Chapter 148

The other side.

In a strange space.

"I think... even if your soul is really thrown out, it may not be a dead end."

Lying on Xu Ming's back, Kuai Le looked up at the moth above his head and comforted him:

"Maybe she just inherited a little bit of your intelligence. As long as she can find a way to get back here, you two can unite, and everything will be able to turn around."

"That would be great." Xu Ming adjusted the posture of carrying Kuai Le on his back, and responded casually. After that, he looked thoughtful, "But if that's the case, then 'it' has no point in doing this."

If it were me, in addition to cutting out the soul and separating it, I would at least add a back-up plan to ensure that the soul outside would not want to come back...

"Impossible." Kuai Le's tone was firm, "The soul is born with a desire for completeness; it's an instinct. Moreover, the thinking patterns of ordinary soul fragments are often relatively simple, just like the cells in the human body, which will proactively make the best choice for the subject..."

Xu Ming: "Do you mean the kind of white blood cell-type simplicity where 'at least one of the person and the virus dies'?"

Happy: "...Don't worry, it's not that cruel."

"But the fragments in the movies all like to make a fuss about independence." Xu Ming frowned, "and you also said that they are 'ordinary soul fragments'..."

Then what is considered extraordinary?

"It's hard to say." Kuai Le muttered, and suddenly raised her hand, "Hey, this way!"

She changed the subject and actively pointed the way to Xu Ming: "Go right, go right, the moth said."

Xu Ming turned as he was told, bypassing a huge plant that looked like a pile of intestines, and he felt that what he saw suddenly became much wider.

At this moment, under the guidance of the moth, the two of them had walked out of the area full of strange plants where they were before. Because Kuai Le's left foot was almost out of control, Xu Ming simply carried her on his back - fortunately, as an alien root, Kuai Le's weight was much lighter than she looked. In Xu Ming's view, it was about the same as a large-sized bear baby.

Judging from the current situation, happiness, or the moth that leads happiness, is quite reliable.

Xu Ming pondered and looked ahead again. Unlike the various bizarre things he had seen along the way, the scene in front of him was obviously more "tidy"...

At least in structure, it was very similar to the streets of human society.

There is a flat road in the middle, and sidewalks on both sides. There are stations and trash cans on the sidewalks, and buildings are lined up on the sides of the road.

However, if you look closely, the weird feeling fills almost every corner.

What is arranged on the road is not a zebra crossing, but a row of dummies in white clothes; the traffic lights are three eyes arranged vertically, and there is no difference in appearance. Once the time comes, the corresponding eyeballs will suddenly burst open, splashing blood of different colors.

Soon after, pigeons from nowhere would swarm over and wipe away the blood with their feathers. Once all the blood was cleaned up, the eyeballs would recover and the rotation would begin again.

The electric bikes parked on the sidewalk all had animal feet if you looked closely. The small animals scurrying among the electric bikes had wheels on their bodies. The cars on the road also had no wheels, but they did not have animal feet, but rows of huge flagella. The flagella crawled quite fast. Xu Ming secretly glanced at the car that was crawling by, but saw that the driver's seat was empty and there was no one there. There was only something like a pig's brain growing on the steering wheel.

The plane trees on the roadside were full of human hands and could laugh; the seemingly normal residential buildings were actually the backs of huge human faces. There were pigeons walking on the sidewalk, and their postures were quite leisurely, but the problem was that the pigeons looked really big, bigger than the buildings next to them...

Kuai Le whispered to Xu Ming not to stare at these things, fearing that people would become abnormal if they stared too much. Xu Ming listened seriously, and when he lowered his head, he saw an apple that came from nowhere, rolling to his feet.

Xu Ming was stunned for a moment, and did not dare to pick it up. He seemed unhappy to take the apple, and rubbed it desperately at her feet. Seeing that Xu Ming was still dodging, he simply stretched out his bamboo-like limbs and stood up, and opened his mouth to cry at her.

"Oh, it's been scammed!" Kuai Le was not afraid of the excitement, "It seems to like you very much, just pick it up and raise it."

... Where? In the fruit plate?

Xu Ming turned his eyes away with difficulty, nodded apologetically at the four-legged apple, "Sorry, I have a dog at home."

After that, he carried Kuai Le on his back and continued to walk forward.

The four-legged apple was still unwilling to give up, and retracted its limbs and rolled behind her for a while. It gave up in disappointment until it could not catch up. After

getting rid of the four-legged apple, it was entangled by another thing soon. The little cat came out of nowhere, and when it saw Xu Ming passing by, it trotted over happily, with the wheels under its body squeaking. This is actually not so bad.

The key is that after it got close to Xu Ming, it wanted to act coquettishly and opened its mouth, but what was revealed was not a tongue with barbs.

Instead, its mouth was filled with countless mini cat heads.

Xu Ming: "..."

