Chapter 201: Noise
“Woooo! Wooooo!” A group of Reorganized Humans looked at the scene in the laboratory, their faces contorted with excitement. Their already twisted and ugly visages became even more evil and insane as they let out strange cries.
A Burly Rat stroked the transparent glass that separated the laboratory from them. Its dry, withered claws caressed the glass a few times, causing it to creak and groan. The clean, transparent glass instantly developed several abrupt scratches. As the instigator of this experiment, it personally witnessed the smooth progress of the experiment. Now, the experiment was about to yield the anticipated results!
“It’s going to succeed! It’s going to succeed!” The Burly Rat trembled with excitement, drool involuntarily dripping from the corner of its mouth. “The power behind the Mind Barrier… weak humans will ascend to a higher dimension, wielding the Taboo Power…”
“If the experiment succeeds, then we will have the opportunity to form an unimaginable army of anomalies!” The Reorganized Human, coiled like a spiral, twisted even more grotesquely. Its spring-like body rapidly tightened.
“At that time, let alone those hateful Investigators, we will become a great abnormal race, change the history of humanity, and be worthy of becoming servants of the Master, for eternity, immortal!” The female monster, covered in muscular lumps but with its facial skin lost, was so excited that its muscles bulged, and its entire body seemed to grow a size larger.
This group of Reorganized Monsters reveled in their sweet dreams, filled with infinite expectation for their future.
However, in the next moment, a deafening roar echoed from all directions. The entire laboratory shook violently with the sound. The explosive force that breached the wall struck swiftly. Before they could even react, surging green flames erupted from an adjacent wall, like a ferocious, man-eating Giant Beast, instantly devouring several Reorganized Humans who couldn’t evade.
Those green flames seemed capable of burning even souls. The Reorganized Humans present, who were lucky enough to avoid or quickly evade the green flames’ attack, heard the intense screams of those being devoured by the green flames. The spiritual shrieks were so clear that even the deaf could “hear” them, filling them with dread.
Seeing this scene, the Reorganized Humans present knew exactly what had happened.
Just as they were fully focused on completing the experiment, believing their plan to be flawless and that the Investigators wouldn’t discover them so soon, those Investigators whom they had underestimated had finally found them and, with lightning speed, had broken through their underground stronghold.
The Reorganized Humans saw the blurry figures moving in the smoke and felt no fear in their hearts. Anger and madness seemed to have been ignited by the raging flames. The surviving Reorganized Humans counterattacked.
Bang, bang, bang!
Within the smoky mist, the Investigators also spotted those dark and sinister figures. Without any hesitation, they opened fire.
The relationship between Investigators and anomaly creatures was more antagonistic than fire and water. There was no need for a face-to-face encounter; as soon as they realized who the “person” opposite them was, it was a fight to the death.
That night, an irregular tremor occurred in Fengxiang City’s XC District, lasting nearly four hours. The entire XC District was sealed off. Those citizens who evacuated later saw that the XC District had cracked open with countless deep fissures, from which numerous unknown foul substances gushed out. Myriad dense, strange plants and fleshy buds grew wildly. Most terrifying of all was the Netherworld shriek that echoed from underground.
Everyone knew that an anomaly event had occurred on the land of Fengxiang City, but they never expected that the impact of this anomaly event would be so immense. Fortunately, it ultimately had a good outcome. The Remnants of Sancai that had been lurking underground in Fengxiang City were finally completely eradicated, and restoring the city to its original appearance was only a matter of time.
Let’s turn back the clock to four and a half hours ago…
With unknown background information about Dr. Clark, the collaborative assistance of members from the overseas Anomaly Biological Foundation, and the unremitting efforts of the members of the Mysterious Group fighting on the front lines in Fengxiang City to collect clues, the Mysterious Group quickly located the Remnants of Sancai force hidden underground in Fengxiang City’s XC District.
The Mysterious Group rapidly mobilized, carrying a large amount of advanced equipment for combating anomaly creatures, and quickly proceeded to the stronghold.
The operation was like a bamboo shattering, extremely effective.
However, this “effectiveness” was only relative to previous similar operations. This struggle between anomaly creatures and humans was, after all, not a fight between humans. Casualties were inevitable and far from the “smooth and pleasant” experience that ordinary people might imagine.
