Chapter 573: Latent Period

Tang Guo'an stood on the stage, holding the lectern.

When the security guard in the back row raised his head, he was speaking about Article Three of the Special Management Law for Spook Controllers.

"Power is not immunity."

"The ability you possess can be used to save people, but you must also accept constraints."

"The law does not ask what resides within you, only what you have done."

There was no applause from the audience.

Many simply sat, listening quietly.

The old patrolman in the third row placed his hat on his knee, pressing the brim with his palm.

Before retiring, he had seen many Spook Controller cases. Previously, when complainants came in, they first asked not whether a case could be filed, but whether calling the police would bring trouble.

Now, the Public Security Branch has issued Suppress Spook Bullets.

He had watched the video of Ma Desheng being taken away three times.

That day his daughter called him, saying, "Dad, from now on ordinary people like us can also manage Spook Controllers."

The old patrolman did not answer at the time.

He feared it was merely a fleeting excitement.

But Tang Guo'an stood on the stage, his jacket faded to whitish, speaking not a single pleasant word.

The old patrolman straightened his back a little.

Beside him, a young girl gripped her mother's hand.

She had been bullied by a Spook Controller; the case dragged on. After the new law took effect, the other party was investigated, compensation arrived, and her home was saved.

She gazed at the stage, her eyes somewhat heated.

"Mom."

"Hmm?"

"He's right."

Her mother patted the back of her hand, saying nothing.

On the west side of the high platform, Jiang Yuan did not relax.

Shadow moved beneath the partition, the dark playing cards in his card bag hovering at the edge of his palm.

With every sentence Tang Guo'an spoke, he could hear it.

Jiang Yuan respected this old man.

Respect aside, duty remained duty.

Lu Dou would not stop because of a few legal provisions.

That person wanted to cram all of humanity into a single mind.

Such people are the most troublesome.

He sought neither money, nor survival, nor others' understanding.

He only sought to prove himself right.

Jiang Yuan's gaze fell to the back row.

Lao Zhou still kept his head lowered.

Jiang Yuan had previously looked up this person's file. Seven years on the job, excellent security evaluations, no criminal record, and just last night he had accompanied his wife to the hospital for a prenatal checkup.

All screenings passed.

Blood samples were normal.

Mental profiles were normal.

Spook fluctuations were zero.

Jiang Yuan raised his right hand.

Two playing cards slid from between his fingers, hovering in midair.

Wrong.

Lao Zhou's shoulders trembled ever more violently.

A nearby colleague leaned over.

"Lao Zhou, what's wrong with you?"

Lao Zhou slowly lifted his face.

Beneath his mask, his lip line had already been pulled into a very regular arc.

The colleague stepped back half a step.

"Medical Team!"

Lao Zhou did not look at him.

He stared at the partition ahead; his eyes held no pain, no struggle, only a creepy pleasure.

Then he laughed.

His laughter was sharp, cutting across the square.

The security captain raised his gun.

"Don't move!"

Lao Zhou drew his sidearm, turned, and pulled the trigger on the physical partition.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bullets pierce the temporary board, debris sprays.

Everyone froze for a beat.

He didn't hit anyone.

He was dismantling the defense line.

Jiang Yuan flipped his wrist; two playing cards swept over the crowd, slicing the gun from Lao Zhou's hand.

The gun barrel hit the ground.

Shadow rose from the ground, wrapping around Lao Zhou's legs.

Lao Zhou fell, face pressed to the ground, laughing even harder.

"Happiness."

"Everyone will be happy."

"Don't be afraid."

Jiang Yuan lowered his voice.

"Seal his mouth."

Two Night Watchers rushed forward, just grabbing Lao Zhou's arm, when someone in the back stood up again.

One.

Two.

Ten.

Dozens of volunteers lifted their heads.

They came from different positions: some sat in the front row, some stood in the aisle, some hid beside the temporary medical point.

Every face bore the same smile.

The angle of the raised corners of the mouth was the same.

The number of exposed teeth was the same.

Even the extent of head tilting was the same.

Su Ming stood in the south passage; the floor plan in his hand fell to the ground.

His gaze swept over the crowd, his face darkened.

"L."

"Check their entry data."

In the communication, L paused for two seconds.

"Thirty-seven volunteers."

"All passed seven rounds of security checks."

"Vital signs normal, mental data normal, weird contamination index zero."

Liang Wen stood in the inner circle, his hand still inserted in his windcoat pocket.

He gazed at those smiling faces, his finger pulling out from his pocket.

"This isn't in the script."

Qin Zhixia raised her mechanical prosthetic arm.

"It's not a missed check."

"It's latent."

Su Ming lifted his head.

"Incubation period?"

L's characters popped up.

"The deduction holds."

"Lu Dou rewrites the danger-smile rules. Before onset, the infected are indistinguishable from normal people."

"The current detection system is ineffective."

As these words fell, the air in the square changed.

Jiang Yuan stared at Lao Zhou.

Lao Zhou last night was still picking a name for his unborn child.

Before entering the square, he even joked with coworkers, saying after the mission he'd treat everyone to a meal.

But when did he become infected?

No one could answer.

What's truly frightening isn't the thirty-seven people before us.

It's how many others beyond these thirty-seven have already gone home, to hospitals, to schools, standing on street corners waiting for buses, wearing smiles.

Tang Gu'an stood on the podium, motionless.

Staff rushed to the edge of the stage.

"Representative Tang, withdraw!"

Tang Gu'an looked at those people, his finger pressing the edge of the podium.

He was afraid.

