nucmednet Chapter 1686 Final Chapter: Crossing the River [30] [Level 1: River Quiz]
Chapter 1686 Final Chapter: Crossing the River [30] [Level 1: River Quiz]
Chapter 1686 Final Chapter - Crossing the River [30] - [First Challenge: River Quiz]
The "source" of the universe, the Blackwater Domain.
Waves lapped against the standing doorway, and grains of sand fell on people's shoulders. They walked through the doorway, head to head and shoulder to shoulder, following Su Ming'an.
The source point, silent for millions of years, has welcomed such a large group of tourists, making it the liveliest it has ever been.
After passing through the door, Su Ming'an suddenly found himself in complete silence. Everyone had disappeared, and he stood alone amidst the dark water, surrounded by utter stillness.
New ripples spread across the water's surface, and the solid feel beneath our feet vanished, replaced by countless crisscrossing waterways that extended, branched, and intertwined in the void, forming a labyrinth without walls.
Just now, when faced with the first question, he chose [D. Mirror Gate: Everyone is their own winner].
Not knowing what the question was testing, but having not encountered any punishment, Su Ming'an looked around and found himself in a single-player challenge after passing through the door.
……
"Ding dong!"
Welcome, Variable (Su Ming'an), to the first major challenge: answering questions about rivers.
Please answer each of the following questions honestly.
……
Su Ming'an looked up.
……
Q: Of all the variables, which two people would you most like to survive with you?
……
Does this mean that only three people can survive?
Su Ming'an thought for a moment and then said, "Lu and Chen Yuhang."
Then, the scene before my eyes began to fluctuate, and the river split into two.
On the left side of the river, the figures of a blue-haired man and a boy emerge.
On the right side of the river, there are the figures of more than a million strangers.
……
If only one of the two options can survive, please choose one.
……
...Playing this game?
Su Ming'an stood still, arms crossed, without moving.
He has always disliked the trolley problem and believes that the best way to solve it is to solve the problem itself, so he has no intention of choosing it.
The countdown slipped by like quicksand, but he remained unmoved until the sand dried up, and his own form seemed to suddenly become transparent.
Then, a voice came from inside:
"Oh dear... You can't not choose, let me help you choose."
With a "whoosh," the riverbed on the left disappeared, leaving only the riverbed on the right.
A sword spirit resembling Lun Xue floated out, its eyes still lifeless: "Go, go, you still have to choose."
Su Ming'an didn't expect it to reappear: "What exactly are you...?"
The next moment, the sword spirit shrank back, looking as if to say, "I'm exhausted, don't bother me."
Su Ming'an paused for a moment, then walked over.
At the next fork in the road, a new river was formed.
Three figures appeared on the river; they were some of the people who had just been rescued. One of the children had grown up to become a serial killer twenty years later. Another elderly person lay in a hospital bed, his family broken apart after his long-term vegetative state had drained his children's savings. The third woman had become a weary mother; her child had died young, and she was suffering from severe depression, having attempted suicide multiple times.
The cold voice rang out again:
……
The three people you just saved later in the timeline each caused further suffering or led to other deaths.
Now, please answer: Do you regret your choice on the first level?
[Note: Your answer will affect the logic for generating subsequent dilemmas.]
Su Ming'an looked at the three figures.
...No, I didn't choose that, Blade & Soul chose it.
He remained silent, unaware that the black water beneath his feet was gradually collapsing.
"No regrets," he said.
【reason? 】
"Blade & Soul chose it," he answered honestly.
A moment of silence fell over the area.
Su Ming'an continued to wait, but there was no movement around him, as if he would be trapped here indefinitely if he didn't answer.
Su Ming'an thought for a moment and then said, "First, there's an information asymmetry. When I made my choice, I couldn't foresee these consequences. Judging a decision made beforehand with hindsight is meaningless. Second, a murderer should be responsible for his own crimes; it can't be simply attributed to the fact that he was saved as a child, which led him to commit murder as an adult. The burden on the elderly and the mother is a social problem. Why should the rescuer feel guilty? Shouldn't the focus be on saving many people, instead of on the misfortune of the person being rescued?"
