Chapter 89

Chapter 89

The setting sun burned orange-yellow, bathing the North China Base in a golden glow. The lush green of distant mountains bled over the concrete and steel, spilling onto the high walls. The usually bleak and gray base appeared unusually tranquil and serene.

As Bai Tu was sent flying, this picturesque scene filled his vision. At the same time, faint human voices drifted from afar. He coughed, scrambled to his feet, and sprinted toward the sound, only to be forced back by a powerful gust of wind.

Song Lan wasn't in a hurry to kill him. Instead, he sent gusts of wind from all directions, forcing Bai Tu to spin in place.

Bai Tu could barely keep his eyes open against the gale. With only a gun to fight back, he fired several shots. One bullet successfully struck Song Lan's arm.

The wind paused for a moment but soon grew even more violent.

His hair and clothes whipped wildly. Bai Tu could hardly stay upright, bracing himself on all fours and digging his fingers into the ground to steady himself. Even with his fingers buried deep, he was still pushed backward uncontrollably until he managed to grab a rock, finally stopping his slide. He then struggled to raise his gun, aiming at Song Lan.

Song Lan sneered, "Overestimating yourself." He then grabbed the dazed Fan Xinglu, using him as a human shield.

Bai Tu gritted his teeth.

Under normal circumstances, he was confident he could blow Song Lan's head off with a single shot. But with the powerful winds swirling around them, the one with a blown-off head might very well be Fan Xinglu.

He lowered the gun, his mind racing. A sudden glimpse in his peripheral vision caught a manhole cover about ten meters away.

The surrounding wind grew sharper, like blunt knives scraping against his skin. The rock he was holding onto loosened under the prolonged assault and was finally blown away. Losing his grip, Bai Tu was immediately sent tumbling.

After he stopped rolling, he looked up at Fan Xinglu.

Fan Xinglu still had value. Whether it was the people in the lab or Song Lan himself, they all relied on his superpower to produce the serum. At least for now, his life wasn't in immediate danger.

Having reasoned this out, Bai Tu quickly made a decision. He raised his gun and fired a sweeping barrage in front of him while scrambling to his feet and dashing toward the manhole cover. As he ran, he continued firing at the ground behind him.

Clouds of yellow dust billowed up, swirling violently in the strong wind.

Song Lan spat a curse, shoving Fan Xinglu aside and intensifying the wind to disperse the dust. However, by the time the dust settled, Bai Tu was nowhere to be seen.

...

The sound of ragged breathing echoed through the empty waterway. Bai Tu only dared to stop and catch his breath after running several dozen meters.

His shoes and socks were completely soaked from wading through the water. As he bent over to roll up his pant legs, a tearing pain suddenly shot through his right shoulder and left rib. Only then did he notice several gashes on his body from the wind blades.

He tore strips from his shirt to bandage the wounds and looked around.

The scenery in the underground waterway was almost indistinguishable. He had run too frantically earlier and now had no way of determining his location.

His wristwatch showed 6:00 PM, well past the usual dinner time. Anxious, Bai Tu chose a direction based on intuition.

—As long as he reached the place where he usually stored his raincoat, he could find his way back.

After walking for a while, suddenly, he heard the sound of wheels rolling overhead, accompanied by a foul stench drifting down from a drain opening above.

This was... the smell of zombies.

Bai Tu stopped, realizing he was beneath the core zone.

But weren't the zombies kept on the higher floors? The drainage channels were all outdoors. What were they doing transporting zombies out here?

Bai Tu hesitated. He now knew his approximate location. If he hurried, he could be back in about twenty minutes. Huo Changfeng would surely be worried when he discovered Bai Tu was missing. Just then, fragmented voices drifted down from above, with words like "batch" and "disposal" faintly audible.

Connecting this to a certain possibility, he no longer hesitated. He immediately tore more cloth from his shirt to wrap around his wristwatch, then climbed up through the nearest drainage channel. Pushing open a cover just a crack, he peered out and saw two people in blue protective suits pulling a massive iron cage in a certain direction.

That direction led to the Livestock Research Institute, next to which was an incineration plant.

