Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 621 - 160: The Boundary Between Reality and Illusion (Part 2)

Sun Hang suddenly felt a wave of anger.

He really wanted to grab that finger and snap it in half.

"Damn, I must be a complete psychopath subconsciously," Sun Hang muttered to himself, "and the kind with tendencies for extreme violence and destruction."

"No, you're not," Anna said softly, as if she could see through Sun Hang's inner thoughts. "Mom is not a psychopath... Those are just negative emotions belonging to this inferior human race, they influenced mom... Those dregs in the emotions and memories you absorbed... But for some abominations, these things are the sweetest nourishment."

Sun Hang said nothing, his gaze shifted past Anna and looked into the distance.

Time that had been stagnant started to flow again at some point; the two young women pushing a stroller took the child out, the diaper-wrapped human infant was falteringly trying to walk with the help of its mother, while an older little girl was watching them with interest.

A delivery worker in a blue uniform sped past on an electric scooter in the non-motorized lane, an intersecting cyclist stopped, turned around and cursed something.

A tricycle selling fried food stopped at the sidewalk's edge, the vendor cautiously surveyed the surroundings and, confirming there were no city patrols nearby, quickly set up the stall, laying out plastic chairs so old they had a patina, instantly occupying nearly two-thirds of the sidewalk.

A helicopter with the Anomaly Investigation Bureau's insignia rapidly flew overhead, appearing to be on some urgent mission.

Just as Sun Hang looked at the sun in the sky again, something rolled over and stopped at his toe.

"Uncle... Uncle..." a timid voice startled Sun Hang; he looked in the direction of the voice to see a boy who seemed to be around seven or eight years old standing outside the fence, pointing at Sun Hang's feet, "Can... Can you return my ball?"

Sun Hang looked down to see a somewhat dirty soccer ball quietly sitting by his feet.

He sized up the little boy, glanced at Anna who was smiling silently beside him, bent over to pick up the ball, and approached the little boy.

Sun Hang handed the soccer ball to the boy across the fence, then said, "Don't play soccer by the roadside next time, it's dangerous... Also, don't call me uncle, I'm not that old."

"Okay, thank you, un... thank you, brother!" The boy quickly thanked him and then dashed away.

"So, does this world feel very real?" Anna asked.

"But it's an illusion."

"This isn't an illusion, these all really happened. Every scene you see originates from human's real memories," Anna said, "I just pieced them together."

"Why did you bring me here?" Sun Hang asked puzzledly, "What's your purpose?"

"To remind mom that you have a fatal weakness," Anna replied.

"Fatal?" Sun Hang frowned, "Weakness?"

"Mom, you named your ability 'Wish Fulfillment,' right?"

"You know the origin of this ability?" Sun Hang's heart stirred.

"I don't know, as long as mom calls it 'Wish Fulfillment,' then it's 'Wish Fulfillment,'" Anna continued, "This ability is powerful, but it has a fatal limitation."

"Requires consumption of 'casting resources' similar to spiritual power?" Sun Hang asked.

"No, it's not this limitation," Anna shook her head, "Its greatest limitation lies, here."

Anna stretched her beautiful body, extending her arms to their fullest extent.

"Illu...sion?"

"Mom, do you remember... Maoyun Town?"

"You mean... the illusion affects my ability?"

"When you cannot confirm whether the world you're in is real or illusory, your ability will inevitably be affected," Anna said, "Wish Fulfillment, as the name implies, is influenced by your subjective cognition and thoughts. Once you fall into the illusion, no matter how much upheaval you cause in the illusion, your ability will not have any impact on the real world... Because in your cognition, that illusory world is real."

"So my ability failed in Maoyun Town?"

"That's not the only reason." Anna suddenly revealed a mysterious smile, "Mom, have you ever considered the possibility that the outside world, full of destruction, is false, and the wonderful world before your eyes is real?"

"Evidence?"

"How could a power like Wish Fulfillment exist in the real world? It's only because you believe the real world is illusory that you can achieve wish fulfillment," Anna said with a smile, "And Maoyun Town is the real world, your wish fulfillment ability is confined to your mind and cannot materialize."

Sun Hang: "I still feel like you're tricking me."

"I'm just making a little joke with mom," Anna stepped back two steps, "I just want to tell mom to be cautious in the future, not to easily believe everything you see, hear and touch... The boundary between real and virtual has always been very blurred."

"Should I thank you then?"

"If mom wants to thank me, why not stay in this world with me?" Anna suggested, "Isn't it great here, no abominations, no wars, no death or hunger... Whatever you want this place to be, it'll become... You can be the master of everything, you can also become the... god of this world."

"Boring." Sun Hang shook his head, "This is like using cheat codes in a sandbox game—feels interesting at first, but soon becomes tiresome."

"Seems mom doesn't want to," Anna pouted, looking disappointed.

"If I refuse, will you force me to stay here?" Sun Hang asked.

He just tried his Wish Fulfillment ability—as Anna said, in this virtual world, his ability seemed to be sealed; no matter how he summoned it, there was no reaction.

"I won't," Anna's expression returned to normal, "If mom wants to return, I'll send you back now."

In a trance, Sun Hang found himself standing before the burning ruins again, the charred wood crackling inside, and a smoky, fiery scent rushed towards him.

Sun Hang blinked and saw the scorched corpses rise, aimlessly wandering among the ruins. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

He blinked again and saw everything around him transforming into structures made of flesh and blood, the distant skyscrapers became eerie towers of flesh, the exposed steel structures turned into pale bones, contorted limbs merged into the walls, familiar yet unfamiliar faces squeezed onto the exterior walls, seemingly crying, yet also laughing.

The sky was no longer pitch black, but didn't return to daylight either, rather it was in a chaos of dark red, as if dyed red by the flesh constructs on the ground.

Sun Hang blinked a third time, and everything around him returned to normal.

A soldier he had met at the barricade ran over from afar: "Sir! Are you alright?"

"I... I'm fine." Sun Hang turned back and looked at him quizzically, "What's wrong?"

"The drone captured you standing here a long time, motionless, we were worried something anomalous occurred..." The soldier breathed a sigh of relief, "Glad you're alright... So, is there anything wrong with this place?"

"This place... there's no problem."

Sun Hang blinked, the fully armed soldier instantly became a terrifying flesh monster.

However, by the second time Sun Hang blinked, the soldier returned to his original form.

"Have you ever thought about whether the world you're in is real or illusory?" Sun Hang suddenly asked the soldier.

The soldier froze for a moment, clearly not expecting Sun Hang to ask such a question; he scratched his head, then laughed awkwardly: "Sir... I've never thought about such a question. I am a soldier, soldiers just need to follow orders."