Chapter 62.2 – Duolan Mountain (2)
A group of over a dozen students and their teachers had everything confiscated from them and were then taken away. Someone attempted to make a call for help using their wristwatch, but they were noticed by someone holding a whip with spikes.
After a whip strike, the person’s arm was covered in blood, hanging limply by their side.
Contrary to their assumptions, they were not led downhill but were taken up the mountain, crossing through the previously perceived dangerous rockfall areas.
Due to previous examples, everyone remained silent and cooperated without a word along the way.
Entering the mountain’s entrance felt like arriving at a blend of a factory and a laboratory. Guided through this dim and damp place, they saw piles of skeletal remains on the roadside. Some students were so frightened they nearly screamed, but a teacher quickly covered their mouth, preventing any sound from escaping.
The person with bone wings on their back and the whip-carrying man were chatting, laughing about how no one would expect the branch to be located here.
The one with bone wings was the deputy head of the branch here, while the whip-carrying man was from headquarters, specially visiting to inspect progress. They hadn’t expected the entrance to be in that location during their initial visit.
Afterward, the teachers and students were separated. Without reliable adults around, the already nervous students looked even more scared.
After a short distance, Whip Man handed them over to a person in a white coat and left.
In front of them, the person in the white coat began assigning destinations, saying to those around them, “Just two for one lab.”
“Tell them to make good use of it; it’ll be a long time before we have more test subjects.”
The students stared in terror.
If they weren’t mistaken, they were the test subjects being referred to.
After the instructions from the person in the white coat, others came forward to organize them into groups. Trembling, Xiao Mei held Zhang Xin’s hand, while a female classmate stood beside Chen Jing, the only person she recognized among the remaining students.
They were separated like this. Before leaving, Zhang Xin glanced at Chen Jing, and their eyes briefly met before looking away.
It had been a long time since they were taken captive.
The rooms where the people were detained, yet to be used as test subjects, were very small, lacking beds or chairs. The doors were iron-barred gates, offering no privacy as the interior was visible from the outside.
In Chen Jing’s room, directly opposite, there happened to be an electronic clock, at least preventing him from losing track of time in the dim, damp underground.
It was currently 2:30 PM, several hours had passed since they were captured.
There was a temporary silence outside. A female classmate remained crouched in a corner, too afraid to look up at the bars. Chen Jing sat by the barred gate, quietly observing the situation outside.
Judging by the earlier observations, this branch was quite large, probably similar in size to the sub-branches under the F City’s dating agency. If it were just him and Zhang Xin, escaping without much effort might be possible. However, there were others here. Ensuring everyone’s safety while leaving was currently beyond their capabilities.
Footsteps echoed down the originally silent corridor.
Chen Jing’s eyelids flickered. Instantly, he turned his head to survey the surroundings, spotting a few strands of long hair left behind by previous occupants of the room.
Quietly tucking the hair into his sleeve, he noticed a figure passing by outside.
At the sound of footsteps, the classmate who had been crouching in the corner slightly raised her head. Her eyes followed the movement, blinking timidly, unable to speak, silently hoping the footsteps wouldn’t stop.
The footsteps halted, and a person in dark red clothing stood at the cell door, producing a key.
Someone had come to take individuals to the laboratory.
Another person passing by outside, upon seeing the one opening the door, reminded them, “Only one person this time for the lab.”
The person opening the door acknowledged, and with a click, the cell door opened, causing the person in the corner of the room to startle.
Chen Jing stood up and approached the person in the dark red clothing.
If only one person was required, he was ready to go. The view from the cell was limited, but on the way to the laboratory, one could get a clearer idea of the layout here.
Glancing at him and then at the girl crouching in the corner of the room, the person in dark red clothing walked past him and stood towering over the classmate, saying, “You, come with me.”
The girl didn’t move, so he reached out and forcibly dragged her away.
Unable to resist the brute force of an adult, the girl’s other hand waved in the air, her nails futilely scratching the wall, leaving marks.
Understanding her fate after being taken away, she couldn’t hold back her tears anymore, crying out that she didn’t want to go, casting a helpless gaze toward Chen Jing, her eyes gradually filled with despair.
— The guards across the way began changing shifts, their figures disappearing behind the wall.
In a split second, Chen Jing acted.
A sharp pain struck the person in dark red clothing in the back. Their body was propelled toward the wall by the force from behind, but just before impact, they halted, their nose barely grazing the wall.
Before he could make a sound, Chen Jing used his hair, now transformed into metallic threads, to choke his neck. A few seconds later, the person in his grasp lost consciousness; the metallic threads deeply pierced their flesh, blood trickling down and dripping onto the floor.
The whole sequence of actions was swift and seamless. Chen Jing turned to the classmate, who was still catching her breath against the wall, and succinctly said, “Let’s go.”
