Wasteland Border Inspector

Chapter 251 Extraordinary Three States, Constant Reversal of Control!

The Institute of Infection Sources was officially established in the eighth year of the New Era, while Cheng Wu led a group of prosecutors to defect three years later in the eleventh year of the New Era.

However, before the research institute was officially established, a small, dedicated research institution was already set up inside the checkpoint, which was specifically responsible for deciphering and researching the source of infection.

With this initial foundation, the Institute of Infection Sources must have already taken a complete form by now. The eight years since the founding of the People's Republic of China have only completed the final site selection, construction, and official establishment.

As a witness to the entire process of the research institute's preparation and establishment, Cheng Wu should not have faced too many restrictions when he wanted to enter and leave the place.

But Cheng Long is different. He is only a fifth-term inspector. Even though he has a high reputation within the inspection station, it would be extremely difficult for him to extend his influence to the strictly hierarchical research institute.

Even so, Cheng Long successfully stole three of the extraordinary mother sources that Cheng Wu failed to steal back then.

Neither of these two, father and son, can give you a moment's peace!

"Don't worry, Director Yu. As a trainee prosecutor, I've gotten this far on my own merits, so there's no need for me to do anything underhanded in the future."

Cheng Ye paused, making no attempt to hide his ambition, and said firmly, "Even if we're going to leave a 'legend' here, it has to be the kind of positive legend that can stand proudly in front of the research institute and be admired by millions of people."

"Prosecutor Cheng, you are indeed quite different from other prosecutors."

Yu Erlan smiled knowingly, the coldness in her eyes dissipating somewhat, and she seemed to be in a good mood.

"Let's go." She took the lead and walked into the containment room, her voice following her steps, "From the moment you brought back the magical artifact for Happiness City, there will be no place in the research institute that will stop you from coming and going. Just don't betray this trust."

Cheng Ye was quite surprised as he passed through the entrance gate.

This is clearly a high-risk area where extraordinary mother sources are stored, yet there are no guards in sight.

Rather than a heavily guarded containment facility, this place is more like an open exhibition hall. Anyone qualified to enter can visit freely without any additional restrictions.

Moreover, the indoor atmosphere completely exceeded expectations. It was not as gloomy and cold as one might imagine a research facility. The entire building features a central open staircase design, with the massive silver-white pillar that runs through the ground and underground passing right through the open space.

Outside the giant pillar is a ring of alloy rooms arranged in a circular pattern.

What's most surprising is that these rooms are not the airtight, enclosed structures one might imagine. The entrances are heavy alloy doors, but the fronts are made of a large area of ​​"glass," allowing a clear view of the interior, making them look just like exquisite animal exhibits.

Inside the "glass room" on the left, there is a thick layer of fallen leaves and humus, with several low-lying ferns rooted in the corner, clearly simulating the microenvironment of a temperate jungle.

The source of infection in the room was a creature that looked very much like a fox, covered in short silver-gray fur, with its tail split into three strands at the end, which was nimbly leaping and playing among the plant branches.

It would occasionally rub its nose against the "glass," its golden eyes curiously observing the outside world. It looked gentle and lively, showing no trace of the ferocity of the extraordinary mother source.

"Won't they... run away?" Cheng Ye asked in surprise.

In his vision, even with lax management, these extraordinary mother sources should be bound by layers of iron chains and monitored in real time with various precision instruments to prevent them from escaping and causing catastrophic damage to Happiness City.

But the scene before him completely overturned his understanding. The alloy door might be made of happiness alloy, and it was indeed not easy to break through it, but this "glass" did not look very strong. He even felt that he could shatter it with a single punch after transforming into his giant form.

"Actually, the glass is also made of Happiness Alloy. It only appears transparent because a dual-end display screen is added to simulate it."

Yu Erlan raised her wrist and pressed a button on her personal device.

The next second, the originally transparent glass instantly darkened and turned into a silvery-white alloy of happiness.

