IRCDM Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Grilled Fish – Let me see which part is edible

The laboratory had collapsed for the most part, taking with it a large wave of zombies crowded outside the door, reduced to shattered fragments. The protective force field was squeezed between rubble and steel, covered in a thick layer of dust.

Liang Huan was pinned in Li Yao’s embrace. It took him a long time to recover from the terrifying dizziness. He gently patted Li Yao’s back and felt a wet, sticky substance.

“Li Yao?” Liang Huan reached for his neck.

“Not dead, cough,” Li Yao’s hoarse voice came. “Just… can’t move. Let me rest.”

The force field, only large enough for one person, was squeezing two grown men. It wasn’t comfortable. Liang Huan said, “The healing device.”

“Honey, give it a break,” Li Yao sighed weakly. “You should cherish things that save lives.”

“I’ll just buy another one if it breaks down,” Liang Huan frowned.

Li Yao wanted to laugh, but the pain in his back made him gasp. He put all his weight on Liang Huan, complaining with some resentment, “At the training ground, a two-person protective force field broke, three million… This single one has an even shorter duration and probably won’t last long. I’ll give you a discount and say it’s one million. That’s four million Dawn Coins in total. At this rate, by the time you get paid, you might even owe me ten million.”

Liang Huan asked, “Is this stuff so expensive?”

“Not really, I got these second-hand from the Black Market, after all, they’re for saving lives.” Li Yao said painfully, “I only bought two of these when I entered the mercenary base, and they’re both being used on you.”

“Don’t twist the facts, you used them too,” Liang Huan reached out and pushed away the head that was leaning on his shoulder. “Stay away from me.”

“I wouldn’t use them even once in a year and a half without you,” Li Yao directly put his head, covered in dust and blood, on his shoulder. “I saved your life, at least let me lean on you.”

Liang Huan frowned, “What kind of behavior is this?”

“What does ‘what kind of behavior is this’ mean?” Li Yao asked with a smile.

“You don’t know?” Liang Huan was puzzled.

Li Yao sighed, “I started working before I finished elementary school. I can’t even read all the characters.”

Liang Huan: “…”

“Hey, feeling better?” Li Yao poked his arm.

“Yeah,” Liang Huan closed his eyes. “Not so dizzy anymore.”

“That’s good, I’ll count to three, and we’ll run together.” Li Yao suddenly raised his head, and with an elbow strike, shattered the force field that was already full of cracks. He grabbed Liang Huan and started running for his life.

Liang Huan was stunned, “Aren’t you unable to move?”

“I was kidding!” Li Yao, carrying his gun, forced a path through the zombie horde. He pushed Liang Huan, “Quick! Run up there!”

“What about you?” Liang Huan looked back.

“So many runable crystal cores, they are all money!” Li Yao said excitedly, “Take advantage of that Heteromorph isn’t awake yet to collect a wave!”

Liang Huan decisively stopped caring about him and went upstairs.

Just as he managed to get to the first floor, another explosion sounded behind him. Before the ground stopped shaking, Li Yao, covered in dust and grime, climbed up with a bulging backpack. The passage behind him had completely collapsed, crushing many of the pursuing zombies.

Li Yao threw the backpack to Liang Huan and picked up the walkie-talkie, “First team, all members, a special stealth Heteromorph has been discovered on the fourth floor underground. Emergency evacuation, repeat, a special stealth Heteromorph has been discovered on the fourth floor underground. Radiation level unknown, now everyone evacuate immediately.”

Soon Pei Zhong and Mao Ming and others all withdrew. Judging from their equally stuffed backpacks, they all must have had a good harvest.

“Special stealth Heteromorph?” Mao Ming looked solemn. “There’s no such classification in the currently known data.”

“Probably a newly mutated one, who knows what those crazy scientists were researching.” Li Yao patted the dust and zombie tissue off his body. “Let’s go, hurry, I’m gonna puke.”

