"Zerra, what’s wrong?" Derek noticed the rich expression on her face.
The other two ability users were also looking at her in confusion. "There seems to be a small wooden hut there, Mr. Ashford. Should we go there?"
Her breath picked up when she heard that; her eyes shone with much more determination.
She approached Derek and didn’t bother to hide her doubt. "Can these two be trusted?"
Hearing her accusation, the two ability users’ eyes widened. They took a deep breath and suppressed the irritation. "Miss... how can you say those things?"
"Yeah, we are not bad people!"
Derek keenly noticed that something was wrong. He glanced at a wooden hut in the distance. To make Zerra this anxious, things in the wooden hut mustn’t be simple.
They might even have chanced upon the forbidden experiment conducted by some of the Research Institute’s scientists under his name.
When the two ability users noticed Derek’s silence, they took it as a sign of doubt. They also panicked. "Mr. Ashford, you wouldn’t believe something she carelessly said, would you?"
"Even if she is powerful, she can’t slander people like that!"
Zerra didn’t even pay attention to the pair of ability users jumping in anger. She had considered it; if they weren’t good people, she would take out a rope and subdue them.
So, her expression was impassive as she waited for Derek’s answers, uncaring if the two were glaring and pointing at her aggressively.
Derek couldn’t sense what was happening in the wooden hut. From outside, it looked like a small and normal hut made by people for temporary stays.
However, out of the four, only Zerra knew that the interior actually was very wide with various rooms–suitable to conduct experiments with various experimental tools.
Even if Derek couldn’t see beyond the wooden exterior, his senses were better than most ability users. He had dealt with some medicine, and his sense of smell noticed something different.
This smell was similar to the ugly black mushroom they had encountered before. Unpleasant. The more he inhaled, the more uncomfortable he became.
"You can trust them." He exhaled, finishing his analysis within a few minutes.
There was an illusion; he couldn’t see but Zerra could. She had proved it during the previous fight when she broke the mutated mushroom’s illusion realm–it was a terrifying sight too, where the mushroom cap was one step away from sucking her in.
The two ability users cast Zerra smug faces.
"Alright." She nodded. "I will tell you something... but you must not make too much noise."
"Let’s move away from here for a moment." She suggested.
Making a barrier to block their sounds from reaching the wooden hut was too tiring. She had spent too much spiritual energy doing it.
Although the two were confused and still a little indignant because of her words, they still followed her. After all, Derek also didn’t make a fuss.
"What’s wrong, Zerra?" Derek asked after they arrived quite far away from their previous location.
"Those people..." She tried to find suitable words to describe them. "They might be the people you are looking for, but..."
It took only a few seconds for Derek to understand. Zerra might have seen something.
"Since they are our people, why don’t we come over there?" One ability user asked. "Once we gather, we can get out of this forest as soon as possible. Someone with a space power has the repellent too."
They had to use the ones Derek had brought. If not, those mutated animals might have flocked to them as soon as the effect was gone.
"You didn’t notice anything suspicious at all?" Zerra cast them a sidelong glance. She turned to Derek, her eyes telling him it was his turn to be in charge of this.
"What’s so suspicious?" They asked in bewilderment. Seeing Zerra looking at Derek, they also turned to him for answers.
"You said there are at least fifteen people who came here, right?" Derek took a deep breath. "Among so many of them, how many do you often find in the forest looking for me?"
They thought about it. "When we met the tiger... there were at least ten of us attacking it," he recalled. "Then, they suggested we split up. As for the people we often meet, there are these two teams."
"Yes, we even met them two or three times before the ugly monster trapped us within the illusion."
Derek nodded in their answer. "Why did you two meet the other two teams a few times during your search but not once you two met other teams?"
They scratched their heads. It was a bit baffling too. They thought it was because they searched different areas, but...
"One team said they would make a simple hut here to live temporarily. You are very important to our Research Institute, Mr. Ashford. The Director dispatched us directly."
Derek pursed his lips. "Did you all volunteer to come or...?"
"The Director picked the two of us for this mission and then a few others. Other ability users volunteered. I heard they even fought for the spot." There was some amazement in his tone, and the person stared at Derek with a look of respect.
The more he heard it, the more Derek found it suspicious. Who would volunteer and even fight to be in a forest full of mutated animals if they weren’t tempted by significant benefits?
"My name is that big, eh?" He said in a sarcastic tone.
The two, who did not notice the sarcasm in his words, were about to nod before they heard Derek continue.
"A forest with occasional earthquakes, full of mutated animals going out of their nests. The place was absolutely dangerous. Normally, no one would volunteer to go unless they have some ulterior motives."
They were surprised when they heard that. "Ulterior motive?"
"Now, thinking about it... someone was capturing a mutated bird as soon as he entered the forest. I was wondering why he needed to capture it alive. Then..." the ability users continued to list each case he found weird.
"There was also this woman walking alone in the forest. She didn’t seem to be able to speak, but the gaze she gave the person who helped her... her eyes seemed to be full of fear. I thought she was scared of the mutated animals, but..."
The ability user didn’t continue. At this point, they could already guess what was happening.
Their eyes were wide as their eyes moved back and forth between Zerra and Derek.
"T-then, that place might be..." he gulped.
If they recklessly went to the hut, they might be captured to be test subjects instead. Thinking of this, their countenances paled. They turned to Derek with grim expressions. "Mr. Ashford, what should we do?"
Zerra was also in turmoil. She definitely wanted to find out what kind of experiment they were doing to that person, but their side was weaker.
If they recklessly went there, those people might detain and capture them.
"Let’s go back first." Derek decided. He turned to Zerra as if asking for her opinion.
She knitted her eyebrows. Of the few people inside the wooden hut, she hadn’t found who the mastermind might be. Even though they spoke of test subject 064 with a lot of familiarity, they looked like they were merely following an order.
The scribbles in front of them made her think like that. A detailed note of instructions, too long for someone who had been doing a lot of experiments.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t find out the real researcher behind all of this.
When she heard Derek’s words, she nodded in agreement. "It’s better if we go back first."
They could call in for reinforcement. Now that there was no more illusion affecting their way, they surely could go out.
The four of them continue to walk a little aimlessly, searching for the way back. Derek walked beside Zerra.
"What did you see there?" He asked.
She thought about it for a while. "Some unnaturally deformed people..."
His expression hardened, and he clenched his fists when he heard her answer. He took a deep breath to calm himself.
Unnaturally deformed people... most likely were the result of human experimentation. Zerra had seen that they kept such people as slaves, having the failed experimental subject tend to their needs. This content belongs to novel✶fire.net
These people still occasionally went in and out of the wooden hut to do their assigned jobs.
The weirdest part was that familiar person. His face was almost unrecognizable, slowly morphing into a being that no longer resembled a human.
He still evoked such conflicted feeling from her. She hadn’t gotten her revenge yet, but seeing him in such a state also made her feel some pity for him.
From the conversation she had eavesdropped earlier, apparently someone had sold him to be an experimental subject. Her brow knitted in doubt.
Who was the person who had sold him?
After wandering for a while, unexpectedly, they managed to get out of the forest somehow.
"We are going to part here." Zerra announced, a little complex.
"Where are you going?" Derek was a little worried.