She pressed it again, and the panel returned to transparency, clearly reflecting the scene inside the room.

"Amazing, I never thought it could be like this!" Cheng Ye exclaimed sincerely. This kind of containment environment truly takes into account both observation and protection.

"As for your concern about escaping," Yu Erlan changed the subject, looking at him and asking, "would you like to go in and take a closer look?"

"Huh?" Cheng Ye was taken aback, and subconsciously turned to look at her, his face full of surprise. "We can still go in?"

“Of course.” Yu Erlan nodded, tapping the device a few times with her fingertips. “Most of the supernatural mother sources that we can officially contain are not malignant infection sources. At the very least, they have extremely high research value and are relatively controllable.”

As soon as he finished speaking, under Cheng Ye's astonished gaze, the alloy door that held the fox slowly opened.

Surprisingly, although the door opened, the fox suddenly froze, its outline became somewhat blurry, and it instantly shrank to the corner of the room.

Despite having the opportunity to escape, it showed no intention of moving at all, instead exuding an undisguised fear.

"what?"

While Cheng Ye was stunned, he keenly noticed that the emotions emanating from this fox were exactly the same as the fear that the giant lice had conveyed to him earlier.

"I may have been a bit too intense in my research on it recently, so it's a little afraid of me?"

Yu Erlan raised an eyebrow, her tone tinged with amusement, "Come on, even though you're an inspector, you probably haven't been this close to a supernatural mother source before, have you?"

It really doesn't.

The Magic Eye Sponge has reached the Destruction level, but it seems there is still an invisible boundary between it and the Extraordinary.

He couldn't quite explain what this boundary was, but he knew in his heart that since Yu Erlan had brought him here today, she would definitely reveal the specific differences to him.

Upon entering the containment room of the Mother Source, Cheng Ye was surprised to find that there was no strange smell as he had imagined. Instead, there was a faint fragrance of orchids, which was refreshing and pleasant.

Moreover, the room appears to be about 200 square meters from the outside, but once inside, one realizes that the space is far more expansive than it appears visually, extending all the way to the building's exterior wall, with a depth of about 100 meters.

Although the width is only about seven meters, combined with the high ceiling, the overall space does not feel oppressive at all, but rather exudes a sense of spaciousness.

"Come here, Little Silver!"

Yu Erlan crouched down and beckoned to the three-tailed silver fox in the corner.

Unexpectedly, this action only made the silver fox more terrified, and it cowered in the corner, trembling.

Even more surprisingly, under Cheng Ye's gaze, its form slowly changed, eventually turning into an inconspicuous silver-white stone, its presence rapidly diminishing like the receding tide.

Even though Cheng Ye knew it was there, the moment he turned his head, he had a similar illusion as when observing runes, and subconsciously ignored it from his sight.

Its code name is the Unstable Fox.

Yu Erlan stood up and slowly explained, "The ability is what you see now. It's very simple: it reduces your presence and the probability of being discovered. But if you are infected by it, the infected person's presence will continue to decrease, and their body will gradually become transparent, eventually dissolving completely into other people's memories and being erased from the world."

"The terrifying aspect of this ability lies not in directly taking lives, but in turning people into complete invisible beings, ultimately leading to their demise in endless loneliness and oblivion. More importantly, this process is completely irreversible; even top-tier superhumans, once infected, can only watch helplessly as they face death." What a terrifying superhuman source!

Cheng Ye's heart sank. This Unstable Fox was far more threatening than the Demon Eye Sponge. It was actually a death-inducing infection at the rule level.

A thought flashed through his mind, and he asked, "Since it's so dangerous, could it be that the infection conditions for the Unbound Fox are extremely demanding?"

"In many cases, individual lethality and mass infection are mutually corresponding."

Yu Erlan nodded in confirmation, "If it wants to infect humans, regardless of their strength, they must pay the price of losing a tail. Once it becomes a tailless fox, even if it is a supernatural mother source, it will die immediately. And its tail can only grow by slowly absorbing energy, so the overall harm is still controllable and will not cause a large-scale disaster."

