Lin noticed that his consciousness was becoming clearer, no longer in the intermediate state where he couldn't distinguish between hallucination and reality. Although he couldn't stop seeing frequent hallucinations, he could at least recognize what state he was in.
Is this my brain repairing itself?
Brain cells generally cannot repair themselves, but certain brain functions can.
However, Lin's condition was not a simple brain injury; it was a complication caused by Honkai energy erosion. The true source was the Honkai energy that was constantly swelling within his body.
Lin thought back carefully and vaguely recalled Elysia injecting him with something, but at that time, Lin's spirit was so weak that he was almost unable to distinguish reality from illusion, so he hadn't paid attention to what Elysia had done to him.
He guessed that Elysia had injected him with some kind of brain-stimulating drug, and this familiar type of substance easily made him think of another person.
Mobius...
Lin thought of the woman he hadn't seen in a long time, stabilizing his thoughts.
The feeling of watching his chaotic memories like a movie in his own brain was not pleasant.
Peeling back the layers of the past, the hazy scenes gradually became clear. The gap between the truth and the false narratives was enough to cause one's mind to become disordered.
But this was beyond his control. Soon, the "memory" that had ended abruptly last time came crashing back.
Time flashed by, reaching the memory of Zero at age five.
Lin didn't see the scene after Zero was taken away. The last thing he saw was Zero being led away by a man holding Fire MOTH's standard handgun.
He couldn't see the man's face, meaning Zero's memory of this man was also blurred.
At age five, Zero was in a research institute whose location was unclear. Unexpectedly, his personal freedom was not restricted; he could walk around the institute freely. His room contained many toys and books, and he even had an accompanying nurse to look after him.
But this did not mean that Zero had entered a normal life.
"18th Record. Time:
$$Static—$$
. Gender: Male. Age: 5."
"First injection of toxin: Subject showed physical discomfort, but did not show the subsequent manifestation when the toxin was applied to other subjects… Second injection of drug: Subject absorbed the drug normally… Third simultaneous injection of toxin and drug: Subject showed no physical discomfort, the effect of the toxin disappeared, but the effect of the drug did not…"
Lin clearly saw these people injecting substances into Zero's body with a syringe, observing his condition and recording it. The fear and disgust they showed when looking at Zero's face and eyes reminded Lin of Zero's parents.
They did not treat Zero as a child, or even a fellow human. What they feared was likely the superhuman adaptability and reflexes Zero exhibited.
A small interlude occurred during the experiment. A female researcher suddenly became hysterical and started arguing with another researcher after completing the data statistics. The two wrestled in front of Zero, refusing to stop even when bloodied.
Zero sat obediently in his seat, his eyes seemingly immune to strain, blinking only once every minute, like a lifeless, exquisite doll.
After a while, the female researcher, covered in blood, came to Zero's front. The other researcher lay knocked out behind her. She gasped for breath, her ferocious face like a demon crawling out of hell. She grabbed the light Zero with both hands, lifted him high up to the window, and forcefully tossed him out.
A sensation of weightlessness pierced Zero's body. As he fell, Zero saw a look of relief on the female researcher's face, but less than half a second later, her expression turned to horror.
Just as Zero began to descend, he flung out the leather belt in his hand—which he had quickly unbuckled and yanked off the researcher's trousers when she grabbed him—precisely wrapping it around the window ledge's railing. His young body weight was within the belt's tensile strength, bringing his falling body to a sudden halt.
After the buffer, Zero landed next to the second-floor windowsill. Letting go, Zero grabbed the second-floor railing, used the ground to buffer again, and finally stood up unscathed after rolling on the first floor, locking eyes with the terrified female researcher on the third floor.
Soon, security personnel smashed open the third-floor door and apprehended the mentally broken female researcher. Lin was then escorted back to his room by the nurse.
This small interlude did not cause much disturbance. If anything, the man who brought Zero back came to "visit" him.
"19th Record. Time:
$$Static—$$
. Gender: Male. Age: 5."
The man with the obscured face squatted down in front of him.
"Did you listen to the nurse?"
"…"
"How vexing…" he sighed. "Alright, let's get straight to the point."
The child sitting on the chair looked at the video camera expressionlessly.
"Do you remember how you fell from the third floor without getting injured?"
"Xiao Lin."
Lin stood behind Zero, trying to lean in and see the man's face, but no matter what angle he looked from, the man's face was covered by a layer of gray mist.
Upon hearing the name "Xiao Lin," Zero showed some awareness. He rolled his emotionless eyes to look at the man squatting in front of him.
The man shook his head, "Not speaking?"
Zero's skin was unnaturally fair, a pallor between sickly and normal. Coupled with his chilling expression, it exerted immense pressure on others.
"Oh, right, I forgot to tell you, I changed your name." The man wasn't frightened by Zero's deathly pale face. He leisurely lit a cigarette and exhaled a puff of smoke. "Zero doesn't sound like a human name, so I gave you my name. Coincidentally, our names only differ by one syllable."
"…"
"Your mother is a Shenzhou native, and I also happened to grow up in Shenzhou. We are old acquaintances and used to work in the same place until your mother married your father and left the institute."
The man flicked the ash off the cigarette, consciously blowing the smoke to his side instead of directly in front of Zero.
"I know that even if you don't speak, you must be wondering why I killed your parents, and with your thinking ability, you can probably guess nine out of ten parts of the truth." The man squatted on the ground, put out the cigarette, and took a deep breath. "However, you have the right and the necessity to know the truth, and you need to hear it from me personally, because no matter how much I dislike the two of them, they are still your blood relatives."
"…What is the point of all this? Even if I know the truth, nothing will change."
Zero's voice was childish, but that was due to his vocal chords. His tone and demeanor were those of a cold adult.
The man, however, lit another cigarette nonchalantly, held it expertly, and waved his hand, "Of course there's a point. How can a normal person be indifferent to his own parents?"
"…"
"Before I talk about those things, let me introduce myself first."
The man held the cigarette in his mouth, his fox-like eyes gazing smilingly at Zero: "I, Lin, hate stupid humans."