Ch 122: TGCIR

After receiving Li Weilan’s equipment and armor, Chen Jie swiftly contacted other ability user teams’ captains and her former acquaintances.

As a veteran powerhouse of the J City Base, Chen Jie knew many familiar captains. Being a supporter of the Institute but being pressured by them, her testimony naturally carried weight.

Watching Li Weilan’s round and chubby cartoonish face, Shen Cheng couldn’t help but poke at the dimple on his cheek and said, “Lan Lan, you’re really good at scheming. I see Chen Jie getting duped by you and being sold off, and you’re the one counting the money.” As she said this, she couldn’t help but think that if she were to be sold off by her cub, she might only be able to count the money for him or clap her hands foolishly on the side.

“Then, is Cheng Cheng afraid of me?” Li Weilan raised an eyebrow, smiling as he sensed the meaning behind her words.

“Not really,” Shen Cheng pondered for a moment, the strange sourness gone. She sorted out her thoughts and somewhat embarrassedly said, “I just feel like I’m not that important anymore.”

Yes, she felt like she wasn’t that important anymore.

At the beginning, both the game and the base were completely under her control. Although the base and the plot had some autonomy, ultimately, she was manipulating everything. But now, in this mission, cub was the most important contributor. Without his intelligence, her efforts to raise Chen Jie’s friendliness might only result in clumsily gathering materials, and she might even end up with no good outcome.

It wasn’t jealousy of cub’s intelligence, it was just a feeling that she wasn’t as important anymore. The game system wasn’t so indispensable, so she felt a bit scared. Would there come a day when he wouldn’t care about her as much anymore?

But Shen Cheng didn’t dare to say this to Li Weilan. She suspected that if she did, it would turn into suspicion of him, and he would surely explode.

“But if it weren’t for you, there wouldn’t be the me of today,” Li Weilan sighed suddenly, a look of frustration and sadness appearing on his cute face. “Cheng Cheng, did you used to think I was weak and useless?”

“Eh,” Shen Cheng made a puzzled sound, shaking her head vigorously. “How could that be when the first impression you left on me was your strength? If it weren’t for liking your character and being moved by your resilience, how could I keep playing?”

The word “liking” slipped out of her mouth. After saying it, Shen Cheng’s face turned red.

She did like him. At first, it was just liking and pity for the game character, but when he came into reality and stood in front of her, this feeling for the two-dimensional character turned into a more complex and deeper emotion.

Although they had only met twice in person, with only a few instances of connection and physical contact, in her heart, he was really important.

Li Weilan pursed his lips slightly, a dimple appearing on his cheek. Her liking was a great encouragement to him. For him, the biggest goal now was to live happily together with her one day. “But if it weren’t for you, there would be no me in this world, and no Noah either. We all live because of you. I never told you this before, but my biggest wish now is that when everything settles down, we can live together forever. That’s the only motivation driving me to do all this.”

“Only motivation?” Shen Cheng’s eyes widened in bewilderment. She thought his motivation for doing all this was because he couldn’t forget the hatred of being treated as an experimental animal in the Institute within 24 hours, so wouldn’t this hatred be his driving force?

Li Weilan nodded. He recalled the monsters in Shen Cheng’s world.

He didn’t want to scare her, but in the game, a year had passed, and in her world, it had been two months at most. He cautiously asked, “Cheng Cheng, is everything okay over there?”

Actually, he was mainly asking about “that thing.” If she could still play the game as usual, his data should have played a role. Her world was still safe, and those spores hadn’t spread on a large scale yet.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

Shen Cheng didn’t know why he suddenly asked like that. She briefly mentioned the situation on her side, ending happily with, “I now have several million. Although I still can’t afford a house, I don’t have to worry about my life. You don’t need to worry about me.”

Li Weilan nodded thoughtfully.

Just as Li Weilan walked out of the back door of the Storm Team’s base, Fu Yanzhou emerged from the shadows in the corner by the wall, walking out from around the corner.

There was a touch of melancholy on his face. Upon seeing Li Weilan, he directly handed over a USB flash drive and prepared to leave without a word.

Li Weilan grabbed him by the arm.

“Fu Yanzhou, what do you mean by this?” he asked sternly.

Fu Yanzhou trembled all over. He glanced at Li Weilan, lowered his head, and fidgeted with the ground with his toes, but he remained silent. After a while, he whispered, “It means nothing.”

Without needing to open it, Li Weilan could guess what was on the USB drive Fu Yanzhou handed over.

He felt very uncomfortable. He didn’t need Fu Yanzhou’s sacrifice, and he certainly didn’t need the kind of dedication Fu Yanzhou was pretending to make.

“Fu Yanzhou,” Li Weilan’s anger was itching to burst out. “Your unnecessary sacrifice can only move yourself at most. You think you did the right thing, but have you thought about the other people in the base? Don’t you have any attachment? What about Xi Bei? Have you considered how she would feel?”

Fu Yanzhou raised his head, taken aback.

His gaze flickered for a moment, but he ultimately shook his head. “There are many things you don’t know about. I…” His gaze struggled and wavered, but ultimately returned to a silent stillness. “I’m not as capable as him. I had the opportunity to stop him early on, but I didn’t. So, everything I’m doing now is the only compensation I can make.”

