Thinking about the fireball assault he launched at us earlier, it's not hard to envision that this human spontaneous combustion phenomenon is likely achieved under his own manipulation. But what's the purpose? Because he didn't want to divulge more information and was on the verge of being interrogated, so he chose to end his own life? Admittedly, in order to extract more information from him, I did contemplate using cruel means to interrogate him. As for the specific interrogation techniques, I have seen many in written materials and on the Internet. But after all, it was just a thought. I have also only witnessed the act of torturing prisoners in written materials and on the Internet. As for whether to implement it, I am actually extremely hesitant.
However, now that he is already deceased, interrogation has become an idle talk and it's futile to discuss it further.
We returned to the car and left this battlefield.
Along the way, I kept pondering over what that person had said.
His words were both bizarre and fragmented. Even if we fully believe them, it's difficult to piece together a complete picture. There's no way. I can only sort out some currently known information first and then analyze it.
To make my thoughts more literary and organized, I found a notebook and a pen in the car and jotted down my thoughts on paper.
The following content is all based on the assumption that what that person said is not crazy ranting:
First, judging from the words such as the great god, living sacrifice, heretic, us, and ritual mentioned by this person, he hails from a cult that has mastered supernatural powers. There are his accomplices inhabiting Beaver City, and the number is uncertain.
Second, he has a very detailed understanding of the current red-eye disease disaster and knows the truth of the disaster. Even... it must be seriously considered that this disaster is entirely caused by them.
Third, he claimed that Beaver City has already entered the stomach of the god and we will all be digested. This sentence sounds as if Beaver City has entered a non-realistic different dimension. If we combine this piece of information with the current situation where we cannot leave Beaver City, it seems that it can be the reason why we cannot leave. I'll make an unreserved inference here: The reason why there is a cliff at the edge of Beaver City is that this place is already inside the stomach of the god.
Fourth, he divided the heretics in Beaver City who don't believe in god—here it can be completely renamed as all the citizens of Beaver City—into two categories, one is the minions of the messenger, and the other is the prey. If we examine the current situation of Beaver City and simply replace the concepts, we can completely understand the minions of the messenger as "patients with red-eye disease" and the prey as "survivors without red-eye disease." And the ritual he mentioned is what caused this situation.
Is the outbreak of red-eye disease caused by the cult's ritual?
Speaking of which, the researchers we found in the institute also said that red-eye disease is not a disease but a curse?
In this way, it can be consistent before and after. My idea suddenly seems to have inexplicable persuasiveness. I even feel that it would be unreasonable if it weren't like this.
In addition, that person also called us living sacrifices. This is probably also the cult's positioning of survivors.
He also called me a heretic mage...
Come to think of it, I don't know how he wields supernatural powers either. Because I don't know, so at first I could only suspect that he is also an esper like me. This may be the same for him. He probably doesn't know that I am an esper either, so after seeing that I can wield supernatural powers, he thinks I am some kind of heretic mage. Could it be that in his heart, he himself is a non-heretic mage?
Mage—
I also wrote this word in the notebook and regarded it as a second category of groups that can use supernatural powers and are different from espers.
Of course, I have also wondered whether espers and mages are actually the same thing. Everyone is the same kind, just with different names. But this thought is temporarily kept in my mind and will be verified later when there is an opportunity.
The notes will be written here for now.
Because I am writing while sitting in the car, not only is the tip of the pen easy to scratch the paper, but also after a long time, I will feel dizzy and have blurred vision. I already feel unwell now.
Aoba, who is sitting next to me in the passenger seat, naturally also saw the content of my notes.
"Ning Hai, do you think... did this cult cause the outbreak of red-eye disease?" she asked.
"I have this suspicion, but these are all unguarded speculations. That guy's mental state doesn't seem normal. If what he said is not reality, then what I wrote is all waste paper."
Although I said so, frankly speaking, after writing so much, it's hard for me to convince myself to refuse to believe his words.
