Chapter 38: Saving Unpermitted Chapter 38

Chapter 38: A Passing Encounter 

Shu Jun had been to the Headquarters before, where the assistants would always take him to the upper floor. This was the first time he had headed downwards. The two of them were clearly trespassing, but Zhu Yanchen walking in front of him didn’t seem to feel guilty in the slightest, as though he was walking in his own yard.

Zhu Yanchen didn’t speak a word. Shu Jun was so uncomfortable under the impact of the purifier, so he had to divert his attention by contemplating random stuff.

After hearing a lot of things from Ai Xiaoxiao, Shu Jun didn’t quite know how he should face Zhu Yanchen. He could understand why the man never explained anything properly — In the first place, Zhu Yanchen intended to save Shu Jun as much as his capacity could allow, and he succeeded immensely. If he deliberately explained that later, it would seem as though he had dedicated all his effort to this endeavour.

That said, since they were partners, if Zhu Yanchen clearly talked about it, he could easily gain favour from Shu Jun. But, he chose to remain completely silent.

On many issues, Marshal Zhu liked to remain silent. Although they were old friends in name, Shu Jun always had an inexplicable feeling of guilty conscience — Let’s just say the life-saving favours they gave each other were even, but Zhu Yanchen actually helped Shu Jun a lot more in other matters, be it openly or secretly. Shu Jun admitted that his skin wasn’t thin, but he was also not so thick-skinned to the extent that he would take Zhu Yanchen’s help for granted.

If Zhu Yanchen was more outgoing, even if Shu Jun carried little memories of the past, he would have the confidence to befriend him all over again. Regretfully, Marshal Zhu was as reserved as a steel walnut, one that couldn’t be pressed open even with a three-meter thick iron gate. Shu Jun found no opening to ‘attack’ at all.

“Is your heart okay?” Walking in the white corridor that stretched endlessly before their eyes, Shu Jun tried to initiate a conversation. Earlier, when he completed his physical inspection, Ai Xiaoxiao asked Zhu Yanchen to return to check his heart. Shu Jun didn’t know what the result was.

“Extremely good.” Zhu Yanchen slowed down a little.

“That’s great.” 

There was another long silence. Shu Jun had gone through a few topics in his mind, but found that he was harbouring way too many superfluous worries. He couldn’t talk comfortably.

“……What about you?” After a long silence, Zhu Yanchen probably felt the atmosphere was a bit awkward and took the initiative to speak.

It could be seen that Zhu Yanchen had a hard time finding topics. Ai Xiaoxiao actually showed Shu Jun’s inspection report to Zhu Yanchen, so if he really had any problems, Zhu Yanchen would know even before him.

“It’s also very good.” Even though Shu Jun put on such a sincere tone, the conversation remained bland.

Perhaps because Zhu Yanchen came back to his senses and realised that he had asked such a nonsensical question, his steps became quicker. Shu Jun quickly pulled the topic away: “Talking about seeing a doctor, Luo Duan seems to be here to recover from his injuries. If we have time later, I want to see him. Even if I can’t remove the fragments in his brain immediately, I can suppress the erosive substance in his body.”

“……Hmm.” For some reason, Zhu Yanchen’s tone was stiff, sounding a little grumpy.

“I understand your concerns.” Shu Jun quickly added. “Although Luo Duan and I aren’t very close, he’s really a reliable person. There’s no harm in reaching out to him in advance.”

After all, the current situation was really difficult.

Even if they successfully obtained a sample of brain fragments and Ai Xiaoxiao successfully formulated a working immunosuppressant, it wouldn’t be wise to ‘awaken’ too many Players at once — At the moment, there was still no solution to the Player’s lifespan problem, and Players who had been deceived might not be willing to believe in Zhu Yanchen. Once a large-scale conflict took place, the only one that would benefit was the Erosion Marshes.

They had to walk carefully step by step. If a step went wrong, all of them might end up dead.

Speaking of tactics, Luo Duan wasn’t as good as Shu Jun. But speaking of scheming, Shu Jun knew he was far worse than Luo Duan. Luo Duan wasn’t an impulsive man. If he could be convinced to join their side, however Shu Jun thought about it, it would only be beneficial to the plan.

