BWMJP

The man who called himself Old He looked to be around fifty years old. He had his hair neatly combed back, but it wasn't dyed black; most of it was white.

He wasn't wearing any uniform; instead, he wore a dark suit that looked quite good in terms of material, cut, and fit, but was clearly a bit old. His shoes and belt also looked well-made and very durable, but not like designer brands.

Old He was also wearing a watch that didn't quite match his style of dress. It looked strange; it wasn't like a traditional digital watch, nor a fitness tracker, or a typical smartwatch. Next to the huge main watch face with a screen, there were two smaller sub-watch faces, each only a quarter the size of the main watch face, connected to the strap. It looked more like some kind of tool with a specific purpose.

Upon entering the conference room, Zhao Feng and Wang De'an instinctively began to observe Old He, but they were unable to determine from these external characteristics who Old He was or which department or unit he belonged to.

However, judging from the attitude of the task force leaders towards Old He, it is clear that Old He is at least higher in rank and status than him.

After calling the two men over, the leader greeted Old He and then left the meeting room, leaving the two men to speak with Old He alone.

Zhao Feng and Wang De'an exchanged a glance, their hearts skipping a beat—even the leaders of the special task force were avoiding them; what did they want to talk about?

"Xiao Zhao, Xiao Wang, come, sit down, make yourselves at home, move closer, it's easier to talk to you," Old He said with a smile. His eyes and brows were full of laughter, and he seemed to be very easy to talk to and had a gentle personality.

After the two sat down, Old He didn't exchange many pleasantries and went straight to the point, saying, "I heard from your former superiors... oh, not Lao Li, but Lao Han and Old Xu, that you seem to be investigating some hallucinations seen by suspects in previous cases?"

The "Old Li" that Old He mentioned was the leader of the special task force, while "Old Han" and "Old Xu" were Wang De'an's leaders in Pancheng and Zhao Feng's leaders in Citong, respectively.

"We just felt that there were some subtle commonalities between the hallucinations experienced by the suspects in those two cases, and maybe some external connection that we haven't figured out yet. So, in our spare time after work, we discussed it and exchanged ideas. It was just pure curiosity," Zhao Feng said, carefully choosing his words.

Wang De'an nodded in agreement, saying, "It's all discussed after work..." He then added, "Both cases are closed."

Old He smiled and nodded, saying, "So, have you found anything out?"

The two young police officers exchanged a glance, and then Zhao Feng continued, "For the time being... there isn't any conclusive evidence yet."

He still didn't dare tell Old He about being guided by an "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Monster" in his dream to find several corpses in Purple Huan Mountain, because it sounded too unreal and might make the leaders think he had mental problems.

Old He asked, "Have you seen any news about Montamira, Myanmar online today?"

"You mean... the riots in Montamira?" Zhao Feng asked tentatively.

Old He nodded and said, "The riots in Montamira were fueled by some unfriendly forces behind the scenes, but in the end, they reaped what they sowed, and their backers were exposed. The Myanmar government will definitely be more vigilant against them in the future. They tried to steal a chicken but lost their rice instead. But what I want to talk to you about is not that issue, but rather the 'monster' or 'giant' illusion that appeared in Montamira that many people are discussing online. According to many people involved, the illusion had eight arms and eight eyes. Isn't it somewhat similar to the illusions seen by the suspects in the two cases you are investigating?"

"It really does look very similar." Zhao Feng said honestly. When he and Wang De'an saw the news about Montamira online, they immediately connected it with what they were investigating.

Wang De'an couldn't help but ask, "Sir, do you know what that thing is?"

Old He smiled at him and said, "Don't call me 'leader,' just call me Old He. I don't know what that thing is either, and I'm very curious. So I wanted to ask you guys, are you interested in joining us to investigate this matter? Um... the next thing we need to discuss requires signing a confidentiality agreement, is that alright?"

As he spoke, Old He pushed a folder from the table next to him over.

Zhao Feng and Wang De'an immediately huddled together, carefully examining the two agreements in the folder. After a few whispered discussions, they suppressed their excitement and signed their names.

Without even looking at the two signed agreements, Old He tossed the folder onto the table next to him and said with a smile, "Let me formally introduce myself. My name is He Haomin, and I am the director of the National Anomalous Biological Research Center."

"Nominally, we are affiliated with the 'Biotechnology Development Center' under the Ministry of Science and Technology, but in reality, we have other high-level leaders who are directly in contact with us. The things we do require a high degree of confidentiality, so you can't find our organization's name on any official websites."