After observing for several hours, he had roughly understood the shift-change patterns here. Evading the guards on this side wasn’t particularly difficult.
The classmate stared at the lifeless body on the ground, her eyes filled with disbelief. Her mind hadn’t fully accepted the reality yet, but fortunately, she was proactive, immediately agreeing to leave.
*
The laboratory had already begun to gradually gather people. When it was Xiao Mei’s turn to be taken away, Zhang Xin directly set the person on fire until they turned to ashes.
As the flames ignited, Xiao Mei forgot even to scream.
Unfamiliar with the terrain here, Zhang Xin was cautious with each step as she led Xiao Mei out.
In case of any mishap, Zhang Xin could escape, but Xiao Mei would perish.
Someone passed by, and Zhang Xin swiftly guided Xiao Mei into a room, locking the door behind them.
The room was very dark. After groping around, she discovered no surveillance cameras and lit a small flame.
Seeing fire suddenly appear again, Xiao Mei couldn’t contain her emotions.
It was a storeroom, housing abandoned documents and experimental equipment. Rifling through a pile of papers, Zhang Xin found a stack of thickly printed pages.
It was a remodeling plan targeting the internal structure of this branch.
The fact that the plan was left here indicated it hadn’t been implemented and was deemed worthless, but the other information on it was extremely helpful.
This branch had a total of five laboratories, emphasizing research. Each lab delved into different directions. Due to previous incidents where test subjects escaped and harmed individuals in other labs, the five labs were divided into distinct areas. Besides a passageway that required an employee card to open, there was no other connection between them.
While this method prevented attacks on individuals in other labs, it also heightened potential risks. The rejected plan aimed to break this fragmented scenario but ended up gathering dust here.
The plan included floor plans of the five labs and the locations of the passageways.
Xiao Mei felt like she saw Zhang Xin smile.
Zhang Xin handed over the guard’s clothes she had previously taken off to Xiao Mei and said, “Stay here, don’t make a sound. If you hear any noise, pretend to be groggy and just woke up.”
There were things she didn’t need to know or see.
Xiao Mei nodded.
Zhang Xin barged into the control room of this experimental area from the storeroom, pulled down the gate of the passage, and disabled the surveillance cameras.
With the passage closed, this place became completely isolated.
She sustained minor injuries, but nothing severe. After dealing with the guard, she didn’t have much time to focus on the semi-human, semi-strange species test subject below. Instead, she rushed towards the laboratory.
The laboratory was completely soundproof, and those inside were unaware of what was happening outside. The person responsible for alarms had already lost consciousness before setting off the alarm, and no one informed those inside to be on alert.
Zhang Xin changed into the guard’s clothes and knocked on the glass door of the laboratory.
Inside, they were still waiting for the test subjects and were not currently conducting experiments. While speaking, one of them casually opened the door, continuing the conversation after opening it.
It turned out this laboratory was one of the organization’s key labs, heavily reliant on experiments. Due to a lack of strong foundational capabilities, they relied on headquarters to request test subjects from other bases and then send those found from other bases to this one. However, a base was destroyed by the SIU earlier, and information was leaked, causing this operation to halt temporarily.
Without test subjects, they couldn’t conduct experiments. Coincidentally, around a dozen people walked right into their hands in the dead of night. Given the urgency of their experiments, they decided to take in these dozen individuals.
Standing quietly to the side, Zhang Xin listened to the entire conversation. When the others finished chatting, they also noticed her presence and asked, “What are you here for?”
Zhang Xin pulled out a knife from her clothes.
There were crucial data in the laboratory that could be damaged if set on fire. She chose the most primitive method to deal with the people inside the lab, leaving one person to input the password.
Placing the knife against the person entering the password’s neck, she coldly said, “If you make any sudden moves, you’ll die quickly.”
The person entering the password’s hand trembled, retracting their fingers from pressing any other keys, obediently entering the password.
After obtaining the data and finishing off the last person, a sudden sound of bones colliding abruptly echoed from behind.
*
After noticing the anomaly on the mountain, the SIU members, who were originally searching the surrounding mountains, were quickly called back and swiftly assembled to move up the mountain.
This time, Jiang Yujin couldn’t follow along. He was taken down the mountain by someone and entrusted with the responsibility of looking after several SIU vehicles.
He did indeed keep an eye on the vehicles and even specifically checked the spare kits placed behind the cars.
Following the example of others, he put on a helmet with protective goggles and a dual-purpose dustproof and gas mask. He casually removed the black earpiece and tucked it into his pocket before heading up the mountain.
The wind was blowing in the mountains. Clad in a sharp, all-black combat uniform, every movement emitted a distinct rustling sound.
Then the person in the combat uniform tripped over a pebble on the steps and, as is human nature, sought revenge by kicking the pebble back.
