Chapter 293

He hurriedly rummaged through the duct fragments and miscellaneous debris scattered on the ground.

Soon, he found that biological chip on a twisted and deformed metal plate.

The surface of the chip was covered in filth, embedded very tightly.

He pried it with his dagger for a long time before he managed to get it off.

Lin Yu stuffed the chip into the hand that Xuanyuan Qing could still move.

Xuanyuan Qing's hand shook like a leaf in the autumn wind, barely able to hold the cold chip.

Relying on her last bit of blurred consciousness, she groped and pushed the chip into an inconspicuous groove next to the lock core.

"Click..."

With a soft sound, the chip seemed to be embedded.

She wanted to turn the circular lock core that looked dead heavy, but her body, having lost too much blood, couldn't muster any strength.

Her hand slipped and touched a square metal cover plate, also covered in rust, next to the lock core.

"Bang!"

The cover plate was accidentally pressed down!

"Hiss——!"

A harsh sound of airflow jetting out rang out!

An indescribable stench, mixed with the smell of formalin, rotting flesh, and pungent chemical agents, surged out wildly from the door gap!

Oh no! Emergency exhaust device!

Almost simultaneously, the scratching and roaring sounds from behind the door became violently wild!

As if completely enraged by this sudden airflow!

"Click!"

But in the midst of this chaos, the mechanical lock core, which Xuanyuan Qing had fumbled with, emitted a crisp, pleasant unlocking sound.

The door opened.

Lin Yu's pupils shrank, pulling Xuanyuan Qing back and raising his gun at the same time.

The thick, lead-gray metal door slid open silently, revealing a gap.

A stench that could knock a person out on the spot, mixed with strange mist, surged out.

The flashlight beam struggled to penetrate the mist, shining behind the door.

Several huge glass culture vats had shattered, and sticky, eerie green culture fluid flowed all over the floor.

Amidst the broken glass shards, several twisted "things" were slowly crawling out.

They roughly maintained a human shape, but their bodies were extremely bloated, their skin looking like it had been boiled and then re-glued, covered in festering sores oozing pus, and their bodies covered in constantly squirming, proliferating tumors and bone spurs.

Their limb joints were twisted and reversed at eerie angles, and every movement emitted a crisp "crack-crack" sound.

Their eyes were dead, turbid white, their mouths split to the roots of their ears, sticky saliva dripping from the corners of their mouths, and low, crazy roars coming from their throats.

A living hell.

"Roar——!"

One of the monsters closest to the door lunged at the gap! Its speed was unbelievably fast!

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Lin Yu pulled the trigger without hesitation, the bullets accurately drilling into the monster's body, exploding clusters of fishy pus.

But this thing couldn't feel pain at all! The bullets only made it stagger, then it lunged even more fiercely!

"Get in!" Lin Yu roared at Xuanyuan Qing, pushing her into the door.

He squeezed in sideways, grabbed the edge of the heavy door panel with his backhand, and used all his strength to pull the door shut just before the monster hit it!

"Clang——!"

With a loud bang, the heavy metal door closed completely.

A dull thud came from outside the door—the monster hitting the door, followed by the angry roars of the pursuers and chaotic footsteps.

Inside the door, it was temporarily safe.

Lin Yu leaned his back against the cold door, his chest heaving violently, the muzzle of his gun still emitting the heat of gunpowder smoke.

He scanned the inside of the door quickly, found a manual bolt as thick as a bowl, and slammed it down to lock it.

He turned around, his flashlight beam examining this so-called "biological experimental zone."

A mess.

Everywhere were overturned metal shelves, broken glassware, and flipped experimental tables.

Large patches of dark brown bloodstains were congealed on the ground, some places even turning black.

The walls were covered with scratch marks left by struggles, some even deep enough to reach the bone, deeply embedded in the metal walls.

The nauseating stench in the air was almost suffocating.

Here, a one-sided massacre had once taken place, or rather, an out-of-control feast.

Xuanyuan Qing leaned against the corner of the wall, having completely passed out.

Lin Yu's gaze swept over the chaotic room, finally stopping at a relatively intact experimental table not far away.

Scattered on the table were some burnt document fragments and broken culture dish remains.

The flashlight beam froze on the cover of an incomplete research report.

The title was somewhat blurred, but could still be identified: "Research on Rejection Reactions in Consciousness Uploading and Neural Network Fusion."

Next to the report was an empty, small culture vat base covered in dried stains.

On the edge of the base, a line of numbers was scribbled with an etching pen:

YA-000.

Number Zero?

Lin Yu's heart skipped a beat.

Xiao Ya was YA-001.

This meant that before her, there was... this?

Pressed next to the culture vat base was a tattered research report cover.

The edges of the paper were charred black, soaked by some liquid, and wrinkled.

The title could barely be recognized: "Research on Rejection Reactions in Consciousness Uploading and Neural Network Fusion."

"Zhou... Zhou Weihong..."

In the corner, Xuanyuan Qing's voice came through the gas mask, hoarse and distorted, but unusually certain.

She had woken up at some point and was struggling to raise her hand, pointing at the report.

"His... terminology... experiment... design..."

Lin Yu immediately brought those fragments closer.

Under the flashlight beam, between the burnt lines, there was indeed a familiar sense of madness and paranoia, exactly the same style as Zhou Weihong mentioned in Xu Jianhua's notes.

"Those things outside..." Lin Yu's throat felt dry, "are failed products."

Xuanyuan Qing didn't answer, just started coughing violently, coughing heart-rendingly, every time pulling at the wound on her broken arm, her body curling tighter.

Xiao Ya's previous warning rang in his ears—residual neuroinhibitor, potent hallucinogenic gas.

They couldn't stay here long.

Lin Yu forced himself to look away and continued searching.

In a twisted and deformed metal locker that had been smashed open, he found two other gas masks and some scattered medical supplies, most of which had expired.

In the deepest corner of the locker, there was a black, palm-sized encrypted hard drive.

The hard drive shell was cold and hard, with no markings, only a strange mark carved in one corner, abstract, a bit like a snake biting its own tail.

"This mark..." Xuanyuan Qing's voice rang out again, a bit urgent, "It's the same as the one on Xiao Ya's... shielding box..."

Lin Yu picked up the hard drive and tried to connect it to the interface of his arm-mounted computer.

The screen immediately popped up a long string of complex password verification prompts.

Couldn't break it.