Chapter 124: Come to My Bedroom

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As soon as the sundries were pushed aside, Ji Linmo noticed several holes in the flat wooden floor, just large enough for a person to insert their fingers.

What is this?

After a moment of thought, Ji Linmo pried up the floorboards, revealing a long ladder leading underground.

It was a basement! There was a basement beneath the grocery store.

The dim ladder descended straight down, narrow and cramped. In the darkness, Ji Linmo caught the scent of blood permeating the cellar. Without further hesitation, he grabbed his flashlight and slowly stepped down into the basement.

The sound of dripping water echoed from above from time to time. After walking for what felt like an eternity, Ji Linmo finally saw a square table covered in various documents, all of which had "Cthulhu Laboratory" written on their covers.

[Top Secret File | Arkas Town, Massachusetts]

Ji Linmo picked up the topmost document and carefully unsealed it. The file stated that in 1882, a mysterious meteorite had fallen from the sky into the foreign town of Arkas. This meteorite had infected a large portion of the local area, causing the creatures there to become extremely bizarre. However, one month after its initial arrival, the meteorite rose back into the sky, emitting an indescribable light like a meteor streaking backward across the heavens.

The moment the meteorite took flight, every creature in the town affected by it died inexplicably, instantly losing all vitality.

Ji Linmo frowned. He repeatedly compared the photos of the meteorite on his phone with those in the file, his furrowed brows tightening until they looked like a knotted rope.

If this information is true, then this meteorite will also fly away. And when it does, as an infected host of the meteorite virus, I will also die inexplicably!?

Ji Linmo calculated the time. The projected time for the meteorite's departure was exactly five hours before the end of this instance. In other words, it would happen at four in the morning the day after tomorrow!

In an instant, Ji Linmo’s heart felt as if it had plummeted into an ice cellar. As someone suffering from Meteorite Purple Eye Syndrome, he had no idea how to purge the virus from his body.

He hurriedly flipped through the other documents, hoping to find more clues. Then, the text in one of the files caught his attention.

[Restricted File | Meteorite Research/Unknown Virus Speculation]

"The first infected individual of any species shall serve as the primary host."

"The host will spread the virus they carry, yet will not exhibit any symptoms of infection themselves."

"At the same time, the host must consume uninfected members of their own kind as nourishment, or they will wither away day by day."

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Staring at the document before him, Ji Linmo took a photo with his phone and then began to examine the large wooden table. The drawer in the center was secured with a combination lock. Looking at the five-digit lock, Ji Linmo simply flipped the table over and smashed through the bottom using a splint he had on hand.

Simple and efficient—that was what he strived for.

Reaching in to feel around, Ji Linmo retrieved a diary and a small, precisely crafted metal box from the hole in the desk. The handwriting in the diary was incredibly scrawled, containing brief, scattered records.

August 2nd: We hid her in the attic, but she keeps shouting that she wants to leave.

August 3rd: Many people have been taken away by those in protective suits. I have a bad feeling about this.

August 5th: She’s shouting again about wanting to go out. She has no idea what kind of trouble she’s brought to this family! The people in town have all become so strange!

August 7th: She’s becoming more and more disobedient. I am her father, yet she dares to say we are cannibals? Ungrateful child, a few missed meals will teach her.

August 10th: This child, she won't take her medicine, and now she can’t even get up...

August 11th: She refuses to take the medicine even if it kills her! She’s becoming less and less human. I begged my friend at the lab to steal some things for me—they say it can cure her. I hope these things work.

August 13th: Die, just die! It would be better if you just died!

The diary ended abruptly on the 13th, but Ji Linmo was certain that the person mentioned was his "sister," Ji Xiaoling. As the first to be infected, Ji Xiaoling was the primary host; she had spread the virus to the entire town, yet because she herself showed no symptoms, she could clearly perceive that the so-called "medicine people" in the town were actually living humans.

That was likely why she refused to eat them. And the reason her parents killed her was, in all likelihood, because of her refusal to consume the medicine people.

[Task 1: Find the cause of your sister's death]

[Congratulations, player. You have discovered the second task clue!]

[Tattered Diary]

[Item Quality: Inferior]

[Item Description: A diary with frantic, illegible handwriting! If you want to understand it, you’d better have studied cursive script!]

[Current Clues: 2/3]

Ji Linmo felt his deductions were sound. The only clue remaining was the small metal box. It also had an eight-digit lock, but trying to open it by guessing the combination would be harder than reaching the heavens. Ji Linmo carefully observed the box and noticed some raised dots on its surface.

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It was Braille!

The man hurriedly ran his fingers over the surface, successfully translating the message.

"Vaccine for Meteorite Purple Eye Syndrome."

"Inject to clear the virus from the body, effective immediately."

Ji Linmo stared at the box in his hands in disbelief, feeling as though his luck was excessively good. He had just learned that he would die if he didn't purge the virus, and the next second, the vaccine appeared.

Although he suspected a trap, Ji Linmo thought for a moment and decided to try the combination first. After testing the birthdays of his family members one by one, he decided to give up on that idea.

"Only Qin Feng's birthday is left..."

Ji Linmo held no hope, but when he entered Qin Feng's birthday, the box clicked, and the lock disengaged.

"That's it..."

The man looked at the metal box in his hand, stunned. Everything was going too smoothly—so smoothly that it felt as if someone had paved the way for him.

Ji Linmo slowly opened the box, but upon seeing what was inside, his expression turned grim, and he felt a chill go to his very bones.

The box was empty, save for a single slip of paper. The handwriting on it was neat and rigid, the standard script characteristic of the exam-oriented education system.

[Come to my bedroom to get it, Mr. Ji.]

Ji Linmo felt a coldness so intense it seemed to make his blood flow backward into his brain.

No wonder it was so smooth...

That little madman had already gotten his hands on it!

"Damn it... is that how much you want me to enter your bedroom?!"

Ji Linmo gritted his teeth, unable to suppress his frustration. He had no idea what Qin Feng was thinking. But he had no choice—he had to go.

That was the only thing that would allow him to survive and leave this instance!

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