??

Huh??

Visibly, as Du Yuheng uttered that sentence, Jiang Ye's entire body stiffened.

Not just him;all seven people who heard that sentence, every single one, noticeably stiffened as well.

Even those five naive and foolish youths almost openly retreated in the direction away from Du Yuheng.

The looks they gave him were like looking at some kind of flood beast or ferocious tiger, filled with extreme rejection.

In this strange atmosphere, Jiang Ye could only clear his mind, not daring to let his thoughts wander any further.

However, the moment he made eye contact with Du Yuheng, he suddenly noticed—

A strange dark red flashed briefly and disappeared in this guy's eyes.

He slightly furrowed his brows, then heard Du Yuheng weakly explain to him again:

"You saw it, right? Just now when I activated the skill, there was a change in my eyes."

"So, even though I possess the SSS-grade [Mind Reading] talent, you all don't need to reject me too much."

"Because I feel that this [Mind Reading] talent of mine, as it stands now, really doesn't deserve the SSS-grade rating."

"This talent itself is pretty useless;it only gave me two matching skills."

"One is the SS-grade [Heart's Voice Externalized], an active skill that makes the inner thoughts of players I target externalized, then seen by my eyes in a special form."

"Just looking at the skill description, it sounds pretty awesome, right?"

"But in actual practice, I found this SS-grade skill is ridiculously terrible!"

"First problem: the externalized inner thoughts of the players I see are random."

"How random? There's a high probability that what I see is just a string of garbled code revealing no information at all!"

"I've activated this skill many times already, and almost 80% of the results were garbled code! Completely unreadable!"

"Secondly, this active skill has a full 2-hour cooldown for the same living entity!"

"Two hours! That's how long you have to wait to use it once! I feel just... speechless!"

"The key point is, this is actually an SS-grade skill! I just... can't understand it, okay!"

"Do you think maybe I misunderstood the talent grading, and actually SSS is the most garbage grade?"

"......"

When Du Yuheng complained about his own talent and skills, his tone was full and his emotions genuine.

And his feeling of speechless frustration...

was highly consistent with Jiang Ye's own speechless frustration towards the SSS-grade talent [Holds Grudges] and the SS-grade skill [Grudge Memory]!

Initially, Jiang Ye also felt that his [Grudge Memory] skill was way too terrible.

So at this moment, he even felt an emotional resonance with Du Yuheng.

However, this bit of resonance wasn't enough to lessen his wariness towards Du Yuheng.

As for the others, they simply didn't believe that an SS-grade skill could truly be as terrible as Du Yuheng described.

Especially He Yuliang, who also possessed an SSS-grade talent. After pondering for a moment, he suddenly raised a key point of doubt:

"Even if everything you said is true, and your SSS-grade [Mind Reading] talent and SS-grade [Heart's Voice Externalized] skill are both terrible..."

"But you said at the beginning that your eyes flash red when you use the skill."

"Yes, I just saw a brief flash of red light in your eyes."

"But the problem is—"

"According to your own description, you didn't experience the 'Initial Prison';you were directly sent to this 'School' by your parents, and only gradually realized something was wrong..."

"That is to say, you only obtained the Data Panel and the SSS-grade [Mind Reading] talent after entering the school."

"Then, counting all the hours, how did you know your eyes flash red when you use the skill?"

This challenge was quite sharp.

It was also a point of suspicion in Jiang Ye's mind.

However, Du Yuheng himself didn't seem to notice he was being doubted at all and directly gave the answer:

"This small detail was something I discovered while mining."

"To be precise, actually from the very beginning, I wanted to try using the [Heart's Voice Externalized] skill on myself, to better grasp and understand this useless skill."

"My initial idea was to try using the skill on my reflection in a mirror, to see if I could see my own externalized inner thoughts in the mirror."

"But since I didn't want to expose my talent, I didn't deliberately go looking for a mirror."

"Just now while mining, I found that if I polished the uneven ice walls a bit, I could vaguely see my reflection."

"Although it wasn't very clear, I could barely make out my facial features."

"Then I tried it, using the [Heart's Voice Externalized] skill on myself."

