The lights flickered a few times before the once-bright reception room plunged into darkness.
This sudden gloom was like thick ink, instantly swallowing the entire space.
Byrne started, immediately calling out: "What's going on? Selena, are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Byrne. Is it a circuit failure?"
Selena's voice carried a faint, nearly imperceptible tremor from somewhere close to him.
Heh, as if this is a circuit issue.
Under normal circumstances, let alone during the day, a room wouldn't be this dark even with the lights off at night. This darkness had an eerie texture to it, as if it were physically absorbing all ambient light, completely sealing off even the daylight from the windows.
Byrne instinctively waved his hand in front of his face. He couldn't even see his own fingertips; it was, quite literally, "cannot see one's own fingers" dark.
After confirming Selena was safe, Byrne shouted for Evan and Colin, but received no reply. Beyond the darkness, there was only a deathly silence.
Strange. Why this sudden stunt?
Could that guy Marcus have felt the previous test wasn't enough and decided to throw in one last encore on their first day of work?
Byrne dismissed the thought almost immediately. Marcus's test was over, and the collar had been destroyed in front of him. There was no reason to pull a stunt like this on their induction day. Rather than Marcus, Byrne found Hall—the man who had led them here—far more suspicious. After all, Hall was the one who had ushered the four of them into this room.
As Byrne pondered this, Selena spoke again.
"Byrne... do you think something happened to them?"
Selena's voice was closer now. Byrne could feel her moving toward him. A moment later, guided by the sound, Selena reached his side.
"Hard to say. The situation might be worse than I thought. Let's try to feel for the wall and follow it. If we can find the door, we might be able to get out."
"Right. Lead the way."
The two of them held hands, groping forward in the same direction. But after only a few paces, Byrne felt something was wrong. Logically, this reception room wasn't that large. They should have reached a wall in a dozen steps or so. Yet they had walked dozens of paces side-by-side and felt nothing—not a wall, not a piece of furniture.
It was as if the reception room had been empty from the start. Not only that, but as they walked, Byrne felt the floor beneath his feet grow soft, every step feeling like he was treading on cotton.
Evan and Colin were gone. The tables and chairs were gone. To Byrne, it felt as if the room had been distorted by some mysterious power the moment the darkness fell.
Eerie. This is too eerie.
Just then, the sound of crackling static hissed from the surrounding void. Before Byrne could react, snap—the room was illuminated once more.
Byrne and Selena instinctively raised their hands to shield their eyes. After a moment, they lowered their arms and looked around.
With the darkness gone, the room had returned to normal. However, Evan and Colin were sprawled on the floor, fast asleep.
As Byrne looked at the two unconscious men, Selena tugged on his arm, gasping. "Byrne, look at the walls! The windows and the door... they're gone!"
Where the door had been, there was now only a flat, grey wall. The surface was as smooth as a mirror, with no trace that a door had ever existed. The windows were likewise covered by this strange grey material, leaving not a single crack or seam.
The entire reception room had become an airtight cage.
How...
Byrne strode to where the door used to be and struck the wall hard. The dull thud indicated the wall was incredibly thick, far beyond what human strength could break. He walked a quick lap around the room, inspecting every surface.
After finishing his loop, Byrne rubbed his chin.
"This isn't a normal building structure. The material of these walls is unique—its density far exceeds ordinary stone. It feels more like a specialized alloy."
"Could the previous anomaly have been a Chaos incursion?" Selena guessed.
Byrne shook his head.
"No. Chaos corruption usually leaves foul marks, but these walls are pristine. There isn't even a trace of energy fluctuation. If I had to guess, we've likely been teleported to a different room. That bizarre darkness was probably a spatial distortion formed during the transfer."
He knelt down and touched the floor.
"Look, even the floor material has changed. It was ordinary concrete before; now it's the exact same material as the walls. We were moved here without even realizing it."
Suddenly, a strange sound echoed from the wall opposite Byrne. A seam appeared in the surface, and as it extended, a door-sized section of the wall receded, revealing an actual entrance.
Above the threshold hung a sign with small, neat lettering: Bureau of Heresy Research.
The change was so sudden that it took Byrne and Selena a long moment to react. They looked at each other, then turned back to the mysterious doorway.
Selena frowned. "The Bureau of Heresy Research? Since when does the Tax Bureau have a department like that?"
Byrne found the name equally unfamiliar. In his knowledge of the Warhammer universe, there was no such official organization; functions like these usually belonged to the Inquisition.
As they puzzled over it, the door was pushed open. A second later, a black cat stepped out.
The cat was pitch black, without a single stray hair of another color, its fur as sleek as if it had been buffed with oil. It possessed heterochromatic eyes: the left pupil was a deep, dark red, while the right was a cold, silvery grey. It was slightly larger than a house cat, with long limbs and a gait as silent and ethereal as a ghost.
The cat didn't leave the doorway. It crouched there, its tail twitching rhythmically, and scanned Byrne and Selena before its gaze settled on the sleeping Evan and Colin.
A cat?
Byrne and Selena were both stunned. But a second later, something even more shocking happened.
The black cat spoke in human tongue.
"Heh. Not bad. Two newcomers passed the test today. Follow me."
With that, the cat stood up and headed back through the door. After a few steps, it paused and looked back at Byrne and Selena.
Its expression seemed to say: Don't just stand there gawking. Move it.