NFBE Chapter 396 "Infecting the World" - Male Mother (7)
Chapter 396 "Infecting the World" - Male Mother (7)
"call--"
Lu Liruan breathed a slight sigh of relief after hearing the man's words.
Since it is very rare.
"So what should we do now?" Lu Liruan had barely finished speaking when she saw a faint, tired, and bitter expression on the man's face.
My heart skipped a beat.
"You... should know what to do, right? In this space, I haven't heard of anyone dying in the neighborhood, so it shouldn't be considered... high-intensity, right?" Lu Liruan stammered.
"It's not considered high intensity right now."
Lu Liruan licked her dry, chapped lips.
"But..." the man began again.
Why are you talking so breathlessly?
Lu Liruan felt a surge of emotion stuck in her throat.
"but what?"
"This space is strange."
"Huh?" Lu Liruan didn't realize it at all, because judging from the current situation:
Lu Liruan found everything strange!
Too many lice don't itch, but too many "strange" things are troublesome...
"This infected space seems to be... developing." The man carefully considered his words before using this sentence to describe it.
"develop?"
Lu Liruan, a little annoyed that she couldn't understand, asked, "What, now your so-called 'infection space' has also started reform and opening up? And embarked on the path of sustainable development?"
"Specialist spatial phobia?"
man:……
Lu Liruan thought to herself, "I'm sorry, when I'm in a bad mood, all sorts of bad jokes just keep popping up uncontrollably."
“It’s not that academic,” the man replied listlessly, picking up on Lu Liruan’s joke.
“Development means… the time frame for changes to occur is increasing.” He then raised his hand to look at the watch on his wrist.
"Do you remember what time it was when you first realized something was wrong?" he asked Lu Liruan.
"what?"
Subconsciously, Lu Liruan recalled the loud chimes of the old wall clock in her living room and the "click-clack" of the wooden bird.
"Ten o'clock?"
"And then what?"
"I don't know what the end is... I just feel that when I woke up the next day and it was light, everything was normal."
"Think about it carefully. Your mental strength is very high. Even without specific signs, you should be able to sense something." The man pressed her for an answer, seemingly as a test for Lu Liruan.
Lu Liruan thought about it seriously: "...Eleven o'clock?"
"Correct."
The man nodded in affirmation, a hint of praise appearing in his light-colored eyes: "Great!"
Lu Liruan raised her head with confidence.
Then it dawned on me: what good is confidence at a time like this!
"The anomaly began at ten o'clock," he continued.
"I started to notice it between 10 and 10:30 p.m. There might have been a shorter interval before that, but I can't confirm it with my perception."
"Then this time interval has been evolving. Last night, this interval had evolved from about 10 p.m. to about 12:30 a.m.
"The time... has become longer?" Lu Liruan pursed her lips.
"Yes, that's why I said this space is 'developing,' but that's just my own popular understanding. As for the specifics, there's no conclusion yet."
Lu Liruan waved her hand: "Why do you speak so dogmatically? Were you a teacher before?"
"Ah."
"Huh?" Lu Liruan asked casually.
"You... what kind of teacher are you? A political science teacher?" Lu Liruan turned her head and looked at his demeanor, unable to recall what he was like when he was a teacher.
"Kindergarten teacher".
Lu Liruan: ...
"A good job."
"Hmm," the man replied ambiguously, offering no comment on his previous profession.
"What will it become after development?" Lu Liruan picked up the topic from before.
“I don’t know.” The man shook his head. “The only thing we can confirm right now is that this infected space is still in the forward stage, not in the stage of controlled decline.”
"so?"
"This is not good news."
"Oh," Lu Liruan thought to herself, even a casual remark told her that this wasn't good news...
"And the infection level is also gradually increasing." The man raised his hand slightly.
"Are there any measuring instruments? How is this confirmed?" Lu Liruan asked curiously.
"because of you."
"Because of me?" Lu Liruan pointed to the tip of her nose, puzzled.
