Chapter 454: New Mission
Yang Yixie replayed Fang Zhiyan's actions in his mind, roughly figuring out the reason.
Go back and rest first.
Yang Yixie liked to use and discard; after figuring out the ins and outs, he decided to send Luo Jinyou back as a backup.
Luo Jinyou didn't move. "You have to tell me who your enemy is now."
Ying Duo's golden eyes held no emotion, his voice still calm and flat.
"You should ask: who isn't my enemy?"
He pulled his leg out of Play Life's embrace, "We're now in a state where the whole world is our enemy; you can still be a good kid by staying honest, stay in the circle Fang Zhiyan drew for you and don't come out—no one will touch you."
Luo Jinyou looked at Ying Duo, his voice low, low enough to be meant only for Ying Duo to hear.
"You need to kill aberrant species to get stronger, right?"
Ying Duo nodded slowly.
Luo Jinyou unconsciously clenched his fists, as if cheering himself up.
"If I say," his voice trembling, "I have a way to let you kill Bai Mu Yun?"
This was probably the first time a greenhorn youth had said something like that.
Although the target was an aberrant species he hated deeply, Bai Mu Yun's appearance differed little from an ordinary person's.
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The next morning, Ying Duo showed up on time at Fang Zhiyan's lab door.
As he entered, Fang Zhiyan was standing at the workbench holding a test tube; hearing the footsteps, he didn't look up and said, "Here?"
Ying Duo grunted, walked in, and the door shut automatically behind him.
Fang Zhiyan seemed to have prepared in advance; the table was covered with various equipment, and on the workbench lay a corpse covered with a white cloth, vaguely revealing a human shape.
Fang Zhiyan put the test tube back on the rack and jerked his chin at the corpse.
"Today I'll teach you dissection. Considering you'd like the course to move faster, I specially picked this specimen."
Ying Duo walked to the workbench and lowered his head to look at the white-clothed corpse.
Though humanoid, it was a size larger than normal, its limbs out of proportion, with overly long arms.
He lifted the white cloth to reveal a half-aberrant species corpse; its skull had been pierced by a gunshot, likely hitting the aberrant core and killing it outright.
Yang Yixie promptly activated scouting, gaining a rough idea of the corpse's condition through text.
This corpse was specially sought out by Fang Zhiyan from the lab; he happened to be at the borderline between human and aberrant species, but unfortunately, he lacked the luck others had to become a self-aware aberrant and survive.
Fang Zhiyan took a set of surgical tools from the shelf and laid them out in a row on the workbench.
"Let's begin," he said, "start with the chest cavity."
He instructed Ying Duo to pick up the scalpel, place the tip at the edge of the aberrant's chest wound, and cut downward along the existing incision.
The feel was wonderful; although Yang Yixie saw a rough pixelated image, the sensation in his fingers was real.
He could feel the blade cutting skin, passing through fat, meeting resistance from the ribs.
A game popup kept flashing in the upper right of his vision, naming each organ, its function, mutation degree, and its role in the aberrant's internal energy circulation.
He recorded these details one by one, missing nothing.
As a teacher, Fang Zhiyan was quite competent; at least when instructing Ying Duo in anatomy, he was meticulous.
Even the slightest mistake would be pointed out immediately, with precise correction given.
"You're learning fast."
Fang Zhiyan's voice came from behind Ying Duo, still unhurried but with a slightly rising tail, probably showing satisfaction with the pace of learning.
"That's enough for today; come with me later."
Ying Duo's earlier antics had given Fang Zhiyan some new ideas.
Now Yang Yixie was using his hand to strive for strength; Fang Zhiyan was also pleased to see this, understanding Yang Yixie's sense of crisis, yet regretting that Yang Yixie couldn't fully trust him.
However, his preparations here were also nearly complete.
Fang Zhiyan glanced at the communicator; the Dome's people had no time to mourn the entropy increase incident, as frequent aberrant uprisings erupted near multiple cities within its jurisdiction.
The Field Operations Department staff were all busy suppressing aberrant species, likely having no spare time to chase after the fleeing undead.
"What for?" Ying Duo asked expressionlessly.
"Go to Windsor House; you should have met Mei Wei Si on the airship, right?"
Ying Duo nodded at the words; his impression of Mei Wei Si was quite deep, after all, she was also on his target list.
As for the Mutation Department Head's travels, Fang Zhiyan still had some clout.
Ying Duo didn't even need to disguise himself specially; just following Fang Zhiyan into the car brought him straight to the front of Windsor House's estate.
Although Ying Duo was a notorious name on the Dome's wanted list, everyone around chose to turn a blind eye.
"Mr. Fang," an attendant stepped forward as soon as they entered, voice respectful, "Miss is already waiting inside for you."
Fang Zhiyan nodded, leading Ying Duo down a short hallway whose walls bore several oil paintings.
At the hallway's end stood a dark wooden door; Fang Zhiyan pushed it open to see a tea set on the table, the pot's spout still steaming, likely just brewed.
Beside the round table sat a person with neatly combed long hair, wearing a simple deep purple dress more like loungewear than elaborate attire.
Seeing the two enter, Mei Wei Si greeted them elegantly.
"Long time no see, Chief."
"You still know how to enjoy yourself; how did the tasks I entrusted to you turn out?"
Fang Zhiyan glanced at the tea set on the table, chuckled lightly, and, practiced, lifted a cup of tea at the perfect temperature and took a sip.
"I knew the Chief, busy as he is, making time to see me wouldn't be just for tea."
Mei Wei Si let out a soft sigh, lifted her eyes to meet Fang Zhiyan's dark red pupils, her heart tightening.
"Things are mostly ready, though it was originally supposed to be Lu Mu and I handling that, but since that little crow hasn't returned, we can only put it on hold for now."
She put down the teacup in her hand and immediately got to the point.
"Then let Bai Mu Yun go over to help for now."
Fang Zhiyan said lightly, "Anyway, he hasn't been busy lately, Lu Mu was previously under his guidance for a period, and this mission will have Bai Mu Yun go with you."
Speaking, he glanced at Ying Duo, who was holding a teacup and drinking tea, not just eating and taking away snacks.
"If needed, he can also go over to help."
End of Chapter