He looked silently at Li Weilan, still handsome but more mature and world-weary than when they first met. He sighed deeply and said, “You should take a look at the information inside first. I have to go.”

Li Weilan didn’t stop him.

In Fu Yanzhou’s gaze, he saw determination. He didn’t know what Fu Yanzhou had seen in the Institute or what he had experienced recently that led him to make such a terrifying decision.

But one thing Li Weilan was very clear about was that once someone had made such a decision, it wasn’t easy to persuade them otherwise with just a few words.

Under the dim light, he inserted the USB drive into the computer port.

The folder contained all research data and results, as well as some video recordings. The past month’s files were marked as urgent. Li Weilan opened one and immediately turned cold.

There was an entire folder dedicated to the spiritual water experiment. The Institute had mixed something they labeled as spiritual water with zombie cells and mutant beast cells, creating a large number of monsters with regenerative abilities, similar to the ones he had encountered before.

Not just one or two, but a group of them.

The Academy even fed many of these regenerative monsters to other low-level zombies. After feeding, they found that these monsters with regenerative abilities could devour their own kind for fusion and evolution. Li Weilan’s scalp tingled as he watched in front of the screen. He couldn’t imagine the great danger this posed; dealing with just one had already been extremely dangerous, so what was the Institute’s purpose in creating so many?

A flash of insight struck him. Unless the Institute had found a way to control these zombies.

Recalling the zombies that attacked the Noah Base before, Li Weilan furrowed his brow deeply. The overall commander of the zombies attacking the Noah Base was a psychic ability zombie. Could it be that the Institute had the same method of controlling all the zombies?

If that were the case…

As Li Weilan thought further, he suddenly felt a chill. If that were the case, Fu Yanzhou’s current situation was extremely dangerous. His perceived sacrifice might just be a trap set by the person.

Li Weilan raised his head abruptly. Shen Cheng wasn’t online. He had to find a way to contact Fu Yanzhou as soon as possible. If his guess was correct, Fu Yanzhou was under close surveillance.

Fu Yanzhou returned to the Institute.

As soon as he stepped through the Institute’s gates, he felt that something was off. As the gates slowly closed behind him, he saw dense shadows and flickering figures in the shadows ahead and around corners.

With a bang, the gate closed completely behind him, blocking out the daylight, leaving only the gray ceiling of the Institute visible.

Suddenly, a video played on the TV in the lobby. Fu Yanzhou was horrified to see his own face appear on the screen, repeatedly showing the moment he covertly transferred all the research data onto a USB drive and then tucked it into his pocket.

“Senior Brother…” he muttered absentmindedly.

Xia Jinshi had actually installed cameras in his room too.

The position of the camera could only be aimed towards the direction of the bathroom.

Xia Jinshi walked slowly out from the inside of the corridor.

He still wore a gentle smile on his face. Behind him were others from the Institute, including Fu Yanzhou’s former friends and colleagues.

Fu Yanzhou saw the deep disappointment in their eyes.

Every one of them only showed a profound expression of disagreement and incomprehension towards him.

No one thought his actions were right.

Fu Yanzhou was already poor at interpersonal communication, and now he felt a wave of restlessness rise in his heart. He opened his mouth, but couldn’t say anything.

“Don’t you want to defend yourself, Junior Brother?” Xia Jinshi surprisingly asked in a gentle tone. “You called me Senior Brother, and we’ve worked together for nearly ten years. In these ten years, our relationship has been solid. As long as you defend yourself, I’ll believe you.”

He paused and then said softly, “As long as you’re willing to turn back, it’s never too late. Your abilities are not inferior to mine. I value talent. It’s a pity to see your abilities wasted like this.”

Fu Yanzhou remained silent with a grim expression.

The others who were once close to him chimed in, urging him, “Fu Yanzhou, what you’ve done now is a betrayal to our Institute. Since Dr. Xia doesn’t want to pursue it, just apologize and it’ll be settled.”

“Yeah, we’re brothers after all. Even if you couldn’t get over the competition for the dean’s position back then, now that you’ve done this, Dr. Xia has already made up for it.”

The buzzing voices swirled around him. Fu Yanzhou’s face turned pale in their eyes. Because he once competed with Xia Jinshi for the position of dean, they thought he couldn’t let go of the grudge and thus decided to oppose him.

He looked at each one of them, people he used to be very familiar with in the Institute. Today, they seemed so unfamiliar.

Perhaps in their minds, there was truly no longer a distinction between good and evil, right and wrong.

Perhaps for them, no matter what methods Xia Jinshi used, as long as the ultimate goal was for the sake of humanity, they were not wrong.

But he felt they were wrong.

Fu Yanzhou opened his mouth, and for the first time, he heard his own voice sound so resolute. “I’m not jealous of Senior Brother, but I think we’re wrong.”

The buzzing accusations flooded Fu Yanzhou in that moment.

Amidst the sea of accusations and scorn, Fu Yanzhou heard Xia Jinshi’s sincere and regretful voice. “Yanzhou, think it over again.” Xia Jinshi turned to the others present, sighed, and said, “Yanzhou is one of us. If he made a mistake, we can handle it internally. But for those who have learned this information…”

“The information must not be leaked. Otherwise, we will all be branded with the label of anti-human crimes.”

“Reconsideration.”

“Reconsideration.”

Hands were raised one by one.

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