Deep in the Living
Chapter 373 - 361: Fear Entity

Chapter 373: Chapter 361: Fear Entity

[Agent Center]

A round building only one floor high, the entire hall is quite clean, so clean that not a single person can be seen.

It wasn’t until Luo Di walked up to the counter that he noticed a youth, skinny as a skeleton, wrapped in cloth, with bone rings on his limbs, lying inside asleep.

The other’s breathing was also notably weak, almost non-existent.

If this weren’t the Exploration Bureau, Luo Di would likely assume the person had suddenly died during work hours.

Upon closer inspection, it was evident that the person before them was too fatigued, a fatigue stemming from prolonged battles and sleepless nights; probably an agent who had just returned from the Corner.

Since it was his first time here, Luo Di felt a bit awkward about directly waking the other person, but Yu Ze stepped forward unceremoniously and knocked loudly on the work desk.

"Hey brother, it’s time to work."

The youth woke slowly under the sound of knocking, gradually supporting his upper body.

With little flesh on his cheeks, prominent cheekbones, combined with clothing reminiscent of Egyptian attire, one could immediately think of a mummy.

"Oh... sorry~ Newcomers, right? Let me check your files."

The person quickly operated on the computer, confirming that Luo Di and Yu Ze had been approved by the personnel department.

Then he clumsily rummaged under the desk and finally found two exquisite handbags.

"Inside here are your apartment keys in the Boundary, a handbook for new agents. Before your files are officially transferred, you can rest in the apartment.

If you need meals, you can go to the canteen; currently, only Canteen No. 1 is still open for business.

And then..."

Before he finished speaking, his head fell directly onto the desk with a loud bang, going back to sleep.

This time Yu Ze didn’t wake him up, he took the handbags and prepared to leave, having a clear understanding of the process which only required obtaining the handbags.

The two did not take the bus because the apartment building was nearby, reachable within five minutes.

Luo Di raised a question again, "The front desk agent probably just returned from the Corner, why have such exhausted individuals covering here?

Agents are carefully selected elites, each with valuable time, needing recovery after returning to the Boundary, why arrange them for temporary duty here?

Wouldn’t it be better to let the intelligent machinery produced by Atomic Military Industry manage?"

Walking ahead, Yu Ze responded while still reading his novel, "It’s not that simple, this is the[Intermediary Station]between Earth’s surface and the Corner. Agents can pass through the seam to go inside, but the inner fear can also slightly seep outside.

Luo Di, you should be able to feel it, right? That vague ’feeling.’

Speaking of which, Yu Ze gently scratched the surface of his skin.

With this prompt, Luo Di really felt as though his skin was covered in something, something quite thin yet distinctly unusual.

Previously, Luo Di’s focus was on the Exploration Bureau and the assessment issues, without noticing.

Now, centering all his focus on the skin’s sensation,

Buzz...

Soft, sticky, striped.

Like an invisible tadpole or earthworm, moving on the skin’s surface, trying to burrow into his body.

"Is this... fear, the fear inside the Corner?"

"Exactly! Inside the Corner, fear is no longer a conceptual spirit; it’s a[Entity]that can be felt and directly affects the individual.

It permeates every space related to the Corner, like air, omnipresent.

This fear will erode any conscious being, even AI life formed by programs will be affected. Thus, those working in the Exploration Bureau must be officially agents with fear resistance.

No matter how exhausted, once you’re back at the Intermediary Station, you must attend duty when arranged.

At least here, one needn’t worry about the risks inside the Corner."

Luo Di’s finger grew a gray tentacle, which gently swept across the surface of his arm, removing the fear sensation; yet, moments later, it appeared again.

"Our saturated pituitary is supposed to feed on this tangible fear, right?"

"Not food, but the most basic soil.

If our pituitary is like a seed, the environment in the Human World is akin to a desert, where seeds can barely germinate.

The Corner, however, is full of various nutrients in the soil, the deeper you go, the higher the soil quality.

Of course, this fear soil can nourish our pituitary but also affect our flesh, invading our consciousness.

We access the Corner System as humans, subjective to not having fallen, not succumbing to fear. Different from those who have been invaded by fear early on, turning into Pseudo-Persons driven by desire, and the Corner monsters evolving from them.

Though we’re allowed to develop the pituitary and enter the Corner, the Corner itself attempts to transform us, fear will continually invade.

Monsters are also affected, though they have certain privileges within the Corner that allow them to avoid such influences under specific conditions.

Individuals spending extended periods in the Corner, especially deeper areas, continuously accumulate fear entities inside.

When this accumulation reaches personal limits, one’s human essence undergoes a test, likely resulting in irreversible transformation.

So, when fear accumulates to a certain degree, you must return to the surface, to the Intermediary Station for treatment by Doctors, even undergo extreme therapies to ensure the fear inside is thoroughly eliminated before resuming exploration.

This is the main constraint on human exploration currently; the[depth]of exploration remains limited."

"What happens when fear exceeds the limit, does the individual become something like a monster?"

"No..." Yu Ze stopped walking, gesturing around his brain as if exploding, "Imagine a normally sprouting and growing plant suddenly growing wildly out of control, sucking on your brain, breaking through your skull.

Your main consciousness gets obliterated, the restraint device of you as[human]is completely liberated, abandoning all original forms, mentally dead.

Your flesh becomes a mad, chaotic, beautiful... plant, becoming part of the Corner.

These are what I read in the Luo University Library; specifics need us to experience in the Corner, it’s my first time too."

"Is it equivalent to planting trees for the Corner?"

"You could say so, from the Corner’s perspective, it’s indeed beneficial. Whenever an agent gets swallowed by fear, the environment of the Corner improves, with fear concentration rising slightly.

However, neither Luo Di, you nor I need worry, at least within the Shallow Area.

Both you, Luo Di, and I possess high fear resistance and means to suppress the pituitary, restrain the anomaly.

Moreover, as long as you maintain a strong enough willpower, no matter how intense the fear, it can’t crush your spirit."

The apartment building has arrived.

Inside, there’s still no sign of human presence.

Though allocated a double room for them, according to Yu Ze, such suites are rarely used. Agents spend most of their time in the Corner, extracting maximum resources possible.

The following noon.

As the two devoured food in Canteen No. 1, they simultaneously received a prompt from their wristbands.

≮Personal files have been received by the Exploration Bureau, newcomer status is officially confirmed, scheduled to begin your initial exploration today at 14:00.

Please arrive half an hour early to the plaza area for related briefing, squad equipment, and distribution of exploration tools.

Late comers will have their files returned immediately and will be marked as[escapee]in personal files.≯

The so-called plaza is this island, the center of the Exploration Bureau, the area where the vertical structure, the seam over hundreds of meters long, is located.

When Luo Di and Yu Ze arrived, numerous people were already waiting in the plaza, they were not newcomers but rested agents ready to re-engage in Corner exploration.

Among them, Doctor Youzhen, who attended to the two yesterday, was also at the edge of the plaza, currently smiling and waving at the two.