【You didn’t want to get too involved with the authorities, so you deliberately played dumb and tried to bluff your way through. But unexpectedly, they produced footage of you dealing with the characteristic Strange “Stillness” on the rooftop. In your mind, you cursed that idiot with the drone a hundred times. In the end, faced with the evidence brought out by the Special Strategy Department’s minister, you had no choice but to make up a story as best you could to get by. But because of this, you became a “surveillance” target of the Special Strategy Department.】
【January 6, 2024. You noticed some suspicious people in your residential compound. It had only been one day, and the Special Strategy Department had already sent people into the compound to surveil you. You were extremely disgusted by this behavior, so you called your female supervisor and asked for a few days off, saying you wanted to rest properly at home.】
【From your female supervisor, you learned that the front desk girl who had been caught up in the characteristic Strange “Stillness” incident with you the day before had also taken a long leave. But you didn’t pay much attention to this. Instead, you were thinking about how to shake off those people from the Special Strategy Department.】
【January 7, 2024. You, who exercised diligently every day, had saved up some system points and did a lucky draw. The result was a whole pile of instant noodles and daily necessities. You were so annoyed that you applied to the system to rename itself “Heavenly Dog Supermarket.” But despite your anger, on second thought, the system had a four-year time difference. If these resources were drawn in the doomsday world four years later, you couldn’t exactly say they were all garbage.】
【January 8, 2028. Under the double buff of a gacha luck song and early-morning toilet buff, you pulled a single draw and hit the jackpot, successfully obtaining a characteristic weapon—a pig-slaughtering knife called “Indestructible.” You ran all kinds of tests on the pig-slaughtering knife and found that not only could it slice through iron like mud, but it truly lived up to its name—diamond-hard and indestructible.】
【January 9, 2028. This was the third day you were “hiding” at home. Unfortunately, you discovered that the people surveilling you were still there. Just as you were getting a headache over how to shake off the Special Strategy Department’s harassment, a Strange incident suddenly occurred in the neighboring residential compound. The entire compound was locked down.】
【That night, you saw police come to talk with the agents surveilling you. Soon, they left your compound and headed toward the lockdown zone in the neighboring compound. Although you knew leaving the compound at a time like this wasn’t wise, as the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat. You were very curious about what exactly had happened in the neighboring compound.】
【Using your familiarity with both compounds, you successfully slipped into the neighboring compound through the backyard. Strangely enough, the “lockdown line” you had originally seen through the window from home had actually disappeared after entering the neighboring compound. Forget patrol teams and police officers—you didn’t see a single living person.】
【You realized you had probably fallen into some kind of paranormal event. For safety’s sake, you slipped into a nearby building. You did know a few people in this compound. The one you were most familiar with was probably Old Wang, the security guard of Happiness Compound. You’d always chat a bit whenever you ran into him going to or from work. You just hadn’t seen him recently, so you figured since you were already inside, you might as well find these “old-timers” and chat a bit. After all, the intelligence network of old men and old ladies was still pretty reliable.】
【Strangely, when you arrived outside Old Wang’s door and knocked for quite a while, there was no response from inside. Instead, knocking sounds also came from the other side of the door.】
【Curious as you were, under the system’s repeated warnings emphasizing “certain death,” you ultimately chose to leave Old Wang’s place and return to Happiness Compound the way you came.】
【But who would’ve thought that when you passed through the backyard, you found you hadn’t returned to Happiness Compound at all. Instead, you came out from the other end of the compound where Old Wang lived. It was as if the entire compound had become a closed loop—enter through door A, exit through door B; enter through door B, exit through door A. You couldn’t leave the compound.】
【Using the effect of the characteristic “Silence,” you decided to return to Old Wang’s home once more to investigate. Maybe you could find a way out.】
【When you returned to the building where Old Wang lived, you found the entire compound’s chaos had grown even worse. It was as if all of space-time had fallen into disorder. You simply couldn’t get out, nor could you find the area you were looking for.】
【January 15, 2024. This was your seventh day trapped in Old Wang’s compound. During these seven days, you searched all over three buildings for an exit, but unfortunately had no leads at all. Apart from marking some dangerous areas, the system was basically no help.】
【Moreover, starting from the fifth day of being trapped, Strange monsters began appearing one after another in the compound. Their bodies were about the size of adult lions or tigers, covered in a layer of pitch-black sludge. According to the system’s prompts, these were tier-one “Strange.”】
