Mental Pollution

The Little Curly boy let out a roar that woke everyone around him from their dreams.

Those people shuddered, woke up, and instinctively looked around cautiously. After realizing their surroundings, they muttered a couple of curses in slight confusion before falling back asleep.

Yu Xing watched the Little Curly being scolded with a smile, his eyes showing no malice, as if he hadn't done it on purpose.

Knowing he'd get beaten up if he woke everyone up again, Little Curly he'd immediately back down. He crept quietly out from the crowded area. You could tell he really wanted to talk, but after Amy scolded him, he'd held it in, probably feeling quite uncomfortable about it.

Now that someone was readily available to talk to him, the Little Curly wasn't particularly angry. He took the opportunity to climb over and sit next to Yu Xing, whispering, "Hmph, you're finally awake. How many hours have you been sleeping?"

"I'm sure you can tell I'm a little injured and not in good spirits, so of course I need more rest," Yu Xing shrugged, speaking matter-of-factly. "By the way, how long have we been in the car? How much longer until we arrive?"

"It should be soon, I've been stuck in the carriage for three hours already." The Little Curly rubbed his chin. "They kept stopping along the way to pave a safe path for the road ahead, which made it take longer. Ouch... my butt is killing me."

Their safe path?

Yu Xing noticed those two words and smiled calmly, "I just don't understand, Base 51 really that great? Why does everyone want to go?"

"You!" The Little Curly's eyes widened, and his voice almost rose again. He quickly suppressed his emotions and looked at Yu Xing with a very reproachful gaze. "There shouldn't be many people who don't want to go to the base! Except for those unlucky guys who are still trapped in the virus circle in the city."

"And even if you're a lone wolf used to fighting the virus on your own, you were saved by the people at Base 51. Other lone wolves may dislike Base 51, but you have no right to say that!" Little Curly Yu Xing lectured her with Yu Xing, seemingly convinced of her own wisdom, and smacked her lips, muttering, "I'm truly a moral exemplar."

"Oh, you're right." Although Yu Xing's mind was rapidly organizing the conversation into usable information, he didn't reveal any flaws on the surface. He naturally continued the topic and asked the question he most wanted to know.

"I've been alone for so long, I haven't really been paying attention to what's happening at the base. Can you tell me what happened today?" Yu Xing inquired in a vague and ambiguous way, making it easy to explain. "I thought I was really going to die this time, but I didn't expect to be rescued."

"You're really lucky!" Little Curly sighed upon hearing this. "Ever since bases started being established in various places, they've been searching for survivors in the cities. I've seen the base in City 1; it's truly magnificent. The base has a newly developed virus vaccine, and it also has a reassuringly safe environment."

"I really don't understand what those lone wolves like you are thinking, preferring to roam around alone..."

Thanks to this talkative Little Curly girl, Yu Xing didn't stop typing for the next 10 minutes.

Although the information provided by the Little Curly was fragmented, he was still able to roughly deduce some background information.

There is a virus in this world that these people believe is ubiquitous and contagious.

The world was destroyed by these viruses, and many cities became ghost towns. The remaining cities that still had the strength to resist put aside their former sense of division and united to form City Alliance. They changed their city names to numbers, starting from 01 and going up to 63. These 63 cities became humanity's last hope.

Survivor bases were built in various places, and the names of the bases were the same as the city's numbers. All the survivor bases were built in remote places that were least affected by the virus.

Once things stabilize, the base will periodically send small teams to patrol the dangerous cities, searching for and bringing back any survivors.

The reason why new survivors are always found is twofold: firstly, these people may come from another city; secondly, many people get trapped in the "virus zone" during base patrols.

That being said, it might sound a bit complicated, but Yu Xing understood this information much more simply.

This is actually a world occupied by ghosts.

These ghosts, evolved from human negative emotions or the souls of the dead, have been killing people ever since. Mental pollution is their method of killing, and the so-called "virus circle" may be equivalent to the attack range of a ghost.

When a normal person is approached by a ghost, their mind begins to be eroded, for example, by seeing hallucinations and experiencing ever-increasing fear.

Those with strong willpower or intelligence who survive this erosion have resisted the infection. Those who cannot resist the mental pollution will not actually die, but their minds will be "infected," their cognition will become distorted, and they will soon commit suicide in the same way as the ghosts that infected them.

During the period when the ghosts are causing mental pollution, those who are polluted will disappear, as if they have entered another invisible state, and will only reappear in front of everyone when the results are in.

The duration of mental pollution varies; some unlucky individuals may even suffer from it for up to a year. This is Yu Xing heard from Little Curly himself. Little Curly spoke with lingering fear about the experience of a woman from his hometown, City 52, as if just mentioning it made his heart tremble.

Therefore, the base patrol team, which is specifically responsible for bringing back survivors, goes out once a week and can always find some people who have just come into contact with the contamination. As for those who have been successfully infected, they become an extra corpse on the ground.

This world has been taken over by such ghosts. Yu Xing felt a deathly stillness when he looked out at the city's outline just now, precisely because the city itself only contained corpses and ghosts.

However, some people, perhaps relying on their intelligence and willpower, believe they can handle those terrifying viruses on their own, and choose to live in the city to live a more carefree and relaxed life.

Regarding this, Yu Xing heard from Little Curly that those people were safe for a short period of time after each viral infection because the virus in that area could not infect them a second time, until supplies were exhausted or a mobile virus that had already taken the form of a vengeful spirit appeared.

This left Yu Xing somewhat puzzled.

He entered the simulation world midway through, and without a systematic background introduction, he naturally couldn't have imagined for a while that there was such a thing as "factors," which, although their physical form was harmless, could corrupt others and were fixed in place and invisible.