Wasteland Border Inspector

Chapter 251: Three Transcendent States, Normal Inverse Control!

The Infection Source Research Institute was officially founded in New Era Year 8, and Cheng Wu led a group of Inspectors to defect exactly three years later, in New Era Year 11.However, before the Research Institute was officially established, the Inspection Station already had a small, dedicated research facility internally, specifically responsible for deciphering and studying Infection Sources.

With this early foundation, the current Infection Source Research Institute must have already had a complete prototype. New Era Year 8 merely marked the finalization of site selection, construction, and official inauguration.

As a full witness to the Research Institute from its preparation to its establishment, Cheng Wu naturally would not have faced many restrictions when coming and going from this place back then.

But Cheng Long was different. He was only a fifth-term Inspector. Even if he held considerable prestige within the Inspection Station, extending that influence into the strictly hierarchical Research Institute was undoubtedly as difficult as ascending to the heavens.

Yet despite this, Cheng Long successfully stole three Transcendent Mother Sources that Cheng Wu had failed to take away back then.

Neither of this father and son duo was ever one to give people peace of mind!

"Rest assured, Director Yu. As a Trainee Inspector who has made it this far based on my own abilities, there will naturally be no need for me to engage in petty thievery or underhanded activities in the future,"

Cheng Ye paused, making no effort to conceal his ambition, and stated firmly, "Even if I am to leave a legend here, it will be a Positive Legend that can stand upright before the Research Institute, a legacy for millions to admire."

"Inspector Cheng, you really are quite different from the other Inspectors,"

Yu Erlan smiled meaningfully. The aloofness in her expression dissipated slightly, and she appeared to be in good spirits.

"Let us go." She took the lead, stepping toward the Containment Room. Her voice drifted back as she walked. "From the moment you brought the Immortal Object back for Happiness City, there are no longer any restricted areas for you within the Research Institute. However, this trust... you must not betray it."

Passing through the Access Control at the entrance, Cheng Ye felt quite surprised.

This was clearly a high-risk area storing Transcendent Mother Sources, yet there was not a single guard in sight.

Rather than a heavily guarded Containment Room, it felt more like an open exhibition hall. As long as someone was qualified to reach this place, they could explore freely without any additional restrictions.

Moreover, the indoor atmosphere completely exceeded his expectations. There was none of the eerie coldness one would imagine in a scientific research facility. The entire building utilized a staircase design with a hollowed-out center, and the massive silver-white pillar that penetrated from aboveground to the underground levels passed perfectly through this hollow space.

Beyond the giant pillar lay a ring of alloy rooms arranged in a circle.

The most astonishing part was that these rooms were not the airtight, sealed structures he had pictured. While the entrances featured heavy alloy doors, the fronts utilized large areas of a glass-like material. He could clearly see the interior scenes, making them look exactly like exquisite Animal Exhibition Areas.

Inside the Glass Room near his left hand, thick fallen leaves and humus soil covered the floor. A few low Fern Plants took root in the corners, evidently simulating a Temperate Forest micro-environment.

The Infection Source inside the room was a creature resembling a fox. Its entire body was covered in short silver-gray fur, and the end of its tail split into three. It was nimbly leaping and playing among the plant branches.

From time to time, it would rub its nose against the glass. Its golden eyes curiously assessed the outside world. It looked so docile and lively that one could not see even a hint of a Transcendent Mother Source's ferocity.

"Will they... not escape?" Cheng Ye asked in astonishment.

In his imagination, no matter how lax the management was, these Transcendent Mother Sources should be bound by layers of iron chains, paired with various precision Instruments for real-time monitoring to prevent them from causing a Catastrophic Disaster to Happiness City upon escaping.

But the scene before him completely overturned his expectations. The alloy doors might be forged from Happiness Alloy, making them genuinely difficult to breach, but this glass did not look sturdy at all. He even felt that if he transformed into his giant state, he could shatter it with a single punch.

"Actually, the essence of this glass is also Happiness Alloy. It is simply equipped with dual-sided display screens for simulation, which presents a transparent effect,"

Yu Erlan raised her wrist and pressed a button on her portable device.

The next second, the originally transparent glass instantly darkened, turning back into silver-white Happiness Alloy.

She pressed it again, and the panel returned to being transparent, clearly reflecting the scene inside the room.

