Genius Club

Chapter 1430: Chapter 4: Countdown

“You, you, you, you, listen!”

The little girl CC instantly stepped back, panic-stricken:

“There really are ghosts in there!”

“Hey, it’s not…”

The Bearded Man was both amused and exasperated:

“You don’t fear those gun-wielding lunatic bandits, or the ferocious beasts in the jungle, or sneaking out at midnight to steal guns… But a mysterious crying sound scares you like this?”

The man found it hard to believe.

Those things above, isn’t each one much more dangerous than this ‘ghost cry’?

All of them could cost one’s life, or even guaranteed death, and CC faced them without fear, yet now she was scared pale by this little event.

“Don’t you think it’s terrifying?”

CC raised her head, her eyes somewhat trembling:

“This crying sound obviously isn’t normal!”

“Don’t worry, it definitely isn’t crying.”

The man stroked his beard as he analyzed:

“What kind of hero can cry non-stop for a hundred years? Not to mention a hundred years, your father was here just a few months ago… What kind of iron throat can cry continuously for several months?”

“That’s why it’s a ghost!” It seemed CC wasn’t a materialist, insisting on the existence of ghosts.

The man continued stroking his beard, becoming more engrossed.

Even…

He felt somewhat comfortable, shaking his head:

“Even if it’s a ghost, crying for several months, it would get tired. What kind of ghost would be this meaningless? So it definitely isn’t a ghost, don’t let your imagination run wild.”

“…”

Faced with the man’s argumentative logic, CC was momentarily speechless.

This was a great victory for materialism over idealism.

However.

The man’s explanation was indeed reasonable and persuasive, which helped CC calm down.

Actually, it was the influence of preconceived notions.

Before this, her resourceful Hunter father was CC’s most admired person; since her father said there were ghosts inside, CC never doubted it, so upon hearing the crying, her first reaction was ghosts, not considering any other possibility.

The Bearded Man was different.

He seemed… seemed not to have considered the possibility of ghosts from the start.

Indeed, some things, like logic and judgment ability, don’t disappear with Amnesia.

“Hmm…”

The man closed his eyes, carefully listening to the crying sound from deep within the research institute:

“Don’t speak for now, let me listen carefully.”

He unexpectedly found the crying sounds had a [pattern], consistently [repeating] a stable rhythm.

This strengthened his belief further, definitely wasn’t human crying or ghostly wailing.

As he walked closer inside, the sound became clearer:

“Woo… woo woo woo…”

“Woo… woo woo woo…”

“Woo… woo woo woo…”

Indeed.

Patterned repetition.

The man tapped his gun holster with his finger, pacing the rhythm:

Tap… tap tap tap, tap… tap tap tap, tap… tap tap tap.

“Seems like a kind of alert sound.”

The man opened his eyes:

“Quite mechanical alert sound, or warning sound, completely devoid of emotion and variation.”

Listening to the man’s thorough analysis.

The little girl CC put down her guard, moved forward, covering one ear to listen:

“Hmm… indeed, when you say it like that, it isn’t that scary; thinking carefully, surrounded by towering mountains, and so steep and sharp, it’s impossible for anyone to enter or leave.”

“In such a situation, the likelihood of someone surviving inside is very small.”

The man walked out the door, had CC make two more torches, then placed a few wild fruits in CC’s hands:

“Then according to our original plan, if we encounter any unidentified creature, regardless of appearance, you just throw a wild fruit at it.”

“If the fruit bounces back, I’ll point the gun at it to see if we can communicate; if the fruit passes right through it… then there’s nothing to say, we’ll turn and run.”

“Uh-huh!”

CC nodded firmly, holding tightly the all-important ‘entity detector’ in her hand.

Fully prepared.

The two raised their torches and ventured deeper into the research institute, the man holding a pistol with his right hand, the girl gripping a wild fruit… strange name, strange combination, always doing strange things.

The research institute wasn’t particularly large; plus, many passages were severed by the rising Blade Mountain, and it took the two only a dozen minutes to explore the first floor.

Then, there was no more path.

Couldn’t find the stairs to the second floor, nor the passageway down to the underground.

“VV, what do we do?”

CC was now completely unafraid, rubbing the wild fruit in her hands:

“The stairs to the second floor must have been compressed out of existence during the earthquake; if we want to reach the second floor, we could try climbing from outside.”

“However… the woo woo woo sounds seem to be coming from underground.”

The Bearded Man nodded:

“Since the sound can travel up from below, there must be a passageway, let’s first find the place where the sound is loudest and clearest, then search nearby for an underground entrance.”

Soon, the two arrived at the loudest spot.

Here, the woo woo woo sounds were very clear, listening closely, it didn’t resemble crying, but was more akin to a mechanical sound like ‘beep——beep beep beep——’.

“It should be some kind of machine emitting the sound,” CC said.

Persistence pays off.

The two finally found a crack among the dim, crisscrossing ruined tunnels, precisely a slab crack connecting the underground space, allowing them to crawl through into the first underground level.

“Should we go in?” CC looked at the Bearded Man.

“Throw a torch down first.”

The man was the first to throw down his torch, carefully observing the surroundings…

Nothing unusual, it looked completely like ruins.

Moreover, the torch burned perfectly, without any signs of extinguishing or diminishing, proving the underground space wasn’t fully enclosed, not only was the air quality good, but from the flickering flame, it wasn’t difficult to deduce air currents were flowing.