IABI – Chapter 96 The Truth of the Jungle (9)

Jing Xiubai understood Chi Xin’s meaning and cautiously lay still where he was.

With one hand gripping the ground at the elevator entrance, Chi Xin listened carefully to the faint, intermittent footsteps. After confirming they were heading in their direction, she raised a compact handgun with her free hand and signaled Jing Xiubai with her eyes.

The two stayed silent for a moment. Chi Xin mouthed a countdown: three, two, one.

They moved at the same time!

Bracing herself with one hand, Chi Xin flipped up onto the floor. At the same time, Jing Xiubai had already erected a layer of ice shield in front of her. Her gaze sharpened as she swiftly aimed in the direction the sound was coming from.

A tall, slender figure stood at the corner some distance away, facing Chi Xin.

When she saw clearly who it was, Chi Xin’s brow twitched.

Her gun remained raised as she coldly watched the other party approach, caution evident in her expression.

The woman’s face gradually emerged into the light—pale skin and green eyes creating a striking visual contrast.

“Dr. Sero.”

With a click, Chi Xin chambered a round.

“If you take one more step forward, I can’t guarantee this gun won’t lose its eyesight.”

Dr. Sero stopped. Weariness and inner conflict showed on her face. She looked at Chi Xin in silence—neither calling out nor making any other move.

What kind of act was this?

Sensing the change in the situation, Jing Xiubai flipped up as well. He looked at the unarmed female doctor ahead and raised his brows in surprise—mirroring Chi Xin’s expression from moments before.

“Dr. Sero… is that right?” Jing Xiubai said. “You don’t look like you want to hand us over to your father, do you?”

As he spoke, chaotic footsteps echoed faintly through the building—the furious Dr. Hughes, leading people to search for the two of them.

He had just boasted to his subordinates that nothing could go wrong, only to be slapped in the face immediately. No matter how one looked at it, he wasn’t about to let them go.

“You can keep cosplaying a wooden stake here if you like—we’re not staying. Bye.” The handgun spun into a flourish in Chi Xin’s hand before she casually holstered it. She grabbed Jing Xiubai and walked right past Dr. Sero.

As they passed, Jing Xiubai cast a thoughtful glance at Sero’s face.

Chi Xin noticed and shot him a sideways look. “What, never seen a pretty female doctor before?”

Jing Xiubai chuckled softly and explained gently, “Look at her expression. She seems like she wants to tell us something, but is struggling with something and can’t bring herself to say it.”

Hearing that, Chi Xin glanced back as well.

Sure enough, the tall doctor made no move to stop them. She simply turned and watched them leave in silence—really did look like she was cosplaying a wooden post.

Chi Xin took one look and turned back.

Just as they were about to round the corner, Sero’s voice came from behind them.

“Are you looking for the zombie virus serum and vaccine?”

Chi Xin and Jing Xiubai stopped at the same time.

Damn it—this was bait no one could refuse. They exchanged a look, both seeing the helplessness in each other’s eyes.

Chi Xin turned around. “We are looking for those two things. What, something your father says hasn’t been developed yet—you can produce it?”

Jing Xiubai didn’t know exactly what had been said between Chi Xin and Dr. Hughes. Hearing this suddenly, a flicker of shock and gravity flashed through his eyes.

“The vaccine really hasn’t been developed yet. We’re missing some essential experimental materials.” The footsteps below were getting closer. Anxiety crept into Sero’s brows as she strode toward them, speaking rapidly. “But the serum has existed for a long time. If you want it, come with me.”

Chi Xin looked at her skeptically.

Sero pressed her lips together. “We’re running out of time. My father and the others will be here soon. I know you’re strong, but is returning empty-handed really what you want?”

Chi Xin raised an eyebrow and looked at Jing Xiubai. He gave her a slight nod.

She turned back. “Compared to a doctor, you’re more like a negotiation expert. Fine, you can lead the way—but I advise you not to make any rash moves. Otherwise, forget anything else—you’ll be right beside us.”

