Chapter 202: Piecing Together Clues

On the highway, the convoy started moving again, like a black long dragon racing.

Tires rolled over, sending up splashes of water.

Inside the armored vehicle, Zhang Tie bobbed his head and hummed an unknown tune.

Wen Ya, as always, monitored the entire team.

Mo Ling, meanwhile, lay on her side still sleeping.

On the truck behind the armored vehicle, the trainees chatted and laughed.

Lin An, soaked through, sat slumped inside the vehicle.

As if nothing had happened.

Since returning to the vehicle, everyone has returned to normal.

He has tried many times; as long as the topic does not involve the missing persons, everyone is normal and can answer his questions smoothly.

They remember everything, except the people who disappeared.

Lin An rested his head against the cold vehicle wall, thinking hard.

The entire team now only he retains the ability to think about the missing persons.

This cannot continue.

We must find a way to break the deadlock...

But just thinking about the discussions of the supernatural incident in the past life chat channel makes him feel utterly powerless.

No logic, no clues, no causality, impossible to resist.

Can he really find a solution?

Although he retained awareness of the missing persons incident under some inexplicable stimulus, in Lin An's memory he also cannot recall exactly who disappeared.

Every second, his rationality struggles against the strange sense of reason in his mind.

He took a deep breath.

Lin An tried to piece together the problem in his mind.

He clenched his hands tightly around the handwritten report, his gaze resolute.

There must be a solution! Or rather, there must be a way to prevent disappearances.

Otherwise, there would be no reason for that garrison point not to be far from the town.

According to the report, they discovered the missing persons on the fourth day.

First, put the discovered issue aside for now.

First question: can this supernatural incident be stopped?

Lin An closed his eyes to think, and quickly reached a conclusion.

Based solely on the garrison point, after realizing the town had a problem, merely choosing to withdraw to the vicinity shows that this supernatural incident must have been blocked.

First, the garrison point was surely destroyed by the mutants' attack, and afterward survivors escaped to the granary.

According to the report, the number of missing persons doubles each day; if we turn back time...

If the missing persons incident had not been blocked, then the garrison point would not have so many zombies.

Because by the time Lin An first encountered the corpses in the granary, the missing population should have reached 7,168!

Therefore, the supernatural incident must have been blocked.

Then the second question.

How did those soldiers discover the missing persons?

The corpses were found in the stomach...

That indicates the missing persons would die and appear as flesh chunks.

Finding it once shows it is not survivors eating corpses and then unintentionally vomiting them up.

Otherwise the description should be: the missing persons' corpses would be eaten by survivors, discovered during the eating process, rather than found in the stomach.

So... the corpses must have illogically appeared directly in the stomach, then vomited or burst the belly and leaked out.

Lin An subconsciously touched his own stomach, and there was nothing abnormal.

Under his mental power covering, no one's stomach was bulging.

His gaze thoughtful.

Corpses? Not living people.

Combined with the garrison point, discovering the missing persons on the fourth day—does that indicate

That the missing persons only appear in the stomach after death; before that time they had not died or turned into corpses, merely disappeared...

In other words, the interval from disappearance to death is four days.

Suppose...

No!

Lin An quickly rejected his own line of thought.

On the fourth day they discovered the missing persons; assuming the number of missing persons is calculated from corpses assembled from flesh chunks, then it means that disappearances starting on the fourth day equate to death.

The killing speed of the supernatural incident is gradually increasing.

【Four days?】 Does it have any special meaning?

After deducing a clue, Lin An continued to piece together the truth.

Third question.

Assuming the garrison point's soldiers discovered the missing persons due to the appearance of corpses.

Then how did they avoid the cognitive confusion?

Members of his own team have already confirmed that they will ignore any information concerning the missing persons incident.

So does this indicate that the appearance of a corpse would break the cognitive confusion, making it no longer seem reasonable?

In other words, as long as you see the missing person's corpse, the fact of their disappearance can no longer be covered up.

Then seeing a corpse should also be a key point that can break the confusion of thought.

