Was this a virus that used information as its carrier?
This was Chen Chen’s most intuitive impression of these Basilisk patterns so far.
Nonetheless, this statement was still inaccurate because no matter how powerful a virus was, it could not conjure a woman out of thin air to strangle an infected person.
This completely went against the laws of physics.
With this in mind, Chen Chen continued turning to the next page.
The second picture was very similar to the first. It was in black and white and consisted of countless blocks. These blocks were laid out in a complicated, repetitive pattern, and the effect was dizzying. Even when Chen Chen saw it, he felt that his thoughts were becoming sluggish.
When these color blocks were pieced together, Chen Chen vaguely made out the figure of a reaper holding a sickle.
Fujiwara Aoki had mentioned this image to Chen Chen before. Its name was Reaper, and its ability was…
[Basilisk pattern: Reaper.]
[Symptoms: The observer will not react when seeing the “Reaper”. After the observer looks away, they will forget everything about this pattern until someone mentions this pattern to the observer. Then the observer will die instantly. The survival rate is not more than 5%.]
[Danger level: Level 3, extremely dangerous.]
[Method of infection: None, unable to spread by itself.]
When he saw this, Chen Chen could not help shaking his head. This Reaper was truly peculiar. Who knew how many people died, how many lives were stuffed within this image, before the survivors were able to sum up these rules?
It was likely that even a dozen lives were worth less than a single punctuation mark in this book.
After that, Chen Chen flipped the page again. There were seven or eight patterns behind. One of the patterns was called “Shaker”, which meant that after seeing that picture, the viewer would shudder all over until their cerebrospinal fluid and blood had been completely shaken out before they died.
One pattern was called “Flame”, indicating that after seeing that image, the person would suffer from spontaneous combustion out of thin air, burning from the inside until they were reduced to a pile of ashes.
There was even a pattern called “Filth”. Anyone who saw this pattern would suffer from dark blotches all over their body and this pattern could be transmitted to other people.
It was like the dark spots were alive. They first appeared on a random part and then started to spread across the entire body. As they spread, the human body began to become continuously carbonized and it finally reached the point where taking one step would break one’s hands and feet.
When the carbonization spread to the internal organs and the head, the infected person would then die…
After the series of patterns, the book also later noted that there were still a few pictures that had not been included and the nature of those patterns was not clear. One must be cautious and so on when encountering unknown patterns.
Afterward, Chen Chen continued to flip to the back and immediately saw the next paragraph, but these texts no longer had any patterns. Rather, they were phenomena that had evolved in bizarre manners.
[Mysterious phenomenon: Woman in Dreams.]
[Symptoms: The infected person will start to dream and it will be a terrifying nightmare. The scene in the dream is always astonishingly similar to the place where the infected person sleeps, that is to say — the place where the infected person sleeps will also be the setting of their dreams, whenever they dream. The only difference from reality is that they will see a woman in white in the dream.]
[They will not be able to clearly see the face of the woman in white, only a pair of white eyes without any pupils. When they see the woman, the infected person will always experience intense terror and wake up quickly from the fright.]
[However, after being infected by the strange phenomenon of the “Woman in Dreams”, each time they sleep, they will dream of her again. Moreover, the more they dream, she will get closer and closer to the infected person, and eventually reach the infected person.]
[After corresponding this to reality, bystanders will see the “Woman in Dreams” emerge from the chest of the infected person out of thin air, and choke the infected person to death, upon which the “Woman in Dreams” will also vanish.]
[Danger level: Level 2, somewhat dangerous.]
[Method of infection: Temporarily unidentified. It is known that physical contact with an infected person, sexual relations, sharing the content of the nightmare, and so on, will not cause infection.]
After reading this, Chen Chen immediately looked pensive. Was this the mysterious phenomenon that evolved from the Basilisk patterns? It was truly spooky.
Chen Chen suddenly thought, what should he do if he was infected with this stuff?
Although Chen Chen was still in big-brain-mode under the effects of NZT-48 at this time, when faced with this strange phenomenon, he could only come up with two solutions.
The first one: suicide.
Of course, this did not mean shooting oneself in the head. Rather, one would inject an anesthetic to keep one’s brain in a blank state where one would not dream. Upon waking up, NZT-48 would be quickly ingested. By allowing one’s brain to rest in this manner, one might be able to evade the killing method of the “Woman in Dreams”.
The second method was less punishing but riskier. Namely, to return to reality.
This was because Chen Chen had speculated that there was a great deal more to the USB drive. Was it possible that the creator of this USB drive had considered this situation beforehand and thus the portal was able to isolate such mysterious phenomena?
Chen Chen’s conjecture was not unreasonable, because in the USB flash drive’s first form, life forms could not be extracted. At one time Chen Chen thought that the USB drive really could not allow life to pass through.
However, it was not until the USB drive’s second form that Chen Chen understood, the first form seemed to be a protection for the weak.
The inability to extract life forms was to prevent the user from being killed, such as directly ingesting the T-virus, ALZ-113, and so on. A careless move could destroy the entire world or open a direct channel for alien pathogens to be brought into reality, triggering a catastrophe for humanity.
It was only when the user obtained a certain level of capability with the help of the USB drive, which was akin to the user having passed the test of the USB drive, that the USB drive would activate its second form and open a passage to another world.
In other words, the tests that the USB drive put the user through were gentle and gradual.
Therefore, could it be that the portal would isolate such strange phenomena? That, when Chen Chen crossed the channel and returned to reality, he would only return by himself while the mysterious phenomena would be unable to pass through the channel?
Still, this solution had its risks.
As the USB flash drive had never come with a manual since the beginning, Chen Chen had to rely on incremental discoveries. Consequently, if Chen Chen’s judgment was mistaken, would it not be equivalent to bringing this mysterious phenomenon into reality?
If this was the case, Chen Chen was still going to die and he might also take down the entire human civilization along with him.
“Still, it’s not as if that situation would be unavoidable.”
Chen Chen pondered, then mumbled softly, “I can use the Rubik’s cube to send back a message and ask Little X to close all exits near the passage or even build a Faraday cage. If I still can’t avoid the mysterious phenomenon’s fatal pursuit even after I’ve returned, I’ll just die by myself in the Faraday cage…
“After my death, Little X shall continue to charge the USB drive. When there’s enough power, stuff the entire room in which I died into Gantz’s dimension…”
An involuntary sneer crept across Chen Chen’s face as he thought about this. Indeed, this was basically the best solution. He would not have to sit around waiting for his own death nor would he spread the strange phenomenon into reality.
Following that, Chen Chen continued turning the pages, reading about one mysterious phenomenon after another.