"Incredible. I did not expect something like this!" Cheng Ye praised sincerely. Such a containment environment truly balanced both observation and protection.

"As for your concerns about them escaping..." Yu Erlan shifted the topic and looked at him. "Do you want to go inside and take a closer look?"

"Huh?" Cheng Ye froze, instinctively turning to look at her with utter bewilderment. "I can go inside?"

"Of course." Yu Erlan nodded, her fingertips lightly tapping the device a few times. "Most of the Transcendent Mother Sources we formally contain are not Malignant Infection Sources. At the very least... they possess extremely high research value and are relatively controllable."

Just as she finished speaking, under Cheng Ye's stunned gaze, the alloy door detaining the fox slowly opened.

Yet surprisingly, even though the door had opened, the fox's body suddenly stiffened. Its outline became somewhat blurry as it instantly shrank into the furthest corner of the room.

Despite clearly having an opportunity to escape, it showed not the slightest willingness to move. Instead, it exuded an unconcealable aura of fear.

"Ah?"

As Cheng Ye stood dazed, he astutely noticed that the emotion radiating from this fox was Cut from the Same Cloth as the fear the Earth-Shrinking Giant Louse had just transmitted to him.

"The research conducted on it a while ago might have been a bit intense, so it is somewhat afraid of me?"

Yu Erlan raised an eyebrow, her tone carrying a hint of amusement. "Come along. Although you are an Inspector, you probably have never been in such close contact with a Transcendent Mother Source before, right?"

Indeed, he had not.

The Demonic Eye Sponge had reached the Ruin-level, but there still seemed to be an invisible boundary separating it from the transcendent realm.

He could not articulate exactly what this boundary was at the moment, but he knew very well that since Yu Erlan was willing to bring him here today, she would definitely reveal the specific differences to him.

Stepping into the Mother Source's containment room, Cheng Ye was surprised to find that there were no unpleasant odors as he had imagined. Instead, the air was filled with—

a faint, elegant scent of orchids, fresh and pleasant.

Furthermore, from the outside, the room looked to be about two hundred square meters. Only after entering did he realize the space was far more expansive than it appeared. The inner side widened all the way to the building's exterior wall, with a depth of nearly a hundred meters.

Although the width was only around seven meters, combined with the high ceilings, the overall environment did not feel suppressed in the slightest. On the contrary, it gave off a sense of openness.

"Come here, Little Silver, come!"

Yu Erlan crouched down and beckoned to the Three-tailed Silver Fox in the corner with her finger.

Unexpectedly, this action only made the silver fox even more terrified, causing it to huddle in the corner and shiver.

Even more astonishingly, right under Cheng Ye's gaze, its figure slowly shifted and ultimately transformed into an inconspicuous silver-white stone. Its presence plummeted drastically, like receding seawater.

Even though Cheng Ye knew perfectly well that it was right there, the moment he turned his head, he experienced an illusion similar to when observing Runes, instinctively ignoring it from his line of sight.

"Its codename is the Undetermined Fox,"

Yu Erlan stood up and slowly introduced. "Its ability is exactly what you see now. It is very simple: it lowers its own presence, reducing the probability of being discovered... But if someone is infected by it, the infected person's presence will continuously diminish. Their body will gradually become transparent, and ultimately, they will completely dissolve from the memories of others, erased from the world."

"The terrifying aspect of this ability does not lie in directly taking a life, but in turning a person into a complete Invisible Person, ultimately leading them to their demise amidst endless Loneliness and Being Forgotten. More importantly, this process is completely irreversible. Even a top-tier Transcendent, once infected, can only watch helplessly as they walk toward death."

What a terrifying Transcendent Mother Source!

Cheng Ye's heart sank. The threat level of this Undetermined Fox was far greater than that of the Demonic Eye Sponge. To think it was a certain-death infection on the level of rules?

As his thoughts shifted, he took the opportunity to ask, "Since it is so dangerous, could it be that the Undetermined Fox's infection conditions are extremely harsh?"

"Single-Target Fatal and Mass Infection are, in many cases, inversely proportional to one another,"

Yu Erlan nodded in confirmation. "If it wishes to infect a human, regardless of the target's Strength, it must pay the Cost of losing one of its tails. Once it becomes a tailless fox, even as a Transcendent Mother Source, it will immediately die. And its tails can only grow by slowly absorbing energy, so its overall threat is still considered controllable and won't cause a large-scale catastrophe."

