Chapter 204: Forgotten by the World

Lead-gray dark clouds spread across the horizon, lightning flashed and vanished from the thick cloud layer.

The lightning briefly illuminated the gloom.

On the highway, the convoy stretched in a line, moving at extreme speed.

The wheels rolled over puddles, kicking up spray.

Not a minute or second could be wasted.

Since there was no way back, Lin An naturally would not hesitate any further.

Although he was speculating, it was possible that he would not disappear.

He could not bear to lose his memory over and over, as if it were being toyed with.

If even the people important to him were not remembered, what difference is there between living and being a walking corpse?

If base members disappeared, he could not care less.

What about Wen Ya? Mo Ling? And what about that person sitting in the driver's seat?

If this time he chose to escape, then the ones who would disappear later would be An Jing Tian, AnXia...

Since he was not in the town, nor even in the surroundings would disappearance incidents occur.

Then it meant that the supernatural incident must have undergone some change.

Thus, unless he avoided contact with anyone, disappearance incidents would keep occurring around him.

At that point, he would become a moving disaster.

From then on, he would be alone, incompatible with the world.

Such a way of living, what difference is there from being dead!?

He would be forgotten by the world, or else he would forget the whole world.

Living like this, what's the difference from being dead!?

Lin An gave a bitter smile in his heart.

No wonder, in his past life, everyone who talked about the supernatural incident would turn pale with fear.

Even if you could resist, the price of contact would still be unbearable.

No wonder everyone in my Past Life would turn pale at the mention of a Supernatural Incident, terrified beyond measure.

"Where are we going?"

Inside the car, Wen Ya looked anxiously at his back, recognizing that this was the return route.

Although the route differed, according to her memory, this road clearly led to the town's highway.

Inside the car, Wen Ya looked somewhat nervously at his rear, recognizing that this was the road back.

Although the route was somewhat different, relying on her Memory, this route was clearly the highway leading to the town.

Didn't Lin An repeatedly warn these people not to get close?

Inside the cab, Lin An's gaze was complex, unable to answer Wen Ya's words.

He could not even say what he wanted to do.

As long as it did not involve the disappearance incident, Wen Ya's thinking was clear.

But once related information was touched, it was like crossing a thunder pool.

"It's fine, don't worry."

Lin An let out a sigh, unable to help glancing back at the somewhat uneasy Wen Ya.

Out of absolute trust in him, Wen Ya chose not to ask further.

She believed in Lin An, no matter when.

They remained silent.

He had also considered going alone to the town, to Dan Hua Xiao Xue to look for clues.

But considering the way to stop the disappearances, it likely required someone to be present on site.

Otherwise, after the garrison point resolved the disappearance incident, it would surely relocate; who would want to set up camp near the source of terror?

Now we only need to think about what method stops the disappearances.

With his thoughts turning, Lin An listed each clue separately.

He wanted to reconstruct the "cause" of the supernatural incident.

Finding the "cause" would allow him to find a solution.

Like a tangled ball of yarn that wants to be untied, one must first find the end.

The killing methods and means of monsters can be illogical, but before they are born, they must necessarily follow logic.

They appeared after the Doomsday Game; before that, there must have been a normal, untransformed state.

Just like fierce ghosts, before transformation they were merely corpses filled with resentment.

Moreover, there is a precedent at the Military Region garrison point.

He believed he could certainly find that "cause".

Lin An planned to start from the example of the meme, after all they are very similar.

Just as the two steps of the doll killings come from the pre‑death states of the younger and older brother (paralysis, blindness, infantile ignorance).

So first we start from the killing method, and also the form of the supernatural incident upon contact.

Killing method: reversing the three major death orders (bodily death, memory death, information death).

Supernatural incident form: headless infant.

If we map the meme example onto the supernatural incident, then the "cause" of this supernatural incident is about to emerge.

Supernatural Incident Form: Headless Infant.

If we map the example of Meme onto the Supernatural Incident, then the "cause" of this Supernatural Incident is on the verge of surfacing.

Such events will instinctively follow one's own understanding of death.

