Chapter 038 Chapter 38
…
Xia Meng: "So, your cat is actually a lion?"
Li Zhou nodded guiltily.
Xia Meng looked into the distance.
At this time, his cat - no, it should be a lion, still maintained the appearance of a cat, lying in front of the window, watching from afar Xia Meng's little ferret playing with Ou Xu's Meezi.
The Guide Center has a dedicated area for spirit play.
Similar to many fast food restaurants, there will also be children's play areas.
The main function here is to help the newly awakened sentinels further train their mental stability by playing with their spirit bodies.
In addition to the three of them, there are many other spirits playing here.
Most of them are small herbivores, such as rabbits, guinea pigs, squirrels, deer, sparrows, and white ducks.
Occasionally, a few omnivores also sneak in.
The little animals played together and rolled into a ball.
There is a joyful and peaceful atmosphere in the play area.
Only Li Zhou's cat could be watched from afar, looking particularly out of place.
Xia Meng felt a little reluctant to watch.
He is such a gentle, cute and hardworking cat master!
How can I be isolated!
Xia Meng glanced at Ergou and reminded him through the air: At least take the cat to play with it!
Ergou covered his ears from a distance, as if saying, "I don't want to hear anything."
However, Xia Meng's will was too strong, so it had to listen.
After a long while, it reluctantly moved towards the cat.
The little ferret was very agile. It climbed up the debris piled against the wall and climbed up to the window in a few moves.
The cat lay motionless on the windowsill, watching the little ferret crawl to his side and then move cautiously towards it.
The cat blinked its big blue eyes, suddenly stood up, and walked towards it with cat steps.
Ergou froze.
Suddenly I dared not move.
He watched helplessly as the cat walked up to it, sniffed its face, sniffed its paws, and then lowered its head to sniff its butt.
Ergou was petrified.
Xia Meng turned around and asked Li Zhou in confusion, "What is your cat doing now? Why is it sniffing Ergou's butt?"
Li Zhou: “…” To be honest, he didn’t know either.
Never seen it behave like this before.
His spirit had never been to a play area like this before, and rarely had he been alone with other spirits.
Even if there is, it is basically just beating the other party.
There are too few cases of peaceful coexistence.
Xia Meng thought about it and realized that the habits of spiritual bodies were basically very similar to those of animals themselves, so she decided to check it out.
She took out her phone and typed in the search box: Why do cats smell butts?
Several answers quickly popped up on the search page.
The first line reads:
Are you looking for: Why do cats sniff each other's butts?
Xia Meng thought about it and agreed.
Cats and ferrets, it seems unlikely that these two will appear in the same picture.
So she clicked on it.
She said: "Cats usually sniff each other's butts to confirm each other's information. This way, cats can tell by smell whether the other is male or female, strong or weak."
Xia Meng thought about it and flipped through the pages again:
She said: "When two cats meet and sniff each other's butts, it may be a sign of wanting to mate. This behavior can confirm the other's gender and find out if the other is also in heat."
She: “…” No, no, no, it’s impossible.
She raised her eyes and saw that Maomao had pressed Ergou under her body without her knowing when, and began to lick Ergou's fur with her tongue.
Very intimate.
As if he had already regarded it as his own property.
Ergou was in its arms, not daring to move.
As stiff as a rag doll with no desire to live.
Xia Meng looked at Li Zhou silently: "Li Zhou."
Li Zhou: “Hmm?”
Xia Meng said sadly: "Interspecies love is fruitless, let it let go of my Ergou!"
Unfortunately, it’s too late to say this now.
Ergou has fallen into the lion's mouth and cannot be rescued.
Xia Meng looked at the time and saw that lunch break was almost over.
She stood up: "I'm going to work."
Li Zhou looked at her eagerly: "Can I go with you?"
After the battle in the morning, Li Zhou became completely famous throughout the Black Tower.
His face has been deeply remembered ever since.
