Chapter 216: Yongsheng Pharmaceutical Foundation (22)

Chapter 216: Yongsheng Pharmaceutical Foundation (Twenty-Two)

After Zhu Ning walked in, the underground area was an even deeper pit, with an iron ladder hanging at the edge. She was so anxious that she didn't even use the stairs, instead using her gravity-ignoring skill to descend directly.

Upon reaching her destination, the surroundings were bathed in red light.

Zhu Ning toured the underground area with Chu Ling, examining the chains and collars up close. Inscribed on one of the collars was a line of text: No. 0978.

This was the serial number of the test subject. They had speculated that the source of contamination might be the "Mother" of the Birth God.

According to the records, two test subjects were pregnant, one being No. 0978.

But the spot was empty; they searched every corner and found nothing.

The more they walked, the more disappointed they became. Chu Ling's eyes, irritated by the red light, welled up with tears as she asked, "Why is there nothing here?"

How could this be? Every contaminated area had a source of contamination, and here there was only an empty space.

Zhu Ning tried to open her eyes, but her world was a hazy red. She struggled to process Chu Ling's words.

For the first time, her method of finding the contamination source had failed.

Xu Meng had risked her life to shield Zhu Ning from an assassin, allowing her to enter this place, but all she saw was emptiness.

Zhu Ning's mind went blank for a moment. Why was there nothing?

She crouched down, feeling the number on the chain, motionless, unsure whether to move forward or retreat.

"Zhu Ning..." Chu Ling said, "Shall we go back?"

Back to find Xu Meng, at least help her kill the assassin, or look for other clues.

Zhu Ning stiffened; there was no time. They couldn't turn back. The ghost hand inside her abdomen was growing, and she had been internally infected for a long time. She was reaching her limit, with the ghost hand pressing against her heart, liver, spleen, and lungs, ready to burst.

Her belly made a crisp sound, like a ripe watermelon cracking slightly. Zhu Ning clutched her abdomen; a monster was about to emerge from her body. She didn't want Chu Ling to worry, so she swallowed her groans of pain.

Calm down, Zhu Ning, think carefully about what went wrong?

In the midst of excruciating pain, Zhu Ning recalled everything that had happened since she entered. She should have experienced the past of the contamination source; her hypothesis shouldn't have been wrong.

The assassin must have considered his escape route and wouldn't have set himself up for a dead end. The method to kill the contamination source should not have been difficult, perhaps even simpler.

Assuming the assassin completed his mission and successfully killed Xu Meng and Zhu Ning, he would have prepared to leave the contaminated area safely.

Where would he have left his escape button?

With a tearing sound—

A finger had already pierced through Zhu Ning's protective suit, and two hands were clawing at her abdomen like someone trying to pry open an elevator door.

It was almost out.

Zhu Ning would become nourishment for the contaminated area. Originally crouching to examine the chains, she now couldn't support herself, leaning on one hand.

Zhu Ning curled up in pain, letting out a scream before immediately clenching her teeth to suppress it.

Zhu Ning couldn't hold onto Chu Ling anymore. A mechanical head rolled away, and Chu Ling's eyes widened in disbelief as she watched a hand crawl out of Zhu Ning's abdomen.

The protective suit was torn, revealing a pale, blood-stained ghost hand. She witnessed a gruesome scene, a kind of twisted birth.

Or perhaps a different kind of delivery.

Cold sweat poured down Zhu Ning's face, and the pain was unbearable, worse than being cut into a thousand pieces. She was enduring the most severe torture imaginable.

The ghost hand was long, absorbing her nutrients and growing. Initially just a pair of hands, it then extended into arms.

Lying on the ground, after entering the contaminated area, she would experience the past of the contamination source. Zhu Ning was missing one step: childbirth.

Her eyelids fluttered rapidly, and she couldn't control her screams.

Her abdomen was swollen and painful, with no place for her internal organs. The pain seemed endless, as if it would last a lifetime.

Her mental state was at 51%, on the brink of collapse. She was almost done for.

