The Trembling World

“Here, I'll give you a piece of biscuit.” Wang DeCheng shoved his hand through the bars.

The white-coat scientist carefully moved over. He quickly reached out to grab the biscuit and shoved it in his mouth. In two bites, he swallowed it. It appeared the scientist had been starving for awhile.

After eating the biscuit, the white-coat scientist ambled over to grab the bottle of water. Wang DeCheng placed the bottle by his mouth and poured some water into his mouth before pulling it back.

“If you speak, there will be more water and biscuit.” Wang DeCheng explained.

“Wait, what was your question?” The scientist asked with a blank look on his face.

“Elder Liu was asking about what medicine you are researching here!” Zhang ShengLi started getting angry as he banged the fire axe onto the cell.

“In the early stages, it was our sponsor. At that point, we don't know where he came from. He gave us some cell structure that we used on the body of our animals. This caused our animals to undergo a second stage of evolution.” The scientist explained.

“This particular set of cellular structure with nanobots injected into the cell could potentially create a mutation. This mutation restores normal function of the cell from a diseased and defective state. The cell will proliferate and make the organism stronger than it was before. There were some animals that displayed signs of intelligence. After a steady progress of positive results, the sponsor pressured us toward the next stage of development, which was human experimentation…”

“In the beginning of these human experiments, all results were failures. When the medicine was injected into the animals, it had positive results, but when it was used on humans, there were negative reactions. There were some suicidal humans who participated in the trial just to die.”

“For those participants, you believed that all of those who joined the trials were willing?” Zhang ShengLi interrupted.

“Yes, they were all willing participants. They were people that had incurable diseases or had no money to treat the disease. There was a contract signed between us. So aside from our contracted participants, we didn't use the medicine on innocent citizens. On the way down, you have probably seen those zombies in the prison cells. They are all the living corpses of the deceased participants with diseases.” The white-coat scientist explained to Zhang ShengLi.

“Okay, you can continue.” Zhang ShengLi said.

The white-coat scientist walked over to Wang DeCheng for his reward of another piece of biscuit and a swig of water, continuing shortly after.

“As we continued the research, all leads were dead ends. Until on a certain day. I can't remember how many days it’s been since, but on that day, we were pulling an all-nighter on researching something important. The security guard and our colleagues seemed to have been infected with a virus that made them sick all of a sudden.”

“A few of the corpses that survived became reanimated and started biting and clawing everyone else. The underground laboratory doesn't have any location that is particularly safe. My colleague and I hid down here. He locked me in here and then ran out in an attempt to save others. I was saved, but it seems like my colleague wasn't so lucky, since he never returned. What happened above here, I don't know too much about it.” The white-coat scientist concluded.

“You are lying!” Zhang ShengLi used the axe to hammer onto the bars of the prison cell, glaring profusely at him.

“The world that I used to know is gone. So what use does it serve me to lie? I don't even want to continue living anymore.” The white-coat scientist shook his head while explaining to Zhang ShengLi.

“Look at the food by the wall. You haven't been eating or drinking. How are you still alive?” Zhang ShengLi continued to question the scientist.

“All these food have been eaten two days ago. I am burning my fat, so if you don't give me food or water, I don't think I will live for long.” The white-coat scientist said.

“So according to what you have said. Your cell’s key is in the hands of your colleague?” Liu Gan asked.

“Yes.” The white-coat scientist nodded.

“If I am able to free you, what can you do to benefit me?” Liu Gan interrupted. Ever since he entered the laboratory, there had been nothing useful for him to find. So Liu Gan's logic was that maybe the scientist knew something that he didn't.

“What do I have to give to repay you? I never thought about leaving here. Even if we left from this location, what is the point? The whole world is over.” The white-coat scientist claimed with a depressed expression as he sat on the floor.

“So you said you want cigarettes?” Liu Gan asked the white-coat scientist. Then Liu Gan pulled out a box of cigarettes from his bag and extracted a cigarette. As Liu Gan lit up the cigarette, he took a puff and blew the smoke into the face of the white-coat scientist.

Even though Liu Gan himself is not a smoker, he knew that the cigarette addicts all suffer painfully when they hadn’t had a smoke for awhile. In the apocalyptic world, stuff like cigarettes were definitely a rare commodity.

“Of course I want that. But I really don't have anything to exchange with you.” The scientist exclaimed as he watch the cigarette within Liu Gan’s finger burn away. The white-coat scientist was definitely a cigarette addict. If he had to choose between a beautiful female or a pack of cigarette, he would choose the cigarettes.

With his current condition, he could only last five minutes with the female company. But with the cigarette, he could enjoy it throughout the whole day.

“You said you were investigating the effects of these medicines. If I guess correctly, your medicine when injected into the trial participants granted them the ability to cast others into hallucinations?” Liu Gan asked the scientist.

After hearing what Liu Gan had said, the white-coat scientist changed his expression, but he quickly ducked and faked a sigh to hide his expression.

“Our experiment did generate a certain hallucination ability, but these medicines had severe side effects. Every participant injected with the medicine died. So I can't confirm if the medicine still exists, but if you allow me, I can try and help search it for you.” The white-coat scientist lifted his head and replied to Liu Gan.

“What was your companion wearing? How did he look like? You said the key is on his body?” Liu Gan asked again.

“He is muscularly built. Outside is his white coat, but he wears a suit on the inside. If he isn't wearing the white coat, the keys should be hanging on his waist.” The scientist replied.

“Wang DeCheng, you arrange the others to search around. See if you can find the described person and look for the key.” Liu Gan ordered Wang DeCheng.

“Okay.” Wang DeCheng nodded and walked toward the way they came from to go upstairs.

As Wang DeCheng walked up stairs, Liu Gan used his bare hands to pull on the bars of the prison cell. As he used his maximum strength to pull bars apart, he could feel how the prison cell was really sturdy and thick. Taking into account that Liu Gan had reached level 6, his strength was incomparable to before, so it might be possible for him to bend the bars of the prison cell.