第二天早上,天空阴沉的.
毕竟,我穿上了那件红色格子衬衫.然后,我们与青叶一起,用绳子将病人 Yukio 绑在她卧室的床上,就像我们对 Miwa 先生所做的那样.
完成所有工作后,我们离开了这间卧室,来到了一楼的客厅.
"雪穗也变成了病人..."青叶看起来忧郁.
这一转折再次在我们心中敲响了警钟,证明了红眼病感染的不可预测性和高度危险性.像昨晚发生在 Yukio 身上的事情肯定每天都在海狸城的幸存者中上演,我们不知道下一个是否会轮到我们.
我并非没有机会.
我,青叶和尚未露面的阿尔方斯·埃里克与海狸城的所有幸存者都不同.我们本来不属于这个世界,我们很特别.这种特殊性也会让我们接受关于红眼病感染的特殊治疗吗?
我的意思是...青叶和我根本不会感染红眼病吗?
一开始,当我们开车从海狸高中逃出来时,我们队一共有四个人.现在,Miwa 先生和 Yukio 相继变异,但 Aoba 和我仍然没有受伤.从概率的角度来看,这是一个低概率事件.让我们这样说吧.如果一开始从学校逃跑的四个人中随机选择一个人成为病人,那么每个人都有四分之一的机会被选中.我和 Aoba 中有一个被选中的概率是二分之一.那么,在美和先生成为病人之后,如果从剩下的三个人中随机选择一个人成为病人,那么每个人都有三分之一的机会被选中,而我和青叶中一个被选中的概率是三分之二.先是 1 分 2 分,然后是 2 分 3 分.在这两次运气的赌博中,我和青叶都没有抽到不走运的抽签.虽然这可以用运气来解释,但是如果我们不考虑运气,能不能证明我和青叶不会被感染呢?
那个神秘的人物能够将我们传送到这个世界,并为我提供了语言的便利.他们也会给我们提供"不被红眼病感染"的便利吗?
虽然我心里确实有这种机会感,但说实话,我不敢赌.
"青叶,我想告诉你一件事."我说过.
"嗯?"青叶困惑地看着我.
"问题是,昨晚,我去了地图上的一个据点..."我告诉青叶发生了什么.
青叶专心听我说.
她听完后,露出若有所思的表情.
"我不知道那家伙告诉我拯救海狸城的线索的目的是什么."我说过.「虽然摧毁据点也是神秘人物给我们的指示.就算他不诱导我,我迟早也会这么做.但是,我仍然不能放心.
Even if the burly man didn't say anything at that time, without clues, I would eventually do what the text message from the mysterious figure told me to do. This is much better than waiting for death.
"Sorry, I have no idea either." Aoba said apologetically.
"It's okay." I didn't have much expectation.
"So, are we going to continue destroying the strongholds established by the cultists next?" Aoba asked.
"Yes." I said.
In addition, I also want to find Alphonse Elric - calling him by his full name is still too long. From now on, I'll just call him Alphonse. I heard from the burly man that Alphonse was defeated by the priest, the leader of the cultists, and was taken away. Judging from the previous conversation with the office worker, Alphonse should be a fairly powerful superpowered being. But he was defeated by the priest. I don't know how strong the priest is. The burly man also said that Alphonse still had a chance of winning against him, but against the priest, he had no power to resist and could only be defeated. Thus, it can be seen that the priest must be a very powerful character.
That burly man was already very strong, and it was very difficult for me to defeat him. If I face the priest... My outcome may not be better than Alphonse's.
But, I have to fight.
"Sorry, I can to help at all..." Aoba sighed.
"No need to apologize. You..." I paused, not knowing how to comfort Aoba.
I am not a person who is good at communicating with others. Naturally, I am not good at comforting others either. Moreover, to be blunt, for the current situation, Aoba really can't help at all. It's already good if she doesn't hold me back.
"Here, this is for you." I took out something.
It was a pistol.
This was originally Yukio's pistol. But since she has become a patient, it would be very dangerous to keep it in her hands anymore. Although I am a combatant and it seems better for me to hold it, I don't understand firearms. If I want to deal with an opponent within ten meters, a pistol is far less handy than telekinetic power. If I want to deal with an opponent beyond ten meters, my hit rate with a pistol is not high.
