Clap clap clap, Shang Jianyao applauded for Yan Hu:
"Very insightful."
He then added:
"Those few people are also locked up here, just on different floors."
"As expected..." Yan Hu slowly exhaled, saying weakly, "You can go, visit them, they should have, similar experiences to mine."
Shang Jianyao agreed, saying expectantly:
"Maybe some of them have seen the criminal."
He was always a man of action, immediately bidding farewell to Yan Hu and heading to other floors.
After this round, Shang Jianyao had a preliminary understanding of the situation of the other people.
They were either among the first batch of "New World" powerhouses to advance, or belonged to the type who carved out their own territory, with the commonality being a lack of understanding of the "New World" and a lack of mutually supportive friends when they first arrived.
"Bullying the weak!" Shang Jianyao said with heartache.
Compared to the "New World" powerhouses who formed alliances and had the support of forces behind them, Yan Hu and the others were like little white sheep when they first arrived, timid, lonely, ignorant, and naive, indeed "weaker" and the best targets for attack.
At that time, they probably didn't know that each lamp represented a resident of the "New World," and they lacked sufficient vigilance towards the surrounding lights.
Shang Jianyao, who hated evil as much as he hated enemies, said:
"That attacker might not be as strong as we imagined.
"He took advantage of the fact that Yan Hu and others didn't know much about the 'New World' and lacked helpers to launch the attack, and then he should have used the special features of this building to imprison them."
"But no matter what, his strength should be stronger than Yan Hu and the others," the honest Shang Jianyao said what he had to say.
If the sensing ranges of the two sides were very close, it would be impossible for Yan Hu and others to be controlled without any awareness.
Shang Jianyao and the others discussed this matter for a while, and the reckless one said impatiently:
"There's nothing more to understand here, let's go wander around somewhere else."
He looked like he wanted to take advantage of Xiao Chong's tiger skin not being torn yet and quickly go to all the places he should go.
The calm and rational Shang Jianyao and the sinister and ruthless Shang Jianyao also did not want to continue staying in this rather strange shopping mall, agreeing to go out now.
They went down the escalator all the way, heading straight for the exit.
On the floor where Yan Hu was imprisoned, a figure suddenly walked out from the depths of the darkness.
He didn't bring any light to illuminate, slowly walking to the railing and looking down at Shang Jianyao on the bottom floor.
At this time, the light representing Shang Jianyao shone on the protective glass of each floor, more or less, bright or dark.
This outlined the figure's appearance.
He looked to be twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, his hair neatly combed, wearing a gray suit with black stripes, and a pair of small, round glasses.
Wu Meng!
Most of Wu Meng's face was hidden in the darkness, with only the glasses reflecting a little light.
As Shang Jianyao left, the light shifted, and he merged with the darkness again.
…………
After staying inside the company for two or three days, Long Yuehong and Bai Chen applied for a field training opportunity, on the grounds that they were ready to respond to Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao's trip to the Eighth Research Institute headquarters.
In the morning, they diligently carried out different projects according to the planned schedule. When the sun reached the center of the sky, they drove the off-road vehicle assigned to them this time and arrived next to a group of abandoned buildings.
Although there were roads inside that could be traveled, Bai Chen and Long Yuehong still left the vehicle outside, finding a hidden place to park it.
Then, they each put on their military exoskeletons and entered the small ruins.
After bypassing several buildings, they stopped.
"Check each other's exoskeletons for listening devices," Bai Chen said to Long Yuehong.
"Mmm, mmm," Long Yuehong earnestly did this.
After confirming that there was nothing wrong, they came to the side of a high-rise building whose stairs had collapsed, and easily reached the roof by relying on the military exoskeletons and the protrusions and depressions on the exterior walls.
There were stones and cracks everywhere.
Bai Chen walked to a collapsed wall, bent down, and dug out two items from inside.
One was a radio transceiver, and the other was a voice recorder.
The voice recorder had a certain passage recorded in advance by Shang Jianyao, which contained power and could affect many people at once.
Because the power was fused in that passage rather than in the voice recorder, Long Yuehong and Bai Chen would not be directly negatively affected when holding this item.
Moreover, if Shang Jianyao successfully entered the "New World," then when Bai Chen and Long Yuehong played the recording, he could locate it through his residual power and provide some support.
