Chapter 127: Sentinel & Guide (IV)

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Chapter 127: Sentinel & Guide (IV)

Compared with constantly hiding and running outside, Shang Ke ultimately chose prison without hesitation. It had strict security, regular meals in fixed portions every day, and guaranteed medical care. As long as he guarded against harassment from his fellow inmates, he could “rest easy.”

In the past, Shang Ke certainly would not have dared enter prison. But now he had martial arts to protect himself and Wave to warn him of danger, so ordinary people truly were no match for him. Unfortunately, this world lacked the conditions necessary for magic—elements and spiritual qi. Otherwise, he would not have needed to worry about attacks from the Anti-Government Alliance at all.

After declaring, “I’m here to turn myself in,” Shang Ke promptly and spectacularly passed out…

“What? You found Zeder?” Yonis rose immediately upon receiving the news. “Let’s go.”

The guards sent Shang Ke to a secure hospital—a medical facility primarily used to treat prisoners and other people under official custody.

Strictly speaking, Shang Ke had not yet been convicted of anything and could only be considered a major suspect. However, given the severity of the terrorist attack, he was still placed under extremely tight surveillance.

When Yonis arrived at the secure hospital, Shang Ke was still receiving treatment. Through the observation glass, he saw a young man lying facedown on the operating table, his naked back torn and bloody and his arms covered in countless scrapes. Yet the most striking injury was actually the long scar across his waist. If Yonis remembered correctly, it was the scar Zeder had received when his father nearly beat him to death at the age of ten. Even after so many years, it remained horribly conspicuous, showing just how severe the original injury had been.

After watching footage of him working at the mall, Yonis had initially felt a faint sense of rejection toward him. But now that he was seeing him in person, sympathy and heartache surged uncontrollably through his chest.

Once the doctors finished treating Shang Ke’s wounds, he was transferred to a monitored ward.

Yonis approached the bed and bent down to brush the hair away from Shang Ke’s forehead, revealing an exquisitely delicate profile. Compared with the red-haired young man in the surveillance footage, he looked like an entirely different person. If they had not recovered the photograph attached to his identity card, probably no one would ever have connected the two. One looked dark and gloomy, the other peaceful and clean… Why was the difference so enormous?

Yonis released his spirit animal—the golden lion Moro.

Moro lightly leaped to the other side of the bed and leaned close to sniff around Shang Ke’s neck.

Before long, a tiny pale-blue head poked out from Shang Ke’s arms, looked around, then promptly withdrew again.

Seeing Wave disappear, Moro refused to give up and began pawing insistently at Shang Ke. Shang Ke seemed to sense the disturbance. His lashes trembled slightly before his eyes slowly opened, those watery blue irises veiled in a faint mist, hazy and soft, instantly adding a touch of seductive beauty to his otherwise clean, elegant features.

Still half asleep, Shang Ke vaguely saw someone beside the bed and murmured almost coquettishly, “Stop messing around. Let me sleep a little longer…” Then he buried his face back into the soft pillow.

He had mistaken Yonis for Tylor, believing he was still in the previous world.

Hearing that voice, Yonis felt an inexplicably soft, sweet sensation spread through him, like biting into a piece of chocolate.

It was him—the Guide who belonged to him alone! A strange brilliance flashed through Yonis’s eyes…

Once the anesthetic wore off, Shang Ke gradually awakened from his deep sleep. After the doctor gave him a brief examination, several solemn-looking officers entered the room one after another.

Shang Ke sat propped against the pillows, unsurprised by their arrival. This interrogation would determine whether he could clear himself later, so he absolutely could not afford to take it lightly.

“Let me introduce myself. My name is Avery.” Captain Avery pulled over a chair and sat directly in front of Shang Ke, watching him intently. “I think you already know why we’re here.”

Shang Ke nodded.

“Then I’ll begin.” Avery’s expression turned serious. “Not long ago, a group of terrorists attacked Central Mall, and you were one of the employees there. Why did you suddenly disappear after the attack?”

