?277 Chapter 277 – Abnormality
Outside the room, Nick found himself in a small and secluded hallway.
Natural light from the outside shone through holes in the light shaft in the ceiling.
The walls, ceiling, and floor were made out of uniform steel with no gaps.
The hallway was long, and there was no space for anyone to hide.
The black figure in the brightly lit hallway seemed to collapse into black smoke, which moved along the edge of the ceiling.
At the end of the hallway, a set of stairs led upwards, but before the black smoke reached the stairs, it stopped.
A shadow.
There was the shadow of a person on the stairs.
Naturally, the supervisor whom Nick had killed had asked for backup before going in.
It was illegal to trade with the Parasite, and the supervisor wanted to make sure that nobody accidentally walked into this hallway and saw something that they shouldn't.
The black smoke looked at the shadow for a while.
Sadly, Nick couldn't tell which way the guard was facing based on the shadow alone, and he couldn't check.
If the guard was looking down the stairs, they would see the black smoke coming out of the brightly lit hallway.
And even if Nick managed to kill the guy before he could ring the alarm, there was the possibility that a second guy was looking at the first guy.
After some deliberation, Nick decided that it wasn't worth the risk.
So, Nick decided to change his approach.
A moment later, the black smoke gathered in one of the small light holes before very slowly passing through it.
It took over 30 seconds, but eventually, all the smoke passed through the small light hole.
Nick found himself in an extremely bright and reflective shaft, which was about ten by ten centimeters wide.
While Nick was inside the light shaft, the light in the corridor below him dimmed a slight bit.
Luckily, it wasn't very noticeable.
Then, Nick floated forward.
As he moved, the light brightened and darkened.
When he approached the stairs, Nick's speed slowed to an absolute crawl.
He was barely moving one centimeter per second.
Minutes later, Nick finally arrived on top of the person casting the shadow.
It was a level two Extractor that was looking towards the stairs leading to the hallway where Nick had just been.
However, Nick noticed something else as well.
There was actually a glass door between the guy and the stairs.
If Nick had charged forward, he would have needed to break through the glass door, and that would have most likely triggered an alarm.
"What's he even doing there?"
Also, there was a second person in the room.
There was a woman with fiery red hair sitting on the ground in the little guard room, snacking on some chips in boredom.
Based on her demeanor, she didn't give a shit about how she looked to the other person in the room.
"Don't ask questions you don't want the answer to," the other guy said.
The other guy was a man with brown and grey hair, and he looked with a serious expression through the glass door leading to the small staircase.
"Oh, come on. Just tell me!" the woman said.
Surprisingly, the woman wore the uniform of a Newbie, while the man wore the uniform of a John.
One would think it was the other way around based on how the two of them acted.
"No, I'm not telling you," the man said. "You have to learn to keep your mouth shut when it comes to the company's secrets."
"Oh, so it's a secret!" the woman said with excitement as she threw another chip into her mouth.
"Obviously," the guy said. "Why else would we be here?"
"Is it a Specter?" the woman asked.
Silence.
"Oh, come on! Just give me a little bit of the secret. Pretty please! With sugar on top!" the woman said.
The guy just kept looking at the staircase, but his expression turned more annoyed.
"I want to know! I want to know! I want to know! I want to know!" the woman kept shouting like a little child, but based on her tone, it was clear that she was half-joking.
Maybe she thought that was adorable.
"Shhh, shut up for a second!" the guy said with a serious tone as he narrowed his eyes. "Do you see this?"
"What?" the woman asked, her "cute" demeanor gone.
"Come over," the man said as he slowly pulled out a gun from behind him.
The woman realized that the guy was serious when he pulled his gun out, and she stopped joking around.
She stood up, walked over, and looked at the same thing that the guy was looking at.
When she looked towards the small set of stairs, her eyebrows rose in surprise.
"Is the light supposed to do that?" she asked.
At this moment, the light in the stairwell seemed to pulse slowly.
The light became dim and bright, and one such cycle took about five seconds.
However, it only happened in the small room with stairs.
There was no flickering light in the hallway or their room.
The man narrowed his eyes and raised his gun.
"Something is going on in there," the man said. "Call Adam!"
"Of course!" the woman said seriously before turning around and running towards the exit.
Surprisingly, the exit was another glass door.
When she reached the door, the woman swiped her right hand over a small piece of shining metal beside the door before opening it.
Then, she ran through the door.
CRK!
Suddenly, a black object pierced her head from above, and she stopped running, her eyes opened wide.
In a fluid motion, a black figure landed on the ground, lifted the body, and stepped into the guard room.
The guard kept looking towards the stairs.
It had been bright for over three seconds, which was different from before.
CRACK!
Suddenly, an orange Barrier appeared around the guard before breaking.
Sadly, the Barrier wasn't the only thing that broke.