Chapter 312: Mengde

It's over.

The lion's head naturally dissipated; Li Cheng stepped forward quickly, glanced, and saw that the wing-membrane demon wasn't just damaged—it had been reduced to ashes.

The lion's roar had directly eroded a two-and-a-half-meter-diameter depression into the alloy floor; at the bottom lay a layer of dark red human-shaped shadows—the demon's fragmented flesh had fused directly with the metal.

Without a word, Li Cheng took two large barrels of strong acid from the warehouse and poured them all into the depression, to prevent the demon's flesh from regenerating.

Hss—

Thick fog rose from the acid; only then did Li Cheng turn around to look at Fu Ding Hualong and praise: "You think fast—excellent work, making the demon's soul spin."

"I was just gambling."

Fu Ding Hualong, pale from excessive blood loss, lay on the ground and barely managed to force out a faint smile: "Lucky I won."

From earlier interactions, the demon understood human speech, so when Fu Ding Hualong shouted just now, he deliberately gave the wrong time—

He reported the three minutes needed to fully complete the lion king's portrait as four minutes, successfully tricking the wing-membrane demon.

"Stop talking so much."

Zhao Zijing panted heavily, used telekinesis to suture the vertically severed artery on Fu Ding Hualong's arm, then shouted to the others: "Are you all still alive?"

"I'm fine."

A weak voice came from the corner: the Bai Jixiong, whose massive earth element form—once two stories tall—was now only one and a half meters high; if he reverted to human form, all his injuries would kill him instantly, so he had to maintain the earth element transformation.

"Cough, cough—I'm still alive."

Father Andre coughed violently; the 【Saint George's Shroud】 could only ensure he didn't die—it wouldn't heal his wounds.

Thus, Andre's skin still showed charred black from electric arcs, turning him from a white man into a black man.

Among the rest, Camus was confirmed dead; Dorian Gray had lost consciousness and exhaled more than he inhaled; Zhao Zijing poured a bottle of magic potion into his mouth—that was as much as he could do.

Hum!

With the demon's death, the building no longer drained power; the lights gradually brightened, ventilation and other systems began operating, emitting a steady hum.

The elevator rose from below; a crab-shaped robot stepped out of the cabin and projected a 3D image of Dr. Noah.

"You killed that monster? I knew you could do it."

Dr. Noah's tone was relieved, yet his expression remained unchanged: "There's still one final monster left in Gao Ta. Kill it, and you can activate the spatial jump engine to reach the new world."

"And you can complete your mission and return to Earth."

"Don't talk about useless things yet."

Li Cheng interrupted: "Where are you? We can't trust your word until we see your real self."

"Real" means a real human—don't try to fool us with photos of Zhang Sanfeng, Qiu Chuji, or Zhang Daoling.

Since entering Gao Ta, Dr. Noah had always hidden behind the scenes, using emergency reasons to drive players to hunt mutated monsters.

Even though the demon is now dead, before dying, it gave information directly contradicting Dr. Noah's—Gao Ta itself does not slow collapse; it accelerates it.

"."

Dr. Noah fell silent for a moment, then said calmly: "I've read the floor gravity sensor data from Gao Ta—we've already met in the embryo cryo-chamber. I am one of the frozen meats."

Baiji Bear scrambled up from the ground on instinct, bewildered: "Wait, you're already dead?"

The Bai Jixiong instinctively scrambled to his feet, stunned: "Wait—you're already dead?"

Noah said calmly: "About two years ago, I was infected with a mutant pathogen by an aberrant that had infiltrated Gao Ta. To avoid dying as a monster, I uploaded my consciousness to the cloud and became Gao Ta's AI.

Dr. Noah said calmly: "About two years ago, I was infected by a mutation pathogen from an intruding aberration. To avoid dying as a monster, I uploaded my consciousness to the cloud and became Gao Ta's AI. I also cloned my intact somatic cells into embryos and stored them in the cryo-chamber."

"."

The Bai Jixiong felt his head spinning: "Wait—wasn't the pathogen your creation? How did you get infected? And why reveal this now?"

"The outside wasteland is a natural pathogen incubator; mutation rates exceed any computer's computational limits—even I can't develop vaccines for every strain."

Dr. Noah said: "This doesn't affect our deal or the final outcome, so it's not malicious concealment."

The Bai Jixiong and others looked grim; Li Cheng accepted it quickly and asked curiously: "How many cloned embryos did you make? Did you consider gene editing or sexual reproduction?"

Back when I read Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I was sad Cao Cao killed Lü Bu—if he'd kept the invincible Lü Bu for breeding, maybe he could've bred Divine Lü Bu, World Lü Bu, Tall Lü Bu, Short Lü Bu, Round-grain Lü Bu, Wrinkled-grain Lü Bu, Gray-seed Lü Bu, and White-seed Lü Bu."

Please... collect... 6... 9... Books...!

??? Are you seriously doing peas?

Cao Cao's courtesy name is Mengde—not Mendel!

The Bai Jixiong and others' expressions turned pained; Dr. Noah's projection paused for two or three seconds, as if reading the entire Romance of the Three Kingdoms from his database: "I preserved my embryo because my brain is a treasure for all humanity. Sexual reproduction is unreliable."

Super-genius-level individuals are somewhat like gacha games—genes influence, but don't determine; Einstein's two sons became a hydraulic engineering professor and a mentally ill violinist, respectively.

In comparison, cloned embryos are more stable—they at least guarantee the brain structure won't change drastically.

"Our deal still stands. The final aberration is in the engine room on the 198th floor. Power is restored—you can take the elevator directly there."

"Alright."

Li Cheng glanced at the other players—some dead, some wounded—and said casually: "You stay here. I'll go up and check."

In the 【Diary of Seeking Death】's predicted death scenarios, all possible deaths occurred in the monkey embryo storage room and this floor where the demon was.

In other words, no deadlier death scenarios should occur during the remaining mission time.

"I'm coming with you."

Zhao Zijing staggered to his feet, used telekinesis to move the severely injured others into the elevator, and sent them downward.

The elevator suddenly stopped at an intermediate floor; after a moment, Fu Ding Hualong's voice came through Zhao Zijing's radio—they had returned to the embryo cryo-chamber, rummaged through cabinets, and found Dr. Noah's human-form frozen corpse.

Verified the 3D projection's claim.

Li Cheng nodded: "Good. Zhao Zijing and I are going to the 198th floor. You head back to the underground parking lot. Don't lick the frozen corpse with your tongue—or you'll freeze."

??? We're not three-year-olds.

Amid Fu Ding Hualong's pained silence, Li Cheng and Zhao Zijing boarded another elevator and ascended.

(End of Chapter)