Chapter 177 Crisis
“Run!”
Perhaps to avoid attracting the attention of the islanders, there were no signs of bombs being installed underground. Or perhaps because the building materials used were of good quality, they were not greatly affected by the explosion and fire above.
Unlike the upstairs building which was obviously damaged by the explosion, the situation in the underground research institute was much better.
The internal entrance of the institute was not tightly closed as the team members had previously imagined, but was wide open.
Shark looked at the intact lock and the metal door without any signs of violence, and ruled out the possibility that other forces had invaded before their arrival. He guessed that the researchers were too panicked during the emergency evacuation and did not close the door.
Of course, it is also possible that they don’t care.
After all, according to Gis, all the relevant items in the institute, except for the ones they brought out, had been destroyed. Explosions and fires were then arranged, so no one would have thought that this institute would one day be made public and that they would welcome uninvited guests.
Shark pushed open the door and walked in with three other teammates.
From what one can see, although the exterior of this underground research institute did not suffer any large-scale damage, it was still affected by the explosion and fire, and the interior was almost as messy as the upper floors.
The corridor floor, the corners of the walls, and the laboratories on both sides of the aisle were littered with broken experimental equipment and glass shards.
Imagining that those vessels might have contained the germs that caused the mutation and caused humans to mutate into zombies, even though they knew that the interstellar protective suits they were wearing were very effective, the four people still held their breath unconsciously, and then, anger instantly surged up.
It's hard for anyone to have a good mood about this research institute that has caused severe damage to humanity.
But because they knew there was a more important task, no one spoke. They controlled their emotions and continued to search for the USB flash drive.
In the almost completely dark underground laboratory, four people searched room by room.
Knowing the danger of the institute, they didn't plan to let too many people in. Also because of its importance, they searched very carefully. But perhaps because the previous researchers took away or destroyed most of the things when they evacuated, their search speed was not slow.
Seeing that they had plenty of time, Shark and the others did not focus only on the USB drive. Occasionally, when they saw the remaining materials in the laboratory, they would take pictures with the waterproof cameras they carried with them.
Not sure if it's useful, but it's better than nothing.
Time passed minute by minute. After Shark and his teammates found one room, they were about to go to another one. When they turned around, they suddenly felt something flash where the light passed.
Shark was stunned for a moment, and asked his teammates to go to another room to look for it first, while he went to the place where he had just seen the flash.
As they got closer, the glittering object in the pile of debris became clearer and clearer. But unfortunately, when the shark got closer, it discovered that the glittering object was not the silver USB drive they had thought it was, but a silver hairpin inlaid with diamonds.
Shark moved all the debris away and searched around the hairpin several times, but didn't find anything else.
He stood up and was about to look for his teammates, but he saw his teammates who had gone to the end of the corridor rushing out of the innermost room in a panic.
Before he could ask, he heard his teammates' terrified shouts from the communication device next to his ear.
“Run!”
The shark didn't have time to think. Out of trust in his teammates and judgment of the crisis, he turned around and swam towards the stairs he had just come down.
While running for his life, he smelled that fishy odor again. This time, the smell was clearly coming from behind them, and it was stronger than the previous time.
Knowing that his teammates were following behind him, Shark sped up his departure. When the four of them had reached the first floor of the sanatorium, they met up, and Shark finally had the opportunity to ask what had happened.
The three teammates recalled what they had seen before, and their faces were filled with fear. Shark's heart sank.
They are all elites in various teams who have carried out various special missions. After the end of the world, they have been carrying out the task of clearing up the losses. Logically, they would not be too surprised even if they saw the bloodiest scenes. What could make them show expressions of fear?
But the three teammates didn't say anything or explain. They pulled Shark towards the entrance they had entered before. Only after they went out and were some distance away from the research institute did the team member show Shark the pictures he had taken with his camera.
In the dim room, there was a huge hill-like creature lurking. In the middle of the hill, two orange-red eyes were opened.
The team members thought that this thing was in the laboratory, and it took a while after the three of them entered to notice the big guy in the corner, and they couldn't help but feel a little scared.
With a trembling voice, he described the scene he saw before he came out.
"That thing looks like an octopus, as big as the laboratory we entered earlier. It's in the room at the end of the corridor. It must have mutated. The fishy smell we smelled earlier was probably coming from it."
Thinking about how they had hardly seen any other creatures at the bottom of the lake since they went into the water, they couldn't help but guess, "It must have spent the winter here and eaten all the other fish in the lake, so it's been eating its own feet..."
The team member said this and couldn't help but feel relieved.
Fortunately, the octopus had eaten all of its own legs and was resting, so its reaction was a little slow, otherwise they might not have been able to escape from the laboratory.
"Fortunately, I didn't catch him..."
The shark was also surprised that there was such a creature at the bottom of the lake. It was scary to think about it.
