This is a petite and cute Loli girl, wearing a goose-yellow petal skirt, sitting on a branch singing loudly, and the branches next to her are covered with little parrots attracted by the singing.
But the image of this girl coincides exactly with Xiao Baoer.
As the card surface appeared, and accompanied by this pleasant buzzing sound, a bright yellow light shield stood above Li Mengnan's head, like a round stone pier standing in the river, dividing the scorching flame into two halves.
"Ah! It's so hot! Why is the intensity so different?"
The bright yellow shield was obviously not as powerful as the previous peacock tail feathers. It shattered in less than two seconds after it came into contact with the flames spouted by the black giant dog. Fortunately, Li Mengnan reacted in time and dodged over, but the head curtain in front was still blocked.
It was burnt and curled up into a tangled mass.
However, the flames breathed by the black giant dog did not end so quickly. With just a tilt of the head, the terrifying heat wave swept over again.
Li Mengnan held up the bright yellow shield and hid behind the outer wall of the mirror maze, and switched the cards to the Ace of Spades again, but this time his target was not the black giant dog, but the female humanoid monster that had been hiding behind the giant dog.
As he expected, although directly attacking the female humanoid monster would cause the black giant dog to go berserk, the female humanoid monster was also the black giant dog's weakness. As long as it was attacked, the black giant dog would spare no effort to rescue it.
He even hesitated to use his body as a shield.
With just a few peacock tail feathers shot over, the giant black dog forcibly stopped the flames spitting out of its mouth, rushed to the female humanoid monster, and blocked all attacks with one side of its body.
"Okay, it's time to end."
Li Mengnan has figured out all the attack patterns and characteristics of this black giant dog. He has even figured out the sure-kill attack at the bottom of the box. It is time for the final finishing touch.
A crystal card popped out of the shadow's hand behind him.
Plum Blossom 3.
On the card is a heroic female warrior, wearing a somewhat tattered training uniform, her hands wrapped in thick bandages, a colorful tiger crawling at her feet, and the former king of the jungle had to obey her.
And the appearance of this female warrior is Wu Ansu.
With the blessing of this card, Li Mengnan's figure instantly accelerated to an incredible level, and he had already moved closer in two steps from a distance of more than ten meters.
The giant black dog barely had time to remember to react before he was punched between the eyes by Li Mengnan.
A circular air wave exploded from under Li Mengnan's fist, spreading like ripples in the air, and the faint sound of tigers roaring and dragons roaring could be heard.
At the center of the black giant dog's eyebrows, a "king"-shaped black texture gradually formed. With a muffled sound, the giant dog's two bulb-sized eyes suddenly flew out of their eye sockets, and the huge mountain-like figure followed with a crash.
He fell to the ground and there was no more movement.
Without the protection of the giant black dog, the female humanoid monster suddenly became as frightened as a human being. It dropped the chain and turned around and ran away with its unique twisting steps, and was immediately punched on the back of the head by Li Mengnan in the same way.
However, the body of this female humanoid monster was not as strong and durable as that of the giant black dog. With just three punches, her head was directly exploded, and the red and white brains splattered all over the floor, which was very disgusting.
The phantom behind him withdrew the card in his hand, and Li Mengnan sat on the ground, breathing heavily.
The intensity of this kind of fighting was beyond his imagination. If his physical strength hadn't suddenly improved for some reason, he would have been burnt to charcoal just now when the black giant dog breathed out flames.
Just when Li Mengnan was about to light a cigarette to calm down and continue walking forward, he suddenly felt a terrifying aura appearing nearby out of thin air and moving in his direction at an extremely fast speed.
Damn it! Did some monster appear again?
It was not Li Mengnan's style to sit still and wait for death. He steeled himself and found a bunker. The Ace of Spades appeared again in the hands of the shadow behind him.
Even if he is bound to die in the monster's mouth today, he will break one of the monster's teeth before he dies.
Almost at the same time that Li Mengnan was hiding, a mysterious man wearing a black and red sportswear and a one-piece hood, like a legendary ancient knight, flew from a distance while stepping on the branches of the tree tops.
.
Although her face was obscured by the hood and her face couldn't be seen clearly, judging from her slender waist and round body curves, she must be a woman.
As soon as the woman landed, she was attracted by the corpses of the giant dog and the female humanoid on the ground. She stepped forward to investigate, then stood up and looked around. Suddenly she looked in the direction where Li Mengnan was hiding and said, "Stop hiding, come out."
The woman's voice was cold, like a piece of ice that never melts, but it also carried an obvious and unquestionable meaning.
Li Mengnan couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief. He could talk, so they were probably not those monsters, so he walked out of the hiding place and asked the hooded woman: "Are you from the HX Research Institute?"
