S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 97

Countdown from the Murderer 27 – Hunting Monsters

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Zhao Hu held down the middle-aged man in the white coat who was burning documents and handcuffed him, while asking Ma Han to help their captain catch that person.

Ma Han chased after him and called for backup, asking the officers downstairs to block the exits.

The SWAT team was downstairs. Xiao Fei immediately arranged for people to block both exits of the office building.

There was no parking lot underneath this office building. It was only a simple three-storey building, so blocking the front and back doors meant that they were trapped inside and couldn't get out.

But there was a problem – there was no surveillance in the building!

No surveillance meant that only the most "primitive" methods could be used to find the person.

The only thing Jiang Ping could do was to turn on the lights and doors of all rooms on all floors through the building's electrical system.

The SWAT team was divided into three teams. Under the command of Captain Xiao Fei, they ran up the building floor by floor, escorting the people from the forensic department to the roof.

Zhao Hu escorted the middle-aged man in the white coat who burned the data to the door, and pointed at the documents on the roof to the forensic department.

The forensic department went over to rescue the information.

He handed the man over to the SWAT team.

Zhao Hu saw Ma Han running from the side of the hallway and asked, "Where's Chief?"

Ma Han shook his head and said that he wasn't on the third floor.

The second SWAT team came up from downstairs.

They said there was no one on the first floor either.

The crowd was a little puzzled – Where did he go in such a short period of time?

At this time, the SWAT team members who checked the ground floor sent a signal.

Zhao Hu and Ma Han saw the gestures of the SWAT team downstairs, and asked, "Is there a situation?"

Xiao Fei signalled – There is an unknown area on the ground floor!

Ma Han and Zhao Hu rushed down.

At the end of the hallway on the ground floor, the crowd found an open iron door. There were stairs leading underground, and it was pitch black inside.

"Didn't they say there were no underground facilities?" Zhao Hu asked.

Zhan Zhao was also paying attention to what was going on on this side through the headset, so he asked Manager Zhu, "There's a basement in the office building next door?"

Manager Zhu said, "There is an undisclosed laboratory hidden underground, with some experimental samples inside."

Zhan Zhao frowned, "What kind of samples? Does it mean there are patients?"

"They're special patients." Manager Zhu replied.

Zhao Jue asked, "What kind of patients?"

Manager Zhu didn't answer, indicating that he didn't know the details.

Zhan Zhao turned back and looked at the nurse.

The nurse replied, "Monsters."

Zhan Zhao frowned, "What?"

"The experimental samples in the underground lab are monsters."

A person who has been hypnotised would not answer a question in a roundabout way, which meant that the actual situation was precisely as he described it.

"Are the monsters human?" Zhan Zhao asked.

The nurse did not answer.

"Are they animals?"

"No."

"How many are there?"

"I'm not sure. Nurses aren't allowed in the underground lab."

Zhan Zhao looked at Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue narrowed his eyes slightly and stroked his chin with one hand, seeming to be feeling a bit of interest – It's a monster but not an animal, which means that...

Zhao Jue raised an eyebrow at Zhan Zhao – A humanoid monster.

"Yutang?" Zhan Zhao contacted Bai Yutang, but there was no answer.

Zhan Zhao frowned – Did Bai Yutang take his headset out and turn it off? Or did he drop it?

"Zhao Hu." Zhan Zhao contacted Zhao Hu, "You guys be careful, there are dangerous patients in that lab."

Zhao Hu and Ma Han looked at each other.

Ma Han signalled to Xiao Fei.

Xiao Fei signalled for the team behind him to change formation and stay alert.

Zhan Zhao then got a little nervous and paced around the monitoring room with his hands behind his back, asking Manager Zhu as he did so, "Have you been to that underground lab?"

Manager Zhu shook his head.

"Who has been there?"

"Patients and doctors." Manager Zhu replied, "The doctors shouldn't be around at this hour."

"Who was on the third floor of the office building just now?"

"Two doctors, one is the head of the paranoia team, Dr. Brian. The other is the head of the original amnesia team, Dr. Liu."

