America: The Cremator

Chapter 155 The Underground Corpse Storage: Sheep Demon Servant!

After a long while, Surong looked up from the top-secret file and turned to Hedley: "Mrs. Hedley, are we going to run into this guy directly?"

Hedley shook her head, denying it: "There are no signs of widespread electronic malfunctions or a sudden rise in temperature. A more reasonable explanation is that the island's owner performed some kind of sacrificial ceremony here, which attracted its retinue."

She straightened the cuffs of her coat, her tone remaining calm: "Don't worry, the real world has a strong aversion to anomalies of A rank or higher. If there is no rift in the inner world and it is forcibly brought down, an A rank anomaly can generally only exist for about ten minutes, and an S rank anomaly's arrival time is measured in seconds."

As soon as she finished speaking, a rapid ringing came from the small suitcase Hedley was carrying. She took out her phone, checked the caller ID, and answered the call with a frown.

"Mrs. Hedley, where are you?"

Upon hearing Zena's voice, the expressions of the people present immediately darkened.

Hedley didn't answer immediately, but instead asked, "Your Excellency, is that even a question? The candidates' locators are all working properly; you should know our current location very well."

Zena paused briefly on the other end of the phone, then her voice became stern: "As the inspector for this exam, I have the right to remind you—"

"You are now quite close to the edge of the central restricted area! If you continue forward, you will be immediately disqualified from the exam!"

Hedley's tone instantly turned cold, and she retorted without hesitation, "Zena; we have seven candidates missing. As the chief examiner, I also have the right to terminate the exam at any time and prioritize search and rescue operations!"

"According to the regulations, candidates who voluntarily participate in search and rescue operations will not be subject to any rules during the search and rescue period."

"If you insist on obstructing the search and rescue, I have the right to impeach you to the top leadership of the Weird Support Bureau."

Zena hadn't expected Hedley's attitude to be so firm. She paused for a moment, then stopped trying to stop them: "I've already warned you! If you insist on moving forward and cause more casualties, I won't be responsible!"

Surong reached out and took the phone from Hedley's hand, speaking into the receiver: "Inspector Zena, you weren't even on site, so why are you so certain we'll suffer casualties? Do you think you know everything about this forest?"

Upon hearing Su Long's questioning, Zena's voice instantly turned panicked: "You—you're talking nonsense! I don't know anything about the situation here!"

Su Long sneered, "What are you panicking about? As an inspector, isn't it normal for you to have a basic understanding of the examination venue? Why do you instinctively object when I ask you a question? Are you deliberately trying to avoid suspicion?"

"I don't understand what you're talking about!"

Zena was completely bewildered by Su Long, and after dryly throwing out a seemingly clueless remark, she hurriedly hung up the phone.

The moment the call ended, a light blue system notification popped up on Su Long's retina.

[Intelligence Insight Triggered, New Intelligence Obtained!]

Su Long raised an eyebrow, wondering why the light screen hadn't appeared, when suddenly an audio recording echoed in his mind.

Wow, this is the first time we've triggered information about audio types!

The audio has a noticeable indoor echo, like a conversation between two men secretly recorded in a closed room.

While listening carefully to the audio in his mind, Su Long calmly handed the satellite phone back to Hedley: "Zena is indeed suspicious. She's guilty. Everyone, check your weapons and equipment. If we go any further, we'll be in the real restricted area."

Everyone lowered their heads to check their ammunition and protective gear, while Su Long's attention was completely absorbed in the playback in his mind.

A middle-aged man's anxious voice rang out first: "—The refrigeration system of my underground cold storage is completely broken. I've asked several engineers, but none of them can fix it."

"We were planning to move those goods to the surface for temporary storage, but as soon as the temperature rose, they all went completely horrific! Now the whole island is covered in those things, it's a complete mess!"

Another man's voice followed, sounding older than the middle-aged man's: "Ha, what did I tell you? I told you not to go too far. Having so much 'stockpile' was bound to cause trouble sooner or later. Now look what you've done, creating such a huge mess for yourself."

