The absurd game of a performance artist

Chapter 275 Ring of Darkness
Mr. Xu, the SS containment object, was successfully contained!
This unexpected containment incident caused a sensation in the entire Zhenzhi Bureau!

At first no one believed it was real!
But through follow-up investigation, they found a lot of manuscripts left in Mo Zhen's computer.

After comparing the testimony of the Two-dimensional godfather, they confirmed that these contents were indeed what she did!
After repeated confirmation of the eighteen procedures, the Bureau of Zhenzhi finally announced that it really...

Really successfully contained the SS-class containment object Mr. Xu!

The unprecedented crisis has been successfully resolved, and the atmosphere in the Zhenzhi Bureau is full of celebration!
This is the complete victory of order and justice!

Soon Mozhen was sealed in a black coffin and sank into an extremely dark prison [-] meters deep underground.

There, no one has any information to contact her.

There is only endless darkness...

Far away in the horizon 502 received this news, opened champagne and laughed.

"Hahahahaha, being defeated by one's own creation is an unavoidable fate. Now she has also tasted the feeling of being beaten by something she created!"

Obviously, the birth of 502 and Mo Zhen are inseparable. The fantasy world is the aggregate of the past time and the fragments of sentient beings' consciousness. No matter which fantasy world they are in, the two have an indistinct relationship. Evidence of the relationship.

Before Mo Zhen came to Mo Zhenzhen, there were so many holidays between the two of them...

Speaking of which, this guy had another identity before, and that was the legendary God of Desire and Impulse——Red Cup!
It's just that this guy thinks the world is too boring, and it's boring to play, so under 502's tricks, he decides to re-open an account to experience a new and interesting life.

Before reopening, she threw her godhead into the sky and hit the moon in a fantasy world.

And thus... the Scarlet Moon was born!

After abandoning her godhead, her spirit landed on Mo Zhenzhen.

[The name of Duoyin is too stupid!I don't want to hear someone call me that, so don't be true in the future! 】

And so quite casually, Mo Zhen was born!

Dr. Mickey, who was standing beside 502, asked.

"Excuse me, boss, do we need to rescue her?"

Seeing Mo Zhen who was limped by himself, the God of Dreams 502 was overjoyed.

"Save? Why do you want to save?! Let her be locked up, anyway, she has already submitted the manuscript, and now this guy is useless! Hurry up and work overtime to make the game, it is her posthumous work, haha Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha—"

In a black prison [-] meters underground.

Mozhen couldn't move in the narrow black coffin, there was no place to move her whole body, she cried out.

"Help! Someone! Let me out!"

Since he brought his own prison food, he could maintain his life by breathing alone, so Mo Zhen couldn't die even if he wanted to.

There is no way to die, her consciousness can only be locked in the body of Mo Zhenzhen, a hapless orphan.

To make matters worse, 502 used authority in [Monternet] to block her consciousness, and now she can't even escape by dreaming.

In this way, time passed by every minute and every second in the darkness...

He not only completed the operation of promotion and salary increase, but also sealed the protagonist Mo Zhen, and successfully became the number one role.

After taking Mozhen into custody, Liu Sa, who became an S-level investigator, got his wish and started his own travel around the world.

……

On the other hand, when Lao Han heard the news that Mo Zhen was taken in, he was extremely shocked!

Due to excessive shock, he fell into the snow pool!

Mo Zhen is actually the legendary Mr. Xu! ! !
This……

Lao Han was filled with grief and indignation, thinking that Liu Sa had betrayed the revolution!

He decided to lurk in the Zhenzhi Bureau and rescue the contents inside...

……

Time passed day by day.

And everyone in this one has gone through the tempering of the lowest first level [Xuan Nan Dao]!
And this first level of [Xuannan Dao] is no longer something that any human being who can still be classified as [normal people] can bear!
As long as they pass the first level of [Xuan Nan Dao] training, the cultivator can gain about 25% of the [Personality] power!
And this is just the cultivation experienced by the members of the first stage, the darker and deeper [Xuan Nan Dao], the second stage and the third stage, have to go through many hardships of [Nine Bulls and Two Tigers]!
After being betrayed nine times, deeply feeling the extreme pain of life, and gaining the power of nine bulls, you can complete the second level of cultivation in [Xuan Nan Dao]!
And this realm of nine bulls' strength, very few members can reach it!
Because FMD has cultivated the first level of disabled people, there are very few f*cking girls who can still find true love.

