Upon hearing Jeanne's warning, Gin merely smiled and offered no response. Instead, he pulled a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and took a deep drag, inhaling the smoke greedily into his lungs.
"Vodka, you and Officer Ch'en take these two and leave first. I need to stay here."
Gin stared at the rows of Infected soaking in the vats, his heart devoid of even a shred of fear. On the contrary, he wore an expression of excitement. Perhaps to him, since these people couldn't handle him while they were alive, what could they possibly do even if they came back from the dead?
"Big Brother... let me stay too! If anything happens, I can still help you!"
Despite how bone-chilling this place looked, Vodka could not bring himself to abandon his brother and flee alone. Even though he had a habit of being wary of trouble and knew his own mind wasn't the sharpest, it was simply too difficult for a soldier to desert his post and abandon a teammate at the front line.
"Get lost! One of us has to be the one to carry the intelligence back to the superiors! Otherwise, what was the point of me making this trip?"
The moment Vodka finished speaking, he was met with a harsh rebuke from Gin. After a long silence, Vodka had no choice but to prepare for departure.
"Please take the two of them and leave. I am an officer of the Guard Department, and I have a duty that requires me to remain in this place."
Ch'en had no intention of leaving whatsoever. This was Lungmen, and it was the LGD that bore the responsibility of maintaining Lungmen's safety! What would it look like if they left outsiders here while the Guard Department fled?
"You should leave—even you, Lady Jeanne, should leave this place! Given your identities, if an accident were to occur here, my mission could be considered a failure."
Seeing their refusal to leave, Gin was quite irritated. His goal for this trip was to salvage Ursus's international image and neutralize the possibility of war. If an accident happened to either of these two, everything he had done would be meaningless. In fact, it would be a total defeat.
"But we all have our reasons for staying, just like you, Mr. Gin. Besides, dragging this out further helps no one. We should focus on finding a way to restore the power first."
Seeing the group still debating whether to stay or go, Jeanne interrupted them directly. Since everyone believed they had a reason to stay, it was an argument that would never be resolved. Rather than wasting time like this, it was better to start observing the situation. Lingering in indecision would yield no results.
"Then I'll leave it to you, this... Mr. Vodka, was it? Your codenames are quite unique, actually using alcohol to name yourselves."
Ch'en didn't know much about liquor and hadn't initially associated the codename "Gin" with alcohol. But why alcohol? Is the codename for their organization 'The Distillery'?
Vodka said nothing. He glanced at his "Big Brother," who was intently smoking his cigarette, and had no choice but to hoist the two captives onto his shoulders to leave. Because these two still hid many secrets they needed to uncover, they couldn't be left here to fend for themselves; they had to be taken away for further interrogation.
However, Vodka swore in his heart: if any of the people present met with an accident in the ensuing action, he would—even at the risk of going to court—throw these two prisoners back here after the event to avenge the danger his comrades faced.
Fortunately, Vodka had a sturdy build. Like a hawk carrying chicks, he hoisted the two men onto his shoulders and departed at an incredibly fast speed, running toward the faint glimmer of light in the distance. That was the breach caused by Jeanne's giant Earth Dragon spitting a meteorite—the light guided his path like a lighthouse.
"Alright, that part of the matter is settled. Someone will rendezvous with him once he gets there. We should go find where the power source is located."
Ch'en waved her hand, her expression now appearing quite relaxed. It was as if a burden had been lifted from her heart—the rest would be solved by her own martial strength!
Seeing this, the others had no choice but to begin searching for the circuit hub. If something were to truly happen shortly, having lighting versus being in the dark would be like two different worlds. If someone were hiding in the shadows to attack them where they couldn't see, they would be extremely passive due to the lack of vision.
While these few were inside looking for the circuit hub, the officers outside simultaneously followed Ch'en's orders and began to evacuate. At the same time, many areas began to lose power one after another, and the surroundings became pitch black due to the blackout.
A massive amount of electricity, driven by a privately built underground Originium power generation device, began to be funneled at full capacity into those vats, filling the giant tanks displayed throughout the underground chamber with current.
Under the influence of the special liquid in the tanks, the massive current didn't destroy the Infected within; instead, it reacted with the Originium, eventually seemingly releasing some kind of Originium Art.
Driven by the current and the Originium, in an environment where one couldn't even see their own hand in front of their face, massive chunks of Originium began to grow on the bodies of these Infected who had essentially been declared dead.
The amount of Originium was so vast that if it grew on a living person, they would be pronounced dead instantly. Some bodies became grotesquely shaped due to the growth—the kind of sight that would cause one's SAN value to drop just by looking at it.
Following this, their bodies seemed to become incredibly light, slowly floating up from the bottom of the vats toward the top. The current—enough to turn a human into charcoal—began to stimulate their incredibly stiff bodies under the effect of the Originium Arts, as if to awaken these dead fellows once again.
Time passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, all the officers underground had evacuated from Rhine Gold. Under Ch'en's orders, they established a firing web surrounding the company and even deployed a large number of sniper operators. Though they didn't know what had happened, they naturally obeyed their superior's orders. Numerous officers tightly surrounded the area, all watching the silent company building, not daring to utter a word.
Not only that, upon discovering that these bodies were indeed undergoing unknown mutations, Ch'en had no choice but to report the situation to Wei Yenwu, informing him of the anomalies beneath Rhine Gold.
This news caused Wei Yenwu, sitting in his office, to flip his own desk! He never expected that a mere company would have the audacity to pull such stunts in Lungmen! When he saw the photo Ch'en sent—of an Infected mutated into a "Grotesque" due to disordered Originium growth—his cold sweat instantly soaked through his clothes.
What was that thing? Even the Undead Soldiers of Sargon(Zhayedans) would be considered "handsome young men" in comparison; even a Wendigo's appearance would be considered average by contrast.
This must never be known by the outside world! If even one photo leaked, it would bring an irreparable reputational disaster to Lungmen. In truth, human experimentation wasn't much of a secret these days. Look at Columbia—they treat human experiments like drinking water, and they still make money, don't they?
But the problem is, if you do human experiments, do not let the general public or your enemies know! Otherwise, the opponent will seize upon this point and hammer you to death, vowing to beat you until you can never recover. If word of this reached the Yan Heartland—that the ruler of Lungmen, Wei Yenwu, was suspected of colluding with foreigners and using the people as test subjects for human experiments...
He imagined his younger brother would be very happy to receive that news. Because he would finally have a reason to move against Lungmen!
"No. We must nail those monsters inside that company right now! And not a single shred of information can be leaked! No matter how many people are sacrificed, this must be done!"
He dialed his friend's number, telling him to bring his subordinates and call upon those Infected experts hidden in the Lungmen slums—it was time for them to fight for Lungmen! However, they would only hide in the surroundings, moving only when the Guard Department's defense web broke. Until then, they had to remain hidden and not appear in the open.
Back in the secret room, Ch'en and the others, who had turned on the emergency lights, were restored to the light. Looking at the horrific, ghost-like scene before them, they prepared for battle.
Opposite them were the corpses, which had already begun to regain movement. Their arms were starting to sway gently, and the sound of them hitting the reinforced glass vats was like a Sonata from Hell!