Puzzle Madness

Chapter 156 Circle (Part Six)
The movement of rain and blood outlines a huge, transparent hourglass—and the cataloger is located at the very center of this hourglass.

The air was filled with the smell of burning and the saltiness of the sea breeze, along with a chilly dampness; the smell could almost penetrate the pores of one's skin, causing a tingling sensation on the back of the tongue.

DouDou hadn't smelled such a strong burnt smell in a long time, even stronger than before. It filled her entire nasal cavity, yet she couldn't find the source of the smell.

The last time was a few years ago, before the neighbors in Tianhu Community moved away—one year during the Qingming Festival, the next-door resident burned paper money in the stairwell; the naughty children in the community threw a dead rat into the still-burning tin bucket.

He rubbed his nose: "Now it's that smell of burning keratin mixed with the carbonized flesh and bone, just like in my memory."
Dou Dou walked closer, ignoring the researchers; the scene before him was undoubtedly more captivating:

"That's amazing."

He couldn't help but sigh, feeling like a tourist who had just arrived in Mong Cai City—the world still has many interesting and fun things that have not yet been discovered.

It would be wonderful to see such novel things every day: of course, provided it doesn't interfere with normal schoolwork.

Drip, drip, drip.
Didi didi didi didi——
DouDou was startled by the sudden loud noise coming from her body:
The pager on the backpack strap was flashing wildly, its light even projecting tiny beams of light, like needles, straight into the sky; the increasingly loud and piercing buzzing sound far exceeded the volume of the previous notification tone.

He pulled off the pager, held it to his face, and squinted: the strange thing wasn't just the sound—the numbers on the screen were jumping around randomly, like a miniature slot machine.

The numbers vanished in an instant, replaced by text that scrolled left and right:
[No. Where's the network? No. Where's the network? No. Where's the network?]
DouDou frowned, even more confused:

"Huh, the internet? You're looking for the internet?"

Why is everyone I meet seemingly preoccupied with this internet? Could this whole scene actually be orchestrated by the so-called Internet Advancement Organization?
However, looking at the pager screen beeping wildly, DouDou immediately thought of a more serious problem:

Now that we can operate DouDou's pager screen, could the previous distress signal have come from this thing in front of us—we don't know what it is?

After all, he had already watched the "Secrets of Mankind" videotape; and a mouth that seemed to devour memories had grown on the back of his head.

Since the "Human Secrets" videotape can remotely alter another person's body, it's not impossible to remotely influence the content of a pager.
But is it just a hallucination, or is the pager's electronic components being manipulated?

The more he thought about it, the more agitated he became; his forehead was practically steaming.
-
The text on the pager screen changes, and new content appears in the blink of an eye:
[There's a mistake. The time is wrong. There's a mistake. The time is wrong.]
"What are you doing? Talking on the pager! Playing tricks, really."

DouDou shook his head, took long strides, and walked towards the cataloger floating in mid-air; he was getting annoyed no matter who was paged.
The air was very viscous, like a thick colloid; with each step, you could clearly feel the resistance on your skin.

It was even more difficult than swimming in water. The closer you got, the stronger the feeling became; when you reached the blood-covered figure, DouDou felt as if she were walking through a concrete wall.

Where are you? We should talk face-to-face.

DouDou is now certain that something is attached to the cataloger, or is using him to broadcast mental messages and trigger this series of anomalies.

Is it that [Dr. Human]? Whether it is or not, DouDou is determined to find this guy. "Is he here?"

He reached out and tore at the air in front of him—the sensation was subtle: there was water, an invisible liquid in mid-air; but there were no other foreign objects.

The blood-soaked people swayed more violently, and the silent dance quickened its pace. The cataloger stopped rising and began to rotate—horizontally, parallel to the ground.

DouDou looked around and suddenly thought of a way—he raised his hand, brushed aside the messy hair on the back of his head, and found the mouth from which the bloody person had crawled out not long ago.

Although they were all lacerations to the head, none of them produced "stones of thought" like the researchers did.

Speaking of which, we haven't had a chance to test whether eating brains can actually gain memories. However, since the blood-soaked man was able to crawl out of there...
Conversely, DouDou can also take something out of it, right?

Without the slightest hesitation, DouDou reached in and forcefully shoved her hand into her head.

First the fingertips, then the entire palm, and even the forearm and upper arm—
He contorted his body into a stretching position, his shoulder pressed against his occipital bone; his entire arm reached into his skull. Judging by the length of his arm, he had now passed over his neck and chest, and his fingertips should be able to touch the xiphoid process of his sternum and his stomach.

But in reality, DouDou didn't even touch the brain tissue.

It felt like he was shoving his hand into a sand dune, touching nothing but rough, sharp grains of sand; he couldn't feel his spine or stomach at all. When passing the rice and oil section of the supermarket, DouDou would always reach into the rice pile and scoop it up a couple of times, the sensation was similar to what he felt now.

"What's going on? Am I actually a human punching bag?"

He grumbled somewhat irritably, but didn't stop what he was doing; he knew that what he was exploring now was not the inside of his own body.

To be honest, DouDou didn't know why he could pull [Dr. Ren] out by putting his hand inside the back of his head—he just [felt] that it worked.

But like the random symbols I've encountered recently, DouDou discovered that [he feels] they are actually very important. Whether it's a subconscious awareness of things invisible to the naked eye manifesting as intuition, or whether his thoughts have infiltrated and even altered reality, is unclear.
There was no time to be surprised by the contents of his body. After the initial tentative exploration, DouDou began to frantically stir and rummage; the sensation grew stronger, and he was certain there was something inside—
Snapped!
Something gripped DouDou's hand. A cold, rough sensation came from his fingertips. This thing wrapped around DouDou's wrist and began to drag him away with all its might.

A palpable sense of struggle: whatever is inside this "grain of sand" is desperately gripping DouDou, trying to pull him in; and with great force. Based on DouDou's experience, it's somewhat like there's a freight train speeding by in his mind, with a steel cable tied to his hand at the rear.

"Hurry up and come out!"

DouDou took a deep breath and then strained. It was an awkward position that made it difficult to exert force, so he had to reach over with his other hand and wed it between his shoulders; he gritted his teeth and used both arms together to pull his arm outward.

*Thud.* The sound of a plunger being pulled out of the toilet.
DouDou's arm was finally pulled out inch by inch from the opening at the back of her head: first the deltoid muscle, then the upper arm and forearm.
His five fingers were gripping a rusty radio.

(End of this chapter)