7.8

It was needless to say that Qiao Chen took the time to study the zombie virus variants to create antibodies for those once he successfully developed the initial one.

It was at this time that Dr. Lu, who had been working in the laboratory, fainted. Qiao Chen received new of this and rushed over with medicine to save him. Luckily, he made it in time and got Dr. Lu out of danger.

Dr. Lu was, after all, a man in his late 60s or early 70s. His body couldn't handle the stress like the other younger researchers. He worked for so long that his body wasn't able to bear the strain any further. This meant that he needed to stay in bed to rest for a longer period of time to recover well.

This was how Dr. Lu's research was interrupted. Unfortunately, the zombie infection waited for no one. The more they delayed research, the more people would die.

Xu Jianping volunteered his self to take over Dr. Lu's work and sent in an application, but Dr. Lu rejected him and personally appointed Qiao Chen to take over his work.

Xu Jianping angrily destroyed the things in his own lab. Dr. Lu was notified of this and ordered that Xu Jianping wouldn't receive any new equipment or supplies to replace the ones he decided to brake. What was their current situation? Obviously, Xu Jianpin only cared only about his legacy or glory- even at a time like this. If Xu Jianping was capable enough, then he'd actually research something useful to prove him wrong.

Qiao Chen had been secretly paying attention to Dr. Lu's research progress ever since he entered the research building and established his research team. Qiao Chen realized that all the hard part of Dr. Lu's research had already been done and dealt with. The latter stage of the research would progress relatively smoothly. There wasn't much that needed to be changed or done; just the routine checks and everything would be complete.

However, Dr. Lu fell ill and personally chose him to complete the research. He was duty bound and accepted the assignment.

Qiao Chen barely turned his focus onto Dr. Lu's research when bad news appeared.

The people from 03 Base brought news of a munitions factory they found in the mountains when they arrived on East One Base. No one knew who was courageous enough to build an arsenal factory in the middle of the wooded mountains, but 03 Base already determined that no one was overseeing it anymore. It was very difficult to enter, and 03 Base failed several times, so they wanted the East One Base to help them. They agreed upon a 50/50 split of everything in it.

Even though many people obtained abilities, weapons were still very important. It was basically better to have them than to have nothing. Therefore, several senior executives of the East One Base discussed and agreed to 03 Base's proposal. Furthermore, Long Ao would be the one to lead the expedition and find a way to enter the weapons factory.

Long Ao leaving for days at a time for a mission was a common occurrence. Long Ao departed with the 03 Base and didn't return for two or three days, like his other missions, so Qiao Chen didn't pay much attention to it. He focused his entire thoughts onto researching.

While Qiao Chen was busy working in the lab, the head of the medical department burst through the doors and notified him: Two zombified python suddenly appeared at the munitions factory. Long Ao was bitten by one of the snakes in order to cover for the other people's escape. The soldiers didn't dare move him around because of the other injuries on his body. They immediately contacted the base to send someone over.

Qiao Chen was in shock. He suppressed the panic in his heart, quickly grabbed the medical head's phone, and walked out. He asked the soldier about Long Ao's status and instructed them to give Long Ao first aid treatment while they waited for backup.

Qiao Chen went to the medical building first and asked the head to prepare everything he needed as soon as possible. Once everything was complete, he hurried to the mountainous area where Long Ao and the others were. Soldiers followed and protected Qiao Chen carefully.

As a matter of fact, Fang Huailin was also injured in addition to Long Ao. 03 Base also received the same information, but Sun Yu didn't prepare as many things as Qiao Chen, so he set off earlier.

The car couldn't go any further once they reached the mountain borders. They needed to continue on foot. Everyone exited the vehicle and quickly made their way into the mountain. They were extremely cautious and alert in case of a zombie appearance. No one knew the location well enough to know whether or not there was a small village or town nearby. If there was, then there was a greater chance of encountering a zombie.

Qiao Chen finally arrived at the camp where Long Ao and the others were set up in. He quickly wanted into the tent without stopping to catch his breath.

Long Ao and Fang Huailin were lying in their respective beds. Both of them were still conscious, but Fang Huailin's injuries seemed to be more serious than Long Ao's. Sun Yu was already there and used his healing abilities to treat Fang Huailin.