Zhu Ning's hand dug into the ground, leaving five-finger marks.

There were already finger marks on the ground, and her scratches overlapped them. Someone had suffered the same pain before.

Zhu Ning touched the marks, feeling a deep empathy with the test subject who had once been bound here. She turned over and lay on her back.

The fetus was connected to her, and the movement caused her vision to blacken. She wanted to shoot herself to end her suffering.

Sweat drenched Zhu Ning, as if she were submerged underwater. Chu Ling didn't know how to help, shouting Zhu Ning's name in desperation.

Zhu Ning's previous guess was correct; the contamination source should be here, though invisible.

Zhu Ning reached out, but the pain made her movements inaccurate. With a click, she opened the hidden latch on her helmet under Chu Ling's alarmed cry.

She removed her helmet.

Chu Ling kept calling Zhu Ning, telling her not to be contaminated, but Zhu Ning couldn't hear, only sensing someone shouting in her ear.

She couldn't avoid it, couldn't hide in the darkness; she had to face it.

Zhu Ning's face was drenched in sweat, a black strip of cloth covering her nose, soaked with tears and sweat, making it heavy.

She opened her eyes.

The first thing she saw was blinding red light, so red it felt like she was immersed in a pool of blood.

Zhu Ning lowered her head, her first reaction was to look at her abdomen, just in time to see two arms emerging from her belly. At that moment, Zhu Ning understood that it might not just be hands; a new person would grow inside her body.

A pristine and clean new human would be born into this world through her body; she was merely the vessel for this human.

The mental shock was too great; as a human, it was impossible to accept such a transformation of one’s own body.

She felt like vomiting.

Thinking, Zhu Ning forced herself to think. Xu Meng was still waiting for her; she had to take the remaining three people out.

She stared blankly upward, here, eyes were the switches, she gazed for a long time, until she could no longer hold on.

She gently blinked, needing only an instant.

This place wasn't empty; it was just invisible when Chu Ling kept her eyes open, and Zhu Ning couldn’t see it even with her eyes closed.

The source of contamination had hidden itself; Zhu Ning had to blink to see it.

Her eyelids opened and closed like a shutter capturing a moment, a massive creature appeared above Zhu Ning, its shadow completely enveloping her. Zhu Ning could only see a corner of it.

To see more clearly, she activated God's Eye.

From the perspective of an observer, she re-evaluated everything. Above her was a colossal Cockroach Man, resembling a huge military weapon.

The Cockroach Man's slender limbs supported its body like four pillars, its flat, black, shiny cockroach carapace floating above like a dark cloud.

The giant head of the Cockroach Man hung low, its face so pale. Zhu Ning saw her face; she was just a teenager, with naturally curly hair and a doll-like face, looking far too young, younger than Zhu Ning.

The source of contamination was emotionally shattered, with no consciousness, a thoroughly ugly monster.

The Cockroach Man's abdomen was hollow, with a hole where the ootheca should have been.

The Cockroach Man couldn't speak or move, only able to roll its eyes.

Zhu Ning had entered many contaminated areas; the sources of contamination usually had their own demands, harboring grievances, shouting out what they dared not say in daily life.

But the one before her didn't, because cockroaches don't make sounds. Her lifeless, despairing eyes looked at Zhu Ning.

The head of the contamination source drooped, the overly large creature, every movement exuding a sense of oppression. She could crush Zhu Ning with one hand.

Zhu Ning didn't dodge; she had no strength left to do so. The cheek of the Cockroach Man pressed tightly against Zhu Ning's face, emitting a cold and putrid smell.

The Cockroach Man didn't attack. As an S-class contamination source, she was surprisingly docile, almost the least threatening creature in the entire hotel.

Zhu Ning trembled and reached out, placing her hand on the Cockroach Man's forehead, reading her memories.

The life of the Cockroach Man.

The contamination source was emotionally out of control; the memories Zhu Ning read were scattered and flickering, and she could only piece them together.

It was a girl with naturally curly short hair, which bounced loosely when she moved.

