Wei Tianyang couldn't speak, he could only sit on the edge of the bed, but he refused to let negative emotions bury him.
After the second injection failed, he thought he had died.
They seemed to think he had died, too.
But now he was still alive, although his body had become disabled.
The muscular man jumped down from the bed and moved his arms, shouting towards the others in the morgue, "Hey, look over here, everyone, look this way."
As soon as the words were spoken, everyone stopped whispering, and all turned to look at Wei Tianyang.
"He's 1202, the last among us, and the best one," said the muscular man.
Wei Tianyang, leaning on the bed, stood up on one foot; he looked at the group of men and women, seeing their eager eyes.
Some of them had lost their legs, some were missing half of their heads, wrapped in thick bandages, and others had lost their limbs and could only sit on the edge of the bed, supported by other Medicine People.
These were all side effects brought about by that mysterious drug.
"1202, they've deceived us, deceived every one of us," said the muscular man.
"Among the twelve hundred and two Medicine People, you're the one among us closest to success," said Bai.
"The drug didn't grant us strength, but you're different, you have that kind of power," said Bald Uncle.
Wei Tianyang looked at his skeletal right hand, strangely enough without muscles and nerves, yet he could still control the bending of his fingers and the turning of his wrist.
"They locked us in this forgotten corner, left to rot, to disappear, forgotten... Their promises were never meant to be fulfilled; you know that too, right?!" asked the muscular man.
Wei Tianyang nodded; Ruan Yu had never intended to give him the money... Even if she had really handed the money to him, he couldn't have taken it with him.
"1202, you have this power! Take us out of here, back to your mother's side!" said Bai.
The other Medicine People were silent but all looked at Wei Tianyang expectantly.
These men and women, no different from himself, born in that turbulent small country, enduring poverty.
The research facilities in that abandoned park, as well as the side effects of the drug and means of injection, seemed dubious even at first glance.
But the promises made by Tiantai Pharmaceutical were too tempting.
It was not that they couldn't understand; they had simply reached a dead end.
The whole world was sharply opposed, except for Ruan Yu and Tiantai Pharmaceutical, who greeted with smiling faces, treated them gently.
And so.
Like moths to a flame.
Wei Tianyang walked silently towards the large door at the top end of the morgue.
The crowd parted of their own accord and pushed aside the surgical beds to clear a path for Wei Tianyang to the door.
His skeleton-like left foot stepped on the ground, making a crisp cracking sound; he walked with difficulty, limping.
Bai and Bald Uncle always supported him on both sides, the muscular man walked ahead, and Glasses Beast followed behind.
The five of them passed by the surgical beds, and Wei Tianyang, curious, casually lifted the white cloths on a few beds, revealing charred and skeletal bodies underneath, as if they had been scorched by flames, but upon closer inspection, that wasn't the case.
Just like on his own body and those of the four Medicine People, the organs and limbs of these bodies had been annihilated under the continuous erosion of a certain energy.
The eroded organs and limbs left no residue or trace; a healthy adult who weighed over a hundred pounds in the end only left a few pounds of remains on the bed.
Wei Tianyang came to the door of the morgue, stretching out his left hand to touch it, feeling the cold metallic sensation on his fingertips.
He then looked down at the ground, not finding any curved seam marks, and in the dark corner of the room where the light couldn't reach, there was an iris scanner.
This was a horizontally sliding electronic door.
"Reclaim our freedom, the first step, open the gate," the burly man laughed.
"Open the gate," he muttered to himself.
Wei Tianyang raised his right hand, his five finger bones slowly clenched together, making a cracking sound as they formed into a Bone Fist.
Filled with his anger towards Ruan Yu and Hans, as well as Tiantai Pharmaceutical, and the grudges and hopes of twelve hundred and one Medicine People.
He swung his fist fiercely at the iron gate, Bone Fist striking the surface of the metal door.
Like a hammer, or a cannonball fired from its chamber, this blow was massive and powerful, his knuckles even denting the iron gate, a huge and dull impact noise echoing in this broad morgue.
Wei Tianyang withdrew his fist, a sense of joy surfacing in his heart, his strength was still there!
He gritted his teeth and struck the iron gate with an even heavier punch, his fist sinking completely into the metal door.
And when he withdrew his fist, the dent on the door turned black at a speed visible to the naked eye, like spreading cancer cells, with black lines forming a web, spreading in other directions.
At the very heart of the dent, the metal structure rapidly disintegrated, burning a hole the size of a fist in the door.
At the same time, a piercing alarm rang out from outside.
"We did it! We're doing it!" Bai exclaimed excitedly.
Wei Tianyang gritted his teeth, punching the gate repeatedly, a series of impact noises sounded non-stop, the originally iron-grey metal gate was entirely corroded to black and continued to crumble, forming holes.
At last, several large holes spread and connected, leaving a huge gap.
Wei Tianyang stood in front of this gap, red lights from the outside corridor flashing, the light casting on his broken body intermittently, the light and shadows intertwined like an evil spirit crawling out of the dark abyss to the surface.
The burly man then agitated, "The second step! Let the river run red with blood!"
Behind Wei Tianyang, over a thousand Medicine People roared with excitement, stomping the ground incessantly with their bare feet.
Those stomping sounds were like thunder rolling in from the highest heavens, their angry roars resoundingly real to the ear.
"Kill them all! Kill them all!"
Wei Tianyang was the first to step through the gap, bathed in the red light of the alarm.
This corridor, wide enough for two people abreast, resembled the pink intestines of some huge creature, curving upwards to the left and right.
He quickly deduced that this morgue was located at the bottom of a round corridor, and the paths to either side were likely leading to the same place.
The Medicine People followed him, flocking out of the gap.
This group of people with missing limbs, those with legs, carried those who were unable to walk, those unable to move independently supported each other.
There were many whose bodies were left with only a little bit, who knew they were a drag and decided not to follow, instead lying on the surgical beds near the gap, smiling as they bid farewell to the others.
Assisted by Bai and Bald Uncle, Wei Tianyang limped up the incline of the corridor. He had only taken a couple of steps when he heard a messy and heavy set of footsteps ahead.
A large group of black-clad guards emerged from the bend in the corridor, heading towards Wei Tianyang, looking to be about a dozen strong.
He had seen these people before; they were the guards for the shipping containers carrying the drugs to the facility.
Their gear was visibly superior, far beyond what Chicken Snake Country's national defense forces could match.
The black one-piece combat suits were etched with muscle lines, the dark blue bulletproof vests were filled with magazines and throwable objects, and the full-face helmets were closed metal buckets without even eyepiece structures.
Their rifles were short, with grip handles attached below the guards and laser sights mounted on the side, with folded stocks for easy turning in tight spaces, and transparent magazines for checking ammo count on the fly.
"Target spotted, requesting instructions!"
"Kill on sight."
"Received, fire at will!"