Embers Ad Infinitum

In the evening, Jiang Baimian, who was typing on the keyboard, glanced at the door from the corner of his eye and found that Shang Jianyao and others had all left the office.

She breathed a long sigh of relief and stopped what she was doing.

Then, she pulled out a piece of white paper, picked up a pen, and wrote and drew based on her memory:

“When you go out, turn right, go all the way to the bottom and take the elevator…

"The button is 349...

"Get off the elevator, enter the square, see the flowers, turn left, No. 12, Area C..."

Soon, Jiang Baimian drew the map needed for the "War Back Home".

After repeatedly confirming that everything was correct, she packed her belongings, picked up the map, and walked to the office door.

After leaving the door, Jiang Baimian turned to the left.

As soon as she took a step, she stopped and looked down at the map in her hand and the annotations on it.

Her eyes froze and the corners of her mouth twitched slightly.

Wrong turn!

She turned in the wrong direction without even realizing it!

The cost of being a "road idiot" is quite terrifying... Jiang Baimian rolled his eyes, took out the absorbent pen inserted in his pocket, and added a sentence on the map:

“Whenever you turn a corner, it’s better to take it slow than to go too fast, and stop more, think more, and confirm more.”

Then, she chose the right direction and walked along according to the map.

…………

Floor 495, Area C, No. 11.

After Long Yuehong entered the door, she found her mother Gu Hong, father Long Dayong, younger brother Long Zhigu, and younger sister Long Aihong each occupying a place without speaking.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

Gu Hong said "Hey" and asked instead:

"On our floor, in the past year or two, have there been a lot of people infected with Wuxin disease?"

This happened several times, several times!

"It's okay." Long Yuehong said with relief.

Long Dayong glanced at the door:

"I have heard many people say that there is a 'source' of the virus on our floor that has not been found, so people are infected again and again."

"Maybe someone did something bad, which made our group a little unlucky." Gu Hong mentioned a guess made by the seven aunts and eight aunts while chatting.

Hearing this, Long Aihong blurted out:

"Some people are suspecting that my brother and Brother Yao are the 'sources' of the virus, latent infections, ah..."

She suddenly realized that she had slipped her words, and hurriedly raised her hands to cover her mouth.

Long Yuehong was startled:

"anything else?"

Long Aihong glanced at her mother, then at her father, and said cautiously:

“Some people say you are the source of bad luck.

"Anyway, what they mean is that since you went out on missions, the incidence of 'unintentional diseases' on our level has obviously increased. It must be that you encountered bad things outside and brought them back to the company."

This may be an "accidental" virus, or it may be substantial bad luck.

Seeing that the words had been spoken, Long Zhigu added obviously unconvinced:

"They also gave an example, saying that the first time you came back from a mission, Uncle Shen and Aunt Ren suffered from 'unintentional disease', and this time it was Uncle Zhang who came back."

Long Yuehong finally couldn't help but retort:

"But when we came back from the second mission, no one had 'unintentional illness'. We were not in the company when the 'unintentional illness' broke out before."

When he said these words, he actually felt a little guilty, because Shen Du and Ren Jie's "unintentional illness" obviously had something to do with Shang Jianyao, and they were closer to killing someone and silencing them.

"Yes!" Long Aihong's face suddenly lit up, "I will refute them like this tomorrow!"

At this time, Long Dayong glanced at the aggrieved Gu Hong and comforted his eldest son:

"Don't take it personally. The main reason is that the 'unintentional disease' never disappears. From generation to generation, everyone can only pretend not to see it. When it happens, they are very frightened. It is inevitable that some people will make mixed noises. After that, there will be no more New cases appear and they quickly forget about these things.”

"I understand." Long Yuehong tried her best to sit down openly.

He pretended to be cheerful and said:

"We have encountered more than just one or two 'unintentional people' on the surface, and we haven't seen anyone infected."

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly noticed that the expressions of his parents, brother and sister became a little strange.

Uh... At this time, it's better not to mention that you have more contact with "unintentional people" outside, lest everyone think wrongly... Long Yuehong quickly understood what was wrong with his justification just now.

…………

Floor 622, Area B, Room 59.

Bai Chen placed the newly issued portable computer on the table by the window and opened it directly.

