Chapter 1540: Early Berserk
Following the spasmodic movements of the two Reapers and bomb disposal experts, the four corners of the innocuous treatment workshop also sounded a hurried alarm.
The high-frequency flashing red lights added a bit of tension to the already unstable underground s.p.a.ce.
The two Reapers and bomb disposal experts smashed a red b.u.t.ton next to the autopsy table.
Behind the autopsy table, at the end of the workshop, a thick steel plate as thick as a bank vault door had been embedded with a large number of rivets. It was pulled along the sliding rail by a hinge that was as thick as an arm, and it slowly slid into the reinforced concrete wall that was more than three meters thick. There, another deep and dark tunnel was revealed.
At the end of the tunnel, the faint howls of a monster could be heard.
The strong smell of blood was like raging flames that almost overwhelmed both of them.
Both of them were focused on Team One, which was about to lose control.
They did not notice that before they entered the tunnel and closed the steel plates, a ghostly figure had sneaked in as well.
It was not the tunnel that the researchers used to enter and exit on a daily basis.
It was a tunnel that was used to transport experimental subjects, or more accurately, monsters.
The reason was, many of the monsters were as large as mountains.
The tunnel had also been built to be exceptionally s.p.a.cious.
During the transportation process, some of the monsters would constantly struggle, spew out blood and acid, as well as burn and erode the tunnel’s walls until they were mottled and riddled with potholes.
As a result, there were not many surveillance devices that could remain there for three days in one piece.
That greatly facilitated Meng Chao’s hibernation and stealth.
He followed the two Reapers and bomb disposal experts like a shadow.
After turning two corners, several forks appeared in front of them, leading to different project teams and research labs.
Right then, with the alarms sounding more and more rapidly, countless workers in airtight suits rushed out of their own research labs toward Team One to provide them support. They were carrying exoskeletons on their backs and were armed to the teeth.
In their anxious state, no one noticed that Meng Chao was not one of them. He was also wearing airtight protective suits and covering his mouth, nose, eyes, and ears.
The howls of the monsters ahead became increasingly shrill and intense.
The tremors caused by the monsters. .h.i.tting the walls and floors also violently tore web-like cracks on the top of the tunnel.
Plenty of dust and gravel fell from the cracks and smashed onto the rescuers’ heads.
Black smoke, thick fog, b.l.o.o.d.y light, and spirit flames made everyone’s faces dirty, and they could not distinguish each other.
Meng Chao heard many researchers cursing and gnashing their teeth.
They cursed the laboratory’s director for being inhumane. He only cared about the results of the experiments and did not care about the researchers’ lives.
In the past six months, countless researchers had died or been injured in similar experiments. The monsters had gone out of control.
They might have been cursing, but they never slowed down.
After all, they were all in the same boat.
If the monsters that had gone out of control escaped, who knew how big of a tragedy it would cause in the underground laboratory?
Even if they could survive it, once the underground laboratory was exposed because the monsters had gone out of control, they would at least have their license revoked for conducting forbidden experiments.
They would be banned from relevant industries for life and engaging in related research, ending their academic lives.
At worst, they would be punished by the law and end up imprisoned for life.
Besides, everyone had been conducting forbidden experiments that were equally dangerous.
There was a possibility for everyone’s subjects to lose control, go berserk, and self-destruct.
No one wanted their subjects to go berserk on their own.
So, while the researchers were complaining and cursing, they whirled into the largest research room at the end of the tunnel.
Rather than a standard laboratory filled with bottles and jars, it was more like a huge monster arena.
The s.p.a.ce was half the size of a basketball court. In theory, it was enough to accommodate most monsters below the h.e.l.l level. They could flex their muscles and bones there.
However, the reinforced concrete walls that were densely covered in steel cones and even high-voltage power grids were still left with shocking traces of monster collisions and scratches.
Many of the scratches were like small craters, and they were filled with radial cracks from the inside out.
Many of the scratches were deeper than half an arm.
If scratches of the same power were applied to a tank, they could easily tear the tank’s front armor in half.
At the center of the “monster arena,” there were seven control devices that looked like giant medical cabins.
