That instant, Shang Jianyao seemed to sink into the deep sea, his body subjected to immense pressure, his vision darkening, and silence ringing in his ears.

They had been accumulating power for this moment, and at this critical juncture, they shouted:

"Xiao Chong!"

After a brief pause, the feeling of being pressed down by layers of seawater disappeared, and Shang Jianyao regained his sight.

Appearing before him was a place similar to the "Mind Corridor," filled with rooms everywhere.

But the passageways here were not just one, they crisscrossed, winding back and forth, as if constructing a maze.

The walls, ceilings, and paths of the "maze" were painted white, and the doors were of various colors, without any pattern.

"Does each room house a 'Zhuang Sheng'?" Shang Jianyao guessed with considerable excitement.

He knew that "Zhuang Sheng" suffered from multiple personality disorder, and each personality seemed to be acting independently.

This could be glimpsed from the dream at Taicheng First High School, and the brightly lit buildings around the tower also served as indirect proof.

Shang Jianyao looked back at where he had come from, and saw no corresponding gap, only a white wall blocking his return and eliminating the previous danger.

He began to jog nonchalantly, constantly opening the rooms on both sides of the corridor.

Bang, bang, bang, Shang Jianyao, like a mischievous child, only glanced inside through the open doors before rushing past.

Those rooms had no occupants and no furniture, empty as if they had just been built.

Bang!

Another door was opened by Shang Jianyao.

His eyes swept over, and he saw an LCD screen, a black game console, and a child sitting on the floor holding a controller.

"Xiao Chong!" Shang Jianyao stopped abruptly, both excited and happy.

That was his good friend, Xiao Chong.

Xiao Chong, wearing a green hoodie, ignored Shang Jianyao and continued to sit there, playing the game.

Shang Jianyao was not surprised, he approached and stretched out his palm to pat Xiao Chong's shoulder:

"Your level is not very good today."

On the LCD screen, the tank controlled by Xiao Chong had just been blown up by a shell.

Xiao Chong still did not respond, and Shang Jianyao's right hand passed through Xiao Chong's shoulder and fell down.

He did not touch anything.

Xiao Chong in this room was just a phantom.

Shang Jianyao "uh"ed, and began to examine the black game console, the LCD screen, and the white low cabinet on which the screen was placed, and found that they were all phantoms.

"Holographic projection?" The calm and rational Shang Jianyao stroked his chin and turned his body.

His gaze fell on the snow-white ceiling, where a very advanced projector was hanging.

"Who took this video, Xiao Chong's parents?" Shang Jianyao, who was well-read in old world entertainment materials and had sufficiently jumpy ideas, always had open thinking. "Recording the child's growth?"

He then squatted next to "Xiao Chong" and watched him play the game.

In less than a minute, Xiao Chong's tank was blown up again, exactly the same as the previous scene.

The video was playing in a loop.

"Boring..." Shang Jianyao muttered as he stood up.

He left the room and continued to walk the maze and play the door-opening game.

In the sound of bang, bang, one door after another opened, revealing the empty interior.

It was not until he turned into another corridor that Shang Jianyao saw a single bed in a room.

The single bed was covered with white four-piece bedding, the frame was made of metal, and wheels were installed at the bottom, which could be pushed.

It also seemed to be able to raise the back area through certain buttons, allowing the person on it to sit up and lean back.

Shang Jianyao was no stranger to similar single beds, they were hospital beds.

The room where the bed was located was very small, giving a clear sense of narrowness and oppression.

Shang Jianyao stepped into this room, touched it left and right, and confirmed that there was really no one lying on the bed, and no animals either.

"This is 'Zhuang Sheng's' mental world, is this one of His memories?" Shang Jianyao stroked his chin and turned his gaze to the original wood-colored low cabinet next to the bed.

There was a stack of disposable paper cups on the low cabinet, but they were not filled with water.

Shang Jianyao bent down and opened the top drawer of the low cabinet.

Inside the drawer was a wooden partition with a slightly darker color. Other than that, there were no snacks at all.

Shang Jianyao couldn't help shaking his head.

He then opened the lower drawer.

There was a white piece of paper here.

Shang Jianyao picked up the paper and saw many inspection items listed on it in Ashlands script, and a line of black bold text was printed at the top of these items:

"Observation Subject No. 1, Du Shaochong."

