There are no windows in the carriage, only a row of pale and cold LED lights overhead. The air is filled with a faint smell of disinfectant, mixed with a little "pressure" that is indescribable in Chen Mo, as if the metal shell of this car is lined with some special material.
Chen Yu was lying on a foldable stretcher opposite, still in a coma, but his face was better than before, and his breathing was much smoother. A medical staff member wearing an association uniform and a mask is examining her with a portable instrument, and the waveforms and data on the screen of the instrument are silently beating.
Chen Mo sat on a fixed hard chair, and his wrists were buckled by a pair of seemingly ordinary black metal rings with complex lines on the inside. The ring is very light and has no keyhole. When it is put on, it will automatically tighten to the tightness that fits the skin but does not oppress. He tried to move his wrist, but the metal ring did not move, and there was a slight sting and warning from the ear nail immediately: [Restricted relic: the ring of silence. Restrain the active resonance between the contractor and the relic. Physical damage may trigger countermeasures. ]
His backpack, including the ancient mirror fragments inside, was placed in a transparent sealed box at the front of the carriage. Two male field workers sat opposite and on the side of him, silent as a mountain, their eyes fell on him like searchlights, with undisguised examination and alert.
Only the woman wearing half a metal mask, sitting in the co-pilot position, with her back to him, seems to be consulting or contacting something through the screen in front of her. She occasionally looks at Chen Mo through the rearview mirror, and her eyes under the mask are as calm as observing an experimental sample.
The vehicle was running smoothly, but Chen Mo couldn't judge the direction and destination at all. The sense of time has also become blurred in this closed and depressed space. He can only pieced together some fragments about this "pretender association" through the intermittent information flow from the earrings:
[… The Masquerade Association, or TMA for short …]
[… was founded at the beginning of the global' strange recovery' symptoms (about 30 years ago) …]
[… Purpose: to contain, study and control the' unspeakable' and its derivatives, and maintain the stability of the world order …]
[… Structure: Supreme Council (location unknown), regional councils, regional operations department, research department, logistics and intelligence department, etc …]
[… known attitude towards contractors: compulsory registration, evaluation and control. Take containment, surveillance, employment or … removal measures according to the threat level. ]
Hire? Clear?
Chen Mo's heart sank. He and his sister are now fish on the chopping block.
After about forty minutes' driving (estimated by Chen Mo), the vehicle slowed down and stopped. The back door of the carriage slides open, and there is an underground garage outside. The light is the same cold white, simple and empty. The smell of disinfectant in the air is stronger.
"Get off." The co-pilot woman turned around, her voice still steady.
Chen Mo was "asked" to get off by two field workers. Chen Yu's stretcher was also pushed down by medical staff. They enter an elevator that needs fingerprint and iris verification, and get off.
When the elevator door opened again, there was a wide and bright white corridor in front of us. The walls are smooth and seamless, and the ground is made of non-slip light gray material. There are sealed metal doors at regular intervals, with only numbers and a small indicator light on them. Occasionally, people in white coats or gray uniforms pass by in a hurry. When they see Chen Mo and others, especially Chen Mo wearing a silent ring and Chen Yushi in a coma, their eyes are mostly curious, alert or indifferent, not surprised, and they seem to be used to it.
This is a stronghold or facility of the association. A cold nest hidden under the normal world to deal with "anomalies"
They were taken to a room marked "C-7 Evaluation Room". The room is very big, separated into two parts by a huge one-way glass. There is only one metal chair in Chen Mo, which is fixed on the floor in the middle of the room, with a shadowless lamp overhead. Chen Yu was pushed into the other side of the glass, which seemed to be a medical observation area, and there were more instruments and people wearing protective clothing waiting.
"Sit down." The masked woman motioned Chen Mo to sit in that chair. Two field workers stood behind him left and right.
Chen Mo sat down and the metal chair was cold. He looked at the one-way glass, trying to see his sister's condition, but only saw his pale and anxious reflection.
The masked woman walked up to him, pulled up an ordinary chair and sat down, looking at him. Up close, Chen Mo can see her half metal mask more clearly. The mask is extremely fine in workmanship, the edge fits perfectly with the skin, the material is non-gold and non-iron, and it is matte. It is etched with extremely fine lines like a circuit board, and there is a faint streamer passing through it. The lower part of her face is graceful, her lips are thin and pale, and now she is sipping into a straight line.
"Chen Mo, 25 years old, the city museum cultural relics restoration division. Permanent deafness in both ears caused by a car accident three years ago. " She spoke, her voice was processed by some device in the mask, and with a slight sense of electronic synthesis sound quality, she stated without any waves, "Sister Chen Yu, 19 years old, is a freshman in S .. My parents died unexpectedly eight years ago. "
She knows them better than Chen Mo expected.
