Art Gallery

Chapter 19

“How pathetic,” Baihe sighed,

She didn’t know if she was lamenting the pre-contaminant Hundred Eyes, or the people hung on the walls.

“You pity her?” Shen Wang gave Baihe a strange look.

“That’s Baihe’s talent,” Zhou Xiangzhe came over just then. “Her talent is Empathy. She can fully empathize with a person or contaminant, and once she gets deep enough, she can use that empathy to control them for a minute.”

“So before every mission, Baihe has to empathize with the contaminant in advance.”

Shen Wang raised an eyebrow. “What an incredible talent.”

“You wouldn’t guess it, but it’s even a Grade A talent.” Baihe smiled at Shen Wang. “Because that one minute you can buy is absolutely critical.”

“But the downside is you take on stronger contamination when you’re empathizing.”

Baihe sighed. “Right now my Contamination Level is already at 53%. Any worse and I’ll start showing mental abnormalities. And my ability is irreplaceable. It really sucks.”

After saying that, she sank back into the emotion, gazing at the paintings on the wall with eyes so entangled and torn, as if looking at something just out of reach.

Shen Wang marveled at how deep she got into character, then chose to follow Zhou Xiangzhe and keep moving forward.

Just two steps later, a piercing scream rang out. Zhou Xiangzhe hurried forward and saw the staff member who’d been testing contamination levels up ahead, rolling on the ground.

He let out a miserable cry, blood streaming down the hand he was pressing over his eyes. Zhou Xiangzhe quickly knelt down and propped him up. The person carefully opened his hands, only to reveal nothing but bloody eye sockets — and his eyes were in his palms, rolling around with a squelch.

“Where are my eyes?!” he kept shouting. “Captain Zhou! Where are my eyes?!”

“Why can’t I see?!”

“Help me! It hurts so much! Give me back my eyes!”

After the shouting, the people present watched in horror as cracks split open across the man’s cheeks and neck at a visible speed — and those cracks opened into eyes, one after another.

All the eyes were rolling, staring straight ahead, and everyone there swallowed nervously.

Zhou Xiangzhe frowned at the eyes. “Where’s the medical team?”

“Here, here!” The medics following behind rushed over.

“Remove these eyes,” Zhou Xiangzhe said. “He’s already undergone Aberration.”

“Yes, sir!”

Three medics quickly pinned the man down. Without caring whether the environment was suitable for surgery, they injected him with anesthetic and started digging out the extra eyes growing on his body.

The Aberrant struggled and resisted, flailing his limbs in the air. “Don’t dig out my eyes! Those are my eyes!”

“Give me back my eyes!”

Zhou Xiangzhe held the man down so the medics could remove all the extra eyes, then had them escort him out.

After the incident, all that remained was a pool of blood and the eyes still rolling in the middle of it. Zhou Xiangzhe pulled a bottle of liquid from his pocket and poured it over the eyes. The strong smell of alcohol made Shen Wang realize it was probably liquor. Then Zhou Xiangzhe took out a lighter and set the alcohol and the eyes on fire.

Shen Wang: ...

Why does Zhou Xiangzhe carry booze and a lighter on a mission? Does he have cigarettes too?

The burning eyes let out tiny hissing sounds, like some small creature screaming. That’s when — bang — everyone jerked their heads up toward the ceiling. The sprinklers sprayed a massive amount of water down from above.

Zhou Xiangzhe reflexively grabbed Shen Wang behind him to pull back, but his foot stepped into empty air.

In just a second, everyone in the gallery disappeared. Only the burning alcohol and the torched eyeballs remained in the center. Every person in the paintings wore a strange smile, and piles of eyeballs grinned ferociously.

Only the sprinklers dutifully doused the flames, spitting out a broken AI warning.

“Warning! This is a gallery. No fireworks allowed!”

“Warning! Paintings are for viewing only. Do not touch!”

“Warning! Arsonist detected! Immediate punishment!”

...

When Shen Wang opened his eyes again, he found himself still in a gallery. But now the walls were old and covered in dust, reeking of decay. All the glass frames had been smashed, the shards hanging off them like sharp weapons.

“You’re awake.”

Shen Wang heard a voice behind him.

He turned around. Zhou Xiangzhe was standing not far behind him, leaning silently against the wall between two picture frames. He was bowing his head slightly, white strands of hair falling over his shoulders.

“Zhou Xiangzhe?” Shen Wang walked up to him.

He noticed that as he approached, Zhou Xiangzhe’s head tilted slightly in his direction, but it was his ears, not his eyes, that tracked him.

Shen Wang realized something and waved a hand in front of Zhou Xiangzhe’s face. Zhou Xiangzhe’s golden eyes reflected his moving hand, but his pupils were utterly still.

“You can’t see?” Shen Wang was a little surprised.

“I’m surprised you can still see, actually.” Zhou Xiangzhe pressed his fingers to his temples. “This place seems to be under the control of Hundred Eyes’ contamination talent.”

Shen Wang shrugged. He wasn’t surprised; after all, he’d never been contaminated, so it made sense he was fine.

“Probably because of my talent.” Shen Wang dredged up the talent label the containment center had stuck on him.

What was it again?

“Because of Fear Intimidation, the contamination talent didn’t affect you?” Zhou Xiangzhe recalled his talent before Shen Wang did.

“That’s for the best. At least you’re okay now.” Zhou Xiangzhe sighed. “I originally wanted you to stay with Baihe. I didn’t expect it to...”

The moment things went wrong, Zhou Xiangzhe had instinctively grabbed Shen Wang.

