"The textbooks are fine," Rei Shigure said. "The same goes for the recent news and TV programs. There is no influence of magic or psychological suggestion."
Gongsun Ce scanned the book and responded: "Where are the toys? Have you checked the toys that children like?"
After leaving elementary school, the two went to the library in Shuidun City to search for information on the local entertainment industry in the past six months. Gongsun Ce believes that the heavier rain is probably just an inducement, and the changes in the children are inseparable from the subtle influence in daily life. But this search still yielded no results, everything seemed normal, and Gongsun Ce couldn't help but doubt whether his thinking was correct.
"There are no toys in the library." Rei Shigure put the elementary school art textbooks he had on hand back on the bookshelf. "I went to check out the small shops near the school. If I don't find anything, I'll go back to eat."
The time has reached 7:40 in the evening, and the two people who have been running around since arriving in Blade Rain State haven't had time to have dinner. They found a suitable investigation target near the elementary school in the center of the underground city. A small store called "George's Treasure Box" had not yet closed. In the window of the store were dolls, robot toys and comic books that children liked. The counter There are also many crudely made "local souvenirs" on the side.
The owner, Mr. George, is an overly burly middle-aged man. He has big arms and a thick waist. His hands are almost twice as big as those of an average person. His facial features are surprisingly small. His two small black eyes look like sesame seeds in contrast to his body, giving him a strong sense of aura. A sense of humor. "Sorry, we're about to close..." His little eyes looked at the two of them, with a look of sudden realization, "Baby and child products are sold in the supermarket opposite."
Gongsun Ce coughed twice, and Shi Yuling pinched his waist from behind.
"No, no, no, it's not that time yet. I'm thinking of buying a gift for my sister back home. She just entered the second grade of elementary school."
"That's the time to be lovable. Most children in elementary school are cute. When they go to junior high school, the nightmare three years begins." Mr. George said cheerfully, "How about a Holy Grail? Children Everyone likes this, the little wishing machine.”
Some street stall products of poor quality are displayed in conspicuous positions on the shelves. The top row is a "holy grail" that is painted in a dazzling, low-quality gold and is about the size of a mineral water bottle. Shigurei grabbed one and took a look at it. In the middle of the cup was a small hole for coins. It was a coin piggy bank for children.
"The Holy Grail is our mascot here." Mr. George introduced enthusiastically, "You must have heard the story of the Saint being injured. The Blade Rain State was his former battlefield." His sacred blood flowed into the cup and became a healing agent for everything. 'The magic medicine for pain'. My mother played this for me when I was a kid. If you collect enough coins, you can make a wish come true."
"No offense intended, the Holy Grail of Wishing is probably a legend over there in the Kingdom." Rei Shigure said, "Isn't the legend of the Holy Grail in local beliefs more focused on suffering?"
"From the Kingdom?" The shopkeeper rubbed his thick fingers, "It seems that there is such a saying. But culture is always passed on, and I'm sure the saint will say the same thing. You are in Hezhong Listen to this story, it's a legend." This man has a child-like optimism and doesn't care about details such as the evolution of his thoughts.
"It makes sense." Gongsun Ce picked up a small Holy Grail and put it on the counter. He walked around the store and found that the layout of the store had obviously changed recently. Many toys were placed on the shelves where the books were originally placed, and the books that were originally placed on the counter were covered with black cloth and placed at the end. Inside corner. He opened the black cloth, and the books that had been changed were some old fairy tale books, "The Wizard of Oz", "Snow White", "Alice in Wonderland"...
"Don't children like fairy tales much these days?"
"We are a traditional state, different from places like Zhenyin and Xuanci. Our children will still read some old stories and stick to the paper reading habit." Mr. George answered very proudly, and then he became depressed. , "But recently...well...it's probably because of the rain. The heavy rain makes everyone feel abnormal."
"Let me guess." Gongsun Ce said, "When the children saw the fairy tale book, they became very excited and started crying, as if they had seen a ghost?"
Mr. George looked as if he had seen a ghost.
"Are you investigators from the Ministry of Education?"
"I'm a college student here for tourism." Gongsun Ce said, "Thank you for your cooperation. I wish you a good night."
He paid for the little Holy Grail piggy bank and walked out of the store with Zero. Before leaving, he glanced at a beautiful little notebook, an ink bottle and a quill specially customized for those big hands beside the counter. It seemed that Mr. George's hobby was practicing calligraphy or writing.
"What do you think, telepathic expert?"
"I can probably guess the method of using common memes such as fairy tales and nursery rhymes to attack mentally." Shigure Rei said with disgust, "It's disgusting and evil, what good can it do to them to do such a thing!"
