400: Chapter 400 The Mysterious Red Eyeballs

The thick gray fog, like a living creature, spread silently from the depths of the experimental zone.

Wherever the mist passed, the lights went out one after another, and a layer of chilling white frost condensed on the alloy walls.

"Bzz... Bzz..."

In the darkness, a burst of static from current interference came through.

A five-man assault team was slowly advancing in the corridor leading to the laboratory in a standard diamond tactical formation.

Their specially made military boots stepped on the floor, making almost no sound at all.

Only the muffled breathing coming from beneath their masks appeared exceptionally clear in this dead-silent environment.

At the very front of the team, a team member guarded his front with a heavy riot shield.

Another team member closely followed behind, sticking a tactical peeping scope from the side of the shield into the door.

The infrared thermal imaging mode of the lens clearly fed back the pitch-black scenery ahead to the display screen on his helmet mask.

Confirming that there was no ambush behind the door, he retracted the scope and made a safety gesture to the team leader behind him.

The team leader nodded, and the squad filed in like tacitly coordinated predators.

Inside the laboratory, it seemed to have just experienced a catastrophe.

The vast majority of instruments and equipment were violently destroyed, the consoles were covered with claw marks and bullet holes, and the broken ends of wires were still sparking.

"Commander, this is Black Hawk Team 3."

The team leader lowered his voice and reported the situation to his superiors through the headset:

"Experimental Zone One has been destroyed, and there are traces of fierce battle. After investigation, the target... is not here. Repeat, the target is not here."

"Bzz... Received... Bzz... Continue to investigate other areas..."

The commander's voice was somewhat distorted amidst the noisy current, appearing intermittent.

Just at this moment, a few dots of faint blue fluorescent light flickered in a dark corner.

Clatter—

The team members turned their muzzle points in unison.

Several dazzling beams of tactical flashlights, along with the scarlet light spots cast by the gun scopes, accurately locked onto the direction of the light source.

That was a culture room that had been forcibly broken open.

The Black Hawk team entered it cautiously in a combat formation, holding their rifles.

Several flashlight beams quickly swept across the mess inside the room.

However, the scene before them made even these battle-hardened soldiers' hearts sink.

The vast majority of those heavy glass culture dishes were shattered.

Viscous blue culture fluid spilled all over the floor, reflecting an eerie glow under the illumination of the flashlights.

The previous blue fluorescent light came precisely from here.

Pat.

A team member's military boot stepped into the sticky liquid, seemingly hitting something.

Following the beam of light, everyone's vision fell on a severed arm soaked in the liquid, and they could not help drawing a cold breath.

Various unrecognizable mutilated limbs were mixed together with glass fragments, emitting a pungent odor mixed with formalin.

"Snap... Snap..."

Suddenly, a teeth-aching chewing sound came from behind a row of overturned instrument cabinets not far away.

That sound was mixed with crisp sounds resembling bones being crushed, sounding exceptionally chilling.

The beam of light focused instantly.

The outline of a bloated, deformed monster with exposed muscles appeared.

It was lying flat on the ground, with its back facing everyone.

Beneath it was a Noah Pharmaceuticals guard whose flesh was already blurred and mangled.

That thing's head was deeply buried in the guard's chest cavity, and every time it raised its head, it would drag out a long strip of bloody internal organs.

Then it swallowed greedily, making a satisfied gurgling sound in its throat.

The eyes of the Black Hawk team members widened abruptly, their mouths opened silently, and a tightly suppressed retch came from their throats.

The hands holding the assault rifles also trembled slightly out of control.

...

"Bzz... Bzz..."

In the mist-filled corridor, Minister Luo Lie stood with a straight figure.

In the headset carried by his tactical helmet, the current static suddenly became sharp.

A string of distorted, panicked shouts, along with abruptly sounding gunshots, pierced through the noisy interference and fiercely stabbed into his eardrums.

After a few seconds, everything quickly returned to dead silence.

The communication was completely cut off.

Minister Luo Lie's gaze flickered, and his brows were tightly knit.

The one who contacted him just now was the pursuer squad stationed in the inner layer of the experimental zone.

Following instructions, they first investigated the situation of the laboratory that sent out the alarm, but such bizarre movements came through.

Obviously, that squad was already in grave danger.

Perhaps the murderer was the killing demon White Owl who had sneaked into the building.

The life or death of the team members was secondary; what worried Minister Luo Lie the most was that "thing" hidden deep within the laboratory.

Was this suddenly appearing and spreading gray fog related to it?

A wave rippled across his mind.

"Jia Sangyi, what on earth is going on?"

Minister Luo Lie then asked in a deep voice.

"I am using the Mental Energy network to search for the source of the incident."

Jia Sangyi's voice came through the mental connection, likewise appearing somewhat unstable:

"From the looks of it now, the target should have deliberately destroyed the culture room, releasing out-of-control experimental subjects, trying to cause trouble for us and take advantage of the chaos to escape."