People may not know who he is, but they definitely know that a person who can beat Alpha Pei Ziling has appeared in the Black Tower.
Moreover, this person is suspected to be Guide Xia Meng's bodyguard. He will beat up anyone who dares to chase her.
Xia Meng was at a loss for words: "I'm going to the counseling department this afternoon. What's the point of you following me?"
She: "Don't you have anything to do?"
Li Zhou shrugged. "I'm on standby. I'll go out on a mission if there's an emergency. I really don't have anything to do normally."
Zhou Qi knew that he was not happy to do clerical work. For example, when he went to intercept at sea, he simply did not let him write the various written reports afterwards.
Xia Meng thought so too, so he should be more free.
His being idle means that the world is at peace.
Xia Meng thought about it and decided to find him something to do.
Xia Meng glanced at Ergou who was still being held and licked by the cat in the distance, and a plan came to her mind. She suddenly came up with a way to help Li Zhou pass the time and rescue Ergou from suffering.
Xia Meng said, "I just heard that your special forces department has some kind of spiritual training class. Why don't you give my dog some special training too? Teach him some skills so he can protect me in the future!"
Li Zhou thought about it and felt that this was feasible.
Ergou: “???”
Ergou fainted.
…
Xia Meng took a walk to the counseling department.
Check the afternoon's work as you walk.
Actually, it’s pretty much the same as yesterday.
Three counseling places.
Yesterday, the number of people who applied online to take a compatibility test with her exceeded three hundred, but for some reason, more than half of them have disappeared now.
Xia Meng took a look at the number of people and saw that there were only more than a hundred people left.
There were too many people, and it was too inefficient to do matching tests one by one, so Xia Meng directly asked all the more than 100 people to agree to the initial screening in the background.
After she agreed, the information of the more than one hundred sentinels was automatically entered into the system's matching database.
[System: Initial screening in progress...]
[System: 3 people have completed the task, totaling 112 people.]
[System: 17 people have completed the task, totaling 112 people.]
[System: 31 people have completed the task, a total of 112 people.]
[System: 77 people have completed the task, a total of 112 people.]
[System: 98 people have completed the task, a total of 112 people.]
The system is very efficient in conducting initial screening.
In less than a minute, the initial screening of all 112 people was completed.
A new interface popped up, and Xia Meng took a closer look. It was a list of all 112 people.
All are arranged by name, age, gender, level, and compatibility.
The first few items are different, but the last row is all the same: 80%.
Xia Meng: “…”
For some reason, after seeing 80% of it, she is no longer surprised. She even has a bit of a Gestalt breakdown - a psychological phenomenon in which looking at a word or phrase for a long time will cause people to temporarily think that the word or phrase is meaningless or even not recognize it.
112 people, all 80%.
Xia Meng consoled herself by thinking, what’s the difference between one 80% and more than a hundred 80%s?
Keep calm!
Xia Meng! You've seen countless storms and waves! So what if there are only a hundred or so people?
Director Bai can't possibly force you to guide over a hundred sentries at the same time, right?
Don’t they have to come one by one?
Xia Meng entered the system.
In just a few seconds, her three spots for the afternoon were filled.
Except for Lu Wen, who had done a matching rate test with her yesterday but was not arranged because the quota was full, the remaining two places were for people on today's preliminary screening list.
The results of the initial screening had just been sent to them, and they immediately came to make an appointment.
It’s really fast.
Xia Meng glanced at the three names in the afternoon.
Number one is Lu Wen, Alpha's A-level sentinel, 26 years old.
She didn't recognize number two and number three, they were an A-level and a B-level respectively.
Xia Meng took a quick look and turned off the system.
When she reached the door of the counseling room, she saw Lu Wen already waiting there.
He was a young man with a shy and baby-faced appearance.
Xia Meng had a good first impression of him, but as the saying goes, "Birds of a feather flock together." Seeing how close he was to Pei Ziling, who could guarantee that he had not been contaminated by Pei Ziling?
