Wen Qi stood in front of the laboratory door at the end of the corridor and raised a hand, signaling Xu Mingfan to step forward and unlock it.
Xu Mingfan looked tense. He took a few steps forward and peered through the viewing window to check the situation inside, but he did not see anyone.
He looked at Wen Qi in confusion, and Wen Qi nodded at him.
Xu Mingfan took a deep breath. His right hand closed around the metal doorknob, and wisps of golden light seeped from his fingertips, entering through the gaps in the lock.
A moment later, a crisp “click” came from inside the lock mechanism. The locking mechanism was successfully broken.
He casually gave the door a push, and it slowly swung inward.
The four people inside the laboratory were startled by the suddenly opening door, their faces filled with panic.
When they saw Huo Mian and the other two clearly, the panic on the four young men’s faces turned into delight.
One of them hurriedly asked, “Have the monsters outside been dealt with?”
Wen Qi nodded calmly. “They’ve been taken care of.”
The man’s face lit up with joy, but he quickly began complaining. “Why did you take so long to come rescue us? It’s already been two days. If you’d waited a few more days, you could’ve just come collect our bodies.”
Xu Mingfan rolled his eyes at that and raised his voice.
“I’m not even part of the rescue team. It’s the apocalypse now, and the monsters you’re talking about are zombies.
“You’ve seen zombie movies, right? Zombies are everywhere in the world now. Society has long since descended into chaos. If you get bitten by a zombie, you’ll be infected and turned into one.”
The four men’s faces instantly turned pale.
They could not help remembering the horrifying scene from the previous day.
It had been early morning when Wang Tao, that idiot, heard screams coming from the corridor. Without thinking, he opened the door and went outside.
The zombie that had been feeding on a corpse outside noticed the movement and immediately abandoned the body on the floor, charging straight toward Wang Tao and biting into his neck.
Seeing this, Zhong Hongbo and Mo Hai bravely went outside to rescue him, only to be bitten by Wang Tao after he turned into a zombie.
Realizing that something was terribly wrong, the others hurriedly shut the door.
Later, through the glass observation window, they watched as Zhong Hongbo and Mo Hai eventually turned into zombies as well.
Thinking about it now, all four men looked grim as their eyes fell on Huo Mian and the other two.
The men were one thing, but the girl standing before them was even prettier than the dazzling actresses they had seen on television.
There was no way someone like her would be doing rescue work that required both physical strength and enduring such harsh conditions.
It seemed that what the man had said was true.
Wen Qi broke the silence and asked, “Is Professor Yang inside?”
Another young man hurriedly replied, “Yes. The professor is old, and after going through such a frightening ordeal, he unfortunately fell ill. He’s lying in the lounge resting.”
A trace of concern flashed through Wen Qi’s eyes. He quickly passed the others and headed toward the lounge.
Seeing this, Huo Mian followed him.
Xu Mingfan remained where he was. “Bro, since we’ve found Professor Yang, I’ll go tell Captain Huo.”
Wen Qi stopped and turned back to remind him, “Be careful. There are zombies in the nearby laboratories. Don’t open any doors recklessly.”
“Got it. I’m not a kid!”
Xu Mingfan waved his hand and turned to walk out.
The four men exchanged glances before following him out of the laboratory.
Inside the lounge.
At this moment, Professor Yang was lying on a folding bed. His face was flushed, his lips were dry and cracked, and he was unconscious.
Wen Qi’s expression was solemn. He quickly took some fever-reducing medicine and a bottle of water from his storage space.
He gripped Professor Yang’s jaw with his left hand, forcibly pried open his tightly closed mouth, stuffed the medicine inside, and then gave him some water.
After suffering from a high fever for such a long time, Professor Yang was already severely dehydrated.
Therefore, even though he was unconscious and had no awareness of his surroundings, his instinct to survive still drove his body to react.
He unconsciously swallowed, allowing the medicine and water to flow down his throat.
