Chapter 56: Sleeping All the Way to Neighbor Grandpa’s House…

When the little brother turned his gaze to the book on the ground, Su Ximu knew that his brothers had really gone to class today, and the teachers at this school really taught them the content from that book.

This was too terrifying.

Su Ximu had always been a child with sharp intuition and observation skills that surpassed those of his peers.

He couldn’t explain why it was so terrifying, but he couldn’t help feeling afraid.

It was even more frightening than his first day here, more frightening than the first time he saw his brothers’ injured arms.

If a normal-thinking adult who occasionally pondered philosophy came here, he would understand the source of this chilling sensation that also provoked uncontrollable anger.

In this world, there were pairs of tangible hands that first turned their compatriots into animals, and then tried to turn them into monsters.

They confined bodies and did not spare souls.

They were the materials, the foundation, and the consumables of this city.

They were humanoid meat.

They were existences lower than livestock.

Because no one would think to grant intelligence opening to livestock.

Meanwhile, the higher meat citizens, in their brief lives, gained even briefer thoughts and shallow wisdom through passive intelligence opening.

They lived in the Truman World created by the Education Field, believing it was happiness, believing it was paradise and everything.

Then, they were used up completely, carrying a determination to protect.

Like mayflies, born in the morning and dead by dusk.

They would never see the real world.

Unless an “if” appeared in the midst.

To prevent his brothers from being led astray by the bad book and bad people, Su Ximu decided to reinforce their impression of beating the book.

They had to beat it again today!

Not only today—tomorrow too, and the day after.

He would turn this into a good habit before bedtime, persisting with it forever.

Ten minutes later, the tired little one sat on the ground to rest by himself. Once he stopped, the three brothers stopped too, regardless of whether they were tired, and sat down together.

It was unknown if the Education Field had considered that the new arrivals lacked control over their strength, but the textbooks were made very sturdy, with hard covers.

After being beaten from yesterday until today, the few small books only had a bit more dust on their covers and still looked almost new.

243 imitated his little brother and, before lights out, threw the books back into the corner.

He could pick them up again tomorrow when it was time to beat them.

The Education Field had uniform lights-out managed centrally. After lights out, the entire Education Field turned pitch black, with no other sounds.

After throwing the books, 243 groped his way in the dark to his own spot and lay down.

Su Ximu had already settled into his special bed, half his small body embedded in the wall. With a brother’s body blocking the view, he was completely invisible from outside.

242 didn’t find it strange that his little brother’s body was half outside and half in the wall—it still looked weird—and coaxed him to sleep just like before.

In this quiet, the little one lying by the wall blinked his eyes and unconsciously bit his finger, his tone hesitant. “Brothers, big brother, little brother, maybe… maybe a lot of people in this world are like this.”

“But even if everyone’s like this, it’s still wrong.”

He grew more certain as he spoke. “Good is good, bad is bad. Brothers can’t be fooled by bad things and think they’re good~”

Just like how Grandma was good to him—that was good.

If someone did the opposite of what Grandma did, that was bad.

Sometimes good and bad were hard to distinguish, but other times they were easy—even a little kid could tell them apart.

Because he had seen it and knew what true goodness looked like.

This was the most philosophical thing a kindergarten-credentialed kid could come up with.

What responded to him was a brief chaos in big brother’s eyes, mixed with clarity and confusion.

It was the brother’s continued patting motion.

It was little brother’s loud “Mm!” even though he didn’t fully understand.

In the room next door to the four’s new home, the old man who also habitually slept by the wall opened his eyes. After hesitating for a moment, he pressed his ear to the wall.

After a while, he sat up for the second time and began clawing at the smooth, hard wall with his hands.

The result was naturally nothing.

The old man lay back down and closed his eyes.

But voices still came from beside his ear!

The old man opened his eyes again.

After another ten or twenty minutes, the voices from the wall finally stopped.

But then came the same breathing sounds as yesterday!

It was as if a little person he couldn’t see was hiding inside the wall. The old man couldn’t help sitting up once more and began scratching at the wall again.

He wasn’t sleeping tonight!

Midnight.

Su Ximu, who had already fallen asleep, reached out his little hand and scratched his arm. He felt like someone had been tickling his back nonstop, making him itchy.

After scratching his arm, his back started itching too. The little one flipped over and began clawing at his back with his hand.

On the other side, the old man stared as a leg suddenly protruded from the iron-sheeted wall, completely stunned.

