In a daze, a familiar voice sounded in his ears.
It was the urging voice of a junior lab member, a favorite of their supervisor, often serving as a messenger to deliver important updates.
“Senior! Senior! You’re the only one left who hasn’t submitted the paper for external review!”
“Damn… I’m not done with the revisions yet!”
These words were more terrifying than any nightmare, tearing through the fabric of his dream and yanking Yi Chen back to reality.
He jolted upright, drenched in sweat, but the familiar lab wasn’t in front of him. Instead, he found himself in a desolate, dark, and decayed cemetery.
Beside him lay a lifeless corpse, its skull shattered, completely still.
At that moment, a faint light flickered beside his face—a small black creature with thin limbs, holding a kerosene lantern, stood nearby.
“You’re awake! Not bad at all~ You actually managed to kill this mutant.”
It seems that this person is very likely an official sent by the organization to handle troublesome matters. If Yi Chen were to die in Cemetery No. 4, this person would handle it personally.
There is also another possibility: this person belongs to the organization and has been stationed at Cemetery No. 7 all along.
At this moment, the other person took the initiative to speak.
"William Behrens, a mere external employee, managed to handle the mutation event in Cemetery No. 4 on his own… It’s been seventeen years since we’ve had such an interesting guy in this cemetery."
"Bring the body in. I still need to perform a more in-depth lesion check."
The mysterious person cast a particular glance at the small lump on Yi Chen's shoulder, seemingly confirming its ‘harmlessness’ or identifying its type and affiliation before leading Yi Chen inside.
Contrary to his expectations, Cemetery No. 7 had no graves at all—only a dome-shaped metal building at the center with a towering chimney. The scent of burnt flesh he’d smelled earlier was drifting from the chimney.
Additionally, Yi Chen noticed a telephone line from the cabin extending here, making it likely that the mysterious person before him was the "Overseer" mentioned in the manual.
Inside the dome-shaped building, the interior was mainly divided into two areas: one was the 'Autopsy Area', filled with various surgical tools and an old-style operating table, and the other was the 'Cremation Area', connected to the chimney and is in constantly burning state all day long.
Following instructions, Yi Chen placed the corpse with the head injury onto the operating table. The mysterious person donned a clean apron, picked up the tools, and began working.
The process was swift, almost dizzyingly fast; within minutes, they had reached a conclusion.
“Plant-based mutation infection, a rather rare case. The pathogen appears in a flattened spherical shape, highly translucent, with visible ‘pigment particles,’ belonging to a special, uncommon variant in the early stages of infection. The wound is deep, the pathogen split cleanly in one strike…once...silver was impregnated to eliminate the symptoms. Elegant and effective.”
While examining the lethal wound on the undead corpse, the mysterious person cast a meaningful glance at Yi Chen.
"With some training, you might make a fine gentleman. You split the pathogen in a single cut, without using any non-physical means of attack. The damage to this corpse is less than 10%, which means we can still extract more value from it."
"Now, send the corpse to the crematorium, and let’s see what luck has in store for you."
Yi Chen remained silent, sensing an opportunity even if some parts were hard to understand.
In front of the steaming cremation furnace, there was a conveyor belt with hooks attached. He needed to hook the body and use the manual crank to send it into the furnace.
This setup reminded Yi Chen of a food he often ate in life—Beijing Roast Duck. The charred aroma in the air stirred his stomach, but he held back.
Following the mysterious person’s instructions, he pierced the hook through the shoulder blade of the plant-infused corpse. As the corpse entered the furnace, he could see other bodies burned down to the bone.
"The extra coffin and gravestone in Cemetery No. 4 haven’t been removed yet. I’ll go take care of it now."
Yi Chen was also interested in learning more about this world. The bizzare experiences in the cemetery had completely captivated him.
The mysterious person opened a hidden passageway leading to a basement, where the heat and smell from the cremation area were effectively blocked out. Surprisingly, the so-called basement was a lavish, European-style room with three bedrooms, a living room, and all the necessary amenities for daily life.
It seemed highly likely that this person resided here long-term.