Volume 2 Honoring Robin Chapter 10: We launched a new stealth mode and fixed the bug that caused the zombie serum to be developed too slowly.
Wayne Group is definitely a giant enterprise in Gotham. Citizens of this city and even the surrounding small towns have to deal with Wayne Group from birth to death.
Its existence has even surpassed the concept of regional chaebols and has penetrated into every aspect of Gotham City.
Although it started out as a heavy industry and shipping company, by the time of Bruce Wayne's father, Thomas Wayne, the company had already completed large-scale industrial expansion. Bruce now has more than a dozen medical laboratories under his command all over the world, and has also invested in cutting-edge technology organizations like Star Labs.
However, Mason confirmed from Gordon that the research and development of the zombie vaccine that Batman is promoting is at the headquarters of the Wayne Group, which is the Wayne Building that everyone in the city knows about.
This gave Mason the opportunity to sneak in.
In the evening, the young man cooked himself a meal in the cabin and brushed up his proficiency in cooking. After eating and drinking, he set the "patrol route" for the Batphone today. He put the phone on the drone and let it circle the block in the evening according to its own habits, and then returned to the cabin.
In order to prevent Batman from coming to his cabin on a whim, Mason decided to "do something big" in the city before sneaking in.
The location for zombie activity he chose tonight is Naihe Island.
It's in that huge slum that is almost completely separated from Gotham's main city and has a complicated situation.
The Kite Man's map marked the area with complex terrain and the underground sewer system had been completely remodeled. Based on his career in the Joker Gang, he knew that there were at least four drug-making dens of different forces hidden there, and it was also a place where most fugitives would choose to hide.
This has even formed a complete "industrial chain" on Naihe Island.
The best part is that this black industry chain that shelters criminals is still controlled by the Falcone family, the largest mafia family in Gotham.
Don’t you think this is a coincidence?
Mason took the ring light rail, which was said to be funded by Thomas Wayne, to the Nahe Island Station. He changed into an invisibility cloak in the bathroom and quickly entered this chaotic place.
But he did not enter the modified sewer, but released Miss Magg out from one of the exits.
"I know you can understand."
Mason, wearing the cheap thick leather gloves he made using his tailoring skills, carefully took the lazy zombie tabby cat out of the cage.
Looking at the kitten with its sharp black claws already popping out from his hand, Mason stroked the cat cautiously while saying to it:
"Don't leave the sewer! Don't hurt anyone on the surface! Or I'll throw you in a suitcase and make the other teeth come out to work. Don't act like you're just a kitten and you don't understand!
I know you are smart enough to understand what I mean."
"Meow~"
A gleam of impatience flashed in Miss Mag's scarlet eyes, proving that it had indeed regained its wisdom under the influence of the Resurrection Stone fragments, but it was not certain whether it could recover to that extent.
After all, the zombie virus has completely changed its brain structure, and with the unique magical heritage of Animagus taking effect, perhaps one day it can really turn back into Professor McGonagall's human form.
Or maybe it will have to live as a cat forever.
"You've gained weight again, and seem to have grown a size."
Mason held the tabby cat in his hands and placed it at the entrance of the sewer. He tied a small pocket watch around its neck, patted its head and said:
"Eat less unclean things. Isn't veal more delicious than the meat of criminals? Go, I'll wait for you here. I'll be back when this pocket watch rings!
Be good.
I won't keep you in a cage anymore, deal?"
"Meow!"
The dry and eerie meow seemed to represent the response of the tabby cat.
It first stretched out its leopard-like body, which was twice as large as an ordinary cat, and then disappeared into the darkness of the sewer with graceful steps.
Mason held a Taser with a fishing net in his hand, and he was ready to go into the sewer to retrieve the cat if it didn't behave.
But ten minutes later, Miss Magg appeared at the entrance of the sewer as promised, with bloody cat paw prints and blood stains at the corners of her mouth, indicating that tonight's "midnight hunt" was also successful.
Mason took off the vibrating countdown pocket watch from the cat's neck and reached out to touch the cat's increasingly furry head with great satisfaction.
I put its favorite school hat into the birdcage to make a nest, and took the lazy cat back into my arms after satisfying its hunger.
He stood up and walked into a dirty, almost abandoned telephone booth on the street. He dialed the Gotham Police Department's emergency number and screamed at the same time:
"Oh my god! There are terrible monsters walking around in the sewers! They are on Nahe Island and they are eating people! It's so scary! Please ask Batman to save us!"
"Snapped"
Before the police officer on the other end could ask for details, the call was hung up.
Mason walked out of the phone booth and headed back to the light rail station. However, due to the complex routes of the island's modified sewer system, Batboy would be busy tonight.
