When Lu Ning returned to the entrance of the passage, everyone had disappeared. Yan Rong and Zhu Qinyuan were still standing there. Seeing that Lu Ning was back, Yan Rong asked. Before Lu Ning could answer, the king's figure appeared again on the other side of the door.
This time is different from before. Although the previous king's dress looked impressive at first glance, at least there were no obvious royal accessories except the crown. This time, the king, who was obviously much more mature, was wearing a blue velvet cloak, with royal patterns drawn in various colors of gold embroidered on the corners of the cloak, and there were also many golden badges on the lining of the king's clothing.
The king walked to the door hidden in the wall, waved his hand to open the door, took a badge from his chest, and walked in solemnly. Lu Ning and the others immediately followed.
[In the end, I still followed what I thought was the right way and stopped at about 80% of the project progress. In several subsequent psychological tests, most of the researchers here showed an overwhelming mental state - although Vera had already explained everything to them, the long-term mental torture still consumed most of their energy. will. If the cost of solving the time disaster happening in our country is sacrificing these esteemed researchers, then I would rather spend more time looking for other solutions. 】
Following the king, the three walked into Vera's office. Compared with other places, this place is full of life. Vera seems to like plants very much. There are even two flower stands in her house with various flowers and plants on them. Some handmade models donated by employees were placed in a small display case, with the name of the giver recorded on the side instead of the number.
There are no research records or anything like that here. It seems that Vera should have taken all of them with her when she left.
The king stared at the large and comfortable chair in the room for a long time, and then carefully and preciously placed the badge in his hand on the table.
[I brought Vera and all her researchers back to the royal capital. I announced her achievements to people. Most of the time, the disaster has been eliminated. Everyone has received corresponding rewards, money, titles... It's ironic that these are the only rewards I can actually give to people who have made such contributions to the country. I can only guarantee that they will not fall into the painful life and death again in the future.
...but I must be wrong.
When I received the news that Vera committed suicide in her mansion, I didn't feel any surprise in my heart, as if I had expected such a day. It’s not that I’m not sad. As a friend, as a subordinate, and as a researcher, Vera is perfect. But apart from sadness, I am also afraid - when people praise the king's heroic name, I know that those who have truly made contributions and devoted their all to this country are slowly leaving. 】
The king turned around, and at this time his figure had turned into a dark shadow, with only a blood-red gap opening at his mouth.
"This is the king."
It was not the voice of the young king, nor the voice of Vera that Lu Ning heard, but many muddy voices mixed with men, women, old and young at the same time. Lu Ning took a step back, Yan Rong immediately blocked the front with his spear, and Zhu Qinyuan also clasped his hand on the handle of the knife.
"Look, if it hadn't been for him, this place would have been just a research institute where people happily studied the things they liked. Vera and everyone else would have lived a peaceful life."
The shadow took a step forward, his smile becoming more and more malicious.
"But the king destroyed everything. He used the kindness and intelligence of Vera and the researchers here to dump the filthy garbage in. The place exudes the stench of corpses every day. I remember, in the beginning, Vera every day They are all crying, she was such a good person, but her temper is getting worse and worse!"
"This thing should be some kind of earthbound spirit attached to the research institute." Zhu Qinyuan whispered, "I don't know if it is treasure."
"This place has become a dangerous place occupied by the evil spirit of time! You should not have come at all! You will all die here!"
The black shadow suddenly screamed, and blood began to seep out of the surrounding walls. Lu Ning felt his head was shaken, and his vision blurred for a while. When he came back to his senses, he was already in a red room, with countless pieces of meat crawling on the ground. They are all humans who have lost some part, or in other words, researchers here.
"We were given numbers..."
"The first set of letters represents our former name."
"The second set of numbers represents the department we are a part of."
"The third set of numbers is the number of times we died!"
A body with only the lower half of its face and the left side of its body standing suddenly stood up, reaching out to grab the identity tag on its chest - [D·K·S-4-1563].
