The entire mutation process lasted for more than two hours, and just as Artemis said, it was a long time.
But we didn't read a book to kill time like she said.
Because I was fooled by Bubble's "it's a wife's duty to prepare her husband's luggage", I suddenly realized that the otaku girl had put a lot of strange things in my personal space, so we pulled Artemis who didn't know whether to laugh or cry and played StarCraft 2 together for two hours. As it turned out, in front of the Empire's powerful sightseeing group, there was no limit to not sneak away.
Although Shallow Shallow was shocked by the strange and dazzling scenery around her, her adaptability was indeed worthy of her title of "The Most Simple-Minded Empire Leader in History" (Sandora's words). In less than ten minutes, she could calmly accept the scene of a staircase dancing in front of her, and then threw herself into StarCraft 2 in full swing. While playing, she also talked about how the strength of the various races was trash. The so-called battlecruiser fleet added together only had a combat strength of 5, and the Holy Mother Ship was a quick shooter for ten seconds in front of the Energy Plunderer. It was obvious that the battle record of sweeping across the three major races in the Kepru Sector had made this girl burst with confidence, and she confused the game with reality, so much so that she could open the game and search for where to spawn Ravens and Armored Scorpions …
In any case, the final result was that Shallow Shallow, Artemis, and Big Sister working together were beaten to a pulp by me, Liliana, and Lin Xue.
I was really curious, what did Big Sister intend to do with more than 150 farmers …
"If I mine the entire map in advance, wouldn't I be able to cut off your supplies?"
Big Sister explained in such a righteous manner.
Big Sister, you're a natural strategist, but unfortunately, Blizzard's engineers aren't …
"You guys are really … unbelievable."
When the strange movements around gradually calmed down, the collapsed wall clattered back to its original position like a video rewinding, and Artemis said with a conflicted expression.
Tsk, you haven't seen the more boring people in Gloom City, two skeletons playing finger-guessing game to break each other's ribs!
"Does this kind of thing happen often?" The elder sister asked Artemis curiously as she watched the last crack on the opposite wall slowly close.
"There is no pattern," Artemis breathed a long sigh of relief. Although she could face the situation calmly, a little nervousness was inevitable. "Sometimes this building will remain silent for a year or two, sometimes several mutations will occur in a day, and when the situation is the most serious, we even have to collectively hide in the open space outside, but that needs to be done during the calm period between the two mutations, and if the second mutation comes too soon, it will be even more dangerous to leave the room rashly. During the mutation, except for the inside of the room, which will not be distorted, every corridor and every staircase in the entire building is not safe. Because of our lack of experience, we did not understand this situation. When the mutation began, one of our companions tried to run out of the corridor, and as a result... he is still pressed under a pillar on the first floor. Some people said they saw him in class, so, who knows..."
As Artemis spoke, she tore a piece of paper from the book at her feet, took out a thick marker from her pocket, and scribbled the words "Chemistry Department" on the paper. Then she walked out the door. We looked at each other and followed.
The scene outside had been turned upside down. The Chemistry Department activity room, which was originally located at the end of a corridor, was now facing an elevator. The distance between the elevator door and the activity room door was less than two meters, and on the wall next to the elevator, a few cracks were quickly fading away. After a while, the sudden appearance of the elevator blended into the surrounding walls.
Artemis did not care about the sudden appearance of the elevator, but turned around and tried to jump down the sign at the door of the activity room. But she was obviously not tall enough, and after several attempts, she did not succeed. If it were Pandora, that girl would probably pull the entire door frame down.
"Do me a favor and stick this up." Artemis turned over the paper with the scribbled words in her hand and sprayed it twice with the spray paint that she carried with her. "Before the paint dries."
I took the dirty looking paper and turned around. I saw a cardboard with the word "Library" written on the unfamiliar door next to it. And under the cardboard, there seemed to be several layers, and the original door sign was unrecognizable.
"Every time there is a mutation, the walls, corridors, stairs, and roof will change. Although these things won't last long, at least it will let everyone know where they can safely stay in a short period of time."
Artemis said in a very normal tone. She was already very used to such things.
I helped to stick the temporary 'door plate' onto the door plate that had become an irregular rectangular shape due to the layers of cardboard. I asked curiously, "This building is so strange. Why didn't you change the location?"
"This is the only place that can protect us from falling into a deep sleep." Artemis shrugged. "After that night, only the teachers and students who stayed in this building became Awakeners, and all the people outside became sleeping ghosts. And after several attempts, I also found that although the people around me can stay awake very well, my ability is only more effective when I am in this building. We have also tried to let some of our companions live in the nearby dormitory, but after a few days, they all disappeared."
"That's really bad."
Liliana muttered, then looked up. "Then how do you usually find your way in the mutated building? Everything here is out of shape, right? "
"Patience, seriousness, and luck," Artemis said, then turned around and pressed the door of the new elevator. A long staircase appeared opposite the elevator door. "In this world, even if you don't eat, you won't starve to death, just feel hungry. As long as you are careful and don't fall into dangerous places while looking for your way, it will be fine. It took me four days and four nights to find the way from the sixth floor to the fifth floor. That's not difficult to do … Come on, you may be very powerful, but here, I'm afraid your skills are useless."
