Chapter 152: Silhouette in the Rain 14 – Devolver
The infrared security grid was disrupted again, creating another gap. Just like their entry, Zhuang Ningyu and Yi Ke’s exit was smooth. The two landed steadily on the ground as everyone immediately gathered around. Ye Jiaoyue said: “Our colleagues in Zhan City have tracked Roman’s movements. It looks like he’s trying to escape by boat back to his lair, though Liam hasn’t been spotted yet.”
“He’s already made it to Zhan City in just these few days?” Yi Ke clicked his tongue. “Quite the runner.”
Roman’s forces were mainly distributed throughout Southeast Asia, making him very familiar with maritime smuggling routes. Ye Jiaoyue continued: “Director Huo’s intention is to arrest him immediately, but Zhan City wants to use him to lure out Liam. Both sides are still negotiating this.”
“I side with Director Huo. Liam probably won’t leave by sea with Roman—he’s extremely paranoid, especially since Roman’s chaotic private life has caused him trouble more than once. According to Qinya’s testimony, he’s long been dissatisfied with him.” Zhuang Ningyu looked at the screen. “Just now—”
Before he could finish, his phone vibrated twice, showing a new message, but not from the internal department network.
The signal jammer was operating normally, keeping this rule zone cut off from outside communication, so this message could only come from within the rule zone itself.
“Who is it?” Yi Ke asked.
“Gao Weicheng.” After reading it, Zhuang Ningyu handed the phone to Ye Jiaoyue. “He’s warning us that once external communication is cut off for more than three hours, the rule zone will activate its destruction protocol.”
Qinggang’s body shook: “What kind of destruction—direct spacetime distortion?” Just as he thought—criminals really don’t play fair!
Zhuang Ningyu replied: “Don’t worry, it won’t distort spacetime. This rule zone is Liam’s Eden, requiring tremendous effort—he won’t abandon it easily. By ‘destruction,’ he means destroying intruders. After three hours, dozens of ‘passages’ will open, transmitting large batches of monsters to implement an island cleansing plan. You can think of them as Liam’s domesticated army.”
Qinggang humbly asked: “Large batches—specifically how large?”
Zhuang Ningyu shook his head: “Unclear.”
Ye Jiaoyue said: “We need to find this rule zone’s rules first before we can solve it.”
The rules weren’t easy to find, because this artificial Eden-type rule zone’s main characteristic was “permanent existence,” meaning all key rules would be hidden beforehand—similar to the Neo-organism and Little Pegasus, but this island was clearly much more difficult than those two, because… there were no leads.
The Neo-organism had Zhang Yunxia’s original case, Little Pegasus had Zhuang Ningyu’s initial experience, so no matter how well the creators hid the rules, the logic chain was always laid out in plain sight, easy to deduce. But this island—so far everyone couldn’t even determine its exact location.
Besides the warning, Gao Weicheng also sent contact information. Zhuang Ningyu connected through an internal line, and the voice on the other end was as expected.
“Lullaby Island, located in international waters near Madagascar—essentially Liam’s private island.” Fu Han said. “Liam spent at least five years establishing this rule zone. I’ve already sent you the specific information.”
“You knew I was on the island?” Zhuang Ningyu asked.
“No, but I knew Liam always wanted to get you here.” Fu Han answered. “And only Cheng knows this number. Since you called, it means you and he must be in the same rule zone.”
“Is Gao Weicheng trustworthy?”
“Trustworthy.”
“Why is he in this rule zone?”
“To help me find something, but it’s not important anymore.”
Fu Han continued: “Liam has always wanted to study and utilize Cheng’s evolution ability, trying to understand why he can intensify mental contamination within rule zones, so he’s been bribing him since long ago. Cheng appearing on Lullaby Island is playing along with the plan. He himself has no problems and will fully cooperate with your operation.”
The sound of instruments beeping came through the receiver. Zhuang Ningyu asked keenly: “You’re in a hospital?”
“No.” Fu Han leaned against the hospital bed, looking at the pure white wall before him, reaching out to turn off the nearby medical monitoring equipment before continuing: “The Lullaby Island rule zone should be related to that old researcher, Nathaniel. Liam shows extraordinary concern for him.”
Nathaniel. In the materials sent by the investigation team, this old researcher had actually worked in biopharmaceutical manufacturing initially, only turning all his energy to evolution research at fifty years old. He quickly achieved some small successes—he did have some talent—but due to age, physical strength, and illness, these many years only amounted to small achievements.
After ending the call, Zhuang Ningyu reviewed Nathaniel’s information again. Very ordinary life history, very ordinary family. Married at twenty, first child at twenty-one, first grandchild at forty-nine… Seven years ago, his grandchild went missing?
