Chapter 172: Unknown Device and Missed Celebration
the next day.
As the sky brightened, Lin Muyu opened his eyes and woke up with clear vision. After returning to the dormitory last night, he washed up and went to bed, but his biological clock woke him up on time.
Five o'clock is time to leave the city. Considering that there might be something they would be asked to do, the three of them had already prepared to leave early and come back as soon as possible.
After putting on clothes that were convenient for movement and taking out the shovels that had been prepared long ago from their luggage, the three of them met at the side door, looked at each other, and hurried out. Only a faint light was visible from the horizon. The guards at the city gate had already changed shifts, and only a few people were entering and leaving.
Generally, you don't need to register when you go out, but there are often exceptions.
"What are you going to do?"
The guard saw the shovels in their hands, glared at them and asked.
"Let's go dig something." Lin Muyu smiled. "After all, it's a rare place to come. It would be nice to bring some soil and flowers back."
"..." The guard seemed to be hesitant to speak. He paused again and again, not knowing what he had experienced, he shuddered and immediately raised his eyebrows.
He said forcefully: "We don't allow digging graves here!"
Now it was Si Yuan's turn to glare: "Who wants to dig a grave?"
"Misunderstanding." Another guard pushed his colleague aside, "The guy who left the city with a shovel last time was arrested because of this. You are honored guests, so you naturally wouldn't do such a thing. My colleague overreacted a little, please forgive me."
"But let us register, what are you going to do with these things out of the city?"
Ye Yunhe was awakened by what he just said: "...I came to fulfill a friend's last wish. His hometown is nearby, and there is something buried underground."
“…I see.”
The guard quickly wrote down the three people's names and saluted them: "I wish you all the best."
It was a smooth departure.
A few hundred meters out of the city, everything nearby became a little empty, with a few winding paths, straight roads, and forests, which are the most abundant in the apocalypse.
According to what Qi Heng had said, the three of them headed straight south. On the way, they passed several villages on the edge of the safety zone. Only when they stepped out of that safety line did they reach the boy’s hometown.
An area swallowed up by the arrival of black fog, desolate and bleak, can be locked down based on this point.
The journey was very quiet. The three of them walked quickly and lightly, and they had covered a long distance in a short while. It is already daybreak, probably around seven or eight o'clock.
When the three of them stopped, a desolate area appeared in front of them. Dry, dead, and desolate are the most familiar eroded land.
"We're here." Lin Muyu stood on the high ground and looked down at the area. "I didn't expect it to be so big. There should have been several hundred people there."
Now there is not one left.
"Try to solve it before noon." Ye Yunhe put the shovel on his shoulder and jumped down from the pile of dirt. "The three points are located in three directions and are not far away. As long as we lock one, we can find the other two."
Therefore, the best solution is to work together to solve one point first.
The series of directions written down by Qi Heng seemed like an intentional puzzle, or like the boy's final prank. Before this, they had never imagined that one day they would be carrying a shovel and digging in the soil.
After some operations on the stick map, the three of them circled several suspected points, picked up their shovels and started digging. If one was not right, they would switch to the next one. Soon, piles of earth appeared one after another.
"Children shouldn't be that strong, so it's unlikely to go too deep." Lin Muyu inserted the shovel one-third into the soil. "It should be about right to dig here."
"At worst, we can just dig up the land!" Si Yu'an was full of energy. "I've been a donkey for the government, but I've never been a plowing ox!"
Ye Yunhe was speechless.
After so many years, it is useless to judge based on the looseness of the soil. This barren land is really difficult to dig due to the lack of water. Every time the shovel is hit, there is a banging sound. The ability to dig a hole is purely the extraordinary strength of the psychic. The three of them tried and failed one after another, digging from eight o'clock to eleven o'clock, without stopping to catch a breath in the middle, which was no less than high-intensity training.
There were more and more pits and mounds of earth. They didn't seem to be here to dig graves, but to build them.
The sweat dripped onto the ground and was instantly absorbed. The three of them had tacitly changed their plan of "going back before noon" to "going back in the evening". Without a word of complaint, they just continued to work tirelessly until their arms became numb.
I don’t know how much time had passed, the sun was hanging high above their heads, burning the exposed skin of several people. By the time Si and An exerted great force and the tip of the shovel made a sharp sound due to hitting a hard object, they had not yet reacted.
My eardrum hurts a bit. Si Yu'an blinked, pulled out the shovel blankly, and stared at the curled tip of the shovel.
How hard is this thing?
The young man's eyes, whose brown hair was soaked with sweat, lit up instantly. He couldn't stop smiling as he shoveled the dirt aside. He didn't have time to shovel it a second time, so he squatted down and rubbed the pit with his palms until his skin really touched the hardness. Then he laughed and jumped up, jumping and shouting to his teammates.
"I found it! I found it!" Si Yu'an waved his hands vigorously, "Here, here, come and see it!"
The other two were startled, but after hearing his words clearly, their eyes lit up and they ran over quickly.
"Really?!" Ye Yunhe panted and squatted down, and hurriedly touched the indistinct object with his fingertips. It was icy cold and extremely hard. "What is this? It's not what I imagined."
It was not like what one would expect, a small wooden box that a child would bury, containing the most precious toys of their childhood.
"Dig it out first." Lin Muyu pursed her lips to hold back her joy and said decisively.
The three of them then took turns shoveling up the deeply buried object, revealing it - it was a long, cylindrical object with a strange texture and engraved patterns on it. It was so hard that it could hurt your knuckles if you hit it.
Didn't feel any breath. The three of them stared at this thing and suddenly thought that they had dug up the wrong thing.
"...Would a child bury this strange thing in the ground?" Ye Yunhe narrowed his eyes.
