Chapter 22: Evacuation
In a damp laboratory filled with the stench of fish,
An ancient being whose lifespan could only be measured by the "old chronological tables" suddenly felt a sensation of being watched from behind.
#Hmm? Has something interesting been sent over?#
The tentacle-like fingers stopped writing.
Turning its head,
The gills on its neck opened slightly, and through the gill slits, one could seemingly glimpse an ocean world filled with strange fish.
Just as it twisted its sickly face, impossible to analyze with the naked eye and difficult to describe in words,
Pop~
In the experimental tank behind it, a fish eye as small as a grain of rice burst and shattered.
The feeling of being watched also vanished.
However,
There were still thousands upon thousands of such tiny fish eyes in this tank.
It didn't pay any mind to it and continued to focus on the important task of recording data.
...
[Perspective Switch]
Listening to the epic music from the deep sea,
Peering at the terrifying silhouette far beyond comprehension,
Yi Chen almost instantly lost control of his consciousness, unable to even move his field of vision... like a fish, at the mercy of being slaughtered.
In the visual scene,
The unknown being recording data in front of him seemed to sense his gaze,
Slowly turning its head
This ordinary action evoked an unprecedented sense of fear in Yi Chen's heart.
This most ancient, primal emotion felt like a pair of giant hands, firmly squeezing his soul, threatening to tear it apart at any moment.
The process of turning its head felt like a countdown to death.
At the critical moment,
A familiar jumble of noises came through his consciousness,
"William, wake up!"
Along with the voice came a strong pulling sensation,
Buzz!
Yi Chen's consciousness broke free from its constraints at this moment, extracting itself from the abyss filled with fish scales and reeking of a fishy stench. Traversing through the cracks of time and space, he returned to Green Lake.
When he opened his eyes again,
He had returned to his familiar body.
At the bottom of the dark lake,
The giant eye that served as the "Monitor" had been completely drained, lying lifelessly on the lake bottom like a deflated balloon.
The fully satiated little grape had returned, hiding beneath the skin and flesh, in a rather peculiar state of incubation, leaving only a message.
"Next... I need a rather long rest period. Unless faced with a life-threatening crisis, don't call me."
As the voice faded,
The connection in his consciousness weakened to 1/10, only able to sense the flesh ball located in his abdominal cavity, undergoing subtle incubation and growth.
However,
The crisis in Green Lake Town had not been resolved.
The giant eye was merely a "Monitor",
Its death only freed the townspeople from their chains, making them more liberated... The townspeople infected with the "fish scale disease" remained just as active, perhaps even becoming more frenzied.
At the same time,
The merfolk wandering in Green Lake all turned to look at the unfamiliar individual at the bottom of the lake, staring at this uninfected living person... Instinct drove them to swim over quickly.
Their numbers were so great that there was no room for escape at all!
In this critical moment,
A white shadow crashed into the lake surface, moving so fast that no creature could see it clearly.
The white light flashed past the school of fish.
Two powerful, sharp claws directly pierced into the flesh of Yi Chen's shoulders, wedging into the bone gaps~
Before he could feel the pain,
An unimaginably strong pulling force came through, directly yanking him out of the lake bottom. Any merfolk attempting to obstruct along the way were torn apart by some hidden wind blade, unable to hinder.
Splash!
A large amount of water splashed on the lake surface,
Yi Chen was pulled out entirely, flying close to the ground,
Finally thrown to the back door of [Green Shade Inn].
Slap! He braced himself against the wall, barely landing.
Yi Chen quickly looked up,
Only then did he see clearly that his rescuer was actually a white-feathered owl.
Before he could express his gratitude, it had already flown away.
At this moment,
The innkeeper opened the back door and pulled Yi Chen into the inn.
The pair of dim eyes on the innkeeper's face became clear at this moment.
"You... you really did it! Cadacy, quickly take Mr. William to the basement to recover."
"Understood!"
The slender sister in a white dress easily hoisted Yi Chen onto her shoulder,
Following a hidden passage to the basement,
The sister brought some dry towels and carefully wiped Yi Chen's body.
Surprisingly,
Despite being submerged in the lake for so long,
His clothing wasn't soaked at all, only needing to wipe off the residual water on the surface to look as good as new.
