Methods of Splitting

Ren Yi suddenly thought of something else and looked up, meeting the waiter's gaze.

"What about the customers who lose all their chips?"

The waiter paused. "...Excuse me?"

"The people who lose all their chips, can't pay back their collateral, and can't leave," Ren Yi said. "What's the difference between them and the stowaways?"

The waiter was silent for two seconds. "They belong to me."

Oh, right. Sorry, I almost forgot.

Well, it looked like there was no loophole to exploit here.

Despite that, Ren Yi was still eager to try something.

According to what the waiter just said, the stowaways were cleared out periodically. While there might not be many, there were definitely still some inside the Entertainment City.

Ren Yi didn't care why these people had come here.

But without friends or family, no one would share their invitation or chips with anyone else.

This group could be considered the absolute bottom of the Entertainment City's hierarchy.

To Ren Yi, they were a group of wild experimental samples.

Besides, if they could get a chip that represented hope and allowed them to keep scraping by, they should be more than happy to cooperate with him.

As for the Entertainment City, doing this would bring these Participants back under its control.

So, it was a three-way win.

He had a good grasp of the Entertainment City's rules now. He couldn't participate in the gambling games himself, but other than that, as long as he didn't touch anything related to contracts, there would be no danger.

Ren Yi stole another glance at the waiter.

If it involved contracts, the one in danger would likely be the Entertainment City itself, though the Entertainment City didn't know that yet...

Ren Yi shoveled a few more mouthfuls of food into his mouth and said to Ren Man, "Brother, I want to go look for more people like the ones from just now."

He paused.

The despair and pain of those stowaways... Ren Man probably wouldn't like it.

"Brother, why don't you find a quiet place to wait for me? I'll just take a quick look around and come back..." Ren Yi's voice trailed off.

"Okay." Just when he thought Ren Man would object, Ren Man gave a slight nod. His tone was flat, yet reassuring. "Call me if you need anything."

He almost forgot—the Alliance Parent's educational philosophy had always been "free-range."

"Huh?" Dr. Lin, who was busy gnawing on a bear paw, suddenly looked up and asked hesitantly, "What about me? Am I in charge of looking after your brother?"

Ren Yi gave him a hollow look.

Right. If this guy really had a mission to stick with his brother, he certainly couldn't leave.

Just then, a sweet voice suddenly came from behind Ren Yi.

"Please rest assured. Our Entertainment City provides professional one-on-one service for new guests. This will not change even if you are temporarily separated."

These words weren't spoken by the waiter—or rather, they weren't spoken by the waiter currently standing in front of them.

Ren Yi spun around, startled by the person who had suddenly appeared behind him.

At some point, another person wearing a rabbit mask had positioned themselves not far behind him.

However, the high heels and the high ponytail indicated that this person was different from the previous one.

The waitress gave a slight bow, a sweet smile on her face and a gentle voice. "Hello, Mr. Ren Yi. If you don't mind, I will be providing you with guidance services from now on."

"When did your Entertainment City start offering custodial services?" Dr. Lin blinked and muttered.

Still, he didn't seem particularly opposed to the idea.

Having received the signal from Dr. Lin that it was "safe," Ren Yi nodded, stood up, and followed the waitress toward the restaurant's exit.

At the restaurant entrance, Ren Yi couldn't help but look back once more before turning his gaze back to the waitress in front of him. He hesitated. "So, you guys..."

"Is there any difference between you?"

"Listen to you." The waitress's tone was gentle and tinged with amusement as she reached up to flick her high ponytail. "Isn't the difference obvious?"

"If I'm not your type, you can always swap. I have all kinds here—men, women, young, old. We even support customization," she added with a laugh.

Alright then. She wasn't trying to hide it at all.

Given that this waitress had appeared out of thin air without being summoned and knew his name immediately...

Ren Yi instantly realized that the waiters of Xinglong Entertainment City probably shared some kind of "commonality."

"I mean, do you have split personalities, or is it one consciousness controlling multiple clones?" Ren Yi couldn't contain his curiosity and asked his question bluntly.

There was a significant difference between the two. One was a single individual splitting into different sub-entities, while the other was a unified consciousness inhabiting many bodies.

Instead of answering directly, the waitress gave a meaningful smile. "Haven't you encountered Anomalies with these forms of existence before?"

This was a tacit admission that Anomalies did indeed exist in those two forms.

"No." Ren Yi shook his head, then hesitated. "I haven't seen it in Anomalies, but I've seen many humans with fused consciousnesses, though only one consciousness remains dominant."

Just then, Wang Zhixin's figure drifted out from Ren Yi's pocket. The tip of the crystal poked out as he curiously observed the waitress.

"Oh?" The waitress's eyes instantly lit up, her tone full of pleasant surprise. "Though it's a bit presumptuous of me to ask, is this NPC of yours for sale?"

"Not for sale." Ren Yi reacted instantly, grabbing Wang Zhixin and stuffing him back into his pocket with a wary look at the waitress.

"Fair enough." A hint of regret touched the waitress's face, but she didn't push it and quickly regained her composure.

After a moment of thought, she finally answered Ren Yi's earlier question. "I am the latter."

That meant he—or she—was a single consciousness with many clones.

No wonder this waitress was so familiar from the start. From her perspective, they had already been chatting for a long time.

So Dr. Lin wasn't just venting his frustration on a single innocent waiter; none of the waiters in the entire casino were innocent, so they were all fair game.

Curiosity welled up again, and Ren Yi couldn't help but ask, "Is this your ability, or a trait of your race?"

He could split his own body, but so far, he couldn't split his consciousness or control the detached limbs. Compared to this Entertainment City Anomaly, he was far behind.

He was especially curious to know if he could reach that level in the future.

"Your questions are a bit offensive, little Mr. Ren Yi," the waitress said with a smile, her tone teasing rather than genuinely angry.

"Sorry." Ren Yi immediately shut his mouth.

To his surprise, the waitress paused and then dutifully began to explain. "If your True Form is of a divisible type, there's a high probability you can learn it later."

She paused and added, "Of the two types of splitting you mentioned, my type—unified consciousness with multiple clones—is actually the simplest. It's also the most mentally stable."

"But those 'split personality' style Anomalies are much rarer. To be honest, aside from the fact that they must be killed in their entirety to truly 'die' once, they are practically indistinguishable from completely separate individuals."

At this point, her tone became more serious. "I suggest you stay far away from them."

"Is it because each individual's mental state is unstable?" Ren Yi couldn't help but press.

"Because their left brains are constantly fighting their right brains," the waitress said succinctly.

Ren Yi's mouth twitched. This "left brain fighting the right brain" probably didn't just refer to psychological games.

It was meant literally—the Anomaly formed from the left brain fighting the Anomaly formed from the right brain.

A scene of such fratricide inexplicably flickered through his mind, and for some reason, he kind of wanted to see it.

"However, each of their clones can open an Instance, unlike me..." the waitress continued, her tone tinged with self-pity as she began to chatter on.