"Can you lock onto him?"

Minister Luo Lie immediately pursued the question.

"His ability should be spatial transition, but there seems to be a limit on distance and cooldown time."

Jia Sangyi's voice paused for a moment, then replied:

"Every time it is used, it will leave a brief mental fluctuation in place, like ripples produced by a stone thrown into water. This is precisely the beacon for us to track him."

Speaking of this, Jia Sangyi changed the subject and further added an explanation:

"However, these gray mists are very strange. Not only do they affect electronic communication signals, but they also distort Mental Energy to a certain extent. Tracking targets in this environment carries certain risks."

"I need to go all out right now. For the next period of time, do not proactively contact me, so as not to affect my operation."

"Rest assured, these mists will similarly interfere with ability users. The target won't be able to escape the experimental zone for a while. If there is any news, I will notify you immediately."

After Jia Sangyi finished giving instructions, the mental connection in his mind was severed promptly.

Minister Luo Lie's brows couldn't help but furrow slightly.

After a brief thought, he raised his eyes and looked toward the depths of the corridor.

The thick gray fog, like surging tides, was swallowing everything around it.

Making everything ahead blurry and indistinct, like leading to some unknown dark abyss.

Faintly, there were also weak gunshots passing through the heavy fog and entering his ears.

"We must catch that jumping flea as soon as possible and re-stabilize the order of the laboratory!"

At this thought, Minister Luo Lie immediately raised his hand, with his index and middle fingers joined together, and waved forward.

There were no superfluous words.

He took the lead in taking a step, stepping steadily into that cold gray tide with his figure.

The dozen or so well-equipped pursuers behind him also followed closely behind silently like ghost shadows melting into the darkness.

...

Inside the experimental zone, gray fog permeated.

All conventional surveillance and laser detection networks completely failed in this bizarre mist.

Only the shrill alarm bells echoed tirelessly, intertwining with the ghastly green light cast by the corridor emergency indicator lights, constructing a suffocating claustrophobic space.

Cheng Jiashu carried the unconscious Majima Goro on his shoulder, holding the female researcher who was almost dragged down with his other hand, running rapidly in the maze-like corridor.

Behind them, the surging gray fog closely pursued them like a predator.

Deep within the mist, countless twisted black shadows swayed faintly.

Waves of wet dragging sounds, along with sharp noises like claws rubbing against metals, were constantly coming from behind.

Among them, it was also mixed with non-human-like screams of pain and ecstasy, indicating that those things were closing in.

Intermittent gunshots rang out in the distance.

Running Cheng Jiashu cocked his ear to listen, identified the source of the sound, and deliberately avoided the area with the densest crossfire.

In the darkness, his pair of eyes were unusually bright, like two cat eyes emitting an eerie glow, capable of accurately locking onto the target's traces at night.

However, his expression at this moment was tense, more like a prey fleeing from the pursuit of a beast.

"Hiss—"

A shrill roar suddenly exploded behind him.

At the same time, a fishy and foul cold wind swept in accordingly.

Danger!

Cheng Jiashu's heart leaped fiercely, and he made a prompt decision.

A flash of light flickered in his pupils, and he instantly gripped the female researcher's arm tightly.

The next moment, the figures of the three blurred in place and disappeared.

Almost at the same time, a huge sickle-shaped limb with a piercing sound through the air slashed fiercely past the position where they had just been, leaving a string of dazzling sparks on the alloy wall.

A dozen meters away, the figures of Cheng Jiashu and the other two appeared again.

This patch of gray fog not only swallowed light, but the more important impact lay in blocking vision.

Even with Cheng Jiashu's ultra-strong perceptual ability, his visual range was compressed to the limit.

Fourteen meters was precisely the farthest distance he could perform spatial teleportation at present.

"Over here!"

The female researcher gasped heavily, and relying on her impression of the surrounding facilities, she quickly recognized the direction and pointed at a fork in the road.

"Exit Number 3 is over there!"

Gunshots were particularly dense in the direction of the other two exits; obviously, the guards of the Noah Organization had heavily surrounded that place.

They were both hunting down intruders and inevitably encircling and suppressing those terrifying monsters hidden in the gray fog.

The female researcher took out an access card and swiped it hard against the sensor.

"Beep—"

Accompanied by a heavy hydraulic sound, a thick high-pressure airtight door slowly opened.

Cheng Jiashu carried Majima Goro and flashed inside.

After entering the door, the female researcher immediately threw herself in front of the control panel and fiercely slapped the closing button.

"Clang!"

The heavy alloy door closed again, temporarily isolating the terrifying and dark world behind them.

The female researcher's legs went soft, and her whole body collapsed against the door, her chest rising and falling violently, breathing in the relatively clean air in huge gulps.

