Madness ecstasy

Mong Cai Electronics City—this is Mong Cai's largest and only electronics trading center. Despite its name, it's little more than a small six-story department store, low in front and high in the back, resembling a deformed locomotive.

Doudou originally liked this place very much - except for the audio-visual area of ​​Xinhua Book City and the pirated disk store on the next street.

Unlike the old man at the gate of Doudou Community, the security guards here are more diligent; but not by much: they fastened a large lock wrapped with an iron chain on the glass door, and then lay on the plastic chairs and played [Run Fast] with poker; at their feet were two buckets of "briefcase" liquor and bags of peanuts from the store, and a flashlight was hung on a corner of the eaves with a rope, becoming a swaying lamp, illuminating the curling cigarette smoke.

Like Doudou, the security team of the electronics city seemed to be planning to have a great night today. Doudou glanced at the card game where a few dimes were being bet and the sounds of clattering and shouting were mixed in from a distance, then he dug his fingers into the concrete wall as usual, climbed up the wall, and flipped in through the air vent.

Even late at night, when most of the shopkeepers had gone home, the electronics mall was still drenched in the smell of cigarette smoke: Doudou felt that most of the appliances here had been marinated in the smell of cigarettes. He pulled up the collar of his raincoat and stuck it over his nose, using it as a filter mask—Doudou didn't like the smell.

"It stinks. It stinks, it stinks."

He called out softly, tiptoed, and half ran and half jumped through the walkway in the electronics city; the iron doors of most of the stores on both sides had been pulled down, and the cigarette boxes and tape packaging that were originally piled in the corner were scattered in the aisle: at this point, they should have all been taken away by the cleaning staff.

Hardman, Hard Mango, Peony, and Pegasus, which just changed its name to Liqun

Snapped!

Doudou kicked away empty cigarette packets one after another—they were scattered like road signs, blocking the road. The electronics mall was silent, and the flying cardboard cigarette packets banged against the iron gate.

[Wow! Not bad, not bad, I've made progress again.]

The iron doors of another row of shops were covered with huge dents: it looked like someone had smashed them with a sledgehammer from a construction site.

Those were the marks left by Doudou from the past few days—he sometimes couldn't control his strength very well; but today he was in much better shape. He hopped along on tiptoe and enthusiastically patted the RoboCop poster on the wall.

If we were to say which is the most popular and highest-grossing sci-fi action blockbuster this year, the title would still go to the sequel to the "RoboCop" series.

This month coincided with the release of "RoboCop 5"; not only had the price of previous movie tapes doubled, but even in the [listening bar] there were listeners listening to the radio drama version of RoboCop in the cubicles - and the Mong Cai Electronics City was naturally covered with posters and promotional posters; RoboCop stared dryly with his single red eye, his lips pursed in annoyance.

Doudou understood RoboCop's expression of despair:

[I would definitely be unhappy if I had no arms or legs.]

But Doudou doesn't like the "RoboCop" series very much - instead, it's "Terminator", a movie from more than ten years ago that has no sequels, that can stir up a little bit of passion in his heart; of course, it may also be because [liking unpopular things makes one appear more tasteful].

But he still needs to play games: he quietly put "RoboCop: Return to Chicago", which was released simultaneously on Sega DC to promote the movie, on his future shopping list.

-

"Pleiades Mantis, Pleiades Mantis—"

He opened the mid-year supplement of "Parapsychological Exploration" and compared it with the description above again: Although the lights were turned off, it did not affect Doudou's reading.

These strangely shaped alien creatures, originating from the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus, prefer to inhabit information media, feeding on the knowledge stored by humans—including, of course, the human brain. If your videotapes and disks suddenly become demagnetized, remember to lock your doors and windows before sleeping: monsters may have just finished building a nest in your neighborhood and are about to begin their foraging for food.

The insert was a blurry black-and-white photo, vaguely outlining a group of strange creatures with eyes far apart: it was said to be a mantis, but in fact it looked more like a fish that had been dead for too long in the vegetable market; its body was also a pitch-black mass, which made people realize that the photographer was perfunctory.

[Common locations: around large computers, residential areas and other human settlements, and electrical storage areas. Hours of activity: from midnight to before dawn.]

I have been to Mong Cai Electronics City for countless times.

During the summer vacation, Doudou would sneak into the electronics city almost every night and take a few laps around: apart from the provincial library and the municipal library, Mong Cai Electronics City had the only large public computer; there were also so many tapes burned with movies, TV series, commercial software, games and MVs.

If Doudou were a Pleiades mantis, he would definitely have a big meal here--

I thought so, but after Doudou walked around the first floor for a full circle, not only did he not find any strange traces, even the cleaning lady who usually pushed the cart to clean was nowhere to be seen.

