Chapter 97: Lost and Never to Return |
[April 14, 1662, Supervisor Work Record]
Current Transformed Influencers of CVA-D-257, "Water of Life": 12,709 individuals. Over 500 more are currently being transferred from the contaminated zone to Sector 257.
The incident in Yunling City's Central Park affected 48 individuals. They have been placed in the Quarantine Zone awaiting Class-B Memory Wipe procedures. Five of them are receiving preliminary treatment in the medical facility due to severe injuries. The following is the temporary file coding system...
[Medical File 62041401 Retrieved]
[Name: Fan Yingshang]
[Initial Vitals: BP 78/50 mmHg, HR 138 bpm...]
[The subject was shot during the investigation of the 527-K5052 incident, posing a risk of hemorrhagic shock. Transferred to isolation for emergency resuscitation. Note: The Gamma-7 Mobile Task Force member originally responsible for interrogating this individual is suspected to have suffered a potent cognitohazard and is currently under forced sedation, unable to provide detailed intelligence. It cannot be ruled out that the subject is similarly infected. Extreme caution is required during contact.]
[Personal Belongings: Social security card, keychain (containing 3 different keys and 1 hand-woven pendant), loose change (totaling 9 yuan), 1 mobile phone (damaged), 2 receipts (for a bouquet and a bakery order), 1 folding knife (sharpened).]
[Follow-up Record: Following admission, the individual underwent a Class-B Memory Wipe. On April 15, the subject was out of critical condition. After completing subsequent investigations and receiving a Class-A Amnestic, she was transferred to a public hospital for further treatment under the guise of a "traffic accident." Medical File concluded.]
Shi Rang refused to accept this record. He did not even experience a moment of struggle or doubt over the contents presented before him. He simply shifted his consciousness away from the injury log.
He was no longer the rookie who had just taken his first steps into the data layer.
As he tilted the data before his eyes, he easily discovered a far more concealed set of contents hidden behind it. On the visual interface, a specific string of commands had to be entered to trigger it. This was a secondary encryption method commonly used within the Bureau.
This same encryption method was also present in the files of the other four patients admitted that day.
An ominous sign.
He peeled back the second layer of secrecy.
[The following content is restricted to Class-B Personnel only]
No matter who asks, the unified response must be that all civilians involved in the incident have already left.
I do not think I need to explain much. Central Park was absolute chaos that day, and the abused anomalies triggered a series of mutations.
The Mobile Task Force members who were brought in alongside these five civilians have fallen into permanent psychosis, exhibiting violent tendencies directed at the Bureau. The condition of the civilians is no better. The Field Department suspects they might have simultaneously been caught within the area of effect of a weaponized anomaly. It remains unknown whether this is memetic contamination or some other type of hazard.
To prevent them from spreading the symptoms to others, I have authorized the use of the Class-F Amnestic Agent. Hopefully, this will prove effective.
The team responsible for executing the procedure will arrive at the medical facility in a few hours. Your primary objective right now is to prepare a new identity for the subject.
Addendum: 62041401 has no living relatives; there is no need to replace her entire social identity.
— Area Supervisor, Doctor Romero. Knowing that she was still alive, that she had safely left Sector 257 and walked out into the free world, brought Shi Rang a profound sense of comfort. Yet, in the very next moment, a much deeper terror washed over him.
Anomalous hazards? Forging a new social identity?
The silhouette in the video recording—the figure resembling Ying Shang walking into the station—flashed through Shi Rang's mind.
It was impossible for Ying Shang to simply leave home as the police had claimed, abandoning her dreams and her life without a single word of farewell, unless... [Class-F Amnestic Agent: Completely overwrites memories, currently in the human experimental stage...]
Unless she had been implanted with an entirely different set of memories.
Without even needing to think, Shi Rang vehemently rejected this horrifying conclusion.
He had not received any news regarding his wife afterward, and the police had refused to tell him anything. To this day, Shi Rang remained in an "undocumented status." If the immigration bureau ever decided to check his citizenship, he would be deported. He and Ying Shang had been unable to formally register their marriage; they only shared a common-law marriage known to their friends.
Even the Bureau had not included him in their "aftermath management."
From a legal standpoint, he had absolutely no connection to her.
