bookbashuk Chapter 142 A Storm Begins from the End of a Floating Stream
Chapter 142 A Storm Begins from the End of a Floating Stream
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On Sunday, I stopped in front of a hatch marked "C-12-07 · Chief Investigator's Office".
The door was ajar.
The smell wafting from the crack in the door was not that of blood or burning.
Instead, it has a... faint coffee aroma.
The group exchanged glances.
Hoshi kicked the door open.
The door slammed against the wall with a loud bang, echoing through the empty cabin.
Then--
Everyone was stunned.
The office was very large, about forty square meters, which would be considered luxurious on a warship.
It is very clean.
It was so clean it was chilling.
The floor was spotless, reflecting the white light of the perfectly intact fluorescent light overhead.
On the desktop were neatly arranged folders, a pen holder, and a brand-new terminal device. On the bookshelf in the corner, several beautifully bound books were arranged in order of height.
There was even a potted green plant.
A potted plant that is lush and vibrant, looking full of life...
Just now in the corridor, the dark red flames, the drifting ashes, and the nauseating heat seemed to be kept outside this door by an invisible barrier.
It's cool, bright, and quiet here.
It's like another world.
There's a problem.
The voice on March 7th was kept very low.
"Outside, there are mutants everywhere, ruins and flames everywhere. But here it looks like it was just renovated?"
"On Sunday, you mentioned there were three hundred life forms reacting in this area. Where are they?"
On Sunday, I closed my eyes, and the waves of perception of order swept across a radius of several hundred meters around me once again.
"They're all here."
His brows furrowed even more.
"Right beneath our feet. Above our heads. On the other side of the wall."
"They...are surrounding this office."
"It's like... protecting something."
Hoshi walked to the desk.
The cup of coffee on the table was still steaming.
She stretched out her finger and touched the side of the cup.
It's warm.
The temperature when it's freshly soaked.
"Someone, or something, has been maintaining this room."
Hoshino withdrew her hand and glanced at the table.
Beside the brand-new terminal, a folded piece of paper lay quietly beneath the pen holder.
She pulled out the slip of paper and unfolded it.
There is only one line of text above.
It was printed neatly and legibly in standard interstellar language:
Password: CRIMSON-7749-OMEGA
"this......"
Xing leaned over and took a look.
"This is the password that woman wanted? Just laid out so openly on the table?"
"Left by Casey?"
Hoshi put the note into his pocket.
"Did he know someone would come?"
"He even knows what the people who come need?"
"So he prepared in advance?"
"That's interesting."
Her gaze swept across the overly tidy office, finally settling on the lush green potted plant.
The Eye of the End is activated.
The golden clock ticks slowly turned in her pupils.
The potted plant was in her field of vision...
It presented a completely different appearance.
Beneath the emerald green leaves, a network of bright red blood vessels flows. Each leaf beats at the same frequency as a human heart.
A bountiful creation.
It looks exactly like the "seaweed" on the seabed outside.
"Let's go."
Hoshino took her gaze away from the potted plant.
"I've got the password. Go to the database."
The archive is located at the deepest part of deck C-12.
An exaggeratedly heavy alloy door separated it from the outside world. The door was covered with the Star Peace Corporation's seals and the remains of a malfunctioning energy shield generator.
Standing in front of the terminal, Mohoshi typed in the password on the slip of paper word by word.
CRIMSON-7749-OMEGA.
"Beep—Verification successful."
The gate slowly opened.
The interior space was much smaller than I had imagined. It was about the size of an average bedroom, with densely packed data storage modules embedded in the four walls, and blue indicator lights flashing like stars.
In the center, a main terminal stands quietly.
The screen is black.
Mohoshi stepped forward, his finger just touching the control panel.
hum.
The terminal lit up without warning.
There was no boot screen, no system self-test, and no company logo.
A communication window popped up on the screen.
A man's face appears in the frame.
He was around thirty-five years old, with a thin face, high cheekbones, and two cloudy, bloodshot eyes set in deep-set sockets. He wore a tattered IPC uniform, the number on the collar still faintly discernible.
[IPC-7749 · Casey · Chief Investigator]
His face held a forced, exaggerated smile that seemed to tear his lips to his ears.
"Hi."
Casey's voice came from the terminal's speaker.
It was clearer than what I had heard on the communication channel before—and also more eerie.
The sound contained a strange echo, as if several people were speaking at the same time, except that one voice was slightly louder, barely drowning out the other noises.
"Come to the driving core and meet us."
As he spoke, he raised a hand and waved it in front of the camera.
That hand... all the nails had fallen off, and the skin at the fingertips was curled up, revealing the dark red tender flesh underneath.
But his swaying posture was extremely cheerful, as if he were waving to an old friend.
"We must restart this device!"
His eyes suddenly turned fervent.
That fervor contained no element of reason, only a desire amplified countless times, bordering on religious fanaticism...
"If there is something we all yearn for in our hearts."
His lips trembled slightly.
"That is being able to roam freely among the stars."
The communication screen froze for a moment.
For a fleeting moment, Casey's smile seemed to twist. Something flashed deep in his pupils, like fear or a cry for help.
But it was quickly covered up again by that crazy laughter.
The screen disappeared.
The terminal has returned to its normal user interface.
"His eyes."
Xi Lian's voice was very soft.
"At the very bottom of that smile, beneath all the fanaticism and distortion..."
He's crying.
"His consciousness still retained a sliver of clarity, trapped in that out-of-control body, using his last strength to let out a silent roar to the outside world."
