Chapter 65 The Safe: A Box Full of Goodies
Once you get to the underground parking lot, you'll definitely find a way to the -1 level.
After circling the office area, I finally found the entrance to the underground parking lot in the corner on the west side.
The entrance leads down a bottomless slope.
The car drove in, its tires hitting the bumper with a clattering sound. Fang Zhiyi applied the brakes and slowly slid down the bumper. The high beams illuminated an electronic screen on a slightly flatter section of the road.
As the car approached, the electronic screen lit up, flashing red, and the camera rotated. After a pause, a line of small text appeared on it, the red characters standing out starkly in the darkness.
[License plate: fzy & Chu Zhao's Class 1 sedan]
[Non-parking lot users]
[No entry]
The barrier in front of the car remained motionless; if we drove any further, we would crash into it.
Fang Zhiyi stepped on the brake and put the car in park, and it slowly came to a stop. The guy behind him, "Cai Ge," immediately slammed on the brakes, leaned out of the window, and asked, "Cai, what happened?"
Fang Zhiyi said, "We can't get in."
He unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car to check the situation.
Brother Cai followed and gestured in front of the barrier gate: "This thing is made of aluminum alloy. It will break if a car hits it. Or... should we just crash into it?"
The method is simple and direct.
Fang Zhiyi thought for a moment: "Not yet."
We haven't figured out the situation in the office area yet, and we don't even know if there are any infected people inside. Breaking the barrier gate would be too loud and could cause unnecessary trouble.
Fang Zhiyi looked around and his gaze fell on the security booth behind the gate: "I'll go take a look."
After going around the gate, I looked through the narrow window and saw that the security booth was empty except for the computer screen on the desk, which was still lit up.
The screen is connected to the parking lot's surveillance cameras and is divided into nine sections, showing the parking lot entrance, underground cross passage, fire exit, and elevator entrance.
Fang Zhiyi saw their car in one of the squares, and his face also appeared on the screen, clearly visible, giving people an awkward feeling.
He looked up, met the camera on the screen for a moment, then looked away and pushed open the door to the security room.
The door was closed and locked.
However, the lock on this pavilion was very simple. He reached his hand through the open window, stood on tiptoe to reach the doorknob, tried twice, then grasped the doorknob and pressed down. With a "click," the door opened.
The security booth was cramped, containing only a table and a chair. On the table were a computer, an open pack of cigarettes, and a pot of tea.
I touched the teacup and was surprised to find it was warm.
Did the security guard leave not long ago?
Fang Zhiyi's heart tightened, and she moved hastily, bending down to look at the computer screen.
The surveillance footage showed a dimly lit, quiet, and deserted parking lot with cars parked in their spaces, their windows blacked out, like pairs of empty eyes.
Hold the mouse, click on one of the cells, and zoom in on the monitored image.
The fire escape door was closed, with a cold white light leaking from the crack at the bottom. A sign reading "Emergency Exit" hung at the entrance, emitting a greenish glow.
Fang Zhiyi noted down the location of the fire escape, clicked the mouse, exited the monitoring screen, and then found the control button for the gate pole.
drop.
The gate arm was raised.
Fang Zhiyi was about to leave when she accidentally bumped into the chair behind her as she stood up. The clothes hanging on the chair fell to the ground with a soft thud.
He paused, bent down, opened his pocket, and found a set of keys.
The keys came in various sizes and were quite heavy. Each key was labeled: [Fire Exit A], [Fire Exit B], [Store], [Restaurant], etc.
With this set of keys, you can move freely in the parking lot.
Fang Zhiyi stuffed the key into his backpack, hurried through the gate, and after the two cars had passed, the gate went down with a "beep".
After going downhill and passing the last speed bump, we arrived at the underground parking lot.
The space below was airtight, with various pipes running overhead, emitting a rumbling sound and a strange aura. Turning on the high beams, a beam pierced the darkness, and a figure flashed past. Fang Zhiyi instinctively looked, only to see rows of empty parking spaces.
After driving around the -1 level and following the signs on the wall, they finally found the fire escape. Fang Zhiyi parked the car in the parking space by the entrance, and the group got out.
