Zhang Heng once thought that the first lesson of the first class in Corona's plan was considered more than hellish, and yet he only learned what hell truly was when he went for his second lesson.
Corona's first class consisted of three lessons, with the first lesson being focused on offense training, the second being focused on defense training, and the third lesson was actual combat simulation.
The defense training lesson, per its namesake, focused solely on defense, going so far as to prohibit him from fighting back. He had to be able to hold out for 30 minutes in Corona's barrage of attacks before he was considered having cleared the lesson.
If the first lesson was described as something that Zhang Heng deemed to be tolerable psychologically, the second lesson was where his true nightmare began…
"Crack!"
Zhang Heng's neck was twisted 180 degrees.
"No good, do it again." Corona waved her hand with a deadpan expression as Zhang Heng fully recovered from his 'death'.
"Crack!"
Zhang Heng's temple caved into his skull after being smashed by Corona's elbow strike.
"No good, continue." Corona said as Zhang Heng was fully recovered from his 'death' yet again.
"Boom!"
A minute passed and Zhang Heng's entire jaw was shattered by Corona's knee strike, killing him immediately without a doubt.
…
10 hours passed and Zhang Heng woke from the virtual space. The first thing he did after waking up was to head to the toilet as quickly as he could and vomited violently.
The countless deaths that he had suffered pushed his mental state to its breaking point, as well as causing an over-secretion of adrenaline, making him feel very uncomfortable all over his body.
"You have to get used to this as soon as possible. You have 51 days and 20 hours left before the next mission begins." Corona appeared on the screen again.
"Get lost! I don't have a sister like you!" Zhang Heng yapped away without making any sense due to his brain still being in a confused state. He continued vomiting right after saying that.
"Commander…"
"I said get lost!"
…
Time passed as Zhang Heng continued to train day and night ever since. While he suffered very severe disorientation due to being utterly unaccustomed to the training, the disorientation steadily became less and less severe as things got increasingly more brutal due to his training becoming increasingly more intense. He eventually grew numb and became accustomed to it.
His training went on for five days and half a year passed in the virtual space before Zhang Heng was finally able to last over 30 minutes from Corona's brutal barrage of attacks. He was so elated that he wept when Corona announced that he finally cleared the lesson.
He had never slept so soundly as he did that night.
Zhang Heng opened his eyes at 6 A.M. sharp the next morning. His staggering physique that was well above normal humans caused by the T-Virus included brain power like no other. He found that his circadian rhythm was adjusted to extreme precision, making it as if he had a winded pocket watch built into him, enabling him to intuitively track time down to the minutes.
He freshened himself up as he did every morning and began his routine by running on the treadmill, which was a habit that he had developed for quite some time. According to Corona, training in virtual space was far from enough, as what happened there only honed his combat instinct and techniques, doing nothing to enhance his basic physical prowess.
His body's potential could be said to have reached metahuman levels after injecting himself with the T-Virus, however, his performance remained only at peak human conditions. That was something that resulted from his severe lack of physical training, as his current potential was such that he could be twice as fast and twice as strong, as he was at the moment.
His treadmill differed from those in the market designed for regular people, as it was something entirely custom made. It had a maximum speed of 80 kilometers per hour and he tried it out for himself. His highest sprinting speed was 40 kilometers per hour and he was able to sprint for 500 meters. His average speed was 11 meters per second.
His record for the 100-meter sprint was 9.09 seconds, which was 0.49 seconds faster than the current world record.
He began by 'jogging' at 25 kilometers per hour for an hour before going into his sprinting training. He then took a shower after he was done with the training by 8 A.M.
Zhang Heng was in a very good mood on that day. Putting it precisely, he was more than being in a very good mood, as he felt like he was freed from prolonged suffering. That was all due to the one thing that he had to attend to that was more important than training.
Having something to take care of meant that he could skip training, and skipping training meant that he was able to temporarily free himself from Corona's devious clutches.
Rumbles from the engines of large vehicles were heard right outside the warehouse at a little past 8 A.M. Zhang Heng opened the door of the warehouse and saw over a dozen trailer trucks making their way to the open field right outside the warehouse.
A man in a foreman's attire walked out of the truck and shook hands with Zhang Heng, who was generous enough to stick two expensive cigarettes into the foreman's hand.
They chatted for a bit and the foreman checked his watch. He then waved and 20 to 30 people got out of the trucks and proceeded to disassemble all the electronic equipment in the warehouse and pack it up before loading into the trucks one after another.
"Be careful, people. Every single one of those objects is precision equipment. None of you here could afford to pay for the damages if something got broken. Be gentle with them all!" The foreman supervised the workers as he shouted away.
With numbers came efficiency. The entire warehouse was practically cleared out by about 10 A.M.
The foreman then personally drove a crane at the very end of the job and the workers went on to dismantle the roof of the warehouse first before the crane hoisted a huge sculpture covered with a white cloth up.
That huge sculpture was none other than the Black Marker and it was activated at the moment it was hoisted up. None of the workers had gotten curious as to what was under the cloth due to the mental interference from the Marker itself.
It was that precise reason that Zhang Heng dared to expose the Black Marker before everyone.
After loading the Marker onto a truck, the trucks then lined up in a straight line before making their way to the Stellar Biotech building's construction site located in the development area.
Zhang Heng was still not at ease, so he personally sat in the container that carried the Marker headed to the construction site with the convoy.
The foundation was practically just a small hole five days ago looked like something else altogether when he got to the site. It became a massive crater with a depth of 50 meters and had a land area of over 10,000 square meters.
However, the bottom of that crater was lit up and, if one were to get a closer look, one would find that there was something down there that consisted of hundreds of stamped steel plates welded together.
