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墨書 Inktalez
In the pouring rain, Zhou Jing and I hurried down from Fangya Cliff. Using the flashlight, we quickly located the secret entrance marked on the map. It was an iron door covered in weeds, looking like it hadn't been used in years.
"Are you sure you want to take this route?" Zhou Jing asked, appearing quite uneasy.
"This is the path my contact gave me," I replied, pushing the iron door open with determination. He must have had his reasons.
Behind the door was a narrow staircase, its steps covered in moss. We carefully descended, with Zhou Jing following closely behind, occasionally checking her phone for signal.
"Any signal?" I asked.
She shook her head. "It cut off as soon as we entered. We can only rely on the walkie-talkies to communicate with SWAT."
According to our agreement, the SWAT team would initiate their operation in an hour, breaching the front entrance to draw attention away from us. Our mission was to locate the place where hostages were held and rescue them first.
After about ten minutes of walking, we reached a fork in the path. The sign on the wall was rusted, barely allowing us to make out some characters.
"The left says 'Laboratory,'" Zhou Jing whispered. "The right leads to a storage room."
I pulled out my contact's map: according to it, there was a secret passage behind the storage room that led to the holding area.
Just as I was about to turn right, I suddenly heard a strange noise coming from the left—a low hum, like machinery in operation.
"There's someone over there!" Zhou Jing pointed toward the left passage, where faint light flickered.
We pressed against the wall and cautiously approached. At the end of the passage stood a massive laboratory, much larger than what we had seen on the surveillance footage. A dozen people in white lab coats were bustling about, and various Yi-Rang Apparatus hung on the walls.
"Look," Zhou Jing said, pointing to a row of glass cabinets in the corner. Inside were neatly arranged bronze masks, each connected by thin tubes leading to a central liquid storage tank.
One of the lab-coated individuals walked up to the storage tank and adjusted something. With the light from the Yi-Rang Apparatus illuminating his face, I recognized him as the laboratory supervisor from my contact's file!
He was still alive! My fists clenched tightly.
At that moment, the phone in the laboratory rang. The white-coated man answered it; he spoke in Japanese, but I caught a few words: "Prepare," "Ritual," "Blood."
"No!" Zhou Jing pulled me back quickly. "They're about to start!"
We slipped into the passage leading to the storage room and continued forward using our flashlight. The area was cluttered with wooden crates; some boxes had labels indicating samples and materials.
"Wait," Zhou Jing suddenly stopped. "Do you smell that?"
A pungent odor of chemicals wafted through the air. Following the scent, we discovered several modern refrigeration units tucked away in a corner.
Zhou Jing put on gloves and carefully opened one of the boxes. "Oh my God..."
Inside were dozens of test tubes neatly arranged, filled with dark red liquid. Each test tube was labeled with a number and date; the last one bore today's date.
These are the blood of the children. Zhou Jing's voice trembled as he spoke; they were using it for some kind of experiment.
Suddenly, a synchronized sound of footsteps echoed from above, followed by the clanging of metal. They were moving the masks. I said, the ritual is about to begin.
We continued forward and finally found the hidden door marked on the map. Pushing it open revealed a narrow ventilation duct.
This is it, I pointed at the map; this duct leads directly to the detention area.
Crawling into the duct, darkness enveloped us ahead. We could only advance by the light of our flashlights, and the duct occasionally emitted metallic groans.
After crawling for about ten minutes, we heard voices below. We found a vent and looked down, just in time to see several masked figures escorting a group of children past.
Look! Zhou Jing pointed at one of the children; it's Zhou Ming!
I took a closer look, and indeed it was her brother. The children were all dressed in white robes, IV tubes tied around their wrists, looking dazed and disoriented.
Where are they taking them?
To the altar, Zhou Jing said. The execution requires the offerings to be bathed and changed first—
Before she could finish her sentence, a terrifying noise erupted from the ventilation duct. Before we could react, the duct collapsed!
Ah! We fell from over three meters high, landing right in front of that group of people.
It's them! shouted one of the masked figures.
I quickly got up and grabbed Zhou Jing, pulling her to run. Behind us came a flurry of footsteps and shouts.
Catch them! Don't let them disrupt the ritual!
Turning a corner, we suddenly faced a massive iron door ahead. Strange symbols were carved into it, with a familiar mark in the center—the dwelling place of the gods.
The iron door slowly creaked open, blinding white light pouring in. We instinctively shielded our eyes, and when we could see again, we found ourselves surrounded.
Zhang Shouren stood at the forefront, a sinister smile on his face: Finally here. I was just worried about not finding the last two offerings.
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