Translator: Lonelytree
After putting down the phone, Gu Jun massaged his pounding temple and let loose a laugh. Thankfully, as eccentric as Dirty-minded Yu was, she was not dumb, she had gotten everything he had sent him. Without the call as a medium, the connection snipped off immediately, it was like the pathway had been closed. This kind of long-distance ESP connection was extremely draining. If not for his depleting mental power and the suspicion that a long call might arouse, he really did hope to chat longer with Dirty-minded Yu, the sound of her voice really confirmed that he had truly returned.
Even though objectively speaking, it had not been that long since that night at the Island of the Old Manor, it felt like a lifetime had passed for Gu Jun. “Looks like nothing is wrong at Eastern State and everything is fine in China too.”
The statement that Siyu said about ‘the days being too peaceful recently that she may have had too much to eat’ seemed to affirm that. But he knew that some unknown undercurrent was raging beneath the peaceful surface...
“At least for now, I can be sure that Dirty-minded Yu is safe. For the next step, I need to figure out a way to build a more stable hidden communicative channel with her. But before that, I have to find out what’s going on with the others, settle the issue with Kathlyn and Peacock as well as the other land’s travellers, deal with the three sacred relics, the Pnakotic Manuscripts, and finally decipher the message of ‘using sweet dream to change Phecda chaos’.” Gu Jun looked into his mind and realized he still had 3 almost shattered bubbles of sweet dream. Other than to provide shelter, their other possible purposes eluded him.
“And then there’s the issue with my physical condition...” He pressed against his temple. The system showed that his brain tumor was stable even though he had not taken his medicine for quite some time already. Hopefully it would continue to stay that way because it would truly throw a wrench into his plan if it decided to act up now. After some rest, Gu Jun stood up and left the room. The hotel was in its quiet season so the corridor was practically deserted. He walked down the corridor and entered the larger room. By then Peacock and the rest had all bathed and changed into new clothes. Clearly they had asked Kathlyn for some explanation of their situation but they still looked as confused as ever.
“Mr. Nightmare Man.” Malachite asked. “You say we’re in the golden era of our ancestral world, does this mean we will not be able to return to the City of Kindle anymore?” The mention of their homeland brought on a color of disappointment on Peacock’s face, she was the only one who had seen the real ruin that the City of Kindle was.
“I have no clue.” Gu Jun admitted coolly, “But I believe the five of you are destined for a greater mission, which is to prevent the age of collapse from happening and to prevent the world from heading towards ruination.” That was his responsibility as well.
Hearing that, they frowned silently. Finally it was Aquamarine who grumbled, “But our settlement is still waiting for our return to save them...”
“No, that is in the future that has not yet happened.” Gu Jun encouraged them, “As long as we can change the present, that future will not happen.” The five looked at each other, yes, they were interested but they were not naïve. To stop the age of collapse? They could barely stop the Ossarian Invasion.
Noticing their roller coaster of emotion, Gu Jun told Gold and the rest to stay behind in the room while he had Peacock and Malachite follow him to the smaller room. Peacock would translate while Malachite was put under hypnosis. Drawing out Malachite’s other personality came with its own risk, what if this ‘Tom’ wanted to call the police? So Gu Jun decided to take this slowly. His plan was to first draw out as much information as he could and then regardless of the original personas’ trustworthiness, he would have the land’s travellers maintain the main control of the bodies. The two personalities could communicate internally and even swap if they wanted to but the land’s travellers had to be the dominant personality. This was unfair to the original personality but desperate times called for desperate measures.
Compared to Peacock, Malachite showed much greater resistance to the hypnosis. He was reluctant to form a bond with Gu Jun, even if he was told this was necessary to show him the Pnakotic Manuscripts. Malachite had even questioned that outright. “Mr. Nightmare Man, that was what you said when you needed us to follow you earlier. I still have not seen the manuscripts.”
The other reason for his resistance was Peacock’s presence. As close as the two were, Gu Jun could sense that there was some barrier between the two of them. Thankfully, these people had no idea the power of modern psychology had. Gu Jun stopped trying to engage Malachite in conversation since it was becoming more and more like a one-sided conversation but he did have a clear vision of Malachite’s goal and view. Therefore, Gu Jun opted for the Socratic Method. He used Malachite’s strong desire to achieve his goal and attached it to Gu Jun’s own psychological suggestion.
Gu Jun used statements like these to help his persuasion, “The Pnakotic Manuscript is only given to those with a chosen destiny, and Malachite, I believe you are one of the chosen ones. I know you have already noticed there is another consciousness inside you, Tom. Tom is your guide in this world, he will help you complete your mission. Malachite, to become someone like the Phecda Hero, to stop the age of collapse in this world, that is your mission.”
Combining Malachite’s anticipation with Gu Jun’s suggestive dialogue, the patient’s psychological defence would eventually be broken down and he’d become susceptible to accept the supposition that was fashioned to align with his goal. This was because the subject was willing to buy into that premise, and thus he was open to accepting this kind of suggestive idea...’Yes, this can help me achieve my goal’, this was a common tactic utilized by marketers.
Gradually, Malachite opened up to Gu Jun and passion colored his eyes. He even asked, “I can really do it? I can become someone like the Phecda Hero?” Things were going smoothly. Gu Jun nodded and continued in a persuasive and confident tone, “Yes, of course, you will too become a hero.”
Seeing the charm that had been placed on Malachite, both Peacock and Kathlyn were shocked. Kathlyn thought to herself, ‘This nightmare man has to be some kind of psychology professor.’ This triggered an unexpected response in Peacock. The land’s travellers held great respect for professors and Kathlyn’s throwaway comment helped raise Gu Jun further in Peacock’s eyes.
After Malachite was hypnotized, Gu Jun thought it would be easy to summon out Tom but it was much harder than he anticipated. When Tom did show up, he was in a very withdrawn and drained state. His reflex was slow and lax. He did revive somewhat after some hypnosis. After Gu Jun broke down the barrier between the two personalities, Tom and Malachite could appear at the same time, but the connection was very unstable. The harmonious co-existence like the one Peacock and Kathlyn shared appeared to be very unique.
Gu Jun’s work with Gold, Aquamarine and Amberlite supported that observation. They responded the same way as Malachite did or even worse. Their original personalities were of no help at all, they could not remember anything from their time in the Dreamlands. All they could remember were bits and pieces of their original lives. But they were certain that none of them had known each other before. They were not even from the same city, their residence stretched as far as the entire Australia.
Kathlyn/Peacock was the anomaly... Gu Jun couldn’t help but turn to study ‘them’. There had to be a reason behind this anomaly, if it was the shadow’s purposeful arrangement, what was the reason?
“All five of us have studied the Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan to the fifth chapter.” Peacock was equally clueless regarding this. “So we should have equal mental power.”
“I...” Kathlyn suddenly revealed. “I believe I used to stay around here when I was a child, but I’m not sure if that means anything or not.”
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