He Comes Whenever He Wants

[Successfully resisted three viral infections (3/3)]

[Phase Two Mission Completed]

[Third Stage Mission: Become an Infected/Kill Ten Infected]

[Time Limit: Thirty-six hours]

A mechanical female voice, devoid of any emotion, came from the in-ear headphones. Zhao Yijiu pressed the small piece of metal with her hand, Stop Killing the blood-stained sacrificial offering on the crook of her arm, which was covered by a mechanical elbow pad, and then sheathed it in the scabbard on her leg.

A few drops of blood splattered on his cheek, already dried, a dull red. His hair was disheveled, and a black headband was tied around his forehead, separating his bangs from his skin.

Around him, the ruins of the small clinic were in disarray, empty syringes lay scattered on the ground, and a twisted, grotesque corpse lay before him, with a slit on its neck to Stop Killing.

A battle had just ended. Zhao Yijiu took off his black windbreaker, revealing a tactical vest underneath. The areas protected by the vest were relatively intact, but his bulging, muscular arms were covered with fine, dense bloodstains. In particular, on the inside of his left forearm, a deep wound that exposed bone ran vertically. It looked painful, yet only he could remain so composed.

He took out Trauma Medicine and bandages from his backpack and squatted down to give himself a quick bandage. Although this kind of wound would heal on its own in about a day, he couldn't let anyone see the process.

Otherwise... they'll be mistaken for infected individuals.

After skillfully bandaging the wound, Zhao Yijiu stood up and walked to the door of the small clinic.

The sky outside was turning white, the night was about to end, and the faint light of dawn shone through the atmosphere into this eroded world.

He gazed into the distance and could vaguely see the eaves of Base 51 Survivor Base, nestled in the mountains outside the city. For safety reasons, the base was located in the mountains—where there were few traces of human life, thus preventing the spread of most vengeful spirit viruses.

For the deducers, this deduction simulation began two weeks ago.

Twenty deducers appeared randomly at various locations in City 51, dressed in clothes appropriate for the current world, and wearing a single-purpose quantum computer wristwatch on their wrists.

The system generously shared the world background: in short, it was originally a postmodern high-tech civilization, but several years ago, a viral storm silently swept the globe.

This was not a virus in the ordinary sense. One bizarre and terrifying death after another was reported: murders without reason, dead people coming back to life and returning home, endless repetition of events from the day of their death... These paranormal events were initially thought to be pranks and rumors, but by the time people finally realized something was wrong, the world had already fallen.

Medical experts, together with real experts from various fields, attempted to explain everything from a scientific perspective, and ultimately they did find the source of the incident—an undetectable virus.

The reason it is identified as a virus even though it cannot be detected is because it is contagious, but there are ways to prevent it. For example, when a person dies with resentment, a factor is produced at the place where that person died. When another person unknowingly enters this place and absorbs this factor, infection begins.

Those infected will experience what the original owner went through before their death. If they can maintain mental stability and survive, they have successfully resisted the contamination and developed some antibodies. If they cannot withstand it, the infected will become a combination of a human and a vengeful spirit. They may not be very dangerous to others, but they will definitely kill themselves.

In other words, those infected will inevitably die.

Besides the infected, those factors may also grow on their own and directly become pure vengeful spirits, which can be considered a kind of evolution. When a factor becomes a vengeful spirit, it is no longer limited to a certain place, but can spread factors everywhere by following the movement trajectory of the vengeful spirit, becoming a mobile source of infection.

Humanity was utterly defeated by this vengeful spirit and quickly fell apart.

Several years later, the remaining humans, stimulated by the increasing number and complexity of vengeful spirit viruses, underwent a super-evolution. They simply could no longer wait for the long, generational evolution process. It seems that one dark night passed, and perfect antibodies quietly grew in the bodies of some people.

These people cannot see vengeful spirits, nor are they corrupted by the factors. In other words, they seem to have their own barrier, separating themselves from this dilapidated world.

The advantage is that they can live their whole lives as normal, ordinary people. The disadvantage is that once human leaders find a way to kill the virus, those without perfect antibodies can fight against the virus as rebels, while those with perfect antibodies become an incongruous burden; they cannot be infected, nor can they kill the virus.

In fact, some envious eyes have called them traitors to humanity, outcasts, and the embodiment of the unfairness of being the safest despite contributing nothing.

And so, the small group of people who evolved the perfect antibody quickly disappeared without a trace, their whereabouts unknown. Perhaps they went into hiding, or perhaps they banded together and went into seclusion.

The role-players are portraying one of the "majority of humans" struggling to survive in this apocalyptic world caused by the vengeful virus.

This is the extremely detailed background information provided by the system.

