Apocalypse: the Most Ruthless Person

“Is it that dangerous? Well, dead is fine too… A live one is mainly to verify another hypothesis. Come, Mr. Zhang, take a look at this first!”

Fu Weijun placed a small bottle of nail polish on the table and gently pushed it in front of Zhang Su.

Zhang Su rarely saw Fu Weijun so serious and cautious. It seemed that the contents of the bottle were not simple. He carefully picked it up and took a look. The glass bottle for nail polish had a thick wall, leaving very little space for contents, an estimated ten to fifteen milliliters.

The sticky liquid inside the bottle was slightly more fluid than regular honey and appeared to be a very beautiful light purple color.

“Is this extracted from the Venom Zombie?”

“Yes!”

Fu Weijun nodded brightly, saying: “Based on the information brought back by Lü Leiyang, I determined that this zombie must have a device specifically for generating and storing venom. I thought it would take a lot of effort, but when I opened its skull, it was effortless. A crystalline container completely replaced the cerebellum of a normal human, not existing independently but connected to other devices, storing this kind of liquid!”

Zhang Su recalled the scene of people being attacked in Bridge Town and asked puzzledly: “But the liquid I saw that zombie spit out today was much more intense in color than this.”

“Although I can’t detect if there are Zombie Robots in these liquids, I speculate that when the Venom Zombie uses its mouthparts to spray venom, it activates it, giving the venom infectivity, similar to a bite from a regular zombie. It also gains corrosiveness, which is amazing, and I haven’t figured out why yet.”

Fu Weijun said.

“Ha…” Zhang Su grinned and said, “Then its plan fell through; the corrosion of the venom on the human body is so strong it’s unparalleled. Even any acid is inferior; it burns like hot oil melting lard. They die quickly, even bones can’t withstand it, with little chance of reanimation.”

Fu Weijun spread his hands, saying, “That’s why I say it’s strange. In experiments with animals, the Venom Liquid extracted from a zombie’s brain doesn’t have corrosiveness.”

“Is that so?”

Zhang Su found it interesting. The substance is formidable when spat out from the zombie’s mouth but becomes mild and harmless when within an organ?

“Let’s not talk about that now, Mr. Zhang, can you guess what use this liquid has?”

Zhang Su felt increasingly curious. Never expected the ever-serious Fu Weijun to play a guessing game with him, he laughed: “Since you’re asking this way, then it’s certainly not as simple as using it as poison. It must have other uses. Hmm… Don’t tell me it can be used in medicine? No, you wouldn’t have tested its pharmacology in such a short time. Diluted to kill zombies?”

Seeing Fu Weijun shaking his head, Zhang Su continued to ponder: “Diluted to use as fuel? A drop stronger than a ton? Ah, not that either… Diluted and sprayed on the body to sneak past zombies? Even that’s not it? Can’t guess anymore!”

After several guesses, all denied, Zhang Su waved his hand, saying: “Dr. Fu, stop keeping me in suspense, just tell me.”

“Alright!”

Fu Weijun didn’t linger, stopping the jokes. He took out a two-inch square sticky note from the small bag; it was what he usually used for recording ideas. Then he took the glass bottle from Zhang Su, opened it, and a faint purple vapor drifted out with a hint of a cyberpunk vibe.

Sniffing it, there was unexpectedly no unpleasant odor, just a faint sweet floral scent.

Zhang Su thought Fu Weijun was going to use the sticky note to dab some liquid, but instead, Fu Weijun took a needle from his bag, very carefully dabbed inside the bottle cap. Without his excellent vision, Zhang Su wouldn’t have seen the tiny bit of crystalline liquid on the needle’s tip…

“Mr. Zhang, please cover the bottle cap.”

Saying that, Fu Weijun wiped the needle repeatedly on the sticky note and then handed it over to Zhang Su with great care.

Zhang Su received the paper with a strange expression, puzzled: “What for? To use it as a scented piece to improve sleep?”