Xia Meng's head started to hurt whenever she thought of Pei Ziling's name, and when she looked at Lu Wen's face, she couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable smiling.
She walked over and nodded to him politely.
Xia Meng: "Hello."
Lu Wen obviously knew what happened at the Black Tower gate that morning. He said a little embarrassedly, "I'm sorry, Dr. Xia. I apologize to you on behalf of Pei. He's a stubborn person and always does earth-shattering things when his mind is hot. But his heart is not bad. He really likes you."
Xia Meng looked at him speechlessly: "Why? Are you here to lobby for him?"
While questioning her, her left hand was on the handle of the counseling room, as if she would give up if he dared to nod.
Lu Wen quickly shook his head: "No, I don't mean to bring you together. I just want to say that he has no ill intentions, he just doesn't think things through. Please don't misunderstand him."
Unfortunately, Xia Meng was not so easily influenced.
She curled her lips coldly: "My opinion of him is entirely based on what he has done. I won't misunderstand him. By the way, do you still want to vent today?"
Lu Wen nodded quickly.
So Xia Meng opened the counseling room and stood at the door looking at him: "Then make three rules with me. First, don't mention his name again after entering my counseling room."
Lu Wen nodded repeatedly, paused, blinked his bright eyes and asked, "Then can I ask what your relationship with Li Shen is?"
Xia Meng caught a strange name: "Li Shen?"
Lu Wen: "Yeah, Master Li Zhou, I admire him so much."
Xia Meng: "Oh."
Lu Wen looked at her expectantly: "Then you...?"
Xia Meng looked at him coldly: "Does it have anything to do with you?"
Lu Wen retracted his head.
The two entered the counseling room.
Xia Meng sat down at the table, opened her work log, and asked Lu Wen as usual if he had any drainage habits.
At this moment, Lu Wen was like a quail, not saying a word and just shaking his head.
Xia Meng was satisfied.
She found that Ou Xu was quite far-sighted.
You still can't be too nice to the sentries, otherwise they will start to act arrogantly.
She held Lu Wen's hand.
Lu Wen's spirit form is a peregrine falcon.
His mental picture is not big, it is the compound where he grew up, with the national flag fluttering high in the yard.
Lu Wen is a child of a wealthy family and a third-generation red.
There is a ginkgo tree that is over a hundred years old planted in the courtyard.
The flow of time in the mental picture is different from that in reality, and the time and season are usually not the same.
It is still midsummer in reality, but it is still late autumn here.
The ginkgo leaves turned golden.
A thick golden carpet was laid in the yard.
This was the scene Xia Meng saw when she pushed the door open and walked into the compound.
very beautiful.
Lu Wen was a very worry-free person. Before Xia Meng came in, he told her that the fastest and easiest way to clear the air for him was to sweep the fallen leaves.
Xia Meng closed her eyes and felt it.
As he said, there are not many spiritual dark spots in his spiritual landscape, and most of them are hidden in the fallen leaves.
Xia Meng snapped her fingers.
Her mental power transformed into a gentle breeze.
The breeze was curling, and when it blew through the fallen leaves, it carried the yellow leaves into the wind.
The wind was sweeping the floor for her.
In just a few minutes, the thick layer of fallen leaves on the ground was swept away by the wind.
The fallen leaves that were blown into the sky were broken into countless dust particles in the wind and dissipated completely.
The peregrine falcon let out a clear cry, circled in the wind, and landed on a tree.
The guidance is completed.
Xia Meng let out a breath, pushed open the gate of the courtyard again, and walked out.
Lu Wen’s guidance is relatively the simplest.
This made Xia Meng feel a little better, and she looked at him with more favor.
Lu Wen stood up and thanked him obediently and politely.
His face looked flushed, probably because Xia Meng's guidance made him feel comfortable. At this moment, he looked radiant, and even his eyes were bright and shiny as if they had been washed with water.
Perhaps because he was afraid that Xia Meng would be annoyed by him, he didn't dare say much.
