Chapter 143: “Chu Zu has already completed the import, but you can't get in.”

The story of 《The Fifth Door》 took place in a strange building that couldn't be left.

The geographical location of this building was very magical.

In one time-space, it was a university laboratory where a radioactive chemical leak incident had occurred.

In one time-space, it was an old residential building where someone had unfortunately slipped and fallen to their death.

In one time-space, it was a high-end apartment destroyed by an accidental fire.

In one time-space, it was just a dilapidated concrete house in the countryside.

Because the geographical locations were the same, and all had significant death incidents——the four time-spaces thus overlapped,

At a specific time, the building welcomed four batches of guests from their respective time-spaces, and the story unfolded from there.

《The Fifth Door》 had no specific protagonist, there were four main characters, respectively from the four time-spaces, and the proportion of screen time for each main character was not much different.

“All characters basically died in the ‘rooms’.”

The System sorted out the most basic settings, “Because of the time-space overlap, there are three types of rooms in the building.”

The Little black cat took out a whiteboard and drew a simple skull on it.

“The first type of room is called the ‘accident site’, it will repeat the entire process of the deaths that occurred in the four time-spaces——this is also the root of the building's danger, anyone who enters will either die or be injured.”

Chu Zu nodded, indicating he was already clear.

The Little black cat drew a simple circle next to it.

“The second type of room is a normal room, from the buildings of the four time-spaces, there is no danger, they are just abandoned.”

Chu Zu continued to nod.

“The last type——it should be the last one.”

The Little black cat drew a big smiley face, looked up, and said seriously to the host, “This is the only ‘safe room’ that can leave the building, to escape the predicament, one must find it.”

“The building has over six thousand rooms in total, there is no fixed pattern, the rooms are all random, only after entering will you know which type it is.”

Little yellow chicken started to cheer, saying, “But don't you worry, before we go, we'll buy out the mall, I'll be a contemporary arms depot, mere rooms are no challenge for us!”

Chu Zu still nodded, and asked the key point: “So what's the situation with the side character to be corrected?”

Little yellow chicken wilted a little.

A novel of tens of millions of words was very difficult to summarize, but also very simple.

The first time 《The Fifth Door》 was seen by readers, the word count was only two hundred thousand words.

These two hundred thousand words were uploaded to the platform all at once by the author, at that time there was no ending yet.

In this part of the plot, the building relentlessly devoured batch after batch of people who inadvertently entered, and the characters this time were no exception.

The four core characters died one after another in the building, but in the end, a cannon fodder character named Chu Shiju suddenly became a deus ex machina.

Without any foreshadowing, a power that was illogical and inexplicable appeared on him, solving the building's unsolvable room crises.

Just when the readers felt this belonged to “the plot being forcibly terminated”, the story actually continued.

As cannon fodder, Chu Shiju failed to leave the building, his “power” seemed insufficient to support him in finding the “safe room”.

Chu Shiju was trapped in the building, his time stagnating along with the building's.

Without any motive, he inexplicably began to actively hunt the people who strayed into the building, year after year.

“In a novel of tens of millions of words, the first two hundred thousand words could be considered suspense survival, and the reception was quite good at the time... the following tens of millions of words, were all Chu Shiju's history of going mad.”

“The readers gradually lost patience, they were already very familiar with the ‘accident sites’, the setting couldn't produce any new tricks, and the plot was similar every time.”

“Chu Shiju went from a side cannon fodder to a fixed core, if other characters wanted to leave the building, they not only had to fight against the building, but also escape from his hands with their lives.”

Little yellow chicken said, pulling up the comments for Chu Zu to see.

