Chapter 509: The Goldfish's Freedom is Fleeting

A black car passed through the gloomy forest and drove along the forest path to the building that looked like a concrete tombstone and had no windows at all.

The Secret Service agents stationed in front of the main building stepped forward immediately - the car door opened, and Baili Qing, wearing a white suit, walked out.

She nodded slightly to the several fully armed Secret Service agents in front of her, then looked up at the gray sanatorium building.

"What's the situation now?"

A commander on the scene immediately spoke up, "The alarm sounded in the core area an hour ago. All patients and medical staff in the main building have been evacuated to the Shortcut transit station and forest shelter according to the emergency plan. However, one security team remains trapped inside the building—the Dean's monitoring team. They should have evacuated with the others when the alarm sounded, but for unknown reasons, they're still stuck inside. Signals picked up by the communications station indicate they're engaged in combat with an unknown enemy."

Baili Qing frowned slightly: "Is there any other signal in the building now?"

"Only the Dean's containment system continues to sound a leak alarm. Otherwise, the entire facility has been shut down," the commander said gravely. "The core area is currently flooded, so we can't confirm the situation in the office."

Baili Qing nodded, ordered the on-site defense personnel to continue to block the facilities, and then walked towards the entrance of the building.

The access control system has been released. Baili Qing pushed open the door of Jinglin Sanatorium, and a damp smell hit her face.

The lobby on the first floor was deserted, with only the dim glow of emergency lights illuminating the empty lobby and corridors. Behind the reception desk not far away, the large screen was still flashing the alarm that the director had breached the containment and the facility needed emergency evacuation. The surrounding air was so humid that it seemed to be soaked in water, and breathing gave people the illusion that they would choke at any time. There were also many trickles of water flowing along the roof and walls as if they were living things, forming puddles of various sizes on the ground.

Without any entourage or guards, Baili Qing just frowned slightly and looked at the situation in the hall, then walked towards the connecting passage leading to the core area.

The interior space of this building is much wider than its theoretical physical structure - even more so after the "Goldfish" broke through containment. The waterlogged environment magnified those deep corridors and open areas. The empty building illuminated by dim lights was dead silent, with only Baili Qing's footsteps echoing hollowly in the corridor. As she went deeper, the surroundings became increasingly cold and damp, until the entire corridor took on an eerie atmosphere as if it had been submerged in water for dozens or even hundreds of years.

Mottled algae covered the walls, colorful coral-like structures protruded abruptly from the ground, fluorescent filamentous aquatic plants hung from the roof, and streams of water of all sizes broke away from the walls, floating in the air as if weightless, flowing silently between the corals and aquatic plants.

A pair of pale eyes appeared on the wet wall, and Baili Xue's voice rang out: "Dean has been very honest for the past half century... How could he suddenly break out of containment?"

"All entities have a tendency to breach containment. It has nothing to do with whether they're 'honest' or not. All they need is the right conditions," Baili Qing said calmly. "So rather than breaching containment, I'm more curious about who created these 'conditions' for it—that goldfish doesn't like people breaking into its office."

She stopped.

A clearly defined "water surface" suddenly appeared in the corridor - just a few meters away, the corridor leading to the dean's office was completely "flooded", and the rippling water surface was perpendicular to the wall, as if bound by an invisible force. The clear water filled the entire core area and was still expanding outward at a very slow speed.

Several figures wearing light power armor were floating in the water not far away, drifting slowly with the ups and downs of the water.

It’s the security team that lost contact.

Baili Qing's expression remained unchanged as he walked straight towards the body of water.

A layer of fine, scaly, light and shadow patterns suddenly appeared on her cheeks and arms. She walked in the water, but it was as if she was walking in the air without any hindrance. She came to the Secret Service agents floating in the water and raised her hand to press on the head of one of them.

The visor of the light power armor quickly became transparent, revealing that no water had entered. The young operator even had his eyes open, with a calm and comfortable smile on his face. He just floated in the water with his eyes open and a smile on his face, and a goldfish swam around in his helmet.

The goldfish swayed its tail in the air beneath the mask, and from time to time it would appear like a phantom as it flew into the operator's head, swimming beneath his eyes and then out of his ears, floating comfortably.

Baili Qing checked the entire security team and saw that there was a goldfish swimming in everyone's mask.

These people are still alive, but if they had arrived half an hour later, they would have been as good as dead - they would have lived forever in the dream of being a goldfish, and would even gradually forget how to breathe the air.