"Maybe it washed up on the island from the sea or came through the gap leading to the sea!" Shark guessed.
Although this octopus has no legs and may not be that aggressive, he cannot risk the safety of his team members.
"Well, let's go up first and discuss it." After suddenly encountering such an accident, Shark felt that he needed to think carefully about what to do next.
The four of them surfaced to the lake, but the team members who were supposed to take over had not had time to go down yet.
The team members at the scene fell silent after hearing what Shark and others said.
They had come into contact with mutated animals while carrying out various missions before. Without exception, the attack and destructive power of these mutated animals were stronger than before the mutation.
Even though they, the humans, had also undergone varying degrees of mutation, they seemed less favored by superpowers than the animals. While they had previously defeated numerous mutated animals, even with ample firepower, many of their teammates had perished in battle. No one understood the dangers of mutants better than they did.
If they were on land, facing mutant animals, they might still have a chance to fight, but for this kind of marine creature, in the water, even the best swimmers cannot be sure that they can defeat the shark.
Ordinary weapons like guns were ineffective against an octopus this large. However, if they used a powerful bomb, they would need to find the USB drive at the bottom of the lake. If the turmoil caused by the bomb was too great, it would also affect their mission. Not to mention, if they failed to kill the octopus and instead irritated it, it was unclear whether the twenty-odd people on this mission could handle this frenzied octopus.
After a discussion, more than a dozen people finally decided to put the research institute aside and observe the octopus. During this time, they would look for traces of the USB flash drive elsewhere.
But they did not let their guard down against the giant octopus.
Shark found a robotic mouse with video and diving functions from the auxiliary equipment he brought from home, and remotely operated it and sent it into the research institute.
From the robot's perspective, the octopus was indeed quite quiet. It stayed in the lab with almost no activity, only occasionally opening its eyes to nibble on its sparsely grown legs.
Even so, while searching for the USB drive, the team members did not relax their vigilance against the shark. The team members on the surface of the lake kept a close eye on the images sent back by the robot mouse, ready to send a message to their teammates underwater if there was any movement.
Their preparations were clearly not in vain.
The day after they discovered the octopus and sent the robot mouse to monitor it, the octopus took action.
In the real-time video sent back by the mechanical mouse, it came out of the underground laboratory and followed the path that Shark and his friends escaped last time, all the way to the cave entrance.
The newly grown tentacles looked soft, but with a wave of their arms, a big hole appeared in the already cracked wall.
The sound of shattering slate echoed through the water. Heavy gravel fell to the lakebed, creating a murky mess. Then, the giant octopus appeared.
It was daytime, and the light shining through the ice made the lake bottom no longer so dark, allowing the team members who had received notification from their teammates and were preparing to escape to see clearly the big guy that suddenly appeared.
The moment they saw it clearly, everyone felt a chill in their hearts.
Because it was definitely not an ordinary octopus, not even the mutant octopus they thought it was.
This octopus was enormous, almost as tall as a two-story building. Its overall color was a strange gray-green, but this gray-green was irregularly dotted with dark red bloodstains, giving it a very ominous look.
But what made the team members nervous was not these, but the octopus's tentacles.
Its tentacles had fully grown out at some point, and were covered with irregular white round protrusions. The laboratory was dim before, and the team members couldn't see clearly, so they thought they were just suction cups on the tentacles. But now that the octopus has come out of the laboratory, even in the dim environment at the bottom of the lake and at a distance, the team members can clearly see that what are on the octopus's tentacles are not suction cups, but white pustules.
The white pustules were even still oozing pus, and in just a few seconds, it polluted the lake water where the octopus was.
At that moment, everyone who saw it thought of zombies, their gray-green skin, and the pustules and wounds on their bodies that burst and oozed pus like the octopus.
Even without contact, the team members realized the dangerousness of the octopus.
This is undoubtedly a mutated octopus, otherwise it would not be so huge. But for some unknown reason, this octopus was infected with bacteria and turned into a zombie.
But now is obviously not the time to find out the origin of this suspected zombie octopus. Following the urging of teammates in the communicator beside their ears, the underwater team members quickly returned to the ice surface.
Shortly after they returned to the ice, the previously calm lakebed suddenly began to tremble. Through the thick ice, they saw the giant creature that had appeared beneath them.
"Retreat! Retreat quickly! Return to the train first!"
Shark packed up the equipment at hand and gave orders to the team members.
All the team members quickly divided the work and cooperated, took their equipment and got on the scooters, and sped towards the direction of the train.
At the place they had just left, cracks appeared on the ice surface with waves of vibrations. Soon after, a large, irregular hole appeared in the ice, and a thick tentacles stretched out from under the water.
When the team members looked back, they saw the tentacles waving and whipping wildly on the lake, and they couldn't help but speed up their departure.
…
【Author’s words】
Thank you for your support!
The next chapter will be updated before 10 o'clock tomorrow night.
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