"Alright. I will find you after you wake up. You will come down for food anyway, so you won't miss it." After speaking, Brother Zhang added, "Do you still have your old phones? Connect them to the base's Wi-Fi. That way you can contact more easily."
Whether the old phones were still around did not matter. Lan Jin had many brand-new ones stored in her space. Even without them, the four of them all had new phones they could use.
Lan Jin said, "We have them, all of us. Later I will write down the Wi-Fi password. After we connect, we'll head upstairs to sleep."
Brother Zhang said, "No need to write it down. I will give you a flyer. The Wi-Fi password is printed on it. Because not many people need it, you have to get the flyer from the service desk. This rule is the same for every base. The flyer has both the password and a QR code. Scan the code to download the base's app.
"This app is used across all bases. No matter which base you connect to, it will locate you automatically. Each base has its own local notices, but all important ones are pinned to the top. They also scroll on the LED screens, so you won't miss anything. You can check often. There are plenty of messages there. Hopefully it will be useful to you."
The medical vehicle carrying them was at the very back of the convoy. Only after the people from the first three vehicles had been checked for fever could their driver move forward and enter the base.
By the time it was finally their turn, fifteen minutes had already passed. That was still quick, but there was no way to skip the inspection. Nearly everyone had been wounded. Without a clear temperature check, they could not be let inside.
After they entered the base, Lao Gao suddenly realized there was something unresolved. He turned to Brother Zhang and asked, "Didn't you say you would point out which plant is the one that makes people mutate? Why didn't you show us after we came in?"
Brother Zhang laughed. "It's not that I didn't want to show you. I never saw that plant myself. Maybe it didn't grow on the side we blasted. There were still two spots I didn't search. It could very well have been one of those."
Lao Gao shook his head. "So you don't even have a picture? Without seeing it, I feel so itchy inside."
Brother Zhang sighed helplessly. He pulled out his phone, connected it to the network, then dug through his chat history. "I never saved it myself, but my messages are never deleted. It should still be there. Wait a bit. But listen, this is top secret. Besides us and the higher-ups, no one else is supposed to know what it looks like. If it had been anyone else asking, and they hadn't seen it with their own eyes, I would never have pulled up this photo."
He searched for a long time. Just when he was about to lose patience, Brother Zhang finally found the picture of the plant.
When the four of them saw it, they lost control and cursed in unison. "Damn!"
Because the plant was none other than the same one that had chased them all the way down the mountain. In other words, it was the plant that had wounded every member of their squad.
Now, apart from the four of them and Brother Zhang, everyone else had been injured by that plant.
And Brother Zhang had mentioned before: anyone injured by the plant would show the exact same reaction as those who had eaten insect powder.
That meant, before long, these people would start to burn with fever, then fall into madness.
Seeing the four of them grow tense, Brother Zhang did not realize at first how serious the problem was. He only stared blankly. But after a moment, when the truth sank in, he cursed louder than all four of them combined.
And even that curse was nowhere near enough to capture the situation.
There had been over forty people on this mission. Even with losses along the way, they returned with thirty-five. Brother Zhang had just counted. Out of these thirty-five, excluding the four with powers and himself, everyone else had been wounded by the plant. That meant that very soon, thirty people would all descend into madness.
Lao Gao asked, "Brother Zhang, didn't you say before that people who ate insect powder, people who ate the plant, and people scratched by the plant will all go through madness before awakening any powers? Was that right?"
Brother Zhang nodded. "Yes."
Lan Jin asked, "When we had those symptoms before, eating salt was the cure. What about here in the base?"
Brother Zhang's face twisted with frustration. "If it's insect powder, salt works. But not when you are scratched by the plant. In that case, there is no cure. They can only suffer through it until it passes."
The problem now was that there were too many of them. The base could never handle thirty people all in a state of madness at the same time.
Though the fevers had not started yet, who could say when they would? More importantly, everyone except Brother Zhang had been injured. He was the only one who had come back unscathed. How was he supposed to explain this to the higher-ups?
After brooding for a moment, Brother Zhang barked sharply, "Everyone, to the top floor!"
Those who had been preparing to rest stared in confusion. Hadn't they just returned? Shouldn't they be resting? Why go to the top floor?
But as soldiers, they obeyed. No matter what, orders came first. At Brother Zhang's shout, all of them headed to the top floor.
It was not actually the top of the building they were in. And the so-called "top floor" was not a place all of them could reach at once. What Brother Zhang meant was somewhere else entirely.
Everyone followed his gaze toward the mountain peak. There, an imposing structure stood tall, perfectly intact.
Once he had ordered them to go, Brother Zhang said, "You four, don't rest yet. If things get out of hand, we may need your help."
The four did not argue. It was plain from Brother Zhang's expression that protest would be useless. Lan Jin said, "Alright, we will come too. But what is that place?"
Walking alongside them, Brother Zhang explained, "Don't be fooled by how pretty it looks on the outside. That building is the base's laboratory."
He did not go into details about what was researched inside. He only said that the walls were reinforced beyond measure, built to contain many things. Whenever someone in the base had fallen into madness before, or even just developed a fever, they had all been locked inside. Even mutated animals captured outside had been kept there.
It was not just one floor, either. Long before the Great Freeze, they had built it carefully. And after the freeze, its value had only grown beyond measure.