Chapter 82 - The Institute (23)

Softly exhaling a heated white mist, he tilted his head back lazily to the ceiling, the dim lights above him felt glaring, his eyes wandering hazily in aftershock- he shuddered, trancelike and dazed and yet he still laughed, 

He loved this feeling.

Slowly, he stood straight, sweat dripping down the lines of his face, gleaming wet trails traveling down his neck and pooling at the deep concave of his collarbone. He could taste a faint metallic scent in mouth, a sharp tingling numbness shocking his nerves as his tongue swept across his lips,

His teeth had pierced bloody holes into his mouth, the swollen red and chapped lips made him look ravaged-

"Chu Yi?"

He squinted his eyes slightly, raised his palms to be level with his vision, and looked at his hands carefully.

The red lines were faintly visible, spreading like a mural extending from his wrist to the sleeve, he could still see it shimmering softly, like transparent glass reflecting in the sun-

"Chu Yi!"

He touched them. It doesn't hurt.

Chu Yi frowned and looked at his wrist thoughtfully.

The pain he experiences repeatedly must be related to the Institute and the lines that gradually emerge from him must also be related to the gradually progressing Code #50001 experiment,

So... what happens when the changes fully merge-

'Bam!-'

Chu Yi's raised his head- 

Standing at the entrance of the door, was Tang Shun, brows furrowed into deep crevices, and a heavy look marring his otherwise gentle face,

He frowned, not far away, Chu Yi was standing in front of the sink, his right hand hanging under the faucet.

"Why didn't you answer?"

The flowing cold water washed away the faint scarlet blood on his palm and entangled it into the drain, as it dissipated in a red stream.

His black hair was hanging down from the sides of his face, and strands of long silk, were wetly attached to his chin, 

The residual steam in the swamped room made his normally unconcerned eyes look bottomless, 

"Are you injured?" Tang Shun went straight in.

Chu Yi didn't speak, his swollen lips tightened, and after squeezing the faucet shut, he pulled out a piece of tissue and slowly wiped the water from his fingers,

He turned to Tang Shun-

Without a word he approached him step by step, 

In an instant, the sharp and beautiful face was swallowed by a bloodthirsty, fierce light, the pressed eyebrows were cold and sharp, the corner of his eyes shining with a beautiful and sinful fire. A kind of pure, primitive- animalistic haze, shredded the previous bewilderment, like a waking beast suddenly showing its deadly fangs! 

The man's face kept getting closer and Tang Shun couldn't ignore the feeling of his heartbeat pounding in his chest- 

Because of the previous lack of oxygen, the corner of Chu Yi's narrow and long eyes were stained with a touch of red, his face resembling a deadly and sinful ghost in the bathroom that was filled with his own bitter green scent ,

Chu Yi pressed a hand to Tang Shun's chest, a slow and meaningful smile forming on his lips,

A pair of beast pupils, as shallow as molten magma, gleamed with a weird excitement in the dimness of the bathroom. His eyes had long been accustomed to the normal state of seldom light in the windowless Institute, even in the placed tightly locked away from the outside world, it still seemed to him like daylight.

Tang Shun's skin was cold.

Chu Yi, himself was very sensitive to temperature.

Whether it's the ground that they trample on below their feet, the doors of the dingy wards, or even the walls rubbed by stumbling hands, the lingering warmth of human flesh and blood will always be temporarily retained, and the mild breath will radiate outwards for a short period of time. Everything on this world will be stained with the vitality of human life. But at this moment, the hand on Tang Shun's chest felt icy, with a kind of rigidity like the dead.

Flexible and rough, the temperature was much lower than that of human skin, almost like....a snake. 

Tang Shun lowered his head and gazed at the hand against his chest, the bright red blood winding like a capricious red string down Chu Yi's wrist- his heart thumped; his skin, as cold as a cold-blooded animal felt as if it was burned with fire wherever he touched,

Tick.

Chu Yi's eyes gradually darkened, and deep and hot flames seemed to be beating in the depths of his red eyes, an almost terrifying aggression was brewing in the bottom of his heart.

They were very close.

Almost to the point where their breaths entangled,

The warm and the cold air collided, a burning flame met a cold winter!

Just when the tips of their noses were about to meet, Chu Yi finally spoke,

His red lips opened slightly and the voice that came out although hoarse, showed extreme arrogance and certainty,

"Don't you think this farce has gone on for too long."

Tang Shun's pupils, who watched him, shrunk into thin slits, he was not injured, but he still felt as something had slammed into his heart!

"..."

"What are you guys doing?"

Chao Bin shattered the ambiguous atmosphere with a confused yell, Chu Yi chuckled, stepped to the side and brushed past a motionless Tang Shun. In the back of his mind, he seemed to smell the overpowering scent of seaweed that still stained his body intensify as if something in the void was trying to remind him of something,

His eyes gleamed with a smile, and he ignored it, 

Why stop now, the fun has just begun.

******

"Red represents the stages of transformation."

