Chapter 217: Yongsheng Pharmaceutical Foundation (23)

Chapter 217: Yongsheng Pharmaceutical Foundation (Twenty-Three)

The red-clothed woman Zhu Ning saw in Liu Liu's memories was Su He, who had turned Liu Liu into a trap.

Zhu Ning then noticed that Liu Liu was connected to many tubes, supplying her with a constant flow of medication, binding her tightly like chains.

They controlled Liu Liu, and Yongsheng Pharmaceutical could now accurately predict when she would completely collapse and become a contaminated zone.

By injecting potent mental healing agents to numb her nerves, they kept her in a perpetual state of confusion, allowing her to collapse at the most opportune moment, thus forming the contaminated area.

This method of collapse was equivalent to leaving a safe passage for themselves, as the collapse of the contamination source was not chaotic; they just needed to kill Liu Liu to escape.

If Zhu Ning were to cut these tubes connected to her body, Liu Liu would completely collapse, making the contaminated area uncontrollable.

Mother of God, even in this vague, unconscious state, she was so terrifying—killing Dr. Fu and Cao Wei, leaving Chu Ling with only her head, and parasitizing Zhu Ning's abdomen with a monster.

If she were to completely collapse into a fully unconscious state, the contaminated area would not be limited to the hotel but would expand infinitely, triggering another district-wide disaster before the true apocalypse arrived.

Liu Liu was left here as a trap, and Su He had considered all possibilities when setting up her plan. She was certain that no one would choose to cut off the supply of medication.

Even if a saint came, they would have to kill Liu Liu at this point.

From the beginning, Liu Liu was destined to die.

Liu Liu's face pressed against Zhu Ning's, and Zhu Ning could sense her. The contamination source would hide itself, but Liu Liu had been leaving signals for Zhu Ning all along.

In her moments of collapse, using her last bit of rationality and desire, she left messages, even though they were very vague.

During the meeting, a pale hand reached out from the chair and tightly embraced her. Zhu Ning found a defective file among the empty seats, and it was about Liu Liu.

The first defective file she found was accurate—it belonged to the contamination source herself.

Staying in room 909, such a luxurious apartment, a distorted Cockroach Man lay under the carpet, fiercely pouncing on Dr. Fu.

After entering the underground hospital, the experiments went smoothly, and the first experiment involved looking at a picture of "God."

Pregnant with a monster, walking into the underground, and being forced to give birth.

Zhu Ning empathized with her completely; what she experienced was condensed, not even a fraction of what Liu Liu endured.

Now, Zhu Ning was experiencing the pain of being gutted, her hands trembling, her mind clouded by pain, and her emotions on the brink of collapse.

The pain of a woman forced to give birth, Liu Liu had already suffered a mental breakdown, and while the details might not align, Zhu Ning shared all her emotions.

For a moment, Zhu Ning couldn't distinguish whether she was Liu Liu or herself.

It seemed as if Zhu Ning had really given birth, carrying a monster and experiencing the world's ultimate horror.

They shared the same fate.

Liu Liu couldn't speak, like a little calf, conveying emotions through her gaze. The Cockroach Man's eyes were large, like a lake, and Zhu Ning had never seen such a desperate look.

Lin Xiaofeng could regain her sanity; she was lucky, and her breakdown was brief.

But Liu Liu was different; she had been tortured for a long time, relying on medication to numb her nerves, like a train destined to derail.

A rustling sound came from outside, and Zhu Ning, with her keen hearing, heard it. Before they entered the underground hospital, they had killed a Cockroach Man, and the young cockroaches it hatched had grown and pushed open the entrance to the underground hospital, swarming in like a locust plague.

And Zhu Ning was being gutted, with ghostly hands reaching out. It would come out.

Zhu Ning had very little time to think.

Liu Liu was beyond saving; her purpose was to serve as an escape button, ensuring the safety of the assassin.

Zhu Ning should press it, letting those who needed to leave do so, taking the message with them.

"I will avenge you," Zhu Ning silently vowed. "I will kill Su He and seek justice for you."

