When Tang Xiao walked out of the buffer zone, Lodge hesitated whether to turn on the lights.
His bracelet showed a message Tang Xiao had sent him ten minutes earlier.
[Come to the lab! It’s urgent! If you call me without a response, go to the armed forces!]
Lodge looked at the dark laboratory and shouted Tang Xiao’s name a few times, but did not get a response. He was about to grit his teeth and turn to find help.
“Wait a minute…”
A hoarse male voice sounded from behind. Lodge quickly turned his head and saw Tang Xiao walking out of the shadows of the tunnel. Before he could say anything, the young man’s body suddenly swayed and he almost stumbled to the ground.
Lodge subconsciously stepped forward, supporting the young man. He noticed something wrong, and his pupils shrank. “This is…?”
The light was too dim to see clearly just now. Upon coming closer to see, the young man under the white coat was obviously void excessively, and his face was as white as paper.
Lodge gritted his teeth, turned around, and carried him on his back. “Hang on!”
Hearing this, Tang Xiao subconsciously looked at the amount of his blood and said weakly, “You–better hurry up.”
His blood had bottomed out ahhhh!
Lodge didn’t say anything and walked in the direction of the medical room. He felt even worse, the person on his back was too light, simply not the weight of a normal man. It was more like a child.
In addition, Tang Xiao came out of that experimental subject…
A series of conjectures flashed through Lodge’s mind, but it didn’t affect his speed in the slightest.
When Lodge barged in with Tang Xiao on his back, the doctor in the medical room had just left work. Upon seeing Tang Xiao on Lodge’s back, his eyes widened and he went to open the emergency room privileges without saying a word.
“Hurry up, put him on that machine!”
As soon as Lodge put the young man on the bed, the doctor shooed him out. He waited outside for a full hour before he saw the red warning sign in the emergency room return to green.
The doctor walked out with a tired face. “Are you researchers of armed forces? How come it feels like your job is more dangerous than that group in the armed forces?”
Lodge: “He’s an exception.”
“It’s too exceptional.” The doctor sat down on the bench. “You didn’t see that… Forget it. Anyway, it was cured with the fourth-level authority. I can tell you, don’t rely on the good treatment conditions here to freely toss yourself. You are also engaged in scientific research, you should know that the human body’s resilience has a limit. Now, you are so young so you can’t see it, but in the future, you will have to suffer a big loss.”
Lodge listened in silence without refuting.
“Cough. Anyway, you can persuade him. You guys should be good friends, let him rest for a while in the next two days to give his body some recovery time.”
“Okay.”
The doctor’s face eased a bit and nodded reservedly. “You can take the person inside back after he wakes up. Rest early after you go back.”
“I know. I’ll tell him.”
With the doctor’s permission, Lodge was finally able to enter the treatment room. The first thing he saw was the man lying flat on the bed.
Tang Xiao’s face was still pale, without his glasses. His crow-feather-colored eyelashes cast a shadow under his eyes, and his pale pink lips had lost their blood color, looking fragile and brittle.
Lodge could see that after a few minutes, the eyelashes of the person before him trembled and he opened his eyes.
Those dark eyes were covered in mist as they quickly regained lucidity.
“You’re awake.” Lodge sat at the head of the bed and poured a glass of water for Tang Xiao. “The medical expenses have been settled for you. I’m scared to death. What’s wrong with you? Didn’t you go back to the dormitory to rest? Why would you still show up in the lab and get so seriously injured?”
“It’s hard to put into words.” Tang Xiao got up and took the water, taking a sip. His HP had returned to normal, and after regaining his mobility, he immediately checked up on the little monster’s favorability.
428 Favorability: 25
The favorability increased by 25 points. Initially, it had reached the level of a friend in the dating game. Tang Xiao took a breath, remembered something, and turned to check the redeemable points.
Unfortunately, the points only went up 17 points, which meant he couldn’t deliberately lower the little monster’s favorability and then raise it to get the points. Everyone’s favorability points could only be gained once.
Lodge looked at Tang Xiao seriously and said, “Tang, there’s something I think I have to tell you first.”
“What?” Seeing him so serious, Tang Xiao put down his glass of water.
“You don’t really need to expend too much energy on 428,” Lodge said, “You’ve read the project materials, have you?”
Tang Xiao nodded.
“Then you should know that it was originally a fifth-level project. Third Eye put a lot of resources into it and originally had high hopes. However, that’s over. At this time, Third Eye should have gotten rid of 428.”
“While it may be a bit realistic for me to say this, you should focus more on other things than 428. Mr. Bader thinks highly of you, and this is a great breakthrough. You shouldn’t waste valuable time and wisdom…”
He didn’t know what button had been pressed, making Lodge a little babbling. Tang Xiao was a little distressed. Why didn’t he realize before that Lodge still had this kind of chatterbox talent?
Wisdom? What wisdom does he have? Is the wisdom of playing games?
Tang Xiao complained in his heart.
But it was a real problem that needed to be solved.
While delaying the Third Eye’s decision to dispose of 428 temporarily, the little monster would still be destroyed when this extra project was completed, unless it showed additional value.
Originally, Tang Xiao wasn’t worried. Looking at the current trend of the little monster’s evolution, as long as the previous process was repeated, it would be good for 428 to show a certain value. But now, according to Lodge’s current attitude, it didn’t seem to be the case.
“Will 428 be disposed of?” Tang Xiao asked doubtfully, “Even if it’s still has value?”
