Still Alive

Chapter 9: Still Alive

Pietro ran through the Monastery.

He could feel that his destination was drawing closer; the proof was the sound in his ears, which grew increasingly piercing, like the ceaseless whispers of a demon.

The nauseating sensation became difficult to suppress, forcing Pietro to slow his pace until he finally stopped, leaning against the wall to gasp for air.

"Hah—huff, hah—huff."

Like a drowning man pulled from the water, Quicksilver greedily gulped down the air. He never wanted to experience this again in his life; he felt that if he hadn't stopped just now, he would have been unable to keep from vomiting.

Forcing down the churning in his stomach, Pietro knew he was not in a safe position.

"Looks like this is the place." He looked up to see a wellhead sealed by iron chains. According to the map of the Orphanage in his memory, this should be the backyard, located in the southwest of the entire building complex. To the west was the direction of the Monastery, and to the south was a stretch of mountain forest; generally, no one would come here.

Groping his way to the wellhead, Pietro couldn't help but feel his heart pounding. He looked around; the surroundings were littered with fallen leaves and appeared incredibly desolate. A few damaged stone statues stood on the ground, and as a breeze brushed past, Pietro couldn't help but shiver.

"Damn it, I really regret this. Zhang Ye didn't tell me it was this terrifying when I came here."

Muttering to himself, Pietro spat on the ground. Then, seemingly having made up his mind, he used his high-speed vibrating left hand to snap the iron chains on the wellhead and jumped straight down.

The wellhead and the inner walls were quite large, enough to accommodate four people. Pietro fell in a state of weightlessness. At this speed, a normal person would be smashed into a pulp the moment they hit the bottom, but this was no challenge for Pietro. While in his high-speed state, he could freely control his rate of descent.

Soon, Pietro tapped his feet against the inner wall and landed perfectly at the bottom of the well.

"It seems Zhang Ye was right. How could a normal orphanage spend so much money? I'm afraid the vast majority of the funds were invested in building these underground facilities."

Touching the walls of the tunnel, Pietro frowned. It was hard to imagine what Emma's goal was, or what had happened to the missing children. This orphanage was clearly not as good as the newspapers boasted; it likely contained horrors unknown to anyone.

But that didn't have much to do with him. Pietro only wanted to get the helmet Zhang Ye mentioned and leave this place that made his whole body feel uncomfortable as quickly as possible.

Placing one hand on the ground, Pietro crouched, assuming a starting position for running. The next moment, his figure vanished instantly.

Truth be told, Pietro's speed was now so fast that it was difficult for the naked eye to capture, but this was not his top speed. On the contrary, Pietro's speed at this moment was less than half of what he could achieve while running.

As a speedster, swinging one's arms was the key to maintaining balance while running. Humans had discarded their tails during evolution precisely because they could better control their balance with their arms, and in a speedster's state, the arms were even more crucial.

But after losing his right arm, Pietro could no longer run that fast. Firstly, it wasn't easy to maintain balance; if he fell at high speed, that would be a terrifying thing. The second reason was that without the assistance of arm swinging, it was difficult for his speed to increase.

However, running too fast previously had placed a heavy burden on Pietro's heart. Pietro had once suspected that if he continued to run at that speed, one day his heart would be unable to bear the load and explode.

And now, Pietro could no longer run that fast. He didn't know if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

Although the tunnels beneath the Orphanage were deep, with Quicksilver's speed, he quickly passed through them and arrived at a more open area.

Suddenly, a stinging sensation erupted in Pietro's mind, as if his brain had been pricked by a needle. Pietro immediately clutched his head and slammed on the brakes, nearly crashing into the wall.

Slowly opening his eyes, Pietro felt as if he were seeing stars. He shook his head violently, suppressing the nausea in his stomach and the dizziness in his mind, trying to make himself more alert.

Clearly, he had forgotten that he had arrived at the source of those psychic energies. Running at high speed here would make his brain a target for the impact of those psychic energies.

After Pietro recovered, he began to observe his surroundings. The smell of blood in the air made his hair stand on end, and he prepared to flee this place at high speed at any moment.

"What kind of hellhole is this?" Pietro didn't dare to speak loudly. He looked around and saw that he was in a dim, dark building corridor, much like a prison. There was a room every two meters on both sides of the corridor, which reminded Pietro of the Mutant Prison he had been in before.

Tiptoeing to the door of a room, he saw it was a heavy door made of steel plates, with several iron bars across the window. Pietro stood on his tiptoes and looked inside through the gaps between the iron bars.

Inside the iron door was a rectangular room of less than seven square meters. There was only a small bed in the room, and a child who looked only four or five years old was sitting on it. However, she had her back to Pietro, so he couldn't see her face.

After hesitating for a while, Pietro ultimately gave up on the idea of communicating with the child inside. In such a terrifying environment, Pietro didn't want to attract anyone's attention, especially since the child with her back to him was too creepy. What if she gave him a 'jump scare' by turning around?

His goal was only one: the helmet Zhang Ye had mentioned. As for what Emma was doing here, or whether these children lived or died, what did that have to do with him?

Thinking of this, Pietro turned around, ready to leave.

But the moment Pietro turned around, he suddenly froze in place. He looked as if he had been greatly terrified, his eyes wide, staring at the front in disbelief.

At the entrance of the corridor, a woman had appeared out of nowhere, quietly staring at Pietro.

No one knew when this woman had appeared, and Pietro didn't know how long she had been watching him. To be honest, when Pietro discovered her, his heart nearly jumped out of his chest.

It was a woman with white hair and a beautiful face. At this moment, she was watching Pietro with a meaningful gaze, and Pietro instantly recognized her identity—she was the founder of this orphanage, Emma Frost.

"I didn't expect a little mouse to break in. It seems I've really grown lax over the years." Emma licked her lips, her voice as pleasant as a lark's, but in Pietro's ears, it sounded more like the whisper of the Grim Reaper.

"Aren't you supposed to be giving an interview? Ahhh!" Pietro said, preparing to flee immediately, but as he tried to accelerate, that needle-like pain made him scream out loud.

Clutching his head, Pietro felt as if his head were splitting. In this state, let alone using his high-speed ability, he probably couldn't even manage the most basic resistance.

"Heh heh. You didn't think I wouldn't notice you, did you? From the moment you entered my territory, my children sensed your presence. A speedster—truly a rare sight." Emma spoke slowly. As she spoke, two four or five-year-old girls walked out from behind her.

"Are they... also telepaths?" Pietro asked, gritting his teeth against the pain.

The little girls beside Emma were expressionless, their pupils rolled back into their heads, leaving only the terrifying whites of their eyes. No one would believe that at an age that should be full of joy, they were now like two broken dolls.

"What exactly have you done!?" Pietro roared in anger, gritting his teeth.

"I have achieved what even the Creator could not!" Emma's eyes widened, and she grinned. The hideous expression tore through her beautiful face. She stroked the heads of the two girls and continued.

"This world is about to face a catastrophe, and only mutants will survive. I am simply letting those lowly species complete their evolution, just like the church I founded—the New Generation Church! Everything is for the sake of our next generation."

As she spoke, Emma leaned down and rubbed her cheek against one of the little girls. "Look, what a beautiful work, what a perfect, flawless creation."