Chapter 155: Laboratory
Steel Council Headquarters, northwest corner, Experimental High Tower.
The hexagonal walls on the surface of the tower gleamed with a pearl sheen in the night, like they were covered with a special film that flickered with different colors depending on the viewing angle.
The high tower stood out like a crane among chickens amidst the surrounding buildings eroded by acid rain.
This was the Steel Council’s most valuable building, occupying sixty percent of the pre-apocalypse liquid funds.
Its core was the general energy surveillance device at the top of the tower, while the base of the tower was the Steel Council’s evolver research laboratory.
An intense argument was taking place in the top-floor meeting room.
“You have no right to terminate my experiment. Get Li Wangchuan over here. He personally guaranteed it to me back then!”
The laboratory director, an old man with gray hair but meticulously groomed, stood in the room, pointing angrily at the director members behind several bodyguards as he spoke.
The bodyguards completely ignored the director, quickly counting and loading general energy crystals, their movements tinged with anxiety.
The director who was cursed stared fixedly out the window, lighting one cigarette after another in his mouth.
Hearing the director’s words, he immediately became like a provoked mane dog, cursing, “Don’t mention that idiot Li Wangchuan to me! If it weren’t for him, how could things have come to this?! Now we don’t even know where he’s dead, it’s over, the entire Steel Council is finished! If I hadn’t run fast enough, I’d have been gnawed by the zombie tide by now!”
The director was stunned for a moment, “What do you mean it’s over? Zombie tide?”
He had only just been notified by a subordinate during his experiment that a director had used permissions to enter and loot a large amount of supplies, even planning to take research personnel away. He thought it was another internal power struggle, which was why he had stormed up to stop it.
But this situation didn’t seem right.
After venting, the director calmed down and roughly explained what had happened.
The ups and downs of the situation left the director dumbfounded.
The originally smooth New City Plan had suddenly been sabotaged, a super inducer wiping out tens of thousands at once, over a dozen directors dead leaving only two or three, and now the enemy was leading a million-strong zombie tide toward the Steel Council.
Even though he had experienced many storms, he was somewhat at a loss facing this situation.
Half-completed research, a great situation… all gone?
A piercing alarm suddenly sounded inside the high tower. The director jumped like a startled bird and hurried outside, “Director Xu, I know you have an armed force protecting the laboratory, but don’t think you can hold the headquarters with just those people. A million zombie tide is something no human force at this stage can oppose.”
“In three minutes, I’ll evacuate. If you don’t want to leave, don’t block me. No one will survive then!”
Several bodyguards carried the safe and followed him out, leaving Director Xu alone standing silently in the room, the warning red light casting an uncertain pallor on his face.
A subordinate rushed in hurriedly, face filled with panic, “Director, we just detected high-intensity general energy reactions ten kilometers away. The number of reaction sources exceeds one hundred thousand, and the strongest reaction source has reached Tier 2!”
Director Xu took a deep breath, “First load all important data and equipment onto the vehicles, then take away all important experimental subjects including gene potions, general energy crystals, and gene primordium.”
The subordinate’s eyes flickered, but he didn’t ask more and immediately went down to handle it.
……
The evacuation news had only circulated at the level of directors and the person in charge, but when senior research personnel hurriedly took their families and evacuated, it still alarmed others.
The news of the zombie tide’s approach spread layer by layer.
Lights suddenly came on in the Steel Council’s family area late at night.
A series of footsteps woke Han Qin, who had been sleeping poorly these past two days. She quietly opened her eyes, carefully glanced at the bedroom to confirm everyone was asleep, then padded barefoot across the ground toward the balcony.
She went around the easel on the balcony and looked downstairs.
A team of armed personnel rushed in hurriedly. Han Qin’s eyes held expectation as she carefully scanned each face, but she didn’t see the person she hoped for.
Her heart suddenly felt empty.
Back then, her husband had left at this time and never returned. The company’s statement was that he was temporarily missing.
She had pulled many strings but couldn’t find out anything. After a few days, security personnel started appearing at her door.
They began restricting her movements.
“Mom.”
A childish call came from behind her. The child’s voice was bright and clear, extremely loud in the silent room.
Han Qin was startled and turned around to see a small shadow standing behind her. It was her eight-year-old son.
She hurried over and asked gently, “Haohao, why are you up?”
“Is Dad back?”
The woman’s heart ached, and she hugged her son, comforting him softly.
After a while, Han Qin suddenly sensed something wrong. Why were the footsteps outside the window becoming more frequent?
Holding the child, she went to the balcony and immediately noticed something was off.
Even if there was a late-night muster in the past, it was always armed personnel or important research personnel. Who would muster women and children in the middle of the night?
Han Qin opened the door and cautiously looked out. Seeing no usual surveillance personnel, a flash of determination crossed her eyes.
“Little one, wake up your sister and get dressed quickly.”
