Old Morgan stared directly into Lu Yuan's eyes, his tone grave.
"If you could maintain absolute sanity in such a highly contaminated environment like Thorn Manor while facing a near-certain death trap, it means... you are safe."
"At least for the time being."
At this point, Old Morgan gave a self-deprecating laugh.
"Actually, after that mission in the sewers, Hans wanted to let you pass the test directly and make you a regular member. But I vetoed it."
"Why?" Lu Yuan asked.
"Because you weren't the main force that time; you were just support," Old Morgan shook his head.
"No one who hasn't seen the abyss is qualified to talk about sanity."
"So I had to throw you into the abyss and see if you were still human when you crawled out."
"Now it seems my judgment of people isn't bad."
After finishing his sentence, Old Morgan took a deep drag of his cigarette and then crushed the butt firmly into the ashtray.
He pulled a brass key from his waist and placed it on the table with a crisp clink.
"Deal."
"Go in and take your pick; you've earned it."
Lu Yuan picked up the key, feeling the residual body heat on it, and the coldness in his eyes dissipated slightly.
"Thanks."
"However, before you go in, there is something else you need to know."
Old Morgan turned the map around and pushed it toward Lu Yuan.
On the map, several districts of Gelimu Port were marked with red crosses, while the dock area was painted a glaring crimson.
"You think you were the only one fighting for your life tonight?"
Old Morgan pointed at the crimson area.
"A while back, some new faces arrived in Gelimu Port. They call themselves 'deep sea cultists,' and their methods are much more ruthless and secretive than those previous low-lifes."
"This city-wide fish contamination was actually something we intentionally let happen."
Lu Yuan's gaze sharpened: "You were fishing?"
"Yes, fishing," Old Morgan's voice carried a hint of exhaustion.
"If we didn't let them think their plan was succeeding, those rats hiding in the sewers would never have shown their heads."
"Our original plan was to contain the source of contamination and then catch them all in one net."
"But there was a flaw in the plan."
Old Morgan's finger tapped the edge of the map.
"The infiltration capability of those fanatics exceeded our estimates."
"Initially, our intelligence only showed two sources of contamination, but after the operation began tonight, we discovered there were actually two more!"
"We ran out of manpower."
"Hans, Mary, Jack, even my old comrades in the guard were all thrown in just to barely plug the gaps."
At this point, Old Morgan looked at Lu Yuan with a complex expression.
"So, Lu Yuan, you were indeed bait."
"But you weren't fishing for the main force behind the contamination."
"Judging by that letter and the Baron's methods, the ones who targeted you are another group entirely."
Old Morgan lowered his voice, "They are a bunch of lunatics who specifically target 'doctors' and 'high-perception individuals.'"
"Although they probably have some connection to the deep sea, they are definitely not on the same page as the group handling the fish contamination."
"Two groups, two conspiracies, and they just happened to collide on a rainy night."
Old Morgan sighed and patted Lu Yuan's shoulder.
"Welcome to the real Gelimu Port, Lu Yuan. From today on, you've officially stepped into this quagmire."
Lu Yuan looked at the shocking red crosses on the map and then felt the somewhat warm revolver in his pocket.
"A quagmire... Heh."
Lu Yuan pocketed the warm brass key and watched as Old Morgan donned his worn black trench coat again and pushed open a secret door behind the office bookshelf.
"Keep close."
Old Morgan didn't look back as he carried a dim kerosene lamp into the secret passage.
"The Deep Warehouse isn't on this level. Those items absolutely cannot be leaked, so they are buried quite deep."
The two of them followed a narrow, damp spiral stone staircase all the way down.
As they descended deeper, the smell of alcohol and tobacco in the surrounding air gradually vanished.
It was replaced by a stale, musty odor and a faint sense of weight pressing down on the heart.
【Abnormal environment, high concentration of spirituality residue detected...】
Lu Yuan silently calculated the depth.
They had descended at least fifty meters, and dark red glowing moss began to appear on the surrounding rock walls, looking like eyes peering through the darkness.
After a while, Old Morgan finally came to a stop ahead.
The light of the kerosene lamp extended forward, illuminating an ancient and imposing portal at the end.
This was the place where the Nightwatchers buried their secrets deepest—the Deep Warehouse.
Old Morgan stood before the door, gripping the brass key as he spoke:
"You have ten minutes."
Old Morgan turned the key, and the heavy sound of mechanical gears echoed in the dead silence of the underground.
"Remember, do not touch the items inside randomly. Every collection piece has a placard next to it with a brief description of its pros and cons."
"If something catches your eye, you can try to take it, but if you feel the item resisting or if you feel any discomfort, let go immediately and move to the next one."
Old Morgan took a deep breath and pushed the door open, "The transcendent items here all possess a certain level of instinct... Don't provoke them."
Lu Yuan nodded and stepped inside.
Unexpectedly, the so-called "Deep Warehouse" was not dark; instead, it was as bright as day.
Countless pale alchemical lamps illuminated the place with clinical clarity, leaving no shadow.
The space of the warehouse was not large, or rather, there weren't many items inside; there were only a few rows of low black metal shelves with a few dozen items sparsely arranged on them.
Most of them were strangely shaped objects.
As Lu Yuan walked past the first shelf, his gaze was drawn to a transparent glass jar.
The jar was filled with a yellow preservative liquid, and an earthen-colored heart, seemingly carved from rock, was slowly and powerfully beating "thump-thump" inside.
With every beat, a visible ripple vibrated through the surrounding air.
【Subjected to mid-level mutation impact... Sanity check in progress... Check passed.】
Grayish-white text flashed across his vision.
Lu Yuan stopped and looked at the placard next to it.
Name: Unknown Harmless Replaceable Heart
Description: Fusing this heart with your own will significantly enhance physical attributes and reduce one lethal physical weakness.
Side effects: Unknown.
"Side effects unknown?" Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow.
But in his vision, another line of more detailed small gray characters quietly emerged, revealing the true nature of this thing.
【Item Name: crypt lord's petrified heart (half-step transcendent item)】
【Detail: Sourced from the juvenile of a certain abyssal crypt lord. After fusion, the host will gain a certain degree of physical enhancement.】
【Side Effect: Loss of taste. The host will gradually lose interest in human food and instead develop a strong craving to consume minerals and soil, potentially mutating completely into a crypt creature in the end.】
"Eating stones?"
Lu Yuan's mouth twitched slightly as he decisively looked away.
This kind of species-altering enhancement was not within his consideration.
Rate on N.U.
