Chapter 168 Hardened Zombies
November 25, 2025.
The base has been invaded by a "hardened zombie".
According to Song Heng, there were no such zombies near the Dawn Base. It was captured by the Dawn Base near Xinchuan. Due to scientific research needs, the Dawn Base shared zombie resources and remotely delivered one for research purposes.
This is the place where Lin Xi fell in her previous life. Lu Wei had communicated with the Dawn Base about the hardened zombies beforehand, so the team sent by the Dawn Base to Xinchuan in this life was prepared in advance, and the casualties were not so heavy. They even captured a few hardened zombies alive.
The hardened zombie, bound tightly with its hands and feet, sat stuck in the laboratory doorway—
All three teams need to study the hardened zombie, but only one of these strange creatures has been transferred over. Who should start the research first?
A similar dispute to the last one over receiving test tubes occurred again, except this time three professors personally got involved in the argument, while the younger members of the group stood by, their faces flushed with embarrassment.
The hardened zombie sitting in the cage rolled its eyes, looking at one side and then the other.
Lin Xi looked at the chaos and felt a terrible headache coming on.
She has never been good at arguing or talking, and Song Heng is even less so. If she could resolve the issue of whether the zombies would stay or leave through hand-to-hand combat, she would be happy to do so.
"What's going on?" A familiar, clear female voice rang out.
Lin Xi turned her head and saw that the person who came was Xiang Xin.
She was dressed in a neat military uniform, with short, jet-black hair that reached her ears, and she looked very upright and spirited.
A person should be looked at with new eyes after three days of separation; Xiang Xin had completely changed.
It was only when Lin Xi smiled that Lin Xi realized that this was still the same Xiang Xin.
The two hadn't seen each other since entering the base, but had kept in touch via their phones. When they met this time, Xiang Xin couldn't help but smile, and she quickly ran to Lin Xi.
"This zombie was brought here by our team!"
Lin Xi smiled and praised, "Amazing."
Xiang Xin happily introduced to her, "I've joined the army with Brother Lu now, and I'm a soldier!"
She raised her hand to salute Lin Xi, who subconsciously thought that hand would be clenched into a fist and placed on her heart, and then she would hear the familiar, groaning slogan. But it turned out not to be like that at all.
Xiang Xin raised her hands together, pointing her index finger at the sun in a very standard salute.
This surprised Lin Xi, but she was still very pleased and couldn't help but raise her hand to pat Xiang Xin's hair and praise her.
The next moment, Xiang Xin turned to look at the scientists and professors arguing heatedly, "What exactly are you doing?"
Lin Xi sighed helplessly: "They're fighting over ownership of this zombie."
"Need any help?" Xiang Xin asked, puzzled, but she patted Lin Xi on the back. "Now I can protect you!"
She was very excited.
Lin Xi paused, her hand, which was about to pat Xiang Xin on the head as a sign of praise.
Good, good, the child has grown up and become successful.
In this life, there was never a Xiang Xin who followed Lin Xi around calling her "Sister Xi" repeatedly; there was only a Xiang Xin who tried to be an older sister.
Song Heng had worked his way up at the Nanhua Biological Research Institute for most of his life, but he never expected to be suppressed by two other teams after arriving at the lab.
Although everyone is doing scientific research and contributing to humanity, there is still an invisible hierarchy of contempt. Those who do academic research always value achievements. Although the other two labs have not developed a drug to destroy the zombie virus, they have made some small progress. Song Heng's side has not made any progress. In addition, Song Heng has been burying himself in his work and has no ability to manage interpersonal relationships, so he has gradually fallen to the bottom of the three labs.
The battle against the hardened zombies was quickly lost.
This was the first time Lin Xi had ever witnessed such a heated debate among highly educated individuals. If it weren't for the fact that this zombie's entire body was hardened and indestructible, the three laboratories would probably have dismembered it and distributed the pieces among their respective labs for research.
If they were to be divided into eight pieces, Song Heng would probably get two pieces, and the other two professors would each get three pieces. That was Lin Xi's prediction.
Of course, the zombies weren't dismantled; they were still being studied in rotation.
The first step was scanning in the imaging room. Nearly a hundred staff members crowded in, and there wasn't enough room to stand. Lin Xi could only rely on her height to see the scan results from a distance.
The zombie's skeleton is dark in color and extremely dense, making it very difficult to destroy.
Then each laboratory sends people to collect samples and bring them back to their respective laboratories for research. The zombies themselves are then circulated among the samples, and only the last one is passed on to Song Heng's laboratory.
The virus inside the hardened zombie's brain is the same as that of a normal zombie, but its body contains many elements that the human body does not have, and its bones have a much higher calcium content than that of a normal human.
Looking at the test results, Song Heng said to Lin Xi, "Is this the hardened zombie you mentioned before?"
Lin Xi nodded, then asked, "Teacher, I remember you said that zombies wouldn't suddenly have elements that humans don't possess. Now look at this zombie..."
“It’s not natural evolution,” Song Heng answered decisively. “It’s the result of human intervention.”
Lin Xi also had this conjecture, including the idea that the other type of zombie carrying radiation, as mentioned by Lu Wei, was also the result of human intervention.
Although it had been suspected for some time, the moment it was confirmed was still quite startling.
Some people create zombie viruses to spread poison, while others modify zombie genes to invent mutated zombies, making things more difficult for humanity.
While there's no clear direction for vaccines or drugs to combat the zombie virus, this mutation is much easier to detect.
All the laboratories have come to the same conclusion: the hardened zombies are the product of human intervention. They are not naturally occurring aberrant species, and their brains do not contain any undamaged cells. Therefore, they are of almost no reference value to Song Heng's research project.
These zombies are much more powerful than ordinary zombies, and the cold weapons and firearms used by the military are no longer effective. It is urgent to produce corresponding chemical weapons.
The consequence of this discovery was that the other two labs became even more arrogant, and their research directions became even more important.
Lin Xi had planned to do scientific research, but she hadn't anticipated what kind of mentor she would choose or what research direction she would take.
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