Puzzle Madness

Chapter 164 Rain Rust (Part 7)

click!
DouDou pressed the pause button. He tried to be as gentle as possible, so as not to break the machine.

The Pan-Solar System Land God Hypothesis? Cosmic Enthusiasm? What are these things? They're all obscure and nonsensical concepts. Maybe I should look them up at the provincial library next time I go, or look for past forum tapes.

He scratched his scalp, almost rubbing it until it was on fire—after a while, he suddenly blurted out:
"What's going on? Are you talking about UFOs and aliens or something?"

However, this milk tea shop owner's idea is more provocative than sarcodone.

Moreover, compared to the guy who called himself a "business genius," his voice sounded more like a normal person's—he spoke calmly and with a touch of elegance; it was just that his ideas were more outrageous and rambling.

DouDou had never heard of such a claim before, nor had she seen it in "Super Psychological Exploration"; let alone anything strange like "Cosmic Earth God".
However, DouDou's homeroom teacher had mentioned a few related things before: the disintegration and explosion of the [Future Destiny] might not have been a natural disaster, but a man-made one—if even he said that, then this conspiracy theory must have spread quite widely.

At the end of last semester, the school organized a trip to see a documentary about the Mars landing spacecraft accident; however, the theater's sound system malfunctioned, and the film was dubbed in Chinese without subtitles. In the end, the students stared at each other blankly, watching lip movements and reading text for two hours, but no one could understand it.

Moreover, something so far away (in both time and space) was completely ignored by the class.

[Why not just broker a deal and let the milk tea shop sell some kind of sulfuric acid milk tea? They could be business partners.]

If it were explained in a more detailed and logical manner, DouDou might have even found it quite credible: but now it's so brief, it's not much different from those guys wearing tin foil hats.
People have long claimed that the Mong Cai City Radio Station emits brainwaves that encourage people to eat more meat and buy less fruit and vegetables, with the aim of raising uric acid levels in Mong Cai residents and causing everyone to develop gout. This is undoubtedly a terrifying and malicious psychological weapon.

However, wearing tin foil as a hat can help resist the effects, which may be a marketing tactic devised by the tin foil supplier of the supermarket: ovens are not popular in Mong Cai, so it is inevitable that tin foil will not sell well. Dou Dou has been particularly fond of eating meat for a while, and I wonder if he was affected by this.

"Can I add this to my essay? Oh no, no way. The teacher will think I'm an idiot."

DouDou grinned and scratched his head, ignoring the idea of ​​padding the word count.

Furthermore, the editorial department didn't even bother to anonymize the submission from [Mr. Zhou Xincheng]—though this guy who runs a bubble tea shop in Penang is a bit clueless, as he just used his real name. Why not just use a pseudonym?
However—it could also be entirely misleading identification information; his accent doesn't sound like someone who lives in Malaysia at all, and DouDou did live in Malaysia when he was a child. The same goes for his name; many people think DouDou's name is a pseudonym; conversely, using a pseudonym to disguise his real name could naturally serve as cover.

Although the content sounded rather neurotic, the enthusiasts' exchange group definitely had more fresh ideas, unlike "Super Psychological Exploration," which only had a few recurring topics.

DouDou pressed play again; the thought about real and fake names reminded him of his own experiences.

As the music for the next submission played, DouDou flipped through the A4 paper several times, but still couldn't find the reply she wanted.

"Hey, why didn't you mention that thing about my house's gas explosion that's been all over the news?"

Previously, DouDou had specifically mentioned in the audio tape she was applying for that she should stop repeatedly putting her story in the magazine.

[Perhaps it's a standard reply? But it's still good that my application was approved—there shouldn't be any applications, just a matter of paying the membership fee and getting approved, right? I was so careful with my application beforehand.]

[They didn't say whether they'd still be able to publish my "[Indestructible]" thing in the future? Oh well, let's just keep listening for now—]

Compared to the previous ones, the following submissions were much more normal. The cassette tape spool continued to click, the sound erratic; as it ran, the smell of burning batteries grew stronger. "...This one is about the men in black who have appeared near my house. They're all wearing dark suits or trench coats, with ties; underneath, shirts. It must be some kind of uniform: the people change, but the clothes are similar; it feels like they're mass-produced at a store like [Workhouse]."

"I suspect they are spying on me, but I don't know why."

"The man in black disappeared after I called the police, but he reappeared after a while, and this happened many times. The police suspect that I filed a false report, so I don't dare to file any more reports. Should I move? Or should I just ignore it? Let's see what our readers have to say."

[Why does this outfit sound so familiar?]

Dou Dou rubbed his nose and wrinkled his face: the immersion was completely interrupted by the absurdity of the memory.

Isn't this the kind of clothing worn by people at Asia-Europe Post—to be precise, the clothing worn by the so-called Special Parcel Handling Department; Richard still wears it to this day.

Perhaps the reader who submitted the article has some kind of money-making obsession that has attracted the company's attention to investigate? However, in DouDou's opinion, obsessions aren't exactly fashionable these days; she's seen several in just two or three weeks.

That's quite a coincidence. Could it be that the person who submitted the article also lives in the Jiaozhi Autonomous Prefecture?

However, it may not have happened in Mong Cai; after all, there are people from Asia-Europe Post everywhere. Moreover, the submissions on the tape were all from at least a week ago; and considering the time when the incident occurred, it must have been even earlier.

The timeliness is really terrible.
DouDou originally wanted to use the forum tapes as a supplement to her intelligence: after all, she couldn't be blind every day and not know where to find fun things.

But the contributor hadn't finished speaking:

"Oh, oh! One more thing. There's been a supernatural killer imitator lately? Something like Jason or Michael: those who watch horror movies often should know who I'm talking about—Friday the 13th and Halloween; those two movies did pretty well at the box office, right?"

"I initially thought she might have dressed up and put on makeup specifically for some kind of arts and culture exhibition. But her figure is terrifying. Maybe she's a bodybuilder? I keep seeing her wandering around at night."

The female reader spoke very quickly, but her pronunciation was a bit unclear; at first, DouDou thought she was talking about Michael Jackson (the famous Michael Jackson). DouDou was quite familiar with the names mentioned; for a while, video arcades loved to show these blood-soaked series of movies.

Actually, it didn't say much; it was all rather disjointed. Where exactly did it imitate: invulnerability? Wearing a mask? They mentioned Jason and Michael, but not their equally famous Freddy; it was probably the strong, tall type who covered his face.

DouDou yawned—it wasn't as fun as she'd imagined; it was rather hypnotic.

"Subject. Let's call it [Beware of Man-Eating Air Raid Shelters]. Contributor: Is this required?"

Are there any readers living in the Autonomous Prefecture of Cochinchina?

Ah! Jiaozhi Autonomous Prefecture!
DouDou, who was getting increasingly drowsy, suddenly perked up—
"My submission was placed in a pretty precise location, so it should be able to be broadcast. Anyway, I don't know if anyone has heard of Mong Cai City? Readers who don't can look it up; it's also where the editorial office of 'Super Psychological Exploration' is located."

"There's something wrong with the air-raid shelter here; it's best not to go in unless absolutely necessary."

(End of this chapter)