Rhodes Island does not exist.

It can't be the effect of Originium, can it?

— He rejected the idea as soon as it popped into his head.

He's not the kind of person who makes excuses for himself.

"call."

Take a deep breath and calm yourself down.

Think about your past self, and don't be blinded by the illusions you just saw.

Turn it on.

Open the door you want to open.

Then don't hesitate, don't regret, just accept the outcome. If the outcome is good, then everyone is happy; if the outcome is bad, then deal with it.

Because you are a PhD.

On Rhodes Island, you are the only survivor.

The living... should not fear the dead.

"Snapped."

With a flick of the finger, the switch pops up with a crisp sound.

then.

"boom!"

In that instant, at that moment, in that split second, all the light bulbs in the corridor went out.

-

Perhaps it was due to excessive voltage, or perhaps it was due to the aging of the tungsten filament, or perhaps it was pointless to dwell on these things on Rhodes Island—but in any case, all the light bulbs in the corridor were shattered because of the doctor's action just now.

At the same time, due to the simultaneous explosion of the light bulbs, the entire circuit on the third floor was also cut off.

The premise is that Rhodes Island actually has circuits and electricity.

"Kakakaka..."

Contrary to common sense, the doors on both sides of the corridor began to slowly open due to the power outage.

It seems that the door on the third floor is a counterintuitive device. The energy connected to the door is for controlling its closure, and once the energy is cut off, the door will reopen due to the loss of power.

Just like those hijackers who strap bombs to hostages.

To maintain their deterrent effect on the police, the remote control in the hands of the robbers is often not used to detonate the bombs on the hostages, but rather to detonate them.

These remote controls are connected to the kidnapper's vital signs monitor and, after confirming that the kidnapper's vital signs are intact, send a signal to prevent the bomb from exploding onto the hostage. Therefore, if the kidnapper's remote control signal is blocked by the police or the kidnapper is killed by the police, the bomb will explode directly because it cannot receive the signal.

The doors on the third floor must operate on the same principle.

The current passing through them is not meant to turn them on, but to shut them off.

The original intention behind this design was probably to prevent employees inside from being locked out during an energy crisis.

The premise is that Rhodes Island actually has employees.

The sound of the door opening stopped.

The current situation should be that all the doors on both sides of the corridor are open at the same time, but because there is no light, no one can see this scene.

But what disappeared was only the view, not the sound.

"..."

The doctor stood silently at the door of the control room, his only companion the darkness.

An uneasy fluctuation gradually spread through the air.

Is it Gate 1, Gate 2, or both?

Nobody understands, nobody knows, don't ask.

"Susu..."

A faint scraping sound came from the ground.

In environments where sight is completely lost, one can hear things more clearly.

But the clearer the sound from the other end became, the fainter the sound from the Doctor's end grew. As time went on, eventually there was no sound at all from the Doctor's end.

He seemed to have truly become one with the darkness of this third level.

"Susu..."

noisy.

noisy.

More and more voices are beginning to emerge.

They came from the first door, from the second door, from the third door.

The murky shadows flowing from the closed room, the nameless monsters wandering from the unknown realm—they all emerged.

Because there were no more cages on the third floor that could imprison them.

What about PhDs?

So what if you have a PhD?

What was he planning to do while he remained silent?

Do not erupt in silence, but perish in silence.

Having sunk into darkness, has he given up on himself and decided never to rise again?

The answer is no.

No.

A lone, solitary spark suddenly ignited like a ghostly lamp.

Abrupt and deadly.

This is the only light in the three layers that have turned into pure darkness; the fiery red wick may be a symbol of anger and madness.

"Ding."

The glass bottle collided with the ground but did not break.

A salty, fishy smell swept by like a sea breeze.

"Click——"

Clearly, this unusual aura was like a rare delicacy to those wandering oddities, and the moment the scent spread, the atmosphere of the entire third floor underwent a qualitative change.

