I work as a security guard at a cemetery, and I overhear the dead chatting about getting rich quick.

Han Xu stood to the side, looking down at his tablet. The elevator was quiet; the walls were silver-gray and so clean they reflected images.

Lin Ye glanced at the row of darkened negative space signs.

Negative three.

Negative five.

Negative seven.

Negative nine.

Han Xu noticed his gaze but didn't look up.

"Negative 3, Archives Area."

"Negative 5, sealed-off area."

"Negative 7, training area."

"Nine negative numbers, Lingjing District."

He spoke very casually, as if he were introducing where the cafeteria was.

Lin Ye asked, "Aren't there negative one and negative two?"

"have."

"Then why not write it?"

"You don't have the necessary permissions."

Lin Ye paused for two seconds.

Row.

Even elevators have their own hierarchy of disdain.

Han Xu finally looked up at him.

"Don't press random buttons."

Lin Ye withdrew his hand.

"Do I look like such an unreliable person?"

Han Xu did not answer.

Silence itself is the answer.

The elevator stopped at basement level three.

The door opened, and a blast of cold air rushed out.

It wasn't the kind of cold that comes from air conditioning; it was a cold mixed with the smells of old paper, disinfectant, and metal cabinets.

The corridor was wide and the lighting was pale. Both sides were lined with closed archives, the doors bearing no names, only a series of numbers.

Occasionally, someone would walk by quickly carrying a folder, nod at Han Xu, and then quickly look away when their gaze fell on Lin Ye.

I won't look at it much.

I didn't ask any more questions.

It seems like everyone here has mastered a certain skill.

If you see something strange, pretend you didn't.

Han Xu led Lin Ye to the left.

"First, make a record of the disability."

"The lobby detected residual spiritual energy from the Green Mountain on you; you must register."

Lin Ye followed him into a small room.

There was a chair, a testing device, and a transparent glass cabinet in the room.

There were several sealed bottles in the cabinet, each with a label.

Green hill soil sample.

Water sample from the underground drain.

Ash residue in the main shrine.

Lin Ye paused for a moment.

Those things, though contained in small bottles, seemed to still carry the chill of the mountains below.

A female staff member wearing glasses sat behind a desk without looking up.

"Name."

Han Xu answered for him: "Lin Ye".

The female staff member looked up.

"The one in Aoyama?"

Lin Ye sat down.

"If there isn't a second Qingshan, it should be me."

She picked up a pen and wrote a few lines on the form.

"What have you heard?"

Lin Ye looked at Han Xu.

Han Xu said, "Speak the truth."

Lin Ye remained silent for a moment.

"Kuili Mountain."

The female staff member paused for a moment.

"Is there anything else?"

"Not guarding the grave at night."

"besides?"

"A stranger enters the game."

The room was silent for half a second.

The female staff member wrote these sentences into the form without much change in expression.

"When you hear these words, do you experience headaches, tinnitus, nosebleeds, or visual hallucinations?"

Lin Ye thought for a moment.

My ears feel swollen.

"degree?"

"It's like someone stuffed a handful of wet soil up your ear."

The female staff member finally raised her head.

"The description is quite specific."

Lin Ye said, "The on-site experience is very immersive."

The female staff member didn't laugh.

She attached a small detector to Lin Ye's ear.

The moment the instrument was attached, Lin Ye heard a sound again.

very short.

It's like someone scratching a stone with their fingernail from a great distance.

sizzle.

sizzle.

Lin Ye's fingers gripped the edge of the chair.

The female staff member pressed the button on the side of the instrument.

A low humming sound.

The sound stopped.

Lin Ye took a breath.

He then realized that his back was covered in a layer of cold sweat.

The female staff member looked at the screen.

"The lingering echoes of the green hills still linger in the auditory passage; they are not pollution, but they are very deep."

Han Xu asked, "Do we need to quarantine?"

"Need not."

The female staff member removed the testing device.

"Make a record of the residual energy. Do not approach areas with high concentrations of spiritual energy for three days, and do not try to listen to the lingering echoes of the green mountains."

Lin Ye raised his eyes.

What would happen if we forced them to listen?

The female staff member put the testing equipment into the box.

"Be gentle, I have a headache and tinnitus."

"In a more serious case, the reverberation will become indistinguishable from your own hearing. At that point, we won't be able to tell what you're hearing as real or not."

Lin Ye didn't ask any more questions.

This is enough.

He hasn't learned to control his ears yet.

The female staff member stuffed a yellow record sheet into a file bag.

"alright."

"Take him to the access control room."

Han Xu nodded.

