Who says a sickly daughter can’t break through the weirdness?

The girl's face became obviously ugly at this moment. After a few seconds of silence, she truthfully told her experience last night.

Special Investigation Team, Entity, Green Haze...

After listening to the girl's story, Shen Qinyin silently memorized several key words in the passage.

So far, the girl has not behaved suspiciously or shown any hostility. Although it is still unclear how much truth or falsehood she said, Shen Qiyin believes that there is no need for her to deceive her about such matters.

She put down the exorcist's holy spear and nodded nonchalantly: "I see. I understand."

"Can you let me go now?"

"Why? I can't guarantee that you're not a threat to me."

"I'm the one tied up, and you're the one with the gun. So, no matter how you look at it, I'm the one being threatened, right?"

The girl smiled bitterly and squeezed out these words with her cracked lips: "Besides, I haven't eaten for almost two days. How can I have the energy to threaten you..."

Shen Qiyin thought for a moment and said to Xiaoxiang beside her: "Xiaoxiang, give her a glass of water."

"receive."

Xiaoxiang started the car with a humming sound and handed a glass of water to the girl's mouth.

The moment she saw Xiaoxiang, the girl's eyes widened and she murmured, "This is, yesterday..."

In other words, is this disabled girl the survivor who provides power to the robot?

With her limbs tied up, the girl had no choice but to raise her head and, with Xiaoxiang's help, she gulped down a glass of water.

The water slid through the dry throat, as if briefly moistening a piece of land that was about to wither, but was instantly swallowed up by endless thirst.

The long period of dehydration made the effect of this glass of water minimal. Not only did it fail to quench her thirst, but it made her thirst even more intense.

But the girl was very clear about her current situation. It was already very kind of the other party to treat her to a glass of clean water, and she couldn't ask for more.

Shen Qinyin looked at the girl thoughtfully and saw through her little thoughts at a glance.

This girl is quite simple. Perhaps it is because she has not experienced the apocalypse for a long time and has the protection of the shelter, so she has not become as cunning as the survivors in the apocalyptic movies.

Since she's been in a shelter, she probably knows a lot of information about the outside world, which is exactly what I need.

What's more, one more person means one more labor force, and I don't have to endure the night. I can try to get along with her and then decide whether to drive her away.

After thinking for a while, Shen Qiyin asked in a slightly gentler tone: "What's your name?"

"Tang Miao."

"My name is Shen Qiyin, Xiaoxiang, pour her another glass of water, a larger one."

"alright, got it."

Xiaoxiang obediently followed Shen Qinyin's instructions and poured Tang Miao a full glass of water.

Tang Miao seemed to be afraid that Shen Qinyin would go back on her word, so she ignored her aching body, tried to prop up her upper body, and drank all the water in the cup in one breath.

As a large amount of sweet spring water moistened the throat and flowed into the stomach, the coolness penetrated into every corner of the body, and the extreme thirst caused by lack of water was completely relieved.

After she recovered, Shen Qiyin said, "You just drank my entire day's supply of water. Plus, my robot brought you back. You now owe me two lives."

"You...what do you want me to do for you?"

Tang Miao was not a fool, and of course he knew the principle of being grateful to the favor of others. Moreover, what Shen Qiyin said was indeed right. If it were not for her, he probably would not have the strength to wake up again.

"As you can see, I'm disabled, and there's a lot you can do for me. Similarly, because I'm powerless, I'm taking a big risk in taking you in. I hope you understand this."

"..."

[The gun is in your hands, but you are the one at the greatest risk.]

Tang Miao couldn't help but complain in his heart.

"Then let me start by asking what I need to know most."

Shen Qiyin raised her right hand, gently twisting a crystal clear glass bead between her slender white fingers: "Where did you get this thing?"

The moment she saw the glass beads, Tang Miao's pretty face immediately showed annoyance: "Did you touch my pocket?"

"I don't mean to be a pickpocket. This fell out of your pocket. If it's important to you, I can return it to you."

"..."

Tang Miao's eyelids drooped slightly, and after hesitating for a moment, he shook his head: "Forget it, you can take it. I don't have the qualifications. This thing is useless to me..."

"Qualifications? What do you mean?"

"Don't you know? This is what's left behind after those 'entities' and 'phenomena' disappear. Qualified people can use it to learn 'forbidden knowledge' that humans have never mastered.