So...

In a supernatural incident, "it" understands the death sequence as: first from the final stage (having left no information in the world) to bodily death.

【The ultimate demise of culture is that no one remembers it, no one inherits it. Humanity's ultimate death is likewise, no one knows that you once existed.】

Combined with the headless infant, everything becomes clear.

【An infant never born, without having even glanced at this world, let alone uttering a cry, dies directly!】

That's right.

When it dies in the womb, its perception of the outside world is zero, so the world does not exist for it.

Also because the world does not exist for it, it also has no memory.

So when it dies and turns into a supernatural incident.

When "it" contacts living humans, it will reenact its understanding of death upon the living.

The headless infant has no cognition of the world, so the first step is to drive the affected humans into a confined space, reducing traces of the world (information death).

The second step is to erase memory (memory death), the third step is to kill on the physical level (bodily death).

Because that is how it died.

Lin An's eyes flashed with a hint of realization, his heart pounding.

If it truly is as I have guessed, then many problems can be explained.

First, why are corpses found in the stomach?

Because the unborn infant does not know the distinction of human anatomy; it only knows where it is.

And that stomach region, in its vague cognition, is the place it once existed.

【That is precisely why it will "store" the disappeared in the stomach, "storing" the missing in a way it can understand!】

Second, why does a male's cognitive conflict cause his skull to burst?

Lin An once again overturned his previous conclusion.

It's simple, because the headless infant itself lacks the ability to think.

When it affects a male, once the male generates thoughts about the outside world, it instinctively erases anything that does not conform to cognition!

【Because it has no skull, it cannot comprehend what having a head is like!】

In its simplistic cognition, thinking about the outside world should not exist!

Besides that, the earlier inference that the survivors at the garrison point regained sanity because they saw corpses that should not exist.

This point is also wrong.

Everything is just me overcomplicating it.

Actually, it's just as simple.

【 "It" feels that humans should exist like a headless infant, that humans should not have a complete body. 】

So when corpse fragments appear in everyone's view, it no longer needs to interfere with thought.

【Because the disappeared have become like it.】

Put simply, it is two pieces, while the missing have become many pieces.

After all, in its limited understanding, it may not distinguish between two pieces and many pieces.

Just as an infant cannot count, let alone it.

Thus, essentially, it merely makes everyone like itself.

"Boom!"

Just as Lin An was straining to think, a series of collision sounds suddenly came from behind.

"Lin An, a driver has disappeared!"

Almost instantly, Wen Ya anxiously opened her eyes to remind him.

But she forgot that this had already happened once...

"Should we get out and look? That person just came from..."

Before her words finished, the girl's eyes flickered with confusion, shrouded by gray mist.

"I want..."

"Say what?"

Muttering to herself, the originally anxious Wen Ya, like a soulless puppet, abandoned thought and slowly sat back in her seat.

Lin An didn't look back, just gripped the steering wheel tightly, pressing the accelerator to the floor.

"Everyone! Full speed ahead!"

"Whooo—!"

The engine roared, the vehicle shuddered.

The armored vehicle speeding on the highway was like a black streak of light.

Eyes firm, full of confidence.

Lin An could not describe his feelings, a mix of anger and the exhilaration of uncovering the mystery.

He had already thought of a way to break the deadlock.

Simply, let the headless infant find its own head, restoring its cognition of the world.

As long as it "sees" this world, it can realize that the world does not exist only in the womb.

Thus, at least the stage where corpses appear in the stomach will be blocked.

Or let it be born completely once, so it understands the true sequence of death, thereby utterly breaking its "logic"!

Which method exactly, and the final 【question】.

All the answers will become completely clear upon reaching the small town.

Pa-da.

The backpack fell in the empty carriage.

Under Lin An's spiritual sense perception, someone else disappeared.

The disappearance frequency is speeding up...

He could feel the disappearance speed constantly accelerating.

But this time, Lin An felt no trace of fear or despair, and couldn't help letting out a light laugh.

Heh.

The corners of his mouth rose.

How...

You also started...

"Afraid"?