Afraid to the point his back felt chilly.

But there were still five thousand people below the stage.

If he runs now, the scene will only become more chaotic.

"Can the broadcast still be used?"

The staff became frantic.

"Do you still want to speak?"

"Everyone, sit down."

Tang Guoan said, "Don't run."

"If people run, everything is lost."

Jiang Yuan heard that and felt a tightening in his heart.

Tang Guoan is not a combatant.

But the old man stood there, steadier than many who held Weird Objects.

Jiang Yuan raised his hand, and a shadow spread toward the front of the crowd.

"All, sit down!"

"Do not look at any screens, do not listen to strangers!"

"Lower your heads, cover your ears, and evacuate according to the staff's instructions!"

The smiling volunteers in the back row moved.

Someone grabbed a folding chair and rushed toward the information jamming vehicle.

Someone lunged at the steel frame supporting the curtain.

Another reached into their clothing and pulled out not a weapon but a dismantling tool.

They had been waiting for this moment since the instant they entered.

Jiang Yuan's poker sliced through.

Three people fell.

No blood.

The shadow pressed down on their limbs, the force tightly controlled.

Jiang Yuan does not want to kill.

They are still humans.

At least they remain so before the rules completely devour them.

But the next second, the fallen volunteers simultaneously lifted their heads, laughing as they slammed their heads into the ground.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Qin Zhixia rushed out of the command vehicle.

The Tail-Head Snake unsheathed, and its blade back smashed a volunteer's wrist.

The cutter in that person's hand fell, yet they kept smiling, using the other hand to pull the curtain's securing rope.

Qin Zhixia kicked him away with a foot.

"They are self‑destructing."

Su Ming stood beside the cable well, palm pressed to the ground.

The Time Marrow Worm's power spread along the circuit.

He tried to slow these people's movements.

But those smiling volunteers didn't dodge at all.

They slammed their bodies into the equipment.

A man knocked over the power box on the side of the information jamming vehicle.

Another woman climbed onto the curtain support, grabbed the steel cable, and her body fell downward.

The steel cable snapped.

The covering curtain collapsed on its half.

Liang Wen raised his hand.

A black fissure unfolded from between his palms, devouring the falling steel frame.

"Don't rush any of you."

"Your lord is still here."

As the words left his mouth, a volunteer lunged from the side, clutching the backup power source beneath the jamming vehicle.

He smiled and pressed the button.

The power overloaded.

The jamming vehicle's lights went out.

Liang Wen's hand halted in midair.

"Are these people playing for real?"

In L's channel, the data began to flash red.

"On‑site interference intensity dropped by forty percent."

"External signals are attempting to connect."

Su Ming looked up toward the Square above.

The large screen, covered by a black cloth, should have been cut off.

But the screen lit up.

It was not a normal image.

Snowflakes crawled across the entire projection.

Jiang Yuan raised his hand.

"Everyone close your eyes!"

Too late.

The curtain was ripped aside.

On the big screen, a pale face appeared.

No background.

No text.

The face filled the screen, eyes hollow, mouth stretched extremely wide.

It did not move.

It only smiled at the people in the Square.

Among the five thousand, someone looked up.

Someone only glanced.

Someone peeked through a slit in the curtain.

In the next moment, a man in the front row covered his face, a raised lip line visible between his fingers.

The second person laughed.

The third.

The tenth.

Laughter spread from the front row to the middle, then from the middle to the back rows.

Some cried with closed eyes, some pushed away their relatives, some ran toward the Exit like madmen.

The passage was blocked.

Footsteps became a chaotic tangle.

A mother hugged her daughter, pressing the child's face against her chest.

The girl raised her hand and pointed behind her mother.

"Mom, that uncle is smiling so happily."

The mother did not turn around.

She held tighter.

Jiang Yuan stood in place, the poker cards at the edge of his palm all flew out, pinning the metal frame surrounding the big screen.

Shadow climbed upward.

But the smiling face on the screen had already entered too many people's eyes.

He can cut the screen.

He cannot cut something already seen.

Qin Zhixia grasped the containment case, looking at the out‑of‑control crowd.

Ignorance can burn away large swaths of pollution.

The price is the remaining lifespan she has left.

But there are five thousand people here.

She cannot gamble with everyone's lives.

Su Ming clenched his teeth, the Time Marrow Worm's power pressed against the big screen.

Time was slowed.

The image froze.

Yet that smiling face had already lodged in everyone's mind.

Liang Wen stood still, the hem of his Windcoat was tossed wildly by the crowd.

He no longer joked.

He saw a young policeman wearing a protective mask point a gun at his temple, a standard smile on his face.

Liang Wen raised his hand, darkness swept that gun away.

The young policeman looked at his empty hand, laughed and lunged at the person beside him.

Liang Wen knocked him down with a single punch.

"Stop laughing!"

Investigation Bureau headquarters, underground control room.

L sat in front of the main console, the pollution index on the screen surged wildly.

Nine percent.

Seventeen percent.

Twenty‑nine percent.

The external platform was being forcibly hijacked.

The buffer pool began to show abnormal visual structures.

Her hand hovered above the fuse switch.

Cutting the live stream would cause the global audience to lose the speech footage.

Not cutting it would let the pollution spread along every signal.

L looked at the cat sticker in the lower right corner.

The eighteenth episode hasn't been watched.

She didn't want that drama to stop at last week's cliffhanger.

I definitely don't want more people's lives to stop today.

In the headset, Lord Wei's angry shout overpowered all the noise.

"Cut the live stream! Immediately!"