Gerald waited a few steps at the end of the hospital ward corridor. Seeing the two of them catch up, he quickly turned the corner.

The three of them maintained a not-too-far, not-too-close distance, with one in front and two behind. Avoiding the elevator, they hurriedly went down from the fourth floor to the basement level, slipping into a room on the left at the end of the corridor.

All three were tall with long legs. Deliberately quickening their pace, they made the trip down in just two or three minutes.

The door to the room was extremely thick. Xia Chuan and the others saw Gerald take out a card from afar and swipe it by the door before entering.

The room was large, with rows of huge steel cabinets lining the walls. Despite taking up considerable space, it gave a very empty feeling. The temperature in the room was very low, with a gloomy chill. Xia Chuan and the others couldn't help frowning upon entering.

This was clearly the hospital morgue.

Their hospital gowns were a bit thin, unable to withstand much of the cold. Just standing there for a while, they could feel their body heat rapidly dissipating.

"One and a half minutes left." Only now did Gerald raise his wrist to check his watch and finally speak.

He still had a rigid, unfeeling expression that looked extremely cold and unapproachable. So the words coming out of his mouth sounded particularly serious, "I manipulated things with Dennis and the other passengers on the ship. From the moment they boarded, I anticipated this outcome. So in those two days, I did something to every unrelated person, which is why they've lost their memories now.

"No need to worry. Of course, the company will get a different story. This is for their own good. If they retained those memories, the company certainly wouldn't let them go easily. So for now, don't fret too much, just go do what you need to do."

"I said I'm not on your side, just lending a hand. The rest isn't my business." As he spoke, he walked to a row of cabinets in the corner. Reaching behind, he felt around and the three innermost small cabinet doors simultaneously popped open.

Those three small doors looked no different in style from the other cabinet doors in the same row. They should have been pull-out freezer drawers for storing bodies. But when opened, Xia Chuan discovered a narrow connected door inside, dark and unknown where it led.

"A place the professor spent over 20 years developing. I haven't been in, but I imagine it must be quite crude. I need to get back to watch Dennis and the others. You go on in."

Xia Chuan and Shen Lan didn't hesitate, walking one after the other into the narrow space. Just as Gerald was about to close the cabinet door, Xia Chuan grabbed it and asked, "Since you're not on our side, why risk helping us?"

The door was half-closed, revealing half of Gerald's face. The usually strict and rigid German shrugged, a gesture he rarely made. "Perhaps out of a doctor's instinct, who knows." With that, he firmly shut the cabinet door.

Inside the cabinet was a long, narrow tunnel - dark, damp, nearly pitch-black, but the faint sound of dripping water could be heard from somewhere.

The tunnel sloped downward, clearly heading deep underground. A strange indescribable smell permeated it, like the musty air of a place that never sees sunlight.

The ground was a bit slippery underfoot. Sometimes they would brush against the irregular walls on both sides, sometimes even stepping on soft things, like rat carcasses.

Gerald was absolutely right, it was indeed crude.

Shen Lan cursed under his breath. His vision was too poor, he hated environments like this the most. Besides relying on his hearing, he could only have Xia Chuan lead him from in front.

Fortunately, the tunnel didn't stretch on forever. After walking a good while, a faint light finally appeared ahead. Judging from it, there was a bend up ahead. Past the bend, perhaps the tunnel was nearing its end.

"I hear the sound of instruments." Shen Lan suddenly grabbed Xia Chuan and turned sideways, "Switch, you walk behind me."

Sure enough, just as the two expected, the tunnel ended after rounding that corner. Cold white light shone out from a half-closed door. Xia Chuan finally heard the beeping of various instruments.

The two exchanged glances and pushed open the door.

A blast of chilling cold air hit them head-on, even colder than the morgue above, instantly raising goosebumps.

But no one cared about such a small matter, because the scene before them had captured all their attention. Xia Chuan even forgot to close the door.

It was a not-so-large space, half occupied by various complex instruments, with red and yellow lights flashing at different frequencies. The other half held three human-height glass cylinders, each encasing a person.

Xia Chuan's shocked gaze swept over them - Xia Liang, Xia Anyao, Gardner, not one missing.

The people who were laughing and chatting with them just the night before now lay here motionless, eyes tightly shut, faces pale, looking sickly from years of malnutrition, weak and quiet.

But no one would think they were dead based on their appearance. They were preserved too well, their time seemingly frozen over twenty years ago. Even the clothes on their bodies were unchanged, as if they would wake from slumber with just a tap on the shoulder.

