Puzzle Madness

Chapter 81 Proliferation
Doudou rummaged through the pockets of his raincoat and finally pulled out a few crumpled pieces of paper and a pen—they had brought them from the small booth in the video studio.
"The mind is like waves of ethereal thoughts. The mind is more powerful than matter."

He placed the white paper against the hard cover of the monitor and wrote down the terms raised by the section chief.

The section chief turned his head, his eyes following the tip of Doudou's pen:
"Ecstasy is like humanity itself: it's chaotic and imprecise. There's no need to delve too deeply into it. Just listen to me."

She suddenly stared blankly at her palms, then stretched out her arms and wrapped them around her torso, as if to hug herself:

“My daughter, Manon Dupont, was my personal project. So many people gave up on the research, but I was the only one who persevered and finally achieved effective results.”

"My development approach follows the tradition of Asia-Europe postal services: first replicate the common conditions of past naturally occurring cases, and then try to take them to the extreme."

"The social concepts established in the past are already complete enough. We just need to follow, develop and then break them."

"Manon Dupont lived with me and her father until she was eight years old."

"After the age of eight, they are confined to a room in a building for over ten years, unable to interact with other humans and only accompanied by pets that are regularly released. However, those pets will also be killed and destroyed at specific intervals."

"One day, I sent her father to that building—and she committed suicide after her parricide, using an electric wire. The disease and sin were integrated, and the heart ether index reached its peak: she was resurrected after death, and she will never really die again."

"After a long period of subsequent experimental development, I also know how to transform her into various forms, how to cause damage, and how to induce her activities. She is an okay child: just not excellent, let alone perfect."

"[The Witch in the Building] is the code name for this project. She's also the most powerful user of ecstasy in the entire Southeast Asia branch of the Asia-Europe Post. I created her."

"Originally - he was the only one who could truly approach weaponizing the madness ability:"

"But she is indeed far inferior to you."

Listening to these terrifying words, writing back and forth, but still not forgetting to ask questions:
"Um... Auntie, after you sang, a lot of people started to feel like they had wires growing in their stomachs, and they were swinging around like Spider-Man. What's going on?"

The section chief raised his hand and pointed his finger at his chest:
"You can understand it as: that was Manon's act of pursuing love; the hurt was just a byproduct."

"When I begin the ritual of sacrificing the witches in the building, those present within a certain radius must recall the love they have truly given or the love they have truly experienced. If they don't do this, they will be affected: wires will be directly generated inside the body, or some organ tissues will be replaced."

"The company has tried collecting corpses from civilian facilities and conducting sacrificial rituals in a centralized manner. If we could produce large quantities of wires in a stable manner, we might be able to replace one or two production lines. However, the logistics costs alone are too high, and the safety risks are difficult to control—"

"Those wires won't become inactive until they're within a certain range of the building witch. The benefits are too low, and the costs are too high; the building witch can't be classified as a pillar."

"I knew early on that she couldn't be used on a production line: her power came from love."

The section chief paused briefly, as if wanting to get a better look at Doudou:

"The surveillance camera was broken at the time. But, I see you're fine now."

Doudou pursed his lips twice, wanting to spit but holding back:

"I actually had a wire coming out of my mouth, but I pulled it out; it was so unhygienic."

The section chief's eyeballs moved slightly in their sockets; emotionless, like two glass marbles:

".Really? One day you'll understand what love is. Maybe it's too early now."

The conversation fell into a brief silence. The section chief seemed to have lost interest in talking and expressing himself, and said nothing.

Doudou hesitated for a long time before finally arranging his words and speaking with a worried tone:
"Although I still have something to ask, but Auntie, has anyone ever told you that you're a little crazy?"

"Isn't it time to find a way to channel that? It sounds like you're bringing all the stress from work into your life; it's a little unhealthy."

"You just merged, right? Then—you still have your super powers."

He carefully put the paper and ballpoint pen into his raincoat pocket:
"Or--or I can help you knock your head off, and you can try to grow a new one and start over. Maybe it will feel better?"

The section chief stared at Doudou, motionless. The corners of her mouth slowly curled up until a bright, warm smile spread across her face.

"Okay! Let's try--"

The last few words were drowned out by the sharp sound of the wind.

Doudou crossed the control room in the blink of an eye and stood in front of the section chief, as if he had been there from the beginning. He raised his arm and waved:

The terminal and monitor that fell to the ground were lifted up by the impact when he started it up, and then were swept against the wall by the airflow, making a ping-pong sound.

call--
The slap missed.

"Ah?! Flying? Auntie, how can you fly?"

The section chief was lifted off the solid ground: she abruptly rose diagonally backward, the hem of her shirt, made of skin and blood clots, flapping wildly. Boom!
Doudou's eyes widened: I felt like my eyeballs were going to pop out of their sockets——
But his body did not stop at all; as the ground cracked and a cement flower bloomed, Dou Dou jumped up diagonally, following like a shadow, splitting the smoke and dust.

call.