The dialogue on Zhan Zhao's side was heard by Zhao Hu and Ma Han over there.

Ma Han winked at Zhao Hu – The one who burned the documents just now should be Doctor Liu.

Zhao Hu then said, "The one Chief went after should be that Brian."

Zhan Zhao asked Manager Zhu to introduce Doctor Bryan.

"Dr. Bryan is the head of the entire team. He is a friend of Mark Fan's, and is Qian Yu's attending doctor."

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment and asked, "Has Qian Yu been to the underground lab?"

"He has."

Zhan Zhao immediately ran out.

At this time, the medical staff and patients within the hospital were being taken away in groups.

Qian Yu was brought to a separate room to wait because he was an important clue to the case.

Zhan Zhao ran in.

In the room, Qian Yu was sitting in a daze. There were a large number of his paintings on the table, which Zhan Zhao had specially asked the officers to find and put together to bring back to the SCI office.

Zhan Zhao didn't talk to Qian Yu after he entered the room, but began to look through his paintings.

Looking at them carefully, one by one... Most of Qian Yu's paintings were about corners and the monsters hidden within them.

Zhan Zhao noticed that although they were all paintings of corners, each corner had different circumstances, and could be roughly divided into two corners in different buildings.

The two corners were essentially depicted from different perspectives, with one leaning towards brightness and the other towards darkness. In the brighter corner, it was just a corner, whereas in the darker corner, something was evidently lurking within the shadows, and... the image exuded an atmosphere of fear.

Zhan Zhao picked up one of the paintings and pointed it at Qian Yu.

Qian Yu raised his head and looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao pointed to the corner of the picture.

Qian Yu immediately became agitated, and looked left and right.

Zhan Zhao pointed to the corner and asked him, "How many are there?"

Qian Yu lowered his head.

"How many monsters are hiding there?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Qian Yu reached out and touched his head, then made a 'two' gesture and showed it to Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao raised his head and headed out, informing Zhao Hu and the others as he did so, "There are at least two patients!"

At this moment, Zhao Hu and the SWAT team were standing at the entrance of a hallway, frowning as they looked ahead.

After traversing through an ordinary pitch-black corridor, the entrance to the underground laboratory should lie ahead. Before them stretched another hallway, which surprisingly resembled the layout of the adjacent ward area. Ahead of them was a forked pathway, with the same angular protrusions on the ceiling, yet the lighting wasn't white but dim yellow, casting near-black shadows and adding to the eerie ambiance. What's most peculiar was the floor... though it was concrete, embedded within were numerous triangular mirrors.

The entire hallway twisted and turned in various directions, with shadows and reflected light spots falling on the walls and floor.

Several SWAT team members frowned.

And just ahead of the forked path, there was a white Bluetooth headset on the floor.

Ma Han picked it up. The style was the same as the ones they were using – it should be Bai Yutang's.

Ma Han looked up at Zhao Hu.

Zhao Hu was also a bit worried. There was a fork in the road in front of them, which way should they go?

Ma Han exchanged a glance with him, and without hesitation, each of them took a portion of the SWAT team members and split up to pursue.

Zhan Zhao still hadn't received any response from Bai Yutang. Finally, he heard the sound of someone putting on the headset, but the voice speaking through it was Ma Han's, who said that the captain's headset was on the ground.

Zhan Zhao was so anxious that he ran to the hallway and paced back and forth.

At the door of the surveillance room, Zhao Jue leaned against the door frame, watched Zhan Zhao who was spinning round and round, and couldn't help but let out a laugh.

Zhan Zhao turned around and looked at him angrily – Don't laugh!

Zhao Jue shook his head helplessly and asked him, "How many monsters are there?"

Zhan Zhao stretched out his hand and gestured "two".

Zhao Jue tilted his head and asked, "So what are you so anxious about?"

Zhan Zhao frowned, "Yutang can't be contacted..."

"What's wrong with not being able to contact him?" Zhao Jue asked, "Are you afraid that he'll be eaten by the monsters?"

