Chapter 213 103: We are safe
"Don't look at me, keep doing what you were doing before." The female researcher's voice was filled with fear, which made Ivan's mind tense.

"What do you mean by what you just said?" Ivan looked away and asked anxiously in a low voice.

"11 o'clock, rest room 4." She said this with her head down, and then shut up.

Ivan chose his meal with an indescribable feeling, and followed Alexander to find a seat to sit down. When he looked towards the meal selection area, he couldn't find the female researcher with dark circles under her eyes.

"What were you talking to yourself just now?" Alexander asked suddenly.

Ivan came to his senses and opened his mouth to explain casually, but he suddenly found that Alexander's eyes were so gloomy and terrifying at this moment, which made his heart skip a beat. His body subconsciously pulled back, and his swinging arms accidentally knocked over the yogurt next to him onto the table.

"Wow! You are so excited. Are you saying something bad about me? Hahaha." Alexander joked.

Ivan panted lightly, shook his head and blinked vigorously, then looked carefully at Alexander sitting opposite him. He was smiling as usual, and it seemed that the look just now was just an illusion of his.

"I just complain about my superiors. I eat mashed potato, apple soup and bread every morning." Ivan suppressed his remaining fear, took a tissue to wipe it, and chose a question that had been complained about by many people as an explanation.

"It's just like this here. The researchers' meals are much better than ours." Alexander complained unbalancedly.

Ivan, who was wiping the yogurt, suddenly froze and looked at the soldiers in guard uniforms standing guard in the dining area.

Yes, this is the guards' cafeteria, and the researchers have a special dining area. The two have different dining locations, and the researchers don't have meal cards for their cafeteria, so...
Who was I talking to?

Thinking of this question, Ivan's forehead began to sweat.

Does that person really exist? But if he doesn't exist, why does he seem so real?

With a voice that exudes fatigue from the inside out, and a look that is like neurasthenia and mixed with despair, how could it be an illusion?

Self-doubt and the lack of rest yesterday made Ivan feel a throbbing pain between his eyebrows with every beat of his heart, and his face seemed to become hideous.

"Ivan? Are you really okay? You look uglier than the salted fish my grandma pickled. The difference is that you may not be that salty." Alexander looked at him carefully.

"Fine, I'm fine." Ivan forced a smile.

After breakfast, the two began to inspect certain rooms and security equipment according to their previous routes.

Although Ivan was a little absent-minded, he still chose to finish the work as soon as possible. Then, at almost eleven o'clock, he said goodbye to Alexander and rushed to rest room 4.

When I walked in, there were a few people sitting there, most of them were middle-level managers and above.

Ivan pretended to walk casually to the coffee counter and poured a cup of coffee. He kept glancing around, looking for the female researcher, but he didn't see her even after the cup of coffee was ready.

Just when he was almost certain that the woman was his hallucination, she, wearing a research institute coat, gently pushed open the door, glanced at Ivan, then lowered her head and found a corner to sit down.

Ivan hurried over with the freshly brewed coffee and sat opposite the woman.

"you--"

"I don't have much time, just listen to me first." She interrupted Ivan's question, snatched the coffee Ivan brought, and drank half a cup directly without being afraid of the heat.

"Black Egg, there's something wrong with that black egg. The entire lab has been contaminated. It has invisibly tampered with the minds of almost everyone except you and me."

The woman's voice was trembling and a little chilly, which made Ivan feel cold in his heart.

"My friends disappear one after another. I don't know when it will be my turn. Maybe it will be your turn first, but it doesn't matter. The result is the same. We can't escape." Her words sounded a little neurotic.

".How do you prove that what you said is true?"

"Proof? Why should I prove it? Don't you believe what you see with your own eyes? The dark shadow demon will get closer and closer until it replaces you. Some people can persist, while others will fall immediately. But it doesn't matter. It has plenty of means to wipe you out from the world." Her eyes were bloodshot, and after she finished speaking, she drank the remaining half cup of coffee in one breath.

"The only way to save it is to steal the black egg and destroy it somehow."

By the time Ivan came out of the mess of information, the female researcher had disappeared, leaving only an empty cup of coffee in front of him.

He didn't even have time to ask for the name.

Ivan sat there for more than ten minutes, constantly thinking about the truth and countermeasures, and finally decided to find his superiors to test the waters.

"You want to contact the outside world? Don't you know that the first three months are a silent period?"

"me"

"Don't worry, you are all heroes of the Northern League, and the country will take good care of the families of every hero."

His application to his superiors for external contacts was rejected as expected, but he still wanted to struggle.

"I want to inquire about a female researcher who has short blond hair and is very thin."

"Ahem, in principle, that's not allowed."

