Monsters in the Dark

"Where did it go?"

"The cow carcass!"

"Damn it, the retrieval team!"

In the NERC Site command center, several senior personnel cried out in realization and abruptly turned toward another surveillance screen.

They happened to see the cow carcass lying on the transport cart suddenly roll over and fall off.

The sudden scene frightened the Class D Personnel pushing the cart into stumbling backward, crashing into the security personnel.

At that very moment, the cow carcass that had rolled onto the floor nimbly struggled to its feet, lowered its shoulders, thrust out its horns, stamped its hooves, and charged.

Caught off guard, one security officer was violently struck in the chest. Though the cow's horns had been cut off, the remaining stubs still sent him flying. He slammed heavily into the corridor wall, blood pouring from his mouth. He clearly would not survive.

"Free fire!"

"Rat-tat-tat!"

After the initial chaos, the security personnel immediately reacted and hastily launched their attack.

The metal storm unleashed by the semi-automatic rifles splashed large amounts of black fluid from the cow carcass, forcing it back again and again.

"Moo!"

The cow carcass let out a low bellow, turned, and ran.

"Destroy it!"

The retrieval team shouted angrily and took off after it.

Unexpectedly, the moment they started moving, their bodies abruptly stiffened. In disbelief, they all reached for their necks.

The warm, slick liquid made their pupils contract. One by one, they turned their heads with difficulty.

The security officer who had just been sent flying by the cow carcass was leaning against the wall, covered in blood. He held a semi-automatic rifle still smoking from the barrel and relentlessly fired at the hidden cameras in the corridor.

—"He" had just killed everyone. Now, "he" was going to gouge out the command center's eyes as well.

We were careless... The security personnel fell one after another, faces full of resentment and fury.

Tap, tap, tap—

The cow carcass fled, then returned. Its hooves splashed through the floor covered in lavender mixture, sending ripples outward—and stirring waves of shock and rage in the command center's senior personnel.

At that moment, screen after screen on the command center's main display went dark.

"The entire retrieval team has been killed. They are highly likely to transform into living corpses. All units, be alert."

"It's covering its escape route. Deploy the drones!"

"Seal off all areas of F6. Report challenge codes every thirty seconds."

Voices filled with extreme shock and fury came from the command center as orders were issued in rapid succession.

As a Euclid-class containment object, the Plague Doctor's threat level was not particularly high. Especially after they discovered that lavender could calm it, the Plague Doctor was practically a Safe-class containment object.

Yet no one had expected this nearly Safe-class containment object to breach containment—and even now, they still had no idea where it was.

This was an extreme humiliation of the Site's operational capabilities!

For a time, almost all Site security personnel were mobilized, rushing in from every direction toward suspected areas.

The surveillance blind spots created by the destroyed cameras became especially high-priority targets.

The facts proved that no containment object could be underestimated.

While the Site was sealing off suspected areas, living corpses created by the Plague Doctor continuously emerged from them.

They retained muscle memory. Once armed, their combat power was no weaker than that of Site security personnel—perhaps even stronger.

Because they did not know what death was!

"No! No! The other routes are all decoys. The Plague Doctor's true target is... Arthur!"

The sudden cry instantly rendered the command center silent enough to hear a pin drop.

"How should I address you, Mister Plague?"

The blood-covered security officer stepped aside, revealing a plump Charolais beef cow behind him. The voice had come from its mouth.

Seeing a beef cow speak human words, Ning Xiuyuan—who had already endured the shock of the Rootless Soul—was much more mentally prepared.

But his scalp still tingled.

The cow's head had been installed upside down, its horn stubs pointing downward and its nostrils upward, as though someone had cut it off and attached it back incorrectly.

The beef cow's body was studded with hand pumps and copper tubes. Black fluid still seeped from the crude joints, dripping steadily in grotesque absurdity.

Ning Xiuyuan raised the lantern and stood up without a word, his thoughts racing.

"Doctor, what are you doing? He is our guest. If you want to be locked in a dark cell forever and never have access to experimental materials again, then continue what you're doing!"

