After Chen Chen gave his word, their restless hearts stilled themselves. Even the new researchers silently determine to give this their all.
After all, when they signed the contract, they had seen all the associated connections that came with the contract so they were more or less mentally prepared.
While they were discussing this, the helicopter had arrived at Gantz Island. However, they did not fly straight for the central hill on the island but instead slowly descended by the edge of the coast.
“This place is?”
They curiously peeked outside the window to investigate what was going on. It was at that moment when they suddenly felt a violent wind pressure tearing behind them. The noise of the propellers simultaneously grew louder in their ears as well.
They immediately put on their hats and tried shielding themselves from the wind using their hand.
The cargo compartment door behind them had opened without them noticing.
In the cargo warehouse on the lower level of the cabin were five gigantic metal containers. Each one of the containers was four meters long and two meters wide, shaped like five coffins altogether. Light bulbs were flashing on top of them.
It was at that moment when one of the bulbs on one of the coffins flashed from green to red, it was immediately followed by a hiss of an engine that sounded like a connection mechanism was automatically cut off. The very next second, the container slid down along the rail and fell out of the helicopter that was thirty meters above the air!
“Bang!”
The people inside the cabin only heard a muffled crash. Before they had time to investigate just what it was that fell, the helicopter took off again in another direction.
After the helicopter flew off into the distance, the container that fell onto the ground seemed to trigger its designed mechanism and nailed itself into the ground vertically. After that, more red lights began flashing on it.
“Hiss…”
As the number of red flashing lights increased in numbers and frequency, white steam began to spew out between the gaps of the container. With a mighty crash, the front cover of the container abruptly burst open and flew more than ten meters outward!
If anyone was present at the scene, they would see that inside the coffin-like container stood a giant standing over 3.5 meters tall and weighing even more than world-class heavy-weight boxers!
After the container cover was burst open, the awfully pale-looking giant wearing a trench coat slowly stepped out from inside. After it stretched its muscles, it let out an unhinged roar…
The M-26 helicopter finally turned toward the mountain peak of Gantz Island after dropping off all five containers.
Ten minutes later, the Gantz server machine was set on the top of the mountain while the others also exited the helicopter.
“This is the place.”
Yoru Kamidera shot a glance at the statue, the inner conflict clear in his eyes as he did this. When he looked around, he saw that the entirety of the island was packed with lush greenery except for the mountaintop section they were at. The top of the mountain was a bald patch without a single tree in sight.
All of the plants here had been paved up by Blacklight Biotechnology.
“What is this place? Don’t tell me this is where we’re conducting the experiment?”
Adenauer gestured with his hands and told Yoru Kamidera, “I don’t think any experiment can be conducted in this place.”
“Of course it’s not here, we’re doing it underground.”
Yoru Kamidera pointed at the ground below his feet.
Everyone instinctively looked down at their feet as he said this. When they did this, the sound of metal gears grinding against each other emitted from the ground below. At the same time, a three-meter wide deep hole appeared in the middle of the ground out of nowhere.
“Several hours later, 550 experiment subjects will come to this island. What we need to do is to observe them from the darkness. Now come with me…”
As Yoru Kamidera said this, he beckoned them to follow him into the underground hole.
It was then when they noticed that there was not a single hint of darkness inside there. On the contrary, it was a brightly lit space. Each step they trod along the stairway was constructed with silver-white alloy, fully reminiscent of a high-tech laboratory.
“This is a temporary laboratory constructed by Blacklight Biotechnology. It’s twenty-meters underground and divided into three levels. There are 1200 square meters of space in total.”
Yoru Kamidera said as he continued down the stairs, “The highest level is the employee break room, the canteen, and common rooms are on the second floor while the bottommost floor will be our laboratory.”
By this point, they had arrived at the entrance of the laboratory. There were two signs posted on the entrance.
The group turned their eyes to the signs subconsciously and was slightly surprised by what they saw because it was a warning sign that none of them had ever seen.
Generally speaking, all laboratories in the world should implement the standard logos designed by the International Organization Standardization ISO. These were established international logos universal across the globe and should be entirely self-explanatory regardless of culture or understanding.
However, the sign in front of them was one that none of them had ever seen before.
One of them was red while the other was yellow. There were three lower case “i” alphabets on the red sign drawn to form a circle. In the middle of the pattern were two parallel arcs forming the shape of a radial ring. Its overall design resembled a nuclear radiation warning sign.
Below the sign was a short phrase: Infohazard.
Information hazard.
Drawn on top of the yellow sign was the picture of an inverted stairway.
At first glance, the picture seemed ordinary. The highlight was that the stairway seemed to continuously delve downward. Whenever it made a turn, it would somehow swing downward again. By the end of it, the ending row of the stairway somehow looped back to the initial row, forming an infinite loop.
This was a stairway designed using a visual paradox and could not physically exist in the real world since it was impossible.
The phrase written below it was Cognitohazard.
Cognition hazard.
Based on the internationally standardized warning signs, red color signified messages like prohibited, stop, fire or danger while yellow color represented caution and warning. Following that logic, these two signs should represent danger and caution.
This also meant that the underground laboratory was a severely dangerous laboratory.
“What do these signs mean?”
Observing the two signs in front of him, Erickson’s expression turned into a frown. He asked Yoru Kamidera who was standing at the front of the group, “Is this a laboratory specifically designed to hypnotize people?”
What he got in return was not an answer but a question from Yoru Kamidera. “Mr. Erickson, I heard that you’re an excellent psychologist. Have you ever heard of such a thing as a message that can kill people?”
“Are you talking about music like Black Friday?”
Erickson answered indifferently, “It’s possible to frame a very specific set of mental environments that can push people toward behavior like suicide or self-harm. You can technically define it as a form of hallucination, but you shouldn’t expect a hundred percent success rate with such methods.
“Not only do the people afflicted have to be weak-willed individuals, but they also need to have suffered a certain degree of psychological trauma beforehand. This way, the psychological trauma of the person can be evoked using certain music.”
“You provided a great analysis. However, songs like Black Friday don’t come close to any of the two methods you described.”
Yoru Kamidera stated in a dull voice, “A true medium that can kill people doesn’t have to do so by exploiting psychological weak spots. That’s because this medium can already kill people on its own. It’s the most lethal weapon in the world…”
“Are you kidding me?”
Erickson sneered. “I’ve never heard of such a thing as some kind of message that can kill people. Even if it does exist, how are they going to do it? Blow my brains out with a gun?”
Yoru Kamidera did not attempt to refute the point made. He only shook his head and put his palms on the biometric authenticator next to the entrance while stating, “You’ll understand very soon…”
With that, the entrance to the laboratory slowly opened.