"Not everyone with above-average mental strength will sense the existence of space, nor will everyone with low mental strength be infected by the source of infection. This is a very small probability. Most people will never be aware of the existence of mental strength and space."
"Like the people in this space, they hardly feel anything, and in their world, even at night, nothing strange happens."
His words answered Lu Liruan's question: Why was it that last night, the night before last... even when she went out, even when she screamed, no one noticed?
It's like we're from different worlds.
"So, everything related to this space is something that normal people can't see, hear, or know, is that right?"
"Yes." The man nodded.
“Some people with high mental strength, due to certain opportunities, ‘wake up’. We describe this situation as ‘awakening’.” He lightly touched Lu Liruan’s brow with his finger.
“Most of the time, waking up is not something that happens overnight, but a process. But you are different. You were able to see and distinguish it last night, which proves that you are progressing very quickly. In addition to your high level of mental strength, it also proves that the level of this space is improving very quickly.”
"Things?" The more Li Lu and Li Ruan listened, the more the hairs on the back of their heads stood on end.
"The things I throw out at night."
You mean... a cat?
"You've been following me for two days. On the first day, did you see the cat?"
"No." Lu Liruan thought, "That's probably because the branch I had on the first day wasn't working well, and I couldn't fully open the bag to look inside."
But Lu Liruan suppressed her fear and nausea, and carefully recalled the details of that night once more...
Lu Liruan realized that... indeed, she only saw blood and did not see any physical substance.
On her retina, it looked as if there was a mosaic effect. Lu Liruan was certain that at such a close distance, with her eyesight, her vision shouldn't be that blurry.
That blurriness... defies common sense.
“The things I threw out in two days were the same.” The man interrupted Lu Liruan’s thoughts.
"What I mean by 'same' is that they are exactly the same, and the quantity is increasing."
"What...does that mean?" Lu
Li Ruan swallowed hard, feeling a lump in her throat.
Does this mean that cats die every day in this space?
Those cats...
It definitely didn't die of natural causes. Could the horror of this space lie in the fact that cats can die?
"It's a bit hard to explain now. You can see for yourself tonight."
The thought of what she would have to go through tonight made Lu Liruan feel dizzy and her vision blurred.
Is it necessary to go through this?
Lu Liruan sighed: "Can't we just play dead? Let's pretend we know nothing."
The man curled the corners of his lips into a slight smile, and said softly in a helpless tone, "Space doesn't need to be seen with eyes..."
"Huh? Space has eyes too?"
The man, palm up, sighed: "It knows you know it, you know it, and it knows you too. It 'saw' you..."
Lu Liruan got goosebumps all over her body.
How is this any different from telling ghost stories?
"So what? Let it watch if it wants to." Lu Liruan subconsciously lowered her voice.
"It will try to infect you. The higher a person's mental strength, the longer they stay in the infected space, and the stronger their presence will be. The space will then try its best to erode and assimilate them. When a person with high mental strength is infected by radiation, it will in turn aggravate the situation, and the level of this infected space will become more and more malignant."
“So…” The man looked at Lu Liruan, expressionless, “You have no choice, you can’t escape.”
Depend on!
What kind of single-choice question is this?! Lu Liruan was at her wit's end.
"It's a bit early to tell you this now, but investigators and infected spaces are all rated. Generally, it's best not to have low-level investigators investigate high-level infected spaces, but rather high-level investigators should investigate infected spaces with a lower level of mental strength."
"So now..."
Where are the investigators?
Lu Liruan followed the man's gaze and saw herself.
"What... are you talking nonsense with your eyes?" Lu Liruan tried to avoid his gaze, but the man's beautiful eyes were deep and very serious, and he was not joking at all.
"me?"
"Hmm, your mental strength level... should be able to complete it now. What you lack now is ability and experience, but that's okay, I will assist you and act as your executor."
"No way, I don't have that kind of ability..." Lu Liruan refused.
If your personal safety is not guaranteed, that's one thing, but what if my personal safety is not guaranteed?
I haven't even gotten a glimpse of the task I'm supposed to be doing yet!
