Survivorship Bias

    With a bang, the corridor returned to silence.

    Wu You stood alone in the corner where he belonged, the southeast corner.

    It's dark here, and there's nothing but the faint light from the squares under your feet. And such a little light is not enough to illuminate the surroundings.

    "Josh." Wu You called out a name.

    Soon Josh responded, "What's wrong?"

    "What is the supernatural game you just told Yang Erci?"

    "Oh that." Josh felt that it was a bit scary to tell such a story in such a place, but Wu You wanted to hear it, so he dared to say, "It's a four-corner game, it is said that It came from a five-person snow mountain climbing group. One of them died on the way. Because of the cold and lack of materials, this game was invented at night so that everyone could survive. Shen, frozen to death in the snow."

    " But then it turned into a trick game, four people were required to stand in the four corners of a dark room, no sound was allowed, start with the first person, move forward in the dark, and reach the second Behind the two, pat him on the shoulder, and then stay there, the person whose shoulder is patted gets the signal and walks forward, and the cycle goes on."

    Wu You simulated this scene in his mind, a little puzzled, "It doesn't seem to be cyclic."

    "After the fourth person was tapped on the shoulder, he walked to the corner of the first person at the beginning, but there was no one there to let him tap on the shoulder."

    "That's the problem!" Josh was surprised that he got the point right at once, "What you said is a normal situation, in case something abnormal happens, the fourth person will leave to the first corner..."

    Nan Shan opened her mouth, "I patted the shoulder of a fifth person who doesn't exist."

    Maybe because of his physical strength, he almost spoke in an angry voice, which made him look more and more gloomy.

    "Yes, that means they really recruited that ghost." After Josh finished speaking, the green light under his feet seemed to be more and more terrifying.

    "But it's good, it's good we don't have to move and tap on the shoulders, otherwise I really wouldn't dare stay here."

    Wu You is not very interested in supernatural games, but this corridor is indeed a natural venue for such games.

    However, this ghost is also idle enough that he is willing to spend time with humans to play such kindergarten-level games.

    Do something.

    After telling the ghost story, the corridor fell silent again, everyone seemed to be in the darkness of the void, unable to touch each other's position.

    Except Zhong Yirou, the rest of the people can basically speak, Wu You thought about it, let go of his voice and suggested, "Let's continue talking."

    His voice was like a stone thrown into a lake, and soon disappeared into the darkness.

    After a while, he got a response, it was Nanshan's voice.

    “Why, are the children scared when they hear ghost stories?”

    Wu You thought what he said was ridiculous, she didn't want to pay attention to him, but heard Josh's laughter again, so she had to explain: "I'm just afraid of any problems and keep in touch at any time. would be safer."

    Soon, Josh's voice also appeared, "Yes, everyone talks to each other, at least to confirm that everyone is still in place."

    "But Miss Zhong can't speak." Nan Shan said.

    Although Nan Shan can speak, his voice is very vague and cannot be heard clearly.

    "I...I woke up..."

    Zhong Yirou's voice suddenly appeared in the darkness. Although Wu You heard it all at once, she couldn't help but doubt, "Are you awake? Who are you?"

    "The ghost story scared you silly? Of course I'm your sister Zhong." Although Zhong Yirou's voice was weak, her tone was exactly the same as before.

    "Miss Zhong, are you okay?" Josh asked, "You've been in a coma for a long time."

    "Well..." Zhong Yirou said slowly, "I felt like I had a very strange dream. In my dream, I was working here, but... I seem to have done something very bad."

    Nan Shan said, "You mean yourself, or E06."

    Zhong Yirou was silent for a moment, "E06, because the dream is not my memory."

    "Bad thing..." Josh asked aloud, "Is there anything more specific?"

    Zhong Yirou felt that her breathing was very difficult, and the breath seemed to condense into flocs, blocking her throat.

    "I... I seem to be working on the ground floor, but I'm not looking after the children."

