Free Web NovelChapter 136: Chapter 136: Two Origins
Wu Jiu and Bai Wu both refrained from acting rashly, hiding far away in a corner.
With the light of the fire, Bai Wu could finally see the situation clearly—
They had to make all the Evil Fallen leave, either by killing them or dispersing them, otherwise, it would be impossible to rescue Tan Lei.
The cries and screams of Tan Lei grew more and more piercing.
If this were reality, it would only make the Evil Fallen even more frenzied.
"Fight our way out?"
"Then we’d all die. There are too many Evil Fallen around, and it’s simply impossible to take her away from such a large group."
Wu Jiu was aware of the situation, but the fire was fading, just like Tan Lei’s vitality.
Bai Wu began to think calmly:
"Dwarf and I have been moving slowly all this way, not sparing any resources. It’s just that in this game, we can’t loot bodies, otherwise I would have checked every pocket. So, it’s certain that Dwarf and I didn’t miss anything."
"And assuming that the items Dwarf and I bought from the merchant on Black Gold Island all served to enhance combat ability, including our initial item choices, that would still not be enough against so many Evil Fallen."
"Plus, the fact that we came running as soon as we heard the calls for help, without any delay... The Evil Fallen were hindered by the fire, which looks like they are afraid of light? And the streets during the day didn’t seem to have the restlessness of the night."
"Considering all this, this mission cannot be achieved through combat and, as it appears now... the monsters do have some kind of weakness."
Bai Wu soon had an answer, extracting the Day and Night Clock from his backpack. As he twisted the clock’s hands, Bai Wu received a prompt: "Once you use this item, it will disappear."
The meaning was clear, the clock could only be used once.
Without hesitation, Bai Wu decisively set the clock’s time to ten in the morning.
Suddenly, daylight flooded the scene. The blackness of the night melted away like snow dissolving in an instant.
Tan Lei instinctively closed her eyes due to the brightness, which was quite a shock after being accustomed to the night.
Moments later, when she slowly opened her eyes, all the Evil Fallen had already hidden inside buildings.
Before her stood two men, one tall and one short.
"How did night turn into day all of a sudden?"
"Just some time magic. You’re saved now, mortal." This time Bai Wu decided not to play the role of a security guard but that of a charlatan.
"No... this isn’t scientific! There’s no such thing as magic in this world." Scientist Tan Lei obviously couldn’t comprehend how day had turned from night so suddenly.
"What you call unscientific is simply because the science you know is too superficial. I could explain to you that the event just now involved quantum fluctuations within the universe, but are you sure you would understand?"
His words left Tan Lei without a retort. If she had been a physicist, she might have understood that Bai Wu was spouting nonsense. But she was a biologist, and it was only twelve years ago, when the world had discovered the first case of Evil Fallen and mutated humans, that her new discipline was established.
"This... indeed. Who... I mean, who exactly are you?"
"Just a scientist who acts on a whim." Bai Wu’s smile was enigmatic.
Tan Lei suddenly felt... like she was in a movie where she had encountered the savior.
For her, what just happened was a savior’s deed — the sudden burst of dawn seemed to embody hope, dispelling darkness with irresistible force. freēwēbnovel.com
Especially since her being here was already tinged with a surreal quality, carrying a sense of guidance.
Bai Wu stood with his hands behind his back:
"You’re in science, and biology at that, and given your age, you’ve already surpassed the average level of this world, well, not too shabby."
"How... How did you know that?" Tan Lei’s voice trembled.
"Just a bit of inconsequential observational skills, tell me, mortal, what has happened here."
Wu Jiu was quite impressed by how Bai Wu tailored his speech depending on whom he was talking to—a talent he had witnessed many times, with each instance offering a new insight.
In fact, for Bai Wu, Dwarf was also a good partner.
Because, apart from Dwarf’s full range of emotions, Bai Wu thought that Dwarf, like Little Facial Paralysis Yan Jiu, was mostly expressionless most of the time, and this expression particularly suited his own pretentious demeanor.
Seeing the surroundings full of Evil Fallen, Tan Lei was obviously a bit scared.
But Bai Wu was very composed.
