Chapter 40 Part 2

The familiar black trench coat. Looking up, Lin Juan saw his face.

It was the man who had given the eyeballs to Qiu Lishu!

Lin Juan concealed the shock in his eyes. It seemed his guess was correct—this laboratory was inextricably linked to the case they were investigating.

“Mr. Qiao, this way please.”

So his surname was Qiao. Lin Juan didn’t know if it was his real name or a fake one.

Later, Lin Juan tried indirectly probing Sister Zhang for Mr. Qiao’s real name but got nothing.

Everyone called the man “Mr. Qiao.” No one knew his true name.

Mr. Qiao placed great importance on Experimental Subject B-023. Upon learning that Lin Juan was the primary caretaker, he summoned Lin Juan that very day to inquire about B-023’s condition.

Fortunately, he only asked about its daily behavior and status. Lin Juan shared what he knew.

“When food is plentiful, they get along peacefully. But once food runs low, they devour each other. The successful devourer grows a bit larger but dies between the fifth and seventh day.”

“They’re very aggressive when food is scarce. Several times, they’ve rammed the experimental tank heedlessly.”

What Lin Juan didn’t mention was that in each of those instances, the rampaging eyeballs had shown an unusual covetousness toward him. They saw him as food. Lin Juan had no doubt that without the transparent tank, they would swarm toward him.

Lin Juan also knew that Experiment Zone 5 was covered in surveillance. Every move he made, every move B-023 made, was crystal clear to those monitoring.

Mr. Qiao had likely already reviewed it all.

Satisfaction flickered in Mr. Qiao’s eyes. “You’ve done very well. Rest assured, once B-023 matures, you won’t miss out on the rewards.”

Lin Juan feigned flattered surprise. “Thank you, Mr. Lin.”

Lin Juan returned to Experiment Zone 5 and stood in front of the transparent tank. The eyeballs inside had grown considerably larger than when he had first arrived, brimming with vitality—it was clear he had taken very good care of them.

Wherever Lin Juan walked, the eyeballs turned to follow him.

Lin Juan pondered as he walked.

Mr. Qiao had said to wait until B-023 matured, which meant B-023 had not yet reached maturity, but it was close. The results Mr. Qiao had come to inspect were very likely a mature B-023.

So, what was the difference between a mature B-023 and its current state? Why did it have to wait until maturity?

One question answered led to even more doubts.

Lin Juan found a way to pass his new discovery on to Su Xingchen.

Su Xingchen also shared their new findings.

In this massive laboratory, there was a heavily guarded underground warehouse. They prepared to sneak down and take a look.

On the fifth day of Mr. Qiao’s arrival, B-023 still showed no signs of maturity. B-023 grew a little restless.

He sat in the monitoring room and watched Lin Juan pacing back and forth in front of the circular transparent tank in Experiment Zone 5. The eyeballs turned with his movements. His gaze darkened. “Wait two more days. If it still doesn’t work, activate Plan E.”

Using his position, Su Xingchen swapped shifts with the security guards watching the underground warehouse. He knocked out the other three security personnel and descended silently.

It was very quiet.

As he went downward, Su Xingchen could only hear his own footsteps.

He soon reached the bottom.

The area was filled with boxes made of special materials. Su Xingchen tried one but couldn’t open it.

There were eight boxes in total, all impossible to open.

As if sensing someone outside, a noise came from inside the boxes. Su Xingchen glanced at the time and gave up exploring.

Fifteen minutes—he came back up right on schedule. The three knocked-out security guards woke up one after another.

Su Xingchen had made thorough preparations. No one noticed anything unusual.

“Xiao Lin, come help out.”

Lin Juan finished recording the last piece of data when he heard someone call him.

It was the staff member responsible for cleaning the experiment tanks.

“What’s up?”

“This tank is off-balance. Help hold it steady.”

If Su Xingchen had been there, he would have realized that the box full of “dead” eyeballs was identical to the ones he had seen in the underground warehouse.

Lin Juan steadied the box. For some reason, an unusually large number of eyeballs had died that day—five boxes were just barely enough to hold them all.

Seeing the staff member struggling with the wobbly boxes, Lin Juan kindly offered, “Do you need my help?”

The staff member was truly at his limit and worried the boxes might fall and cause an accident. He gratefully agreed. “I was just wondering how to get these out of here.”

Lin Juan was strong enough to carry all five boxes without issue, but he had no intention of revealing that. He only picked up two.

The two of them walked out, one in front and one behind.

Perhaps sensing Lin Juan’s good intentions, the staff member took the initiative to chat with him.

After chatting for a bit, Lin Juan casually asked, “Are these things going to be disposed of?”

Lin Juan had worked in Experiment Zone 5 for so long that he had noticed: whenever eyeballs “died,” a regular staff member would come to clean up, putting the motionless eyeballs into special boxes and taking them away.

Lin Juan wanted to know what happened to those eyeballs.

To gather information, he had started casually chatting with this staff member and sharing little snacks with him.

At first, there was no effect—the staff member just kept his head down and worked. But after Lin Juan helped him out once by chance, the staff member gradually opened up to conversations.

Now, they were familiar enough that the staff member would ask Lin Juan for help.

What he did might seem insignificant, but it was one of the laboratory’s most highly classified projects.

Hearing Lin Juan’s question, he thought to himself that Lin Juan was the one caring for B-023—he would learn about this sooner or later anyway. So he replied, “They’re for disposal, but it’s a bit of a hassle.”

After several twists and turns, the staff member led Lin Juan into his work area.

A pungent stench hit them. Lin Juan covered his nose. “What smell is that?”