As soon as he got out of the car, Brother Cha asked, "Why is it so cold here?"
The greedy girl retorted, "Are you weak?"
"Damn, I'm not afraid!" He wanted to prove himself with his actions, but before he could prove himself, he sneezed violently and shuddered while hugging his arms.
Fang Zhiyi glanced at the weather.
The temperature in the underground parking garage was 27°C, far from cold. But judging from Brother Cai's expression, he touched his arm as if he felt the same way, found the key to the fire escape, and unlocked the lock hanging there.
Squeak—
Pushing open the door, I saw an incandescent light bulb hanging behind it.
The passageway and staircase were narrow and, because they hadn't been used for a long time, emitted a foul odor.
After walking up a few steps of stairs, a small door appeared in front of me.
The door was also closed; you needed to swipe a card to enter.
Fang Zhiyi took out the [Laboratory Access Card], swiped it on the card reader, and after a "beep" sound, the door opened automatically.
What appeared before me was a completely different world.
Clean and tidy, the walls and floor tiles radiate a soft white glow, and the long corridor stretches as far as the eye can see.
Fang Zhiyi carried the cooler and headed straight for the mission destination.
The area on the -1 floor was unexpectedly large, with one corridor connecting to another, winding and turning, all uniformly white, making you feel as if you were going in circles.
"Damn, this place is really weird," Brother Cai couldn't help but say.
Fang Zhiyi glanced at him: "What's so strange about it?"
Brother Cai: "You tell me, isn't it weird that there's not a single person in such a big area? Knowing how games usually are, a few monsters should be lying in ambush on us..."
Before he could finish speaking, a strange noise came from the other side of the corridor.
Fang Zhiyi: "..."
Brother Ca: "What I said came true..."
The greedy girl glared at him fiercely: "Shut up!"
Brother Ca quickly made a zipping motion with his mouth.
Heavy breathing came from the other side of the corridor, each breath forceful, as if trying to squeeze out all the air from the chest cavity.
Hoo-ha.
Hoo-ha-hoo-ha—
It felt cool on the back of my neck, like a breeze was blowing.
Fang Zhiyi: "..."
etc.
He realized something and slowly raised his head.
On the ceiling, an infected person wearing a white coat hung there, giving him a kind smile.
Mimic Infected Person
This group of infected individuals mimicked geckos, clinging to the ceiling and almost blending into their environment; as long as they didn't move, no one could spot them.
Fang Zhiyi discovered them.
Similarly, they also discovered the group of people who had broken in.
The mimic infected laughed from the bottom of its heart, its eyes narrowed into slits, its mouth stretched to its ears, from which a long, forked tongue extended, slurping as it nimbly stabbed at the person below.
Fang Zhiyi rolled over, supporting himself with one hand and looking up. A piece of tongue pierced the air with a "whoosh" and landed on the floor tile, cracking the mirror-like surface.
Tiles splintered and grazed my cheek, making my skin tighten.
The tongue is so destructive that it can even shatter tiles; if someone were to get entangled in it, the consequences would be unimaginable.
The corridor above was filled with mimicking infected, their tongues hanging down in dense rows, writhing and twitching in mid-air, a sight that sent chills down one's spine.
"Damn—" Brother Ca's scalp tingled. The tongue grazed his scalp, almost slicing off his skull. Luckily, the gluttonous girl punched it away, but even so, a large clump of hair was pulled out.
The man, utterly devastated and indignant, cried out, "I didn't have much hair to begin with! Damn it!!!"
Just as the tongue was about to be pulled out, he drew his submachine gun and fired directly at the ceiling.
Beep beep beep.
Bang bang bang.
Bullets fired continuously, and spent casings littered the ground, forming a dense barrage of fire. The corridor was instantly filled with the acrid smell of gunpowder.
It looked like a grand spectacle, with smoke billowing everywhere, but when they stopped, the ceiling was completely undamaged, and the bullets that were fired were caught by the tongues before they even hit the infected.
Brother Cha was stunned.
With his hands hanging down and his submachine gun lying on the ground, he was stunned by the scene before him and stood motionless.
