Happy Birthday (Part 1)

When Mr. Liang returned to the basement of Guarding Prosperity Building, he saw John sitting on the floor against the wall, staring blankly at the Rabbit Woodcarving placed on the platform in the middle of the hall, seemingly lost in thought.

Mr. Liang emerged from his invisibility state, walked to the edge of the platform, picked up the seemingly unchanged Rabbit Woodcarving, and asked, "What's wrong?"

John was startled, seemingly only just noticing Mr. Liang's return. Pointing to the wooden carving in his hand, he said, still somewhat shaken, "It... it's something wrong! There's an evil spirit inside!"

John hurriedly recounted the events of the previous night to Mr. Liang, highlighting the key points, including how the light flickered, how he saw the rabbit meat, and how the rabbit meat disappeared without warning.

Mr. Liang wasn't surprised at all; instead, he nodded in approval. "Very good, you've begun to grasp its special features."

He knew that "Blood-feeding Creature" did not need to sleep under normal circumstances. John was not yet at the time to eat and drink blood. Although the old vampires of the "Red Rose" had a secret method to prolong their period of sleep, it was not something they could use whenever they wanted. Moreover, John could not possibly waste time sleeping within the 40-day period. Therefore, he did not see rabbit meat in his dream, but was affected by hallucinations in reality.

Fang Pingfang had encountered a similar situation before in the Research Base laboratories of Baoqing City and Ironpeace Town.

John can be said to have proven that the hallucination effect of this wood carving is not only effective on ordinary humans, but also on "Blood-feeding Creature".

"Tell me in detail how you triggered that rabbit meat hallucination?" Mr. Liang asked.

"How did it happen..." John paused for a moment, thought for a second, and said uncertainly, "I bit its ear."

"Oh?" Mr. Liang picked up the Rabbit Woodcarving, grinned, and put one of the Rabbit Woodcarving's ears into his mouth—in fact, he could easily swallow the whole carving.

After giving the ear a few symbolic bites, Mr. Liang took out the wooden carving and asked, "Is this how it is?"

John was stunned. He had never seen Mr. Liang's mouth fully open before, and the visual impact was quite significant. So when Mr. Liang repeated it, he finally reacted and quickly nodded, "Like this, like this... take a bite."

However, it was clear that Mr. Liang's actions this time did not elicit a similar response, so he tossed the Rabbit Woodcarving to John: "Take a bite."

John glanced at the rabbit ear that Mr. Liang had "bitten," hesitated for a moment, and then chose to bite down on the other ear. This time, there were no unusual phenomena either.

Mr. Liang wasn't surprised or disappointed. After all, when Fang Pingfang had the rabbit meat hallucination before, she hadn't bitten a rabbit's ear. The so-called hallucination after biting a rabbit's ear was probably just a coincidence.

"What are your thoughts on the connection between wood carving and hallucinations, and its triggering mechanism?" Mr. Liang asked.

John repeated what he had said earlier, "There's an evil spirit here! It... it could be a rabbit, or something else, but it has the power to reach the soul and influence the spirit."

As he spoke, John seemed to feel that describing the so-called evil spirit as a "rabbit" didn't sound very intimidating or terrifying, so he quickly gave some other examples, such as Annabelle and Chucky, and suggested sending the wood carving to Europe to try some "legendary" methods for "purification".

However, Mr. Liang had not seen these films or television shows, which only increased his confusion. In fact, his previous description had already made Mr. Liang fully understand what had happened and knew that he was quite frightened.

"Do you think there's any connection between the rabbit meat illusion you saw and the eight-armed giant illusion of Montamira?" Mr. Liang suddenly asked.

John was taken aback. Mr. Liang didn't seem to accept his "evil spirit theory" analysis and instead offered another approach.

Following this line of thought, combined with his questioning of some hallucination witnesses in Montamira, the strange phenomenon he experienced last night, and some of his own imagination, he found himself unfolding an even more bizarre and profound "picture".

Seeing John deep in thought, Mr. Liang didn't urge him. He walked to the only seat in the hall, sat down, and went back into stealth mode. He then brought up his computer screen to view the briefings sent by "Tai'e" from various bases and overseas teams.

These briefings are usually interim results or routine reports, and there are no urgent events. Otherwise, the various Research Base and teams would contact him directly through his personal communicator.

Before reviewing the briefing, Mr. Liang first had "Tai'e" conduct a security self-check to ensure that there were no problems with either the hardware or software, or with the access control and network security systems.

