VAP - Chapter 35
Chapter 35: The Sleeping Beauty Whose Words Are Law (34)
The huge underground laboratory was so quiet it was almost deathly silent. Dozens of cylindrical glass cultivation tanks, each as tall as two people, were arranged neatly along the wall, filled with a light green life-sustaining nutrient solution.
Powerless espers and mutated creatures were suspended in the liquid, their eyes wide with fear, yet they were unable to move.
They were all test subjects.
And Xin Licheng was standing in front of one of these tanks.
His bloodshot eyes stared intently at the scene before him with a terrifying fanaticism, while his hands gripped a recording panel so tightly his knuckles turned white.
In front of him, an esper’s face was already contorted in agony. He ripped out the tubes inserted all over his body, and the dark red blood that gushed out bloomed in the nutrient solution.
He opened his mouth wide in a silent, wretched scream. After several minutes, he finally stopped struggling before Xin Licheng’s eyes.
“Beep—”
Heartbeat flatlined.
“It worked… It must have worked this time…” Xin Licheng muttered to himself.
Forcibly suppressing his excitement, he walked over to another glass tank to observe the mutated ape inside, which had also begun to struggle.
A few minutes later, another shrill sound signifying the passing of a life rang out: “Beep—!”
One after another, until finally, no living beings remained in the space besides Xin Licheng. Those lives, once vibrant with fear or numb from it, all met their end in the glass tanks, their deaths horrific.
A week ago, they had been injected with the same virus at almost the same time. Now, the incubation period was over, and the grim reaper had arrived right on schedule.
Xin Licheng breathed rapidly. He tapped the recording panel a few times, then covered his face, unable to contain himself.
“This is it, it can do it! It can! There’s no doubt…”
He turned, grabbed a test tube from the lab bench, and frantically kissed the poison inside through the glass. The bright red liquid sloshed gently, like blood.
This was the virus that could destroy all life possessing Esper Abilities, Xin Liming A-79. It was the most perfect virus, the best final product obtained after numerous experiments.
It could spread through any known viral transmission route, would only infect individuals with Esper Abilities, and had an extremely high infection rate;
The incubation period was a full week, so it wouldn’t attract much attention in the early stages;
a one hundred percent mortality rate, capable of exterminating both espers and mutated creatures;
After onset, it would cause the infected extreme pain—this point was the most satisfying, wasn’t it?
Xin Licheng laughed to himself for a while, then connected his computer to the internet, carefully encrypting and protecting the connection.
To prevent any mishaps, he hadn’t connected to the internet for the past few days, operating only locally for fear of being tracked by Xing Qingcang and his group.
Now that the virus was successfully developed, he needed to gather external information to decide when to act, which was why he was connecting to the internet.
Xing Qingcang probably isn’t so idle as to be constantly monitoring the activity here…
“Wow,” Yue Du said, her face expressionless. “Xin Licheng is online. That pervert.”
Qi Jiu stopped and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Yue Du looked at the laptop in her hands, her delicate brows furrowed slightly. She was operating it using the unique information technology talent she possessed as a System.
While working, she answered her host’s question: “That virus-making machine with the bizarre thought process… I wanted to hack his computer before, but the guy wouldn’t connect to the internet. He was terrifyingly cautious… Now he’s finally connected. I’ll take a look first.”
Qi Jiu hummed in acknowledgment and moved closer to look. Yue Du hesitated for a moment but didn’t move away.
At that moment, they were walking through Shengjing City, as leisurely as if on a stroll.
After all, the “Two-Person Rotation” Squad’s established persona was that of living “European Emperors”—people with incredible luck. Every time they left the safe zone, they were bound to strike it rich and return fully loaded. This time, they were going to stumble upon an evil scientist’s conspiracy and defeat Xin Licheng purely by luck.
Can’t break character!
Qi Jiu actually wanted to teleport there directly, but if she did, Yue Du would have to fake the surveillance footage along the way, which would be far too troublesome.
Weighing their options, they chose the easier path. To make it convincing enough, it was better to wander around a bit before heading over.
Now, the two of them were looking at the laptop screen together, which displayed all of Xin Licheng’s files.
They clicked open a video file named “Test Group 0221.” The first thing they saw was a huge glass tank, inside which a mutated bird was being injected with a strange, blood-red liquid. At first glance, there seemed to be no reaction.
The camera cut to a brightly lit isolation room where dozens of espers and mutated creatures of various forms were restrained against the walls. The bird from before was thrown into the room.
The screen went black, displaying the text: “167 hours, 12 minutes, 07 seconds later.”
It was the same isolation room. The iron rings restraining the test subjects automatically unlocked, but not a single living creature tried to escape.
They collapsed to the ground and began to convulse in extreme agony, unconsciously clawing and biting at themselves and the other test subjects. Blood sprayed and flowed.