Artemis was right. The information here was extremely chaotic. All the probes we had previously released had lost contact in this building, and even if they still had a signal, I'm afraid the contradictory data would have no value as a reference.
With Artemis leading the way, we walked in this narrow and twisted passageway. The steps under our feet started out going up, but after walking less than ten meters, it became a steep downhill. There was no light in the passageway, but there was always a certain degree of illumination, so we did not have to walk in the dark.
"There is a certain pattern to the mutation. For example, the stairs on the odd floor will definitely become downward after the mutation, while the stairs on the even floor will be the opposite. The north-south corridor will slope upward after the mutation … Well, sometimes not necessarily. Ah, there's a door in front."
Artemis suddenly made a discovery. Less than a few meters in front of us, on the left wall, a bright yellow door appeared. Only half of the door was exposed, and the other half was hidden under the stairs.
"Uh, if there's someone inside and the whole door is sealed, will the person inside be stuck in the room?"
Looking at the wooden door that was usually hidden under the stairs, Shallow Shallow asked curiously.
"No, although there have been cases of people hiding in a room and not being able to come out due to the mutation, in this world, you won't die even if you don't eat or drink. You just have to wait for the next mutation to come out. According to our experience, a room will not be sealed off twice in a row, and under normal circumstances, a room that is completely sealed off will undergo a second small-scale movement in a short period of time. It seems that this building still retains the definition of a 'door' … But perhaps there are exceptions to our experience. There have been cases of companions hiding in a room disappearing after the mutation, never to return. Even the room they were hiding in has moved to who knows where. Many things in this twisted building have disappeared, and we don't know if they are hidden in a tangle of corridors or have really been destroyed … This door seems to be able to open, come and help me."
Artemis pushed the blocked door a few times, and found that it opened inwards, so she turned around and asked us for help.
"Be careful, hold on to the wall next to you, the door might open all of a sudden, and if it's a dangerous place on the other side, it's over if you fall in … Well, I don't know if you guys will care about that kind of environment, but we have lost more than a dozen companions because of this."
"You don't seem to mind mentioning them at all?"
I stepped forward and gently pushed the unmoving yellow wooden door, and asked in confusion.
"Of course not!" Artemis immediately retorted loudly, but then turned her head away. "You won't understand … Well, there's movement on the other side of the door …"
Sure enough, when we quieted down, the faint sound of friction from the other side of the door became more obvious, as if something heavy was being dragged across the floor, and there was the sound of friction and cement cracking. Artemis pressed her head against the door and held her breath as she listened, and then suddenly looked up with an obvious panic on her face. "It's still moving inside … Run!!"
But it was too late.
Before Artemis's voice trailed off, the wooden door suddenly shattered into pieces, and the entire wall on one side of us was suddenly smashed into pieces by something heavy rushing from the opposite side. Pieces of cement mixed with steel bars bloomed from the wall like fireworks, and swept towards Artemis, who did not have time to dodge in time. The shocked expression on the blonde girl's face did not have time to fade, and it looked like she was about to be swallowed by the storm that was a hundred times stronger than a bomb explosion.
But in the next moment, everything stopped.
"You're right, we should be careful here."
Qian stepped forward and roughly pulled Artemis, who was still in a daze, to her feet. She dragged the limp girl forward quickly, and we followed closely behind, leaving behind the debris that hung in the air as time stood still.
Sprinting all the way, it still took us nearly three minutes to get out of this narrow and dangerous tunnel, and when Artemis fell awkwardly to the ground with a slight flick of her hand, the latter snapped her fingers.
"Rumble!!"
A series of low sounds rang out in the tunnel behind us, and after a while, the pungent smell of lime powder and dust wafted out.
Artemis looked at the completely collapsed passage in shock, and it was a long while before she raised her head stiffly. Without waiting for her to speak, Qian Qian threw out the words impatiently, "Shut up!"
Well, she's really strict with strangers …
"Don't be surprised, this is how her second personality is, she doesn't mean any harm." I smiled awkwardly, and knocked the dark Shallow Shallow on the head, and she immediately bared her teeth at me threateningly — she had changed back.
"That was time standing still just now?" Artemis asked carefully.
"That's right, we used this technique to capture you back then!" Shallow Shallow had a proud expression, and her mischievous appearance was like a completely different person compared to her cold and rude appearance just now.
"I didn't expect to actually see it in the real world …" Artemis sighed slightly excitedly, and in return, I retorted, "Do you still think that's all in your head?"
The sudden small crisis was just an inconspicuous interlude, and according to Artemis's description, this was the first time such a thing had happened. The entire building's mutation did not stop at the same time, and instead, a part of it continued to mutate and destroy the already stable structure of the building. However, in this strange world, inexplicable and unprecedented things happened almost every day, just like the sudden disappearance of dusk a few days ago. The surviving Awakeners were already used to facing all kinds of disasters calmly, to the point where they could even treat it as a joke after surviving a disaster.
