Chapter 915: The Inaccessible Laboratory
Shangguan Xi disagreed with Ding Wei's view. "If the sample really couldn't be taken out of the lab, it means the situation is more complicated than we think. What other players can't get their hands on, we might not be able to get either. In an instance, it's best not to overestimate yourself. Picking up leftovers isn't that easy."
"That's one possibility," Ding Wei said. "Another is that multiple players are locked in a standoff. Since the living sample wasn't taken out from the start, the chances of it being taken out now are slim."
"He has a point." Zhao Jiahuai also chimed in. "If the living sample really hasn't moved, either that place is extremely dangerous, or the sample has been abandoned. The sample could also be dead."
With their opinions divided, Teacher Ai turned to Xu Huo. "You decide."
"Let's go to the lab first." Xu Huo glanced toward the south gate. There were quite a few people over there, so he decided not to join the crowd for now.
Shangguan Xi gave him a puzzled look but didn't argue. Instead, he said, "We have to go to both places anyway. Going to the lab first is fine."
The car turned a corner and headed toward the lab.
The closer they got to their destination, the more chaotic the signs of battle became. Some half-destroyed buildings had been sliced clean through, and collapsed structures blocked parts of the main road.
"We'd have to use weapons to clear the way, which would consume energy. Let's take a detour." Teacher Ai instructed and changed direction.
At that moment, the two players following behind them slowed down and stopped tailing them.
"They're not following anymore?" Shangguan Xi was slightly surprised. He had assumed they were after the car.
"Look ahead," Teacher Ai said.
The group looked up and saw collapsed buildings not far ahead slowly rising into the air. Some building debris had already been floating weightlessly, but now the floating wreckage was much larger in area.
Seeing this, the people in the car grimaced in unison. If a player could manipulate gravity, they would have an absolute advantage in this ruined city.
Xu Huo's perception detected three players, and the gravitational changes in the space were very obvious. The force radiated from one of the players, covering an area beyond the outermost floating debris. However, at the edges, the power weakened, likely the limit of their control range.
Still, all three were on the periphery of the lab.
"Are we going to get crushed if we go over there?" Shangguan Xi tilted his head to look at the large patches of wreckage above. Some were half a building's floor, floating upside down and right over the road.
"Beep! Beep!" The car suddenly emitted an alarm. Teacher Ai immediately slowed down, his expression changing. "The front has detected contaminants."
"No wonder those two players didn't follow!" Ding Wei exclaimed. "What grade is the contaminant?"
"At least B-grade," Teacher Ai said. "The car only alarms at that level."
"It might be a leak from the experimental materials," Zhao Jiahuai said, looking ahead. "Are we still going in?"
"The other players seem to be staying outside," Shangguan Xi noted. "They arrived early but aren't going in. The situation can't be that simple."
Xu Huo turned to the two in the back seat. "We won't know the situation until we enter the lab. Shangguan Xi stays in the car. The three of us will go into the lab."
Zhao Jiahuai hesitated briefly but agreed. Ding Wei, however, didn't want to leave the car. "Is it enough to leave just Shangguan Xi? What if other players try to take the car?"
"Brother Xu, I'll go with you," Shangguan Xi immediately said.
"You stay in the car." Xu Huo looked at him. "If necessary, abandon the car. Protect the people."
"Understood." Shangguan Xi nodded.
"We'll enter the lab from different directions," Xu Huo said to Zhao Jiahuai. "Distract the other players. Give us ten minutes. Whether we get into the lab or not, if we don't find the living sample, return on time in ten minutes."
Then he said to Teacher Ai, "After we leave, drive the car to the edge of the floating debris area. Don't get any closer to the lab."
Teacher Ai nodded silently.
"I'll go too," Ding Wei spoke up again. "I see several players nearby. Having an extra person might help."
"Brother Xu, finding the living sample is up to you."
Xu Huo gave a slight nod. As soon as the car window opened, he used "Destination Arrival" to teleport directly to the lab.
One corner of the lab building had been destroyed. Black substances—like mold or patches of damp fungus clinging to the ground—covered the outer walls and the surrounding area. Looking inside from outside, every visible part of the building was overgrown with this stuff. In some places, it piled up and bulged out, oozing liquids of unknown color. The air was filled with black particles resembling dust.
As soon as he arrived outside the building, Xu Huo put on his Invisibility Cloak, but he was still stopped. A spatial barrier surrounded the lab, likely created by another player. The moment he was blocked, one of the three players quickly moved toward him.
Although the Invisibility Cloak could obscure his form, it wasn't hard for high-level players to pinpoint his location. So Xu Huo also used a Silent Figure. After leaving footprints outside the spatial barrier, he forcefully broke through it and entered the lab building, using his strings to leap straight to the second floor.
The moment he entered, the pursuing player arrived. The opponent accurately looked at the spot where he had entered, their eyes showing a hint of eagerness, but they still didn't follow him inside.
Once inside the building, Xu Huo quickly understood why several high-level players hesitated to enter. Even without directly touching the contaminants on the structure, the black dust in the air rapidly attached to his body. In no time, it began to multiply on his Invisibility Cloak and protective suit. Both the metal parts and the special materials of the suit showed varying degrees of corrosion within just a few dozen seconds.
Inside the lab, both the walls and doors were covered in contaminants. Finding the living sample wouldn't be easy, at least not in a very short time. The three player corpses lying in different spots, their bodies already half-covered by the growing contaminants, were proof enough.
But for Xu Huo, this wasn't bad news.
He poured some of the antidote made from King Fungus onto one of the corpses. The rapidly multiplying black substance quickly dissolved, but the player was already dead—the antidote couldn't work inside a human body.
He scraped off the area covered by the antidote, sealed it in a container, and stored it in his item box. Then he got up and searched the nearby rooms. The electronic instruments were all useless. He scraped at the wall until he found a lab map. Important experimental materials were stored underground. However, since this sample had been transported from outside, it might not be in the underground lab. But to survive these contaminants, it would at least be in a sealed, oxygen-supplied, tightly secured lab.
After identifying a few key locations, he turned to face the contaminants, which were unpleasant to both sight and touch. He directly plunged his hand into them and used "Life Core" to melt the metal wall.
The exposed skin touched the metal wall for only an instant, but the entire wall melted. The falling contaminants buried his lower legs. Looking at his blackened hand, Xu Huo poured a bottle of cleaning agent over it. After confirming that the toxin hadn't spread from his hand, he continued forward.
He checked three places in a row before finally discovering a living organism inside one of the labs.
(End of Chapter)