The car drifted all the way toward the suburbs.
The city center had the lowest terrain, so the flooding improved as they headed to more remote areas. By the later stages, it was basically Wuling Hongguang minivans running on their four wheels on the ground.
At 8:20 a.m., they finally arrived at their “workplace.”
The research institute was a three-story white standalone building, surrounded by a concrete wall.
The iron expandable gate had been broken open from the inside, with stainless steel crossbars covered in bloodstains—quite violently.
The stone sign at the entrance with the institute’s name was splattered with dark, gooey stuff, making the words unreadable.
The surrounding streets looked like they had been through a war, littered with ruins and garbage everywhere.
Strangely, there wasn’t a single zombie at the entrance to the research institute.
[Inherit Purity and Original Aspiration, Advance with the Times]
[C City Digital Medical Research Institute]
Zhang Haiyang shouldered a large machete and pointed inside.
“Back in the day, this was a proper government institution, right?”
Mu Shan ignored him. The four took off their cumbersome raincoats and rain boots, fully armed, and entered the gate.
As the last person stepped into the first-floor lobby, a system prompt suddenly appeared.
【Player entered the designated location. Beginning side quest for [Zombie Siege]
Current progress: 0
Side quests have only one chance. Leaving will result in failure】
【Newbie protection—No penalty for side quest failure】
Mu Shan glanced at the glass doors that had quietly closed behind them and had a slightly bad premonition.
In the center of the first-floor lobby was a flower bed; all the flowers had withered, and small pots lay kicked over on the ground.
At the back was a service desk with a floor directory on the wall and dried blood splattered on the counter.
The lobby had been through a chaotic escape and chase, with bloody footprints everywhere on the floor.
While Mu Shan was noting down the floor information, the old driver took something out of his backpack and placed it on the ground with a “bang.”
Zhang Haiyang looked over: “—Whoa!”
The old driver calmly unfolded the folded wheelchair, sat on it proficiently, and buckled the seatbelt: “Occupational necessity.”
“Impressive! Who says a powered wheelchair isn’t a vehicle!”
The old driver gripped the control handle with his left hand and a long spear fork with his right, maneuvering the wheelchair in a circle.
He looked like an apocalypse version of an iron “cavalry” infantryman.
“Just so we’re clear, I’m pure support. Don’t count on me for main attacks—my ribs still hurt.”
Zhang Haiyang patted his chest: “No problem! I’ve got you two big shots covered!”
Li Mei stood behind them, holding a gardening hoe, and nodded as well.
After Mu Shan finished recording the information and returned: “The third floor has a cafeteria, medical room, and storage. We can search there when we have time—might still be some stuff left.”
“The second floor is the office area and project R&D department, probably the task location. Let’s search floor by floor.”
Zhang Haiyang took the lead: “Let’s go!”
To the right of the entrance lobby were the elevators and public restrooms; to the left, the research product display area and science hall.
Glass cases with no one to view them stood with specimens on the display stands, names and deeds of researchers placed below, exuding a eerie loneliness.
The hall was deathly silent, save for footsteps and the sound of the old driver’s wheelchair scraping on the floor.
Compared to the filth and blood outside, this science area was abnormally clean and tidy.
The tiles and walls were snow-white, almost spotless.
“This is my first time in such a fancy place. As expected, even in the apocalypse, it still smells nice.” Zhang Haiyang took a deep breath.
The old driver said coolly from the side: “It’s too clean here, which just makes you smell even worse! You’ve been in this instance without changing clothes once, huh? Consider your teammates’ noses once in a while!”
“Bro, this is clearly manly scent.”
They hadn’t gone far when Zhang Haiyang spotted an animal specimen and grinned: “Look at this—they even researched chickens with four wings. They say it can greatly ease meat market pressure and lower chicken wing prices.”
“KFC and McDonald’s must be thrilled.”
The old driver: “And there’s amphibious fish too. Even in drought areas and deserts, you can eat fresh fish.”
At that moment, Li Mei, who was lagging two steps behind, spotted something and pointed at the achievement display: “Wait! Sis, I see your quest protagonist’s name!”
The group quickly gathered.