    "Not a child?" Wu You wondered, "Then what you saw before were hallucinations?"

    "Yes, in my dream my job is indeed to take care of many...human bodies." After thinking about it, she used such a word.

    "They're not children anymore, but... they're really sleeping, in the freezer."

    "The freezer..." Wu You seemed to understand why the first floor was so cold.

    Hearing this, Josh asked a question, "But if Miss Zhong is not looking after the dead children, why is Mr. Nanshan's job burning?"

    It is.

    Wu You also thought it was suspicious, "We just saw the bones of children in the incinerator."

    "It seems that there are adults too." Nan Shan added, "It's just the bones of children that attract our attention."

    This containment center seems to be hidden in the dark fog, and the truth can only be exposed.

    The more you see, the deeper you get into the fog.

    "Frozen human body..." Wu You put forward a conjecture, "Is it the material used for human experiments here?"

    Zhong Yirou recalled hard for a moment, "It's strange, in my dream I dreamed that I was sorting out data, and the data of each frozen human body was exactly the same. I was very impressed."

    Double helix vines spread and entangle everything here, making this cold place filled with the smell of disinfectant full of strange vitality, like a man-eating underground rainforest.

    Yang Erci reached out and touched this unusual vine.

    "Don't you think it looks like a DNA strand?"

    “Well, this is also a hint to the password GENE before.” An Wujiu said.

    The glassware contains various human organs soaked in antiseptic potions, as well as many covered living animals, from dense insects, to small mammals, even small animals like orangutans of primates.

    Facing this, An Wu Jiu suddenly felt dizzy and nauseated. Everything here was familiar to him, including the labeled chemicals and the smell of disinfectant in the air.

    One of the glass covers a live hairless mouse, the difference is that it has a human ear growing on its back.

    "This is used for cloning organs, transplanting chondrocytes into auricular scaffolds, which is a very early technology." Yang Erci walked to his side and explained, "Transplanted into mice On the back, it is also to borrow the body of living animals to maintain the growth of cells and tissues."

    “Can all organs be obtained this way?” An Wujiu looked at Yang Erci.

    Yang Erci shook his head, "Currently organs with important functions and complex structures, such as the heart, cannot be perfectly replicated through these organ cloning technologies, and many of them are either not very similar in appearance or very different in function. Big."

    "So now more people are buying artificial hearts and pacemakers are doing better."

    An Wujiu nodded, "You really are a researcher in this area."

    Yang Erci was a little lost, and when she heard An Wujiu's words, she responded softly.

    "Once upon a time."

    But she quickly recovered and said nothing more.

    Just these four words, An Wujiu thinks that she has the rationality to appear at the altar, after all, a researcher specializing in life sciences, there is no reason to come to such a place where she may die at any time place.

    Shen Ti put his finger against the glass cover, the little mouse was originally huddled in a ball, but when he saw Shen Ti's fingertips, he was attracted, the pink nose tip was close, and the glass sticker came up.

    But soon, the mouse fell to the ground, struggled a few times, but did not respond.

    Shen Ti immediately retracted his hand and frowned in confusion.

    Yang Erci saw it, and comforted him with a tone of no relief, "It's normal, these mice are immunocompromised animals, so they can't reject the cells of other organisms, but correspondingly, their Lifespan is also short.”

    In most human cognition, animals, especially animals that are themselves experimental subjects, their lives are not of the same order of magnitude as human life.

    But this is not the case for Shen Ti.

    He always sees everything from an outsider's point of view.

    Yang Erci tried to put her hand on the sensor on the top of the glass cover, and sure enough, the permission was opened, and the top glass cover opened automatically.

    She reached out and gently took out the dead mouse inside.

    She wanted to see if there would be any clues on the mouse, but just as she held it up, the "dead" mouse's feet moved suddenly, and it came to life.

    It kept squeaking, as if it was about to come down, Yang Erci squatted down and put the mouse on the ground.

    The rejuvenated mouse took a few steps forward and then ran quickly in a certain direction.