The iron cage contained nothing else but naked zombies, their brains hollowed out.

Bai Tu immediately climbed back down and hurried toward the incineration plant. As he approached, the water in the underground channel gradually became thick and filthy. An indescribable stench filled the air. Bai Tu waded through the deepening, murky water, his pant legs soon coated with unidentifiable sticky substances from the water. But he paid no mind, pressing forward with his head down.

The underground waterways were far more winding than the surface roads.

Bai Tu breathed a sigh of relief when he finally caught up.

By now, the sun had completely set. Lights around the incineration plant illuminated the area. The iron cage was parked at the entrance. Two lab technicians were unloading the zombies one by one, each grabbing an arm or a leg before tossing them into the incinerator.

After a small pile had formed, a large bucket of diesel was poured over it, and a fierce blaze erupted. One after another, the damp, soft zombie bodies were flung into the fire...

Bai Tu watched intently. After about half the cage was emptied, he unexpectedly spotted a zombie on the very top with a centipede-like scar on the outer side of its thigh.

It was a female zombie.

*'My wife was hit by a car years ago when she was selling goods. She got over a dozen stitches on the outer side of her left thigh...'*

Perhaps he had already anticipated it, but seeing it with his own eyes still left Bai Tu with an indescribably complex feeling. How was he supposed to tell Rong Wazi, to make him believe and accept this fact?

That female zombie was picked up, about to be thrown into the fire. Bai Tu instinctively leaned forward but immediately regained his composure and pulled back.

If only he had a camera.

Wait, a camera!

Bai Tu pulled up the debt panel, activated the camera function, and took several consecutive shots of the female zombie.

The next moment, the female zombie was hurled away, vanishing into the leaping flames.

Over the next ten minutes, the two technicians emptied the cage. Bai Tu didn't see any zombie with a star-shaped mark on its buttocks or a mole on the back of its neck. Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly heard one of the researchers say, "What a hassle. Still have to go register at the archives room."

The archives room?

What place was that?

"Shh! Are you trying to get us killed? You can't just talk about that. What if someone hears?"

"Let them hear. I don't even want to do this job anymore. Day in and day out, they just order the two of us around. It stinks to high heaven."

"Stop talking nonsense!"

The two technicians walked away, still grumbling. After much deliberation, Bai Tu lifted the cover plate and followed. He trailed far behind, smearing mud on his dripping pant legs, shoes, and socks to mask the sound, sticking to the dark, muddy areas. He followed cautiously until he saw the two technicians enter a large building.

This building was located almost at the very center of the entire core zone. The main entrance required both iris and fingerprint recognition. Bai Tu was most familiar with the layout of this building in the entire core zone because, in his previous life, this was where Huo Changfeng had been imprisoned. However, he had never discovered any archives room inside.

Steadying his nerves, he entered the building via the route he knew best. This time, he meticulously inspected every part of the ventilation ducts, checking every corner and crevice. Finally, at a height equivalent to about the fifth floor, he felt a faint breeze. He quickly moved closer to the source of the breeze, feeling around up, down, left, and right. At the very bottom, he discovered a narrow crack.

The crack eventually extended into a square frame about forty centimeters on each side, resembling a secret passage. Bai Tu pulled out his dagger and tried to pry it open. After ten minutes of effort, he heard a *click*—it actually opened by about half a centimeter.

Elated, he increased his force. Three minutes later, he successfully entered this previously unexplored secret passage.

Inside the passage, it was pitch black, impossible to see one's own hand. Bai Tu had to occasionally press the light on his wristwatch for illumination. Fortunately, the passage was straight, with no turns. Soon, Bai Tu saw a louvered exhaust vent similar to those in other buildings.

He looked down. It was also pitch black below, and from the sounds, there didn't seem to be anyone. Shining his wristwatch screen light down, he could make out several tall shelves.

Bai Tu scraped the mud off his pants and shoes with his dagger, pried open the exhaust vent, and jumped down.

In the light cast by his wristwatch screen, only rows of iron bookshelves were visible, each laden with file folders and boxes. Bai Tu felt certain, figuring this must be the archive room mentioned by the two researchers earlier.

