Chapter 112: Unreplicable Memories

“Exactly, ten people.”

Yun Yao and Chu Tianqiu both fell silent for a moment.

Chu Tianqiu suddenly looked up and asked, “Since your room was ‘ten people,’ how did you deduce that ours was ‘nine people’?”

“Because when the nine of us walked out of the room, ‘Ren Long’ actually said that everyone in our room had ‘survived intact,'” Qi Xia sneered. “How strange. If it were truly ‘everyone,’ shouldn’t there have been ten of us walking out?”

Chu Tianqiu nodded silently. Qi Xia’s intelligence was just as he had imagined.

“But ‘nine people’ makes sense in some ways, considering all the escape mechanisms in the room were designed for ‘nine people,'” Qi Xia continued.

“There were nine table boards and nine ropes in our room. If there really were ‘ten people,’ the resources would have been impossible to distribute fairly.”

“In other words, our game was originally designed for nine people. As long as nine walked out, it was considered ‘everyone survived,'” Qi Xia said gravely, glancing out the window before asking in a low voice, “If that’s the case, why were there ten people in the room?”

Seeing that neither of them answered, Qi Xia pressed on, “So I boldly concluded that there was an extra person in our room. This person either activated some special ability or simply and brutally bribed ‘Ren Yang’ to kill the real ‘participant’ in our room—just to preserve their own identity.”

Chu Tianqiu blinked and asked, “You deduced such an accurate answer from just these small clues?”

“I wouldn’t call it ‘accurate,’ because before meeting you, I wasn’t even sure if the other person was male or female,” Qi Xia replied. “Now it’s my turn to ask you something.”

“Go ahead,” Chu Tianqiu nodded. “What do you want to know?”

“Why did you know the exact number of people in our room?” Qi Xia asked. “Even we, the participants, didn’t know. How did you find out?”

Chu Tianqiu slowly licked his dry lips and said, “I can’t answer that. It’s practically one of ‘Tian Tang Kou’s’ core secrets.”

Qi Xia turned his head, giving Chu Tianqiu another suspicious look.

Wasn’t the core secret of ‘Tian Tang Kou’ that notebook?

Did that mean this was recorded in the notebook?

“Then let me ask another question,” Qi Xia said. “What’s the principle behind ‘preserving memories’? Why can only a few people retain them?”

“You should have guessed it by now,” Chu Tianqiu replied. “Qi Xia, the answer is ‘Echo.’ Anyone who hears the ‘Echo’ within ten days can retain their memories in the next cycle.”

“You’re saying only ‘Echoers’ can retain memories?” Qi Xia had considered this possibility before, but it still left him puzzled. Han Yimo and Officer Li were indeed ‘Echoers,’ so their memory retention made sense.

But why did he remember everything too?

Had he ‘Echoed’ as well?

Qi Xia pondered for a long time before concluding there was only one answer. If he really was an ‘Echoer,’ his ‘Echo’ must have occurred shortly before his death—since he had been far from the square and theoretically shouldn’t have heard the bell.

But if he truly had ‘Echoed,’ what ability had he gained?

Yun Yao smiled faintly. “Qi Xia… judging by your expression, you don’t seem to know whether you ‘Echoed’ or not?”

Her words exposed Qi Xia’s dilemma, earning his newfound respect.

It seemed those who could join ‘Tian Tang Kou’ were no ordinary individuals.

“I genuinely don’t recall,” Qi Xia admitted honestly. “I was far from the giant bell at the time. It’s possible I missed it.”

“‘Far’?” Yun Yao mused. “There are giant bells in all four corners of the city—north, south, east, and west. You shouldn’t have missed them.”

Qi Xia frowned. So that was it.

There wasn’t just one giant bell—there were four.

But all four were within the city. Had he failed to hear the bell because he had reached the city’s edge?

“Qi Xia, if it’s truly as you say—that you don’t even know when you ‘Echoed’—then things become quite tricky,” Chu Tianqiu said gravely.

“Tricky?”

“Yes,” Chu Tianqiu nodded. “If you don’t know why you ‘Echoed’ in the previous cycle, you can’t replicate it in this one. In other words, you can’t reliably trigger your ‘Echo,’ which means you can’t reliably retain your memories.”

Qi Xia stroked his chin thoughtfully before saying, “No wonder, when I was about to smash your skull earlier, you said, ‘I can’t die yet.’ It was because you hadn’t had the chance to ‘Echo.’ If you died now, all your previous memories would be lost.”

“Correct,” Chu Tianqiu nodded. “Trivial details like that naturally wouldn’t escape you. But I still advise you to figure out the reason for your ‘Echo’ as soon as possible. Otherwise, you’ll lose yourself here.”

The two locked eyes for a moment before Qi Xia asked another question: “Suppose… someone briefly ‘Echoed’ while on the verge of death in the last cycle. To replicate it this time, would they also need to be brought to the brink of death?”

“Theoretically, yes,” Chu Tianqiu answered.

Qi Xia’s mind flashed to Officer Li’s face.

There seemed to be a paradox here.

If Officer Li’s ‘Echo’ trigger was ‘near-death,’ then logically, he should never lose his memories.

Whether he died in a game, in the annihilation, or at the hands of a ‘Zodiac’ or ‘Manager,’ he should retain his memories. Yet, from what Qi Xia could tell, Officer Li had only retained his memories once.

This indirectly suggested one possibility:

Qi Xia, Officer Li, and the others might have arrived at the End very late.

They had only experienced two cycles.

“No, wait a minute…”

Qi Xia carefully interrupted his own train of thought.

What if, in the previous cycle, Officer Li had already retained his memories but obeyed Ren Yang’s instructions to conceal them? Was that possible?

Yes—and the likelihood wasn’t small.

This would also explain why Officer Li hadn’t joined Qi Xia’s team at first, choosing instead to stay behind.

Because he knew collecting 3,600 ‘Dao’ wasn’t something that needed to be rushed.

Yet, in the end, he had died saving someone…

This was the paradox Qi Xia had mentioned.

If Officer Li truly had retained his memories, he should have known that even if Lawyer Zhang drowned, it wouldn’t matter—she would revive in a few days. So why would he choose such a painful way to sacrifice himself?

Which led to another question:

How many times had Han Yimo retained his memories?

He was also someone prone to ‘Echoing.’ In theory, as long as he arrived at the ‘End,’ there was a high probability he would retain his memories…

Qi Xia was beginning to realize just how unsettling the situation was.

How long had he really been here?