Ice Age Apocalypse: I Hoard Billions of Supplies

Chapter 255: Test Subjects

Wu Chengyu, tightly bundled in his clothes despite the underground shelter being less cold, had his jacket zipper pulled up. The dim lighting made it hard for Liang Yue to see clearly, but she could still make out his face's bruises and nail marks.

"Wu Chengyu!" Liang Yue exclaimed, realizing why she hadn't seen him around before.

Wu Chengyu led her to a secluded room with faint lighting, making the darkness feel somewhat comforting. His voice, trembling with emotion, carried a plea for help. "Teacher Liang, this base is so strange! You have to find a way to get us out of here!"

His words were mixed with sobs, and he seemed on the verge of breaking down completely. Shocked and concerned, Liang Yue tried to console him while probing for more information.

"Wu Chengyu, tell me, what exactly have you discovered?" she asked gently.

Wiping his tears, Wu Chengyu began, "Because of some special duties, I occasionally get taken to the Second Life Pod. One day, I saw a few people in white protective suits carrying two long bags. They looked like sleeping bags, but inside, they appeared to be... people."

Driven by curiosity, he had quietly followed them. "You won’t believe what I saw," Wu Chengyu’s voice quivered as if the memory itself was too horrifying to recount.

"What did you see?" Liang Yue prompted, her heart pounding.

"I saw them pull two bodies out of the bags and throw them into a huge machine," Wu Chengyu said, covering his head with his hands, his expression twisted with fear. "On one of the bodies, I saw Hu Xiaoyu’s tattoo!"

Liang Yue staggered back three steps, her mind reeling from the shock. Though she had feared the worst, hearing the confirmation was unbearable.

"Are you sure it was Hu Xiaoyu?" she asked, hoping against hope that he was mistaken.

"There’s no doubt! I went swimming with Hu Xiaoyu many times, and a famous foreign artist did his tattoo. I would recognize it anywhere!" Wu Chengyu insisted.

With that, the last sliver of hope Liang Yue clung to vanished. West Hill Base had killed her students. But why? What reason could they possibly have for murdering a group of harmless students? Liang Yue couldn’t wrap her mind around it. She was furious, confused, and desperate for answers.

Still trembling with fear, Wu Chengyu begged her, "Teacher Liang, we’re counting on you now! Please find a way to protect us. Our classmates are disappearing one by one—if this keeps up, we’ll all be dead soon!"

Liang Yue, the only person the remaining students could rely on, took a deep breath to calm herself. She couldn’t afford to panic; she had to do something. She was their teacher and their only hope.

"Wu Chengyu, have you told anyone else about this?" she asked.

Wu Chengyu shook his head. "No, I didn’t dare. Even if they knew, there’s nothing they could do."

"Good. For now, don’t tell anyone, not even your classmates," Liang Yue instructed. "Now, tell me where you saw them handling the bodies, and I’ll investigate it myself."

After Wu Chengyu shared the location, Liang Yue committed it to memory and sent him back. Before leaving, Wu Chengyu pleaded with her, "Please hurry, Teacher Liang. If you don’t, I might be next."

Liang Yue nodded resolutely. "I will."

She decided to investigate that very night. Although underground, people in the First and Second Life Pods maintained regular sleep schedules. Most of the base’s residents wouldn’t be active at night, except for some guards.

More importantly, the ACE Special Forces, West Hill Base’s main armed force, were distracted by the mission to rescue Xie Huanhuan and Liu Ziyang. This provided the perfect opportunity for Liang Yue to act. After leaving the power plant, she headed to the location Wu Chengyu had mentioned, a secluded corner where the Second and Third Life Pods intersected—a place rarely frequented by anyone.

When Liang Yue arrived at the Second Life Pod, she was in a familiar area. She activated her supernatural ability, entering a meditative state that made her movements silent and her presence nearly undetectable. This allowed her to approach the site without drawing attention.

However, as she reached the location, she saw two armed guards at the door. Frowning, Liang Yue realized that dealing with these guards would be easy for her, but she wasn’t ready to provoke West Hill Base. Doing so would be tantamount to suicide. But if she missed this opportunity, more students might disappear, and she would lose the perfect chance to uncover the truth.

As she pondered her options, Liang Yue suddenly heard footsteps approaching. She quickly hid in a corner and watched as two people in white protective suits walked by, carrying body bags. When they reached a restroom, the rear two stopped. After gesturing to the others, they dropped the body bags on the ground and entered the restroom.

Seeing her chance, Liang Yue swiftly entered the women’s restroom, where she knocked out a female worker from behind. Working quickly, she changed into the woman’s protective suit and walked out as if nothing had happened. Outside, the male worker who had been waiting nodded at her, and the two of them picked up the body bags and carried them to the secure room.

The guards at the door glanced at them but didn’t intervene, allowing them to enter. The male worker knocked on the door, and the heavy, silver-gray metal door swung open. Inside, another worker in a white protective suit looked at the body bags and remarked with a grin, "Failed again! This is the eighth one recently!"

The male worker shrugged. "Nothing we can do—their bodies just can’t adapt."

Liang Yue, listening silently, was filled with questions. "Adapt to what?" she wondered, but she held her tongue and followed the male worker into the room.

Inside, other workers quickly took over, pulling out a body from one of the bags. The sight shocked Liang Yue to her core. The body was a grotesque blend of human and something else as if infected by a deadly virus. One side was still human, but the other was a terrifying crimson mass of swollen muscle with visible blood vessels and bones.

"What on earth is this base researching?" Liang Yue’s eyes widened in shock, her heart pounding with curiosity and fear​.

Author's Note