If you just find a few women at random, and then pull a few yellow hairs to complete the task, you will not be able to obtain the power of nine bulls that truly touch the soul!
Even Xuan Gou, the founder of [Xuan Nan Dao], has not been able to practice all the strength of nine bulls!
Therefore, most of the people who practice [Xuannan Dao] stop at the first stage.

But that alone is terrifying!

But by now it's too late!
The number of these people is already very large, the key is that none of these guys are ordinary people, and they have at least 20% of their [personality] power!
Note that the more than 20% of the [Personality] power is not a virtual product that ordinary [Super Realistic Paradise] players play in the game.

For example, like Lao Han who has not yet awakened before, although he has a strong personality power in the game, he does not believe that this is a real power, so he cannot use this mighty power to distort reality.

This power can only be brought into play after a thorough awakening and a complete awakening to see the truth of the world!
But these people are different, they are all cultivating [Xuan Nan Dao] directly in reality, naturally there is no restriction or barrier at all, and they can all exert this power 100%!
Then this group of people is shaking the foundation of this country!
At the same time as [Xuan Nan Dao] was rising, a group of terrorists named [Scarlet Blade] began to operate across the country, killing the rich and powerful!
These people are all extreme justice elements, who believe that only by eliminating these heinous people can the world be redeemed!

Their goal is to liberate the world from the hands of evil people, cleanse the world of sin, and create a beautiful and pure future!
And during these days, Gorefiend Rosen has been aided and taught by Justis, the pioneer of the Commonwealth Headquarters!
Justis spared no effort to pass on his way of justice to Rosen, giving him a [personality] power similar to his own.

As one of the apostles who shared Mozhen's [Divinity] heritage, Rosen quickly projected this power into reality, and his whole body was washed and sublimated by the power of justice from the inside out!
Mo Zhen's [Divinity] is art and absurdity. The more art is, the more absurd the behavior is, the more it can create something out of nothing, transforming the virtual into the real power.

And Rosen's behavior is completely in line with Mo Zhen's setting for performance art, so his justice has been affirmed by the god of absurdity, and it has a strong influence on every member of the [Scarlet Knights], so that they also have full Power of justice!
What's even more absurd is that the so-called inconsistency between good and evil, the ideas of [Fun Men's Way] and [Scarlet Knights] seem to be diametrically opposed, and there should be fierce conflicts!
And in the eyes of members of [Xuan Nan Dao], these extremely righteous people are simply the worst of evils. People in my generation don't need to accept any enlightenment at all!

When these two groups of people stepped up and down, the entire Tianlongshang Kingdom was disturbed.

The third matter was different in nature from the above two, but it was not blocked by the news.

That is, Pansilicon launched an original game that shocked the world - "Ring of Darkness".

As the king of copycats, Pansiyin's games are basically reskinned clones with no originality at all.

But once this game was launched, it immediately shocked all game lovers!
This is actually an original work with novel themes, unique gameplay, profound content, and shocking!
This……

This TMD is simply a god...

A game that can only be designed by a psychopath!

Moreover, the plot is also obscure and difficult to read, and the whole game is full of crazy clowns engaged in performance art and riddlers who do not speak human language.

And this game is the last ripple left by Mo Zhen...

Although all the content of this game has been pushed to the extreme under the technical power of PanSiyin Company, but Mo Zhen's brains are not worthy of normal people.

Although PanSiyin's publicity and distribution efforts are unprecedented, the number of players who buy and pay for this game is only a few hundred thousand worldwide.

Judging from the business cost, the Pansiyin company should have lost money to grandma's family this time.

But 502, the behind-the-scenes boss of Pansiyin Company, naturally didn't care about it.

It's interesting enough that tens of thousands of people can pay to buy this kind of weird and niche-style game. Anyway, the company is not short of money.

The money to run the company is based on skin-selling mobile games like Pesticide of the Dead, and the monthly turnover collected from those krypton gold piggies is enough to develop games like "Ring of Darkness" more than a dozen times.

What 502 sells is not games at all, but worlds.

That dark world where Mozhen's last divine power resides...

There are hundreds of thousands of paid players, and there are millions of pirated players.

