Chapter 145
Chapter 145
Xiao Huai turned back toward the young man.
The flaxen-haired youth frowned, lips pressed into a line. He shook his head slightly, as though he had heard something impossible.
“You didn’t actually join the project, did you? Th-that defies the natural order!”
Xiao Huai smelled crucial intelligence.
His eyes turned cold as he answered mercilessly, “So what if it does?”
“How could you? Bringing the dead back to life can’t possibly be real! You actually believed them? Damn it, Brother Wang, you graduated first in your class. You were a genius. How can you not tell right from wrong anymore?”
In his agitation, the young man unleashed a torrent of words.
The faintest smile touched Xiao Huai’s lips.
Resurrecting the dead.
In that case, the man’s daughter might still be alive, or at least alive in another form.
Like those humanoid monsters.
Xiao Huai ignored the young man and strode toward the left passage.
The young man grabbed his hand. “Wait!”
Xiao Huai glanced over and pulled free. “Is there something else? Leave if you want. I have to find her.”
The young man sighed. “If you don’t want that pack of monsters surrounding you, I suggest taking the hidden route.”
Xiao Huai raised a brow. “What hidden route?”
“You don’t know? You personally supervised its construction.” Suspicion flashed through the young man’s eyes.
Xiao Huai looked away, his voice flat. “I have too many things to remember. How should I know which route you mean?”
The more indifferent he sounded, the more it seemed he had long since stopped caring about such matters.
His words also implied knowledge of many other hidden routes, demonstrating how powerful he was.
Understanding dawned on the young man. He approached a corner of the fork warily and pressed a loose brick in the wall. With a click, stone slabs began shifting.
A passage forced its way out from inside the wall.
It was not at ground level, but ten feet above them. They would need a ladder to reach it.
The young man climbed up at once, only for Xiao Huai to seize his right ankle. “What are you doing? Weren’t you leaving?”
The young man looked back. “If we’re going mad, we’ll go mad together. I never believed the dead could return. If you say Xiaotian is alive, then I want to see what is really happening.”
Xiao Huai said nothing. He released his grip, silently allowing the young man to lead.
The passage was less than three feet wide, surrounded on every side by reinforced concrete. Near waist height ran a ventilation slit barely two inches tall.
Rather than providing airflow, its position seemed better suited for observing what happened below.
When they first entered, there was no light at all. As they moved forward and their eyes adjusted, they gradually realized the passage was not completely dark.
Faint flames burned in the corners, steadily fading like something struggling on the verge of death.
Walking ahead of Xiao Huai, the young man suddenly stopped and began trembling uncontrollably.
Another player might have surrendered to curiosity and immediately asked an NPC what was wrong.
Xiao Huai kept his lips sealed and remained absolutely silent. Following the young man’s gaze, he found the source of the fear.
A staircase had once descended from the end of the hidden passage. Now corpses filled it, every body horribly mutilated, their limbs twisted into impossible angles.
Not only that, the view beyond the ventilation slit had finally become clear.
A row… an entire row of faceless monsters stood before the opening.
Each had a pair of upright bat ears. They stretched out their hands and leaned against the vent, as though the slightest noise from the two men would provoke something unimaginable.
The young man no longer dared move. He knew some monsters had escaped, but never imagined so many had broken out and gathered here.
The far end of the hidden passage led to the main monster research chamber, where experiments were ordinarily conducted.
At most, two or three monsters were dissected each day. How could dozens appear here at once?
And every researcher lay dead before them.
Perhaps they had tried to escape through the hidden passage.
But before they could begin, they had been wiped out.
People did not die in a place like that without reason. The location was wrong.
So was the way the bodies had been piled.
Someone had deliberately used the corpses to block the entrance.
Xiao Huai’s eyelids moved. He saw something shifting.
Something was moving among the researchers’ bodies.
The flaxen-haired young man noticed it too. He raised a hand and pointed, about to speak.
Then he remembered the monsters surrounding them, clapped a hand over his mouth, and desperately signaled Xiao Huai with his eyes.
A child huddled in a corner of the corpse pile.
She wore shorts and a white T-shirt, blood spattered across her exposed skin.
The girl had curled into herself, legs folded and arms wrapped around her knees, her head buried between them. She did not need to look up for Xiao Huai to identify her from her build.
The missing daughter from the mission.
Was she dead, alive, or something in between?
The young man was excited but also terrified of the monsters.
At that moment, dazzling light shot from behind him. His eyes flew wide.
No way…
Xiao Huai had simply taken out a flashlight and switched it on.
Was he insane? There were monsters everywhere!
The young man expected them to go berserk, but three seconds passed and nothing happened.
The monsters showed no response to light. In fact, they could not see it at all.
Of course. They had no eyes, only extraordinarily sensitive ears. How could they see the two men?
As long as they remained quiet, they were safe.
Xiao Huai’s light illuminated the corpse pile and the girl more clearly. Startled by the sudden brightness, she narrowed eyes streaked with tears and blood. A child’s phone watch was clutched in one hand.
When she saw Xiao Huai, her brows drew together and her eyes widened. She spoke without thinking.
“Daddy?”
It was over.
The young man’s heart dropped.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!!
The instant she spoke, the monsters began hammering the walls in a frenzy, shaking the entire passage.
Xiao Huai shouted at the young man, “Why are you standing there? Save her!”
“Right! Right!!” The young man stood ahead of Xiao Huai, and the passage was too narrow for them to exchange places. Acting himself would be faster.
He immediately rushed to the girl. “Xiaotian, hurry! It’s dangerous here. Let Uncle get you out.”
He seized her hand and turned to see Xiao Huai putting on soundproof headphones. Xiao Huai then produced two more pairs in moments and placed them over the other two people’s ears.
The world fell silent the instant the headphones settled into place.
The young man was about to ask what Xiao Huai was doing when he saw two black objects shaped like grenades in Xiao Huai’s hands.
His eyes widened like brass bells. “What are you doing?”
Before he finished, Xiao Huai pulled the pins and threw both objects at their feet.
Then he rapidly led the other two away.
Mad. He was completely mad!
That was the only thought in the young man’s mind as they ran.