Chapter 41
Who is the traitor?
Tap, tap, tap.
The sound of footsteps echoed down the hallway of the supervision office. In the guard room, Chu Yan sensitively turned her head toward the open door.
Soon after, a tall figure appeared at the doorway.
He was a very tall Nordic man, dressed immaculately in a gray suit with his silver hair swept back and his ice-blue eyes stern and cold. There was a deep red letter, ‘S’, on the back of his left hand.
Several inspectors in the office stood up in shock simultaneously: “Director… Director-General?!”
Chu Yan’s fingers curled slightly at her side. Her senses were very keen, and she felt an extremely ominous and forbidding aura emanating from the man, like a dark cloud over a city and a storm approaching, cold and unyielding.
But Nielsen’s face revealed little emotion.
He completely ignored the others, stepping forward and bending down on one knee, calmly looking into the girl’s eyes. “You are the animal empath, aren’t you?”
“…” Chu Yan cautiously remained silent, just nodding her head.
Then she saw Nielsen extend his hand, palms open, in a gesture of invitation.
“Would you be willing to take me to find the genetically resurrected evolutionist named Rong Qi?”
“I must go kill him as soon as possible.”
***
In the underground laboratory of the Evolutionist Hospital, Shui Ronghua’s phone suddenly rang. Seeing that it was Chen Miao calling, she answered, “Hello?”
Three seconds later, her eyelids twitched heavily, “What?!”
The research director turned around, his expression suffocating with an inability to accept any more bad news, only to see Shui Ronghua hang up the phone in a daze and slowly say, “Nielsen went to the supervision office and took Chu Yan away…”
“Ah?”
“…He’s going to kill Rong Qi.”
Shui Ronghua’s expression was complicated, and the research director also opened his mouth, not knowing what to say for a moment. “Well… if the Director-General can kill the Daydream Caster, the dream scenario will indeed immediately unravel. But Rong Qi is, after all, a genetic resurrection type…”
The mutual killings among evolutionists not only depend on who has a higher level but also on the restraining properties of each other’s abilities. For example, the odds of water-based abilities against lightning-based ones are very low. Nielsen, known as the Wolf of Odin, was universally recognized as the top-ranked evolutionist globally. However, it was hard to say whether he could truly kill Rong Qi, who possessed the ability of immortality.
“…On the other hand, Nielsen’s ‘Tyrant’ ability has never been fully triggered. It is said that when fully activated, it can even restrain other S-class evolutionists. Perhaps there is a chance of victory.” Shui Ronghua frowned, hesitated for a moment, and slowly said, “Now we can only hope that Nielsen can really kill Rong Qi; otherwise, Supervisor Shen and Bai Sheng…”
Following her gaze, the screen displayed real-time scans of the brains of two dreamers.
Shen Zhuo’s index had been stable all along. He had already sunk into deep hallucinations, but the area of pain and stimulation in his brain had not been awakened, perhaps because the dream had not yet progressed to a fatal stage.
But Bai Sheng’s index was already quite bad.
He had been in the dream for over 24 hours, completely surpassing the golden treatment period. Every minute and every second that followed was very dangerous, with the potential for acute nerve necrosis to erupt at any moment, like an avalanche without warning.
“…Hurry back.” Shui Ronghua watched the constantly changing indices, squinting her eyes and murmuring, “Are you trying to catch up and bring our supervisor back with you?”
But S-class abilities wouldn’t recover so quickly, while Bai Sheng’s brain was deteriorating continuously. Everything felt like a gamble, with no turning back in the fog.
Drip-drip!
A drop of water sparkled in the darkness, falling from above and splashing at Bai Sheng’s feet.
Qinghai Test Site, Area A.
From the surface, it looked like a desert rock cave, but delving deeper into the cave revealed an elevator leading underground for over ten meters of defense works.
The narrow and dark corridor was filled with indescribable odors. Fu Chen led the way at the front, while Su Jiqiao covered the rear, both carrying equipment bags weighing tens of kilograms. Only Shen Zhuo was protected in the middle, carrying a light-duty field box and looking down at the rugged path beneath his feet.
