Top-secret experiment

self-rescue

Bao Shuai forced himself to calm down.

On the night of the 25th, he was attacked by the murderer of the dismemberment case. Given that he had witnessed the crime scene, the murderer had no reason to spare his life unless there was a compelling reason to do so…

What could that reason be?

Also, who could have sent him this note? Who could sneak a note to his bedside under such tight surveillance?

Most importantly, his body had undergone drastic changes. Although his physical abilities had greatly improved, the mutated appearance was hardly a good sign.

The vanished crime scene, the strange case of missing people—everything was unknown. Even Officer Tang’s identity had become increasingly mysterious.

The only thing that could be confirmed at the moment was that after losing consciousness, the murderer had definitely done something to his body with some purpose, resulting in these terrifying changes. This change might be the key to everything!

Could the key to unraveling all this be the note in his hand?

“If you want to know the truth, meet me on the 11th floor of Tianyang Building at 10 PM tomorrow night.”

Could this be another trap?

Bao Shuai thought for a long time but couldn’t make sense of it. However, doing nothing meant waiting for death. He knew that until he figured this out, he could trust no one and could only rely on himself.

“Tianyang Building… Fine, let me see what’s hidden there.”

He spent the night without sleep. The next morning, Bao Shuai began to wash up.

Although his body was in a pitiable state, thankfully, the mutations hadn't spread to his face. A high-collared windbreaker could perfectly conceal it, and the slightly chilly weather of early autumn wouldn't raise too many suspicions.

After experimenting throughout the night, Bao Shuai had already become proficient in controlling his vision. After adjusting his eyesight to the right level, he put on his thick glasses, and everything seemed as normal as usual.

At 8 AM, Officer Tang brought breakfast for both of them. The two silently ate their own portions, neither speaking first.

After finishing breakfast, Officer Tang asked, puzzled, “Bao Shuai, have you grown a little taller?”

Bao Shuai smiled and said, “Thanks for the compliment. If I could grow another 20 centimeters, I wouldn’t have to worry about my girlfriend anymore. Haha.”

Officer Tang also found it amusing. How could an adult grow taller?

He shook his head, cleared the dishes from the table, and prepared to leave.

Suddenly, Bao Shuai asked, “Officer Tang, do you know a place called Tianyang Building?”

“Tianyang Building?” Officer Tang paused for a moment. “Never heard of it. Why are you asking about it?”

“Oh, I just remembered, on the night of the 25th, when I was about to lose consciousness, I think I heard someone mention Tianyang Building. At the time, I was half asleep, so I’m not sure if I heard it clearly.”

When Officer Tang heard this, he immediately became interested and quickly asked, “What else do you remember?”

Bao Shuai shook his head helplessly.

Officer Tang seemed a bit disappointed and didn’t ask further. He picked up the dishes and walked out of the room.

As soon as Officer Tang left, Bao Shuai immediately pressed his ear to the wall, listening intently to the movement outside.

As expected, the moment Officer Tang left the room, he quietly instructed his colleagues, “Go check if there’s a place called Tianyang Building in the city.”

Soon, a voice responded, “I’ve just checked. It’s an unfinished building on Guangming Road in the old district. Construction stopped ten years ago due to a funding issue, and since then, no one has taken it over.”

Officer Tang replied, “Send a few people to check it out. Don’t make a scene.”

“Guangming Road… an unfinished building?”

Bao Shuai pondered for a moment and then pressed the button on his call device.

The door outside immediately erupted into hurried footsteps, and within three seconds, the door was forcibly pushed open. Officer Tang entered with five or six uniformed police officers.

“What’s going on?”

Seeing Bao Shuai sitting quietly on the couch, Officer Tang asked, puzzled.

Bao Shuai hadn’t expected things to get so noisy. He smiled awkwardly and said, “Uh, nothing. I just thought I’d go for a run…”

“A run? Why would you run now?”

Officer Tang gave him a suspicious look.

Bao Shuai awkwardly explained, “I’ve been weak since childhood, so I developed a habit of exercising. Besides, I can’t just stay here all the time. If the murderer isn’t caught yet, I might go crazy.”