“I understand, there should be enough time.” Zhu Yanchen didn’t refuse, but the stiffness in his tone didn’t disappear either.

After all, Luo Duan wasn’t Zhu Yanchen’s subordinate. As of now, he had learnt about Luo Duan from Shu Jun’s words alone, so it was normal for him to have some hesitation. Shu Jun thoughtfully patted Zhu Yanchen’s shoulder, and the latter glanced at him with complicated eyes.

The corridor finally came to an end, and they didn’t have to find topics to talk about anymore.

There was a hall hidden in the deepest part of the Headquarters.

Shu Jun had seen a lot of monsters and had prepared himself mentally prior to this, but when he saw the things in front of him, he almost retched —

In the center of the hall stood a cylindrical glass jar with a radius of about six meters, stretching from the floor to the ceiling and filled to the brim with something. Because that thing’s shape was too regular, Shu Jun couldn’t tell until he got close.

This was a jar full of brain tissues.

There were many hoses connected to it, floating sluggishly in the liquid, and small air bubbles were popping from time to time. Shu Jun was in a daze, failing to react until Zhu Yanchen completed the steps needed for their intrusion.

“I’ve temporarily deactivated the alarm system and purifier system, we only have five minutes.” Zhu Yanchen pinched the timer. “Be careful. Once the time is over, the concentration of erosive substance will become too much and they will start noticing.”

Shu Jun pulled himself together and placed his hand on the cold jar. A thread of erosive substance, which was so thin that it looked almost non-existent, seeped in and turned into a hook, flicking the mechanical code lock a little bit. Three minutes later, a creak sounded from the base of the jar, and the jar’s lid slowly opened.

Afterwards, the erosive substance condensed into a strong spoon, and very meticulously, it scooped out a small amount of brain tissues from inside, enough to fit a small flask. As his pitch-black erosive substance hooked the pink brain tissues, Shu Jun felt his stomach churning with acid.

But unfortunately, this thing was imperative to their plan.

According to Zhu Yanchen, to break away from the brain fragments’ control, they must first obtain a healthy raw sample. Once these tissues were made into implantable fragments to be used on the synthesised humans, their internal structure would be complex enough to make people go crazy. Zhu Yanchen had made some attempts before, but always failed to get the finished product.

As for those that had been implanted, most of them dissolved along with the synthesised humans inside the Erosion Marshes, or were eroded away. There was no way Zhu Yanchen could carry out a craniotomy experiment on a healthy synthesised human, but now, with Shu Jun’s help, he could trace back to the brain fragments’ source without anyone knowing.

After Shu Jun finished taking out the brain tissues, Zhu Yanchen poured incubation liquid into the sample flask. As soon as they restored the mechanical lock to its original state, the timer reached the last second.

They barely made it.

Zhu Yanchen carefully hid the sample flask under the chest of his coat and nodded at Shu Jun, but Shu Jun didn’t return a relieved expression. He frowned and looked around.

“What’s the matter?”

“Nothing.” Shu Jun muttered. “It’s like… something is staring at me. Forget it, let’s go see Luo Duan first.”

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With Ai Xiaoxiao’s intelligence, Luo Duan’s room was easy to locate. Shu Jun looked through the cracks in the inspection window. The room was dim, and a dark figure was leaning against the window sill.

It seemed Luo Duan hadn’t slept yet.

There’s no other way. Shu Jun shook his head and issued a ‘suppression’ command to the room from the door, hoping that this would help his ex-opponent suffer less pain. After heaving a long sigh, he left the floor with Zhu Yanchen.

As soon as the two of them left, the figure beside the bed slowly collapsed — If viewed from another angle, it looked more like a black piece of human-shaped paper, whose thickness was almost negligible.

The suppressed erosive substance was paralysed on the spot for a moment, then slowly, it crawled back up and seeped back into the wall like a liquid.

At the moment, the real Luo Duan was still at the deepest floor.

After seeing two intruders, he didn’t dare to venture too deep. The two men wore very common-looking face masks, and Luo Duan couldn’t see where they came from. He didn’t want to really use Yi Ning’s key either — God knows what those two men actually did. If he accidentally left some traces behind, he might later shoulder the blame for something he didn’t do.