Shang Ke replied calmly, “Captain Avery, there’s no need to beat around the bush. I can tell you directly that I do have connections to them, but I’m not a terrorist.”

His bluntness surprised Avery. He gestured for him to continue. “Then please explain.”

“I grew up in a children’s home,” Shang Ke began slowly. “When I was sixteen, I was abducted by a terrorist organization called the Anti-Government Alliance. They locked me up with other teenagers and made us perform all kinds of exhausting work every day—assembling parts, refining materials, operating machinery, maintaining equipment, and so on. They used every method they could to brainwash us and kept us completely isolated from the outside world. A lot of people tried to escape, but everyone who did was killed. I didn’t dare take the risk. I stayed there obediently for five years, until recently, when they sent me to work at Central Mall.”

“Once you were outside, why didn’t you ask the police for help?” Avery asked.

“I was afraid it was a test,” Shang Ke replied. “If I made any suspicious move, they might kill me immediately.”

Avery nodded. That was understandable.

Shang Ke continued, “I didn’t know beforehand what they intended to do.”

“Wait. You didn’t know beforehand?” Avery interrupted. “Weren’t you the one who planted the bombs in the mall?”

“No. I don’t know how to plant or disarm bombs at all,” Shang Ke denied. “That day, they handed me a gift box and told me that if they were captured, I was to open it. They said that once I completed that task, I would be free.”

Naturally, Avery and the others knew what this so-called “gift box” actually contained.

Shang Ke lowered his eyes. “They thought I didn’t understand anything. But thanks to their ‘generosity,’ I’ve handled all kinds of machinery and materials over the past few years. After feeling the object only a few times, I guessed what was inside the box. There was no doubt about it. It was a detonator—and one that transmitted a signal.”

A chill ran through Avery and the others. Exactly as Yonis had suspected, the terrorists had prepared a final contingency. Fortunately, the young man before them had been alert enough not to be deceived. The terrorists had clearly intended to use him as a disposable scapegoat. They had probably never imagined that a boy who had been imprisoned and oppressed for five full years starting at sixteen could still retain such clear judgment and presence of mind.

“What did you do with the detonator?”

“I threw it into the Leftbank River.”

“Well done. We’ll send someone to recover it and verify your statement.” Avery’s expression had noticeably softened.

At this point, Shang Ke had to give the original owner credit for his taste. The detonator he had made really had been placed inside an exquisite gift box. Apparently, the original owner had regarded it as the final gift he would ever give himself.

“By throwing away the detonator, you effectively betrayed the Union. That’s why they later tried to kill you?”

Shang Ke nodded.

Avery questioned him further about the Anti-Government Alliance. Only after three hours did he finally stand. “All right. We have a general understanding of the situation now. For the time being, stay here and recover so that you’ll be available whenever we need to question you again.”

After the group left, Shang Ke’s ward fell quiet again. He turned toward the window and thought, The first hurdle should be over.

It was a fact that the Anti-Government Alliance abducted and controlled children, and the terrorists who had been captured at the mall had all committed suicide. Shang Ke had thrown away the detonator, betrayed the Union, saved thousands of lives, and subsequently become the target of assassination himself. By any reasonable standard, he should not bear much criminal responsibility. At worst, he would probably spend a few months in prison.

He had somehow managed to forcibly reshape a genuine antisocial criminal and principal planner of a terrorist attack into a pure, innocent victim. He really was going all out to whitewash himself.

Of course, this was still only his side of the story, so neither the government nor the military would accept it unquestioningly. But the injuries covering his body could not be faked, and the doctors’ authoritative diagnoses essentially ruled out the possibility that he had deliberately injured himself to gain sympathy. More importantly, he possessed intelligence on the Anti-Government Alliance. Ta’s leadership would never casually discard such a valuable lead.

