After waking up from a nap, Shi Jin was captured by Number Two and brought onto the ship. The Tarantula's cargo was set to depart in the early morning, and Number Two was going to track the situation. Due to staying up late, Shi Jin was punished by Lian Jun and was also sent to work as a laborer.

The two of them disguised themselves as cargo workers and sat on a reconnaissance ship disguised as a cargo ship, parked near the Tarantula's cargo transportation line. They chatted and waited for news from the Tarantula's side. "Today's task is relatively simple and can be divided into two scenarios: first, if the Snake Fang attack the Tarantula's cargo ship, we will follow behind and watch the show, help the Tarantula and give the Snake Fang a beating; second, if the Snake Fang do not attack the Tarantula' cargo ship, we will search for any nearby Snake Fang ships and find a way to give them a beating. Understand?"

Shi Jin nodded solemnly and replied, "Understood, we just need to give the Snake Fang a beating."

Number Two nodded in agreement, stroking his non-existent beard and said, "Well done, my young apprentice. Here, have a reward." He then took out a pill for seasickness and handed it over.

Shi Jin took the medicine and squeezed it in his hand, saying, "Don't you think it's a bit late to take the medicine now? Usually, motion sickness medicine needs to be taken in advance, right?"

"Ah, why are you being so nitpicky? You don't even get motion sickness," Number Two teased, sitting down next to him on a small stool and putting his arm around Shi Jin's shoulder. He asked, "Seriously, what's been going on with you these past few days? You've been acting like you're possessed. I almost wanted to call a Taoist priest."

Shi Jin asked mysteriously, "Do you want to know?"

Number Two nodded eagerly.

"Well, the truth is, I've been possessed," Shi Jin answered honestly. "You see, there's another person's memories in my brain, and that person deeply hates Rong Zhouzhong. I've been affected by his memories and have been feeling down for a few days. It's really been weighing on me."

With a disgusted expression, Number Two released him and said, "Are you sure you're not suffering from split personality disorder?"

Shi Jin thought about it seriously and replied, "Well, it's not entirely impossible..."

Quickly, Number Two pulled out a lollipop from his pocket, unwrapped it, and shoved it into Shi Jin's mouth. After three loud smacks, he said, "Stop talking nonsense, you're just a kid. If you keep this up, I'll send you to Uncle Long for electrotherapy."

"It's really possible," said Shi Jin, nibbling on his lollipop as he gazed out at the seemingly calm and beautiful sea under the cover of night. He thought about something and quickly asked Xiao Si in his mind, "Xiao Si, just now Number Two reminded me, do you think I might actually have split personality disorder? And the so-called original owner is me, who was tortured too much before and couldn't bear it, so he created me as a strong-hearted alter ego. You and the progress bar are actually just my imagination, and I am a mentally ill patient who thinks he is a normal person reborn."

Xiao Si was feeling a bit overwhelmed by his speculation. It replied, "No, Jin Jin, you're perfectly healthy. Schizophrenia wouldn't turn you from a pampered young master into a skilled police officer, and I am definitely real, not a hallucination."

"You make a good point," Jin Jin nodded thoughtfully. "I know more things than the original owner did, and while he hated cucumbers, I don't mind them too much, although I'm not a big fan either. This situation can't be explained by schizophrenia alone. I'll have to think of other possibilities."

Xiao Si breathed a sigh of relief and quieted down once again. "I mean, you've been silent lately, but then you act like you're not there. Are you trying to make me get used to life without you so that it'll be easier for you to leave me painlessly in the future?" Shi Jin suddenly asked.

Xiao Si was startled and let out a loud quack.

"Your reaction tells me everything. You bastard, you really are planning to run away," Shi Jin bit down on his lollipop and said sinisterly in his heart, "Confess and you'll be treated leniently, resist and you'll be punished severely. If you don't tell me the truth, I'll turn around and go to your baby's house to report you!"

"I-I didn't! I'm not! I'm innocent!" Xiao Si shouted back, but the taste of guilt was palpable.

Shi Jin took out his phone from his pocket and started looking for Lian Jun's phone number. Xiao Si was so scared that it couldn't breathe. After holding its breath for a while, it finally cried out with a sob when he put his hand on the dial pad, "I, I can't bear to leave you either! I haven't even seen you and your baby monkey yet, how can I bear to go wuwuwuwu......"

Shi Jin: "......"

"Every time it's the little black room wuwuwu......"

Shi Jin's forehead bulged with blue veins: "So you only care about this, then you should go, goodbye! Forever!"

"Don't! Jin Jin, wuwuwu......waaaaaa......" Xiao Si began to cry uncontrollably, and even started to hiccup while crying. As Shi Jin listened, his expression softened and his eyes became gentle. He lifted his hand to support his chin and closed his eyes, enjoying the sea breeze and its howling.

