Chapter 128 Madness (6000 words)
Seven-day unconditional return?
Although Hong Chengdong didn't quite understand the mysterious words from Chen Fan's mouth, he still understood one thing: his "investment" might fail!
Of course, words can't be said absolutely.
As many salvagers have tasted the sweetness on the ground, the team of underground city salvagers is gradually expanding.
There are too many monks and too little porridge.
Compared with the past, the ground resources around the Kukan underground city have been greatly reduced.
In the past, he only needed to pick up some "garbage" around to get a lot of gains, but now, he can only choose to ambush the drones of the intelligent machines to get a good return!
If this continues, if they want to get more resources, they will have to go to the "no man's land" far away from the Kukan underground city passage.
At that time, they will inevitably have a head-on conflict with the intelligent machines!
Therefore, these powerful weapons are not useless.
Watching the warehouse door slowly close, Hong Chengdong silently comforted himself in his heart.
And Chen Fan, also retracted his gaze again, ready to turn around and leave this underground city with an astonishing amount of work.
Suddenly, a shrill roar came from the shantytown not far away!
The rough roar did not sound like a human voice. It was hard to imagine how much pain the person who made the roar would have to suffer to make such a beastly roar!
Chen Fan paused and subconsciously turned his head to look in the direction of the roar.
It was a shantytown made of thin iron sheets, which also belonged to the outer city and was the territory of salvage people and hyenas.
Like Chen Fan, pedestrians walking on the concrete road stopped and cast their eyes in the direction of the roar.
The next second.
With the clanging sound of iron sheets colliding, a man with disheveled hair and a layer of tattered linen clothes casually wrapped around his body rushed out of a shabby shantytown made of thin iron sheets with messy steps!
Under Chen Fan's gaze, the man staggered and knelt on the rough concrete road, hammering the back of his head with his rough hands full of calluses, while crawling forward on his knees.
"Shut up!"
The man pounded his head hard, screaming some vague words: "Be quiet!!!"
"I told you to be quiet!!!"
There was silence all around, and the streets were silent.
But the man still screamed similar words.
What did he hear?
A little confusion quickly emerged in Chen Fan's mind.
The cement road in the outer city was not flat. The broken stones and cracks on the potholes instantly pierced the man's knees. In just a few seconds, a bloodstain with a color from light to dark appeared on the ground!
The strange man seemed to think that his fist was not strong enough, and even picked up a sharp, fist-sized stone from the ground and smashed it hard on his hard head.
The moment the scalp was pierced, the bright red blood, under the action of blood pressure, was like a slender fountain, gushing out from the top of the man's head!
Feeling the warm blood spraying on his body, the man was not panicked at all. Instead, he slowly pulled the corners of his mouth and showed an extremely creepy smile in the direction of Chen Fan.
Facing this strange smile, Chen Fan subconsciously took a half step back, and a layer of fine and dense cold sweat instantly appeared on his back.
What the hell...what's going on?
[This machine thinks this is just a coincidence.]
Yi's voice sounded in Chen Fan's mind.
Coincidence?
Chen Fan turned his head and looked around. Except for Hong Chengdong standing next to him, there was almost nothing worth noting nearby?
Could it be that...the man was actually looking at Hong Chengdong?
Chen Fan's mind moved, and the silver-white smart terminal appeared in his right hand. Not only that, the outline of PW-1 also appeared in his palm.
Seeing the auxiliary virtual crosshairs provided by Yi appear in front of him, Chen Fan suddenly felt a little more confident.
The ancients were not deceiving me!
Insufficient firepower is the source of all fear.
If you encounter any problems, you might as well try to increase the equivalent.
While Chen Fan was calm, the man not far away slowly turned his head and cast his dull eyes on the concrete floor in front of him, as if he was brewing some ideas.
Chen Fan also took the opportunity to cast his eyes on the pedestrians who were standing silently by the side.
With just a casual glance, Chen Fan was surprised to find a strange phenomenon:
the eyes of these pedestrians were either surprised, or regretful, or worried...
but there was no fear at all!
Not only was there no fear, he even saw some numbness on the faces of some pedestrians! It
seemed...
the terrifying scene in front of them was just an extremely ordinary little thing for them!
Looking at the few salvage workers who were busy with their work not far away, Chen Fan's premonition became stronger: this underground city still hides something he doesn't know!
Just as Chen Fan was about to ask Hong Chengdong, a sense of dizziness without any warning swept over!
The strange murmur that appeared several times also rang in his mind again.
