Chapter 108: The Past
Faced with Professor Oak's grim prognosis – a life expectancy potentially capped at thirty years – Xiu's reaction continued to baffle the aged researcher. Instead of despair or anger, Xiu just… accepted it.
He offered a small, almost philosophical smile. "I'm fourteen now, Professor," he stated calmly. "That still leaves sixteen years. Sixteen years is… enough. Enough time to see a fair bit of this world, I think."
His nonchalance wasn't bravado; it stemmed from a place Professor Oak couldn't possibly comprehend. 'Ten years,' Xiu thought inwardly, even ten good years, truly living, would be enough.
He remembered a cynical saying from his past life: "You're born crying, you learn just enough to get sick, you enter society already dead inside, and finally get buried when you're old."
While he didn't fully subscribe to that bleak outlook, it resonated with his own past experience. He'd spent years working himself to death, not for passion, but out of obligation, forced by societal pressure, by parental expectations, by the relentless need to earn enough.
Enough money, enough security… always chasing 'enough', never truly living. His concept of money, his desires… they were fundamentally simple, but the world hadn't allowed for simplicity.
Perhaps, Xiu mused, my subconscious desire to escape that life is what had drawn me here, to this fantastical world born from childhood dreams.
Yet, even here, fate had dealt him a difficult hand – orphaned again and burdened with responsibility, now facing a ticking clock on his own existence. It felt… strangely familiar.
Just like facing his old boss, bound by obligations, struggling against limitations— but this time, the struggle felt meaningful.
Ten, sixteen, even thirty years lived freely, purposefully… it felt infinitely more valuable than decades spent in quiet desperation, merely existing until death. His perspective, shaped by death and rebirth, operated on a different plane than Professor Oak's long, accomplished life.
Professor Oak, however, couldn't read Xiu's complex internal monologue. He saw only the young man's unnerving acceptance, perhaps mistaking it for naive underestimation of the danger. His expression hardened again. "That's assuming your condition remains stable," he countered sharply, shattering Xiu's brief philosophical reverie. "Sixteen years is an optimistic projection based on current data. Continued exposure to Abra's uncontrolled psychic field… the effects could accelerate. Worsen. And," he added gravely, "no one can predict what other unpredictable, potentially catastrophic neurological events might occur. The reason psychic powers are feared, Xiu, isn't just due to their destructive potential, but when their unstable and uncontrollable."
"I understand the principle, Professor," Xiu acknowledged quietly. "Otherwise, the Abra line wouldn't have evolved natural limiters, would they? They'd just keep increasing in power endlessly, like Abra seems to be doing, likely destroying themselves or everything around them in the process." His own words highlighted the precariousness of their situation.
Professor Oak looked at Xiu intently, a flicker of hesitation crossing his face. He seemed to be weighing whether to reveal something further. Finally, appearing to reach a decision, he spoke again, his tone turning somber. "Come with me."
"Hmm?" Sensing a shift, a deeper level of disclosure perhaps, Xiu immediately set aside his teacup and followed Professor Oak out of the living room.
Professor Oak didn't head upstairs this time. Instead, he led Xiu down a different corridor on the main floor, towards a section of the institute Xiu hadn't seen before. He stopped before a heavy, reinforced door, unlocked it with a specific keycard, and gestured Xiu inside.
This room was smaller than the library or the main lab, windowless, lined floor-to-ceiling not with books, but with locked metal filing cabinets and secure data storage units. It felt less like a study, more like a vault. The air was cool, dry, still. The level of security was noticeably higher than elsewhere on the main floor.
"You truly don't grasp the potential danger, the scale of what uncontrolled psychic power can unleash," Professor Oak stated quietly, turning to face Xiu in the confined space. He walked over to one specific, older-looking filing cabinet, unlocked it, and retrieved a thick, brown-covered, hand-bound notebook. Unlike the library books, this one had no title, only a string of reference numbers etched onto the spine.
"Don't bother trying to decipher the code," Oak said, noticing Xiu's curious glance at the spine. "These are my private research notes from… a long time ago." He flipped through the aged pages, the paper brittle with time.
