Chapter 508 Escape

Zheng Zhi stared at the dark screen on his phone with a somewhat dull expression, then opened the photo album in disbelief, only to see a series of recently taken photos that were all the same.

"This isn't right..." He muttered in confusion, "I clearly took pictures of it. There's a hall there, and outside it are ruins and towers, and there's a dark place..."

As a result, he had just muttered halfway when Yu Sheng beside him suddenly reacted: "Wait a minute! What did you say?"

Zheng Zhi came back to his senses instantly, looked up at the several pairs of eyes around him that were focused on him, immediately adjusted his state, and began to recall and narrate everything he had seen in that strange and dark space.

Frankly speaking, Yu Sheng's expression was quite calm when he heard the other party describe the tall tower - until he heard Zheng Zhi mention the dark "celestial body", his eyes suddenly changed.

Black Star!?

Although Zheng Zhi's final memories were somewhat hazy, and his impression of the dark celestial body was filled with hallucinations caused by mental pollution, the scene he described was clearly the "Black Star." In his memory, the Black Star hung high at the end of the endless tower, surrounded by countless strange debris...

This instantly reminded Yu Sheng of the description Baili Qing had mentioned—"In the years of wandering, the dark star overlapped with the dome, and the alien gods descended along the boundary bridge..."

Even Little Red Riding Hood was stunned. She looked at Zheng Zhi across from her with strange eyes: "...Where the hell have you been?"

"I don't know!" Zheng Zhi spread his hands out innocently. "I just remember seeing a black line floating on the ground before I fell in. It was the kind Irene usually uses... I was halfway through my meal when I fell in."

When Hu Li, who was standing next to him, heard this, he felt extremely heartbroken.

At the same time, several eyes were focused on Zheng Zhi. The latter was startled by the look and subconsciously shrank his neck: "What...what's wrong?"

"If you go back to that place again!" Irene raised her finger and pointed at her nephew, speaking with confidence.

"This... This isn't something I can just go back if I want to." Zheng Zhi almost burst into tears when he heard this. "I don't even know how I fell in there."

Irene turned her head and looked at the place where she usually sharpened the ball.

However, the black spider silk that had been floating in the air had already dissipated.

The little doll thought about it, looked up at Yu Sheng, but saw that the other party was looking thoughtful.

She raised her hand and grabbed the other person's head: "Yu Sheng, what should we do?"

"I don't know if the process of Zheng Zhi 'falling' in there can be replicated, but his fall at least proves two things," Yu Sheng raised his head and analyzed thoughtfully. "First, the 'black spider silk' is the key to finding the strange space where the 'tower' is located. Second, Zheng Zhi's physique is indeed effective."

Zheng Zhi blinked his eyes as he listened, and suddenly raised his hand to poke Li Lin's arm: "Brother Li, why do I feel a little cold on my back again..."

Li Lin said without turning his head: "The temperature has dropped in the past two days."

Zheng Zhi was stunned. Just as he was about to say something, he suddenly felt a chill coming towards him. When he looked up, he saw Irene pulling a handful of black silk thread and throwing it at him. She had already tied it twice.

"Why doesn't it work?" The little puppet raised its head and looked straight into Yu Sheng's eyes. "Black line, nephew, the two conditions are met."

"Perhaps the 'strings' you deliberately summoned aren't working," Yu Sheng waved his hand hastily upon seeing this. "Perhaps there's something else missing—put the strings away first. It took so much effort for the person to come back."

"oh."

The black silk thread dissipated out of thin air, and the cold feeling finally disappeared. Zheng Zhi shivered belatedly and began to twist his arms vigorously, muttering, "Next time, tell me in advance. This thing is as cold as a ghost."

"Well, you go back and rest for a while," Yu Sheng said, explaining his original plan to Zheng Zhi. "We were originally planning to go to the 'Dark Alley' again today and take you with us, but you just got 'lost' once, so it's not appropriate for you to go to a foreign land again..."

Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by Zheng Zhi, who patted his chest and said, "I'm fine, Brother Yu. I just got lost. This happens all the time..."

"I told you to rest, so you rest!" Little Red Riding Hood glared at him unceremoniously. "That's a proper foreign land, not the courtyard at No. 66 Wutong Road!"

Little Red Riding Hood was the youngest child in the room, but having been a parent in a fairy tale for many years, she was incredibly powerful when scolding people. Zheng Zhi immediately became dispirited and smiled awkwardly, "Well, fine, I'll go back and rest."

…

At night, in the director's office of Jinglin Sanatorium.

The sanatorium maintains the same day and night cycle as the outside world. At this moment, it is already dark outside the window. According to the operating rules here, after dark, all human employees need to leave the core area of ​​the facility. So at this moment, there is only a lonely figure in this huge room, and the corridor outside the room is also silent.