He couldn’t bear for anything to happen to Shen Wang again.

Taking advantage of Zhou Xiangzhe’s blindness, Shen Wang quietly looked up at the ceiling and made a rather ungraceful face.

It really was a pain.

Although his original goal was to scavenge leftovers, he’d never planned to move together with Zhou Xiangzhe. Zhou Xiangzhe was a Grade S Mutant, and acting with him made exposure way too likely.

But luckily he couldn’t see now, so for the moment he wasn’t so dangerous.

At that thought, Shen Wang brightened up again. He hummed a tune and reached out to grab Zhou Xiangzhe’s wrist.

Zhou Xiangzhe apparently hadn’t expected him to do that. His arm instantly stiffened, his eyelid quivering, but because he couldn’t see, he looked a little lost.

“I’ll guide you. Let’s take a look ahead.” Shen Wang’s voice was livelier than expected.

Zhou Xiangzhe thought to himself: Does he actually seem happy to be teaming up with me?

Is that just my imagination? But he’s humming. Shen Wang only hums when he’s happy, so his mood can’t be too bad right now.

Zhou Xiangzhe steadied his racing heart, then asked in his usual cool tone, “Do you see anyone else around?”

“No.” Shen Wang tugged him forward. “This place looks a lot like the gallery we were in before, but it’s more rundown. Dust everywhere, all the glass frames are shattered. It looks like a gallery that was destroyed a long time ago.”

“Anything else?”

“Anything else... ah.” Shen Wang stopped walking and let out a long note.

He stared at the wall ahead.

There were a few bloody handprints on the wall, along with words written in blood. The blood was still fresh, and he could smell the metallic scent.

[Welcome to the 'Hall of Art'!]

The instant he saw those words, the wall in front of Shen Wang turned into a blinding white light. After the halo faded, Shen Wang saw a long corridor that felt terribly familiar.

Porcelain-white walls, bright corridors, The Doctor in a white coat, and nurses weaving among patients.

Zhou Xiangzhe suddenly heard noisy sounds. He frowned slightly, pressing one hand to his ear. His other hand was still held by Shen Wang, so he didn’t pull it back, just strained to listen.

“What’s happening?”

Shen Wang answered, “It turned into a hospital.”

A hospital?

Zhou Xiangzhe began to consider what it meant for the gallery to suddenly morph into a hospital.

They didn’t know enough about the Grade A Contaminant Hundred Eyes. This contaminant had only recently been observed, and the dispatch team that found it had all died inside the gallery. They only had intelligence from the gallery, never expecting to suddenly be transported elsewhere, much less to be struck blind.

Shen Wang didn’t bother with all that. He just reported the situation around them to Zhou Xiangzhe.

“Parasitic contaminants and Aberrants. Low grade, large numbers.”

“The contaminants move in set patterns, going through rigid motions as doctors, nurses, patients, and family members. No capacity for thought.”

“There are paintings hanging on the hospital corridor walls, but they’re not portraits — just chaotic black lines, no shapes at all.”

“Between the paintings, eye carvings that look like craft decorations are embedded. They’re totally out of place in a hospital.”

“At the end of the corridor ahead, a ward door is swinging. That’s the only thing in this scene that isn’t following a rigid pattern.”

Zhou Xiangzhe was a bit taken aback by Shen Wang’s observational skills. These were exactly the points that mattered most on a mission. You could even say that for a dispatch team member on his first assignment, he was exceptionally sharp.

“Okay.” Zhou Xiangzhe felt an inexplicable sense of relief. “Let’s go take a look.”

As Shen Wang walked, he glanced at the paintings and eyes on the walls. He noticed that no matter where he moved, the eyes on the walls seemed to be watching them. That’s a little interesting.

The further they went, the fewer patients and medical staff there were. But the further they went, the more they could hear a strange, chaotic noise — a young girl’s screams.

Her voice was full of despair and breakdown. She sobbed and cursed, each sound like a needle stabbing into the brain.

If a normal person were here, they’d probably drop to their knees on the spot and cry themselves blind.

This was an incredibly strong Mental Contamination, more terrifying than the suicidal woman from Qianzhen Residential Area. Her level had already reached Grade C, and for a parasitic contaminant of a Grade A Contaminant, it was almost too remarkable.

“Be careful,” Zhou Xiangzhe said to Shen Wang. “This kind of Mental Contamination is hard to guard against. If anything feels off, tell me immediately.”

“Yeah,” Shen Wang replied. “Don’t worry. If there’s a problem, I’ll definitely ask for help. I won’t try to tough it out.”

“I value my life more than anything.”

Zhou Xiangzhe’s eyelashes trembled, but since he was behind Shen Wang, Shen Wang didn’t see.

More than anything... you value your life?

Zhou Xiangzhe lowered his head and said nothing more.

They walked down the long, cold-gleaming corridor, passing all the nameless patients and staff, until they finally reached the end. The girl’s crying grew clearer.

Shen Wang saw the girl in the last ward.

The girl sat on the bed crying. Her long hair had been hacked off in uneven patches, and the white cloth over her eyes was soaked with tears. On the small table by the bed there was a stack of white drawing paper. Clutching a pen, the girl kept blindly drawing chaotic scribbles.

“My eyes!” the girl wailed.

“Where are my eyes? I want eyes!”

The girl kept drawing blindly. “I want lots and lots of eyes!”

“I don’t want to be blind!”

“Give me back my eyes!!”

She drew haphazardly, but the lines kept shifting. In the end, Shen Wang saw all the lines the girl drew converge together.

They formed a single huge black eye.