"Ning Hai." Yukio suddenly said, "Can I take a look at that notebook later?"
I looked at her.
Because we were facing the enemy before, she showed a particularly tough and cold attitude. But now that the battle is over and there are only me and Aoba besides her here, she showed an extremely tired expression. The tiredness here doesn't mean that she looks very exhausted, but a mental state of being disheartened about the future. First, she couldn't get the medicine she wanted, and then she couldn't find a way out. The successive blows had a devastating impact on her enthusiasm.
She should take a good rest.
"I'll give it to you tomorrow." I said. "You need rest. Didn't you not sleep yesterday? Go to sleep after we get back."
"Okay, I know." Yukio said.
In the afternoon, we returned to Yukio's house, that villa.
When getting off the car, Mr. Sanlun, who was placed in the back seat by us, woke up again. I knocked him out once more and then carried him to an empty room on the third floor of the villa.
Yukio returned to the bedroom on the second floor and rested first.
Then, Aoba and I gathered in the living room on the first floor and sat on the sofa together.
"Aoba." I put the notebook aside. "Do you have any thoughts about what's going to happen next?"
"Thoughts..." Aoba was slightly stunned and then thought about it.
Our original plan was to leave Beaver City, stay away from the center of chaos, and go to a safe place. However, now this plan has failed and we have to stay here and face the city full of patients again.
What does this mean?
For us, the greatest danger does not lie in the patients.
Patients are not difficult to deal with. As long as I have my telekinesis and Yukio has her pistol, even if this place is attacked by patients, we can handle it. If the number of patients is really too many and we can't handle it, we can also immediately drive away and escape. The situation where we can neither confront them head-on nor escape is not completely impossible, but this possibility is relatively small. And as long as we are vigilant enough, it can also be avoided.
The most dangerous... is a problem that cannot be avoided no matter what.
For example, getting infected with red-eye disease.
So far, we don't know the way to prevent red-eye disease nor do we know through what channels it infects the human body. For example, red-eye disease is like a zombie virus that can be transmitted through the air. Whether you have been injured by zombies or not, you may become one of them. Every second spent in Beaver City, there is a possibility that Aoba, Yukio and I will become patients. The most terrifying thing is that if red-eye disease is really not a disease but a real curse, then the effort to explore the infection channel itself will become a joke.
Staying in Beaver City, the outcome is either being killed by patients or becoming a patient. It seems that there is no third ending for our future.
If this is not despair, then what is despair?
Fortunately... at least Aoba and I still have hope and a breakthrough to break the current situation.
"Although I am very reluctant to be manipulated by the shadowy forces, I think we should consider the matter of the text message." I took out my mobile phone and brought up the text message interface. "Choose three out of the five strongholds marked on the map and destroy them."
"Will we be able to survive by doing this?" Aoba asked.
"At least we can find clues to survival." I said. "The focus is not on destroying the strongholds but on exploring the things existing in the strongholds."
Before encountering the person who attacked us with fireballs, I always thought that there were all patients gathered in the strongholds mentioned in the text message. But now I think this is likely wrong. There may not be only patients in the strongholds. There may also be cult members. After all, patients who are not good at large-scale cooperative actions really will establish strongholds? Judging from the signs we have witnessed, patients will at most cooperate in small groups of several people. This is an inevitable limitation caused by their symptom of refusing to communicate.
"The strongholds mentioned in the text message may be the lairs of the cult?" Aoba also thought of this level.
"That's right." I said. "If the cult is the mastermind behind this disaster and the five strongholds on the map are all established by them... then there may be clues to break the current situation among them."
Going there in the past will definitely be very dangerous, but there is no other choice.
...
At night.
"Aoba, you can stay here." I stood at the bottom of the attic stairs. "I can go alone."
"Well, be careful on the road." Aoba had an expression of deep concern.
Obviously, Aoba can't accompany me in destroying the strongholds. I can only handle it by myself.