With Xin Licheng’s bizarre, eerie laughter as the soundtrack, the entire scene was absurd and horrifying—
Yue Du took a deep breath, almost immediately feeling a physical revulsion. The screen full of crimson and writhing bodies made her slightly dizzy, a chill running down her spine.
Qi Jiu, on the other hand, didn’t seem to feel anything. She watched the screen calmly, as if it were a daily documentary or a boring educational video.
But this was only temporary, because she soon noticed Yue Du’s discomfort and decisively reached out to cover the System’s eyes.
The warm, soft, and delicate palm and fingers rested gently on her eyelids, creating an indescribably peculiar sensation.
Yue Du’s mind went blank for a second, then she said, “Thanks?”
Feeling the slight flutter of eyelashes against her palm, Qi Jiu was quite pleased. “You’re welcome.”
Yue Du listened quietly as the eerie laughter and screams faded. Only then did she gently take Qi Jiu’s wrist and move her hand away, just in time to see the completely still corpses of the test subjects on the screen—a crimson, deathly silence.
She closed the video file.
“Let’s go,” Yue Du said.
The “Two-Person Rotation” Squad, with their off-the-charts luck, walked to a city block.
“Oh look, there’s a small shop over there. Let’s take a rest,” Qi Jiu said, her acting extremely exaggerated.
Yue Du: “…You don’t have to do that. The surveillance cameras can’t record sound.”
Qi Jiu said matter-of-factly, “But I enjoy acting.”
What could Yue Du do? “Alright, milady, let’s go in.”
Directly beneath this small shop that sold cigarettes, alcohol, and snacks was the mini-boss Xin Licheng’s last secret base.
The snacks, cigarettes, and alcohol in the shop had been mostly looted. It seemed mutated creatures or members of the chaos faction had been here, as there were dried bloodstains in a corner.
Qi Jiu leaned against the glass counter, her expression weary. Playing her natural self, she said, “I’m so tired.”
Yue Du said coolly, “Then get some rest.”
After dawdling for a while, probably feeling she had acted enough, Qi Jiu stood up straight and feigned surprise. “Hey, my Esper Ability has advanced!”
Yue Du played along perfunctorily. “Wow, congratulations—in what way did it upgrade?”
But if you had really advanced, she thought, you would have already collapsed to the floor, dead to the world.
Qi Jiu continued her act: “I can take people with me now. Why don’t we test it out.”
Yue Du: “Mm.”
And so, the next moment, the two figures vanished from the shop. They would “luckily” land in Xin Licheng’s base fifty meters underground, coming face-to-face with the boss.
Xin Licheng, who was holding a test tube with a fanatical gaze, heard the alarm the instant it went off.
His base was filled with advanced technology; an alarm would sound as soon as anyone other than him and his test subjects broke in.
He had originally thought the intruders were still at the entrance, being toyed with by his little gadgets, but when he turned around, he saw two figures who had appeared without a sound.
Xin Licheng was quite surprised.
But the reason a mini-boss was a mini-boss was because he was special. His composure in the face of a sudden situation was something those previous small fry couldn’t even compare to.
“Welcome?” The curve of Xin Licheng’s lips dipped slightly but remained upturned. “My apologies for the poor reception.”
Yue Du silently sized him up.
On the surface, this man’s demeanor was very similar to Xing Qingcang’s—refined and gentle. No wonder he was the protagonist’s nemesis.
It was truly hard to imagine that such a person could laugh in that sinister and crazed manner from the video file.
Paying no mind to his words, Qi Jiu’s gaze shifted directly to the glass tanks behind him. “Are you conducting human experiments… and animal experiments too?” she asked with lazy surprise.
Yue Du: “…”
Now that they were here, there was no need to pretend at all, yet her host was channeling her inner drama queen.
Xin Licheng found this interesting. He smiled and said, “So what if I am?” He glanced down at the silver-white device in his hand. The warning light on top was a soft blue, and he immediately sneered, “Did you really think you could leave after setting foot in my territory?”
The Xin Licheng-brand Esper Ability strength detector would automatically light up pale blue when it detected a weak Esper reaction, and would light up orange, symbolizing danger, when it encountered a strong one.
These were two weak espers, nothing to be afraid of, one of whom could probably teleport—that was Xin Licheng’s assessment.
Even so, he wouldn’t underestimate them.
His finger twitched slightly. As he watched a mechanical arm silently rise behind the two girls, the eerie green poison coating on its tip glinting coldly, Xin Licheng remained impassive.
—until two slender, snow-white fingers pinched the mechanical arm. The machine made a grating, creaking sound but couldn’t advance another inch.
Xin Licheng’s eyes flew wide open.
He knew his own gadgets best. How could someone stop that kind of force so casually?
Qi Jiu complained, “Your method of sneak attack is so cliché. Don’t you have anything fresher? Like…” Her dark eyes shifted slightly. “Like a micro-injector?”