But his plan didn’t have to come to an end tonight. Yi Ning didn’t put up any guard against him, so he could steal the key again another day.

Luo Duan contemplated something about this floor, then turned around to head back while being only a small distance away from the entrance of the hall. But the weird voice once again appeared behind him — That thing was hovering around his spine like a frosty hand, slowly rubbing the back of his neck.

“To the right… to the right… the third door.” It whispered. “The answer is there… the answer is there…”

Luo Duan pressed his temple irately, intending to ignore its existence as usual.

That thing went quiet for a moment, but when it started talking again, its voice changed to a sweet, familiar voice.

“The answer is there… The answer… that you want.”

“Xiao Yuan?” Horrified, Luo Duan came to a halt.

That was his fiancee’s voice.

Pei Shuyuan was originally the deputy captain of the Groundwater team and also an extremely good combatant. A year ago, she was swallowed by an Erosion Marsh, so according to the rules of [Erosion], she could only withdraw from the team.

[I’m out for a trip.] She said at that time. [In any case, you’re about to retire, it’s better to lead the team with some peace of mind. The timing is just nice, I’ll look around to find a good city for us to get married.]

After that, she would video-call him from time to time, and their photo and text exchange never stopped. It was just that Luo Duan was always busy, while Pei Shuyuan was travelling outside. With their schedule conflict, the communication between the two became less frequent over time.

But they had been dating for almost ten years and their relationship had long passed the period of passion, so Luo Duan adapted very quickly.

Why does this thing know Pei Shuyuan’s voice?

“The answer…” The voice that was originally creepy now turned intimate, sounding almost like a whisper.

Luo Duan stood rooted to the spot for a full five minutes, and eventually, he let out a long sigh and walked to the door that the thing asked him to. His skill Water Mirror reflected the images of the inside of the room, showing that no one was there. 

I’ll just take a look, just take a look…

If the answer he wanted was really there, he would consider continuing. If he found no noteworthy information, he would report this evil thing to the NPCs so that it would be dealt with.

Behind the door was a warehouse, where he could see many tightly arranged small jars packed with meat and accumulating lots of dust. Luo Duan didn’t find anything special. As he breathed a sigh of relief and was just about to turn back, something fell to the ground.

It was an electronic tablet, with no dust on the surface at all. Someone must’ve left it behind.

Luo Duan hesitated for a few seconds before stepping forward. A lot of black threads started entangling the worn-out tablet, and the device turned on on its own, its screen illuminating the dim room.

He picked it up to see the screen displaying a ‘Recently Modified’ log. The name of the first file at the top was rather eye-catching.

[Synthesised Human Sample List and Precautions for Preservation].

Luo Duan took a deep breath and carefully opened it.

Early the next day, a personnel rushed into the room on the lowest floor. Seeing the electronic tablet lay quietly on the small table, he stuffed it into his backpack, letting out a long sigh of relief — Personal belongings should never be left in the workplace, not to mention that he hadn’t set a password. If someone found out, he might lose his job.

Luckily it was just one night. Other employees didn’t come to this place very often, let alone any synthesised human. Nothing should’ve gone wrong.

……Speaking of this, there’s indeed a synthesised human in the Headquarters right now.

He quickly retrieved the tablet and headed to work. According to the regulations, they must first go to the upper floor to renew the passcode, then take another elevator to go underground. This is so troublesome, as he was thinking so, the synthesised human, who watched him hurriedly rush past the elevator door, helped him keep it open.

The synthesised human carried a visitor tag with the name ‘Bitter Rain’ on his chest. He was handsome and exuded a gentle air, looking very comfortable to be here. So far, the impression this synthesised human left on him had been good.

“Are you going to see Marshal Yi Ning?” Seeing the synthesised human press on Yi Ning’s floor, he couldn’t help but ask.

“Yes.” Bitter Rain smiled at him.

After hearing this sentence, he no longer dared to talk to the synthesised human — The circulating information regarding these things seem correct. They aren’t humans after all, only a sort of weapon.

He had never seen such a creepy smile.

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