Chapter 100 (Rewritten)

Xu Ming stared at the lock for a long time.

The notebook was the black leather notebook that her aunt used to use, but the signature on the lock was clearly her own. In a sense, this confirmed some of Xu Ming's guesses - she had vaguely felt that there might be something wrong with her past memories when she was in the unit building, and now it seems that it is true.

So the current situation is almost like this, the past self once found this notebook, read the contents inside, and for some reason, locked it up again. I don't know if it was because she foresaw that she might lose her memory in the future, and she was so considerate to leave a password hint...

The question is, is it the same whether you left it or not?

Xu Ming stared at the lock, and he wanted to throw it to the ground and crush it - how did my master know the time when I got my first root? What is my first root?

Xu Ming was helpless. After thinking for a while, he took the notebook downstairs again, wanting to try to find tools to pry it open. On the way, he met the Ox-Headed and Horse-Faced who were talking to Panpan and her daughter. He greeted them casually and waved the notebook in his hand at them, thinking that maybe he could crush it with his hooves.

Ma Taigel cooperated very well and came up to hammer it twice with his hoof. Unfortunately, the lock thread did not move. Niu Bugeng watched quietly at the side, and suddenly said: "Yours, this doesn't seem to be an ordinary lock."

? !

Xu Ming looked over in surprise. On the one hand, it was because of his words, and on the other hand, it was because it was rare to hear Niu Bugeng speak so long.

"Derivative." Niu Bugeng said in a low voice, pointing to the lock again, "A derivative of the root."

After thinking for a while, he added, "The aura is very strong."

Xu Ming: "..."

...What is it? !

Xu Ming looked at it, then looked at the book in his hand, and fell into silence with a subtle expression.

For a moment, he didn't know whether he should sigh at the awesomeness of this lock, or sigh at himself for being able to get this lock, which was too awesome.

*

Since it is a derivative, it is probably impossible to force it open.

Despite this, Xu Ming still tried her best - in the next half hour, she also asked Guo Shuyi and Lu Yueling to help pry the lock. If Lando was not here at the moment, she would have asked his dog to bite it a few times.

"...No!" Lu Yueling pulled a strand of hair out of the keyhole, pouted her mouth and shook her head repeatedly, "It can't be opened at all, the hair can't grow inside."

Not only that, the hair in her hand was obviously missing a small half - Xu Ming was worried that the remaining hair was broken in the keyhole, but Lu Yueling insisted that the keyhole was bitten off by itself, and swore that she heard the chewing sound in the keyhole.

Xu Ming didn't hear anything, but when she looked through her irises again, she didn't see the remaining hair. After thinking for a moment, she let out a breath.

"Okay, thank you." She said to Lu Yueling, putting away the notebook while speaking, "I'll think of another way."

"How about waiting for the dog man?" Lu Yueling rolled her eyes and said, "He has a dog!"

"He's not here. He should have gone out." Xu Ming shook his head, "And how many times have I told you not to call him that..."

Lu Yueling pouted, lowered her head and patted the hair stuck on the hem of her skirt, without responding. Xu Ming looked at her helplessly, said goodbye again, took the notebook and returned to his bedroom. After a brief thought, he simply lay back on the bed.

She had been lying for too long today, so long that it felt a little awkward to lie down again now. Xu Ming ignored it, but carefully put the black leather notebook under the pillow, then took out the book of rule number nine and opened it quickly.

He turned to the newly added page of "Brain Mushroom", then took a deep breath, and tentatively reached out his hand to the brain-shaped umbrella in the picture.

——"Review", one of the abilities of the brain mushroom.

Xu Ming's idea is very simple. Since I don't have the relevant memory to unlock the password now, can't I just look for it in the relevant memory fragments?

I just don't know what the process of the so-called "memory review" is... and how can I lock the memory fragment according to the "keyword"? Do I keep reciting it in my heart?

Xu Ming thought a little nervously, trying to repeat the key words "book and lock" in her mind.

As she silently recited, her index finger finally pressed on the part of the mushroom umbrella. The next moment, there was a "pop" sound -

a small, white mushroom suddenly emerged from the nail of her index finger.