Cheng Ye instantly understood. This Undetermined Fox currently still had three tails, which meant that in theory, it could still infect three people.

No wonder Cheng Wu and Cheng Long always had to come and 'borrow' Transcendent Mother Sources before 'doing big things'. At crucial moments, this thing truly had the probability of becoming a Great Weapon that decided victory or defeat!

"Where do you think its power comes from?" Yu Erlan stood up, crossing her arms over her chest. Her tone carried a hint of testing him.

Cheng Ye's heart tightened, immediately realizing that the crucial moment had arrived.

Aside from Cheng Wu and Cheng Long, those two who snuck in through Engaging in Petty Thievery or Underhanded Activities, he could be considered the very first Inspector to be formally brought into the Transcendent Mother Source Containment Room.

The current test—his understanding of its essence—was perhaps the true key to obtaining genuine access privileges.

"Runes!"

Cheng Ye spat out the word without hesitation, then added, "Or according to my understanding... Runes are, in essence, the Concrete Manifestation of Rules."

"Rules..."

Yu Erlan shook her head slightly but did not directly deny his answer. Instead, she began to explain, "Transcendent Mother Sources are the greatest threat currently facing Humans, and they are the main culprits that forged the present Wasteland Era. However, after years of analyzing various Giant Creatures, we have drawn a preliminary conclusion: what they spread to this planet was not simply a virus, but a key capable of unlocking Biological Intelligence and Rule Power."

"This key can bestow various bizarre abilities upon organisms. Based on the degree of capability development, we classify Infection Sources into different Evolutionary Stages."

"The first stage we call: Normal State!"

"Normal State is an organism's initial awakening to break free from its Inherent Form Shackles, and it is also life's first cognitive breakthrough in defining its own existence. At this stage, the organism's cells will begin to deconstruct established Physiological Laws. Like a toppled line of Dominoes, it triggers a chain reaction of mutations that shatter common sense. These mutations grant them special powers. Take the Earth-Shrinking Giant Louse in your body, for example; it naturally possessed the ability to scale its size, but after awakening to the Normal State, this ability became much more prominent and controllable."

Being mentioned by Yu Erlan, the Earth-Shrinking Giant Louse inside the Spiritual Body Space trembled once again. It seemed it had been studied quite a bit, leaving it with a rather large psychological shadow.

Cheng Ye calmed his mind and listened attentively, sorting out the specific phenomena corresponding to the 'Normal State' in his head. The Normal State focused on the deep development of an organism's original inherent abilities. Thus, the Undetermined Fox's ability had clearly already reached the Normal State.

The Demonic Eye Sponge was the same, possessing special powers far surpassing those of an ordinary sponge.

As for those common, ordinary Infection Sources, they likely had not yet reached the 'Normal State' phase, merely having their baseline capabilities passively amplified.

"The second stage we call: Inverse State!"

"If the Normal State is life's initial awakening of itself, then the Inverse State is its first active rebellion against the world's rules after that awakening. When an organism's cells complete the deconstruction of their own Physiological Laws, they will begin to actively assault the established external order."

"The most direct characteristic of the Inverse State is Rule Reversal, encompassing multiple aspects such as Physics, Energy, and even Cognition. Reaching this stage, an organism's abilities are no longer limited to fortifying itself or perceiving its environment; rather, it gains the power to actively twist, or even rewrite, physical rules on a small scale."

"Some Infection Sources can achieve Burning in Vacuum or Lossless Current Transmission in Atmosphere. Others are capable of Creating a Three-Dimensional Path on a Flat Surface or triggering a Shadow Transforming into an Independent Space for Hiding. And this Undetermined Fox—its power hovers at the brink between the Normal State and the Inverse State. Its core relies on distorting rules at the cognitive level to lower its own presence."

If there had been a small stool placed by the door, Cheng Ye would have been perfectly willing to sit there and listen to her lecture for an entire day.

It had nothing to do with anything else; it was simply because her voice carried a uniquely gentle texture. It felt almost magical, capable of making a person subconsciously settle down.

Normal State, Inverse State.

These two stages seemed diametrically opposed, yet they allowed an Infection Source's abilities to achieve a leap akin to a qualitative transformation.

