Wan Jie Hospice Care Company

Just as the two were about to clear a space and leave, the sound of a car engine caught their attention.

Xiangyu looked up and saw an old Santana parked at the entrance of the old residential area.

Two familiar faces stepped out of the car; they were Ji Zhuo and Li Yiheng.

"Phew, this snow is really weird today." Li Yiheng rubbed his cold hands. "Could the end of the world just be endless snow that buries the whole world?"

Ji Zhuo waved his hand, signaling Li Yiheng not to say such unlucky things, and then took a difficult step to stand in front of Xiang Yu and An Ling.

"Section Chief Xiang, I went to the office a few hours early today and compiled a list of all the strange things that have happened these past few days." Ji Zhuo paused. "By the way, where are you two headed downstairs so early?"

"New Century Commercial Center..." Xiang Yu exhaled a puff of white breath, "Let's go there and buy something."

Ji Zhuo was stunned: "...What? Wasn't the trade center closed down?"

"Closed? When?" Xiang Yu turned to look at An Ling. "Didn't you know?"

An Ling looked somewhat bewildered. She shook her head: "I don't know... I remember it was still open last week, wasn't it?"

"That's true, you were probably busy back then... It was at Gate 12. They said there was a large-scale disappearance at the trade center, and many people went missing there. We're still counting the exact number." Ji Zhuo handed a piece of paper to Xiang Yu. "This is one of the reasons I came to see you today."

Xiang Yu glanced at the materials in his hand, and it was indeed as Ji Zhuo had said: the trade center had been reported for a large-scale disappearance case and was currently closed for rectification.

And there's another interesting point to it.

"The owner of this commercial center... hired a master to exorcise evil spirits?" Xiang Yu said, glancing at the supplementary materials.

"Yes, this boss is quite superstitious, so in order to solve this problem, he invited a famous master from here to exorcise the ghost..." Ji Zhuo felt that there was something wrong with what he said, "If there really are ghosts, this can't be called superstition, right?"

Xiang Yu shook his head: "That's not the case. The main reason for superstition is blindly believing in something without understanding it. It has little to do with whether ghosts exist or not. Even if ghosts really exist, if the boss doesn't think about anything and just blindly goes to so-called 'masters,' that's also a kind of superstition."

"On the contrary, the significance of science lies in discovering patterns based on in-depth research and the summarization of information. Essentially, that's what I'm doing... In this way, even if there are things in the world that humans cannot understand, what we do is still scientific."

Ji Zhuo and Li Yiheng nodded with relief. After what had happened, they had thought that science was going to fail against metaphysics.

"So we need to face ghosts and monsters scientifically." Xiang Yu patted the two on the shoulder. "Come on, take us to the trade center."

"Hmm? Are you still going? I think that place is... very dangerous..."

"Since there's a problem there, we should go even more. If we avoid going to certain places because we feel it's dangerous, then we'll never solve the problem of the apocalypse. Anyway, the world will end on the 31st. Even if we just barely survive, we'll only live for another ten days or so."

"Okay." Ji Zhuo nodded upon hearing this, and pointed to the Santana behind him, saying, "Then get in my car."

"Is that a police car?"

"Oh no, it's my family's car, we just bought it."

Ji Zhuo let the group get into the car. Li Yiheng sat in the passenger seat, while Xiang Yu and An Ling sat in the back seat.

The Santana struggled to move forward on the snow, the snow tires crunching over the snow, until it reached the main road and was able to pick up speed.

It seemed that some people were clearing snow from the main road, and others were spreading salt. Although the efficiency of clearing snow while it was snowing was very low, it was finally not as difficult to walk as the snow that was piled up in the middle of the neighborhood.

Only then could Xiang Yu see the levels above the two people's heads; they seemed to be E+.

E+?

Xiang Yu was taken aback. These two people, whether in terms of agility or strength, did not seem to be among the top human level. How could they possibly reach E+?

Unless one has very strong mental strength... but after the previous events, it seems that one's mental strength is just so-so?

The next moment, he realized what the problem was.

"Did you bring guns?" Xiang Yu asked, leaning out from the back seat.

"...!"

Ji Zhuo's hand trembled as he drove, and he hesitated before saying, "Section Chief Xiang... how did you know?"

"Just a guess."

"...Haha, that was a very accurate guess."

Ji Zhuo shuddered. With his back to Xiang Yu, he felt incredibly insecure, as if Xiang Yu had seen through everything about him.

Xiang Yu crossed his arms again. It seemed his judgment was correct; possessing a weapon that could enhance combat power should also increase the character's level.

While the car was in motion, Xiang Yu began to summarize some of the doubts he had encountered earlier.

1. Why do dolls immediately revert to their original form when they see a mirror reflection?

2. Why did the woman who sang "The Day Is Short and the Night Is Hard" appear at the beginning and send Ji Zhuo and Li Yiheng back? But when I came up with a solution, she disappeared?

3. The diary says that these strange things are connected, but now it seems that the ceramic figurine and the doll are not closely related.

4. Is today's heavy snowfall normal weather or is there some deeper reason?

5.…

When Xiang Yu thought of the fifth point, he took out his diary again and began to study today's entries.

Actually, today's diary is a bit strange. It's not written neatly in the grid like the first day, nor is it written very messily like last time. Instead, it's written one sentence every other line, with a blank line between the two sentences.

What does this mean?

It's also possible that it was just written that way, and I'm overthinking it?

Forget about that for now, let's solve the simpler problems first.

First, consider the doll's ability to make those who aren't looking at it forget about it. So, whether it's a neighbor or someone who's turned away, the solution is to keep staring at it.

and many more……

Let those who haven't looked at it forget it...

If we think about it from the opposite perspective, its ability should actually be to make people who look at it remember it.

That's right, if that's the case, then everything makes sense.

These two abilities appear to be the same, but there is a difference between them: whether this strange self can remember itself.

Judging from its final, eerie behavior, it had actually forgotten its own identity, but the moment it saw itself, it suddenly remembered everything.

What did it remember? What was its original identity? And is this memory related to the apocalypse?

This is a very important question; he needs to ask it.

So he slowly entered a state of flow and asked the voice from the void, "Was the last memory the doll recalled related to the apocalypse?"

"……yes."

The voice answered with absolute certainty, and then disappeared.

"Related".

Xiang Yu nodded. Now he had a new clue: the strange things that appeared in the diary were all related to the apocalypse!

It's a pity that we can't communicate with the strange creature, otherwise I would really have asked it what it was thinking.

He looked at the side quests on the system panel.

Side Quest 1: Find out why the world cannot reach the year 2000.

If I can find some evidence, then this task will be easily solved.

"arrive."

Ji Zhuo's voice rang out, and Xiang Yu looked out the window. A six-story building resembling a shopping mall stood in the middle of the pedestrian street.

Strangely, the pedestrian street, which should have been bustling with activity, is now deserted.