"I have no psychological burden for accelerating the deterioration of this world."
"But... I am old after all. I can't do many things by myself. I need someone who is clear-minded and trustworthy. So, I need you."
"If you are unwilling to bury it with your own hands, and if you still want to try another way, then I cannot break this world by myself. I can only continue to endure it, hoping to see it die before me.
The day ahead.”
"Of course, I won't blame you."
"All the cards are on the table. Your decision is ultimately yours to make."
After Wu Yiliu walked out of Professor Qiao's house, the old lady's words before leaving would still pop up in his mind from time to time.
After yesterday afternoon's conversation, he didn't fall asleep all night. He tossed and turned on the sofa, sighing, and finally fell into a daze for a short while when it was almost dawn. On the contrary, the seventy-year-old Professor Qiao didn't feel too much.
Despite the impact, I still got up on time, prepared breakfast, and went to work as usual.
His weakness, confusion, and contradictions may have been noticed by the old lady. But she didn't say much, she just said that he had a clear mind and was trustworthy... Is that true?
Would a person with a clear mind not even know whether a shape-shifter is still a human being? Would a trustworthy person not be able to help but think, "It would be great if I also unknowingly transformed?"
The bus that originally ran every ten minutes didn't come after half an hour of waiting today. Amidst the curses and insults from the transformed people, such as "It's getting more and more outrageous", Uaichiyanagi simply left. He had a disguise on his face.
, now he doesn’t show any shock when he is frightened by a shape-shifter, so after walking for an hour, not even a single shape-shifter glanced at him on the road.
Yachiyanagi is not worried at all that he will be seen by his classmates. This is not because the school is in another direction of the city. If a group of shapeshifters want to surround him now and infect him, to be honest, he doesn't know if he can muster the energy to resist——
He didn't even know if he would be relieved.
I don’t know whether he was tired from walking or thinking, but Ichiliu came to a store window, sat down on the street with a "clunk" sound, and took out his mobile phone. The road was very dirty, and it seemed that it had not been there for several days.
The cleaners have cleaned it; if you sit here like a beggar, you will get strange looks from others, but what does it matter?
"Mom," he called to the face in the video call that was really unrecognizable, "call my dad here too."
The thing that couldn't even be considered a face twisted and turned, probably showed him a smile, and led the body underneath it away.
After a while, his father's face, which was exactly the same as in his memory, appeared on the screen of Wu Yiliu's mobile phone.
...It has been completely transformed, right? So quickly, has it reached its final form where the face can be removed?
Wu Yiliu gently wiped his dry, sore eyes. He didn't know how to proceed with this conversation. He just suddenly couldn't help but want to see his parents again.
"What's the matter? I want money again." Before he could sit down, his father came to a conclusion.
"Are you going home for the long vacation?" asked the face that was difficult to recognize.
"I don't know what you do every day... Why don't you go to class? Where are you now?" His father seemed to sense that something was wrong, and leaned closer to the camera to look carefully at the background behind him.
"I'm asking you, are you going home?" my mother's voice asked.
On the screen, from the twisted and chaotic mass, in the center of the so-called face, a small black hole as big as a thumb suddenly opened. In the black hole was the face of his mother's past, with his mouth opening and closing, as if he was speaking from the deepest depths.
The place asked for help. "Are you mute?"
Wu Yiliu suddenly cut off the communication.
He stared at the screen of his mobile phone, watching it receive another call request, leaving it ringing until the other party hung up. A message was sent from his mother's mobile phone number, with only the words "Signal out?"
I probably didn't think anything big happened.
When he was learning about the "Ship of These Paradox", Yaichiyanagi believed that the Ship of Theseus was still the same ship after all the materials had been changed; now he could not remember what his basis was.
Thinking back now, he realized that he didn't even know the last time he heard his mother speak. What did she say then? Yachiyanagi was willing to pay any price to go back and listen again. He has always been very confident and capable.
Mom, when you started to transform, were you ever confused? Were you ever scared?
When his parents in the distance gradually disappeared, what was he doing at that time? Was he keen on chatting with the female classmate who quietly transformed on the other end of the phone, or was he looking for pirated copies of a certain movie?
"What are you doing?" The glass door of the store was suddenly pushed open. A female voice seemed to be full of hatred and wanted to vent it. She yelled at him like a machine gun: "Why are you sitting in front of our window? You are blocking my business."
Do you know? It’s unlucky, you can’t ask for food from me, just go as far away as possible!”
Wu Yiliu stood up, patted himself, and looked at the woman behind the door. The corners of her eyes and mouth were long and pointed, like a character in an exaggerated cartoon; the corners of her eyes drooped all the way to her cheeks.
