Genawa confirmed the authenticity of the lip-reading and turned to ask Shang Jianyao:
“I didn't collect any sound wave information. How did you hear her speak?”
“It just sounded directly in my head!” Shang Jianyao seemed to have found a fun new game.
Without waiting for Genawa to respond, he shouted at the man and woman:
“Can you hear me?”
He deliberately raised his volume, and with the echoes from the café walls and glass, it formed a rolling wave.
The blonde woman in the white dress and the formally dressed old man, whose body was trembling on one side, didn't react at all; they just kept looking at where Shang Jianyao was standing.
Shang Jianyao thought for a moment and took a step sideways.
With the assistance of the exoskeleton device, this step covered several meters, bringing him from the adjacent café table directly in front of Genawa.
The blonde lady and the formally dressed old man turned their bodies and heads towards the two of them.
However, neither of them stood up, and their movements seemed quite difficult.
The former used both hands to support the edge of the table, barely managing to move her body to the intended position, as if stuck between the seat and the table; the latter looked like he couldn't exert any force on his left side and was about to fall over at any moment.
“They can see me after all!” Shang Jianyao's face, hidden by the helmet visor, was filled with the joy of a successful experiment.
“But they don't seem to hear what you're saying,” Genawa helped to add a conclusion.
Shang Jianyao was immediately distressed:
“How am I supposed to communicate with them? How should I answer that I am indeed the blessed of 'Siming'?”
“Nod,” the intelligent robot's thinking was always incredibly clear before encountering a bug.
“Right!” Shang Jianyao moved his head up and down with great exaggeration.
As he nodded, he muttered:
“It's a pity I didn't systematically learn sign language; otherwise, I could communicate directly. I would express my meaning in sign language, and Lao Ge would interpret their lip-reading.
“No, they might not understand sign language; I can only rely on common body language...“
However, the two of them ignored his nodding and simply kept their gazes fixed.
Genawa was about to analyze what was going on and asked Shang Jianyao to wait patiently to see if he could hear the woman's words again when Shang Jianyao suddenly realized:
“I understand!
“They can't actually see me either; they can only vaguely sense my human consciousness!”
He then turned his head and said to Genawa:
“So, they've been 'looking' at me, not you.”
“Then where did the voice you heard come from?” Genawa asked.
Shang Jianyao answered with a rather assertive tone:
“Telepathy!
“Maybe they are also Awakened at the 'Mind Corridor' level. They've already reached my door and are shouting inside.
“I need to go to my room and check.”
He did as he said, immediately closing his eyes and pinching both temples with his right hand.
Although his temples were actually tightly protected by the helmet of the military exoskeleton device, and his fingers couldn't touch them at all, the necessary sense of ritual was still required.
The next second, relying on the fixation and support of the military exoskeleton device, Shang Jianyao entered a deep sleep while standing.
Inside “131”, his figure appeared and immediately rushed to the door, trying to open it for the guests.
The reckless Shang Jianyao was then restrained by the arms that emerged from his body, and his head automatically moved to the peephole, examining the situation outside.
There was no one outside.
Then, he cautiously opened the door, looking left and right.
No guests were visiting.
“Sigh...” he sighed in disappointment and returned to the real world.
“How was it?” Genawa noticed his body move.
Shang Jianyao answered regretfully:
“Nothing.”
He was always hospitable.
“How should I communicate...” Shang Jianyao fell into thought again.
Suddenly, he exclaimed again:
“She's talking to me again!
“She said:
“Stay away from here!”
“Stay away from here...” Genawa repeated the sentence, glancing at the man and woman to read their lips.
--Shang Jianyao was speaking Ashlands, and even an intelligent robot couldn't distinguish between "he" and "she".
At this time, both the blonde lady and the formally dressed old man had closed their mouths again.
Genawa had no choice but to ask Shang Jianyao:
“Is 'stay away from here' a warning or a reminder?”
This mainly depended on the tone.
“It feels like a reminder,” Shang Jianyao recalled.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and he pulled the tactical backpack on his back to the front.
With a zipping sound, the zipper was opened.
Shang Jianyao reached into the backpack and pulled out the lake-green jade Buddha.
He then explained to Genawa, whose eyes were flashing red:
“In the Steel Factory ruins, this jade Buddha was the intersection of reality and illusion. It might help me communicate with the people on the other side now.”
As soon as Shang Jianyao finished speaking, the jade Buddha suddenly emitted a faint, misty light.
It was like a wave, engulfing the entire café, tinting both the dark parts and the lit areas with a hint of greenish-blue.
