Mental Illness Evolution Manual - Chapter 45

Lu Mingqiu actually had some guesses, the most likely one was that the church had built a secret base, and the most likely purpose of the base was human experimentation.

It wasn’t surprising that she thought this way, the church had a long history of wrongdoing. Fresh ingredients couldn’t be kept for too long, besides, the food for the test subjects didn’t have to be very good, many test subjects wouldn’t live long, compressed food was the best choice—the more people alive, the more they would make, the fewer people alive, the less they would make.

The task of investigating the truth could actually be done by her subordinates.

Although there wasn’t much difference in status within the Resistance, Lu Mingqiu’s identity was important, this kind of action, where she had to run around, shouldn’t be done by her.

Her time should be spent on coordinating major events.

It was just that she always saw Yan Xianchuan looking gloomy, and there hadn’t been any major events recently, so she decided to come in person, she just wanted to take her for a walk.

People who are confined to the same environment for a long time are easily prone to mental fatigue.

The journey from Lipe’a to Walnut Town mostly involved passing through mountainous areas, the highway went through the forest, most of the trees in the forest were pines and birches, the trunks were straight, the crowns were lush, like green umbrellas.

But autumn had arrived, many of the leaves were showing signs of turning yellow.

The sky here was bluer, it was a very light blue, there were no clouds, occasionally a few migratory birds would fly in a V-formation, silently passing overhead.

In the swaying car, accompanied by the fresh air with the scent of the forest, even time seemed to slow down.

Lu Mingqiu had rented a jeep, it had a lot of horsepower, but she wasn’t driving fast. They passed another bridge arch, the speed bump inevitably made the car jolt, and the people in the car swayed a little.

This kind of carefree atmosphere was rare in Yan Xianchuan’s memory. She secretly glanced at the person in the driver’s seat again.

“Do I have a flower on my face?” Lu Mingqiu suddenly said.

“No!” Yan Xianchuan quickly retorted, she racked her brains to come up with a topic to change the subject, “What did you say was in the boxes?”

“Drones.” Lu Mingqiu said, “But they’re made to look like birds, the camera is their eyes, so it will be more hidden.”

“When we get to the outskirts of Walnut Town, we’ll have to find a place to hide the car, then we’ll walk over.”

Yan Xianchuan understood, driving would be too noisy, it would be easy to be discovered.

They drove on, at first, there were a few cars passing by, but the closer they got to their destination, the quieter the road became, there were no villages, no people.

The two of them were like lonely explorers heading towards the unknown, in the world, besides the flowers, birds, fish, and insects, there was only the two of them.

In this situation, a car suddenly came, driving straight towards Walnut Town, it would be very conspicuous, abandoning the car and sneaking in was the best choice.

Lu Mingqiu looked at the map, she turned the steering wheel, she drove off the main road, turned onto a side road, she drove a distance inside, making sure that the car couldn’t be seen from the main road, then she turned off the engine.

Lu Mingqiu got out of the car, she opened the trunk, took out the suitcase, and took out a box from it. She scanned her fingerprint, the lid opened, a sparrow was lying inside.

Yan Xianchuan leaned over to look, the small drone looked like a real sparrow, it had brown-black velvet feathers and small, black round eyes.

The switch was turned on, it blinked its eyes, jumped out of the box, flapped its wings a few times, landed on the lid of the box, it first tilted its head to look at the humans in front of it, then it turned its head to preen its feathers, finally, it chirped a few times, the sound was clear, exactly like a real live sparrow.

Amazing.

“It has a certain level of intelligence, it can imitate the habits of sparrows.” Lu Mingqiu took out a chip from the box, then she reached behind her ear and swiped it, the artificial skin moved away, revealing two slots underneath.

She took out a green chip and inserted the black one into it, she put the previous one back in the box.

The slots were hidden again, Lu Mingqiu pulled out the floating screen, she pressed her hands on it, after a while, the bird-shaped drone flapped its wings and flew up, it flew forward without looking back.

“Can it fly that far?” Yan Xianchuan looked up, watching the little bird turn into a black dot.

“Of course not.” Lu Mingqiu curled her lips, “It’s just a test.”

After two minutes, the sparrow flew back, Yan Xianchuan reached out her hand, it landed in her palm, it pecked her finger with its sharp beak.

Lu Mingqiu smiled as she watched this scene, the instructions could be executed accurately, good, she also looked at the video that was transmitted back, the picture was clear and steady, good.

This was a new model that the research department had come up with, they said that they had upgraded the intelligent system, making it more bird-like, it could even pretend to forage for food and blend in with flocks of birds.

The fact that they could give it to her meant that there were no major problems after testing, but Lu Mingqiu was still cautious and tested it first.

“It’s about six kilometers from here to Walnut Town, we have to walk half the way.” Lu Mingqiu glanced at the sparrow, she tapped the floating screen, it flew up from Yan Xianchuan’s palm and landed on her shoulder, “We’ll go through the forest.”

The thin bird claws gripped her clothes, Yan Xianchuan had been leaning against the car crookedly, she immediately straightened her back, flattened her shoulders, and stood straighter than a balance scale.

“Okay.” she said, she straightened her posture, she looked straight ahead and was about to go into the forest.

