As Albion ran neither too fast nor too slow, he didn't place himself in immediate danger, but also managed to achieve some levels of inconspicuousness. The few whitecoats that overtook him didn't think much. Who would care about a test subject when they are running for their lives?
It was also natural for them to run faster than a weakened test subject even if they never exercised in their profession.
The only attention drawn to Albion was the few assistants lagging behind him. No matter how hard they push themselves, they could never close the small gap between them like a natural chasm that simply couldn't be crossed.
They stared daggers at Albion's back with displeasure. It was like a smack in the face. How can a weakened test subject be faster than them!? Why!? Why is it so hard to overtake this test subject!
Even they understood the concept of not needing to be the fastest runner as long as they were faster than the person behind them, but the problem was there was no person behind them! Only a frenzy awakened test subject who was clearly out for their blood!
"Fifteen, slow down, and cover our backs!" The assistant researcher shouted, taking advantage of the fact that test subject no.15 never disobeyed a single order.
"Are you crazy!? That's our facility's most prized test subject! The higher-ups will have our heads if they find out you used him to shield our backs!" Another assistant agitatedly rebuked.
"If we use Fifteen to cover our backs, there's a chance the higher-ups will kill us later, but if we don't do it now, that thing behind us will definitely kill us soon!" The assistant roared.
Albion frowned. What to do?
They were just about to leave the cell section and arrive at the end of the passageway and enter the laboratory section. Reinforcement was definitely on the other side waiting for them to come out into the open space when they can effectively detain the frenzied awakened subject.
Albion didn't doubt that they would have heard the assistance's cry with passageway projecting their voices outward. He took a split second to decisively refuse! His life was more important!
Just as he made his decision, there was a startled cry behind.
"Nooooo!"
Glancing back, the assistant researcher who intended to use him as a shield, tripped and got himself caught by the frenzied 'ironman' chasing after them.
Although Albion was relieved the researcher was done for and he didn't need to answer the orders of a dead man, his expression still grew sterner.
The frenzied and bloodthirsty ironman had clearly lagged behind them by a fair distance when it stopped to kill the previous victim. However, in a short instance, it had already caught up to the next target.
It was clear to Albion that in addition to gaining a rare metal manipulation ability upon awakening, the person also had his physical abilities boosted by a large margin.
Albion had never seen the awakened humans guarding the facility in action and the awakened players in [Bloodlust] seemed too much of an exaggeration for him, but finally witnessing the abilities of an awakened human first hand, he can safely say that it was all true!
This was already beyond the scope of human capabilities! No wonder only the awakened humans had a chance of surviving outside the walls of Haven City. Ignoring their supernatural ability, there was already such a disparity in physical capabilities between awakened and non-awakened humans by itself!
"Please, have mercy! I'm sorry I treated you badly in the past!"
"No, don't! Arghhh!!"
The new victim cried tragically before his head was ripped apart from his body and tossed away. The awakened subject was clearly annoyed by the victim's words and decided to silence him first.
"Have mercy? How ridiculous! Have you people shown me mercy!? Have you ever asked for my permission before conducting your fucking experiments on me!? Now you know what fear is! Too bad none of you will ever understand my pain! Killing you all a quick death is the greatest mercy I bestow upon you!"
Albion heard the awakened subject spoke hysterically, but its victim was already dead. Apparently, its words were meant for the last remaining assistant researcher behind him.
"Fifteen! Why haven't you slowed down to cover my back!?" The assistant shouted, clearly at his wit's end. Death was coming for him!
"The person is dead. The previous command is invalid." Albion said calmly.
"You!" The assistant's eyes burned like fire. "Don't fuck with me! Hurry up and cover me!"
Albion frowned again.
The awakened subjected seemed to have helped him again as it tossed the headless body over and struck the last assistant in the bad with tremendous force and caused him to stumble forward.
"Nooo!"
The assistant issued his last cry as the awakened subject caught up and stomped down hard on his head. The assistant's head burst like a watermelon with all his blood and grey matter splattering.
Albion slowed his footsteps. This awakened subject picked very particular timing to kill his target.
'Is he helping me?'
When Albion's eyes met with the awakened subject's cold eyes laced with killing intent directed at him, he knew it was a very wishful thought. The awakened subject seemed to dislike him very much and has a bone to pick with him too! But why!?
'The fuck did I ever do to you!? C'mon man, we are both test subjects. No one had it easy around here. Why do you want to kill me too!?'
Albion could only convey his feelings through his eyes. He didn't want to blow his cover by voicing his grievance and continue running in silence. His voice would be heard if he did. He could see the whitecoats stand in the open space of the laboratory section at the end of the passageway. He was very close to the end.
They stood there nervously behind an esteemed soldier who was one of the two awakened humans guarding the facility.
At this critical junction, Albion chose did not choose to speed up and even slow down, faking exhaustion from his 'weak' body. Inwardly, his mind was anxiously screaming, 'Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Why are you just standing there!? Hurry up and save me!'
However, he did not let his anxiety show on his face and retained his usual neutral indifference to emotion.
It was a gamble he had to make with his life. If he exposes any changes from his usual self in front of so many watchful eyes, they will definitely find out and lock him up more securely to study his changes.
His already low chances of escaping would only plummet from there if he let that happen.
Albion saw Helion speaking a few words to the awakened soldier before the person nodded and finally made his move.
'About freaking time.'
Albion didn't understand why this awakened soldier was thinking. Perhaps, he was still evaluating the situation if he was a foe like the awakened subject behind him or not.
However, he knew his worth. Even if he was just a tool for these people, he was a tool of invaluable importance. His blood was the core of their healing potions which was sought after by both the military and the hunters. If he died, it would be an unimaginable loss for them.
It was also at this moment that he felt a chill from behind. He instinctively ducked and narrowly missed a blow to the head with full force. That blow would have definitely sent him to the netherworld if it landed.
The awakened subject was disgruntled that his killing blow missed its intended target. He followed up with a downward swipe to grab Albion, but only manage to claw at him as four bloody lines formed on his back.
Albion almost broke his neutral expression from the searing pain.
'It hurts so much!' Albion mentally cried.
The awakened soldier flash past him and sent a lethal kick at the awakened subject's abdomen, sending him flying away before grabbing Albion and retreating back to safety. He was flung to Helion's grasp before the awakened soldier dashed into the passageway and chase after the awakened subject!
'Even among the awakened, there was this big of a difference huh? I should have known from the existence of classifications.' Albion thought.
He was brief, but he manages to catch a glimpse of the awakened soldier's iron body concaving from the kick.
'No, more importantly, System! What happened to my pain immunity!?' Albion mentally called to the system.
Ding!
[System Notification: The host did not have any pain immunity. The host had previously lacked all emotions, including the emotion to feel and react to pain; hence it seems like pain immunity when Host recalls it from his distant memories. The system was forcefully required to use half of Host's good karma values to restore the Host's brain damage to perfect condition. This restoration naturally included the Host's emotions.]
Albion didn't know whether to laugh or cry at this explanation. Feeling no pain was very convenient, but feeling pain was better. Only by feeling pain would he be more alert to danger, not to mention feeling pain would definitely make him feel alive.
However, he understood why the awakened subject didn't like him. The person envied his ability to feel no pain, but that ability is no more.
'I see. So that's why my good karma values were depleted after restoring my body to normal values. Saving my sister was equivalent to saving one life. The healing both my mind and body is considered one life...'
Albion wanted to lament bitterly at how tough his life was. Now, he definitely needs to get off this island as soon as possible. It would be far too difficult to hide his painful expression from future experiments conducted on him from now on.
影子禁令