This time, the slap still missed the target: the wind created by the slap blew up the terminals and equipment, making them fly like plastic bags; but it did not hit the section chief after all.

The moment his arm and palm were swung out and were about to hit, the section chief in mid-air moved two body positions to the side and back, avoiding the five fingers that could split gold and stone, as well as the lethal airflow brought about by them.

"so fast."

Doudou fell diagonally, praising from the bottom of his heart: This was the first time he had seen something that could move at such a speed.
But he immediately accelerated and jumped again, chasing the target that had not yet had time to fall.
-
They crashed through the basement's dome and ascended into the lobby through a cavernous void. The night deepened, the moon brightened; muddy, dim white light streamed through the stained glass windows of the building, illuminating Doudou and the section chief like two moths wriggling in their deathbed.

A homeless man, far away outside the building, witnessed the scene. His arms, rummaging through the trash, paused, and flies, too, settled on his shoulders, rubbing their hands nervously. He stared blankly for a moment as the giant, plastic-covered chandelier shattered under the force of the figure, the ceiling cracked, and glass shattered everywhere, accompanied by a resounding crash.

He shook his head, burped, turned around and continued picking out mineral water bottles with the fly: the things in this bucket were different, they were not destroyed before they were used.
-
Doudou searched for every possible landing spot, plotting the shortest route to the section chief. Concrete blocks flew through the air, and the chandelier was shattered by his Feili shoes; he drew one bright yellow line after another, crisscrossing into a web.

Even bats in the night cannot escape his pursuit—
But every time, the section chief would suddenly rise up or move sideways at the last moment to avoid Doudou's outstretched fingers.

Even in the movies at the video hall, Doudou had never seen such a nimble guy—faster than a bullet, with reflexes as fast as lightning.

boom!
Doudou flew to the bottom of the section chief: the opponent climbed vertically, avoiding Doudou's hands that could easily tear apart the steel.

This time, it was the section chief who broke through the ceiling leading to the next level—
The steel bars in the concrete were like a ripper, cutting open her chest:
The wounds on the chief's chest and abdomen closed and tightened in an instant, blood vessels darting in and out like thin threads, creating holes and completely closing the wounds—then connective tissue grew everywhere, filling the gaps in the wounds, like a millipede crawling on a person.

The shirt made of flesh, cartilage and skin also tightened, as if the section chief had never been injured.

"Eh—as expected! Some of his previous superpowers are still there! They're just a little different."

This is somewhat similar to the recovery ability seen in the [Witch in the Building] before - but it seems to follow a different approach: repair, rather than complete regeneration.

The section chief's flight path seemed to lack any trace of inertia—even though her limbs swung comically around a bend like a roller coaster:

But slowing down, stopping, turning, starting, and accelerating again...none of them happened.

Her movements omitted all these processes; it was like a ballpoint pen casually sketching on homework paper, forming the section chief's movement path. This completely contradicted Doudou's intuition and understanding of flight movement.
-
"Being able to fly around so fast is really cheating. Even I can't catch up with her. But - why can she fly?"

Time to try other tricks:

Doudou clenched his hands into fists, leaving only a small gap between his fingers; he pressed his fists together, one in front of the other, and then pressed his lips against the gap—
call!
Doudou blew suddenly; his huge chest expanded and contracted.

Squeak--
A straight line cut through the dust between the buildings, becoming a pale mark in the fleeting moonlight; it pierced the section chief's forward trajectory:

Boom!
She seemed to have hit an invisible wall and was abruptly stopped - messy, narrow lines suddenly appeared on her cheeks and arms, some even running across her entire torso, causing her shirt and trousers made of flesh and blood to swell.

There were raised bloodstains: Doudou had seen a classmate's index fingertip pinched by a door before, leaving a red mark with a black tip.

However, this sudden stop just happened to save her from having her head explode.

The airflow passed over the section chief's head - the strong wind blew the section chief's hair and broke the flying hair ends.

The air flow from the "hand-made blowgun" that Doudou made with his two hands chiseled out a tiny bullet hole in the wall: spider-web-like cracks spread out from the surrounding area.

boom!
Something exploded outside the building with a terrifying noise; broken glass fell to the ground in a hard, stinging rain.

"Auntie, did you become a fighter jet after merging?"

Doudou dug one hand into the concrete wall and climbed into the air: He didn't expect that even this attack that was difficult to capture with the naked eye could be avoided by the section chief.

If this "air bullet" hits the section chief, it will probably easily penetrate her body--
The redness and swelling on her skin surface became more severe over time, with lines, some curved and some straight, rising high; it was as if she had been slapped by a giant.

Doudou even speculated that this was caused by the wind pressure from the fast flight:
"But is it really that fast? It can't possibly turn into a fighter jet! Impossible, impossible."

The section chief craned her neck and glanced at the empty space above her head. Her gaze didn't even linger on Doudou:

"You can't hit me, Doudou—"

Boom. A loud explosion drowned out her words, and a bright yellow figure flashed beside her again:

The chase resumed.

(End of this chapter)