RIACMET chapter 208

 

“Are you saying that what you saw back then was an illusion? And that only after seeing Gao Xuyang again did your memory return to normal?”

Cheng Jing pulled him upright. Qi Laoer leaned forward, panting as he used his power just to remain upright.

“How else could you explain it?” he gasped. “At the time, everyone was on edge and panicked. No one noticed anything was wrong, even though their awareness was being manipulated…”

He coughed up a mouthful of blood and paused before finishing his sentence with a strained breath.

“He can’t control his superpower at will. It only triggers when he’s under extreme stress. When the headaches strike, the illusions manifest. What we saw wasn’t reality, but rather what he wanted us to see—or what he subconsciously imagined.”

Before the world ended—before zombies and superpowered individuals emerged—if someone had told him this, he would’ve thought they were hallucinating from doing too many drugs and would’ve probably shot them on the spot.

However, the apocalypse arrived without warning, and no one could say for certain that superpowers didn’t exist in the “normal” world.

There simply had never been a cataclysm severe enough to force mass human evolution, so people with abilities were few and far between, and the world continued to stumble forward in ignorance.

Back then, Gao Xuyang had indeed suffered severe injuries, but it was unclear whether the fatal shot had come from someone else.

There was something else to consider:

The emergence of a Zombie King wasn’t random. It required a perfect storm of conditions, many of which were impossible to study or define.

Above all, even after infection, the host had to retain some degree of rationality and self-awareness. Their mental fortitude had to be extraordinarily strong.

Gao Xuyang might have been the ideal candidate. Had he not lost control, they might never have realized they were trapped in his illusion. They would have gladly stayed inside it even as the world fell apart.

“…”

“So it seems…you know quite a bit about Gao Xuyang’s abilities,” Huang Qian suddenly interjected, her sharp eyes narrowing as she studied Qi Laoer.

Qi Laoer’s expression didn’t change. He glanced at Yang Kai and the others, then gave a weak, helpless smile.

“If you’d lived inside his illusion since the apocalypse began—like I have—you’d know him well, too.”

No one answered him. Their eyes turned back to Yang Kai instead. Aside from Qi Laoer, Yang Kai was the only one who truly understood the details of the original infiltration operation.

Yang Kai thought quietly for a moment before speaking.

“If things really happened the way we suspect, then it’s likely he fell into the sea and was rescued.”

When Gao Xuyang got into trouble, Yang Kai was not at the scene. The net had been set, and he had his own people nearby, whether by water, land, or air.

If the headaches were tied to his psychic ability and the higher-ups or the “Special Phenomena Management Experimental Research Base” knew about it, then there was a high chance he was recovered and secretly brought back to the base.

There might have even been someone from the base present at the scene.

Perhaps the trauma of falling into the sea altered Gao Xuyang’s body, rendering him unfit for duty even after he woke up.

The authorities therefore worked together to declare him dead and permanently seal his police records.

After two years of treatment or experimentation, Gao Xuyang’s supernatural ability fully awakened as the end of the world approached, resulting in the accident at the base.

That’s how he ended up in Guanshan Prison.

The timeline fit perfectly.

They were all thinking along the same lines now, exchanging glances and nodding slightly.

Yang Kai took a deep breath, looked Qi Laoer in the eye, and ordered,

“Tell me the full story right now.”

“…Alright.”

Qi Laoer let out a quiet sigh of relief and began.

“He was infected not long after chaos erupted. But he didn’t go mad like the others. Aside from his preference for raw meat and his slightly slower thinking, he was basically no different from a normal person.”

He glanced at Yang Kai cautiously, wary of being interrupted.

Chu Yi added, “Even if they retain human awareness, their bodies are still undead. Human memories and physical functions degrade, and sometimes they have to be slowly recovered over time.”

The professors had once said that the only possible way for a zombie to become human again was to first become a Zombie King, which was a one-in-ten-thousand chance.

Qi Laoer nodded. “Right. He never ate humans. In the beginning, he only consumed raw meat. He pretty much ate all the meat in the Guanshan Prison cafeteria’s freezer. Once the crystal cores started appearing, he switched to eating only those.”

Yang Kai pressed him further.

“How were you able to live within the illusion and still interact with the outside world? And why didn’t the zombies attack you?”

As long as someone retained their reason from the beginning, they wouldn’t descend into cannibalistic madness.

“…”

Qi Laoer noticed that although Yang Kai’s tone was calm, his eyes were growing colder. He felt as though the man could see straight through him. With a guilty twitch of his lips, he licked his dry mouth and muttered,

“Gao Xuyang’s ability allows him to use illusions to manipulate both humans and zombies. Inside the illusion, neither side can see the other. Zombies are kept in designated areas under his control. As long as we don’t leave the illusion, we can live normally inside it.”

“This…this is the power of a supreme illusionist!”

Zhou Rongbin interrupted and asked curiously,

“Then how does your ability contribute to that environment?”

“… ”

Qi Laoer hesitated for a second, then quickly answered—before Yang Kai could pull his dagger again.

“My power can block illusions within a certain range. I’m immune to them. I can see both humans and zombies and know where they’re active.”

Zhou Rongbin raised an eyebrow.

“So while everyone else is drunk on illusion, you’re the only one sober. That makes it easy to manipulate both sides.”

Qi Laoer’s expression darkened. Just as he opened his mouth to protest, Chu Yi scoffed coldly.

“‘Normal life’? What kind of ‘normal’ are you talking about? Luring outsiders into your illusion just to kill them and steal their supplies? Slaughtering other survivors to take over the prison’s resources?”

“… ”

Qi Laoer was silent for a moment, then finally admitted,

“This is the apocalypse. Everyone wants to survive. The more people who were trapped in the illusion, the faster the supplies ran out. None of us in that prison were innocent. Only the strong survived…”

“As for the outsiders, we wanted their help. But they couldn’t break through the illusion. Instead, they stayed and tried to loot our supplies. If we hadn’t killed them, they would’ve killed us.”

Cheng Jing and the others exchanged glances, now understanding.

With the zombies neutralized—either killed or transformed into invisible mutants—there was no immediate external threat. The prison’s supplies, plus whatever gear was looted from outside survivors, had been enough to sustain these so-called “survivors” in peace.

“I’m giving you one more minute. Say what you need to say—cut to the chase. If you can’t finish in time, I’ll make you spit it out one word at a time. I know you have information, and I brought plenty of life-saving medicine with me. I won’t let you die that easily!”

Yang Kai took several deep breaths, doing everything he could to suppress the fury boiling within him. His patience was running out.