The air in the archive room was crisp, and the shelves were spotless. The ceiling vents hummed along at a low setting. Bai Tu guessed this room was frequently accessed and that great care was taken to prevent mold and dampness. Yet he wondered why it needed to be hidden, even to the extent of sealing the ventilation ducts.

What exactly was recorded here?

Recalling the researchers' conversation, Bai Tu suddenly felt a terrible sense of foreboding.

He pulled out a folder and flipped through it. Inside was an individual's record, containing extremely detailed information, even genetic sequences. The file was thick. Bai Tu skimmed through it and stopped short when he saw a particular line.

"XX/XX/XXXX XX:XX: Rejection reaction occurred. Death."

He began examining other files.

"XX/XX/XXXX XX:XX: Surgical failure. Death."

"...Death."

"...Death."

"...Destroyed."

"...Continued."

"...Destroyed."

God, what was this research institute studying?

Bai Tu stood there, stunned, letting the file drop.

Some in these files died after certain injections, some died after surgeries, some were destroyed after turning into zombies, and some were zombies from the start. The earliest dates were clearly before the apocalypse's full outbreak.

One file recorded a case where someone turned into a zombie after joining the North China Base, was captured for study, and then subjected to analysis of bodily fluids, crystal cores, and decaying flesh.

All of this, Bai Tu could understand. But why were there files on individuals injected with the zombie virus, turned into zombies, and used for comparative experiments with the original virus strain?

Bai Tu felt dizzy. He sensed he had stumbled upon a massive secret.

He braced himself against the bookshelf. Waves of chill rose from his soaked shoes and socks. He dared not think what it meant that pre-apocalypse human and zombie experiments were locked in the same archive.

Unbidden, the image of that long scar flickering in the flames flashed through his mind. Bai Tu steeled himself and continued searching.

The organization here was like a typical archive. Each shelf was labeled with a time period. Bai Tu checked the time against Rong Wazi's wife and daughter's disappearance and quickly found the right shelf. There, he located a file.

A file on a little girl.

"Name: Rong Ying"

"Code: T-CORPS0068"

"Related to T-CORPS0067 as mother and daughter. Post-transformation, mutual attack behavior observed. Kinship-based emotional bonds are presumed absent in mutated entities."

Bai Tu found the file for T-CORPS0067. The first page, like Rong Ying's, had two photos: one human, one zombie. The second clearly showed the female zombie just incinerated.

Bai Tu flipped to the end. A red "DEAD" stamp and a blue "DESTROY" stamp were imprinted one after the other.

Bai Tu was silent for a moment. He pulled out the two files, folded them into small squares, and stuffed them in his pocket. As he replaced the others, he suddenly spotted a shelf hidden behind layers of archives.

This shelf was different. Its iron nameplate bore the twisted engraving 'ZERO', concealed in deep darkness. Bai Tu paused, then walked toward it. Just then, a *beep* sounded from the door, followed by two sets of footsteps. Some ceiling lights turned on, illuminating the area around the 'ZERO' shelf.

Bai Tu held his breath, softened his footsteps, and retreated into darkness.

Soon, two men walked up to the shelf. With their backs turned, Bai Tu couldn't see their faces, only that one—a tall, thin man with white hair—took down a file and wrote on it.

After a brief silence, the other man asked in a suppressed voice, "How much longer do we need to prepare?"

Bai Tu stiffened.

*That voice... Commander Liu?*

"No need to rush. I'm already preparing," the White-Haired Man said nonchalantly.

"I can't stall much longer. He's already sent my son to ask when he can leave. If we don't act soon, you can kiss everything goodbye."

*Who is 'he'?*

Bai Tu stepped forward, trying to see their faces.

"Just find any excuse to keep him there. He always listens to you," the White-Haired Man said, closing the file box, returning it, and taking out another. He glanced sideways at the man on his left.

In that instant, Bai Tu felt as if struck by lightning. The White-Haired Man was none other than the lead researcher of the experiments on Huo Changfeng in his previous life. Bai Tu would recognize that side profile, or even his ashes.

