Chapter 417

In the following days, Ying Duo simply made the training room his home.

As Fang Zhiyan said, this training room belongs exclusively to the Mutation Department, and everyone who knows the situation knows that no one has come to disturb him during this period.

Yang Yixie's main point was that, since his body was already somewhat inhuman, if he couldn't be killed by torment, he should seize all his time to grasp the current situation.

He would occasionally leave for a while, but basically it was just to exchange information with Hua Jian Lei; Yang Yichen sent him several messages midway, but he brushed them off by claiming that classmates hated to lose him.

As for whether Yang Yichen believed it or not, that wasn't something he needed to consider.

Yang Yixie had already done everything he could in the limited time; next up was preparing for the upcoming fashion show.

But before that, Yang Yixie planned to first swing by that so-called senior brother's place and bring back a batch of weapon blueprints.

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Xing Ke filled in the last row of data on the table, watching the oscillating waveform on the screen finally become regular and trend toward stability.

Only then did he retain the data, rubbing his swollen, sore eyes, and finally brought himself to look away from the screen.

If one were to ask what he learned from Fang Zhiyan, it would be eating and living in the lab, completely treating the lab as home—certainly that counts.

The dark circles are from years of staying up; once they formed, they never faded.

Now two patches of grayish‑blue make him look ten years older than his actual age, his hair is utterly messy, with dark brown strands sticking up here and there.

He certainly knew that Fang Zhiyan had transferred a batch of firearms from the Weapon R&D Department, but when Fang Zhiyan wanted something, he never dared to stop him.

It wasn't that he didn't want to; stopping him would have been useless.

Back when he used to follow that person, he already understood this principle: whatever Fang Zhiyan wanted would eventually end up in his hands, so rather than wait for him to come take it personally, it was better to proactively send it over to seek peace.

As for that cheap junior of his who seemed to have popped out of some corner...

He rose from his chair, stretched his body, walked to the washbasin and turned on the tap; the chill of the cold water crept up from his fingertips.

He cupped some water and splashed it on his face; droplets ran down his chin and dripped onto his collar. He closed his eyes, skillfully reached for the nearby towel, buried his face in it, and rubbed vigorously twice.

Fang Zhiyan's new student—rumored to be not very old—was promoted to deputy head of the Mutation Department as soon as he entered it.

Xing Ke was all too aware of what Fang Zhiyan's "student" meant; in Fang Zhiyan's presence, your time, energy, and intellect were all his experimental material.

The towel's soft texture almost made him want to just lean against the wall and nap a bit.

He heard the lab door slide open; his subordinates would occasionally come to deliver reports, and Xing Ke was used to it.

"Just put it on the table." He didn't turn back, his voice muffled by the towel and somewhat indistinct.

He rubbed his face with the towel two more times, then hung it back on the hook; as he turned, he still didn't forget to mentally light a stick of incense for the cheap junior he'd never met.

Go well, don't struggle—struggling is useless.

And sleeping was out of the question; after days of research he'd finally made new progress, so of course he had to keep going.

As soon as he turned around, he felt his eyes might have gone wrong.

When did the lab start keeping aberrant plants?

No, the Weapon R&D Department's lab fundamentally doesn't allow aberrant plants; even samples sent from the Mutation Department must be stored separately—this is his own rule.

Xing Ke's mind was a bit slow on the uptake; he almost thought the research institute that had just visited had brought over a potted aberrant plant from somewhere.

That "plant" twitched.

Xing Ke began to suspect he'd hallucinated from staying up too late; he took a few steps forward, and then he could clearly see the silhouette behind his workstation.

Not tall, with a head of Ying Guang Lu‑colored disheveled hair, his fingers tapped the keyboard a few times and switched the on‑screen display.

That was the internal database of the Weapon R&D Department, a permission‑verification interface, displaying the words "Xing Ke‑Weapon Research Department Chief".

Ying Duo's fingers slid across the workstation screen, skipping over folder after folder; the file names flashed briefly in his golden pupils.

It wasn't a hallucination, but a living person.

A living person stood in his lab, using his workstation, viewing his files.

Wait, how did this person get in?

Has the Dome's security really sunk to this level?

Moreover, to open the database with his clearance and view files, a password should be required—how exactly did this person manage to open it?

Ke's brain finally caught up; he took a step forward, and the floor beneath his foot emitted a faint sound.

Ying Duo turned his head; the two roughly locked eyes for a second or two.

Ying Duo's face showed little expression; his golden pupils gleamed brightly in the light, his fingers still resting on the keyboard.

Xing Ke saw the file list flipped another page by him—that was the Weapon R&D Department's core database, holding the design blueprints for all new firearms developed over the past three years.

That was something only his clearance could open.

"How did you get in?"

Xing Ke's voice turned cold; he took two steps toward the workstation, hands at his sides, actually slipping his hand quietly toward the hidden compartment beneath the workstation.

Just how did this person manage to do that?

He not only evaded the Field Operations Department's security personnel, but in just a minute or two he forcibly used that clearance to breach the Weapon R&D Department's confidential file vault.

What means did he actually use?

Rune intrusion? Energy disguise?

That person finally deigned to turn his head; the youth's face was very pale, his eyes golden, his pupils reflecting the dense list of files.

He looked at Xing Ke, saying nothing.

Yet Xing Ke saw his finger tap the screen again; it seemed he was merely skimming through all the blueprints at high speed, not even taking out a tool to carry the data away.

Xing Ke's eyelid twitched for no reason.

"Fang Zhiyan said our research directions overlap a lot, so he let me come over to grab some of your blueprints, saying that out of respect for him you wouldn't be stingy."

Ying Duo repeated Fang Zhiyan's words roughly, expressionless, and only then did Xing Ke realize the youth's identity.

This person is Fang Zhiyan's newly accepted student?

Xing Ke furrowed his brow, realizing something was off.

"How did you get in? By rights, even if you have the Mutation Department deputy director's authorization, you also shouldn't be able to freely come and go in my lab."

"Just walked right in."

Ying Duo answered offhand, he used 【Transmission】 according to the address given by Fang Zhiyan to locate Xing Ke's lab, then he only needed to initially use a bit of the 【Transmission】 ability, letting the energy that invaded the gate's rune lock just walk in.