Seeking Truth with a Sword-Chapter 653 - 592: True or False

"...script."

Li Ang stared straight at Professor Jun and said hoarsely, "I want to see the script."

Professor Jun seemed to have guessed Li Ang would ask this. He opened a drawer and took out a thick script with a large [8] on its cover.

Because of the angle, it looked like the symbol for infinity, ∞, and also like a Möbius strip.

Li Ang flipped open the script, and the title "Dream Rhinoceros Plan" came into view.

First page.

[Fade in]

[Interior, bedroom in an apartment building in West Yin City, day, modern]

[The buzzing of an alarm clock sounds. A young man in black cotton pajamas turns over in bed, his hand groping on the bedside table, searching for the alarm clock.]

Li Ang’s eyelids twitched, and his grip on the script involuntarily tightened, the veins on his fingers bulging.

This was the exact scene from the day he had gone on a business trip to Tokyo.

[The young man, dragging a suitcase, walks out the door and accidentally bumps into a girl passing through the hallway.]

[Li Ang: Uh, excuse me.]

[Li Ang takes half a step back to apologize, recognizing the girl as his next-door neighbor.]

"..."

Li Ang quickly flipped through the pages.

On the eleventh page, he encountered an armed thug in the subway car and was forced to awaken his Elemental Material.

On the nineteenth page, he broke out of the laboratory, reached the streets of Tokyo, and evaded pursuit.

On the thirty-third page, he headed north and fought a great battle with the army of Superpower Users in front of the National Congress.

Every scene was meticulously designed, with cinematic quality in its shot framing, character dialogue, and setting choices.

"Every plot point has significance."

Professor Jun said, "Going abroad on a business trip was to break away from a familiar environment, creating a sense of loneliness and helplessness to start the journey.

"Waking up in the laboratory, having overcome the effects of the anesthetic, imitated a hero’s resurrection—stepping out of darkness and into the light.

"Getting help from strangers on the streets imitated a hero receiving guidance from a prophet in mythological stories.

"The protagonist, under the influence of the Elemental Material, gradually shedding his human form, symbolized stripping away the weaker aspects of humanity.

"Destroying the city and demolishing the army symbolized rebellion against authority and the construction of powerful self-confidence..."

"Why is there no ending?"

Li Ang interrupted. The plot in the script came to an abrupt end after he had constructed the giant metal tree, with no continuation.

"After this scene, I engaged in other activities,"

Li Ang stared intently at him. "Why isn’t that in the script?"

"In the previous seven attempts to create a hero, the scripts were complete, but the results weren’t very good. Li Ang’s personality was on the verge of collapse, and his hallucinations became more frequent and severe. Therefore, the eighth script was modified."

Professor Jun said, "A hero is a hero because he overcomes his self and historical limitations; he understands, accepts, welcomes, and embraces his own destiny, and is able to make his own choices at the crossroads of fate.

"At the end of the scenarios written in the script, the protagonist had become the strongest Superpower User in the world. There was nowhere he could not go; no person, no army could stop him.

"He could do anything he wanted: become a Feudal Emperor, a slave owner, an All-name Idol, a Hermit...

"He needed to make a choice: to determine his relationship with the world, and to decide what kind of existence he, as an individual, wanted to become."

"..."

Li Ang loosened his grip on the script. His final choice—to leave Earth, embrace solitude, and accept his fate—was what had allowed him to awaken.

"Even the name ’Elemental Material’ is quite interesting."

Professor Jun added, "It’s undefined and unrestricted. Absorbing all light, it appears absolutely black and possesses unparalleled potential. Just as the script expresses, people are malleable; their external environment and personal choices determine what kind of person they can become.

"The power of will can affect reality."

WHIR WHIR WHIR—

The sound of a propeller cutting through the air came from outside the window.

Blinding searchlight beams swept past the window as a helicopter slowly descended onto the open space by the flowerbed.

"Your parents have come to pick you up."

Professor Jun stood up and motioned for an orderly to open the door and welcome them.

A moment later, a commanding and impressive middle-aged man, along with a woman dressed in a luxurious long crêpe-knit dress, stepped into the study.

They looked as if they had just come from a dinner party, followed by a secretary and attendants.

Li Ang instinctively stood up; the couple looked exactly like the parents in his memory, but their clothes and demeanor were worlds apart.

"Oh, Ang, you’ve suffered so."

The woman, her eyes welling with tears, stepped forward and hugged Li Ang tightly, leaving him somewhat bewildered.

The man, however, gestured with his fingers and said coolly to his secretary, "Xiao Zhao, write Professor Jun a check as a token of our gratitude."

"Please, wait a moment."

Professor Jun managed to tear his gaze from the long string of zeros on the check. He said to the couple, "Actually, the personality restoration treatment isn’t fully complete. I still recommend that your son stay at the Giant Mountain Sanatorium for a while longer to recuperate, with limited contact with the outside world..."

"So, all he needs is a quiet environment for recuperation?"

The man replied calmly, his tone implying that any problem solvable with money wasn’t a problem at all, "I’ll have an area of our estate sectioned off from the outside world. Professor Jun and the sanatorium staff can move in and oversee my son’s care around the clock. The compensation will be ten times what the sanatorium offers."

"Wait a moment,"

Li Ang gently freed himself from the woman’s embrace and looked directly at his ’father.’ "I have a complete and independent personality," he said. "Are you just going to treat me as if I were your original son?"