Mysterious Extraordinary Path

Beneath Old John's Tavern lies another unknown world.

Mary led Lu Yuan through the hidden door disguised as a giant oak barrel, and walked for a long time down the spiraling rusty iron staircase.

The original mixed smells of beer and tobacco in the air gradually disappeared, replaced by a musty smell of paper.

The base's underground space was much larger than Lu Yuan had imagined.

Looking up, the top is covered with black rocks, and on one side of the rocks are thick metal pipes that spread along the rock walls like blood vessels, emitting a low rumble from time to time.

Every few meters, explosion-proof lights covered with barbed wire emit a stark white light, illuminating the long corridor in a ghastly white light.

"Don't look around, and keep your hands to yourself."

Mary walked ahead, her high heels clicking crisply on the openwork iron lattice floor.

"Any one of those things locked up down there could kill you. If you don't want to become part of those warning signs on the wall, you'd better control your curiosity."

Lu Yuan followed behind, subtly averting his gaze, only glancing at the heavy, closed iron doors on both sides of the corridor out of the corner of his eye.

The doors were covered with signs of different colors, some of which featured distorted skulls or symbols of unknown meaning.

[Environmental Sensing: Extremely High Concentration of Abnormal Biological Traces]

[Warning: Determining rationality... Determination successful, status stable.]

Lu Yuan quickly looked away.

This is clearly the core area where the Night's Watch imprisons or studies those "anomalies".

"The main hall is just ahead."

Mary pushed open a double iron door at the end of the corridor, the metal hinges making a teeth-grinding scraping sound.

This is a vast open space with an extremely high dome.

On the wall directly opposite the main entrance, there is a huge blackboard covered with densely packed request forms.

Lu Yuan quickly glanced at them and found that most of the jobs were odd jobs like "sewer cleaning" and "investigation of abnormal noise in a certain neighborhood," with low pay.

Several weary-looking night watchmen, dressed in black trench coats, were whispering among themselves in front of the blackboard.

When they saw that Mary had brought a new face, they merely glanced at her indifferently, their eyes filled with a numbness born of a life and death they had witnessed before turning away and paying her no further attention.

"You're a logistics staff member; this kind of job that puts your life on the line isn't for you."

Mary pointed to a room in the corner of the hall with a sign that read "Materials Management".

"From now on, you'll be accepting all your missions there. You can call that guy inside 'Old Morgan'."

Mary stopped walking, turned around, and looked at Lu Yuan intently.

"Remember, talk less and do more. Old Morgan is the only superhuman in this base to have embarked on the [Knowledge Path], and he's also the administrator here. And everyone who goes down that path has a slightly... strange mind."

Lu Yuan nodded.

In this world, knowledge is often accompanied by pollution, and the more learned a person is, the closer they may be to madness.

He straightened his collar, pushed open the door, and went inside.

The room was unusually quiet.

The four walls were lined with floor-to-ceiling filing cabinets, crammed full of yellowed document bags.

An elderly man with gray hair and thick-rimmed glasses was sitting behind a desk piled with clutter.

He held a magnifying glass in his hand, almost pressing his face against a black stone, seemingly studying its texture.

Hearing the door open, old Morgan didn't even look up, his voice hoarse:

"The new doctor? That kid who's fighting the mutants with a scalpel?"

"I am Lu Yuan."

Lu Yuan stepped forward and stood at a polite and safe distance.

Morgan finally put down the magnifying glass and slowly raised his head.

Those were a pair of murky eyes, with a somewhat unfocused look deep in the pupils, as if they were staring at a non-existent focus for a long time.

When he was being stared at like that, Lu Yuan even had the illusion of being examined on an autopsy table.

"Since Mary brought you here, it means you've chosen the most difficult path [the path of knowledge]."

Old Morgan pulled a slightly crumpled form from his drawer and pushed it in front of Lu Yuan.

"Fill it in, then choose a direction. It's best to choose one that suits you, otherwise you'll only end up dead."

Lu Yuan picked up his pen and glanced at the table. Several branches were listed on it:

[Pharmacology]: Focuses on drug formulation, toxin analysis and neutralization.

【Structure Science】: Focuses on the manufacture and repair of precision machinery and alchemical items.

[Anatomy]: Focused on biological structural analysis, vulnerability identification, and cadaver processing.

【Strange and Mysterious Studies】: Focuses on the study of the habits of strange creatures, tracing their origins and interpreting taboo knowledge.

"Young man, let me give you a piece of advice."

Morgan Sr. suddenly spoke, his tone calm, "Knowledge is the most sacred thing, but it also contains the deepest darkness."

"Don't try to understand things you shouldn't understand before you find your own 'path'."

He pointed to his cloudy eyes:

"I'm a tinkerer, which is to say, a structural engineer."

"That's why I can read those complicated mechanical blueprints and repair those damaged alchemical weapons."

"But I can't understand corpses, nor can I understand the ravings of those madmen. So don't try to learn everything; once you cross the line, your brain will become 'food' for that kind of knowledge."

"Believe me, that kind of death is worse than being chewed up by the monsters outside."

Lu Yuan looked at the options on the form and didn't hesitate for long.

His gaze finally settled on the last option—[The Study of the Strange].

This is the direction that is "most difficult and has the highest mortality rate" among those on night watch.

Because it requires reading a large number of original records about the bizarre and confronting those indescribable descriptions, every learning experience is a test of the edge of reason.

But for Lu Yuan, this was exactly what he needed most.

Because Lu Yuan's [Forbidden Science - Spy: 6.2/10] is just one step away from being upgraded.

Moreover, the "translation" ability that accompanied him through time travel allows him to see information that others cannot, which is a huge advantage in itself.

It would be a complete waste not to choose this.

"I choose this one." Lu Yuan picked up his pen and drew a circle on the [Strange Tales] section.

Old Morgan paused for a moment, a hint of surprise flashing in his cloudy eyes.

"The study of the supernatural? Are young people these days so eager to die?"

He shook his head, seemingly mocking Lu Yuan's ignorance, but did not stop him.

He turned around and rummaged through the cabinet behind him for a while, then took out a small box wrapped in layers of black cloth and casually tossed it to Lu Yuan.

"Since you're courting death, I'll grant your wish. This is your entry-level test."

Lu Yuan caught the box; it was icy cold to the touch, even carrying a chilling sensation.

"One month." Old Morgan picked up the magnifying glass again, no longer looking at him.

"Go to the library downstairs and find out what kind of thing this meat is and what its characteristics are."

"If you can't find the answer, go back to being a general practitioner and don't waste your time here."

Lu Yuan didn't speak, but simply lifted a corner of the black cloth.

Inside lay a dark red tissue that looked like dried cured meat.

But the surface was covered with a thin layer of white frost that was radiating cold air.

The instant their eyes met, familiar gray-white lettering jumped into Lu Yuan's vision:

[Sighting of Icefield Ghoul (Large) Muscle Tissue]

[Forbidden Studies Voyeur: +0.1]

Is that... the end?

Lu Yuan suppressed the twitching at the corner of his mouth.

This is too easy compared to having a cheat code; you don't even need to look up any book.

But he couldn't show it, otherwise he wouldn't be able to explain the reason at all.

"A month?" Lu Yuan covered himself with the black cloth, putting on a solemn expression. "I will do my best."

Old Morgan waved his hand, as if shooing away a cocky fly.

"The library is on the floor below."

"Remember, you can only stay for four hours each day."

"If you spend even one more minute, you might get lost in those words and become a drooling idiot."