In the end, the superiors secretly gave Ivan a few photos.

"No, not her." After carefully examining the photos, none of them looked like that woman. Was it my superior who had been corrupted or was it me? Ivan couldn't tell if he was just hallucinating. If all these people were controlled by the so-called black shadow demon, what was the purpose? To rescue Heidan? But how could he not be rescued if he was already completely controlled?

The more suspicious he was, the more he felt like there were eyes watching him from behind.

In anxiety, another night comes.

That night, he stared at the sleeping Alexander with his eyes wide open, but gained nothing except a pair of red bloodshot eyes.

The shadowy demon did not appear, and Alexander did not behave abnormally.

Perhaps, the hallucination has passed?
The next day, Ivan became even more taciturn, and Alexander was in no mood to joke around, so the atmosphere between the two became somewhat dull.

But Ivan noticed that Alexander seemed to be communicating with someone secretly, perhaps talking to himself, and his eyes looked towards him from time to time.

What are “they” talking about and what are they planning?
The guards' weapons were kept in the equipment warehouse except when they were on duty. There was not even a fruit knife in the dormitory. Ivan, who was full of a sense of crisis, secretly hid a table knife in his sleeve to protect himself.

In the afternoon, he went to see a psychiatrist.

"I think you must be too nervous. Relax. This is one of the safest places in the country." The psychologist on the chair comforted him.

As a closed research environment, this base is naturally equipped with psychologists. However, in order to prevent some people from seeking medical treatment when they do not have any illness due to the outbreak of male hormones, the psychologists here are all men.

"You can tell me everything you saw. After all, hallucinations may be the projection of certain thoughts deep in your heart. If you understand hallucinations, you may understand where your worries come from." The psychologist slowly enlightened.

Ivan hesitated whether to tell his experience, but when he looked up, it seemed as if a dark shadow passed by the doctor.

The female researcher's reminder kept echoing in my ears: It will replace it, replace it.

"I, I just don't seem to have slept well. Maybe I'll be fine after a good sleep." Ivan forced a smile.

As a psychologist, he could guess some of the answers, but he didn't force it: "Rest well first. If you have any questions, feel free to come to me first. Don't put too much pressure on yourself. If you need to take a leave, I can give you a certificate. I see that you seem to have a mouth ulcer, which is also related to the adjustment of your mood."

His words made Ivan feel much more relaxed: "Thank you."

After leaving the clinic and returning to Alexander, he finally couldn't stand the sleepless night anymore. He said goodbye to Alexander and went back to the dormitory to catch up on his sleep.

In his dream, he saw the black egg that he had only caught a glimpse of. It was placed alone in a heavily guarded, fully transparent laboratory. Countless people were studying it, trying to crack its secrets.

Under his gaze, a distorted smiling face slowly appeared on the smooth surface of the black egg. Black tentacles ignored the protective barriers and connected to the heads of researchers one after another. They seemed unaware. As more and more people were connected, the researchers slowly stopped the work in their hands, suddenly turned their heads in unison, and looked in Ivan's direction with silent laughter.

"Ivan, why don't you join?"

"You are an outlier."

"Ivan! Ivan!"

Ivan opened his eyes suddenly, only to see Alexander standing so close to him. He was so scared that he tried to distance himself from him. He didn't even notice the bang on his head. He tightly grasped the knife in his sleeve: "Alexander, what are you doing?!"

"I just asked you to have dinner." Alexander forced a smile and retracted his right hand unnaturally.

It was like, as if there was a knife hidden. "I'm not hungry," Ivan refused.

Alexander nodded: "Okay, then I'll go alone."

After saying that, he turned around and left the dormitory without caring about Ivan.

Covering the back of his head, Ivan felt his pounding heartbeat and tried hard to hold on to a thread in his confused mind.

Regardless of whether what he dreamed was true or false, from now on, he had to be extremely vigilant against Alexander.

late at night.

Ivan opened his eyes.

Alexander, who was lying on the opposite bed, was breathing steadily and was obviously fast asleep.

Ivan climbed out of bed quietly, holding the table knife, stood in front of his bed, and stared at Alexander closely.

His palms were sweating, and he didn't know how long he had been staring at the other person. He even suspected that Alexander was awake and just pretending to be asleep. So he slowly moved his head closer, with his hands ready to stab the other person's throat at any time.

Alexander remained motionless, breathing quietly.

Ivan finally didn't make up his mind to take action. He slowly climbed back onto the bed and continued to stare at him.

You can't feel the dawn underground, but there is light to compensate. Every morning the dormitory lights will automatically light up with a soft light, and that's when it's time to go to work.

"By the way, you slept so much yesterday, didn't you wake up at night?" Alexander suddenly asked while yawning during breakfast.