In other words, if the conditions were met, Bai Chen and Long Yuehong could influence others with the words in the voice recorder even if they were not Awakened.
This was the arrangement Jiang Baimian made when the "Old Task Force" separated.
Da da da, Bai Chen turned on the radio transceiver and sent a telegram to Genava.
Before long, Old Ge replied to them, concisely:
"Situation is true, prepare early."
As agreed, the situation here referred to the Year Star and "New World" powerhouses absorbing human consciousness, which brought about "Heartless Disease."
This also showed that the employees of "Pangu Biology" were indeed livestock raised by the Year Star "Siming."
Bai Chen and Long Yuehong exchanged a look, both silent.
After a while, Long Yuehong exhaled and said:
"Discard illusions, prepare for battle."
Seeing his wife slightly surprised, he smiled bitterly:
"I can't always escape. When the facts are right in front of me, I can't cover my ears and steal the bell anymore."
"Mmm," Bai Chen nodded and then said, "Wei should have already entered the 'New World.'"
Otherwise, the tone in Genava's telegram wouldn't be so sure.
"Yeah," Long Yuehong sighed.
Speaking of this, he suddenly thought of something and realized:
"I finally understand why that white giant wolf wanted to bewitch batches of humans to enter the No. 13 Wasteland Ruin."
That was to send food to the sealed Wu Meng!
And in order to cover up the fact that "New World" powerhouses were extracting human consciousness, Wu Meng implanted different thoughts into those people, making them choose different ways to commit suicide.
"Yeah, some things aren't complicated at all once you understand them," Bai Chen also felt the same way.
Then, she sent a telegram back to Genava, telling this teammate that the two of them were starting to prepare, and he also had to move to the area around "Pangu Biology" as agreed.
At the same time, Long Yuehong picked up the voice recorder and stuffed it into his pants pocket.
After doing these things, the two reburied the radio transceiver and left the group of abandoned buildings.
For them, the next problem was how to bring that voice recorder back inside the company.
…………
After wandering around different places in the "New World" for a few days, Shang Jianyao, who was growing bolder, ventured deep into the area around the high tower.
He quickly passed through an intersection and saw that on the street ahead, which was mainly dark, two windows facing the street were lit up.
"Go ask about the situation," the reckless Shang Jianyao strode over.
He was full of confidence.
Coming closer, his eyes lit up, and he said to himself:
"A cafe!"
This was a complete cafe, with several lamps lit inside. By one of the windows, two people sat there, chatting about something.
One was a woman, wearing a thin, elegant white dress and golden wavy long hair. The other was a man, wearing a black suit and a white shirt, with a dark tie. He was clearly over sixty, with deep wrinkles on his face, hazel eyes, and thin, pale hair.
Shang Jianyao was immediately excited.
These were acquaintances!
He waved his right hand and shouted loudly:
"Flora, Barnard!
"Flora, Barnard!"
Those two were exactly Flora and Barnard, whom Shang Jianyao had encountered in a certain "New World" projection in Konnismis.
The former had served as a director of the "Orange" company, and the latter was the first Red River president of the "Lakeside Alliance."
They had both kindly reminded Shang Jianyao to never enter the "New World."
Flora heard Shang Jianyao's shouting and looked outside with slight surprise and difficulty.
Her cheeks were thin, and her eyes were ocean blue. There was no doubt that she was a beauty when she was young, but now there were a few crow's feet at the corners of her eyes, making her look to be in her early forties.
Seeing Barnard and Flora looking over, Shang Jianyao came to the outside of the cafe cheerfully and pushed the door open.
"You are?" Barnard, whose left side of his body was trembling constantly, asked in confusion when he saw him coming to his face.
Shang Jianyao thanked him sincerely:
"Some time ago, you reminded me not to enter the 'New World.'"
Flora remembered the past and asked with slight reproach:
"Then why did you still come in?"
Shang Jianyao replied loudly:
"If I didn't come in, how could I completely solve the problem of the 'New World'?"
Flora and Barnard's expressions changed drastically, one hurriedly looking at the cafe owner and the other looking around, afraid that other people might hear.
ps: Asking for double monthly tickets on the last day of April~