“Alright, let’s first clarify everyone’s tasks. Orff, you currently have two:
First, infiltrate the newly set-up dark web and obtain evidence of Charlie’s criminal involvent;
Second, make sure you can lure Ronald over to the car in ten minutes.
As for Misha, you’re with —we’re going to find Professor Abel.”
“Got it!”
“Understood.”
The two responded and got to work according to Everly’s instructions.
Everly took Misha to the teaching building.
For this loop, it was their first ti “visiting” Abel. However, having heard Orff describe what happened during the twenty-second loop, the two girls handled things with practiced ease.
Everly and Misha worked together: Misha kept Abel distracted with idle chatter, while Everly seized the mont, moving as fast as lightning and subduing him cleanly with a stun device.
Within two minutes of eting him, Abel had already been tied up like a mummy and shoved under the desk.
Relying on her “foreknowledge advantage,” Everly left Abel there. Under his disbelieving gaze, she walked to the cabinet hiding a safe, opened it, entered the code, and took out the sedative stored inside.
“Mmph… mmph…”
Abel recovered from the paralysis caused by the shock and began struggling frantically, his eyes filled with panic and resistance. But Everly had no intention of letting him break free.
Misha kicked him, making his whole body tremble. Seizing the opportunity, Everly stepped forward and injected the sedative into his arm.
Under the effects of the drug, Abel quickly fell into a deep sleep.
Everly waited a mont to make sure he was completely out. Only then did she raise her foot and stomp hard twice on his groin, before delivering a final kick that sent the beast in human skin back under the desk, hidden from sight once more.
Subduing Abel was necessary, because he was like a hidden threat planted in the school—together with Ronald, he constantly monitored Orff’s every move. Only by silencing this “informant” could the “Butcher,” far away in the forest ranger’s cabin, be kept in check, preventing him from suddenly driving out in a truck mid-way through Everly’s operation to hunt Orff down.
Still, being killed by a monster in his sleep was relatively lucky for Abel. The more Everly thought about it, the less satisfying it felt. She lifted her foot and viciously kicked the limp man on the ground several more tis before finally locking the office door and leaving with Misha.
By the ti they returned to the car, exactly ten minutes had passed.
Ronald still had no idea that “A” was already finished. He was busy plotting how to kill Orff; the mont he received the invitation, he hurried over without hesitation.
Dressed flamboyantly, he swaggered up to the car, whistling as he admired Everly’s stunning vehicle with clear amazent in his eyes.
“Want to co up and take a seat?”
Everly stepped forward and extended a friendly invitation.
Since Ronald was still looking for a chance to kill Orff inside the car, there was no way he would refuse.
So, a few minutes later, just like in the twenty-second loop, he was first beaten up, then injected with a sedative, and finally tied up like a dead pig and tossed back into his own car.
With the threat in the school removed, it was ti to deal with Chief Charlie. The thod was the sa as in previous loops: Orff used Charlie’s incriminating evidence as leverage to secure Sawitt’s help, having Sawitt keep Charlie tied down at the police station.
As for the “Butcher”—based on information gathered from previous loops, among the three other operators, the Butcher had a close relationship with Abel. He only listened to Abel and followed his lead; the other two operators couldn’t control him.
Therefore, in theory, once Abel was unconscious, there was no need to deal with that guy—he would automatically stand down.
With the preparations reaching this point, the obstacles from the human side had essentially been cleared.
Everly began carrying out the next step of her plan.
“I’ll lend you the jeep. Listen carefully, Orff—what you need to do next is drive. Head southwest the entire way—rember, it must be southwest. That’s the only direction that keeps you away from all the operators. I’ll handle Mark’s place myself, and I’ll also try to find a way to deal with the monster. You don’t need to do anything else—just keep driving, as far as you can, while making sure you stay safe. The farther you get, the better. Got it?”
Orff nodded.
“What about ?” Misha raised her hand.
“As for Misha…”
Everly had originally planned to have Misha stay at the school and go nowhere—Orff was basically a walking disaster, and even if she went with him, she wouldn’t be able to help much. She might even end up getting splattered with his blood. As for going with Everly to Mark’s house, that could be dangerous too, and Everly didn’t want to put her at risk.
All things considered, the school seed like the safest place.
However, as the refusal reached her lips, Everly saw the determination on Misha’s face and recalled the grief she had shown upon hearing about Barbara’s death. She hesitated.
“As for Misha… hmm—how about you keep an eye on the ‘Butcher’? I’ll give you so guns and protective gear, but you must not get close. Go to the hillside where I previously set up an ambush and watch Michael from a distance. As long as he doesn’t leave the birch forest, don’t kill him. That way, you can buy more ti for Orff.”
