Chapter 40: Ghost Story Protection Organization (1) He heard the voice of longing...
I think this might be a bit too aggressive.
The system didn't expect that Fei was still talking to someone not long ago, looking like he was going to make a thorough plan, but in the blink of an eye, he was already standing in a corridor somewhere, with the corners of his dark gray clothes floating past his eyes as he walked.
This was the U's headquarters building, and Fei, disguised as a poet, naturally walked right in. "I don't know when the next good opportunity like this will come. I don't have that much time."
[…I see you’ve been quite relaxed lately.]
"That's too much. Stop spreading rumors."
Back when Kwaidan first began to appear, and the Operations Department had just been established, the game's U Guild attempted to turn to real-world development, active in various places under the name of the Kwaidan Protection Organization, and like the Operations Department, chose City A as its headquarters.
Shen Que, who was the first to learn the news, decided to take the initiative and took away most of the intelligence of the U organization, including but not limited to the specific structure of each stronghold and the approximate capabilities of the members. If the other party dared to come to them, they would dismantle the stronghold.
Fei said it was not very moral, but he actually remembered things faster than anyone else, especially the blind spots of the headquarters surveillance.
But it seems that it is of no use now. Fei had specially read the poet's memory before coming here, and since the poet was unconscious, it was convenient for him.
"So are we planning to steal the house?" The system, which had never done anything bad, was particularly excited and ready to make a move. "Great, and Wine's not here. When he comes back and finds his organization is gone, he'll be furious!"
Fei corrected it with a smile: "What do you mean by stealing? We are here as representatives of the Pyramid to conduct an inspection of the U and exchange experiences with members of other organizations."
System: [Okay, okay, I understand :P]
Fei's fingertips slid across the wall, tearing a dark crack. He had no intention of repairing it at all. He stepped into the elevator and didn't even glance at the other members' careful greetings. His arrogance was natural.
He took out an ID card without paying attention to the people around him, and placed it on the identification area for scanning. Then several buttons at the bottom lit up, and he pressed the button for the negative tenth floor.
Only core members are eligible to enter the underground area of U, which is the control area of the ghost story.
The so-called control area looks more like a research laboratory focused on experiments. In addition to strange stories, those independent spaces also have a variety of instruments and equipment. The jumping values are detecting the status in real time, attempting to go beyond the framework of rules.
The researchers were walking hurriedly, and one of them walked up to him. "You're back. Where's your consciousness?"
"With the counselor." Fei was very frugal with words. He chose to disguise himself as a poet because this guy was a quiet guy and the few people he was close to were not here. After all, the more he talked, the more mistakes he made. If he changed his mindset, he would definitely be exposed.
"Okay." The man on the other side was used to his attitude and gestured for him to follow him downstairs. "The boss just sent a message saying he'll be back tomorrow morning. He also said you should try out the parasitic butterfly's suitability. If it works, you can take it with you on missions later."
Wine is coming back soon. Fei originally planned to release the ghost story to create some chaos, but he has changed his mind now. It is more convenient to capture the leader of U first than to hollow it out from the inside.
He was about to agree when the other party seemed to remember something and said, "By the way, did you run into Fei? It sounds like the operation went quite smoothly. Did he not stop you?"
Fei himself, who was standing next to him, said: "No, he doesn't seem to be very interested in the control of this strange story."
"Really?... Isn't he very partial to the Operations Department? He was surprisingly indifferent this time. It seems that he's bored by that group, which gives us an opportunity."
"Maybe."
"Since the boss isn't here, let me ask you something. Didn't our boss have a grudge against Fei? He kept harassing Fei during that ghost story game. Is he so resentful, but is he letting go of the ghost story?"
"I don't know, go ask Wine."
"If I really ask, I'll be beheaded. Besides, the boss really pays a lot. I really don't want to leave. If he hadn't offered such good conditions, I would have gone to the Operations Department long ago."
Fei replied sternly: "Then you still have a chance to turn back."
The researcher declined. "No, the Operations Department is mostly full of serious scientific research enthusiasts, unlike people like me who just want to get paid. This place is more suitable for me."
Only those who are directly employed by Wine would be called "boss". How could the person he is interested in be a talentless loser? This person is not as arrogant as the other members.
"We're here. The parasitic butterfly is in the innermost room. You go there first... Wait, don't go in directly! The butterfly is poisonous!"
Seeing that he had completed the identification and walked in, the researcher didn't even have time to change into protective clothing and hurried over. Then he was completely stunned by Fei's action of catching the flying butterfly in his hand.
The parasitic butterfly struggling in Fei's palm: "..."
Researcher: "...Aren't you afraid of being parasitized?"
He rushed forward and forcefully pried open Fei's clenched hands. Unexpectedly, the butterfly did not take advantage of the situation to dive into his skin. Instead, it landed above the faint lines on his palm, quietly flapping its gorgeous dark blue wings.
A kind of extreme beauty that reveals a strangeness, the complex patterns on the butterfly wings seem to be ready to devour people.
"Don't keep staring at the butterfly's wings." Fei reminded the dazed researcher. He raised his other hand and picked up the little butterfly that was clinging to his palm and refused to leave.
Parasitic butterflies are different from real butterflies. Adults will always go through a second growth phase, but this one is obviously in the stage of having just emerged from its cocoon. The patterns on its wings have not yet been fully formed, so the impact is minimal.
