Chapter 59: Devil Father
They went back onto the road again, and the mindset and atmosphere around every single person had a perceivable transformation. The scene which seemed like a mass oath-taking session impacted not only Doris' group. Actually, ever since the change in New Zealand, Bai Yi's group had it quite good. They lacked neither food nor information throughout their journey, so they didn't feel it as much. However, after seeing that group of people, they finally realised that the world wasn't as easy as they imagined.
Live on, and see for ourselves why this world became so cruel!
……
Tongariro National Park laid in the central area of Northern New Zealand. It was the oldest National Park in the country. Trees covered the entire park densely with snow-capped mountains around it and flowing creeks within. The scenery was breathtakingly beautiful, and with its spectacular volcanoes and the ever-changing ecosystem, it was one of the top tourist destinations in New Zealand.
To summarize… this place was extremely big!
Bai Yi's group stopped at National Park (TN: Apparently there's really a small town called National Park there). This place was the last town before they entered Tongariro National Park. More than half of the road in front was covered by weeds and other plants. In reality, this was the reason why they travelled so slowly: these plants really grew too quickly. If they did not drive carefully, it would have been easy for the car to flip or fall into the thick bushes. If that happened, they would not be able to move.
Bai Yi stood on top of the car and looked at the direction of Tongariro National Park. In the distance was a vast plain, and even farther than that was a mountain range with snow-capped mountains. Due to the enhancement of the activated cells, everyone's vision become incomparable to how it was before, and they could see very clearly.
Bai Yi lightly jumped down from the car and stretched his body. His body had finally recovered by more than half at this point in time.
"Tongariro National Park Research Facility!" Bai Yi looked at Martin.
"En, it's at the feet of Mount Ruapehu."
"Let's set off then." Bai Yi nodded after hearing Martin's confirmation.
Although they said that it was a park, it was actually more like a protected nature reserve. The farther they headed inside the park, the more fully the road was covered by the plants. Until the end, the heavy truck had to drive in front and create a 'path' for them. Only then could the few small cars smoothly drive through. When they came to a stretch of forest, the road was thoroughly covered by thick tree roots and became completely impassable.
"Hong Qi Hua, Heloise, you guys go ahead and scout the surroundings. If the damaged road is too long, we will have to abandon our cars here." Bai Yi instructed the two of them after getting off the car and taking a look.
"En." Hong Qi Hua replied, then ran off with Heloise.
"Hey Bai Yi, you should've let me go with Heloise." Woolf got off the car and said to Bai Yi.
"I can't do that; your body size and agility isn't suitable for a scouting mission. Hong Qi Hua and Heloise both fused with cat genes, so things like this are much easier for them. Now then, stop pestering me so much. Everyone be on guard. Be careful of ambushes from strange insects and animals." Bai Yi ignored Woolf and said to the rest.
This place was still relatively close to the road, and empty patches of land could still be found. The underbrush in other areas nearby grew so much that it was even taller than humans now.
After more than an hour, Hong Qi Hua and Heloise ran back and shook their heads at Bai Yi.
"It's not possible, this road through the forest is completely ruined. If we wanted to fix it, then we'd have to spend too much time." Hong Qi Hua said.
"We will abandon the cars then. Pack up our stuff and we'll continue on foot." Bai Yi said.
"Ah what lousy luck, we have to abandon the cars now." Woolf scratched his head. Woolf now neared 2.8 meters, and looked just like a real monster. With a body size like his, manual labour definitely fell to him.
The group of them were long prepared for a situation like this. After packing their food, medicine and weapons, they immediately set off again. As expected, Woolf himself carried a 4 meter plus bag made from monster skin, and it was packed full of food. Actually, this wasn't considered too heavy to Woolf now. He was already approaching 3 meters tall, with the addition of the gigantic bag he was carrying, he seemed like a moving hill.
Of course, everyone else carried some things with them as well, as all of them had decent physical strength by now.
"Momo, do you want to come and sit on top?" Woolf said to Momo.
Momo looked at the monster skin bag swaying as Woolf moved, and at Sharpei at the side. She immediately shook her head and rejected him, climbing onto Sharpei's back. Ever since Sharpei became big, Momo loved to ride Sharpei and run around.
"Momo, walk by yourself. Remember to keep up with us." Bai Yi suddenly said.
Momo was just about to climb onto Sharpei's back, but immediately looked at her daddy after hearing his words. After a while, she realised that her daddy had no intention of changing his mind and helplessly replied in a thin voice: "En!"
The others saw Momo's plea for help from her eyes. They'd like to help but they were unable to do anything as well. Bai Yi really did love Momo, but every time Bai Yi wanted to teach Momo something, the rest of them had completely no say in it. Even if it was Mavis or Sara speaking, it was still completely useless. In Bai Yi's words, over-pampering was the same as harming the child.
Bai Yi followed beside Momo, letting her run along with everyone else. He never changed his mind and he didn't even hold her hand while they ran. After using her puppy eyes on her daddy a few times, she finally gave up and knew that her daddy wouldn't change his mind. Unwillingly, Momo could only run along with her short legs, trying hard to follow everyone else. Bai Yi and the rest had such a tough time running through the forest, let alone Momo. Any small obstacle in this place was enough to completely engulf Momo.
Very quickly, Hong Qi Hua and the rest ran along the road and disappeared in front, leaving Momo, Bai Yi, and Sharpei behind.
"Daddy!" Momo fell down again, her eyes looking like they were about to cry, making her seem very pitiable yet adorable.
"Stand up. If there's a branch blocking you then chop it off yourself!" Bai Yi said, drawing his broadsword and hacked apart a branch blocking their way on the road. Only after awhile did Momo purse her lips and draw her own short sword, learning from whatever Bai Yi did.
"Grab your sword well and mind the angle. Isn't it too stupid if you accidentally hurt yourself? Also, move faster, how long do you want others to wait for you?" Bai Yi said to Momo.
Momo kept on holding onto her willpower, as well as a bit of hope, hoping that somebody would come and help her, hoping that her daddy would be soft-hearted… Very unfortunately, after running for the entire afternoon, Momo's entire body became covered in dirt from all the sweat and dust, but there was still no sign of older sister Hong Qi Hua or Sara. Nobody came to help her, really nobody did. Even Sara, who doted on her the most usually, did not come. As she felt disappointed, her mindset gradually started to change as well.
Your daddy is really damn scary when he gets serious!
It was definitely a joyful thing to receive help from your friends, but you definitely couldn't put all your hope on that, Momo!
Only when the sky turned dark did Bai Yi carry Momo and raise his speed. After an hour, they finally caught up with Hong Qi Hua and the rest of them. At this time, they had already set up a camp on a relatively undamaged patch of road. The tar road always felt quite dirty normally, but at this time it was much better than the soil and vegetation everywhere.
