Volume 11: Memetic Crisis Chapter 551 Breaking into the Laboratory Building
"So... you took it back to the Ark?"
"This is a very valuable research sample. Neither the Undead Crew nor the Research Institute can ignore it... Rather than throwing it into the abyss, it is better to control it..."
"Control it?" Ke Lan interrupted Schroeder directly, "Can you control it?"
"..." Schroeder did not reply. He knew very well that there was no point in continuing to argue on this issue - things had already happened, and what they had to do was to handle the current situation as best as possible and minimize the losses.
This is the job of the Crisis Management Department - to clean up the mess of those crazy researchers who have no idea what's going on.
While Ke Lan was communicating with the headquarters, he and Asano Akira did not stop. Finally, after running for nearly fifteen minutes, the pure white biological laboratory building of the research institute appeared in their sight.
Of course, this pure white color only applies to the laboratory building itself and does not include the things that are currently wrapped around the outside of the building.
"I think I know why there was a power outage in the laboratory building and the underground ice storage..." Ke Lan murmured.
At this moment, the entire exterior of the laboratory building was wrapped in tangled vines. The thinnest of these vines was as thick as a human thigh, while the thickest was so thick that two or three people could not hold it together. They directly broke through the walls and the ground of the laboratory building. The solid concrete was crushed easily, and the steel bars exposed outside were bent into strange angles under the huge force. If these vines were pulled away at this time, the entire shattered laboratory building would inevitably collapse into ruins in an instant.
Even the surface of the parking lot in front of the laboratory building was lifted up by the roots of the vines, not to mention the power lines buried underground. Looking inside along the cracks in the ground, one can even vaguely see a layer of metal sealing plate - under this layer of sealing plate is the underground ice storage that stores a large number of dangerous specimens.
It was obvious that a battle had taken place in front of the laboratory building. Ke Lan saw at least twenty corpses in crisis management uniforms... As for the corpses of researchers in white coats, there were even more, almost stretching from the entrance of the laboratory building to the bottom of the stairs.
Most of these researchers were shot by operators from the Crisis Management Department. However, looking at the bodies, less than one-tenth of them were infected. On the contrary, the operators who fired the shots almost all died from "memetic infection."
Without Schroeder's explanation, Ke Lan guessed that this group of people were the first to enter the contaminated area. At that time, the contaminated area had not yet expanded to the entire institute headquarters, but only the block where the biological laboratory building was located. In order to block the transmission route, they had to shoot at those who violated the regulations and rushed out of the laboratory building... At that time, no one knew that this "horrible virus" could be transmitted through eye contact...
"Command, I have arrived at the laboratory building, but the entrance to the laboratory building has been blocked by a kind of vine plant... These plants have almost wrapped the entire building into an extremely large vine cocoon."
"Ivy plants?" In less than two seconds, Schroeder said to Ke Lan, "We have searched the collection list of the underground ice storage, and there is only one kind of vine plant, called 'Corrupted Blood Vine'. This plant, like the six-winged gray mosquito, is only found in the gray mud swamp area. Its juice is like bright red blood and is extremely corrosive, so it was given such a name."
"But ordinary 'Corrupted Blood Ivy' is definitely not this thick... Moreover, at the tips of these vines, there are fucking bloodshot eyeballs hanging down... It seems that in addition to animals, 'memes' can also infect plants." Ke Lan took a picture of the Corrupted Blood Ivy wrapped around the experimental building, and then manually coded the eyeballs. After confirming that nothing was missed, he sent the photo back to the headquarters.
"The Corrupted Blood Ivy grown in a normal environment is actually only as thick as a finger..." Schroeder replied quickly, "Although these Corrupted Blood Ivy have mutated, some of its original characteristics should not disappear. You must not be careless."
"Original properties? Are you talking about the corrosive juice?" Ke Lan glanced at the power armor on his body. " Didn't those guys from the equipment department praise this armor to the skies? Could it be that it can't even withstand the juice from the vines?"
