Translator: Lonelytree
“I swear there is no such thing as an atomic bomb at Dreamlands.” At Da Hwa City’s headquarters, Lucky explained with misery. Lucky stood on Wu Siyu’s shoulder and wore an orange jacket. His rat-like face and two claws were the only things exposed. From just appearance, he looked like a plushie. He patted her shoulders and continued, “The Dreamlands is an idyllic place, we do not have destructive creation like the atomic bomb, or at least I have not heard of something like that.”
Wu Siyu did not follow the Spell Department’s team to Mo Bei. This was because the day before, she went for a prenatal supersonic inspection and told her superior about her pregnancy. Radiation had greater influence on children, especially fetuses since the cellular activity of the fetus was more active. If they were affected by radiation, there would be a higher chance of mutation during cellular recovery. It would lead to congenital disease, deformation and even stillborn. Therefore, pregnant women should not be exposed to any supernatural radiation, not even at 100 mSv, which was considered safe for others.
Wu Siyu’s pregnancy was good news but the timing was all wrong. The tragedy at Mo Bei just happened and the father was missing. This revelation caused a mixture of emotions to arise within the higher ups and the duo’s closer friends who knew the truth. Some of them had a concern that they did not dare voice, ‘Was the baby going to be normal?’
Wu Siyu was too early in her pregnancy for amniocentesis inspection and nothing much could be seen from the B scan. But based on all the other examinations, it was confirmed that she was pregnant and everything was proceeding smoothly.
“So the illusion that Ah Mei saw…” Wu Siyu pondered, “If she really saw Dirty-minded Jun, then it was not at Dreamlands.” To be fair, she did not really understand what was happening. She just received the call from Elder Tong. He merely told her to come to the Spell Department base and he did not go into details. Even though it was already midnight, due to the severity of the situation, Siyu had no choice but to climb out from her bed. Soon Siyu arrived at the command central. Everyone was busy. She glanced at the monitor, it was 4: 53 am. The screens showed the logging going on in real time and the One waiting at the quarantine circle. Deng Ximei and the two members were given emergency care.
“This poster is definitely unusual…” Elder Tong discussed this with Yao Sinian. When the former saw Siyu, he called her over, “Siyu, come and take a look at this poster. What is the thought that comes to you?”
“Okay.” Wu Siyu’s interest was piqued. She walked over to study the picture on one of the screens. She instantly frowned with shock.
Elder Tong and Yao Sinian were excited with the result of the mission. The contribution made by Deng Ximei was a breakthrough, the 3 members from The One did not sacrifice themselves for no reason. The illusion Ximei saw affirmed the Energy Research Centre’s conclusion, this was radiation caused by nuclear explosion. But where was the setting for this illusion, what did it mean? Why would Gu Jun be a part of the nuclear assault team?
There were two possibilities. One, Gu Jun was really there and two, Deng Ximei saw wrongly, after all, the girl could not be 100 percent sure herself about what she saw. The poster that Deng Ximei brought out was physically inside a lead bin at Mo Bei. However, a picture of it was taken at the first notice. The command central did research on it but could not find similar printing style or relevant posters at Mo Bei City, across the country or even globally. The poster was too simple to derive much from it. Other than the ocean and the two dolphins, the only thing to go by was the Chinese slogan, “Protect the ocean, save the world.” There was no mention of the charity organization, no address, no date and no usable information.
The font was the most common 宋体, the only flair done to it was the bolding of the characters. Therefore, the research went nowhere. They were also waiting for results from the actual poster, its radioactivity; carbon dating to determine its time of manufacture; as well as a DNA sampling on the blood stain on the poster.
“Protect the ocean, save the world?” Elder Tong mumbled, “Could this be related to the R’yleh Cult?” Prof Jiang from Angell’s Order was there as well and he said, “That is possible, the ocean is the world to them.”
“Erm, Elder Tong and everyone…” Wu Siyu cleared her throat. “This poster was designed by me. I painted the background myself.” Her revelation stunned everyone present. Elder Tong’s face drawn. Chill rose in their heart. Lucky didn’t quite understand it but he could sense the tension in the air. He shrunk deeper into the crook of Wu Siyu’s shoulder to make himself invisible.
“I designed this poster when I was still in high school, it was for a school event affiliated with The World Ocean Day.” Wu Siyu explained as her eyes turned around, “It was a small event. The students were tasked to make a poster and print 100 copies for it to share among the school body. If not for seeing this poster myself, I wouldn’t have remembered anything about it.”
“Girl, are you sure about that?” Elder Tong asked.
“I should have the original copy. I have a cloud storage that I use to keep all of my designs.” Wu Siyu immediately had one of the workers handed her a laptop. She logged onto her cloud storage and pulled up the relevant folder. It was last edited 5 years ago. She downloaded the folder named ‘Protect the ocean, save the world’. With everyone watching, she clicked it open. There were the PSD documents for the poster, the background picture. She clicked open the finished poster and it showed up on screen. There was the ocean, two dolphins and the slogan, everything was the same.
Elder Tong, Yao Sinian and Prof Jiang were silent…
It was a charity poster to celebrate World Ocean Day but there was no mention of the day itself, that was truly Wu Siyu’s style.
“I’m 21 now,” Wu Siyu calculated, “I did this poster when I was in second year high school so that was 5 years ago. I remember printing 100 copies of this and most of them went into the trash cans after school. The event was just a procedure so no one really paid attention to the poster-making, including myself. In fact, I did not even keep a hard copy of my own poster.”
Was it possible that this poster was one of the copies printed by Wu Siyu? It somehow travelled from Shen Hai City to Mo Bei City? But if that was the case, why and how?
At this juncture, Wu Siyu felt like she needed to clarify some things. “When Dirty-minded Jun first heard the signal and saw the symbol, it was through my painting. My painting triggered something in him. And then on the day of his disappearance, he was carrying my watercolor and now this poster…”
A giant shadow loomed over the command central. Now that they thought about it, there were so many supernatural events that revolved around Wu Siyu lately. The issue with Kedou and the abnormal Tourette Syndrome; her sudden pregnancy; her paintings’ connection to Gu Jun’s disappearance… It was why people like Elder Tong and Yao Sinian were concerned. The more they thought about it, the more chilled they were. There was no such thing as coincidence, everything was related somehow. Was Wu Siyu really pregnant? Was she carrying… an actual baby in her womb?
As if sensing the hostility, Wu Siyu reached towards her stomach. She could sense the life coming from it. It was not a food baby. To be honest, she panicked. She needed to protect this child, this last connection that she might have with Dirty-minded Jun.
“The original painting of the background should still be at my home. You’re telling me… For some unknown reasons, my paintings have gained some kind of power?” Wu Siyu was confused, so did everyone else. In any case, the command central immediately had people from Shen Hai Division send people over to Wu Family to transport away all of her paintings, especially the ones with marine motifs.
On the afternoon of the 16th, the inspection result on the poster started to arrive. It was not radioactive and was not exposed to radiation, this was an anomaly; based on carbon-dating, this poster was not a relic, it was a modern product; and the DNA analysis of the blood stain on the poster proved that it belonged to…
Wu Siyu.