Floor 495, Block C, No. 11.
When Long Yuehong got home, dinner had just ended. The siblings, Long Zhigu and Long Aihong, were tidying up the table and washing the dishes under the supervision of their mother, Gu Hong.
Their father, Long Dayong, was certainly not idle either, cleaning the room very skillfully.
Long Yuehong saw all this through the half-open door, hesitated for a few seconds, and stepped inside.
“Dad, Mom, I’m back.” He subconsciously wanted to scratch his hair with his right hand but saw five iron-black metallic fingers.
Long Yuehong froze for a second. To cover up the complex emotions in his heart, he snapped out a stainless steel comb and carefully straightened his thick, messy black hair.
Hearing his voice, Gu Hong turned around abruptly and looked towards the door.
“You’re finally back! It’s been several months!” The middle-aged woman nagged with a mix of surprise, joy, and excitement.
The next moment, her subsequent words froze in her mouth because she saw Long Yuehong’s hand and wrist, which were clearly different from normal ones.
They no longer had the feeling of flesh and blood, radiating a cold metallic light.
“What is this?” Gu Hong asked hesitantly.
Her attitude affected Long Dayong, Long Zhigu, and Long Aihong, making their joyful expressions show a hint of doubt.
Long Yuehong laughed, waved his right arm, and moved his five fingers, saying:
“This mission was quite dangerous. We happened to get this mechanical arm, so I applied to the team leader to transplant it to improve my strength. Well, didn't I come back safe and sound thanks to it?
“Haha, this kind of mechanical product is a man’s romance, a warrior’s dream lover. Few people can resist it. If I hadn’t applied decisively and seized the opportunity, it would definitely have gone to Shang Jianyao!”
He spoke eloquently, saying a lot.
Long Dayong didn’t feel much about his later words, but Long Zhigu quite agreed:
“Yeah, it looks so cool!”
Heh, this kid has been watching a lot of Old World entertainment materials lately, even mastering the word 'cool'… As the elder brother, Long Yuehong’s first reaction was that he had to educate his younger brother properly.
Of course, now was not the right time. Long Yuehong suppressed this thought, and to increase persuasiveness, he added with a smile:
“It not only looks cool but also feels cool to use!”
Long Zhigu asked curiously:
“What are its functions?”
Long Yuehong considered it and said:
“This has a security classification, so I can't tell you the specifics. I can only demonstrate some simple functions.
“For example, for example…”
Feeling guilty, he couldn’t think of a suitable project to show his family for a moment. He instinctively changed the shape of his fingers and blurted out:
“It can open cans!”
As soon as he said that, Long Yuehong’s face almost twitched:
Damn it, it must be because that Shang Jianyao always nags about using a mechanical arm to open cans, making me almost have a conditioned reflex!
“It really is cool…” Long Zhigu didn’t know the twists and turns in his brother’s heart, and he was quite envious of the fingers that could transform.
Long Dayong, who was specifically responsible for opening cans at home, was even more appreciative.
Gu Hong frowned and looked Long Yuehong up and down:
“How are you going to go on blind dates like this?
“Girls will find it scary.”
It was already late autumn. The four members of the “Old Task Force” missed the unified distribution of partners for the new year due to being out on a mission and still didn’t have partners, so they had to rely on blind dates.
“Yeah, yeah.” Long Aihong mimicked her brother’s catchphrase.
As a girl, she did find a mechanical arm strange and a bit creepy.
Long Yuehong was more open-minded about this and didn’t care as much as before, saying:
“Anyway, it’s not too urgent. I can wait for next year’s unified distribution.”
He paused and hesitantly added:
“By then, I might have already left the Security Department and transferred to another position that is more stable.”
After waking up from this near-death experience, Long Yuehong became increasingly certain that he was not someone who liked adventure and excitement. He yearned for a stable life and didn’t want to risk his life for illusory things. He only hoped to live steadily.
He felt that with the “Old Task Force’s” contribution this time, plus the reality that he had been seriously injured and lost an arm, even if his service years were not up, he should be able to successfully leave the “Old Task Force” and no longer perform field missions.
The reason why Long Yuehong didn’t say it so definitively just now was because he was worried that it would give his parents too much expectation, and there were always various accidents in life.
