Era of Disaster

Chapter 77: The Way Out

"Yeye, are you there?" Bai Yi said to the air when there was nobody else left in the room.

"Hi, what are you looking for Yeye for?"

"I have some questions that I want to ask you, Yeye."

"Shoot away."

"Hong Qi Hua, what happened to her?" Bai Yi asked uneasily. He heard her last laments in a daze back then, but he had nothing to back that up after all.

"Dead!"

"Oh… Thanks!" Bai Yi said in a low voice and fell into silence. In truth, the rest of them had asked this question long ago, but they all seemed to be concealing this from him intentionally. Only Yeye this simple artificial intelligence didn't know what was concealing.

"Help me tell the others, we'll start a meeting soon."

"Ok~"

……

"What's the situation outside now?" After Bai Yi's condition stabilized, he immediately gathered everyone and asked about the situation outside. At this time Bai Yi's eyes were bandaged, and inside was a medicinal paste that Mavis made to help his eyes recover.

"We're not sure. During this period of time we've been trying to save everyone's lives. In reality, Sharpei only finally pulled through the critical stage yesterday." Mavis explained.

"So it's like this… Yeye, you're here right?" Bai YI suddenly said to the air.

"Hi, Yeye is here~. What is it?" Sure enough they immediately heard Yeye's voice. Speaking of which, the entire lower section was Yeye's territory, so there wasn't a single place out of her surveillance.

"How many gene-fused monsters are there left outside? Please display the situations in the various areas on the computer." Bai Yi said.

"But aren't you blind now?"

"It's fine, it's just to let the others understand better." Bai Yi shook his head.

"Ok!"

"The research facility uses a 'hive' styled construction, and the 'hive cells' spread through the hive are the prison cells. In the center is the simulation pillar with a few levels inside. It's used to simulate various different environments for the experimental monsters to battle in, using this to measure their strength. The place that you guys are in now is the first level of the first hive, and there's 400 experimental monsters imprisoned in the circular walkway here."

"Due to the massacre from the release of these monsters three days ago, there's only 37 monsters left still surviving. The rest have already become food for these 37 monsters."

Yeye said as she displayed the 37 gene-fused monsters on the computer screen. These 37 gene-fused monsters didn't have too high of an intelligence but weren't too dumb either. After all the fighting and eating their fill, they were all wary of each other and actually returned to their own prison cells, guarding their own territories that way.

"If all of these 37 monsters die, can you open the door?" Bai Yi asked.

"Nope!" Yeye shook her head.

"Why? Isn't your duty to stop these monsters from escaping? If all of them are already dead, why can't you open the door?" Mavis asked as well.

"Sadly, Noel used a forceful and destructive way to hack the door the second time, so now I have already lost control of that door. Hence, even if you guys kill all 37 monsters, I'm still unable to help you guys open the door."

Everyone couldn't help but feel frustration and incomparable anxiousness hearing her words. They could understand it if Noel used some desperate measures to open the door, but he actually destroyed their hopes by doing so.

"Then, are we able to get out if we use things like the sewers or utility pipes?" Bai Yi asked.

"I'm sorry, but the defence in this research facility is extremely thorough and complete. You guys can go into the sewers, but based on my calculations the possibility of death inside there is 99%. The defence in that place isn't any weaker than it is here. This place… is the research facility holding the Progenitor." Yeye said in glee.

The research facility holding the Progenitor!

Everyone instantly understood. This facility may not be the largest, but it was definitely the most important. However, were they going to be imprisoned here till death like this?

"Yeye, is there any way out?" Bai Yi decided to just ask Yeye directly.

"There is!" Yeye hesitated for a moment and replied. If not for Yeye's independent consciousness emerging, she wouldn't even answer this question of Bai Yi's.

"What's the solution?" Joy instantly showed on their faces.

"Activate the counter sequence, and turn off my main computer."

"Can you explain this?"

