269: Chapter 269 Snacks

“You’ll know when we get there,” Chen Feng said, staring at his tablet. “But keep it down this time. Don't go crushing people's bones at every turn.”

“Oh,” Mia stuffed the last potato chip into her mouth and nodded obediently.

Sarah sat opposite him, her voice flat.

“Boss, Song Yun sent over the latest coordinates, a direct flight to the northwestern no-man's-land. The situation is worse than the intelligence intercepted by the Red Queen.”

“Directly to the northwest?” Chen Feng stopped sliding his finger across the screen.

“Yes. On the edge of the Taklamakan, a secret base called 091,” Sarah reported the data. “The dormant spores they dug up woke up twelve hours ago. The entire third underground floor is out of contact, with two hundred researchers and a company of Soldiers inside.”

“Casualties?”

“Completely wiped out. Even thermobaric bombs were useless. The base has been completely sealed off.”

Chen Feng smiled.

No wonder they offered to 'share the results' on their own initiative.

So they bit off more than they could chew and wanted Umbrella to clean up their mess.

“Change the flight path.” He threw the tablet onto the table. “Go to 091.”

“Yes.”

A few hours later, the plane landed in the middle of the desert.

A wave of heat surged over them.

Chen Feng walked down the ramp with his hands in his pockets.

At the end of the runway, several military jeeps were parked, surrounded by Soldiers holding guns, lined up in a row.

Song Yun walked over quickly, her eyes deeply sunken, her face covered in stubble.

“President Chen,” she extended her hand, her voice hoarse.

Chen Feng didn't shake hands, only nodding.

“Representative Song, with those dark circles under your eyes, it seems your sleep quality hasn't been great lately.”

Song Yun withdrew her hand awkwardly and gave a bitter smile.

“The situation is urgent, so I won't beat around the bush.” She pointed to the metal building in the distant sand dunes. “091 Base. We dug up a spore sample, and it... came alive.”

“And used your people as nutrients,” Chen Feng finished her sentence.

Song Yun's face stiffened.

“The infected can tear open armored doors, devouring and fusing. No one knows what it looks like underground right now.”

Mia stood on her tiptoes and sniffed hard.

“Smells so good.” She swallowed hard, her dark green vertical pupils flashing. “Boss, there's so much food inside! It smells even better than those big guys in Siberia!”

Song Yun froze, looking at the little girl in the tutu.

“President Chen, this is...”

“A newly recruited mukbang streamer,” Chen Feng said casually. “Representative Song, let's settle the accounts clearly. What's the appearance fee?”

Song Yun gritted her teeth. “One billion US dollars. And we can share the discoveries in the ruins.”

“Share?”

Chen Feng walked up to her and stared into her eyes.

“I'm not here to be your janitor.”

“I want everything inside. I also want the exclusive development rights to the ruins.”

“Keep that one billion to pay out pensions.”

Song Yun's face instantly turned pale. “That won't do! That's on the Hua Federation's territory!”

“You dug it up, and you messed it up,” Chen Feng interrupted her. “The things inside could escape at any moment. Who else do you think can handle this besides me?”

He pointed at the sand dunes.

“If I go in, everything inside belongs to me. Otherwise, I'm leaving right now, and you can deal with it yourselves.”

Song Yun was breaking out in a cold sweat.

Three minutes later, she ran back with a walkie-talkie, her face looking very grim.

“The higher-ups agreed. But there is one condition: we must capture a complete infected specimen alive.”

“Deal,” Chen Feng snapped his fingers.

Ignoring the hazmat suit Song Yun handed him, he walked toward the base entrance with his hands in his pockets.

“Sarah, guard the entrance. If anyone gets close, deal with them directly.”

“Understood.”

Chen Feng led Mia toward the heavily guarded metal gate.

“President Chen! It's full of spores inside!” Song Yun shouted anxiously.

Chen Feng didn't even turn his head, merely waving his hand.

The heavy blast door slid open.

A stench of blood and mold rushed out.

The corridor was pitch black, and the floor was covered with severed limbs and black slime.

*Bang!* The door slammed shut behind them.

Mia took a deep breath and threw away the potato chip bag.

“Boss, the smell here is so unique.”

“Eat slowly, don't choke.”

“Alright!”

Mia cheered and vanished on the spot.

From deep within the darkness, several sharp ripping sounds echoed.

Chen Feng walked forward at an unhurried pace.

The system panel popped up.

[Unknown viral entity detected... Gene map similarity to Blacklight Virus is 89%...]

[Side quest triggered: Devour the Ancient.]

