Chapter 69

Sixty-Ninth Hunger and Thirst

“It’s really troublesome to deal with all this stuff, but fortunately, I finally managed to get it done.”

On top of the tall building, Dorothy, sitting on the ground, murmured to herself while looking at a pile of maps and blueprints in her hands. She had been monitoring the hidden entrances of the An Yin Bureau for many days to understand its situation. Every day was filled with extremely dull reconnaissance work, followed by even more tedious documentation work.

By the end, Dorothy felt that her mentality had been somewhat affected, but fortunately, she finally completed everything.

Now, through monitoring the hidden exits of the An Yin Bureau and with the help of the Tracer’s super memory ability, she had already memorized the appearance information of most of the members of the Igewent An Yin Bureau. Now, it was time to start the next phase of her work.

While thinking about this, Dorothy snapped her fingers. Not far away, at the staircase entrance, several men walked up. Each man carried a long wooden box on their shoulders.

Dorothy controlled her human zombie puppets to walk in front of her and then instructed them to put down the long wooden boxes they were carrying, arranging them neatly in a row.

Then, Dorothy instructed the zombie puppets to take crowbars and open the lids of the wooden boxes. Inside the four boxes lay four dogs of different sizes and breeds, none of which had decayed despite being kept for several months, appearing as if they were sleeping.

These were Edric’s experimental subjects. Dorothy had picked out a large number of them and transported them to Igewent. One of these dog corpses was among them.

Looking at the well-preserved dog corpses before her, Dorothy sighed in relief. After instructing the human zombie puppets to lie down and releasing control over them, she consumed an additional two points of “Enlightenment” to enhance the control limit of the zombie rings, pulling up all four dog corpses at once.

Under Dorothy’s control, the zombie dogs staggered to their feet from the wooden boxes, looked around, and then walked to Dorothy’s side.

Seeing her new zombie dogs, Dorothy smiled slightly. Then, she took out a paper packet from her clothes, opened it to reveal bright red powder—this was the “Cup” medicine that Dorothy had recently obtained from Colif.

Dorothy extended her hand holding the powder forward. The four zombie dogs approached, sniffing at the powder. During this process, Dorothy consumed another point of “Enlightenment,” enhancing her control and allowing her to sense the dogs’ precise sense of smell.

Afterward, Dorothy repacked the powder and instructed the four zombie dogs to descend the stairs one by one, disguising themselves as stray dogs scattered around the corners of the block.

“Now, it’s time to wait for your off-duty hours…”

Standing on the rooftop of the building, Dorothy murmured to herself while looking at the Cedar Shirt Building ahead.

…

In the underground area of the Cedar Shirt Building, within the Igewent An Yin Bureau.

Above the spacious underground space, a huge gas lantern emitted a strange orange-yellow light, illuminating the dim basement. Under the glow of the lantern, over ten staff members were busy handling documents related to the numerous extraordinary events that occurred almost daily in Igewent.

In a corner of the wide underground space cluttered with shelves, a young man with gray-brown hair and glasses sat at a desk, intently filling out forms with a pen. As he wrote, his expression gradually became anxious, and his brows furrowed.

“Huh…”

He let out a long sigh. The young man named Brandon paused, rubbed his temples, and then touched his forehead, only to find it covered in fine sweat.

Looking at the sweat on his hands, Brandon’s frown deepened. He glanced out of the corner of his eye at the orange-yellow lights emitting from afar, revealing a hint of disdain in his eyes.

“Hey… Brandon, the ‘Lamp’ in the east corridor has burned out. Do you have any more?”

At this moment, a slightly overweight man in work clothes approached Brandon and tapped the table, asking him. Brandon reluctantly responded.

“Yeah… We still have some. We just got them from the church not long ago. Just wait here for a bit, I’ll go get one for you.”

As he spoke, Brandon stood up, walked to a metal door behind him, unlocked it with a key, and entered. Soon, he came back out with a small box in his hand.

“Take it.” After closing the door behind him, Brandon placed the small box on the table. The man in work clothes picked it up directly. Seeing this, Brandon asked:

“Joseph, I remember there wasn’t a ‘Lamp’ in the east corridor before, right? When was it installed?”

“Oh… That one? Mr. James had it installed last week. Besides, he also ordered a few more. It’s expected that they will be installed in the north hall and west corridor soon. He’s negotiating with the church about it, so it shouldn’t take long.”

“The bureau chief suddenly wants to install so many ‘Lamps.’ Is it necessary?” Brandon asked oddly.

“Who knows? Since he’s the chief, we can’t question his decisions. Alright, Brandon, I’m leaving.” Joseph said as he walked away, leaving Brandon sitting in his original spot with a slightly gloomy expression.

Suddenly, Brandon’s expression changed slightly, and his breathing became rapid. He stood up from his seat and left to walk down the corridor.

“Miss Buma, I’m going to the restroom. If anyone is looking for me, please ask them to wait a moment.”

“Sure, go ahead, Brandon.”

After greeting those around him, Brandon continued walking. During this process, he avoided getting too close to the lamps in the middle of the underground hall.

Entering a relatively dark corridor, Brandon quickened his pace and soon arrived at a washroom door. After opening the door and entering, he closed it again.

Once inside the washroom, Brandon did not head for the toilet but went straight to the sink. Leaning on the sink, he breathed heavily, his expression contorted.

“Huh… Huh… Huh…”

After catching his breath, Brandon stood firmly at the sink and took out a small cup and a test tube from his clothes. In the test tube was red powder.

Next, Brandon poured water from the tap into the cup. During this process, his hands began to tremble slightly, and his breathing became even more rapid.

Due to the shaking of his hands, Brandon struggled with the task of pouring water. Twice, he spilled the water, wetting his sleeves. After calming himself down, he successfully filled the cup on the third attempt.

Turning off the tap, Brandon placed the cup filled with water on the sink. Then, he carefully opened the test tube, trembling as he poured the red powder from the test tube into the clear water in the cup. After successfully adding some powder, he sealed the test tube with a stopper and returned it to his clothes.

Finally, Brandon steadied his trembling hands and raised the cup. The powder had dissolved, turning the water a pale red. Then, he drank the entire contents of the cup.