Rules Ch.136

Chapter 136: Today (12)

Even though Everly had already prepared herself for the possibility of seeing something horrifying, the sudden sight still made her jump.

Fortunately, the thing on the metal bed, though terrifying in appearance, was actually just a corpse.

It wouldn’t move on its own, and it certainly wouldn’t stand up to attack her.

From start to finish, it lay there like an ordinary corpse, emitting a strange odor—a mix of disinfectant and rotting flesh—completely motionless. Because it had been in the same position for so long, the parts of the body touching the table had become like waterlogged dough, soft and sticking to the surface.

Everly drew a deep breath, quickly glanced at the canine-tooth bracelet on her wrist and the other warning devices—everything remained silent, indicating that there was no supernatural threat in the room.

She exhaled slowly, then circled the room with her flashlight, moving around the corpse.

The room wasn’t large, and half of its space was taken up by a sunken pool in the interior.

The pool rose about a meter above the floor and was filled with a pungent, pale yellow liquid, the surface level almost even with the edge. The room’s awful stench came roughly half from the corpse on the bed, and half from the pool.

Shining her flashlight into the pool, Everly saw one red, humanoid figure after another submerged in the yellowish water. They had no skin, no hair—like skinned bullfrogs, or overcrowded bean sprouts, pressed tightly together. Many of the corpses were injured; most of their limbs were incomplete.

The scene was both disgusting and brutal, leaving a strong, visceral impact. Her scalp tingled, and chills ran up from her feet to her body.

There was no doubt—these were the female corpses that hadn’t yet been disposed of.

Beside the pool was a space resembling a shower area. The curtain was pulled aside, and the floor was scattered with high-pressure water guns, metal brushes, buckets, rags, mops, and other cleaning tools.

That area was also the cleanest part of the room. Because the corpses were frequently hosed down there, the tiles didn’t have the thick, grimy crust that covered the rest of the floor. The white looked white, the green looked green—clear, distinct colors.

Unfortunately, piles of hair in the corners ruined that sense of cleanliness.

Tufts of hair—red, black, blonde; straight, curly; long, short—were stacked like garbage. Some still had half-rotted, waterlogged scalp attached. They were heaped from the floor upward, forming a towering mound. These had been washed off the corpses by the high-pressure water guns during cleaning.

To the right of the shower area was a large iron rack. The upper shelves held organ specimens, while the lower shelves were cluttered with bizarre ritual items—sheep and cow skulls, animal mummies, voodoo dolls, mysterious herbs and powders, and other strange paraphernalia.

Well, it was clear this underground lab wasn’t for legitimate scientific research. Sure enough, the occult was involved…

Everly muttered a comment to herself, circled the room quickly, and then approached the long table. She shone her flashlight across the surface and began sifting through the notes and experimental materials.

She started with the experiment logs. From the first page to the last, the notebook recorded daily behaviors of a certain experimental subject—but Mark never revealed what the subject actually was. From start to finish, he referred to it simply as “it,” in entries like, “1 minute 40 seconds, it destroyed another camera,” or “Within 10 seconds, it killed a living person.” The descriptions were cryptic and confusing, leaving her little to go on.

Frustrated, Everly tossed the notebook aside and continued searching the desk. Eventually, she found something that appeared to be a diary.

The amount of information in it was ridiculously huge.

Everly tried starting from the most recent page of the diary, but ran into the same problem she’d had with the experiment notes—Mark had a habit of recording the day’s experimental results in shorthand, using many abbreviations. Without knowing what the terms actually referred to, it was difficult to make sense of anything.

She took a deep breath and decided to start from the very beginning of the diary, forcing herself to read carefully.

The diary began three years ago. At that time, Mark hadn’t yet moved to this city to work as an undertaker; he was still a researcher at a scientific institute, conducting experiments under the project titled “Immortality.”

He didn’t specify the name of the laboratory in the diary, so Everly had no way of knowing its exact name or location.

Three years ago, he was a staunch materialist—idealistic, passionate, and confident that by repairing DNA, maintaining telomeres, and stabilizing proteins, human lifespan could be extended, even to the point of eternal youth and immortality.

During this period, Mark and his fellow researchers primarily assisted someone referred to as “Dr. Wu,” focusing on a type of cancer cell called HeLa cells. Their goal was to discover what allowed these cells to divide and proliferate indefinitely, and to harness that mechanism to extend human life.

To achieve this, they purchased large numbers of bodies that had died from various diseases, hoping to find other cells or viruses similar to HeLa cells as experimental samples. They then conducted extensive tests on white mice, dogs, and other mammals.

It was a long and grueling process. Fortunately, by the time the diary began, the experiments had reached their final stages. Soon after, they succeeded in synthesizing a new virus capable of making the host’s cells proliferate endlessly, effectively granting immortality to the infected individual.

However, to Everly’s dismay, this so-called “X Virus” caused its hosts to quickly lose all reason, turning them into mindless, cannibalistic zombies.

[…Dr. Wu believes this virus violates the laws of nature, desecrates life, and firmly opposes any further human trials of the X Virus—what does he know? That sanctimonious pig!