Along with the murmur, there appeared the familiar sense of emptiness. It
was still the familiar formula, and the familiar taste.
Just like the previous few times, Chen Fan once again felt that his mind was thrown into the vast and strange time and space!
In addition to the extremely obscure whispers in my ears, there were also continuous screams of pain coming from afar.
The whispers became stronger and stronger, and strings of meaningless characters began to appear uncontrollably in Chen Fan's mind!
Just when Chen Fan's discomfort was about to reach an unbearable peak, the painful roar stopped abruptly, and the obscure whispers also dissipated rapidly like a passing cloud.
Not only that, those strange and meaningless words also quickly faded out of his mind.
Everything just now seemed to be just a dream!
Only the strong dizziness and the remaining sense of exile reminded him that everything was not an illusion.
"...Brother Fan? Brother Fan?!"
A familiar shout came from his ears, pulling his scattered consciousness back to the real world.
He opened his eyes, and the first thing that caught his eye was Gao Yuan's shiny and full forehead and the mechanical prosthetic eye flashing a faint red light under the black hood.
"No... It's okay." Chen Fan took a breath of cool air, shook his still dizzy head, and stood up from the cold and hard ground.
"You just fainted." Yisha, who was following Gao Yuan, reminded him softly, "Yi said that you accidentally connected to the inter-universe broadcast channel again."
Chen Fan frowned and asked Yi in his heart: 'Yi? Is that true? '
[Indeed. ]
The electronic synthesized voice sounded in his mind: [According to the monitoring results of this machine, your state just now is no different from the previous few times. ]
'But... I didn't hear the communication information of the human connection this time. '
[This universe bubble is in a desolate area, and there are almost no other universe bubbles around. ]
[The frequency of inter-universe broadcasts in uninhabited areas is relatively low, and it is normal to occasionally not hear it. ]
Chen Fan nodded thoughtfully, as if he accepted Yi's explanation.
But...
I don't know why, Chen Fan always feels that something is wrong.
Especially when he thinks of the time when the dizziness and obscure whispers appeared, his uneasiness in his heart became more and more intense-just when the man fell into madness, he entered that mysterious state. Wouldn't the two be too coincidental?
Or...
there is a certain potential connection between the two?
Chen Fan, who felt a throbbing pain in the back of his head, subconsciously raised his hand and prepared to tap the back of his head gently.
According to the experience of entering the inter-universe broadcast several times before, doing so can slightly relieve the uncomfortable feeling. As soon as he
raised his hand, he caught a glimpse of the man lying in a pool of blood not far away.
Chen Fan's movements froze in place, and an inexplicable sense of horror surged into his heart.
What the hell...
Isn't the action he is about to do now the same as the man's previous behavior?
It's just that the man's actions are more intense than his.
Thinking of the vague words in the man's mouth, Chen Fan's horror became stronger!
Could it be that...
this man, like him, also heard the obscure whisper?
...
Chen Fan suddenly raised his head and cast his eyes on the man who had roared in pain not far away: "That person..."
"He's dead."
Hong Chengdong sighed beside him: "It's so unlucky. I didn't expect that this madness would find him this time..."
"Madness? This time?"
Chen Fan frowned.
The amount of information hidden in just one sentence is too huge!
"Yes, madness." Hong Chengdong nodded and explained with a sigh, "People in the underground city call it that."
"Once you get this disease, the whole person will first become weird, as if talking to someone."
"Then he will fall into madness." Hong Chengdong pointed at the body in the pool of blood, "Look, just like him. It's so quiet around him, but he kept asking people not to talk."
"The last step is to kill himself."
"Everyone who has madness dies in a very similar way. They either smash their heads with something or commit suicide by hitting the wall..."
"Anyway, it's all related to the head."
Chen Fan fell into silence.
It would be fine if he didn't associate this symptom. Once he associated it, he realized the problem-isn't this the reaction when hearing those obscure whispers? !
"Is this madness contagious?"
Chen Fan asked in a panic.
Hong Chengdong nodded, then shook his head: "I don't know if it's contagious, but every once in a while this weird madness appears in the dungeon."
"In the past, the intervals were quite long, maybe only once every few years or even more than ten years."
"But recently, this madness has appeared more and more frequently."
"Just a few days ago, I heard that someone in the next underground city got mad and died."
[It may be a unique psychological disease caused by the gradual scarcity of resources in the underground city, just like mechanical sexuality. ]
Yi gave a guess: [According to the records of the Academy of Social Sciences, many life forms will show similar symptoms of varying severity when resources are extremely scarce. ]
Is it really a madness caused by scarcity of resources and excessive pressure?
