In truth, Lin Chu had already deduced from the approaching footsteps that the person was heading directly for her—even without Wu Xiangming’s warning.

But she didn’t act immediately.

Instead, she heard a subtle sound right beside her.

Just as the person was about to crash into her, Bai Wei made her move.

Two seconds later, a thud sounded behind Lin Chu.

“Nurse Bai, nicely done!”

Wu Xiangming clapped his hands together, breaking the silence after the assailant hit the ground.

“What are you doing?”
Old Cheng’s voice carried a trace of displeasure and anger.

Beside him, Xia Zhengyang put down his video camera and walked over.

Lin Chu’s scalpel moved quickly twice before she finally set down her tools and turned around.

Lying on the ground was a man whose face was covered in black scales.

She only assumed he was a man based on his cropped haircut—it wasn’t necessarily accurate.

All the exposed skin on his body, except his eyes, was covered in densely packed scales.

He looked almost exactly like the fish-scale people Lin Chu had seen in the photographs.

But having one lying unconscious right next to her was far more impactful than seeing it in a picture.

His eyes were tightly shut, and he appeared to have fallen unconscious.

Meanwhile, Bai Wei casually tossed the used syringe into a nearby medical waste bin.

Clang— The syringe landed in the bin, and Lin Chu’s gaze lingered on it for half a second before she looked away.

Seeing everyone staring at her, Bai Wei let out a puzzled yelp:
“What are you all looking at me for?”

“As a nurse, giving a sedative to a crazed patient—is that so strange?”

It wasn’t strange for a nurse to administer a sedative.

But it was nearly unheard of for one to remain perfectly calm upon seeing a fish-scale person for the first time, quickly draw a syringe, and accurately locate a vein beneath the scales.

Her actions were too odd.

“Hey, come on—do you all think nurses are just supposed to hide behind doctors and sob when things go south?”

Bai Wei attempted to cross her arms, but she was still wearing sterile gloves stained with some blood, making it awkward to pull off the posture—diminishing her intended fierceness.

Professor Cheng seemed ready to argue back, but couldn’t find the words to refute her.

By then, Lin Chu had crouched down and checked the fish-scale man’s pulse.

His breathing was steady, and his heartbeat, though rapid, was gradually returning to normal.

She looked up and fixed her gaze on the clearly displeased Professor Cheng.

“Professor Cheng, I think you owe us an explanation. Why did you allow a fish-scale person with aggressive tendencies to enter and attack us?”

Professor Cheng’s already sour expression grew even darker.

“Professor, they’re with Dr. Liu,” Xia Zhengyang reminded him.

At that, Professor Cheng let out a reluctant snort of disapproval.

The male researcher standing beside him finally spoke up.

“Don’t flatter yourselves—Number 23 wasn’t attacking you. He was trying to drink Number 31’s blood.”

Number 23? Number 31?

For a brief moment, Lin Chu looked confused, then quickly caught on.

Of course—they were conducting human experiments here.

Everyone had been assigned a number instead of a name.

Number 23 must be the fish-scale man who had just charged at them.

And Number 31 was the injured man lying on the hospital bed.

Since Professor Cheng didn’t object, the male researcher went ahead and revealed the truth.

“We’ve found that fish-scale people are not only extremely thirsty—they also seem to crave the blood of their own kind.”

“Especially the freshly mutated ones. That’s the kind of blood they desire most.”

“We observed it last night with Number 22. Today, we deliberately placed Number 23 next to Number 31 to see when he’d start sensing the presence of a newly mutated peer’s blood.”

The results were now clear: from the moment a new fish-scale person grew their first scale, they became detectable.

Just as the fish-scale man had charged into the room, Lin Chu had noticed that the injured patient she was treating had started developing scales.

The speed at which the scales formed and spread was far faster than Lin Chu had expected.

They grew before her very eyes, covering the grayish skin and rapidly spreading outward.

In just the short time they had been speaking, over a dozen scales had appeared on Number 31.

“We had originally wanted to observe just how bloodthirsty Number 23 would get…”

To everyone’s surprise, before the man could even reach Bed 31, he was taken down by the nurse.

The male researcher looked at Bai Wei with a hint of reproach in his eyes.

Bai Wei just rolled her eyes. “You didn’t inform us in advance—how was I supposed to know what you were trying to do?”

Professor Cheng was clearly infuriated by her response.

He tore off his sterile gloves and tossed them into the nearby waste bin, then turned on his heel and strode out.

“That’s it for today. Xia Zhengyang, take them back.”

Xia Zhengyang had just replied when Professor Cheng turned around again and pointed at Wu Xiangming. “Take him for blood sampling.”

The fury and menace in his eyes made Wu Xiangming instinctively shrink back.

Xia Zhengyang escorted Lin Chu and Bai Wei back to the dormitory building, then returned to the lab to carry out the next task.

When Lin Chu and Bai Wei, maintaining a 2-meter safe social distance, pressed the elevator button, they realized it wasn’t responding.

“Why isn’t it lighting up? Lin Chu, did you skip lunch or something?”

Though Lin Chu already had a suspicion, she stepped aside at Bai Wei’s comment to let her try.

“Go on, if you think you can do better.”

Bai Wei took up the challenge.

She nearly broke the elevator button pressing it repeatedly, but the “up” button still didn’t light up. In the end, she rolled her eyes and backed off.

They were currently on Basement Level 1.

Without the elevator, they had no choice but to take the stairs.

Bai Wei glanced at Lin Chu. The latter ignored her and headed straight for the emergency staircase.

Seeing this, Bai Wei’s eyes flicked with thought before she followed.

Lin Chu’s modified body granted her greater speed and stamina. By the time Bai Wei entered the stairwell, she only caught a glimpse of Lin Chu’s figure disappearing through the fire door on the first floor.

She hurried to catch up.

When she pushed open the fire door to the first floor, Lin Chu was already standing at the staff information desk.

Before Bai Wei could approach to eavesdrop, Lin Chu turned and walked toward her.

“So fast—what did you ask?”

“I asked why the elevator’s not working.”

Lin Chu stopped two meters from her.

“And?”

“They said the base exceeded its power limit today. Electricity is being prioritized for the construction site and the office building. The dormitory building will be without power until 7 p.m.”

It was only 4 p.m. now, three hours to go.

Waiting downstairs for three hours was not an option, so they decided to climb the stairs.

Bai Wei eyed Lin Chu cautiously. “You go first.”

Lin Chu shrugged, about to step into the stairwell indifferently, when Bai Wei’s expression shifted and she abruptly changed her mind.

“Forget it, you go behind me.”

Without waiting for a response, she turned and entered.

The two continued up the stairs, maintaining their 2-meter distance.

Halfway up, Bai Wei suddenly stopped and turned to look at her.

“Hey, about that little team-up just now—don’t you think it’s time to split the reward?”