Compared to when I first encountered the absurd recommendation system, this dutiful background introduction seems like a prodigal son's return, as if the system is diligently starting to protect its users. But in reality, the truth is far less rosy, and there's only one reason—

The world is too difficult; if I don't explain it in detail, even the most skilled strategist might not survive.

Once you reach the level of strength required to join this instance, some old secrets are no longer secrets. At least the twenty Despair-level deducers in the instance know that this is not a fake, Absurd World, but a real world.

The real world has its own rules and development trajectory, unlike the simulation instances encountered at lower levels, which are completely controlled by the Absurdity System.

Two months ago, Zhao Yijiu advanced to the Despair level in a simulation—along with Carlos and his brother Zhao Mou from the Broken Mirror.

The name of "Broken Mirror" had already spread throughout the system forum, because in this year, apart from the legendary captain "Xing" who was said to be Broken Mirror, everyone, including the already infamous female demon Qu Xuanqing, had been taking on all sorts of deductions like crazy, and their strength and experience had increased rapidly, as if they were in a hurry to be reincarnated... no, as if they were in a hurry to prepare for something that was about to come.

The power dynamics among those who perform calculations within the system have also changed significantly.

In short, ever since Zhao Yijiu advanced to Despair, he has never seen a system as all-pervasive as before in his subsequent deductions. Systems in advanced worlds have many limitations, mostly reflected in their form of existence.

For example, this time, there was too much supernatural energy in the apocalyptic world of vengeful spirits, enough to interfere with the system. So, at the beginning, the system assigned each of the deducers a quantum computer wristwatch. The wristwatches of the world's native inhabitants lost most of their network connectivity after the apocalypse. The deducers' wristwatches looked the same as the natives', except that the system also resided in the wristwatches.

Whether it's a task or a notification, the system will publish it on the personal computer. In case Zhao Yijiu doesn't have time to open the personal computer during battle, she connects to a Bluetooth headset to have the system messages broadcast by voice.

The very first task was to give the participants the choice of entering Base 51 Survivor Base or staying in the disorganized, undisciplined, and disorderly city. In short, from the very beginning of this simulation, the participants took two different paths.

Zhao Yijiu and Carlos have now developed a tacit understanding as teammates. One of them stays in the city, while the other stays at the base, allowing them to communicate at any time.

Zhao Yijiu closed the dilapidated door of the clinic, intending to rest there until dawn.

He had just settled into his seat in the corner when the fabric of his vest shifted.

Zhao Yijiu looked down and saw that the paper figure he had clipped to the inside of his collar with a small clip had moved. He then released the clip and squeezed the paper figure out.

"Ugh, so annoying~~" As soon as the paper figure was placed in the palm of the hand, the ugly little paper figure plopped down, rolled its rather large eyes, and made the sound of Carlos coming out of its cartoonish mouth.

"Speak," Zhao Yijiu said, unsurprised.

"Another Water Ghost infection has occurred at the base, right next to my dorm. I sent a paper doll to investigate, but that Lingren found out. Ugh, I knew he'd cause even more trouble after joining the cleanup team. What am I supposed to do now? I feel so restricted. He keeps calling my paper dolls useless!"

Carlos went on and on, and Zhao Yijiu raised an eyebrow slightly. "He attacked you?"

"No, but he mocked me," Carlos said matter-of-factly.

Oh, so that means there's nothing really important, Carlos just came to complain.

Zhao Yijiu immediately wanted to hang up the phone.

This deduction was actually quite special for them.

After advancing to the Despair level, their system gained a new section for pre-booking simulations. Zhao Mou would occasionally perform divination to determine which participants were worth entering and which were incompatible with those who had broken through to the next level. This apocalyptic simulation was the one Zhao Mou decided to enter after his divination.

Moreover, the selection was precise, specifying only two candidates Zhao Yijiu and Carlos.

In Zhao Mou's words, "This simulation will bring some very good things, we absolutely cannot miss it, and there are also some very useful special items in the simulation, it would be best if we could find them."

So the two obediently made an appointment, and when they entered the simulation, the system gave a notification to all twenty participants.

The first name is "Lingren".

Carlos asked if Zhao Mou's divination results were subtly influenced by the Lingren' tricks, and whether this was what they meant by "encountering very good things"?

Who knows?

However, it is believable that there are special items in the deduction, because many familiar faces appear on the list, all of whom are skilled in or have friends skilled in divination and prophecy. It seems that there are not only special items, but they are special enough to attract so many forces to come and fight for them.

For example, Zhao Ruru from the Zhao family, Xu Shu from the Xu family, Zeng Lai from the Research Institute, Luo Qishan and Luo Jue from the Luo family, Yan Ming, the recorder of the Widow Investigation Team, and Fatty Lu Xiaorong...