Cheng Ye rapidly integrated the information in his mind. Suddenly, a flash of enlightenment struck him, and he instinctively asked:

"So the source of the Undetermined Fox's power is because it has already recognized the existence of rules and can actively intervene with them?"

"That is the key."

A clear flash of appreciation passed through Yu Erlan's eyes, and her tone carried a bit more approval. "Cognition is the foundation of all formidable power. True breakthroughs are inevitably built upon cognitive upgrades across dimensions. Much like human technological development, it is only by first mastering basic rule cognition that we can use it as a foundation to continuously derive various technological products that change the world."

"The evolution of Infection Sources works the same way. The keys left behind by Giant Creatures opened the door to rule cognition for them, allowing them to intuitively glimpse the operational veins of these rules. Even if they cannot systematically parse and translate rules like humans do, they can still utilize their limited intelligence to perform basic applications of those rules."

"However, the danger of the Inverse State also lies precisely in this. This resistance against the rules drags organisms into a dilemma of Two-Way Consumption. On one hand, they must expend their own energy to twist the rules, and on the other, they must endure the consequences brought about by Rule Backlash. For instance, when you use the power of the Earth-Shrinking Giant Louse, the penalty you bear is not a Symbiotic Penalty, but rather the unavoidable price you must pay for forcibly wielding a rule."

Boom!

It was as if a clap of thunder exploded in his mind. All the crucial points that had been puzzling Cheng Ye prior to this were completely illuminated in an instant.

So it was not the Earth-Shrinking Giant Louse enacting a Symbiotic Penalty against him, but rather the necessary consequence he had to bear for forcibly borrowing its power to utilize a rule when he had yet to form a complete cognition of it himself?

It was like a Primitive Person accidentally stumbling upon an incredibly powerful Sniper Rifle.

Perhaps they could rely on luck to fire a shot and kill a prey, but they might also accidentally point the barrel at themselves because they did not understand how to operate it.

And the existence of the Earth-Shrinking Giant Louse was more like a guide teaching him how to aim and how to pull the trigger, yet it could not offset the inevitable Recoil produced after firing.

Having figured this out, Cheng Ye followed the train of thought and deduced, "So the third stage should be the proficient mastery of rules, right? Not only must one recognize the essence of the rules, but one must also be able to accurately harness them, thereby avoiding or mitigating the cost of Rule Backlash."

However, Yu Erlan did not immediately respond to his guess. Instead, she continued to elaborate:

"Even if one must endure the price of backlash, the Inverse State remains an indispensable, critical phase on the evolutionary path of Infection Sources. It proves to us that the world's rules are not indestructible, and life's potential is far from reaching its ceiling. Like the warriors in ancient fables who dared to challenge a Deity, the Inverse State represents the courage to break chains, and it is the starting point leading toward infinite possibilities."

Only after finishing these words did she formally give her answer, her tone carrying an unquestionable certainty:

"The third stage we call: Control State!"

"The Normal State is the awakening of rule cognition, the Inverse State is the active challenge against rules, and the Control State is the creation of new rules. This is not about utilizing or reversing within the original framework of rules; rather, it is about carving entirely new laws of one's own by hand onto the established rule map of the universe."

"At the level of the Control State, we can even achieve Neg-Entropy, recovering and storing Diffused Thermal Energy, breaking the conventional Law of Entropy Increase. With this as a foundation, we can repair a damaged Object or reverse cellular aging. In its ultimate state, one can even interfere with Entropy Change on the Space-Time Level, executing a Localized Time Stop, or even Retrace Past Fragments."

Control... actually bypassed merely understanding the rules, acting almost like a shortcut... to create entirely new rules?

Cheng Ye was thoroughly shocked by this boldly subversive conclusion.

Could it be that those so-called 'Runes' were, in essence, the exclusive new rules left behind after strange biological entities interfered with the world relying on their own powers?

If one could truly create rules, wouldn't that be equivalent to possessing near-immortality, allowing them from then on to do whatever they wished without any scruples?

No, that was not right!

The moment this thought popped up, he immediately denied it.

Under the Inverse State, even utilizing or altering existing rules required enduring corresponding prices. How could something even more exaggerated like creating rules be easily accomplished?

"What must be paid to create a rule?" After pondering it over and over, he still could not help but ask.

Yu Erlan did not keep him in suspense. Her gaze rested calmly upon him as she lightly spat out a single word:

"Resources!"