Transmigrated as a Cannon Fodder Omega, Their Knees Bent Chapter 68
Chapter 68: Truth
“Wh-what?” The more Lou Ting listened, the stranger it sounded.
The same experience? Is it what I think it is?
Or did I misunderstand?
“You don’t need to doubt it,” Ji Xing said. “If I guessed correctly, that organization made its fortune by researching mental power. They extract a person’s mental power, strengthen it through a special tempering environment, and then inject the finished product back into test subjects. This way, the test subject’s mental power reaches a super-high value that regular interstellar citizens cannot achieve.”
The level of mental power directly determined a person’s future achievements; high mental power was even a symbol of status.
It was absolute strength that belonged solely to oneself.
Ji Xing continued, “Although these kinds of experiments were expressly prohibited long ago, because the Empire was in a state of turmoil at the time, even if private research was discovered, the punishment was merely detention without serious consequences. People worship the strong, and under the massive temptation of mental power growth, there were still those secretly continuing this experiment through the black market. It wasn’t until I destroyed one of their headquarters that this matter was quelled. Later, when Xiang Yuan became the Monarch, he cracked down on this severely. Now, even in the black market, there are no traces of similar organizations appearing.”
At this point, Ji Xing took a sip of hot milk to moisten his throat.
Lou Ting couldn’t process the sudden influx of information shared by Ji Xing. He hadn’t even fully digested what Zuo Anran told him, and now this…
With Ji Xing sharing all this without reservation, Lou Ting thought that at a time like this, only by candidly sharing all information could they possibly find the truth as quickly as possible.
He said, “I was previously heavily promoted by the organization. Although I don’t know the reason, they were definitely the ones who pushed me into the entertainment industry. Later, because I went against their wishes due to certain things, they might have subjected me to the kind of experiment you mentioned. During that time, they wanted to get rid of me, but because I was an artist frequently appearing on camera, a sudden disappearance would be very troublesome. So, they suppressed me behind the scenes, forcing me to only appear on some low-tier variety shows, and ultimately planned to eliminate me by faking a heart attack.”
“But they failed. I didn’t die, and the mental power extracted by the experiment returned. But it’s very strange; after I took off my disguise, they didn’t continue to suppress me, but only dared to tentatively probe.”
This was the logical chain Lou Ting had deduced from summarizing Zuo Anran’s words.
Lou Wenjiang and his family also appeared right when Lou Ting entered the entertainment industry. It might have been to make his background look normal; after all, he hadn’t fallen out with the organization back then, so they probably weren’t sent to monitor him.
Lou Wenjiang and his family falling ill also began after Lou Ting defied the organization and was used as a test subject.
What puzzled Lou Ting was that taking off his disguise also went against their wishes, so why didn’t anything happen this time?
Hearing this, Ji Xing nodded and said, “I suspect that organization has already vanished.”
“Could it be—?”
“Looking at the timeline, it matches up.” Ji Xing began his investigation as soon as he noticed Lou Ting’s mental power anomaly might be related to the experiments. Now, the information on hand was nearly complete, and there were only a few final points left to add before he could hand it over to Lou Ting.
“There was no suppression because the organization was already destroyed. The remaining few people were completely incapable of propping up the organization. They wanted to get rid of me, but they no longer had the ability to do so, which is why Zuo Anran rashly stepped forward…”
No.
When Zuo Anran jumped, he said Lou Ting had ruined his chances twice, and there would absolutely not be a third time.
Could this third chance have been some sort of benefit promised to him by the organization?
If that were the case, how could an already vanished organization give Zuo Anran anything?
So… were the people on that side deceiving Zuo Anran to use him as a pawn?
Lou Ting sighed. Zuo Anran really was a fool.
Seeing him pause, Ji Xing thought he was still agonizing over this matter and comforted him, “Don’t worry, that organization can’t amount to anything. Once your mental power recovers, your memories will return too. By then, everything will be clear, won’t it?”
“Me.” Lou Ting’s lips pressed slightly together. “I am not Lou Ting.”