She lived in a shack behind a garbage mountain, growing up wild without any care. Her furniture was scavenged from the garbage mountain, and her food came from whatever the sky provided, eating whatever garbage was dumped that day.

Human resources were often excessive, and she managed to survive on these scraps.

She often wondered, what was the difference between her and a cockroach?

One day, she saw an advertisement on a roadside billboard recruiting test subjects for the Yongsheng Pharmaceutical Foundation.

Participate in the experiment, and you can live, with free lifelong treatment. If successful, you would receive stocks from Yongsheng Pharmaceutical, essentially rewriting your destiny overnight.

Such a tempting offer, usually a scam, but she didn't care then; let it be a scam.

She signed up, sitting at the gambling table, participating in a grand gamble about human fate.

When she sat down, she was confident; she had nothing to lose.

Everyone walked into the hotel with the same purpose, entering the meeting room to attend the foundation's speech. Everyone looked up, almost greedily, at the speaker.

"I will lead the defective ones to the world."

"Why should first-class citizens enjoy benefits while the defective ones wait to die! We won't die!"

The speaker roared into the microphone, and the audience was energized. She was stirred by the atmosphere, raising her arm and shouting loudly, "We won't die!"

We won't die!

So after the event, she signed up, handing over the application form to the staff, with her name written: Liu Liu.

Very simple information, fifteen years old, female, remaining lifespan nine months.

Liu Liu had seen elite resumes online before, filled with rich content: graduated from prestigious institutions, participated in significant actions, received honors, spanning three pages.

But Liu Liu's resume was just a short line, too pale, making her hesitant to hand it over.

The staff took the resume and gave her a standard smile, as if she were a distinguished guest.

She had never been treated with such respect before, feeling somewhat uneasy at first.

Later, she moved into a beautiful room, with 909 written on the door.

The task was simple: take the medicine and record the reactions, which was excessively easy for her.

Every day, someone collected her dirty clothes, and someone delivered meals. When she made requests, they were always met.

For example, when she said she wanted beef for lunch, she really got beef for lunch.

Liu Liu was confined in a narrow room, but she didn't feel like she was in prison; instead, she felt very comfortable.

Her imagination was limited; did the first-class citizens in the divine kingdom live like this? The emperor probably lived this way too, didn't he?

Perhaps a little better than her.

Those days were truly happy.

But good times don’t last long. She found the hallucinations becoming more severe, and she began to think about leaving.

"Is your name Liuliu?" A person in a white coat appeared at the door and said, "Are you willing to participate in a deep experiment? You might achieve immortality."

Immortality?

She just wanted to extend her life; wasn’t immortality too long? She had no concept of it. How long is immortality?

She wanted to refuse but couldn't speak. Her consciousness gradually faded, and then she was taken away by the person in the white coat.

When she woke up again, she was in a hospital, undergoing bizarre experiments.

Liuliu realized it was a scam and tried to escape. One day, she ran down the corridor and looked out the window.

There was no blue sky or white clouds outside. The hospital was built underground, and she felt like a bug buried beneath the earth!

Liuliu panicked and was quickly brought back to her room by the security team.

"You need to be quiet." They injected an unknown liquid into her.

Liuliu felt despair. She remembered that her lifespan was only nine months, and for the first time in her life, she wished that day would come sooner.

Let her die; she didn’t want to endure any more experiments.

A month passed, two months passed. She counted the days, asking every day: What’s the date today?

The researcher patiently told her, and she stopped being noisy, cooperating quietly.

But after nine months, she didn’t die.

After a year, she was still alive.

Despair spread from within her. Two years passed, and she was still in the lab. Later, she stopped asking about the dates.

Other test subjects came and went, most carried out covered in white sheets.

Looking in the mirror, she noticed herself becoming increasingly strange. Her arms grew longer.

They were thin and pale, like those of a mantis. Later, her back became increasingly itchy, and her entire spine turned a shiny black, feeling like a layer of shell.

Oh, not a mantis, she had become a cockroach.