"About fifteen hours ago, the activity of the' remnants of the logical collapse of Yuelai Opera House'-the file number C-714' Faceless Woman'-increased abnormally, and the influence scope broke through the historical record, resulting in at least three ordinary people being transformed into secondary derivatives (faceless people) and more than 20 people suffering from different degrees of cognitive pollution. Among them, including your sister Chen Yu. "
She paused, her eyes sharp as a knife: "And you, Chen Mo, a deaf person who is most susceptible to the mirror logic of' faceless woman' in theory, not only went deep into the core of its field, destroyed the key logical media, and rescued the victims of deep pollution, but also showed abnormal resistance to' conceptual pollution' and even ... suspected to have the resonance ability of' relics'."
Her eyes once again fell on the stud in Chen Mo's left ear: "Can you explain? This earring, and all your experiences from last night to this morning. Don't miss any details, especially what you' perceive'. "
Chen Mo was silent. What should he say? Memories of saying you can touch things? Said the earrings spoke directly in his head? Said you could see weird logical chains? These sounds more like the gibberish of a psychopath. Moreover, it is not known whether the other party is an enemy or a friend, so it is not wise to reveal too many cards.
"I ... don't quite understand what you're saying." Chen Mo weighed the words and tried to look confused and tired. "My sister is missing. I found the abandoned cinema according to the clues. It was dark and there were many mirror fragments. I saw a strange person (he didn't say faceless), and I was frightened, so I smashed the mirror and ran out behind my sister's back ... As for this earring, it was an old thing I found when I repaired an antique, and I wore it for fun." He evaded the important part and concealed the most important part.
The masked woman looked at him quietly, and the corners of her mouth under the mask seemed to move slightly. I don't know if it was sarcasm or something else.
"Wearing it for fun?" She repeated slowly, then raised her hand and pointed to the mask on her face. "Do you think I wear this for fun, too?"
Chen Mo zheng.
"Mr. Chen Mo, you may not fully understand your situation." Her voice was a little cold. "Your sister Chen Yu is now in a state of deep cognitive coverage. Although you destroyed the direct media and temporarily interrupted the process, the pollution has penetrated into her consciousness. Conventional medical methods are ineffective. In the next 24 to 72 hours, her memory will continue to be disordered and her self-cognition will collapse. Eventually, she may become a vegetable, or ... worse, she will become an unstable humanoid pollution source. "
Chen Mo's heart shrank with a jerk, and she looked at her sister in a coma on the other side of the glass, her fingers clasping the edge of the chair.
"And you?" The masked woman continued, "The Ring of Silence can only inhibit your ability to actively use relics, but it can't inhibit your body that has been eroded by concepts. The abnormal bleeding and swelling of your left ear, as well as the' logical residual sound' detected by our instrument and slowly accumulating in your body, all prove that you are already a' contractor'. An unguided and uncontrolled contractor, like an untimely bomb, may collapse at any time due to increased erosion, or be attracted and manipulated by a more powerful' unspeakable', causing greater damage. "
She leaned forward slightly, and invisible pressure came to her face: "The association's handling process for such situations is very clear. For pollution victims, according to the degree of pollution, isolation observation, memory intervention or ... permanent asylum shall be adopted. For unregistered and uncooperative contractors, after assessing the threat level, it is usually mandatory to take in research, or to carry out' purification' when it is confirmed that it is highly dangerous and uncontrollable. "
Purification ... Chen Mo understood the smell of blood behind this word.
"Now," the masked woman leaned back in her chair, her tone was a little slow, but the content was still cold. "I'll give you two choices. First, keep silent, and we will deal with you and Chen Yu according to standard procedures. Second, confess everything and cooperate with our evaluation and testing. If your ability and value are recognized, you and Chen Yu can both obtain the qualification of "temporary members" and accept control and supervision, but at the same time they can also get the necessary treatment, training and resources. Chen Yu's pollution also has the opportunity to be controlled or even reversed through the technology of the association. "
She held up two fingers: "The choice is yours. But there is not much time. The longer Chen Yu's situation drags on, the lower the possibility of reversal. "
Threatening, luring, naked in front of you.
Chen Mo looked at her sister's pale face in the glass, thinking of her last "elder brother" whose vocal cords were crying. Think of the years when their parents died and they lived alone. Think of her always heartless smile, think of her always stew a little salty soup.
He had no choice.
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and when he opened them again, there was only a tired frankness and a determination to cross the rubicon.
"Well, I said." His voice is hoarse. "But how do I know that after I say it, you will really help my sister?"
The masked woman seemed to have expected it. She took out a flat metal box from the inside pocket of the uniform and opened it. There was a syringe filled with light blue clear liquid and a silver metal pill sealed with wax and the size of soybeans.