Taking you out would be easy.

Chi Xin left that half unsaid, but Sero was clearly smart enough to understand. She showed no reaction, only nodded lightly. “Follow me.”

With no time to lose, the two followed her immediately.

Sero didn’t lead them anywhere remote. Instead, after turning a few corners on the third floor, she opened a door.

Chi Xin slipped inside and instantly raised her gun, sweeping her aim around.

Then she realized there were only desks and a long row of surveillance computers—no one else.

On the monitors, every floor and corridor was clearly visible. Chi Xin saw Han Zimo leading people toward the fourth and fifth floors, while Dr. Hughes emerged from the stairwell on the third floor.

No wonder Sero knew they were hanging at the elevator entrance.

If Sero hadn’t brought them here, they would’ve run straight into Dr. Hughes the moment they stepped out.

“My father will definitely come check the surveillance. You should hide first.”

Sero led them behind the monitor wall. She pressed a small panel on the wall, entered a password, and passed an iris scan. What looked like a solid wall slowly opened into a hidden door.

Seeing them hesitate, Sero curved her lips into a self-mocking smile. “What, afraid I’ll lock you in and catch you like turtles in a jar?”

“Nice grasp of C-country idioms—too bad you missed the essence.”

Chi Xin went in first, then turned back and made a goofy face at Sero outside.

“Who’s the turtle isn’t certain yet.”

She muttered the last line softly.

Jing Xiubai opened his mouth as if to speak, but when he saw Chi Xin’s puffed cheeks, he swallowed his words.

There was a subtle, hidden joy in his expression—yet he didn’t want to burden Chi Xin with emotions too intense. He could see her avoidance, and he respected her choice.

He only swept his gaze around them. “No matter what she’s planning to do, we’re going to be busy for a while.”

When Chi Xin looked over, she realized this wasn’t a lounge or rest area like she’d imagined, but an archive room storing all kinds of files.

Each filing cabinet was categorized by year, neatly arranged, giving the place a distinctly library-like feel.

“Such a confidential place, and she just lets us in so easily?” The suspicion Chi Xin had just dispelled resurfaced. “She’s not really planning to trap us like fish in a barrel, is she?”

“That’s unlikely.” Jing Xiubai had already gone over to one of the cabinets to examine it. “If Dr. Hughes wanted to capture us, he would definitely check the surveillance room first. When he finds we’re no longer in the building, it’s far more likely he’ll suspect we fled into the forest.”

Chi Xin immediately showed a worried expression. “If that’s the case, wouldn’t Yu Xiang and the others be in even more danger?”

Jing Xiubai sighed softly. “There are many of them, so they’re not completely without the ability to fight back. Hopefully they can hold on for a while. Once we figure out what Sero wants to do, we’ll go meet up with them.”

Chi Xin hummed in acknowledgment. She handed Jing Xiubai the recording she’d made earlier for Dr. Hughes, then pressed down the all-channel line on her earpiece.

“Yu Xiang, Cong Yun, where are you?”

A reply came almost instantly: “Chi Xin! That’s great—are you guys okay?”

Chi Xin tugged at the corner of her mouth. “If you hadn’t run faster than rabbits just now, that concern would’ve sounded a lot more sincere.”

“Haha… hahaha.” Yu Xiang laughed awkwardly a couple of times. “Wasn’t that because I weighed the strength of both sides and realized the two of you are way tougher than our whole team combined? So I quickly changed strategy—mainly to avoid holding you back…”

“Enough already.” Jiang Congyun cut off his flowery nonsense impatiently. “Xin-xin, are you two together right now?”

Chi Xin glanced at Jing Xiubai’s focused back. “Mm.”

“We split into two groups,” Yu Xiang said. “The two of us are with A Hu, and Captain Zheng and his people went the other way. Hey, Captain Zheng, if you can hear us, say something?”

