For ten to twenty seconds, the text on the screen remained unchanged.

While that may not seem long, Rodon felt like several minutes had passed.

This was mainly because he couldn't stay in "Room 131" for too long, as the effects of "Spirit Mirror Communication" were time-limited.

The reason he hadn't used similar methods to explore "Room 131" before was partly due to this limitation. This time, he was doing it to contact the room's owner and have some interaction, believing it wouldn't take too much time, so he forcibly split his consciousness.

Finally, the text on the screen changed:

"When did Qin Ke go mad?"

"Seven years ago, on the night after the Year-End Grand Mass," Rodon replied frankly, not thinking this information would endanger the safety of Year-End City.

"And he fled Year-End City a few days later?" The owner of "Room 131" inquired further via text.

"Yes," Rodon nodded slightly.

After another period of silence, the text on the screen posed a new question:

"What do you think of 'Truth'?"

"'Truth' possesses immense power, almost like a god," Rodon's expression involuntarily became serious. "In our Year-End City, those who believe in Him receive one to two responses each year."

"So dedicated!" The text on the screen used an exclamation point again.

"Indeed," Rodon felt this keenly.

Unlike the "Fate" Overseer, who never paid attention to believers, only occasionally bestowing gifts during the Year-End Grand Mass.

The owner of "Room 131" continued to inquire about matters related to the "Truth" Church via text, and the information obtained was similar to what the "Old Task Force" had gathered from the Year-End City caravan outside Cliff Village.

"One last question, how do 'Truth' believers view the 'Doomsday People'?" The information revealed by the text on the screen made Rodon secretly breathe a sigh of relief.

He answered without hesitation:

"They believe the 'Doomsday People' are false gods, not true Overseers."

*Clap, clap, clap*, two hands appeared on the screen, emphasizing the text with applause:

"The questions end here. You can come and explore my psychological shadow at any time.

"I wish you success in finding the gate to the 'New World'."

Rodon was delighted, rubbed his temples, and said:

"Thank you very much."

He planned to explore again in a few days, as he needed time to recover from the aftereffects of the consciousness split caused by "Spirit Mirror Communication."

If he didn't handle it well, he might suffer from "dissociative identity disorder."

And that wouldn't help him explore the "Mental Corridor," because without "Spirit Mirror Communication," he couldn't achieve the separation of consciousness needed, with one part outside and one part inside, through simple personality splitting.

Several lines of text rapidly appeared on the screen:

"You need to be careful not to enter if you see a school, and choose to detour when you encounter a door sliding sideways..."

Sounds dangerous… but if I don't enter or detour, will I miss the gate to the "New World"? Rodon thought with a solemn expression.

The text on the screen continued to appear:

"These have nothing to do with my psychological shadow, they come from certain memory fragments.

"I can't control my thoughts at every moment, preventing any related ideas from flashing through."

"I understand," Rodon visibly relaxed.

Since it was unrelated to the psychological shadow, it wouldn't involve the gate to the "New World."

The text on the screen disappeared, and the light dimmed.

Seeing this, Rodon turned around and walked towards the deep, dark exit.

...

"Du Heng? The mad Grand Elder of Year-End City believes he is Du Heng?" Long Yuehong was astonished.

This was completely beyond his expectations.

Bai Chen nodded thoughtfully:

"Teacher Du Heng has always been mysterious."

It wasn't surprising that such a person was involved in the affairs of the Overseers.

"You don't think Qin Ke is Teacher Du Heng, do you?" Shang Jianyao looked shocked. "But they look completely different, and their heights are different. Did he get cosmetic surgery and height enhancement at the same time?"

Speaking of this, he looked at Long Yuehong and said with concern:

"If there's a height enhancement method with no side effects, you can try it.

"Otherwise, you'll never escape that curse, sigh, only 1.75 meters tall after genetic modification, average looks, and only average grades in all subjects..."

"Stop!" Long Yuehong interrupted this guy's chanting. "Let's discuss the main topic."

"Okay," Shang Jianyao nodded and began to speculate. "Is Teacher Du Heng wearing height-increasing insoles? But I've observed his shoes, and they don't look like it. Old Ge, what do you think?"

"There are no issues with height, nor any traces of cosmetic surgery," Genava gave a scientific assessment.

Jiang Baimian, who hadn't spoken, looked around and said:

"Could there be more than one person named Du Heng?"

