Lu Yanzhou held him tightly. Blazing body heat transmitted from the other man, and Lin Juan sensed the lingering fear and worry coming from him. His motion to push the man away paused.
He shifted the direction of his raised arm and patted Lu Yanzhou on the back. “I’m fine. Everything’s fine now. Don’t worry.”
Lu Yanzhou tightened his hold on the person in his arms but said nothing.
He could not articulate the terror from the dream of seeing Lin Juan at the center of an explosion. He could not express the relief upon waking to find it was merely a dream. Yet in an inconspicuous corner of his heart, the thought of “what if it was real” spread uncontrollably. Lu Yanzhou abandoned reason, yielded to instinct, and came here.
Only when he saw Lin Juan standing there unharmed did the massive weight in his heart slowly lift.
“I’m really fine.” Sensing the unsettled emotions still radiating from Lu Yanzhou, Lin Juan spoke again.
“Good, as long as you’re fine. Good,” Lu Yanzhou repeated twice before slowly releasing him. “Get a full body check later.”
“Okay.” Lin Juan found it hard to be cold-hearted toward someone who truly cared about him.
After soothing Lu Yanzhou, Lin Juan continued discussing the main matters with Director Liu.
Lin Juan had already told Director Liu and the others everything that happened in the illusion. The Ability Users who had remained clear-headed the whole time added their supplements. The remaining assimilated Ability Users were found amid the ruins, currently in a comatose state. Director Liu had already arranged for them to be sent to the nearest hospital.
Thinking of No. 1, who had shielded Lin Juan with its own body in the final stage, Su Xingchen sighed. “I never thought I’d live to see a Weird Phenomenon so humane.”
The 【Forest Cabin】 that had been left outside suddenly darted out from behind Lin Juan and discontentedly flicked its wood rope at Su Xingchen.
“No. 1 really was a pity,” Director Liu lamented after hearing about No. 1’s exploits from Lin Juan.
Lu Yanzhou, who had been intent on checking Lin Juan’s body out of worry, paused at the familiar name.
No. 1.
In the dream, he—the version stripped of human memories—had been called No. 1.
After Lin Juan and the others emerged from the illusion, there were still many matters to wrap up outside. Once Lu Yanzhou confirmed he himself was uninjured and relaxed, Lin Juan led him to a safe spot. “I have some hypotheses I need to verify. Can you wait here for me?”
Lu Yanzhou’s lingering gaze fell on Lin Juan. His stare was intense. Amid so many people on site, his eyes held only Lin Juan.
For some reason, Lin Juan thought of No. 1 from the illusion.
No. 1 had also liked to watch him constantly.
He cast aside the irrelevant thoughts in his mind. Confirming Lu Yanzhou would be fine alone, Lin Juan stood and left.
Lu Yanzhou’s gaze still did not leave Lin Juan.
His mind was blank. He simply followed instinct and watched Lin Juan.
Just like No. 1 in the laboratory—unable to express anything, only able to watch him.
Was the dream he had really just a dream?
Once Lin Juan’s figure vanished from sight, Lu Yanzhou’s mind resumed thinking. He lowered his head and sent a message to Special Assistant Liang.
A reply came quickly.
A week ago, Special Assistant Liang had suddenly lost contact with Lu Yanzhou. Out of worry, he came looking and found his boss unconscious in the hotel.
He rushed him to the hospital and immediately contacted Old Master Lu. With this sudden coma, Old Master Lu instantly thought of his youngest son’s strange illness before Lin Juan appeared.
He now knew his youngest son had not suffered from some strange disease but had been harmed by Qiu Lishu. Qiu Lishu was already dead. After this incident, Lu Yanzhou knew of the existence of Weird Phenomena and could not possibly lack all vigilance. So what had caused this sudden collapse?
Was it a sequela from the previous coma?
Old Master Lu could not judge. He instructed Special Assistant Liang to temporarily conceal the truth of Lu Yanzhou’s collapse and secretly rushed over.
Aside from being impossible to wake, all of Lu Yanzhou’s vital signs were perfectly normal.
Seven days?
Lu Yanzhou turned off his phone and sank into thought.
After turning into an eyeball, he had initially retained self-awareness. Later, the eyeball body’s instincts overpowered his memories from his time as Lu Yanzhou, leaving him with only instinct.
He did not know how long he had stayed in the laboratory. The only thing he could confirm was that the time he spent inside could not possibly have been a mere seven days.
From this, he inferred that the flow of time differed between reality and the illusion.
Why had he become an experimental subject in the illusion? Was the Lin Juan he met the real one?
Lu Yanzhou looked down at his hands. No matter how he examined them, they were normal human hands.
No Supernatural Ability either.
The memories of nearly thirty years told him he was indeed human.
He exhaled slowly and brushed aside the jumbled thoughts. He needed to confirm whether the Lin Juan he saw in the dream was the real one.
After settling Lu Yanzhou, Lin Juan regrouped with Director Liu and the others.
“We found a hidden underground prison in the laboratory of the illusion. There must be an identical place in reality. If we find it, we might make some new discoveries.”
Sheng Tianzong and Su Xingchen were very familiar with the underground prison routes, having visited many times. Even though the destroyed laboratory differed greatly from the one in the illusion, after some effort, the two led the team to the entrance of the underground prison.
It was even more severely damaged here.
Broken walls and ruins piled high with fallen stones. It did not look like natural damage.
“Could there have been an explosion here too?” Sheng Tianzong moved some stones aside, puzzled.