Officer Tang shot him a glare, hesitated for a few seconds, and waved to one of the officers behind him.

“Xiao Li, take a few people and go with him for a run. Don’t leave the sanatorium, and keep an eye on the surroundings.”

“Yes, sir.”

Bao Shuai thanked Officer Tang profusely and then followed a few officers downstairs.Accompanied by several police officers, Bao Shuai ran ten full laps around the sanatorium. The officers who followed him were panting heavily, but he only broke a slight sweat, which caused them to look at him with new respect.

After the run, Bao Shuai had a good understanding of his physical condition. His physical abilities had increased about four to five times. Since his original body had been so weak, this meant he was now roughly three times stronger than an average person.

At the same time, by running around the sanatorium, Bao Shuai had also memorized the layout of the grounds and the locations of the surveillance cameras, which would help him with his next move.

At 5 PM, after having dinner with Officer Tang, Bao Shuai lied that he was too tired from the run and wanted to rest early. He locked himself in his bedroom ahead of time.

Officer Tang, seeing how exhausted the officers who ran with Bao Shuai were, didn’t suspect anything. He simply reminded the guards at the door to stay alert.

Thus, at 8 PM, the night descended.

Bao Shuai closed his second eyelid and activated infrared imaging. The dark world was instantly transformed into black and white, and within a 30-meter radius, it was as bright as day.

Carefully, he climbed out onto the balcony and descended the water pipe. In less than half a minute, he had reached the ground from the seventh floor.

In the past, even if he had the courage, his frail body wouldn’t have been able to carry out such a feat, but after the mutation, this kind of thing was a piece of cake.

The sanatorium he was in was built in the 1980s. Although it had been renovated several times, the outdated design concept couldn’t be changed.

The streetlights in the sanatorium were sparse and dim, the surveillance cameras were few and scattered, and at night, many blind spots appeared.

Bao Shuai recalled the locations of the cameras from his run earlier and quickly calculated their angles. He used the blind spots to pass by six or seven cameras and reached the sanatorium’s outer wall.

The wall was about two meters high, which was the most troublesome part of Bao Shuai's plan. He had originally intended to take a long running leap, kick off the wall to use the reaction force, grab the top of the wall with his hands, and then use his arms to climb over.

However, when he leaped, his legs suddenly unleashed tremendous force, as though he was going to escape Earth's gravity. Bao Shuai was unprepared and almost flew over the wall.

Fortunately, his body’s coordination and flexibility had been greatly enhanced. As he passed over the wall, he lightly tapped the wall with his toes, using the slight rebound force to stabilize his body in mid-air, narrowly avoiding a fall.

Leaping over a two-meter-high wall made him feel like a character out of a martial arts novel, walking on rooftops.

Thinking back, the average adult male’s jump could reach about 40 to 80 centimeters, and with his current physical abilities, which were roughly three times that of an ordinary person, leaping over a two-meter-high wall wasn’t that difficult.

It seemed that it was truly time to say goodbye to the frail version of himself.

Bao Shuai sighed and continued on his way.

He jogged along the paved road, flagged down a taxi three kilometers away, and headed straight for the old district. Everything was easier than he had expected.

Guangming Road was a main street in the old district. Over the years, it had been mostly occupied by construction sites due to city renovations. Since no construction was allowed at night, the area would become quite empty in the evenings.

The Tianyang Building had been abandoned for years. Not only did the taxi driver not recognize it, but even the old residents of Guangming Road had never heard of it.

When Bao Shuai arrived at the building, it was already 9:40 PM. He stared at the dilapidated building in front of him, puzzled.

The so-called Tianyang Building was very small. After counting the floors, he realized it had only nine stories. How could he find the 11th floor to meet someone?

Could this be a trap?

Probably not. If it were a trap, would they really expect him to take the bait?

After hesitating for a moment, Bao Shuai walked toward the dark building.

Having been abandoned for so many years, Tianyang Building had no workers left. The ground was covered in rusted steel, clumps of sand, and hardened cement.

