After Yuri opened his eyes, he found himself lying in a pure white room.

He sat numbly on the hard bed for a moment, then felt his pockets. Sure enough, the knife he'd left there had been taken away. A long-lost peace filled his ears. The dull music no longer repeated, replaced by a faint, melodious tune. The strange visions vanished before his eyes. Everything felt normal and peaceful.

A few minutes later, a man in a white coat but without identification or badge walked in, sat on the chair next to him, and observed him cautiously for a while.

Yuri didn't react in any special way; he was used to other people's strange looks.

Everyone who knew him said he was mentally ill.

Coincidentally, he felt the same way.

After a moment, the other party spoke, "Hello, Mr. Ulises Valen. You can call me Garcia. I'm not a doctor here, but I'm currently serving as the director of the Porto Aral Hospital. I'm very interested in your condition, so I've asked your attending physician to take this opportunity to meet with you."

Yuri looked at Garcia and said in a hoarse voice after a while, "I've heard of you. You were very famous in the medical field a few years ago."

As soon as he opened his mouth, he realized his throat was throbbing with pain, perhaps from swallowing a large amount of seawater or from the prolonged suffocation. Furthermore, his body had been carefully cleaned up. His hair seemed to have been cut a bit shorter, his bangs no longer obstructing his vision as before, and his thick beard had been shaved off completely. This made Yuri feel like a nocturnal creature exposed to the sun.

"Oh, I've heard of you, too," Garcia said, not attempting to correct Yuri's previous statement, which had made him realize that he wasn't just famous two years ago, but was now world-class. "About seven or eight years ago, you published an insightful paper in a medical journal. Although limited by the times and technology, it still holds great value today. But you didn't win the award that year. It went to someone else... I think it was one of your juniors, right?"

Yuri blinked slowly. He had a pair of dark brown pupils. “You know it very well.”

"Because I just did some detailed research," Garcia said bluntly. "You're talented and hardworking, but you've just been unlucky." He bent down and picked up the medical record from the bedside to take a look. "You've been hospitalized here before, haven't you? It says here that you have congenital analgesia, and your sense of smell is also slightly affected."

"Then you might not be looking at the latest version." Yuri also turned his head to glance at the medical record. "I'm also adding visual hallucinations and severe auditory hallucinations."

Garcia stared at his expression inquiringly. "You should know this isn't a symptom of analgesia."

"You think I made this up?" Yuri laughed for the first time, adding a touch of his former handsomeness to his tired face. "Why would I make this up?"

"I'm not questioning you." Garcia shook the medical record, "I just want to confirm it carefully. Also, did you come into contact with anything special when you developed these symptoms?"

"'Something special'?"

"For example, videos, screenshots, or photos that you feel make you feel uncomfortable."

"I rarely go online, except when I'm on a job," Yuri said. "I don't have time. But if I must say, I was near Maanbao Square during the celebration."

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw Garcia's expression twisted.

The words "You are so lucky" seemed to appear on it.

Garcia: “What were you doing there?”

"I had nothing to do," Yuri said expressionlessly. "I was trying to pick up some discarded metal products and old parts to sell, and I happened to wander into Maan Fort. Why are you asking? This is none of your business, right?"

"But you cooperated."

"I don't want you to think there's some secret here and delve into it without any purpose." Yuri lowered his eyes. "My past is meaningless. You won't get what you want."

"I can judge that myself." Garcia stood up. "Anyway, thank you for your answer, Mr. Valen. Here's my mobile number and address." He solemnly placed a piece of paper next to Yuri's pillow and handed him a long-unused tape, the kind you'd only find in collectors' homes. "After hearing this, if you still want to contact me, you can text me or come in person."

He saluted and left the ward neatly.

Yuri stared at the tape in confusion for a moment, then stuffed it into his pocket.

After lunch and routine check-ups, he walked down the stairs and remembered that there was a small audiovisual store next to the hospital. The owner was a young man who loved retro culture and had a collection of machines that played this kind of cassette.

On the way, I overheard someone discussing an incident at the Capital Zoo: an Alpha girl was pushed into the water by a jealous friend. A newly born Zerg larva, desperate for fresh food and nutrients, nearly perished in the seawater. To make matters worse, the wall of the underwater viewing tunnel was smashed with a sharp object, causing dozens of tourists to drown. One of them is still hospitalized.

