Looking up at the ceiling, Lin Jie pulled out his small knife. With a gentle twist of his wrist, he cut a circular hole large enough for a single person to pass through in the tal sh grid.
Putting the knife away, his hands gripped the edges of the hole. Using his core strength, his entire body slipped through as silently and lightly as a cat.
This was the underground interstitial space of St. Mary's Hospital.
Located between the basent and the first-floor wards, it was a dedicated maintenance layer for running various pipes and wiring.
The space was extrely cramped, with a height of only about one and a half ters. An adult couldn't stand upright here, only hunch over or crawl.
Surrounding them was complete darkness.
Only the light from the hand lantern, dimd to its lowest setting, barely illuminated a few ters ahead.
Within the visible range, densely packed pipes intertwined like a giant spiderweb.
There were cast iron pipes for hot water, black rubber pipes for gas, and thick cables for electricity.
But among these conventional pipes, sothing stood out as particularly conspicuous.
They were several brass pipes, each only about the thickness of a wrist.
Their surfaces were polished to a gleaming shine, reflecting faint light even in the darkness.
At every connection point, these copper pipes had precision flanges and inspection ports.
They resembled the blood vessels of this building, extending in all directions, ultimately converging deep into the walls.
"This is a voice pipe system."
Julian also climbed up. He pushed his glasses up his nose and whispered.
"Before telephones beca widespread, this type of pipe system was the primary ans of internal communication in large institutions."
"Doctors and nurses transmitted instructions through these pipes, and the sound could travel quite far."
Lin Jie nodded.
He signaled for everyone to stay quiet, then began moving forward.
The floor beneath their feet was covered with a thick layer of acoustic felt, intended to prevent the footsteps of maintenance personnel from disturbing the patients below.
But this actually facilitated their infiltration.
William followed closely behind, his gun barrel always held level, ready to respond to any potential threats.
Evelyn walked in the middle of the team. Her Echo Goggles were significantly interfered with in this environnt full of tal structures, her vision filled with chaotic lines.
The team progressed slowly; the terrain here was too complex.
Crisscrossing pipes created countless blind spots, and a sentry could be hiding behind every corner.
Suddenly, Lin Jie stopped.
He raised his right fist, making a "halt" gesture.
About ten ters ahead of him, a fork appeared.
The left passage led towards the hospital's main building area, where lights were bright, and faint footsteps could be heard from above.
The right passage led to an even deeper, more secluded area. The pipes there were denser, and all the copper pipes converged in the sa direction.
That should be the direction of the underground containnt area, the entrance to the so-called "Morgue."
But right in the middle of that intersection hung an inconspicuous tal bell.
That was no ordinary bell.
It was a chanically triggered alarm, connected to the surrounding pipes by several extrely thin fishing lines.
If anyone touched those fishing lines, or if footsteps caused too much vibration, the bell would ring.
Once it rang, the sound would travel through those voice pipes, spreading throughout the entire hospital in an instant.
"Watch for traps."
Lin Jie turned his head back and whispered to his teammates behind him.
"Stay close to the left wall, watch for the fishing lines underfoot."
His voice was very soft, controlled to a volu only those nearby could hear.
William nodded, indicating he understood.
The veteran adjusted his posture, preparing to move close to the left wall as Lin Jie instructed.
But at that mont, William's movent suddenly froze.
A flash of confusion passed through his eyes, followed by shock.
He looked at Lin Jie. "What are you saying?"
"You want us to just charge right into it?"
Lin Jie frowned. He hadn't told William to charge.
His instruction was very clear: stick to the left wall, avoid the trap.
"William, keep your voice down."
Julian imdiately stepped forward, trying to grab William's arm.
"Lin was telling us to avoid it. You misheard."
William shook off Julian's hand. "I heard it perfectly clearly."
"He said: 'Charge over, tear that bell down!'"
Julian froze. He looked at William in horror, then at Lin Jie.
He had also heard Lin Jie's words just now.
But what he heard was completely different from William.
In his ears, Lin Jie had said: "Julian, you go first, ring that bell."