"This is a disposable injection of' memory anchor' and a supporting' anchor'." She pushed the box onto the small table in front of Chen Mo. "After the injection, with specific' anchors'-usually high-definition photos and images of people or things that are most important to infected people-a stable' coordinate' can be established in their consciousness, temporarily resisting the erosion and coverage of cognitive pollution and striving for treatment time. This is one of the most effective emergency measures for this kind of pollution, and it is of great value. "
She looked at Chen Mo: "As long as your next statement is basically true after polygraph and logical verification, and the initial evaluation value is positive, I can apply for Chen Yu's use immediately. This is sincerity. "
Chen Mo stared at the pale blue liquid, then at the silver pill. There is no warning from the ear nail, which means that this thing has at least no immediate harm.
"... good." He finally nodded.
The next hour, Chen Mo began to tell. From his ability to get "touch echo" after the car accident, to receiving the entrustment of repairing the ancient mirror, to the fact that the studio encountered faceless Lao Li last night, he saw black words, whispers and contract information through the fragments of the ancient mirror, inferred the logical chain of "faceless woman", broke into the cinema, dealt with the faceless cleaner, smashed the mirror and rescued Chen Yu ... In addition to hiding that "whispering earrings" can actively provide information base and more detailed logical chain (this)
During the narration, the masked woman listened very carefully and occasionally interrupted to ask some details, such as the specific "feeling" of black words, the wording characteristics of ear nail whispers, and the accurate description of the behavior pattern of faceless people. Two field workers were recording on a nearby console, and various sensors hidden in the room were obviously working.
When Chen Mo said that he finally rushed out of the cinema and was intercepted by them, his statement ended.
The masked woman was silent for a moment, as if digesting the information. Then she pressed her ear somewhere and whispered a few words. Soon, a researcher dressed up sent in a report that had just been printed.
She scanned the report quickly, and her eyes stayed on several data for a long time. In the end, she looked up at Chen Mo's eyes, with less scrutiny and more complicated meaning, such as ... surprise and a trace of regret?
"The polygraph and logic verification passed. The fluctuation of physiological indicators is highly consistent with the content of the statement. " She put down the report, her voice was still steady, but she spoke a little faster. "Chen Mo, you are more special and troublesome than I thought."
"What do you mean?"
"First of all, make sure that you have become a' contractor'. The contract relic is preliminarily judged as [whispering earrings] (temporarily named), and the type is perception/information. Danger level: to be evaluated (low aggressiveness and high erosivity at present). Your' touch echo' ability is probably not a sequela of a car accident, but a potential and uninspired talent that appears and strengthens after contact with [whispering earrings]. " She paused. "More importantly, according to the accuracy of your description of the logical chain of' faceless women' and the performance that you can analyze and find a way out in a short time ... your ability of' logical perception' and' analytical adaptation' is extremely high among contractors of the same type. This is rare and valuable. "
Value ... Chen Mo captured the word. Does this mean that he and his sister are safe for the time being?
"The light rain ..."
"I will immediately apply for using the' memory anchor'." The masked woman stood up and picked up the metal box. "But you have to understand that this is just an emergency measure, not a cure. To really solve her problem, we need to find a more thorough way, such as completely removing the logical residue of' faceless girl' or using more advanced relics to' purify the concept'. This requires time, resources and ... contribution. "
Contribution. Chen Mo got it. This is for him to work for the association.
"In the meantime, you and Chen Yu will stay here for further inspection, evaluation and basic training. After confirming the controllability and signing the agreement, you will obtain the status of' temporary field assistant' and be directly supervised by me. " She walked to the door, stopped and tilted her head. "By the way, introduce yourself. Su Yat-sen, the seventh division of the Pretender Association, is the captain of the third squad of the Field Action Group. "
She pointed to the mask on her face: "My contract relic, [camouflage mask] (type: mimicry/rule imitation). The price is that every time I use it, it will consume my own sense of existence. The more you use it, the lighter the' trace' will be in other people's memory and even in reality. Until one day, it may disappear completely, no one remembers me, and the world never existed. "
Her tone was as calm as talking about other people's business, but the coldness and loneliness contained in it chilled Chen Mo's heart. Is this the price of the contractor? What will be your ultimate price? Completely deaf? Or ... Forget yourself?
Sue yat sen villa finally saw his one eye: "Remember, Chen Mo. Here, knowledge and strength come with a price. If you want to protect something, you must first have the consciousness of paying the price. "
After that, she opened the door and took the "memory anchor" injection to the medical area on the other side of the glass.
Chen Mo sitting alone in a cold metal chair, looking at Sue yat sen villa's back, looking at the glass after the medical staff began to busy, looking at the light blue liquid was slowly pushed into my sister's vein.
The ring of silence still locked his wrist, and the earrings were faintly hot in silence.
He knows that from this moment on, his life will completely enter a dark and unknown track. For the sake of his sister, he had no choice.