Chapter 610: Chapter 212: The Cognitive Domain, Powerful Benevolent Sources of Contagion! (Part 4)
Shi Xu explained, "The fragments of Immortal Objects spontaneously affect the entire surrounding area. In this domain, affected organisms subconsciously perceive threats as safety, which is a rather crude cognitive distortion. For example, you subconsciously feel that jumping off a tall building is dangerous and standing on the roof is safe, but once you enter the domain, you will be influenced to directly jump off."
"It’s like the red and green signals you mentioned earlier: If in your subconscious ’green = safe,’ then even if you see a truly dangerous color, it will still look green to you. Even if you see the fragment of an Immortal Object in front of you, you won’t perceive it as a threat and naturally won’t harm it."
"But why did the green signal in radio communications appear as red before?"
"This is the deeper influence of the cognitive domain." Shi Xu’s tone turned more grave, "You can crudely understand it as the first phase being the parasitic period of the infection source, which will gradually lead you to fall. In the second outbreak phase, cognition begins to distort and gradually turns to madness, which is also the core reason why Immortal Objects cause disasters."
"Seeing a red signal is just the beginning. If you continue to be affected, you might even perceive the people around you as Infected Bodies, as what you fear the most..."
As Shi Xu spoke, his words took a turn, "The pollution of Guardian Extraordinary will make everything tend to the same, return to order, while the pollution of Immortal Objects will break all rules, amplify the fear and desires in people’s hearts. But you should know, this is only a means of self-preservation for it."
Indeed, it sounds terrifying.
But with detailed intelligence support, it’s far safer than groping around blindly.
Cheng Ye paused for a moment, his tone slightly deep, "So, I can’t let those who are already polluted inside be aware that they’ve been polluted? They must continue to operate under the constraints of order, right?"
"You truly grasp it immediately." Shi Xu nodded at once, his tone turning serious, "Exactly, if the civilians participating in the assessment knew they were in a dangerous environment, once order collapses, the degree of pollution will instantly exacerbate, rapidly entering the outbreak stage, at which point everyone’s cognition would be completely distorted, never to be pulled back."
"But what about those hit by the wave of pollution? Is it still possible for them to survive?"
Shi Xu was silent for two seconds, then gently shook his head, offering no further explanation, but the answer was quite apparent.
"But if the pollution continues, ordinary people would never be able to break through the domain to get the fragment, right?"
"Inspector Cheng, all energy follows the law of conservation, and the influence of the Immortal Objects is no exception."
Shi Xu’s voice became increasingly low, "It can maintain the domain now, possibly because the energy is from the destruction level infection source. So as long as the energy from the infection source continues to be consumed, the scale of the wave of pollution will become smaller and smaller until it disappears completely."
"Destruction level infection source, how many people need to be consumed?" Cheng Ye’s heart sank abruptly.
Shi Xu didn’t avoid the subject and directly threw out the cold hard data: "Based on the last effective record, to consume the destruction level infection source parasitized by the Immortal Object, a total of 67,000 people were invested, only then suppressing the scale of the pollution wave to the level of hundreds. Another 52,000 people were added thereafter, including dominant superpower users..."
"Enough." Cheng Ye raised his hand to interrupt him, his throat feeling a bit tight.
For just one fragment of an Immortal Object, to sacrifice the lives of more than a hundred thousand people?
To rely on continually using people’s lives to fill, to exhaust the energy of the Immortal Object fragment?
It’s just too brutal.
In comparison, roughly sealing off such a place for fifty years, so that this piece of land disappears from the map temporarily, is a more reasonable choice instead.
"So now, I have to maintain the normal progression of the assessment, and maintain the competition with Luokuke between the Red and Blue Zones, while also searching underwater for the infection source? The underwater fragment of the Immortal Object?"
"If you want to save people, you have to do it this way." Shi Xu lightly nodded, "Moreover, according to the currently collected information, that destruction level infection source only awakens at night, so Dapo Town is safe during the day, and the threat of the White Water River should also be controllable. You can conduct explorations during this time. Only at night will those anomalies appear, that’s when you need to... immerse yourself to collect it at night."
"Alright."
Cheng Ye took a deep breath, since it’s still safe during the day, maintaining order becomes much simpler.
