Chapter 146: Do You Need Help?
Translator: Pluto Editor: Vermillion
“Why don’t you try to contact her again? Maybe, Li Tao didn’t hear the call just now.” Xu Wei urged Bai Xiaoke softly as she looked at her hopefully. The few of them who had worked together since the tournament until now were unsurprisingly grouped together. At the moment, the four women and a male escort were sneaking quietly into an industrial park filled with short white buildings.
Every team had one communicator—the wristband that every Garden of Eden resident owned was something considerably valuable to a posthuman—and Xueqin had ensured that each team had the contact of all the other teams. As Li Tao wanted to go to the black tower alone, they had to steal another communicator for her. It took them a considerable amount of time to get it. Yet, now they didn’t know why she was uncontactable.
“That thing on her wrist vibrates. How can she not hear it?” Dong Haohao retorted with her usual biting attitude. “I think she must be in some sort of situation… She’d better not run away!”
Xueqin was somewhat guileless and hearing that, she kept an awkward silence. After a while, she stammered, “Um, you are thinking ahead of yourself. That’s not possible…”
Bai Xiaoke squeezed between the two of them and rolled her eyes. She threw a glance at Xueqin and realized that the latter was just lying still. Bai Xiaoke had no idea what she was thinking. After being jabbed a couple of times by the escort, Xueqin finally regained her focus. She frowned and looked at the others, “Regarding the situation at the black tower, we just have to wait for Li Tao to call back. Let’s not think about it for now. But, what should we do since we are here?”
The three women suddenly kept quiet. Hesitating for a moment, Xu Wei turned to look behind her with a timid expression. The women were hiding at the back of a small building. Peeking out from behind the structure, they could see the entire compound of Garden of Eden Laboratories. The word ‘Laboratories’ actually meant the ten buildings in the compound. Those buildings were rectangular and had a sleek and smooth facade. The edges of the buildings were distinctly sharp and they had no visible doors and windows. Made of an unknown materials, the buildings with their metallic shine were like emotionless robotic monsters crouching in the darkness, spying at humanity.
Every now and then, a red beam shot out from the top of each building, piercing through the darkness and going over every inch of the compound. With ten beams of light, the area they covered intersected, leaving almost no blind spot. Though the women did not know the exact function of the red beams, none of them wanted to risk being scanned by it. It wasn’t easy for them to find the hiding spot they were at, as they had to observe those beams for a long time.
Although their spot was safe, it was absolutely useless. It was at least a few hundred meters away from the nearest laboratory building, so it wasn’t any different from standing on the road outside.
Their team was originally supposed to destroy a factory that manufactured anti-radiation suits, but when they arrived there they wanted to try their luck looking for Lin Sanjiu, and that was how they finally ended in this dilemma.
“Let’s destroy this place!” Bai Xiaoke raised her brows, with hostility in her eyes. “It doesn’t matter what we destroy anyway! Besides, isn’t this place worse than that factory!”
Lin Sanjiu had warned them not to come here. Xu Wei wanted to say something but she quickly swallowed her words when she saw her companions. For all of them who had experienced the brutality of the Lunar New Year Tournament, Garden of Eden Laboratories evoked a sort of physiological disgust in them. Bai Xiaoke’s suggestion was instantly accepted unanimously.
“Listen up.” While the red breams paused for a few short seconds, the women approached the nearest building swiftly and cautiously. At the same time, they were listening to Xueqin, “There are all sorts of weird things in the lab. Some of them might be useful to us but there are devices which are specifically designed to deal with…”
While she spoke, the red beams from the building started moving again. The very next second, the red beam swept across the ground the women were at just moments before. Their hearts pounded crazily while Bai Xiaoke pulled out an access card they had retrieved from the security guard at the gate. She waved the card in front of the building’s smooth walls, in an experimental way.
A few lines of words appeared on the white metallic surface of the wall and the red beam immediately stopped before it reached that particular wall.
“Lucky. That short-lived bastard didn’t lie to us.” Dong Haohao sighed in relief.
After verifying the information on the access card, the wall slid open soundlessly and revealed a large hall. The women rushed in immediately, armed with their weapons. When they stepped on the floor of the large hall, a gentle, cream-white light filled the space. The white hall was impeccably clean but the internal frame of the place was odd. It was as if the building was gradually coming alive.
