IRCDM Chapter 44

Chapter 44: Raid – Don’t Touch Dirty Things

Eastern Third District, Mercenary Base Residential Building.

“The A-round competition of the Mecha Grand Prix is coming to an end. Congratulations to our 130 advancing players! Next, after a short break, they will continue to participate in the S-round competition. This time, we have a total of 61 S-grade players participating. Can our A-grade players continue to create brilliance? What surprises will our S-grade players bring?

Welcome to continue to follow the East District Mecha Grand Prix! This program is jointly sponsored and broadcast by Dawn Mecha Rental, Big Panda Camera, Small Panda Takeout, and the Mercenary Base! Thank you to the Mecha Department of the Central District United Military University for their strong support of this program…”

The Mecha Grand Prix in the light screen was noisy. Uncle Yang leaned out of the window and saw two mercenaries carrying radiation-proof body bags pass by. He couldn’t help but sigh, “How many is this now?”

The care robot next to him replied, “Thirty-one.”

“More and more people are dying in the building these months. What’s going on this year?” Uncle Yang shook his head and closed the window, completely isolating the excited voice of the host.

Jiang Chuxia leaned against the car door, smoking. Seeing someone being carried out, she threw the half-smoked cigarette to the garbage robot next to her.

Zhang Cun and another person put the body bag in the car, their eyes red. “Sister Jiang, the doctor said that Qi Qiang died of an explosive high-mental power functional disorder caused by radiation exposure. He was in a state of severe disorder before his death, and his body is highly radioactive… It’s all my fault. If it weren’t for saving me, he wouldn’t have been injured in the outer zone.”

“Since you’re in the mercenary business, injuries are inevitable.” Jiang Chuxia glanced at the body bag. “Qi Qiang’s mental power has been on the verge of functional disorder since his amputation. You’ll get used to it.”

“It’s all my fault!” Zhang Cun slapped himself in the face. “I should have stopped him from going to the training ground yesterday!”

Jiang Chuxia patted him on the head. “No need for that. You and Qi Qiang don’t get along. He wouldn’t have listened even if you tried to persuade him. Let’s go, send him to the processing plant.”

Zhang Cun nodded.

Jiang Chuxia took her men into the car, looked up at the radiation protection cover of the mercenary base training ground, and retracted her gaze after a long time.

——

Black Market, Eastern Third District, lower eighth level garbage dump.

The entrance to the laboratory is hidden deep beneath the radiation waste pile in the garbage dump. These radiation wastes are extremely harmful to human mental power, so they are handled by robots. Even many vagrants who make a living by scavenging garbage do not set foot here, making it extremely hidden.

Even Li Yao cautiously put on a protective suit to enter the garbage dump, but Zhou Suiyu did not take any radiation protection measures. The injuries on his body had been healed by the treatment instrument, but his face was still pale.

“Entering the laboratory requires pupil scanning, and there are robots monitoring in real-time. Each room requires a specific chip password to enter… Even if I can take you in, you will be discovered quickly.” He looked at Li Yao with pleading eyes. “Brother Li, I know you won’t believe me even if I say it, but there’s really no benefit to going in. The information inside is top secret. I’ve only been helping with some peripheral affairs for three years here, and I can’t access the internal data at all. If you trust me—”

Li Yao patted him on the shoulder, interrupting him. “Open the door.”

The cold muzzle of the gun pressed against his temple. Zhou Suiyu had no choice but to scan his pupils. The hidden entrance to the underground laboratory slowly opened, revealing a wide passage leading further down.

Liang Huan handed two chips to Li Yao and Su Murong respectively, saying, “This thing can shield electromagnetic waves and monitoring devices. Wear it.”

Li Yao took it and studied it for a moment, a little surprised. “Where did you get this thing?”

“This is the Black Market.” Liang Huan pasted the chip on his wrist, not even looking up. “What do you think?”

Then he was slapped hard on the waist.

