Professor Zhao's Laboratory? I'll Burn It Down Tonight

A wicked smile curled across Lu Chen's lips. Looking at the shock written all over Tang Xue's face, he felt nothing.

"Well, beautiful, did I scare you? You haven't seen anything yet. The real show's still to come." Lu Chen whistled, his tone as flippant as if he were flirting with the girl next door. Who would have guessed he'd just blown up her laboratory a few minutes ago?

The flames dancing at his fingertips were like demons crawling out of hell, greedily licking at everything around them.

SSS-rank "Burn the Heavens and Destroy the World" was no joke. These flames could burn a hole right through the sky!

Tang Xue backed away in terror, her delicate face deathly pale. She had seen the laboratory's defenses with her own eyes, and yet...

Before Lu Chen, they were no different from paper.

"Beep-beep-beep-"

A piercing alarm rang out, reaching the heavens like a death knell that announced the base's end.

Tang Xue gritted her teeth and resolutely pressed the emergency evacuation button.

For those innocent people... and for what little conscience I have left... Tang Xue repeated to herself, tears glistening at the corners of her eyes.

Lu Chen's figure vanished at the end of the passage, leaving only his imposing words echoing through the ruins: "This world shouldn't be controlled by people like you!"

Late at night, darkness enveloped the entire base like a vast black cloth.

The chaos during the day seemed to have exhausted everyone, and security on the perimeter had grown considerably lax.

Lu Chen narrowed his eyes and activated the A-rank [Energy Barrier] he'd copied from some unlucky soul. A faint film of light covered his entire body, perfectly blocking infrared and thermal detection.

"Heh heh, you want to play high-tech with me? I've got a cheat!"

Like a ghost, he slipped through the darkness, avoiding one patrol after another before entering a ventilation duct.

A foul, musty smell filled the duct, and the space was suffocatingly cramped.

"Tsk, tsk. These guys' logistical support is terrible. They don't even have a decent ventilation system." As Lu Chen grumbled, he crawled deftly through the duct at an astonishing speed.

Relying on his extraordinary sense of direction and memory, he soon found the entrance to the laboratory area.

Rows of towering glass tanks came into view, each containing an "experimental subject" of one kind or another.

"Fuck, this sight... is kind of disgusting."

Lu Chen couldn't help frowning. The people, or rather, the "things" in the tanks came in all sorts of bizarre forms. Some were missing limbs, some were covered in pustules, and others had even turned into half-human, half-zombie monsters.

Every tank bore a label indicating the subject's talent rank and number.

"D-rank [Strength Enhancement], C-rank [Speed Burst], B-rank [Basic Self-Healing]... Heh, so these are Professor Zhao's proudest achievements?"

Lu Chen sneered, walked over to a terminal, and began operating it with practiced ease.

His fingers flew across the keyboard at a dazzling speed, lines of code cascading down the screen like a waterfall.

"Done!"

A few minutes later, Lu Chen had copied a backup of the database onto a specially made USB drive.

"This data should keep me busy studying it for quite a while."

Just as he was about to leave, a weak voice suddenly called out:

"Help... help me..."

Lu Chen stopped and looked toward the voice. An unkempt old man was locked in an iron cage.

"Old man, who are you?" Lu Chen asked curiously.

The old man raised his head, a glimmer of hope shining in his clouded eyes.

"I'm Old Zhou... I used to be a researcher here..."

"Oh? A researcher? How did you end up like this?"

Old Zhou sighed and said hoarsely, "I... I opposed Professor Zhao's experiments on living people... so they locked me up..."

"Experiments on living people? Sounds exciting." Lu Chen rubbed his chin and asked with interest.

"They're utterly inhumane! They use living people as lab rats and torment them however they please... It's horrible..." Old Zhou's voice trembled slightly. He had clearly been badly frightened.

"Tsk, tsk, looks like you've suffered a lot here." Lu Chen shook his head sympathetically. He hated sanctimonious hypocrites like that most of all.

"Please... save me..." Old Zhou begged.

Lu Chen shrugged. "Save you? What's in it for me?"

"I... I know a lot of secrets... about this base... and... Test Subject 09... she's still alive... she knows more..." Old Zhou said eagerly.

