Chapter 284: Chapter 279: Laboratory Door Number Five Breached
They needed to drag the corpses away, but a giant Corpse Worm’s body wasn’t small and soft like a human’s; it was incredibly difficult to move. Therefore, Liu Yaowu inferred they could probably hold out for more than a month and a half.
In reality, however, if his superiors intended to rescue him, they would take action within a week, or half a month at most. Any longer than that meant he had been abandoned. That was why he’d deliberately shortened the estimate by half a month when speaking to the others.
Chen Pingchuan nodded slightly, a plan already forming in his mind. He looked at everyone with a resolute gaze and said, "Since that’s the case, everyone listen up. From now on, we’re strictly rationing food. Conserve your strength. As for the future... do you remember what I told all of you at the beginning?"
Everyone nodded in agreement. Though their faces were grave, their eyes showed a renewed sense of reliance on him.
In the following days, the laboratory felt like a besieged, isolated city, and the atmosphere was oppressive to the extreme. Chen Pingchuan even began sleeping inside the ultra-gravity sphere. His training became increasingly frenzied, each contraction and relaxation of his muscles seemingly accumulating the power to break through this desperate situation.
After just one more week, he had begun to adapt to the level-seven gene serum, which was the highest grade available in the laboratory.
"Hey, Porcupine, do you think our Boss is really a Divine Envoy?" Great Fierce Bear asked quietly. He was squatting by the doorway, staring into the empty corridor while chatting with Porcupine beside him.
"I don’t know. Probably!"
"What do you mean you don’t know? Stop hiding things from me. Just be honest." Great Fierce Bear punched Porcupine without holding back.
Porcupine didn’t move an inch. He just scratched his head with a simple, honest expression. "I really don’t know. I just feel that the Boss is very kind and has no ill will toward me. And I feel like he can really do anything he promises me."
Great Fierce Bear was stunned. Among this group, he had always thought Porcupine was the most foolish of them all. But after hearing his words, he realized the big man wasn’t foolish in the least. He might possess a unique talent for discerning the true emotions of others. Take himself for example; others had tried to win Porcupine over, but he remained unmoved, only paying any mind to him.
A thought suddenly surfaced in Great Fierce Bear’s mind. Maybe I should be glad I don’t have any sinister intentions.
Meanwhile, the others were lost in their own thoughts. Chen Pingchuan paid them no mind. He was focused solely on improving his strength. Even death didn’t matter, since he could directly inherit his current physical stats upon revival. However, it seemed his body had developed a severe resistance; the improvements from the gene serum were diminishing.
「One week later」
After finishing another training session, Chen Pingchuan found Liu Yaowu.
"The gene serum is completely ineffective now!"
Facing Chen Pingchuan’s statement, Liu Yaowu mumbled indistinctly while leisurely sipping his coffee, "I figured as much."
"Is there a solution?"
"No. You should know, your situation is the strangest I’ve ever seen. If it weren’t for..." Liu Yaowu stopped mid-sentence. Considering his current position, he changed his wording. "You need to understand that the bodies of ordinary ability users—be they Genetic Warriors, Beast Tamers, or powered individuals from other factions—always retain a lot of serum residue. But in your body, there’s absolutely none. The first time a human takes a gene serum, the effect is the strongest. They can continue taking it until they reach a specific physical limit. In other words, your abilities have reached the current limit of this body."
"You’ll only be able to take the serum again once your body has completely absorbed the optimizations from the current genetic sequence."
Chen Pingchuan didn’t dwell on Liu Yaowu’s series of professional terms. He rephrased it according to his own understanding, "Are you saying that if I had my current physical attributes, but in a body that had never taken any gene serum, I could continue to improve?"
"Uh... you must realize, that’s completely impossible. According to..." Liu Yaowu was about to launch into a professional explanation but was rudely interrupted by Chen Pingchuan.
"I’m just asking if it’s possible or not. Cut the crap."
Faced with such a rude, layman’s oversimplification, Liu Yaowu felt a surge of anger. But in the end, he caved and answered mechanically, "If the hypothesis is valid, then yes, that is correct."
Though he verbally acquiesced, he was internally cursing Chen Pingchuan. What a clueless, ignorant fool!
With the affirmative answer, Chen Pingchuan’s heart settled. His safety net for this life was secure.
Just as he was preparing to turn and leave to check on the imprisoned creatures, a piercing alarm suddenly shattered the laboratory’s silence.
"ALARM! ALARM! DEFENSE GATE FIVE HAS BEEN BREACHED!"
"ALARM! ALARM! DEFENSE GATE FIVE HAS BEEN BREACHED!"
"ALARM! ALARM! DEFENSE GATE FIVE HAS BEEN BREACHED!"
The shrill sound was like the Grim Reaper’s trumpet, making everyone’s heart leap into their throats.
Liu Yaowu’s hand trembled, nearly dropping his coffee cup. He hastily pulled up the monitoring screen, and his face instantly went deathly pale.
Chen Pingchuan also glanced at the screen. Outside the defensive line, originally barricaded by a mountain of giant Corpse Worm carcasses, a swarm of the Insect Race was surging madly. They weren’t carrying away their companions’ bodies as predicted. Instead, they had opened their cavernous maws and were devouring each other. The dead insects were instantly shredded to pieces, becoming nourishment to strengthen their own kind.
This not only cleared the path ahead but also caused the insects that did the devouring to grow even larger. The monstrous giant insects, their power now magnified, easily trampled over the "roadblocks" of their comrades’ remains and stormed toward the laboratory door, moving far faster than anticipated.
"How can this be? Weren’t these insects supposed to be mindless?" Liu Yaowu’s eyes widened in terror as he mumbled to himself. At this rate of attack, everyone in the laboratory would be killed in less than a day.
Chen Pingchuan heard Liu Yaowu’s soft mumbling and patted him on the shoulder. "I don’t know where you get your confidence from, but I can tell you this for a fact: this swarm of giant Corpse Worms has a leader. And their leader is a giant brain insect with intelligence. It’s possible its IQ is even higher than yours."
Hearing Chen Pingchuan’s jest, Liu Yaowu’s already shocked face twisted into an expression of utter disbelief.
"What did you say?"
"An Insect King is controlling the giant Corpse Worms?"
"No wonder... no wonder these mindless creatures broke through the defensive line! Those bastards on the front lines feeding us false intelligence... they deserve to die!"
Just then, Chen Pingchuan, who had been about to leave, suddenly stopped in his tracks. He turned his head.
"So, you knew about these Corpse Worms all along, Dr. Liu!"
Looking at the cold expression on Chen Pingchuan’s face, Liu Yaowu froze.
Damn it, I let it slip!