Zhushi Jiu was back in the familiar, eerie interrogation room. But this time, he wasn’t blindfolded; he was only handcuffed and bound with ropes.
“How much time is left?”
Xu Feng responded calmly, “Three hours.”
“Three hours…”
Xu Feng raised an eyebrow. “You don’t want to say anything?”
Zhushi Jiu’s expression was indifferent, which was to be expected, given that the medication in his body was still taking effect, suppressing the emotional control center in his brain.
He knew that he had almost reached his limits in this current state and had obtained information that he shouldn’t have known. After being trained by the Black Soldier for four hours, he could completely dominate his pre-medication self with his current combat experience.
However, he also knew that after rewinding, all his physical training would dissipate like clouds, and his reaction speed and absolute rational thinking would cease to exist. Only his combat experience would remain in his mind. Therefore, he hoped to continue obtaining valuable information from the man in front of him within the remaining three hours.
Xu Feng sneered. “Most of what you said was true?”
“You foresaw the future, but was it true or false? You’ve been deceiving me for hours; do you think I’ll still believe you?”
“It doesn’t matter whether you believe me or not. What’s important is that you were deceived because I have secrets that you don’t know, and I have the possibility of destroying plans.”
Zhushi Jiu’s words struck Xu Feng, leaving him silent.
“Earlier, I didn’t think it through, but after taking the medication, I realized that absolute rational thinking is terrifying – although I don’t even have the emotion of fear right now…”
“Absolute rationality means that all judgments are based on ‘logic’ and ‘value.’ After taking the medication, I thought about how often you inject this medication, whether you’re still under its effects, and whether your emotions and decision-making are influenced by it. Are the disappointments and frustrations you’re showing me real or fake?”
“To be honest, I still don’t understand the answers to these questions.”
Zhushi Jiu muttered to himself.
“But your decisions make me feel like you’re in a state of emotional elimination, which is only experienced by those who’ve taken the medication. In this rational state, you need me to prove my foresight using unbelievable means; otherwise, you wouldn’t believe me. The mysteries surrounding me prevent you from thinking logically, so you’ve changed your logic to prove that I can’t foresee the future.”
Xu Feng replied calmly, “What do you want to say?”
Zhushi Jiu gazed at Xu Feng, his expression unchanging. “You’re probably aware that there’s a high probability of failure tomorrow, right?”
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“…”
“Right now, humans need a victory, not just want one. You know that tomorrow’s action is doomed to fail, but humans can’t retreat, so you injected yourself with emotional elimination medication to ensure that your decisions aren’t affected by pessimism.”
“Meanwhile, you can’t show that you, as the leader of the Black Troop Organization, have no confidence in tomorrow’s action, so you pretended to have emotions and even had the Black Soldier, who hadn’t fully eliminated emotions, teach me in a retaliatory manner – all to create the illusion of being emotional, while your heart remains unmoved.”
“Someone like you can’t represent humanity.”
Zhushi Jiu observed Xu Feng’s reaction after finishing his long speech.
After a while, Xu Feng responded, “You’re wrong.”
Zhushi Jiu’s inference was not only baseless but also based on the assumption that humans would definitely lose tomorrow. “You’re the pessimist.”
“You’ve obtained most of your information from your limited understanding, which sounds impressive, but have you thought that humans might possess unimaginable attack methods? I’m being rational because I’m that kind of person.”
“I neither have pessimism nor fake emotions.”
“I previously said that I don’t take the Black Soldier medication because I’m afraid of the negative emotions that come with complete emotional elimination. I also said that I sometimes take a lower-level substitute – but all of that was a lie!”
Xu Feng stood up, walked to Zhushi Jiu, and grabbed his hair, staring into his eyes.
“I’ve never taken any medication!”
“I don’t want to forget the humiliation humans have suffered or the anger that fills my heart. My will is forged from human blood, and you can’t crush my spirit with some tricks!”
“You guys from the Executive Chess Society might have some goal, but I don’t care. I only care about human survival! You preservatives and opportunists are the biggest obstacles to human progress!”
Zhushi Jiu’s calm eyes met Xu Feng’s.
— He’d succeeded.
He had provoked the man’s anger.
After learning about the emotional elimination medication, he quickly thought of the man’s behavior. He naturally worried that the man might have taken the medication for a long time, even suspecting that he had used the Black Soldier medication to completely eliminate emotions.
This kind of person wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice humans if it meant achieving their goals, seeing humans as disposable resources — a personal experience for Zhushi Jiu after taking the medication, becoming an extreme egotist who lost emotions towards loved ones.
So, just like Xu Feng wanted to test his stance and attitude, he also needed to confirm Xu Feng’s state.
But how to confirm it?
One direct method was to make Xu Feng show his true emotions, which would allow him to determine if Xu Feng hadn’t eliminated emotions.
The answer seemed simple, but it was difficult to execute.
There were two difficulties. The first was how to make this man experience intense emotional fluctuations, as he always maintained a calm demeanor, making it hard to trigger his emotions. The second was how to confirm whether Xu Feng’s emotions were genuine or fake. He wasn’t a master of micro-expressions or psychology, so if Xu Feng was an Oscar-level actor, he’d have trouble judging his emotions.
Both difficulties were eventually resolved.
Xu Feng did get angry – in the previous iteration, he was furious and even punched Zhushi Jiu’s face, knocking out his teeth, and cursed him as an “opportunist.” This time, he provoked Xu Feng again, saying that he couldn’t represent humanity.
So Xu Feng indeed got angry, even grabbing Zhushi Jiu’s hair like before.
Next, he needed to judge whether Xu Feng’s emotions were genuine or fake.
In the previous iteration, Zhushi Jiu was blindfolded and couldn’t see Xu Feng’s face, let alone judge his emotions. But this time, he wasn’t blindfolded, and he had taken the medication.
The method to determine if Xu Feng had eliminated emotions was simple: he would eliminate his own emotions first.
Only by experiencing it personally could he clearly understand the state of someone who had eliminated emotions, which was more accurate than any theoretical analysis by a psychology expert.
— This wasn’t part of the plan; he wasn’t that capable yet.
Luckily, after resolving the two difficulties, he finally understood Xu Feng’s state.
As long as Xu Feng still had emotions, he couldn’t escape the traps that lay ahead!
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……
Xu Feng didn’t punch Zhushi Jiu’s face like before, only gazing at him for a while before releasing his head.
“If you only wanted to say that, I’d be very disappointed that I listened to useless nonsense!”
After saying that, Xu Feng was about to leave with disappointment.
However, Zhushi Jiu opened his mouth.
“Do you want to know the secrets surrounding me? I can tell you.”
Xu Feng stopped in his tracks.
Only then did he hear Zhushi Jiu’s final words: “If you tell me your true name, I’ll tell you everything.”
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