Chapter 14 You Shi and Chen Xingzhi "Perhaps, I have traveled back to my original world..."
Rows of transparent glass jars were neatly arranged in the basement, each topped with a thick, colorful pipe twisting and turning like a python. Through the glass, immersed in the preservative, were humanoid creatures.
Yes, "humanoid" is the only word that could describe the contents of that jar in Du Yu's mind.
The glass jar contained mostly human heads, with swollen vertebrae at the joints of the pale necks, bone spurs bursting open, and at the base of the bones a fist-sized, dirty pink mass of flesh.
What remains are even more chaotic and disordered combinations of human tissues, including conjoined twins with their upper bodies facing different directions and their lower bodies joined together; there are also limbs twisted like trees, and so on, which are simply challenging the limits of human body and imagination.
Old Cai covered Shen Xijing's mouth with her hand, her expression also quite unpleasant. Even though she had witnessed many horrifying events in previous cases, this was the first time she had seen such a shocking scene. What was even more terrifying was that beneath those experimental devices containing things beyond human imagination were a series of instructions marked in excessive detail; this scene of rigorous science seemed particularly absurd at this moment.
Qin Liangping ignored the strange looks from the crowd. He took a deep breath of the pungent, fishy air, looked around with a look of rapture, and after a while walked into the glass human forest on his own. He stopped in front of a special glass jar and turned back with dissatisfaction: "What are you all still standing there for? Do you expect me to move it by hand? The company's hiring standards are getting more and more casual."
What kinds of companies frequently hire?
Old Cai looked around, not daring to think too much. But before encountering the core of the dream, it was best not to follow the dream's plot. Disrupting the plot prematurely would drastically reduce the already low survival rate. Using the composure she had honed over her years in the profession, she steeled herself and ordered everyone to step forward and unload the glass jar in front of Qin Liangping into a specially made cart.
The "sample" in the glass jar stood out starkly in this eerie basement. This female specimen, named "Tianxin," appeared to be no more than 17 or 18 years old. Her eyes were closed, her body was naked, and her hands covered her left breast. At first glance, "Tianxin" seemed indistinguishable from a living person, with short hair clinging to her neck, a radiant complexion, and even a hint of blood. But, with her navel as a dividing line, as if there were a mirror in the middle, "Tianxin's" lower body consisted of a waist, chest, and the head of another woman with a serene, youthful face!
However, Tianxin's second pair of hands, positioned below, were raised high, trapping her head between them as if pleading or shouting something. A huge, pale hole was revealed on her slightly protruding left chest! The edges of the hole were smooth and clean; even the sharpest weapon could not have cut so smoothly. The hole did not pierce through Tianxin, but the center of the hole was not broken flesh and blood, but rather a small patch of gray mist that seemed to be breathing and writhing!
"!"
While being carried, Shen Xijing's eyes suddenly widened, she covered her mouth tightly with one hand and grabbed Aliya's arm hard with the other. This sudden attack almost made the latter pull the trigger.
"Hair...hair..."
Faced with her companion's confusion, Shen Xijing pointed vaguely at the specimen in the glass jar and spoke incoherently in a breathy voice.
Upon closer inspection, Aliya was so shocked that she grabbed Shen Xijing's arm, and everyone felt a chill run down their spines. On Tianxin's head, what they thought was hair were actually human fingers stretched to their limit, each with more than a dozen joints! The moment the "hair" touched the glass jar, Du Yu could even see miniature fingerprints.
What the hell is this two-headed monster?!
After consulting with Lao Cai, a faint pink fragrance lingered around everyone's noses. Du Yu felt a surge of energy, and the pain that had been emanating from his mental space lessened considerably.
Is Shen Xijing's pink color related to treatment?
The guess flashed through Du Yu's mind, but most of her attention was still in the basement. In her "spiritual vision" state, Du Yu discovered that apart from these outsiders, the first color in the dream besides gray—these samples all had that ominous dirty red color to varying degrees, with Tian Xin's color being particularly strong!
In the hole in her lower body and chest, the dirty red color was so thick it seemed almost tangible!
It seems that this is the core of the dream that Cat Beard and the others are looking for—the part of the dream world with the most concentrated abnormal power, or the core that constitutes the entire abnormal dream! Even if it is not, judging from the intensity of this color, Tianxin and the core of the dream are inseparable.
"Hey! Wait for me! You guys forgot about me too!"
As the group escorted the glass jars out of the basement, Qin Liangping was about to close the door when a figure suddenly rushed out from between two glass jars, shouting as he ran towards the group.
Qin Liangping's eyes glazed over for a moment, then he turned to Lao Cai with displeasure: "Why is there still one of your team members left inside? What exactly is your training like? What if she damages the equipment?"
Old Cai casually said a few words to fool the NPC, then smiled and hooked his arm around the newcomer's shoulder, pinning her against the wall. His head was slightly lowered, and his low voice carried an undisguised threat: "Tell me, what is your purpose in following us?"