The fence at the entrance was broken, and the words "Safety Production" were barely visible, fading away. Only a small security booth stood at the entrance, its dim light flickering.

Bao Shuai sneaked up to the security booth and saw an elderly man, around sixty, staring at a portable TV, probably watching some boring variety show.

Bao Shuai took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and lightly tapped the window of the booth.

"Hey, uncle, could I borrow a light?"

The old man, seeing a young, thin guy, quickly pulled a lighter from his pocket and handed it to Bao Shuai.

"Kid, what are you doing here alone at night?"

Bao Shuai lit his cigarette, returned the lighter, and handed one to the old man.

"Ah, it’s nothing. This old house is being demolished, and my mom asked me to pick up some things. I forgot the key. By the way, uncle, this building’s been abandoned for years, right? Any idea when it’ll be finished?"

The old man took the cigarette and sighed.

"Probably never. The owner gambled away the money and ran off to avoid his debts."

"Ah, that’s a shame. It looked like it was almost finished. Must have been ten or more stories, right?"

"Not that many. This building was developed early, and it only has nine stories."

"Nine stories... that’s still quite a lot. So, it’s just sitting empty like this? Could anyone be living here?"

The old man quickly shook his head.

"No one lives here. I’ve been watching it. No one could get in..."

As he spoke, the old man seemed to remember something. After a moment of hesitation, he lowered his voice and said, "Kid, don’t tell anyone, but this building’s a bit strange."

"Strange?"

"Yeah. I’ve been on the night shift. Late at night, I often hear strange noises, like someone talking inside. But when I go in to check, there’s no one. Then, when I go back out, I hear talking again. Isn’t that weird?"

"Who’s talking? Where’s the sound coming from?"

The old man shook his head. "I don’t know. The building’s so empty, even the smallest sound echoes. Who knows where it’s coming from?"

"That’s strange..."

Bao Shuai laughed awkwardly and said goodbye to the old man.

A building that speaks at midnight, a missing 11th floor—strange things happen every year, but this year seems particularly weird. Since he was already here, he might as well not leave empty-handed...

Lost in thought, Bao Shuai found a corner and climbed over the wall.

In front of infrared imaging, the darkness and chaos were no obstacles. He easily slipped into Tianyang Building through the abandoned hallway.

The building had been topped off, with only exterior decoration left to complete. However, after being idle for years, small parts like windows and doors were damaged, and the elevator hadn’t been installed.

Bao Shuai passed through the lobby, filled with sand and construction debris, and made his way to the stairwell.

The stairwell was narrow and enclosed, like a monstrous beast with an open mouth, or a long coffin—something about it made him feel uneasy.

“Since I’m here, I might as well settle down…”

Bao Shuai silently recited the ancient saying to calm himself, then began examining the stairwell.

The stairwell was actually a fork in the road. On one side were stairs leading up, while the other led to the basement. Each side had a locked door, and the ground was littered with trash.

There were no floor plans or construction drawings, so where could he find the missing 11th floor?

After wandering around for a few minutes, Bao Shuai’s eyes fixed on a poster on the wall.

It was an old poster from a few years ago, showing a female celebrity striking an exaggerated pose. The poster had yellowed over time, and the woman, who should have been beautiful, now looked somewhat eerie.

Why would there be a poster on a construction site, especially in such a place?

As Bao Shuai puzzled over it, he suddenly noticed that the woman’s pose seemed strange. She was slightly bent over, with her arms extended to one side, almost like an old-fashioned hostess guiding people.

"Hostess... guiding... right!"

A light bulb went off in Bao Shuai's head. He walked in the direction the woman was pointing on the poster, which led to the basement door. He grabbed the door handle, and sure enough, it wasn’t locked.

"Nine stories, 11th floor? Hmph, so the disappearing 11th floor was actually the basement? What a spooky trick."

Bao Shuai snorted and gently pulled open the door to the basement, walking down the stairs. The stairwell fell silent again.

He didn’t know how much time passed, but the basement door suddenly “clicked” and closed on its own. The woman in the poster seemed to smile eerily, and her hand, once pointing to the basement, slowly shifted to point upward, toward the upper floors.