Chapter 185: Zombie Siege Practice
“If you already knew how terrifying the fifth mutation would be, then why did you come out and establish a base?”
While searching for the tallest building in the dormitory area, Tang Xinjue did not forget to question the bespectacled man:
“Was it to find yourselves a nice place to be buried with dignity?”
The bespectacled man: “Of, of course not!”
He followed behind like a chick with his hands tied, taking one careful step after another, afraid that Tang Xinjue might walk a little too fast and leave him behind. His forehead was drenched in sweat, and he had no time to come up with excuses to save face, so he could only tell the truth:
“We originally wanted to complete the human enhancement agent first. Once it was enhanced to a certain level, the people injected with it would lose their minds and only obey orders. Then, on the final day, we could, could use them as human shields and have them draw the zombies away…”
“But, but that’s only the preliminary version!” The bespectacled man hurriedly explained again. “The final version of the human enhancement agent is called YDMB. It will bring us into a higher realm beyond our current form of life. You have no idea how great this is!”
Unexpectedly, the moment he brought this up, his expression became somewhat crazed. He even tried to grab Tang Xinjue and preach his ideas to her:
“Don’t look down on it just because it’s a tiny tube of liquid. Do you know how much powerful energy it contains? Let me put it this way, even if it only uses fifty percent of its effects, even if a person’s head is severed, they can still come back to life!”
Tang Xinjue looked at him: “Then how much of its energy have you activated so far?”
The bespectacled man choked: “About… five percent…”
Tang Xinjue drawled: “Then that means you probably can’t research out its full value at all. But that’s fine. The waves behind the Yangtze River drive on those before them*. I believe it will surely meet better people.”
*Literal meaning of 长江后浪推前浪. an idiom that referred to the new generation replaces and surpasses the old.
The bespectacled man: …
His face flushed red, but he had nothing to say.
Especially when he saw Tang Xinjue’s consistently calm expression and gentle, sincere tone, the boy, who had failed to brainwash anyone no matter how hard he tried, even began to suffer a crisis of faith in himself.
“Dongying, what happened to you? Were you bitten?”
When they met up with the other organizers again, the others looked at the bespectacled man in horror, wearing expressions of grief at the loss of a comrade.
“Dongying, rest in peace, sob sob sob—”
“He wasn’t bitten. He just lost confidence in himself.”
Tang Xinjue kindly interrupted them.
The bespectacled man, his face gray and lifeless, also slowly raised his head: “No, I can’t accept this. I’m the person most suited to developing YDMB. I have to see the day it’s fully completed. I have to see it change the world!”
“What YDMB? What changing the world?” Another organizer who had been mourning stopped and looked confused. “Aren’t we just researching some kind of stimulant? The kind that could make us a lot of money if we sold it.”
The bespectacled man: “…Go die! A bunch of idiots! How could I know such faithless wastes like you!”
The others rolled their eyes at him and continued crying.
“Wuwuwu, if we had faith, why would we have followed you? The laboratory was just too hard. In our next life, we absolutely won’t enter a laboratory again, wuwuwu…”
“……”
Ignoring the organizers’ wailing, Tang Xinjue asked Zhang You, who had sent out the signal to regroup: “Did you find it?”
Zhang You nodded. “Found it.”
After the four of them compared and calculated repeatedly, there really was one building in the entire dormitory area that, despite having the same number of floors, was inexplicably a little taller than the others.
And this building was the one they had stayed in for three consecutive nights.
Building 33!
Returning to 606 from the balcony was not difficult, nor was climbing from the sixth floor to the rooftop.
But bringing five useless people who could only cry and sob, while breaking through the upgraded zombies and climbing from the first floor all the way to the roof, was very difficult.
The four exchanged glances and called Yu Wei.
The call connected. Yu Wei’s voice sounded a little strange, but she readily agreed to help them set up the rope for everyone.
Tang Xinjue could hear that something was wrong with her voice and asked: “What happened?”
Yu Wei scratched her head. “It’s nothing, really. I just keep feeling like there’s someone outside the door… It might just be a zombie, though.”
After all, at this stage, the chances of encountering a person were far lower than encountering a zombie. Somehow, the former had even begun to seem more frightening.
Tang Xinjue: “Contact us immediately if anything happens.”
Yu Wei instantly felt much safer. “Okay!”