As Lin Ye got up, he glanced at the bottles in the glass cabinet one last time.

There seemed to be a very faint black mark around the edge of the bottle in the ash slag chamber.

He glanced at it only once before looking away.

Han Xu said that.

Don't stare at it for too long.

The two continued walking down the corridor.

The archive area in the negative three is larger than Lin Ye had imagined.

The corridors stretched one after another, and the access control gates went one after another. Han Xu had to swipe his ID card at each gate.

When they reached the third door, the black bracelet vibrated.

Han Xu glanced at it.

"Your temporary permissions have been entered."

Lin Ye lowered his head.

A line of small text lit up on the bracelet:

B3 Temporary Passage.

Valid for 24 hours.

Lin Ye asked, "What happens if it expires?"

"The door won't open."

"Will people be locked inside?"

"If you haven't come out in 24 hours, the problem isn't just the door."

Lin Ye shut up.

The people here are quite concise in their speech.

But none of the characters are very auspicious.

The records entry room is at the end of the corridor.

The door opened, revealing a whole wall of screens inside.

The screen displays the file number, map coordinates, and red markers.

As soon as Lin Ye entered, he heard someone shout:

"The review report for the Qingcheng escort route is out!"

Several people in the room stopped what they were doing at the same time.

A red notification popped up on the right side of the screen wall.

The temporary transport convoy in Qingcheng is experiencing an anomaly.

Escort vehicles No. 2 and No. 3 deviated from their original routes.

Key targets were released from custody.

Lin Ye paused.

The staff member typed rapidly on the keyboard.

"Target confirmed."

"Su Tinglan".

"Chen Jin".

"White Kite".

"Xing Shanhe".

"Two other tomb raiders are missing."

The air pressure in the room suddenly dropped.

Lin Ye looked at the names on the screen.

Su Tinglan.

Xing Shanhe.

They were rescued.

Han Xu frowned.

Another line popped up on the screen:

Suspected interference with spatial abilities.

There was a lingering smell of rust at the scene.

The route is abnormally folded.

Han Xu whispered, "Take a detour."

Lin Ye looked at him.

"What?"

"The people of the Candle Shadow Society."

Han Xu didn't explain much, he just stared at the screen.

Lin Ye remained silent for a few seconds.

"Even with seven people being escorted, they could still be hijacked?"

"able."

Han Xu did not make any excuses.

"So you're standing here now not because seven places are safe."

He turned to look at Lin Ye.

"Because it's less safe outside."

That's a very insightful comment.

Lin Ye had no way to refute it.

On the screen, relevant files about Qingshan were quickly retrieved.

Lin Ye saw his name.

Forest.

Night shift security guard at Qingshan Cemetery.

Suspected special sensory abilities.

Risk assessment: B.

Recommendation: Place under observation, restrict individual actions, and temporarily suspend contact with high-risk sealed materials.

Han Xu asked the staff to record his fingerprints, iris scans, voiceprints, and temporary residence.

The process was quick.

No one asked him if he was tired.

No one asked him if he wanted to eat something first.

Everyone is like a fully wound-up machine.

When recording his voiceprint, the staff asked him to say a fixed phrase.

"Please read: I am aware of the risks of abnormal contact and voluntarily accept management."

Lin Ye looked at that sentence and remained silent for a moment.

voluntary.

These two words appear to have been specially artistically crafted here.

He read it aloud in the end.

The machine passed.

The staff member handed him a temporary access card.

"Take this. If you lose it, you'll need to write an explanation."

Lin Ye took the card.

After the formalities were completed, Han Xu led him away from the file entry room.

The corridor was busier than before.

The news of the accident on the Qingcheng escort line was like a nail, waking everyone up from the brink of disaster on the third basement level.

Someone carrying a file box walked quickly past.

Someone was making a phone call in a low voice.

Someone is marking out-of-line points on the screen.

Lin Ye heard several words drifting over from different directions.

A person with the ability to change course.

Copper nails.

The routes overlap.

Target recovery.

The possibility of returning to the island has increased.

Return to the island.

Lin Ye remembered the word.

Han Xu noticed his reaction.

"You can jot down keywords you hear, but don't ask random questions."

Lin Ye looked at him.

"Is this how you all speak here, so inhumanely?"

Han Xu said, "You'll get used to it."

"What if I can't get used to it?"

"Then you'll get used to it gradually."

As they spoke, the two walked to the elevator lobby.

Han Xu swiped his card and led him down to the outer perimeter of the fifth basement level.

"Only look at the outer circle, don't go into the core area."

After the elevator doors opened, Lin Ye saw an even colder corridor.

