Chen Mo let his guard drop at last, a deep exhale releasing the tension coiled in his chest.
No matter how much an imposter might mimic facts, this comfort, this quiet familiarity, felt too real to be fabricated.
His instincts, honed by betrayal and survival, whispered truth.
"Then how are you alive?" Chen Mo pressed. "I was sure I watched you die."
"You didn't. It was all for show," the man explained. "I'm immortal, I can't die of natural causes."
"What… or who are you, then?" Chen Mo asked, finally voicing the million-dollar question that burned in his mind.
"My real name is Vault," the man answered truthfully. "And I'm not from this Nexus."
He transformed afterward, his form shifting like mist reshaping into stone.
Chen Mo's breath caught in shock.
The new appearance was unlike anything he had seen, close to human, yet profoundly otherworldly.