The missing grandson was named Ford, 24 years old when he disappeared, a university student. The case remained unsolved. After Nathaniel also disappeared, some people connected the two incidents, speculating Ford’s disappearance might be related to rule zones, discussing it online for a while.
“Ford was an Evolver?” Ye Jiaoyue asked.
Zhuang Ningyu nodded: “Yes.”
Fu Han didn’t know much about Lullaby Island. According to the information he sent, Gao Weicheng had only landed on the island a month ago, becoming a senior patrolman, and with Fu Han’s remote help, had hacked some access privileges, but not including the central laboratory system.
“Should we trust Gao Weicheng?” Qinggang probed.
“Trust doesn’t come into it, but we can at least obtain some desired access privileges from him.” Zhuang Ningyu replied with a message. Five minutes later, the infrared detectors covering this area were indeed withdrawn, and action team members filed in. Gao Weicheng said on the phone: “The patrol system will be briefly disabled for half an hour. All researchers live in that lawn area you just passed, but currently only Nathaniel is in his room. The other researchers are in Tower One—outsiders can’t enter there. Oh, and the monster nanny taking care of Nathaniel is highly aggressive but can be killed.”
“Good.” Zhuang Ningyu asked: “You came here to find medicine for Fu Han?”
Gao Weicheng’s voice paused without answering.
Zhuang Ningyu continued: “He was still injected with the substituted NeuroX.” He used a declarative sentence, not a question.
Gao Weicheng didn’t deny it. After what seemed like extremely brief hesitation, he finally spoke: “POV3, Captain Zhuang, if you happen to see this medication, please give it to me. It should be stored in Laboratory Three or Four.”
The white-ringed sun wandered back and forth in the sky, emitting dim, pale light. Although this island tried its best to make itself look no different from the real world, it would occasionally reveal traces of AI program contamination. The flat-roofed building’s doors and windows were all locked tight, with the monster nanny inside. Through a gap in the curtains, Zhuang Ningyu saw the white-haired old man still sitting in his wheelchair, head bowed in a doze, while the monster nanny stood near the door, motionless in “standby mode.”
Zhuang Ningyu nodded slightly, making the action gesture.
The countdown was less than three hours. Currently no one knew exactly how many “monster armies” Liam had raised, so it was best to complete the mission before they were all transmitted in. Time was precious. Yi Ke pulled the trigger without any hesitation. The silver bullet penetrated the glass and, amid the crisp “crash,” precisely entered the monster nanny’s left eye!
“Bang!” Simultaneously, Qinggang kicked open the door. Nathaniel in his wheelchair hadn’t yet reacted to what was happening when he was “carried” out, person and chair together. He bounced through the air, emitting wave after wave of startled cries as his round glasses slipped from his nose. Behind him came increasingly dense gunfire. The monster nanny, dragging its riddled body, furiously lunged toward the window, only to be kicked back inside by Yi Ke. Blood splattered on the walls, horizontal cracks spreading from the large crater toward both sides, and then—”Boom!” The entire house collapsed into ruins, burying the monster nanny directly.
Nathaniel sat in his wheelchair, turning his head in shock.
Qinggang, who was pushing the wheelchair, squeezed out a very friendly smile: “How are you?”
Facing a foreigner, this chat opening couldn’t be more classic, but Nathaniel didn’t follow the script, launching into a long string of Level 4 listening test material. Between opening the portable translator and listening on the spot, Qinggang chose to quickly push the person to Zhong Mu, but the old man had already finished speaking breathlessly.
Qinggang: “…” How about you catch your breath first, then say it again?
“Your grandson is locked in the laboratory?” At the critical moment, Yi Ke strode over.
Nathaniel shook his head: “It’s his corpse that’s locked in the laboratory.”
“This rule zone is related to him?” Zhuang Ningyu also asked.
“I don’t know if this rule zone is related to Ford, but his body is preserved by Liam in Laboratory Three.” Nathaniel said. “He was frozen. Theoretically speaking, there is indeed a chance of revival, but… he didn’t have a very good life. Living would become increasingly painful for him.”
“Why?” Zhuang Ningyu glanced at his watch. “Sorry, I don’t want to rush you, but the patrol system on this island will restart soon. We must save time as much as possible.”
Nathaniel didn’t know Zhuang Ningyu, but he recognized the national abbreviation and International Joint Rescue Team logo on the action team’s chests, so he didn’t hide anything, quickly saying: “He’s a ‘Devolver’—the so-called Devolver. This setting doesn’t only appear in science fiction or games. Ford possessed a similar constitution.”