Based on John's and Fang Pingfang's earlier descriptions, when the Rabbit Woodcarving influenced people and created illusions, it would have a certain degree of impact and interference on the surrounding electronic devices and power facilities. Its creation should be related to magnetic fields, which is similar to the environmental impact around Montamira when the illusion of the eight-armed giant appeared on the night of March 8th. This is one of the reasons why he linked the Rabbit Woodcarving with the illusion of the eight-armed giant.

However, Mr. Liang had no concerns about the security facilities and systems at this location. With "Tai'e" watching over things, the worst-case scenario would only be damage to some hardware. Important data was stored on multiple servers in multiple locations within their dedicated network. The most core and confidential data was sealed away, not connected to the internet or powered on. Even if an EMP were to breach the sealed space, it would be difficult to cause substantial damage.

Since the assessment of "Tai'e" is correct, then there is no problem. Mr. Liang has absolute confidence in the AI system that he has led and overseen the development and iteration to its current state.

The so-called "Tai'e" is one of the ten famous swords in China. It is a sword of great power, formless and traceless, with sword energy existing in heaven and earth. When the three elements of time, place, and people are in harmony, Tai'e is formed. Ou Yezi and Gan Jiang said that they were just "transporters" of sword energy.

Mr. Liang's choice of this name also reflects his confidence in and emphasis on this AI system.

After what seemed like an internal struggle, John slowly placed the Rabbit Woodcarving on a corner of Mr. Liang's control panel and said, "There should be five days left until the 40-day deadline... I'd like to choose another mission."

Mr. Liang was genuinely surprised this time. His eyes, which were not covered by eyelids, sized up John before he re-emerged in his seat. "You're going to have a life-or-death battle with that snake?"

John nodded with difficulty. "Yes."

Mr. Liang looked at the Rabbit Woodcarving placed on the platform and said, "If you feel the time is tight, I can extend the deadline for you."

"No need, I don't think I can complete this task." John hesitated for a moment, then pleaded, "If possible, could you turn that 'screen' back on so I can take a closer look?"

John, who had a brief encounter with the giant snake or was simply being chased, was clearly aware of its fighting prowess. Mr. Liang's decision to place the two tasks side-by-side for him to choose from was akin to a math teacher assigning homework by having him copy ten problems ten thousand times or solve them—anchoring him with a task he was certain he couldn't choose, giving him a sense of pressure and a hopeful contrast.

But now it seems that last night's hallucination had a greater impact on John than he had imagined?

Mr. Liang couldn't help but wonder, was it really necessary to make such a fuss over a mere illusion of a piece of rabbit meat?

Dr. Dr. Fang just an ordinary person who has also seen the rabbit meat illusion, but he wasn't scared out of his wits and kept thinking about how to solve the mystery. You, a so-called "true Europe Bloodline," are you really that cowardly?

Could it be from watching too many horror movies and reading too many horror novels?

The Rabbit Woodcarving might at most give people some strange and inexplicable illusions, but it doesn't show any signs of causing any real damage. Fighting to the death with that giant snake is the real life-or-death struggle!

However, Mr. Liang didn't ask any further questions. He simply snapped his fingers, projecting an image of the mutated giant snake that was imprisoned in the room behind it onto a wall for John to observe.

John thanked him and quickly went over to carefully observe the giant snake. The snake's self-inflicted blindness had now been completely restored, and it looked no different from when they first encountered it more than a month ago.

John was naturally struggling to make this choice. He had already used up most of the 40-day deadline trying to figure out what was so special about the Rabbit Woodcarving, and the sunk costs were too high.

Normally, he would have no reason to give up at this point.

But last night's experience and Mr. Liang's words just now made him realize that this Rabbit Woodcarving was a real trap!

If this Rabbit Woodcarving is related to the illusion of the eight-armed giant of Montamira, then it's even more terrifying; who knows what kind of being lies behind it?

He had previously offered to help Mr. Liang investigate the illusion of the eight-armed giant in Montamira, and even put forward some so-called ideas. But those were just desperate words he had to say in order to survive. He wanted to leave this place, go to Myanmar and Montamira, and make contact with more people so that he could better demonstrate his abilities and value, and have more opportunities to escape. He had a much wider range of choices.

But now it seems that Mr. Liang wants him to stay here and directly use his own soul and spirit through this wood carving to touch the secrets that may exist behind it. He is more like a pathfinder, a cannon fodder, or a sacrifice to be offered and summoned.

He should have realized long ago that something that Mr. Liang and his organization took so seriously yet were powerless to change must be extraordinary and not something he could easily handle.

Rather than facing that inevitably terrifying and horrifying unknown existence, it's better to fight against a known but limited powerful force.

John gripped the small white porcelain knife in his pocket, staring at the giant snake on the wall screen while recalling their brief encounter and the snake's various reactions.

Perhaps, it's not entirely hopeless.