Momo wiped herself clean simply and then very quickly fell asleep after eating. After such a long period of high-speed running in the afternoon, she was already extremely exhausted. This was still after being strengthened by the activated cells. Normally she could never endure to this extent.
"You are really strict!" Mavis said.
"China has a saying: a benevolent mother raises a failure!" Bai Yi said.
"You are a devil, devil father!" Sara said in a fit of discontentment. Honestly speaking, even she felt her heart ache seeing Bai Yi train Momo like this. Momo was still so young. Normally she could even see some teenagers whine and try to curry favour with their parents. "Why did Momo choose you at the start? If I knew earlier…" Sara kept on muttering to herself.
"Ah..." Bai Yi smiled and neither retorted nor tried to explain himself.
……
After a few days, they finally reached the place where the research facility was located. Everyone really suffered a lot. By now they finally knew the large difference between walking and driving, this was especially so in the New Zealand that became like a primordial forest. This was still them moving along the original road, and they could roughly see where to go. If they really had to travel in the wilderness, they didn't know if they could cover even one tenth of the distance.
Along the way they encountered numerous evolved lifeforms both large and small, and almost everyone fused with another one or two genes in some unexpected situation. Only Bai Yi and Momo remained the same without any changes.
"Here?" Bai Yi asked Martin.
"En, this is also what I saw by chance, along with the document about the drug to regain human form. In reality, where every research facility is located is a secret to low level researchers. I saw the document that time just out of luck." Martin added.
"Then we'll enter. Be careful." Bai Yi said to everyone.
By now, everyone's appearance had completely changed, looking just like a group of demi-humans from different races. You couldn't even tell that Woolf and Martin were humans anymore, they were completely monsters. Similarly, colourful patterns appeared all over Bai Yi's body, making him look like a mutated caterpillar.
Everybody placed their hopes on the drug to regain human form that Martin talked about, or else even if they managed to return to human society, they would never be able to stay in it.
Entering the unassuming building, everyone slowly searched the place and finally found an electric cable train heading downwards. Bai Yi tested it and realised that this research facility still had power.
"The generators inside the research facilities are all independent. They all have their own miniaturized nuclear reactor inside." Martin explained.
"How advanced, but what I'm worried about isn't this. I can't help but feel this scene feels mysteriously familiar." Bai Yi looked at the electric train and did not immediately get in.
"Resident Evil!" A few of them immediately said at the same time. (TN: Imagine a train with just one cabin, just like the one the movie characters escape from the Hive in. And it starts!)
Chapter 60: Unfortunate Beginnings
Resident Evil can be said to be the classic among the classics back then, and it created a scene of a cruel apocalypse in many people's minds. Basically, as long as they had a chance most people would go and watch this series. This electric cable train looked extremely similar to the electric cable train that was used to exit the Hive in the movie.
"This place isn't the Hive, right?" Bai Yi creased his eyebrows and asked Martin.
"I don't think so…" Martin couldn't be sure himself.
"To think of it, I still can't understand why the largest facility was built inside a National Park." Mavis added in.
"This isn't the biggest research facility. This is just the research facility with the Progenitor. How the research on activated cells progressed was completely up to chance, so the facilities weren't really built purposefully to be the largest or the smallest. Back then, this research facility wasn't too big, but it just happened that the Progenitor was born here, so this place became much more important. It wasn't convenient to move the Progenitor, and even though what we were researching was the same thing, everyone still wished to gain greater recognition and importance, so the Progenitor was kept here all along." Martin explained.
"Is the research facility controlled by a computer?" Bai Yi asked.
"Not completely. The one with the highest authority inside is still a human. However, other than that guy, the other researchers have no such authority. We were all unable to enter and exit as we pleased. If not for the experimental monsters escaping, I might've still been trapped inside the Northern Hamilton Research Facility." Martin explained.
"Do you have a map of this place?" Bai Yi asked again.
Martin very straightforwardly shook his head. Everyone wasn't in a good mood. They didn't even have a map and it was needless to say how important the research facility with the Progenitor inside was. If they were really trapped a few hundred meters underground like in the Resident Evil movie, they might not have the fortune to come back alive.
"Let's move!" Bai Yi took a deep breath and said to the others.
Even if they felt a strange déjà vu, or had a bad feeling in their guts, they had no other choice now. Unless they were willing to live their entire lives as a monster, entering this underground research facility was their only choice. Moreover, this was the entire reason for their long journey.
……
While Bai Yi's group was entering the research facility from the normal entrance, there was another group of people rapidly approaching. Beside Yu Han was his now team leader and teammate. The leader was actually more than 4 meters tall, with long fur growing all over his body and having 4 huge arms. There were even a pair of wings behind him, looking just like a sinister giant gorilla monster. The most important thing was that this guy was walking very amiably beside Yu Han.
"You said that this research facility has a drug that can let us regain human form?"
"Yes, didn't team leader already confirm this matter?" Yu Han said respectfully.
In this team now, Yu Han was already not the leader. In this world now, strength meant authority. Bentham was the real experimental monster that escaped from the research facility, a being that entered the LV2 Metamorphose Stage.
Just as Martin said before, a lifeform would generate its 'absolute lifefield' after entering LV2. Through the use of their absolute lifefield, humans can actively manipulate and use the special energy inside their bodies. This was the real active usage of special energy, and not a passive enhancement like increasing a person's strength or agility.
In Yu Han's eyes, Bentham's control and usage of energy still seemed to be very crude, but his strength was already worlds above his. The power of this guy was already becoming similar to the characters in animes and movies. Looking at this kind of situation, Yu Han yearned to improve even more. Rather than living a life of mediocrity, why not dive into this unknown world?
"Team leader, can we really find this research facility?" Yu Han asked. Even though he knew that there was a drug to regain human form in Tongariro National Park Research Facility, he did not know where the research facility was exactly. After entering the National Park, Bentham had been bringing them and moving along in a straight line until they had reached this place.
"It's right in front!"
"It hasn't been long since you guys fused with the Progenitor's activated cells, so you guys can't feel it yet. In truth, ever since entering Tongariro National Park, I can feel an intimidating aura. There can be no mistake, this aura came from the Progenitor." Bentham said, his eyes being indescribably heavy.
Really?
Everyone felt shocked, but since it was Bentham that said it, they did not have any objections, because Bentham was much stronger than them.
Very quickly, they came to a giant hole in the ground more than 30 meters in diameter. The hole was so deep that all they could see was pitch darkness when they looked down, and the soil around it still looked very new. This was the hole ripped open in the ground by the Progenitor's eruption at the start. The researchers filled back the hole partially, but after a few days when the activated cells epidemic broke out completely, nobody cared about the things here anymore.
"It's here, I can feel it. The Progenitor is right below us, but her aura is very weak now."
