Chapter 500: 500

Chapter 500: Fatal Trap

‘Strange.’

Meng Chao was one of the very first people to come into contact with the Deification Capsules in Dragon City.

He remembered that during the first analysis of the Deification Capsules at the lab of the forward operating base belonging to Soaring Dragon Construction, no Illuminating Herb had been found.

In truth, based on Meng Chao’s understanding of the Illuminating Herb, it did not have any effects of stimulating the activity of cells or protecting the organs by neutralizing domineering drug properties.

Even if Vortex had modified the formula of the Deification Capsules, it was impossible for it to include so much Illuminating Herb liquid.

Yet Meng Chao saw a lot of the Illuminating Herb’s liquid.

The temperature around the area continued increasing as the flames raged over the flesh mountain’s corpse. The Deification Capsule medicinal liquid that flowed all over the floor was continuously decomposed and evaporated into the air, making the Illuminating Herb’s scent become stronger.

Meng Chao was certain that there was an incredibly high amount of Illuminating Herb liquid inside the Deification Capsules. There might be more than 50% of it.

‘This doesn’t make sense. If you put so much Illuminating Herb liquid inside, the capsule will be useless aside from being able to shine!

‘Wait, let’s put it in another way. If you don’t add Illuminating Herb liquid inside, the Deification Capsules won’t shine…’

Meng Chao’s pupils shrank.

He felt that he had seized the secret hidden in the dark.

Regardless of whether it was the Deification Capsules discovered at the developing spot in the fog or the Deification Capsules discovered on the robbers, since they had a lot of high-energy substances, spirit energy would continuously spill out and would form chemical reactions with the impurities in the air, which allowed them to give off a faint, green light.

With its viscous properties, it was just green magma without heat.

But while this batch of Deification Capsules appeared the same, they would not shine if they did not have Illuminating Herbs. It meant that there were not a lot of high-energy substances inside, so the spirit energy did not form any chemical reactions with the air.

But if they did not have any high-energy substances, how could they possibly attack human cells and cause the mitochondria as well as the gene chains to release the great power that had been lying dormant for billions of years?

Meng Chao’s expression changed. He suddenly thought of a ridiculous but terrifying possibility.

He gulped, gritted his teeth, and used his finger to dip into the pool of Deification Capsule liquid.

This was absolutely against the normal procedures for standard drug tests.

But he was in a hurry and couldn’t care less. Meng Chao took the risk by relying on the fact that he had powerful cell regeneration abilities and the ability to repair his organs. He used his spirit energy to protect his mouth, throat, and intestines, and carefully licked the liquid on his fingertips.

The green medicinal liquid turned into a pool of warmth, and it flowed down his throat along with his saliva.

Against his expectations, the liquid did not corrode or irritate his throat.

Aside from the faint smell of the herb, he even tasted a bit of sweetness.

This result caused Meng Chao’s expression to turn incredibly dark.

‘I didn’t sense any stimulation or increase in my cells. These aren’t the Deification Capsules at all!’

Meng Chao hurried to Ghost Eagle Song Yu and dug his fingers deep into the man’s shoulders as if they were pliers. He crushed Song Yu’s shoulder blades to pieces and hissed, “Tell me, what are these things?! Where are the real Deification Capsules?!”

Song Yu was half dead due to the burns. At that moment, he was in a state worse than death because of Meng Chao’s grip as well. All he could do was cough up balls of foul-smelling smoke. He could not say another word.

Song Yu was struggling on his deathbed.

The standard interrogation was no longer effective toward him.

Meng Chao’s eyelids twitched. He decided to grab an undamaged tube of Deification Capsules, opened the lid, grabbed the entire string of around one hundred Deification Capsules in his palm, and shoved them into Song Yu’s mouth. Then, he forced him to swallow them.

Song Yu instantly widened his eyes.

The burnt flesh around his eyes tore open.

He did not care about the pain in his body and started struggling fiercely.

Even though the Deification Capsules were stimulants made specifically for normal people and low-grade superhumans, they would still become trash if they overdosed.

And even Heaven Realm superhumans would have all their mitochondria go completely out of control if they ate one hundred Deification Capsules in one go. All their flesh and blood would burn, and they would instantly be reduced to ashes.

But Meng Chao had clearly forced Song Yu to eat at least forty Deification Capsules, even so, Song Yu showed no reactions.

There were no signs of his energy going out of control or him entering spontaneous combustion.

There were also no signs of his muscles swelling up, his bones growing at a crazy pace, or his features becoming completely distorted.

In the end, even Ghost Eagle Song Yu noticed that it was strange, and the despair on his face was gradually replaced by confusion. He stared at Meng Chao.

‘This guy… doesn’t know that the Deification Capsules are fake?’

Meng Chao came to this conclusion after he read the man’s microexpressions.

This was something that was highly likely to happen.

The lost people and abnormal beasts were just using each other and scheming against each other.

It was impossible for Vortex to completely believe in the human scum who betrayed their own kind.

Ghost Eagle Song Yu specialized in a different field. He was not a pharmacist, and Illuminating Herbs were a very minor material. Plenty of superhumans had never heard about them, so they would not be familiar with their smell nor be able to tell the difference between their smell and that of the other etherealized plants.

