Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 411 - 49: Inner World_2

Ling Xiao nodded, "I’m not sure how large the range of the inner world is, but as the ’duplicate’ of the surface world, the inner world definitely has boundaries. As long as we find the boundary, we’ll have a way to leave."

"Since we just entered this ’inner world’ through the ventilation ducts, can’t we just backtrack and return to the ’surface world’?" Jiang Yu asked.

"The passage connecting the inner world and the surface world is constantly changing," Ling Xiao shook his head, "The entrance and exit were in the ventilation ducts just now, but it’s no longer there."

"This change... is mentioned in those comic books?"

"No, it’s something I felt," Ling Xiao closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "I can feel the space around me is like air or water, flowing slowly and chaotically... It’s dynamic, constantly changing, but in our conventional senses, it continues to maintain a relatively stable state."

"What are conventional senses?" Jiang Yu asked, "I remember we came in as part of the same group... Why do you know so much more than I do?"

"What the eyes see, what the nose smells, what the ears hear, what the body touches," Ling Xiao explained, "These are the conventional senses."

To be accurate, humans have five normal senses, but neither Ling Xiao nor Jiang Yu would use their tongue to lick things around them, so Ling Xiao didn’t mention taste.

"Let me lead the way next, you follow me," Ling Xiao said, already walking to the door, gripping the entertainment room door handle, "My ability to perceive space might come in handy... If the world beyond the door is the surface world, I’ll let you know."

"Beyond the door, the surface world?" Jiang Yu said, "Surely the range of the inner world isn’t limited to this entertainment room?"

"I don’t know." Ling Xiao replied, twisting the door handle.

The two stepped lightly onto the suspended corridor outside.

"How is it? Are we... back?" Jiang Yu whispered.

But due to the empty factory structure, even though her voice was soft, an echo faintly reverberated back from the opposite side.

Ling Xiao shook his head.

Jiang Yu looked down, below were several giant glass domes overturned on the ground — inside the domes were dust-free workshops producing FL09 reagent. Various equipment she couldn’t name was neatly arranged inside the domes, with empty conveyor belts still running, and the engines of large exhaust fans kept humming.

"I thought... the workers disappeared because they were trapped in the inner world, which is why no one can be seen outside... But there’s no one here either." Jiang Yu murmured softly.

"The inner world isn’t necessarily just one layer, maybe... there’s someone below." Ling Xiao suddenly said.

"Where?!"

"Counting from the left, the fourth dust-free workshop!"

"There’s really someone!"

It was a woman dressed in black leather, with her head hanging low, long deep red hair draped down to her knees — her whole body was suspended by chains from a mechanical beam about five to six meters off the ground, multiple chains piercing through her, leaving blood stains on her leather clothes and a sizable pool of blood beneath her.

Ling Xiao and Jiang Yu immediately rushed towards the stairs.

"Is she... is she still alive?" Jiang Yu asked while running.

"I don’t know."

"How could she be chained up like that... It looks like some kind of torture." Jiang Yu said again, "Could it be that this is the work of the mysterious creature that invaded Factory 105?"

"I don’t know." Ling Xiao’s response was still so straightforward.

"She has red hair... Could she be the missing Hunter ’Red-haired Witch’?"

"I’ve never met the ’Red-haired Witch’."

Jiang Yu ran a few steps down the stairs, suddenly realizing she was no longer her former self, immediately leaping, and descended from a fourth-floor height to land steadily on the ground.

"Jump down, I’ll catch you!" Jiang Yu shouted to Ling Xiao.

Ling Xiao did not hesitate, mimicked Jiang Yu’s movements, climbed over the railing, and jumped down from the suspended corridor.

Jiang Yu caught the falling Ling Xiao tightly, muscles and bones throughout her body emitted a scalp-numbing squelching sound, eliminating any trace of the impact accompanying Ling Xiao’s fall.

"Hurry!" Jiang Yu set Ling Xiao down and continued to run towards the dust-free workshop.

The dust-free workshop door was locked, but the two were no longer concerned with not damaging factory facilities, Jiang Yu drew her hunting knife, slicing open the code lock with one stroke, piercing through the lock with the second, severing the latch stuck in the glass wall, then pushed the door open.

However, the closer they got to the suspended red-haired woman, the more ominous they felt—the woman’s entire body was slumped down, blood from chain-pierced wounds had turned dark brown and clotted... But what further frustrated Jiang Yu was that she completely sensed no breath or heartbeat from her, not even the meme fluctuation of an infected.

"She’s a Mysterious Creature Hunter," Jiang Yu stopped about five meters from the red-haired woman.

She saw a hunter bracelet identical to hers on the woman’s left wrist.

"Looks like she should be the missing Red-haired Witch." Compared to Jiang Yu’s body modified by the Tai Sui meme, Ling Xiao was still a bit out of breath after running all the way there, "She found the mysterious creature but got killed by it."

"Could the mysterious creature be nearby now?" Jiang Yu worriedly scanned her surroundings, hand already on her folded short bow.

"Not necessarily, judging by the bloodstains, she’s been hanging here for a while," Ling Xiao moved forward and touched the bloodstain under the Red-haired Witch.

The blood was completely clotted, surface smooth and hard.

"She entered Factory 105 less than an hour ago, why would her blood..."

"Time flow in the inner world is not synchronized with the surface world," Ling Xiao said, "To us, she’s been missing for less than an hour, but in the inner world, she’s probably been hanging here for several days..."

"What should we do with her body?" Jiang Yu asked.

Unknowingly, she had already considered the little boy younger than her cousin as the backbone.

"We’ll hold off, inspect the surroundings, maybe we can find other missing people," Ling Xiao said.

Just as Ling Xiao turned around, a voice came from above: "Wait! Put me down first!"

Jiang Yu was instantly startled, while Ling Xiao leisurely turned around, looked up at the eyes revealed through the red hair strands, and asked, "You’re not dead?"

"Almost died, but luckily I have the ability to play dead," the other responded, "When I heard the noise, I thought that thing was coming back, so I instantly went into fake death... Didn’t expect it was fellow teammates."

Red-haired Witch glanced at the hunter bracelet on Jiang Yu’s wrist and continued: "How did you two get in? With so many days passed, is the ’Insecticide Plan’ completely washed?"

"So many days?" Ling Xiao and Jiang Yu exchanged a glance, Ling Xiao asked, "How many days have you been hanging here?"

"I can’t remember clearly... but in my personal feeling, it’s definitely been seven or eight days," Red-haired Witch said, "I once thought the Federation had abandoned me... Can you let me down now?"

"Outside, people think you’ve been missing for less than an hour," Ling Xiao said.

"Less than an hour? Outside?" Red-haired Witch froze.