CH 73.1

Chapter 73.1 – Memories of the Past

Shi Yuan got the work card of the scientific research center, which said [First Research Group – Level 5 Personnel]

Professor Guan said: “This is my group. You don’t need to contact other people. With a work card, you have permission to enter and exit the building. Your working hours are from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., you can eat in the cafeteria at noon, and after work, you can take the shuttle bus at the entrance of the scientific research center. When there are special circumstances, the schedule will change.”

“Ok,” Shi Yuan said, “What should I do now?”

Professor Guan pushed his glasses: “Let me take a look at your… main body first.”

Shi Yuan entered the isolation room and let out a black mist.

The infection detector persisted for two minutes, the meter exploded, and then completely stopped working. Professor Guan’s nose was sweating as he took the hard-earned data and said, “Stop, stop, stop! Too much, too much!!!”

Shi Yuan: ?

He had no idea how high his pollution value was. Under the instructions of Professor Guan, he turned into a black mist and moved, stayed, and turned back into a human form again.

All kinds of high-precision instruments that he didn’t understand were running and recording data, densely packed in a large area.

From time to time, Professor Guan issued a “f*ck”, “damn”, “hoh”, and “awesome” sounds from time to time.

At noon, Shi Yuan went to the canteen of the scientific research center for lunch.

There were people in white coats everywhere. He found a corner to sit in and ate a delicious potato risotto.

In the afternoon, he returned to the scientific research building and continued to change between a human and a black mist.

Finally, Professor Guan said, “You can go back.”

Shi Yuan asked: “You don’t need to take an X-ray, test brain waves, and so on?”

These were the procedures that hospitals used to check for infections.

“You have had several physical examinations before, and I have read all the reports.” Professor Guan sat down and looked at a bunch of scrapped detectors quite distressedly. “None of them are abnormal, and there is no point in re-testing. We only collect wavelength data. I can’t let you infect other creatures, right? Otherwise, the city will be gone.”

Shi Yuan asked again: “Then I’m off work?”

“You can go,” Professor Guan said, “I will hand over these things to someone I can trust to study together. These are enough for us to study for one night. No—” He rubbed his eyebrows. “To really figure it out, years are not enough, hopefully, hopefully this will help us understand what the abyss really is. Come back tomorrow, some data will need to be added by then. Oh, and, remember to take a look at the account, the salary is settled on a daily basis.”

Shi Yuan was a little surprised: “I still have a salary?”

Professor Guan explained: “You are a formal researcher and a member of the Alliance. Of course, you have a salary.”

Shi Yuan: “Oh…”

Professor Guan patted him on the shoulder and smiled: “Welcome to our research team.”

So, at 3:30 in the afternoon, Shi Yuan got off work early like never before.

With 80 more Alliance coins in his account, he went around the market to buy some feed.

After returning home, he fed the wretched fish and the big white bird, played with his tail on the sofa for a while, and fell asleep with his head drooping while playing.

Halfway through his sleep, he rolled over and fell softly on the floor. He yawned, rubbed his devil horns, but stopped just as he was about to stand up.

When he fell, he brought down several books under the glass countertop with him. In the “Military History of the Alliance” that Lu Tinghan most often reads, a sketch floated out. Shi Yuan picked it up and his eyes widened.

He gathered the books and put the sketch back.

Today, Lu Tinghan failed to return home, so they made a phone call before going to bed.

Lu Tinghan asked, “How was your day?”

Shi Yuan told him that Professor Guan asked him to change his form.

Lu Tinghan asked again: “Did you get scared?”

Shi Yuan: “No, I quite like Professor Guan.”

“I will be back the day after tomorrow,” Lu Tinghan said, “I will accompany you when I have time.”

“Okay, you have to come back early.” The tip of Shi Yuan’s tail swayed happily.

But Lu Tinghan stopped talking, and finally said, “Good night, Shi Yuan.”

The next day Shi Yuan went to the scientific research center again.

Professor Guan asked him to do some additional experiments, such as touching two drops of inhibitor solution with black mist, or spreading himself as quickly as possible.

Shi Yuan did it one by one.

After collecting the data, Professor Guan said, “Shi Yuan, take a walk around the research center, we’ll call you again if there is something.”

Shi Yuan: “So fast?”

It was not even noon yet.

Professor Guan’s dark circles were deep, and he seemed to have two more white hairs. At first glance, he had stayed up late last night. He said: “Shi Yuan, you are too complicated… You don’t even know, you don’t have the slightest regularity at all. With just such a little bit of data, I guess we won’t be able to study it for ten years.”

“Okay,” Shi Yuan said. He glanced at the curves and numbers on the screen, so dense that his scalp felt numb. He studied them for a few seconds and came to the conclusion: “It seems to be more complicated than Sudoku.”

Professor Guan: “…you are right to say that.”

Shi Yuan left Professor Guan, who was scratching his head frantically. He wandered around the research center blindly and conducted an experiment in the afternoon, walking through different colors of light.

Professor Guan also asked him: “Shi Yuan, what is at the bottom of the abyss?”

—This was probably the thing humans wanted to know most in the ‘Deep Dive’ plan.

“The bottom?” Shi Yuan was a little confused. “I don’t know. Where I am, the bottom is a normal earth. I’m not sure what’s under the other abysses.”

Otherwise, there would be no way to pile up garbage.

“What about the other abysses?” Professor Guan asked, “Do you have a way to contact and communicate with them?”

“Can’t,” Shi Yuan replied, “They are a little different from me. We are not familiar with each other at all, they are not polite enough and will not talk to me.” He thought for a while, “So I guess they can’t be sad enough to transform, at least not now.”

“…I see, I have one last question.” Professor Guan wiped his reading glasses and squinted at him. “Is there a way for you to pass through the black mist and reach the bottom of other abysses?”

Shi Yuan: “No, I can’t. Before I came to the city, I met Abyss No.2 – I didn’t know it had a number at that time. I spoke to it, it ignored me, and I turned into a mist to touch it and was bounced back.”

“Yes, yes,” Professor Guan murmured, “Infections are mutually exclusive, I should have expected that.”

“Why do you ask this?”

Professor Guan: “It’s nothing. I originally wanted to say that if you could take the equipment to the bottom of other abysses, things would be easy to do… It seems I was thinking too simply.” He looked out the window, the sky was clear and blue. “Today is a good day, go and take a walk again. I’m miserable, I have to stay with these data, and I don’t even know how many hairs are left.”

Shi Yuan went out to wander around again.

The wind was blowing cool, the solar panels were shining, and the windmills were spinning slowly.

It was a good day, and he began to think about Lu Tinghan.