“Mom, what are we doing?”
“We’re going to find Dad!”
……
Experimental High Tower basement level.
In a transparent room, Zhang Min, wearing a simple set of underwear, slowly woke up.
The constant warm lighting remained on as always, whether they were drinking water, sleeping, or using the toilet; the lights never dimmed even slightly.
There were no personal belongings in the room. Meals were delivered twice a day by fixed personnel, but thanks to her internal identity, her meals included two extra pieces of greasy luncheon meat compared to others.
Besides that, the daily ability test was the part she looked forward to most.
She was the 46th experimental subject in Evolution Path 0135 experiment and the only one who survived, enduring all stages of ability awakening.
She finally successfully promoted to Tier 1 evolver in the manipulator domain.
“Seed of Hatred” = lv3 “Negative Emotion Control” + lv2 “Emotion Perception” + lv1 “Hate Seed”
This was a brand-new ability, so the research personnel discussed it for many days from experiment to naming.
At first, they thought that to trigger this profession, the evolver had to experience extreme betrayal, abuse, or mental breakdown, but later they found that as long as the evolver had sufficient hatred, it was enough.
Just like that lv1 “Hate Seed”; that was the core of the entire profession.
The evolver had to plant a “Hate Seed” in their own heart, then absorb various negative emotions to cultivate this seed, letting it take root and sprout.
Then the hate seed would continuously feedback strength to the user.
As the saying goes, the greater the hatred, the greater the ability.
Zhang Min relied on her deep-seated hatred for the train conductor to successfully activate this obscure ability.
The research personnel who had previously been extremely cold to her now avoided her, fearing they might do something wrong and be hated by this woman.
In reality, their worries were somewhat excessive; Zhang Min’s condition had always been very stable.
No matter what experiment, even those with harmful or insulting elements, none caused much emotional fluctuation in her.
Because her hatred for the train conductor was too intense, it was hard for others to rank in her heart.
Moreover, this ability had a psychological suggestion-like effect. Now, even in her dreams, Zhang Min looked forward to the day she would reunite with the train conductor.
By then, she believed she would definitely have reached the Steel Council’s upper echelons, while no matter how hard Su Huan tried, the train’s capacity limit was there—managing two thousand people would be the max. She didn’t believe a force of over a hundred thousand couldn’t crush one of two or three thousand.
So how should she torment the train conductor then?
Simple physical punishments wouldn’t last; she should add a bit of mental torture, like letting him at his happiest moment…
Thinking of a good method, Zhang Min extended her fair left arm and slowly tore open a bit of skin with her fingernail, the bright red blood reflecting the woman’s bewitching smile.
This was her favorite daily fantasy time.
It even surpassed the ability tests where she could observe her own progress.
She covered the wound on her arm. Though there was no clock, Zhang Min’s routine was as precise as if timed with a stopwatch.
But after ten minutes passed, no research personnel came outside to observe her.
Zhang Min frowned.
Still sitting in place without moving, three minutes later, hurried footsteps came from outside the door. The male researcher who had brought her in said, “Your experiment is over. You can come out. Your next task is to follow me and do whatever I tell you, got it?”
The man pretended to be calm, trying to act as if nothing was different from usual.
But Zhang Min clearly sensed the panic and fear in his heart.
Was he afraid of her?
It had happened before, but the fluctuation wasn’t this intense.
Zhang Min followed him out quietly with a hint of doubt.
The man didn’t take her to any laboratory but to a simple changing room. They changed clothes in one minute, then headed to the top of the tower.
Suddenly, sounds of running and wheels rolling on the ground came from behind.
Looking back, several researchers were pushing a box with only partial transparent windows toward the elevator under the protection of security personnel.
These people’s hearts were filled with more fear than the last.
But inside the box, it was calm.
The man quickly led her to follow. The elevator rose rapidly, and she finally glimpsed the mercury-like long hair in the box.
The moment the elevator doors opened, various chaotic alarms and the sounds of people shouting and running flooded her ears. Having been in silence for so long, Zhang Min felt a sense of being in another world.
Outside the door was a heavy-duty truck, with security personnel wearing tactical vests and holding firearms patrolling tensely around it.
Various research personnel were packing items onto vehicles.
A group escorted the gray-haired Director Xu inside. Seeing Zhang Min in casual clothes, he frowned and turned to the man beside him, “Why did you bring her up?”
The man said lowly, “I thought since she’s a Tier 1 evolver and one of Li’s own people who led her in, she could help.”
Director Xu glanced at Zhang Min and, seeing nothing unusual, asked, “Are the things all loaded?”
“Everything has been arranged.”
“Get in the vehicles.”
The two hurried out, but were stopped by security personnel at the door.
The other side growled hoarsely, “No sounds when we go out later, no lights! No matter what happens, understand?!”
The man nodded repeatedly.
But Zhang Min seemed to notice something and instinctively looked toward the sky outside.
