Chapter 174 Escaping the Research Institute 19

Chapter 174 Escaping the Research Institute 19

Like him?

Qin Fei remained silent, scanning the scene inside the compartment with his clear amber eyes.

A few hours ago, when Researcher Edward's head exploded, Lu Cheng had described the horrific scene in the cockpit to Qin Fei through a communication device.

But now, Qin Fei did not see any trace of the bloody mess he expected.

The cockpit was clean, and the experimental operation area behind it was spotless. Every metal workbench gleamed like new.

Qin Fei sniffed. Since the armored vehicle was fully enclosed, the air inside was somewhat stuffy, but he did not detect any hint of blood.

Squinting slightly, Qin Fei realized that the players might have misunderstood something.

If Researcher Edward's ability as a monster was merely to resurrect, why would the compartment be this clean?

In fact, up until now, the players had very little information. The only known fact was that Researcher Edward possessed the ability to be immortal.

However, immortality is just an outcome.

There could be many different ways to achieve such an outcome.

For example, regrowing flesh buds on his severed neck to form a new head.

Or having scattered flesh and bone fragments wriggle back into place, reconstructing the original head.

Or—

Rewinding time.

Rewinding time specific to Researcher Edward alone, allowing everything to return to before the accident happened.

His skull was undamaged, and there was no blood splatter, which is why the compartment remained so clean.

Otherwise, if the gruesome scene had truly occurred, no matter how thoroughly cleaned within these few hours, there would still be some lingering odor.

Moreover, apart from being interrogated for about twenty minutes, Qin Fei had been watching the armored vehicle the entire time.

The Guard Team members were all lined up outside the vehicle, and no one had entered the cockpit.

This was just a hypothesis, and Qin Fei lacked sufficient evidence to support it.

But considering Mr. Edward's unchanged youthful and handsome appearance over fifty years, Qin Fei felt this possibility was quite high.

Yet, Mr. Edward said Qin Fei would soon be like him.

What did that mean?

Does Test Subject B-6312 also possess a similar ability?

Qin Fei gently tugged at the thorny vine wrapped around his palm.

Even though Mr. Edward was so close to Qin Fei, the rose vine seemed to deliberately provoke by swirling in the air before tightly clinging to Qin Fei again.

It appeared completely unconcerned about being discovered by the nearby NPC.

If only these vines could speak.

Qin Fei lightly pursed his lips, continuing his actions, grinding the bone fragments in the experimental tray into powder as Mr. Edward had taught him, then placing them into prepared test tubes.

From an entire tray of bone slices, he produced twelve tubes of powder.

Researcher Edward labeled each tube, numbering them from B-6312-10658 to B-6312-10669.

—So, does this mean that Researcher Edward has already processed more than ten thousand bone fragments from Test Subject B-6312?

The rose vine gently leaned against Qin Fei's waist.

Qin Fei wondered whether Test Subject B-6312 would feel pain when the researchers scraped fragments from its bones?

After finishing the bone fragments, Researcher Edward escorted Qin Fei back to the rear compartment. The lights were off, making it pitch black inside.

Qin Fei's gaze met and then drifted away from Mi Yang's in the darkness as he returned to his seat.

Before the convoy resumed its journey after the incident, several Guard Team members who did not originally belong to this vehicle came aboard.

Although there was no rule against speaking, everyone remained silent.

Initially, Lu Cheng occasionally communicated with Qin Fei through the air, but at some point, he stopped. Qin Fei sent out a ghost infant to check outside and found that Lu Cheng was still lying beneath the vehicle's tracks, likely having fallen asleep due to boredom.

Lu Cheng wasn't the only one asleep.

The armored vehicle drove on, and despite the track system designed to reduce vibrations, the compartment still jolted continuously. Even so, several players inside closed their eyes, exhausted.

To explore the instance, the players had barely slept well for the past few nights.

While mental energy could be replenished with potions, once seated, drowsiness became overwhelming.

Soft and heavy breathing filled the air, and Qin Fei's consciousness gradually dispersed in the dimly lit, swaying compartment.

He dreamed again.

He returned to that cold, dark seabed, becoming the skeleton submerged beneath the waves.

Underwater, time ceased to exist.

