Chapter 73 - The Institute (14)

He was falling.

The heavy darkness wrapped in cold silence rushed into his nose and mouth like a tide, suffocation squeezed the air in his chest to dregs, the silence drowning his thoughts!

Nowhere to run.

His heart was wrapped in weakness, falling like iron stones on a porcelain plate, and then finally, the last pulsating breath in his body was pulled from him, all sounds and colors slowly drifted away. The endless darkness seemed to bewake him to sleep forever, Eternal silence spread its arms and hugged him, whispering softly in his ear:

"stay..."

Chu Yi opened his eyes, panting quickly but silently, but narrowed his eyes because of the sudden extreme bout of weakness that filled him.

The thin clothes on his back was drenched with sweat, and the cold feeling went straight from his spine to all his the nerves.

It's this dream again ... but it had progressed.

He could still hear the obsessive voice lingering in his ears, a soft heated warmth blowing against his neck, 

Chu Yi slowly straightened up, stiff soreness spread from his neck to his entire body, he blinked dullly, and after adjusting to the feeling of weakness that engulfed him, his eyes refocused.

"Awake? " Tang Shun's voice sounded beside him, and after turning towards him, he noticed the strange look on the man's face, Tang Shun also noticed Chu Yi's slightly dull gaze and helpfully pointed to something on his face.

Chu Yi felt around his head until his fingers hit a slight bump on his forehead. There were two of them and they bulged prominently from his forehead as if there were budding horns underneath trying to tear through the skin. But at this stage, no one else but Tang Shun had noticed, and as long he covered them with his hair, they would not be visible unless they grew bigger.

"We managed to get back, this is indeed our original plane, however when you got in you fainted and I held you back to your bed."

There were only four of them in the room, Jun Bi, the NPC and them, it wasn't known what happned to the rest but they were more than likely dead. Jun Bi seemed to have suffered through a great ordeal and stared numbly at the wall without a word.

He wasn't sure, if everyone had to go through the same process in order to get away but either way, it wouldn't have been anything less sinister.

Chu Yi squinted his eyes slightly, the indomitable strenght from last night seemed to have disappeared with the emergence to his own plane , as well as the beast-like claw that had grown from his hands.

However he could still feel the faint tremors of excitement in his over exhausted body and the occasional flash of bloodlust from a night full of carnage and flesh.

There wasn't much time to process these happening however because soon the doors opened. The stream that trickled out from the wards was evidently much less than the day before and the player to NPC ratio had grown a wide gap. Their faces were also extremely ugly from stress and the gazes they used to stare at the Mu Fang held an extra touch of resentment. 

The faces of the nurses were the complete opposite, the gazes they used to look at the residents had satisfaction and anticipation as if they had just finished a good appetizer and were just waiting for the main course.

With the enthusiasm of watching them die faster, the nurses revealed the next task for the residents, 

"In order to monitor the progressive nature of the residents, the Federation has implemented the use of animal therapy to the rehabilitation of residents of the abandoned planets. In the eve of tomorrow, you will be taken to the animal holdings and tested on your compatibility with the different test subjects. Those who have proven as exemplary participants in this test, will be marked as an key observation target and will be well taken care of."

"You will be divided into three batches to visit three different holding cells and it all depends on pre-determined criteria. However, as warning, I will advise you not to agitate the animals, otherwise the consequences will not be very pretty."

The face of the group that had seen the experimental log fell, this was definitely not good for the players because that meant that whatever experiment the Institute was carrying out had finally started its beginning phase.

But before they could react, they heard a miserable scream from a place in the distance.

Although this building seemed to have been built with a low base and only had seven floors, due to the layout of the building, the environment is open and not soundproofed, and the loud sound is enough to spread through the entire dining room!

This scream was like a signal, a sign of carnival, and one after another screams resounded through the Institute. Then it fell ominously into silence, and then there was no other movement.

The nurses seemed to have been reminded of something and looked pointedly at the group of players that were slightly bunched together at the back,

"Unfortunately last night, a group of residents were dishonest in their dealings and wanted to sneak into the chairmans office and was directly sent to the confinement room to be rectified."

The casualties on this round of hunting, were far more serious than Chao Bin could have imagined, 

The players who had managed to survive regrouped in the dilapidated hall, dim, depressed, and silent, surrounded by unknown fears and dangers. Even though they knew that going out at night would carry risks, they had still severely underestimated the level of danger of this copy.

Many of them had been caught off guard by the sudden shift in time which was most likely a direct result of the change in dimensions. Something none of them had anticipated,

Recalling the terrible and horrifying scenes they had just heard and seen, there were some players that were even paler than the rest, their faces seem to scream of untold horrors and they made some very inexplicable comments, that couldn't be understood by the rest.

