Chapter 259: Hidden Lab of Dread

Yenir, what do we do?

Should we just clean this place out?

Standing behind Yenir, Ming Luo asked in a low, grim tone.

To him, this was likely the source of the crisis.

Continuing these experiments might yield zombie-like subjects, and if they spread, the consequences would be disastrous.

Although preventing disaster wasn’t part of their mission, the act passed by the Federation at Yenir’s behest made him wonder what Yenir was really planning.

Take control of this place! Turn this entire instance world into a ‘farm’ for the real world!

If they could hold their ground without the instance world faltering, the potential was enormous! Truly, its value was beyond measure.

There was no reply for now.

Yenir only furrowed his brow, deep in thought.

After a moment, just as he was about to speak, a flash of astonishment flickered in his eyes.

Wait a minute…

There’s another structure underground?

“What’s down there?”

Without hesitation, Yenir unleashed his mental power, yanking Krock from a short distance to his side.

“Bang!”

He stomped down hard on the ground.

Spirit Energy erupted.

In an instant, as the entire floor trembled, a visibly large crack split open.

Through the fissure, a small laboratory came into view right beneath their feet.

He glared coldly at Krock.

Yenir gripped his collar tightly, his gaze as cold as ice.

He was sure that the blueprints from the Military made no mention of this underground structure.

Had it not been for his habitual use of mental power to meticulously scan the ground, he might have completely overlooked this well-hidden lab.

“It’s…nothing!”

Feeling the unmistakable chill from the young man before him, Krock shivered involuntarily and stammered out.

“It’s an abandoned lab! It was used before, but then they filled it in!”

“Hah…”

“How dare you lie in front of me?”

Seeing Krock try to deceive him, Yenir sneered coldly. His mental power burst forth like a tangible force, and with the activation of his Elemental Blade, a cutting gust sliced through the hardened alloy floor, fully exposing a corner of the lab.

Through the widened crack, dim ultraviolet light seeped out from the lab opening, clearly active until recently.

“Abandoned?”

“The corpses inside have been dead for no more than forty-eight hours.”

Yenir, dragging Krock along, jumped down immediately. The squad members behind him stared in shock before promptly following.

“Buzz”

As he reactivated his mental power, Yenir simply dragged all the bodies out of the lab.

After a quick scan, a peculiar glimmer flashed in his eyes.

There were many corpses, and…

They were utterly different from the test subjects outside.

The bodies he had levitated before him were all of a normal human shape.

The youngest were only seven or eight, while the oldest had just reached adulthood.

The bodies were unnervingly light, their organs completely removed. Their pallid frames resembled empty husks.

“Explain this.”

Yenir spoke coldly as he continued scanning below with his mental power.

This lab wasn’t in the Military’s records, and coupled with Krock’s deliberate concealment, it was clear that this was the most critical site.

He was trembling all over.

Krock struggled to breathe as he moved his neck, his face ghastly.

Up to now, he had no idea what Yenir’s true background was. Aside from knowing that the Military had permitted him to ‘capture’ Krock, he was clueless about everything else.

His abilities were beyond comprehension, and his authority was outrageously high.

He could only assume that Yenir was the offspring of a high-ranking official—perhaps modified by advanced technology?

But that didn’t add up; how could they have developed something like this…

After a brief struggle, as if afraid to speak otherwise, Krock finally resorted to a pleading tone:

“Please… don’t ask any more questions!”

“Don’t you know?!”

“The stuff here has been tacitly approved by the high-ups! Even the top brass in the Military know about it!”

“Why are you pushing me like this?!”

Yenir raised an eyebrow, suddenly realizing something.

Organ harvesting? They don’t exactly resemble test subjects, do they?

“Bang!”

He applied a slight force with his right hand.

“Tell me everything you know.”

“Either speak or I’ll kill you and ask someone else.”

Without any regard for Krock’s implied warning, Yenir skillfully threatened him.

For a researcher like him, there were plenty of ways to force the truth out.

“I said, I said!”

Seeing that Yenir remained unmoved, Krock, desperate to save himself, clenched his fists in reluctant resignation.

“This lab is for harvesting organs!”

“As a byproduct of cultivating test subjects, we often end up with extras.”

“Some high-ups are in poor health—they naturally need these organs…”

After Krock finished speaking, he looked indignant.

In his eyes, Yenir was undoubtedly one of the high-ups’ offspring. Which high-ranking official wouldn’t know about these unspoken rules? These matters were too taboo to discuss openly.

After all, it defied all ethics.

If the public ever found out, it would surely lead to chaos.

“You kill and harvest organs?!”

Finally, Lin Rui jumped in, his face contorted with anger as he roared with righteous fury, devastated by the sight of the emptied bodies.

Unlike Yenir and the others who were desensitized to such acts, everything he saw struck him deeply.

Looking at those bodies—some of which were of children around his own age…

In his fury, he delivered a crushing punch to Krock’s face.

If the previous test subjects had already disgusted him and made him think the Military was out of its mind, those subjects hardly resembled normal humans at all.

But now, he thought, this so-called Professor was nothing but trash! How dare he aspire to join the Military, let alone the Federation!

He couldn’t fathom that he had ever wanted to obey these people!

Even more unthinkable was the suffering these children had endured in life.

Were they lying on cold operating tables, watching helplessly as their organs were removed?

Or were they treated like livestock, living their entire lives in labs only to have their eyes plucked out upon adulthood? Fellow humans treated as nothing more than spare parts.

Without a doubt, his faith was crumbling.

Is this the Federation?! Is this the so-called Golden Age Federation?!

“You damn scum! I’m going to kill you!”

“Bang!”

Lin Rui’s fierce punch slammed into Krock’s face, and the Professor winced in pain, hastily clutching his head.

“It’s none of my business! I was just following orders!”

“Besides, they’re not even human! They’re engineered specimens—nothing more than a mass of flesh!”

Defending himself passionately, Krock felt utterly wronged.

To him, there was nothing inherently wrong with these projects.

As if they were livestock: not only do we consume them, but we also peel their hides! Treated as nothing more than a slab of meat, he never regarded them as human!

Yenir did nothing to stop Lin Rui from unleashing his fury on Krock with relentless punches; he merely watched coldly.

He could understand Lin Rui’s reaction.

A normal person couldn’t bear such brutality, especially not someone like Lin Rui, barely out of adolescence.

“Where’s the production line?”

“Take me there.”

Seeing Krock on the brink of being beaten to death, Yenir pulled Lin Rui aside and said coldly.

Though he despised Krock’s methods, he recognized that these bodies were not those of normally developed humans.

Every corpse lacked calluses on its fingers, a clear sign that these humans had been engineered.

A strong premonition flashed in Yenir’s mind.

Perhaps these seemingly normal engineered humans were the true source of the crisis.