Embers Ad Infinitum

Cyborg monk Shang Jianyao turned his flashing red eyes to the corner of the employee introduction column and observed it carefully.

Soon, he discovered that there were traces of sticking here, distributed in five places.

And these five places combined are almost the size of the photo next to it.

In other words, there used to be a photo in the corner of the employee introduction column, but I don’t know if it was torn off or if the glue gradually failed over the years, causing it to fall off and float away.

Shang Jianyao stood up straight, held a flashlight, and shined it on the floor of the room. He searched carefully for a while, but he never found the missing photo.

Based on the characteristics of the traces, he initially judged that the photos in the blank spaces were torn off by force.

"Why did you take it away? Is it related to the gaze in the dark?" Shang Jianyao looked around and felt that this was not caused by "unintentional people".

Putting aside whether the "unintentional ones" would be interested in things other than food, clothing, and weapons, their lack of intelligence shouldn't leave them without any clues.

"No, this possibility cannot be ruled out." Shang Jianyao rubbed his chin and retorted to himself, "Do you still remember what happened after the Swamp No. 1 ruins were illuminated? The old lady clearly became a 'careless person', so she remembered to reply Go home, look through your photo albums, tidy the room, and clean up the trash. This is one of the five holy places in Buddhism, and it is normal to have similar special features."

No valid conclusion can be drawn from air to air. Shang Jianyao did not waste too much time on this matter. They shined the flashlight on the "unintentional ones" whose limbs were limited and it became difficult to roll. .

He scanned their faces one by one and compared them with the employee photos on the wall, but none of them matched.

This shows that the existence of that "professional woman" is not a common phenomenon, but a special situation.

This makes her questions and the missing photos even more confusing.

The cyborg monk Shang Jianyao thought about it for a while, and out of compassion, gave up on killing the "unintentional ones". He took a flashlight and an "ice moss" equipped with a silencer and walked back to the aisle.

He was about to observe the situation around him and decide where to go next, when his body suddenly felt cold and became stiff.

It was like a cold wind blew from the depths of the ice sheet, freezing him in place.

And it was not just his body that was frozen, but also his thoughts!

Shang Jianyao stared blankly ahead and let his body turn half a circle, facing the wall.

Then, he hit his forehead with force.

Bang!

Shang Jianyao lost consciousness and fainted.

After an unknown amount of time, he slowly woke up and found himself back in the entrance area of ​​this psychological shadow, where he smashed an "unintentional person" to death with a billboard.

"Is there a bug?" Shang Jianyao expressed confusion.

He believed that he had just been attacked and had almost no way to resist. There were only two consequences of this situation:

First, he "died" here, which is basically equivalent to his entire spirit being trapped in this psychological shadow. In reality, he became a vegetative state, or died suddenly on the spot;

Second, the injury was not fatal. He barely recovered and relied on the props on his body and his awakener ability to forcefully escape from the "522" room, but he was left with serious mental problems.

Of course, this is a normal development. Considering that there are ten of them, Shang Jianyao believes that there is another outcome:

One of the Shang Jianyao died on the spot, creating an opportunity for the remaining nine Shang Jianyao. After that, they sacrificed a few, and the rest finally escaped from the "522" room and returned to the corridor. This will leave him with an indelible psychological shadow in reality and almost incurable sequelae.

But now, neither situation is the case. After Shang Jianyao and the others fell into coma, they returned to the entrance area of ​​"522" room safely. Except for the fact that their heads still hurt a little and their foreheads were red and swollen, there was nothing special about them.

Shang Jianyao immediately rubbed his chin:

"This matter is obviously weird. If we don't do this today, we will discuss it with Dabai tomorrow."

Calm and rational, he believed that the encounter just now seemed more like...

A warning?

…………

Floor 495, Area C, No. 11.

In the dead of night, Long Yuehong opened his eyes and couldn't fall asleep.

After lying for a long time, he felt a little thirsty. He rolled out of bed, picked up his enamel cup, opened the lid, and drank.

The cold feeling spread across his throat, turned into lines, and penetrated into his stomach.

This made him more awake.

——The nights in "Pangu Biology" are particularly cold, and water will inevitably lose its temperature if left for a long time. Therefore, a thermos cup is an indispensable part of many families. Of course, if you cannot afford or cannot get a thermos cup, Drinking from a thermos bottle as you go is also an option, but when Long Yuehong was still a young man with strong blood, he developed the habit of drinking cold drinks, and it was the same at night.

Seeing that there was no water in the cup, Long Yuehong walked out of the room with the enamel cup in hand, aiming directly at the green plastic thermos bottle on the dining table.

At this moment, he saw his father Long Dayong coming out of the small bathroom at home.

"Still not asleep?" Long Dayong yawned.

Long Yuehong said "hmm", hesitated for a moment and said:

"Thinking about something."

"What's going on?" Long Dayong asked.

Long Yuehong opened her mouth and replied hesitantly:

"Dad, if you encounter something, it is very valuable, but it also carries certain risks. Would you choose to do it, or give up and live a stable life?"

