While searching the bodies, Li Qingyu was delighted: he found a special syringe.
Name: Toxic Needle
Estimated value: 25 tokens
Effect: An extremely powerful painkiller and hallucinogen; causes severe addiction. Deals massive damage to the liver, kidneys, and immune system. Long-term use leads to decreased intelligence.
Note: Despite being an ominous narcotic, when diluted and mixed with other chemicals it can be used to produce many legitimate medicines.
Li Qingyu was ecstatic. This was a basic material for producing medicae supplies! The Hideout had a Medbay module that could be upgraded. If he found the right components, he'd be able to build a full medical station.
Such a station would let him craft medkits, surgical kits, painkillers, and hemostatic drugs.
And also various functional stimulants. For example, a "Porter" injector to increase strength and carry weight.
An endurance injector that doubled stamina for marathon runs.
A regenerator—also known as the "Bloody Pump of the Void"! If a limb hadn't yet blackened with necrosis, one shot—and your health would regenerate like crazy.
Li Qingyu hadn't expected such valuable loot to drop from these Chempse, so he immediately began a thorough search.
From eleven bodies, he collected 11 Toxic Needles. One man who looked like the squad leader also had a homemade gas grenade.
That thing created a toxic cloud roughly 20 by 20 meters. The gas caused nonstop coughing for 80 seconds.
Li Qingyu was once again happy with his successful surprise attack. If that little boss had managed to throw the grenade, everything could have ended badly.
After putting away the syringes and the grenade, he decided the Chempse were simply ideal targets for farming materials. Even without the black trader's job, it would be worth visiting them more often!
Thinking that, he pulled out a knife, preparing to cut the periodic-table tattoos off the corpses' shoulders, when heavy footsteps sounded.
BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!!
CRASH!!
Amid flying brick fragments and screeching metal, a monster appeared—a fat brute two and a half meters tall!!
It was a super-obese hulking man whose shoulder width almost matched his height. Layers of iron plates hung on his body, nailed with steel spikes straight into the fat beneath.
On the monster's head sat a helmet welded from scrap metal, complete with a pair of pig ears. The helmet continued into an iron mask with an abstract pig snout.
A Chempig. Disposable living weapon of the Chem gang. They were usually made from captured Underhive residents, gang members who'd messed up, or enemies.
The victims were injected with massive doses of veterinary growth stimulants, regenerative serums, and other chems. The body began developing a second time, piling on flesh and gaining unimaginable strength.
The downside was obvious: the brain turned into an animal's brain, controlled by chemicals. Such a creature could only kill everything living around it, obeying instinct. And it could be activated only once!
From the start of the transformation, the Chempig remained in hibernation. After chemical activation, it flew into a frenzy and smashed everything around it for about an hour. Then it died of heart failure—its tiny heart simply couldn't keep such a bulk supplied with blood.
This Chempse squad had been sent by "Mama" to recon the reactor, and they'd dragged a sleeping Chempig with them, leaving it by the entrance.
The squad leader, realizing they were under attack, managed to hit a button on a pocket radio transmitter, activating the monster.
Along the Chempig's spine was a device called the "Spine of Wrath," connected to the mask.
It not only woke the monster, but also injected "Rage Serum" into the brain and spinal cord, keeping it in a state of permanent rabid fury and granting insane combat power!
Waking up, the Chempig roared and charged Li Qingyu.
Picture it: a bulk two and a half meters tall and nearly as wide, wearing a pig mask and armor nailed onto its body, barreling straight at you.
Li Qingyu's hair stood on end. Without wasting a second, he turned and sprinted up the stairs.
The Chempig didn't fall behind. Despite the fat and size, it was surprisingly fast, practically on his heels.
Li Qingyu was in shock. If the thing was that fast, then the moment his stamina ran out, it was over!
For the record, his full stamina reserve was enough to run about three kilometers at a marathoner's speed. Pace—about three minutes per kilometer.
And even at that speed, the mountain of meat behind him didn't drop back, making snorting, pig-like sounds. The floor thundered under its steps so hard Li Qingyu felt his heart sink.
When people are in danger, they run toward what seems safe. The route he'd used to come in felt the most reliable, so he shot up to the fifth floor. But the Chempig followed him. He had to keep running.
The Reactor map was a small square. Each level was about 500 square meters, packed with little rooms. Stairs in the corners, and the reactor cylinder in the center.
Li Qingyu ran circles on the fifth floor, trying to find cover, but it was useless. Every corridor and doorway was wide enough for the Chempig to squeeze through. There was nowhere to hide!
Logical—this place used to produce chemicals, and raw materials had to be hauled around, so the passages were made wide.
For Li Qingyu, that became a problem. Half his stamina was already gone, and how long that pig could keep running—who knew?
Dying wasn't that scary, but losing the reagents he'd fought so hard to get—that hurt!
Sweating, he looked back. The Chempig snorted and wheezed behind him. Drool ran from the mouth visible beneath the mask, and rotten teeth gaped in blackness.
"Merciful Emperor!!"
The prospect of being torn apart by a Chempig didn't inspire him. Li Qingyu frantically searched for a way out.
Then he spotted a gap between the reactor's central cylinder and the floor slabs. The slit was just big enough for a person to squeeze through!
Thrilled, Li Qingyu jumped, wrapped his arms and legs around the reactor, and, like sliding down a fireman's pole, slipped from the fifth floor straight to the first.
After landing, he looked up. On the fifth floor, the Chempig reached out and tried to shove its head into the gap—but no chance, it couldn't fit.
Li Qingyu grinned. Watching his stamina bar refill, he came up with a way to kill the brute: exhaust it!
Given: Li Qingyu can sprint up to the fifth floor and slide down. The Chempig can only run up and down the stairs, spending twice the energy. And while the monster charges downward, Li Qingyu rests.
If he repeated that a few times, the pig would get tired, right?
Satisfied with his plan, he waited for the Chempig to come down.
...But his stamina bar was already full, and the monster still wasn't there. From above came only shrieking, like someone was being slaughtered.
Li Qingyu frowned. "What is that pig doing up there?"
He looked up through the slit from the first floor. The Chempig was stuck!
That bulk's brain worked in a straight line: it saw the prey dive into the gap—and crawled in after it. Tried so hard it wedged itself solid.