, the corners of the mouth divide the entire chin.
"I want to buy something," he said as he opened the glass door. The woman immediately took two steps back. Even if she changed her shape, she could not stop her suspicion: "You? This is a women's clothing store, there is nothing for you to wear."
clothes."
Not only is it a women's clothing store, it is also a women's clothing store with almost no business. It is as depressed as the other shops on this street. In this case, it would be even harder to refuse his business.
"I know," Wu Yiliu walked sideways past her, not letting her eyes stay on his face for too long. Professor Qiao found him makeup tools that were more suitable for disguise, but he couldn't bear to take a closer look. "
I bought it for my girlfriend."
The deformed female shopkeeper was suspicious and stopped talking. She was obviously not willing to let him go, but she was also worried about him coming in, so she followed him wherever he went - he didn't dress like a tramp, but this was still unavoidable.
Fuck him for being a thief.
Wu Yiliu randomly took out some clothes and looked at them. Without even looking at the prices, he took two skirts and handed them to her and said, "Wrap these two for me."
Those long, pointed lines shot upward, almost without restraint, and quickly cut the female shop owner's forehead and temples - the entire face was cut into pieces by the raised corners of her eyes and mouth.
The large hematoma on her forehead became clearer.
"What's wrong with your forehead?" When he followed the female shopkeeper to the cashier, he asked casually, pretending to be still thinking about a piece of clothing next to him.
The female shopkeeper reached out and touched the hematoma.
"It's so unlucky," she complained as soon as she started, and couldn't stop. "Just the day before yesterday, there was a strange woman who walked in and rummaged through her clothes. She didn't even look at the price. She just took what she liked.
, I thought there was a big deal, but you didn’t know that it was piled so high on her shoulders!”
She compared it, and it was indeed very high. Judging from the thickness, it was at least dozens of pieces.
"As a result, she turned around and left with the pile of clothes in her hands! She was about to go out! Oh, can you believe it? This society is really messed up. I yelled at her immediately,
The woman turned around and looked at me. Her eyes were so crazy that I thought her brain was probably abnormal. I heard that crazy people are very strong..."
Even this kind of ordinary narration requires Yatanagi to redirect her back to the track: "She turned around, and then what?"
"What do you think she said? She actually said to me, 'You can exchange these clothes for a life, how cheap it is.' It's so cheap for you. I don't care about this, I will rush to catch her... That madman has the strength
It's so big." The female shopkeeper became more and more angry as she spoke, and the long lines at the corners of her eyes and mouth were almost uncontrollable. "I was thrown into such a state that I didn't even see what was going on. I was robbed of a lot of clothes!"
Wu Yiliu pretended to tsk a few times to show sympathy. "Have you called the police?"
"It was useless to sign up. I came here and left. I didn't have much money for clothes and where could I find someone? I said she was on the surveillance camera, and they asked me if I knew that woman's name.
I don’t even know who it is and how to find it? So what if it looks like it, but it disappears when you walk out——"
Wu Yiliu couldn't bear it anymore and interrupted her immediately: "Is there surveillance? Can you show it to me?"
He was afraid that the other party would refuse for God knows what reason, so he added: "My cousin is in the police force."
I don’t know which one, the clothes or the cousin, played the role. Soon, Ichiliu saw the Evolver on the surveillance screen for the first time.
Professor Qiao's sense of smell for evolvers is so sensitive: she was able to locate this evolver from a simple angry reply on a local website.
It turns out that the evolved person is like this... The way she controls her body during actions is really different from ordinary people: it is as if every step is paddling on the water, light and fast, as if she can bounce high by tiptoeing.
Of course, shapeshifters should not be able to perceive such subtleties - just like they cannot understand subtle emotions, they can only understand rough and crude divisions.
"It's not just mine. I heard that there were several nearby stores that were visited by her last week!"
In other words... her stronghold is probably around here. I can't be 100% sure, but judging from the time distribution of the Evolver's crimes, it is more likely that she will stay nearby - I hope he can still make it in time.
Wu Yiliu took a few photos at the screen, paid with the card Professor Qiao gave him, and after carrying the bag out, he threw the clothes on the street corner. It seems that his mission in the next few days is to be nearby
Ask about this evolver.
He held up his mobile phone and asked people one by one in nearby stores. In order to make people talk, he also bought a lot of messy things. When night fell, Yaichiru, who had found nothing, finally couldn't help it.
Exhausted, I sat down on the steps in front of a small hotel with neon lights.
Maybe the evolver has already left after collecting the supplies...
