The people in the corridor looked at each other.
The middle-aged man's eye twitched as he took half a step forward.
Officer An silently chambered a round in his handgun, and the middle-aged man's footsteps froze.
"I have twelve bullets left."
Officer An said without expression, "Everyone has had thoughts already, and it's not the first time, but I still need to remind you to restrain yourselves. If we stand united, we have a chance to survive and reunite with our own families. My duty is to protect everyone. I don't want to see us killing each other, nor do I want to point the gun at any one of you. I hope you can understand."
Lu Bu'er's heart stirred slightly, sensing that the officer had moved closer to him while warning the others, declaring his protection in an unseen manner.
Under the deterrence of the firearm, the middle-aged tycoon eventually sat down dejectedly, his companions beside him also shrank back into the corner, quietly putting down the weapons in their hands.
Lu Bu'er was startled with fear.
Everyone was here because they had fallen on hard times, and they were all strangers who did not know each other, not partners to be trusted. At the life-or-death moment, anything could happen.
Officer An looked at the young man and asked softly, "Lu, where did you get your food from?"
Lu Bu'er hesitated for a moment, "I brought it with me."
Officer An mused, "Indeed, our personal belongings haven't disintegrated. This can also be seen from our clothes. I believe it's because of the cocoon that enveloped us, forming a kind of protection. Other than the things in the cocoon, nothing else has been preserved."
Boss Zhang wondered aloud, "But it's not exactly a ghost town after all. On our way here, we saw tents set up by people, remnants of campfires, and trash from camping. Didn't we even pick up knives and grenades? It's very possible that someone came here to explore."
In this situation, the only thing everyone could rely on was their wits.
After exchanging the information they knew, it wasn't hard to speculate that some peculiar change had occurred in the world, causing the city to be empty.
Lu Bu'er fell into deep contemplation. At this moment, he had a very bold speculation: that the so-called "Pure Land" was not any game at all but a warning about changes that were about to occur in the real world, and what his parents were studying was definitely not as simple as a game.
Could it be possible that the initial test was not meant for him to experience it?
But rather, it was an opportunity to convey something to him!
"We shouldn't stay here for long, but there are dog packs outside, so... Eh?"
Officer An stepped on something in the darkness, a crisp sound that was chilling to the bone.
Everyone looked in the direction of the sound, discovering a skeleton wrapped in tattered cloth.
"A corpse?"
They were taken aback.
They had just arrived not long ago and had not noticed this thing here.
But the issue was that the skeleton was as deformed as a monster and had already mildewed, so nobody dared to touch it for fear of contracting some pathogen.
"Sure looks freakin' ugly, doesn't it."
Boss Zhang was seriously scared; the smell of mildew was so strong it could make one retch.
Officer An hesitated, unsure whether he should touch the thing.
Only Lu Bu'er was bold enough. He approached and fiddled with the corpse, finding some of the dead person's belongings tucked in the folds of the cloth, such as a dagger carried on the body and a golden tree-shaped emblem. The most noteworthy discovery was a dust-covered notebook.
"What does it say on there?"
Officer An leaned in to provide a light with his flashlight.
Lu Bu'er read the handwriting, frowning.
"May 4th, I returned from studies in Chicago. This time, I finally gained the qualifications for evolution, saw the great Divine Tree in my dreams, felt the Sacred Rhythm, and touched the Transcendent. The humans of the new world really possessed such mighty power, unimaginable."
"This was the gift of the Divine Tree; I thought that after I fully mastered the Sacred Rhythm, the doors of evolution would open to me. But I was wrong. I found the rhythm I mastered to be incorrect; it did not allow me to evolve, but rather destroyed me..."
"Back then, I despised this deformed appearance, my parents, and sister abhorred me for it, my superiors and colleagues distanced themselves. I was forced into the dungeons of the Special Supervision and Management Bureau, where I endured agonies in that hell without sunlight..."
These three paragraphs alone sent shivers down their spines.
What was initially thought to be a promising clue now conveyed an eerie feeling that made their blood run cold.
"Deformed?"
Their thoughts simultaneously turned to those strange hounds outside.
And the other mutated creatures.
Lu Bu'er fell silent. The discrepancies he witnessed during the initial test had appeared again. It seemed that before they emerged from their cocoons, people had already come into contact with the Transcendent civilization.
This was something completely different from the initial test.
"August 16th, I met her in the dungeon. Oh God, that was the first time I saw someone so severely mutated, but I was not afraid of her, even found her beautiful. She claimed her name was Butterfly, a beautiful creature that people fear when it's magnified, not recognizing that it's her true, misunderstood beauty."
"Butterfly helped me, made me realize that my current state was the most beautiful, and I began to appreciate myself. This deformed beauty was so intoxicating."