Inside the containment vehicle at the rear, the non-combat personnel had already taken their positions. Computer screens flickered to life, displaying feeds from the camera and various detection devices carried by Lyu Huan.
Headquarters needed to collect data on the Director's abilities. Although the staff didn't know the exact purpose of this data, they followed orders from their superiors without questioning the deeper implications.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, Lyu Huan stepped through the dilapidated main gates of the sanatorium.
The moment he stepped inside, a bizarre illusion took hold; it was as if he had been swallowed whole, his figure vanishing completely.
"Ah—!"
Almost simultaneously, a piercing scream erupted from inside the containment vehicle.
The entire vehicle began to rock violently, followed by the sounds of desperate roars and chaotic impacts from within.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Rapid gunfire and agonizing screams followed in quick succession, shattering the deathly silence outside.
"Damn it, what's happening!" Zhao Huaisha's expression shifted drastically as she lunged toward the still-shaking containment vehicle.
The other transcendents also tensed up, raising their weapons with looks of suspicion and dread, aiming them at the vehicle.
The commotion inside was too terrifying; something had clearly gone wrong.
The gunfire lasted only two or three seconds before coming to an abrupt halt. The screams ceased at the same time, leaving behind nothing but an eerie silence.
Zhao Huaisha was the first to reach the vehicle door, while the other team members moved in a tactical formation, cautiously surrounding and closing in.
Zhao Huaisha raised her hand, preparing to force the door open.
But at that moment, with a click, the door was opened from the inside.
A man in his early thirties appeared in the doorway. It was Old Liu, the driver responsible for the containment vehicle.
However, he was currently covered in blood. There was a bullet hole in his left arm with mangled flesh, and blood was gushing out.
The moment the door opened, thick blood flowed out, and a heavy stench of gore hit their senses, mingled with a strange smell of alcohol.
Inside the vehicle, several corpses lay scattered in a mess, all of them killed by gunfire.
In Old Liu's hand, he tightly gripped a specialized handgun—standard issue from headquarters. Blood ran down his arm and dripped from the barrel of the gun.
Everyone realized that Old Liu must have been involved in the slaughter.
But the rapid gunfire from earlier indicated that more than one person had fired, and the number of bullet holes in the corpses far exceeded the capacity of a single handgun.
Inside the vehicle just moments ago, it was likely that everyone had been shooting at each other! And Old Liu was the sole survivor of that chaotic massacre.
"What are you doing? Put the gun down!" Zhao Huaisha commanded in a low voice, suppressing the pounding of her heart.
Old Liu's already dazed expression began to twist. His cheeks were flushed red, like a man in a drunken stupor. His face was full of rage as he hissed incoherently, "So you think... you can look down on me? Die! All of you, just die!"
As he spoke, he slowly and tremulously raised the gun, his movements twitching occasionally.
"Drop the gun!" Zhao Huaisha warned sharply again, and the others joined in the shouting.
They could all see that Old Liu's state was extremely abnormal; he was clearly being controlled or contaminated by some kind of power.
Zhao Huaisha's heart continued to sink. Such a bizarre incident had occurred right at the entrance of the sanatorium, and they hadn't noticed a thing—they didn't even know what the trigger mechanism was!
Under the crowd's shouting, Old Liu did not lower his gun. Instead, he raised his arm even more resolutely.
Just as everyone thought he was about to attack, he made a shocking move—as if his self-awareness had briefly cleared, he actually turned the muzzle and pointed it at himself!
"No!" Zhao Huaisha reacted with lightning speed, rushing forward to stop him.
But she was one step too late.
Bang!
A dull thud echoed as blood mixed with bone fragments sprayed outward.
Old Liu's body fell straight backward, slamming heavily onto the floor.
Before he died, there was no pain in his wide-open eyes; instead, they were filled with a sense of relief and atonement.
"Fuck!" Zhao Huaisha couldn't help but curse, her face ashen as she looked at the carnage inside and outside the vehicle.
She immediately raised her hand to stop the others who wanted to approach. "Don't come any closer!"
The smell of alcohol inside the vehicle seemed to be growing more intense.
She took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down, and turned her gaze to the computer screen inside the vehicle.
The screen was displaying the real-time feed from Lyu Huan's camera. A drunken man's face was practically pressed against the lens, and he was burping toward the screen.
Zhao Huaisha immediately deduced that this was likely a humanoid supernatural entity. It must have influenced the personnel inside the containment vehicle, causing them to slaughter each other!
For some reason, as she looked at that drunken face on the screen, Zhao Huaisha felt the smell of alcohol become even stronger. Her mind began to wander, and an inexplicable rage surged from her heart, making her so irritable that she wanted to destroy everything in sight.
Just as her eyes were growing hazy and murderous intent was rising, a shout like a clap of thunder exploded in her ear!
"Wake up!"
Zhao Huaisha jolted, snapping back to her senses instantly. Cold sweat had already drenched her back.
The inexplicable anger and killing intent from a moment ago had all turned into lingering fear.
It was that supernatural entity in the screen! It could actually influence humans through a display!
Within the team, an honest-looking male transcendent named Gan Shuang walked over. It was he who had first noticed Zhao Huaisha's abnormality and shouted to wake her at the critical moment.
The danger of the Qingshan Sanatorium truly lived up to its reputation. They had only just made contact, and so much had already gone wrong.
Gan Shuang stepped quickly to Zhao Huaisha's side and turned his gaze to the computer screen that was still transmitting images.
Strangely enough, the moment he approached, the image of the drunken man on the screen vanished without a trace.
Gan Shuang didn't even have time to see the other's specific appearance. He only felt that the thing seemed to be afraid, giving off the impression of a coward who bullied the weak while fearing the strong.
Recalling the origins of the Qingshan Sanatorium and the kind of "patients" inside, Gan Shuang guessed that the thing just now was probably a Drunkard type of supernatural entity. It had lost control of its emotions due to alcohol, leading to violent tendencies, yet it only dared to inflict violence on weaker targets.
After the drunken man disappeared, the image on the screen returned to normal, showing a first-person perspective moving up a dim staircase.
It was Captain Lyu.
If that drunken man had appeared in front of Captain Lyu, he would have likely been slapped to death instantly; he wouldn't have been given the chance to cause such heavy casualties.
It seemed the drunken man hadn't been captured by the camera on Lyu Huan and sent to the computer screen. Instead, he had used some even more inconceivable method to appear directly on the screen.
Gan Shuang carefully stepped onto the containment vehicle, doing his best to avoid the blood on the floor, and moved to the computer to watch closely.
The screen showed that Lyu Huan had already turned a corner on the stairs, climbed a few more steps, and reached a certain floor.
As the camera turned toward the corridor beside him, Gan Shuang saw a dozen or so figures standing silently at the end of the hallway.
They stood motionless, like statues. The camera couldn't make out their faces, only their rough outlines and their tattered, ragged clothes.
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