"The juice of the Corrupted Blood Vine has a particularly strong corrosive effect on metals. There is an active substance in its juice named 'B159' by the research institute. From a microscopic perspective, this active substance can replace the electrons of metal atoms, causing the metal to be oxidized in a very short time..."
"Then why not just add a layer of anti-oxidation coating?" Ke Lan said immediately, "To put it simply, it's just a matter of spraying a protective paint."
"Except for 'B159', the liquid itself will burn everything it touches, and the anti-oxidation coating is not very effective." Schroeder said, "With the thickness of your armor, you can only withstand the corrosion of this liquid for 20 minutes at most."
"Okay, then can this thing be burned?" Ke Lan thought about it. If these blood-corroding vines could be burned, then the laboratory building would collapse. Anyway, the real target should have run to the underground ice storage by now. A pile of ruins formed by concrete fragments would be much easier .
"It's difficult... The sap of the Corrupted Blood Vine can burn anything it touches. If it was afraid of fire, it would have been burned to death by its own sap long ago... In fact, the people at the research institute brought the Corrupted Blood Vine back from the Gray Mud Swamp to study its fireproof properties and develop new fireproof materials. As for the corrosive sap and the active substances in it, they are secondary."
"Then what do you think is a good idea?" Ke Lan asked, "We can't chop it down, and we can't burn it. We can't just stand there and watch."
"We can only force our way in," Schroeder said. "We can force our way in with the energy shield... Although the Corrupted Blood Vine is not afraid of fire, the energy shield can still burn it, along with the juice in the vine."
"It's the same as if you said nothing."
The shield generator equipped on the power armor of Ke Lan and Asano Akira has a maximum duration of five minutes, and a cooling time of ten minutes. That is to say, including the time they spend using the armor to resist, they can only hold out for thirty-five minutes at most under the erosion of the blood-corroding vines.
First, turn on the shield for five minutes, then cool down and withstand for ten minutes; after the shield has cooled down, turn it on again for five minutes; then enter the second ten-minute cooldown period and continue to withstand, at this time the armor has almost been corroded; after the third five-minute shield duration is over, he and Asano Akira will directly lose all means of protection and be directly exposed to those highly corrosive substances.
The institute's biological laboratory building has a total of thirty-six floors, with each floor covering an area of more than three thousand square meters. Even if everything in the laboratory building, including personnel and equipment, was cleared out and only the walls and aisles were left, thirty-five minutes would not be enough to walk through the entire building.
Although Ke Lan didn't really need to check every room in the laboratory building, given the current situation, it would only take more time.
No one can say for sure what else is waiting for them in the laboratory building besides the corrupt blood-corroding vines blocking their way - but one thing is certain: since the "meme subject" will allow those pretenders to delay their pace, it is impossible for it to give up its "home ground" like the laboratory building.
Ke Lan could foresee that the next battle would be an extremely difficult one.
To be precise, it was countless, almost non-stop, extremely difficult... battles.
"Professor Smith's laboratory is located in Area A on the 11th floor, Biochemical Laboratory No. 9, which is also the birthplace of 'memetic infection'. The fusion experiment of your cloned tissue and erosion seed cells was carried out in this laboratory." Schroeder said.
"Actually, I don't think there is any need for me to go to the laboratory. It might be easier to go directly to the underground ice storage." Ke Lan raised his head and looked at the building that was nearly two hundred meters high.
"But if you want to go to the underground ice storage, you have to go to the top floor of the laboratory building first... Professor Smith's laboratory is just on the way." Schroeder said.
"To get to the underground ice storage, you have to go to the 36th floor first? What kind of genius design is this?" Ke Lan was stunned for a moment and couldn't help but complain... If the architect who designed the laboratory and the underground ice storage was standing in front of him now, he felt that he would just throw a big ass bag at him...