Shang Ke had not originally wanted to place himself under anyone else’s control, but circumstances were stronger than personal preference. When faced with two harmful options, one chose the lesser evil. If he wanted to survive this mission, borrowing outside power was simply the most practical response to the situation.

During the days Shang Ke spent recuperating in the hospital, Avery and the others successfully recovered the detonator from the Leftbank River, thereby “confirming” his story about the “gift box.” They also searched the place where Shang Ke had been living and found the conditions extremely bare. Empty food containers had accumulated inside, and apart from a few sets of clothing and basic daily necessities, there was virtually nothing else.

Next, acting on the information Shang Ke provided, they raided several Anti-Government Alliance contact points, only to find that every one had already been abandoned. Shang Ke did not tell them the location of the Union’s headquarters because knowing something that important would have cast doubt on his supposed status as a mere “victim.” A disposable pawn could not reasonably possess too many core secrets. Besides, even if he told them, it probably would not help. After his “betrayal,” the Anti-Government Alliance would certainly have relocated already.

While Shang Ke recuperated in the hospital, he had no idea that an argument about him was raging behind the scenes. Although all available evidence suggested that he was indeed a victim and had not personally committed any crime, some people still suspected that he was lying. He was simply too calm, nothing like someone who had supposedly endured years of oppression and spent four or five years isolated from the outside world. As a child, he had lived under his father’s violence, and after fifteen, he had supposedly been abducted and brainwashed by terrorists. Anyone raised under those circumstances would normally develop either a distorted personality or become withdrawn and timid.

Yet Shang Ke’s behavior during his recovery was so normal that it became suspicious in itself. He went to bed early and woke early every day. He was mild-tempered, clean, and fond of reading. Although he rarely initiated conversations with strangers, he always wore a faint smile and never argued with anyone.

No matter how one looked at him, he resembled a well-bred young master from an affluent family, not an unfortunate man who had endured years of abuse, received little education, and lived in poverty.

Most of those involved shared these suspicions, so they ultimately decided to subject Shang Ke to a test. The result would directly determine how they treated him afterward.

The test was—hypnosis.

Yonis initially hesitated. But Shang Ke was a Guide with extraordinarily high psychic power, so in theory hypnosis would not harm him, nor could it force him to divulge substantive information against his will. It was merely intended as a simple form of lie detection, guiding his subconscious into giving instinctive responses to a series of questions, which would also help clear him of suspicion once and for all. As long as he passed, he would regain his freedom. Not only would he avoid punishment, he would instead receive government protection.

With that in mind, Yonis tacitly agreed to allow the test. Rationally, he knew the decision made sense, yet emotionally, he felt deeply uncomfortable, as though some voice inside him were constantly urging him to stop it.

The hypnotist was a Sentinel skilled in mental manipulation. To prevent Shang Ke from becoming wary, he first posed as another patient and spent some time interacting with him. Only after the two became familiar did he catch Shang Ke off guard and place him under hypnosis.

Shang Ke reclined halfway in a chair with the hypnotist seated beside him, while the others watched through the monitors outside.

The hypnosis appeared to proceed smoothly, and Shang Ke responded appropriately to the hypnotist’s questions. In reality, Shang Ke noticed the mental manipulation the instant it touched him, but he chose not to resist. Instead, he turned the situation to his advantage, concealed his spirit animal, and pretended to cooperate with the hypnosis.

For example: “Is your name Shang Ke?”

Shang Ke nodded.

“Is your name Zeder?”

Shang Ke nodded again.

Both identities belonged to him, so there was nothing wrong with either answer.

“Have you ever lived in a children’s home?”

Shang Ke nodded.

“Is your father’s name Yalis?”

Shang Ke shook his head.

“Is your father’s name Myrus?”

At the name “Myrus,” an unusual reaction briefly crossed Shang Ke’s face. It did not last long, and he soon nodded. At the same time, he faintly sensed a strange fluctuation inside his mind.

The hypnotist then began asking about the terrorist attack and the Anti-Government Alliance.