The walls on both sides are lined with heavy metal doors, each with a number and a red seal.

Not far away, a freight elevator opened.

Two staff members pushed out a silver-white storage box.

The box had black clasps at its four corners and a yellow label with red lettering on its surface.

B5-317.

Low-risk artifact fragments.

Don't listen.

Do not view.

Do not touch.

Lin Ye glanced at it only once before looking away.

Suddenly, there was a sound coming from the box.

Ding.

It's very light.

Like a small bell being touched.

The two staff members pushing the boxes stopped at the same time.

Han Xu stepped in front of Lin Ye to block his path.

"Don't look."

Lin Ye has stopped watching.

But he heard it.

Ding.

Second tone.

This time, a soft voice followed the ringing.

"Open the door."

The voice was like a child's, yet also like an old person's—soft and gentle, with a hint of coaxing.

"Open the door."

Lin Ye's throat moved.

Han Xu lowered his voice.

"Linye."

Lin Ye closed his eyes.

The sound paused for a moment.

Then it started playing again.

"I know you can hear me."

Lin Ye's back tensed up little by little.

Han Xu stared at him.

"Repeat my words."

I will not respond.

Lin Ye lowered his voice.

I will not respond.

The ringing stopped abruptly.

The red indicator light on the surface of the storage box slowly dimmed.

Both staff members breathed a sigh of relief.

One of them glanced at Lin Ye.

"A newcomer?"

Han Xu said, "I just arrived."

The man nodded.

"You have very good hearing."

Another staff member pushed the sealed box further away.

"Stay away from this thing. It loves newcomers."

Lin Ye watched as the sealed containers were pushed into the transfer channel.

He didn't ask any further questions.

The "low risk" status of the species mentioned in section seven is probably not the same as the "low risk" status of the average person; they are likely not the same species.

Han Xu didn't let him linger in basement level five and led him back into the elevator.

This time the elevator stopped at basement level seven.

The door opened a crack.

A dull thud came from outside.

boom.

boom.

It looked like someone was hitting a thick wooden board with a hammer.

Others shouted:

"Back off!"

"Don't try to tough it out!"

"If you can't control yourself, just press stop!"

Lin Ye glanced outside.

All that could be seen was a section of the training ground's outer corridor, with protective suits and damaged arm guards hanging on the walls.

A young man emerged, leaning against the wall with blood at the corner of his mouth, and was cursed at by a staff member nearby.

"I told you to stop, but you wouldn't listen. Are you trying to fool me?"

The young man was panting.

"I almost passed."

You almost ended up in the medical room.

The elevator doors closed quickly.

Han Xu said, "The negative seven training zone."

Lin Ye asked, "Will I come here sometime?"

"meeting."

"Can I take a day off?"

"able."

Lin Ye just breathed a sigh of relief.

Han Xu added, "Medical leave required."

Lin Ye fell silent.

This company really makes sure the roads are completely blocked.

The elevator did not go any further down.

But just seconds after the door closed, the light suddenly flickered.

The black bracelet vibrated.

Lin Ye lowered his head.

A line of small text popped up on the screen:

Abnormal fluctuation alert.

The next second, the previously dark symbol for negative nine lit up on its own.

very short.

It went out in an instant.

Suddenly, Lin Ye heard the sound of water.

Very deep.

Very heavy.

Like a well turning over underground.

The sound of water was mixed with many indescribable whispers.

He didn't hear what was said.

I heard the last two words, as if they were rising from a very deep place underground.

"woke up."

Lin Ye suddenly looked up.

Han Xu's hand was already on the elevator control panel.

He gained access by entering two commands in succession.

The elevator quickly returned to normal.

Han Xu turned to look at him.

"What did you hear?"

Lin Ye's Adam's apple bobbed.

"The sound of water."

Han Xu's expression finally changed.

Not obvious.

But Lin Ye saw it.

Han Xu paused for two seconds, then said:

"That's a negative nine."

"The No. 1 Spirit Well in the Capital".

Lin Ye looked down at the bracelet.

The error message on the screen has disappeared, as if nothing had happened.

But the sound of the water was still ringing in his ears.

It's very light.

It's very far.

It's like it's always been there.

Han Xu put away his documents.

"After today's registration process, you will meet someone."

Lin Ye asked, "Who?"

"Shen Yan".

The elevator resumed its upward movement.

Han Xu looked at the constantly changing floor numbers and lowered his voice a little.

"He will tell you the true state of the world now, and why the Seventh Bureau calls this current phase the Revitalization Period."

Lin Ye stood in the elevator, the black bracelet on his wrist still trembling slightly.