Ling Mo hadn’t gone far before a rusty blue iron door appeared in front of him. The door was shut and secured with a large lock. In front of it lay a “Construction in Progress” warning sign, splattered with dark brown bloodstains.
He paused for a moment in front of the door, then turned his head and asked, “This is what you guys sealed off, right?” As he spoke, Ling Mo pointed to the gap at the bottom of the door. “There’s blood everywhere here, along with some torn pieces of clothing… So, even if someone managed to escape, it’s highly unlikely they would’ve had the time to turn back and close the door. Unless, of course, they were stronger than a zombie.” He gestured with his eyes toward the area around the lock. Near the spot where the two doors met, there were no fewer than five or six bloody handprints.
Even though the handprints had now taken on a rust-like hue, they still conjured up eerie images of what might have occurred there. Like survivors helplessly watching in despair as several blood-soaked hands reached out through the gap, clawing at the door…
“Don’t you think so?” Ling Mo asked.
With no room for excuses, Tang Hao sighed in reluctant defeat. “Yeah, someone did report to me back then, saying they had sealed off a place. I didn’t pay much attention to it.”
He truly hadn’t paid it much mind. Even now, Tang Hao was only interested in this spot because of Ling Mo’s particular actions.
In fact, the situation had deviated completely from what Tang Hao had anticipated. Things were supposed to proceed in a completely different direction. Like Ling Mo-he wasn’t supposed to be here right now. He should’ve been off somewhere else…
But Ling Mo just had to show up here.
“Messing with others and messing with himself!” Tang Hao thought bitterly to himself.
“Do you know what’s sealed in here?” Ling Mo asked as he grabbed the lock.
Tang Hao couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “The room’s probably full of either corpses or zombies. But that was months ago-whatever was in there is likely nothing but rot by now.”
“You discovered this spot months ago, yet you neither used it nor abandoned it. Instead, you went out of your way to process everything around it… You guys sure know how to kill time.” Ling Mo said offhandedly, his tone surprisingly neutral.
“…” Tang Hao’s face twitched violently.
At this moment, Tang Hao finally understood. While Ling Mo hadn’t hurt him physically, his actions and words were a continuous, naked form of torment.
What made it worse was the subtle yet layered meaning in Ling Mo’s words. Tang Hao was left endlessly guessing just how much Ling Mo knew, what his stance was on all this, or what plans he might have in mind…
Ask him? Not an option. Speculate? Maddening… This guy was doing it on purpose.
Clang!
With a soft metallic sound, the padlock clicked open.
Tang Hao was momentarily stunned. Standing this close, he hadn’t seen Ling Mo do anything at all.
Mental ability could do that? But he’d never seen anyone in their team with such a skill…
Screeeech-
The door creaked as it was pushed inward, the rusty edges grinding against the frame and producing a tooth-aching sound. As the door slowly opened, a strange smell wafted out from the room.
“Damn!” Tang Hao exclaimed, immediately wincing in discomfort.
Ling Mo, meanwhile, waved a hand in front of his nose, suppressing the smell until the door was fully opened.
At first, the room appeared pitch black, but as their eyes adjusted to the darkness, they began to make out the contents of the space.
“What is this?” Ling Mo blurted out, his brows furrowing the moment he took a quick glance inside.
The floor of the room was slightly lower than the corridor outside, and the place was surprisingly spacious. Perhaps because it had been sealed off for so long, the air carried a chilling, oppressive presence. The ground was almost entirely covered in dried brown bloodstains, and even the scattered equipment along the walls was heavily splattered with blood. ℝáΝỔβĚŞ
But none of that was what truly shocked them.
“The corpses are gone!” Tang Hao exclaimed, visibly startled.
When they had sealed this place, there had been a significant pile of corpses inside!
Ling Mo immediately turned his gaze to Tang Hao, who still stood frozen, wide-eyed in disbelief.
He understood what Ling Mo’s look meant… Ling Mo was suspicious now. But where was Tang Hao supposed to direct his doubts? There was no reason for anyone in their group to lie about something so inconsequential.
“There were definitely corpses in here! Every single corpse we could find back then… even the zombies we came across should’ve all been stored here…” Tang Hao stammered, his voice tinged with unease. “Wait! Maybe one of the zombies wasn’t actually dead and ended up eating all the corpses here… So that would mean there’s still one alive zombie in this room. Zombies are good at masking their presence, after all. If it realized people were coming, it might’ve hidden itself somewhere in the corner. It could be watching us right now…”
By the time he finished speaking, he felt a bit of relief himself.
That must be it. Most likely, that was what happened. Even if the sheer number of corpses and their decomposition rate didn’t make sense for this time frame, what was two or three months of hunger to a zombie?
Tang Hao tried to reassure himself with this thought as his anxious gaze darted to Ling Mo, closely observing his reaction.
The other man had warned him more than once: if he lied, the result would be… death! So, while Tang Hao might have withheld certain details, he’d never dare to fabricate anything about what he had already said.
He just wasn’t that brave…
“But what about the bones?” Ling Mo asked, pointing to the floor.
The question landed like a hammer, and Tang Hao felt an overwhelming urge to bang his head against the wall.
Why hadn’t he thought of that?
There had been so many corpses-what had become of their bones?
But Ling Mo didn’t wait for his reply. Instead, he turned back and pushed the door partially closed again. He pointed to the back of the door and said, “There aren’t any fresh impact marks here, either. Look-it’s all covered in dust.”
He rubbed his fingers together and gave a quick glance out the door before adding, “Enough. Let’s move deeper inside.”
“MeGu…”
Xiao Bai let out a low grumble just then, earning a glance from Ling Mo. Something stirred in his mind.
“Let’s go.”
Ling Mo shut the door quickly, then led the way toward the far end of the Distribution Room.
As the last sliver of light disappeared, the entire room plunged into darkness. It wasn’t until several seconds later that Tang Hao felt his eyes begin to adjust, faint outlines of the surroundings slowly emerging from the shadows.
Creeeak…
The sound of a door being pushed open echoed from somewhere distant. Tang Hao’s eyes widened in alarm, but before he could react, something cold and metallic pressed against his temple.
“Shhh.” Ling Mo’s voice came from beside him.
Tang Hao immediately held his breath, his body freezing in place. Then, all at once, a troubling realization dawned on him.
Where was the panda?
From the moment he was set down to when the panda vanished-it had all happened in the blink of an eye. Only now did he grasp that Xiao Bai was no longer with him and had seemingly been handed off to Ling Mo.
What was happening?
He turned his head slightly, catching a glimpse of Ling Mo, who was entirely focused on the direction of the doorway. A chill ran down Tang Hao’s back.
“Why do I get the feeling…” he thought to himself in mounting dread, “that he didn’t just come here to find something, but also to turn this place into a cage…”