The compound eyes on the butterfly's head were very small and difficult to see clearly from a close distance, but Fei could still feel its gaze.
He heard the cry of "Lord" that longed for shelter.
Fei couldn't tell for a moment whether it had chosen him as the parasitic mother again, or simply liked to call him that. After all, it had always been like this in the game before, and the strange story of the butterfly form further magnified the animal's sensitive perception.
No matter if he was frightened, approached or tempted by the ghost story, Fei's reaction was always calm. He pinched the butterfly's wings and refused the request for blood feeding.
Fei had been parasitized by it once before. After all, that dungeon started with forced parasitism, and no player could avoid it.
The larvae of parasitic butterflies are very small before hatching. The cold flesh will stick to the skin and crawl slowly, then drill into the warm blood vessels, where they are wrapped in the flowing blood and secrete toxins that are deadly enough.
Those toxins will paralyze people's nerves, making them unaware of their body's weaknesses, even if their organs are completely eaten away and their bones are crushed, until their entire body becomes as light as cotton, no longer able to support simple breathing and walking.
The larvae, which had received sufficient nutrition, completed their metamorphosis in the player's body, and only then did they break out of their emaciated bodies. Bright red liquid gushed out from the torn wounds, soaking the parasite's thin wings, but it would not leave immediately.
The player who is the "cocoon" is its last nutrient.
The copy was full of such parasitic butterflies, and in the end only Fei survived.
At that time, the skin on the wrist would bulge slightly due to the invasion of the parasite, and the controlled larvae were hiding underneath, but they dared not move. Fei pressed the protruding small bag with his fingertips, as if to force it out and crush it, even if it would dirty his hands.
The larvae squeezed out a few unidentified sounds, and chaotic and disordered tones entered his ears. He heard the pleading but simply tore open the skin and pulled the worm out.
Fei seemed to feel no pain. He stared at the larvae, and his eyes stopped blinking physiologically. He seemed to be thinking about how to deal with it under the circumstances that the rules required him not to kill it. The broken wound on his wrist quickly healed to its original shape.
It’s hard to tell whether this strange story or Fei himself with a frozen expression is more bizarre.
The larvae that parasitized the player were a part of the separated consciousness. Fei did some superficial work in the dungeon and fed it a few drops of blood. In a few days, the larvae became shriveled.
Adult insects will retain their past memories. Fei didn't expect that when he saw the parasitic butterfly again, it not only didn't hide but also actively stuck to him.
"I took him away." Fei began to make up stories seriously, and he lied as soon as he opened his mouth. "The consultant planned to raid the headquarters of the Operations Department, and I went to support him."
He attached the butterfly consciousness to his sleeve, letting it quietly serve as an overly vivid decorative cufflink.
The researcher didn't think much about it and waved his hand to tell people to leave quickly. Fei stepped into the elevator and was about to use the props to leave here, but suddenly a hand stretched out stopped the door from closing further. He raised his eyes and faced the researcher who caught up with him without asking any extra questions.
On the contrary, the people around him were chattering non-stop, completely different from the image of those tired people who kept their heads down and worked all day. "How could I forget again? The data I need is still upstairs. What's the point of having so many floors?"
"Boss, why didn't you come back a few days later and notify me in advance? My experiment is still far behind..."
The researcher's chattering came to an end when the elevator chimed to indicate it had arrived at the corresponding floor.
Cotton's words rolled back into his chest. He looked at the two people outside the elevator in disbelief, making sure he wasn't mistaken. They were indeed the counselor and the poet. Then what about the person next to him... ?
In a flash, a name popped into his mind. He turned his head stiffly, as dull as a rusty clockwork doll, and his voice was just as stiff: "How did you manage to become like him..."
Fei, exposed in front of his eyes, had no intention of biting back. His hand touched the parasitic butterfly and he forced a false smile. "I'm glad you got rid of those people. It happened faster than I thought. You came back early."
The butterfly flew away from his palm, its scales scattered, and the poison began to paralyze the nerves, making people dizzy. Fei reached out and supported the researcher who was limp in time and pushed him out.
The conversion ball flipped between his fingers, but it didn't work as expected. As the elevator door closed again, an abrupt message alert sounded. He stuffed the prop into his pocket and took out his phone. An unfamiliar text message was hanging in the notification bar.
[You have fifteen minutes, come to the 19th floor.]
From some annoying guy.
Fei decisively clicked into the message interface and blocked the number. He was so proficient in it that it didn't seem like he'd ever done it before. The system felt like he'd been harassed for quite a while. [Didn't you say you had no offline contact with U's people? How did you block them so easily?]
"Yeah, there really is no contact. It's just something that happened by chance. Before, when I was in the game, I was one of their people who organized me. Whenever someone sent me a friend request, I would block them."
system:【……】
System: [That's good.]
Fei, who didn't care, was still chatting with it: "Do you think I will see Wine himself or the possessed one later?"
System: [Wine, this infuriating, imperative tone shouldn't belong to the game's main system.]
Fei had the same idea as it did.
Because the overall system of the ghost story game is a guy who likes to pretend to be friendly.
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The author has something to say: Butterfly: I dare not move, I am weak, helpless and pitiful, please hold me close.
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