Am I really hallucinating?

Chapter 387 What about a fully automated wheelchair for the brain?
"A superstar committing murder at a hotel at night—that would be huge news if it got out," Zheng Fan quipped, popping out in his bald-head robot costume.

Jeremiah said, "Aren't you the same?"

He at least made a lot of preparations, but Doris just came up with two violins and beat the other side unconscious. No matter how you look at it, she was the one who was more outrageous.

"Alright, stop standing there like an idiot in the hallway. Luckily, this hotel has pretty good soundproofing." Zheng Fan reached out and gently tapped the wall next to him.

Doris put the violin back under her skirt, then handed the electric guitar back to Zheng Fan, before dragging the person she had killed on the ground back to the room where Jeremiah had initially "committed the crime."

After skillfully operating the door lock for a moment, Zheng unlocked it, picked up his electric guitar, cut the door chain, and then roughly pushed the door open.

The doorway was covered in blood. The man who had just been killed by Jerome was leaning against the door. Zheng Fan pushed him, and he fell to the ground in a somewhat comical position.

“That won’t do. The cleaning staff will be scared when they come to clean the room tomorrow,” Zheng Fan said.

He walked in, kicked the body into the bathroom next door, then led Doris and Jermel into the room and closed the door again.

Doris also threw the bodies into the bathroom. Fortunately, the hotel was quite upscale and the bathroom was large enough that two bodies wouldn't take up much space.

Zheng Fan boldly pulled back the tightly closed curtains, showing off the room's decent night view: "The conditions are really good. It's definitely the off-season after the disaster, and the location is in a gray area. Even high-end hotels are affordable for the normally stingy cleaning staff, who can afford to stay there for the sake of convenience."

Jerome stood in the middle of the room, feeling a little awkward standing there, but lying down felt too relaxing, and if he left, he didn't know what the two of them would do next.

In the end, he did nothing and remained silent.

"Mr. Music, are those two also here for a joint performance?" Doris asked Zheng Fan, closing the bathroom door.

Zheng turned back: "That's true. Although these two aren't in the files, the fantasy factors they possess have the same scent. The one you killed was stronger, and this one was weaker. There's no fundamental difference in their qualities. The obvious difference in strength is most likely due to the party who gave them the fantasy factors intentionally controlling them. Although there might be compatibility issues, when the two act together, it's more likely that it's the former. This is a common control tactic used by organizations that control the channels for fantasy factors or even directly possess hallucinations."

“They’re from a local gang on Nolan Street that specializes in illegal jobs. That gang does have a hallucination, with abilities related to shadows.” After listening to Zheng Fan’s words, Jemelo hesitated for a moment before speaking up. “This ability makes their work as cleaners much easier. I originally confirmed through my downline that one of the duo had left, so I was going to deal with the other one first, but I didn’t expect to be ambushed.”

Without commenting on Jeremiah's ordeal, Zheng glanced at the traces left in the house by the two cleaners: "They were quite professional, leaving not too many traces. They were fully armed; judging from the size of this bag and this gun, they brought out parts and assembled them here. They plan to make their move tonight."

"The target is Shanom next door, a singer with a somewhat messy personal life, but whose musical level is passable."

"Besides having a large number of mistresses, does this private life also include the use of addictive drugs? How exciting," Zheng asked rhetorically.

"He's still using medication?" Jeremiah frowned, but wasn't too surprised.

"You don't know? There are quite a few traces in this hotel. I don't know if it started earlier or if it was used as a hideout for some group after the disaster. If we let the police come in and investigate, they should have some good results." Zheng Fan sat on the small sofa in the room, with his feet casually placed on the tea table in front of him.

"It doesn't matter anyway, I'm not here to protect him." "You're here for revenge," Zheng Fan suddenly said.

Jerome was stunned, looking at Zheng Fan in disbelief.

"However, you can't distinguish your target, you can only vaguely lock onto all possible guys. Judging from what you just said, you're someone who likes to target musicians with malicious intent? That's probably what the joint performance means to you. When we first met, you had just woken up from a deep sleep. Your complexion and the features of your eyes show that you've recently started to reverse your day and night. Although there are no signs of long-term training, there are very new marks on your hands that are developing into calluses. You've been practicing with guns a lot lately. Unless you're a super genius, a normal person shouldn't have time to prepare for a performance, but you still chose to participate in a large-scale performance. You have a certain need for this performance." Zheng Fan reached out and gently tapped Jeremiah.

Jermelo instinctively clenched his fists: "Disgusting."

"Don't be like that, these are very obvious marks, you can tell at a glance. If it were someone who was good at this, you might have been stripped naked by now, uh, not physically." Zheng Fan spread his hands to show his innocence.

"How did you know about me? You really did investigate me?"

"This doesn't require investigation, at least not the kind of detailed investigation you're imagining. This sudden, last-minute cramming, and the huge amount of time spent on it with such intense focus and undivided attention, has likely caused you to lose something very important, and it's had a significant impact on you."

Zheng Fan glanced at Doris as he spoke and continued, "If you encountered something serious, with your resources, you should have many options. You could hire someone privately, offer a reward publicly, or even, if necessary, a commercial company like Baidu Records wouldn't mind handling these trivial matters for you, which would help them find leverage against you. But you personally practiced shooting, which shows your eagerness to personally kill your target, and also indicates that you don't want to make this public or let the company know. Based on your image in the eyes of outsiders, I'm more inclined to guess that someone very important to you has been taken away and you want to take revenge yourself. The importance of that person to you is so great that even Baidu Records doesn't know."

Jerome stared blankly at Zheng Fan, opened his mouth, and felt a little suffocated.

"If you feel uncomfortable, you can take off your mask," Doris kindly reminded her from the side.

Jerome did indeed remove it, but he was still in a daze.

Doris leaned closer to Zheng Fan and whispered, "Is Miss Lin Yilin always like this?"

"Her tone is a bit harsher than mine, and she's ready to open the box as soon as she senses something's wrong. I'm so gentle, I only said a few words. But it really doesn't feel good to use my own brain after leaving Binary Girl. Sigh, how long has it been since I used my own brain?" He himself couldn't remember. He met Lin Yilin not long after arriving in Dadu, much like a newborn child sitting in a fully automatic wheelchair, at least he didn't have to use his brain much anymore.

Effort and sweat are still far more valuable than gold.

"That's amazing," Doris exclaimed.

"To paraphrase a famous detective, this is the basic deduction. Going a little deeper, considering the murderous intent he's shown towards you, he might have you on his radar, and he might think you're also a target for revenge. Working backward from this angle, his deduction of the murderer leans towards a supernatural hunter. Little Sheep, at your age, you've risen to prominence on Stanley Street, it feels like you've become rich overnight, a musical upstart. He might think you've received some kind of external inspiration that led to this opportunity."

Zheng Fan stroked his sexy steel chin and continued, "Jeremello, you're quite obsessed with inspiration, especially super-inspiration, and it's quite obvious. What was taken from you was your 'super-inspiration'? Your attitude towards super-inspired people is complicated. Your attitude during street debates wasn't for yourself, but for someone else. So it's certainly not abstract inspiration, but rather the concrete super-inspiration of other people around you."

Having come this far, Jerome finally lowered his head and, in a muffled voice, slowly and hoarsely squeezed out the words from his world-class singing voice.

That's my older sister.

(End of this chapter)