[Is this a laboratory? From what perspective was the footage on that big screen recorded?]
[Wait, why is there a Li Zheng here too?!]
[Huh? The one in the nutrient tank? It's just someone who looks like him, right? It's not like Li Zheng can use a clone technique to take a bath while getting beaten up, can he?]
[Wake up, upstairs. That's not a bath, that's a life support pod! And... wasn't the Li Zheng in the vault just beaten to near-death by Cifera?]
[God damn bath... but it's even creepier when you put it that way! Twins? Clones?]
The bullet comments were in an uproar, like a disturbed hornet's nest.
At that moment, Su Xiaowei's voice rang out:
"Viewers, please stay calm." A mysterious, all-knowing smile played on her face, her gaze seemingly piercing through the screen to look directly at every confused viewer.
"As you can see, this is the Observer laboratory specially built by Genesis Tech for Apex Entertainment. The source of the footage you are currently seeing on the main screen is not a recording in any traditional sense."
She turned slightly and pointed elegantly at the massive main screen occupying three-quarters of the frame.
On the screen, Cifera's face with its playful, wicked smirk was crystal clear. The distorted vault and the vanished gold shelves behind her formed a highly impactful background.
"This perspective," Su Xiaowei's voice was clear and powerful, each word striking the viewers' hearts, "is precisely the first-person, real-time perspective of the Li Zheng currently confronting Cifera in the vault!"
As soon as these words were spoken, the bullet comments were instantly flooded with more [????] and [Holy crap!].
"However," Su Xiaowei's tone shifted, like a magician preparing to reveal the most incredible trick, "the Li Zheng currently in the vault, enduring Cifera's pressure and undergoing a near-death experience, cannot be considered entirely identical to the A+ rank space-type powerhouse we know."
Following her words, the broadcast director precisely controlled the camera, and the image suddenly zoomed in to focus on the life support pod.
Under the high-definition lens, the body suspended in the pale green nutrient solution was presented before everyone. That face and the contours of that body were exactly the same as the Li Zheng who had just been toyed with by Cifera!
"And the one currently sleeping in this Genesis Type III life support pod," Su Xiaowei's voice paused before she revealed, "is the true A+ rank space-type user, Li Zheng himself."
Boom!
The information exploded in the viewers' minds like a bomb.
[Holy sh*t!!!! The real Li Zheng is in a tank?! Then what was the one outside?! A ghost?!]
[Cloning! It's definitely cloning technology! Apex Entertainment is playing this big?!]
[No wonder! No wonder he got crushed so miserably! I was saying that no matter how weak an A+ rank is, they shouldn't be like paper! It turns out it was a fake!]
[What about the ability? Can space superpowers be cloned too? This technology is too heaven-defying, isn't it?!]
[Stupid! A clone can inherit genes, but superpower awakening and strength depend on the soul and experiences! That clone definitely didn't have the original's strength! It was just for show!]
The bullet comments were instantly ignited, with shock, realization, and various other emotions intertwining.
"Everyone's deductions are basically correct." At this time, Lin Ran's steady voice rang out, taking over the explanation.
The camera turned in a timely manner to the man sitting in the special experimental chair.
He was entirely encased in a silver-gray, high-density sensory suit, with countless fine fiber-optic lines connecting the clothing to the base of the chair.
The most eye-catching feature was the helmet he wore.
That metal helmet was a complex device composed of countless precision chips and miniature sensors, with several thick neural conduits inserted directly into the interface at the back of his neck, their indicator lights flashing at a high frequency.
"This person," Lin Ran introduced, "is one of the key executors of our plan, a special ability user with an ability level of only B- rank. His ability is called Sensory Synesthesia."
"Unlike ordinary sensory sharing," Su Xiaowei added, her tone carrying a high regard for the cutting-edge technology, "Sensory Synesthesia can establish a more stable mental link. Right now, through the seventh-generation cognitive neural coupler provided by Genesis Tech, he has performed a deep synchronization of visual and auditory senses with the target individual in the vault—Mr. Li Zheng's clone!"
The camera gave a close-up of the helmet. The ghostly blue light reflected off the synesthete's tightly closed eyes, furrowed brow, and facial muscles twitching involuntarily under the massive load. His hands gripped the chair's armrests tightly, his knuckles turning white from the exertion; he looked as if he were wrestling with invisible pressure.
"And this seventh-generation cognitive neural coupler," Su Xiaowei's voice carried a hint of pride, "is one of the foremost fruits of neural engineering from Genesis Tech. It can capture, parse, and present in real-time all sensory information streams received and processed by the user's cerebral cortex with staggering precision and speed, including the subtlest changes in light and shadow, sound frequencies, and even vague intentional pointers!"
Speaking to this point, she pointed to the main screen:
"Therefore, the images you see and the sounds you hear now do not come from the vault's cameras, but directly from the senses of the clone synchronized by this synesthete, and then extracted and converted into a real-time signal by the coupler! In other words, we are facing Cifera directly through the eyes and ears of the clone!"
The confident smile on Su Xiaowei's face finally bloomed completely, carrying the composure of a chess player placing a decisive piece:
"This is the self-harm ruse, or rather, the information harvest plan we prepared for Cifera!"
Then Lin Ran chimed in, his tone extremely confident:
"We never expected a clone to defeat her. The core value of its existence is sacrifice! By using the most authentic near-death state to trigger Cifera's desire to talk or show off... if she had directly destroyed the clone, our loss would only have been a precious biological sample. But if..."
He paused deliberately, his sharp gaze looking at the camera as if staring directly at the potentially off-guard Cifera in the vault:
"...If she chooses, as she has now, to reveal her greatest secret to a dying person after isolating all surveillance..." Su Xiaowei's voice carried a trace of excitement, "...then no matter how many cameras she destroys or how many signals she jams, her secret will be fully captured, recorded, and presented right here through this ghost channel constructed from the clone's senses!"