Girls' Frontline: My Apocalypse with Dolls

Page 474

A corpse lay beside the breach, its lower body nowhere to be seen. A large amount of blood had dried over time, becoming slippery and sticky. A strong feeling of nausea welled up in his throat, and he could no longer suppress his dry heaving. He quickly crawled to the side and spat out all the phlegm he had secreted.

Damn it, where the hell is this place?

The scene before him turned pitch black; this was where the night vision goggles came into play. He put the goggles on, and suddenly, not only did the image in front of him become clear, but the battery indicator above his line of sight also became visible.

There's still more than half left, so it seems it can be used for a while longer...

This is a living room with mannequins sitting on the sofa, pointing at a television that has no picture. Even some of the furniture is covered with dust covers, so it seems that the set design hasn't been meticulously planned.

[Ding-dong, ding-dong]

Jamie glanced to the side; the clock had struck twelve, and the chimes were ringing. The silence only amplified his unease, and the bizarre sight before him made it difficult for him to remain calm.

And the next set is just around the corner...

Two children kneel before a shrine, in a prayerful posture, while the "father" stands behind them, holding a wooden stick.

“You learn discipline, the carrot and stick approach, rewards and punishments are clear, and a trained child will be grateful for both.”

Is this a replica of a person's life? It seems to be in chronological order, which does remind Jamie of many familiar things, but he is still confused. His memory doesn't seem to be as good as he thought. At least he hopes that the parts he can recall will always be blank.

Without any mannequins to guide him, Jamie could only continue moving forward using night vision goggles, following the route from the secondary hall to the central garden.

Several wooden strips were nailed to the front of the door; they didn't seem very hard when I lifted them in my hand.

"This area is probably not very safe; we should try checking the other side of the house..."

With that thought in mind, Jamie slammed his fist into the wooden strip, and with just one blow, a crack appeared in it.

"I'll go to you!"

An adult's strength is no joke, let alone that of Jaime Ferrico, who makes a living collecting loan sharks for the gang. He smashed through the passageway in just two blows, allowing him to continue moving deeper into the mansion. There was also a set here, with two uniformed mannequins. What do you think a wedding would be like? Perhaps similar to this. And they were "dancing" together on the tracks of the central pavilion.

"At some point in your life, you must have fallen in love with someone, even though no one may have ever loved you back. Love makes you vulnerable, so let go."

......

Is that really the case? At least she was right about the first part; she must have fallen in love with someone, but... she can't remember...

What aspect of vulnerability does he refer to—physical or psychological? He doesn't consider himself a vulnerable person, except for the genuine disgust he felt when he saw the corpse.

But behind the pavilion, there seems to be more than just these two mannequins; there's another figure...?

He was overjoyed and took a step forward to ask, but suddenly, he was pulled away by two hands and thrown into the flower bushes...

"you......!"

"Shh...!"

781 Annex

P.S.: Suggestion for the following track? "Forget the Past" by Tom Salta (currently only available on QQ Music).

Jamie's highly tense nerves prevented him from immediately recognizing the person in front of him, but the hair hanging down his face made him realize that this person was at least a woman, or at least a man with very long hair, and was also wearing night vision goggles. She was pressing down on him and covering her mouth with her hand.

"Shh...!"

She whispered a warning again, and Jamie finally calmed down. With her remaining vision, she looked at the situation outside the flower bushes. The figure she had just seen was not a normal person, but a guy holding a large, sharp weapon. His mouth was connected to some kind of tubular object. The hose used for the connection had broken, but due to the various restraints on his face, he couldn't remove it at all. His breathing also made various viscous, watery sounds.

"It's here, it must be somewhere here..."

The man was whispering in a muffled voice, seemingly searching for something, or perhaps an innocent victim like himself. Judging from the bloodstains on the man and the crudely made weapon, Jamie knew that this guy was no pushover.

"I saw it, I just saw it... how could I not find it... The doctor is watching, the doctor is watching, don't let the doctor down..."

After searching around again, even checking the trash cans, and seeing that he hadn't found his target, the man staggered back in the direction Jamie had come from. Only when the strange breathing completely disappeared did the woman on top of Jamie release him. The two looked at each other, realizing that the outdoor environment was not safe, and then walked towards the annex without prior arrangement.

On their way, Jamie noticed a beer bottle on a trash can and picked it up for self-defense. They moved along the outer corridor, with the other person leading the way. After confirming that no one was inside, the two entered and sat down on a sofa.

"So who are you, and where is this place?"

Jamie asked the first question, the bottle of wine in his hand giving him the advantage of being able to ask questions first; clearly, he couldn't trust anyone here casually.

