467: Chapter 463 Heading West

The Rabbit King lay on his chest, ears drooping, and gave a gentle flick of its tail.

"Do heroes get scared of ghosts too?"

"Sleep paralysis is just a metaphor." Lu Jianchuan raised a hand feebly. "I'm just saying, you're crushing me. It's uncomfortable. Get off me already." He paused, then added, "Also, how did you get fat again?"

The Rabbit King looked up, its dark, bright eyes staring at him, and gave an extremely textbook eye-roll.

"Isn't it a bit much to say something like that to a girl?"

Lu Jianchuan was stunned for a moment.

"Huh? You're female?"

The Rabbit King didn't answer, just watched him. The man and the rabbit stared at each other in silence for two seconds.

The Rabbit King hopped off him, landing on the cabinet by the bed, tucking its four legs in and crouching into a fluffy white ball. Lu Jianchuan propped himself up on the bed frame, his bones clicking several times. He looked down at himself—hospital gown, chest wrapped in bandages, tape on his arms. He moved his shoulders, and the sense of weakness seeping from the gaps in his bones made him frown.

"Oh my god, I feel so weak. No strength at all."

He leaned against the headboard and looked at the Rabbit King.

"What's the situation now?"

The Rabbit King tilted its head.

"You don't know?"

Lu Jianchuan thought carefully. His mind felt like it was covered in fog; some images were blurry, and some parts were completely blank. He remembered being stepped on by the collective, his armor shattered, his bones broken, and blood gushing from his chest. Then... nothing.

"I don't really remember." He rubbed his brow. "I remember being crushed by the collective, and then... then it was gone."

The Rabbit King watched him.

"Then you suddenly exploded and took out the collective."

"Really?" Lu Jianchuan was taken aback. "I don't remember that at all."

He fell back, lying on the pillow again, staring at the ceiling for two seconds.

"Let me recover for a bit longer, just a bit longer."

The Rabbit King shifted positions on the cabinet, tucking its tail in tighter.

"So you went berserk back then? You really don't remember?"

"Nothing at all." Lu Jianchuan turned his head to look at her. "So how's the situation in the city?"

The Rabbit King's ears twitched.

"It's alright. It is what it is, but anyway, it was saved." It paused. "Now, things that need to recover are recovering, and the buildings that need repairs are under construction."

Also, not many people actually died in this incident—everyone was infected in an instant, and no one was going to bother actively attacking those who were infected. So everyone just had some injuries, some electrical burns and such..."

It glanced at Lu Jianchuan.

"Not sure how the electrical burns happened. Maybe the collective took them to work as electricians at the time."

Lu Jianchuan leaned against the headboard and thought about it.

"the collective controlled the crowd to fix wires? Whatever, regardless of what it was doing, it's gone now. I need to lie down and rest properly."

He shrunk back into the blankets, then suddenly remembered something.

"By the way, where are the others? Shen Mingyuan, Wei Ziqing, and Ye Ouyang?"

The Rabbit King shifted positions on the cabinet again, tucking its tail even tighter.

"Them? They've mostly recovered. You were the slowest to wake up. Shen Mingyuan and that guy named Wei Ziqing are still lying in bed. Ye Ouyang recovered the fastest, probably because of that trait of his; anyway, he's already left the hospital and gone out."

Lu Jianchuan nodded.

"I see. As long as they're all okay. So this time... no one died?"

"No deaths," the Rabbit King said. "If anything, everyone might have an extra organ in their bodies now."

"The one used to receive the collective before. Everyone's body was modified with an organ like that. But with the collective dead, that organ is useless now."

"Currently, the The Authorities is considering whether to do a mass removal or let them choose voluntarily. But before removal, they have to see what kind of impact this actually has on the human body."

After hearing this, Lu Jianchuan slowly exhaled.

"Then I can rest easy." He pulled the blanket up a bit. "I'm too weak, let me sleep a bit longer. Just a bit longer."

He closed his eyes, and his breathing quickly became steady. The Rabbit King crouched on the cabinet, watched him for a few seconds, then jumped down, landing silently by the bed and curling into a ball.

In the lab of the research building, Li Mo was busy beyond belief.

He hadn't been infected. To be precise, he had dodged the infection—at the time, he was putting all his effort into studying Ye Ouyang's cells, locking himself in the lab for days. The chaos outside had nothing to do with him.

Now he felt extremely excited, perhaps even a bit too happy.

After the New Federation was wiped out, all the research Materials taken from Ye Ouyang—cell samples, cultivation records, mutation data—had all been transferred to him.

Previously, he had always been wary of his identity and didn't dare use Ye Ouyang's cells for experiments that were too out of line. Now, it was different.

The New Federation had stepped on all the landmines for him and tested all the errors for him. That data was now sitting quietly on his hard drive, ready for him to use as he pleased.

Ye Ouyang stood at the door, watching Li Mo bustle around the Experimental Table, adding things to test tubes one moment and taking petri dishes out of the incubator to check them the next. He didn't understand it, but he could tell Li Mo was very busy.

Li Mo fished a compressed biscuit out of a drawer, took a bite, and spoke indistinctly: "Hey, I'm so busy here my head's practically smoking, I really don't have time to entertain you. If you want to watch, find a place to sit, just don't touch anything."

Ye Ouyang glanced at the bottles and jars, then at Li Mo's face which practically screamed "don't bother me," and took a step back.

"I don't understand any of this anyway; sitting here would just get in your way. You do your thing, I'll go check on Shen Mingyuan and the others."

"Sure," Li Mo replied without even looking up, already back to staring into the microscope.

On the other side, Ye Ouyang left the lab and headed toward the inpatient area.

On the other side, Ye Ouyang pushed open the door to Shen Mingyuan's ward.

Shen Mingyuan was propping himself up on the edge of the bed, trying to sit down. His legs dangled by the bedside, and as soon as his toes touched the floor, his body tilted. He quickly grabbed the bedside table to pull himself back, leaning against the pillow while grimacing in pain.

"Don't push yourself." Ye Ouyang walked over, pulled up a chair, and sat down. "How is it? You feeling okay?"

Shen Mingyuan took a breath, the expression on his face switching from pain to the relief of a survivor.

"How else could I feel? It hurts." He moved his shoulders and winced again. "Everything hurts. By the way, can those cells of yours be used now?"

Ye Ouyang looked down at the Transformation Device at his waist. The black and white interwoven belt sat quietly against him, the golden gemstone in the center dull and lusterless, like a stone drained of its color. He pressed it once, then again; there was no reaction.

"Seems like I still can't transform." He let go and leaned back against the chair. "The damage last time was too severe; it hasn't recovered yet."

Shen Mingyuan glanced at him.

"Well, you certainly recovered fast."

Ye Ouyang thought for a moment.

"Maybe I wasn't as badly injured as you guys." He looked down at his hands, turning them over twice. "Or maybe I just recover fast. Who knows."

There were two soft knocks on the door, and it was pushed open before anyone could answer. White Tiger stood at the door, its forked mechanical tail swaying gently behind it. It nodded to Ye Ouyang, then looked at Shen Mingyuan.

"Ye Ouyang, we meet again."

"White Tiger?" Ye Ouyang turned around. "What are you doing here?"

White Tiger walked in and stood by the bed. Its optical lens scanned Shen Mingyuan before falling back on Ye Ouyang.

"Just coming to take a look. I currently have no missions; my only duty is to patrol this area." Its voice was steady, with a slight metallic quality. "As required, I am performing my patrol."