Chapter 032 Past II

“So, how should we start the investigation now?”

Li Chengyi looked back at the entrance he came in from, which was on the side wall of the parking lot’s top level.

Downwards, layer by layer, it must be the entire cavity of the Grews parking lot.

“So, how does the method to leave the Dead End correspond to the actual site?”

Li Chengyi pondered as he moved forward step by step.

Two silver-white engineering spiders followed him, illuminating the surroundings.

“According to the company’s documents and the think tank’s advice, I need to find the emergency exit for the staff here first. Because the normal entrances and exits are blocked.”

Li Chengyi glanced back at the slope that was supposed to be the entrance.

There was indeed a stone wall standing there, completely sealing it off, with many grey and black stains on the wall that looked like paint splashed on it.

“Let’s find the emergency exit first.” Li Chengyi moved slowly, his gaze involuntarily wandering towards the red door on one side from time to time.

In the Dead End, that place is the inevitable exit for all the face monsters.

It’s just unknown what lies behind that door in reality. Thinking this, he steadied his mind and headed straight for the nearest red maintenance door.

According to the company’s collection of Dead End information, no dangerous situations like the Dead End have ever occurred in reality.

So, it should be safe.

Li Chengyi grabbed the handle of the maintenance door.

Even through his gloves, he seemed to be able to feel the chill and roughness.

Click.

The handle slowly turned.

Whoosh! Suddenly he pulled it open.

The door swung open wide, revealing darkness inside.

An engineering spider slowly crawled from the right side of the wall, illuminating the interior.

A face!

A pale, smiling human face! Suddenly appeared in the white light, facing Li Chengyi.

He stumbled backward, gasping for air, almost falling to the ground.

With the help of the white light, he finally saw clearly.

Inside the door, hanging in mid-air, was a seemingly treated, non-decomposed male head.

He was smiling, his eyes open, staring at the doorway, his hair tied with a rope, hanging the entire head in mid-air.

Whoever opened the door would see him first.

“What the hell is this!!” Li Chengyi’s chest heaved, the moment he saw the face, he was almost ready to don the flower scale armor and act.

“What’s wrong?” The voice of Ding Chongyi came through.

“Nothing, just found a corpse.”

“Move faster.”

“Understood.”

Li Chengyi didn’t close the door, but walked into the maintenance door, avoiding the head.

Inside the narrow space, there were quite a few items stored.

Apart from basic cleaning tools, there were also some bone fragments and torn clothes scattered on the floor.

Other than that, nothing else was found.

Li Chengyi suppressed his disgust, quickly got up, and headed towards the doorway.

Suddenly, his body tingled, his scalp felt like it was electrified, and he instantly lost sensation.

From his angle looking towards the doorway.

He could clearly see that there seemed to be someone standing at the left side of the maintenance room door.

That person was quietly hiding outside the door.

Only, it seemed that they accidentally revealed a hand, which Li Chengyi saw.

“How could there be someone here??” Li Chengyi’s heart raced, his breathing quickened.

Just as he was somewhat stabilizing his emotions, that hand suddenly retracted, disappearing out of sight.

Hiss.. A trace of purple and black flower scale armor silently covered Li Chengyi’s arm.

He moved forward little by little.

Reaching the doorway, he suddenly rushed out.

Puff, after several consecutive steps into the main hall, he stabilized his balance and looked back.

Outside the maintenance room, there was nothing next to the door.

All around for dozens of meters, there were only old and damaged gray walls.

“Not right!” Suddenly, Li Chengyi seemed to have discovered something.

Next to the doorframe where the hand was just located, on the wall, he approached and saw that the wall seemed to be engraved with something.

He made a photo-taking gesture with his hand.

Immediately captured the thing on the wall and sent it to Ding Chongyi.

“What is this?”

“A symbol? It looks like a crawling person? Or a painting?” Ding Chongyi’s voice was intermittent, the signal somewhat poor.

“I’ll continue.” Li Chengyi replied.

He suddenly recalled the pale human hand he saw on the ground, vaguely unable to distinguish between illusion and reality.

He suspected that what he saw was not a hallucination, but very likely a precursor to the Dead End.

According to the records, a very small number of people, when investigating the Dead End, occasionally experience precursors of the Dead End.

This has nothing to do with how much time is left before the next Dead End interval.

“If it really is a precursor, then..”

Li Chengyi was clear that a precursor was not just a precursor, but one could actually get hurt.

It’s equivalent to entering the Dead End space for a very brief moment, not a dream or hallucination.

He had already tested this before.

“Troublesome.”

He kept his arms covered with flower scale armor and quickened his pace, moving in the underground parking lot.

“The exit must be near the ground.”

“It’s likely related to that crevice.”

“According to the pattern, if I were a staff member, there should be an observation hole left on every level, otherwise, it would be impossible to know the situation on the lowest floor. So. An exit or observation hole must be in a location that is inconvenient for ordinary people to access but safe to observe all situations.”