Currently, the authorities have uniformly recruited these humans who have mastered the "forbidden knowledge" as "investigators" and divided them into junior, intermediate, senior and expert investigators according to their abilities.

But these are just theories, based solely on the abilities demonstrated by the investigators. Currently, no one has even seen what a senior investigator looks like, let alone an expert one."

Shen Qiyin searched for words related to "investigator" in her mind. It seemed that this word was quite common in the Cthulhu worldview, and it was similar to the world at hand...

Maybe there is some connection.

She looked thoughtful and murmured softly, "So, as I expected, the authorities haven't completely lost their function."

Tang Miao's eyes dimmed, and he sighed pessimistically: "No, but it's almost there. Those things are pressing forward step by step, but there are very few qualified humans..."

Chapter 16 Forbidden Knowledge

Shen Qiyin was very interested in these "investigators" that Tang Miao mentioned.

If things go as expected, these investigators are probably the biggest reliance of the current survivors in dealing with the "entity".

She gently kneaded her index finger, her amber eyes staring straight at the other person, as if a pool of clear spring water was flowing in them:

"You just said that those who possess forbidden knowledge will be recruited as investigators. Then the professor killed by the 'Green Haze' last night must also be a qualified person, right?"

Tang Miao nodded and replied, "Well, although his capabilities are unknown, he is a genuine junior investigator. The official special investigation team has strict regulations that require an investigator to accompany them when carrying out missions to investigate entities."

"Since the investigators have a temporary theoretical classification, how are the levels of those 'entities' and strange beasts divided?"

"Because strange beasts exist on a physical level, they are officially classified based on their destructive power. Level 1 strange beasts only pose a threat to humans, and most can be stopped with thermal weapons.

Levels two and three are more troublesome, and heavy firepower weapons such as missiles, aircraft, and tanks must be used to cause damage to them.

As for level four and level five, I'm not quite sure. The most powerful monster recorded so far is only a level three monster, which is as tall as a five-story building.

Because the strange beast cannot be killed, even if it is burned to ashes or frozen into ice, it will be revived by the fog, and thermal weapons can only delay its movement.

So if we want to completely eliminate them, we can only wait until sunrise and let the sun take care of it."

Shen Qiyin stroked her cheeks and asked curiously, "Theoretically, sunlight is essentially a mixture of light of different intensities and wavelengths. In addition to visible light, there are also invisible long-wave and short-wave radiation.

So, can we use artificial sunlight to deal with those strange beasts?"

"If it were possible, humanity wouldn't have fallen to this point."

Tang Miao smiled bitterly and said, "Although the principle is the same, the sunlight simulated by humans will not have any effect on those strange beasts.

It's like fog. Although there are no harmful substances in the air, it can rewrite and pollute human cognition.

Scholars say that this is a phenomenon that cannot be explained at the physical level, and the answer can only be found at the 'idealistic level'..."

"I see."

Shen Qiyin's eyes dimmed slightly, but it was not because she was disappointed. After all, Tang Miao's answer was exactly the same as what she had guessed. If she could think of it, the government certainly couldn't have failed to think of it.

"You just said that the mist contains no harmful substances. Does that mean that water and food exposed outdoors can be consumed normally?"

"Well, as long as it's not sewage and not expired or rotten, it's fine."

"Is that so? This relieves a lot of my stress..."

Afterwards, Tang Miao gave Shen Qiyin some general information about "entity" and "phenomenon".

Shen Qiyin already had enough knowledge about the entity, so there was no need to elaborate. However, this was the first time she had heard of the concept of "phenomenon".

From a definitional perspective, "entity" and "phenomenon" are the same thing, both being supernatural entities that cannot be explained by science.

But compared to entities that have a "concrete form" and can be "materialized" and observed by humans, "phenomenon" is more metaphysical and illusory.

It could be a gust of wind, a smell, or a scene, a picture, or even a feeling.

For example, Tang Miao had encountered a "phenomenon" before. The manifestation of that "phenomenon" was that dozens of people had the same dream at the same time.

The dream did not have any specific images, it was as chaotic and disorganized as the dreams we had when we had a cold and fever as children. However, the dreamers said that they heard a very gentle female voice in their dreams.