Mu Shan read the text: “Successfully achieved human immune cell storage, applied cell regeneration therapy, treating terminal illnesses via CIK cell reinfusion.”
“Researcher: Sun Lizhou.”
No physical display; the achievement panel only had a photo: an elderly man with gray hair lay on a hospital bed, surrounded by smiling, applauding people, all with excited expressions.
Zhang Haiyang: “What happened? Did this old guy get brought back from the dead?”
“No idea.” Mu Shan shook her head.
“There’s more here.” Feng Wei pointed to another display: “Successfully achieved gender reassignment surgery with no side effects. Surgical subjects’ biological sex and gender identity can both be realized within 2 days—just one weekend! Researcher: Sun Lizhou.”
The photo showed a happy family of three.
Feng Wei muttered: “No clue which of these three got the surgery. Your quest target has a pretty broad research scope?”
Mu Shan nodded: “He’s a director, probably a key figure.”
The small team roughly searched the first floor. Aside from a few packs of coffee in the visitor lounge, they found no supplies.
Not only no supplies, but no zombies either. The four took the stairs on the left up to the second floor.
The second floor was about as messy as the first-floor lobby, with dirty, chaotic footprints everywhere. Plenty of paper scraps littered the ground, trampled several times.
“Looks like the chaos happened suddenly. See, the printer’s documents weren’t even taken out.” Mu Shan pointed at the printer with its yellow light on; a few sheets of data remained inside.
She pulled them out. They read [Senior Meeting Vote on Agenda: Research Institute Annual Best Employee Selection], followed by resumes of several people. No sign of the quest target Sun Lizhou or Liu Dawei.
The second floor wasn’t open to the public. The white corridor on both sides was lined with research labs and offices.
The institute seemed divided by projects; each office held basically 3-4 people, occasionally doubles, with employee status boards at the doors.
[Wang Yi: On duty
Li Er: On leave
Qian San: Out]
The old driver gestured to her: “Split up?”
Mu Shan nodded.
The four split into two groups for different areas. The old driver took Li Mei for the east end; Mu Shan and Zhang Haiyang handled the west.
Mu Shan entered an office piled with microscopes and chemical reagents. She saw a woman’s coat draped over a chairback, left behind in haste.
Sure enough, in the corner break room, she found the essentials for girls: ginger brown sugar, coffee, milk tea, herbal tea, and more.
The desk had two monitors piled high. Mu Shan’s scavenging eye had grown sharper; she directly took the hair ties and hand cream on the desk, plus biscuits and Golden Throat lozenges from the drawer.
While searching another desk, she suddenly heard Zhang Haiyang’s hushed shout from the opposite office.
“Sis, come quick!”
She rushed out and saw the rookie pointing at the employee status board on the neighboring office door.
[Liu Dawei: On duty]
It was unmistakably his side quest target.
Seeing Zhang Haiyang’s excited face, Mu Shan spoke rapidly: “You check this office. I’ll search the others.”
The rookie charged in impatiently.
Mu Shan finished two more offices in a row, finding nothing useful.
She wondered: Had these research weirdos all ascended to immortality? No one kept snacks at their desks?
Her fingers brushed a scientific journal on the desk, and she finally noticed [Sun Lizhou] on the cover.
A yellow system prompt appeared out of nowhere.
【Player triggered side quest plot. Forced quest activation.
Welcome to the game】
Mu Shan’s heart sank. Before she could process what a “forced quest” meant, the world spun before her eyes, and then she knew nothing.
…
When the dizziness in her brain faded and her vision cleared, Mu Shan jerked upright. She had been lying on her side on a sofa in an office.
She gripped her axe tightly and saw system prompts unfolding before her.
【Cannon fodder player 537099, you have successfully triggered the side quest—plot mini-game
Game mode: Escape Room
Time limit: 15 minutes
Hint: During the game, you cannot contact/communicate with other players
Note: During the game, this room qualifies as an [Enclosed Room]】
【Countdown: 14:59】
Mu Shan sprang to her feet. She didn’t try contacting the old driver and the others first but scanned the surroundings.
This was a single-person office. The only visible exit was the door.
