270: Blood-red door

Chapter 270: The Blood-Colored Portal. Chen Mo shook the engine oil and blood off his hands, then looked up at the surveillance camera in the corner.

"Still hiding?"

His voice wasn't loud, but it traveled through the monitor and reached the ears of the person behind the scenes.

"Come out."

"Or I'll tear this building down and dig you out."

The intercom remained silent for a few seconds.

Then, the door that was supposed to lead to the "bedroom" suddenly swung open.

There was no bed inside.

Only walls covered in display screens and a massive console resembling a DJ booth.

A thin, small man wearing a floral shirt and sporting Green Hair sat there, holding half a slice of unfinished pizza.

He looked at Chen Mo walking in, his expression more painful than a sob.

"Uh... brother... let's talk this through..."

Green Hair raised his hands, attempting to surrender.

"Who are you?"

Chen Mo walked up to him, the tip of his butterfly knife pressing against the man's Adam's apple.

"I... I'm the network admin here... no, I'm the scene designer..."

Green Hair stammered, "Director Wang told me to keep watch here, said I just needed to stall you. He didn't say you'd dismantle all my work..."

"Where is Wang Daoming?"

Chen Mo applied a bit of pressure.

A bead of blood slid down the tip of the blade.

"Be-below... the real basement level two..."

Green Hair pointed at the floor. "This is actually a mezzanine. The entrance to the real Lab Zero is right behind that painting."

He pointed to a massive reproduction of "The Last Supper" on the wall.

"But I don't have the authorization to open it..."

"I don't need authorization."

Chen Mo retracted his knife and turned around.

"Huh? Brother, you're not killing me?" Green Hair froze, a glimmer of pleasant surprise flashing in his eyes.

Chen Mo didn't look back.

"Rat."

"Hey! Right here!"

Rat poked his head in from outside the door.

"This guy used my sister to scare me just now."

Chen Mo pointed at Green Hair. "He's yours."

With that, he walked straight toward the painting.

Green Hair's screams echoed behind him, followed by Rat's gnashing curses.

"Damn it! Playing ghost, are we? Scaring me, are we?!"

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The sound of a shotgun butt slamming into flesh was dull and rhythmic.

Chen Mo stood before the painting.

Jesus in the painting looked down at him with compassion.

"Do you think I'm guilty too?"

Chen Mo murmured to himself.

He raised his left hand.

Fingers pressed together like a blade.

Puchi.

His entire hand plunged directly into the canvas, piercing the wall behind it.

This wall was a disguise; it was hollow behind.

Chen Mo felt a cold handle.

He twisted it hard.

Click.

The entire wall slowly rotated inward, revealing the true passage behind it.

A even stronger cold wind, carrying the scent of sulfur and blood, blew out.

At the end of the passage was a heavy lead door.

A striking logo was printed on the door: an hourglass entangled in thorns.

Beside the hourglass, a line of code was written:

[Project Zero - Origin]

(Project Zero - Origin)

"This is it."

Ruan Qiushui floated over. Her form was somewhat unstable; forcibly controlling that mechanical puppet earlier had consumed a lot of her Yin energy. "I feel it... that familiar aura, right behind the door."

"My body... or rather, the shell that used to belong to me."

Chen Mo clutched his chest.

His heart was racing.

Not because of nervousness.

But because of resonance.

That damned artificial heart was vibrating frantically, seemingly desperate to return to its host body.

Red warning boxes popped up on his retina again:

[Warning: Core temperature too high]

[Warning: Approaching homologous energy field]

[Recommendation: Immediate evacuation]

Chen Mo simply closed the annoying pop-ups.

"Rat, is it done?"

"All done!"

Rat ran over panting, blood still on his shoes. "The kid passed out. I tied him to the mixing console."

"Let's go."

Chen Mo stepped into the passage.

This was the true entrance to hell.

What came before was merely an appetizer.

The three of them reached the lead door.

There was no keyhole on the door, only a palm print scanner.

"This needs a specific palm print..."

Rat leaned in to look. "Should we go back and cut off Green Hair's hand?"

"No need."

Chen Mo raised his right hand.

The hand that was still flesh and blood.

"If Li Chunfeng didn't lie to me, then this body of mine is the master key here."

He pressed his palm against it.

Beep—

The scanner emitted a green light.

[Identity Confirmed: Subject 001]

[Authorization Level: Highest]

[Welcome home, Chen Mo.]

The sound of hydraulic valves venting echoed.

The heavy lead door slowly slid open to both sides.

The sight inside made even Chen Mo, who was accustomed to life and death, hold his breath.

It wasn't a laboratory.

It was a massive underground karst cave.

In the center of the cave suspended a colossal, still-beating heart.

It was as tall as a two-story building.

Countless thick blood vessels connected to the walls of the cave like a giant spiderweb.

And beneath that giant heart stood a person.

A man wearing a black suit and holding a cane.

Wang Daoming.

His back was to the door, and he was looking up at the heart as if admiring a peerless work of art.

"You're late."

Wang Daoming didn't turn around, his voice echoing in the vast cave.

"But it doesn't matter."

He slowly turned around, wearing that loathsome gentlemanly smile.

"Just in time for this new batch of medicine to be ready."

...Thump.

The sound didn't come from the air.

It was transmitted directly through the rock beneath his feet and along his bones.

Chen Mo's knees buckled, and he propped himself up with one hand on the ground.

Every pulse of that giant heart was like a heavy hammer slamming into his temples.

His eardrums buzzed.

The data stream on his retina turned into a chaotic mess of red static.

The artificial heart in his chest was going crazy, pounding against his ribs as if it wanted to burst out of his body to embrace that behemoth.

"Very noisy, isn't it?"

Wang Daoming twirled the cane in his hand, pacing back and forth beneath the two-story-high heart.

He seemed unaffected.

"To mortals, this is just noise."

He reached out a white-gloved hand and gently stroked a thick, hanging blood vessel. "But for you, this is a mother's call."

The vessel was translucent.

What flowed inside wasn't blood.

It was countless distorted, tiny faces tumbling and screaming in the viscous liquid, flowing along the tubes into that giant heart.

"Are those... all people?"

Rat's hand holding the gun was shaking.

He couldn't see the faces clearly, but he could feel the suffocating resentment.

The temperature here was clearly very low, yet he broke out in a cold sweat.

"Correction, they are raw materials."

Wang Daoming corrected with a smile. "Just as an oil refinery needs crude oil, I also need some spiritual impurities to refine the purest 'divinity'."

Reminder: The website will be revamped soon, which may cause loss of reading progress. Please save your "Bookshelf" and "Reading Records" (screenshots recommended) in time. Sorry for any inconvenience!