Then she realized how meaningless these words were; once destroyed, a person is truly destroyed, and even if Su He died, the debt could not be repaid.

After all the pain faded, all that remained was anger.

Anger filled Zhu Ning's chest, with nowhere to vent, forcing her to continue down this path, as there was no other way.

The anger could not be suppressed, burning like a fire in her chest, almost bursting through her ribcage.

Liu Liu could not perceive such complex emotions.

"Use the Pigman's Guillotine?"

Zhu Ning trembled as she opened the system panel.

A blade appeared out of the red light, striking the contamination source's body above, slicing it from head to toe with a sharp line.

At the same time, Zhu Ning activated the three-dimensional defense space, erecting a protective wall.

With a boom, the massive Cockroach Man split in half, collapsing like a crumbling skyscraper, its two halves sliding down. Liu Liu's eyes closed, and she immediately transformed into tons of rotting flesh.

The rotting flesh fell like cement, followed by countless contamination spores dancing in the air, filling the entire experimental base like fireflies illuminating the darkness.

Zhu Ning was protected below by the defense space, watching the rotting flesh slide down the transparent barrier.

She held her breath, gazing upward.

Too easy.

This was the escape route left for the assassin. Zhu Ning had used a C-grade contamination item to kill an S-grade contamination source.

Zhu Ning paused, feeling her abdomen. Her protective suit was almost like a beggar's clothing, tattered and hanging on her body. A twenty-centimeter wound had been torn open in her abdomen, nearly gutting her.

The black slime enveloped her organs; without its support, she would have been torn to shreds long ago.

The black slime moved over her body, attempting to heal the wounds. Zhu Ning patted her forearm and injected two doses of potent healing agent.

Gritting her teeth and enduring the pain, Zhu Ning took out a bandage and wrapped it around her arm in circles.

As she wrapped, she kept drawing in cold breaths, as if trying to mend a damaged bag with all her might.

After bandaging herself up, Zhu Ning's headache worsened, making it difficult for her to even stand. She deactivated the defensive space, revealing a pile of rotting flesh. Standing amidst the contaminated spores, she couldn't tell which one was Liu Liu.

The contaminated spores danced around Zhu Ning, and in the vast underground laboratory, she stood alone, surrounded by piles of rotting flesh and a mechanical head nearby.

Zhu Ning's face was covered in blood, and her body was riddled with injuries, yet the contaminated spores affectionately licked her.

She didn't hear the system's task completion notification; instead, her mind was filled with static, as if the system had frozen.

Her mental energy was stuck at 50%, just a hair away from crashing. After a while, Zhu Ning picked up Chu Ling's head.

Chu Ling was silent, her helmet displaying a blue light. She might have feared contamination and cut off the system, entering hibernation mode.

Chu Ling's mission was to transmit data, and she had done an excellent job protecting its integrity.

They came here for this data, and two people died because of it. Zhu Ning didn't know what to say.

Do you think your life is cheap? But whose life isn't cheap in this world?

Holding Chu Ling's head, Zhu Ning thought for a moment, then wrapped it in cloth and tied it to her waist.

Standing up, Zhu Ning looked at her arm, where the assassin had left a wound that wouldn't heal.

But now, under the effect of the medicine, the wound was healing. Was the assassin dead?

Unless he was dead, his psychic abilities would still be present. That was Zhu Ning's first thought. What about Xu Meng?

Did the captain win?

Zhu Ning woke from her daze, as if someone had hit her on the head, clearing her muddled thoughts. She and Xu Meng had divided their tasks: Xu Meng dealt with the assassin, and Zhu Ning handled the source of contamination.

Since Zhu Ning had completed her task, the captain should have finished too.

Climbing the stairs, her legs weak, she took a long time to cover the short distance, slipping back down several times.

Reaching the top, she leaned against her knees, breathing heavily. In front of her was an old door, behind which Xu Meng waited.

Grasping the doorknob, her heart raced. The feeling returned, and she hesitated to move forward.

It felt like everything was a dream. Could it really be so smooth? Was it truly over?

Killing the source of contamination and completing the task seemed too easy, almost surreal. It could be an illusion.

