Chapter 238

"Ah? What do you mean?"

Ding Junyi said as she walked: "Throughout history, humanity has suffered through countless epidemic virus disasters, and countless people have died. Although with the development of modern science and virology, we have had many coping methods, the fact is, we have never truly defeated a virus through medical means."

"Then what did we rely on? Did the virus disappear naturally?" Kiki asked, puzzled.

Ding Junyi nodded: "Partly yes, but the vast majority relied on the human body's own immune system evolution. So when I heard you talking about the SIID foundation's organizational tenet, I thought of this. To be honest, since I work in the field of biology, I rationally accept this theory."

"Are you talking about abilities?" Kiki flew to Ding Junyi's side, reached out her finger to touch the little green hair strand on her head, and said: "You also evolved, which is quite right, but I don't agree with their style, and Lin Xian doesn't either. So, in that case, what is their purpose in dropping the marker bait?"

"So this is just a guess; we can't be sure yet."

Kiki heard Ding Junyi's words and suddenly looked at her: "If your position is different from Lin Xian's, what would you do?"

Ding Junyi responded faintly upon hearing this: "I accept a theory only from a scientific standpoint. What my position is doesn't matter. As long as Lin Xian asks me, I will tell him my conclusion based on my principles. As for what he wants to do, I can only say..."

"I will support any decision he makes."

Ding Junyi looked at Kiki: "I am based on principles, you are based on feelings. We still have a difference there."

Kiki's eyes widened upon hearing this, and she explained with some panic in her gaze: "Feelings? Pfft, pfft, pfft, nonsense. He and I have a cooperative relationship, and now everyone is struggling to survive..."

"Wait!"

At this moment, Ding Junyi suddenly stopped walking, her gaze looking ahead.

Kiki's words were interrupted, and she hurriedly turned around. At this time, the two had walked into an unfamiliar research area. Before them appeared an isolation hall with large glass windows, which was already filled with murky lake water, like an aquarium. Some broken cracks were constantly spraying water outward, and the water on the ground had already reached knee-deep.

"What room is this?"

Ding Junyi searched for the area's nameplate and soon saw a console outside the large chamber, which read:

【GX Deep Water Sampling Chamber】

"This is a pressure-relief chamber. Outside this should be a direct path to Shijiu Lake."

Kiki picked up her mobile terminal, flew to the heavy isolation window, looked at the murky lake water inside, and then performed a series of operations.

"Hey, this area is controlled separately by an internal system."

Kiki flew directly to a huge control panel in the distance, connected her mobile terminal, and soon, she had connected to the control program for this chamber.

"Piece of cake..."

Kiki was very proud, and then she opened the drainage program in the sampling chamber.

"It seems the main leak isn't here; it can still drain normally."

Ding Junyi walked under the nameplate at this moment, saw various precautions written on it, and her brows furrowed slightly. She immediately stood up and said to Kiki.

"Be careful, this seems to be a place for some kind of dangerous research. All operations are controlled remotely by the system."

"Ah?"

Kiki flew far away upon hearing this, eyes wide: "It wouldn't be some poisonous or radioactive research, would it?"

Splash!

As the water level inside the chamber slowly dropped, echoes began to sound from within. The murky water body was accompanied by a vortex. At this moment, Kiki and Ding Junyi saw several mechanical crane arms appear at the top, and then a device that looked like a small submersible was connected below the crane arms.

"Oh~ I see." After seeing the scene inside, Kiki finally breathed a sigh of relief: "This must be a submersible used for entering Shijiu Lake for exploration, and then pressure relief is performed here. I thought it was something else."

At this moment, Kiki seemed to see an object in the murky water body rotating with the vortex. She immediately leaned in, wanting to use her ability to grab it and take a closer look.

The black object floated slowly from the murky green water, and the next instant, it suddenly hit the glass in front of Kiki with a thud.

And this black object was actually a female corpse with wide-open eyes and a bloated body!

Kiki's pupils shook, and she instinctively pulled back sharply. Just as the female corpse scraped against the glass and was about to float away with the water current, she suddenly reached out and grabbed it with her ability, exclaiming:

"Sister Ding, I recognize this person!"

At this moment, the female corpse floating in the water was none other than Tan Meng from Room 5 in the death game that Kiki and Lin Xian had seen that afternoon!

"What's wrong?"

"This person is the woman from the game they held that I just told you about. I remember..."

"I remember that at the end of the game, she survived. How could she die here?"

