Deep in the Living
Chapter 166 - 160 Old Grounds

Chapter 166: Chapter 160 Old Grounds

The early banquet came to an end,

On the second floor of the gathering mansion,

The door bearing the rotten skull symbol was knocked. As there was no response for a long time, the knocker inserted a finger into the keyhole and forcefully unlocked it.

The door was pushed open.

Inside the bedroom, there was no sign of a person, nor any scent of a living being, not even the slightest body warmth.

However, if one were to feel carefully, a faint flow of gas could still be perceived, coming from above.

Looking up,

Shea, her body barely covered with strips of bandage, had one of her fingers inserted into the ceiling, using just that finger as a pivot to perform pull-ups at an exceedingly slow pace, with each pull and release lasting a minute.

Due to her zombie nature,

She neither breathed nor perspired.

The mutated cells flowing in her blood were gradually growing through such exercises.

The person who entered did not disturb Shea’s exercise,

Instead, they took off their clothes, lay on Shea’s bed, and spread their body as widely as possible. They even took out a special device from their pocket and started a high heart-rate exercise.

Throughout her exercise, her gaze remained fixated on Shea’s body, even betraying a look of desire and invasion.

A strange scent quickly filled the bedroom,

Shea, hanging from the top, could no longer concentrate and was forced to end her exercise prematurely.

"Hua Yuan, if you have something to say, spit it out quick!"

As Shea withdrew her finger and descended, the person on the bed had disappeared, leaving only a puddle of water.

Just as she tried to search for the other’s whereabouts, a boneless body wrapped around her from behind,

Legs coiled around her waist,

Head resting on her shoulder,

"What else could it be? Aren’t we teammates? Of course, I’m here to discuss the Corner Warrant with you.

Although I had guessed that grandmother would arrange a different kind of screening, I never thought it would be like this... You do know the Corner Warrants executed among the sisterhood have failed before."

"You thought it was a mutual slaughter amongst sisters, huh?"

"Hehe~ I did consider it. If it were so, the toughest one to deal with would be you.

But now, the two of us will join forces to face an unknown Avatar.

Given the lack of information about the opponent, it’s easy to be afflicted by misfortune and amplify Fear, which is why I sought you out, Shea.

I hope we can use the remaining time to merge well, improving our ability synergy, so that when the time comes, we can perform at our best in cooperation, don’t you think?"

With her body entwined in such a way, feeling a certain warm liquid contaminating her body, Shea instantly flared up, activating a special type of zombie virus.

The back of her head split open, growing a large mouth brimming with viral fangs.

As this mouth appeared, Hua Yuan was already back on the bed, slowly getting dressed in her uniform.

"What’s there to be angry about? If little sister Shea isn’t willing to deepen the communication, then let’s just practice normally."

Shea returned to her normal state and pointed up to the ceiling, "Since we need to get in sync, let’s call both Ayan and Isabella here as well."

"Isabella..." As Hua Yuan twisted her body on the bed, it seemed she remembered something, "I recall that both she and your hometown are in Mingwang City. Don’t you think Isabella is a bit strange?"

"Strange? How so?"

"Not her character, her appearance.

She was able to find such a great ’companion’, and her own strength has also improved rapidly, even managing to weed out that bothersome-looking [Kui]. Don’t you find that odd?"

Shea shook her head, "I don’t see a problem. The selection for the Corner Warrant is not based on strength but on the question of ’suitability’.

The Warrant determined that our quartet is the most suitable, that’s the primary reason.

As for the companion, you could say she’s just more fortunate, and Mr. D was recommended by me."

Hua Yuan stepped forward and took Shea’s hand, "If there’s no issue, then let’s go. Let’s go up and find her! And catch if anyone’s engaging in anything lewd.

I bet they are, considering they’ll soon have to part. They’d better make the most of this time, right?"

The hand-holding didn’t last two seconds before Shea forcefully shook it off.

As the two stood at the entrance of the large bedroom on the third floor, they couldn’t help but recall the bizarre experiences from the night before, feeling somewhat nervous.

Just as Shea was about to knock,

Hua Yuan had already placed her hand on the door lock, stealthily unlocking it.

"Arrest!"

When the door was abruptly pushed open, there was no one inside, not even a trace of breath was left behind. It seemed that neither had returned to their room after the morning banquet had ended.

