Chapter 22 Chapter 22 Swallowing Pollution
Returning to the dormitory, it was like entering another world. It was extremely quiet and no one disturbed me. There was no one outside the window, only the stars on the hilltops.
The room was spacious, with thick walls and strong sound insulation. She turned on the lights and washed up briefly, not feeling sleepy.
A moment later, a backpack and cardboard box were delivered to the door by a robot. Inside were borrowed books, toiletries, gifts, and craft materials. Meanwhile, a message arrived from the officer: "I've sent the items up. You'll have a rest tomorrow, so you can spend more time with your spirit."
【If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me】
Then a link was sent to me, with my username and password below: [Download this software. This is the treatment room terminal. You can view visitors, set preferences, block or file complaints against impolite sentries.]
She replied: [Okay, sir. I'll go down and look into it.]
Open the door, let the little robot in, point to the table, and let it put things on it.
Sunday nights are wonderful, and what's even better is that I don't have to go to work tomorrow.
She took out a ball of pure black wool from the bag, took out the fixing tools, sat at the desk, logged into StarNet to listen to music, took out a piece of wool, and started poking.
The prelude is catchy, and as I listen to it, my legs start shaking unconsciously. It has a strong sense of rhythm and a lively melody. I added it to my playlist, clicked on the lyrics translation, and saw that it was a subtle pornographic song.
It doesn’t matter. She doesn’t understand anyway. She is a singer-songwriter and sings well. Just follow her.
Time passed silently, her lower back ached, and she had only finished the bases of both wings. She put them away and continued working on them tomorrow. Since she couldn't give them as gifts, she planned to make small animal figurines for herself as souvenirs, and put them in a display cabinet. It would definitely be spectacular.
I took out a bottle of carbonated drink from the refrigerator and browsed the news. The headline news was that there was significant progress in the loss of land in the south. I clicked to load, and a red exclamation mark popped up on the webpage, followed by a prompt: Some images may cause discomfort, please watch with caution.
She clicked confirm and saw the bloody scene. She drank some iced cola to calm herself down, played the song on loop, and scrolled down. Before she knew it, a spirit appeared, squatting on her left side, watching with her.
It doesn't take up space and doesn't make any noise, making it a great companion. As soon as I said this, something went wrong. The guy jumped to the front, his hyphae covering the entire screen, as if he was very interested in the content of the picture.
Those are all pollutants, infiltrated into the soil, rivers, and lakes. But it pounces on them as if they were some delicious food, picks them up and puts them back on the table, because it doesn't want to touch them, so it can only grab the hyphae.
"That's fake," she said, feeling a bit annoyed by this guy. She handed the can over and asked, "Would you like a drink?"
It actually lifted the mycelium, which puzzled her. "Wait a minute." Seriously? How could she not know that spirits needed to eat? She searched online and found that most spirits didn't need to eat. She had no choice but to send a message to her boss.
[Sir, my spirit body wants to eat.] Then I described the situation to him.
When the prompt sounded, the bathroom light heated up, and hot water poured down from the top, soaking my hair and covering my skin with a layer of water film. I turned off the faucet, reached for the towel, wiped my hands, read the message, and replied: [Normal, do not feed contaminated food]
Her hand was on the knob, controlling the screen brightness, turning it on, off, on, off. It was fun to watch the hyphae reach out to touch the screen again and again, and then retract it.
It seems to want to eat pollution
…
We'll go for another checkup tomorrow.
Generally speaking, pollution is something that should be avoided because it will destroy a person's spirit and eventually alienate him into a monster. Every time he goes out on a mission, he will be affected.
It will gather into knots in the spiritual sea, occupy space, and finally explode in a high-energy state, thereby completely changing a person's physiological structure and alienating him into a degenerate species.
The guide can dissolve them, turning high-risk energy aggregates into safer, more stable low-energy bodies. During the treatment process, there may be pollution that invades the guide through the mental connection, but the guide's mental stability is stronger and difficult to be affected, and it will soon dissipate.
But it still exists in the spiritual sea. Decomposition is a long process that needs to be undertaken by the sentinels themselves. Of course, there will be guides who are willing to take the initiative to help each other and absorb and digest part of it, but this will bring risks to themselves and is not a mandatory requirement.
Generally, this is only done to permanently marked sentries, as a way of showing responsibility for them and that they are the ones they are protecting.
This is also why Sentinels cannot go on missions too frequently in a short period of time. If the spiritual sea is unstable, even low-energy pollution may be too much to bear, leading to alienation and degeneration.
As for eating pollution...
If it can really do it, and with high efficiency, it may bring new possibilities to the world and another surprise.
The next morning, the two went to a mental testing center.
Shan Hao: "There's a trash can in front."
She looked down at the can in her hand, shook her head and said, "Don't throw this away for now." She raised it up, placed it in the sun, and rotated it. There was a notch where the skin was very thin, almost transparent. Rotating it further inward, there were several small notches.
