Chapter 48: Chapter 38: Chaisi · The Root of Jin Xueli’s Confusion

Chaisi sat on a park bench, staring blankly ahead, his gaze unfocused.

He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, his body half-hunched over. His large hands dangled down, and a T-shaped rod was tucked into the back of his waistband.

Anyone who passed him on the small path tried to subtly take a few steps back, giving him a wide berth. For several meters around Chaisi, the ground was empty.

A moment ago, two young girls had approached from a distance, constantly glancing at him while whispering and laughing to each other. But as they got closer, their expressions changed. They stared straight ahead, quickening their pace as they hurried past.

Everyone reacted to a madman in much the same way: stealing glances through narrowed eyes to see where the madman was, what he was doing, and how far away he was, while also keeping a blank face, pretending not to see him, and quickly putting distance between them.

In fact, this wasn’t the first time in Chaisi’s life he’d been mistaken for a madman. He’d even been called one to his face more than a few times.

But in the past, it was always because he was being vicious, ruthless, and violent enough to kill. Never for a reason like this.

He had left the subway station over ten minutes ago.

Logically, he should have immediately returned to the Kai Family, handed the "Rumor" Illusion to Uncle Kai, and then contacted Huangli to get her released from police custody. But before he could even hail a cab, Chaisi had to abandon his original plan and find a small park to duck into.

...Because the "Rumor" Illusion was using his lips, teeth, and tongue, speaking nonstop in his own voice, one sentence after another.

He had lost control of his own tongue. No matter how hard he tried to press it down, it would just spring back up, forming new words and sentences in his mouth.

Maybe it was the struggle against the Illusion contorting his face, or maybe it was just the uncontrollable muttering, but either way, everyone he passed on the street stared and gave him a wide berth.

Chaisi didn’t care about the strange looks from others.

But the Illusion spoke extremely fast. A single car horn or the buzz of a power drill from a construction site was enough to make him miss what it was saying. Even though the words came from his own mouth, Chaisi himself had no idea what the content would be until he heard it.

He could have handed it over to Uncle Kai right away, but he had to suppress that urge and patiently listen to every word the Illusion said. He wanted to understand its operational patterns and hidden risks as much as possible.

He had to ensure that every Illusion he handed to Uncle Kai was, at the very least, safe.

"After you create a rumor and spread it, what happens next?" he had asked as he walked away from the subway station.

’Who would have thought the "Rumor" Illusion would be such a chatterbox?’

That single question seemed to have opened the floodgates.

The subway driver must have never asked this question of his own mouth and thus never activated the Illusion. He couldn’t have known this would happen. The Illusion, lacking the ability to say so much at once, had simply commandeered Chaisi’s tongue. It had been talking nonstop ever since, with no sign of stopping.

Its intelligence might not be high, but the amount of information it contained was definitely not small.

"...It is divided into four aspects. One, the creation of a rumor. Two, the spread of a rumor. Three, the change in a rumor’s credibility. Four, the consequences of a rumor. Each aspect is further divided into several subcategories based on different situations. Now, I will begin with the first aspect..."

’How could he even describe this feeling?’

It was as if someone were speed-reading a several-hundred-page PDF—one that should have been printed as reading material—aloud to you. Using your own mouth. It was bizarre, the amount of information was immense, and the slightest lapse in concentration meant you’d miss what was said. And you couldn’t even ask them to repeat it, because your mouth had been commandeered.

And so, Chaisi sat on the park bench, the top half of his face stunned and blank, the bottom half incredibly busy.

"...In the most ideal situation, a rumor created by mixing true information can spread rapidly within a suitable environment and community. It should be noted, however, that while the rumor may spread, it doesn’t mean everyone will necessarily believe it. At this stage, everyone knows it is just a rumor and that it could possibly be proven false.

"The shorter the rumor, the less distortion it will undergo during its transmission. Once it reaches a sufficient number of people in its original form—that’s the first variable—the rumor gains a certain degree of credibility... We can view the environment in which the rumor exists as a system. After its credibility reaches the second variable, the rumor, as a ’macro-theme’ within the system, will produce a quantum response with multiple ’butterfly factors.’"

Chaisi desperately wanted to tell it to speak in plain English, but he couldn’t say a thing himself.

"Let’s use an example," the Illusion finally said from Chaisi’s mouth, uttering the words he had been waiting for.

"For instance, you release a rumor with the content: ’Xiaoming from Nest Primary School gets diarrhea from eating people.’"

"Let’s assume the real materials that make up this rumor are: one, the student Xiaoming does exist; two, residents of the Nest eat people from time to time; and three, Xiaoming sometimes gets diarrhea."