This whole thing was absurd from beginning to end. The girl's fall into the water was certainly newsworthy, and the Zerg larvae in the water were completely inexplicable. Combined with the vandalism of the sightseeing path—could this be a Zerg terrorist attack? Retaliation for the botched performance at the Queen's birthday celebrations?

But why did they attack the zoo? To steal national treasures?

Experts have written analysis after analysis, but no one has been able to make sense of it. People are almost compiling all kinds of conspiracy theories into a book.

The zoo suffered heavy losses, and countless people worried about whether its security measures were sufficient to cope with such a crisis. The Vatican took the opportunity to intervene, openly sending several members of the Red Line Legion to review the visitor registration records and entry videos of that day.

Among the four groups of suspects finally identified, the group of five that Bertie had been following was among them.

“—I didn’t find anything!”

"I mean, they do look a little strange sometimes, but it's not criminal at all, and there's nothing obviously wrong with it," he said later, ruefully.

Gresham comforted him: "I didn't notice it either. It's not your fault. And you went into the water to save the girl."

"I don't think I saved her," Bod said to his companions, lowering his voice. "The bug had almost swallowed half of her leg, and she was about to drown in the water. I couldn't have pushed away the bug hatchling, which was bigger than me, and saved her at that time."

"But you did succeed?"

"I was desperate," Bertie said. "I wanted to go back and ask someone to collect her body, but the Zergling suddenly vomited out her leg and slipped away before I could react."

"...Zerg cubs have no consciousness before the age of three, only biological instincts."

"Yeah, so I suspect he felt an invincible threat at that moment and would rather give up the food at hand than flee." Bod gave a wry smile. "Anyway, his natural enemy couldn't be me."

Gresham was speechless now and could only say palely: "Maybe it's just a coincidence."

But they looked at each other and knew that this sentence was just a consolation, and there must be something neglected hidden in it.

Of course, Yuri didn't know or care about these miscellaneous things. He walked to the audio-visual library, rented the use rights for half an hour from the owner, and found an empty sealed room to insert the tape.

The boss, assuming he was also a fan of antique machinery, enthusiastically explained how to use it. Yuri fumbled with the buttons, making sure they were correct before pressing play.

A few seconds later, a familiar piece of music flowed out from inside and echoed in the small room.

The slight bit of color that had just appeared on Yuri's face disappeared.

**

A day later, Garcia received a call from Yuri, asking him to set a time and place for a meeting.

After calming the man down, Garcia immediately went to Igor and asked directly, "He's taken the bait. What should we do next?"

"..." Igor took a moment to realize what he was talking about and said speechlessly, "It's obviously a normal thing. Why do you make us sound like a fraud gang?"

In fact, it's more like a honey trap... But the doctor didn't dare to say so, just waved his hand: "You know what I mean. By the way, I won't tell anyone else, what exactly does that person want from Yuri?"

Igor was a little surprised: "You care about him?"

"Hey." Garcia took a deep breath out of habit and tightened his stomach. "I think it's been quite difficult for him. There's still no perfect cure for congenital analgesia. It's a miracle that he's still alive today and has completed his master's degree in medicine."

"He has the ability to heal himself." Igor, wearing a pair of metal-framed glasses, sat in a chair with one leg crossed, a tablet with the keyboard removed and a stylus resting on his lap. Voice input has long been commonplace, but humans today still can't completely abandon typing and handwriting. He sketched on the screen as he spoke, "The zoo staff who employed him said he once cut off his own hand with a knife in his work area. The blood gushed out so profusely that it was discovered. Tourists then reported Yuri for killing and dismembering people in the sewers, which was a very negative influence."

Garcia smacked his lips. "No wonder."

"Whenever he gets injured accidentally, he simply discards the injured part, and the new limb is intact." Igor continued, "He must be using this method to disguise himself as a normal person."

"And he's a former surgeon," Garcia continued. "He knows how to use a knife effectively. But what if he's discovered?"

"That might be why he's not working in the hospital right now." Igor twirled his pen and unskillfully adjusted the frame of his glasses with his right hand. "Don't worry. If his auditory and visual hallucinations are caused by the celebration day, it's easy to fix."

That's what I'm worried about.

Garcia thought.

But for someone like Yuri... abandoning his past beliefs and praying for blessings from the evil god might be full of temptation.

Just like those people in fairy tales who made a pact with the devil, the most desired thing in life is already right in front of them, and there is no way to refuse it - what's even more terrifying is that people who are in desperate situations always feel that they have nothing to lose.

Until fate made him bear more.