Chu Yi dropped a bomb on them as soon as everyone was settled, Tang Shun didn't look surprised,

Chao Bin's face wrinkled immediately and he thought of the previous outbreak during his fight with the fish monsters, Chu Yi's transformation had been seen the earliest of all them and Tang Shun- he turned towards him,

Tang Shun also noticed his gaze and gestured to himself, "I haven't had any obvious transformations but my body temperature has dropped to dangerous levels without any signs of hyperthermia."

"All those who have been stamped with red, are more compatible with the anti-bodies that were injected into our bloodstream. Those stamped with other colors have mid- to low levels of acceptance to the unknown substance."

Chao Bin's pursed his lips together, "So does that mean we're at a disadvantage..."

Tang Shun shook his head, "Not quite. We are considered at an disadvantage because we don't know what is being done to us. Whether we're being cloned, having our DNA reconstructed or having our bodies completely destroyed from within. But the others with lower compatibility are also at the risk of being discarded like the failed experiments that we saw today as well as having their organs collapse at any moment. The playing field is leveled because both groups are at the risk of dying at every moment."

"The system won't let one group have an unilateral advantage over the other at any given time."

"But all the players have one thing in common right now, we need to find the common source of all this." "We need to find the research lab where all the drugs and tests are carried out to not only figure out what exactly is being done to us and also a way to either to stop it or slow it down long enough for us to complete our tasks."

Chao Bin nodded at Tang Shun's statement, this was most definitely a priority.

Then suddenly a thought crossed his mind and hesitantly opened his mouth, "I don't seem to see any doctors here."

Simultaneously Tang Shun's and Chu Yi's eyes turned to look at him, their sudden intense stare directly catching Chao Bin off-guard.

Tang Shun directly frowned,

Chao Bin was right.

This was a conundrum, why would the Institute only have nurses and not doctors or researchers who are directly involved in the actual experimentation. "

However although contradictiory, this revelation was actually good, 

"This is at the very least a breakthrough, instead of searching blindly for clues, now we have a proper direction to look in. We need to find the doctors."

"But where?"

Chu Yi squinted his eyes slightly and seemed to remember something, "Do you remember the screams that came from the confinement room after the night we ventured into the 4th dimension?"

Tang Shun immediately caught on, "The Chairman's Office ?"

"This is the only place that has been directly listed as taboo by the nurses. Unless it's a fake, more than likely, important information will always be stored there."

Chao Bin interrupted the two, "Although I'm all for taking risks, considering how miserable the other players sounded when they were caught, it's also very dangerous and heavily guarded by the nurses."

Chu Yi didn't seem worried, "The risk is lowered exponentially during the day, it's only in the night do we face the risk of monsters and isolated dimension walls. The unknown is much more terrifying when we can't see it."

Eventually they all agreed to explore the Chairman's Office, but for now they would rest.

Before the rooms were officially closed off for the night, Chu Yi turned faintly to Tang Shun and whispered in a voice that Chao Bin couldn't hear,

"There is also something else I'm interested in."

"The confinement rooms."

******

There was a knock on the door of their room, a day had passed with no substantial changes in the situation and the players had slowly relaxed their vigilance and prepared to once again explore the secrets of the Institute,

Mu Fang appeared at the entrance unsurprisingly and after enthusiastically greeting the occupants, he proceeded to tell them his real purpose, "Some of the remaining players decided to have a covert meeting and figure out a course of action that will benefit all of us. Are you coming?"

He had a feeling that Mu Fang was once again the ring leader, 

Chao Bin looked back at the both Chu Yi and Tang Shun who didn't seem to care about the conversation happening at the door and turned back to Mu Fang with a cold smirk, " Why come to us, I don't seem to have seen your previous group in quite a while. What do you think happened to them..aren't you worried."

The smile on Mu Fang's face instantly dropped and Chao Bin immediately felt a sharp killing intent come barreling towards him! Although he quickly regained his composure, that split second of slip-up was enough for Chao Bin to blacklist him, with a frown he moved to slam the door shut-

With how fractured the player group were right now, he didn't feel like any further discussion would necessarily benefit them, instead they would probably just be adding to the chaos,

"Wait!"

He wasn't able to shut the door fully before Mu Fang suddenly shoved his hand in the open crack and forced him to stop, unless he wanted to break his arm, "Let me cut this short, we have been separated into two many groups, and amongst those groups there is still a divide of interest. Unless you want to be excluded from everything and eventually have to come crawling back for help when you realize how naive you were. It's the typical mistake for rookies and I'd suggest at least one of you go as a representative, then we can share clues and props as a collective."

This was obviously a threat, a typical carrot and stick maneuver, a spin-off his previous attempt to control the power order that had mysteriously fallen through,

It was only then did Tang Shun and Chu Yi end their private discussion and without even looking at Mu Fang, they both stepped past the threshold, Chu Yi turned left, according to the previous agreement and Tang Shun hooked the shoulders of Chao Bin, dragged him out of the room and turned right.

Only Mu Fang was left standing by the door like a fool, face distorted in an ugly grimace unable to keep up the generous leader persona he had carved for himself.

Then suddenly he sneered at their leaving backs, and thought viciously,

Why bother, soon enough they'll be kneeling at my feet!