Cthulhu Panel: One organ mutates every day

Metropolis, Midtown, Times Square.

This area is an emerging urban center, where all the luxury hotels, federal agencies, theaters, and business districts are concentrated. It is also the financial center of the entire Federation, an area where countless financial giants gather.

The Grand Hotel is located in the eastern part of Midtown, along Park Avenue.

In a luxury room on the second floor of the Grand Hotel.

Wei En paced back and forth, his thoughts in disarray.

I glanced at the time; it was 3:30 PM.

"Where is Charlotte? She said she would take me to confront the past and acquire special abilities, but now she's disappeared."

"Who brought me to the Grand Hotel last night?"

"Charlotte, a woman, shouldn't have that much strength."

Wayne sat back on the bed, unable to recall how he had fallen asleep on the train.

At that time, I was on the train, and I should have been full of energy, with the added boost of breathing to keep my brain in a state of high alert.

Even so, she still managed to fall asleep without anyone noticing.

And he slept until the afternoon of the next day. During that time, he didn't have any nightmares like he had in the previous days.

It was as if something had interfered with and forcibly skipped the nightmare.

Or perhaps, I wasn't asleep at all, but rather fainted...

This also explains why I didn't enter a nightmare.

There's a problem, a big problem.

Wayne glanced at the watch face on his wrist again:

The actual deviation is 0%.

The so-called reality deviation is the degree to which the environment deviates from reality.

Deviations are usually associated with contamination.

This instrument can measure the highest value of the deviation from reality in the vicinity, which can indirectly measure the degree of pollution in the environment.

When the reality deviation is 1%, it means that the surrounding environment has been slightly distorted due to pollution, and cognition will also deviate slightly from reality.

When the reality deviation is 100%, it means that the surrounding environment has been completely distorted due to pollution, and the perceived reality no longer exists.

However, the highest scale of this instrument is only 50%.

Wayne repeatedly reviewed the known information in his mind.

"No pollution has been detected so far."

"The only thing that can be confirmed is that falling asleep should normally lead to nightmares, but this time, falling asleep on the train did not lead to nightmares, so it is highly likely that it was not falling asleep, but rather fainting."

Wayne felt his thoughts becoming increasingly complicated and turbulent, and his heart growing more uneasy. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the string of dark blue beads on his wrist.

The Soul Amber Bead, made of Soul Amber Wood, can protect the wearer's will to a certain extent, but the side effect is that it makes the wearer restless.

Wei En's mind was filled with the words of the newly appointed section chief.

"Is it this contamination that's making me uneasy?"

"No, this can't go on. We need to get rid of these crazy ideas as soon as possible."

Wayne stood up, went to the bathroom to wash his face, and became more sober and calmer.

And I remembered the room number I was currently living in: 213.

Wayne looked around but didn't see Charlotte's suitcase or any women's clothing.

This suggests that Charlotte may not have entered the room, or may not have spent the night in it.

"Perhaps Charlotte went to contact her colleagues in Section Two as soon as she got off the car. It was her colleagues in Section Two who brought me to the Grand Hotel and helped me settle in."

"Phew... It's easier to calm down if we take a long-term view."

Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the sun shines brightly.

The sound of loud jazz music drifted in from the street outside the window, as if some huge event was taking place, and it was very lively.

When the jazz music reached Wayne's ears, he was completely baffled.

When I woke up, I didn't hear any jazz music playing on the street outside.

Now, after Wayne calmed down a bit, he suddenly appeared, extremely abruptly, without any foreshadowing.

There wasn't even a process of acceptance, which makes it hard not to feel strange.

Wayne frowned slightly, stood up, and fully opened the curtains of the French windows.

The sunlight was unusually bright, making his vision blurry. Even though he had previously suffered from optic nerve abnormalities, he still couldn't withstand it, which was unexpected.

Wei En stared intently at the street below.

The streets are wide and clean.

But at this moment, it was packed with people.

A huge crowd of people stretched along the street into the distance, including men, women, and children.

Their faces beamed with joy and happiness as they cheered and surged toward Times Square in the heart of the metropolis.

Shops along the street had their doors and windows wide open.

The chefs in those restaurants and dessert shops, all dressed in neat white uniforms, held silver platters piled high with hamburgers, stews, and cream pies, forming long queues and mingling with the crowd as they hurried toward Times Square.

The scene before me looked like a temple fair, a gathering, or a food-related event.

It was incredibly lively; even watching from upstairs, you could feel the infectious energy of the crowd.

"Aside from parades, I've never heard of any events of this scale in the Metropolitan Area..." Wayne said hesitantly.

He even suspected that all the residents of the metropolis were involved in the event.

Who has such an exaggerated appeal? Even the president might fall short.

However, soon, following the trace of doubt in his heart, Wayne realized that something was wrong.

The people on the street... are crammed a little too close together.

Not a single person went against the flow, not a single person stopped, not a single person watched, and not a single person had a happy expression that differed from everyone else's.

The streets were lined with private cars and horse-drawn carriages, completely blocking the sidewalks and driveways that should have been cleared.

Among them were some office workers in suits and ties, and some actors in theater costumes. They actually squeezed together with workers and beggars in rags. Did they not care about their dignity?

And it's 3:30 pm now, don't they need to go to work?

Did this event bring the entire city's work and production to a standstill?

The loud jazz music drifted from Times Square down the street, making Wayne's mood involuntarily rise.

But he was already feeling extremely uneasy inside.

because.

No matter how you look at it, the people on the street... their footsteps, whether light or heavy, fast or slow, and their strides are all perfectly regular and uniform.

No matter how you listen, the cheers of the crowd on the street and the jazz music in the wind are all mixed together.

It's impossible to tell whether the cheers are coming from the lyrics of the jazz music or from the crowd in the street.

Or perhaps the cheers of the crowd have permeated the lyrics of the music?

Extremely unusual.

With a thought, Wei En saw the twisted threads converging before his eyes.

[Perception Lv.1 - Observation of the Microscopic] Progress 65.6%

"The progress has increased by about 5%, which shows that the effort I put into observation has indeed yielded results."

Wayne glanced at his wristwatch, confirming that the reality deviation was still 0%, then found the key to room 213 on the bedside table and decided to go downstairs to take a look.

Even if you don't go out, you should still stand in front of the Grand Hotel and take a look; maybe your [Perception] progress will increase even more.

And to be honest, after sleeping all day without eating, I'm extremely hungry, and my mental state isn't at its best.

It would be best to go downstairs at the Grand Hotel and see if there's a buffet restaurant there to grab a bite to eat.

Charlotte might be downstairs too.

After all, he had stayed at the Grand Hotel with his sister Rosalind. He could go downstairs to find a staff member's phone number to contact his sister, or contact other company offices, and then try to contact the Michigan branch office to find out what was going on in Charlotte.

You can't stay in the room forever; you have to go out eventually.

Let's proceed as planned.

Having finalized the next course of action, Wayne left room 213 and walked down the empty hotel corridor to the hotel lobby on the first floor.

The hotel's lobby on the first floor is bright and airy, with gilded chandeliers hanging down, smooth and flat retro marble floors, and neatly arranged counters and sofas.

However, there were no waiters, no receptionists, and no guests in the entire first-floor lobby.

It was deserted, quiet and desolate.

This contrasts sharply with the hustle and bustle of the streets outside the hotel.

The main door on the first floor was still open.

It seems... everyone in the hotel went out to the streets and to Times Square for an event?