This secret experimental base was built in the mid-20th century and had been abandoned for many years. The heavy steel gate was covered in rust, and the original colour of the floors and walls was difficult to identify due to large patches of mold.
Half a month ago, a highly radioactive meteorite was discovered in the nearby desert. A black-market gang attempted to steal it, but they were caught red-handed by inspectors who arrived upon hearing the news. The criminals, in their panic, fled into this underground facility and engaged in a fierce firefight with the inspectors, resulting in their complete annihilation. However, when the inspectors attempted to recover the evolutionary source, they discovered that the meteorite had an extremely dangerous level of radiation and could potentially explode violently during transportation.
The meteorite had to be temporarily left in this underground test facility. Subsequently, Shen Zhuo, as the top expert in this field, was dispatched to execute the retrieval task, accompanied by Fu Chen and Su Jiqiao to protect him.
“Fifty meters in that direction, the energy radiation reaches its peak. The meteorite we’re looking for should be nearby.” Fu Chen held a flashlight and turned back to extend his hand to Shen Zhuo. “Be careful.”
However, Shen Zhuo waved his hand, indicating that it wasn’t necessary, and leaped directly from the fractured part of the corridor.
No one noticed Bai Sheng standing in the darkness beside Shen Zhuo, waving his hand and using airflow to gently support him.
Shen Zhuo’s mental strength was indeed too formidable. As soon as he stepped into Bai Sheng’s dream, he was like an unstoppable force, destroying everything in his path and turning even raging fires into flat ground in the blink of an eye. But conversely, when it was Bai Sheng in Shen Zhuo’s dream, he became a transparent ghost, invisible to anyone.
But fortunately, he could still use his ability.
Bai Sheng couldn’t physically touch anything in the dream, not even lend a hand to Shen Zhuo, as his hand would pass right through him. However, using his ability had a few limitations. Perhaps this was a bug caused by forcibly intruding into the second layer of the dream.
The sharp pain deep in his brain had turned into a dull ache of fatigue. It was the formidable mental strength of an S-class battling against the full onslaught of the daydream and gradually gaining the upper hand. At this rate of recovery, it was entirely feasible to use causality to crush the daydream forcibly, but Bai Sheng’s mind had to consider a crucial question:
Would causality affect Shen Zhuo’s mental world?
How could he safely bring Shen Zhuo back to reality?
“This is it.” Fu Chen stopped walking at this moment.
Before them, the space suddenly opened up into a spacious underground dome, likely an abandoned experimental hall. Not far away, on a rusty control panel, a dazzling azure fluorescence shimmered, encapsulated within a transparent temporary protective device.
The intense radiation felt like numerous, hot, fine needles piercing their skin. They didn’t need instruments to measure it; that was precisely the evolutionary source meteorite they were searching for on this trip.
Shen Zhuo pulled out a pair of plain glasses and put them on, giving concise orders: “Step back.”
Fu Chen and Su Jiqiao both took two steps back. Shen Zhuo stepped forward and opened the silver field box he had been carrying, taking out a small surveying device. Then, without any protective measures, he directly opened the protective cover with his bare hands and took out the meteorite.
Any gene capable of evolution would have already begun to react to this level of bare-handed contact. However, there was absolutely no reaction from Shen Zhuo; his profound and handsome face was particularly clear in the fluorescent light.
“It’s a Class I radiation source,” he said after a while, lifting his head from the device, his brow furrowed.
Fu Chen’s tone softened noticeably when addressing Shen Zhuo: “What does Class I mean?”
“It means it’s highly sensitive to sudden changes in energy around it. Collisions, friction, intense light, sudden changes in temperature and humidity—none of them are suitable,” Shen Zhuo gently placed the evolutionary source back into its protective casing. “Furthermore, Class I radiation sources have some unknown superposition states. Try not to interfere with it with intense emotions.”
Fu Chen: “Ah?”