For her who is already D6, she usually eats in the cafeteria and goes to bed on time after turning off the lights. The energy ration is enough for her to play on the computer for two to three hours every day.

After taking a sip of cool water, Bai Chen played a comedy program.

Although she didn’t understand many jokes in the old world very well and couldn’t laugh sincerely, but just listening to the laughter at the scene and the hahaha added in the post-production process, she felt very calm, relaxed and kind. Indescribable joy.

Laughter echoed in the quiet room, and Bai Chen stared at the computer screen without focus.

After an unknown amount of time, she stretched out her right hand, opened the drawer of the table, and took out the heavy part with some cracks.

Looking down at this part, a smile gradually appeared on Bai Chen's face.

She said to herself:

"I will listen to you this time and move forward bravely, no longer bound by the past..."

…………

Floor 495, Area B, No. 196.

Shang Jianyao, who felt that their mental trauma was almost healed, once again entered the "soul corridor" and came to room "522".

With the experience of the previous two times, he used the safest route to sneak somewhere in the ruins.

Along the way, except for a few battles that inevitably occurred, the weather was calm and calm.

And in those few battles, even the room owner who was not an awakened person at the time was able to deal with it and rush to move before other "unintentional people" arrived. Shang Jianyao was naturally able to catch them and solved them without any effort. He didn't even How to create movement.

This also brought about a problem. Shang Jianyao discovered that because there were not many sounds coming out of one of the battles, unlike what the owner of the room experienced at that time, a large number of "unintentional people" gathered from all directions, causing the originally safe route to , there are several "unintentional people" wandering around in a place where "unintentional people" should not be encountered.

"Is this a butterfly effect? ​​I solved the battle quickly and kept the 'unintentional ones' who should have been transferred away?" Shang Jianyao said to himself.

He quickly raised another question:

"Since this scene is a manifestation of the psychological shadow of the room owner, how would he know that if he had been more careful before, he would have changed like this without encountering the 'unintentional person' in this place?"

Shang Jianyao immediately laughed:

"It's very simple. There are rotten human limbs left here, indicating that there were 'mindless people' not long ago. When the owner of the room saw this, he must have been thinking that if the previous battle hadn't caused a lot of noise, there must be another one now. It was a fierce battle.

"This guess was remembered by his subconscious and became the hidden rule of this psychological shadow."

He persuaded his Shang Jianyao not to stop and continue along the transfer route of the room owner.

Strangely enough, according to the previous rules, the number of "unintentional people" encountered by the room owner was getting smaller and smaller, but the quality was getting higher and higher. Later, there were even "high-level unintentional people" appearing, but this time Shang Jianyao After breaking through the limits of the last exploration and getting rid of the "high-level Heartless", I never encountered a powerful enemy again.

He didn't even see the ordinary "Heartless" anymore.

"Does this mean that there are more dangerous creatures in this area, making the 'unintentional' people afraid to enter?" Shang Jianyao scored ten points, and the one who spoke was the cowardly but very cautious one.

Shang Jianyao, who was wearing a deerstalker hat and holding a pipe, nodded:

"It doesn't have to be a living thing."

He indirectly agreed with the cowardly Shang Jianyao's guess.

"What should we do now?" Shang Jianyao, wearing an enlarged version of his childhood clothes, asked.

Shang Jianyao, who had been eager to try it out for a long time, answered without hesitation:

"Of course continue!

"The owner of the room who was not an awakened person at that time survived, let alone us?"

"Then how do you know that the owner of the room did not encounter anything during this exploration and left behind terrible hidden dangers?" the cowardly Shang Jianyao asked.

"Yes, yes." Another Shang Jianyao echoed.

At this time, Shang Jianyao, who was holding a small speaker, said curiously:

"I'm thinking, if we act separately and one of us dies here, what will happen?

"Are there nine people left in the end and their personalities are no longer sound, or can they still recover to ten people, but each one has a more serious mental problem?

"Would you like to try it?"

His proposal received only one vote in favor, and all other merchants opposed it.

After discussing for a while, Shang Jianyao and others reunited and carefully followed the transfer route of the room owner and went deep into this area.

As he walked, a seven-story building appeared in front of him.

This building looks quite old, with large green plants climbing on the walls.

Shang Jianyao took a closer look and found a signboard above the entrance to the lobby on the first floor. It read:

"Tieshan City Second Food Company"