Chapter 868: There's a Way Ahead
The distance between her and the door was only a few meters. With a big leap, Lin Sanjiu could escape from this room. She pushed off the ground like a leopard, charging towards the door. Almost at the moment she made her move, the heavy wooden door started to creak and close. Within the beam of her raised flashlight, the four words "The way out lies outside" were distorted by the gradually closing door panels.
"Hurry!" Mrs. Manas urged in a desperate voice. "There's still a small gap!"
The illuminated crack of the door was narrowing, but Lin Sanjiu was swift in her actions. She managed to squeeze out through the gap just before it completely closed, sidestepping like a nimble fish, barely avoiding touching the door frame.
The wooden door closed with a resounding "thud" behind her, echoing through the corridor.
Suddenly, Lin Sanjiu twisted around, shining the flashlight on the door behind her. At the same instant her gaze fell upon it, the doorknob clicked, indicating that it had been locked from the inside. The words projected onto the door panels instantly changed to "Dead end."
Before she could gather her thoughts, a muffled burst erupted from behind the wooden door, and several dark liquid splatters erupted from beneath the gap, staining the ground with a mixture of blood, broken bones, and excrement. The lock had been opened, and the wooden door once again swung open with a creak, revealing the darkness within, as if inviting the next person to enter.
When the beam of light fell upon the headless corpse from before, there was no obstruction. The words "Dead end" remained motionless, accompanied by blood, shattered bones, and excrement. Apart from the absence of a corpse, the room that stared back at her from the darkness appeared just as eerily silent as before.
"Let's go quickly," Mrs. Manas said, sounding surprised and disgusted. "It seems the person from before didn't make it out in time and died inside."
If the medical station had turned out like this, Lin Sanjiu doubted she would be able to find Yu Yuan here. But if he really was here, that would be troublesome.
Lin Sanjiu turned her flashlight around, and the beam projected "The way out" in the corridor. She hurriedly distanced herself from that room, which resembled a dark and eerie abyss. If she didn't occasionally glance back, it felt as if the room would slowly inch closer behind her.
The flashlight's beam wasn't very bright and couldn't illuminate the entire corridor. The front was still immersed in thick darkness. She remembered the brighter light emitted by the [Ability Polishing Agent] and recalled what Mrs. Manas had asked her to do. Hastily summoning the card, she took a look and couldn't help but stare.
"I had a feeling that something was wrong when you uncardified it," Mrs. Manas finally spoke in a low voice after a long pause. "But I didn't expect..."
[Ability Polishing Agent]
A bottle-shaped item made by an Evolver and deliberately named as such. Its contents emit a bright silver light.
This is not her thing at all!
Lin Sanjiu stood still, staring at the card without reacting for several seconds. "H-How could this be? Is it possible that it changed... No, that's impossible. I've always had it with me, and it worked fine the previous times I used it. I never let anyone..."
As she spoke, a bright realization flashed through her mind.
"Ryuji!" she murmured, understanding what had happened.
That was the only time recently when she had handed the [Ability Polishing Agent] to someone else, and when she got it back, she didn't even look at it before cardifying it. But why would Ryuji switch her item? No, more importantly, how did he know she had the [Ability Polishing Agent] and prepare a fake one to give her?
Did he know what it was used for?
"We'll think about these questions after we get out," Mrs. Manas whispered, calling her. "This medical station is too suspicious. Let's hurry."
"Shouldn't we explore this building before we leave?" Lin Sanjiu hesitated. If Yu Yuan was currently lying in some corner on the verge of death... then she would be his only hope for survival.
"Forgive me for being blunt, but he was already seriously injured due to the explosion," Mrs. Manas reminded, sounding somewhat dissatisfied. "If he were brought here again, he probably wouldn't have been saved. Searching for him would be in vain."
Following the indication of the "The way out" projected by the beam of light, Lin Sanjiu took slow steps forward. Even though Mrs. Manas had said that, she still couldn't make up her mind.