An extremely furious, threatening voice suddenly came from the speaker by the door.

"You may imprison me, but do not question my great and benevolent sacrifice. He is not a guest. He is a plague! He carries a plague not belonging to this world. Once it spreads, everyone will die! I am saving you. Do not interfere with my work."

As the cow carcass spoke, intense gunfire erupted from deep within the corridor.

—The living corpses controlled by the Plague Doctor were launching a fierce interception against the Site security personnel.

"Now, only I can save him—and save all humanity. Only me! Only me!"

Amid its impassioned roar, the inverted cow head fell off with a crash, rolling into the room and stopping three steps away from Ning Xiuyuan.

Pop!

From the narrow throat at the cow carcass's severed neck, an arm wearing a black glove suddenly reached out.

Then another arm emerged.

The two arms gripped the severed neck and forcibly pulled a person from the cow carcass—a strange figure in a black robe and a ceramic bird-beak mask.

The inside of the cow carcass seemed utterly dry, leaving not a trace of filth on his body.

Thud!

The enormous cow carcass collapsed as though it had lost the soul supporting it.

The Plague Doctor looked at the lavender mixture pooled in the corridor, then stepped into the room with an expression of disgust and disdain.

"Mister Plague, you should never have come to this world. However, meeting me will be your greatest fortune. I will kill you, then cure you, so that you may enjoy health and happiness."

The Plague Doctor stared straight at Ning Xiuyuan, his tone fervent.

"Mr. Arthur, please enter the inner room immediately. Our people are on their way to deal with him. Be careful not to let him touch you. He will transform all living things into living corpses."

An urgent instruction came from the command center through the display beside the security door.

Ning Xiuyuan's pupils shrank at those words, and he instinctively prepared to flee into the inner room.

"Leave? No, no, no. I will never allow you to contaminate the entire world."

The Plague Doctor shook his head. His steps seemed slow, yet he moved with astonishing speed—there one moment, here the next. In the blink of an eye, he closed to within three steps of Ning Xiuyuan.

His five fingers clawed forward like dragons, striking like a tempest.

Ning Xiuyuan had deliberately been retreating toward the inner room, but he had never expected the Bird-beaked Monster to be so fast.

In that flash of lightning, the bowl-sized eagle claw came down at his face, about to seize his features.

"Fuck!"

Ning Xiuyuan instinctively swung up the lantern like a baseball bat and smashed it down.

But the lantern had only just risen into the air.

"Ah—"

A shrill scream tore through the air.

—It was the Plague Doctor!

It suddenly let out a hysterical scream. Its dragon-like fingers snapped together into eagle claws and viciously stabbed toward its own eyes.

At that very moment, the lantern in Ning Xiuyuan's hand flared brightly.

Dazzling dark-yellow light flooded the room, searing the soul.

"You... kekekeke... keke..."

The Plague Doctor roared and howled in terror, but when the sound passed through its throat, it became a soft, clicking murmur.

Only the expression on its face silently revealed its inner turmoil.

Its body rapidly turned transparent, a faint streak of light glimmering within it.

The next second, the light vanished completely.

Night fell.

The lantern seemed to have spent the world's light in advance. When it went out, darkness swallowed the land.

"Roar—"

"Squeak, squeak—"

Strange hissing sounds came from the endless darkness.

Huff... huff...

Ning Xiuyuan panted heavily. Looking into the pitch-black darkness, he hurriedly opened the Crystal Lampshade and struck a match.

Then his entire body jolted.

—The lantern was out of oil.

The endless darkness, along with the hoarse growls hidden within it, made cold sweat stream down his forehead and his heart pound like a drum.

He hurriedly tossed aside the match. Using its final glimmer, he fumbled open the oil cap beneath the lantern and poured in a bottle of grease he carried with him, then struck another match.

Bang!

A cluster of flame burst forth, repelling the darkness and illuminating a space three feet wide.

"Holy shit—"

Ning Xiuyuan cried out in terror.

