Clown Game
Chapter 168 - 168 158 Numbers Complete_2

Chapter 168: Chapter 158 Numbers Complete_2 Chapter 168: Chapter 158 Numbers Complete_2 After he finished speaking, he curled his lips slightly, signaling the other person to look in that direction.

Dr. Zhang followed the gaze, and within his line of sight, the door of a hospital room slowly emerged, becoming clearer and clearer, and on the door, crisscrossed iron chains wrapped and intertwined, converging on a large combination lock.

“What is this?” Dr. Zhang asked calmly, feeling at this point that he could accept any bizarre scene.

“This is the lock deep within your heart—you are the only one who can open it now,” the man beside him replied quietly.

After Dr. Zhang heard this, he steadied himself and then hesitated for a few seconds before exhaling deeply.

It seemed to relax him a great deal.

This breath was mixed with the deepest fears and deceptions of his heart, suppressed in his throat for over a decade.

He walked towards that door… and came before the massive lock. On the front of the lock was a three-digit combination.

Dr. Zhang looked at the combination lock, then looked down at his hospital gown, pausing momentarily on the “202” inscribed over his chest.

Then, he extended his hand and turned the dial to 202.

This was his patient number.

He had remembered, acknowledged, and naturally understood why he had turned into a mental patient…

This number on his hospital gown was the lock deep within his heart, as well as the beginning of another path in his life…

And at the end of this lock, was his story.

…

With a “click”.

The lock opened, and the chains fell away like ancient cobwebs.

The door… also opened…

…

…

…

Chen Xiao opened his eyes.

The first thing that struck his sight was that wall, the unevenly stacked, moss-ridden red bricks with a rotten wood smell flooding his nostrils, causing him to wrinkle his nose involuntarily.

He realized that he had awakened, escaped the dream within a dream within a dream within a dream…

He followed Dr. Zhang’s consciousness, which had lured him time and again to solve the puzzle in the dream, navigating through layers of shackles,

still feeling that surreal sense of daze—but as he had experienced it so many times, he had grown accustomed to it.

Next, he turned his head to look at his right side. There sat a person, clad in a hospital gown, the patient number on his chest clearly visible to Chen Xiao.

“Patient No. 202″… also known in the dream as “Dr. Zhang.”

At this moment, he still had his eyes closed, as if asleep.

Chen Xiao looked down again, knowing that he must still be sitting in that oddly designed chair… although he did not yet know its working principle, he knew that this chair was the link between the gaps in the dream.

…

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…

In fact, the mental hospital in city xx had been around for some time, having been one of the first mental hospitals established at the turn of the last century.

After more than a century of changing eras, this mental hospital had undergone countless major and minor renovations, and what presented before us now was its current appearance, its original form long forgotten in the corners of history.

A few days ago, a water pipe in one of the hospital’s male toilets suddenly burst. Although the hospital quickly arranged for emergency repairs, due to various reasons like the location and water pressure, the toilet floor collapsed.

This minor incident revealed a room that had been sealed off for over a century, once again visible to the public.

And inside this room were housed… those two oddly designed chairs.

From this point, those seated here need not wonder, these two chairs were pointed out as the “anomalous items” for this mission.

And our diligent and capable Xiaoxiao, after swaying into this mental hospital, took less than 20 minutes to confirm these two chairs as the target of this mission, with 15 of those minutes spent on the road.

Now, at this moment, these suddenly collapsed large holes, this room buried for a hundred years, and two oddly shaped chairs; even a fool could tell there was something off about the chairs!

Actually, if it were other field agents carrying out this task, it would be a matter of simply calling a few people to haul them away, even though the mission report might look a bit ugly, but at least it would carry no danger.

But Chen Xiao, this guy was different; adhering to a policy of “no post without mischief”… ah no, that’s wrong, holding a diligent and cautious work attitude, he decided to personally test these two chairs and find out just what this “anomaly” was all about.

So, armed with a high-level identification issued by the Foundation, he insisted that the hospital find a patient and sit with him on these two chairs.

Actually, the hospital staff did not understand why this odd-looking man had such strange demands, but since he had requested it, they had no choice but to comply given the frighteningly high authority of that identification, simply cooperating a bit by sitting on the chairs was not too much to ask.

And the unlucky person chosen was “Dr. Zhang.”

Next, after both individuals sat down on the chairs, Chen Xiao entered the other’s consciousness world… and you all know what happened after that.

As for why it was Chen Xiao who entered “Dr. Zhang’s” consciousness world and not the other way around, Chen Xiao hadn’t quite figured that out yet. He guessed it had something to do with the seating of the chairs, perhaps one was the output and the other the input, similar to the synaptic connections in the nervous system.

Also, why every dream incorporated a sequence of numbers as its key points might be due to the still immature technology of “mental intervention.” It could only use the most basic numbers to connect each other, unlike Chinese characters, certain objects, or even a whole sequence of events—the technology at that time wasn’t up to performing such tasks.

However, all things considered, the “anomalous properties” of these two chairs had been deciphered by Chen Xiao.

And in the process, he inadvertently resolved a mental patient’s decade-long mental block.

“Wow…”

A shout came from beside him.

Without even thinking, Chen Xiao knew it must have been “Patient 202” who had awakened.

So, he turned his head in that direction.

The other person also looked around bewilderedly before turning to look at him.

He shook his head slightly to clear it a bit, then surveyed Chen Xiao up and down with hesitation…

“Is this… real?”

He asked blankly.

Chen Xiao shifted his gaze away from him, bent down to unstrap his waist belt, and stood up.

“Real? Haha, I didn’t expect someone with your experiences to still care about what’s real,” Chen Xiao replied, twisting his somewhat stiff neck.

“Patient 202” was silent. He looked down, not knowing where to gaze, and after a long time, he slowly raised his head… looking at Chen Xiao with a meaningful smile: “Yeah, whether it’s real or not, what does it matter?”

Chen Xiao shrugged, indicating he wasn’t interested in discussing such topics. He had roughly figured out the function of these two chairs, and the man who was still sitting on one of the chairs was merely a tool for his mission. Thus, Chen Xiao went behind the chair and pulled out a sheet of paper from the small compartment that somehow printed key numbers from the dreamscape onto paper.

He glanced at the numbers on the paper.

“202”

He nodded in satisfaction.

And then… he tore it into pieces.

Next, he moved to the other chair.

He reached out his hand to grab the paper behind this chair.

Suddenly, his hand stopped…

“Is this… real?”

The question from “Patient 202” once again appeared in his mind.

Chen Xiao hesitated a moment

…

…

However, for him, that already felt like quite a long hesitation.

About one minute passed

He laughed joyously, clearly having thought of something.

“What if… these two chairs are not just for letting one person enter another’s dream? What if they do something more complicated?”

He muttered to himself.

Then, he slowly withdrew his hand that was reaching for the paper.

He suddenly didn’t want to look at the numbers on that paper any longer.

Logically speaking, they should read “202.”

But maybe not.

But what does it matter?

Real… or illusion.

Does it need to be so clearly defined?

The most important thing

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…

is to keep it interesting!

(Did you all understand? Hehehe. A nod to Inception… Of course, I still can’t quite capture that feel of the movie, so I’ll keep trying. I think I have a lot of room for improvement.)