Chapter 420: Absolute Kill? Double Kill?

He gives warmth to the freezing, guidance to the lost, hope to the despairing; he is a guiding beacon for travelers in the darkness, the one who helps them newly weave hope… a cult leader.

Isn't that a hundred times better than some laboratory mentor?

The man gazed deeply at the female assistant, let out a light sigh, his tone carrying a trace of helplessness and pity:

"Following rules is a good thing; it shows you're a responsible person. But you can't throw your life away."

He paused for a moment, his voice low and lingering:

"The premise of following rules is being alive. Because once you're dead, you're really dead."

The female assistant stared blankly at the man, her lips parting several times but no sound coming out, only able to murmur in repetition:

"Dead… is really dead……"

The man leaned forward slightly, his voice light as a whisper yet each word striking her heart:

"Wise up a little. When you run into people who tell you to go die, you'd best stay far away. Those are all bad people. You're a good girl; you need to associate more with good people to live long."

The female assistant felt as if enlightened by a sudden revelation, having walked a round through the Ghost Gate; her spirit seemed to have undergone a thorough cleansing, becoming clear and transparent.

She looked at the man before her, tears faintly welling at the corners of her eyes, a surge of indescribable gratitude and warmth rising in her heart.

Where are the good people?

Far off at the horizon, close right before your eyes.

She took a long breath, wiped away the tear tracks at the corners of her eyes, and bowed deeply and heavily to the man before her:

"Thank you for the grace of saving my life; you are a good person the likes of which I've never met. My name is Zhao Jingyi."

The man fell silent for a long while; his slender fingers slowly rose to lightly adjust his gold-rimmed glasses, his voice seeming to contain endless vicissitudes and stories:

"You're wrong again, Jingyi. I'm not the good person you imagine; I'm a man burdened with sins, a rootless drifter with no home, a lonely wandering ghost……"

His tone was low and drawn out, each word seemingly bearing the weight and bitterness of the past.

He originally didn't want to reveal his true face, but under Zhao Jingyi's gaze full of hope, he ultimately couldn't help but sigh helplessly and disclose his name in a low voice:

"You can call me… Zheng Hang."

Hearing this name, Zhao Jingyi's brows furrowed slightly; she faintly felt a sense of familiarity in her heart, as if she'd heard it somewhere before, yet it was too blurry to grasp a specific memory.

However, when Zheng Hang called himself a sinner, the last trace of doubt in Zhao Jingyi's heart instead vanished like smoke.

What bad person would admit they're a bad person?

Zhao Jingyi felt ashamed of her own suspicion; she said quite excitedly:

"No, Zheng Hang, you absolutely are a good person!"

The corner of Zheng Hang's mouth hooked into a bitter smile, complex emotions flickering in his eyes, as if a thousand words had all turned into this one light sigh:

"Ah— good person? Yeah, I've always wanted to be a good person, not like now, hiding in the sewers, keeping company with rats……"

"But unfortunately, I can never go back, ah……"

Zhao Jingyi pricked up her ears, sensing a faint sorrow from Zheng Hang's expression and tone.

That sorrow wasn't intense, yet it was as if time had worn down its edges, leaving only numb embers.

She was very familiar with this feeling—she too often recalled, in the dead of night, the day she first entered the laboratory, fantasizing about escaping far away from there.

But reality was, she also had nowhere left to run.

Zheng Hang noticed the subtle change in Zhao Jingyi's expression, detecting a flash of resonance in her eyes.

He forced a smile, attempting to change the subject:

"What about you? Judging by your attire, you should be someone who stays in a hospital or laboratory, right? How did you end up running into this sewer? And what was that about you shouting 'Senior Sister' at the rats just now?"

Zheng Hang asked a lot in one breath; they were actually quite sensitive questions, but his conversational setup was excellent, and the emotional buildup was perfectly timed.

Zhao Jingyi didn't suspect a thing; of course, Zhao Jingyi actually wanted to know Zheng Hang's story more.

But that pained expression on his face made her unable to bear touching his scars.

Seeing Zhao Jingyi remain silent, Zheng Hang didn't press either, merely his face turning a touch colder, his tone still gentle and understanding:

"Can't say any of it? I understand, it's your mentor's rules again, right? No matter, I'll send you out first.

It's too dangerous in the sewer; if the rat swarm happens to circle back later, it'll be bad."

The words "mentor's rules" were like a precise scalpel, accurately stabbing the most taboo scar in Zhao Jingyi's heart.

This callback is absolutely a finishing move.

Coupled with Zheng Hang's heartwarming words for her safety, it's simply a double kill.

How could Zhao Jingyi parry against that?

She rubbed her eyes hard, her heart turning ruthless, as if wanting to cast off all those rules that shackled her.

"It's not that I can't say; it's just that I don't know where to start……"

She gritted her teeth, completely opening her heart to this good person before her who had saved her, and spoke like this:

"Mm, right, Zheng Hang, did you see a group of scale-armored, three-meter-tall humanoid monsters in the sewer? They're chasing a female student, and those monsters are my Senior Sisters!"

Zheng Hang's face revealed clear shock, blurting out:

"These past few days, I did indeed catch distant glimpses of a few monsters in the sewer; one was even wearing clothes… But you say they're your Senior Sisters? What does that mean?"

His expression gradually grew heavy, his tone carrying a hint of interrogation:

"Zhao Jingyi, just who are you?"

Seeing her lifesaver's face show shock, Zhao Jingyi's heart inexplicably gave birth to an indescribable sense of satisfaction.

She held too many secrets in her heart, like heavy shackles pressing her until she could barely breathe.

At this moment, she finally found someone she could trust; once the floodgates opened, they could no longer be closed.

Without Zheng Hang guiding or pumping her for information, Zhao Jingyi poured out everything like beans from a bamboo tube, spilling it all completely.

She began to narrate, her voice low and urgent, as if wanting to dump all her long-pent-up secrets in one go.

She narrated the mentor's plan—that utterly inhumane, mad plan; she narrated how the plan went awry, the Senior Sisters appearing ahead of schedule, evolving into an uncontrollable disaster.

She recounted the Mentor's pathological pursuit of perfection, and how the Senior Sisters were transformed step by step into unrecognizable monsters.

She also spoke of how overjoyed she had been when she first received the Laboratory's offer, as if she had seized hold of hope in life.

And afterward, she passed through layer after layer of assessment and was ultimately selected to enter the Laboratory; at that time she was full of anticipation, believing she was about to set foot on a bright road.

However, when she finally glimpsed the terrifying truth hidden within the Laboratory, and the secret concealed behind it, her world collapsed completely.

Zhao Jingyi narrated how she had walked step by step to her present plight, sinking deeper and deeper, unable to extricate herself, with no way back, as though falling into an endless abyss.

Her tone carried a despairing calm; she did not even shed a few tears, as if she had already accepted fate's ruthless manipulation of her.

Zheng Hang was a perfect listener — he did not interrupt or interject the entire time, only listening quietly with great patience.

Only at the very end, when the timeline gathered from distant memory back to this moment, did he ask faintly:

"So then, you still haven't told me, what is the Laboratory you joined called, and who is the Mentor you speak of?"

(End of Chapter)