Over 100 thick solid steel pillars stood above those steel plates. Only someone like Zhang Heng, who was willing to throw money away like it was wrapping paper, was able to pull off something that baffling.
That was not considered baffling enough just yet, as there was a round crater of over 20 meters deep with a diameter of five meters at the center of the foundation. That round crater looked like something similar to a silo that looked strange and out of place.
However, due to the location being situated near the outskirts, no one else seemed to realize that the foundation of that building seemed a little too deep than how it should be, which didn't fit the usual conventions of construction.
"Boss!" A young man was seen waving at Zhang Heng as soon as he got out of the truck, before making his way quickly to him.
"Boss, isn't the foundation of the building being a little too deep? And I see that there is also some kind of special steel material being used to stabilize it? Boy, Ms. Li really is gonna give you a hard time for this," Fang Hao grumbled as soon as he got in front of Zhang Heng.
Zhang Heng gauged Fang Hao for a bit. The young man looked even better than he was when he first came to see Zhang Heng. That ashen, pale complexion of his had actually tanned considerably due to being at the site overseeing the progress of the construction the entire time. He also looked somewhat more muscular than he appeared to be last time. Despite still looking like a twig, he nonetheless appeared to look quite better than when he first came to Zhang Heng.
"No matter. Where's Yiru?" Zhang Heng waved dismissively and asked, due to not seeing her around anywhere.
"Oh, she isn't here today. The office is still hiring." Fang Hao chuckled awkwardly and reported. "The company has now hired over a dozen people, but all of them were in finance and planning. Given that there is nothing for them to do at the moment, Ms. Li had them pick up all manner of corporate knowledge instead. After all, things can't go on like this for long."
"Relax, there will be work to do soon enough." Zhang Heng nodded nonchalantly. He had the foreman lower the Black Marker into the central silo-like crater at the center of the foundation, which fit the entire construct like a glove.
A group of smaller cranes proceeded to haul stamped steel plates of identical shapes and sizes on the steel beams at the side. A group of welders climbed up and welded the steel plates. The noise from the work was tremendous. If someone who had no idea what was going on arrived, they would have probably thought that the workers were building some kind of vault for banks.
However, despite the construction being so unconventional, none of the workers onsite had doubtful looks on their faces as they continued doing their jobs, so much so that there wasn't even any chatter or discussion about things looking out of place. Everyone worked as if they were doing something very normal as if they were just building some kind of average, common building.
Such was the power of the Marker. While it was incapable of controlling the thoughts of its targets, it could nonetheless shut out certain memories. The Marker was casting mental interference on all onsite workers at the moment, making all of them overlook any abnormalities taking place.
Zhang Heng watched the workers while they worked away. The 50-meter-deep crater was quickly filled up by pieces of special steel plates and the construct gradually began to take shape.
There were 55 floors to the Stellar Biotech building in Zhang Heng's design and the building had a total height of 188 meters. The underground facilities consisted of public ones and secret ones, with the public ones having parking spaces at the first and second levels below ground, which had a total height of eight meters. There was then a layer of concrete and rammed earth below the parking spaces that was 10 meters thick, serving as the layer of foundation for show.
What lies below was an area consisted entirely of top-secret laboratories constructed of stamped steel plates that were each 50 millimeters thick. Since the foundation needed to have an area larger than that of the building itself, Zhang Heng deliberately ordered for the laboratory area to have an area size of 10,000 square meters with seven floors.
Due to possibly having different needs for each floor, he designed the bottommost floor to reach a height of eight meters, with the sixth floor being five meters tall, and the rest above, from the fifth floor to the first floor, each being about three meters tall.
The first floor of that underground complex was meant for stocking materials and security, where all supplies would be stored. Any personnel who entered from outside would only be able to get to the first floor, and they would be required to ride an independent elevator to reach deeper floors.
The second floor consisted of living areas, where dormitories and all manner of recreational facilities for the staff would be found.
Zhang Heng designed a series of laboratories in strict accordance with the biosafety level standards set by the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, beginning from the third floor.
There were 50 biosafety level one laboratories found on the third floor.
The laboratories found on the fourth floor were larger, with barriers and other means of complex protection measures laid in place. There were 32 biosafety level two laboratories found on that floor.
On the fifth floor, the laboratories became even larger and even more complex. Not only were there barriers, but there were also facilities meant for emergency destruction consisting of toxic gas, high temperatures, liquid nitrogen, and so on. There were 20 biosafety level three biosafety containment laboratories found on that floor.
The sixth floor consisted of high-risk laboratories. Anyone who entered that floor needed to be high-ranking members of the company and the complex would be used for conducting high-risk experiments. There were 20 biosafety containment laboratories constructed following biosafety level four standards, and the barriers of the laboratories were made to reach three meters thick.
Finally, there was the seventh floor found at the very bottom. There were only four laboratories found there that were all placed at the four corners.
There were only four laboratories because Zhang Heng designed the seventh floor to be of biosafety containment standards that were 10 times stricter than what was set by the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Every single laboratory had barriers that were over five meters thick and every single barrier was constructed using solid special steel material welded together. There was no shared ventilation and power supply, as every single laboratory was self-sufficient. Each of the laboratories would be installed with oxygen circulators and large-scale power generators. Even if one were to breed the likes of xenomorphs in those laboratories, there was no need to worry about them escaping.
The seventh floor was the most secret of the floors, as it was only made accessible to Zhang Heng and the core scientific research personnel. It was also only at the center of the seventh floor that one could find the crater that housed the Black Marker.
Zhang Heng had gone out of his way to ensure that the Black Marker was placed at the utmost secure location.