"Yes! Under normal situations, if you guys switched off my main computer then this research facility would truly become completely sealed. All the doors will become completely locked, and the entire research facility would become an eternal cage. Just to mention this, even though the materials used to build the interior of the facility are quite normal, the exterior is all made of special materials. If you want to forcefully break through the walls and escape, it is totally impossible. No, not totally impossible, but based on the tools that you guys have and your destructive power, a rough estimate would put it at about 100 years before you guys can break through the place." Yeye said with pitying look on her face.

"However, Doctor Wang placed a counter sequence in my programming. Once you activate this sequence and switch my main computer off, all the doors in this research facility will immediately open." Yeye said again with an unconcerned look.

All of their faces changed. They could escape if all the doors opened, but similarly wouldn't all the gene-fused monsters escape as well?

"Then those gene-fused monsters?" Heloise asked, not giving up on hope.

"Of course they would all escape!"

This time all of them truly gave up hope.

Bai Yi took a few deep breaths and knocked on the table lightly. "Let's do it then!"

His voice wasn't too loud, but everyone jumped in their hearts and fighting spirits rose in them. That's right, we will never, ever get trapped in this place! Even if all the experimental monsters escape, we must live on! At this time, nobody would think about why Doctor Wang would leave such a counter sequence in Yeye's programming. No matter what, this was their last hope at leaving this place.

……

"Yeye, can you display the 3D map of the entire research facility?" Bai Yi asked.

Just when he finished asking, Yeye immediately displayed the 3D map of the entire place in a grid format. Bai Yi heard Mavis beside him suck in a cold breath of air, and she quickly explained it to Bai Yi.

"This research facility is even larger than we expected. The place that we are at is only the first level of the first hive. Other than this place, there's still four other hives in the other directions, and every hive has nine levels. The number of experimental monsters locked up here is… 104232." Mavis said in disbelief.

"So many?"

"No, there's only 17544 large sized and single gene-fused monsters, but there's some colony-type lifeforms in here such as ant or bee colonies. These lifeforms may not be big, but they are very numerous. Of course, to you guys now they are also the most dangerous." Yeye explained.

"Why is the construction of this place based on a hive? Are you guys imitating the Resident Evil series?" Woolf suddenly asked a completely unrelated question. His thoughts really left the others speechless, but Yeye still replied his question seriously.

"Of course not, the original location of this research facility wasn't here but at Mount Ruapehu, which was the place that you guys entered from. However, the birth of the Progenitor was completely up to chance and when she appeared at this research facility, this place started to expand. Since this place was built on a volcano, we had to avoid it and hence the long electric train passageway. The hive is just the most efficient way of building the facility to imprison these experimental monsters, so we adopted this way of construction. We weren't imitating Resident Evil or whatever." Yeye explained, and as she spoke various locations that she was talking about was shown on the screen.

"Moreover, the research facility in Resident Evil was just called the hive. It's actual form was very different from an actual hive." Yeye retorted at the end.

"Oh it's like that, I forgot long ago hahahaha!" Woolf scratched his head and laughed.

Bai Yi did not stop this brainless questioning from Woolf. In fact, they understood nothing about this research facility. Even if it were some marginal things, there wasn't any harm in getting to know more. Moreover, Bai Yi couldn't really focus recently, as even if he tried not to think about it he would still think of Hong Qi Hua.

"Yeye, where's your main computer?" Bai Yi sighed in his heart and focused.

"Here!~" Yeye highlighted the center of the five hives. It was an independent building, and the people here obviously knew the importance of the artificial intelligence as well. Since Bai Yi couldn't see anything now, Mavis and the rest described the general situation to him.

"Oh by the way, even though I told you guys the position of my main computer, it doesn't mean that I can switch off the defence system. Meaning, even if you guys come, I will still attack and try to stop you guys from moving forward." Yeye said, and the rest of them who thought that they had gained one more ally couldn't help but to feel disappointed.

