Chapter 233

"Can you access the surveillance system in here to see what's happening below?"

"I'll try."

Kiki quickly operated her mobile terminal, and soon, the building's online surveillance system appeared on the screen.

"Everything below the 11th and 12th floors is offline." Kiki continuously switched between the surveillance views of various public areas: "There is indeed flooding appearing below."

"What about the other floors?" Lin Xian asked.

"There isn't a single person." Kiki shook her head.

"To be precise, there isn't a single living person, and I don't see any monsters either."

Lin Xian frowned: "That's strange. How did these people die?"

"They might have come up from the lowest floors; the surveillance can't see that." Hearing Shu Qin squatted down to look at the outer edge of the elevator and found some water stains, then immediately stood up and said: "There are two possibilities. Either these people died before the water rose—because the elevator's seal is relatively good, so no water got in—or there was something that killed the people from inside the elevator."

"Check the 7th floor. If there's no problem, we'll go there first." Lin Xian went straight for his goal; exploring other supplies and equipment was secondary.

"Mm."

Kiki immediately switched to the 7th floor and began to search: "This research institute is very large, and the area is divided into many types. Confidential research and internal core areas have a separate surveillance system controlled by an internal network. I can only view the public areas, but..."

As she spoke, her eyes suddenly lit up: "Hey, there really is one! A full-effect life surgical medical pod, inside a research lab. Wow, there are so many instruments in here, and they didn't take any of them away~"

Lin Xian walked up to take a look and was immediately shocked: "Sure enough."

"If it was an emergency evacuation, the order is usually core research data, high-level assets, mid-level assets, and then ordinary assets. Although the full-effect life surgical medical pod is expensive, for such a large organization, it can at most be considered a mid-level asset. It's normal that they didn't take it," Ding Junyi said.

"Then what about the researchers?" Hearing Shu Qin asked, puzzled.

Ding Junyi adjusted her glasses and said calmly: "Except for a very few high-level executives who can be considered high-level assets, the others all belong to the mid-level or below. Even some biological research specimens have higher priority in the evacuation sequence than personnel."

"Alright, let's not talk about this." Lin Xian drew his black gun and said to the group: "While the water hasn't risen yet, let's go to the 7th floor first to see if we can get that medical pod out, and then look for other things."

He immediately pressed the elevator button, and the five of them began to head underground.

Arriving at the seventh underground floor, as soon as the elevator opened, everyone smelled a very strong scent of disinfectant, even stronger than the smell in a hospital.

Lin Xian frowned and led the group, who were all on high alert, slowly out of the elevator. They discovered that this floor's space was extremely vast and even divided into many areas.

"Gene development area, tissue regeneration engineering area, cell culture, molecular genetics, biochemical area... This is even larger than the biological research institute in Underground City No. 9," Lin Xian said in a low voice.

Whoosh~

A current of air rushed through several corridors, and then the ground trembled slightly, causing a large amount of scattered research data to fly up.

Ding Junyi reached out to catch one, adjusted her glasses to examine it, and then said: "This institute's research on dark creatures is much deeper than the Federation's. The amount of data here is also massive, but I have some doubts..."

Lin Xian walked over, grabbed her arm, and led her forward.

"The water is rising below. Let's look as we walk. Let's find that full-effect life surgical medical pod first."

"Oh~"

The group walked quickly. Along the corridor were various research labs, most of which were very enclosed. Some of the institute's doors used radiation-proof lead doors, which made people look solemn.

Walking further, the expressions of Lin Xian and the others grew darker. Some large biochemical research labs appeared before their eyes. Inside the high-strength transparent partitions, there were a large number of bizarre human limbs, human-ghosts, zombies, and even some biological tissues that were completely unrecognizable.

It was clearly a bright, clean, and standard research room, yet it gave people a very bloody and eerie visual impact.

"It seems the conjoined twins we encountered in that Qingshui Town were their experimental products," Lin Xian said.

Ding Junyi was very surprised at this moment. She looked carefully at the scenery inside and said with a solemn expression: "When I was a Federation employee, the entire research system's study of dark creatures was still at an extremely primitive stage. Being able to perform human mutation modification and even limb fusion like this was simply impossible."

