Chapter 159: Chapter 159

It wasn’t just two more Replicas showing up!

At the same time, he also lost two Threaded Blood Puppet Replicas!

In other words… he lost 20 strands of hair!

This! This was outrageous!

Jiang Ye’s first reaction was to suspect that some moron was impersonating him again, maybe even using his Replica Substitution ability.

But very quickly, he realized—

These two new Replicas…

The real Jiang Ye. Not an imposter...

Because almost instantly, the shared consciousness from the two new Replicas was transmitted to all the other Replicas.

In just a moment, Jiang Ye understood—

This wasn’t someone faking him.

It was that two of his Replicas had just exited from his Personal Instance!

In a flash, thoughts aligned.

He immediately synced with those two Replicas and shared full consciousness.

And the information those two Replicas brought back left him both thrilled and shocked!

The “thrilled” part was—

Previously, the Replicas left outside had been anxious, not knowing what was happening to the main body inside the Personal Instance.

But now, with Replicas exiting from inside...

He immediately gained access to all the main body’s intel from within the instance!

Which meant, the situation inside and outside the Personal Instance were no longer isolated—

They were now connected!

Based on the shared intel, although the main body was trapped inside the second stage prison of the instance...

He wasn’t in any real danger.

He also had full control of all the Replicas entering the Personal Instance, allowing him to run various experiments and command the whole situation!

And the biggest surprise of all—

When a Replica “dies” inside the Personal Instance...

It can actually leave the instance through Replica Substitution!

So does that mean the main body could also escape the Personal Instance through Replica Substitution if it dies?

Wouldn’t that be... basically cheating?

Of course, that was the “shocking” part for Jiang Ye—

The two Replicas that exited were one with the S-tier Eye of True Sight,

And the other was a B-tier Replica that Jiang Ye had sent in using his Light-Type Replica’s mass-generation ability.

Clearly, they had both died inside the instance,

Which triggered Replica Substitution, ejecting them from the Personal Instance.

And from the memories shared by those two Replicas—

The main body had used the Replicas in Stage One to try out all kinds of approaches.

Including but not limited to:

Killing as many people as possible to stack Survival Points;

Waging mental warfare with the teacher who was about to call the cops, negotiating;

Waiting for the police to arrive, hoping to extract info from them...

In short, different Replicas tried different methods.

But so far, none of them achieved high ratings upon entering the prison of Stage Two.

The best rating came from waiting for the police, then leaving the classroom in handcuffs. Thɪs chapter is updated by N0v3l.Fiɾe.net

But even that rating was only a C+.

In Stage One’s classroom, the main body still hadn’t found the correct clearance method.

The main body had hoped the Replicas outside would send more help in.

But they had no way to communicate.

The Replicas outside didn’t understand the situation inside.

They had thought to send help—

But assumed only strong Replicas would be useful.

Otherwise, if they sent in weaklings, wouldn’t they just be dragging the team down?

But now, with shared data, he realized—

The Personal Instance didn’t need powerful Replicas.

It needed a lot of Replicas!

The more he sent in, the more experiments the main body could conduct!

In fact, the main body had already come up with multiple new experimental methods, but had no Replicas to carry them out...

Luckily, now that two Replicas had come out, bringing the info back—

The outside Replicas and the main body inside could finally work together.

And as for the “death” of those two Replicas—

That was another detail to watch out for when progressing through the Personal Instance.

In Stage Two’s prison, there was a sentence timer system.

The main body had wondered—

What would happen when time ran out?

Would it just transition to Stage Three like the move from Stage One to Two?

Or… would it be death?

Now, the Replicas outside had the answer—

There was no transition to any “Stage Three.”

Those two Replicas were executed once the timer in Stage Two ran out!

Thankfully, Replica Substitution triggered.

So the two Replicas weren’t truly dead…

Jiang Ye had to bring this intel back to the main body inside the instance ASAP.

And he had to send in more Replicas right away to help the main body conduct further trials!

Though he had previously speculated—

That even if the main body “dies” in Stage Two, he could escape via Replica Substitution...

What happened next made him realize—things weren’t looking good!

The two Replicas who came out of the instance had appeared directly inside the small storage room connected to Room 2025, where the Personal Instance gateway was.

Because they were already close to the entrance.

Jiang Ye immediately tried sending the “useless” B-tier Replica back in.

Replicas that had died inside the Personal Instance could not enter it again!

Then if the main body died inside the instance…

He might not actually die for real.

He’d never be able to re-enter the instance again!

And if the main body could never enter the Personal Instance again...

Then the entire Personal Instance might face other problems as well!

For example—other Replicas might also become unable to re-enter the instance!

After all, the way the Personal Instance works is: initially, Replicas can't enter. Only after the main body enters can other Replicas follow.

And if it really came to that point...

It’s very possible he’d completely lose the chance to clear the Personal Instance!

Sure, Survival Stones can be looted from other players.

But the benefits of the Personal Instance were something Jiang Ye really didn’t want to give up!

So the current situation wasn’t exactly optimistic!

Especially with one more issue—

The trial version of the S-tier skill Soul Link was about to expire!

His Replicas outside had been able to act so freely precisely because of Soul Link, the S-tier skill!

Once that skill expired and the main body was still trapped inside...

Then all Replicas outside would find their movements severely restricted!

Having figured all this out, nearly all of Jiang Ye’s Replicas inhaled sharply in unison!

Currently, the Void Mirror Palace had already been destroyed by him.

But he now had a new, even better secret base—

The Secret Graveyard of 4444.

Having resolved to help his main body clear the Personal Instance as soon as possible,

Jiang Ye shifted all his efforts to center around the instance.