Moreover, he could see that Team Leader and Shang Jianyao would definitely continue, and Little White seemed to have plans in this regard, actually wanting to risk doing genetic modification.
As a member of the group, Long Yuehong felt that if only he quit, it would be very awkward, like deserting.
Having gone through life and death together for more than a year, he was a little unable to part with the deep friendship between his comrades.
This made him quite confused and unwilling to promise his parents anything.
“Yeah.” Gu Hong nodded, “You might even have a d6 by then. Leaving the Security Department will also give you a promotion. Who wouldn’t be worthy of a d7 Team Leader level?”
The more she spoke, the more proud she became, seeming to no longer care about the mechanical arm.
In a few days, when the rewards are issued, you might even get a d6… Long Yuehong said to himself.
Such a speed of promotion was like riding a rocket inside “Pangu Biology.”
After Long Dayong, Long Zhigu, and Long Aihong finished their chores, the family sat down to listen to Long Yuehong talk about some of the things he had seen and heard during this mission.
Although the results of the security review had not yet been issued, and Long Yuehong didn’t know if he could talk about many things, what he could say was enough to make his younger brother and sister listen attentively, as if it were the most attractive Old World entertainment material.
When it was time to turn off the lights and enter their respective rooms, Gu Hong and Long Dayong lay on the bed, silent for a long time, as if the other had fallen asleep.
After an unknown amount of time, Gu Hong looked at the ceiling in the darkness and said quietly:
“He’s still the same as before, always explaining and explaining when he lies.”
“Yeah…” Long Dayong sighed deeply.
…………
Inside the “Mind Corridor.”
Shang Jianyao silently observed the current environment for a long time, allowing his scattered selves to return to one.
He stood up and walked to the vermilion door, reaching out and grasping the brass-colored handle.
Without any hesitation, Shang Jianyao gently twisted and pulled, opening the door behind him.
What appeared in his eyes was a deep corridor covered with a dark yellow thick carpet, with rooms on both sides.
These rooms all had vermilion doors, brass-colored old locks, and golden door numbers. At first glance, they were almost identical.
Between them, there was a wall lamp every certain distance—an elegantly shaped and dimly lit wall lamp, but it could not illuminate where the end of the corridor was.
“Mind Corridor.”
This was the “Mind Corridor.”
Shang Jianyao put one hand in his pocket, turned around, and looked at his room, finding that the three golden numbers were:
“1,” “3,” “1”
“131…” Shang Jianyao shook his head.
He directly conjured three new numbers in the room:
“6,” “4,” “7”
Then, Shang Jianyao busily replaced “131” with “647.”
But as soon as he completed this task, he blinked, and “647” changed back to “131.”
Shang Jianyao thought for a while, directly conjuring a black cloth to cover the original “131,” and then wrote the number “196” on the black cloth with a golden pearlescent pen.
He then propped up his eyelids with his fingers to prevent them from blinking at all.
The next moment, the “196” he wrote and the conjured black cloth disappeared silently.
“Can’t be changed…” Finally, Shang Jianyao let out a regretful voice.
He stopped messing with this and turned his attention to the surroundings.
With a glance, he saw rooms numbered “538,” “205,” “912,” and so on.
“There are no ‘503’ and ‘102’…” Shang Jianyao rubbed his face, expressing disappointment.
Room “503” was suspected to belong to Jiang Xiaoyue, which had caused the “Dream Protector” of the “Mirage Dragon Church” to suffer from “Heartless Disease.” “102” was the last “Mind Corridor” room that Yan Hu entered before falling asleep.
In disappointment, Shang Jianyao walked along one side of the corridor, as if trying to find where the end was.
After four or five steps, he came to the room numbered “1012.”
Shang Jianyao hesitated for a few seconds, raised his arms, crossed them in front of his chest, and said loudly:
“Distance is our friend!”
Rooms starting with “10” most likely belonged to “Old Woman You,” so he had to treat them with vigilance!
After walking for a while, Shang Jianyao suddenly stopped and turned his attention to a room on the left.
The golden door number “1215” was affixed to the vermilion door.
And in the “Mind Corridor,” rooms starting with “12” either belonged to “Zhuang Sheng” or were in the “Life Controller” domain.
Shang Jianyao looked at it carefully for a long time, dividing himself into nine other selves to prepare to vote on whether to explore this room.