[Quest Objective: Collect a complete prehistoric spore mother body.]

[Quest Reward: 100,000 Research Points, Advanced Blacklight Virus Codex.]

This trip wasn't in vain.

Ahead, the main laboratory on the second underground floor.

In the center of the hall, a monster over three meters tall was gnawing on a corpse. It was covered in black hair, with tentacles growing from its back.

Hearing the noise, the monster roared and turned its head, whipping a tentacle toward Chen Feng's face with a whistling wind.

Chen Feng didn't even bat an eye.

*Smack.*

A fair, tender little hand reached out from the side, grabbing the tentacle that was thicker than a thigh.

Mia tilted her head.

“With such a big size, the meat must be really chewy.”

She yanked hard.

The three-meter-tall monster was pulled flying backward, crashing through the floor.

Before the monster could even struggle, Mia's arm transformed into countless black and red blood vessels, instantly enveloping it entirely.

A few seconds later, the blood vessels retracted.

Nothing was left on the ground.

Mia burped.

“Tastes pretty good, like beef jerky.”

“The feast is downstairs,” Chen Feng pointed to the deformed blast door.

Mia's eyes lit up, and she rushed forward, kicking out.

*Boom!*

The blast door, weighing dozens of tons, was kicked flying.

The third underground floor was a massive nest.

On the walls, the ceiling, and the floor, there were moving chunks of black flesh everywhere.

In the center of the nest, a massive sarcoma was throbbing like a heart.

Surrounding it, hundreds of mutants stood densely packed, turning their heads to look over at the same time.

“Boss, how should we handle this?” Mia asked.

“Keep the mother body alive. Do whatever you want with the rest,” Chen Feng said, finding a clean spot to stand.

“Yay!”

With a swing of her arms, Mia transformed them into two massive black-and-red blades and charged into the crowd of monsters.

The scene was like mowing grass.

In less than five minutes, the hundreds of mutants were eaten completely clean by Mia.

She stood in front of the sarcoma, wiping the slime from the corner of her mouth.

“Boss, what should we do with this big lump?”

Chen Feng stepped forward and pressed his hand against the sarcoma.

“Red Queen, analyze the structure.”

“Scanning... Boss, the mother body has fused with the base's load-bearing pillars. Forcible extraction will cause a cave-in.”

“Then pull the pillars out along with it,” Chen Feng ordered. “Mia, cut the connecting tissues, but don't damage the core.”

“No problem!”

Mia raised her blade and struck.

Ten minutes later.

At the surface camp.

*Rumble—!*

At the entrance of 091 Base, the heavy blast door was blown outward from the inside by a massive force.

Once the smoke cleared a bit,

Song Yun and all the Soldiers widened their eyes.

Chen Feng walked out leisurely with his hands in his pockets, without a single speck of dust on him.

Behind him, the little girl in the tutu was holding up a massive sarcoma over five meters in diameter with one hand, as effortlessly as if she were holding a balloon.

The sarcoma was still dripping black slime.

“This...” Song Yun stammered.

“The mother body, completely intact.” Chen Feng pointed to the sarcoma. “The mutants inside have been cleaned out. You can go in and clean up the mess now.”

Song Yun stared at the massive sarcoma, then at Mia, who wasn't even out of breath, her mind going completely blank.

A monster nest that an entire company couldn't handle, uprooted in just half an hour?

“By the way, didn't you say you wanted a complete infected specimen?” Chen Feng looked back at Mia.

Mia let out a loud burp. “Ah? Boss, you didn't say we had to keep one alive. I ate them all.”

Chen Feng turned around and shrugged at Song Yun.

“Sorry, she couldn't control her appetite. I'm taking the mother body. You can go scrape some residue from the underground yourselves.”

Song Yun's face turned green, not daring to utter a single word.

“Sarah, call a transport plane to load the cargo.” Chen Feng patted Song Yun's shoulder. “Pleasure doing business with you. If you have this kind of work in the future, remember to call. Umbrella's rates have always been very reasonable.”

With that, he walked toward the runway without looking back.

On the plane.

The massive sarcoma was loaded into a specially made cryogenic isolation chamber.

Chen Feng leaned back on the sofa and closed his eyes.

The system's voice echoed in his mind.

[Side quest 'Devour the Ancient' completed.]

[Reward: 100,000 Research Points, Advanced Blacklight Virus Codex.]

[Current Research Points: 1,228,000]

“Red Queen.”

“At your service, Boss.”

“Send the advanced codex to Samantha. Tell her to get her scalpel ready; we're bringing back a new toy.”