He won't have time for anything else.
The terminus of the city-wide light rail built when Thomas Wayne was alive is right at the Wayne Group Building, which means Mason doesn't even need to change his means of transportation.
He waited patiently until the building security changed shifts before putting on his invisibility cloak and following the patrolling security into the building. He blended into the building easily like an invisible man, and then walked down the stairs to the medical laboratory in the basement.
When a bald researcher in a white coat opened the door with his ID card, holding a cup of coffee and looking ethereal, Mason followed him in.
This large laboratory, which occupies an entire underground floor, is very busy.
There are at least two hundred people working here. As Mason strolls through, he can see biological experiments being carried out in several tightly sealed experimental spaces.
They used creatures such as cats, dogs and sheep to inject them with zombie viruses and targeted drugs to test the effects of the drugs, and each laboratory was equipped with an automatic shooting device.
Mason saw a dog being accurately shot in the head after being transformed into a zombie, and then being burned by flames from four high-temperature flame nozzles. Finally, all traces were cleaned up by a special cleaning device.
"Drug trial No. 47 failed!"
A black man in protective clothing shook his head, and as Mason watched silently, he said to his assistant beside him:
"The test of drug No. 48 will begin in three minutes. How many targeted drugs have been recorded as effective so far?"
"Only one, Mr. Lucius."
The fair-skinned, beautiful assistant with long legs looked at the experimental records and answered concisely and accurately :
"The compound labeled 24 was developed with the participation of Star Labs. It can keep the test subjects awake for 8-10 minutes when attacked by the zombie virus, but subsequent research on it has never made any breakthroughs.
There must be some key issues that have not been discovered..."
At this point, the very professional female assistant hesitated for a moment, and whispered to Mr. Lucius Fox, who was in charge of this experiment, the head of Wayne Industrial Research Department, and the chairman of the board of directors of Wayne Group:
"Excuse me, Mr. Lucius. It is simply impossible for us to complete the deconstruction of the unknown virus and the production of targeted drugs in less than half a month.
This is an outrageous request that violates scientific norms.”
"I know, but we have to get it done!"
Mr. Lucius hadn't had a good rest for several days. Batman's most trusted "technical officer" rubbed his bloodshot eyes and said:
"Your authority allows you to know the truth about the Blackgate prison incident. Just imagine the impact and shock that would be caused if those living corpses were to spread across Gotham City, the country, and the world.
We must get it done before a real disaster occurs!
Keep experimenting! "
The female assistant stopped talking.
She nodded, and soon several experimenters brought compound No. 48, and a bleating goat was also sent into the laboratory.
As for Mason, he has now arrived at the research and development room marked No. 24. Three researchers are busy in front of computers, and the labeled drug No. 24 is stored in a small refrigerated test box.
The young man took out three small syringes from his arms.
The liquid inside is the "Batman Tranquilizer" that he deciphered using alchemy and made in Dr. Leslie's clinic.
He had been stabbed by this thing once and knew very well how powerful it was.
Just like a dragonfly skimming the water.
Mason stabbed the necks of the three busy researchers three times. In less than two seconds, the three already exhausted researchers fell in front of their computers and fell into a wonderful sleep like babies.
The young man took compound No. 24 out of the refrigerator and examined it in his hand.
Unfinished Zombie Virus Prevention Serum
Effect: Produced through Star Laboratory's advanced biotechnology, it makes the injector immune to the zombie virus's transformation of living organisms for a short period of time.
Producers: Barry Allen, Star Labs Biotech Division, Wayne Industries Biomedical Laboratories
Item Description: Mr. Barry Allen is really just one step away from cracking the secret of the original zombie virus. Maybe he needs a little help from the supernatural?
"Barry?"
Mason narrowed his eyes as he looked at the test tube of serum in his hand.
There really is a Flash in this world! But he seems to be very low-key. At least Mason hasn't seen any news about the Flash in the recent newspapers.
"Supernatural help?"
The young man savored the hint implied in the item description of the serum, and after hesitating for a while, he took out an alchemy stone that he had just made this afternoon.
"Will the fusion of alchemy and modern biotechnology cause serum contamination?"
With this thought in mind, Mason used tweezers to place the gray irregular alchemist stone into the test tube in his hand. Under his gaze, bubbles began to float in the orange-yellow serum liquid like extracted alchemical potion.
Its internal active ingredients are rapidly extracted by the alchemist stone.
After ten agonizing minutes, the serum in Mason's hand was only two-thirds of its original capacity, and its information label finally changed:
Extracted Zombie Virus Prevention Serum
Effect: Through the combined effects of advanced biotechnology and ancient alchemy, this serum undergoes miraculous changes without the addition of any materials.
