Who says a sickly daughter can’t break through the weirdness?

After leaving Yunlan City, I haven't encountered this force again.

But with their abilities, they could probably infiltrate anywhere, including official organizations and ghost hunting associations.

Perhaps, I can ask Meng Jiang and the others about things related to the Doomsday Sect.

......

When we returned to the base, night had already fallen.

Shen Qinyin and her team cleared out some strange beasts along the way, and then used the newly mined dusk stones to make a simple "protective circle" to block the strange beasts that were following them.

I looked at my watch and the hour hand was pointing to 17 o'clock.

She cast her gaze toward the observation window. The sky outside was abnormally dark.

It was a dark darkness as thick and deep as a black tide. Even if there was no fog, there would probably be no visibility at all from the outside world.

"This is not right..." Shen Qiyin muttered to herself, "It's only five o'clock in the afternoon, it shouldn't be this dark."

Kana held a half-smoked women's cigarette between her jade fingers and squinted out the window. "Since half a month ago, the daylight hours have shortened by nearly an hour. Compared to yesterday, today's hours are another 12 minutes shorter."

She flicked the ash from her cigarette and continued, "It's almost two and a half hours earlier now. Basically, it starts getting dark around three o'clock."

"The days are getting shorter," Shen Qiyin said with a gloomy face, "which means our living environment is becoming increasingly harsh."

"More than that? If the sun really disappears, I'm afraid that within half a month, humanity will be destroyed—"

Kana whispered, "Without sunlight, photosynthesis will cease immediately, the atmosphere will freeze and fall, liquid water will completely solidify, the oxygen supply will be cut off, and the surface temperature will be unable to sustain life..."

Haha, there's no need for strange beasts, humans will become extinct on their own."

"It's really cruel..." Tang Miao looked very disappointed. "The monsters alone are already giving us a headache, and now there's the falling sun. If this continues, how long can we hold on?"

"..."

Shen Qiyin shook her head and did not answer the question.

Talking further would only exacerbate everyone's worries. Instead of worrying about that, it would be better to focus on the present.

She counted the ore she had dug up today and spent some Desire Stones to upgrade some defective Dusk Stones.

Shen Qiyin did not touch the perfect dusk stone that needed dusk stone marrow to upgrade for the time being.

She estimated that the dusk stone marrow she harvested today could only be upgraded to three perfect dusk stones.

These are precious resources and cannot be used casually.

Wait until you have enough materials to use it when you upgrade the Titan.

Speaking of Titan, because the power was used up, Shen Qiyin spent a lot of mental energy to replenish the power supply.

After doing all this, it was exactly seven o'clock in the evening.

She entered the radio station as usual, intending to ask Meng Jiang and the others about the Doomsday Cult.

......

On the other side, in the Gyeonggi region, inside the front-line command post.

Li Huaiyuan was sitting in a chair, flipping through the battle report in front of him.

“Knock knock… knock knock.”

"Commander, I'm Xu Mengqiu."

There was a knock on the door at a fixed frequency. After a two-second pause to make sure nothing happened, Li Huaiyuan said towards the door, "Come in."

The door opened and a woman in black combat uniform pushed it open and walked in.

"Excuse me, Commander."

Li Huaiyuan raised his hand casually and asked hurriedly, "Xiao Xu, what's the situation?"

"We conducted tests based on the intelligence you received. Of the ten special investigation teams, five managed to survive and return!"

Xu Mengqiu presented the report in both hands, his tired expression slightly relieved: "Although a full twenty qualified people were sacrificed, through questioning the surviving investigation team members, we learned that they were indeed pulled into a space similar to the spiritual world.

The situation inside is the same as you said, divided into two idealistic spaces with varying degrees of danger, the 'surface world' and the 'inner world'.

According to the experts' analysis and inference, the investigators with weaker emotional perception and stronger psychological qualities are more likely to survive in that world.

On the contrary, the richer the emotional experience, the weaker the psychological quality, especially those who had an unfortunate childhood and have childhood trauma, will face certain death if they are dragged into this situation. "

"So, without any intervention, the survival rate has finally increased from 0 to 50%?"