Qin Fei lay there quietly, entangled by soft, wet seaweed, with countless fish swimming through the gaps in his body.

Until one day, he was hauled onto land.

He saw a brand new world.

A world of black and gray that had never appeared before his eyes.

The ground had sunken, buildings lay in ruins, dark clouds obscured the sky, and torrential rain poured down.

Mutated fish swam onto the land with the surging sea water, marine creatures occupying territories that did not belong to them.

These marine creatures were different from those Qin Fei remembered. They had sharp fangs and sword-like, pitch-black fins.

Bloodthirsty, ferocious, they wanted to tear apart every person they saw.

But none of this mattered to Qin Fei; he was just an unconscious skeleton. He was placed into a sealed container, and those people carried him across streets and through puddles, eventually arriving at a building that seemed long abandoned.

From the overall layout, it looked like some kind of scientific research institute.

Qin Fei was locked inside the research institute.

A long time passed.

A man wearing a long white coat, with a face so blurred it was unrecognizable, pushed open the door and came before him.

The man held a clipboard, looking at Qin Fei while speaking softly.

In the dream, his voice was as indistinct as his face, intermittent and hard to make out.

Qin Fei opened his eyes wide and carefully watched his lips.

It seemed he was saying—

"Capture 6312, influence level B, currently the highest known influence level within the research institute."

"I believe this is the most primitive pollutant of the terminal world."

Darkness surged like a tide, engulfing everything in sight.

Just like every true dream, the transition between scenes was always abrupt.

Before Qin Fei could prepare himself, he found himself in a completely black space.

The familiar presence instantly calmed the youth's blood. He stood still, looking towards the distance.

Thorny vines and roses wove a cage tall enough for one person, confining a figure within.

It was the source of pollution.

Qin Fei walked forward slowly, stopping a step away from the rose cage.

The source of pollution gazed at him, with deep blue eyes as vast as the sea.

"The time is almost here."

He reached out, gently touching Qin Fei's forehead, "There are only 24 hours left, everything will soon be over."

"You... can go find them, find the wanderers, you will get the answers you seek."

After saying this, He vanished like bubbles in the sea, and the thick darkness faded away.

Qin Fei's eyelashes trembled.

He suddenly woke up, realizing he was still in the car, sitting in the same spot.

The armored vehicle continued bumping along. The Guard Team member opposite him glanced at Qin Fei, then casually shifted his gaze away.

"Xiao Qin? Xiao Qin, you're awake?" Lu Cheng's chattering voice sounded in his ear.

Lu Cheng had woken up earlier than Qin Fei, and after hours of silence, he nearly burst. He started talking non-stop.

"After you fell asleep, the car stopped three times, at the seed cultivation base, the power station, and another place whose purpose I couldn't figure out."

"The vehicles behind us were patrol cars; they turned back. Now, only our vehicle and another Guard Team vehicle are continuing forward."

"According to the NPCs in the front cabin, we are very close to the Dead Sea. Probably another half hour and we'll reach our destination."

The Guard Team member opposite was staring at Qin Fei again. Qin Fei, with one hand on his neck, turned his head and naturally responded to Lu Cheng.

Although he had woken up from the dream, Qin Fei's consciousness was still muddled.

When dreaming, it's difficult to control one's thoughts and actions. Throughout the entire dream, Qin Fei observed everything from a strange perspective, somewhere between first-person and third-person.

Now, recalling it, the man he saw in the research institute on the surface was clearly Researcher Edward.

But the words he spoke left Qin Fei confused.

—The most primitive pollutant of the terminal world, currently the highest known influence level within the research institute.

This seemed to imply that although there were thousands of different sources of pollution in this world, B-6312 was still the highest-ranking among them.

But if it was the highest-ranking, why was its classification only B-level?

Above B-level was A-level, but what kind of existence was that? It seemed to have never appeared in the research institute.

Although the dream was blurry, Qin Fei knew that everything he saw was something B-6312 had experienced, events that truly happened in this copy world more than fifty years ago.

Why would the copy provide such information?

Could the clues for passing the level be related to events from decades ago?