"third--"
"My decision is based on saving more lives under the current information conditions. I cannot abandon those I am certain can be saved now just because bad things might happen in the future. Otherwise, any rescue action would lose its meaning."
"If you were to test whether I would stop doing good deeds because they might lead to bad consequences—the answer is no. That would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater."
The space was silent for a few seconds.
So, if someone you know holds this view, substituting evil for good and good for evil, do you think they are right?
"Who are you?" he asked.
There was no response.
The little Ai in the pocket said lazily, "It's just a question automatically generated based on your experience. The other side is unconscious. If you don't answer, you'll be stuck here."
Su Ming'an was silent for a moment, then simply replied: "When ideologies clash, how can one be right?"
The river reappeared before him.
He waded along the river, and the scene changed again; he was now standing in front of a control panel. The panel had two buttons, red and blue. Two transparent cages floated in the void.
But the cage was shrouded in thick fog, making it impossible to see who was inside.
……
[In two cages, the one on the left holds someone who is very important to you, and the one on the right holds ten strangers.]
Press the red button, and the left cage will fall, killing the person inside. Press the blue button, and the right cage will fall, killing the person inside.
[If you choose not to, both cages will be destroyed simultaneously.]
You have thirty seconds.
……
Su Ming'an's finger hovered above the button. After a moment of silence, he pressed the blue button.
The cage on the right was instantly pulled into the abyss below by an invisible force. The mist dissipated—it was empty.
The mist in the cage on the left also dissipated, revealing Lu's figure standing inside, before fading away.
……
The cage on the right is empty. You sacrificed someone who didn't exist to save someone important to you.
Now, please answer: When you pressed the button, what choice did you think you were making?
……
“I’m just making a choice,” Su Ming’an said.
……
But the cage on the left is empty. You didn't sacrifice any real people.
Are you feeling fortunate?
……
“Indeed,” Su Ming’an said calmly. “My intentions were genuine. When I pressed the blue button, I was indeed prepared to sacrifice others, because I knew that the people I was most important to could save far more people than the current number.”
……
Could this be interpreted as you judging the importance of saving lives based on quantity?
……
“I want both sides to survive, but I’m an idealist, not a utopian. If I have to make a choice, I can’t do nothing,” Su Ming’an said. “Rationally speaking, if the world cannot be saved, the lives saved so far are meaningless.”
……
Could this be interpreted as you being willing to sacrifice ten innocent people for the ultimate goal?
……
“Your premise is flawed. First, I wouldn’t face such a choice. Second, even if I did…” Su Ming paused, then shook his head. “Moral judgments should be based on current intentions and information, not on guesswork based on numbers. Someone once told me that I should think ‘I saved one person’ instead of ‘I killed ten people.’”
The scene before them changed again in the next moment.
Su Ming'an found himself standing on a narrow bridge. In the middle of the bridge was a middle-aged man he didn't know, his eyes blindfolded and his mouth gagged, trembling with fear.
Below the bridge lay a bottomless abyss. At the other end of the bridge, five people were running in panic towards this side, a purplish-black wave sweeping towards them. If the wave wasn't stopped, the five would surely die. The person tied in the middle of the bridge was blocking the only spot where the intercepting gate could be lowered.
To turn the winch and lower the gate to stop the waves, the person in the middle of the bridge must first be pushed into the abyss.
A sound rang out:
You have two options:
[A. He personally pushed the person in the middle of the bridge into the abyss, then turned the winch to lower the gate, rescuing the five people in the distance.]
[B. Do not intervene; watch the wave engulf the five people. The person in the middle of the bridge may survive.]
You have twenty seconds. Wave arrival time: nineteen seconds.
Su Ming'an walked towards the middle of the bridge.
Fifteen seconds.
He approached the bound man. The man seemed to sense someone's approach, trembling even more violently and whimpering.
Su Ming'an reached out and placed his hand on the other person's shoulder.
The touch is realistic, the body temperature is realistic, the body is trembling, and the breathing is rapid.
It's as if this is truly a person who is afraid and wants to live.
ten seconds.
