Chapter 174 — The Experimental Building
“In any case, we’ll have to wait until daylight tomorrow before dealing with any of this.”
Luo Xun looked down at the little bun sleeping in his arms. The orange glow of the firelight illuminated the baby’s tiny face, turning his fair skin a rosy red.
On the day the child was born, both he and Yan Fei had seen how red the baby had been. By the next day, that redness had turned a dark purplish-red, and the child had nearly lost his life. But now, as some people liked to say, the redder a baby was at birth, the fairer they would become later. Thanks to the nourishing effect of the cream fruits these past days, the little bun was still thin and tiny, but his skin had become smooth, pale, and almost glowing with health. He looked irresistibly adorable.
After all the chaos of the day, Luo Xun and Yan Fei had barely had time to care for him while traveling. They had only hurriedly fed him fruit milk made from cream fruits twice and managed to change his diaper once. Yet now he was sleeping soundly, even more peacefully than little Xinran.
The group crowded together in the small room. Thanks to the experience Yan Fei had accumulated, the metal shelter he designed no longer required Zhang Su’s assistance to circulate air; they wouldn’t suffocate inside. Throughout the night, they listened to the savage roars of zombies outside, the cracking sounds of the Devil Vines lashing about, and the crackling fire within the room while taking turns standing watch and getting some much-needed rest.
The next morning, zombie howls and heavy thundering footsteps could still be heard outside.
After everyone woke up, washed up briefly, and drank some hot soup, Luo Xun carefully climbed the temporary ladder Yan Fei had constructed. Peering through a small observation opening in the roof, he looked outside.
A vast white expanse of snow.
A sea of black figures.
“It looks like not all the zombies are gathered around us,” Luo Xun suddenly said after studying the scene through his binoculars.
“What do you mean?”
“What’s going on?”
There was only one ladder, and the observation opening was barely large enough for a single person, so Luo Xun was the only one who could see outside. Everyone immediately looked up at him.
He slowly turned and surveyed the area from every angle before finally relaxing slightly and climbing back down.
“There are quite a few zombies outside,” he explained carefully, “but aside from some of them gathering around our location, most of the zombies seem to just be passing through.”
Seeing the excitement appear on everyone’s faces, he quickly added,
“When I say ‘not many,’ I mean compared to the entire zombie tide. The actual number is still much larger than the groups we usually encounter when we’re out hunting zombies.”
Fortunately, the farmland overgrown with Devil Vines wasn’t limited to just a few plots. Besides the eight fields densely surrounding this building, there were at least six or seven more large fields completely covered in the vines. That was what had slowed the zombies’ advance.
Otherwise, if the horde had been any denser, the zombies could have literally climbed over one another and forced their way inside.
After another careful observation of the surroundings and confirming there were no flying zombies nearby—and that the zombies trapped among the mutant plants had little chance of breaking through anytime soon—the group packed up once more.
Everyone grabbed their weapons and put on every piece of protective gear they owned. This time they even wore helmets and metal-plated gloves. Fully armed, they gathered cautiously by the door.
Their destination was the large central building.
Based on what Luo Xun had observed that morning, they could now confirm that they had indeed returned to the experimental farmland they had visited previously. The building they occupied was the office building in the center of the research site—the very one they had wanted to enter last time but had been unable to reach.
Through a strange twist of fate, they had accidentally stumbled inside the area the previous night.
Not investigating it thoroughly would be a waste of such an extraordinary opportunity.
Yan Fei opened the door.
Keeping their movements as quiet as possible to avoid attracting the zombies’ attention, the group hurried across the open space and reached the entrance of the central building.
There weren’t many of them, and the heavy winter clothing they wore helped suppress much of their scent. Even if traces of human smell drifted outward, only the zombies tangled within the farmland might notice.
And the Devil Vines were so effective at capturing prey that there was no chance they would release a meal that had already fallen into their grasp.
Reaching the entrance, they unlocked the door. After a brief inspection confirmed there was no movement inside, everyone slipped in quickly.
First floor.
Then the second.
Then the third.
The experimental building seemed completely isolated from the rest of the world.
Ever since the apocalypse began, it appeared to have remained untouched, sitting silently in place and waiting for visitors to arrive.
The group thoroughly searched the first floor before moving up to the second and third.
The first floor housed a spacious cafeteria filled with rows of tables and chairs. Everything remained intact, untouched by damage.
The kitchen, however, was another story. All the food supplies had long since spoiled and rotted away.
What delighted everyone was the discovery of two enormous fifty-kilogram gas cylinders in the cafeteria. Judging by their condition, they seemed to have been delivered not long before the apocalypse began.
Even better, several large containers of cooking oil remained unopened in the kitchen.
The sight of long-lasting supplies such as oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar filled everyone with joy. They gathered everything together and planned to take it with them if they found a chance to leave later.
After finishing their search of the first floor, they moved upstairs.
The second floor contained several laboratories and classrooms, clearly intended for professors and students conducting experiments and lessons.
The third floor housed faculty offices and a fairly large conference room.