Her complexion was so pale that there was almost no blood color due to hypoxia and fear.

Cheng Jiashu was much more composed, merely gently laying Majima Goro down and leaning him against the wall.

He looked at the female researcher who was almost exhausted to the point of collapse, deciding to give her a little breathing room.

The woman before him and the unconscious Majima Goro were two unadulterated dead weights.

But since he had promised to take the two of them away from this devil's den, he had to ensure their safety with all his might.

Taking advantage of this gap, Cheng Jiashu's eyes gathered light, attempting once again to establish a mental connection with the living coordinate outside the building—Gao Jin.

As a buzzing sound rang out, a wisp of black thread emerged before him, attempting to tear open the barrier of space and construct a miniature black hole vortex.

However, no sooner had that vortex formed than it flickered extremely unstably a few times.

Then, like a shattered mirror, it quietly disintegrated and dissipated.

Only a faint fluctuation remained lingering in the air.

It failed again.

Cheng Jiashu exhaled a breath helplessly.

Previously in the laboratory, he thought that kind of piercing sonic wave attack had affected his concentration.

But after escaping, that noise had inexplicably disappeared, yet the pupillary technique of spatial teleportation still could not be cast.

Was there a problem on Gao Jin's end? Or was this bizarre gray fog at work?

Cheng Jiashu recalled the bizarre calling heard from behind that giant steel door when he was in the laboratory.

That sound had not actually drifted far away; instead, as the surrounding fog grew thicker, it became increasingly clear.

It was like whispering deep within his Soul, carrying a certain blasphemous and filthy aura.

Causing him to develop a deep apprehension stemming from biological instinct.

Every syllable of the sound was distorting the stability of space and tearing at the boundaries of his mental perception.

The only thing to be thankful for was that the noise that previously filled his ears had completely dissipated.

It at least gave his ears much more peace and quiet.

It seemed that these two sounds had some sort of conflict, with one side being silently swallowed by the other.

Obviously, not all changes came from the hands of the Noah Organization.

Looking at the emergency lights that had returned to normal around him, Cheng Jiashu asked:

"Young Miss Choi, what is the terrain of Exit Number 3 like? Is the field of vision wide, and how far is the nearest safety corridor?"

He glanced at the access card held in the female researcher's hand, which had her name printed on it.

This female researcher was precisely Majima Goro's fiancée, Choi Suyoung.

After catching her breath, Choi Suyoung supported herself against the wall, stood up, and replied with pants:

"Outside Door Number 3 is a backup channel for transporting experimental items. It is very spacious and very secretive, directly connecting to the Area B freight elevator and the safety corridor. As long as we can reach it, we will have a chance to escape from here."

She didn't understand why Cheng Jiashu couldn't use that miraculous ability to take herself and Majima Goro directly out of this devil's den.

Looking at Cheng Jiashu at this moment, her eyes were filled with lingering fear, and she couldn't help asking:

"Just now in the laboratory... what on earth did you see?"

"I saw an eyeball."

Cheng Jiashu's reply was simple and direct.

Hearing this, Choi Suyoung was full of astonishment.

"That iron door opened by itself."

Cheng Jiashu's expression was solemn, and a trace of lingering astonishment flashed in the depths of his eyes:

"It was pitch black behind the door, with only a huge red eyeball without eyelids floating in the darkness. It just took a glance at us, and the dead experimental subjects in those culture dishes... seemed to have all come back to life."

"Moreover, I can feel that as long as one is swallowed by the gray mists gushing out and loses one's mind, one will become a part of those monsters in the mist."

After hearing this, Choi Suyoung was even more terrified in her heart.

What kind of thing on earth was that, to actually make the man with mysterious abilities before her feel fear.

While the two were talking, faint gunshots, shrill screams, and the sounds of monster claws rubbing against the ground and chewing on flesh and blood drifted over from a distance again.

Both of them were clear that the outside was completely in chaos.

This was perhaps a serious accident that even the Noah Organization itself was caught off guard by.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

From the high-pressure airtight door behind them, heavy and dense impact sounds suddenly came.

Every impact caused the thick alloy door panel to bulge inward by a tiny arc.

The gaps of the door began to deform.

Even wisps of gray mist were seeping in from the distorted gaps.

Bzz bzz—

The lights overhead also began to flicker wildly.

"Let's go!"

Cheng Jiashu no longer hesitated, threw Majima Goro back onto his shoulder, pulled Choi Suyoung, and continued to run wildly forward along the corridor.

Fortunately, they successfully arrived at Exit Number 3 on the periphery of the experimental zone.

The gray mist here was obviously much thinner, no longer thick enough to completely obscure vision.

But their good luck also ended here.

At the exit, a fully armed pursuer squad had long been standing by in full battle array here.

The man at the head had a lean figure, eyes as sharp as a falcon's, and exuded a strong stench of blood.

(End of Chapter)