The man lying in the transparent "capsule" opened his eyes as a large swath of indoor blue light drifted to his face.
He looked at the face reflected on the inner wall of the "capsule", which indeed belonged to the "observer" just now, but it was slightly different from his "game" body: he was extremely thin, and his body was like a lonely 2B pencil .
His entire face was drooping, and the eyes, the corners of his mouth, and the nasolabial folds all extended down sharply.
Although he was young, he seemed to be deformed by the weight of his head.
The room is enclosed, with nothing but three "capsules" placed side by side and a door.
The man was not in a hurry to get up. After getting used to the sudden change around him, he rolled his eyes and looked around before pressing a switch on his right.
After scanning the fingerprint of his index finger with the switch button, the verification was successful, and it was slowly turned on. The man took off his helmet, trimmed his hair, and lifted his legs out of the cabin.
He walked to the door and couldn't find a place to open the door from the inside, so he simply raised his hand and knocked on the door.
The door creaked open from the outside, revealing an impatient face.
The one guarding the door was a woman, wearing an identical restraint collar around her neck, but wearing a silver isolation suit, her identity was different from that of a man at first glance.
On the small table next to her was an ashtray filled with cigarette butts.
The woman asked, "Why are you the only one who came out? What about them?"
The calmness of the man softened and disappeared at the moment of opening the door, and it became invisible.
He rubbed his nose and grinned a little embarrassedly.
The woman understands: "... was kicked out again?"
The man was holding the helmet, and his voice was timid: "I think I'm in the way."
The woman handed over a glass of salt water: "For electrolyte supplements, go in after drinking it. If you are found to be absent without permission, you have to go into the shock room."
The man thanked him, took the water glass, and took a sip. He didn't even dare to lift his eyelids. He looked like a well-behaved pug.
"The way I asked you to try last time..." The woman glanced at the man and hesitated, "Forget it, you didn't try it when you first saw it."
The man shows weakness: "I dare not."
The woman squinted at him, lit a lady's cigarette, put it between her fingers, and smiled: "If you don't dare, you can be a C-level for the rest of your life."
As soon as the woman's voice fell, the side of her neck was numb.
Before she lost consciousness, the menthol-flavored cigarette curling in her hand was lightly taken over and put in her mouth: "Thank you for your kind words. Take a rest."
The man took a sip of his cigarette skillfully, and immediately moved the filter to one side with his tongue. He put the woman between his right arm and his body like a book with one hand, and dragged her straight into the room from the empty corridor. She closed the door, quickly checked her whole body, found three keys, and finally put the unconscious person into the canned "capsule" cabin.
He guessed right, this woman is a "jailer".
If a more accurate expression is adopted, her identity is the "manager" in the general control center, who is responsible for managing the conditions of the three team members under her command, controlling the keys of the team members' rooms, checking the team members' personal belongings from time to time and without notice, and responding to the situation of the team members. They are directly responsible for their various actions.
In the corridor outside the door, from top to bottom, there are three tin cabinets two feet wide and one foot high.
This is where the personal belongings of the three team members are stored.
Before entering the "capsule", they must remove all items from their bodies and deposit them in it.
Three keys belong to three different tin cabinets, and also belong to three different people.
One is a bare key ring without any ornaments, the other is a key with a dolphin pendant and a small lipstick for women.
On the third key, there was a blurred plastic keychain with stickers.
The stickers are decorated with cheap strawberry patterns, and the man and a little girl with very similar eyebrows and eyes are facing the camera and smiling.
This photo sticker should be able to pull into the category of "broken photo".
The girl's face was a little overexposed, and only half of her face and a cute little white tooth could be seen.
At that time, men were not as thin as they are now.
He had full cheeks and no obedience collar on his neck.
The man took the key, carefully touched the pattern on it, and pushed open the hidden door again.
After a delay of half a minute, there was already a five-person team in the empty corridor, which was facing the place where the man was.
The man held the key, put out the cigarette in the ashtray, bowed and saluted, intending to send the team away.
Unexpectedly, when the team came to him, the leader waved, and the team stopped in front of him.
The person at the head was wearing the same silver isolation suit as the woman just now: "What about your 'manager' and your teammates?"
The "manager" is the woman who is responsible for guarding them.
The man glanced at the five-person team, and his thoughts turned, and he already had the answer: "They left first."
"It's really fucking unlucky, I picked up two slow hands and feet in one breath." Sure enough, the person in the lead didn't have any doubts, and said impatiently, "Hurry up and bring your personal belongings and follow the team."
The man frowned slightly.
... He came out too hastily, before he had time to try to find out which cabinet the key in his hand belonged to.