“Then..” Li Chengyi recalled the analysis given by the company’s think tank and quickly locked onto several most likely locations.

He jogged all the way, the crisp sound of footsteps in the underground, silent space, seemed lonely and eerie.

The echo of footsteps echoed continuously, transmitting layer by layer into the deeper parts of the underground.

Soon, Li Chengyi arrived at the location where he had previously found the crevice.

He quickly searched the walls on both sides.

“Found it!” He suddenly felt a surge of joy, discovering a half-person-wide crack! But to his surprise, this crack did not seem to be intentionally excavated, but more like a natural fracture, a natural crack in the wall structure.

He looked left and right, behind him was all darkness, the little spider’s light only illuminated a distance of twenty or thirty meters, the rest was engulfed by darkness again.

Nothing could be seen, nothing could be heard.

After ensuring it was safe, Li Chengyi stood in front of the crack, took a deep breath, and directed a small spider to crawl in from the edge.

The white light immediately illuminated everything inside.

He watched intently, finding the crack was deep, stretching to an invisible end.

“I found that crack, ready to go in and check.” He whispered.

“Hiss hiss.” But besides the hissing of the electric current in AR, there was no response.

Obviously, the signal was too affected here to maintain contact.

Li Chengyi steadied his mask, turned sideways, and squeezed his body little by little into the crevice.

He just barely managed to fit through, following the engineering spider, he continued forward.

After moving about ten meters or so, suddenly.

Li Chengyi’s gaze swept across the wall ahead, which seemed to have letters etched on it.

He directed the little spider to move over, illuminating this section of the wall.

The writing quickly became clear.

It was Yi State script, crooked, not like it was written by an adult, more like it was etched by a child with a small knife.

“Mom said, when in despair, as long as you sing that song in your heart, you will definitely find hope, you will definitely find a way to survive!”

“It’s so noisy outside, they started shouting again. Patients are like that, dad doesn’t shout, he just smiles.”

“Why don’t they call dad for meals?”

“Today’s meat is really delicious. Why didn’t dad come?”

“I haven’t seen dad for a long time.”

Line after line of twisted writing, gradually appeared under Li Chengyi’s touch.

“Mom hasn’t come either, am I the only one left?”

“It started outside again, close your eyes and hum the song, everything will pass.”

“I’ve sung it so many times, why hasn’t mom come yet?”

“Hungry”

The writing ended abruptly here.

Li Chengyi furrowed his brow, continuously touching and searching around, but found no other traces.

Click.

Suddenly, a clear cracking sound came from the main hall outside the crevice.

The engineering spider that was left outside, its white light suddenly flickered.

Then, it went out with a poof.

Now, only the engineering spider beside Li Chengyi remained.

He turned his head, staring intently at the outside of the crevice.

There was only him down here! It was an underground ruin reaching more than two hundred meters deep!

How could there be any other sounds!?

He tensed up, his hands hanging down, pressing against the stone wall, breathing lightly, ready to don the flower scale armor and rush out at any moment.

But just then, his right shoe touched something hard.

Li Chengyi’s heart moved, he slowly lowered his head, looking at it through the AR glasses.

On the ground, a V-shaped metal tag, quickly captured by the glasses, then adjusted and enlarged.

It was a metal tag threaded with a thin wire.

Although it was V-shaped, its pointed end at the bottom had been worn quite round, likely the tool used to etch these writings on the wall.

Li Chengyi kept his gaze on the crevice outside while carefully using his toe to pick up the tag.

Bending over, he hooked it with his hand, gripped it tightly, and brought it to his eyes.

The tag was the size of a walnut, with a silver-black color, decorated with many leaf and vine patterns.

On the back, a small line of writing was engraved.

“Eastwood·Jagir”

A name!?

Li Chengyi’s spirit lifted, this was likely a personal name tag!

He quickly took a photo and uploaded it to Ding Chongyi.

Click.

Suddenly, another faint sound came from outside, possibly the sound of someone’s footsteps.

Li Chengyi’s scalp tingled, once again staring intently at the crevice outside.

After a few seconds of pause, he slowly placed the name tag into his clothes and moved a little towards the crevice outside.

At the same time, his body slowly began to show the translucent flower scale armor.

That was the indication of being fully geared in the armor.

Puff! Suddenly, Li Chengyi’s eyes sharpened, his foot stepped out, and his entire body rushed out of the crevice.

Boom! The wall was fiercely hit by his flower scale armored right arm, leaving a row of small holes.

That was the spike of the flower scale armor’s fist.

But unfortunately, outside the crevice, there was nothing, all quiet.

Li Chengyi stood in place, withdrew his hand, and cautiously scanned the surroundings.

Strangely, the other engineering spider that was just damaged also disappeared without a trace, whereabouts unknown.

“Found it!” Ding Chongyi’s voice suddenly came through. “The name you found, this Eastwood·Jagir! He’s the only survivor who lived through the Grews parking lot incident! He lived to be ninety-eight years old!”

(End of Chapter)