The friction on the floor turned into vibration.

An unknown number of strange creatures poured out from Gates One and Two and began to surge forward like a herd of beasts, rushing, galloping, howling, and tearing at each other in the direction where the glass bottle had fallen.

In the morgue, the neatly arranged refrigerated display cases began to shake violently, as if the refrigerated display cases themselves, rather than their contents, were thirsting for seawater.

Or...maybe it's the refrigerator itself?

After all, even bio-tanks can eat people on Rhodes Island, so what's impossible?

However, however.

None of the strange things paid any attention to the living fire flickering in the darkness.

They simply flocked towards the sea, one after another, even though it was just a wisp of nothingness.

The fire simply burned, letting those strange things brush past it.

The two sides treated each other with the utmost respect.

Until one of them raised their weapon.

-

-

Sorry I'm late.

Thank you segment.

Thank you to kayn_vanished_“Nine-Day Pigeon” commander_missing_blade_and_monthly_pass_, thank you.

Chapter 60, Section 59: The Correct Way to Use Seawater

Black blood splattered, staining the dark corridor.

The bright red flames, like lamplight, enveloped the doctor's body and illuminated everything around him.

The light flowed from his blood-red eyes, assimilating his entire posture, even the blood-stained pickaxe in his hand.

A strange creature lay at his feet.

The strange neck was chiseled open, and the junction of the head and body was turned up like pages of a book blown by the wind, bending unsettlingly.

Thick, petroleum-like blood gushed from the crack, but not much, perhaps just enough to fill a glass.

But enough is enough.

That's enough for those weirdos who're obsessed with the smell of the sea.

"Hmm...? Uh-huh...?"

The death of their companion caused them to immediately cease their pursuit of instinct and turn their attention to the strange corpse on the ground, making incoherent noises.

Then they finally discovered that the cause of their companion's death was the man emanating a faint red glow.

So, the first monster pounced on the doctor.

"Boom!"

The right hand, gripping the pickaxe, is quickly raised and then brought down directly forward.

The actions originally used for mining are now being applied to a bizarre head.

Without a second thought, it shatters with a single blow.

This mud-like creature has absolutely no defense capabilities; its skull, as brittle as a snail's, has absolutely no chance of withstanding a blow from the tip of a pickaxe.

And so it met the same fate as its companions: death.

Then came the second one.

Following the trajectory of the pickaxe's previous strike, the doctor raised the pickaxe in his hand and then swung it to the right, drawing an L-shaped line. This time, he aimed at another strange scapula beside him.

However, the strange creature's defensive capabilities were clearly much weaker than the doctor had anticipated. This attack not only knocked off its shoulder blade but also removed about two-thirds of the creature's upper body.

At this moment, even the most oblivious of the strange creatures on the third floor noticed the Doctor's presence.

Their sense of the enemy and their sense of smell for the prey had completely surpassed the attraction of the seawater. All the strange creatures born and belonging to this place turned their primary target to the Doctor and rushed toward his position like middle-aged housewives snapping up cheap food.

And that's exactly what he wanted.

"call--"

The blood-stained pickaxe danced in the firelight; no monster could withstand a single blow from the Doctor.

Despite their large numbers, they were unable to launch even a single effective attack.

Because they will be smashed by the Doctor's pickaxe before they can be attacked.

And the PhD student is still moving forward.

"hiss--"

The ground was crawling with countless bizarre creatures, half of their bodies knocked off. They could only let out weak moans as they instinctively chased after the doctor, watching as more of their brethren were turned into the same kind of creatures by the doctor's right-hand pickaxe.

The doctor's target area is fixed.

Each time he swung his pickaxe, he only targeted three areas: the neck, shoulder, or waist.

Because his purpose was very clear.

A blow to the neck will send the grotesque head flying.

By striking the shoulder, the grotesque upper body can be shaved off.

A blow to the waist can break the strange spine.