"I'm here to inform you that the mission ends early. Stay where you are until dawn, and you can escape from this dream on your own."
After saying that, the hooded woman turned around and left.
"Wait! You just left like that? Of the twenty volunteers, I am the only one who died. Shouldn't you explain something?"
Li Mengnan reached out to grab the woman's shoulder, but because he didn't want to lose his strength, he accidentally pulled off the woman's hood. A long white hair as pure as the first snow fell down, making him freeze on the spot.
Suddenly, the woman's figure whirled sharply, and a pair of blood-red pupils appeared among the silver threads flying in the sky.
A chill that penetrated his soul instantly surged into Li Mengnan's heart. Before he could even react, he felt a streak of blood spurting out of his left cheek.
You can't see how the other party takes action at all!
"The only person who dares to ask me for an explanation is a dead person - are you ready for this?"
The white-haired woman put on her hood and turned to leave. Li Mengnan subconsciously wiped the blood on his face with his hand. Suddenly, there was a violent tremor on the ground under his feet. A corner of the mirror maze behind him slowly collapsed, and the exposed fracture was like a knife cutting tofu.
Neat and smooth.
…
"Sign this and you will be free and everything will be back on track."
Wei Mao pushed a contract and a pen in front of Li Mengnan, folded his hands on his knees, and had a persuasive expression, like a goldfish man who used a lollipop to lure an ignorant lolita.
"On the right track? Are you kidding? Or do you think your HX Institute is living a normal life?"
Li Mengnan's tone was full of sarcasm.
This is already the second day of the death test.
HX Research Institute still did not provide any explanation for this test, but when Li Mengnan woke up in the morning, a part-time researcher employment contract was placed in front of him.
Wei Mao smiled nonchalantly and said: "What kind of life should normal people live? This is a very profound philosophical question... At least I think my life is normal."
Li Mengnan grinned speechlessly and thought to himself, how can you, a bastard like Ben Si, be considered a normal person?
Wei Mao seemed to know that Li Mengnan was complaining about him in his heart, and smiled nonchalantly: "If you are not crazy, you will not survive... At least you survived and were not dragged out for target shooting as a murderer. Isn't this the best result?"
"Brother Wei, what is the significance of this test?"
Li Mengnan didn't want to accuse Wu Mao of anything. After all, the risks were clearly written in the volunteer agreement. Everyone participating in this test was voluntary and not forced. But he still couldn't figure out what the HX Research Institute arranged.
What was the purpose of this test that could almost be called a massacre?
Euonymus spread his five fingers flat on the table, and a welcome screen suddenly lit up on the table that was originally as dark as a tempered glass table.
Just visualizing the desktop was nothing. What surprised Li Mengnan even more was that the empty space in the center of the circular conference table also lit up. It turned out to be a holographic projection image that had not yet entered the application stage.
"It feels very 'high-class', right? I had the same reaction when I first came in, but after seeing it more, I got used to it... Okay, let's get back to the subject. I know you have a lot of questions, and now I will answer them one by one for you.
.”
Euonymus's hands continued to move on the table, making various operating gestures, and the holographic stereoscopic projection in the center of the conference table began to appear one after another with explanatory pictures and related images.
"I believe your biggest question now is - what kind of organization is HX Research Institute?"
Li Mengnan shrugged, indicating that what Wei Mao said was exactly what he thought.
"The history of the HX Institute can be traced back to the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China. In order to deal with certain supernatural events that cannot be explained and solved by science, the state came forward and summoned many strange people hidden among the people to establish a secret agency specifically to deal with such special events.
Organization, this is the predecessor of HX Research Institute."
Ignoring the eye-catching "No Smoking" sign on the wall, Wei Mao lit up a cigarette, rested one foot comfortably on the chair next to him, and casually scratched the table a few times, revealing a few pictures with a heavy historical atmosphere.
A yellowed old photo floats in the center of the conference room.
In the photo, dozens of people are all wearing gray-blue Mao suits with a sense of the historical era, but from some of the subtle movements they inadvertently showed, Li Mengnan can still distinguish the factions to which they belong.
It can be said that behind every person in this photo, there is a unique heritage. It is no exaggeration to say that there are so many talents.
"So the HX Research Institute should be regarded as belonging to the national security department?" Li Mengnan frowned. Although an organization with a national background seems to be of high caliber, the water inside is also very deep.
"It used to be, but it's not anymore." Wei Mao waved his hand. He didn't want Li Mengnan to misunderstand that he was deceiving him. "In a special historical period, our country of China once made a mistake of overcorrecting. The specific situation is as follows
You should also have learned it in history textbooks.
At that time, the top leader of the organization was arrested and criticized for promoting feudal superstition, and many of its members were not spared.