Cheng Ye understood instantly. This unpredictable fox still had three tails, meaning it could theoretically infect three more people.

No wonder Cheng Wu and Cheng Long had to "borrow" the Extraordinary Mother Source before doing "big things"—this thing could indeed become a decisive weapon in critical moments!
"What do you think its power comes from?" Yu Erlan stood up, crossed her arms, and asked with a hint of probing in her voice.

Cheng Ye felt a chill run down his spine, immediately realizing that the crucial moment had arrived.

Aside from Cheng Wu and Cheng Long, who sneaked in by stealth, he was the first inspector to be formally brought into the Extraordinary Mother Source Containment Chamber.

The current assessment, and the understanding of its essence, may be the key to obtaining genuine entry qualifications.

"Rune!"

Cheng Ye uttered two words without hesitation, then added, "Or, as I understand it, runes are essentially the concrete manifestation of rules."

"rule."

Yu Erlan shook her head slightly, but did not directly deny his answer. Instead, she introduced, "The Extraordinary Mother Source is the greatest threat facing humanity today, and the culprit behind the current wasteland era. However, after years of analyzing various giant objects, we have preliminarily concluded that what it spread to this planet was not a simple virus, but a key that can unlock the power of biological intelligence and rules."

"This key can endow organisms with all sorts of unique abilities, and based on the degree to which these abilities are developed, we classify the sources of infection into different evolutionary stages."

"We call the first phase: the normal state!"

"Normalization is the first awakening of an organism to break free from the shackles of its inherent form, and also the first cognitive breakthrough in life's definition of its own existence. At this stage, the organism's cells begin to deconstruct the established physiological laws, like dominoes being pushed over, triggering a series of mutations that defy common sense. These mutations endow them with special powers, such as the giant hyacinth beetle in your body, which already possesses the ability to shrink its size, but after the awakening of normalization, this ability becomes more prominent and controllable."

Upon being mentioned by Yu Erlan, the giant lice in the spirit space trembled again, indicating that it had been studied extensively and left with considerable psychological trauma.

Cheng Ye calmed down and listened attentively, sorting out the specific phenomena corresponding to "normal state" in his mind.
Normally, the focus is on the in-depth development of the organism's own original abilities. In this way, the abilities of the Wuding Fox have obviously reached the normal level.

The Magic Eye Sponge is the same; it possesses special abilities far exceeding those of ordinary sponges.

As for those common sources of infection, they probably haven't reached the "normal" stage yet; their basic capabilities have simply been passively amplified.

"The second stage, we call it: the anti-state!"

"If the normal state is life's first awakening to itself, then the abnormal state is the first active resistance against the rules of the world after awakening. When the cells of an organism complete the deconstruction of its own physiological laws, it will begin to actively challenge the established order of the outside world."

"The most intuitive characteristic of anti-state is the reversal of rules, which covers multiple levels such as physics, energy and even cognition. At this stage, the ability of organisms is no longer limited to strengthening themselves or perceiving the environment, but can actively distort or even rewrite the physical rules on a small scale."

"Some infectious agents can make flames burn in a vacuum and allow electricity to be transmitted without loss in the atmosphere. Some can create three-dimensional paths on a plane and transform their shadows into independent spaces to hide their bodies. This unpredictable fox's ability is in the stage of going from normal to abnormal. Its core is to reduce its own presence by distorting the rules of cognition."

If there were a small stool placed by the door, Cheng Ye would even be willing to sit there and listen to her talk for a whole day.

Regardless of anything else, it's simply that her voice has a special, gentle quality, as if it has a magical power that can unconsciously calm people down.

Normal state, abnormal state.

The two stages, though seemingly contradictory, enabled the infectious agent to achieve a near-qualitative leap in its capabilities.

