"Can the monitoring system here be accessed to know the situation below?"
"I’ll give it a try."
KIKI quickly operated on the mobile terminal, and soon, the online monitoring system of the floor appeared on the screen.
"11, 12 floors and below are offline." KIKI kept switching the surveillance views of various public areas: "Flooding is indeed occurring below."
"What about the other floors?" Lin Xian asked.
"Not a single person." KIKI shook her head.
"To be precise, not a single living person, nor did I see any monsters."
Lin Xian frowned: "That’s strange, how did these people die?"
"They might have come from the lowest floors, which are not visible on the surveillance." Shu Qin squatted down to look at the edge of the elevator, finding some water stains, and then stood up: "There are two possibilities: these people either died before the water rose, because the elevator is quite sealed and didn’t let water in, or something killed them inside the elevator."
"Check the 7th floor, if everything’s fine, we’ll head there first." Lin Xian went straight for the target, focusing less on other supplies and equipment exploration.
KIKI immediately switched to the 7th floor and began searching: "This research facility is very large, with many types of zones—confidential research and internal core areas are controlled by separate monitoring systems, which are controlled internally. I can only check the public areas, but..."
As she spoke, she suddenly brightened up: "Oh, there is indeed a Life-saving Surgical Medical Cabin, inside a research room. Wow, there are lots of instruments in here—they didn’t take them away!~"
Lin Xian walked up to take a look and was equally startled: "Indeed."
"In an emergency evacuation, usually core research data, high-level assets, mid-level assets, and regular assets are prioritized in that order. Although the Life-saving Surgical Medical Cabin is expensive, for such a large organization, it’s at most considered a mid-level asset, not taking it away isn’t unusual." Ding Junyi said.
"What about the researchers?" Shu Qin asked puzzledly.
Ding Junyi adjusted her glasses, calmly saying: "Except for a very few senior executives who could be considered high-level assets, others fall into the mid-level or lower, and even some biological research subjects are prioritized before personnel in evacuation sequences."
"Alright, let’s not discuss this." Lin Xian drew the Black Gun and said to everyone: "Let’s go to the 7th floor before the water rises and see if we can get that medical cabin out, then look for other things."
He immediately pressed the elevator button, and the five of them headed underground.
Upon reaching the underground seventh floor, the elevator doors opened, and a very strong smell of disinfectant hit them, even stronger than that in hospitals.
Lin Xian frowned, leading the cautious others as they slowly exited the elevator and found that this floor had an immense space, divided into many areas.
"Gene development zone, tissue regeneration engineering zone, cell culture, molecular genetics, biochemistry area... This is much bigger than the biological research institute in Underground City No. 9." Lin Xian said in a deep voice.
A gust of air swept through several corridors, and the ground slightly trembled, causing a flurry of scattered research documents to soar.
Ding Junyi caught one, adjusted her glasses to review it, and then said: "This institute’s research on Dark Creatures is far deeper than the Federation’s, with a substantial amount of data here, but I’m somewhat puzzled..."
Lin Xian walked over and grabbed her arm, leading her forward.
"The water’s rising below, let’s keep walking while looking, and find that Life-saving Surgical Medical Cabin first."
The group quickly traversed the corridors, passing various research rooms, most of which were very sealed. Some research doors were made with radiation-proof lead doors, casting a grim look on everyone.
As they continued onward, the expressions of Lin Xian and the others grew darker, with large biochemical research rooms appearing before them. Inside high-intensity transparent windows were numerous bizarre human limbs, humanoid monstrosities, zombies, and even some wholly incomprehensible biological structures.
Though brightly lit and clean, the standard research rooms provided a very gruesome and eerie visual impact.
"It seems the conjoined humans we encountered in Qingshui Town were their experimental products." Lin Xian remarked.
Ding Junyi was at this moment very intrigued, looking closely at the scenes inside, with a heavy expression saying: "Previously, as an employee of the Federation, the whole research system on Dark Creatures was in its primitive stages. Such human mutation remodeling, even limb fusion, was simply impossible."
As they spoke, the group turned into a biological research area, where one of the largest research rooms had its automatic door locked. Through the window, they saw a white medical pod placed in the center, resembling some human hibernation device—it was larger than Lin Xian had imagined, weighing at least a ton.
Lin Xian showed a joyful expression, not expecting things to go so smoothly this time. When Hua Xiaoling had taken him down to the underground research facility before, he had thought this foundation might have such equipment, originally planning to scan the blueprint under the pretense of understanding and then make one himself on the train.
However, after watching that deadly game, he realized this foundation was a mad organization and hadn’t had the chance to interact with this thing.