Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 591 - 145: Battlefield Within the Mind

"Putting you in the Eternal Freeze Coffin was to protect you." Sun Hang said grumpily, "In the medieval times, you'd have long been nailed to a cross."

Ye Jiu was stunned once again. He looked at Sun Hang, then at Ye Xuan, and hesitantly asked, "Can you tell me... what exactly happened?"

Sun Hang: "Shouldn't I be the one asking you that?"

"I... my mind is a bit jumbled right now..." Ye Jiu took a deep breath. "I... I'm not sure where to start..."

"How did you end up wearing this scrap metal and lying in this coffin? Let's start from there." Sun Hang said. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

"I... I don't know either..." A trace of confusion flashed in Ye Jiu's eyes. "I only remember that not long ago, I was playing a game... as I played, I started to feel dizzy. At first, I thought it was a side effect of staying up late, so I planned to make a cup of coffee to refresh myself... then... then..."

"Then what?" Ye Xuan couldn't help but urge.

"Sis, don't rush... let me think... my memory is a complete mess right now... a chaotic mess." Ye Jiu squeezed his eyes shut tightly. "I should've been trying to make coffee then... the moment I stood up, everything suddenly went black, followed by a sensation like the world was spinning around me..."

Sun Hang looked at Ye Xuan: "Does your brother have a history of low blood pressure?"

Ye Xuan shook her head: "No, suitable test subjects for eerie equipment have to undergo a monthly examination. He's always been healthy."

"Don't interrupt me!" Ye Jiu snapped. "At that moment... I thought I was about to fall to the floor... but when my vision returned, I found myself standing in a place that felt both familiar and strange, wearing a full set of 'Slaughter' gear..."

"A place both familiar and strange?" Sun Hang asked. "Where?"

"The battlefield of the Mysterious Armor Brave Cavalry..." Ye Jiu said with a slight tremor in his voice.

"Mysterious Armor Brave Cavalry?"

"It's the original owner of 'Slaughter.'" Ye Xuan explained on the side, "'Slaughter' is not a modern replica but an authentic ancient armor set passed down from the Tang Empire era to today... If it weren't eerie equipment, it should be displayed in the largest museum in Chunming City."

"So you're saying the original owner's memory of 'Slaughter' invaded your brain? Allowing you to experience a battle from over a thousand years ago?" Sun Hang asked.

"No... I don't think it's like a memory..." Ye Jiu shook his head, "If it were a memory, I shouldn't have been able to control my body... but in that world... I felt... I felt..."

"Don't rush, take your time." Ye Xuan's breathing was slightly rapid. Though she said not to rush, she was the most anxious of the three.

"I felt like I had fallen into a game world... like those immersive virtual reality games often described in science fiction novels, where consciousness is fully immersed. By the way, do you know SAO?"

Sun Hang and Ye Xuan both shook their heads simultaneously.

If Ye Jiu had mentioned the Chinese name of SAO, Sun Hang might have heard of it, but the English abbreviation didn't ring a bell for Sun Hang at the moment.

After all, he had only been awake for less than half a year. Although Sun Hang had been trying his best to absorb all kinds of information during this time, compared to Ye Jiu, a seasoned veteran of the secondary dimension, the gap was still too large.

In the depths of Sun Hang's mind, there might be related content from the memories of those consumed, but the "junkyard" was too vast. To find relevant information there, Sun Hang would rather pull out his phone and use a search engine.

As for Ye Xuan, she never touched games or anime-related things—which, according to Ye Jiu's original words, his sister had been receiving "dull and strict elite education" since she was young. Ye Xuan not only wasn't bothered by it but even enjoyed it.

"Describe what the scene was like." Sun Hang said.

"It was a desolate field, with no one else but the Mysterious Armor Brave Cavalry and countless eerie creatures. Some of these creatures seemed to have transformed from humans, while others had no apparent connection to humans... and I was one of the Mysterious Armor Brave Cavalry, with those eerie creatures surging up wave after wave, and I could only fight them with all my strength..."

"You're saying the Mysterious Armor Brave Cavalry was fighting the eerie creatures?" Ye Xuan said in surprise. "Could it be..."

"That's not the point." Sun Hang immediately interrupted her. "What puzzles me is why you were fighting the eerie creatures. If it's just a memory, or say, a game, couldn't you have just stood still? If it's a memory, the memory's owner would naturally control your 'character' to fight. And if it's a game, well, you die and so be it."

"I don't know either... it felt like there was always a subconscious thought: if I were killed by these eerie creatures, I would really die... Moreover, the wounds caused by their attacks were truly painful..."

Speaking of wounds, Ye Jiu immediately looked down at his abdomen.

"I remember my belly seemed to have been clawed open by one of the eerie creatures, with even my intestines spilling out..."

Ye Jiu lifted the hem of his pajamas, and there was no cut on his abdomen, only a shallow imprint left by the elastic band of his pajama pants.

"I still think it's a fragment of the original owner's memory of 'Slaughter.'" Ye Xuan said seriously, "The original owner's memory and obsession invaded your consciousness, making you unable to distinguish whether you are Ye Jiu or the Mysterious Armor Brave Cavalry who fought with eerie creatures. In that Mysterious Armor Brave Cavalry's memory, being killed by an eerie creature certainly means death because it's not just a memory, a nightmare, or a game... it's a real war they experienced."

Ye Jiu silently stared at his stomach, speechless.

"Additionally, you mentioned this scene felt familiar. Isn't it the first time you've fallen into such a memory?" Ye Xuan asked again.

"There was one other time..."

"Why didn't you report it?" Ye Xuan's tone suddenly turned harsh, "As a suitable test subject for eerie equipment, you should know this is a very serious problem! You should be more aware than me of the consequences of hiding this!"

"That time was during the operation to collect the Chimera 17 memetic sample, and I thought the hallucination was caused by Chimera 17, so I just..." Ye Jiu mumbled.

"You shouldn't have taken chances." Ye Xuan said each word with emphasis, "If you had reported it in time then, today's tragedy might not have happened."

"Tragedy? What tragedy?" Ye Jiu widened his eyes in surprise. "What on earth happened?!"

He noticed that his sister had been holding a pistol, her finger constantly pressed against the trigger guard, and the hammer at the end of the slide was always pulled back.

As if he were something incredibly dangerous, ready to shoot him at any moment.

A bad premonition suddenly emerged in his heart.

"A humanoid creature that looks exactly like you killed nearly a hundred people in Building No. 2 of Area C, including seven technicians responsible for memetic reverse-engineering." Ye Xuan said, "And in the remains of this creature, we found fragments of the 'Slaughter' demon mask."