Very good, she estimated that she would not want to keep a cat for a long time.

Fortunately, apart from these "little animals" who actively stuck to them, the two did not encounter any suspicious things.

As the two of them continued to move forward and crossed several more intersections, Xu Ming became more and more aware of the difference between what he and Kuai Le saw. It seemed that there was much more to it than just lighthouses and moths.

"Wow!" Almost at the moment when Xu Ming crossed the last intersection, Kuai Le shouted happily, "Finally found a decent place!"

"......?" Xu Ming looked around silently with a subtle expression, "Decent?"

"Yeah, can't you feel it?" Kuai Le looked really happy, "The atmosphere in the previous two areas was so gloomy that it made people uncomfortable. It's finally a bit more comfortable here."

... Sorry, I really don't feel that.

Xu Ming answered in his heart, lifted Kuai Le's body up, and his eyes became thoughtful again.

Two areas - she repeated Happy's words to herself. This was consistent with her observation.

The first area was where they were at the beginning. It was characterized by small insects made of lines and large areas of strange and twisted plants. According to Happy, it was also a relatively close location to the "lighthouse".

After that, they kept walking away from the lighthouse under the guidance of the moth.

With the appearance of the "artificial road", they entered the second area.

That is the area where they were just now.

There are a lot of things in the area that are similar to human society, but they are similar and completely different at the same time. It's like a program full of countless bugs. Although it is running, it is absurd everywhere.

The strangest thing is that although it is obviously imitating the human living environment, they did not see anything with human appearance in the entire area; along the way, they did not find any existence that could communicate.

And then they came here...

Xu Ming's eyes moved slightly, and he looked around again.

She did feel a lot of breath, but she could see with her naked eyes that this place was very different from the previous street.

Apart from anything else, at least the style of the traffic lights and crosswalks is normal. The same goes for the buildings on both sides. At least the appearance looks straight, and there are no huge human faces behind the buildings.

More importantly, she saw "people" here - behind the windows of houses on the roadside, on chairs at the station, in open manholes, and everywhere.

Their expressions were blank, their limbs were stiff, and they looked like dead people hollowed out by time in reality. When they noticed Xu Ming approaching, they smiled at the same time, like sunflowers, slowly turning their faces as she moved, staring at her quietly with empty eye sockets without eyeballs.

... Xu Ming's scalp was numb from staring at them, but they looked happy.

"They like you very much too!" She gently pinched Xu Ming's neck and asked her to look to the right, "Look at that guy over there! He's smiling at you too! He's quite handsome, although not as good-looking as your dog, but he has a smart temperament..."

"..." Xu Ming looked over. She only saw a strange black shadow standing under the shadow of the tree, staring at her quietly. Like the other figures, he had no eyes, and most of his face was hidden in the shadows. Except for the strange and exaggerated smile at the corner of his mouth, no other features could be seen. And

it was even more difficult to tell where he was handsome.

Silently questioning Happy's taste, Xu Ming calmed down and took the opportunity to ask the question that he had been concerned about before: "By the way, who are these figures..."

"Souls that have entered the door but have not been devoured." Happy said lightly, "There is more than one door outside, you should know this, right? Some dead people will accidentally pass through the door and come here, or they will make a deal with the things behind the door and give away a part of themselves... They have not yet been alienated before coming in, and they have no self-protection ability after entering, and cannot move freely. Therefore, they can only find a place to stay quietly, or continue to crawl like mushrooms, or be eaten one day..."

"So we are now in the soul gathering area?" Xu Ming thought, "Why don't the first two areas..."

"The first two areas are dangerous." Happy said, "People will instinctively look for a safer place to stay. Isn't this normal?"

In other words, the closer to the lighthouse, the more chaotic and dangerous it is.

Xu Ming quietly updated his conclusion in his mind, and based on the principle of asking more questions, he spoke again: "But you just said that they can't move freely, right? Then how do they get to a safer area?

"Also, you said that they had not yet been alienated before entering... then what about those who had already been alienated before entering? What will happen to them?"

"You are so troublesome." Happy couldn't help but hit her, but after thinking about it, he said, "Those who were alienated before entering will retain the alienation after entering. They just didn't appear in front of us, which doesn't mean they don't exist."

"As for how these souls got here... how should I know? Maybe some stronger and kinder guys felt that these little mushrooms were too pitiful and moved them here... who can say for sure?"

"..." Xu Ming pursed his lips and couldn't help but think of the bunch of names on the work badge.

Who did those names come from? Are there the names of these figures? Auntie doesn't seem to be here, where is she?

More doubts gushed out like springs. Following the guidance of happiness, Xu Ming turned another intersection and finally couldn't help but asked:

"So, what is that 'it' behind the door? "

She has been concerned about this question for a long time. That thing that lingered in her past like a ghost, without even a decent code name.

