How Did I Die?

"Large-scale anomalous mental radiation detected!"

"An anomalous impact is approaching! Sixth Squad, intercept!"

"Restore power as soon as possible!"

"An unidentified wall has appeared ahead! There are casualties!"

"Prepare to blow it up!"

Bright Mall Subway Station, once a regular subway station, had now become a vast underground cavern.

Massive green bricks had replaced the concrete walls, though traces of the original concrete tiles could still be seen.

It was as if the two had fused together.

On a brick wall ahead were several enormous, weathered seal-script characters, twisted and curling, exuding an eerie aura.

Just like the objects that had suddenly appeared, merging with things that had already been there, while everything that had existed before had either vanished or fused with them.

Nightmare and reality had become intertwined.

A large number of officers had already been stationed inside Bright Mall Subway Station. These suddenly appearing brick structures had fused directly with the bodies of several investigators.

Many people were trapped inside the brick walls, struggling and screaming desperately.

It was bad enough when their limbs were fused into the walls, but those whose heads, chests, or abdomens had been swallowed up soon fell silent.

Then their bodies began to writhe. It was as if some mysterious fungus were incubating inside them, rapidly swelling and multiplying, spreading outward!

Their flesh and blood became a sticky mass, merging together as tendril-like growths reached out and grabbed at the investigators nearby.

In the darkness, a strange clicking sound arose, surging toward them like a tide.

A swarm of black shells came into view, their surfaces covered in strange patterns.

The moment they saw the shells, several Anomaly Bureau investigators who hadn't managed to put on their protective goggles seemed to fall under some kind of spell. They threw themselves into the swarm and, in the blink of an eye, the shells had gnawed them down to broken skeletons.

The trained investigators in the rear immediately raised a wall of shields made from special materials. A few of them then unleashed roaring flames from their flamethrowers, sweeping them over the writhing shells.

From the other side came the roar of gunfire. Special bullets struck the fleshy masses on the walls, blasting open patches of blackened craters and forcing the reaching tendrils back.

Yang Gan wore combat gear and held a deep-sea fishing rod in each hand. He cast them from a distance, sending dozens of hooks scattering at once. They snagged twisted veins and nerves inside the fleshy masses on the walls.

Not far away, a man in a suit walked forward, coughing violently.

With each cough, the grotesque flesh within ten meters of him withered a little more, as though struck by a serious illness.

The suited man suddenly coughed up blood, and the grotesque flesh before him instantly turned black and rotted.

Several investigators wielding flamethrowers surged forward behind him, burning the rotten flesh to ash.

Zhao Yifeng, Director of the Anomaly Bureau, stared impassively at the brick wall before him.

Beside him, a bespectacled, scholarly-looking man with curly hair studied the computer in his hands, his expression grim.

"Director Zhao, we've finished the anomalous radiation map. Please take a look."

The computer screen displayed a three-dimensional waveform.

The entire Gu City Subway system was rendered in three-dimensional lines on the map. A large area had been stained red; the deeper the color, the higher the anomalous radiation levels.

Bright Mall Subway Station, where they were now, was deep red, confirming it as an anomalous radiation outbreak site.

However, similar anomalous radiation zones formed a circle across the three-dimensional map of the entire Gu City Subway system.

Their location was one of the strongest radiation outbreak sites. At the center of the circle, however, there was only a blank area, as if there were no anomalous radiation there at all.

Silver Glow Cinema Subway Station.

The curly-haired man with glasses spoke quickly.

"The Research Department's readings on the anomalous radiation peak were correct. Several other subway stations are also under anomalous attack. But from what we can tell, the core of the circle formed by these anomalous radiation zones may be Unity Society's true objective..."

The curly-haired man fell silent.

Silver Glow Cinema Subway Station was now like the eye of a storm. A far more devastating anomalous infection could break out there at any moment.

Zhao Yifeng asked, "Who's there? Has Zhang Lan arrived?"

He had sent her to Silver Glow Cinema Subway Station instead of assigning her to the main assault because he didn't trust her.

But even by helicopter, it would take a while to get there from the Cloud Mountain base.

