Chapter 189: CH 189

Yu Le was in no mood to tease Zhong Qing. If his years of experience had taught him anything, it was that he would never misinterpret genuine fear.

Zhong Qing was really scared.

He squatted on the ground, clinging to his knees with most of his face buried in them, as if trying to squeeze himself out of thin air.

Yu Le thought perhaps he had exhausted all his energy trying to maintain a strong composure in front of the four of them. Zhong Qing’s only advantage was his knowledge of the city, but in fact, Professor Ruan probably knew quite a bit. This child wasn’t necessary for them, but more like an add-on, but no one brought this up.

Zhong Qing held onto that little bit of reality that he could still understand and described everything that happened to him lightly, but Yu Le understood that Zhong Qing was far from ready to face death—people who really wanted to die wouldn’t have such violent fear.

“Stand up.” Yu Le stretched out his hand.

“It’s not safe here.” Zhong Qing hid his face behind his arm and twitched his nose.

“It’s fine. We’ve been through a lot of dangerous places. It’s not a problem protecting a little kid,” Yu Le lied briskly.

“Really?” Zhong Qing held out his hand in disbelief. “If you’re really that good, shouldn’t you have some kind of particularly handsome mobile base?”

“Do you remember that golden-eyed guy? That kid went head-to-head with the regular army of the Order Supervisors. Each of us slipped under their noses. My car is fine. It’s because your city is blessed with too many resources that you… Forget it.”

This sentence wasn’t appropriate. Yu Le sighed in his heart, grabbed the young man’s thin wrist, and pulled him up from the ground. Zhong Qing shivered. It looked as if his legs were still weak.

“Then promise,” he muttered.

“I promise you’ll be fine.” Yu Le turned his head. “Continue your talk about the corpses.”

“…They are not the same as me. I mean, the incubation period of my disease is quite long, and it won’t kill me. They turned out to be weird. The Mainbrain basically uses them as a mutant cell bank.” Zhong Qing’s voice still sounded weak. His self-confidence disappeared without a trace, and he clung to Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman, eager to hang himself onto them like a backpack.

“Could it be these people’s… Uh, something happened to the successor? The Mainbrain temporarily needs to transfer their diseased cells away and do some medical research.” Ji Xiaoman guessed in a low voice.

“I don’t know. This has never been the case before. Even if it was, it’s not like several people would have problems at the same time.” Zhong Qing grabbed his arms as if he was standing on a snowy plain. “…I don’t know.”

“Let’s ask the team above later.” Yu Le continued to scan the basement with a cold light, squinting his eyes. “Neither of us is an expert in this area. Xiao Ruan should know more.”

“Ah,” Zhong Qing suddenly said. His dark eyeballs were like two empty holes in the dim environment, so it was difficult to tell where he was “looking”.

“What’s the matter, kid?”

“Those people seem to be… All of them have been researched and completed.” Zhong Qing scratched his scalp. “But I’m just guessing. I can’t hack into the system. No one has taken samples from them for a long time, so I guess… I guess…”

His voice became smaller. “Forget it, maybe I’m thinking too much.”

“We will convey this to Mr. Ruan.”

Ji Xiaoman nodded quite seriously and continued to check the light screen.

“There is nothing left here, Lao Yu. I don’t dare dismantle the large machines. There could be an alarm on it. You can take a look at the terrain. If there’s nothing else, let’s go back first.”

“We haven’t gone to that room over there yet.” Yu Le pointed to a room at the end of the darkness.

“According to the internal map here, that’s the morgue on this floor. Zhong Qing was just referring to that place, and I didn’t see any moving heat source from there.”

Ji Xiaoman tapped on her electronic wristband with her fingertips. “There is such a room on each floor. The security level there may be higher. Do we need to look at it?”

“No need, there is really nothing in it,” Zhong Qing said immediately. “My eyes can see the situation inside. There are a few corpses missing, and nothing else has changed. If you want to know more, you can ask me.”

“Let’s take a look and be rest assured.” Yu Le touched his chin. “Didn’t you say there was a problem there? It’s always good to make sure. In case the situation is wrong, let’s withdraw as soon as possible.”

“It’s really unnecessary.” Zhong Qing clenched his fists. “I… I was just making a mountain out of a molehill, so don’t go. What if the Mainbrain finds out?”

Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman glanced at each other quietly.

