Chapter 195
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Chapter 195: Forced Invasion
The overwhelming biological field crushed the last vestiges of reason within the Dummy.
Lin Qingliu’s consciousness invaded the other’s mind without resistance.
This was not the application of a single ability but rather a forced invasion achieved through the fusion of multiple powers, amplified by his formidable biological field and elevated status.
Lin Qingliu sought to understand the other’s form of existence and uncover the truths beyond the city walls.
Yet, he did not simply obliterate that sliver of consciousness or let it dissipate. Instead, he imprisoned it within the confines of the mind.
As he traversed the illusory consciousness, Lin Qingliu surveyed his surroundings and finally glimpsed the scene he had been searching for.
His vision seemed to expand, as if he had grown thousands of compound eyes, allowing him to observe from every angle.
At the heart of the memory, five men clad in specialized combat suits marched forward.
Recognizing the faces of the Nian team, Lin Qingliu identified them instantly.
Just as he prepared to delve deeper, eager to uncover what the team had encountered, the image abruptly fragmented and distorted.
Lin Qingliu paused, piecing together the reason behind this disruption.
Much like Ji Yongxing’s creation, the [Skydome], which often borrowed computational power from the headquarters’ systems, the memories within these Dummies’ minds were incomplete—assuming they even possessed brains—and could only cache a limited amount of data.
The act of mimicking humans consumed the majority of their memory, forcing the deletion of less immediately relevant recollections.
To access those memories, Lin Qingliu would need to lift the room’s restrictions, reconnecting the Dummy’s consciousness from its offline state.
However, doing so would alert the Supreme Will, an entity nearly equal to him in status and strength.
Though objectively, Dr. Lin was now considered a frontline combatant within Hope City, his narrow victory in the previous battle left him wary. He suspected the Supreme Will might still hold a slight edge over him.
True to his cautious nature, Lin Qingliu preferred to bide his time and grow stronger rather than take unnecessary risks.
With a silent sigh, he began sifting through the Dummy’s memories, focusing on the period before and after its entry into Hope City.
These memories began with its creation, when a fragment of the Supreme Will entered the body and merged with the simulated personality of the superpowered individual Nian, forming a mental patchwork of sorts.
When acting alone or alongside other Dummies, this patchwork exhibited traits of the will of the mycelium. Yet, when encountering individuals from Nian’s past, it would actively mimic them based on stored memories.
Lin Qingliu fast-forwarded through the Dummy’s coherent memories, which included its responses during isolation interrogations at headquarters, its conversations with the Dummy Vine after escaping, and its pursuit of Fulan to the vicinity of the mental health clinic.
Everything flowed seamlessly.
Back in the real world, Lin Qingliu opened his eyes.
This time, he truly felt the disparity in strength—or rather, the chasm between the known and the unknown.
The isolation interrogation plans, though meticulously crafted, were designed for ordinary humans.
Like painting ghosts and gods on a shield to ward off cannon fire, these procedures, no matter how flawless, proved utterly inadequate when faced with non-human targets.
The architects of these plans still failed to grasp the true nature of their adversaries.
The dangers beyond the city walls might not stem solely from extraordinary beasts. Perhaps these beasts were merely surface-level threats, material in nature.
At the mental level, the convergence and mutual influence of biological fields, along with their contamination, posed the gravest danger outside the city.
As for the old folks within Hope City, their continued ignorance of this truth meant the city would remain on a path devoid of a future.
Lin Qingliu knew he had to act.
From the Dummy’s memories, he learned the exact departure time of the second team: less than a month from now.
Among the second team were two of his followers.
Lin Qingliu was not heartless; he could not abandon those who placed their faith in him, directly or indirectly.
Moreover, based on the fragmented images he had seen and the evolutionary and manipulative capabilities of the will of the mycelium, if Wang Xiao and Shi Jin—two followers of immense potential—fell into the hands of the Supreme Will, Hope City might truly face ruin.
According to Nian’s memories, the Dummies created by the Supreme Will could mimic the abilities of their originals to a certain extent.
Though this mimicry relied heavily on the manipulation of invisible mycelium, it was convincing enough to deceive.
If the Blood and Flesh pathway and the time pathway of these two were seized, a horde of extraordinary beasts—resilient, powerful, and swift—could emerge.
The mere thought of it made Lin Qingliu feel as though the city defense army was on the brink of collapse.
Lin Qingliu never underestimated the simulative prowess of the mycelium collective. The previous Infected riot and the silent infiltration of five Dummies both demonstrated that the recognition capabilities of Hope City’s “Holy Shield” were far from infallible.
His earlier dissection of the components within Luke’s arm had already revealed a critical fact: the Holy Shield’s power did not originate from humans or genes but from an external source.
Though the exact origin remained unclear, those components functioned merely as remote control devices. Somewhere within the city, there must exist a larger apparatus capable of generating special shields or barriers based on these devices.
Yet, confirming this fact brought Lin Qingliu no clarity. Instead, it plunged him deeper into confusion.
Why disguise a device as human?
Why not simply explain the origins of the shields to the residents?
What secrets were they hiding?
Lin Qingliu resolved to uncover the truth.
But first, he had to deal with the Dummy before him, which was enjoying an unnervingly peaceful slumber.
He had overheard its conversation with the Shadow Master and knew that the five individuals were set to participate in the medal ceremony the following day.
If he killed the Dummy here, his shop would likely be reduced to rubble within an hour.
With that in mind, Lin Qingliu extended the tendrils of his consciousness once more into the Dummy’s hollow skull.
He planned to use his suggestion ability to hypnotize it into forgetting parts of the day’s events.
This was a delicate application of the Dream Illusion path ability.
Dummies did not dream, so suggestions and influences related to dreams would directly affect the consciousness within the humanoid body.
But just as Lin Qingliu prepared to act, an anomaly occurred.