The medical cabins, or in other words, cultivation tanks, were more than five meters long and more than three meters wide. They were filled with a thick, dark-green potion that possessed a strange fragrance.
In addition, Demonic Halberd Pigs were floating in the dark green potion, which was bubbling inside the tanks, and hundreds of tubes were connected to them.
One end of the tubes was connected to the Demonic Halberd Pigs’ blood vessels, bone marrow, and neural network.
The other end that extended beyond the culture tanks was connected to dozens of metal tanks that were marked with “biochemical danger” signs.
Meng Chao smelled very strong ingredients that could calm the mind and relax the muscles from the dark green potion.
It seemed that it was something similar to a hibernation potion.
It could greatly reduce the monsters’ metabolism and keep them in a deep sleep for a long time, thus reducing consumption and making control, as well as transport, easier.
However, before the earthquake that Chao Meng had created, the researchers there had already diluted the concentration of the hibernation potion.
They had injected a large amount of dangerous gene potions, including G.o.d Transformation 9.0, through several hundred catheters into the Demon Halberd Pigs’ bodies.
Then, they had probably used simple and crude methods such as bioelectric stimulation to wake the Demon Halberd Pigs up from their deep sleep, causing them to enter a state of excitement and even fury.
Usually, such “activation” would be controllable.
However, the spirit magnetic storm that had been triggered by the artificial earthquake caused the Demonic Halberd Pigs to enter a state of excitement and fury at a speed and degree that far exceeded the researchers’ expectations.
In addition, the earthquake had a negative impact on the entire underground laboratory’s overall structure and defense system.
As a result, the researchers were somewhat caught off guard by the Demonic Halberd Pigs’ sudden state of frenzy.
At that moment, the furious Demonic Halberd Pigs were ramming into the ten cultivation tanks.
Looking through the side of the cultivation tanks and the observation window inlaid with tempered gla.s.s, Meng Chao discovered that all the Demonic Halberd Pigs were erupting with mutations visible to the naked eye.
They had originally been “little white pigs” without tusks, manes, and hard skin during the embryonic stage thanks to gene knockout technology.
Now, these little white pigs had taken on the most primitive, brutal, and barbaric appearance of their ancestors in just a few minutes or dozens of seconds.
Some of the little white pigs had tusks that were as sharp as those of the Tyrant Mammoths protruding from the sides of their noses.
As the tusks tore through their faces, their originally harmless “cherry mouths” were ripped all the way to the ears, turning into a b.l.o.o.d.y mouth full of sharp teeth.
Some of the little white pigs grew a layer of dense, incomparably sharp mane. Their manes emitted a faint metallic l.u.s.ter, and there were even barbs at the end of their manes. With just a light rub against a human body, a large piece of b.l.o.o.d.y flesh could be torn off.
Other little white pigs even grew scales and carapaces that did not belong to a Demonic Halberd Pig, turning themselves into monster warriors in armor.
No matter what form they turned into, these Demonic Halberd Pigs’ were filled with explosive power. It was as if they were driven by endless pain while they crashed into the interior walls of the cultivation tanks.
Including the gene reagents, the cultivation tanks that weighed more than ten tons swayed like empty matchboxes in a violent wind under the Demonic Halberd Pigs’ impact.
Crisscrossing spider web cracks began to appear on the observation windows of several cultivation tanks. They would shatter at any time.
A few cultivation tanks also resembled lone boats in a stormy sea. They were at risk of capsizing.
Finally, an exceptionally strong Demonic Halberd Pig with scars all over its body and a protruding spine that looked like the sharp bone plates of a stegosaurus smashed into the observation window on one side of the cultivation tank. Then, it used its sharp claws to lean on the edge of the observation window. It tore the tank’s outer sh.e.l.l, which was made of super-strong alloy, into pieces before it crawled out.
At the same time, another thin monster with shiny scales all over its body finally overturned its cultivation tank after repeated violent shaking. It did not look like a Demonic Halberd Pig but more like a mutated crocodile. It took the opportunity to flip over the cover and crawled out!