Then the tone changed.
Hazel noticed a few bloodstains on the page.
“I spat out blood while playing with Lily, and I fainted.
My heart hurts so much.
Those people whom Director Mum called researchers tried everything they could, but I kept vomiting blood.
They had no choice but to move me to the basement.”
Then the next few pages were ripped out of the book.
Hazel knew the next thing she had to do was go to the basement they had built.
As she left her room and headed downstairs, everywhere was silent.
It was time for the children to take a nap.
Hazel had just walked to the side of the building when the cockroach-headed chef came toward her with a knife in her hands.
“You should not be here,” she said angrily.
Then she swung the knife at Hazel.
Hazel dodged to the side, then took out her gun and shot at her.
The cockroach-headed chef stepped back, but the bullet hole that had appeared on her body disappeared, and she swung the knife with even more force.
Hazel shot her several times, but still, nothing happened.
Hazel then remembered that cockroaches were notoriously difficult to kill, both as ordinary insects and now as a mutated species.
Since the holes would heal and the force of the knife swings kept increasing, she shot at the chef’s hand.
Afterward, she took the knife and swung it over her head.
The cockroach head fell, and the chef’s body collapsed.
By now, she could already hear footsteps, so she quickly went to where the basement was.
Upon getting there, she realized that the door required a key.
Unlike a regular-shaped keyhole, this one was shaped like a flower.
She stared at the flower-shaped keyhole for a while, trying to remember where she had seen that shape before, before returning to the house.
The chef’s body was no longer there when she passed by the side of the building, but she continued back to her room.
Sitting on the bed, she pondered where she had seen a flower similar in shape to the keyhole.
Hazel knew she had to find the key before tomorrow, as everything would start all over again at midnight.
As she began to think about it, it was time for dinner, so she went to the kitchen.
The cockroach-headed chef was still there, and she commanded Hazel as if nothing had happened.
While she was doing all this, Hazel remembered where she had seen the flower.
It was the first button on the headless girl’s blue dress.
That night, she connected to the communication group.
Almost immediately, messages appeared.
[Guide Hazel, you are here.
We were already getting worried.] This chapter is updated first at novelping.com.
[Yes, Guide Hazel.
How have you been?]
[I’m doing okay.
I got a job at the orphanage.]
The captain badge appeared.
[Do you mean Havenbrook Children’s Home?]
[Yeah.]
[I think I am closer to that place.
If Guide Hazel needs help, you can tell me.]
[Sure.] Hazel replied.
The captain badge appeared again.
[You all should be careful.
The Contamination Zone will reset again soon.]
[Yes, Captain.]
[Sure thing, Captain.]
[And you too, Captain.]
After this, Hazel disconnected from the group.
That night, she planned to look for the headless girl, who had not appeared since she found the diary.
Hazel returned to the room where she had found the diary.
This time, she searched through the desks and under the chair.
She had just bent down to put her hands under the bed when the director opened the door.
She hissed, then immediately attacked Hazel.
Knowing that bullets could do nothing to her, Hazel grabbed the long dagger and began to attack.
Just like the chef, this cockroach was tenacious.
Despite being stabbed several times, she still swung her hands at Hazel.
The room and the bed had been scattered from the fight.
In a corner where the bed had previously been covering, Hazel noticed a glowing object.
It turned out to be the flower-shaped key.
Hazel went to take the key, only to turn around and see the body that had just fallen grow another cockroach head.
The previous head had disappeared.
She quickly used her tendrils to wrap around herself while blending into the dark corner.
The director then looked around the room, after which she left.
Then, remembering the natural reaction the chef had when she saw Hazel during dinner, Hazel understood.
It turned out that in this Contamination Zone, after the mutated species were killed, they would grow a new head, and the memories they had before they died would be wiped out.
Hazel left the room, then she saw the headless girl again.
But this time, the flower-shaped button on top of her dress was missing.
As Hazel blinked, the headless girl was no longer standing there.
She was about to go down to the basement when she noticed that the day had brightened.
Then she realized another thing: the time from one day to the next was getting shorter.
“And today, being the last day, might be even shorter than the previous day.”
As she was going, the director appeared before her.
“This place is not allowed for sta…”
Before she could finish, Hazel used her dagger to cut off her head.
Then she walked into the basement.
Placing the key into the keyhole, the door opened, revealing a staircase leading downward.
She then walked down the stairs.
Meanwhile, immediately after the basement door opened, the entire zone paused.
Like robots, the mutated species turned their heads toward one direction.
The communication group exploded.
[Captain, something is wrong.]
[Everything has stopped.
Even the flying birds are still in one place in the sky.]
[This can’t be good.
Guide Hazel is not connected to the group.]
Simon, who was not far from the orphanage, immediately rushed there.
Meanwhile, Hazel entered the basement completely.
The place was just like any other research lab.
Walking forward, she came to the front of a glass room where a black-haired boy was lying on a bed, connected to various machines by a thin red wire.
Looking closer, she noticed that it was blood.
Other than that, she noticed that there were various people on different beds, all connected to machines by thin wires that were collecting their blood.
These individuals were Sentinels whose spiritual domains had completely collapsed.
But they were not dead.
Suddenly, the black-haired boy opened his eyes.