Xu Ming: "......?"

? !

Before she could react, similar "pop" sounds rang out one after another!

Countless mushrooms grew out of her body one after another, from her nails to her fingers, and from her fingers to her arms. In a blink of an eye, they grew everywhere on her arms. Not only that, they were still expanding rapidly -

in an instant they expanded into a vast expanse of white, wrapping Xu Ming tightly like a cocoon.

Xu Ming's struggle and cry were all wrapped up in it.

...

!

After an unknown amount of time, Xu Ming suddenly opened his eyes with a startled gasp.

The first thing he did after opening his eyes was to look at his hand. The good news was that it was now clean and free of fungi - the bad news was that the hand was now in a translucent state, which was obviously not normal.

Xu Ming blinked, and her pounding heart finally calmed down. She pursed her lips, raised her head and looked around, only to find that this was not her room.

It was more like a clinic. An old clinic. There was a blue medical screen standing on her right.

At this moment, not only was her body translucent, but she was also floating in this clinic. She looked like a ghost.

...It seems that it should have worked.

Xu Ming thought with some relief, and tentatively touched the things in the scene with his hands. Not surprisingly, he found that he could not touch anything.

At this moment, a faint sound came from behind the screen again. Xu Ming's heart moved, and she quickly "floated" over. Sure enough, she saw a figure lying on the bed behind the screen -

it was herself.

"..." It is normal to see another self in memory. The moment her eyes fell on the other person's face, Xu Ming's footsteps paused involuntarily.

It was not because of surprise, but because the "self" in front of him looked really... too strange.

Her face was pale and her lips were blue. Just sitting there, she was exhausted and decadent. When she opened her eyes, the bloodshot eyes were so bloodshot that it was scary.

"Are you sure it won't work?" She heard another self speak in a weak voice, "This is the only way I can think of."

When she spoke, her eyes were looking at the end of the bed. Xu Ming didn't know who she was talking to at first, until something moved at the end of the bed, and pink ears and a long tail appeared -

she realized that what she thought was a white pillow was actually a snow-white cat.

"It's not that I can't." The cat blinked its beautiful eyes and spoke softly. Its voice was very thin but its words were very clear. "It's just that I can't guarantee the results. The risk is really great..." "

My rule book has been severely eroded." Before it finished speaking, "Xu Ming" on the bed spoke first, with an anxious tone that Xu Ming was not familiar with now. "If I do nothing, I will end up being swallowed and mutated. In this case, I might as well take a gamble. Maybe I can still survive."

"Trade my memory in exchange for the elimination of the eroded state..." The white cat wagged its tail, and there was some thought in its words. "If successful, the benefits will indeed be huge. But whether this transaction can take effect is a problem in itself..."

"There's no way. We all know that erosion itself can never be eliminated permanently." "Xu Ming" on the bed said, raising his hand and pointing at his temple, "Because the source of erosion comes from my brain. The things I saw are affecting me, and as long as they are still there, erosion will definitely recur..."

"So you might as well use the transaction to remove all related memories to prevent future troubles." Cat sat at the end of the bed, nodding gracefully, "It seems that you only exchanged one thing, but in fact it is a double profit. I have to say, you are really good at taking advantage of loopholes."

"But as I said, transactions are risky. And this kind of transaction, 'it' may not agree."

"I know. The thing behind the door is very clever." "Xu Ming" couldn't help laughing when he said this, "It won't do business at a loss, nor will it do fair transactions. What seem to be generous transactions are all traps behind them."

The cat closed its eyes and took a deep breath: "Since you know..."

"But I still have to try." "Xu Ming" interrupted it again, with a serious voice, "I have no other way."

"You be my 'notary', and Landor be my backup. Then I might have a chance to turn the tables."

"..." The answer to her was the white cat's long silence.

After an unknown amount of time, it finally sighed softly: "I told you a long time ago. Don't get too involved with the world behind the door."

"There's no way. What I want is there." "Xu Ming" on the bed tilted his head and sighed, "Besides, there are some problems that we don't know about. Now that we know, we can't just do nothing and ignore everything."