【Using the “pig-slaughtering knife” and the effect of the characteristic “Silence,” you expended tremendous effort and successfully hunted a tier-one Strange. You sold it to the system in exchange for system points to draw rewards. At that moment, you finally understood that the resources drawn from the system were simply too suited for the doomsday world.】
【January 22, 2024. This was your second week trapped in Old Wang’s compound. As more and more low-tier Strange gradually appeared, you discovered this space was becoming increasingly chaotic. It was no longer just a matter of entering A and exiting B, or entering B and exiting A. The entire compound had become like a tangled ball of yarn. You’d enter through one door and have absolutely no way of guessing where the exit would be…】
【It could be the rooftop, the underground parking garage, or even the sewage pipes… But no matter where it appeared, passing through would always bring you back to the compound, never anywhere else.】
【Trapped for two weeks, it felt as if you were the only person left in the entire compound. Over ten days, you hadn’t seen a single living soul. Moreover, the objects in the various residents’ homes were also very strange, as if they had been abandoned for over a decade—old things worn, metal things rusted, and anything edible rotted beyond recognition.】
【You were very grateful that you’d become the protagonist of “Carrying a Convenience Store With You,” blessed with a system that functioned similarly to a convenience store. You barely got by on system points earned from hunting tier-one Strange.】
【January 30, 2024. This was your third week trapped in Old Wang’s compound. You had completely accepted reality. Never mind “since I’m already here”—anyway, with a “convenience store” at your back and the compound infinitely “spawning monsters,” you simply decided to become the Sword God of Happiness Compound. With the mindset of sharpening a sword for ten years, you’d slowly hunt Strange here, save up eighty or a hundred thousand system points first, then figure out how to get out and splurge.】
【February 22, 2024. This was a month and a half since you’d been trapped in Old Wang’s compound. With nothing better to do, you looked at the nearly 3,000 system points you’d saved in your pocket. Plus, your instant noodles were almost finished, so you figured you’d do a resource draw. But who would’ve thought you’d draw a pitch-black eyeball, which the system called—”Strange Eye (Non-Visible).”】
【Through this Strange Eye, you could temporarily blind a target. Combined with “Silence” and the pig-slaughtering knife “Indestructible,” hunting tier-one Strange became much easier.】
【March 17, 2024. That day, in the chaotic space, you unexpectedly stumbled into the room where Old Wang lived. Inside, you discovered several sets of skeletal remains. You’d originally wondered why this compound had a sense of abandonment spanning over a decade. Seeing these bones, you seemed to understand.】
【Just as you were searching for clues in Old Wang’s home, a two-headed, four-armed muscular monster suddenly burst out and attacked you. Using “Strange Eye (Non-Visible),” you fought a fierce three-hundred-round battle with this monster—identical in appearance to a certain muscular freak from a similarly named compound. Ignoring the system’s warnings again and again, you consumed several mental apples and Strange energy potions, and finally managed to slay it.】
【As this two-headed, four-armed monster was slain by you, you noticed that one of the heads you’d cut off looked very stern. Flipping it over to look, wasn’t this Old Wang, over a decade younger?】
【Before you could recover from the shock, several well-equipped, fully armed soldiers suddenly burst in through the door and surrounded you. The leader removed his mask—it was the Rong City Special Strategy Department agent who had previously been sent to surveil you. He ordered you to surrender your weapons and equipment and give yourself up. Having been trapped in the compound for over two months, you were already furious. You immediately grabbed Old Wang’s head and hurled it at him.】
【While wrestling with that agent, you took the opportunity to yank off his grenade and flashbang and detonate them. In the chaos, you jumped out the window. You thought you’d appear from somewhere else like before, but instead you landed safely in the courtyard, surrounded by a group of armed soldiers.】
【At that moment, Deng Yuqi—the Special Strategy Department minister you’d met once before—came before you and briefly asked about your situation. So you told Deng Yuqi about how you’d “accidentally” entered the compound and been trapped for several months. Under her surprised gaze, you wanted to find an opportunity to take her hostage and escape, but… you were easily KO’d by her. Only then did you realize this girl’s combat ability was actually above that of the earlier two-headed, four-armed freak.】
【Deng Yuqi brought you back to the Special Strategy Department. She didn’t confiscate your weapons or equipment, only asked about your experiences being trapped in the compound for those few months, and simultaneously told you about the changes in Rong City over these months.】
【Deng Yuqi told you that the reason you were trapped in the compound was because this area had been enveloped by a mysterious force called a “Strange Space.” As long as the Strange maintaining the Strange Space wasn’t killed, this Strange Domain would continue to exist.】