"No." Ivan shook his head calmly.

"No nightmares, huh?"

"No, I slept well."

"Oh." Alexander said nothing more and ate his breakfast silently, but his eyes were wandering around, and no one knew what he was looking at.

".Something big happened last night, and you haven't heard about it until now?" The conversation at the next table attracted Ivan's attention.

"There was a female researcher who suddenly went crazy and killed her roommate. She also said that the other person was a demon or something like that. She was talking nonsense and has now been detained."

"What did you use to kill him?"

"That's it."

The man raised the knife in his hand and inserted it into the bread. "With such a blunt knife, she couldn't even cut the meat, but she cut off the man's head. Isn't it scary?"

"Does she have short blonde hair?" Ivan interrupted nervously.

"I don't know about that." The man shook his head.

Ivan continued to eat the tasteless food with a heavy heart, while Alexander, who was sitting opposite him, disappeared.

In the morning, the base issued a notice to start forcing everyone to undergo a mental health check-up, which had to be completed within a week. I guess those psychologists are going to curse.

In the afternoon, Alexander, who had disappeared for half a day, came back. Ivan did not ask him where he had been. There seemed to be an invisible barrier between the two of them. They did not say more than ten sentences throughout the day.

This situation continued until late at night.

When Ivan thought Alexander was asleep and opened his eyes, what he saw was Alexander staring at him with his eyes wide open.

The two of them suddenly fell into this strange stare-at-one, without saying a word.

After a while, Alexander slowly turned around and turned his back to Ivan.

Ivan breathed a sigh of relief quietly, and slowly, he began to feel sleepy. His eyelids seemed to be getting heavier and heavier, and he seemed to hear someone whispering in his ears.

"Ivan, Ivan, be careful of Alexander."

It was the voice of the female researcher.

Ivan's eyes suddenly widened, and he was surprised to find that a dark shadow had stood in front of his bed at some point, just like the dark shadow demon he had seen at the beginning, while Alexander was clearly still lying on the bed.

The black shadow raised his hand, and there seemed to be a silver light flowing.

Ivan couldn't bear it any longer. He shouted loudly, took out the dinner knife that was already wet with sweat, jumped up from the bed, and stabbed hard at the neck of the shadow demon.

He felt a sharp pain in his shoulder, as if he had been pierced by something from the other party. But now the situation had come to this, it was either you or me!
The knife felt dull when inserted into the meat, but he still tried his best to cut the opponent's throat. It was not until the gurgling sound was heard that Ivan felt his vision twisted and the black shadow demon under him had changed into the appearance of Alexander.

He pointed at Ivan tremblingly and uttered the unclear word "devil" with difficulty.

Ivan gasped violently and slowly looked towards the bed. Alexander on it had disappeared, which meant that the person he was pressing down was Alexander.

Alexander struggled for a while, then gradually lost his breath and died completely.

Ivan dropped the knife in his hand, pulled his hair, and felt a splitting headache.

What did he do? What did he do? Is Alexander a demon? How can a demon die from a table knife? Or is this a dream, and all this is just a trick of the devil?

"Ivan! Ivan! Follow me, time is running out!"

The female researcher opened the door and waved to him nervously.

Ivan chased after him without hesitation, as if he had grabbed a life-saving straw.

"here!"

The female researcher would appear at every corner, guiding him forward and bringing him all the way to the core of the laboratory.

However, the researchers who were still working overtime here ignored him even though he was covered in blood, as if they saw nothing.

Finally, he passed through one defense after another and arrived at the storage point of the black eggs.

"Where are you? Where are you?!" Ivan turned around and shouted.

The female researcher disappeared, and there was no one here except for the black egg that was blocked by layers of barriers.

The aerospace-grade glass was lowered silently, and the last barrier between Ivan and Heidan was removed.

"I'm right here."

The black egg slowly turned around, and the face on it was that of the female researcher.

Ivan froze in place, as if he had been completely fooled by the devil.

I saw the black egg began to surge, and then like a flower, the petals opened layer by layer, and tiny things as big as bees kept pouring out from it and scattered everywhere.

Finally, the head of the female researcher crawled out of the black egg, and her neck was covered with twisting tentacles.

"Come here, Ivan, you don't have to be afraid anymore. No one can hurt you here. You are a good boy."

"Yes, there are demons outside. It's scary."

Ivan's eyes gradually became blurred, and he walked forward uncontrollably, and stretched his head towards the head.

The tentacles crawled up Ivan's outstretched arm, slowly moving to the wound on his shoulder, and then one by one they slid into the wound, like a grafted flower growing a second head.

The female researcher turned her head, her forehead almost touching Ivan's, and breathed softly.

"Now, we are safe."

(End of this chapter)