Kran, clad in a white lab coat, had a terrifying appearance, but was extremely serious when it came to work. He carefully placed the previously collected Night Demon hair and skin into a vessel and began analyzing the ingredients bit by bit.
"That Night Demon was my main experiment subject. In the beginning, I could only bring back its consciousness for a few seconds with injections, but that was half a year ago. Over six months, I constantly collected samples and developed modifications, and gradually, it could regain some consciousness at night and instinctively come to me for Potions without me having to search for it."
Kran looked up from the microscope and said softly, "Deep inside, they all have a heart yearning to become human again."
Su Qi did not speak.
He had realized the different options of the main quest very early on.
The first type was the Destruction route, where one would destroy the great oak that was the source of the virus, thus completely eradicating all the zombies and Night Demons, just like the Pollution Abnormalities in the previous instance, leaving only the survivors in the Tower.
The second type was the Healing route, where the key person was Kran in front of him. Su Qi had to assist him in developing Potions that could cure all zombies and Night Demons, thereby saving the entire city.
"The second route is obviously much harder. You have to enter the Night Demon Nest to retrieve the pathogen sample from the great oak, and..." Su Qi looked at Kran and asked, "Have you lost anything important... or something you can't retrieve now?"
Kran was slightly stunned, not understanding why Su Qi suddenly asked this.
He lowered his head and pondered, "When I was eighteen, I fell in love with a girl and I lost her..."
Su Qi paused for a moment, "... Believe it or not, I might kick you to death."
"What?"
"I'm asking about specific items you lost that are at least somewhat related to Night Demons, the virus, or the great oak."
"....I thought we were going to talk about some emotional issues late at night..." Kran showed a bit of melancholy.
Are you an emo boy online?
His expression brightened somewhat, "If we're talking about the past year, I've barely left this place, let alone lost anything."
"What about during your time in the Tower?
Kran gave a wry smile, "That's even more complicated. I'm a research scientist and hardly participate in search and retrieval missions. I spend about 300 days a year... inside the Tower, and the things I've lost are minor, like a beer bottle opener, hairdryer..."
"In twenty years... I really haven't lost anything too significant."
Su Qi watched Kran's struggle and frowned.
Was he asking the wrong question? Or should he approach this main quest from another direction?
"Actually, my life hasn't had many ups and downs, except for the appearance of zombies, becoming a Night Demon, and I've always just been an insignificant nobody." Kran's expression showed some sorrow, "That's why the girl I loved left me in the end."
Su Qi looked at Kran's emo demeanor and knew this topic was inescapable. He temporarily set aside the main quest, "A tragic storyline? Did she fall in love with someone else and run away? Or did you do something wrong to her? I've worked in a matchmaking agency for a while; this isn't uncommon."
He wasn't joking; he had really worked there.
Kran put down what he was holding, wanting to light a cigarette, but sighed instead, "Actually, neither. One afternoon, she asked me to go hiking, saying she had found something interesting on the mountaintop. We were talking and laughing all the way, she even kissed me."
"That sounds like a good relationship, how did you lose her?"
"She accidentally slipped... and fell off a cliff," Kran said mournfully.
Su Qi: "..."
Was it a physical misplacement?
"There was no then after that, the zombie crisis erupted the next day, and searching for her body was impossible." Kran finally lit a cigarette and took a deep drag, "Although it's been many years and I have let go, every time I think about it, I just wish we hadn't gone to that mountain."
Su Qi raised an eyebrow:
"The day after she fell, the zombie outbreak erupted?"
"Yes..."
"Do you know what the interesting thing was that she mentioned?"
Kran recalled, "She really liked some oddly shaped stones, mentioning that she once climbed a mountain and saw a huge red stone at the bottom of a cliff that even glowed."
"But when I went there later, I didn't find anything."
Su Qi's gaze slightly sharpened.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm thinking, would the system really go to such great lengths? And keep the clues so refreshingly unique?"
"I don't understand, but you better watch the time; it's almost daylight," Kran looked at the nearby clock. "I'm about to turn into a crazed Night Demon. I need to lock myself up. For your safety, you should leave here first."
After the first ray of sunlight faintly penetrated through the clouds in the early morning, Su Qi came down to the ground.
He decided to first check out the place Kran mentioned.
It was a good opportunity to split efforts; his teammates should be following the first route while he, unsure and facing many dangers, was quite happy to work alone.
Half an hour later.
Su Qi arrived at the mountaintop, located some distance from the city center, where zombies were surprisingly scarce.
He surveyed his surroundings but indeed did not see any huge red stones.
Looking down the cliff.
It was a very steep ravine, overgrown with wild plants obscuring everything in sight.
He tried throwing a stone down, and only after a while did a deep distant thud echo back.
"Quite high."
After observing, Su Qi analyzed the good landing spots and decisively activated the Dark Wind Boots, starting his descent from a less steep slope on the other side.
He wasn't ill-prepared.
He had taken a UV dual-use flashlight, a pistol loaded with bullets, and a hand grenade from Kran.
The place was deep and poorly lit.
Su Qi shook his flashlight, then saw the ground below the steep slope, his gaze subtly shifting.
In that dark corner, he indeed saw a "?".
Moving closer.
The content of the "?" became clear.
"It's lurking and staring intently at you."
"?"
Su Qi's gaze hardened as he directed his flashlight straight at it.
Obscured by the corner, a Night Demon was crouching there with blood-red eyes staring at him.
Then in the next moment, it howled and pounced directly at him!
In that instant.
Su Qi saw more information above its head.
"It's the first zombie infected with the virus and the first Night Demon born."
"It has been here for twenty years."
"It decided that the terrifyingly dangerous object must not see the light of day again!"