Hearing Jiang Baimian's question, Shang Jianyao and Bai Chen instinctively exchanged glances, but they only saw the same bewilderment on each other's faces.
Jiang Baimian propped herself up with both hands and sat up a little straighter:
"Do you remember that relic hunter from before, the one named Harris Brown, the bald one, who provided the information?"
Clearly, Jiang Baimian's memory was quite good.
As one of the people involved, Shang Jianyao instantly recalled it:
"Is it the information about the abnormal deaths of humans north of Yue Lu Station?"
"Correct." Jiang Baimian nodded solemnly. "At the time, Harris Brown said that they had discovered several recently deceased bodies with no fatal injuries on the surface, but their expressions were either pained, terrified, or carrying a strange smile."
Bai Chen suddenly understood:
"Team Leader, do you mean that those people all died in dreams, no, Lucid Dreams?"
Jiang Baimian hummed in affirmation:
"Think about it, I only poked myself in the dream, and a corresponding red and swollen dot appeared in reality. And if you look closely, there's no pinhole there at all.
"Similarly, Shang Jianyao slapped himself in the dream, and in reality, he also got the five-finger print and swelling on his face.
"If, and I mean if, someone in such a dream was hit in a vital area by a bullet, or inhaled a poisonous gas that made their expression bizarre, or received a sudden fright at the peak of pleasure, what kind of manifestation would there be in reality?"
"They would die without any fatal injuries on the surface..." Shang Jianyao replied in a deep voice.
The five-finger print on his face was likely a stress reaction that would fade very quickly, but once the heart stopped beating because of it, it could never be recovered.
Before he finished speaking, Shang Jianyao suddenly stood up, returned to his sleeping bag, put on his coat, and slung the "Berserker" assault rifle over his shoulder.
He opened the gun's safety and strode out of the tent.
"What happened?" Long Yuehong, who was on guard duty, quickly asked.
Shang Jianyao looked up at the rock wall behind him and glanced around:
"Have you discovered anything suspicious?
"Or any unusual phenomena?"
Long Yuehong thought for a moment and shook his head firmly:
"No.
"Even the wild animals passing by are rare, and they're normal species."
As he spoke, Long Yuehong, with the help of the bright moonlight, saw the redness and swelling on Shang Jianyao's right face and the relatively obvious five-finger print.
"Uh..." He suddenly didn't know how to ask and his expression became a little strange.
At this time, Jiang Baimian had dressed neatly, grabbed her weapon, and came out, with Bai Chen following closely behind.
"Did you discover anything?" Jiang Baimian asked with a slightly grave expression.
"No." Shang Jianyao replied seriously.
Jiang Baimian ignored Long Yuehong's glances back and forth and patrolled around herself, sensing the various electrical signals in the surroundings.
"There's really nothing abnormal." She walked back to Shang Jianyao and Bai Chen, breathing a slight sigh of relief. "It seems that as long as we don't fall asleep, we won't be affected."
Seeing Long Yuehong's blank expression, Jiang Baimian focused on the main points and described her and Shang Jianyao's experience.
Long Yuehong felt like he was listening to a story on a radio program, both scared and somewhat disbelieving.
Frankly speaking, if it weren't for the Team Leader's testimony, based solely on Shang Jianyao's words, he would definitely say:
"Don't joke around, this kind of thing isn't funny at all!
"Go tell the Order Supervisors, and see if they believe you!"
Order Supervisors were the profession responsible for internal order at "Pangu Biology". Whether it was fighting, assault, or infringement of others, they were in charge.
——Every floor of the "Internal Ecological Zone" had an "Order Supervisor Chief," under whom were three Order Supervisor Team Leaders, and each team leader had several Order Supervisors under them.
Further up, ten or twenty floors comprised a large zone, with each large zone having an "Order Supervisor Bureau."
Above the "Order Supervisor Bureau" was the "Order Supervisor Department," which was subordinate to the "Board of Directors."
After listening to Jiang Baimian's description, Long Yuehong subconsciously replied:
"Could this really be true?"
After asking, he quickly closed his mouth and stopped waiting for an answer.
Since Shang Jianyao could have the mechanical monk Jingfa shake hands and say goodbye to him, it didn't seem unacceptable that a monster could make someone die strangely in a dream.
It had to be said that after leaving the company and coming to the surface, Long Yuehong increasingly felt that this world was much more magical than he had previously recognized.
"Could it be an Awakened? Or a distorted Subhuman or animal? They might also possess similar abilities." Jiang Baimian turned her head to look at Shang Jianyao.
"Apart from my own abilities, I don't know more about Awakened than you do." Shang Jianyao followed suit, turning his head to look at Bai Chen, hoping that this lady with extensive greyland survival experience could provide an answer.
Bai Chen shook her head, indicating that she had not encountered similar abnormalities either:
"If it weren't like this, Harris Brown, an experienced relic hunter, wouldn't have retreated in a hurry, not daring to approach."
Jiang Baimian thought for a few seconds and looked at Shang Jianyao:
"I'm a little curious, how exactly did you break free from that dream just now?
