The morning after their near-death escape from the abandoned industrial park, a rare moment of peace settled over the safe house.
Chen Shouzhou was leaning against a corner, examining the memory card he had swiped from the lab, all the while boasting to Xiao Hei beside him. "See this? Your boss isn't just a fighter, he's also an 'archaeologist.' If I can crack this thing, we might find some old-era soap operas. I'll let you watch to your heart's content."
Xiao Hei yawned and rolled over, clearly uninterested in soap operas.
Nearby, Su Wan'er was carefully treating the small cuts Xiao Qi had gotten from broken glass during their escape last night. Since acquiring the [Beast Tongue] skill, Chen Shouzhou had discovered that this mysterious little puppy, Xiao Qi, was even smarter than he had imagined.
Just then, Xiao Qi, who had been obediently letting Su Wan'er bandage it, suddenly struggled free. It ran to an old wall in the northwest corner of the warehouse and began to scratch at the floor with its small, still-growing paws, letting out urgent, whimpering sounds.
"Hey, Xiao Qi, did you find some treasure?" Chen Shouzhou's interest was piqued, and he walked over.
He crouched down and, mimicking Xiao Qi, knocked on the floor. The echo was indeed somewhat hollow. An idea struck him. He cleared away the mountain of junk piled in the corner, revealing the dust-covered concrete floor beneath. He knocked again, and the sound was even more distinct.
"Holy crap, there's a hidden compartment here!" he yelled excitedly to Su Wan'er.
He immediately grabbed a wrench and a hammer and began to break away the surface layer of concrete. After a great deal of clanging and banging, the outline of a rust-eaten iron hatch appeared before them.
The hatch looked ancient, its keyhole completely sealed with dirt and rust. Chen Shouzhou used all his strength to try and pry it open with the wrench, but all he managed to do was break two iron nails. The hatch didn't budge.
"Dammit, this thing is thicker than my face," he panted, slumping to the ground.
Just as he was at his wit's end, Xiao Qi trotted over on its short legs. It first sniffed at the keyhole, then, incredibly, picked up a long, thin metal wire from a nearby pile of scrap.
It walked to the hatch, carefully inserted the wire into the keyhole, and then gently fiddled with it a few times with its tiny paw.
With a soft click, the hatch that Chen Shouzhou couldn't open with all his might miraculously… swung open.
Chen Shouzhou, Su Wan'er, and even Xiao Hei stared at the scene, completely dumbfounded.
Chen Shouzhou's eyes went wide. He pointed at Xiao Qi, speechless for a long moment, before finally sputtering, "You… are you a goddamn master thief? Wait, were you a hacker or a locksmith in a past life?!"
As if understanding the praise, Xiao Qi wagged its tail proudly and rubbed its head against his pant leg.
Chen Shouzhou felt his worldview take a massive hit. He had always thought his system was the ultimate cheat code, but he never expected to have a "physical cheat code" right beside him.
Behind the hatch was a narrow staircase leading down. The air was thick with the heavy smell of damp and mold, like a tomb forgotten for centuries.
Chen Shouzhou lit his flashlight and took a deep breath. "Alright, time for an adventure! Dr. Su, stick close to me. Xiao Qi, you lead the way!"
The two humans and one dog carefully made their way down the stairs. The walls of the passage were covered in moss, and the steps underfoot were incredibly slippery. After descending for about twenty meters, the passage opened up into a sealed basement of about a hundred square meters.
The beam of the flashlight swept across the room, and the scene made them all gasp.
This wasn't a storage room; it was more like a hastily abandoned sanctuary! The room was filled with various pieces of sophisticated medical equipment, dozens of unopened vaccine cryo-containers, and an old computer whose screen was still faintly flickering!
This was a massive treasure trove!
"We've struck gold! We're rich!" Chen Shouzhou rubbed his hands together excitedly. "With all this stuff, our safe house's medical capabilities will go from 'barefoot doctor' to 'top-tier hospital'!"
Su Wan'er's eyes also shone with excitement. She hurried over to the computer, ready to check its contents and assess the value of the data.
Just then, from a corner of the room, came a faint, suppressed cough.
"Who's there?!"
Chen Shouzhou reacted instantly, pulling Su Wan'er behind him and raising his wrench, staring warily at the source of the sound.
