Before the Curtain Fell

Analyzing and identifying a single correct antibody required the simultaneous work of at least five people, and took at least three hours. How long had Xilin been in there?

Less than thirty minutes!

That guy had spent less than thirty minutes and produced over seven times more results than the combined efforts of the fifty-odd people in the Analysis Room over half a day.

What did that even mean?

How much could one person's brain process at once? What was its limit?

The researchers didn't know. Their young colleague had just disproved every answer they knew. The rapidly switching images on the screens alone were enough to make their heads spin.

One person, with a pair of hands, controlled more than thirty machines in the Analysis Room, analyzing data and running tests simultaneously. Through multiple-parameter calculations and probability analysis, he had produced a hundred antibodies in less than thirty minutes!

Xilin ignored the researchers' stunned faces. He sent his findings to the synthesizer, entered the settings, then sorted the antibodies it produced, labeling each with its type and dosage.

Several researchers who had run out earlier, along with the soldiers who had been called over, stood silently in the doorway, watching Xilin work at the synthesizer.

Xilin glanced over at them. "What are you standing around for?! Take these synthesized antibodies and start using them. If one doesn't work, try another. Test them one by one; one of them is bound to work. The antibodies can be used in combination."

The soldiers reacted faster. After all, it was their comrades who were injured and waiting for treatment. They sorted the synthesized antibodies into boxes according to their labels, saluted Xilin, and hurried out.

Once all the antibodies had been synthesized, Xilin let out a long breath. That one hour had taken a lot out of him. He'd processed data from more than thirty machines at once, and had also incorporated some parameters he'd obtained in the underground cavern, which had increased the workload considerably. To be safe, he'd added several more antibodies related to the toxins in the Big Black Rat's body. He'd also improved more than a dozen antibodies to reduce their side effects.

Outside, Huoding was directing the fight against the black rats. Listening to the reports over his communicator, he grinned and shouted to Knight, who was nearby, firing two guns at once. "Your friend's a damn genius! He did the work of fifty researchers all by himself! He synthesized over a hundred antibodies!"

"Of course! Look who his friend is!"

Both men felt much more at ease. Half an hour earlier, Pride had been slashed by a rat claw and sent to the Special Care Ward. They'd been worried there might not be an antibody for him, but the hundred-odd antibodies Xilin had made were undoubtedly reassuring.

After leaving the Analysis Room, Xilin returned to the ward, where the Medical Personnel treated his wound again.

"Get a good night's sleep. You'll recover faster that way."

"Mm, I will," Xilin replied with a smile, but the Medical Personnel didn't notice the deeper meaning in his eyes.

As soon as the Medical Personnel left, Xilin's communicator rang. It was the one Huoding had specially given him aboard the spacecraft after he'd been "injured." When he answered, Knight's face appeared onscreen.

"Hey, you look pretty good. You don't look like you're badly injured."

"I wasn't badly injured to begin with. It just looked scary," Xilin said. The area around Knight was still noisy, with gunfire and explosions going off continuously.

"Heh, Xilin, listen to this. That Big Black Rat got wiped out! You'll never guess how!" Knight was grinning so hard his face creased. He'd just heard that the Rat Poison in Pride's body had been neutralized, and was feeling much more relaxed. Otherwise, he wouldn't have taken this chance to share the battlefield's ridiculous antics with Xilin. He'd originally planned to call Pride too, but the guy had fallen asleep after getting the injection.

"Oh? Tell me." Xilin wanted to know just how pathetically the Big Black Rat had gone down.

"That huge thing went completely crazy. It wasn't even watching where it was going, just charging around blindly. Then it crashed into a warehouse at the base that was over two hundred square meters and used to store Liquid Nitrogen. Hahaha..."

Knight didn't need to say more. Xilin could imagine what had happened. A warehouse of Liquid Nitrogen that size would cause immense cold damage. And given how fast the Big Black Rat had been charging around, it wouldn't have stood a chance against the resulting cold explosion.

If the Big Black Rat had still had that White Ball on it, the Liquid Nitrogen probably wouldn't have done it much harm. It could be injured one moment and healed the next. That only further proved how special the White Ball was. Xilin rubbed the green markings on his finger, his thoughts unreadable...

After suffering cold damage from the Liquid Nitrogen warehouse, the Big Black Rat was hit with the Action Team's firepower. Its fate was easy to imagine.

Knight described what had happened in vivid detail. By then, the battlefield was mostly being swept for the last stragglers, so there wasn't much else to do.

"I even managed to snatch some souvenirs—the Big Black Rat's claws and its front teeth. Heh. The slow ones didn't get any." Knight was pretty pleased with himself.

"Look at you, gloating. Anyway, don't hang up yet. I'll show you a beautiful nurse." Xilin glanced at the monitor beside him before speaking.

The monitor showed the scene outside his door. A beautiful nurse with an elegant figure stood there holding a tray of medicine and pressed the doorbell. When Xilin had answered the communicator, he'd set the door lock to Do Not Disturb mode. Anyone who wanted to come in had to ring the bell and wait for someone inside to let them in.

Xilin set the communicator on the corner of the bedside table, making it look as if he'd ended the call. In fact, he'd only disabled the audio and video feed from Knight's side, so Knight could still hear and see everything happening here. Then he covered the device with a book, hiding it in plain sight.

Watching the beautiful nurse carrying her tray into the room on the communicator's screen, Knight grinned lecherously. She really did have a great figure. Xilin was one lucky guy, getting taken care of by such a beautiful nurse.

The nurse smiled warmly and said softly, "It's time to change your dressing."

"Sorry for the trouble."

The nurse only smiled at Xilin's lingering gaze on her ample chest. She deftly replaced the Infusion Bag, then reached out with her smooth, pale fingers and tapped him on the forehead. "You little lecher."

Xilin wasn't embarrassed at all. He chuckled. "I only get lecherous around beautiful women."

After the beautiful nurse left, Xilin switched the communicator back on.

"What do you think? Not bad?"

"A total knockout. Confirmed." Knight waggled his eyebrows.

"Why not injure yourself and get admitted to the ward too? Then you can enjoy the beautiful nurse's service."

"Yeah, right. You enjoy it yourself. I'm done talking. I'm going to sweep the battlefield. Once we finish off the last few black rats, I'll tell you all about today's 'decisive battle' when I get back. I heard you gave those researchers with their noses in the air a good dressing-down today. Nice work."

"Sure. Get out there and mop up the rest. Grab a few more rat claws. The Seven Luminaries can sell them for a good price."

"Good point. I'll go get a big bag."

After ending the call, Xilin's smile faded. He stared at the newly replaced Infusion Bag, his gaze icy.

A killer couldn't hide that cold, bloody stench, even in a different skin. But this time, he wouldn't have to take action himself. Someone else would investigate.

I almost forgot—thanks to reader Wu Wanyan for the tip!^^