Chapter 444: Foreboding Sensation

Will’s scream made Qiao Qiao cautious. While the others were not too perturbed, Qiao Qiao quickly stepped forward and uttered in a hushed tone, “Everyone, stop!”

Despite not understanding Qiao Qiao’s reasoning, Lun Tai was quick to shout, “Xiaolei, be alert!”

Xia Xiaolei quickly assumed a crouching posture. It was a fairly well executed posture while Roddy raised his kukri machetes and stood at the front.

“Will has the ability to see special things.” Qiao Qiao took a deep breath.

Lun Tai’s expression flickered and he cast a frown at Qiao Qiao. “Special things? You mean…”

“Mm.” Qiao Qiao nodded her head.

Lun Tai inhaled.

Things like seeing ghosts may sound bizarre… … however, they were in an instance dungeon. These things were very likely in instance dungeons. Thus, Lun Tai and the others would not make light of this matter. Their expressions turned serious.

Qiao Qiao stood beside Will and placed one hand on his shoulder. With her eyes fixed on the security door, she asked, “Will, tell me, what do you see?”

“A, a man…” Will was quavering.

“What man? Where, tell me the details.” Qiao Qiao crouched down beside Will and looked into his eyes. She continued in a firm tone, “With us here, there is no need for you to be afraid.”

Will took a deep breath. Qiao Qiao’s gaze gave him a slight boost in confidence. While he was still clearly terrified, thanks to Qiao Qiao’s support, he gained the confidence to point a trembling finger at the security door. “It is there. Ah, he was there just now. But not anymore. He is gone now.”

Qiao Qiao, Lun Tai and Roddy exchanged glances. Roddy looked at Will and asked, “Gone? When did he leave?”

“Just now when I pointed at him and screamed, he looked at me and left.”

“Tell me how this he looks like.”

“It is a man in… … white clothes, like a doctor in a hospital, he… … there is blood on his body.”

Everyone’s face contorted.

Roddy smiled bitterly and said, “A man, doctor clothes and blood on his body… … why do I feel like we have encountered Jack the Ripper again.”

“Stop joking around. This is not London.” Qiao Qiao shook her head.

“Where did he go to?” Lun Tai questioned further.

“He went in through the door. After looking at me, he left just like that.”

The rest of the guild members exchanged glances.

“I did not see him,” said Xia Xiaolei.

“I… … I also did not see him,” said Qimu Xi.

“In other words, Will is the only one who saw him.” Lun Tai thought about it. “Could this be one of this instance dungeon’s storyline? Or some monster?”

He then turned to face Qiao Qiao. “Beyond this door… just now when you were looking around with Xiaolei, did you enter it?”

“Mm, we did.”

“What kind of place is it?”

“It is a fire escape.” Qiao Qiao shook her head. “There is no electricity here so the elevators cannot be used. We had to go down using the stairs. After going down through this flight of stairs, we found a corridor. At the end of the corridor was another door connecting to another set of stairs. Going down two floors, we found a garage. There is a vehicle in the garage.”

“Car? What kind of car?”

“It is not a car.” Qiao Qiao smiled wryly. “It is an underground track with a carriage on it.”

The others were stunned.

A few seconds later, Lun Tai raised his rifle and said, “Brothers and sisters, it seems we are in trouble. I believe this industrial park is not empty because of the system, rather… … we have entered a certain instance dungeon quest area.”

None of them disagreed.

“We now have two options. First, retreat and see if we can get back to the road.

“Second… keep going inside and see what happens.

“Personally, I think we shouldn’t retreat. Since we have entered this quest area, it is no longer certain if we can return to the road… and even if we do make it back to the road, we would likely be unable to find a means of transport to Tel Aviv.

“Most importantly, this place is too close to where we were ambushed by the zombies. I suspect that this has something to do with the zombies!”

After saying that, Lun Tai glanced at Roddy. “No matter what, Roddy has been infected. We have to resolve the zombie issue. This place might be critical to that end. I think we should continue forward.”

