Gunfire, Punk & Necromancers

Chapter 10 Chapter 9 Image Memory
At 05:30 in the morning, Zhuang Xuteng was awakened by a nightmare, resulting in no sleepiness at all.So he got up, dug out the third last serving of dehydrated sauce meat instant food, boiled some hot water and soaked it in a bowl, and made it Zhuang Feifei's breakfast.

He moved a piece of dehydrated instant food and hid it, pretending that it had been used by himself, so that Zhuang Feifei could rest assured.Regardless of whether the inner sister is awake or not, Zhuang Xuteng will also perform a full set of plays.He waited for 10 minutes, cleaned up the empty bowls, pretended to have eaten, changed his clothes and went out.

It started to go at this time, just in time to catch the shuttle bus from Hongyue Commercial.These passenger cars travel through the city, turn around, and collect customers for the mall.Zhuang Xuteng, who set off early, had no spare money, but spare time.He wasn't worried about the trajectory of the car, since he couldn't be late anyway.Taking advantage of this time, he can close his eyes and rest for a while.

He didn't dare to sleep, because he didn't know if there would be thieves in the car.Hunger is also one reason, and another problem is nightmares.

There is a saying: Dreams are the cry of the spirit and soul, and a mirror for examining oneself.If it was pushed back to 2000, before the gods ascended and left, nightmares were often regarded as warnings from the gods, and it was necessary to ask the priests of the temple for divination and analysis.Even if there are no gods now, the custom of valuing dreams still continues.

Nightmares linger, but Zhuang Xuteng's observation and memory are very good. He sees more and remembers more clearly than others.

In the dream, he was tortured by life and death.First, he watched his relatives die tragically in front of his eyes one by one, and he could not save him; finally, when death came to him, he procrastinated and died slowly.He thought that the final death was actually a reward for relief, but he never thought that he would come back from the dead and continue to suffer endless sorrow alone.

In the dream, he clearly knew that it was a dream, but the feeling was too strong, and he was 100% immersed in it, wandering in the endless whirlpool of sorrow and regret, ups and downs, unable to break free.He was trapped in the dream, as if he had stayed in it for several years.In this process, he is both a bystander and a witness. The No.1 and third-person perspectives are gradually merging while changing repeatedly, which finally accumulated a huge mental burden on him.His head hurt so badly that he was thrown out of the dream.

He woke up drenched in sweat, not feeling well emotionally and physically.But the dream is always a dream, and is utterly overwhelmed by the waking reality, so its mental and physical effects wear off quickly.Just like the tide receding to reveal the beach, Zhuang Xuteng can recall many details of his dream.

He has always been very observant, able to discover the details that need attention while grasping the overall vision.Parents and teachers say that he has a strong graphic and picture memory, which is worth cultivating and exercising—and he has indeed exercised well.

He has become accustomed to looking around through his eyes at all times, always looking for details worthy of attention.For those important content, he can also deepen the impression through repeated recall, making the memory more durable.To this day, he can recall every illustration in the textbook, and he can not forget the subtle appearance of any of his classmates, which can be said to be a rare talent.But his talent is accompanied by a major flaw: whenever he encounters words, he will make inexplicable mistakes.

After examination, his parents also admitted that Zhuang Xuteng's memory talent was seriously flawed.

It is perfectly fine to memorize a certain page of the textbook as a pattern, but as long as Zhuang Xuteng turns over the pattern in his mind and reads the text inside, he will find that they do not match the reality.There is nothing wrong with his observation, but the words stored together with the image memory will be tampered with by the brain and become something smooth but irrelevant.

At the same time, his ability to recite pure text content is far inferior to that of his peers.

Zhuang Xuteng's poor academic performance was largely disturbed by this strange effect.He can easily get full marks when looking at pictures to find faults, but he will fail when reciting textbook content.He really wanted to be a detective, but his grades didn't allow it.

Although there are some flaws in this power of observation, it can still produce excellent results in the right field.Observing environmental information can make him safer, and a sharper observation of words and emotions can make him better friends.It is no problem for him to recall the details of the dream.