"The price is that you almost finished." The white cat's tone was a little teasing - to put it bluntly, it was more like sarcasm, "Why do you humans always have this meaningless warrior complex?"

"What warrior? I don't understand, and I don't plan to develop in this direction." "Xu Ming" shrugged tiredly, "It's just that there is a problem that needs to be solved, and I happened to be there, that's all."

"Just a friendly reminder, the 'problem' you mentioned refers to a 'door' that appeared in the ghost story and was about to be opened. And the solution you mentioned is to simply weld the 'door' shut." The white cat whispered, "According to your human standards, I think this is enough to be called a 'warrior'."

"Maybe. According to the standards of ghost stories, they should prefer to ask me to cause trouble." When "Xu Ming" said this, his eyebrows moved slightly, and he seemed to be finally a little happy.

"You can still laugh despite your humiliation." The white cat sneered and wagged its tail again, "Come to think of it, have you told that bastard about the 'deal' you want to do?"

"Xu Ming" lying on the bed: ...

Xu Ming floating in the air: ...

"...How many times have I told you not to call him a bastard." "Xu Ming" couldn't help but mutter, then shook his head, "I did, but I didn't go into detail."

The white cat tilted its head: "Then if it fails..."

"I'm sorry for him." "Xu Ming" said without hesitation, "If possible, please apologize for me. Just say that you regret not doing what you promised him... If he insists on making trouble, just give him a claw."

The white cat: "..."

As if it felt the heaviness of the topic, it was silent for a moment, and decisively changed to a more positive statement:

"What if the deal is successful? What are you going to do with your rule book?"

"Just keep using it. There are three roots inside, all of which I snatched back myself. Am I going to donate them if I don't need them?" "Xu Ming" said as a matter of course, and took out a notebook from under the pillow. The cover of the notebook was covered with a layer of brown wax.

Xu Ming, who was floating in the air, couldn’t help but take a few more glances, but heard the white cat say "Huh" in a somewhat strange voice: "What is that dirty layer? I don’t seem to have seen it before?"

"Oh, you mean this." "Xu Ming" said, and knocked on the cover skillfully, knocking off a piece of brown wax, "This was taken out from behind the door when I closed the door before. It should be the corpse left after the death of a certain mutant root..."

"I tried it, maybe because it is "dead", it can't be integrated into the rule book. But it can be bound separately, and it is quite useful. A piece of wax like this, after melting it, apply it on the face, you can change your appearance, very convenient..."

Xu Ming: "..."

? !!!

No, wait, some dead mutant root... She thought in surprise, and floated forward involuntarily. After noticing the rule book in the hand of "Xu Ming" on the bed, her movements paused again, and her heart was filled with shock.

- Xu Ming remembered very clearly that the cover of the rule book he was holding now was blue.

However, the real cover of the rule book in the hand of the other "Xu Ming" was slightly exposed due to the peeling of the brown wax, and the exposed part was clearly pink -

"Hiss!"

With another violent gasp, Xu Ming, who was lying in the bedroom, suddenly opened his eyes.

What he saw was the familiar ceiling of his own home, and next to it was the beeping cell phone ring. Xu Ming blinked and absentmindedly turned off the alarm clock, his temples still aching.

The memory fragments he had just seen were still firmly embedded in his mind. Xu Ming silently reviewed them again, his brows furrowed more and more.

First of all, it can be confirmed that the memory he saw has nothing to do with the unlocking password. I don't know how the key words of the brain mushroom are locked, so I am at a loss.

Secondly, I can be sure that I was pretty awesome before. I closed a door myself and saved three roots. Although I ended up having to use amnesia to save my life, I have to say that my achievements were still quite brilliant. Thirdly,

I can be sure that the so-called "transaction" should have been successful. After all, I am still alive, the rule book is still there, and there is indeed a problem with my memory...

But what Xu Ming can't understand is precisely that rule book.

The rule book in her memory had a pink cover, but the one in her hand didn't; the Xu Ming in her memory said that the brown wax was a disguise tool, the corpse of the mutant root, and the surface of her rule book was indeed covered with a layer of brown object that could be disguised...

