Chapter 19 019 Peaceful Part 1
Crossing the zebra crossing, carefully avoiding the speeding electric bike riders on the pedestrian path, and then stepping onto a white sky bridge equipped with an escalator. Walking across the street, and then proceeding along the sidewalk to the right for three hundred and fifty meters, Li Chengyi finally arrived at the New Century Building as described by Sindra.
Before he approached the building’s entrance, which was guarded by security, a young woman stationed by the door proactively greeted him. “Are you Mr. Chengyi?” she inquired, dressed in a black OL (office lady) suit with the hem of her skirt a bit short, revealing her fair and slender legs, her brownish-yellow curly hair draped over her shoulders, her face lightly made up with eyebrows that seemed overly groomed, resembling two pencil leads.
“Yes, that’s me,” Li Chengyi recognized the person meant to meet him and nodded slightly.
“Please follow me; the entrance to the company is not here.” She smiled, displaying a professional receptionist’s grin, and spoke softly.
“Alright,” Li Chengyi looked up once more at the building. A sense of urgency suddenly surged in his heart. According to Sindra, Dead End would return in two months. This was not a game; surviving it came with no rewards. Therefore, he must make all preparations to respond as quickly as possible within these two months.
Moreover, if he could utilize Sindra’s resources to find a way to evolve his scalesuit, then his chances of getting through Dead End would significantly increase. From the moment he first shredded the face of the monster with the scalesuit, enabling his survival, Li Chengyi understood that his greatest hope lay in the malevolent flower.
Relying on his intellect, which was at an ordinary person’s level, was insufficient. Following the woman around to a side entrance used by office staff, they took a dedicated elevator. Soon, the elevator stopped on the nineteenth floor. The door opened to rows of neatly arranged office desks and chairs.
The working staff were seated orderly beside their desks, occasionally operating their computers, some speaking on the phone, appearing very busy. “This way,” the woman leading the way reminded him with a smile and walked ahead. “Okay,” Li Chengyi followed her, passing desk after desk until they approached a dim corridor at the back.
At the end of the corridor was a room with its door half-open. Standing in front of a floor-to-ceiling window inside was a man smoking a cigarette.
Dressed in a silver-black suit, a white shirt underneath, and a slicked-back hairstyle, one hand tucked into his trouser pocket, the other holding the cigarette.
Li Chengyi recognized him at a glance; it was Sindra, whom he had met before.
Glancing at the woman guiding him, she gestured invitingly with her hand.
“Ahem.” Li Chengyi advanced, walking through the corridor, pushing the door open, and entering the office at the end.
“Arrived?” Sindra turned around, extinguishing his cigarette in an ashtray on the desk. “The contract on the desk, take a look. If you agree, sign it. If not, forget it.” He pointed to a yellow wooden desk.
The office was not large, arranged from left to right with a black leather sofa, a low coffee table, a small whiteboard for writing, two movable computer chairs, and a rectangular office desk. The setup was hurried and minimal, like that of a shell company.
Li Chengyi cast his glance on the wooden desk, where three bottles of drinks were placed. There were two black bottles of Kachi Cola, and one bottle of Yunshan mineral water, all 500ml. The contract document was pressed under the bottle of red plastic-wrapped mineral water.
He stepped forward, moved the mineral water away, and picked up the straightforward document to read. The content was simple, agreeing to work in Sindra’s company, arriving and leaving on time every day without specific job duties or restrictions. However, the monthly salary was detailed.
With such generous terms, there was no reason not to sign. Immediately picking up a pen from beside, he briskly filled in his name.
“Later, leave a bank account number in the finance room,” Sindra reminded, turning his face.
“What about the information? About Dead End,” Li Chengyi asked the part he was most concerned about.
“Let me ask you first, do you know how many types of Dead Ends there are?” Sindra inquired. Simultaneously, he slowly walked to the door and shut it.
“Types?”
“Yep, there are many kinds of Dead Ends, so you need to specify what type of Dead End you entered. That way, we can accurately search for information.”
After closing the door, he pulled out a silver-black object, similar to a USB drive, from his pocket and handed it to Li Chengyi.
“Just point it at a whiteboard or wall and turn it on.”
Li Chengyi took the object, inspecting it closely; it seemed to be a miniature flashlight. There was a simple switch button on the side.
He flipped it around, aiming the light bulb end at the left white wall and pressed the button.
Hiss.
A beam of white light emanated from the device, projecting onto the white wall.
Instantly, the wall displayed a colorful large screen measuring over four meters in width.
The screen was filled with rows of yellow folders, neatly arranged, totaling at least a hundred. “These are the Dead End files I’ve collected. Quite a lot, right?” Sindra commented softly from behind.