“I’m here.” Zheng Junzhi’s voice came through, slightly out of breath. “They released the zombies. Yu Xiang, be careful.”

“As long as you’re okay.” Chi Xin said. “Hold on for a bit. Jing Xiubai and I will come over once we’ve finished here.”

“No rush. You’re the hope of the entire village right now—I really don’t want this trip to end up just—ah!”

Yu Xiang’s sentence was cut short as a gunshot suddenly rang out.

“…just to see how diverse zombie species can be. Then we’d really have come for nothing!”

The line was quickly cut off, as if a small-scale battle had broken out.

Chi Xin felt a chill run through her heart, completely forgetting the faint unease she’d felt earlier.

Jing Xiubai had also finished watching the recording. His eyes were lowered, his thoughts unreadable. His figure, half-hidden in the darkness, looked somewhat desolate.

“Did you find anything?” Chi Xin asked as she took the recorder back.

“It just explains some of my earlier doubts,” Jing Xiubai said. “At this point, who the true culprit is doesn’t really matter anymore. Whether it’s Dr. Hughes or Raphael, their essence is the same.”

Chi Xin nodded silently. Sensing Jing Xiubai’s low mood, she didn’t say more. Together, they turned their attention to the massive rows of cabinets and seriously began searching through the files.

She didn’t know what they might find—only that it was better than standing around doing nothing.

Suddenly, she noticed the sounds from Jing Xiubai’s side stop.

After hesitating for a few seconds, Chi Xin walked over. She saw him standing in front of a cabinet dated about ten years ago. Inside was a row of files noticeably thicker than the others.

On the spine were the words: [Jing Xiubai · Perfect Body].

“Do you want to take it out and look?” Chi Xin asked softly.

“No need. Let’s look for something more useful,” Jing Xiubai said calmly. “I know my own physical data better than they do.”

Chi Xin bit her lip and didn’t comment further, quietly moving aside.

Her gaze swept across a long list of various names. The sheer number was alarming. Even if this laboratory wasn’t the direct cause of the apocalypse, the crimes committed here over the years were still monstrous.

As she kept looking, a spark of insight flashed through Chi Xin’s mind.

She suddenly lifted her head. Before Sero could return, she hurried toward cabinets from even earlier years.

She remembered that Lou Chen should be around nineteen or twenty this year. From all the information they had, he must have been sent to the laboratory from a very young age. Though she didn’t know what later happened between him and Raphael, there should be initial records of him in this lab!

Chi Xin rushed straight to the files from twenty years ago—and sure enough, she found Lou Chen’s name.

Dr. Hughes’s designation was unmistakable at a glance: Mother Body.

“Jing Xiubai!” Chi Xin pulled out a file nearly half a meter thick and slammed it onto the table.

Jing Xiubai hurried over, his eyes sweeping across the name on the side. “This label gives me a very bad feeling.”

Chi Xin had already opened the first volume. Jing Xiubai leaned in, and the two of them bent their heads together to read.

The first page contained Lou Chen’s intake data when he entered the laboratory. He was still an infant then, staring blankly at the camera with wide, innocent eyes, leaving behind this photograph.

“This is utterly inhuman.” Even though she’d long known it, Chi Xin couldn’t help cursing aloud. “He was so small, and they already stripped him of the right to be human.”

Jing Xiubai’s expression turned icy. “They never were human to begin with.”

What followed were complicated experimental records. Jing Xiubai skimmed through them at high speed. Chi Xin’s eyes swam just watching, but she didn’t interrupt him, quietly waiting as he quickly finished one volume.

“I understand now.” Jing Xiubai turned to Chi Xin. “The reason they chose Lou Chen is because from the moment he was born, he killed his mother with his powerful mental force. His father, out of fear, sent him to the laboratory.”

“From birth?” Chi Xin froze, her expression changing instantly. “That means Lou Chen is also a natural-born esper!”

