Chapter 20 Chapter 20 Exposure of Identity

I breathe through my nose.Inhale, exhale.inhale. "Tracey, don't be so nervous, this is just a simulation of the situation." The fourth child said softly. He was wrong.The last simulation has seeped into my being, both waking and sleeping.Not only the imagery of crows in the nightmare, but also the feeling experienced in the situation simulation - fear and helplessness, I suspect that is what I am really afraid of.In the shower, at breakfast, on the way here, that fear always pops up.When I was scared, I had the habit of biting my nails, and the nails had been bitten to the point where the nail bed was exposed.I can assure you, I'm not the only one who feels this way.

But I still nodded and closed my eyes. I was plunged into darkness, the last thing I remembered was the metal recliner and the needles stuck in my arms.This time there was no dry grass, no flock of crows.As if I had a premonition, my heartbeat suddenly accelerated.What could be the monster lurking in the dark that would drive me out of my mind?How long do I have to wait for it to show up? A blue sphere lit up a few meters above my head, and then another, filling the room with blue light.I was horrified to find myself in the deep pit of the base, only one step away from the Grand Canyon, and the freshmen stood around me, arms crossed, expressionless.I searched for Christina's face and found her standing among them too.No one moved.Their silence made my throat tighten.

I saw something in front of me—a blurred shadow of myself—and hurriedly reached out to touch it. What my fingers touched was cold and smooth glass, and when I looked up, it was a pane of glass.God, I'm in a closed glass box!I pushed on the top of my head to see if I could push it away, but it didn't budge.I'm locked in. My heart is beating faster and faster, I don't want to be trapped here, I want to escape.At this time, someone knocked on the glass in front of me, it was the fourth child!He pointed to my feet with a half-smile expression on his face. A few seconds ago, my feet were still dry.Now I'm standing in fifteen millimeters of water and my socks are soaked.I squatted down to see where the water was coming from, but the water seemed to appear out of nowhere, rising higher and higher from the bottom of the glass box.I looked up at the fourth, but he just shrugged and walked into the crowd of freshmen.

The water was rising faster and faster, and had already submerged my ankles.I raised my fist and slammed on the glass. "Hey!" I yelled, "Let me out!" The water continued to rise, cooling and soothing my bare calves.I hit the glass harder. "Let me out quickly!" I stare at Christina.She leaned over and whispered something to Pete, who was standing nearby, and they both laughed. The water was up to my thighs and I started banging my fists on the glass.Instead of trying to attract attention, I tried to escape on my own.I slammed into the glass with all my strength like crazy, took a step back, then slammed it hard with my shoulder, once, twice, three times, four times... I hit the glass hard-until my shoulder hurts I got up—screamed for help, and watched as the water rose to my waist, over my ribs, up to my chest, and there was nothing I could do.

"Help!" I screamed at the top of my voice, "Please... help me!" I slammed on the glass, do I really want to die here?I raised my trembling hands and scratched at my hair. At this time, I saw Will's face in the crowd of freshmen, and I suddenly thought of something—he seemed to have said something.Come on, think about it.I stopped, no longer trying in vain to strike the glass.Breathing became extremely difficult, but I had to work hard to breathe. In the next few seconds, I had to inhale as much air as possible, so maybe I could live a little longer. As the water level rose, the body began to float, floating to the top, I threw my head back, and the water was up to my chin.Pressing my face against the glass overhead, I gasped, sucking in as much air as I could.Then the water was not too much, and my whole body was soaked in the water.

Don't panic.Panic won't help.At this moment, my heart trembled with fear, and my thoughts scattered into a pan of sand.I slapped in the water, slammed the glass on the box wall, and kicked with all my strength, but the water dissipated my strength. "Situational simulations all happen in your head." I screamed, but as soon as I opened my mouth, it was filled with water.If it's all happening in my head, I can control it.The water hurt my eyes.The freshmen stared at me blankly, unmoved.They don't care at all. I screamed in despair again, and pushed the glass wall with my palm, suddenly there was a "click", and I heard the sound of breaking.When I removed my hand, there was a crack in the glass.I used my other hand to push the place next to it, and there was another cracking sound, and this crack extended long from the palm of my hand.My chest is burning like I just swallowed a fire.I lift my leg up to kick the glass, my toe hurting from the impact.But I heard a "creak," a long, deep sound.

I saw the panes of glass shatter in pieces and the water pushed me from behind and washed me out.Can breathe air again. Out of breath, I sat up.It turned out that I was still on the chair, panting heavily, and shaking my hands.The fourth child stood on my right, but he didn't help me to stand up, but just looked at me. "What's wrong?" I asked. "How on earth did you do it?" "Do what?" "Break the glass." "I don't know." The fourth child finally stretched out his hand, I grabbed his hand, swung my legs from the side of the chair, and stood on the ground, feeling relieved and finally calmed down.

He sighed, grabbed my elbow, and dragged me out the door, quickly across the hall.Then I stopped, wrenched his hand away, and pulled my arm back.He still didn't say a word, just stared at me.If I don't speak, he won't tell me anything. "What's wrong?" I asked. "You are a Divergent." I stared at him blankly, panic rushing through my body like an electric current.He knows.How did he know?I must have overlooked something, must have said something wrong. I should have acted more casually, so I leaned back, leaned my shoulders against the wall, and asked in feigned bewilderment, "What's a Divergent?"

