In a flash of thought, Long Yuehong raised his arms, pointing the assault rifle in his hands at Bai Xiao, Lin Tong, and the others.
“Don’t rush,” Jiang Baimian interrupted his conditioned response.
Shang Jianyao, holding a megaphone, pressed on:
“Which city ruins were we discussing at the time? What posture were we in—upside down or lying on our sides?”
The four ruin hunters beside the mountain bike fell silent.
Their figures gradually faded, disappearing without a trace along with the vehicle.
“It really was an illusion!” Even though Long Yuehong already knew this, he still found it a bit unbelievable.
The illusions of Bai Xiao’s team had been so lifelike, with their every action, word, expression, and reaction indistinguishable from reality.
If the “Old Task Force” hadn’t obtained crucial intelligence in advance and prepared a plan, using questions related to matters only known to both sides to verify identities, they would have most likely been deceived.
Jiang Baimian frowned slightly, muttering to herself:
“They all have bioelectrical signals…”
“Could they still be real?” Long Yuehong was even more incredulous.
At that moment, he understood why the team leader had stopped him earlier.
It was because Bai Xiao, Lin Tong, and the others might be real, and it was just his side experiencing auditory hallucinations, receiving incorrect answers, and thus believing them to be fake.
If he had opened fire then, aside from the issue of mistakenly killing innocent people, merely triggering a conflict and causing chaos would have been a very dangerous thing.
“Identity verification” could confirm if something was real, but it couldn’t determine if it was fake—a correct answer definitely meant it was real, but a “wrong” answer didn’t necessarily mean it was fake.
Jiang Baimian shook her head:
“They’re gone now.”
Seeing that Long Yuehong was still a bit puzzled, Shang Jianyao, holding the megaphone, helped “explain”:
“Knowledge leaked!”
He looked pained.
“Team Leader, do you mean that the ‘High-Ranking Heartless’ has begun to understand how to create bioelectrical signals with illusions after what happened last night, compensating for the falseness in the details?” Long Yuehong understood and asked in astonishment.
Wasn’t it said that this ‘High-Ranking Heartless’ was closer to a beast?
Could he, could he still evolve?
Jiang Baimian pondered for a moment and said:
“That’s unlikely. I didn’t use that ability to pose any threat to him last night; I only used it for self-alertness. He couldn’t have learned it out of thin air.”
At this moment, Bai Chen offered his guess:
“Perhaps when the ‘High-Ranking Heartless’ creates illusions, it refers to the original version. If the original version has human consciousness, the illusion will have human consciousness. If the original version has bioelectrical signals, the illusion will have bioelectrical signals.”
Clap clap clap, Shang Jianyao applauded.
He expressed his agreement in this way.
Bai Chen rarely received such treatment and felt a bit uncomfortable, fully understanding the team leader’s reaction of amusement and exasperation whenever she encountered such a situation.
“Not bad,” Jiang Baimian nodded slightly. “He probably is just imitating, knowing what it is but not why, but regardless, he’s much stronger than Priest Zhou in terms of illusions.”
She had previously commented that the illusions created by Zhou Yue were a bit rough, lacking both human consciousness and bioelectrical signals.
As she spoke, Jiang Baimian added:
“Next, it depends on whether he deliberately distorts the bioelectrical signals when hiding his tracks.”
The previous event reminded her that she couldn’t completely rely on weak bioelectrical signal sensing.
While the four were conversing, another vehicle emerged from the mountains.
It was deep blue overall, fitted with bulletproof steel plates, with a high chassis and large tires.
It was Bai Xiao’s team’s mountain bike.
It had “come again.”
Long Yuehong’s teeth ached as he wondered if this time it was real or fake.
He put on his night-vision goggles but didn’t find any problems.
——At this time, it was just dusk, and the light was barely acceptable, so there was no need to use night-vision goggles. Long Yuehong was just using some functions of this auxiliary device.
Soon, the handsome mountain bike proactively stopped in front of the two full-length mirrors.
Shang Jianyao, holding a megaphone, greeted them excitedly:
“Hello, Bai Xiao, Lin Tong, Lei, Zhang Shaopeng.”
“Why do you have to say each name?” Long Yuehong couldn’t help but mutter.
“It’s polite,” Shang Jianyao put down the megaphone and answered seriously.
“These names might not be real,” Jiang Baimian shot Shang Jianyao down.
Shang Jianyao quickly smiled:
“Everywhere is a dream, why take it seriously?”
At this time, Bai Xiao, whose half a skull had been modified, got out of the car and asked in confusion:
“How do you know our names?”
He didn’t remember exchanging names during their encounter.
“This mountain man is divinely astute,” Shang Jianyao said a line he didn’t know where he learned it from.
Jiang Baimian quickly “remedied”:
“You guys were just here.”
“Are you saying that the ‘High-Ranking Heartless’ created illusions of us?” The gentle-tempered Lin Tong got out of the car after him.
Behind her, Lei and Zhang Shaopeng held weapons, guarding their surroundings.
Jiang Baimian replied through the megaphone:
“Yes, fortunately, we used what we once talked about to figure out what was real and fake.”
Bai Xiao nodded slightly upon hearing this:
“You’ve also gained a lot of intelligence.”
They even knew the characteristics of the ‘High-Ranking Heartless’ illusion abilities and had started using the “identity verification” method.