“A Class I radiation source can sense changes in surrounding energy, including the physiological reactions of humans. Excessive and intense emotions can trigger it to explode. So, please maintain emotional stability for the next few hours until I finish desensitizing it.”
Shen Zhuo made a “please” gesture, which was extremely cold yet elegant, indicating to Fu Chen and Su Jiqiao the huge equipment bags they had been carrying along the way:
“Now you can help me take out the equipment.”
Shen Zhuo seemed to have been accustomed to being pampered and obeyed by countless people since childhood. Waiting in line to hear his orders was a routine that could go around the research institute, so now he gave commands naturally and effortlessly. Fortunately, both Fu Chen and Su Jiqiao were professionals in the field and were familiar with experimental equipment. They quickly set up a temporary laboratory, while Shen Zhuo adjusted high-frequency radiation to start irradiating the evolutionary source.
After desensitization, the evolutionary source could temporarily increase its tolerance to environmental changes, thereby achieving the goal of safely returning it to the Central District Supervision Office. However, this process would take several hours, and soon it would be dark in the desert.
The wind whistled sharply across the desert, and faint sounds of wind leaked from the dark and desolate earthworks, sounding eerie and mournful from afar. Only the flashlight emitted a faint, dim light.
Shen Zhuo rested alone against the wall, while the other two took turns watching over the evolutionary source. Su Jiqiao seemed quite enthusiastic, always engaging Fu Chen in casual conversation. Most of it was about when he and Fu Chen went out to perform missions alone.
Shen Zhuo showed no interest whatsoever, and it wasn’t even clear if he was listening. He leaned against the boundary of light and shadow, closing his eyes as if dozing off.
Bai Sheng gently wrapped his arm around Shen Zhuo’s shoulder, though he had no physical form, and his arm passed through Shen Zhuo’s shoulder.
The 26-year-old Shen Zhuo was quite different from the later Chief Supervisor of Shenhai City, especially when he closed his eyes and leaned there. His long eyelashes drooped down, exuding a delicate softness like butterfly wings. At this moment, he didn’t seem as gaunt as he would later become, and his cheek lines were still gentle, with his lips slightly parted and thin, tinged with a faint red hue.
Even in such an eerie and bizarre environment, amidst the looming crisis, there was an inexplicable surge of warmth in Bai Sheng’s heart as he gazed at Shen Zhuo. It was a feeling so intense that even he couldn’t find words to describe it.
How strange it was, Bai Sheng thought.
The first time he laid eyes on Shen Zhuo, an unprecedented, intense curiosity surged within him, quickly transforming into an urgent desire and a clamor for possession. It was akin to the instinct of a lion encountering a rich prey—an instinct so difficult to restrain, yearning to seize the opponent’s fatal throat, wanting to leave its mark on every part of the opponent’s flesh, belonging solely to itself.
But as that increasingly frenzied desire reached its peak, it melted into scorching magma—deep, heavy, slowly flowing, permeating from the depths of his soul, inside and out.
He wanted to possess every ounce of this person’s mind and attention, while also wanting the whole world to know that every inch of his skin and every sharp claw belonged only to this person. He yearned to consume this person’s soul completely, merging them into one, yet at the same time, he felt immense joy and satisfaction from simply holding him close, letting him rest against his chest, eyes closed, emanating profound happiness and contentment from deep within.
The only figure capable of traversing the sea of flames, winding its way through, yet seemingly forever aloof, like a pure white deity.
Bai Sheng bent down, enveloping Shen Zhuo entirely, greedily burying his nose in the curve of his neck, longing for every breath.
I’m going to take you out of this dream, he thought.
Bai Sheng opened his eyes, his gaze icy, turning toward the timer on the console not far away.
It was 9:16 PM, and there was just over an hour left until the catastrophic explosion. Action had to be taken before then.
Whoosh—
At that moment, the wind whirled through the cracks in the walls, causing Shen Zhuo to tremble faintly in the shadows.
Not far away, Su Jiqiao’s voice suddenly stopped.
