"If I’m not mistaken, you all should be part of the governnt agency specifically dealing with this sort of thing, right?"
Just as the police began considering whether Chen Xiyao had gone insane, she suddenly spoke up and posed this question. The leading officer, upon hearing this, took his credentials from his inside pocket, displaying the page with his photograph and a large steel seal to her. Only after she confird the details clearly did he speak:
"That’s correct. We are from the Yan Country’s Kaidan Counterasure Bureau. This na may be unfamiliar to you, but to put it in more colloquial terms, it’s akin to ’Approaching Science.’"
"’Approaching Science?’ Are you serious?" Chen Xiyao initially thought that the Kaidan Counterasure Bureau sounded quite impressive, but then it turned out to be ’Approaching Science?’
The police officer didn’t respond to Chen Xiyao’s question, instead inquiring:
"Do you know where the place you went to is?"
"I heard it’s called Infinite City." Chen Xiyao did not beat around the bush with this question and directly provided the na she had heard from Feng Xue. The officer nodded slightly at her words before explaining:
"Kaidan has existed since ancient tis in this world. In ancient tis, people fabricated gods out of their Fear of nature, and from this worship of gods, the first batch of Kaidan was born. But as ti went on, the power grasped by humans gradually increased, Technology slowly progressed, and people’s Fear of nature and gods has steadily decreased. This has led to newer Kaidan becoming increasingly rare, and their Power has beco weaker. Especially more than four hundred years ago, when the Feathered Serpent God of Columbia was slain together with the Aztec civilization by Iberian colonizers, marking the official end of the era of Kaidan and gods."
Chen Xiyao knew that the story could not end here, otherwise, there wouldn’t be such an organization. However, she didn’t interrupt but instead waited quietly for the continuation. As expected, after the police slightly changed his breath, he continued:
"But after the 1970s, Eastern Country’s economic bubble caused an overinflation of confidence, and after the bubble burst, both the Spirit and economy of the Eastern people suffered irreparable blows, which led to the so-called Lost Generation..."
"I know about this. ’Spirited Away’ is actually a story about the Lost Generation working hard to rediscover themselves..." Chen Xiyao thought silently, recalling the movie analysis she had seen, while equating Feng Xue and White Dragon once again in her mind.
The officer, evidently unaware of Chen Xiyao’s thoughts, continued speaking:
"Because the Eastern Country has traditionally believed that everything can beco a god, the Lost Generation’s Spiritual void and the confusion following the Golden Age’s fall from grace created an imnse Faith void, resulting in the ergence of nurous cults in the Eastern Country. Accompanied by this was a surge in Kaidan that had not been born for a long ti. Although most were of the caliber of ordinary murderers like the slit-mouthed woman or the night-walking monk, there were also so extrely Powerful entities, such as where you went this ti, that place called Infinite City."
Upon hearing this, Chen Xiyao unconsciously straightened her posture, revitalizing herself from the relaxation she’d enjoyed since returning ho.
Seeing her expression, the officer seed to ponder sothing, while he observed Chen Xiyao’s ntal state, cautiously adding:
"Infinite City’s predecessor was a large high-tech community constructed in the 1970s in the capital of the Eastern Country. You may not be very clear about it, but people of your parents’ generation should not be unfamiliar with this matter. At the ti, the Eastern Country claid to have concentrated the world’s most advanced Technology within it, capable of becoming the template for all future communities. And it indeed served as such. Now, many luxury communities, whether in layout or design plans, adopt the design philosophy of that community. However, this community, embodying the national confidence of the Eastern people at that ti, ended up as an unfinished project after the economic bubble burst."
"Unfinished, it’s unfinished?!" Chen Xiyao widened her eyes incredulously, repeating this unexpected yet understandable answer. Such a large community sure wouldn’t be finished in just a few years, but how to put it... it just felt odd.
"That’s right, unfinished. The architecture cluster, which almost encapsulated the national confidence of the Eastern people at that ti, seemingly vanished overnight. Then, the physical structure of the community actually disappeared,"
The officer paused slightly here, as if waiting for Chen Xiyao to absorb the information. Because sure enough, Chen Xiyao opened her mouth to ask:
"So this community went to the Otherworld? Beca Infinite City?"
"It did beco Infinite City, but it didn’t go to the Otherworld." The officer’s deanor beca serious at this point—
"In the overall slump environnt of the Eastern Country, Infinite City transford into a super massive Kaidan. It vanished from this World along with the glory of the Golden Age, but it burrowed into the shadows of the World. This isn’t a taphor, because since then, Infinite City has periodically generated passages that connect to reality.
"Initially, these passages were concentrated in the Eastern Country due to the abundance of Kaidan there. People thought it was just another ’spirited away’ type of disappearances in Kaidan, but as ti progressed, these passages started appearing worldwide. Almost every ti a passage opened, an ordinary person would disappear. But what truly alard countries was that Infinite City was Manufacturing Kaidan."
"Kaidan can be Manufactured?" Chen Xiyao faintly sensed sothing and imdiately asked, to which the officer affirmatively responded:
"Yes. Human thoughts have weight, and when countless ideas converge, they can produce Kaidan. The entities residing within Infinite City extract Fear from torturing the living to transform themselves into Kaidan. Once these Kaidan grow to a certain extent, they use those portals to invade reality, acquiring more Power through large-scale slaughter.
"In the past thirty years, such cases have increased, and the thods of Infinite City’s inhabitants have beco more Cruel. Particularly in the last decade, almost everyone who barely ca back from there suffered unimaginable tornt, with very few able to communicate properly. And those who could barely manage to communicate had extrely limited information.
"In ten years, you are the first Returner who has co back intact and relatively ntally sound, so we hope to understand from you, just what kind of World that side is?"
The officer’s tone suddenly turned earnest and solemn, making Chen Xiyao involuntarily want to stand at attention and salute.
She took a deep breath, and the many sights of Infinite City started aligning with the information the officer told her. Feng Xue’s many peculiar actions also seed to have corresponding explanations.
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