Ji Xing raised an eyebrow. “Mn?”
“I might never possess the original owner’s memories.”
Ji Xing noticed his use of the term ‘original owner.’
“I know this sounds unbelievable, but I used to be on Ancient Earth. I even experienced life-threatening horror games there. I struggled inside for a long time before making it out alive. Then… then I found a job on Ancient Earth, filmed a few movies, got lucky and became a Best Actor, and then died of a heart attack. When I opened my eyes again, I was here. You…” Lou Ting’s voice suddenly became very soft. “Can you understand?”
The memories you are hoping for might never appear.
If all clues break off here, we will never be able to restore the truth of what happened back then in our lifetime.
“Mental power tempering.”
“What?”
Ji Xing said, “I mentioned earlier that the experimental process is to extract your mental power and inject it into a completely virtual world they created. But in my case, their tempering was aimed at eliminating me. From what you’ve said, the worlds we underwent tempering in might have been different.”
“Don’t panic; you can think of it like a computer. They transferred us from a USB drive to a computer and pursued us with antivirus software. Do you understand it this way? That place was virtual, but we retain the memories from that time.”
“When I returned, I also had the illusion that I was not someone from this world. But in reality, you are just you. There’s only a dislocation in your memory. You’ll understand all this once you recover.”
Lou Ting slowly nodded. He understood, but…
This was simply too unbelievable.
Perhaps the fused mental power and the sudden jump to maximum compatibility both occurred after he ‘transmigrated.’
If it was as Ji Xing said, his mental power recovered, creating a match in mental power, which is why the Main Brain issued the marriage command right then, because that was the exact moment he returned to normal.
The ‘original owner’ presenting as an Omega didn’t create any connection with He Yunzhou because the original owner equated to less than half of his mental power; such a weak bond was something the Main Brain couldn’t even detect.
Suddenly, Lou Ting’s mind shuddered violently. No wonder. No wonder it felt like Fu Chongshan was treating the original owner like a fool. With half his mental power and sea of consciousness split to save someone, and the remaining half split again for experiments, the tiny sliver that was left… what difference was there between the original owner and a fool?
It took Lou Ting a while to sort through all the clues now, let alone that fool with weak mental power back then. Trapped in the illusion of a family created by Fu Chongshan, Lou Wenjiang, and the rest, the original owner probably didn’t even have a chance to break free.
Everything went smoothly, but when they finally tried to eliminate him, the organization was wiped out by Ji Xing. Not only did he not die, but he also recovered his mental power as a blessing in disguise.
Was it merely a memory dislocation that created the illusion of transmigrating into a book?
The experiences he went through before were actually true virtual data.
Seeing him deep in thought for a long time, Ji Xing didn’t speak up to disturb him. He opened the tea caddy in front of him, pinched a little bit of tea, and dropped it into the milk jug; the milk inside was still hot.
Tea brewed with milk had not the slightest gaminess; instead, it was full of tea fragrance.
Lou Ting looked at his hands and said softly, “I know what’s going on.”
Ji Xing poured him a cup of milk tea and said, “There’s no need to agonize over it. Let everything wait until you recover your memory.”
“Okay.”
Lou Ting wasn’t too anxious either. Anyway, the organization was gone, and the few remaining people wouldn’t amount to anything big.
Pausing, he thought: They can’t even afford to buy a water army to curse me; they don’t deserve my concern.
It was just that he had agonized over the fact that he wasn’t the original person for so long, thinking that speaking out would cause Ji Xing’s disgust. In the end, Ji Xing accepted it even more calmly than he did, and even comforted him in return.
Lou Ting couldn’t help but get a headache. If he knew it would be like this, why did he agonize for so long?
Lou Ting took a sip of the milk tea. It was warm. The cup was insulated, feeling cool to the touch. Lou Ting had been organizing the information he just received and hadn’t paid attention to whether the milk tea was cold or hot.
The milk tea had a sweet taste upon entering the mouth, but a slightly bitter aftertaste, while the tea fragrance was distinct.
Lou Ting generally disliked this flavor of beverage, especially disliking it warm, but drinking this cup in his hand felt quite good.
