Chapter 424: Find Something
Unlike the simple looting outside, the staff quarters looked like a murder scene. Apart from the lack of bloodstains, the walls, floors, and furnishings—everything that could be broken—had been destroyed, including the androids, whose heads and limbs had been disassembled.
"This is some kind of psycho!" Wan Yunrong said. "Even the androids get chopped to pieces. What grudge could they have?"
This wasn't about grudges; it was about searching for something. And not the kind of search players did for valuable items, but a targeted hunt for a small object. Otherwise, they wouldn't have even spared the android's limbs.
Xu Huo's gaze swept across the faces of the other three present. "Maybe there's something good here."
"Then should we look too?" Wan Yunrong cracked her knuckles eagerly.
"Forget it. If there really was something good, would it still be waiting for us?" Chu Yuan said without much hope.
Wan Yunrong teased him, "Didn't that android in the cabinet just now wait for you?"
Chu Yuan's face darkened. "If you're going to search, search quickly! Finish up and head to the next floor!"
The group searched the room but found nothing worth taking. Miao Yu even pried up a corner brick, only to find the same broken floor beneath.
Players who had been through ten or more instances had developed a set routine for handling instance areas. Besides checking visible items, they also used detection devices or detection items to uncover things that weren't obvious on the surface.
Mao Wei, Ge Pan, and the others ahead were already at work.
"With so many rooms, we'll be searching until dark and still won't finish." Chu Yuan glanced at them and said, "We're not the only smart ones here."
Miao Yu and the once-enthusiastic Wan Yunrong headed to the next room. Chu Yuan was about to follow, but the rope around his wrist tightened. He turned back to Xu Huo, who was holding a torn painting. "What's wrong with the painting?"
It was a dark, gothic piece. Most of the canvas was blackened, depicting a low-angle view looking up at a pitch-black window, where a faint handprint was visible.
"The painter isn't very skilled," Chu Yuan commented.
Xu Huo casually set the painting aside and moved on to check other rooms.
Among the many rooms, aside from everyday items, the most common things were the androids and similar paintings. Some of the paintings had been damaged, but they could still be pieced together.
Some paintings had color, others didn't. None were signed, but they seemed to be by the same hand. Even the colored ones had a dirty, murky quality. A normal person would feel uncomfortable at first glance and wouldn't want to stare at them for long.
Xu Huo's focus on the paintings caught the attention of a few players. They glanced at the paintings briefly, found nothing valuable, and moved on.
Chu Yuan was getting impatient. "Have you looked enough?"
He had asked Xu Huo several times what he saw, but Xu Huo ignored him.
"Don't you think these paintings fit the atmosphere here?" Xu Huo said.
"Yeah, same eerie vibe," Wan Yunrong said, rubbing the bead bracelet on her wrist.
"No," Chu Yuan suddenly said. "These paintings must have been hung a long time ago, before the lab staff left. The lab wouldn't have looked like this back then. Why would they hang such paintings in their rooms? There has to be a hint! Let me look again!"
He snatched the painting from Xu Huo's hand and stared hard at the terrifying shadow.
"That's not strange," Miao Yu said casually. "Deep Blue Lab is on an isolated island. Look at how many rooms have dual-purpose androids—you know there weren't many women around. Doing boring, high-intensity work, it's normal for people to develop psychological issues."
"And these paintings were probably all done by the same person. If that person was in charge, it's easy to understand why so many were hung."
"Why didn't you just say that from the start?" Chu Yuan tossed the painting aside. "Mao Wei and the others are heading to the third basement level. We should go too."
The four moved toward the nearest elevator. Just as they approached, the elevator came up from below. Chu Yuan was about to lament being too late, but when the doors opened, the seven people who had gone down came back up. Wu Xiaonan and Zhu Rumin rushed out first, coughing and wiping white powder off their faces.
Xu Huo and the others instinctively stepped back. The inside of the elevator was coated in frosty white. Mao Wei, Ge Pan, and the others were all dusted with powder. Except for Mao Wei, who had been wearing a mask, the rest had inhaled some.
"This stuff isn't poisonous, is it!" Chu Yuan quickly put on his gas mask.
Xu Huo, Wan Yunrong, and Miao Yu did the same.
Mao Wei and the others had already used antidotes. Ge Pan had a blood-testing item. After waiting a few minutes, he checked his blood and confirmed it was safe before relaxing.
"What happened downstairs?" Miao Yu finally asked.
"Couldn't see clearly," Ge Pan said. "As soon as the elevator doors opened, a lot of dust blew in. There was a rotten smell."
"The third basement level has a mutated plant cultivation room. Could the plants have withered?" Xu Huo guessed.
"That's possible," Gan Qing said. "But I think it's better not to go down. We can't guarantee all the mutated plants are dead."
They were lucky they only got sprayed with powder.
"Only about a third of the third basement level is used for cultivating mutated plants," Miao Yu said. "We can take another elevator down."
"You go if you want. I'm not going," Wu Xiaonan said, waving her hand. Zhu Rumin, leaning on her, hesitated. "I'll pass too. We were lucky just now. What if it had been toxic gas or powder..."
They had brought protective suits, but those were meant for mining ores. They hadn't expected to see no ore at all after arriving on the island, so they hadn't bothered with them.
Of course, there was also the arrogance of evolution. Evolution wasn't just about physical enhancement; it also improved toxin resistance.
The players who still wanted to go down changed into protective suits. Wan Yunrong asked Xu Huo why he wasn't changing. "Chu Yuan is going down. Aren't you going?"
The two were tied together, and Chu Yuan was leading, so he had to go.
"He's been wearing a protective suit the whole time," Chu Yuan said with a sneer. "A tight-fitting one."
Xu Huo gave a simple smile, put on his protective mask, and said, "I'm afraid of dying."
Some players looked disdainful, others serious, but no one paid him more attention.
Zhu Rumin, Wu Xiaonan, and Chang Chengyong decided to stay. The remaining eight entered another elevator.
As Miao Yu had said, taking a different elevator down avoided the powder, but the lights on this floor didn't automatically turn on like the ones above.
Chu Yuan set up a floodlight. The bright beam pierced the darkness and landed on something that looked like a small hill not far away.
(Chapter End)