Apocalypse Star House Hoarding

Chapter 103

“Experimental subject,” Yu Xi remarked, emerging from behind the island kitchen connected to the dining area. She placed two freshly brewed cups of coffee on the table, and a bottle of fresh milk appeared between her fingers as she added a dash to each cup.

Lin Wu took a sip, requesting more milk, so Yu Xi handed him the entire bottle, along with seven or eight cups of various flavors of milk tea.

“Thank you.”

Somehow, this setup gave him the odd feeling of being pampered, though he had intended to have a serious conversation with her.

As someone who could never resist milk tea, Lin Wu quietly stored them away, though he furrowed his brow and began, “Yes, about half a month ago, when the first black acid rain fell on Fan City, they were still just ordinary people. Caught off guard by the sudden acid rain, they fled in a panic and were injured to varying degrees. They were in the factory district at the time, and luckily, they wore protective gear, so their injuries weren’t severe. Later, they took shelter in a building which appeared to be a pharmaceutical exhibit hall but was actually a private experimental lab. The people inside initially offered them food, water, and a place to stay, so they thought they were safe. But when they woke up, they were locked up.”

“So they became test subjects,” Yu Xi said, recalling the strange sight of those people breathing freely without protective masks. It had seemed unnatural.

After all, the acidic concentration in the air was now high enough to corrode skin on contact. If the lungs or trachea were exposed to it, the resulting burns would be unmanageable—even for her.

At first, she had considered that these people might be mission players, but after engaging with them, her instincts told her otherwise. Most arrogant mission players had the skills to back it up, but these individuals seemed to have undergone something traumatic, pushing them toward a twisted vengeance.

“The lab didn’t just experiment on them; before the acid rain, they had already lured in a number of desperate people with the promise of high compensation for testing new drugs. When order collapsed with the black acid rain, they became even more brazen, conducting human experiments on a large scale. Many died from the side effects of drugs or on the operating table. The other two survivors told me all this—the thin skeleton…”

Lin Wu corrected himself, recalling that Yu Xi had mentioned his name, “That Cheng Yuan said nothing, maintaining complete silence during questioning. He seems to be the one who endured the most intense experiments among those who came last night. Somehow, he survived and now is not only unaffected by acidic gases but has also developed a resistance to even more highly acidic rain. However, the side effects are also obvious.” Yu Xi nodded, having noticed the side effects immediately. Cheng Yuan’s body had wasted away, with muscle and fat tissue vanishing, and his skin had deteriorated to the point where he no longer looked remotely human.

Lin Wu continued, explaining that it was due to Cheng Yuan’s presence that the others who survived the experiments were finally able to escape their nightmarish existence, trapped like animals on metal beds.

“What did he do?”

“He was thrown into a container of concentrated acid, and most of his muscle tissue dissolved. The people outside the container assumed he was dead. After they pulled him out and discarded him, he somehow survived, then unleashed the acid on everyone present, killing them all.”

Yu Xi’s expression grew solemn. She now understood why, in the span of a single month, a once-refined campus heartthrob from an educated family had transformed into the depraved figure she’d encountered last night.

When the acid rain came, his parents died. Every day, he protested at the factory district, but then the acid rain intensified, plunging the entire planet into an apocalypse. Fleeing for his life, he thought he had found help—only to wake up and realize he had lost his freedom, forced to endure countless torturous experiments.

Yu Xi could understand his despair and anger, and she understood why he saw himself as a “chosen one,” a product of his suppressed pain and fury rebounding to the surface. Their bodies and minds, ravaged, had turned them into something less than human, leading them to engage in acts of senseless destruction and cruelty toward ordinary people.

She understood—but she did not condone it.

While killing those who had used them as test subjects was justified, what had ordinary people done wrong? These former victims had become perpetrators, losing their humanity in the process. People like that could not be allowed to continue.

Last night, many had been exposed to acidic soil and air, and they now lay in agony, soothed only temporarily by the anti-inflammatory and pain-relief medicine Yu Xi and Lin Wu provided. But these measures barely helped, only treating symptoms without addressing the root cause.

She knew the entire villa district was seething with anger, ready to demand blood for blood. This was a deep-seated vendetta between victims and perpetrators. Yu Xi wasn’t naive enough to preach about breaking the cycle of vengeance; with the collapse of order, how people chose to reclaim justice was up to them. She would neither join them nor stand in their way.

But before that, she had something she wanted to explore.

“What are you thinking?” Lin Wu asked, watching her closely.

“Do you think this lab that experimented with acid resistance could be related to your mission?”

..

Half an hour later, Yu Xi, wearing her protective suit and a silver-gray half-mask, walked from her villa down the driveway to the temporary building where the mutated individuals were being held.

Her moisture-breath mask only covered half her face, but it formed a protective layer over her entire face once activated, offering better protection than a full-face mask. She used to wear the mask less conspicuously, preferring to avoid attention, but after last night’s battle, both she and Lin Wu had openly displayed superhuman strength, and the villa district now viewed them as “new humans.”

Especially Lin Wu—after shielding everyone from a rocket explosion, he had become a beacon of hope for the survivors.

As Yu Xi walked down the driveway, she heard the murmurs and conversations from the villas on both sides. Lin Wu, beside her, also heard these voices, but he remained unfazed, his expression cold and serious, a stark contrast to the man who had been collecting milk tea in his storage just moments before.

