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Chapter 278. Listening to the Rain (1)

Not long after that day, news came that Yuzhijia had died.

Although it is said that a dying person speaks good words, the things that Yuzhijia told him had too much of an impact on him, and after some consideration, Xu Huan still felt that he needed to verify them.

—After all, a prophet can only see the future, not that they can't lie.

Having clashed with her so many times, Xu Huan dared to say that he understood her better than anyone else.

That person had the advantage of predicting high-order numbers and was also good at using his advantage.

Many of her schemes exploit information gaps; Xu Huan has witnessed her use lies to mislead others in order to achieve her own goals.

The ability to foresee the future gave that person unimaginable information warfare capabilities—both were strategists of the light, and Xu Huan was also a colleague, so he was very wary of this matter.

Five years after her family member's death, Xu Huan was hospitalized under the pretext of illness, and finally managed to secretly contact Lin Xin'an and undergo hypnotherapy.

This person, favored by the spirit medium, can not only see into people's hearts, but also delve into the depths of consciousness, read memories, and even awaken those past events buried by time.

When Xu Huan woke up from the hypnosis chamber, she finally remembered everything.

He has been plagued by illnesses for a long time, coughing up blood and feeling tired and weak. Even a single bout of the flu can cause him to have a high fever and be hospitalized.

Xu Huan always thought it was because of her poor health, but she never expected it to be a genetic disease.

His father was an advisor to Black Eye Pharmaceuticals, while his mother was a henchman at Black Eye Pharmaceuticals.

After his father was killed by Black Eye Pharmaceuticals, his mother risked her life to send him away from Black Eye Pharmaceuticals.

...because if he doesn't leave, he will most likely inherit his father's position as strategist when he grows up.

This genetic disease will weaken his body and cause his intelligence to decline after the age of twenty, reaching the cognitive level of a three- or four-year-old child within three years.

A strategist with intellectual disabilities, at Black Eye Pharmaceuticals, only faced the fate of being pushed onto the operating table, having his abdomen emptied, and dying in despair.

The impact of the genetic disease on Xu Huan's mental state caused her to forget this past, and later, by a twist of fate, she entered Black Pupil Pharmaceuticals.

Now, relying on the memories of the psychic god to recall everything, Xu Huan feels only emptiness and blankness.

He was exactly 19 years old that year.

Genetic diseases are not fatal, and they don't necessarily lead to a short lifespan as some prophets have predicted.

But it is more painful than killing a strategist who makes a living through intrigue and loses his intellect, degenerating into a child.

In order to maintain his abilities, Xu Huan chose to take a semi-finished psychotropic drug from Black Pupil Pharmaceuticals.

It can greatly alleviate cognitive decline, but its drawback is that it significantly reduces lifespan.

—How many years will be left after the reduction?
Looking at the red semi-finished capsule in her hand, Xu Huan already had a vague answer in her mind.

...7 years.

He had his doubts about the answer, but after that person died, the precognitive sequence was like a tree that had lost its sky-covering canopy, completely revealing its decaying nature.

Fate is a tree, and the future is the fruit on the tree. The branches intertwine and the fruit hangs heavy in the branches... It is not so easy to understand.

After the prophet passed away, there wasn't even a single person in the entire prophetic sequence who could clearly see the future.

Six years after the death of the Predictor, a new and renowned powerhouse emerged in the Predictor Sequence: a young boy who was said to be able to see crime scenes in the future. As a result, he became the darling of the police station under the television station.

Although Xu Huan harbored an unquenchable hatred for the Foresight Family due to his long-term setbacks, he felt somewhat melancholic upon hearing about this matter.

Being able to see only a few seconds into the future has already made her the leader of the precognitive sequence... When that person was still alive, not only could she see the crime scene, but she could also see the execution scene before the criminal made a move, and even know whether grass or flowers grew on the grave.

—It may seem like trying to see the future through a fog, but to that person, it might just be a long movie.

