"Save me!"
"Help!"
"Save me! There are still living people inside!" The hoarse voice kept calling out from within.
Shen Jin and Yang Ao were startled when they heard it. There was actually someone still alive in this laboratory!
Shen Jin gave Yang Ao a look. "If anything seems wrong, strike first and ask questions later."
"Understood."
Yang Ao showed no mercy just because the staff here had been part of the team his father had left behind.
If the person inside made any uncooperative move, his magical sword would come down in an instant.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
After a series of blows from the Diamond pickaxe, a hole appeared, only to be instantly blocked by thick glass.
Shen Jin did not let his guard down just because whoever was inside was human like him.
The flashlight's powerful beam shone in, revealing the scene within.
A man in a white lab coat, seemingly in his thirties, sat slumped before the transparent glass facing the first-floor hall.
They shone the light around the other areas, but found nothing unusual.
Shen Jin smashed open another section of glass, aimed the powerful flashlight at the white-coated man's face, and shouted, "You inside, are you the only one on the second floor?"
The man in the white coat covered his eyes and said weakly, "Yes. They're all dead. I'm the only one left in the entire laboratory. Are you from the authorities?"
"We're not from the authorities, but we're the people who can save you."
Shen Jin smashed open another section of the alloy door, revealing a passage wide enough for someone to walk through.
A strange stench of human waste wafted out, making both men wrinkle their noses.
Yang Ao entered with his sword drawn and swept his flashlight around. "No one here. It's safe!"
Shen Jin took out a Torch from his pack and lit it with flint.
"Whoosh—"
Bright flames rose up, illuminating the entire second floor.
"Do you have any food? I haven't eaten anything for almost a week."
Shen Jin glanced at the half-empty bottle of yellow liquid by the white-coated man's feet and kicked it aside.
He used his sword to lift the man's chin, carefully confirming that he was human and had not been bitten.
"Answer my questions first. Be honest, and you'll get food."
The man in the white coat gave a weak "Mm."
"What kind of laboratory is this? What's your name? What are you responsible for here?"
"This is... Future Human Pharmaceuticals' Level 4 Biosafety Research Laboratory. We mainly research genetic drugs. My name is Fu Wei, and I'm the chief engineer for this project."
Yang Ao nodded subtly. He had heard his father mention this man before.
"What happened to the other people in the laboratory? Did any of them escape?"
"No. They're all dead."
Shen Jin fell silent, seemingly having thought of a possibility.
"One last question. What did you live on all this time?"
Fu Wei gave a bitter smile. "When there was food, I ate food. When there wasn't, I ate shit. Last week, there wasn't even shit left."
Shen Jin had Yang Ao watch the man in the white coat while he took a lap around the second floor. Finding no human remains or traces of blood, he finally believed him.
"You're a tough bastard. Here, eat. Once you're full, tell me exactly what happened here."
Shen Jin took out a bottle of Bottled Water and a pack of Compressed Biscuits, then tossed them to the man in the white coat.
Fu Wei picked them up, brutally tore open the packaging, and inhaled the aroma of the Compressed Biscuits.
He carefully took a small bite, chewed it in his mouth a few times, then swallowed it with a mouthful of Bottled Water.
He repeated this more than ten times and ate half a biscuit. Though hunger signals still kept flooding his stomach, Fu Wei stopped.
A relaxed, satisfied expression appeared on Fu Wei's face.
"These are the best biscuits I've ever eaten in my life."
Shen Jin nodded slightly. After starving for a week, Fu Wei had still resisted the urge to binge. He was a man with self-control.
Having regained some strength, Fu Wei slowly told the two of them what had happened in the laboratory after the apocalypse began.
The laboratory had been completely sealed. People outside would not open the doors, and the people inside could not get out. Only the landline on the second floor could contact the outside world. The laboratory also had a strict sterilization system, and the indoor air pressure was much higher than outside. In theory, no virus should have been able to enter.
But the apocalypse had come anyway. That afternoon, sixty percent of the people in the laboratory suddenly began bleeding from their eyes and mouths before collapsing to the ground in convulsions.
