As evening approached, Jiang Baimian, who was typing away at the keyboard, glanced at the doorway out of the corner of her eye and noticed that Shang Jianyao and the others had all left the office.
She breathed a long sigh of relief and stopped what she was doing.
Then, she pulled out a blank sheet of paper, picked up a fountain pen, and, relying on her memory, began to sketch:
"Turn right upon exiting, go straight to the end, and take the elevator…"
"The button to press is 349…"
"After exiting the elevator, enter the plaza, turn left after seeing the flowers, Area C, Number 12…"
Soon, Jiang Baimian had drawn the map needed for "Operation Homecoming."
After repeatedly confirming that everything was correct, she packed up her belongings, grabbed the map, and headed towards the office door.
Upon exiting, Jiang Baimian turned to the left.
Barely taking a step, she stopped and looked down at the map and the notes on it.
Her gaze froze, and the corners of her mouth twitched slightly.
She had turned the wrong way!
She had turned the wrong way without even realizing it!
The price of being a "geographically challenged" person was quite high… As Jiang Baimian's eyes darted around, she took out the fountain pen clipped to her pocket and added a sentence to the map:
"At every turn, go slowly, stop, think, and confirm."
Then, she chose the correct direction and followed the map, step by step.
…………
495th floor, Area C, Number 11.
After entering the apartment, Long Yuehong found his mother, Gu Hong, his father, Long Dayong, his younger brother, Long Zhigu, and his younger sister, Long Aihong, each occupying a spot, without saying a word.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
Gu Hong sighed and asked, "Have there been a lot of people on our floor getting 'Apathy Disease' lately?"
This has happened several times!
"It's not that bad," Long Yuehong comforted.
Long Dayong glanced at the doorway:
"I've heard a lot of people saying that there might be a 'source of infection' on our floor that hasn't been found, which is why people keep getting infected."
"Maybe someone did something bad, bringing bad luck to our floor," Gu Hong said, repeating a guess she had heard while gossiping with her relatives.
Hearing this, Long Aihong blurted out:
"Some people suspect that my brother and Yao-ge are 'sources of infection,' hidden carriers, ah…"
She suddenly realized she had let something slip and quickly raised both hands to cover her mouth.
Long Yuehong was stunned for a moment:
"What else?"
Long Aihong glanced at her mother, then at her father, and said cautiously:
"Others say you're the source of bad luck.
"Anyway, they mean that since you started going out on missions, the incidence of 'Apathy Disease' on our floor has clearly increased. You must have encountered something bad outside and brought it back inside the company."
It could be the "Apathy Disease" virus, or it could be materialized bad luck.
Seeing that the cat was already out of the bag, Long Zhigu added, clearly unconvinced:
"They even gave examples, saying that the first time you returned from a mission, Uncle Shen and Auntie Ren got 'Apathy Disease,' and this time it was Uncle Zhang."
Long Yuehong finally couldn't help but retort:
"But the second time we returned from a mission, no one got 'Apathy Disease.' We weren't even inside the company during the previous 'Apathy Disease' outbreak."
As he said these words, he was actually a little guilty, because Shen Du and Ren Jie's "Apathy Disease" was clearly related to Shang Jianyao, more akin to some guys silencing people.
"That's right!" Long Aihong's face lit up. "I'll use that to refute them tomorrow!"
At this moment, Long Dayong glanced at the indignant Gu Hong and comforted his eldest son:
"Don't take it to heart. It's mainly because 'Apathy Disease' hasn't disappeared. After generations, everyone can only pretend not to see it usually, but they become panicked when it happens again, so some people inevitably make all sorts of noises. Once there are no new cases, they'll quickly forget about these things."
"I understand," Long Yuehong said, trying to appear magnanimous as he sat down.
He said, pretending to be cheerful:
"We've encountered more than a few 'Apathetic Ones' on the surface, and no one has gotten infected."
As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly noticed that the expressions of his parents, brother, and sister had become slightly strange.
Uh… I shouldn't have mentioned being in contact with "Apathetic Ones" outside at a time like this, lest everyone gets the wrong idea… Long Yuehong quickly realized what was wrong with his defense.
…………
622nd floor, Area B, Room 59.
Bai Chen placed the newly issued portable computer on the desk by the window and immediately turned it on.
For her, who was already a d6, she usually ate in the cafeteria and went to bed on time after lights out, so her energy allocation was enough for her to play on the computer for two to three hours every day.