The curly-haired man adjusted his glasses. "The helicopter will need at least another twenty minutes to arrive and land nearby. The unit stationed at Silver Glow Cinema Subway Station is... the Support Center's Dissection Department."

Zhao Yifeng's eyes narrowed slightly, then returned to normal in less than a second. He said calmly, "Have the Political Work Department prepare double compensation for the families. Anyone who makes it back alive gets a collective second-class merit award."

He then turned to a woman in her thirties with deep forehead lines and a blouse. "Director Dong, can you identify what this thing is?"

She was Dong Hua, a disciple of Director Kong of the Cultural Relics Bureau.

Dong Hua had been completely shaken by what she saw. Her face was pale, and two images of seal-script characters were displayed on the computer before her.

They had been taken after the brick wall appeared, when several investigators had risked their lives to drive off the terrifying tendrils of flesh on it.

A line of indistinct seal-script characters was visible in the images. She was carefully deciphering them.

The large seal-script characters on the front of the brick wall had also been photographed, and the clear image was now displayed on Dong Hua's computer.

"These are... variant seal-script characters from the Southwest. These smaller characters say, 'Whoever dares... to rob my tomb... shall have no descendants...' It means that anyone who dares to rob the tomb will be cursed to have no descendants. It's the tomb owner's curse on grave robbers. This is an ancient tomb! A subterranean mausoleum this large must belong to a king. It might even be larger than the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang!"

Dong Hua said excitedly, "Only the ancient Dian kings in the Southwest could have built an underground mausoleum on such a scale. Those large characters on the tomb wall say... 'Whoever opens it will die... King... Li?'"

Dong Hua sprang to her feet, eyes wide as she looked at the scene before her, disbelief filling her face. She shouted, "This is King Dian Li's tomb?! Impossible! Impossible! There was no King Dian Li in history! Impossible! He was only a fictional figure! This tomb doesn't exist!"

The underground space was dim. The towering tomb wall ahead loomed oppressively close, while terrifying tendrils of flesh and a tide of shells continued to surge like waves. The emergency lights flickered as the voltage fluctuated.

Dong Hua's frantic cries echoed through the space, making everything seem even more grotesque and terrifying.

She waved her arms and shrieked in terror, already on the verge of hysteria.

Several investigators rushed over, grabbed Dong Hua, and injected her with a tranquilizer, calming her down.

Zhao Yifeng said, "Protect Director Dong. Hong Tao! Full assault!"

Hong Tao, standing nearby in black combat gear, nodded. His muscles bulged as he charged toward the tomb wall like a galloping rhinoceros.

With a deafening crash, he smashed a huge hole in the outer wall of the underground mausoleum, which even explosives had failed to breach.

The investigators behind him immediately led the way with their flamethrowers and filed inside!

"The Collector is dead. You can't possibly be the Collector!" the hooded man before him said coldly.

Li Fan's heart tightened. He glanced at the members of the Cleaning Association beside him.

Before he could reply, Auntie Zhang gave a cold laugh and snapped at the hooded man, "How dare you! The person standing before you is the head of the Cleaning Association's Twelve Knights, the Shepherd of the Southwest Pastoral District, the strongest awakened warrior—the Collector! No one has ever defeated the Collector, no one can defeat him now, and no one ever will!"

Powerful mental radiation spread outward from her body.

Old Sun stepped forward and said coldly, "Disrespecting the Collector is the beginning of death..."

Wherever he stepped, twisted shoots had already sprouted, spreading outward.

The hooded man looked at the tense group and suddenly chuckled. "Blood Pearl... Corpse Farmer... So you really are the Collector's loyal dogs. But do you really want to start a war with Unity Society here?"

Mother smiled softly. "Unity Society... isn't it just a third-rate organization that likes grinding people into meat?"

As she spoke, a cloud of wailing mist escaped her mouth and rushed forward like a ghost.

"Wait." Li Fan suddenly spoke. His hoarse voice sounded as if it came from deep within the underground mausoleum. He asked the hooded man before him, "How did I die?"

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