"We will go down and dig into the research facility to look for the drug to regain human form that you talked about." Bentham said. Bentham did not wait for anyone to object, and abruptly grabbed all of them with one arm each and threw them inside the giant hole.
Other than Bentham in Yu Han's team, there were still three other new people. At this time, they felt instinctual fear looking at the bottomless hole, but they had no other choice. Bentham grabbed the four guys first, leaving Ning Xue and Khina standing at the edge of the giant hole.
Will we meet with Uncle Bai and the others?
Khina looked at pitch black hole and thought silently. Ning Xue came closer to Khina in fear. Although Khina looked like a real monster now, she was the only one that Ning Xue felt familiar with.
……
Bai Yi's group didn't know that Yu Han's group happened to come at this time as well. Moreover, Yu Han's team didn't come in through the normal entrance, but from the hole that the Progenitor made.
"How do we stop this thing?" Bai Yi asked everyone after the electric train started moving.
Bai Yi was a chef, and Hong Qi Hua was a university student majoring in law. Woolf was an ingredient shop owner, and Heloise a newly-wed who taught at Otorohanga Middle School for two years. Martin was a researcher, Mavis was a doctor, and Sara was a nurse. Warner and Momo were both kids, so there was no need to think about their professions. There wasn't anybody here who knew how to operate this electric train.
Martin immediately started to fiddle around with the controls, and after a few minutes the electric train finally started. However, looking at his face they knew that he was just randomly pressing buttons.
How do we stop this!
Everyone looked at each other and finally at Martin. Martin himself was also stunned, and started fiddling around with the controls again. Suddenly, everyone felt a sudden jerk and all of them could feel the train accelerating. Martin felt it as well and became more and more panicky, his right hand that was full of sharp hairs randomly pressing on the buttons.
Suddenly, an ear-piercing alarm rang inside the train, even if they used their ass to think they knew it meant nothing good.
Jump off the train?
Bai Yi pushed open the train door with force, and the tunnel wall was less than a meter away from the train. With such a narrow distance, if they jumped out then they'd definitely be squeezed between the train and wall, and grinded against the wall as the train moved. Even if it were with their physical bodies now, they would probably end up severely injured or dead. At this time, Bai Yi didn't have the time to scold anybody. To think of it, it was his lack of planning as well.
"Martin, try to stop the train. The others who have a lot of meat on them go to the end of the car, prepare to be a meat cushion. Be careful of your own knives and sharp metals, don't stab yourselves." Bai Yi said.
Woolf and Warner immediately ran towards the end of the train. They couldn't afford to be selfish at a time like this.
Bai Yi went to the sides of the cabin. When he entered the train he had seen the location of the wheels. He looked again now and saw a metal pole used as a handhold in the middle of the cabin. He immediately looked at his broadsword and took a deep breath. At this time, he could only have faith that the sword that Old Harvey gave him was really of high quality.
Bai Yi grabbed the sword with both hands and powerfully swung the sword.
'Clang!' the sound of metal clashing on metal rang out, the broadsword cut into the pole as if he were chopping a tree, and sliced into it by a third. Everyone felt quite shocked and speechless. This guy was becoming more and more monstrous. He'd said that he didn't know any manga-like sword techniques, but what was this?!
However, in the next moment everybody burst out laughing. Bai Yi's broadsword got stuck inside the metal pole and he couldn't pull it out. He even put one leg on the metal pole as support and tried his best to pull, but the posture that he was in made everyone laugh uncontrollably.
Bai Yi was of course not so monstrous. The main reason why he could cut through a third of the metal pole was due to the strength and sharpness of his sword. Old Harvey really managed to get his hands on a good sword. However, Bai Yi's sword technique was also gradually improving from nothing to something, from the most basic usage of strength to the sword techniques that went against common sense.
Bai Yi used his legs to push against the metal pole and finally managed to pull his sword out. After that he hacked a few more times and finally cut down the metal pole. At this time, Bai Yi realized that only some marks appeared on the broadsword. The edge wasn't even chipped.
"Woolf, come here and break open this area." Bai Yi said to Woolf.
Woolf did not hesitate and went over immediately to the place where Bai Yi pointed to and broke open a hole using his greatsword. From the opening in the cabin wall, they could see the rapidly spinning wheels.
"Martin, is it not stopping yet?!" Bai Yi shouted to Martin.
"Wait a moment, it's almost ready... almost…" Martin's own voice was also very nervous.
Bai Yi saw what Martin was like and knew that he couldn't depend on him. "Everyone hold on tight! Be careful of the shaking!" Bai Yi shouted loudly. After everyone grabbed on tight, Bai Yi immediately thrust the cut off metal pole into the gap between axle of the wheel.
Chapter 61: Yeye
Bai Yi thrust the pole inside the gap. With a sharp 'dang!', the powerful rotating force ripped the pole from Bai Yi's hands, and got stuck inside the axle. At this moment, the entire train started shaking and the sharp sound of metal and metal grinding against each other tore at their eardrums.
Intense sparks appeared on the tracks and the train gradually started to tilt. Bai Yi immediately grabbed Momo with one hand and the seat beside him with another.
Everyone was already prepared. The train started to tilt gradually and eventually landed heavily on its side on the tracks. The train shook violently as it skidded but everyone was stably grabbing onto something. After all, they were prepared, and they were already different from normal people. Intense sparks flew and the smoke from the great amount of friction filled the cabin, but everyone's expression was still relatively calm. The train speed was gradually slowed down as well.
Suddenly, the tail end of the trail forcefully rammed into something, everyone suddenly lost their grips and abruptly flew to the end of the train. However, Woolf and Warner were both ready and acted as meat cushions at the bottom. 'Bang! Crash! Clang!' After dozens of seconds passed, the train finally came to a stop, and the tail end seemed to have become compressed together.
After a moment, a foot violently kicked the train door. The door that had already become loose initially instantly flew out, revealing Bai Yi's miserable-looking figure.
Sharpei jumped out after Bai Yi, and the rest of them gradually came out from the wrecked train.
"How is everybody, is anybody injured?" Bai Yi asked after seeing that everyone had gotten out.
With everyone's ability now, in addition to their preparation, none of them would die from this but injuries were inevitable. After Mavis' check-up, only Woolf and Warner who were at the bottom suffered some injuries. After all, there was the immense impact and the weight of everyone else pressing onto them. Woolf's bled from his head while Warner's left arm bent at an unnatural angle, but luckily, these weren't major injuries.
"There's nothing major." Mavis nodded to Bai Yi after checking up on them.
"Ha~!" Bai Yi revealed an empty smile, and everyone suddenly felt very awkward. They had just entered the research facility and the team almost got wiped out! Especially Martin, if not for Bai Yi figuring out a way to stop the train at the last moment, they could only imagine what the result would be from the deadly impact.
"I'm sorry Bai Yi, I…" Martin wanted to explain himself.