"If it wasn't a narrow tunnel just now, but a wide corridor or classroom, we could have completely avoided it, so it's not that scary, is it?"
Artemis had a smile on her face that did not seem to be fake as she said lightly.
"Child, you have a mental illness, you need to cure it." Liliana had a serious expression on her face as she planned to start getting clients for herself. Ever since she repeatedly extorted Reynolds and Uncle Z in the Keplu Sector, this little girl liked to act like a scammer more and more.
"I don't need it," Artemis flatly refused, "In this godforsaken place, being mentally extreme isn't a bad thing."
"A lost lamb …" Liliana shook her head with a compassionate look on her face.
Regardless of what kind of interest this nasty pseudo-loli had in Artemis, we spent a lot of effort under the latter's guidance and finally found the activity room where we first met her. It was obvious that the decision to use it as the activity center for the Awakeners was made after careful consideration. Among all the changes in the building, it had caused the smallest displacement, and the main passageways connected to it had not changed much. At the corner of the corridor near the activity room, we saw a conspicuous red arrow with the words "Headquarters, Safe Direction" behind it. It was obviously newly sprayed. According to Artemis, after every building change, the members of the Awakeners were obliged to make such a mark on the new safe passageway they found, so that the people who were separated due to the displacement of the room could quickly regroup.
We seemed to have arrived a little late. There were already a lot of people gathered in the activity room. At a glance, there should be about ten or twenty people, all dressed in high school uniforms. They should be the only remaining members of the Awakeners. When they saw Artemis appear, everyone showed a clear look of relief, and then everyone's eyes focused on the unfamiliar faces of us.
"Treat us as newcomers," I said directly in Artemis's mind through a mental connection. "Now we are not sure if we can help you. The greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. Don't let them know who we are for now."
"Understood," Artemis replied, and then said loudly to the crowd opposite, "The mutation is over! I'm glad to see everyone still standing here! Hu Wen and Ling Yin should have informed everyone about the arrival of these newcomers … "
All the survivors showed great enthusiasm for our joining. From the initial loss of hundreds of people to now only ten or twenty people, the light of hope in the hearts of these "Awakeners" was probably long gone. Even with the amazing influence of Artemis supporting them, it could not change the fact that everyone's morale was low, but now our appearance had obviously greatly eased this situation.
New companions, and there were five of them at once! Even if the gloomy situation of this world had not changed, the addition of new blood was enough to make them happy.
And the result of the jubilation was a small but lively and joyful party. Hu Wen, who was a little depressed because there was no immediate welcome party in the morning, finally got what he wanted. This guy who looked like a bad boy was actually quite straightforward and warm-hearted. When Artemis announced that there would be a long-awaited party in the evening, Hu Wen, who was in a state of excitement, almost single-handedly took on fifty percent of the preparation.
Because it was a rare opportunity to relax, naturally everyone wanted to be able to relax their tense nerves. Artemis specifically allowed everyone to spend the night outside the "Old Building". Leaving this strange building for a short time would not immediately make people fall into a "deep sleep", but it could temporarily make people forget the distorted scenes in the absurd shelter. Therefore, under normal circumstances, the Awakeners would hold all kinds of celebration activities, gatherings, and the like outside the Old Building. After all, although the outside world was more dangerous, at least it looked quite beautiful.
The location of the party was in an open space on campus not far from the Old Building. The Awakeners collected a lot of firewood from nearby, mostly from the tables and chairs in the classrooms, and some from the dried branches in the nearby flower beds. These things were piled into a large pile as fuel for the bonfire. All the survivors of the whole world gathered around this bright flame, releasing great joy that outsiders could not understand. Not far from the party, tens of meters away, was the school's dormitory area. It was brightly lit, and I could vaguely see the students inside moving about in the dormitory. The party of the Awakeners was huge. Hu Wen found a sound system from somewhere and sent a series of inexplicable noises throughout the school, but the people in the dormitory turned a deaf ear to it and were completely unaffected by the sound. Only one or two "students" occasionally glanced over with dull eyes and then continued with what they were doing.
The dormitory building not far away and the bonfire party close at hand were clearly in front of me, but it was as if they were two separate worlds. Looking at such a scene, it was hard to describe the feelings in my heart.
"That building is like a beast that chooses its prey." Liliana seemed to have drunk a little. She walked over unsteadily and sat next to me. Then, she tilted her body and lay on my lap. She stretched out her small hand and tremblingly pointed at the old building not far away. "But they have to accept the protection of that thing … Boss, can we help them?"
"Of course," I gently patted Liliana's sleepy silly face with a confident look. "Don't forget, your boss is the greatest good person in the world!"
"Mm …" Liliana's sleepy voice came over. "And, the best nanny …"
I was speechless.
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