"The lab experienced an unknown riot, and it appears that the mutants they created got out of control, and then... killed everyone?"
Linda leaned in closer to read the experiment log in Charles's hands.
Hmm, she seemed to be growing quite accustomed to this man.
Charles tossed the book directly to her and began to scroll through some data on the instruments.
"Neither the evil spirit outside nor the bizarre mutant we just encountered could have emerged out of thin air."
"They must have a 'ground state.'"
Charles worked diligently, restoring the instrument data bit by bit. Behind him, Linda held the experiment log in a trance, not quite grasping the meaning of 'ground state' as Charles referred to it.
The instrument hummed softly as much of the data was restored to its initial state.
"Can you understand it?"
Gazing at the complex data, Linda felt dizzy.
"I can't."
"But that's okay."
"All I need to do is restore this data to how it originally functioned and then see what the most primitive 'ground state' is..."
Muttering to himself, Charles continued to manipulate the controls.
The monster's figure displayed on the instrument began to change as its data was peeled away. First, its head reverted back, then its sexual organs, and finally its legs...
Once the monster was fully reverted to its initial ground state, they were both shocked to discover that the mutant's precursor was... a human!
And a girl, at that!
"Holy crap!"
Linda was utterly stunned.
She couldn't fathom how the monster with a phallus for a head could have been transformed from a cute girl.
"The monster's cells exhibit a high level of activity and adaptability, which implies that this girl was very young…"
"If we dare to speculate further... this girl was likely a student at a college..."
Charles stared thoughtfully at the projection on the screen.
His speculation sent shivers down Linda's spine.
Building such a massive and secret experimental base beneath a school, with the aim of transforming students into monsters?
Were these people criminals, or lunatics?
"The girl we just saw had twenty kidneys, each remarkably youthful... It seems this laboratory is engaged in human organ trafficking," Charles mused.
"If their experiments are successful and the girl's cells can continue to cultivate new mutants, they'd have an endless supply of kidneys for sale. If they hit the black market with this..."
"It would mean unimaginable wealth for them," Charles finished, his gaze stretching down the corridor that led deeper into the facility.
"Clearly, this lab has more than one project underway. "The experiment journal mentioned that the staff was successfully creating not just undead creatures, but also bio-mechanical hybrids,The evil spirit we encountered earlier may well be the rampaging subject described in that journal."
Charles recalled his earlier experience in the underground parking garage, where his sensors had gone haywire, revealing the spirit's weakness—its true form.
Linda erupted in anger, "These bastards have built a human experiment base right under a school, cultivating kids into monsters. They're utterly conscienceless!"
Charles shook his head, correcting her, "No, you've got it wrong. They didn't build a human experimental base under a school. They built a school over a human experimental base."
He gestured towards the complicated machinery, addressing a shocked Linda, "The level of intricacy in constructing this underground lab surpasses that of the school by at least tenfold. There's no way they built this facility after the school."
"It's evident that this lab was constructed first. And the students of Mist School? They're part of the plan, too."
"They need subjects that are young and vital for their experiments."
As Charles' words sunk in, Linda felt a shiver run down her spine.
"Let's move on, see what else we can find."
Returning to their path, Charles did something that further unsettled Linda—he skinned the mutant with the twenty kidneys.
"Do you really have to be this sick?" Linda couldn't believe her eyes as Charles gleefully stored the bloody skin in his inventory.
She was twenty years old, had seen foot fetishists and masochists, but never had she seen someone with a skinning fetish. Today was truly eye-opening.
And it was utterly disgusting! Linda even started to think that maybe she wasn't as twisted as Charles, and that's why she couldn't match his level of proficiency in this nightmare of a situation.
....
The two continued down the labyrinthine hallway, a seemingly endless stretch that twisted and turned like the guts of some monstrous beast.
One could easily lose their way in this maze of a research facility without a keen sense of direction.
When they finally reached the end, they stumbled upon a cavernous cafeteria.
Every inch of it screamed sterility, swathed in blinding whites—except, of course, for the splatters of red.
Peering through the cracks of the door, they saw a multitude of twisted, mutated forms wandering aimlessly. Their 'food' consisted of the decaying corpses of former lab personnel.
"How many mutants are there? How many students could this possibly represent?" Linda muttered, her voice quivering in disbelief.
"Don't the police investigate when so many students go missing?" Charles added, equally stunned.
The scale was staggering. Inside the cafeteria, at least a thousand strange and grotesque mutants roamed. That meant that Mist School had lost at least a thousand students.
"What do we do now? If we go any further, I fear..." Linda's voice trailed off, her body seemingly deprived of its strength.
Charles reached into his inventory and pulled out the skin he had earlier peeled from one of the mutants. With surgical precision, he swiftly cut the skin into two bizarre, fleshy coats.
Decorated with grotesque, indistinct pumpkin heads and crowned by a withered phallus on Charles's own coat, these garments were the stuff of nightmares.
"You're not seriously suggesting—" Linda began.
"No, this is too disgusting," she protested. But before she could flee, Charles grabbed her by the collar.
He pulled her back, a smirk playing on his lips. Ignoring her look of utter revulsion, he dressed her in the odious coat of human skin.
Then he donned his own, the one with the peculiar appendage on the back.