Chapter 3: The Patient Who Overcame Flames

In the surveillance room, Jiang Shu spoke with confidence about his area of expertise:

"Hypnosis has six levels.

First Level, the subject's minute muscles are not under their own control, such as fingers and eyelids;

Second Level, partial muscles cannot be controlled, such as arms and thighs;

Third Level, the entire muscular system cannot be controlled;

Forth Level, memory loss, confusion, pain and tactile sensation vanish or become disordered, hypnotic suggestion;

Fifth Level, positive illusions, the subject can see things that do not exist;

Sixth Level, negative visual hallucinations or collective subconscious, the subject cannot see some things that do exist."

Wolf listened, stunned.

"Hypnosis is actually quite difficult, requiring not only a highly skilled practitioner but also the cooperation of the subject," he continued to explain, "However, even with full cooperation from both sides, only about one tenth of the subjects can enter the Fifth Level of hypnosis."

"That is to say, this audience member was carefully selected and was not randomly chosen as shown in the video," Jiang Shu concluded, "Moreover, with only a hundred people on site and 9999 possible four-digit combinations, the probability of randomly selecting this viewer the first time is not high. This is illogical, but because the fox was short on time, he had to ignore this point. That's where the flaw is."

"What else?" Wolf's eyes were eager; it was indeed much better to have a professional interpret what the fox was doing.

Jiang Shu clicked to continue playing.

"Take the money! Take the money! Take the money!"

As the man hesitated, the surrounding crowd began to heckle, their faces lit with identical orange hues.

The fox chuckled, gently grasped the man's hand, and together they reached into the flames.

The movement was slow, but when they together pulled out a bundle of money, the man's eyes were no longer merely silent, but his pupils reflected the fiery glow.

He laughed unrestrainedly, his eyes fixed on the flames, and then he frantically pulled out bundles of money from the fire, one after another, until the table's remaining space was piled high.

"This part had noise reduction. The fox said something to reassure the man," Jiang Shu clipped that segment, "After which the man overcame his fear to complete 'Fire-roasted Chestnut.'"

"Really?" Wolf was skeptical; the fox wore a full-face mask, how could he know the fox was speaking?

But he did not ask anything further, instead, he sent the clip to the technical staff at the police station.

Play—

"Thank you for witnessing this moment, and as a gift, these Feather Coins..." the fox opened the bands around these bills and then flung the money high, the white, large denomination Feather Coins instantly filling the space.

This also incited a riot among the crowd, who cheered and scrambled for the scattered money, until each bill found a new owner, and the crowd quieted slightly. By then, the fox had disappeared from the cameras.

Only one of his sentences was captured—

"Remember, this is what Lonely City owes you, and this is merely the first debt repayment."

The video ended, and the dim surveillance room fell silent.

After a moment, the noise-reduced clip was sent to Wolf, revealing the fox indeed having said another phrase—

"Think about your wife, think about your daughter, they really need this money, don't they?"

"Incorporating a simple reward mechanism into the subconscious can indeed help him to overcome his psychological shadow," Jiang Shu nodded in agreement, "This man, because of certain reasons, feared fire and had recently sought a certain psychologist."

He paused.

"The fox, he is this therapist."

—

F2 Zone, 8:30 PM.

Passing through a dazzling yet damp and odorous alley, a sign suddenly appeared in front of Jiang Shu and his companion.

"Ryan's Psychology Consultancy, your local psychology expert."

Wolf looked up, glanced at the camera above his head, raised his coat collar to cover half of his face. He wasn't wearing the black police uniform because he didn't want to alarm anyone unnecessarily.

In Lonely City, except for very few private or confidential areas, cameras were everywhere, making it a city where privacy was hard to maintain.

Following directions, the two climbed the external staircase in the alley, reaching the second floor, in front of a partly closed rusty door.

"He's still here." Wolf whispered, then stepped in first.

First was a long corridor, barely lit by dim lights, but sufficient for them to see various honors certificates on the wall.

"Eden Lane, Ambassador for Mental Health Promotion, Lonely City's Best Psychologist of the Year..." Jiang Shu read out a series of titles, impressive sounding and the gold-framed certificates looked elegant and substantial, seemingly genuine.

"Why are all the awards from three years ago?" Jiang Shu frowned slightly, noticing a commonality, then remembered the shabby environment nearby, "Only took three years to end up like this?"

"Three years ago, Ryan first proposed 'Hypnotherapy for Treating Cyber Syndrome,' but the experiment failed, patients fled causing severe consequences, he lost all his properties, his reputation destroyed, and since then he disappeared, never to recover," Wolf read off the information sent by a colleague.

"Cyber Syndrome?" And Jiang Shu became interested in this term.

"It's also called Cyber Psychosis, some people are obsessed with prosthetics modification technology; making too many alterations often leads to this illness. It causes mental disorder, violent temperament, and high destructiveness," Wolf glanced at Jiang Shu; in Lonely City, it was rare to find someone unaware of these almost inhuman beings, "So dealing with Cyber Psychosis, those in full symptomatic phase are executed on the spot, those in the developmental phase are stripped of all prosthetics, and sent to a psychiatric ward for management."

"Oh." Jiang Shu nodded, then added, "A hypnosis genius, a dramatic fall from grace, thus harboring a grudge against Lonely City, fits the fox's profile perfectly."

