Franklin's Coffin Lid Couldn't Stay Down!

Shen Jin and Yang Ao really couldn't stand staying on the second floor any longer. The smell there was too overpowering!

After resting outside for a moment, Fu Wei regained some strength and walked out while supporting himself against the wall.

"You're... Mr. Yang's son, Yang Ao?"

Fu Wei had been so starving and dizzy earlier that he hadn't seen clearly what the two people who saved him looked like. Now that he felt a little better, he could finally make out Yang Ao's appearance by Torchlight.

"Yes. My father told me this address before he passed away."

"What!? Mr. Yang died? I never received any news."

"That was why I returned to Q City."

"But when I last saw Mr. Yang, there was nothing wrong with his health! I'm certain of it!"

Yang Ao had thought the same thing at the time. His father, who had been in his prime, had "suddenly suffered a heart attack and was gone."

Fu Wei fell silent for a moment, recalling the times he and Yang Tianyao had drunk together. They had thrown their arms around each other's shoulders and vowed to change the world together. Who would have thought...

"Heh... Not living to see this apocalyptic scene might not have been such a bad thing for Mr. Yang."

"Maybe."

Shen Jin saw that the mood had grown heavy, but he truly didn't know Yang Tianyao, so there was no way for him to relate.

"Ahem... You two can talk about that later. First, can we confirm whether the 'Gene Optimization Agent' is still here?"

Fu Wei shot Shen Jin a shocked look.

Yang Ao nodded. "I'm with Brother Jin now. We came here specifically to find the two bottles of 'Gene Optimization Serum 1.0' my father left behind."

"That thing... is still here, but it's sealed in the confidential storage vault. We can't get it out."

Fu Wei sighed. This was the achievement he had been proudest of in his life. It could optimize humanity at the genetic level and allow humans, who had stagnated for thousands of years, to evolve once more!

Great biology!

If the Zombie virus outbreak had not happened, Future Human Pharmaceuticals would have sparked a genetic craze across the entire world and risen to become the strongest company on Earth.

And he would have become one of the most dazzling biologists in human history. Even a Nobel Prize would not have been enough to praise his greatness.

Yang Ao immediately grew anxious. "Why can't we get it out? I know the password!"

Fu Wei glanced at the burning Torch. "A month after the Zombie virus outbreak, the backup power here was completely depleted. There isn't a shred of energy left. If we want to open the confidential storage vault, we first need to restore power to the laboratory."

"Besides, if I'm not mistaken, the outside world has been overrun by Zombies just like this laboratory, right? Leaving aside whether the generator upstairs still works, where would we find fuel to generate electricity?"

Yang Ao deflated. "Brother Jin should have some fuel, but powering such a large laboratory would require a lot of diesel. We'd also have to clear out the Zombies above."

As he spoke, Yang Ao realized it wasn't completely impossible. "If the three of us spend some time on it, we should be able to restore power here."

Restore power?

Shen Jin found Yang Ao's ready-to-get-to-work expression rather baffling.

"As long as there's a power source, we can open the confidential storage vault and retrieve those two bottles of agent, right?"

Fu Wei nodded. "Theoretically, yes. But with just the two of you, it'll be very difficult... right?"

Yang Ao suddenly smiled. "Old Fu, you don't know this, but Brother Jin awakened an Earth-based Ability. Projects that would be difficult for ordinary people can be finished in a few days if the two of us work together!"

"Really? Then what do you do? Did you awaken some superpower too?" Fu Wei went straight for the heart.

Yang Ao: "..."

That hurt, Old Fu!

"I kill Zombies! Look at my sword—it's black and long!"

Shen Jin examined the laboratory by Torchlight. "Where's the main breaker?"

Fu Wei pointed at a mural on the second floor. "In there. Why? The power outage wasn't caused by a tripped breaker. We really did run out of energy."

As a low-voltage electrical engineer, Shen Jin was quite skilled at electrical work.

In just a few moves, he figured out the main power lines inside.

"Hey!"

He yanked down the thick Electric Wire running from above, then took out something the size of a wooden Chest from his pack and tossed it onto the floor.

Fu Wei was completely confused. "What's he doing? Has he given up on treatment? And where did he pull such a huge Chest from???"

Yang Ao looked equally lost. "Uh... uh..."

The two of them were completely dumbfounded by Shen Jin's string of actions!

Shen Jin took out several lengths of Electric Wire and quickly replaced the original wiring. Finally, he plugged the last connector into the wooden Chest!

Boom!

The laboratory exploded—cough, cough, cough... the power came back on!

The laboratory, which had been pitch-black, suddenly lit up. Machines that had not been completely damaged began flashing red lights and emitting piercing alarms.

"I feel like my knowledge is a little lacking, Yang Ao. What exactly happened outside over the past three months?"

Fu Wei felt that this was utterly unscientific! Extremely unscientific!

A person pulling a one-cubic-meter wooden Chest out of thin air was already fantastical enough.

And now this wooden Chest could fucking generate electricity!

It had abundant power, enough to bring the entire laboratory back online, without even any voltage instability!

Yang Ao held his forehead. "Old Fu, don't even mention you. I'm a little dizzy too."

Forget Newton—even Franklin's coffin lid couldn't stay down!

"Now, can you go retrieve my Gene Optimization Agent?"

Shen Jin did not find it strange at all. So what if items produced by the Minecraft system surpassed some of this era's technology?

Looking down on the wooden Energy Storage Box?

Once fully charged beside the Combustion Generator, it could store a full 4,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity!

That was enough to charge an electric car with a range of 200 kilometers more than a hundred times!

Seeing that Shen Jin had no intention of explaining, Yang Ao and Fu Wei did not ask further. They walked together into an inner room on the second floor.

There was only a dark yellow metal pillar inside, with a glowing screen lying flat atop it.

"Inside are the laboratory's most confidential files and results."

Yang Ao took a deep breath and entered the password his father had left him.

'857! 857! 857!'

The electronic screen received the signal and confirmed the password.

"Creak—clack, clack!"

The wall on the left side of the inner room suddenly opened, and a mechanical arm pushed out a large alloy tray.

On the tray lay a miniature portable hard drive and two bottles of sealed pale-blue agent.

"These are the final two bottles of 'Gene Optimization Serum 1.0' your father left behind. The USB drive contains all the data from this laboratory."

There was something Fu Wei did not say: this USB drive was worth far more than the two bottles of agent.

If someone built him another laboratory of the same scale—no! Even one slightly smaller—and provided the raw materials, he could reproduce 'Gene Optimization Serum 1.0'!

The raw materials were extremely precious, but with the formula, anything was possible!

Shen Jin looked at the fanaticism on Fu Wei's face and smiled.

He put both the portable hard drive and the agents into the pack on his back, then stored them in his System Backpack.

"Let's go. I'll hold onto the hard drive for now. We may need it later, right, Old Fu?"

Fu Wei knew he couldn't hide it from Shen Jin. "Yes. If we can make this kind of agent again, humanity may not necessarily be unable to defeat these disgusting Zombies."

"Very good! Then welcome to my territory officially."

Like a squirrel hoarding supplies, Shen Jin had no plans to fight for humanity's great revival, but he still decided to keep this talent around and preserve the formula for the Gene Optimization Agent.

What if they needed it someday?