The women surveyed the empty hall and were unable to tell its particular function. Bai Xiaoke crouched and touched the surface of the floor. She suddenly sounded a little despondent, “What is this material… Can it be burned?”
Xueqin scoffed at that primitive idea, “These laboratories are important so there must be a fire suppression system. Don’t even try to burn this place down. Let’s move to the corridor. Everyone, be careful.” Even though she was just a ‘common folk’ in the Garden of Eden, Xueqin definitely knew more about this place than the posthumans.
To better describe this place, the building was a little like a hospital. However, what they saw behind each of those windowed doors was very different. Some of the rooms were filled with apparatus and others were filled with giant Petri dishes. Xueqin looked around the place, with the escort carrying her, as if searching for something. Bai Xiaoke could only follow her blindly while controlling the escort.
“This is weird. I am sure there must be a security system. Where is it?” she mumbled to Bai Xiaoke.
When she finished her sentence, a loud sound erupted behind them. Their hearts nearly exploded. Both women turned behind and saw that Xu Wei’s fists were glowing with a faint white light. Before Xueqin could stop her, Dong Haohao’s voice rang out, “Smash it again!” Xu Wei struck the door to a room with another massive punch. “Clunk!” She finally smashed the door open.
Xueqin felt her heart sink but they did not hear any alarm even after some time. She exchanged a look with Bai Xiaoke, feeling perplexed. Meanwhile, Xu Wei and Dong Haohao already entered the room excitedly. They were about to follow behind when Xueqin suddenly felt the escort becoming shorter. She nearly slid down from his back.
“Aghh, I have used it for too long. Look how short it is!” Bai Xiaoke stopped as she clicked her tongue, lamenting. “It is not even 1.6m now. I think it would only last about another ten to twenty minutes…”
Right now, Xueqin was dragged around rather than being piggybacked. Xueqin wanted to check the room anxiously, and simply replied, “Why don’t you summon another one—”
Bai Xiake rolled her eyes but before she could rebut that it was not that easy, she suddenly froze because… the corridor became unusually silent.
If it weren’t for the occasional sounds of broken fragments falling, she would almost believe that no one had ever been in this place. Surprisingly, they did not hear any sound from the room that Xu Wei and Dong Haohao had just entered. The two women looked at each other and rushed to the door.
There wasn’t much in the room. There were just a few round metallic holes on the ceiling and the floor was covered by a thick layer of light yellow, translucent, gel-like substance. But, the thing that shocked the women the most were their companions, who were alright just seconds before.
Xu Wei and Dong Haohao were still alive but they couldn’t even make a sound. They were both encased in the light yellow gel-like substance. It was as if they were swallowed by two globs of giant jelly. Dong Haohao had activated her [National Tax agency] and Xu Wei had activated her [Impact Drill]. Though it seemed that the ‘jelly’ didn’t physically harm them, the substance was extremely malleable and could basically also trap the women’ abilities along with them.
Seeing their movements gradually getting slower and them looking more and more exhausted, Bai Xiaoke couldn’t hold herself back any longer. Luckily, she was very prudent, so she placed Xueqin down on the ground and commanded her escort to rush into the room. Unexpectedly, once her escort stepped onto that gel-like substance, the thick layer of gel suddenly swallowed his legs as though it was alive. At the same time, more of that ‘jelly’ sprayed out from the holes in the ceiling. It took less than two seconds for her escort to be wrapped up like the others.
Bai Xiaoke cursed softly and snapped her fingers. The escort in the ‘jelly’ immediately withered and stopped moving. Suddenly, she heard a slightly amused voice, “Oh? That isn’t a posthuman.”
Then, another man responded blandly, “That must be its ability.”
Xueqin turned stiffly. Following the source of the voices, she spotted a black, narrow strip by the side of the door. She let out a bitter laugh and sighed before whispering to Bai Xiaoke, “The researchers here have been watching us.”
The black strip was a type of screen rarely seen by normal people. It could capture images and sounds from a very large area and it could also broadcast sound. Another male researcher laughed, “Ever since you guys step into our industrial park, we already spotted you. Both of you are lucky you weren’t made into amber.”