By the time Liang Huan looked up, Li Yao had already taken Zhou Suiyu forward. He was a little confused. Su Murong next to him said, “The prototype of this kind of shielding device was invented by Li Yao during his university years. It caused quite a stir at the time and caused a lot of controversy. Later, he simply donated it to the Central University’s laboratory, but it was later shelved for various reasons. This is probably a version that has been circulated to the Black Market and improved.”

Liang Huan spent a lot of money to buy these little things. He remembered the laboratory that Li Yao had hidden in the forest and was convinced that Li Yao was indeed very interested in these cold iron sheets. He said, “Why do you know so much?”

“We came from the same university, although we are in different grades and different departments, but strictly speaking, I am his direct senior.” Su Murong smiled. “We are all students recruited by the Genius Program of the United Military University. I am two grades above him.”

Liang Huan raised his eyebrows. “What is your mental power and physical fitness?”

“Mental power is 3S, physical fitness is a bit worse, only S grade.” Su Murong said modestly, “And I am really not interested in mecha and combat, so I can only barely be a teacher at the university.”

Liang Huan nodded with dissatisfaction. “Indeed, it’s a bit worse.”

They had passed the laboratory passage and gradually saw the internal structure of the laboratory. The outside of the laboratory was a compartment separated by special glass, and various advanced experimental equipment were placed inside, but no one was in charge. Instead, there were many cameras and patrolling robots.

The patrolling bionic robots moved nimbly, but even more nimble was Li Yao. Before the robots could discover him, Li Yao had simply ripped off their skulls and tied the circuits of the central system inside into a knot. The next second, the robots turned into blind artificial idiots, wandering around with guns.

Zhou Suiyu looked pale.

Liang Huan was very satisfied. This was the difference between 3S+ and ordinary people. Li Yao was simply better than any machine, and he could also invent chips and mecha. Not to mention his first-class character. If Li Yao could recover, it would be a great weapon who was both civil and military.

Li Yao’s back was hairy from his gaze. He took the wire tube ripped from the robot’s brain and poked him with it. “What are you looking at?”

Liang Huan smiled. “I think you are amazing.”

Li Yao: “Tsk.”

“Really amazing.” Su Murong almostlie on the glass, staring at the instruments inside with wide eyes. “These experimental equipment are the latest research and development of the Dawn Laboratory. They have not yet been listed on the market, and even the military has not obtained them. There are so many here!”

Liang Huan didn’t understand the instruments, but he intuitively felt that these things were good. He asked Li Yao, “Are there any that you can use?”

Su Murong stood behind Liang Huan, put her hands together to Li Yao, and bowed to him very piously with eyes brighter than the robots.

Li Yao was silent for a moment. “There are a few, I guess.”

“Then don’t blow it up. You can use it as a laboratory in the future.” Liang Huan was always very generous to his subordinates, expecting, “You can do more research in the future.”

For example, make a few more 3S mecha, shielding chips, and bracelets that can turn into various weapons… He suddenly realized that letting Li Yao be a bodyguard was a bit of a waste of talent. Even if his mental power was broken, his brain was not broken. It could be seen that the boss of the mercenary base was a waste, and he only let Li Yao be an ordinary mercenary.

Su Murong hinted obscurely, “Mr. Liang, there must be more good things inside.”

Zhou Suiyu: “…”

“How many people are there here in total?” Liang Huan asked.

Zhou Suiyu honestly said, “Including me, there are a total of twenty first-level researchers, five second-level researchers, and one senior researcher in charge of this matter, but he rarely shows up. I have never seen him since I came here.”

Su Murong said, “What is the name of that senior researcher?”

Zhou Suiyu shook his head. “My authority cannot know his name. I only know that his code name is Chuanwu. He is someone sent by the headquarters. He will issue experimental tasks to us every few months.”

Su Murong said, “I have heard of this Chuanwu. He and I are both studying the direction of mental power potions, and he seems to pay special attention to pre-emptive high-mental power functional disorders. He has a great say in this field. He was the first to propose using the brain marrow of special heteromorphs as the raw material for the special effects medicine for functional disorders. But he has never appeared in public, and no one knows what he looks like.”