Lodge hesitated and looked around. At this time, the doctor was not there and probably going to the toilet. He then said, “That’s right. I can’t explain to you in detail, I can only say that something happened to this project before… In short, Bader is no longer trusted by the above. He has done his best to keep his rank now, and it’s impossible to keep 428.”
“But isn’t 428 the spore of the King of Mushroom?” Tang Xiao asked. “It’s precious enough just to be a sample. Why would they be so eager to dispose of 428?”
“There are more than one 428 of King of Mushroom’s spore, and the research is about the same. There is no need to keep it alive,” said Lodge. “To save it from the minds of those lunatics.”
“The groups of lunatics?” Tang Xiao asked suspiciously.
“It’s Huigui Sect ah.” Lodge said, “Don’t you usually watch the news?”
Tang Xiao made up casually. “I usually read more books…”
“Actually, it’s nothing. It’s just a bunch of mushroom-worshipping cult.” Lodge vaguely said, “Anyway, being able to keep 428 until now is already the result of Bader’s hard work. He still needs to squeeze the last value out of 428, but when this project is finished, 428 is expected to be disposed of. I felt the need to tell you about it.” Tang Xiao lowered his head thoughtfully. Seeing this, Lodge thought that Tang Xiao was moved by his words and chattered, “Time is very precious for a young researcher like you. The stage where your brain is most active can produce the most inspiration.”
“Lodge.” Tang Xiao interrupted Lodge’s words. “What did you invest in me?”
To be honest, Tang Xiao felt strange before.
Lodge’s current ability and background were far beyond that of an ordinary newcomer. Whether it was the understanding of 428’s origin, the easiness of paying with points, or the understanding of this organization.
Did this person really need to invest in Tang Xiao? Just because he had a misunderstood genius disease, it didn’t mean he would automatically achieve anything. Even if he could produce results, the scientific research process takes too long.
The give and take were not proportional at all.
Lodge and Tang Xiao’s dark eyes locked. Lodge originally wanted to smile lightly, but Tang Xiao’s eyes never moved away from him.
In fact, there was nothing that couldn’t be said about it. The reason why Lodge paid attention to Tang Xiao was purely because he liked smart people a lot.
Just like some people liked money, some people like good-looking people, and Lodge naturally had a good impression of people with high IQs.
This working environment was a comfort zone for him.
To be honest, he didn’t feel much when he and Tang Xiao met in the lab for the first time, but after the attack and when he saw this person again in the kitchen, the young man’s beautiful face remained calm after getting seriously injured instantly poked Lodge’s heart.
It touched Lodge even more than all the high-IQ geniuses he had seen before.
The doctor hadn’t come back yet. The medical was extremely quiet, and Tang Xiao was still holding the disposable water cup handed over by Lodge in his hand. The water was warm at just the right temperature. His palm, which was originally cold due to blood loss, gradually became warm.
The blond-haired young man still didn’t speak. His blue eyes looked at Tang Xiao fixedly, while Tang Xiao suddenly regretted it a bit.
Because he suddenly realized that it seemed like a dating game.
Wait a minute, there’s no other second plot, right? He’s exhausted just from handling 428.
“Uhm, you don’t have to say it…”
“There’s really nothing I can’t say. I just prefer to spend time with smart people.” The blond young man chuckled softly. “Tang, you don’t have to doubt my dedication. I want to help you just because you are smart enough. You’re the smartest person I have ever met.”
“As long as you stay the way you are, I’ll always help you.”
Tang Xiao: “...”
So, if he exposes his personality, this kid won’t turn against him, right?
Lodge glanced at the time on his bracelet. “Okay. It’s getting a little late. It looks like the doctor won’t come back, I’ll send you back.”
There was only silence on the way back. Lodge was indeed very careful in his work, considering that Tang Xiao was still a sick person, he supported him throughout the entire process. Returning to the dormitory door, Tang Xiao thanked Lodge and then closed the door, lying back on the single bed, and sighed deeply.
Having just learned about this game from reality, he turned his head and encountered a crisis. One thing after another came crashing down on him, weighing him down so much that he didn’t have time to think.
The next thing he had to do was find a way to complete the main task…
Thinking about it, Tang Xiao began to feel sleepy. Half-asleep, his ears seemed to hear som kind of rustling sound. In the single dormitory room, he thought that it might be those researchers who had finally come back from work so he didn’t pay much attention to it and continued to let his consciousness sink into the dreamland.
“Xi….xi…”
Who? Laughing so loudly in the middle of the night.
Tang Xiao turned over, but he couldn’t. His eyebrows furrowed, and there was a strange earthy smell in his nose, like the smell of dew and earth that one would smell when walking in the forest after the rain.
“Xiao… xiao…”
“Xiao…”
Noisy, who is it ah? Can’t you let him sleep?
Tang Xiao waved his hand impatiently in the direction where the voice came from, but he couldn’t take it back. His palm sank into some kind of soft, sticky, wet place, and his palm was licked.
Tang Xiao instantly sobered up.
As soon as he opened his eyes, his entire field of vision was occupied by blood-red. A vague, blood-red humanoid monster was lying on top of him, with no head above the neck, replaced by mycelium that looked like branches. The orange-yellow vertical pupils between the mycelium looked like strings of golden fruits.
The impact of this scene shocked him.
In an instant, Tang Xiao’s heart rate rose to the point where he was almost forced to leave the game. His ears were full of his own heartbeat, and he suddenly withdrew his hand to try to climb out of the bed.
Unsuccessful.
Several skeletal whips protruded from the back of the humanoid monster, like open ribs, enveloping the entire single bed and confining its prey firmly in its cage.
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