The Limits of Human Nature

This was indeed the way to the lower levels. After walking some distance down the passage and dealing with a few minor troubles, they soon found the stairs and elevator leading below.

The elevator was out of the question. Not only had it fallen into disrepair over the years, but it would also be useless in an emergency.

The group descended the stairs to the second basement level. These stairs led only here, with no route deeper underground. The electrical boxes here still worked, so Su Ming switched on every light. In an instant, the underground space became as bright as day.

The sudden brightness took the three ordinary people some time to adjust to, but they quickly realized that this place was far larger than they had imagined.

Before them stretched a vast experimental area enclosed in transparent glass chambers. At a glance, there were at least several hundred of them, containing operating tables, lab benches, and other equipment that appeared to be in fairly good condition.

"They're all dissection tables. We'll go through here." Some black bugs had followed them down, and Su Ming crushed them one by one.

He then spoke to Cindy ahead of him, signaling the group to move. Their view was blocked, and they could not see a route to the lower levels from here. They could only pass through this area first.

The group moved through the gaps between the glass rooms as if visiting some museum. Inside were all kinds of old-fashioned surgical instruments, and the mottled bloodstains on them made their purpose obvious.

Not every operating table was empty. Some still held twisted, dried corpses. It seemed the evacuation had been extremely sudden; they had not even destroyed this place.

The reason was unknown, but Su Ming did not care.

After passing through the dissection area, they arrived before a massive, thick door. It was tightly shut, and there was no telling how thick it was. Dust obscured the writing and symbols on its surface. No one knew how the little monsters they had encountered earlier had gotten through here. There were many possibilities—ventilation ducts, restroom drainpipes, or perhaps they had even come back to life on the dissection tables.

Beside the door was an old-fashioned ID card slot connected to a password panel.

"I'll leave it to you. Open it." Su Ming pushed Barbara's wheelchair up to the panel, indicating that she should open the door.

Without hesitation, she raised her hands and began dismantling the card reader. She pulled out a bundle of wires in various colors, then took a connector from her laptop bag, arranged the wires one by one, and finally connected them to her computer.

Barbara's computer knowledge was comprehensive. She was not only a hacker, but also highly capable with her hands.

"The most primitive kind of electronic door lock. The government had these before the nineties? First, I need to emulate ID card authorization." Barbara worked on her laptop and entered strings of commands. Before long, she had the password.

She entered it into the panel. With a hiss, the door rose upward, and dust pattered down like rain.

A cruel sight appeared before them.

The room beyond the door was perhaps a storage room. Quite a few jar-shaped glass tanks stood inside, each filled with blue liquid and various modified organisms. From time to time, strings of bubbles supplied oxygen to the liquid. Every monster inside bore at least some human traits.

The source of the other half of their genes could no longer be determined. Some had even mutated into biological forms that were completely unrecognizable. Some curled into balls within their tanks, while others lay peacefully with their eyes closed, as though asleep.

"Are they alive?"

Barbara covered her eyes, peeking through the gaps between her fingers.

Su Ming pulled her hand down and made her face reality.

"That's what you should be telling me. Look beside their tanks. Every tank has its own console. What do those values and indicators mean?"

Suppressing her nausea, Barbara approached the nearest tank. Floating inside was a meatball, like a person whose limbs had bent and twisted, then been curled into a ball and folded into its own body. Its flesh had sealed together without a single gap.

She did not pay attention to the monster. Pressing her lips together, she began hacking and operating the console with her laptop. The console looked like a book fixed upright to the floor on a post, with a keyboard and a tiny screen.

"Human and armadillo gene-spliced weapon. Can curl its body to enter narrow areas for espionage purposes." As she operated the console, she read out what she saw. "Experiment records: 320. Experiment Subject number. Current status: deceased. Recommendation: manufacture a new Experiment Subject."

"An armadillo?" Cindy rested her blade on her shoulder and tapped her pauldron with its flat, producing a clang-clang sound. "That's an African animal, right? These people really had a sick sense of humor. What use would something like this have on a battlefield?"

Expressionless, Su Ming gestured for Barbara to check the next one as he answered Cindy, "Whether it was useful or not is another matter. The military always encouraged scientists to try more things. What if it worked?"

"Heh." Cindy shook her head. She had long known what the military was like.

Next, Barbara saw more experimental products: dragonfly-human monsters, fly-human monsters, lizard-human monsters, and more. At first, she felt indignant, but she gradually became numb. The more monsters she saw, the more she felt that her understanding of the limits of human nature had fallen again and again.

Su Ming had only intended to let Barbara see a little more of humanity's darkness. The Council, which looked so glamorous on the surface, conducted experiments like these behind the scenes. Cindy might have a notorious reputation, but when it came to the number of people killed, who could compare to the Amazon government?

Perhaps Deathstroke had killed some innocents, but he had done so to make a living. Surviving in this world's steel jungle was also the Law of the Jungle. But what about the Amazon Council? These things did not seem to have been created as weapons. It seemed more like they were tormenting humans for amusement.

With that comparison, Cindy almost seemed like a saint.

After this experience, Cindy might be able to get some intelligence support from Barbara in the future. At the very least, she would not be rejected immediately. The Oracles of other worlds all gave Deathstroke the cold shoulder, and that would not do.

Besides, he would not ask for intelligence for free. He would pay her for it, money she could use to help support her household. Commissioner Gordon would definitely thank Su Ming for such a good idea once he found out.

Their attention returned to the room.

Not all the tanks here were intact. Some had clearly shattered, suggesting that whatever had been inside had escaped for one reason or another. They would very likely encounter them during the operation ahead, so Su Ming had Barbara begin hacking these consoles as well to learn more about them.

The one beside them now was an empty, broken glass tank. Whatever had been inside was gone, and the blue liquid had long since dried up, leaving pale blue stains on the floor.

Barbara skillfully ran the program, then began interpreting the results for them.

"Human and bat gene-based nocturnal weapon. Uses ultrasound to determine direction, infiltrates and destroys radar stations. Current status: containment failure. Please contact the security department."

Cindy laughed, leaning on her weapon and swaying from side to side. "Looks like we found Batwoman's relative. I wonder what this one looks like."

Su Ming did not answer. He merely raised a finger and pointed above their heads. A large brown ball of fur was hanging upside down from the high ceiling.

"Tch. A bat is still a bat." Cindy drew both pistols and opened fire at the bat, bullets forming a dense line through the air.

Whether the Bat-person had been avoiding the light or hibernating, it took several bullets squarely. It then let out a shriek and began fluttering into the air.