502 opened the way for the pirated dogs of Tianlong Shangguo, spreading free download channels everywhere on the Internet.

Therefore, social animals who want to play this game and are repaying various loans and do not want to spend money are easy to get hooked.

While millions of people have played this game, there are almost tens of millions of people who have heard of and understood the content and world of this game.

After all, have you never eaten pork or seen a pig run?

Pansiyin not only vigorously promoted the game, but also put a lot of effort into the promotion of the game's follow-up content.

First, I spent money to manage a bunch of social platforms to spread game content everywhere.

Then there were activities to support a bunch of anchors to broadcast the game live.

Later, various linkages and game video upload activities followed one after another...

In the end, I sponsored a bunch of video hosts to promote the dark and profound world view behind the popular science game...

Therefore, many people who don't play games at all, or who have no interest in this kind of hardcore dark wind game, have more or less understood the setting and content of this game.

Some cloud players even know the various settings of this game better than those who have passed the level!

All in all, for Mo Zhen's posthumous work, 502 has used all the power of Pan Siyin, and it is time to make a big news after gathering enough energy!

You know, all of Mozhen's divine power resides in her works of art. If these things are touched too much, there will be consequences of creating something out of nothing, turning the virtual into the real...

At the beginning, Mo Zhen exploded the shell and attracted tens of thousands of people in the world, so Tianlong Shangguo produced such horrible shoe cultists as [Xuan Nan Dao] and [Scarlet Knights].

What kind of surprises will these tens of millions of undead soul siphons bring...

On this day, the old house forced He Baichuan to record game materials as usual.

As a social idler who relies on live broadcasting and passing on videos to eat and die, keeping up with the trend and making videos is a must for everyone who eats this bowl of food.

As usual, he turned on the computer and clicked on the "Ring of Darkness" that had not been completely out of date after several months of release.

Because the operation of this game is extremely difficult and the various hidden elements are very rich, even after several months of digging, players from all over the world can still discover new highlights in the game.

Lighting a cigarette chicly, He Baichuan started today's performance.

Entering the game interface, the tone of the overall UI is very dark, giving people a sense of depression and oppression.

After clicking on the save file, a few cool and in-depth world view screen introductions flashed across the interface, and then a coquettish man in underpants appeared on the screen.

It can be seen at a glance that this is the role of a great god.

The less you wear, the more coquettish you are!
Stack the thickest armor and suffer the most vicious beating!
Only novices in this game would wear that kind of plate armor that looks safe, because everyone knows that stacked armor is not resistant to beating in this game.

The various bosses and even mobs in it have all kinds of killing methods and unsolvable combos. Equipped with heavy armor, it will only increase the load and affect the flexibility of the game characters. Flexible and coquettish operations are the key to this game. The most important.

hum-

Suddenly, a chaotic sound that shook his brain resounded in his mind, and the world in front of him suddenly blurred.

When he regained consciousness, he had appeared in a dark and gloomy corridor.

Ok……

This is……

what's the situation?
Just as He Baichuan was thinking, an information panel popped up in his mind.

[Status: Ring of Darkness of Living Corpse]

【Level: 1】

【Soul: 20】

【Humanity: 1】

【Strength: 10】

(PS. Add 10% to the base strength for every point of strength attribute, and the remaining few can be used to make sense)
[Agility: 10]

【Intelligence: 10】

【Faith: 10】

【HP: 100%】

This……

What's happening here?
Did I time travel to the game? !
He Baichuan's consciousness instantly became confused, he was very familiar with the information on this panel.

Among them, [soul] is the basic currency in the game, and all upgrades and transactions depend on it. The basic attributes of strength, agility, intelligence, and trust correspond to the various genres in the game, which will play a key role in combat ability and skill effects. Influence.

But [Humanity] is a bit more complicated. If [Humanity] is too low, it will show the characteristics of [Living Corpse], and the whole person will become extremely dry, just like a corpse. Not only will the appearance change, but it will also affect the body. Effects of various skills.

Soon, He Baichuan discovered that this game was not easy.

My mind's consciousness is actually blurring, like a wooden barrel is leaking, and my past memories are fading away.

No way! This world is so real, even the setting that the memory of the undead will be continuously lost is exactly the same?
In the setting of "Ring of Darkness", the undead played by the game role will continue to be resurrected after death, but it will continue to lose its soul and memory, and will eventually become a living corpse that is unconscious and unconscious.

