Chapter 657 - Chapter 657: Chapter 657: Invader (Part 1) (1/2)

Chapter 657: Chapter 657: Invader (Part 1)

Yangcheng.

On the last day of July, the outdoor temperature at noon had already hit 38℃.

As usual, Zhongshan Hospital in Yangcheng City was bustling with cars and people.

However, the hospital’s original main medical building was practically deserted because it was undergoing construction and work had been halted for the day.

Two hospital staff members were pushing a cart into the main building, taking the elevator straight down into the basement.

In the elevator, the taller of the two glanced at the silhouette covered by a cloth on the cart and wondered, “Usually, aren’t bodies supposed to be sent to the funeral parlor?”

Indeed, what they were pushing on the cart was a body.

Although the main building was under construction, many facilities had long been moved to the new building, or replaced if they were inconvenient to relocate or too costly to move.

However, some “facilities” did not exist in the new building.

For example, the “morgue”.

Due to new regulations, they generally took bodies straight to the funeral parlor, so no morgue was built in the new building. Only the old main building still had a “morgue” which was kept operational for special reasons during the refurbishment of the old structure.

The other staff member in the elevator shook his head, made a sniffing gesture and said, “This one overdosed, couldn’t contact any family or friends.”

The taller staff member was puzzled, “Shouldn’t it be sent to the Medical University for autopsy then? Where are the police?”

“I don’t know, all we were told is to bring it here by the dean.”

Once the elevator reached the basement, the two stopped chatting and pushed the cart through a long corridor to reach the morgue. Unexpectedly, the two people guarding the morgue were unfamiliar faces—one of them a foreigner.

“Who are you…?” The two staff members were confused, “Where’s Old Xie and Old He?”

“Oh, they’ve been reassigned. We’re in temporary charge here,” said the man in his twenties. He glanced at the cart they were pushing and opened the door for them, “You can place it anywhere inside, except in the very back.”

Without questioning any further, the two hospital staff members instinctively thought that the area had been outsourced to a “funeral home”. But since when did funeral homes hire foreigners to guard the door?

When they walked through a passage and into the morgue, the two became astonished. The interior of the morgue had been completely transformed into something much larger, perhaps two or three times its original size. There was even a large, bank-vault-like metal door at the end. When did this happen?

Inside the morgue was bit chilly and something felt off. Feeling uneasy, they quickly placed the body and made their way out.

Watching as the hospital staff disappeared down the corridor and exited via the elevator, the foreigner with brown hair and grey eyes whispered to his companion, “Old Qian, won’t there be a problem with them bringing bodies in? You know what’s in there…”

His companion was nonchalant, “It’s all arranged by our superiors. What’s there to worry about? We have Mr. Liang and Dr. Xia leading the team on this operation. All the elites from the research base are involved. If it weren’t for us transporting that thing from Slovakia, we wouldn’t have been stationed here today.”

These were Korowin and his companion “Old Qian”, who had been tasked with cleanup and transporting the captured “Old Vampire” as part of the mission led by Tang Baona, Yang Zhen Er, and Xiao Pingguo in Bratislava.

Originally, they were responsible only for transporting the “Old Vampire”. Once outside of Europe, it was supposed to be out of their hands.

However, their superiors abruptly changed the plan. They were made to escort the “Old Vampire” back to their homeland, where at the local airport, to their surprise, they were met by Mr. Liang from the Research Center and Divine Technology hub.

Naturally, their five-man team joined the special mission led by Mr. Liang.

For the next two months, they were tasked with keeping an eye on the “Old Vampire”.

Initially, the “Old Vampire” was sent to a research centre affiliated to Divine Technology in Yangcheng City. After a month of being studied by research personnel, it was secretly transferred to Zhongshan Hospital.

Using the construction of the main building as a cover, the hospital had secretly repurposed the morgue to imprison the “Old Vampire”.

At that point, they learned that the mission was led not only by Mr. Liang but also included the top personnel of the Research Base—Dr. Xia and Director He from the Non-Research Center—as well as the formidable Miss Tang, whom they had previously encountered. It was undoubtedly the highest-ranked mission of the Research Base in the post-Antarctic Crisis Era.

Being able to participate in such a mission was undoubtedly of great benefit to them.

After the body was delivered, they were both a bit anxious because Mr. Liang had told them to be extremely vigilant whenever a new body was brought in.

“Could that body be a ‘mutant’?” Korowin quietly speculated.

As they spoke, Korowin was subconsciously fiddling with his wristwatch—this was given to them by the base after their team confirmed to take part in the mission. The base provided a plethora of accessories for them to choose from, all supposed to be tools for the “spiritual test”. He chose a stylish sports watch, while Old Qian picked out a ring.

“No idea.” Old Qian shook his head, his hand instinctively reaching for the ring on his left thumb.

At first, neither of them felt anything special about the “spiritual test” items given to them. They thought that they probably wouldn’t pass the “spiritual test”, making them unable to study “Spirit Control Theory” established by Dr. Xia, or become powerful “Spirit Controllers”. They were quite dejected.

Unexpectedly, after being in the hospital’s “morgue” for a week, they began to feel a peculiar connection with the environment through the watch on their wrists and the rings on their fingers. It was an odd sense of connection.

This feeling was very hard to describe explicitly. It had no direct sensory perception, yet it undeniably existed, getting Korowin and Old Qian quite excited about the mission.

Seeing that Korowin still looked worried and apprehensive, Old Qian reassured him, “Don’t worry, the base always puts safety first in all its operations. For many years, there has never been an accident. Despite the constant danger, no field investigators have ever died in the line of duty. Not even a single instance of serious injury during a mission. If there’s danger, the strongest will always be at the front.”

At this, Korowin’s mind was drawn back to Bratislava two months prior. The giant, menacing “Old Vampire” sitting in front of the stone coffin, and the sight of him shrinking himself down unbelievably to fit into a box under the threats from Miss Tang.