The information Lu Cheng had received was accurate. The vehicle continued driving for about half an hour before it finally came to a stop. The door of the cargo area was opened, and under the watchful eyes of the Guard Team members, everyone in the vehicle filed out one by one.

Before them lay a dimly lit cave, the air thick with moisture. Qin Fei listened intently and could hear the sound of dripping water coming from ahead.

As Qin Fei and his group disembarked, the Guard Team members from another vehicle were also marching in formation towards the armored car.

"They're going to retrieve the experimental subjects from inside the vehicle," Mi Yang whispered to Qin Fei as he lined up behind him.

Sure enough.

One by one, silver-gray metal boxes were lifted off the vehicle by the Guard Team members. Despite the containment vessels, Qin Fei could still instantly sense the polluted air seeping out.

Many of the people around him already showed signs of discomfort.

The Guard Team members carrying the boxes were clearly struggling too. Each joint on their bodies was wrapped in a layer of silver-gray bandages that Qin Fei had never seen before. He guessed these were likely used to absorb the pollution.

However, the effectiveness of these items was limited, and soon several Guard Team members fell behind.

Researcher Edward, with his hands in his pockets, watched the crowd and then looked at Qin Fei.

"Come here," the NPC said.

Qin Fei complied and stepped forward, taking over the duties of those who were struggling, under the surprised yet respectful gazes of the Guard Team members.

The task of the Guard Team members was simple: carry the handheld boxes into the depths of the cave.

The deeper they went, the more humid the surroundings became.

The brownish-yellow soil was dotted with beads of water, and puddles appeared beneath their feet one after another.

Gradually, the water rose to cover Qin Fei's ankles.

"Just place them here," Researcher Edward's voice sounded from behind. The pollutants in the boxes did not affect him either, and the NPC remained composed.

"Open the boxes," he said.

Inside the boxes were metallic bullets.

These bullets were familiar to Qin Fei. In the corridors of the Research Institute, when he first demonstrated his ability to interact with experimental subjects, he had used these bullets to shoot at the pollutants, which were instantly absorbed into the bullets.

Following Researcher Edward's instructions, Qin Fei took the bullets out of the box and placed them in the water.

The moment the bullets touched the water, the experimental subjects contained within the vessels were finally released.

The experimental subjects being released this time were ones Qin Fei had seen in the documentation: the octopus-like E-0324 and its replicas.

The Guard Team members stood in two rows behind Qin Fei, watching nervously ahead.

E-0324 was known for its temperamental nature and often caused accidents during release, making it one of the most challenging subjects.

The last release of E-0324 was two months ago, and half of the twenty Guard Team members accompanying the mission were severely injured, with two losing their lives during the operation.

Everyone was tense, ready for combat at any moment.

But something unexpected happened. The anticipated danger did not materialize.

One by one, the E-0324s appeared in the water. Qin Fei walked past them, deeper into the cave, placing new metallic bullets along the way.

Soon, all twenty experimental subjects were released.

In a fully healthy state, E-0324 could reach over three meters in height, but now, under the dual pressure of the remaining energy in the metal containers and the pollution from Subject B-6312, they were drowsy and only knee-high to an adult.

The twenty experimental subjects lay limp in the cave's water, stimulated by the cold, instinctively moving deeper into the cave.

Researcher Edward finally moved.

He no longer stood idly by and approached the nearest experimental subject with another metal box, extracting a syringe labeled with a code and skillfully injecting it into the subject.

A second layer of pollution filled the air, emanating from Subject B-6312, a familiar source of pollution.

After the injection, the experimental subject quickly revived. Its movement speed significantly increased compared to its companions, and it swam forward with remarkable agility, growing visibly faster.

Qin Fei's expression darkened.

He suddenly understood why Researcher Edward needed him to grind bone powder.

Qin Fei's throat felt dry, and he licked his lips.

Without any treatment, Subject B-6312 would only exert severe pressure on other experimental subjects.

But somehow, Researcher Edward had transformed the ground bone fragments into nutrients for the other experimental subjects.

Researcher Edward was using one pollution source to feed countless others.

Based on his previous actions, this feeding likely occurred not just during field missions but also regularly within the Research Institute.

Qin Fei bit his lower lip.

The rose vines still coiled around Qin Fei.

