After a momentary shock, the viewers are immediately flooding the comment barrage.
“is this the one from the museum?!”
“why is it here…”
“there are… two people on the truck? they kinda look like KZ and XJ, dont they?”
“this makes no sense”
“anyone want to guess what they’re doing here?”
“I suspect xie ji visited ke zhu, then they argued again? or xie ji wanted to prove herself to him so she had him go to the space agency with her?”
“then why are they stopped at the library?”
“better question, why are they not getting off?”
The box truck is simply parked there quietly. The viewers can see clearly, through the glass window, that a man and a woman are seated on the driver’s and the passenger’s seat. They are definitely having a quarrel, which a commenter points out, “they’re arguing?”
But because this is not actually a meaningful location, and without Missiontakers here, Xü Beijin cannot adjust where the camera views anything, so they cannot hear what they’re arguing about.
Soon enough, though, help comes.
About a few minutes later, Ding Yi and Mu Jiashi are here.
They came down after hearing the screech of an engine coming to an abrupt stop.
Ding Yi looked out of the third floor window, and saw the box truck parked right at the entrance.
She realised the Nightmare must be changed somehow after the third run, as this box truck should have only headed north from the Museum towards the Space Agency way past 3:30. It is just past three in the afternoon here.
Ding Yi does not know what happened, but since the change has already happened, she immediately puts the clues she is rifling through aside.
This clue refers to information she found that was unrelated to the argument over the unidentified object, but it’s important nonetheless – not to the Nightmare, but for helping them to uncover the past.
It’s an attempt to trace the source of the madness that spread throughout humanity.
Wu Jian has already told them about the book he found on the second floor, which was more of a record or log. The information Ding Yi found, though, is a much more scientific and formal pursuit of the source.
The author and his fellow researchers spent over a year to source and identify the precise moment when madness developed in different areas, until they finally found the source of this madness──
Well, at least, a source. It’s not like they have any means of verifying the answer at this point.
In their studies, they concluded that the source of the madness, or at least the centre of the spread of the madness, is in this city centre. More accurately, it’s in the restricted residential/shopping complex in the CBD of Cangcheng.
“If this madness can be treated as a form of contagious epidemic, then its source (or more precisely, where we have found the most likely patient zero) would be a tenant of the apartment complex,” the information concludes.
Ding Yi didn’t have time to read through the methodology or analysis due to the limited time she has to work with, so she can only devote her time to the conclusion.
Fei and Wu Jian have told them about it, and they did not seem to see the area itself as important.
They emphasised the old security guard outside the area instead.
Ding Yi, though, is a bit more concerned about the area.
She has already made the connection that this area is most likely the Nightmare which trapped Jiang Shuangjie.
Her subordinates have told them about the Nightmare in detail, and she received confirmation and further information from Mu Jiashi earlier.
She knows now that that Nightmare was the Nightmare of the neighbour of the mysterious bookstore owner.
The relationship has become quite tangled and stretched, but Ding Yi has firmly held onto the idea that that Nightmare is key.
Here, it says that a tenant there was the source of all the madness?
Ding Yi furrows her brows deeply.
If she understood correctly, in that Nightmare, in the apartment and commercial complex, there weren’t actually anyone insane.
The sentient furniture──The consciousness, or possibly humans, trapped in its own intranet…
Ding Yi suddenly finds herself stuck pondering the idea.
Stuck in the intranet?
Isn’t that, like, a description of themselves as well?
Ding Yi is suddenly feeling a little shook up inside. Did she just stumble upon a damning piece of information?
She tries to keep the thought in her head, then she moves on – here, the question is that sentient electronics and insane humans are not exactly candidates for equivalency.
Why did this researcher and their coworkers agree on the conclusion that that area is the source of the madness, when the two forms of the ‘madness’ manifest there are clearly distinct?
Ding Yi decides to check the chain of logic, and finally, she realises that, there actually are records of mad people in the restricted area.
In fact, this report has solely focused on the appearance of the madness-inflicted persons, and avoided touching on the sentient electronics at all.
And in that respect, true, the earliest an insane person has been documented, is at that restricted area.
Ding Yi wonders why, though, the sentient electronics are not mentioned… What could it mean? Is it really also part of the madness? Or was it something else entirely?
She’s confused.
Also, she is a bit indescribably fearful.
She is blanking out with the information in her hand.
Until finally, she hears the engine and the subsequent screech coming from outside the library.
At the window, she identified the vehicle as the box truck from the Museum, so she put the information down, and went downstairs with Mu Jiashi. He Shujün trundled along after them.
They immediately sees the quarrelling man and woman in the box truck, one of whom is Ke Zhu, who Ding Yi met at the side entrance to the Museum the last run.
She furrows her brows a little, and continues forward until she’s at the side of the truck. The argument can be heard clearly even before she’s in range for a greeting.