Night City, the ghetto.

A mutation is creeping up in the city.

At some point, the agitated people turned into sane and calm humanoid machines, and they moved back and forth through the streets of Night City in strict accordance with the planned route. Fun Cabinet

The noisy night of the slum fell silent at once, and the noise of smashing and burning before suddenly calmed down, leaving only the small and shuffling steps, which still echoed in the silent night sky.

Suddenly, the door creaked and was pushed open a small crack, and the dim street lamp shone into the room along the crack in the door, bringing a ray of light to the dim room, and a figure flashed into the room through the crack in the door, this sound immediately aroused the vigilance of several people in the room, one of them was a man with thick eyebrows and big eyes, and a mustache subconsciously picked up the gun, but after seeing who it was, he put his mind at ease.

It wasn't the stiff, mechanical walking dead outside who broke into the room, but his trusty, trusted companions.

Didn't get hurt, did you? When Lu Changgeng saw Lian Yan coming back, he put down the weapon in his hand and asked with concern: How is it outside now?

Lian Yan frowned and shook his head: The situation is not very good, the overall number of infected people has increased several times compared to when we entered the city, they are divided into many scattered teams and wander around the streets, although they are not as everywhere as before, but they feel more dangerous than before

Lu Changgeng listened to his report and nodded, are they still as aggressive as before?

Compared to the previous mob, this group of infected people is much quieter. Although Lian Yan had a cold face as always, Lu Changgeng and Lao Fan could hear from his increasingly heavy tone that something was wrong, as long as they didn't take the initiative to provoke them, those infected people would be like they didn't see you, I have tried to walk past them many times

Recently, the infected were less than three meters away from me, but as long as I didn't actively act hostile to them, the infected would continue to roam the streets in droves as if they didn't see me.

Isn't that a good thing? At this time, Lao Fan, who had been listening carefully, suddenly asked, these people do not have violence, is it a favorable condition for us? If we want to move around the city, we just need to be careful not to attack these people, right?

If only it were that. You can see this by looking at this. Lian Yan put his hand into his arms, took out a palm-sized instrument and pressed it a few times, and then the screen of the instrument lit up, showing various charts, data curves, and sampling records, which were the data information I collected when I passed through those crowds.

Lu Changgeng took the instrument in Lian Zhen's hand, he stared at the charts and data on the screen and frowned deeply, this data sampling is

Mental pollution. Lian Yan took over the conversation, there is a strange spiritual pollution force field around these people, as long as they stay by these people's side, their minds will gradually be polluted, the more people they get, the closer they get, the stronger the effect. On the contrary, as long as we can stay away from a certain distance, or if there are too few people in the group, the effect of the spiritual pollution force field will be greatly weakened, but no matter how weakened it is, the effect of spiritual pollution on us will exist.

Lu Changgeng frowned and asked: Is there a way to protect it?

Not at the moment. Lian Yan shook his head, but the effect of mental pollution is not permanently distorted mind, at least before it is completely polluted, the mind can return to a normal level over time, I used a portable terminal to monitor my mental changes, when approaching the group of infected people, the mental pollution value continues to rise, and the recovery speed is much lower than the pollution speed, and after moving away from them, the recovery speed is greater than the pollution speed After about two hours, my mental pollution value gradually returned to normal levels.

I calculated it based on my situation, and it was roughly divided into four stages: mild infection, severe infection, severe infection, and complete infection, you see.

Speaking of which, the instrument screen in Lu Changgeng's hand automatically changed, and the previous data analysis was withdrawn and switched to another chart.

Lian Yan pointed at Lu Changgeng and his party: First of all, it is mildly infected, which is your current state. Thoughts, decision-making, and physical senses will be slightly affected by mental pollution, and although the impact is not obvious, any of our behaviors and decisions will be more inclined to rational decision-making

And then there's

Moderate infection is the highest level of contamination I've ever reached since approaching those infected people. He paused at this point, and gave me the feeling that the emotional changes were weakened, and the various feelings that were active in the heart were gradually replaced by indifference and emptiness, and the decision-making was more extreme, inclined towards rationality and profit maximization, etc., why did you all look at me with such strange eyes?

Before he finished his words, he found that there was confusion and confusion in the eyes of the two people, but more than that, they were surprised.

Lu Changgeng pretended to cough twice to hide his embarrassment: It's okay, I just feel a little surprised

Lao Fan turned his head even more embarrassedly, opened his eyes and said nonsense: Eh, I was a little distracted just now

Although the words are very tactful, but according to Lian Zhen's understanding of the two of them, these two people are almost in a groove, you usually look like you have no feelings, how do you notice that the relationship changes are weakening? This kind of words are written on the link.

Thinking of this, Lian Zhen's already cold face became even more gloomy: Are you?

No, no, the two shook their heads in unison, and Lu Changgeng changed the topic in time: What about severe infection and complete infection?

I don't know about severe infection, but I speculate that severe infection should be the threshold between ordinary infection and complete infection, and the infected person at this stage will completely become a rational utilitarian, completely abandoning feelings and sensibilities, and calculating gains and losses based on interests. Lian Yan said calmly, as for the complete infection, it is like the walking dead we saw.

I don't know what happened to the final stage of infection that would have turned them into such walking corpses, but one thing is for sure, they are now scattered in the streets, undoubtedly trying to amplify the results of the mental pollution, and as many people as possible will be covered by the effects of the spiritual pollution.

As more and more people disperse, sooner or later the rate of contamination will be faster than the rate of recovery, and we will have to get out of here, if not if we don't want to escape

Lian Zhen glanced at Lu Changgeng deeply: Chang Geng, the scale of this matter is no longer something we can solve, and if we want to continue the mission, the risk is also very large. So I suggest that the mission be terminated, if there is anything you want to do, try to do it before the Mental Pollution Force Field is fully built, and we will evacuate early and report the situation here to the authorities

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Lu Changgeng's face was cloudy at the moment, and there was a fierce ideological struggle going on in his heart, although Night City was not a good memory for him, the corruption of the intellectual aristocracy, the miserable suffering of the lower class people, and the brutal oppression of the chairman of the board of directors all became an opportunity for him to escape from here, but after all, it was still the home in his memory, and it was a part of him that he could not let go.

For a moment, he thought of many people, the servants who served his family, the former childhood playmates, the nobles who were rotten to the roots, and the old mansion of the Lu family that only existed in his memory

After a long time, he dragged his jerky voice and struggled to speak.

Evacuate