Ji Xiaoman hesitated for a bit. She added another light screen while she kept operating with one hand. “I’m not very good at pure hacking. Let’s try the electronic lock first.”

Seeing that it was fruitless to stop them, Zhong Qing bit his lip and said nothing.

It turned out that Ji Xiaoman’s experience in the Underground City was still useful—collecting data and information had honed her skills in slipping through doors and picking locks. With the two-pronged approach of programming and hardware, the door really did open for her.

“We only have one and a half minutes,” Ji Xiaoman said anxiously. “Lao Yu, don’t watch for too long. If you don’t close the door in time, the alarm will go off—”

Zhong Qing stopped at the door and didn’t enter the room with them, as if he was particularly resistant to that room. He squatted down against the wall, shrank up again, and hid himself in the dark.

Yu Le took a deep breath.

The room was about one hundred square meters or more. Countless square glass troughs were stacked on top of each other around the four walls of the room. The glass was all opaque black, like a painted coffin. There was a large metal table in the center of the room full of machinery he had never seen before.

“I… I temporarily removed the blackout mode for now,” Ji Xiaoman reminded in a low voice.

As soon as her voice fell, the black glass wall became transparent in an instant. Except for five or six empty spaces, there were people lying sideways in almost each of them.

…Or rather, something in human form.

Those weren’t born deformities but were like some disease that had developed to the extreme.

Under normal circumstances, these people most likely died due to the development of the disease long ago, but judging from the occasional movements in their eyes—if they were lucky enough to show skin—these people were still alive.

In the “morgue” created by the Mainbrain, these weird diseases couldn’t kill the host. They continue to survive, and eventually turn the host into something impossible in a natural environment.

Yu Le shuddered. Zhong Qing’s mental endurance was stronger than he thought. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to lie down here and still keep his sanity. If it was him, he would probably feel as if dying would be easier than this.

But they had limited time, so Yu Le couldn’t express his feelings. He glanced at the glass grooves coldly, taking in as much information as possible.

Each glass box displayed dense information as well as lights indicating the status of the body. Yu Le looked around and didn’t see an empty glass tank with Zhong Qing’s name on it until Ji Xiaoman reached out and pointed to the top of the room.

An empty trough was there. Unlike the other slots with red lights on, its indicator light was still soft blue. That position was at the top of the glass trough pile. With the edge of the glass trough protruding in a ladder shape, it was indeed easier to escape from there.

Yu Le swept through with a cold light and found the two small characters “Zhong Qing” on the glass wall. There was more dense information next to the name, but the location of the “coffin” was too high, which made it inconvenient to take it in.

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Even being as tall as 1.9 meters, Yu Le had to stand on tiptoe as he tried to read the words clearly while trying to ignore the other people who were looking at them askance from their glass cases.

In the next second, all the glass returned to opaque darkness.

“Time’s up.” Ji Xiaoman grabbed Yu Le as she shivered a bit. “Let’s go, Lao Yu.”

Yu Le took an inhale and didn’t linger. He left the morgue with Ji Xiaoman. Zhong Qing was still at the door, remaining silent. Yu Le wasn’t so cordial this time. He directly pulled at Zhong Qing’s back collar and lifted him up.

“You’re not telling the truth,” he said coldly.

“I didn’t lie to you about big events!” Zhong Qing struggled in frustration and looked at Ji Xiaoman for help.

Ji Xiaoman pursed her lips and avoided Zhong Qing’s gaze. Although the girl was a bit slow in interpersonal skills, she was very smart. Most likely, she had found things were unnatural, and Yu Le was even more sure of his judgement.

“It’s like a museum of freaks in there, yet you’re so fresh and refined compared to them.”

Seeing Zhong Qing standing firm, Yu Le withdrew his hand.

“Your problem isn’t a ‘chronic disease that can’t hurt your life’, right?” Yu Le tsked. “Even if it is, it’s certainly not as simple as blindness. What exactly is your situation?”

“It has nothing to do with you!” Zhong Qing scratched his hair nervously. “Wouldn’t it be nice if I gave you the right information? This is personal shit. Personal shit… After all, what does my illness matter to you?”

“If something unexpected happens to you suddenly, our state and plans will be affected. Be honest, kid.”