"In my dream, I was in a big hall, and I was firmly fixed in a dilapidated stone seat. Outside the hall was surrounded by black mist, and I couldn't see anything clearly; inside the hall were 72 black stone pillars with strange patterns. In a pool of blood that was as deep as my feet. The closest and clearest corpse to me was Feifei. She was lying on her back without making a sound. The other corpses were scattered and piled up, and they couldn’t see their faces clearly. But from the feeling in my heart Said, I think it is my eldest brother, parents, teachers, classmates and some relatives and friends from far and near. There is always a wind howling and ghosts crying in the hall..."

He couldn't bear to see his sister's face when she died tragically, so he focused his eyes on the pillar.The patterns there are complex and non-repetitive, beautiful and full of deep meaning, and he "feels" that he is very familiar with those patterns in the dream.He tried to grasp the feeling, carefully recalling the graphic details, but immediately felt lethargic and his nose began to bleed.

This never happened when he was trying to recall details!He faintly felt that something was wrong, so he quickly withdrew his attention and blocked his nostrils with a handkerchief.At this moment, he felt his back was hot, and the hot spot was near his heart, so he immediately thought of Shadow Follower.

"So that's it! This dream is probably influenced by 'that thing'!" Zhuang Xuteng frowned, and immediately found a lot of circumstantial evidence: "If it was my own dream, I would not fail to remember the faces of my relatives. It only knows the appearance of Zhuang Feifei, and it has never seen its parents and elder brother! In the dream, only Zhuang Feifei has a face, and the others can't see the face, but have a strong feeling. Yes, the dream is definitely created by shadows! "

As we all know, shadows that have not been domesticated can make people go crazy, and most of them are emotionally affected, and then fed back to the body, destroying each other, vicious circle, until finally collapsed and died.

"Before you sell Shadow Follower, you must not be killed by it!" Zhuang Xuteng pondered for a while, and came up with a method, or a key point: "I must distinguish clearly which is a dream and which is reality. I have a clear understanding of my state, and I must not easily give cognition and vigilance to the shadow. I have to pay special attention to the details and distinguish what is my reality and what is the illusion of the shadow.”

Zhuang Xuteng didn't know if this method would work, but it was the best solution he could think of right now.

"You want to influence me with nightmares, and I still need to understand you from nightmares!" Zhuang Xuteng smiled slightly, put his hands around his shoulders, and patted on the back. "Pink Skull, as long as you try to influence me, some information will inevitably be exposed. Dreams, for me, dreams can be as clear as reality, and I will definitely be able to find your weaknesses from inside and find a way to subdue you."

There were bursts of scorching sensations coming from behind, which Zhuang Xuteng regarded as the performance of Yingcong's stubbornness, guilty conscience and continued struggle, and he felt even more that his judgment was correct.At this time, the bus stopped at Hongyue Square, and Zhuang Xuteng found a place to sit next to the statue after getting off the bus, and then focused on "reviewing" the news that Yingcong revealed in the dream.

The patterns of the 72 stone pillars are different, and each group of patterns is composed of hundreds of patterns, pictures and shadows, with different colors.Zhuang Xuteng tried to extract all the content from his memory as much as possible, but once he made such an attempt, his memory would become blurred, and at the same time, his head immediately felt a dull pain.

He had encountered such a situation before, and he was not panicked at all.He's always watching, and each day generates a ton of new memories, and he can't remember them all.Out of self-protection mechanism, the brain set a "shelf life" for his image memory.Only those photographic memories that are continuously consolidated can be preserved, and the others will quickly blur after a period of time until they fade normally.

Every attempt to restore the details is actually strengthening this memory at the same time, and it should become clearer and clearer.It stands to reason that the memory produced this morning should be full of details without strengthening, but he always feels that the stone pillar pattern has been stored in his memory for a long time.Obviously the pattern is right in front of your eyes, and it is clear from a distance, but you can't look at it carefully.

It was as if he was highly myopic, and when he was far away from the pillar, he wore glasses and looked fine; as soon as he tried to get closer, the glasses were taken off, and it immediately became very blurry.

"Hmph, do you think I'll give up? If it doesn't work once, I'll do it many times. I'll draw slowly, first to strengthen the impression from a distance!" Zhuang Xuteng shook his head and tried again. "I will find your weakness first, Pink Skull!"

All the "struggles" between him and the shadow follower took place in his mind. In the eyes of others, he was a weirdo who kept winking, gnashing his teeth, and competing with himself.People who come and go to Hongyue Commercial Plaza will walk around him vigilantly, fearing that he is actually a dangerous person who is about to be driven crazy by the shadows.

