Around the Counterasures Research Office base, there was an open plaza. At this mont several n and won were walking around the square, occasionally taking deep breaths.
“You’ve been active outside for fifteen minutes now. How do you feel?”
Zhang Minglu’s voice ca through the earpieces worn by the volunteers.
“Report: I don’t feel anything special yet.”
“Dr. Zhang, my body feels much lighter.”
“I feel an unusual calmness in my mind, full of gratitude, as if negative emotions have vanished.”
Multiple people offered their reports.
They were all volunteers participating in this rules experint, so Ascendants and so ordinary people.
The experint right now involved outdoor activity, attempting to inhale alien spores, and observing the physical and ntal changes that followed.
“All right, keep moving. I’ll ask again in fifteen minutes.”
After Zhang Minglu finished, he recorded each volunteer’s sensations along a tiline.
He logged observations every fifteen minutes, then matched ti with changes to produce data for analysis.
The experint ran for several hours. Afterwards all volunteers were brought back into the base and placed in special isolation rooms.
Zhang Minglu took his tablet to Gao Liangwei’s office.
“Director, the preliminary experintal results are out.”
“How are things?” Gao Liangwei asked.
“It’s serious. All volunteers have confird spore inhalation and show signs of infection. That includes personnel wearing professional-grade protective equipnt.”
Gao Liangwei frowned at this.
During the Blood Plague rule, when the virus was airborne, not every exposed person got infected, and protective gear could block it.
Unexpectedly, these alien spores showed even stronger transmissibility, penetrating protective equipnt. That ans nowhere is safe, everyone could inhale the spores.
“This is the post-experint interview report. Please look it over.”
Zhang Minglu handed Gao Liangwei the tablet, which contained written reports and summaries.
Gao Liangwei skimd it and grew more serious.
After finishing, he looked up and said in a low voice, “All the volunteers actually wanted to inhale more spores.”
“Yes, that’s precisely the problem.” Zhang Minglu nodded. “Two batches of volunteers, twelve people total. During post-experint questioning, every single one said they wanted to inhale more spores… this already shows preliminary signs of addiction.”
In the written report, each participant answered “yes” to the question “Do you want to inhale more spores?”
But the recorded reasons varied.
Volunteer No.1: “I feel more energetic, like I had a good sleep.”
Volunteer No.2: “I’ve always been anxious, with moderate depression; dication wasn’t very effective. But over these hours my mood beca exceptionally calm and peaceful.”
Volunteer No.3: “I don’t feel parasitized at all, I just feel my body is much better in every way.”
Volunteer No.4: “A strange feeling arose in my heart; I realized I want to inhale more.”
…Almost all volunteers gave positive evaluations of the spores. Only one or two were wary, recognizing the craving to “want more” and resisting addiction.
“This looks bad.” Gao Liangwei said.
“Yes. A glimpse reveals the whole picture. In just a few hours volunteers already show addictive tendencies… if nothing intervenes during the month-long rule period, a massive portion of the population could be affected.”
Zhang Minglu paused, then asked: “Director, should we propose to our superiors to forcibly ban people from going outside? At least the amount of spores inhaled indoors would be relatively lower.”
“The focus this ti isn’t on whether people go outside.” Gao Liangwei replied bluntly. “The focus is people’s psychology and cognition. We must make the public consciously resist this addictive effect.”
“So what do you suggest?”
“I’ll submit an application to the higher-ups imdiately.” Gao Liangwei said. “Have all dia and social platforms expose the harms of addiction. To make the public truly understand, widely release uncensored footage showing the suffering of addicted individuals, let citizens watch.”
Zhang Minglu was taken aback — this was an idea he had never had before. “Can we do that?”
Gao Liangwei’s expression turned cold: “There’s no ‘can’ about it. I believe the higher-ups will agree. Because the Fire Thief’s rule this ti is a soft killer, killing without blood. If we don’t deal with it quickly, once a huge number of citizens beco addicted and turn into parasitized forms, the consequences would be unthinkable.”
…
December 2, the day after the fourteenth rule was released.