"It's due to my lack of forethought. Now everyone gather. We need to discuss everything anew." Bai Yi said to everyone after Martin apologized.
"Judging from our professions and the incident just now, we have nobody here that is familiar with electronics. With such a big research facility, the defence would definitely be very tight. So now, we need to find a new teammate." Bai Yi said.
"New teammate?"
"I'm talking about the people inside the research facility. Martin didn't you say that other than the overall in charge, normal researchers didn't have the power to enter or leave this place as they pleased? If that was the case, then there should be a lot of people left in this research facility." Bai Yi explained.
"First, let's look for such a person. Then, we'll let the person join in a limited way…"
"Bai Yi, look over there!" Bai Yi wanted to continue talking, but Sara pointed towards a specific direction. In that direction they saw the open door towards the true research facility.
Bai YI turned his head and got surprised. Why is it open?
"Anyway, everyone be careful from now on. There aren't only gene-fused monsters here, but also various high-tech weaponry, I don't wish to see any of you getting cut into pieces by lasers." Bai Yi reminded again, before leading everyone towards the thick open door. Everyone else held their swords and guns cautiously, and followed behind Bai Yi.
"An elevator, should we go in?"
"No, we'll take the stairs. Anyways, we aren't lacking in stamina now. What we're afraid of are accidents." Bai Yi said and headed down the stairs. Everyone immediately recalled the scene in the electric train. If something had gone wrong in the elevator as well, then it wouldn't be as easy to survive a drop of a few hundred meters.
Very quickly, they reached the deeper building complex of the research facility. Bai Yi's group carefully searched every room that they came across. All the room doors were open and weren't locked as they expected it to be. They then finally came to a room with a few computers in it. Bai Yi looked at the rest of them, and they stared back at Bai Yi blankly.
Damn it, everyone here probably only knew how to surf the internet with their computers.
"Forget about it, we'll just take a look. It will be good if we can find a map of this place." Bai Yi prepared to switch on the computer, but realized that it was actually on standby mode.
After the screen lit up, the group of them tried to see what was on the screen, but in the next moment, the doors around them slammed shut instantly, trapping the group of them within the room and its corridor.
What did we trigger?
Hong Qi Hua immediately tried to see if she could open the glass door, but in the end, it didn't even budge an inch. Bai Yi continued to browse the information on the computer. Honestly speaking, there was a lot of information on the computer, but more than 90% of it was some remote and technical information about various lifeforms, so Bai Yi couldn't understand any of it. As for the parts that he could understand, it was completely useless in their current situation.
At this time, Woolf held onto his greatsword and gestured for the few of them to clear the way.
'DANG!', the sound of a great impact rang out. Woolf was still quite nonchalant at first, but in the end, there wasn't even a scratch on the reinforced glass door. Seeing that there was no effect, Woolf got serious and raised his greatsword with both his hands again.
"Stop your companion, otherwise I will activate the defence systems." Suddenly, a virtual image of a girl appeared on the computer screen. The girl seemed quite petite, and appeared to be innocent and childish. However, none of them dared to believe the surface image.
Bai Yi immediately raised his left hand at Woolf, telling him to stop.
"Who are you?"
"I should be the one asking you guys, who are you? You guys don't tally with any of the researchers working here, and based on your biological characteristics you guys should be experimental subjects here. However, your information doesn't tally with any of the data we have of the experimental subjects here either. The only remaining possibility is that you guys are invaders from outside." The virtual girl said.
"I guess we can be considered invaders, who are you?"
"I am the second artificial intelligence in this research facility, in charge of keeping all the experimental subjects locked up and preventing them from escaping." Yeye spun around and answered enthusiastically.
"I was asleep just now, but you guys suddenly woke me up. I still thought the monsters I locked up escaped, but since that's not the case then it's none of my business." Yeye yawned adorably and the reinforced glass door behind them opened by itself. Asleep, did she mean a computer in sleep mode?
"You're releasing us just like this? Aren't we invaders?" Bai Yi asked in doubt.
"That's my sister's job, it's not under my job scope and I can't be bothered either." Just like an actual spoiled child, Yeye really disappeared after speaking.
"She's totally a kid!" Sara said.
"No, she's only an artificial intelligence, the so-called 'like a kid' is just a setting for it. No matter how much she looks like a child, fundamentally she's an artificial intelligence. An AI doesn't have human emotions, only clear objectives and rules set on them. Since she already said that her job was to keep the experimental monsters locked up, the other safety matters inside this research facility are not her responsibility." Hong Qi Hua analyzed calmly.
"That means?"
"That means that if it's something she's not responsible for, she wouldn't care about it even if she had the ability to." Hong Qi Hua added on.
"Normally, your analysis would be correct, but Yeye isn't that kind of antique computer ok? I'm a true artificial intelligence. Do you want to try it? I can activate the defence system inside the research facility now, heh." Yeye jumped out suddenly. When she appeared again, there was a swimming pool in her background, and she seemed to be playing happily.
"Let's try it!" Hong Qi Hua nodded seriously.
"Are you sure? From the looks of it you have some status in this team, but you aren't the team leader. There isn't any hot weapons that can attack you guys now, there's only a toxic nerve gas. Are you sure you want to try?" Yeye laid down on her swimming float and teased. This kind of teasing tone, on the contrary, made the rest of them not dare to act recklessly.
"Yeye, do you mean that you can truly act independently?" Bai Yi asked.
"Who knows?" Yeye said childishly, but at this moment nobody could smile. If there really was some toxic nerve gas, they hadn't developed to the level where they could ignore such a thing.
"Can you tell us what exactly happened here?" Bai Yi asked. From the looks of it, this artificial intelligence called Yeye didn't seem to be hostile.
"Heh, do you think I will tell a bunch of invaders the cause behind everything?" Yeye said wilfully.
"Actually, it's just the eruption of the Progenitor, proliferation of the activated cells, Doctor Wang leaving the research facility, and taking older sister 'Sunlight' with him as well. In the entire research facility, other than the imprisonment of experimental subjects under my control, all other defences are in an inactivated state." She was clearly being wilful just a moment ago, but in the next moment she suddenly spewed out the entire situation.
The eruption of the Progenitor, Doctor Wang, older sister 'Sunlight'… Bai Yi's group suddenly felt that they discovered the truth behind New Zealand's change. Everything happened too fast and it was too simple as well. The bunch of them were still stunned trying to process everything.
……
"This place is the research facility!"
Bentham brought Yu Han and the others down the giant hole. Before they reached the deepest part, they could already see the broken layer in the construction. After throwing everyone into a ruined corridor, Bentham went back to fetch Ning Xue and Khina. As for Yu Han and the others, they shined their lights nearby, observing this giant hole that suddenly appeared and the ruined corridors nearby.
Invasion…Just what kind of power caused this?