Several acquaintances also reached the Despair level this year, especially Zhao Ruru, who had contact with Zhao Yijiu. During this year, Zhao Ruru gradually exposed many problems. Zhao Mou has confirmed that she had been hiding her strength and deceiving everyone in the Zhao family. But now, for some reason, she has chosen to expose herself and become high-profile.

She didn't even stay on the Zhao family's territory, but went to the Xu family, ostensibly to learn something for the sake of friendship between the two Fang family.

The remaining people might have been randomly assigned to this simulation, or they might have made appointments themselves, but Zhao Yijiu didn't know, anyway, she wasn't familiar with them, and had never even met them before.

But one thing is certain: there must be hidden members of Single Prism among those people. Since Lingren have all come, he doesn't believe they wouldn't prepare some useful tools, puppets, and cannon fodder for themselves.

This simulation was already extremely difficult, reaching a point of utter despair for everyone involved. It was the highest-level simulation Zhao Yijiu had ever participated in. Now, due to the complex relationships between the participants, the difficulty has definitely risen to another level.

Take Lingren, for example. Almost everyone, whether they know him or not, has heard of how monstrous he is, let alone the Broken Mirror Squad, who are always at odds with Single Prism.

Zhao Yijiu had even heard a rumor that after Yu Xing disappeared, the Lingren acted particularly strangely for a period of time, becoming more Impermanence than usual. Several of the high-ranking members of the Single Prism organization were even killed by the Lingren. After a while, the traces of this rumor were erased.

Zhao Yijiu knew that the Lingren's reaction must be related to Yu Xing.

He had long known that these two had an unusual past, whether it was grudges or love-hate relationships, it was all very complicated. In the live simulation of the Death Parallel Line, the Lingren, because Yu Xing was close to him, gave up on killing him when the difference in strength was huge and he could have killed him with a flick of his wrist. Instead, he used an insulting method to cut open the corner of Yu Xing's mouth...

At that time, Zhao Yijiu couldn't quite understand. What impressed her most was the sense of powerlessness in the face of the Lingren, and the self-blame when she was used by the Lingren to stimulate Yu Xing's dark emotions.

Having experienced many developments over the past year, Zhao Yijiu is no longer as clueless about emotions as she once was.

Looking back on the incident, he really couldn't say whether the Lingren didn't kill him out of fear that Yu Xing would "hate" him even more, or whether he tortured him because he hoped that Yu Xing "hate" him even more.

Humans are truly complex creatures.

Especially madmen.

Back to the present, Zhao Yijiu didn't retain much of an impression of that experience. He was naturally indifferent to things like "insult" and "torture" that easily evoked negative emotions... Perhaps all the negative emotions were absorbed by the vengeful ghost form within him.

But the strength of the Lingren is still vivid in our minds. Even with one-ninth of his power and without sacrifices, the Lingren was already a nightmare at that time. What about the complete Lingren, without any restrictions?

Now they've entered the same line of reasoning; given his relationship with Carlos and Yu Xing, the Lingren will definitely go crazy targeting them.

The reason why Zhao Yijiu and Carlos separated in the first stage was largely due to this. They both had enough ability to protect themselves, but they were also annoyed by the fact that someone was interfering with everything they did. Rather than having a 50% chance of both of them being sent under the Lingren eye of the performers, it was better to have one of them be able to act freely.

Carlos was one of the lucky ones who bumped into the Lingren.

Since they were both aware of each other's existence, Carlos was prepared. However, from the beginning until now, the Lingren had hardly done anything to him. At most, he would casually crush the paper figure and then make a few meaningful sarcastic remarks about the worthless paper.

Zhao Yijiu received Carlos's communications every day, so he had a basic understanding of what was happening in the base. He had a vague guess about why Lingren was not moving Carlos.

Perhaps... the Lingren wanted Carlos to tell him what was happening at the base?

He didn't know how the Lingren viewed him and Yu Xing, because compared to Carlos, Yu Xing was clearly closer to him before his disappearance, and he had even confronted the Lingren directly and refused his offer to Lingren.

In comparison... if Lingren wants to go crazy over someone, it's definitely more satisfying to go after him than to go after Carlos.

A week ago, Carlos sent intelligence that the Lingren had infiltrated the cleanup team and gained the opportunity to go out and clean up the virus.

A week later, Carlos's paper doll sat in Zhao Yijiu's hand and asked, as if struck by a sudden inspiration, "Do you think he might... have infiltrated the cleanup team just to catch you during field missions?"

"And I'm still useful to him as a mouthpiece, so he lets me stay at the base?"

Zhao Yijiu paused for a moment, bent one leg, and breathed softly.

A few seconds later, he replied, "He can come whenever he wants, and I'd like to talk to him too."

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