When he walked out of the Denglin Technology branch building with Mo Cheng and Wu Jiu, it indeed attracted the pursuit of the Evil Fallen, but at that time it was seven o’clock in the evening, and the sky was dim.
And since firelight could obstruct the Evil Fallen, and daylight drove all Evil Fallen into the building, everything indicated that the creatures feared light.
This also explained well why the opening of the game set the time at six o’clock, the transition between night and day.
"A group of creatures that have lost their wisdom is not worth fearing. You also know they fear light, so there’s no cause for concern."
Tan Lei indeed knew the monsters feared light and knew the reason they did—it was due to the research achievements at the head office of Denglin Technology. Her fear was simply due to the human instinct to be afraid of monsters.
Tan Lei was sure Bai Wu was not from the head office, so seeing Bai Wu remain so calm and collected instantly gave her a pillar of strength.
"Tell me, what happened here."
"All of this is due to our poor oversight, which allowed that person to escape."
For the rest of his journey, Bai Wu just needed to choose a route well-lit enough to head towards the Denglin Technology head office.
"Let’s walk and talk, it seems that everything originated from over there."
Bai Wu pointed towards the towering building in the distance.
Gradually, Tan Lei calmed down because of Bai Wu’s composure:
"Are you heading to that building?"
"This city is sick, and I need to cure it."
Too pretentious, Wu Jiu realized for the first time that it was somewhat difficult to maintain his usual aloof demeanor, afraid that he might inadvertently break the tension and then ruin the atmosphere.
If Wurou were here, she would probably have started mocking by now.
The female scientist, however, was taken in by this act, mainly because Bai Wu’s miraculous methods had overturned her understanding.
She mustered her courage, took a couple of deep breaths, and then slowly said:
"My name is Tan Lei, a biological engineer at the head office of Denglin Technology. My mentor, Zhang Wei, and I have been studying Mutated Evil Fallen Studies. Do you know about Evil Fallen?"
Tan Lei treated Bai Wu as if he were a being from some lofty retreat.
"The term Evil Fallen is quite fitting for the mutants caused by the Well in this world."
The Well? What’s that? Speaking of which... didn’t that earliest monster mention the Well? This man is indeed not simple!
Tan Lei’s gaze towards Bai Wu shifted once more, her hope growing ever stronger. Bai Wu frowned and said:
"Continue."
"Oh, good! Our purpose is to study the origin of the Evil Fallen, but the first six humans who had mutant powers were not Evil Fallen. They possessed great strength yet still had the bodies of humans, of which two volunteered for our research,"
Bai Wu’s composure almost faltered upon hearing this.
Tan Lei’s words once again mentioned the earliest mutants and were explosively informative.
Bai Wu had seen it before in Prayle’s Eye and had guessed there was more than one, but who could have imagined there were six of these so-called ’Patient Zero’?
Another important piece of information from Tan Lei’s conversation was that these six individuals predated the Evil Fallen, meaning that they harbored something of an original nature.
Bai Wu always remembered that Dandelion’s diary mentioned Bai Xiaoyu had already possessed the powerful ability of Endless Nirvana.
But the earliest date indicated was the year 2117.
There was a time when Bai Wu even thought that Bai Xiaoyu was among the world’s first batch to acquire the Talent Sequence.
But now, it seemed Prayle’s Eye did not use the term "one of the earliest mutants" for Bai Xiaoyu, indicating that individuals with Talent Sequences already existed before 2117!
The Era of the High Tower began in 2127, and though many humans struggled to survive in 2128, many had already taken residence in High Tower!
This implied that a decade or so earlier, or perhaps even earlier than that, the seeds of apocalyptic mutation had already been sown before people were even aware of the Evil Fallen’s existence!
"They were one male and one female, one with an ability almost like prophecy, the other claiming to have bathed in Well Water and possessed the power to save all living beings. At that time, the man’s will was clear. They restrained their powers so much so that we didn’t realize how terrifying the man could be."
"We constantly conducted research on his body, and sometimes the man would become agitated, but the woman would soothe him, seemingly showing him the future."
"But as more and more people turned into Evil Fallen and unrest began in various cities, the man grew increasingly agitated. He refused to tell us why, and we dared not approach him. Because the woman warned us, the man was on the verge of losing control, and we mustn’t let him leave the experimental area, otherwise this city would be doomed."
