Chapter 122.5 | Mental Manipulation
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It was already noon by the time Zoe returned home.

The pet shop owner had been exceptionally enthusiastic, sending her home with a pile of free gifts along with the dog pads she had bought.

Zoe put everything away, and after changing her dog’s food to some fresh kibble, she headed to the kitchen to prepare a dish for herself—snake meat.

The small white mice she had bought from the flower and bird market, about thirty in total, had not yet arrived.

So, for the time being, Zoe followed her short-term plan and began cooking the snake meat.

From the refrigerator, she took out the fresh snake meat that the owner delivered daily. It had already been lightly cleaned and tenderized, marinated and seasoned overnight.

She poured a generous amount of vegetable oil into the pan and heated it until it reached around 70-80% of its full temperature—just enough for deep frying.

Zoe then began carefully placing the marinated, battered snake segments into the oil, frying each piece until golden and crispy. In an effort to minimize cleanup, once the crust was crispy, she scooped each piece out with her hands, draining the excess oil.

The temperature of the oil had no effect on her.

If she were to demonstrate cooking with her bare hands, even the most seasoned chefs would tremble in fear.

Moreover, there was an additional benefit to her approach.

She had absolute control over the oil temperature. No other chef could match her expertise in adjusting the temperature, especially not one who could reach into a boiling pot of oil without hesitation.

Mastery over oil temperature is one of the key elements in deep-fried dishes, and with her expertise, Zoe could take this dish to the peak of culinary perfection.

After frying all the snake segments, she returned them to the pan for a second round of frying.

Once they were nearly done, she plated them, placing the crispy, golden segments on the dining table and began to enjoy her lunch.

As time slowly passed, Zoe, who had been reading a novel while finishing the plate of fried snake meat and sipping an ice-cold glass of water, suddenly lifted her head and looked down the stairs.

Though the wall obstructed her view, her perception of the transparent world allowed her to clearly see a small van parked outside the building.

It was the van that was delivering her small white mice.

...

February 24th, 12:50 PM

After trapping the dog, Platinum, in a maze of killing intent, Zoe focused intently on the thirty small white mice in front of her, each contained in a transparent box.

The last time she dealt with so many mice was for an experiment on emotional perception.

This time, however, the experiment was to test the effects of her mental energy on emotions.

After silently thanking the mice for their contribution, Zoe eagerly began the experiment.

First, she skillfully used her mental energy to touch the emotions of one of the mice. The selected mouse immediately froze in place, no longer moving.

Feeling the emotion of the mouse, which was slightly more distinct than Platinum’s primitive emotions, Zoe attempted to delve deeper into it with her mental power.

The next moment, a more refined emotion emerged clearly before her senses.

What had once seemed like a vague entity, upon closer inspection, revealed many different parts.

Though they seemed to be parts of the whole entity of emotion, there were subtle differences.

With her enhanced emotional perception ability, Zoe quickly identified these different sections as separate emotions: fear, anger, desire...

She glanced at the mouse, which remained unmoving under her mental influence, and extended her mental reach further into the fear-emotion portion.

However, it appeared that she had reached the structural bottom of this emotion—it was no longer possible to perceive anything deeper.

This was likely because her mental energy lacked the precision required for more detailed exploration. Despite years of developing her perception and telekinesis, Zoe had not made much progress in precision, which made it difficult to achieve extraordinary results with fine adjustments.

Though she couldn't go any further, she realized she could still subtly inject her mental energy into the fear portion of the emotion.

As soon as she did, the fear-based emotion seemed to flare up, subtly expanding.

Seeing this, Zoe retracted her mental energy.

Moments later, the selected mouse resumed its movements.

However, unlike its previous state of mild anxiety and fear, the mouse now exhibited nearly frenzied trembling. Its fear had completely taken over, occupying almost all of its emotional state.

Its heart rate and breathing sped up noticeably, and the fur on its back and tail stood on end. A sharp, high-pitched squeal escaped as it involuntarily urinated.

The other two mice in the same box were visibly startled, instinctively backing away from it.

It took quite a while before the fearful mouse began to calm down.

Zoe tried reaching into its emotions again and found that the part of the fear emotion, though weakened, had not returned to its original state.

Could it be that mental manipulation of emotions left a permanent mark?

Perhaps the fear-triggered state had made the mouse more susceptible to fear in the future?

With this thought in mind, Zoe immediately began her experiment.

She attempted to instill murderous intent into all three of the little white mice simultaneously.

