by <unknown>
Under the effect of the NZT-48, it only took Chen Chen several minutes to adapt to this vision system.
The only question was, would this be able to help him negate the "instant death upon sight" rule?
As Chen Chen followed down the path, he felt a crushing weight set upon his once relaxed mood.
Of all the large dimensions he had been to, the dimension of Gantz was the strangest of them all. It was somehow stranger than Elysium.
Furthermore, this dimension was unlike Elysium which was equipped with advanced technology and used a "central system" AI to oversee the day-to-day activities of humans, where he could get a grasp of all of the ongoings by taking over the central system.
This dimension was hardly any different from the real world.
While Chen Chen was occupied with his thoughts, he suddenly saw a corpse holding onto a phone. He immediately lit up at the prospect and took the phone while he had the Black Knights continue searching the room. Meanwhile, he returned to the Bugatti Spaceship where he used a cable to connect it with the spaceship.
After charging it for a short while, he managed to reboot the phone that had been shut down for many years at this point.
The moment it was turned on, X-112 immediately infiltrated its system and quickly lifted all permission restrictions while also thoroughly inspecting it.
"Successfully extracted social media software chat logs, currently scanning…
"Message scanned, filtering content for valuable information… The phone was powered off on 3 June 2025."
"When was the calamity?"
Chen Chen asked without skipping a beat. By calamity, he was referring to the time which the aliens officially invaded, which happened in the latter half of the comic plot.
"It was in 2000."
X-112 replied, "According to the chat logs extracted from the LINE software, the aliens invaded during the year 2000. They would later be defeated by Kei Kurono and the other black sphere forces who would go on to restore the peace of mankind. The peace lasted for twenty-five years until the moment this phone was powered off. This is all the information I was able to extract from the chat logs. I cannot investigate any further due to lack of Internet."
"Can you communicate with the satellites?"
Chen Chen asked again, "Even if mankind vanished, some of the satellites should still be operating for several years at least."
"Unable to establish a connection with any satellite signal, they may have malfunctioned," X-112 replied again.
Chen Chen tipped his head in response before continuing. "In that case, dispatch the drones to be on the lookout for a data center in Tokyo. If we can find a data center, we should be able to acquire plenty of information."
"Understood."
X-112 responded, "I'll remain alert."
After that, they uncovered more corpses. The Black Knights went through every nook and cranny of the office building, finding more than hundreds of corpses in the process. Most of these corpses had dried out while some of the corpses in poorer condition had long since corroded and turned into skull remnants.
One thing Chen Chen could be sure of was that they all had died at the same time. The instrument of their death was a shocking one. They must have seen something outside the window at the same time which instantly triggered this sudden death phenomenon.
Returning to the spaceship, Chen Chen went through the diary again while he further contemplated his findings.
Based on his current observations, all of the corpses discovered so far had died at the same time. The only exception was this Ando who left behind the diary.
Based on the contents of the diary, the downfall of human civilization began since "it" came to the world. Could this be a strong indication that the "it" mentioned in the diary was directly connected to the sudden death of the people in the office building?
Meanwhile, Ando had survived the first wave of death and had become one of the "survivors" as he had described themselves in the diary.
These survivors even managed to form a small group to survive together in the end times.
After that, there was a chronicle of Ando's nightmares.
Chen Chen knitted his eyebrows together. He could not find any mention of the source of the nightmares in the diary. However, upon reading between the lines, he figured out that the group was also aware of this frequent nightmare phenomenon. They had mercilessly expelled Ando from the group once they found out he was having these nightmares.
"Why would they exile him, was it out of fear of…"
Chen Chen suddenly thought of something, he flicked an eyebrow. "Infection?"
However, Chen Chen debunked his theory as soon as he had conjured it. "Impossible, I've never heard of such a thing as a contagious nightmare. But Ando didn't mention anything about why he was having these nightmares nor did he try to look for the source of these nightmares and how he rid himself of them. Could it be that they believed there was no cure for these nightmares?"
Unfortunately, Ando did not have a phone with him. Still, that was to be expected since despite having survived several years longer, Ando was already living in the end times. It was the post-civilization world where all electronics were rendered useless since they had run out of battery. Mobile phones were no exception to this rule.
Except that there seemed to be something too peculiar about this devastating world…
After the Black Knights surveyed the entire office building, Chen Chen had them continue searching further down the street. Shortly after, they arrived at a high-rise residential area.
Searching the residential area took more effort than the office building but the findings were more worthwhile as well. The Black Knights produced new findings very quickly.
When Chen Chen received the Black Knight's report and walked into one of the units, he immediately saw the state of the mess the house was in.
Chapter 297: Corpse of the Hanged Lady |
It was a middle-class residential area. There were 3 units in total, each one of them was 33-stories tall. Each one of these units housed two households on each floor, where each household came with two bedrooms and a living room area. At the present, Chen Chen had stepped into the tenth floor of one of the units.
