Chapter 50: Strange Noises on the Twenty-First Floor

The silent and deep twentieth-floor corridor was completely deserted. Soon, a flash of light swept past the stairwell, and Qin Chong poked his head out. Taking in the current state of the twentieth floor, he could not help but frown.

This place was originally a laboratory of Wanhai Technology, but at this moment, it looked as though it had been ravaged by a category-ten typhoon. The entire space had suffered unimaginable destruction.

Originally, laboratories lined both sides of the corridor, but now it was a scene of utter devastation. The once-clean walls were now covered in cracks, like the scars of time, silently recounting the cruelty of the disaster.

The laboratory equipment, those instruments that once operated with such precision, now looked as though they had been torn apart by a giant force. Twisted metal and shattered glass were scattered all over the floor.

A heavy silence permeated the air, broken only by the occasional sound of wind echoing through the empty corridor. The chandelier on the ceiling hung precariously, and some fallen fragments gleamed with a cold light in the dimness.

Looking at everything before him, even without witnessing that epic battle firsthand, Qin Chong could roughly imagine its brutality. To reduce an entire floor to such a state—he had to admit, this destructive power was truly astonishing, almost inhuman.

"B-Big Brother, you saw it too, I wasn't lying! Going any further is really dangerous, let's just turn back!"

Liu Shan hid behind Qin Chong, peeking at the ruins of the twentieth floor. Seemingly reminded of the previous battle, his face turned somewhat pale as he continually urged Qin Chong to change his mind and leave this place immediately.

Wang Chunfen and Xiao'an were also peeking from the back, their faces somewhat pale as they kept glancing around, terrified that some monster might suddenly rush out from the darkness.

Originally, Wang Chunfen had wanted to leave Xiao'an downstairs, but the latter stubbornly refused and ended up following them up anyway.

Qin Chong completely ignored Liu Shan's words. He quickly searched through the ruins on the twentieth floor. Although the pentagram badge was likely gone, he still wanted to verify it.

After all, since he had already come this far, doing nothing felt somewhat like a waste.

Ten minutes later, Qin Chong regretfully dropped a hard drive to the ground. Everything here had been thoroughly destroyed, and after searching for half a day, not a single item of value could be found.

"Let's go, to the twenty-first floor!"

Without wasting any more words on the twentieth floor, Qin Chong took the lead and headed toward the stairs. Although Liu Shan kept emphasizing that everything above the eighteenth floor was extremely dangerous, they had walked all the way up from the sixteenth floor without encountering a single thing, as if those floors were entirely empty.

The unlit stairwell was narrow and pitch-black, as though countless monsters were hidden within it. Leading the way with a headlamp turned on, Qin Chong marched upward and soon arrived at the fire door on the twenty-first floor.

Fortunately, the twenty-first floor had not been ravaged like the twentieth. Unfortunately, the fire door was sealed shut.

The fire door here appeared to have been newly installed. A card reader was mounted on the wall, featuring digits from 0 to 9. Qin Chong stepped forward and pulled the fire door, but it did not budge an inch.

Turning his head toward Wang Chunfen, his gaze filled with inquiry, Wang Chunfen hurried forward to explain, "Wanhai Technology developed pharmaceuticals, so security measures were always very strict. Starting from the twentieth floor, every stairwell fire door has a password setting. Furthermore, the passwords for each floor are different, and only the staff assigned to that floor know them..."

At this point, her voice trembled slightly as she looked at Qin Chong. "I—I only know the password for the twenty-fourth floor..."

Qin Chong frowned, looking at Wang Chunfen with an icy tone, "Does that mean you are of no use anymore?"

"No, no!"

Wang Chunfen shook her head frantically, her voice on the verge of tears as she stammered, "We usually traveled between floors by elevator, so I really don't know the passwords to the stairwell fire doors, but I am very familiar with the layout of every single floor!"

Sighing inwardly, Qin Chong was merely trying to scare her. He was no serial killer; why would he slaughter people at random? He just felt that this woman was somewhat dishonest and seemed to be holding back a lot of information.

"Big Brother, since we can't get in, why don't we go back!"

Seeing that the fire door on the twenty-first floor was still intact and impenetrable due to the missing password, Liu Shan felt a wave of relief and quickly renewed his suggestion to retreat.

"Bang!"

Just as Qin Chong was about to speak, a sudden sound echoed from behind the fire door, as though something had dropped to the floor. Although the sound was not loud, it was startling in the profound silence.

Qin Chong quickly approached the fire door, pressed his ear against it, and listened quietly to the sounds within.

"Swish... swish..."

Sure enough, a moment later, the sound of something being dragged across the floor came from behind the fire door.

"Is there a living person inside?"

This thought flashed through Qin Chong's mind, but he immediately dismissed it. The possibility was extremely slim.

"Chattering..."

At that moment, Qin Chong heard a strange sound beside him. He glanced sideways and saw that Liu Shan's teeth were chattering with fright from the noise behind the fire door.

Withdrawing his contemptuous gaze and pondering for a moment, Qin Chong realized that entering this fire door without the password was probably impossible. It seemed he would have to resort to brute force. With that thought, he gave a cold command: "Step back!"

Liu Shan and the others hurriedly retreated to the landing below. Qin Chong picked up his Miao saber. Ever since the apocalypse, his physical strength had been steadily increasing; the Miao saber that once felt perfectly balanced in his hand now felt increasingly light.

However, he had no more suitable weapon at the moment, and since this was still the handiest tool he possessed, he would have to make do.

Without hesitation, Qin Chong drove the Miao saber fiercely into the fire door. The blade was indeed of top-tier quality, forged from superior materials; with a single thrust, it pierced straight through the fire door with a muffled *thud*.

Quickly working the blade, Qin Chong carved a large hole into the fire door, revealing the pitch-black corridor beyond.

Qin Chong shone his flashlight through the opening. Inside was a corridor shrouded in darkness so dense not a shred of light could penetrate it. The beam of the flashlight seemed to be instantly swallowed by the darkness the moment it entered.

From the moment Qin Chong began hacking at the door, the strange noises inside had ceased. Now, as he swept his flashlight around, he could see no anomalies whatsoever.

Yet, Qin Chong did not let down his guard, because a rich stench of blood wafted continually into his nostrils, a grim reminder that this place was far from safe.

"Come up, we're going in!"

Knowing full well that danger lurked inside, Qin Chong did not hesitate. He gave a low call to Liu Shan, Wang Chunfen, and Xiao'an, then ducked through the hole to lead the way into the corridor of the twenty-first floor.

Urged on by Qin Chong, the others soon crawled through one by one. The moment they set foot on the twenty-first floor, Liu Shan, Wang Chunfen, and Xiao'an tensed up, terrified that some monster might be lurking here.

Xiao'an gripped Wang Chunfen's arm nervously, keeping her head lowered as if looking up would instantly reveal something terrifying.

Unlike the others, Qin Chong remained entirely at ease, paying no mind to the oppressive darkness. Seeing that everyone had arrived, he turned off his flashlight and switched on his headlamp. Instantly, a brilliant white beam cut through the gloom, illuminating the space far ahead.

The white walls and floors on both sides of the corridor were coated with dried, blackened blood, viscous and deeply repulsive. Several corpses lay sprawled across the corridor.

For a moment, they all felt as though they had stepped straight into the eighteenth level of hell, terrifying Liu Shan, Wang Chunfen, and Xiao'an so badly that they could barely stand steady.

As the beam of the headlamp swept further down the corridor, Qin Chong caught sight of a figure standing a short distance away, back turned toward them. Dressed in a lab coat of indeterminate gender, the figure swayed slightly, as though about to collapse at any second.