That was also a suicidal instruction.
"Sothing's wrong."
Julian took a step back. His hand reached into his coat, gripping a bottle of blinding agent.
"Lin Jie wouldn't give such an order."
"Who are you?"
Julian stared warily at Lin Jie's back, his eyes filled with suspicion.
"Were you replaced at so point? Or are you being controlled?"
The situation spiraled out of control instantly.
Each person had heard a different instruction, and all were illogical, highly destructive orders.
Evelyn stood at the very back. She covered her ears, a pained expression on her face.
"Stop arguing!"
She scread.
"What are you all shouting about? Why are you attacking each other?"
In her hearing, Lin Jie, William, and Julian had just been hurling vicious insults at each other, using extrely foul language.
Lin Jie's face darkened.
He didn't panic because of his teammates' questioning, nor did he try to explain himself verbally. He maintained his composure.
He realized the problem wasn't with the people; it was with the sound.
In this confined space, the transmission of sound had suffered so fatal distortion.
Soone, or sothing, had intercepted Lin Jie's original instruction, broken it apart, reassembled it, turned it into completely opposite false information, and then fed it into his teammates' ears.
This was an extrely sophisticated psychological tactic.
It exploited humanity's reliance on language, exploited the trust between teammates, and manufactured internal strife.
If not stopped in ti, they would attract guards with their arguing before even seeing the enemy.
"Shut up." Lin Jie opened his mouth, silently mouthing the words.
He charged directly at William.
Seeing Lin Jie charge, William instinctively raised his rifle butt, preparing to block.
In his perception, this was an attack launched by an unknown enemy.
But Lin Jie was too fast, and Lin Jie didn't attack.
As he got close to William, he forced himself to brake, then reached out and clamped his hand over William's mouth.
Imdiately after, his other hand covered William's ear.
Physical isolation.
William was stunned for a mont. He looked at Lin Jie, so close.
Those black eyes held no killing intent, only warning.
Lin Jie released his hands, pointed to his own ear, then waved his hand in a "no" gesture.
As a veteran, William cald down imdiately. He took a deep breath and nodded.
Although the voice he heard just now felt terrifyingly real, he chose to trust the look in this man's eyes.
Lin Jie turned and repeated the process, stopping Julian and Evelyn's panic.
The four of them regrouped. No one spoke; the entire interstitial space fell back into deathly silence.
Lin Jie walked over to the dense row of voice pipes. He reached out, gently stroking the cold pipe wall. A faint vibration transmitted to his fingertips.
He activated the Spiritual Sonar module of his Cursebreaker Vambrace.
Although suppressed here, at such close range, the sonar still picked up an anomaly.
There was sothing inside the pipes.
"William."
Lin Jie made a hand signal, pointing to his own eyes, then to those copper pipes.
[Use your eyes to look.]
William understood.
Zulu's Gaze activated.
In this visual field, the superficial appearance of matter was stripped away, and the trails of spiritual nature could not hide.
William's pupils contracted sharply.
He saw that inside the brass pipe walls, they were packed with disgusting creatures.
They had no limbs, no eyes, no fixed shape.
They looked like elongated clumps of wet, gray pulp, their surfaces covered in a layer of viscous fluid.
These things clung tightly to the pipe walls.
Their bodies constantly contracted and expanded, using this friction against the copper pipes to generate vibrations.
They were the corruptors.
Whenever soone spoke, they would instantly capture the frequency of the sound wave, then, through group resonance, emit a forged sound wave that overwrote the original sound.
Moreover, they were organized.
William saw that these "pulp" creatures were connected to each other by so kind of fine filants.
They ford a vast network; this *was* the hospital's alarm system itself.
Cold sweat broke out on William's forehead.
He made a gesture to Lin Jie, miming a long shape, then pointed to his own tongue.
[Tongues.]
[Many of them.]
[Inside the pipes.]
Lin Jie nodded.
He pulled out the notebook he bought from Port Said from his coat, quickly flipping to the page about biological alchemy.