When he reached the door of the counseling room and opened it, he turned around and bowed to Xia Meng again, thanking her again.
"Also..." He couldn't help but say, "Although Pei and I are teammates, I don't think you two are suitable. I was originally going to say this today. But he's not a bad person, I hope you don't hate him because of this."
Xia Meng thought that Lu Wen was a pretty good person. He even knew how to speak up for his teammates and improve their favorability.
That's fine, she thought, although she didn't dislike Pei Ziling for this.
After all - that person just has a bad brain.
As a psychiatrist, would she hate her patient just because he had a brain bubble?
How miserable her life must have been every day!
"And..." Lu Wen opened the door, thought about it, and finally couldn't help but stuck his head out and said, "Personally, I think you and Li Shen are more suitable."
After saying that, without waiting for Xia Meng to react, he quickly retracted his head, closed the door and ran away.
Xia Meng: “…”
Sure enough, this guy is also a fool.
Why are all these sentinels so sick?
Xia Meng sighed and shook her head.
Just as I was about to take a break and move on to counseling the next person, the next second, someone knocked hurriedly on the door of the counseling room.
Xia Meng looked up, but before she could say anything, someone outside pushed the door open.
The person who came was actually Director Bai.
Director Bai looked serious and anxious. He waved to Xia Meng, "Xiao Xia, come here! It's urgent."
Xia Meng was stunned, but without thinking much, she quickly stood up.
As he walked, he said, "But, Director Bai, I still have two more counseling sessions to do..."
Director Bai: "There's an emergency here, and we need your support. I'll cancel all the evacuations for you on the system later."
Xia Meng had no objection and asked, "What's the emergency?"
Director Bai frowned and said, "Another case of strange illness has appeared, and it happened in public."
Xia Meng blinked: "Then may I ask why you insist on me going?"
Director Bai could only start from the beginning.
This afternoon, about half an hour ago.
A traffic accident occurred within the Second Ring Road of the city. A bus crashed into the roadside fence while trying to avoid a motorcycle that suddenly changed lanes, causing the accident.
The car accident resulted in three deaths and seventeen injuries.
All the injured were taken to a nearby hospital, where it was discovered that one of them was a tour guide.
Still an A-level guide.
The man's injuries were very serious and he was given emergency treatment in the hospital's emergency room, but he was ultimately unable to be saved.
The hospital notified Heita immediately.
Originally, the Black Tower's medical rescue team was ready to set off.
Xia Meng felt a little confused when she heard this.
She pointed at herself and asked doubtfully, "So what do you mean by asking me to go?"
Should we go and pray for that colleague's soul to be reborn?
It’s okay to have done it once in the exam room, but you can’t do it a second time!
Director Bai shook his head and sighed, saying, "I'm saying that at the same time the tragic news arrived, something unexpected happened inside the Black Tower. Seventeen sentries fainted. They were from different departments, of varying ages and ranks. Their only commonality was that they had all been receiving long-term counseling from the deceased guide."
Xia Meng understood the whole story.
She: "But I still don't quite understand, so why did you come to me?"
Director Bai took out his cell phone, flipped through it, and then handed it to Xia Meng.
Xia Meng lowered her eyes and saw that this was the preliminary screening list she had made in the afternoon.
After looking more carefully, she found that this preliminary screening list was not the one from the afternoon.
But Director Bai just did it three minutes ago.
There are seventeen names on the list.
These seventeen people have different ages, genders, and levels, but the only thing that is the same is the matching rate, which is also 80%.
Xia Meng suddenly realized.
Director Bai looked at her seriously and said, "You are so special. So far, you are the only one who can meet all of their requirements and have a matching rate of over 50%."
Saying 50% is being modest.
Otherwise, why do people say Xia Meng is special?
So far, she has actually reached 80% with every sentinel she has matched with.
Director Bai secretly sighed in his heart, no wonder Pei Ziling was so uneasy.