“The target attacked Tarnan last night,” Jiang Baimian explained simply. “Alright, please accept ‘identity verification’ as well.”
“No problem,” Lin Tong expressed her understanding.
“What did we talk about at the water collection point in Mount Chiral before?” Shang Jianyao, holding the megaphone, raised the previous question.
Bai Xiao shook his head:
“We didn’t talk about anything, just reminded you that there were ‘High-Ranking Heartless’ appearing in the southwestern mountains.”
“Congratulations, you answered correctly!” Shang Jianyao responded through the megaphone.
If the distance wasn’t too great, with countless landmines and nail-filled traps in between, he might have shaken hands with each member of the opposing team.
Jiang Baimian thought for a moment and pressed:
“When was the last time you did ‘identity verification’?”
“An hour ago. We’ve been in the car since then, and the car hasn’t stopped,” Bai Xiao, who carried a straight saber on his back and had a uniquely purple-red right eye, answered patiently.
Jiang Baimian said sincerely:
“Please do another ‘identity verification’ for them, then take turns looking in the mirror.”
Bai Xiao turned around and spoke a few words to Lin Tong, Lei, and Zhang Shaopeng respectively.
Soon, he gave the results loudly:
“No problem.”
Then, they took turns walking to the two full-length mirrors facing each other and looked at themselves.
During this process, Lin Tong and Lei took the opportunity to tidy their hair.
This made Long Yuehong’s scalp tingle.
The illusion created by the ‘High-Ranking Heartless’ before had also made similar movements!
Its observation of the target and grasp of details really didn’t seem like that of a ‘Heartless’ lacking intelligence.
“Okay,” Jiang Baimian sighed in relief, then asked, “Have you found anything?”
Bai Xiao seemed to have a built-in megaphone; without using much force, his voice reached Shang Jianyao and the others:
“We were lost for a long time. No instrument could help us.
“This should be the ability of that ‘High-Ranking Heartless’.
“We were wondering before why he didn’t take the opportunity to attack us. Now it seems he influenced us and came to Tarnan.
“Later, we regained our bearings and found the vehicle parked very close to the edge of the cliff. If we had acted blindly back then without assigning people to explore the surroundings with the utmost caution, we would be dead by now.”
He clearly explained the course of events.
The mountains are indeed more dangerous than the town, making them more suitable for the ‘High-Ranking Heartless’ to exert his abilities… Jiang Baimian sighed and said thoughtfully:
“Did all those smart robots and their auxiliary robots fall off the cliff?”
She believed that living things had path dependency, and successful solutions would be used again and again.
Bai Xiao was a little surprised, then restrained his expression:
“Yes.
“We found some traces, confirming that they were left behind during the process of those robots falling off the cliff.
“Yes, they should have activated their jet devices, trying to save themselves, but their judgment of direction was interfered with, and they crashed directly into the mountains, causing explosions.”
“May the breath of the gods bathe them,” Shang Jianyao sympathetically performed a twitchy dance.
Seeing this scene, Bai Xiao and Lin Tong exchanged a glance and nodded almost imperceptibly.
Based on this, they judged that the other party were believers of the “Blazing Chariot” and members of the “Smelting Furnace Sect.”
——The dance performed when saluting with the “Dance of Madness” was somewhat different from that of the “Smelting Furnace Sect,” lacking the feeling of being scalded by boiling water.
After a brief exchange, Bai Xiao asked:
“Can we pass through here now?”
Jiang Baimian put on a smile and pointed to the wooden sign next to her:
“Look there.”
Following Jiang Baimian’s hand, Bai Xiao, Lin Tong, and the others looked towards the wooden sign.
Because the light bulb that came with the wooden sign wasn’t lit yet, and it was getting dark, they carefully identified the content above:
“This road is closed; please take the northeast gate.”
Lin Tong was puzzled:
“Then what was the point of chatting so much earlier?”
Professional instinct… Jiang Baimian silently replied.
Then, she said with a smile:
“Only by verifying your identities can I tell you something:
“Yes, that ‘High-Ranking Heartless’ is afraid of looking in the mirror.”
“Looking in the mirror?” Lin Tong subconsciously looked at the full-length mirror in front of her, revealing a thoughtful expression.
She and Bai Xiao, Lei, and Zhang Shaopeng didn’t ask why.
Bai Xiao then thanked them on behalf of the whole team.
They didn’t stay any longer, got in the car, and drove along the fork road towards the northeast entrance of Tarnan.
“Strange, their answers weren’t distorted, allowing us to easily determine the truth…” After watching the deep blue mountain bike drive away, Jiang Baimian muttered in confusion.
Bai Chen said thoughtfully:
“Maybe that ‘High-Ranking Heartless’ changed his breakthrough point.”
He was no longer in this area.
“He has a strong desire to win,” Shang Jianyao said with emotion upon hearing this.
A strong desire to win? Jiang Baimian found it amusing and wanted to reply with “He’s not Shang Jianyao,” and also call Zhou Yue and the others to remind them to be careful.
Just then, she suddenly had a flash of inspiration, noticing an important issue:
Why was that ‘High-Ranking Heartless’ so fixated on entering Tarnan?
The ‘prey’ he had hunted before was enough for him to eat for several days!