【Ruijin】Eye of the Storm

Monday, a tower guide area.

The winter morning was very dry and cold, and Jin stepped out of the elevator shiveringly clutching the collar of his sweater with the chill all over his body.The office hall was buzzing with people, because it was approaching noon, and the air filled with all kinds of guide elements was also mixed with a few wisps of box lunch scent with a strong sense of presence.

He walked to the task report counter and said without looking up, "Guide ID 0011125, last Wednesday's task."

The woman behind the marble counter laughed abruptly, and when she raised her head, she still had a lollipop in her mouth: "Oh, Jin, are you done with your long vacation?"

The blond-haired guide raised his head, his blue eyes widened suddenly, and he yelled in surprise: "Kelly! Why are you here?"

"Substitute for someone else," Kelly reached out and brushed the black bangs in front of her forehead, bent her eyes and drew a circle on his face with the lollipop stick in her hand, "take off your hat first Talk to me again, the face is so small that I can hardly see it."

Jin belatedly said "Oh", and obediently took off the hood that came with the down jacket, revealing a face that had been buried in the brim of the milky white duck down cap before, and continued to ask excitedly: " Don't lie to me, I've never heard that a sentry can take the place of a guide."

"Special circumstances, why are you so concerned about this?" Kelly waved her hand and didn't want to say more, and glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, "Paid vacations have made you feel sick, and someone is as preoccupied as ever, it's been half a week, he I'm willing to let you out."

Jin Zhuang blinked stupidly, and the corners of his mouth grinned undisguisedly: "Where's my task list? Hurry up."

"What are you in a hurry for?" Kelly didn't know whether to laugh or cry, she tapped the keyboard a few times to call up the record of Jin's latest mission, and threw the form spit out by the printer in front of Jin, "To tell you the truth, I'm just here to wait for you. I'll be off work when people come back from the bathroom in a while. Don't rush to leave after filling out the form, I'll take you to a place."

Jin took off the cap of his pen and put it in his mouth, he was bowing his head and writing vigorously, when he heard this, he immediately showed a million reluctance on his face, and protested vaguely: "Then why didn't you notify me in advance? "

"What, what are you doing?"

"I have something to do." Jin put the pen cap back on, grabbed the ink pad on the side, and stamped the official seal on the signature in the lower left corner of his form very smoothly, "I have a big business."

Kelly stared at him for a while, and finally showed a disgusted expression: "Are you going to harass the human genetics doctor again to test the match between you and your sentinel?"

After being punctured by one sentence, Jin's face burned quite red, and he felt that he had to redeem his dignity as a bonding guide: "This is my purposeful and planned behavior! Besides, the matching test fee can be fully reimbursed for the bonding sentinel. There’s nothing wrong with being able to accumulate health points.”

He held back for a while, and then added in a depressed tone, "...don't tell Gray."

Kelly was almost amused by his tangled expression: "At this time, I have a hundred inappropriate metaphors for you in my mind, and I won't say them because of face. All right, then you can test the speed quickly. Come back, I will wait for you at the same place. If you are late for 1 minute, 30% of the points from the last mission will belong to me."

Jin Yaoyao gave a thumbs up and ran away in a hurry.

The office of the genetic department is not far away. The doctor in the matching degree control room is a very old guide, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, with white hair, and a very kind personality.He was the main physician who began Kim's series of unexpected follow-up checkups a year ago, and since then, Kim has often sneaked in to see him, coming back and forth, and has become quite familiar.

When the old man heard the door being pushed open, he looked up. The young guide with blond hair was turning to close the door of the department.He was wearing a gray pullover sweater today, and a loose turquoise down jacket over it. He looked younger, like a student who hadn't graduated yet.

"Young man," the old guide smiled straight at him, "Here we go again."

Jin scratched his head in embarrassment, and followed him into the testing room.The heating in the room was fully turned on, so Jin took off his coat carelessly and put it on the back of the sofa, and sat down on the only chair opposite the old guide with ease.

"Ready? Don't be nervous." The old man put the small suction cup-like instrument tubes on both sides of his temples, took off his glasses, and asked with a smile.