"But I don't know how to use a pistol either." Aoba looked troubled.
"It's better than having nothing." I said.
Although I also think that Aoba doesn't know how to use a pistol. Maybe she is even further behind than me in terms of shooting skills. But having a weapon and not having a weapon have different effects on one's mentality. Having a weapon in hand will at least increase her sense of security.
Aoba carefully took the pistol.
"Ah, right." She remembered something.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"The ingredients in the refrigerator are used up." She said.
Except for the cultists, no one could have predicted that the disaster would break out. So this villa didn't store much food and ingredients in the first place. It's not surprising that it's used up.
Since it's used up, there's no way. We have to go out and collect.
We came to the garage.
"Are we going to drive out?" Aoba asked.
"Of course." I opened the car door with the key that was originally on Yukio. "There are many patients outside. We can't move forward while fighting. That would be too time-consuming. Moreover, the car itself can also hold things."
"But..." Aoba couldn't help but ask, "Ninghai, you don't know how to drive, do you?"
"I can learn while doing." I sat in the driver's seat.
...
This trip ended soon. I brought back the food I took from a nearby supermarket and returned to the garage of the villa. The car I was driving was now in a sorry state.
Aoba, who stayed at home, heard the sound of the car. When I got out of the car, she entered the garage.
"Uh..." She stared blankly at the battered car.
There's no way around it. After all, this is really my first time driving. Although I slowed down to reduce collision damage, I still inevitably crashed many times. As a result, it became like this.
Aoba silently touched the dented part of the car's exterior.
"Mr. Miwa will definitely be very angry if he wakes up." She said.
The premise is that he can wake up.
"I brought back all the food." I changed the topic. "It's all in the back seat. It should last for a few days."
Next, we had a simple breakfast.
Aoba began to take the initiative to tidy up the table.
"I will go out again later." I said.
"Are you going to the cultists' stronghold?" She asked.
"Yes." I nodded. "By the way, there's one more thing..."
I told Aoba about the episode that happened when I was collecting food in the supermarket.
When collecting food, I encountered another group of people who were also collecting food. There were a total of four of them, all young people wearing casual clothes and holding simple sticks or knives. They should have come here while avoiding the patients. After they met me, they tried to attack me and take the food I had collected. But instead, they were beaten up by me.
This seems to be just a robbery incident. But unlike robberies in peacetime, Beaver City is now a lawless place where there is no law or law enforcers. And those people seemed to have no scruples about hurting others. Even before starting the fight, they had made remarks about killing me.
I am a superpowered being and I can protect myself. But what if I weren't? If I were an ordinary person, surely they wouldn't show mercy to me.
I understand their mentality. In this city full of destruction, there are patients everywhere who are no different from killers. People can easily become violent. Even Yukio has had the tendency to kill others more than once. I have seen all these.
I don't know how many out-of-control citizens there are in Beaver City now. But we can't be careless with these people.
"I thought of a secret signal." I said to Aoba. "From now on, when I come back, I will knock on the door with this rhythm..."
Dong dong, dong, dong dong dong, dong dong dong dong.
I bent my knuckles and knocked on the table rhythmically.
"If the person knocking on the door doesn't use this secret signal, don't open the door under any circumstances. It's even better not to make a sound."
Aoba listened very carefully to what I said and said, "I remember."
...
Ten minutes later, I passed through the skylight of the attic and stood on the roof of the villa.
Then, I took out my black phone and reconfirmed the locations of the other three strongholds on the map.
The text message instruction requires us to choose three out of five strongholds to destroy. Now Alphonse has destroyed one, and I have destroyed one. As long as we destroy one more, we can complete this instruction.
After completing the instruction, there should be a new instruction sent.
What will the instruction be?
Combined with the intelligence revealed by that burly man, I think it may be to require us to destroy the core of the ritual.
I started running and jumped from the roof of the villa to the opposite roof.
Run, jump, run, jump...
Thirty minutes later, I arrived at the school gate of Beaver High School.
In front of the school gate that was originally destroyed by a truck, two cultists wearing black robes were silently guarding.