"What are you doing here?" A familiar voice and a huge shadow enveloped Zhuang Xuteng, which is exactly the image style of Ge Gongdao. "Hehe, are you practicing your lines in your head?"

"Brother Dao!" Zhuang Xuteng quickly stood up and glanced at the clock at the entrance of the commercial building. "You came early too!"

"Aren't you the same?" Ge Gongdao waved his hand and asked Zhuang Xuteng to follow him, asking as he walked, "Hey, what lines did you think of?"

"Line? What does the line mean?"

"It's the kind of words that are more dragging. For example: I am your god of death, unless you pay tribute!"

"I'm not thinking about it." Zhuang Xuteng rubbed his face.No wonder passers-by are behaving like that, it seems that I have to pay attention to control it.Immediately, he had an idea and asked, "Brother Dao, what lines did you think of when you first became a mercenary?"

Ge Gongdao blushed, his eyes drifted away, and he immediately avoided the topic. "Zhuang Xuteng, do you still remember what to pay attention to when you meet the middleman?"

"Come on, I'll shut up, prick up my ears, and protect your back."

"Indeed, the most important thing is to keep your mouth shut. I'll let you talk when I tell you to. I heard that today we are both registering and picking up the task. That is to say, we can get a deposit right away." Ge Gongdao laughed , asked: "At this time, what should you say?"

Just as Zhuang Xuteng was about to open his mouth, he suddenly reacted.He pointed to his mouth, then Ge Gongdao, and made a "please" gesture.

"It's this kind of vigilance, you are very suitable to be a mercenary. But don't be so nervous, you only need to talk less when you need to do tasks and meet the middleman, and you don't have to be restrained when it's just the two of us. Don't forget, we split the bill in half partner."

"Okay, partner." Zhuang Xuteng said.

"Our middle Lucy lives at 76 Punk Street. You'll definitely notice her figure, she's attractive, but she doesn't like to be stared at. You can only look twice before you have to look away, Otherwise, she will lose her temper and look down on you, thinking that you lack self-control." Ge Gongdao said: "I have received six missions from Lucy, and the cooperation is very pleasant. She prefers jobs without much risk. Although this kind of work does not make a lot of money, it is suitable for beginners."

"Brother Dao, if you take me to take on such a task, won't it delay your earning money?"

"It is influential, so you have to grow up quickly!" Ge Gongdao waved his hand and said: "There are very few opportunities for big actions. You need to wait for the opportunity and be prepared at all times. Once you find an opportunity, you have to give it a shot." Grab it and go all out!"

"Okay, I'll try to do it."

"You can definitely do it! No problem." Ge Gongdao patted Zhuang Xuteng on the shoulder and said, "Although you can register with any middleman, I think Lucy is more reassuring. And she has more things here. You can test your abilities and specialties. When a middleman looks for mercenaries, he first looks at reputation, second looks at ability, and third looks at cost. Credibility is the most important thing, but ability is related to cost, and you can’t be sloppy at all.”

"Brother Dao, I didn't make any preparations!"

"Don't worry, you can find an intermediary to test your ability at any time, and then register. Ability is important, but the most important thing is opportunity! You must never let go of an opportunity!"

Along the way, Ge Gongdao introduced the precautions for novice mercenaries, and soon came under Building 76.It's an old black and yellow apartment building, at least 30 years old, looking dilapidated from lack of maintenance.It has no gate, and a few homeless people have camped next to the entrance, leaving only a third of the width for people entering and exiting.

The homeless people's debris piled up into a hill, mostly cardboard, carts, tarpaulins and the like.In the corner of the "hill", the notice board of the apartment building is still stubbornly functioning, and the advertisements are layered on top of it.Ge Gongdao went over to check it out, and said confidently, "She's on the fourth floor."

"Room 420, right?"

"That's right. You really saw it." Ge Gong said with a hey smile.He knew that with Zhuang Xuteng's keen observation skills, he would definitely notice the yellow moon on the bulletin board and the arrow pointing to the number 420 next to it.

PS: Double updates at 12:18 and [-]:[-] every day, and updates from time to time, to give back to all book friends.Everyone recommends a lot, thank you!

(End of this chapter)