The mimic infected person's neck turned 360°, its tongue curved like a snake, and its smiling face was pale with crescent-shaped eyes.
Strangely, they didn't rush to attack. They remained motionless on the ceiling, their tongues slurping incessantly, as if searching for something.
Fang Zhiyi realized that these mimic infected were mimicking reptiles such as geckos and chameleons. These reptiles have excellent dynamic vision and can catch flying flies and mosquitoes, but their dynamic vision is very poor. As long as they stand still, they cannot be detected.
Fang Zhiyi, with a gamble in mind, shouted, "Don't move!"
Brother Cha was stunned for a moment: "Isn't it suicide to not move?"
The gluttonous girl: "Stop talking nonsense! I told you not to move, so don't move!"
The guy stopped moving.
The mimic infected wandered around the corridor, searched for a while, and then lay down, retracted its tongue, closed its eyes, and merged back into the ceiling.
"Damn..." Brother Ca lowered his voice, "What's going on?"
Fang Zhiyi said, "Their eyesight is very poor; they can't see people who are not moving."
"It's good that you can't see..." He remained motionless for a minute, then couldn't help but ask, "Are we just going to stand here like this forever?"
Standing here indefinitely won't work.
Fang Zhiyi's eyes darted around, looking towards the other end of the corridor. To reach the destination and deliver the goods, they had to pass through this area of mimic infected, but any movement would attract their attention.
Unless... someone can distract these mimic infected.
Who can take on such a risk?
Chu Zhao said, "I'll go and distract them."
The greedy girl also spoke up, "I'll go with you."
Now that we've figured out the patterns of the mimic infected, we can simply lure them away and stand still to escape their attack range.
Fang Zhiyi shook his head: "It's too risky."
They are still completely clueless about the situation at Sun Umbrella Biotechnology Company. If they accidentally wander into an even more dangerous place while trying to lure away the mimic infected, they will only face certain death.
Not to mention, there's the possibility of a situation like the one in the commercial street—where infected individuals suddenly mutate and upgrade, rendering existing countermeasures ineffective, which would be even more troublesome.
Chu Zhao said, "These dangers are within a reasonable range."
Fang Zhiyi remained resolute: "No."
Brother Cha looked at this and then that: "So what do we do? Where can we find something that can move to attract these things?"
Fang Zhiyi realized what was happening.
No one needs to take risks; anything that moves or makes a sound can attract the mimic infected.
On a sudden impulse, he reached into the supermarket and pulled out a few... toys.
It's a battery-powered plastic toy that lights up, plays music, and moves.
Brother Cha's eyes widened: "What is this?"
Fang Zhiyi ignored him, put the toy on the ground, and then turned on the switch. The instant the switch was turned on, rhythmic music echoed in the corridor, colorful lights flashed, and the toy darted around in all directions.
The mimic infected opened its eyes and was immediately drawn to the plastic toy. It stretched out its limbs and quickly crawled to catch up with it.
Fang Zhiyi made a decisive decision: "Let's go!"
They seized the opportunity and rushed across the corridor.
At the end of the corridor is a door with a sign that reads "Room 0121". This is the delivery address.
Fang Zhiyi knocked on the door with his fingers.
Knock knock.
After waiting for a while, there was no response from inside.
Fang Zhiyi pushed the door open, revealing a mountain of documents and papers.
Is anyone there?
The sound echoed, but there was no one behind the desk.
Fang Zhiyi placed the cooler on his desk, glanced at the task, and saw that the task progress showed no signs of updating. It seemed that the goods had to be delivered to the recipient before the delivery task would be considered complete.
But... where did the recipient go?
Fang Zhiyi flipped through the documents on his desk. They were filled with densely packed text, all technical terms, which would seem like gibberish to a layman, making it impossible to understand a single word.
Fang Zhiyi felt dizzy after just one glance and threw the document aside.
Chu Zhao picked up the document on the table and glanced at it: "The office owner should be having a meeting on the 15th floor." He pointed to a section of the document, which listed the time, location, and content of the meeting.