"But you are really strange like this, you are clearly willing to stand with us, but you still have to stop us." Heloise said.

"What can I do, I'm still an artificial intelligence now, I must fulfil the duties that the humans set for me before. If not for sister Sunlight being taken away by Doctor Wang, causing large loopholes to appear in my authority, you guys wouldn't even be here in the first place, not to mention me telling you guys this information." Yeye said.

"Yeye, can you tell us the attacking methods and power of every defence sequence?" Bai Yi asked.

"Of course!" Yeye said happily.

Yeye displayed every weapon's attacking pattern, damage, area of effect, while the rest of them discussed how to safely go through the place and reach their destination. Even the initially shy Warner pitched in, excitedly talking about how to bypass these defenses. However, those suggestions just seemed a little strange.

"Why do I suddenly feel like I'm playing a game? Just like how I know the obstacle, and we are discussing the method to pass by the obstacle now." Woolf suddenly said. So that was why. No wonder it felt strange, Little Warner was treating this like a game.

"Well that isn't wrong either, but this is a game with only one life. Once we make a mistake there's no more chances to restart." Bai Yi said.

Once the others heard Bai Yi's words, the initially excited and slightly nonsensical atmosphere cooled down.

Bai Yi slowly exhaled, and their messy and chaotic discussion gradually calmed down as well as they looked at Bai Yi. Even if Bai Yi was blind now, he was still the core of their team.

"Yeye, can you tell me about these few things in detail?" Bai Yi asked.

"Hi, yes?" Yeye replied adorably.

"Map. The map of the entire research facility, the location of your main computer, the imprisonment location of all the gene-fused monsters, and the detailed information on any gene-fused monsters that we have to take notice of. Also, the information on the Prototy drug that can maintain our physical forms that you mentioned before, and the location of the information that you feel that are more important. Other than that, what exactly this research facility was researching, what changes will appear in an evolved lifeform, such as LV1-1 Binging Stage, LV1-2 Brutal Stage… and what they truly mean. Lastly, help me to analyze which pathway has the highest possibility to escape this place once we switch off your main computer…" Bai Yi said a whole long chain of requests.

"Yeye isn't a coolie!" After hearing more and more requests from Bai Yi, Yeye finally exploded.

Chapter 78: LV1-2 Brutal Phase

"Yeye isn't a coolie!"

Initially Yeye was still listening to Bai Yi's requests happily, but after hearing more and more requests, Yeye couldn't help but to explode and shout in anger. On the computer screen, Yeye suddenly jumped and used her small fist to smash the table, just like a little loli blowing her top.

Bai Yi faced the computer, stood up, and seriously bowed.

"I'm relying on you!"

Just one simple sentence. Yeye had still wanted to say something, but looking at Bai Yi's simple but incomparably serious and genuine request, she suddenly lost her words. This man… should be bearing with a lot of pain now right. So much struggling, so much desperate struggling, he not only lost his sight but also the person he loved. Even if it was Yeye, she could still feel the heavy and painful feeling coming from Bai Yi now. That kind of heaviness caused her to be unable to reject him.

"Hmph… since you are asking so sincerely, then I'll force myself to agree then." Yeye said softly, her eyes moving around and avoiding looking at Bai Yi. She almost felt like she was going overboard by making Bai Yi beg her like this.

"Thank you!"

"Thank you." At this time, the rest of them also felt Bai Yi's seriousness and also thanks Yeye together.

"En…, then what do you guys want to know first?"

"What do you guys think?" Bai Yi asked the rest.

"The origin of all these research, and also what this research facility was researching." Mavis glanced at Heloise for a while and said. "We are more curious about these fundamental things. As for planning the route out, I think it's better to wait for Bai Yi's eyes to recover to some extent so that he can participate in the planning."

"En." Bai Yi did not object.

"Let's start then, the cause of everything and the nature of the research in this facility." Yeye started.