Chapter 59: Devil Father
They went back onto the road again, and the mindset and atmosphere around every single person had a perceivable transformation. The scene which seemed like a mass oath-taking session impacted not only Doris' group. Actually, ever since the change in New Zealand, Bai Yi's group had it quite good. They lacked neither food nor information throughout their journey, so they didn't feel it as much. However, after seeing that group of people, they finally realised that the world wasn't as easy as they imagined.
Live on, and see for ourselves why this world became so cruel!
……
Tongariro National Park laid in the central area of Northern New Zealand. It was the oldest National Park in the country. Trees covered the entire park densely with snow-capped mountains around it and flowing creeks within. The scenery was breathtakingly beautiful, and with its spectacular volcanoes and the ever-changing ecosystem, it was one of the top tourist destinations in New Zealand.
To summarize… this place was extremely big!
Bai Yi's group stopped at National Park (TN: Apparently there's really a small town called National Park there). This place was the last town before they entered Tongariro National Park. More than half of the road in front was covered by weeds and other plants. In reality, this was the reason why they travelled so slowly: these plants really grew too quickly. If they did not drive carefully, it would have been easy for the car to flip or fall into the thick bushes. If that happened, they would not be able to move.
Bai Yi stood on top of the car and looked at the direction of Tongariro National Park. In the distance was a vast plain, and even farther than that was a mountain range with snow-capped mountains. Due to the enhancement of the activated cells, everyone's vision become incomparable to how it was before, and they could see very clearly.
Bai Yi lightly jumped down from the car and stretched his body. His body had finally recovered by more than half at this point in time.
"Tongariro National Park Research Facility!" Bai Yi looked at Martin.
"En, it's at the feet of Mount Ruapehu."
"Let's set off then." Bai Yi nodded after hearing Martin's confirmation.
Although they said that it was a park, it was actually more like a protected nature reserve. The farther they headed inside the park, the more fully the road was covered by the plants. Until the end, the heavy truck had to drive in front and create a 'path' for them. Only then could the few small cars smoothly drive through. When they came to a stretch of forest, the road was thoroughly covered by thick tree roots and became completely impassable.
"Hong Qi Hua, Heloise, you guys go ahead and scout the surroundings. If the damaged road is too long, we will have to abandon our cars here." Bai Yi instructed the two of them after getting off the car and taking a look.
"En." Hong Qi Hua replied, then ran off with Heloise.
"Hey Bai Yi, you should've let me go with Heloise." Woolf got off the car and said to Bai Yi.
"I can't do that; your body size and agility isn't suitable for a scouting mission. Hong Qi Hua and Heloise both fused with cat genes, so things like this are much easier for them. Now then, stop pestering me so much. Everyone be on guard. Be careful of ambushes from strange insects and animals." Bai Yi ignored Woolf and said to the rest.
This place was still relatively close to the road, and empty patches of land could still be found. The underbrush in other areas nearby grew so much that it was even taller than humans now.
After more than an hour, Hong Qi Hua and Heloise ran back and shook their heads at Bai Yi.
"It's not possible, this road through the forest is completely ruined. If we wanted to fix it, then we'd have to spend too much time." Hong Qi Hua said.
"We will abandon the cars then. Pack up our stuff and we'll continue on foot." Bai Yi said.
"Ah what lousy luck, we have to abandon the cars now." Woolf scratched his head. Woolf now neared 2.8 meters, and looked just like a real monster. With a body size like his, manual labour definitely fell to him.
The group of them were long prepared for a situation like this. After packing their food, medicine and weapons, they immediately set off again. As expected, Woolf himself carried a 4 meter plus bag made from monster skin, and it was packed full of food. Actually, this wasn't considered too heavy to Woolf now. He was already approaching 3 meters tall, with the addition of the gigantic bag he was carrying, he seemed like a moving hill.
Of course, everyone else carried some things with them as well, as all of them had decent physical strength by now.
"Momo, do you want to come and sit on top?" Woolf said to Momo.
Momo looked at the monster skin bag swaying as Woolf moved, and at Sharpei at the side. She immediately shook her head and rejected him, climbing onto Sharpei's back. Ever since Sharpei became big, Momo loved to ride Sharpei and run around.
"Momo, walk by yourself. Remember to keep up with us." Bai Yi suddenly said.
Momo was just about to climb onto Sharpei's back, but immediately looked at her daddy after hearing his words. After a while, she realised that her daddy had no intention of changing his mind and helplessly replied in a thin voice: "En!"
The others saw Momo's plea for help from her eyes. They'd like to help but they were unable to do anything as well. Bai Yi really did love Momo, but every time Bai Yi wanted to teach Momo something, the rest of them had completely no say in it. Even if it was Mavis or Sara speaking, it was still completely useless. In Bai Yi's words, over-pampering was the same as harming the child.
Bai Yi followed beside Momo, letting her run along with everyone else. He never changed his mind and he didn't even hold her hand while they ran. After using her puppy eyes on her daddy a few times, she finally gave up and knew that her daddy wouldn't change his mind. Unwillingly, Momo could only run along with her short legs, trying hard to follow everyone else. Bai Yi and the rest had such a tough time running through the forest, let alone Momo. Any small obstacle in this place was enough to completely engulf Momo.
Very quickly, Hong Qi Hua and the rest ran along the road and disappeared in front, leaving Momo, Bai Yi, and Sharpei behind.
"Daddy!" Momo fell down again, her eyes looking like they were about to cry, making her seem very pitiable yet adorable.
"Stand up. If there's a branch blocking you then chop it off yourself!" Bai Yi said, drawing his broadsword and hacked apart a branch blocking their way on the road. Only after awhile did Momo purse her lips and draw her own short sword, learning from whatever Bai Yi did.
"Grab your sword well and mind the angle. Isn't it too stupid if you accidentally hurt yourself? Also, move faster, how long do you want others to wait for you?" Bai Yi said to Momo.
Momo kept on holding onto her willpower, as well as a bit of hope, hoping that somebody would come and help her, hoping that her daddy would be soft-hearted… Very unfortunately, after running for the entire afternoon, Momo's entire body became covered in dirt from all the sweat and dust, but there was still no sign of older sister Hong Qi Hua or Sara. Nobody came to help her, really nobody did. Even Sara, who doted on her the most usually, did not come. As she felt disappointed, her mindset gradually started to change as well.
Your daddy is really damn scary when he gets serious!
It was definitely a joyful thing to receive help from your friends, but you definitely couldn't put all your hope on that, Momo!
Only when the sky turned dark did Bai Yi carry Momo and raise his speed. After an hour, they finally caught up with Hong Qi Hua and the rest of them. At this time, they had already set up a camp on a relatively undamaged patch of road. The tar road always felt quite dirty normally, but at this time it was much better than the soil and vegetation everywhere.