Shortly after, he spoke with a smile, “Professor, are you shivering?”
Fu Chen immediately turned around upon hearing the voice. He probably didn’t have abilities related to fire manipulation. He stood up and took off his uniform jacket, intending to come over and cover Shen Zhuo with it.
“No need,” Shen Zhuo refused, brushing it off. He crossed his arms, his voice hoarse. “It’s a seizure.”
His body temperature was indeed not low, as Bai Sheng in the void almost enveloped him entirely, carefully maintaining his warmth with his abilities. Su Jiqiao exclaimed, “A seizure in the dream? Professor, what scared you?”
Fu Chen gazed at Shen Zhuo, his eyes showing some concern. “A few days ago, someone infiltrated the institute and poisoned Director Shen’s cup. Fortunately, the guards were vigilant, so nothing happened.”
This was the third assassination attempt in the past two weeks, and the news had already spread throughout the institute. However, Su Jiqiao seemed surprised, as if he had just learned about it. “Why? Because of that traitor?”
The fact that HRG project progress had been leaked by a traitor within the upper ranks was already a well-known secret within the institute. There was no need to answer that question, and Shen Zhuo only glanced at him indifferently.
Su Jiqiao also had excellent psychological resilience and didn’t feel embarrassed at all about Shen Zhuo ignoring him. “It’s really scary. The professor is the most crucial force behind the HRG project. We can’t afford any mishaps!”
Then, after pondering for a moment, he couldn’t help but frown softly. “But that traitor hasn’t been caught yet? What do we do next?”
Upon hearing this, Fu Chen also furrowed his brow. After hesitating for a while, he couldn’t hold back and whispered, “Shen Zhuo, when we get back, I’ll move into the institute. If the HRG project continues like this, these incidents will only become more frequent, and the intelligence department still hasn’t found any clues about the traitor…”
“No need,” Shen Zhuo refused decisively. “I already have a plan for this. We’ll discuss it when we get back.”
The intelligence department couldn’t find any clues, yet Shen Zhuo had already come up with a solution?
Fu Chen wanted to ask something, but it wasn’t the appropriate time to speak. Faced with Shen Zhuo’s evident aloofness, he had to let it go.
The three of them sat quietly in the abandoned test site, listening to the wind’s lamentations echoing through the deep tunnels, blowing into the unknown darkness.
There was a sense of tension in the air, and no one spoke a word. After a while, Su Jiqiao idly propped his chin on his hand and murmured, “It’s not even ten o’clock yet…”
Suddenly struck by a whimsical idea, he continued, “Right, since it’s so cold down here, why don’t we do something else to pass the time?”
Fu Chen asked, “What do you want to do?”
The dialogue between Fu Chen and Su Jiqiao had always been initiated by Su Jiqiao, and Fu Chen responded accordingly. This back-and-forth conversation seemed very natural.
However, for some reason, when Bai Sheng examined this exchange from an outsider’s perspective, he couldn’t shake off a faint, peculiar feeling. There was an elusive sense of oddity, but he couldn’t pinpoint its origin.
Sitting in the corner, embracing Shen Zhuo, Bai Sheng squinted his eyes as he watched Su Jiqiao. Su Jiqiao took out a small flask of alcohol and a pair of dice from his equipment bag, seemingly brought along for warmth. Then he retrieved an iron spoon.
“Let’s play a game,” he proposed with a smile. “The game is called ‘Who is the Traitor?’ What do you think?”
The air suddenly became tense.
Shen Zhuo raised his gaze, Fu Chen’s eyes locked in, and the eerie wind in the dark tunnel suddenly became distinctly audible.
“…What?” Fu Chen narrowed his eyes for a while before slowly responding.
“It’s just to see who among us three is the traitor; it’s quite fun.” Su Jiqiao scanned Fu Chen and Shen Zhuo back and forth, enthusiastically saying, “Just to pass the time, what do you think? Anyone not up for it?”
He casually tossed the dice and said with a smile, “Are you afraid?”
