Chapter 114

After Aiden finished speaking, he looked around... Apart from the somewhat fierce female senior he had just met, and the bald boss in front of him, this newspaper office seemed... it seemed... probably... almost deserted?

"Both of them... are also..."

The bald boss was taken aback, then suddenly turned around and rushed into another room.

Inside the office, the Doctor got up and moved his back with some difficulty, his joints occasionally making a clicking sound.

"Finally finished... What was wrong with the previous accountant? Not only did they write the reports in full Victoria cursive, but they also liked to use archaic French prefaces... Were they crazy?"

She frowned, looking with some emotion at the thick stack of financial statistics tables on the table.

There was also a Victoria dictionary placed to the side.

Phew, but considering she managed to get all this done in just one day under these circumstances, it seems she has quite a talent for paperwork?

"Call.

"All done, time to go home."

The Doctor turned his head and looked out the window at the sky, which was gradually being enveloped in darkness.

It's time to go back to the staff dormitory and say goodbye to her bed!

In the cold, desolate Victoria, she had only her bed for company...

Snap!

Before my thoughts could even take flight, they were interrupted by the sound of the wooden door being roughly pushed open.

"Ms. Te!!! I..."

A shiny, reflective bald head burst into the office, raising its voice as if trying to make a grand entrance.

"I refuse."

"Huh?! I haven't said anything yet--"

The boss was stunned, not even expecting to be rejected by the Doctor before he could even utter a single word.

The latter gave the former a cold look, while pointing to the clock on the wall.

"The current time is exactly 7:00 PM Victoria Time."

"According to the contract, I'm already off duty, boss. I regret to inform you that if you have any requests, please let me know when I return to work the next day..."

"Please! Seriously! If the newspaper doesn't release any more news, we'll completely lose our buzz! I put so much effort into getting this opportunity!!!"

The boss, with a long face, slumped over the Doctor's desk and shouted.

"No, what does this have to do with me?! I'm just a finance person, and a newbie at that! Shouldn't this kind of thing be the business of reporters and photographers?! No matter how you look at it, it's none of my concern--"

"But there are only the three of us left at the newspaper now! If we can't dig up any sensational news, we're going to go bankrupt!"

"Hey, you don't want the newspaper you just joined to go bankrupt..."

"Really? Then let it go out of business. That way I won't have to think of a reason to quit."

The Doctor's cold words struck straight to the boss's heart.

However, seeing the other person's heartbroken appearance, she ultimately couldn't hold back.

He sighed and began to speak.

"That's enough, give me the address... Also, this counts as overtime."

"One day I'll turn myself into an emotionless work machine... or at least get rid of this tendency to soften my heart from time to time."

The Doctor finished reminiscing and sat down in the back seat of the taxi, gritting his teeth in annoyance.

The surrounding scenery rushed past, but the people inside the car were enveloped in a strange resentment.

"... Senior... you're terrifying..."

Aiden glanced at the Doctor in the back seat with a slight tremor; the Doctor's resentful gaze felt like countless cold needles pricking his back.

"We've arrived, you two."

The taxi stopped, and the driver opened the door to indicate that he had taken them to their destination.

"Wow, this is the hotel in Londinium... It's huge."

Aiden looked up, gazing at the towering neon-lit building before him like a country bumpkin who had never seen the world before.

What? A college student from the Flame Kingdom?

Sorry, my activity area is limited to the stalls and fields near the school; I've never actually seen any tall buildings.

"Alright, stop looking and get inside."

The Doctor, however, showed no reaction to the building's "grandeur"; in her opinion, there was nothing particularly remarkable about it.

It was as if it had already seen countless things that were even more magnificent than itself.

"Oh oh..."

She sighed, looking at the recent college graduate following behind her, her tone filled with helplessness.

"Just stay quiet while we take the photos, and don't say a word."

"Oh oh!"

Aiden nodded, suddenly sensing that this senior, who didn't seem much older than him, possessed an air of maturity.

It's like... one's own mentor!

However, describing the other person like that seems a bit impolite, especially since they look quite young...

Hello, I have an appointment.

The Doctor walked to the front desk and handed the business card that the boss had given him to the other person.

"Please wait a moment, I'll contact them for you."

The receptionist smiled, then turned to contact the guests.

"Um, senior."

"What's wrong."

Aiden patted the Doctor on the shoulder, then nervously pointed to the group of people in the hallway and headed towards the spacious elevator.

"... I recognize that tattoo... it belongs to a gang in Victoria."

