Chapter 70
Yu Zhi walked out of the laboratory and glanced back at the sign outside the room.
[S8-120]
This was Underground Level 8. S10 should be two levels below.
Pure white floor tiles stretched to the end of his field of vision. The space was empty—no people, no trace of any pollutants.
Yu Zhi quickened his pace, scanning the laboratories on both sides. Every lab on this level had windows facing the corridor, and the bright corridor lights illuminated the scenes inside one room after another.
All kinds of instruments and equipment were neatly arranged, spotless. Even paper and pens were placed properly. There wasn’t a single trace of blood.
The researchers here must have evacuated safely—and even remembered to destroy part of the experimental data.
Were the experimental subjects left behind?
And then turned into pollution sources?
Yu Zhi lowered his eyes slightly and strode into the stairwell, heading for Level S10.
There was only one level between Underground Level 8 and Level 10, yet the difference in atmosphere was extreme.
Underground Level 10 was extremely damp. Yu Zhi felt as if he were wrapped inside a gigantic water balloon; even when breathing, he could feel fine droplets of moisture creeping into his mouth and nose.
The humid air eased the pain in his polluted arm, but it was replaced by a suffocating feeling of oxygen deprivation.
He pushed open the stairwell door. After clearly seeing what lay outside, Yu Zhi’s steps abruptly halted.
Before him was an undersea observation tunnel.
The seawater was a deep, quiet blue. Fish drifted leisurely past.
At first glance, it felt dreamlike.
At second glance, oppressive.
The dark seawater pressed down heavily from above. In the enclosed space, it felt as if his entire body were wrapped by the endless deep sea.
Faced with the vast, boundless ocean—faced with the unknown forces of nature—fear and awe quietly gave rise to a faint sense of submission.
[The sea is our homeland.]
That sentence inexplicably surfaced in Yu Zhi’s mind.
Suddenly, something icy brushed against his fingertips, as if he had poked something.
His lashes trembled. He snapped back to his senses and realized he had unknowingly walked right up to the transparent glass wall, his hand reaching toward the sea.
Yu Zhi jerked his hand back, his expression changing.
Mental pollution again.
Unlike the mental pollution he felt when facing the fishmen, the suffocating fear of the deep sea itself was something that could not be dispelled.
If fishmen came, he could run. He could kill them.
But what about the vast, boundless ocean?
Only one answer remained in his mind.
He could die.
The suffocating pressure in his chest intensified. Yu Zhi took a deep breath and stopped being stingy with his resources, directly using a standard skill.
[Step on the floor tiles at the end of the tunnel!]
Beyond the tunnel was an ordinary corridor, with a nurse station at the far end.
At first, Yu Zhi thought he was seeing things. Only after approaching did he confirm it.
It really was a nurse station.
Behind the glass were not laboratories, but a structure almost identical to a normal hospital’s inpatient ward.
As he drew closer, the automatic door opened.
Water covered the floor. He could clearly hear taps running inside, water pouring out endlessly.
The water was two to three centimeters deep. When Yu Zhi stepped inside, his shoe splashed loudly against the surface.
The next second, the sound of pages flipping came from the nurse station ahead.
“Registration,” a weary female voice suddenly sounded in the air.
Yu Zhi followed the sound and saw a slender, pale human hand appear on the counter.
That hand placed a soaked visitor registration book onto the counter, then set down a black pen.
“Sign and return the pen.”
Yu Zhi didn’t believe for a second that the speaker was human. He craned his neck to look behind the nurse station—and clearly saw what the nurse looked like.
It was a fishman pollutant.
Its level of pollution was even worse than Zhang Feng’s in the medical center. Its human torso had completely transformed into a grotesque fish body, while its limbs remained human.
Layers of fish scales opened and closed rapidly, like frantic breathing, revealing countless hollow pores beneath. The human arms and legs on either side were normal—and longer than the fish body itself. The fusion of normal and abnormal created an indescribable horror.
Yu Zhi’s body stiffened.
He had originally planned to go straight to Laboratory 356—but then he noticed the countless pollutants lining both sides of the nurse station.