Seeing that he didn't respond, the "manager" pushed him: "What are you doing? What is the third rule of the "ten prohibitions" in the central rule? Back it up."
The man said obediently: "The staff of the center are not allowed to carry out any form of private action without the guidance of the 'manager'. If there is, if there is... "
When I was lying in the "capsule" just now, the "ten prohibitions" were pasted in black and white on a corner of the inner wall of the capsule.
He remembered it clearly, but he still pretended to be stumbling.
Soon, the "manager" became impatient: "...If you leave the team, you have to wait in place and be taken over by another 'manager'... How does your 'manager' assess you?"
The man lowered his eyebrows and pleaded with his eyes. Seeing that he was so useless, the "man in charge" was no longer interested in teaching him. With a wave of his hand, he repeated, "Take out your personal belongings. Follow my team."
The man turned his head and looked at the three tin cabinets.
There is no code on the cabinet, and no name sign.
He held the key with the inferior sticker on it, and his palms were slightly sweaty.
The "manager" waited for a while, saw something unusual, and asked with a frown, "Did you forget which cabinet you put your belongings in?"
The man took a deep breath, squatted down, and inserted the key into the keyhole of a certain cabinet.
Men have the lowest power level, they should be often oppressed in the team, and they should be the worst cabinets to use.
The bottom cabinet opened with the twist of the key.
He bent down laboriously, and took out a wristband with a sensor from the cabinet: this is to be brushed when going to the cafeteria for meals.
He took out another pair of light cloth shoes and put them on hastily.
Finally, he pulled out a tattered comic.
This is a comic about superheroes, and the corners are turned upside down.
- This is all the property of the man in the control center.
Behind him came the disdainful sneer of the "man in charge", but the man did not forget his weak personality, and did not dare to say anything. He protected the only possessions he currently had on his chest with both hands, and followed the team all the way forward. go.
The corridor is extraordinarily long, and the leading "manager" seemed to be showing off, and said loudly: "Young guys, recite the 'ten bans' for our 'new team member' and help him review it."
The team members who followed him looked numb and recited in unison: "The first rule, you must not have abnormal contact with other center personnel in any form, and you must not kill yourself in any form."
Their voices were straight, emotionless, looking straight ahead and marching in unison.
The rules and regulations seemed to have been etched into their retinas with a soldering iron.
"Article 2, do not enter the area clearly marked 'no entry', and only allow activities in the fixed area."
"Article 3..."
"Article 4, except for the distribution of materials, the center personnel are not allowed to carry more than one kilogram of personal items."
"Article 5, any secrets related to the center shall not be disclosed to anyone."
"… "
In the sound of mechanical recitation, the man followed the team like a sheep, moving forward with his head sullen.
It was all snow white.
After being highly technologicalized and institutionalized, this excessive cleanliness gives people a feeling of depression that goes deep into the bone marrow.
The hut he walked out of was like one of the hexagonal nests among countless beehives. The other worker bees were orderly, shuttled, and exhausted their lives, supporting a certain plump queen bee that he might never see in his life.
The "manager" led the team to the accommodation area.
It is said to be a living area, and everyone has a separate room, but each room is only ten square meters square, the door is the bed, and there is a toilet in the corner.
Everyone felt that this place was no different from a prison.
But at least here, everyone is the same.
They don't have to worry about being discriminated against here, and their inner order and peace can be maintained, but they often ignore that the existence of the central control center is discrimination itself.
The "manager" turned around and just wanted to ask which dormitory area the two people who had joined halfway were in, so that they could take them over for business, but there was only one unfamiliar face left in the team.
He asked in surprise: "Where is that person?! Where did he go!!"
…
The man sat beside a computer in the main control room with his fingers flying, stepping on the head of a comatose staff member under his feet, with personal belongings belonging to the man at his hand.
He opened the folders on the computer one by one, not deliberately memorizing them, but just glanced and read them.
At present, he has roughly understood the purpose of the "Catfish" plan from the computer.
The warning light behind the man, which means "there is an accident in the general control center", has been screeching for a long time, but the man doesn't care. Even after completing the task, he has no intention of running away. He picked up the comic book next to him.
On the title page, there are three characters "Lu Xiaomei" written in a crooked round script for children.
It seems that this is the real master of the comics and the daughter of a man.
The man picked up the key in his hand, and once again looked at the little girl standing beside the man on the inferior key chain, smiling with small white teeth.
This is a comic that tells the story of a superhero, but the names of the heroes are all replaced by the word "Lu Qingshu" by this little girl on her own initiative.
The man's name is Lu Qingshu, a name that sounds like the sky.
A person who only has a C-level ability, is embarrassed in front of the enemy, knelt down and cried 'forgive me', 'forgive me', but in this comic, he is invincible.