Aiden lowered his voice and then pointed to the tattoo on one of the men's necks.

"This has nothing to do with us... What do you want...?"

The Doctor paused, then turned to look at Aiden beside him.

"They went to the underground parking garage... Senior, they might be doing something illegal... We need to..."

"Keep your head down, don't look at them, and focus on taking care of yourself."

However, the Doctor only tried to hold Aiden back with cold words.

The latter turned his head and said as if he had made up his mind.

"Doctor... I've heard that some gangs in certain areas are not only involved in illegal drugs... but may even be involved in human trafficking... I feel we can't just sit idly by!"

Aiden said, pointing to his camera bag.

I already said, this has nothing to do with you. Just lower your head and pretend you didn't see it. Young people, mind your own business, or you'll never make it in the world!

The Doctor shouted angrily at Aiden.

Damn it, what's going on here? She doesn't want to get into any disgusting trouble; she's planning to just live her normal life like this!

"Damn it, I'm telling you, there won't be a second time. Damn it, I absolutely have to get rid of this stupid habit of being so soft-hearted!"

With a resentful look on his face, the Doctor and Aiden boarded another elevator leading to the underground parking garage.

At this moment, at the top of the hotel, a twisted, fleshy limb was writhing, and in the blue pupils, a mouth covered with serrated teeth was uttering hoarse, indistinct sounds.

"Charles... Boss... wants us to go to the underground parking garage... and gather all the brothers... He has something to announce..."

At this very moment, at the same time.

A gang member with bandages wrapped around his arm stood at the elevator entrance of the underground parking garage with another group of people, repeating the words that the "monster" had just spoken.

"Charles, the boss wants us to go to the underground parking garage. Remember to call all the brothers; he has something to announce."

Chapter Seventy, Victoria and the Infection (Part Two)

"Um, senior, where is this place...?"

Aiden looked at the Doctor with some confusion as he skillfully took out a somewhat old screwdriver from his pocket and unscrewed the iron bars on the wall next to him.

"The ventilation ducts... You don't want to just follow them around observing like this, do you? Learn properly, and let your brain process things before your blood boils."

There was a hint of helplessness in the Doctor's words.

Are all young people like this nowadays?

"I see..."

Aiden watched as the Doctor effortlessly slipped into the pried-open ventilation duct. After glancing at his camera bag and carefully placing it in its proper position, he followed suit.

"Hey, senior, your red pendant seemed to light up just now..."

"Shhh!!!!"

Aiden's questions were interrupted by the Doctor's nervous hiss before he could fully voice them.

"Keep it quiet while you're crawling into this narrow metal pipe, damn it! Don't you know that any sound will be amplified in this environment?!"

"Don't you have any experience climbing pipes?! Even a recent college graduate should know that this is common sense!"

"Common sense...?"

Aiden pondered the Doctor's words thoughtfully, then exclaimed as if enlightened.

So this is how much a college graduate has to learn... It seems I've been too complacent with the teaching methods at school and lacked the motivation to learn other specialized knowledge on my own.

If it were those journalism students... they certainly wouldn't be in such a sorry state as I am.

Sure enough, he still has a lot to learn!

Coming to Londinium this time was definitely the right choice.

While he was reflecting on his actions, he subconsciously overlooked the fact that he had initially noticed the scarlet pendant hanging around the Doctor's neck emitting an eerie red light for a fleeting moment.

They wouldn't even notice that behind them, countless thin, scarlet wrists had silently crept up from the openings of each pipe.

It was like a wildly growing vine, completely blocking every exit of the underground parking garage.

The exit gate of the land vehicle slammed shut, the gate opening was tangled, and the ventilation ducts were blocked.

Unbeknownst to anyone, the basement was transforming into the closed "stomach" of a monster.

The source of everything, or rather, the entity itself, stood quietly at the very top of the hotel, watching as crimson blood flowed like a trickle from the open wound on its body, entering the drain on the top floor, falling to the ground, and finally entering the pipes to reach the underground parking garage.

Just like the roots and stems of a plant, he now had a complete grasp of every part of the structure at the base of the building.

However... what bothered him was...

"Doctor?"

Zuo Jian sensed the two people slowly crawling through the ventilation duct. The one in the lead felt incredibly familiar to him, and he recognized him by recognizing a portion of his own tissue on the other's body.

Moreover, the man following behind her seemed somewhat familiar to her.

What are they doing here...? Are they also after the gang?

"Slow them down first, then deal with the immediate issues first."

After a moment's thought, Zuo Jian made his choice.