her head to look at Lin Sanjiu. The way she crooked her head resembled what Reno had done previously; it was quite obvious that they were blood-related.
HE SAID TO ME, THAT'S RIGHT, LIN SANJIU, WHY HAVE YOU BEEN RUNNING AROUND THESE TWO DAYS? I HADN'T BEEN RUNNING AROUND THOSE TWO DAYS BECAUSE YOU WERE WATCHING ME CLOSELY. I WAS IN THE APARTMENT ALL THIS TIME. THAT WOULD ONLY MEAN THAT THE RENO WHO SAID THIS HAD BEEN IN AN ENVIRONMENT I WASN'T AROUND. BY THEN, I ALREADY HAD A VAGUE THEORY ABOUT THE TOY BLOCKS. WHEN I HEARD WHAT HE SAID, I KNEW SOMETHING WAS WRONG. HE MUST HAVE BEEN SHIFTED TO ANOTHER SPACE PREVIOUSLY! IF THAT WAS TRUE, HE MUST BE THE REAL RENO.
Lin Sanjiu didn't have to mention their escape. Both siblings clicked their tongues, lamenting. Reno even praised Lin Sanjiu, "Who would have known that you're this smart."
Hearing this, Lin Sanjiu couldn't help feeling slightly pleased with herself. This time, she didn't rely on Nüwa's wisdom to solve this difficult problem. This gave Lin Sanjiu a feeling that she was heading closer toward some sort of high benchmark.
"Ah. A B-level world is indeed dangerous," Reno let out a long sigh. He lay supine on the ground just outside the train station. "I feel a little like giving up on the training. I just want to find a place to quickly pass our remaining time here."
Reno followed her brother and also lay on the ground. She laughed and said, "Coward!"
When Reno and Lin Sanjiu suddenly became silent, Rena laughed. "Did I scare you guys? Are you stupid? You guys should be worried if I didn't learn that word after reading what Lin Sanjiu wrote!"
While the siblings burst out into bouts of laughter, Lin Sanjiu felt a great sense of relief. Lin Sanjiu followed the siblings, stretched, and lowered herself. Before they knew it, a thread of blue peeked through the thick gray clouds that hung above them.