Chapter Eighty-Three: The Biology Laboratory

Li Daoran opened the armored suit and sprang out, stretching his body. Crammed inside like that had been terribly uncomfortable and had seriously hampered his performance. Had those soldiers shown any intention of fighting back, matters would not have gone so smoothly.

After leaping out, he looked at the dazed survivors and said, "Hello. I am Li Daoran, a soldier of the White Deer Republic. Don't be afraid. The enemy is dead."

After he finished, the others took quite a while to react. Only after some time did the feeling of surviving a disaster wash over them. As for weeping with joy, that was out of the question; the companions they had lived and fought beside were more or less all dead. There was no joy to speak of, only the difference between loud sobbing and stifled crying, and some could only stand there open-mouthed, silent, with tears streaming down their faces.

The group collapsed to the ground, and Li Daoran stood there scratching his head, somewhat at a loss.

Suddenly, a young man stood up and seized Li Daoran excitedly, demanding, "Why didn't you come sooner? Why?"

Li Daoran showed him no mercy at all and slapped him hard across the face. The man staggered from the blow, his cheek swelling at once, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth, proof that Li Daoran had not held back in the slightest.

Li Daoran shook his head and said, "What are you talking about? Looking for death?"

He grabbed the young man and lifted him up, looking down at him from above. The cold in his eyes was nearly enough to freeze a person solid.

"If you want to die, I can grant you that."

He let go of the limp young man in his hand, then swept his gaze across everyone else. The others all avoided his eyes. Only the woman Li Daoran had noticed earlier met his stare.

"I'm sorry. He is just too heartbroken. His girlfriend..."

"This is war. Everyone can die. You do not direct your anger at the enemy, but blame the people protecting you. You might as well die instead." Li Daoran cut her off coldly.

"I'm sorry." Tian Ye, the woman, stood and said to Li Daoran.

Li Daoran waved a hand to show it was nothing. Without so much as glancing at the others, he strode through the research institute's main entrance.

A research institute of unknown details was, for Blue Star, imaginable in its allure. Even dealing with these people at the doorway, Chen Ming, David, and the others had been urging Li Daoran to resolve it quickly.

And this fierce, violent way of dealing with it was partly Li Daoran's own impulse, and partly at their direction. He needed to establish his authority in these people's hearts. He was not here to be a nanny. It could be said that these people could not help but harbor such thoughts: meek and submissive toward outsiders, yet striking with full force on the inside. If they were not suppressed swiftly and decisively, and their notions crushed, who could say they would not grow even more outrageous? Chen Ming and the others understood such ugliness in human nature all too well.

Li Daoran did not bother with Yuan Muye, who had been bound and knocked unconscious on the ground, but simply stepped over him and entered the institute.

Once inside, his pupils contracted. Hell on earth would not suffice to describe what he saw. In the long corridor, the remnants of struggle appeared at every turn: corpses of soldiers from the Philip Empire, but even more mutilated remains of security personnel and institute staff. It was clear that even here, Okamoto Ichiki's path forward had not been without obstacles.

Yet after venturing farther in, he discovered that most of the deaths had been in strange ways. Li Daoran himself could not quite say what was wrong.

"Many of them killed one another. Foolish," Chen Ming said, seeing through the fog in a single sentence.

Among the corpses lying scattered about, many had in fact been slain by their own people. It was obvious that someone in the institute had defected. Perhaps they had been moles from the start, or perhaps some had surrendered.

Li Daoran did not bother turning over each body one by one. None of that mattered. After killing more than a dozen people, he could already face such a scene with composure. He even had the leisure to mutter, "Tell me, should I be looking at this or not? Broadcasting a scene like this probably wouldn't be very good, would it?"

"Enough nonsense. This isn't something we can control. Hurry up and see if there's anything useful here," Chen Ming said irritably. Li Daoran's words had struck him right in the sorest spot.

The public relations department had already been working overtime more than once. Especially given the White Rabbit country's special circumstances, these images were practically beyond the pale, yet there was still no way to restrict them. Anyone who opened their eyes could see them if they wished. It was simply not something they could prevent. This had given them no end of headaches, forcing them to guide public opinion and relax certain restrictions so people could at least discuss it.

But the internet was not beyond the law. Anyone who made an over-the-top remark might be invited in for tea at best; if they ended up on a list, they might even be quietly dealt with. In troubled times, harsh measures are used. Blue Star was now under heavy pressure as well.

The White Rabbit country was slightly better off; some nations had gone straight to military administration, and the three great powers had even joined forces to wipe out several unruly smaller regimes. In truth, Li Daoran did not know that the Ideal Land had already become a true haven beyond the world.

So no one had it easy. That was also why Chen Ming and the others had not told Li Daoran about the situation outside, to avoid putting even greater psychological pressure on him. The plan to turn him into a divine figure had arisen from this as well.

But clearly, this was not a good time. The situations in Blue Star and in the world of Daoran were both still unstable, and Li Daoran was not mature enough yet; to say he was in mortal peril would not be an exaggeration. Under such circumstances, the situation on Blue Star could never be stabilized no matter what. No one liked sleeping with a sword hanging overhead, ready to fall at any moment.

Yet there was also a good side to it. The rising physical strength and lifespan of human beings were changes visible to the naked eye. Everyone knew their bodies were getting better day by day, and most were grateful. So in truth, only a minority were harboring ill intent and stirring trouble. At the very least, the keyboard warriors had already been beaten down until they had become rare creatures. After all, one report could make you vanish from the internet without a trace.

When state power truly struck, all the jumping clowns and lurking demons vanished without a sound.

But Chen Ming estimated that this situation would change over the next few days. Once blood was truly shed and the war truly entered its next phase, some hidden clowns would certainly leap out to cause trouble. This, too, was a silent war. Blue Star absolutely could not allow unrest to break out; stability came first. How to win on this main battlefield of public opinion was an exasperating problem in itself.

So when Li Daoran joked about it, the five from Blue Star all looked somewhat worried. Still, they would not tell Li Daoran these things. After all, the world of Daoran had also entered a critical moment and could not afford his distraction. As long as victory was secured in the world of Daoran, Blue Star's problems would be easily resolved.

Li Daoran opened a room. Inside were an animal skeleton and various other specimens. In the laboratory there was also a high-powered microscope and some experimental apparatus.

Li Daoran said, "Looks like a biology laboratory. No wonder it's in such a remote place. The Philip Empire even sent people here specially. Could it be that they were developing some kind of bioweapon?"

Upon seeing the biology lab, the first thing Li Daoran thought of was bioweapons, virus laboratories, and the like. After all, such things seemed to be essential for war, the sort of thing that only truly belonged on the table when war had already begun.