With the disappearance of the ball of light suspected to be Red Moon's accomplice, navigation returned to normal. But this was the middle of nowhere, and navigation was on hold. All Henry could do was back up as far as he could, until he hit the paved road and drove for a while in the direction he had come from, eventually returning to the route with the navigation.
"Hey, it's only because I brought you two with me that I dared to drive in and out so easily and roughly." Henry looked at the occasional rendezvous of vehicles and was quite relieved and dared to make small talk about the encounter he had just had, "Otherwise I'd have been really afraid that I'd drive into some strange place in the middle of this wilderness".
Middendorffi asked, "Strange places? Like what?"
"For example, non-existent farms ah, the junction of Yin and Yang ah, seemingly neat new farms are cemeteries ah ..." Henry lowered his voice a little, pretending to be mysterious, "According to legend, some people are just in the countryside listening to the navigation command, drove to the kind of shady house area. The whole farm is lined with houses, the entrance is lit with oriental lanterns, and some of the houses are still lit. But up and down the whole farmstead, not a single person was there!"
"There are places like this?" Middendorffi said, "I'd like to see them."
"You can't. Other people can't see humans, because they are ordinary people. When you go there, who can sense everything, won't you see pits full of 'people'? Then, if you are kept there by them for a few more days, you won't be able to come back!" Henry replied, "And that's just an urban legend on the internet, there's no record of it being explored in the system, so who knows if it's true or not.
Middendorffi said, "There are some posts online that talk about strange encounters, and people in the comments section will still say they've had similar encounters. Is it possible that it's all fake?"
"It's hard to say. Most of them are fake anyway." Henry said, "But sometimes the person in question is telling the truth, and they firmly believe it to be true, when in fact it is false. Maybe he misreads it, misunderstands it, or it could be that the man is just mentally ill and he combines his imagination with reality and comes up with a bunch of memories that don't exist. When he realised that reality was different from his memories, he thought he was travelling. People are such strange creatures.
Middendorffi thought for a moment, "So if you weren't from the 'Collector', but from people in general, you'd think I was mentally ill if I told you I'd seen something strange?"
"Haha, all I can say is that it's quite possible. After all, you looked like you were seriously injured at the time, it's not uncommon for a concussion to cause hallucinations."Henry replied, "And you see, even a 'collector' would, in many cases, recommend that the person in question be given a psychiatric examination first. Make sure the person's mental state is normal before we look at them."
Middendorffi asked, "So those who post online are also mentally ill?"
"Most of them are made up, a small percentage are people who happen to stumble across something and have a misunderstanding, and a very small percentage are mentally ill and stumbled across it."Henry said, "The ones that are made up are also often imitating and copying and mixing each other's stories. So if you hear someone telling the story of such encounters, it may not be true, it may just be something they have made up after hearing and reading about it elsewhere".
Middendorffi let out an "oh" and pulled out his mobile phone, pressing a message, Eli was about to catch a glimpse of what he was doing when Middendorffi immediately handed him his phone.
Eli took it and saw that it read: [Humans also use other people's experiences to make up their own, and it feels similar to mine].
He laughed, deleted the text immediately and typed in two more lines of text: [Yes. So you don't have to worry, humans are nothing more than that].
Middendorffi took his phone back and scanned it, nodding before putting it away.
"On the other hand, Bear, you have to be careful." Henry continued to chat from the front seat, "These things have been on you twice, they could be on you a third time. It's OK with Eli, what if you fall off the wagon? Why don't you go back and apply to the 'Collector' and see if you can get a special permit for something, and also have a guarantee that you'll be with them".
Middendorffi asked, "What can I apply for?"
"It's hard to say, you don't have a permit to carry a weapon, and a weapon definitely won't do. But you can see what your superiors can arrange."Henry replied, "Eli has even been questioned by the military before, I wonder if they can do more this time.
Their stuff is always state of the art, and that little 'vaporiser' last time was a winner!"
Middendorffi said, "I'll go back and apply and see."
"Sure, I'll take a look for you then ..."
The vehicle drove through the night, and this time it finally drove smoothly without getting lost again.
The first destination this mission reached was a small town, supposedly the closest town to this wild lake, that wanted to develop tourism resources.
Due to the late arrival, many of the townspeople had already gone to bed and the town was quiet. The accommodation Henry had booked was not so much a bed and breakfast as an extra room in the town hall. The décor was simple, but at first glance, it looked fairly clean. Three rooms on one floor shared a bathroom and the conditions weren't too bad.