Fu Wei went up to the second floor to call for help, but before he could get through, screams had already erupted downstairs.
Those former colleagues went mad and began attacking everyone who had not turned into Zombies.
The frail researchers were pounced on and knocked down one after another. The entire first floor became a living hell.
Fu Wei quickly locked the code-protected door to the second floor. This was where the laboratory stored its important data and results, so the security measures were extremely strong.
The glass was explosion-proof, and the doors were made of high-density alloy. He saw some colleagues run to the second floor as well, but he did not dare open the door.
The Zombies were right behind them. He was afraid.
In just one afternoon, he had become the only living person left in the sealed laboratory.
The other colleagues were devoured by those who had become Zombies first. Those who had not been eaten also staggered back to their feet and joined the feeding frenzy.
There had been fifty-nine people in the laboratory. In the end, only forty Zombies and one living person remained.
The Zombies kept wandering around while Fu Wei kept making calls upstairs, but no one ever answered.
During the first month, the Zombies destroyed everything downstairs and ate every edible thing they could find. The starving Zombies even consumed all kinds of chemical agents.
They underwent their first mutation. All kinds of pus-filled growths appeared on their heads and bodies. Some emitted white gas, and some Zombies' heads even glowed.
Fu Wei survived upstairs in constant terror, relying on the laboratory's everyday supplies.
In the second month, Zombies with no energy source left began collapsing one after another. The others were initially indifferent, merely ceasing their wandering and standing still.
Until the first Zombie began eating another Zombie's corpse!
It replenished its energy, and its body mutated, becoming immensely powerful. The other Zombies also began eating the fallen Zombies.
Without exception, all their bodily functions evolved. Some Zombies developed sharper senses and discovered Fu Wei on the second floor, then began smashing at the doors day and night.
Fu Wei began rationing his dwindling food supplies.
This time, only fifteen Zombies remained.
In the third month, the Mutated Zombies became increasingly sluggish, but due to their formidable vitality, none had collapsed yet.
Until one Zombie suddenly sprang up and tore open a dying Zombie's head with its claws, feasting on it.
Fu Wei watched with his own eyes as hard keratin formed over its body. It had begun evolving again!
After the first one, there came a second, then a third. In the end, this super Zombie that ate Zombies devoured all fourteen of the remaining Zombies.
That day, the Zombie's roars shook the heavens. One punch could smash a huge crater into steel equipment. One leap could take it six meters into the air. Its saliva and pus could corrode ordinary metal.
Its senses were also extraordinarily sharp, and it immediately discovered Fu Wei behind the glass on the second floor.
It jumped from the ground to pound the second-floor explosion-proof glass and smashed at the alloy door from the stairwell.
Fortunately, the materials used in this laboratory were all top-tier. Even a Zombie that had evolved three times still could not shake the power of technology.
Fu Wei's food had run out, and he began saving his feces and urine.
After hearing everything, Shen Jin was secretly astonished.
To survive in the darkness for three months, willing to eat shit and drink urine just to stay alive... such astonishing survival instincts and iron will were worthy of the laboratory's chief engineer.
If someone like this did good, he would be a top-tier scholar and engineer.
If he took the wrong path, he would become a top-tier killer!
In this short time, Shen Jin had already been surprised by Fu Wei twice.
Yang Ao felt the same way. He had heard his father mention this man and knew Fu Wei had been one of his father's most capable subordinates, a biological genius rarely seen in the world.
He had not expected Fu Wei to possess not only knowledge, but such formidable mental resilience as well!
Any ordinary person would have either been scared to death or driven insane by now.
"Even such a secure laboratory couldn't escape the Zombie virus. Where did the virus come from?"
"If a super-evolved Zombie like this was outside by the third month of the apocalypse, how many human Gathering Places would it destroy?"
"Hyper-sensitive perception, incredible jumping ability, extreme speed, immense strength, an incredibly tough body, and corrosive attacks..."
Even Lu Qiang, after unlocking his Gene Lock, would only be walking into death!
The humans outside...
Without heavy weapons, what could they use to fight Zombies?
Shen Jin became increasingly convinced that the rescue the authorities had promised would be very difficult to wait for.
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