What kind of leg was this?

A short little leg clad in yellow overalls, with very small feet and very short legs.

The old man stared blankly at the white shoe on that foot.

He zoned out facing this short little leg for a full half hour before finally taking the next action.

He reached out, gripped the chubby short leg, and pulled gently—like pulling a radish.

Sure enough! A complete little doll was pulled out of the wall by him.

The little one was still in deep sleep and didn’t notice at all that he had slept from inside the wall to next door. He lay there obediently, his breathing steady and even.

The old man’s gaze lingered on the little doll’s long lashes, chubby baby face, and perky little nose. Finally, he remembered something. He rolled up his own pant leg and looked down at his calf.

District 13 collected detection samples every six months.

The old man had lived from birth until now—a total of sixty years.

Scars layered over scars on his arms until the collector felt that sampling there might affect accuracy, allowing his arms some rest.

Then it was his back, then his chest, and finally his legs.

First the thighs, then the calves.

The indelible scars covering his entire body were District 13’s “tattoos” for him.

Only the last one, only the last one…

The old man rubbed the spot from the final sampling.

There was no scar there.

After arriving at the Education Field, the old man—whose conversion rate was already on the edge of transformation—underwent layer after layer of tests and was finally detected to possess a Hunter Ability.

In this world, those who completed transformation and gained special abilities were called Hunters.

In other words: people who hunted the New World for this world.

The old man’s ability was determined to be emotion-related—Emotion Perception and Simulation.

This ability was greatly helpful for hunting the New World. But it was also a double-edged sword.

Because the ability didn’t distinguish friend from foe. The old man could perceive the emotions of those weird monsters in the New World, and naturally, he could also perceive the emotions of all his fellow kind who appeared before him in this world.

Perceiving emotions wasn’t mind reading. But if this ability was fully developed, it would infinitely approach mind reading.

And then, what would happen next?

The managers who raised the meat citizens had self-awareness.

So, before researching a precise method to control the old man’s ability, the managers could only keep him in the Education Field for now and inject him with a universal suppressant, temporarily returning him to his former state of total unawareness.

But those managers and researchers didn’t know that, at the moment he was on the brink of transformation, the first thing the old man connected with wasn’t the similarly dazed neighbors around him.

He encountered a child who drilled out of the wall to apply medicine for him.

As he was taken away by the vehicle, he had simulated one—a smile belonging to him—and given it to that child.

This time, Su Ximu woke to the sound of banging on the wall—thud thud thud.

He rubbed his eyes and sat up in a daze, not yet realizing that he had somehow slept into someone else’s home.

Until he saw the old man sitting beside him.

He looked at the grandpa, then at the still-banging wall. Without time to think more, he could only give the grandpa an embarrassed smile first, then roll back to his own home.

As he drilled back through the wall, little brother’s fist nearly landed on him.

Fortunately, at the critical moment, 242 and 241 reacted, grabbing the swinging arm from left and right.

243 also noticed that his little brother had finally reappeared from the wall and hurriedly hugged him. “W-where, where did you go?”

Heaven knew how anxious the brothers felt waking up to find their little brother gone.

The three brothers’ thoughts were still quite simple right now. Since the little brother had disappeared into the wall, they hadn’t thought to check next door and were single-mindedly digging at the wall here.

Seeing how anxious little brother was, Su Ximu opened his mouth to explain, only to feel himself suddenly lifted into the air.

This was a height he rarely reached.

He instinctively hugged the neck of the person holding him and, lowering his head, met big brother’s reddened eyes.

It was the first time he saw such obvious emotion in big brother’s eyes.

Anxiety, with a hint of fear.

The little one froze for a moment, then patted big brother’s back and explained, “Big brother, brothers, little brother—do you remember the Neighbor Grandpa?”

“Neighbor Grandpa still lives next door to us. Maybe I slept too close to the wall last night and accidentally ended up sleeping at Neighbor Grandpa’s house.”

“Brothers, don’t worry. Neighbor Grandpa is a good person. He didn’t hit me.”

Clearly, the three had no impression of the neighbor grandpa the little one mentioned.

But with the briefly missing child back, their emotions calmed down.

241 seemed to have found enjoyment in holding the child. Even though his emotions had settled, he didn’t put the kid down and just stood in the room continuing to hold him.

242, standing to the side, stepped forward and patted big brother, reaching out his hand toward him.

241 looked down but ignored him.

242 got angry again.