Officials speculated that the "female voice" might be the source of the "phenomenon". Investigators had tried to investigate "her", but with human means, they could not even detect "dreams", let alone find out "her" true appearance and purpose.

Fortunately, that "phenomenon" is not hostile to humans and is one of the very few "friendly phenomena" that is harmless to humans.

If it could kill people, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Because "entities" and "phenomena" are so mysterious, the authorities can only classify them based on the difficulty for humans to deal with them and the degree of threat they theoretically pose to humans, from high to low, from A to E.

As of now, the most powerful "entities" observed by the authorities in Yunlan City include several others, in addition to the "green haze" that attacked Tang Miao and his group last night.

This is just what has been observed. Many investigators have inferred that there must be more powerful "entities" lurking in the fog that cannot be observed by humans.

"'Green Haze'... I've heard investigators mention it in popular science lectures. It's a very dangerous D-class entity."

Tang Miao recalled his experience in the shelter and slowly recounted it, "According to the assessment, at least three junior investigators must be present at the same time to avoid being contaminated by it and have a chance of surviving it.

Since it is highly similar to the E-level 'Green Shade', the investigators last night probably mistook it for 'Green Shade', which is why..."

Shen Qiyin said thoughtfully, "It's not necessarily that they're mistaken. These things are good at disguising themselves. Perhaps the 'Green Haze' is deliberately disguising itself as 'Green Shade' to lure people in."

"Well, what you said is possible. After all, humans have confirmed that these entities have a certain degree of intelligence and learning ability..."

"Rest first, I'll get you something to eat."

Seeing that the conversation was almost over, Shen Qinyin glanced at Tang Miao's weak face, threw down these words, and left the bedroom.

This time, Tang Miao did not ask her to untie the cable tie, as if to prove to Shen Qinyin that she was very obedient.

Generally speaking, people who know how to endure are either docile and obedient sheep, or extremely cunning and ambitious people. However, judging from Tang Miao's performance, Shen Qiyin is more inclined to believe that she is the former.

After leaving the bedroom, Shen Qinyin took out the glass beads she got from Tang Miao.

The reason why she cared so much about this glass bead was because it was called "the fragment of the core of fear" in the notebook.

The appearance is obviously much better than the previous fragment, but the value given by the notebook is only 25.

Could it be that the notebook's way of judging these fragments is not based on appearance, but on more mysterious idealistic things?

According to Tang Miao, this thing can allow "qualified" humans to obtain "forbidden knowledge" that does not exist on Earth.

This knowledge is roughly equivalent to the experience points in the game, and the Fear Core Fragments are the experience scrolls in the game.

No one knows what "experience points" are, but they can make characters level up and become stronger.

Shen Qinyin's mind moved, and the glass beads in her hand were transformed into "desire stones" and stored in the notebook.

Although the 25 Desire Stones were not many, they at least solved her urgent problem. She could just think of it as the "food expenses" paid by Tang Miao, the boy who brought her wealth.

Now with the original three desire stones, the balance in the notebook has returned to double digits.

Chapter 17 Her Fawning

A few minutes later, Shen Qinyin returned to the bedroom with a bowl of soaked noodles.

Tang Miao, who smelled the fragrance, almost immediately stood up from the ground, like a fish about to die of thirst, hunched over, staring at the bowl of noodles in Shen Qinyin's hand with wolf-like eyes.

Shen Qinyin was sure that if she hadn't been tied up with cable ties, the girl would have pounced on her right then and there.

"Give."

She placed the bucket of noodles in front of Tang Miao and said calmly, "Eat it while it's hot."

Tang Miao tried to crawl on the ground twice, and then he started to feel troubled by the bucket that was so close to him.

After hesitating for a moment, she mustered up the courage and looked at Shen Qiyin with pitiful eyes: "My hands can't move, can you help me untie them..."

Shen Qiyin rubbed her index finger and gave Xiaoxiang an order: "Xiaoxiang, get the scissors and cut the cable tie off her hand."

"Okay, a gentle reminder: Illegal detention and restriction of others' personal freedom is a serious crime. According to our country..."

"Shut up, artificial idiot. This is the end of the world. The current law is no longer valid."

"receive."

Xiaoxiang grabbed the scissors with his robotic arm and cut the cable tie on Tang Miao's hand with a very stiff and awkward technique.