Using the rope Yu Wei threw down, the four of them went “upstairs” in batches. Zheng Wanqing and Guo Guo were responsible for attracting and defending against the nearby zombies, while Tang Xinjue and Zhang You were responsible for bringing the others up. Before the zombie swarm could gather, they successfully got everyone onto the rooftop.
After climbing several times, they also discovered the source of the height discrepancy:
There was an extra half-floor’s worth of height between the ceiling of the sixth-floor dormitory and the rooftop!
Moreover, most of the space inside was hollow, with only a small section filled with something.
Zhang You put away the measuring instrument and sighed. “That’s right. It’s right above our dormitory.”
Anyone with a functioning brain could tell that, in this dungeon, the candidates were like an anchor nailed directly into the center of all the trouble. They would never be absent.
“Now it’s your turn to be useful.”
Tang Xinjue looked toward the five former laboratory members sprawled on the ground.
The five: …They were weak, helpless, and pitiful. What could they possibly do?
Ten minutes later, as they swung shovels and dug at the ground, they once again gained a profound understanding that human potential was limitless.
Even with their legs trembling like jelly, after Zheng Wanqing knocked one person unconscious with a punch from her metal arm, the remaining four could still stubbornly pick up shovels and dig with all their strength.
606 did not idle around either. They ate breakfast beside them.
Guo Guo happened to be rummaging through Zhang You’s storage bag, asking for the nth time:
“You jie, is there anything you don’t have?”
Zhang You pointed out: “These aren’t my personal belongings. They’re shared supplies for our dormitory. So as a member of the dormitory, shouldn’t you also take responsibility for replenishing supplies? For example, learn how to repair instruments, make weapons, do carpentry, electrical work, and so on?”
Guo Guo was dumbfounded.
“…You jie, you’ve changed. Jue shen has infected you. Da xiaojie, come look at her!”
When she turned around, Zheng Wanqing had somehow slipped over to the other side of the rooftop and was pretending to sharpen her blade, deliberately distancing herself from the conversation.
“I found something! There, there seems to be something inside!”
One of the organizers suddenly shouted. He was even more excited about digging something up than Tang Xinjue and the others had been, and actually collapsed from dizziness caused by lack of oxygen.
The other laborers also held their breath, their hearts hanging high.
“Let me take a look.”
Zheng Wanqing pushed the others aside, gathered her strength, and brought the shovel down in one mighty strike. She dug up the surface and a large chunk of soil along with it, revealing the black object inside in its entirety:
It was a huge black instrument. From a distance, it looked like some strange black box. Only when they moved closer could they see the densely packed wires covering it.
“That’s it!”
The bespectacled man also threw down his shovel and rushed over as if he had just seen his savior.
If they couldn’t dig it up, they might not be bitten to death by zombies, but they would probably work themselves to death here!
But the rest they had dreamed of still did not come.
Another, more important task immediately fell upon them:
How to activate this instrument and use it to contact the laboratory.
……
Time passed second by second. Aside from one person being knocked unconscious and another fainting from excitement, the remaining three organizers were still staring at the instrument and racking their brains.
Even Zheng Wanqing was getting sleepy, yet they still had not made any progress.
Tang Xinjue crossed her arms. “I remember you said this instrument was a product of your laboratory.”
The bespectacled man wiped away his sweat and timidly said yes.
“But judging by the look of things, you don’t seem very familiar with it.”
Another girl answered carefully: “Be, because it was made by another group in the laboratory. They also handled the technical work. We’re not very good with practical things. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have defected, we would have driven them out instead.”
The bespectacled man: “…What do you mean, defected? We left! We left with a major invention!”
Seeing that the two were about to start arguing, Zheng Wanqing raised her arm.
They instantly became as quiet as quails and seriously studied the instrument.
Zheng Wanqing, meanwhile, raised her arm and rubbed her eyes.
“Isn’t it almost time for the student council radio broadcast again?”
In this dungeon that was perpetually filled with the smell of blood, the radio had somehow become one of their few sources of entertainment. Even the student council’s voice seemed to have become less unpleasant.
Guo Guo took out her phone and checked the time.
“Not yet… Huh, Yu Wei is calling?”
The call connected, but Yu Wei’s voice on the other end was trembling slightly.
“Someone is knocking on the dormitory door.”
Their dormitory was being knocked on by zombies every day anyway.
606 had not yet reacted when they heard Yu Wei continue:
“She’s talking, too. She says she’s our neighbor from across the hall and wants to come in and meet us… Should I open the door?”
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