[Puzzle Room]

Mr. Question Mark held the golden business card, quietly waiting for death to arrive.

However,

as time slowly passed, there was no sign of the mysterious Mr. Yi appearing at all.

An hour went by, and Mr. Question Mark was no longer waiting.

He stood up intending to leave, his gaze drifting to the Moon God, who was always stuck in the corner, half of their body merged with worms.

Unexpectedly, before Question Mark could ask, the Moon God spoke first:

"What a pity... I hope we can meet again."

"Thank you."

Mr. Question Mark made an elegant gentleman’s bow, expressing gratitude for the co-operation from the Moon God during this period, and walked out resolutely.

He took the elevator back home and personally cooked a meal for his wife, speaking in a casual tone:

"Xiao Jiu asked me to deliver something to the school. I’ll drive over after dinner."

Seemingly normal, his wife noticed something was off, wanted to say something but didn’t, instead opting for the most ordinary words:

"Be careful on the road."

[Tsinghua University - Quantum Science Building]

Xiao Jiu, who was attending a research group meeting, suddenly heard footsteps outside the building.

After spending an entire summer solving puzzles with her father, she could feel the changes in herself; she could now extend her perception to cover the entire campus and even beyond.

She could even interfere with normal atomic states, subjectively inducing material changes.

But she didn’t intentionally use her abilities or apply them in daily experiments, continuing her university life as an ordinary person.

However, the sudden footsteps distracted her,

"Teacher Feng, may I take a leave... I’ll let the senior brothers go first, and I’ll go last?"

"Go ahead."

Xiao Jiu walked quickly, feeling that something was wrong. Her father, who used to wait outside the building, had walked into the teaching building this time.

Ding dong!

The elevator opened on the eighth floor.

Xiao Jiu waited at the door, watching her father step out from the inside.

She was smart and could sense that something was amiss, her eyes gradually turning red.

A familiar, gentle hand softly landed on her head.

No pleasantries, just a simple evaluation, "Very good, I didn’t have the patience to restrain myself like you after gaining power.

Besides, your progress is fast, well done."

Following this,

a Magic Cube with a "?" was handed to Xiao Jiu.

"With your ability, you should be able to decipher the internal space. Inside, there are your favorite beef and shepherd’s purse dumplings, refrigerated, enough to last you a long time."

At the same time,

the father and daughter both heard unusual footsteps, entering the building and taking the elevator.

Just as Xiao Jiu realized the danger and wanted to grab her father’s hand,

Buzz...

Nothing was in front of her,

except for holding an ordinary Magic Cube with a fading "?".

She no longer remembered anything, as if she had always depended on her mother, never having a father’s company, yet tears welled up in her eyes.

...

At the same time,

in Mr. Question Mark’s perspective, as the elevator door behind him opened, the scene before him instantly turned black and white.

The life forms in the entire building disappeared,

because this was the world of the dead, where the living could not tread.

Only Mr. Question Mark, holding a "golden business card," was allowed entry to engage with death itself here.

Mr. Question Mark could sense that the concept of "survival" was being slowly stripped away from him by the environment, but this level was not enough to cause his death.

This was just the superficial layer of death, a simple test, or perhaps just a breath casually exhaled by Mr. Yi.

The shadow was right behind him, slowly waving.

Mr. Question Mark did not hesitate, stepping back into the elevator and expressing his gratitude: "Thank you for giving me time to say goodbye."

He followed into the elevator; no one pressed the button, yet it began descending continuously.

Each change in numbers meant getting one step closer to death.

Instead of resisting death directly, Mr. Question Mark took out a special coin from his pocket and started playing a game.

The game was with death itself.

During the elevator ride, Question Mark kept flipping the coin.

With a loud clang,

each time it landed heads-up.

In this way, Question Mark maintained a [winning] streak, continually earning the right to survive from death, allowing him to step into the realm of complete death as a living person.

Until... Ding!

The elevator arrived,

and the oppressive sense of death instantly vanished.

Outside was neither the underworld from mythological stories nor the dark Dead Sea, but an unattended bar.

The shadow transformed into a bartender standing behind the bar, starting to mix a special drink.

Question Mark walked into the bar, somewhat puzzled, and when he saw the other’s face, he was stunned.

The so-called Mr. Yi had an oriental face but with many facial features quite similar to the Lord of Disease.

In less than three seconds, Question Mark completed his analysis,

"The disease is the most intense form of life; before me, the essence of purest death.

Two entities as one, perfectly balanced, such an existence in the outside world is astonishing."

He came to the bar and sat down.

Mr. Yi, who was mixing drinks, initiated the conversation; he didn’t seem to be as dangerous as William said.

"You want to know the truth, to see what happened at that time. It requires a great sacrifice.

Because this matter reaches a higher level, and you cannot reach it at the moment.

Only by being in the ultimate death can you, as a deceased, follow me to revisit the detailed course of events.

William should have told you that this process would likely lead to your death, maybe even before you glimpse the truth.

Unlike physiological death,

this is absolute death, with everything in the world denying your existence, and the world of the living forever unrelated to you."

After saying this,

he placed a specially mixed black drink in front of Question Mark,

appearing to be just an ordinary drink,

yet Question Mark seemed to see a tranquil black ocean, countless dead floating within it. But the place he was about to go was not the surface of the ocean but the deepest darkness.

Just the simplest gaze was already causing Question Mark to begin disintegrating completely.

He still did not hesitate, picked up the glass, and drank it in one gulp. Watching his body disintegrate, feeling the rapid demise of his consciousness.

Before everything ended, Question Mark sent the glass back, softly saying, "Thank you."

His consciousness sank like grain,

completely severed from the world of the living, sinking into the pitch-black sea, continuously moving deeper.

Unable to think, unable to deduce, unable to calculate.

Yet,

[?] remained engraved on Mr. Question Mark, glowing green. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

It represented his obsession with being human, the essence of his existence, his ultimate goal.

"To decrypt and seek knowledge"

Before knowing the truth, he would not stop, no matter the cost.

Not knowing how long passed...

Cough, cough, cough!

Violent coughing.

A large amount of black seawater was choked out of his body,

he slowly opened his eyes as if washed up to the shore, the sea of the dead seemed to refuse to accept him.

Or perhaps he analyzed death and formulated a stable death equation while unconscious.

He supported himself and slowly stood up, devoid of any vitality.

Strangely,

even though he heard the sound of the tides and felt stepping on the sand,

the scene in front of his eyes turned to the central prison, arriving at the moment of final confrontation.

The Deep Red was spreading, continuously corroding the essence of reality.

The founder of the Reversed Church, Emperor Mura, blocked Deep Red’s actions from behind.

██ walked towards the front of Deep Red’s avatar, directly entering its body, reaching a higher narrative level to touch the essence of Deep Red.

Mr. Question Mark’s vision also rose to a higher dimension, coming to an area resembling a bookshop.

He saw the Deep Red itself, crowned,

he saw the pages representing the universe, soaked in red ink.

He witnessed Luo Di breaking through the dimensional barrier, slicing off the opponent’s arm completely with a single strike.

This slash enraged Deep Red completely, endless malice starting to converge.

Just as the two were about to burst into a greater conflict... Question Mark saw something, as if colors overflowed from the corner of this high-dimensional study.

The colors sketched out letters,

letters he had seen,

letters symbolizing madness,

AHAHAHA...