"Um, you said it just now, you relied on the Awakened's ability, but I hope to understand some details. This might give me some inspiration.
"If you feel that this is your secret, let Bai Chen and Long Yuehong go patrol the edges.
"As for me, uh, I'm the kind of person who should still be trustworthy, right?"
At the end, Jiang Baimian really couldn't find a reason and didn't want to force Shang Jianyao to answer with the current situation, so she resorted to a little bit of shamelessness.
"It's nothing." Shang Jianyao answered frankly, "I used the 'Reasoning Clown' ability that you've seen. At the time, because I slapped myself and didn't wake up, I initially ruled out the possibility of dreaming and thought about grabbing a car, going far away, and coming back after dawn to see if you had returned to normal.
"As a result, when I got up, I saw myself in the rearview mirror.
"I thought to myself at the time, can I use the 'Reasoning Clown' ability to influence myself, to make me more certain that this is a dream?
"If it really is a dream, then I've essentially seen through the reality and the illusion, strengthened my self-awareness in this area, and should have a good chance of waking up directly.
"If it's not a dream, I also wrote myself a reminder..."
Speaking of this, Shang Jianyao remembered the arrangement in the dream and quickly reached into his pocket to take out several sheets of paper for recording.
And these papers, except for one depicting the incomplete layout of the steel mill ruins, marked with "toilet," were all blank without any prompts.
"As expected..." Shang Jianyao let out a long sigh and continued, "After writing the prompts, I started using the 'Reasoning Clown' ability to make myself draw the conclusion 'dreaming' based on unrelated conditions, and this did strengthen my judgment and cognition and helped me break free from the dream."
Jiang Baimian was quite touched by what she heard:
"You're really ruthless, even deceiving yourself."
"..." Long Yuehong almost laughed, but managed to hold it back with great difficulty.
"..." Shang Jianyao didn't expect Jiang Baimian to give such an "evaluation" and almost forgot what he was going to say next.
He paused and said:
"I hadn't done similar experiments before. It was only after seeing myself in the rearview mirror that I thought I could try it. Moreover, there are two types of 'Reasoning Clown':
"One is to use obvious facts to lead the target to an almost unrelated conclusion that is beneficial to me;
"The other is to rely on worthless conditions to lead the target to an illogical but correct judgment."
Jiang Baimian nodded lightly:
"Not bad. It seems that this incident has helped you further master the ability and broaden its boundaries."
Shang Jianyao was about to say something when he suddenly showed a thoughtful expression.
Jiang Baimian then looked at Bai Chen:
"What are your thoughts?"
"In the absence of certainty that the anomaly has moved away, it's best not to sleep tonight. As soon as it dawns, drive south immediately. With your energy, not sleeping for half a night shouldn't be a big problem." Bai Chen gave a very prudent and cautious suggestion.
Long Yuehong subconsciously pointed to the Black Rat Town entrance and asked:
"What about here?"
"What else can we do? Let's ensure our own safety before considering anything else." Jiang Baimian responded without hesitation. "Besides, the dream anomaly won't only target us. Among the relic hunters and wasteland wanderers in the nearby area, there should also be people affected, and their strange deaths will temporarily turn this place into a restricted area, becoming a terrifying place passed down by word of mouth. For a while, no one will dare to come over again.
"Hehe, if someone can't even receive such news and enters without knowing anything, then I don't think they have the ability to find the entrance to Black Rat Town and move the boulder blocking the cave.
"When the corresponding impact subsides, the company's people will almost be here. By then, if they haven't found us, they will definitely fire signal flares to notify us."
Long Yuehong had no further objections, and the four of them kept watch until dawn.
Then, they took turns driving back south.
When it was almost noon, Jiang Baimian, in the passenger seat, turned her head and said to Shang Jianyao:
"Try to sleep and see if there are still any dream anomalies.
"Don't worry, I'll be watching you. If something goes wrong, I'll shake you awake."
"I can wake up myself." Shang Jianyao muttered with great confidence.
"Huh?" Jiang Baimian tilted her head.
Her smile didn't diminish at all; on the contrary, it became even more obvious.
Shang Jianyao didn't say anything more. After thinking for a moment, he raised his right hand and pinched his temples.
He then closed his eyes.
…………
Cold, black metal walls stood tall, enclosing a wide and empty hall.
High in the hall, the top could not be seen, only a dimness.
Within the dimness, countless brilliant specks of light were densely packed, rotating slowly, as if forming one star river after another.
In the center of the hall, starlight sprinkled down, condensing into a huge, blurry figure. The figure spread its hands outward, maintaining strict symmetry, seemingly simulating scales.
"One price, three gifts," a hollow voice echoed, layering upon layers in Shang Jianyao's ears.
Shang Jianyao stared at the scene for nearly ten seconds and uttered four words in a low voice:
"The Hall of Stars..."
He said nothing more, passed the blurry figure, reached the innermost part of the hall, and stopped in front of the heavy, grey-white stone door.
ps: Seeking recommendation tickets~