Of course, I have to act first to get such a special guide, otherwise I don’t know how many people I will have to fight with for her in the future.
However, Director Bai secretly hoped that she would not be engraved with any sentinel, not even Li Zhou.
How can I work at their guide center if I have the seal engraved on it?
Let’s get back to the topic.
Director Bai said, "The seventeen sentries fainted simultaneously and have been sent to the quarantine area. The situation is basically this: you, Li Zhou, Ou Xu, and Su Fangxiao are the only four of you who have experience successfully treating this strange disease. Therefore, after urgent discussion, the higher-ups hope that you four can enter this time."
He observed Xia Meng's expression: "What do you say?"
Xia Meng didn't have any ideas.
Just go in.
Since she is the only suitable candidate, who else could it be?
She nodded: "I'm fine."
Director Bai breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Then hurry up. Lao Zhou is waiting for you at the entrance of the quarantine area."
Xia Meng: "What about the two people behind me who are guiding us?"
Director Bai waved his hand: "I'll help you with the extension."
So Xia Meng didn't delay and rushed to the isolation area immediately.
At the entrance of the quarantine area, Li Zhou, Su Fangxiao and Ou Xu were already there.
The three of them stood in a row, opposite Zhou Qi, who was telling them about the situation of these seventeen people.
When Zhou Qi saw Xia Meng coming, he breathed a sigh of relief, just like Director Bai, and quickly waved, "Xiao Xia, it's great that you can come. Come on, let's get to know the background information of these seventeen people first."
Xia Meng explained why she was late: "Sorry, I was guiding the sentries and Director Bai couldn't interrupt, so I was delayed a bit."
Zhou Qi expressed his understanding.
When counseling, the most taboo thing is to be interrupted by others.
At the very least, both of them will suffer from the backlash of their mental power, and at the worst, they will become possessed and their mental picture will collapse.
Therefore, no matter how urgent the situation was, Director Bai did not dare to interrupt casually.
Zhou Qi sent all the information to Xia Meng's mobile phone.
"Let's take a look quickly. Let's try to buy time and get in early."
Xia Meng glanced through it, raised her eyes and asked, "Have you found the specific cause of the fainting?"
Zhou Qi and others looked at each other, with no answer.
Zhou Qi stated the facts: "At present, all we can say is that the connection between the sentinels is closer than we imagined. The matching rate between these seventeen sentinels and the guide is roughly between 55% and 65%. There has been no mental imprinting, let alone physical imprinting."
Xia Meng also found it a little unbelievable.
Normally, only when the sentry directions have been engraved on each other will one party die and the other party be seriously injured.
The engraved sentry is connected to life and death.
It's basically a life-and-death relationship.
If the one who dies is the guide, the sentinel will basically not survive.
If the sentry dies, the guide will have to endure great pain even if he is alive.
But that's where the problem lies.
The information on Xia Meng's phone clearly indicated their matching rate.
The guide had not made an imprint with any of the Sentinels.
Then why did his death trigger such a serious chain reaction?
Is this related to the strange diseases that occurred before?
These questions remain unanswered to this day.
There is no point in forcing the inquiry.
Xia Meng looked through the information of these dozen people and had a rough idea in her mind.
Zhou Qi clapped his hands: "There is no time to lose, everyone should act as soon as possible."
Li Zhou and Su Fangxiao have already changed into combat uniforms specially designed for missions.
The last time I went to Jingbei Hospital, they were dressed like this.
Xia Meng and Ou Xu had also been allocated a set before, but this time Xia Meng was too lazy to change.
"Let's not worry about that. After all, I'm in the mental image, so I'll change into whatever clothes I need to."
The four of them were dressed so handsomely at that time, but when they entered the spiritual picture, weren't they immediately reduced to their original form and made to wear school uniforms?
Who knows what the spiritual landscape will be like this time?
She felt more at ease wearing the white coat she was most familiar with.
Four people walked into the isolation area.
The seventeen people are now being accommodated in the same large ward.
