Chapter 179: Enter the gate
Lin Ye returned to the car with a cold expression. It had been a long time since he'd been this furious.
As the Trump Card, no one could make him do anything he didn't want to do—except himself.
"Brother Lin?"
Seeing only Lin Ye return alone, Yellow Hair closed his eyes in pain.
"Tell me about the Research Institute's layout. I need to have a talk with your Director."
Opening the bag, Lin Ye secured various weapons in easily accessible positions on his body.
Wu Xiaoling hesitated for a moment, but after being stared at by Lin Ye's calm eyes for a while, she quickly described the Research Institute's terrain and structure.
"What are you going there for?"
Looking at Lin Ye who was now fully armed, Shao Yang felt something was wrong.
"I already said—I'm going to have a talk with their Director." After securing his weapons, Lin Ye drove straight toward the Research Institute.
"There are soldiers guarding the Research Institute. You won't be able to get in."
Shao Yang didn't want to watch Lin Ye go to his death.
"They'll let me in. You two get off in the city area later and take care of him for a while."
Lin Ye didn't plan to bring the half-dead Yellow Hair along.
"Brother Lin, I'm coming too. They killed so many of our gang brothers—we can't just let this go."
Yellow Hair clutched his chest and said urgently.
"What would you do there? Hold me back? I'm the Gray Gang's Trump Card enforcer. There's nothing I can't handle."
Lin Ye floored the accelerator, already growing impatient.
"...Why is it so quiet here?"
As the van entered the city area, there wasn't a single person on the streets—not even any Smiling Freaks.
"Something's wrong! It's impossible for there to be no one here!"
Shao Yang looked at the empty streets, a strong sense of fear gripping his stomach as vomit rose up his esophagus to his throat.
Thinking of his wife and child at home, Shao Yang pushed open the car door and jumped out, running at full speed toward the nearby residential area.
Lin Ye sighed and drove after him. There weren't many people left alive in the city.
"What's going on? Is this also caused by the experiment?"
He Jia grabbed Wu Xiaoling's collar forcefully. She didn't think those Smiling Freaks could have killed everyone so quickly.
"I don't know! We closed the gate to the Gray World! The experiment stopped! I don't know why it became like this either!"
Wu Xiaoling grabbed her head and said loudly with a smile.
"Are you sure you closed the gate? Or rather, are you sure no one opened it again?"
Lin Ye parked the car outside the residential area. Looking at the lead-gray sky above, this scene seemed familiar somehow.
"How could this be? Did the Director open the gate again?"
Wu Xiaoling looked at the sky in shock. This scene was exactly the same as inside the gate.
"Let's go. It seems we all need to make a trip to the Research Institute together."
Seeing Shao Yang's gloomy expression, Lin Ye pulled open the car door and started the van.
Shao Yang opened the car door and wordlessly sat in the back seat of the van.
Like Lin Ye, he also wanted to have a talk with the Director.
The van sped along the empty road at full speed, and Lin Ye soon drove to the Research Institute's entrance.
The group brought all their weapons and entered the Research Institute with guns drawn. With Wu Xiaoling leading the way, they quickly found the research center studying the Gray World.
Like outside, there wasn't a single person in the Research Institute.
But in the research center, they discovered an energy channel leading to the Gray World.
And on the other side of the channel, they could see large numbers of motionless Smiling Freaks.
"...We never actually closed the gate. We just thought we did. From the moment we opened the gate, we've been influenced by the Gray World."
Wu Xiaoling knelt on the ground, looking despairingly at the other side of the channel as a smile reappeared on her face.
"Will closing it now completely end everything?"
Lin Ye scanned the other side of the channel, trying to find people from the Gray Gang.
"No! If we close the gate now, the people inside will never return! Maybe they can still be saved!"
Shao Yang approached the gate. He wanted to bring back his wife and child.
"No, entering the Gray World means certain death. Without exception."
Wu Xiaoling grabbed Shao Yang and tried to dissuade him.
Shao Yang forcefully pushed Wu Xiaoling away. He didn't want to listen to her, even feeling the impulse to shoot her.
"Not necessarily. Since you didn't close the gate before, if we quickly bring people out and then close the gate, maybe we can block the Gray World's influence."
Lin Ye always felt like he had done something similar before.
"Yes! That must be it! Let's hurry up and start!"
Without wasting time, Shao Yang directly passed through the channel and entered the Gray World.
Seeing that Shao Yang was fine, Lin Ye followed behind him and entered as well.
However, the moment he entered the Gray World, those standing, motionless Smiling Freaks regained their ability to move, and the gate behind them disappeared.
Lin Ye turned and ran, with large numbers of Smiling Freaks chasing after him. Among them, several Smiling Freaks were clearly different from the others.
Shao Yang watched this scene in astonishment. Those Smiling Freaks completely ignored him. The exit channel was gone, so he had no choice but to follow behind the Smiling Freaks.
As he ran, Lin Ye quickly thought. The disappearing gate and the Smiling Freaks chasing him—this was clearly a trap. Who set the trap? And for what purpose?
Lin Ye couldn't figure out these questions at all. As the Smiling Freaks behind him gradually closed in, after running for some time, Lin Ye suddenly spotted a somewhat familiar Bus by the roadside.
Rushing onto the Bus, he found the keys under the steering wheel. Lin Ye stepped on the accelerator and drove the Bus, shaking off the Smiling Freaks behind him.
"Senior, you won again."
A young girl in school uniform leaned against the fare box and said to Lin Ye helplessly.
"I never went to school."
Lin Ye drew his pistol and directly fired a shot at the girl's head.
Bang!
"Huh? Is that the setting? Sorry, the story generates naturally. I don't know the specific plot either."
The bullet turned to ash and disappeared in front of the junior.
"...What are you?"
Lin Ye lowered his gun. By observing the other's expression, Lin Ye deduced that firearms were likely ineffective against it.
"I'm your cute junior! Getting to the point—what kind of identity is 'Trump Card enforcer'? How come after layering on some memories, the Gray World can't affect you at all? This is too unfair. Even if I let you enter with your memories, I wouldn't have lost this badly. Does this identity of yours have no emotions?"
The junior tugged at Lin Ye's hair unwillingly.
"It's not that I have no emotions. You killed my boss, and I'm very angry right now."
Lin Ye said angrily.
"...Wow, so your emotions are all performed... These false memories are similar to performance—because you're already accustomed to it, they don't affect you at all, so the Gray World can't affect you either... You're really fascinating."
The junior stared at Lin Ye. Previously, she had only paid attention to Lin Ye because of Little Ye and the game's outcome. Now she had genuinely developed interest in this man. She really wanted to know what exactly was hidden deep within Lin Ye's heart.