Chapter 64 - The Institute (5)

The minute the nurses left, a sullen faced player plopped down heavily in one of the chairs, face green with suppressed disgust. They instantly recognized him as one of the players from the presumed dead's ward.

The other roomates didn't look any better and when the surrounding players inquired about what happened , it took a good while for them to regain their composure enough to speak.

The first olayer shook his head with lingering fear, 

"The man... He died. But he didn't die normally.. He-...He was hollowed out! Completely scrapped of his blood and flesh!"

Hollowed...

When they had woken up this morning, they hadn't immediately realized that someone amonst them was missing, it was obly when one unlucky player who had the unfortunate experience of stepping on the sheet of paper- thin skin that had been scraped clean of its organ; leaving behind only a human-shaped skin lying on the floor to remind them of what it used to be; did they become aware of the absolute horrors that had taken place as they slept !

"The man had been cut from his abdomen down and then had his organs slowly removed one by one, and his blood drained like a delicately crafted dish that should only be savored and carefully handled!"

They just didn't know if it was done while he was still alive.

The thought itself was absolutely horrifying.

One player was particularly paranoid and instantly jumped out with suspicions about the overly detailed description of the man's death but the green-faced player only waved his hand in dismissal.

"We were all dead asleep during the night, none of us woke up regardless of how much noise Zong Jui probably made." The thought of someone dying right under their noses, no matter how they screamed, no one could hear them, no one could save them didn't sit right with the man and his faced paled even worse.

"I used a prop to find out how the man died, altough the system blurred out the perpetrators face, I can still make it out that it was a nurse! "

The players all looked fairly grim, death was a normal thing here but usually the type of death on the first day would signal the level of horror that the instance carried on in the later stages.

This didn't bode well.

Chu Yi and Tang Shun exchanged contemplative looks, the moment they heard the word 'hollow' they unconsciously thought of the dead cat in their bathroom the night before, just like the dead animal, the man was robbed of his organs and made into a human skin bag. And this morning when they ventured back into the bathroom, the cat had mysteriously disappeared .

They didn't hide it and one of their roomates, Ge Ren shared this blood-curdling discovery with the others but to their dismay they were the only room with dead animals , however all the other wards had varying levels of disrepair, dried blood splattered on the floors and on the walls were a common factor amongst all of them.

"There's nothing else we can do now. It's only the first day and we don't have enough clues. We can only explore the Institute in the time span we have now."

This was a fact, they still had a month left here and there was more than enough time to slowly seek out the secrets of this copy.

After reaching a general consensus, the players decided to split, one group venturing to the east side of the building and the other going to the west.

"Hey! You guys don't seem like you'd be pig teammates. Do you want to team up?" A request like mocking reached the ears of the distant Chu Yi and Tang Shun, the boy who had been marginalized to the edge of the crowd a long time ago was now standing before them with a unruly smirk on his face.

Tang Shun smiled gently in response, like a helpless owner to its overexcited pet.

"We'll be sure to not let you down."

The trio didn't spend much time communicating with the rest of the players and quickly decided on a destination.

True to the rebellious nature of the group, they all agreed on the banned basement floor as the first stop.

Even if it was just to patrol around the very edges.

From what they had noticed earlier, the inside of the Institute itself was very dark and there was only light at the entrance of the floors. Compared to the obviously interstellar technology normal in the outside world or at least available to the top brass, here everything seemed to have been stuck in another older time, and their was no trace of anything remotely futuristic.

The iron plates laid on the stairs were slammed by them, echoing in the dark stairwells, it was impossible to tell where the sounds led.

It wasn't long before they found the basement , it was neither hidden nor blocked and was revealed blatantly, tempting the curious prey to venture in and be devoured!

Under the dim light of the flashlight, the darkness of the negative second floor was swepted away.

Rusty iron plates, peeling walls, damp and moldy corners from leaking rain, and moss filled in the gaps.

The only thing that barred them from entrance was rusty red iron gate that stood tall against the backdrop of darkness.

Beyond the gate, on both sides of the corridor were rows of rooms that couldn't be seen to the end due to the obscuring darkness but most of them were either locked or completely plated with metal sheets.

Besides that everything looked absolutely normal.

But this normal was what made it even more strange.

Suddenly the dim glow of the flashlight in Tang Shun's hands fell onto something that rolled slowly out of the the corner of the corridor, gradually falling into the eyes of the three.

It was a head..

This head has obviously been left to rot for a long time, and the whole thing was a pale yellow-brown, dry and on the verge of being mummified. But it was because of this , that the eyes on the skull seemed more bizarre!