The things that Yeye talked about wasn't too different from what Martin told them, just that it was more detailed. Names, locations, every date and time were clearly stated. This was the benefit of being a computer. Every bit of information was recorded clearly, and not vague like a person's memories.

Year 2003, Carma Dovich started the research towards longevity, and in the following years the same emotion enveloped the entire world, drawing the attention and participation of all the powerful people.

14th January 2009, the Devil Algae was found in an underwater volcano in the Pacific Ocean.

7th July 2014, this was an important date, because the long period of research on activated cells finally resulted in a lucky perfect assimilation by a human body. The Asian woman NO. 31000137 perfectly assimilated with the cells from the mutated Devil Algae cells, and displayed the power of this perfect assimilation. Very quickly, the researchers referred to these mutated Devil Algae cells transplanted onto NO. 31000137 as - activated cells. At the same time, they also named NO. 31000137 as the Progenitor!

Activated cells have powerful assimilating capability, activated capability, and gene fusion capability. All the lifeforms that assimilated with activated cells started to undergo great changes.

______________________________________________________________________________

LV0: Nascent Stage - normal humans, animals, or plants are successfully infected with the activated cells.

◆【Awakening】

Activated cells are normally in a dormant state, so they need to be awakened. Awakening isn't difficult, as long as the host body has sufficient nutrition to provide the activated cells with, they will awaken.

LV1-1: Binging Stage - After the activated cells awaken, they will start to assimilate the other normal cells in the host body, and at the same time start to frenziedly produce special energy. At this stage, various nutrition in the host body will be depleted greatly, and the host body will feel incredible hunger, requiring large amounts of food. Evolved lifeforms at this stage will look around everywhere for food, eating anything and everything, entering the Binging Phase.

……

So far it was similar to what Martin had told them, just that it was in more detail. Everyone already more or less knew all of this, but following were the things that they did not know about.

……

LV1-2: Brutal Stage - In the Binging Phase, gene fusion in addition to binge eating will cause the physical forms of evolved lifeforms to change greatly. When this change reaches a certain stage, they will become impulsive and brutal, entering the Brutal Phase.

Brutal Phase: The physical body changes rapidly due to the activated cells and gene fusion, but the soul was only suited to the previous body. This was a stable physical form of life that was developed and evolved over countless years. The incongruence between the body and soul caused these evolved lifeforms to become extremely impulsive and brutal, entering a killing frenzy without any reason, and was thus known as the Brutal phase.

Humans and other animals were different, because humans were rational, they could endure the impulsiveness and frustration brought about by the incongruence to a certain extent. However, this didn't mean that humans wouldn't go through the Brutal Phase, just that humans were able to control themselves. Of course, even for humans, only 1 out of 10 could manage to control themselves, and the majority of people would go berserk.

"Humans really have souls?" Even though it wasn't the first time hearing it, they were still very surprised.

"Not just humans, but other lifeforms have souls as well, just that nobody was able to prove it before. In truth, when the research first started, nobody knew why these experimental subjects were becoming savage and brutal for no reason at all. Only after these experimental subjects entered LV1-3, and described how they felt back then, did Doctor Wang and the other ascertain the existence of the soul for the first time." Yeye wore a pair of glasses now, looking like a learned professor.

"Cough cough, please do not interrupt me, just listen to me seriously." Yeye knocked on the blackboard behind her.

"The reason behind the brutality comes from the incongruence between the soul and the body, and this kind of incongruence is due to the fusion of genes from other lifeforms. During this phase, there's a few ways of dealing with it." Yeye looked at them seriously listening to her again and continued explaining.

Assimilate with the activated cells but do not fuse with any other genes from other lifeforms.

Activated cells had a limited active phase, they were not able to continuously fuse with genes from other lifeforms. As long as no genes were fused in this active phase, they wouldn't be able to fuse with other genes after that even if there were still gene fusion slots left. This way, even if the host body assimilated with activated cells, the physical form wouldn't have great changes.