'That wasn't a person, that was some kind of monster'

There voices had a shivering sense of fear, they had been subjected to a kind of suppression, that suffocating sense of oppression and control is something that these players can't have no matter how cruel and violent they are. This is due to an insurmountable intelligence, knowledge and strenght.

But when the others asked about this, those specific players seemed to have been choked at the neck and could not explain no matter what, eventually giving away to sullen and despairing faces.

It was like the suppression of a higher being towards a lower life form. They were unable to defy direct orders therefore could only hold it to themselves, much to the chagrin and confusion of the rest.

This directly involved the secret of the instance.

The players gathered and tried to make sense of what was happening, many of the more experienced players had deep gullies between their brows, they could sense that something was wrong but they couldn't pinpoint where exactly this dangerous feeling came from but their vigilance had been heightened to the max.

Mu Fang had saddled up to them at some point in time and had naturally integrated himself into the group as if it was expected, Chao Bin was just short of calling him shameless.

His former lackeys had been directly abandoned and therefore had to to reintegrate into a new group.

Eventually Mu Fang spoke up,

"What do you think about last night? 

"Well-" Tang Shun pushed up his glasses at the question and sent a look Chu Yi's way, who sensitively took the hint and under the focused gaze of the players briefly summarized everything from last night, inexplicably he thought of the flowers on the bedside right before he lost consciousness but strangely enough, when he woke up, it was no where in sight, however under some strange coercion he didn't end up mentioning it.

Tang Shun nodded after listening, his eyes casually drifting to the slender and pale hand that rested on Chu Yi's long legs in a lazy yet elegant way, these were the hands of someone who has never seen hard work.

Therefore the almsot greying section of skin on his little finger was particularly obvious,

Chu Yi also noticed the patch of skin and brought up his hand to observe it more.

He didn't feel any pain and the skin there was almost lifeless as if it was ready to fall off at any moment.

It reminded him of a newborn snake shedding its scales for the first time.

This was foreign to him-

What exactly was he merging with and would it eventually compete for ownership of his body?

Those were questions Chu Yi asked himself but for now he wouldn't be able to figure out the answer.

The others quickly started pooling information and eventually decided to wait until tomorrow to decide on their next course of action.

They were still plagued with the problem of lack of clues. 

No one noticed,

In the dark corner of the dining room, there was a person standing quietly, with his head down, who had maintained the same motionless posture for a long time.

Most players thought he was just in shock and didn't bother him, instead they left a space around him and continued to discuss between themselves, it wasn't suprising for relative newcomers to break down from excessive terror and no one wanted to take on that burden right now,

But the tall player's muscles were tensed all over, his body agitating strangely, and his dark skin was also filled with an ominous and unusual black. With his head hanging down, where no one could see, his eyes were already completely red and chaotic.

He had been completely deprived of his thinking, and his mind was in a mess, but the strange power running through his veins was telling him that right now, he was extremely powerful.

He seems to be omnipotent.

No one can deny him what he wants.

No one can hurt him.

He could control everyone .

He could be God!

There seemed to be a bewildering voice in the mans ear that whispered like a twisted and enchanting spirit, "Now, you are free."

The first incident happened.

The man without any warning lunged at one of the players closest to him and with a savage howl ripped the neck of the player with his bare teeth!

'Ahhhhhhh!

The blood directly spurted from the torn neck of his shocked victim and drenched the crazed figure of the player! He appeared like a terrifying demon from the abyss and had completely forgotten his identity as a human! He had become a beast!

Blood and flesh dripped from the mouth of the crazy player as held up the dying man like a trophy, eyes completely estactic with victory!

The man roared and tried to lunge for another player but this time, the players were much more aware and managed to avoid the barreling man, who slammed into the wall behind him!

But he seemed to feel no pain and completely ignored the shock of the forcefull contact shook his head like a beast and once again lunged to kill! 

This was so unexpected that some of the players were directly knocked off their feets like rolling pins from the force! Scrambling to get away! 

The entire room fell into a confused chaos a the players tried to understand the sudden outbreak. A few of them even directly ran from the hall to avoid the rampage!

Many of them simply shoving each other away in hopes of surviving as they rushed out of the danger zone without care! 

Chu Yi and the rest were close to the man, who seemed to have an inexplicable resentment towards them! Chu Yi himself was directly locked on to by the crazed player and so under the horrified gaze of the others, the man lunged towards Chu Yi, with pieces of bloody flesh still dangling from his sharp teeth -and prepared to take his life!