Yoru Kamidera continued. “Or perhaps the sentence you type will become ‘Is it possible that other people think I’m not doing well, it can’t be, can it?’. By the time you tried to explain that ‘I’m not trying to judge anyone’, the sentence turns into ‘He’s triggered, he’s triggered!’ or variations of such sentences that upset people in general.
“Furthermore, when you’re proved by people saying such things and try to reply, ‘Please be civilized’, what you type will instead be sent as ‘Anything else?’, ‘Are you done?’, ‘Quit being so loud, what’s your problem!’, you get the idea…”
“…”
Chen Chen became speechless and shot a look at Yoru Kamidera. “That’s all?”
“This is only the prelude.”
Yoru Kamidera flashed a bitter smile. “What’s stranger was what came after that. Since then, strange things happened to the people who had logged onto the forum. Everything they say in real life, write on paper or just any form of communication as a whole turns into Chinese pronunciations. The tone of the translation is aggressive as well. This effect only slowly fades away after one week.”
“You can’t escape it even in reality?”
Chen Chen was stunned upon hearing that. It was then when he made the connection that it must have been related to the mysterious text phenomenon.
“Yes.”
Yoru Kamidera added. “This may seem comedic compared to the other mysterious phenomenon, but on a fundamental level it was no different from the other cases. It also has a transmission method of its own.
“Take this current observation with the mysterious text, for example. It’s transmitted through the yygg website and the symptom of the infection is that one will speak in a specific pattern. In this sense, its actual damage and threat aren’t significant. But you can only imagine that if the symptom of the infection is changed to something else such as instant death on the spot, then this will instantly turn into an extremely lethal occurrence.
“Or better yet, instead of the condition of transmission being ‘logging onto the website’, it changes to ‘anyone who hears such phrases are immediately infected with a similar condition’. You’ll immediately see it rapidly spreading across the globe.”
“That’s true.” Chen Chen nodded.
Yoru Kamedera went on. “This is why something like a diary of the deceased can be extremely dangerous. That’s because you have no clue what took the person’s life, there’s a chance that the person died of such bizarre cases that are conducted by reading specific text…”
While the two of them were discussing these mysterious phenomena, there was suddenly a slight knock on the glass beside the seat where Chen Chen was seated.
“Dong!”
Yoru Kamidera continued. “Apart from that, there’s another potential risk. Which is that those strange texts may bring another…”
Before he could finish his sentence, there was another knock.
Chen Chen’s expression became grave as he turned to look outside the cabin window of the spaceship.
“Dong!”
The moment Chen Chen turned to inspect, a horrifically pale hand left its prints on the cabin window of the spaceship!
Yoru Kamidera was visibly shocked by the sudden commotion.
Chen Chen felt his heart tighten as well. He continued to stare silently at the imprint of the palm on the cabin window. However, the cabin windows of the Bugatti Spaceship were not made with glass materials but instead, a form of semi-transparent materials that came fully attached to the doors. Therefore, it was difficult to get a clear view of objects outside the spaceship.
From where Chen Chen sat, he could see that there were hardly any fine details in the palm. There were no fingerprints, no palm prints, nor was it adorned with any jewelry. All that could be seen was boney veins crawling across the slender fingers.
The only remaining notable feature was the distinctive paleness.
It was an extremely uncomfortable sight. Such eerie paleness would rarely if ever be associated with fair skin, but instead gave the impression of a cold, dead body.
There was no way this was the palm of a person…
Unlike Yoru Kamadera, Chen Chen hardly showed any signs of being agitated or fearful. He only promptly raised his head to ask, “X-112, what happened? Can you detect what’s outside the spaceship?”
What added to Chen Chen’s surprise was that X-112 did not respond at all!
“X? Urgent command input, X-112, I order you to respond!”
Chen Chen asked again but the X-112 artificial intelligence integrated with the spaceship seemed to have been shut down. No matter how Chen Chen tried to summon the copy of Little X, he could not draw a response.
“Sir, it’s no use.”
Yoru Kamidera started to calm down. Although he was just a common person, he did possess a coolness exceeding his peers of the same age as he remarked, “Usually, when one of these mysterious phenomena are triggered, the victims enter a state which they cannot pluck themselves out of and even nearby observers cannot interact with them. It’s pretty clear now that the intelligence system in this spaceship can no longer hear your orders.”
“Then why can you still interact with me?”
Chen Chen gave up on communicating with X-112 and turned to Yoru Kamadera. “Are you targeted by it as well?”
“It’s possible.”
Yoru Kamidera nodded. “But allow me to wager a guess. If I’m not mistaken, you must’ve been targeted by these strange events previously, right?”
Without waiting for Chen Chen to respond, Yoru Kamidera continued. “The truth is, many of these mysterious phenomena have a contagious characteristic, just like viruses and diseases do. An infected person may transmit the condition via countless mediums you would never think of, such as a simple sentence, a simple touch, an eye contact or simply just being in the same room.
“Sure, I’m just speculating at the end of the day since I’ve never encountered this variation of the phenomenon before. Even now, I’m not sure if I’m actually infected, but I think the reason I can still interact with you now is that the full effect of the phenomena hasn’t unraveled yet. You’re currently in the incubation phase.”
“Incubation phase? Contagious? Infection symptom…”
Chen Chen found himself at loss for words for a brief moment before flashing a smile. “Not bad, treating these mysterious phenomena as a disease. I like these terms.”
As the two of them continued discussing, Chen Chen suddenly noticed that the mark of the palm had disappeared.
An apt way to put it should be that the two of them did not notice when it had disappeared. It was as if the imprint of the palm was never there at all. Even if the two of them fixed their combined attention on the palm, they would still fail to notice the exact moment which it vanished.
It was as if they suddenly dozed off for a split instant and the palm just vanished without a trace.
Upon reevaluating it, did the palm even exist in the first place?
Chen Chen displayed a thoughtful look.
“X-112?”
Chen Chen asked again.
“Yes, Sir Commander.”
X-112 responded almost instantly, “Is there something I can help you with?”
Chen Chen immediately fell silent.
“Sir Commander?” Failing to generate a response from Chen Chen, X-112 enquired again.
“Nothing.”
Chen Chen shook his head and clicked the button to open the door, which caused the gull-wing doors[1] of the Bugatti to shift upward, allowing them to see what was outside the spaceship.
Chen Chen stepped out of the spaceship to survey his surroundings. After that, he closed the doors and inspected the surface of the gull-wing door.
There were no palm prints on the gull-wing door, but there was a slightly caved in mark left behind.
It would appear that something had gently knocked against the door of the spaceship twice…
[1] An automotive industry term describing car doors that are hinged at the roof rather than the side