The cave's terrain was rugged, and the water made walking difficult. The rose vines sensibly stayed wrapped around his wrist, like a black bracelet visible only to him.

Researcher Edward injected each experimental subject with the nutrient solution. Once all the subjects had left the cave, leaving only the players and NPCs behind, he gave the order: "Distribute the equipment."

"Yes, Mr. Edward!" came a resounding response from the Guard Team. Curious, Qin Fei looked over and saw that they were distributing oxygen tanks and diving masks.

"We will pass through the underground sea and surface to the world above," Researcher Edward explained, noticing Qin Fei's inquisitive gaze.

"Have you never been to the surface before?" The NPC seemed in a good mood and actually started chatting with Qin Fei.

Qin Fei nodded, and the NPC continued, "The Research Institute has been around for over 50 years, and many young people have never been to the surface."

"The surface... it's a very interesting place. If only those annoying pests weren't there, the environment would be much better."

Researcher Edward smiled.

By "annoying pests," he was likely referring to the group of wanderers who insisted on staying on the surface despite all odds, determined to oppose the Research Institute.

The source of pollution had hinted to Qin Fei in his dreams that to find the "answer," he should seek out the wanderers.

This trip to the surface was a rare opportunity.

Everyone in the cave quickly put on their diving gear.

The Guard Team led the way, the Patrol Team brought up the rear, and the researchers were protected in the middle of the group.

They waded through the water, which soon became deeper, rising from their ankles to their shins, knees, and eventually their waists.

"Dive!" The leader of the Guard Team said, plunging into the water first.

The diving equipment was already activated, allowing everyone, regardless of their swimming ability, to keep up with the group.

Qin Fei blended into the crowd, unremarkable among them, with Researcher Edward just ahead of him. The entire team soon submerged together.

It was pitch black all around.

The cold seawater enveloped Qin Fei through his protective suit, and the experimental subjects previously released into the water had vanished.

After 55 years, almost the entire surface was covered by seawater, connecting various bodies of water and underground water systems.

Logically, the sea wasn't safe, with the possibility of wild marine pollutants appearing at any time. However, each member of the Guard Team leading the way carried a flashlight and two glowing red sticks.

Through the water, Qin Fei saw a school of fish approaching but turning away upon encountering the red light.

These were tools used to repel pollutants and ensure human safety.

Swimming from the underground sea to the surface was a long journey.

Before diving, the Guard Team leader had informed them they would need to spend an hour and a half in the icy seawater.

The radiation levels in the seawater were extremely high.

After the first 30 minutes, Qin Fei's radiation level in the scenario had unprecedentedly risen to 60. The team stopped to rest, and the Guard Team leader distributed bottles of radiation cleansers to everyone in the water.

After a brief pause, they resumed their journey.

The farther they swam upward, the more light penetrated the seawater. Although still dim, it was no longer as dark as a starless night.

"Just another half hour, everyone! Keep going!"

The Guard Team leader's voice echoed behind the oxygen masks.

Mi Yang, following closely behind Qin Fei, whispered, "I don't understand why we're swimming to the surface this time. I heard that in the past, we always used submersibles."

Qin Fei raised an eyebrow slightly and looked ahead at Researcher Edward's back.

He vaguely sensed that this trip was specifically for him—or rather, for the successful fusion of Experiment B-6312.

Although the vines of the source of pollution didn't appear constantly after entering the water, Qin Fei could feel that the small vine wrapped around his wrist was in high spirits, as the seawater was the original habitat of all pollutants in the scenario world.

Qin Fei touched the vine with his fingertips and, through the seawater, saw the skeletal form of B-6312 within a metal container deep in the Research Institute.

Hours passed, and the muscle tissue on the skeleton became more prominent, almost completely covering the bones.

However, strangely, Qin Fei still couldn't discern what kind of creature it would become.

It seemed to lack a head and limbs, growing uniformly throughout.

Time slowly passed, and the water pressure around Qin Fei decreased.

They were getting closer to the surface.

"Last 15 minutes!"

The Guard Team leader's voice sounded again.

However, at that moment, the previously calm seawater suddenly stirred abnormally.

Qin Fei's heart skipped a beat.

He looked up and saw a giant net descending directly towards them.