At the edge of the light, a flayed human face appeared. Gray tendons and red flesh were tangled together, yet Ning Xiuyuan saw countless familiar faces within it.

They were his parents, his lover, his closest friends—everyone dear to him, everyone he had ever cared for!

An indescribable grief and terror surged from the depths of his heart.

At that moment, the flayed face suddenly opened its enormous bloody mouth. A sticky tentacle shot out like lightning, snapping around Ning Xiuyuan's neck and tightening abruptly.

Pop, pop, pop!

A series of popping sounds rang out. Eyeballs opened one after another along the tentacle, gazing upon the world in tribute.

Eyeballs reflected eyeballs, layer upon layer, battering the limits of a rational creature's imagination!

"Keke..."

Ning Xiuyuan roared in fear and rage, but the sound that came from his mouth was the familiar clicking.

Unprecedented terror swept through his body and mind, leaving his mind utterly blank.

Fortunately, the contingency plan he had formulated after prolonged thought made him act instinctively. He reflexively brought the lit match toward the wick.

But the tentacle around his neck dragged him madly into the darkness.

The endless darkness, like a midnight tide, swallowed his body bit by bit.

"Kekekeke..."

Hysterical struggling sounds came from Ning Xiuyuan's throat.

Suffocation, terror, the unknown, death, and endless pressure twisted his face into a grimace.

All kinds of fluid seeped from the corners of his eyes, nostrils, and mouth, making him look wretched and pitiful.

Bang!

The flame surged up, and the roar of burning air exploded through the tiny space.

The lantern was lit.

Pale yellow light rushed outward in all directions.

The flayed face screamed in terror and hurriedly fled into the depths of the darkness. Its long tentacle remained unwillingly hooked around Ning Xiuyuan's neck, stretched to an incredible length.

In the end, it could no longer hold on and withdrew in panic.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak—"

It sounded as though thousands upon thousands of rats were scratching at the depths of Ning Xiuyuan's soul, making him want to tear open his flesh and viciously scratch at his soul.

But the joy of snatching life from Death's hands overshadowed that itch in his soul.

Huff... huff...

Ning Xiuyuan collapsed onto the floor, panting in terror. His expression was twisted, his face covered in all manner of sticky fluids left behind by fear and madness.

At that moment, the endless darkness was left with only mournful, rasping breaths.

Only after a long while did Ning Xiuyuan recover his senses.

He gritted his teeth and wiped away the tears of emotional collapse, barely composing himself. Then he picked up the lantern and continued forward.

Darkness surrounded him, while beneath his feet stretched an infinitely extending chaotic gray. He was certain that this was no longer the Foundation suite.

He stared blankly into the darkness around him.

Barks and low murmurs sounded continuously in the dark. At the edge of the light, he could vaguely glimpse fragments of horrifying sights.

But they did not dare approach. They could only linger at the edge of the light, filled with endless greed and hatred, waiting for the flame to go out and hope to perish.

Ning Xiuyuan fell silent for a moment, took a deep breath, tightened his grip on the handle, and followed his instincts in one direction.

The darkness was silent, and the earth was chaos like the void.

His footsteps made no sound. Time and space stretched infinitely. Only his heartbeat and breathing reminded him that he was still alive.

At this moment, time lost all meaning.

Only thought became immensely valuable.

After an unknown amount of time, light faintly appeared ahead, like dawn before daybreak, or the setting sun at dusk.

But Ning Xiuyuan suddenly stopped.

The scene before him felt so familiar. He had encountered it twice before, but he had neither reflected on it nor thought much of it then.

He hesitated for a long time before gritting his teeth and taking a step forward.

The moment he stepped out, the world changed drastically. Heaven and earth suddenly brightened. A towering cathedral, sharp as a sword, pierced the sky, blocking the dawn light and casting a heavy shadow over him that made it hard to breathe.

Dong—

The bell tower tolled the hour from the heavens, reminding the Children of God that a new day had begun and life continued as usual.

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