Xin Nan was thrown to the seat bottom by the force pushing his back, and subconsciously looked at the rearview mirror.
In the mirror, the driver uncle's eyes were wide open, his forehead was covered in cold sweat, and his right foot on the accelerator was tensed to the extreme, full of tension.
I'm not hallucinating, is there really someone here?
He's dressed like a dead person, and what's with that smile?!
What is he holding? Innards? Raw innards?
He's going to eat it? Oh god, he's really eating it!
Because he kept staring at the strange person getting farther away in the rearview mirror, the driver uncle also naturally noticed Xin Nan's probing gaze.
His dark face instantly turned a few shades paler, and he pressed down on the accelerator with a bit more force.
Whoosh!
At this moment in the car, Xin Nan's face was also pale, and he tremblingly reached out to pull the seatbelt.
As a fellow old mental patient, Doctor Pu didn't scare him, but he was genuinely terrified by the driver uncle's speeding at this moment.
Although Doctor Pu wore funeral attire, ate raw meat, drank earthworms, and bought a chainsaw for who knows what dismemberment, he was ultimately a good doctor!
But you, as a driver, in a city with a speed limit of 65, suddenly accelerate to 120 mph without a word?
I urge you to be dedicated to your job!
The car drove out of the desolation, quickly merged onto the ring expressway, then the main city roads, and finally stopped at Tianfu Plaza, the most densely populated area.
"Young man, uh, I just remembered I still have to go home and collect my laundry, so I won't take your final payment. Let's call it a good deed. Get out of the car quickly!"
The pitiful driver uncle still hadn't glanced at the rearview mirror.
"That's not very good, please accept it."
Taking a deep breath, Xin Nan took out his wallet from his embrace, then pulled out a red bill and handed it over.
"Well, thank you then."
The driver took it with trembling hands. Presumably he thought Xin Nan had acted like a normal person all this time, so he hesitated before advising:
"Young man, that person, is he your relative? I advise you, still, still don't associate with him, he seems to have..."
Saying this, the driver pointed to his own head, his expression saying it all.
Xin Nan opened the car door and said with a grim expression, "It's okay, because my illness is more severe than his."
Thump!
The car door closed, and the driver froze on the spot.
Then, as if all his strength had been drained, he slumped onto the chair, unable to recover for a long time.
After an unknown amount of time, it was the honking from behind that startled him awake. He subconsciously looked at the faded red paper in his hand.
He saw that the paper had a drawing of a majestic man wearing a crown and smiling.
Above the man, there were four large characters.
Heaven and Earth Bank.
"Damn it!!"
"Heh, driver uncle must pay the price!"
Xin Nan sneered and was about to enter the Tianfu Plaza subway station to go home when a message came through.
"The information you asked me to investigate has results. That area should have had 3-4 vagrants appearing before. They were captured on surveillance for 121 consecutive days."
"And those people have been missing for the past half month."
This could explain why Doctor Pu bought a chainsaw; perhaps that fresh dessert belonged to one of those four people.
At the same time, they might be the patients Doctor Pu mentioned.
Xin Nan quickly typed.
"Thank you for the intelligence."
"No problem, this is a complimentary gift, no extra charge. However, it seems he's not the kind of person you're looking for. Shall I report him next?"
"No need, that's just a minor issue, don't worry about it."
On the other end of the phone: Do you have a misunderstanding of what a minor issue is?
In an inexplicably awkward atmosphere, the other party sent another message.
"Also, I have a piece of news that you might be interested in, also a free bonus."
"Recently, with the Lunar Rotation event, many incredible incidents have begun to occur worldwide, and Yan Country is no exception."
"As many things hidden in the shadows surface and can no longer be concealed, a name has begun to be repeatedly mentioned—the Materialist Bureau. This might be the answer you've been asking me to find."
The Materialist Bureau, that special department that handles those weird events?
This is truly a name that makes one speechless, yet it also feels somewhat expected.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome, but I have a question for you. Of course, it's okay if you don't answer. The question is, how can one become like you people?"
After a long while, Xin Nan began to reply.
"This question, I also want to know, how can one become like them."
"I understand, goodbye."
"Goodbye."
Putting away his mobile phone, Xin Nan looked at the crowd disembarking from the escalator in front of him.
In the gradually brightening lights, an absurd, terrifying, twisted world filled with grotesque limbs almost madly crashed into his sight.
It was a profound scene formed by countless pencil-drawn monsters and human flesh and blood limbs cruelly pieced together and intertwined.
Even a mere glimpse of those monsters could stuff all sorts of emotions, so rich they almost formed substance, into Xin Nan's mind.
Those pains, hatreds, numbness, sadness, and ecstasies, within those ferocious and weird forms, grew wildly like leaden light.
Even though he had tried his best to adapt to such a world, and had been in this world for over a decade, Xin Nan still felt that if he continued to look, he would go mad!
Is this a curse of a transmigrator? Or a blessing?
