Chapter 371: Narrow Escape from Death
“Hurry and take me there!”
The branch director bellowed before quickly darting across the interrogation and leaving in a frenzy.
Shen Qi and the other two men in black in charge of watching over Chen Chen did the same as well. Shen Qi shot one last glare at Chen Chen before chasing after her superior. Even the display in front of Chen Chen was shut off and reverted to an ordinary mirror.
In an instant, Chen Chen became the only one left in the room.
Even Chen Chen was at a loss for words. He had prepared himself for hundreds of thousands of scenarios, but this one had never crossed his mind.
By the looks of the current situation, there were only three explanations for the destruction of the USB drive.
One, somebody switched it out after Chen Chen hid it.
This was not out of the realm of possibility. Even though Chen Chen had been extremely cautious and hid the USB drive in an extremely secluded place that had no surveillance, he was not exactly what one would call an expert. There was a chance that someone had been spying on him when he hid the USB drive and swapped it out stealthily.
The second possibility, the USB drive was swapped out by a spy in the FBI with a fake.
This possibility seemed to be more likely than the first one, but it was not any less tricky. After all, there was no way for Chen Chen to prove whether the broken USB drive was the real thing or not. He suspected he would have a difficult time convincing them that the broken USB drive was a subst.i.tuted fake.
The final possibility. Chen Chen had only told three people in his dorm about the existence of the USB drive. Now that both w.a.n.g Wei and Zhou Jie were dead, only Li Bo knew about the USB drive. He had known Li Bo for a very long time. Unless he had been hatching ideas about the USB drive...
Chen Chen became speechless upon considering this possibility.
If it was Li Bo who was the one behind this, then he certainly deserved the Oscars for the show he had put on. It would be a great waste of talent for him to not be an actor.
Chen Chen figured there was no point considering any other possibilities. Without the USB drive, they were just sitting ducks.
While Chen Chen was beginning to despair, the lights on the ceiling of the interrogation room began to rattle on and on.
The interrogation room was designed with the idea of imposing a negative psychological effect on the interrogated in mind. Dozens of tubes of lights were installed on the ceiling that cast a blinding sheet of harsh and cold beams on the room.
Seemingly due to the unstable voltage, they started to flicker without any signs of stopping anytime soon. The state of the room constantly swung between light and darkness.
Initially, Chen Chen paid no mind to it. After this constant flickering persisted for more than ten seconds, he started sensing that something was off.
Where was he again? This was not some sort of remote village or a unit in the borders of Africa. This was the FBI branch directly under the jurisdiction of the regional government. How could there possibly be electricity disturbance?
Chen Chen immediately felt a chill coursing through him when he considered this. He raised his head and looked at the huge mirror opposite him. Between the disorientating flashes of light, he caught the glimpse of a little boy standing behind him...
The little boy was not wearing any clothes. The color of his body was a terrible pale that looked like the skin of the deceased. The boy stood in the corner of the room and stared into Chen Chen’s eyes with terrible dark eyes without a trace of white in them.
It was Toshio, the son of Kayako.
Chen Chen immediately felt a harsh chill penetrating through his body from behind him and made the hair stand up on the back of his neck.
“Am I going to die?”
This thought invaded and occupied Chen Chen’s mind. He lost the strength to get up on his feet. All he could do was look into the innocent Toshio standing in the corner of the room.
“Hnnghhhh...”
He heard gurgling patrolling in his ears. Unlike the last time Chen Chen heard this voice, it came from behind him this time, almost inches away!
Chen Chen felt as if his blood was about to freeze. He became petrified, unsure if it was because of the pulsing fear inside him or because of the power of Kayako. Chen Chen remained unmoving and stared into his reflection in the mirror. From his reflection, he could see two slender, delicate arms slowly creeping behind his back...
The pairs of arms constantly bent at awkward angles as if they were performing some sort of ritualistic dance. Just like Toshio in the corner, they were the color of the dead. They slowly crept up from a short distance behind Chen Chen before latching themselves onto Chen Chen’s neck!
In an instant, an indescribable feeling a.s.saulted his five senses. The harsh bite seemed to penetrate through his bones and sent across his body like an electric shock!
Just with the arms placed on his shoulder, Chen Chen felt like he was going to fall apart then and there!
“Hnnnghhhhh....”
The hoa.r.s.e gurgling sound screaming at him was just inches away now, but Chen Chen could hardly muster the strength to turn around. All he could do was stare into his reflection and saw a black object rising from behind his right shoulder in between the flickering lights.
