Chapter 80: Stephen |
They were indeed soldiers. Wearing matching tactical masks and standardized military uniforms, their attire clearly marked them as private corporate enforcers. They were likely the private army of the multinational corporation mentioned in the Script's briefing—Murkoff.
Massive pools of blood splattered across the floor. The corpses were a gruesome sight; some had their bodies unnaturally contorted, while others had their heads completely crushed.
No human could have inflicted such carnage. The soldiers' firearms had been snapped in half, broken by some immense, overwhelming force. Brass casings and bullets littered the ground around them.
'Did the bullets lose their kinetic energy and drop right next to them the moment they were fired?' Bai Mu sharply realized.
The fact that the casings and the unspent bullets fell together could only mean one thing: when they opened fire, it was as if an invisible net had blocked their muzzles. That was the only plausible explanation.
It was a supernatural force. The soldiers had fired at an unknown entity, only for an invisible hand to snap their weapons. Perhaps they had even been levitated into the air, their bodies violently twisted and their skulls crushed by immense pressure.
Judging by the freshness of the blood, this massacre had occurred quite recently—two hours ago at most.
"This should count as evidence," he murmured.
Bai Mu raised his Camcorder and began recording the grisly scene on the first floor.
[You have recorded evidence: Unknown soldier corpses.]
A new entry appeared under his optional quests. He had successfully gathered his first piece of evidence.
"Now that I look at it, this place was originally a preaching pulpit, wasn't it?" Bai Mu observed the furnishings around the wooden benches, noting the silver candlesticks and cruciform objects.
Under normal circumstances, the patients would likely gather here, sitting on the wooden benches while whoever stood at the pulpit preached and brainwashed them.
This confirmed that Bai Mu's hypothesis was correct. There had to be a priest, a nun, or a similar religious figure holding a position of absolute authority within the asylum. Otherwise, it would be impossible to organize such large-scale gatherings.
"Still, it feels like that unknown supernatural entity isn't completely invincible," Bai Mu muttered, glancing at the soldier's corpse nearest to him.
There was a clear pattern to the soldiers' deaths. They had all been killed by physical attacks, dying from sheer external impact—as if they had been hit by a massive speeding truck.
At first glance, it was terrifying and incredibly gory, but Bai Mu was already well accustomed to such scenes.
If these soldiers were lying neatly on the ground with blissful smiles on their faces, or if they had been reduced to completely desiccated, withered husks, he would have found the entity's powers genuinely unpredictable and bizarre. But since it only relied on brute physical force to kill, it didn't seem quite as daunting to deal with.
He mentally modeled the creature's abilities: it was nearly impossible to see with the naked eye, but it could be captured on a Camcorder. The fact that it could slaughter over a dozen soldiers simultaneously meant it was either a swarm entity or capable of splitting into over a dozen hands to strike at once.
Its strength was certainly immense, easily comparable to a Tank.
'The most troublesome part should be its defense. Bullets are completely useless against it, so with what I have on hand, it will probably be very difficult to inflict any real damage.'
'There is even a chance that it is completely immune to physical damage. In video game terms, it would be a gimmick boss. I will probably need to find a specific countermeasure to take it down.'
'If I make too much noise, I will definitely attract its attention. Staying quiet is the right move.'
'Thinking it over, I still need to find that religious fanatic and figure out exactly what is going on,' Bai Mu thought to himself.
He decided to continue his exploration. He wanted to check out the first floor, but before he could even head down, a faint groan suddenly drifted from the room ahead. A sign above the door read Infirmary. It seemed someone was still alive in there.
'Someone survived?' Bai Mu paused in his tracks.
He hung the Camcorder around his neck, drew his Baseball Bat, and stealthily crept toward the room, pressing his ear against the wall to listen intently.
It was a man's groan, laced with sheer agony. He sounded as if he were being brutally tortured.
Aside from that, he could hear the whistling of the wind and a rhythmic creaking—likely an open wooden window frame rattling violently in the draft.
After listening carefully for a moment, Bai Mu did not detect any other footsteps. He decided to go in and check; a living person meant the potential for new information.
The door to the Infirmary was unlocked and left ajar. Even if it had been locked, it wouldn't have mattered; Bai Mu could easily pry it open.
There were no lights on inside the room. Only a single beam of moonlight pierced through the window, illuminating the gloom.
A few hospital beds were lined up inside, yet they were all empty save for one by the window. There, a man lay tightly shackled to the bedframe by his wrists and ankles.
The man had a somewhat bloated figure and a slightly balding head. He was grievously wounded, his blood pooling thickly across the floor. With his mouth heavily sealed by bandages, he could not utter a single word.
'Why does he look so familiar?' Bai Mu felt as though he had seen this man somewhere before. A strange sense of deja vu washed over him.
He leaned in closer and ripped the bandages off the man's face, only to discover it really was an old acquaintance.
He remembered this face perfectly.
Thinking back to when he was still on the Deserted Island, this slightly chubby middle-aged man had run toward him, brimming with joy.
It was Stephen, the very first Reporter to interview him after he managed to contact the rescue ship.
Bai Mu had never imagined he would run into someone he knew from a previous Script.
"Stephen, is that you?" Bai Mu asked.
But Stephen seemed utterly incapable of speaking. Instead, he just weakly pointed his finger toward a specific spot.
Bai Mu followed the direction of his trembling finger and immediately spotted a highlighted item.
[Name: Memory Card]
[Type: Story Item]
[Quality: Common]
[Description: A standard camcorder memory card. Its recorded contents are currently unknown.]
It appeared that Stephen's sole purpose was to deliver this Memory Card to Bai Mu.
He looked like he was on the verge of death. After pointing out the card, his raised hand fell limply to his side, his face carrying the relieved expression of someone ready to pass on without regrets.
But Bai Mu felt that Stephen could still be saved. Pulling a bottle of Painkillers from his backpack, he started by pouring a handful of the pills directly into Stephen's mouth.
However, Stephen still didn't look too good. He began coughing violently, hacking up wads of fresh blood.
A single bottle of Painkillers wasn't going to save his life. Bai Mu immediately took out a First Aid Kit and used the specialized bandages inside to administer emergency treatment.
At the same time, Bai Mu grabbed Lucy's candies, taking a whole handful and forcefully stuffing them into Stephen's mouth.
"Hold on, Stephen!" Bai Mu encouraged. "You're going to make it."
Through this frantic barrage of healing items, Stephen was miraculously brought back from the brink of death.
The slightly pudgy middle-aged man gasped heavily for air, clutching his chest as a cold sweat broke out across his forehead.
Bai Mu noticed that Stephen's Health had not fully recovered. Three healing items should have easily restored his Health to maximum. It seemed as though the Script had placed a hard lock on Stephen's Health, though it did downgrade his status from critically wounded to lightly injured.
"Oh, thank... thank you, my friend. You saved my life," Stephen rasped, his voice strained. "But how do you know my name? Have we met somewhere before?"
The moment Stephen finished speaking, a system prompt chimed in Bai Mu's ears.
[Side Quest 'The Professional Ethics of a Reporter' has been triggered.]