Chapter 41
Who is the traitor?
Tap, tap, tap.
The sound of footsteps echoed down the hallway of the supervision office. In the guard room, Chu Yan sensitively turned her head toward the open door.
Soon after, a tall figure appeared at the doorway.
He was a very tall Nordic man, dressed immaculately in a gray suit with his silver hair swept back and his ice-blue eyes stern and cold. There was a deep red letter, ‘S’, on the back of his left hand.
Several inspectors in the office stood up in shock simultaneously: “Director… Director-General?!”
Chu Yan’s fingers curled slightly at her side. Her senses were very keen, and she felt an extremely ominous and forbidding aura emanating from the man, like a dark cloud over a city and a storm approaching, cold and unyielding.
But Nielsen’s face revealed little emotion.
He completely ignored the others, stepping forward and bending down on one knee, calmly looking into the girl’s eyes. “You are the animal empath, aren’t you?”
“…” Chu Yan cautiously remained silent, just nodding her head.
Then she saw Nielsen extend his hand, palms open, in a gesture of invitation.
“Would you be willing to take me to find the genetically resurrected evolutionist named Rong Qi?”
“I must go kill him as soon as possible.”
***
In the underground laboratory of the Evolutionist Hospital, Shui Ronghua’s phone suddenly rang. Seeing that it was Chen Miao calling, she answered, “Hello?”
Three seconds later, her eyelids twitched heavily, “What?!”
The research director turned around, his expression suffocating with an inability to accept any more bad news, only to see Shui Ronghua hang up the phone in a daze and slowly say, “Nielsen went to the supervision office and took Chu Yan away…”
“Ah?”
“…He’s going to kill Rong Qi.”
Shui Ronghua’s expression was complicated, and the research director also opened his mouth, not knowing what to say for a moment. “Well… if the Director-General can kill the Daydream Caster, the dream scenario will indeed immediately unravel. But Rong Qi is, after all, a genetic resurrection type…”
The mutual killings among evolutionists not only depend on who has a higher level but also on the restraining properties of each other’s abilities. For example, the odds of water-based abilities against lightning-based ones are very low. Nielsen, known as the Wolf of Odin, was universally recognized as the top-ranked evolutionist globally. However, it was hard to say whether he could truly kill Rong Qi, who possessed the ability of immortality.
“…On the other hand, Nielsen’s ‘Tyrant’ ability has never been fully triggered. It is said that when fully activated, it can even restrain other S-class evolutionists. Perhaps there is a chance of victory.” Shui Ronghua frowned, hesitated for a moment, and slowly said, “Now we can only hope that Nielsen can really kill Rong Qi; otherwise, Supervisor Shen and Bai Sheng…”
Following her gaze, the screen displayed real-time scans of the brains of two dreamers.
Shen Zhuo’s index had been stable all along. He had already sunk into deep hallucinations, but the area of pain and stimulation in his brain had not been awakened, perhaps because the dream had not yet progressed to a fatal stage.
But Bai Sheng’s index was already quite bad.
He had been in the dream for over 24 hours, completely surpassing the golden treatment period. Every minute and every second that followed was very dangerous, with the potential for acute nerve necrosis to erupt at any moment, like an avalanche without warning.
“…Hurry back.” Shui Ronghua watched the constantly changing indices, squinting her eyes and murmuring, “Are you trying to catch up and bring our supervisor back with you?”
But S-class abilities wouldn’t recover so quickly, while Bai Sheng’s brain was deteriorating continuously. Everything felt like a gamble, with no turning back in the fog.
Drip-drip!
A drop of water sparkled in the darkness, falling from above and splashing at Bai Sheng’s feet.
Qinghai Test Site, Area A.
From the surface, it looked like a desert rock cave, but delving deeper into the cave revealed an elevator leading underground for over ten meters of defense works.
The narrow and dark corridor was filled with indescribable odors. Fu Chen led the way at the front, while Su Jiqiao covered the rear, both carrying equipment bags weighing tens of kilograms. Only Shen Zhuo was protected in the middle, carrying a light-duty field box and looking down at the rugged path beneath his feet.
