ecstasy

-

The mathematician and Richard kept silent, their gazes darting back and forth through the bright white maze, each one looking absentminded. The bloodstains on their coats had already solidified, but a trail of gradually fading red footprints remained behind them.

Doudou held his chin between his thumb and index finger—after thinking for a moment, it seemed there was nothing else he needed to say:

"Okay then. I'll be leaving now. Be careful."

As Dou Dou spoke, he took a step forward, raised his arms, and walked straight into the corridor.

Richard lifted up the plastic bag filled with red water and put it down again:

"Doudou! Do you know where you are going--"

Crunch/Snap:

Doudou was like an old man strolling in the park, arms stretched out, palms clapping alternately in front of and behind him. Only his movements were ten times faster, and in a flash he vanished from Richard and the mathematician's sight. Only the strange sound of the rubber soles of his Warrior shoes scraping against the smooth ground could be heard faintly in the distance.

Richard stared silently at the empty corridor, then suddenly turned around and patted the mathematician's stick-like arm:

"Never mind, I get it. Doctor, let's go: let's find the infirmary."

Chapter 67 Fire Refining

The narrow path gradually widened, the gleaming walkway gleaming in the white cast by the ceiling lights; the walls were lined with Venetian blinds. Doudou raised his finger and pulled down the narrow, new shutters: behind the window was not a blank space or a white wall, but a black, unactivated screen; a 25-centimeter square, four in a row, looked like a promotional counter concealing a television.

I don't know what these screens are for either:

"Oh! It's used to show scenery promotional videos."

After a little thought, Doudou understood the function of the screen - to simulate the outdoor scenery of a normal office building, so as to prevent the employees working in the underground from experiencing unnecessary mental stress due to the claustrophobic environment.

"Very cool, very cool. Very thoughtful, very thoughtful. Employee benefits should be well thought out. A big company should still act like a big company—"

Doudou clasped his hands behind his back, tut-tutting his lips as he offered perfunctory praise. Apparently, the Mong Cai branch's single work cycle is quite long, which is why this aspect was designed into the design. So, what were they planning to do?

"Needless to say! They're definitely preparing for world conquest or something like that!"

Doudou stood on tiptoe and jumped forward: Although it was much simpler and more backward, and the scale was far from comparable, he had seen this scene before.

It looks just like the Hive Lab in Resident Evil 2!

The evil conspiracy hidden beneath the city is quietly hiding in the shadows -

At the end of the summer, things were finally getting interesting; his unfinished summer homework was put behind him.

-

Doudou continued forward with great interest; the rubber soles of his Warrior shoes made a squeaking sound on the smooth ground, and the sound swayed slowly to the other side of the corridor.

There were no traps to hinder Doudou's progress—lasers, poison gas, tripwires—nor were there bullets dropped by mobile forces like when he first entered Shouzhu 151: not that the hail of bullets was boring, but it was a bit old-fashioned.

Apart from the noise of the central air conditioning, the only sounds in the branch are the cameras rotating at every corner of the corridor: the dark red signal lights flicker like the single eye of a giant.

So someone was hiding behind these electronic eyes, observing him as he wandered around. Perhaps because of the devastating consequences of the previous two contacts, the people in the Mong Cai branch of the Asia-Europe Post were like frightened deer in the forest, unwilling to appear in front of Dou Dou.

"Hi! Is anyone there? Hello, hello, answer me if I hear you! Answer me if I hear you!"

Doudou lifted his feet, raised his arms and waved them towards the dark red one-eyed creature.

-

Buzz--Buzz--Buzz--

This time, Doudou's call finally received a response:

"Activate the acute response erasure system—activate the acute response erasure system—"

There were no conspicuous speakers around, and the speakers must have been embedded in the wall; the dull and smooth electronic sound was neither fast nor slow, a bit like the radio station at school after school.

Doudou walked to the center of the passage: the gates on both sides slowly closed in the noise - as slow as the Ferris wheel waiting for tourists to ride. Even if you are in a wheelchair, you may be able to rush out in time if you push hard a few times.

But further ahead, more gates were descending or rising simultaneously; the entire corridor was about to be closed.

"Huh? Finally a reaction."

Doudou sighed protractedly, but his steps stopped—

Of course, he could rush out of the gates that were about to close before the corridor was completely closed; but Doudou wanted to see what was going on.

bang.