Ji Xing asked him, “How’s the taste?”
“Delicious.”
Ji Xing set down the milk tea, stood up to stretch, and looked at the sunlight outside the window. He said, “It’s already afternoon.”
“Mn.”
Ji Xing suddenly asked him, “Have you decided on the song for your final stage on that show?”
“Not yet.” Lou Ting had a huge pile of songs he hadn’t had time to look at before going out to handle Zuo Anran’s matter. However, Ji Xing bringing this up couldn’t be just a casual question. “Does His Highness the Empress have any recommendations?”
Ji Xing glanced at him, not correcting his sudden change in address, and said, “I have a few music scores here. Come take a look.”
Lou Ting set down the milk tea, stood up, and said, “Okay.”
He Yunzhou didn’t find out that Ji Xing went looking for Lou Ting until three hours later.
The moment he heard the news, He Yunzhou hastily put down the information he had already gathered and rushed to the palace to find them.
He was afraid Lou Ting would tell Ji Xing everything, and even more afraid that Ji Xing would do something to hurt Lou Ting in order to protect him.
Rushing frantically to the palace, he grabbed the butler and asked anxiously, “Where is Lou Ting?” Seeing the butler’s bewildered face, He Yunzhou immediately cursed himself for being dizzy with anxiety, and asked again, “Where is my sister-in-law?”
“His Highness the Empress is in his sleeping quarters.”
“Okay.”
With that, He Yunzhou hurriedly ran over.
“Eh? Your Highness, Your Highness, where are you going?! The Empress’s sleeping quarters do not allow other Alphas to enter!”
The butler thought He Yunzhou was just asking, but who would have thought he’d just take off running? The butler quickly sprinted after him.
Are you kidding me? If He Yunzhou goes in, when He Xiangyuan returns, my head will be separated from my neck!
“Your Highness! Your Highness!”
Seeing this, the surrounding guards looked at each other in dismay.
Although they didn’t know what was going on, they still joined the chase.
In case something really happened, it would be too late if they went later.
He Yunzhou ran all the way, rushing to the bedroom door. Without a word, he pushed the door open and shouted, “Sister-in-law! Lou Ting didn’t sleep well yesterday; he can’t distinguish between dreams and reality and is just talking nonsense. Don’t believe him, I—”
His voice came to an abrupt halt.
The little fox lying on the bed leisurely swished his tail, glanced up at him, and then nestled down next to a Ragdoll cat.
The little Ragdoll was even more unbothered, not even flicking a hair at him.
He Yunzhou’s nervous, volcanic anxiety was instantly doused by a bucket of ice water, chilling him to the bone. “Y-you guys…?”
He Yunzhou wanted to go in and scoop up the little fox, but as soon as he moved a leg, the little fox keenly sensed the movement and bared his teeth at him.
He Yunzhou: “…”
“Meow.”
The little Ragdoll raised a paw and patted the little fox’s head. The little fox instantly stopped baring his teeth and turned to rub against the little Ragdoll, completely ignoring He Yunzhou.
He Yunzhou, who had rushed over to save someone only to be despised, felt utterly helpless.
He just stood at the door, waiting for the little fox to come out on his own.
But his own appeal was clearly no match for that pretty little Ragdoll cat in catching the little fox’s attention.
After thinking about it, He Yunzhou decided to negotiate with Ji Xing. “Sister-in-law, it’s getting late. I need to take him back.”
Before Ji Xing could speak, the little fox beat him to it and called out: “Awoowoo.”
Not wearing a translator, He Yunzhou was just wondering if he should transform into his beast form to hear what the little fox was saying.
At this moment, the little Ragdoll calmly used a paw to turn the page of the lyrics and said, “He said he doesn’t have to return to the dorms today.”
“Awoo awoo!” The little fox happily agreed with the little Ragdoll’s words. He could speak; he just didn’t want to talk to He Yunzhou.
He Yunzhou: “…”
He shut down on the spot.
You make a point of returning to the dorm on time every night when we go out for dinner!