“It’s the smell left over from processing B-023. No helping it—there’s been too much B-023 to process these days, and the ventilation system can’t keep up.” The staff member deftly took out two masks from somewhere, handing one to Lin Juan and putting on the other himself.

With the mask on, the foul odor faded a lot. Lin Juan followed the staff member inside and set down the boxes.

In the room, he saw a workbench like a kitchen stove, topped with a large metal cutting board. Next to it was an open metal container from which the stench emanated.

The staff member moved the boxes to a corner. Without avoiding Lin Juan, he opened one and scooped out a handful of eyeballs, placing them on the metal board.

He took a cleaver from the wall and began chopping.

As he worked, Lin Juan noticed bulges rolling under the skin of the staff member’s rolled-up sleeves.

Just like the eyeballs rolling around inside the transparent tank.

If the transparent tank were soft, Lin Juan believed the eyeballs rolling inside would look exactly like the bulges moving under the staff member’s skin.

With one chop, splatters flew up and hit the staff member’s face, quickly seeping into his skin without a trace.

Soon, a small bulge appeared where the splatter had vanished.

The staff member chopped while eyeing Lin Juan.

The malice grew increasingly obvious.

That gaze made it seem like he wasn’t chopping eyeballs, but Lin Juan himself.

Lin Juan tugged at the corner of his mouth.

It was obvious this staff member had already been polluted.

The bulges on his body multiplied. Some broke through the skin, and eyeballs emerged, staring fixedly at Lin Juan like they were sizing up a tasty meal.

Thud—thud—thud—

No one spoke. For a moment, only the sound of the cleaver chopping filled the air.

Lin Juan felt the scene before him was somewhat familiar.

He blinked, remembering: back in the Eye of Recollection, Qiu Lishu had chopped eyeballs the exact same way.

After chopping up the eyeballs, the bulges on the staff member vanished. A flash of blankness appeared in his eyes, then quickly returned to normal.

He wiped his forehead and smiled apologetically. “Sorry to keep you waiting so long.”

Chopping up five boxes of eyeballs probably took two and a half hours.

Lin Juan acted as if he had noticed nothing unusual, his expression unchanged. “Are these getting minced up and thrown away?”

“That would be such a waste.” The staff member packed the minced eyeballs into batches. “This is top-quality feed—perfect for the experimental subjects.”

So that was it.

Had Mr. Qiao also treated Lu Yanzhou as an experimental subject when he had Qiu Lishu mix the chopped eyeballs into his food?

In the original plot, did Lu Yanzhou’s fall into a Weird Phenomenon have anything to do with Mr. Qiao?

What was their ultimate goal?

Lu Yanzhou’s pollution value was very low—had the effects of eating the chopped eyeballs really been eliminated?

What sort of existence was the higher-up Mr. Qiao answered to?

Lin Juan had many questions in his mind. Behind this seemingly simple laboratory lay enormous secrets.

Together with the staff member, he went to feed the experimental subjects. The staff member explained to Lin Juan that experimental subjects of different ranks had varying tolerances for feed.

The highest rank in the laboratory at present was B-Rank—that pile of eyeballs. Next was C-Rank, decreasing in order, with lower tolerance for chopped eyeballs.

Overfeeding would cause them to explode and die.

Lin Juan had once had the fortune to witness it: the exploded experimental subject sprayed everywhere, filling the entire experiment zone with a foul stench. The other experimental subjects swarmed forward like sharks smelling blood, devouring every last scrap.

It even saved the cleanup step.

Lu Yanzhou discovered Lin Juan was out of contact on the second day.

The messages he sent sank like stones into the sea. Before leaving, Lin Juan had promised he wouldn’t go more than a day without replying to Lu Yanzhou.

At the time, he hadn’t realized he would get trapped, completely cut off from the outside world.

Lu Yanzhou told himself Lin Juan was very capable and wouldn’t run into trouble. He sat restlessly through the night. Early the third morning, he contacted Director Liu.

“Director Liu, has Xiao Juan lost contact too?” As soon as the call connected, Lu Yanzhou got straight to the point.

Director Liu equivocated.

Lu Yanzhou didn’t back down. “Director Liu, Xiao Juan was invited there by you people. As his marriage partner, I think I have the right to know his situation.”

Lu Yanzhou knew he should be more tactful and not antagonize the Anomalous Affairs Bureau, but emotions overrode reason. With Lin Juan out of contact and his life or death unknown, his prized rationality completely collapsed.

Director Liu had no choice but to tell the truth.

They had lost contact on the first day.

Lu Yanzhou’s vision went black. He gripped the sofa armrest to steady himself. He had never hated his ordinary humanity as much as he did in that moment.

It was still early. Faint light filtered through the window. Behind Lu Yanzhou’s unseeing eyes, a massive shadow printed itself on the wall, swaying with its master’s turbulent emotions.

The room fell into a heavy silence.

After a long while, Lu Yanzhou adjusted his mood. The moment he stood, the shadow vanished.

He methodically arranged company affairs, then boarded his private plane to Big Mouth Mountain.

He couldn’t stay in the Imperial Capital doing nothing. He had to go to the place closest to Lin Juan.

As the distance closed, Lu Yanzhou felt waves of dizziness. He hadn’t planned to head straight to Big Mouth Mountain—he knew he wasn’t an Ability User and wouldn’t be of any use. He had booked the nearest hotel in advance and intended to wait there.

He swiped his room card. His head spun even more. After giving instructions to his assistant, he collapsed onto the bed, and his consciousness faded completely.

At the same time, in the corner of the transparent tank, an unremarkable eyeball blankly opened its eye.

Where was this?