He Baichuan took a look at his current state. His skin was shriveled, his muscles were atrophied, and his hands and feet were weak. It was obvious that he was not far from a state of complete confusion!

He couldn't help getting nervous, but He Baichuan is a person who has played "Ring of Darkness" after all, and he knows that as long as he absorbs enough [soul] and [human nature], he can delay memory decline and restore the original appearance of human beings.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a trembling figure!

It was a living corpse similar to him, but obviously the other party was an NPC-like thing, a cabbage that gave him his soul.

Holding the broken sword tightly in his hand, He Baichuan cautiously approached the opponent. Although in the game, such low-level monsters are treated like chickens, but in reality, it is obvious that they can't be so reckless!

After tiptoeing close to the opponent, He Baichuan suddenly jumped up, swung the broken sword in his hand, and slammed it on the opponent's head!
Yes, smash it!
Because this broken sword is too short, only three or four inches of the blade is broken, basically there is only a handle left...

Fortunately, just as he expected, the other party is the kind of living corpse who has completely sunk, completely lost self-awareness, a pure soul jar.

After it smashed violently several times in a row, as the opponent's body fell down, a white smoke floated out of its body.

He couldn't help but suddenly sucked it into his body, and a message appeared in front of He Baichuan.

【Soul+3】

Hold!
Cool!
A kind of pleasure like ice skating runs through the whole body and goes straight to the sky, making He Baichuan tremble uncontrollably!
Sure enough, just like in the game, as long as you kill monsters, you can absorb the opponent's soul!
Looking at the surrounding environment and the living corpses in front of him, He Baichuan, who was slightly clear-headed, immediately understood that this is the northern monastery in the novice tutorial, a place dedicated to detaining the undead!
Immediately, He Baichuan was overjoyed!

Such a place is simply a paradise for him to absorb his soul!

In his body, something dark and profound stirred up, urging him to devour more souls!

At this moment, He Baichuan suddenly heard a commotion!
It came from the cell ahead!
Quietly hiding at the corner of the intersection, He Baichuan carefully looked out.

I saw a living corpse with bare hands, arms hanging limply on both sides of his body like a disability, walking towards the intersection unsuspecting.

Seeing the other party's mindless appearance, He Baichuan instantly became excited!

There was a hint of darkness in his deep eye sockets, full of evil charm...

When the living corpse came to the corner, He Baichuan immediately jumped up, swung the broken sword in his hand, and smashed the opponent's forehead again with the old trick!

bang - bang - click -

In the three superimposed body explosions, the tragedy happened.

He Baichuan, who originally thought he would be able to sneak attack, was unexpectedly kicked by the living corpse back and forth with triple strength, flew directly more than ten meters, smashed hard on the wall, and collapsed like a painting.

Light and dark, triple strength, hitting people is like hanging a painting!
He Baichuan's brain crashed immediately!

This... how the hell does this guy know Tai Chi!

Could it be that... he was also a player who traveled through time? ! !
This was He Baichuan's last thought, and then his eyes went dark, and he felt that his body was like a deflated balloon, and countless things filling his body leaked out of his body...

When He Baichuan woke up again, he was still lying in the corridor of the monastery.

It's just that its brain is blank at this time.

who am I?
where am i from?
Where are you going?
He Baichuan, who knew nothing about everything, sat quietly in the same place. He didn't die, but he was as muddled as a dead thing, completely ignorant of the meaning of existence...

……

After seeing the victim's perspective, let us focus on the instigator of this soul-robbing murder—our protagonist, Mr. Liu Sa.

It is said that after Mozhen was taken into custody, Liu Sa didn't feel anything special at first, only felt that he packed up a counterfeit.

But later, as the Zhenzhi Bureau continued to praise his glorious deeds, Liu Sa felt something was wrong.

If it's just a coincidence, why is the containment code name of the other party also [Mr. Xu]?
And the other party's containment level is actually unprecedented SS level!
Such a great class...

I'm afraid only the real Mr. Xu is worthy of it, right? !
Mistake...they must be mistaken!

Every day, Liu Sa persuaded himself in this way, until it almost became like a psychological hypnosis.

