Night City, ghetto.
A mutation is spreading quietly in the city.
The excited people turned into rational and calm humanoid machines at some point. They broke into pieces and moved back and forth in the streets and alleys of Night City strictly according to the planned route. Junqu Pavilion
The noisy night in the slum suddenly fell into silence, and the previous noise of beating, smashing, burning and killing suddenly subsided, leaving only the shuffling steps, still echoing in the silent night sky.
Suddenly, the door of the house was pushed open a small crack, and the dim street lamp shone into the room along the crack of the door, bringing a ray of light to the dark room. A figure flashed into the room through the crack of the door. The sound was immediate. This aroused the alertness of several people in the room. One of them, a man with thick eyebrows and a mustache, subconsciously picked up a gun, but after seeing clearly who the person was, he felt relieved.
It wasn't the stiff, mechanical zombies outside who broke into the room, but his reliable, trustworthy companions.
Not injured? When Lu Changgeng saw Lian Shu coming back, he put down the weapon in his hand and asked with concern: How is it outside now?
Lian Shu frowned and shook his head: The situation is not very good. The overall number of infected people has increased several times compared to when we entered the city. They are divided into many scattered teams and wander around the streets. Although they are not killing people everywhere like before, they are They feel more dangerous than before
Lu Changgeng nodded after listening to his report. Are they still as aggressive as before?
Compared with the previous mobs, this group of infected people was much quieter. Although Lian Shu had a cold face as always, Lu Changgeng and Lao Fan could tell from his increasingly serious tone that something was not right. As long as they did not take the initiative to provoke them, the infected would never see them. Like you, I've tried walking past them many times
The nearest infected person is less than three meters away from me, but as long as I don't actively act hostile to them, these infected people will continue to wander the streets in groups as if they haven't seen me.
Isn't this a good thing? At this time, Lao Fan, who had been listening carefully, suddenly asked, isn't it an advantage for us that these people are not violent? If we want to operate in the city, we just need to be careful not to attack these people, right?
If only it were just that. You can understand it by looking at this. Lian Shu reached into his arms and took out a palm-sized instrument and pressed it a few times. Then the screen of the instrument lit up, displaying various charts, data curves and sampling records. This was what I was passing by. The data collected from those groups.
Lu Changgeng took the instrument from Lian Shu. He stared at the charts and data on the screen and frowned deeply: This data sampling is
Mental pollution. Lian Shu took over. These people were surrounded by a strange mental pollution force field. As long as they stayed around these people, their minds would gradually be contaminated. The more people there were and the closer they were, the stronger the effect would be. In the same way, as long as we can stay away to a certain distance, or there are too few people in the group, the effect of the mental pollution field will be greatly weakened, but no matter how weakened it is, the effect of mental pollution on us will still exist.
Lu Changgeng frowned and asked: Is there any protective method?
Not yet. Lian Shu shook his head, but the effect of mental pollution is not to permanently distort the mind. At least before it is completely contaminated, the mind can return to normal levels over time. I used a portable terminal to monitor the changes in my mind. When I was close to the infected group, , the mental pollution value continued to rise, and the recovery speed was much lower than the pollution speed. After staying away from them, the recovery speed was greater than the pollution speed. After about two hours, my mental pollution value gradually returned to normal levels.
I calculated it based on my situation and roughly divided it into four stages: mild infection, severe infection, severe infection and complete infection. You see.
Having said this, the screen of the instrument in Lu Changgeng's hand automatically changed. The previous data analysis exited and switched to another chart.
Lian Shu pointed at Lu Changgeng and his party: First of all, it is mild infection, which is your current state. Thoughts, decisions, and physical senses are slightly affected by mental pollution. Although the impact is not obvious, any of our behaviors and decisions will be more rational.
followed by
Moderate infection is the highest level of contamination I've reached since being close to those infected. He paused for a moment when he said this, and it gave me the feeling that the emotional changes were weakening, and the various inner active emotions were gradually replaced by indifference and emptiness, and the decision-making became more extreme, leaning towards rationality and maximization of interests, etc. Why do you Are you all looking at me with this weird look?
Before he finished speaking, he noticed that there was confusion and confusion in the eyes of the two people, but most of them were surprised.
Lu Changgeng pretended to cough twice to cover up his embarrassment: It's okay, I just feel a little surprised.
Lao Fan turned his head away in embarrassment, opened his eyes and said nonsense: Well, I was a little distracted just now.
Although the words were very tactful, according to Lian Shu's understanding of the two of them, these two people are almost in trouble. You usually look emotionless, how do you detect the weakening of emotional changes? This kind of words is written on Lian Yue.
Thinking of this, Lian Shu's cold face became even more gloomy: Are you
No, no, no. The two shook their heads in unison, and Lu Changgeng even changed the subject in time: What about severe infection and complete infection?
I don’t know about severe infection, but according to my speculation, severe infection should be the critical point between ordinary infection and complete infection. The infected person at this stage will completely become a rational utilitarian, completely abandoning feelings and sensibility, and calculating based on interests. Gains and losses. Lian Shu said calmly that as for complete infection, it is like the walking dead we see.
I don’t know what happened in the final stage of the infection to make them become such walking zombies, but one thing is for sure. They are now wandering in groups on various streets. They undoubtedly want to expand the results of mental pollution as much as possible. Let more people be covered by the effects of mental pollution.
As more and more people are dispersed, sooner or later the pollution rate will be higher than the recovery rate. At that time, even if we don’t want to escape, we must leave here.
Lian Shu took a deep look at Lu Changgeng: Changgeng, the scale of this matter is beyond our ability to solve. If we want to continue the mission, the risks are also very high. So I suggest that the mission be terminated. If you have anything you want to do, try to do it before the mental pollution field is completely built. We can evacuate in advance and report the situation here to the agency.
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Lu Changgeng's expression was uncertain at the moment. He was having a fierce ideological struggle in his heart. Although Night City was not a good memory for him, the corruption of the intellectual aristocrats, the misery of the lower class people, and the cruelty of the chairman The oppression finally became an opportunity for him to escape here, but after all, it was still the home he remembered and a part of him that he could not let go of.
For a moment, he thought of many people, the servants who served his family, his former childhood playmates, the nobles who were rotten to the core, and the old Lu family house that only existed in his memory.
After a long time, he spoke with difficulty in a jerky voice.
Evacuate