Antu City, Page Shelter.
Guan Tong sat at his computer. Unsurprisingly, since the rule was released he hadn’t left.
“Katcha, katcha…”
A scraping noise rang out. He turned his head and saw Coal Ball clawing the wall with its sharp claws, looking agitated.
When it was still a kitten, staying in the shelter all day wasn’t a problem. But now, with its leopard-like physique, being confined in a sealed room all the ti left it restless.
Like a dog that isn’t walked, which can beco depressed or manic, Coal Ball seed to have this problem too.
“I should have left it back in the canyon near Pinglu.” Guan Tong thought. Coal Ball was now a dominant outdoor survivor with strong survival skills; leaving it in nature wouldn’t have been a worry.
Coal Ball’s constant scratching annoyed him, so he took out the Corpse Whistle and summoned a few living dead to keep Coal Ball company and wear down so of its energy.
Then he checked online information.
Only one day after the new rule, large numbers of people were sharing their spore-inhalation experiences online.
Almost everyone’s reviews were positive, listing the changes spores brought to body and mind.
Many people who developed severe ntal illnesses during the Five Senses Removal rule said their ntal health greatly improved after inhaling the spores.
In so people’s own words: “It’s like past pain is rapidly disappearing, replaced by a faint joy and a longing for the future.”
The more Guan Tong read, the more he frowned.
These experience shares felt like the descriptions drunken people give after a wild night: “floating, ascending like an immortal,” “walking on clouds” — sensations a sane person shouldn’t have.
Even Ascendants reported surprises: after inhaling alien spores their Mind Power seed to have slightly increased.
Guan Tong felt no envy; instead he felt fear.
It seed the spores tailored themselves to people’s shortages and desires: improving ntal health for the psychologically ill, strengthening stamina for the physically weak, increasing Mind Power for Ascendants…
Compared with the widespread praise, many whistleblowers spoke up in opposition.
Their united view was that these benefits were bait to hook people. Once addicted, the final fate of becoming a parasitized form would be catastrophic.
The official stance matched the whistleblowers’, and they released a large number of internal images as evidence.
A massive amount of previously unreleased internal footage was exposed, showing horrific conditions that were hard to look at.
Many viewers were stunned.
Previously there had been public-education material on this, but most content was watered down. For privacy and humanitarian reasons faces and bodies were blurred; what aired wasn’t very grueso.
This ti the authorities directly released many forrly withheld internal files and clearly warned: the consequences of spore addiction leading to parasitization could be even more tragic than those addicts in the footage!
To so extent this worked. Many people comnted under the videos.
“Is this footage real? It’s terrifying. Several of them look nothing like humans anymore!”
“So tragic that heavy addicts end up like that…”
“No choice. Those who promote the spore benefits are idiots. The governnt had to release this material to show them what real addicts look like.”
“Strongly resist alien spores!!!”
Guan Tong saw the comnts and knew the governnt’s action had so effect. How many people it would truly wake up was another matter.
“Wooaaah wooaaah wooaaah—”
A shrill siren blared outside. Guan Tong tore his gaze away from the screen and looked toward the door.
Since yesterday’s new rule release, the frequency of sirens hadn’t dropped; in fact it had increased.
That ant Sakura Prayer Country’s authorities decided to continue aggressively investigating the explosion case previously caused by Wu Wang, regardless of the current rule’s effects.
This was bad news for Guan Tong.
“If the Sakura Prayer public security force conducts a citywide sweep… it’s only a matter of ti before they find this abandoned warehouse where my shelter is.”
Antu City was not large, and habitable spaces were scarce. Suburban abandoned warehouses like this would attract Peace Officers to investigate.
At that point his shelter would be discovered.
Normally Guan Tong would simply leave and summon a new shelter in a more remote location.
But now, the instant he left the shelter he could inhale alien spores — an undeniably risky act.
If he tried to defend it, the shelter’s current defensive asures couldn’t withstand a full-scale national effort to break in.
Besides, Guan Tong didn’t want his shelter’s secret exposed.
“…This is going to be difficult.”
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