“Yes.” Jing Xiubai’s expression was grave as he flipped open a second volume. “The previous one recorded the detailed measurements the laboratory conducted when he first arrived. It was from that point on that they discovered Lou Chen’s genes were special. They believed the key to human evolution lay within them.”

An unbelievable thought surfaced. In a voice barely above a whisper, Chi Xin said, “So the so-called ability-enhancing serum… was developed from Lou Chen?”

Jing Xiubai did not answer. The sound of the hidden door opening came again. Both of them looked up at the same time and saw Sero enter, quickly shutting the door behind her.

Sero glanced at the opened cabinet door. Her face showed no particular emotion—perhaps when she decided to hide them here, she had already expected that these two would never stay put.

It was only when she saw whose files they were studying that a trace of surprise appeared on her face.

“You found the right place,” she said.

“Compared to flipping through these thick volumes, I think asking you directly is more efficient.” Chi Xin looked into her green eyes. “What exactly is going on with this apocalypse? What role does Lou Chen play in all this? Your father keeps accusing Raphael of violating the ethical bottom line of biology, yet he himself is doing things just as inhumane. What exactly is your goal?”

Listening to the string of questions, Sero pulled out a chair beside the table and sat down. “It seems you didn’t get here by luck alone. But as for what happened in between—you know nothing about it.”

“It wasn’t luck,” Jing Xiubai said, a look hovering between a cold smile and mockery on his face. “You were just too arrogant. You never thought of moving after all these years.”

Hearing this, Sero raised her head and studied him carefully.

“If I hadn’t personally participated in the creation of your clone, I would hardly recognize you,” she said. “Judging from your combat performance, your ability level has grown far beyond what it used to be. It seems our guess was correct.”

“Guess,” Chi Xin repeated softly.

“When rejection reactions are reduced to a very low level, the ability serum does indeed alter human genes, and it evolves on its own.” Sero lifted her eyes to Chi Xin. “After all this time in the apocalypse, you must have encountered people who used imperfect ability serums, right? What kinds of effects did they have?”

Chi Xin thought of Boss Lin, whose life force had been drained by his ability, and fell silent.

“Facts have proven that knockoffs are still knockoffs,” Sero said. “Raphael never would have imagined that the data he took back then had been deliberately altered by my father and me. That’s why all he could produce were inferior products to pass off as the real thing.”

“There’s no need to gild yourself,” Jing Xiubai said expressionlessly. “Even with your so-called perfect serum, your successful cases are pitifully few.”

A trace of bitterness finally appeared on Sero’s face. “If it weren’t for Raphael… perhaps the world would already have changed completely.”

“That’s too big a blame for Raphael alone to bear,” Chi Xin said, slamming Lou Chen’s dossier heavily onto the table in front of Sero. “This is just the tip of the iceberg of your crimes. Do you really think that without Raphael, you could have made the world a better place?”

Sero’s pupils contracted as she stared at the thick stack of files.

“After all, since Lou Chen—the mother body—has been taken by Raphael for so long, we can only make reasonable inferences based on the data he left behind.”

Chi Xin paused, her gaze complicated. “You call him Lou Chen.”

Sero’s eyes flickered. She parted her lips, her voice dropping. “Hearing these words from me now, you might find them hypocritical and disgusting. But in my heart, they truly are all people—not experimental subjects with labels stuck on them.”

Coming from the daughter of Dr. Hughes, those words did sound false, like some packaged piece of propaganda. Yet her expression was so full of guilt and pain that even the most precise lie detector would probably fail to find any deception.

“You call Lou Chen the mother body, and the ability serum is extracted from his genes. And from what you’re saying, this is also the key point of conflict between you and Raphael,” Jing Xiubai said slowly. “Lou Chen’s ability to command zombies probably isn’t just because his power is psychic, right? What exactly is his relationship with the zombie virus?”