Stepping over the incomplete human corpses and the flesh and blood tissues of unknown creatures scattered everywhere, Yu Lianyun approached the Burly Rat, whose head was mostly destroyed. Spitting out the blood and broken teeth that filled her mouth, she looked at the barely surviving creature and said coldly, “Where did you hide Dr. Clark, and what exactly did you do to him?”
Although the Burly Rat was an incompletely transformed Huo Gu, it had perfectly inherited the physiological defects of a Huo Gu. Its wounds were difficult to heal. Despite having tenacious vitality compared to humans, death was its inevitable end. It heard Yu Lianyun’s words and let out an unpleasant laugh, “Hehehe… you go find him yourselves. It’s impossible to save him anyway… From the moment you lost him, it was all over…”
After saying this, the Burly Rat drew its last breath, and its exposed heart stopped beating.
A bad premonition surged in Yu Lianyun’s heart. With a somber expression, she pushed open the laboratory door behind the Burly Rat. Yu Mao and Leng Qiuzi, who arrived later, followed closely. The scene that greeted their eyes drove the reason of all the Mystic Investigators who witnessed it to the brink of collapse.
An intense, unknown noise like a sudden tsunami washed over them. The act of opening the door had undoubtedly broken the near-perfect soundproofing of the specially constructed laboratory. The melodious yet ear-piercing, loud yet whispering, contradictory and decadent sound assaulted everyone’s spirit. Everyone felt their brains tremble violently, faintly hearing a sinister movement from the depths of their brains, like a worm pupa that shouldn’t have hatched rapidly incubating under the influence of this strange sound and breaking free.
Next, before their eyes, dozens of fresh human brains, black, white, and mixed with various unknown fluids, were quietly gathering on a white laboratory table. Metal electrodes inserted into each brain seemed to have fused with the flesh and blood. The protruding brain tissue extended fine, fleshy tendrils, like plant roots made of flesh and blood, covering the metal patches. Each brain was like a starved evil beast, greedily absorbing electricity.
Under the effect of an unknown force, these brains maintained astonishing activity and seemed to have transformed into independent beings. A structure that shouldn’t have appeared on a human brain grew in their sulci: an elongated tentacle connected to a pulsing fleshy ball protrusion, like the sensory organ of this “being” called a “brain.” They would then stab the fleshy ball into another brain, and the two brains would begin to merge in a bizarre and inexplicable manner.
Leng Qiuzi stepped forward, pushed everyone out of the laboratory, and quickly closed the laboratory door again, finally blocking the influence of the mysterious noise.
Without the effect of the noise, the Mystic Investigators were like drowning people escaping the deep sea. Those who survived collapsed on the ground, sweating profusely, breathing greedily, using their breaths to affirm that they were still alive.
However, the effect of the noise was clearly not so easily eliminated. Some Mystic Investigators suddenly rushed towards the laboratory door as if possessed, screaming desperately, claiming they wanted to hear that strange, decadent sound that shouldn’t exist in the human world again.
Fortunately, not all Mystic Investigators were so mentally fragile or close to mental breakdown. They reacted quickly and managed to stop those who were affected by the anomaly, knocking them unconscious as much as possible and keeping them away from the laboratory door.
“What were those just now!? Was that the true content of that top-secret experiment?” Bu Gaojun felt his brain still trembling, as if a tentacle connected to a fleshy ball was about to grow inside and break out of his head.
“If we could fully understand these experiments, we wouldn’t be worthy of being called humans!” Yu Lianyun saw that Bu Gaojun was on the verge of a mental breakdown. She shouted at him in a stern tone, attempting to use harsh words to make him sober up.
A moment of silence fell upon everyone. Leng Qiuzi said, “I didn’t seem to see Dr. Clark just now.”
“Is there a possibility that he was skinned alive and only his brain remains? And one of those brains that are merging and blending together is actually Dr. Clark, whom we’re looking for.” Yu Mao’s eyes showed a complex expression, and he forced a bitter smile. “Dr. Clark has been dead for a long time. Our objective from the beginning shouldn’t have been rescue.”
Yu Lianyun rubbed her slightly protruding temples. Her blood was surging abnormally due to the influence of the strange noise, and her face was unnaturally flushed. Although her appearance was unnatural, her heart had become much calmer. She said, “Those sounds just now… I think I’ve heard them somewhere before.”
