Chapter 153

Chapter 153: Two Notes, One Scrap of Paper

Yu Sheng found the two records quickly.

The first was a note hastily written by an operator who’d remained inside the lab. By the time it was written, the operation had already gone out of control and the lab had been sealed. The text was chaotic, rushed, and in several places smeared out—either by accident, panic, or deliberate omission:

“The isolation door has come down. Alarms are everywhere. Hallucinations and noise are invading my mind. I don’t know how long I can stay conscious. I am leaving this final record and will describe as completely as possible everything I saw and felt… but my senses are being affected, so this record may contain distortions. I hope later investigators will be cautious when reading it.”

“The two Deep Divers who returned from the deep dive device are gradually dying. Equipment and medical staff can’t find the cause. Their consciousness—or ‘souls’—seem to have been damaged before they returned. What remains are two bodies still undergoing biochemical reactions, maintaining activity through inertia, trying to transmit their last intelligence…”

“One of them, in better condition, kept repeating strange words before losing the ability to speak. He kept mentioning ‘a baby’s crying’ and ‘umbilical cord,’ as well as ‘sleep’ and ‘distortion.’ He also mentioned a word that sounded like ‘ship’ or something similar, but it came out like a scream. We couldn’t hear it clearly…”

“I can’t imagine what they saw on the other side. It’s beyond human comprehension. The monitoring system connected to the deep dive pool transmits only noise…”

“The temperature around us is dropping, but I can’t tell if it’s hallucination. [Smeared] suddenly fainted, then woke up screaming, and soon collapsed again.”

“There are unfamiliar figures moving in my field of view. They’re talking with the people around them, talking with us… I can’t hear clearly, and I can’t see their faces.”

“…I suspect they are lab staff, but I am rapidly losing my memory of everyone here. Everyone around me looks unfamiliar. My memory and judgment are being damaged.”

“Noise—like screams mixed with wailing—coming from nowhere. A voice tells me to keep recording, but I can barely hold the pen. My vision is darkening. There’s a cloying sweet smell in the air. The final rescue attempt may already have failed. The ‘Mercy’ system is releasing anesthetic toxins into the entire area…”

(From here onward, the original handwriting becomes extremely chaotic, with extensive alterations. Please judge with caution—Internal Security Division)

“The crying is getting clearer. I feel my body and mind sinking… a lullaby begins playing. [Smeared] is trying to calm us down again… it isn’t time yet…”

“…Swaying. Sinking. Losing control. [Smeared] said we would wake in a peaceful and stable new world, but… abandoned. It’s fake. I don’t know…”

“Breathe, breathe, crying… we are connected. We hold each other… breathe, breathe, we are together… become one… breathe…”

The record ended there.

Yu Sheng stared at the last lines, chilled. Even as a typed transcript, the words felt soaked in something cold. For a moment he could almost see it—the sealed lab, the alarms, the collapsing control, the final minutes stretching and twisting into something unrecognizable.

His breathing had gone heavy without him noticing.

“Actually, this isn’t the only material left inside the lab,” Bai Li Qing said quietly, interrupting his spiraling thoughts. “Other staff left traces—records—but those were even more insane. Completely illegible. If you want to see them, flip to the last page.”

Yu Sheng did.

A series of on-site photos and stark black-and-white rubbings filled the pages: eerie scratches carved into desks and walls; abstract symbols smeared over and over until the paper became a lump of black ink; strange lines on clothing that might have been writing, or might have been meaningless marks.

Just as Bai Li Qing said, there was nothing to decipher.

If professional Bureau investigators couldn’t draw conclusions after decades, Yu Sheng certainly wasn’t going to do it with a glance.

He flipped back and focused on the second record.

This one was a work note written by a monitor who’d stayed outside the lab. It was short, but clear:

“The sealing procedure has begun. Operation ‘Adulthood’ has failed. My colleagues are following procedure to compile and transfer materials that must be urgently preserved. I am leaving the final record of the lab interior.”

“Forty minutes after sealing, life responses inside the lab began rapidly declining. Communication with internal personnel was cut off. They may already have been unable to communicate rationally.”

“Fifty minutes: the monitoring system recorded unusual noise. A baby’s crying echoed in the lab, along with other sharp and chaotic sounds that resembled… roaring.”

“Life responses in the monitored area approached zero. But terrifyingly, some internal personnel who had already lost all vital signs suddenly began moving under surveillance. They moved only briefly, but it was horrifying.”

“It was as if something crawled into their dead bodies and drove those shells to stand up and walk. They moved stiffly around the lab, as if… curiously observing this place.”

“Then those shells all fell again.”

“Sixty-five minutes after sealing, the lab gradually quieted. The crying and roaring disappeared.”

“All personnel life responses vanished.”

“Seventy-two minutes after sealing, the facility remains closed per standard safety procedure. The monitored area is completely silent. All noise and unknown energy responses have disappeared.”

“The Internal Security Division has taken over the area and plans to open the door after twenty-four hours to bring my colleagues home…”

That was the end.

Yu Sheng kept his head lowered over the page. After several seconds, he drew a deep breath and let it out slowly.

This was the first time he’d read operation records like these. They were worse than he’d imagined—worse in a way that didn’t feel like fear, exactly, but like something that scraped at the back of his mind.

When he looked up, Bai Li Qing was watching him, as if she’d been doing so for a long time.

“This isn’t what I pictured,” Yu Sheng said finally, frowning. “I thought I’d see exploration records about the Black Forest, or another subset…”

As he spoke, he understood Teacher Su’s warning. He understood why the other person had told him to come here—to read the Bureau’s records from back then.

These materials, written by operatives seventy years ago, showed a completely different perspective than the intelligence the children at the orphanage could provide. And what they revealed went far beyond what Yu Sheng had imagined.

Bai Li Qing didn’t look surprised.

“Fairy Tale shows different faces to children and adults,” she said. “What we recorded here is the more dangerous, more essential side.”

“Behind the stage…” Yu Sheng murmured.

Bai Li Qing’s brows tightened slightly, as if his words clicked into place with something else in her mind.

But before she could speak, a sharp ringing cut across the room.

Yu Sheng looked up, startled, and followed Bai Li Qing’s gaze toward the window.

On the other side, a lab staffer in a protective suit was waving at them.

Bai Li Qing picked up the phone on the table. After listening for only a couple of sentences, her expression changed—fast, sharp.

“Confirmed?” she asked into the receiver.

Inside the lab, the staffer held a receiver in one hand and nodded hard.

Yu Sheng leaned in, confused. “What’s going on?”

“The analysis result for that scrap of paper is out,” Bai Li Qing said, lowering the receiver. “They restored its original appearance.”

She set the phone down and quickly operated the console. The center of the giant window brightened, and an image appeared: the restored “scrap of paper,” displayed clearly.

Yu Sheng’s mouth fell open as he stared at the familiar pattern and the few lines of text.

“This is…”

“It’s an old version of a Special Operations Bureau Deep Diver work ID,” Bai Li Qing said softly. “The name was scratched out.”

Her gaze dropped to the archive in front of Yu Sheng. She flipped to the page with the list of names. “…It was one of theirs.”

Yu Sheng drew in a sharp breath. “So… the Hunter in the Black Forest was a Deep Diver who took part in Operation ‘Adulthood’?”