“Come and take a look.” Li Yao’s voice suddenly came from the front.

Su Murong and Zhou Suiyu then noticed that Li Yao had disappeared. Liang Huan had already followed the voice and found Li Yao standing in front of a door emitting cold air, holding a robot’s head in his hand, lazily. “Can’t you guys look like thieves? Standing there chatting, aren’t you afraid of being discovered?”

Liang Huan knocked on the door. “What’s inside?”

“I don’t know. Two small robots just went in. I didn’t catch up, but I picked this up.” Li Yao said.

Liang Huan’s gaze fell on his hand. He saw that the robot’s head looked a bit strange. Upon closer inspection, it turned out that half of it was mechanical and half of it was a human head. His exposed skin was frozen purple, and his eyelashes were covered with a thick layer of white frost.

“Human head?” Liang Huan said.

Li Yao deliberately brought the half-mechanical head closer to his face, but Liang Huan stood still without changing his expression. He shook the head in a very boring manner. “It rolled out from inside. It’s probably been dead for a long time. It looks like Lou Chu’s brother.”

Liang Huan took the head and handed it to Su Murong. “Don’t touch dirty things.”

Li Yao deliberately wiped his gloves on his protective suit a few times.

“Brother Li, I can help find the key…” Zhou Suiyu said next to him.

Li Yao ignored him, took the shielding chip and a few wire tubes pulled out of the robot’s head, and fiddled with them for a moment. The heavy door in front of him slowly opened, and bone-chilling cold air rushed in.

The guarding robot was about to turn its head when the chip in Liang Huan’s hand flew out and directly cut off their necks. The heads of the two robots rolled to the ground, and the chip was directly embedded in the shelf next to them.

Li Yao glanced at him. “Why are you still killing robots?”

Liang Huan entered the door expressionlessly, his gaze fixed.

Bypassing the first layer of shelves, the shelves behind were like countless neatly divided grids, each grid containing a body bag. Most of the body bags were half-open, and the bodies lying inside were also half-open. Some had heads, some had abdomens, and some had limbs… They lay in body bags, and the parts they needed were taken away at will, leaving them in the cold storage for future needs.

“This is… a morgue?” Su Murong only glanced at it, and her stomach churned. Even though she had done many experiments, she still felt chills when she saw the dense rows of dissected bodies in front of her.

“They call this place a material extraction room.” Zhou Suiyu said in a low voice, “But these are all corpses that died normally, but the channels for collecting them are not legal.”

Liang Huan walked closer and found that each body bag was marked with the mental and physical strength level of the corpse. Below that were other information such as name, age, gender, cause of death, and time.

He patted off the ice on it, revealing the information above.

Mental strength A, physical fitness S, Qi Qiang, twenty-nine years old, male, died of mental disorder caused by radiation infection.

Liang Huan felt that this name was familiar, but half of the corpse was gone, and his head was cut into a mess, so he couldn’t see what he looked like at all. But he was very familiar with the combat uniform on his body, because it was the same material and style as the clothes that Li Yao wore every day. He looked up at Li Yao next to him.

Li Yao had quickly checked several body bags, raised his head and met his gaze. “These are all mercenary corpses.”

Liang Huan looked at Zhou Suiyu. “You use these corpses to do experiments?”

“Chuanwu’s experiments are usually divided into two parts: dead samples and living samples.” Zhou Suiyu’s voice was a little weak. “These, most of these corpses are bought from the mercenary base—”

“Bought?” Li Yao suddenly interrupted him in a deep voice, his eyes a little cold.

“It’s just bought with Condensed Coins, bought.” Zhou Suiyu explained.

However, before he could finish his words, Li Yao grabbed his collar and slammed him against the shelf. He questioned sharply, “Can they be bought and sold at will after they die! Can you trample and insult them at will?”

Zhou Suiyu was startled. Even when Li Yao knew his true identity and deception, he was not so angry. He and Li Yao had been teammates for several years, and this was the first time he had seen him so angry. Meeting Li Yao’s gaze, he couldn’t say half a word.