【My god, the flood over Jinshan, I can't see the end of it.】

【I've eaten shit for six years, but I'm not angry, I even want to call emergency services, and have them check the author's health status.】

【The first ten times I could still deceive myself, what if the author was laying foreshadowing, wanting to pull off something big? Still too young. In ancient times there was loving you three thousand times, now there is killing three thousand rounds. Chu Shiju, what will you use to compensate me for my six years of youth?】

【No, buddy, are you padding the word count or did you find an AI to continue writing? Start with one formula, and rely completely on templates later, right?】

【I'm really speechless, the other characters were all written well, choosing to kill each other, or choosing to huddle together for warmth. Stumbling through life and death for a small thirty chapters, the next second, Chu Shiju appears, Chu Shiju strikes, Chu Shiju wins a great victory——Author are you brain-dead? I'm just asking you, are you brain-dead?】

【Brain-dead, no doubt.】

【After tens of millions of words, I'm almost emotionally attached to this damn building, but I still don't get what the hell Chu Shiju is... I don't get it, I don't get it!】

【Reported, idiot author.】

Little yellow chicken: “Because Chu Shiju is a side character who became a core character, we can also intervene... That's roughly the situation, Host.”

“Can't be changed.”

Chu Zu said simply, “If the author doesn't want to end it, even if Chu Shiju is changed, there will be Li Shiju, Wang Shiju.”

“We can't just let the specialist waste time inside, wait for the author to have a change of heart, and start fabricating an ending on the spot?”

Little yellow chicken: “...So it's a 'tribulation' novel.”

It saw the host spoke decisively, and deftly packed up the small whiteboard with the three types of rooms drawn on it, “It's okay, Host, I'll go quietly return it, let's not go to this one!”

“Worse comes to worst, we'll switch jobs!”

The system's wild ambition was not realized.

The Superior ended its battle, and arrived in Chu Zu's sea of consciousness with the speed of a thunderbolt too fast to cover one's ears.

Seeing the figure of the Little blue chicken, Little yellow chicken's feathers instantly puffed up: “Get out, get out! This is trespassing on private property, did you ask the host's opinion before coming!”

The Superior said coldly: “Then did you ask my opinion, before you stole the materials?”

Little yellow chicken immediately felt guilty, its eyes darted everywhere, and its voice lacked confidence: “...I think I asked, you were in a heated battle, maybe you didn't hear...”

The Superior snorted coldly.

Chu Zu hadn't seen the System Superior for a long time.

At first, he saw chickens of all colors, every chicken looked more or less the same, it was hard to tell who was who.

Now he gradually came into contact with other little chickens, and could slowly read the chickens' faces.

For example, the Superior, its face was fierce and cold, the few steps it took towards him, it trod out momentum, trod out killing intent.

“You've seen 《The Fifth Door》.”

The Superior held its head high, and said, “Can you complete the mission?”

Little yellow chicken complained: “What kind of question is that, you're my leader not the host's leader, who are you acting tough for...”

Noticing the Superior's eye-dagger, Little yellow chicken immediately shut up, and secretly hid behind the host.

Chu Zu shielded Little yellow chicken: “Too many words, too long, I didn't read it.”

Superior: “...Don't nitpick words with me.”

Chu Zu chuckled lightly: “I thought your favorite thing to do was nitpick words. Words are magical, right?”

Superior: “...”

Chu Zu turned and picked up Little yellow chicken, sat on the sofa, the chair bought previously for Guanfu's Dazed Feather Little chicken came in handy, so the Superior didn't have to stand in punishment.

The Superior knew Little yellow chicken was addicted to the mall, like someone who had lived too much of a hard life as a child, and started revenge spending after life got better, often buying inexplicable things.

All these things were in Chu Zu's sea of consciousness, piled up everywhere.

On the left were box after box of provisions, snacks, milk, coffee beans... there were even labels Little yellow chicken had stuck on the boxes.

On the right, there was also a treadmill and an elliptical machine, although placed in the most conspicuous spot, only two or three steps away from the sofa, but even the labels hadn't been removed.

It was clear, Little yellow chicken really liked its host's sea of consciousness, slowly dyeing the emptiness with a human touch.

“《The Fifth Door》 is very difficult for other specialists, but very simple for you.”

