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墨書 Inktalez
The structure here is far more reasonable than the buildings in Mang Mountain.
The community, composed of several interconnected compartments, resembles a maze. However, every room, regardless of its size, is marked with labels for easy identification. There are even landmarks between rooms that are connected but slightly distant from each other, with different colors and thicknesses of stickers representing various purposes.
After encountering an ambush from that individual, the two had not seen anyone else. They moved through the underground levels almost at random. Song Bunan even tucked his weapon at his side to focus on the surroundings, appearing completely unperturbed.
"It seems Shui Su made the right bet." After taking quite a few detours, they finally arrived at the room referred to as the operating theater. It was the largest compartment among all, with a specially designed door slightly ajar, revealing a pitch-black interior that was hard to discern. Song Bunan muttered something that Xin Yi heard clearly and quietly asked what Shui Su had bet on.
Song Bunan pulled a flashbang from his pocket to signal him to step back. He forcefully tossed it through the door's gap and dragged Xin Yi to hide around the corner, explaining that Shui Su had analyzed that this place must have been abandoned. Even if they found the underground structure, it might not yield any results; they were certain that their focus had completely shifted back to the old residence. This place was merely a trap set for them, and checking it would only waste time. Therefore, they decided that Shui Su and Xiao Mei would follow the traitor's lead with several others while he and Xin Yi would take on the role of the unwitting fools wasting time.
Xin Yi nodded. Suddenly, a bright light flashed nearby, and clear cries of pain echoed from the operating theater. Song Bunan reacted swiftly, gripping his weapon and rushing in, with Xin Yi closely following behind. Upon entering, they saw that Song Bunan was already engaged in a struggle with someone inside.
It was a cyborg wearing an oversized patient gown, moving sluggishly unlike any they had encountered before. Xin Yi could see clearly that it was a child. Malnutrition had left the child's hair brittle and yellowed; their complexion was pale, and their body was as frail as dry kindling—more slender than Song Bunan.
The child was on the defensive; noticing this change, Song Bunan reduced both his speed and strength in attacking. The two retreated from the center of the operating theater to a corner, where Song Bunan used machines and carts to create a triangular barrier, leaving the child with no escape route.
Xin Yi stepped forward to become the last line of defense. He saw fear and timidity in the child's eyes that he had never seen in anyone else. What terrified him most was that the child's mouth had been sewn shut; black string ran haphazardly through flesh, tightly binding their lips together, with dried blood still deep red around it.
The child had not been silenced for long. Xin Yi instinctively wanted to pull Song Bunan back but saw him reaching out to the child instead, saying that if they didn't want to die, they should come with him.
It was a reasonable yet unexpected situation for him. Xin Yi looked at Song Bunan's composed expression and immediately cast his gaze toward the child, wanting to know their response.
The almost skeletal child huddled in the corner began to tremble violently upon seeing Song Bunan's hand; their facial muscles moved as if trying to open their mouth. The black string suddenly tightened, pulling at their lips once more as fresh blood surged forth in a horrifying display.
Song Bunan leaned forward, covering the child's chin and lips with his palm. "You just need to remove the stitches to recover; if it bursts open, there will be no saving him!" he almost shouted. The child, who had been struggling in his embrace, finally stopped moving and lowered his head, pressing himself against Song Bunan.
The child lost consciousness, blood still flowing from the wound on his mouth. Song Bunan, stained with the child's blood, let out a sigh of relief as he collapsed onto the ground, exhaling deeply as he thought that this scene could rank among the top three most terrifying images in his nightmares.
"You took too much of a risk," Xin Yi said, casting an annoyed glance at him before checking on the child's condition. She received Song Bunan's characteristic chuckle and a lengthy explanation that was clearly an attempt to justify his actions. In summary, he insisted that his intuition told him the child was not a bad person.
"Intuition is not a reason to take risks. Next time something like this happens, tell me your thoughts, and I'll handle it," Xin Yi replied.
