Chapter 118 Officer Li’s Resolve
But should he break this news to Han Yimo now?
No, telling him the truth now wasn’t a good idea. The most challenging thing for humans to manage is their own {thoughts}. Han Yimo seemed emotionally stable at the moment, and if Qi Xia revealed the truth, it could potentially derail his thoughts.
"Are you scared right now, Han Yimo?" Qi Xia asked cautiously.
"Not really," Han Yimo replied calmly, shaking his head. "The lights are bright here, and it doesn't seem like there's any danger nearby."
"Tha—That's good to know..."
Officer Li noticed that Qi Xia seemed somewhat flustered.
"But no one knows which will come first—an accident or tomorrow…" Han Yimo gazed at the sky with a sense of longing. "Qi Xia, do you think we’ll be stuck in this place for—"
"Stop!" Qi Xia stepped forward, covering Han Yimo’s mouth. A bead of cold sweat trickled down his forehead. "Han Yimo, stay calm. We’ll definitely get out of here."
"I can't put it into words, but Qi Xia, I trust you with a certainty I can't explain." Han Yimo remarked. "You remind me of a character I once wrote about—near the end of the story, he overcame a seemingly impossible obstacle."
"It’s wonderful you think that way…" Qi Xia forced a faint smile. "As long as I'm here, you don’t need to worry."
Qi Xia's expression seemed to spark something in Officer Li's mind. Could {Beckoned Calamity} be the same as {Jinxed Mouth}?
"Right... Han Yimo, you mustn't overthink things..." Officer Li said, belatedly realizing. "Qi Xia and I will get everyone out of here."
Han Yimo noticed their odd behavior. "What’s up with you two?"
"I..." Officer Li and Qi Xia exchanged a glance, and the words got stuck in their throats. "It—It’s nothing."
The immediate priority was figuring out how to shut down Han Yimo's {Reverberation}. Otherwise, with his wild imagination, the train could end up on the sports field, or a meteor shower could start raining down from the sky.
"You two are really strange..." Han Yimo sighed. "You call me out to the middle of the field in the middle of the night, but then neither of you explain anything properly."
Qi Xia felt his mind growing increasingly chaotic. The known {Reverberatees} didn't seem like common {superpowers} at all. They didn't possess the usual abilities like flying or teleportation, but instead veered in a bizarre direction.
Han Yimo could summon calamity, Jiang Ruoxue could forcibly create logical connections between unrelated things, and Officer Li could conjure things that didn’t exist out of thin air. Then there was that woman, Xiao Xiao. When she killed Qiao Jiajin and Tian Tian, she remained motionless, merely eating a bowl of meat, and everyone fell unconscious.
Qi Xia recalled that her {Reverberation} was called {Adversity Shift}.
Given this, one could boldly speculate that Xiao Xiao had indeed poisoned them—but she didn’t need to put the poison in anyone else’s bowl; all she had to do was place it in her own. At that moment, she would shift the poison inside herself with her {Adversity Shift}, and the murder would be complete.
Qi Xia couldn’t help but let out a wry smile. In the real world, anyone who proposed such a theory would surely be considered mad. But in {End Point}, this deduction somehow felt unsettlingly plausible.
"I’m a bit tired," Han Yimo yawned. "Aren’t you two going to sleep?"
"We’ll have another cigarette. You can go first," Officer Li replied.
"Alright then." Han Yimo nodded. "I’m leaving now. You two should get some rest soon too."
With that, he turned and walked toward the brightly lit school building. Along the way, he seemed to run into Zhang Shan, and the two of them chatted as they disappeared into the distance.
Now that only Qi Xia and Officer Li remained, there was no longer any need for secrecy.
Qi Xia turned around, got straight to the point, and asked, "Officer Li, do you remember your {Reverberation}?"
"My... {Reverberation}?" Officer Li furrowed his brows, as if trying to recall. "Did I trigger my {Reverberation} last time? All I remember is that I smoked a cigarette, and then everything went blank."
"The problem lies with that cigarette," Qi Xia said. "You pulled out a clean, brand new {DCXC} from an old cigarette pack. Do you remember?"
Qi Xia knew that this question might be difficult for Officer Li, considering his condition at the time—he had been severely bloodied, in intense pain, and his consciousness had been clouded.
"I have a faint recollection..." Officer Li nodded slowly. "{DCXC} is a specialty of our Inner Mongolia, and a pack costs about a hundred yuan. I vaguely recall smoking a {DCXC} before I... died, but I had no idea how it ended up with me."
"What about the lighter?" Qi Xia patted his pocket, only to find that the lighter was gone. He gestured with his hand instead. "An old Zippo lighter, the kind that’s fairly common, but it had clearly been used for quite a while."
Officer Li froze for a moment. "How do you know about that lighter? That was a gift from Xuanxuan, bought with her New Year’s money... I always carry it with me."
Qi Xia nodded thoughtfully. "Now I understand. Officer Li, I suspect that your {Reverberation} is extremely powerful—it allows you to materialize anything you desire."
"What?!" Officer Li’s eyes widened instantly. "Are you saying that not only did I trigger my {Reverberation}, but I even conjured up the lighter Xuanxuan gave me?"
"Yes. I, Lin Qin, and Lawyer Zhang personally witnessed your {Reverberation}. However, apart from me, no one else is left to confirm it now."
Officer Li dropped his gaze, his expression deeply conflicted.
"What’s wrong?" Qi Xia asked.
"Qi Xia, are {Reverberatees} the only ones who can retain their memories?"
"I've heard it works that way," Qi Xia replied.
"And I... would hear my {Reverberation} when I'm on the brink of death?"
"Yes," Qi Xia nodded once again.
Officer Li slowly raised his head and said, "Qi Xia, I think I've found a method to escape this place..."
"What?" Qi Xia turned to glance at him. "What method?"
"Find a way to make me die," Officer Li said, his voice serious. "Bring me to the edge of death."
Qi Xia furrowed his brow. "Are you insane?"
"No, I'm not insane." Officer Li's eyes flickered as he seemed to be mentally weighing the feasibility of his plan. After a long pause, he spoke again, "When I'm on the brink of death, I'll find a way to pull out three thousand six hundred {Dào}. That way, you all can leave! Although I don't know exactly how this ability works, I'm certain I'll have some kind of awareness when I'm close to dying!"
His expression was sharp and serious, without a hint of humor.
"A {Dào} is about the size of a walnut. How could a normal person possibly carry three thousand six hundred of them?" Qi Xia found the plan was far too risky. "I think it's too unreliable. We should consider other options."
"If the first try doesn’t work, we’ll go for a second, and if that fails, then we’ll push for a third," Officer Li declared with fierce determination. "I will make sure everyone makes it out alive."