They were all like the nurse, retaining parts of human limbs on their fish bodies. Some retained human heads, some arms or legs. Perhaps driven by the subconscious of their original selves, most of them had limbs convenient for movement.
Human limbs were slender and long compared to fish bodies. The pollutants resembled grotesque spiders, limbs bent, bulging lifeless eyes fixed warily on Yu Zhi like an intruding species.
“Sign,” the pollutant at the nurse station repeated. “No registration, no exit.”
Yu Zhi, extremely flexible when necessary, picked up the pen and signed his name.
[Yu Yi]
After completing the procedure, it felt as though he had been accepted as a new fish among the school—no pollutant stared at him anymore.
They returned to their half-dead states, lying in the waterlogged floor, gray-green scales slowly opening and closing, mouths agape as if struggling to breathe.
Yu Zhi kept his nerves taut, glanced at the nearest ward doorplate, and strode forward.
340, 341, 342…
Fabric was scattered across the corridor floor—nurse uniforms, patient gowns. The open wards on both sides were in complete disarray.
Yu Zhi’s eyelid twitched. This place was worlds apart from the company above and the upper laboratories.
Meteorite Biotech was creating pollution sources. Pollutants weren’t formed overnight…
The nurses and patients here seemed deliberately left behind.
Yu Zhi frowned and continued forward.
354, 355, 356—
He stopped abruptly and looked up.
Room 356 was open. At a glance, it was empty.
Yu Zhi walked to the bedside and quickly checked the bed card.
[Name: Jiang Shengnan]
[Gender: Female]
[Age: 29]
[Diagnosis: Undifferentiated schizophrenia]
It was Jiang Shengnan.
This was her ward—and also Meteorite Biotech’s “laboratory.”
Meteorite Biotech was exploiting employees’ illnesses, using treatment as a pretext to conduct pollution experiments!
Yu Zhi pressed his lips tightly together.
[User “momo” thinks your company’s pollution experiments feel familiar.]
[User “Oceanographer” hopes you find the pollution source.]
[User “Pure and Low Desire” looks forward to your meeting with little brother and tips you 20 common coins.]
Yu Zhi didn’t spare the comments another glance. He searched the room quickly, looking for clues about Jiang Shengnan’s whereabouts.
She wasn’t in the ward. The experiment reports didn’t mention transferring her to another “lab” either.
Where could she be?
Where had she gone?
What else had Meteorite Biotech done to her?
Yu Zhi’s mind raced as he rummaged through everything. After a long search, he finally found a tablet buried in clutter inside the bedside cabinet.
He swiped the screen. It was dead.
Yu Zhi immediately pulled out his backpack from [My Items], took out a power bank, and charged the tablet.
The tablet booted quickly. The screen lit up almost immediately.
Before it fully loaded, a familiar, weary voice suddenly came from outside.
“Registration.”
Yu Zhi’s heart jumped violently.
Who was here?
Then came a smiling male voice.
“Do I need to register too?”
It was the black-robed man!
Yu Zhi’s expression changed slightly. Was he here for Yu Zhi—or for the pollution source?
Holding his breath, Yu Zhi stored the tablet back into [My Items] and carefully edged to the side.
The conversation outside grew clearer.
“Sign and return the pen.”
“Oh? Yu Yi’s already been here?”
Yu Zhi glanced at the open ward opposite him, used a standard movement skill, and slipped inside, quietly pressing himself against the wall.
Outside came the familiar, intermittent humming.
A light, strange melody mixed with the sound of sloshing water echoed through the dead, empty corridor, drawing closer… closer—
Yu Zhi heard his own heart pounding wildly. He slowly exhaled, forcing himself to calm down, and rapidly scanned the contents of the tablet.
The tablet seemed to be for patient use. Aside from Meteorite’s medical software, it also contained the company’s internal office software.
The medical software required facial recognition. Yu Zhi opened the office software and saw a public welfare planning document.
[“Igniting the Spark of the Mind” Mental Health Treatment Charity Plan]
[Theme: Ignite the Spark of the Mind, Build a Shared Spiritual Home]
He skimmed to the end. The document was only half written.
