Forbidden Nightmare

Chapter 121 Alchemy Laboratory

【Gold Coin Fruit】

[Type: Props/Consumables/Materials]

【Quality: Excellent+】

[Rating: 32/100]

[Details: The gold coin fruit tree transformed from the 'Listener', the gold coin fruit bred on it has the ability to manipulate the ego element to 'make a wish'. Eating the gold coin fruit can use the ego element to cure most plague diseases, and can also use the gold coin fruit as raw material to make a series of extraordinary medicines. ]

[Note: There are wisdom fruits on the wisdom tree, and you and I are under the wisdom tree. ]

"Listener? Manipulate your ego to make a wish..."

In Li Nanke's initial impression, ego element was just like particle element in the real world, just a special kind of extraordinary energy.

Particle elements can create extraordinary people in the real world, while ego elements are the source of extraordinary powers for trackers and puppets in the dream world. If there is anything special about them, it is that they allow mechanical puppets to have self-awareness.

Now that I have come into contact with the hidden node, this ego element is becoming more and more weird, and it also involves the ability of "making a wish".

“Do you know the Listener?”

Li Nanke picked all the five gold coin fruits on the tree and put them into his pocket. He asked a group of trackers, but no one had heard of any listeners.

Under his command, the trackers searched the cathedral, turned every room upside down, and found a staircase hidden under the carpet.

In the south transept of the cathedral's side hall, the carpet in the central aisle has been completely lifted, and the hidden basement door at the end has been opened, revealing a gloomy staircase leading downwards.

"Boss Black Rabbit, no wonder we didn't see the alchemist's laboratory in the church. I think the laboratory should be here."

Porcupine pointed to the markings printed on the door.

It was a snake with its head and tail connected, biting its own tail and coiled in a circle... the Holy Ouroboros, the only symbol of the Alchemist Group.

The Krat City Government invited the Alchemist Corps to move into the cathedral and asked them to develop a panacea to cure petrification, which would require a series of research locations and equipment.

There was no similar place in the cathedral. It turned out that the Alchemist Group's laboratory was set up underground.

Porcupine put down his ego machine gun and took out a mechanical device that looked like a grenade. He pulled the long wire wrapped around it, and the small device was thrown into the basement, dragging a stream of star-like light.

He closed his eyes and felt it for a while, then shook his wrist holding the long line and the device was retracted into his hand.

"According to preliminary investigations, the basement is very large and has a complex structure. It is estimated that the entire underground of the church has been hollowed out."

Before even stepping into the underground passage, a pungent smell of decay emanates from it.

Li Nanke frowned and looked at the dark underground passage. He felt a chill running from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. The hairs on his body stood up and he got goose bumps all over.

The strong sense of crisis has not subsided since the death of the giant spider pope, but has become more and more intense.

Now he finally found the source of the crisis perception.

Such a strong sense of crisis made him realize that there were extremely terrifying enemies hiding under the church. Even with the help of a group of trackers, it would definitely be a fierce battle. He didn't know how many of them would be able to walk out alive if he led everyone in.

Li Nanke took a deep breath, glanced at everyone and said:

"Rabbit, Pinocchio, you two stand guard at the entrance just in case, and the rest of you follow me!"

Cunning Rabbit was startled and was about to say something, but Li Nanke continued:

"There may not be other exits in the basement. This may be the only passage. You must guard this place well."

Cunning Rabbit saw that his eyes were cold and full of warning, which clearly meant that no matter what happened later, he should not go in.

Leopard and White Bear had complicated expressions and had some opinions about his obviously biased arrangement.

Three people died in the battle against the giant spider pope just now, and now we don’t know what danger is hidden in the basement. Why are your Black Rabbit people guarding the door, while the rest of us have to go down and take the risk?

The leopard's eyes flickered, and he spoke carefully:

"Boss Black Rabbit, this puppet is useless here. Why don't I stay here? Cunning Rabbit and I are the fastest. If anything happens outside, we can notify you immediately."

Li Nanke did not answer, but asked with a gentle smile: "Who else does not want to go in and wants to guard the door?"

Everyone had witnessed Li Nanke's powerful strength and heard the meaning behind his gentle tone, so they didn't dare to say anything at this time.

Li Nanke stopped talking, holding the bloody hammer, and walked towards the leopard step by step.

As he walked slowly, his expression was stern, and he did not try to hide his naked murderous intent at all.

The leopard looked at the pair of cold eyes and couldn't help but think of the scene where the hyena was killed by a hammer and turned into a charred corpse. Beads of sweat broke out on his forehead and he couldn't help swallowing hard.