The entrance to the apartment was effortlessly cut down using the GS Blade. Upon entering, Chen Chen saw countless food packaging littered across the living room floors. They were sprinkled with many scrap papers, pieces of cloth, and various waste.
A sofa that had been broken down into an almost unrecognizable form was set behind the door. All of the fabric had been cut off from it and pasted on to the windows.
Yes, all of the windows were obscured using pieces of fabric and newspaper. There was hardly any source of light in the room. Sparse glimpse of rays slipped through the gaps on the window and cast a depressing and strange aura into the room.
"Windows again?"
Chen Chen squinted his eyes upon witnessing this scene.
After that, Chen Chen proceeded to head inside. Very quickly, he saw the figure of a person through the open bedroom door.
It was a figure with its head drooped in an unnatural angle, drooped over its withered body was a set of pajamas that were so dirty that its color was indistinguishable.
It was a lady hanging from the ceiling.
The lady's appearance had long become unrecognizable. The only thing about her that left a strong impression on Chen Chen was her hair that had become this bizarre clump of substance like wool felt, probably caused by it having gone unwashed for some time.
This lady had killed herself.
Chen Chen only had several peeks at it before he went into the other room. Just like the living room and the other bedroom, the windows were blocked out with pieces of fabric and newspaper as well, there was hardly any gap to be seen. The floor was littered with plastic packaging of all sorts of junk food.
Sure enough, this lady had lived in this place for quite some time.
Taking note of this fact, Chen Chen went to the toilet. When he pulled open the toilet door, he saw the floor covered in excrement. Even the toilet bowl was filled to the brim with excrement.
Chen Chen seemed completely unbothered by the excrement in the toilet as he went to the faucet to turn it on. Not a single drop of water came out.
These sorts of apartments usually came with a water storage tank. Since no water came out, that meant it had all been used up.
The foul toilet, empty faucet, and a floor littered with empty food packaging. Everything he saw here seemed to point toward the lady having lived here for a significant period.
Chen Chen had the Black Knights search for anything that may resemble a diary to see if he could find anything worthwhile, but the results of the search would disappoint him.
It seemed that this lady had just been scraping by a day at a time and did not keep a habit of writing a diary.
Just as Chen Chen figured that there were no clues to be found in this place and prepared to leave, a section of the wall beside the corpse suddenly caught his attention.
There were marks on the walls on the other side of the bedroom which suggested they may have been beaten in.
Chen Chen slowly approached and touched it delicately. The tips of his fingers grazed against several pits formed by hard objects bashing against the wall. Even some of the debris in the wall was cracked.
After that, Chen Chen shuffled his feet around the layer of trash piled up around his feet. Very soon after, he felt the soles of his boots knocking against a hard object which produced a rhythmical rolling sound upon being kicked.
It was a dark yellow hardwood baseball bat.
It was apparent that the caved-in pits on the wall were left behind by this baseball bat.
With this in mind, Chen Chen went to the other bedroom and saw the same marks left behind on the wall of the bedroom as well…
"Interesting…"
Chen Chen muttered to himself. Upon closer inspection, he realized that following the floorplan layout, these two bedrooms were located on the west side of the east wing. This meant that the bedroom walls were shared between the two adjacent apartment units…
"Was she trying to smash through the wall to enter the adjacent unit?"
Chen Chen knitted his brows curiously. There was no doubt in his mind that this method would lead to nowhere. No matter how strong a person was, there was simply no way to penetrate a wall without the proper tools, especially if the subject at hand was a lady wielding nothing but a baseball bat.
Only a fool would even attempt to ram through a wall using a mere baseball bat.
However, if not to penetrate the wall, what else could the hanged lady's intentions be?
While Chen Chen stood motionlessly before the wall, he suddenly noticed patches of black marks on the wall in addition to the caved-in pits.
Since he was wearing the PK Armor, the marks were only around Chen Chen's chest height. They were pitch-black textures. Based on the location, they appeared to be located around the deceased's height.
"Perhaps she frequently put her face against the wall while she was still alive?"
An idea suddenly came to Chen Chen as he put his head down slightly. With both hands placed against the wall, he turned his head sideways and put his face against the black marks on the wall.
Although he was wearing the PK Armor, there was no mistaking this position. This position implied…
Eavesdropping?
Chen Chen suddenly made the connection. The deceased was regularly trying to spy on movements coming from the adjacent unit.
Could there be some sort of clues in the adjacent unit?
With this in mind, Chen Chen quickly took the Black Knights with him as they exited the unit and went to the adjacent unit on the west wing.
Previously, the Black Knights had inspected the west wing and failed to find any object of interest. When Chen Chen stepped into the unit, he saw that this was a regular apartment no different from the common household.
