"What... is this?!" Ikezawa exclaimed, his eyes widening at the sight. Li, standing beside him, looked equally astonished, having never seen such a metallic structure before.
Only Lingsha remained calm, even nodding slightly. "Just as I suspected."
One by one, the trio leaped down. The pit was roughly six or seven meters deep—enough to shatter an ordinary person's legs upon landing. But clearly, none of them were ordinary.
Li, the Beast-Eared Girl with her absurd physical strength, needed no explanation. Ikezawa had also undergone enhancements. As for Lingsha, she had fully acclimated to her new body by now and could even fly, making concerns about broken legs seem trivial.
She had secretly experimented with gathering large amounts of Scent around herself, finding that it could lift her into the air. While technically more of a "float" than true flight, due to its slow speed, the technique was still remarkable.
Lingsha drifted gracefully down, and Li landed perfectly. Only Ikezawa stumbled upon impact, falling to his knees directly facing Lingsha and Li.
Lingsha raised her left hand to cover her mouth, chuckling softly. "There's no need for such a formal bow."
Ikezawa stared silently, his mind racing.
How should I put this? If it were one of my brothers or friends, I'd never let this go—I'd definitely find a way to retort. But when it's a beautiful girl... that changes everything.
After this brief interlude, the trio continued deeper into the tunnel. Beneath their feet lay a metallic floor, while the walls and ceiling were composed entirely of earth. This place might have once been the entrance to some artificial structure, but over time, the surrounding earth had buried it, creating the scene before them.
Less than ten meters ahead, a metal door covered in green vines came into view. Through the gaps in the vegetation, slivers of silver metal still glinted.
Ikezawa hurried forward and tore the vines from the door with his bare hands. Beneath the cleared surface, a symbol resembling a pill with a red cross emerged, accompanied by a neat row of square characters:
No. 3 Ecological Research Laboratory
"Holy crap, this world really used to have humans, but they're extinct now?!" Ikezawa groaned, his face twisting with dismay. Speculating was one thing, but seeing tangible proof that his theory had become reality hit him hard.
The next moment, he glanced at Li with a hint of panic and quickly backed away from the Beast-Eared Girl.
Lingsha, however, spoke calmly. "Regardless, let's find a way to get inside first."
She carefully examined both sides of the metal door. If there was a door, there had to be a switch or control panel nearby, right?
After a thorough search, she discovered a rectangular display screen, about twenty centimeters long and ten centimeters wide, completely obscured by overgrown plants. As soon as she tore away the vegetation, the screen seemed to detect her presence and lit up.
How long has it been since this place was abandoned? Lingsha wondered inwardly. And yet, the equipment still works...
A blue light projected from the screen, slowly scanning down Lingsha's body from head to toe.
Beep... beep...
The display flickered red several times before a small message appeared: [ Identity Authentication Failed. ]
"What?" Ikezawa, who had also seen the screen, leaned closer. As he did, another blue light began scanning his body. After a few seconds, the light turned green, and a new message appeared: [ Identity Authentication Successful. Welcome back, Survivor. ]
Lingsha was stunned. She had been contemplating whether there was a way to force her way in, but now it seemed this so-called identity authentication wasn't verifying specific individuals, like laboratory personnel. Instead, it appeared that anyone classified as 'human' could pass.
Theoretically, this shouldn't be possible. This was a laboratory, after all, a place that should be shrouded in absolute secrecy, not open to casual visitors.
But after a moment's reflection, Lingsha began to understand. In the wake of a catastrophic disaster that had brought humanity to the brink of extinction, perhaps there weren't many survivors left.
Before his death, the master of the laboratory modified the authentication system, hoping that if any human survivors ever found this place in the future, they could use the lab's resources to improve their chances of survival.
"So, were these Beast-Eared Girls truly responsible for humanity's extinction?" The question resurfaced in Lingsha's mind as she stole a glance at Li.
While the Beast-Eared Girls were formidable warriors, the advanced technology evident at the laboratory's entrance suggested that humanity's technological level must have been quite high. The idea that they could have wiped out the entire human race simply by "eating" them seemed absurd.
Even with the Beast-Eared Girls' superior individual combat prowess, what about human tanks, aircraft, battleships, and nuclear weapons? If they were truly outmatched, couldn't humans have built space stations or underground bunkers to hide in?
This reminded Lingsha of zombie movies, where the notion of shambling zombies destroying humanity always struck her as illogical. Even considering stronger variants like Lickers and Tyrants, they shouldn't stand a chance against a modern military.
Unless... the true destroyer of humanity wasn't the zombies themselves, but a virus. Zombies couldn't possibly defeat a military force in direct combat. But what if they never engaged in the first place? What if the omnipresent virus had already infiltrated the army beforehand?
Suddenly, Lingsha remembered Ikezawa's sudden, unexplained illness, which had struck without warning.
As she pondered this, a mechanical whirring sound filled the air. The metal door before them slowly slid open, revealing a hellish scene beyond.
The corridor beyond was entirely silver, but now countless skeletons lay piled along its walls, some lying flat, others sprawled on the floor. Without exception, every skull faced the entrance, slender hand bones stretched forward as if desperately trying to crawl away.
Lingsha frowned slightly. What could have happened in this laboratory to drive these people to such desperate attempts to escape?