"Don't be nervous," Jin replied with a smile, "I feel good today, and maybe my grades will be very good."

"Okay then, come on, close your eyes. Start imagining like I said—now, you're in a boat, floating on a lake, and the lake is calm, and you're the only one around."

"..."

Jin entered the state very quickly. After 5 minutes, his brain entered a hypnotic state of moderate mental images.The data columns on the terminal screen kept jumping. The old guide retrieved the genetic data of Sentinel Gray from the library to check and match with Jin's guide wave. As a result, the percentage climbed up little by little, and finally stopped at 69%.

"There is progress," the old man handed the paper report to Jin, his tone tinged with sarcasm, "Your personal mind control has also increased by 9%. It seems that something good has happened recently?"

Jin glanced at the ups and downs on the graph, and sighed exaggeratedly: "It's still worse than I thought..."

"Can you see the spirit body of yourself and the sentinel?"

"Sometimes I can vaguely feel it... but I can't see it yet."

"You can try again later, the chance of success should be much higher than before." The old guide sat on a chair and looked at him cheerfully with a thermos cup in his hand: "The genetic table stored in Curry may not be the same as Gray's actual The level is the same, so the degree of matching will fluctuate accordingly."

"Talent talent, that's what God gave. If you give it, it's yours. How can you take it back so casually? Don't be too hasty. It's only been a year. If you are an ordinary guide, there is no one like you. Generally, the recovery is so fast. Maintain a regular life, communicate with your sentinel more, and you will naturally get better."

Kim didn't speak for a while, but finally nodded, looking thoughtful.He stood up and put on the down jacket, and handed back the medical examination report to the old man.

"Do you want me to keep it for you?" the old man asked him.

"Well," Jin pursed his lips and raised his hand to touch the tip of his nose, "Take it home, it must be easy for Gray to find out, he is always easy to worry about me, although he doesn't say it. Now my 'grade' 'It's not good enough, and I'll let him know when the match gets better. So it's safer to keep it with you for now."

"Your sentry just wants to make sure you are safe. Sentinels always do this." The old man couldn't help but laugh, he took Jin's medical report and stooped to put it in the lower drawer.

"I know, I know." Jin stuck out his tongue, waved to the doctor and quickly closed the door and left.

He returned to the east corner of the hall, and the first thing he saw was another familiar figure from the back.

"Brother An?"

An Mixiu turned around after hearing the voice, and met Jin face to face. "It's really you," Jin Po excitedly stood on tiptoe and hugged him vigorously, his bright blue eyes made people feel warm all over, "I thought you had already gone back."

"It turns out that they are all acquaintances, so I just saved the introduction." Kelly, who was standing aside, bit the remaining candies with a few clicks, and threw the plastic stick into the trash can by the wall.

"I was planning to go back, but because of... some reasons," An Mixiu coughed, lowered his head and patted Jin on the shoulder, "I applied for a one-year long-term transfer and planned to do some work research in your tower. "

"A one-year transfer? An A-level guide?" Kelly obviously heard about it for the first time, and looked at An Mixiu inquiringly, "Your tower headquarters is very generous."

The brown-haired youth guide took out his transfer card from his pocket and showed it to them, proving that what he said was true: "In addition to doing research, I am also very interested in a sentinel group that your tower just recruited a while ago. It is easier to come here Get in touch with them. Besides," An Mixiu raised his eyebrows, "the salary is doubled, the year-end bonus remains the same, and there are fixed holidays. Why not do it?"

"I also think," Jin Shunmo interrupted, "Our tower's treatment is still very good, so we can meet often. Brother An, think about it, it's not a problem to just change jobs."

"Don't make a fuss when you get the chance," Kelly said to Jin, "Why didn't you think about the year-end bonus when you complained about the labor of the S-rank sentry in the tower?"

Jin and Kelly walked out of the hall with An Mixiu in their arms, and the two who were arguing all the way stopped joking.Kelly called up the data from the PAD, and asked the two of them: "About the guide you caught back from the last mission, do you still remember?"

"I remember, kidnapped a little girl, a C-level," Jin continued, "What happened to him?"

"His physical examination results just came out yesterday, and it is found that this person is probably not a...natural guide."

