7.12

Qiao Chen was surrounded by a few soldiers on the dormitory stairwell. Fang Huailin was the leader.

Qiao Chen looked at Fang Huailin and asked, "What are you doing?"

"Leave with us, Mu Chen." Fang Huailin said.

Qiao Chen sneered, "Are you planning on taking me away by force"

"We won't hurt you if you come voluntarily. However, if you refuse, then we can't have you stay here in East One Base alive." Fang Huailin threatened.

Commander Feng knew that Qiao Chen was far more valuable then the aerospace incubator. They'd be able to give up the incubator as long as they found a way to take Qiao Chen away with them. It was possible to expand their power once Qiao Chen joined their ranks. With Qiao Chen, they'd be able to become the strongest base in the country; they'd be able to be the leading base in the entire apocalyptic world they called reality.

Qiao Chen knew what they were planning. Commander Feng was very ambitious even though he wasn't a very talented person. This type of leader would inevitably dye his subordinate with his same colors. Commander Feng didn't think it was above him to force people to play by his rules even during normal times. He'd use any insidious means possible. The only thing the apocalypse did to change him was make him even more blood-thirsty and power hungry than before.

Qiao Chen pushed Fang Huailin's extended hand away, "Don't touch me. I'll walk on my own."

There were a lot less people who left with 03 Base than when they arrived. Everyone except the soldiers decided to stay.

Qiao Chen was stowed away in a hidden carriage of a truck and taken back to 03 Base.

Qiao Chen stood at the window and looked out at the horizon. He never expected to actually return to the torturous place that he live for two years.

He turned around to look at the room given to him. He never had such good treatment in the two years he lived here before. He was forced to live in a crowded dormitory with the other medical personnel who didn't develop any abilities. Sun Yu often made his life harder while he was there too and his monthly essentials were usually missing a few things here and there.

Fang Huailin knocked on the door and entered. He put the rice box down on the table for Qiao Chen to eat. Qiao Chen walked over and opened it to take a look. The food was surprisingly good. There was a lot of meat and vegetables. The portion size was quite large too. Qiao Chen was feeling hungry so he welcomingly ate his fill.

Fang Huailin sat opposite to Qiao Chen. He was originally worried that Qiao Chen would go on a hunger strike. He thought up of a bunch of ways to convince Qiao Chen to eat beforehand and was relieved to see that he took the initiative to eat on his own.

Once Qiao Chen nearly finished his meal, Fange Huailin spoke, "Our Commander is like this. He wants to let you know that we will give you the best treatment and meet your requirements to the best of our abilities as long as you do your work well and don't resist."

"Aren't you afraid that the people from East One Base wouldn't hunt you down once they found out that you've brought me here? Well. you'll see. I doubt you'd be able to keep this base in the end." Qiao Chen replied.

"Don't underestimate the defensive capabilities of the people here ar 03 Base. People on the outside can't easily enter. Even if they did manage to break in, what would they be able to do when the hostage is in our hands?"

"So? What did you bring me here for?"

"We need antibody vaccines, a variety of new drugs, treatment plans, and, most importantly, we want you and Dr. Lu to continue developing new vaccines to reverse the zombification process and turn them back into human beings." 03 Base found out that the information that Sun Bin and his team stole was password protected. They couldn't get into the files because they couldn't crack the code.

"Do you have a laboratory? Do you have the equipment for said laboratory or any raw materials? Did you think that it was enough to being me alone? I'm not a magician. I can't conjure these things out from thin air. You do understand this, right?"

"What do you need? We will do our best to get it for you. The lab is already prepared for you. Just go take a look and see if anything is missing and we'll do our best to get you what you need."

"Really?" Qiao Chen said with some surprised. "Then I'll go take a look right now. I'd like to see what kind of laboratory you guys have arranged for me."

The so-called laboratory that 03 Base actually arranged was actually a bunch of laboratory supplies and various equipment filled rooms haphazardly thrown in. They didn't understand what was important and what wasn't, so everything useful and useless were mixed together in different piles.

