Through the black helmet, Xie Xuan and Zhou Yuanyuan couldn't see Ling Wenqing's expression, but Ling Wenqing seemed to have lost his soul and didn't say anything or react at all.
The helmet is one-way visible by default, and only Ling Wenqing himself can change the settings.
Xie Xuan rubbed the disgusting saliva on her gloves on the steps twice and said to Zhou Yuanyuan, who was desperately trying to wake Ling Wenqing, "Let's give him a shot of tranquilizer first. He must have seen something at the bottom of the steps. Bai Ze hasn't given any warning yet, so the captain's life is probably not in danger."
Communicators are essentially parasites that live on their bodies and are very sensitive to changes in the host's vital signs. This is one of the bases that Bai Ze uses to determine whether to intervene.
Zhou Yuanyuan sighed, "This is the only way."
The sedative injection was successful. After a few seconds, Ling Wenqing murmured as if he had just woken up from a deep sleep: "I...?"
"Captain, are you okay?" Zhou Yuanyuan asked nervously.
Ling Wenqing shook his head slowly, lowered his head and raised his hand to hold the helmet.
Xie Xuan stood nearby, his brows furrowed. "Captain, could you please change the one-way visibility on your helmet to two-way visibility?"
But Ling Wenqing stood up as if he hadn't heard anything. He stood there blankly for a few seconds before returning to his normal tone. "I'm fine. Sorry to have worried you. Let's continue walking up."
As he spoke, he turned around and continued walking up the stairs.
Xie Xuan felt that something was wrong with Ling Wenqing's condition.
However, Zhou Yuanyuan's emotions went through several ups and downs in just a few minutes. Now seeing that Ling Wenqing behaved quite normally, she breathed a sigh of relief without thinking too much and called Xie Xuan to follow him.
This time, Xie Xuan was still walking in the middle. She looked at the figure in front of her who was steadily climbing up the stairs and suddenly asked, "Captain, what did you see at the bottom of the stairs?"
Ling Wenqing didn't pause and said in a normal tone, "I saw some mushrooms."
As he spoke, he turned his head and glanced at Xie Xuan.
However, Xie Xuan couldn't see his expression clearly through the helmet, and could only hear his voice coming from beside her ear, "You know, in the field, this kind of thing is the most common."
But in this C-level area, the steps are spotlessly clean, and even the monsters don't have any traces of mushrooms. Is this the normal reaction to suddenly seeing mushrooms?
Xie Xuan clenched the dagger, "Captain, do you remember what you said to me before our first mission?"
Zhou Yuanyuan sensed the strange atmosphere between Xie Xuan and Ling Wenqing and couldn't help asking, "What's going on?"
This time, Ling Wenqing stopped and turned around. He stood on a higher step, looking down at Xie Xuan. Another dark helmet was reflected on his dark helmet.
"You think I'm infected, right?" Ling Wenqing's tone was calm but stern.
Zhou Yuanyuan was stunned. "How, how is this possible? The captain's protective suit is intact, the spore concentration hasn't even reached 80%, and the air filter is still working. How could he be infected?"
Xie Xuan looked up at Ling Wenqing and didn't speak immediately.
Article 31 of the Mushroom Picking Guide: High-level fields can directly infect the minds of low-level psychics and ordinary humans. Mental infection will affect the memory, personality, etc. of the infected.
Zhou Yuanyuan seemed to have thought of this as well. She hesitated several times and finally fell silent.
The most popular mushroom picking guide circulating on the Internet in District 6, compiled by an anonymous author, is a must-read manual for every member of the Ecological Bureau's Shelter Department.
The reason why Ling Wenqing warned Xie Xuan to pay attention to her teammates before the first mission with her was also because of this guideline.
After a brief stalemate, Ling Wenqing spoke up, "Change the helmet settings to bidirectional visibility."
The black helmet immediately became transparent, revealing Ling Wenqing's face completely.
Under the helmet was Zhou Zheng, a good-looking man with the same unremarkable appearance as when Xie Xuan first met him. His eyes were a normal brown-black color with a few bloodshot streaks on the whites of his eyes.
Everything was normal, it seemed that Xie Xuan was just being suspicious.
Zhou Yuanyuan breathed a sigh of relief. "I was so scared, Xie Xuan, the captain is fine. He was probably just frightened and hasn't recovered yet."
Xie Xuan didn't think so, but there was no point in continuing to argue about it now.
"Sorry, Captain." Xie Xuan gave in.
"It's okay." Ling Wenqing didn't restore the one-way visibility of his helmet. He turned around and looked up at the pure white steps submerged in the light red mist. "Let's go."
The three people continued to walk up the stairs in silence, and Bai Ze never spoke again after he initially reported that the spore concentration had risen to 60%.
Not only Bai Ze, Xie Xuan's system has also remained silent.
And she didn’t know if it was Xie Xuan’s illusion, but she felt that the light red mist around her was getting thinner and thinner.
Xie Xuan thought for two seconds and suddenly said, "Bai Ze, test the spore concentration."
"The current detected spore concentration is 60%."
Zhou Yuanyuan was stunned. "How could it not have risen at all? Even if it wasn't raining outside, we've been walking for so long, the concentration can't possibly not have risen at all."
As she spoke, she subconsciously turned and looked at the steps behind her.
But as soon as she turned around, she was stunned again, "The steps at the back...are gone."
Xie Xuan also stopped and looked over.
The upward steps were submerged in a reddish mist, while the downward steps were submerged in a thick darkness.
The platform where they stood at the beginning and the small platform where the monster sculpture sat later were both gone, leaving only five or six short steps behind Zhou Yuanyuan.
When Xie Xuan and Zhou Yuanyuan stopped, Ling Wenqing, who was walking in front, kept walking up without stopping.
Xie Xuan pulled Zhou Yuanyuan's hand and said, "Now we can only keep going up."
Zhou Yuanyuan nodded solemnly, "Let's go."
The three of them, wearing pure black protective suits, slowly walked up the pure white steps. The area was very quiet. Even if the anti-noise mode of the helmet was disabled, there was still no sound.
The reddish mist was as motionless as an ornament hanging completely still in the air; even the pure white statues they passed by later were motionless.
At first, Zhou Yuanyuan was worried that the monsters would be disturbed and another thrilling battle would occur. However, after passing by several statues with trepidation, they found that these statues seemed to be frozen in a certain moment in time.
The saliva flowing from the statue's black mouth was still hanging on the lips and about to fall, and the cracks on their bodies seemed to have been forcibly paused, with even scattered fragments of the broken pieces remaining in mid-air.
It was as if time had stood still throughout the entire realm.
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