Shortly after seven o'clock in the morning, the darkness between heaven and earth began to fade away.
Yun City was still covered in a hurried, fine drizzle.
The eastern suburbs medical school looked exceptionally bleak in the rain.
But amidst this bleakness, there was a hint of liveliness.
At seven o'clock, Zhang Fenglan made breakfast for her son Zhang Baobao and Old Seventh in the ward.
At eight o'clock sharp, Liu Yuan arrived at work.
She first went to Lu Yuan's break room to wake him up, but didn't hear anyone respond from inside the room.
Liu Yuan pursed her lips, looked at the drizzle outside, and after searching through the rooms on the first and second floors, she headed straight for Lu Yuan's Surgery Room #2 in the basement.
"Ding dong!" The bell in the operating room rang, then Liu Yuan's voice came through the pager, "Boss, time to get to work."
No one responded.
"Boss, stop fiddling with your treasures, you still have to operate on someone today!"
Surgery Room #2 remained eerily quiet.
"Ding dong!"
"Ding dong!"
"Boss?"
Liu Yuan stood outside the door for a while, rang the doorbell several times in a row, and called out several times but no one answered.
She then called Lu Yuan's cell phone.
No one picked up.
Finally, Liu Yuan leaned against the operating room door and waited for half an hour. During this time, there was not a peep from inside Surgery Room #2.
"Boss? I'm going to get someone to carry you out!"
Leaving this message behind, Liu Yuan headed towards the basement level two.
There were a total of three basement levels. Between each level was a long rotating staircase passageway.
Because each level had a high ceiling, there was a mezzanine level next to each rotating staircase passageway between the floors.
As she passed through the mezzanine area between basement level one and basement level two, Liu Yuan glanced at the door in the mezzanine.
That's where she lived.
When she reached the mezzanine area between basement level two and basement level three, Liu Yuan's footsteps clearly became much lighter.
Looking at the door of this mezzanine level, a deep chill rose in Liu Yuan's eyes.
She didn't dare linger here at all, and lightly stepped past it quickly, arriving at the bottom basement level three.
Unlike the ordinary doors on the upper two warehouse levels, the basement level three warehouse door was pitch black like ink. It was nearly ten meters wide on both sides and five meters tall.
The entire door was carved from two intact slabs of Vajra Rock. Except for a small side door, the two door slabs were seamlessly integrated, with no signs of being pieced together.
Liu Yuan stopped in front of this majestic door, looking up at it, feeling the strong sense of oppression it exuded. In her eyes was a complex expression.
These two doors were more like an underground city gate rather than a warehouse door.
However, intricate patterns and depictions of strange creatures dancing, worshiping, and some gruesome, bloody scenes were carved on the city gates, making them look very eccentric.
Liu Yuan's gaze swept across the right corner of the door, where a green-faced long-haired monster was depicted sucking brain fluid through a tube inserted into the top of a human head.
Seeing this, the corners of Liu Yuan's tempting cherry lips moved slightly.
Shortly after, she took out a carton of milk from her nurse's uniform, inserted a straw, and gently sipped.
Withdrawing her gaze, Liu Yuan re-examined the two Vajra Rock door panels. She had always believed that these doors were definitely not Lu Yuan's work.
Based on her understanding of Lu Yuan, Doctor Lu had absolutely no interest in these gods, ghosts and the like.
The only things that could pique Doctor Lu's interest were the anatomical structures of unknown creatures.
Not until she finished the milk did Liu Yuan open the small side door and enter.
Behind the two huge iron gates was a long, pitch-black corridor with no end in sight.
The layout here was similar to the first floor of the clinic. On both sides of the corridor were two rows of neatly arranged rooms.
Liu Yuan walked to the door of the room closest to her, took out an antique bronze key from her pocket, inserted it into the keyhole, and turned it.
Click—
The door opened.
As soon as the door opened a crack, a beast-like roar erupted urgently from inside!
But this beastly roar held no ferocity or viciousness, instead it was full of tremendous panic and unease!
"Roar, roar!"
"Roar—"
Hearing the commotion behind the door, Liu Yuan sighed silently, "Careless, I forgot there's Doctor Lu's scent on the nurse's uniform, it frightened the little darling inside..."
Then Liu Yuan took off the nurse's uniform draped over her body, folded it neatly, and placed it outside the door.
The chaotic, panicked roaring from inside the room finally calmed down after that.
Liu Yuan entered the pitch-black room, already accustomed to it. She groped for the candle stand and candle on the wall, strike—
The weak candlelight illuminated most of the room.
The room wasn't big, around seventy to eighty square feet.
The floor was paved with black stone slabs, unlike modern flooring, nor like floor tiles from the last century.
It looked more like ancient floor tiles.
At this time, in the corner of the room, a muscular figure was curled up.
Liu Yuan seemed very familiar with that figure. She casually grabbed an alloy steel chain hanging on the wall and walked over to the muscular figure.
"Roar—"
The muscular figure curled up in the corner kept growling, seemingly very nervous.
Liu Yuan reached out and gently stroked the fur on the figure's head, speaking in her gentlest tone, "There there, this time there's no blood drawing or flesh cutting, just a small favor like last time."
It was unclear whether the muscular figure could understand Liu Yuan's words. It kept desperately burrowing towards the corner behind it.
But behind it was just the cold hard wall, so where could it burrow to?
It was only when Liu Yuan put the chain around its neck that the muscular figure stopped its futile struggle.
Clank—
Click!
With the sound of the chain rattling and a lock clicking into place, the muscular figure slowly started moving towards the room door.
Passing by the candle stand in the room, Liu Yuan could clearly see that this muscular figure was actually a Human Infectors.
The Infected referred to those mutated, bloodthirsty humanoid creatures in the Pollution Source Area that had lost their humanity after inhaling the contaminated spiritual energy.
Furthermore, these humanoid creatures could turn normal organisms they attacked into Infectors as well.
In layman's terms, they were called Zombies.
Of course, since there were Human Infectors, there must also be Beast Infectors.
At this time, Liu Yuan was leading this Infected behind her. The two left Room #1 one after the other.
Back in the dark corridor again, Liu Yuan looked back towards the end of the corridor.
The pitch-black corridor showed no end in sight.
It was impossible to tell how many rooms were here.
Moreover, there was no telling what was inside these countless rooms.
...
The three basement levels covered over 20,000 square meters.
Level one contained Lu Yuan's exhibits.
Level two held the biological prostheses Lu Yuan provided to patients and the mechanical prostheses Lu Yuan replicated.
While level three had all sorts of living creatures locked up.
Whether it was the exhibits on level one, the prostheses on level two, or the living creatures on level three, these were all Lu Yuan's treasures.
Oh right, there were also the things in those two mezzanine levels.
Ordinary people could never imagine how obsessively Lu Yuan, as a surgeon, studied the anatomical structures of creatures.