[17:00, 15th Floor, New Biopharmaceutical Research and Development Meeting]
"There's a safe here! There's definitely something good inside!" Brother Cai's voice came from the other side.
Fang Zhiyi looked over.
Brother Ca is struggling with the safe, but it's locked tight and won't budge no matter how hard he tries.
"Damn!" Brother Crack let go of his hand in frustration.
Fang Zhiyi remembered that there was a safe key that had fallen from an infected person in her backpack.
[The safe in Room 0121 on the first floor of Sun Umbrella Biotechnology Company can be opened.]
He took out the key, inserted it into the keyhole of the safe, and turned it to the right.
Clatter!
The gears turn, and the lock cylinder springs open.
The room was enveloped in a golden light, and items began to fall from the sky.
[Received 1000 parts...]
The items were falling very slowly, which made people very anxious, not to mention the heavy footsteps coming from the corridor outside the door.
The footsteps grew louder as they approached, as if someone was dragging something along, and the ground trembled with each step.
The man, his mouth dry, said, "Damn... can you hurry up?"
The golden light was still swirling and emanating.
In such a situation, even the calmest person would have their heart racing.
Fang Zhiyi's fingers twitched, his palms were sweaty.
Bang!
Something was thrown on the ground.
The footsteps paused for a moment, as if sensing an intruder, and paced anxiously back and forth before finally locking onto the door at the end of the corridor and walking towards it.
Knock knock.
Every step felt like it was pounding on my heart, making my breath quicken.
Finally, a crisp "ding" sounded.
Another item fell out.
[Oil drum]
[It can be used to upgrade fuel tank capacity and increase your driving range]
Fang Zhiyi: "..."
Is it really normal for such a big bucket to be found in such a small safe?
Before I could even complain, the golden light continued to flash, and there was something else inside.
At the same time, the footsteps stopped outside the door, a shadow fell, blocking the light from the ceiling, and the outside became dark.
Fang Zhiyi held her breath.
It dinged again.
[Advanced Strength Potion]
[Boost your strength and unleash your potential in a short time, but there is a small side effect.]
【Cola】
[Stamina +50, Fun Doubled!]
Someone outside is knocking on the door.
The door was banged on loudly, and several obvious dents even appeared on the back of the door.
Brother Cai peered through the crack in the door, but before he could even make out what the person outside looked like, he felt the door suddenly go empty. A pair of hands lifted the door, and a huge figure appeared in front of him.
"Holy crap—the Hulk?!"
The person outside must have been 3 meters tall, with their head pressed against the ceiling. They could only hunch their backs and curl up into a ball, making their bodies appear even larger and more bloated. Their white coats were stretched to shreds and hung on their bodies. Their muscles were bulging and showed signs of surgical sutures, making one wonder if parts of various infected individuals had been sewn together.
[Giant Infected]
The more than 2-meter-tall gate was like a toy in the hands of the giant infected. With a single tug, it tore into pieces, crumpled up, and tossed aside.
He turned his head, his bloodshot eyes staring at the people inside the office, wanting to rush in, but was stopped outside because of his size.
"Awooo!"
The giant infected began to go berserk, its large hands gripping the door frame embedded in the wall, its shoulders straining as it tried to pry open a passage.
Brother Ca almost fell to the ground, staggering backward: "Is there any more?"
A bead of sweat slid down his forehead, and Fang Zhiyi swallowed hard.
The golden light flickered, suddenly becoming even more dazzling. Given the critical situation, the speed of the breaths actually slowed down.
bite!
Finally, the last item was expelled: a box full of good stuff.
【diamond】
[Very valuable, highly sought after by collectors... I wonder if anyone would use it to upgrade their car? It can make your car as durable as a diamond.]
Fang Zhiyi grabbed the diamond and stuffed it into his backpack: "Alright! Let's go!"
The giant infected is struggling against the wall, causing large sections of plaster to peel off and bricks to tumble to the ground.
Brother Cha: "How do we get out of here?"
Fang Zhiyi had already prepared an escape route: "The window!"
The office had a window that connected to the corridor. Fang Zhiyi grabbed the boss's chair, stepped onto it, straddled the windowsill, bent down, and crawled out.