Shang Ke passed several crucial questions in succession, allowing Yonis, who was watching through the monitor, to relax slightly.

But when the questions turned to the Union’s attempts to kill him, Shang Ke reacted abnormally again.

The hypnotist asked, “Does the Anti-Government Alliance truly want to kill you?”

The word kill struck one of Shang Ke’s most sensitive nerves.

His face turned deathly pale. His lashes trembled, and the healthy red of his lips faded to a light pink as both hands clutched tightly at the chair’s armrests.

Yonis’s expression changed. He was just about to stop the session when the hypnotist spoke again. “Don’t be afraid. Think about something happy. Do you remember the friends you used to play with?”

Shang Ke’s body stiffened, and the trembling stopped.

Believing the suggestion had worked, the hypnotist continued, “Playing with your friends was wonderful. Every day, you’d play until dusk before reluctantly going home…”

The instant the word home left his mouth, Shang Ke began trembling violently. Every trace of color vanished from his face, and then a broken voice slowly emerged from his throat. “D-Dad… don’t… please don’t hit me…”

The hypnotist froze, and so did Shang Ke, who until that moment had merely been pretending to be hypnotized. The original owner’s buried consciousness and memories seemed to have been forcibly awakened, and Shang Ke could only listen as “he” continued in a trembling voice, “I… I won’t do it again. I’ll never go outside… to play again… Please… stop hitting me…”

The hypnotist hurriedly grabbed Shang Ke’s hand, trying to stop the unnatural spasms shaking his body. Without realizing it, Shang Ke’s consciousness was dragged deep into the original owner’s memories, and every wound accumulated over those years seemed to tear open again in that instant.

The hypnotist’s touch became like another form of punishment, shoving Shang Ke completely into that terrifying abyss. “Ah—! It hurts… Dad, please stop hitting me. I’m sorry. I’ll listen from now on, I promise… I won’t cry anymore… I won’t cry…”

A metal rod covered in short spikes came down on his body again and again. Blood welled from torn flesh, and the remembered pain became so vivid it seemed to rip through his actual body.

Shang Ke trembled uncontrollably, blue veins standing out beneath his pale skin. Moisture gathered behind his tightly closed eyes but never fell. His consciousness blurred until he could no longer tell whether these were Zeder’s memories or his own.

The hypnotist was stunned by the scene and, for a moment, had no idea how to react.

At that moment, a figure shot into the room and pulled Shang Ke tightly into his arms, then roared furiously at the hypnotist, “Release the mental control! Now!”

Only then did the hypnotist snap back to his senses. He immediately tried to withdraw his psychic power, only to have it violently rebound.

“Damn it—it’s psychic backlash!” The hypnotist’s face went pale. “I can’t release the control anymore!”

Yonis wanted to kill him on the spot, but there was no time for that now. He immediately released his spirit animal, intending to draw out Shang Ke’s spirit animal and use the psychic resonance between them to guide him out of the nightmare.

“Dad… I was wrong…”

“You weren’t wrong!” Yonis growled. “You didn’t do anything wrong!”

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”

“Stop apologizing! Shang Ke, wake up! Wake up!” Feeling Shang Ke’s psychic power spiraling out of control, Yonis himself was nearly losing control as well. His expression twisted fiercely as violent psychic energy erupted outward, forcing everyone else out of his domain.

Moro circled anxiously around them, repeatedly trying to touch Shang Ke. Every contact seemed to stab him like needles, drawing low growls of pain from the lion, yet each time, Moro still approached him again.

At last, Shang Ke’s spirit animal, Wave, appeared. The moment his form condensed, he dropped weakly to the ground and lay there listlessly.

Moro immediately hurried over and repeatedly nuzzled Wave with his nose.

“It’s so dark… Is there… is there anyone who can save me…?” Shang Ke whispered weakly.

“Don’t be afraid. I’m here to save you. From now on, I’ll protect you. I’ll never let anyone hurt you again.”

I, Yonis, swear it on my life!

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