Deep in the sticky mist, a bronze chime-like murmur vibrates through the space, the windows filtering it into an intermittent whisper.
The greenish-gray fog was like ink on rice paper spread out on the windshield, the rustle of the chassis rubbing against the asphalt could be heard inside the car, the dashboard needle shuddered and shifted to the right, and the odometer digits, like silver scales that had been stirred up, glowed with an eerie blue light in the twilight.
At last, the long-awaited bright light came into view.
"Welcome to - New London!"
Lee slowly let go of the gas pedal, and the body of the car, just like a pacified beast, moved forward slowly and smoothly. At this moment, the tires were already stained with a layer of bizarre reddish-brown liquid. As the wheels rolled, the liquid continued to drip down, dragging out a long, winding red tire mark on the dark asphalt highway behind him, like a hideous bloodstain.
How could this be London?
The view had been filled by a huge wall, and beyond it sat a number of deserted houses, which stretched into the black mist.
The wall, which surrounded the remaining houses as if it had appeared out of nowhere, was high. Compared to it, the traveling sedan was pitifully small, like insignificant food in front of a giant, and was slowly heading towards the passageway below the wall that resembled a giant mouth.
"London? This is London?" Logan was a little puzzled.
"Yes." Mina had regained her vigor and nodded calmly, "It's London over there too, but it's just east."
"This city wall?"
"It's someone's ability, it's alive."
The wall that stretched for a hundred meters was like a silent statement of this person's power.
"Then what's going on in the west?" Logan was a bit puzzled.
"It starts at the beginning."
Mina narrated.
"For as long as I can remember, the haze has enveloped the vicinity of this city, pretty much everywhere. Until yesterday, when the haze swept through western London as if it had been artificially manipulated; it was let in, to be exact! That wall originally surrounded all of London, protecting the city from erosion!"
What a powerful ability!
"Now, that Lord can only wrap the remaining city in these walls."
There were a lot of people within the city, the streets were filled with people coming and going, and there was fog, but it was only a slight mist, and the sunlight could easily come through.
"I thought we drove through country roads?" Logan looked out the window thoughtfully.
"That's the thing that's confusing us, the whole space, or rather the whole time, seems like a Mobius ring, and we're looking for a way to escape from here, the fog is getting thicker and thicker, and we don't know if that one can hold out any longer."
"The inhabitants of the interior also disappeared into thin air overnight, luckily we realized it in time and reconstructed this wall." Mina continued.
As the two talked, the car began to slow to a slow stop.
The noisy crowd began to thin out, and eventually even the silhouettes were no longer visible.
"Get out of the car." Lee pulled the car's handbrake.
In front of the car, a magnificent European-style building emerged, and the brown door made of walnut wood was hidden as if it knew of their arrival early.
The moment they pushed open the doorway, the wind chimes on the door seemed to be disturbed by the elves, and could not wait to sway up, sending out a series of crisp and pleasant "tinkling bells, tinkling bells," the sound of notes scattered in the air, and instantly broke the silence around them.
As the wooden door closed, Logan caught a glimpse of the black sedan that had just disappeared!
Some kind of spatial ability!
And what's my ability? What are the activation conditions?
Thinking about the hot "companion" pistol from earlier, he had a guess.
Inside the space is very large, far more than the external look several times, Mina and Lee entered, just stood in place without any action, out of politeness, Logan followed them did not move.
"Mission failed, no sign of the division that sent the signal." Lee said with his head down.
The space was quiet, no one answered him.
"Maybe they got away, this is the 'Edge' I found over there, he appears to be a new Enforcer." Lee paused, "We also seem to have encountered a 'follower'." Lee reported in a low voice that the British Special Operations branch was just west of London.
"'follower'?" The mechanical voice sounded a little surprised it seemed.
Logan raised an eyebrow and looked toward the source of the voice - at the top of that rotating staircase stood a black-clad figure all wrapped in black silk, not even a hint of skin exposed.
"You've grown to this point."
The tone had a slight appreciation, and since even his eyes were covered, Logan could not see the slightest thought of the man in black at all.
"Got it." The mechanical voice had a slight tiredness in it, "Take him to do the test."
When he said this, the entire space was plunged into darkness, as if everything was there for the sake of it.
"Yes."
The two walked to the entrance they had just made and slowly knocked on the door once more.
The barnacle-like rust spots that had grown in the walnut door panels began to swim like awakened articulated snakes as the interior door ring took seven longer knocks. When the door was knocked on again in three short knocks, the whole wall of wood suddenly sounded like a chain shaking, a whole rhythm of knocks as if by magic.
Not the entrance just now! Clearly he had not moved!
The door opened, and the pungent odor of disinfectant and a wide array of instruments came to the surface.
"I need your blood." Mina was the first to step into the side of that door, her eyes instantly locking onto the white-as-snow table with the scalpel lying silently on it, glowing coldly in the dim light.
"The purity of the blood can detect whether or not you have become is an Executor! If you have been transformed into an Executor, the concentration of one of the enzymes in your blood will be more than thirty percent but less than sixty percent, this enzyme is what we call the 'Delusion Factor', it appears in our blood out of thin air as if it were imaginary, but it is real." Mina said.
Without waiting for Logan to respond, Mina had made a small incision in his index finger, blood dripped from it, Mina carefully picked up the test tube and collected his blood, placing it into the instrument in front of her and thoughtfully delivering a band-aid.
"What happens if it's over sixty percent?"
Logan asked as he taped the band-aid in place and turned around.
"Transformation into a 'Pretender', 'Jin Xu' overuse as well, the 'Pretender's' 'Delusion Factor ' content will reach sixty to eighty percent."
"Jin Xu?" Logan queried.
"Abilities, so to speak." Mina patiently answered Logan, "Now that that's out of the way, there's something else you need to know. At eighty to one hundred percent, it transforms into an 'alien follower', which is a mutant that no longer has a human form! The external features are probably those of your colleagues in West London!"
"At that time, I will cut you in half." Lee said coldly as he gripped his tanged sword.
"The 'Delusion Factor' concentration, if it continues upwards, is a taboo that humans will never be able to achieve! It's also the source of calamity!" Mina lowered her voice and said with a serious face, "A 'follower', above one hundred percent, will also have a kind of delusional ability, which no longer has a human appearance, similar to your former companion, Shirley! She seems to have some sort of ability to toughen her body."
Shirley?
Logan once again remembered the nightmarish scene at the Oak Tavern earlier.
"She seems to have been instantly transformed into a 'follower'." Lee interrupted the two's conversation, "Her combat ability was weak, as if she was a newborn baby, a normal 'follower' wouldn't even have a chance to fight in close combat, and it's safe to assume that this kind of taboo of transforming people into 'follower' happened over here as well! It was about a year ago!"
An oppressive atmosphere spread through the space.
"Right!" Logan hastily changed the topic, "What does 'fringe' mean?"
"That's the term for a person whose concentration of 'Delusion Factor' in his blood is approaching thirty percent, i.e. a person who is about to become an Enforcer! He needs to go through some sort of stabbing to jump the 'delusion factor' to thirty percent, it could be some sort of emotion or a change, or it could be some sort of natural action." Mina replied.
"Beep." The machine in front of her let out a beep.
"Just in time to check your blood 'delusion factor' concentration." Mina said expressionlessly, but shock soon filled her pupils.
The ghostly blue screen flashed with countless throbbing torrents of data, the silver numbers below leaping wildly across the display lattice like they were falling into a sea of stars. When a few people's vision fell, all the data was motionless, except for the scarlet behemoth at the very top that shot into the pupils!
0%! The 'Delusion Factor' in its body was 0%!