When she got up in the morning and was about to throw the garbage into the recycling bin, she discovered this abnormal phenomenon. Her spirit body crawled out at some point and gnawed the bottle. Was it so hungry?
Can this thing be eaten?
The man reached out and took it. "You mean, this is what it did?"
She nodded, and when she summoned it out, the other party excitedly acknowledged it.
The two walked into the hall. According to the appointment, she was guided into a pure white room. There were no testing equipment here. A woman walked in, followed by a huge creature that looked like a deep-sea octopus.
"Don't be nervous, sit down and talk first."
She took the warm water from the other person and summoned her spirit form. After a while, her eyes narrowed and she gradually lost consciousness. Seeing her master unconscious, the mushroom eagerly attempted to attack. Rushing forward, it was sprayed with ink. Before it could even get close, it too collapsed to the ground, twisted and swirling, and was wrapped in tentacles and placed on a nearby single sofa.
After a long time, she woke up slowly and learned that the examination was over. It was as if nothing had happened and she felt unreal. She walked out of the room and saw him sitting on a chair in the hall, still replying to messages, so she followed him over.
There was breakfast and tea on the table. I asked her if she wanted to eat something, but she shook her head and refused. I looked up and saw that three hours had passed and it was almost noon. I wanted to ask it what happened, but it didn't respond.
After filling out the questionnaire, the two walked out of the testing center and had lunch together. After a while, the report was sent to the man's computer. He browsed through it and burned the file.
"Your spirit body is edible."
Um?
"Drink can?"
Drumming his knuckles on the table, he corrected himself: "Pollution."
Not understanding what that meant, she nodded and continued popping grapes into her mouth, "That's pretty impressive."
"When your spirit body recovers, please tell me in time."
"Yes, sir."
As they were walking out after eating, they happened to run into a group of people coming into the cafeteria. A woman greeted her, but before she could react who it was, the officer said, "Captain Nancy."
"Good afternoon," she walked out of the group, waved to the others to go get their food first, and turned to her, "Hello, Guide Shanshan."
The officer took a step forward inconspicuously, blocking her behind him. "How are you doing recently?"
"Not bad," she raised an eyebrow, "what's wrong?"
"It's like this," the man turned his head, "She's having her first counseling session these past two days. I want to find a Sentinel with low pollution and a stable mind to help her through her first session. I hope he can be very restrained."
"Yes, no problem." She nodded. Most of the patrol team members had low mental fluctuations, significantly stronger than ordinary Sentinels. This was why they were selected for the military and police. They could remain rational and calm even when facing corrupted Sentinels. It wasn't difficult to find such people; she herself was one of them.
"Anything else you want?"
"It's your first time, but don't be clumsy. Be obedient and don't get higher than an A." Looking down at her, Nancy smiled and asked, "Do you have any preferences when it comes to plants?"
She shook her head and asked, "How about Ginkgo?" This is the most stable subject.
"Can."
"Okay, Guide Shanshan, let's add a communication. I'll send you his information when the time comes, and you can just give it priority in the background."
The commander interrupted, "Just contact me directly."
The elevator behind the door opened, he walked in first, and she followed.
As the elevator ascended, the officer's face was reflected in the door. "When you're doing spiritual counseling, don't let it eat too much. Your spiritual body may not be able to digest it, understand?"
"Can I eat it?"
"Okay." He nodded silently, as if he was born for this. There were no side effects at all, except that this behavior implied intimacy.
"After it's over, he might become somewhat dependent on you. This is normal and will heal after a while. Don't bother with him, or he'll get deeper and deeper into it and won't be able to get out. Do you understand?"
She nodded. She had heard of patients falling in love with their therapists, but for the sake of long-term job stability, she decided not to mix work and personal life. "I will maintain a professional attitude, sir."
The elevator door opened, "Okay, go back. I'll pick you up at dinner time."
She walked into the dormitory and lay back on the sofa. After a while, the spirit finally woke up. She called it out and found that its mycelium and fruiting body were dyed black, as if they were splashed with paint. She wanted to wipe it, but found that it was not the outside that was dirty, but the inside.
"What’s wrong with you?"
The other person looked like he was drunk. He finally staggered and made a heart shape with his hands. He seemed to be fine. She lay back on the sofa and began to look through the guidebook. After all, she had to work tomorrow, so it would be better to sharpen her tools before the battle.
After flipping through half of the book, he found that the color on the other person's body was gradually fading, and he was a little feverish. It seemed that he was fine. He remembered the instructions of his superior and sent the message.
Today was a very dull day. It was almost time to go to bed when it finally digested everything. The mycelium even grew a little bit longer, but unfortunately it was not visible to the naked eye and the owner did not notice it either.
Its owner was flipping through the guidebook, hoping that nothing would go wrong at work tomorrow.
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