“Do we need to take a sample for reporting?” Pei Zhong asked.

“Yeah, the bonus for reporting a new Heteromorph sample is so generous.” Jiang Chuxia looked at Li Yao with bright eyes, “Brother Li.”

“Report my ass, that thing just let out one cry and almost killed me. I only got out after throwing a heavy nuclear landmine.” Li Yao started walking out, “Is money more important, or is life more important? Move it!”

“A heavy nuclear mine couldn’t kill it?” Mao Ming was a little surprised.

“I don’t think even a mecha could handle it.” Li Yao ran faster.

The group quickly followed.

Liang Huan fell behind the group. He turned around and looked at the dark door, his eyes meeting the old, dilapidated mecha model. Then, a subtle mental wave came from the ground, causing a sharp pain in his head, and he had to quicken his pace.

On the fourth floor underground, a transparent body slowly writhed. The dust in the air vibrated at a strange frequency. Silver-white hair fell to the ground, and a fair, translucent hand picked up a discarded dark blue pill, sniffing it lightly.

“Mental power enhancer… and a high mental power functional disorder?”

“It” opened its eyes, looked at the few humans fleeing in a panic on the ground, and chuckled, “This is really interesting.”

—

Coming out of the building, the sky outside was already dark.

“It’s not even four-thirty, why is it so dark?” Ai Li glanced at the time, feeling uneasy. “Is it going to snow?”

As soon as she said this, everyone else’s faces changed.

“The military’s weather forecast didn’t say there would be snow recently.” Zhou Suiyu’s face turned white. “I… I haven’t experienced a snowy day before.”

Liang Huan turned to Jiang Chuxia and asked, “Why are you so afraid of snow?”

“The weather in the outer districts is erratic. Heavy snow will paralyze the roads back to base. In extremely low temperatures, zombies move three times faster than usual, making them very difficult to deal with.” Jiang Chuxia tightened the protective suit around her. “And the human body simply can’t withstand this extremely low temperature environment. If we can’t get back in more than twelve hours, the chances of survival outside… are very slim.”

“It’s really weird. We encountered an ocean-type and a special stealth type on this trip. That’s already bad enough, but we’re even running into a blizzard, a type of weather that happens only a few times a year.” Zhou Suiyu shivered in the cold wind. “I don’t want to die at all, what should I do?”

Li Yao looked up at the dark sky for a while and said, “Get in the car, find a sheltered building to spend the night.”

Pei Zhong disagreed, “If we drive back now, we might be able to get back to base before the blizzard hits.”

“Not likely.” Li Yao pulled open the car door. “Get in the car!”

Everyone hesitated. Mao Ming patted Zhou Suiyu’s shoulder, “Get in, Captain Li has more experience than us. He survived alone in a blizzard for seventy-two hours and made it back to base, he won’t harm us.”

Seeing that snowflakes were already falling from the sky and the temperature dropped sharply in a matter of seconds, everyone hurried into the car.

Liang Huan watched the frost gradually forming on the car window. They were only wearing short sleeves when they arrived, and the weather here was too abnormal. No wonder such a large area of land was abandoned, and it was impossible to grow food. Speaking of which, he hadn’t seen much land in the base either. Many foods were synthetically produced using technology, and the taste was vastly different from the real thing.

Li Yao was experienced and quickly found a small underground garage on the edge of the city as shelter. After everyone had cleared out the zombies inside, Pei Zhong and Li Yao worked together to close the door.

Liang Huan helped Jiang Chuxia and Zhou Suiyu set up a cold-proof tent. The tent was large, almost completely covering the off-road vehicle, leaving a narrow passage wide enough for two people in the middle. Ai Li and Mao Ming were collecting abandoned fuel bottles in the garage, and Li Yao and Pei Zhong were piling up zombie corpses and skillfully digging out crystal cores.

