novelraw Chapter 255: The Mind Level is More Dangerous Than it Seemed
Chapter 255: The Mind Level is More Dangerous Than it Seemed
Just like last time, the Mind Level test was accompanied by a lengthy lecture from Tesla.
Tesla gestured for Lu Li to touch the black branch again. His fingertips brushed against it, and a surge of insight, mingled with the Anomaly's power, pierced the void. A sinister aura flared for an instant, then vanished the moment Lu Li snatched his hand away.
Ssshhh...
A sudden rustling, like the whisper of dry leaves in the wind, emanated from the table. Before the eyes of Lu Li, Tesla, and the bartender wiping glasses behind the counter, scratches began to score the surface of the black branch—deeper this time than before.
After a few seconds, the rustling subsided and the new scratches stopped appearing. The ravaged branch now looked even worse than the one Gades was always chewing on.
“Your condition has worsened...” Tesla murmured, his brow furrowed, though he had been prepared for this result. His gaze settled on Lu Li. “But you seem... fine.”
“Other than more frequent visions, I don’t feel any different,” Lu Li replied, his gaze dropping to the glass of milk without reaching for it.
Tesla sensed something. “Is there something wrong with the milk?”
“If you saw an intestine with twitching cilia floating in your milk, you wouldn’t drink it either.”
“I can imagine,” Tesla said, his brow gradually uncreasing. Lu Li’s composure seemed to settle him as well. He picked up his cooling cup of coffee, but paused just as he brought it to his lips. “Are there any visions in my coffee?” he asked.
Even if he couldn't see any, the thought of drinking a cup laced with visions was unsettling.
“No.”
Tesla took a relieved sip.
“What stage of the first phase am I in?” Lu Li asked the moment Tesla set his cup down.
Tesla glanced at the black branch on the table, which had already ceased to radiate its aura and now looked like an ordinary twig. “Somewhere between the middle and late stages.”
Numerically, that would be somewhere between 70 and 80. Below 70 marks the transition to the second stage. The drop in his Mind Level was largely due to the ship of the dead. Though his sanity eroded slowly on board, Lu Li had spent an entire night there.
Tesla’s tone suddenly grew serious. “You have to watch your Mind Level. It’s in a dangerous place right now. I’ll submit a request to the committee that until it recovers...”
He cut himself off, remembering that Lu Li was losing his true Mind Level—the part that could never be restored.
“You can pretend you don’t know,” Lu Li said calmly, meeting Tesla’s brown eyes.
“I’m the head of the Belfast branch.”
The words had barely left his lips before doubt crept in. As head of the branch, he was responsible for all his investigators. If an investigator’s physical or mental state made them unfit for duty, it was his obligation to take action.
But as a senior colleague who had grown to like Lu Li, Tesla also understood that the young man was pursuing something deeply important to him, even at the cost of his own sanity.
Just like Lu Li facing the unknown, Tesla now found himself in the same state of confusion—he didn’t know which choice would ultimately harm the young investigator more.
Or both.
“I’ve heard that in the second stage, the visions start to see you back. Is that true?” Lu Li asked, abruptly changing the subject.
Tesla let out a silent sigh of relief, grateful to be spared from making a decision. “Yes, but at that point, the term ‘visions’ is no longer entirely accurate. It’s better to use another word: ‘projections.’ Simply put, they are manifestations of an entity’s external form. Unlike visions, they feel much more real.”
“Because they’ve become more real to me?” Lu Li asked.
“Yes. You’ll even be able to ‘interact’ with the monsters of the In-Between.”
In this context, “interact” was not a comforting word.
“Will they be able to harm me, then?” Lu Li asked.
Tesla considered for a moment before answering. “If anyone else were asking, I would say yes. While the projections from the In-Between can’t harm us directly, their aura and their unimaginable forms can drive a person insane. Especially the aura. Many excellent investigators haven’t died in the field, but from the aura of these projections after their Mind Level fell too low.”
It was an unsolvable problem. Just as a vengeful spirit inevitably evolves into an evil spirit, a Mind Level that has dropped into the first stage will continue to fall under the influence of the In-Between’s aura.
Exorcists usually had two options. If their true Mind Level wasn’t badly damaged, they could rest, recover, and either return to duty or retire. But if their true Mind Level was severely damaged and failed to recover even with rest, they could only watch in despair as it dwindled day by day, as the visions grew ever more real, until they finally went mad and died.
Not even the most iron-willed exorcist could resist the destruction of their true Mind Level.
Too many good exorcists had been lost to it.
“But you’re different. You don’t feel that aura, and you don’t see the most horrifying manifestations of a falling Mind Level. I’m just not sure if that immunity will hold once you reach the second stage.”
Lu Li, however, was focused on something else. “If I reach the second stage, will the entities of the In-Between surround me once they see me?”
He pictured himself swarmed by layers of black shadows. It would be difficult to get anything done if that happened.
“Not quite like that,” Tesla said, as if reading Lu Li’s mind. “The In-Between isn’t a single layer, but countless strange worlds forming an overlapping space. They don’t always align with the human world; it’s more like they shift in and out of phase, like radio frequencies. You deal with Anomalies often enough, so you must have noticed—sometimes the void is thick with a malevolent aura, sometimes there’s barely any. Sometimes a new presence appears, and sometimes one vanishes.”
Lu Li nodded. The visions he experienced now were just like that. They would appear suddenly, linger for a moment, and then vanish.
His questions answered, Lu Li prepared to leave.
“What are you going to do now?” Tesla asked, watching Lu Li get to his feet.
“Make money.”
Tesla fell silent for a moment, then shook his head with a wry smile. “I don’t know why you need so much money, but I hope you reach your goal soon.”
“Thank you.”
Lu Li gave him a nod and headed for the passage behind him.
Tesla sighed softly and took a small sip of his coffee.
Just then, the retreating footsteps suddenly returned.
Tesla turned his head in surprise to see Lu Li walk back, pick up the glass of milk, and down it in a single gulp before turning and leaving again.
This time, he was gone for good.