"This doesn't look like something a child would bury." Lin Muyu was silent for a few breaths. "It doesn't contain any aura, and it's not a supernatural item. What is this?"
"Is it true? We'll know if we give it a try." Si Yu'an was full of energy again. "We can calculate the other two points. If we can find them, it means we dug them correctly. If not, we'll bring them back to show to the higher-ups."
"Xiao Heng won't harm us anyway."
That makes sense. Ye Yunhe and Lin Muyu looked at each other, picked up their shovels and walked in two directions. Si and An simply sat down on the spot where they were squatting, continuing to poke at the new gadget curiously and wiping off the dirt and dust on it with their sleeves.
The mud and dust fell off with a light wipe, revealing the clean surface underneath. The brown-haired young man frowned and observed closely.
"Ah, that's it." Not far away, Ye Yunhe felt a resistance. She pushed hard with her foot and shoveled the dry soil on it to the side.
The familiar object is exactly the same thing that was just dug out. It looks exactly the same.
At the same time, Lin Muyu also felt the same resistance.
Now it’s confirmed.
It was indeed the “childhood memory” mentioned in the boy’s letter. What do those obviously false yet extremely real memories represent? Could this be related to daylight? As the initiator of the fabricated past for Qi Heng, why did he leave this trace in the boy's past?
What is the purpose of this strange device-like object?
"Whatever it is, let's take it back first." Lin Muyu had no idea what to do. He kicked the long column and bent down to pick it up. "It's better to let a specialist check it out than to let me just let you have your thoughts."
The other two were also confused and had to admit that this was indeed the best way.
“Well, at least it was completed before noon.” Si Yu’an sighed, feeling his mind becoming more and more tangled.
The three of them leaned over and touched the object, pressing their fingertips against the grooves.
Something is wrong.
The originally quiet long column seemed to start up suddenly, with gold flashing across the lines, piercing the eyes and causing pain, and then a violent white light exploded in front of the person, making the person lose consciousness instantly.
A surging yet unfamiliar energy burst out, and as the device was activated, a triangular formation emerged under their feet, which bound the stiff bodies of the three people and held them firmly in place, unable to move. The supernatural power belonging to the psychic spread from the center of the connected points, and a white mist enveloped it.
That is the ability of the illusionary psychic.
This was the last thought that came to my mind. Lin Muyu's eyes went dark and he completely lost consciousness.
…
——
The ceremony started on time.
The grand ceremony, which lasted a whole month and consumed countless manpower, finally opened and started on time on the first day of the new month. With the cheerful symphony playing and the people on the stage dancing joyfully, it was a grand scene combining the East and the West.
Salutes and cheers resounded, and people gathered in the audience without distinction. People with special abilities and ordinary people gathered together and applauded. There was chaos and disorder, and the laughter was lively and extraordinary.
President Bai Ye and the senior executives sat on both sides, also talking about various matters with a smile. Under the influence of the atmosphere, all the worries disappeared and everyone felt relaxed.
The city gates were opened and closed for the ceremony, leaving only a few guards standing on the high walls to watch over them. Even though they couldn't turn around to enjoy the performance before the opening ceremony, they still curled the corners of their lips and repeatedly glanced at everything below.
This remote city welcomes any companions. Everyone linked hands as if they had met too late, and jumped up and down imitating the dance on the stage. People with special abilities were no different from ordinary people. People gathered together to enjoy the rare holiday. The end of the world needs such a carnival.
Countless fireworks exploded in the sky, some specially made to display brilliant colors even in the daytime. The energy they scattered was like points of light, falling on people's heads and being caught in their palms, giving off a faint warmth.
"Where are Xiaoye and the others?!" In such an occasion, Qin You had to shout loudly to make the other party hear his voice. He asked, "I haven't seen those three since yesterday!"
The officer who was being grabbed also opened his mouth and shouted: "I don't know either!!"
"The gatekeeper said they're back! They had other things to do anyway! Maybe they're already somewhere in the ceremony!"
After all, it is the most grand event, there is no reason not to participate. Although Bai Ye’s management is very free and relaxed, it does not require everyone to be present, just do as you wish. But based on the officer's understanding of the trio, they were not the kind of people who would not participate in the ceremony out of loneliness.
The guard in charge of the city gate also confirmed that the three people had returned. They were carrying muddy shovels and looked unhappy. The three clear names on the list were crossed out because they had returned to the city.
So, the most likely possibility is that the trio is already in some corner watching the performance on stage. This is the bad thing about freedom. It is so bad that even the seats are allocated arbitrarily, and finding someone is as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack.
"Okay!!!" Qin You responded with a hoarse voice, "Then I'll try to make a few more calls! Maybe it's too noisy here and I didn't hear the ringtone!!"
"Unbutton my collar first! How disrespectful!"
But even Lin Muyu’s call couldn’t be reached?
The officer narrowed his eyes, feeling strange. The kid didn't seem like such a careless person. Logically speaking, his call was the most reliable among the three. He would answer the call no matter how noisy the situation was as long as nothing happened.
An intuitive feeling of uneasiness arises. He straightened his wrinkled collar. It just so happens that there is nothing to do right now. Instead of watching the show with a smile, I might as well dispel the anxiety in my heart and go look for the traces of those three people.
It would be terrible if something really happened. The current information was too scarce to perform supernatural calculations. If the people above knew about it, the happy event would turn into a bad one. He didn't even dare to imagine what that scene would be like.
"...Hey, hey, please let me pass, I'm about to be squeezed to death by you." The officer complained vaguely.
The most urgent task is to squeeze out of this overly free field and avoid being squeezed into the position of a governor.zip.
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