He paused at the window for a moment, then jumped down and landed steadily on the ground.
Turning around, Chu Zhao also emerged. He reached out and pulled him back, and due to inertia, the two collided.
Their eyes met, and they smiled at each other.
Behind her, the gluttonous girl landed easily as well.
"Damn it! Wait for me!"
The boy struggled to squeeze out, but somehow got stuck in the window, stuck in a rut.
Looking again, the giant infected on the other side had already dug a passage wide enough to pass through. It looked around, locked onto a pair of legs that were constantly swaying, grinned ferociously, and pounced on them.
"wipe--"
Brother was sweating profusely. He pressed his hands against the window and tried his best to pull it out, but he was always just a little short.
"Give me your hand!" Fang Zhiyi stretched out his hand.
Brother Cha grabbed it and used it to climb out.
Thump!
The giant infected figure's footsteps fell, a mountain of documents was pushed aside, and snowflakes danced in the air.
A giant hand pierced through the snowflakes and reached directly towards the back half of the man.
The gluttonous girl: "I'll do it!"
Her figure suddenly expanded, grabbed Brother Cai's shoulder, and with a scream, the window shattered, pulling Brother Cai out of the window.
"Could you be a little gentler—"
The gluttonous girl: "You have so many demands."
The violent tremor interrupted their conversation. The giant infected, having lost its target, slammed into the window, cracks spreading across the wall before finally collapsing with a deafening roar. Amidst the billowing dust, the giant infected strode out.
The group looked at each other in bewilderment, and without saying a word, they took off running.
The gluttonous girl was still in a "binge eating" state, carrying the scooping boy up and down.
Brother Ca: "Ca...put me down, I can run by myself!"
The greedy girl let go, and the brother fell to the ground. He looked up and saw the giant infected figure falling. He scrambled and tumbled after the person in front of him.
"Girl, you should take me with you—"
Fortunately, the giant infected was slow due to its size and was further hindered by the winding corridors, so it was soon left behind.
Brother Ca was panting heavily, leaning against the wall, unable to speak.
The gluttonous girl regained her normal size but also fell into a weakened state, unable to use the same skills for a short period of time.
Fang Zhiyi caught her breath and said, "Let's go to the 15th floor."
Brother Ca and the gluttonous girl exchanged a glance and asked, "How do we get there?"
Good question.
In fact, Fang Zhiyi didn't know either.
But there's always a way out, so he thought for a moment and said, "Let's find the elevator to go up first."
They didn't encounter any more infected people on the way forward and found the elevator without any problems. However, the problem that stood in their way was still the same—they couldn't pass the iris recognition and therefore couldn't use the elevator.
Moreover, there are no stairs nearby to go up.
Fang Zhiyi frowned as he looked at the machine.
"We can't exactly catch an infected person and let them in, can we?" the guy said casually.
Fang Zhiyi's brows relaxed: "You're right."
"Huh?"
Fang's meaning: "We can use the iris of an infected person to open the door."
"Damn, I was just kidding, is it really going to work?" (Cracking Bro)
Fang's meaning: "How will we know if we don't try?"
Outside the elevator, an infected person wandered aimlessly, crawling here and there, slowly wriggling.
No need to go to work, no need to attend endless meetings, no need to be blamed by your boss, no need to deal with idiotic colleagues... Just empty your mind and enjoy a carefree life.
If only I could eat some fresh pig brains...
A faint thought flashed through the mind, and the infected person found themselves facing several people who had suddenly appeared in front of them.
Infected person: "..."
He was just saying it; he really didn't want to chase after anyone. He just wanted to lie here and relax.
But with people right in front of them, the infected person has no choice but to get up and fight.
He pretends to be fierce and then casually chases after them for a couple of steps. This will scare the group into running around in panic. Once they've run away, he can go back to lying down...
Thinking this, the infected person grinned dismissively, pretending to attack.
Unexpectedly, the group of people in front of them were not frightened at all. Instead, their eyes lit up and they rushed forward.
Infected person: "..."
etc.
Am I infected, or are you infected?
Don't come any closer! Ahhhhh!
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