Lin Sanjiu stopped at the edge of the rooftop and stretched her neck, leaning forward to look below. Due to the angle, she couldn't see everything clearly. She could only make out that she was not far from the main entrance, and the blurry dark shadow below seemed to be a flower bed engulfed by weeds. Looking down from here, the nearby low-rise buildings appeared smaller.
However, for a posthuman, even jumping from the fifth floor wouldn't result in serious injuries.
With this thought in mind, she realized that the possibility pointed out by the flashlight was indeed the only viable path in this building...
As Lin Sanjiu contemplated, she turned back for another glance.
She had ascended without thoroughly searching the floors. If she left now and Yun Yuan was still inside, what would she do?
"Dead ends everywhere," Mrs. Manas sensed her thoughts and interrupted, "From what I can see, the area covered by dead ends is gradually expanding... If you don't leave quickly, even this place might turn into a dead end."
"What kind of danger is it?" Lin Sanjiu wanted to leave as well, but she couldn't abandon the thought that she might be Yun Yuan's only hope for rescue. She felt rooted to the spot, unable to move her feet. "If I knew there was a problem with this medical station, maybe I could go back and find him again..."
"I disagree!" Mrs. Manas immediately retorted, "Your hypersensory state has been active the whole time we ascended. I haven't let my guard down for a second. There are no signs of anyone else in this building except for you!"
As soon as the words left her mind, a heavy muffled sound came from somewhere inside the medical station. It sounded like something had been hit. While Mrs. Manas expressed her disbelief with an "eh?" Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath and turned to rush back the way they came.
"What are you doing?" Mrs. Manas couldn't help but shout.
"I heard it. The sound seems to have come from the third floor. There must be someone there right now!" Lin Sanjiu was cautious and didn't step a foot outside of the path she had taken. The beam of her flashlight trembled violently as she moved quickly, making it impossible to form any coherent words. "Don't you remember? The third floor is where the recuperation wards are located!"
Moreover, the sound was heavy, loud enough for even someone on the fifth-floor rooftop to hear clearly. It indicated that the object that was struck must have been substantial—a hundred or two hundred pounds, just the weight of a man, right?
Feeling both anxious and hopeful, Lin Sanjiu rushed into the stairwell, hugging the handrail tightly as she descended to the third floor. The darkness on the third floor was as dense as the depths of the ocean, and her dim flashlight beam sliced through it, fragmenting the hazy shadows. The dim light and shadows intertwined, being engulfed by darkness once again, until she stopped at the final step, and the light stabilized.
"Dead end."
When Lin Sanjiu entered the corridor on the third floor, the text in the center of the aperture remained unchanged.
"Yu Yuan!" Lin Sanjiu called out, no longer caring about keeping her voice down. Based on her previous experience, as long as she was still on the escape route, it didn't matter if whatever lurked in the darkness heard her voice, "Are you here? Are you okay? Yu Yuan!"
Her shouts, her flashlight beam, and the airflow stirred by her breath and movements all seemed to be devoured by the dark and silent corridor, without even a ripple being stirred.
"Something doesn't feel right," Mrs. Manas suddenly said in a low voice after a while.
"What is it?"
"Last time, on the third floor, you called him once, right? At that time, you didn't dare to raise your voice too much." Mrs. Manas' voice at this moment was hard to describe, as if it was being thinly pressed by some kind of hidden pressure and fear. Despite the calm tone, it seemed like it could break at any moment.
"Yes, that's right..."
"At that time, even your quieter shouts had echoes. Why is it that this time, there's not even the slightest echo?"
Lin Sanjiu didn't know the reason, but it didn't prevent goosebumps from suddenly rising on her skin. She quickly aimed her flashlight forward and scanned the surroundings, sweeping over the words "dead end." After the flashlight melted away the darkness, nothing that shouldn't be there appeared. She looked for a while, and eventually the beam of light settled on something motionless.
After the dense fog of darkness dissipated, a three-meter-long glass window appeared at the end of the corridor. The glass had cracked, with a long, twisted fissure running through a row of words painted on it. It was difficult to see clearly in the dimness, but it seemed to be words like "pre-apocalypse medicine," "herbs," and "Special Items category drugs."
This should be the pharmacy.
"Do you think... the sound from earlier came from here?" Lin Sanjiu asked Mrs. Manas. In this situation, she was very grateful that her Higher Consciousness form could communicate with her.
"I don't know," Mrs. Manas replied stiffly.
"Should I go and check it out?" Lin Sanjiu sought advice, her body already tense, slowly lowering one foot onto the corridor floor. Her shoe stirred up a bit of dust, while her other foot remained on the escape route. She waited for a few seconds, but nothing happened in the silent surroundings.
"Maybe that person died like this," Mrs. Manas muttered, "Taking the flashlight but not following the instructions."
Lin Sanjiu instinctively clenched her teeth and lifted her other foot from the stairs. She stood still for a moment, like a highly sensitive radar, not daring to miss the slightest movement around her. Step by step, cautiously, she stopped not far from the pharmacy glass window.
She didn't get too close, squinting her eyes as she used the flashlight to examine behind the glass. The light was not bright enough, and she could only vaguely see the shadows of some shelves. Just then, a faint "clink" sound startled her, causing every pore on her body to tingle. She almost jumped in place but managed to stop herself in time because she immediately realized it was just a piece of glass fragment falling from the crack.
It seemed like someone was really here just now!
Lin Sanjiu's heart started beating faster. The glass must have shattered not long ago since fragments were still falling. She had arrived quickly, and that person who made the sound might still be in the pharmacy...
"Huh?"
She stared at the glass and murmured a word.
The text within the aperture on the glass had changed. It was no longer "dead end" but now displayed a line that read "death warning, extremely dangerous!"
It was the first time she had seen such words, but there was clearly no movement in the pharmacy. Lin Sanjiu looked at the glass window again, and this time, she felt as if her whole body was gradually freezing from head to toe.
Despite the countless fine cracks, she could still see a whitish color on the glass.
The spreading misty white disappeared more than half, but within half a second, it reappeared on the glass, spreading out once again. Disappear, reappear, disappear, reappear... Following the rhythm of her breathing, the white mist on the glass kept emerging and dissipating.
Something was pressed against the window, its breath fogging up the glass.
Even in the dimness, Lin Sanjiu could see that there was no one behind the glass.
Death warning, extremely dangerous.
"Hurry, hurry," Mrs. Manas urged tremulously.
Lin Sanjiu stared fixedly at that piece of glass, stepping back one step at a time. There must have been someone in the pharmacy just now, but they were probably gone now. She didn't know what was behind the glass or even how to protect herself—aside from activating her [Defence Forcefield], it seemed the only thing she could do was to quickly return to the stairs.
As the white mist disappeared and reappeared on the glass once again, it had shifted to a new location—near the crack in the window. The size of the crack was just enough for a head to peep out from behind.
When the white mist disappeared from the glass once more, Lin Sanjiu turned around and ran, rushing up the stairs at full speed. Before she could even calm down, Mrs. Manas screamed, "Keep running! Faster!"
Her body moved ahead of her, and Lin Sanjiu quickly lowered her head, noticing within the circle of light on the stairs, two words emerged: "dead end."
Startled, she immediately swept the flashlight ahead—above, the stairs still displayed "escape route." The escape route was obviously narrowing while the dead end expanded. She didn't dare to miss any movement behind her, running swiftly up the stairs. When she finally reached the rooftop, she followed the words "escape route" and jumped down without hesitation.