"Stop making sarcastic remarks! Quickly help me think of a solution," the middle-aged man said anxiously.

The old man snorted coldly and said disdainfully, "Help you? I think you should just turn yourself in first, then ask the army to come and wipe the place clean."

The middle-aged man retorted loudly, "No! Absolutely not! If this gets out of hand and the higher-ups investigate, neither of us will escape unscathed. This matter must be handled discreetly; we can only resolve it quietly ourselves!"

"—If you help me this time, I'll send you five more well-trained 'Great White Sharks,' how about it?"

The old man was silent for a moment, then suggested, "How about this? I'll change the location of this year's Oddity Association assessment to your island, and secretly raise the assessment standards. Those free 'employees' will work tirelessly to clean up those things for you in order to pass the assessment."

"Good, good! That's a good idea! — But I was saving those corpses for the next sacrifice, and now they're all gone. What will I offer to that sir?" The middle-aged man hesitated.

The old man warned sternly, "I'm warning you, at most I can help you change the exam location, but if there are mass casualties among the test takers and things get out of hand, I really won't be able to protect you."

The middle-aged man laughed happily, excitedly saying, "I understand. I'll be discreet. Those employees coming to my island will not only help me solve the trouble caused by the strange monsters, but also serve as provisions for the adults. It's killing two birds with one stone! How wonderful! I really have to thank you properly this time."

"Keep your hands and feet clean. If something serious happens, don't blame me for not helping you," the old man said as a final reminder.

After listening to the entire audio, Su Long felt a surge of joy.

He knew that increasing his charm would increase the probability of obtaining information, but he did not expect the effect to be so immediate. He had only had a few words with Zena face to face and had directly intercepted such explosive core information.

He quickly reviewed the information in the intelligence report, and the entire sequence of events became completely clear.

The island's owner piled up a large number of corpses to sacrifice to a certain evil god.

As a result, the cold storage malfunctioned, and after the corpses were moved to the surface, they all transformed into something bizarre. The island owner dared not handle the matter openly, so he used his connections to find a mysterious person within the association to move the B-level assessment location to this island.

Their plan was extremely clever: first, they would use the examinees as free labor to clean up the strange creatures ravaging the surface; once the cleanup was nearly complete, they would capture all the examinees to fill the gap in the number of corpses needed for the sacrifice.

That evil god clearly had a huge appetite and couldn't get that many fresh corpses in a short time, but if it were exorcist corpses, one would be worth several ordinary corpses.

Su Long sneered. These people really made the most of everything, eating and taking things away at the same time.

He pondered for a moment, then gathered the group of people who were inspecting the equipment together, packaged the information as his own speculation, and recounted it in its entirety.

Since the target was drawn after the arrow was shot, Sulong's deduction process was quite perfect.

Following Su Long's line of thought and carefully considering the matter, everyone discovered that this speculation perfectly explained all the inconsistencies on the island.

Why are there ghouls with medical bracelets? Why are there so many sad corpses? Why is there a large army with heavy firepower blocking the port? And why is Zena trying so hard to prevent them from getting close to the restricted area?

Evan's grip on the longbow tightened suddenly, his voice trembling as he said, "So, we were tricked into becoming free cleaners from the very beginning? And after clearing away the monsters, we're going to be used as sacrifices?"

A fierce glint flashed in Isaac's grey-brown eyes as he said coldly, "What a brilliant scheme."

"This is insane—" Leah muttered to herself, gripping her brother's arm tightly with both hands, her body trembling uncontrollably.

Hannah also looked at Suron with admiration.

Hedley made no attempt to hide the admiration in her eyes, nodding slightly as she looked at Suron: "A very rigorous deduction. If what you say is true, then we are facing more than just a few monsters now."

She picked up the small leather suitcase from the ground, glanced at the five young people in front of her, and said solemnly, "As the chief examiner, it is my duty to continue to search for the seven missing candidates in the restricted area."