The duration of its protection against zombie virus infection has been greatly extended.
Producers: Barry Allen, Mason Cooper
Item Description: This is still not a perfect zombie antidote! But don't be discouraged, it's pretty good for a junior alchemist to achieve this, come and reward yourself.
"This little thing can also be effective on products of biotechnology. It really deserves to be the core creation of alchemy."
Mason took the gray alchemist stone out of the test tube and took the reagent into the space where the biological experiment was being conducted.
This time, Compound No. 48 was proven to be a failure, which dealt a heavy blow to Mr. Lucius.
He and his assistant were resting outside the laboratory and discussing follow-up plans. A gray dog had been brought into the laboratory and was tied to the experimental table, waiting for its fate.
Mason, wearing an invisibility cloak, glanced outside, poured the reagent in his hand into the sophisticated injection instrument, and then pressed the test switch.
"Why was it activated?"
This unexpected movement immediately alarmed Lucius and a group of scientists.
They rushed into the laboratory to end the unauthorized experimental process, but the serum and virus had already been injected into the puppy.
Mason was standing next to these people, and even though he was invisible, he was also paying attention to the changes in the puppy in front of him.
One minute, three minutes, fifteen minutes later, the puppy fixed on the experimental table made a faint cry, but it was not because of the zombie infection but because it might be hungry.
"The experimental data broke the previous record! Mr. Lucius, there is no trace of infection in the test sample, and it is expelling the invading virus through the body fluid circulation !
A new antibody is produced and added to the sample's immune system.
It is very stable.
At least it’s stable now.”
The female assistant looked at the complicated data on the medical instrument in shock. She couldn't help but push up her frameless glasses and shouted to a group of scientists who were also staring at her with wide eyes:
"Everyone...we...we may have succeeded?"
But no one cheered, everyone just stared at each other.
They had no idea why the breakthrough had suddenly occurred.
Mr. Lucius carefully took out the remaining injection serum from the syringe. He looked at the label marked with number 24 in his hand and fell into deep thought. However, he immediately asked the scientists to start analyzing the composition of the serum. At the same time, he sent someone to wake up the three researchers who were sleeping soundly in the laboratory.
An hour later, the analysis results came out.
"There has been no change in the composition of drug No. 24, Mr. Lucius."
The female assistant reported to her superior in an unbelievable tone:
"But its internal composition has changed greatly. The content of some ingredients has been weakened while the role of other ingredients has increased. Although it is made of the same raw materials, Drug No. 24 has become something completely different.
The three researchers could not give any reason.
They did not touch the compound, and the surveillance also proved this, but the surveillance camera was temporarily offline for ten minutes.
We don’t know what happened in the lab during those ten minutes.”
Mr. Lucius, who had taken off his protective suit, fell silent. After more than ten seconds, he looked up at the female assistant and said:
"How is the sample test? Are the antibodies that are effective against the zombie virus permanent?"
"Unfortunately, it is not."
The female assistant took out another analysis report and handed it to the person in charge, saying:
"After monitoring sample No. 49 for 90 minutes, we found that the activity and concentration of antibodies were decreasing, and they would gradually lose their activity over time.
Based on the current rate of loss, its shelf life is 55-65 days.”
"enough!"
Lucius' bloodshot eyes flashed with relief, and he concluded:
"That is to say, although we don't know how the new compound works, we have confirmed that it is effective and have obtained the specific composition ratio.
Can we continue to study its principles while mass-producing it?"
"In theory, Mr. Lucius."
The blond assistant hesitated for a moment and whispered:
"But it has not been tested on humans, so..."
“Start now!”
Lucius made the decision and said:
"I have six hours left before dawn to submit a complete report to the board and Mr. Bruce Wayne.
Let the boys and girls work harder! "
"Yes, you should really work harder. There is a whole world of survivors waiting for you to save them, great scientists."
At this time, Mason, who was standing quietly behind Mr. Lucius, was expressing his feelings in his heart while looking at the data in the experimental report that he didn't understand.
After the female assistant turned and left the office, the young man raised his hand and added a Batman sedative into the coffee next to Mr. Lucius.
Ten seconds later, Mr. Lucius, who was exhausted from several days of work, leaned back in his chair and fell asleep. Mason reached out and took off his ID card hanging on his chest.
The young man hummed a song in his heart and left the place in a swagger.
Next it’s time to visit Batman’s equipment research and development center, after all, all work and no play makes even the smart Mason a fool.
I just did a good thing.
That's reason enough to reward yourself.