As they spoke, the group turned into a biological research area. The automatic door of the largest research lab was locked. Through the window, they could see a white medical pod placed in the center, which looked very much like some kind of human hibernation equipment. The thing was much larger than Lin Xian had imagined; at a glance, it was estimated to weigh at least a ton.

"This is it."

Lin Xian was delighted. He hadn't expected things to go so smoothly this time. When Hua Xiaoling had taken him to the underground research institute before, he had thought that this foundation might have such equipment. He had originally wanted to scan the blueprints under the guise of learning about it and then manufacture one himself on the train.

As it turned out, ever since he saw that death game, he realized that this foundation was a crazy organization, and he had no chance to come into contact with this thing at all.

Ssh~

Kiki quickly operated her mobile terminal, and the lab's access control was opened. Lin Xian rushed in directly and began to scan it with his Mechanical Heart.

Only after scanning would he know what the overall system of this full-effect life surgical medical pod was like. If the equipment was in good condition, he could dismantle it and take it back. Anyway, with the building and Kiki, it wouldn't be difficult to take this thing away, and he would save himself the trouble of manufacturing one.

"I might need about 30 minutes."

Lin Xian turned back to look at the group: "You guys search other areas. Be careful; there might be eerie entities here."

"Got it."

Kiki clapped her hands: "By the way, there are quite a few good things here. If you can't take them away, you can use them for devouring, right?"

Lin Xian nodded: "That's what I was thinking, but the premise is that there's no trouble here. Now that the lake water is back-flowing, we can only take what we can while ensuring our safety."

"Then we have to go to other floors." Kiki held her mobile terminal and frowned: "Look, the 5th floor has a specialized armed equipment area, and there's also the 9th floor we visited before. That seems to be the core floor; it has such a large research hall, maybe there are a lot of good things there."

Lin Xian knew that this little girl Kiki was obsessed with getting a mecha back, so he said to Hearing Shu Qin and Dalou: "How about this, the three of you go together to the 9th floor first. Director Ding will stay here. Let's not spread out too much. If it's confirmed in about 30 minutes that this full-effect life surgical medical pod is fine, we'll take it back first. Let's not lose the watermelon while picking up sesame seeds."

"You're being too cautious now." Kiki squinted and smiled: "I didn't see a single monster on the surveillance. I reckon even if there are any, they're in the water on the lower levels."

Lin Xian glared at her directly: "Go quickly, stop nagging, and be careful."

Regarding searching for supplies, Lin Xian now had a very clear principle: the main goal must be secured first, and then the secondary ones can be solved. There are too many variables when going deep into unknown areas, and greed often leads to big trouble.

This full-effect life surgical medical pod was something Lin Xian had been longing for for a long time. Before, he had to rely on bandages to tough out all his major and minor injuries. Fortunately, except for that one time with Kiki, there hadn't been any severely injured personnel in the team, but this problem had always hung over Lin Xian's head.

He knew that many train personnel being injured, besides having to consider the problem of dark invasion, also caused a huge burden on the train's operations and medical treatment. This was no small problem.

If he got this thing on the train, then Chen Laoshi and Miao Lu wouldn't have to be so busy running around bandaging the wounded. "Got it, you be careful too~"

Lin Xian nodded. Seeing the three of them preparing to leave, he suddenly called out to Dalou.

"Dalou."

"Eh, Brother Xian, what's up?" Dalou turned back and asked.

Lin Xian said: "The 9th floor should have Hua Xiaoling's office. Go in and look for it later to see if there's any tea to bring back for Brother Huo."

"Oh, got it." Dalou nodded.

After the three left, Lin Xian began to focus on releasing his Mechanical Heart to start scanning.

【Scanning target, progress 15%】

Ding Junyi, who remained here, began to get busy. She was silent at this moment, her face carrying a hint of solemnity, as she continuously picked up some research data scattered on the ground to read.

She seemed interested in everything scattered in the hall, the corridor, and even what had entered the shredder.

Before long, she had already piled up a large stack of various materials, and at the same time, her expression grew increasingly somber.

!

Lin Xian looked at Ding Junyi's expression and also sensed something. Director Ding rarely showed overly exaggerated expressions; even when facing zombies and eerie entities surrounding the train, she could maintain a calm demeanor. The somberness on her face now was completely different from before.

