Chapter 157 – Small Island
TL: Tannhäuser
ED: NoriPixel
“Can you accurately determine the direction of the small scale laboratory?” asked Liu Gan towards Yin He.
“I can,” replied Yin He, nodding his head.
“Then bring us there.” said Liu Gan, handing over control of the yacht to Yin He. As she read the coordinates in the computer data, Yin He began to orientate and pilot the yacht towards the small scale laboratory.
As the yacht approached the vicinity of the location Yin He had mentioned, the width of the river began to broaden, opening up to take the shape of a large lake. At the center of the lake were several small islands. Some islands had nothing on them, and others had a few buildings. They seemed to have had few visitors. At the very center was a comparatively larger island, and at a glance, one could tell that this island had been transformed and reinforced.
This comparatively larger island had a high wall and had a dock. Beside the dock, two small boats were anchored, both of them flipped over on the surface of the water. It was clear before the catastrophe; this place had frequent visitors. There should be some other boats that had not been tied up and had been blown away to some other location by the tornado.
If there really was a small scale laboratory here, if it was constructed here, it would definitely not be easily discovered. However, wouldn’t it be very inconvenient to build it here? Moreover, it was extremely inconvenient for the staff members of the laboratory to come and go from work, requiring that they take a boat.
However, this wasn’t the problem that Liu Gan was worrying about.
If the Trembling World was a game, the San Xing Corporation’s laboratory should have a copy of all the locations of the treasures. Moreover, it was a single-use copy. Whoever found it first, would be able to use it. Therefore, they needed to find all of the San Xing Corporation’s laboratories as soon as possible. Increasing his strength, as well as his ability to survive in the Trembling World, would both be extremely helpful.
As the yacht approached the shore, it pulled up beside the dock. After Liu Gan dropped the anchor, Yin He was the first to jump ashore. After she reached shore, she securely tied the bow and stern of the yacht to the dock. Only then did Liu Gan call awake everyone else on the deck of the yacht, allowing them to get off in an orderly fashion to the dock.
The sky was slowly darkening. The entire surface of the river was enveloped by the darkness, shrouding the two shorelines of the river and giving everyone an oppressive feeling.
“What is this place?” Some of the members were in a daze after they descended from the yacht, somewhat baffled as they gazed upon their surroundings.
After this hair-raising escape, the momentary rest on the yacht had become exceedingly treasured. Setting foot once again on the dry land after reaching shore gave everyone feelings of anxiety and fright. Although people sometimes gained courage from being in a crowd, it wasn’t much use in the Trembling World, no matter how many people you had. Who knew when death would descend upon a certain person?
“This place is an island at the center of the lake. The hour is late. We can tidy up this island and temporarily settle here.” Liu Gan did not speak of the matter regarding the secret laboratory. On the one hand, he couldn’t confirm its existence. On the other hand, he did not want to cause any unnecessary panic.
“Aren’t we on the river? When did we enter a lake?” asked a team member, clearly not fully conscious.
“Isn’t that simple? The river widened and took the form of a lake,” replied Zhang ShengLi, answering that team member’s question.
“To think this river would unexpectedly become so wide and form this lake. There is even a large island at the center of this lake. It seems like the island hasn’t experienced a rain of zombies. Presumably, this island should be comparatively safe,” speculated Wang DeCheng.
“I know what this place is! This was previously a lake, and because it took the shape of a semi-circle that was similar to a half-moon, its name was called Half Moon Lake. Reportedly, the small islands in the lake were purchased by the rich and powerful of Ningjing City, building villas on them. In peacetime, there normally wouldn’t be people coming here,” said Zhou MingLiang. He became seemingly clear-headed, immediately opening his mouth to introduce the location to all team members.
“Let’s first go explore and take a look at the situation on the island,” said Liu Gan to the team members, taking the lead to walk off the dock. He walked towards the island, walking up the steps.
The center of the island was encircled by a ring of high walls. The terrain of this island was quite high. The entire island did not seem to be formed by a sandbar in the middle of the water. The island was covered in materials composed of reinforced concrete; it seemed as sturdy as a large shoal rock in the middle of the ocean.
After the yacht had descended onto the dock, everyone climbed to the height of the third floor and arrived at the top of the island. For the top of the island to have such high topography, it seemed that the island’s structures would not be submerged even if the tide rose.
The center of the construction was surrounded on all sides by high walls, blocking all of the structures at the center. In general, because of the height of the island and the high walls, boats passing by the island would not be able to clearly see what the situation was.
After they had climbed up front the dock, they found a large metal gate at the middle of the wall. Moreover, it was locked. Zhao Meng took out his lock-picking tools, and after busying himself, pried open the lock. Liu Gan had everyone take a few steps back before suddenly pushing open the metal gate. Afterwards, he retreated to side, taking precautions against anything abruptly charging out.
However, nothing happened. Yin He also did not indicate that she had detected any danger. As such, Liu Gan led everyone through the metal gate and inside.
Under the dusky light of nightfall, one could see a courtyard at the very center of the place. Beyond the courtyard was a two story building that occupied a significant area. At the center of the courtyard was a flowerbed. This courtyard was typical of Chinese style architecture.
Although the courtyard did not have any wandering zombies, it still gave off a sinister feeling. The distant dark two-story building particularly gave off the feeling that no one would know what was hidden within and that something would burst through the door and charge out at any moment.
On the floor of the courtyard were several corpses that appeared to have been dead for several days now. After walking over to study closely, it was discovered that these corpses all had a large hole in their heads. The brains inside of the skulls were all gone. All of the heads were empty shells.
Aside from this, all of the corpses had signs of injuries from cuts and chops. Some of the corpses even had daggers stabbed into them. The odd condition of these corpses made everything about the small island become ominous immediately.
After seeing this, looks of alarm were revealed on all the faces of the team members Some began to nervously and restlessly looked all around at their surroundings.
“Everyone be on alert, form groups of four and take defensive formation. The members of each squad must not be dispersed or separated. It is likely that someone has come here before and caused something horrific to happen,” ordered Liu Gan. He extended his hand to stop everyone, having them maintain defensive formations and increase their alertness. Afterwards, he had Yin He land on the island to investigate.
“What was it that ate their brains?” Zhang ShengLi asked Liu Gan after he moved closer to inspect the corpses. After he had reached level 5, his courage had clearly become greater than before.