He tapped the edit timestamp.
[November 8, 2XX3, 9:00 a.m.]
Last year? Half a year ago?
Jiang Shengnan was still alive? Still working here?
Yu Zhi froze. He was about to take out his phone to compare dates with the experiment reports—
“Drip—”
A drop of water fell onto the back of his hand, cold enough to make his fingers twitch.
He flexed his fingers and suddenly realized something was missing.
In an instant, he understood.
The sounds outside were gone.
At some point, the air had grown deathly silent. The black-robed man’s humming had stopped.
Had he left?
Or—
“Drip—”
Yu Zhi instinctively stored the tablet back into [My Items].
“Drip, drip—”
Two more drops fell from the ceiling, landing on his wrist.
Then Yu Zhi felt an itch on the back of his neck.
Like… strands of hair hanging down from the ceiling, brushing lightly against his skin.
Goosebumps erupted across his back.
At that moment, the familiar young voice sounded directly above him.
“Heehee, found you, Brother.”
The chat exploded instantly:
[User “Pure Love Warrior” excitedly anticipates your game and tips 20 common coins.]
[User “Pure and Low Desire” hopes you struggle desperately and are brutally suppressed, tipping 20 common coins.]
[User “One Life, One Pair” hopes your other little brother joins your brotherly game.]
[User “Strongest King” waits excitedly for your miserable death and tips 10 common coins.]
[User “Electronic Wooden Fish” sighs regretfully that you missed the pollution source and knocks a wooden fish for you.]
Yu Zhi felt an icy hand clamp around his neck.
There was no ambiguity—only suppression. The fingers slowly tightened, like a predator gripping its prey.
With his vital point seized, Yu Zhi’s mind snapped into icy clarity. He immediately activated a skill.
[Make me rock-hard from head to toe, inside and out—Wish Granted Hardness!]
“Brother…”
The black-robed man’s trembling, excited voice whispered by his ear.
Yu Zhi took a deep breath and replied calmly, “I’m here.”
“Save your strength for later.”
The fingers at his throat stiffened.
The black-robed man seemed to doubt his own ears, making a confused sound.
“Huh?”
Yu Zhi turned around and looked at the black-robed man hanging upside down from the ceiling like a ghost, and calmly spoke as if marching to his death.
“Come on.”
He unzipped his jacket, shrugged off his coat, revealing a loose white T-shirt underneath, and took a step forward.
Black-robed man: “?”
Now face to face, Yu Zhi saw his eyes clearly for the first time—light brown irises filled with confusion and disbelief.
Yu Zhi: “Isn’t this about having s*x?”
“Did you bring a condom?”
Black-robed man: “??”
[User “World’s Cutest Moe Girl” is shocked by your bold advance and tips 50 common coins.]
[User “Scarecrow’s Straw” is dumbfounded by your actions.]
[User “Cyber Bodhisattva” admires your shamelessness and tips 20 common coins.]
Yu Zhi continued without changing expression.
“I’ve got lubricant. You should handle the condom, right?”
He lifted his eyelids slightly. His dark, clear eyes showed no fear or panic—like a still lake without a ripple.
Seeing this, the black-robed man’s gaze gradually turned cold.
What he enjoyed was the chase—the hunt—the prey’s resistance and struggle—the pleasure of absolute control.
If the prey didn’t run anymore, what fun was left?
Yu Zhi saw the shift in his expression clearly. His wildly pounding heart finally slowed a little.
He had gambled—and won.
This pervert enjoyed playing with his mind, not his body.
What made a game addictive was the process. Only an intense process could make victory satisfying.
Just like hide-and-seek—if there was no hiding, what meaning did “finding” have?
Yu Zhi looked at the black-robed man and spoke slowly.
“Xiao Hei, by rights, I won hide-and-seek.”
“So the second game… shouldn’t I be the one who decides?”
The black-robed man stared at him heavily.
“What does Brother want to play?”
Yu Zhi slowly curled his lips into a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
“I want to play Yu Yi.”
“Play…”
“Whoever kills Yu Yi first.”