With a dull thud, the gate closed. Doudou remained in the small metal box, looking left and right, waiting for something unusual to happen.

pat!

With a crisp sound, the ceiling above Doudou's head suddenly opened:

It was not a hemispherical machine gun turret, nor a poison gas cannon emitting green smoke, but a set of jet modules embedded in the ceiling.

Without any delay, concentrated liquid oxygen and hot acetylene were sprayed into the air--

The arc ignition needle ignites the destructive fluids with an instantaneous voltage of nearly one million volts.

They mixed and a blazing flame of nearly 2000 degrees was born, transforming into spiral jets of blazing flames and shock waves that poured down, drowning everything in the passage.

Rumble, rumble, rumble--hiss, hiss.

The sound was like a huge jet furnace, like a low, rending storm trapped in a metal box.

The flame bounced back and forth along the alloy door, producing continuous echo waves; sometimes the flame touched the wall and the air flow swirled, making a "crackling" sound like red-hot metal being stuffed into cold water.

The alloy hatches on both sides reflected the heat, causing the temperature in the trap to continue to rise; the temperature of the flames was almost half that of the surface of the sun.

The blue and white inferno didn't linger for long: within 0.2 seconds, it consumed everything in the passage, then burned for another five or six seconds. When everything died down, there was no more smoke or strobe light, only the twisted, funhouse-mirror-like air, swirling in waves.

Gurgling, gurgling.

There was a rumbling sound of air, a small vortex formed by the rising hot gas:

The hell imagined by humans seems to overlap with this place for a moment, and then disappears into the delusion of the afterlife; but when it exists, it still devours a small part of reality.

The drywall walls had long since vanished, revealing the silicon carbide ceramic beneath—a heat-resistant layer that gleamed like burnt obsidian—while behind the peeling mineral wool acoustic ceiling lay an alumina grid, its honeycomb structure plastered across the ceiling like a frozen lake.

"Hey, there's a bit of a lack of oxygen here."

Doudou stood perfectly still in the middle of the passage. His voice was sharper than usual, but also drier and clearer—the raging flames had consumed some of the oxygen in the passage, and the remaining thin air had altered the quality of Doudou's voice.

"Hahahaha! What's that weird noise of mine? It's really fun."

Hearing his own voice, which was completely different from usual, he couldn't help but laugh again.

Doudou brushed around his raincoat, trying to brush off the nonexistent burnt debris. He was still intact, as if an overactive child had just thrown a damp firecracker at his feet.

Even the peaks of his eyebrows and the ends of his hair hadn't been burned to create a curl: someone lighting a cigarette on a gas stove would burn their eyebrows. And the single eye of the surveillance camera was just a charred mass, black and stuck to the ground.

Doudou spun and jumped around in this black and white world that was like an art installation, running his fingers over the shiny materials and peering carefully at the other end of the honeycomb structure, as if it were a pale kaleidoscope.

When the small room could no longer hold his interest, Doudou shoved his hands into his pockets and yawned in boredom. He walked towards the closed doors on both sides until his raised elbows bumped into the hard metal.

Doudou raised his arm and poked and tore open the 35 mm thick molybdenum alloy - perhaps after being exposed to high temperatures, its creep resistance had decreased; this action was easier than lifting the door curtain.

Bang-bang!

The sudden change in temperature and pressure inside and outside the chamber caused a storm—

The high-temperature airflow and shock wave rushed out of the small room, passed by Doudou, and rushed into the corridor, causing the walls to tremble.

Doudou dug his toes into the ground with every step to stabilize his body; otherwise, he might be blown around by the storm; similarly, his toes did not break the rubber soles of his Warrior shoes.

The vibrations and heat waves collided everywhere, making the entire underground branch sway; it was as noisy as if the gods were having a party here.

Doudou turned his head, then looked at the hem of his raincoat again, and finally shrugged his shoulders - he didn't know that this temperature was enough to decompose most organic matter, but he also knew that it was much more scorching than the flame on the gas stove.

As for why it had no effect on me or even my clothes, it was even worse than a basin of warm water.

"Oh, do I have a bio-force field like Superman? I didn't feel that way before."

This was definitely a good thing: he always wore this raincoat; he was also used to wearing his pants and sneakers. Even though the white branch in the basement of Shouzhu 151 looked empty, he couldn't be naked in public.

Doudou raised his hand and pointed at the imaginary cameras that existed everywhere:

"If you ruin my clothes, you'll be in big trouble."

