Threat Elimination

Record Department

This department required no control equipment within the institute, nor did it need to make any special adjustments for the experimental setting.

Its only task was to conduct real-time analysis and meticulously document the entire process. If it identified any potential danger in advance, it would immediately report upward to ensure the overall stability of the experiment.

Several mobile blackboards had been set up in the office.

The central blackboard displayed the theme of this experiment—"Plant Zombie*."

*The difficulty of this theme remained variable and would be finalized before midnight based on the participants' Subjective Actions.

At present, the Record Department staff had grown excited, their minds and bodies gradually relaxing.

The Subjective Actions displayed by the four young people had greatly reduced the difficulty of the theme and significantly improved the experiment's stability. The estimated success rate exceeded 90%; they could practically pop champagne already.

The department head was also smiling as he attached a red "Ritual Interruption" label to the blackboard.

Mansion—Master Bedroom

The two girls, soaked through by sweat and rain alike, took spare clothes from their respective backpacks.

They had attended the same kindergarten, elementary school, and middle school.

Unfortunately, though they should have gone to the same high school as well, Wu Wen had transferred because of something that happened. Over the past two years, they had spent far less time together and could only meet on weekends without tutoring classes.

And girls changed the most at this age.

When the two took off their tops in the master bedroom, Wu Wen was startled by the sight before her.

Not only was Anna far above average for girls in height and muscle mass, but her physical development had not fallen behind in the slightest either. It was just as far above average.

"Two years without seeing each other, and you've grown this much!"

Though they usually acted quite open with each other, Anna instinctively covered herself with both hands and glanced at Wu Wen with a strange look.

Just as Anna was about to say something, she suddenly froze. She had noticed something strange on Wu Wen's body.

"Wenwen, what happened to your body?"

"Huh? Oh, you mean these... Dad's tutoring program for me has reached the highest difficulty level. The teacher is very strict, so it's inevitable that he sometimes slips up and injures me by accident."

"That doesn't look accidental, does it?"

Wiping the water from her body with tissues, Anna moved closer and carefully examined the bluish and purplish marks, as well as the many scars that had been left behind.

Before Anna could get a better look, Wu Wen had already pulled on a black short-sleeved shirt.

"The human body is very resilient. Anna, you should understand that better than I do. As long as it helps me grow, it doesn't matter even if it goes further than this. After all, the things we'll face in the future won't stop just because they leave scars."

"Wenwen~ Isn't Uncle being way too strict with you?"

"Dad is only worried about me. I made a mistake, and if I want to catch up with the top group, this is the only way to make up for it. If I could have kept up back then, I could have gone to the same school as you... But this is fine too. I wouldn't have met someone as interesting as Luo Di there."

"That's true. He really is a little unusual."

Anna changed into a white short-sleeved shirt as well.

When the two opened the shared map, the two points representing the boys had already started moving toward the mansion.

The class monitor had already put on a raincoat and taken out two more, intending to bring them to the boys when they returned.

"Should we go downstairs to meet them? If they really dealt with the corpse, they'll probably have to take care of the remaining tree in the backyard too. Luo Di really made the right call buying that chainsaw."

They met in the hall.

When everyone saw each other again, the class monitor immediately noticed the lingering discomfort on Gao Yuxuan's face and asked curiously,

"How exactly did you two deal with that corpse? You finished so quickly."

"Threw it away," Luo Di replied.

The class monitor nodded. "Found a slope and tossed it down the mountain? No wonder you were so fast. By the way, how are you planning to deal with the tree in the backyard?"

"Cut it down."

Since everyone agreed, they headed to the backyard again.

The sudden downpour had interrupted the flies' feast and masked some of the pungent odor.

The rain also quickly carried away the heat generated by the sawing, greatly reducing the chance of an explosion.

The class monitor attached a strip of lights to the trunk's surface so that no "corners" would form during the cutting process.

When the rapidly spinning saw teeth touched the trunk's surface,

(Ah!)

Everyone heard a faint scream. It seemed to have come from the tree itself, and the entire locust tree began to tremble slightly.

Luo Di did not stop. The cutting continued.

At times, foul-smelling liquid splashed out, as though a blood vessel had been severed and blood were spraying forth.

At times, a large swath of fallen leaves suddenly dropped from overhead, each one seeming to bear a pained human face.

In less than ten minutes,

The entire locust tree crashed to the ground.

Its cross-section showed no ring-like structure. Instead, it was completely moldy and rotten, riddled with dense little holes that made one's scalp crawl.

The tree had rotted to this extent. It should have withered long ago.

Four raincoats hung in the front yard, leaving the rain to wash away their stains.

Outside the master bedroom,

The two girls waited while Luo Di and Gao Yuxuan changed clothes inside.

Gao Yuxuan stuffed the clothes he had taken off directly into a garbage bag and tied it shut with a dead knot. They seemed to have been tainted by such extreme filth that washing them was unnecessary.

Just as he stood to place the garbage by the door, his eyes were immediately drawn to a certain "spectacle."

It was a muscle contour like something out of a painting, or something one could only see on television. Those back muscles utterly did not belong to someone their age, and from certain angles, they vaguely outlined a ferocious human face.

Though Gao Yuxuan ranked third in the class in physical education, there was a considerable gap between his scores and those of first and second place.

He had never expected Luo Di to possess such a physique. No wonder he had always remained in first place. Gao Yuxuan also knew that Luo Di's family circumstances were quite ordinary. To develop such a body, he must have endured plenty of hardship, and Gao Yuxuan felt a little more admiration for him.

The time reached 5:00 p.m.

From their departure early that morning until now, the four of them had only taken a few sips of water and consumed almost no nutrition.

Even though they were among the best of their peers, their bodies could barely endure it. Exhaustion and hunger hit them at the same time.

Knowing the total duration of this experiment in advance, they had packed some supermarket-bought food in their backpacks, including various self-heating convenience meals and energy snacks.

"Luo Di, this is yours."

Luo Di had just eaten two wafer biscuits when the class monitor personally brought him a steaming self-heating rice meal.

Of course, he was not the only one. The class monitor had prepared self-heating rice meals for everyone.

"Thanks."

As the warm, palatable food entered his mouth, Luo Di reviewed everything that had happened today and tried to infer the final threat of this simulated experiment. But as he delved deeper into thought, worm-like drowsiness immediately began to squirm through his brain. He was simply too sleepy.

Luo Di could only set aside his thoughts for now and prepare to take a short nap after eating.

Anna, on the other hand, seemed unsatisfied with merely eating. She rummaged through her backpack and pulled out two bottles of high-proof vodka labeled in Russian.

"Want a drink? We got soaked earlier. It'll warm us up."

Naturally, everyone shook their heads. They were underage, for one thing, and alcohol impaired most people's thinking and movement.

But for Anna, who was of pure blood and had grown up drinking at home, eating without alcohol was the same as not eating at all. Alcohol seemed to put her in better condition and help her rest better too.

"Aw~ Nobody's drinking? Then I'll drink by myself."

Anna did not mind. She directly put the bottle to her lips.

A throat-burning stream of heat slid into her stomach, and her face immediately flushed red. Her sitting posture gradually became less and less ladylike.

After taking a few bites of rice, just as she was about to take her fourth drink,

Tap!

An unidentifiable tongue-click reached her ears, instantly sending a chill through her entire body and frightening her so badly that she nearly threw the bottle away.

Anna looked at the others who were eating, but they did not seem to have heard the sound.

"Was it because of the alcohol?"

She decisively sealed the bottle with its cork. That was the end of her drinking for today.