It was a head with disheveled hair!
Chen Chen’s expression twitched uncontrollably as he made a desperate effort to turn to his right. Suddenly, he saw his world turn dark. In a few seconds, the light was turned on again. When the light returned, he saw a pair of midnight black eyes only three centimeters away from his own, gazing right into him!
Such eyes they were, completely devoid of senses and lacking any ounce of humanity. They were two bottomless abysses that screamed hatred for life!
After that, the light in the room went out again!
In this split instant, Chen Chen felt the arms behind him dragging him backward. His stream of thoughts became dull and muddy, as if just mere touch delivered great pain to him. Inside the darkness, he felt he was dragged out of the chair and into the depthless, unknown darkness...
It was at this moment when Chen Chen suddenly heard the clicking sound of a door opening beside him...
The sound sounded almost G.o.dsend. Chen Chen simultaneously felt a ray of light beaming from the door. When the light was cast on Chen Chen, he felt his body winding down and the feeling of being dragged away quickly dissipated.
When Chen Chen came to his senses, he saw that the lights overhead had returned to a normal state. He was still seated in the chair in the same position as he previously did.
“Chen Chen! You... Hm?”
Shen Qi was furious when she stomped inside. For some reason, the light in the room was turned off when she walked in. Before she could respond accordingly, there was an abrupt flash followed by the lights turning back on again.
On top of that, she felt an inexplicable chill the moment she stepped inside the room.
It was not the sort of cold felt as a mere decrease of temperature but a kind of ringing cold that penetrated deep into the bones. The moment she sensed it, she felt gooseb.u.mps rising on her body like a pulse of electricity. Such a sensation could never be related by anyone who had not experienced it.
She did not make any remark about it but instead, approached Chen Chen right away. “Chen Chen. Tell me, why did the USB drive break? Are you trying to deceive us with a fake? I’m talking to you! Chen Chen? Chen Chen!”
Shen Qi threw question after question at him. She then noticed something was off. Although Chen Chen was looking at her, his expression was unbelievably pale. His green-ish veins faintly popped from under his skin as if he had been stricken with a horrible disease. It was slightly reminiscent of the color of a corpse.
“What’s going on?”
When Shen Qi was still perplexed by this sight, the FBI branch director stepped into the room again. This time, he no longer carried his previous poise but was instead ridden by anxiety and even a slight hint of anger. When he saw Chen Chen’s face, he became shocked. “Did he commit suicide by ingesting poison? Hurry, get the doctor!”
Fortunately, the FBI had designated doctors. Within five minutes, several doctors and nurses rushed inside with devices and first aid kits in tow. Just as Chen Chen was carried on the stretcher, he began to come back to his senses.
“I, I’m alright!”
Chen Chen struggled to get up while gasping for air.
“Subdue him!”
Shen Qi barked the order. When the other officers heard this and tried to step forward, Chen Chen suddenly grabbed at the collar of his shirt and yanked it.
Two black marks were immediately revealed under his collar.
“This is?”
The doctors were astounded by the sight of it. From their point of view, the mark was even clearer and distinctly resembled the shape of two palms. The outline of each finger could not be any more vivid. The left and right hand could be clearly identified.
“This is the curse of Ju-on...”
Chen Chen brushed the mark on his shoulder but felt numbness on it. He could hardly sense anything there, not even pain.
“This is a symptom of skin necrosis. It seems to have been this way for a long time, at least half a month.”
One of the doctors frowned. “But if it’s been that long, it should’ve been inflamed by now, unlike its current state.”
The branch director became perplexed. As the highest executive officer here, he was well aware that this young man had a full-body examination conducted when they brought him in. CT scan was conducted thoroughly to search for the USB drive.
There were no visible wounds on the young man back then.
“Of course, that’s because I was attacked by the spiritual abnormality.”
Chen Chen expressed with faint anger. “Where did the psychologists go? Shouldn’t they be observing me from behind the mirror? How is it that they didn’t notice me being attacked?”
The branch director quickly turned to Shen Qi for an answer.
“After finding out about the USB drive breaking, they came with us to inspect it...”
Shen Qi answered.
“Then, that means not a single person saw me just now?”
Chen Chen let out an exasperated sigh. He cursed at the fact that such a large department would fail to oversee just one person. If not for someone barging in to interrupt Kayako, his corpse would have become stiff by now.
