What Exactly Is a Node?

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

Before the words had even left his mouth, he quickly pulled the trigger.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three bullets shot from the dark muzzle in rapid succession.

They pierced a worktable, sending the stack of documents on top flying.

There was no spray of blood.

In fact, Agu hadn't aimed at Lu Bai at all. It seemed more like he was trying to distract him.

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

Click~

Agu locked the isolation room door and stared straight at Lu Bai through the palm-sized, bulletproof window. He said nothing.

Hearing the gunshots from the lab, the Rapid Response Force in the corridor redoubled their efforts to break down the door.

Lu Bai glanced at the bullet marks at his feet, then calmly went over and helped Zhou Zongming to his feet.

"What's the point of doing this? If you hadn't hidden in there, you might've had a chance to escape."

Agu gave a self-deprecating laugh.

"Actually, there was one thing I didn't lie to you about. Neither of my abilities is suited to a head-on fight, so I figured I wouldn't even try. I'd look pretty pathetic if you beat me black and blue."

Zhou Zongming had just barely managed to recover. Hearing Agu's words nearly winded him again, and his mouth twitched.

Thinking back to the military expertise Agu had shown during this whole ordeal, he couldn't help turning to look at Lu Bai.

Bang!

The lab's main door was smashed open by a battering ram, and a large number of fully armed Rapid Response Force members streamed inside.

Two of the team members had been about to seize Lu Bai, but when they saw Zhou Zongming standing beside him, they hesitated.

Fortunately, Zhou Zongming was still conscious. He turned and gave the squad leader a brief explanation of the situation.

Soon, more than a dozen team members had surrounded the isolation room. Since they didn't know what Lu Bai was capable of, no one tried to pull him away.

"I don't think you'd give up so easily." Lu Bai reached out and touched the isolation room door. It was absurdly thick.

Zhou Zongming came over again and rapped on the door twice. "Inspector Agu, put down your weapon and come out voluntarily. As long as you explain what happened, we'll handle the matter appropriately."

Agu smiled silently, not bothering to respond to Zhou Zongming. He only watched Lu Bai, as if trying to memorize the flaws in his plan.

"When Company Commander Zhou showed up in the lab, I should've realized the plan had gone wrong. I even considered getting rid of him on the spot, but I never expected you to escape with so many guns pointed at you."

"If you'd been dealing with another Deathmatch Arena player, your plan might've worked."

Lu Bai's smile looked remarkably amiable.

"Yeah. I really did underestimate you."

Agu sighed and undid the button at his collar. "At least I've always liked to keep a backup plan."

"What do you mean by that?!"

Before Lu Bai could speak, Zhou Zongming hurriedly pressed him for an answer.

Agu said, "When it comes to fighting viruses, humans generally take one of two approaches. You can think of them as treatment and prevention, which correspond to drugs and vaccines. The difficulty of the two approaches is worlds apart."

"If developing a drug is like climbing a nine-story building, developing a vaccine is about as hard as reaching the height of General Raiden."

Lu Bai obligingly played along.

Agu fell silent for a few seconds, apparently wondering what the hell General Raiden was. After a while, he continued.

"Even developing a vaccine isn't as simple as people imagine. Historically, medical vaccines have had to go through research and development, manufacturing, animal testing, and multiple phases of clinical trials. The process often takes years, even decades."

He paused. "Don't you find it strange? How could the research center of a military base like this develop a vaccine to the point of being ready for clinical trials in just one week?"

Before Lu Bai could answer—or perhaps because Agu had never expected him to—he turned to choose a vial from the refrigerator.

A string seemed to pluck inside Lu Bai's mind as he considered a possibility. "It's not a vaccine that stops infection. It's some way of keeping zombies from biting you?"

"I'm starting to regret working with you more and more..."

Agu stopped moving. His voice drifted out quietly. "You guessed right. The nature of the virus means it can't develop intelligence. It can only instinctively control its host to infect more people. Because of that, the virus deliberately avoids bodies that are close to death."

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

Zhou Zongming stared in utter astonishment. Though he held a fairly high position in this shelter, he hadn't known that the tightly guarded vaccine was actually this.

Agu straightened up again, holding a syringe filled with a dose of the drug.

"But this virus is really picky. The dosage is incredibly hard to control. Too little, and it won't do enough to fool them. Too much, and the infected person won't even need to get bitten—they'll be lying on the ground with their eyes rolled back first. Professor Jiang spent all this time painstakingly narrowing down the range through trial and error. All that's left is clinical testing."

As soon as he finished speaking, Agu resolutely plunged the needle into his own carotid artery.

[Ding!]

[Current Deathmatch Arena node has appeared.]

[The Deathmatch Arena player who obtains the node will receive a Double Points Reward.]

[Real-time location tracking enabled for the node. (Click to view)]

A series of mechanical prompts rang out in Lu Bai's mind. He watched Agu finish the injection, then take a USB drive from his pocket.

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

"An experiment log." Lu Bai licked his lips, then turned to ask one of the team members, "How long will it take to open this door?"

The team member froze. He sneaked a glance at his squad leader before explaining, "This isolation room was built to the same standards as a bank vault. It'll be very difficult to break through quickly."

"Wait, what are you talking about? What node? Are you hiding something from me, kid?!"

Zhou Zongming felt that ever since Lu Bai had come into the lab, he'd been like an outsider. He understood every word Lu Bai and Agu said, but when they were put together, he was completely lost.

"All right, Company Commander Zhou. I don't think you'll have time to worry about that now."

Agu finally acknowledged Zhou Zongming. He looked toward the lab windows. "Now that a 'node' has appeared, no one can stay hidden. Who knows how much of a commotion those lunatics out there will cause?"

As if to prove his point, a hysterical scream came from outside the window.