He quickly changed the topic and said, "Boss Black Rabbit, I am just making a suggestion. I will follow your instructions and will never question your orders."

The leopard looked at the polar bear for help, but the polar bear had already turned his eyes away and didn't even look at him.

"Okay, originally I, as the leader, should have led everyone in. Since you have made so many suggestions, then you will take the lead."

The leopard's expression suddenly became very interesting, and he stammered, unable to utter a word of objection.

Seeing that the other party had given in, Li Nanke turned to Bai Xiong and said, "Bai Xiong, you ignored the formation during the battle just now and didn't charge forward immediately. I haven't settled the score with you yet."

"Now, I'll give you a chance to redeem yourself. You and Leopard will lead the charge... Do you have many suggestions?"

When the leopard heard this, he immediately felt much more balanced, while the polar bear could only lower his head and respond muffledly, with an expression that showed he dared not be angry or speak.

Soon, the leopard and the polar bear stood at the front of the team and were the first to enter the underground passage.

Li Nanke led a group of trackers, kept a safe distance from the two men, and followed them into the basement.

The basement was dark, without any light source, and the air was cold and filled with a rotten smell.

With every step on the ground, the crackling sound of glass breaking could be heard. After a bright flame ignited from the hammer in Li Nanke's hand, everyone could see that the ground was covered with broken empty syringes.

The walls were covered with diagrams of human anatomy and charts containing various complex symbols and formulas.

There were many operating tables set up around, stained with green mucus, and the cabinets were filled with bottles and jars filled with all kinds of strange organs and limbs.

Li Nanke picked up a few scattered manuscripts and saw the following words written on them:
【Petrification Patient Experiment Record】

[Experimental subject: Mary Thompson (normal individual)]

[After the experimental individual was injected with the ego injection, he showed a slight mental excitement for a short period of time. ]

[One day later, the experimental individual began to experience symptoms such as itching, redness and swelling of the skin. ]

[Three days later, petrification crystals began to form on the skin surface of the extremities of the experimental subject, and the experimental subject had lost sensation in his limbs.]

[After 12 days, the petrification disease spread to the subject's torso, showing symptoms of the mid-stage petrification disease.] [After 28 days, the subject entered the late stage of petrification disease, and the flaky crystals spread to the head.]

【Thirty-one days later, the experimental subject died.】

[Experimental conclusion: After the injection of egotin, even if it is a purified pure egotin injection, it will cause normal people to suffer from petrification.]

Li Nanke's pupils shrank.

Can injection of egotin cause petrification? Is egotin the source of petrification?
He quickly flipped through several other manuscripts.

[Experimental subject: Peter Johnson (early stage petrification patient)]

[After being injected with the first generation panacea, the patient immediately showed signs of being energized, his physical fitness improved significantly, and the petrification crystals on his skin began to produce a fluorescent reaction. ]

[About an hour later, the patient began to experience severe headaches, nausea and vomiting, and the green crystals spread rapidly. The petrification symptoms became significantly worse, and the patient entered the middle stage of the disease.]

[After about three hours, the patient entered the late stage of petrification, completely lost consciousness and died, with petrification crystals covering his entire body.]

【After about five hours, the patient became a zombie. 】

[Experimental conclusion: The injection of the first generation of panacea not only failed to alleviate the patient's symptoms, but accelerated the process of petrification, eventually causing the patient to become a zombie.]

Li Nanke looked through several experimental manuscripts, and the contents recorded in them were all about patients being injected with panacea and eventually becoming zombies.

Patients with petrification will not become zombies after normal death. They only become zombies after the injection of the panacea and the failure of the cure.

"Those alchemists are a bunch of damn bastards, it turns out they are the ones who created the zombies!" The lion picked up a few experimental manuscripts, checked them, and then cursed angrily with a face full of anger.

The trackers had never expected that the Alchemist Group was the mastermind behind the birth of the zombies. For a moment, they all had different expressions and were talking about it.

Li Nanke had seen the backlash symptoms after the strange rabbit was injected with the panacea, so he was mentally prepared for this and was not too surprised.

He asked everyone to collect the experimental manuscripts and continue to go deeper into the underground laboratory.

The Alchemist Corps' underground laboratories are connected to each other. Some of the laboratories are equipped with several iron cages. There is nothing inside, but some withered gold coin tree leaves are scattered at the bottom of the cages, which obviously indicate that some experimental subjects were once imprisoned there.

