"Like what?" deia asked, her curiosity piqued.
[You have to find out for yourself, Host.]
[Open the door and see for yourself.]
She narrowed her eyes, feeling suspicious. "Why should I open sothing without knowing where it leads? That place could be dangerous, yet you refuse to tell anything."
[Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. How will you know if you don’t open the door?]
[What if you waste an opportunity to obtain sothing valuable just because of fear?]
"I’m not afraid. I’m just being cautious," deia retorted. "Curiosity can kill a cat, and I don’t want to be that cat."
[There is a way out of this underground area through this laboratory, Host. The safest route, one that avoids encountering monsters.]
deia considered this. If soone had built such an important laboratory underground, it made sense that they would also create a secure exit.
They might find another way out, but in their current condition, she doubted they could escape without sustaining more injuries.
In the end, she had to take the risk and open the door.
"This isn’t a trap, right?"
[Host, the system would never deceive you!]
[The system wants you to be kind, so why would it be an?]
deia rolled her eyes. The system was an all the ti, it just didn’t realize it yet.
Faintly, she began to hear the sound of heavy footsteps approaching their hiding spot. Even though Lucian had sealed the entrance, there was no guarantee the monsters wouldn’t break through.
"Lucian, honey." deia patted his cheek. "I’m sorry to wake you, but I found a way out of here."
Lucian’s eyes fluttered open, still hazy with exhaustion. He glanced at the door. "What is that?"
"Our way out, but I can’t say for sure if it’s safe," deia admitted. "Can you stand?"
Lucian gave a small nod. "I can." He took a deep breath before pushing himself up against the wall. "Do you want to open it?"
With his condition, deia wasn’t even sure if Lucian could walk much farther, yet he still wanted to help so badly.
"No, I can handle it myself."
She placed her sword’s scabbard between the handwheel and began turning it slowly. A creaking noise echoed through the air before the chanism finally loosened, allowing her to rotate it more easily.
"Do you think anyone still lives here?" deia asked, hesitating before pushing the door open.
Lucian shrugged. "I doubt it. Humans tend to fall into depression when confined in small, enclosed spaces for too long. Even if people once lived here, most of them have probably turned into the Lost by now."
That ant there was a chance they would encounter the Lost instead. However, deia doubted it. The place was too damn quiet.
As they pushed the door open, a thick cloud of dust rushed toward them.
Lucian moved without thinking, shielding deia with his body so she wouldn’t breathe in too much.
"Yeah ... definitely abandoned," deia muttered between coughs.
Lucian waved his hands, trying to clear the dust swirling around them.
deia pulled a flashlight from her Space Pocket and shone it into the room.
Other than dust and rusted objects, there was no sign of life—no people, no Lost, not even scattered bones.
Even though the system had called it a laboratory, the place looked more like an underground bunker.
"It’s weird," deia murmured. "It looks like a bunker, but why does it seem like no one ever lived here?"
After making sure there was no imdiate danger, she and Lucian stepped inside.
deia soon noticed signs of life, a coffee cup left on the counter, scattered papers on the desk, and a mold-covered sandwich long abandoned.
"No, I was wrong," she muttered. "People did live here, but they left ... and never ca back."
There were no signs of a struggle or forced evacuation. The way everything was left behind made it seem as if the owners had believed they would return soon, but never did.
"They left before the apocalypse."
Lucian picked up an old newspaper, his eyes scanning the date—2073. That was sixteen years before the radiation struck Arcion Planet.
"I’m guessing they were scientists." He directed his flashlight to the walls, revealing faded charts, diagram of complex formulas scribbled in a language he couldn’t quite understand.
So of the notes had been hastily torn down, leaving behind jagged edges on the pinned papers.
"The supernatural being did tell this was a laboratory and that we could find sothing useful here." deia felt relieved—finally, she didn’t have to gatekeep any information the system had given her.
Lucian picked up one of the scattered docunts, squinting at the faded ink. "It’s about genetic mutations." His expression darkened. "They were studying sothing ... sothing related to the mutants."
"The supernatural being did tell this was a laboratory and that we could find sothing useful here." deia felt relieved—finally, she didn’t have to gatekeep any information the system had given her.
According to Richard, many elites were aware of the phenonon long before the public, so it wouldn’t be surprising if soone had secretly built a laboratory to study genetic mutations.
The question was, how far had their research gone, and why was the laboratory abandoned?
deia said, "If this laboratory was abandoned, then there are only two possibilities: either the owner was killed by monsters, or to keep it secret, the owner killed the researchers here."
Humans were scary after all.
To conserve limited resources, it would have been better for the owner not to share the bunker with anyone. Once the researchers had completed their work, they were no longer useful.
"However, the radiation ca unexpectedly and couldn’t be predicted," Lucian said, "If the owner did kill the researchers here, it ans they must have found sothing the owner wanted long before the radiation hit Arcion."
But what?
"Maybe this place isn’t abandoned. Maybe the owner couldn’t access it because it beca too dangerous." deia shrugged. "I an, this place isn’t as dangerous as Black Zone Forest was back then, right?"
Reviews
All reviews (0)