Asura in Arknights

Upon hearing this, Elena clenched her fists.

Although the news reports did not specify, how could the damage to a single site only result in two casualties? The bodies in the hospital's basement were simply the unfortunate souls who couldn't be evacuated in time.

Who would care about the life or death of some test subjects?

Without a doubt, Rhine Lab bears some responsibility for this.

Those must all be clones of Ayin, right?

Clearly, Ayin didn't have time to transfer all his clones to Plot Zero.

When the natural disaster struck, the laboratory's reactor shut down, and all the mindless clones died inside the incubation chamber.

To be honest, Li Ang's emotions did not fluctuate much.

Clones lacking self-awareness are merely props; otherwise, Li Ang wouldn't have allowed Ayin to continue the experiments.

"...Where is the entrance?"

Provence remained silent for only a few seconds before continuing to ask.

No matter how many innocent victims are buried in the laboratory, it will not affect their subsequent actions.

At most... after everything is over, I'll help those people collect their remains.

"The normal entrance should be the elevator inside the hospital, but the elevator is broken now. Let me see... If you want to get in, you can only go through the passage in the lower structural area."

As he spoke, Li Ang looked at Elena beside him and said, "There may have been an accident during the evacuation of the laboratory. The passage in the lower structure area was not sealed off, and rainwater rushed in through it. The condition inside the laboratory may be quite bad. You should be mentally prepared."

This wasn't actually Li Ang's doing. When he discovered the place, the laboratory was already completely contaminated. He simply took advantage of that and destroyed most of the equipment that had barely survived.

“Let’s go then, we don’t have much time left. Regardless of whether this lab contains what you’re looking for, we should leave after we’ve searched this place,” Provence said.

Elena nodded with a heavy expression, it was unclear whether she was worried about her mission or thinking about the 'innocent' test subjects.

At this point, almost five hours had passed since they entered the ruins of Plot 21.

The sun was blazing down on them, and even with the temperature control modules in their protective suits operating at full capacity, they could still clearly feel the temperature rising.

The oxygen gauge readings had dropped below 30%, meaning they didn't have much time left to move around.

"The radiation level here is so high!"

As soon as Provence entered the lower structure area, he noticed something unusual about it.

The radiation intensity inside the passage was abnormally high, almost twice that on the ground. In fact, it was more like... this was the radiation intensity that a contaminated area should have.

"Ahem...maybe the reactor leaked? Laboratories like this should be equipped with independent energy systems," Li Ang said somewhat guiltily.

Strictly speaking, the magical units that Li Ang constructs remotely are very unstable. They usually collapse on their own after one use, leaving behind a considerable amount of radiation.

They secretly lost hundreds of Originium Arts here. How could the radiation intensity here not be high?

This explanation was reasonable, and no one doubted Li Ang's guess. However, everyone also became more vigilant, as any anomaly could hide a danger that was not easily detected.

Perhaps due to the excessively high radiation intensity here, the walls and floor of the passage are scattered with a layer of strange black luminescent algae, which emit a faint glow in the dark environment.

Provence was curious and tried collecting some samples of these algae.

Nothing happened along the way; they encountered neither the traps they had anticipated nor any potentially infected creatures, and the group entered the laboratory smoothly.

“This is the place,” Li Ang said.

Broken glass and damaged experimental equipment were scattered everywhere. There were also black substances on the ground that were hard to tell whether they were bloodstains or dirt. The entire laboratory was a mess. Even the emergency lights on the walls were off. Only a few scattered algae in the laboratory were still emitting a faint glow.

Seeing this heartbreaking scene, Elena's instincts as a researcher were activated, and she instinctively rushed out to try and salvage the undamaged equipment. However, she was pulled back by her sister before she could take two steps.

"Don't be impulsive," Xingji warned Elena sternly. "The thing is right here. It's not going to run away on its own."

Elena opened her mouth, looking complicated as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she just nodded silently.

"Your sister is right, who knows what dangers are lurking here."

ACE patted Elena on the shoulder and comforted her, "Don't worry, I'll go in and check the situation first."

"Huang, let's go in first, you cover me."

"OK, leave it to me."

Having worked together countless times, the two exchanged a glance and stepped into the darkness ahead without hesitation.

The thick darkness was like an invisible giant maw, completely swallowing their figures. In this space where almost no other sound could be heard, there was only the sharp scraping sound of their spiked boots on the floor.

Suddenly, the sound stopped without warning.

Immediately following this was ACE's astonished shout.

"Wait, what's this? Something's not right about the condition of the corpses here."

Chapter Sixty-Five: Mutant Clones

Something's not right?

Li Ang frowned. The direction the two of them had just been heading was exactly the room Ayin used to store her clones. The vast majority of the corpses that Li Ang observed through his senses were piled up there, with only a small portion remaining, perhaps because they had been washed away by the rain that had rushed in, scattered in various corners of the laboratory.

Unsurprisingly, ACE and Huang discovered the corpses.

What's wrong with those corpses? Did the two of them discover that all the corpses looked exactly alike?

The problem is... several months have passed, and the body is already so badly decomposed that they can't possibly recognize it.

Li Ang's intuition told him that the anomaly discovered by ACE and Huang might be extraordinary... After all, it was something left behind by Ayin, and who knows what kind of weird stuff was hidden inside.

"I'll go check on the situation. You guys be careful."

So, Li Ang left those words behind and walked away in the direction the two had gone.

"and many more……"

Just as Provence was about to stop her, Warfarin stopped her.