The woman, whose clothes were slightly tattered, was not surprised and crossed her legs: "Perilanka Jesidi, that's my name. As for where this place is... I don't know either. When I woke up, I found myself in a bedroom, and then I heard voices coming from a loudspeaker, and those mannequins, you should have seen them before."

Jamie nodded slowly. Her experience was quite similar to his own; both of them had been led astray by the guidance information in the environment. And this guy seemed to be a normal person as well; at least he didn't have that much blood on him.

“And that guy just now,” Jamie gestured with his chin, indicating who he was referring to, “how did you know that thing was targeting us?”

“I just saw that guy kill someone,” Perilanca said in a deep voice. “It was fucking horrible. He just dismembered a poor bastard.”

She appeared quite calm and didn't seem to care much about the threats posed by her current environment. Although stereotypes about women are unacceptable, Jamie still had some doubts about them.

He put away the bottle, raising an eyebrow slightly: "Why do you sound like you're not afraid at all?"

“If I were to be afraid, I wouldn’t be able to get to the garden safely,” Perilanka pointed to her head, her face finally looking a little grim. “I saw another guy like that on the second floor of the main house, and he was a big guy, muttering something. He was over two meters tall.”

Two meters?!

"And he wasn't wearing any clothes, he was completely naked, even more disgusting than the most vulgar thugs in Chicago."

Perilanka scoffed at this, but Jamie still gleaned useful information from it: there was more than one madman here, and they all seemed to want the lives of these normal people.

But what to do next? That's the question. If we consider that they were all guided by the loudspeaker to check the set design, and they just saw the part from birth to marriage, what's next?

"Thinking is very productive, but hesitation is fatal. You still have a lot to see."

The loudspeaker in the room blared again; was it urging them to act quickly?

Obviously, this guy is right about one thing: sitting here thinking is pointless. There are no clues, no information, and they don't even know what to do next. They might as well continue exploring.

"It's time to go."

Jamie got up, ready to continue exploring, but considering their current predicament...

"......Together?"

"Right on my mind."

Sure enough, now the only people we can trust are those who seem normal to each other. At least when we see each other, our first thought isn't to kill each other, and that's enough.

The mansion was larger than it looked, and of course more terrifying than imagined. There were more corpses than expected, indicating that they were not the first to arrive. Of course, they were also luckier.

"There shouldn't be anyone, if mannequins don't count as people."

Perilanka peered out and saw nothing unusual except for the mannequins on the tracks still moving. The two then went into the corridor, and the mannequins turned around the moment they arrived, welcoming them with stiff movements.

"Welcome, gentlemen. Next, let's go to the second floor. You two have hidden some private information in these spaces."

A stiff, mechanical female voice announced the next steps, and the staircase in the side room, previously hidden by an iron gate, opened up, expanding the player's space, much like in an escape room, but also increasing the danger.

They exchanged a glance, and Jamie, bottle in hand, began to move upwards. According to the signs, the next scene they would see was likely something more private.

But before the two arrived, a series of heavy footsteps came from the second-floor corridor. This did not match the sound of any thick-topped boots that Jamie remembered. It sounded more like the sound of someone stomping on something.

"what's the situation?"

Perilanca, behind him, mouthed a question, but Jamie couldn't confirm it either. After a brief shake of his head, he prepared to continue moving upwards...

"No, it's pointless. All you do afterward is cry..."

Who is speaking...?

A chill ran down his spine, but Jamie still looked up until the footsteps were right in front of him, and then he saw... a huge Dick?

"Holy shit..."

782 Special Reagent

The enormous Dick was just what Jamie noticed first; more importantly, it was the creature's owner, a giant over two and a half meters tall, naked, bald, and covered in scars and grime. His tiny eyes, almost squeezed shut by muscles, also immediately caught Jamie's attention.

"Oh! Little Sweetie, you're here!!!"

The big guy yelled and threw a punch at Jamie. Jamie quickly retreated to dodge, but he completely forgot that he was on a staircase. Although he avoided the punch, he was bound to fall.

"Damn, that's the guy I was talking about!"

Fortunately, Perilanka caught him from behind, and Jamie quickly adjusted his stance while urging, "Run the hell out of here!"

"Dad wants some snacks!"

The big man's voice was very rough, but the content was unclear, like that of an immature little kid. But it was clear that what he was going to do had nothing to do with a child, and he immediately rushed down the stairs.

"Where to run?!"

"Just run!"

Jamie dragged Perilanca along as they continued running into the depths of the corridor, while the big guy kept chasing after them. However, his movements were not as agile as expected; it seemed that his thick and long limbs had become a burden, forcing him to drag his legs along.