The building they approached wasn’t a villa; it was an abandoned beauty salon in the villa district. Its anti-acid rain modifications were minimal, and as acid rain became more frequent, the previous occupants had gradually moved out, making it a suitable place to hold the acid-resistant mutants.

Cheng Yuan was confined in a private room, guarded by a few men. Upon seeing Yu Xi and Lin Wu with their distinctive silver-gray masks, the guards immediately stepped aside.

These people hadn’t witnessed the battle firsthand, and some had never even seen Yu Xi and Lin Wu’s faces. But word had spread throughout the villa district, and everyone now knew that the masked individuals were the ones who had stopped the mutants and saved them.

Yu Xi’s goal was to get clearer answers about the lab.

She wanted to know if there were any other survivors from the lab, and if so, where they were now; the lab’s exact location and current state, and whether any other researchers were alive; whether the acid resistance resulted from multiple experiments or an injected drug; and why, if the lab was secure enough to conduct such experiments, these people had left and ended up at the villa district for refuge.

To ensure they got truthful answers, Yu Xi and Lin Wu questioned two of the mutants separately, cross-referencing their responses to avoid any potential lies or concealment.

Whether the lab was related to Lin Wu’s mission was not particularly important at this point, since his mission was already tied to hers. What truly piqued Yu Xi’s interest was whether the lab had successfully developed a relatively safe human anti-acid drug. All the mutated individuals, aside from Cheng Yuan, exhibited a similar acid-resistant physiology, likely due to a collective drug administration.

If such a drug existed, she intended to steal it and deliver it to the official shelters still struggling against acid rain corrosion. They could either use it directly or research and improve it for broader application, offering at least a glimmer of hope to ordinary people.

The system had mentioned that this post-apocalyptic world had been invaded by fragments of another world, raising its difficulty to mid-high. Looking back, it became clear that the world difficulty had increased when the black acid rain fell globally. Regular acid rain was challenging but not apocalyptic. However, with the ultra-acid rain, the land was effectively destroyed, rendering the planet akin to a nuclear wasteland, followed by a global famine as resources dwindled.

If the black acid rain continued, the planet’s temperature would skyrocket, melting polar ice caps, flooding most low-altitude areas, and triggering tsunamis. Acid rain pollution would lead to ocean acidification, destroying ecosystems and driving many species to extinction; freshwater sources would also become increasingly acidic, leading to a massive die-off of plant life.

This catastrophic environment would persist for hundreds of years, making it nearly impossible for humanity to survive. Although the planet’s ecosystem would eventually recover, by then, humans might be long gone, as they are far more fragile than other species.

Therefore, if an anti-acid drug could be developed to enhance human resilience, she wanted to try. The same research, in different hands, might yield better results. Ethical research, conducted responsibly, was entirely different from ruthless human experimentation.

Of course, if the anti-acid drug required further refinement, she would later evaluate which shelter to provide it to after careful consideration. For now, her priority was to obtain the drug.

After gathering all the information she needed, Yu Xi left without bothering to see Cheng Yuan, nor did she feel inclined to confront him. She wasn’t a character bound to this world; she was a bystander in Cheng Yuan’s story. She sympathized with his hardships but despised who he had become. The apocalypse had brought suffering to countless people, and Cheng Yuan was neither the most unique nor the most tragic.

His fate had nothing to do with her.

On her way back to the villa, she discussed the operation with Lin Wu. Passing by Villa 35, she noticed a commotion at the gate. Someone seemed to have been expelled from the villa. This villa had been assigned to refugees half a month ago, housing several people. It was less crowded and better positioned than other refugee-filled villas.

From the voices, Yu Xi identified the person being driven out as Bai Yu, likely because the intruders had specifically asked about her.

Although everyone knew that the intruders were merely venting their resentment through cruel acts against the refugees, emotions inevitably flared, especially for the leader of the refugee group residing in the villa. To maintain his position and avoid disappointing the other refugees, he couldn’t afford to lose their trust. Nevertheless, he still allowed Bai Yu to leave in full protective gear and even gave her a supply backpack.

At first, Bai Yu was pleading with him, but when she noticed Yu Xi and Lin Wu passing by, her pleading abruptly stopped. Yu Xi expected that, having been driven out, Bai Yu might approach them—either to appeal to her or, if not, to “Feng Xu.” However, Bai Yu merely glanced at them, then picked up her backpack and began walking down the road without another word.

After returning to the villa, Yu Xi and Lin Wu began preparing dinner while continuing to discuss the details of their planned operation.

“If the black acid rain keeps falling like this, I’m not sure how long the villa’s air filtration system will last,” Yu Xi remarked, checking the air quality inside. She noticed that the acidity levels had risen slightly compared to the previous day. Though the increase was minimal, it signaled a gradual decline in the filter system’s effectiveness.

“With a full two months left, if things get dire, we may have to head to an official shelter. The facilities there are more robust, and since it’s underground, it should be able to hold out for the remaining months.”

With that, she pulled out an assortment of vegetables, beef tripe, duck blood, and other ingredients from the kitchen. “So while we still have some privacy, let’s enjoy a hotpot tonight.”

Lin Wu maintained his calm expression but secretly swallowed in anticipation. “Alright.”

Feeling a bit guilty about always relying on her for meals, he rummaged through his storage space and pulled out a bag. “I brought the condiments.”