"The result was, I didn't manage to see my own externalized inner thoughts, but on the ice wall, I saw what looked like a flash of red light in my eyes."

"So that's how I knew my eyes flash red when I activate the skill."

To be honest, this explanation...

was almost perfect.

When Jiang Ye felt the [Grudge Memory] skill didn't deserve its SS-grade rating, he also had many doubts and considered experimenting on himself, trying to see what effect using the skill on himself would have.

Unfortunately, he couldn't use the skill on himself.

Therefore, Du Yuheng's claim that he discovered the red flash in his eyes while trying to use the skill on himself was very reasonable.

He Yuliang couldn't find a way to refute it either.

It was Jiang Ye who suddenly asked He Yuliang: "Just now when I used a skill on you, did you see any red flash in my eyes?"

He Yuliang shook his head: "No, I didn't notice any abnormality on you."

Du Yuheng, however, took the opportunity to analyze: "Maybe it's because my [Heart's Voice Externalized] skill uses the eyes, so there's a red flash? Senior, does your skill also use the eyes?"

He Yuliang listened and also felt it made sense, nodding in agreement: "Indeed, different skills having different visual effects is normal. When I use my skill, my eyes probably wouldn't flash red either."

That made sense.

Jiang Ye thought for a moment, staring at Du Yuheng for quite a while.

He stared until Du Yuheng grew uneasy, then finally spoke: "Just now when you were looking at me, your eyes flashed red..."

"So, was that your second or third time using the skill on me?"

Using the sewing machine took 2 hours, mining took 2 hours.

And the cooldown for [Heart's Voice Externalized] is also 2 hours.

So theoretically, Du Yuheng could have used the skill on players he encountered a maximum of 3 times. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

However, what Du Yuheng said was: "That was the second time I used it just now. The first time was when everyone was focused on the [Blood Skin Coat];I secretly used the skill quite a few times then."

"At that time, most of the information I saw was garbled code, with only a small amount of reliable information..."

Du Yuheng thought for a moment and directly confessed: "First, from above your head, among a string of garbled code, I saw the two characters 'Jiang Ye'. I don't know what that means;maybe you were thinking about this person at the time?"

"Besides that, from the veteran player next to you, probably called Song Jie, right? Above his head was also a string of garbled code, mixed with the three characters 'I am human'."

"The one on your left side at that time, Li Ku? Above his head, a string of garbled code was mixed with the two characters 'Chen Sheng'. Probably that Chen Sheng from 'Are kings and nobles born of noble blood?'"

"As for information from other players, it can hardly be called information..."

"For example, some people's garbled code mixed information like 'go home', some directly had home addresses, phone numbers, QQ numbers? Others had information like beef, hot dry noodles... just messy and strange..."

Overall, Du Yuheng felt just as speechless about the effective information he got from the heart's voices as he did about the [Heart's Voice Externalized] skill itself.

Listening to his simple descriptions, Jiang Ye had a speculation in his heart.

Perhaps, the effective information Du Yuheng obtained from the garbled code during his first skill activation...

was the things those veteran players "believed" 100% in order to resist mental breakdown?

Actually, Jiang Ye didn't believe human will could produce 100% "belief".

So he guessed...

those veteran players must be constantly reinforcing their own "belief" at all times.

Through this method, they resist the potential mental breakdown they might suffer.

And this self-established belief is actually like the totem tool used to distinguish dreams from reality in Inception.

Some people's belief is a dream.

Some people's belief is a cognition.

Some people's belief might be a memory they absolutely refuse to lose...

These beliefs manifested as the information Du Yuheng's [Heart's Voice Externalized] detected, mixed within the garbled code.

For example, Li Ku's "Chen Sheng", symbolizing peasant uprising.

For example, Song Jie's "I am human", his insisted cognition.

And also those players who used going home, home addresses, phone numbers, even favorite foods, beloved careers as their "belief"...

They all presented their firmly held beliefs the moment their inner thoughts were peeked at.

So...

The information Jiang Ye presented was "Jiang Ye"...

Then this, perhaps, was his subconscious mind's most, most firm belief.

Yes, even though his current identity information showed "Zhou Qiming".

He was absolutely certain he was Jiang Ye.

