Test Subject Project

Walls, door frames, living rooms, courtyards, cities...

When the three eyes overlapped, they collapsed simultaneously, like a piece of matter returning to its smallest unit of particles. Xiao Xiao found it hard to describe the feeling at that moment. It was as if his vision was stretched infinitely in an instant, almost as if space and time were being pierced through. It was as if his soul, out of control in nothingness, was wandering aimlessly until he saw a blurry image.

He tried to open his eyes wide, wanting to see the image, but his mind was in complete disarray.

But with his Mind Burst ability, he forcibly sorted out his thoughts and finally saw a clear picture:

In the pale laboratory, a woman sat in a specially made, complex electric chair, looking haggard, her hands and feet bound by chains.

"It's her?"

Xiao Xiao was startled; he recognized the person.

The interviewees I saw on the videotape when I first embarked on the path of the observer.

I remember her identity was: Patient 000.

When Xiao Xiao first saw her image, he felt a strong sense of fear and immersion. However, when he upgraded to the second Insightful route, he did not see her again. As time went by, Xiao Xiao almost forgot about her and rarely thought of her anymore.

Unexpectedly, I saw her again through this method this time.

The perspective was still directed at her, and although it was just a scene that was "seen," the sound was diluted.

"Your symptoms are already quite clear."

The person asking the question spoke softly, "It's just delusions, auditory hallucinations, and visual hallucinations; it's not a very serious problem."

"But there are also some strange things in the process of treating you."

"You seem very thin and don't eat much, but why do you seem to be able to unleash amazing strength when you get angry? Look at yesterday, when you refused to take your medicine, you pushed one of our nurses to the ground. It took three male nursing assistants to hold you down. That's really shocking!"

"..."

Faced with the man's gentle questioning, the haggard woman looked blank and seemed unresponsive to his inquiry.

"Also, you seem to be reacting less and less to the outside world..."

The man's voice continued, "But sometimes, you can be exceptionally perceptive. You can even guess what other people are thinking, as if you have mind-reading abilities. Can you tell me how you do that?"

"Micro-expression analysis? Psychological profiling? Testing?"

"..."

The woman remained unresponsive, only occasionally glancing across the line of sight with an air of knowing everything.

"What's most amazing is your ability to hide..."

The man sighed softly and said, "Why is it Mingming sometimes you can suddenly hide in an empty room and no one can find you? Especially the day before yesterday, the caregivers were terrified and almost pressed the alarm. The four of them searched for you in the empty room for a long time. Finally, by checking the surveillance footage, they found that you were just hiding behind the door, but they couldn't see you."

"How did you do that?"

"..."

Faced with his persistent questioning, the woman's eyes finally focused, but as she emerged from her confusion and began to look at the world with bewilderment, an expression of extreme sadness and despair suddenly appeared on her face. She abruptly spoke, her voice trembling with sobs:

"This city has been eaten, and you have all been eaten."

"You have now become part of the monster. His blood vessels are connected to your brains, his flesh has fused with your feet, and his will completely controls you. But you are unaware of this. You are being devoured by him bit by bit, completely oblivious to his existence. I watch you turn into puppets, into wooden dolls, yet you are still earnestly speaking to me..."

"I don't know if it's you or 'he' who's talking to me right now..."

"..."

Her cries were so mournful and her expression so desperate that those on the other side of the scene fell silent for a moment.

"Are you also feeling very painful and lonely, living in this huge illusion without anyone understanding you?"

As if he had made up his mind, he said softly, "Today, we actually want to tell you something. We just had a meeting and passed a decision to conduct an experiment with you as the core. In the results of your previous examination, we discovered the source of your illness. We found a special substance in your cerebrospinal fluid, and we believe that it is what is affecting you."

"Now, we plan to dilute this substance in a fixed ratio and then inject it into the minds of some specially selected test subjects. We believe that this method will help them enter your world... Would you welcome them?"

"..."

"No, no..."

The woman suddenly broke down, struggling violently. "You'll kill them..."

"They'll be in so much pain, they'll go crazy..."

"..."

The man seemed to observe the woman's reaction with great interest, and said softly, "The decision has been made."