Was the man beside him Commander Liu? If so, why? Who were they discussing?

"Besides, the current observation phase is quite interesting," the White-Haired Man said with a laugh.

"How much longer? He's indistinguishable from a normal human now. Hasn't it been long enough?" the man retorted angrily. "I never agreed to placing him in a social environment. If not for those people coincidentally seeking refuge at the base, he could have died out there unknown."

"You've actually developed feelings for him."

"Bullshit!"

The man with the commander's voice turned. Bai Tu finally saw his face.

The familiar hawk-like eyes, forehead wrinkles, downturned mouth—it was unmistakably Commander Liu.

Bai Tu froze, his mind blank.

"Night brings many dreams. Also, what's the use of that medicine? He takes it daily with no change."

"It helps him remember a little of his past," the White-Haired Man said.

"You're insane! We can't subdue him now. What if he goes berserk? You said you had a solution. I've stalled and stalled, and now you tell me we still wait?"

"Sometimes, suffering is the best way to destroy a person," the White-Haired Man sighed. "Compared to capturing him, ensuring he stays alive is the most urgent task."

"What do you mean?"

"Suffering can destroy a person, but it cannot make them die. We give him a process of acceptance, so when he faces the truth, he won't seek death. After all, his living benefits us both."

"Simple enough," Commander Liu snorted. "He cares deeply for that Qiang man. When the time comes, let him see that man daily. He won't dare seek death."

"A carrot forever out of reach," the White-Haired Man chuckled softly. "Interesting."

A cold dread washed over Bai Tu, almost suffocating. So Commander Liu had known Huo Changfeng's identity all along. So he was part of the scheme. Bai Tu had always thought Song Lan discovered the secret in his previous life; that preventing Song Lan's harm would ensure safety. But it turned out, even without Song Lan, this was destined.

So Commander Liu was the mastermind behind the scenes all along.

No wonder...

No wonder Song Lan could enter the core area, no wonder the brain science lab personnel handed the serum to Song Lan—none of this could have happened without Commander Liu's tacit approval. Perhaps Commander Liu and the man beside him had long decided to use Song Lan to control that powerful yet unruly army.

How horrifying...

Though it was a warm spring day, Bai Tu felt as if trapped in a deep freeze.

No wonder Commander Liu always said those words to him in his past life. So he was the carrot dangling before Huo Changfeng. All the suffering Huo Changfeng endured in the end was because of him. Bai Tu could have ended his own life long ago...

The pain from his wound spread to his chest, his heart gripped as if by a giant hand. Bai Tu clutched his chest, doubling over in pain so intense he could barely breathe. In his confusion, he must have bumped into something, because behind him, file folders came crashing down from the shelves.

The voices abruptly stopped. In the dead silence, the sound of a gun being cocked echoed like an explosion. Gasping for air, Bai Tu was overcome with a wave of nausea that made him retch. The noise gave away his position. A gunshot rang out, and a bullet whizzed toward him.

Blood sprayed from his upper arm. The pain jolted Bai Tu into a brief moment of clarity amidst the chaos. Gritting his teeth, he clutched his wounded arm and stumbled out from between the bookshelves.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Gunshots echoed through the room. Commander Liu's face was dark with fury. "Who's there?! Show yourself!"

No one answered. The gunfire ceased, and the lights in the room blazed on. A trail of blood snaked across the floor, stopping abruptly at one spot. Commander Liu looked up. The ventilation shaft above was humming, pumping in fresh air laced with a faint scent of blood.

The White-Haired Man walked over to him. "He got away?"

Commander Liu pressed his communicator. "Order a lockdown of the entire district. Especially check all exhaust and intake vents. Shoot to kill any suspicious person."

"Who could it be?" the White-Haired Man mused. Then he caught sight of something glinting faintly on the floor. He bent down and picked it up—a smooth, glistening blue-white pearl.

Commander Liu stared at the pearl for a long moment before pressing his communicator again. "Take them alive."

"We can't delay any longer. We'll proceed with my plan," he said. "Just make sure you have everything ready."