'No, that cannot be it!' Shi Rang had once considered the possibility that she left of her own accord, but he had searched for her relentlessly, even going so far as to delve into supernatural events. This was also because strange things had happened at home: someone had stolen Ying Shang's photographs and formatted the hard drive. Furthermore, he had always loathed taking pictures. He disliked seeing his own face, and influenced by him, Ying Shang rarely took portraits either.
His Rapid Regeneration had allowed him to recall the memories erased by the man in the trench coat, but it did not provide him with any proof that the "thief" actually existed.
The earliest mobile phone contained a backup of the stolen data, but it had already vanished from the world, its electronic components completely filled with sludge. Did that data ever truly exist?
In everyone else's eyes, was he just an obsessively clinging man who could not accept a broken relationship, fabricating some home intruder and relying on nothing but his own words to try and steal her privacy? Was that why they had gradually grown tired of him, losing faith in his claims one by one?
Did those "stolen" photographs ever really exist?
'Am I going insane?'
But even if he had proof, what would it matter?
The person who still existed in this world right now... was she still Ying Shang?
"Hey, hubby, look at this, quick, come look."
"A TV drama? People are still filming this kind of plot where they get amnesia and fall in love all over again?"
"Tell me, if one day we both lost our memories, would we still end up together?"
"...I do not know."
"We definitely would. That is probably what you call destiny. Otherwise, why would you have told me about the Board Game Club that day? It is fate."
"But what if someone else beats me to it? You are so wonderful..."
"That will not happen."
Her response exceeded Shi Rang's expectations:
"If you ever lose your memory, you have to wait for me, okay?"
Shi Rang looked over at her, but Ying Shang simply leaned sideways and rested against him. Her hair cascaded over his shoulder, tickling his neck, and the familiar scent of her shampoo drifted to his nose.
Sensing that she was slightly upset, he did not press her further. He just gently rested his chin on the top of her head.
The TV drama was still playing on the mobile phone screen. Shi Rang had never been interested in such things, but Ying Shang was watching with red-rimmed eyes. So, he watched along with her as the male and female leads ran toward each other in the heavy snow, embracing and spinning in circles...
The Area Supervisor had authorized the memory wipe because she had been subjected to an incurable mental influence.
She suffered this influence because Bureau personnel had called her in to describe how Jing Que triggered the flock of birds to attack Grey Dog. Meanwhile, a third party and the Alliance had exchanged fire in the park while fighting over Jing Que, dragging her into the crossfire.
The Alliance destroyed anomalies, the Bureau contained anomalies, and the only ones who would exploit anomalies were the third parties.
Accompanied by intense vertigo, his consciousness snapped back into his body. Without caring that his clothes tore, he forced his way out of the prickly bushes.
His long and arduous search for her had culminated in a horrifying conclusion. Shi Rang's fury and despair twisted into a whip of hatred, lashing out at the enemy that had finally become clear.
He knew exactly what he had to do.
If she had forgotten him and become an entirely different, independent person, then he could track her down through her social identity.
Perhaps he could contact his family back home, relying on that sliver of blood relation to beg those two for help. Even if it was just to catch one last glimpse of her from afar to completely sever his lingering attachments, it would not matter. Then, he would use every ounce of his inexplicable abilities and the resources at his disposal to unleash his vengeance upon the true culprits.
Shi Rang's mind was still lingering within Sector 257's master control system. As he steadied his physical body and lowered his head, preparing to sever the connection, he unexpectedly discovered another hidden message beneath the concealed true file—triple encryption.
A secret buried beneath a secret.
Parting the fog in the data layer, a single line of text materialized before his eyes.
[S1-"Skyhawk": Approved.]
'The First Council Member?'
'Why would a matter like this alarm the Bureau Council—' A sudden, tremendous force slammed into the back of Shi Rang's neck, smashing him toward the ground. His mind only had enough time to pull up the sensory map—all the Special Communicators were far away from him—before his consciousness plummeted to the earth along with his body.
'Did I fall?'
Shi Rang instinctively tried to push himself up. Immediately after, a crushing weight that felt like it could snap his neck pinned his head fiercely against the grass. One of his arms was wrenched behind his back, and a sharp, tearing pain shot through his shoulder.
His field of vision was completely overwhelmed by a combat boot stepping down hard beside his head, while the smell of rotting leaves and damp soil pierced his nostrils.
"Identify yourself!"