"Possibly, but the one who is connected to mystery and weirdness should only be this one," Bai Chen gave her opinion.

Jiang Baimian nodded slightly:

"What I mean is, Teacher Du Heng might not have been called Du Heng before. Doesn't he have many missing memories?"

"I don't quite understand," Long Yuehong couldn't figure it out for a moment. "Why do you think Teacher Du Heng wasn't called Du Heng before?"

Jiang Baimian looked around and said:

"This is what I'm thinking: on the graylands, there are some people who used to have their own identities and names, but later encountered certain events, became lunatics, and began to uniformly call themselves Du Heng.

"Qin Ke is like this, and the Teacher Du Heng we encountered might also be like this."

"But Teacher Du Heng isn't crazy," Shang Jianyao disagreed with this guess.

Bai Chen had fully understood the team leader's meaning and helped fill in the gaps in the reasoning:

"Maybe the madness is because they haven't adapted to the identity of Du Heng yet. Once they adapt, they become normal and become the true Du Heng."

"Sounds scary, even scarier than the parasitic phenomenon created by 'Divine Destiny,'" Shang Jianyao pretended to shiver. "But the two Grand Elders who went mad in Year-End City before never called themselves that, only Qin Ke does."

Jiang Baimian nodded:

"This is just a preliminary guess, and it may be completely overturned later.

"What we need to do now is confirm whether Qin Ke is still alive, find him, and see if the reason for his madness involves the mystery of Overseers raising humans."

"But he has already fled Year-End City," Long Yuehong reminded the team leader. "Leaving aside whether he froze to death in some corner of the ice sheet, even if he is still alive, finding him is like searching for a needle in a haystack."

Jiang Baimian revealed a complicated smile:

"Didn't we just hang up a 'Year-End City Awakened Home' sign on the door not long ago? And today, an elder-level figure from Year-End City came to 'visit.' Don't you think that's too much of a coincidence?

"Since it's already such a coincidence, then we might coincidentally discover Qin Ke's whereabouts in the near future."

*Clap, clap, clap*, Shang Jianyao applauded and sincerely praised:

"That's fate's arrangement."

So, what is the price? Long Yuehong muttered silently.

Jiang Baimian continued:

"Later, we'll ask Jitis if she has seen anyone resembling Qin Ke in the past three years."

Speaking of this, Jiang Baimian exhaled and said:

"Things are progressing faster and 'more smoothly' than I expected. That way, we don't have to worry about the company discovering that we are investigating the mystery of Overseers raising humans at all."

She emphasized the word "smoothly."

Because Konimiss's problem was likely solved by the big boss, Jiang Baimian didn't think the information that they had completed the task could be hidden from the big boss.

She just felt that the big boss rarely interacted with believers and didn't communicate with the company's board of directors very often, so there was an opportunity to play with information and time differences.

Simply put, what she had been thinking before was to hide it from the company, then find out the truth and return to the underground building before the big boss and the board of directors communicated.

To this end, she even had Shang Jianyao wrap the "Life Angel" necklace in layers and put it in Genava's backpack.

"Yeah," Long Yuehong didn't know whether to be happy or worried for a moment.

...

The next day, the "Old Task Force" went directly to Jitis's house to visit this information merchant who was working the night shift today.

"What do you want to inquire about?" Jitis asked skillfully.

Shang Jianyao nodded with a heavy expression:

"Name your price."

Jitis said somewhat embarrassedly:

"This time it's free, and all subsequent times will be free."

The information about Konimiss provided by the "Old Task Force" was invaluable.

Shang Jianyao immediately perked up, took out a piece of paper, and handed it over:

"Have you seen this person?"

Jitis looked at the childlike stick figure and remained silent for a while.

Jiang Baimian raised her hand to cover her face and gestured for Genava to come and help.

Genava took out a printed image of the person and handed it to Jitis.

This was a portrait that he had created based on descriptions, selections, and confirmations from Shang Jianyao, using forensic sketching techniques from the Old World.

According to Shang Jianyao, it was about 80% similar to Qin Ke himself.

Jitis took it and looked at it, not speaking for a long time, as if she was recalling something.

A few minutes later, she said hesitantly:

"I haven't seen him.

"But one of the clones I controlled saw him six years ago. I retained a certain impression when I reviewed his memories."