Auntie had obviously investigated "it" in the past, but there was no definite answer in her notes, only some vague guesses.

Auntie believed that "it" might be a mysterious existence from another world or another dimension, and because its own characteristics were contrary to the world they lived in, it could not directly descend into their world.

The order followed by mankind has become the first barrier to resist "it". The concrete expression of this barrier is the so-called "door" . However, even so, its influence is still penetrating the barrier, seeping in, guiding and amplifying the anomalies hidden in the corners of reality...

but these are just guesses after all.

When the aunt wrote that note, she had not had much contact with the "door". And all the people around her who were suspected of having had contact with the "door" disappeared.

Guesses that cannot be verified will always be just guesses. Xu Ming didn't know whether his aunt found the answer in the end, nor did he know whether his past self knew the answer - but they all longed for the answer, Xu Ming was extremely sure of this.

... This question was thrown out, but there was no happy answer for a long time.

Xu Ming tilted his head in confusion, and then someone tapped his forehead lightly.

"What kind of questions are you asking? Do you have to embarrass me? "Kuai Le said unhappily, "I'll give you another chance, ask again! Change to something I know!"

Xu Ming: "..."

Okay.

Regardless of whether Kuai Le knew it or not, at least it is certain that she is unwilling to say it now. Xu Ming did not force it, and was about to make up something to smooth things over, but heard Kuai Le sigh softly again, and moved her legs on her waist.

"What's in your bag?" she asked curiously, "A hand warmer?"

"?" The topic changed a little too quickly, and Xu Ming was a little slow to react, "Ah?"

"It's getting hot." Kuai Le said with a strange expression, reaching down and pulling hard, picked up the small bag that Xu Ming was carrying on her waist, and then turned it to her chest, "Look at it yourself, it's like a hand warmer is stuck on you. "

Xu Ming was puzzled. She reached out her hand and touched it, and indeed she felt some warmth.

Her first reaction was that something had changed in the rule book, so she quickly took it out and flipped through it. However, it was still full of garbled characters. She felt it carefully and found that the paper cover was icy and cold. Obviously, it was not the one that was hot.

Confused, she reached into the bag again and soon took out another card.

It was one of the "membership cards" collected in the haunted building. Xu Ming left most of them to Guo Shuyi for others to exchange and use. Apart from the part that was necessary for using the elevator, he only brought two cards for backup.

One of them was the Shadow Dog Card.

And the one that was getting hot now was the Shadow Dog Card.

Holding it in his hand, it felt like holding a warm baby. Xu Ming couldn't help but frown, and quickly turned over another card, touching it for comparison, but that card was still icy cold.

So... only this card was getting hot? Why?

Xu Ming was puzzled, and Kuai Le was also a little confused.

"This card... If I'm not mistaken, it should be made with our power." She took another one and examined it carefully, "When the card is used, it is equivalent to our power being used... Ah, why did I feel like it was about to be drained! Bad thing!!"

Happy blinked and cursed after realizing it belatedly. Xu Ming thought of Landor's shadow dog, who was almost skin and bones, and was a little worried: "Then can you recover later?"

"It should be possible, just rest slowly." Happy curled her lips and hugged Xu Ming tightly again, "Oh, you are so good, you still know to worry about me."

... I don't know whether I should say that it's not you I'm worried about...

Xu Ming's lips twitched slightly, and he wisely swallowed the words back, and turned to look at the shadow dog card in his hand again: "Then the problem of fever is still not solved."

"Maybe it's some kind of induction." Happy guessed casually, "Just like a magnet..."

Magnet? Xu Ming frowned slightly, and suddenly seemed to realize something. He raised his head abruptly and looked around quickly. Happy was caught off guard and was almost thrown off by her. He hit her lightly with complaint: "What are you doing?"

"Looking for someone!" Xu Ming thought without hesitation, "Landuo also made a deal with the existence behind the door. He might have left something here..."

The price came from Landuo, and the card also came from Landuo. Two things of the same origin approached each other, which triggered a certain induction... This makes sense!

Kuai Le's face fell, and she tried to steady herself: "There's no need to go out specifically to look for it, right? Even if you find it, you can't take it out. You don't even plan to go out by yourself now..."

"Sorry." Xu Ming was silent for a moment, but still looked around firmly, "But there are some things I have always wanted to figure out, and this may be my only chance...ah!"

Before she finished speaking, her gaze suddenly froze. After

searching for a while, she really found it - on a building not far away, someone was looking down through the window.

Although there was a distance between them, Xu Ming could feel that he was looking in her direction.

Her heartbeat quickened slightly, and she took a few quick steps forward, and finally saw the man's appearance clearly -

his skin was a little pale, his face was a little round, and he looked a little younger than in Xu Ming's memory. Because of the height, the facial features could not be seen more closely.

But Xu Ming was still very sure.

That was a face that belonged to Landor.