Over the years, Xu Huan has relied on medication to maintain his lucidity. After repeatedly pondering the mysterious death of the person who knew the truth, he came to a firm conclusion—that person had simply faked his death.

Ten years later, he once again felt that long-lost fear of his "sense of existence" disappearing. A chill crept up his spine, and Xu Huan felt somewhat dazed, as if the towering tree that had foreseen the sequence's collapse was slowly rising again.

……

Jiang Jianxin walked ahead carrying a broom. He glanced behind him and saw the strange young man from before silently falling to the back of the line, his eyes downcast, seemingly lost in thought.

She frowned and asked her intuition:
【…Hey, don’t you think this person is weird?】

[What's so strange about it?]

Intuition paused for a moment before replying.

[A scent of light.]

Jiang Jian thought for a moment and then commented.

Uh... is there a problem with the light?

Intuition clearly couldn't keep up with her wildly unpredictable thoughts.

[You haven't been in this talent-based society for too long, have you picked up factionalism too?]

The factional bias in the talent-based society is severe. Talented players on the forum team up based on their avatars and are matched with opponents based on their faction, and they can start hurling insults at each other almost anytime, anywhere.

The conflict between the two camps, especially the war and the light, is the most acute.

Jiang Jianxin is now also on the war side, and my intuition tells me that she has also been influenced by the general environment and has become prejudiced against the light.

No, I was just thinking that if it were dealing with a contaminated area, even low-level talents would probably prioritize using War, since they could at least contribute some abilities before they died.

[Those with the Light Talent face the contaminated zone; they're no different from ordinary people, right?]

Jiang Jianxin paused, then added:
I'm not sure; maybe I'm just imagining things.

After saying that, without waiting for her intuition to answer, she turned around and squinted at a white lake that was gradually emerging in the woods.

The so-called "Listening to Rain Pool" is now emitting a continuous pattering sound of rain.

"Crash..."

"Tick-tock..."

It felt like a million wet, cold fingers were constantly tapping on the water's surface, but the entire sky was deathly silent, without a trace of rain.

Each ripple is not formed by a drop of water, but by a suffocating bubble struggling to emerge from the rotting abyss at the bottom of the pool.

The moment the bubble burst, a pale, twisted limb suddenly pierced out, dragging out the entire ghost-like, slender body.

They were so tall and thin that they were inhuman, their limbs wriggling in a way that violated joints, with only a vague outline of a human shape. Where there should be facial features on their faces, there was only blank space, or a silent, howling black hole.

They emerged and floated silently from that pale, viscous mass, numbering in the thousands, like a swarm of disturbed maggots.

There were no footsteps, no wind, only the tingling, sticky friction of their bodies as they slid over each other, and the endless, virtual "rain" background music.

"Woo..."

They drifted this way, their movements stiff yet synchronized, as the white, deathly stillness silently engulfed them.

A chilling fear that seemed to penetrate to the bone suddenly gripped everyone's throats, making every hair on their bodies stand on end, as if they could feel those blank faces pressed against the back of their necks.

"Administrator, you have arrived at the Tingyutan contaminated area."

Ayu's voice came through the earphone, giving Jiang Jianxin, who witnessed this shocking and terrifying scene, a sense of reassurance that he had a companion by his side.

In the previous chapter, Yin Cheng'ai was Yin Ju's mother. As for why Yin Ju took his mother's surname, well... their customs are different from ours. In the realm of the Talented Ones, it's a survival-of-the-fittest world. Marriage is based on who is stronger between the parents; only the surname of the stronger parent is passed down. Yin Cheng'ai is a water-based warfare tycoon, so Yin Ju will take the Yin surname no matter who she marries. Similarly, if Yin Ju has a partner who is less powerful than him, the child will take the Yin surname; if she is stronger, the child will take the woman's surname (this is just an example; there's no romantic subplot in the main text).