All three mice were instantly gripped by fear. However, it was clear that the one previously affected by her mental power—inducing a state of fear—entered that state more quickly and stayed in it for longer than the others.

Clearly, once the mental energy had been infused into a specific emotional state, not only could it immediately trigger the desired emotion, but it also made the mice more sensitive to that emotion in the future.

Zoe's eyes lit up with realization.

This was not a sign of perversity on her part, but rather the discovery of the fascinating potential of this new property of mental power.

Such a characteristic promised a myriad of possibilities.

Lost in thought, she didn't hesitate and proceeded to conduct the same experiment on the remaining twenty-nine mice. She carefully infused each one with a different emotional state.

Although white mice are commonly used as model organisms in experimental biology, and while they can't express complex human emotions, research has shown they exhibit basic emotional states and corresponding behaviors.

Fear, joy, contentment, anxiety, tension, anger, sadness, depression, affection...

Zoe turned the remaining twenty-nine mice into embodiments of extreme personalities.

Some became violently angry, others excessively timid, some plunged into deep depression, while others exhibited extreme affection...

Each mouse, confined within its own cage, displayed its own unique mannerisms.

Throughout this extensive series of experiments, Zoe not only honed her proficiency in infusing emotional structures with mental energy but also discovered that the intensity of the emotion induced depended on the amount of mental energy infused. This, in turn, influenced how sensitive the mice would be to that emotion afterward.

The experiments continued until the mice were driven to madness, and until her mental energy ran low. Only then did Zoe finally bring the experiments to a temporary halt.

"By infusing mental energy into an emotion, I can immediately trigger that corresponding emotional state in the subject. Additionally, the amount of energy infused determines how sensitive the subject will be to that emotion in the future."

"This new aspect of mental power..." she muttered, a glint of excitement in her eyes.

"So interesting! Remarkably interesting!"

In the past, she had only been able to sense emotions.

To influence emotions, she had to resort to physical actions like beating or rewarding others in the real world.

Now, however...

All she needed to do was use her mental energy to subtly stimulate someone's emotions, and she could make them feel exactly what she wanted them to feel.

She had effectively skipped straight to becoming a master of psychological manipulation. The so-called PUA (Pick-Up Artist) techniques, which relied on clever words and tricks, now seemed laughably weak in comparison.

Zoe didn't even need to raise a finger.

No, not even that.

All she had to do was direct her mental energy toward the desired emotion, infuse just a little mental power, and instantly evoke the emotion she desired.

If she wanted someone to feel a specific emotion, they would feel it—whether they wanted to or not.

What did this mean?

It meant that Zoe was no longer limited to forcing others into various physical positions with her own body. She could now use mental stimulation to manipulate their emotional states.

In the future...

Even if someone claimed that while their body could be controlled, their soul remained untouched, Zoe could now forcefully claim their soul, all thanks to her ability to manipulate emotions.

Of course, she had not yet conducted any experiments on humans.

Zoe could not yet confidently predict how her mental energy would affect a human being.

So, what should come next?

Perhaps she could consider testing her ability on humans?

But at this stage, she had not yet become so ruthless as to perform experiments on innocent people. She wasn't ready to randomly harm the innocent.

Even though she had begun to view humanity more and more as something separate from herself, she had not fully detached herself from her human identity.

Furthermore, her trip to Orel Province had afforded her some personal growth.

Her perspective on killing and her sense of self had evolved, granting her deeper insight into her actions.

In her mind, there was no need to slaughter innocents.

However, if someone was a scoundrel...

Then there were no reservations.

She would be just as indifferent as when she had used the white mice as experimental subjects—her heart completely unmoved.

With this thought in mind, Zoe recalled the rent increase notice she had seen at the market.

It seemed...

Rameses Real Estate probably housed a fair number of scoundrels.

After all, how could it be otherwise, considering its origins as a gang organization?

Moreover, it seemed she was quite familiar with how to deal with Rameses Real Estate.

With this realization, Zoe made a decision.

But before proceeding, she checked the time, which was nearing two in the afternoon. She decided to continue studying signal modulation and demodulation with Benny, focusing on today’s baseband signal concepts.

Later, she would deal with the white mice's bodies.

Let Rameses Real Estate provide some experimental materials—it wouldn’t take much of her time. Late at night, she could handle the matter swiftly, without it interfering much with her experiments.

In fact, ninety percent of her time would still be spent conducting experiments, while dealing with Rameses Real Estate and making them provide materials would take up no more than ten percent of her time.

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