    An Wujiu felt strange, "It seems to want to take us somewhere."

    So they followed this strange mouse, all the way forward, through the dense spiral vines, the preservation vessels used in the experimental research became bigger and bigger, from strange animals, gradually become human.

    The mice led them to a circular clearing where no vines were growing and a metal ball the size of a ping-pong ball floated above the clearing. The mission was completed, and the mice disappeared.

    Yang Erci reached out and touched the suspended sphere. In an instant, countless blue rays of light were emitted from the sphere, and finally a complete holographic projection was woven. Only one line of English sentences was displayed on it.

    It is still, everything is for human beings.

    "Identifying—"

    "Welcome back, B05!"

    The new content appears in the holographic projection, which is divided into three working areas, one is [trim work] and the other is [perfect copy].

    There is also a work area named [Movies].

    “Watching movies is also part of the job?” An Wujiu was very skeptical.

    Yang Erci tried to click on the [Movies] section, but there are only a few very old movies in it: "Frankstein", "The Sixth Day" and "The Truman World".

    But if you try to open the video file again, a beep will appear.

    "Please do your job, B05!"

    Yang Erci had to click [Pruning Job] first, but a large number of unorganized data results came out.

    Shen Ti saw An Wujiu staring at the movie titles under the [Movie] menu, so he leaned over and asked, "Have you seen these?"

    "It seems to have an impression, maybe I saw it when I was a child." An Wujiu's eyes turned to his face, as if seeing Shen Ti showing a little envy.

    At a certain moment, An Wu Jiao felt a subtle pleasure.

    But it disappeared quickly.

    It is normal to have not seen it.

    The era they live in is engulfed by massive amounts of video information, everyone's rhythm is fast, and almost no one will watch a complete, two-hour movie, or even listen to it. A song, because there are many "best" and "best" clips on the Internet, is like a punchline in a book that is excerpted and circulated repeatedly.

    Shen Ti got closer, "What are you talking about?"

    An Wu Jiao patiently retells these old videos to him based on his vague memory.

    "It's all very classic old movies, the first one was adapted from a novel, it can be said to be the world's first science fiction novel, it's about an avid scientist who wants to use his own The knowledge of life sciences 'created' a person, so he often steals corpses, piecing together the different corpses.

    Later because of an accident, this 'person' created by him really came to life, but he was afraid, and finally caused a tragedy. "

    Shen Ti shrugged, clearly disapproving of this story, "Humans seem to be very keen to be creators."

    An Wujiu was noncommittal at first, but after thinking about it, he added, "The more you think the knowledge you have is close to the truth, the more you want to try if you can create something."

    Shen Ti nodded, smiled and said "Next" to him.

    "The second..." An Wujiu thought about the words, "It is also a movie about 'creating people', but this time the method is not so primitive, it has become a clone. The protagonist Adam was a cloned person, so when he got home, he found an identical person there, and then... he fought against the forces of evil, and the classics were clichés."

    Shen Ti raised a question beyond the plot, "Why is the movie called this name?"

    An Wujiu explained to him, "Because it is said that God created Adam on the sixth day, which is the first human being."

    He thought that Shen Ti would know that, after all, the world situation is not good, many religions such as Christianity have begun to recover, and there are more and more believers without restrictions.

    Speaking of God, Shen Ti thought of some weird images, a golden chaos and countless eyes in chaos.

    There is nothing special about God, he thought contemptuously.

    Just a false god.

    An Wujiu noticed that Shen Ti was in a kind of contemplation and Yang Erci was still analyzing the data, so he stretched out his hand and shook it in front of Shen Ti's eyes, "Do you still want to listen?"

    Shen Ti naturally took his hand, "Of course."

    With just such a movement, a certain nerve of An Wujiu suddenly jumped, he tried to pull out his hand, but in the end he was unsuccessful, so he quickly and even panicked to introduce the last A film, "The third is about...a story of a person's entire life being just a lie."