She thought slowly, without panic. After so much cooperation with the experiments, nothing surprised her anymore.

She even laughed, on the verge of mental breakdown, possibly insane but unaware of it.

How much worse could it get? She didn’t know and didn’t want to know.

One day, someone pushed open her door and shouted, "Congratulations! You’re pregnant! There’s another one, and you two are very lucky to become the mother of a god."

Liuliu stood there, speechless, until she felt a coldness on her face. She cried.

She thought she wouldn’t cry anymore, but she did.

She screamed wildly, having cooperated for so long, unable to hold back. Why should she bring a new life into suffering?

Liuliu pounded her belly, but someone held her down, heavy chains around her neck and limbs.

A number was engraved on the collar: 0978.

She had lost her name, reduced to a number, which was now her identity.

Her belly grew larger, and every day, someone observed and recorded her movements. She lay on the ground, unable to move.

Already a Cockroach Man, yet she retained human will.

Then came pregnancy and childbirth. She experienced it all numbly, the pain too intense. She could only imagine her soul had left her body, and the one suffering wasn’t her.

She screamed in agony, leaving marks on the floor. The lab was filled with cries of pain. She wanted to escape, but her neck and limbs were restrained.

She had nowhere to go. No matter which direction she looked, all the screens displayed “miracles.”

The floor was bathed in red light, and even with her eyes closed, the red glow seeped through the cracks.

"The god is coming."

"Praise the great Him."

Behind the glass windows stood countless figures, their faces indistinct, each wearing the same expression of excited and eerie smiles.

Everyone chanted in unison, praising the great Him.

Despite her suffering, they praised the great Him.

Her back was covered in a cockroach’s shell, and her insides were tearing apart as a cocoon struggled to emerge.

Mixed with thick blood, she heard the sticky sound as the cocoon fell to the ground.

For a moment, the surrounding breaths paused. Researchers and believers gathered to witness this spectacle.

The greatest birth ceremony in the world, every observer grateful to be present.

After a moment of dead silence, thunderous applause erupted.

"Success!" someone cried with joy: "We've succeeded!"

They hugged each other, shouting and cheering, the sound filling the laboratory. Some were so moved they couldn't even speak.

Decades of effort, the dedication of three generations, countless experimental subjects and researchers had died for the Divine Descent.

Their eyes were all holy, pure beyond reproach.

Someone descended the stairs, and two people in protective suits touched the ootheca. The moment they felt it, they trembled with excitement, more than they would have if their own child had been born.

God, they had touched God.

A faint heartbeat came from inside the ootheca, proving it was alive. They had obtained the infant of a god, endowed with a divine soul.

The researcher carefully placed the ootheca into a petri dish. Her eyes moved numbly, watching the ootheca float in the liquid. It was the first time she had truly seen the life she had brought into existence.

How strange, despite being forced, despite the cruel torture, when she saw the ootheca, she felt a sense of reluctance.

As if it were truly her cherished child.

Soon, she couldn't see the ootheca anymore. The petri dish was placed in a special iron box with three layers of protection. They left the "god" in the safest place possible.

The person in the protective suit didn't look back at her, just a distorted Cockroach Man, grotesquely deformed.

Cockroaches were everywhere, swarming together, mindless and brainless, easily crushed underfoot, leaving a sticky mess on the shoe.

So disgusting.

She felt her fate was sealed. If she were really a cockroach, just a surrogate body for a parasitic wasp, a cheap tool.

As a tool, she had fulfilled her mission and should be crushed and discarded like a cockroach.

She didn't want to be 0978, she wanted to be Liu Liu.

Someone asked, "What about 0978? Has she been dealt with? It's better not to leave any loose ends."

Liu Liu closed her eyes, waiting for the guillotine of fate to fall.

She couldn't see the faces of the researchers; to her, they all looked the same. That day, she saw a corner of a red coat among the white lab coats, strikingly red like blood, seemingly belonging to a woman.

The woman in the red coat pondered. No one dared to speak until she finally said in an icy voice, "Keep her. Use her as a trap."