Doomsday Jigsaw Puzzle

Chapter 162: Chapter 162: Suspicion Over the Phone

Investigation Corps branch, canteen.

Yin Shuang seldom ate in the canteen, because she disliked crowded places, especially being stared at by too many people.

The female members of the Investigation Corps made up about thirty percent of the force, which wasn’t a small number, but whenever Yin Shuang appeared, she was definitely the focus of the crowd.

Bai Wu originally didn’t like eating with many people either.

But as far as nutritional meals were concerned, he didn’t mind them, after all, he always believed that such things should not be called food. Every time he ate them, although he wouldn’t have any negative emotions, he was also quite finicky.

Watching a bunch of people eat, and thinking that these poor fellows had been eating this from a young age, Bai Wu felt quite balanced.

The two of them meeting in the canteen was naturally not a coincidence.

"Come out of the tower with me this afternoon," Yin Shuang’s tone was like that of a domineering female CEO.

Bai Wu was puzzled:

"You? Volunteering to leave the tower?"

"What’s so strange about that? Besides, the one who’s been pestering the captain to go out of the tower lately has been you, right?"

Seeing that Bai Wu didn’t respond, Yin Shuang, who usually spoke little, unexpectedly started gossiping:

"Could it be that you have some unspeakable secret with the captain? One that necessitates you both leaving the tower together?"

Your character setting has collapsed, haven’t it? Bai Wu didn’t respond to Yin Shuang’s speculation, He and Wu Jiu did indeed have a little secret, which was to bring down Cain.

"When the captain and I leave the tower, there’s always a justifiable reason. What’s your reason for wanting to leave the tower?"

"As a member of the Vanguard Group of Squad Seven, I obviously can’t leave the tower to find another squad’s captain. And in the whole of Squad Seven, only your strength is the strongest. Since we are leaving the tower, it makes sense to look for you. Besides, those three guys are still busy with a pile of matters."

Bai Wu always felt that Yin Shuang had something on her mind, then he suddenly thought of something.

"Is this afternoon when the selection for the new captain is going to take place?"

Yin Shuang’s eyebrows furrowed lightly, surprised by Bai Wu’s excessively sharp observation skills.

Seeing Yin Shuang’s reaction, Bai Wu was sure he had guessed right:

"It seems the captain has spoken with you. Does he intend to give you the position of the next leader of the Seventh Squad of the Investigation Corps?"

"Yes."

"This afternoon, they’ll probably bring a few elders along."

"You’ve sensed that the others will also support the captain’s choice, so you plan to leave the tower with me to tactfully decline the position of captain?"

"You indeed are very intelligent. At times, I wonder, for someone as smart as you, how could you possibly have been caught by the gambling den and then exiled outside the tower. You love leaving the tower so much, how could you have previously never left it?" Yin Shuang answered Bai Wu’s question with a question of her own.

"We all have our secrets, Don’t you have yours too? Speaking of which, you found me because I know your secret, right?" Bai Wu still had a good impression of Yin Shuang.

Although this great beauty was not as full of feminine charm as Dwarf’s Wife, her cool temperament was also very comforting – unrelated to certain desires, it was simply pleasant to look at.

During the previous exploration of the gambling house, what surprised Bai Wu the most wasn’t his teammates’ willingness to entrust everything to him without hesitation, but the fact that Yin Shuang gave him the Refraction Shield.

He still remembered the first time he saw Yin Shuang, and the remark his eyes gave — Avenger.

How did the Refraction Shield come about? Could this be the reason for Yin Shuang’s role as an Avenger?

Regardless, being given such trust by someone was a very happy thing.

Without waiting for Yin Shuang to speak, Bai Wu said:

"As for why I choose to leave the tower with the captain, it’s because I... how should I put it... have a strange kind of luck. Do you remember when we went to the white area to rescue the miners? When we came back, it turned into the red area. When we went to the manor in the blue area, we also encountered a special kind of Evil Fallen that blended with the scene. And the last time we went to the gambling house, it turned into a red area again."

