Chapter 897: Armory

897. Armory

Before they even got close to the armory, they could hear the voices of many people talking.

But if one listened carefully to what was being said, the content was utterly chaotic, and the speaking pace was bizarre as well. Some people sounded like they were on fast-forward, while others spoke at an excruciatingly slow pace, as if they had no idea how to speak normally.

In short, none of it was normal.

Little Guardian took out a small mirror, extended it past the turn, and checked the situation at the armory entrance.

The corridor was littered with bones from various parts of the body. If they were all pieced together, they could probably form over a dozen corpses.

Two men wearing camouflage coats stood near the armory's large door, chatting casually.

Lin Ye strained to follow their conversation. Even with the system's translation, he had to keep thinking nonstop to understand what they were saying.

Of course, the only one who could keep up with the dialogue was Lin Ye. Scarlatti and Little Guardian couldn't understand a word those two were saying.

"Not making a move?"

Scarlatti tugged at Lin Ye's sleeve and mouthed the words.

"I'm gathering information. There are over twenty of them in total. They devour several corpses every day. The squad that went out to search for corpses hasn't returned yet. If they don't come back soon, they'll have to pick a few people to eat."

That was why Lin Ye hadn't rushed to act. These people were physically imposing and carried a stash of weapons. They wouldn't be easy to deal with.

"You can understand them?"

After entering the Dreamrealm, Scarlatti had automatically learned the local language, but she couldn't make heads or tails of what those people were saying.

"They omit words in their conversation, alter the word order and speaking pace, and also change how certain words are used. As long as you can follow their line of thinking, you can understand them."

Lin Ye explained briefly.

"You can follow their line of thinking? No wonder you're one of the factors that constitute this dream... When this Dream World was formed, the Civilization Tower couldn't have just played a supporting role, could it?"

Scarlatti looked at Lin Ye with a suspicious gaze.

She decided that in the future, she would try to stay as far away from any Dream World related to Lin Ye as possible.

"That's prejudice. All these weird things were cooked up by the Civilization Tower."

Lin Ye very decisively dumped the blame on the Civilization Tower.

He might keep this Dream World intact in the future. If anyone ever entered this world later, they would know it was a Dream World built by the Civilization Tower.

"Oh, is that so."

Scarlatti didn't believe for a second that a tower named after civilization could produce something like this.

Just as the two were mouthing words at each other, a fight had already broken out inside the armory. It wasn't until over ten minutes later that the gunfire from within gradually died down.

Lin Ye and Scarlatti rounded the turn and hurled their weapons at the two guards.

The two guards were still peeking through the entrance. The weapons struck the backs of their heads with precision, knocking them unconscious.

Lin Ye strode forward and took over the guards' position.

Inside the armory, mountains of bones were piled up, and some men in camouflage coats were dissecting corpses.

They snacked while dissecting, looking like they hadn't eaten in days.

Scarlatti snapped both guards' necks before sidling up next to Lin Ye to observe the situation inside.

"Don't these people go out to find food every day? Could they be affected by the virus and undergoing transformation?"

Scarlatti caught a whiff of the thick stench of blood and felt a bit nauseous.

It wasn't that she couldn't handle the smell of blood, but she was repulsed by this primitive way of feeding.

"No, they've already completed their transformation. However, it seems the part they've transformed is the same one."

Lin Ye glanced down at the guards' corpses and noticed that one of the guards was looking up at them.

Inside, the men were eating while making sounds incomprehensible to normal people. Suddenly, one of them shoved his hand into his mouth and forcibly ripped off his own mandible.

It was like a signal. The remaining men successively performed the same action, flipping open their skulls like they were taking off hats.

Pale, bloated brains squeezed out from those men's mouths, like shedding a piece of clothing.

"Ah, much more comfortable now."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"Cold, so cold, so cold, so cold..."

...

Those brains controlled the bodies collapsed on the ground through thick nerve bundles to produce sounds. Each brain was made up of varying numbers of smaller brains, covered in dense, tangled neural networks.

"Should we make our move now?"

Scarlatti smashed a guard's brain with a hammer, while Lin Ye pulled his Crowbar out of the other guard's eye socket.

"Yeah. Right now they haven't found suitable bodies yet. They'll only be harder to deal with later. But watch out for those 'shells' on the ground. They should still be able to use weapons."

Lin Ye pulled open the armory's large door and charged inside with his Crowbar in hand.

Scarlatti followed right behind him. Both of them rushed toward the shelves stacked with weapons.

The moment Lin Ye got near the shelves, those brains controlled the bodies to draw their firearms and open fire at them.

Perhaps because it was their first time leaving their bodies, the brains' aim was mediocre. Most shots hit the shelves instead.

Lin Ye grabbed two pistols and emptied the magazines at the nearest brain.

Each brain was composed of at least five smaller brains. To take them down, every single brain had to be destroyed.

Scarlatti got her hands on a shotgun. This kind of area-of-effect attack was much easier for dealing with the brains. On average, two shots could take out one brain monster.

The two used the shelves as cover, continuously firing at the brain monsters. Before long, they had killed every last one of them.

"...This is the first time I've ever smelled the scent of brains."

Scarlatti held her breath and stepped through the brain matter to collect weapons. She probably wouldn't be wanting to eat anything brain-related for a long time.

"Nothing I can do about it. The Civilization Tower cooked all this up."

Looking at the chunks of brain scattered across the ground, Lin Ye couldn't help but think of grilled brain flowers. He'd recently eaten a similar snack and could still recall the taste.

"...That's enough. Let's get out of here."

Scarlatti carried a bag of firearms out of the armory. She wanted to leave this godforsaken place as soon as possible.

Brains themselves weren't that big of a deal, but having piles of brains crammed into a sealed space was extremely hard to stomach.

"Let's go. The exit is near the office area."

Lin Ye also picked out a few firearms to carry on his person. He'd experienced what it was like to become a brain before, but he'd never become one of those stacked-together masses of brains.

The three of them headed toward the base's exit. Lin Ye tightened his coat. The closer they got to the exit, the lower the ambient temperature dropped.

Fortunately, Scarlatti had collected quite a few batteries, so even if they made it outside, they could hold out for a while.

Lin Ye had also prepared some backup fuel, so even if the electric heater couldn't function properly, they could still use that fuel to keep warm.