Courtyard House: I fish in the heavens, a professional bird abuser.

Standing in front of that row of culture tanks, He Yuanchao felt as if he had walked into a seafood market with a wide variety of products.

However, this market doesn't sell fish and shrimp, but rather all sorts of nightmares concocted by mad scientists using the T-virus.

His system scanner was already running at full power, and the biological sample data from the culture tanks were flooding his retina like a waterfall.

"C-grade gene mutant... junk."

"A Class D chimera sample... a complete failure."

"Another C-rank... Umbrella's success rate is just too low."

He was mentally scoring himself as he walked.

These scientists conducted thousands of experiments and mass-produced a room full of monsters, but most of them were defective products—genetically unstable, with uncontrollable mutations, or simply unusable waste.

But occasionally.

There are a few.

It caught his eye.

"Oh."

He stopped in front of a medium-sized culture tank.

Floating inside was a creature about the size of a cat.

It is described as a living organism, but it is more like a living muscle—without a skeleton or organs, covered by a translucent membrane, with cells inside dividing and recombining at a speed visible to the naked eye.

System label: Grade B+ adaptive regenerative tissue sample.

He Yuanchao stared at it for two seconds.

This thing divides its cells far faster than normal organisms. If its regeneration genes could be extracted and modified, theoretically, a kind of—

Ultra-fast wound healing agent.

On the battlefield, this drug is as valuable as a nuclear bomb.

"Pack."

He Yuanchao waved his hand.

The system's invisible acquisition beam was released from his palm—the light was invisible to the naked eye, but it could instantly transport the target substance at the molecular level and directly store it into the dimensional space.

This is an old technique he's used to employ in the world of "Bright Sword".

However, what they were moving at the time were tanks and ammunition.

What we are moving now are biological samples and liquid nitrogen containers.

There is not much difference.

The method is the same.

He Yuanchao moved between the culture tanks as if he were shopping in a supermarket.

If you see something good, "buy it".

Skip over any scrap items you see.

Very efficient.

Within about three minutes, he had emptied the entire storage room of all the valuable twelve culture tanks, five liquid nitrogen containers, and the embedded hard disks on the wall (which stored experimental records and formula data).

The once full room is now filled with empty glass jars and severed pipes. Nutrient solution is gushing out from the rupture and pooling on the ground in a green puddle.

Alice stood guard at the door for him.

Although she couldn't see exactly how He Yuanchao "removed" those things—because he would always block her view with his body when collecting things—she could see the culture tanks becoming empty one by one.

"How big are your pockets?" Alice finally couldn't help but ask.

"It's huge," He Yuanchao replied as he walked, his tone as casual as if he were discussing the weather. "Bigger than you imagine."

"Something big enough to fit a laboratory?"

"almost."

"..."

Alice took a deep breath.

She decided to stop dwelling on the issue.

Whatever secrets this man may hold—superpowers, alien technology, or he himself may be some kind of humanoid alternate dimension—it doesn't matter.

The important thing is that he's on her side.

"The storage area is cleaned up." He Yuanchao dusted off his hands. "Let's go to the server room."

The two of them went back the way they came and turned right into the corridor at the T-junction.

The corridor on the right is narrower.

The pipes on the walls were more densely packed, and several rows of cooling fans hung from the ceiling—these were for cooling large servers. Although the fans were no longer spinning, traces of the heat generated during their operation remained on the walls.

I walked about fifty meters.

A heavy, round metal door, like the hatch of a submarine, appeared ahead.

There was only one sign on the door—a small, red, flashing light bulb.

That's the entrance to the Red Queen's backup core.

He Yuanchao did not rush to open the door.

He first checked the system radar.

The three red signals detected earlier are still in the same location. The distance has been reduced from 150 meters to about 60 meters.

They are behind the door.

Inside the server room.

"There's something behind the door," He Yuanchao said in a low voice.

"How many?"

"Three. Motionless. Like they're dormant."

"What type?"

He Yuanchao glanced at the analysis provided by the system.

Biosignal feature matching: Licker (adult).

Quantity: 3.

Status: Low-power hibernation - presumably entering energy-saving state due to lack of external stimulation.

"Lickers. Three of them. Sleeping inside."

Alice's fingers gripped the shotgun handle tightly.

She knew what a Licker was.

Last time in Hive Area A, He Yuanchao used that Tang sword to chop one down. But it was just a juvenile.

Adult lickers are much larger than their juvenile counterparts, and their strength and speed are on completely different levels.

Three adult lickers in a sealed room—

Just thinking about it sends chills down my spine.

"What should we do? Take a detour?" Alice asked.

"There's no option to take a detour. The server room only has this one entrance." He Yuanchao glanced at the round metal door. "And inside lies something I absolutely need to get my hands on."

"Then let's charge in."

"Killing them is fine. But using a shotgun in a confined space is too noisy. The gunshots will wake them up, and then all three of them will pounce—I'm not afraid, but it will be troublesome."

He Yuanchao thought for a moment.

Then he drew the Tang sword from his waist.

The jet-black lacquer on the scabbard gleamed faintly under the emergency light.

"I'll go in first. With a knife. You wait at the door. If you hear any unusual noise—"

"I'll rush in," Alice finished speaking for him.

He Yuanchao glanced at her.

He nodded.

He leaned the shotgun against the wall.

Hold the knife in your right hand.

I swiped the access card on the door lock with my left hand.

"drop--"

The green light comes on.

The round metal door emitted a heavy mechanical sound and began to slowly rotate.

A thin gap appeared between the door and the door frame.

A chiller blast of air seeped out from the crack.

It was accompanied by that creepy, rustling sound, like a snake crawling.

He Yuanchao took a deep breath.

I adjusted my grip on the knife—I gripped the handle with my right hand in a reverse grip, with the blade facing outwards, and my left hand loosely held the front of the blade.

This is a grip method suitable for quickly drawing the knife in confined spaces.

The door remained open.

The gap is getting bigger and bigger.

Thirty centimeters.

Fifty centimeters.

enough.

He Yuanchao squeezed in sideways.

Like a silent shadow.

They disappeared into the darkness behind that door.