“Quite a lot.” Li Chengyi squinted, carefully examining the names of these folders, which were purely numerical codes.
“First off, there’s something important about Dead Ends you should know,” Sindra continued. “Dead Ends usually have only two ways to leave.”
He held up two fingers.
“First, among the people who enter together, each time one dies, the others can temporarily leave once. Two months later, they will enter again. This is one of the reasons why we call this phenomenon Dead End.”
Li Chengyi’s pupils shrank, thinking about his current situation. “Is it like what I’m experiencing now?” he asked.
“Yes. In the Dead End you entered, someone must have died, which is why you were allowed to temporarily leave. Of course, the interval between leaving and re-entering is not necessarily fixed at two months. This is just an average we’ve calculated,” Sindra elaborated.
“The second way to leave is to completely find a way out of Dead End. Each Dead End has a unique way out, and these methods are bizarre but related to their origins. That’s why I established this company, to gather a few special individuals to help me investigate this aspect.”
“How many people have joined you, like me?” Li Chengyi inquired.
“Not many,” Sindra replied succinctly.
“How ‘not many’?” A bad feeling rose in Li Chengyi.
“Including you, just two,” Sindra said lightly. “At most, there were about ten people, but eventually, only two remained.”
“They all died?” Li Chengyi felt somewhat choked up and asked in a lower tone.
“Perhaps. Anyway, for those of us who haven’t entered a Dead End, they’ve all disappeared. Alive without a trace, dead without a body,” Sindra sighed.
“So, if many people enter a Dead End at the same time, doesn’t that mean they can extend their survival time by continuously letting one person die until they find a way out? That means there must be people who have completely left Dead Ends, right?” Li Chengyi quickly realized.
“There are, and there aren’t,” Sindra replied.
“What does that mean?”
“Literally,” he stood beside Li Chengyi, looking towards the projection screen on the wall.
“Indeed, some have found ways to leave Dead Ends by using the method you mentioned. However, they also encountered another major problem.”
“What problem?”
“For every death within a Dead End, the danger for the others significantly increases the next time they enter.”
“Increases… How much?”
“I don’t know,” Sindra shook his head. “My son disappeared in one, and I’d also like to know if it’s possible to completely escape from a Dead End.”
“What about those who found a way out?” Li Chengyi asked further.
“They encountered a new Dead End two months later until they disappeared.”
Li Chengyi finally understood why this phenomenon was called Dead End.
“Don’t worry, the longest record is from an official; he managed to survive over thirty Dead Ends. Try hard, and maybe you can do it too!” Sindra patted his shoulder, trying to comfort him.
“So, you want to find your son? Didn’t you say he was dead?” Li Chengyi continued asking.
“Maybe just missing.”
“Alright.” Li Chengyi didn’t ask further. “How should I start?”
“From beginning to end, how you entered, what it was like inside, how you left, tell me everything,” Sindra became serious.
Li Chengyi didn’t delay, recounting how he initially noticed the premonition, fully entered later, encountered monsters, and so on.
However, he omitted anything related to the malevolent flower, thus also concealing the monster’s face being torn apart.
No matter what, the abilities of the malevolent flower and the scalesuit were his biggest trump cards, and he couldn’t risk any leaks.
“You mean, you met someone who brought guns in?” Sindra pondered and asked.
“Yes. That person was definitely prepared; otherwise, he wouldn’t have directly rushed to the crevice where I hid. Also, I saw strange symbols at the entrance of that sudden crevice,” Li Chengyi replied.
“The premonition allows you to prepare supplies in advance, so it’s natural for others to do the same. If someone with a gun permit managed to bring firearms into Dead End, it would be considered normal. I’m just not sure if he is from the official side. No… probably not…” Sindra stroked his chin.
“What should I do?” Li Chengyi asked, frowning.
“To survive, you must not only face the inherent dangers of Dead End but also learn to deal with threats from other people. Among these threats, weapons are likely the biggest,” Sindra said, moving to the whiteboard and quickly writing a few words with a black marker.
“Physical fitness, weapons, response patterns.”
“These three areas are what you need to focus on learning these two months if you want to keep living.”
Li Chengyi set down the projector flashlight and looked towards the whiteboard.
“Do you have a plan?”
“Of course. The floor below here is all rented out by me, serving as an indoor training center for you and another assistant. As for weapons, you need to learn how to protect yourself against various weapons first. Then, how to use them yourself.
Why learning to master weapons comes later is because ordinary weapons, including firearms, are weak against the various dangers inside Dead Ends. The biggest use of guns is against people.”
“I thought you had a big organization behind you,” Li Chengyi suddenly blurted out.
(End of chapter)
