Chapter 268: Cooperation
“What’s wrong with you?” Zhuang Mingxu stepped forward, steadying himself.
Dean couldn’t say a word.
Zhuang Mingxu grabbed the bedside button-like call bell and pressed a few numbers. On the other end came Zhuang Mobai’s voice. He asked, “What happened to him?”
“Nothing much, the soothing injection is just quite painful,” Zhuang Mobai said lightly, making Zhuang Mingxu immediately clench his teeth.
From the donor room, Zhuang Mobai looked at the fire blazing in Antonio’s eyes and raised his voice. Dean’s faint groans were clearly heard. Antonio immediately struggled, emitting a hoarse roar from his throat.
Zhuang Mobai stared at the machine’s values nearby, a smile playing on his lips, and continued, “Mingxu, wasn’t it you who chose to let him get the soothing injection?”
Seeing the data refresh successfully, Zhuang Mobai raised the value of the connected tube by one level.
Watching Zhuang Mingxu hang up the intercom, Zhuang Mobai remarked as if seeing something strange, “Love really is a wonderful thing.”
The few minutes of pain felt like a lifetime to Dean. He had no strength or mental capacity to think about whether Zhuang Mingxu was the one who betrayed them. Shortly after the pain faded, Dean fell into a deep sleep.
Zhuang Mingxu sat on the bed, his palm marked with deep fingernail impressions, blood dripping from his clenched fist, a faint metallic smell in the air.
He waited until Dean’s breathing steadied, carefully tucked him into the blanket, and left the room again.
*
At noon, Lu Weiyi was continuously absorbing crystal cores in the space, like a merciless crystal-absorbing machine.
The few people whose drug effects had worn off were continuously recorded by researchers nearby, who occasionally drew blood.
Zhuang Mingxu mechanically ate the single meat and vegetable dish in front of him.
As for Xu Yi…
His hair was filthy, his clothes were torn strips of cloth hanging loosely, and his once clean backpack had been replaced by a grimy, unknown ragged sack. The little Zhuang Ai Yi in his hand had turned from a little prince into a little beggar, still wearing a floral dress with a ring of green plants wrapped around his wrist.
“Uncle Xu, where are we going?” Zhuang Ai Yi asked quietly, looking at the dirty surroundings.
“Find a place to hide,” Xu Yi took a long time avoiding the villa patrols, leaving the area. On the way out, someone said the Zhuang family was searching for the escaped murderer.
Fortunately, to avoid suspicion, they hadn’t posted any photos—only a few people who knew the truth were searching.
Xu Yi made himself dirty and changed Zhuang Ai Yi’s gender by dressing him in a floral dress. They walked toward the city gate through the messy, filthy area.
“I’m hungry,” Zhuang Ai Yi whispered. “Can we go find my dads?”
Xu Yi looked around and took him to an inconspicuous corner. He took out a can of eight-treasure porridge from his sack, opened it, and handed it to Zhuang Ai Yi, shielding him with his body.
“Your dads were caught by bad people. We have to wait. Wait for your uncle to come back, then we’ll go find him to save your dads.”
“There are bad people catching us now. You have to behave, okay?”
Zhuang Ai Yi had only ever been around Zhuang Mingxu and a few researchers. He had never left with anyone else. After the apocalypse, a group of men in the family protected him thoroughly. Now, frightened, he tugged at Xu Yi’s clothes and whispered, “Ai Yi will be good. Uncle Xu, don’t leave me.”
Xu Yi turned, stroked Ai Yi’s deliberately dirtied hair, wiped the dirty sweat off his forehead, and cursed himself silently for being troublesome. He pointed to the green bracelet on Ai Yi’s wrist. “Are you sure this is a mutated plant?”
Nobody knew when that appeared on Ai Yi’s wrist. When Xu Yi took him away, it wasn’t there. They only noticed it at dawn.
Xu Yi wanted to throw it away, but Ai Yi refused, saying it was his little friend.
“This is Teng Teng, Uncle’s,” Zhuang Ai Yi didn’t know what a mutated plant was.
Who knew who that uncle was.
Xu Yi sighed, hoping there would be no more troubles.
*
Not long after lunch, Zhuang Mobai came excitedly to find Zhuang Mingxu.
He had obtained the test results of the entire unique team, as well as their predicted physical endurance. “It’s really amazing. Your team’s A-rank ability users’ physical endurance is more than twice that of others at the same level. How did they level up?”
Zhuang Mingxu shook his head. “What does that mean?”
“From a scientific perspective, ability users level up by increasing the capacity in their bodies for energy that drives evolution. The higher the level, the more evolutionary energy. But most ability users improve their powers through zombie crystal cores, which accumulate zombie energy in their bodies. These two energies exist somewhat oppositely: the higher the zombie energy content, the less evolutionary energy absorption.”
“That’s why the higher-ranked ability users absorb less from low-level crystal cores—they simply absorb less. I’ve studied ability users at various levels and found that the higher the rank, the higher the zombie energy content. But your team is different. Their levels are very low, almost equivalent to late-stage beginners.”
“Their absorption rate of crystal cores is also very high,” Zhuang Mobai paced the small room, unusually excited. “When zombie energy accumulates to a certain degree, it causes explosive death. If we can figure out why…”
Then he could control many factions.