Sure enough, this place has also become a cultist stronghold.
Based on the experience of destroying the stronghold last time, this stronghold should also have a guardian like that burly man who is responsible for guarding the ritual node.
We must act cautiously.
I carefully hid nearby and put on a black cultist robe - this was taken off from a cultist when I sneaked into the last stronghold last night. It helped me reach that burly man smoothly. I haven't thrown it away until now just for this moment.
There is more than one disguise item.
I took out a full-face mask.
The mask is black, without eye holes. There is only a red eye symbol in the center.
This is the mask worn by the cultist who used fireball spells to kill the office worker's family of three. After I defeated him, Yukio took it off the cultist's face and then casually put it in the car. I also found it when I was driving out to collect food. I didn't expect it to be in the car.
What I can be sure of now is that among the cultist group, people who can use spells should have a higher status than those who can't. And this mask was once worn on the face of that cultist who could use fireball spells...
Maybe it can be used.
I put it on my face.
Although this mask has no straps or other parts to help fix it, incredibly, it directly adhered to my face without any tendency to fall off.
And, even more incredibly than this...
I can perceive the scenery outside.
As mentioned earlier, this mask has no eye holes. It is completely closed. Logically speaking, it should obstruct people's vision and make people unable to see the scenery outside. But I can directly perceive the outside through the mask as if the mask doesn't exist and I'm not wearing a mask at all. Now I can perceive the outside scenery so clearly.
If I couldn't sense the cool touch and weight of the mask, I would even suspect that it had fallen off.
I touched the mask to confirm its existence.
It feels like metal when touched.
It's really astonishing. Could this be an item with some supernatural power?
After that, wearing the cultist robe and the mask, I walked out of my hiding place and came to the school gate openly.
The two cultists standing at the school gate saw me. Without wearing masks, they glanced at each other and then made way for me.
I walked into the school without looking sideways.
Very good, I got in.
I don't know what significance this mask has for the cultists. They didn't seem to show respect to me because of it nor did they make strange expressions. Originally, I suspected that since this mask was worn on the face of a guy who seemed to be a high-level cultist, maybe it had a symbolic function of identity. Now it seems that I was overthinking.
However, as long as they don't find it strange that I'm wearing this mask, it is fine. Even if the mask doesn't have a symbolic meaning of identity, it can at least cover my face so that people won't recognize that I'm not a cultist.
Although I didn't expose myself last time even when I showed my face, but since I have better conditions this time, I naturally have to make good use of them.
Relying on my disguise, I walked around and observed.
The school is very large. There are not many cultists inside. It's like spreading the number of people in a class throughout the empty school. Only a few figures can be seen occasionally. After walking for a while, I quickly found the place where the suspected ritual node was.
It was the runway around the playground.
On the red plastic runway, there was a bonfire with an iron sword stuck in it. Beside the bon firefox was a wooden stool. A cultist was sitting on the stool.
Is this person the guardian of this node?
I observed him carefully.
Unlike the bare-chested burly man I met last time, he was properly wearing a black robe and was sitting on the stool flipping through a book.
I noticed that the black robe he was wearing was different from that of ordinary cultists. It had bright red totem patterns, just like the cultist who could use fireball spells that I had encountered before.
Could it be that the mask is not a symbol of identity, but the clothes are? Do cultists wearing black robes with totem patterns have a higher status?
I noted this down and then sneaked over quietly.
There was a small warehouse outside the runway. It was probably filled with sports equipment. I hid behind the warehouse, less than twenty meters away from him.
He didn't seem to notice me and quietly turned a page of the book.
I observed the surroundings.
Very good, there was no one else looking this way.
Then, I took out a sharp fruit knife.
Driven by telekinetic power, the fruit knife floated up in the air, with the tip pointed at the guardian sitting in front of the bonfire.
He still didn't show any abnormal movements.
Didn't he notice me? If so, that would be best.
I stared at him and launched an attack.
Whoosh!
The fruit knife shot through the air like lightning, instantly crossing the less than twenty-meter distance.
Chirp!
The blade stabbed into the back of the guardian's head.
He trembled like he had been electrocuted. The book fell to the ground, and his body fell heavily.