When the crying gradually subsided, he continued, "You are indeed more adorable when you are noisy. Let me guess, you will leave once the progress bar is complete, right?"

Xiao Si sobbed and did not speak.

"It seems like another question you cannot answer. It's okay, no one can make you leave if you don't want to. Worst case scenario, I'll spend the rest of my life with this remaining 60-point progress bar!" Shi Jin comforted, exuding an air of great leadership.

"You have to get rid of it, hiccup, you have to." Xiao Si spoke while hiccuping, but its attitude was surprisingly firm. "It must be eliminated, whether it's for you or for my precious baby. If the progress bar doesn't disappear for even one day, you both may be pulled back into darkness. I don't want that kind of result. You are both my treasures."

Shi Jin was taken aback. He didn't expect the progress bar to have such a meaning. Looking at the progress bar in his mind that was steadily decreasing, he said, "Then how about just getting rid of his? It should be okay if I don't get rid of mine. Besides, didn't you tell me before that it's okay not to rush to get rid of the progress bar?"

"It's not the same...Jin Jin, no one can guarantee that nothing will happen. Have you forgotten your abnormal behavior these past few days?" Xiao Si retorted.

Shi Jin furrowed his brow and replied, "Of course I haven't forgotten, but actually, it was intentional--"

"No, Jin Jin," Xiao Si interrupted him, speaking earnestly. "Resonance between emotions and memories doesn't just happen by letting it be. The final part of the progress bar has been unlocked. As long as you still harbor dark emotions in your heart and the external stimuli are still present, you are destined to be unable to escape those emotions that could overflow at any moment. They could be fatal, and they really could kill you."

Upon hearing this, Shi Jin's heart trembled. He remembered his uncontrollable outburst in the audiovisual room, where it seemed like his soul was being occupied by the original owner's memories. He couldn't refute Xiao Si's words.

Back when he was in the military camp, his progress bar suddenly dropped. After pondering for a while, he vaguely confirmed that the 20-point drop was definitely related to the memories of Xiang Aoting and the original owner.

To verify this, when he met Rong Zhouzhong this time and found that the memories belonging to the original owner began to stir again, he almost without hesitation chose to let himself be engulfed by the emotions brought by those memories. He wanted to experience once again the resonance with the memories of the original owner and experiment whether the drop in the progress bar was really related to the emotional baggage the original owner had with his older brothers.

The results of the experiment were quite impressive. It confirmed his hypothesis and lowered the progress bar.

However, the process of the experiment was unbearable. The intensity of his emotions and the impact of his memories on his rationality far exceeded his expectations. He had no confidence that he could escape from those negative memories if the situation arose again. It must be admitted that those memories and emotions could really drive a person to the brink of despair.

In fact, he had speculated on the reason why he could resonate with the memories of the original owner. He had wondered if it was because he had carried the memories of the original owner for too long and knew them too well, or if there was still a lingering attachment of the original owner in this body. He even thought that the soul of the original owner might still be sleeping in some corner of this body, trying to regain control. But now, Xiao Si said that emotional and memory resonance cannot be intentionally induced.

He understood this to mean that not just any memory that was stuffed into his brain could easily resonate with him. It was because these memories were "special" that he could resonate with them and feel them so deeply. Many times, Shi Jin wished he was really a fool, because fools don't think too much. But reality obviously doesn't shift with his will.

Suddenly, he remembered the scene in the military camp when the progress bar suddenly dropped. At that time, he was carrying water with Xiang Aoting for the team, walking forward side by side under the brilliant sunshine, surrounded by energetic students. He suddenly felt a sigh of relief that his life was finally on the right track. He felt that every drop of sweat flowing out of his pores was filled with hope, and every breath he exhaled was a symbol of rebirth. A brand new future lay right at his feet, within his reach.

But suddenly, the progress bar dropped. That same night, he dreamt of those memories from the perspective of the original owner, gradually being influenced by the emotions within them. Upon closer analysis, the logic here is that the memories only appeared after the progress bar dropped, rather than the progress bar dropping after the memories appeared.

Earlier, Xiao Si had mentioned that the final part of the progress bar had been unlocked...

"Unlocked" is such a strange term. It gives the impression that this last part of the progress bar had been locked by something, and then one day, the progress bar determined that the conditions for unlocking had been met, and so the lock disappeared, releasing whatever had been locked away beneath it. As he thought back to the scene where the progress bar had decreased and his own mental state at the time, he came to a conclusion: the unlocking condition was some sort of spiritual realization, and what was released after unlocking were the memories and emotions of the original host that could affect him and resonate with him.

In summary, the progress bar had discovered that this host had completely diverged from the path of the original host, and judged that his inner strength was strong enough to face some of the heaviest burdens. Finally, it pushed open the cruelest door for him, forcing him to confront the ultimate crisis that came from the depths of his soul.