Some laboratories were equipped with many dissection tables, on which lay a highly decomposed corpse covered with a layer of emerald green crystals.

"Stop."

Li Nanke suddenly spoke up, stopping everyone from moving forward.

Looking past the leopard and polar bear leading the way, I saw a huge glass tank in front of the laboratory. The tank was so big that it could accommodate an elephant.

A huge, blurry green shadow floated in the tank, and bubbles occasionally rose from the bottom, making gurgling sounds. A thin layer of water droplets condensed on the tank wall, reflecting a dim light, making it look even more eerie.

The leopard immediately stopped and stared at the huge shadow in the glass tank with a very nervous expression.

He glanced around and saw a manuscript on the lab table. He quickly picked it up and walked back: "Boss Black Rabbit, take a look at this."

After handing over the manuscript, Leopard stood beside Li Nanke, then calmly took a small step back, as if protecting the Black Rabbit boss in front of him.

[Experimental Subject: Champion Victor (Tracker)]

[After being injected with the panacea, the tracker's physical qualities improved in a short period of time, his spirit became extremely excited, and the petrification crystals showed a tendency to melt and disappear. ]

[After about an hour, all petrification crystals on the tracker's body disappeared, and various physical values ​​increased dramatically, including but not limited to muscle strength, bone hardness, and resistance to blows. However, the tracker was overly excited and had tendencies such as impulsiveness, irritability, gluttony, and violence.]

[After about six hours, the tracker's physical fitness surpassed all known creatures, but his mind had completely fallen into madness. After killing several alchemists, it was only after the leader Simon personally took action that the tracker was imprisoned.]

[Experimental conclusion: In addition to the additional effect of curing petrification, the panacea does have a certain probability of evolution. Champion Victor is the product of evolution that almost succeeded but ultimately failed. It cannot be called a complete one, at most it can only be considered an incomplete one, but compared to the natural product with stronger tolerance, such as the Tracker, it is already more perfect.]

[As long as the probability exists, it is possible to artificially create a complete one. ]

The Complete One… In addition to the Listener, there is now another Complete One.

The experiment concluded that trackers are just natural products with stronger tolerance, while intact ones are the goal of evolution.

The Alchemists developed the panacea in the cathedral not only to cure petrification, but also to artificially create complete beings, and the zombies were the product of a failed experiment.

Champion Victor was the experimental individual who was closest to success, but ultimately failed due to probability issues.

"Champion Victor?!"

The leopard next to him glanced at the contents of the experiment manuscript and blurted out, "Didn't he die of petrification?"

In the city of Krat, the name of champion Victor is known to everyone.

Trackers in particular are particularly sensitive to this name.

If we were to ask who is the top and strongest tracker, it would undoubtedly be the champion Victor.

All trackers abide by the unspoken rules of the industry, wear strange masks, use animals as code names, and never reveal their true identities and names to the outside world.

The only exception is the champion Victor. His strength is so strong that he can crush any pursuer, but he does not accept commissions from nobles, is not employed by nobles, and never hesitates to show his true identity.

He is passionate about wrestling and is a popular wrestler in the Kratt Circus. He is known as the ultimate human.

Champion Victor's wrestling opponents are not ordinary humans, but giant special puppets. When he was a tracker, he was strong enough to defeat any giant puppet alone and had never lost in the ring.

Until he was stricken with petrification and disappeared from public view ever since.

All the pursuers thought he was dead, but they didn't expect that he was in the basement of the cathedral and became the subject of alchemists' experiments.

Leopard glanced at the repeated mention of "dramatic improvement in various physical values" in the manuscript, and couldn't imagine how powerful Victor must be now.

Li Nanke looked at the glass tank on one side of the laboratory, and the huge shadow in it seemed to twist.

At the same time, the sense of crisis in one's heart has become so strong that one's hands and feet are trembling slightly.

"Ready to fight!"

With a loud crackling sound, the glass jar exploded.

A large amount of emerald green liquid poured out as the glass jar exploded. Amidst countless splashes of water, a terrifying huge human-shaped shadow jumped out.

As its huge body hit the ground, the ground shook violently, and dust fell from the ceiling above.

The giant emerald green body had bulging muscles and black veins that bulged and wrapped around its body like a giant python, casting a terrifying shadow over all the pursuers.

The white bear at the front looked at the huge monster in front of him with fear in his eyes. He subconsciously took a few steps back and squeezed out a trembling word from between his teeth:

"Champion Victor!"

(End of this chapter)