When first born, Ford was indeed an A-class Evolver, but after entering university, he regressed to B-class, and soon B-class became C-class. All subsequent medical examinations were done in his grandfather’s experimental facility without outsiders knowing, so his rating in the population system remained at A.
The devolution continued. From C-class Evolver to non-Evolver took less than two weeks. If the changes stopped there, it wouldn’t be such a bad thing—after all, non-Evolvers still constituted the majority in this world. But unfortunately, accompanying the devolution were other changes in physical indicators.
“This devolution won’t stop, which means all of Ford’s bodily functions would gradually degenerate—vision, hearing, intelligence, physical strength. In the end, he would become…” Nathaniel’s narration was steady, but still stuck on describing his grandson’s condition. He said, “When Ford was born, I actually noticed some abnormalities and began related research. Over the many years, watching him grow up healthy, I thought misfortune wouldn’t strike. But then… Later, after learning his life was hopeless, Ford disappeared. He was already in great pain then. Although I kept trying various treatments for him, the results were minimal. His devolution speed was too fast, declining at almost sandglass speed. He… only his appearance remained young.”
Only his closest family knew his pain, so when Ford disappeared, even his most loving grandfather believed his grandson chose suicide, but he didn’t inform the police because he wanted to continue using his laboratory for some experiments the government temporarily didn’t allow.
“About how to safely regress Evolvers into non-Evolvers.” Nathaniel introduced. For him, these experiments were a form of self-rescue under extreme heartbreak.
Zhuang Ningyu asked: “Are the other six experimenters doing the same experiments?”
Nathaniel nodded: “Yes, though as far as I know, they were all forced to start these experiments after coming to the island. Before landing, most were engaged in ordinary Evolver research.”
“Those experimental subjects,” Zhuang Ningyu looked at him, “are they ordinary people or Evolvers?”
“Ordinary people.” Nathaniel’s voice was aged. “Liam demands they first evolve, then devolve. Through large numbers of similar experiments, ultimately finding a gentle, effective, and one hundred percent safe devolution injection.”
“To let those lost lambs return to where they should be.”—This was Liam’s original words.
The island had at least hundreds of living experimental subjects. No one knew where they came from. The new task brought by passage-type rule zones also lay in this—action team members not only had to eliminate the rule zone but also ensure each trapped person’s landing point was safe as much as possible. Zhong Mu quickly submitted a brief report to headquarters, requesting all nations prepare to receive people. The liaison replied “Received,” simultaneously informing her that because this time’s trapped persons had complex nationalities, Liam was also a most-wanted criminal, and the rule zone’s location was in international waters, it triggered the International Joint Rescue clause—several major nations would all dispatch action teams.
“Where do they enter from?” Zhong Mu asked.
“Two researchers were swallowed by the rule zone back then, and the rule zone has existed ever since, but the local action team could never find the entrance.” The liaison said. “The locking method is similar to Blue Bird Pavilion. Currently with Team Leader He’s remote help, these two doors have been opened. Don’t worry, we have many helpers this time.”
Hearing this, Zhuang Ningyu breathed a slight sigh of relief. Then Gao Weicheng’s voice came through the earpiece again: “Captain Zhuang, the island’s security system is about to restart. If you don’t want direct conflict with them, you can temporarily retreat to the coconut grove—it’s safe there.”
Yi Ke turned to ask Nathaniel: “Do you have laboratory access?”
Nathaniel said: “No, but I know how to enter Tower One.”
Under medication, those experimental subjects’ various physical indicators changed every moment. These changes meant the experimental building’s access control couldn’t use biometric identification, but some experimental subjects had to live in normal… or rather what they believed to be normal environments. Restricting their freedom would affect experimental results. To solve related problems, Liam implanted chips in these experimental subjects’ bodies—essentially using the most primitive physical card-swiping method to open access control.
In the incineration room in the southeast corner, these chips should be findable.
…
Qinggang took out a heavy-duty cutting gun. He and another teammate, one left and one right, cut open the incineration room’s thick isolation door.
A red crack gradually melted outward. Increasingly fierce heat waves surged forth. Yi Ke quickly raised his hand, blocking part of the heat for those beside him. Through his fingers, Zhuang Ningyu could clearly see the incineration room’s giant door crashing down, and inside, one experimental subject after another being automatically conveyed onto the incineration belt. Densely packed shelves covered both wall sides, small compartments revealing different colored hair or pale feet. Those who had disappeared from various corners of the earth, after death, like sardines in a cold storage, were stuffed here without dignity.
Qinggang cursed viciously.
Zhuang Ningyu took a deep breath: “First go find the chip.”