Momo wiped herself clean simply and then very quickly fell asleep after eating. After such a long period of high-speed running in the afternoon, she was already extremely exhausted. This was still after being strengthened by the activated cells. Normally she could never endure to this extent.
"You are really strict!" Mavis said.
"China has a saying: a benevolent mother raises a failure!" Bai Yi said.
"You are a devil, devil father!" Sara said in a fit of discontentment. Honestly speaking, even she felt her heart ache seeing Bai Yi train Momo like this. Momo was still so young. Normally she could even see some teenagers whine and try to curry favour with their parents. "Why did Momo choose you at the start? If I knew earlier…" Sara kept on muttering to herself.
"Ah..." Bai Yi smiled and neither retorted nor tried to explain himself.
……
After a few days, they finally reached the place where the research facility was located. Everyone really suffered a lot. By now they finally knew the large difference between walking and driving, this was especially so in the New Zealand that became like a primordial forest. This was still them moving along the original road, and they could roughly see where to go. If they really had to travel in the wilderness, they didn't know if they could cover even one tenth of the distance.
Along the way they encountered numerous evolved lifeforms both large and small, and almost everyone fused with another one or two genes in some unexpected situation. Only Bai Yi and Momo remained the same without any changes.
"Here?" Bai Yi asked Martin.
"En, this is also what I saw by chance, along with the document about the drug to regain human form. In reality, where every research facility is located is a secret to low level researchers. I saw the document that time just out of luck." Martin added.
"Then we'll enter. Be careful." Bai Yi said to everyone.
By now, everyone's appearance had completely changed, looking just like a group of demi-humans from different races. You couldn't even tell that Woolf and Martin were humans anymore, they were completely monsters. Similarly, colourful patterns appeared all over Bai Yi's body, making him look like a mutated caterpillar.
Everybody placed their hopes on the drug to regain human form that Martin talked about, or else even if they managed to return to human society, they would never be able to stay in it.
Entering the unassuming building, everyone slowly searched the place and finally found an electric cable train heading downwards. Bai Yi tested it and realised that this research facility still had power.
"The generators inside the research facilities are all independent. They all have their own miniaturized nuclear reactor inside." Martin explained.
"How advanced, but what I'm worried about isn't this. I can't help but feel this scene feels mysteriously familiar." Bai Yi looked at the electric train and did not immediately get in.
"Resident Evil!" A few of them immediately said at the same time. (TN: Imagine a train with just one cabin, just like the one the movie characters escape from the Hive in. And it starts!)
Chapter 60: Unfortunate Beginnings
Resident Evil can be said to be the classic among the classics back then, and it created a scene of a cruel apocalypse in many people's minds. Basically, as long as they had a chance most people would go and watch this series. This electric cable train looked extremely similar to the electric cable train that was used to exit the Hive in the movie.
"This place isn't the Hive, right?" Bai Yi creased his eyebrows and asked Martin.
"I don't think so…" Martin couldn't be sure himself.
"To think of it, I still can't understand why the largest facility was built inside a National Park." Mavis added in.
"This isn't the biggest research facility. This is just the research facility with the Progenitor. How the research on activated cells progressed was completely up to chance, so the facilities weren't really built purposefully to be the largest or the smallest. Back then, this research facility wasn't too big, but it just happened that the Progenitor was born here, so this place became much more important. It wasn't convenient to move the Progenitor, and even though what we were researching was the same thing, everyone still wished to gain greater recognition and importance, so the Progenitor was kept here all along." Martin explained.
"Is the research facility controlled by a computer?" Bai Yi asked.
"Not completely. The one with the highest authority inside is still a human. However, other than that guy, the other researchers have no such authority. We were all unable to enter and exit as we pleased. If not for the experimental monsters escaping, I might've still been trapped inside the Northern Hamilton Research Facility." Martin explained.
"Do you have a map of this place?" Bai Yi asked again.
Martin very straightforwardly shook his head. Everyone wasn't in a good mood. They didn't even have a map and it was needless to say how important the research facility with the Progenitor inside was. If they were really trapped a few hundred meters underground like in the Resident Evil movie, they might not have the fortune to come back alive.
"Let's move!" Bai Yi took a deep breath and said to the others.
Even if they felt a strange déjà vu, or had a bad feeling in their guts, they had no other choice now. Unless they were willing to live their entire lives as a monster, entering this underground research facility was their only choice. Moreover, this was the entire reason for their long journey.
……
While Bai Yi's group was entering the research facility from the normal entrance, there was another group of people rapidly approaching. Beside Yu Han was his now team leader and teammate. The leader was actually more than 4 meters tall, with long fur growing all over his body and having 4 huge arms. There were even a pair of wings behind him, looking just like a sinister giant gorilla monster. The most important thing was that this guy was walking very amiably beside Yu Han.
"You said that this research facility has a drug that can let us regain human form?"
"Yes, didn't team leader already confirm this matter?" Yu Han said respectfully.
In this team now, Yu Han was already not the leader. In this world now, strength meant authority. Bentham was the real experimental monster that escaped from the research facility, a being that entered the LV2 Metamorphose Stage.
Just as Martin said before, a lifeform would generate its 'absolute lifefield' after entering LV2. Through the use of their absolute lifefield, humans can actively manipulate and use the special energy inside their bodies. This was the real active usage of special energy, and not a passive enhancement like increasing a person's strength or agility.
In Yu Han's eyes, Bentham's control and usage of energy still seemed to be very crude, but his strength was already worlds above his. The power of this guy was already becoming similar to the characters in animes and movies. Looking at this kind of situation, Yu Han yearned to improve even more. Rather than living a life of mediocrity, why not dive into this unknown world?
"Team leader, can we really find this research facility?" Yu Han asked. Even though he knew that there was a drug to regain human form in Tongariro National Park Research Facility, he did not know where the research facility was exactly. After entering the National Park, Bentham had been bringing them and moving along in a straight line until they had reached this place.
"It's right in front!"
"It hasn't been long since you guys fused with the Progenitor's activated cells, so you guys can't feel it yet. In truth, ever since entering Tongariro National Park, I can feel an intimidating aura. There can be no mistake, this aura came from the Progenitor." Bentham said, his eyes being indescribably heavy.
Really?
Everyone felt shocked, but since it was Bentham that said it, they did not have any objections, because Bentham was much stronger than them.
Very quickly, they came to a giant hole in the ground more than 30 meters in diameter. The hole was so deep that all they could see was pitch darkness when they looked down, and the soil around it still looked very new. This was the hole ripped open in the ground by the Progenitor's eruption at the start. The researchers filled back the hole partially, but after a few days when the activated cells epidemic broke out completely, nobody cared about the things here anymore.
"It's here, I can feel it. The Progenitor is right below us, but her aura is very weak now."