But in the following time, he played a few games of [Super Realistic Paradise], smashing through the world until the sky was dark and the avenue was wiped out. He had already reached the top level of [Ten], but he never I haven't seen Mr. Xu once.

At this moment, he finally felt that something was not quite right!

but……

But he fell into unprecedented confusion, not knowing what to do.

So he can only paralyze himself in the endless journey, let himself get used to the life without Mr. Xu.

Just like that, one day, after traveling around the customs and customs of a certain place in Tianlong Shang Kingdom as usual, he fell asleep peacefully.

Afterwards, he re-entered [Super Reality Paradise] along Monternet.

But unexpectedly, this time, instead of the usual interface, a description of the script world appeared directly in front of him.

【In the distant ancient times, the world was not yet formed, everything was shrouded in mist, only gray rocks, arched trees and eternal dragons, until one day, the world was ablaze, and all the differences followed, heat and Cold, life and death, and of course... light and dark. 】

In Quicksand's thoughts, a fire appeared in a chaotic world, and then the whole world suddenly became enlightened.

[The great kings held the soul of fire, became dragon slayers, and opened up a whole new world. This is how the age of fire began...but soon, the flames will fade, leaving only darkness, and human beings begin to suffer Cursed undead, and you are one of them! 】

Although in [Surreal Paradise], this kind of situation of entering the CG description at the beginning was abnormal, but Quicksand didn't care about this abnormality at all.

What made his heart tremble was that the voice narrating the story was actually Mr. Xu...

Could it be that... this game is related to Mr. Xu's whereabouts? !
hiss--

Taking a deep breath of air, Quicksand woke up from the muddle!

He gasped for air, trying to stimulate himself with oxygen, from a carbon-based polymer to something alive.

But soon he found that even though he took a big breath, his mind was still dizzy.

It seemed that breathing had no meaning for him, it was just a habit left day after day.

That's right, even if he took a big mouthful of air, the air without oxygen could not bring him stimulation and sobriety.

Quicksand quickly discovered the reason. He raised his hand and saw his body, shriveled, wrinkled, and broken, like a living corpse.

How is this going?

Am I already dead? !

Then he received the information panel in his mind.

[Status: Ring of Darkness of Living Corpse]

【Level: 1】

【Soul: 20】

【Humanity: 1】

【Strength: 10】

[Agility: 10]

【Intelligence: 10】

【Faith: 10】

【HP: 100%】

Hierarchy...soul...humanity...

As these things flashed through his mind, Liusha suddenly found that the memories in his mind were frantically passing away bit by bit.

He began to gradually forget everything about himself, which made Quicksand feel uneasy.

soul……

My own soul is gradually passing away!
After [Soul], 20 is gradually dimming, turning towards 19.

He quickly understood the meaning of [soul], which is the key to carrying information about his life and memory. If there is no [soul], then he will gradually lose everything and fall into eternal confusion!
Quicksand hastily glanced at the surrounding environment. He was locked in a cell made of black stones. Through the fence of the cell, he saw several humanoid creatures similar to him.

The reason why they are called humanoid creatures is because the appearance of these existences is too frightening, the body surface is shriveled and dilapidated like a mummy, the body is full of decaying breath, and the shriveled red skin is as terrifying as being burned by fire.

They are as muddled as living corpses, repeating mechanical movements numbly and quietly, and occasionally uttering a few unconscious ravings, which makes people feel unspeakably creepy.

Seeing the appearance of these monsters, Quicksand's penetrating mind immediately understood something.

These things are human beings who have lost their [soul]!
Without the [soul] as the carrier of consciousness, although they are not dead, they are not considered [alive]!
If the [soul] in one's body is exhausted, it will inevitably become such an unconscious thing like them!
In order to maintain your own memory and life, you must find a way to stop the soul from passing, or... absorb other people's souls!
Standing up from the ground, Quicksand glanced around his cell.

There were four other guys inside, who seemed to have lost their consciousness, and were in a daze, not knowing what they were doing.

Inside the body, something dark and deep stirred, and the quicksand punched one of the living corpses like a beast!
There was a muffled sound like a sack bursting from the rag-clothed corpse, and it slammed hard against the wall.

It unconsciously moved a few times on the ground, and a pure white cloud floated from its body.

