Chapter 39: Convergence

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【New Interview Record: 1099 Containment Breach Event-4-6】
"Alright, the recording is ready... Robin, how are you feeling now?"
"A bit dizzy—is this red capsule addictive?"
"Hardly. It is safer than you think. Once you become a Level C employee, you can apply to use it to enhance your memory and retrieval capabilities. Are you ready?"
"I am."
"Then, I must confirm with you again—when you struck down the facility deputy, was there anything unusual about his appearance?"
"The environment was very dark at the time, let me think... maybe everything was normal... no, I mean, everything about him was completely normal."
"Are you sure?"
"Sure. I even know his shirt buttons were all fastened—yes, I remember many details, absolutely certain—right, the pen I couldn't find this morning actually fell into..."
"Thank you, Robin. Excessive talkativeness is a normal side effect of the medication; you will recover in a while. I am now sending someone to escort you back to the orientation training grounds."
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【New Interview Record: 1099 Containment Breach Event-4-10】
"Look, I have always been cooperative with you people. The military training makes me feel terrible—headaches, aching bones; you know I rarely get any sun in the facility, and I'm calcium deficient..."
"You were not brought here to discuss this issue, CVA. If you feel you are not suited for the Mobile Task Force support team, why haven't you submitted an application instead of constantly writing complaint letters about your poor treatment?"
"But I—"
"You can go back and write an application. If you don't have a pen, I can lend you one. Now, state once more the condition of the target when you last witnessed him."
"..."
"CVA-D-9013, I am asking you a question."
"I know, I know... *sigh*, when I finally escaped with those special forces members—at that time those monsters were already gone—anyway, I didn't see him then. I think maybe some rocks fell and buried him, so I didn't waste time looking; besides, that guy wasn't exactly a good..."
"And before that?"
"Before that... when I was trying to block those monsters, I saw him throw something at her. I wanted to help at the time, but I couldn't get through, my hand got bitten—"
"Was there any anomaly in his posture at the time?"
"I'm not sure, I was too far away, and the lighting was poor..."
"Stop swaying back and forth, CVA. Do not make any unusual movements. When you blocked the lead anomalous entities, did they not attempt to bypass you?"
"How would I have the time to observe that? But if you insist... it was indeed strange. The corridor was wide enough for them to pass... maybe it's because they have no eyes and couldn't see the path to the side?"
"From your perspective, do you think the target might have escaped in the chaos when the monster group broke through?"
"It's possible."
"Reason?"

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"You haven't experienced that scene, but I could feel it. They weren't interested in humans; the feeling I got was that they just wanted to run—haha, a bit like me—I mean, run for my life! Not desertion!"
"Understood. You may go back and continue your training."
"Wait, can I change my transfer location? You have a dedicated logistics department, don't you? I could—"
"Guard, please come and escort the entity out."
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The factory door, locked for many years, swung inward with a creaking sound.
Although it was already night outside, the faint starlight and moonlight made the exterior slightly brighter than the interior of the completely dark factory building. A head poked cautiously through the doorway, observed for a moment, bowed its head to press something, and then a bright light flashed.
Shi Rang held his phone flashlight, inching little by little into the depths of the factory.
Shi Rang had already cursed his editor-in-chief countless times in his mind—resigning didn't stop him from venting his resentment—and then he began to reflect on himself, cursing his own forgetfulness, his own stupidity, and his own lack of courage to have stood up to his editor sooner.
There were many times he could have improved his life, but he was always hesitant, and as a result, he made the situation worse.
Just like now!
The Yunling New District was filled with factories, and various indoor structures were packed together like building blocks; even walking through them in daylight was no easy task. When he failed to find his way while scouting locations in the afternoon, he had repeatedly pressed himself against walls and scraped past the edges of residual pipe trenches, but he would die before trying such a thing at night.
He still couldn't quite grasp how he managed to escape the deep pit last time, and he dared not gamble on whether a miracle would happen a second time.
In the end, he had to choose a factory that looked relatively intact and try to pass through it from the inside.
He hoped the exit would open onto an empty space...
As long as he could find an open area, he could follow the city lights to a road and find a place with a signal.
The subsequent steps were still full of uncertainty and danger, but compared to being trapped in the horrific abandoned industrial zone, they were minor problems.
【Remaining Battery: 12%】
After surfing the web for most of the day, his phone battery was running low. Shi Rang gripped the phone tightly, moving cautiously while following the light, checking the battery percentage in the top-right corner from time to time.
Every time it dropped even a little, his heart would twitch.
The darkness seemed to be deliberately swallowing the light; the phone flashlight could only illuminate up to three steps ahead. Shi Rang was forced to slow his pace, holding his breath from time to time, carefully listening to see if anything other than his own footsteps was making noise in the factory.
A few minutes later, he bent down to crawl through a square gap, and as he looked up, a spherical object came into view.
Shi Rang stopped abruptly.
He froze, examining the object at the edge of the light, only to discover it was just a faded basketball. He summoned his courage to walk over and nudged it aside with the tip of his shoe, the delusions in his head about decapitated heads slowly dissipating.
Why would there be a basketball here?
He lifted the light and saw a pile of waste cardboard and a broken sofa.
A homeless person had stayed here once.
Looking closely, this "base" was quite luxurious; there was bright spray paint on the walls, a mattress on the sofa, and not far away, a wooden table with a lounge chair—it was a perfect homeless dwelling.

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This meant it was safe here.
Shi Rang immediately had the thought of spending the night here and waiting until dawn.
He shook the cardboard and covered the mattress on the sofa.
Although the dust he kicked up made him sneeze three times, it looked decent enough...
A cold gust of wind swept through the factory ceiling, scraping against the metal to create a sound like a scream, which immediately made Shi Rang abandon the idea of staying. He always felt something would pounce out of the darkness, so he quickly left the makeshift bed and continued walking forward.
【Remaining Battery: 10%】
The factory was larger than Shi Rang had imagined. After passing through countless doors and walking through workshops that had once been prepared for 24-hour production, an iron door blocked his path.
The door was rusted and could only be pulled open enough to create a gap the width of a palm.
Fresh air rushed in from the other side of the gap, and Shi Rang could not see any more walls.
It was the exit!
But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't widen the gap.
Shi Rang turned around in place, found a metal bar, quickly turned off his flashlight, shoved his phone into his pocket, grabbed the bar, and struggled to wedge it into the gap—
*Rumble...*
The sound of a distant vehicle made Shi Rang stop.
Through the gap, he saw a car headlight appear in the distance.
It didn't crash into the wall but drove to the back of another building, followed by the loud sound of car doors opening and closing. A figure walked into the light spilling from the headlights, pacing in the distance as if waiting for something, or perhaps looking for something. The silhouette of the person looked a bit strange, but he couldn't capture many details.
Who would come to a no-man's-land at night?
Could he have encountered a criminal gang again?
A series of guesses flashed through Shi Rang's mind, and the camera hanging around his neck felt increasingly heavy.
Could it be retaliation from the Blue Signal?
Had his identity as the whistleblower been exposed?
The iron bar was stuck in the door gap. Shi Rang's hand rested on the camera in hesitation for a moment, and when he raised his eyes to look again, the headlights were gone.
The sound of an idling engine was still in the distance.
Shi Rang spent a few seconds adapting to the returning darkness, then discovered the circle of light was still there, only it was being blocked, merely outlining the silhouette of what was obstructing it, outlining...
A person standing outside the door.