This is a world shrouded in black, with steep mountains and rugged rocks. The black woods grew more lush than before. Dark clouds continued to gather from the skyline towards the cabin on the top of the mountain.
Munch was sitting in the cabin, looking at everything in front of him in a daze. There is a photo on the table. A young woman is holding a baby. On the top of the baby's head is a garland of lapis lazuli flowers.
The frame's glass was caked with dust, obscuring the young woman's facial features. Munch brought the picture frame to him and wiped it with his sleeve, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not remove the dust.
Sweat seeped out from Munch's forehead, dripped on the photo frame, and then spread around. Mixed with dust, the pattern boundaries formed by the flow of sweat become increasingly clear.
The cabin suddenly began to shake, and the black world began to decompose and collapse. Munch opened the door and ran out with all his strength, still holding the photo frame tightly in his hand.
As the shaking intensified, the ground cracked, the mountains shattered, and trees fell in pieces. A terrifying abyss instantly appeared at Munch's feet. He stepped on the air, mixed with countless gravel, and continued to fall. The photo frame in his hand slipped in the air and disappeared into the darkness.
…
Munch struggled to sit up. The old suspended bed made a creaking sound, and the pillow was soaked with sweat. Bane jumped on the bed and curled up next to him, trembling and showing extreme discomfort. Munch looked at the time: 2:18 am.
There was a faint light outside the window. Meng opened the curtains and looked through the cracks in the office building. A swirling cloud gathered on the top of the parasitic tower, wrapping the huge tower layer by layer. At this moment, the energy ripples released by the parasitic tower outwards, It changed from lavender to light red.
"Bobo, look, what happened?"
"Right now, I'll call up the footage near the parasitic tower." Bobo quickly peeled off the signal source closest to the parasitic tower from the video signal. After analysis, the live scene of the parasitic tower appeared on the screen wall.
In the picture, only the bare branches of the plants in the "green belt" at the bottom of the parasitic tower remain, and the leaves seem to have evaporated instantly, leaving no trace behind. The white defense facilities in the "silver plate" rotated uncontrollably. The light red energy ripples gradually intensified and the color became thicker and thicker.
Disordered horizontal stripes began to appear on the screen, and after a few seconds, the screen was interrupted.
Bain first barked at the window, then bit the corner of his clothes with his mouth, trying to pull him towards the door.
Suddenly, the room began to shake, and the books on the bookshelf fell one by one.
"Not good! Earthquake."
Munch understood Bain's intention, hugged him in his arms, and quickly hid in the corner. The waterproof area sank, and the robotic arm moved to Munch's head and supported it against the wall, forming a safe area.
The strong earthquake lasted for more than ten seconds, and almost all the books on the bookshelf were scattered. The FL-2 suspended bed, which was facing elimination, finally came to an end after its parts collided with each other.
There are several rows of square boxes stacked with accessories in the secret room. On the wall of prosthetic accessories, the Minovsky bone connector was knocked off the wall, causing a crack on the workbench.
"The magnitude of the earthquake is 8, and the intensity is 8 degrees. Fortunately, the destructive power is not too strong." Bobo said in Monk's ear.
In the upper realm of the explosive development of science and technology, earthquakes are no longer scary. A complete set of advanced technologies ensures the predictability of earthquakes, and can even artificially intervene in extremely large earthquakes that lead to serious consequences.
"Strange, why was there no warning for this earthquake?" After confirming that the strong earthquake had passed, Munch removed the robotic arm and walked to the window.
"Is the change in the energy color of the Parasitic Tower normal?" He looked at the picture on the screen wall. The swirling clouds and mist just now had spread, and the Parasitic Tower was hidden in it and disappeared.
…
2:18 a.m., in Calvin's room.
Calvin was sleeping on the table. The whiteboard in front of the table was covered with news about serial disappearances. Under a photo of Munch, there were several big question marks, and the arrows pulled out were associated with keywords such as "uncontrolled shadows", "illegal body modification", "mysterious missions", and "countless coincidences".
A photo of Donnie Young in uniform was also posted on the whiteboard. The police signal on his shoulder clearly read: 0628. Next to the image associated with the memorial obelisk, the position that originally belonged to Downey has been occupied by someone else. And Calvin's employment photo is on the table directly below Downey. He felt that he was not qualified to stand with his father, even if it was just a photo.
Since being suspended, Calvin has locked himself in his room, trapped in a self-denial mood and unable to escape. The most time-consuming thing every day is staring at Munch's photos in a daze.
The earthquake woke him up from his sleep. In his confusion, he saw something slowly falling on the whiteboard. He stood up holding on to the corner of the table. In a panic, he discovered that Munch's photo and his own photo overlapped perfectly. It looks so harmonious against the red light outside the window.
…
2:18 a.m., Tozcana News Channel offices.
Behind the mountains of information, Apu Andy is immersed in sorting out today's interview materials. In the empty office, only the lamp in front of her desk was still on. She put down the document in her hand, took a sip of water, straightened up, and rubbed her bloodshot eyes.
It was pitch black outside the window, and the glass reflected Apu's haggard appearance and the solid wood model on her table. It is an exquisite and small Chinese-style archway with three bays, double eaves and verandah shape, and the decorative patterns on the columns are complex and exquisite.