"Hmm," Wolf stopped in front of the office at the end of the hallway and slowly exhaled before gently pushing the door open—

"Creak—"

"Hello," the man sitting at the desk and reading a book, Ryan, pushed up his glasses, "It's quite late; I suppose you're not here for psychological counseling?"

"Indeed, we're here to inquire about something," Wolf sat down opposite Ryan, then noticed a young man sitting in the corner of the room, "He is..."

The person was dressed in a bright yellow hooded sweatshirt, facing the wall.

"Oh, he's one of my patients, has mania. Staring at the wall emptying his mind each day helps him restore a calm mindset," Ryan didn't elaborate further.

"Do you recognize this person?" Wolf got straight to the point and handed him a photo of a man who had completed the "Fire-roasted Chestnut."

"Duan Qian, he came to me a week ago." Ryan glanced at the photo, stood up, and grabbed some coffee powder, then asked while turning, "Want some? My skills are quite good."

"Thank you, I don't drink coffee in the evening," Wolf politely declined.

"Sure." Ryan shrugged, "What about Duan Qian? What do you need him for?"

"He's involved in a bank robbery," Wolf replied.

"Robbery? It's unlikely it was him," Ryan shook his head. "He's a law-abiding good citizen who came here for help because of misfortune."

"A month ago during a fire incident, he lost his son. He hesitated in the face of the flames. And because of that moment of hesitation, his son perished in the fire," Ryan had finished extracting the coffee liquid and was pouring hot water into a coffee cup, "For the past month, he's been trapped in self-blame and fear, his fear of flames has gradually evolved into a fear of light and heat; his stress response is very strong in dark environments."

"After my hypnotic therapy, his condition has begun to improve," Ryan said with a slight smile, taking a latte art cup from the cabinet, "As you can see, I'm the best psychologist in Lonely City."

"With hypnosis skills like yours... how many more are there in Lonely City?" Wolf looked up at him.

"Hmm..." Ryan paused, thought for a moment, and said, "Not many, you can count them on one hand. That young fellow in Area A is quite good, the rest are pretty average."

"Clang—" The young man in the corner suddenly knocked over a cup by accident, the glass shattering on the floor with a crisp sound.

"As for hypnosis, would you like to try it?" suddenly, Ryan spoke, having finished the last stroke of the coffee art, he looked up at Wolf with a smile.

"Hmm?" Before Wolf could react, he saw Ryan slowly tilt the cup, pouring out the coffee.

The coffee surface had a spiral pattern of latte art, which slowly rotated with Ryan's movements; then as he poured out the cup, it stretched endlessly, rotating, stretching...

"Now, sleep," Ryan commanded quickly, his voice urgent.

Wolf's eyelids slowly closed, his body unconsciously leaning forward.

"Sleep my ass, wake up and enjoy!" At that moment, Jiang Shu, who had been quietly sitting back, suddenly slapped Wolf on the back of his head, forcibly waking him up.

"It was really you, daring to ambush me!" Wolf shivered awake, furious, suddenly got up and subdued the stunned Ryan, handcuffing them together. He then threw the keys to Jiang Shu before he could relax.

Soon, the police took Ryan away. In the consulting room, they found a mask exclusive to the "Fox," and hairs on it also indicated that it belonged to Ryan.

Besides this, they uncovered even more horrifying truths; Ryan was studying how to hypnotize those with Cyber Syndrome in a secret room in the consulting room. As for where the Cyber Syndrome came from...

Man-made.

Kidnapping wanderers, forcing massive prosthetic modifications, artificially creating Cyber Syndrome for research on hypnotic therapy...

One could say, Ryan had gone mad, a healer not healing himself, ultimately defeated by his own obsession and embarked on a path of no return.

The largely spent Feather Coins obtained by illegal means didn't matter much to the wealthy Huang Kong Group because the symbolic significance of solving this case was greater than its practical value.

Everything ended that night, the robbery case was solved in just two days, and naturally, Wolf received praise from his superiors.

"Haha, good lad, you really did it," Wolf laughed, clapping Jiang Shu on the shoulder, "Thanks to you."

"Yeah, so about my Character Card?" Jiang Shu pushed Wolf's hand away, suspecting Wolf was exacting some form of revenge.

"Of course, I've already discussed your situation with the higher-ups, tomorrow morning at eight, don't be late to the Awakening Place in Area B, Central Building," Wolf continued, then changed the subject, "But, there's a condition."

"Hmm?"

"There are three consultant positions at the police station, the compensation is the same as a regular officer," Wolf patted his shoulder again, "A fox can't pull off a robbery alone, he had many accomplices, and catching these people might need your help."

"Don't worry, there's a salary every month, we'll only call you for Deception cases, otherwise it's just a nominal position," he quickly added, seeing Jiang Shu's reluctance.

"Fine," Jiang Shu reluctantly agreed.

Deception cases probably wouldn't be too frequent...

Right?

But, wasn't Ryan unusually quiet?

He watched as Doctor Ryan, with a hood over his head, was escorted away, showing a thoughtful expression.

But ultimately, Jiang Shu didn't say anything, this result was enough to satisfy everyone.

—

The evidence collection in the consulting room and secret room continued until late at night before the police squad left and the alleyway returned to tranquility.

Across the alley, a young man in a bright yellow sweatshirt watched as the police cars departed.

After a while, he showed a childlike smile, as if he had discovered something amusing, then quickly took a half-face fox mask from his sleeve, put it on, and swiftly disappeared into the dark depths.