It was pitch black; nothing was visible.
But the moment they stepped out, the fierce wing-flapping sounds in the sky and faint corpse roars from the distance instantly changed everyone’s faces dramatically.
Security personnel pressed their heads down and hurried forward bent at the waist.
Zhang Min glanced around: three heavy trucks outside in total, six or seven personnel carriers, and two modified vehicles specifically for clearing the road.
At that moment, a fierce gust swept down from the sky.
Two security personnel leaning against a vehicle swung short sticks, smashing fiercely at the black shadow.
The sound of bones breaking and tendons snapping rang out.
The mutated bird or beast didn’t even have time to cry out before two defenders beat it to death with clubs, then sprayed deodorant on the corpse and tossed it into the nearby bushes. From their familiar movements, it was clearly not the first time.
The two boarded a personnel carrier, surrounded by research personnel.
Some looked surprised upon seeing Zhang Min.
But no one spoke; everyone sat in silence in the carriage, waiting.
After about five minutes, the vehicles started, and Zhang Min felt everyone in their hearts breathe a sigh of relief.
Less than a minute later, a huge bang came from outside the vehicle. The vehicle flipped over, and gunshots erupted outside.
“Quick, open the car door! The zombie tide is coming!”
The man beside her shouted loudly.
“Zombie tide? Can those stupid zombie things threaten the Steel Council?”
Zhang Min deliberately ignored the commanding tone in the man’s voice and crawled out of the car door in confusion.
A violent blast wave swept over, and the distant scene made her pupils shrink sharply.
Searchlight beams tore through the night curtain, illuminating the terrifying waves of the surging zombie tide stacking upon each other, arduously climbing over the ten-meter-high walls poured from buildings by the Steel Council, pouring into the heavy industrial zone like dumplings.
Tracer rounds led firearms and cannonballs weaving a web of death in the night sky. High-explosive round blast waves hurled dozens of zombie bodies into the air, scarlet flesh chunks carbonizing into scattered black snow in the firelight.
The crowd screamed and began fleeing, searchlights extinguishing one by one from south to north.
At this moment, the apocalypse descended indifferently on everyone’s heads.
The gunfire beside her brought Zhang Min back to her senses. Several Tier 1 mutated birds and beasts that had flipped the personnel carrier were entangled in combat with evolver soldiers.
But these soldiers were all ordinary evolvers.
Only the captain was Tier 1. Two fists couldn’t beat four hands; he was torn in half.
Before dying, he detonated a grenade, injuring one Tier 1 mutated bird or beast. Under concentrated fire, they barely killed one.
But this didn’t ease the situation. As Zhang Min pondered the state of affairs, the man yelled furiously from behind the carriage, “What are you standing around for? Quick, pull me out!”
Zhang Min’s eyes flickered. She went forward and pulled the man out, asking, “Where are we going next?”
The man paused, hesitating, “A train has been arranged at the north freight platform, loaded with a large amount of supplies. Without me, you can’t get on.”
Zhang Min responded noncommittally.
The man poked his head out to check the battlefield situation, gritted his teeth, and said, “We can’t count on these people. If you get me safely to the vehicle, there’ll definitely be benefits for you.”
But Zhang Min inexplicably thought of the silver-haired girl, “Aren’t we bringing that girl over?”
The man hesitated for a moment, “She’s in the truck that flipped further ahead. Go get her, and we’ll take the middle truck over.”
Zhang Min nimbly bypassed several small battlefields and arrived beside the overturned truck at the very front.
Because the turn was too sharp, the truck’s front was twisted beyond recognition, blood still dripping from the driver’s cabin.
But the carriage had maintained good integrity.
Zhang Min frowned and pried the deformed wrench. Luckily, she was an evolver now; otherwise, she couldn’t even open the car door.
Looking into the pitch-black carriage, Zhang Min couldn’t figure out why she was saving this girl.
“Whatever, consider it me being kind today.”
A flash of irritation crossed her eyes as Zhang Min searched inside.
She quickly found the large box containing the girl.
She didn’t know what material it was made of, but after such a violent crash, the box was unscathed, just pinned under heavy objects.
Zhang Min yanked open the box. The girl in a white dress sat hugging her knees inside, draped in a black jacket.
Silver long hair draped over her shoulders, strands flowing with faint cold light, like an ice sculpture carved by moonlight, so ethereal it almost blended with the darkness.
Hearing the sound, the girl lifted her pale gray eyes and looked at her quietly.
Even as a woman herself, the moment she saw the girl, Zhang Min wanted to curse. This beauty was really over the top!
This feeling wasn’t just from appearance.
It was like an instinctive attraction, something even more compelling than temperament.
If she had this level of looks before, maybe that bastard Su Huan wouldn’t have kicked her off the train.
(Lin Xi – Dress Version)
(Lin Xi – Casual Clothes Version)
