Embers Ad Infinitum

Chapter 561: “Secret Manual”

Jiang Baimian received a call in the afternoon. She held the receiver in one hand and shouted at Shang Jianyao, “They want you to make a trip to Room 21.”

Shang Jianyao—who was selecting documents from the pile of information in the Old Task Force’s office—straightened his body and asked with a frown, “Is someone going to assassinate me with such a sudden phone call?”

“...” Jiang Baimian wasn’t the only one speechless; Long Yuehong and Bai Chen were equally speechless.

Such a Shang Jianyao was rarely seen. He actually had a persecution complex!

Jiang Baimian’s thoughts raced as she asked in enlightenment, “Were you the one guarding the golden elevator?”

Shang Jianyao remained silent and didn’t answer.

Jiang Baimian chuckled and consoled him. “They want you over to collect some confidential information.”

“Alright.” Shang Jianyao’s expression gradually changed, and he looked like a completely different person. He then left the room and walked along the corridor to Room 21.

Shang Jianyao politely knocked on the door.

“Please come in.” Su Yu’s voice sounded from inside.

Shang Jianyao pushed open the door and saw Director Su Yu sitting opposite the long table. He asked in surprise, “Aren’t you busy?”

This was a meeting room.

Su Yu was still wearing the Security Department’s gray combat uniform. There were no management-level guards around him; he was alone.

He smiled and explained, “I’m visiting the employees on sentry duty just outside the entrance today. I happened to pass by the Security Department, so I might as well give you the information regarding the Mind Corridor.”

An explanation is just a cover... The honest and frank Shang Jianyao wanted to respond in this way, but he was pressed down by his peers in the Mind Room.

Shang Jianyao glanced at the thin stack of information in Su Yu’s hand and asked excitedly, “Then, can I go on today’s Newspoint? Director Su Yu met the D7 employee—Shang Jianyao—in Room 21 on the 647th floor. The two parties had a friendly exchange regarding the Mind Corridor.”

As he spoke, he pulled out a chair and sat opposite Director Su Yu.

Su Yu knew that this fellow had mental problems and casually replied, “Such matters are confidential. They won’t go on Newspoint.”

“Oh...” Shang Jianyao was clearly very disappointed.

Su Yu ignored his antics and handed over the information in his hand. “You can only read it here; you can’t take it away. If you are afraid of forgetting the details, you can materialize some of the content in the form of a document and fix it in your Mind Room. Although the amount of information that can be contained this way is limited, it’s enough to register the most important things.”

“You can do that?” Shang Jianyao expressed his deep enlightenment.

Su Yu smiled. “Consider this a small trick I’m teaching you.”

Shang Jianyao didn’t say anything else because he had already taken the information and cast his gaze over.

“Although there’s only one Mind Corridor, different Awakened seem to be located in various parts of its projections. Under normal circumstances, we don’t have to worry about directly encountering each other. However, there are also special exceptions. There are a few negative examples that can’t be explained for the time being...

“You will meet another person if they happen to open the door around the same time as you...

“Different rooms have different tempering effects on your mind due to the psychological trauma, inner fears, and dreams. The differences in the way you choose to deal with the same situation in the same room will also result in different tempering effects. However, remember that there are often only two to three high-quality solutions for a particular scene in a particular room or even fewer. Once it’s activated in the wrong manner, it might bring about relatively serious consequences...

“It’s not recommended that you mentally exhaust yourself during each exploration because you can’t predict if an accident will happen on the way back. The simplest and most extreme example is that the room owner is also exploring a certain dangerous place while you are exploring a certain room. For example, their mind will definitely show abnormalities if they encounter an accident in other rooms. This will reflect back into their room and bring about major changes... These are unpredictable, and a prepared response is impossible. You can only adapt to the situation. Therefore, you need to leave sufficient mental capacity...

“If you have nightmares for days and feel exhausted every time you wake up, it means that someone has entered your Mind Room and has explored it to a rather deep extent. You have to think of a way to lock onto the other party and give them a warning. If they refuse, prepare for battle...

“The corresponding lock-on method is...

“Exploring the Mind Corridor’s depths refers to a complete exploration of at least five rooms or incomplete exploration of ten rooms...”

“...”

After the list of precautions were a large number of room numbers. Behind the different room numbers were different comments.

101: It currently belongs to an Awakened in the Subhuti domain. It’s suspected that they have already explored the Mind Corridor’s depths... The most common encounter upon entry is a psychological trauma that happens in a mental hospital. It often changes, and this might very well be related to the room owner’s mental state... The key point of clearing the room is to find the only doctor in the mental hospital and kill him... This is the best solution according to our current explorations...

“102: Extremely dangerous room that rarely appears. The situation we know is that at least two Awakened have entered and never come out. One is in a slumber in reality, and the other has completely gone crazy...

“...

