Strange game designer.

Chapter 721 Is the Forbidden Zone a Wound of the Shrine?

“I’ve handled the medicine before and never encountered a similar situation. It seems that there’s a major problem with Yu Hui himself, which has affected the latest medicines produced.”

The wound on his fingertip had not healed. That small cut seemed like a window into Yu Hui's heart. His blood and Gao Ming's blood were devouring each other, as if trying to forcibly imprint his memories into Gao Ming's body.

"Director Li, should we leave? This place is too eerie."

"Yes, the pharmaceutical factory is the core of the Takekawa Corporation, but now there's not a single person to be seen. Could those guys... all be dead?"

Jia Youzhi and Ding Xiang stood on either side of Gao Ming, closely guarding him. Outside the penalty area, they felt that Gao Ming was too troublesome, but once inside, Gao Ming became their only support. The two stayed close by, clinging to Gao Ming's arms like hand warmers.

"For the residents of this city, the afterglow has become a forbidden zone, but for outsiders, the air here is fresher and freer." Gao Ming stared at the blood droplet sliding from his fingertip; it seemed to have its own life, guiding Gao Ming to a certain place: "Follow me."

Pushing open the pharmaceutical factory gate, the dim lights flickered slightly, dispelling the darkness but making one feel even more uneasy.

More medicine was spilled, and messy shoe prints began to appear on the ground.

"All the shoe prints point towards the factory exit. They're clearly fleeing for their lives, not even bothering to take the most precious medicine. This shows they've encountered something terrible." Dingxiang, a very perceptive woman, clung tightly to Gao Ming's arm, her beautiful eyes wide: "Director Li, the factory workers are running for their lives. Is it really appropriate for us to just go in like this?"

“That’s right, we’ve come this far and haven’t seen a single body, which means the workers didn’t escape in the end. This is a dead end, a desperate situation!” Jia Youzhi was really scared, his body was trembling as if it were on vibrate.

"You're here, let's go in and take a look."

"This isn't a vacation, you need to be careful!"

My fingertips were itchy, and the blood droplets in the wound rolled back and forth like a frantic little worm.

Gao Ming read through Yu Hui's memories and pried open the thickened door panel of the production workshop.

The employee handbook was playing over the loudspeaker, the air was thick with the pungent smell of medicine, and a picture of a beautiful woman being injected with drugs and tortured was posted on the wall without any cover-up. Everything the woman had suffered was laid bare before everyone's eyes.

Wu Wei and Ding Xiang, both women, couldn't bear to look at it. These two women were usually quite ruthless, but they were still hurt by the pictures on the wall.

"It's unimaginable how painful it must be for her family to see her like this."

Gao Ming's fingers brushed over the text below the picture. Black Bear publicly wrote down the punishment for female worker No. 031 here to warn others that no matter who you are, you must behave obediently here.

"Director Li, look over here!" Wu Wei covered her mouth, pointed behind the pharmaceutical equipment, and was too scared to move.

Following Wu Wei's pointing finger, Gao Ming's eye twitched slightly. The city outwardly maintained a "normal" facade, devoid of ghost stories or bizarre anomalies. Yet, against this backdrop, a scene unfolded within the pharmaceutical workshop that even he found chilling.

Behind the equipment was a throng of patients whose malice had erupted. They weren't workers at the pharmaceutical factory; they were patients used by Takekawa Corporation for human experiments. At this moment, they were dragged by various tubes and strapped with medicine bags, from which a thick, blood-red liquid was being continuously injected into their bodies. Before the afterglow became a forbidden zone, the medicine could be used to suppress malice, but after the afterglow went out of control, all the medicine injected into their bodies turned into poison.

"**! So many patients! Director Li, let's go!" Jia Youzhi has lived for so long, and tonight he has seen more patients than in the first half of his life combined.

"Don't panic. The victims who were used for human experiments by the Takekawa Society are still alive, which means that the Forbidden Zone is not just indiscriminate killing. It seems that he can distinguish who the real culprit is." Gao Ming has a very impressive quality: he can always see hope in despair.

There were too many patients, and Gao Ming dared not approach. Although these patients were not as malicious as the old dogs at the outpost, when they rushed at once, no one had a chance to escape.

"They've lost their minds, acting entirely on their inner desires, which is why they're frantically consuming and injecting those drugs. The restricted area doesn't seem to have any intention of interfering." Gao Ming had no intention of leaving.

"Director Li, have you been directing too many films and gotten confused? How can you treat the forbidden zone like a human being? That thing is killing indiscriminately! No number of living people could fill the void!" Jia Youzhi noticed that Gao Ming seemed eager to try something. He didn't know what Gao Ming wanted to try, but it certainly wasn't a good thing.

"I know what I'm doing." Gao Ming waved his hand and led everyone out of the factory. Just as everyone breathed a sigh of relief, he headed towards the staff apartment, the place where the blood bead's call was strongest.

Unlike the pharmaceutical factory, Gao Ming and his companions felt their hair stand on end as soon as they approached the apartment building; their biological instincts urged them to flee immediately.

The gate to the apartment complex was unlocked. After slowly pushing it open, Gao Ming saw the first corpse inside the restricted area.

Old Li, the gatekeeper who appeared in Yu Hui's memory, committed suicide. He hanged himself on the iron gate. His body was intact, and there was no fear on his face, only a sense of relief.

After moving Old Li's body aside, Gao Ming's pace gradually slowed down. The exterior wall of the apartment building in his eyes was somewhat blurry, as if the disguise draped over the city had been torn off here, or as if a bloody wound had appeared on a complete human skin.

Before Gao Ming and the others could react, they found themselves at the apartment entrance. The thin stairwell doorway seemed to separate two different worlds.

After gently pushing the arm aside, Gao Ming saw a crisscrossing network of plant roots, from which hung countless pharmaceutical factory workers, their corpses twisted on the branches like worms. But in the blink of an eye, the apartment returned to normal—stairs, steps, railings, rooms—no different from reality.

Two completely different scenes alternated eerily before everyone's eyes. Jia Youzhi and Ding Xiang were paralyzed with fear, while only Gao Ming showed a thoughtful expression.

"Is this what the forbidden zone truly looks like? Is Yu Hui inside?"

As Gao Ming stepped forward, he walked on the ordinary staircase steps, but in Jia Youzhi's eyes, Gao Ming was stepping on the corpse's head, staring in a certain direction as if possessed by something.

"Director Li, come back quickly!"

From Gao Ming's perspective, he was going up the stairs, but from another angle, his body was being gradually squeezed and trapped by the horde of zombies.

(End of this chapter)