Chapter 176: Researcher
Even with its neck broken, the smiling-face freak's lower body continued moving, its limbs twitching as it kept approaching Lin Ye. The still-smiling head wobbled on its neck, looking both ridiculous and terrifying.
Two more smiling-face freaks squeezed in from behind. Because the alley was too narrow, their bodies lined up front to back while their heads pressed together side by side.
The front smiling-face freak was trampled beneath them as both heads simultaneously lunged to bite at Lin Ye's face.
Lin Ye stabbed his daggers into their necks with both hands simultaneously. The forward smiling-face freak grabbed Lin Ye's arm, but before it could secure its grip, Lin Ye's daggers had already severed their cervical spines.
Countless smiling-face freaks crowded into the alley behind him, the closest one now just a step away. Lin Ye urgently pushed away the convulsing corpse pressed against him, then leaped over the bodies to escape the narrow path.
After breaking free from the alley, Lin Ye decisively sprinted toward the slum's exit. These smiling-face freaks were extremely troublesome, and no one knew how many such monsters were hiding throughout the slums. He had no intention of getting surrounded by these creatures.
As for the gang stronghold, he'd deal with that after this situation was resolved.
Bang!
A group of soldiers in hazmat suits had sealed off the slum. Lin Ye nearly took a bullet the moment he approached the blockade.
Lin Ye could only turn and flee. He was just a gang's trump card enforcer - no match for a squad of armed soldiers. Seeing Lin Ye run deeper into the slums, the soldiers didn't continue firing at him.
Lin Ye charged toward the gang stronghold. The slum covered a vast area, making complete lockdown impossible. He knew several obscure paths that led outside.
But reaching those escape routes meant crossing through most of the slum territory. Under normal circumstances this wouldn't be an issue, but in the current situation, Lin Ye had no desire to venture into those areas.
Who knew how many smiling-face freaks were hiding throughout the slums?
So Lin Ye decided to regroup at the gang stronghold first, where a cache of weapons and equipment should still be hidden.
Besides, dusk was approaching, and he needed to find shelter before nightfall.
"Brother Lin!"
Just as Lin Ye was quickly making his way toward the gang stronghold, he suddenly heard someone calling his name from a derelict building beside him.
Lin Ye turned toward the abandoned structure to see a spirited young man with bright yellow hair peeking out and waving at him.
"Yellow Hair? What are you doing here?"
Lin Ye drew his pistol, having already reloaded it during his earlier escape.
"Brother Lin, the boss sent me to check things out! Come up quick!"
Yellow Hair winked at Lin Ye, then shifted his eyes meaningfully toward the space behind him.
"Alright, I'm coming up."
Understanding Yellow Hair's hint, Lin Ye drew his dagger and entered the derelict building.
But before Lin Ye could rush up to attack, a man emerged at the top of the stairs, pushing Yellow Hair ahead of him.
"Lin Ye, things have already deteriorated to this point. There's no need for us to keep fighting to the death. I'd like to talk with you."
Shao Yang held a pistol to Yellow Hair's head. As a law enforcement officer with the Bureau, he'd had some previous encounters with Lin Ye and knew he was formidable. When Yellow Hair called out "Brother Lin," he'd immediately sensed trouble.
"Release my man first, then we'll talk."
Lin Ye scanned the top of the stairs. Only three people stood opposite him - one man and two women. One woman was Shao Yang's subordinate, while the other wore protective gear.
If he didn't care about Yellow Hair's survival, Lin Ye was confident he could eliminate all three within thirty seconds.
The smiling-face freaks were far more troublesome than this group.
"...Fine."
Shao Yang hesitated briefly before agreeing to Lin Ye's demand. It wasn't that he didn't want to use threats - he simply doubted Lin Ye would care about Yellow Hair's fate. The Gray Gang wasn't like the Bureau - to them, losing one or two low-level members meant nothing.
"Brother Lin, when I came through, the stronghold was already overrun by those monsters. Those creatures might have been created by that girl over there."
Yellow Hair pointed at the woman wearing protective clothing.
"Not me! It was the research institute! I'm just an ordinary researcher!"
Wu Xiaoling hurriedly explained.
She didn't want to earn the hatred of these Gray Gang enforcers, especially not in this place.
"Tell me everything you know."
Lin Ye glanced at the darkening sky and decided to gather information before proceeding to the gang stronghold.
"I'd also like to know what's really going on here."
Shao Yang also turned his attention to Wu Xiaoling. His orders were to protect the research institute's personnel, but no one had informed him they were working on something this terrifying.
With everyone watching her, Wu Xiaoling had no choice but to share what she knew.
"Everything started with an experiment two months ago. As you know, conditions outside continue deteriorating, and surviving inside the city is barely manageable. The research institute has been searching for a more stable, safer living space."
"Get to the point."
Lin Ye interrupted Wu Xiaoling's self-justifying nonsense. Whatever their original intentions, the result was their failure and the creation of these monsters.
"We opened a gateway to another world. Since everything in that world appeared gray, we called it the Gray World. Initially we believed the Gray World was safe, but all researchers who entered disappeared. After several failed expeditions, the director finally decided to close the gateway to the Gray World. However, before sealing it completely, we mechanically collected some items from the Gray World for future study."
"From these Gray World items, we isolated a special substance called Gray Matter. Research on Gray Matter proved difficult - it's a peculiar substance that affects mental states, and we couldn't analyze its structure. That continued until the director accidentally extracted a byproduct from the Gray Matter."
"This byproduct was named Black Matter. Black Matter proved even more remarkable than Gray Matter - those who absorbed it entered a state of extreme mental focus. In this state, subjects could accomplish things ordinary people couldn't. One subject managed to kill a researcher through bulletproof glass using some unknown method."
"At first, we thought we'd found the key to human evolution. But we soon discovered this was only the beginning of the nightmare..."
"All test subjects who absorbed Black Matter eventually transformed into the monsters you see outside. The terrifying part is that this transformation spreads to others through some unknown means. Even worse, during the early stages of Black Matter research, one test subject escaped the institute using some ability... We tried to locate and eliminate that subject, but failed..."
And that's how we reached the current situation.
Wu Xiaoling finished explaining the sequence of events. The whole matter had little to do with her - she was just a researcher following orders.