Lu Ning took a step back and looked around, but couldn't find Yan Rong or Zhu Qinyuan. She cursed secretly, feeling this kind of isolation again.
At this moment, her ankles tightened, and when she lowered her head, she saw that some pieces of meat were starting to crawl over from behind, and they stretched out their shapeless hands to grab her. She instantly pulled out the long knife and cut off the hand. The flying fragments quickly cut off all the parts of the ankle, then turned and rushed towards the entrance.
"Suddenly yesterday."
Like a distorted image, all flesh and blood had been pulled out of action. The overlapping shadows in a single frame could no longer hinder Lu Ning's progress. She easily bypassed the bodies of the dead and reached the door.
"Do you really think... you can escape?"
Lu Ning looked up when she heard the sound. The dark shadow was sticking to the ceiling, grinning red and laughing at her.
"No one can escape from time. This is our destiny. It is precisely because Vera touched the taboo of time that misfortune befell her. You have already been entangled in the chains of time, and you cannot escape at all..."
"Even time will only appear in fragments in the separation of 'sudden yesterday'. You can actually chase me here... You are indeed just a phenomenon caused by the treasure." Lu Ning laughed instead. , "This makes me feel relieved. Although I still don't understand your attack method, our strength is still about the same."
"Oh...you can think whatever you like." The black shadow fell from the ceiling and stood on the ground again. "You can't leave here. Only those who have obtained permission can enter and exit that door."
Behind the black shadow, countless flesh and blood are swarming in. In the fragment of time, their efforts were just in vain, but Lu Ning also knew that he could not maintain this state forever.
A little tricky...
If there were any parts of the past here that could be edited, it would be fine, but the area shown by the treasure was full of flesh and blood, and it couldn't be changed no matter how hard she tried. After thinking for a moment, she quickly gave up and stretched out her hand on the door. He knocked on it and then snapped his fingers.
"Yesterday" is over, time returns to the present, the flesh and blood people rush towards Lu Ning crazily, but Lu Ning disappears in an instant, flames spurt out from the door, and in an instant, the pieces of meat at the front are roasted into charcoal. The black shadow turned in a circle, seemingly not understanding where Lu Ning had gone.
"Ah... it will be clearer if you observe it from the outside."
Red light shone down from above, and Lu Ning's eyes looked down from above: "The black shadow and the flesh and blood are independent entities, but even if I put the whole house in, there will still be the same room outside. It looks like Merely locking you up won’t solve you.”
She closed the lid of the lock box again. This space was not real in the first place. Even after closing it, the place she was in remained unchanged. There was still a dark figure in front of her that was laughing strangely, and the corners on the ground were still showing signs of laughter. Out of disabled people.
Just when she was about to think about the next step, the black shadow suddenly let out a scream, and then the entire space exploded. Even the box in her hand was exploded. Lu Ning only had time to activate the light body in a hurry. After removing all the strength around him, he still fell unsteadily and fell to the ground.
"Hey!"
In the blink of an eye, the flesh and blood on the wall had faded a lot. Lu Ning saw Yan Rong and Zhu Qinyuan again. They were still in the previous room of the Liaison Department, but they had a lot of dirty clothes hanging on them. There were blood clots, and there was even a big one on Yan Rong's spear. She was the one who just shouted.
"Ahem..."
Zhu Qinyuan coughed twice. She looked much worse than Lu Ning and Yan Rong. She had many more wounds on her body and face, and blood was still flowing out. She was holding the knife in her left hand and clutching a large gooey blood clot in her right hand. Lu Ning hasn't tried to solve the problem yet, and Yan Rong is obviously having a hard time fighting. It seems that Zhu Qinyuan's credit for the three of them getting out of the state they were in just now.
"Are you okay?" Yan Rong shook off the tip of the gun and approached Zhu Qinyuan. Zhu Qinyuan shook his head, put away the knife and scratched his throat with his hand, and then said in a hoarse voice: "It seems like this thing is responsible."
