Players, Please Board the Train

Dr. Deng nodded; that was his thinking as well. ”So it’s best to search the corpse pile now. The serum might be hidden here.”

”You mentioned earlier that Professor Wu also had a hobby of painting. Has anyone analyzed his paintings?” In Xu Huo’s view, the perspectives in Professor Wu’s paintings were all very peculiar. Most of them looked out of a window from a relatively low line of sight. This should have some special meaning.

”Psychology experts have analyzed them. He might have had a child, but the child died young,” Dr. Deng said.

Xu Huo nodded. That made sense. However, his artistic style was excessively dark. Both inside and outside the window conveyed despair. This definitely wasn’t the psychological state of a normal father missing his child. He was likely projecting himself into the child’s perspective, observing the surroundings from the child’s point of view.

It was unclear how much this was related to him placing the S-version Evolution Serum.

Regardless, they still needed to confirm first whether the serum was in the corpse pile.

Chu Yuan and Gan Qing returned, bringing with them the severely injured Wu Xiaonan and Qiu Xiangdong, who had vanished without a trace long ago.

Wu Xiaonan’s face was deathly pale, with large bloodstains on her chest and back. Judging by the location of the tear in her clothes, it should be a penetrating wound. Normally, she couldn’t have survived.

”Qiu Xiangdong helped me,” Wu Xiaonan said, struggling to speak. ”Miao Yu and that Kong brother-sister pair are in cahoots. After you left, she suddenly turned on me and injured me. This sword stab was her doing too. If it weren’t for Qiu Xiangdong using an item to fake my death, I definitely wouldn’t have survived!”

Qiu Xiangdong, wearing his tropical floral shirt and shorts, gave a slight nod. ”A small matter. I hid myself precisely to deal with this kind of situation.””So you knew about the trickery in this Deep Blue Laboratory dungeon from the start?” Xu Huo asked.

”A little bit,” Qiu Xiangdong gestured with his fingers. ”After arriving on the island, I felt something was off. There’s always some small amount of gossip circulating about the various dungeons you can travel to from Sayir Coast. But for this Deep Blue Laboratory dungeon, not even the black market could find any information. After I left, I was even tailed for a while.”

”This place is completely under the control of the Bolun Family. There must be a reason for a dungeon to be sealed off so tightly. The Bolun Family wouldn’t just let outside players waltz in casually either. So I estimated there were people from the Bolun Family among our group. That’s why I hid in advance, mainly for self-preservation.”

”Who could have imagined the Bolun Family would be so insane, determined not to let any player leave alive no matter what.”

”My profession is firefighter. I lent a hand when Wan Yunrong was captured by Kong Cheng, but I didn’t show myself...” He said, looking at Xu Huo. ”You must have noticed, right?”

Xu Huo gave a slight nod. The position of that fire hose that flew out back then wasn’t quite right; it didn’t belong to any of the other players present at the time.

”Later, when you all started fighting, I saw the situation was bad. That’s when I seized the opportunity to save Wu Xiaonan,” Qiu Xiangdong said candidly. ”Don’t blame me for not coming out to help. That Kong pair is too fierce.”

He looked at Chu Yuan as he spoke. ”That coffin item of yours looks like it’s not a low grade, but he cleaved it open with one slash.”

Mentioning this made Chu Yuan’s heart ache too. He had already seen the wreckage of his item when he went over earlier. Anger churned on his face. ”It’s a good thing we captured Dr. Deng. Otherwise, we’d definitely be dead by their hands.”

”Don’t get too optimistic,” Qiu Xiangdong said. ”If it were you, would you just let us leave like that?”

No one present spoke. Right now, they were just delaying the Kong siblings for a while. If too much time passed, it was hard to say.

Qiu Xiangdong glanced around at everyone and continued, ”Half the dungeon time remains. I estimate they’ll wait until tonight at most. And we can’t actually kill Dr. Deng.”

Dr. Deng was only useful as a bargaining chip while he was alive. Killing him would be mutual destruction. If the Kong siblings hardened their hearts, they would truly be in a difficult position.

”The only way now is to find what they’re looking for.”

Xu Huo looked at him. ”You know what they’re looking for?”

”The serum,” Qiu Xiangdong said. ”I overheard their conversation. Also, I’ve searched all over the laboratory. The only place that could hide something should be the corpse pile on the third underground floor. We need to go there to search.”

Dr. Deng couldn’t help but glance at Xu Huo. Xu Huo only nodded. ”This is also our only chance of winning.”

The group decided to act immediately, choosing the nearest elevator to go down.

After exiting, Chu Yuan said, ”There are so many corpses. How are we supposed to search? What if that serum is hidden inside a body? Do we have to cut them open to look?”

Dr. Deng showed a disgusted expression. ”The serum has certain requirements for storage conditions. Even if sealed in multiple layers of containers, it cannot be placed inside a corpse.”

Chu Yuan pointed at the corpse pile with a look of exasperation. ”Do you think there’s any difference here?”

Dr. Deng wasn’t sure either.

”The only way to know the result is to search and see,” Xu Huo said, looking at Qiu Xiangdong. ”You’re a firefighter. Do you have a way to deal with these corpses and mutated plants?”

”There is, but it requires multiple people to cooperate,” Qiu Xiangdong said.

”Tell us first how to cooperate,” Chu Yuan said, lifting his chin.

”Remains Collection Bag.” Qiu Xiangdong took out a black body bag, pointing at several rivets on it. ”As long as different people stretch this bag, the corpses within the covered area will be automatically collected. At the same time, all artificial traces within the corpses, including jewelry, medical equipment, will all be expelled.”

”This is simple...” Chu Yuan said, reaching out his hand, but Xu Huo stopped him, asking, ”Are there any side effects?”

Qiu Xiangdong didn’t lie, answering directly, ”The workers will feel fatigued. But you can rest for ten minutes after one work session. Ten minutes is enough to return to normal.”

”Then should we try it first?” Wu Xiaonan said. ”Checking them one by one isn’t realistic either.”

Out of caution, Gan Qing said, ”We can cooperate, but you have to go first.”

Qiu Xiangdong didn’t hesitate, pulling open the collection bag. ”We still need one more person.”

”I’ll do it,” Wu Xiaonan said. ”You saved my life just now. I trust you.”

Qiu Xiangdong and she each held a rivet and pulled the bag open, mouth facing downward. The bag was like a black hole, spontaneously sucking in the corpses. Then, items worn on the corpses would fall out. After everything was clean, the bag would spit out the cleaned corpse and quickly suck in the next one.

The entire process took only a few seconds. Therefore, in three minutes, Qiu Xiangdong and the others had cleared out a small mountain.

Moving the corpses inevitably caused dust to float. Everyone put on protective masks. Seeing that Qiu Xiangdong and Wu Xiaonan indeed didn’t show significant changes, Gan Qing and Chu Yuan also stepped up to help.

”Dr. Deng doesn’t need to,” Xu Huo said, grabbing the edge of the collection bag and signaling Dr. Deng to stand behind him. ”We are players; our stamina is better.”

Qiu Xiangdong nodded. With exertion, the collection bag enlarged a bit. ”The more people, the larger the bag’s space, and the greater the workload.”

So, everyone stepped back respectively. The collection bag operated like a high-speed machine, rapidly swallowing and disgorging the decaying corpses.