“I must save Roddy,” said Qiao Qiao calmly. There was also a firmness in her voice.

Xia Xiaolei interjected, “Of course!”

Qimu Xi whispered, “I have no objections.”

After the members had expressed their agreement, Lun Tai quickly made the arrangements.

Roddy took the vanguard position – as he was already infected, coming into contact with more of the virus would not aggravate the rate of infection. Thus, such a decision was made.

Qiao Qiao and Qimu Xi were in the middle position and they brought Will and Soo Soo with them.

Lun Tai and Xia Xiaolei took the rear.

“Will, you are now our team’s eyes. Since you are the only one who can see those things, we need your ability. Do not worry, we are here with you. Once you see anything, tell us immediately.” Qiao Qiao cast a very solemn gaze at Will before adding, “I believe that you can do this, am I right?”

“I… I can do this.” Will nodded his head vigorously and forced himself to puff up his chest.

“Good.” Qiao Qiao gave a gentle smile. “If there is any danger, remember to stay close with me.”

Roddy, who took the forward position, quickly walked toward the security door. Pushing the door open slowly, he poked his machete inside. A few seconds later, he turned and said, “Safe.”

Their team went past the security door. Due to there being no power, there was no illumination and the fire escape was dark.

Roddy, Lun Tai and the others pulled out their tactical flashlights. Several beams of light shone within the fire escape and their group slowly made their way down.

The fire escape was very long. They took a total of a hundred plus steps before reaching the corridor that Qiao Qiao had mentioned.

After walking out through the security door at the bottom of the fire escape, they saw that the corridor was also dark. There were no decorations on the ceiling. But there were holes for ventilation.

There at the end of the corridor was a metal door.

The metal door was open. However, after their team had reached the door, Lun Tai extended his hand to feel the door for a moment.

“Very thick. It is a military-grade explosion-proof door.” Lun Tai frowned.

Qiao Qiao was somewhat surprised. When she had come down with Xia Xiaolei earlier, she did not realize that detail. She also did not know what an explosion-proof door was like.

There were rooms on both sides of the corridor as seen from the transparent glass walls there. However, the rooms had blinds put up, blocking their vision of what was inside. The corridor was very long, up to roughly 300 metres. In the middle was a T-shaped junction.

When they reached the junction, they saw that the corridor leading to the left was dark. Roddy used his tactical flashlight to illuminate the corridor and saw that there was another metal door there. However, it would appear that this metal door was closed.

“What is in there?” Roddy asked Qiao Qiao.

Qiao Qiao shook her head. “I do not know. Just now when I came down here, I tried to get past the door, but I was unable to open it. As I was anxious to find a means of transport, I did not waste any more time here.”

After saying that, Qiao Qiao pointed to their front and said, “Just keep going and we will reach the tracks.”

Roddy thought about it and pointed at the metal door on the left passageway.  “I think we should try this way … we might be able to find something here. What do you think, Lun Tai?”

Lun Tai was silent for a moment. “Will, do you see anything?”

Will whispered, “No.”

Lun Tai considered the matter and said, “Roddy and I will go check it out. The others stay here. Qiao Qiao, Xiaolei, you two keep an eye on the front and rear positions.”

Roddy raised his kukri machetes and moved toward the metal door.

There were less than 10 metres between the metal door and the junction. The two of them moved forward. Roddy used his flashlight to shine light upon the metal door and reached his hand out to touch the handle of the metal door.

Just as he was reaching out, he heard Lun Tai shout, “Don’t touch it!”

Roddy turned around and saw an odd expression on Lun Tai’s face. Lun Tai pointed to the top and said, “Look.”

Roddy looked at where Lun Tai was pointing at and was unable to stop his expression from contorting.

There on the surface of the durable metal plate of the metal door, somewhere two metres above ground were several deep slash marks.

It was as though… it had been created by something sharp.

Roddy and Lun Tai glanced at it and expressions of shock appeared on their faces.

“Something tried to break inside but failed. That seems to be the case,” said Lun Tai with a frown.