When Chen Chen thought of this, he suddenly caught a stray thought pa.s.sing through his mind. He tried to grab it but it seemed to escape him. He could not recall what exactly it was that he thought of.
“Hurry and inspect the wound on Chen Chen’s shoulder!”
The branch director knew that this was no time to point fingers at anyone. He hid the anger and agitation in his voice as he demanded. “Chen Chen, we’re still going to need you to confirm if the USB drive is real, we suspect that someone may have swapped it.”
“Of course, I’d like to see for myself too.”
Chen Chen nodded meekly.
After that, the host of doctors carted the stretcher out of the interrogation room and down the corridor.
It did not take long before Chen Chen arrived at an elevator at the end of the corridor. The door of the elevator was far larger and st.u.r.dier than common elevators. When the doors shuffled open, an enormous s.p.a.ce behind it was immediately revealed.
There were two armed guards already posted inside the elevator.
“Step right in.”
Following the order of the branch director, the doctors entered. The doctors waited until they had entered the elevator before they started to tend to the marks on both sides of Chen Chen’s shoulders. Meanwhile, Chen Chen investigated the elevator curiously and noted that there were no b.u.t.tons in the elevator. The elevator descended automatically after the door was closed.
It would appear that there was an underground structure under the FBI building.
Chen Chen ruminated over this. For some reason, the idea of an underground base felt vaguely familiar to him.
The elevator descended for a minute before coming to a halt. When the doors opened again, Chen Chen was greeted by the sight of a vast underground s.p.a.ce.
The s.p.a.ce was around the size of an underground parking lot except it was far taller than an underground parking lot would otherwise be. It was nearly ten meters tall and dozens of strange instruments could be seen in the plaza.
Large bundles of cables with diameter the size of an infant’s fist connected these array of devices. Some of the devices were repeatedly emitting blue flashes of light. The scenery reminded one of a futuristic steampunk film.
It would appear that this was where the USB drive was charged.
Although Chen Chen was unsure what these devices did, he first debunked one possibility by process of elimination — they were not generators.
While Chen Chen was puzzling over this, he saw six soldiers armed with live ammunition advancing toward him in a straight line. Positioned in their formation was a white-bearded elderly man dressed in a white coat.
The elderly man approached with a metal box in hand. He came in front of Chen Chen and presented the box to them before opening it.
The contents of the box were none other than the USB drive that had shattered into four irregular pieces.
“Old Yu, what’s the verdict?”
Though he was restless upon seeing the USB drive, the branch director still kept himself collected and asked courteously.
“There are no internal structures whatsoever. This USB drive is an entirely solid object.”
The professor named Old Yu picked up a piece of USB drive fragment with his hands wrapped in gloves. A hint of wonder and sorrow appeared in his eyes as he did this. “Even after magnifying its composition millions of times using the most powerful tunneling electron microscope, there’s still nothing that could be observed. This isn’t any ordinary material structure that should belong to our word. I’m sorry, with our current technology, we can hardly conduct any worthwhile a.n.a.lysis...”
The branch director first felt slightly relieved when he heard this but this was immediately followed by a sense of heaviness.
At the very least, this proved that the USB drive was the real deal and that it was not swapped at any point.
However, if the USB drive was broken, how were they going to deal with the ongoing disappearances occurring in the city?
“May I have a look?”
While the branch director was rifling through his mind, Chen Chen spoke suddenly. He held his hand out and asked the bearded elderly man, “Old Yu, I’d like to see if this is the fragment I obtained previously.”
“That won’t do. The USB drive is already ruined as is. What if you cause further damage to it?” Shen Qi immediately tried to stop Chen Chen.
“It’s alright, let him.”
It was the elderly man who handed the box to Chen Chen on his own accord. He also mentioned, “We’ve tested the toughness and resilience of these USB drive fragments. Even cut diamonds could not inflict the slightest scratch on it. We’re certain it surpa.s.ses the current scope of mankind’s technology.”
“Thank you.”
Chen Chen received the box and picked up a fragment to investigate it closely.
However, the moment Chen Chen touched its fragments, he suddenly felt a burning sensation. His grip loosened as he dropped the fragment into the box. What happened next made everyone’s eyes turn wide!
When the USB flash drive fell into the box, the fragments of the USB drive morphed into a puddle of pure black liquid. It quickly flowed toward other fragments inside the box and upon making contact with the second fragment, the second fragment melted as well. This happened subsequently to the third and fourth fragment!
A miracle happened when all the USB drive fragments melted and pooled together...