After thoroughly searching all three levels, the group returned to the first floor and gathered near the staircase.
“There’s a basement below,” Luo Xun said, glancing at the elevator beside the stairs. “Two levels, by the looks of it.”
The markings on the elevator clearly indicated that the building had three floors above ground and two below.
The elevator itself was unusually large, obviously designed to transport heavy equipment and oversized materials.
However, the building no longer had power, and every indicator light on the elevator panel remained dark.
Everyone’s eyes lit up as they looked at Luo Xun.
They had searched the entire building above ground. Although there were many pieces of scientific equipment, nobody possessed the expertise to identify their purposes. The computers couldn’t be examined either because there was no electricity.
From what they had seen in the plaza outside and throughout the building itself, they still hadn’t found any sign of the rumored advanced equipment they had hoped might exist.
Could everything have been stored underground?
It was certainly possible.
There were also several single-story buildings outside that they hadn’t explored yet. Perhaps something useful was hidden there.
The group checked their weapons once more.
Then, forming a line, they carefully descended the staircase.
Between the first floor and the basement level stood a heavy metal security door.
It looked extremely advanced.
If Luo Xun had been forced to open it himself, it would have taken him a very long time. Fortunately, Yan Fei was with them, and opening the door proved effortless.
The door swung open.
After passing through several turns in the corridor, everyone switched on their flashlights and advanced cautiously until they reached what appeared to be the first underground level.
“There doesn’t seem to be anything here…” Zhang Su sent his wind ability ahead to scout the area before speaking to the others.
Only after hearing that did everyone relax a little and begin sweeping their flashlights around.
The beams had limited range, but it wasn’t long before they spotted something.
“Brother Luo! What’s that? A light?” Wu Xin’s sharp eyes caught sight of something in the distance. He pointed his flashlight toward it, his voice filled with surprise.
“…An emergency power supply? It still has power after all this time?!” Luo Xun exclaimed in astonishment as he looked at the device mounted on the wall, its red indicator light blinking steadily.
How long had it been since the apocalypse began? And yet the backup power system here was still functioning?
After confirming there was nothing dangerous nearby, the group cautiously approached the glowing device. Once they connected the power, the overhead lights flickered a few times—
Then they came on.
At the bottom of the stairs was a corridor. There was a closed room on each side of the hallway, while directly ahead stood a room separated by a large floor-to-ceiling glass wall.
Apparently, the emergency power only supplied electricity to this area and the two adjacent rooms.
Shining their flashlights through the glass, Luo Xun and the others discovered that the room beyond appeared to be some kind of cultivation chamber.
“Let’s not go in there yet. Check these two rooms first,” Luo Xun said after steadying himself.
The cultivation room appeared to be tightly sealed, and judging by its appearance, it was used for growing plants. Who knew whether some mutated plant might suddenly emerge from inside? Entering recklessly would be far too dangerous.
They opened the door to the room on the left first.
It turned out to be a changing room.
Rows of numbered lockers lined the walls. Inside were work uniforms, laboratory clothing, and farming gear. There was nothing particularly noteworthy.
The moment the room on the right was opened, however, everyone instinctively pinched their noses.
There were two corpses inside.
One sat slumped in a chair, while the other lay in a corner.
No one knew how long they had been dead.
The bodies were clearly those of ordinary humans who had died after the apocalypse. There was no sign whatsoever that either had mutated into a zombie.
The moment she saw them, Song Lingling immediately pulled little Xinran farther away from the doorway.
Luo Xun and the others carefully observed the condition of the corpses before entering to examine them.
With Zhang Su present, there was no problem. Regardless of what his original medical specialty had been, he could easily pass for a forensic examiner when it came to basic inspections and deductions.
“No injuries,” Zhang Su said after completing his examination. He tossed aside the gloves he had borrowed from the next room, pinched his nose, and stood up with a look of disgust. “My guess is that they either starved to death or died of fright.”
“Starved to death? Died of fright?”
The conclusion left everyone baffled.
How could someone simply…
starve to death?
Or be scared to death?
“Who knows?” Zhang Su shrugged. “There was still plenty of food left in the kitchen upstairs. There are also all those plants growing next door. Logically speaking, with those resources around, they shouldn’t have starved even after the apocalypse started. So maybe they were frightened to death.”
Then he added, “One of them looks to be in his early twenties, the other around fifty or sixty. My guess is that they were a student and a professor working here.”
The decomposition wasn’t particularly severe. Even Luo Xun and the others could roughly judge the condition of the bodies.
And Zhang Su wasn’t wrong.
There were no external injuries and no obvious signs of poisoning.
It really did look as though they had hidden here in terror and eventually starved to death.
“Let’s inspect the room next door and the lower basement levels before drawing any conclusions,” Luo Xun said after a moment’s thought.
Everyone nodded.
Only then did he leave the room and carefully close the door behind him once more.
Thank you for reading 🙂 I hope you all liked my translations. If you enjoyed my work, please consider buying me a Ko-Fi 😉