Influenced by her own personality in this world, Lu Liruan tends to be somewhat indifferent to things that don't concern her.
I can't save the whole world...
I'm not Ultraman.
"Shouldn't your company send someone?" Lu Liruan asked, looking at him.
Then the man paused for a moment.
"What's wrong? Does your company offer paid services? You're not going to make me pay, are you? I'm just having bad luck, I really don't have a single penny..." Lu Liruan suddenly became wary.
"No."
"So what?" Lu Liruan wondered if it was just her imagination, but she sensed that he seemed a little hesitant to speak.
"...Is there some unspeakable secret?" Lu Liruan asked, puzzled.
"Um……"
He hesitated for a moment, and that feeling of being a weary corporate slave spread through him again: "The work efficiency of our unit is probably sometimes good and sometimes bad, and it's a little lacking."
"Tell me more." The more Lu Liruan looked at him, the more curious she became.
What kind of embarrassing reason could cause such a confidential, serious, and socially responsible organization to experience a decline in work efficiency?
"In fact, given the current situation, it is not common for the source of infection to create a space for infection."
“Not very common means…very rare?” Lu Liruan felt that she had grasped the key point in his words.
"So what you're saying is that entering infected spaces isn't a regular part of your daily work, is that right?"
Seeing him nod, Lu Liruan gave a slight smile.
"You're not very skilled at handling this situation, and most of your colleagues aren't very skilled either, is that right?"
Lu Liruan's smile widened.
"To put it simply, they might find you at any time," the man continued Lu Liruan's words.
Lu Liruan chuckled.
When people are speechless to a certain extent, they can actually laugh.
"Why can't we find this place?" Lu Liruan sighed.
"The meaning of 'ground promotion' is..." The man pulled up his WeChat: "Divide Tongcheng into a certain number of parts, assign investigators and executors to patrol, and contain any infected items found."
"Sometimes we might enter an infected space..."
“Didn’t you say that people who are ‘seen’ by the infected space can’t leave the space and can’t send messages out?” Lu Liruan repeated what he had just told her.
Then she looked up and met the man's gaze.
The man raised his hand and slowly straightened his tie.
Lu Liruan had a strange feeling.
"..."
So what happens next?
“We clock in and out on a coin-operated system,” the man said, pointing to an app on his phone.
"So it's clear who hasn't checked in and who can't be contacted. We wait three days, and if they still haven't appeared, we'll send higher-level investigators and executors to the area to explore and try to enter the infected zone."
"If there is still no news after five days, then..."
"Will they send in even higher-level staff to investigate?" Lu Liruan asked, following his words.
Then I was speechless and laughed.
"A 'Calabash Brothers saving his grandfather' work mode?" Lu Liruan thought to herself: Isn't this exactly the same?
"..." The man held his neck and stretched his cervical spine.
Lu Liruan thought he hadn't understood: "The Calabash Brothers saving Grandpa is..."
“I know, I told this story to children when I was a kindergarten teacher.” The man waved his hand, as if he was about to lean down at any moment.
"Three days, five days, is there any explanation for that?"
“An investigator with high mental strength, at least one capable of ground-based investigations, can generally remain uninfected within the infected space for ten to two weeks, freeing up time to solve the problem. This interval between sending people in can basically guarantee that the investigators who are first trapped inside have two to three chances to be rescued.”
The man said softly, "Investigators are very valuable."
Lu Liruan suddenly wanted to ask him what he meant by that. Did he mean that executive officers were no longer valuable?
But Lu Liruan felt that she was being a bit nitpicky.
"This infected space has been here for at least three or four days, hasn't it? Why hasn't anyone come here?"
"It's possible that the search hasn't reached this point yet. The slower the first search takes, the more it indicates that the infected area is not very large."
"Furthermore... this isn't within my field research area. There's a possibility that other investigators and executors are also trapped in this space. If a rescue operation comes in from outside, they'll probably target them first..."
Lu Liruan: Damn it, everything in front of me keeps going dark, and each darkness is worse than the last...