"But you are just candidates here to take the exam, and you have no obligation to continue to risk your lives with me."

"There may be A-rank demon's retinue ahead, or even something more dangerous. If you don't want to go any further, you can stay where you are and wait for me to return."

After saying that, Hedley pulled out a parchment scroll bearing the Campbell family crest from a hidden compartment in her small suitcase and unfolded it in her hand: "Of course, if anyone is willing to continue and assist me in completing the search and rescue, I will, on behalf of the Campbell family, issue you a joint demon-hunting commission, the reward of which is one Mithril City."

After saying that, she added, "In addition, I will provide you with a joint operation certificate personally signed by me afterward. Regardless of the final result of this assessment, with this certificate, you can be directly promoted to B-level exorcists."

Upon hearing that Mithril Coins would be the reward, Su Long's heart skipped a beat. He had just been worrying about where to get new Mithril Coins to upgrade his attributes, and now this opportunity had come knocking on his door.

Moreover, now that they know about the conspiracy on the island, retreating or staying in place may not be safe either, so it's better to continue with Hedley.

"I'll continue." Surong took the first step forward.

Seeing that Su Long had expressed his opinion, Hannah took a step forward and nodded, saying, "I'll go too."

Evan and Leah exchanged a glance. Seeing his sister nod at him, he slung his longbow back over his shoulder and replied, "There are no cowards in the Thorne family who desert in the face of battle. My sister and I will go too."

Isaac remained leaning against the tree trunk, toying with the black bull horn in his hand: "It's just an A-rank demon, it's not like I haven't seen them before, I'm going too."

Looking at the five young people in front of her who hadn't backed down, Hedley sighed helplessly and laughed, "Looks like I'm going to have to pay a hefty price this time."

She carefully put away the parchment scroll and led the way into the depths of the forest: "Since we've made up our minds, let's move on."

The others quickened their pace, catching up with Hedli.

The light in the forest grew dimmer, and the falling ashes became denser.

Five minutes later, the group emerged from the dense forest, and the view ahead suddenly opened up.

In the center of the wide open space stood a huge bunker entrance, a heavy reinforced concrete structure with a massive steel gate.

The bunker was surrounded by a three-meter-high electrified barbed wire fence with a skull and crossbones warning sign that read "Deadly Danger." The open area between the barbed wire fence and the bunker entrance was filled with warning signs that read "Minefield."

The only safe passage was a narrow path covered with gravel, directly opposite the barbed wire gate, leading to the bunker's entrance gate.

"This level of defense is really outrageous," Evan said in a low voice, looking at the minefield.

"It seems that what's hidden here is even more sinister than we thought," Su Long remarked, his gaze following the gravel path forward to the entrance, where he was surprised to find that both the electric fence and the bunker door were half-closed.

It seemed someone had already gone down, and left in such a hurry that they hadn't even had time to close the door.

Hedley also spotted the two doors ahead. Without further ado, she called out to the others in a deep voice, "Let's go in."

The group lined up and quickly passed through the barbed wire gate, stepped onto the narrow gravel path, and arrived at the steel gate.

Su Long raised his hand and pressed it against the cold, heavy door. With a sharp, metallic scraping sound, the heavy door was slowly pushed open, and a strong smell of blood mixed with the pungent odor of preservatives rushed out.

Sulong drew "Sirius" and stepped into the bunker first.

The interior decoration is completely different from the rough concrete structure on the outside.

The walls are covered with white tiles, the ceiling has long strips of cold light tubes, and the floor is covered with non-slip terrazzo flooring, making it look like an underground medical center or laboratory.

There is a passageway on each side of the hall; on the left is a large freight elevator, and on the right is a spiral concrete staircase leading downwards.

Su Long walked to the elevator, glanced at it, and then turned to the others, saying, "Taking the elevator is too risky. For safety's sake, let's take the stairs down. Although it's slower than the elevator, at least we'll have a way out if there's an emergency."