There had been strange things going on lately because of the wild lake, which had attracted a lot of tourists, so one of the rooms on that floor had been booked, only for Middendorffi's three big men to leave two rooms. The rooms were filled with queen-sized beds, so squeezing two men in wasn't much of a problem. The boss said that if they wanted more beds they could put a one-metre-wide folding spring bed in one of the rooms.
Henry had planned to take the springs himself and then just share the room with Eli and Middendorffi. But before he could say anything, Eli said that he and Middendorffi could share a room and not have an extra bed.
Henry froze, "Huh? Really?"
Middendorffi didn't think it was a big deal, after all, it wasn't like the two of them needed to sleep, so he nodded, "Well, no problem."
"You two are perfect as glue ...," Henry half-jokingly exclaimed before getting some disposable toiletries from the owner and following him up the stairs. The boss explained as he led the way that the legend of the thing they wanted to see was that it appeared at dawn, so if they were going there for the first time and didn't know the way, they would have to get up around four in the morning. If the others left at four or so to go that way, it was just a matter of following them.
"Ooh, that's early, I haven't been up this early in years."Henry sighed, then turned his head to look at Middendorffi and Eli, "Did you hear that? Meet me down the hall at four, is that OK?"
"Fine."Both agreed, of course, and then they went to their rooms together. Henry, on the other hand, went into a room next door and another room that was supposedly occupied by someone who had come to make a video, but the door was locked and not seen.
Middendorffi and Eli, on this side, went into the room and locked the door, and Middendorffi went to look out the window as usual.
Middendorffi remembered that the boss had just pointed in the direction of the wild lake, and looked over there again, but still found nothing.
"Do you want to go to the bathroom and load the laundry?" Eli asked him as he walked over, "It doesn't matter when you're with me, but there's Henry."
"You can go later." Middendorffi closed the curtains and turned to look at him, "Next time you come across something like a red moon, can you pull me to the front of the line too?"
"You want to get close to it?" Eli doesn't mention any danger to him either, he asks, "What are you going to do?"
"When you smashed it today and it disappeared, I think I felt some fluctuations in the energy of space."Middendorffi said, "It could have been using space to move."
"But those things were probably machines." Eli said, "If it's spatial shifting, at least it means that the group that made this machinery has mastered space."
"So I'm using my powers to capture it, and maybe I can."Middendorffi said, "But I can't move as fast as you, and I'm afraid I'll give it a chance to escape. Either you take me there, or you just let it get me?"
"You're giving me a hard time." Eli said, "If the others are there and see me sending you forward instead of pulling you away, they may not be confident that I can keep you safe on my own in the future."
Middendorffi looked at him, "Will that help me?"
"...You said that, what can I say?"Eli couldn't help but raise his hand and touch Middendorffi's face without being able to tell if he was tugging or touching, "Do it for you, don't worry."
Middendorffi pinched his face obediently, "Thank you.
"Then smile for me. I've never seen you smile before." Eli said, "It's OK if you fake it, show me what you've learned."
"Could be."Middendorffi gave a wink and a real, eye-rolling, obvious smile.
"..." Eli looked stunned for a moment. To be honest, he thought he'd feel uncomfortable seeing Middendorffi smile; it was all fake. But unexpectedly, Middendorffi smiled a natural smile, perfect for his current appearance. Even though Eli knew that Middendorffi couldn't physically smile, the thought occurred to him that if he could smile, it would be like this.
Middendorffi did blend in perfectly with the crowd, a look that fooled even Eli, let alone anyone else.
Middendorffi watched him stare at him without saying anything and asked, "What? Not right?"
"No, very right." Eli sighed heartily, "You're good."
Middendorffi didn't quite understand, "That's just the simplest expression."
"When you've seen another finished human, you'll understand how perfect your smile is." Eli said, "If you usually smiled at me like that, I'd think you'd learned to be happy."
Middendorffi withdrew her smile, "I don't usually use those expressions."
"I know, I don't blame you for lying to me." Eli said, "You can use those expressions if you want, you don't have to deliberately hide the so-called 'real you' from me. I know what you are and how you are, and it is your freedom how you appear on the surface.
Middendorffi said: "I thought that between close friends you should try to keep it real.
"People push for it. But you and I are not your average humans." Eli laughed a little, "You're free, and I don't want to tie you to the person closest to me.
If you want to, go ahead."
Middendorffi was plausible, but nodded, "Good."
Eli added, "Is there anything you want to do now?"
Middendorffi thought for a moment, "Yes."
"What?"
"I'm going to go to the bathroom and pretend for ten minutes."
"..."Eli lost his smile again, he felt like he was always getting the best of Middendorffi, "Okay, go."