The space inside the wall was larger than she had imagined. The steel bars intersected and formed a narrow passage, just wide enough for one person to climb through.
Xiao Cheng and Fang He moved extremely quietly, as the area was prone to echoes. They climbed downwards for nearly half an hour, but still hadn't reached the bottom.
Xiao Cheng stopped to catch her breath and looked up. The entrance they had come in through was practically gone; the building was definitely more than seven stories high.
Although she didn't know the underlying principle, she was now basically convinced that, perhaps, as Qiao Liao had said, the laboratory was indeed located here.
"How's it going?" Fang He gestured above, signaling her to speed up.
Xiao Cheng knew they shouldn't waste time now, so he nodded and continued downwards. Another half hour passed before they finally reached the bottom.
Beneath the steel bars was a dark and long passageway, at the end of which was a heavy, rusty iron door, slightly ajar with a gap about half a person's width open, from which a pungent, strange smell wafted.
Xiao Cheng instinctively covered his mouth and nose, his brows furrowed tightly: "Damn, what is this thing? It's been rotting in there for eight hundred years."
Despite saying that, she still reluctantly moved closer and peered through the crack in the door.
Admittedly, this is indeed a highly professional research institute. The corridors are equipped with special probes, and on both sides are laboratory cubicles separated by glass walls, through which complex equipment in operation can be vaguely seen, as well as players locked in cages, fast asleep.
Or rather, they were prisoners of zombies.
Flickering specks of eerie blue flames floated in the air; these must be the glowing things Qiao Liao had mentioned.
The research institute was deserted and eerily quiet. There were no zombies in sight, nor was there A009.
"Those are will-o'-the-wisps, right? But aren't they usually found in graveyards? Why are there some here?" Xiao Cheng looked at them rising and falling with some confusion.
"To be honest, this place doesn't seem much different from a cemetery," Fang He replied.
Xiao Cheng: "..." That seems to make some sense.
The security cameras in the corridor didn't seem to be working, but just to be on the safe side, Fang He, despite his supernatural abilities, went in first to scout ahead. Xiao Cheng watched him wander around inside, finally entering the very last cubicle, and only emerging after quite some time.
Then he stood at the door and waved: "Come in!"
It seems there really aren't any zombies here anymore.
Xiao Cheng squeezed in after him. By this time, Fang He had already deactivated his superpower. She could hear a buzzing electrical sound coming from the glass of the two cubicles.
The players, with their backs to the glass wall, huddled in the narrow iron cages, their bodies covered with numerous electrode plates. Winding wires extended from these plates, connecting to the enormous egg-shaped machine in the center of the compartment.
On the machine were glass bottles filled with formalin, with fleshy spheres of varying sizes suspended in the liquid, their slender black tentacles swaying slowly in small movements.
“A009 isn’t here. I just found the monitoring room, and all the cameras are turned off.” Fang He walked around the floating will-o’-the-wisps and toward Xiao Cheng, while taking out a piece of paper that was folded several times from his pocket.
These are the design drawings for the research institute.
The blueprints show a thirteen-story building, but the layout of this place is not shown. Xiao Cheng guessed that it was probably rebuilt after the riot, with the main feature being a secluded underground place where no one would disturb you.
Behind the drawings are the researcher numbers of those in charge of the overall experiment, from A001 to A009. Each person is responsible for a different area, and the one following A009 is the special research on supernatural ability evolution.
"So, during his research, he discovered that the Insect Queen was related to superpowers, which led him to the idea of cooperating with the Insect Queen in order to achieve ultimate evolution?" Xiao Cheng felt that he was simply a complete madman.
“This should be related to the plot. The clues we have now are still very limited, so let’s put them aside for now and split up to check on the players.” Fang He said, as he tentatively pushed the glass door of the cubicle.
To be fair, the security measures here are all about trust. The doors aren't locked, the cameras aren't on, and no one's around. It's probably because A009 figured out that the other zombies weren't causing any trouble.
But this saved Xiao Cheng and Fang He a lot of time and effort.
In other words, there could be a little more of this trust.
Xiao Cheng randomly pushed open a glass door next to her and tiptoed inside.
The ground was covered with haphazardly strung electrical wires, leaving almost no place to step. The cage holding the player was placed at the very back of the compartment, and upon closer inspection, she realized it was even smaller than she had imagined.
It looked like a dog cage, and it was even rusty.
The smell that had been emanating from outside the door was coming from the player, and it was now even more unpleasant. Xiao Cheng almost choked to tears. Holding her breath, she leaned forward a little more, carefully inserted her fingers into the gap in the cage, grabbed the player's clothes, and forcibly turned him over.
He remained unconscious, his body turned over, but his face stubbornly facing inward. His right hand hung limply, revealing shimmering blue numbers on the mangled back of his hand.
Number 93.
His bracelet was completely useless, smashed to pieces. On the still-connected screen, a gray pop-up window could be vaguely seen with only two words on it.
"die."
It seemed he was indeed dead, since Xiao Cheng couldn't hear any breathing or heartbeat, and couldn't find his pulse even after searching for a long time.
But why did A009 put the body here?
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
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