Baili Qing waved her hand, and an invisible force pushed the security team, who were trapped in the "goldfish dream", out of the water. They stumbled into the corridor outside the water, and then suddenly woke up from the dream, looking up at their surroundings in a daze.

"Retreat, there are people waiting for you outside the gate." Baili Qing's voice rang in everyone's mind.

Then Baili Qing turned around and ignored the security team that had already started to retreat, and continued walking deeper into the corridor.

The phantom of a goldfish appeared in the water and swam around her.

There were some small, sharp sounds in my ears.

The goldfish's swimming speed gradually became faster and it looked a little impatient.

Baili Qing frowned and patiently listened to the small voice that kept talking in her ear -

"I was attacked! I was attacked! Despicable attacker!"

The sound was chattering away, making ordinary people dizzy and even falling into an unconscious dream.

"I didn't destroy the fish tank on my own initiative. I was forced to breach containment! That healthy psychopath broke my fish tank!

"I'm innocent, I'm a victim, I didn't mean to run away—

"I wanted the security team to evacuate, but they were knocked unconscious. I got into their heads for protection. Otherwise, they wouldn't have survived the flooding until now..."

"I know you can get here within two hours..."

Baili Qing stopped and looked at the goldfish phantom swimming in front of her with an expressionless face.

The goldfish floated in front of her, its translucent fins trembling constantly.

"Wait, hit me gently later."

It discussed it carefully.

"Can."

The phantom of the goldfish disappeared, and the door of the dean's office was ajar where it disappeared.

Baili Qing pushed the door open and walked in.

In the office, awash in clear water, countless scattered objects floated in the water. Beyond that, bubbles of varying sizes could be seen everywhere in the room. Within each bubble floated a hazy blur of light and shadow, depicting everyday scenes at Jinglin Sanatorium, records of Yu Sheng and his group's visit, the "director" checking surveillance footage, and even the attacker's actions in the office...

The image in each bubble repeats continuously with a cycle of seven seconds.

And a goldfish—not an illusion—was swimming slowly among the bubbles, round and round, as if wandering in its own dream.

Baili Qing's eyes first fell on the bubbles. After looking at the images reflected in each bubble, she stepped to the center of the office.

The tall female human body was floating lifelessly in the water. There was a crack in the spherical fish tank where the head was. Although the entire office was full of water, there was no water in the fish tank.

Baili Qing carefully examined the human body and the spherical fish tank for a moment, and then looked calmly at the cracks at the bottom of the tank.

The cracks on the fish tank were reflected in her extremely pale eyes.

After a moment, the cracks reflected in her eyes began to slowly shrink - and as the scene in her eyes changed, the cracks on the spherical fish tank actually began to heal.

The water level in the office began to drop, and the goldfish swimming among the bubbles seemed to be disturbed and immediately began to struggle. Then, the struggle turned into a fierce rampage.

But it only had time to rush forward a few times before it was suddenly grabbed by an invisible force.

Baili Qing stretched out her hand towards the goldfish, with dense scales covering her forearm and the back of her hand. The originally white and delicate human palm suddenly became bony and hideous, with strong and powerful joints and sharp hooked nails rapidly expanding and growing with a creaking sound. She looked up and stared at the goldfish that was struggling instinctively, and slowly exerted force on her hand. The invisible force pressed fingerprints all over the goldfish's body, and then slowly dragged it into the fish tank.

The goldfish's eyes bulged out, and its body expanded and contracted violently, deforming like a balloon that would burst at any moment. A tiny voice echoed in the water: "Gently, gently, I don't want to run away, but you know I can't control myself... Hey, hey, hey! Stop it! Chief, be gentle! X is about to come out..."

Baili Qing waved her hand and threw the goldfish directly into the spherical fish tank.

The accumulated water in the office quickly receded, and the damp smell in the air dissipated like an illusion as the ventilation system restarted. Baili Qing's arm quickly returned to its original state. She turned her head and saw the two-meter-tall human female body standing up staggeringly. Her movements were as slow and stiff as if the system was restarting. The goldfish that was squeezed half to death swam crookedly in the fish tank for two circles before its fins gradually began to stretch out.

"Ah, it feels so good to have my mind clear again..." A lazy and charming female voice came from the speaker under the fish tank. "Director, it's a blessing that you arrived in time."

Baili Qing shook his hands calmly, then took a tissue from the desk to wipe his fingers.

The previous "immersion" seemed like an illusion. After the goldfish returned to the fish tank, everything that was previously soaked in water returned to a dry state.

"Okay, now tell me how you got into this state."

(End of this chapter)