From behind a rack piled with old hazmat suits, a figure slowly stood up.
It was a young man who looked to be in his twenties, wearing a tattered but relatively intact hazmat suit. His face was covered in dust and fatigue, but his eyes were exceptionally bright and filled with caution.
He spoke, his voice hoarse from disuse. "Who… who are you?"
Chen Shouzhou was stunned. He had imagined countless possibilities, but he had never expected to find a living person here.
He froze for a full three seconds, then his face immediately broke into his signature enthusiastic, slightly goofy grin. He asked tentatively, "Hey, friend! Welcome to my safe house… oh, wait, this should be your safe house. Excuse me… are you the landlord?"
The young man was clearly thrown off by this unconventional greeting. The wariness on his face turned to bewilderment.
He was silent for a moment before he finally said, "My name is Lin Mo. I was a research assistant in the lab upstairs. After the outbreak, I was trapped down here, surviving on the stored food and medicine."
After listening to Chen Shouzhou's brief account of the situation outside and their origins, his expression grew even more complex. He looked at Chen Shouzhou, then at Xiao Qi, and finally sighed. "'Bai Bai'... so it's still alive, and it even has offspring. But the experiment on it… has reached an irreversible stage. You should… stay away from it."
As soon as he finished speaking, the system's prompt rang out in Chen Shouzhou's mind.
[Ding! Critical NPC detected. New mission triggered!]
[Main Quest: Decrypting the Test Subject Project]
[Mission Objective: Obtain intelligence about 'Sky-Curtain Biotech' and 'Bai Bai' from Lin Mo.]
[Mission Reward: Unlock skill 'Advanced Resource Appraisal'.]
"Advanced Resource Appraisal!" Chen Shouzhou was ecstatic. That skill sounded way more awesome than the beginner version.
He looked at the "treasure boy" named Lin Mo, the smile on his face growing even more sincere. He walked over, clapped Lin Mo warmly on the shoulder, and winked.
"Don't worry, brother! From today on, you're part of our safe house! We share our fortunes and our troubles!"
That evening, they all sat around a bonfire, listening as Lin Mo shared the scattered information he knew about "Sky-Curtain Biotech."
"I was just an assistant, so I didn't have access to the core secrets," Lin Mo said, his face still pale. "All I know is that behind the 'Test Subject Project,' there was a much larger project called 'Project Shouzhou.' But I don't know the specifics."
He paused. "However, we face a more immediate problem. Based on my initial inspection, many of the advanced devices in the basement are dormant due to a lack of power and parts. To activate and repair them, we need a large number of electronic components, special alloys… things you can't just scavenge from ordinary ruins."
Su Wan'er nodded in agreement, writing on her notepad: "Our medical supplies, especially antibiotics and anesthetics, are also running low. The stock in the basement won't last long."
Chen Shouzhou's heart sank. He knew they were like guards sitting on a mountain of gold without a pickaxe to mine it. Having the technology and blueprints without the raw materials was useless.
"It seems we have to go there," Chen Shouzhou said after a moment of hesitation, as if making a difficult decision. "On the west side of the city, there's a 'Junk Black Market' converted from an abandoned shopping mall. It's the largest survivor trading post in this area. They say… you can buy and sell anything there."
Su Wan'er wrote on her notepad: "But it's extremely dangerous, controlled by a group called the 'Viper Gang.' Betrayal and backstabbing are common."
Chen Shouzhou didn't reply immediately. He stood up and walked to the warehouse entrance, gazing out at the silent, dead wasteland.
He knew they couldn't hide in this warehouse forever. To develop, to become stronger, to uncover the truth of "Project Shouzhou," they had to go out and face the real, dark side of this cruel, apocalyptic world.
The black market was their only, and fastest, way to break the stalemate.
He turned around and looked at his companions—the calm and professional Su Wan'er, the tech-savvy Lin Mo, and the two loyal dogs. This small, newly formed "family" was all the support he had.
He smiled, his eyes flashing with confidence and a hint of madness.
"So it's a den of wolves," he said. "Well, we don't exactly look like a flock of sheep ourselves."
He clapped his hands and declared in a tone that left no room for argument:
"Tomorrow morning, we go to the black market! We're going to get everything we need to grow stronger!"