Volume 11: Memetic Crisis Chapter 553 Ice Storage Elevator
Under the impact of Ke Lan, who was wearing heavy armor, the wall, which was already full of holes, instantly shattered like a crispy cookie. He stumbled and entered a spacious space.
Of course, this spaciousness is relative to the corridor outside that is blocked by the blood-corroding vines. In this laboratory with an area of about 300 square meters, half of the space still belongs to the territory of the blood-corroding vines. The thick and twisted vines squeeze together, filling up half of the laboratory, which makes Ke Lan think of the "Shachima" stuffed in the mold.
This is a pastry handed down from the old era. Ke Lan had only seen it in information. As a processed food that required refined flour, eggs, honey and a large amount of dried nuts, it was undoubtedly a high-end dessert in this era. It was difficult for ordinary people to enjoy it.
Originally, Ke Lan had planned to try these exquisite snacks that he had been reluctant to buy before when he had time, but after seeing this tangled bunch of vines, he suddenly lost his appetite for "Shachima".
The eyeball-like organs that "grow" from these vines are much larger than the eyeballs of animal infected people, and their diameter is only slightly smaller than a bowling ball. If you ignore the fleshy fascia that shouldn't appear on plants, they look like heavy fruits hanging on branches.
There were many such "big eyeballs" stuffed in the gaps between the vines, which made Ke Lan think of the kernels embedded in the surface and inside of the shaqima...
Ke Lan felt that he would never touch this kind of snack called Shachima again in his life. Even the mere thought of it was enough to make him feel nauseous.
But no matter how disgusting it was, Ke Lan did not look away, but instead looked at these corrupt blood-corroding vines intently - he was very puzzled, these corrupt blood-corroding vines could obviously fill the entire laboratory space, so why did they leave half of it empty?
Moreover, there is an obvious arc-shaped boundary between these blood-corroding vines and the empty space, as if they were separated by an invisible wall of air.
No matter whether it was those vines that were thicker than thighs and covered with bumps, or those slender new branches, no one dared to cross the line.
For some reason, Ke Lan thought of Shaqima again - these rotten blood-corroding vines crowded in the corner were like the curved scraps left after someone cut a round piece of cake from a square mold with a cake knife.
"Circular...arc-shaped...why is it this shape?" Ke Lan couldn't help but turn his head and look at the half-empty laboratory behind him.
Before the disaster, some experiments were probably being conducted here. There were many bottles of reagents on the table, and a dozen mice were kept in an observation box nearby. Most of the mice used as experimental subjects had become corpses, with only the two at the top still alive. However, all the hair on their bodies had fallen off, and their naked bodies were covered with rice-sized eyes...
These two little white mice infected by the "meme" are hitting the observation box made of reinforced glass hard... Fortunately, the glass used to make the observation box is extremely strong, so they cannot escape from the box.
Could it be that the vines were afraid to approach because of these two mutated mice?
Ke Lan thought it was unlikely.
His focus involuntarily shifted to the bottles containing reagents.
The researchers who were doing experiments in this laboratory seemed to be in a panic when they fled. Many reagent bottles were knocked over and tipped over, and some even rolled to the ground, breaking into pieces of glass.
In the area where the glass fragments were scattered, you could vaguely see some traces of liquid left after the reagent with added dye dried up.
"The circular area... could it be that the smell produced by the evaporation of some reagent is preventing the Corrupted Blood Vine from approaching?"
Ke Lan looked back at the arc of the "boundary line", and then looked at the place where the glass bottle broke on the ground - if this arc-shaped boundary line was regarded as part of the circumference of a circle, then this position happened to be on the center of the circle!
"Is the Corrupted Blood Vine afraid of this thing?" Ke Lan squatted down and picked up a piece of glass on the ground.
There was a waterproof label on the fragment...but the label did not specify the ingredients of the reagent, but instead a string of numbers mixed with English.
If the communication had not been interrupted, Ke Lan could have sent the serial number back to the headquarters and asked Schroeder to help him check it, but now, everything depended on him alone.
"It should be this reagent... It evaporated into the air and forced the Corrupted Blood Vine to retreat..."
He did not take off his breathing mask to smell the air - firstly, it was for safety reasons. Who knows if something that even the blood-corroding vine is afraid of is toxic to the human body? Secondly, even if he let Ke Lan smell it, he would not be able to smell the ingredients of the reagent.
Not to mention him, even a hound wouldn't be able to smell it.
Ke Lan took two cotton balls from the laboratory table, moistened them with water and alcohol, the two most common reagents, respectively, and rubbed them on the liquid traces on the ground a few times - the cotton ball dipped in water was not stained by the purple-red reagent, while the cotton ball dipped in alcohol easily dissolved the traces on the ground.
Ke Lan held the alcohol cotton ball and tentatively approached the blood-corroding vines.
The blood-corroding vines suddenly became agitated, but they did not attack Ke Lan. Instead, they retreated in an uncharacteristic way, and the vines kept making teeth-grinding friction sounds...
It really works!
But the amount dipped on a cotton ball was definitely not enough. Ke Lan took the label and quickly ran to the reagent rack with many glass tubes and compared them one by one.
Finally, on the far left side of the second row, he found a tube of light blue reagent with the same label as the one he was holding in his hand.
Ke Lan immediately drew out the tube of reagent and brought the Corrosive Blood Vine closer again.
He pulled out the stopper and gently fanned the tube a few times in the direction of the Corrupted Blood Ivy with his hand - however, this time the Corrupted Blood Ivy did not respond at all.
"Hmm?" Ke Lan compared the two labels again. The English letters and numbers on them were exactly the same, and there was no deviation in the order.