"We will go down and dig into the research facility to look for the drug to regain human form that you talked about." Bentham said. Bentham did not wait for anyone to object, and abruptly grabbed all of them with one arm each and threw them inside the giant hole.
Other than Bentham in Yu Han's team, there were still three other new people. At this time, they felt instinctual fear looking at the bottomless hole, but they had no other choice. Bentham grabbed the four guys first, leaving Ning Xue and Khina standing at the edge of the giant hole.
Will we meet with Uncle Bai and the others?
Khina looked at pitch black hole and thought silently. Ning Xue came closer to Khina in fear. Although Khina looked like a real monster now, she was the only one that Ning Xue felt familiar with.
……
Bai Yi's group didn't know that Yu Han's group happened to come at this time as well. Moreover, Yu Han's team didn't come in through the normal entrance, but from the hole that the Progenitor made.
"How do we stop this thing?" Bai Yi asked everyone after the electric train started moving.
Bai Yi was a chef, and Hong Qi Hua was a university student majoring in law. Woolf was an ingredient shop owner, and Heloise a newly-wed who taught at Otorohanga Middle School for two years. Martin was a researcher, Mavis was a doctor, and Sara was a nurse. Warner and Momo were both kids, so there was no need to think about their professions. There wasn't anybody here who knew how to operate this electric train.
Martin immediately started to fiddle around with the controls, and after a few minutes the electric train finally started. However, looking at his face they knew that he was just randomly pressing buttons.
How do we stop this!
Everyone looked at each other and finally at Martin. Martin himself was also stunned, and started fiddling around with the controls again. Suddenly, everyone felt a sudden jerk and all of them could feel the train accelerating. Martin felt it as well and became more and more panicky, his right hand that was full of sharp hairs randomly pressing on the buttons.
Suddenly, an ear-piercing alarm rang inside the train, even if they used their ass to think they knew it meant nothing good.
Jump off the train?
Bai Yi pushed open the train door with force, and the tunnel wall was less than a meter away from the train. With such a narrow distance, if they jumped out then they'd definitely be squeezed between the train and wall, and grinded against the wall as the train moved. Even if it were with their physical bodies now, they would probably end up severely injured or dead. At this time, Bai Yi didn't have the time to scold anybody. To think of it, it was his lack of planning as well.
"Martin, try to stop the train. The others who have a lot of meat on them go to the end of the car, prepare to be a meat cushion. Be careful of your own knives and sharp metals, don't stab yourselves." Bai Yi said.
Woolf and Warner immediately ran towards the end of the train. They couldn't afford to be selfish at a time like this.
Bai Yi went to the sides of the cabin. When he entered the train he had seen the location of the wheels. He looked again now and saw a metal pole used as a handhold in the middle of the cabin. He immediately looked at his broadsword and took a deep breath. At this time, he could only have faith that the sword that Old Harvey gave him was really of high quality.
Bai Yi grabbed the sword with both hands and powerfully swung the sword.
'Clang!' the sound of metal clashing on metal rang out, the broadsword cut into the pole as if he were chopping a tree, and sliced into it by a third. Everyone felt quite shocked and speechless. This guy was becoming more and more monstrous. He'd said that he didn't know any manga-like sword techniques, but what was this?!
However, in the next moment everybody burst out laughing. Bai Yi's broadsword got stuck inside the metal pole and he couldn't pull it out. He even put one leg on the metal pole as support and tried his best to pull, but the posture that he was in made everyone laugh uncontrollably.
Bai Yi was of course not so monstrous. The main reason why he could cut through a third of the metal pole was due to the strength and sharpness of his sword. Old Harvey really managed to get his hands on a good sword. However, Bai Yi's sword technique was also gradually improving from nothing to something, from the most basic usage of strength to the sword techniques that went against common sense.
Bai Yi used his legs to push against the metal pole and finally managed to pull his sword out. After that he hacked a few more times and finally cut down the metal pole. At this time, Bai Yi realized that only some marks appeared on the broadsword. The edge wasn't even chipped.
"Woolf, come here and break open this area." Bai Yi said to Woolf.
Woolf did not hesitate and went over immediately to the place where Bai Yi pointed to and broke open a hole using his greatsword. From the opening in the cabin wall, they could see the rapidly spinning wheels.
"Martin, is it not stopping yet?!" Bai Yi shouted to Martin.
"Wait a moment, it's almost ready... almost…" Martin's own voice was also very nervous.
Bai Yi saw what Martin was like and knew that he couldn't depend on him. "Everyone hold on tight! Be careful of the shaking!" Bai Yi shouted loudly. After everyone grabbed on tight, Bai Yi immediately thrust the cut off metal pole into the gap between axle of the wheel.
Chapter 61: Yeye
Bai Yi thrust the pole inside the gap. With a sharp 'dang!', the powerful rotating force ripped the pole from Bai Yi's hands, and got stuck inside the axle. At this moment, the entire train started shaking and the sharp sound of metal and metal grinding against each other tore at their eardrums.
Intense sparks appeared on the tracks and the train gradually started to tilt. Bai Yi immediately grabbed Momo with one hand and the seat beside him with another.
Everyone was already prepared. The train started to tilt gradually and eventually landed heavily on its side on the tracks. The train shook violently as it skidded but everyone was stably grabbing onto something. After all, they were prepared, and they were already different from normal people. Intense sparks flew and the smoke from the great amount of friction filled the cabin, but everyone's expression was still relatively calm. The train speed was gradually slowed down as well.
Suddenly, the tail end of the trail forcefully rammed into something, everyone suddenly lost their grips and abruptly flew to the end of the train. However, Woolf and Warner were both ready and acted as meat cushions at the bottom. 'Bang! Crash! Clang!' After dozens of seconds passed, the train finally came to a stop, and the tail end seemed to have become compressed together.
After a moment, a foot violently kicked the train door. The door that had already become loose initially instantly flew out, revealing Bai Yi's miserable-looking figure.
Sharpei jumped out after Bai Yi, and the rest of them gradually came out from the wrecked train.
"How is everybody, is anybody injured?" Bai Yi asked after seeing that everyone had gotten out.
With everyone's ability now, in addition to their preparation, none of them would die from this but injuries were inevitable. After Mavis' check-up, only Woolf and Warner who were at the bottom suffered some injuries. After all, there was the immense impact and the weight of everyone else pressing onto them. Woolf's bled from his head while Warner's left arm bent at an unnatural angle, but luckily, these weren't major injuries.
"There's nothing major." Mavis nodded to Bai Yi after checking up on them.
"Ha~!" Bai Yi revealed an empty smile, and everyone suddenly felt very awkward. They had just entered the research facility and the team almost got wiped out! Especially Martin, if not for Bai Yi figuring out a way to stop the train at the last moment, they could only imagine what the result would be from the deadly impact.
"I'm sorry Bai Yi, I…" Martin wanted to explain himself.
