Strange game designer.

Chapter 853 Life
The forest in the city is a romantic fantasy world, and also a sanctuary for many people to escape reality. Under the caress of the moonlight, they transform into trees, lose the troubles of the world, take root in the earth, lose the freedom of the body, and gain a kind of spiritual freedom.

The forest did nothing wrong; it was just that too many people in the city wanted to become trees, causing it to expand too quickly. Dense clusters of "trees" encroached on the "human" activity area. Faces bathed in moonlight lay peacefully by the windows, and limbs grew in the streets and alleys.

Standing in the laboratory of the Institute of Ethics, Dr. Gao and Banban gazed at the chaotic street.

"Harm and attack. If all people can do is this, then letting the forest completely cover the city and turning everyone into trees might be a way of civilization evolving." Banban was terrified by the madness of the people. The forest sweeping away the residents did not frighten the public, but instead aroused more anger.

"Evolve into a tree, and then be eaten by your father?" Dr. Gao began to examine the brain-boosting medication in his bag.

The expansion of the forest was halted at the periphery of the stomach contents community, flames burned in various parts of the city, and black smoke gradually obscured the moonlight.

"Let's go outside and take a look."

With his backpack on, Dr. Gao locked the laboratory door and led Banban to the autopsy avenue.

He had hoped to take this opportunity to go home, but unfortunately there were too many police cars patrolling the roads and members of the ethics monitoring team. They chased away anyone they saw, and arrested those who disobeyed.

The area near the forest is even more dangerous, as the conflict between people and trees has completely erupted, and firewalls have been erected in several residential areas that come into contact with the forest.

Dr. Gao was drawing a map in his mind, marking each location. He never seemed to be in a hurry, always appearing confident and composed.

Witnessing the outbreak of chaos, Banban followed closely behind Dr. Gao, hopping and skipping. He suddenly felt that Dr. Gao's suggestion might be the best one.

The conflict intensified in the latter half of the night, with flames shooting into the sky. As dawn approached, the "trees" that made up the forest began to separate on their own, some wandering the streets, others returning to their homes. The densely packed human figures swayed in the smoke, while the outer and higher "trees" were illuminated by the rising sun, and something seemed to be hiding in the deep darkness obscured by the branches and leaves.

People throughout the city seemed to have won a war; the antagonistic emotions were harder to extinguish than the fires of the night. Those who lit flames to protect their neighborhoods were hailed as heroes. People and trees, who had once been people, had truly become two different species.

“Let’s go back. The ethics oversight group is calling another meeting.” After a night of investigation, Dr. Gao had obtained the information he wanted, and he took Banban back to the School of Ethics.

After a busy night, the members of the ethics monitoring team dragged their tired bodies to the canteen, counted the number of people, and exchanged views on yesterday's riot. Everyone was too busy to pay any attention to Dr. Gao.

"Should we suggest to them that we use a shared brain for core patients?" Banban asked in a low voice.

"Have a meal."

The cafeteria's TV was turned on by the auntie, and major media outlets were broadcasting what happened last night. As the number of people missing in the forest exceeded fifty, the citizens were outraged. However, the Human Rights Commission stepped forward at this time to call on everyone to calm down. They presented surveillance footage and evidence that some people were not missing in the forest at all last night, but were deliberately murdered and maliciously dumped into the forest.

They repeatedly emphasized that the forest would not attack anyone on its own initiative, and presented research data and various experimental parameters, but people were not convinced. Even in the cafeteria of the Institute of Ethics, criticisms of the Human Rights Committee could be heard.

“People have started to stop treating those trees as people, even though they look just like us, even though they used to be people.” The old professor said worriedly. His glasses had broken while he was fighting the fire last night, and one of the temples was haphazardly taped back together. “We must find a way to control the forest, otherwise the conflict will become even more difficult to resolve.” Another instructor, his face blackened by the fire, ate a large mouthful of steamed buns and pickled vegetables. He couldn’t stand the smell of meat anymore; the sight of meat would remind him of yesterday’s events.

The supervisory team's morning meeting started directly in the cafeteria, with everyone talking back and forth, but still no results were reached.

Two hours later, the phones of several instructors and Banban vibrated simultaneously. They had received messages from the deputy head of the ethics supervision group.

It was a very short video, filmed last night by a citizen using the light of a fire, showing other "life" besides "plants" appearing in the forest.

Zooming in, in a forest of still human torsos, a deformed and ugly monster moves rapidly. It looks like different people completely grown together, with arms like insect legs and a head squeezed into the corner of the body.

The higher-ups in the ethics oversight group named this thing "pest." The mutation at the mental level led to the alienation of the body. They were born in the forest and were neither human nor tree; they should be considered a completely new kind of life.

"Do you still think the forest is harmless? Before long, the whole city might be full of these strange things." The trainer with the toughest stance on the forest closed his phone, and many people glanced at where Dr. Gao was sitting, remembering what he had said in the conference room.

The old professor rubbed his temples in pain; his hair seemed to have turned even whiter.

"There must be other solutions. Let's not waste time here. Let's take action and make the most of the daytime."

The core location of the forest is not fixed. By the time people discover it, the forest has already spread. To prevent tragedies from happening, the ethics watchdog and the human rights committee mobilize all resources to patrol the major streets of Xinhu.

The judicial authorities also got involved, and everyone wanted to catch the core patients before the forest formed, but with little success.

As evening fell, things got worse. News of the emergence of pests in the forest was not contained, and videos of monsters circulated online, further exacerbating the conflict with people's fear and disgust.

As the sun slowly sank below the horizon, the war between humans and the forest erupted once more.

Patrol personnel pre-positioned on a certain street disappeared without a trace, only to be discovered by others preparing to take over their shifts when the forest had already appeared.

Police had cleared out the sardine-like crowds loitering on the streets during the day, but at night, countless more "human trees" appeared, as if they had contracted the same infectious disease and developed the same symptoms, making it necessary for them to gather together.

"Where did these guys come from?" Upon receiving news of their appearance in the forest, Dr. Gao, Banban, and the two servants rushed to the vicinity immediately. Unlike last night, the four of them were fully armed, and the two servants were carrying black body bags filled with brain-computer interface devices.

"We're still a bit late." Dr. Gao wanted to bring the brain-sharing device into the heart of the forest, but the road was now blocked by "trees."

(End of this chapter)