Li Yao’s eyes were filled with terrifying red, and his anger almost burned through him. Zhou Suiyu felt a terrifying mental pressure, his breathing was rapid, and his head was splitting, but soon another more turbulent and thick mental power interrupted this sharp attack, preventing his mental source from being completely destroyed.

Liang Huan grabbed Li Yao’s wrist from behind, forcefully and gently took his hand away from Zhou Suiyu’s neck. Zhou Suiyu’s legs went weak and he knelt directly on the ground.

“Li Yao.” Liang Huan walked up to him and comforted, “It is indeed infuriating that they do this, but we have more important things to do now. The people in the Black Market are still alive, and the children of Ai Li are also alive. We can’t let them lie here too.”

Li Yao stared at him, and a layer of blurry mist rose behind his glasses. He was wrapped in a thick protective suit, and stood here with his back straight, but Liang Huan suddenly felt that this protective suit had also become one of these cold body bags, wrapping a battered but unwilling corpse.

He didn’t like this Li Yao.

“Li Yao.” He called out to the other party again, clasped the back of Li Yao’s neck, loosened the straps of the protective suit, increased the oxygen supply rate, and then gently squeezed the other party’s stiff shoulders and walked away.

“Let’s go over there and take a look.” He picked up Zhou Suiyu on the ground and called Su Murong, who looked curious.

“Is he okay here by himself?” Su Murong was also startled by Li Yao just now. After all, Li Yao was famous for his good temper.

Liang Huan blocked her probing gaze. “He just needs some time.”

This “material extraction room” covered a large area. They walked for more than ten minutes before reaching the end. The earliest corpses could be traced back to ten years ago. Soon they found two other “material extraction rooms” next door, which contained zombie and heteromorph samples, which were also appalling, but perhaps because the species were different, it was difficult for the emotions of the few people to produce too much fluctuation.

When Li Yao came over, Liang Huan and Su Murong were studying how to get out. Zhou Suiyu had not been here much and was also at a loss.

“I remember that there is a corridor outside that leads to the researchers’ and Chuanwu’s office. Further inside is the laboratory.” Zhou Suiyu carefully looked at Li Yao. “I can only enter the lowest-level experimental platform now to help decompose materials.”

Liang Huan looked at Li Yao. “Why don’t we kill them all and bury them with these people?”

Li Yao had already calmed down. “They are researchers sent by the Dawn Laboratory. Let’s keep them as evidence first.”

Liang Huan raised his eyebrows. “Evidence?”

“That’s right, I have already recorded everything live. When we go out, we will expose the evil deeds of the Dawn Laboratory to the public as soon as possible.” Su Murong said indignantly, “They should all go to court and be judged by the people and the law.”

Liang Huan remained noncommittal. He was already accustomed to controlling the power of life and death. Whether it was deciding the life and death of one person or deciding the life and death of a group of people was all in an instant. Suddenly seeing someone handling things in such an official manner, he was a little unaccustomed to it, and at the same time, it was mixed with a bit of displeasure from the superior.

He glanced at the information on the chip and said, “Yue Hang and the Shenfeng Team will arrive at the entrance in three minutes.”

“Almost, three minutes is enough.” Li Yao touched a chip, grabbed a robot, and invaded the monitoring system of the entire laboratory through the robot’s chip.

“Did you think it was not feasible to keep evidence just now?” Li Yao took the opportunity to ask him.

“I just think you are too kind.” Liang Huan said, “Since these people are researchers sent by the Dawn Laboratory, then the entire Dawn Laboratory and even the Dawn Group are guilty. They should be arrested the Dawn Group boss and execute him along with nine generations of his family and implicate his teachers and friends. The rest should have their homes confiscated, and those who should be beheaded should be beheaded. All relatives should be exiled to the outer zone. In this way, others will be warned, and see who dares to disregard the law like this.”

Li Yao: “…”

Su Murong and Zhou Suiyu: “…”

Liang Huan said calmly, “It’s the New Era now. Implicating nine generations of family members and sitting together is too cruel. Just kidding, don’t take it seriously.”