After taking a sip of cooled water, Bai Chen started playing a comedy show.
Although she didn't quite understand many of the jokes from the Old World and couldn't laugh wholeheartedly, she felt calm, relaxed, and indescribably happy just by listening to the laughter from the audience and the canned laughter that was added later.
Laughter echoed in the quiet room, and Bai Chen stared at the computer screen with unfocused eyes.
After an unknown amount of time, she reached out her right hand, opened the desk drawer, and took out the heavy component that had some cracks on it.
Looking down at the component, Bai Chen gradually smiled.
She said to herself:
"This time, I'll listen to you and bravely move forward, no longer bound by the past…"
…………
495th floor, Area B, Number 196.
Shang Jianyao, feeling that his mental trauma had almost healed, once again entered the "Mind Corridor" and arrived inside "Room 522."
With the experience of the previous two times, he was familiar with the safest route, sneaking towards a certain place in the ruins.
Along the way, apart from the few battles that were bound to happen, everything was calm and peaceful.
And those few battles were something that even the room's owner, who wasn't an Awakened at the time, could handle, transferring before the other "Apathetic Ones" arrived. Naturally, Shang Jianyao could handle them with ease, resolving them without much effort, and without making much noise.
This also brought a problem. Shang Jianyao discovered that because one of the battles didn't produce much sound, unlike what the room's owner had experienced at the time, which attracted a large number of "Apathetic Ones" from all directions, there were several "Apathetic Ones" wandering in a place on the original safe route where they shouldn't have been encountered.
"Is this a kind of butterfly effect? I quickly resolved the battle, allowing the 'Apathetic Ones' who should have been transferred to remain in place?" Shang Jianyao said to himself.
He quickly raised another question:
"Since this scene is a presentation of the room owner's psychological shadow, how could he, who didn't encounter 'Apathetic Ones' in this place, know that if he had been more careful, there would have been such a change?"
Shang Jianyao then laughed:
"It's simple, there are decaying human limbs remaining here, indicating that there were 'Apathetic Ones' present not long ago. The room owner must have seen these at the time and thought that if the previous battle hadn't created a lot of noise, it would have been another fierce battle.
"This guess was remembered by his subconscious and became a hidden rule in this psychological shadow."
Having convinced himself, Shang Jianyao didn't linger and continued to move forward, following the room owner's transfer route.
Strangely enough, according to the previous pattern, the number of "Apathetic Ones" encountered by the room's owner was decreasing, but their quality was increasing. Later on, even "Advanced Apathetic Ones" appeared. But this time, after Shang Jianyao broke through the previous exploration limit and got rid of that "Advanced Apathetic One," he didn't encounter any more powerful enemies.
He didn't even see any ordinary "Apathetic Ones" anymore.
"Does this mean that there are more dangerous creatures in this area, preventing the 'Apathetic Ones' from entering?" Shang Jianyao split into ten, and the one who spoke was the cowardly, timid, but very cautious one.
Shang Jianyao, wearing a deerstalker hat and smoking a pipe, nodded:
"It doesn't necessarily have to be a creature."
He indirectly agreed with the cowardly Shang Jianyao's guess.
"What do we do now?" asked Shang Jianyao, wearing an enlarged version of his childhood clothes.
The Shang Jianyao who had been eager to try for a long time answered without hesitation:
"Of course, we continue!
"The room owner, who wasn't even an Awakened at the time, survived. What about us?"
"How do you know that the room owner didn't encounter anything during this exploration, leaving behind a terrible hidden danger?" the cowardly, timid Shang Jianyao retorted.
"Yeah, yeah," another Shang Jianyao echoed.
At this time, Shang Jianyao, who was holding a small speaker, said curiously:
"I'm wondering, if we split up and one of us dies here, what would happen?
"Would we eventually be left with nine, and the personality would no longer be sound, or would we still be able to restore to ten, but each one would have more serious mental problems?
"Should we try it?"
His suggestion only received one vote in favor, and all the other Shang Jianyaos opposed it.
After discussing for a while, the Shang Jianyaos merged back into one, carefully and cautiously following the room owner's transfer route, and delving deeper into this area.
As he walked, a seven-story building appeared in front of him.
The building looked quite old, with large patches of green plants climbing up the walls.
Shang Jianyao focused his eyes and found a sign above the entrance to the lobby on the first floor. It read:
"Tieshan City Second Food Company"