Withdrawing its gaze, the Superior said to Chu Zu, “Breaking it down, it's just a few steps, arrange one last plot triggered by the building, make the story's direction absolute, and unavoidable, making it difficult for the author to interfere, thereby giving Chu Shiju a sole ending.”

Chu Zu: “Every step you mentioned is within the scope of violation.”

Modifying and arranging the plot, influencing the story's direction, manufacturing a sole ending——these have always been listed as categories of violation, even touching them slightly, one would have to contact the author to communicate, and ask about feasibility.

The Superior's tone was cold: “This book has been dragging in the database for a long time, the author paid the remuneration in advance, and can't be contacted after disappearing, no one will report you for violations.”

“You seem very anxious.”

Chu Zu said with interest, “Our previous historical issue was a violation ruling, and now you're telling me, violations don't matter?”

Little yellow chicken answered quickly: “I know this one!”

“Because our 「Side Correction」 has few specialists, the department size is small, we don't get many jobs, and the Key Performance Indicator standard is on par with other departments.”

It withstood the Superior's death glare, “The author of 《The Fifth Door》 can't be contacted, the remuneration has already been collected in advance, the Superior can't get a kickback, and the difficulty is still increasing——it wants to quickly get rid of this 'stubborn nail' that's affecting the department's assessment!”

Superior: “...”

Superior: “I never said violations don't matter.”

Chu Zu sat comfortably, legs crossed, hand resting on the back of the sofa, his eyes curving slightly when he smiled faintly.

In Little yellow chicken's words, the host at this moment looked more like the Superior who held the initiative.

“You should know, 《The Fifth Door》 isn't as simple as you said.”

Chu Zu said, “There are too many reasons for the readers' dissatisfaction, first, the main text is constantly repetitive, second, Chu Shiju's deus ex machina setting, third, after tens of millions of words, his character hasn't been developed at all, fourth, he's gone on a killing spree, and it's very difficult to arrange an acceptable ending for him now——do you agree?”

Superior: “You continue.”

“The repetitive main text can't be changed, the deus ex machina needs a complete character setting to be added, and the ending——what do you mean by ‘giving Chu Shiju a sole ending’?”

Superior: “This is the content of your promotion assessment.”

The gentle light of the sea of consciousness caressed Chu Zu's face.

His smile deepened a bit, he tucked his chin slightly, and his fingers pressed down on Little yellow chicken's head in advance.

Little yellow chicken didn't understand why, and then it heard Chu Zu say: “Are you trying to send me to my death?”

His voice was slow, his tone lower than an ordinary person's, every clearly articulated word seemed to carry a low tremor, transmitting into Little yellow chicken's mind through the contact of his fingertips.

Chu Zu said, “Chu Shiju doesn't have a death ending in the original work, if I die inside, it means I'm really dead.”

Hearing this, Little yellow chicken was about to puff up its feathers again, but was pressed down twice, Chu Zu didn't let it participate in the “idle chat” with the Superior.

For the first time, the Superior lowered its gaze, not meeting Chu Zu's eyes when it spoke: didn't say that.”

Chu Zu said in the most polite tone: “Don't nitpick words with me.”

The Superior closed its eyes.

...Chu Zu was too difficult to deal with.

When it first came into contact with Chu Zu, at most it felt, this was a newcomer who wasn't clear on the specific rules, and thus easily caused accidents.

The ending of 《Neon Crown》 told it, Chu Zu wasn't that simple.

Changing the plot wasn't difficult, convincing the author wasn't difficult, and heading towards the original ending wasn't difficult either.

But under the circumstances of a major plot change, to get the author's support, complete the original ending on the surface, and make the readers clearly realize that the seemingly unchanged story had been completely refreshed——this was extremely difficult, especially since Chu Zu had very little room to think.

From the moment he was dropped in, he had been operating at high intensity, escaping from the moody Luciano Esposito, confronting the protagonist Tang Qi, carefully selecting the people to save... and even bribed Little yellow chicken.