“Heard them?” Yu Mao was startled and immediately pressed, “Where?”
“Now that you mention it, I do feel a sense of familiarity,” Bu Gaojun said after thinking for a moment, then suddenly slapped his forehead. The pupils of his eyes trembled. “It’s Cuizhu City! The Hell Concert in Cuizhu City!”
During that anomaly event caused by a musical genius of the human race, an out-of-place dimensional demonic sound had infiltrated the concert. It was the performance of the human musical genius Haimofen and the collision of sounds with the dimensional demonic sound, spread through online media, that led to a Heavenly grade anomaly event affecting the entire globe.
It’s somewhat ironic, really. Cuizhu City experienced two major anomaly events that year, yet now only the “Night of Collapse” is widely known, while the “Hell Concert” is hardly remembered. Perhaps it was the impact of the former that brought the Investigator Organization from the shadows into the public eye.
“Hell Concert? I’ve heard of it,” Yu Mao’s brow twitched. “Are you saying the dimensional demonic sound that appeared at the Hell Concert was the noise we just heard?”
Bu Gaojun nodded affirmatively, then showed a hint of confusion. “But it feels like the influence of the sound this time is not as great as last time.”
The impact back then was global. Many humans who listened to the live music became vegetative patients after the concert, their brains suffering severe physiological lesions.
Hearing this, Yu Lianyun immediately said, “Because the sound was too far away.”
“Far?” Leng Qiuzi frowned.
“To be precise, this sound was not targeted. It’s estimated that the audio playback device captured the sound from that dimension. Perhaps the Musical Abnormal God in that dimension didn’t notice that its ordinary sounds were leaked into this world. Otherwise, the impact would absolutely not have been as simple as it was just now,” Yu Lianyun said as she thought.
Simple?
The Mystic Investigators present all wore bitter smiles. “Simple” had already driven several Mystic Investigators mad, nearly causing them to lose their sanity. What would happen if the Musical Abnormal God in that dimension had consciously targeted them? Would it be an instant kill?
“There’s nothing more to say. Cut the power, and then burn everything in here with fire,” Yu Lianyun took a deep breath.
Since they already knew that Dr. Clark had been killed long ago, the mission was no longer a rescue, but…
To minimize the impact of the anomaly’s aftermath as much as possible.
Hearing Yu Lianyun’s order, all the Mystic Investigators immediately took action, destroying the main circuit breaker connected to the laboratory. The laboratory was plunged into darkness.
“Holy shit, what’s going on?” Bu Gaojun had been watching the situation of the brains in the laboratory, but he discovered that after the power was cut, the brains that had lost the stimulation of the electrodes not only did not lose their activity but became even more agitated, with dozens of brains frantically merging and devouring each other.
Seeing this anomaly, everyone felt a strong sense of unease. Yu Lianyun quickly ordered an evacuation, leaving last. She wanted to personally witness those “brain” monsters being consumed by the green flames.
However, just as the fierce green flames were about to reach the brains, Yu Lianyun saw a disheveled woman suddenly appear in the laboratory. She seemed to have no lower body, with only her upper body floating in the air. A terrifying black airflow surged around her, completely blocking all the green flames and bypassing the brains.
“Blessing?” The moment Yu Lianyun saw the woman’s appearance, she felt she looked quite familiar, but she soon realized that this woman was different from someone like “Yao Zhenzhen.”
Yu Lianyun immediately guessed that this half-bodied woman was related to the Forest cabin and couldn’t help but feel a headache.
Soon, the Mystic Investigators evacuated to the ground. The green flames erupted into a pillar of fire in Fengxiang City’s XC District. The dazzling flames offered the best comfort to the Mystic Investigators, excluding Yu Lianyun. The hotter the fire, the more at ease they felt.
Yu Lianyun stood blankly in a corner of the street in XC District, lost in thought.
“This fireworks display is quite good,” a clear and gentle voice reached Yu Lianyun’s ears. Her shadow beneath her feet seemed to react, suddenly boiling and constantly conveying feelings of reverence towards Yu Lianyun.
Yu Lianyun also trembled all over, cold sweat breaking out. Her eyeballs slowly glanced to her left. In the shadowed corner, Lin Ling, dressed in white, was smiling kindly at her.
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Combined into two parts.
