The Lowest of the Low

Zhang Fang photograph almost completely filled the computer screen.

Perhaps because the Dead Zero, had already informed them in advance, his file was retrieved ahead of time.

--This is a fairly standard half-body frontal photo of him.

However, when Bai Zhi tried to look at the content displayed on the other computer screen, accompanied by a sudden soft sound, both computers suddenly went black and crashed.

At the same time, the two clerks who had been mechanically typing on their keyboards also stopped, as if relieved.

"..."

Bai Zhi narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at the two clerks in front of him, who remained motionless with their hands on the keyboard.

Although the other person had their back to him, at such a close distance, through God's Perspective, he could clearly see what the two of them looked like.

The eyes became two empty black holes, the nose disappeared, and from the tightly closed mouth, several long, thin tentacles slowly emerged...

Judging from their appearance alone, these two people were completely unrecognizable as human. Although they looked normal from behind, their front had become a bloody slaughterhouse.

With a soft "plop," a cockroach, about the thickness of a thumb, crawled out of the other person's mouth and fell into a pool of blood.

The appearance of this cockroach seemed to trigger some signal; the two clerks' bodies suddenly began to writhe, like a multi-story building block tower collapsing as the bottom blocks were removed, and thousands upon thousands of cockroaches surged out of their bodies...

A muffled gunshot rang out in the room.

"What, haven't the others arrived yet?"

Bai Zhi put the [Magic Type] back into his sleeve, and without even looking at the two large ice sculptures beside him that had been frozen into ice blocks by the Ice Bomb, he turned his head to look at the Dead Zero standing at the door.

"... No."

The Dead Zero, looked somewhat pale.

"I can understand if the others aren't here, but Zhuge Yun hasn't shown up yet... Is he trying to shirk responsibility now?"

"Since he's not coming, let's go find him now. Hurry up, I'm in a rush."

Bai Zhi turned and walked towards the door, his expression noncommittal.

"Speaking of which, you should know his office, right?"

"Due to the nature of my work, I haven't been here very often."

The Dead Zero, frowned slightly as he glanced at the two ice sculptures in the room.

"That guy doesn't have a fixed office, otherwise, given his extremely annoying personality, other people would be coming to beat him up every day... I don't know where he is right now."

"Can you contact someone else now?"

With a slight pursed lip, Bai Zhi reopened the door to the Archives Room and looked down into the corridor.

"This situation requires professionals to handle; I don't have the time for that."

"Can I use my phone to check...? That's my cell phone."

Looking at the person in front of him who had snatched his phone away the moment he took it out, the Dead Zero remained silent for a while.

"Oh, I received a message there before, I don't know if it's true or not, the message said not to look at the screen. The phone screen counts as a screen, I've already looked at it, you haven't, so until the investigation results are out, you'd better avoid looking at any screen... What's the password?"

Bai Zhi kept examining the phone in his hand without looking up.

"...123456."

"Let me see... Okay, who did you say you wanted to call?"

After entering the password to unlock, Bai Zhi looked up at the Young Girl in front of him who was in a strange silence.

"... I have a lot of numbers in my contacts, you can just enter the phone number directly."

Turning his head to the side, the Dead Zero spoke calmly.

"The phone number is 173※※※※1532. Add 'Emotional Guidance' in the contact details."

"Emotional Guidance? Hmm... let me see..."

As he spoke, out of a touch of curiosity, Bai Zhi opened his phone's contact list.

... and then he was completely shocked.

On a phone's contact list that can Storage hundreds of phone numbers, only three numbers are sitting there all alone... Is this what you call having too many phone numbers in your contact list?

The three phone numbers are listed in alphabetical order by the first letter of their pinyin spelling. The notes are "[Bastard Father]", "[Boyfriend]", and "[Emotional Guidance]", making the three phone numbers easy to understand.

Almost instinctively, Bai Zhi reached out and tapped her boyfriend's phone number... and then her own phone immediately rang.

Bai Zhi: "..."

Dead Zero: "..."

"... I forgot to change the previous note, I will change it later."

After a moment of silence, the Dead Zero turned his head to look to the side.

"Also, my phone got a virus, and hundreds of phone numbers are gone. I used to have so many."

"... I see."

After coughing a few times, Bai Zhi hung up his phone and dialed the number below.

This time, however, all I heard on the phone was a busy signal.

"Uh... no one's answering the phone."

Bai Zhi turned to look at the Young Girl beside him.

"... She'll answer my call. Just wait a little while. She just came back from the Inner World last night and might not be fully awake yet."

The Dead Zero, deliberately turned his gaze away and spoke in a muffled voice.

"Okay, then I'll..."

Before Bai Zhi could finish speaking, the call was suddenly connected.

Then, immediately afterward, a mechanical, emotionless, and wooden voice came from the other end of the phone.

"I have nothing left... I can feel everything I have being replaced... I can no longer sustain my own existence... That thing has come out..."

"What the heck... Is that your friend's voice?"

Bai Zhi frowned slightly and looked at the Dead Zero beside him.

No, she is a Doctor.

Because Bai Zhi had the phone on speakerphone, the Dead Zero also heard the strange conversation coming from the other end of the phone.

"This voice sounds a bit like... Zhuge Yun?"

The Dead Zero, frowned deeply, appearing slightly bewildered and uncertain.

The conversation continued on the other end of the phone, though it seemed to be happening intermittently.

"I am the Highest Commander here... If any of you who comes after me are fortunate enough to hear this final message through some electronic device... I sealed off the entire research institute one minute ago, and no one can enter or leave... What exists here, if released, will destroy the entire world... Within this research institute, there is only one thing that can restrain it, and that is..."

Just like a common tactic in some cheesy Detective movies, just as the most crucial information was about to be revealed, the phone suddenly went dead and started smoking.

When Bai Zhi timely threw the Dead Zero's phone away, the phone Explosion in mid-air.

"A research institute? Was this place originally a research institute? It feels a bit... uh... right."

As if suddenly remembering something, Bai Zhi scratched his cheek and turned to the Young Girl beside him with a wary expression, asking her a question.

"Speaking of which, I shouldn't have to pay for your phone, right?"

Dead Zero: "..."