Starting with dissecting ghost stories

Shen Yuan didn't seem to want to pester Shen Xing to continue talking. She seemed to know that Shen Xing wouldn't say anything nice. After venting her emotions that she had suppressed all day, she continued eating.

Shen Xing returned to his bedroom, locked the door, dragged out his suitcase, opened it, and looked at the doll inside.

After snapping his fingers to wake the doll, Shen Xing looked at the mooncake box next to it, took it out, and opened it.

Inside, there were still layers of gauze wrapped around the black honeycomb tumor. It made no attempt to break free and was still slightly throbbing, indicating that it was still active.

"How are you feeling now?" Shen Xing asked, looking at the doll.

"Very bad."

The doll's voice echoed in Shen Xing's mind.

"What would happen if we cut another piece of your original body now?" Shen Xing continued to ask.

"Hibernation," the doll replied directly.

"How can I recover?"

"eat."

Shen Xing took out his satchel, inside which was the piece of flesh he had dug out. He tossed it directly to the doll.

This was originally intended for dolls. Let's see if the actual flesh and blood captured in the photos will give the dolls the mindset of the person whose photos were taken—even though the original person in the photos was just a corpse.

Shen Xing turned on the DV camera and pointed the lens at the puppet in front of him.

A large amount of black mycelium gushed from the girl's mouth in the video, wrapping around the flesh and blood that Shen Xing had thrown to her, and stuffing it into her mouth. "Thank you, Mother," the doll said expressionlessly.

"Just call me Number 0," Shen Xing said, still finding the title too awkward. He directly stated, "You are 02, Number 2." Shen Xing knew his body was also abnormal, but he had never given himself a number. Now, however, the numbering was confirmed. Number 1 was already occupied by [01-Wall], so the next number before that could only be [00-Shen Xing].

Using a name as a code might not be appropriate; "[00-Person]" would be more suitable... However, can I still call myself a person? Let's just use "[00-Original]" as the code name.

"OK."

After receiving the answer from [02-Doll], Shen Xing pointed towards the iron mooncake box and asked, "Do you know what this is?" The other party was also an anomaly and might know some information that he did not.

"I don't know." The doll shook its head. "It's not alive."

Not alive?

What does that mean?

"When I took you to the school clinic yesterday, was that wall alive?"

"wall?"

"Was the thing that made you feel threatened yesterday alive?"

Am I alive?

"What about this?" Shen Xing pointed again to the honeycomb-like growths in the mooncake box.

"It's not alive."

Are we similar?

"And this one?" Shen Xing pointed to [03-Honeycomb] again.

"no."

Since the doll couldn't express its own thoughts, Shen Xing could only confirm what the doll's understanding of "03-Honeycomb" was through these questions.

From the doll's perspective, the wall, Shen Xing, and the doll itself all belong to the same type of "living thing".

But to the doll, this honeycomb-like growth was an inanimate object.

"Would you like to eat it?" Shen Xing asked.

"No." The doll on the screen shook its head.

"So what exactly is it?"

What exactly is it?

The doll did not give a reply.

【03-Honeycomb】Is it just a piece of "flesh" that has fallen off the honeycomb-like structure of a chandelier?

However, the abnormal flesh is just flesh generated by [01-Wall], and the puppet will also want to eat it.

Could it be that the chandelier celluloid is fundamentally different from other anomalies?

Are there also categories among anomalies?

What type is 【01-Wall】? What type is a doll? What type is a celluloid?

The individual differences between them are indeed significant, and the other two do not possess the same thinking ability as the doll—even if it is only a temporarily stolen thinking ability.

The sample size is still too small.

If Shen Xing were to categorize the three anomalies based solely on his first impression, he could classify them into three categories.

【01-Wall】This type of creature may be enormous, but it can only hunt by cooperating with other creatures. Shen Xing would categorize them into two types. 【02-Puppet】This type of creature can hunt alone and can even acquire certain human thinking abilities.

However, [03-Honeycomb] seems to be of the same type as [01-Wall], which also needs to erode other creatures first to get them to help it hunt... But it seems to have never eaten at all, it just keeps eroding and infecting human consciousness, spreading like a virus.

When a host like Wang Lei dies, the celluloma will leave the host's body and exhibit homing-like behavior.

The reason Shen Xing didn't put it in the category of [01-Wall] is because the doll said it was dead.

It seems to have no desire to actively hunt, and its behavior is more mechanical; it is more like a "tool" than a living organism.

So how do I "activate" or "use" this tool?

Can it "spread" one's own thoughts, or rather, one's own emotions? Can it be used to manipulate others?

What is it like inside?

The transfer of ownership of the bread truck won't be completed until tomorrow, so Shen Xing had to temporarily suppress his idea of ​​cutting it open and put the lid of the mooncake box back on.

My building is full of residents. If cutting it open triggers a strong emotional reaction, then my community will be the next one to be surrounded by the Ninth Detachment.

Join the field operations team and see if you can get some research data from the Ninth Detachment.

As long as he doesn't request any resources or assistance and acts like a living dead, the Ninth Squad has no reason to suspect anything about him.

Actually, there is another way.

If the remains of [02-Puppet] separated from the main body can maintain the same thoughts and have the same abilities as the main body... he could cut [02-Puppet] in half, treat it as the mastermind behind Li Ya's family massacre, and send it directly into the Ninth Division.

But this requires that [02-Puppet] can perfectly control its own clone and have absolute loyalty to Shen Xing. That's incredibly difficult.

Even if [02-Puppet] professed its absolute loyalty to Shen Xing, Shen Xing would never believe it.

Tonight, after washing up, Shen Xing practiced a wry smile in front of the mirror before going to bed early.

At six o'clock in the morning on Tuesday, Shen Xing opened his eyes on time.

Washing up, changing clothes, making breakfast, eating, and going to work... everything seems to have returned to its original rhythm.

After indulging in food and drink and resting, Shen Xing's complexion had improved considerably, although his body fat hadn't accumulated back up so quickly. Today, Shen Xing planned to print out some paintings, and let Shen Yuan go to school by herself first.

Shortly after Shen Xing arrived at the printing shop, he received another phone call.

It belongs to Chen Liming.

"Ah Xing... Someone reported a crime this morning, so we cordoned off the scene. That copycat... has struck again! Do you need to come to the crime scene?"

"No need, is it?" Shen Xing politely declined. "Uncle Chen, I've already resigned. Now I'm just an ordinary school doctor." "The deceased...suicide! The cause of death is exactly the same as Li Ya's! The scene is the same too!"

The sound of Chen Liming on the phone made Shen Xing pause slightly. He frowned and his brain began to work at lightning speed.

What does that mean?