In the eyes of most children in the world, their father is the first hero in their hearts.
The man flipped through the comics carefully until his neck was numb, and the high-concentration anesthetic was pushed into his body through the syringe on the side of the collar.
... It seems that the general control center has already found out the identity of "Lu Qingshu".
At the moment when the anesthetic was injected, the door behind him was broken open, and a dozen people with poisons filed in.
The man's body slumped like mud.
The captain of the escort team confirmed that he had fallen asleep, and when he waved his hand, the others immediately surrounded him.
The captain stood beside him, rolled his eyelids, his expression condensed.
The "manager" who took him away hurried over, pushed aside the crowd, saw the fainted man, burning with anger, and kicked his body off the chair with one foot: "Fuck! Kill Lao Tzu, ah? If you want to kill Lao Tzu, Lao Tzu will kill you first—"
The captain held out his hand to stop him in silence.
The "man in charge" was burning with anger, but still managed to hold back his anger: "What's the matter with him?"
"He..." the captain said, "still in sleep mode."
The "manager" couldn't understand for a while: "What does this mean?"
The captain's face became more and more ugly: "He has returned to that world."
"Manager": "How is this possible? How did he get back without wearing a helmet and connecting the device?!"
Just as the captain was about to speak, the man lying on the ground suddenly made a sharp and strange sound in his throat, snoring, as if a hole had been broken in his throat.
After a while, he tilted his head to the side, and died out of breath.
The captain and the "man in charge" looked at each other, and an extremely terrifying conjecture emerged in their minds.
... The person who came back just now, was Lu Qingshu
Or in that world... someone else
Could it be that a certain power user robbed Lu Qingshu's body, arrived in the real world, spied on the information he wanted, and then killed him
However, what happened in the end, probably only the dead and the initiator know.
The "manager" was stunned for a moment, took the communicator, and issued a notification in a hasty tone: "Check the landing location chosen by the three-man team where Lu Qingshu is located, find out the ability users who have appeared or have appeared in the area, and send out Three 'catfish' squads, go to clear it!"
"It's been checked!" The man on the other end instructed and asked his subordinates to move the unconscious female "manager" out of the "capsule", stretched out his hand to measure the signs of life of the other two, frowned deeply, and replied, "This team chose the D20 area. Now in this area, there are still signs of psychic activity!"
"Who?"
"Wei Shiliu, the odds are not low for B-level abilities, so it may not be easy to start..."
The "man in charge" stopped and said viciously: "No matter what method you use, kill him. Use him as 'fertilizer'!"
…
"Bai Anyi" was able to reappear by relying on a mirror in Chi Xiaochi's warehouse.
About an hour and ten minutes ago, after deliberation, they decided to send "Bai Anyi" out on a spying mission.
There is no other reason. "Bai Anyi" has a special physique. In the event of an emergency, he can return at any time.
"Bai Anyi" looked around, and the three of them were in a desert oasis.
He didn't see the "observer", so he asked, "Where's Lu Qingshu?"
Chi Xiaochi: "Who?"
"Bai Anyi": "The 'Observer'."
Chi Xiaochi's expression darkened.
Lou Ying replied for him: "He died just now. It was suicide."
"Bai Anyi" frowned.
He remembered very clearly that when Lu Qingshu was first arrested, he burst into tears, shouting that he didn't want to die and begging them to spare him.
Would such a person choose suicide
"After you left, he calmed down a lot. He said that he has a daughter." Chi Xiaochi lowered his eyelids, "He can't go back. If he dies, he will die in the line of duty, and the center will give him a pension, daughter He can also live a little better; if he doesn't die, once he goes back, he will be beaten as a traitor and thrown into prison."
"He said he wanted to die for a long time. Only when he went to bed at night and flipped through his cartoons and thought about his daughter's face, did he survive."
"He was quite nagging and said a lot about his daughter."
"The last sentence he said before he died was, I'm sorry, but I didn't actually want to kill you at all. I killed you just because I wanted to live."
After Lu Qingshu died, Chi Xiaochi used another teleportation card to move them to a new place.
"My brother just studied the collar." Chi Xiaochi said, "He said that although there is no way to block the other functions of the collar, he can at least block the injection of anaesthetics and lethal poisons. Even if they find out that we did it..."
"Even if they find out, they won't easily inject poison to kill people." "Bai Anyi" continued, "It's just a threat. For them, power users are useful fertilizers."
Chi Xiaochi thought thoughtfully: "... Fertilizer?"
He paused and continued: "... Ability users can evolve. Evolution can be done through training, or it can evolve naturally through itself. ... But these two methods are too slow, the most convenient method is to kill the other. A supernatural being."