【After the Strange Domain appeared, the Special Strategy Department had sent two teams into it, but both came out from the other direction. Simply put… they couldn’t get in at all. Although Deng Yuqi had already requested reinforcements from headquarters, the agents and researchers sent by headquarters were also helpless against this bizarre Strange Domain.】
【The Strange Domain continued to expand, soon swallowing the neighboring Happiness Compound and the surrounding streets. Therefore, the entire block was locked down.】
【Two months passed in a flash. Researchers monitoring Strange energy reactions discovered fluctuations in the compound’s Strange energy. Only then did Deng Yuqi bring two teams to investigate. They unexpectedly discovered the Strange Space had been dissolved—but it turned out Shen Ge had stumbled into it and somehow resolved the Strange maintaining the Strange Domain.】
【But when hearing Shen Ge’s description of that two-headed, four-armed “Strange,” the companion conducting the interrogation with Deng Yuqi clearly didn’t believe your account. Because Strange energy’s rejection of humans meant humans could never become Strange, so human-shaped Strange were impossible.】
【You said the monster you killed was in that room, and one of its two heads was even Old Wang’s head. But unexpectedly, Deng Yuqi told you that the Special Strategy Department’s people hadn’t found any human-shaped monster in the room—not even traces of a fight.】
【You didn’t believe Deng Yuqi’s account. Going with her to the scene, you found it looked very new—not at all like the decade-abandoned appearance from when you’d fought the two-headed, four-armed creature in the Strange Space. Thinking of the agent and soldiers who had appeared after you killed the two-headed, four-armed creature, you told Deng Yuqi about this.】
【However, after checking, Deng Yuqi found no records of that agent. That day, apart from her, no other teams had entered the lockdown zone. And moreover—】
【She had never sent anyone to surveil you.】
Reading this, perhaps the “Shen Ge” of Fragment 5’s world in the 【Log】 still didn’t understand, but Shen Ge had already seen the clues.
Combined with what Rongshan Psychiatric Hospital had done to him in the past, it was very likely that his successful “escape” from Rongshan Psychiatric Hospital had all been part of those people’s plan.
So during the period he lived in Happiness Compound, the ones surveilling him weren’t Deng Yuqi’s people—they were very likely people sent by the Freak Association.
It was just that when these people were carrying out some operation, Old Wang happened to witness it, and through a twist of fate, Old Wang became a freak.
The difference was that the Shen Ge in “reality” hadn’t discovered the people surveilling him—or rather, in “reality” no one had been surveilling him. Therefore, he hadn’t felt disgusted by the Special Strategy Department’s behavior. With the mindset of quickly resolving the projects in his hands, getting paid, and leaving, and having studied the system to deal with the doomsday, he chose to continue going to work.
As a result, he later ran into Strange incidents again and again, and through repeated interactions with Deng Yuqi, they became familiar with each other. Thinking it would be easier to operate with the Special Strategy Department’s identity and background, he joined the Special Strategy Department.
Perhaps because of the Special Strategy Department and Deng Yuqi, the Freak Association changed its plan. They didn’t have Old Wang trigger a Strange Space in the compound, but instead took him back for research.
But in the 【Log】, Shen Ge hadn’t joined the Special Strategy Department, so the Freak Association wasn’t influenced by the Special Strategy Department to change its plan, which led to Old Wang triggering a Strange incident.
From here, the two worlds diverged enormously.
【Deng Yuqi valued your strength and invited you to join the Special Strategy Department. But you felt the matter of Old Wang and the compound’s Strange Space was very strange, and you always felt the Special Strategy Department couldn’t be unrelated to it. Maybe that agent surveilling you was the Special Strategy Department’s hidden pawn. So you tactfully declined Deng Yuqi’s invitation, saying you needed to think about it.】
【Deng Yuqi was very surprised that you declined the invitation, and once again explained to you the convenience and benefits of becoming an agent. But you still said you needed to think about it, so she didn’t press further. Instead, she mentioned that because of this incident, you had likely been targeted by some mysterious organization, so she planned to arrange several agents to “protect” you.】
【Called “protection,” but actually “surveillance.” You understood. But given the current complicated situation, you could only agree to Deng Yuqi’s arrangement. And since the entire block was locked down and you couldn’t return to Happiness Compound, Deng Yuqi found a hotel near the city center to put you up.】
【At the hotel, you planned your future actions. After the doomsday, the most worthless thing would be money. By then, money would definitely become a pile of scrap paper. You decided to use the money in your hands to purchase some resources. Unfortunately, having been trapped in the Strange Space for several months, Happiness Compound was also affected, making your property impossible to sell.】
【You remembered the company still hadn’t paid you the final payment for a few orders, so you contacted your female supervisor. During the conversation, you incidentally learned that something had also happened in the front desk girl’s compound.】