"Well, I can barely say that. After all, the current samples are still too scarce. The only thing that is certain is that the characteristics you mentioned have been proven."

"Okay, I understand. I'll compile these experimental data and report them to the central investigation department."

"Yes! But Commander, if the central government asks about the source of the intelligence, how are we going to explain it?"

"Just say it was brought back by a surviving qualified person on our side."

"Yes......"

Xu Mengqiu nodded, and the matter was over.

She continued, "Commander, the entity's attacks will definitely not stop. We will develop a special drug that can suppress fear and emotions for this entity.

However, in order to ensure the survival rate of qualified individuals in the short term, some people suggested that the investigators undergo traditional lobotomy surgery to eliminate the emotional factor of "fear" through physical means.

The problem is that this surgery has been banned, and we have no precedent for using this surgery on qualified people, and it is not clear whether there will be serious unknown risks if the surgery is performed without authorization."

"If necessary, any means are acceptable. Staying alive is more important than anything else. Survive first, then consider whether it's inhumane or not."

"...Yes, I understand. I'll be back now, Commander."

"and many more."

Li Huaiyuan's face was gloomy, his hawk-like eyes shone with a shadow. "How are the preparations for the 'Flock Plan' targeting the Black Tide clones in the northwest region going?"

"Our men have fully infiltrated the defense zone. The 'bait' is sufficient..."

"The sooner you act, the better. Don't delay."

"But Commander, the lives of hundreds of thousands of people..."

"It's better than millions or tens of millions of people dying."

Li Huaiyuan spoke calmly, his tone as flat as if he were discussing what to eat for dinner, "Hesitation will only escalate the situation and cause unnecessary casualties. As I said before, survive first, then consider whether it's inhumane."

"......Yes."

Xu Mengqiu looked pale. He barely managed to muster the strength to salute, then staggered out of the office.

After she left, Li Huaiyuan cast his gaze towards one corner of the room:

"Shut up, I know what to do."

"As agreed, I will weaken humanity's vitality as much as possible."

"And you, stay in the gutter."

After a while, he glanced at the clock hanging on the wall.

Seven o'clock in the evening.

It's time...

He turned on the White Flame radio on the table and connected to one of the channels.

After a while, Nightingale's voice came from the radio: "Meng Jiang, are you there? Does your Ghost Hunter Association have any information related to the Doomsday Cult?"

Chapter 162 Micro Nuclear Reactor

Inside Titan, Shen Qinyin and others sat in the conference room, staring at the radio and listening to the following text.

Strangely, Meng Jiang was not on the channel.

He is a very punctual guy and will not be "innocently absent" unless there are special circumstances.

Considering that after the last contact, this guy is responsible for communicating information about the mysterious entity with the upper echelons of the Ghost Hunting Association, he must be too busy these days to leave.

Seeing no one answering, Shen Qiyin was about to turn off the radio, but at this moment, Gray Wolf's voice came from the radio:

"Doomsday Cult? Why are you suddenly asking about them? Were you attacked by the Doomsday Cult?"

"That's not true..."

Shen Qiyin winked at Xiaoxiang and whispered the story to the side, while Xiaoxiang was responsible for relaying it as "Nightingale":

"Mr. Gray Wolf, first of all, thank you very much for the information you provided about the abandoned mine. I went to explore that place a few days ago and did find a small amount of unmined White Flame ore."

"No need to thank me. I should be the one to express my gratitude. Thanks to the information you provided, many qualified people in our survivor base successfully survived the attack of that thing.

I heard that official organizations have conducted relevant experiments and raised the survival rate to 50%. This is your contribution."

Although Gray Wolf's voice was as cold and calm as ever, like that of an emotionless robot, Shen Qiyin could still hear gratitude in his tone.

"Go on," Gray Wolf's voice rang out again from the radio speaker after a pause. "What happened to you in Jiuyin Mountain? Is it related to the Doomsday Cult?"