The only area of concern was his shoulder, pierced by the owl, where some lake water had seeped into the wound...
Cadacy first wiped it with a towel,
Suddenly pressing her cold lips against it,
She sucked hard~
The blood and mixed lake water were completely extracted, preventing infection.
"This should be fine now~ I'll go upstairs to get some food, you wait here."
The sister left,
Yi Chen sat alone on a chair in the basement.
Although this underwater adventure didn't cause substantial physical harm,
His mental state wasn't very good,
Persistent ringing in the ears,
A slightly swollen cranial cavity,
And flashes of the abyssal laboratory appearing in his mind from time to time,
Without realizing it,
A trickle of blood flowed from his nose, accompanied by a strong sense of dizziness that almost made Yi Chen fall off the chair.
"Is this the aftereffect of mental invasion?
Even though I didn't even open my eyes, I was still affected... In the end, I only managed to kill the [Monitor Giant Eye] with the help of the little grape.
And such a giant eye that spread the fish scale disease and controlled Green Lake Town was merely a small product in that laboratory.
I'm too weak right now,
There must be ways to grow and become stronger in this world, and the organization might have such methods."
After experiencing life and death at the bottom of the lake,
Yi Chen wasn't frightened by it,
Instead, it stimulated his desire to explore the world, urgently wanting to become stronger in order to discover more.
At this time,
Cadacy came to the basement carrying a bowl of special fish soup.
Thick,
Bubbling,
Black,
Various fish heads that looked irradiated crowded the soup bowl,
The smell was like a stinky fish that had drowned in a foot bath and hadn't been discovered for a week.
"This is specially prepared by my brother. He said if you could come back alive, this fish head soup would be very helpful."
"O...okay."
Taking the large bowl of soup that looked like it could serve several people,
Tentatively touching the viscous surface of the soup with his finger,
Confirming that the plant inside his body showed no signs of rejection,
He pinched his nose with one hand,
And used the other hand to hold the bowl and gulp down the soup,
As his stomach churned violently, the persistent ringing in his ears actually began to subside, and the swelling in his cranial cavity gradually dissipated.
"Good stuff!"
Just as Yi Chen was marveling at the wonders of this exotic delicacy,
A deep, resonant voice came from above, penetrating through the inn's structural layers, clearly reaching Yi Chen's ears... The entire small town could hear this voice.
"Attention all examinees.
Please make your way to the eastern exit of the town as quickly as possible. The organization's carriages will be waiting for you there, with a time limit of [ten minutes].
Anyone exceeding this time will be considered to have failed the examination."
"Is the examination ending early?"
Hearing the news, Yi Chen immediately became energized,
Returning to the inn.
Green Shade Inn was located at the southern exit of the town, quite far from the eastern exit where they were to gather... Traversing the completely out-of-control, rioting town carried significant risks.
Not to mention, the little grape was in a special state and couldn't provide visual assistance.
"Mr. William, to reach the eastern exit you want to go to, you'll either need to pass through the town center or go around the lake.
The journey is perilous, let us escort you there."
"Wouldn't that be too dangerous? If there are organization personnel at the eastern exit, they might take action against you."
"As long as we don't get too close, it should be fine."
Yi Chen didn't refuse, he indeed needed the siblings' assistance.
Using a similar method,
Disguised as a 'corpse', lying flat on a wooden cart, pushed by the siblings towards the eastern entrance.
Due to the presence of completely de-scaled dangerous patients in the town center, they chose to go around the lake... There were no obstacles throughout the journey, no townspeople would suspect the siblings who were such high-level beings.
When they could barely see the outline of the carriages, the siblings stopped.
On the eve of parting,
Considering that he was about to embark on the path of 'curing the disease',
If they were to meet again in the future, their positions might be completely different.
They simply gave a silent embrace, without saying words like 'goodbye'.
However,
While embracing the innkeeper, he gently patted Yi Chen's back and whispered in his ear:
"Leave this place quickly, Mr. William... You're the strangest human I've ever seen, completely different from others. Perhaps you really have a chance to cure this incurable world.
If there's a chance to [meet again],
Please don't hesitate, just kill us directly."
Yi Chen didn't respond,
He just locked eyes with the innkeeper for a second, then immediately turned and ran towards the gathering point.
(End of chapter)