She shook off the pile of blood clots on her hand and pulled out a square card. The outer plastic seal is still intact. It is an identity card, an identity card that does not exist in memory: [V-0-0].
"How did you find it?"
"Nothing, I just thought it might be difficult to get out anyway, so I just grabbed the royal badge first to see if it was a mission requirement. The pile of meat was really disgusting, but I finally got it." Zhu Qinyuan His expression was slightly satisfied, but then turned disgusting, "How come these things can still exist even after the illusion has disappeared?"
"After all, it is something that really existed, and this is a research institute of time. There must be some key to it. Look at the back of the identity card. It stands to reason that all treasures should have names." Lu Ning said.
Zhu Qinyuan wiped off the dirt on the identity card, and sure enough, he saw a line of carefully engraved text on the green material at the back.
[The world is clear--I should probably leave it to you. I thought I had prevented your death, but it was still my stupidity. Now that I think about it, the only solution is that I never visited you. 】
"Ahem, this king...has really done a lot of strange things." Zhu Qinyuan pinned the identity tag to his chest.
"Do you think it's just a strange thing?" Yan Rong asked.
"At least what he did was to find a solution to the country's problems, right? From what we know, when the king took over the country, it was filled with internal and external troubles, cannibalism, famine, time disasters, just... These two sound quite fatal." Zhu Qinyuan sighed, "As for Vera, it's because of his uneasy conscience. A more hard-hearted person would probably think that the pain of a person from the research institute should be exchanged for the refugees who would suffer a disaster 80% of the time. Being rescued is a great achievement."
"If we want to bury the king in the future, this information may be useful." Lu Ning nodded, "Now that we have obtained this treasure, let's go and ask them to come back."
"There has been no movement for such a long time. Maybe something happened to them." Yan Rong said casually.
So the three of them went down and looked on two floors, but couldn't find Rang, Lian Bisheng and Yuan Jie.
"Did we enter that illusion for too long?" Zhu Qinyuan asked doubtfully.
"No, I think I got it right." Yan Rong covered his face.
Lu Ning was also a little helpless. What she could use time to trace back must be the scenes she had witnessed. For someone like this who had no idea what was going on downstairs, even tracing back would be a blur.
"It seems like we can only trust their abilities now. How about we go to Vera's office first and recover the royal badge?" Lu Ning asked.
"How to get in?" Yan Rong didn't respond.
Zhu Qinyuan tapped the identity tag on his chest. V-0-0 can only be Vera's identity card.
As expected, Zhu Qinyuan walked to the wall and the front door opened automatically. The three of them walked in. The furnishings here were exactly the same as in the previous illusion before the king turned into a black shadow. Time kept everything in its original state. The badge is still shining brightly.
Zhu Qinyuan picked up the badge and Lu Ning closed her eyes. The information about the mission comes to mind, and the mission to collect the royal emblem has increased by one count.
"That's right." Lu Ning said as she opened her eyes.
"I didn't expect to get the royal badge so easily." Zhu Qinyuan put the badge away.
"It won't be that easy. This thing was probably given by the king to those who have made significant contributions to the country. It doesn't exist much in the world. The king only gave one to Vera after his death for such great achievements. Although we I don’t know if she got it when she was alive...but we are not so lucky to be able to enter the ruins of such a character every time." Lu Ning is not so optimistic.
"Then just take it one step at a time." Zhu Qinyuan shrugged. Obtaining the treasure obviously made her feel good.
Lu Ning did not deny it. After all, the task of royal emblem is optional. According to the main plot, the end should be to go to the inner city of the royal capital. The probability of collecting the emblem in the inner city should be higher. It is already very lucky to have such a chance now. Not bad.
Vera's own private office was also connected to the place where she lived. The three of them discussed it and then rushed into the bathroom together. After all, there is no change of clothes in this scene.
