Intermission......

The protective door, twisted to the point of deformation, was pushed open.

Chu Yanran entered the report hall.

Scenes from the past continue to flash here...... Chu Yanran clenched her submachine gun and walked slowly down the steps in the middle of the report hall.

In the dimly lit report hall, there were still many audience members who did not "leave".

They remained the same as they had been, but they weren't breathing, and their skin had turned a cold blue.

……

"Parallel Universe...... I'm afraid I'm not going crazy, how can there be that kind of thing, don't you say? At halftime, Chu Yanran's personal bodyguard Shen Mengyan complained.

You Gege smiled slightly, but did not express an opinion.

Chu Yanran felt that what she said was a bit excessive.

"I think Professor Zeng's research is in the right direction."

"Oh?"

"If the multiverse really exists...... I'd love to meet my other self. ”

"Wow...... You're really fake! Don't you feel creepy? ”

Chu Yanran shrugged: "I don't think so, I think I should be able to get along with myself." ”

"Uh...... Okay......" Shen Mengyan pursed her lips and put the cup away.

……

The rest room was empty.

But the cup is still there, and even ...... There was still a little water left in the cup.

Walking further inside, Chu Yanran froze.

Because in the dressing room next to the rest room, she saw Shen Mengyan who was still changing clothes......

"Hmm......" Chu Yanran covered her mouth, her eyes were red.

……

"Sister, can I ask you a question?" When only Chu Yanran and You Gege were left, Chu Yanran asked tentatively.

You Gege is holding her cat in the couch and enjoying hot cocoa.

"Huh?" You Gege nodded.

"Uh, that...... If you meet another self, do you ...... Will you hate her too? ”

What do you say......

Li Rang, who walked to the door, stopped, and he was also quite curious.

You Gege thought for a moment and replied, "Maybe." ”

……

Moved Shen Mengya's body aside and put it away, and Chu Yanran found a white blanket to cover her.

Then Chu Yanran opened her locker, which contained a diary, a pistol, a military dagger and three photos.

The pistol was no longer needed, so Chu Yanran didn't touch it.

She carefully placed the journal in her backpack, slung the military dagger around her waist, and returned to the break room with three photographs.

Take a seat in a familiar seat and line up the three photos.

The first photo is a group photo of Chu Yanran and Zhang Fengyu, with the sea in the background.

It was taken in the port when Chu Yanran first arrived in Antarctica.

The sea was not empty, on the contrary, it was crowded with warships flying various flags.

Never before have these steel behemoths been unguarded with each other as they are in the photo......

……

"Brother, I'm going to Antarctica for a while, you take care of grandpa."

"Antarctica? What are you going to do there? ”

"Well, I don't know too much, but the organization has been decided, I'll leave this afternoon."

"Then I'll send you off."

"No need, brother, don't you still have to accompany grandpa to physiotherapy, I'll just follow Brother Yu's car."

"Brother Yu? Zhang Fengyu? ”

"yes, yes."

"Holy! Why is that kid again, you wait, I'll give him a call and explain. ”

"Oops! Brother~"

……

Chu Yanran never thought that after she came to Antarctica...... There's no going back......

Eyes move to the second photo.

The background was changed to the "door" on Lake Don Juan, and the people in the photo also became three backs, but Chu Yanran vaguely remembered them.

On the far left is Guo Xingcai in a white protective suit, in the middle is You Gege, and on the far right is Li Rang.

This is a souvenir taken by Chu Yanran quietly before entering the underground base...... was going to delete it, but Chu Yanran printed it and saved it.

……

"Let me introduce you, this is Ou Mengya."

"Hello."

"Hello ......"

"She will appear in the public eye in place of you in the next six months, and then there will be no worries, and you can go to research with peace of mind."

"But ......"

"No, Yanran, you should know how important this research is to the organization and to the country."

……

The protagonist of the last photo is Chu Yanran herself.

In the photo, Chu Yanran, who is wearing a birthday hat and making a wish on the birthday cake with her eyes closed, is not celebrating her own birthday...... Rather, he has sacrificed thirty-five days...... Omenya's Birthday ......

That's it, Chu Yanran didn't know that Ou Mengya had sacrificed to ensure her safety.

Chu Yanran put the photo away, and her heart tightened for a while.

After packing up these personal belongings, Chu Yanran left the lounge, but when she returned to the report hall, she unexpectedly found that there was a working operation board on the report podium.

This kind of operation board powered by liquid superconducting batteries was not uncommon at the time, and the entire underground base was manned by one person.

