Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'
Chapter 110 - 087. Mingji might deteriorate, but it will never go out of business

Chapter 110: 087. Mingji might deteriorate, but it will never go out of business

"Oh no, Doctor Anna!"

While checking the Ersha Armament production equipment on the third underground level, Anna looked up at the pink-haired girl rushing towards her.

"You are... Zexi? What are you doing on the third level?"

Zexi was taken aback, "Doctor Anna, I was in charge of logistics maintenance on the third level before you assigned me, didn’t you remember?"

"Was I?... I’ve been too busy, I must have overlooked it."

She only remembered that this was Zexi from the logistics division—her professor had mentioned that she secretly sold supplies to the warlords of the Outer World for personal gain.

However, in reality, such black market merchants were everywhere, so her professor always turned a blind eye.

Anna didn’t want to be too absolute; since the girl already had an established network, she was most suited for handling sales and foreign trade.

"Don’t panic, Zexi, take your time and tell me what’s the matter."

Her tone was gentle, unintentionally adopting one similar to her old teacher.

"Doctor Anna, that Level 5 Infected—Li Aozi!"

"Now I’m a professor," said Anna lightly.

Zexi choked a bit. She thought, given the circumstances, why worry about such details?

Vanity, pure vanity.

No wonder she wasn’t as popular as Head Nurse Nodley; if the professor hadn’t been suddenly murdered and Nodley severely injured, it wouldn’t have been her turn to take over.

"—Professor Anna," she said. "The medicine and medical equipment you sent Li Aozi to retrieve, and the doctors who were kidnapped... he has returned."

"Is that so? That’s good," Anna nodded.

Li Aozi was someone the professor paid special attention to, said to be the only case of a ’Level 5 Ersha Virus Infected.’

But to Anna, he was merely a lucky ordinary person, with so-called ’symptoms of infection’ that were nothing more than some mental illnesses.

As for those mysterious phenomena... they were at most signs of Arcane Awakening.

Professor Anna always found the "Ersha virus infection" theory uninteresting—every primary school student knows that atoms generally measure between 0.1 to 0.5 nanometers, yet her professor stubbornly believed that the Ersha virus was smaller than atoms.

It was simply absurd and against natural laws...

Anna assumed that this was just a pretense used by the professor to maintain her power and prestige in Mingji Humanity.

Because Anna was that kind of person.

Regarding Li Aozi’s power, Anna was dismissive; if Nodley had not had an accident, any Arcane User could easily handle him.

It might be better to use his gratitude to Mingji as an excuse to send him away for her own benefit.

Thus, within the Mingji Humanitarian Shelter, only she would possess the highest prestige and strength.

Now that Li Aozi had returned, she expected that his achievements highlight her wise decisions.

Thinking this, she might even owe Li Aozi some thanks—

"No, damn it, big sis, he, he’s on a killing spree! He’s already killed dozens of people, the deaths were horrific, if this continues, we’re all done for!"

Zexi urgently pleaded:

"Doctor—Professor Anna, please think of something, we’re counting on you now."

"Li Aozi’s on a killing spree?"

Anna was momentarily stunned.

The news took her some time to process.

She couldn’t understand how Li Aozi, who had been consuming their resources and enjoying national treasure-level treatment in Mingji Humanity, would turn on Mingji Humanity;

no reason, no gain, no resentment—could someone change that much in just three days?

She immediately raised the tablet left by the professor and turned on the surveillance system: flipping through over a dozen cameras, the sights that met her eyes were almost too much to bear.

Seeing those dismembered remains, Anna’s expression remained calm, but her confusion grew: why was Li Aozi so cruel? Not even deep-seated national hatred would justify such brutality.

Without any profit motive, without hatred, who would risk their life to attack the entire Mingji Humanity by themselves.

"... Never mind."

She didn’t see him on the monitors, but she noticed some male footprints near the elevator.

She couldn’t count on Nodley anymore.

Anna turned her head to look at the twelve Biochemical Pods nearby—the reactor’s cables were directly plugged into their bases, continuously powering them 24 hours a day.

She knew well what was inside.

They were a group of young boys and girls soaking in opaque vessels, not older than 15, their bodies emaciated and grotesquely deformed due to premature and excessive development of Arcane Energy.

But that was not important, what mattered was that they were ready to be shipped out.

"These are all the latest third-generation Ersha Armament models, each an Alpha-Rank elite in combat power. As products, they are extremely loyal, and they don’t break easily. Each suit of armor could easily fetch a price between 800,000 to 1.2 million."

Anna gently swiped on the tablet, popping up an interface. After fiddling with it, she tossed the tablet back to Zexi.

"Huh? What do you mean by this, Doctor—Professor Anna?"

Zexi, completely befuddled, picked up the tablet. The only thing on the screen was a lonely message saying "Voiceprint Recorded."

"I’ve given you control over these Ersha Armaments. Next, I’m heading to meet with members of the Third Rule. You stay here and set up an ambush, preferably to intercept that Li Aozi."