Qiao Chen didn't even give them an extra glance as he briskly walked in. Long Ao even wanted to assure Qiao Chen that he was fine, but Qiao Chen glared at him, so Long Ao shut his mouth.

Qiao Chen immediately began to work. He inspected Long Ao's wounds. The most important thing to deal with first was the zombified python's bite. He first used his healing ability to help Long Ao heal his wounds, but found that the healing ability wasn't very effective.

"Take out the serum and inject it into him. Then, prepare a separate tent for me. Everything that needs to be disinfected should be disinfected now. I will operate on him immediately." Qiao Chen quickly ordered. The others also hurriedly prepared everything according to his command.

For some time now, there were people wounded by zombies who couldn't be cured by healing powers. Qiao Chen wanted to study the cause, but because he took over Dr. Lu's research, he didn't have the time to find out the reason yet. He was only able to find out a possible and vague reason after he used his system to help him run some simulations.

Qiao Chen was very glad that he brought everything as a 'just in case' measure, because he needed them all now. He needed to operate on Long Ao and get him out of the initial danger first. The rest of the treatment could continue once they returned to the base.

Sun Yu continued to use his healing ability for a while, but the wounds on Fang Huailin still didn't heal yet. He was sweating profusely. When he heard Qiao Chen say he wanted to use some sort of serum on Long Ao, he figured that it could help Fang Huailin recover his wounds. Therefore, Sun Yu immediately told Qiao Chen, " We also need that serum over here too"

Qiao Chen was busy preparing the syringe and injection site for Long Ao, so he simply ignored Sun Yu.

"We also need to use the serum here too." Sun Yu repeated in a louder voice.

The assistant Qiao Chen brought with him replied, "There is only one dose."

Before they left for the mountains, this serum was what delayed them the most. It wasn't easy to finally find this specific one.

"What? There's only one?" Sun YU hurried over and grabbed Qiao Chen's hand. "This should go to Fang. He's much more heavily injured. If he doesn't receive it than he won't even be able to make it back to base for treatment. He will die."

"What does that have to do with me?" Qiao Chen shook off Sun Yu's hand and looked over at the soldiers beside him. "What are you doing? Day dreaming?"

The two soldiers immediately stepped forward and pushed Sun Yu away.

"Mu, Mu Chen, save me." Fang Huailin's face turned blue and he looked extremely weak. "I'm asking you, please, save me."

Qiao Chen unhesitatingly injected Long Ao with the serum as Fang Huailin pleaded with Qiao Chen.

Both Sun Yu and Fang Huailin looked at Qiao Chen in shock and disbelief. They never expected that he would be so indifferent to Fang Huailin's safety like this.

Qiao Chen had the soldiers carry Long Ao into the sterilized tent. He was going to begin operating soon. The zombie python had a different viral strain in it. The serum wouldn't be as effective as normal. Furthermore, the virus began to infect Long Ao's internal organs. He needed to remove the rotting and infected sites to avoid the infection from spreading.

Qiao Chen would be able to continue healing the wounds that could be healed once the operation was finished.

After they returned to the base, Qiao chen continued to prepare medicine for Long Ao to take. Long Ao himself was already recovering. However, with Qiao Chen's meticulous treatment, Long Ao healed very quickly and was able to walk around in two or three days.

Much to Qiao Chen's surprise Fang Huailin didn't die. He survived the zombie python attack on his own. Qiao Chen didn't really care much if Fang Huailin died or not, but he was interested in finding out how he survived.

Qiao Chen found out the Fang Huailin's strength dropped to a third of his original capabilities and understood what happened. It turned out to be that Fang Huailin's desire to survive was very strong, so his body automatically used his power to fight against the virus.

Long Ao leaned back on the bed and watched as Qiao Chen pierce the vein on the back of his hand with the IV drip. He thought that he had already completely recovered, but Qiao Chen didn't feel at ease. He had to make sure that there was no remaining residue of the toxins or the virus before he could stop.

After giving Long Ao the injection, Qiao Chen packed up his things and was prepared to leave. There were still a lot of things to be done in the lab, but Long Ao held on to Qiao Chen's hand.