Roddy extended his hand and gestured at it. “It can’t possibly be done by hand, can it? What kind of creature could have such a terrifying level of strength?”

Lun Tai exhaled. Then, he turned and shouted, “Qiao Qiao, keep a look out for any signs of danger! There is something dangerous here! Xiaolei! If there is any problem, don’t hesitate to open fire!”

Roddy stared at the handle on the metal door. He stretched his hand out and pressed down… …

A few seconds later, Roddy’s face suddenly sank.

After his hand made contact with the handle, he could clearly feel a faint tremor.

Bang!

No sound came from the tremor. It was a light tremor that could only be felt by placing one’s hand on the surface of the gate. A very faint tremor.

Roddy’s expression turned odd and he made a hand gesture to Lun Tai. Seeing that, Lun Tai leaned closer to the gate.

Roddy poked his head forward, touching the surface of the metal door with it.

Bang! Bang!

Again!

“There is something beyond the gate!” Roddy said in a whisper.

Lun Tai too, moved to place his ears on the surface of the metal door.

Lun Tai’s face quickly flickered.

There was something inside slamming the metal door, causing the faint tremors.

The two of them looked at each other and they retreated in unison. They trained their guns at the metal door.

Just as Lun Tai was about to say something, Will, who was behind them, gave an alarming cry. “Ah! That fellow is here!”

Hearing that, Lun Tai and Roddy turned around and saw Will hide behind Qiao Qiao while pointing at a certain direction…

That was where Lun Tai and Roddy was at.

No, it would be more accurate to say, it was the middle position between Lun Tai, Roddy, Qiao Qiao and the others.

“What? Where?” Qiao Qiao quickly moved to stand before Will.

“Here, he is here,” said Will in a quavering voice. “It is the one in white doctor’s clothes that I saw earlier.”

The present scene was most unusual. Will was the only one there who could see the figure while the others could only look at the direction indicated by Will, puzzled looks on their faces.

Both Lun Tai and Roddy tensed up.

They were not fearful of ghosts.

Their guild had encountered ghosts before back in London.

However, a ghost that they cannot see was comparatively more difficult to deal with.

“He, he is waving at us,” said Will in a hushed tone. “He, he is waving to Mr Lun Tai and Mr Roddy.”

Waving?

The faces of Lun Tai, Roddy, Qiao Qiao and the others became puzzled.

“Why is he waving?” asked Qiao Qiao.

Will shook his head. He hid behind Qiao Qiao and the fear in his heart seemingly lessened.

“Will, can you talk to him?” Soo Soo suddenly asked.

The questioned surprised Will. He turned to look at the little girl beside him and hesitated for a moment before summoning his courage. “I, I can try.”

After saying that, Will poked his body out from behind Qiao Qiao and asked gingerly, “Mister, you, what are you doing?”

The others watched on nervously at Will. A few seconds later, a strange expression overcame Will’s face.

He turned to face Soo Soo and Qiao Qiao. “He said… … don’t open this door. The consequences would be terrible.”

Qiao Qiao’s face grew tense. “Will, can you ask him more? Get a clear idea of what is happening.”

Will nodded and he forced himself to calm down. Next, he asked in the Hebrew language.

It did not take long for Will to breathe a sigh of relief and said in a whisper, “He said that he is willing to talk with us. He is now talking to us and I will help relay his words to you all.”

“Good.” Qiao Qiao nodded her head. “Well done. Go ahead, we are listening.”

Lun Tai and Roddy did not lower their guard. The two of them stood at their respective sides; Lun Tai kept his gun and carefully pulled out a military blade, which he then coated with some spirit-force substance. He then gripped the blade tightly.

“He said… his name is Alpha, the chief researcher here. This place is XXXX Group’s largest biopharmaceutical research and development centre.”

Listening to Will’s words, Lun Tai and Roddy were both visited by a sense of foreboding at the same time.

…

Alpha. Raw: ‘阿尔法’, pinyin ‘Ā'ěrfǎ’.