"Indeed, it's a completely different style than before..."
While Gongsun Ce was angry, he also felt a little weird, and the way he acted was so different. Gaius' henchmen often use technology and the general environment to create advantages. Their actions can be seen with obvious purpose, the verification of a certain technology, and the development of a certain project. But what happened in the Blade Rain State cannot benefit anyone. We can only see the deep malice of the mastermind behind it.
Malice that triggers unpleasant memories.
·
[The hatred continues to rise, triggering memories that I don’t want to think of.
The poor acting skills of the young actor were enough to fool the agents, but they could not fool the discerning eyes of the sword holder and his party. It took them less than half a day to find out what the young actor was doing, something that took the agents more than a week to do.
Naturally, they were ready to take action. But the young actor wasn't too worried.
Because it keeps raining. 】
Putting down the quill with his thick hand, the writer struggled to get up and move his burly body out of the small space.
He put on his raincoat and rain boots and walked into the night.
·
Cathedral of St. Bayonet, Rest Room.
Gongsun Ce stared at the crying virtual puppet, with an indescribable weirdness on his face.
"Alandia, are you sure this thing is a phantom? It's quite different from what I saw back then."
Gongsun Ce was very familiar with phantoms. Those ghosts made him suffer a lot when he had no special attack methods. They look like groups of horrible gray-white wax figures. They are afraid of light and heat, hide in the mist, and are good at using electronic devices to play tricks. The thing in front of him looked like some kind of epileptic electronic ghost, which was far different from the existence in his memory.
Alandia turned on her phone, and a few seconds later a call came through. After being connected automatically, she let out a hoarse laugh: "The nightmare will last forever, there will be no tomorrow, and I will be afraid of the rain of blades..."
"Afraid of your mother's electronic ashes." Gongsun Ce said, "If you dare to talk nonsense again, I will send you to the cyber hell to reunite with your virtual biological mother."
"Policy."
"Sorry, I was wrong. We all know it has no mother."
The puppet ghost's mouth was open stiffly, not daring to make a sound. A gray shuriken cut it in half in the middle, so that it no longer had to worry about being speechless. Gongsun Ce took back his Duxiang Seal and straightened his collar: "I'm sure this thing is a phantom... What's wrong with your expressions?"
The girls except Alandia all showed varying degrees of surprise. Qiluo, who looked shocked, spoke for everyone: "Gongsun Ce, you just happened to be aggressive..."
"I used to be a little more conceited when I spoke than I am now." Gongsun Ce said, "If I don't talk about this anymore, how could there be phantoms in Usters? If the Nether Dragon is dead, the Hell Prison World will be over long ago. This Ghosts should have been extinct from the world long ago.”
"Phantoms are essentially creatures that rely on special environments. If the enemy can reproduce the spirit prison world to a certain extent, it is not unreasonable to create phantoms."
"How does it create a pseudo-spiritual hell world?" Gongsun Ce pondered, "I heard from my elder brother that it is a purely spiritual space, like a subconscious ocean. It cannot be reproduced in the material world at all... It Where can I find a pure spiritual space..."
"It can." Rei Shigure's face was gloomy, "Think about what the children said. You hear noises when you go to bed at night, you feel like someone is following you when you wake up at night, you see someone in the cloakroom at night... The environment that triggers horrific imaginations is always at night. .What were the children doing before these things happened?”
"Sleep. Dream?"
"If the prisoner connects many dreams together, he can get a pure spiritual space at night that is convenient for interference." Dawn Knight pointed out, "Think about the practice of impermanence. Dreams are a shortcut to the soul. We are in reality No trace of interference can be found because the real attack took place in the dream."
If the enemy could even control the dream itself, it would be extremely simple to make the children forget the dream in reality. Gongsun Ce picked up the notebook left by the agents and looked for the records he cared about.
"The two agents also discovered this problem in the end. Sleeping was their self-protection plan. They found themselves under attack and wanted to take the initiative to fall asleep to fight back. But the prisoner's power was too strong and they failed, so the agents have been unable to do so until now. Failed to wake up." Gongsun Ce speculated, "The situation at that time must have been urgent. The two agents were mentally unstable. If emergency measures are not taken, I am afraid they will also suffer misfortune in reality."
Qiluo felt a chill creeping up her back. In a few words, everyone pieced together the truth about the Blade Rain State. There was an evil prisoner of pleasure who did evil in dreams and caused panic in reality. It sounded like the introduction of a low-quality horror movie. But clichéd horror films are ridiculed as inferior because they are just creations to entertain the public. If the plots in the horror stories really happened in reality, then people's feedback would no longer be ridiculing but crying.
