Chapter 119 Xie Jue's Turning Point in Life
“Professor Luo,” his voice was deep and oppressive, each word like an icicle hitting the ground, “if we miss this test subject, if we miss this last window of data before his body collapses, our chances of analyzing the root cause of the collapse and finding the true threshold… will be delayed by at least three years. Tell me, in this apocalypse, how many more three-year periods do we have left to wait?”
He stopped looking at Professor Luo's face, which had turned deathly pale, and turned his gaze back to the control panel. He sternly ordered the assistant in charge of the injection, "Execute the order! Inject 50% of the remaining catalyst, immediately!"
His fingers hovered above the control keys, his eyes resolute.
He was gambling, gambling that the critical point of Xie Jue's collapse was not the end, gambling that the powerful cellular activity could withstand one more extreme impact before being completely annihilated, gambling that the only key to success was hidden in the collapsed data stream!
This is not only a gamble on Xie Jue's life, but also a gamble on the future of his lifelong research.
Looking out the window, Josie keenly sensed that something was amiss inside.
She couldn't hear the heated arguments inside, but she could see the sudden panic, despair, and even murderous intent in their expressions.
She saw Xie Jue's face rapidly turn from pale to a deathly ashen black, saw his body convulsing violently and unnaturally, and saw the light flashing in the hands of those superhumans, ready to end lives!
My heart feels like it's being clenched in a fist. Has the experiment failed?
Xie Jue, as a failed experimental subject, is to be destroyed...
A sharp pain shot through her palm. She looked down and realized that her fingernails had dug deep into her palm, and beads of bright red blood were slowly seeping out.
Unbeknownst to her, this stubborn boy who called her "sister" and whose bright eyes spoke of his desire to become stronger had long since become someone she could easily ignore.
Watching helplessly as he turned into a mindless zombie, mercilessly "destroyed"...
Her hand was pressed against the laboratory window, her eyes fixed on Xie Jue, who was gradually turning into a zombie. "Xie Jue, you have to hold on!"
The cold glass clearly blocked her voice, but Xie Jue, who was tied up, suddenly turned his head to look in her direction.
"Heh..."
His voice had changed, but his pupils, which were about to dilate, were still fixed on the direction of the window.
As the energy catalyst was injected more intensely, the clear-eyed and stubborn boy was enduring immense pain. His body was contorted like a shrimp, and his pale face was still turned toward the window.
Increasing the injection dose did not improve Xie Jue's condition; it only slightly slowed down the rate of cell decay.
Inside the laboratory, alarm lights spun wildly, turning the stark white space into a glaring blood red.
The sharp buzzing sound tore at my eardrums.
Xie Jue, who was bound, was in increasingly worse condition. His skin was losing color at a visible rate, spreading into a chilling grayish-white, like dried lime.
The blood vessels bulged and writhed eerily under the skin, displaying an ominous purplish-black color.
What was most terrifying were his eyes. His once bright pupils were now like pools of ink, rapidly spreading and becoming murky. The clarity that belonged to humankind had been replaced by a primitive, predatory madness.
An uncontrollable, painful, and wild growl squeezed out from deep within his throat, crashing against the thick glass.
"The gene chain is violently fluctuating! The energy reading has exceeded the threshold! The runaway index is 87%...92%...95%! Professor Fu, the experimental subject is about to completely turn into a zombie! We must initiate an emergency isolation or...or elimination procedure!"
"Wait a little longer!"
Fu Jinxing's face was tense, his gaze fixed on Xie Jue's physical data on the screen.
The fingers moved across the central control panel in a blur, so fast that the movements were almost invisible.
Complex data streams and instruction codes flowed down the holographic screen like a waterfall.
Xie Jue's consciousness had long been swallowed up by boundless pain and chaotic darkness.
The feeling was as if millions of red-hot steel needles were piercing and stirring inside my body, and every cell was screaming as it decomposed, recombined, and torn apart.
The instincts of the zombie virus surged like a monstrous wave, crashing against the dam of his remaining consciousness, tempting him to succumb completely and unleash his primal desire to destroy everything.
The restraints dug deep into Xie Jue's pale flesh, causing his body to convulse and arch violently on the platform, his bones emitting a sickening creaking sound.
Fragmented images suddenly flashed through his mind: his older sister being violated...
Then Josie's sister appeared and helped him get his sister's body back...
He had not yet become powerful enough, nor had he repaid his sister's kindness.
"No... I can't... become... a monster..." The remaining will roared, like a candle flame in a storm, yet it stubbornly refused to be extinguished.
The physical pain had long surpassed the fear of death.
He strained to look up at her and saw the tension and worry in her eyes.
He can't become that kind of thing! He can't hurt the people outside, especially... the one outside the glass window who's worried about him.
Out of control index: 98...
Fu Jinxing closed his eyes briefly, but ultimately hovered his finger over the scarlet button labeled "Destruction".
Buzz!
The violent, apocalyptic energy fluctuations within Xie Jue's body suddenly experienced a very brief and subtle point of stagnation without warning.
Immediately afterwards, the cells that were on the verge of complete destruction miraculously revived.
Cell viability recovered 5%...10%...30%...
The laboratory fell silent once again.
As if witnessing a miracle, almost everyone's eyes were filled with shock.
As cell activity recovered, beneath Xie Jue's ashen, corpse-like skin, a faint yet incredibly real warm glow visibly emerged, like a withered tree coming back to life, brimming with vitality.
Those swollen, murky pupils, filled with bestiality, suddenly contracted, the murky light quickly receding as they refocused.
Although his eyes were filled with extreme fatigue and weakness, the moment he focused was as sharp as a newly hatched eagle seeing the world for the first time, full of new life and indomitable will!
He pulled through!
The body, which had been convulsing violently under the restraints, gradually calmed down, leaving only slight, rhythmic undulations.
A powerful, restrained energy fluctuation, brimming with unknown potential, flowed slowly within his body, like a dormant volcano.
"It...it was a success?" The assistant's voice trembled with extreme shock and relief.
Fu Jinxing's face showed a relieved expression, while Professor Luo next to him staggered and grabbed the control panel, his fingertips trembling slightly.
"Incredible... perfect adaptive gene expression... energy level leap..."
He muttered to himself, his voice hoarse with excitement.
Fu Jinxing bypassed the out-of-control professors and assistants and approached Xie Jue on the lab table step by step.
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