Shrouded Seascape

Site 66 looked like a small town situated in the desert, but the towering walls and the electrified barbed wires around the "town" said otherwise.

Bright searchlights swept across the sandy ground, and there were surveillance cameras everywhere, allowing the IMF staffers to see from all angles without any blind spots. Fortunately, they were useless against Anna.

After ordering the spliced flesh creatures to wait, Anna's figure sank into the golden sand.

Anna easily evaded every countermeasure that the IMF had in place against invaders, and she soon made her way to Site 66's Level -1.

Just as the clown had described, Level -1 looked like a hospital, and there were many people clad in blue uniforms.

The people clad in blue uniforms were busy treating patients clad in blue-and-white hospital gowns. Their treatment method varied from simple medication, electroshock therapy to hypnosis.

If it weren't for the presence of heavily armed combat teams, this place could pass for a legitimate hospital. Finding Wang Sheng wouldn't be difficult, as Anna only had to ask the "locals."

However, the people who were behaving normally and chatting amiably with the IMF staffers weren't an option for Anna. There was a high chance that they'd inform the doctors of Anna's presence.

Anna's phased through the floor and descended. Level -2 was noticeably more deserted than Level -1.

If the floor above was a regular hospital, then this floor was probably a mental hospital. The floor was divided into different areas through iron bars. The laughter and chatter on Level -1 weren't here.

Instead, an oppressive atmosphere was in the air. Anna looked around for a few seconds before approaching a room on her right. The room was a padded cell, and a man in a straightjacket was in the corner of the room.

He was leaning on the wall in the corner of the padded cell and was slamming his head into the wall.

Anna reached out to the wall and glided inside of it until she was behind the man.

"Tell me where the followers of Fhtagn are located, and I can help you out of your restraints," Anna's voice clung to the wall and was transmitted to the man's ears at a volume similar to a mosquito's droning.

The man spoke, but his answer was unrelated to the question. "They say I ate my two-month-old daughter, but that's impossible! I don't even have a wife!"

What is this madman trying to say? Anna mused.

The bearded man exclaimed, "They say they found my wife's bones in my excrement, but that's a lie! Yes! They're all lying! They're all trying to harm me!"

Anna glanced at the pendant hanging from his chest and saw a family picture on the pendant. With that, she said nothing and retreated to find someone else.

The man's voice pervaded the thick walls as he screamed hysterically, "IT'S THAT KNIFE! THAT RUSTY RED KNIFE!"

The next person wasn't restrained, but instead of replying to Anna's query, he held up his right hand, which had a smiley face drawn on it and spun in place.

After going around in circles, Anna realized that this floor was actually a mental hospital. The people inside each padded cell were grappling with their own mental issues.

Anna couldn't even find someone capable of holding a normal conversion; they had been heavily influenced by the Anomalies they once held, so how could Anna find any information about Wang Sheng from them?

Just as Anna was about to trigger the alarms, she finally found people capable of holding a conversation.

They were seven albino boys. Dressed in white, they were sitting in a circle and were holding each other's hands. They resembled a group of adorable little angels. As soon as Anna approached their room, they turned to the wall at the same time. Their eyes seemed capable of piercing the wall to see Anna inside of it.

Before Anna could speak, the children beat her to the chase. They spoke and fell silent at the same time as if all seven of them shared a single soul.

"Ah, you're looking for them. I know them. They're being held in the intensive care unit on the lowest floor. They're different from the people on this floor. They're very dangerous, and they believe in something incredibly dangerous.

"You should be careful around them."

Hm? How did they know my thoughts? Anna thought.

The seven albino children opened their mouths in unison.

"I'm not doing it on purpose, but I'm assimilating your feelings. For example, I can sense your urgency, and your urgency is infecting me as well.

"If possible, I hope you'll rescue us. There are too many emotions around here, and we've gotten tired of adapting."

Before Anna could ask anything, the speaker in the upper left corner of the padded cell crackled to life. "Ahem! Howard, who are you talking to?"

The children instantly closed their eyes and mouths. They sat cross-legged and became immovable like stone statues.

Anna observed them carefully for a while before proceeding toward the bottommost level.

Upon reaching Level -29, however, something unexpected occurred. Anna's special ability to phase through walls was ineffective against the ceiling and the walls of Level -30.

It seemed that the IMF had anticipated that someone could infiltrate the site by phasing through walls, so they had decided to build the lowest floor using a material that would not allow the use of such an ability.

Anna was between the ceiling of Level -30 and the floor of Level -29. She crouched down on one knee and pressed her hand against the ceiling of Level -30.

The material used to build Level -30 would surely be unable to withstand her corrosive flames, but she'd surely be exposed if she were to melt away the floor.

Anna took a moment to ponder over her next course of action. Eventually, she returned to the floor up above. She looked around the floor until she finally found the restroom that had no surveillance cameras.

Anna waited patiently in the walls of the restroom for a target to come in.

After a while, a middle-aged woman in a blue uniform and with a small metal case in hand walked into Anna's line of sight. The middle-aged woman then entered the cramped stall and removed her skirt. Just as she was about to relieve herself, Anna reached out and pulled her into the wall.

Soon, Anna emerged from the restroom wearing the IMF's blue uniform. As for the middle-aged woman, she had completely merged with the wall, so her corpse would never be discovered.

According to the floor plan that she had memorized, Anna made her way toward the elevator with a small metal case carrying Tobba in hand.

Ding!

The elevator doors opened, and a man walked into it along with Anna.

As the elevator descended, the man cast a surprised gaze at the metal case in Anna's hand.

"Is that a specimen for Project Medusa? Did Dr. Harley say anything about when the testing phase will commence?"

Anna acted as if she couldn't hear the man, and she didn't even glance in his direction.

"Come on, don't be so tight-lipped. We're colleagues, and that project is public knowledge, anyway."

Anna remained silent.

Meanwhile, the elevator finally passed through the layer of special material that disrupted her phasing ability. Anna opened the elevator doors and walked out.

As soon as she walked out, zapping and buzzing noises pervaded her ears. The sound resembled an electric current, and each sound was accompanied by agonized screams.

Anna followed the noises and saw a clearing half the size of a soccer field.

Those who had been converted into Fhtagnists via the conversion ritual were all inside the clearing, and there was an unfinished array on the ground. There were people in orange clothes sitting quietly in the middle of the array.