"What we mainly do, as the name suggests, is to study some 'abnormal creatures'. We have reason to suspect that the illusions you two investigated before, as well as the illusions that appeared in Montamira last night, were created by a certain 'abnormal creature', or that it is itself a special state of a certain 'abnormal creature'."

"Normally, you would have one or two days to consider this, but this time is a bit special. My plan is that if you are willing to join, I will send you to Montamira for investigation."

Zhao Feng and Wang De'an were both somewhat surprised. After discussing it in hushed tones, they both leaned towards accepting it, as they were indeed very curious about this "Non-Normal Biology Research Center".

Before agreeing, Zhao Feng asked a question, "Could you tell me... how did you notice us?"

He didn't think that Old Xu and Wang De'an's former leader and partner, Officer Han, would take the initiative to report their matter to the "Non-Normal Biology Research Center." In fact, Lao Han and Old Xu, like everyone else, probably didn't even know that such a department existed.

Old He said, "Chen Tianhua... or rather Mi Qiao, I noticed you when you arrested Citong."

Both of them were taken aback upon hearing this, and then immediately understood that when they were in Citong, the leader had guaranteed that Mi Qiao's identity was safe because he had Old He or his research center behind him.

"Is she one of yours?" Wang De'an asked instinctively.

"You could say that, and you could say that," Old He said. "It's like this: our specific research and investigation into 'abnormal organisms' is done in collaboration with a certain company, or rather, it's mainly carried out by that company. Our intelligence is more about assisting, supervising, and conducting safety assessments. If you two are willing to join, after completing the formalities, your positions will be secretly transferred to the 'Non-Normal Biology Research Center.' But on the surface, you'll have identities assigned by another company for your external operations, and you'll collaborate with the company's relevant investigators. As for Mi Qiao, he's not from the 'Center,' he's from the company."

Both of them were a little confused. Zhao Feng subconsciously asked, "What company? Is it a subordinate institution of the center?"

Old He smiled but said nothing.

Zhao Feng paused for a moment, then immediately understood and said, "We're both willing to join."

Wang De'an nodded in agreement.

Old He didn't present any further agreements for them to sign immediately, seemingly trusting their verbal consent. He said, "It's 'Shenxing Technology.' As for its relationship with the center, you don't need to worry about it. After joining, you'll no longer be police officers. Remember, outside, you only have investigative rights, not law enforcement rights. Any information and data about 'abnormal organisms' obtained during your investigations must be submitted to the 'Center' or the researchers at 'Shenxing Technology' who are liaising with you. You must not disclose or handle them improperly. Specific regulations will be explained and you will receive detailed training later. Of course, that will be after this mission. Someone will be with you on this mission; ask him if you have any questions, and he will ensure everything is compliant."

Seeing that the two still seemed confused, Old He added, "Investigate, collect data, and report. That's all you need to do now. Don't get involved in the specific 'research' part. Maintain your curiosity, but don't be overly curious. Adhere to the relevant regulations and confidentiality agreements. Once you've completed one mission, you'll pretty much understand."

Around noon, Xia Libing got up from her computer, put the "cake01" notebook in her pocket, picked up the chopsticks Xiang Kun had made, and went to the kitchen.

She opened the refrigerator, took out a few pieces of rabbit meat from the freezer, and put them in the microwave to defrost.

In one corner of the kitchen, there were actually several cages piled up, taking up most of the kitchen space. Inside were more than twenty meat rabbits, which he had picked up that morning from the place where Xiang Kun had bought meat rabbits last time, using a small truck he had contacted.

However, these rabbits were kept for Xiang Kun to drink blood when he returned.

There was still a lot of rabbit meat left over from when Xiang Kun had his rabbit blood drunk at her place last month. It was all frozen and not eaten.

Xia Libing simply chopped the thawed rabbit meat into small pieces, boiled a pot of water, put the rabbit meat in directly, covered the pot and cooked it. Apart from sprinkling some salt, she didn't add any other seasonings.

Once I thought it was almost cooked, I took it to the living room and started eating.

From last night until now, in order to ensure that Xiang Kun could sense her "emotional-like" state through "Emotion-Infused Object" at any time, thereby suppressing her bloodlust and maintaining her rationality and clarity, she has not slept.

