BC Chapter 55

When He Linglong arrived at the research institute after evading zombies all the way, it was already noon the next day.

She pulled out a bag of small bread rolls from her backpack, tore it open and held it in her mouth. While chewing the bread, she pulled out her employee ID from the side of her backpack and placed it at the access control reader of the research institute’s main gate on the first floor.

“Beep beep.” The electronic sound of identification rang, and the gate opened to both sides with a whoosh. He Linglong smoothly entered the lobby on the first floor of the research institute.

The usually bustling lobby was now so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. The bright sunlight from outside shone in, and small dust particles floated in the beams of light. He Linglong cautiously bit into the remaining half of her bread, reached into her coat, and pulled out an all-black handgun from under her armpit.

This was a Czech CZ 85B 9mm handgun, with a magazine capacity of 15 rounds, good performance, and durability. He Linglong had bought it from abroad through special channels after retiring from the military. After all, as a former soldier, she had an inseparable affection for these things, so she spent a high price to buy one. Originally, she never thought that this thing would ever come in handy in her lifetime, but she truly experienced the impermanence of life.

Opening the safety, holding the gun with one hand and supporting the bottom with the other, He Linglong’s military boots made “clatter clatter” sounds on the marble floor of the lobby, but the sound did not attract any living creatures. She scanned around sharply and waited for a while. Seeing that there was indeed no danger here, she put the safety back on the gun, put it directly in her pocket, and then quickly walked to the reception desk, unloaded her backpack, took a bottle of milk tea from the small refrigerator next to the front desk, unscrewed the cap, held the bread in one hand and the bottle in the other, and sat on the high chair at the front desk to eat and drink.

The first-floor gate of the research institute had an independent power supply system to ensure that the staff would not be locked out in case of an accidental power outage, so it was connected to an additional solar power supply. This was why He Linglong was still able to open the gate even in this situation. But the situation was different inside the first floor. All the places with sockets and power connections were already in a state of power outage, including the elevator leading to the underground laboratory.

Therefore, He Linglong, who was going to go down later, could only take the fire escape staircase.

After He Linglong finished eating and drinking, she cleaned up the garbage and threw it in the trash can. Then, she clapped her hands, pulled her mask up again, took out a strong flashlight, and put her backpack back on. Holding the gun in one hand and the flashlight in the other, she walked down the stairs behind the fire door towards the underground…

…

Just as He Linglong had expected, she didn’t encounter any danger in the stairwell and easily arrived at the entrance to the second basement floor.

Because the first basement floor of the research institute was the changing room and disinfection area for researchers, there was nothing worth He Linglong’s in-depth understanding. So she went directly to the entrance of the second basement floor. From here, she could find the data and written materials that the researchers in various positions usually studied. If she was lucky, she should also be able to find ID cards to continue going down in some researchers’ drawers.

The underground area of the research institute was quite vast. He Linglong didn’t know the specific size, but she had heard the old researchers in the institute say that it was about the same size as an ordinary university campus, but that wasn’t the area of several floors added together, but only the area of one floor.

During her work here, He Linglong’s daily commute route was fixed. Eight passenger elevators were located in the middle, going back and forth between the ground and underground. Usually, researchers took the two elevators in the same direction as their work location. Four freight elevators were located in the four directions of the research institute, responsible for transporting test materials and various research facilities, equipment, and the necessary materials.

As for how many researchers there were in the research institute, He Linglong didn’t know either. The contract she signed when she joined the company included that she could not arbitrarily inquire about any topics related to the research institute and unrelated to her work, which was the so-called confidentiality clause.

She only knew a few researchers who were Docking with her research project. The rest were just some ordinary staff, such as security guards, cleaners, and front desk receptionists.

Although the place of work was full of mystery, because many companies nowadays paid more attention to protecting the company’s trade secrets, He Linglong didn’t feel anything wrong at first. Moreover, the place where they worked was a research institute with more commercial value than a company. This level of confidentiality measures was reasonable in the eyes of all staff, so no one suspected or questioned anything.

It wasn’t until He Linglong’s workplace moved from the second basement floor to the third basement floor that she came into contact with more research data and realized that the project she had done before was just a prelude to some kind of special research.

The research institute was indeed doing research on improving human lifespan, immunity to diseases, and the extreme development of physical strength and intelligence, but it was doing more than that.

…

As the “beep beep” identification sound rang, the heavy-duty special door of the second basement floor laboratory made three consecutive “ka da ka da ka da” sounds, indicating that the door had been opened for He Linglong. Because she had the authority for the third basement floor, entering and exiting the second basement floor became very easy. However, although the research institute allowed personnel from the third floor to stay and move around on the second floor, they were not allowed to disturb the work of other researchers at will. Therefore, each research room of about 100 square meters had an independent access control system. Except for upper-level personnel related to the project and researchers of the same level, the cards of other people could not open the doors of research rooms unrelated to their work.

Fortunately, it could be seen that because the virus outbreak happened suddenly, many people did not have time to lock the doors of their respective research rooms when they received the emergency evacuation notice, so many research rooms were in a state of chaos with the doors open.

After He Linglong opened the special door, she went inside and moved a rectangular table more than one meter long from the nearest research room. She used it to jam the door she had just entered because she didn’t know what she would encounter if she continued to go deeper inside, so she had to be prepared to withdraw from here at any time.

When He Linglong first entered, she found that the original air circulation and purification system in the laboratory had been turned off. The entire enclosed space had a musty smell of stagnant air, so she blocked the entire door open to allow some exchange of air inside and outside.

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