He paced and stepped into the commercial atrium of Electronic City; the large empty space in the center of the shopping mall was now occupied by a life-to-life RoboCop stand: a promotional event for the movie's release was held there during the day, and even the escalators on both sides were hung with posters.

The RoboCop standee's single eye was a lightbulb embedded in cardboard, flashing a sinister red light; a motor was humming somewhere.

"Wow."

Doudou tilted his head back, opened his mouth, and yawned: "This is so boring." He'd been running here for a week straight, and he was already tired of looking at the posters outside the store.

Tick.

Suddenly, there was a faint sound of water:

RoboCop's shining red eye suddenly stretched downwards, leaving a red mark - as if at the moment Doudou yawned, the signboard was also crying because of his boredom.

"Wha—eh?"

Doudou was interrupted by this sudden strange scene before he could finish yawning.

Tick.

Something wet fell into Doudou's wide-open mouth. Doudou closed his mouth in confusion and tasted it carefully: it was a little warm, a little salty, and had a smell of iron.

pat!

Another sound—he saw a line of water drawn from above, falling directly on Doudou's bright yellow raincoat and then sliding down. This time he saw clearly:

It was a sparkling red, scattered into tiny water droplets. But the light from RoboCop's single eye reflected a hint of orange.

Doudou raised his head again:

A hand covered in blood stretched out from the gap in the rusty railing on the third floor of the electronics city.

when!

As if aware of Doudou's gaze: the hand suddenly retracted, as if it was suddenly pulled away - the knuckles collided with the railing, making a loud sound.

-

Chapter 7 Mantis

[Wow!! I really found the Pleiades Mantis!!]

The body moves faster than the thoughts in the mind:

Doudou deftly tiptoed, his body tracing an elliptical line as he landed on the elevator diagonally opposite. His raincoat puffed up under his arms and ribs, looking from a distance like a large, bright yellow cotton candy, drifting in the air.

He fell and bounced up again, making the elevator rumble continuously; he drew a "Z"-shaped trajectory between the escalators on both sides, passing through the gaps left by the ribbons and hanging paintings; the airflow he created made them flap, and the decorative bells on the edges jingled.

Finally, Doudou landed on the handrail of the third-floor guardrail and squatted down.

Grunt! The iron handrail reluctantly deformed and bent downward into two inverted brackets.

"Where did you go?"

The electronics mall is divided into two parts: the front half from the main gate has only three floors, and the remaining floors 3 to 6 are still under renovation and are not open to the public yet. You have to go up through the emergency exit stairwell.

Doudou wanted to criticize this bad design, but there was no time to make too many architectural comments.

-

The stairwell was dark: the electronics city stopped operating at night, and only the green light from the emergency exit sign flickered amidst the crackling sounds.

It is this faint light that reflects the devastation here.

Due to the friction, small pieces of clothing and skin were scattered on the ground - or were they pieces of flesh? The light was dim, but Doudou could still see clearly: only the blurred outer edge mixed everything into a mass.

Blood seeped into the cement steps, forming a blackened path; on the white wall, there were occasional spider-web-like cracks, which were caused by the impact during the dragging.

If the body that was just dragged away had not died before, its bones would probably be broken by now.

[Murder! Murder! The Pleiades mantis has caught someone and wants to eat their brain!]

Doudou was excited but also a little regretful: he had seen a cheap film camera on TV last month, but he hadn't called the hotline to buy it. If only he had taken pictures of all this, developed them, and sent them to Parapsychology.

"Hey! Hey! Don't run! Whoever runs is a dog!"

Doudou cupped his palms to his mouth, using them as a small trumpet—a "clustering" sound came from above his head, gradually becoming lighter; the thing he was pursuing was still moving upwards.

Doudou tiptoed and lightly jumped onto the handrail on the right side of the stairs. Then, he slightly bent his knees and pushed down--

Boom!

The cylindrical handrail suddenly bent downward, and larger pieces of rust flew everywhere, while smaller pieces turned into powder; it was as if the soles of his Feili shoes exploded, bursting out a cloud of metallic mist.

Like a miniature rocket launched from the stairwell, Doudou suddenly rose, slipped through the gap between the stairs, and in the blink of an eye, rushed up three stories: He hunched his shoulders as much as possible, and clasped his hands in front of him to avoid hitting the stairs on both sides.

"oops!"

boom!

But Doudou still jumped too hard: the entire electronics city was only six stories high. If he wasn't careful, his head would have been hammered into the roof; if his skull had been more pointed and elongated, it would have almost burst through the roof.