The large ward originally accommodated twelve people, but now all the beds in the ward had been pushed out. In order to accommodate seventeen testing instruments at the same time, seventeen people made two rows of large bunk beds.
Xia Meng is the only one among the four who holds a medical license.
She carefully observed the instrument data of each person and confirmed that none of them were in danger of life.
Ou Xu finally spoke at this time and asked, "Do we still have to choose the same person to go in together this time?"
Su Fangxiao said, "It's no use choosing the same person. Last time we got in there, weren't they all separated?"
Ou Xu: "That's true, but I always feel that if we go in together, I will feel more at ease."
As he spoke, Ou Xu took the initiative to move closer to Xia Meng: "Xia Xia, let me go with you! You two can take me with you!"
Xia Meng shrugged: "I don't care."
Seeing this, Su Fangxiao coughed twice and said, "Then I'll come too."
Li Zhou: "Who are you going to choose?"
Xia Meng: "I guess it doesn't matter who you choose."
Ou Xu nudged Xia Meng: "Then Xia Meng, just guess it. Oh wow, your name sounds just like 'Xia Meng'!"
Xia Meng: "..." Thank you.
Xia Meng really just picked one at random.
She chose the one closest to her.
This person is a woman named Ji Jiazi, 29 years old, a staff member of Black Tower No. 1 Restaurant, and a Class B sentinel.
Ou Xu: "Ah, I know her! When I first entered the Black Tower, I often went to Restaurant No. 1 for dinner and often ran into her."
Su Fangxiao glanced at him.
Xia Meng asked: "Do you know any other information about her?"
The more we know about the current situation, the better.
Zhou Qi has already provided a lot of information.
For example, she is married, has a three-year-old daughter, her husband is an ordinary person, the couple loves each other, and their family is happy.
Therefore, she did not seek any imprinting guides, but chose to receive counseling regularly at the guide center.
This is a very common situation, and Sentinel Guides do not necessarily have to be tied to each other.
Ou Xu reminisced. "I remember her spirit form being a goose, but I don't know the specific species. As for her mental image, that's a private matter. Even the Black Tower can't delve into it. Only she and her guide know. Oh, and I remember her as someone with a very good temper and very stable emotions, even more stable than me. I initially thought she was a guide."
Xia Meng nodded, this is a good thing.
Her stable emotions probably indicate that she has fewer mental dark spots and negative emotions than normal people.
Moreover, the counseling record provided by Director Bai indicated that she had just received counseling from that guide three days ago.
In other words, her mental picture is most likely stable at this time.
Xia Meng made a quick decision: "Then choose her."
So Xia Meng stood in front of Ji Jiazi, raised her hand and placed her palm on her forehead.
Because of the large bunk bed, they couldn't stand next to Ji Jiazi, so they could only do it this way.
Xia Meng released her mental power bit by bit.
The other three stood behind her.
Xia Meng closed her eyes.
The familiar thick fog spread towards her.
In the mist, she heard a child's laughter as sweet as a silver bell.
"Hahahahaha! Mommy!! Come quickly!"
"Hey ha ha ha, mom! I'm hungry!"
Xia Meng guessed that it was probably the voice of Ji Jiazi's three-year-old daughter.
The voice sounded peaceful and happy.
I wonder what kind of happy and peaceful scene is in her mental picture.
Could it be their home?
Xia Meng thought speculatively.
She waited in the darkness for a while, and finally, the surroundings began to gradually become brighter.
The sky brightened.
She looked around and found herself outdoors.
Ji Jiazi's spiritual vision was even bigger than she had imagined.
There was a strange smell floating in the air, similar to the smell of metal, with a hint of rust and a sweet smell.
The sky is clear.
Directly in front of her was a huge spherical fortress. From her perspective, behind the spherical fortress, there were two connected square buildings on the left and right.
The spherical fortress is completely covered in metal, like a giant disco ball.
The countless planes on the surface reflect the external light.
