Ch 49: The Unfinished Experiment
Huang Mao had been waiting in the Negative Ninth Floor waiting room for 12 hours, but this time, the staff opening the gate were here to escort him.
“Finally my turn! Your work efficiency is too low! I’m so sleepy from waiting!”
Huang Mao complained. Unlike the beautiful woman who had escorted him to the waiting room, this time it was two armed guards.
They didn’t react to Huang Mao’s words, simply flanking him and moving towards their destination.
“I’m tired, where’s my room? I want to sleep now. Why does this floor seem to be all laboratories? Where’s the living area…?”
Huang Mao felt increasingly uneasy at the sight before him. He remembered the blind old man saying they were all experimental subjects and didn’t need accommodation; at the time, he thought the old man was talking nonsense.
But all he saw along the way were laboratories!
The person in that room had never come out, so how could the old man have seen these laboratories?
Huang Mao fell silent, a hint of nervousness rising in his heart. Although he found the old man’s words absurd, the scene before him didn’t look like there was anywhere for people to stay.
This floor looked like a research center, and also like a hospital.
In his anxiety, he arrived at a room, with a bed in the center.
It was less a bed and more like a multi-functional dentist’s chair, with some equipment connected to it. More accurately, the whole room resembled an operating room.
Several people in lab coats were already standing there, watching him.
“Did we go to the wrong place?”
Huang Mao broke out in a cold sweat at this sight and tried to open the door behind him, but the guards blocked his movement.
“Come and lie down, we’ll give you a checkup.”
The person in the lab coat spoke kindly, as if talking to a child afraid of the dentist.
A checkup at the base seemed normal; after all, with the zombie virus outbreak outside, they couldn’t just let people live there directly.
Huang Mao thought this, cheering himself up and deciding his fears were overblown.
Moreover, the two guards didn’t look like they would let him leave.
Huang Mao could only lie on the bed.
But once he lay down, his hands and feet were secured by steel locks on the bed.
“What are you doing!”
Huang Mao panicked. What kind of checkup would restrict his freedom of movement like this?
A person in a lab coat picked up a mask, offered no explanation, and fastened it onto Huang Mao’s struggling face.
In moments, Huang Mao was asleep like a child.
“Blue Crystal Core implantation into living subject, Experimental Subject No. 53, 23-year-old male. Crystal Core implanted: Electricity-type. Experimental subject’s ability type: Enhancement type. Target implantation location: Heart. Experiment commencing.”
After simple disinfection, a scalpel cut open Huang Mao’s chest…
Earlier, when Huang Mao left, he had boasted that it was finally his turn, that he was the most powerful in the room.
Zhou Mi didn’t care; as long as he and his daughter were safe, he could wait. He knew that the base received many survivors, and that arranging rooms one by one was normal.
He was already extremely grateful that they had been saved; waiting a little longer was nothing.
Besides, people were constantly being called out of this room and others were constantly entering; it was just a matter of waiting.
The door opened again. “Zuo Jianping.”
The old man beside Zhou Mi trembled, unlike the others’ eagerness.
He slowly stood up, sighed, and looked at his daughter in Zhou Mi’s arms.
The old man leaned into his ear and whispered, “There’s a freight elevator 30 meters to the southeast. The password should be 1218. If you can, take the child and escape.”
Zhou Mi was puzzled. Why escape? What was the old man talking about? How did he know the elevator’s location and password?
Thinking about the old man’s words, Zhou Mi furrowed his brow and recalled the entire process.
Inquiring about abilities was normal, but after their abilities were known, the staff had indeed shown a look of disdain.
And they had handed over their mobile phone, but didn’t the team members use mobile phones to communicate on their way back to the base from the front lines?
Could it be that only those going on missions outside could have mobile phones…?
Why did this waiting room not even have a window? More than a rest room, it resembled a detention cell; the gate was a thick metal door.
Zhou Mi felt a little panicked, worried about his sleeping daughter.
If they got out, he would carefully observe the surroundings; if anything was wrong, he would save his daughter even if it cost his life.
The door opened again.
“Zhou Mi, Zhou Yu’an.”
The man’s joy upon entering the base was gone; he picked up his daughter and walked out heavily.
Two guards led the way, one in front and one behind. Zhou Mi carefully looked around.
It was all laboratories and equipment; his unease grew stronger. He recalled the old man’s words: there was a freight elevator to the southeast.
“Excuse me, I need to use the restroom; I’ve been waiting for too long and need to relieve myself.”
The two guards exchanged a glance. “Hurry up then.”
They changed direction, leading the man towards the restroom.
Indeed, they saw the elevator in the southeast, but the restroom was at the far end, and they were about to miss the elevator.
Zhou Mi had no chance to get into the elevator; even if he did, he would be immediately subdued by the two guards.
He carried his daughter, his steps heavy.
“What are you dawdling for? Hurry up!”
The guard was becoming wary of Zhou Mi’s behavior.
Zhou Mi had no choice but to grab a trash can in the corridor and throw it at the guard, using his fastest speed to rush towards the freight elevator with his daughter.
In moments, he was easily subdued by the guards.
“You’re quite clever.”
Throwing a trash can while carrying his daughter did nothing; a guard with a Restraint-Type Ability had already bound his hands, and another guard took his daughter.
“Nannan!”
The sudden movement caused Zhou Yu’an to cry, but the guards gave them no chance to breathe, directly taking him to the operating room.
“Let me go, give me back my daughter!”
Zhou Mi was powerless; the guards took Zhou Yu’an to another room.
Zhou Mi saw the operating table before him.
“How did you find out?”
The person in a lab coat in the room looked at Zhou Mi’s registration information. “Waking up knowing the current time… a useless ability, but a rare Time-Based ability. This sample is good.”
Zhou Mi now fully believed the old man’s words, but it was too late.
Zhou Mi didn’t answer the person in the lab coat, but struggled violently; everything indicated that his daughter was also undergoing this.
His daughter would also be used for experiments! At this thought, Zhou Mi’s eyes turned red. In the apocalypse, he had fought to protect his family, and now only his daughter remained, yet he had put her in danger with his own hands.
The strength of an ordinary person was insignificant; the guards easily restrained Zhou Mi on the operating table.
A person in a lab coat fastened a mask onto Zhou Mi’s face, and Zhou Mi fell asleep.
Zhou Mi thought his ability was waking up knowing the time because as long as he fell asleep, a time panel appeared before him, constantly moving.
It was like the screen of an electronic watch, constantly repeating in his dreams, no matter what scene he dreamed of, that time-displaying screen was always there.
And he had checked several times after waking up, and it matched the normal time.
The suffering Zhou Mi wept in his dreams; he knew that he and his daughter would become experimental subjects and would most likely face death.
“If only I could go back to before we got on the vehicle…”
Given another chance, he would never place his hope on going to the Esper Base.
No matter how difficult, he would struggle to keep his Nannan alive.
The time panel in his dream began to shake violently, and Zhou Mi saw the time on the screen going backward.
Time froze at noon that day, when he and his daughter had encountered the Esper Base team.
A strong light flashed in his dream, and Zhou Mi slowly opened his eyes.
