“Come on, follow me! Once we find the treasure for Uncle, we can go home, hurry, hurry!” Lily jumped down from Charles's hands and ran toward the cave entrance, a large group of brown mice following closely behind.

  Emerging from the mouse hole, Lily led Charles and the others swiftly through the rocks.

  Every now and then, a red glow from the flying leeches would appear in the distance, at which point Lily would send a mouse to distract those creatures.

  After dodging and weaving for about half an hour, the irregular rocks began to thin out, and a flat rock wall suddenly appeared before Charles.

  It was too dark for him to see what was above, making it hard to tell if it was a mountain or a giant wall.

  After walking along the base of the wall for a few more minutes, a high-tech iron door abruptly came into view.

  Before Charles could ask, the mice quickly stacked up, and a mouse named “Mousey” pulled the doorknob with all its might. With a “click,” the door opened.

  As Charles followed the mice through the doorway, he was stunned to find a straight, spacious corridor inside. Although thick dust covered everything and the place was in disarray, the minimalist design made him feel as if he had momentarily returned to a modern hospital.

  “This architectural style isn’t built by those people outside,” Charles quickly concluded in his mind.

  “Lily, are you sure that thing is here?”

  Charles didn’t think this building was the work of the flying leeches; he felt that the mice’s mission was not that simple.

  The white mouse didn’t answer. After glancing around, she dashed into a room and dragged out a large piece of paper.

  Charles touched it and found it was somewhat hard, resembling plastic. On it was a simple map marked with different areas in a strange script: control room, lounge, cafeteria, and so on.

  Lily jumped onto the map, first stepping on the eastern corner, then darting to a spot marked with a prohibition sign in the west. “We’re here, and the thing is over there! Let’s go get it!”

  Looking at the map, Charles had an inkling of a guess, but now wasn’t the time to think about that. This place didn’t seem safe, so it was better to find the item and leave quickly.

  Suddenly, a shadow appeared at the end of the corridor, startling Deep, who was at the front, causing him to shout.

  Charles quickly pressed down on his gun. “It’s okay, just a corpse.”

  Everyone gathered around, and the light from the torches illuminated the figure. A dried-up corpse was kneeling on the ground, its mouth wide open and hands outstretched, as if it were screaming.

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  Charles noticed some details on the corpse. A metal badge hung from the right chest of what looked like a suit.

  He crouched down and picked it up. “Dr. Dott, Deputy Director of Laboratory No. 3.”

  Charles's pupils contracted as he realized something and immediately pulled out the paper from the clown mask.

  “Containment Level: ‘Level 3 item containment, currently contained in Laboratory No. 3.’”

  So this was Laboratory No. 3, and the mask was stolen from here. Who built Laboratory No. 3? Who were they? One question was answered, but more emerged.

  Lily clung to Charles's pant leg, urging them to move forward. “Let’s hurry! Once we help Uncle, we can go home!”

  Charles initially thought there would be many dangers along the way, but Lily hadn’t lied; aside from the chaotic environment and the occasional corpse, there was truly no danger.

  They slowly approached their destination.

  “Look, we’re here! It’s right here.” Lily stopped in front of an iron door, bouncing up and down excitedly at the entrance. “There’s a small square box at the door; just press your hand on it, and it will open!”

  Seeing something familiar on the door, Charles felt an ominous premonition.

  He pressed his hand against it, but unsurprisingly, the door didn’t open. There was no electricity, and his fingerprint didn’t match. How could it open? This was clearly a fingerprint-locked door!

  “Hmm? Why didn’t it open? Uncle said that as long as a human presses their hand on it, the door will open,” Lily tilted her head, looking confused.

  No matter how clever the mice were, they were still just mice. They must have seen humans open doors with fingerprints before, so they assumed that pressing a human hand would work, but that wasn’t the case.

  Charles knocked on the door and found it wasn’t very thick. He then took out some explosives, lit the fuse, and threw it at the doorway before retreating.

  “Boom!!” A deafening explosion echoed, and the door was blown open.

  As Charles walked through the opening, he discovered a black flask quietly sitting on a table in the center.

  “This is it! We can go home!” Lily’s furry face beamed with joy.

  Charles didn’t linger, grabbing the flask and rushing toward the exit. The earlier explosion had been quite loud, and he feared something might be attracted by the noise.

  But just as he thought that, a flying leech floated around the corner ahead, its bloated body blocking the path.

  “Roar!!” The flying leech charged toward the group with a roar.

  Seeing there was no way to dodge, Charles instantly raised his revolver and started pulling the trigger. “Fire!!”

  Bullets struck the leech, making a sound like leather being slapped, pushing it back step by step.

  With a roar, the flying leech twisted its body, and its glowing, translucent form disappeared.

  “Don’t stop! Everyone shoot forward! It can turn invisible; shoot all your bullets!”

  Bullets flew rapidly, hitting the distant wall and leaving it riddled with holes.

  As the gunfire subsided, just as Charles was about to say to hurry and leave, the leech’s massive head suddenly reappeared right in front of him, its toothy maw less than ten centimeters from his head.

  The sharp teeth rotated open, and the leech’s mouth came crashing down toward Charles’s head like a blood-dripping blade.

  Just as he was about to be swallowed by the leech, he suddenly felt a tremendous force from his waist, pushing him back.

  Charles looked down to see Deep had pushed him aside, saving his life.

  Gunfire erupted again, and the leech retreated under the onslaught, but it twisted its body and vanished again.

  Charles quickly stood up, instinctively pulling out the mask and placing it over his face. In a moment of crisis, there was no time to hesitate.

  He reached for a knife at his leg, and the black blade appeared in his hand, revealing an excited smile behind the mask.

  He could feel that the moment the mask covered his face, his strength and reflexes had been greatly enhanced. Everything around him suddenly became bright; this wasn’t just psychological—he could even see in the dark now.

  “Guys, stop shooting! That thing doesn’t take bullets. Today, your boss is going to show you something!”

  The sharp black knife danced in Charles’s hand, leaving trails of shadows as it flew up and down.