Shrouded Seascape

It was the briefest glance, but it caught Anna's full attention. A reporter was standing in front of a school with a microphone in hand, conducting an interview.

However, it wasn't the reporter who caught Anna's attention. Instead, it was the familiar face she spotted in the background—a girl walking through the school's main entrance.

She was an adorable girl with freckles; she was Olivia. She had been there the day Charles was summoned.

She should've lost her mind from that encounter, yet now, just like Wang Jianshe, she appeared perfectly normal.

Wang Jianshe is too dangerous for me to approach now. But Olivia should be much safer. Perhaps I can figure out why Wang Jianshe is how he is now if I can get to her.

Anna's thoughts continued to race.

The IMF wouldn't possibly waste too many resources monitoring her. She is just one of the many ordinary people who lost their minds that day.

The television screen flickered once more, and the interview broadcast was replaced with a familiar cartoon—Tom smashing a massive iron hammer on a scrambling Jerry.

Anna resumed her movement and continued eating. Lowering her voice, she spoke in Mandarin, "Hurry and eat. Once we're done, we're heading to Greece. We've got things to deal with."

"Okay!" Gao Zhiming replied as he stabbed his fork into a piece of chicken before shoving it into his mouth and chewing vigorously.

After a brief farewell with the Rooks, Anna set off that very day with Gao Zhiming by her side.

***

Greece.

Inside an upscale academy, Olivia was chatting and laughing with her friends as they strolled down the hallway. Her smile was radiant with joy as she animatedly shared stories about her recent vacation.

"I swear! That beach was absolutely gorgeous! The view was stunning, and the prices there were cheap! It's the best vacation spot for students like us!"

The three girls turned the corner and headed toward the restroom.

"Also, you know what? There are all sorts of gorgeous, sparkling green gemstones buried in the sand!"

"Wait? Seriously! Does that mean you are rich now?"

Olivia let out a hearty laughter. "Just kidding! They weren't actually emeralds—just bits of broken glass from discarded alcohol bottles. They looked like polished gems after years of being smoothed out by the waves.

"I mean, they're just glass, but they were sooooo pretty!"

Walking into one of the cubicles, an excited Olivia continued talking.

"Oh, did you girls see my Twitter? I uploaded so many pretty photos!"

Done with her business, she flushed the toilet before moving over to the sink.

"Next time, let's all go together! It's really amazing to be able to see new places, new people, and have new experiences."

As the cool water ran over her hands, Olivia started to sense something amiss. There had been no response from her friends ever since she entered the cubicle. Not even a single word. She had been talking to herself.

"Sia? Sariah?" Olivia called out as she lifted her head in confusion.

Her gaze landed on the large mirror above the sink, and she took in the reflection. The restroom stalls behind her stood eerily silent. There was not a single sound apart from the running water of the sink.

"Girls, don't think of pranking me with something like this. I'm not falling for it," Olivia said in an attempt to shake off her unease.

With hesitant steps, she approached one of the cubicles and gently pushed the door. The door swung inward without any resistance.

Olivia's eyes widened in shock as she saw Sariah lying on the floor and unconscious.

"Sariah!" Olivia dashed in and dropped to her knees before pulling Sariah into her arms. "Wake up! What happened?"

With a trembling hand, Olivia fumbled for her phone and quickly dialed 112.

Thunk!

A throwing knife descended from above and pierced through the phone's screen. The device instantly blacked out.

The next moment, Olivia felt her surroundings dimmed. She sharply turned her head upward to see a pair of pale hands reaching down from the ceiling.

She barely had time to process what she saw or scream when the hands grabbed her head and yanked her upward.

She struggled and kicked wildly, trying to escape. But as a petite high school girl, her strength couldn't compete.

Helplessly, Olivia was dragged through the ceiling and into the storage room on the second floor.

A voice drifted through the air.

"It's been a long while. Tell me, dear Olivia, do you still remember the stranger who took your photo that day?"

The freckled girl staggered to her feet. Her heart was still pounding from the ordeal as she turned around to see the speaker.

The moment Olivia saw Anna, she froze. Like a key unlocking a sealed door, Anna's face shattered the mental lock on her memory.

All the buried memories came flooding back.

A monstrous tree of flesh, its twisted branches formed from mangled organs, crawled out from the depths of her mind. The suffocating terror it exuded was gradually gnawing away at her sanity.

The joy that was evident on her face just a few minutes ago was fading away and slowly being replaced by agony. Her once vibrant and lively form began to hunch over, trying to shrink into itself.

"T-tree! Tree! AHHHH!" Olivia screamed and collapsed to the floor. She clutched her head with both hands and continued screaming hysterically. Tears and snot dripped freely onto the floor.

"Hmm?" Anna watched the freckled girl in front of her with an eyebrow raised. She had expected that she would need to employ some ways to recover the girl's memories.

To think that she would recognize me the moment she sees me…

"Look into my eyes," Anna commanded.

"AHHHHH!" Olivia let out another bout of piercing screams.

Like a terrified stray dog, she scrambled backward until her trembling body was pressed into the farthest corner of the room. She then pulled her limbs in and buried her face into her chest.

Anna nodded to herself, saying, "Hmm, now this seems more normal."

Compared to the artificial disguise IMF had forced onto Olivia, the girl's current state of terror was far more genuine and put Anna at ease.

Anna approached Olivia and knelt down on one knee. Placing a hand on the young girl's quivering shoulder, she leaned in and softly spoke into the girl's ear.

"What did they do to you?" Anna questioned. "What did you go through there? Tell me everything."

With her mind on the verge of breaking down, Olivia offered no response. Instead, she violently slammed her head against the wall. Again and again, she desperately tried to self-harm to avoid facing Anna.

Anna instantly understood that Olivia was in a full-blown trauma response. If she didn't stabilize the girl soon, she would never be able to get the answers she needed.

Anna reached out and caught Olivia's head before it could slam into the wall again. She then pulled the girl into her embrace and wrapped her arms tightly around the latter.

She gently rocked Olivia like a mother comforting a frightened child.

"Don't be afraid. I won't hurt you. The tree in your mind won't hurt you either."

She drew from her past experiences as a Dioite, attempting to stabilize Olivia's shattered mind through pure psychological reassurance.

Fortunately, it worked. After half an hour, Olivia's violent tremors finally subsided. Though she didn't return to her previous chirpy self, at least she was capable of communication.

"Tell me. After you left the resort, what happened? What did they do to you?" Anna asked.

Olivia didn't dare to look up at Anna's face. Her voice trembled as she answered, "Th-they… asked me a lot… of questions. I couldn't… answer them. I used… LEGO… to build… that thing… to show them."

In her current state, Olivia couldn't even bring herself to mention the tree.

Anna narrowed her eyes in surprise. Under normal circumstances, memories tied to such intense emotions were difficult to alter. Even if they had been tampered with, the effect wouldn't last for long.

More importantly, this was a memory of Charles. And Charles was already a God.

Yet, the IMF managed to alter a memory with a God's appearance.

They really do have some powerful tools at their disposal.

Judging from Olivia's current condition, Anna's suspicion had been confirmed. Wang Jianshe hadn't been replaced.

His memory had merely been rewritten. The current him had completely forgotten his deal with her.

"Continue. Don't stop. What else did they make you do?"

"They… They made me meet a madman," Olivia answered. Her voice was steadier now that she wasn't talking about the tree.

"A madman? What madman? Have I seen him before?"

"I don't know. He was scruffy… with a thick, unkempt beard. He held this giant water tank in his hands and refused to let go. He kept saying that the tree branch from the tree is in the water…"

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