"Don't play dumb," he yelled, "I doubted it last time, and it's more obvious this time. You're a Divergent if you can control the entire simulation. I'll delete the image this time. Unless you want to die in the canyon Next, otherwise, I advise you to quickly figure out how to hide this characteristic during the simulation of the situation. Now I have something to do first." He stormed back to the scenario room, slamming the door behind him.My heart is in my throat.I manipulated the simulation; broke the glass.But I didn't know that was the performance of the Divergent.

How did he know? I straightened up and walked towards the tattoo shop.I need an explanation, and I know someone who can give me the answer, and I'm going to her. I headed straight for the tattoo parlor - where I last saw Tori. Not many people go out at this moment, because it is the afternoon, most people are working and studying.There are three people in the tattoo parlor: a tattooist, a customer, and Tori.A tattooist is concentrating on drawing a "lion" on a customer's arm, and Tori is arranging a stack of papers on the counter.She looked up as I walked in. "Hello, Triss," she said, glancing at the tattoo artist next to him, who was so absorbed in his work that he didn't notice us, "let's go to the back."

I followed her behind the curtain.A curtain divides the room into two rooms.In the next room were chairs, extra needles and ink for tattooing, paper pads, and framed artwork.Tori drew the curtains and sat in one of the chairs, and I sat next to her, tapping my feet in boredom. "What's wrong?" she asked. "How is your scenario going?" "Very good," I nodded a few times, "It's a little too good, I heard it is." "what!" "Please explain to me," I begged in a low voice, "What exactly does it mean..." I hesitated, as if I shouldn't mention that word here—"divergent", "Who am I? What does it have to do with situational simulation?" Tori's demeanor changed suddenly, and she leaned back, her arms folded, her expression becoming wary. "If nothing else, when you go into a simulation, you...you can realize that what you're experiencing isn't real," she said. "And then there are people who can manipulate the simulation, and even turn it off. And..." She leaned over and looked me in the eyes, "Because you are still a fearless faction, you should live to die." My heart became oppressed and heavy, as if every word she said was piled up there.The pressure kept building until I couldn't take it anymore.I need to cry, or scream, or... In the end, I just gave a hoarse, short laugh, so short that it seemed to end as soon as it started.I asked slowly, "That means I have to die, right?" "Not necessarily." She said, "The leader of the Fearless faction didn't know about your situation. I immediately deleted your test results from the system and manually recorded it as 'Selfless faction'. But don't make mistakes, If they find out who you are, they'll get rid of you." I looked at her without saying a word.She doesn't seem crazy, her tone is so calm, but if there is a little urgency, I will not suspect that she is insane, she must be crazy.For such a long time since I was born, there has not been a single murder in our city.Even if a few people may kill them, it is impossible for the leader of the faction to do so. "You're too nervous," I said, "the leader of the Dauntless faction won't kill me, no one will do that. There will never be such a thing again. Isn't that what it's all about, isn't the five factions For this? Otherwise... there is no point." "Oh, do you think so?" She put her hands firmly on her knees and looked directly at me, her facial features tensed up because of the sudden anger, "They will kill my brother, why would they Forgive me, huh? What do you think is different about yourself?" "Your brother?" I couldn't help but narrow my eyes. "Yes. My brother. He and I were both transferred from the Erudite School, only his personality test results were indefinable. One day after the scenario simulation, they found his body in the Grand Canyon and said he committed suicide. Only he was doing the best in training, and he was dating another freshman, so happy, how could he kill himself?" She shook her head, "You have brothers too, right? If he is suicidal, Don't you notice it at all?" I tried to imagine Caleb committing suicide.But this idea is really ridiculous even to me.No matter how hard life is, he will never make that choice. Her sleeves were rolled up, and I saw a river tattooed on her right arm.Did she write it after her brother died?Or did the river symbolize yet another fear she had overcome? She lowered her voice: "On the second level of the test, George did well and quickly, and he said that the situational simulation was not even scary for him... like a game. So the tutors also treated him Extra attention. When he entered the scenario, they all crowded into the room to watch instead of just having his mentor report the results; and talked about him in whispers all the time. On the last day of the scenario, a Dauntless leader came in to watch it himself For a moment. George died the next day." If I had the power to break glass, I'd be good enough in the simulation to get all the instructors to notice me.I can do it, but do I have to? "Is that all?" I asked. "Just manipulating the simulation?" "I doubt it, too," she said, "but that's all I know." "How many people know about manipulating situational simulations?" I thought of the fourth child. "There are two kinds of people," she replied, "those who want to kill you, and those who have experienced it. They belong to those who know it directly. The other kind belongs to those who hear it indirectly, such as me." The fourth brother said that he would help me delete the video of "breaking the glass".So he didn't want me to die.Is he a Divergent?Or is his family?Either friend is?Or girlfriend? I put these thoughts aside immediately, and I must not let him distract me at this moment. "I really don't understand," I said slowly, "Why would the leader of the Dauntless faction care if I can manipulate the simulation?" "If I figured it out, I would have told you a long time ago." She pursed her lips tightly, "The only thing I can think of is that manipulating the situational simulation is not what they really care about, it's just a kind of something signs, and those are the things they really care about." Tori gently took my hand and wrapped it between hers. "Think about it, these people teach you how to use guns and fight. Do you still naively think that they will never hurt you? Will they not kill you?" She let go of my hand and stood up. "I have to go, or Buda will become suspicious. Be careful, Triss."