Sun Hang picked up the pair of jeans left on the ground and took an old model smartphone out of the pocket.
The girl's smartphone was locked with a fingerprint scanner, but when Sun Hang placed his finger on it, the unlocking sound immediately chimed.
He just imagined turning his fingerprint into the girl's fingerprint, and it all naturally happened—although he had never closely observed what shape the girl's fingerprint was, the small part of the "Tai Sui" he absorbed recorded a lot of information, including all the physical data of the original host.
Not only that, after devouring that small part of the "Tai Sui," Sun Hang felt his "abilities" distinctly enhanced. Previously, changing the material of a metal nameplate would make him faint for several hours, but now altering a fingerprint caused merely a slight dizziness, which could almost be ignored.
In addition, Sun Hang felt as if some memory fragments, which didn't originally belong to him, had appeared in his mind.
These fragments filled the blank memories chaotically, giving Sun Hang, for a brief moment, the illusion that he was the girl parasitized by the "Tai Sui." The scenes, though blurry, felt incredibly real, as if he had personally experienced them.
Just like some strange dreams, when you wake up, it's challenging to recall the details in the dream, but when you try to remember, those forgotten details seem oddly familiar.
As if they had happened in the real world.
A certain sound, a person or object, or even the combination of colors, and the brightness, darkness, and angle of the light... in your memory, there's always a scene that can perfectly match the dream, like two overlapping transparent photos.
Sun Hang saw a reminiscent scene of a great fire, with flames raging wildly filling the entire view, and all the sounds, except for the noise of heated and compressed air, were fading away from Sun Hang...
In the next scene, through a blurred filter, he saw many human figures surrounding him. They were dressed in armor, their expressions hidden behind pitch-black visors.
The scene shifted, and Sun Hang found himself in a spacious basement, with bones piled in the corner, unable to discern if they were human or animal. Many faceless people moved back and forth in the basement, their actions stiff and numb.
Is this the girl's memory, or the "Tai Sui's" memory?
Sun Hang shook his head vigorously, using his willpower to forcibly "store" these memory fragments that were flashing repeatedly before his eyes.
He refocused his attention on the smartphone that had just been unlocked.
The girl's phone had three unread text messages and two missed calls, with the most recent missed call made just a minute and a half ago.
Sun Hang first checked the three text messages. The content of the first message was short, only six words: "Have you bought the stuff?"
The second message was even shorter: "Where are you?"
There was a five-minute gap between the third and the second message; the tone had shifted from urgency to questioning: "Why aren't you back yet? What are you doing?"
Then there were two missed calls, less than ten seconds apart.
The first missed call rang for thirty seconds until the automated message "The number you dialed is temporarily unavailable" played before it was hung up; the second missed call rang for only two seconds.
All three text messages and two missed calls came from the same number, a local Tianfu City phone number, and it was the only number saved in the girl's contact list—though she saved this number, she didn't add any notes to it.
Without hesitation, Sun Hang dialed back to the number.
"Beep... beep... sorry, the number you dialed is no longer in service."
"Already deactivated? That fast?" Sun Hang frowned slightly.
This matter ought to be reported directly to the Mysterious Creature Research Institute or the Anomaly Investigation Bureau, but Sun Hang was deeply resistant to this idea in his subconscious.
He wasn't sure why he felt this way, but in his understanding, it seemed like the "right" thing to do.
He began to doubt his identity before the memory loss. He tried to recollect again, but the memory fragments that surfaced were extremely chaotic, filled with memories that "should not" belong to him, intertwining to form bizarre, fantastical scenes and absurd, illogical plotlines.
The memories from the girl, or rather, the "Tai Sui," hadn't been fully digested by Sun Hang. They were like a heap of unclassified, messy files; once the "memory" folder was opened, they all poured out haphazardly.
"Damn it," Sun Hang cursed softly, abandoning the attempt to recall.
Finding the memory could wait, the urgent task was to find the "Tai Sui" first.
Those cult members must already be alert by now, judging by how quickly they deactivated the phone number. If he delayed any longer, even if Sun Hang found their base, it might already be deserted.
No time to waste.
Sun Hang closed his eyes, and a vague yet familiar route appeared in his mind.
This was a path he walked almost every morning—to be more precise, it was a path that girl walked almost every morning.
The destination of this path wasn't far, located within this old neighborhood.
Carrying the bag of fried dough sticks and buns the girl had bought, Sun Hang returned to the first floor, then closed his eyes and let the familiar feeling from the memory fragments guide him to the "destination."
This neighborhood seemed to have been forced to stop construction halfway through, with nearly one-third of the buildings being unfinished structures with only a concrete frame.
Hardened sandstones, steel bars rusted long ago, and yellowed, aging plastic pipes could be seen everywhere in the corners of the neighborhood, with tangled overhead wires cutting the sky into irregular polygons. A roughly made Ultraman doll was abandoned by the overgrown flowerbed, and not far away, a group of ants was attacking a slug, which struggled vigorously, leaving a long trail of slime on the dry ground.
Sun Hang kept his eyes closed, but these images continued to appear in his mind... In reality, the Ultraman doll had long since been picked up by someone, and the ants and slug were nowhere to be seen, yet the familiar path and the buildings around it remained unchanged.
"Building Thirteen, Unit Two."
Sun Hang stopped and opened his eyes.