Xia Meng listened carefully and could vaguely hear a very steady "click-click-click" sound coming from the spherical fortress.
It sounded like the precise movement of gears or a clockwork.
Countless "click" sounds gathered together and blended with the ambient sound.
Xia Meng didn't quite understand what was going on for a moment.
Shouldn't she be in a warm home?
Why would a woman whose life is confined to work and family have such a strange fortress in her mental landscape?
But Xia Meng immediately changed her mind and felt that it was understandable.
Now it was not just Ji Jiazi who was locked up alone, but seventeen sentries. Their mental images were bound to be integrated, just like the three students who had eaten poisonous mushrooms before.
The spiritual images of seventeen people merged...
Xia Meng couldn't help but gasp just thinking about it.
I don’t know how crazy the mental picture will be this time.
Fortunately, none of the seventeen of them ate poisonous mushrooms this time.
Xia Meng looked around again and found that many people around were walking towards the fortress.
These people wore the same uniform, with a blue base and armbands of various colors.
At first glance, it looks a bit like the work clothes that workers wear.
Xia Meng subconsciously looked down at herself and found that she was wearing the same style: blue overalls, a blue shirt, and a white armband on her left arm with the Arabic numeral 1 on it.
What does 1 mean?
What does white mean?
Xia Meng looked around and found that the armbands and numbers on everyone's arms corresponded to each other.
1 is white, 2 to 4 are yellow, 5 to 8 are red, and 9 is black.
Basically everyone's number is between 1 and 9.
Xia Meng looked carefully at everyone's face, but didn't see any familiar faces.
"Xia Meng!" Ou Xu's voice came from behind. Xia Meng turned around and saw Ou Xu wearing the same work clothes, striding towards her.
He was crying with tears in his eyes and was so excited.
Ou Xu: "That's great! I can finally act with you!"
Xia Meng glanced at his armband.
Sure enough, it is also white, 1.
Ou Xu: "Where are Li Zhou and Su Fangxiao? Have you seen them?"
Xia Meng: “Not yet.”
Ou Xu was a little disappointed, but having Xia Meng around was the greatest comfort to him.
For some reason, he always felt that the only way to be safe was to stay with Xia Meng.
Neither the two sentries, Li Zhou and Su Fangxiao, could give him this wonderful sense of security.
Ou Xu tugged at his clothes and said, "As you said, no matter how handsome my combat uniform is, I can't fit into it."
The crowd around was constantly gathering towards the fortress's gate.
Xia Meng gestured for them to follow.
She continued to search the crowd, and soon, she finally found two people coming from a distance.
Li Zhou and Su Fangxiao came from two different directions. They ran very fast and noticed Xia Meng and Ou Xu, and quickly ran towards them.
Xia Meng took the opportunity to notice their armbands, which were also white 1s.
The four of them met and briefly exchanged the information they had observed.
Xia Meng discovered that the clues everyone had access to were very limited.
At the moment, everything here seems strange.
At this moment, a burly man passing by shouted at them, "What are you four doing here? Why don't you hurry up and line up to enter the factory?"
Ou Xu frowned: "Enter the arena? What are you talking about?"
Xia Meng shook her head, shrugged and said, "It could also be a factory." Who knows.
Xia Meng noticed that the burly man who was yelling at them had a black 9 on his armband.
Judging from the numbers, 1 and 9, white and black.
They are probably at two extremes from that strong man.
Judging from the attitude of the strong man, their 1 is probably the lowest in the hierarchy.
The four of them walked forward.
One or two hundred people have gathered in front of the spherical fortress.
As I got closer, the vague "clicking" sound became clearer.
Xia Meng whispered to Li Zhou, "Can you tell what that sound is?"
Li Zhou listened attentively, trying to identify the sounds for a long time before shaking his head. "I can't tell. It seems like there are all sorts of sounds: gears, springs, machines running... all sorts of sounds."
At this time, someone looked towards them.
