191: 11.24 fire case

Case 124: The Fire. "This isn't an ordinary library card."

Chen Mo pointed at a string of numbers in the bottom right corner of the card. "Look at this."

A-00-1999.

"1999?" Li Ke pushed up his glasses. "That was the year the old campus of Jianghai Medical University was abandoned."

"Exactly."

Wang Daoming, who had been slumped on the iron table, suddenly spoke.

His voice was raspy, carrying a strange excitement.

"That was the year Prometheus drove its first nail into this city."

Everyone's gaze instantly focused on him.

Wang Daoming struggled to turn his head, staring at the card with a hint of jealousy in his eyes.

"That old geezer actually left this to you..."

"This card is the only key to the Zero Archive."

Chen Mo walked over and grabbed him by the hair, forcing him to look up.

"What Zero Archive?"

"Cough, cough..." Wang Daoming grinned, revealing a mouthful of bloody teeth. "Can't you hear heartbeats? Guess why your dead teacher chose a library that's been abandoned for over twenty years as the meeting place?"

Chen Mo narrowed his eyes.

His ears caught Wang Daoming's heartbeat.

Thump, thump, thump.

It was fast.

It was fear, but also a morbid anticipation.

What was he anticipating? For that place to swallow everyone whole?

"That is his place of atonement."

Wang Daoming panted heavily. "Back then, that project went out of control, and thirty students died. Their bodies... were processed in the basement of that library."

The air instantly froze.

Su Qingxue's expression changed. "Thirty students? The '11·24' Fire Case? The official report said it was faulty wiring..."

"Official?" Wang Daoming sneered. "The officials only see what we want them to see."

Chen Mo let go, and Wang Daoming's head slammed heavily onto the iron table.

"So this is the 'old place'."

Chen Mo turned around and picked up the card. "Teacher went there every year on the anniversary of his death. I thought he was there to pay his respects, but it turns out he hid something there."

"What's the situation there now?" Ninth Master got straight to the point. "Since it's been abandoned for twenty years, it hasn't turned into a haunted house, has it?"

"Worse than a haunted house."

Chen Mo tucked the card away. "It's the old campus, now a cluster of unfinished buildings surrounded by ruins from demolition. The terrain is complex, there's no surveillance, and no streetlights."

"Perfect for a silent execution," Su Qingxue added.

"And..."

Li Ke's fingers tapped rapidly on the keyboard. "I just checked the satellite imagery. There's strong magnetic field interference around that place; Drones lose connection as soon as they fly in. It seems Dean Wang wasn't lying; there's definitely something wrong there."

"Then we have to go even more."

Chen Mo checked the boning knife behind his waist.

Although the edge was chipped, it could still stab someone.

"I'm going too!" Li Ke closed his laptop. "I need to hack the firewall there, or we'll be blind."

"You stay here."

Chen Mo pressed down on his shoulder. "Keep an eye on Wang Daoming. This bastard is living evidence. If we let him escape or die, we'll really become wanted criminals."

"Ninth Master, you stay too."

"What?" Ninth Master's eyes widened. "You're letting Lord Fatty guard the house? That place is so dangerous, you alone..."

"I'll go with Captain Su."

Chen Mo glanced at Su Qingxue. "Two people make for a smaller target, and we need a professional cop... police officer, to judge the site for traces."

Su Qingxue didn't say a word; she just silently checked her magazine and loaded it to capacity.

Clack.

The sound of a round being chambered was exceptionally crisp in the cold storage.

"I'll take this job." Su Qingxue holstered her gun.

"Fine then."

Although Ninth Master was unhappy, he knew this was the optimal solution.

He pulled a meat cleaver from under the meat table and shoved it into Chen Mo's hand.

"Take it. This one is freshly sharpened, sharp enough to cut a hair. If you run into anything unclean, don't try to reason with it—just hack its hips off."

Chen Mo took the heavy meat cleaver. The handle was wrapped in non-slip cloth, feeling solid in his hand.

"Let's go."

He turned and walked toward the door.

"Wait."

Wang Daoming suddenly called out to him from behind.

"Chen Mo."

Wang Daoming's tone became very strange, as if he were looking at someone about to jump into a fire. "Do you really think your teacher died just to protect that secret?"

Chen Mo stopped in his tracks but didn't look back.

"What do you mean?"

"That capsule... the one you blew up. It didn't contain data at all."

Wang Daoming's voice dropped very low, carrying a hint of malicious amusement. "It was an inhibitor. The only inhibitor."

Chen Mo whipped his head around.

"Inhibitor?"

"It seems you haven't noticed yet..."

Wang Daoming stared at Chen Mo's ears. "Has your hearing been getting sharper lately? Do you sometimes even hear... sounds that don't exist?"

Chen Mo's heart contracted sharply.

It was true.

Since being hit by the EMP last time, the frequency of those auditory hallucinations had been increasing.

Just now in the van, he had even heard that extinguished core still beating.

"That's 'Abyss Syndrome'."

Wang Daoming licked his dry, cracked lips. "People Li Ke us are Li Ke voyeurs peeking into the abyss. The clearer you see, the tighter the abyss pulls. Why did your teacher modify himself? Because his body could no longer handle that sensory overload!"

"And that capsule was the last cure he left for you."

"Now, you've destroyed it."

"Hahahaha..."

Wang Daoming's laughter echoed in the cold storage Li Ke some kind of curse.

Chen Mo stood at the door, his face obscured by the shadows.

After a few seconds.

He suddenly laughed.

The smile was cold, several degrees lower than the temperature in the cold storage.

"A cure?"

Chen Mo reached out and touched his ear.

"I never needed such a thing."

"If the abyss wants to pull me down..."

He gripped the meat cleaver in his hand, his knuckles turning white.

"Then I'll just butcher the abyss."

Clang.

The iron door slammed shut, cutting off that irritating laughter behind him.

The wind in the alley grew stronger.

Chen Mo climbed into the driver's seat of the jinbei van, with Su Qingxue in the passenger seat.

"Is what he said true?" Su Qingxue looked at the dark road ahead. "Your body..."

"I won't die."

Chen Mo started the car, shifted gears, and floored the accelerator. "As long as I catch them all before I go crazy, it's a win."

The jinbei van charged into the night Li Ke a wounded beast.

In the shadows behind them, a crow perched on a telephone pole suddenly exploded into a mist of blood.

On the roof of a tall building several hundred meters away.

A person wearing a grey windbreaker put down the sniper rifle in their hands.

It wasn't an ordinary gun.

The barrel was wrapped in complex coils, and the scope didn't show an optical image but rather thermal imaging and heartbeat waveforms.

"Target moving."

The person pressed their earpiece, their voice devoid of any inflection. "Confirmed possession of the 'key'. Heading to Point Zero."

A synthesized electronic voice came through the earpiece:

"No need to stop them."

"Let that blind man in."

"We're also curious to see what kind of monster that old madman raised in the basement."

The grey-clad figure packed up the gun and vanished into the wind on the rooftop in a flash.

Only the afterimage of the heartbeat waveform still flickered on the scope's display.

It was Chen Mo's heartbeat.

Steady and powerful.

Yet carrying a kind of frenzy that was about to burn out.

Reminder: The website will be updated soon, which may cause loss of reading progress. Please save your 'Bookshelf' and 'Reading Records' (screenshots are recommended). We apologize for any inconvenience!