“However, Basilisk was still continuously morphing…”

Fujiwara Aoki continued recalling the events. His face was nearly void of any trace of emotion, appearing to have sunken into a state of numbness. “Until one day, people started noticing that it was no longer limited to just images. Even a simple pa.s.sage, a string of spoken sentences, even mere contact with people could trigger a response similar to Basilisk!

“By that point, there was no saving the world anymore!”

Upon hearing this, Chen Chen was visibly shocked. “When you said triggering a response similar to Basilisk, what are you referring to?”

“It's just something I've heard other people saying.”

Fujiwara Aoki snapped back to his senses. He seemed reluctant to discuss this but still gritted his teeth and resumed. “Before most people could realize what was going on, they were seeing that the number of people around them was quickly dwindling and the death toll was only going up. It started with the government disappearing, then their neighbors, even their own relatives… The world was rapidly deteriorating. We survivors began to group together and exchange our survival experience…”

Fujiwara Aoki pondered briefly before going on. “Some people started saying that the Basilisk image was slowly starting to evolve. It had broken free of the limitations of an image and adapted into messages of different shapes and forms. These messages had also surpa.s.sed the capability of Gödel's shock and they made their victims lose their minds, sometimes their memories as well. In the end, we even received word that Basilisk was causing biological changes!”

Chen Chen began ruminating on everything he had heard from this man. These forms of transmission had surpa.s.sed his understanding. If not for the fact that Fujiwara Aoki was expressing himself in a lucid manner, Chen Chen may have believed that he was driven to insanity due to fear and solitary.

“These past five years, Basilisk is continuously evolving every day.”

Fujiwara Aoki muttered, “At first, despite the missing government and rapidly deteriorating social order, my group and I continued heading out to scavenge every day. We still met other people, various conflicts would break out…

“However, with each pa.s.sing day, we started to notice the number of other people in the city was declining as well. It was like those people just vanished into thin air. Some of their remains can be found inside the buildings while some barely left behind their remains…”

A wipe of fear appeared in Fujiwara Aoki's eyes. “On several occasions, I've even witnessed Basilisk morphing into a new form and killing someone right before my very eyes. This one time, I was sleeping in a dormitory and it was midnight. Just as I was about to get up to head to the toilet, I suddenly saw a woman slowly emerging from the chest of my partner sleeping on the upper bunk. It was just the upper part of the woman appearing, I remembered her hair was a complete mess. She reached out with her hands and strangled my partner…”

Chen Chen's shrunken eyes instinctively darted toward the diary in his hand, seemingly realizing something.

“After that, I heard from another partner that the woman appeared in your dreams.”

Fujiwara Aoki explained, “There appeared to be some sort of rule. Once you have triggered it, the woman in white will begin appearing in your dreams and she'd draw closer and closer each time you dreamt of her until she appeared right in front of your bed…

“There are plenty of similar cases. Can you imagine? That all kinds of strange occurrences had stemmed from that Basilisk image pattern?”

Capping his tale, Fujiwara Aoki spread his hands out helplessly. “This is truly a d*mned world. This is why I said that reading the diary of a deceased is extremely dangerous because n.o.body could say for sure that this diary wouldn't contain any variation of those messages that triggers instant death…”

At this point, Fujiwara Aoki had nearly told Chen Chen everything that he needed to know. Chen Chen also gained an impression of the truth of this world. Chen Chen nodded and sighed. “If not for the current state of this world, I might not have believed everything you just told me.”

“I understand.”

Fujiwara Aoki smiled with a crooked expression. “But it is the truth, pressed under the imposing power of Basilisk, the entirety of human civilization has collapsed. Until today, I've only met two groups of outsiders, that includes you guys.”

“In that case, please bring me to your group.”

Chen Chen nodded. “I'd like to meet your group. This way, I can gain a better, complete understanding of the situation regarding Basilisk.”

“I'm afraid that's not possible.”

Fujiwara Aoki shook his head somewhat reluctantly. “Your weapons are extremely advanced. There might not be many of you, but if a fight were to break out, our group is no match for you at all. Besides, I'll be kicked out of the group by the leader if I brought you guys back before getting the green light from the group.”

Chen Chen waved his hand. “If you're worried that we harbor ill intentions, then just take me with you. I can come with you unarmed.”

As Chen Chen said this, he began to take off the GS Combat Suit. He handed the suit to the Black Knight behind him before swapping out into another set of common clothes. “Aoki-san, you must understand that I have no reason to harm you or your group for that matter. Besides, if I had any ill intentions, I'd simply capture and interrogate you with more effective means. I'd be able to obtain answers far easier that way, isn't it?”

Fujiwara Aoki immediately fell silent, seemingly still debating with himself.

“It must be rather difficult scavenging for food with things the way they are now.”

After mentioning this, Chen Chen gave a signal. The Black Knights behind him quickly produced a large box of energy bars from the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. “I can give your group these in exchange for information.”

Upon seeing this, Fujiwara Aoki seemed to be tempted. In the end, he still gritted his teeth and held his ground. “I believe in Chen Chen-san's sincerity. However, this is no trivial matter. This directly concerns the lives of more than thirty people in my group, please forgive me for this difficult decision!”

“Why so?”

Chen Chen shook his head and smiled faintly. “Actually, you won't have to lead me there, I can already roughly pinpoint the location of your group. When I found you, you were walking from west to east. The city center is on the east while the suburbs lie on the west. This suggests that you were coming from the suburbs area.

“Also, I can see that your backpack is nearly full, you also have more than half a bottle of water remaining, meaning that you haven't exhausted many resources yet. This way, I can conclude that you mustn't be more than 10 hours away from your group's position.”

With that, Chen Chen snapped his fingers lightly. Immediately, the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p shot out a ray of light and projected a top-down view of Tokyo and quickly zoomed inward.

“This is our current position and the suburbs are down there. There aren't many suitable places to hide in the suburb, but a location that can fit more than thirty people must be a large venue.”

Upon noting this, Chen Chen pointed at a high school on the edges of the suburbs. “Based on your mention of 'dormitory' and 'upper-bunk', I can conclude that…

“The base where your group is located is the Tokyo Daisan High School.”