As for going underwater at night...
Having already ventured underwater, it’s not much different from the daytime, just a matter of visibility.
Let go of the most primitive fears in the heart, if encountering danger, he can only become the Sea Star Superhero and strike powerfully!
"Inspector Cheng, I’ll interrupt for a moment..."
The second group was the Emergency Response Team from Happiness City, Bai Wei came in, "Aside from the established equipment and supplies, if you have any other requirements, please tell me now, I will immediately coordinate and prepare, you must return to Dapo Town before the residents fully wake up, by no later than eight o’clock, there’s not much time left."
"Alright." Cheng Ye did not hesitate, speaking calmly, "I need a large battery, and the associated energy conversion equipment."
"Alright!" Bai Wei did not question the purpose, immediately nodding in response, "Considering your load capacity, we have already arranged a large cargo truck, the battery pack on the truck has a total capacity of two thousand degrees, is that enough?"
"It’s enough!" Cheng Ye nodded promptly, feeling completely at ease.
He was originally preparing to come up with an excuse of "new energy fishing" to explain the need, but Bai Wei directly skipped over the purpose, saving a lot of trouble.
Two thousand degrees of electricity, enough to charge his Collector five times, even if unexpected danger arises, there’s sufficient energy reserve as a backup.
"Additionally, I need a batch of infrastructure materials."
Cheng Ye took the opportunity to add, rapidly listing a series of items.
Since the assessment must continue, in order to prevent thousands of Crab-men from launching an assault on Dapo Town, preparations must be made in advance.
Among them, two solar power facilities are quite important, a batch of high-power searchlights that can illuminate Dapo Town like daylight at night, and two hundred high-efficiency sedatives.
In case any residents go mad due to pollution, sedatives can be used to make them sleep for a day or two, preventing a chain reaction that leads to a pollution wave outbreak.
It’s just a pity that he alone cannot oversee nearly a thousand people; otherwise, having everyone sleep would be much more convenient.
Bai Wei noted down each item, not delaying, then turned to organize the preparations.
These materials will subsequently be centrally loaded onto the large cargo truck, directly driven into Dapo Town, without additional effort on his part.
At 4:50 a.m.
Having just finished explaining the key points and specific methods for containment of the Immortal Object, Harlem hurriedly returned with a half-person-high silver safe.
He walked into the silent space, still with sweat on his brow, pulling out a folded white paper from his bosom, handing it over while panting:
"Choose, these are the few remaining stocks at the checkpoint over the years..."
The unfolded white paper listed only four items, each with detailed attributes:
[Healing Water Spirit Grass (A-): An ability-type beneficial infection source. After parasitization, one can obtain the ’water-based recovery’ ability, able to maintain vital signs (undying) in water regardless of the severity of injuries.
Cost of infection: Each recovery consumes lifespan, with estimated consumption of 3 years for single-part damage recovery, and 7 years for lethal injury recovery]
[Shrinking Earth Giant Louse (A-): An ability-type beneficial infection source. After parasitization, one can freely change the size of the form, capable of expanding up to 5 meters high (with matching physical qualities), and shrinking down to 60 centimeters (physical qualities unchanged).
Cost of infection: After parasitization ends, one must endure bone-crushing pain capable of destroying sanity; for each form change, the cost is repaid by a ’100-kilometer long run,’ with the single maximum repayment needing 2000 kilometers]
[Bone-Armored Bull (A-): A strength-type beneficial infection source. After parasitization, one can obtain 2-5 tons of massive strength, while matching corresponding melee physical qualities.
Cost of infection: After parasitization ends, depending on the number and extent of uses of massive strength by the host, there is a 10%-25% probability of death]
[Firecracker (A-): An ability-type beneficial infection source. After parasitization, objects can be imbued with ’explosive attributes,’ with explosive power equivalent to a military 81mm mortar bomb (effective radius about 15 meters, capable of penetrating 10mm homogeneous steel armor); a maximum of 3 objects can be imbued with attributes at a time, up to 10 times per hour, with an effective duration of 3 hours.
Cost of infection: If parasitization time exceeds 24 hours, there’s a small chance the host will transform into an irreversible explosive]
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