But now that the underground base has been reduced to an abandoned place comparable to a cemetery, it's a bit strange that there is still a working operation board here.

Chu Yanran walked over curiously, picked it up and saw that the loop on it was actually the integration log of Zeng Yijie's report on "Thunderbase Life" back then.

This log is not unfamiliar to Chu Yanran, because she witnessed the whole process, but she can't remember what happened after the report that day......

……

"All of the corpses had bloody handprints on them, and they were all quite dense, which could basically be considered as some kind of contact between an unknown life form and a human." Zeng Yijie explained the photos one by one.

In the process, because it was difficult to accept the impact of these autopsy photos, You Gege stayed in the lounge and did not go out, but she did not choose to leave early, but only listened to Zeng Yijie's explanation.

Guo Xingcai was by her side and was responsible for taking care of her.

"But these are just conjectures, and no matter how unscientific the appearance of the bloody handprints is, and there is no real observation record, we still don't have enough evidence to prove that they exist." Zeng Yijie paused for a moment, then flipped through the next photo, which was sent back by the American Sector personnel trapped in the ancient ruins below Lake Vostok.

As can be seen from the photos, the personnel of the American area have not gotten rid of the entanglement of those things after being "teleported" to the ruins, on the contrary, they are like adventurers who awaken monsters, and they encounter more and more strange events in the continuous exploration of the depths.

The most memorable of these strange events is the anatomical diagram of a deceased team member who is not injured from the surface of his body, but all his internal organs are frozen and shattered by ultra-low temperature.

The team member was originally a Ranger who later joined the U.S. Defense Division of the Department of National Security, and although he was not a formal researcher, his sensitivity to danger was far beyond ordinary people.

But even so...... He was still "killed" in his sleep.

After the death of the renamed team member, the other team members found the footprints of those "things" nearby, and discovered them through the autopsy of the deceased team members...... All the organs in his body were frozen into powder by ultra-low temperature, and there were still black incomplete handprints on his spine......

"At the moment our rescue team has stopped working because all the trapped people have died...... However, another exploration team that took over the rescue work opened the first 'passage' to this ancient site yesterday morning, and what you see below will be the first top-secret video data to be released to the public, so I hope you are mentally prepared. ”

THE PASSAGE IN ZENG YIJIE'S MOUTH IS ACTUALLY JUST AN EXPLORATION HOLE WITH A DIAMETER OF LESS THAN 3CM, BUT WITH THE HELP OF THIS EXPLORATION HOLE, THE NATIONAL SECURITY DEPARTMENT CAN ALREADY GO DOWN TO THE RUINS WITH SPECIALLY IMPROVED EXPLORATION EQUIPMENT SIMILAR TO GASTROSCOPE.

Although the true size of the site is not yet known, the exploration equipment has been able to locate the American personnel who died in the United States.

And the main content of the video is their state after death.

But what is even more disturbing and terrifying is ......

All team members maintained a fixed posture and expression when they died, even the team member who had obviously died of ultra-low temperature crushing of his organs remained intact in the team.

So...... Who the hell is sending back the message to the base headquarters?!

The return hall was once again in a bustle, and many people's emotions were on the verge of collapse.

Faced with this situation, Ji Jiangyun picked up the microphone again and said, "Quiet!!!!!! ”

……

Chu Yanran, who broke free from her memories, was already covered with cold sweat on her forehead at this time.

She looked at the froze "audience" sitting in the audience, as if they were waiting for the start of a presentation, but before the report began, they were forever frozen in this scene.

"Smack!"

"Who!?" Chu Yanran immediately raised the gun and turned in the direction where the sound came from, and simultaneously turned on the infrared pop meter on the exoskeleton.

There were scattered lights flickering in the field of vision, and the darkness was empty, as if there was nothing.

But Chu Yanran suddenly felt a numb scalp, and there was a strange and inexplicable chill on her shoulders.

Here they are!

And it's right behind Chu Yanran!

……

"I know it's hard for people to accept this fact, but so far, the images coming back from our exploration equipment are indeed very different from the images we have seen from the U.S. personnel before, and in order to determine that this discrepancy is real, we made a wireless transmitter that is similar to the communication device carried by the missing U.S. personnel, put it in the ruins, and then ...... We got a terrible truth......"

When it comes to this, there is no need for Zeng Yijie to continue, most of them have already guessed......

"We didn't receive any signal back from this wireless transmitter...... Other words...... There is a problem with the 'US region' backhaul we received earlier. Zeng Yijie's face was solemn, and he slid the operation board to push the pictures of all three "doors" to the front desk to show everyone.