Chapter 303 Preparing to Escape

"We're sorry, we are unable to meet your request. Please feel free to call us again."

At that moment, a man sitting on the sofa in the waiting area suddenly shouted, "Please! Do you know how long it took me to get here from Test Site 2?! I want to get out! Eoubs has only been around for a few months, do you even know who I am?!"

Sheen cast a curious glance at him—"Yeah, who the hell are you?"

Bell glanced down one of the passageways for a moment, then led her through the hall and inside—people scattered around were busy with their own things, living independent and monotonous lives, and she suddenly realized—not a single person gave them a second glance, like phantoms.

The feeling was incredibly strange. Reality enveloped her body, as if it were breathing against her skin, but she couldn't actively touch this behemoth. It was as if she were outside the world, so there was no need for feedback or speculation. Everything just drifted past her.

This world, so peaceful it's almost deathly calm... inexplicably sends chills down my spine.

At one point, Sheen brushed past the blonde, blue-eyed female staff member. She was carrying a bag of trash and had a document tucked under her arm. She was muttering something under her breath, showing none of the chaotic disorder unique to the mutants he had seen at Test Site 3.

She could even see the annoyance in the other person's eyes, as if they had been caught slacking off by their boss and had to temporarily do something to prove their work ethic, or perhaps there was something on the document that worried them.

The scene looked so real that Sheen suspected they had actually escaped from Sunset Hill and were now back in one of the offices of Heaven's Gospel.

Following the expected plot development—the data this guy was carrying likely contained some information—Sheen quietly leaned over to take a look. It was filled with dense data charts and graphs, with many technical terms marked on the edges. She tried to decipher it and found that it described a fourteen-year-old volunteer named Roy who had come to Sunset Hill for the second time and had developed resistance to everything there, making him a good test subject.

Roy—

Roy's mother, Anderson?

Sheen's eyes widened immediately.

The woman also took out the documents and glanced at them a few times. Then she turned and went into an alloy door next to her that was marked "File Approval Area". She took out her ID card, swiped it, and the door immediately lit up with a green light. She reached out and pushed it open.

Bell quickened his pace, trying to keep up with her, reached out to hold the door that was about to close, and then turned to Sheen, gesturing for him to follow.

The people around completely ignored this ghostly phenomenon.

The area behind the door had a more professional, workplace-like feel than the outside. The walls and ceiling were white and spotless, and each major piece of equipment had a label and annotation on its surface; most of them were printers or binding machines.

The staff member muttered a few words to himself, then stopped in front of a door marked "Destruction Room," took out a key, unlocked it, and went inside.

Just then, another man carrying a cardboard box walked towards them. He was walking hurriedly and looked very flustered, but he still ignored them.

“We can’t talk to them, no contact whatsoever,” Bell finally spoke. “There are a lot of rules here, like just now… if we had opened the door without permission, that bitch would have immediately turned around, smiled at us, and asked what help we needed. Then we would have been treated as natives and subjected to a dream extraction experiment.”

Sheen, unusually, didn't press for details about what this "dream extraction experiment" was all about; it was definitely not a good thing. In a sense, she could also glean some information—like Roy, Gore's older brother, this ridiculously twisted bastard who had probably lived in this cold, desolate world for a long time.

Bell didn't care whether she was listening or not, and continued walking forward, "Once you're identified as a native, Sunset Hill will start working on turning us into new inhabitants. Everyone you just met will start approaching us, offering empty words of concern, and then telling you that you have to participate in this experiment because it's the rule. Of course, they don't take their actions seriously. If you don't obey, they'll... well, anyway, we can't approach those idiots willingly."

There was a chilling force in that tone that sent a shiver down Sheen's spine, washing over her mind and body.

For a moment, Sheen had no idea where she was. She seemed to be sitting in a bright and clean reception room, with some really delicious-looking snacks in front of her. A woman with a gentle smile was standing opposite her—that blonde bitch—who was holding her hand tightly, her voice bright and pleasant.

She said, “Dear Ms. Sheen Connelly, you can now look up any relevant regulations for Sunset Hill. Of course, I can also tell you them all. Once you enter and start asking any of them, you will not be able to escape. We sincerely invite you to join the experiment. No matter your level or characteristics, no one will have a chance to regret it.”

Sheen shuddered and instantly snapped back to reality—there were no staff members in front of her, only Bell's back, and they were still walking down the corridor.

"That's a distorted node projection."

Bell stopped, as if she knew what she had seen, and explained, "Because this place is a nightmare for too many people, Sheen."

"Including yours," she said calmly.

The other person didn't know how to answer and stood there愣住 (愣住 means to stand still or freeze), so Bell continued, "But if you come with me, you won't be affected too much. I've lived here for a long time... I'm immune to it, and maybe you can too—"

Before she finished speaking, Sheen thought that the next sentence would probably be, "It's okay, I think you can try to see if you can become immune. Although the projection of those nodes is scary, you at least have the right to try." Damn it... that's so unnecessary. It's like the tone of someone who has no other choice but has to fight back desperately, trying to die in a more respectable way.

She looked at the person in front of her and wondered if this operative, who had experienced countless horrors, bloodshed, excitement, and despair, was still normal. That wasn't just a matter of a day or two, but tens of thousands of years.

"Looking back now, it was actually a good thing to have you with me," Sheen suddenly blurted out.

“I know you once planned to kill me, but I’m sorry, I won’t die by your hand.” Spel’s tone was very relaxed.

She is unlikely to die at the hands of anyone.

Sheen remained noncommittal.

"We now have to wait for someone to open the door at the end of the passage."

"Then go inside and find the key, and if possible... bring the pass as well."

Finally, you can use any of them to open a door and get out.

“Very simple.”