’...Right, I’ll have to remind the Household Hunters to wash more often when I get back.’

"...The rumor is relatively short, and the Nest is a suitable environment for it to spread... Let’s assume it successfully reaches the two variables of ’number of people reached’ and ’credibility.’ What happens next?

"Multiple, seemingly unrelated factors that already exist in the Nest will now become ’butterfly factors.’ What is a ’butterfly factor’? It’s the initial condition in the ’butterfly effect’ that causes changes in a chaotic system.

"For example, let’s say Xiaoming has a younger sister, Xiaomei. Xiaomei originally ate Xiaoming every Wednesday night. But after hearing the rumor, she felt Xiaoming wasn’t very clean, so she didn’t eat him this Wednesday."

’...Forget the passersby; even Chaisi felt like he was going crazy listening to the voice coming out of his own mouth.’

"’A hungry Xiaomei’ thus becomes the first ’butterfly factor.’

"For the second ’butterfly factor,’ let’s assume it’s a captured Hunter. The Hunter suggests that the resident who caught him not kill him. In exchange, he offers to design a battle royale-style Gladiatorial Arena for that resident."

Chaisi’s mouth and tongue were dry, but the Illusion didn’t care in the slightest.

"Since this is just an example, for the sake of simplicity, we’ll only use two ’butterfly factors.’

"The hungry Xiaomei goes out to forage and eats one of the contestants in the Gladiatorial Arena. To compensate the arena’s owner, she hands Xiaoming over to them.

"The owner of the Gladiatorial Arena wants to select the most outstanding children. Inspired by the recent rumor, they name the arena ’Nest Primary School’... And so, the result of this rumor is that a ’Nest Primary School’ really does appear in the Nest."

Chaisi froze for a moment.

He had originally thought the consequence of the rumor would be that "Xiaoming gets diarrhea from eating people" would become true. The feeling was like missing a step and falling into empty air.

"You see, the part of the rumor that could become true could be ’Xiaoming gets diarrhea from eating people,’ ’Xiaoming eats people,’ or even ’Nest Primary School exists’... The reason the last outcome occurred is because the ’butterfly factors’ in the Nest’s environment guided the result toward ’Nest Primary School.’

"If we were to swap in other ’butterfly factors,’ then the part that becomes true could have been ’Xiaoming gets diarrhea from eating people.’"

Next, the Illusion, as expected, rambled on, giving another example.

The result of using different "butterfly factors" was that Xiaoming did, in fact, get diarrhea from eating people.

In short, its operational model was: create a rumor -> people hear the rumor -> people believe the rumor -> "butterfly factors" (if any) begin to interact with the rumor -> finally, the rumor either becomes true or it doesn’t.

’...So, to make a rumor come true in the way you want, you have to narrow down the possible types of consequences, right?’

By the time Chaisi came to this conclusion, his mouth had already spoken several more sentences.

’If you could plant suitable "butterfly factors" in the environment beforehand, like laying the groundwork for a plot twist, maybe you could guide the rumor toward a desired outcome...’

He had only been thinking for a few seconds, but his mouth had already busily steered the topic in another direction, shifting from theoretical function to practical application. Chaisi quickly refocused his attention and continued to listen for a moment, only to hear himself suddenly say, "...In that case, the rumors created by the ’Rumor’ Illusion’s previous hosts can be used as operational references for the new host."

’...Wait, does that mean I can look up the rumors Westley created?’

"As long as the host doesn’t delete them, every rumor is recorded and can be retrieved later."

Having said this, the Illusion finally paused for the first time, as if waiting for Chaisi’s response.

"Tell me,"

Chaisi could finally speak with his own lips and tongue. "What was the last rumor before the ’subway serial killer’?"

The Illusion received the command and answered so quickly that he almost bit his tongue.

"The ’Vulture’ in the Nest can replicate its human target to become a second version of them and use their Path to enter the human world."

Chaisi’s hands suddenly clenched together, twisting.

’Another resident trying to enter the human world...’

’No, no, that’s not the point.’

’The point is, why create this rumor? Even if it came completely true, what would be the point?’

"Who created this rumor?" Chaisi confirmed during another one of the Illusion’s pauses.

"Westley."

’It seems Westley wanted to create a resident who could enter the human world out of thin air. What was his goal?’

"Date of creation?"

The date the Illusion gave was from more than three months ago.

Considering that a new rumor can only be created after the previous one has run its course and reached its conclusion, this was very likely the last rumor Westley created before he died.

The end of a rumor could only have one of two outcomes: it either came true, or it fizzled out and disappeared.

"Did this rumor come true?" Chaisi asked again.

"It just came true on November 17th," the Illusion replied.

’That was... the day after Westley died.’