Chapter 6.1 - Intruder
Pendulum City was where Roxland Company’s central branch was located. This place was 200 kilometers from Asmo and 150 kilometers from Base N11. In this ruined and scattered era of turmoil, there were no highways and most of the ground was uneven, so 150 kilometers was already the limit that the olden era tanks could travel.
When the sky had just brightened, Pendulum City was already roused awake by the rumbling sounds of engines and powerful yet concise oral commands. Five lightweight transport vehicles formed a line at the central city plaza. Fully armed soldiers mounted the vehicles one after another. On the side, there were two powerful off-road jeeps parked, and on top, the shooters were leaning somewhat lazily against the anti-aircraft machine guns.
Li was standing in her military uniform without the slightest trace of a smile on her face as she coldly watched the soldiers board the vehicles. When all of the soldiers boarded the transport vehicles, she raised her hand to look at her wrist. The amount of time that had passed was thirty seconds less than she had expected.
Only now did Li walk towards her own off-road vehicle. This time, she was the one personally driving. The command vehicle’s four wheels simultaneously moved, and under earsplitting friction sounds, it fiercely rushed out. It surpassed the military vehicles and soon reached the very front of the fleet. When she reached the very front, the command car rumbled even louder and increased further, rushing outwards. The command vehicle carried five or six elite soldiers. These soldiers with two or three levels of ability sat rather stably. They did not show any signs of being flung outwards, to the point where their bodies didn’t even move that much.
Seeing the command vehicle speed up, the drivers of the military vehicles behind all began to sweat. They no longer cared about the well-being of their passengers or their formation and stepped down on their pedals. They chased after the command vehicle like it was a race out of Pendulum City.
Inside Pendulum City, an eighteen floor office building had been completely restored, now serving as Roxland Company’s central branch. Li Gaolei stood in front of the eleventh floor window and watched the troops leave. This time, even though Li did not bring any tanks, these were the elites among her subordinates, so their fighting strength might not necessarily be lower than that of Base N11’s subjugation group. Using this kind of team to wipe out some refugee troops that only recently occupied some of the land controlled by Roxland Company was truly a bit excessive. Moreover, did Li even have to personally lead it?
In the wilderness, not even Li Gaolei himself wanted to meet an opponent like Li.
This time, it could only be said that these refugees were unlucky, as they just so happened to appear when Li’s mood was bad. Li Gaolei did not have any pity for these refugees that established homes everywhere. It was just like what Roxland Company’s insignia depicted: a tank running over everything inside a city. In this era of turmoil, power represented what you could do. Having power was the same as having everything. There were no laws, and there were no rules. All of the so called rules would only exist between those of similar strength, as only then would they be followed. Preserving the rules also required power. If either side lost their strength, then that meant that the rules have ceased to be effective.
In short, during this age of turmoil, countless rules were being created each day, and countless rules were broken each day.
Only a large company like Roxland Company could bring up someone like Li. At the same time, only within Roxland Company could Li mature and make use of all her strong points. If they each brought five people, then Li Gaolei could completely defeat Li. If they both had twenty, then the conclusion would be hard to say. If if was two hundred or more, then Li Gaolei’s troops would most likely be completely wiped out, while most of Li’s men would still be alive. Only a colossus like Roxland Company would have over 200 men for Li to command.
The group of vehicles had already traveled extremely far. The trails of smoke that were raised up flew high into the air. Li Gaolei left the window and walked over to the spacious office table. After pressing a few buttons, a sharp, yet unconcealably older voice sounded. “Hello? Doesn’t company regulations clearly state that this is my experimenting time?”
“Li Gaolei.”
The voice on the line muttered a few sentences. In an unwilling voice, the other person said, “Fine! What do you need from me? I still have a bunch of experiments to carry out.”
“Has the analysis of that item been completed?” While standing in the office, Li Gaolei no longer had that laid-back and dejected appearance. Instead, he was rather imposing, and his words were concise and clear.