"Yes, I found the symbols of the Doomsday faction in the mine."

"Is that all? The Doomsday Cult is a cult that has rapidly risen in power since the apocalypse. They may have followers all over the country.

The place you're visiting may have also been visited by Doomsdayers, so finding their symbols isn't uncommon."

"Indeed, if I had only discovered symbols, I wouldn't have said anything. The real problem is that I encountered a secret room at the bottom of the mine that was deliberately hidden using a special 'illusion'.

Inside the secret room, there is an altar for worshiping some kind of evil god. According to the records inside, the earliest sacrificial ceremony was in the 70s, and the most recent one was in 2012.

"...Keep going."

"This record is related to the Doomsday sect because the symbols are drawn on the urns used by the Doomsday sect to suppress the 'sacrifices', which they led for 12 years.

In other words, at least a dozen years before the end of the world, doomsday sects had already been carrying out similar occult religious activities.

I can hardly help but suspect that those guys had intelligence about what was coming to Earth, and it’s no exaggeration to say that they knew the end was coming.”

"..."

Gray Wolf on the other end of the radio was silent for a moment, as if thinking about Shen Qinyin's words.

"Of course, these are just my personal speculations," Shen Qiyin asked Xiaoxiang to slow down his tone before continuing, "But my speculations have always been quite accurate. If the Doomsday Cult really did have similar sacrificial activities before the apocalypse, then its existence is much more dangerous than we imagined."

"I understand what you mean. The problem is that right now, both the civilian and official sectors are already stretched thin just dealing with the Kuroshio and the entities. It's almost impossible to divert attention to dealing with humanity's internal conflicts.

Although the authorities have already listed the Doomsday Sect as a cult, their entire focus is currently on the Black Tide incident, leaving them with little energy to crack down on it.

"That's true, but if we allow such a mysterious and dangerous force to continue to exist, there's no guarantee that it will cause us a mess one day."

"I have some connections in the official departments. I will pass on your findings to them and see if they can spare the manpower. Don't worry, I won't reveal your identity."

"Thank you. If you find out any information, please share it with me."

"Okay, speaking of which, there's something I want to discuss with you."

"You said."

"Let's cooperate." Gray Wolf paused for a few seconds and continued, "You are a very powerful person. At least among the people I have come into contact with, there are no more than two hands who can reach your level of ability to survive independently without a team.

But I must tell you the truth, the end of the world is always the end of the world, those things are getting more and more powerful, it will become more and more difficult to survive alone in the future, only by establishing good cooperative relationships can we maximize the survival rate.

In particular, the duration of darkness is getting longer and longer. Currently, the daylight hours are less than eight hours. I am afraid that it will not be long before humans will usher in permanent darkness.

"If the sun really disappears, whether we huddle together for warmth or try to survive alone, we'll all end up dead, right?"

"Oh, don't underestimate humanity's will to survive and the state apparatus. The state possesses underground facilities to resist this absolute doomsday. It's no exaggeration to say that even if the sun truly disappears, humanity can still survive for more than ten years relying on underground facilities and existing resources.

Furthermore, the National Research Institute is still working tirelessly to study non-Earth-like powers like white flame and psychic energy. Whether humanity will eventually be destroyed remains to be seen."

Shen Qiyin crossed her arms in front of her chest, leaned back in her chair, and looked at the others inquiringly.

Seeing that everyone had a frown on their face, she thought for a moment and then gave Xiaoxiang an instruction with her lips.

The latter immediately relayed based on the lip movements: "How do you want us to cooperate?"

"Intelligence exchange, material transactions, personnel recruitment... I have a lot of work to do, and I need the best of the best to do it for me. In return, I can find a way to get anything you want for you."

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to offend you, but you're just the leader of a survivor base. Can you do so many things?"

"My survivor base is quite large, and I have a wide network of contacts. I can find a way to get you most of the items you need."

"Really? Then I need a miniature nuclear reactor and the corresponding nuclear fuel."

"..."