A young man wearing a yellow armband glanced at her and Su Fangxiao and said with a smile, "Hey, there's a newcomer!"
Li Zhou narrowed his eyes, took a half step forward calmly, and blocked Xia Meng behind him.
The man's vision was blocked. He raised his eyes to look at Li Zhou, frowned, made an unpleasant "tsk" sound, and then turned his head away.
At this time, Xia Meng suddenly thought of something, pulled Li Zhou's sleeve, and wanted to talk to him.
Li Zhou lowered his head slightly.
Xia Meng whispered in his ear: "They are probably judging our identities by numbers. You are tall, so help me see how many 1s there are nearby, and whether there is anyone familiar among them."
The familiar faces Xia Meng was referring to were the seventeen sentries, and whether they were among them.
Li Zhou obediently raised his head and looked around.
Taking advantage of the physical advantages of an S-class sentinel, his eyesight accurately scanned every face and every armband of the one or two hundred people.
After a minute, he lowered his head and shook it slightly.
"I didn't see them. But there are still six of them."
That is to say, among these one or two hundred people, only ten are 1.
Isn't this bottom layer a bit too little?
At this moment, the "click-click" sound of the gears suddenly became louder.
The spherical fortress gate slowly opened to both sides under the operation of the gears, revealing a dark doorway.
A stream of steam floated out of the dark cave entrance, and from deep inside the doorway came a "humming" sound as if water was boiling.
This place is really weird everywhere.
Soon, a huge number popped up on a metal plate right above the gate: 9.
At this time, all the people in the crowd wearing black armbands with the number 9 on them stepped out and walked towards the door.
Xia Meng counted and found that there were not many 9s, only nine people.
Then, after all 9 were entered, a minute later, the number on the metal plate jumped and this time it became 8.
All those wearing red armbands with the number 8 also followed and moved forward.
The numbers jump in reverse order.
After the people with the first few numbers had all gone in, finally, the only person present was the one with the white armband, number 1.
There are ten people in total.
At this time, the metal plate above the door finally turned into 1.
These ten people seemed to be newcomers. They looked at each other, hesitated for a moment, and finally someone was the first to step in.
Xia Meng also stepped forward.
Ten people walked into the door one after another.
The world behind the door was pitch black, and the corridor was much narrower than imagined.
At this moment, the door behind him slammed shut, plunging the entire place into darkness.
The person walking in front subconsciously stopped, forcing the people behind him to stop as well.
Behind them, someone urged them, "It's pitch black here, you can't see a thing. Why are you stopping? Keep going!"
The person in front retorted, "You know you can't see anything, right? How can you move forward if you can't see anything?"
At this moment, a very fast "click-click" sound suddenly came from far away and instantly reached their feet.
Li Zhou reacted extremely quickly and grabbed Xia Meng's shoulders. The next second, everyone lost their footing and fell down.
After the strong feeling of weightlessness, the sound of a heavy object hitting the ground was soon heard.
Xia Meng only felt that someone was holding her tightly in his arms.
From head to toe, she was wrapped up.
Not to mention falling, she wasn't even bruised at all.
She opened her eyes and found that she was indeed held firmly in Li Zhou's arms.
A wailing sound came from Ou Xu beside him.
Xia Meng turned around and found that Ou Xu was being used as a scapegoat by Su Fangxiao.
He was face down with her sitting on his waist.
Xia Meng felt that Ou Xu's waist was almost broken by that sitting just now.
The surroundings finally became bright again at this time.
All they saw before them were three huge conveyor belts.
On one side of the conveyor belt is a giant pipe that is as big as three people can hug together. The pipe is connected to a high place, and in front of the pipe mouth is a huge table.
On the other side of the conveyor belt, there are three different pipes connected.
The conveyor belt has started moving.
From one side of the giant pipe, it slowly rolled towards the other side of the three pipes.
The ten people looked at each other.
No one knows what is going on.
Ou Xu tutted twice: "Are we really going to the factory? Are we here to work for someone?"
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