Infinite Terror: Infinite Reversal

Chapter 142 The situation worsens

Zheng Zha's original plan was to prioritize everyone's safety while he himself would find time to go out and check the situation.

When he activated the third-stage gene lock and simulated the thinking of another sage, he was also able to use his phone, albeit with some difficulty. Therefore, Zheng Zha quickly found all the surveillance footage related to the Zhongzhou Team... or rather, there were very few videos of the Zhongzhou Team to begin with.

Zheng Zha speculated that this was not the result of some teammates' disappearance.

If the disappearance was due to a loss of existence, it should be like the surveillance footage from Aofa Company, showing completely illogical scenes, such as the newcomer Gao Hongliang flying into the office and instantly killing Trent and his two companions... instead of the recording simply disappearing.

The disappearance of the video footage here was likely the work of a strategist from the Central Continent Team, to prevent the police from finding their trail. After all, the situation in the real world is quite tense, and the Central Continent Team also has a group of new members. If they were to be targeted by the police, it would cause them a lot of trouble.

The video recording from the Orphan Company was clearly left behind intentionally, meant to alert the Central Continent Team to a problem. Fortunately, Zheng Zha understood this; otherwise, not only would the wise man's plan have been wasted, but the Central Continent Team left behind would have suffered unknown and significant losses.

"Looks like I'm pretty smart after all!" Zheng Zha thought smugly, rubbing his aching head. "If I could master this ability to simulate thought properly, I could take the place of the wise man... no, I could participate in discussions in this field."

Then problems arose. A few days after the meeting, the burly young man was the first to have an episode. He woke up in a panic, frantically calling out a name. Although Zhao Yingkong, who was on night watch, immediately knocked him unconscious, he remained in a erratic state after waking up and exhibited strong aggressive tendencies.

Less than a day after being tied up, his eyes began to bleed, just like the readers outside who were being corrupted. Long Taobing tried to heal his mind, but the few times it worked, it only brought him to a brief moment of lucidity, after which his madness only intensified. Two days later, the man's mind completely collapsed, and his appearance became incredibly gruesome.

Before Zheng Zha could deduce the situation, the other newcomers also began to show signs of mental breakdown.

Long Taobing worked incredibly hard, almost tirelessly guiding their minds with holy light. For several days, no one's condition worsened significantly; at most, they would wake up in the middle of the night in fright. Just when everyone thought Long Taobing's holy light healing was effective, two high school girls who had entered the God's Space together experienced a simultaneous worsening of their symptoms and also began to go insane.

While Long Taobing was working hard to provide assistance, Zheng Zha was also busy, going outside to check on the situation. To his dismay, the situation outside was gradually deteriorating, and the scale of the unrest was growing larger.

Does Sutter Kane really have that many readers?

This puzzled Zheng Zha. "The Terrifying Black Hole" had not been released, and even "Hobbes's Doomsday Horror" was still in short supply, so why were the number of those corrupted increasing exponentially?
Zheng Zha specifically checked the sales status of "Hobbes' Doomsday Horror" on his phone, and then he discovered a fact that was extremely contradictory to the current situation... that is, overall, the sales of "Hobbes' Doomsday Horror" are getting lower and lower!

Damn it, bookstores are closing down one after another, how could they possibly be selling more and more?!
So why are there more and more people being corrupted?
Even in the Central Continent team, which had no contact with Sutter Kane's works, this situation occurred... If it weren't for Long Taobing keeping them in check, those ordinary newcomers would probably have already become just like the lunatics outside.

The first possibility is that although these lunatics have lost their minds, they will still engage in book exchanges and reading-based social interactions, drawing more people into their fandom and making them believers together.

Although it seemed unbelievable, Zheng Zha did discover some strange signs. Many newspapers had started republishing Sutter Kane's earlier novels, even though they were already published, they were still being serialized in the newspapers.

These unusual signs made Zheng Zha realize that there were more infected people in the news industry as well, and that they were infecting even more people through the media. As for television and radio, Zheng Zha couldn't bear to watch them... But even after he eliminated all media interference, the mental breakdown of the newcomers continued, indicating that there was at least more to it than that.

The second possibility is that this distorted spread is no longer limited to the novel… Perhaps contact with the corrupted could also plant the seeds of mutation in those who have never been exposed to Sartre Kane's works. Therefore, Zheng Zha fully utilized his advantage of having booked an entire floor of the hotel to separate those corrupted to varying degrees from normal people. Thanks to Long Taobing's efforts, the enhanced veterans showed no symptoms. As for Zhang Heng, who called himself an assassin, his mental state was unusually good; although he seemed foolish and unreliable all day, he appeared to be the healthiest…

Today, Long Taobing's treatment of the two high school girls has completely failed; following the robust young man, they too have gone completely insane.

Zheng Zha also wanted more people to survive; he and Long Taobing were both deeply obsessed with this... but once he simulated the mindset of another wise man, he stopped worrying about these things.

It's clear that the newcomers are beyond saving. With the erosion intensifying, the best course of action is to give up and let Long Tao Bing conserve his strength, focusing instead on protecting the veterans.

But Zheng Zha couldn't bring himself to say it. Long Taobing was also very sensitive in this regard. After sensing Zheng Zha's indifference, he continued to treat them with resentment.

Zheng Zha watched Long Taobing leave the room, then silently glanced at the other veteran players. At this point, the veteran players had also lost interest in playing cards, and seeing the conflict between Zheng Zha and Long Taobing, they were all speechless.

"Sigh..." Zhang Jie's sigh made Zheng Zha reach out and push up his nose, then he silently looked at his phone again.

After entering the third stage of the gene lock, Zheng Zha was able to understand many of the suspicious points about Zhang Jie... No wonder Chu Xuan often spoke in riddles during "Ju-on". However, there is no doubt that Zhang Jie still stands on the side of the Central Continent Team.

Now, whenever Zheng Zha sees or hears Zhang Jie's movements, he can't help but use his analogical thinking to try and figure out if Zhang Jie has any intention of giving any hints... You know, the movie "The Terrifying Black Hole" on the list was also written by Zhang Jie!

These days, Zheng Zha has been reviewing the inmate records of detention centers and prisons in New York and the surrounding areas. With his energy, he has a considerable amount of time to investigate clues about various prisoners online or offline, and to find out if they are related to Sutter Kane, and to what extent they have been corrupted.

This was undoubtedly a time-consuming task with a huge amount of information... but Zheng Zha did discover many suspicious points, such as the degree of corruption by unrelated individuals and the differences in corruption among different prisoners.

Today he was going to verify the situation of an undocumented immigrant... Although he was an undocumented immigrant, he was not being held in a special detention center, but had been transferred to a prison. He didn't know why.

Of course, simply being an illegal immigrant wasn't enough to elevate his priority. Most importantly, Zheng Zha felt a strange sense of familiarity when he saw this person's photo!

"Could he be a forgotten newcomer? But why would he be forgotten... and still in the real world?" Zheng Zha picked up a lemon, took a bite, and continued to mutter to himself, "Is it related to the fact that the other teammates' existence was erased?"

"Or is this also a clue you left for me?"

Chapter Two is here, and there's a plot point that's been resolved... You all should remember the office worker who ran to COP for help when we first arrived, right?

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(End of this chapter)