The paper showed no trace of the purple liquid, but when brought close to smell, it had a very faint fragrance.

Fu Weijun smiled and shook his head: “Put it on that table, light it from the edge, and quickly come back. Just ensure it can burn fully, then witness the moment of magic.”

“Weird…”

Zhang Su couldn’t help but frown at how playful the great scientist was today.

He went to the neighboring table, folded the paper slightly, and balanced it on the table. Then he lit one corner with a lighter, glanced, and returned to Fu Weijun’s side, curious to see what trick this paper had.

The sticky note was dry, burning quickly, and the flames grew larger soon enough, until just then.

Boom!

The paper exploded with a crisp sound, a peculiar purple light flashed, wood chips scattered, a black mist rose into the air, sprayed onto the ceiling, and disappeared, as if it had never appeared.

“??”

Zhang Su looked at Fu Weijun, perplexed, and suddenly understood why he became gray-faced, realizing it was from being blown up.

“This, this thing can explode?”

Zhang Su, amazed, walked toward the table, incredulously pointing at the tabletop: “Holy crap, such power!”

After the explosion, a palm-sized dent was left on the wooden table’s surface, the deepest point at the explosion’s origin about one centimeter.

Zhang Su ran his hand over the crater formed by the explosion; the surface was unexpectedly smooth. It was more like compression than a burst, hard to imagine that such a tiny bit of stuff could have such tremendous power!

“How does it feel?”

Fu Weijun moved his wheelchair behind Zhang Su; his messy hair tufted and trembling, already having a bit of the mad scientist vibe.

“You… you said Teacher Duan is tidying up the house, and you’re testing this stuff in the room? Isn’t your lab in Cui Leng Pavilion?”

Zhang Su regained his senses, twitching his mouth, noting the high risk of living next to someone like this. What if one day the entire Little Lucky Inn disappeared?

“Hmm… I didn’t think of it when in the lab. On the way home, seeing the furnace for heating sparked an idea to try warming it. I took a tiny bit like just now, and it exploded. Fortunately, I controlled the amount very well; otherwise, I’d be blown to bits.”

Fu Weijun described it all calmly.

“Wasn’t Teacher Duan there at the time?”

Zhang Su was still bothered by Fu Weijun’s risky behavior, assuming Duan Wuhu would never allow it.

As expected, Fu Weijun said: “Brother Duan dropped me off and went to fetch water.”

“…”

Zhang Su could imagine Duan Wuhu’s shock upon seeing the room’s scene and realized he should inform Duan Wuhu to keep a closer watch.

“Ahem… about the stability of this thing, is it similar to nitroglycerin?”

Liquid, capable of exploding, easily brings nitroglycerin to mind.

Fu Weijun spread his hands, saying, “I did some tests, and for now, it’s only fire-triggered. If there are new discoveries, I must inform Mr. Zhang.”

“Compared to nitroglycerin, how does the power of this thing measure?”

Hearing it’s quite stable, Zhang Su felt relieved. Nitroglycerin’s stability is extremely poor, and under equivalent conditions, it may explode this time and be inert the next, leaving one bewildered. It would be hard to utilize if it were as unstable as nitroglycerin.

“Tsk…”

Fu Weijun snorted, very uncharacteristically, and said: “Mr. Zhang, I guess you’ve never witnessed the power of nitroglycerin, or you wouldn’t have asked such a question. I can confidently tell you, for nitroglycerin to cause this amount of destruction, it would need at least two grams, or just over a milliliter. You saw yourself how much purple venom I used just now, it’s beyond comparison!”

Zhang Su’s face turned serious. Fu Weijun’s comparison was very straightforward. The venom dipped with the needle tip just now couldn’t be precisely measured under current conditions but surely was less than one-hundredth of a gram!

In other words, the power of this bottle of purple venom in his hand was over a hundred times that of nitroglycerin, at least a hundred thirty times that of trinitrotoluene!