Although she could enter the "world of consciousness" through "cake01" to alleviate her drowsiness, she couldn't stay in the "world of consciousness" forever. So, at noon, she didn't order food or cook a bowl of instant noodles. Instead, she chose to eat only rabbit meat to avoid consuming high-carbohydrate foods, which would make it less likely for her to feel sleepy after eating.

However, she underestimated how bad her boiled rabbit meat was. After only a few bites, she had to resort to eating "crispy pork knuckle" instead, alternating between bites of boiled rabbit meat and "crispy pork knuckle" to finish her lunch.

Just as Xia Libing was about to finish the pot of unpalatable rabbit meat using her "wit" and "superpowers," the living room light, which had been off, suddenly turned on, then immediately went off, then immediately turned on again, then went off again, then on again, then off again, then on again, then off again, then on again, then off again, then on again, then off again, then on again...

If it were an ordinary person, let alone a girl, even a man, even in the middle of the day, would probably feel a chill run down his spine and think he was encountering some kind of supernatural event.

However, as the first and only person who knew Xiang Kun's secret, Xia Libing immediately realized that this was Xiang Kun giving her a signal.

Although she hadn't called Xiang Kun, she guessed that Xiang Kun phone might have malfunctioned during the large-scale use of the "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving" emotional projection in Montamira and was no longer usable. Otherwise, it was unlikely that he hadn't contacted her at all.

In retrospect, this must have been how Xiang Kun contacted her.

After the living room light flashed a dozen times, Xia Libing realized that it was Morse code.

She and Xiang Kun had agreed on several simple communication codes, but those codes were either recorded or used through language or Chinese characters; they never mentioned using Morse code.

However, Morse code is a very common, simple, and ubiquitous signal code. She knew that Xiang Kun definitely understood it, and Xiang Kun also knew that she definitely understood it, so they used it to communicate without needing to communicate beforehand.

Xia Libing didn't need paper or notes; she simply recorded the information in her mind based on the flashing signals of the living room lights.

After a while, she noticed that Xiang Kun was using the living room lights to represent a loop of five letters:

B, W, M, J, P

This is clearly neither complete pinyin nor complete English, but Xiang Kun had no need to add another layer of mystery under these circumstances.

Xia Libing thought for a moment, picked up her phone, casually opened her WeChat chat with Xiang Kun, and then typed in these letters using the Pinyin input method, resulting in two cloud-based words:

"Buy me a plane ticket," "Buy me some fried chicken."

Clearly, Xiang Kun meant the former.

Xia Libing immediately opened the ticket purchase app and used Xiang Kun's name and ID number to buy a ticket for the next available flight from Nande City to Citong City.

At Nande City Airport, Xiang Kun, who was sitting on a bench next to the entrance, exited his "Hyper-Sensory State," waited for a few minutes, and then got up and successfully obtained his boarding pass with his ID card.

Just as Xia Libing had guessed, his phone had been severely damaged during the emotional projection of Montamira, rendering it unusable and even the SIM card was broken. He was in a hurry and didn't want to replace the SIM card in Nande City, and he also didn't have enough cash on him.

While he was at the airport, he originally intended to borrow an airport staff member's phone to call Lao Xia and ask her to help him buy the earliest possible flight. As for the SIM card and such, he planned to get them later when he got back.

He had already located the "Super-Linked Object" Coin on Lao Xia's body and knew that she was still in the house she used to live in in Citong City. He also deduced that she hoped to drink blood in Citong City after he returned, so he planned to have her buy the earliest plane ticket to Citong.

However, when Xiang Kun saw the airport ground staff repairing an indicator light and its flashing light, an idea popped into his head. So he entered "Hyper-Sensory State" and used the multiple "Super-Linked Object" around Lao Xia to influence the lights in the room, attempting to transmit Morse code.

The letters in the Morse code cycled six times. After Xiang Kun noticed Lao Xia picking up her phone in his "Hyper-Sensory State," he understood that she knew what he meant.

Lao Xia truly lived up to his Lao Xia; he certainly didn't disappoint.

However, Xiang Kun was not entirely satisfied with his abilities. He now had a way to remotely influence electronic products such as mobile phones or computers through "Super-Linked Object" in a "Hyper-Sensory State." If he could control them precisely, it would be much simpler to directly open text on a computer or mobile phone and display the text he wanted to express.

Unfortunately, his control is still too crude to perform such precise and accurate operations. He can probably only influence things by turning the screen on and off.