Chapter 176 - Iron Gate
TL: xDh20, LifeisaJourney
ED: Oz
The third floor structure and layout were not that different from the second floor. This place definitely gave off the vibe of a hotel due to the room numbers. Considering the second floor had no significant drops from prior pillaging, the third layer was not carefully searched.
As everyone hastily killed the zombies on the third floor, they proceeded down to the fourth underground floor.
The fourth underground floor was different from the previous two floors. In the hallway, it lead to different rooms, but these rooms weren’t a place to rest; they were similar to conference rooms and other similar functioning facilities. Par for the course, there were some scattered zombies on this floor. These regular zombies were not a threat to the team anymore as they had no weak link.
Variant Zombies had yet to appear, and the team members were both glad and disappointed. Glad that they didn’t appear so that no one would get killed accidently, and disappointed that they wouldn’t have a chance to reach level 5.
From his past experiences, Liu Gan figured out a sequence to it already. As long as he encounters more Variant Zombies, then those following him would eventually be promoted to level 5.
As they continued to the lower floors, by the time they reached the fifth underground floor, those standing by the base of the stairs could hear a terrifying howling sound. A sound reminiscent of a drove of zombies having been roused. There had to be at least a dozen of them. A few members looked horrified as they glanced toward Liu Gan. They were worried that Liu Gan wouldn’t reach them in time to save them in such a narrow corridor and stairway.
Liu Gan called for Zhang ShengLi and Wang DeCheng to halt. Then, he and Yin He moved towards the fore of the group. By the time they reached the bottom of the stairs, only two zombies were rushing at them. These two zombies were wearing security guard uniforms, the type of uniform associated with guarding entrances.
So far, Liu Gan and Yin He could easily take care of these regular zombies. While turning on the emergency light, Liu Gan tried to single out the source of the zombie noises. At the end of the stairs was a large, empty room, which was used for safety checks. Further ahead, a very sturdy metallic gate cropped up. There were at least a dozen zombies with white coats trapped on the other side of the gate.
The iron gate was locked. Regardless, the amount of zombies behind the gate was alarming, but it still wasn’t enough to be a threat to the group. When the zombies behind the gate noticed the arrival of fresh meat, they started striking hard at the iron gate. It almost seemed like the gate wouldn’t hold back the flood of zombies any longer.
Every effort by the zombies was futile. The gates were extremely sturdy. The zombies were incoherently trying to either push down the gate or push it open.
With the gates held the zombies back, these types of kills were the easiest. Naturally, they were left for the team’s weakest member, Lee Miao. She killed zombies easily from a safe distance with the dagger given to her by Zhang ShengLi. As every zombie closest to the gate died, it struggled for life to grab at Lee Miao. Watching the zombies fall one by one onto the ground and how the hazy black orbs floated into her body, Lee Miao slowly gained strength.
Liu Gan wasn’t in a rush, plus he had no other destination to go towards. This way, the rest of the team could also rest up as Lee Miao killed the zombies one by one.
After killing all the zombies closest to the iron gate, Lee Miao shook the gate to generate loud noises to lure the rest of the zombies further at the back of the floor to get closer. This type of strategy was effective, as nearly all the scattered zombies started rushing up to the iron gate.
What a pity, these low intelligence monsters were like feral beasts that rushed up to the gate and struggled with it. One by one, Lee Miao struck them down. Each black orb fueled her strength as experience points.
When the zombies on the other side of the gate were no longer charging at it, there were piles of bodies blocking the pathway through the gates. Zhang ShengLi walked over to the bodies of the zombie in security uniform for the keys to the iron gate.
As of this moment, no one knew the exact process of turning after an infection from the catastrophe. It could even be possible that these two security guards were the first to change, so they weren’t able to let those behind the iron gate escape in time.
If the people behind the gate were the first to change, then these two security guards wouldn’t have to stand guard here. They could’ve escaped to the ground floor and alerted their supervisors. Of course, it could be possible that the people behind the gate were infected first, but then the two security guards were also infected around the same time.
Regardless of the source of infection, this whole level have been infected, so it was pointless to ponder on it.
“What do you think they studied down here? Particularly, why did they lock the research scientists behind the gates?” Wang DeCheng asked Zhang ShengLi.
“Well… That is… this is all too hard to guess, but we’ll find out when we get down there.” Zhang ShengLi replied briefly. Meanwhile, the members of the group pulled aside the heap of zombies obstructing the door.
As the group walked through the iron gates, they were able to confirm that this location was a biological laboratory. Every animal trapped in cages were of varying species and sizes. Although most of the animals had died, a few were still moving.
These few animals had become very irritable, as their eyes were blood-red, and began ramming against their cages when they noticed humans. Luckily, these cages had metal rods that were very thick, so they couldn’t suddenly pop out from the container.
There were a few dissection tables in the laboratory. On top of these tables were the remains of animal and human body parts. Everything was rotting, so the air they breathed in was pungent. It was clear that many days had passed.
Looking at these foul things, even they knew these dead animals wouldn’t attack, but they couldn’t help but feel disgusted by it. These local survivors could tell that this laboratory operated even before the catastrophe, so they suspected that the World Catastrophe was related to these experiments.
Other than the disgusting animals and body part remains, there were a few laboratory equipment and medicine that were still usable. Otherwise, there were no significant spoils from this floor. There were no strong Variant Zombies that resembled a BOSS. After reaching the end of the laboratory, there were another series of stairs that lead deeper underground. Evidently, this whole underground infrastructure was far deeper and spread out than anyone could’ve imagined.
The depth was likely below the river at this point. The construction of this laboratory was definitely of a grand scale.
As they followed the stairs, the next floor down looked more like it was used for laboratory purposes. Every section of this floor was reminiscent of a slaughterhouse. This floor level had animals that were different from the previous floor. On this floor level, the animals were suspended up, and on the dissection tables were mostly human carcasses.
[TL: Slaughterhouse floor is the 6th underground floor.]