"We reported this issue, hoping to get the attention of the higher-ups. The man’s power might have been able to change the apocalypse. But it was all too late."
Bai Wu understood.
The headquarters of the Denglin Technology company where Tan Lei worked had received two volunteers, one with the power of prophecy and another with some strong infectious ability. This infectious ability, for now, presumed to be the power to turn monsters into Evil Fallen.
This tremendous power led the scientists to believe that there must be a way to combat the Evil Fallen within these two, and perhaps it was due to their selfless sacrifice that humanity found a way to manually create weaknesses for the Evil Fallen. Most Evil Fallen in this city possessed a characteristic of being ’afraid of light’ due to some reason.
Bai Wu’s thoughts expanded. He had been wondering why Dandelion had a weak mutation term in his profile?
Was photophobia that mutation term?
Regrettably, in that scene, all Evil Fallen had the same note in Prayle’s Eye.
Humans once fought hard against the apocalypse, hoping to use their power to withstand the Evil Fallen hordes, and they might have indeed succeeded.
But as the scientists hoped the higher-ups would take notice... those at the top chose to live in the High Tower.
One could imagine the despair of the scientists in Denglin City at that time.
Tan Lei said:
"Somehow this message was not kept secret, and the man finally collapsed completely. He believed that the future the woman saw was false... We don’t know what that future was... but at that time, everyone was very grateful to them, because it was the two of them who allowed us to find many ways to create weaknesses for the Evil Fallen."
"Back then, we believed there was a way to drive the Evil Fallen out of the city, but... the army was gone, funding was gone, equipment was gone, and even the two test subjects had a falling out. Due to some negligence yesterday... the power supply was insufficient, resulting in... the man escaping."
Creating flowers on every step, saving all living beings.
These two phrases look very beautiful, but what if the so-called flowers were referring to becoming Evil Fallen?
One can imagine that the reason the scientists had not given up on Denglin City was that there were still many survivors in the city, and the Evil Fallen might not have been so exaggerated.
But once that male test subject, one of the earliest mutants, escaped, everything changed.
The entire day was filled with Evil Fallen...
Tan Lei didn’t continue, and Bai Wu said,
"Where do you plan to go?"
"I too need to head to Denglin Technology headquarters."
"Then why didn’t you choose to go during the day?"
"Because a woman made me promise to set out at night. She told me I might die, but I might also save my companions, letting me make the choice."
The woman was one of the six original mutated beings, able to predict the future.
Bai Wu’s heart suddenly quickened, he was beginning to understand the significance of this entire game.
"Your companions are trapped in the headquarters of Denglin Technology."
"Yes."
"Then let’s go, I’ll join you in rescuing them."
Tan Lei got excited,
"Who exactly are you?"
Bai Wu could imagine that, in the eyes of this female scientist, he had already become a hero from some prophecy.
He had many doubts about the game, and although he had a rough guess, everything could be overturned before seeing clear results.
"Just a nobody. Let’s get moving."
Of course, his own mysterious persona must not change.
...
...
It’s why Bai Wu chose ten in the morning instead of three in the afternoon, outside the Denglin Technology headquarters.
He wanted to make sure that the building faced the sun, not away from it, leaving a large area of shadow.
Now the three of them stood outside the entrance, not spotting a single Evil Fallen.
The structure of the main building was very similar to the subsidiary buildings; it stood tall in this city, giving Tan Lei the feeling of an abyssal maw.
This was undoubtedly the final checkpoint. Even if the mission to rescue Tan Lei wasn’t over, Bai Wu and Wu Jiu also heard a familiar voice.
"Yo ho ho ho, you’ve come here again, have you brought enough currency this time? Let’s have a pleasant trade, shall we?"
The octopus merchant appeared once more.
Tan Lei cried out, "Evil Fallen! Evil Fallen!"
Bai Wu still had a calm and relaxed look on his face as he said,
"Hush, mortal, it’s my friend,"
Before trading with the merchant, Bai Wu glanced deep into the entrance of the building.
[You should be grateful this is just a game, for the real building is in a black zone. But you’d best be cautious. This game might provide you with many insights—and just a reminder, if you die inside, you’ll become a pixelated person for life, oh.]