Long Dayong instinctively replied:

"I listen to you."

"..." Long Yuehong didn't know whether to be envious or speechless.

Seeing that his son did not speak, Long Dayong thought for a while and said:

“Our family’s life can be considered stable now.

"But I remember your grandpa told me that when he was a child, he didn't feel safe even if he hid in this underground building, because there might be 'unintentional people' around him anytime and anywhere. He had ten friends about the same age as him. Only half of it survived.

"Also, after you joined the Security Department, your mother went to meet women whose families were in the front-line troops, and learned a lot from them. Well, the number of deaths in the front-line troops was higher than the number of 'unintentional' deaths within the company. There are a lot more people.

"She has never mentioned this to you. She is afraid that you will be nervous and that you will worry about us having any bad emotions. What we can do is to make you relax every time you come back and be happy every day."

Speaking of this, Long Dayong said with emotion:

"We are able to live a stable life now because of the sacrifices of you and other front-line troops."

Long Yuehong had mixed feelings after hearing this, but she couldn't help but complained in her heart:

Dad, you're talking here and there, sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. I can't understand what your suggestion is at all...

Long Dayong glanced at him:

“No matter what decision you make, your family will support you.

"Well... if the risk of that matter is particularly high, it is better to give up. If you think you can still bear it, then give it a try and don't leave any regrets to yourself."

Long Yuehong was silent for a while and said:

"I'll think about it carefully."

…………

The next morning, floor 647, room 14.

Shang Jianyao told Jiang Baimian, who arrived at the office early, about last night's experience.

"What do you think?" Jiang Baimian did not help analyze immediately, but asked Shang Jianyao how he felt.

Shang Jianyao thought seriously for a while and said:

"It feels like a plot killing, with no ability to resist at all."

Have you played too many games? Long Yuehong sneered at Shang Jianyao's choice of words and sentences.

Of course, he didn't dare to say it.

Jiang Baimian nodded gently and said while thinking:

“Did the owner of the room also encounter something similar?

"Otherwise, your experience would not be so clear. Moreover, if he had not encountered anything in the food company, the psychological shadow caused by the large number of 'unintentional people' should have ended long ago as he entered the 'safe zone' ."

"The owner of the room arrived on the third floor and scared the woman away. After seeing those photos, his mind suddenly froze and he couldn't control his body. He hit his head against the wall and knocked himself unconscious?" Long Yuehong joined the discussion, according to Jiang Bai Mian's statement starts with speculation.

Shang Jianyao thought along this line of thought:

"What about after the room owner fainted?

"Has he also been 'sent' back to his original place?"

Jiang Baimian shook his head slowly:

"Probably not."

Seeing that Long Yuehong was confused as to why she said that, Jiang Baimian further explained:

"Shang Jianyao explored that psychological shadow for several days and only found a complete route.

"In other words, if the room owner is 'sent' back to the starting point, he will still choose the same path, the path to the Second Food Company, and this is very logically contradictory. If it were you, what would happen? After such a weird and terrifying thing, why would he go to the Second Food Company to wade into troubled waters? He was not an awakened person at that time!"

"Indeed." Long Yuehong agreed.

Shang Jianyao didn't answer, and now he doesn't know who it is.

Jiang Baimian continued:

"I speculate that after the owner of the room fell into coma, he was 'sent' to another place in the ruins of Tieshan City. When he woke up, he found a safe escape route, so he left that area, and this encounter became his Psychological shadow.

"Because these subsequent situations are not within that psychological shadow, Shang Jianyao is back to the starting point."

Long Yuehong nodded at first, thinking that this might not be low, then frowned.

He glanced at Shang Jianyao:

"Doesn't this mean that there is no way to get through that psychological shadow?"

The owner of the room was helpless at first.

Shang Jianyao didn't respond, but seemed to be deep in thought, while Jiang Baimian laughed:

“No, no, it’s still possible.

"Have you forgotten that the owner of the room was not an awakened person at that time?

"He will inevitably face this matter when he passes through the Island of Fear, and he is now an awakened person at the 'soul corridor' level, which shows that he has successfully defeated this psychological shadow."

As Long Yuehong's thoughts flashed, Jiang Baimian pointed out the key:

"Then how did he defeat it?

“For such an incident, if you don’t go back to the scene and face your original fears, you will definitely be unable to overcome it.

"So, he should have entered Tieshan City's Second Food Company again. If you can find areas there that he did not touch during his first exploration, it is very likely that he will squeeze his subconscious and let it transfer the second experience Call it out to complete the scene, and there’s probably an opportunity there.”

It's so complicated...but it does make sense...Long Yuehong is sincerely convinced.

"I'll give it a try next time." Shang Jianyao looked eager to give it a try.

Jiang Baimian then smiled and said:

“This is just one possibility.

"Another possibility is that the psychological shadow is dynamic, and something is connected to something more terrifying. When the explorer touches it, it will cause additional trouble, which the owner of the room did not encounter originally. No, It's not that he didn't encounter it, he probably didn't notice it.

"But this doesn't explain how he subsequently grew into a 'soul corridor' level awakener."

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