Even if Vortex created a batch of fake Deification Capsules in front of Song Yu, Song Yu might not be able to tell it.

So, this was the Vortex passing off fakes and using fake Deification Capsules to attract the attention of the veteran hunters while it safely transported the real Deification Capsules?

Or could it be that there were no “real” Deification Capsules to begin with?

Meng Chao’s mind raced. He put himself in Vortex’s shoes and tried to figure out its thoughts as well as the trap it was trying to set.

At the same time, he used the neural tactical data link to scan the whole battlefield through the fields of vision provided by different hunters and biochemical rats.

Right now, the veteran hunters had already taken full control of five floors of the Deification Capsule pharmacy.

The stairs leading to the balcony, the ventilation pipes, and the green channels leading to the pharmacy were all opened as well.

Aside from Heaven Realm elites, there were a huge batch of fighters belonging to different gangs in the lair entering the building from the air in continuous waves. They wore nano fighting suits, motorized armor, and held heavy firearms. They slowly took control of the building.

This was a stereotypical targeted attack.

Swift, fierce, and accurate. The entire battlefield was also limited to the building, so it would not touch the buildings around the area.

Leprosy Village never liked being engaged with the outside world and hated outsiders getting into the final place they could call home.

But most villagers were just normal people struggling to survive. Aside from having appearances that were different from those of normal people, they were not that different from normal citizens.

They were unprepared and did not know what was going on. They could also not use the weapons and gene medicine seen everywhere in Leprosy Village to fight against the outsiders.

Hence, the superhumans took control of the situation quickly, and could later explain to the villagers that it was not a military operation targeting them. The hunters were just capturing abnormal beasts and robbers to protect the safety of Leprosy Village and the order of the entire lair.

Everything seemed to be under control, but the more it seemed so, the more Meng Chao’s heart raced with fear.

If the mastermind were really Vortex, it would be impossible for it to give up so easily.

Suddenly, a terrifying thought popped up in Meng Chao’s head, and it shone in the depths of his mind like a strange, bloody star.

An electrical current instantly traveled from his cerebral cortex to his central nervous system, then to his entire body. It made him shiver, even though it was not cold.

“Senior Zhou!” Meng Chao called out to Man-eating Shark Zhou Chong with such a terrified voice that he felt like he could make the area freeze in fear. He hissed a warning into the communication channel, “We have to retreat! Here’s my suggestion. Everyone has to retreat immediately!”

Man-eating Shark Zhou Chong and a few veteran hunters had already rushed into the Deification Capsule pharmacy and were going to destroy the bottles inside. When they heard him, they were stunned. “What did you say?”

“The Deification Capsules are fake,” Meng Chao hissed. “Just now, we saw nearly ten thousand Deification Capsules through the cameras on the biochemical rats’ backs, but all of them are fake. The enemy added a large amount of Illumination Herbs into normal drugs to create the viscous and luminescent characteristic of Deification Capsules. It was in order for us to notice it and fall for their trap!”

Zhou Chong instantly understood the situation. “Are you saying that the enemy created a batch of fake Deification Capsules to attract our attention and has transferred the real Deification Capsules in secret a long time ago?”

“No. I suspect that the enemy’s trap is one hundred times more terrifying than this! There is no such thing as a ‘real’ Deification Capsule!” Meng Chao started rambling. “Or rather, the handful of Deification Capsules the robbers had on them were real. The remnants of the Deification Capsules in the sewers are also real. The enemy might have created a small batch of Deification Capsules, but they definitely didn’t create more than one hundred thousand of them. They didn’t have such a large storage of Deification Capsules!”

“But…” Zhou Chong frowned. “The enemy has done its best to tempt a large number of robbers to steal a lot of cultivation resources with a lot of spirit energy from the world outside. They’ve finally moved them into the lair, so isn’t it a waste if they don’t turn them into Deification Capsules?”

“It’s not a waste.” Meng Chao sucked in a deep breath to cool down his burning brain so that the terrifying pictures would come to the forefront of his mind. “You mentioned that the enemy has snatched a lot of cultivation resources full of spirit energy. Even if they don’t use them to create Deification Capsules, those cultivation resources can be used for many things, such as creating a super large crystal bomb.”

This time, even Man-eating Shark Zhou Chong’s voice became laced with fear. “Wh-What did you say?”

“The evidence is right in front of you,” Meng Chao said. “It has been less than three days since the first robbery, and many of the stolen cultivation resources had to bypass the multiple layers of blockades set by the secret police and abnormal beast research department to be transported into the depths of the lair. A lot of effort was necessary to make it a success.

“Regardless of whether the mastermind is an abnormal beast or something else even more terrifying, they’re in Dragon City and cannot do stuff smoothly, covering all their crimes.

“Because of the multiple setbacks, it couldn’t be more than twenty-four hours since most of the cultivation resources reached the pharmacy, and the Deification Capsules are rather complicated super gene medicine. With the equipment and scale of this illegal pharmacy, it’s impossible for it to have mass produced so much gene medicine in the short twenty-four hours!”