What Exactly Is a Node

Listening to Lu Bai's teasing, Agu's lips curved into a smile. "Thanks for the reminder."

Before he finished speaking, he quickly pulled the trigger.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three bullets were fired consecutively from the dark muzzle.

The bullets pierced through a workbench, scattering a stack of documents on it.

No blood splattered.

In fact, Agu hadn't aimed at Lu Bai at all. His actions were more like a diversion to draw Lu Bai's attention.

The next second, he put away his pistol, turned, and rushed into the isolation room at the center of the laboratory.

Click~

He locked the isolation room door and stared intently at Lu Bai through the palm-sized two-way bulletproof glass, saying nothing.

The rapid response team in the hallway heard the gunshots from the laboratory and immediately sped up their efforts to break down the door.

Lu Bai glanced at the bullet marks at his feet, then calmly walked over and helped Zhou Zongming up first.

"What's the point of doing this? If you hadn't hidden in here, you might have escaped."

Agu chuckled self-deprecatingly.

"Actually, there's one thing I didn't lie to you about. Neither of my abilities is suitable for direct combat, so I didn't bother trying. It would have been quite embarrassing to get beaten black and blue by you."

Zhou Zongming had just managed to recover and almost choked again upon hearing Agu's words. His mouth twitched.

Recalling Agu's military demeanor during this time, he couldn't help but glance at Lu Bai.

Bang!

The laboratory door was blasted open by a battering ram, and a large number of fully armed rapid response personnel poured in.

Two of the team members were about to apprehend Lu Bai directly, but upon seeing Zhou Zongming standing beside him, they hesitated.

Fortunately, Zhou Zongming was still conscious. He turned and explained the situation to the team leader in as concise a manner as possible.

Soon, over a dozen team members surrounded the isolation room. Since they weren't sure what Lu Bai's deal was, no one moved to pull him away.

"I don't think you'd give up that easily," Lu Bai said, reaching out to touch the isolation door, its thickness astonishing.

Zhou Zongming walked over again and knocked twice on the isolation door. "Inspector Agu, put down your weapon and open the door. If you explain the situation, we will consider it leniently."

Agu smiled silently, completely ignoring Zhou Zongming. He just stared at Lu Bai, as if memorizing the flaws in his plan.

"When Company Commander Zhou appeared in the laboratory, I should have realized the plan had gone wrong. I even intended to deal with him temporarily, but I didn't expect you to escape from so many gun barrels."

"If it were any other Deathmatch Participant, your plan might have succeeded."

Lu Bai's smile was incredibly gentle.

"Yeah, I really underestimated you."

Agu sighed and unbuttoned his shirt collar. "Fortunately, I always like to keep a backup plan."

"What do you mean by that?!"

Before Lu Bai could speak, Zhou Zongming interjected with a question.

Agu said, "Humans have two main approaches to dealing with viruses: cure and prevention. You can think of them as specific medicines and vaccines. The difficulty of these two approaches is incomparable."

"If developing a specific medicine is like climbing nine stories, then developing a vaccine is about as high as... well, Raiden Shogun."

Lu Bai aptly played the role of a straight man.

Agu was silent for a few seconds, seemingly pondering what Raiden Shogun was. After a moment, he continued.

"But even the development of a vaccine isn't as simple as it seems. Throughout history, the use of medical vaccines has required processes like research, formulation, animal testing, and multiple phases of clinical trials, often taking years or even decades."

He paused here. "Don't you find it strange? Why would a research center in a military base be able to develop a vaccine to the stage of impending clinical trials in just one week?"

Without waiting for Lu Bai's answer, or perhaps because Agu didn't expect one, he turned and began selecting vials from the refrigerated cabinets.

A string seemed to be plucked in Lu Bai's mind. He thought of a possibility. "It's not a vaccine to curb viral infection, but a way to avoid being bitten by zombies?"

"I'm really starting to regret partnering with you..."

Agu's movements paused, and his voice echoed softly. "You guessed correctly. The sheer scale of the virus means it's impossible for them to develop consciousness. They only instinctively control their hosts to infect more people. This characteristic causes the virus to deliberately avoid dying organisms."

"So the so-called vaccine is actually poison?"

Zhou Zongming listened, dumbfounded. Although he held a significant position in this sanctuary, he had no idea that the strictly confidential vaccine was actually like this.

Agu stood up again, holding a syringe filled with a vial of the drug.

"But this virus is quite strict. The dosage is difficult to control. Too little won't achieve the camouflage effect, but too much, and the person will die before being bitten. Professor Jiang has spent this time confirming this range through brute force enumeration. All that's missing is clinical trials."

Agu finished speaking and decisively inserted the syringe into his carotid artery.

[Ding!]

[Current Deathmatch Arena node has appeared.]

[Deathmatch Participants who acquire the node will receive double Points rewards.]

[Real-time positioning for the node has been completed. (Click to view)]

A series of mechanical prompts sounded in Lu Bai's mind. He watched as Agu, inside the isolation room, took out a USB drive from his pocket after the injection.

Agu chuckled, "So, what do you think a 'node' actually is?"

"The experiment log." Lu Bai licked his lips. He turned to ask a team member, "How long will it take to open this door?"

The team member was stunned at first. He secretly glanced at his captain before explaining, "This isolation room was built to the standards of a bank vault. It's very difficult to break open in a short time."

"No, what are you guys talking about? What node? You're still hiding things from me?!"

Zhou Zongming felt like an outsider ever since Lu Bai arrived at the laboratory. He knew every word Lu Bai and Agu spoke, but when they were put together, he became confused.

"Alright, Company Commander Zhou, I don't think you have time to worry about these issues right now."

Agu finally paid attention to Zhou Zongming. He looked towards the laboratory window, "'Nodes' appearing means no one can hide anymore. Who knows what kind of chaos those lunatics will cause."

As if to confirm his words, hysterical screams immediately followed from outside the window.