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Chapter 109

‘Members with an S value higher or equal to sixty are not allowed entry . ’

A piece of A4 paper was pasted on the activity room’s wooden door . The handwriting on the paper was uneven and ugly . Gu Jun walked down the corridor, and his heart quivered when he saw this sign . ‘My S value is 51, so I can enter it…’

The desert stretched endlessly . Yellow sand blew into the sky, ravaging the barren land . A secret Phecda base was built deep within the desert, within the territory of Northern Desert’s Chi Lin City . The base was well-equipped . Considering how low this place’s population was, it had a natural sense of isolation to it, and according to rumors, many of Phecda’s more unsightly experiments were conducted there . This was a place more mysterious than the Eastern State’s Medical Department . After Gu Jun arrived at this place, before he could get much of a tour, he was escorted by the workers into the small flat that looked so abandoned from the outside and deposited before this activity room . Gu Jun was still wearing his orange-yellow protective gear, lending him the appearance of an astronaut . He carried an oxygen tank on his back that provided circulation, and his voice was mainly broadcast through a speaker .

“Mr . Gu, this is it,” the worker explained . “Two of the trainees have already arrived . Why don’t you familiarize yourselves with each other first? Elder Tong will be here soon . You will have to go in on your own . My S value does not fit the requirement . ”

Meaning, not low enough .

“Okay, thank you . ” Gu Jun raised his hand to knock on the door before pushing the door and entering . This was a rather spacious room . The four walls were covered in yellowing white paint, some miscellaneous objects were placed at the corners, and there was a movable white board . In the middle of the room were three wooden chairs, forming a triangle . Currently, there were already two people sitting there .

Gu Jun took a look around . One of them was a young lady in her twenties, and the other was a little boy who could not have been more than ten . The boy had his head lowered . His body movement appeared to be ungainly and awkward . The lady’s eyes were on him the moment Gu Jun walked into the room because she was seated facing the door .

“Nice to meet you . I am Gu Jun . ” Gu Jun offered his self-introduction as he walked over . “Er, this whole getup… is just a protective measure, to prevent a possible infectious disease . But I am a doctor, a clinical doctor from the Eastern State Medical Department . ”

“Hmm, tastes quite salty…” the woman murmured softly, her red lips moved as if tasting something . “Salty voice too . ”

She had a slight frame, short hair, and somewhat elfish facial features . Her dark brow was arched high, and her pair of beautiful eyes appeared to glowing with some kind of mystical glint .

Gu Jun was confused . ‘What does she mean by that?’

“Oh, I’m sorry . ” The lady stood up and extended her hand to him . “My name is Wu Siyu, a G grade member from Shen Hai City’s Relic Department . I’m an art student . ”

“Nice to meet you . ” Gu Jun shook her hand . Not every Phecda division had a Relic Department because the appraisal and study of relics would normally be handled by the Archaeological and Scientific Research Departments . Relic Departments only existed as a faciliatory department in super metropolises like Shen Hai City . Gu Jun technically had no idea what their job responsibility was .

Just as their hands touched, Wu Siyu yelped in pain . She took her hand back, and her face grimaced from intense pain . “Just… what are you?”

“Huh?” Gu Jun was made even more confused . ‘Just what is she doing? Is she pulling some kind of prank on me?’

“I have synesthesia . I was born with it . ” Wu Siyu was still sucking in cold breath from the pain . “You doctors say it is a kind of mental illness, but I feel perfectly fine . I merely have perceptive experiences that are different from normal people . When I was shaking your hand earlier, it felt like I was holding a knife . Damn, that was painful . ”

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‘Synesthesia?’ Gu Jun was instantly reminded of the rare mental illness that he had studied during his training . First, ‘perceptive experience’ was a common human psychological phenomenon . For example, you would feel a certain way when presented with different colors; that was how we differentiate between warm and cold colors . Red would give a feeling of excitement and alert; blue would invoke a sense of serenity and calmness . The same could be said for music . Hip hop could get people into the mood to dance while classical music could help induce slumber . These feelings were perceptive experiences unique to human beings . It was not something material . If you played Beethoven to a mouse, the mouse would probably hear white noise .

For people with synesthesia, however, might feel a very strong and involuntarily cross connection between the perceptive stimulus and the sense(s) that it triggered . For example, they could taste music and see colors in numbers or feel like they were touching a knife when shaking someone’s hand…

“And that was through a layer of protective gear . ” Wu Siyu shook her hand helplessly . “If I’d made direct contact with you, I would be bleeding now . ”

“So, you were saying earlier that my name and voice are both salty?” Gu Jun finally understood it now . Names would cause perceptive experiences, too . For example, Pennywise would invoke the image of a scary clown, but other names would not . In essence, Wu Siyu would have these perceptive experiences so much more intense than others, so much so that it was like she was experiencing them in person .

“So, you heard me . ” Wu Siyu rolled her eyes to make an ugly expression at Gu Jun . “Yes, it was very salty, like I shoved a handful of salt into my mouth . ”

‘Haha,’ Gu Jun grumbled internally . ‘That’s probably because you were feeling salty at how handsome I look…’

He took the chair that was left empty for him . He turned to the boy . “Nice to meet you . ”

“I… I am Xiao Xu . ” The little boy kept his head lowered . He froze and refused to have any eye contact with the rest of them . “I know… math . ”

“Xiao Xu has Asperger Syndrome . He was born with it too,” Wu Siyu explained . Her tone suggested that she thought this was nothing unusual .

“Okay, understood . ” Gu Jun nodded . No wonder his body language was so awkward .

Asperger syndrome (AS), also known as Asperger’s, is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests . It is also often related to geniuses because some patients have shown remarkable intelligence and have superhuman talent in certain fields . For example, Einstein might have been a patient of AS .

Gu Jun had not conducted deep research into this, but he did understand that Xiao Xu would not be considered an average human being either .

After the brief introduction, silence descended upon the room . The three looked at each other on the chairs, each with their own thoughts .

Gu Jun was still quite confused . ‘There couldn’t be a team with just three members, right? And if they are the standard for choosing the members…’

One of them was a child with AS, another a synesthete, the last a victim of brain stem tumor, and all of them had S value lower than sixty . What was this? What kind of Special Mobile Force unit would this be?

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