254: Chapter 254 Truth and Falsehood

"Son... you're awake..." The slightly blurry outline of a middle-aged man was reflected in Qian Mo's eyes.

Qian Mo's eyes suddenly went wide.

This familiar voice from a long time ago, and these features that only existed in the deepest recesses of his memory...

"Dad..."

Looking at the middle-aged man in front of him, Qian Mo's hands began to tremble involuntarily. This was a subconscious reaction of this body, and also the desire he hid deep within his own heart.

In his past life, due to various reasons, he had become a killing machine that didn't understand emotions. Now, living a new life, he had been constantly pursuing the emotional experiences he had missed out on.

He had felt the stirrings of love from Xing Yaoyan, experienced the meaning of companionship from Yun Lan and Hu Wang, and learned the weight of responsibility from the instructor who had lost his life saving him...

Yet all of these emotions combined could not compare to the sheer impact this man before him had on him.

Deep down, Qian Mo yearned desperately for family. Having lived two lives without ever seeing his parents, it was no wonder that when he had taken in Xing Yaoyan under the System's guidance back then, he had hoped she would become his family.

And now, this real family member was actually standing alive and well right in front of him. To him, the impact of this was greater than anything else.

"Son... you've had a hard time all these years..." Tears shimmered in the middle-aged man's eyes, his voice choked with an uncontrollable sob.

"..."

Qian Mo did not speak. He was currently completely immersed in this unprecedented wave of emotion.

"Do you know, child..."

As the middle-aged man spoke, he walked toward him, sincere tears glistening in his eyes.

"Your mother and I have always owed you so much. I know it was all the fault of that damn 'Starry Sky Exploration Project' back then. We shouldn't have been so ignorant, we shouldn't have..."

Qian Yu stopped in his tracks, looking in disbelief at the youth who was currently holding a dagger against his chest.

"Son, I know we let you down..."

"Why do you feel so real..." Qian Mo's eyes were hidden in the shadow of his bangs, making it impossible to see his expression.

"What do you mean..."

"Because you're fake... Everything here is fake!" Qian Mo roared through gritted teeth.

This was absolutely not the real world. Although everything around him was so realistic, and the Qian Yu in front of him looked exactly as he remembered, there was one major flaw—he could not summon the System.

Combined with the series of events he had experienced before passing out, he was one hundred percent certain that his current situation was highly abnormal.

The hand holding the dagger trembled continuously. Even though he knew there was a high probability that the other party was fake, his intuition kept telling him that this was his father. He really couldn't bring himself to strike...

And as he hesitated, the surrounding scene suddenly began to shift.

Startled, Qian Mo hastily retreated several steps, raising his dagger before his chest in a defensive stance.

"Mo, are you having a stress response again?"

"You are..."

Seeing the young girl he had killed in his past life now greeting him alive and well, Qian Mo was stunned.

Looking down, he discovered that the clothes he had been wearing had actually turned into a set of camouflage military fatigues—his outfit when executing missions in his past life.

"Qian Mo, what's wrong with you? Why do you look so strange... Hey! What are you doing..."

The body of the woman, pierced through the chest by the dagger, distorted and dissipated, and the entire environment changed once again.

"It wasn't as convincing this time..." Qian Mo took a deep breath, a trace of guilt flashing deep within his eyes.

Although suddenly meeting someone from his past life had caused him to daze for a brief moment, he had, after all, realized that he was still in an illusion. Furthermore, for some reason, the feeling the other party gave him was far less realistic than Qian Yu just now, so he immediately made a decisive decision to try and break the illusion.

Qian Mo tried to summon the System once more, but found there was still no response.

Well, it seemed that killing the figures in the illusory array couldn't completely break it; it would only cause the illusory array to shift again.

This time, the surrounding scene changed to his small wooden cabin from his past life, and the person in front of him became his Master.

"Xiao Mo, hurry up and go train... Did I see that right? You... you smiled..."

The old man stared in shock at the youth's expression. As he watched, tears of excitement actually began to glisten in his eyes, as if his disciple had done something that brought him immense gratification.

"Master... so you always hoped I would have normal human emotions..."

Qian Mo wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes and quietly watched the "Master" before him slowly dissipate under his attack.

This time, the illusion seemed to have learned from the previous experience, making the entire scene and the figures quite a bit more realistic. However, to the keenly observant and highly intuitive Qian Mo, it was still far from enough.

Following this, the environment shifted continuously, transforming one after another into various acquaintances from both his past life and his current one, and the realism of all the appearing figures gradually increased.

Qian Mo's greatest hesitation came when a partially demonized Xing Yaoyan smilingly tried to come over and pull him to play. But even when facing this person who could be considered the most important in his life, he only hesitated for a fraction of a second before swiftly bringing down his blade before she could touch him...

"Why hasn't it ended yet..." Qian Mo murmured.

Although he knew everything before him was fake, having to personally kill his acquaintances and friends, and watching their bewildered and desperate deaths, put his mind through intense, non-stop torment.

After an unknown number of scene changes, he even began to feel like his mind was starting to unravel toward the end.

"Son... still can't bring yourself to do it?"

This was already the tenth time Qian Mo had heard Qian Yu's voice.

For some reason, every time it came to Qian Yu, he just couldn't bring himself to strike. And whenever he hesitated for a moment, the surrounding environment would shift again, starting to cycle through his various familiar people and scenes.

Move, body, hurry...

In truth, Qian Mo couldn't be blamed for being soft-hearted. He knew that to escape from this infinite loop of illusions, he had to kill Qian Yu. He had hardened his heart several times in the middle of it, but at the critical moment, his body stubbornly lost control, and he simply couldn't swing that crucial strike...

Just when he felt there was nothing he could do this time either and prepared to endure the next few rounds of illusions, he felt his hand being grabbed by a powerful, large hand.

Grabbed...

Qian Mo was violently startled and quickly looked up at the middle-aged man in front of him.

"Dad... you're real..." His voice trembled.