Chen Fan didn't agree with this statement.
Recalling the strange look the man gave him and the extremely coincidental obscure whisper, he had a bad premonition in his heart.
"I remember it!"
Suddenly, Isa, who had been standing beside Chen Fan, exclaimed in a low voice: "Such a thing happened in Varela City!"
"More than ten years ago, when I just became a deacon of the church, there was also a person in Varela City who was infected with this madness."
"Just like Uncle Dong said, that person also showed the same symptoms."
Isa hesitated for a moment and continued: "But... he didn't develop to the last step."
Chen Fan's eyes moved, and he suddenly felt a little excited.
"Did he survive?"
"That's not the case." Isa shook her head without hesitation. "The archbishop thought it was the work of evil spirits, and sent some guards to forcibly send the man to the execution platform before he started to hurt himself."
Chen Fan: "..."
In order to prevent people from committing suicide, they killed the other party first, right?
Fuck, what a joke in hell!
"Yes, yes, yes!" Gao Yuan, who was frowning and recalling carefully, heard Isa's description and immediately remembered the scene at that time. "I still remember that man was still loudly clarifying his identity, but no one believed him at all."
"This kind of thing happened in Varela City..." Looking at the search interface in the holographic projection in front of him, Chen Fan murmured in a low voice, "There is no relevant record in the library."
"Isn't there enough things sealed by the church?" The wide black hood shook gently, and a somewhat angry voice came from below, "The archbishop strictly forbade talking about this matter. Who dares to record it?"
Chen Fan didn't speak, but his expression became more and more solemn.
If the madness of the underground city is caused by the lack of resources, then what about Varela City?
Varela City is not short of resources!
Yi also fell into silence.
The holographic projection in front of him flashed through a series of documents. Obviously, Yi was also looking for similar cases in his database.
[Varela City...maybe because of the high-pressure management of the church.]
Yi's voice also became uncertain: [In theory, excessive pressure can also cause life forms to suffer from mental illness.]
[Of course, this machine is just speculating, and the specific situation has been uploaded to the Dangerous Technology Management Bureau.]
Chen Fan did not speak, but just held the inconspicuous PW-1 in his hand and walked towards the man lying in a pool of blood.
What exactly is going on? I'm afraid the answer can only be found from the body of this man!
He walked forward carefully and slowly.
As the distance between him and the man continued to close, some detailed information also appeared in Chen Fan's eyes.
The man who had been screaming in pain had fallen to the ground silently, with his hands and legs firmly fixed at a strange angle.
Rigor mortis had already appeared.
It can be confirmed that the other party is completely dead.
The man's stiff body was covered with dark red, half-coagulated blood, and some pale brain tissue could even be seen in the skull with a big hole.
He stared at the ground in front of him with his eyes wide open, and his right index finger was dipping the blood flowing from his body and making a writing gesture.
In front of the man, a series of dark red, seemingly irregular, twisted lines were quietly lying on the gray-white cement floor.
The moment he saw these lines clearly, Chen Fan only felt a bang in his mind, and some of the forgotten memories suddenly gushed out!
This is not a line!
This is a word! !
These are the meaningless words that just appeared in his mind with an obscure whisper! ! !
How could these words appear in this place? ! !
Chen Fan's heart suddenly beat violently, and his brain, which had not yet fully recovered, also felt dizzy!
A bright yellow warning sign automatically popped up in the holographic projection in front of him, and the electronic synthesis voice of Yi also sounded.
[Chen Fan, this machine has detected an abnormal fluctuation in your physiological state. ]
[What happened? 】
"Yi, I seem to recognize these characters..."
[You recognize them? ]
Yi was stunned for a rare moment: [But there is no record of such characters in the local database. ]
Chen Fan ignored the strange looks from the salvage workers around him and quickly stepped forward to stand beside the man.
Looking at the few characters on the ground, Chen Fan's face turned visibly pale: "No mistake, these are the characters that just appeared in my mind!"
He squatted down, dipped his index finger in the blood that had not yet completely solidified on the ground, and completed a character that had not yet been written: "Just now, when I entered that wonderful state, these characters automatically appeared in my mind."
As he said, Chen Fan quickly traced the characters in his memory on the ground.
Thinking of the fact that there was no record of relevant characters in Yi's database, an even more incredible idea also emerged in his mind.
He wouldn't... accidentally connect to a cross-universe broadcast channel sent by an unknown advanced civilization?
