"Why do you say that?"
It wasn't just An Ke. Everyone turned to Ye Lin in confusion.
He stopped before the first glass door leading into the laboratory and decided to explain before they went inside.
"Because of the time limit."
Turning slightly, Ye Lin faced the group.
"According to the system, we have to find 'it' within two hours. Whether 'it' is a particular god or an object."
"But this underground complex is a maze, and we also have to deal with the Aberrants. Finding it in two hours would be extremely difficult."
"Working backward from that, the area we're expected to search must be limited."
"And the laboratory has the strongest connection to the Aberrants. It's also where we're most likely to find clues about how to stop them."
Ye Lin sighed softly.
Ever since receiving the second round's question, he had been thinking about how to solve it.
The system had given them too little information. Even the clues they had found amounted to nothing more than ten bizarre murals. His only option was to work backward, using the outcome to determine the cause and arrive at an answer.
The structure alone told him that the third basement level, where they were now, was certainly not the lowest.
(A completely enclosed structure, but it has water, airflow, electricity. That means there must be other areas below the third basement level supplying power...)
"A limited search area... I thought of that too."
An Ke nodded, not disputing his point. But she frowned and tried to explain her own reasoning.
"From what we've seen, searching this entire place would take a dozen hours or more. If we're going to search, we can only pick one route."
"But why does it have to be the laboratory? Why not containment?"
"In disaster movies, and even in real incidents, isn't containment where you're most likely to find the earliest clues?"
"Like where the Aberrants came from? Maybe the monsters appeared because someone picked something up, or discovered something. It isn't a certainty, but we can't rule it out, can we?"
An Ke didn't understand. She could see why they should avoid the living quarters. But containment...
How had Ye Lin eliminated it?
Perhaps influenced by An Ke, He Zheng hesitated, then voiced his own opinion.
"Ye Lin, I trust your judgment. But there's something I want to say too."
He sighed deeply, his expression conflicted.
"You think the living quarters will be full of Aberrants, so it's too dangerous to go there."
"But in my experience, the most dangerous place is often where you've got the best chance of surviving. In the Death Gaokao, it isn't the weakest or the stupidest who die most easily. Just the opposite. It's the ones who think they're smart, who look for shortcuts, who are too afraid of dying..."
"I'm not saying that's you. I just want you to take it into account."
Having said his piece, He Zheng fell silent. Honestly, he didn't know why he had handed over the decision-making to Ye Lin so quickly.
He was supposed to be the one with the most experience.
A newcomer shouldn't have had any right to give orders. Until you had lived through an entire exam, you couldn't possibly understand how terrifying the Death Gaokao really was.
"I understand."
After hearing them out, Ye Lin nodded slowly. Their objections didn't upset him.
The three of them had different ideas, but they were all doing their best to stay alive.
"There are two more reasons I think the laboratory is our best option. The sulfuric acid, and the bodies."
"The acid? The bodies?"
Seeing their confusion, Ye Lin explained the theory he had formed earlier.
"First, the sulfuric acid."
"The acid on the second basement level was probably meant to deal with Aberrants. That means there was an Aberrant outbreak here even earlier. They might even have planned for an escape when this place was first built."
"Working backward, there must be other defenses inside the base."
"Containment could keep Aberrants locked up in steel cages and alloy chambers. But what about the laboratory? What would they use there?"
Hu Jia's eyes suddenly widened, and he blurted out an answer.
"Anesthetics! Or something the Aberrants are afraid of!"
Ye Lin glanced at the excited Hu Jia and smiled, indicating that he was right.
"Exactly. Studying them in a lab means coming into contact with them. Whether it's an anesthetic or something else, that 'something' would fit the system's hint perfectly."
"So even if it isn't the correct answer, it should at least let us protect ourselves. The real danger is still the Aberrants. If we have to, we can find those supplies and then search the other areas."
"As for the bodies..."
Ye Lin looked at He Zheng.
"Who do you think those people were? How many people would there have been here? And do you think anyone is still alive?"
He Zheng hesitated.
"Probably... researchers from this place?"
"The bodies were badly decomposed, but if you looked closely, they seemed to be in their forties or fifties. No sign of training, either. There was a smashed pair of glasses on the floor."
"As for how many people, at least a few hundred? Whether any are alive..."
He Zheng instinctively looked around, then shook his head.
"Probably not. Otherwise the power wouldn't be out, and someone would have reacted when we came in."
"Even if there are, there can't be more than a handful."
Ye Lin gave a slight nod.
"Good. From those three points, we can conclude that this place fell a long time ago. In other words, its security forces couldn't deal with the Aberrants either."
"Yet the researchers, the least physically capable people here, managed to get this far. There's only one possible reason. They had something that could counter the Aberrants."
"So few of them made it here because they couldn't bring much of that 'something' when they escaped. Not everyone had access to it. That also supports the idea that they were core research staff."
Understanding dawned on He Zheng.
Right. If those defenseless researchers had managed to escape, they must have had something to help them.
And the fact that so few had escaped meant people in the other areas couldn't get their hands on that '??'.
He Zheng's eyes lit up. He was done thinking.
"Fine! Your call. We're going to the laboratory!"
"If we die, we die. If this gamble goes wrong, I'll take it!"