This milky white fluid instantly attracted Quicksand's full attention, like a suffocated person thirsting for oxygen, he suddenly stepped forward, greedily sucking the milky white substance emerging from the opponent's corpse.

hiss--

Breathing violently, something full of vitality and excitement entered the quicksand's body, making him truly feel the taste of "alive".

In my mind, the exact prompt came from the information panel.

【Soul+3】

Soul... that's what soul is!
After replenishing a small amount of remnant souls, Liusha felt that the speed of his memory passing slowed down, and his spiritual consciousness gradually recovered.

And as this pure white thing passed from the body, the dilapidated living corpse on the ground could not move at all, it seemed to be dead...

After absorbing the soul of a living corpse, Quicksand's state improved a little, but he didn't feel satisfied, but even more frantically thirsting for [soul]!
Need...more [soul] to fill the emptiness created by this sense of passing!
clap clap-

In the dark and cold corridor, there were three muffled punches in a row!
The other three living corpses also trembled and fell under the quicksand's fist, and the white soul was greedily sucked by the quicksand.

【Soul+10】

After a while, Quicksand felt that the consciousness in his body became full and clear with the inflow of soul.

The soul volume of 32 makes him no longer mentally confused, and he can conduct simple thinking and analysis relatively normally, but there is still a long way to go from the normal state in reality.

During the time that the quicksand absorbs the soul, 1 unit of soul has already flown from his body.

At this moment, his simple consciousness gave instructions to his body.

【It's time to leave this place and find more souls】

Holding the iron fence in front of him, the cold texture of pig iron is full of ruthless weight.

Although this kind of steel is only as thick as a finger, it is definitely not something that unarmed, skinny living corpses like them can destroy.

But seeing Liusha resting his hands on an iron fence, a yin and yang gleam suddenly burst out of his eyes.

"drink--"

A mysterious strange force erupted from the slender arms of the quicksand, which is an extremely profound use of power—【Yin and Yang Reversal】!
Let the body change from extremely soft [Yin] to extremely rigid [Yang], bursting out with power beyond imagination!

Under this force, the steel fence twisted in response, leaving a gap that a thin person could barely pass through!
After the quicksand opened the exit, his arms slumped down incessantly.

Sensing carefully, it turned out that the bones and flesh of the arms were broken during the process of the Tai Chi power bursting and converging.

The body... is too fragile!
It is difficult for such a weak and unbearable corpse to display his overly superb skills!
Shaking his head, Quicksand could only get out of the cell like this first, taking one step at a time.

After Quicksand left the cell, I don't know how long it has passed.

The few living corpses who had not moved at all sat up slowly again, continuing to be confused...

In the corridor outside the cell, Liusha saw many people locked in the cell along the way.

These people are almost without exception, they are all ignorant and unconscious living corpses.

From the perspective of quicksand, these guys are piggy banks that store a small amount of [soul].

He really wanted to break all these human piggy banks and suck the souls from their bodies.

It's a pity that under the barrier of the iron fence, Quicksand can only look at these living corpses like looking at the money in the bank, but can't take out the soul from their bodies.

Going all the way along the corridor, at the intersection ahead, Quicksand suddenly sensed something.

At the corner, a cunning guy was lurking in the shadows, with dark and deep eyes in his eyes, as if waiting for the quicksand to pass by.

So, Quicksand pretended to be ignorant, and walked over without hesitation...

Hearing a "croak--", a living corpse wielding a broken sword jumped out from the intersection.

This living corpse is different from other guys, it has greedy eyes in its deep eye sockets, yearning for other people's [soul] like quicksand!
The thing that exudes darkness in the eyes is [humanity]...

boom--

Quicksand's superb skills, easily avoiding the opponent's disorderly hacking, kicked the opponent's chest with his back, and suddenly burst out triple strength from his leg.

Light and dark!
The triple strength surpassed the height of the first weight, penetratingly kicked the opponent's body ten meters away, and slammed the opponent's body hard against the wall.

Then the opponent's body floated down like a painting on the wall.

With Quicksand's current state of boxing, it has reached the point of knowing everything.

Even if both hands are broken, using [Footwork] can still easily clean up these young people.

Suffering a strong counterattack from the quicksand, the living corpse that slipped out of nowhere collapsed on the ground, and the soul overflowed from the body.

hiss--

The quicksand sucked suddenly!
[Soul +19]!
(End of this chapter)