Apu held it in his hand, and his fingers unconsciously traced every detail on the archway. She seemed to have remembered something, and immediately sat down in front of the computer, entered a string of numbers into the address search bar, and looked at the displayed results with only disappointment in her eyes.
The building suddenly shook, and the accumulated information and documents almost knocked the model down. Seeing this, Apu stood up with difficulty, rushed over desperately, and used his body to protect the archway when it fell.
…
2:18 am, Parasitic Tower No. 6, Energy Monitoring Center.
In the center of the "silver plate", there is a circular bulge, with a huge data receiver on the top facing the core area of the parasitic tower.
The energy monitoring center was still brightly lit late at night. Several staff members wearing radiation-resistant protective clothing put their legs on the table in front of them in a unified manner, leaned back on the chairs, and fell asleep.
Thousands of detailed data are floating subtly. From a distance, countless smooth straight lines cut the screen into square units.
A fat staff member snored one after another, almost covering up the sound of the monitoring equipment in the hall. Following the rhythm, there are also various data on the screen.
The radiation amount, energy floating waveform, obsidian stable state, and various indicators are constantly changing. The originally smooth straight line was now shaking up and down uncontrollably like waves in a hurricane. A few lazy staff members didn't notice at all until the sharp alarm sounded.
The violent vibration shook several people from their chairs. After waking up, several pairs of eyes looked at the rapidly changing monitoring data and were at a loss.
The shaking did not last long. The person in charge appeared in the monitoring hall as soon as the shaking stopped. Looking at the dozens of pages of abnormal data tables, he looked horrified and immediately uploaded the situation to the data analysis center in accordance with regulations.
…
2:30 a.m., Sammy's residence.
Because of the parasitic tower anomaly involved, only a few minutes after the earthquake occurred, Sami was already sitting at his desk at home. The file projected on the desktop was just sent by Paul.
One is a description of the earthquake situation that will be released soon, and the other is a description of the anomalies in the parasitic tower monitoring data.
Sami read the explanation of the earthquake situation word for word, circled a few suggestions for revision, and then signed his name in the column for agreeing to publish.
After browsing through the data anomaly description, Sami opened a top-secret file through biometric identification, with the keyword: "Detailed data of the second great shock." After comparing and analyzing the two data, the similarity was as high as 95%. %.
Sami sighed softly and put the latest data anomaly description into a top-secret file, which will not be made public.
…
All major channels simultaneously sounded the news:
"Just now, at 2:20 in the morning, a conventional earthquake occurred in the city of Tozcana, with a magnitude of 8 and an intensity of 8 degrees. The epicenter of the earthquake was located in Parasitic Tower No. 6. Due to the particularity of the location of the earthquake source, strong radiation interfered with the The earthquake early warning system failed to predict the earthquake in time. We sincerely apologize to all residents.
Regarding the reddening phenomenon of the parasitic tower seen by some residents, Dr. Arif explained that it may be a reaction caused by the overlap of the earthquake magnetic field and the magnetic field of the parasitic tower. It is a normal but rare phenomenon. He hopes that residents will not panic too much and maintain a good attitude. Go on and spend the rest of the night.
The City Emergency Bureau will work with other departments to prevent possible losses and resolutely prevent any casualties. "
"It would be nice if it were just a regular earthquake... Hey... it will come if it is supposed to come." After listening to the news report, Sami covered his aching chest.
…
"Normal reaction? According to this bullshit doctor, even if the parasitic tower collapses and all humans in the upper domain are destroyed, it is just a normal but rare phenomenon." Monk couldn't believe his ears when he heard this explanation.
Standing in front of the screen wall, he called up the parasitic tower data before and after the earthquake. Among the many data, the stability index column had dropped to a historical low.
"Maybe it's not an earthquake?" Bobo synchronized the model of the world during Arif's speech to the screen. "Look, this is the parasitic tower, and this is the transition zone." While marking the model, he explained to Munch arrive.
"Go on."
"The parasitic tower draws energy from the lower domain through obsidian. If something happens to the lower domain or the transition domain, it will definitely affect the state of the parasitic tower, and these changes are different from ordinary seismic waves..."
"It cannot be detected by the earthquake prediction system. If the energy body of the lower domain changes and the color of the parasitic tower turns red, it would make sense." Although this is just a guess, it is more reasonable than Arif's nonsense. .
"Are you having a nightmare?" Bobo suddenly interjected, "When you entered the sleep state just now, it was detected that your brain was full of fear."
"Not really. A familiar scene that often appears. By the way, I remember there was a photo frame in the dream with a few words written on it. I was so nervous that I forgot about it. Let me think about what it said..."
Bobo remained calm and presented the image of Munch before falling into the abyss in his dream in the space.
"How did you..."
"After detecting the emotion of fear, I reconstructed your dream through the brain waves you released. Although it cannot be accurately restored, the key information will not be wrong, such as this."
Bobo enlarged the image of the photo frame, and the text on it was clearly visible: The parasitic tower is about to undergo a change. At the bottom of the image, the time of reshaping the dream is recorded: 2:12 in the morning.
