Infinite Terror: Infinite Reversal

Chapter 287 Correction
After listening to Mu Xiang and Zhang Jie's explanations, Zheng Zha remained silent for a long time before asking, "You only gave these two examples... According to your theory, wasn't Michael also implanted with such a program?"

"Just like Michael in the movie, he had to kill his own blood relatives..."

At this point, Zheng Zha touched the bridge of his nose: "No, that's not right... It doesn't matter if they're blood relatives or not, it doesn't even matter which of the two Michaels is real or fake! As long as he puts on the mask and becomes a puppet of slaughter, he is Michael!"

Mu Xiang didn't say anything more, only giving an approving "hmm".

"Mom's...program prototype...is a story that has already happened!"

Just then, the shadow in front of Zheng Zha's eyes turned slightly green. He was about to cross this dark alley to another street. In the slightly green shadow, his distorted shadow vaguely appeared again. Then, a green light slammed into Zheng Zha's back.

Zheng Zha didn't even activate any skills; a flash of blood appeared where he was hit, and the next moment, a violent red flame swept across the entire alley.

He silently turned around and saw a person's legs turn to ashes and he fell heavily to the ground.

The excruciating pain of having his legs burned away by the crimson flames only then appeared. The man screamed in agony, pounding the ground with his hands, his half-body writhing like a maggot.

This was a shop owner Zheng Zha had asked before. He ran a toy store, but according to other residents of the town, he was the only one who didn't hang masks outside his door... as if he didn't make money from Halloween masks.

"Uh, is this a code... If Michael is to take a mask, among all the shops full of masks, it is the outlier like him who is most likely to be noticed."

Zheng Zha couldn't help but think about it for a moment, but then immediately dismissed the idea. After all, they had already caught the person, so what was the point of deducing anything?

The shop owner was lifted up; the wounds on his lower body, burned by the red flames, had instead scabbed over with charred blood. His face was deathly pale, as if he were about to faint at any moment.

"Huh... he wasn't parasitized," Zhang Jie said, somewhat surprised. "Could he be a local cultist?"

Zheng Zha scratched his head: "Now that we've caught him, let's search his memories directly. Maybe we can find out the origin of the mask? Combined with the warehouse log, we can find the destination."

A sudden burst of crimson flames burned the shopkeeper's shirt to ashes. Then, Zheng Zha saw the increasingly bright green totem on his shoulder.

The green totem I've seen before... is the same as that green energy that is both fiery and radiant.

"Heh, the Polar Day Conference..." Zheng Zha chuckled, "Do you really think that someone like you, who has only learned a little bit, can hurt us?"

The shopkeeper, however, became excited; he seemed to sense the totem's transformation as well. Although pain flashed in his eyes and the temperature on his shoulder rose higher and higher, he was filled with anticipation. This seemed to be a signal. But the next moment, to his horrified surprise, a burst of green light erupted from his shoulder and completely engulfed him.

Zheng Zha frowned, a faint layer of red flame separating him from the green light. When Zheng Zha released his grip, the shopkeeper had already turned into half a skeleton.

"Zheng Zha, what are you doing?" The sheriff's voice rang out, the sound of his leather shoes echoing loudly in the alley.

Zheng Zha smiled faintly and turned to look at the police chief: "I've known for a while that something's wrong with you... You said you didn't care about the mentally ill person escaping, but you didn't care that we met up with the doctor; you said you were going to lead the patrol, but you've been following me the whole time. You have no consistent logic in what you do, and only now have you done something outside of the established procedures."

The sheriff emerged from the darkness, his eyes glowing with an eerie green light: "The Reincarnation Squad... is that it?"

“You’re worried about your hideout being found,” Zheng Zha said, pushing up his nose. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t be in such a hurry to silence the followers who were spreading out.”

"Although your strength is insignificant to us... it's still our duty to keep bedbugs out of our homes." The sheriff's voice turned shrill. "And you... heh, you can't escape. That supreme god doesn't care about your lives or deaths; you can only wait in fear to perish under the power of my Lord!"

The sound of something cutting through the air came, and before the sheriff could turn around, Mu Xiang had already pulled Zhang Jie down behind him.

"Such arrogance," Mu Xiang pushed up his glasses. "We've killed countless octopuses, and you, a mere thought, dare to be so boastful?"

The sheriff sneered without turning his head: "Then try it. At worst, you can strangle me. You have no idea how many resources and manpower we've invested in this experiment... You also have no idea what you're really facing!"

"Very good, somewhat human-like, at least able to speak some human language." Mu Xiang said calmly, "Now I'm certain that the way your thoughts transmit information to the main body is... self-destruction. Constantly monitoring a plane is not something you at this level can do; even fourth-tier mental power controllers have limitations in making their split spirits transmit information synchronously."

"Whether it's you, Loomis, or Paul... you puppets are just following the script step by step, it doesn't matter if it's the same as the original story. Because even if the puppets do the same thing, it's still advancing the plot. Loomis will make Michael the focus, and you will lead the police to surround him... that way, a batch of experimental materials will be delivered to our door."

"So, barring any unforeseen circumstances, the puppet will behave just like the original. Of course, the unforeseen circumstances include not only us, but also your arrangements... This is definitely not the first time you've conducted this kind of experiment, and you're not doing this just for a movie. Adding more Michaels is to better test the masks, right?"

“Paul played that role… Aside from that, you will only be activated to control the puppet when additional situations exceed the threshold. For example, we, who temporarily appeared in this world, did not initially make the puppet feel anything abnormal until we interfered too much, which activated your error correction mechanism.”

At this point, Mu Xiang reached out and tapped the sheriff's back: "As for how these puppets are killed by Michael and his men, it doesn't matter at all. Because Michael can't destroy you, but the death of your bodies will be fed back as a signal. Or to put it simply, every time one of you dies, it proves that the experiment has taken a step forward."

"As for the Reincarnation Squad, you know we haven't killed all the lingering spiritual remnants, so you lured us here to kill you." Mu Xiang sneered. "As long as one lingering spiritual remnant remains, your unexpected demise will allow the monitors to observe the situation through the backdoor, or even descend upon you directly. And what you want is for us to kill you, for your demise to trigger the 'alarm,' right?"

(End of this chapter)