Chapter 210
Chapter 210
Heizi: ???
Wait, what the hell just happened?
The young man wiped the dirt from his face. “What’s wrong with you? Hurry up! We found the Jin Ke La!”
Still dazed, Heizi let himself be dragged out of the room.
The instant he set one foot in the courtyard, the formerly peaceful scene transformed.
The spring flowing over the rockery turned to blood, and the ground visibly withered and cracked.
The stench of blood flooded his nostrils as countless eerie noises rose from the darkness.
“Holy shit, it’s the Inner World!”
At this point, Heizi had no time to think about the voices he’d heard inside his head.
His legs turned into turbocharged wheels as he tore across the uneven ground.
The young man beside him was stunned by his speed.
The fuck are you running for?!
I’ve got the Jin Ke La! What good will running off by yourself do you?
As Heizi fled, the dangers hidden in the darkness finally revealed themselves.
Rotting corpses came charging toward the two of them at incredible speed.
The young man sucked in a deep breath and kicked off, blasting two deep craters into the ground.
His lean figure shot past Heizi in an instant and raced for the main gate.
Heizi’s mind went blank as he watched the young man’s back rapidly disappear into the distance.
What the hell, did you install nitrous in your legs?!
Ref! He’s cheating!
In that brief moment, Heizi also unleashed every last bit of his strength.
Unfortunately, with his teammate using hacks, the horde of corpses managed to Devour him in an instant.
Faced with one rotting visage after another, Heizi’s eyes rolled back, and he fainted on the spot.
Zhang Bei and his secretary sat in a dark corner, their cackling laughter echoing throughout Another Life.
On the screen, Heizi opened his eyes once more.
He found himself in a stark white room, where two researchers in white lab coats were staring at a computer monitor.
He was strapped tightly to a chair, with several plastic tubes inserted into his head.
“He’s awake!”
“He’s no use anymore. Have someone dump him.”
“All right!”
The familiar voices reached Heizi’s ears, and he immediately realized they were the same ones he had heard inside his head.
Holy shit, what kind of technology was this?
Was everything he’d just experienced a hallucination?
Heizi opened his mouth, but not a sound came out.
His entire body was limp and powerless. All he could do was watch what happened next.
One of the researchers pulled the plastic tubes from Heizi’s head, then nodded toward the door.
Two armed figures grabbed him under the arms and dragged him outside.
Beyond the door was another pale corridor, lined with rooms one after another.
Every now and then, screams could be heard coming from inside them.
“What do we do with this one?”
“Lock him up for two hours. If he’s still alive after that, dump him up top.”
With that, Heizi was thrown into a dim little room.
“Another test subject?”
Once his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he spotted a figure bound in chains.
“Looks like you don’t know anything.”
The figure rattled his chains and shifted into a more comfortable sitting position.
“This is the Jin Ke La Biological Research Institute. Judging by the wounds on your head, you must be a test subject from the Reshaping Project.”
Heizi opened his mouth. There was so much wrong with that sentence that he didn’t even know where to begin, yet he couldn’t get a single word out.
Jin Ke La, my ass!
Wasn’t that stuff fertilizer?
What kind of people researching fertilizer could possibly build a Laboratory like this?!
Ignoring Heizi’s expression, the figure continued speaking.
“The Reshaping Project has come a long way. By now, they’ve managed to recover the memories of quite a few scientists.”
Heizi stared at the figure before him.
Don’t fucking tell me they can use memories to bring scientists back to life!
“Their cloning technology is incredibly advanced. They’ve already succeeded in reviving a renowned weapons-manufacturing expert.”
Wait, were these people really fertilizer manufacturers?
Were they planning to conquer the world with fertilizer?
Heizi tested his voice and found that he could speak again.
Just as he was about to ask whether this place was actually Earth, the ground began shaking violently.
A gigantic pincer tore straight through the wall.
Its owner was a beetle magnified countless times over. In mere moments, it demolished the entire wall and charged into the room.
The figure sitting on the floor froze, then broke into a delighted smile.
“Don’t breathe!”
Heizi’s greatest virtue was knowing how to follow instructions-especially when his life was on the line.
The beetle twitched its antennae, then headed off in another direction.
Heizi’s face had turned purple from holding his breath. Only after the danger had moved away did he start gulping down air.
Light from the corridor streamed into the room, finally allowing Heizi to get a clear look at the person on the floor.
Well… how could he put it?
Three lone hairs fluttered in the breeze atop a head polished to a mirror shine.
“Quick, see if you can find a key!”
Heizi knew that right now, sticking with someone who knew what they were doing was far better than blindly running around on his own.
He climbed through the breach the beetle had opened and entered the corridor.
It didn’t take him long to find a guard who had been ripped in half.
Spotting a ring of keys lying nearby, Heizi snatched it up and ran.
He hurried back into the room, then scratched his head as he stared at the huge bunch of keys in his hand.
“Which one is it?”
“The blue ones. Steel catalyzed with Jin Ke La turns blue.”
Heizi quickly picked out the two blue keys and unlocked the chains around Baldy.
Baldy tossed the chains to the floor and rolled his neck.
Then he punched the wall.
Boom!
His fist blasted straight through it.
Heizi stood off to the side, his lips twitching.
Hot damn.
You must be a Devil Fruit user, right?
Those aren’t iron chains. They’re Seastone, aren’t they?
They have to be!
Baldy glanced at the still-dazed Heizi.
“Nice work. I’ll take you to eat some Jin Ke La!”
Heizi’s mind was still reeling, but when he saw Baldy stride off, he hurried after him.
With Baldy’s “Serious Punch” clearing the way, nothing could stop them.
The two soon reached the very end of the corridor.
A trace of greed flashed through Baldy’s eyes as he stared at the steel door before them.
He slammed his fist into it. No matter how strong the steel was, it couldn’t withstand that blow.
Once the door opened, they found countless quantities of Jin Ke La carefully preserved inside transparent cases.
“Hurry up and eat. We don’t have much time.”
Heizi grabbed a handful of Jin Ke La and stuffed it into his mouth.
It was bitter, astringent, and just a little sticky against his teeth.
The moment Heizi forced it down, power surged through his body.
He suddenly had the illusion that he could punch straight through Earth!
Before he had time to savor the rush, his vision abruptly went black.
A line of text slowly appeared.
[You have died from consuming too much Jin Ke La.]
When his vision lit up again, Zhang Bei’s familiar face filled his view.
“Good evening, President Qiu!”
The secretary’s voice came from beside him. Heizi stiffly turned his neck.
“So… everything just now was me playing this thing?”
Zhang Bei nodded. “I made this piece of shit after consulting a ton of source material. How did it taste?”