Chapter 272: Questioning and Roaring

"Deputy Captain, what do we do next?"

As Qiong Xuan and the others went after Jian Changsheng, the remaining law enforcement officers in the base all followed Han Meng's command. They looked at the figure holding a kerosene lamp in the darkness and asked.

Han Meng was silent for a moment before speaking, "How many people are left now?"

"Excluding those pursuing the intruders, there are fourteen left."

"Two people, follow the researchers and try to restore power first. Everyone else, follow the original shift assignments and guard every checkpoint and floor," Han Meng's voice slowly rose. "Don't let your guard down. We can't guarantee that all intruders have left yet. Be vigilant at all times, understand?"

"...Yes!"

The law enforcement officers immediately dispersed to various floors according to Han Meng's deployment. Just then, Han Meng seemed to remember something and spoke again:

"What about Chen Xin?"

"Chen Xin... he was patrolling here earlier, but I haven't seen him since a moment ago..."

"...I see." Han Meng frowned slightly. "Where's Dr. Yi?"

"Dr. Yi? It seems he just finished that experiment, told others to dispose of the body, and went back to drink and rest..."

Upon hearing this, a flicker of murderous intent flashed in Han Meng's eyes. He took a deep breath, barely suppressing his rage.

"Alright, you can go."

As everyone dispersed, Han Meng's chilling gaze turned to the end of the corridor, and he strode towards it.

Unlike other researchers, Dr. Yi's dormitory was on the third floor, reportedly for the convenience of conducting experiments and monitoring test subjects. Han Meng moved through the dim corridor by the light of the kerosene lamp and stopped in front of a door.

Just as he was about to raise his hand to knock, he heard a gasp of pleasure from behind the door.

"Slower... slower!"

"...You scoundrel! What did you take today?"

"Ah... gently! You're hurting me!"

The moment he heard these sounds, Han Meng's eyes narrowed slightly.

At that moment, a series of images flashed before Han Meng's eyes: the tortured, disfigured test subjects in the third-floor rooms; Dr. Yi, drunkenly smiling, holding a liquor bottle; Zhao Yi's corpse, covered by a sheet, being pushed toward the incinerator; the figure in a white coat, turning immediately to flirt and indulge with a woman after completing an experiment...

Finally, he saw the young man in the grey cotton jacket in the front row of the audience suddenly stand up and unfurl a banner that read:

Han Meng is innocent!

Han Meng's rage burned ever hotter. Even his self-control was close to breaking point. He tightly clutched the crumpled file about Zhao Yi in his hand. Words like "survivor," "nineteen years old," and "died five hours after entering the base" continuously hammered at his heart!

He clenched his right fist and violently smashed it against the door.

Bang—!!

Like an artillery shell exploding inside the base, splinters of wood flew outwards!

Behind the door, a naked Dr. Yi, his face flushed with drunkenness, was pinning a similarly disheveled female doctor to the bed. Hearing the sudden blast, he turned in shock to look outside...

A figure in a black trench coat stood amidst the swirling dust, holding a kerosene lamp, their gaze utterly freezing!

"Han Meng?! What the hell are you doing?!" A flicker of sobriety returned to Dr. Yi's eyes, and he then exploded in a furious roar!

He felt a blur before his eyes as the figure in black seized him by the throat, lifted him entirely from the bed, and slammed him hard against the wall!

The female doctor was instantly dumbfounded. She shrieked and burrowed into the blankets, curling up like a startled rabbit.

"What... are you doing??" Han Meng ground out through gritted teeth, his voice chilling.

"What am I doing?! What business is it of yours?!" Dr. Yi swore vehemently. "Who are you? You're supposed to be protecting the base, and you end up here? It's not your job to break up anything, is it? Besides, we're consenting adults, what do you care?!"

"You personally killed a nineteen-year-old child, and now you turn around and get intimate with a woman? Don't you feel any guilt or pity at all?"

"I've had countless test subjects die by my hand! Forget nineteen-year-olds! I've killed ten-year-olds! Are you going to avenge them?!" Dr. Yi showed no fear of Han Meng's murderous intent. "Come on! Use your gun and blow my brains out! If you don't kill me today, you're a goddamn coward!!"

The two men's roars immediately drew a crowd. The white-coated scientists were stunned to see a naked Dr. Yi slammed into the corner by Han Meng.

"You think I won't?"

The murderous intent in Han Meng's eyes blazed even fiercer. He drew his gun from his waist with a backhand motion and pressed the muzzle against Dr. Yi's forehead. "You're a maniac! Conducting human experiments while drinking... In your eyes, human lives aren't lives at all! What do you treat them as? Entertainment to accompany your drinks? Or bar snacks?!"

"I drink?! What the hell is wrong with me drinking?! Huh???"

"Do you know how many human experiments I've conducted?! Five thousand four hundred and thirty-two! Thirty percent were elderly people! Thirty percent were children! And another thirty percent were sickly people sold by their families and sent here to die! I watched them slowly turn into monsters! Turn into madmen! Then turn into some unknown thing and die in front of me!!"

"Have you seen the pain and despair in their eyes?! Have you heard the eerie wails they made before they died?! You haven't even witnessed a single complete experiment! What right do you have to lecture me here?!"

"Five thousand four hundred and thirty-two experiments! Five thousand four hundred and thirty-two lives! I spent fifteen years! I poured everything I had into this! What do you think we finally got?"

"Nothing!!! We got absolutely nothing!!"

"Not just my fifteen years! My teacher! My teacher's teacher! And their teachers... We've been researching in this dark, sunless base for over three hundred years! Trying to find the reason for scientific regression! Trying to extend the life of the Aurora Lord! Trying to find a sliver of hope for humanity to move forward... But it's useless, isn't it???"

Dr. Yi, like a madman, spread his arms and roared hysterically in his drunken state:

"Over three hundred years! How many generations have we outlived! How many lives have been sacrificed! And we haven't achieved even the slightest result!"

"Even when our advanced instruments and equipment were still functional back then, we couldn't analyze even a single strand of the Aurora Lord's hair... Those medical devices! Those electronic components! Those damned internal combustion engines and signal towers! Even the simplest, most foolproof camera, we built it! But it just wouldn't work, would it?!"

"Do you think my daily job is to study science?! Wrong!! Let me tell you! My daily job is to conduct one meaningless experiment after another! To watch, with my own eyes, one life after another die in front of me! Or turn into some monster and be killed!"

"We know all of this is meaningless!! But we can't stop!! Because if we stop, all of humanity will just wait for death!!!"

"Tell me!! What else can I do besides drinking??"

Han Meng stood frozen, stunned by Dr. Yi's almost insane roar.