Chapter 250. Door 3
Feuerbach and Charles emerged from the water with a splash.
The place was no different from what they saw underwater; both were spacious corridors with rows of numbered iron doors on the right side. The only difference was that the place was tilted, possibly because the island had sunk.
Charles looked around and noticed something different. The place located diagonally across from him was supposed to be a numbered door, but it was somehow replaced by a lounge.
Charles was certain that it was a lounge; the fixtures gave away its identity. The place was covered in dust, but he could see coffee machines and self-service beverage dispensers on the desks. There were also rows of sofas, and the floor-to-ceiling windows were particularly eye-catching.
Feuerbach sniffed the air and said, "Captain, we can breathe here."
Charles took his helmet off and was immediately hit by a stale, musty smell. It was an unpleasant smell, and it made sense, as the place had remained untouched for hundreds of years.
Charles rubbed his nose and walked toward the lounge. Upon walking into the lounge, Charles noticed many finer details. There were five disposable cups on the wooden table in front of a sofa. The cups were filled with a thick layer of dirt, and there were three bulky books next to the cups.
Evidently, five people had been chatting here long ago, but they disappeared at the same time in the blink of an eye, leaving behind nothing but their five cups of coffee as evidence that they had once existed.
Is their disappearance related to that so-called calamity? Charles thought. He had been on this sunken island for quite a while now, but apart from that strange skeleton and that giant fish, Charles still hadn't seen any other corpses on the sunken island, especially human corpses.
Charles was baffled. Even if the corpses had been devoured by something, there should still be remnants like bone fragments, but there had been none so far. In the end, Charles chose to set the thought aside for now and grab the books.
He attempted to flip the pages to figure out what the Foundation staff had been reading before their disappearance, but he realized that he wasn't holding a book. He was holding thick, jet-black tablets that he had mistaken for books because of the thick dust that had settled on their surfaces.
Wait, isn't this the same as the Doctor's item? Charles was astonished. The items in his hand bore a striking resemblance to Laesto's device. The only difference between the two was that the former seemed much more advanced and in a better condition.
There are three tablets here. Perhaps the Doctor will be able to fix his tablet by scavenging parts from these three tablets. Charles looked around and took the plastic bags beneath the disposable cups. He placed the tablets into the plastic bag and sealed it tight.
He was about to stuff it into his leather suit but stopped. His leather suit was too thin to accommodate such a thick object. He was worried that he would damage his leather suit if he were to stuff the plastic bag into it.
Charles looked around once more, and he soon had a brilliant idea.
He walked up to the seawater and fished out a shark. The shark opened its mouth wide to bite Charles, but Charles stepped on its lower jaw before stuffing the plastic bag into its belly.
Of course, the shark struggled; sparks flew as its sharp teeth scraped against Charles' prosthetic limb. Fortunately, he had used his prosthetic limb to stuff the plastic bag deep inside the shark's belly.
Otherwise, the shark would have bitten off a chunk of his arm.
Having achieved his objective, Charles released the shark. The shark opened its maw filled with sharp, jagged teeth, and it bit fiercely in Charles' direction before turning around and diving into the depths.
"Just endure it for a while. I'll take it out once we get to the surface," Charles said; he didn't care whether the shark could understand him or not. However, Charles was then struck by a peculiar feeling.
Feuerbach loved his sharks, so how was he able to remain unfazed witnessing what Charles had done to one of his sharks?
Charles turned around, but Feuerbach was nowhere to be found. However, Charles remained calm. He scaled the wall with his boots and swiftly reached the ceiling. Soon, he was hanging upside down from the ceiling with the flesh revolver in his hand.
"Second Mate! Where are you?!" Charles shouted, and his voice echoed throughout the desolate corridor.
"Captain, I'm here! Come here, quick! Door 7 is here! I found it!" Feuerbach's voice responded from a distance.
However, Charles remained unmoved as he shouted, "Come back first! Two of your sharks died all of a sudden!"
"What?!" Feuerbach went beyond pallid at that. He rushed out of the dark corridors, but he discovered that his sharks were doing fine when he reached the seawater.
Click!
An audible click echoed, and the cold barrel of a gun was pressed against Feuerbach's head.
"What were you doing during our first private meeting?" Charles asked in a cold voice.
"What's wrong with you, Captain? I was scraping barnacles off a struggling sea turtle," Feuerbach replied.
Charles let out a sigh of relief upon hearing the correct answer to his question. He retracted his flesh revolver and said, "We're in a dangerous place, so don't wander around without telling me."
However, Feuerbach seemed deaf to Charles' warning as his face lit up with excitement. "Captain, you should come with me. I found Door 7 just up ahead."
Charles nodded and followed Feuerbach toward the so-called Door 7. To their surprise, the door wasn't locked. It was actually slightly ajar, and it seemed as though it would open even with a gentle tug.
"Did you open it?"
"No, I was just about to open it, but you called me."
Charles' gaze turned to the giant 7 on the door, and he reached out to push the door open. However, something had interrupted Charles. His hand hung frozen in mid-air as he looked up at the door and looked closely at it upon sensing something.
A faint red light was shining above the door, and it was blinking slowly. The faint red light now looked similar to the eyes of a man-eating Cyclops.
Charles' expression turned ugly. He raised his prosthetic limb and smashed the door with his clenched fist.
"This isn't Door 7! It's Door 3! We had inadvertently released the relic inside Door 3, and now it's stalking us!"
"T-That can't be..." Disbelief fleeted across Feuerbach's face, and he unconsciously took half a step backward.
Charles glared coldly at the faint red light. "You should cut the act. I've already discovered you."
His voice hadn't even finished echoing when the red light vanished. At some point, the number emblazoned on the door before him had changed from 7 to 15, eliciting a deep frown from Charles.
Charles took a step back and fell into deep contemplation. He swept his gaze across the row of doors and was convinced that Door 7 had to be among them.
Unfortunately, the relic behind Door 3 was observing their every move, and it seemed hell-bent on interfering with their judgment. The only silver lining here was that Charles had gained some knowledge about Door 3 after the two encounters.
First of all, the relic behind Door 3 seemed incapable of attacking. The most that it could do was replace the numbers on the doors and lure people to open them and let out what was beyond them.
In addition, it seemed like it possessed the ability to confound others and impair their judgment.
It knows that I'm looking for Door 7, so it's using Door 7 against me. It wants me to open other doors by all means necessary. Charles concluded by himself.
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