You think you can handle this? Song Bunan didn't engage further but nodded dismissively to indicate he would manage. He gestured for Xin Yi to lift the child and place him on the still-usable Surgical Table while he prepared to remove the stitches from the child's mouth.
Seeing Song Bunan actually lift the scissors, Xin Yi grabbed his hand, saying that such things shouldn't be done carelessly; if it got infected, the child would surely die.
"The people who stitched him up didn't consider any of that. If we don't take them out now and apply medicine, it will only get messier once we take him out. I know what I'm doing; don't worry. Look around for gauze and bandages; it will be fine soon," Song Bunan said firmly. Xin Yi found herself unable to argue further and reluctantly accepted.
When the lab personnel retreated, they left behind various small items. Song Bunan quickly found the necessary materials around the Surgical Table. Looking up, he saw that Song Bunan had already begun removing the child's stitches. It was impossible to pull out the entire thread at once; instead, Song Bunan carefully cut each exposed piece and used tweezers to extract every short strand. Each time he pulled one out, he could see the child tremble.
"He shows signs of having been experimented on; most of his scars are concentrated on his upper body, especially his abdomen. He must have been abandoned here by the lab personnel—either because the experiment failed or he was deemed useless. Let's find an exit first; once we do, we can come back for him," Song Bunan said, his hands stained with blood as he skillfully applied medicine and wrapped up the child's wounds, even covering him with his own coat.
"Will he be taken away?" Xin Yi asked reluctantly, not wanting Song Bunan to catch a chill. Without waiting for a response, she handed over her own clothing. Fortunately, Song Bunan accepted without hesitation. After putting it on, he looked around with a troubled expression and said, "I can't be sure. We still don't know how many test subjects have been left behind. Leaving him here is our last resort; unfortunately, we have no other choice. If we take him with us and encounter any danger, it could threaten both our safety."
Though they were reluctant to let this child suffer any more harm, given the uncertainty of their situation, they had no choice but to leave for now. They marked the door of the operating room and closed it behind them, hoping that the child could hold on until they found an exit to rescue him.
The maze-like place was much larger than indicated in the building plans. Following various signs, they wandered around for a long time without seeing anything resembling an exit. Song Bunan's strength was waning; he found a random spot to slump down and took out some water to drink deeply.
"These bastards," the man cursed with malicious intent. "They designed this place in such a twisted way, don’t they fear their own people getting lost in here? Ah, if I catch that designer, I’ll make sure to give him a beating. I’ll never say mazes are fun again..."
It was clear that he was exhausted; his round face was drenched in sweat, and his hair lay flat against his skin, making him look quite disheveled.
"Our line of thinking must be wrong," Xin Yi suggested as he sat beside Song Bunan, helping to massage his shoulders and ease his tension. "If we think from the perspective of convenience, they would likely place the exit in an inconspicuous yet common location. Since ordinary exits are usually only accessed by core members, they would certainly be more private than the areas used for transporting experimental subjects. We might need to search through those offices we just checked more thoroughly."
That made sense. Song Bunan let out a big yawn to shake off his fatigue. With Xin Yi urging him on, he stood up; he needed rest, and the quickest way to achieve that was to find the exit and get out with that poor child, then enjoy a good sleep before heading into the Gu Family Old Residence for some exploration.
"Let’s go!" Song Bunan motivated himself, grabbing Xin Yi’s arm and following slowly behind, lacking the energy he had when they first set out. Xin Yi shouldered both of their gear, leaving only weapons and food for Song Bunan to replenish his strength.
After searching through so many circles, they could basically confirm that not many people had been left behind when the lab evacuated. Besides the person at the entrance, there was only that abandoned child remaining.
Song Bunan sat on the sofa watching Xin Yi rummage through suspicious Buttons, pulling out his phone to check for signal again. When he found none, he reluctantly abandoned the idea of communicating with everyone else and sighed, regretting not teaming up with Shui Su and the others.
"I guess they’re all inside the Gu Family by now," he muttered.
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