"So the freedom and survival they promised were just a deception?" Ding Junyi said.

"This foundation is truly hateful!"

Kiki said through gritted teeth.

At this moment, the water level in the pressure-relief chamber gradually dropped. As the atmospheric pressure increased, the female corpse that had been soaked for many days began to swell, and flesh constantly flowed out of her mouth and nose, looking quite terrifying. Kiki frowned, let go, and released her. The female corpse fell with the water current until the water in the pressure-relief chamber was completely drained, and the female corpse fell into a corner, quietly undergoing changes.

"There's a submersible with an open hatch over there. I reckon she escaped from there."

Ding Junyi pointed in one direction. Sure enough, on the ground, there was a damaged submersible with its transparent hatch open, sunk to the bottom of the water.

"So this submersible was for carrying people?"

Kiki raised her hand to drag the submersible over. At this moment, the two saw that under the central glass hatch of the submersible, there was a cylindrical, narrow space that looked like it could accommodate one person.

Ding Junyi walked into the water below from the steps and came to Kiki's side.

"Kiki, put this thing down and let me see."

Kiki nodded. She and the submersible landed on the ground together, and the two observed it through the glass window.

Ding Junyi adjusted her glasses and said with a calm expression:

"This is indeed an unmanned submersible. The space inside is not for people to pilot, but for carrying people."

"Look." As she spoke, she pointed to the inside of the submersible: "There is no control panel inside; the person inside is completely sealed."

!

Kiki leaned in to take a look and only then discovered that the metal inner wall of the submersible had many traces of bloody fingernail scratches.

"Just knowing this project, what are they doing putting people inside?"

Kiki's expression darkened, and she said: "That's simple."

"Sister Ding, be careful." After finishing, she directly used her ability to grab Ding Junyi and moved her to a distance. Then, she exerted force on the unmanned submersible, directly shattering the high-strength glass of the pressure-relief chamber and taking the submersible out.

She then grabbed it in front of her, found the position of the control panel on it, removed the outer metal shell, and connected her mobile terminal.

"The storage systems of these unmanned devices will have mission logs. I don't believe they would have cleaned this up too."

Sure enough, as she had thought, the mission logs inside were soon exported.

At this moment, Kiki moved Ding Junyi, whom she had been holding in the air, over, and at the same time said very puzzledly: "This... what kind of strange missions are these?"

Ding Junyi was a bit unaccustomed to the feeling of flying in the air. After adapting slightly, she felt it was quite exciting.

She leaned in to take a look and also frowned:

"It looks like the path into Shijiu Lake is the same: 900 meters underwater, 30 minutes, return."

"What does this mean?" Kiki was confused: "Put a person in the lake for a swim and then come back?"

Ding Junyi adjusted her glasses: "I am more concerned about the mission time."

She said, pointing to the log time on the mobile terminal screen: "Look, not only is every mission time 30 minutes, but they are all 30 minutes before dawn!"

"Hey, that's right."

Kiki said: "According to this mission setting, it's just dawn when they return?"

"Let's check the others too." Ding Junyi's eyes flickered, as if she had thought of something, and she immediately said to Kiki.

Kiki was puzzled but acted immediately.

Before long, the other submersibles had all been checked. The mission logs inside were almost identical; the only difference was that there were no scratch marks in those submersibles.

"Sister Ding, did you discover something?"

Ding Junyi pondered slightly, then looked at Kiki and said: "Don't you think this is fishing?"

"Fishing?"

"Yes."

Ding Junyi began to look at this research area with a scrutinizing gaze: "Sending a living target into Shijiu Lake and returning in a short time, isn't that just like fishing for bait?"

Kiki's expression turned ugly upon hearing this: "What? Could it be that they are using people to fish for eerie entities?"

Ding Junyi shook her head: "I don't think so. If they wanted to fish for eerie entities, they wouldn't need to use this method at all."

"Then what are they fishing for?"

Ding Junyi said with a serious expression: "Unmanned, living, fixed to return before dark. If they encountered something in the deep water, what would be the use of this person coming back?"

Kiki's eyes slowly widened upon hearing this, and she couldn't help but open her small mouth and say:

"【Dark Marker】!"

"Not only that," Ding Junyi said: "Controlling them to return before dawn should be because the institute is worried about recovery failure, or that it would cause some kind of huge risk to the institute, so they must return before dawn. If you look at it this way, then the underwater location set for the submersible must have some kind of terrifying existence!"

(End of chapter)