The explosion in the illusion had been caused by Lin Juan smashing the Giant Cross. What had caused the one in reality?
Judging by the scale, if it was an explosion, it had not been as powerful as in the illusion.
Speaking of the explosion, Lin Juan recalled being firmly protected by No. 1 before they exited the illusion. He asked, “I could only see No. 1’s wings at the time. Did anything else happen before we left the illusion?”
“No,” Su Xingchen recalled carefully. “The explosion rang out, the ground shook, and we came straight out.”
The exit point was the same as the entry point, in front of the laboratory ruins. Everything that happened inside the laboratory felt like a long dream they had shared.
“After we came out, the signal recovered. We contacted the outside immediately and probed a bit farther ahead. We didn’t enter another illusion this time and successfully entered the laboratory ruins.”
“Everything from the illusion was gone,” Su Xingchen paused before continuing. “Including No. 1.”
No one knew if No. 1 had ever truly existed.
After he finished, Su Xingchen carefully observed Lin Juan. They had spent several months inseparable with No. 1 in the illusion. Even raising a roadside dog for so long could foster feelings, let alone hand-rearing No. 1 through constant companionship.
No. 1 had protected him at the critical moment, heedless of its own safety.
Putting himself in Lin Juan’s shoes, Su Xingchen felt he could not accept it.
Would Mr. Lin be sad?
He did not dare ask.
No one dared ask Lin Juan about this at such a moment.
Lin Juan had not thought so deeply about it. He descended through the passage cleared by the Ability Users, walking for a long time before reaching the end.
What met his eyes was a familiar yet strange scene.
The originally spacious area was filled with crumbled walls and stones. In the center, the Giant Cross had vanished, leaving a large pit at its base.
Lin Juan walked toward the pit.
The Ability Users who entered first had cleared an open space around it.
“There’s something here!”
“It’s a skeleton!”
A human skeleton.
Lin Juan drew near and saw a human skeleton curled at the bottom of the pit, face down. The body’s curve was one impossible for a living human, nearly forming a complete disk.
The Ability Users stood at the pit’s edge, exchanging glances.
“Compare it against the records and see if we can identify this skeleton,” Sheng Tianzong ordered.
Even with advanced technology, confirming identity took time. Lin Juan walked to the pit’s edge. There was some distance from the bottom. He glanced down and jumped in.
“Mr. Lin!” Sheng Tianzong had just finished issuing orders when he saw Lin Juan jump into the pit. He hurried forward.
Closer up, the observation was finer. Lin Juan discovered the skeleton was not smooth. Every part had tiny shallow pits the size of fingertips—exactly matching the size of the eyeballs that grew on Chu Jifan’s body in the illusion.
A coincidence?
Lin Juan did not think so.
Since a skeleton remained, there must be something to identify its owner.
Sure enough, after a careful search, Lin Juan found half a photo beneath the skeleton, near the heart position.
Lin Juan’s gaze sharpened.
The photo was blurred, but the faint outline matched the one he had seen on the wall in Chu Jifan’s office alcove.
This skeleton was very likely Chu Jifan!
Before Lin Juan could voice his discovery, the skeleton moved.
In the silent environment, every sound was clear. A faint grinding of bones rose from the pit bottom. Sheng Tianzong, who had been closely watching, jolted and shouted a warning. “Mr. Lin, the skeleton is moving!”
It started slow and silent, but as the skeleton’s movements grew larger, it shook the ground like an earthquake.
The surrounding Ability Users watched in disbelief as their eyes widened: the pit beneath the skeleton was rising!
As if something at the pit’s bottom had scented humans and was stirring, eager to burst forth.
Lin Juan staggered as the ground became unsteady but steadied himself.
In a mere two seconds, the skeleton protruded above ground and continued rising.
The ground shook violently. Lin Juan jumped out.
“Mr. Lin, what’s going on?” Sheng Tianzong came to Lin Juan’s side.
“The owner of this skeleton is very likely Chu Jifan. Everything we encountered in the illusion happened here too. It’s just that in reality, without us or the special No. 1, Chu Jifan ultimately became the culture dish for Experimental Subject B-023.”
He did not know how much time passed before the shaking stopped.
When they opened their eyes, the ruined underground prison was gone. Instead, it was the familiar bright laboratory.
Sheng Tianzong was about to speak when Lin Juan pressed a finger to his lips, signaling silence.
Unlike before, this time they were mere observers, unable to change anything in the illusion.
In the true past, without Lin Juan or the special No. 1, research hit a bottleneck. Desperate researchers accidentally discovered that infecting living humans caused the eyeballs’ data to rise across the board.
Mr. Qiao wanted results, regardless of ethics. Upon learning of the new progress—which merely required enough live humans—he brought in a batch of new members from outside.
They were called assistants but truly served as culture dishes for Experimental Subject B-023.
Not just them—all the laboratory’s experimental subjects and low-status staff became culture dishes for Experimental Subject B-023.
In an instant, the entire laboratory turned into a living hell.
B-023-polluted people were everywhere. No one cared about their suffering or torment. Even in death, they received only a casual “another failure” of regret.
Not regret for their deaths, but for the experiment’s failure.
Chu Jifan, as an expert in experimental subject complications, was spared assignment to the experimental side due to her outstanding abilities.
At first, upon learning of these mad experiments, she objected. But her power was too small. All she could do was improve the quality of life for the infected humans as much as possible.