"You, you can't...! Oh damn it...!"

As the chase continued, the big man continued to curse loudly. Seeing that the distance couldn't be increased any further, Jamie threw the bottle in his hand. It was a large object, hitting the big man squarely in the face, causing him to stumble back in pain, still managing to unleash a curse...

"Oh! You really love me...!"

"I love your mother, get lost!"

Jamie, of course, wasn't going to hold back his words. After giving Perillancá the middle finger, he took his clothes and hid in the side room.

"The lights are off here; it looks like a reception room."

After putting on night vision goggles, Perilanka quickly discerned the scene before him, but where could they hide? There was no more space for them to move!

......

"Oh...! Hello there...!"

A rough voice rang out in the reception room. The big man opened the door and slammed it open. What came into view was pitch black, which severely obstructed his vision, but he still walked in in a daze.

"Where is the cunning little sweet bean...?"

......

The two hid behind the desk, where there was no light and no good hiding space, so they could only use the night vision goggles to deal with him.

Who's knocking on my door...?

The voice gave off a dull and clumsy feeling. Jamie could roughly tell that this big guy was somewhat mentally challenged. At least a normal person wouldn't speak with a lisp like that, and the content wouldn't be completely illogical or unrelated. This guy just said whatever came to mind, but violence was his usual method.

"Ah, I'm not looking anymore, my useless heart..."

His intellectual limitations also made him lack the patience to continue searching, and the big guy turned back and left the room after only a few steps.

"Damn... I was so close. Thanks for earlier."

Jamie thanked him in a low voice, but Perilanca didn't dwell on the topic. She peeked outside and said, "It's nothing. That guy went to the right. Let's go upstairs now."

......

"This is the last group for today. If we still don't get results, then another day's work will have been for nothing."

The woman in the white coat stretched casually, put on her high heels that were hanging from her feet, and returned to her colleague who was observing the surveillance. Even Nieto's face was visibly haggard.

“Celina, you know we’re researching psychology, not playing a hospital simulation game, right?”

“I know, I know…” Cerina’s reply was clearly impatient, but she quickly sighed deeply, her helplessness seeming to be more severe than her dislike: “But doing research requires a lot of patience. We are trying to overcome the thickest barrier between electricity and biology. Even if Morido doesn’t know anything, she can’t be unaware of the difficulties we are facing.”

“But she only cares about results, doesn’t she? I’m afraid one day a bunch of girls will come in with guns and wipe us all out,” she poured herself a cup of coffee, as sweet as Pascal’s. “We lost 34 reagents today. You know what that means, right?”

“I know, Heinz, don’t repeat yourself,” Cerina said, rubbing her head in exasperation. “FEX Pops’ activities are too difficult to manage, and this batch of reagents is too fragile in terms of both physical and mental health. The group we’re observing so far is the best performing… Have you found out their relationship?”

“Found it, here it is,” Heinz tossed a document in front of Shirina, then lay down on the sofa. “Melper also warned us that if we let her people handle this project, she’ll have Dandley launch a cyberattack on Cynthia.”

"...Damn it, these bastards have no idea how important what we're researching is."

While venting her anger, Cerina still reluctantly opened the documents. After all, no matter how dissatisfied she was, their project had only been able to continue until now thanks to the efforts of various departments, and Melper had the right to express her dissatisfaction.

This time, Melper really brought her a lot of interesting things...

"Tsk tsk, it seems the story behind this set of reagents is quite complicated. Five people are intertwined like this, managing to pull out such fascinating content..." After skimming through the remaining content, Cerina immediately showed considerable excitement and went to the overhead window: "Has the memory erasure been completed?"

"They had already been dealt with when they arrived. They couldn't bear to see most of the events they had experienced before, but after undergoing the operant conditioning test, they could quickly obtain the full picture of the past events on their own."

"Yes, yes... We just need to guide them a little more, and they will gradually remember what happened. At that time, their complex emotions will become the most valuable spiritual nourishment for the Cceive2 project."

Cerina raised her arm and shouted to her subordinates, "I'm going to redesign the variables for this reagent set. Everyone work overtime tonight; we're putting our eggs in their basket!"

It might not matter what novel ideas Cerina had at this moment; at least the Nietos only knew one thing: they would have to stay up all night with this neurotic psychologist again.

Cerina's ideas may seem inexplicable, but you can't deny that she is a true genius in psychology.

For example, the following experiment...

Mrs. Grey's letter of recommendation

Cynthia facilities

Internal organization correspondence must not be leaked.