Bai Wu sighed:

"I feel like I’m cursed by something outside the tower. Once can be considered an accident, but if it happens again and again, it feels odd. I’ve searched through books, but haven’t found a similar situation, so until now, I’ve only been able to consider my situation as having a ’difficulty +x’ constitution. The reason I bring the captain is because he is very strong, strong enough to offset any excess danger."

"Do you think I’m weak?"

"No, actually I was trying to tell you something, venturing out of the tower with me will be very dangerous," Bai Wu said seriously.

"You might not realize it, but you’ve become a pillar of strength for the Investigation Corps without noticing it. Even if it’s dangerous, I believe you have the ability to overcome these dangers. I don’t want to be the team leader, but I do want to improve myself."

Yin Shuang could calmly face her shortcomings:

"At least compared to you, I’m not a qualified support team member. My analytical ability, my emotional grasp ability, are both far inferior to yours."

Bai Wu wanted to be modest, but frankly... there was no one he had met so far that could make him feel modest.

After nearly a minute of silence, Bai Wu stirred the soup-like nutritional meal with a spoon, which looked like he was stirring a glob of sticky mud, he said:

"Okay, then let’s leave the tower together this afternoon. But are you sure you don’t want to be the team leader? I really can’t understand who else could be the team leader if you aren’t. I think it’s highly likely you won’t be able to escape it."

"Four o’clock this afternoon." After leaving the time, Yin Shuang then left the cafeteria.

Her nutritional meal was almost untouched, obviously, the tastes of this beauty had become picky after the trip to the Manor.

Especially since... she hadn’t forgotten how to make those dishes in her mind.

...

...

Four o’clock in the afternoon.

Bai Wu and Yin Shuang arrived at the Lower East Square when many miners who worked at night and those who worked during the day were switching shifts.

When it was just Bai Wu alone, Yin Shuang’s desire to speak was slightly higher than when they were with the team:

"The time spent searching for the white zones has increased lately."

Bai Wu understood what she meant.

That meant the areas where these miners could dig were diminishing. The outside world was vast and white zones had always been predominant.

But from what Travelers have seen before, the number of white zones was slowly decreasing, while blue, purple, and even red-black zones were becoming more common.

"Will there come a day when there are no mining areas left in this world? When the people in the white zones can’t mine... when the Blue Line Grass is critically low, and the people of the High Tower can’t even get their nutritional meals. If that happens, could the Evil Fallen break through the High Tower in this way?"

Though she spoke of a seemingly distant and apocalyptic topic, Yin Shuang’s tone was calm.

Bai Wu shook his head; he didn’t think such a future would come:

"The existence of the High Tower may not necessarily be a refuge for us. Humanity won’t be destroyed, at most we’ll be forced to adapt to the blue zones, leading to a significant reduction in numbers, moving from the mining era to a scavenging era. But all these are very distant and elusive things."

"I always thought that reaching the sixth order of Innate Force for a person was also a distant thing."

Yin Shuang meant something by that, but Bai Wu didn’t respond.

He and Yin Shuang approached the blue Stele, which made Bai Wu a bit worried:

"I’ve told you, my physique is very special, why don’t we choose the white zone instead?"

Yin Shuang said:

"Last time, if you hadn’t kept winning all the way, but instead modestly took your winnings and stopped, that area wouldn’t have been dangerous at all. So I don’t think it’s a problem with your physique, if it is, then prove it."

"You have quite a wild streak in your bones," Bai Wu didn’t expect Yin Shuang to be so reckless.

She always seemed cold and detached, but she was particularly ruthless in her actions.

"That phrase should describe you," Yin Shuang’s hand touched the Stele.

Blue light sprang from the Stele.

Bai Wu looked up at the ceiling as a familiar note popped into his mind—[It endowed these Steles with the power to clear space, but their actual use is to block that being at the top of the High Tower.]