Huo Mian stood to the side, her beautiful peach-shaped eyes fixed on the black bracelet around Wen Qi’s wrist, her face filled with envy.
She had already noticed that every member of the Swift Shadow Squad had a space bracelet.
She had wondered before why the female lead never seemed to use a storage space to keep supplies. Now she finally realized that the storage spaces had been provided by the male lead’s squad.
After giving Professor Yang the water, Wen Qi caught sight of Huo Mian staring intently at his space bracelet from the corner of his eye.
The envy in her eyes was practically overflowing, causing him to pause.
He remembered that when they had first discovered storage spaces, they had looked just like her, wearing expressions of longing and desperately wanting one of their own.
After thinking for a moment, Wen Qi explained, “This is a space bracelet, created by a space-type ability user.”
Huo Mian froze slightly, not expecting Wen Qi to notice what she was thinking. She felt a little embarrassed.
Following his lead, she asked, “Is it difficult for space-type ability users to create space bracelets?”
If it wasn’t too difficult, then there should be quite a lot of them. Maybe she could have one herself someday.
Wen Qi sighed softly. “It’s very difficult. A space-type ability user must first compress and fold the space, then use a physical object as a carrier.
“Then, they have to slowly merge the compressed space into the carrier. Eventually, an independent space will form inside the object.”
After hearing this, Huo Mian’s eyes dimmed slightly. She continued asking, “How can someone obtain a storage space?”
Wen Qi answered gently, “As long as you complete the various missions issued by the base and accumulate enough contribution points, you can exchange those contribution points for one.”
Curiosity flashed in Huo Mian’s eyes. “What kind of missions does the base have?”
Wen Qi thought for a moment before answering, “There are many types. Base construction, killing zombies, gathering supplies, rescue missions, and so on.”
Huo Mian understood.
She immediately fell into thought, wondering what kind of missions she could take on after reaching the base.
Seeing her fall silent, Wen Qi slowly added, “My space bracelet is only the basic model, so its storage space is relatively small. It’s only two hundred square meters, with a height of four meters.
“Shaochen’s space ring has five hundred square meters of space and a height of five meters. It’s the largest-capacity storage space in this batch.”
Huo Mian felt that Wen Qi was being a little too humblebraggy.
If it were her, she would be satisfied with having a two-hundred-square-meter storage space, let alone twenty square meters. No—even two square meters would make her ecstatic.
Huo Mian could not help asking, “Are there many space-type ability users at the base? Do they not have to leave the base to collect supplies?”
Logically speaking, it would be more beneficial to keep space-type ability users at the base so they could create more storage spaces, which would make gathering supplies easier.
Wen Qi sighed softly and shook his head. “Not all space-type ability users are that capable.
“At present, most space-type ability users haven’t reached the level required to create storage spaces.”
As he said this, a figure suddenly appeared in his mind.
That man was noble and cold, making him difficult to approach. Yet his strength was unfathomable, so powerful that people could not help but fear him.
The storage spaces he created were not only enormous but also extremely stable.
Huo Mian was just about to ask Wen Qi how many contribution points were needed to exchange for a storage space.
Just then, Professor Yang, who had been unconscious all this time, suddenly began suffering from a high-fever seizure.
His face began turning bluish, his eyes rolled upward, and white foam poured from his mouth. His limbs convulsed violently and uncontrollably, making the folding bed shake and creak loudly.
Seeing this, Wen Qi quickly reached out and unfastened the buttons at Professor Yang’s collar to ensure he could breathe properly.
Immediately afterward, he turned Professor Yang’s head to one side to prevent him from choking on vomit and suffocating.
After doing all this, Wen Qi took out water and a towel from his space bracelet and wiped Professor Yang’s face and neck, attempting to cool him down.
Seeing this scene, Huo Mian’s expression instantly turned grim.
The plot Zheng Wanyue had mentioned suddenly flashed through her mind.
In the end, the male lead had failed to complete the mission of escorting Professor Yang.
The old professor had not lived long enough to be rescued.
He had fallen ill and died prematurely…