Embers Ad Infinitum

Chapter 809 What Happened Back Then

In Cliff Village at night, Jiang Baimian gathered the Old Task Force members.

She looked around the bulb emitting yellowish light and said to Shang Jianyao, “Explain what you gathered from the dream in detail.”

Shang Jianyao sat up straight and cleared his throat. “It’s unknown what the owner of Room 506 encountered in reality; it’s also possible that she had nightmares every day. When she recalled the past, the suppressed emotions reached a critical point, causing her to suffer a complete breakdown. She was shouting in her dream. Without needing me to guide her, she told me about the Fourth Research Institute. The magical thing is…”

At this point, Shang Jianyao leaned forward and spoke in a tone as though he was telling a ghost story. “This time, I didn’t feel the danger of a Kalendaria opening ‘Their’ eyes in the darkness again.”

“Comparisons from before imply that certain conditions have changed,” Genava commented objectively.

Shang Jianyao stroked his chin and fell into deep thought. “What changes could it be that caused the person in Room 506’s memories to stop stirring…”

Jiang Baimian shot him a glance. “It’s also possible that the person in Room 506 has given up and overcome the fear in her heart. She no longer flares up, so the corresponding scenes related to the Kalendaria no longer appear in the dream.

“Continue.”

Shang Jianyao’s expression gradually turned smug. “After piecing together the pieces, I restored the original story from the words of the person in Room 506.”

Is this credible at all? You always embellish the story and let your creative juices flow… Long Yuehong felt doubtful and wasn’t too trusting. He was just about to raise this question when Shang Jianyao glanced at Jiang Baimian and said, “Ah right, it’s not I, but we. I was in charge of narrating the statements, and Big White was in charge of piecing together the pieces.”

“That relieves me.” It wasn’t Long Yuehong who said this, but the honest Genava.

Shang Jianyao didn’t mind and recounted the encounter of Room 506’s guest with a rich expression. “The room owner followed the Fourth Research Institute’s trading teams to many human settlements and came into contact with some Awakened from the Eternal Time Church. She’s a very curious person who enjoys novelty. She felt that secretly believing in Master Zhuang was a very fashionable matter, so she accepted the proselytization and became a believer.”

Upon hearing this, Long Yuehong couldn’t help but turn his head to glance at Bai Chen and realized that his wife was also looking at him.

At this moment, the two of them roughly understood what the other party was thinking: Room 506’s owner resembled Shang Jianyao in the early days!

They were both curious and enjoyed novelty. The difference was that one had joined the Eternal Time Church, and the other had become a member of the Life Ritual parish. There were also differences in the goals of joining. Shang Jianyao was originally curious, finding it fun, but he later fell in love with Holy Communion and had the intention of helping the company monitor this secret parish. As for 506, she only did it out of curiosity and fun.

Shang Jianyao continued, “Under the guidance of a certain person in the Eternal Time Church, Room 506’s owner grasped many rituals. After returning to the Fourth Research Institute, she

—who was getting older-began to participate in work and was assigned to a laboratory.

“In the beginning, everything was normal. But once, after she finished praying to Master Zhuang and hoped that overtime work during that period would end as soon as possible, she happened to sense a room deep in the laboratory that seemed like a haunted house often mentioned in the Old World’s entertainment. It was mysterious, dangerous, and creepy. As for how she sensed it, we speculate that Master Zhuang did something to her.”

Bai Chen nodded. “Then, how is she so sure that the Kalendaria is deep in the laboratory?”

Shang Jianyao shook his head and replied, “She didn’t answer this question; we could only make some speculations based on other descriptions.

“When she first discovered the anomaly in the room deep in the laboratory, she thought that it was some secret result of the Fourth Research Institute. However, she gradually noticed that many experimental subjects were sent in alive but were carried out as corpses. The colleagues who were in contact with the room for extended periods would suddenly die from time to time.

“The frequency wasn’t high, but it was enough for her to notice it. Later, she might’ve held some other rituals and obtained Master Zhuang’s hint in her dream. She learned that the person in the room deep in the laboratory was a Kalendaria.

“After a long period of observation and ‘sensing,’ she gradually concluded a pattern: When the Kalendaria in that room becomes weak, the Fourth Research Institute’s higher-ups will almost certainly order a large number of experimental subjects to be sent in. This is often accompanied by the deaths of some experimental subjects.

“This made Room 506’s owner come to the conclusion that the Kalendaria eats humans. At the same time, she believes that the higher-ups are trying to follow a policy of appeasement, which exacerbated the problem.”