This was a true act of self-rescue. "So, all the crises I'm facing now are from the memories of the original owner, which you gave me," he thought to himself, then asked seriously, "Xiao Si, can you take back these memories of the original owner that you gave me?"

Xiao Si had already realized from his long silence that he might have guessed something, and stammered, "No... I can't do it."

"Why can't you do it?"

Silence again.

Shi Jin had learned to gather the information he wanted from its silence, and calmly asked, "Xiao Si, who am I?"

Xiao Si remained silent, but Shi Jin could feel its panic and helplessness.

"As I counted off each similarity - the same face, the same mole, the same name, memories that cannot be erased, emotions that resonate until they spiral out of control - the progress bar forced me to redeem myself with the original owner's emotions and memories..." I was about to reach a conclusion when I opened my mouth and said something else, "Could it be that the original owner is another me from a parallel world?"

"Jin Jin..." Xiao Si finally spoke up, his voice low and weak, filled with worry and fear, "Please don't think like that. You are just Jin Jin, nothing else."

"What are you thinking about again? Don't worry, I'm calm now," Shi Jin gathered his thoughts and looked back at the calm sea.

"My father's name was Shi Lei, and my mother's name was Lan Xiao. They adopted me when they were already very old, and I was their only child. I graduated from the police academy and worked as a police officer for many years. They were proud of me. They lived their whole lives without any illness or pain, and I wore my police uniform to send them off. They were very good people, and their biggest regret was that I didn't get married before they passed away."

That was his short but beautiful past life, enough to support him through all the difficulties. Besides, he still had Lian Jun by his side now, so no matter what the truth was, he would live this life well, with sunshine, without hatred, and with happiness.

"Never mind, it's pointless to dwell on these things now. Anyway, I'll find a way to break free from this emotional resonance. Playing games in third-person perspective is better than first-person, or else I'll get dizzy from the 3D effects!" He chuckled and spat out the stick of his lollipop, ending the conversation in his mind. He sat up straight and turned his attention back to Number Two.

Number Two had his back turned, talking on his phone with a tone of panic. "It's true! Shi Jin is acting really strange. His expression keeps changing, like he's talking to someone else, but there's only me around. Uncle Long, do you think he's really suffering from split personality disorder or delusions? If I interrupt him now, will he go berserk?"

Shi Jin: "......"

......

At 2am, three large cargo ships belonging to the Tarantula set sail from the port towards the treasure island. After about half an hour of sailing, over a dozen relatively lightweight fishing boats suddenly approached the cargo ships and quickly surrounded them.

The Tarantula sent out a signal for enemy attack, and Number Two immediately took action with his team.

Ten minutes later, Number Two and his team of four small boats approached the signal transmission location from behind the Snake Fang's main force, secretly launching their attack.

In the center of the battlefield, Snake Fang and Tarantula were engaged in a fierce battle, with the sound of gunfire and explosions constantly ringing out. Shi Jin stayed by Number Two's side, enjoying himself as he aimed his sniper rifle at the enemy, confident in his buff.

As Number Two watched him fire shot after shot without hesitation or aiming, he couldn't help but say, "Are you just shooting blindly? We're on a boat, and you only took a few seconds to aim. Are you sure you won't hit our own people? Do you even know how to use a sniper rifle?"

Shi Jin stiffened and replied dryly, "You can trust my marksmanship."

"Trust my ass!" Number Two was almost driven crazy by his slightly guilty tone. He reached out and patted Shi Jin's head, saying, "You need to be more careful. If you really hurt our own people, I won't be able to protect you. Lu Shan is not as forgiving as Young Master Jun!"

Shi Jin didn't argue and took the hit obediently, but he still fired another bullet and hit a member of the Snake Fang gang who was trying to sneakily throw a Molotov cocktail onto the Tarantula's cargo ship. Number Two was busy looking through his telescope to see the direction of the attack. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that it was Snake Fang's ships. He hesitated for a moment, but ultimately chose to trust his companion and didn't force him to put down his gun.

After more than half an hour of fighting, Snake Fang realized they couldn't win and attempted to retreat. However, Tarantula refused to let them go and continued to pursue them relentlessly.

Number Two saw what was happening and quickly ordered his men to stop attacking. He led them to retreat from the battlefield.

"Are we not going to continue attacking Snake Fang?" Shi Jin asked, still eager for more action.

Number Two shook his head. "No, Tarantula's reinforcements are on their way. Those dozen or so ships from Snake Fang won't be able to escape. Now, we'll have to see what happens on the island."

Shi Jin nodded in understanding and reluctantly put down his gun.

......

Just as Lian Jun had anticipated, the attack on the Tarantula by the Snake Fang gang was just a decoy. Their true intention was to delay and lure as much of the Tarantula's forces as possible, diverting their attention towards the goods, in order to launch a surprise attack on the Treasure Island.