    Shen Ti waited for a while and found that he stopped talking.

    "That's it?"

    An Wujiu nodded, this time he successfully pulled out his hand.

    "Yes."

    My heart is beating fast.

    Yang Erci read the data and operated on the keyboard projected by the holographic projection for a long time, and finally came to a result.

    "This trimming effort...is about embryonic gene editing."

    An Wujiu turned his face and wanted to speak, but heard Shen Ti say behind him, "You must not remember, so you can't say why. Next time, watch that movie with me. Movies."

    Is this an invitation?

    An Wujiu was a little confused, since he said those ambiguous words to Shen Ti in another state, in addition to being annoyed, he also had an unfamiliar panic in his heart.

    This is unusual.

    “Let’s go out and talk about it.” An Wujiu was a little absent-minded.

    He thought that if he was an instrument, there must be some kind of malfunctioning instrument.

    Otherwise, why would the fluctuation value only be generated by Shen Ti alone?

    Yang Erci was quite professional, ignoring the boring conversation between the two dog men, and played a video he found.

    "It's their gene editing process, and it's an embryo."

    Videos are simple animations explaining the process of gene editing. Targeted tools locate the part of the double-helix DNA that needs to be edited, making deletions, substitutions, or insertions.

    This is obviously a propaganda video, which is full of praise for the advantages of gene editing engineering, for example, it can fundamentally eliminate those "incurable diseases" and completely knock out disease-causing genes , as efficient as programming to improve the human body.

    No technology is safe.

    Yang Erci said: "In fact, this technology has appeared for a long time, and it is indeed a good choice for patients when it is applied to adults with the disease. In the case of repeated verification, directly applied to embryos and babies, the nature will be completely changed. This is strictly prohibited by various countries.”

    Indeed, perhaps through this method, it is really possible to give birth to a "candidate son" who has a high probability of not being incurable in his life, but things will never be that simple.

    “Adults can choose.” An Wujiu looked at the constantly rolling data, “and embryos cannot refuse, they can only passively accept this kind of experiment.”

    Hearing this sentence, Yang Erci nodded. On the one hand, she agreed with An Wu Jiu, and on the other hand, she was once again amazed by the huge transformation of this person. If the person standing in front of her was An hour ago, An Wujiu probably wouldn't have such compassion.

      , where there is a life behind the failure.

    Gene editing experiments may seem short-lived, and can be done in a few minutes, but these embryos that are passive subjects will grow slowly. In order to obtain edited results, these people will be observed experimental subjects for the rest of their lives, whether they want to or not. "

    Sure enough.

    An Wujiu understands, this is Truman's world.

    Shen Ti put forward another conjecture, "If the gene-edited embryos reproduce like ordinary humans and go down from generation to generation, will there be a domino phenomenon?"

    Yang Erci looked at him, "This possibility is not ruled out. Here are the results of the simulation experiments. According to the calculation results of hundreds of millions of times by the computer, there is also the possibility of gene mutation, and it occurs. in the entire human gene pool."

    In the holographic projection, a whole piece of blue light spots appeared, in which red spots appeared little by little, and then more and more red spots were combined and diffused at an extremely fast speed.

    She paused, "That's why some people have called for people who have undergone gene editing of embryos not to have offspring, so as not to contaminate the gene pool."

    An Wujiu immediately said, "This is unfair, they are also human, not experimental material."

    This sounds very sad.

    Every product that is artificially created has no right to choose its own life, whether it is gene-edited babies or cloned people, they are just victims of violation of ethics.

    "This is not the most terrifying, the most terrifying is that the technology is applied at the wrong time, and they may suffer the sequelae of this immature technology at any time. The part that was knocked out Genes may have the potential to cause disease, but are more likely to undertake extremely important physiological functions."

    During the silence, Shen Ti spoke first, "Not only this shelter has done relevant underground research, but due to the opposition of countries and health organizations around the world, there is no way to expose it. If you can, Maybe the results of the experiment beyond the public's imagination will be announced at the first time."