The zombie corpses quickly piled up into a small hill. The car was against the wall, its wheels tied down with ropes and nailed to the ground. The front of the car was piled with corpses in a semi-circular shape, and the space between the corpse pile and the transparent windproof tent was filled with dye bottles. By the time they finished doing all this, the temperature had dropped to a level they couldn’t bear. Li Yao told them to go back to the car, lit a cigarette, and squatted in front of the car, smoking slowly.

The car compartment wasn’t small. With the seats laid flat, they could barely make two beds. Jiang Chuxia and Ai Li huddled together on the same bed wrapped in thermal blankets, counting supplies. Pei Zhong sat on the cushion and took out a small stove. Zhou Suiyu lay on the bed connecting a computer to the bottom of the car. Mao Ming and Liang Huan sat by the bed helping Pei Zhong sort out the various colored crystal cores.

Pei Zhong put the crystal cores into the stove to melt them. Although it was a mechanical hand, his movements were methodical, and the temperature in the car quickly rose.

“The external temperature is minus eighty-two degrees, and it’s still decreasing. The predicted minimum temperature will reach around minus one hundred and twenty degrees.” Zhou Suiyu stared at the data on the computer. “The temperature in our car is now minus fifty-one degrees. Brother Pei, burning crystal cores works.”

“It’s just too wasteful.” Ai Li said with heartache, “We worked so hard to collect so many.”

“It’s more important to save our lives first.” Mao Ming sighed.

Liang Huan wiped away the ice fog and looked out the car window, “Why isn’t Li Yao coming in?”

Even with a protective suit, it would be difficult for anyone to withstand this temperature.

“I’ll go call Brother Li!” Jiang Chuxia sniffed.

“No need, he’s waiting for the Heteromorphs.” Mao Ming rubbed his face, which was about to freeze. “Heat will attract low-level Heteromorphs. Then, we can light the corpses and keep them outside. Those things don’t have much brainpower and will stay outside the corpses, helping us block the wind and snow.”

Sure enough, as soon as he finished speaking, the unique roar of low-level Heteromorphs came from outside.

Li Yao had just finished his cigarette and stood up.

Looking out from the car window, his back was tall and slender. He turned his head, casually tossed the nearly burnt cigarette butt behind him, and the corpse pile doused in fuel ignited with a whoosh. The ignited Heteromorphs struggled and screamed, forming bizarre black silhouettes behind him. The blue and white flames reflected on his protective suit, making him look dashing and handsome.

The car door was suddenly pulled open, and Li Yao quickly climbed in, snatched the blanket from Jiang Chuxia, wrapped himself into a ball, and shivered as he squatted in front of Pei Zhong’s small stove, sniffing, “Damn… damn… damn… freezing me to death, achoo!”

Mao Ming’s gaze was somewhat puzzled, “Captain Li, you could have lit the fire a few minutes earlier.”

Li Yao sneezed again, squeezed Pei Zhong away, wishing he could hug the stove. “It’s cooler this way.”

Jiang Chuxia and Zhou Suiyu nodded vigorously, looking at Li Yao with admiration. Zhou Suiyu exclaimed, “It’s so cool!”

Li Yao took a long time to feel his body temperature, then Liang Huan saw him toss the blanket away dashingly and squeeze towards him.

“What are you thinking about?” Li Yao deliberately put his icy claws on the back of his hand.

Unexpectedly, Liang Huan didn’t dodge, but stared out the car window and asked, “Are your level one Heteromorphs considered high-level or low-level?”

Li Yao laughed, “Nonsense, of course they’re high-level. Level one is second only to special-level Heteromorphs, like that big octopus we encountered when we came out–”

He suddenly felt something was wrong, and slowly turned his head following Liang Huan’s line of sight. He saw the octopus Heteromorph, whose brain had been blasted in half by him, slowly flattening the corpse pile and crawling towards them, its thick tentacles slamming down on the car.

Li Yao picked up the heavy cannon with lightning speed and exchanged fire with the octopus. The glass of the entire car cracked, and cold wind poured in. Everyone scrambled up in various postures, preparing to fight.

