Three paths

Before Ye Lin could finish, An Ke suddenly spoke up.

"And its eyes are positioned like a fish's."

"The Species' eyes grow on either side of its head. That kind of arrangement usually leaves blind spots."

"I noticed just now that its eyes don't move, either, so its forward vision is probably limited."

"That's right."

Ye Lin nodded and glanced sideways at An Ke.

Although An Ke hadn't contributed much during the fight, she had reacted fairly well-at least better than the other two.

Its limited vision also explained why the bodies behind the door had been piled up on either side.

"So as long as we don't make too much noise, or even just stay in their blind spots, we'll be safe?"

He Zheng's eyes lit up, and he couldn't help blurting out the question.

But Ye Lin shook his head at the suggestion.

"Keeping the noise down might help, but staying out of sight probably won't."

"There are too many monsters. If we run into them, some are bound to have an angle on us."

"Fuck. Of course it wouldn't be that easy."

He Zheng cursed under his breath, then looked worriedly down the passage ahead.

Around the corner, the passage split three ways. The overhead lights had changed to dark red warning lights, dim and eerie.

At a glance, it looked like a passage into a monster's intestines.

Everyone stopped short, their breathing growing uneasy.

"So which way do we go now?"

He Zheng asked, but when he reflexively glanced up, his expression suddenly froze.

"Huh? Wait, is that writing up there?"

Looking more closely, they found signs above all three passages. He Zheng was delighted at first, but his expression quickly soured.

The reason was simple: he couldn't seem to understand what they said.

"Decontaminated Quarters"

"Containment Corridor"

"Lab & Research Zone"

"What the hell does that mean?"

Everyone stopped and stared at the English signs overhead, momentarily dumbfounded.

Zhang Tie, the tallest of them, stood blinking with his mouth hanging open, as though he were looking at some incomprehensible ancient script.

No one spoke, and the atmosphere suddenly grew awkward.

Noticing that even Ye Lin was frowning deeply, apparently pondering something, He Zheng couldn't help turning to the others.

"Seriously, none of you knows English?"

"I repeated two grades and spent all my time messing around outside school, so fair enough for me. But you don't know it either?"

"An Ke, what about you?"

Pinning his hopes on An Ke, who seemed to have at least some brains, He Zheng pressed her for an answer.

But before An Ke could give her uncertain response, Hu Jia suddenly spoke up.

"I know this!"

"The first should mean rooms that have been disinfected. The second is a place for keeping things-a storage area? And the third is where they do experiments, so a work area?"

"Are you sure?"

After speaking, Hu Jia had expected everyone to be impressed. Instead, He Zheng seemed not to believe him. His face flushed, and he hurried to defend himself.

"Of course I'm sure!"

"I'm a science student. I've always ranked first in my year, and I even got recommended for university admission! If I hadn't wanted to see what score I could get, I wouldn't even..."

At that, Hu Jia's eyes suddenly dimmed.

He regretted it deeply. Why had he taken the college entrance exam?

If he hadn't walked into the exam hall that day, perhaps he would never have been dragged into this place, let alone forced to face such a brutal exam.

"Heh. Who'd have guessed you were a straight-A student?"

"All right, then. Shall we take the first one? The disinfection area? Sounds like it should be safer."

Ignoring Hu Jia's dejection, He Zheng snorted and turned to Ye Lin.

He had an extremely poor impression of Hu Jia. Even if he had proved slightly useful this time, he was far too timid to be worth a damn.

But to He Zheng's surprise, Ye Lin walked straight toward the third passage.

"We can't take the first one. We're taking the third, the lab area."

"Huh? Why? Ye Lin, can you read those?"

He Zheng froze, and the others also looked at Ye Lin in surprise.

Seeing Ye Lin flatly reject the disinfection area, He Zheng instinctively turned to glare at Hu Jia.

"Ye Lin, did this guy translate it wrong? Is the first one not the disinfection area?"

Ye Lin shook his head and spoke as he walked.

"No, the translation wasn't wrong. The context is different."

"And the third one is our only option."

Pausing briefly, Ye Lin looked up at the emergency lights overhead.

"If this were an ordinary setting, Hu Jia's translation would be right. But there are Species here."

"A fish's head on a human body... That kind of monster is clearly a product of genetic engineering."

"In a biochemical setting, the first passage means living quarters you can only enter after decontamination, not somewhere for disinfection."

"The second is a containment area, and the third is a biochemical lab area."

Everyone was taken aback. Hu Jia's expression stiffened as he realized he had overlooked that point.

He Zheng looked at Ye Lin strangely, countless questions rising in his mind.

He had felt something was off ever since Ye Lin pulled out a gun. Now, he found the guy more mysterious than ever.

Suppressing his suspicions about Ye Lin, He Zheng couldn't help asking:

"Then doesn't that mean we should take the first one even more?"

"Wouldn't going to the third one, the biochemical lab, be suicide? Isn't that where the Species escaped from?"

"No. It's exactly the opposite."

Ye Lin let out a soft breath and began explaining quietly.

"Have you forgotten the bodies by the door?"

"First, they've been dead for more than two weeks. That means the Species must have appeared even earlier."

"The Species eat people. They need food, yet they didn't eat those bodies. That means there must be food somewhere else, and plenty of it."

"So where would there be a large supply of food?"

He Zheng's expression changed at Ye Lin's question. However stupid he might be, he understood what Ye Lin meant.

There was no food in the containment area, and the lab area couldn't have much either. The only place likely to store a large supply of food was the living quarters.

Fuck!

He Zheng couldn't help shooting Hu Jia a vicious glare. If they had actually chosen the first passage, they would have walked straight into the jaws of death and served themselves up to the Species!

"There's no need to blame him."

Ye Lin shook his head, signaling that He Zheng needn't get angry.

"Although we'd run into a large number of Species in the living quarters, choosing the lab area won't make things much better."

"These monsters have already started moving around. Whichever path we choose, we'll run into them."

"The reason we're taking the third is that we have no choice."

"Why don't we have a choice?"

An Ke's voice suddenly rang out. Her brows were tightly furrowed, as though she had ideas of her own.

Ye Lin turned and gave her a somewhat surprised look. If he remembered correctly, this was the first time An Ke had asked a question of her own accord.

Without dwelling on it, Ye Lin fell silent for a moment, then slowly spoke.

"Because whatever can save us..."

"Will only be in the lab area."