Cheng Ye quickly processed the information in his mind, when suddenly a realization flashed through his mind, and he subconsciously asked:
"So the source of the Unbound Fox's power is that it has become aware of the existence of rules and is able to actively intervene in them?"

"That's the key."

A clear hint of appreciation flashed in Yu Erlan's eyes, and her tone became more appreciative. "Cognition is the cornerstone of all powerful forces. True breakthroughs must be built upon cross-level cognitive upgrades. Just like the development of human technology, it is only by first mastering the basic rules of cognition that we can use this as a foundation to continuously generate various technological products that change the world."

"The evolution of infection sources is similar. The keys left by giant creatures have opened the door to their understanding of rules, allowing them to directly glimpse the workings of the rules. Even if they cannot systematically analyze and transform rules like humans, they can still use their limited intelligence to make preliminary applications of the rules."

"However, the danger of the opposite lies precisely here. This kind of resistance to the rules will put organisms in a dilemma of two-way consumption. On the one hand, they have to consume their own energy to distort the rules, and on the other hand, they have to bear the cost of the backlash from the rules. For example, when you use the ability of the Shrinking Giant Lice, the cost you bear is not the symbiotic punishment, but the cost that you will inevitably have to pay for forcibly using the rules."

boom!
As if a thunderbolt had struck his mind, many key points that had previously puzzled Cheng Ye suddenly became clear.

It turns out that it wasn't the giant hyacinth beetle's punishment for its symbiotic relationship, but rather the consequence it had to bear for forcibly borrowing power and using the rules before it had formed a complete understanding of them.
It's like a primitive man accidentally finding a powerful sniper rifle.

You might be lucky enough to shoot and kill your prey, but you might also accidentally point the gun at yourself because you don't know how to operate it.

The existence of the Shrinking Giant Lice is more like a guide who teaches him how to aim and how to pull the trigger, but it cannot help him offset the recoil that will inevitably occur after firing.

Having figured this out, Cheng Ye speculated, "So the third stage should be the mastery of the rules, right? Not only do you have to understand the essence of the rules, but you also have to be able to control them precisely, so as to avoid or reduce the cost of the rules backlash."

However, Yu Erlan did not immediately respond to his speculation, but instead added:
"Even at the cost of backlash, the anti-state remains an indispensable and crucial stage in the evolution of the infection source. It proves to us that the rules of the world are not indestructible, and the potential of life is far from its limit. Like the warriors in ancient fables who dared to challenge the gods, the anti-state represents the courage to break free of constraints and is the starting point for infinite possibilities."

After saying this, she finally gave her answer, her tone filled with unwavering certainty:
"The third stage, we call it: the state of control!"

“The normal state is the awakening of the rules and cognition, the reverse state is the active challenge of the rules, and the state of control is the creation of new rules. This is not about using reversal within the existing rule framework, but about personally carving out new laws that belong to oneself on the established rule map of the universe.”

"At the level of control, we can even achieve entropy reversal, recovering and storing diffused heat energy, breaking the conventional law of entropy increase. Based on this, we can not only repair damaged objects and reverse cell aging, but also, in extreme states, intervene in the entropy change at the spacetime level, freeze local time, and even rewind past fragments."

Control, it seems, bypasses the understanding of the rules and instead takes a shortcut by creating new rules?
Cheng Ye was completely shocked by this groundbreaking and bold conclusion.

Are those so-called "runes" essentially unique new rules left behind by biological individuals after they intervene in the world using their own abilities?
If one could truly create rules, wouldn't that be equivalent to possessing near-immortality, allowing one to do whatever one pleases without restraint?

No, that's not right!

The thought had barely crossed his mind when he immediately dismissed it.

In the opposite state, even using or changing existing rules comes at a cost, so how could creating rules, an even more exaggerated act, be easily accomplished?

"What does it take to create rules?" After much thought, he couldn't help but ask.

Yu Erlan didn't keep him in suspense. She looked at him calmly and softly uttered two words:
"resource!"

(End of this chapter)