Xin Licheng: “How could something like that possibly exist! And speaking of which, what’s your arm strength???”
Qi Jiu ignored him, pulled Yue Du aside, and moved to a different spot herself before letting go of the arm.
Freed from the resistance, the mechanical arm stabbed down silently and swiftly, striking the ground with a loud bang and nearly burying itself in the laboratory’s plastic flooring.
One could only imagine the consequences if that thing had hit a person.
“I’m done playing, this is boring.” Qi Jiu said lazily, her eyes downcast. “You really don’t have a micro-injector?”
Xin Licheng: “…No.”
But he had other things.
The man’s left hand was half-hidden behind his back as he pressed an inconspicuous silver button on his pinky ring. This would put the base on high alert and activate its defenses against the intruders;
while Xin Licheng himself would be protected, taken to the surface by an emergency escape elevator, and then flee to his base in the next city.
Thankfully, he had built many bases before the great outbreak of Esper Abilities, thanks to the selfless sponsorship of foolish, rich investors!
But his pinky ring would never get the chance to be used.
The base’s mechanisms were controlled by the local network system, which Yue Du had already connected to and completely paralyzed.
…
Xin Licheng was an ordinary person without an Esper Ability. What kind of trouble could he cause without his advanced technology?
A wise man knows when to yield. He cooperatively raised his hands. “Excuse me, we can talk.”
Yue Du: “What do you want to talk about?”
Xin Licheng: “I conducted human experiments, I admit that. But my experiments are also for the future of humanity—don’t you want to enhance your own Esper powers? My research subjects are espers; it wouldn’t be difficult to create a potion to enhance abilities.”
He still thought the two of them didn’t know about his research project, so he tried to entice them with half-truths. It was true that his research subjects were espers, but the goal of his research was to eliminate them!
This calm, rational, deceptive demeanor made him seem like a completely different person from the madly cackling evil scientist from before.
However…
The world’s strongest Word Spirit esper, Qi Jiu: “Not interested.”
The Five Elements esper, Yue Du: “Don’t want to.”
Xin Licheng: “…You refused way too quickly!”
A moment later, Xin Licheng was shackled to the wall with the iron rings used for experiments.
Qi Jiu and Yue Du divided the work. One went to open the base’s isolation room to release the test subjects, while the other stayed behind to guard Xin Licheng.
The guard duty was left to Yue Du. Her metal-type Esper Ability ensured that Xin Licheng would have no way of breaking free from the iron rings.
Yue Du’s eyes darkened as she looked at the bright red liquid in a nearby test tube.
This was the thing that had claimed the lives of countless espers in seven cities in the original worldline.
Xin Licheng was unwilling to give up trying to persuade her. “Do you really not want to enhance your ability? Are you content with being mediocre for the rest of your life?”
Having spent so much time with Qi Jiu, Yue Du had also learned to be direct and couldn’t be bothered to feign civility with the mini-boss. “I hacked your computer.”
Xin Licheng froze, his expression turning grim.
“Yes, I know what you’re researching. No need for fancy words,” Yue Du said flatly.
As she spoke, the images of writhing, struggling bodies and splattering crimson from the video file resurfaced from her database.
Yue Du closed her eyes for a moment.
“Ha, no wonder.” Xin Licheng wore a strange expression.
The atmosphere grew heavy for a moment, then he said, “Let me tell you a story.”
Yue Du: “Sorry, I refuse.”
She said it without even taking a breath.
Xin Licheng: “…”
Xin Licheng: “I’m going to tell it anyway. On what grounds do you refuse?”
Yue Du picked up a roll of medical tape from the lab bench and stared at him coldly.
Xin Licheng took a deep breath and forced a smile. “Just kidding. Put it down.”
Yue Du sneered contemptuously, “Tch.”
She put the tape back, and before she could turn around, she heard Xin Licheng say softly, as if to himself:
“You don’t understand, none of you understand… If the most important person to you was gone, was killed, why can’t you get revenge? Why can’t you make everything that killed her disappear? Why can’t you make everyone in the world who was indifferent to her die?!”
Yue Du turned back to meet Xin Licheng’s eyes, which had turned red at some point.
Her fingers twitched involuntarily, and for a moment, her blood seemed to freeze.
Xin Licheng was still speaking: “Tell me, why not?”
In her memory, someone had once looked at the brilliant, almost naively sweet smile in a black-and-white photograph and smiled a blood-red smile.
Then said, I want revenge.
Why can’t I have revenge, against all of them.
Time seemed to overlap, overlapping with that rainy night.
“Of course you can get revenge,” she said icily, not knowing who she was even speaking to. “But no one has the right to inflict their hatred on the innocent. No one—”
Avenge your grievances, but do not stray from the right path because of hatred.
This was… something she once had to remember every minute of every second.
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