Memory Fragment

Sun Hang picked up the pair of jeans left on the ground and pulled out an old smartphone from the pocket.

The girl's smartphone used a fingerprint lock, but when Sun Hang pressed his finger on it, the unlock success sound immediately played.

He had only imagined his fingerprint "turning into" the girl's fingerprint, and everything happened as a matter of course—although he had never carefully observed what the girl's fingerprint looked like, the small portion of "Tai Sui" he had just absorbed contained a lot of information, including the original host's physical data.

Not only that, after devouring that small portion of "Tai Sui," Sun Hang clearly felt his "abilities" had been enhanced. Previously, changing the material of a metal nameplate would make him fall unconscious for several hours, but now, changing his fingerprint only resulted in a slight dizziness, which was almost negligible.

Besides this, Sun Hang also felt as if some memories that didn't belong to him had appeared in his mind.

These fragments filled the blank memories in a jumbled manner, and for a moment, Sun Hang had an illusion—as if he were the girl who had been parasitized by "Tai Sui." Although the scenes were blurry, they felt incredibly real, as if he had experienced them personally.

It was like some strange dreams; when you wake up, you can hardly remember the details, but when you try to recall them, you find that the details you can't remember give you a sense of familiarity.

As if they had all happened in the real world.

A certain sound, a person or object, or even a combination of colors, or the brightness and angle of light... in your memory, there will always be a scene that perfectly matches the dream, like two transparent photos superimposed on each other.

Sun Hang saw a fire that seemed familiar, with ferocious flames filling his entire vision. Besides the noise of the air being heated and compressed, all other sounds faded away from Sun Hang...

In the next scene, through a blurry filter, he saw many figures surrounding him. They were clad in armor, their dark faceplates concealing all expressions.

The scene shifted, and Sun Hang found himself in a spacious basement. The corners of the basement were piled high with the skeletal remains of what were either humans or animals. Many people with indistinguishable features walked back and forth in the basement, their movements stiff and numb.

Were these the girl's memories, or "Tai Sui's" memories?

Sun Hang shook his head forcefully, using his willpower to forcibly "seal" these memory fragments that kept flashing before his eyes.

He refocused his attention on the phone that had just been unlocked.

The girl's phone had three missed text messages and two missed calls. The most recent missed call was made a minute and a half ago.

Sun Hang first opened the three text messages. The first message was very short, only six words: "Did you buy the things?"

The second message was even shorter: "Where are you?"

The third message came a full five minutes after the second, and the tone had shifted from urging to questioning: "Why aren't you back yet? What are you doing?"

Following that were two missed calls, less than ten seconds apart.

The first missed call rang for thirty seconds until it was hung up with the prompt "The number you have dialed is temporarily unavailable." The second missed call only rang for a short two seconds.

All three text messages and two missed calls were from the same number, a local Tianfu City mobile number. It was also the only number saved in the girl's phone contacts—but although she had saved the number, she had not added any remarks to it.

Sun Hang didn't hesitate and dialed the number back.

"Beep... beep... Sorry, the number you have dialed is not in service."

"It's been canceled? They reacted that quickly?" Sun Hang frowned slightly.

This matter should perhaps be reported directly to the Anomaly Research Institute or the Anomaly Investigation Bureau, but Sun Hang's subconscious was extremely resistant to doing so.

He didn't know why he had such thoughts, but in his understanding, this was the "correct" thing to do.

He began to doubt his identity before he lost his memory. He tried to recall again, but the memory fragments that surfaced were extremely chaotic. A large amount of memories that "shouldn't" belong to him were intertwined, forming one bizarre scene after another and extremely absurd, illogical plots.

The memories from the girl, or rather, from "Tai Sui," had not been fully digested by Sun Hang. They were like a pile of unsorted, messy files; as soon as he opened the "memory" folder, they all tumbled out in a rush.

"Damn it." Sun Hang muttered a curse under his breath and gave up on trying to recall.

He would deal with the search for his memories later. The priority now was to find "Tai Sui."

Those cult members must have become alert by now. Judging by the speed at which they canceled their phone numbers, if he delayed any further, even if Sun Hang found their hideout, it would likely be deserted.

There was no time to lose.

Sun Hang closed his eyes, and a blurry yet familiar route appeared in his mind.

This was a path he took almost every morning—or more accurately, it was a path that girl took almost every morning.

The end of this path was not far, located within this old residential complex.

Carrying the bag of fried dough sticks and steamed buns the girl had bought, Sun Hang returned to the first floor and then, with his eyes closed, let the sense of familiarity from the memory fragments guide him toward the "destination."

It seemed that the construction of this residential complex was forced to stop halfway. Nearly a third of the buildings in the complex were unfinished shells with only concrete frames.

Clumps of sand and soil, already rusted steel bars, and aged yellow plastic pipes were visible everywhere in the corners of the complex. Tangled and haphazardly laid electrical wires cut the sky into irregular polygons of various sizes. A crudely made Ultraman doll was abandoned by a weedy flower bed. A little further away, a group of ants was attacking a slug, which struggled fiercely, leaving a long trail of mucus on the dry ground.

Sun Hang kept his eyes closed, but these images kept appearing in his mind... In reality, the Ultraman doll had long been picked up by someone, and the ants and slug were nowhere to be seen. The only things that remained unchanged were the familiar path and the surrounding buildings.

"Building thirteen, unit two."

Sun Hang stopped and opened his eyes.