He was probably entertained by the expressions on their faces so he guffawed, “Do you think we do our experiments in these buildings? You can’t be more wrong. These ten buildings are our experiments, and they can do a lot—”
“Dodge!” Bai Xiaoke suddenly yelled. Before the researcher finished his words, she had already crouched forward and pushed Xueqin away. A gust of wind, accompanied by a white light, brushed past their heads. “BOOM!” the light hit the wall and created a shallow dent. Both women knew what that attack was. They had seen it countless times during the Lunar New Year Tournament. Xu Wei, who was tightly wrapped in resin, stared at the open door with bewilderment on her face. Both her hands were still stuck in a struggling position.
The monotonous voice rang out again, “There is still a 0.6s to 0.9s delay for the ability reflected by the ‘amber resin’…”
“Let’s talk about the figures later. We have to capture those two first.”
“Polly, open door 22. Release the ‘Microorganism Cloud’.”
Bai Xiaoke had just evaded the previous attack when she heard the door behind her open with a click. She carried Xueqin hastily and dashed for the exit, although she was partly dragging the woman because she was petite, albeit strong enough.
“Why can’t you summon another escort?!” Xueqin saw the light purple cloud of mist filling up the corridor behind them. It was catching up to them. “If this goes on, we will all die!” she shouted anxiously.
“You’ve got to be kidding!” Bai Xiaoke’s forehead was drenched in sweat, “Do you know what is the condition for me to summon an escort! I need to crave for a dashing young man! You are asking me to f*cking think of men now?”
Xueqin choked when she heard those words. She didn’t make another comment and just when she saw the fastest portion of the purple mist reaching them, she quickly activated her ability, [The housewife haunted by the spirits who had gone under her kitchen knife]. “Pop!” A large spongy black umbrella shadow sprouted out from her wrist and prevented the purple mist from reaching them. It was an extremely large mushroom and it jammed the corridor from the ceiling to the floor. The purple mist was successfully blocked, for now.
“Those spirits under your knife are quite incredulous…” Bai Xiaoke was amazed when she turned to look behind her.
“We are not out of danger,” Xueqin’s face twisted with pain. “The mushroom is being attacked. I can’t maintain this for long… I know. Go to the toilet!”
“Why should I go there?”
“I am sure there isn’t a monitoring screen installed there. We can hide there for a while!” Xueqin said and used her mouth to free a knife strapped to her arm. She held the knife in her hand and continued, “We will think of a way when we get there!” After all, with two of their team members trapped, they couldn’t leave now.
Even though the researchers mentioned that the buildings themselves were experiments, they did still use them as research labs. Since this was their working environment, it was only logical that there must be toilets here. The two women found a toilet in no time and rushed into it under the protection of the mushroom.
While Xueqin withdrew the mushroom, Bai Xiaoke slammed the door shut. From the narrow gap under the door, they could still see the purple mist which rushed forward searching for the two women, as if it had a mind of its own.
“Quick! Stuff something in that gap,” Xueqin said as she panted.
Bai Xiaoke took off her jacket in a fluster and grabbed some toilet paper. She squished her jacket and the toilet paper under the door desperately, even though she didn’t know if it could block the purple mist. However, that was all they had. She continued busily but suddenly stopped halfway.
“What’s wrong?”
“I got a message.”
She turned pale as she showed the screen of the communicator on her wrist to Xueqin. The wristband hummed, vibrating non-stop. The projected screen was filled with messages and their contents were almost all the same, “We encountered the military on the way to our destination! We need backup if anyone’s nearby!”
“We were ambushed by the police before we even reached our target!”
“We are surrounded!”
After counting, they realized that at least eight teams were sending such messages. Those probably weren’t the worst cases. When Xueqin thought of the teams which couldn’t even send any messages, she felt her heart falling into the pit of her stomach.
The two women stared blankly at the screen for some time with a bitter taste in their mouths.
“What… what should we do?” Bai Xiaoke asked tardily after some time.
Xueqin didn’t know what to do either. Three months before, she was just a woman who thought about how to scrimp everyday… Just when they found themselves totally helpless, the screen skipped and a communication request popped up.
Bai Xiaoke sighed thinking that it was another team. When the call connected, she was stunned and she quickly poked Xueqin.
“I saw many policemen on my way out,” a voice like a clear spring came out from the device. Amidst his intonations and pauses, there was a sort of charm which compelled people to listen. Gong Daoyi narrowed his star-sprinkled eyes and asked kindly, “I just saved three other girls. They say they were from a team… Where are you now? Do you need my help?”