A tall figure in a white coat sat behind the desk, one hand supporting the spherical fish tank that served as his head, his fingers tapping the tank wall unconsciously, his elbow resting on the armrest of the chair, and the other hand moving the mouse on the table, operating something on the computer.

On the computer screen in front of the "dean", the video recording retrieved from the surveillance system was playing.

The upper left corner of the screen displayed relevant surveillance data - one day ago, 4:10 pm, reading room.

In the camera, a middle-aged man in a shirt and trousers is sitting quietly beside the table, flipping through a magazine in his hand.

Sun Chen - at that time, he was still alive and looked normal.

The goldfish swam slowly in the spherical fish tank, controlling its humanoid body to move the mouse and drag the screen backwards.

Sun Chen read the magazine for a while, then raised his hand and tapped his neck to move his shoulder and neck joints.

After a few minutes, the man in the picture suddenly stood up from the table and looked around in confusion.

He turned around and walked out of the reading room with a somewhat stiff step.

He left an hour earlier than usual.

The "Dean" leaned forward slightly and dragged the progress bar back.

After Sun Chen finished reading the magazine, he stretched his shoulders and neck, and suddenly stood up. In the limited surveillance camera angle, it was obvious that his expression turned to confusion.

But there was no one else around him.

"Um……"

The goldfish moved its fins uneasily in the fish tank, dragging the picture back and increasing the volume further.

The moment when Sun Chen returned to exercising his shoulders and neck.

A vague sound came from the speakers - a melody, a whistle.

There is no one else in the picture.

Sun Chen was whistling by himself - judging from the picture, it was a perfectly normal action. He was flipping through a magazine in the empty reading room, whistling out of boredom, then moving his shoulders and neck, and then... he suddenly fell into confusion at the sound of his own whistle.

The "Dean" sat up straight in an instant, and a dense bubble rose in the fish tank above his head. The goldfish quickly moved its translucent fins in the water - and almost at the same time, it seemed to notice something.

Its tall humanoid body suddenly dodged to the side, and the air next to it suddenly twisted. A figure emerged out of thin air as the optical force field failed. The glowing blade in its hand brushed against the "dean's" body and slashed down. The decomposition force field easily cut through the backrest of the office chair.

The goldfish looked at the attacker in the office through the transparent fish tank.

A human in a shirt and trousers - but above the neck he no longer looked human. Swollen and deformed nerves and blood vessels grew out of the neck of the body, twisting and tangling like tangled vines, forming a huge and swollen mass of flesh in the shape of a brain, and the brain seemed to be slowly expanding over time.

The attacker turned around, and the two eyes embedded in the front of his swollen brain calmly stared at the "Dean" not far away. He shook the dagger in his hand, and the blade of the dagger buzzed in the air, and the phantom light of the decomposition force field wandered on the blade.

The dean stared intently at the "human" in front of him, and a hoarse, magnetic female voice came from his body: "Faked death... No, Sun Chen's body is still in the containment room... Is it a personification?!"

"They said that as long as I cooperated with them and extracted the 'knowledge' from my brain, they would be able to get me out of that tower..." Sun Chen's voice came from the swollen brain, sounding a little happy. "Although this process is not quite what I imagined, but... now I feel great."

"'They'?" the dean said in a low voice. "Who are they?"

"Sun Chen" did not answer, but just looked at the tall figure in front of him calmly.

The office fell silent, and the sound of dripping water seemed particularly abrupt.

A trickle of water was flowing down from near the neck of the "Dean". There was a small hole at the bottom of the fish tank of its head, and the transparent liquid inside was constantly leaking out.

The goldfish reacted suddenly, raised its hand and pressed on its fish tank - however, the containment device had been broken by the decomposition force field, and the rate at which the liquid inside was leaking was getting faster and faster.

"Being trapped in this fish tank all this time...it's frustrating, right?" Sun Chen said softly. "Today is the day I'm free—Dean, you're free too."

The goldfish did not respond, but instead suddenly raised its right hand towards him.

Invisible water flow appeared out of nowhere, wrapping Sun Chen layer by layer. The powerful water pressure began to squeeze and tear his swollen and deformed brain, as if to crush him in the water.

But the next second, the condensed water mass suddenly lost control and began to spread in all directions.

The humidity in the office rose rapidly, and streams of water began to flow along the floor, walls and ceiling.

The liquid in the spherical fish tank completely drained away, and the goldfish turned into a phantom, swimming out of the tank along the last stream of water, swimming around in the increasingly humid air, which was even beginning to condense water droplets out of thin air.

The figure of "Sun Chen" slowly disappeared into the air.

The goldfish swam around the office in a daze, and then seemed to suddenly regain consciousness for a moment - the next second, it slammed into a big red button on the side of the desk.

The shrill alarm sounded throughout the building instantly, accompanied by repeated urgent broadcasts:

"Alert, 'Dean' has breached containment, facility urgently evacuated! Alert, 'Dean' has breached containment, facility urgently evacuated!"

(End of this chapter)