This secret experimental base was built in the mid-20th century and had been abandoned for many years. The heavy steel gate was covered in rust, and the original colour of the floors and walls was difficult to identify due to large patches of mold.
Half a month ago, a highly radioactive meteorite was discovered in the nearby desert. A black-market gang attempted to steal it, but they were caught red-handed by inspectors who arrived upon hearing the news. The criminals, in their panic, fled into this underground facility and engaged in a fierce firefight with the inspectors, resulting in their complete annihilation. However, when the inspectors attempted to recover the evolutionary source, they discovered that the meteorite had an extremely dangerous level of radiation and could potentially explode violently during transportation.
The meteorite had to be temporarily left in this underground test facility. Subsequently, Shen Zhuo, as the top expert in this field, was dispatched to execute the retrieval task, accompanied by Fu Chen and Su Jiqiao to protect him.
“Fifty meters in that direction, the energy radiation reaches its peak. The meteorite we’re looking for should be nearby.” Fu Chen held a flashlight and turned back to extend his hand to Shen Zhuo. “Be careful.”
However, Shen Zhuo waved his hand, indicating that it wasn’t necessary, and leaped directly from the fractured part of the corridor.
No one noticed Bai Sheng standing in the darkness beside Shen Zhuo, waving his hand and using airflow to gently support him.
Shen Zhuo’s mental strength was indeed too formidable. As soon as he stepped into Bai Sheng’s dream, he was like an unstoppable force, destroying everything in his path and turning even raging fires into flat ground in the blink of an eye. But conversely, when it was Bai Sheng in Shen Zhuo’s dream, he became a transparent ghost, invisible to anyone.
But fortunately, he could still use his ability.
Bai Sheng couldn’t physically touch anything in the dream, not even lend a hand to Shen Zhuo, as his hand would pass right through him. However, using his ability had a few limitations. Perhaps this was a bug caused by forcibly intruding into the second layer of the dream.
The sharp pain deep in his brain had turned into a dull ache of fatigue. It was the formidable mental strength of an S-class battling against the full onslaught of the daydream and gradually gaining the upper hand. At this rate of recovery, it was entirely feasible to use causality to crush the daydream forcibly, but Bai Sheng’s mind had to consider a crucial question:
Would causality affect Shen Zhuo’s mental world?
How could he safely bring Shen Zhuo back to reality?
“This is it.” Fu Chen stopped walking at this moment.
Before them, the space suddenly opened up into a spacious underground dome, likely an abandoned experimental hall. Not far away, on a rusty control panel, a dazzling azure fluorescence shimmered, encapsulated within a transparent temporary protective device.
The intense radiation felt like numerous, hot, fine needles piercing their skin. They didn’t need instruments to measure it; that was precisely the evolutionary source meteorite they were searching for on this trip.
Shen Zhuo pulled out a pair of plain glasses and put them on, giving concise orders: “Step back.”
Fu Chen and Su Jiqiao both took two steps back. Shen Zhuo stepped forward and opened the silver field box he had been carrying, taking out a small surveying device. Then, without any protective measures, he directly opened the protective cover with his bare hands and took out the meteorite.
Any gene capable of evolution would have already begun to react to this level of bare-handed contact. However, there was absolutely no reaction from Shen Zhuo; his profound and handsome face was particularly clear in the fluorescent light.
“It’s a Class I radiation source,” he said after a while, lifting his head from the device, his brow furrowed.
Fu Chen’s tone softened noticeably when addressing Shen Zhuo: “What does Class I mean?”
“It means it’s highly sensitive to sudden changes in energy around it. Collisions, friction, intense light, sudden changes in temperature and humidity—none of them are suitable,” Shen Zhuo gently placed the evolutionary source back into its protective casing. “Furthermore, Class I radiation sources have some unknown superposition states. Try not to interfere with it with intense emotions.”
Fu Chen: “Ah?”