It was a sowhat dangerous assignnt—after all, the “Butcher” possessed extraordinary physical abilities. But as long as she stayed cautious and kept her distance, simply observing from afar, soone as sharp as Misha should be able to handle it.
As expected, when Misha heard she had been assigned a “heavyweight” task, she imdiately perked up with enthusiasm.
“Don’t worry, Everly! The reason I’ve survived this long is that I follow instructions. I’ll definitely keep a close watch on the ‘Butcher’ for you!”
“All right, then. Ti’s short, we’ll start moving imdiately.”
At Everly’s command, the three of them, with clear objectives, separated once more.
Just like in the previous loop, Everly rented a car, drove near Tombstone Alley, and quietly hid on a hillside to watch Mark from a distance.
In the last loop, because useless Orff had died too early, she hadn’t been able to get detailed information about the basent. So this ti, to be cautious, Everly still didn’t dare get close to Mark—what if he was so kind of “magically and scientifically trained” genius, capable of both advanced research and absurd superstitions? She feared she wouldn’t be able to handle him.
Suppressing her curiosity, Everly quietly lay on the hillside, patiently waiting. At 16:58, familiar noises reached her ears—Mark and the dog were both dead.
It was ti to act!
Moving swiftly like a deer across snow, she sprinted and vaulted over the iron fence outside the yard, smashed a window to break into Mark’s house, and, following previous experience, first took the keys off his body. Then she circled to the garage at the back, used the triangular rusted key to open the door, and found the tunnel hidden beneath the storage locker.
Doing things by the book was fast! This ti, from the monster’s appearance to Everly successfully finding the secret basent of Mark’s house, it only took 2 minutes.
The entire block was currently without power, so none of the lights in the house or garage worked. In the dim garage, the entrance to the underground passage lay quietly open on the floor, pitch black, like a deep well plunging into an endless abyss. Even just looking at it sent a cold sweat creeping up one’s back.
Everly took a deep breath and synced her status in real ti through her Bluetooth headset: “I’ve reached the entrance to Mark’s secret basent, about to enter.”
She then pulled a handgun—purchased through special channels—from her ski bag, flipped open the safety, and held it in her right hand. Her left hand gripped a flashlight, positioned beneath the gun to steady it, keeping a vigilant stance as she stepped into the dark, foreboding underground.
The stairs leading to the secret basent were cent, and it was unclear how long it had been since they were last cleaned. A thick, sticky layer covered them—sothing like grease, or blood, or tissue fluid. Every step she took squished unpleasantly beneath her feet.
The filth alone was bad enough, but the air carried a horrid stench. It reminded her vaguely of the corpse odor she’d slled as a baby, but far more complex. Mixed into the stench were hints of disinfectant or formalin, as if partially decomposed flesh had been forcibly treated. Half-decayed, still disgusting and revolting.
Was Mark really a researcher? If you’re doing research, shouldn’t basic hygiene co first…?
Everly scolded herself internally—how had she left without a mask?
But now that she was here, there was no turning back. She had to grit her teeth and continue.
The downward passage was steep, and each step required extre caution. As she descended, she counted the stairs—about twenty or so—before reaching a flat area. She entered a square underground room.
The space wasn’t large—less than forty square ters. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all covered with aged white-and-green square tiles, the color sche oppressive enough to make anyone feel claustrophobic.
Tiles like these show even the slightest dirt, and Mark, clearly a person who didn’t care about cleanliness, had left the room in chaos. Yellow grease, dark red bloodstains, and semi-transparent unidentified sars covered the floors and walls. It looked disturbingly like so kind of slaughter scene.
To her left, the stairs were flanked by a wall; to her right stood a long table. On it were a computer, books, a microscope, petri dishes, and scalpels—clearly a workspace for experints.
In the center of the room was a massive tal bed, upon which lay what appeared to be a corpse. Several caras were arranged around the bed, and if one ignored the background, it almost looked like a film set.
Because of the caras, Everly didn’t imdiately see the corpse clearly. She stepped forward two more paces to illuminate the deeper part of the room. The cold white beam of her flashlight flicked across the space, and in her peripheral vision she caught a flash of red. Turning her head, she froze in horror.
On the tal bed lay a skinned, grotesquely assembled corpse. Its body was bright red, its internal organs exposed. Its eyeballs were mismatched in color, its molars stacked unnaturally along the gums, and countless fingernail plates jutted outward from every nail bed, jostling for space.
Its appearance matched exactly the description Orff had given of the flesh-and-blood monster.
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