Although there was no specific record, based on the Sonic Jellyfish he encountered earlier, he quickly deduced the nature of this creature.
The Recorder's Tongue.
This was an artificially cultivated, socialized UMA specialized for information warfare.
They had no offensive power, but they could cause an army to collapse in chaos.
How to deal with them?
These things were hidden inside the copper pipes; physical attacks could hardly reach them.
And once attacked, it would likely trigger the alarm imdiately. It had to be a one-hit kill.
And it had to be... silent.
Lin Jie drew Serene Heart.
This Webley revolver, modified three tis, had a slender barrel, its surface flowing with a dull luster.
This gun's characteristics were "absolute silence" and "absolute straight line."
The bullets it fired made no sound.
When they hit a target, they made no impact noise either.
It was the silent reaper.
Lin Jie looked at William.
He made a gesture: [You call the shots, I shoot.]
William took a deep breath and raised his rifle, using it as a pointer.
Using Zulu's Gaze, he locked onto the copper pipe closest to them.
At the elbow joint of that pipe, there was an especially plump cluster of "tongues."
William's gun barrel pointed to that location.
Lin Jie didn't hesitate at all. He raised his hand, aligning his gun barrel with William's indicator line.
"Thump."
An extrely faint, muffled sound—the slight friction of the bullet piercing the copper pipe.
The specially made bullet instantly pierced through the brass pipe wall.
Under the effect of Serene Heart, the copper pipe didn't make a loud clanging noise from the rupture; even the sound of flying fragnts was consud.
The bullet accurately drilled into the pipe, hitting that mass of wet pulp.
That cluster of "tongue" was instantly turned into a puddle of mush.
It died, dying silently.
The other "tongues" nearby seed to sense the break in the connection. They began to stir.
The pipe walls emitted a faint buzzing sound; they wanted to sound the alarm.
"Hurry!"
Lin Jie's gestures beca urgent. William quickly moved his gun barrel, pointing to the next target.
It was a main pipe located in a corner of the ceiling. Lin Jie's gun muzzle followed.
"Thump."
The second bullet fired. Another one dead.
This beca a silent shooting ga.
William was responsible for seeing through and locking on; Lin Jie was responsible for execution and silencing.
The coordination between the two reached an extre level of tacit understanding, like the left and right hands of the sa person.
"Thump."
Bullets fired one after another.
Each one precisely took a life hiding in a dark corner.
Those "tongues" trying to scream were interrupted by the cold bullet before the sound could even fully form in their throats.
They couldn't pass the alarm to the next node because Lin Jie's shooting sequence was ticulously calculated.
He first cut off the signal transmission lines leading deeper, turning this area into an information island.
Then he turned back to clean up these isolated sentries.
In just two minutes, Lin Jie emptied two cylinders.
Twelve key-node Recorder's Tongues were all killed.
The persistently annoying buzzing sound that had been lingering in their ears finally disappeared. The air beca pure.
Lin Jie lowered his gun, gently exhaling.
He looked at Julian. "Now, try saying sothing."
Lin Jie's voice clearly reached everyone's ears.
No distortion; it was his original voice.
"God bless."
Julian wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. His voice was sowhat shaky, but it was real.
"I really... thought you'd all gone mad just now."
" too."
Evelyn leaned against the wall, her face pale.
"I heard... many terrible things."
"That was auditory hallucination."
Lin Jie reloaded, his nimble fingers pressing bullets shimring with a silver light into the cylinder one by one.
"Or rather, it was the echo of the fears within our own hearts."
He holstered the gun.
"It's temporarily safe here. We have a window."
Lin Jie looked ahead at the passage leading deeper.
The copper pipes still stretched into the darkness, but now they had beco lifeless objects. Without those disgusting parasites, they were just piles of cold tal.
"Move forward."
Lin Jie waved his hand.
"Before the people here discover the line malfunction, we need to pass through this area."
The four of them reorganized their formation and stepped over the copper pipe fragnts on the ground.
Viscous fluid oozed from the ruptures, emitting a faint sll of ink.
That was the blood of the Recorder.
It was also the residue of lies.
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