Finally, the shaking of the building stopped, and the surroundings were quiet - no one responded to Doudou's words.

-

There was also silence in the control room.

The operators present and the cameras outside the gate all noticed this - the inactivation mechanism was not working at all.

The acute response erasure system was originally used in the Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory of Asia Europe Post; it is also equipped in the Mong Cai branch to clean up possible biohazard disasters.

No one thought that it would be put into use just after being installed and before the experimental products had even been delivered; no one thought that the effect seemed to be even worse than the sauna in the hot spring.

This is the artificial device with the strongest lethality to living things in the Mong Cai City branch.

The operator stared at the screen, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets; it was as if his retina had blood vessels directly connected to those pixels. After a while, a hoarse sigh from behind broke the silence:

"Wow. This isn't possible?"

The operator turned his head and saw her half-open mouth with metal braces on her teeth - the rest of her face was hidden in the darkness because of the glare of the screen; her face became a mask with only the mouth.

"It's so interesting, even more amazing than I imagined."

She added: The operator didn't think this sentence was directed at him, so he turned his head faster than a top.

Knock, knock, someone knocked on the operator's chair back and gave an order:

"Don't activate the remaining defense mechanisms. Just have the team bring the [Witch in the Building] up."

Chapter 68 Stop

There was a commotion in the distance, with loud noises coming from time to time, shaking the glass and making it tremble; the ground beneath one's feet was buzzing as if it had a motor installed.

Something like a hydraulic hammer was pounding on the wall: the mathematician thought it was Doudou. They seemed to be moving inside the body of a giant beast, but this steel animal had a poor stomach.

Richard was holding a brand new broom, gripping it firmly with one hand and tucked under his armpit; his posture resembled that of a clay warrior statue in a temple, except that he had no long beard to stroke from his chin.

He poked at the cameras he came across until they fell and shattered into pieces: these one-eyed machines lurking in the corners of the ceiling did not say a word, silently accepting their fate of destruction.

Richard looked more energetic than before - the base of the camera was fixed with rivets, but Richard was able to accurately poke the connection of the plastic part; until the weight of the front end completely severed the wires.

Even in such an advanced facility, cleaners still use brooms and dustpans.

The mathematician dragged a dustpan, scratched his chest with one hand, and tucked a cardboard box under his arm as he followed Richard. He was sweating profusely, his mind full of criticism and dissatisfaction. Even though he had an extra healthy hand than Richard, he was always a step behind and ended up clumsily clearing the damaged electronic components to the side.

He wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to escape, and even quietly fell behind, waiting for Richard to pass the other corner -

But somehow, the mathematician couldn't move:

"where are we going?"

Richard stomped hard on the fallen camera, sending fragments flying. Without even turning his head, he replied:

"Go to the infirmary. Most branches should be equipped with automated medical equipment now, so there's no need to worry about whether there are medical staff to treat you."

They walked down another long corridor; this time they could see offices on both sides.

The blinds were pulled up to the top, and behind the glass were unopened office desks, chairs, equipment, and a printer lying quietly in the corner. Beside them were boxes of printing paper piled up almost to the ceiling.

This place is more like an old law firm that has not yet opened for business, with countless written materials that need to be processed - but the atmosphere is solemn and quiet, giving people the illusion of an arsenal.

Richard raised his hand and knocked on the glass window, as if to say hello to his colleagues who didn't exist yet:

"This room will probably be used as an analysis room. By then, the intervertebral discs here will be more protruding than the Himalayas, and everyone will have hemorrhoids. Colleagues in the analysis department at headquarters will all be given coupons for the anorectal department."

The mathematician didn't know whether to laugh or not, so he turned around and followed Richard's gesture to look into the analysis room:

It seemed that there were many ghost employees sitting at their workstations, tapping on the terminal keyboards.

After hesitating for a moment, the mathematician decided to explain the joke to respond to the gloomy Richard:

"Oh, you mean, sitting for a long time will cause occupational diseases--"

Click.

The mathematician turned his gaze back and saw Richard pull his service pistol from its holster, release the safety, and raise the muzzle toward the mathematician.

Richard's crushed hand and arm were shaking, but the muzzle of the gun was like his unblinking eyes, pointed at the only target in front of him like a stone statue.

The mathematician raised his hands, waving them wildly forward, as if trying to block the bullets that were about to hit him:

"I--"