What was there wasn't an empty eye socket as one would expect, instead there were two fully functioning eyeballs stuffed into those sockets! Those eyes were not only very vivid, but also can see the blue-red, blood shot eye vessels when they rolled around and looked at the group menacingly.

This was a pair of eyes that shouldn't be on a skull at all!

Chu Yi knew what these were.

This is a pair of eyes that have just been dug out, and even the most fragile parts of the tissue are intact, not one blood vessel was missing. This technique was absolutely perfect.

How can anyone put a living eye into the socket of a dead person?

And who was the person that contributed their eyes to this bone-chilling act! 

When all other options are eliminated, only the most likely one is left!

Those were the eyes of the player that had just been dragged off for correction!

But neither Tang Shun Chu Yi nor Chao Bin who only paled slightly before quickly recovering showed the normal reaction, instead a strong desire to grab onto the skull for observation burst forward and Chu Yi even clearly inched closer to the gate, just to get a better look.

The skull rolled a few more times , in a futile attempt to scare the lot, before defeated rolling back into the darkness leaving behind the pair of perverts and another young tiger to play among themselves.

"I'd definitely like to meet the person who performed that operation, such perfect technique is worthy of learning."

Chu Yi nodded in agreement and the two abnormals had a rare moment of consensus.

Tang Shun pushed up his glasses slightly and grinned at the way Chao Bin blanched at their nonchalant tone but didn't continue to push the topic.

When it became obvious that nothing else would change, they lost instrest. Chu Yi and the rest didn't bother to branch out any farther on this floor and left the basement altogether.

"Where should we go now."

Tang Shun pondered for a moment, 

"Go to the warehouses. There's bound to be something of use there."

But before they could fully leave the floor, it happened,

Suddenly all the residents, in the entire building felt a wave of nauseating bile rise up from their stomachs and a bout of dizziness hit them like a bus, some people couldn't help retching up their entire breakfast. The splat of continuous vomiting ,projectile hitting the floor in a lumpy sea of green and red radiated throughout the Institute. The intense smell of half-eaten food and stomach acid stinging the noses of the unfortunate beholders!

Chu Yi and Tang Shun only barely managed to hold it in, but Chao Bin beside them wasn't nearly as sturdy, having had already hunched over in pain and was vomiting everywhere.

Chu Yi frowned, such collective sickness could only be blamed on the Institute. The medicine they had taken yesterday had obviously caused some unwanted physical reactions in all of them.

But the effects of the medicine quickly faded and the vomiting didnt last long either; Chao Bin was alright after a few seconds but his face was definitely a few shades paler than it had been a second before.

Chao Bin also looked somewhat embarrassed at his own mess but still asked in the same arrogant manner ,

"What do you think is going on.."

Chu Yi pondered slightly, then as if he had thought of something rather funny, a laughing grin appeared on his face.

"Maybe, just maybe they're being turned into monsters."

Tang Shun listened to Chu Yi's almost joking words with a meaningful look.

From the looks of it , this assumption was definitely not as far-fetched as it seemed.

Chao Bin's face turned unsightly,

"Don't make weird assumptions."

"Afraid?" Chu Yi tilted his head, and he laughed again. At this angle, he actually looked a little cute, and a large part of it was due to the look of playful joy. But Chao Bin felt that the strange atmosphere around the man was getting stronger and stronger.

"You don't need to be afraid. Even if we become monsters in the end, even if we die, isn't this all just a game" Chu Yi said, "You know what? When a human loses all his memories, what is exposed is their truest nature.

"The reason why a human being can form consciousness is because of the accumulation of their memories, and with the help of their memories and wisdom, they enable us to have consciousness. The formation of a human character is based on the influence of the environment, the people around us, and everything we encounter. This influence forms our memories in our minds so as to shape and change our character."

"But when a human loses all his inhibitions, they don't just lose a sense of self, they lose a part of themselves that keeps them from being consumed by the filth hidden in the human heart."

Chu Yi suddenly advanced to the front, standing before Chao Bin so he could not help but look up to him. The dim light in the corridor shone on the man, making his smiling face appear a little ghastly.

"In a place with no laws, no police, no rules or regulations that could restrict these people. On this train, everyone could become a manic outlaw, could be at ease, could be crazy, and could be selfish like a wild animal ... or live like a monster."

"Therefore whats so bad about becoming a true monster in the sense."

"You wouldn't be a human, ao human logic wouldn't apply to you. You survive with the law of the jungle, only the fittest survive, no matter who you kill, it is justified because they are weak."

"Don't you think that'll be absolutely fun?!"

A scene of purgatory with no rules.

Exciting!