Although the Old World was the sick focus, most patients, especially those unaffiliated with any organization, the ’independent patients,’ lacked resources and guidance.
After the Old World was defeated in war, nurous rules were locked down, and many opportunities were lost, making it impossible to stargaze or face the sun, among other things.
Reliant only on themselves or discussions with peers, reaching Open Source was difficult.
Furthermore, with restrictions on fertility, a pervading darkness, lingering death aura, etc., the number of independent patients could only decrease, and over the long years, many died, with nurous sick villages and settlents sinking into the river of ti.
The remaining villages and towns either attached themselves to so organization or fell under the jurisdiction of the Source Epidemic Area, or they beca subsidiary regions of so Neutral City.
However, such decay also gradually welcod a turnaround.
With the onset of the ’World Infection,’ a large number of infected humans ca to the Old World through the "channels," sowhat compensating for the ’fertility restrictions’ and gradually stabilizing the constantly declining total population of the Old World.
These foreign infected humans were initially confined upon arrival at the Old World, and several Source Epidemic Areas and organizations even issued a Foreigner Protection Order specifically to ensure their safety.
A quite stable confinent system has now been ford,
as the infected humans coming from outside just need to pass through the channel, and they will be taken free of charge to the confinent zone by transfer companies such as Rong Chang, Delivery, Black Worm, etc.
The so-called confinent zones corresponded to those once-derelict towns, villages, or caves, where lifeless ruins slowly beca lively with human habitation.
From ti to ti, envoys from various organizations, and even from the Source Epidemic Areas, would co to scout for talents, and if they found promising humans, they would be taken away.
If an Open Source patient appeared, multiple organizations would even fight over them.
[niere Town]
A small town once inhabited by sufferers of ear diseases had not had patients residing there for thousands of years and had been planned as a confinent zone decades ago.
With the arrival of infected humans, it beca bright with lights again, and even so humans brought ’technology’ into this town, with leaders erging and slowly building a town that t both material and spiritual needs through the collective effort of all its residents.
Though it’s called confinent, the quality of life for these infected humans here is considerably better than before, as they had long grown accustod to their illnesses and could utilize them effectively.
The town had also established and matured a security bureau, where any conflicts or contradictions would be contained imdiately. You could say that the infected humans living in this town were truly ’settling down happily’.
Many patients even started families here, and although incapable of having children of their own, they could adopt young infected individuals to raise as their descendants.
Among them, the Anderson couple and their adopted son, Dennis, were one of the model families.
Oggs Anderson, suffering from cervical shoulder myofascial syndro, engaged in physical labor related to construction in the town, often responsible for transporting large timbers and heavy steel.
His wife, Giselle Anderson, who had common psoriasis, was a tailor. She used the skin that shed from her body combined with local materials to make clothes, and as the town’s population increased, so too did her business prosper.
At just five years old, their son Dennis suffered from congenital glaucoma and autism;
he spent his days playing alone at ho, waiting for his parents to return from work each day with no desire to leave the house.
This peaceful life had continued for two years, and during those two years, Dennis had never left the house once.
On this night,
the Anderson couple, returning ho from work, rode their bicycles ho, almost arriving at their front door at the sa ti, embracing each other in the front yard as usual.
However, the observant wife noticed that the mailbox at the front door seed to have been opened by soone.
"What is this? Tickets?"
In the mailbox, the wife found two strange tickets she had never seen before,
which were decorated with various weird elents like limbs, masks, and hair, and even for patients, they looked uncomfortable to look at.
They had lived in the small town for many years and had never heard of any circus.
Moreover, when the wife tried to pull two tickets out of the mailbox together, a strange thing happened.
No matter how he tried to grab them, he could only get one... it seed there was so kind of restriction that limited a person to only holding one ticket in their hand.
When the husband also got a ticket, both of their thoughts were drawn by so force, even feeling a thread passing through their brains, trying to lead them out of the town.
The couple, anxious for their child, actually resisted the ntal guidance of the tickets and rushed into the house imdiately.
"Dennis!"
No matter how they called, there was no response.
Having searched all over the house and found no trace of their son, the couple imdiately thought of the suspiciously tampered mailbox and the ominous circus tickets.
It was highly likely that Dennis had retrieved a ticket from the mailbox and gone to the circus.
What was bizarre was that they knew very well how severe their son’s autism was;
once when they tried to take him out, despite their forceful efforts, they were unsuccessful, and Dennis had even bitten off two of his mother’s fingers.
Since they had to wait 24 hours before reporting a disappearance to the public security bureau, the couple could only ride their bicycles, following the pull from the tickets, to the circus to look for their missing son.
They hadn’t been this far from the town in a long ti, but strangely enough, they saw so town folks with tickets heading to the mysterious circus as well.
It was unclear how much ti had passed,
when a series of strange multicolored lights lit up in a dark zone where the underground sun couldn’t illuminate, a huge and pitch-black circus tent lood in the uninhabited area.
There were already many bicycles parked outside the circus tent fence, indicating that quite a few people had entered it.
The circus had two entrances, labeled "Audience" and "Applicants" respectively.
Convinced that Dennis had entered as an audience mber and thinking about the possibility of a severe autistic ltdown in such a crowded area, they hastily entered without even reading the notice for the audience section.
The circus could accommodate thousands of spectators and currently had an occupancy rate of about one-fourth. Benefiting from the relatively bright lights, the couple quickly located Dennis sitting upright in the front row.
Contrary to their expectations of an autistic ltdown, their son showed no signs of agitation at all.
As the father quickly approached from behind, "Dennis, how could you co to a place like this alone, co ho with us right away!"
Despite his father’s slightly reproachful words, Dennis remained indifferent.
This made the father sowhat agitated, his inflammation flaring up causing his shoulder and entire arm to swell and thicken, he reached out to grab Dennis intending to forcibly take him away from the circus.
But just as his hand touched Dennis’s shoulder,
Snap!
A head that had been cut open early on fell to the ground, and the eyeballs had already been gouged out.
What was held in the father’s hand was rely a headless corpse.
"Dennis!"
Just as they were screaming, an attendant with scissors flashed by in front of the couple... the attendant’s tray also had two complete tongues, instantly perford by pulling out the tongues.
"Shh! Please quietly enjoy the upcoming show. As long as you can endure enough ti while keeping your true heart, you will receive freedom and a generous audience reward. Please do your best! So far, no audience mber has received a reward."
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