In the early hours of the morning, shortly after the retreat of the Number Two and the arrival of a large number of reinforcements for the Tarantula, the Snake Fang gang launched a sudden attack on several strongholds and warehouses on the Treasure Island. Fortunately, Lu Shan was well prepared and, with the help of reinforcements from Number Three and Number Five, was able to withstand the fierce assault from the Snake Fang gang. To their great fortune, they were also able to capture the deputy leader of the Snake Fang gang, Xi Fan, who had personally come to command the battle.

Lu Shan was overjoyed and couldn't wait until dawn. Right after the battle ended, she made a phone call to Zhang Zhuoyuan, telling him about the disastrous situation of her own warehouse and stronghold being attacked by Snake Fang, as well as the incident where Xi Fan tried to kill her but was caught instead. She demanded that Zhang Zhuoyuan give an explanation for the "malicious behavior of Snake Fang's deputy leader, who attempted to harm the life of the Tarantula leader."

Zhang Zhuoyuan never expected Snake Fang to be so audacious. Not only did he touch the goods of the Tarantula, but he also had the audacity to threaten the treasure island and Lu Shan herself. When faced with Lu Shan holding the document he had just issued prohibiting malicious behaviour between major organizations, demanding that he must give an explanation to the Tarantula, he almost fainted from anger and frustration. He couldn't help but curse Snake Fang in his heart ten thousand times!

"Stupid! So stupid! Not only stupid but also useless! You're greedy for goods, that's one thing, but how could you be so foolish as to target the Tarantula's lifeline? And after seeing the consequences, you still have no sense of remorse, making the situation so one-sided!"

The deputy leader being caught was the funniest joke he had heard all year! Regardless of whether Xi Fan from the Snake Fang faction really intended to kill Lu Shan, now that he was in her hands, the final outcome would surely be that Xi Fan was there to kill her!

He had just eliminated the Tarantula, but if he were to spare Snake Fang now, the Tarantula would surely be furious. However, if he were to take action against Snake Fang, given their recent failure and heavy losses at the hands of the Tarantula, coupled with official suppression, they might just collapse. What about the balance between the four factions? What about the plan to insert rat droppings into the alliance? Wouldn't everything be ruined?

Zhang Zhuoyuan was at a loss, anxiously staring at his phone and waiting until it was likely that Lian Jun had already gotten up and finished breakfast before finally calling him for help.

On the other end of the phone, Lian Jun was carefully watching over Shi Jin, who was clearly on the verge of falling asleep but still insisted on accompanying him for breakfast. He had no interest in listening to Zhang Zhuoyuan's long-winded explanations.

Patiently listening to Zhang Zhuoyuan's report, Lian Jun simply said, "Contact the leader of the Snake Fang gang and arrange for a face-to-face meeting between the two families to discuss whether or not Xi Fan really intended to harm Lu Shan's life. You can mediate on the sidelines. I have other matters to attend to, so I'll talk to you later."

With that, he hung up the phone and reached out to steady Shi Jin's head, which had nearly fallen into the soup bowl.

Zhang Zhuoyuan listened intently, and after a moment of contemplation, he suddenly stood up and exclaimed excitedly, "Yes, Lu Shan alone cannot determine the nature of this matter! It's really clever of Lian Jun to use the technique of transferring contradictions so well!"

"Ah-choo!" Shi Jin sneezed and woke himself up. He found a familiar hand on his forehead, instinctively rubbed it, and then tried to keep himself awake by opening his eyes and turning his head to look at Lian Jun. He said, "I had a dream that someone praised you for being smart."

Lian Jun slid his wheelchair closer and blocked Shi Jin's widened eyes with his hand, coaxing, "Go back to sleep, breakfast is already over."

"Is it over?" Shi Jin was puzzled. He felt like he had just sat down at the table. He raised his hand and pulled down Lian Jun's hand, trying to turn his head to confirm the situation at the table.

Lian Jun quickly held onto his head and said, "I left a document in the room, can you help me get it? I haven't finished my breakfast yet."

Shi Jin furrowed his brow and blinked, forcing himself to wake up. He stood up and said, "Sure, I'll go get it. You enjoy your breakfast."

After Shi Jin walked a few steps away, Lian Jun leaned forward and stood up from his wheelchair, following quietly behind him.

The two of them entered the room one after the other. A few minutes later, Lian Jun walked out alone, his lips much redder than when he went in.

Coincidentally, Rong Zhouzhong entered the living room through the balcony outside and met Lian Jun as he walked out. The two of them stopped in their tracks and silently stared at each other.

Rong Zhouzhong's eyes widened as he looked at Lian Jun's face and then at his straight legs. His mouth hung open and the snacks he was holding fell to the ground.