However, when Qiao Chen saw some of the instruments here, he was quite excited even though it didn't show on his face. He came here solely for a few of these instruments after all.

The 03 Base took the aerospace incubator to East One, but refused to tell them how they obtained it. However, even if they didn't want to spill the beans, East One would be able to find it out anyways. Furthermore, if they weren't clear about how the things were obtained during their investigations, then it'd be bad if they were to get in trouble because of it.

East One found out that the 03 base attacked a botanical research institute. The institute was originally well hidden, but someone the people from 03 Base found it. Then they launched siege and broke through the institute's defenses. They stole and pillaged all the research equipment and researchers from there.

The people from 03 Base thought they were successful. They had the researchers. They had the equipment. They even had the necessary instruments. However, the researchers all began suffering from a serious, infectious disease. To contain the spread, 03 Base killed all the researchers and burned the bodies of those afflicted. However, they never expected that the soldiers who lay siege to the institute would also be infected by the same disease.

There was no way that they'd be able to kidnap Qiao Chen so easily after Dr. Lu had been injured like that. The people from 03 Base seemed to believe that the East One base was their backyard to play in and out of as they pleased.

In all actuality, this plan was thoroughly discussed and prepared by Qiao Chen and Long Ao. They wanted to cooperate with each other. One attacks from the outside while the other attacks from within. They planned on completely destroying the 03 Base to save them from the eternal conflict that was the 03 Base. What made this plan even better was that they've be able to take all of the things that 03 Base owned while they were at it. All was fair in love and war, and right now, the 03 Based seemed to have declared a war against East One. However, East One Base wasn't something to be trifled with.

That night, Qiao Chen had Fang Huailin call in a large number of soldiers to help him re-arrange the equipment in the laboratory and turn it into a working lab.

Fang Huailin originally planned to wait for people to move it during the day. It was far more convenient. However, Qiao Chen wanted to start on everything immediately. If it wasn't done that night, then Qiao Chen wouldn't begin his research and experiments.

Fang Huailin thought that Qiao Chen was angry with them and was deliberately causing mischief. However, Commander Feng ordered that they needed to do their best to meet Qiao Chen's requirements so that he was willing to carry out his research and experiments for 03 Base. Without any other way out, Fang Huailin was forced to comply.

Qiao Chen turned to look at the soldiers around him. He'd command them to move this here, but then a few inches back. Then its location was better suited to be placed elsewhere, so Qiao Chen had them move the equipment to the other side of the room. He was very particular about where he wanted things to go.

Qiao Chen pointed his flashlight at Sun Bin and Sun Yu. They stood in the corner of the room grinding their teeth.

"Well? I asked you two what you were doing standing around and watching everyone else work for? Why don't you help pick up the pace and actually do something?" Qiao Chen asked pointedly.

Sun Yu turned to leave, so Qiao Chen yelled out, "Stop!"

Sun Yu didn't want to listen to Qiao Chen's command but his legs stopped nearly involuntarily. He turned around and glared at Qiao Chen angrily.

Fang Huailin immediately came over to make peace. "It's okay. We have more than enough people to help us. Missing two people is nothing. How about we just let them go?"

"Nope! There can be less people but there can't be none of them." Qiao Chen said. Then he turned around and commanded loudly, "Everyone else can stop. You don't have to move anything anymore. Leave it for these two to finish up the rest of it."

"What right do you have to command us?" Sun Bin asked as he looked at Qiao Chen with a sombre face.

"Do I need any qualifications to order you two wastes of space? Alright then…"Qiao Chen turned to Huailin and continued, "Come here and tell them whether or not I am qualified to order them. By the way, if those two don't do what I say then I won't start any research. You can go ahead and kill me. It doesn't matter. If they don't work, than neither do I."

"You just doing all of this to make it hard on us don't you?" Sun Yu said with a glare.

"Yes. I do want to make your lives hard. Of course I do. You've used your status to rule over me and make life hard the entire time I was here. What are you gonna do about it? If you can, go ahead and do the research by yourself. Can you do it?"