The organization was disbanded, but all kinds of supernatural phenomena would not disappear. The remaining members of the organization could not sit back and watch the land of China being devastated, so they reassembled personnel to rebuild the organization, avoid state supervision, and secretly solve various supernatural events.
That’s when the rules were set within the organization that it could maintain a certain degree of cooperation with the state, but it would never be a subordinate relationship.”
Li Mengnan nodded to express his understanding. No one would be angry if this matter was brought up to him. The veterans of the HX Research Institute were already quite aware of the overall situation. Otherwise, if they really wanted to make a fuss with the methods of these strange people, they would definitely
It can set back China's national strength by ten years.
"After the reform and opening up, the central government determined the line of emancipating the mind and seeking truth from facts, and began to face the existence of supernatural phenomena again. It wanted to reorganize the special response department of the year, but it was rejected by the successors of various factions.
The central government also knew that the estrangement between the two sides was caused by historical issues from that year, so it did the next best thing and provided venues and scientific researchers, and cooperated with organizations to establish the HX Research Institute to study the causes and solutions of various supernatural phenomena from a scientific perspective.
plan."
This makes perfect sense. The HX Research Institute is not so much a private scientific research institution as it is an unofficial national security department with official backing and care, but it is relatively loose in terms of autonomy and arbitrariness.
Dozens of documents floated in the holographic projection, and the dense file records inside them, although they only had numbers and names, still looked shocking.
"According to our research over the years, almost 90% of supernatural events are actually hallucinations produced by our brains... Of course, saying they are hallucinations does not mean they do not exist. In a sense, they are
It’s still a real supernatural phenomenon.”
"No need to explain in such detail, I understand." Li Mengnan raised his eyebrows and smiled.
"Oh, I almost forgot about your inheritance." Wei Mao suddenly slapped his forehead. There is really no one who understands illusions and hallucinations better than his lineage of magicians. His explanation even tastes like a copycat.
"After our research on countless paranormal phenomena, we discovered a very special magnetic field that can materialize thoughts of a certain intensity and can even forcibly pull people into a hypnotic state - we named it HX
Force Field, which is the initials of Illusion.”
"So this is the origin of HX Research Institute? I thought there was some deep meaning in it."
Li Mengnan didn't expect that the official name was actually "Illusion Force Field". It really seemed like there was a sense of destiny in the shadow of God's will...
"The name is nothing, but the logo of the institute is a bit meaningful." When Wei Mao said this, he deliberately let it slip.
"Zhuang Zhou Mengdie."
In the past, Zhuang Zhou's dream was a butterfly, and the dream of a butterfly was like a vivid butterfly. He described himself as his will and! He didn't know the Zhou Dynasty. Suddenly he realized that he was like a Zhou Dynasty. He didn't know that Zhou's dream was a butterfly and a butterfly, and the butterfly's dream was a butterfly and a butterfly. Zhou and the butterfly must be different.
Yes. This is called materialization.
Zhuang Sheng dreamed of butterflies, and the emperor's spring heart was entrusted with cuckoos. The profound philosophy contained in the allusion "Zhuang Zhou dreamed of butterflies" can almost be said to be the general outline of an illusionist's training. How could Li Mengnan not guess it?
"Smart." Euonymus gave a thumbs up.
"In other words, your test is to select executors who can solve supernatural events?"
This point is actually clearly stated in the employment contract in front of Li Mengnan. Asking this sentence is just an additional confirmation.
"Yes, our HX Research Institute does not lack theoretical and scientific research talents, but it lacks actual executors... In fact, there are never enough real front-line manpower."
Euonymus shrugged, with a hint of helplessness on his face.
The number of task executors of the HX Research Institute seems to be quite large, but the Chinese state is also too big. It covers an area of 9.6 million square kilometers. There are often less than five people in one province. Faced with the endless emergence of large and small
When it comes to supernatural events, people can only run around like fire brigade, busier than national leaders.
"I admit that your selection method is indeed effective, but is it too reckless? Although in theory everyone has a chance of awakening the 'self spirit', the chance of awakening varies from person to person..."
"You don't have to save face for us like this. I also know that this selection method is cruel... Wait, do you know what we are doing?"
Wei Mao noticed that Li Mengnan said a very special keyword. Although it was different from the name in the institute, his intuition told him that it should be the same thing.
"The self-spirit, also known as the 'protective spirit' in ancient times, was once considered to be the protection of ancestors' souls. It can directly give people who have not done any spiritual practice the ability to shatter nightmares and destroy illusions."
The strange phenomenon of "id spirit" has long been recorded in the lineage of illusionists. This thing sounds mysterious, but in essence it is the embodied product of the second personality of the subconscious self.
The second personality of the ego has a more powerful self-protection instinct than the first personality. Once it is strongly stimulated, it may be forcibly awakened from the subconscious and replace the first personality and become the main personality.