This World Is Seriously Ill

What the hell is this guy thinking?!

Ada could only helplessly press her forehead. Utterly baffled, she had no choice but to turn and leave.

"Oh, right—fair trade, no cheating kids or old folks. Half the payment up front!"

With that, a special green double-helix potion was pulled from Angela's backpack by Kevin and casually tossed to the stunned Ada.

Ada caught the vial on reflex. After a long moment, she came to her senses, watching the retreating figures of the big and small pair. A snort escaped her, and her face bloomed into a flower-like smile.

Seems like cooperating with this little guy isn't such a bad deal?

The female agent tucked the T-Virus antidote into her trench coat, keeping it close, then turned and walked on.

Alright then—let me see how you stir up this chessboard.

PS: Thanks to readers @{"reader_id":"145472","reader_name":"贝克街镇魂曲"} @{"reader_id":"2581670","reader_name":"叫我老碑就好"} for the blades. The author will update seriously. Sarcasm for survival.

Chapter 22: Darling, Wanna Hook Up?

"I know what you've done. Meet me at Raccoon City Orphanage, 11 PM."

Director Alons stared at the email on his computer screen. At first, he dismissed it.

But the compressed photos and bank records inside immediately sent cold sweat trickling down his thick neck.

Damn it! That reporter had a backup plan!

Director Alons checked the email address carefully. It belonged to a reporter he had locked up—Ben.

Knowing too much can get people killed.

In the dead silence of his office, Alons lit a cigarette. He sat in stillness for a long time. Finally, just before it was time to leave, he opened his drawer, strapped his revolver to his belt, and concealed it under his clothes.

Night fell. The remote Raccoon City Orphanage was shrouded in formless darkness, like a ferocious beast with its jaws wide open.

In front of the rusted iron gate, a Romanesque plump girl with twin blonde ponytails paced back and forth on the empty ground, her face anxious.

She had apparently rushed out in such a hurry that she was still wearing a white silk tank top, with a loose coat casually draped over her shivering frame in the cold wind.

Half an hour ago, Mayor Warren's precious daughter, Catherine, had received an email from her reporter boyfriend Ben's mailbox.

Desperate to see the man she missed day and night, she had come here alone, waiting for the person who had given her instructions.

11 o'clock! As the distant Clock Tower chimed the hour, Catherine watched the headlights of an approaching car. She raised her arm to shield her eyes from the blinding glare.

"Catherine? What are you doing here so late?!"

The obese director stepped out of the car, staring at the lightly dressed girl before him. Surprise and malice flickered in his eyes before vanishing.

"Uncle Alons? You agreed to take me to see Ben? I knew you loved me the most!"

Seeing her father's old friend appear, Catherine was surprised but her face lit up with joy.

Ever since her reporter boyfriend had been thrown into prison by Director Alons for some reason, Catherine had held a grudge against this uncle who had watched her grow up.

But she never expected that he was only strict on the surface—deep down, he still cared for her as always.

To fulfill her wish to see Ben, he was even willing to go behind the police station's back and sneak her in.

The mayor's daughter, who had never known the evil in people's hearts, instinctively imagined everything in the best possible light.

"Sigh, little Catherine has grown up. Can't control you anymore..."

Director Alons instantly switched to a kind and gentle expression, his tone laced with helpless regret.

But in his mind, thoughts churned.

That little reporter named "Ben" had approached Mayor Warren's daughter Catherine and started dating her with ulterior motives from the very beginning. His goal was to secretly dig up dirt on the director.

Whether Mayor Warren had a hand in it was still unknown.

But given how stubbornly that reporter refused to talk, he had probably handed over what he found to someone he trusted.

And the most likely person to hold that evidence was none other than his sweet, naive niece.

Trying to trade what he had for his little lover?

"It's cold out here. Come on in. I'll take you to see that kid. I'll find a way to get you two out tonight."

Director Alons put on the face of a kind elder and opened the back door.

Facing her father's close friend, the simple-minded Catherine suspected nothing and obediently climbed into the back seat.

"Does the mayor know you snuck out?"

Alons slid into the driver's seat, glanced around to make sure no one was watching, and asked as if casually.

Catherine, looking like a rebellious girl sneaking out, shook her head nervously. "No. I snuck out. No one knows."

That was also the basic requirement in the email for meeting her boyfriend.

"You, child!" Alons's expression was one of mild reproach, but the corner of his mouth curled up slightly.

As the engine started, the obese director caught sight of his niece's doll-like, delicate face in the rearview mirror. The mad thoughts he had been suppressing in his heart broke free of their cage.

She might just become his finest work.

As the police car drove off into the distance, a tall woman in a yellow trench coat and dark sunglasses stepped out from the shadows, a faint smile curling at her lips.

"The performance" is about to begin!

Then, the Asian woman who had been secretly acting as both audience and director smiled and dialed a special number.

"Mayor Warren? Got a moment? How about I invite you to a show? Don't rush to refuse—once you hear the casting for the male and female leads, you'll be very interested..."

The Raccoon City Police Department was originally converted from the city's art museum, so it's spacious, with a basement that once held precious collections.

But now that secret room had been sealed off, and the key to its entrance was held only by Director Alons.

Tonight, though, Catherine had the misfortune of seeing the basement in its entirety.

But she wished this nightmare had never come!

The walls around her were filled with human anatomy diagrams and photos of several women taken before their deaths.