When Doudou pressed down the concrete ceiling, pulled his head out, dropped it to the ground, and brushed off the white dust on his face, he only caught a glimpse of darkness and silence on the sixth floor of this electronics city.

The top floor of the electronics city was already under renovation - but there were still lights on, and the green light of the emergency exit sign was shining brightly.

Dou Dou lowered his head: there were dark red marks on the ground, as if someone had wiped the ground with a mop soaked in blood; the whole nostril was filled with an iron-like smell.

He raised his hands and clapped:

"where is the guy!"

It was a mess, not at all like the Pleiades mantis described in "Paranormal Exploration" - Doudou felt lost, but also a little excited: maybe he would become the first witness of the new unidentified creature.

"Come and eat me, I'm delicious too, I'm delicious too—eh?"

-

It was around this time that Doudou noticed the figure standing in the middle of the empty building. The dim light enveloped the top floor, making everything blurry—but the figure kept moving, standing out from the darkness.

The cleaning lady at the Mong Cai Electronics Market: Doudou always sneaked in at night. She had seen him a few times, of course. But since every shop closed, their shutters were usually locked, so she usually just gave Doudou a cold look as he darted around the electronics market.

On weekdays, the night security guard at the door always opened the "Dragon Tiger Leopard" magazine bought from a stall, covered his face with the white thighs on the cover, and slept like a corpse; so Dou Dou had a deeper impression of the cleaning lady.

Now it looks like--

The cleaning lady was standing alone in the middle of the dark, undecorated attic, cleaning by herself in the middle of the night.

Sweeping mechanically and repetitively; hands and broom swing in a cycle like a pendulum.

I heard that it is popular in mainland China and Japan to use stand-on dummies to provide warnings in places such as sharp turns and construction sites: these human-like dummies can make pedestrians and drivers more alert; they are also cheaper than hiring real people. Doudou has seen some of them on variety shows.

But Doudou had never seen anything like this in Mong Cai: the streets in Mong Cai are narrow, and everyone drives very carefully - although they can't be said to drive very slowly.

However, the figure standing in the middle of the empty space at this moment, although having a similar outline to the cleaning lady - round and strong, with a waist and shoulders of the same thickness - its movements were monotonous and repetitive: in the ten seconds that Doudou watched, the frequency of its waving of the broom was the same, without a single error.

".It looks just like the real thing."

Doudou muttered as he reached into his pocket and groped around.

Doudou took out the flashlight from his pocket, shook it, and then pressed the switch: although he could see clearly now, the light from the flashlight added to the mysterious and terrifying atmosphere.

Snapped!

The perfect circular halo illuminates the top floor space --

Composed of red, white, and silver, the protruding muscles, red and crooked, twisted and tangled through the pale bones full of holes, with tendons hanging in the gaps like wet toilet paper, having lost their elasticity.

Tendons and fascia pull on the metal that acts as skeleton, driving the broom's swing.

It had no head either: a whole, messy ball where the head should be—meat, fat, and a large iron barrel that had been squashed and twisted out of shape.

Some of them looked like the dummies Doudou had seen in the physical education warehouse, used to explain the human body—except that the teacher had never used them.

Like, but not like:

If the human body were treated like the models Doudou made in the airplane template, damaged and then pieced together with other materials and parts, this would be what he saw now.

-

Perhaps due to the dim lighting on the top floor, this strange, still-moving flesh and blood didn't cause much of a shock to Doudou—

"What a crappy prop!"

Compared with the special effects props seen in movies like "The Thing" and "Alien", they are less realistic.

Doudou shook his head and muttered in disgust:

"Where's the body from earlier? Where did it go?"

Doudou raised the flashlight and pointed the beam of light randomly - in fact, even without this light, all the scenes can still be clearly seen; but since the flashlight is turned on and not waved around, wouldn't it be a waste of the battery's self-energy?

He paced around the dummy, waving his flashlight. When he felt tired, he would skip forward, reach out his hand, and poke at the bizarre "handicraft."

Click!

Like a knee-jerk reflex, the dummy suddenly opened its arms and clamped the Doudou ring tightly in its arms.

"Eh?!"

This was beyond Doudou's expectations.

Pop, pop!

The twitching muscles of the mannequin even stretched the metal skeleton to the point of deformation and breakage. These long, round, shiny tubes must have been removed from a broom handle.

The dummy suddenly fell backwards, dragging along the unresisting Doudou—

Doudou saw it clearly now. From the blurry flesh that served as the dummy's head, a bright red tube, as thick as a forearm, stretched out and disappeared straight into the darkness at the other end of the top floor.