"Goodbye."
After saying that, I walked up the stairs and came to the attic.
Then, I passed through the skylight of the attic and climbed onto the roof of the villa. Facing the cool evening breeze, I looked around.
In the night around the villa, there were pairs of red dots wandering faintly. Those were the red eyes of the patients.
It is said that the reason why the eyes of some animals glow at night is because they have night vision. The visual cells will gather weak light. This was originally a characteristic of nocturnal animals, but now it appears on the patients. This shows that these patients are likely to have night vision as well.
The people in the institute said that they couldn't find the diseased part of the patients. But isn't this special eye a diseased part? Of course, what I can see, they can't fail to see. Maybe the researchers don't regard it as a diseased part, or they encountered some unexpected difficulties when studying the eyes of the patients... Anyway, this has nothing to do with me.
I took a few steps back, then sprinted forward and jumped out suddenly.
Under the push of telekinesis, my jump was extended a long distance, directly jumping from the roof of Yukio's villa to the roof of another house.
The noise of taking off and landing attracted the attention of the patients.
However, it doesn't matter. Anyway, they can't catch up with me.
After jumping here, I didn't stop running. After another run-up, I jumped onto the third roof.
Running, jumping, running, jumping, running, jumping...
Countless runs, countless jumps.
Telekinesis makes my run-up extremely fast and my jump extremely long. My speed shook off the first batch of patients who tried to chase me and attracted a second batch of patients. Then I shook off the second batch of patients and attracted a third batch of patients...
Jumping between roofs, repeated evasion and attraction.
The headwind hit my face.
This is the first time I have used my superpower so ostentatiously.
Since obtaining superpowers, I have always lived a life of hiding my true abilities. Even when it is necessary to use them, I will only use them in a way that doesn't expose myself.
Why hide? Is it because of fear of being dissected by research institutions? Maybe. In fact, although I am also afraid of being dissected, I don't think I will really be treated like that. I often ask people on the Internet in the name of writing novels about the question "If an esper is exposed, how will the government treat him?" The answers are also diverse. However, unexpectedly, people who think that espers will be cruelly dissected are in the minority. And they often cannot provide organized analysis and convincing grounds. They only have this thought based on a victim mentality. Over time, I also gradually think that even if I am exposed, I will not be dissected. I will only sacrifice my freedom and certain rights and then be treated as a valuable scientific case and cherished.
But is it really like this?
Frankly speaking, even after seeing so many remarks that "even if exposed, it won't be too bad," I still feel uneasy about exposing myself.
Among the people who answer me on the forum, can their advice really be fully trusted? Their ages, identities, and experiences in real life are diverse. There are naive ones and mature ones, those with low incomes and those with high salaries, those with narrow horizons and those with broad visions. In such a mixed group, how many are really working in government agencies and how high can their positions be? People who are not in a certain position don't plan for that position. Maybe one of the alarmist answers is given by a bored politician, and the rest of the seemingly reasonable and well-founded suggestions are just assumptions, but I don't have the ability to distinguish them.
On the other hand, although I said before that some people only say that "after an esper is exposed, he will be dissected" based on a victim mentality and it seems like I am mocking them, but I am actually one of those people with a victim mentality.
Precisely because I am a real esper, I am the one who is closely related to the treatment of espers. I will feel uneasy about the possible bad treatment.
Yes, even if the probability is very, very low, as long as it involves life and the future, I don't want to gamble casually.
I am not brave.
My courage is supported by superpowers. My victories are established because of superpowers. My composure has always been maintained because of superpowers. I am a person who has no other specialties except superpowers. Without superpowers, I am good for nothing. Even the act of going to the suspected cult stronghold now is only done because I have superpowers.
Without superpowers, I can't even deal with the patients chasing after me.
It is precisely because I attach so much importance to superpowers that I feel so uneasy about the disasters they may bring.
Soon after, I finally arrived at the stronghold marked on the map.