The walls pulsed like living organs, faint blood mist seeping through to shroud Chen Ge's body. The layer of blood membrane coating his skin was still thickening.
The world behind the door seemed frozen at the very moment it had been pushed open. The architecture was identical to the underground morgue from that time.
The core area had originally been used for processing fat and connective tissue en masse. In reality, it had been sealed off for various reasons, until Doctor Gao had built it into a special laboratory out of stacked corpses.
"You just need to get used to it. Nothing to be scared of."
Chen Ge was speaking to Li Xu and Ma Wei. The two of them had been trying for a long while but still couldn't bring themselves to step even half a foot out of the room. They shook their heads frantically.
"For ordinary people just getting exposed to this kind of thing, it really is a bit too much to handle."
Chen Ge pointed at the room behind them, didn't push, and walked forward alone.
A world of grotesque absurdity—corridors of flesh and blood, blood mist drifting everywhere. This place was like a nightmare you couldn't wake yourself up from; once you stepped in, you'd sink deeper and deeper.
The lights overhead had turned into living eyeballs, emitting no glow. All you could see was crimson.
After staying here for a while, a strange feeling would creep in—as though you had always belonged here, that you were part of this world.
Lining both sides of the corridor were doors streaked with blood vessels. Chen Ge tried opening several of them. Inside were all manner of inconceivable instruments, most of them formed from flesh and blood, though a few contained ordinary mechanical components beneath their fleshy outer layers.
"What a lunatic's world."
Passing through the corridor, at the first corner, Chen Ge spotted a living person.
About five or six meters ahead, a little girl in a white dress was crouching beside the flesh-and-blood wall, holding a lustrous, inviting-looking apple in her hands. Her eyes were fixed on the pulsing organs on the wall, seemingly lost in thought.
The girl before him took Chen Ge by surprise. Whether it was the spotless white dress or that pure, adorable face—flawless and exquisitely delicate—every part of this girl stood in the starkest possible contrast to the world beneath her feet.
Why would a girl like this appear in a world made of flesh and blood?
Chen Ge stepped around the corner and slowly approached.
The girl heard his footsteps. She seemed never to have expected anyone to appear here. Like a startled fawn, she spun around in a panic, and the apple slipped from her hands, tumbling to the ground.
Chen Ge watched the apple roll to his feet and picked it up.
The apple looked enticing, but holding it felt far from pleasant—slippery, soft, and pulsing as though it were still alive.
"Is this really an apple?" When Chen Ge picked it up, the girl tensed visibly. She wanted to rush over and snatch it back, but she was also afraid.
"Something's off." Chen Ge set the apple down in front of the girl and backed away a few steps.
Seeing him yield, the girl immediately ran over and hugged the apple to her chest.
Her face was no bigger than a palm, and combined with her flustered expression, she looked utterly adorable.