Driving away was clearly unrealistic. Escaping in this weather was a death sentence. The only way was to kill this thing. At this point, they were no longer stingy. Ai Li’s light sniper rifle targeted the octopus’s tentacles with a burst of fire. Li Yao reloaded his gun with pain in his heart. Mao Ming went around to the back of the corpse pile to assist with a heavy cannon. Zhou Suiyu quickly calculated its attack landing points, squealing wildly in the earpiece, and Jiang Chuxia blocked most of the Heteromorph’s mental attacks.

Liang Huan stirred up trouble, taking advantage of everyone’s fighting. This Heteromorph had almost filled the entire garage, and there were blind spots everywhere. He quietly went around to the back of the Heteromorph and saw its exposed brain.

Although half of it had been blasted away by Li Yao, the brain core was still there. He had specifically studied the brain structure of Heteromorphs before setting off. The medulla should be in the air sac at the bottom of the brain core. Although this purplish-pink brain core was still beating, looking extremely disgusting, he thought about saving his life, he took a deep breath, lightly dodged the Heteromorph’s tentacles, and stopped like a ghost behind its brain, tentatively reaching his hand in.

The fighting octopus paused strangely for a moment, then began to struggle violently. Liang Huan touched something inside the braincase that resembled an air sac. Just as he was about to take it off, the exposed brain core suddenly wriggled a few times and turned into a mouth full of sharp teeth, opening its mouth and swallowing him whole.

A terrifying stench came, and Liang Huan immediately held his breath, grabbed the air sac, and rolled around in the surrounding dark, sticky flesh. But he soon realized that inside the Heteromorph, the opponent’s mental attacks seemed to be weakened. He first stuffed the air sac into his pocket, groped for the heavy nuclear mine that he had stolen from Li Yao’s backpack, learned Li Yao’s action to detonate, and activated the protective force field on his body at the moment of the explosion.

Soft, bloody pieces of flesh splashed everywhere. The stench after the Heteromorph’s brain exploded permeated everywhere. The deep purple tentacles struggled and writhed on the ground, gradually becoming stiff. The shattered tissues piled up into a small mountain, slowly burning in the garage, making a sizzling sound and a strange… aroma.

Li Yao and Pei Zhong and the others climbed out of the corpse pile, looking at each other.

Although they had fought countless enemies, this was the first time they had seen a high-level Heteromorph inexplicably self-destructing in a close-range battle without any advantage. Li Yao had even prepared for someone to sacrifice themselves.

As a result, this level one Heteromorph self-destructed.

“D-died?” Jiang Chuxia knelt on the ground, looking down at her bloody hands. The aftereffects of overdrawing her mental power kicked in, and she started vomiting violently.

Ai Li carried her gun over to help her. Zhou Suiyu sat blankly in the car hugging the computer. Mao Ming looked incredulously at the scene in front of him. Pei Zhong couldn’t care about anything else and sat down on the ground panting.

Li Yao kicked the burning octopus leg on the ground, “Don’t tell me, it smells pretty good when it’s grilled.”

“Smelly and fragrant… blech!” Jiang Chuxia smelled it and started vomiting again.

The high temperature of the Heteromorph’s self-explosion and the burning corpses made the entire garage warmer. Li Yao breathed a sigh of relief and walked around with his gun, shooting a few more times at the tentacles. “With this treasure, we’ll have no problem surviving the blizzard.”

Mao Ming was looking around. Li Yao laughed, “Uncle Mao, what are you looking at? I guarantee there are no more Heteromorphs this time. Let me see which part is edible.”

Zhou Suiyu was also looking around. Seeing that Li Yao was still carrying his gun, leisurely wandering around, he couldn’t help but ask, “Boss, where’s Liang Huan?”

Li Yao’s smile slowly froze on his face.

Damn it, where’s Liang Huan?!