There was not a soul in the unit. The furnishing was normal, so were the bedrooms and the layout. There was nothing peculiar about it whatsoever.
Chen Chen stepped right into the bedroom of the west wing unit.
The layout of the east wing and west wing unit were completely identical. The only notable distinction was that the two were symmetrical. The living room in the east wing unit was on the east side and its two bedrooms were on the west side. It was the other way round for the west wing unit, with the living room placed on the west side and the two bedrooms on the east side.
As Chen Chen stepped into the bedroom, his pupils abruptly shrunk into a tiny circle!
What he saw was a gigantic mark left behind by a sizable impact. The surface of the wall was nearly completely shattered, even exposing the red bricks underneath the wall!
It appeared that something had been repeatedly smashing against the wall which left it in such a state.
What was the deal with this?
Chen Chen approached it and reached forward to touch it. There were no other remains left behind apart from the smashed wall.
Once again, Chen Chen went to the other bedroom and saw the same image as he saw in the previous bedroom. There was nothing else notable apart from a shallow hole formed on the bedroom wall.
Chen Chen frowned. While his mind was occupied by this bizarre observation, a message suddenly came from X-112. "Sir Commander, the drones had detected signs of life while patrolling along the edges of the city!"
Upon hearing this, Chen Chen immediately jolted to his senses. "Where is it?"
"8720m northeast of your current position. The target seems to be scavenging for resources on the edge of the city. Should we track him?"
"Stay close to him but don't let him notice you, I'll be right there!"
Chen Chen responded immediately. He had no time for these bizarre rooms. With a quick gesture of his hands, three Black Knights immediately trailed after him as they left the area together.
Following Chen Chen's sudden departure, the strange rooms had once again fallen into an eerie silence.
Only moments after Chen Chen had left, the corpse of the hanged lady suspended on the ceiling suddenly began to sway lightly, seemingly blown by a gentle breeze.
It swayed from one side to the other as if following a set of rhythm…
Chapter 298: Youngster |
A youngster in his mid-twenties walked along the desolate highway infested with weeds with a large army green backpack strapped to his back. He carried a sharp knife in one hand and a water bottle in the other.
Potentially due to lack of grooming over a long time, the youngster wore long and untidy hair. This was complemented with uneven patches of stubble around his lips.
He was not a particularly fast walker. He walked slightly slower than the average walking person. Each time he took a step, his eyes full of caution would dart across his surroundings.
With the given context, this was not a particularly peculiar behavior, just common practice of a scavenger in a wasteland. What was truly eye-catching was the macaw the size of half a forearm perched on the youngster's shoulder.
The macaw had bright red feathers that slowly transitioned to a blue tint when they met its wings. Its posture appeared extremely alert and no matter what movements the youngster made, it remained fixed on his shoulder. It looked very intelligent as well.
The young man lifted the water bottle and swallowed a mouthful of water from it, to which he let out a content sigh. After that, he glanced at his left shoulder and produced a cup which he poured half a cup of water into, which he then held up to the beak of the macaw.
The macaw immediately leaned over with its head and buried itself into the cup, glugging away at the water.
After the macaw on his shoulder had enough to drink, the youngster finished what was left in the cup before continuing onward.
Upon paying attention to the pattern of the youngster's mov
ements, it could be observed that he was largely sticking to the middle of the road as if instinctively keeping a distance from the dark buildings lined across both sides of the road.
As the youngster continued on his path, the macaw on his shoulder suddenly became restless and cried out in what sounded like a call for caution.
There was an immediate change of color on the youngster's expression. He quickly shot a look at the macaw perched on his shoulder. He saw the macaw with its head turned to an elevated position behind him while it restlessly flapped its wings about.
Without sparing a moments' hesitation, the youngster took a pronounced step and charged into a shop lot beside the highway.
"It seems the target noticed us."
Meanwhile, several kilometers away, Chen Chen was just getting into the Bugatti Spaceship. X-112 immediately informed, "The parrot on the target's shoulder appears to be extremely sharp."
"No surprise there. Due to the need for climate-induced migration, birds had developed extreme sensitivity to magnetic and electric fields. It's nothing out of the ordinary for them to detect the electromagnetic waves emitted by our drones."
Chen Chen silently observed the display in front of him. The display had switched into thermal imaging mode so despite the youngster immediately retreating into the ruins, his position was still clear as day under the thermal imaging display.
"But I just noticed that this person seems to be making a conscious effort in sticking to the middle of the road without straying off the path. Is he abiding by some form of rule?"
Chen Chen suddenly mumbled to himself in a low tone. The way he saw it, if some sort of unknown object or beings were to strike the remaining surviving humans, walking on such a plain terrain was as good as asking for death.
Walking on such a path was exposing yourself to countless peering eyes from all directions. You would be better off using the intertwining alley roads and streets since it would be safer.
Unless…
"Unless, he believes there's more danger lurking inside the buildings?"