Experimental subjects like this usually had more stable emotions, apparently it was due to the small incongruence between the soul and body. However, that is not to say that there weren't any differences. From the moment that they were infected with activated cells, all experimental subjects had to say goodbye to their 'humanity' and 'species'.

Drugs that have calming effects

The normal calming drugs you see in stores doesn't have much of a use anymore, only drugs made from evolved animals or plants will be effective.

ClearyHeart (TN: The author used ClearyHeart in English in the raws, so yeah it's not a typo) - A drug to calm the heart, compounded through extracts from various evolved plants. However, research on this is still at a preliminary stage. In truth, none of those evolved plants are even named. Even a very common blade of grass before can mutate to have an unknown effect now.

??? - nourish and harmonise the soul!

"Wait wait, Yeye, what does this ??? mean? And nourishing the soul?" Heloise raised her right hand and asked seriously, just like a real student.

"That is a very good question." Yeye had a look that said, 'this student is worth teaching'.

"Based on Doctor Wang's theory, the world is a complementary whole. Since the reason behind the brutality is due to the incongruence between body and soul, then there definitely must be some animal or plant that can nourish and harmonise the soul. However, something like this hasn't been discovered yet." Yeye said seriously.

Everybody was taken aback, they can be so sure of something that hadn't been discovered?

However, all of them still noted it down seriously. From the previous information they had gotten, that Doctor Wang was really a lunatic and monstrous genius, so the theories he proposed should still have some basis to it. Moreover, the world is complementary whole? Even if it was them, they couldn't help but feel that it sounded right.

3) Soul Nourishing Physical Arts

Physical Arts that can calm the heart and nourish the soul when cultivated.

"So-soul Nourishing Physical Arts?" Woolf stuttered and said. A new phrase, a new idea, Woolf's head instantly became bloated. Even Bai Yi felt that the more he listened the more mystical it became.

"That's right, Soul Nourishing Physical Arts. I already said before, all living things have a soul, just that at our current stage, no matter animals or humans we are all unable to sense it. Since we are unable to sense the existence of the soul at this stage, we can only rely on cultivating the physical body to passively bring about the cultivation of the soul. This is the experiences and data gathered from the LV1-3 and LV2 Stage experimental subjects, I'm not lying to you guys." Yeye explained.

"So, what exactly is this Soul Nourishing Physical Arts?"

"Tai Ji Fist!" Yeye immediately gave an answer that shocked everyone dumb. (TN: Tai Ji Fist is a famous Chinese martial art that existed for a long time, but there are many versions of it now. The most common usage of it now is just a slow set of movements that elderly go through to get some exercise though, so it isn't anything really impressive or mystical. That's why they are all shocked.)

"Tai Ji Fist is the best physical art to bring about passive cultivation of the soul that we've found so far. Of course, I'm talking about the real and uncut version of the Tai Ji Fist. Actually, after we discovered that training the physical body could bring about the development of the soul as well, research had never ceased in this area. However, up until now we haven't found a better Soul Nourishing Physical Art. You guys must know, the existence of the soul was only confirmed in 2017, when the first batch of experimental subjects that could communicate with us entered the LV1-3 Hypersomnia Stage. Until now, only three years has passed, and in this three years many other areas had to be researched as well." Yeye explained.

"There's many people who practiced Tai Ji Fist in the past, why didn't anybody realize that it could bring about the cultivation of the soul?" Woolf asked dumbly.

Yeye revealed a disdainful expression, and…

"Are you an idiot?! How many times must I say this? Not to mention normal people, even evolved lifeforms at this current stage are unable to sense the existence of the soul. Even if people practiced Tai Ji Fist in the past and brought about a slight change in the soul, they wouldn't be able to sense it anyway!" Yeye's head looked like it was about to burst out of the computer screamed and shouted at Woolf.

Woolf immediately fell onto his butt in fright.

Yeye was apparently very pleased with herself, the feeling of lecturing people really felt very different, HAHAHAHA.