Chapter 226: A Nightmarish Surveillance

Chapter 226: A Nightmarish Sense of Horror

“Turn around.”

Xiao Yu looked at the woman and said calmly.

“…”

The woman’s face contorted in terror, convinced that Xiao Yu was about to do something.

Nevertheless, she hobbled and turned around.

Clack! Clack!

A pair of handcuffs snapped around the woman’s wrist.

Another clamped around her ankle.

She collapsed, unable to keep her balance.

With one leg injured and the other cuffed, escape was impossible.

Once secured, Xiao Yu rose and glanced at the monitors in the room.

Five screens broadcast various surveillance feeds.

Some displayed entrances and corridors leading to the basement.

Another showed what looked like a bedroom.

Then came an image of… a cell?

Xiao Yu wasn’t sure if it was truly a cell.

But he did notice three… figures!

Two women and one man.

Though the cell was dimly lit and the footage somewhat blurry, he could still see that all three had their mouths sewn shut.

Stitched tightly with coarse hemp, one deliberate stitch after another.

The intricate pattern of the stitches resembled a centipede’s legs.

It was chilling and utterly horrifying!

And that wasn’t the worst.

All three had their eyelids and ears sewn shut, leaving only their noses free to breathe…

A shiver coursed through Xiao Yu as his gaze turned ice-cold.

While interrogating suspect Peng Junlong, the man had mentioned seeing someone with a sewn-shut mouth.

At the time, it hadn’t struck him as odd, but seeing it up close was deeply unsettling.

It was enough to instill sheer terror.

For some, their twisted perversions defied mere brutality.

Indeed, they treated their own kind like playthings!

Taking a deep breath, Xiao Yu suppressed the rising fury inside him.

He struggled to keep his emotions steady.

Such is the life of a cop.

Exposed to so much darkness, it’s all too easy to suffer psychological scars.

According to authoritative studies,

13.33% of police experience mild psychological issues,

3.86% face moderate symptoms,

and only 0.98% exhibit severe conditions.

Additionally, 33.31% suffer from job-related injuries or illnesses.

Fewer than 49% of officers are both mentally and physically sound.

Less than half retire in good health.

After all, the average lifespan for a cop is only 48 years.

What kind of career is this?

It defies even the term ‘high-risk.’

Truly, a horrifying thought!

Xiao Yu then shifted his attention to the fourth monitor.

Strangely, it showed an underground corridor.

It looked like a typical passageway.

So why was it under surveillance?

After a moment’s thought, he switched to the fifth screen.

The operations room!

Sure enough, this feed appeared to be from the control room the woman had mentioned.

There, a man lay face down at a console, sound asleep.

Asleep?

Xiao Yu furrowed his brow.

Hadn’t the recent barrage of gunfire stirred him?

Or was the control room exceptionally insulated?

Shifting his focus from the sleeper, Xiao Yu observed a multitude of colorful buttons on the console.

They varied widely in size and hue.

Memories of Peng Junlong’s words flashed through his mind.

He recalled the suspect mentioning that he had seen three individuals fleeing in the basement.

One was torn to pieces; another had been stabbed into a spiky form.

The last had been reduced to minced meat!

“A mechanism?”

Analyzing rapidly, Xiao Yu’s expression grew colder as a faint, grim smile appeared.

He decided to rescue the captives in the cell as quickly as possible.

Thud!

Xiao Yu’s foot connected with the woman’s cheek.

She instantly swooned.

That was the safest bet!

Xiao Yu strode out of the surveillance room.

Without hesitation, he opened the remaining three doors.

Three passageways now lay before him.

Which one to choose?

Wangdie’s Nose, Wax Moth’s Ear… began feeding information to Xiao Yu.

One corridor still carried the lingering scent of blood.

The second appeared utterly devoid of human presence.

Only the third exuded a strong human odor along with faint, distant sounds.

And that was the same corridor seen on the monitor.

The frequent traffic suggested it was relatively safe, though not absolutely.

After all, who would regularly choose a dangerous path?

Without hesitation, Xiao Yu stepped into the seemingly safest passage and advanced steadily.

Why wait for backup when every second counted?

There was no time to lose.

The island needed constant guarding—one or two officers wouldn’t suffice.

Reinforcements wouldn’t arrive for at least an hour.

An hour was plenty of time for unforeseen events.

Xiao Yu couldn’t afford to take the risk.

Past experience had taught him well.

Even a few minutes—or seconds—

could mean the death of innocents…

The corridor stretched over 17 meters…

As he walked, Xiao Yu’s mind raced with calculations.

The basement beneath the Small Island was enormous.

By his estimate, it spanned at least a thousand square meters, if not more.

How had no one noticed something amiss in such a vast construction?

One thing was clear: the suspect was very wealthy.

This underground structure was built to a scale not seen above ground.

The construction cost must have run into tens of millions, if not hundreds.

Suddenly.

Xiao Yu halted, sensing an inexplicable danger.

Before he could retreat, it was too late.

Boom!

The floor cracked open and Xiao Yu began to fall.

Ha!

Mid-fall, he swung his arms.

Smack!

His palm struck the edge of a platform, halting his descent.

With a forceful push, Xiao Yu sprang down like a nimble cat, landing safely.

Then his eyes fell upon a… trap!

Two separate iron plates concealed a five-meter-deep pit below.

The pit was lined with jagged, two-meter-long spikes.

One misstep and the consequences would be unthinkable…

A miscalculation… Xiao Yu shook his head.

He was mistaken—the corridor was indeed frequented.

Not only by criminals, but likely by some victims as well.

He had been misled by the scent!

Which meant the man in the control room might now be awake?

How had he detected my presence?

Xiao Yu abruptly looked up, scanning the corridor.

Through the piercing gaze of Falcon’s Eye, he spotted two surveillance cameras.

Aha, it all made sense… Xiao Yu raised his sidearm.

Bang! Bang!

He fired once ahead and once behind.

The two cameras shattered into pieces!

“Now how will you watch me?”

He sneered coldly, about to step forward.

Suddenly,

not far away, five objects emerged from the ground.

Massive circular steel plates.

No, they were saw blades!

Five blades with at least a one-meter exposed radius.

Their razor-sharp teeth were stained with dark, dried blood!

Xiao Yu glanced downward.

That’s when he noticed five grooves.

In a flash of insight, he realized these five saw blades could slice continuously from one end of the corridor to the other.

A wry smile curled on his lips as he watched the blades begin to rotate.

They slowly moved in his direction.

Why did it feel like he was trapped in a horror movie?