“You’re facing the wrong way.” Lu Mingqiu couldn’t help but laugh.

Yan Xianchuan turned her head without blushing or panting, she had only taken a few steps when she picked up a long, straight stick and held it in her hand, she used it to push aside the branches in front of her.

“Do you like small animals?” Lu Mingqiu asked.

Yan Xianchuan thought about it carefully, “Compared to humans, I do have more patience with animals, if a cat and a person fell into the water at the same time, I would definitely save the cat.”

She rolled her eyes, “What about you?”

Lu Mingqiu took this question very seriously, she thought for a while before giving her answer, “If I could, I would save both, if I could only save one, I would save the one closer to me.”

“I thought you would save people.” Yan Xianchuan said.

“All lives are equal,” Lu Mingqiu’s voice was soft, like the mountain wind, “But I don’t,.. I don’t like humans that much.”

“At least not as much as you think.”

“But you joined the Resistance…” Yan Xianchuan couldn’t help but be puzzled.

The Resistance was an organization that truly served the people, they were determined to fight against the rulers in order to achieve social equality, all of the organization’s actions were to eliminate the chaebols, to give everyone the opportunity to develop and grow, to give them the right to choose freely.

How could Lu Mingqiu, who upheld this ideology, not prefer humans more?

“I’m a person who pursues ideals.” Lu Mingqiu only said this, she didn’t explain anything else.

There was no path in the forest, only bushes and weeds, they were waist-deep in some places, and only reached their ankles in others, it was very difficult to walk.

However, due to the lack of human presence, there were many wild animals here. As Yan Xianchuan walked, she saw several squirrels, birds she didn’t recognize, and even a brown-black snake slithering slowly past.

Yellow and white mushrooms grew beside the tree roots, some pushed out a small mound of dead leaves, revealing half of a white mushroom stem, some were as shiny as egg yolks, and some were red like umbrellas.

They grew in clusters or individually, she could see some every few steps.

“Can you eat this mushroom?” Yan Xianchuan pointed, “We can pick some and take them back with us.”

Lu Mingqiu looked in the direction of her finger, a few pure yellow mushrooms that looked like paint grew together, she couldn’t help but laugh, “This one is poisonous, you can’t eat it.”

“You can pick it if you want, but we should change locations, it’s not safe to stay here for too long.”

Yan Xianchuan nodded.

The three kilometers wasn’t far, but it took a lot of time to clear a path out of nothing.

After climbing over a hill, Yan Xianchuan looked down, she vaguely saw a town, half of it was blocked by another mountain, there were a few tall buildings, it wasn’t very big, “Is that it?”

Lu Mingqiu also climbed up, “Yes. This distance is about right.”

The little bird that had been sitting safely on Yan Xianchuan’s shoulder spread its wings and flew towards the town.

Lu Mingqiu pulled out the floating screen, she opened the permissions for the person beside her, letting her watch the picture on it together.

The mechanical bird flew very fast, it imitated the speed of a real sparrow, the trees flashed by beneath it, the video transmitted was very clear, the two of them focused their eyes, they saw that the fields were all abandoned, overgrown with weeds, whether it was by the river or in the fields, there were no people to be seen, near or far.

As it approached the town, the sparrow slowed down, it landed on a telegraph pole, standing with a few other birds, its eyes were black, the camera silently zoomed in, bringing the picture closer.

The town still retained the decoration style from before the Great Purge, the buildings were all very low, four or five stories high, the white paint on them had mostly fallen off, revealing the mottled gray concrete walls.

The strange thing was that there was no one in the town, no one could be seen walking around.

The sparrow flapped its wings and flew into the town.

There was no one on the street, a handcart stood alone on the side of the road, the roof was rusty, cars were also parked in the parking spaces on the side of the road, they were all covered in dust and mud.

The sparrow looked towards the residential buildings, every household had their curtains drawn, completely blocking the interior.

If the town was really abandoned, it was impossible for all the curtains to be drawn, it would have been chaotic and disorderly.

There were still people in the town, and there must be quite a few.

Why didn’t they go out, why didn’t they farm, why didn’t they do anything, why were they just staying at home?

Lu Mingqiu controlled the sparrow, she flew around the town, she found that it was the same everywhere, the curtains were drawn tightly, not a single crack was visible, all the shops on the street, whether it was restaurants or supermarkets, had been idle for a long time, the signs were rusty and covered in dust, they hadn’t been wiped or used for a long time.

“It’s a little strange.” Yan Xianchuan muttered.

Just then, a few people in white protective suits appeared from somewhere, they pushed a cart and entered a residential building, after a while, they came out again, the cart was empty.

The two of them went back, they turned a corner and suddenly disappeared, two more people appeared, pushing a cart, they entered another building. Lu Mingqiu’s eyes narrowed, she zoomed in on the picture, she wanted to see what was in the cart.

The box was rectangular, it had a semi-transparent lid, the picture was constantly magnified, finally, the two of them clearly saw that it was filled with food, it was lunch boxes.

The two of them went in, and after a while, they came out, the cart was empty—they were delivering food to the people in the building.

As they pushed the cart away, the sparrow flew up, pretending to pass by, it faithfully recorded what it saw.

The two of them pushed the cart straight towards the wall, they disappeared into it as if they were melting.

There was something behind the wall.