Upon hearing this, Bai Chen tried to make a guess. “Therefore, she planned on secretly informing everyone in the Fourth Research Institute of this matter and organizing them to resist the Kalendaria deep in the laboratory?”

“She didn’t do that. From what she understood, the Kalendarium are invincible,” Shang Jianyao replied. “She only wanted everyone to know the truth. She wanted to wait for an opportunity to collectively escape the Fourth Research Institute with supplies in hand to establish a new human settlement elsewhere in the Ashlands.”

This is similar to our idea… Long Yuehong muttered inwardly.

Although the Old Task Force was currently investigating if Big Boss-Arbiter of Fatereared Pangu Biology’s employees as livestock or whether ‘She’ had any real malice, they had yet to take the step of beginning full-out resistance. However, they had more or less thought about it and wondered what they would do if it was confirmed to be true.

Their initial plan was to think of a way to eliminate the few most determined traitors while Big Boss’s gaze wasn’t on Pangu Biology and leave the underground building with the other employees. This required them to inform a large number of employees of the truth beforehand. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to organize a team in an emergency. “Then?” Long Yuehong cared about the subsequent development as if he were concerned about Pangu Biology’s future. Shang Jianyao sighed. “She was betrayed; she had just told her trustworthy relatives and friends the secret she had discovered when several people betrayed her. She was captured and made to face the Fourth Research Institute’s higher-ups.

“She reprimanded the higher-ups and said that they were using the employees’ lives to exchange for their status, power, and wealth. The higher-ups said that many employees actually know the truth. People who entered the laboratory’s depths had signed the corresponding contracts and used their possible sacrifices to exchange for a good life for their families and the Fourth Research Institute’s stable development.

“Room 506’s owner didn’t believe it. She had also prepared some contingency plans before she was captured; this resulted in the secret of the Kalendaria deep in the laboratory ‘eating’ proliferating in the Fourth Research Institute.

“However, what she received wasn’t gratitude but blame and accusation. A large number of employees cursed her for colluding with foreign enemies, cursed her for tearing open wounds, and cursed her for infuriating the Kalendaria and bringing disaster to the entire Fourth Research Institute.

“She reasoned that if the Kalendaria fell into an extremely weak state, the experimental subjects and some experimental personnel wouldn’t be able to satisfy ‘Her.’ When the time came, everyone would die!

“She was cursed very badly. Some viewed her with animosity, some hated her, and some became abnormally cold to her…”

Long Yuehong turned worried, feeling the same way. He was really afraid that this was their future.

“What happened next?” Bai Chen asked.

Shang Jianyao had previously been very engrossed in his recount. At this moment, his eyes seemed to be a little moist. “Later, the person in Room 506 was sentenced to be an experimental subject and was forced into the laboratory. Once, when she was undergoing an experiment and was about to faint, she suddenly ‘sensed’ that the Kalendaria had become abnormally weak.

“She didn’t have the time to warn others and entered an anesthesia state. By the time she woke up, the anomaly had happened in the laboratory. Everyone was dead, and she couldn’t sense the Kalendaria in the innermost room anymore.

“She hurriedly fled the laboratory and saw corpses all over the Fourth Research Institute’s residential area. Nobody was spared…”

Huff… Long Yuehong felt abnormally heavy-hearted.

Shang Jianyao finally said, “During the escape, it was also possible that in the previous experiment or a little earlier, Room 506’s owner completed her Awakening and became an Awakened in the Monitor domain.

“She claims that the Kalendaria deep in the laboratory is suspected to be February’s Dawn based on the higher-ups’ words and her subsequent experience.”

“The Kalendaria that’s known to go against nightmares and prevent humans from being swallowed by the darkness in their dreams?” Long Yuehong didn’t expect it to be this Kalendaria.

He had always felt that ‘He’ was rather righteous.

The Dawn believers he previously knew gave him a general feeling that they were alright. This included Oudick, Boss Ugo, and General Phocas.

Jiang Baimian nodded. “Preliminary confirmation is that it’s Dawn, but Room 506’s owner isn’t so sure either.”

Long Yuehong and the others fell silent for a moment, unsure of what to say.

Jiang Baimian looked around and consoled him. “At the end of the day, this matter is mainly for reference. It can’t replace our own investigations. Alright, get back to your rooms and get some sleep. We’ll continue making contact with people from End Year City tomorrow.”

“Alright,” Long Yuehong, Bai Chen, Genava, and Shang Jianyao replied one after another.