Chapter 28: Mind World

Chapter 28: Mind World

Hvin Rambis picked up the bone china teacup beside him and took a sip. Looking at Audrey, whose sitting posture was upright and flawless, he smiled kindly and said,

“There is no need to be so restrained. This is not the first time you have met me. I still remember that two years ago, you even discussed Burman’s moral philosophy and Conciso’s pragmatism with me.”

Audrey kept a faint smile.

“I simply find it difficult to connect you with a member of the Psychology Alchemists’ Review Council.”

Hvin Rambis had not yet introduced himself as such, but this was a reasonable conjecture based on Audrey’s understanding of the Psychology Alchemists and the current situation.

Hvin crossed his right leg and smiled slightly.

“That is not worth paying attention to. Never forget: we, the Psychology Alchemists, are an organization established for the purpose of studying knowledge in the domain of the mind. We lean more toward academia than administration. Heh, since it is academia, you may simply regard the so-called council members as professors at a university.”

If she had not known in advance from Mr. World that Hvin Rambis had manipulated Karon’s suicide from behind the scenes, then no matter how Audrey looked at him or observed him now, the only conclusion she could have reached would have been that the other party was a knowledgeable, kind, humorous scholar who was not arrogant in the least. Yet since she was already wary, Audrey no longer trusted so much in these outward appearances.

As she watched him and organized her words, she also prevented her attention from focusing too tightly on a single point, keeping her thoughts active and scattered so as to avoid being hypnotized without noticing.

At this moment, her mind suddenly became a little dazed. She seemed to see seven pure lights that contained countless knowledge, and countless dense figures whose forms were impossible to describe. She saw them permeating the heights and covering everything.

This was the spirituality sky. This was the reflection of the spirit world on the level of the mind!

Beneath the spirituality sky was a deep, dark sea. Every drop of liquid there was like a beam of light and shadow, as though each represented a point of consciousness, an imprint.

Near this sea stood several islands. One of them belonged to Audrey herself.

She clearly understood that this was the symbolic manifestation of her own consciousness. The part exposed above the sea’s surface was what she could perceive herself, while the portion submerged by the “seawater” was the deeper consciousness that she could not usually grasp or explore.

Floating above the island and looking down toward its base, Audrey first noticed large patches of lonely, silent gray fog. They obscured her vision, leaving her able to see only the enormous, deep-black outline of the subconscious and the illusory, rippling sea of collective subconscious, making it difficult to obtain much information.

Just as Audrey was wondering how she had entered such a strange state, she suddenly saw, beneath the island and in the deeper parts of the sea of subconscious, the vast gray fog parting to both sides like a tide, revealing a stone staircase that had appeared at some unknown time.

On the staircase, a figure dashed upward with a flashing posture. Almost instantly, he entered Audrey’s field of vision.

His hair was thick yet completely white. He wore a standard three-piece suit and striped blue-gray trousers, with a dark-red bow tie. The wrinkles on his forehead were deep. It was none other than Hvin Rambis!

Compared to the one sitting on the sofa, this Rambis had a dark and sinister bearing. He had no smile at all. His head was slightly lowered, as though he were examining Audrey’s deeper consciousness behind the staircase.

In only a few steps, he crossed from the sea of collective subconscious into Audrey’s island of consciousness, moving from the subconscious domain to the part that had emerged above the sea’s surface, like a silent visitor who neither knocked nor received permission.

After ascending the island, Hvin Rambis raised his head. Some parts of his skin were already covered in grayish-white scales. His eyes were gold, vertical, and utterly without emotion.

This… Floating in midair, Audrey stared at this scene and suddenly understood her current situation.

This was the world of the mind: a mind world composed of the spirituality sky, the sea of collective subconscious, and personal islands of consciousness!

Because of the blessing granted by Mr. Fool’s angel, Hvin Rambis’s hidden intrusion into my mind body and mental domain through the sea of collective subconscious triggered the “alarm”… That power then separated out my most essential self-awareness, allowing me to manipulate everything that happens on the “island” beneath the spirituality sky, thereby resisting mind reading in the truest sense… This is truly miraculous. No—Hvin Rambis is truly detestable! He is not polite at all, entering another person’s “home” without permission and without notice! Audrey muttered a few words in midair.

Having understood her situation, she secretly influenced the changes on her “island” while, in the real world, responding to Hvin Rambis, who sat leisurely on the sofa:

“I am restrained even when facing university professors.”

As she spoke, Audrey made the island of her mind “mutter”:

This is not a good metaphor at all. As a member of the Psychology Alchemists’ Review Council of such advanced age, he is at least Sequence 4. That is an existence half-god and half-human. It naturally inspires awe and restraint!

Hvin Rambis, seated on the sofa, immediately chuckled.