He immediately placed the Survival Jade Token containing 500 Survival Points (from the White-Clad Woman’s reward) into the Replica Shared Space.

Then, the Administrator Replica, who already had 108 Survival Points, resumed the great undertaking of mass-producing Replicas!

He did consider throwing a Dice of Fate onto the Administrator Replica’s head—

But sadly, in Death-State, an Administrator couldn’t be targeted by the Dice of Fate.

Actually, after experiencing the benefits of “Death-State” firsthand, Jiang Ye finally understood—

This so-called “Death-State” was indeed absurdly powerful.

As long as one stayed in that state and didn’t encounter Light, they were practically unkillable.

But the downside was also obvious—

Many items couldn’t be used in Death-State.

You couldn’t even extract Survival Points from a Jade Token.

Come to think of it, Jiang Ye could now understand why the 4444 Administrator had no valuables on him when he died in the PK Arena.

If you can’t use anything in Death-State, there’s no point carrying it into battle.

This item restriction could be considered 4444’s biggest weakness.

Because if he wanted to use an item, he had to switch out of Death-State.

And once in normal state—he could be locked on.

If someone had the power to deliver an SSS-tier kill,

He might be killed outright, bypassing Death-State!

Sure, SSS-tier death is rare—but not impossible...

The Apartment Boss is incredibly powerful and well-stocked. He might really have such an item.

In other words—even without using Light, there were ways to kill 4444!

In the game, wasn’t 4444 taken down precisely by a scheme of the Apartment Boss?

Jiang Ye still hadn’t looted Zhou Qiming’s body.

After the Light Replica left the White-Clad Woman, he circled around the now-fused Apartment 4444 using Light and Shadow Escape.

Zhou Qiming’s few followers, including Lin Jing and Ouyang, were still hiding inside Duel Machines.

But curiously, Zhou Qiming’s own machine... was nowhere to be found.

Jiang Ye didn’t dwell on it.

Instead, the Administrator Replica produced 20 more Replicas in one go.

One by one, he sent them all into the Personal Instance.

Among those 20, one turned out to be an S-tier Replica with Dark Element Affinity.

But this Dark S-tier Replica was far inferior to the previous Dark Replica "Qu Xing," which had been generated alongside Light.

Not only were the stats worse, even the initial skills weren’t S-tier.

Still, an S-tier talent is always promising.

And the main body had a few experiment ideas that required Replicas with certain abilities.

One idea was to use invisibility to evade arrest by the police and stay in the classroom, to see if more secrets could be uncovered.

Another experiment was to use resurrection—to try and revive Teacher Zhou, whom he had previously killed.

If Zhou could be revived, then maybe the act of murder would be undone?

And if that were the case, would he still be sent to prison?

Could it be that Stage Two of the Personal Instance actually had alternate routes?

Of course, the main body had been stuck in prison so long...

He’d even started having crazier ideas, staring at the death penalty countdown.

What if he had a Replica with time manipulation abilities?

Could he rewind time to undo Zhou’s death?

Could he even return from Stage Two to Stage One using time skills?

That idea really was insane.

But the main body actually tried it—

Because the flow of time in the Personal Instance was different from the outside.

It had been 48 days in prison already.

And each day, the main body could generate one new Replica.

But the Replicas created in prison had to spend Survival Points daily to survive.

Yet they had no way to earn Survival Points inside.

So, the Replica generated on Day One wouldn't survive Day Two due to lack of points.

In other words, each day, only that day’s Replica could stay with him.

All previous ones were dead.

Still, the main body fantasized—

With more than 400 days of prison ahead, maybe he could spawn a Replica with time powers someday...

Clearly, prison life had driven him halfway mad.

After acquiring Wu Ying’s memories, Jiang Ye was certain—

Not even in the vast Doomsday Apartment world had anyone shown time-based powers!

With so many players, and not one with time manipulation.

And now his main body hoped to get one in just 400 Replicas?

Of course, complaints aside—

Jiang Ye’s Replicas and the main body were essentially one and the same.

It was only because communication had been cut off that their perspectives started to diverge.

Truthfully, as a Replica, Jiang Ye had considered the possibility—

Could he really create a time-powered Replica someday?

Then the greatest chance lay in using the Observer!

After all, the Observer had the SSS-tier ability Prophecy.

And Colorless Decree, part of Prophecy, could make zero-probability events happen!

Maybe time abilities didn’t currently exist in Doomsday Apartment—

But that didn’t mean Jiang Ye couldn’t get one!

With this realization, his first instinct was—

Train the Observer in mastering all the Decrees.

Try to quickly unlock Prophecy, and use it to influence the creation of future Replicas!

But soon, he thought again—

Since the Personal Instance had a different time flow than the outside world...

Then if he sent the Observer into the Personal Instance—

Wouldn’t the Observer gain even more time to study Prophecy?

What’s more, Jiang Ye would be sending in a large number of Replicas to help with the main body’s experiments.

Each of those could generate new Replicas daily inside the prison of Stage Two!

True, those new Replicas wouldn’t survive to the next day due to lack of Survival Points.

But every single Replica generated would give the Observer another chance to test Prophecy!

The Observer only had 10 days to grow in the Beginner Apartment outside...

But in the Personal Instance, he could have hundreds of days!

If judged by the main body’s prison timeline, that’s over 400 days!

The more Jiang Ye thought about it, the more he believed—

Sending the Observer into the Personal Instance was the best investment!

Of course, as a Replica, Jiang Ye didn’t make the final call.

Now that communication with the main body was reestablished,

He first sent Replicas in to relay these thoughts to the main body.

And almost right after that batch of 20 Replicas entered the Personal Instance—

Another Replica came out!