Several corpses, preserved in formaldehyde and dried for preservation, were dressed in gorgeous gowns and displayed in sterile glass cabinets.

Even the outer layers had tags detailing the victims' identities, including dates of birth and death, height, weight, name, age, and more.

On the left, at the front of the experimental table, two sets of surgical instruments were still stained with red-black clotted blood. The surgical bed at the center of the curtain exuded a faint chill.

Alons was a madman! He took pleasure in creating and collecting human specimens!

And those materials had originally been living people who went missing near the Most Apple Motel!

Lying on the surgical bed, numbed and unable to move, Catherine was filled with terror, tears of pitiful vulnerability welling in her eyes.

Her own naivety and trust were about to cost her life!

Director Alons turned on the radio, playing stirring classical music that not only drowned out any noise from the basement but also seemed to sublimate the ritual before him.

The obese director hummed softly as he took out clean plastic gloves, put them on, and carefully washed the surgical instruments, as if performing a sacred task.

His once-kind face, under the dim yellow light, looked terrifying and ferocious, like a demon escaped from hell.

"Don't move, darling. Become the most precious collection here—you should be proud of that!"

"Humans are so fragile; their brief, beautiful years pass in an instant. But I can make your beauty solidify and eternal!"

Everything was ready. Director Alons, about to inject preservative potion into Catherine's veins while she was still alive, wore a slightly displeased expression.

But out of consideration for his past acquaintance with her niece, he patiently explained.

Humans were God's most perfect artwork, and his mission was to follow divine will and seal away beauty!

Alons pressed one fat hand down on Catherine's wildly twisting neck, raised the syringe in his other hand high, his expression sacred and manic!

"The real audience has arrived. Sorry, the show's over!"

Just as the obese director was savoring the addition of another piece to his collection, a faint whisper came from outside the door.

"Bang!" In the muffled gunshot, Alons's fat hand holding the syringe was pierced by a bullet.

And the mayor of Raccoon City, who had driven frantically from home in disbelief, witnessed his friend's true face firsthand. Trembling, he rushed into the operating room and picked up his terrified, crying daughter.

"The script you wrote is really full of bad taste..."

After the manic Director Alons was dislocated at the joints and handcuffed to the surgical bed, Ada held a scalpel in one hand, tracing it over the surface of this beast in human skin, while dialing her phone with the other to report to someone who was off taking a little girl on a hike.

"Don't get cocky—judgment will come. I was right!"

Director Alons grinned coldly, struggling and shouting, showing no remorse for his arrest or the exposure of his crimes.

The fun part of discussing the script was interrupted by this animal, and Ada, losing all interest, had to cut off her conversation with Kevin.

"Hey, you're too noisy..."

But then the female agent smiled, and the scalpel between her fingers precisely stabbed into the nerve-dense area of the obese director's thigh.

"Shh, quiet down, okay?"

Even though Alons trembled violently from the pain, his face covered in cold sweat, he only gritted his teeth and stayed silent.

Because the smiling Asian woman was inserting a syringe filled with preservative potion into his vein.

With just a gentle push of her palm, pain a hundred times more intense than now would surge like a tidal wave.

In the end, though he was insane, he was still just a pampered mortal, unable to overcome the fear of death.

"Fine, I agree to cooperate!" Mayor Warren, who had been holding his daughter in his arms and comforting her for a long time, saw this, his face changing color several times before he finally made the painful decision.

"But I have one condition—have your boss come see me!"

Ada lightly bit her red lips, her expression unreadable, then dialed her phone again and whispered to someone loafing on the other end of the screen.

"Darling, want to meet?"

ps0: The image above is Catherine Warren, a rather voluptuous Roman-style girl.

By the way, can someone explain what "big wavy long hair" means?

Sarcasm for safety.

ps1: Tonight at 9 PM, this group will discuss the origins of Layelai Seafood City. Well, it's a group discussion about Cthulhu Mythos. Whether you're interested or not, I hope you can come.

547240280

Group name: Language Teacher's Salted Fish Reader Group

The verification answer is the author's pen name: Purple Night String Song.

ps2: Need to update more. Next week after next, see if I can drop a burst of chapters.

Section 23, Chapter 22: Cute and Delicious

Raccoon City, Kendo Gun Shop.

Two figures, one big and one small, jumped out of the beat-up convertible parked by the roadside and waved goodbye to the enthusiastic bearded vagrant.

"Teacher Kevin, Bunny is so cute. Isn't it too cruel to eat them?"

Angela, back from the outing, looked at the golden, glistening half of an "original" cute creature's remains skewered on a branch, her face showing reluctance.

Kevin picked his teeth, let out a burp, then turned to the innocent little girl and replied with a smile.

"Don't worry. They'll understand."

The little girl hesitated again and again, but in the end, she couldn't resist the aroma of the rabbit meat or the hunger in her stomach. She finally opened her small mouth and tore off strips of rabbit meat with her teeth.

Cute! Delicious! The little girl's eyes narrowed slightly as she tasted the flavor.

And Angela, linking these two attributes together, had no idea she was straying further and further down the path of pure innocence and kindness.

During three hours of free time, he walked and talked with Angela, and before he knew it, they had stumbled upon the vagrant camp.

The place no longer held the brutal scene of bullets flying and blood spilling everywhere from daytime.

A few ragged, wild-haired vagrants had lit a campfire, gathered together, and were having a picnic.