Apocalypse King System
Chapter 166 166: Underground Research Facility (2)

"Your strength is getting more and more impressive..." Derick looked with keen interest at the decisive and domineering girl.

"Ah~ Yes, it's all thanks to the master..." The girl who had seemed somewhat intimidating moments ago, upon hearing the master's praise, suddenly became shy and stammered, blushing and lowering her head. It seemed she felt a bit embarrassed, yet she was secretly delighted.

"All right, let's go..." Derick smiled, choosing not to tease the shy female warrior but heading towards the direction of the research facility.

As for needing guidance? Absolutely unnecessary. They didn't know the location of the base before, but now that they did, there was no need for someone to lead the way. Let these scum die peacefully.

All the hundreds of men were dead, none spared. In the eyes of these female warriors, they all deserved to die, and Derick naturally showed no mercy.

The women followed behind their leader. The distance of eight hundred meters was quickly covered. Sensing the underground research facility, Derick walked into what appeared to be an ordinary supermarket. Soon, he found the entrance to the underground passage.

Leading the way, Derick kicked open the steel door of the basement, entered, and found a long corridor. The underground was not dark; in fact, it was exceptionally bright. Perhaps it was due to the absence of people. The research facility seemed deserted and spacious. Thanks to Derick's forceful entry, the alarm sounded, but with a burst of lightning-based abilities, the alarm was instantly silenced.

Whether it was lightning-based abilities or magnetic field abilities, dealing with these alarms was a minor issue.

Derick led the group of women, encountering no obstacles. He pushed open the innermost door and quickly scanned the area, spotting a figure busy at work.

Watching the man, who seemed to be writing something, with his back turned to Derick and leaning on the office desk, he didn't even notice the recent alarm. Derick didn't rush to approach; instead, he scanned the vast research facility. Dozens of incubation tanks were placed inside, each containing what appeared to be zombies.

However, Derick wasn't certain how many of them were genuine zombies and how many were once living individuals transformed into zombies later.

"Crack... Click~ Roar~"

A strange sound caught Derick's attention. Following the noise, he saw two figures tightly restrained with abdominal bands on two sickbeds. They seemed to be both alive and turning into zombies, hence Derick's uncertainty. He could sense that these two individuals were slowly transforming into zombies, a process almost observable to the naked eye.

One of them was almost fully a zombie, while the other retained some human rationality, indicating a less severe zombification.

Without a doubt, these two people had been subjects of human experimentation, and the mastermind behind it all was the man hunched over the office desk.

Derick had already passed his judgment on this man. He walked over, casually picked up two folders, opened them, and the first page that met his eyes made his head spin.

[Feasibility Report on the Fusion of Zombie Virus and Human Body]

"Subject: Time Required for Zombie Virus Infection to Manifest Symptoms."

"Injection of the complete zombie virus into the human body resulted in infection times of 10 minutes for adults, 5 minutes for the elderly, 8 minutes for children, and 7 minutes for women. Due to variations in constitution, the time from infection to complete transformation fluctuated by two minutes. After conducting 100 cases, the experimental process was confirmed with an error margin not exceeding 1 minute.

Zombie Virus Dilution Experiment: Diluting the zombie virus tenfold reduced the infection speed in the human body. After 81 human tests, the virus infection process was identified as irreversible. The longest survival time in live experiments was 3 hours and 21 minutes.

The folder was densely packed with experimental procedures and reports, leaving Derick in inexplicable shock and horror. As the man continued to focus on his work, oblivious to Derick's presence, Derick's gaze swept over the cluttered desk, revealing several other folders.

'Zombie Taming Experiment Report.'

'Principles of Zombie Movement and Energy Supply Report.'

Folders adorned with various labels were scattered everywhere, and Derick experienced, for the first time, the terrifying reality of a scientific madman.

With so many folders and reports, and the majority involving live experiments, it became evident that at least hundreds of individuals had been used by this man for live experiments. No wonder they say the most fearsome aspect of the apocalypse isn't the zombies but humanity itself.

Reflecting on this, Derick gained a renewed understanding, finding the leaders of those large factions enslaving women less threatening compared to the man before him. They seemed like harmless lambs in comparison."

The man before him could only be described as utterly insane, a devil disguised in human skin. Derick considered himself ruthless, but he had never entertained the idea of torturing ordinary people. Even those who offended him usually met a swift end with a single strike, without reaching the nauseating levels displayed by this man.

The military backing this man disturbed Derick deeply, sparking a sense of revulsion within him. The extent to which this man could commit such atrocities was undoubtedly related to the support he received from the military, perhaps even orchestrated by them.

These people were truly deranged!

Casually closing the folder and tossing it onto the table, Derick's actions finally disturbed the man engrossed in his work. Yang Yiping, furrowing his brows, despised Qian Dajun the most for interrupting his thoughts during research. This time, it was particularly egregious, as they dared to haphazardly throw his crucial research reports.

"I've told you before, I didn't call for you. Are my words falling on deaf ears?"

With a stern expression, Yang Yiping looked up and noticed that the situation was different from what he had imagined. Staring at the ice-cold man before him, Yang Yiping's eyes flickered with confusion.

"Who are you?" he demanded, his gaze hostile. "And how did you get in here? There's no one from Qian Dajun around, and so many unfriendly-looking women have infiltrated the research facility. It seems there was a battle. I have a bad feeling about this."

"We don't need you to know who we are. I just want to understand—performing so many experiments on humans, causing the deaths of countless innocent people—doesn't your conscience ache? Or is it that researchers like you have no conscience at all, only experiments in your eyes?"

Pointing to the files scattered across the desk, Derick found it incomprehensible to understand the thought processes of these scientists. Were they all just mad scientists, devoid of any sense of morality?

Pushing up the glasses on his nose, Yang Yiping spoke calmly, "Conscience? Are you talking about guilt? You simply don't understand science. Do you know what I'm doing? Their sacrifices are for more achievements—benefiting all of humanity, even saving the entire world!"

"The rules of trade are equal. I'm only sacrificing a small number of people. What's wrong with that?"

"Only through continuous experimentation can we find the path to success. Every sacrifice on this path is worthwhile. Do you know anything? Do you understand zombies?"

"The zombie virus is an evolution. Do you understand? You only see the sacrifices in front of you. If I can decipher the key to zombie evolution, humanity will experience an unprecedented leap forward."

"Look at those zombies outside. Human flesh and blood are not the energy zombies need. The real answer is sunlight."

The sight of Yang Yiping in front of him reminded Derick of someone. That person's ideology also involved sacrificing a few to save the majority, ostensibly saving the world but engaging in morally questionable activities. Moreover, he touted his so-called justice while condemning others from a moral high ground.

Slapping a world-saving label on oneself doesn't justify the callous disregard for human life. Who are you? Why do you get to represent the world? Why do you get to speak for all of humanity?

That person was Emiya Kiritsugu, not a real figure but a character from the anime Fate/Zero. The resemblance between Emiya Kiritsugu's ideology and the man before Derick was disgustingly striking—both using the guise of saving the world to carry out morally repugnant actions.

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