"No, something's not right," she walked for a while and stopped near the staircase. "There's a high possibility that he was brought to this medical station."
"What do you mean?"
Two days ago, she had received news that the Twelve Organization had rescued someone on the verge of death. Considering the time it took for the information to reach her and tracing it backward, Yu Yuan should have been rescued no more than a week ago. According to common sense, after rescuing someone, they should have immediately been taken to a medical station. The incident in this medical station must have happened recently. In other words, when Yu Yuan was rescued, this medical station was still intact and functioning normally.
Otherwise, the Twelve Organization wouldn't have been indifferent to the destruction of medical facilities.
"There's no one here because the Twelve Organization hasn't realized that something's wrong with this place yet." Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath, unwilling to entertain the probability of Yu Yuan still being alive. "Regardless of what happened, since it just occurred, maybe I still have a chance to save him."
Mrs. Manas was left speechless by her words and finally sighed. "... Luckily, you found a suitable item."
Lin Sanjiu swept the flashlight beam onto the stairs leading to the third floor. The row of words on the steps changed shape, adding a few more words: "Dangerous way out."
... What kind of danger was hidden in the medical station? She swept the remaining half of the corridor with the flashlight. The long corridor stretched straight into the darkness, marked with an orange glow bearing the words "Crisis outweighs opportunity."
This flashlight is truly a timely lifesaver.
Fortunately, in the corridor where the crisis outweighed opportunity, there seemed to be no wards or treatment rooms. Lin Sanjiu didn't dare to enter but took a few glances inside from the stairwell. She faintly saw several storage rooms—at least they were labeled as such.
The wards might be on the third floor, she thought, while the flashlight beam continued to circle around her. Although the building had five floors, it was unimaginable that there would be enough posthumans who fell ill in the apocalypse to fill the entire building... Huh?
She paused for a moment as the flashlight swiftly returned to the stairs leading to the first floor.
"Dead end"—the two words in the beam of light reflected on the steps, illuminating the back of a person's head.
"We can't go downstairs?" Lin Sanjiu was startled. "Does that mean we can only climb out through a window or the rooftop?"
"That's possible... It's strange that the head was left on the stairs," Mrs. Manas murmured. "After all, we don't know if the head and the body belong to the same person... Maybe they are two different individuals who died in different places."
Another dead end appeared in the place where there were already dead ends. Can Yu Yuan survive here?
Lin Sanjiu didn't want to dwell on it and swiftly ascended the stairs in silence.
Just as she reached the final step, she abruptly halted—on the third floor, the entire corridor was a "dead end."
It was even darker here, not like the light was receding from the darkness, but as if this level had never seen light. There were several recovery wards on this floor, but when Lin Sanjiu called out softly, the only response she got was her own echo.
This place had become a dead end. Was there any point in going in?
After some consideration, Lin Sanjiu clenched her teeth and turned to look at the stairs leading to the fourth floor.
She shook the flashlight a few times and realized she could barely step into the corridor but going upstairs was the "way out." However, even when going upstairs, she had to stick close to the handrail, gradually turning her body sideways, so as not to step into the dead end.
When she finally managed to step onto the stairs, Lin Sanjiu found that she couldn't bring herself to turn her back to the pitch-black corridor on the third floor. She pressed her back against the wall and continued moving, still sideways, step by step. This way, the sights on both sides remained within her peripheral vision.
"Way out," "way out," still "way out"... It seemed that as long as she climbed the stairs, the danger wouldn't be as great. Every floor she passed felt like a hell where even the ghosts had perished. Not to mention Yu Yuan, there wasn't a trace of vitality here. Only closed doors silently watched her ascend the stairs in the darkness.
Finally, Lin Sanjiu reached the rooftop—the silence faded away, and the night breeze tousled her hair. In the distance, a row of small lights floated on the horizon, probably a group of round street lamps. It felt as if she had suddenly returned to the human world, and she couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.
"Way out." She followed the words projected by the beam of light and looked up, seeing the edge of the rooftop of the building.
Way out... Does that mean jumping down?