Mu Shan checked it: a smart door lock, likely requiring an access card, password, or fingerprint.
There was a vent overhead, covered in wire mesh and too small for an adult to pass.
The desk was much larger than a typical researcher’s, cluttered with office equipment, notebooks, file folders, kraft paper bags, and such.
Additionally, there was a desk phone at the corner and a desktop alarm clock.
Behind the desk was a comfortable black leather swivel chair. On the wall hung a painting of “a roc spreading its wings,” inscribed in brush with “The roc rises with the wind one day, soaring ninety thousand li straight up.”
From the painting style, the owner was at least in his forties.
The sofa where she had lain unconscious faced the desk, with a small tea table in front bearing a dusty tea set. From the traces, it had hardly been used by the owner.
In the corner stood a vintage floor clock, exquisitely crafted. The owner must have cherished it, as it was covered with a white gauze curtain for dust protection.
The south wall had a window with blinds pulled down; outside was pitch black.
If the room was set as an [enclosed room], breaking the window to escape wasn’t realistic.
Next to the window was a matching vintage wall clock, showing the same time as the desk alarm: 9 a.m.
But the hands ticked “tick-tock,” as if urging time to pass, annoying her.
On the other wall was a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf, visually holding at least a few hundred professional research journals—Mu Shan got a headache just looking.
Beside the bookshelf was a wooden coat rack with a black executive jacket hanging on it.
Young people wouldn’t wear that; it fit the age guess for the owner.
Next to the coat rack in the corner was a row of radiators.
That was everything in the office, all taken in at a glance.
Mu Shan looked up. The ceiling lamp emitted dim yellow light, casting the already aged wooden floor in a decayed glow. Some floorboard cracks were even a few millimeters wide.
She had two deductions so far:
One, from the relatively tidy office, at least no zombie horde had broken in after the outbreak, or the owner had locked the door and never returned.
Two, the owner wasn’t an ordinary researcher but not high leadership either. No visitors, no floor replacement despite wear—more like a senior researcher.
The biggest possibility: the owner was the quest target, Sun Lizhou.
【Countdown: 14:01】
Mu Shan rushed to the desk and started rummaging through the files. Over half were on “skin care,” “anti-aging,” and “beauty” research projects.
She turned on the computer; the remaining files were all experiment data and references, including many volunteer photos.
From the timeline, he had researched this tech for at least six months.
Mu Shan felt something was off.
Her sharp eyes spotted a leather notebook pressed under a stack of files at the desk edge.
The notebook was half-worn. Flipping it open, it had messy scribbles like hieroglyphs.
Mu Shan barely made out some words:
[123321]
[Universal medicine, cure cancer?]
[666ABCD]
[Eye cultivation from gums!]
[Drug muscle gain + body sculpting fitness]
It was like someone’s casually jotted-down research inspirations, scattered all over the map.
Just looking at those combinations of numbers and letters, they somewhat resembled a code.
But if it was a code, it was rather too idiotic…
Mu Shan quickly flipped through it once and discovered that one page of paper had been torn out, the edge jagged like saw teeth, torn in a hurry.
But with papers and books in the room vast as a sea of smoke, there was no way to find the missing piece.
Mu Shan rummaged through the documents in front of the bookshelf again, like a fly without a head. Her two eyes weren’t enough to take it all in, and she still had to glance up from time to time at the system countdown.
Time ticked away second by second, large beads of cold sweat dripping from her forehead.
In her vision, the words on the paper had already begun to dance and spin, impossible to read.
With a pa, Mu Shan abruptly slammed the book shut.
She couldn’t go on like this.
She looked up at the dim yellow ceiling light.
Suddenly, she strode quickly to the wall and flipped the switch shut.
With another pa, the room plunged into pitch darkness.
The wall clock and alarm clock both showed the same time: 9:05.
So it could be confirmed that the passage of time since they entered the side quest had been normal. There was no such thing as a separate timeline for the research institute.
But as a single room with three clocks, wasn’t the emphasis on time here a bit too much?
Mu Shan looked toward the window. Although it was a cloudy, rainy day today, it was clearly still morning—there was no way there wouldn’t be even a sliver of light outside the window.