The way the four people were fleeing for their lives made Xu Nuo, who was sitting quietly in the car, raise his eyelids slightly.
Xu Ding was dead, so Xu Nuo simply gave up and didn't bother to solve the puzzle or even ask Dr. Zhao why he hadn't come up.
Dr. Han, still shaken, exclaimed, "Wasn't that fish dead? How did it come back to life? Even bullets couldn't hurt it!"
No one answered his question, but Xia Chuhe and Lu Dangui had some guesses—
The mutated, immortal fish reminded them of the mutated beasts of the wasteland.
"Dr. Han, I didn't expect you to be so skilled. Have you studied martial arts?" Xia Chuhe tried to get information out of him.
"Ah...no, in a life-or-death situation, unleash your potential."
The tracked vehicle traveled a long distance, and the long-lived fish did not catch up, so the group gradually relaxed.
Dr. Han even stopped the car, got out, and closed the carriage door.
With enough fuel, the group headed to the research institute as quickly as possible.
Dr. Han's messages to the institute went unanswered. He asked Qi Zhen, "Director, haven't you received any messages from the other researchers either?"
Qi Zhen frowned: "No."
Xia Chuhe, in the driver's seat, suddenly braked: "Is there something ahead?"
In the distance, neon lights flickered, standing out starkly against the polar night.
The neon sign is divided into two parts, with the largest part containing only three letters – SOS.
The smaller print below was filled with things like "octopus" and "nerve regeneration." If Xia Chuhe hadn't been an evolved being, he would never have been able to decipher what the smaller print meant.
Qi Zhen then repeated the contents of the small print: "Application of nerve regeneration in cephalopods, using octopuses as a sample, in the treatment of spinal cord injury..."
Qi Zhen leaned forward excitedly: "Stop the car! Stop the car! No, let's go check it out!"
“This is Team Leader Sun’s research topic…” Dr. Han murmured.
The fact that the neon lights resembled Team Leader Sun's research topic suggests that he might be nearby. Finding him would reveal what happened at the research institute and allow them to ascertain the whereabouts of other colleagues.
The tracked vehicle drove toward the flashing neon lights.
When the two were about 100 meters apart, Xia Chuhe braked again.
"The neon lights are completely suspended in mid-air without any support; something's not right. Do you think it's possible to do this by human power alone?"
Dr. Han: "What do you suggest we do?"
Xia Chuhe: "Let's try throwing something over there."
Xia Chuhe went to the back of the car to find something, while Lu Dangui stood by the door to keep watch for her.
The back compartment contained a lot of food that wasn't vacuum-packed, and the others didn't dare to eat it. Xia Chuhe used the food as pebbles to test the waters.
The food seemed to have hit something, and the neon lights flickered.
Neon lights need electricity, so it's normal for food to shake if it hits something like electrical wires.
However, after the attack by the immortal fish, Xia Chuhe doubted the existence of mutated beasts, and his heart was always heavy, making him unable to believe anything strange.
"Let's take a detour first. If nothing goes wrong, we'll come back later," Xia Chuhe said decisively as he sat back in the car.
Qi Zhen sighed, "I'll listen to you."
There were ten of us when we arrived, but now there are only five left. It's wise to be cautious.
The tracked vehicle turned and took a detour, leaving the neon lights behind as they grew dimmer.
Dr. Han couldn't help but grumble, "We're almost at the research institute. I know this place quite well. Why are you asking so many questions? Do we have enough fuel to take a detour back?"
Xia Chuhe also felt that he might be being paranoid, and was about to turn in the nearest direction.
The dim neon lights suddenly shone brightly, moving at high speed, desperately chasing after the tracked vehicle.
The word "sos" was completely replaced by smaller text, with lines of smaller text constantly changing and scrolling.
Qi Zhen stared intently at the small print: "This is Xiao Gao's research project, and also Xiao Jiang's, and Xiao Qi's..."
Many of the institute's research projects are classified, and few people know about them except for the researchers in charge of the projects and the institute director.
What exactly are these neon lights?
How do we know about the researchers' research topics?
Xia Chuhe remained silent and floored the accelerator.
"Can we go any faster?" Dr. Han changed his tedious tone. "Should we change course? If we drive towards the research institute, I'm afraid we'll attract this strange thing there."
"Stop the car." Xu Nuo, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke up. "My abilities have returned."
The moment he spoke, Xu Nuo unleashed a powerful aura.
Xia Chuhe also felt a powerful force within his body, and his supernatural abilities were fully restored.
Unable to gauge the extent of the neon lights, Xia Chuhe didn't want to stop the car carelessly: "It proves you have the ability to kill it."
Xu Nuo snorted coldly, turned his head to stare at the rear window, his eyes shooting out a violent white light.
The white light pierced the car window and shone directly at the relentlessly pursuing neon lights, causing them to sway violently and dim their light.
Xu Nuo said, "Turn around and give chase!"
Xia Chuhe made a dramatic turn, transforming from prey into hunter.
Xu Nuo opened the car door and stood beside it.
Lu Dangui secretly grew an extra arm: "Are you sure you can handle it? If not, then get out of the way."
"Don't rush us, let's wait for the cooldown."
A moment later, Xu Nuo's eyes flashed like lightning, and a beam of white light shot again towards the spot where the neon lights had disappeared.
Not long after, a painful roar resounded through the sky.
After a long while, the polar regions returned to silence.
Lu Danggui quietly retracted the unfinished parts.
Xia Chuhe drove the tracked vehicle to the spot where the neon lights had gone out. Dr. Han looked at Xu Nuo with evasive eyes, clutching the sample box and not daring to get off.
Xu Nuo mocked him: "Weren't you just looking for your colleagues? What, you're giving up at the first sign of trouble?"
Dr. Han hesitated for a moment, then decided that since the danger had passed, it wouldn't hurt to go and take a look.
Qi Zhen was more interested in Xu Nuo's special abilities and kept pestering him with questions.
Xu Nuo ignored her.
Qi Zhen had no choice but to jot down these questions in his memo, his inquisitive gaze fixed on Xu Nuo, wondering how he could get this person into the research institute so he could study him...
The group found a strange octopus where the neon lights disappeared.
The octopus's head was bizarrely large, making its eight normally sized legs look like tiny sticks supporting a giant balloon.
Qi Zhen lifted one of the octopus tentacles: "There's a number on the tentacles, it's... a sample from the research institute! How did it become like this?"
Xia Chuhe lifted up the other octopus leg, showing everyone the sharp teeth on it: "It has mutated."
If the longevity fish only gave Xia Chuhe a hunch, then this octopus was solid evidence.
The sudden return of superpowers, and the mutated immortal fish and octopus, all point to the same fact—
The polar regions are being transformed into another wasteland for some unknown reason.
This also explains Qi Zhen's abnormality. She didn't have a fever, nor did she come back from the dead. Instead, she suddenly awakened her superpowers and became an evolved being.
Dr. Han's outburst at the critical moment of life and death is another piece of evidence.
Xu Nuo looked at the teeth on the octopus's feet, then suddenly took out a dagger and cut open the octopus's head, from which came out disgusting remains of limbs.
Xu Nuo rummaged through them without noticing anything, until he found an arm with a tattoo.
He suddenly burst into tears.
Qi Zhen went back to the carriage and got a pair of anti-corrosion gloves, then rummaged through the inside as well.
Work ID, watch, necklace, pendant...
These are all items that her colleagues used to wear.
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