“205: Suspected to be a certain Kalendaria’s dream. The danger of exploration is extremely high, but the benefits will also be very great. It’s not recommended for Awakened that have yet to reach the Mind Corridor’s depths to attempt it... Dreams often change, and they are different every time. It’s impossible to summarize the key points of the explorations...

“...

“503: Rarely appears. According to the intelligence, the people who enter might very well end up infected with the Heartless disease...

“...

“506: The room’s owner is an Awakened in the Monitor domain. All of their psychological trauma has a common solution—the courage to face danger... After grasping the key point, this room is relatively safe. It can be used as a ‘base’ for rookies to temper their minds. Therefore, it’s not recommended to explore to a relatively deep extent to prevent affecting the room owner. If you happen to encounter a situation where there are fluctuations in the room owner’s mental state, it’s best to provide them with some help. Don’t kill the goose that lays golden eggs...

“...”

On several pages of paper were more than a hundred room numbers. They were also written with different comments, allowing Shang Jianyao to know which rooms were extremely dangerous, which rooms were relatively safe, the trick to clearing certain rooms with psychological traumas, and the risks that required avoiding.

If the first few pieces of general knowledge relating to the Mind Corridor were precious, the latter pieces were priceless to most Mind Corridor-level Awakened!

This was clearly a summary of the exploration experience of powerhouses in Pangu Biology. It was a manifestation of the precious information gathered by the intelligence system. It was the extraction of certain secrets that many outfield employees had chanced upon.

For example, the comments regarding Room 503 clearly came from Shang Jianyao and the Old Task Force’s gains in Tarnan.

This information fully revealed why large factions were called large factions. An unaffiliated Mind Corridor-level Awakened might take two to three years to explore a room bit by bit, but a large faction’s Mind Corridor-level Awakened might be able to complete it in two to three months with the support of such information. The former might accidentally find themselves in a certain scene and leave behind serious problems. The latter would step on the shoulders of their predecessors and know which rooms they could enter and which they couldn’t. They could avoid many risks in advance...

“This is...” Shang Jianyao was ‘greatly shocked.’ “This is a game strategy guide!”

Su Yu took a few seconds to understand what a game strategy guide meant and replied with a smile, “Yes. This can also be considered a martial arts manual at the Mind Corridor level.”

“You’ve also watched the Old World’s entertainment?” Shang Jianyao’s focus was always wrong.

Su Yu frankly replied, “Occasionally.”

He had no interest in discussing this matter and said, “This is one of the main reasons why Mind Corridor-level Awakened are willing to be restrained and choose to band together.”

Su Yu then changed the topic. “But this is more of a reference—you can’t blindly follow it. The human heart is prone to changes. It’s possible that traps will appear in the corresponding room at any moment.”

As he spoke, Su Yu’s expression became rather serious.

“That makes it more interesting.” Shang Jianyao excitedly went through the room numbers again.

In his Mind Room, several Shang Jianyaos were busy materializing the key content into documents.

After flipping through them for a while, Shang Jianyao realized that there were no 1215 or 522 in these room numbers.

The former was the room that had mysteriously disappeared after entering once, and the latter was the one he was exploring now.

“What does it mean by rarely appearing?” Shang Jianyao asked.

Su Yu had expected this and simply explained, “Everyone often walks through the Mind Corridor. Everyone has seen many rooms, but some door numbers are only chanced upon by a few people.

“Just like 503—we’ve never encountered it before. If not for the intelligence you provided us, nobody would know that it’s very likely for us to contract the Heartless disease after entering it.”

“Why?” Shang Jianyao asked.

Su Yu shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Shang Jianyao then flipped to the last page of the information. On it were also some room numbers—about ten or so—but there were no comments.

“These are?” Shang Jianyao took the initiative to ask.

Su Yu laughed. “These are the door numbers of some of the company’s Mind Corridor Awakened. We tell you in hopes that you don’t explore it if you encounter them. We shouldn’t be disturbing our own.”

“What about the rest?” Shang Jianyao was eager to give it a try.

Su Yu tersely acknowledged his words. “They don’t want a newly advanced rookie to know their door number. They will be at a grave disadvantage if anything happens to you.”

At this point, Su Yu looked at Shang Jianyao and said seriously, “According to the rules, it’s time for you to report your door number to the company. Then, you can choose to inform your other ‘colleagues’ to prevent them from disturbing you.”

Every Mind Corridor-level Awakened’s door number was rather important. If others learned of it, it might very well bring about danger. Therefore, requesting him to report such information was Pangu Biology’s form of management.

Shang Jianyao didn’t hesitate.

“131.”

He then carefully looked at his colleagues’ door numbers again as if he were wondering when he should visit them.

There was still no 1215 or 522 on the list.

After Shang Jianyao returned the information, Su Yu slowly stood up and prepared to leave.

Suddenly, he spoke casually. “You were already an Awakened when you discovered Yama Tiger. Did you make any attempts?”