"Oh, oh." Shang Jianyao showed a suddenly enlightened expression.

As for what he understood, he himself did not know, he just felt that he should be enlightened after seeing this sentence.

Shang Jianyao stroked his chin again:

"'Observation subject' is a very interesting term, this is neither a volunteer nor an experimental subject...

"Could it be because Xiao Chong is the incarnation of 'Zhuang Sheng', awakened from childhood and possessing abilities?"

The "Old Task Force" saw in Linhe Village, Dajiang City, the "past images" showed that Xiao Chong seemed to have the ability to implant thoughts into others in his childhood.

Shang Jianyao felt very uncomfortable in this narrow and oppressive room. Seeing that there were no other gains, he turned and walked out.

Bang! Bang!

His emotions quickly recovered, and he opened other doors in this corridor.

Winding and winding, Shang Jianyao didn't know where he had wound up, but when he was just habitually opening the door, he saw a spacious living room behind the door he had just opened.

In the living room, there were dark-colored coffee tables and sofas, and a person was sitting on the sofa.

That was a middle-aged man, wearing an ordinary black jacket, his dark brown hair was a little messy, his beard was obviously shaved, but there were still some visible stubble left.

After seeing Shang Jianyao, this person showed a simple and honest smile, but his deep blue, almost black eyes were quite bright.

"Sorry, I disturbed you." Shang Jianyao hurriedly bowed and apologized for his random door-opening behavior.

It was like being caught on the spot while doing mischief.

The next second, Shang Jianyao straightened up and looked at the middle-aged man's face, and asked with a slight doubt:

"Have we met before? Why do I think you look a bit familiar?"

Because the other person had a Red River appearance, he used the Red River language.

The man picked up a bag of cookies printed with a bear pattern from the coffee table and stuffed a piece into his mouth.

He kept the same smile as before, and looked at Shang Jianyao and said:

"My name is Winchester. Garland."

…………

Inside the vortex-shaped building, Jiang Baimian went up to the second floor and saw a sign written in two languages:

"Administrative Area"

This should not involve confidential research results... Jiang Baimian thought to herself, intending to pass through this place quickly.

Wearing a military exoskeleton, she ran as fast as she could to save time.

As she ran, she suddenly stopped.

This was not because she had found another corpse, she had already found seven or eight skeletons scattered in this area.

She just caught sight of a room sign:

"Director's Office"

Is it the office of Dean Du Heng in the Second Research Area, or the administrative director's office? Jiang Baimian showed a thoughtful expression.

Because of the former possibility, she turned her body and entered that office.

The room was neither small nor large. In addition to a desk and the chair behind it, there were only two filing cabinets, a paper shredder, a trash can, and a conversation area consisting of a sofa, a small coffee table, and two chairs. They were very close to each other, making it look exceptionally compact.

At this time, a corpse turned into white bones was sitting in the director's position.

This skeleton was wearing a white women's shirt and corresponding black business attire. If it was not a cross-dressing enthusiast in its lifetime, then it should be a woman.

Her right chest also had a black metal nameplate with the following written in Ashlands script and Red River language:

"Administrative Director: Zhao Danlin"

Jiang Baimian recalled for a moment and confirmed that this name was very unfamiliar.

She turned her gaze to the objects on the desk.

The most obvious were the computer screen and several books. The latter were:

"How to Raise a Dog", "Animal Protection", "In-depth Analysis of Nonsense Movies", "Chu Culture"...

Jiang Baimian picked up these books and flipped through them casually, looking for anything like interspersed notes, while scanning other items on the desk.

There was no valuable information here. The paper shredder next to it might be one of the answers. Jiang Baimian only found documents such as meeting schedules, cafeteria subsidies, and exchange applications from other research institutes.

As for the meeting schedule, there was only information on which meeting room was used by which group at what time, with no explanation of what meetings were to be held.

Jiang Baimian glanced over it and confirmed that there were only three research groups here, numbered "1", "2", and "3", and their connections seemed to be very close. Two or three groups often used the large conference room together.

Helpless, Jiang Baimian focused on the books again.

While flipping through quickly, she suddenly saw two nouns.

They both came from the book "Chu Culture", namely:

"Da Si Ming", "Shao Si Ming".