"What's wrong, Director Ding? Did you discover something?"

Lin Xian saw her walking back and forth, so he asked.

He had brought Ding Junyi here for this purpose, because Lin Xian had suspected that the station's marker bait might have been Hua Xiaoling's handiwork, so he wanted to come to this institute to investigate and see if the foundation had been conducting research in this area.

Ding Junyi didn't speak. The speed at which she flipped through the materials in her hands became faster and faster. Her chest heaved, her eyes flickered, and after a long time, she looked at Lin Xian with astonishment.

"It's very strange. I'm not surprised that they used living people for experimental projects, but why was the GH tumor cell catalysis project carried out 10 years ago?"

Lin Xian was confused: "What do you mean?"

"GH tumor cells are a type of common human tissue extracted by the Federation from human-ghosts and ability users after the Apocalypse. It is one of the research directions that various parties are currently pursuing regarding biological tissue mutation under dark invasion. When our laboratory conducts dark night experiments, we use a specific method to perform dark catalysis on living experimental subjects to obtain verification data. But the problem is..."

Ding Junyi held up a scrap of paper in her hand: "This report mentioning GH tumor cells comes from the year 2059."

Lin Xian's gaze sharpened: "You mean to say that the foundation started dark night research 10 years ago?"

Ding Junyi shook her head: "I cannot be certain of this." She looked at the data in her hand that had been shredded and pieced together, her eyes filled with shock from her rational cognition.

"I can't see the full picture of this data; perhaps it's just a clerical error in the date..."

Lin Xian felt a huge shock in his heart at this moment.

A clerical error in the date? Perhaps.

But Ding Junyi had also mentioned that many projects in this institute were very advanced, even deeper than those of the Federation and the Phoenix Society, which inevitably made people feel suspicious.

How could a foundation organization be stronger in scientific research power than the salvation organization that currently gathers the last of the world's surviving nations?

It was simply inconceivable.

But the appearance of that marker bait made Lin Xian incredibly suspicious. If one thought along these lines, could there be someone in this world who knew about the arrival of the Apocalypse in advance?

Thinking of this, Lin Xian only felt a chill down his spine. He raised his head, and his gaze met Ding Junyi's.

They both saw a trace of disbelief in each other's eyes.

He knew that Ding Junyi was also trying to use emotion to suppress her rationality at this moment, although she didn't have much of an emotional gene...

"One thing can be confirmed."

Ding Junyi adjusted her glasses and looked at the biochemical research layer she was in, saying: "This foundation's scientific research power is no worse than the Federation's or the Phoenix Society's, or perhaps they chose the correct research direction very accurately from the beginning and invested all their funds into it."

Lin Xian looked at her: "Do you believe what you just said?"

Although Lin Xian only had the level of a college student and certainly couldn't compare to Ding Junyi in terms of knowledge, he also knew that no scientific research is correct from the start. From theory to experiment, from experiment to application, which one didn't come from hitting walls on thousands of paths?

The development of modern science has reached its boundary. A newborn human learning knowledge from 0 to 1 takes at least 40 years. Occasionally, a genius is born who will push this boundary out a little, but the remaining 99% of researchers are constantly searching for truth in countless experiments.

There are only two possibilities for identifying a research direction and investing a large amount of capital from the beginning.

A gambler or a cheater.

Ding Junyi didn't answer his question. She lowered her head to look at the research data in her hand and said: "I have to take these back. Oh, and these..."

As she spoke, she began to frantically pick up various materials scattered on the ground, separating potentially useful information from them, and then carefully collecting them.

【Scanning successful, obtained Weichuang No. 1 Full-Effect Life Surgical Medical Pod (Blueprint)】

【Body scan successful, no malfunctions discovered.】

Lin Xian saw the light screen before him, turned his attention back, and let out a small sigh of relief.

He pressed his communicator: "Kiki, Dalou, Hearing Shu Qin, I'm done here. How is the situation on your end?"

"Lin Xian!"

At this moment, Kiki's urgent cry came through the communicator: "Quick! Come to the 9th floor!"

"We found something good!"

(End of chapter)