Zhou Suiyu’s back felt cold, and Su Murong silently took a half step back. After all, she had personally seen Liang Huan stomping on half of Lou Chu’s head, and always felt that this person could do such a thing.

“You can keep evidence, but since this laboratory can exist here for more than ten years, there must be a deeper reason.” Seeing them silent, Liang Huan had to appease them and express his opinion. “Yu Wan Yao knows, Ling Zao may not know. If the Dawn Laboratory has already bribed the head of the Eastern Third District Administrative Court, then when the people are indignant and the highest Administrative Court knows, the Dawn Group may not abandon its pawn to protect the king. At that time, the orders of the Administrative Court will be implemented layer by layer, and the people of the Dawn Group will manipulate it again, pretending to be victims, which is not impossible. Instead, it will startle the snake and cut off the clues.”

Li Yao did not speak, and Su Murong was stunned. “Do you mean there are other laboratories?”

“Didn’t you say that the experiment needs enough samples?” Liang Huan asked back, “Dare you say that this is not a drop in the bucket?”

“But…” Su Murong wanted to refute, but could not continue to convince herself. “Then what should I do?”

“Why not control this laboratory first, follow the clues to contact the Dawn Laboratory, and see what kind of conspiracy they have.” Liang Huan smiled slightly, “When we have enough evidence, we can strike a fatal blow and make them unable to turn over.”

Su Murong had already been persuaded by him. “It makes sense, that’s right, it should be like this! Actually, we—”

“That also depends on whether you can live to that day.” Li Yao said indifferently, “The Dawn Laboratory is a subordinate institution of the Dawn Group. The Dawn Group has close ties with both the military and the Administrative Court. Do you think no one has tried what he said? Dr. Su, don’t listen to his nonsense. He just wants to take this laboratory for himself.”

Su Murong looked at Liang Huan in shock. “Is that so?”

Liang Huan smiled and said, “How could it be?”

Su Murong was not sure what he meant for a while, and when she reacted, a layer of fine sweat had seeped out of her forehead. She laughed dryly and said, “Haha, it’s too early to say these things. After all, this is the territory of the Black Market. How to deal with it is still up to Mr. Liang’s arrangement.”

If Li Yao hadn’t interrupted, she would have almost revealed what she wanted to do in excitement, and even felt that she and Liang Huan had the same goals and were going to join forces. But as Li Yao reminded, Liang Huan was the master of the entire Black Market. No matter what she wanted to do, exposing her goal to Liang Huan now was a very dangerous thing.

Liang Huan gave Li Yao a reproachful look.

Li Yao tapped the virtual screen on the chip. “Okay, has Yue Hang arrived?”

Liang Huan glanced at the communication. “Coming over.”

The next second, the electromagnetic waves in the entire laboratory fell into disorder. A winding and deep corridor came into their view. Transparent special glass, researchers in white coats with solemn expressions, light blue gelatinous culture fluid, and those half-human, half-heteromorph monsters inside.

The suddenly opened material room door stunned every researcher in place. Then Yue Hang led the Shenfeng Team’s heavily armedTeam members rush into the laboratory. Some researchers wanted to send an alarm to the headquarters, but found that the signals in the entire laboratory were blocked. Some people wanted to close the laboratory door tightly, but the systems on the doors were all paralyzed. All the laboratory doors were breached almost at the same time, and all the researchers were controlled on the spot.

Yue Hang quickly counted the number of people. “A total of ten transparent rooms, twenty-six people.”

“There’s one more.” Liang Huan looked at the dark room at the end of the corridor. “Li Yao and I will go take a look.”

Yue Hang quickly cleaned up the battlefield, and Su Murong began to record and collect evidence of those experimental subjects.

Liang Huan and Li Yao walked to the door. Just as they were about to kick the door open violently, a clear mechanical sound slowly rang in the empty corridor:

[Pupil scan passed, welcome Researcher Chuanwu back.]

The two of them froze in place at the same time.