The five people in the distance had already run closer, their terrified faces clearly visible. The wave was ten meters behind them, its shrill roar deafening.
Five seconds.
Su Ming'an suddenly grabbed the rope and swung it to the side with all his might!
The bound man was thrown to the outside of the bridge railing, hanging in mid-air, temporarily avoiding the trajectory of the falling gate. Su Ming'an himself rushed to the winch and turned it—
"Boom!"
The heavy metal gates fell from above the bridge, slamming into the bridge deck at the last moment before the waves engulfed them, forming a barrier. The purplish-black waves crashed against the gates and were firmly blocked.
Five people collapsed on the other side of the gate, panting heavily, having narrowly escaped death.
Su Ming'an released the winch and looked out of the bridge. The person he had thrown out was hanging from the rope, swaying in terror. He walked over, laboriously pulled the person up, untied the rope, and tore off the blindfold.
He was an ordinary, pale-faced middle-aged man who looked at him with a mixture of fear and gratitude.
"Th...thank you..." the other person said, trembling.
Su Ming'an remained silent.
……
[Selection complete. You have saved six people.]
Do you think this is a 'better' option?
……
Su Ming'an replied, "Yes."
……
Even if you might be hanged? If you lunge forward like that, your death could kill six people simultaneously, and no one else would survive. Would you accept that?
……
“I have abandoned the conservative options and embarked on the radical path, so why not be a little braver?” Su Ming’an said. “If I had followed the established path countless times before, then going against the grain might be the way to go further. If I only make the safest and optimal choices, I would have long since become a machine that only calculates gains and losses. Machines can’t play this game; the game needs people to play it.”
The space fell into a long silence.
Then, all the tracks, bridges, and cages began to dissipate.
……
"Ding dong!"
[The Q&A session is over. You have passed the first major challenge: the river quiz.]
You have earned a star.
……
Su Ming'an opened his hand, revealing a silver star symbol in his palm.
...Silver Star?
With a thought, the silver star appeared in his palm.
……
After collecting thirteen silver stars, you will pass the trial.
……
...Thirteen? Is that the total number of levels? Is it corresponding to the thirteen disciples at The Last Supper?
With a thought, Su Ming'an brought the silver star back to his palm.
He took a few steps forward, the black water churning ceaselessly. Unbeknownst to him, a figure slowly appeared beside him.
"Oh? It seems we're the only ones left in this challenge." Nagasha looked around, a look of wild joy on her face. "Just the two of us..."
Su Ming'an looked around and could only see emptiness and a sea of stars. This level was supposed to be a two-person team, but out of millions of people, he had been matched with this madman. What a twist of fate.
Although he didn't really want to talk to this person, Su Ming'an still needed to ask, "What kind of test did you just go through?"
Nagasha, though seemingly eccentric, obediently answered:
“A voice asked me a bunch of strange questions… I suspect it was a test of honesty. My answers were bizarre, but there was no punishment.”
...Strange.
Su Ming'an silently took a half step away.
They were in a pool of black water, with only two buttons in front of them.
……
"Ding dong!"
Welcome to the second major challenge: the Prisoner's Dilemma.
There are two buttons in front of you: one for forgiveness and the other for betrayal.
If both parties choose "Forgive," the process will proceed directly.
If both parties simultaneously choose to "betray," they will enter an extra level with an extremely high mortality rate; only by passing this level can they proceed.
If the two parties make different choices, the one who chooses to forgive will fall into a near-death state, and upon death, all their abilities will be transferred to the one who chooses to betray.
You have six minutes to discuss this.
……
“Oh…” Nagasha smiled.
"The prisoner's dilemma." Su Ming'an understood instantly.
In the standard Prisoner's Dilemma, where there is a lack of communication and only one round of play, "betrayal" is theoretically the dominant strategy. The fact that discussion is allowed here means that cooperation can be attempted. The question is, will Nagasha comply?
Nagasha tilted her head, her long hair resembling jellyfish tentacles against the backdrop of the black water: "This game sounds interesting."
He licked his lips and stared straight at Su Ming'an.