“A Class I radiation source can sense changes in surrounding energy, including the physiological reactions of humans. Excessive and intense emotions can trigger it to explode. So, please maintain emotional stability for the next few hours until I finish desensitizing it.”
Shen Zhuo made a “please” gesture, which was extremely cold yet elegant, indicating to Fu Chen and Su Jiqiao the huge equipment bags they had been carrying along the way:
“Now you can help me take out the equipment.”
Shen Zhuo seemed to have been accustomed to being pampered and obeyed by countless people since childhood. Waiting in line to hear his orders was a routine that could go around the research institute, so now he gave commands naturally and effortlessly. Fortunately, both Fu Chen and Su Jiqiao were professionals in the field and were familiar with experimental equipment. They quickly set up a temporary laboratory, while Shen Zhuo adjusted high-frequency radiation to start irradiating the evolutionary source.
After desensitization, the evolutionary source could temporarily increase its tolerance to environmental changes, thereby achieving the goal of safely returning it to the Central District Supervision Office. However, this process would take several hours, and soon it would be dark in the desert.
The wind whistled sharply across the desert, and faint sounds of wind leaked from the dark and desolate earthworks, sounding eerie and mournful from afar. Only the flashlight emitted a faint, dim light.
Shen Zhuo rested alone against the wall, while the other two took turns watching over the evolutionary source. Su Jiqiao seemed quite enthusiastic, always engaging Fu Chen in casual conversation. Most of it was about when he and Fu Chen went out to perform missions alone.
Shen Zhuo showed no interest whatsoever, and it wasn’t even clear if he was listening. He leaned against the boundary of light and shadow, closing his eyes as if dozing off.
Bai Sheng gently wrapped his arm around Shen Zhuo’s shoulder, though he had no physical form, and his arm passed through Shen Zhuo’s shoulder.
The 26-year-old Shen Zhuo was quite different from the later Chief Supervisor of Shenhai City, especially when he closed his eyes and leaned there. His long eyelashes drooped down, exuding a delicate softness like butterfly wings. At this moment, he didn’t seem as gaunt as he would later become, and his cheek lines were still gentle, with his lips slightly parted and thin, tinged with a faint red hue.
Even in such an eerie and bizarre environment, amidst the looming crisis, there was an inexplicable surge of warmth in Bai Sheng’s heart as he gazed at Shen Zhuo. It was a feeling so intense that even he couldn’t find words to describe it.
How strange it was, Bai Sheng thought.
The first time he laid eyes on Shen Zhuo, an unprecedented, intense curiosity surged within him, quickly transforming into an urgent desire and a clamor for possession. It was akin to the instinct of a lion encountering a rich prey—an instinct so difficult to restrain, yearning to seize the opponent’s fatal throat, wanting to leave its mark on every part of the opponent’s flesh, belonging solely to itself.
But as that increasingly frenzied desire reached its peak, it melted into scorching magma—deep, heavy, slowly flowing, permeating from the depths of his soul, inside and out.
He wanted to possess every ounce of this person’s mind and attention, while also wanting the whole world to know that every inch of his skin and every sharp claw belonged only to this person. He yearned to consume this person’s soul completely, merging them into one, yet at the same time, he felt immense joy and satisfaction from simply holding him close, letting him rest against his chest, eyes closed, emanating profound happiness and contentment from deep within.
The only figure capable of traversing the sea of flames, winding its way through, yet seemingly forever aloof, like a pure white deity.
Bai Sheng bent down, enveloping Shen Zhuo entirely, greedily burying his nose in the curve of his neck, longing for every breath.
I’m going to take you out of this dream, he thought.
Bai Sheng opened his eyes, his gaze icy, turning toward the timer on the console not far away.
It was 9:16 PM, and there was just over an hour left until the catastrophic explosion. Action had to be taken before then.
Whoosh—
At that moment, the wind whirled through the cracks in the walls, causing Shen Zhuo to tremble faintly in the shadows.
Not far away, Su Jiqiao’s voice suddenly stopped.