"What are you doing? Let go." Qiao Chen glared at him, but he didn't dare to use too much force to shake Long Ao's hand off.

"I'm a smoker." Long AO kneaded Qiao Chen's hand and said.

"Stop that. You can't smoke right now. Even if you could, I don't have any cigarettes for you." Qiao Chen replied angrily.

"I don't need to smoke if I have you." Long Ao pulled Qiao Chen into his arms. One arm tightly wrapped around Qiao Chen's waist. With Qiao Chen trapped in his arms, Long Ao kissed Qiao Chen. He slipped his tongue between Qiao Chen's lips. Long Ao licked and sucked Qiao Chen's lips without pause.

Qiao Chen leaned into Long Ao's arms and relaxed. I'll let him kiss until he's satisfied. Qiao Chen decided. He wouldn't have been able to stop his man anyways.

"Commander Long!" A soldier yelled out as he suddenly opened the door and ran in. He immediately froze in his footsteps when he saw Long Ao and Qiao Chen in an embrace. He neither entered nor exited, so the situation became even more awkward.

The two quickly separated and Long Ao calmly asked, "What is it?"

Qiao Chen didn't have thick skin like Long Ao did. He turned so his back was facing the soldier and pretended to organize a few things.

"Huh? Oh." The soldier finally reacted and hurriedly said, "There's a fight below between Captain Zhang and the people from 03 Base"

Long Ao pulled out the iv needle from the back of his hand before Qiao Chen could stop him and immediately headed to the ground floor. "Why are they fighting?"

"The people at 03 Base said that Captain Zhang was infected. They wanted to isolate him and then burn him to death." The soldier quickly walked behind Long Ao as he reported. Qiao Chen also followed behind.

As soon as they arrived on the medical department's first floor, they heard a huge commotion. It was obvious that the people from 03 Base didn't dare to do much, so there wasn't really much of a fight.

"What's with the commotion? Is this the place to argue?" Ao Long roared. The crowd immediately quieted down.

The soldiers immediately gave way to Long Ao. He walked through the crowd. Once he saw Zhang Gang, he asked, "What's going on?"

"I coughed out a few mouthfuls of blood, so they insisted that I had an infectious disease. They wanted to set me on fire to death to get rid of it." Zhang Gang reported with a face full of anger.

"You coughed up blood? Why did you cough up blood?" LongAo frowned and asked.

"I don't know. Aren't we at the medical department? That's why I'm here- to find out. As soon as I coughed out some blood on the first floor, they stopped me and said I was spreading an infectious disease."

"He does have an infectious disease. Someone in our base had had suffered from this same exact disease before. He also coughed up blood and had erythema- those red spots on his neck. It's the same symptoms." Sun Bin said emotionally. "This infectious disease is very serious. If he isn't isolated and the body burned with fire, then he will soon transmit it to others."

"Are you a doctor? Are you even sure he has this so called infectious disease you're talking about?" Qiao Chen interrupted. "Even if he really did contract some infectious disease. It should have been you guys who brought this pathogen into our base. That means some of you should also be sick. I think you all should be quarantined as well."

"Impossible!" Sun Bin said loudly. "All the people who got sick before on our base were quarantined and torched. It was confirmed that there were no infected people in our group before we set out."

Why didn't you notify us that people on your side contracted this infectious disease before you came to East One?" Long Ao asked.

"We…."Sun Bin didn't know how to argue back. He couldn't say that they willingly withheld this information because East One Base would have definitely denied their cooperation request if they had known beforehand.

"Quarantine all the soldiers from 03 Base. Take blood sampled and then release them after you've confirmed that there are no further issues." Qiao Chen told Long Ao.

"None of our soldiers have ever contracted that kind of infectious disease. It was only the normal people without abilities who contracted it." Sin Bin said in a hurry.

Long Ao replied angrily, "So if you say you didn't contract it that means you haven't contracted it? Then how can you say that Zhang Gang contracted the infection? He's not some civilian without any abilities? Regardless of whether you are sick or not, you all must be quarantined and isolated. If you aren't then you will be expelled from East One base effective immediately."