But the problem is, if that's really the case, he doesn't have a corpse of the missing person on hand.

Assuming the corpse appears on the fourth day, by then there would be no need to restore thought and cognition.

Because by the fourth day, the entire team would be dead...

So this method is ineffective, and it's not a way to stop the disappearances.

He habitually tapped the metal seat beneath him with his fingertips, and Lin An couldn't help rubbing his brow.

His reason constantly battles the eerie sense of plausibility, draining his mental energy greatly.

Next is the fourth question.

Exactly how we triggered the supernatural incident.

The army was initially stationed in the small town, and then the problems arose.

But Lin An never even set foot in the small town; with nothing abnormal outside the town, and the granary also normal.

So what is the trigger condition?

Rain?

Lin An muttered to himself, recalling how everyone on the team instinctively avoids rain.

"(Why stand in the rain? We don't want to stand in the rain…)"

No...

It shouldn't be this.

His brow furrowed tightly.

If being soaked by rain triggers it, or if rain in this area triggers it, then the garrison wouldn't choose to pitch tents nearby.

The rain protection of tents is far inferior to that of the office building's service area.

So rain might just be a coincidence.

Combined with the boy whose head exploded, Lin An rules out this possibility.

Maybe 【rain】 is just one clue...

Perhaps 【rainwater】 is just a certain clue...

Lin An let out a weary sigh and looked inside the vehicle.

Lin An let out a light sigh of fatigue, looking toward the car interior.

"How come I feel you look tired right after getting in the car?"

Wen Ya slowly opened her eyes, full of concern.

"Do you want to change clothes and get some sleep?"

Lin An gave a bitter smile and shook his head, merely catching a glimpse of Mo Ling still asleep in his peripheral vision.

The girl took off her denim jacket and used it as a pillow, sleeping soundly.

He now can't discuss ideas with others, so he must rely on himself.

Otherwise Lin An fears that as he keeps talking, Wen Ya's head will also explode like that boy's under the strain of mental resistance.

Although he doesn't know why he managed to regain clarity, it should be related to willpower.

Wen Ya also showed signs of struggle, but she failed to dispel the gray mist.

Any other suspected trigger conditions?

Garrison point, small town, zombies, mutants, reports, rain...

A headless infant corpse?

Lin An suddenly recalled the infant corpse that Mo Ling had brought.

Having checked it before and found nothing special, he subconsciously overlooked this point.

Because after probing once, there were no special traces, so he subconsciously overlooked this point.

A chill ran through his body.

Mo Ling had clearly said when she brought it that the infant corpse was dug out of a zombie's belly—how could he have kept overlooking it?

The headless infant corpse is definitely problematic!

It interfered with his thoughts, even causing him to unconsciously toss it out of the vehicle!

Is the trigger condition because Mo Ling brought back the headless infant?

He seemed to have thought of something.

Lin An's thoughts raced as he tried to connect the clues.

Headless infant, conflict between thought and cognition, fourth day, disappearance then appearing in the stomach, big-belly zombie, seeing a corpse restores cognition...

Six clues pieced together like a spiderweb.

Lin An pondered hard, but always felt the truth was just one step away.

He took a deep breath and suddenly stood up:

"Zhang Tie! Stop the car and return to the town!"

Since they've already been entangled by the supernatural incident, the only solution is to imitate the garrison point.

Since the soldiers there found a way to stop it, there's no reason we can't find it too!

Go to Dan Hua Elementary School; that must hide this crucial clue!

However, after a long wait, no one responded.

However, after a long while, no one answered.

Lin An seemed to realize something, and hurriedly turned his head toward the cockpit.

Inside the cockpit, there was no one.

"Zhang..."

He stood frozen in place.

Lin An's mouth hung open, a flash of confusion crossing his eyes.

Who should I call?

"Lin An? Who are you calling?"

"Who is..."

"Zhang... Tie?"

Wen Ya gazed at him doubtfully.

Thunder boomed outside the vehicle, deafening.

A blinding flash of lightning split the horizon, flashing briefly and illuminating the three inside the vehicle.