There must be something missing...
"Did you find anything?" Asano Akira couldn't help but ask when he noticed Ke Lan walking back and forth in front of the experimental table.
"We have made some discoveries, but it seems something has gone wrong." Ke Lan shook his head and said, "If we can find the root of the problem, perhaps these blood-corroding vines will not become an obstacle to our progress."
As he spoke, he walked back to the glass fragments again, squatted down and took a closer look. At this time, Ke Lan noticed that there was a piece of glass fragment with a label on it under the laboratory table.
Previously, due to the angle, the fragment was blocked by the edge of the laboratory table, and when Ke Lan squatted down to wipe the reagent, he did not look under the table.
"Is it a mixed reagent?"
Ke Lan quickly found a second reagent on the shelf. The dye added to this reagent was light pink. When the two reagents were mixed together, they turned into the purple color of the dried mark on the ground.
When the two reagents were mixed together, a large amount of bubbles continuously emerged from the bottom of the test tube, looking like some kind of grape soda that had been shaken violently.
Before Ke Lan even got close, the blood-corroding vines began to wriggle and struggle violently... In less than ten minutes, they all retreated from the laboratory.
The Corrupted Blood Vine's fear of this mixed reagent is even greater than the Corrosive Seed's fear of stalagmites!
“It’s really effective!”
Ke Lan was delighted. Although he was not sure whether the appearance of this reagent was a coincidence or part of the relevant research institute's project, as long as it could be used, it would be a good thing!
"Asano, follow me!"
Ke Lan called out to Asano Akira, then rushed out holding the bubbling test tube.
Wherever Ke Lan went, the blood-corroding vines retreated. For a moment, it seemed as if he was chasing these vines.
After running all the way, Ke Lan finally arrived at the door of Professor Smith's "Laboratory No. 9" before the mixed reagent in the test tube evaporated.
The door of the laboratory was ajar, and there were obvious signs of violent opening on the lock, and the walls were covered with bloodstains.
"There's no movement inside." said Asano Akira.
"Yeah." Ke Lan responded, then kicked open the door of the laboratory.
Apart from the three corpses lying on the ground, there were no living creatures in the room. Not even the blood-corroding vines had ever invaded the room.
Ke Lan immediately focused his attention on the table. The transparent experimental operation box had broken into several pieces, and the things inside had disappeared.
"I knew it... Since that thing has intelligence, it would not stay here and wait for me to come to it..." Ke Lan turned around and smeared the remaining mixed reagent on the door frame and wall to prevent the corrupt blood vines outside from squeezing in, and then began to check every corner of the laboratory.
First of all, there are the three corpses. The one closest to the table should be Professor Smith's assistant, the unlucky guy called "Infected Person No. 1" in official documents. He now looks like a mummy, with shriveled skin tightly attached to the bones, and the flesh underneath seems to have been completely drained. The membrane collapsed without support, and even the "eyeballs" that grew out have become dry, wrinkled and hard meat balls. The Crisis Management Department has done experiments before, and found that "eyeballs" in this state have lost their activity and are not without the ability to transmit memes.
On the contrary, photos and videos that can be preserved permanently pose a more profound threat than these physical objects.
The other two bodies were security guards who were armed. Their bodies were similar to those of the assistants, but they had several gunshot wounds.
It wasn't the "memes" that killed them, but these fatal gunshot wounds. Judging from the location of the wounds, these gunshot wounds should have come from the weapons in the hands of their companions - before the two were sucked dry by these eyeballs, they took the lead and helped each other free.
There were no valuable clues on the corpse. Even the corpse of the "infected person No. 1" who was initially infected with the "meme" was exactly the same as the infected people who appeared in later large-scale infectious events. In terms of research value, it was probably not as good as those zombie-like "disguisers".
Ke Lan had neither the relevant knowledge and skills, nor the professional tools and equipment, and even less time. He knew that there was no point in continuing to waste time with these corpses, so he decisively gave up examining the corpses and walked towards the computer next to him.
However, what made Ke Lan speechless was that the mainframes of the six computers in this laboratory had been corroded by strong acid and turned into a pile of scrap metal, while the large server used to store data on the side was left with only a horrible skeleton.
Looking at this pile of garbage, Ke Lan sighed. Even the most skilled technicians would not be able to restore the data in it.
"There really isn't even a clue left..."
The Corrupted Bloodvine had never entered this lab, and the three dead people could not have destroyed the computer mainframe and server. After the "memetic contagion" incident, no one had come to this place again.
This was not an accident but deliberate sabotage, and the identity and intentions of the saboteurs were obvious.
This also proves once again that the subject of the "meme" is indeed extremely intelligent.
"Let's go, we've come here for nothing." Ke Lan said to Asano Akira.
Although he was a little disappointed, this was the outcome that Ke Lan had expected, and it did not make him feel too depressed.
Perhaps his biggest discovery since he entered the experimental building is this mixed reagent that can expel the blood-corroding vines. However, this thing is only useful in the early stages to deal with small monsters blocking the way. It will probably not be of any use in the "BOSS battle" that he will face next.
Ke Lan returned to the previous laboratory and mixed two bottles of mixed reagents, which he applied to his and Asano Akira's power armor. Then , the two of them climbed out of the window and climbed up the outer wall of the laboratory building to the helipad on the roof.
Without the interference of the blood-corroding vines, everything went very smoothly. In less than five minutes, Ke Lan had found the entrance to the ice storage elevator.
The elevator car had disappeared, leaving only an empty elevator shaft. White cold mist from the underground ice storage was constantly rising from the depths of the elevator shaft.