Hua Yuan immediately extended her certain ability to search the entire gathering area, but there was no sign of Isabella at all.

"Hiss? Did they run off to a field battle? Let’s look for Xiaoyan first; with her ability, we should be able to quickly lock down the field battle area."

However, when the two eventually located Xiaoyan’s bedroom, it was still empty.

...

[Jupiter City Fourth Middle School]

Although the school is still listed as a quarantine zone, three months have passed, and all related post-incident processing and investigations have concluded.

The school is expected to be demolished in two weeks, and it is set to be taken over by Taishe Group*, transforming it into a public area.

*One of the five major resident corporations, alongside Mercury Group.

A youth wearing a black trench coat and carrying a backpack stood at the school gates.

By presenting an ID marked with a silver [I], he was granted permission to enter, but he did not head to other areas of the school; instead, he went straight to the fifth floor of the teaching building.

He arrived at the door of the Senior 3 [5] class, which was plastered with sealing signs and cordoned off with warning lines.

The blackboard had been removed,

The bloodstains in the classroom had been cleaned, but the outlines of the blood-soaked floor tiles were still faintly visible.

Only a few intact desks and chairs remained inside, and the entire classroom seemed empty, silent as death.

He closed the doors and windows and drew the curtains.

The youth sat at a desk engraved with Luo Di’s name, taking out the thing stuffed in the backpack and placing it gently on the desk.

"Class president, aren’t you going to grow out your own body and find a place to sit?"

"Grow what? Growing Isabella’s body doesn’t fit the current environment. Growing Wu Wen’s body, I worry it might expose us.

Let’s keep it this way for now; actually, I’m quite used to this state of being just a head, without the burden of a body it feels quite relaxed."

The class president’s head was placed on the desk, with some kind of tissue that grew from beneath its neck gently scraping against the desk’s surface, feeling the wood grain.

"Even after so much time since the Seam incident, the environment still retains the structure of the vortex, and even the air I breathe in carries a slight cyclone structure.

I’m thinking, if it really works out this time, whether to try and turn to Teacher Guo for help.

Three months have passed; he might have already found his footing~ After all, he quite liked me as his student."

Luo Di changed the subject, "Let’s talk business, how have you considered the ’Corner Warrant’ matter?"

"The situation is actually a bit better than I expected... When the time comes, you’ll go to the island with our four sisters. Although Hua Yuan has a bad temperament, I’ve been watching her the whole time during the morning banquet.

She’s very determined about the ’Corner Warrant’; something must have happened in the past that she finds unforgettable.

Just like how you would act as an investigator, everyone will go to the island to explore, dig, and peep into the existence hidden behind.

Of course, this is completely different from the usual investigation.

The monster possesses the calamity that can spread Fear, and once contaminated, it will be quite troublesome.

If you, Luo Di, were to fall into it, you’d probably be close to dying or completely insane before even seeing the monster’s true form, and then killed by the sisters.

But there are advantages as well.

You would have to enter the Corner sooner or later; fighting against the Monster Avatar in advance could greatly increase the survival rate and adaptation speed when going to the Corner subsequently.

The most important point.

Aren’t you missing a pituitary gland to initiate your [System]? The arrival of the Monster Avatar requires the pituitary as an important medium, with the flesh simply acting as the vessel.

It is precisely because of the existence of this important medium, the pituitary, that the throughput of the Corner is limited, keeping the Monster Avatar within a range where it can be killed.

If you can obtain the pituitary of a Monster Avatar... and it’s compatible with you, I can’t even imagine what kind of monster you’d turn into."

"So, the progenitor also has a pituitary inside?"

"Of course, weren’t you there on the scene?

The progenitor’s [vessel] is made up of the optimal parts of a large number of sisters, each containing their pituitaries from before their death.

When the progenitor descends into the vessel,

her consciousness will integrate these pituitary glands into one [Central Pituitary], used to maintain her humanoid Avatar.

If the Avatar dies here, and the pituitary is completely deprived, her original form deep in the Corner will also suffer severe damage and may take a long time to recover.

Therefore, after the gathering, her Avatar will directly return to the Corner to reclaim the pituitary.

So stop harboring ideas about the progenitor, and focus on the Warrant instead~ it might really be more suitable for you."