Diary

The writing on the paper was intermittent, as though the writer's mental state had been getting worse and worse. Yet what could be read already struck Zhou Bai as incomparably strange.

Every night, Mike would sit up and stare at the door.

His condition was getting worse and worse. Would he eat them?

Mike still hadn't slept today. He was just standing by the door, as though he might leave at any moment. I didn't dare get up... I felt that he had already noticed something.

The door opened. Mike opened it and went out. I wrapped myself tightly in the blanket, forcing myself not to look at whatever was outside.

Mike didn't come back the next day either. Another person had disappeared. What were we supposed to do?

My head was so dizzy. Every day when I got up, I felt groggy and muddleheaded.

I was getting sleepier and sleepier. He kept staring at me during class. I felt that I had been discovered.

When I woke up this morning, I found that the paper I had placed on the door lock had fallen off. Who touched the lock last night?

My chest hurt more and more. I could feel something inside...

I was too tired. I didn't go to class. He came to find me.

Everyone would be eaten. We had already lost all hope.

He was watching me. At night, he watched me through the keyhole. He was waiting for me to come out!!!

I decided not to sleep anymore. I couldn't be eaten!!

Not sleeping was the right choice. I felt better and better...

Zhou Bai frowned. This was a cultivation big shot, all right. Most of what came afterward was meaningless babble, already somewhat incomprehensible.

Alice, standing beside him, asked, "Any thoughts?"

Zhou Bai glanced at the girl who looked no older than twelve or thirteen and said lightly, "Stay up less, sleep more."

"That's not what I'm asking." Alice said indignantly, "Who do you think this 'he' is?"

Zhou Bai said, "No idea. There are too few clues. It could be you, for all I know."

Alice pursed her lips. "Don't you think the teacher and the entire base are suspicious? I found this diary in a hidden compartment beneath the bed board. That person probably used to sleep in my bed."

Zhou Bai gave her a surprised look. A little girl who had grown up in an environment like an underground base, whose entire worldview had been molded by that environment, could actually take the initiative to question it. That was truly no easy thing.

But Zhou Bai had no intention of discussing anything with a child. He nodded and said, "Go to bed early at night. Don't be like him and become a Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal."

Seeing that Zhou Bai was about to leave, Alice stamped her foot in anger and chased after him. "Don't you want to leave the base? Don't you want to go outside and take a look? Maybe there isn't even an apocalypse out there at all!"

Seeing that Zhou Bai still looked as though he could not be bothered with her, Alice said, "Bandu's personality completely changed starting last month, as though he had become an entirely different person. He had read this diary too, but when I asked him about it again, he had completely forgotten it."

Zhou Bai's steps paused slightly as he looked at Alice. "What else do you know?"

Alice said, "The laboratory on the fifth underground floor. Bandu went there, and after he came back, he became a different person. I even suspect that he isn't Bandu at all!"

"How did he get to the fifth underground floor?" Zhou Bai rubbed his chin. "I asked Elsa. The door there has fingerprint authentication. Only the teacher can go through."

Alice said, "If we wanted to get out, we had to open the alloy door on the first floor. And to open the alloy door, we needed an electronic card. Bandu and I searched the entire base but couldn't find one. That electronic card could only be in the laboratory.

We discovered that a ventilation duct connected to the fifth underground floor. Bandu and I spent several months cutting through the grating inside it.

But after Bandu returned from the laboratory that day, he was like a different person, and the grating in the ventilation duct had been repaired too..."

A frightened expression appeared on Alice's face. "What exactly happened... Did the teacher discover us?"

A thoughtful look appeared in Zhou Bai's eyes. "Do you want to go out and see?"

"You..."

"Then take me to that vent."

Whether it was the so-called electronic card, the cat connected to the Auxiliary System, or the secrets of the base and the teacher, they all seemed to be related to the underground laboratory. Zhou Bai decided to go down and see for himself.

Thus, led by Alice, he found the ventilation duct beneath a section of the cafeteria ceiling, then reassured Alice and sent her back.

That night, after looking at Elsa sleeping soundly beside him, Zhou Bai quietly climbed out of bed.

"Looks like I still have to go at night."

But the instant he reached out and opened the room door, Elsa's earlier warning flashed uncontrollably through his mind: never leave the room at night.

"It's fine. Wasn't that strange face I saw before just that cat?" Zhou Bai reassured himself. "Besides, I'm a man with telekinesis. Alice and Bandu cut open the ventilation duct every night. What am I afraid of?"

He stepped out of the room and gently closed the door. Looking at the pitch-black corridor, Zhou Bai frowned slightly.

Because it was an underground space with no light at all, the corridor outside was now almost completely black. Zhou Bai found that he could not see anything whatsoever.

So he had no choice but to reach out, brace himself against the wall, and head toward the cafeteria in the direction he remembered.

After walking for a while, Zhou Bai could not help swallowing. In the soundless silence and near-absolute darkness, every minute and every second was far more agonizing than he had imagined.

After taking only a few steps, Zhou Bai kept feeling as though something in the darkness was watching him.

After great difficulty, he reached the cafeteria and felt his way toward the ventilation duct.

In the darkness, Zhou Bai's hands moved inch by inch up the solid wall. Then his hand touched something soft—a soft, squishy mass.

His heart jolted. What is this? His palm followed the soft thing upward, and suddenly, a hand grabbed Zhou Bai's mouth, startling him so badly that he nearly activated his telekinesis.

"It's me." Alice whispered, "I figured you'd come tonight. How are you planning to get down? This time, I'm going with you."

Zhou Bai rolled his eyes. Alice continued, "This time, I have to see for myself what's going on. If you don't take me with you, I'll scream..."

"Fine, fine, I'll take you." Zhou Bai said helplessly. "Let go of your hand. You're squeezing my neck so hard it hurts."

Alice froze, then slowly said, "...I'm not squeezing your neck."

Zhou Bai's scalp went numb in the darkness. He immediately activated the power of his Primordial Spirit and shoved away the hand gripping his neck.

Then he reached out and grabbed Alice, staring tensely into the darkness around them.

Alice, caught in his grasp, asked fearfully, "What's wrong? What happened?"

Zhou Bai said, "Who's there?"

He stared into the pitch-black space as the power of his Primordial Spirit swept through the surrounding area, but he could no longer sense anyone else's presence.

"Come out."

In the silent darkness, no sound answered Zhou Bai's words.