"Moreover, the first batch of medicine is already being produced."

"Of course, we're being very careful. We've only prepared 1%, 5%, and 10% concentrations of the drug from your brain fluid so far. This ensures that our experiments won't produce too many discrepancies. Of course, some colleagues have strong opinions and want to prepare a 100% concentration of the original drug directly, but we've all objected. After all, that concentration is too high..."

"..."

The gentler his voice, the stronger the woman's reaction.

She struggled more and more fiercely, the restraints on her body rattling and even showing faint signs of tearing. Her expression was extremely crazed, but her eyes were filled with heartbreaking pain as she screamed desperately, "No, no, I know, he's controlling you, he's influencing you, deliberately making you do such crazy things..."

"Don't do it, don't do that..."

"..."

Amidst her agonizing struggles and screams, Xiao Xiao felt a profound sense of shared pain.

He even felt his heart clench violently, and couldn't help but take half a step forward.

"Whoosh..."

But just as he took that half step, the struggling woman suddenly raised her head and stared blankly at Xiao Xiao.

"You... you've come?"

"..."

She stared straight at Xiao Xiao, her expression shifting from collapse to deep despair:

"Did they really do that?"

"..."

"She saw me?"

Xiao Xiao was suddenly shocked and looked at the woman in disbelief.

His insightful abilities made him absolutely certain at that moment that the woman had indeed seen him and was having a conversation with him.

"Don't believe it..."

The woman suddenly screamed, "Once you believe it, you'll never escape..."

"We will be imprisoned, forever..."

"..."

Who are you talking to?

"Quick, tell me, did you see something?"

The person asking the question was clearly taken aback by the woman's unusual reaction and asked her questions urgently.

On the other end, Xiao Xiao was also shaken to his core, and even subconsciously wanted to get closer. But at that moment, he suddenly felt a splitting pain in his head, as if his brain had been turned into mush. The three overlapping eyes in the air were forcibly separated by a mysterious force, and his clear vision suddenly shattered, turning into a blurry shape.

"Don't believe it..."

"Once you believe it, you can never escape it..."

"..."

Only the woman's faint cries and desperate face remained in his mind, lingering for a long time.

After a long while, Xiao Xiao slowly raised his head.

But all around was darkness, with only the dark red computer screen emitting a deep, eerie light.

He returned to his bedroom, back to the real world. Nothing around him had collapsed, and his vision had not traversed time and space. Everything he had just seen seemed like a bizarre dream he had just had while he was asleep.

An extreme sense of emptiness and imbalance suddenly gripped my entire body.

It took him a lot of effort to slowly figure out what had just happened.

"Is my third stage of insight complete?"

"Was that just a hallucination caused by the side effects of my enhancement and advancement, or did I actually see something?"

"..."

It was quiet, so quiet.

In this extreme silence, Xiao Xiao felt a nameless panic welling up inside him, like a churning ocean, waiting for him to fall.

He even instinctively grabbed the phone, wanting to call Yang Jia.

[Bite]

[Congratulations: You have completed the third stage of Elemental Enhancement for the Insightful One!]

[Ability Description: Void Gaze (Time) / Void Gaze (Space). When the three Eye of the Seer overlap, you will gain the ability to perceive time and space. The degree of penetration will depend on your own mental strength. Perhaps you can see a murder taking place on the horizon, or perhaps you can only see your neighbor taking a bubble bath. It all depends on you!]

[Warning: Time and space have their own tempers, so be careful what you see, or you'll go crazy!]

[...]

[Favorite: Conditions met, automatically upgraded to intermediate contract!]

[The city's will has taken note of you and has a good impression of you. From now on, you can engage in more restrictive transactions with the city, and even enjoy a 5% discount. Please continue to fulfill your mission as an apostle...]

Ganbatte!

[...]

[...]

This series of messages popped up on the computer screen and seemed to appear directly in Xiao Xiao's mind at the same time.

This slightly startled him, who had just been in a state of extreme confusion.

"I have indeed completed the third stage of the Insightful advancement and successfully obtained the Intermediate Knight Pact..."

"But why don't I feel happy?"