Chapter 446: Dr. Deng's Clue
"You," Xu Huo pointed at Tong Jian, "try walking out the door."
"Non-ticket players can't leave once the instance closes either," Kong Cheng said.
"Seeing is believing." Xu Huo didn't believe it at all and insisted Tong Jian follow his instructions.
Tong Jian looked at Kong Cheng, and only after he nodded did he walk toward the main entrance. Like the ticket players, he was blocked by an invisible barrier, and striking the nearby glass and walls had no effect either.
"Satisfied?" Tong Jian turned back.
Xu Huo then signaled the Kong siblings to move away from the elevator position, then escorted Dr. Deng toward the elevator.
As they walked, Dr. Deng broke into a sweat and said, "Be careful, don't cut me..."
"Shut up!" Xu Huo yanked him and dragged him into the elevator, then said to the Kong siblings, "You stay here. If I find out the elevator is running, you know the consequences."
With that, he signaled Gan Qing and Chu Yuan to follow.
The four took the elevator back down to the first underground floor. As soon as they got off, Xu Huo released Dr. Deng and had Chu Yuan and the others move tables and chairs to block the elevator doors, keeping the elevator on that floor.
The elevator alarm rang for thirty seconds before going silent. Chu Yuan looked confused and asked, "Why did we come down? Wouldn't it be better to stay upstairs and make them come down? There's still a timed explosive ghost in the lab."
"You don't want to fight them for the potion, do you?" Gan Qing speculated.
"With this time, it's better to look for Wu Xiaonan and Qiu Xiangdong," Xu Huo said. "See if they're still alive."
The two didn't understand. He didn't even care whether Miao Yu lived or died, so why was he so concerned about Wu Xiaonan and Qiu Xiangdong? To be honest, the Kong siblings going upstairs meant Wu Xiaonan was most likely dead. Qiu Xiangdong had a better chance of being alive, but he hadn't shown himself yet, and he might not come out now either.
"Qiu Xiangdong has already shown himself," Xu Huo said. "You two go find them first, whether dead or alive, just get some news."
Hearing this, Chu Yuan and Gan Qing had no choice but to go look for them.
After they left, Xu Huo took out the Silent Figure and said to Dr. Deng, who was squatting on the ground holding his head and trembling, "Stop pretending. No one can hear us talking."
Dr. Deng looked up at him. "What are you talking about?"
"The collection item you used to disguise your identity was too fake. And hinting to the Kong siblings that those people weren't here for the instance—of course they had another purpose for being here."
"Last time in the west half of the lab when I fought Kong Hui, you also tried to run. Hinting about ticket players was just to make both sides fight."
"You're carrying a prop too, but you didn't use it when I took you hostage. You also wanted to get rid of the Kong siblings."
Dr. Deng seemed to snap out of his shock. He calmed down a bit and forced a smile. "You're pretty sharp."
"Thanks for the compliment, but no need for pleasantries," Xu Huo said. "What potion is the Bolen Clan looking for?"
Dr. Deng gave him a strange look. "Don't you already know? The S-grade Evolution Potion."
He paused, then added, "You don't know what the S-grade potion is used for?"
"Is the S-grade potion I'm talking about the same as the one you mean?" Xu Huo expressed doubt.
Dr. Deng laughed instead, speaking in riddles. "It's the one you think it is."
Xu Huo pointed at the messy corridor behind him. "Do you think the S-grade potion is still hidden in the lab at this point?"
Dr. Deng nodded firmly. "Otherwise, why would the Bolen Clan keep sending wave after wave of players and experts? Plenty of people died before me. If I weren't forced into a corner, I wouldn't have come here."
"Did you find the S-grade potion?" Xu Huo scrutinized him, not believing he could have hidden the potion under the watch of the Kong siblings and others.
"Didn't find it. That was just a temporary measure earlier," Dr. Deng said.
"But you have a clue, right?" Xu Huo pressed. "Otherwise, you'd die when the instance ends too. Or do you have a way to leave the Saier Coast?"
He added, "I advise you to tell the truth. I don't have much patience either."
Dr. Deng hesitated briefly before saying, "Since you know about the S-grade potion, you should also know it's useless for players who've used evolution agents multiple times..."
"But it has value," Xu Huo said. "Maybe the Kong siblings have already found a way to contact the Bolen Clan. By the time the instance ends, a large number of players will surround this lab. You can take your time thinking about it."
"It's just my guess. I might not be able to find the potion." Dr. Deng's eyes flickered, showing he didn't trust Xu Huo either, even though he had deliberately switched from the Crimson Sword to a chainsaw when fighting Kong Hui.
Xu Huo stared at him for two seconds before saying, "Are you worried I'll hand the potion over to the Bolen Clan?"
For Dr. Deng, neither the Bolen Clan nor the ticket players were trustworthy, but despite being at a disadvantage, he had chosen the ticket players' side, showing he desperately wanted to escape the Bolen Clan.
Dr. Deng remained silent.
Xu Huo continued, "You don't have to worry about me handing the potion to someone with ill intentions. At least here, it will definitely be used for the right purpose."
Professor Wu, Dr. Wu—he suspected Dr. Wu had deliberately placed the S-grade potion in the lab. Its purpose was obvious: it would be more suitable for use on a player beginning the perfect evolution process.
Although Dr. Deng didn't trust him, the verbal assurance gave him some comfort.
"Kong Cheng probably won't stay obediently upstairs," he said worriedly.
"Every delay buys us time." Xu Huo signaled him to reveal where the S-grade potion might be hidden.
Mentioning this, Dr. Deng perked up. "I've studied Professor Wu. His biggest hobbies in the lab, besides painting, are tinkering with androids."
"You've seen the damaged androids in the lab. The Bolen Clan swept through them all—functional or recreational, none were spared. To put it bluntly, even the walls and floors have been scanned. If the potion still hasn't been found, there are only two possibilities."
"One: the potion isn't stored in injection form, which is why they brought in specialized potion experts."
"Two: they haven't looked in the right place."
Xu Huo thought for a moment and said, "The only place in the entire lab that hasn't been searched is the corpse pile on the third underground floor."
Dr. Deng shook his head. "The corpse pile has been searched too, and more than once. The mutant plants you see now grew later. The old corpses were digested, and new ones covered them."
"Previously, the Bolen Clan speculated that this lab instance had a self-cleaning function, which is why corpses were regularly transported to the third floor to nourish the flowers."
"But from what we see now, it's clearly not the lab using corpses to nourish flowers—it's the ghost. There's a time interval, and since the ghost is mobile, it could have moved the potion to complete the concealment," Xu Huo interjected.
(Chapter End)