Under Provence's questioning gaze, Warfarin shook her head. "Let him go."

"...Are we just going to wait here?"

Provence couldn't quite understand Warfarin's intentions.

As a crucial core member of the team, shouldn't you be protecting Li Ang? How can you let him act alone?

“We’ll wait here,” Warfarin said with absolute certainty. “It’s alright, I trust the knight’s strength; he’s much more powerful than you think.”

Meanwhile, Li Ang quickly arrived behind ACE and Huang.

The two of them blocked the door completely from both sides, making it impossible to see what was happening inside the room.

"Why are you the only one? Where are the others?"

Hearing footsteps, Huang turned around and found that only Li Ang had come. Huang asked in surprise.

“I told them to wait there,” Li Ang replied, “so that it would be easier to retreat if anything unexpected happened.”

"...Okay, that works too."

Huang thought about it and didn't think Li Ang had done anything wrong.

If a large group of people are crammed into this small space, it will be inconvenient to handle whatever happens.

"So what did you find? Is there anything wrong with the body?"

"I don't really know how to describe it, you'll have to see for yourself," Huang said with a subtle expression.

As he spoke, Huang took a step forward, creating a gap for Li Ang to observe the situation.

Rows of simple culture chambers were neatly arranged on both sides of the corridor. The culture chambers, having lost their power supply, had stopped operating, and all the flashing indicator lights had been turned off.

A few months ago, this place was probably flooded, and the glass doors shattered under the pressure of the water, which is the source of the glass shards scattered outside.

The clones floated out of the damaged incubation chamber, and once the rain receded, their bodies naturally piled up in the lowest part of the area.

This is what Li Ang observed with his senses. Apart from the relatively strong residual radiation, there was nothing strange about these corpses.

However, when Li Ang saw the situation directly with his naked eye, he found that it was completely different from what he had perceived.

“These are the corpses you were talking about? They don’t look like corpses at all…” ACE murmured.

"...This is a flaw in my magic. I can only observe the shape of objects, so it is possible to mistake a mannequin for a corpse."

"This isn't a nude mannequin."

Huang casually made a comment, but she could understand what Li Ang meant.

"So what exactly were those things on the corpse?"

None of the people present could answer Huang's question.

The bodies were indeed those bodies. Li Ang could still vaguely recognize some physical characteristics belonging to Ayin, but the bodies were not as he had imagined, because they had rotted and swelled up after being soaked in water for several months, causing them to grow several sizes larger.

A thick layer of something that shouldn't have appeared grew on the corpses—the black algae that had been growing sparsely in various corners.

The dense black algae covered every inch of the corpse's skin, even filling the eye sockets, mouth, and ear canals. Dozens of corpses were stuck together, forming a huge whole, emitting a chilling glow.

An unexpected situation...

“Something’s not right. I think it would be better if we retreated for the time being.”

After a moment's hesitation, ACE said this.

Those black algae look somewhat like some kind of scavenging plant, but the possibility of them being malignant parasites cannot be ruled out.

Who knows if these black algae grew before or after these experimental subjects were alive? It's possible that they were some kind of dangerous experimental material in the laboratory that leaked after a natural disaster.

Their protective suits were designed with only Originium radiation in mind from the beginning; who knows if they can withstand the parasitic growth of this black algae?

"I'm fine with it, you make the decision."

Huang just felt a little nauseous; she didn't think as much as ACE did.

Just then, a scream came from not far away, interrupting the three people's thoughts.

That was... Elena's voice.

The three of them changed their expressions the instant they heard the scream.

"Oh no!" ACE exclaimed in a low voice, "This is bad."

This place... is indeed very dangerous. They have too few people and shouldn't have come here to explore.

They should also not act separately, putting both of them in danger at the same time.

ACE turned around and wanted to rush back to the entrance to reunite with Elena and the others who were in danger.

However, the anomaly occurred much faster than he had imagined. Before ACE could even take a step, a series of dense friction sounds and the sound of limbs hitting the ground came from behind him.

Under the control of some unknown force, those swollen and bizarre remains stood up, let out a silent roar to the sky, and then pounced on the nearest ACE.

ACE made a quick decision, turned around and swung his hammer at the 'heads' of the remains.

The one-handed warhammer whistled down and landed heavily on the head of the remains.

However, the head of the remains did not explode like a watermelon and split into pieces.

The warhammer made a dull thud, as if it had struck a solid piece of rubber, and the immense force knocked the remains to the ground, leaving a deep dent in their foreheads.

However, it was clear that the dent on the forehead did not affect the remains' movement; it was still struggling to get up from the ground.

Seeing that the attack had no effect, ACE kicked the twitching remains on the floor back, knocking the other remains that were trying to get up to a pulp.

"Let's go! Don't get entangled with these things."

ACE called out to Li Ang and Huang, then turned and ran.

Unless he was tired of living, ACE had no desire to fight these incredibly tough mutants in such narrow terrain.

"Another one came along!"

Amidst Huang's exclamation, a swaying shadow appeared at the other end of the corridor.

Elena screamed, meaning they had also been attacked; in Li Ang's perception, there were indeed several corpses outside.

Now, those corpses have also come back to life, blocking their way back.

To remind the two, Huang's reaction was a beat slow.

As she pulled the extension device on the chainsaw handle, transforming it into a nearly two-meter-long hot-melt chainsaw sword, ACE charged forward with astonishing momentum.

"Get out of the way!"

Upon hearing ACE's shout, Huang instinctively moved to the side, feeling as if a heavily armed truck had roared past her.