This arc is finally over. I originally thought I’d finish writing it by mid-April, but once again, my prediction turned out to be way off.
This wasn’t exactly a feel-good arc, and I’ll talk more about the relationship drama later. What I want to say here is about the main tone. Honestly, ending this arc with Tina Lei’s death was pretty brutal. When I wrote that ‘crack’ sound, I had to pause for a long time before I could keep going.
The storm—yeah, I’ve been talking about it since Arc Two, “The Changing World, The Tides Are Coming.” This arc kept hyping it up too. Now, the storm’s finally here. The Black Death Emperor incident? That was just the first thunderclap when the downpour hits—a lightning bolt that turned the whole world pale. The real storm is still ahead.
Thunder makes your heart race, but the heavy rain chills you to the bone and leaves you a mess. In this upheaval, who can keep moving through the storm? The road’s slippery in the dark—who won’t get lost? Life is full of twists and turns; just walking is tough, and now the waves are higher than ever. Where do we go from here?
Where your heart leads is where your path lies.
When your heart dies, demons are born and you lose your way. When your heart is clear, demons fade and your path reveals itself.
Heart, demons, and the path—that’s the theme of this arc.
This arc is a turning point, bridging what came before and what’s coming next. Since it sets up a lot of future storylines, the focus was on the bigger picture, not just a few characters. With this, Extraordinary Twins is halfway done and officially entering the second half. Lots of mysteries will get solved, and a lot of plot holes will get filled.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with this arc.
But I have to admit, I made a mistake. If you mess up, you should own up to it—no point pretending otherwise, right? So let’s move on to the second part of this summary: “The Three-Minute Confession—Relationship Drama Recap!”
If you don’t want to read the relationship drama, or just don’t have the patience, here’s a quick summary. After this, you can skip the main text!~~~
And for those of you who already read it closely, don’t skip this part—I’ll explain some of the hidden meanings too.
Alright, let’s get started.
The whole story is split into two parts—two years ago and two years later—woven together. If you lay it out chronologically, here’s how it goes.
Two years ago, Jack Young met Daisy Summers and fell for her at first sight. After six months, this blockhead finally figured out his feelings. But Daisy already had a long-distance boyfriend, Julian Zhu. After some agonizing, Jack decided it wasn’t right and chose to leave. Half a month later, he realized he was in too deep and was suffering. Thanks to Maggie Monroe’s advice, he gave up on the 'cut it off' approach and started trying to hypnotize himself, leading to a self-destructive relationship.
Up to this point, Jack Young hadn’t crossed any lines or said anything flirtatious.
On New Year’s Eve, Daisy made the first move and broke down Jack’s defenses. In that moment, Jack confessed his feelings. For someone as stubborn as him, saying those words made a huge difference. He was totally swept away and, within half a day, experienced joy like never before—only to be thrown into despair right after.
Six months later, Maggie Monroe quit her job, and Jack Young had no reason to stay at that company either. So he left, found a brand-new job, and started over.
That’s what the story said.
Now, here’s what the story didn’t mention. These are the real reasons for the inner demon. I was going to put them in the main text, but writing it out in scenes and dialogue would be way too wordy—so I’m just laying it out for you.
In nearly a year of new surroundings and new work, Jack Young couldn’t move on from those half-day memories, and the pain dragged on and on. People naturally look for ways to ease pain, so during this period, Jack developed five subconscious beliefs.
The first subconscious belief, born from the surface-level pain: If only I could forget those people and those things, then it wouldn’t hurt now.
Then, a layer deeper—the second subconscious belief: If only I hadn’t fallen for Daisy Summers, then not only would I not be hurting, maybe I’d still be happily working and living at my old job, just being regular friends with her.
Going even deeper—the third subconscious belief: If only she weren’t someone else’s girlfriend, if only Julian Zhu didn’t exist, then not only would I be happy, life would be sweet.
But all these are just hypotheticals—assuming things about the outside world doesn’t help. Out of self-loathing came the fourth subconscious belief: I chose to be a good guy, and now I’m miserable—isn’t that a joke? Why should I suffer? Why be good? Why can’t I just be a ruthless bastard? Why do I have to be so rational and restrained? Why can’t I just indulge my desires? If only I could ditch those pointless morals, life would be awesome.
And finally, in the deepest part of the dream, caught between recurring good dreams and nightmares, came the last subconscious belief: If only I could stay in that half-day forever, if only time could freeze right there.
Subconscious desires come from instinct—they’re the truest, deepest thoughts. Like when we see a rich guy showing off, part of us wants to buddy up, but deep down, there’s always that flash: If only I were him, if only I had that kind of money. The thought vanishes quickly, but it’s rooted deep and hard to shake.
It’s no big deal, really—even if those five subconscious beliefs are buried deep, so what?
But think back to the Cousin Arc, when Zhuo Yihang said: Sleepwalking shows your true self—it’s all subconscious. You can think of it like this: a normal person is a working computer running Windows, but when you’re sleepwalking, it’s just bare hardware with a few basic programs in the BIOS.
In the Pacific World, Teacher Yang was in a sleepwalking state for a long time. Normally, that wouldn’t matter, but during the Void Storm exile, the twins fell into two different worlds at the same time. No Void Ferry, no Soul Tunnel, not just a dream—details will come in the main story, but basically, it was a 'bugged' state.
Queen Jill used Heartbreak Severance to actively project her main consciousness toward Teacher Yang for the first time ever. Because of that 'bug,' not only did Teacher Yang’s main consciousness fail to reboot, it got even weirder. To use a computer analogy, it was like being stuck between formatting and reinstalling the system—so he couldn’t remember his own name for a long time.
And during that 'formatting,' the subconscious took over.
The five subconscious beliefs, from deepest to shallowest, became five seals, isolating and compressing that memory block from the rest. Since this was all self-imposed, it didn’t set off any alarms—so that’s how the 'inner demon' showed up. No way to master the Prajna Technique, no way to advance to Innate.
And when Jack Young started recovering his memories, the five trials he faced matched up exactly with those five subconscious beliefs.
The first, “If only I could forget,” became the outermost memory seal. So when Maggie Monroe called Jack Young, he couldn’t remember Daisy Summers at all, and the door was locked with three passwords.
After unlocking the door came the second, “If only I hadn’t fallen for Daisy Summers.” So when the first memory was released, in his mind, he and Daisy were just regular friends. At this stage, he felt pretty normal—even around Julian Zhu.
Then came the third subconscious belief: “If only she weren’t someone else’s girlfriend, if only Julian Zhu didn’t exist.” So during this phase, he was convinced Daisy Summers was his girlfriend, and started clashing with Julian Zhu—because deep down, he wanted Julian to be “gone.”
After the street race, Jack Young realized the truth. At the concert, a bunch of memories were unlocked, and after drifting in safe mode, he hit the fourth subconscious belief: Screw morality—I want what I want! Take out Julian Zhu, steal Daisy Summers, and live recklessly! By this point, he’d basically gone off the deep end.