Zhuang Mobai looked intensely at Zhuang Mingxu. “Mingxu, does your team have a special leveling method? How do they normally absorb crystal cores?”
It seemed like Lu Weiyi had purified the crystal cores.
Zhuang Mingxu knew clearly but pretended to think, then shook his head after a moment. “They just absorb from their hands, leveling up naturally by absorbing more crystal cores.”
Zhuang Mobai frowned. Then Zhuang Mingxu continued, “They always have plant-type crystal cores assisting their leveling. Does that relate?”
“Where do you get so many plant-type crystal cores? Just at the capital base, you swapped out three.”
“From Qingyuan to the Capital, they had to detour, traveling over five thousand kilometers. All the mutated plants they encountered along the way were cleared out,” Zhuang Mingxu reclined in his chair, arms behind his head, looking at the ceiling.
“Could be,” Zhuang Mobai thought seriously. “I’ll study it further. Who mainly holds your supplies? Is it Lu Weiyi?” They hadn’t found any other storage spaces on the others, so it could only be the elusive Lu Weiyi.
Zhuang Mingxu didn’t respond.
Zhuang Mobai’s excitement gradually subsided, and he returned to his usual refined demeanor. “Mingxu, haven’t you thought it through yet? Now the family won’t let a few people go. They’ve already become donors, that’s a fact—it’s either you or someone else.”
“Do you really want to watch Lu Weiyi walk away? He’s already too close with Li Zhuang, and more people will come along in the future. The two of them will grow stronger together while you stay stagnant. Can you really keep him?”
“Xiaoyi he…” Zhuang Mingxu bent over holding his head, struggling, “He’s not that kind of person.”
“See, even you don’t dare to be sure,” Zhuang Mobai squatted in front of him, gentle as a spring breeze. “When he was with you, he hadn’t seen the world—only the little world you gave him. Now he has his own friends, his own partners, and has seen the dazzling world. How could he possibly go back?”
“You can’t control him now, can’t trap him. Whatever choice he makes, you’ll have to bear it. If he really breaks up with you, leaves you…”
“…No, he won’t.”
“Yes, he will. Look.” Zhuang Mobai took out his phone and played a video. In it, Zhuang Ai Yi giggled, Li Zhuang and Lu Weiyi accompanied him, looking like a close-knit family. “There’s always someone who will take your lover, your child, everything you once had…”
“No!” Zhuang Mingxu threw Zhuang Mobai’s phone to the ground, shouting angrily.
“Mingxu, face reality!” Zhuang Mobai looked at him like a trapped beast. “When you awaken your powers, none of this will happen. But right now, you don’t have the qualifications!”
“Think again—do you want the surgery?” Zhuang Mobai said and headed toward the door.
At the door, he heard Zhuang Mingxu weakly concede, “I’ll do it.”
Zhuang Mobai’s mouth curved slightly. “I’ll arrange for your examination.”
That afternoon, Zhuang Mingxu went for the recipient testing.
Not long after, Zhuang Mobai personally came to his room with the test results and told him the most suitable donor was Antonio.
Dean, who had just woken, still had the wetness of tears in his eyes from his dream. His gaze flickered between the two men, like a frightened rabbit.
“Metal-type ability user. With your constitution, once awakened, you will definitely become a very powerful ability user,” Zhuang Mobai said, looking at the test sheet with obsession in his eyes.
Zhuang Mingxu seemed to somewhat understand his intention—he was trying to sow discord.
But he couldn’t quite get it. Given the current situation, their lab had captured his teammates. Whether he stirred trouble or not, their trust was already broken.
There was no need to go out of his way.
Unable to figure this out, Zhuang Mingxu stopped thinking about it.
After explaining the series of test results, Zhuang Mobai quietly pressed a device in his pocket and said, “I’ve already started adjusting the body of Experimental Subject 356. Once he reaches the optimal state, you can undergo the surgery and become a metal-type ability user.”
“Okay.” After accepting this, Zhuang Mingxu carried a reckless madness, curling his lips with a dangerous glint in his eyes. “Metal-type ability.”
“I can’t wait to experience the feeling of having powers.”
Zhuang Mobai patted his shoulder and looked at Dean, who had recovered quite a bit on the bed. “Make sure he spends time treating you. Our family doesn’t have any healing types.”
Meaning Dean was not currently in danger of illness but might be injected with some strange substances to boost his ability level.
As for when the boost succeeds, there might be yet another donor.
“I want to see my donor,” Zhuang Mingxu said, looking at Zhuang Mobai.
He had already been on the first basement floor, and now he had explored the second floor too. The tests had taken place on the fourth floor, which housed various instrument rooms and operating rooms.
Zhuang Mingxu wanted to know more, so he tried to learn about a few more floors.
“Now? They’re still in the first phase of adjustment. There’s nothing to see,” Zhuang Mobai said.
“Of course there’s something to see. The mighty falling into the abyss,” Zhuang Mingxu said with his head slightly bowed, a faint smile splitting his lips. The malice in his eyes was chilling. He said lightly, “It’s quite a sight.”