Although Alice's attempt to obtain the data failed, Xiang Kun was not too worried.

The model for acquiring data from storage devices through the "Super-Linked Object" matrix and performing remote transmission and compilation/transcoding has been established and successfully tested.

It's only a matter of time before we can obtain the secret data on the storage devices beneath the Guarding Prosperity Building.

As for the commotion caused last night, Xiang Kun wasn't too worried. In any case, he had shown this rabbit meat illusion to Dr. Fang in the lab before. It was a label and characteristic that "Shenxing Technology" had applied to the Rabbit Woodcarving. Letting them experience it again wouldn't hurt.

On the contrary, Alice's somewhat "frustrated and angry" overexertion last night confirmed two things for him:

Firstly, given sufficient "Super-Linked Object" to trigger the effect and a suitable surrounding environment, Alice herself can influence "Emotion-Infused Object" within her range, causing people to see corresponding illusions;

Secondly, "Mutated Creature" can also be affected by the hallucinations of "Emotion-Infused Object," but currently, only "Mutated Creature" that have mutated from humans are affected. The other three "Mutated Creature" in other forms under the Guarding Prosperity Building only noticed the abnormality but did not see any related hallucinations.

It appears that the "Emotion-Infused Object projection" ability, which is derived from "Emotional Assimilation," still requires the affected target to have an emotional perception ability that is "similar to the target's."

However, Xiang Kun is not thinking about these things for the time being, because today is April 22nd, and tomorrow is Lao Xia's birthday. Tonight, everyone is going to celebrate Lao Xia's birthday together—this was originally his excuse for inviting Professor Li Yang and Little Apple to Chongyun Village.

Therefore, Xiang Kun had to focus on his job as a "chef" and prepare a sumptuous dinner for the evening.

While Xiang Kun was preparing the ingredients, Xia Libing, Tang Baona, Yang Zhen'er, Little Apple, and others were video chatting with Little Chubby Girl, who was far away in Star City, listening to her sing "Happy Birthday" to Lao Xia.

"Black-skinned Persian detu oil~, black-skinned Persian detu oil~, black-skinned Persian detu oh desangmo oh~~~~, black-skinned Persian detu yo~~~~"

The Little Chubby Girl in the video is singing the English version of Happy Birthday very seriously. This was taught to her by her older sister. Although she had sung it before, it was always in a chorus, and she would just hum along. This time, she had to sing it all by herself, and there seemed to be a lot of people watching, which made her nervous. Her pronunciation wasn't very good, and there were also new words added, so she was a little uneasy while singing. However, she still tried her best not to sing too off-key and bravely sang it for four cycles.

At first Tang Baona, Little Apple, and Xia Tianhuo, Zicheng, and Chu Xiaoting, who had come over to watch the fun, were all a little confused. Although the Little Chubby Girl's cute voice was a bit unclear, they could understand "happy birthday to you," but what did "oh de sangmo" mean?

Tang Baona was the first to react, turning to Yang Zhen'er and asking, "Old Summer?"

Yang Zhen'er, who had volunteered to teach the Little Chubby Girl to sing "Happy Birthday," couldn't help but laugh and nodded, saying, "Yes, yes, it's a great English nickname, isn't it!"

"Holy crap! Old Summer is outrageous! Yang the Third is so wicked, he actually deceived a child!" Xia Tianhuo couldn't help but complain about his cousin.

However, Zicheng, Little Apple, Chu Xiaoting, and the others who knew the truth couldn't help but laugh.

Seeing everyone's reactions, Liu Shiling on the other end of the video asked nervously, "Roast Chicken Wing Sister, did I sing it wrong?"

Xia Libing, still maintaining a calm expression, said, "No, you sang very well."

Tang Baona, both amused and exasperated, said, "Little Bell sings very well. By the way, when your old fairy sister taught you, did she explain the meaning of this song to you?"

Liu Shiling nodded. "We often sing the Happy Birthday song in kindergarten. 'Hei Pi Bo Shi Die Tu You' means Happy Birthday. Old Fairy Sister said 'O De Sang Mo' means Dear Sister."

After saying that, Liu Shiling asked Lao Xia, "Happy birthday Roast Chicken Wing Sister! Did you receive the birthday present I sent you?"

"Thank you, Little Bell. I haven't received it yet. When did you send it?" Xia Libing shook her head and asked.

"Mom said she sent it the day before yesterday, via that courier service, it'll be here very quickly," Liu Shiling said, her eyebrows slightly furrowed. "What if they lost my gift?"

"SF Express, right? It was sent from Star City, so it should arrive today. I'll go ask Chef Xiang!" Yang Zhen'er said as she ran out of the living room and rushed into the kitchen to find Xiang Kun.