Discovery

The dorm room was a complete mess. Judging by its state, the dead person on the bed must have lived a pretty depraved life before dying.

Lu Xi'an hadn't found anything like a notebook in the room, so he couldn't confirm exactly what had happened here before the person died.

There was a phone, but its screen was completely shattered and the whole thing was bent out of shape. It looked as if someone had deliberately destroyed it.

All the food in the dorm room had been eaten. Wrappers from chocolate and other food were strewn across the table, and empty Instant Noodles bowls were scattered everywhere, both on the table and the floor.

This person must have eaten everything before killing himself.

Lu Xi'an could only hope there was something left in the other rooms.

After leaving the bedroom, they continued exploring. At last, they found something different.

--Ahead was another metal door. The Mechanical Dog's eyes reflected off it as they shone its light.

The door was open, and beyond it, the divided rooms were no longer dormitories. They were considerably larger, too.

The first thing the two saw was a kitchen, complete with a stove, a sink, a worktable, and every kind of pot, bowl, and utensil.

But this place looked as if it had been ransacked as well. Pots, bowls, and utensils littered the floor, and the worktable was crooked, clearly having been moved.

Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei had to watch their footing, stepping carefully over the broken pieces of bowls and plates.

There was no food in the kitchen either, but at the very back, Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei noticed something unusual.

There was also a skeleton there, leaning against a metal door.

Unlike the one they'd seen earlier, this skeleton was still dressed. Its clothes almost completely covered it.

From the style, it looked like a chef's uniform. A chef's hat had also fallen near the skeleton's chest, long since crushed flat.

The metal door was closed, its mechanical combination lock firmly secured, sealing off the room beyond.

When the Mechanical Dog's eyes shone on it, they revealed dried, blackened blood on the door, raised streaks that ran all the way down to the floor.

Lu Xi'an examined the trails left by the red-black blood as it had dragged across the door, then asked, "How do you think he died?"

Yao Wei shook her head.

The drag marks made it look as if he'd been killed by a collision. But the door was perfectly flat, with no protrusions or anything like that. How could someone have hit it hard enough to break the skin and bleed to death?

But Lu Xi'an soon made another discovery--

He found some broken ceramic pieces on the floor. Their shapes didn't look like fragments of bowls or plates. When he pieced them together in his mind, they seemed more like a knife.

"Is this... a ceramic knife?"

He glanced at the floor and asked.

Yao Wei nodded. "Yeah."

Lu Xi'an let out a quiet breath. "He killed himself, too. I wonder which of them died first?"

As he spoke, he looked at the skeleton again.

A name tag was still pinned to its clothes. Lu Xi'an had the Mechanical Dog shine its light on it, and saw that it read:

Chef: Li Xun

Permission Level: Three

Yao Wei said nothing. She didn't know, and couldn't be bothered to guess.

Lu Xi'an moved the dead man's skeleton aside, then had the Mechanical Dog scan the combination lock.

There was nothing of value in the kitchen. If there were supplies, could they be behind the metal door?

As Lu Xi'an speculated, he began to wonder whether the two had died because they were trapped here, used up all the supplies they could see, and fell into despair before killing themselves.

Li Xun, the deceased, had been the chef in the kitchen, but he hadn't had permission to open the metal door in front of them. Perhaps supplies were stored behind it, and only someone with a higher Permission Level in the shelter could open it and distribute them.

Could the two deceased in the shelter have come in early to make arrangements, only to get trapped here?

They hadn't had the permissions to access the supplies, so they could only use up everything they had on hand that was usable and edible before killing themselves in despair...

Lu Xi'an didn't share his guesses with Yao Wei. They didn't really matter anyway.

How many years had passed? This was just an empty shelter with no one left in it. What was the point of investigating the past?

They'd be better off looking for supplies.

"Five, eight, seven, nine, four, one, seven, nine."

The Mechanical Dog cracked the password, and its eyes began to flash in a regular pattern.

Lu Xi'an read the numbers from the pattern, then turned the mechanical combination lock. With a click, it opened. He pushed the heavy metal door, and a powerful musty smell poured out from behind it.

He and Yao Wei had to cover their noses and retreat, stopping only after they had backed some distance away.

"Dog, check if there's anything wrong. Is it safe to go in?"

Lu Xi'an ordered.

The Mechanical Dog feared nothing. Its eyes shone straight into the room.

Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei saw plastic crates and racks piled up behind the door. They were covered with vegetables and meat, all of it spoiled and dried out with time.

"Ah... no luck there either."

Lu Xi'an sighed.

He could guess that it was probably a cold storage room.

If the cold storage room had kept its power and its refrigeration had continued working, the things inside might have been preserved.

But as things stood, it could no longer keep things cold, and everything stored inside had gone bad.

Yao Wei was disappointed and dejected, too, but said nothing.

Lu Xi'an quickly rallied and said, "Come on, let's keep looking. There are still places we haven't checked. We might find something."

Just then, the Mechanical Dog, which had already gone through the metal door, suddenly lit up its eyes. Its light reflected from inside.

Lu Xi'an's heart stirred. He hurriedly focused on what lay beyond, and his face lit up with delight.

"Wait!"

He grabbed Yao Wei by the arm.

Yao Wei had already turned to leave. When Lu Xi'an pulled her, her body suddenly stiffened.

Noticing Yao Wei's reaction, Lu Xi'an let go and said, "Sorry."

Yao Wei shook her head. "I should apologize. I almost attacked you just now."

Lu Xi'an: "..."

What a violent woman...

Good thing she'd only almost done it...

Following Lu Xi'an's gaze to where the light shone beyond the metal door, Yao Wei saw several bags piled against the wall inside.

The bags were flat and sturdy, bulging with their contents until they were square. They were stacked in layer upon layer.

"What are they?"

She'd never scavenged anything like this before, so she was puzzled. Hope rose in her heart, too.

It didn't matter that she didn't know. Lu Xi'an seemed to know.

That guy always knew everything. She had no idea where he learned it all...

"Rice bags, or flour bags... They should be rice bags."

Lu Xi'an said, speaking rapidly in his excitement. "Flour can't be vacuum-packed, but these bags are obviously vacuum-sealed. They should contain rice."

"Is it contaminated?"

Yao Wei asked.

There was a pile of spoiled things inside, and the air was foul. In her experience, food usually couldn't be eaten in an environment like this.

Then Lu Xi'an said, "It might not be... Food can be stored for a very long time in a vacuum, and the vacuum packaging proves the contents are sealed tight.

"Besides, we've got the Mechanical Dog. We can have it check whether the food is contaminated or spoiled."