After the moon's rotation, Xin Nan had seen a person with color, the only special anomaly he had ever seen with color in his background painting.
That person did not have such mad emotions.
If he could become like that person, would that be the antidote he sought, or rather, the answer?
Xin Nan lowered his head, covered himself with the hood of his hoodie, put on his earphones, and walked into the subway without leaving any trace of his presence.
Even with the heavy metal music blocking the sound, the discussions about the moon's rotation that had been non-stop since entering the station still managed to reach his ears.
Tonight, the far side of the moon would be fully revealed for the first time. Many people were making plans to watch it, and the discussions had reached a new climax with the moon's rotation event.
As Xin Nan was engrossed in searching for papers about the phenomenon of the moon's rotation on his phone, a noisy voice rang out from beside him.
"Classmate Xin Nan?"
Xin Nan looked up, looking at the somewhat youthful face with framed glasses in front of him, and a name surfaced in his mind.
"Yan Yu? Hello."
Wearing a hood, he tried his best to avoid looking at the shadows behind the girl in front of him. Even so, his peripheral vision caught sight of countless twisted, tentacle-like limbs.
On these limbs, there seemed to be a large number of suction cups. They were like mouths, crying out something like hungry infants.
No matter how beautiful something was, if it grew alongside such monstrous things, it would become ugly and terrifying.
And he had never obtained a piece of pure land.
Xin Nan took off his earphones, confirming he hadn't heard any sounds. This meant the girl in front of him was at least not that special, nor that dangerous.
This girl, who was already quite tall, adjusted her glasses.
"You actually know my name? We didn't speak for three years of high school."
"I remembered it during the self-introduction when we enrolled. You haven't changed much in these three years, and you're quite popular."
After saying this, Xin Nan's attention returned to his phone.
"If you have nothing else, I apologize, but I need to finish reading this article that I'm interested in."
Knowing his cold personality, Yan Yu shifted her position, stood to his left, held the handrail, and tilted her head to look at his phone.
In this world, some people are excessively cold, so naturally, some are exceptionally enthusiastic. Classmate Yan Yu was the soul of the class for three years of high school. Those who liked her charming face and interesting soul could fill several classrooms.
She seemed curious about what could be more interesting than a beautiful girl like her.
This made Xin Nan glance at her, and she quickly replied:
"Sorry, I couldn't help but peek, but it's really interesting. The moon, half a month ago, no matter where you stood on Earth, no matter what time of year, you could always see the same side of the moon. Isn't that amazing?"
Yan Yu seemed to want to strike up a conversation with him. In this situation, Xin Nan would not deliberately refuse such a chat, as it would make him seem abnormal and deepen the impression others had of him, attracting excessive attention.
So he didn't mind chatting with this girl to pass her boring time.
After all, this wouldn't affect him continuing to read this interesting article full of data.
"That's because of tidal locking. The moon's rotation and revolution speeds are the same, causing such a coincidence."
"Classmate Xin Nan, you seem to know a lot. Are such coincidences common in the universe?"
"It's quite common in the realm of satellites, isn't it? Phobos has two, Deimos has two, Jupiter's moons have eight, and Saturn has even more, over a dozen."
"Ah, I thought it was quite rare. After all, everyone online likes to say the moon is like a monitor pointing at Earth, like a unique existence."
"Everything in the universe is unique, just like you and me."
"Hehe, classmate Xin Nan, are you saying I'm special? But there are also interesting theories online. They say the tides caused by the moon are opposite to the direction of Earth's rotation, essentially constantly applying the brakes to Earth, and eventually causing Earth to stop rotating."
"Heh, so perhaps all satellites are brake pads? It's just that few planets have water."
After Yan Yu chuckled, she said:
"For the past half month, everyone has been very nervous. I don't know what kind of impact it will ultimately have."
"I want to know too."
Xin Nan shook the phone in his hand, indicating that this was why he was interested in these articles.
"However, a common sense is that the universe is a large gravitational field. Countless planets pull on each other with their mass, maintaining a relative balance."
"If we assume the universe is a precise, large machine, and a part like the moon suddenly has a problem, the first impact will be on Earth. Whether Earth slows down or speeds up, the impact will be passed on to the solar system, affecting all other planets like Mars and Jupiter, and even the Sun's operation. Then, from the solar system outwards, it will spread to the entire universe."
"For other galaxies and the universe, this impact might not be apparent quickly, like how we observe those exploding stars from light-years away."
"But this change, for us, would definitely be a catastrophe! Even a slight deviation in distance from the sun, or a slight increase or decrease in Earth's rotational or orbital speed, would cause a massive change in the entire planet's ecosystem!"
At some unknown time, a middle-aged woman wearing a red coat with an inverted cross printed on the back stood behind him and suddenly spoke.
"You are correct. When the stars in the heavens reach their proper trajectories, it will be the day my Lord returns to judge the world. Only through repentance can salvation be obtained!"
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