"This is also for safety reasons. The outer shell of the entire underground ice storage is made of a 25-meter-thick alloy, and only the elevator on the top floor can directly descend to the interior of the ice storage... Even when there were things to be sent to the ice storage before, they were first transported to the top floor by helicopter, and then taken to the elevator..." Schroeder explained.
"Then can't I just dig open the elevator shaft on the first floor?"
"The wall of the elevator shaft is four meters thick, and the Nino alloy content reaches 19%. Even if the entire laboratory building is blown to pieces by artillery, the elevator shaft will not be damaged."
"Damn... psycho..." Ke Lan cursed. He found that ever since he started dealing with these guys from the research institute, his temper had become more and more like that of the Hound.
Of course, if Hound was the person involved, he would have raised the butt of his rifle and shouted that he would cut the heads of those researchers one by one.
"There's nothing we can do about it. Besides, Professor Smith's laboratory might be able to find some important clues. This information might be helpful in dealing with the main body of the 'meme'..."
"Bullshit." Ke Lan rejected it outright. "Don't forget, our opponent is an intelligent creature. Since it knows how to send monsters to intercept us, it will definitely clean up the scene. Even if the information you mentioned really exists, it must have been cleared."
"But this is our only chance. I think it is necessary to try it. Checking the laboratory will not waste too much time..."
Before Schroeder finished speaking, Ke Lan interrupted him: "I suddenly thought of a way to save time."
"What is the solution?"
"Since the target is the laboratory on the eleventh floor and the elevator shaft on the top floor, there is no need for me to enter the laboratory building. I can just climb up from the outer wall... Isn't this much easier than walking through a narrow and dangerous corridor?"
"..." Schroeder was stunned, and so were the experts in the countermeasures team. This was clearly a very simple idea that even a child could think of, but this group of academic elites with an average IQ of over 190 completely ignored this route.
Almost everyone was thinking about how to enter the building and how to deal with the obstruction of the mutated indigenous creatures in the building - they had been thinking about how to get through this maze full of monsters in the shortest time, but they did not realize that if they just wanted to reach the exit of the maze, they only needed to walk half a circle around the outer edge of the maze.
Even Ke Lan fell into this misconception at the beginning. It was not until Schroeder just now said that the specimens had to be sent to the top floor by helicopter before being sent to the ice storage that he realized that he did not need to enter the building to enter the elevator shaft.
"In theory... this... this is indeed the fastest and safest route..." Schroeder said somewhat unnaturally.
"Then let's stop talking nonsense." After saying this, Ke Lan raised his arm, pointed the grappling gun at a seemingly intact outer wall between the eighth and ninth floors, and pulled the trigger.
The sharp claws instantly drove into the concrete. Ke Lan pulled the cable a few times and made sure it was not loose. Then he started the shaft engine and began to retract the cable.
He stepped on the outer wall and began to walk upwards step by step following the tightening cable.
But just when Ke Lan had just reached a height of ten meters, the surrounding rotten blood-corroding vines suddenly moved! Several vines as thick as water tanks loosened the wall, swung a large circle in the air, and then fiercely whipped towards Ke Lan who was standing on the wall; while the smaller vines quickly spread along the wall and quickly wrapped around Ke Lan's legs!
"I knew this would happen." Ke Lan showed a slightly sarcastic smile on his face, and cut the cable directly. The fixed hook used when using the shotgun before once again shot out from his feet and grabbed the wall... Then, he directly increased the power of the energy shield to the maximum!
The dozens of vines turned into ashes the moment they came into contact with the energy shield. Even the concrete wall in front of Ke Lan was vaporized by nearly half a meter. Ke Lan, who lost his support, immediately began to fall.
“Swoosh—”
The second hook flew out, and Ke Lan, who had just fallen less than three meters, flew up again. Without the obstruction of the vines, he jumped directly to the outer window of the eleventh floor, smashed the bulletproof glass window with one punch, and jumped into the corridor.
