Cave Refuge

To escape the illusion, whether it's from ancient lore or showcased in various movies and television shows, pain has always been one of the most straightforward and natural ways out.

If it weren't for the presence of the double vision of Divine Sense, Zachary would have never thought that the illusion he was currently in could simulate pain.

To many, illusions are quite similar to dreams, and it isn't clear when people started to confirm whether they were dreaming by slapping themselves hard in the face; if they didn't feel the pain, then it indicated they were still in a dream, and if they did feel pain, on the contrary, it proved they were in reality.

However, this time, the pain simulated in the illusion was so convincing that, had Zachary not confirmed through his Divine Sense that the Flying Needle hadn't actually pierced his leg, the intense pain shooting all the way to his head would have made him believe he had escaped the illusion.

After confirming that he had not escaped the illusion, Zachary pulled the Flying Needle out of his leg within the field of his vision. The sharp pain that accompanied the Flying Needle's exit would have made Zachary truly believe that his thigh had been stabbed if he hadn't seen through his Divine Sense that the needle did not actually pierce his flesh.

At this moment, in his line of sight, after removing the Flying Needle from his thigh, some blood first sprayed out from the needle hole, but then the blasted hole rapidly healed at a visible rate. In just a dozen or so seconds, apart from some blood that had come out when the needle was pulled, the original hole on his thigh had already vanished without a trace.

Looking at the bloody thigh in his line of sight and then noting the clean, uninjured thigh in his Divine Sense, Zachary suddenly felt something eerie.

Although he could now distinguish between reality and the illusion, Zachary had no desire to remain in the illusion. As he was preparing to settle down and think about how to escape, he suddenly heard the sound of the courtyard gate opening outside.

At that time, even though Zachary possessed both the visual perspective and Divine Sense, he couldn't determine if the sound was being manipulated by the illusion.

After all, the experiences Zachary had gained from watching movies and television shows for many years before the Natural Disaster made it clear that most illusions not only controlled the visual perspectives of those trapped but also the sounds they heard. Even more powerful illusions could completely submerge a person's five senses.

Those illusions that controlled all five senses could kill a person directly with just the scenes appearing in the illusion without any additional means.

Although the source of the sound was still uncertain, Zachary could take the initiative to leave the room and see who had entered the courtyard.

When Zachary stepped out of the room, he noticed a person standing outside who looked utterly ordinary. Both in his line of sight and Divine Sense, the scenes he saw were identical.

However, when the person outside looked at Zachary putting on sunglasses, although in his line of sight the person's face continued to smile, the slight upturn of the mouth revealed in his Divine Sense was not of a smile that a real person would make.

Before Zachary could get close, the person simply pushed gently, and the previously tightly closed gate of the outer courtyard was pushed open effortlessly. As the person approached, they greeted Zachary with a smile, "Hello, I'm your neighbor from next door. Are you the new survivor who just moved in?"

Although Zachary was still trapped within the illusion at this time, upon hearing the other person's question, he immediately remembered Ye Liuyun, whom he had encountered near the city gate. Back then, Ye Liuyun had told him that his parents lived in this place.

Now that the person was uttering such words, could it be that the Ye Liuyun he met at the city gate was also fake? Did that person give him this address intending to trap him? Otherwise, if the Ye Liuyun he met at the city gate was real, he shouldn't have used false information to deceive him.

As soon as this suspicion arose in his mind, he became even more convinced that the Ye Liuyun he met at the city gate was real. As his inner thoughts solidified, Zachary noticed that the scene in his visual perspective suddenly began to shake as if experiencing a tremor, like in the movies, occurring several times in succession.

Perhaps sensing an anomaly in the illusion Zachary was experiencing, the person in his field of view continued to smile while gradually approaching, but in his Divine Sense, when the illusion began to tremble, the person's face suddenly turned very ugly, and they even cursed, "Shit, I just gave him a damn greeting. Why is there a tremor in the illusion? What word did I say that made him have doubts? Is this guy really that perceptive?"

As the person kept cursing incessantly, their eyes gradually began to emit a dark green glow, and with the increasing light in their eyes, the trembling and shaking scenes in Zachary's visual field began to stabilize.

And as the person nearly reached him, the person in his visual perspective was about to extend their right hand as if eagerly preparing for a handshake.

But in Zachary's Divine Sense, the person's mouth seemed to have dislocated, splitting open from the corner, much like a Venomous Snake, opening to an angle that no human could ever reach. Then, from the mouth, they extended a limb with sharp spikes, resembling a crab's leg.