With no objections, everyone quickly regrouped at the stairwell. Suron and Isaac led the way, the three women walked in the middle, and Evan brought up the rear.

Su Long stood at the top of the stairs and looked down. He found that most of the motion-sensor lights in the stairwell were broken, and only a few emergency lights emitted a faint red glow, making it impossible to see the situation below. He simply took out his tactical flashlight and went down the spiral staircase.

After walking down for about ten minutes, the concrete steps under my feet finally came to an end.

A massive, sealed metal door, comparable in size to a vault's explosion-proof door, appeared before everyone's eyes, still half-open.

Su Long stepped forward, gripped the mechanical rotary lock in the center of the door with both hands, tensed his arm muscles instantly, and pulled the door open with a burst of strength.

The moment the door was fully opened, the internal sensor system was triggered, and the overhead strip lights lit up one after another, emitting a "buzzing" sound of electricity.

A pale light shone down, completely exposing the scene behind the door to everyone.

This is an astonishingly large underground morgue, with all four walls completely filled with densely packed stainless steel morgue cabinets, resembling a giant and regular metal honeycomb.

On both sides of the wall, hundreds of cabinet doors were neatly arranged. Some cabinet doors were closed, while others were wide open. A tray was pulled out halfway, from which tattered black body bags hung, still stained with dried, blackened dirt.

Upon seeing the scene behind the door, everyone was horrified, and Su Long's expression was extremely solemn.

He had anticipated that the underground morgue would be large, but the scene before him still far exceeded his expectations.

Sulong cautiously entered the morgue, his tactical boots making a crisp sound on the white tiles, the sound echoing back and forth in the empty room, without the hum of any machinery.

He looked up at the several large industrial exhaust fans in the corner of the ceiling. The fan blades were still and covered with a thick layer of dust.

"Lia, can you hear the refrigeration compressor or any other machine?" Suron asked.

Leah closed her eyes, carefully sensing her surroundings for a moment, then shook her head vigorously: "I can't hear anything, it's too quiet here."

Su Long walked to the nearest wall, reached out and pulled open a mortuary cabinet. The heavy tray slid out, but it was empty. There was no cold air emanating from inside; instead, a strong stench of formaldehyde mixed with highly putrid odor wafted out.

Su Long pushed the tray back and then opened several other tightly closed cabinet doors. The situation inside was exactly the same: there was nothing there, and no sign of any refrigeration equipment working.

"Sure enough, there's a problem with the refrigeration system here."

Hedley looked around at the open cabinet doors and roughly estimated: "Based on the wall area and cabinet density here, there are more than two thousand corpse storage cabinets in total. If they were all filled, that would be an extremely large monster army."

Evan stared at the empty metal cabinets and swallowed hard. "More than two thousand corpses—where did he get so many people from?"

"In places like the Caribbean, countless migrants and gang members go missing every year. As long as you have money, it's not difficult to get a body."

The group walked forward for a while, and at the end of the wall directly in front of them, another downward staircase appeared.

Su Long raised his hand and pointed in that direction with the beam of his flashlight, indicating, "It looks like this isn't the end. There's more space below. We need to go deeper. The real show is probably yet to come."

"Let's go down and take a look." With that, Hedley took the lead and started walking.

As everyone quickly followed, preparing to continue exploring deeper into the building, pairs of glowing eyes suddenly lit up deep within the dark stairwell.

The crowd immediately felt a sense of impending doom, quickly scattering into formation and adopting a fighting stance.

Accompanied by the chaotic sound of hooves and heavy breathing, five eerie creatures slowly emerged from the shadows.

They have ferocious goat heads, but their bodies are in a deformed human shape, hunched over, with unusually long arms, looking more like some kind of molted giant monkey, covered in dirty, dark hair.

Deep within those scarlet eyes, a ghostly blue hellfire leaped, radiating an extremely evil and tyrannical aura.