"Test Subject 09? Sounds interesting." Lu Chen's eyes lit up. He loved mysterious things like this most of all.

"All right, since you're so pitiful, I'll give you a hand." Lu Chen walked up to the cage and casually waved his hand. An energy blade flashed past, cutting through the iron lock.

"Th-thank you..." Old Zhou said gratefully.

"Don't thank me yet. I'm not saving you for free." Lu Chen grinned, revealing a set of white teeth. "Take me to see this Test Subject 09."

Led by Old Zhou, Lu Chen came to a sealed isolation room.

This room was different from the other areas. Thick steel plates reinforced all its walls, and a conspicuous warning sign was posted on the door: "Test Subject No. 09-failure! Extremely dangerous! Do not approach!"

"Looks like there's something special about this 09." Lu Chen rubbed his chin, excitement gleaming in his eyes.

He walked up to the door, took a deep breath, and then flung it open.

Creeeak-

The heavy iron door gave a piercing scrape as it slowly opened.

The sight inside the isolation room made Lu Chen pause.

The room was small and dimly lit, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of disinfectant.

A frail girl was curled up in a corner, hugging her knees and trembling.

She wore a worn-out white lab coat, her hair was a tangled mess, and her face was covered in grime.

Her eyes were large, but vacant and lifeless, as though she had lost all hope.

Half human, half zombie?

Lu Chen's gaze sharpened. He noticed that the girl's body seemed to have undergone some kind of mutation. Half her skin was human, while the other half was a zombie's bluish gray.

"Don't... don't come near me..." The girl raised her head and spoke in a hoarse voice. A flicker of lucidity actually passed through her eyes.

"I... I'll lose control..."

Just then, Lu Chen's ear twitched slightly. He heard a rapid set of footsteps approaching fast.

"Damn, looks like Professor Zhao has noticed something's wrong."

"I need to get out of here quickly."

Just as he was about to leave.

"Tap, tap, tap..."

A rapid succession of footsteps sounded in the distance, drawing closer.

"Seal off the area! Don't let a single fly escape!"

Professor Zhao's voice, carrying a barely perceptible tremor, echoed through the passage.

Lu Chen turned his head, the corners of his mouth lifting into a meaningful smile.

"Interesting. Looks like tonight... I'm going to have some real fun..."

The footsteps drew closer and closer, and Professor Zhao's furious voice came with them. "Seal off the area!

Don't let a single fly escape!" Lu Chen raised an eyebrow. Well, well, the old man was getting desperate.

"Time's running out, girl. Hold on tight!" Lu Chen grinned, a hint of wickedness in his smile.

He had no time to waste on this bunch of lackeys.

He scooped up the trembling Test Subject 09. She was so light that holding her was like holding a scarecrow.

"Don't be afraid. I'm here, and I'll keep you safe." Lu Chen lowered his voice, a hint of irreverence in his tone, as though he were holding a frail girl from next door rather than a dangerous half-human, half-zombie test subject.

"Trust me, I can save you," he said softly.

Test Subject 09 froze for a moment, and a fleeting glimmer seemed to pass through her vacant eyes. She could sense that this man gave off a different kind of aura: dangerous, yet full of hope.

The smell of disinfectant filled the air, mixed with a faint trace of blood that stung Lu Chen's nose.

He could feel the girl's body trembling in his arms and hear the footsteps drawing ever closer in the distance.

Looks like I'll have to get a little more serious... Lu Chen muttered to himself. Holding Test Subject 09, he flashed forward and vanished at the end of the dim corridor.

But no one noticed that Test Subject 09's once-vacant eyes were now fixed unblinkingly on Lu Chen's profile. Her gaze seemed to hold a trace of emotion that even she couldn't understand.

Lu Chen raced through the corridor with 09 in his arms, the wind whistling past his ears like the whisper of the Grim Reaper.

The floor was pitted and strewn with fragments of laboratory equipment, which looked especially menacing under the dim lights.

Suddenly, rapid footsteps came from ahead, accompanied by the sharp clatter of metal.

"Stop!" A fierce shout shattered the silence of the corridor.