“The results have just come out… Hold on! What is going on?! This… you better come here and take a look yourself. I can’t describe it clearly over the phone!”
Li Gaolei immediately dropped the phone and rushed out from the office. He rushed through the corridor with extreme speed, not waiting for the elevator that had stopped at a lower floor at all. Instead, he used the fire escape stairway to directly climb sixteen floors to reach the Biochemical Laboratory. After his identity card was inspected, Li Gaolei walked past the researchers that were immersed in work. He directly walked towards the central laboratory that occupied half the floor.
There was only a single withered up small old individual within this laboratory that measured over a thousand square meters, and he was inspecting something under a microscope. From his cheeks that were constantly moving, it was clear that he was excited. This old man was the chief scientist within Roxland Company’s biochemical division that had once developed a fourth level ability: Lawston.
Li Gaolei patted his back, and Lawston immediately handed the digital microscope to Li Gaolei. When his eyes looked through the eyepiece, Li Gaolei immediately became stumped for words. Within the glowing green field of vision, he could see dead cells everywhere, and among them, he could see some bacteria that he knew possessed extraordinary vitality.
“This is…” Li Gaolei straightened his body and gave an inquiring look towards Lawston.
Lawston took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He groaned, “Heavens, I’ve never seen this type of thing before! Where did you get such a thing? This… how do I describe this?”
Lawston began to hammer down on the keyboard of the computer next to the experiment platform. The screen immediately transmitted an extremely disturbing image.
Within the glowing green background, a large amount of cells were squirming about and were full of vitality. These cells or bacteria slowly moved about, and they were attacking each other. They were just in time to see a cell abnormally expand and then blast apart. Several dozen new cells that were clearly different from the mother cell flowed out from inside.
All of the cells’ movements seemed extremely slow, but this was not what Li Gaolei was thinking. In the current world, the movement of these cells or bacteria was actually ridiculously fast. If someone was infected with these bacterium that would make a cell undergo mutation, they wouldn’t even last a day.
Right at this time, something astonishing appeared. A type of medium sized cell suddenly appeared at the edge of the scope. Their movements were extremely fast, moving at a speed that seemed to be a hundred times that of the others. When these cells encountered the other cells, no matter what type they were, they would similarly stretch out a needle-like horn and pierce into the interior of the other party, injecting their own contents inside. In just a few seconds, the penetrated cell would immediately split apart and produce more than ten cells identical to the invader. The intruder cells would immediately diffuse in all directions with extraordinary speed like all-road vehicle through a group of turtles. Before even a minute had passed, all of the cells were affected. Not even a single cell escaped this fate. They were either broken or directly pierced to death.
On top of the screen, only a single invader species could be seen!
The invaders knocked against each other. Then, they began to shoot around like balls to collide with even more invading cells, causing movements that were even more complex. However, there were no longer any other cells or bacteria that they could use. The intruder cell type, regardless of whether they were original or new, all began to frantically bounce around.
A minute later, all of the intruders died, and the image became deathly still. There were cell corpses everywhere, just like what Li Gaolei saw through the scope.
This was the recording taken by the digital microscope.
Li Gaolei felt his scalp going a bit numb and his palms covered in cold sweat. The sticky and wet feeling was extremely uncomfortable.
Only after a moment had passed did Li Gaolei say, “You are saying that these cells were discovered from the sample I gave you?”
Lawston nodded and added, “The recording you saw was the later half. In the beginning, there was only a single live cell that I added. It is precisely as how you see it. This single cell immediately killed every single cell that it made contact with and even made it its own breeding nest! When I saw this scene from now, I was instantly terrified. Only later did I remember to start recording!” His voice was both hurried and shrill. It seemed like he was still struggling from the terror of seeing that scene just now.
Li Gaolei fowned and stared at the cell cemetery in front of him. Suddenly, he said, “If…”
Lawston immediately knew what he wanted to say. “If this cell entered a body, then it would turn into a monster within half an hour! Moreover, no one could know what kind of thing it would be!”