Then, Shang Jianyao heard the blonde woman's voice again:
“'Bodhi'’s grace?”
At the same time, Genawa made a slightly synthetic sound:
“I can hear it this time.”
This meant they could communicate.
The small jade Buddha had really worked!
“Yes, yes, yes,” Shang Jianyao replied with a smile to the blonde lady’s question.
As a polite person, although he did not push up his visor to show his face, he still asked courteously:
“Who are you two?”
The blonde lady frowned slightly, as if thinking about something, and casually replied:
“Flora, from 'Orange' Company.”
The formally dressed old man said with a slightly unsteady voice:
“Barnard, from the Seaside Alliance.”
Without waiting for the two to ask, Shang Jianyao very proactively announced his name:
“Shang Jianyao, from 'Pangu Biology'.”
At this time, Genawa used the communication system to inform Shang Jianyao of the situation of searching for those two names in the database:
“Flora is a relatively common female name within the territory of 'Orange' Company. The most famous one once served as a director of their board of directors, but she is said to have passed away more than twenty years ago.
“The Seaside Alliance once had a president named Barnard, who was the first Red River race president there. He also passed away eleven years ago.”
“They're both dead?” Shang Jianyao was not only not frightened but unusually excited, “Did we really encounter ghosts?”
Before he could finish speaking, there was a sudden and obvious buzzing sound in his ears.
The scene inside the café distorted, even emitting a large amount of snow noise, like a malfunctioning television.
Just then, Flora seemed to finally understand what was going on.
Before the darkness rolled in, tearing and engulfing this part of the café's lights, she shouted sharply:
“Never enter the New World!”
As the shrill voice echoed, the greenish-blue light emitted by the jade Buddha disappeared, and the yellowish light that illuminated the area by the window went out, and the two figures disappeared.
Genawa then realized that there was no café in front of him, only piles of worthless garbage.
Even the window was covered with cracks.
“Hey, hey, hey!” Shang Jianyao shouted a few more times, but only emptiness responded to him.
“What's going on?” he muttered to himself.
Without waiting for Genawa to analyze, he answered his own question:
“If the Flora and Barnard we just saw were indeed the Flora and Barnard who died many years ago, as Lao Ge said, then it's interesting.
“To be able to sit on the board of directors of 'Orange' Company and become the president of the Seaside Alliance, the two of them were likely Awakened who had explored the depths of the 'Mind Corridor'.
“Could their death be another expression of them entering the 'New World'? After all, from then on, they can't appear often and can only return occasionally?”
“Very likely,” Genawa commented fairly, “Do you think what we just saw was a scene from the 'New World'?”
He skipped many reasoning steps and directly drew a conclusion.
Shang Jianyao smiled:
“Koning Mis is closely related to the 'New World' itself. This may be from a huge 'New World' node or from the body of a sleeping high-ranking being, which brought about the spread of the 'Heartless Disease' virus.
“Since the 'Heartless Disease' virus has already leaked out, it's normal for the old and new worlds to overlap in certain areas of Koning Mis.”
Genawa moved his metal-forged neck up and down:
“In simple terms, the scene just now was likely a projection created by the overflowing power of the 'New World'.”
“Yes,” Shang Jianyao suddenly became frustrated, “I should have asked a few more questions in one go!”
Genawa consoled:
“Getting a reminder not to enter the New World is already quite good.”
“They're pretty good people,” Shang Jianyao sincerely commented.
He turned to look out the window and said with a smile:
“If we continue to go deeper, we might encounter more 'New World' scenes.”
Genawa easily interpreted the implication of this guy's words:
This is really too interesting!
He had to remind Shang Jianyao:
“But that also means the probability of being infected with 'Heartless Disease' is increasing exponentially.
“Moreover, those we encounter later may not be as friendly as Flora and Barnard.
“At that time, under the double threat, the 'Angel of Life' necklace may not be able to protect you.”
Shang Jianyao's response had nothing to do with Genawa's words. He said with great interest:
“Will we encounter old friends?”
“Who?” Genawa asked.
“'Doctor',” Shang Jianyao had an expression that said, "What's so hard to guess?" “If he's still alive, I'll send him a nuclear bomb!”
After saying that, Shang Jianyao put away the jade Buddha, re-gripped the "Berserker" assault rifle, and walked towards the door of the "café".
The next second, he stopped there.
“What's wrong?” Genawa asked with concern.
Shang Jianyao requested assistance without hesitation:
“Help me open the door. It pulls inward, and I can't kick it open directly.”
One of his hands had been paralyzed for "a long time," and the other was holding a weapon, so he couldn't use it.