"It's due to my lack of forethought. Now everyone gather. We need to discuss everything anew." Bai Yi said to everyone after Martin apologized.
"Judging from our professions and the incident just now, we have nobody here that is familiar with electronics. With such a big research facility, the defence would definitely be very tight. So now, we need to find a new teammate." Bai Yi said.
"New teammate?"
"I'm talking about the people inside the research facility. Martin didn't you say that other than the overall in charge, normal researchers didn't have the power to enter or leave this place as they pleased? If that was the case, then there should be a lot of people left in this research facility." Bai Yi explained.
"First, let's look for such a person. Then, we'll let the person join in a limited way…"
"Bai Yi, look over there!" Bai Yi wanted to continue talking, but Sara pointed towards a specific direction. In that direction they saw the open door towards the true research facility.
Bai YI turned his head and got surprised. Why is it open?
"Anyway, everyone be careful from now on. There aren't only gene-fused monsters here, but also various high-tech weaponry, I don't wish to see any of you getting cut into pieces by lasers." Bai Yi reminded again, before leading everyone towards the thick open door. Everyone else held their swords and guns cautiously, and followed behind Bai Yi.
"An elevator, should we go in?"
"No, we'll take the stairs. Anyways, we aren't lacking in stamina now. What we're afraid of are accidents." Bai Yi said and headed down the stairs. Everyone immediately recalled the scene in the electric train. If something had gone wrong in the elevator as well, then it wouldn't be as easy to survive a drop of a few hundred meters.
Very quickly, they reached the deeper building complex of the research facility. Bai Yi's group carefully searched every room that they came across. All the room doors were open and weren't locked as they expected it to be. They then finally came to a room with a few computers in it. Bai Yi looked at the rest of them, and they stared back at Bai Yi blankly.
Damn it, everyone here probably only knew how to surf the internet with their computers.
"Forget about it, we'll just take a look. It will be good if we can find a map of this place." Bai Yi prepared to switch on the computer, but realized that it was actually on standby mode.
After the screen lit up, the group of them tried to see what was on the screen, but in the next moment, the doors around them slammed shut instantly, trapping the group of them within the room and its corridor.
What did we trigger?
Hong Qi Hua immediately tried to see if she could open the glass door, but in the end, it didn't even budge an inch. Bai Yi continued to browse the information on the computer. Honestly speaking, there was a lot of information on the computer, but more than 90% of it was some remote and technical information about various lifeforms, so Bai Yi couldn't understand any of it. As for the parts that he could understand, it was completely useless in their current situation.
At this time, Woolf held onto his greatsword and gestured for the few of them to clear the way.
'DANG!', the sound of a great impact rang out. Woolf was still quite nonchalant at first, but in the end, there wasn't even a scratch on the reinforced glass door. Seeing that there was no effect, Woolf got serious and raised his greatsword with both his hands again.
"Stop your companion, otherwise I will activate the defence systems." Suddenly, a virtual image of a girl appeared on the computer screen. The girl seemed quite petite, and appeared to be innocent and childish. However, none of them dared to believe the surface image.
Bai Yi immediately raised his left hand at Woolf, telling him to stop.
"Who are you?"
"I should be the one asking you guys, who are you? You guys don't tally with any of the researchers working here, and based on your biological characteristics you guys should be experimental subjects here. However, your information doesn't tally with any of the data we have of the experimental subjects here either. The only remaining possibility is that you guys are invaders from outside." The virtual girl said.
"I guess we can be considered invaders, who are you?"
"I am the second artificial intelligence in this research facility, in charge of keeping all the experimental subjects locked up and preventing them from escaping." Yeye spun around and answered enthusiastically.
"I was asleep just now, but you guys suddenly woke me up. I still thought the monsters I locked up escaped, but since that's not the case then it's none of my business." Yeye yawned adorably and the reinforced glass door behind them opened by itself. Asleep, did she mean a computer in sleep mode?
"You're releasing us just like this? Aren't we invaders?" Bai Yi asked in doubt.
"That's my sister's job, it's not under my job scope and I can't be bothered either." Just like an actual spoiled child, Yeye really disappeared after speaking.
"She's totally a kid!" Sara said.
"No, she's only an artificial intelligence, the so-called 'like a kid' is just a setting for it. No matter how much she looks like a child, fundamentally she's an artificial intelligence. An AI doesn't have human emotions, only clear objectives and rules set on them. Since she already said that her job was to keep the experimental monsters locked up, the other safety matters inside this research facility are not her responsibility." Hong Qi Hua analyzed calmly.
"That means?"
"That means that if it's something she's not responsible for, she wouldn't care about it even if she had the ability to." Hong Qi Hua added on.
"Normally, your analysis would be correct, but Yeye isn't that kind of antique computer ok? I'm a true artificial intelligence. Do you want to try it? I can activate the defence system inside the research facility now, heh." Yeye jumped out suddenly. When she appeared again, there was a swimming pool in her background, and she seemed to be playing happily.
"Let's try it!" Hong Qi Hua nodded seriously.
"Are you sure? From the looks of it you have some status in this team, but you aren't the team leader. There isn't any hot weapons that can attack you guys now, there's only a toxic nerve gas. Are you sure you want to try?" Yeye laid down on her swimming float and teased. This kind of teasing tone, on the contrary, made the rest of them not dare to act recklessly.
"Yeye, do you mean that you can truly act independently?" Bai Yi asked.
"Who knows?" Yeye said childishly, but at this moment nobody could smile. If there really was some toxic nerve gas, they hadn't developed to the level where they could ignore such a thing.
"Can you tell us what exactly happened here?" Bai Yi asked. From the looks of it, this artificial intelligence called Yeye didn't seem to be hostile.
"Heh, do you think I will tell a bunch of invaders the cause behind everything?" Yeye said wilfully.
"Actually, it's just the eruption of the Progenitor, proliferation of the activated cells, Doctor Wang leaving the research facility, and taking older sister 'Sunlight' with him as well. In the entire research facility, other than the imprisonment of experimental subjects under my control, all other defences are in an inactivated state." She was clearly being wilful just a moment ago, but in the next moment she suddenly spewed out the entire situation.
The eruption of the Progenitor, Doctor Wang, older sister 'Sunlight'… Bai Yi's group suddenly felt that they discovered the truth behind New Zealand's change. Everything happened too fast and it was too simple as well. The bunch of them were still stunned trying to process everything.
……
"This place is the research facility!"
Bentham brought Yu Han and the others down the giant hole. Before they reached the deepest part, they could already see the broken layer in the construction. After throwing everyone into a ruined corridor, Bentham went back to fetch Ning Xue and Khina. As for Yu Han and the others, they shined their lights nearby, observing this giant hole that suddenly appeared and the ruined corridors nearby.
Invasion…Just what kind of power caused this?