Without looking back, Anna turned and left, seemingly heading deeper underground.

"But, Professor, are these enough? Professor! Don’t leave! Take me with you—"

Prior to then, Doctor Anna had always been composed, but in the blink of an eye, she was gone.

What about me?

Zexi, with a gloomy expression, turned her head to look at the twelve Biochemical Pods, wondering to herself:

"What am I supposed to do, I don’t know anything, Professor Anna, are you setting me up?"

Ding-dong—

Just as Zexi was at a loss, a sound suddenly came from the central elevator not far away.

"Eek!" Zexi was on edge and quickly hid, peeking out to secretly observe.

The elevator doors slowly opened, revealing three figures of different heights.

This is bad, they’re here!

"Crap, three people, how am I supposed to stop them!"

Zexi felt a sense of dread and hurriedly grabbed the tablet, tiptoeing away.

Under her arm, she pressed against the tablet without noticing a line of text that appeared on it:

[Command received, execution beginning]

"Clang, clang, clang!"

Nomi walked in grinning, carrying a wrench and taking a keen interest in looking around, especially at the small nuclear reactor in the center:

"Nice, an old-era fission reactor, but we need to replace the flag on it with that of the Rose Army."

Qiu Ran followed closely, looking around cautiously, her lack of combat strength making her even more careful in this environment.

"Mr. Leoz, why have we arrived on the third floor?"

She noticed the painted symbols on the wall and asked in confusion.

"Head Nurse Nodley’s access only reaches the third floor, just right, we can first get you on the subway to leave."

Leoz was unconcerned, his mission objective was to slaughter all of Mingji Humanity.

According to Doctor Chen Siqi and the secrecy of the second floor—he suspected the professor’s incarnation was right there.

"Leave..." Qiu Ran exclaimed in surprise, "Hey, didn’t you say you’d only let me go in exchange for my Arcane Energy?"

"Staying alive all this way was your own skill, I didn’t bother with you."

As he spoke, Leoz glanced at Nomi.

The original plan was for Nomi to lead the way, while he reaped the benefits.

But it turned out that Nomi was cursing and lagging behind, constantly watching Qiu Ran.

He had already killed 59 members of Mingji Humanity, only the last 50 remained... then he could complete the mission.

"Luckily, there were no mishaps," Leoz calculated in his mind, "according to the guide from my past life, I remember, the final BOSS is a bioengineered beast on the second floor, immune to bullets, Beta Rank, health points 5800, both [Strength] and [Constitution] over 60."

Not hard to beat.

Leoz had never done the task, but if even the [Mutant] players of Frost Plated found it easy, then it definitely must be easy.

After all, in the broken place of Frost Plated, there were hardly any people who could level up.

Nomi innocently put her hands behind her back:

"What’s up? Why are you looking at me... could it be, you think Nomi is cute?"

"Cute my foot, you Ms. Average Believer," Leoz rolled his eyes.

Although the mission difficulty was Scary, equivalent to a degree more torturous than S-rank, Leoz trusted more in the summary of players from his past life, the lessons born out of the life and death experiences of players, it couldn’t be wrong.

Just as he was brimming with confidence, suddenly, Leoz felt something was off.

The surroundings, making one shiver without being cold, the orange-red warning light of the device instinctively made one think of words like "out of control."

Nomi carelessly made a round, and with her abilities as a guerrilla scout, couldn’t spot anything unusual.

"There are shoe prints here, that Anna probably went this way."

He looked around, the twelve egg-shaped devices surrounding the reactor seemed vaguely familiar to Leoz.

At first glance, they reminded him of the brood nests of Outer Realm Demons, but on closer inspection, they seemed more similar to the portable biochemical pods used by [Biochemists].

The latter are typically used by [Biochemists] to deploy elite bio-beasts from outer orbit, but they also come with some adjustment and repair capabilities.

Nomi, failing to find where the footprints led, scratched her head and her attention shifted to one of the egg-shaped pods.

"By the way, what’s stored inside these, eggs?"

She curiously walked forward.

Leoz’s pupils narrowed, suddenly realizing something, he quickly activated Gravity and shouted:

"Don’t go there, No—"

"Huh?"

Nomi turned her head as Gravity instantly captured her body, lifting her from the ground and immediately flying towards him.

Thank goodness—Leoz calmed down—in a moment of urgency, he used 8 times gravity, although it could break Nomi’s neck, with her healing abilities, at least she was out of danger.

Bang!

The door of the biochemical pod suddenly exploded and in the next moment, a hairless girl slowly lifted her head, and the strange smell, like explosives, instantly spread out.

Her eyes focused, instantly targeting Nomi who was flying towards Leoz in the air.

Hum—

Nomi looked confused and surprised, she slowly turned her head, looking at her body suddenly swelling, her skin splitting, high-intensity energy bursting from within.

Boom!

The next moment, Nomi’s petite body exploded into pieces in front of Leoz.