Who is it? And who is the being at the top of the High Tower?

This question couldn’t afford further thought, as soon, Bai Wu left for the area outside the tower using the number generated after Yin Shuang’s departure.

...

...

Bai Wu only felt as though he had returned to the deep sea, without any sensation of suffocation, only surrounded by blue.

But quickly, the blue began to fade, and the quiet deep sea also dispersed in an instant due to a certain familiar sound that came. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ

He woke up.

Bai Wu opened his eyes and found himself walking down a very long street with Yin Shuang.

The layout of the buildings on this street was very odd.

A road so long that one can’t see its end. It was as if he was walking on a main road of a bustling residential area, where many shops, towering buildings, and even street signs and lamps could be seen.

There was not a single living soul; all shops, residences, and building entrances were closed.

When Bai Wu looked at these places, the information in his eyes was meaningless—

"Each area has a background scene, there is nothing worth seeing, these doors won’t open, unless you choose to become an Evil Fallen and force them open with violence. But I can tell you—there is nothing inside. What you can do is to keep walking down this street."

Without living people or animals, not even a blade of grass moving, nor the low humming from any Evil Fallen, such a city street in this region should have been very quiet.

Only since Bai Wu and Yin Shuang appeared on this street, the sound in their ears didn’t stop for a second.

It was an ordinary-looking street, if one could overlook the telephone booths that appeared every ten meters.

The strangest part of the entire street, besides not being able to leave from either side and only able to walk straight ahead, was the equally endless telephone booths.

No city would build so many telephone booths on a street.

And the sound that echoed in Bai Wu and Yin Shuang’s ears, was composed of telephone ringing from various distances.

"What is this place...?" Yin Shuang said, stunned.

Bai Wu did not speak.

This place had no people, with endless telephone booths, and some of them were ringing.

The whole scenario gave Bai Wu a very eerie feeling.

Yin Shuang slowly walked forward a few steps, examining these buildings, trying to find some clues.

Although she didn’t have a talent similar to eyes, these regularly distributed telephone booths looked highly suspicious at a glance.

"These are telephone booths," Bai Wu said as he looked at the telephone booths, the notes in his eyes all the same.

"Congratulations, you have come to a street full of stories. In a sense, there are no Evil Fallen here, and you won’t encounter any danger. But not answering the phone will make it impossible for you to take even a step. Stop little Shuang before she does something reckless. Only after completing a call from a ’heightened sensation,’ you will be able to move freely for seven minutes. You might receive calls from different times and spaces, and from these messages, slowly piece together the truth of this area."

Bai Wu was very responsive, although he had not fully understood the rules of the area, seeing Yin Shuang’s body about to step past a telephone booth, he immediately shouted:

"Yin Shuang, stop!"

Yin Shuang was about to stop, but one foot had already stepped past the phone booth as she simultaneously responded to Bai Wu:

"I know what a telephone booth is, I saw it in textbooks when I was a child, a product of the Pre-Tower Era, but it fell into disuse after the emergence of mobile phones. Why would there be so many here..."

Yin Shuang stopped speaking abruptly; she wanted to ask why there were so many telephone booths here, and why the phone was ringing in the booth ahead.

But as her body crossed the first phone booth, she immediately felt her life draining away.

Bai Wu looked at Yin Shuang, and an additional note appeared in his eyes:

"Oh, this poor girl has been infected with a negative attribute—Desire for Blood. She must cause death every six minutes; otherwise, she will continuously lose life. But there are no Evil Fallen here for her to kill, what a tough situation~ But how could the all-powerful eye be without a solution? You can let her answer the phone, or you can answer it, to obtain an ’exemption right’ to save her. However, I have to remind you, answering the phone might subject one to ’pain’~"

The abrupt arrival of the negative attribute sent a shock through Yin Shuang’s entire being.