"Hehe, sister, don't be so fierce. I was also a victim who got caught up in this mess."
Cai Chunyu could easily snap her neck with the slightest misstep, but the person who suddenly appeared just kept smiling.
Her face was ordinary, her features unremarkable, yet together they possessed a strange quality that blurred her age. She had neither the naivety of youth nor the world-weariness of old age; she could appear to be fifteen or thirty-five without seeming out of place—a person who seemed to defy the standards of time.
Du Yu stared at her curiously, not only because of her sudden appearance, but also because of her peculiar color. In Du Yu's eyes, she was an amber-colored vortex, with a pulsating black mass at its center.
Although Aria also has two colors, those two colors are of the same tone, and there is a subtle tendency for them to merge in their conflict. The two colors on this strange girl, however, seem extremely abrupt, with the black in the middle appearing forced in, clearly distinct from the amber.
"Sisters can call me You Shi. You Shi is just a poor scavenger who accidentally entered the rift. I was terrified when I first came in, but luckily I met you sisters."
The girl who called herself "You Shi" blinked, made a pitiful gesture, but intentionally or unintentionally turned her head to look back.
Du Yu's eyelids twitched; she had a strong premonition: she was being looked at!
She suppressed her subconscious actions and continued to manipulate "Xiao Ran" to stare at her expressionlessly. A suspicious person had appeared in the depths of her dream, and it was perfectly reasonable for her to stare at him.
"But at first I didn't know the sisters were good people, and I didn't dare to show myself, so I could only use my abilities to follow the sisters..."
You Shi looked at Lao Cai ingratiatingly, raised his hand in a gesture of surrender, and starting from his fingertips, his entire hand gradually became transparent over three breaths. Qin Liangping's eyes were already showing some impatience. Lao Cai assessed the feasibility of making trouble here and released his grip on You Shi's hand. "Go stand with him."
"He" naturally refers to the NPC Qin Liangping, which You Shi accepted without objection, glancing up at Du Yu with a smile. Cat Whiskers' gaze followed behind, seemingly sweeping over them casually.
[Hmm, this person's scent smells a bit like "Xiao Ran".]
Du Yu's eyes lit up when he heard 166's words, and he asked telepathically, "Then can I control her like I control 'Xiao Ran'?"
She is conscious. We cannot directly take over her body, but there is a gap between her consciousness and her body. I can help you control this body for three minutes.
You can get a lot done even if you only have three minutes to spare.
Du Yu secretly kept this in mind. The appearance of what appeared to be the core of the dream meant that Cat Beard and the others were not far from finding the exit, and Du Yu had to hurry up with the missionary work.
"Xiao Ran" was unconscious, and with the strange appearance of You Shi, there were only six people left, less than ten in total. Their gaze swept across the closed door to the basement, where the dark and light shades of dirty red were still clearly visible.
"166, keep an eye on this place for me, I'm going to do something."
【Okay, goo~】
...
Tianxin lay asleep in the glass jar with her eyes closed, oblivious to everything. The noisy footsteps faded into the distance. Through the thick alloy door, a series of bubbles rose from the light green solution inside the jar, and pairs of dark red eyes silently opened.
...
"arrive."
【You're back!~】
Du Yu returned just in time. The group had just pushed the sample containers through a series of security and disinfection procedures and entered the laboratory located at the lowest underground level.
"Mr. Chen, the K-grade sample has been delivered."
The woman referred to as "Old Chen" was a young woman wearing a mask, but her eyes showed no signs of aging. She had single eyelids, sclera visible above and below the iris, and long, but not curled, eyelashes that drooped down and almost completely covered her small pupils, revealing only the dark, bloodshot whites of her eyes.
"Chen Xingzhi!"
Even without looking at the name tag on the young woman's chest, Du Yu recognized her immediately when those highly recognizable eyes swept over her! What was she doing here?
In their past lives, people were too busy fighting natural disasters and attacks by corrupted creatures to find the cause of the Great Cataclysm. But a widely circulated rumor circulated: the Great Cataclysm occurred because Chen Xingzhi, an archaeology professor at Los Angeles University, unearthed something he shouldn't have in an ancient tomb!
The news spread, and Chen Xingzhi jumped to the top three on the Wasteland Assassination List!
Despite the harsh conditions, almost every survivor had a photo or portrait of Chen Xingzhi.
Regardless of whether the rumor about the world's end is true or false, Chen Xingzhi should belong to her own world! Why is she a biological researcher appearing in a deep dream? This is a novel world!
Thinking of the Chinese characters hanging in front of the research institute, a bold guess flashed through Du Yu's mind: perhaps, he had "traveled" back to his original world?
-----------------------Author's Note: I changed my name, what do you guys think? Why didn't my clicks increase, and my revenue even decreased? lol
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Thank you Shanming and Jianjian for the nutrient solution! Next time, you can add it to the chapter text so it won't be easily missed. I didn't even notice the nutrient solution was sent to me by a little angel if I hadn't checked the backend this time.
Thanks again!
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