So this belief was also stolen by Du Yuheng during the first heart's voice reading.

It's just unknown whether Du Yuheng himself realized this.

Anyway, those five naive and foolish youths obviously hadn't thought of it.

They only thought this SS-grade skill was really that terrible, or suspected Du Yuheng was lying.

He Yuliang, however, seemed thoughtful. Not sure what he was thinking, he asked: "What about me? What was the effective information in my garbled heart's voice?"

Du Yuheng shook his head, his tone somewhat disdainful: "Your heart's voice was pure garbled code, no effective information at all."

Having said that, he added: "And I discovered that players with empty, numb eyes basically have heart's voices that are all garbled code."

"Only players whose eyes still maintain vitality have a higher probability of showing effective information in their heart's voices."

"But there are also quite a few new players with lively eyes whose heart's voices are all garbled code."

"......" He Yuliang was originally quite speechless, thinking, could it be that his own inner self was empty and numb?

But on second thought, he felt...

perhaps it was the effect of [Paradox Protection] that caused Du Yuheng to be unable to see his heart's voice?

Just now, when "Zhou Qiming" used a skill on him, didn't he only see his perspective during the "Confusion" state?

In essence, it also seemed like no effective information was obtained?

He Yuliang was thoughtful.

Jiang Ye, however, asked Du Yuheng again: "What about just now, the second time you used the skill on me, what did you see?"

"Uh..."

Du Yuheng's expression became a bit awkward, stammering: "I was just trying to show that there's a noticeable external manifestation when I use the skill..."

"And I already stated I have a mind-reading talent, senior, you should have been on guard at that time, right?"

Yes.

When Du Yuheng used the skill on Jiang Ye the second time, Jiang Ye probably wasn't thinking about anything.

However, looking at Du Yuheng's awkward expression.

Combined with his speculation about the SS-grade skill [Grudge Memory]...

He felt that the seemingly useless [Heart's Voice Externalized] should be the same as [Grudge Memory]—

For the same individual, the skill effect strengthens with each use.

So...

Jiang Ye raised an eyebrow: "What exactly did you see?"

Du Yuheng's expression became even more awkward.

He originally thought that since he had said all this, the senior would definitely think he didn't see much the second time.

But the senior's expression seemed to confirm he had seen something incredible...

Du Yuheng felt quite helpless.

After a moment of silence, he still weakly answered: "I saw quite a long segment..."

"And it's quite magical;the externalized heart's voice obviously doesn't last long, and I didn't deliberately look at it."

"But my viewing of the externalized heart's voice seems to have a photographic memory ability."

"So I still remember that long segment very clearly now..."

"Well, um, roughly, senior, your guesses about me..."

"Specifically displayed as, senior, you guessed I'm not an ordinary newcomer, possibly a newcomer who was 'Pardoned' and then re-convicted, possibly a 'Superior People' from a normal city disguised as a newcomer, or possibly having other special backgrounds, like Reincarnator, NPC, VIP, etc. Actually, there were also some garbled codes mixed in, I didn't really understand them either..."

"But I guarantee, everything I said is true!" Du Yuheng raised his fingers in a swearing gesture.

Jiang Ye was, damn, very embarrassed.

Because undoubtedly...

The heart's voice Du Yuheng saw during his second skill activation was precisely Jiang Ye's recent speculation about his identity!

This segment was indeed something Jiang Ye had thought about;Du Yuheng really wasn't lying.

But it's possible he saw more and intentionally hid part of it.

He might even have used the skill on Jiang Ye a third time just now and deliberately concealed one use.

Jiang Ye retained these suspicions but proactively asked again:

"Don't you find it strange? You used the skill on me a second time and actually got so much information?"

Du Yuheng nodded vigorously like a pecking chicken: "Yes, I noticed that too! The second time I used the [Heart's Voice Externalized] skill, it finally felt a bit like mind-reading!"

"So I suspect this seemingly useless skill might be a growth-type skill? The more times you use it on the same player, the more detailed the information you see?"

Jiang Ye nodded in agreement: "Probably."

Then he smiled slightly: "Counting it up, you've already used the skill on me twice..."

"So, letting me use a skill on you once isn't too much, right?"