As soon as these words came out, both of them were startled, and their footsteps stopped unconsciously.

"Not a natural guide, what does that mean?" An Mixiu frowned and asked.

"That's right, illegally modified, inferior, impure, whatever you say," Kelly said, looking at them, "The situation is more complicated, and I won't be able to explain it clearly in a while, and now I want to show you See. When you see him, you'll see what's going on."

Due to the particularity of the sentinels and guides, the prisons where defected members are held in the tower are also different from ordinary prisoners, and are commonly known as "little black rooms".Kelly, An Mixiu, and Jin scanned the codes with their pupils at the entrance in turn. After the biological lock confirmed the authority of the three, the hidden door slowly opened.Jin walked at the end. In the memory of the youth, this was the first time he entered here.Contrary to the literal meaning, the prison is not visually dark, it can even be said to be dazzlingly bright.

The guide was a B-rank sentry, and after nodding, he silently led the three of them to a huge glass wall.

"One-way glass." An Mixiu said.

The three of them looked behind the glass together. In the middle of an empty airtight room, the C-level guide was fixed on a seat, wearing anti-bite shackles, and his eyes were dull. The state of chaos in nature.His hair has been completely shaved, and there are several catheters connected to the back of his head, which are connected to the brain wave tester outside.

Jin took the lead to take a deep breath, and Kelly picked up the report on the table and read it in a low voice: "Level C guide, male, 34 years old, unattached sentinel, was captured by our side in a hostage kidnapping case last Wednesday .”

"We contacted the two towers and checked the list of all existing registered guides, and none of them matched his genes."

"In other words, he is not a registered guide." Kelly paused, rolled up a few thin reports in her hand, raised her chin and looked at Jin and An Mixiu, "What about you?" , how do you look at it, is he the guide you met in the last mission?"

"It's him," Jin said, "I sedated him with my own hands, there is absolutely no mistake."

An Mixiu raised his left hand and made a pause, looked at Kelly and asked, "You said he is not from the tower, so is it possible that he is a part of the guides who voluntarily stayed in the general population? Although this possibility The sex is very small, but it cannot be completely ruled out."

The so-called "tower" is actually a special operations force organization established by the country to protect and control the sentinel guides.This special group of people, whose total population only accounts for 1% of the world's population, is doomed to bear the pain corresponding to this gifted talent from the moment of awakening.They are at odds with ordinary people. Whether the Sentinel's five senses are too sharp or the guide's extremely sensitive brain nerves, it is extremely easy to accumulate excessive pressure in the noisy and complicated surrounding environment, and eventually lead to collapse and death.

"I understand what you mean," Kelly nodded, "The second tower also made the same assumption as you. But after our investigation, I have more shocking news to tell you——"

Kelly pointed at the man who was firmly imprisoned through the glass wall: "We conducted a comprehensive medical examination on him, and finally came to a conclusion: this man may not be a guide at all."

"—We detected an unknown drug in his blood, and it is preliminarily estimated that this drug transformed him from an ordinary human into a 'temporary' guide in a short period of time. Since you brought him back Four days have passed since that day here, and computer monitoring shows that his cranial nerves are gradually failing at an irreparable speed, which is probably also a side effect of this drug. Subsequent investigations have also proved this One point, the real identity of this person is just an ordinary office worker."

An Mixiu took a few steps forward, staring at the continuously fluctuating bands on the monitoring screen: "Someone is doing everything possible to cultivate such 'wizard-like' and 'sentry-like'... This C-level is the only victim. person?"

"To be precise, it is the only victim who is still alive." Kelly said, "There are two possibilities, either, this is an unstable genetic mutation. Or..."

"——There is a bigger possibility." Jin, who had been quiet for a long time, suddenly interrupted her.Kelly turned her head to look at him, the youth guide's blue eyes were filled with extremely intense emotions, and the end of her line of sight was firmly fixed on the blue and white face behind the glass wall.

"There's also a possibility," King said, "that there's a mole in the tower."

TBC

In this world view, there are two "towers" in total. Grey, Jin, and Kelly belong to the first tower, while Ange belongs to the second tower. There is no essential difference, and everyone is a good colleague.