Dimensional Store: Welcome to the Apocalypse Apartment - Chapter 270

Chapter 270

“Fang Zhao, Classmate Fang, wake up. Stop drifting off into outer space.” Gu Huaiwei waved a hand in front of his face, but he did not react.

She rolled up her sleeves and slapped him twice more. Fang Zhao’s face swelled at once, yet he still did not come back to himself.

“Huh. Even that won’t wake him up.”

After Fang Zhao was contaminated, what he saw before him was another world.

This was no longer the laboratory equipment room, but the Laboratory Gu Huaiwei had been searching for all along.

He had already forgotten where he had come from. In his muddled haze, he only felt that he was an ordinary student at Gray Crystal University. His parents both held the role of Miner and had just been diagnosed with Mist Lung Disease and hospitalized. Every day, he had to go take care of his mom and dad, until overwork wore him down as well.

He felt his fingers begin to swell.

That had to be because he was too tired from wiping his parents down and changing their dressings.

He felt his eyeballs bulging outward.

That had to be because he had stayed up too many nights.

He felt his stomach growing larger.

That had to be because he had eaten too much and was bloated.

For every unreasonable change in his body, the school provided him with a reasonable explanation.

All he needed to do was quietly cooperate with the examination.

At this moment, there was only one belief in his heart.

The school would not hurt him. The teachers would not hurt him. The doctors would not hurt him either.

This was a school.

This was an ivory tower.

He firmly believed what the books said: there would be no darkness here, only a bright future.

Gu Huaiwei discovered that as soon as she let go of Fang Zhao, he would walk on his own toward the laboratory bench at the back, take a bloodstained scalpel from the pile of rusted laboratory instruments, and cut down at his own fingers.

Even when the blade sliced through his skin and cut into his bones, no trace of pain appeared on his face.

He was treating himself.

Even if that treatment would cost him his life.

The shop Gu Huaiwei ran in the small Dimension seemed to carry a curse: the first person to enter the shop never came to a good end.

Fang Zhao had been the first to register for a stay.

Gu Huaiwei had thought he might be luckier than those who came before him.

But when fate fell upon him, it did not seem to show him any particular favor.

To stop Fang Zhao from continuing to harm himself, Gu Huaiwei tied him up with rope.

He struggled the entire time.

“I need to take medicine… Only medicine will make me get better faster.”

“The new drug developed by the Laboratory… I’m willing to cooperate with your experiment… If it succeeds, then Mom and Dad can be saved too…”

At that moment, Bai Yuzhen found her way over.

She had changed into a nurse’s uniform, avoided the Anomaly patrol routes, and quietly slipped upstairs.

Bai Yuzhen was somewhat surprised to see Gu Huaiwei.

“Shop… Shopkeeper Gu, you’re here too?”

Gu Huaiwei nodded to her.

Then Bai Yuzhen saw Fang Zhao, his eyes vacant and his body tied up. Her pupils contracted. She immediately hurried forward, dropped to one knee, and took Fang Zhao’s cold hand. Turning her head, she asked worriedly, “What happened to the Class Monitor?”

Gu Huaiwei explained, “The humans who were left in the Instance before pushed him into this room. After I opened the door, he turned into this.

“He should still have his own consciousness. But from what he’s been saying to himself, I can guess that the world he sees right now is different from what we see.”

“But I was fine when I entered this room. Could it be that sneaking in is fine, but if you’re brought here by a specific person, you’ll be contaminated…” Wild guesses had no basis. Bai Yuzhen’s delicate brows knit together. “Rules! I need to find this room’s Rules!”

Bai Yuzhen was the traditional kind of good student. Under normal circumstances, she would not concern herself with people who were not related to her by blood.
But Fang Zhao was the Class Monitor, and he had always taken good care of her and the other students. It hadn’t been easy for them to make it this far. Most of their classmates were already dead or injured, and Bai Yuzhen didn’t want anything to happen to Fang Zhao.

Gu Huaiwei also wanted to see the Rules related to the Laboratory.

Although she didn’t need to follow them, she felt the Rules might mention a research plan for a specific medicine to treat Mist Lung Disease.

“Let’s look together.”

Gu Huaiwei turned and walked deeper into the room.

The room itself wasn’t actually large, but the windows had been boarded shut, letting in not a single sliver of light. Even with a phone flashlight on, the beam vanished into the darkness, illuminating only a small patch of floor beneath their feet.

Bai Yuzhen didn’t dare venture too far inside.

She was different from Gu Huaiwei.

The Anomaly couldn’t do anything to Gu Huaiwei, but to her, it could take one bite at a time and crunch her to pieces.

Gu Huaiwei found a yellowed slip of paper by the window.

Written on it were the words: “Laboratory Building Equipment Room Rules.”

The very first line was a statement: All experimental projects at this school have been terminated. There is no Laboratory in this building.

Gu Huaiwei had already searched the entire building.

There really were only treatment rooms here, no Laboratory.

She took the Rules and handed them to Bai Yuzhen, who was still dawdling near the entrance.

Bai Yuzhen accepted the slip of paper with a hint of secret delight. “Thank you.”

Following behind Gu Huaiwei greatly reduced her risk.

“These Rules are a little strange. They stress right at the beginning that there is no Laboratory, but the specific clauses mention the Laboratory again.”

Bai Yuzhen silently read them several times and quickly committed the Rules to memory. Pointing at the paper, she said, “Shopkeeper Gu, look. Rule 7 says, ‘If you see the door to the Laboratory while you are sick, please believe that it is a hallucination caused by your illness. Refuse all invitations from anyone and immediately turn around and leave.’ This Rule feels like it’s trying too hard to cover something up.”

Among the Rules, there were often clauses that served as hints.

If one immediately left as the Rules instructed, they could indeed ensure their safety, but they might also miss an important clue.

“Normally, when we see Rules like this, we don’t try to provoke them.

“But Shopkeeper Gu, if you want to find the Laboratory, you could enter without accepting any invitation. That way, it wouldn’t count as violating the Rules.”

The rougher the waters, the pricier the fish.

Likewise, the closer one walked along the edge of the Rules, the more likely they were to find the key clues in an Instance.

“While sick…” Gu Huaiwei glanced at Fang Zhao, who sat on the floor with his soul seemingly gone, and fell into thought. “No wonder I searched the entire Laboratory Building and couldn’t find the door to the Laboratory…”

This so-called sickness should actually refer to being contaminated.

Only in a state of mild contamination could one see the Laboratory.

Gu Huaiwei couldn’t be contaminated.

She needed to find someone to help.

Fang Zhao was already incapable of normal communication, so Bai Yuzhen before her was the most suitable candidate.

But the job was very dangerous.

Without offering a specific bargaining chip, Bai Yuzhen would never be willing to take that risk.

Gu Huaiwei prepared to discuss the Laboratory with Bai Yuzhen. “Classmate Bai, I need you to do me a favor.”

“What favor?” Bai Yuzhen was somewhat puzzled. In her eyes, Gu Huaiwei was capable of anything. Why would she need help from an ordinary person like her?

Just then, Gu Huaiwei heard the deep, resonant Bell Toll from the distant Clock Tower. She tilted her head slightly in the direction of the sound.

When Bai Yuzhen heard the Bell Toll, her whole body jolted. She anxiously grabbed Gu Huaiwei’s wrist and said, “Shopkeeper Gu, we can talk about everything else later. We can’t stay here! We need to leave this place right now!”