“…Your parents, I heard you talk about their tone. They used to treat you very well, didn’t they?” Ji Xiaoman said hoarsely. “You’re in good health and you don’t need to be taken care of in your daily life. I don’t believe they would replace you just because you’re a bit inconvenient to their lives and have a bad personality.”

Zhong Qing opened his mouth and his eyes turned red.

“If I told you, you wouldn’t cooperate with me.” He wiped his eyes, stubbornly trying not to sob. “If my own parents can’t bear the disease, how would strangers be willing to take care of me?”

“An infectious disease?” Yu Le was immediately on high alert.

“No!” Zhong Qing’s voice had tears in it. “I swear!”

“…Then why can’t you tell us?” Yu Le patted his chest and breathed a sigh of relief with Ji Xiaoman.

“Look for yourself. Don’t let that sister look yet. I’m afraid I’ll scare her.” Zhong Qing took a step back. “Mr. Yu, you… Come with me.”

Yu Le squeezed the handle of the gun around his waist with one hand while taking a few steps forward, leaning against the nearest corner.

Zhong Qing took a deep breath, then slowly raised his hands. Yu Le stared at his every move, swallowing silently; the soles of his feet were a little numb from tension.

“I grew these things.”

Zhong Qing poked the soft and dense hair on his head, revealing part of his scalp.

The moment he saw what was exposed, half of Yu Le’s body went numb. He instantly understood the reason why Zhong Qing’s parents were obsessed with “a healthy child”. If the disease really wasn’t fatal for a short time, it would be worse for Zhong Qing and his family.

Yu Le saw a human eye on Zhong Qing’s exposed scalp. Strictly speaking, it was a little smaller than a human eye, and the color of the iris was a bit lighter. It was looking at him, and because of the angle, it was rolled up, revealing mostly white, which made things extremely uncomfortable.

“You… This…” Yu Le was speechless.

“It’s hard to make it clear in one or two sentences,” Zhong Qing said. “After my illness relapsed, they began to grow out slowly, and it was useless to remove them through surgery.”

“Them?” Yu Le repeated, dryly.

“Nn,” Zhong Qing whispered, scratching his hair again. “…In addition to the invisible pair on my face, there are six on my head.”

“…” Yu Le wiped his face, not knowing what expression to use to deal with the child in front of him.

He thought it was right to not let Ji Xiaoman follow. He couldn’t wait to stop thinking about it and directly throw this complicated mess to Ruan Xian and the others.

“It’s really not like an infectious disease?” Yu Le squeezed out these words after a long pause. “Thinking about it, if you’re very sick, the defensive measures in this place will not let you run away.”

Zhong Qing twisted his hands nervously.

“Forget it, you go back with us first. Don’t say a word to Xiaoman. She’s already nervous as it is, and this will only scare her even more.”

“…Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me too early.” Yu Le looked at the dim ceiling. “This has to be seen by Xiao Ruan’s gang.”

“Nn.”

The state of “Xiao Ruan’s gang” was a bit worse.

As soon as Tang Yibu rubbed back to Ruan Xian happily, he was grabbed by Ruan Xian and pulled aside to a machine covered by a cloth. The space there was barely big enough to accommodate them. Professor Ruan followed and crawled in, stretched out his robotic arm, and tightly clamped one side of π’s mouth—the iron bead fell out of Tang Yibu’s arms and was just about to open its mouth and bark.

[Someone is coming.] Ruan Xian transmitted it through his earring stud. [They’re still far away. Just arrived downstairs. The speed of their detection machines is too fast. They’re already on the first floor. We have no time to hide.]

[Understood.] Tang Yibu stretched out his fingers and wrote on the skin on the side of Ruan Xian’s neck.

[They seem to be going upstairs, most likely looking for traces of life on these floors.]

[I have to save energy, and perceptual camouflage is best left to humans. Machines are controlled by NUL-00.] Professor Ruan obviously also had a way to deal with this situation—he flashed the text with a faint cold light on his glass trough.

Tang Yibu nodded calmly as he reached out his hand and touched the iron bead. The iron bead, who was still dissatisfied, no longer bore its temper and obediently leaned to Tang Yibu’s side.

It’s late at night. No matter what the visitor is doing, this shouldn’t be a daily job, but there weren’t that many people coming, so they were reluctant to call them pursuers.

Ruan Xian thought that things were getting more and more interesting.

The author has something to say:

Zhong Qing really didn’t tell the truth completely XD

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