“Then I will not force you. I heard Hilbert mention your matter. He said you used only a few months to advance from Psychiatrist to Hypnotist. I am very curious—how did you accomplish it? Mm, I have also heard the answer you gave Escalante: daring to apply your abilities. I would like to hear more details.”

At this moment, Hvin Rambis on Audrey’s mind island was expressionlessly surveying the surroundings, listening to the voices echoing there.

Audrey had prepared for this long ago. Deliberately appearing as though she were organizing her words, she waited several seconds before saying,

“It is ‘daring to apply’ in the most literal sense.

“Mm… how should I put it? In my future plans, becoming a psychiatrist has always been one of the options. Since I had the corresponding Beyonder abilities, I—I was naturally very willing to try them, very willing to use them to help the people around me resolve problems of the spirit or mind.”

As she spoke, she seemed a little embarrassed by this slightly childish behavior, and her mind island faithfully reflected this point.

After a pause, Audrey continued,

“During this process, I discovered that my control over the potion’s powers became better and better. Then one day, I inexplicably felt as though something inside my body shattered with a crash and merged into my blood, allowing me to faintly see one illusory star after another. Mr. Rambis, what does this represent?

“Mm, I do not know why, but ever since that day, I became certain that I could become a Hypnotist. Perhaps it was a hint from my subconscious.”

After saying this, Audrey deliberately made the version of herself on the mind island stick out her tongue like a child, performing an action she would definitely not usually do. In this way, she proved that she really had felt somewhat embarrassed just now, because acting as a “Psychiatrist” was no different from playing princess as a child.

And embarrassment often meant that what was being said was true.

Hvin Rambis nodded lightly.

“You are very talented. To think you figured out the acting method on your own.”

“The acting method?” Audrey displayed astonishment and confusion, both inside and outside. Immediately afterward, she seemed to understand slightly.

Hvin Rambis smiled kindly.

“It is exactly as you understand it: acting according to the name of the potion and summarizing the corresponding principles. This is an effective method for digesting the potion and reducing negative effects.

“However, before Sequence 6, we do not advocate members using this method to accelerate potion digestion, so we do not teach it. Who would have thought that you would figure it out yourself?”

“Why do you not advocate it?” Audrey asked in genuine confusion.

Hvin Rambis sighed.

“It can make members become unlike themselves. Some are even assimilated by the remaining influences within the potion.

“Simply put, for the first three Sequences, one should slowly master one’s powers and adapt bit by bit to the extraordinary. This allows the self-awareness to become deeper, clearer, and more mature, which helps in later resisting some of the problems brought by the acting method.

“Of course, I can only offer advice regarding the Spectator pathway. As for other Beyonder pathways, I do not know whether this is also the case. Clearly, pathways focused on the mind domain always differ somewhat when it comes to self-awareness.”

Audrey could not determine whether Hvin Rambis was lying. She only felt that his words had some reason to them but were not necessarily entirely correct.

Little Sun once mentioned that one of the things to remember about the acting method is: Remember, you are only acting… I feel that this is more appropriate. Mm, I have always followed it strictly, and I will continue to do so in the future… Audrey, you cannot be careless. From now on, you must pay more attention to strengthening your self-awareness! In Mr. Fool’s view, this is surely only a small problem, not something requiring additional emphasis, already included within the phrase “only acting.” But for ordinary people, perhaps it is rather important… As her thoughts whirled rapidly, Audrey took the initiative to ask,

“Could you explain the acting method more specifically?”

Hvin Rambis explained it in relatively great detail, then said,

“You do indeed possess the talent and qualification to apply for the Sequence 5 Dreamwalker potion formula. However, before that, I will gradually assign you certain missions. This is both a matter of fairness and a way to train your abilities, because once you become a Sequence 5, you will lead two to three psychology study groups. Every judgment and choice you make will affect the future of the members under you—even their lives. Therefore, we cannot allow someone who seriously lacks experience in handling affairs to advance to Sequence 5.”

“That is understandable.” Audrey had no objection. “What is the first mission?”

Hvin Rambis smiled.

“A simple but comparatively long-term mission. Every piece of feedback you provide will count as a contribution.”

At this point, he sighed.

“The divide between the New Party and the Conservative Party grows wider, and conflicts grow more numerous. A certain degree of tearing has already appeared within the kingdom. I hope you will pay attention to your father, Earl Hall’s attitude, and convey to me his opinions on certain proposals or affairs. Do not worry. This will not harm him. We merely hope to mend the rift.”

The final half of his sentence was actually unsupported by logic; it was only a promise. Yet as Hvin Rambis on Audrey’s mind island raised his right hand and pressed his temple, Audrey suddenly felt that what he said made great sense and was deeply believable.

Floating in midair within the mind world, she immediately came awake to herself and discovered that something was wrong.