Zhan Zhao clicked his tongue and stopped waiting. He ran to the surveillance car at the entrance of the office building and looked for Bai Chi and Jiang Ping.

Zhao Jue was still in the hallway. He shook his head and muttered, "It's those monsters that should be worried, bumping into a real monster..."

After saying that, Zhao Jue walked to the door of the room where Qian Yu was placed.

Two more guards were standing watch at the door.

Zhao Jue pointed to the "consultant" sticker on his chest.

The two guards let him in.

He walked into the room.

Zhao Jue saw Qian Yu sitting, and the paintings on the table that were divided into two groups by Zhan Zhao.

Picking up the paintings and looking at them, Zhao Jue examined Qian Yu with great interest.

After looking at them for a while, Zhao Jue reached out and waved one finger in front of Qian Yu's eyes.

Qian Yu's gaze slowly began to follow his finger and moved...

......

Zhao Hu and Ma Han separately led the others and walked through the strangely lit hallways.

As they walked, they couldn't help but be suspicious, always feeling that there was someone hiding in the corner.

Zhao Hu grew increasingly fidgety as he walked, muttering under his breath, "What's with this, who designed this damn place..."

Before he finished speaking, Zhao Hu suddenly raised his hand.

The several SWAT team members stopped, and at the same time... they heard footsteps, and the other party also stopped suddenly as they stopped.

Zhao Hu raised his head, looked at a corner at the end of the path in front of him, and pointed to the side to two of his team members.

The few team members spread out, and the crowd flanked over together.

Just as they rounded the corner, a few people suddenly rushed towards them. Hu Zi instinctively jumped back, quickly waving his hands, "Hey hey... it's our own guys."

The one rushing towards them was Ma Han, causing both of them to abruptly hit the brakes, narrowly avoiding a collision.

It turns out that the fork in the road was in the shape of a "0".

Zhao Hu and Ma Han caught each other's eye, then simultaneously turned their heads to one side... Out of the corner of their eyes, they caught a glimpse of a figure standing ahead of them... and that figure appeared to be considerably larger than an average person...

As they turned, there was a sudden rustle behind them, and all the SWAT team members raised their guns, aiming ahead.

In front of them stood a "giant" that was possibly over two metres tall.

The person was dressed in dark blue, which, under the dim light, appeared as an almost black hospital gown.

His face was obscured, as he kept it lowered, and he was seemingly studying the ground.

While Zhao Hu and Ma Han were surprised, the man was suddenly hit by something from behind with a bang.

The crowd finally discerned that the tall "giant," though still standing, seemed to have fainted, and he collapsed with a thud right before Zhao Hu, Ma Han, and the group of SWAT team members.

On his back lay another "giant" of similar size, lying face-up.

The two "giants" crashed together before everyone.

Footsteps approached from the front.

The crowd looked up to see Bai Yutang holding onto a thin, curly-haired doctor in a white coat with one hand and his own jacket with the other, walking towards them.

Both Zhao Hu and Ma Han exclaimed, "Captain!"

Bai Yutang nodded, handing over the man in a white coat to them and casually tossing his own jacket aside.

Almost simultaneously, the giant who had been hit by the other giant moments ago suddenly sat up... Before he could get up, Bai Yutang flung his jacket, hitting the giant square in the face.

The giant let out a grunt, covering his eyes and collapsing to the side. Several SWAT team members holstered their weapons and rushed over, handcuffing both giants. They escorted them out, four members per giant.

Bai Yutang casually threw on his jacket and reached out his hand towards Ma Han, as if requesting something.

Ma Han hesitated for a moment before realising and picking up the headset he had just found, placing it into Bai Yutang's hand.

Bai Yutang put on the headset, tilting his head slightly to signal – let's go.

Ma Han escorted the doctor in the white coat out while Hu Zi held his face, mimicking Ma Xin's expression when watching Luo Tian's training, "Wow, handsome!"

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: March 29, 2024 by Angel

Edited: August 22, 2024 by Angel