Deep in the Living

Chapter 364: Fear Entity
【Agent Center】

The circular building is only one story high, and the entire hall is very clean, so clean that you can't even see a person.

It was not until Rody walked up to the counter that he discovered a skinny young man wrapped in cloth, with bone rings on his hands and feet and dark skin, sleeping inside.

The other party's breathing was also quite weak, almost non-existent.

If this wasn't the Exploration Bureau, Roddy would probably think that the other party had died suddenly while at work.

If you observe carefully, you will find that the person in front of you is too tired. This tiredness comes from long-term fighting and staying up late. He is probably an agent who just came back from the corner.

Since it was his first time here, Luo Di was too embarrassed to wake the other person up directly. Unexpectedly, Yu Ze walked up to him and knocked hard on the desk.

"Dude, it's time to get to work."

The young man slowly woke up from the knocking sound and slowly supported his upper body.

The cheeks have very little flesh and obvious cheekbones, and combined with the other person's Egyptian clothing, one can immediately associate her with a mummy.

"Oh... sorry~ New here, right? Let me check your files."

The man quickly operated on the computer and confirmed that Luo Di and the other person had passed the review of the Personnel Department.

Then he rummaged under the table in a very unskilled manner and finally found two exquisite handbags.

"Here are the keys to your apartment at the junction, and instructions for new agents. You can rest in the apartment until your files are officially transferred.

If you need to eat, you can go to the canteen. Currently, only Canteen No. 1 is still open.

And there’s…”

Before he could finish his words, the man's head fell directly on the table with a loud bang, and he fell asleep again.

This time, Yu Ze did not wake up the other party. He took the handbag and prepared to leave. He knew the procedure very well and all he needed to do was to get the handbag.

The two did not take the bus because the apartment building was not far away and could be reached in less than five minutes.

Luo Di raised the question again, "The agent at the front desk should have just returned from the corner. Why is he still taking over here when he is so tired?
Since the agents are all carefully selected elites, their time is precious and they need to speed up recovery after returning to the border, why do they have to be arranged to be on duty here temporarily?

Wouldn't it be better to let the intelligent machines produced by the atomic military industry take care of it?"

Yu Ze, who was walking in front, responded while reading the novel: "It's not that simple. This is a [transit station] between the surface and corners of the earth. Since the agents can go inside through the cracks, the fear inside can also slightly penetrate outside.

Rody, you should be able to feel it, right? That vague 'feeling'."

As he spoke, Yu Ze gently scraped the surface of the skin with his fingers.

This reminder made Rody really feel that there seemed to be something covering the surface of his skin, something very thin, but obviously strange.

Before, Roddy's attention was focused on the Exploration Bureau and the assessment issues, and he didn't notice it.

With your full attention now focused on the feel of your skin,
hum...

Soft, sticky, and stringy.

Like an invisible tadpole or earthworm, it was swimming on the surface of his skin, trying to drill into his body.

"Is this... fear, the fear inside the corner?"

"That's right! The fear in the corner is no longer a mental concept, but an entity that can be felt and directly affects the individual.

It permeates any space related to the corner, like air, omnipresent.

This fear will corrode any life with consciousness, even if it is just an AI life formed by a program. Therefore, those who work in the Exploration Bureau must be official agents with fear resistance.

No matter how tired you are, as long as you return to the transfer station, you must go when it is your turn to be on duty.

At least there is no risk of corner interiors to worry about.”

A gray tentacle grew from Rody's finger and gently swept across the surface of his arm, scraping off the fear, but it came back after a while. "Our saturated pituitary gland is meant to feed on this entity of fear, right?"

“Not the food, but the soil, the most basic thing.

If we regard our pituitary gland as a seed, the environment of the human world is equivalent to a desert sand, where it is basically impossible for seeds to germinate.

The corners are filled with soil of various nutrients. The deeper you go, the higher the quality of the soil.

Of course, although this soil of fear can nourish my pituitary gland, it can also affect our bodies and invade our spiritual consciousness.

We obtained the corner system as human beings, and we have not fallen subjectively and have not succumbed to fear. We are different from those pseudo-humans who were invaded by fear early on and took desire as their ideology, and the corner monsters evolved from pseudo-humans.

Although we are allowed to develop our pituitary gland and are allowed to enter the corner, but... the corner itself will try to convert us, and fear will continue to invade.

Of course, monsters are also affected, but they have certain privileges in the corners that allow them to avoid this effect under certain conditions.

If a person stays in a corner for a long time, especially in a deep area, fear entities will continue to accumulate in the body.

When this accumulation reaches the limit of personal endurance, the individual's human nature will be tested, and there is a high probability that an irreversible change will occur.

Therefore, when fear accumulates to a certain level, you must return to the surface and return to the transit station to receive treatment from doctors, or even receive some extreme therapies to ensure that the fear in your body is completely shaved off before restarting the previous exploration.

This is also the main reason that currently constrains our human exploration. The depth we can explore is always limited. "

"When fear exceeds the limit, what will the individual become? Like a monster?"

"No..." Yu Ze stopped and made an explosion gesture around his brain with his hands, "Imagine that a plant that was sprouting and growing normally suddenly grows out of your control, sucking your brain and breaking through your skull.

Your main consciousness will be erased, and your restraints as a human being will be completely liberated. You will lose all your original forms and die completely on a spiritual level.

Your physical body will become a crazy, chaotic, beautiful… plant that becomes part of the corner.

These are what I saw in the library of the University of Los Angeles. We need to go to the corners to experience what it is like. This is my first time too. "

“Is it equivalent to planting trees in corners?”

"You could say that, if you look at it from the perspective of the corner, it is indeed a good thing. Every time an agent is consumed by fear, the environment in the corner will improve and the concentration of fear will increase.

However, the two of us should not have to worry, at least not in the shallow areas.

Both Rody and I have a high resistance to fear and the means to suppress the pituitary gland and curb mutations.

Furthermore, as long as you maintain a strong enough resolve, no matter how heavy the fear is, it will not be able to crush your spirit."

We have arrived at the apartment building.

There was still no sign of any living being inside.

Although they were assigned a double bedroom, according to Yu Ze, such a suite was rarely used. The agents would spend most of their time in the corner, trying to plunder the resources inside as much as possible.

noon the next day.

Two people who were eating heartily in Canteen No. 1 received reminders from their wristbands at the same time.

≮Your personal files have been received by the Exploration Bureau, your new identity has been officially confirmed, and your first exploration is scheduled to begin at 14:00 today.

Please arrive at the square area half an hour in advance, when relevant requirements will be explained, team equipment will be provided, and exploration props will be distributed.

Latecomers will have their files returned directly and a "deserter" mark will be left on their personal files. ≯
The so-called square is the center of this island and the Exploration Bureau, where the vertical structure, the "crack" with a length of more than hundreds of meters, is located.

When Luo Di and Yu Ze arrived, many people were already waiting in the square. They were not newcomers but agents who had rested well and were ready to start exploring the corners again.

Among them, Doctor You Zhen, who was responsible for receiving the two people yesterday, was also at the edge of the square, currently waving to them with a smile.

(End of this chapter)