Sero’s expression stiffened for a moment. She let out a long breath. “This is something my father and I have struggled toward our entire lives. Explaining it to others all of a sudden… really isn’t easy.”

“But I imagine you already have your suspicions,” she continued. “Whether it’s the so-called zombie virus or the ability serum, both are accidents born from Lou Chen’s genes being far too powerful—something neither my father nor Raphael, given the current level of science, could possibly control.”

“An accident?” Chi Xin laughed in anger. “The apocalypse broke out, the world plunged into chaos—do you have any idea how many people died out there? And you call all of this an accident?”

Dr. Sero paused. “I’m sorry, that was poor wording. But it’s true that we never anticipated the outbreak of the apocalypse. By the time we realized how serious the problem was and began reverse-engineering ways to restrain Lou Chen’s genes—that is, developing the so-called zombie vaccine—it was already too late.”

Chi Xin’s shoulders trembled slightly.

She was different from the people born into this world. Because of this so-called “accident,” a mission-generated system had come into existence—and that was precisely why she had been forced into this world.

If not for this… might she never have had to come here at all?

A slightly cool yet firm hand rested on Chi Xin’s shoulder.

“Don’t be afraid,” Jing Xiubai said softly. His refined, gentle voice reached her ear.

Chi Xin, who was used to being someone others relied on, suddenly allowed herself a moment of reckless weakness.

Though that weakness lasted only a second. When she raised her head again, she was once more the indomitable war god of the apocalypse.

“So now it’s confirmed that Lou Chen is crucial, right?” Chi Xin said. “You plan to capture him and then, just like before with the ability serum, develop a vaccine for the zombie virus?”

Hearing the sharp edge in Chi Xin’s tone, Sero lowered her head and nodded.

Chi Xin took a deep breath. “I have one more question.”

“Go ahead.”

“Dr. Hughes keeps claiming that Raphael violated biological ethics. But wasn’t it him who first started developing the ability serum? What gives him the right to stand on the moral high ground and turn around to condemn Raphael?”

“I knew you’d ask that,” Sero sighed. “My father… he has his own bottom line. Even if, to most people, that bottom line seems very strange.”

“I can tell,” Chi Xin said with undisguised sarcasm.

Sero awkwardly brushed the short hair by her cheek. “His goal was to develop a drug that could truly evolve humanity. Before that, all resources could be obtained, and anyone could be sacrificed. If the research results showed that he himself carried such a gene, he would offer himself to science without hesitation. That’s who he is.” She pressed her lips together. “His greatest disagreement with Raphael was that Raphael believed the ability serum was already good enough to be put into use, while my father was not satisfied. So he hid the true formula. He just didn’t expect Raphael’s obsession to go that far.”

“And you?” Chi Xin asked.

She braced herself on the armrests of Sero’s chair, forcefully lifting her chin and making her meet her gaze.

“You disobeyed your father’s orders and secretly hid us. Why? Do you think we have a way to contact Lou Chen and lure him into walking into the trap himself?”

Forced to meet Chi Xin’s clear, piercing black eyes, Sero’s green eyes seemed to be struck by some kind of light. Her whole body shuddered.

“I… I just—”

Unable to bear Chi Xin’s gaze, she collapsed, covering her face with both hands.

“…I just don’t want to go on like this anymore.”

“Why?”

“He’s no longer my father.”

Sero lowered her hands, her face fragile.

“When experimental subjects were scarce, he even considered injecting me with the virus,” she said, trembling slightly. “If I weren’t still useful, if he weren’t growing old and most of the experimental data didn’t pass through my hands, I would already be no different from those experimental subjects wandering outside.”

Chi Xin said, “I thought I’d already underestimated how low his bottom line was.”

“He’s already done it.” A tear fell from Sero’s eye. “My husband, Dr. Albert Duke, was forcibly injected with the serum by him, turning him into a half-werewolf. He probably died in the explosion just now.”

Chi Xin’s expression went blank for a moment. “What?”