Chapter 341: Interrogation! The Mentally Deranged Third Person

Drugs. The government keeps them under extremely strict control.

Due to historical factors, international drug traffickers see the Eastern Country as a completely unprofitable market. Anyone who dares to deal drugs here is a special breed.

At most, people buy them here; they don’t sell them into the country.

And one of the side effects of drugs is that they cause hallucinations and damage the brain!

After using them, the body begins to break down. Even if your eyes are wide open and you’re standing at the edge of a cliff, your brain might tell your consciousness that you’re looking at a soft bed.

In that situation, you might just… take a little leap forward.

“This fits the state of the deceased, Wang Wei, perfectly.”

“If he had been on drugs, it would fully explain why he was seeing so-called ghosts.”

Xu Huo said slowly, sitting in his chair.

The others around him said nothing, their brows furrowed in deep thought.

“Or perhaps mental instability, causing his personality and thought processes to conflict with reality and logic, leading him to do some very bizarre things,”

Xu Huo continued slowly.

The most common traits of an addict are irritability, irrationality, and impulsiveness. They act like complete fools.

This is one of the personality disorders that can result from long-term use.

An incident once occurred in the Western Bald Eagle nation.

A suicide by jumping onto the train tracks. This should sound familiar; a case just like that happened there.

However, what made it different from a typical suicide was…

The person’s body was obliterated by the impact, and a leg flew onto the platform, landing in front of a bystander.

A normal person would have run away or screamed in terror, but this person…

They weren’t afraid. They stared at the bloody leg, picked it up, and began to ravenously devour it raw.

If you rule out psychosis, you can basically conclude that this person was a drug addict.

“Wang Wei’s behavior was similar, too.”

“He sealed himself inside an air conditioner with almost no time to eat, literally starving himself down to about sixty-five pounds before he died.”

“His thoughts and actions were beyond the imagination of a normal person, completely devoid of logic.”

“Drugs would explain his behavior completely. The problem is…”

Xu Huo’s eyes narrowed, his brow furrowed as he tapped on the table.

“He wasn’t on drugs.”

When those four words were spoken, Li Jianye stood up, confused. His head felt like it was about to explode. He lifted a corner of the tent flap to let the cold wind cool him down.

Zhang Liang and Sun Jian also fell into deep thought.

For a long time, not a sound was heard inside the tent.

Why did those four words trouble them so much?

Two reasons.

One.

First, let’s consider: if drugs aren’t involved, can a normal person experience hallucinations?

The truth is, yes, they can. But such hallucinations are fleeting. They happen when your brain processes blurry, incomplete information too quickly and constructs a picture for you.

But when you turn your head and gather enough information, the new image conflicts with your brain’s logical framework, resulting in a fleeting illusion—a misjudgment by the brain.

Under normal circumstances, a person’s hallucinations cannot be sustained for long periods.

Unless your body has sustained some kind of physical trauma.

But…

“The deceased had no external wounds or bruises.”

“Even if the medical examiner performs an autopsy, they’ll probably just come back with a normal report.”

“So, here’s the question…”

“If he wasn’t on drugs and his organs and tissues weren’t damaged, why was he still having hallucinations?”

Seeing that no one was speaking, Xu Huo pressed on.

He was organizing his own thoughts while also posing questions, trying to find a path forward through the unknown and the confusion.

His body hadn’t been ravaged by drugs, nor did it have any other injuries.

Under normal circumstances, the victim wouldn’t have ended up in this state. There has to be a reason!

“What could be the cause? What can make someone hallucinate, lose their ability to think, and fall into such an extreme state?”

Xu Huo posed the question, then fell into thought himself.

Facts are facts. Even if the facts don’t align with the theory, the facts aren’t wrong—the theory is.

The body was right there. They had tried every conventional method to test for drugs and still hadn’t gotten the results they expected… It had to be something else.

A cause that could drive even an ordinary person into a state of frenzy!

“We don’t have enough information. Let’s shelve this question for now.”

“Next is the second point.”

Xu Huo took a deep breath, clearing his thoughts.

“Two.”

“Let’s assume… let’s assume this case wasn’t a suicide, but a… Murder.”

“Then how did the perpetrator manage to make something appear only in the eyes of the deceased and his friend, despite being in a crowd?”

How could they do it?

Projecting an image onto the retina?

That’s something out of a movie. In the real world, it’s impossible, at least for now.

“In other words, what we need to figure out now is how to classify this case.”

Wang Chao, who had been listening on the sidelines, thought for a moment, scratched his head, and spoke up.

“Are we classifying it as a suicide, or a Murder?”

Xu Huo raised an eyebrow, then nodded. “Exactly.”

‘I’m surprised Chao Zi could follow the train of thought.’

Drug use would point to suicide. But if it was Murder, how could the perpetrator have created this scene?

Some kind of human intervention…

Without giving the victim drugs, without physically interfering with the body, how could you drive a person mad from a distance?

Wang Chao thought for a long time before suddenly speaking up.

“Could it have something to do with hypnosis?”

Hypnosis?

Everyone paused. They looked at each other, and after a moment of consideration, didn’t dismiss the idea.