The X Virus is constantly evolving, full of infinite possibilities. As long as enough subjects are infected, giving the virus a vast stage for growth and development, allowing it countless chances to mutate and evolve, it will eventually iterate into a new virus capable of granting humans both rationality and immortality. Then, we—the creators of this monumental invention—will be recorded in history, attaining unimaginable power, wealth, and fame…

Yet this research was shelved, that pig, that pig!]

[March 18, 2X12: My intention to steal the X Virus was discovered. Because of my past contributions, they spared my life and simply expelled me from the lab. Dr. Wu even gave me a sizable severance, but that’s not what I wanted! I had invested so much effort into the virus research—they can’t treat me this way!]

[July 16, 2X13: Failure, another failure! Why, why can I not find anything to replace the X Virus… No, the corpses from the funeral home are no longer enough. I need more bodies, from any source— the more, the better…]

At this point, the diary makes the outcome clear. To obtain more experimental material, Mark soon joined the live-streaming t*rture site, becoming one of the four operators. But unfortunately, his research path remained extremely difficult.

[November 30: Still failing… Even after collecting so many bodies, I still cannot encounter a second X Virus. I cannot help but feel despair. I regret my rash actions—if the X Virus is truly unique, then leaving the institute will be the biggest mistake of my life…]

[January 18, 2X14: Today, while collecting corpses for my employer, I happened to witness a séance. A female medium named Salaman, after performing the ritual, actually used the voice of the deceased to converse with the employer, even revealing things that only the dead and the employer knew… Incredible. Could supernatural forces actually exist?]

[January 19: Another experiment failed… Lying on a floor littered with chaos, I began to wonder if I could try a different approach—starting from the supernatural side, searching for a way to grant humans immortality…]

[February 3: I encountered an Oungan on the dark web and paid to acquire some information on mysticism.]

An Oungan is a male practitioner in African Voodoo. Through various ritual magics, they communicate with ancestors and spirits, wield certain powers, and are considered intermediaries between the land of the dead and the living world.

[March 17: Fascinating… humans really do have souls…]

…

Much of the subsequent diary is devoted to research and exploration of witchcraft. It seems that after witnessing Mrs. Salaman’s mediumship, Mark’s staunch materialist beliefs were severely shaken, and he gradually became obsessed with all kinds of occult practices, attempting to uncover methods of achieving immortality.

[April 3: Today, I read the following description in Voodoo legend—“A Bokor (sorcerer) can control others by seizing their ‘Ti bon ange’, turning humans or corpses into obedient zombies.”

The ‘Ti bon ange’ refers to the part of a person’s soul directly connected to their body. Even after death, this portion of the soul remains within the flesh. By controlling the ‘Ti bon ange’, one can control the body, regardless of whether it is alive or dead.]

[When we pursue “immortality,” we often assume that we must first have an undying body before an indestructible soul can exist. But what if we look at it differently? If the soul is made immortal first, and then given a body that never decays, could we achieve true eternal life?]

[April 14: Learned from a Bokor of Voodoo the method to locate the Ti bon ange.]

[April 17: Successfully extracted flesh fragments containing the Ti bon ange and preserved them in a special potion.]

[April 21: Preservation failed… A Bokor explained that the Ti bon ange is just a fragment of the soul, incomplete in form, and extremely prone to dissipating… I understand now: a standalone Ti bon ange is like a hydrogen ion floating in the air—unstable. It must be merged with other soul fragments, replenishing the missing “electrons,” to form a stable “soul body”!]

“Zzzz… zzzz…”

Just as she was deeply focused, static suddenly came through the earpiece. Having learned from the last loop that underground signals could fail, this time Everly had brought a signal booster, and sure enough, the phone call connection held steady.

After the static, Misha’s urgent voice came through:

“Everly, just as you said, the ‘Butcher’ Michael is dead. It just happened—he was apparently attacked by a monster, his head exploded, and he died on the spot!”

At Misha’s warning, Everly stiffened. She glanced at the time—sure enough, it was already 17:09. The flesh-and-blood monster was behaving exactly as predicted: it had first gone to the police station to kill two officers, then to the forest ranger’s cabin to take out Michael, the “Butcher.”

Next, it would reach the school at 17:19, killing Abel and Ronald in sequence, before pursuing Orff, who was currently driving southwest to escape. There was a chance it might encounter other closer targets along the way and change course, but given the vast, sparsely populated areas of the U.S. and the nationwide distribution of Dark Web users, this was unlikely. Orff remained the highest-risk target.

Orff didn’t have much time to escape; she had to hurry!

———————————————————————————

Author’s Note:

HeLa cells: A cell line derived from the cervical cancer of an African American woman, Henrietta Lacks. Tissue samples were taken from her tumor by a surgeon and continuously cultured in a laboratory. Unlike normal human cells, this cell line does not age or die and can divide indefinitely. Compared to other cancer cell lines, it proliferates abnormally rapidly. (Source: Baidu Encyclopedia)

Voodoo: A primitive religion blending ancestor worship, animism, and spirit communication, mainly practiced in West Africa, Haiti, and the Caribbean. It is not a cult, but an ancient belief system with over 60 million followers. (Source: Baidu Encyclopedia)

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