Shortly after, he spoke with a smile, “Professor, are you shivering?”
Fu Chen immediately turned around upon hearing the voice. He probably didn’t have abilities related to fire manipulation. He stood up and took off his uniform jacket, intending to come over and cover Shen Zhuo with it.
“No need,” Shen Zhuo refused, brushing it off. He crossed his arms, his voice hoarse. “It’s a seizure.”
His body temperature was indeed not low, as Bai Sheng in the void almost enveloped him entirely, carefully maintaining his warmth with his abilities. Su Jiqiao exclaimed, “A seizure in the dream? Professor, what scared you?”
Fu Chen gazed at Shen Zhuo, his eyes showing some concern. “A few days ago, someone infiltrated the institute and poisoned Director Shen’s cup. Fortunately, the guards were vigilant, so nothing happened.”
This was the third assassination attempt in the past two weeks, and the news had already spread throughout the institute. However, Su Jiqiao seemed surprised, as if he had just learned about it. “Why? Because of that traitor?”
The fact that HRG project progress had been leaked by a traitor within the upper ranks was already a well-known secret within the institute. There was no need to answer that question, and Shen Zhuo only glanced at him indifferently.
Su Jiqiao also had excellent psychological resilience and didn’t feel embarrassed at all about Shen Zhuo ignoring him. “It’s really scary. The professor is the most crucial force behind the HRG project. We can’t afford any mishaps!”
Then, after pondering for a moment, he couldn’t help but frown softly. “But that traitor hasn’t been caught yet? What do we do next?”
Upon hearing this, Fu Chen also furrowed his brow. After hesitating for a while, he couldn’t hold back and whispered, “Shen Zhuo, when we get back, I’ll move into the institute. If the HRG project continues like this, these incidents will only become more frequent, and the intelligence department still hasn’t found any clues about the traitor…”
“No need,” Shen Zhuo refused decisively. “I already have a plan for this. We’ll discuss it when we get back.”
The intelligence department couldn’t find any clues, yet Shen Zhuo had already come up with a solution?
Fu Chen wanted to ask something, but it wasn’t the appropriate time to speak. Faced with Shen Zhuo’s evident aloofness, he had to let it go.
The three of them sat quietly in the abandoned test site, listening to the wind’s lamentations echoing through the deep tunnels, blowing into the unknown darkness.
There was a sense of tension in the air, and no one spoke a word. After a while, Su Jiqiao idly propped his chin on his hand and murmured, “It’s not even ten o’clock yet…”
Suddenly struck by a whimsical idea, he continued, “Right, since it’s so cold down here, why don’t we do something else to pass the time?”
Fu Chen asked, “What do you want to do?”
The dialogue between Fu Chen and Su Jiqiao had always been initiated by Su Jiqiao, and Fu Chen responded accordingly. This back-and-forth conversation seemed very natural.
However, for some reason, when Bai Sheng examined this exchange from an outsider’s perspective, he couldn’t shake off a faint, peculiar feeling. There was an elusive sense of oddity, but he couldn’t pinpoint its origin.
Sitting in the corner, embracing Shen Zhuo, Bai Sheng squinted his eyes as he watched Su Jiqiao. Su Jiqiao took out a small flask of alcohol and a pair of dice from his equipment bag, seemingly brought along for warmth. Then he retrieved an iron spoon.
“Let’s play a game,” he proposed with a smile. “The game is called ‘Who is the Traitor?’ What do you think?”
The air suddenly became tense.
Shen Zhuo raised his gaze, Fu Chen’s eyes locked in, and the eerie wind in the dark tunnel suddenly became distinctly audible.
“…What?” Fu Chen narrowed his eyes for a while before slowly responding.
“It’s just to see who among us three is the traitor; it’s quite fun.” Su Jiqiao scanned Fu Chen and Shen Zhuo back and forth, enthusiastically saying, “Just to pass the time, what do you think? Anyone not up for it?”
He casually tossed the dice and said with a smile, “Are you afraid?”