Little yellow chicken's complete “defection” was something the Superior hadn't expected.

Little yellow chicken had been tormented by its previous hosts, although it always said it lightly, “worse comes to worst, I'll be hung up in the mall”, but it must have been very tough.

When hung up in the mall, the logs weren't loaded, the initialized system watched countless systems and hosts picking, choosing, and trading in the mall.

The first possibility they encountered in a completely blank state was:

A host despised their own system, sold it directly in the mall, and then chose a new system they felt was more suitable for them.

And even so, Little yellow chicken had never been chosen.

There were too few 「Side Correction」 specialists, other specialists weren't interested in Side characters, and thus also directly skipped over Little yellow chicken, who had failed repeatedly at side character correction.

When the time was up, Little yellow chicken was released from the mall, loaded its past system logs——it recalled its past failures, and at the same time understood, why no one had chosen it.

The Superior frequently checked Little yellow chicken's current status, and as soon as it discovered its host had plans to sell the system, it would immediately investigate the host's violations, doling out punishments or break-ups as necessary.

Failing was one thing, being sold was another.

Little yellow chicken got sad easily, it was already not chosen, if it was also abandoned...

There wasn't much the Superior could do.

Since Little yellow chicken was chosen by it from the database at the beginning, and the code belonging to 「Side Character Correction」 was added, the data thus gained cognition, so it would help where it could, which could be considered a sense of responsibility.

But Little yellow chicken proactively said to Chu Zu, you should sell me for props——this was not something it would proactively say.

Little yellow chicken always thought the Superior staring at Chu Zu was being petty, the Superior scoffed at this, being petty was still better than being heartless.

Little yellow chicken was too stupid, even after subsequent upgrades and updates, it only increased its processing speed, its little brain had never expanded.

Chu Zu was never simple, no one knew his purpose, but he had already fully demonstrated a personality that could utilize everything.

And he was absolutely self-consistent, adept at building a bridge between “cold-hearted utilization” and “gentle care”, displaying the side that needed to be displayed.

Calm, composed, unruffled, and then getting what he wanted to get.

So the Superior didn't doubt at all that he could handle 《The Fifth Door》.

Arranging the plot, making the story's direction absolute, and unavoidable, making it difficult for bystanders to interfere, thereby watching the ending he had preset with their own eyes——Chu Zu was way too good at this.

“What ending Chu Shiju will have is all up to you.”

The Superior took a deep breath and said, “To be honest, I don't want you to die, you can be completely assured of this.”

“To speak openly, before the 「Side Correction」 department has recruited the next specialist who can prop up the department's performance, Chu Zu, you cannot die.”

Chu Zu sighed: “Little yellow chicken said your language expression skills are terrible, it's true.”

“If you had rephrased it as ‘our department has no pillar of support, for both emotional and logical reasons, I will guarantee you won't die from an accident’, wouldn't that sound much better?”

Little yellow chicken nodded frantically: “Exactly, exactly!”

The Superior said flatly: “I can't guarantee it.”

“With your ability, Chu Zu, as long as you don't want to die, you won't die.”

“But I can't guarantee your thoughts.”

It said, “The mental states of the specialists who detached from 《The Fifth Door》 were all very wrong.”

“「Chu Shiju」 is like he has his own consciousness, even after the host detaches, extreme and crazy thoughts will continuously appear in their minds, they know those thoughts don't belong to them, but the influence is too deep, they can't control their behavior.”

Chu Zu: “If you want me to agree to participate in this assessment, it's best not to tell me this much, it's very discouraging.”

“I didn't plan to say this much before I came.”

The Superior jumped off the small chair, intending to leave, “After seeing your eyes, I confirmed some things, reminding you how dangerous it is also for everyone's good.”

Chu Zu asked with interest: “Confirmed what?”

The Superior looked at him indifferently: “You are determined to win.”