Sun Yu and Sun Bin shook with anger at Qiao Chen's words. However, they didn't dare to kill him no matter how strongly they wanted to.

Qiao Chen walked off to the side and sat down on a recliner. He covered his legs with a blanket and told Fang Huailin that he would begin research immediately after Sun Bin and Sun Yu completed setting up the laboratory. Qiao Chen also specified that the two couldn't be given any help.

Under Hang Huailin's half orders and half persuasive, Sun Bin and Sun Yu began rearranging the lab. The other soldiers stood nearby and watched. Qiao Chen ordered no one to help them, so everyone had to stand and watch as they did.

Sun Bin and Sun Yu knew that Qiao Chen was trying to humiliate them in front of a lot of people. They hated him to their very core, but had no choice but to comply.

Sun Bin and Sun Yu managed to persuade Xu Jianping, someone who was also hated by Qiao Chen, to help them. They were the ones who took the risk of breaking and entering the East One's research building to steal the data. They thought that they'd received outstanding praise and merits for this job. However, they found out that they couldn't access the files by the time they returned to 03 Base. Therefore, their only hope now was Qiao Chen. Only he was capable of bringing the base back to its former glory. They begrudgingly continued and endured Qiao Chen's attacks.

At the crack of dawn, Qiao Chen awoke from the recliner. He glanced at Sun Yu and Sun Bin busily moving things back and forth and wordlessly walked away.

Qiao Chen finally reached the dining hall. He was very picky the entire time there. He would order something after some time of debating at the line. Then he'd take one bite and immediately change his mind. Then he'd move on to something new, just to come back and order the same thing that was just thrown away. Next he'd receive the meal just to exclaim that he didn't like the smell and returned the plate. Finally, Qiao Chen just had one bowl of porridge and returned to his room.

Fang Huailin was tired of following Qiao Chen Around. He had to calm anyone down who got upset and Qiao Chen, and that was a lot of people. Fang Huailin finally felt relieved that Qiao Chen decided to return to his room and rest.

Later that afternoon, all the soldiers' stomachs began to hurt. The pain was so bad that they had keeled over. At the same time, the sounds of loud gunfire erupted from outside the base walls. Four or five helicopters also invaded through the air.

The 03 Base was in complete and utter chaos. The soldiers aimed at the helicopters above in an attempt to remove the aerial advantage. However, their legs buckled under the pain of their stomachs. The soldiers weren't even capable of holding on to the gun. There was no way they were able to aim and shoot either.

The ground defense system didn't activate under this attack. It had been a long while, so Commander Feng roared, "What's going on? Why hasn't the ground defense system activated yet?"

"Commander!" A soldier ran over and reported in a panic, " We have no idea who tampered with them, but both the ground defense system and the artillery launch system can't be turned on. It just won't activate."

"What! What did you say?" Commander Feng grabbed the soldier's collar and yelled. His face was filled with disbelief and anger.

The soldier looked at Commander Feng's face and stopped talking.

Master Feng commanded all the soldiers to assemble, but there were only 20 soldiers who were able to walk as normal. Commander Feng nearly stopped breathing. He forced himself to calm down. He knew he couldn't just surrender. They still had the last card up their sleeves.

As soon as Commander Feng was about to order someone to bring Qiao Chen over to be used as a hostage, Fang Huailin staggered over as he clutched his stomach. "Commander Feng… Mu Chen… is gone!"

"Gone? How could he have disappeared?" Commander Feng replied, his eyes wide in shock.

"He's not in his room or the lab. No one's seen him…"Fang Huailin was looking for Qiao Chen too when his stomach began to hurt.

"Find him for me! Look for him immediately! He's just one man, he couldn't have gone far in the short time that he's been missing. He must still be in the base." Commander Feng roared in reply. Just as he finished his last sentence, however, there was a bomb that fell from the sky. It dropped within their vicinity and immediately exploded. All the soldiers who saw the bomb could only turn around and shield their heads.

"Commander! Commander!" A soldier waved the dust away from his line of sight and went to help the bloodied Commander Feng up.