The problem was that the object was alive, it would chirp and jump around.

... So what was going on? Did the rule book feel uncomfortable staying in that book, so it just moved? And after moving, it grew legs and came to find her? And it also resurrected the whale blubber man tied to the cover?

The old doubts hadn't been resolved yet, and new ones popped up. Xu Ming rubbed his forehead on the spot, finally gathered his energy, stood up, and turned to walk downstairs.

Memory review has a cool-down time, and you have to wait another forty-eight hours after using it once. In this case, why not try to find Landor again.

But after going downstairs and taking a look around, I didn't see Landor, but ran into the whale blubber man again. The latter had taken out two slices of cantaloupe from the refrigerator at some point, and was sitting on the dining table happily, preparing to feast on them.

When it saw Xu Ming coming down, it froze for a moment. After waiting for a while, seeing that Xu Ming didn't seem to have any intention of arguing with him about the cantaloupe, he breathed a sigh of relief, opened his mouth and chewed it, while muttering:

"Are you looking for the dog man? He rode his dog out to buy vegetables."

Xu Ming: "..."

Although, where did you learn such a bad name...

Xu Ming couldn't help but glance at the whale blubber man, and sternly corrected his wording. After thinking for a while, he sat down at the dining table again, staring at the blubber man thoughtfully.

The blubber man was still in the shape of a potato block at this moment. In addition to his thin and short arms and legs, he only had a mouth to chew on the cantaloupe. Noticing Xu Ming's scrutinizing gaze, he turned half his body inexplicably: "What's wrong?"

"Nothing..." Xu Ming pondered for a moment, and went straight to the point, "I just want to ask, have you died?"

"..." The blubber man's action of eating the melon froze instantly.

Then, as if realizing something, he slowly loosened his mouth that was chewing the melon.

"Probably... no?" After a moment of silence, it tentatively answered, its tone full of caution, "Excuse me, why are you asking this?"

Xu Ming couldn't say it was because I had seen a memory before, in which there was no you, only a corpse that seemed to be yours; he could only shake his head and said casually:

"Nothing, just curious."

The blubber man: "..."

The blubber man: "Are you curious about this?"

"It's not that I haven't come into contact with it..." Xu Ming said softly, his eyes turned slightly, and soon found a new angle to the topic, "Hey, then do you know what you will look like after you die?"

"..." In response to her, the blubber man had a stunned expression on his face.

In order to achieve the effect of "a look of astonishment", it even pinched a face that looked very stunned on the spot with its hands at high speed.

"...Don't you know?" Xu Ming tried hard to read its violent and comic face, and said unwillingly, "Have you ever thought about similar questions? Have you not?"

"No..." The whale fat man on the other side was completely dumbfounded, "I just stole some melons, boss..."

It's not a capital crime, right?

"No, no, no." Xu Ming hurriedly said, "I'm not hinting at you anything--"

...That would be even more frightening, okay!

The whale fat man blinked on the spot, and he felt that the cantaloupe in his hand was instantly not fragrant.

It's not a hint, it means he really wants to find out; the question is, why do you want to know these things for nothing?

Do you know how frightening and hurtful this is to a mutant root that cherishes its life?

And it just escaped from a ghost story with a narrow escape! It's going to ptsd!

Xu Ming: “…”

“So you don’t know, right?” She confirmed with the other party without giving up, “Then do you think, if you die, your body will still retain the ability to disguise? What about the binding relationship with the rule book…”

In response to her, the whale man sobbed exaggeratedly and walked away with his face covered.

Halfway through the run, he remembered to come back and carry away the uneaten cantaloupe, and continued to cover his face while carrying it, and did not forget to let out two more moans.

…Xu Ming really doubted what strange things it had seen when it was in the unit building. Obviously, it wasn’t that strange before.

But it seems like…it should have never died.

At least it has never died in its memory.

Thinking of the fact that his memory was also wrong, Xu Ming silently corrected his own thoughts.

As for the outside of its memory... God knows.

Xu Ming secretly sighed, and after thinking about it, he decided to stay where he was and continue to wait for Landor who was out buying food.