"Gongsun Ce, can you sneak into dreams?" Qiluo asked.
"Ace is the envoy of Jixiang. Mental battles are not his specialty." Qin Qianbai raised his hand, "I am the daughter of the Qin family..."
"So you won't be pulled into the dream at all, you are the safest person at the moment." Rei Shigure pressed her hand down, "Is there anyone else who knows the spirit phase method better than me? No, right? Then I’ll handle it.”
"Zero, don't be impulsive."
Huanyue Zun flipped up his long hair: "I'm just kidding. I am Alice Adar, and dreams are my home field."
·
Before taking official action, the group first evacuated the church and booked several high-end suites in a hotel in the underground city. Alandia designed a simple symbolic technique for Shigure Rei, constructing a "shrine" through the placement of furniture in the living room, using Huanyue Zun himself as the divine body that responds to prayers. As a "priest", Gongsun Ce performed the etiquette of "two bows, two claps and one bow" in front of everyone, and gave a one hundred kri note as an offering to the gods.
"The founder who pursues freedom, the Huanyuezun who travels in the fairyland. In the name of fairy tales, dreams and love, please use your own aura to protect us from our own evil and protect the peace of our dreams."
Master Huanyuezun took out the banknotes from his fingers and stuffed them into his pocket: "Big sister will protect you after you receive the offerings. Let's take a break and go to bed."
Qiluo was dumbfounded: "What a secular god...and this prayer is compiled in common language!"
"We have to do as the locals do when in Hezhong. No matter how sincere your prayers are in Lingdao in the Northern Continent, the effect will not be very good." Rei Shigure climbed onto the bed and pulled up the quilt, "I'm in Wonderland, you can do it yourself." , don’t touch me while I’m sleeping.”
"Go, go, sleeping beauty, I will kiss you when you wake up."
Shigure Rei rolled his eyes at him and quickly fell asleep after closing his eyes. This time she did not take the initiative to construct a dream. She looked at the world from the unique and transcendent perspective of a world-creator, dyeing the real world with the color of memes. She used these memes as raw materials when developing her moves, but this time she traveled between thoughts and reality, allowing her spirit to travel a little further.
Rei Shigure came to the elementary school that she had scouted today. She found the children who were injured during the band performance. There was no abnormality on their little faces. She brushed the face of a little girl with her palm.
"Sleep, girl. Show me your dreams."
Pure narcissus bloomed beside the bed, and the dream turned into a touchable reality under her command, floating like a mist from the perspective of information. Rei Shigure stepped into the dreamland, her leather boots stepped on the wet ground, and she stepped out scarlet blood in the mud.
It was raining in the dream, and the rainwater as black as petroleum poured down, painting a dirty picture with the blood in the land. There are countless thick old trees growing in the darkness, their leaves swaying in the heavy rain, and they make strange cries. There are big holes eaten by insects on the branches of every old tree, and every tree seems to be showing a malicious smile.
A girl's cry came from deep in the forest, and Shigurei approached step by step. The injured girl was hiding under a strange tree, crying helplessly. A scarlet shadow turned its back to Shigurei, softly persuading the child.
"Come on, child, follow me. There are man-eating wolves in the forest, and it will be dangerous if you don't leave."
"I don't!" the girl yelled in horror, "go away!"
"You have to listen to adults..."
Shigure Rei's heel stepped on a branch, making a harsh creaking sound. The scarlet figure heard it and turned around slowly. "Who's coming?" Her voice sounded like an old man and a beast. "Who are you?" Her cloak was too red, as red as human muscles, and her arms were so white, as white as a child's skin. She stepped closer to Shigure Rei, allowing the new visitor to see her face.
What a pretty little face! She has innocent eyes, rosy skin, and a cute little mouth like a cherry. Unfortunately, the face was scratched by the claws. The injury was so severe that she had to work hard to sew it up stitch by stitch, and then put the child's face on her head.
"Child, who are you?" The human skin mask covered with stitches opened and closed, and the smell of beasts came out of the mouth, "I am Little Red Riding Hood, who are you?"
A short arrow nailed the clumsy mask to the tree. The monster's head exploded like a tomato. The headless body slowly fell down and was stepped into the mud by the female hunter!
The strange tree forest suddenly cried like thunder, and countless dry branches came from all directions, trying to pierce the hunter's body. Rei Shigure snapped his fingers, and a sea of pure white daffodils bloomed in an instant, replacing the entire forest. There was no longer a strange tree showing its teeth or claws, only the witch with blue hair and black clothes stood quietly in the sea of pure white flowers.
"I am Alice in Wonderland," said the huntress, "the hunter who slays nightmares."
(End of chapter)