Perhaps the source of contamination was hiding somewhere, waiting to be discovered. After all, the system hadn't notified her, much like the classic ending of a horror movie where she realized she had stepped into an irreversible trap.

Should she go back and search for the real source of contamination?

Zhu Ning paused, realizing she was avoiding reality, giving herself an excuse not to open the door.

With a creak—

Zhu Ning pushed the door open, and before her lay a floor covered in rotting flesh and contaminated spores floating in the air.

Previously, she had walked with her eyes closed, but now she saw the room for the first time. It was a laboratory filled with instruments she couldn't understand, and along the walls were rows of petri dishes containing mutated human bodies, one of which had grown a tail.

Earlier, Chu Ling had said this room was full of ghostly shadows, but now only rotting flesh remained.

Zhu Ning could easily imagine the scale of the battle that had taken place here.

Her gaze scanned the room inch by inch, finding no bodies, only piles of rotting flesh. Zhu Ning searched through the mess, and behind a piece of rotting flesh, she found something black.

It was the color of the cleaner's protective suit. Zhu Ning froze, then frantically dug through the foul-smelling flesh, uncovering a black figure curled up like a cat.

It was the captain.

Zhu Ning's heart raced faster as she approached slowly, touching Xu Meng's body.

Warm.

Xu Meng's protective suit was damaged, her helmet shattered, her face covered in blood, and her brows tightly furrowed, but her eyelids were still moving.

Her abdomen was in a terrible state, not like fresh blood but more like shadows melting into asphalt. Zhu Ning hesitated to touch it, unsure if Xu Meng was in pain.

Zhuang Lin had told Zhu Ning that psychics could mutate. Had Xu Meng mutated?

The protective suit indicated vital signs, but the lights didn't turn on. Zhu Ning trusted science at this moment, unsure if removing the suit would cause infection.

The suit showed she was fine, still alive.

Impressive, my captain. You avenged Cheng Mofei, managing to kill such a formidable assassin.

Zhu Ning felt as if she had witnessed something extraordinary. She injected Xu Meng with a potent healing agent. Xu Meng had three doses, and Zhu Ning had two, all of which she administered to the captain.

Zhu Ning forgot that the drug had limited efficacy, and excessive injections would be wasted, like drinking water.

Still, she continued to inject her, unable to save lives with healing powers, this was her only way to help.

After injecting all she could, Xu Meng still showed no response. Zhu Ning, feeling extremely weak, tried to move Xu Meng's body.

She managed to hoist Xu Meng onto her back after several attempts.

Wasn't Xu Meng supposed to be light? Just bones and little flesh, yet today she felt heavy. Zhu Ning's knees buckled, nearly kneeling under Xu Meng's weight.

Zhu Ning steadied herself, still feeling no sense of reality. She remembered how Xu Meng had carried her out after the mission in the deserted village.

Xu Meng's back felt very safe; Zhu Ning could think of nothing and just needed to rest.

Back then, Zhu Ning pretended to faint, lying on Xu Meng's back as if enjoying a peaceful moment, while Xu Meng pinched her thigh to keep her from causing trouble.

Now, supporting Xu Meng, Zhu Ning also wanted to pinch her.

Zhu Ning thought about how Xu Meng had waited for her outside the company, always ready to assist whenever she was on a mission.

Xu Meng had promised her that if Zhu Ning entered a contaminated area, she should let her know so she could clean up the mess.

In Xu Meng, Zhu Ning found a bit of the feeling of family. Only family would do this: you can go wherever you want, but you must tell me where you are.

What was it like that day at the company? Xu Meng appeared as a dark shadow, like a goddess descending upon the ruins, a beam of light piercing through the darkness of a cave. At that moment, Zhu Ning didn't even want to struggle anymore, wishing to hide herself in the card and sleep forever underground.

It was Xu Meng who pulled her up, treating her like a suitcase and throwing her into the car's back seat.

Zhu Ning also wanted to throw her, if only she would wake up.

"Captain, I'll take you out."

Xu Meng did not respond. Zhu Ning continued, "I'll find someone to help, just wait for me."

Wait for me.