Only Xia Chuan and Shen Lan knew they wouldn't wake up, because they had no heartbeat or breath now.

Several opaque rubber tubes extended from the complex instruments beside into the glass cylinders, connecting to the top of the three people's heads, chests, and wrist veins.

The two couldn't help walking over to the glass cylinders, leaning over to carefully examine the people inside, momentarily at a loss for what to do.

"What's that?" Shen Lan suddenly patted Xia Chuan's shoulder and pointed toward the instruments.

"What?" Xia Chuan looked in the direction he was pointing. Among the complex instruments, there were three small screens.

The two walked over and looked closely. The screen on the left showed silhouettes of three people with gray lines for each, which were not very clear. The screen on the right showed three smooth horizontal lines without any fluctuations.

They didn't quite understand what was on these two screens, except for the one in the middle.

The middle screen had no patterns, but displayed a few lines of text glowing with a green light--

"I have remotely controlled everything in advance, just waiting for the final injection to activate everyone. Watch the human silhouettes on the left screen, then press the blue button on the console. The silhouettes will show a change in state. When the screen displays a completion message, press the red button to inject the final dose.

"If all goes well, you will see their ECG start fluctuating again on the right screen. If anything goes wrong, please press the green button to immediately initiate a remote connection. Be sure to act quickly, I await your good news! -- Buddy Linton"

Xia Chuan and Shen Lan glanced at each other, not daring to delay any longer.

"This one." Shen Lan looked down at the console to distinguish the buttons, then pointed to an inconspicuous blue button in the middle. Seeing Xia Chuan nod, he slapped it without hesitation.

The two stared intently at the left screen, not wanting to miss the slightest change.

Green luminous dots appeared at the ends of the three silhouettes and slowly moved upward, not too slowly, but enough to make the two anxious.

About ten seconds later, the three dots had each moved to the middle of the silhouettes, slowly passing through the heart area, and gradually moving towards the brain.

Xia Chuan and Shen Lan more or less understood that they probably had to wait for the dots to make a full circuit along the silhouettes before it was finished.

They waited quietly for a few more seconds. Just as the dots were moving along the final line towards the brain after traversing all the paths, a horizontal line suddenly appeared in front of the green dot on Xia Liang's silhouette, like a barrier blocking the way.

Before Xia Chuan and Shen Lan could react, a huge red warning popped up on the screen - Error!

"What's going on!" Xia Chuan immediately raised his hand to hit the green button to remotely connect with Professor Linton, but before his fingertips could touch it, the red button lit up first.

"Not good!" The two had a gut feeling something was about to go wrong. The hand reaching for the green button pressed down without hesitation.

Professor Linton's voice and the alarm in this small space sounded at the same time.

"What's the matter? Why did the alarm go off?!" Obviously, Professor Linton also heard the situation on this side and asked anxiously.

Xia Chuan frowned and succinctly explained the situation, speaking extremely fast. Shen Lan beside him didn't even react to what he said, but fortunately Professor Linton heard clearly.

"Damn it!" He cursed under his breath, "Intercepted early by the company! Has the red button lit up?"

Xia Chuan said, "Yes!"

"There are two black mini communicators left for you on the console. Put them behind your ears and run! Get out of there!"

"What?!" Shen Lan thought he heard wrong.

"The activation signal was interfered with! That means Xia Liang will wake up, but all the information in his mind will be in chaos. In short, he'll be mentally disturbed and unstable!" Professor Linton was so anxious he was almost shouting. "Take Anyao and Gardner away, quickly!"

When ordinary people go into a frenzy, it's very hard to stop them and they can be extremely destructive, let alone when the one going unstable this time was Xia Liang.

Xia Chuan and Shen Lan's faces changed drastically. They immediately followed the professor's instructions, putting on the communicators, then opened the two glass columns on the left. Xia Chuan picked up Anyao while Shen Lan hauled Gardner over his shoulder.

The two had just straightened up when they heard a beep.

Without looking towards the third screen where the sound came from, they saw that two of the original three horizontal lines had disappeared, and the remaining one suddenly started fluctuating.

Xia Liang in the glass column abruptly opened his eyes. The pupils, extremely similar to Xia Chuan's, seemed to be shrouded in a layer of mist. He stared at a point in the void for less than a second, then suddenly sat up, looking extremely irritated, the blood vessels all over his body bulging in an instant.

Xia Chuan and Shen Lan immediately turned to pull the door, but just as their fingers touched the handle, they heard the sound of shattering glass exploding behind them, followed by something black whistling towards their backs...