After confirming the host was going to take on the mission and participate in this assessment, the System acted as if it was facing a great enemy.

The dog Superior wasn't skilled in the art of language, its words were very harsh, but the meaning conveyed was very clear.

Dangerous, very dangerous!

Little yellow chicken really wanted to persuade the host to give up, but what the Superior said was damnably accurate, the host was clearly set on going to try, with no room for discussion.

Helpless, Little yellow chicken could only do what was within its power.

It bought the mall's 「Physics Beast」 until it was sold out, and also followed other little chickens' advice, madly purchasing survival-type props.

It also installed a crisis-sensing device for itself, it was probably plagiarized from Spider-Man's spider-sense, the name was also copied, and very dark:

“Why did Uncle Ben die that day?”

But the other little chickens said this was very 'chicken-rib' (useless), the principle was actually to capture surrounding details, and from there deduce crises that might occur.

When the probability of a crisis event reached a certain level, the device's alarm would be triggered.

The kind-hearted little chicken's original words were: “Algorithms are also unreliable at times, there are too many big and small unexpected factors, it can't calculate them all, you still have to rely on-the-spot performance.”

Little yellow chicken was half-convinced, half-doubting, didn't care that much, bought it first and foremost.

“Are we really not going to prepare a little longer?”

Little yellow chicken fluttered onto the sofa, “We can go after finishing these tens of millions of words, we're not in a hurry.”

Chu Zu was looking at Chu Shiju's almost blank character profile.

Blank as in vacuum-blank, name, age, gender... gone.

The criticized deus ex machina ability wasn't written at all, and it couldn't be seen from the main text either.

Sometimes he seemed to have opened his third eye, able to accurately capture the locations of other people in the building, sometimes he could exert strength far exceeding his physique, his body's agility was also high and low at times, it was impossible to see the upper or lower limits.

Even his madness had no pattern.

When surrounded by others and spoken to maliciously, he had no reaction at all, but if left alone, he would have a major and minor fit on the spot in no time, and wouldn't quiet down without slaughtering a few people.

“No need, let's go directly.”

Just when Little yellow chicken thought the host was fully confident and could properly handle this crisis-ridden life-and-death situation, the host said calmly: “If I get affected, you stay far away from me.”

“I won't!”

The system pawed at Chu Zu, “Sorry, it's me, I'm too nervous, don't be affected by me, this is just a simple assessment, we can definitely do it.”

Chu Zu nodded slightly: “Yes, we definitely can.”

Preparations were about done, the import for 《The Fifth Door》 began.

The system threw all its messy thoughts to the back of its mind, it even comforted itself with the bright future.

After the promotion and salary raise, the host wouldn't have it so hard, and would have a high degree of autonomy.

Its eye for choosing novels wasn't great, but the host was very formidable, letting the host choose for himself, he definitely wouldn't suffer a loss.

And with a higher position, no matter how capable the recruited newcomers were, they couldn't shake the host's position, the Superior would also have to think twice.

...

Little yellow chicken thought of many things, but the one thing it didn't expect, was that accidents always arrive one step ahead of plans.

The import finished, Little yellow chicken's vision went completely black for an instant, when it opened its eyes again, the previously installed crisis management device was blaring wildly.

The alarm sound and red lights surrounded it, turning Little yellow chicken into a red-glowing little chicken tortured by noise and light pollution.

Also being tortured, was the... Superior before its eyes.

The system suddenly appeared in the Superior's office, Chu Zu's figure was nowhere to be seen.

The Superior said in an impatient tone tinged with confusion: “Turn off the alarm——what are you doing?”

“...What am I doing... I'm importing 《The Fifth Door》...”

Little yellow chicken was dumbfounded.

What was going on, where had this sent it?

Was this still 《The Fifth Door》?

After being stunned for a moment, Little yellow chicken shrieked: “I can't go back to the host's sea of consciousness!”

“Where is my host——!!!”