She glanced around subconsciously; her sixth-order Innate Force detected no signs of Evil Fallen, which meant that this exploration had come to an end.

"What’s going on? Why did I suddenly succumb to a negative state?"

Bai Wu had gained a preliminary understanding of the rules in this area:

"Listen up, there are telephone booths on both the left and right sides. We each take one side, answer whichever booth rings, and only after the call can we move forward normally. You can think of it as a sort of game. Because you didn’t follow the game’s rules, ignored the incoming call, and passed by the telephone booths, that’s why you were infected with a negative attribute. The area we encountered might have special rules similar to the Manor."

Yin Shuang was very curious about how Bai Wu knew all this. Could such rules be deduced out of thin air?

As if knowing what Yin Shuang was thinking, Bai Wu said:

"I once read it in a book called ’Telephone Mystery City,’ where the city is filled with various communication devices, and one only gets the chance to move forward after finishing a phone call. This place might be under such rules. You have six minutes left; try doing as I said. After the call, the negative attribute on you should disappear,"

"Additionally, you might receive a call that involves more than just auditory senses. If the first call lasts over six minutes, I will activate your Return Roulette forcibly, sending you back."

Of course, that book did not exist, nor were the rules of this area recorded in any stories. Everything was fabricated by Bai Wu, but Yin Shuang believed it.

With time running short, she resolutely chose to trust Bai Wu.

She entered the telephone booth on the left side; the phone had been ringing for quite some time. Yin Shuang took a deep breath, always feeling that answering this call would lead to something terrible happening.

Her Spirit Possession watch had already started to fluctuate. After hesitating for several seconds, she finally picked up the phone.

It was then, not knowing what the voice on the other end said, Yin Shuang’s pupils dilated suddenly, and she looked at Bai Wu in disbelief.

Swiftly... her entire consciousness seemed to be sucked into the mouthpiece, leaving her in a somnambulant, dazed state.

Seeing Yin Shuang’s expression, Bai Wu figured she must have been frightened by the voice on the phone, the scene itself carrying a certain terrifying atmosphere.

He chose not to answer the other phone.

Instead, he waited for Yin Shuang to come to her senses, ready to activate the Return Roulette if she did not wake up from the call.

No matter what state the powers beyond the tower had put Yin Shuang into, Bai Wu was certain that as long as she returned to the High Tower, she would be safe.

Then, he could explore this area with Yin Shuang leisurely, using the information from the phone calls to solve the mystery of the area.

This was Bai Wu’s plan, but what he did not expect was that their joint exploration with the belle had run into serious trouble from the get-go.

Suddenly, Yin Shuang collapsed, her body lifeless as she lost consciousness.

Bai Wu caught Yin Shuang while picking up the receiver, only to find a busy tone...

The call had been disconnected on the other end.

Bai Wu noticed that after Yin Shuang answered the phone, the negative attribute indeed disappeared from her, but she seemed to have been severely frightened and fell into a coma.

The value on her wristwatch had reached 144.

It was fortunate that this area had no Evil Fallen, or the current Yin Shuang would essentially be a living Evil Fallen attractor.

It suddenly occurred to Bai Wu that something was odd: the scenes from the world outside the tower couldn’t be altered, and while Prayle’s Eye referred to the surrounding buildings as scenery, it did not mention that the telephone booths were part of it.

Nor would it be possible for any city to have such an excessive number of telephone booths.

So what exactly had these telephone booths become?

Time was short, and Bai Wu quickly cleared his thoughts. He must answer three calls in a row, maintaining a clear consciousness, to continue moving forward with Yin Shuang.

He placed Yin Shuang in the middle of the road and went to the telephone booth on the opposite side.

At this moment, Yin Shuang was still caught in some kind of shock, trapped in painful nightmares even as she lay unconscious.

One sentence echoed in her mind, the very first line she heard after connecting the call—

Hello, my name is Bai Wu.

(Anti-theft word count: 4240, actual word count: 4849 characters)