Xiu looked around the room. The other cabinets seemed similarly filled with these nondescript, coded notebooks. 'Are these all his personal notes? Decades of research?' He himself kept diligent notes, a habit that had proven invaluable— but the sheer volume here… it was humbling. His own efforts felt minuscule in comparison.
"Found it," Oak murmured, stopping at a specific page. He held the open notebook out to Xiu.
Xiu took it carefully, reading the handwritten entries. The script was neat but dense, filled with technical observations, data points, and concise summaries. As he read, his blood ran cold.
"Professor… is this… is this real?" Xiu finally asked, his voice hushed, looking up from the page, his face pale.
"Every word," Oak confirmed grimly, taking the notebook back and carefully returning it to the cabinet. "I was one of the primary investigators assigned to the incident by the League, years ago. How else could I recall the details so clearly after all this time?"
The notebook detailed an event Oak had personally investigated decades prior, during a time when society was less stable, when human settlements more scattered, when the League's was less affluent.
A moderately well-known, isolated village had simply… vanished. Disappeared from communication, patrols finding only silence. Oak, then a younger, more active field researcher working closely with the League, was part of the small, specialized team sent in to investigate.
The notes didn't describe the investigation process itself in detail, only the horrifying findings. No survivors. The entire village population – men, women, children – gone, presumed dead. And of the five highly trained League investigators who entered the village proper, only three came back out. Two were lost, their fates unknown but grimly implied. The official cause listed in the report summary was vague – 'localized catastrophic psychic phenomenon'.
"This incident…" Xiu swallowed hard, his throat suddenly dry. "Was it… related to Abra? To this kind of uncontrolled psychic power?"
"Hold on," Oak said, not answering immediately. He moved to another cabinet, rummaging through files. Xiu waited anxiously, observing the room again. Unlike the library's open shelves, these cabinets were locked, secure. File bags, data cores… likely containing sensitive research, confidential reports. Things not meant for public consumption.
"Here," Oak finally said, pulling out a thin, aged file folder secured with faded red tape. He handed it to Xiu.
Xiu took the folder. The cover was blank except for a typed date from decades ago and a stark title: "Incident Report: Psychic Disaster Zone 7". Stamped prominently below the title, in faded but still ominous red ink, was the word: CONFIDENTIAL.
"Professor," Xiu hesitated, feeling the weight, the forbidden nature of the document in his hands. "This is… classified League material. Are you sure I should…?"
"You wanted to understand the danger," Oak replied flatly, his expression somber, distant, clearly recalling something unpleasant. "Read it." He waved a dismissive hand. "Besides, the official confidentiality period expired years ago. Technically, it's historical record now, albeit one the League prefers remain buried. I know the protocols better than anyone."
Reassured, though still apprehensive, Xiu carefully opened the file folder. Inside were only a few typed pages of concise summary reports and a small stack of black and white photographs.
Habitually, Xiu looked at the photos first. The initial images showed the investigation team approaching the outskirts of the abandoned village – eerie shots of silent forests, empty wooden houses, an unnerving lack of any life— standard reconnaissance photos.
He felt nothing alarming… until he reached the last few photographs. He flipped to the next one, glanced at it for less than a second, and immediately slammed the folder shut, dropping it onto a nearby table as if it had burned him.
He took several deep, ragged breaths, trying to quell the sudden wave of nausea, the visceral horror that washed over him. He'd experienced the internet age in his past life, seen gore, violence, the worst humanity had to offer online. He thought he was desensitized.
He was wrong.
The images… weren't bloody. Weren't overtly gory. But the content… the twisted, unnatural shapes, the silent screams frozen on faces warped beyond human recognition, the sheer wrongness depicted… it spoke of a madness, a reality twisted by forces beyond comprehension. Pure, undiluted psychic horror made manifest.
He looked up at Professor Oak, needing reassurance, explanation. But Oak wasn't looking at him. He stared blankly at the wall, his face etched with a deep, solemn gravity, clearly lost in his own dark memories of that place.
Seeing no comfort there, Xiu forced himself to pick up the typed report pages again, his hands trembling slightly. He started reading from the beginning, trying to make sense of the horror the photos had only hinted at. The more he read, the colder he felt, a chilling dampness spreading across his back despite the cool, dry air of the vault.