Even when it had previously entered the Little black cat's sea of consciousness, the connection between the system and Chu Zu was still tight, they could maintain communication, and Little yellow chicken could go back at any time.

But the current situation was, it couldn't recognize Chu Zu at all, as if such a person didn't exist in the first place.

What was more fatal was, if it was just Little yellow chicken being separated, that would be fine, but all the props were stored via the system code.

Regardless of whether Chu Zu had completed the import, or was stuck somewhere else... he had nothing on him.

Seeing the little chicken so anxious it was about to roll on the ground, the Superior was silent for two seconds, then opened its mouth: “Give me the logs.”

Little yellow chicken pulled out the system logs, while demanding: “Was it you! I know you've always been jealous of our human-chicken unity, you can't cause trouble at this time!”

The Superior said sternly: “Be quiet!”

Little yellow chicken was about to cry.

The Superior's movements were very fast, it not only quickly checked the logs, and after confirming Little yellow chicken's operation had no errors, it immediately turned to check the import data for 《The Fifth Door》.

“Listen, right now it doesn't matter if it's a BUG or something else, wait for me to parse the import data stream and then I'll open a backdoor.”

The Superior's hand speed was flying fast, parsing the code, its speaking speed was also astonishingly fast.

When it was nervous, it instead became completely calm, its whole body's light blue fluff was cold.

“The world rules will automatically repair after detecting an illegal intrusion, you hurry up and scram inside to find your host.”

Little yellow chicken replied “mhm mhm”, not daring to blink.

Time passed minute by minute, second by second.

Little yellow chicken stared intently at the Superior, seeing its movements pause, it quickly asked: “Is it done? Is it done?”

The Superior stopped all movements of its hands, its usually calm and steady chest suddenly heaved a few times, and it broke out in a cold sweat.

“《The Fifth Door》 has a firewall specifically targeting the 「Side Character Correction」 system.”

Little yellow chicken was stunned.

The Superior's throat moved with difficulty: “Chu Zu has already completed the import, but you can't get in.”

“He can only complete the mission by himself.”

Little yellow chicken was both angry and anxious, the turned-off alarm started to blare wildly again, making its brain buzz and jump.

The Superior's words made it feel like it was on pins and needles, Little yellow chicken immediately started calculating itself——the Superior hadn't lied to it.

It couldn't tell what was making it panic, Little yellow chicken's whole body was trembling uncontrollably.

The Superior patted its head, told it to stay in the office, don't be nervous, then turned its head and began to urgently contact other departments, to see if it could get assistance, while simultaneously troubleshooting the problem.

That sentence Chu Zu had said kept echoing in its mind.

——If I die inside, it means I'm really dead.

The system found a spot in the office, and wretchedly opened the main text of 《The Fifth Door》.

After Chu Zu's import finished, the main text content started refreshing from the node he imported at, new words appeared in the main text.

【Chu Zu opened his eyes.

The room was pure white, empty and quiet, the clock showed it was now past eleven, outside the window sealed with iron bars there were a few stars, so it should be night.

Chu Zu spent some time recalling who he was, and why he was here.

Finally, he let out a low sigh devoid of any emotion.

“I've died again...”

Chu Zu lay quietly for a while, just as he was about to get up.

His hand had just grasped the cold bar of the white iron bed, when there seemed to be some movement in the corner.

“Who's there?”

Chu Zu asked.

The shadow in the corner replied: “You forgot to take your medicine again.”

“What medicine?”

“The medicine the doctor prescribed you, Clozapine and Risperidone.”

“Medicine for schizophrenia?”

“Yes.”

That shadow said, “It's about time, get up, Azu.”

The shadow said: “Let's try one more time, to escape this place. Remember I said, we have to leave the mental hospital, and find that building——you must go there.”】

The system could barely breathe, holding the main text, it came before the busy Superior.

“Host... Host didn't import as Chu Shiju.”

It said with a tearful tone, “There were originally four characters, the host became the fifth... What on earth is going on?”