"But every word he utters has had its original meaning altered by the virus."
At the end of the corridor, another muffled metallic groan echoed.
It looked like some giant beast had rolled over.
Hoshino turned her gaze back to the terminal screen.
"Driving core".
She remembered the destination.
"Don't rush."
Her fingers flew across the control panel, accessing the file directories stored in the database.
"Now that we're in, let's turn this place upside down. Casey can wait, but the data can't."
The five people split up and acted separately.
The terminal stores a massive amount of data.
Ecological survey reports, experimental records, personnel files, financial statements... most of them are irrelevant to the current task.
But among the vast sea of files, Hoshino's gaze was drawn to a hidden folder with three layers of encryption.
Folder names have only four characters:
【2845】
Her finger hovered over the four numbers.
"Found it."
The crowd quickly gathered around.
Hoshi took a deep breath and opened the folder.
There is only one document inside.
There are no pictures, no videos, and no data attachments.
There is only one plain text article.
Pure, clean, like an epitaph...words.
The light from the screen reflected on everyone's faces.
Hoshino began reading aloud.
To my successor:
I don't know your identity, or even whether we are in the same time and space.
"But the fact that you are reading this article now must be because of the 2845 described by Xianzhou."
"I had hoped that no one would open this document, but the fact that you can see this far means that my efforts have failed."
When Mohoshi's voice uttered the word "failure," it paused slightly.
She could feel the air behind her grow even heavier.
Xi Lian's hand silently gripped the hem of her clothes.
She continued reading.
"As the investigator of this project, my advice is simple."
"Don't continue reading."
"If you insist on investigating, don't think about anything you see."
"If you unfortunately cannot control your thoughts, do not tell anyone what you are thinking."
"Remember one thing—"
The voice of the yokai stopped.
The next sentence made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.
"You are the source of the spread of 2845."
silence.
A silence that lasted ten seconds.
Only the hum of the terminal cooling fan echoed in the database.
Then, there's the sound of March 7th:
"Wait...wait a minute. What does this mean?"
"We read this article, and then we became... the source of its spread?"
"So, aren't we already...??"
"Quiet."
Hoshino raised her hand, stopping her panic.
Because the document is not yet finished.
The warning was followed by a signature.
And a chilling string of words.
"Patrol Knight: Yours sincerely."
"Readers: Interstellar Peace Corporation · Casey, Star Train · Star, Memory Star God · Xilian, Conqueror Star God · Sunday, Star Train · Star, March 7th."
Six names.
They are arranged neatly on the screen.
Including each and every one of them.
Not one more, not one less.
"This document..."
Sunday's sounds have finally lost their usual composure.
He stared at his own name on the screen.
"Conquer the Star God - Sunday," his pupils contracted sharply.
"...We already knew the identities of all the readers before we even opened it."
"Including the 'Order' destiny title that I just awakened."
"And Xi Lian's title of 'Star God of Memory'."
"This information did not exist half an hour ago."
His voice became extremely low.
"Or perhaps this document possesses the ability to predict the future."
"Want it?"
He looked at the star.
"The 'sea patrolman' who wrote this document comes from our later timeline."
Hoshi stared at the screen.
"The records of the Immortal Ship... were indeed correct."
Hoshi slowly opened his mouth.
"The nature of 2845 is completely different from all the fateful disasters we have known before."
Her fingertips traced back and forth over the line on the screen that read, "Don't think about anything you see."
"Its mode of transmission... is 'thinking' itself."
"No contact is needed. No breathing is needed. You don't even need to see its physical form."
"As soon as your brain starts processing information about it—as soon as you start 'thinking' about it—"
"It has already taken root in your consciousness."
"Like a seed."
"The more you think about it, analyze it, and try to understand it—"
"The faster it grows."
"until......"
She didn't finish speaking.
But everyone understood the unspoken ending.
Until you become the next Casey.
Until you also start smiling and inviting others to "join us".
Until, deep within your eyes, only a prisoner's soul remains, weeping silently.
"So that 'sea patrolman' was right."
Xing gripped the Flame Spear tightly.
"Have we... been infected after reading this article?"
"From the moment we began to 'think' about 2845?"
The database remained quiet for a long time.
The cooling fan hummed. Blue indicator lights cast tiny specks of light on the wall, like a swarm of silent fireflies.
The star closed the terminal.
The text on the screen disappeared.
But those words have been etched deep into the minds of everyone present.
Unable to delete.
Unforgettable.
I can't stop thinking.
"Walk."
Hoshi turned around.
There was no fear on her face.
There was only one kind of cold, almost obsessive resolve.
"Go to the driving core."
"Go find Casey."
"Go and find out where the 'source code' of this entire planet is hidden."
"Since you've already been infected..."
She pushed open the database door, and the dark red flames deep in the corridor reflected on her long gray hair, making her look like a silver-maned beast crossing a sea of fire.
"Then before turning into a monster, let's first deal with the thing that created the monster..."
"Smash it."
Her figure disappeared around the corner of the corridor.
Xi Lian glanced at the terminal's now-off screen and gently stroked the dark glass panel.
The touch from my fingertips was icy cold.
Deep within that screen, in the reflection of the glass, she saw her own image.
Within the blue pupils, a faint red dot was slowly rotating.
Xi Lian withdrew her hand and clenched it into a fist.
The red dot disappeared.
At the end of the corridor, another metallic groan echoed.
Closer than ever before...
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