    For example, a sudden appearance of Frank.

    "Yes, scientific madmen have always existed, and it is right to be stopped. These people always think that they are striving for the great progress of mankind, and the fanatical scientific beliefs and pursuit of interests have long broken them Awe of the unknown." Yang Erci said.

    “Of course human beings need to move forward, but not by any means.” An Wujiu stared at the cold data.

    Without constraints, Pandora's box will one day be opened.

    Yang Erci is about to open the second workspace, which is [Perfect Copy].

    "I seem to know what this is..."

    Suddenly, the holographic projection disappeared, retracted into the ball, and the ball disappeared, too late to capture.

    The room fell into darkness for a moment, just like the corridor outside, and then the red warning light began to flash.

    Beep repeats warning.

    "Compression stopped, powertrain failure."

    "Did someone move?"

    As soon as Yang Erci finished speaking, she suddenly saw that her feet were empty.

    Under the darkness, the three of them fell into an unknown void.

    It's not so much an empty space as it is a transmission tunnel, and soon, An Wu Jiu entered a new dark place, and his feet landed firmly on the ground.

    "You are now at the very center of this floor."

    It was not a synthetic voice that lacked emotion, An Wujiu quickly recognized that it was the voice of the mad rabbit on the second floor.

    "I didn't expect you to survive this level. The previous people have already died. I really want to congratulate you. But unfortunately, your companions, did not follow the rules."

    "So, you have to play a little game with me. As long as you win, you can leave smoothly. If you lose, your companions may not die immediately, but It's bound to become incomplete."

    "And you who fail will be trapped in this small room until the end of the game."

    "Got it? My lovely friends."

    The four at the four corners of the cloister are always in touch.

    Wu You has been trying to touch the microphone on the auricle, trying to contact the three of them, but there is still no signal.

    "Right," Nan Shan suddenly thought of something, "Josh, have you found a playing card?"

    "Well." Josh responded loudly, "There are six number cards in that one, a Joker card."

    "Joker?" Wu You thought for a while, "Aren't you the Joker? Does this card represent you?"

    "I thought so too at first." Josh said, "But something is wrong, I am D03, there are 3s of diamonds in the poker cards, and everyone has them, but the diamonds are missing. 2."

    "2 is not A02, Brother Wu Jiu?" Wu You thought about it, and felt that something was wrong.

    The 2 is missing, and a Joker is added, which should point to something.

    "I'm confused at one point," Nan Shan's voice reappeared, "So far, among all the people, only the fake Mr. An has appeared. Originally, we thought that everyone else would also appear. False, but that doesn't seem to be the case now."

    "Yes." Zhong Yirou agreed, "and he seems to be indestructible..."

    "Joker is also a ghost card..." A bold guess appeared in Wu You's mind.

    "Could it be that A02 is dead, and the rest is a ghost card."

    The atmosphere suddenly became gloomy and cold, and there was a gust of wind, which made Wu You's back numb.

    Zhong Yirou thought for a while, based on this assumption, the "can't kill" can also be established, "You are right, if so, will it be A02's ghost revenge on others? ? In this case, there should be no replicas of other characters..."

     Before she could finish speaking, her voice suddenly changed, "Who?"

    "What's wrong?" Wu You felt wrong, but he couldn't move, "What happened?"

    "Someone patted me on the shoulder just now." Zhong Yirou's voice trembled slightly, "None of you have ever left this green square..."

    Did not wait for a response, and didn't have time to say another word, Zhong Yirou's voice suddenly became sharp, and she called out, "Someone...someone is pulling..."

    Wu You shouted, "I'll go right over!"

    "Wait." Nan Shan suddenly stopped Wu You.

    "Wait for what? Maybe A02 has appeared again!" After Wu You said excitedly, he suddenly realized his doubts when he heard Zhong Yirou's voice at first.

    In the scream of being attacked, Josh was a little shaken, "This..."

    "Is it really Miss Zhong?"