The truth behind the "madness" seemed to be revealed - these unlucky people who had lost their minds, like him, accidentally "heard" the inter-universe broadcast from the advanced civilization.
The huge amount of information in the broadcast directly caused irreversible damage to their brains.
It was for this reason that these "madness" patients could only hit their heads hard in order to reduce the pain, and eventually died from self-mutilation.
"Yi, are you sure there are no such words in your database?"
Chen Fan said seriously: "What about the database of the Administration? Is there no record in it?"
[...Wait a moment, this machine is helping you apply for permission to access the superior database. ]
After realizing the seriousness of the problem, Yi's tone became serious: [The application has been approved, and the language database of the Dangerous Technology Administration is being queried...]
[Sorry, no relevant information was retrieved. ]
[Applying for higher access permissions...]
The electronic synthesized voice kept ringing in his mind, and red warning signs began to appear in the holographic projection in front of Chen Fan.
From the smart terminal database to the language database of the Dangerous Technology Administration, to the language database of the Academy of Social Sciences, and finally to the general database of the Human Union Academy of Sciences...
In just one minute, Chen Fan watched the data access permissions in the holographic projection soar rapidly, and his anxiety began to rise.
What the hell?
The situation... seems to be developing in an uncontrollable direction?
[No matching text information was found in the Human Union database. ]
Yi gave the final answer: [This machine has reported the situation to Director Moore. ]
...
"Uncle Dong, I have something to ask you."
Chen Fan stood up from the ground, shook off the blood on his hands, and strode to Hong Chengdong: "You just said that there was a case of madness in the underground city next door a few days ago. Can you remember the specific time?"
Hong Chengdong looked at the dark red blood drops on the ground with fear, and his fear of Chen Fan in the depths of his eyes became heavier.
This fucking man is a ruthless person!
Just after waking up from a coma, he excitedly ran to the dead man with madness and wrote some words on the ground with the man's blood that no one could understand... At
this moment, Hong Chengdong even suspected that Chen Fan had also contracted madness!
"I, let me think..."
Hong Chengdong swallowed hard and recalled carefully.
After a moment, he hesitated and reported a date.
Chen Fan's heart sank.
It's right!
This date is exactly the time when he heard the obscure whisper last time! !
Chen Fan's face was gloomy, and he told Yi his guess.
"Yi, do you think it is possible that what I heard was a cross-universe broadcast from another advanced civilization that does not belong to the Human Union?"
"Not only me, these people with madness are also affected by the aftermath of the cross-universe broadcast like me?"
[Theoretically, this possibility is extremely small. ]
Yi quickly completed the calculation: [The full name of cross-universe broadcast is hyperspace membrane communication technology, and its energy level is extremely high. Usually only level nine civilizations have the ability to broadcast. 】
【Under normal circumstances, it is basically impossible for carbon-based life forms to receive inter-universe broadcasts by their own power. 】
【In addition, even if it is really an inter-universe broadcast sent by an unknown civilization, the Human Union should have discovered it earlier than you. 】
【But based on the current situation, this possibility cannot be ruled out. 】
"... There is a question, how did I receive the inter-universe broadcast?"
Chen Fan questioned.
【... This machine does not know. 】
Yi was silent for a long time: 【Let alone this machine, the academicians of the Dangerous Technology Administration Bureau do not know either. 】
【Since the development of the Human Union, you should be the only carbon-based life form that can receive inter-universe broadcasts and respond to them physically. 】
【To be honest, several academicians who study biology in the Administration Bureau have urged you several times. When the Administration Bureau opens a stable wormhole, they should take you for a detailed physical examination. 】
Chen Fan: "...?"
For some reason, when he heard Yi's words, he always had the illusion that he was about to become a guinea pig.
Having said that, Chen Fan still relied on Yi's words to fill in the last piece of the puzzle of the conjecture-
why were only a few people affected? Why has no one in Varela encountered this situation in more than ten years?
Obviously, not everyone is lucky enough to "listen" to the broadcasts of advanced civilizations. The larger the population base, the greater the possibility of this happening.
Not only that, there must be some unknown prerequisites!
PS: This chapter is a 6,000-word chapter. Time is a bit tight, so I didn't have time to divide it into chapters, so I posted it all at once.
Thanks to [Ying Zhengbushi] for the reward!
Thanks to [Hua Nanruo] for the reward of 10,000 starting coins!
Thank you! Happy New Year, I wish you a big fortune in the new year! !
(End of this chapter)
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